The 300
Nehemiah 13 – Esther 3
People of the Jewish faith today celebrate the festival of Purim. Purim is a celebration of the Jewish people’s deliverance from total annihilation at the hands of Haman. This plot of Haman’s is the focus of the book of Esther.
Did any of you see the 2006 movie “300”? I didn’t see it in the theatre but have stumbled across it flipping channels in recent months. As a history buff I was fascinated by this story. The movie is a fictionalized telling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The Persians were making their second attempt to gain complete control of what is today known as Greece; back then Greece was really just a bunch of independent city-states that were constantly at war with each other. The bickering Greeks were able to put together an alliance to fight this invasion.
They had a two prong defense planned which included battling the Persian navy at sea and confronting the Persian land forces in the narrow pass at Thermopylae. The title of the movie refers to the 300 Spartans under the leadership of king Leonidas that held the pass for three days against what historians of the era suggested was an army of as many as 2.5 million troops. Modern historians find the contemporary figures impossible and suggest figures ranging from 25,000 to 200,000. Whatever the figure, the Greeks were vastly outmanned.
Why do I mention this bit of history as we begin reading the book of Esther? I bring it up to give you historical reference. The king of the Persians at this time was “Xerxes”, otherwise referred to in Esther as king Ahasuerus. Chapter one of Esther refers to a time when the king “gave a feast for all his officials and servants” and when “the army of Persia and the Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him”. They met for 180 days and this is believed to be the “planning session” for the second invasion of Greece. The first invasion was lead by Xerxes’ father Darius and obviously ended in defeat; as did this second invasion.
The battle of Thermopylae took place between the narrative of Esther 1 and Esther 2. It was after Xerxes returned from his defeat in Greece that he looked for a replacement for Vashti and found Esther. While the book of Esther never mentions God or the temple or Jerusalem, it is included in the Bible because it shows God’s provision for His people. God has always kept the thread of hope He gave mankind alive through every trial and tribulation. Even though the Israelites had abandoned God, resulting in their exile, God never gave up on them, and He arranged to protect them even as evil hands attempted to destroy them.
God will allow His disobedient children to be disciplined but He will always maintain a remnant for Himself. His plans cannot be thwarted by the machinations of men; Esther illustrates that fact. If Haman had been successful in his plot there would be no Jesus Christ; there would be no salvation of humankind. We don’t hear of God in this book but His providential hand can be seen moving the pieces on the board.
I provide an outline of this book below which is taken from “Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee”.
Outline
I. The Wife Who Refused to Obey Her Husband, Chapter 1
II. The Beauty Contest to Choose a Real Queen, Chapter 2
III. Haman and Anti-Semitism, Chapter 3
IV. For Such a Time as This, Chapter 4
V. The Scepter of Grace and the Nobility of Esther, Chapter 5
VI. When a King Could Not Sleep at Night, Chapter 6
VII. The Man Who Came to Dinner but Died on the Gallows, Chapter 7
VIII. The Message of Hope That Went out from the King, Chapter 8
IX. The Institution of the Feast of Purim, Chapters 9–10
I look forward to leaning more about God’s provision as we read Esther over the next couple of days.
Have a great day brothers!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
P.S. I have not seen the movie 300 so please do not take my mentioning it, or enthusiasm for the history, as a recommendation for the film. I don’t even know what it was rated. If any of you have seen it and would like to give us a review please do!
