Tiffany's Reviews > Esther, A Woman of Strength & Dignity

** spoiler alert ** My first thought was: what right does a man have to write a book about Queen Esther? I wasn't sure how relevant it was going to be for a girl to read a book written by a man about a woman. But, it was suggested reading and I trusted the source, so I jumped in.

Too often, the story of Queen Esther is ONLY about Queen Esther. I went through an excellent book from Beth Moore with a study group...but at times that book pretty much centers on the women of the story and I wondered: What would the king be thinking about this? So Haman is the villain of the story - but why was he so especially villainous? How could Mordecai have asked Esther to risk everything - didn't he love her, or was she just a necessary sacrifice?

I bought an Artscroll Meghilla and read that to get more details from Jewish tradition..and even made some authentic Hamantaschen.. but I was left with the questions and decided I would never really know.

This book steps back and basically asks you to un-know or unlearn all that you already know or think you know about the story and to read it as if you're hearing it for the first time.

I did just that, and it wasn't too hard of a task because this book doesn't really feel like you're reading about historical figures. It feels very much as if you could be reading a book about people very much like us who lived in a world not unlike our own. Esther became a real girl who didn't get caught up in the desire to "win" a beauty pageant with the crown of a queen as the prize...she was sorry to have left the security of her beloved cousin that had taken her in when she'd been orphaned. The king became lesser of a stuffy king and a bit more of just a guy (perhaps with an inflated ego at times, surely) who happened to wear a crown and sometimes lost his temper after he'd been drinking and didn't know how to choose good friends. Haman? Well, he's still the bad guy - but you find out more of why he hated Mordecai so very much. Mordecai, I owe that man an apology.. His love was never lacking for the cousin he raised as his own daughter. All of these characters come together in the story and with Chuck Swindoll's help, you can begin to see the nearly invisible shuttle weaving God's providence through every paragraph of the story.

I was captivated by how this story can be used as a guide for learning to see when God is at work in our own lives. This book is worth your time and worth the read. Even if you've read Beth Moore's book and been through her lessons - this isn't like getting a "repeat" of the same ol' same. By the end, you get to see the king actually become much more "kingly" and you actually (in my opinion) get to witness possible evidence I'd never seen pointed out before that there truly was a love story for Queen Esther and she wasn't doomed for the rest of her life to be just another girl with pretty face that won her a crown.