These are the three things I see in the book of Esther. Faith, strength, and community. This book is so intriguing to me. Why would a young Christian woman just go into the court of king Xerxes and decide to marry him? Yes of course she is beautiful and pleased the king, but I find it a little bit random at first. But it is truly great to see the things that God had planned out long in advance. If Esther did not please the King, she would not be able to stop the persecution of her people.

   Esther had faith when she first went into all of her beauty treatments. She had faith in God and His plan and timing. It is so hard to just go into some thing blindly and not knowing what might come of it. But that is what Esther did. She just went into it and found in time that God took great care of her and she completely relied on him. Another example of this is when Esther told Mordecai to fast for three days and tell their whole people to do the same. She fasted with her people for three days and God saw them and honored their faithfulness.

   Also, I see strength in this book. Not necessarily good strength. Xerxes’ advisor used is strength and high rank to abuse those whom he thought were a burden. It eventually cost him his life when Xerxes found out about this abuse of power and used his strength and power to have him hanged. Esther had to have strength to ask the King Xerxes to spare her people from being completely destroyed.

   Finally, I see community in this book. Each person in the book of Esther has someone else to help them. Xerxes has his board of advisors, Esther has Mordecai, and Mordecai has his people – the Jews. This community helps each person to make difficult decisions. Esther relied on Mordecai to give her news from the outside world and in return she helped him get the second highest authority in the whole land. Also, this community of believers joined in fasting to call out to their God. Fasting is not an easy task, but it is truly a lot easier when everyone can support and encourage each other. Life is hard sometimes; we cannot walk through it alone.

The book Esther is truly inspiring and challenging to believers everywhere, no matter what we are going through.