And we're back. If you are just
tuning in, you missed an awe-inspiring interview with the lovely Sarah.
But I would now like to bring out my next guest, who I am very excited
about talking to! So, please help me in welcoming... Queen Esther!!
(Queen Esther comes out, Oprah hugs and greets her, and then she has a seat next to Oprah on the couch.)
Welcome, Queen Esther! I am happy to have you on my show!
I am so excited to be here, Oprah! This is very exciting for me! Oh, and please, call me Esther.
Okay, Esther. Let's get to it. Tell us a little about your background. How did you meet your husband, King Ahasuerus of Persia, which inevitably led to you becoming queen?
Well, I was not Ahasuerus' first wife. He was actually married to a woman named Queen Vashti, who was very disobedient to him. So, they divorced. Then, Ahasuerus spent four years looking for a new queen.
So, what gave you the desire to become queen?
Well, I was not really even planning on going to meet Ahasuerus. But my cousin, Mordecai, actually convinced me to introduce myself to him. The the rest was history!
Wow, that is great. But everything was not easy being queen. I know you had great troubles once your husband appointed Haman as his chief advisor. And a lot of these problems had to do with your religion. You are Jewish, and Ahasuerus was not. Can you tell us how these obstacles came about?
Yes, Oprah, I had some huge trials once Haman became my husband's chief advisor. Once my husband had appointed him, the law was that whenever Haman rode through the town on a horse, everyone was to bow down to him. But, this was troubling to my cousin, Mordecai, who only wanted to bow to God.
This made Haman pretty upset, did it not?
Oh, yes. Haman was enraged. He had so much anger towards Mordecai that he and his wife actually constructed a huge plot to kill every Jew in the land of Persia.
But as we mentioned earlier, you are Jewish as well. So why did you decide from the beginning that you were going to keep this a secret?
Well, I decided to keep my religion hidden because at the time, it was not widely accepted for a Jew to marry into the royal Persian family. I know it was not necessarily the right thing to do, but I did want to marry Ahasuerus and become queen.
Once you had learned about this conspiracy, what was your first reaction?
I was scared to death. I did not know what to do. I wanted to save my people, and myself, from this horrible situation. I did not want Haman's plan to play out successfully, otherwise all of my family, friends, and even me would be brutally murdered because of our religion. So, I knew there was something that had to be done quickly. I knew that I had to speak to my husband about this. But, according to Persian law, no one can present themselves to the king unless summoned, or they run the risk of being put to death. But I had to do something fast, because Haman had already gotten my husband's approval to build a gallow to hang Mordecai.
That sounds like you had a hard decision to make. It seems either way, you ran the risk of being killed. So what did you do?
I have never felt so much turmoil as I did at this time. For three straight days, I prayed and fasted. Finally, I felt God was moving me to go to my husband and talk to him. Scared more than I have ever been, I entered his room and asked to speak to him at dinner. He accepted my request, and that night at dinner I told him all about Haman's gruesome plot to kill all the Jews living in Persia. Then, I told him that I was actually a Jew myself.
That was very brave of you. Where did this bravery come from?
Well, I can definitely say God was guiding me this whole time. Telling all of this to my husband was like an out-of-body experience, but I knew with the help of God, I could do anything.
Did your husband try to stop Haman, or did he let him continue out with his plan?
Well, once he found out that I was in fact Jewish, and that Haman's plan was mainly targeted towards my cousin, Ahasuerus took my side. He wanted me to be protected, and he wanted Mordecai to be protected. Ahasuerus was quick to change his mind because he felt he owed Mordecai for something he had done for him in the past.
What happened next? How did Haman take this?
Ahasuerus actually ordered that Haman be hanged on the very gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.
Wow, that is very dramatic. So, you were able to save your family, yourself, and all of the Jewish people living in Persia. How does that make you feel? What did you learn from this experience?
I feel very accomplished and proud of myself. I learned that if you have something that is important to you, especially something like family, or your ethnicity, you have to fight for what is right. If something that is important to you is being threatened, the only way you can overcome it is by taking a stand. I learned that if I was going to save all of my people living in Persia from Haman, I had to run the risk of being killed and stand up for what I believed was right. And the way I received this power was from the grace of God. I could not have taken that big of a stand without knowing He was on my side, and I put all of my faith into Him. And with that, I was able to overcome, and saved the people I loved.
Thank you so much, Esther, for being on my show. I am very honored that you have decided to share your inspiring story with me!
Thank you, Oprah, for giving me the opportunity to share it!
Coming up next we are going to talk to Ruth, please stay tuned!
(Queen Esther comes out, Oprah hugs and greets her, and then she has a seat next to Oprah on the couch.)
Welcome, Queen Esther! I am happy to have you on my show!
I am so excited to be here, Oprah! This is very exciting for me! Oh, and please, call me Esther.
Okay, Esther. Let's get to it. Tell us a little about your background. How did you meet your husband, King Ahasuerus of Persia, which inevitably led to you becoming queen?
Well, I was not Ahasuerus' first wife. He was actually married to a woman named Queen Vashti, who was very disobedient to him. So, they divorced. Then, Ahasuerus spent four years looking for a new queen.
So, what gave you the desire to become queen?
Well, I was not really even planning on going to meet Ahasuerus. But my cousin, Mordecai, actually convinced me to introduce myself to him. The the rest was history!
Wow, that is great. But everything was not easy being queen. I know you had great troubles once your husband appointed Haman as his chief advisor. And a lot of these problems had to do with your religion. You are Jewish, and Ahasuerus was not. Can you tell us how these obstacles came about?
Yes, Oprah, I had some huge trials once Haman became my husband's chief advisor. Once my husband had appointed him, the law was that whenever Haman rode through the town on a horse, everyone was to bow down to him. But, this was troubling to my cousin, Mordecai, who only wanted to bow to God.
This made Haman pretty upset, did it not?
Oh, yes. Haman was enraged. He had so much anger towards Mordecai that he and his wife actually constructed a huge plot to kill every Jew in the land of Persia.
But as we mentioned earlier, you are Jewish as well. So why did you decide from the beginning that you were going to keep this a secret?
Well, I decided to keep my religion hidden because at the time, it was not widely accepted for a Jew to marry into the royal Persian family. I know it was not necessarily the right thing to do, but I did want to marry Ahasuerus and become queen.
Once you had learned about this conspiracy, what was your first reaction?
I was scared to death. I did not know what to do. I wanted to save my people, and myself, from this horrible situation. I did not want Haman's plan to play out successfully, otherwise all of my family, friends, and even me would be brutally murdered because of our religion. So, I knew there was something that had to be done quickly. I knew that I had to speak to my husband about this. But, according to Persian law, no one can present themselves to the king unless summoned, or they run the risk of being put to death. But I had to do something fast, because Haman had already gotten my husband's approval to build a gallow to hang Mordecai.
That sounds like you had a hard decision to make. It seems either way, you ran the risk of being killed. So what did you do?
I have never felt so much turmoil as I did at this time. For three straight days, I prayed and fasted. Finally, I felt God was moving me to go to my husband and talk to him. Scared more than I have ever been, I entered his room and asked to speak to him at dinner. He accepted my request, and that night at dinner I told him all about Haman's gruesome plot to kill all the Jews living in Persia. Then, I told him that I was actually a Jew myself.
That was very brave of you. Where did this bravery come from?
Well, I can definitely say God was guiding me this whole time. Telling all of this to my husband was like an out-of-body experience, but I knew with the help of God, I could do anything.
Did your husband try to stop Haman, or did he let him continue out with his plan?
Well, once he found out that I was in fact Jewish, and that Haman's plan was mainly targeted towards my cousin, Ahasuerus took my side. He wanted me to be protected, and he wanted Mordecai to be protected. Ahasuerus was quick to change his mind because he felt he owed Mordecai for something he had done for him in the past.
What happened next? How did Haman take this?
Ahasuerus actually ordered that Haman be hanged on the very gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.
Wow, that is very dramatic. So, you were able to save your family, yourself, and all of the Jewish people living in Persia. How does that make you feel? What did you learn from this experience?
I feel very accomplished and proud of myself. I learned that if you have something that is important to you, especially something like family, or your ethnicity, you have to fight for what is right. If something that is important to you is being threatened, the only way you can overcome it is by taking a stand. I learned that if I was going to save all of my people living in Persia from Haman, I had to run the risk of being killed and stand up for what I believed was right. And the way I received this power was from the grace of God. I could not have taken that big of a stand without knowing He was on my side, and I put all of my faith into Him. And with that, I was able to overcome, and saved the people I loved.
Thank you so much, Esther, for being on my show. I am very honored that you have decided to share your inspiring story with me!
Thank you, Oprah, for giving me the opportunity to share it!
Coming up next we are going to talk to Ruth, please stay tuned!
Author's Note:
I did change the story of Esther. First of all, King Ahasuerus
was searching for a new queen because he actually had Queen Vashti killed.
King Ahasuerus
had her killed because he was throwing a feast to celebrate the glory
of his kingdom, and he wanted her to make an appearance at it, so
everyone could see how beautiful she was. Queen Vashti did not
want to go to the feast, so she refused. This is why Ahasuerus
had her killed, and was searching for a new queen. I changed it from
her being disobedient and being killed, to him just divorcing her,
because I kind of wanted to make it a little more modern.
I also left
out that there was actually a plot to kill the king, and Mordecai
overheard something about the plot and told Esther, and she told the
king, who ended up
having the group of conspirators killed. This is one reason why it was
so easy for Ahasuerus
to want to save Mordecai after talking Esther, because he did kind of
feel indebted to Mordecai.
The
reason I cut this out of my story was strictly because of length. My
story was pretty lengthy, and I did not want to go over the thousand
word limit. So I tried to shorten it. And also, I wanted to put a
little more focus on Esther, of course, because my storybook is about
inspirational women of the Bible.
"Esther." Wikipedia.
Image 1 Information: Queen Esther. Source: Jewish Journal
Image 2 Information: Queen Esther. Source: Chosen Child
"Esther." Wikipedia.
Image 1 Information: Queen Esther. Source: Jewish Journal
Image 2 Information: Queen Esther. Source: Chosen Child