2

• A search is made for all the most beautiful virgins to replace Vashti
• Esther is very beautiful so her guardian (and cousin) Mordecai expects she will be taken. He advises her to keep it a secret she is a Jew
• Mordecai checks on Esther at the harem every day
• Esther is summoned to king Ahasuerus who prefers her to all the other women and makes her Queen in place of Vashti
• Mordecai becomes aware of a plot against the king. He tells Esther who tells the king. It is investigated and found to be true and the traitors are hanged. The incident is recorded in the king's presence

Observations

It is hard sometimes to know when to be bold and when to be shrewd. Mordecai asks Esther to keep it a secret that she is a Jew. In a way this could be seen as cowardly but things couldn't have turned out the same way if she hadn't kept it a secret. Potentially Haman would have been afraid to plot against the Jews in the first place if he'd known Esther the Queen was a Jew. But equally Esther may have had enemies that would have prevented her ending up in the position she did.

Another moral quandary is to do with Esther's relationship to the king. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah came just prior to Esther and both talk against marrying foreigners. Should Esther have resisted even though this would have put her in danger? The fact that Esther's position is used to bring about the Jew's salvation isn't conclusive. Even in this book Mordecai expresses the belief that of Esther doesn't step in to try and save her people that salvation would come from somewhere else.