GOD IS SOVEREIGN
The book of ESTHER
It was a dark time in the history of Israel. The nation had been taken captive over one hundred years before, and apart from a few people left to till the land, the people were carried away to Babylon. Ahasuerus (Xerxes), the powerful, impulsive Persian ruler was in an on-going conflict with the Greeks. Thousands of Jews had been permitted to go back to Israel led by Zerubbabel and Joshua a little over fifty years before the time of Esther. Her family had stayed in Babylon for some reason, although as many Jews as wanted to, did go back. Likely the time spent in Babylon became normal living for many. Mordecai, Esther's cousin, had become a government official. Others probably started businesses and made their homes there and in other parts of the world. It was during the time between the first return and the second return under the leadership of Ezra, that the events in recorded in the book of Esther took place.