From Orphan to Queen

(The Crown Series)

FROM ORPHAN

to QUEEN

by RONNIE DAUBER

Copyright © 2018 Ronnie Dauber

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used by any means, graphic, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and book reviews.

Printed in the United States of America 2018

This book is written in a storybook format and is based on biblical facts given to us in the book of Esther. All quotes and facts are referenced from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise specified.

Author Credits:

One Glorious Night (2017)

The Rising Son (2018)

The Boy Who Would be King (2017)

From Captive to Delegate (2017)

From Shepherd to King (2017)

From Prince to Prophet (2017)

From Slave to Hero (2016)

From Cradle to King (2016)

God's Calling…It's for You (2016)

No Compromise, Biblical Answers … (2012, revised 2017)

Let Faith Arise (2012, revised 2016)

Books may be ordered through Amazon stores or by contacting:

Smashwords at http://smashwords.com

Or Ronnie Dauber’s website http://www.ronniedauber.ca

ISBN-13: 9781986938662

Acknowledgments

I want to thank my very best friend and husband, Eric Dauber, for his continued encouragement and support which have enabled me to research the biblical facts so I could write the sixth book in this amazing series.

I also want to thank my dear friend and professional illustrator, Mishel McCumber, for her cherished friendship and support, and for creating another fantastic book cover that so perfectly depicts the heroine of this book.

Above all, I want to thank the Lord for filling me with His love and inspiration that have enabled me to write this book, and for teaching me so much about Himself in the process. To Him, I give all the praise and all the glory!

Dedication

To all those who want to know God with all of their heart and who refuse to let their pride stand in the way.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pride Brings Defeat

Changing of the Gods

Waiting for the Knock

A Brave New World

Hadassah’s New Life

Preference Makes Perfect

Beware of the Sleeping Dog

The Bite is Worse than the Bark

Such as Time as This

Esther’s Great Commission

Haman’s Boomerang!

The Lethal Backfire!

Reaping What You Sow

When NO is Still NO!

God Had a Better Plan

A Day of Honor

The Feast of Purim

A Time Such as This

Queen for More than a Day

Pride Comes Before a Fall

Introduction

We are so privileged to be able to read the Bible and learn about the amazing men and women who loved God and who gave their lives to lead, sustain and fight for the Jewish nation. Some were great leaders over millions, others were mighty warriors either on the battlefield or on their knees—or both, and still others risked their lives to serve God and help save the nation of Israel. Esther was one of those heroes who was willing to give up her life to obey God and save her people from annihilation.

King David brought together all of Israel’s tribes, and he established the city of Jerusalem as the capital of this nation called Israel. This is where he set up his throne and ruled under God’s authority. This nation was blessed and at its peak because all of the people followed the example and instruction of their king. God led the people through David, and the nation of Israel became very powerful.

But as the years passed by and new and ungodly kings took the throne, the majority of the people turned from God. Israel became a divided state; yet, God was faithful and hopeful that they’d return to Him. So He sent prophets to warn them that they needed to repent of their sins and return to Him or face judgment for their sins.

Sadly, most of the people refused to return to God because they preferred the evil of the nations around them. After many warnings, the powerful nation of Israel was brought to its knees when God sent King Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon to destroy their land, including its buildings and Solomon’s temple. He captured the people who weren’t killed or who didn’t escape, and he took them to Babylon where they lived in captivity for many years.

But King Nebuchadnezzar was no match for the Persian army that had become his greatest threat. During the reign of his son, it attacked and destroyed Babylon, and then set up its own government in King Nebuchadnezzar’s palace. The people that weren’t killed, including the Jews, were taken as slaves to Persia. Daniel was one of those captives, and he endured much torment before becoming a mighty governor in Persia.

Years later, Daniel died, and Persia became more wicked and more dangerous than ever. King Xerxes ruled, and he was a very evil king. He had become the emperor of the Persian Empire, which was the most powerful and feared nation in the world at that time. His goal was to take over the world, and his pleasure was to engage in long, drawn-out celebrations and drunken parties with beautiful women.

King Xerxes was brutal and cruel and deep into idolatry. Even his own people feared him. His government was militant. It had no mercy; you did what was ordered, or you died. And hidden away inside the central communities, were small communities of Jews who lived in captivity. They stayed to themselves and hid away from the sins of the people. Many were servants of the king, others were slaves to the Persian natives.

There was a Jewish girl named Hadassah who lived in one of these small Jewish communities on the outskirts of Shushan. Her parents had died and Mordecai, her older cousin, had taken her as his own daughter. He loved her and protected her so that she would always love God and not fall into the sins around them, as so many Jews had done.

This book touches on the highlights of Hadassah’s life after she became Esther, and tells the story of how God worked through her to save the nation of Israel. It’s based on the book of Esther from the Bible and has some added imagination to make it an awesome story. But I encourage you to read the Book of Esther for yourself because it will change the way you think about life.

From Orphan to Queen will help you understand why Esther was chosen to help lead God’s people out of exile and into freedom. As her story unfolds, you’ll be able to understand and relate to her feelings and to her actions, and why, when she knew the consequences of being found out, she would risk her life to help set her people free.

The Crown Series is for readers of all ages who want to know God through the heroic men and women of the Bible. These books are perfect for reading to children and are great for teens, adults or new believers to read on their own. And just like the other books in this series, Grandpa is reading to his grandson who asks all the questions we would want to ask.

I hope this book will bless you and inspire you to study the Scriptures yourself. It’s important to understand that God searches our heart and chooses those who love Him, whether male or female, to do specific tasks for Him. It’s crucial that we never let pride get in the way of doing what God has asked us to do. Just as it was for Esther, we too may be born for a time such as this.

…Ronnie Dauber

Chapter 1

Pride Brings Defeat

Lucas sat on the edge of the couch fidgeting with the controller to his shiny red remote sports car. He had been intimidated and humiliated at school this day, and he was too upset to talk to anyone. His mother had tried to get him to open up, but he was angry and didn’t want to talk. And so, she called in the one person who she knew could get to the bottom of it—Grandpa!

The room was quiet except for Lucas’s sniffles and the whining of the remote motor. Lucas could hear talking in the kitchen, but he ignored it. Then as the voice grew louder, he knew it was Grandpa. His quiet time to sulk was over.

Hey there, Lucas. Feel like company? Grandpa was always cheerful. In fact, Lucas couldn’t remember a day when he wasn’t cheerful! And he just knew that Grandpa was there to try and cheer him up, but this time Lucas was determined that it wasn’t going to work. At least, that’s what he had planned.

Look what I brought us, Lucas! Some of Nana’s homemade spinach dip that you like so much, and of course, some dipping chips. Grandpa spread the snack out on the coffee table along with a couple small plates. Come on, Lucas. Dig in! It’s your favorite.

Lucas grunted and placed the remote on the couch beside him. Then with a big pathetic sigh, he reached for a chip. Depressed or not, this was his favorite dip, and he just had to have some. So, Lucas crunched on a few chips and then realized that Grandpa was watching him as they both enjoyed their snack. Okay, Lucas. What’s bugging you?

Nothing. I just had a bad day at school.

What happened?

I don’t want to talk about it.

Oh, I see. Enjoying the snack there, Lucas?

Yeah. Thanks, Grandpa. It’s really good.

Well, if you’re not going to talk to me, then I’ll just take this back home and eat the rest by myself.

But Grandpa, you brought it for both of us.

Yeah, but if we’re not going to talk and enjoy our time together, then I’ll go back home and stare at the cat while I’m eating. Unless, of course, there’s anything you want to talk about now.

Lucas took a deep breath and sighed. I just have this problem with a girl at school.

Ah, girl problems.

It’s not like that, Grandpa. She’s our new leader for our volleyball team.

Uh-huh. And how is that a bad thing?

Well, we always had Jacob, and we were doing okay, but the teacher said that Kirstyn was better and so he kicked Jacob out and put her in. A girl!

Oh, and this is bad because? Sorry, but I don’t understand, Lucas.

Because before, we’d all get together in gym class in our groups, and our group would get to sit and goof around for ten minutes before we’d play the volleyball game. But now we have Kirstyn, and she wants to do bending and stretching. We even have to run around the whole gym two times! Jacob never made us do that. And what’s worse is the coach says we have to do what Kirstyn says. I hate it. It’s not fair.

What’s not fair, Lucas? The fact that you have to do these exercises before the game or the fact that your new leader is a girl?

Both! Girls just want to be organized and show off. It was fun with Jacob, but Kirstyn is awful. She even made us skip with a girl’s skipping rope today. That was just so embarrassing.

Yeah, well I can certainly see how that could get you down. So tell me, Lucas, how many games did you win when Jacob was your leader?

What does that matter, Grandpa? We had fun.

Well, it does matter, Son. It’s a competitive sport. So, how many games?

I’m not sure. Maybe, well—the thing is that we really tried to win, but the other teams are just better than us, that’s all. And we didn’t care anyway because at least we had a lot of fun.

Really? Well, what happens when the season is over, and you’ve lost all the games, and the winner plays in the community tournament for the award? Will that be fun?

I guess not, but there’s nothing we can do, Grandpa. The other teams are really good. All we can do is play along and just accept it. We just have to be who we are.

Losers.

What? Well, that’s not a nice thing to call us, Grandpa! We just aren’t very good at it, and it seems that yeah, we lose sometimes.

So Lucas, you’re saying that you’d rather just live in defeat because that’s what you’re used to? You don’t want to try and improve, and you don’t see the good in trying this because your new leader is a girl?

Grandpa, it doesn’t matter, anyway. We’re already losing. The other teams are better than us.

So you just want to do what you’ve always done—give up.

What’s the point?

Okay, let me wrap my mind around this. You’d rather stay with this team because it means you can just goof around and not have to do anything? Why on earth did you join the team if you didn’t plan on at least trying to do your best and win a few games?

Well, I like volleyball Grandpa, and I thought it would be really awesome to be great at it and get to play in the tournament, but we didn’t do so well. Anyway, it never bothered me before.

"That’s because you became one of them. You joined the crowd that takes the easy path to defeat. This isn’t the attitude of