Lives of Scripture

Bigthan (also called Bigthana), one of two royal officers who guarded the entrance to King Ahasuerus's palace at Susa, became angry with the king and, together with a fellow guard named Teresh, plotted to assassinate him (Esther 2:21). Mordecai, Esther's cousin who sat at the king's gate, learned of the conspiracy and reported it to Queen Esther, giving Mordecai credit by name (2:22). The matter was investigated, found to be true, and both men were hanged on a wooden gallows; the event was recorded in the official chronicles of the kingdom in the king's presence (2:23). That written record seems forgotten for several chapters -- until, on a sleepless night, King Ahasuerus has the chronicles read to him and discovers Mordecai was never rewarded for exposing the plot (6:1-3). That overlooked debt becomes the turning point of the entire book: it leads directly to Mordecai's public honor and to the unraveling of Haman's plan to destroy the Jews (6:4-14). Bigthan's failed conspiracy, unremarkable on its own, turns out to be the hinge God uses -- without ever being named in the book of Esther -- to protect His people at the moment of their greatest danger.