Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Reflections on Esther 2

 Esther 02(Contemporary English Version)
  1. After a while, King Xerxes got over being angry. But he kept thinking about what Vashti had done and the law that he had written because of her.
  2. Then the king's personal servants said: Your Majesty, a search must be made to find you some beautiful young women.
  3. You can select officers in every province to bring them to the place where you keep your wives in the capital city of Susa. Put your servant Hegai in charge of them since that is his job. He can see to it that they are given the proper beauty treatments.
  4. Then let the young woman who pleases you most take Vashti's place as queen. King Xerxes liked these suggestions, and he followed them.
  5. At this time a Jew named Mordecai was living in Susa. His father was Jair, and his grandfather Shimei was the son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin.
  6. Kish was one of the people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, when he took King Jeconiah of Judah to Babylonia.
  7. Mordecai had a very beautiful cousin named Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah. He had raised her as his own daughter, after her father and mother died.
  8. When the king ordered the search for beautiful women, many were taken to the king's palace in Susa, and Esther was one of them. Hegai was put in charge of all the women,
  9. and from the first day, Esther was his favorite. He began her beauty treatments at once. He also gave her plenty of food and seven special maids from the king's palace, and they had the best rooms.
  10. Mordecai had warned Esther not to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him.
  11. He was anxious to see how Esther was getting along and to learn what had happened to her. So each day he would walk back and forth in front of the court where the women lived.
  12. The young women were given beauty treatments for one whole year. The first six months their skin was rubbed with olive oil and myrrh, and the last six months it was treated with perfumes and cosmetics. Then each of them spent the night alone with King Xerxes.
  13. When a young woman went to the king, she could wear whatever clothes or jewelry she chose from the women's living quarters.
  14. In the evening she would go to the king, and the following morning she would go to the place where his wives stayed after being with him. There a man named Shaashgaz was in charge of the king's wives. Only the ones the king wanted and asked for by name could go back to the king.
  15. Xerxes had been king for seven years when Esther's turn came to go to him during Tebeth, the tenth month of the year. Everyone liked Esther. The king's personal servant Hegai was in charge of the women, and Esther trusted Hegai and asked him what she ought to take with her.
  16. (SEE 2:15)
  17. Xerxes liked Esther more than he did any of the other young women. None of them pleased him as much as she did, and right away he fell in love with her and crowned her queen in place of Vashti.
  18. In honor of Esther he gave a big dinner for his leaders and officials. Then he declared a holiday everywhere in his kingdom and gave expensive gifts.
  19. When the young women were brought together again, Esther's cousin Mordecai had become a palace official.
  20. He had told Esther never to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him, just as she had always done.
  21. Bigthana and Teresh were the two men who guarded King Xerxes' rooms, but they got angry with the king and decided to kill him.
  22. Mordecai found out about their plans and asked Queen Esther to tell the king what he had found out.
  23. King Xerxes learned that Mordecai's report was true, and he had the two men hanged. Then the king had all of this written down in his record book as he watched.

As interesting a story as the book of Esther makes, it is more than a story. It is an account of God's providential care for His people. Though His people had rejected Him for other gods and He had disciplined them by sending them into exile, God still cared for them and protected them against annihilation. This is what the story of Esther is about and we see in every event God's hand at work.

After King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) had a chance to reflect on deposing his queen, Vashti, he may have regretted his action to depose her. His attendants, however, quickly proposed that a search be made for a new queen from among the beautiful virgins of the kingdom. This pleased the king and he approved the plan. It is at this point that a Jewish exile by the name of Mordecai is introduced to the story. He had been captured when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken Judah captive and was now living in Susa, the Persian capitol and may have been an official at the palace gate. He had a cousin by he name of Esther whom he had adopted when, as a child, her parents died. She was now a very beautiful young woman and become one of the women taken to the palace to be groomed as a queen candidate.

Esther pleased Hegai who was in charge of the king's harem and he accelerated her grooming and assigned seven female servants to her care. This grooming process took a year before the women in this special harem would have their turn with the king. When their turn came, they would go to the king in the evening and return to the harem in the morning. Unless the king invited them back they would likely never see him again though they would remain in the harem. Esther's beauty no doubt was both inward as well as outward, for she found favor with everyone whom she met.

When Esther's turn finally came to go to the king she could take with her anything she chose to make herself pleasing to the king. Esther took only what was recommended to her by Hegai, the one in charge of the harem. When she went to the king the search for a queen was over for he "loved Esther more than all the other women." (2:17) He placed the crown on her head and made her queen, then held a banquet in her honor to announce his decision. Through all of this, Esther never revealed her ethnicity.

A short account at the end of chapter 2 further reveals God's hand in these events to give Esther and Mordecai favor with the king. As Mordecai sat at the King's Gate he had opportunity one day to learn of a plot by two of the king's guards to assassinate the king. Mordecai reported this to Esther who told the king. There was an investigation and this report of the planned assassination verified and the two guards were executed.

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