Today's Meditation

Read Esther 2:1-23

After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. ²Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. ³And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetic treatments be given them. ⁴And let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so. ⁵Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite. ⁶Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away. ⁷Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter. ⁸So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. ⁹The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. ¹⁰Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. ¹¹Every day Mordecai would walk around in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was and how she fared. ¹²The turn came for each girl to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women. ¹³When the girl went in to the king she was given whatever she asked for to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. ¹⁴In the evening she went in; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. ¹⁵When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her. ¹⁶When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, ¹⁷the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. ¹⁸Then the king gave a great banquet to all his officials and ministers—“Esther’s banquet.” He also granted a holiday to the provinces, and gave gifts with royal liberality. ¹⁹When the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. ²⁰Now Esther had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him.

²¹In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus. ²²But the matter came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai. ²³When the affair was investigated and found to be so, both the men were hanged on the gallows. It was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.

    There has been some scholarly debate about whether or not Esther actually existed, but there is evidence that this King Ahasuerus, was actually King Xerxes 1, as many other scholarly writings collaborate the historical facts mentioned in the book of Esther with the reign of King Xerxes.  Why the discrepancy?   Names change from language to language; this is the land of ancient Persia which became Babylon, and then part of the Achaemenid Empire which stretched from India to Ethiopia, as mentioned in chapter 1.   Tracing it's etymology (word origins), each language makes a slight change in the spelling and pronunciation of names.  In our current Old Testament rendering of the story, we're left with the Latin version of it.  

    In any case, Esther is chosen among all the beautiful virginal women in the Empire to make up the king's harem.  Mordecai, her cousin, who became like a father to her when her parents were either killed or died, tells her not to mention that she is one of the descendants of the Jewish exiles/captives from Jerusalem.  The women are paraded before the king as property and after Queen Vashti embarrassed him before the court, he decides to choose one of them to replace her as his new queen.   

    The women are instructed to go into the king and are allowed to take one thing from the court to use as a prop, so to speak, to gain the king's favor and attention.  Esther does not choose something herself, but rather is very smart and cunning.  She asks the advice of the Hegai, the king's eunuch, what she should take with her.  There is no mention what advice he gave her, but it is recorded that the King "loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti."

    Esther further proves her intelligence and worth to the king by immediately unveiling to the king an assassination plot against him by his own guardsmen, Bigthan and Teresh.  Mordecai, her cousin, had overheard talk about it, related it to Queen Esther, who then told King Ahasuerus.

    As we read through the book of Esther, you'll see providence, position, and Esther's intelligence as a strategist come into play over and over again.  Often, we don't know why we've been put on this earth, what role we play, what purpose our lives serve.  You'll see through Esther that every character has a role to play, every person has purpose.  It is up to you, what you choose to make of your life.  We have little control over our circumstances, but we do have control over what we make of them.

    What will you do with the choices you're given today?

Esther's Song