Episode 13 – Esther Part 1
Welcome to Proverbs 9:10 Ministries Podcast, No Trash, Just Truth. We are your hosts and co-founders of Proverbs 9:10 Ministries, Chris Paxson and Rose Spiller. Today we begin a series we have entitled Women in Scripture. We are going to take a look at some of the women in the Bible, beginning with Esther.
The Book of Esther was written sometime between 483 - 472 B.C. by an unknown author. The book is often thought to be a narrative about a heroic, young Jewish girl who stood courageous in the face of daunting odds and saved her people. But while Esther certainly displays courage in her circumstances, we don’t want to miss the big picture.
No we don’t. And that big picture is that everything in the Old Testament, and in the entire Bible, points to Jesus. So while we can admire Esther for risking her life to save her people, she is not meant for us to make a superhero movie out of. Her story is meant to show us our need for a real Savior. A Savior that won’t just save a certain people group for a specific time, but One that will save all of God’s people for all time!
Chris, there was some early controversy about the Book of Esther. The main issue some ancient scholars had with it was not so much what the book says, but rather what it doesn’t say. The name of God is never once mentioned in the entire book.
There is also no mention of the words ”prayer” and “faith”, or any reference to Jewish law. That caused some to wonder why this book was included as part of the Bible. However, the scholars who put the Canon (the books in the Bible) together saw what we see when we read it. This brilliantly written narrative that plays out like a soap opera, shows us God between almost every line. Although He isn’t mentioned by name, God’s sovereign Hand is in all of the events that occur.
In fact, when you read through it, you see that at times the author has to go out of his way not to mention God. We see verses that talk about Mordecai in sack cloth which was a Jewish religious form of mourning, and Esther fasting which would have always been accompanied by prayer. It’s like he leaves God’s name out intentionally. And he did! He is showing us that even when it seems God is nowhere to be found, He is always near, working for the good of His people!
Rose, let’s start by setting up the historical context before we delve into Esther’s story. Around 607 B. C., under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian Empire conquered the Jews in the southern kingdom of Judah, which consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Many of the Jews were taken into captivity and exiled to Babylon. (This story is told in 2 Kings 24-25). This time period would have been during the time of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and the prophets, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah.
God used Babylon as His agent to punish Israel for their sins of idolatry and rebellion against Him. The Israelites were warned about this happening for centuries through the prophets before God brought it to fruition. But just as God used the prophets to warn the Israelites of coming judgement, he also used them to give them hope of eventual restoration. Jeremiah told the Jewish people they would be returned to the Promised Land after a 70 year period of exile and punishment. For the nation of Judah, that prophecy was fulfilled in 537 B.C., when King Cyrus of Persia overthrew the Babylonian Empire and took control of the captives. Cyrus allowed the Jewish people to return to the Promised Land and begin rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Not everyone chose to return though. For many, life in the Babylonian Kingdom had become familiar and comfortable, and they remained even when Persia took control and permitted them to leave. Susa, formally a Babylonian City became the territory of Persia, and that is where the story of Esther takes place, during the reign of King Xerxes, also known as Ahasuerus, who led a very large Persian Empire from 486-465 B.C. In the story of Esther, we will see God working through ordinary circumstances to accomplish the extraordinary!
We will. So let’s dig into Esther’s story. In the third year of Xerxes reign, he decides to spend 180 days showing off his wealth to his princes, noblemen, and others. At the end of the 180 days, he throws a week-long banquet. The wine was flowing abundantly!
This feast was only for men and prostitutes. Towards the end of the week, Xerxes orders his queen, Vashti, to appear before him at the banquet wearing her royal crown. Vashti refuses. And with good reason. Not only would it have been demeaning for her to appear, but she knew all the men, including her husband would have been really drunk. Plus, there are some Jewish Scholars who say that when Xerxes told her to appear wearing her crown, that’s all he expected her to be wearing!
Yeah, I think I would have passed, too. But King Xerxes can’t afford to overlook Vashti’s public defiance of refusing to show herself at his banquet. He turns to his political advisers and wise men for advice. They, however, are worried more about themselves than Xerxes. They are concerned that their wives would follow Vashti’s example start disobeying them. So to deter that from happening, they tell Xerxes to write a law stripping Vashti of her crown and forbidding her from ever appearing in the King’s presence.
Fast forward to four years later. King Xerxes returns from a disasterous campaign against Greece and decides to find a new queen. His men go out into the city and take 400 women with the intention to put together a harem of young, beautiful virgins for the king. After receiving a year of beauty treatments, each of the girls sleep with the king for a night. He would then choose 2 or 3 of the girls to be his wives, and one to be his new queen.
None of the girls volunteered for this. The Persian Empire saw all of its citizens’ purpose as serving the Empire. It probably seems sexist that they took all of these young women just to serve the King’s pleasure, but they would have just as quickly taken the young men to serve in the King’s army. Everything a person possessed, even their very being, was considered owned by the Empire and could be claimed by the King anytime he wished.
Right. These women were the king’s property. If he slept with them and didn’t like them, they would spend the rest of their life in comfort, but wasting away in the harem. They could never leave and marry someone else. Even if he liked them and called them to his bedroom once in a while, there were 400 new women, not to mention the hundreds he probably already had. Do the math!
Esther was one of the women taken. Esther, or Hadassah, as she is called in Hebrew, was an orphan being raised by her cousin, Mordecai, who was like a father to her. Mordecai was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was a 2nd or 3rd generation living in exile in Susa. Exiled life in Susa was all he had ever known, which is why he probably stayed instead of returning to Jerusalem. Mordecai was related to King Saul, a fact that becomes significant in this book.
The Bible says Esther was lovely and beautiful. The Bible generally tends to understate things, so when it says that Esther was lovely and beautiful, we know that she must have been gorgeous. And just as God made Nebuchadnezzar and Darius find favor with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednigo and elevate them, so He does with Esther. Soon after being taken, Esther endears herself to Hegai, the King’s Eunuch in charge of his harem. Just like the women who were taken to be a part of the harem, eunuch’s weren’t given a choice about their service either. But out of 400 women, Esther is the one who earns Hagai’s favor.
Because of this favor, Hegai gave Esther special beauty preparations, beyond her allowance. She starts her preparations earlier than the other women and he also gives her seven choice maidservants to look after her beauty needs. Not sure why anyone needs 7 maids to look after your beauty regiment, especially if you are already starting out gorgeous, but so it was.
The 12 months of beauty treatments consisted of six months bathing in oil of myrrh and 6 months in spices and ointments. It has been suggested that the women may have literally spent their time “in” these elements, with ointments being applied by means of a chemical bath or fumigation! And the food they were given was not just any food. It was also meant to enhance their beauty. Perhaps to fatten up some of the scrawny ones since thin was not beautiful in those days.
During all this time, Esther hid her nationality, accepted her circumstances and complied without complaint. Esther has no qualms about going through the beauty treatments, eating what she was told to and being used as the King’s plaything. It seems like Esther has a weak character and is compromising her faith, but that is not completely true, as we see later. However, at this stage, she seems to be the perfect anti-Vashti.
Before her night with the king, Esther shows tremendous wisdom. Before spending the night with the king, each girl was allowed to choose whatever jewels they wanted from the treasury to wear. Whatever they chose, was theirs to keep. Instead of being selfish and decking herself out in jewels, she asks Hegai to suggest what she should wear. Who else would have better known King Xeres’ taste than one of his officers? Especially the one in charge of all of his women!
Esther has her night with Xerxes and he falls for her. Esther 2: 17 – 18 says, Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality. Esther was beautiful, but certainly were some of the other 400 women. Xerxes obviously saw something in her that drew him to her – a lot like how Potaphar and Pharaoh were drawn to Joseph; or King Darius was drawn to Daniel. Rose, is it the godliness inside of them that drew people to them or is it God causing people to be drawn to them?
Chris, the answer is yes! All of these are a perfect example of God’s sovereignty working in conjunction with human circumstances and actions on earth.
Scripture says Xerxes loved Esther above all women, so the royal crown was set on her head. Esther’s queenship was made official by putting the crown on her head; the very thing Vashti refused to do at the banquet. A feast was given in her honor. The king granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave generous gifts to the people. The result of Esther’s coronation was happiness and blessing all around. When the King was happy, everyone was happy.
Through all of this, Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, was keeping a watchful eye on Esther, advising her along the way. He visited the court of the harem daily to check on her. Mordecai's great interest in Esther's shows his love and concern for her. in what could be a potentially dangerous place. Again, God’s hand is all over this. By Mordecai continually checking up on Esther, he discovers a plot against the king in which a couple of his officers are planning on killing him. Mordecai tells Esther about it, and she, in turn, reports it to the king, giving the credit to Mordecai. The conspirators were hanged and Mordecai’s name was inscribed in the royal annals. Usually, anyone who does a service like this for the king would be immediately rewarded, but “for some reason” nothing is done for Mordecai. We will see that the “for some reason” is that God will use this reward for Mordecai at a later time.
Need to see God working in this situation? In order for Esther to be queen and for the Jews to be saved from annihilation, Mordecai and his family had to not go back to Judah, but stay in Persia, King Xerxes had to have the banquet, had to have gotten drunk, he had to call Vashti to the banquet, she had to refuse, he had to get angry, his advisors had to tell him to get rid of her, he had to wait 4 years before acting on it, they had to decide to have a “forced” beauty contest, Esther’s parents had to have died, Mordecai had to take her in, Esther had to be beautiful, she had to be compliant and do what Mordecai told her, Haggai had to take notice of her, she had to take Haggai’s advice, King Xerxes had to favor her above all the others, he had to make her queen, Mordecai had to check on her everyday by sitting by the gate, the men plotting to kill the king had to talk in front of him, Mordecai had to decide to tell Esther, she had to report it, it had to be investigated and found true, it had to be recorded in the King’s book of annals, the King had to do nothing at the time it was found to be true, and on and on and on as we will see. The point is that if you look at all of these things, they are pretty much ordinary happenings. I am sure at the time no one saw any significance in them. However, remove one of the them, and the whole plan fails. God works in the ordinary; we just often never see it at the time.
Rose, this is a great exercise for us to do in our own life and a good place to end this episode. In our next episode, we will continue with the story of Esther. We will meet Haman, a man whose ancestors had a run in with King Saul, and as a result, hates the Jews. Thanks for tuning in! If you like what you heard, please rate and review us on Apple, on through whatever platform you are listening.
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Have a blessed day!