Divine Appointments: A Sordid Succession

Transcript

JROT 29
04/21/2024
Divine Appointments (Part Two): “A Sordid Succession”
Esther 2:1-18
Jesse Randolph

Well, good evening, it is a joy to once again open God’s timeless and precious Word with you this evening. Someone asked me earlier this morning, actually a couple of you asked, if I took a breath during the morning service. I might have taken 2 or 3, I can’t remember, that was a racehorse of a message. I’m looking forward to going at a much more manageable pace this evening. The passage of Scripture we’ll be in this evening is Esther 2:1-18. And this text is one of those that can be so easily warped and so easily taken out of context. That is, we all have that tendency, whether we’re willing to recognize this or not, to make it what we want it to say and not what we don’t want it to be saying.

For instance, we can be quick to read Esther through a built-in bias toward the romantic, and our inner craving to see the slipper fit or to see the guy get the girl or to see the girl get her Prince Charming or to see the couple live ‘happily ever after.’ We’ve read enough romance novels then and we’ve seen enough Hallmark movies and we’re sufficiently familiar with the Cinderella story, that we can find ourselves thinking, "So that’s how the book of Esther must work, too. It’s a love story between a king and a queen. It’s a second chance for the king. It’s a rags-to-riches story for the new queen.” What’s not to like about that?

Well, as we’re going to see this evening, while it may seem that the Book of Esther has all the makings of a perfect fairytale story, a head-over-heels love story between a king and his queen,
while it may seem that the powers-at-be at Disney might want to pick up this script, the reality is the portion of Esther that we’ll be studying this evening, a portion which I’m sure is familiar to many of you, is not some innocent tale about a beauty pageant with this dark-haired contestant from a foreign land who wins the day and impresses everyone with her winning smile and her watered-down answers about bringing world peace and solving the clean drinking water problem on the planet, that’s not what this is about.

No, no, far from dripping with romance and far from being the true love story in that way that we think about this idea, this section of the Book of Esther is full of moral ambiguity and it’s replete with spiritual compromise. Indeed, if there’s any love story that’s being told in the words that we’re going to work through tonight, it’s really a story about God’s love for a people, the people of Israel, and His providential protection of them through the events recorded in this book.

Now that word “providential” or “providence” is the word that we started with last time as we launched our study of Esther. If it is about anything the book of Esther is about God’s providence. Meaning, God is moving behind the scenes connecting various dots, swinging big doors, as one commentator says, “on various small hinges.” And in doing so He’s doing this in a book that doesn’t even mention His name.

Well, last week as we embarked upon our study of Esther by looking at chapter 1, we learned about this eventual expulsion of a queen of Persia named Vashti. And this week, as we work through the first 18 verses of Esther 2 we’re going to learn about the rise of a new queen of the Persian Empire, a Jewish girl named Esther. And the title of this evening’s message is “A Sordid Succession,” and I’ll give you the reasons for that title later. But I ’ve broken up the text as follows: in verses 1-4 we’ll see “A New Queen Proposed,” in verses 5-7 we’ll see “A New Queen Previewed,” in verses 8-16 we’ll see “A New Queen Prepared,” and in verses 17-18 we’ll see “A New Queen Presented” -- “A New Queen Proposed,” “A New Queen Previewed,” “A New Queen Prepared,” “A New Queen Presented.”

Now, before we get to our first point and to verse 1 of our text, a bit of review. You’ll recall that King Ahasuerus or Xerxes was a powerful ruler. The most powerful ruler in the world at the time, in fact, and he was king over this sprawling and expanding and advancing empire. Xerxes had assembled the largest Persian army in history and he had his sights set on accomplishing what his father never could. He wanted to conquer the Greeks.

And as we saw last time Xerxes first called this six-month feast with various leaders and governors from the 127 provinces in the Persian Kingdom. That’s the feast where they were going to plan out how they were going to take on and conquer the Greeks. And that six-month, military planning feast was followed by a seven-day, drunken party. And it was during that seven-day, drunken party that Xerxes placed his warped demands on his wife, Queen Vashti. He commanded her to leave the banquet that she was holding for the various wives of the dignitaries who had descended upon Susa, and part of that command he gave her, I argued last time, was that she parade herself around naked, for the pleasure and envy of Xerxes’ guests. Now Vashti refused and that made Xerxes, her husband, mad, very mad. In fact, if you look at Esther 1:13 it says, “the king became exceedingly furious, and his wrath burned within him.”

Xerxes then called together his cabinet of various yes-men, his collection of hand-picked counselors, so-called wise men. And then you see the names of the seven of them mentioned there in Esther 1:14. (I won’t try to pronounce their names again.) But these seven so called wise men counseled Xerxes and the counsel they gave him was that he should send Vashti away so that, Esther 1:19, he could “give her royal position to another who is better than she.” Not only that, we saw last time toward the end that these so called wise men counseled Xerxes that he should codify this decision into law. In other words, he should make Vashti’s sentence a matter of Persian decree, to make an example of Vashti and to present her as a warning to any Persian women who might think about disobeying their husbands’ commands.

And that’s where we left off last time, the passing of this edict throughout the Persian Empire,
which we see there at the end of verse 22 of chapter 1, “that every man should be the ruler in his own house and the one who speaks in the tongue of his own people.” Now, as we pick it up here in Esther chapter 2, our eyes can land upon this new chapter break and we can find ourselves thinking that the events recorded here must have taken place the next day. So the law is passed, Vashti is sent away, and the very next day, chapter 2 happens. But that’s not the case. In fact, we are able to verify through historical records of the Persian Empire related to Xerxes and his reign and the records of his battles and his conquests and his defeats, that there actually is a four-year gap between the last verse of chapter 1 and the first verse of chapter 2. In fact, that’s the only ‘gap theory’ that I hold to, okay?, that gap between Esther 1 and Esther 2.

And what happened in that four-year gap? Well, what happened is that Xerxes’ plans of conquering the Greeks and avenging the defeat of his father all came crashing down.
What happened in that 4 year gap is that the Greeks destroyed Xerxes’ army and they demolished most of his navy. There are 2 battles to take note of; one was the battle of Plataea in 479 B.C. and then was the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C., all resulting in Xerxes army being destroyed. And then what happened in that 4 year gap is that Xerxes eventually boarded this ship and then headed home from his ill-fated campaign against the Greeks, grim, dejected in humiliation, rather than in honor. That’s the backdrop to our text for this evening.

And again our first heading for this evening’s sermon is “A New Queen Proposed.” Let’s look at verses 1 through 4, God’s Word reads, “After these things when the wrath of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decided against her. Then the young men of the king, who attended to him, said, ‘Let young virgins, beautiful in appearance, be sought for the king. And let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every young virgin, beautiful in appearance, to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the hand of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who keeps charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given to them. Then let the young lady who is good in the eyes of the king be queen in place of Vashti.’ And the word was good in the eyes of the king, and he did so.”

So you see how chapter 2 starts with those words, “After these things,” after the banquets, after the shameful display toward his own flesh and bone, Queen Vashti, after his anger had boiled over, after he sought and received counsel from the so called ‘wise men,’ after he sent Vashti away, after he experienced defeat at the hands of the Greek armies. And now with his tail between his legs, all of that is loaded into those first few words there, “after these things.”

And then, reading on, it says, “After these things when the wrath of King Ahasuerus had subsided.” Again, this wasn’t an instance of Xerxes simply going over to the other side of the room to clear his head and to catch his breath, to just take a deep breath after a fight with his wife. No, this was Xerxes needing four years to cool down. And then look at what comes next, it says, “he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decided against her.”
Now this language again indicates the passage of substantial time between that passing of the decree that resulted in Vashti being sent away and then the events recorded here in Esther 2.
Now if this were recording events happened the next day, for instance, the morning after Xerxes sent away Vashti, this would be a very odd expression to say he “remembered Vashti and what she had done.” It would indicate that he has a very short-term memory problem. But when used with this reference to the passage of four years of time it’s not an expression that’s odd at all.

And the expression here, by the way, where it says that Xerxes, or Ahasuerus, “remembered Vashti,” that means more than simply calling to mind certain pertinent information like the square root of 16 or the capital of Vermont. It’s not just remembering random data. Rather, in Hebrew that verb “remember” has a more robust sense to it. It carries the connotation of recalling something with a sense of nostalgia, whether positively, as in the case of having affectionate feelings, or negatively, as in the case of having remorseful feelings. And here it’s clear that it’s in the latter sense that this term is being used. Xerxes here is remembering Vashti with a tinge of remorse. His troops had been defeated, his war chest had been depleted. His credibility and his confidence have taken a beating; he’s experienced this severe slap in the face, militarily speaking. And now he’s returning home and he’s licking his wounds and he faces this daunting reminder that his wife is no longer there to greet him.

In remembering her then, he’s reconsidering the hasty actions he had taken against his wife, Vashti. There’s now this sense of sorrow over his initial summons; there’s now this sense of regret over his rashness in sending her away. There might even be a sense here of his affections for Vashti being rekindled. But there was nothing he could do about it now, because he had acted impulsively, and now because of the law that he himself had passed, she was now gone for good. Xerxes, in other words, is a sad character study of the joyless existence of one who seems to have it all. But without a relationship with the living God he’s actually on spiritual quicksand sinking lower and lower.

Now look at what happens in verses 2 through 4. Xerxes’ counselors jump in again. And the young men mentioned in verse 2, here, by the way, are the same wise men of chapter 1. These were Xerxes’ personal attendants, these seven so-called nobles who understood the law. And here, these wise men offered Xerxes two more of their cents. And the text reads,
“Then the young men of the king, who attended to him, said, ‘Let young virgins, beautiful in appearance, be sought for the king. And let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every young virgin, beautiful in appearance, to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the hand of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who keeps charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given to them. Then let the young lady who is good in the eyes of the king be queen in place of Vashti.’”

Now, as we work our way through the book of Esther, we’re going to see with some regularity that Xerxes was consistently being led along by his officials. Like all men of power he necessarily did need to rely on others to be his eyes and the ears for what was happening in his kingdom. But he wasn’t always receiving the best information, or the best counsel. And that was certainly the case here. Remember these same counselors had earlier advised Xerxes to send Vashti away. And remember that whole scene as they gave him that counsel, they were ensuring their own job security by creating this crisis of national proportions. They took this domestic dispute between a man and his wife and made it a matter of Persian law. And they had a very vested interest in the counsel they gave Xerxes back in chapter 1. Well, as we’re about to see they had no less of a vested interest in how they advised Xerxes here in chapter 2.

I mean, think about this for a second. In verse 1 of chapter 2, we’re told that Xerxes “remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decided against her.” There apparently was, in Xerxes heart this simultaneous cooling off and warming up happening at the same time. So now if Xerxes and Vashti somehow were to reconcile, what would that mean for these counselors? Off with their heads, is what it meant. If those two somehow got back together it was going to be a severed head. If Vashti somehow regained her throne, the ones who had told Xerxes to remove her in the first place, would now have their necks on the chopping block. That’s the backdrop to the counsel they’re giving Xerxes here. It was self-interested counsel, it’s self-protective counsel, they’re trying to save their own hides when they give him their advice.

And look what they did, look what they suggested in terms of their counsel to Xerxes. They played right off the king’s known sexual appetites and they urged him, they counseled him, to assemble a new harem composed of the most beautiful young virgins in the empire. Now many children’s Bibles portray this as a simple and innocent beauty contest, but this wasn’t a simple and innocent beauty contest. What was about to happen wasn’t just about beautiful smiles and fluttering eyes and butterflies in the stomach. Nothing about what is going to be laid out here is G-Rated. Instead, what is going to be described here is young women, virgins, being drafted for sexual service to the king. Now this is about young women preparing themselves in a harem, a disreputable den, where their highest aim and objective was how they performed sexually for the king. More on that in just a minute.

Now, surely Xerxes was repulsed by this counsel, right? Surely he wanted nothing to do with this, there’s no way he would follow their counsel, right? To appoint overseers in 127 provinces of the kingdom to gather young virgins beautiful in appearance; to beautify them in his harem over the course of a year, so that on a nightly basis he could have his sexual appetites satisfied to the max. There’s no way he was going to go for that plan, right? Wrong. Look at the end of verse 4, it says, “And the word was good in the eyes of the king, and he did so.” Another way to translate this would be that ‘the word of the counselors pleased the king.’

In other words, whatever pangs of remorse he had felt regarding Vashti, whatever remembrance of Vashti he had experienced, whatever rekindled feelings toward Vashti he had gone through, were now forgotten and his lusts were now re-ignited. And this really is no surprise, by the way, coming from Xerxes. He was a sucker for plans that were superficial and self-indulgent and short-sighted. Like any one of us who has lived in the world and were once given over to the world, Xerxes’ solution to dealing with the consequences of his sin was to pile on more sin, to bury his already-numb heart underneath a blanket of indulgence, to compound his guilt with a few fleeting experiences and moments of pleasure.

And that brings us to our second point for this evening, and our second section of the text. If you’re taking notes, here in verses 5-7 we’re going to see “A New Queen Previewed.” So we have seen “A New Queen Proposed,” now we see “A New Queen Previewed.” Look at verses 5-7, it says, “Now there was at the citadel in Susa a Jew. And his name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been taken away into exile from Jerusalem with the exiles who had been taken away into exile with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had taken away into exile. And he was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.”

Now in these three verses, we are introduced to two of three principal players here in The Book of Esther, Mordecai and his cousin, Esther. The third will be Haman who we’ll meet later.
But the first character we need to deal with here is Mordecai. Mordecai is named fifty-eight times in The Book of Esther, and seven of those times he is identified, as he is here, as “a Jew.” And we’re told in verse 5 that Mordecai was the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite. Now an interesting historical linkage here. Do you know who else shared links to the names Shimei, Kish, and Benjamin? King Saul, the predecessor to King David. Kish was also the name of Saul’s father. And Saul also belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. And there is also a man named Shimei mentioned all the way back in 2 Samuel 16 who was a member of Saul’s clan.

And why might that be significant? Well, Mordecai’s nemesis in this book is who? Haman. And if you look ahead to Esther 3:1, just over the page, you’ll see that Haman was an Agagite. Well, going back in Israelite history, back to 1 Samuel 15, one of the events which led to King Saul losing his throne was that he had disobeyed God by failing to kill King Agag of the Amalekites. And what I believe might be happening here is the human author of Esther, what he might be setting up, is that Mordecai who shared this lineage with King Saul was going to rise to the occasion at the very point where King Saul, his ancestor, had fallen which would culminate in the death of a different Agagite, Haman. More on that later when we get to Esther chapter 3.

One more detail about Mordecai and we see it there at the end of verse 5 and through verse 6, is that his own ancestor, Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. I’ll read the last part of verse 5 into verse 6 here, it says, “the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been taken away into exile from Jerusalem with the exiles who had been taken away into exile with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had taken away into exile.” As we saw last time, the Persians eventually defeated the Babylonians. And under the decree of King Cyrus of Persia in 538 B.C., those who had been taken away into captivity by the Babylonians were given permission to re-enter their land. And Ezra chapter 1 and 2 tells us that many of those did actually return to the land.

But not all of them returned, instead, some of them chose to stay in their new land. They had settled down, they had built homes, they had built businesses, they had raised families and so for some the place where they had been exiled was now their new home. That apparently was the case here with Mordecai, he and his family had chosen to stay in Susa, one of the four Persian capitals. And not only was he in Susa here in verse 5, but we see in this same verse he is “at the citadel,” meaning, he was in close proximity to the king.

So that’s a bit about Mordecai. Next, the text tells us about Esther. Referring to Mordecai, verse 7 says and “he,” that’s Mordecai, “was bringing up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother.” And her Persian name was Esther, which means “star,” and which could be a transliteration of Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah which means “myrtle.” And I’m no agrarian but I’ve been told, that a myrtle tree bears a flower that looks like a star, so there could be some linkage there between the two names. And it wasn’t unheard of, we know, for exiled Jews like Esther to have two names. For instance, over in Daniel we see when he and his three friends were taken to Babylon they were given official Babylonian names, we see that in Daniel 1:7. But here in Esther 1:7, reading on, we see that Esther was Mordecai’s uncle’s daughter, that’s a very wordy way of saying they were cousins, they were cousins. Not only that, Esther was Mordecai’s adopted daughter. Look ahead to verse 15 of chapter 2 where she is referred to as “the daughter of Abahail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter.” Apparently Esther’s parents had died when she was young and so now she was Mordecai’s dependent.

And look at what we’re told next about Esther, still in verse 7 of chapter 2, it says, “Now the young lady was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance.” In other words, she fit the bill of what Xerxes was looking for. Back in verse 2 it says the “young men,” the court attendants, had “said ‘Let young virgins, beautiful in appearance, be sought for the king.’ ” And then here is Esther, this beautiful young woman being cared for by her cousin Mordecai, who lived right there in Susa. We can already see how God was lining everything up as part of His perfect and providential plan.

Alright, we’ve seen so far “A New Queen Proposed,” we’ve seen “A New Queen Previewed,” now as we turn to verse 8, we’re going to see “A New Queen Prepared.” Take a look at Esther 2:8, it says, “Now it happened that when the word and law of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the hand of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s house into the hand of Hegai, who kept charge of the women. And the young lady was good in his eyes, and she advanced in lovingkindness before him. So he hurried to give her cosmetics and portions of food to her, and to give to her seven choice young women from the king’s house. And he transferred her and her young women to the best place in the harem. Esther did not tell anyone about her people or her kinsmen, for Mordecai had commanded her that she should not tell anyone about them. And every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the court of the harem to know the well-being of Esther and how she fared.

“Now when it reached the turn of each young lady to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women -- for the days of their cosmetic treatment were fulfilled as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women -- then the young lady would go in to the king in this way: anything that she said she desired was given to her to come with her from the harem to the king’s house. In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the hand of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who kept charge of the concubines. She would not again go in to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.

“Now when it reached the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she did not seek anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who kept charge of the women, said. And Esther advanced in favor in the eyes of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal house in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.”

Now, as we prepare to dive into this, a bit of context and pastoral commentary, if I may. In human terms the odds were completely stacked against Esther in this situation. Of all the people you’d expect to be selected to be queen of Persia the last person you would expect it to be would be Esther. She was an orphan, her mother and father were gone, they are off the scene. She didn’t come from wealth or nobility, there would be no political or military or strategic benefit to Xerxes to marry her. She was an ordinary peasant girl, a nobody. And on top of it, she was a Jew, she was Jewish, and to the Persians, from their perspective, the Jews were simply viewed as a defeated nation, nothing special. And not only that, Esther’s up against some real fierce competition. According to Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, Xerxes’ contest here attracted more than 400 beautiful young women. So Susa is swarming with beautiful young women. All this to say, it made no human sense for Esther to end up the queen of Persia. Instead if Esther was going to advance to the crown it was only going to happen if God designed it to be so.

And with that, let’s take a closer look at the text. Verse 8 again says, “Now it happened that when the word and law of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the hand of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s house into the hand of Hegai, who kept charge of the women.” So apparently, the counsel that Xerxes received back in verses 2 through 4, was not only “good in his eyes.” as it said in verse 4, but it had been passed into law. So Xerxes, then, was known for not only for being over-reliant on unwise counselors, he was known for being over-reaching in his passage of many unbelievable laws. Including this one by which these young, beautiful virgins throughout the Persian Empire were summoned to fill his harem for the purpose of potentially becoming his wife. So “the word and law of the king were heard.”

We see next that “many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the hand of Hegai.” And Hegai was one of the king’s eunuchs, one of his chief attendants. We saw him mentioned back in verse 3 where the king’s law declared that young, virgin girls from throughout the Persian Kingdom were to be placed “into the hand of Hegai, the king’s eunuch,” it says, “who keeps charge of the women.” Well, Esther was one of these young ladies who was placed in Xerxes’ harem under the care and direction of Hegai. Look at the rest of verse 8, it says “Esther was taken to the king’s house into the hand of Hegai, who kept charge of the women.”
So she was one of many in a sea of young, beautiful, female faces. And some of them might have been there involuntarily because they had been turned over by their fathers or their caretakers. Some of them might have been there voluntarily as they saw this as an opportunity to escape poverty and anonymity. We don’t really know. We’re simply told what the text gives us here which is that there were “many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the hand of Hegai, and that Esther was taken to the king’s house into the hand of Hegai, who kept charge of the women.”

Now, moving on to verse 9, it says, “And the young lady was good in his eyes,” and that young lady of course is Esther. And then, it says, “she advanced in lovingkindness before him.” She found favor in his sight would be another way to say that. Just like Joseph found favor in Egypt in Genesis 39 and Daniel found favor in Babylon in Daniel chapter 1, Esther found favor in Susa. And she did so by means of this pagan keeper of a harem, Hegai. In Hegai’s view apparently Esther had potential and she had the inside track, so much so that Hegai in verse 9, it says that he “hurried” to give her various amenities which would only increase her odds of success before the king, Xerxes. And you see there in verse 9 Hegai’s prescribed beauty treatment. I’m going to plead ignorance in a lot of this. Moving forward… But in the rest of verse 9 it says “he hurried to give her cosmetics.” to further enhance her apparently already-beautiful appearance. She was given “portions of food,” it also says; apparently this would be food that was better-than-ordinary quality, food that might have even given her an overall-healthier appearance. She was also given seven maids to serve her, that’s what’s being said in verse 9 when it says she was given “seven choice women from the king’s house.” And on top of that, verse 9 says, “And he transferred her and her young women to the best place in the harem.” Now, though being a concubine in a harem surely could not have been a walk in the park and certainly nothing like a fairy tale, as far as living in a harem goes Esther had it made. She was given special treatment and favorable treatment and privileged treatment. She wasn’t a queen yet but at least in the harem context she was already being treated like one.

Next in verse 10 we’re given this interesting detail about Esther’s preparatory phase. It says, “Esther did not tell anyone about her people or her kinsmen, for Mordecai had commanded her that she should not tell anyone about them.” Now, here’s where we need to pause for a moment and note that Mordecai has already been identified as Jewish back in verse 5. And Esther, by virtue of her blood relationship to Mordecai, of course, would be Jewish, too. Now, here’s where things get interesting, because what Mordecai did as Esther’s caretaker was he commanded her to conceal her identity. And why? We’ll get into all of the implications of this later. But I believe that Mordecai was -- with Esther’s involvement and her participation -- was concealing her identity because they knew that the activities that Esther was about to engage in by being a part of Xerxes’ harem would violate the very Law that God had given to His people, the people of Israel, all the way back at Sinai.

For instance, it was stated in the Law of God that Esther was not to have sexual relations with a man who was not her husband, Exodus 20 [verse 14]. It was stated in the Law of God that Esther was not to marry a pagan, Deuteronomy 7 says this, verses 3 and 4, “you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.” And yet this was the very purpose of Esther’s being included in Xerxes’ harem. To be included in Xerxes’ harem was not the equivalent of entering your name in a beauty pageant or a beauty contest. To be in Xerxes’ harem was to be at his beck and call, sexually. And potentially to become his wife. And yet, both or either would be violations of the Law of God for a Jew like Esther and yet, here she was.

On top of that as a Jew, Esther would have been prohibited by the Law to eat any food which was considered to be ceremonially unclean. And we know that in a place like Susa where all types of animals were being cooked up and offered up, impure or pure, there was no temple there to engage in any sort of ritual purification process. Apparently, none of this bothered Esther and she accepted the offer of the king’s food whether it was clean or unclean even though it didn’t meet God’s standards of ritual purity. And in this way, Esther really stands in stark contrast to another Jewish exile, Daniel again, who we know from the book of Daniel refused to eat unclean food from the king’s table. Here’s Daniel 1:8, it says, “Daniel set in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.”

In other words Daniel is this example of someone who set himself apart in a foreign land, while Esther blended in. So much so that we see here in verse 10, that she “did not tell anyone about her people or her kinsmen.” In other words, she was an undercover Jew. And she was so with the assistance of Mordecai. Look at the rest of verse 10, it says, “for Mordecai had commanded her that she should not tell anyone about them.” I’ll have more to say on that later, on all of this: the violation of God’s Law concerning sexual purity, the violation of God’s Law concerning ritual purity, the concealing of her Jewish identity, what this all might say about Esther and her standing before God.

For now though, we move to verse 11 and here we’re still in Esther’s preparation phase. And we’re told this, “every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the court of the harem to know the wellbeing of Esther and how she fared.” So Mordecai and Esther, simple point here, were family, and he loved her and he cared for her. And so, with his role here in the palace he would simply walk the patrol to see how she was doing.

Moving on to verse 12, we’re given more background information and detail, look what it says, it says, “Now when it reached the turn of each young lady to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women -- for the days of their cosmetic treatment were fulfilled as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women.” This verse is telling us a few different things. First, it’s telling us that each young women in Xerxes’ harem was given one opportunity to impress him and to please him. They each got, it’s a singular word there, they each got a turn. And whether one of these young women would eventually become his queen, or instead, whether one of these women was banished forever to be one of his concubines, it all hinged on one night. Second, we get from this passage, verse 12, that each woman went through this yearlong process of preparation. Each went through this long and drawn-out process of beautification so that they could maximize her ability to be to the king’s liking. And then third, we see all these various details about the types of preparation that each young woman was to go through and you see it there. The cosmetic treatment included “six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and cosmetics.” Myrrh was this natural resin which was converted to an oil that was used to soften and lighten the skin. The spices here would have made the woman (could be perfume here) more aromatic and enticing to the king. And cosmetically, there were various forms of lip and eye and cheek treatments. I saw the word rouge this week as I was studying (and I think that’s how you pronounce it) and they were all aimed at enhancing a woman’s attractiveness to the king.

This description of the preparation process for these women continues on in verse 13. It says, “then the young lady would go in to the king in this way: anything that she said she desired was given to her to come with her from the harem to the king’s house.” This is describing the fact that after that year-long process of preparation, when that young lady’s name was called for that one night when she was summoned to go in for her one night with the king, she could request anything she wanted, whether it was apparel, or adornments, or aphrodisiacs, or jewelry, or you-name-it. Whatever she needed to do or wanted to do to gain an edge, it was no holds barred, it was no expense spared. She needed to do what she needed to do to impress and win the king. It was her one shot.

Now, as if there were any question as to the nature of each woman’s interaction with King Xerxes and what it would be when he summoned her, those questions are answered in verse 14, which says this, “In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the hand of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who kept charge of the concubines.” Did you catch those first few words? “In the evening she would go in.” I think four times in this passage you see the words “go in” which is a clear sexual connotation. “Go in” we know is a euphemism throughout the Old Testament for sexual activity.

But it continues on, it says, “In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem.” So the overnight nature of each woman’s stay is pointing to the sexual nature of her encounter with the king. These women were not going in to King Xerxes’ quarters to play board games with him, or to cook a meal for him, or to sing and dance for him. No, they were going in to engage in sexual relations with him, they were going into his bed chamber in what can only be described as a one-night audition. And then, after having sex with him they would spend the night with him and then return back to this other harem the next morning under the rulership of this eunuch named Shaashgaz. And then they would live this plush, but pointless existence in that second harem along with Xerxes’ other concubines, probably never seeing the king again unless he happened to call them later as his concubine for their services. That’s what we see described at the end of verse 14, where it says, “She would not again go in to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.” What all this means is that Esther, a Jewish girl, would soon be going to Xerxes’ bedroom to lose her virginity to this pagan Gentile. I understand why children’s Bibles and Veggie Tales can’t tell the whole story, but that is the whole story.

Starting with verse 15, the narrator transitions from describing this general process of preparation for each of the girls in Xerxes’ harem to zeroing in on Esther. And zeroing in now on God’s providential dealings with her in accomplishing His purposes for the people of Israel through her. Look at verse 15, it says, “Now when it reached the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she did not seek anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who kept charge of the women, said.”
In other words, apart from the twelve months of preparations that every woman was required to go through, Esther didn’t seek any other special treatment or adornment. No special attire or jewelry for Esther, she didn’t need it, that’s the idea here.

And then, these words at the end of verse 15, it says, “And Esther advanced in favor in the eyes of all who saw her.” In other words, Esther was causing heads to turn. But not just from the standpoint of her beauty, but more broadly than that. In fact, that word “favor” there in verse 15 is the Hebrew word “hesed,” the same term used for God’s covenant favor and kindness toward His people. And that’s the word used here, we see in verse 15, “And Esther advanced in favor,” hesed, “in the eyes of all who saw her.” And that’s quite the surprising turn given the circumstances and given the stakes. We’d expect to read something like “Esther found envy in the eyes of all who saw her” or “Esther found jealousy in the eyes of all who saw her.” Especially in the eyes of those young women who were in that harem competing against her. But what the text tells us is that she found “favor,” hesed, “in the eyes of all who saw her.” And “all” means all, meaning it wasn’t just the court officials of Xerxes such as Hegai with whom Esther advanced in favor; it was even with her fellow contestants; everyone saw that she was favored. And she found favor with all of them. And again, this is an example of God providentially working behind the scenes. Even though His name is nowhere mentioned, He’s already at work here, providentially directing and steering these events.

And then, came her moment, Esther’s night with Xerxes. Look at verse 16, it says, “So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal house in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.” Esther’s moment then, we know from those dates, that her moment came four years after Vashti’s removal in this month of Tebeth which would have been the Babylonian equivalent of December or January, the winter months.

Now, this is where we need to take a slight detour from our text and take some time to grapple with a theological question. That question being, was Esther a righteous women? Was she, in the time in which she lived, right with God? Or was she merely an Israelite in name only rather than being one who truly feared Yahweh? Think about what we’ve seen so far. Esther was a woman who violated the Law of God as it related to ritual purity, specifically as it related to making herself unclean with unclean food. She was a woman who violated the Law of God as it related to sexual purity. She was a woman who violated the Law of God as it related to intermarrying with Gentiles, we’re going to see. And on top of that, she was a Jew who concealed her Jewish identity. Not necessarily, I would argue, for the sake of self-protection but just as likely, to hide her shame in being a disobedient Israelite. Now other than the fact that God plainly used Esther, and we will see that throughout this book He plainly uses Esther to bring about His sovereign purposes to bring about His deliverance and protection for Israel, have we seen any biblical evidence yet that Esther was a righteous woman? I’ll tell you now, that as we work our way through the entire book of Esther, as a whole, we’ll be hard-pressed to find any.

Now historically, the Jewish people have recognized and understood this problem. And by that I mean how they’ve addressed the problem in various writings. In fact, if you go all the way back to the 400 years of silence, the intertestamental period, between the time that Esther was written and the birth of Christ, there were several attempts by Jewish rabbinical scholars to offer up their explanations and additions and glosses to the text of Esther as a way to redeem and reconcile and put some shine on her character. For instance, in one older rabbinical writing Esther is quoted as having prayed these words to God: she says, allegedly, “You know everything; and you know that I hate the pomp of the wicked, and the bed of the uncircumcised and any foreigner.” In another one Esther is recorded as trying to hide for four years before she’s finally discovered and forcibly taken to the king. Then there’s this later medieval rabbinic account which maintains that God actually hid Esther from the king and sent a spirit in her place so that she and her person never had sexual relations with the king, only her spirit did. Of course, each of those is a later addition to what the inspired Hebrew text actually says. And what each represents is an obvious attempt to sanctify the actions of Esther and to preserve her as some sort of heroine.

Well, it hasn’t only been in Jewish writings that we’ve seen this PR campaign to present Esther as this righteous, godly woman. We see this same trend in the writings of Christian authors and Christian theologians, as well. For instance, one way that Christian scholars have sought to exonerate Esther from blame and to present her as a God-fearing woman, a faithful Israelite, is to note that Esther, as it says at the end of verse 16, that she was “taken” to King Xerxes, to King Ahasuerus. As the argument goes that word “taken” must mean that Esther was taken against her will, meaning she didn’t want to go, the whole thing was forced upon her. But a significant problem with that interpretation is that that same verb (verse 16) “taken” is found in the previous verse, verse 15, where we’re told that Mordecai had “taken,” (same word) Esther as his daughter. In other words, that verb “taken” is not conclusive. It’s an equally fair interpretation of the text to say, that far from being taken by force, Esther went willingly to Xerxes’ bed and that she, with her face adorned with cosmetics and her body saturated with perfume and spices, went to his bed with a desire and an aim to win the crown and become the next queen of Persia.

There are also other Christian scholars on the Christian side of scholarship who have argued that the Persian forces were so powerful that it’s unreasonable to expect a young Jewish girl like Esther to be able to stand up to Xerxes and the powerful forces behind him. To which, we’d have to answer, well, what about Daniel? Daniel refused the delicacies of the Babylonians no matter what it might cost him. Daniel was willing to be thrown into a lion’s den rather than stop praying. Daniel and his three friends were willing to be thrown into a blazing furnace rather than give in to the idolatrous demands of a pagan king. So what about Daniel? Or what about Joseph? Joseph resisted the sexual advances of someone in power and spent years imprisoned rather than defile himself.

In other words, the evidence in support of Esther being a righteous woman is very scant
and I would even go so far as to say non-existent biblically. I’ll make my case as we work through The Book of Esther. I’ll also answer any questions you might have in the south lobby tonight. My question is though why do we want to make her out to be better than she actually was? I think it goes back to a deep-seated assumption, and a wrong assumption. One that is rooted in our flawed view of human nature and one that is rooted in our flawed views of God’s perfect power and perfect sovereignty, that He only uses ‘good’ people to perform His work and to work out His good purposes and plans. But that’s not the testimony of Scripture at all, is it? No. Scripture is not this catalog of great moral examples and ethical heroes and spiritual giants. Abraham lied and doubted, but God used him. Moses was sinfully impatient, but God used him. Rahab was a prostitute, but God used her. David was an adulterer and murderer, but God used him. The consistent testimony of Scripture is that God regularly uses those who have compromised, who have failed, and who have sinned. So why would it be any different for Esther? Why would we feel the need to elevate Esther to this position of being this paragon of virtue, in this example of righteousness, when the testimony of the book that bears her name suggests the opposite? God didn’t need Esther to be a righteous and godly woman to bring about His ultimate aim which was to protect and preserve the Jewish people through her. And that means we don’t need to be quick to find her a righteous and godly person either, no matter what Veggie Tales says, and no matter how badly we’d like to name our next daughter “Esther.”

Well, whether Esther was, in fact, righteous before God -- it is an interesting matter to debate all these years later. But we are going to see it mattered not at all to Xerxes. Look at verse 17, where we’re back to that scene where Esther was presented to Xerxes. And in this verse we’re told what his reaction to Esther was. And here we get to our fourth point for this evening, which is “A New Queen Presented.”

So we’ve seen “A New Queen Proposed,” “A New Queen Previewed,” “A New Queen Prepared,” and now “A New Queen Presented.” Look at verse 17, it starts by saying, “And the king loved Esther more than all the women.” Now that is not describing King Xerxes falling madly in love, deeply in love, with a woman he’s just seen for the first time, butterflies are flying and the heart eyes kind of thing. This is not describing pure and devoted affection, love at first sight. No, the word “loved” here in Hebrew doesn’t necessarily imply any deep emotional bond. In fact, that same word is used in 2 Samuel 13:1 to use to describe Amnon’s lust for his sister Tamar. All that’s being said here in verse 17 is that Xerxes was attracted to Esther more than any of the other women. Putting it simply, she was the most beautiful of all who were presented to him.

And then look at the next part of verse 17. Just as Esther had “advanced in favor in the eyes of all who saw her,” back in verse 15, we’re told here that “she advanced in favor and lovingkindness before him,” meaning King Xerxes, “more than all the virgins.” And then look at the last few words of verse 17, it says that Xerxes “set the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.” Xerxes personally crowned Esther and named her the new queen of the Persian Empire. Xerxes had taken away Vashti’s crown for refusing his command back in chapter 1 and now he was crowning Esther in Vashti’s place.

Not only did Xerxes crown Esther though, we see in verse 18 he summoned his officials and hosted another great feast. These Persians knew how to party! Look at verse 18, it says, “Then the king held a great feast, Esther’s feast, for all his princes and his servants; he also held a remission of taxes for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king’s hand.” So this next feast was held in the queen’s honor, that’s why it’s called “Esther’s feast.” And then all Xerxes’ princes and his servants were invited to the event. And then note what Xerxes also did in Esther’s honor, it says, “he also held a remission of taxes for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king’s hand.” April 15 just passed, could you imagine if Governor Pillen or President Biden, whichever one, as a way to honor and celebrate his wife simply decided not to collect taxes for the year? That’s what was happening here. It must have been nice. But not only was there a remission of taxes, it says but the king gave gifts. He wanted everybody to feel good about his new queen, and he was willing to give out these royal handouts, whatever those were, in her honor to make sure everyone did so, that they felt good about Queen Esther.

So Vashti has been removed from the royal house. Esther, a Jewish girl, has replaced her.
And that’s as far as we’re going to get this evening. We’ve seen here tonight, “A Sordid Succession,” as Esther, now Queen Esther, became Persian royalty through these immoral means, means which reflected poorly upon her Jewish heritage and means, which as I have laid out tonight, even cause one to question whether she truly knew the God of Israel. Nevertheless, as we’re going to see as we work our way through The Book of Esther on these Sunday evenings, God was working here. God is always working, whether He’s named or not, whether He’s seen or not, whether he’s acknowledged or not. He’s always working, we know that from God’s
Word, to further and to accomplish His perfect and divine purposes.

Let’s pray. God, thank You for The Book of Esther, thank You for sovereignly placing it within the canon of Scripture. Thank You for reminders of Your sovereignty and Your providential dealings with Your people, Israel, in this context, and even Your people today, the Church. God, I do thank You for You being a sovereign and providential and protective God, a God who declares all things from the beginning to the end, a God who governs and works in all things even when we don’t see You, even when Your name is not there as it is not in The Book of Esther Your fingerprints are all over this book. And we give You praise for the wisdom You’ve shown in placing it in the canon of Scripture. God, I would be remiss not to mention that we on this side of history, that we who have believed on the name of Jesus Christ, have been reconciled to You through His death, through His burial, through His resurrection. And God, I wouldn’t want anybody here tonight to listen to this message about Esther and Susa and Babylon and Persia, events and places from so long ago and so far away, and think that without the cross of Christ they can be redeemed and reconciled to You. If there is someone here who is seeking for answers about life, if they’re like Xerxes in realizing the emptiness of pursuing the fleeting pleasures of this world, and they have not given their life to You by putting their faith in Your Son, Jesus, I pray that tonight they would hear these words -- that You are a God who is holy and righteous and good, that we as men and women are sinful and wretched and lost, that Christ came to restore and redeem and to save. And through His death and burial and resurrection and trusting in His death and burial and resurrection, a person who otherwise is headed for hell can be made right with You through the cross of Christ. God, by repenting and believing, one who is spiritually dead can be made alive. By repenting and believing, one who is headed for hell can now be headed for glory. God, I pray that that message may land on receptive ears and hearts this evening, that a sinner or more than one sinner would be saved by You. God, we give You all the thanks and praise for all You have done in Your Church this morning, this afternoon, and this evening. And ask that You be glorified in our lives all week long. In Jesus’ name, amen.