Esther 2
Hello!
I hope you all have a great week! We will be going through the Book of Esther in the next couple of months. We just read chapter 1 and now about to read/study Esther 2, you can read along here Esther 2.
Theme: We should have trust and hope in God’s hidden hand to bring good and defeat evil, even when His acts are not immediately apparent.
Recap of Esther 1: King Xerxes is getting ready to go into battle and decided to throw an 180 day banquet and drank the whole time with his men. While this is happening, his queen, Queen Vashti, was throwing her own banquet for the women. Towards the end of the banquet, King Xerxes wanted to show off his beautiful queen. Queen Vashti declined due to the culture policies. King Xerxes did not like this and decided to kick Queen Vashti to the curb and wanted to find a new queen.
Key Point: Remember that God is not mentioned in the Book of Esther but we do see his hands working through out the story through different people.
In Esther 2, it starts about 4 years after chapter 1. King Xerxes made his massive move to invade Greece but he was unsuccessful. So, in verse 1, it says that he is no longer angry, which makes sense its been 4 years. It sounds like when he got home and was having a hard time with his military and being successful, he was frustrated and wanted companionship. So, he started to reminisce on his past with Queen Vashti. King Xerxes was talking with the men and they decided to gather all the young beautiful women who were virgins from their nation to the royal harem at the fortress of Susa. Some commentaries that I read stated that they think around 400 women were chosen for this.
I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be one of those 400 women. I feel like it would be equivalent to like a beauty pageant in today's culture but instead of being Miss State or USA you would be given the title of queen. How intense that would be!
We are introduced to a couple of new people in this chapter. You have Mordecai, who is a Jew who was a part of the deportation that the Babylonians imposed on Judah (which is now in Persia). Then you have Hadassah, who is a young beautiful Jewish girl who was related to Mordecai by cousins. Hadassah’s parents died and Mordecai took her has his own. Mordecai told Hadassah that we are going to change your name to Esther because Hadassah is a Jewish name. He instructed her to not share her beliefs with anyone because she is going to the Persian palace. So from that point on, her name was Esther.
Esther was brought to the king’s harem and was under Hegai’s care. Hegai was a eunuch for the king and was in charge of the harem. A harem was a part of the palace where the women (workers and guests) stayed. During this time, Hegai was really impressed with Esther. He treated her with special menus and beauty treatments, gave her own maids, and had moved her maids and her to the best part of the harem. We already see God working here on Esther. Out of the 400 women, Esther is standing out and she is getting the best of the best.
In verse 11, Mordecai walked in front of the palace everyday and checked up on Esther to make sure she was doing okay. This is only one verse out of this chapter but I think it shows how much of a caretaker Mordecai was and how much he loved Esther. He wanted to make sure she was protected and taken care of.
Now that the women were at the harem, the 12 month of beauty treatments begin. Fun fact: Persia was known for its aromatic perfumes and the preparations for brides to be. This would include ritualistic baths, plucking of eyebrows, painting hands/feet with henna, make up, a paste for the body. The women would begin to get all these beauty treatments to become the best clean version of themselves. Some commentaries say that they also waited for 12 months to make sure the girls were not pregnant before they were chosen. Once it was their turn, they would spend an evening with the king just by themselves. If the king didn’t choose you to be the queen, you would go to the second harem with all the other women. These women would either be told to stay at the second harem or would be sent home to be a widow. How insane is that. You prepare for 12 months and then you get one night and then get sent home to never marry.
It was Esther’s turn to go see King Xerxes for the night and King Xerxes really liked her. Liked her enough to put the crown on her head and call her his new queen. King Xerxes threw a banquet in Esther’s honor. During this whole time, Esther kept her nationality a secret from King Xerxes and everyone. One day at the palace, Mordecai was working and he over heard two men that worked for King Xerxes planning to assassinate him. Mordecai could’ve had the attitude of not caring because he is a Jewish man. Instead, he went and told Queen Esther what he heard and Queen Esther told King Xerxes and gave Mordecai the credit. Good news, King Xerxes has not been murdered he did put a stop to the crazy plan and had the two men sentenced to death.
There was a lot in chapter 2. I encourage you to pick a part of chapter 2 even more. I took away from chapter 2 was the obedience that Esther showed to Mordecai. We see her being obedient to him when he instructed her to change her name and to not share her nationality and during the end when he went to her with the information about the plan. Esther probably learned the importance of obedience when she was growing up in her faith. At the beginning of the chapter, Mordecai was walking around the front of the palace and now we see him working as an official at the gate of the palace. This is could be the influence Queen Esther had with the King. It also shows God’s timing on how Mordecai was the one sitting at the gate and over heard the conversation. We can also take away the fact that we may not get immediate recognition for doing the right thing. We may not see vindication but our story is not done yet. Its not over.
I hope you enjoyed studying chapter 2 with me. I look forward to studying chapter 3 with you all next time!
Created for a purpose.
