An Orphan Becomes Queen Series

For Such a Time as This: An Orphan Becomes a Queen

Esther 2:1-18

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

8-09-2020

Two weeks ago, we said hello and goodbye to Queen Vashti. This week, we will meet two more of our main characters and witness a beauty contest that decide the new queen.

By the way, I’m so thankful that Brian King was available to fill in for me last week. If you weren’t here, you missed a GREAT sermon!

Let’s continue to affirm the truth that “God is always doing 10,000 things in our lives, and we may be aware of the three of them.”

Turn with me to Esther 2.

Prayer.

Xerxes Remembers Vashti

“Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her.” (Esther 2:1)

Four years had come and gone since Queen Vashti had been disposed. In those four years, Xerxes had marched against Greece with one of the largest armies ever assembled.

At the battle of Thermopylae, the Persian troops surrounded the Greeks in a narrow pass. Three hundred Greek warriors held them off long enough for the rest of the Greek army to escape. (I am Sparta!!!)

Even though the Persian army entered Greece and ultimately burned Athens, Xerxes suffered the same fate as his dad. His troops couldn’t contend with the Greek warriors and he returned home frustrated, furious, and feeling less than immortal.

I can just imagine him sulking in the palace and walking past the throne room, staring at Vashti’s empty throne.

He seems to have had regrets about getting rid of Vashti, as people who make decisions while smashed often do.

It’s interesting that the Hebrews doesn’t say “what he decreed about her” but “what was decreed about her.” There’s a sense in which he was passive in the whole affair.

Jewish commentators tell us that he had the advisor that encouraged him to dispose Vashti beheaded. Which makes what the kings’ attendants suggest next, either very brave or very stupid.

A Beauty Contest for a Queen

“Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.” (Esther 2:2-4)

The attendants knew what would cheer the king up - a new queen! Now, the king’s bed wasn’t empty but protocol called for a queen to be part of the royal palace.

In my research this week, I was surprised by how many commentators and writes called this something like ”The Bachelor: Persian Edition.”

No, no, no, a thousand times no! This is more like “Who wants to be a sex slave to a narcissistic, brutal tyrant!” It’s a contest that no one asked to be a part of and one that only benefited one person - the king.

Representatives would scour the entire kingdom to find young, unmarried (virgins), extraordinarily beautiful women and basically kidnap them and placed them in the haram in Susa under the watchful eye of Hegai, the head eunuch.

By the way, this sexual commodification wasn’t limited to females. Over 500 boys a year were castrated so they could work in the palace and the haram.

So, in other words, we are going to round up the most beautiful young women in the entire empire and they will participate in a sex contest to see who can please you the most, every night for 400 plus nights!

No wonder the text reads, “and the matter pleased the king.” I bet it did!

Meet Our Two Main Characters

“Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish,  who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.” (Esther 2:5-7)

The writer of Esther now takes a short parenthesis and we are introduced to more more characters, including the namesake of the book.

Mordecai

We are introduced to a man named Mordecai who we are told was a Jew. When a character in an Old Testament story is first introduced, how they are described is very important.