Esther 2:1-18 When You're In A Contest You Didn't Choose To Be In

We've been in Esther for the past two weeks, we've been in chapter 1, and what we found out is there is King Ahasuerus, but most of us know him as Xerxes, his Greek name. He's been throwing just one big party for six months; he's just been having a great time, living it up. He wanted to bring out his trophy wife, Queen Vashti, and so he sends the order for her to come and she says no, and he's angry. Between chapter one and chapter two, we already know he's angry about that, but there's a couple of other things we need to know that happened historically. What we find is after the party's over, he's got to save face, so he does what all kings do—he goes to war, and he chooses to go to war with Greece. If you've seen the movie "300," his first conquest is the 300 Spartans, and so he ends up gaining victory, it's a little costly, so he goes back for a second round and he gets his clock cleaned, very embarrassed, very shamed, and so now he comes back to his palace and he realizes that something's missing here—it's a wife, and that's where we're going to pick up.

So, let's read chapter two of Esther. We're going to look at the first eighteen verses. 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. Then the king's young men who attended him said, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the King and let the King appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa, the Citadel, under the custody of Hegai, the King's eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetics be given them, and let the young women who please the King be queen instead of Vashti." This pleased the King, and he did so.

Now, there was a Jew in Susa of the Citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa the Citadel under the custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in the custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. And the young woman pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem. Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.

Now when the turn came for each young woman to go into King Ahasuerus after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying—six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women—when the young woman went into the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she was returned to the second harem, in custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. When the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go into the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.