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.
The original readers of Esther would have already sensed something wrong. The Jewish man, who was actuality a descendant of King Saul, went by “Mordecai,” a very Persian name in honor of the their god Marduk.
We also discover that he lives not in the city of Susa but in the citadel. This means he had some sort of civil service job in the Persian government.
Had Mordecai so compromised his faith that he had totally blended into the Persian culture? We’ll answer that next week.
He was also an exile. His ancestors, mostly upper class nobility, had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzer about 100 years before. Both Xerxes’ dad, (Darius) and grandfather (Cyrus), had allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem but it seems that Mordecai’s family didn’t return. He was living as a stranger in a strange land.
And we are told that Mordecai was raising his female cousin, Hadessah. We are not told whether there was a Mrs. Mordecai so it is possible that he was raising a teenager girl on his own. (He needed lots of prayer!)
Esther
This Hadassah, which means “myrtle,” we know as Esther which means “star.” Again, a Persian name honoring the god Ishtar.
She was an orphan. We don’t how she lost both parents. Was it at the same time?
We know a family of six whose mom and dad were killed in a car wreck. It was absolutely terrible.
Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints…it take and takes.
We do know that she was “brought up” by Mordecai which probably means that she was a child when she was orphaned.
And we learn that she was lovely in form and beautiful. According to the Jewish rabbis, she was one of the four most beautiful women ever to live - Sarah, Rehab, Abigail, and Esther.
Esther is the only character in the story that has two names and it seems to indicate that she lived in two different worlds - one Jewish which she had to keep hidden and one Persian in which she now lived.
Esther Finds Favor
“When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem.
Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.” (Esther 2:8-11)
Commentators estimate that about 400 girls were “taken” (kidnapped) to Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther was one those girls.
Did she put up a fight? She she try to run away? We aren’t told.
Did Mordecai try to protect her? We aren’t told. All we are told is that they were all “taken.”
Esther is going to remind us of Joseph throughout this story because wherever she went she seemed to gain the favor of the people in charge.
Hegai became Team Esther and started giving her an advantage over the others girls - extra beauty treatments and special food. The special food was helpful because as a commoner she would need “fattening up.”
Esther was given a group of attendants of her own and moved to the “best place in the haram.” Remember, she was still be held captive but at least there was someone looking out for her.
One of the root words that we get Esther from can mean “hidden” and that theme now comes into view.
Mordecai had commanded Esther not to reveal that she was Jewish. Even in the pluralistic pagan society of Persia there was anti-semitism. Esther talked Persian, dressed Persian, and no one would ever have suspected that she was Jewish.
We are given this pitiful picture of Mordecai pacing back and forth in the courtyard. He wasn’t a eunuch so he could go any further. He was searching for any bit of news on how his sweet Hadassah was doing.
Preparation for One Night With the King
“Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.” (Esther 2: 12-14)
The writer is going to give us a inside view of what preparations for a night with a king looked like. To prepare for one night took an entire year!
Six months worth of oil and myrrh treatments. These would be rubbed into the skin. This like a spa day on steroids.
Then six months of perfumes and cosmetics. The Hebrews seems to imply that these girls were “fumigated” with perfume and spices.
When the time came for her one night with the king, she could wear anything, (or nothing), and could take with her anything she wanted.
Don’t forget, this is not a beauty contest. This was a sex contest. Between a group of virgins who were probably scared out of their minds.
But, if by chance, they “won,” they would win the lottery and be the queen of all Persia.
But if not, they would have to take the walk of shame to the haram of the concubines, overseen by Shaashgaz.
She could never marry and could never leave. And she would never see the king again unless he specifically asked for her. It was a terrible fate for these young women and their families.
Esther’s Turn
“When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.” (Esther 2:15-16)
Three years past before Esther’s turn came with the king. She was wise enough to ask Hegai, who knew the king’s desires better than anyone, what to take with her.
Can you imagine that walk? Can you imagine her heart pounding? She was a virgin. She didn’t know what to do. Did the guilt eat at her gut for sleeping with an uncircumcised pagan king? We are not told.
All we know is that something extraordinary happened that night!
Oh What a Night!
“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. 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 2:17-18)
Mike Cosper, in “Faith Among the Faithless: Learning from Esther how to Live in a World Gone Mad” describes her experience this way:
“Preparing to meet the king took on a contest-like quality, with each girl jockeying for the chance to become queen. Some of them probably sang; some dance or told stories; others looked for more salacious ways to dazzle and entertain the king.
But in Esther, the kind encountered something different. She was beautiful for sure but she had the knack for winning the favor of everyone she met….
…while the other girls came to him looking to delight his senses, Esther came to him to provoke his greatest weakness. This was not Xerxes the great, remember, but a defeated and humiliated king, and this beautiful girl, a girl with secrets, a girl - as we’ll see later - had political savvy and insight into the way people thought and worked…this girl came with a very different set of skills than any lyre player or singer or story teller.
The king fell in love with the girl that preyed on his humanity.”
Esther had won the “contest”and she wore the crown - she was still a captive but she would not have to disappear into the haram of the concubines. ?
And Xerxes does what Xerxes does best - throws a party! He gave everyone the day off and the empire celebrated their new Queen Esther.
We’ll stop there for now. Next week, we will meet our final character - the villain of the story, Haman.
Observations
Let me make a few observations and then we will get to the main point.
The Cult of Beauty
The Persian culture was obsessed with beauty. Women were viewed as sex objects. Beauty wasn’t something you were; beauty was something you did.
Aren’t you glad that things have changed?!
Maxine and I did nearly 20 years of youth ministry and out of the hundreds of girls that we ministered to only one of them thought she was beautiful, and she was incredibly humble about it.
Can you imagine the king’s representative rounding up the girls for the contest? You, yes you, and you. Um…well, you can stay at home dear. I’m sure you have a nice personality.
Each of them thought they were too short or too tall, too fat or too thin, not enough up top (to the point that we’ve had a couple former students undergo plastic surgery), and every one of them had someone in their past that told them, in subtle or not so subtle ways, that they didn’t measure up.
But that’s the real question, isn’t it? What is it that you are supposed to measuring up to in the culture? The beautiful blonde actress that all the girls want to be? The impossible ripped actor that all the guys wished they could look like? Could it be that the whole thing is a lie?
Let me propose that it's a trap from the enemy. Most of what you ladies compare yourself to isn’t real. And because it isn’t real, you are playing a game you can’t win.
Don’t believe me? Watch this.
[Dove Evolution Clip]
That picture is of a person that doesn’t exist! There’s one for guys as well but it was too long to show. It’s all a lie!
I want to look at a couple of verses in I Peter:
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (I Peter 3:3-4)
Peter was not prohibited perms or necklaces or nice dress. He says that that outward focus is what thee world focuses on.
John Piper sees six quick lessons in verse 4:
“Hidden” Be concerned with how you are seen by God.
“Person” The real you is the inner person.
“Heart” Cultivate your heart
“Imperishable beauty”. The beauty of the heart last forever
“a gentle and quiet spirit”. Rest in God
In describing the “Proverbs 31 woman” Solomon write this:
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Prov 31:30)
B. The Scourge of Sex Trafficking
Don’t let our Sunday school lessons, or Veggie Tales, cloud the truth of Esther. These young women were kidnapped, held captive, and raped by the king, all to appease his fleshly desires.
Aren’t you glad that things have changed?
For years, Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell, ran a sex trafficking ring where they provided girls as young as fourteen to wealthy and influential men.
We shudder at the details and our hearts break for these little girls who were used and abused for men’s pleasure.
But what about all the girls and women who don’t make the news?
According to the Guardian Group:
Sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world
The average age of entry into the sex trade is 15 years old for females and younger for males
Sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 states and 83% are US citizens
It is estimated that the number of children who are at risk or have already been pulled into the sex trade would fill 1,300 school buses.
99% of buyers are male. Events like the Super Bowl, The Kentucky Derby, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally are hotspots for sex traffic.
This isn’t about football, or horse racing, or motorcycles. Wherever a large group of men gather, the sex traffic increases dramatically.
I remember playing basketball with a group of younger guys at the rec center in Pontiac. A group of students walked through the gym on the way to class and said hello.
One of the guys I was playing with said, “Man! Those two girls were hot! How do you know them?” He was 27. They were all of 15.
I said, “I’m a youth pastor and my job it to protect girls like that from creeps like you!”
The profits from sex trafficking world-wide exceed 100 billion dollars.
In the United States, one of the largest sites engaged in sex trafficking is the porn site, “Porn Hub.” They have reported that during the pandemic, hits on their site, have skyrocketed.
Much of the content on the website is uploaded by sex traffickers who hold these girls, mostly underage, captive and force them to “perform.”
Porn Hub has pushed back and announced that they only stream “ethically sourced” porn. Truthfully, I consider that an oxymoron. There is no such thing as ethically sourced porn.
God created sex and made it clear in what context it would a blessing - between one man and one woman in marriage.
It’s like a fire. Fire in a fireplace can make a room glow with warmth. Fire in a forest can cause massive devastation.
Ben Reaoch, pastor of Three Rivers grace Church in Pittsburgh, gives some helpful Biblical thoughts about sex trafficking:
Sex trafficking is an offense to the sanctity of human life
Sex trafficking illustrates the sexual perversity in our fallen world
Sex trafficking is an offense to the sanctity of marriage
Sex trafficking is a picture of bondage to sin
Sex trafficking reveals our need for the Gospel.
Proverbs 31:8a states: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…”
If you would like to learn more, go to the A 21.org site.
The Main Idea of Today’s Verses
Esther and Mordecai were exiles. They were Jews living in the faraway kingdom of Persia. They had to learn to live in a culture that didn’t share their values or beliefs.
Aren’t you glad things have changed?
I want to end today with four postures that Christians can have toward culture.
Isolation
A couple of months ago, I began a sermon with the story of a man who sat on a pillar for 37 years to get closer to God.
There is a group of early theologians known as the “desert fathers” that literally went into the desert to escape the culture and get closer to God.
That still happens today with monks living in isolated monasteries, even taking vows of silence.
At times, I’m sure we all wished we could just live in a cabin in Montana away from all the chaos of our culture.
You don’t have to go to Montana to see this actually happening. We saw it in Arthur, Illinois with the Amish.
The Amish have separated themselves from the culture, particularly the stranglehold that technology has on the culture. They live simple, somewhat isolated lives in order honor God.
But God doesn’t call us to isolate from the culture.
“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:14-19)
Commenting on these verses, John Piper writes,
“Jesus’s true followers have not only been crucified to the world, but also raised to new life and sent back in to free others…so let’s revise the popular phrase, ’n the world, but not of the world.’ Christians are not of this world but sent into it.”
Assimilation
Esther looked Persian, sounded Persian, dressed Persian. No one would have expected that she was Jewish.
Sadly, this describes much of today’s modern day church. We talk like the world, walk like the world, dress like the world.
People who identify as Christians are just as likely to look at porn, cheat on tests, sleep with their boyfriend/girlfriends, get divorced, struggle with addiction, and engage in racist actions.
Notice I said, “people who identify as Christians.” Remember, not everyone who says they are a Christian are born again believers.
Many of us are like chameleons. We blend in with whatever group we are with at a given time.
But Paul told the Christians in Rome:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2)
I love the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 2:
“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Rom 12:2, The Message)
Let me ask you this question - if you were put on trial for being a born again Jesus Follower, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Would there be enough witnesses to verify that you are what you claim to be?
Mike Cosper writes:
“It’s easy to conform, and you are richly rewarded for it. It’s also easy to isolate and protect yourself. But both lead to failures. Assimilation is a failure of nerve, and isolation is a failure of heart. Assimilation fails to resist; isolation fails to love.”
But there are two more postures toward culture that Christians have.
Confrontation
My son Austin lives in our house in Pontiac. He has a cat. I really thought I had raised him better than that. (I like cats. I just can’t eat a whole one).
Whenever we bring Bucky the wonder dog to visit, that cat, that does nothing but lay around all day, suddenly comes to life. She stands up, her back arches, and she starts hissing at our poor bewildered deaf doggie.
Honestly, this is a picture of how many Christians approach the culture today.
They are always in attack mode, especially on social media. They see people that disagree with them as enemies to be destroyed and not souls to be won.
Listen to me - Democrats are not your enemy. Republicans are not your enemy. People in the LGBTQ community are not your enemy. We have an enemy and he is smirking at us as we attack each other. Pastor Albert Tate has said, “Jesus flipped over tables but He never flipped over people.”
They are constantly complaining about being marginalized or persecuted. Many are far more concerned with how people vote that where they are going to spend eternity.
Somewhere along the way they forget that we are “temporary residents and foreigners” (I Peter 2:11) and that our “citizenship is in heaven.” (Phil 3:20)
As Billy Graham often said: “My home is in heaven. I’m just passing through this world.”
We live in a modern day Babylon, where the majority of people don’t share our values or beliefs. But that’s okay.
One of my favorite pastors and writers Scott Sauls put it this way,
“Christianity always flourishes most as a life-giving minority, not as a powerful majority. It is through subversive, countercultural acts of love, justice, and service for the common good that Christianity has always gained the most ground.”
If this describes you, listen to what Jeremiah told the exiles to do in Babylon:
“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 28:4-7)
We are to pray for and seek the peace and prosperity of the culture where we live.
And that leads us to our last posture.
Illumination
The night that the straight line winds came through and took down all the trees I was out at the pond filming the incredible lightning storm.
As the sky got darker and darker, I noticed another kind of lightning storm….in the fields. Thousands of lightning bugs were doing their nightly dance and the entire felid was blinking and glowing with these little bugs that radiate light. It was beautiful.
That’s a great picture of how we are to approach our culture. Jesus said it this way:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:14-16)
I love the moon. As a kid, I used to stare at through my telescope and be in awe that men had stood there.
The moon has no light of its own. All it does it reflect the sun.
See where I’m going with this. Same with us. We simply reflect the Son, Jesus, to a dark and dying world.
The darker the night, the brighter the lightning bugs!
Country music theologian recently released a song called, “Be the Light.” The chorus is our marching orders:
In a world full of hate, be a light
When you do somebody wrong, make it right
Don't hide in the dark, you were born to shine
In a world full of hate, be a light
John Stott wrote:
“We shouldn’t asked what’s wrong with the world? For that diagnosis has already been given. Rather, we should ask what has happened to the salt and the light?”
As we talked about in our prayer time, Beirut was rocked with a massive explosion last week.
Beirut Baptist School is very close to the blast and suffered heavy damage. But listen to the what the Chaplin has to say:
Tony Haddad, chaplain of the BBS, pointed out that “despite the damages around us, we will remain a lighthouse, because the keeper of the lighthouse is our Lord Jesus Christ, and He will guide us through the darkest time, we believe it with all our hearts”
[A light in the darkness video]
