HealingStrong's Around the Word

Episode 45 - The Esther Series: Broken Systems to Accomplish His Perfect Will (Esther 2:1-14 NIV)

• HealingStrong • Episode 45

Share episode

God works through flawed cultural contexts to bring about His perfect will, as evidenced in the story of Esther where a young orphaned Jewish girl finds unexpected favor in a Persian king's court.

• Discussion of how God uses worldly systems for His divine purposes despite their flawed nature
• Analysis of the troubling "beauty contest" that brought Esther to the king's attention
• Exploration of Mordecai's protective role as Esther's adoptive father
• Observation of the supernatural favor Esther received from everyone she encountered
• Recognition that favor often comes with a calling that requires sacrifice
• Examination of the harsh realities facing women in the king's harem
• Drawing parallels between ancient practices and modern human trafficking
• Reminder that we cannot remain silent in the face of injustice and exploitation
• Acknowledgment that God's ways are fundamentally different from the world's ways

Suggested Resources:

BIBLE PLAN - Trusting God's Plan When You Don't See Him: Lessons From the Book of Esther

PODCAST - Genesis to Revelation Bible Reading

TOOLS - Refresh Your Spirit through God's Word


Please visit our website at healingstrong.org to learn more about our mission and community groups.

HELP US GROW:

Your donation enables us to continue offering this podcast and other resources for free supporting those facing cancer and chronic illness, caregivers and others. Every donation makes a big difference. Please donate here.

Speaker 1:

But the Lord uses the world in which we're living, that culture, that time period. Even though man's ways are not his ways, he can still use it to bring about glory for him and his people.

Speaker 2:

Hey, there, I'm Cheryl and you're listening to Healing Strongs Around the Word. We're a group of friends sitting around the table that love the Lord and we love digging deep into His Word. Each day you'll hear me reading a Bible passage and then you'll hear us discussing what we learned from it. Today's reading is from Esther, chapter two, verses one through 14 from the NIV version of the Bible. So join us Around the Word. Esther two, verses 1 through 14.

Speaker 2:

Later, when King Xerxes' fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 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 Haggai, 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. 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.

Speaker 2:

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 Haggai. Esther was also taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Haggai, 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.

Speaker 2:

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. Before a young woman's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete 12 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 to 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 Shaazhgaz, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king, and that was our Bible passage for the day.

Speaker 2:

So now let's listen in on what Jeff, susie, myself and Angie were all talking about around the Word. Talking about around the word. We last left our story where Xerxes the king had gotten some advice to issue an edict so that all the women would respect their husbands. So I guess he's it says his anger has cooled down a little bit because of his queen leaving and now he's trying to figure out what to do. What if? What if? His advisors told him he should do?

Speaker 1:

uh. The king's attendants who served him said let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king and let the king appoint overseers of all the provinces. Basically, let's find you a new queen and you have the pick of the litter.

Speaker 3:

Well, I hate that women are paraded and treated like you know, somewhat like property back then. That was the culture that has been a theme throughout our history. But God always is so faithful to elevate our gender in such a beautiful way. But that just bothers me, that there's going to be this big show of let's find the most beautiful young lady Virgins, by the way too.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't just anybody, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, Got to bring that up too, and so that kind of bugs me, but nevertheless it's a sign of the times. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, back then.

Speaker 1:

But the Lord uses the world in which we're living, that culture, that time period, and he uses it. Even though man's ways are not his ways, he can still use it to bring about glory for him and his people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, in other words, he can turn things around. So Esther may have been treated like we'll see, that she's one of these lovely ladies that's chosen to come and try out. I guess, so to speak, she may have felt like you know, she was powerless to refuse and she was an orphan, you know. So she had lived a life of struggle, probably having lost her parents, and then she's treated like this. But we see how God can turn that around.

Speaker 1:

And that's the thing that really has always bothered me In today's world. You know, if there were a king and he said, okay, all the young virgins come over to my courts, and we're, you know at what point, why didn't Mordecai and hide her?

Speaker 2:

oh, that's a good point. Like you know, um, there was that whole edict with Moses, right, you know, with the Jewish kids or whatever. They hid Moses so that he would not be killed and eventually the pharaoh's daughter found him. You know.

Speaker 4:

so I mean, don't you think, though I we're looking at, they're going to kill the little boys, or you have a possibility of being a queen with the king.

Speaker 2:

So I don't know, I mean completely different, but just a hiding kind of. You're right, but let's not romanticize this. Either these were virgin little girls, probably, or teenage girls at best virgin little girls probably, or teenage girls at best and they are being sent to the, the palace, where they're going to spend a year getting beautified no, no telling. And but. And then this is the sad part to me in this whole thing as it says in verse 14, in the evening um, we're jumping ahead, but in the evening she, the little girl, would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shigaz or whatever, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. Aka, she started out as a virgin, she comes out as a concubine.

Speaker 4:

It was sweet. When you read on what Mordecai did, he knows that it was a very stressful time for Esther. And what did Daddy do? Daddy stayed out in the courts to make sure that Esther was doing okay. He wanted to ask and make sure that Esther was doing okay. So Dad who you know, not Dad, but they were close, yeah, but he was like a dad. He was like a dad right, but you know he was so concerned about her that he actually stayed out in the courts daily, it said, to make sure that Esther was okay. I love that. I love that that's brought out in the story.

Speaker 3:

Remember they've lived probably their whole lives, mordecai and Esther both in this culture, mordecai and Esther both in this culture. So it's not all that, it's not shocking for them to see a king do something like this. So, instead of Mordecai thinking, oh my gosh, this is so outrageous, like the edict, back with Moses. They're used to things like that, things like that, and they lived alongside that pagan culture and God still used them as very important tools in his plan, and so it's providence that all of this happened. So I don't think Mordecai could have hid her. If he'd wanted to. God had his hand on the whole story, as we'll see.

Speaker 2:

It says in verse eight when the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of this person named Haggai. And Esther is taken as well and trusted to Haggai who was in charge of the whole harem. But I find this interesting Early on the girl pleased him and won his favor. So Esther, out of all these probably hundreds of girls, she wins the favor of this eunuch, and I find that interesting. It almost kind of reminded me of Joseph in the book of Genesis, where he won the favor of different people, that he was put in their place, like to work with them or work for them.

Speaker 3:

Even the other girls favored Esther. Now, that would really be something else when it says my translation says and all the other girls exclaimed with delight when they saw her, how beautiful she was. Well, this was a huge competitive kind of thing. And for it to say the scripture to say that you know, they weren't antagonistic to Esther. They recognized her beauty. There's favor all over Esther, over and over again, and that you know. That reminds us that there may be favor on your life and things are going beautifully well and doors are just opening for you. But that could very well mean you have a big calling on your life and so, yes, she had all these doors open for her. Everything looks great, but she is the one that's going to have to ultimately risk her life to save her people. So sometimes we look at others and think I can't believe how easy things go for them. But it may be because there's a tremendous calling on their life and it's going to be revealed later on what a sacrifice they have to make.

Speaker 2:

All the while, too. She is not revealing her nationality during any of this, so none of them.

Speaker 1:

Yes, mordecai forbid her to say anything about her nationality. I think that gives us a foretelling of the opinions of the culture around them, that they did not like the Jewish people, and so he was trying to protect her and did not want any disfavor to come upon her Again. That's the protective nature caring for her, probably praying for her on a daily basis.

Speaker 2:

So we're ending this passage right here with the idea that a girl, when she would go in in the morning as a virgin, she would return to another part of the harem to the care of this eunuch that's in charge of the concubines. She and this is key she would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name. So this was a one time you had one chance with the king, when you went in there to see him and if you didn't please him, you're out the door to go, be a part of the harem. And guess what? I don't think you're going back home. I think you're part of the harem from here on out.

Speaker 1:

You're basically a prisoner of the kings from that point on.

Speaker 3:

Nobody else can ever touch you. So that's the life you're banished to is living with a bunch of other women.

Speaker 2:

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but that's the reality. Everybody a lot of times likes to romanticize the story of Queen Esther and I'm like, no, it would have been horrible. Think about it If you yourself, angie, were a little girl and you were pulled out of your home. Think about it If you yourself, angie, were a little girl and you were pulled out of your home, taken to the palace with all these other girls that you don't know, and now you don't know who you can trust. You have these men that are in charge of you, telling you what to wear what perfumes to put on.

Speaker 3:

And you've got to do this for a year and you have one possibly have one night with the man called the king, and then never again. So no family, you can't go on a date, you can't have a relationship, you can't be married. You're stuck for the rest of your life with a bunch of women who are in the same position as you.

Speaker 2:

Nobody's happy, so we're talking about the concubines, then your husband. So in the Jewish culture, if you had just had sex with somebody and you weren't married, you were an outcast at that point, think about Tamar, the daughter of David, when she got raped by her brother. She later became an outcast for the rest of her life. I've never thought about that. It's horrible. Yeah, I've never thought about that.

Speaker 2:

So the consequences it wasn't't good it's just really interesting yeah you don't think about them because we're only following esther and her story, but you have a whole bunch of other girls that were kind of left by the wayside. It never. There's no verse that says, oh, and they let all the girls go home afterwards. No, we don't know their fate. It's just traditionally they would be kept in the harem. There are definitely high stakes involved for any of them and it's one.

Speaker 4:

It just shows the depravity of that society of that society and the depravity of the world system which you know, as we will see later on, god's ways are so different than the world's ways.

Speaker 3:

And, yeah, I mean if you think about the world's ways and he's rescuing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, the modern version of this are little kids that get pulled into human trafficking. It's a horrible thought. So, yeah, the modern day thing is human trafficking and that's what this does is. This shows this kind of concept still happens today, and we have to be vigilant and be praying for people that are caught up in a system like this too, because we can't just turn a blind eye, remain silent, like we later will hear. You cannot be to depravity of any kind. You cannot remain silent or do nothing. God will take care of his people some way somehow, and we will see that coming up in this story.

Speaker 2:

Definitely some heavy subject matter today, but it's something we needed to talk about because it is actually part of the story and what's going on in Esther. Thank you so much for joining us for this podcast, healing Strong's Around the Word. I hope you're encouraged to get your Bible, open it up and see what it has to say, and then talk about it with your friends and, if you have a chance, check out our website, healingstrongorg, where you'll find out more about our mission and our wonderful community groups. Until next time, remember, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.