“Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shemei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;  Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.”  Esther 2:5-7

The title to this blog is more accurately, “God Picks a Queen for the King”.  God made Esther so beautiful that king Ahasuerus couldn’t help but pick her for his wife.  Anyway, continuing from where we left off last time, Vashti, the king’s wife had refused to come before the king’s (likely all men) guests so that he could show them how beautiful the queen was since he was a man who had a huge ego and was very boastful.  But when she refused, he became very angry and called for his advisors to decide the appropriate punishment for her.  Their solution was for him to divorce her and publish this news all throughout the 127 provinces of Persia.  That would instill in all the other women that they had better not go against their husbands. This news was meant to instill in the wives a desire to give honor to their husbands, but it seemed like more of a warning than an encouragement.

Ahasuerus was pleased with this plan, and his servants suggested that a fair, young virgin be sought to replace Vashti.  We don’t know how old the king was, but I suspect his younger years were far behind him.  Why do the old guys always go for the younger chicks?  The servants suggested that the king appoint officers in all the provinces who could gather all the fair young virgins to Shushan and lodge them in the harem under the care of Hege, the king’s chamberlain who was in charge of the house of the women.  Scripture doesn’t say, but Hege was likely a eunuch, one who had been castrated so that he wouldn’t be tempted to, well, you know.  Perfumes and spices would be given for their purification rituals.  Verse 12 states that there was a period of 12 months allowed for purification.  Once the year had passed, Ahasuerus would be able to choose which woman to marry and make his new queen.  The king liked this idea a lot.  I wonder if the producers of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” got their ideas from this account.

Serving inside the palace was a Jewish man named Mordecai.  He was the great-grandson of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been taken into captivity many years before, thus Mordecai had been born in captivity as was Esther, his cousin, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah.  Her mother and father were both deceased, and Mordecai had taken her under his care and treated her as if she was his own daughter.  Esther was very beautiful.  We don’t know her age either but suspect that she was either an older teenager or in her early twenties.  (Young people in ancient times were much more mature, generally speaking.  By comparison, today’s younger generation seems very immature, again, generally speaking.)  Mordecai brought Esther to the king’s house as the other young women were entering in competition for the queen’s position.  God must have given Mordecai the idea to bring Esther to vie for the queen’s position because I wouldn’t think that Mordecai, caring so much for his cousin, on his own would offer her to marry a heathen king.  It seems like he would have preferred for her to marry a young Jewish man and raise a family.

However God had another plan, and His plans always trump those of men.  God’s plan is evident in the favor that was shown to Esther.  She was given extra attention by Hege, even assigned seven handmaids to serve her and given the best location in the house of the women.  Mordecai had instructed Esther to not tell anyone that she was Jewish.  If the king and his staff had known that she was Jewish, she likely wouldn’t have been accepted into the palace, thus would not have become queen, and not have been able to save her fellow Jews.  She could have even suffered punishment for attempting to join the other maidens in the quest to be the new queen.  Apparently, God arranged that no one would ask her ancestry as far as we know.

Mordecai no longer had direct contact with Esther.  He would walk to the court of the women’s house and enquire as to her welfare.  I am sure that he worried about her as any parent separated from his or her daughter would worry.  The purification rites in which these women underwent were different from those of Jewish women.  To the Jews, purification was a ritual which brought one from a state of uncleanness to clean.  For the Persians, purification was basically to make one more attractive, presentable, and/or desirable.  Since the Persians were idolaters, they were more concerned about the outward appearance than the condition of the heart.  Once purification was completed, each evening a different woman would go to the king’s house for the night, sleep with him, and then be taken to a secondary house of women overseen by Shaashgaz.  If she wasn’t chosen to be queen, she would become a concubine.  (Women today complain about their “rights” yet they haven’t a clue about what it is like to really not have any rights).  If the king delighted in her, she would be called back a second time.  Otherwise, she would become property of the king, a recluse, never able to marry and have a family.  It makes one feel sorry for them, but we don’t know if they were rounded up like cattle or if they had a choice to go to the palace.

One night, it came Esther’s turn to go to the king’s house.  This was in the tenth month, Tebeth, in the seventh year of Ahasuerus’ reign over the Persian empire, perhaps about B.C. 478.  Not only did God give favor to Esther in the eyes of all the servants and concubines in the palace, He gave the king favor toward her.  Ahasuerus loved Esther more than all the other women that he had been with.  His love for her was so great that there was no need for him to see other women.  He chose Esther for his queen and gave her the royal crown, and she still had not divulged her Jewishness to the king or anyone else.  The king made a royal feast to celebrate the new queen Esther, as Mordecai remained by the gate of the palace which became an advantage for him and the king.

To be continued next time.