8When 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. 9She 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.
10Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.
12Before 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. 13And 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. 14In 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.
15When 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. 16She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17Now 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. 18And 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.
Mordecai Uncovers a Conspiracy
19When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.
Reflection: (For further reading: Esther 4:13-17)
Esther is part of two worlds in which she has little power. She is adopted by Mordecai and sent to the palace, and told not to reveal her Jewish ethnicity. We observe that Esther is passive, she is silent and obedient to Mordecai. Her silence and obedience continue in the palace where she follows Hegai and King Xerxes.
The palace was a scary place; it was where Queen Vashti was punished for her rebellion, and women were to know their place in the Persian empire.
But we see Esther transform from a passive object into someone whom Mordecai and the King listen to. She does this, not with power or directness, but through shrewdness and subversion for her people’s sake. The book shows us what God can do with someone who has little power in the worlds they inhabit.
Question: Instead of power and greatness, in what ways could God use you to handle difficulties in life?
Prayer: Almighty God, help us not to seek power and greatness in the world in order to change it, but rather, know that you have used people like Esther, someone in the margins, to create the biggest impact.
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