Esther - Faithfull Trust

We all face different challenges in life, but one thing is common in all of them.

Will we trust God in our circumstances and look for opportunity to serve him?

Now the correct answer to that question is, “of course I will!”

But the reality is that some circumstances are particularly difficult and the cost of serving God in that situation may be incredibly high.

How do we cope when the cost of trust is beyond what we can comprehend?

How do we cope when we have no idea what is ahead?

One of the best things we can do is to draw on the examples of those who have gone before us.

One of those examples is a young women who lived 2500 years ago.

Her name is Esther and her story is one of incredible trust in the face of political intruige, opulance, powerlessness and danger.

Now many of you may have read the book, which I have “For such a time as this” which was a novel loosly based on the story of Esther.

I believe there was also a movie based on the book.

Let me assure you that these were a very sanitised version of the reality portrayed in Scripture and in what we know of the history of this time.

If the book and movie had been entirely true to history then they would not have been very popular because the violence and sexual exploitation portrayed would not have been very suitable as a romantic heroin type novel aimed at a middle class American Christian audience.

Esther was a young women living in the Persian capital Susa in the time of King Xerxes also known as King Ahasuerus who reigned from 486 BC to 465 BC .

Xerxes was a successful King who consolidated power from the Indus river in Pakistan all the way to Cush, sometimes called Ethiopia but actually what we now know as North Sudan.

Xerxes is the Persian King who was held off by 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, which has been portrayed in many movies over the years.

He also suffered a major defeat of his navy around the same time.

So while he had mixed success in Greece, he was immensley successful everywhere else and benefitted from the work of his Father before him, who had organised the kingdom into provinces, established a postal system and even a road network.

Xerxes had immense power and wealth from the tribute which came from across his vast empire.

But like all empires there was constant competition for influence and power and therefore wealth.

Which eventually lead to his assassination in 465 BC.

Based on the date when we believe Esther became Queen in the tenth month of the seventh year of Xerxes reign which is 479 BC she and Xerxes possibly had 14 years together. Esther 2:16

Esther 2:16 (NIV84)

16 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.

Assuming that is, that Esther herself lived until the end of Xerxes reign.

So how did this young woman come to be in the Persian Capital city of Susa and how did she beome Queen?

Well it’s not a pretty story.

This is no fairy tale prince meets princess and sweeps her off her feet account.

This is not a Disneyland story.

This is ancient oriental barbarity, pure and simple.

Esther 2:5 tells us that Esther was a Jew, adopted by her cousin Mordecai when her parents had died.

They were descendants of the exiles from Jerusalem, which had fallen a hundred years before and like most of the people of Israel they had elected to stay in their new locations even after Cyrus the great allowed the people to return to Jerusalem in 540 BC.

Only a few people had returned to Judah, many had stayed in the lands of exile finding that life there was better than the danger of going back to Judah and seeking to be part of the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

This is one of the reasons that communities of Jews were, until more recent times, found throughout the entire Middle East.

The entire story is horrific, beginning in Esther chapter 1 we find the luxury and excess of an ancient royal court.

Enormous banquets, required obedience, harsh judgements.

The narrator of the story is setting up a picture for us.

A picture of a court lacking real wisdom and dignity but instead one of excess and people seeking to sow favour with the King.

A court where power is everything.

The story is set three years after Xerxes has taken power, he has consolidated his rule so he holds a huge celebration before he goes off to seek to conquer Greece, where he is unsuccessful.

At the end of months of banquets with his nobles there is another banquet.

Possibly a wedding feast for the King and his new wife Queen Vashti, as it is a 7 day long feast and open to the citizens of the palace grounds not just the nobles.

The king by now has been drinking all week with his advisors and other dignitaries.

And into this scene comes Queen Vashti, a brave and dignified woman who refuses to be paraded as some prize before the men of the court.

This isn’t a request to come from entertaining the women to sit with the King.

This is an order to be paraded, and most commentators agree that the implication is that the intent is that Queen Vashti is probably intended to be paraded naked, like a prize to be shown off.

Well Queen Vashti has more dignity than this and her response in the story is designed to show us the lack of real wisdom and the manipulation that goes on in the court.

There is no consideration given that perhaps the King has lacked decorum and the Queen has shown dignity by refusing the command.

No it is all about obedience without question.

Absolute power.

The King being outraged and easily led by his advisors banished his queen never to be heard of again.

Esther 2:1-4 tells us that sometime later, the King remembers Queen Vashti and the implication is that he misses having a Queen.

His concubines weren’t satisfying all his needs.

And while the book of Esther doesn’t give these details history tells us that this it is now after the failed campaign in Greece.

No problem, the advisors tell the King, let’s get all of the most beautiful young women we can get our hands on, bring them to the palace and the King can try out each one and choose his next Queen from among them.

And this is how Esther a beautiful young woman finds herself taken into the harem of the King.

There is no choice here, Esther is simply taken because of her beauty.

While some families may have offered up their daughters in order to seek influence and wealth there would have been many women who were simply taken.

It was a one way trip folks.

These girls, for many of them would have been in their teens, were simply placed into the King’s Harem, used once and then moved to another part of the Harem reserved for concubines.

Unless the King remembered their name and wanted them back again they would and simply stay there.

Now the food and accomodation would be the best available.

But it wouldn’t be a great life, simply waiting around, playing against each other for position and influence, trying to remain beautiful for the whim of a King who you may never see again.

It is into this horrifying setting that Esther is taken and we discover that she soon rises to the top, impressing the official in charge of the harem.

Esther 2:8–9 NLT

8 As a result of the king’s decree, Esther, along with many other young women, was brought to the king’s harem at the fortress of Susa and placed in Hegai’s care. 9 Hegai was very impressed with Esther and treated her kindly. He quickly ordered a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments. He also assigned her seven maids specially chosen from the king’s palace, and he moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.

Esther was in a situation she did not choose, nor desire, but the text makes it clear that just like other heros of the faith who found themselves as captives in a foregin land, people such as Joseph in Egypt and Daniel and his friends in Babylon, Esther’s attitude and approach made her stand out.

There are three occassions when this is made clear, in Esther 2:9 with Hegai the official in charge of the harem, again in verse 15 where we are told she wins favour with everyone and again in verse 17 where she wins the favour of King Xerxes.

Interestingly the Hebrew word used for favour in these passages is the word hesed the same word used to describe God’s loving kindness and mercy to his people.

Esther has an approach that wins people over.

She is not vain and unlike others the strong implication is that there is a dignity, humility and strength about her that stands out.

A beauty amongst the most beautiful doesn’t come down to looks.

There is something about a woman who stands out above others in a positive way.

It has to do with character, class above looks.

Esther is set up by the story as someone special.

Not just because of her looks but because of her heart.

She has no idea why she has been placed in this situation, but here she is.

She will look for opportunity to do what is good and right.

But she, just like her predecessor Queen Vashi, is still at risk.

A woman in a court where winning favour and influence is the focus of nearly everyone, a woman in a place where women are mere chattles.

Perhaps King Xerxes has learnt from his humiliation 4 years earlier when his first Queen refused to be humiliated.

But the rest of the story makes it clear that this is a King who craves being honoured and he is surrounded by people who seek honour and power.

Esther is made Queen, but she still has no idea why the Lord has placed her in this situation.

So she faithfully trusts as she waits to see what will unfold in her life.

Dignity and humility in the face of a total loss of control over her life enable Esther to stand out.

She trusted God, even though she had no idea why this was happening to her.

Now in Esther’s case the story goes on, but at this point in time she has no idea what the future holds.

How do we react in a situation where we have no idea what is next, where we have a sense that we have no control?

In reality we always have more control than Esther did.

Is trust in God, dignity and humility our approach during these times?

Esther could have spat the dummy and ended up dead.

I am sure some of her peers suffered this fate.

For there were plenty of other beautiful young women, many of whom would have been hungry for power, any one of these could have risen to the top and been promoted by the officials to the King.

Instead Esther’s response was one of trust, dignity and humility.

As the story goes on next week we find Esther is put here in a position of influence to help not just her own people but actually for the benefit of the King and all the people.

I think there is a lesson there for us in difficult times.

How we deal with difficult times sets us up for what follows.