Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
15And arrived the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, whom he had taken to himself to daughter. Coming into the king, she did not seek a thing except what said Hegai the eunuch of the king, one keeping the women, and Esther was one carrying favor in eyes of all seeing her. 16And Esther was taken to the king Xerxes to the house of his royalty in the month of the tenth, it the month of Tebeth, in the year of the seventh to his reign. 17And the king loved Esther from the all of the women and carried grace and favor to his face from the all of the virgins and he set a crown of royalty on her head and he caused her to reign instead of Vashti. 18And the king made a great banquet to the all of his princes and his servants—the banquet of Esther—and he made a rest day to the provinces and he gave gifts in the hand of the king. 19And second virgins being gathered and Mordecai one sitting in the gate of the king. 20Esther had not revealed her kindred and her people as Mordecai had commanded her and the word of Mordecai Esther doing as she had done in her nurturing by him.
So now we see Esther elevated to her position as queen of all Persia. We believers know it is true that “promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west, but it is God who raises us up” (Ps. 75:6,7). Even in a godless, wicked world, believers find themselves elevated to positions of importance and intimately involved in whatever is going on in their world. In spite of the fact that much of what happens is cruel and wicked, yet a great deal of it is also perfectly good and necessary. Every legitimate job in the world is intended to do others good in some way and so, just like Joseph or Daniel, Esther can come as a believer to this position with every intention of doing good, even if, in fact, she lives surrounded by godlessness.
Here in this account, we once again see Esther’s character shine out. We already saw in verse 9 how she immediately won Hegai’s favor. Now we see in verse 15 how she won the favor “of everyone who saw her.” Xerxes is of course completely taken with her. Someone could dismiss all this favor with the observation, “Well, she is beautiful, you know,” but the palace is full of beautiful women and, in fact, the whole group of girls brought in with Esther were specifically chosen as the most beautiful girls in all of the kingdom. No, there is something more than physical beauty going on here, to make our Esther stand out in a palace filled with super-models.
As I mentioned before, this first of all happens simply as a kindness of God to His children living in this wicked, broken world. He just makes people like us. However, there is usually also an element of personal character involved. As with the theme of this book – people may not see God, but they see us. And we all know what it is that makes Esther so exceptionally attractive – what the old KJV called “a meek and quiet spirit,” what the NIV calls the “inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit” (I Pet. 3:4). Innocence and modesty, genuine humility and a kind heart shine out a beauty of which this wicked world knows little, yet values highly.
We see the beauty in her relationship with Mordecai. He tells her not to reveal her nationality and that is what she does. Our text tells us this not just once but twice, in verses 10 and 20. In fact, verse 20 even expands our understanding, saying, “She continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.” Someone could suggest that perhaps Mordecai was an overbearing man who somehow held Esther in his grip of fear, however, that makes no sense in this setting. As far as Esther knows, she may never lay eyes on Mordecai again. If he had been overbearing or even abusive, the fact would be that Esther is now free. She would see this elevation to the palace as finally her chance to “escape.” Yet, we see the exact opposite. Why would this girl continue to value his instructions?
I suggest there is only one believable explanation: love. We know from Mordecai’s side that he “took her to daughter” and we know that, when she was taken to the palace, “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.” As mentioned before, in the Hebrew, he was literally worried over “her peace.” Notice the text doesn’t say anything like “he wanted to make sure she put in a good word to the king.” It says he was worried over “her peace.”
He loved this girl.
And she loved him.
Even in a wicked world where it would seem God doesn’t even exist, His people still know real love relationships. While everyone else goes on “hating and being hated,” real believers get to enjoy a world of love. Parents love their children and sacrifice for them. Children love their parents and value their guidance. And, as with our Esther, that love in a heart shines out in a dark, cold world as still something very beautiful and attractive.
Isn’t it interesting too that, in Xerxes’ godless world, even a beautiful girl needed an entire year of external treatments to make her more beautiful? I already related several reasons why it would make sense to keep girls in his prison for a year before they could see him, however, we are told specifically in verse 12 that the year included beauty treatments of “six months with oil and myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.” All external. The best this world can do is paint a girl on the outside. Gold rings in pigs’ snouts. This world utterly does not realize the profound beauty of a “meek and quiet spirit.”
In this world, girls have to spend fortunes on their hair and their makeup and their clothes and who knows what all else. Then they are led to believe that what will make them attractive is to be “sexy,” or to be “strong,” or “independent,” “sassy,” or even “defiant.” Then a believing girl shows up with the “unfading beauty” of her “meek and quiet spirit” and wins everyone’s heart. We see her humility in the fact that Esther “asked for nothing other than what Hegai suggested.” You can bet the other girls went crazy with all the gold and pearls and jewels and extravagant clothes they could cover themselves with. Esther’s sweet spirit valued Hegai’s advice and made her totally unassuming. What she took with her was the beauty of her innocence and modesty. And, again, swimming in an ocean of beautiful girls, the king’s heart was obviously touched more by her virtue than her beauty.
So what do we learn? Just like Joseph and Daniel, Esther lives in a cruel, wicked world. First it robbed her of her parents and left her an orphan, then it gets her kidnapped and drug off to live in a selfish king’s toy box, where she may just get shut up to live out her life as a desolate prisoner and nothing more. Again and again, this world would rob her of any possible joy or hope or love. Sound familiar? Life is HARD. It was for our beautiful Esther and it is for you and me too. Yet, as the years unfold, what do we see? As Joseph observed, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
Even living in this wicked world, even though we may suffer greatly in this wicked world, yet we can live in the hope of our God who says, “I know the plans I have for you—plans to do you good and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” Our God promises, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” We may not be able to see Him and sometimes this world’s cruelties may make us feel He’s not there, yet with the eye of faith we can see He is still quite in control and always, always, always working for our eternal good.
This world would beat our poor Esther with a club, but God reached down, lifted her up, and made her a queen! And you and I can live quite assured the same God who loved Esther loves you and me too. Even as we suffer here, while the rest of the world may have to live out its suffering alone, you and I can see the unseen God and trust Him with “the all of our heart.” Even at work, where God “doesn’t exist,” you and I can live and work quite assured He is up to good on our behalf. And just to show that He is God when He lifts you and me up, He’s also doing it for their good. He’s doing good even to the people we work with and for, whether they care anything at all about Him.
Secondly, what we learn from Esther is that what really matters most is who you are. To be like Jesus is to be humble, to be gracious and kind, to be faithful and dependable–all the things the old KJV called a “meek and quiet spirit.” Even in this totally godless world, even at your work where God doesn’t even “exist,” that spirit is still a beautiful thing and highly valued. We can pause to observe that our gifts are important—Esther is in fact very beautiful and that beauty got her even considered to begin with. You might be artistic, or very smart, or fast, or just a hard worker, or a lot of other things that fit you for your job, but, while you give those gifts to the people you serve, the thing that will make you truly “beautiful” in others’ eyes will be your character.
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord would use an unusually beautiful girl to teach us that real beauty is found in who you are? Of course, that in itself should be a great encouragement to us all. I can’t change my gifts. I can (and should) appreciate them and put them to the best use I can in service to others, but what I can change is who I am, how I treat others, whether or not I really care. I may not have Esther’s good looks or Joseph’s amazing management skills or Daniel’s ability to interpret dreams, but I can have the one thing they all three shared—a meek and quiet spirit.
In this world of the Unseen God, you and I have the opportunity, like Esther, to make Him seen. The NT calls it “adorning the doctrine of God our Savior in all things”—making the Gospel attractive. Esther has already taught us so much—even without specifically mentioning God, precisely because what she and this book by her name are doing is showing us God.
Would that all us believers were, especially at work, epistles written on our hearts, known and read by all men, letting our lights shine such that people would see Jesus in us and glorify God, that we would spread everywhere the aroma of Christ—His humility and kindness and faithfulness. Esther teaches us that there is a beauty that even a godless world values and that beauty is still what goes on inside.
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