Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
8And it was in being heard the word of the king and his law and in gathering of many young women to Shushan the citadel to the hand of Hegai, one keeping the women. 9And the young woman was good in his eyes and she carried favor to his face and he hastened her beauty treatments and her portions giving to her and seven of the young women being seen giving to her from the house of the king and he changed her and her young women to the good of the house of the women. 10Esther had not declared her people and her kindred because Mordecai had commanded her that she should not declare [it], 11and in every day Mordecai one walking to the face of the court of the house of the women to know the peace of Esther and what was done in her. 12And reaching a turn of young woman and young woman to go to the king Xerxes from an end of being to her by the law of the woman twelve months because thus would fill the days of their beauty treatments—six months in the oil of myrrh and six months in fragrances and in the beauty treatments of the women. 13And in this [way] the young woman going to the king: All of which she says to be given to her going with her from the house of the women unto the house of the king. 14In the evening she going in and in the morning she returning unto the house of the women second unto the hand of Shaashgaz the eunuch of the king, one keeping the concubines. Not she will come again to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.
Here we begin to see clearly side by side the monstrous cruelty of this world’s wickedness and the quiet beauty of truly humble, godly people. On the wicked side, I find it almost painful to keep reading how these poor girls are treated. Our text says “many” young women were brought to Shushan. How many does the king need? One. One will be made queen. What about all the others? They’ll spend the rest of their earthly lives as prisoners shut up in this wicked selfish king’s prison house. And their only crime was being found young and beautiful – and female.
For starters, they were subjected to an entire year of these “beauty treatments.” A precious entire year of these girls’ young lives—an entire year when they should have been at home with their family or being married and beginning the long journey of building a family of their own. They were specifically chosen because they were uncommonly beautiful. But that isn’t enough. They need a year of treatments. Now, I must insert here that I’m sure, in part, the year is prescribed in case any of these girls might already be pregnant upon their arrival. If, after one year, they haven’t had a baby, then, from then on, and because they were kept completed isolated in a prison house of women guarded by a eunuch, if any babies are born they must surely be fathered by no one but the king.
Also, it is possible many of these girls were brought in from the country. It was apparently true that, because country girls often lived in squalor on their farms and because their poor diet contained many coarse foods, they would actually stink to high heaven. Apparently the stink was even beyond what a single good bath could cure. I believe one place we still see that today is amongst people who eat a lot of garlic. It’s not just that it gives them bad breath, but the garlic smell seems to ooze out of their very skin. Apparently this was often true of country people in the ancient world.
One more reason for the year would be that the country girls would be tanned from all the outside work of farming. In our world, a tan is a beautiful thing. However, throughout most of human history, wealthy women deliberately avoided exposure to the sun and the lighter their skin, the more beautiful they were considered. A girl only got tanned if she was poor or a slave and had no choice but to work out in the sun. In the Song of Solomon, the Shulammite bemoans, “Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have neglected” (1:6). An entire year shut up in the king’s prison house would leave all of the girls as light as their natural complexion would allow them.
And so, to some extent, there may be good reasons for this entire year of treatments. However, that detracts not a wit from the monstrous cruelty of it all.
Then it goes on to say the plan was that each girl gets one single night with the king and after that she gets transferred to the “second” house, the prison where they were to spend the rest of their lives as concubines. Concubines. Married women who can’t marry again, but not even considered as a full-fledged wife. Sort of a half-wife. Being one of probably hundreds, it is even unlikely they’ll ever see the king again or that they’ll ever know the joy of having children. Once again, even as I type, the cruelty of it all is almost unbearable to consider.
But, once again, that is the godless world that Mordecai and Esther have to live in. In contrast to all this monstrous cruelty and wickedness, we have in verses 9 and 10 our first introduction to Esther’s character and, in verse 11, another revelation of Mordecai’s.
In that regard, I want to insert something here. As you would read different commentators on this book, many of the writers put Mordecai and Esther in quite a bad light. They paint Mordecai as a shrewd, calculating schemer who would even hazard his own daughter’s purity for his own political advancement. They would paint our Esther as some kind of morally compromising gold-digger. Part of this originates from the fact that they are both still in Persia, in spite of the fact that some fifty years before, Cyrus had decreed that the Jews could return to Israel.
In these fellows’ thinking, anyone still in Persia must be a back-slidden, sold-out, useless Jew in name only. I’ve already addressed that matter in an earlier post, but I will point out again that we find many very godly people in Persia after, and sometimes long after Cyrus’ decree. Daniel’s story ends in Babylon after the decree. We meet Nehemiah and Ezra in Persia long after the decree. As I said before, I think it is very unfair, and I will add here arrogant, to be judging people who lived 2,500 years ago in a world of which we have only tiny glimpses to inform our opinions.
I think this is a case where, as the Lord said in Psalm 50:21, “You thought I was such a one as you are.” When someone is always quick to question everyone else’s good character, it’s not a bad idea to question theirs. “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted” (Titus 1:15). People who are quick to assume evil of others need to take a hard look in the mirror. I’ll leave it at that.
Personally, I believe what we have before us is two very godly people of exemplary character and from whom we can learn a great deal about living godly lives in our own godless world. I fully acknowledge that this is my assumption and, as I ponder what the text does say about them, I have every intention of defending our two friends. I hope, if someone else reads my thoughts, I can convince you of the same and that together we can emerge from a study of this book having secured in our hearts forever a place of deep respect and appreciation for our Mordecai and Esther.
That said, what do we learn?
First of all and right off the bat, we see that as soon as Hegai met Esther, “she pleased him and won his favor.” This is a familiar theme is it not? I think of Joseph and Daniel, two young men in their own godless worlds, yet immediately winning the favor of their godless bosses and overseers. I believe you and I can gain great encouragement from this in two ways. First, this is actually an enormous kindness us believers receive from the Lord. As it says in Psalm 31:19,20: “How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You bestow in the sight of men, on those who take refuge in You. In the shelter of Your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; You hide them from accusing tongues.” Like Prov. 16:7, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” You and I can live right in the middle of a completely godless, monstrously wicked world, and the Lord puts it in people’s hearts to actually like us!
I know I have enjoyed this kindness my whole life. Pretty much every job I’ve ever had, there were people who just seemed to “take a shine” to me, even before I’d done anything good or bad, and then in spite of the fact I was a complete idiot. I have been keenly aware there was another “force” at work on my behalf and that was, of course, the Lord. It was true of me and I believe we see it in Joseph, Daniel, and now Esther – that our bosses just seem to like us. It is a kindness straight from the heart of our wonderful Father. The Lord Himself “hides us from the intrigues of men.” He “hides us from accusing tongues.”
But for our friends, I think there is one more reason why people “liked” them. Even in (and perhaps especially in) a wicked world, it is still true that the most beautiful people are humble, sweet-spirited people. There is no question in my mind that what Pharaoh saw in Joseph, what Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel, and what Hegai and Xerxes will see in Esther is this humble, sweet spirit. Such a spirit is basically non-existent in a godless world. One can only imagine what it would have been like to meet Esther, to meet this stunningly beautiful girl who is also humble and sweet! Hegai’s job is to oversee an entire prison-house filled with beautiful girls, yet, the minute he meets Esther, he moves her to the best apartment in the harem, gives her seven girls to tend her, and assigns her special food. As I said above, on the one hand, that is simply a kindness of the Lord to ease Esther’s (and our) passage through this cruel world, but, on the other hand, it is a direct benefit accrued to people who know what it is to “sit at Jesus’ feet.”
Especially to young people, I would offer you this encouragement as you go out to your jobs. If you make the Lord your refuge and seek to walk before Him even as you work, you can fully expect to find that people “like” you – and I promise you, you will often be very aware it has nothing to do with who you are. It just seems to “happen.” But you can also fully expect, if you sincerely try to be Christlike, to work hard and be faithful, to be kind to others even as you strive to do a good job yourself, your bosses in particular will most of the time really like you. You will be VERY unusual to them, but unusual in all the ways they particularly value. Though they may themselves (like Xerxes) be wicked, selfish people, yet they still deeply value the beauty of someone else’s humble, sweet spirit. You can walk out into your own godless world and fully expect to find the same kind of reception Esther received 2,500 years ago and halfway around the world. God’s people “shine as lights in the world.”
We also see the beauty of godliness in the relationship between Esther and Mordecai. We already saw in verse 7 how Mordecai “took her to daughter.” To have taken her at all would of course have been admirable in this world – to at least give his little orphaned cousin a place to live – but, being godly, Mordecai’s heart goes far beyond “duty” and he actually “took her to daughter.” We then see the effect of his love on her – that she happily obeys his charge not to reveal her nationality – and we see that same love as he “walks back and forth every day near the courtyard of the harem to know how Esther was doing.” In Hebrew, it says literally he wanted to know about “her peace.” If you or I had to depart this world and leave behind a little daughter, what more could we ask for than an adoptive father who would “take her to daughter” then worry over “her peace?”
Thank God that even in a godless world where He seemingly “doesn’t exist,” there can still be people like Mordecai and Esther. Then may He grant that we be like them. The fact is, our God can still put His product on the market!
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