Esther 5:2-8 “Ripening”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²And it was when the king sees Esther the queen standing in the court and she lifted grace in his eyes and the king extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand and Esther approached and she touched in the head of the scepter, ³and the king said to her, “What to you, Esther the queen, and what [is] your request? Until the half of the kingdom and it will be given to you.” ⁴Esther answered, “If upon the king it is pleasing, may the king come and Haman today to the banquet which I have prepared to him.” ⁵And the king said, “Cause to hasten Haman to do the word of Esther,” and the king came and Haman to the banquet which Esther had done. ⁶And the king said to Esther in the banquet of the wine, “What [is] your petition and it will be given to you, and what is your request? Until the half of the kingdom, it will be done.” ⁷And Esther answered and she said, “My petition and my request:” ⁸If I have found grace in the eyes of the king and if upon the king it is pleasing to give my petition and to do my request, let the king come and Haman [to] the banquet which I will do for them and tomorrow I will do as the word of the king.”

This is one more passage where I could start by noting how the minute the king saw Esther he was pleased. I said all I probably need to say in my comments back on 2:8, 15, 17, but I want to note again how everywhere Esther goes, she “wins people’s favor.” Someone can assert that is mainly because she is very beautiful, but, once again, remember this king has a harem toy box filled with very beautiful girls. It would be nothing exceptional for there to be a beautiful girl in Xerxes’ palace. Of course her beauty doesn’t hurt anything, but obviously what is winning everyone’s favor is something else, something the other girls don’t have, and something that makes her “exceptional.” We all know what it is – it is her sweetness, her “meek and quiet spirit.” As I pointed out earlier, it is also an amazing truth of grace that the Lord actually steps in and turns people’s hearts to favor us believers, but I want to emphasize again here that we have our own contribution to make.

I belabor the point because I think there is far too little emphasis (actually none at all) on the spirit which believers carry especially into their workplaces. As this book has illustrated from the beginning, what most people are living in is a world without God. He doesn’t exist in their minds. But a world without God will be in the end a world without love, a world without humility and sweetness. And so, when a true believer walks into that world and carries with them the spirit of Jesus, when they are gracious and considerate and kind and dependable and trustworthy, then whether they are physically beautiful or not, they will tend to “win people’s favor.” They will be exceptional. And this is precisely what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to be “in the world,” but the “not of it,” which means that we live the fruit of the Spirit and “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

Esther did and you and I should too.

I have very much enjoyed studying and pondering on this particular passage. Lord only knows how many times I’ve read through this book of Esther, but I’ve always wondered why she does this whole thing with inviting the king and Haman to her banquets. Probably the first thing that comes to our minds is that she simply “chickened out,” that, just as she was about to make her appeal, she chickened out and instead came up with this idea of a banquet. Then the same thing happened at the end of the first banquet – she chickened out and invited them to another.

However, having slowed down and pondered it all, I notice something I think would completely contradict that understanding. Note that what Esther says is, “If it pleases the king, let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.” Note it is a banquet “I have prepared for him.” Esther didn’t just think of this while she was standing there gripped with fear. She already had the banquet ready before she even went in to the king. She went in planning to invite him to her banquet.

I want to acknowledge that Hebrew verbs absolutely do not carry the chronological precision we know in English, so that, with no other evidence available, you would have to be careful not to invest too much in translating it “have prepared.” Unfortunately for us, the same Hebrew verb could be translated, “I will prepare.” However, notice that the king’s response is “Bring Haman at once, so that we may do what Esther says.” “At once.” The most natural translation would be “the banquet I have prepared,” and when Esther invites the king and Haman, they need to respond “at once.” I think, upon pondering, there is no question that Esther went into the king with her banquet already prepared and fully intending that her request would be to invite him and Haman to her banquet. In other words, she is working a plan.

Here is another factor to support this suggestion that she is working a plan. Why is she inviting Haman at all? He isn’t even present at this first request, as the king has to say, “Bring Haman at once.” Someone had to go get him. It’s not like he was sitting there beside the king and so, of course, Esther invites him too. No, she is very deliberately inviting him. She planned to.

But then, we might ask, “Why in the world would you want Haman present?” The whole point is to plead with the king against Haman. You’d think it far better for him not to be present. Yet Esther invites him not only the first day but the second as well. Again, to me that has every indication she is working some kind of plan.

Then we wonder, why the second day? Did she just chicken out at the end of the first banquet? Again, I think all of the evidence in the passage itself leads us to understand she is working a plan and so, this request was just more of it. She had every intention, from the very beginning to have two banquets. I personally do not doubt at all this is a cultural thing—that the two banquets, the two invitations, are a way of communicating to the king this is something very important. I strongly suggest that, when she invited him to a second banquet and says, “Then I will answer the king’s question,” he would immediately understand this is no ordinary request. He would know she’s not just asking a favor for some friend or asking permission to wallpaper her apartment. He now knows for sure that whatever she has on her mind is of some monumental importance. And he’ll know that it’s important for a full 24 hours before she actually asks.

So, instead of seeing our girl Esther as someone timidly chickening out, what we see is that she is a very smart girl who knows how to devise and work a plan. It is possible the Lord gave her the plan while she and all her friends were fasting and praying for three days, but, since this book is intentionally “a world without God,” we aren’t provided with those details. It’s just as possible He simply “put it in her mind,” like He does with you and me. At any rate, our beautiful girl isn’t just beautiful. She’s also smart, can devise a good plan, and then bravely work it through.

Before I quit, I particularly want to call our American attentions to what Esther is doing. What I mean is this: It is the very nature of us Americans to always be in a big hurry. That’s how the rest of the world sees us—brash, reckless, and always in a big hurry. If it was us, the second we realized our only hope was to go into the king, we would have rushed into his presence, fell on the floor blubbering and begging, and hoping he’d grant our request. Instead, here is our Esther faced with the complete annihilation of her people and yet she devises a plan that takes two days to carry out. Faced with impending danger, yet she took the time to think things through and to come up with a plan and then work it through.

Just to belabor my point, I would suggest what we Americans would have seen is the dangers of delay. What if Haman suspected? What if he found out what the Jews had all been fasting and praying about for three days and then had a whole 24 hours to spin the situation and turn the king’s heart against Esther? On this first encounter, when the king saw Esther, he was pleased. How does she know he’ll still be favorable to her tomorrow? Maybe she’d better “strike while the iron is hot?” That is how our harried minds work. But not Esther’s.

Robert Hawker (ca. 1800) noted, along exactly these lines: “We are, like children, all in haste to gather the fruit, though unripe, and would be injurious. God keeps it till it is more suited for us, and our hearts more suited to receive it.” There you go—fruit needs to ripen. It takes time. Jesus said much the same thing, “What man, building a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to finish it?”

Our girl knew how to let the fruit ripen. She had the courage and the faith to let things work. Especially for us Americans, it would do us all well to let her example weigh on our minds and maybe, even just a little, help us to be more careful, deliberate people.

Here we are walking along beside this young, beautiful girl, only to discover she’s also wise. Perhaps as we would walk with the wise, the Lord would make us each more like her. May we learn the discipline of letting fruit ripen!