“Now 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.” Esther 2:17 (NIV)
In Sunday school it was brought to my attention that this thing about the king ordering pretty women from all over the land to come try out for “queen” was almost like a sex-trafficking deal.
And I suppose it was. Just about everything in the book of Esther makes you a bit uncomfortable, all but the beauty and attitude and faithful actions of Esther, who must have been drop-dead gorgeous outside and in, and Mordecai, a guy who knew how to seize the moment, trust his Creator, and play his cards right.
Otherwise you have a drunken and boastful king, whose name was Ahasuerus, although some called him Xerxes, which might have been why he drank so much. But probably it was because he was fretting over the Greeks and also because he was upset that his wife, the actual queen, wouldn’t come to be shown off in front of his buddies when they were all three sheets to the wind.
Then you’ve got Hegai, who ran the harem and didn’t know the God of Israel, but he sure knew a young girl with a lovely figure and disposition when he saw it.
And batting cleanup, the rotten-to-the-core Haman, who wanted to exterminate a whole race of people just because he despised one man, and his reason for that wasn’t worth a hill of beans.
But God can use a drunken king, a wide-eyed harem lord, and a spiteful, hate-filled barn rat to accomplish His purposes. And in the book of Esther, it is a young Jewish girl and her faithful uncle who God positions to save the day. And when He made the call, they answered.
I read a quote this week from A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance: “God is preparing his heroes and when the opportunity comes, He can fit them into their places in a moment, and the world will wonder where they came from.”
Make note of your position . . . and keep getting your practice swings in.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
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