A new queen was needed. Xerses, king of Persia (also known as Ahasuerus) had deposed his queen Vashti because she had disobeyed him (although it seems he did this primarily to save face – see Esther 1). Arrangements were put in place to find a replacement who was young, beautiful, and pleased the king. One would be chosen to be queen and the rest would become part of the king’s harem.

I don’t know about you but such an arrangement seems dreadful to me. Any young woman trying to become the queen would be giving up her freedom whether she was chosen or not. The idea of a harem is that they could still be summoned by the king if he desired them.

This is when we are introduced to a young Jewish girl named Esther. Esther was an orphan and had been raised by her older cousin Mordecai. We could say that Esther was a lovely young woman, both in physical beauty and, as this book tells us, in character and faithfulness to God. But it would not seem that Esther had a choice in becoming part of this ‘beauty contest’.

“When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem” (Esther 2:8).

We might be tempted to shrink back in horror at the obvious ordeal Esther was about to be put through, to be forced into the king’s harem. But, as we will later see, God’s providence was behind what was happening.

The details of how the young women were prepared for a night with the king are interesting, with what seems to be a year and a half of beauty treatments.

“Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king: anything she wanted was given to her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.” (Esther 2:12-14)

When it was Esther’s turn she listened to the advice of Hegai. We see her character coming through in this description: “And Esther won the favour of everyone who saw her” (Esther 2:15). It was this young Jewish girl, who had concealed her nationality, who won the favor of the king and became the next queen.

The stage is now set for what would be salvation for the Jewish people.

What would we have done if we were in this situation? Would we have objected to being forced into the king’s harem? This would only have made life very difficult for us. From what we see in Esther she trusted in God and was willing to go where God needed her to be.

Esther is one of two books in the Hebrew Scriptures that doesn’t mention God (the other is Song of Songs). But even though God is not mentioned we see God at work in the lives of his people and in their faithfulness.

A question for us: can people see through our lives that we are followers of God?

by Jon Galloway