From Orphan to Queen

Esther 2:1-9

1 But after Xerxes’ anger had subsided, he began thinking about Vashti and what she had done and the decree he had made. 2 So his personal attendants suggested, “Let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of Susa. Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the harem, will see that they are all given beauty treatments. 4 After that, the young woman who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Vashti.” This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect.

5 At that time there was a Jewish man in the fortress of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair. He was from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and Shimei. 6 His family had been among those who, with King Jehoiachin of Judah, had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. 7 This man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin, Hadassah, who was also called Esther. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter.

8 As a result of the king’s decree, Esther, along with many other young women, was brought to the king’s harem at the fortress of Susa and placed in Hegai’s care. 9 Hegai was very impressed with Esther and treated her kindly. He quickly ordered a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments. He also assigned her seven maids specially chosen from the king’s palace, and he moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.

It seems like people always tend to favor an underdog. We love the stories of the downtrodden becoming successful despite the odds against them. We truly do like to see people succeed, as long as we feel like we are succeeding ourselves.

The great thing about this passage is that the success and favor that comes to Esther is due to her obedience. She was initially chosen because of her beauty, but the favor shown by the man in charge of the project and then later on the favor shown to her by the king himself was due to her obedience to her uncle’s directions. I also belive the blessing of the Lord was upon her, too. Neither the king nor the man in charge of the plan knew anything about her obedience they saw the blessing was upon her. I wonder if the Bible shows any more examples of kings showing favor upon a Jewish child because the blessing of God was upon them? I wonder…

Genesis 41:37-44

37 Joseph’s suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his officials. 38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find anyone else like this man so obviously filled with the spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. 40 You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne, will have a rank higher than yours.”

41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck. 43 Then he had Joseph ride in the chariot reserved for his second-in-command. And wherever Joseph went, the command was shouted, “Kneel down!” So Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all Egypt. 44 And Pharaoh said to him, “I am Pharaoh, but no one will lift a hand or foot in the entire land of Egypt without your approval.”

Or how about this one…

Exodus 2:5-10

5 Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. 6 When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This must be one of the Hebrew children,” she said.

7 Then the baby’s sister approached the princess. “Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” she asked.

8 “Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the girl went and called the baby’s mother.

9 “Take this baby and nurse him for me,” the princess told the baby’s mother. “I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him.

10 Later, when the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses, for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water.”

As we see in reading further on in this passage, Moses was raised in the house of the Pharaoh as his grandson. Certainly it seems only the Egyptian Pharaohs were the only ones to show this sort of favor to those who had the blessing of the Lord upon them, right? Not so quick…

Daniel 1:3-6

3 Then the king (Nebuchadnezzar) ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 4 “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said. “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.” 5 The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service.

6 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah.

I know this isn’t an exhaustive list but it will do for now. So Esther wasn’t the only one shown favor. What was also important about those who were shown this favor was they also had to have a level of performance that was above the boards in order to stay in that favor. The common thread here is they all had the blessing of the Lord upon them. They were excelling in areas that God had gifted them in and kept themselves in that blessing by not doing things that would take them out of it. Moses did lose his way for a period of time due to his fleshly desire to save his people. That just goes to show that even when someone has the blessing on them they can let their flesh get in the way and mess the whole thing up. Thankfully God doesn’t just sit back and give up on us when we do that. He is quick to forgive and bring us back into that place of favor. Our time out of the favor is completely dependant upon us and how we respond to the pressures of our flesh and what it wants. If we learn to live by the spirit we then will learn to stay in the blessing as much as possible and watch what God does through us instead of what we can accomplish on our own. We could never accomplish things that will last without God involved in it. The kinds of things people accomplish without God are things that we would rather not be remembered for.

Published by Erik L. Vakula
Daily Bread From the Word
Copyright © 2009 Erik Vakula, All Rights Reserved