Esther Becomes Queen

Gold cups, no two alike. Curtains of white and blue. Couches of gold and silver on floors of marble and mother of pearl. The greatest king on earth is throwing a party. And it is about to go very wrong.

Many years after Babylon carried the people of Judah into exile, the Persians ruled the world. King Ahasuerus reigned over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India all the way to Ethiopia. His palace stood in the city of Susa, which the Bible calls Shushan. Jews lived scattered all through his empire, far from Jerusalem. One of them was a man named Mordecai, from the tribe of Benjamin. And Mordecai was raising a girl who had lost both her parents. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah. Most people knew her as Esther.

The king's feast had gone on for days. On the seventh day, merry with wine, he sent for Queen Vashti. He wanted to show off her beauty to the crowds of nobles. But Vashti refused to come. The whole hall went quiet. The king burned with anger. He turned to his advisers. What does the law say should be done? One of them, Memucan, warned that if the queen could say no to the king, every wife in the empire would follow her example. So Vashti was removed as queen, and letters went out across the provinces, in every language, declaring that every man should rule in his own house.

Time passed, and the king's anger cooled. He remembered Vashti, and what had been decided. So his servants proposed a search. Young women from every province would be brought to the palace, and the one who pleased the king would become queen. Esther was among those taken. Before she went, Mordecai gave her a clear instruction. Do not tell anyone who your people are. She obeyed. Inside the palace, Esther was placed in the care of Hegai, the official in charge of the women. He liked her at once, and gave her the best rooms and seven maids to attend her. Every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the court, trying to find out how she was.

The preparations lasted a whole year. Six months with oil of myrrh, six months with spices and perfumes. When each young woman went in to the king, she could take whatever she wanted from the palace to wear. When Esther's turn came, she asked for nothing except what Hegai advised. And the Bible says something lovely about her. Esther won the favour of everyone who saw her. The king loved Esther more than all the others. He set the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. Then he threw another great feast, Esther's feast, and gave gifts across the land.

Mordecai, meanwhile, had a post at the king's gate. One day he overheard two of the king's doorkeepers, Bigthan and Teresh. They were angry, and they were plotting to kill the king. Mordecai told Queen Esther, and Esther told the king, giving Mordecai the credit. The matter was investigated, it was found to be true, and the two plotters were put to death. The whole thing was written down in the king's book of records. Then, it seems, everyone forgot about it. Everyone except the book.

Who was this king? Most historians identify Ahasuerus with Xerxes the First, who ruled Persia from about 486 to 465 before Christ. The Hebrew name and the Greek name are two ways of saying the same Persian name. Susa was one of the empire's royal capitals. Archaeologists have uncovered the great palace there, begun by Xerxes' father Darius, with a vast hall of tall stone columns where the king received his guests. Esther's story is set in a real and glittering place.

Esther Becomes Queen. You'll find it in the book of Esther, chapters 1 and 2. An orphan in a foreign palace. A cousin who kept watching over her. A good deed written down and forgotten. None of it looks like much yet. But keep listening. Here's the question to carry with you. Where might God have placed you, right now, for a reason you can't see yet?