Esther 1:1-3:15
1. Esther's temperament. Here's another example of why I value the discipline of reading through the entire bible each year: the Spirit of God draws my attention to previously unnoticed text; unrealized ideas & truths obscured in prior years'.
Compare Esther with Vashti. First, Vashti in 1:10-12:
On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him ... to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.As a result:
Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes
Next, consider Esther (vs 2:7):
she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
(vs 2:8,9):
Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. The girl pleased him and won his favor.
How did Esther win the eunuch's favor? How many vain or ambitious women had Hegai dealt with before meeting Esther? What's it like being surrounded by women competing to be the next queen (supposing the king's edict described the prospects of royalty)? As a result (vs 9):
Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.
Another condition imposed upon lovely Esther (vs 10):
Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so.
The beautiful candidates could take anything they wished with them when it was their turn to visit the king's palace (vs 15):
When the turn came for Esther ... to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested.
Talk about wisdom! Brilliant! Check with the guy who's seen a thousand beautiful women...and who probably knows the king's preferences & taste. Even though emasculated, the eunuch would be the best guide for understanding the male perspective. Surely King Xerxes installed a eunuch to oversee his harem whose taste in women & beauty the King approved. Many women compliment one another on their wardrobe or hair ("That's so cute!", "That color looks great on you!", or "I love what you've done with your hair") but if you're vying to be chosen as the King's wife, you'll want to match the King's interests which might not be what most interests one's girlfriends.
Again, as a result (vs 2:15):
And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her.
Even more importantly (vs 17, 18):
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. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.
2.(2011) Husbands & Wives. It always amazes me that, after Xerxes consulted "wise men who understood the times" according to custom (following "solemnpe" as Lewis writes in "Preface to Paradise Lost")...that the primary concern was:
For the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come.’ 18 This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen’s conduct will respond to all the king’s nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord.
So the primary objective of the edict was:Then when the king’s edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest.”
So the edict was dispatched in Xerxes "native tongue":
He sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, proclaiming that every man should be ruler over his own household...
The account 3x cites the concern over addressing a kernel of disrespect germinating within marriages and households throughout the realm which would spawn endless "disrespect and discord".
Even pagans under common grace recognized the great civic value of harmonious marriages. Why not nip the problem so the king and nobles wouldn't have to resort to tyranny or some costly method for dealing with widespread strife and chaos?
We common folk should be so wise to emulate great leaders (rather than marketed celebrities) and do all within our ability to promote harmonious marriage as an institution and praise it when demonstrated among our family, friends and peers.
3.(2013) Matthew Henry comments on the distorted vision of marriage:
We may see, by this instance, to what absurd practices those came who were destitute of divine revelation, and who, as a punishment for their idolatry, were given up to vile affections. Having broken through that law of creation which resulted from God's making man, they broke through another law, which was founded upon his making one man and one woman. See what need there was of the gospel of Christ to purify men from the lusts of the flesh and to reduce them to the original institution. Those that have learned Christ will think it a shame even to speak of such things as these which were done of them, not only in secret, but avowedly, Eph. 5:12.4.(2013) On Esther's being an orphan Henry also comments:
(2.) She was an orphan; her father and mother were both dead (v. 7), but, when they had forsaken here, then the Lord took her up, Ps. 27:10. When those whose unhappiness it is to be thus deprived of their parents in their childhood yet afterwards come to be eminently pious and prosperous, we ought to take notice of it to the glory of that God, and his grace and providence, who has taken it among the titles of his honour to be a Father of the fatherless. (3.) She was a beauty, fair of form, good of countenance; so it is in the margin, v. 7. Her wisdom and virtue were her greatest beauty, but it is an advantage to be a diamond to be well set. (4.) Mordecai, her cousin-german, was her guardian, brought her up, and took her for his own daughter. The Septuagint says that he designed to make her his wife; if that were so, he was to be praised that he opposed not her better preferment. let God be acknowledged in raising up friends for the fatherless and motherless; let it be an encouragement to that pious instance of charity that many who have taken care of the education of orphans have lived to see the good fruit of their care and pains, abundantly to their comfort.1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Psalm 35:17-28
Proverbs 21:19-20
Years Read
2010, 2011, 2013, 2025
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