Jerome once said, “The world's philosophers drive out an
old passion by instilling a new one; they hammer out one nail by hammering in
another.” (248) We
see this principle come to play in the life of Xerxes.
Last week we saw how he had deposed of Vashti for not entering his drunken party with her royal
crown on. Some time later the alcohol
wore off, and he remembered what had happened and seemed to regret the results
of his action like many drunken or impulsive people do. It would appear that he missed the beauty of Vashti and longed for a new queen. So what was the remedy of his eunuchs?
Esther
2:2-4 Then the king’s personal attendants proposed,
“Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king
appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these
beautiful girls into the harem at the citadel of
They decided to find a new
and improved queen; someone to replace the old and disrespectful one; a young
and submissive and beautiful young virgin.
As Jerome said, they were attempting to hammer out one nail by hammering
in another.
This is the attempt of the world. Within marriage it happens all too
often. My spouse is boring me and trying
my patience. I’ll replace him or her
with a new and improved model who makes me feel
better. When an alcoholic quits
drinking, he or she sometimes tries to manufacture a new image by making up
stories about himself or herself. When a teen loses her popularity, she decides
to become a drunken mess. You replace
one nail with another one.
The problem with this is that the new nail becomes rusty
and loose as well. The new romance isn’t
what it promised to be. The sober
lifestyle brings about more reality than we wanted to face. The new hobby is fun for a while, but it
grows old. Any
replacements that occur within this sinful world become old and worn out. The problem isn’t only with the replacement,
but more so with the person who craves the replacement. Even if Xerxes had the most beautiful virgins
in the land to choose from it didn’t mean that he would end up being happy for
the rest of his life.
Think about a modern day illustration. Even if you make the basketball team or the
volleyball team, the thrill will only last until the first game. Then you won’t be satisfied until you get
some playing time. Then you will want to
start. When you start, you won’t be
satisfied until you become a star. Think
also about your material possessions.
Having a VCR to watch your own personal movies at home wasn’t
entertaining enough. Then you needed a
DVD player and a full collection of movies you would watch once. But now you will need to replace it with a
Blue Ray player which has high def capabilities. This is the nature of the sinful beast within
us. Ecclesiastes 1:8. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the
ear its fill of hearing.
Nonetheless, people try with all their might to feed it. One craving is replaced with another; on and
on it goes.
In a valiant effort Xerxes’ attendants attempted to
satisfy his flesh. First of all, they
picked the most beautiful virgins they could find. But even that wasn’t good enough.
Esther 2:12-14 Before a
girl’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 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.
Talk about an Extreme
Makeover! I can’t imagine what these
women would smell like after dipping in perfumes and cosmetics and oil for
twelve months. If this wasn’t enough,
the King then was allowed a one night stand with every gal to figure out which
one performed to his liking. The rest
were thrown into a concubine - not really wives but not slaves either; as far
as I can tell they were just women who seemingly laid
around in a separate area of the palace and waited for the king to call on them
for sex from time to time. It seems they
mainly had the entertainment of each other and that was about it. The castrated eunuch was the only one who had
access to them. This was common in eastern
countries. Even David, Saul and Solomon
had them. The king would have his choice
of many of these women - the more he had the more a sign of prestige and power
it was that he could support them all.
Xerxes was being lined up with his own prestigious harem.
This kind of reminds me of our modern day show of the
Bachelor. All of these beautiful women
parade themselves in front of one man.
They try to impress him with their beautiful looks and
personalities. He makes out with most of
them, goes on extravagant “romantic dates” with sunsets and boat rides and
candle light dinners. Then after weeks
of dating he narrows it down to two women and then finally chooses the one he
wants. Women watch these shows and sigh,
“oh, how romantic. If only I had a
husband like that.” What they fail to
realize is that a majority of these bachelors STILL aren’t satisfied. They realize that the woman they do choose
isn’t going to fawn over him once he’s made his choice. These men almost always end up breaking up with
the one they thought was the one - even after all of their “beauty treatment”
dates. Unfortunately our own children in
high school and college are modeling their dating life after the culture we
live in.
Isn’t it interesting to contrast the match making for
this King Xerxes with the way our King does His match making? None of us were virgins. We were filthy prostitutes who were happily
married to Satan himself. We weren’t
exactly the best looking prostitutes either.
Actually, in our holy God’s sight we were some ugly critters, dead and
blind. We didn’t even have really great
personalities. God’s Word says that
because of our sinful natures we are naturally hostile and angry at him -
constantly blaming him for everything that happened in life. But what does the King decide to do? Instead of beautifying Satan and his angels -
who were some of his most beautiful creations, he decided to go a step lower
and make us filthy humans his beautiful brides.
You would think it would have been easier for God to dress up the fallen
angels than us. He wouldn’t have to put
on flesh or live in a filthy world. Yet
God decided to make humans - filthy humans like us - His bride.
How could we be made presentable to such a holy God? There are some who take the beauty treatment
approach. They try to apply God’s laws
to themselves in the hopes of being more beautiful and reestablishing a right
relationship with God. If I can just
clean up my tongue, I’ll be presentable to God.
If I can just stop looking lustfully at women, then God will love
me. If I can just produce children for
my husband, then I will be acceptable to God.
If I just start reading my Bible more, taking communion more, coming to
church more - maybe then I will be acceptable to God. A little here, a little there, a little nip,
a little tuck, and then I’ll be ok. Such
an approach ignores the fact that Isaiah says all our righteous acts - our
righteous ones - are still like filthy rags.
It ignores the fact that God is holy.
Do you know how far we would have to go if we took such an approach to
beauty? Like Jesus said in Mark 9:43-47,
If
your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with
only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. If
your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with
only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes
you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one
eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
In order to clean ourselves
up it would have to involve cutting off our own limbs in order to eradicate the
sin that comes for from them. A lifetime
of beauty treatments wouldn’t have been enough to get rid of our stench; for
sin had infiltrated our heart and soul.
The infiltration runs to deep to be removed with any mere beauty
treatment. We need a total different identity to be presentable to God.
The King had a totally different beauty treatment in
mind. It took much longer than one year
to be prepared. Through about
thirty-three years of a perfect life on this earth Jesus provided a new
identity for us - a reputation of being a perfect child. Instead of extracting myrrh or aloes from a
plant or a tree, a much stronger substance was needed to cover up the stench of
sin. The King would extract the blood of
His Son on a cross. At the end of his
life - through this terrifying and horrible death on a cross our King and
Savior filled a reservoir full of His blood and righteousness - enough to cover
the world a hundred times over. At this
one instant Jesus said, “it is finished,” paid in full. Instead of applying this blood to us in
little dips and chunks over the course of a year, our Lord bathes us with it in
seconds from head to toe at baptism.
Galatians 3:26-27. You are all
sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. In this baptism we are put to death on the
cross and given a completely different identity - where we now look like Christ
in God’s eyes. Through faith we
constantly look to the wonderful bath that we had in Christ and love to
remember our sins have been paid for on the cross. The Lord’s Supper then reminds us of this
wonderful clothing that we have been given - as it physically takes us back to
the cross through the eating of Jesus’ body and blood. This is the way our King deals with us. This is the way our King makes us His
presentable bride - by clothing us in His righteousness and crediting us with
His holiness - yet recognizing each and every one of us as His own individual
children and sheep.
What is more - this isn’t just a temporary one night
stand. He doesn’t just try us out for
one night to see if we are acceptable and then coldly cast us off to a room to
spend alone when He is unhappy with us.
He sends His Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts and promises
to stay faithful to us and be with us to the very end of the age. He patiently and lovingly forgives us and
strengthens us and protects us - His bride - from temptations that are too
great for us to handle. Even when we do
fail, He sticks with us. He never mentions
the divorce word. It’s such a contrast
to the way the world deals with love and romance and marriage.
Back to our story!
Who will end up marrying the millionaire beast - King Xerxes? Who’s going to win the prize and get the
coveted crown? Enter the beauty!
Esther
2:5-11 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew
of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair,
the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who had been
carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among
those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah.
Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because 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. When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed,
many girls were brought to the citadel of
Focusing mainly on the
beauty, what can we learn about her? She’s
an orphan. She’s Jewish, yet uncle now
step-father Mordecai had forbidden her to admit it. Does this mean that she wanted to, but he
wouldn’t let her? How old was she
anyway? She was old enough to have full
womanly features, so she was probably at least seventeen I would imagine -
where she could have chosen to disobey him.
Yet she still chose to listen to him.
Her new name changed from Hadassah to “Esther”; and it probably means
either star or reflects a heathen goddess named Ishtar. Oh, and by the way, she was beautiful all the
way around. That’s about all we know of
her background.
The text says is that Esther “was taken to the king’s
palace.” The verb for “taken” is
usually read as passive - so it appears that this was something that happened
to her. It could mean that she didn’t
necessarily volunteer to join this marriage ceremony since she already lived in
Is it any different when you say to yourself, “I’m not
going to share Christ with my friends right now. I don’t want to turn them away. I just like drinking beer with him and
watching K-State, but I’ll get to it later.”
You may indeed have good intentions to share Christ. The problem is that this friend you have
chosen to hang out with is a vulgar and immoral alcoholic who tends to get you
to say things and do things you know you shouldn’t. It gets worse when a Christian man or woman
chooses to start dating someone who is not only not a Christian but who vocally
expresses no desire to do so. Even
though God’s Word says not to be unequally yoked the Christian thinks to
himself, “well, I love him. We can work
it out. I’ll win him over
eventually. God can still bless this
marriage.” The problem is that the later
doesn’t always come. The
eventually doesn’t always work out.
It also doesn’t take into consideration the years of living with or
hanging out with an unbeliever - where faith is often put on trial and words
should be spoken. When Christians should
have known better in the first place and never gotten in the relationship or
friendship, they go ahead and do it anyway.
This is what Esther and Mordecai seemed to be trying to
do - to play the system and be Israelite spies.
Forget about the fact that she was going to sleep with a guy who had
slept with probably hundreds of other women.
Forget about the fact that he wasn’t a believer. They had to absolutely throw morality and the
concept of marriage out the door in order to do this. There really isn’t any way to justify this
behavior. The end does not justify the
means.
So what can we do with these types of examples that are
put on the pages of Bible history? We
can sit in awe that our merciful LORD would be so
patient and kind as to work through such seemingly evil behavior and be so
forgiving with Esther and Mordecai.
Without excusing their behavior, we can thank God that He used this
terrible marriage to end up saving His people and keeping the promise of the
Savior alive. Just think, if God could
work this terrible marriage out for the saving of many lives, don’t you think
He can still work your marriage out for good; even if you are the oddest couple
there ever was? If God was so patient
and forgiving with Esther and Mordecai, could it be that God would also be
patient and forgiving with you also? God’s
Word declares in Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does
he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” If He was this way with Esther and Mordecai,
then He can be this way with you.
Even if you started your relationship in adultery or you
married someone who is not a Christian - it doesn’t mean that the situation is
too difficult for God. That doesn’t
excuse the sin - but it does help us in repentance to turn to the LORD and know
that He still promises to forgive us and love us in Christ. Examples of Esther and Mordecai help us to
see what is most important: Romans 5:20, “where sin increased, grace
increased all the more.” God doesn’t
need strong Christians to fulfill His purpose.
He can use weak ones and even heathens like Pharaoh to do whatsoever He
pleases. Even if you have gotten
yourself into a life long job or marriage that you know is not going to be
pretty, it doesn’t mean that God can’t work it out. If God could work this situation out for good
- which He did - He certainly can work wiith you.
How did things turn out?
Well, of course - the king was most enamored with Esther and she became
the queen. King Xerxes lovingly placed
the crown on her head and held a huge banquet in celebration of Esther. He handed out presents to the people,
everybody rejoiced, and they lived happily ever after . . . well - not
exactly. After this marriage Esther had
gone for at least 30 days without even seeing Xerxes once; not much of a
marriage it would appear. But for the
moment there was rejoicing in the castle.
Mordecai and Esther had managed to pull it off. The Jews now would potentially have a
powerful player in the King’s back pocket if needs be; and needs would be. God was working it all out for His
purpose.
When our beautiful King marries us, This isn’t something that God just lives with and tolerates - kissing us with His nose plugged because He has to. He rejoices in this marriage! HE - the HOLY OF HOLIES - loves to be married to us and live in us. Luke 15:7 says, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Not only does this King give us a beautiful robe of righteousness to wear, He also then gives us patience, wisdom, love forgiveness, and so many other gifts. Even as we live in a world of sin and sorrow and have to live with our own sinful decisions, our King and our Groom gives us joy, because we know that throughout it all He loves us with an unconditional love in Christ, rejoices that we are His, and continues to work all things out for our good. Amen.