Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. Esther 2:15
This time of year on the Jewish Calendar is the celebration of Purim. It is to celebrate the time the Jews were set to be anihilated, but as always before, God protected His people in an amazing way. The account of this celebration is found in the book of Esther. She was an orphan, raised by her cousin Mordecai in Shushan Persia.
Now the king Xerxes had a 180 day party to celebrate the amazing kingdom he reigned over. Then on the last seven days all the stops were pulled out and it became even more eleaborate. Now while he was holding a banquet in the great hall, Vashti his queen was holding one in for the women in another place in the palace. He summoned her to come to present herself before his quests, but she refused. Now there is no Biblical account of why, although some believe it was because she opposed the war with Greece or because she didn’t want to be paraded before a drunken group of men. What matters is, she didn’t want to be in the presence of the king. Xerxes was so offended that a law was passed that she could no longer come into his presence and her replacement needed to be found.
So they went around in all the provinces gathering up young virgin women, who would go through a year long preperation to take their turns to be chosen by the king. Today’s Scripture tells us that Eshter was always different from the others, and when it was her time to go before the king, she didn’t want to choose to present herself with what pleased her, but with what would please the king. Hegai, knew the king very well and what he liked, and she chose to listen to what He said. And it paid off, because we learn in verse 17, The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
What made the difference? Esther wanted to please the king, not herself, and in so doing, she gained his heart. This should make us ask the question, do we want to please King Jesus, or do we want to please ourselves and others to gain favor. Do we want to read the Word and listen to Holy Spirit to learn what pleases the king and gain His favor? His favor is better than any favor we can gain in our own trying, because His favor even works over our enemies. As we will learn tomorrow on the day of Purim, pleasing the king defeats the enemy in every area of your life.
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