Esther - For Such a Time as This

quest to defeat Greece.

So, for 6 months, he had all the powers of the nations of his empire partying and perhaps talking up this military mission.

At the end of 6 months, he had a week long closing ceremony that would rival any Olympics ceremonies and spent liberally on his guests including indulging in great amounts of wine.

So, here are all these macho military men and leaders of areas of Xerxes empire, drunk and getting drunker for a whole week. Not a pretty site.

Many of you know how rude and crude men, or anyone for that matter, can get when they are drunk.

Well this is the situation, the current Queen Vashti finds herself in.
Now she is giving a banquet for the ladies while the guys are boozing it up.

Let’s continue
Esther 1:10-11
10 On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him-(he names them)- 11 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.

Now, ladies, imagine for a moment, your drunk husband calling out to you to come over so all his drunk buddies can check you out.

Some commentators believe that when it says “wearing her royal crown,” that that is all she was to be wearing when she came in to be oogled by these drunks.

The Queen refuses and this upsets Xerxes.
Xerxes makes a law, which can’t be repealed, deposing her and stripping her of her title.

War battles begin
Secular history informs us that Xerxes set out not long after this to try and defeat Greece, but ultimately returned without conquering it.

This is probably where Chapter 2 picks up. His anger has subsided and he is thinking about his babe of a former wife, but he can’t have her because he made a rash decision that could not be repealed.

So Xerxes is bumming.
Then, one of his attendants, probably desiring to get in good with the king and knowing his fondness for the female form, makes a suggestion.

Esther 2:2-4
"Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful girls into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.

Imagine that. The king thinks it is a good idea to bring in a bunch of beautiful virgins for his pleasure. Go figure.

Anyway, a search is made throughout his empire. He rounds up beautiful young virgins from every corner of his empire and they all undergo spa treatments so they can be made to look even better for this chauvinist and selfish king.

This is where we meet Esther, a young, Jewish virgin and Mordecai, her older cousin.

Esther 2:7 tells us that Esther “was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.”
So Esther lives in the town where the palace is because Mordecai is in the service of the king as a minor official with duties at the king’s gate, which is the place of commerce and legal activity.

Now, while the Jews had been exiled and taken into captivity in Babylon about 100 years before