esther

Esther

I flipped to Esther a few weeks back and read her story. I know her story and as I read it I thought “there must be more to this” so I took sometime to explore her and do some research about her...I learned a lot and I thought I would share it with you…

Quick story in case you are not familiar with it

King x has a party. He likes to drink by the way and has a shotty temper (imo) he calls for his wife, who is also having her own party with her friends to come and dance for him and his friends, and from what I have read she was to dance naked. She said “no living loving way” and in a fit of rage the king (remember shotty temper) gave her the boot and after he cooled down realized “man, I don’t have me a wife. What do I do?” so he got his homies to go find one for him.

Esther was brought to him, oh she was a beauty. A fine specimen of a woman she was. She was a super model. She got picked (after spending 12 months getting beauty treatments, which sound utterly divine and sheer heaven like to me) and getting some insider tips and tricks (more on that later) and voila she is the new queen

Then things get tricky. Her coz refuses to bow to the prime minster dude, who is a wee bit arrogant and is out to kill him by killing all Jews (might as well while he’s at it) but Esther risks her life by going to the king (a huge no no one does not go to the king with out being invited, that could kill ya) she goes (after some fasting and praying) and the king (you guessed it) lets her speak so she decided to then (after 2 banquets) to make her request, freeing her coz and then killing the pm and well, his 10 sons (might as well while she’s at it) then she requests to take out many more ppl. Which they do about 75,000 Persians

So

Who was this leading lady? Why is she so important that an entire book of the bible is named after her? Sure we know her story but I thought there MUST be more and more is what I discovered!

Esther transformed herself from an unwanted orphan after her parents died (2:7) into the most powerful person in the Persian Empire and if that was not enough, she was living in exile (kicked out of the homeland and no-where to do) think what happened to the French ppl here in n.b…same thing…anyways…

How in the world did she do this??? I have discovered that this lady was simply a brilliant strategist

How? 2:10 “Esther had told no one of her nationality or family back ground” why? Just because mord (the cousin who took her in and raised her like his own) told her not to? Naw, there had to be more….my theory…by not sharing this big pieces of who she is with ANYONE she was free to practice her beliefs alone in private, still serving her god while surrounded by the enemy. She literally was able to work for the Jews as a Jew

How hard would that be? To not talk!! Think about it! To hold a huge secret for 9 yrs, that is a super duper redic long time to not share like a vital piece of information of like you know who you are with you know maybe your HUSBAND or like the palace slaves who took care of her. She said nothing. She is a WOMAN and yet, she remained quiet. That had to be hard! So I label her not only as a wise speaker, but with discernment/descrission to not talk, throw in some amazing self control to remain incredibility silent and incredibly strong

I also think that she knew that she was holding vital info that could/would be used to save her people and by holding it until the right time she was placed in a position to do so

That is amazing self control. I wish I had some. Esp with my mouth…but I am talking about the queen here and not me…ha. She had the ability to be queen not over the empire but also herself!

She carried a hidden destiny inside her. Do you?

Then I realized that she also saved the messianic line and like you know the nation! Yeah, this queen was awesome

We all know that she was taken care of and watched over by hegai. (2:3&8) from what I have read (I can get you my ref’s) this guy was ugly. Like butt stone ugly. For a reason, hello, he’s watching the king’s ladies! And we know that this king is like a character guy and all…anyways…hegai had total control of the ladies. He dressed them, fed them, and talked to or not to them, kinda like a jail guard. He told them what to do, how and when to do it. Total control she had.

Esther won favor with this dude (2:9) what exactly does that mean? From what I leant it meant this…moving into the best part of the “jail” having the best beauty treatments, the best clothing, the best food…the best of the best

What would be the best of the best? How about some hands-on training from hegai, the guy who knew the king better than anyone else! Heg knew the king, he (unlike the ladies) spent time with the king, he knew what he liked to eat, how he slept, how he dressed and most valuable…how he liked his ladies!

2:15 “now when it was time for Esther to the king, she requested nothing but what hegai advised”

Heg used his “in the know-ness” to influence Esther to a position to make her queen

Why?

Hegai saw something in Esther, something like “hummm she has all the qualities to be a great queen”

Which lead me to think this “am I doing everything I can to use my own influence to help others be the queens that they are called to be?” Am I nurturing, rising up, and talking to, encouraging, sharing, spending time, mentoring others?

It gets better!

Did you know Esther was NOT her real name? It wasn’t! Her real name was Hadassah

2:7 “This man had a beautiful and lovely cousin, Hadassah, who was also called Esther”

Hadassah means myrtle tree
Myrtle is an evergreen shrub that is used for violet flowers and making perfume
These leafs have a very sweet fragrance that can only be released when the leaves are bruised and crushed

When I discovered that I was so blown away. So much so that I picked up the phone and called my smarty “knowseverything” pants hubs up at work and asked him “did YOU know that Esther was NOT her real name????” to which I was dropped kicked shocked to find out that NO HE DID NOT KNOW THIS, after I bragged and gloated that FINALLY I KNEW something he didn’t know….hahaha (I did by the way) and then sent him a bunch of reference, scriptures so he could see for himself

Esther’s hard life was brought out to its fullest by her hard life. Hello! Her smell could ONLY come out after she was crushed and bruised!

Hadassah in Jewish means “the one who suffers”
Esther in Persian means satarah which means star
Esther is related to the word “Hester” which means “hidden”

Silly fun facts

-guess how old Esther was??? She is guessed to be approxy 14 yrs old….14! Don’t tell me young ppl can’t do great things!

-during the 3 day fast/prayer before she went to the king, Esther tore her clothing (which is common to show upsetness) BUT Esther covered herself with dung! Aka poop! She covered herself with crap! Literally….how many years or beauty treatments would follow that one??? Ewww ewww ew!

I want to end this long, rambling post with this thought(s) Esther had discernment right but how hard would it have been for her to discern the truth in the middle of spiritual and material destruction? Very, I am guessing

What hidden destiny is inside you?

*I found a few more interesting things I want to study more in depth later, like the Persian Empire, the Purim and such things….stay tuned!

Posted by mel at 5:33 PM