SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 17
ESTHER
ESTHER BECOMES QUEEN
From Esther 2
As time passed, the anger of King Ahasuerus calmed. Then he began to think about Queen Vashti and what she had done and how he had decreed that she could never see him again. [Command that a search be made for a new queen,] suggested the king’s attendants. [Let beautiful young ladies be brought before the king. We will appoint officers in each province of the kingdom to bring the loveliest young women to Susa the capital. They will be placed in the harem under the care of Hegai the eunuch, who is in charge of the women, and he will give them cosmetics to prepare them for the king. Then the young lady who pleases you most will become queen instead of Vashti.] The king was pleased with this plan, so he gave orders for it to be carried out immediately. In the capital at Susa there was a Jew named Mordecai, son of Jair. He was also a descendant of Shimei and Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. He had been exiled from Jerusalem with the captives whom King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from King Jeconiah of Judah. Mordecai had adopted his young orphaned cousin Hadassah, whose mother and father Abihail had both died, and was raising her as his own daughter. When the king’s decree went out, Hadassah, who was also called Esther, was brought to the king’s harem at the palace at Susa and placed into the care of Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the palace women. Hegai was pleased with Esther, so he gave her the best food, special cosmetics, and seven of the best palace girls as her maids, as well as the best living quarters in the harem. Mordecai had warned Esther not to tell anyone that she was Jewish, so she kept this secret to herself. Each day Mordecai visited the harem court to inquire about Esther and learn how she was. Each of the young ladies had twelve months of beauty care before she went to see the king. For six months she was treated with oil of myrrh and six months with special perfumes and cosmetics for women. When the time came for her to visit the king, she could take any clothing and whatever else she wished from the harem. She would be taken to the king in the evening and would return to the second harem in the morning, into the charge of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who took care of the concubines. She would visit the king again only when he wanted her and called for her by name. At last it was Esther’s turn to visit the king. She did exactly what Hegai advised. Everyone who knew Esther was pleased with her. It was the tenth month, the month Tebeth, or January, in the seventh year of the king’s reign, when Esther was taken to visit him. The king loved Esther more than any of the other women, so he showed greater favour and kindness to her. He was so pleased with her that he placed the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. To celebrate the event, the king gave another great banquet in Esther’s honour and invited all his princes and servants. He declared a holiday throughout the provinces and gave gifts and excused people from paying taxes. Sometime later, the king called for a second group of young ladies to be brought to him. Mordecai was now an official of the king and sat at the king’s gate. Esther still had not told anyone that she was Jewish or that she was related to Mordecai, for so he had instructed her. Esther still did as Mordecai told her, even as she had done when she was under his care. One day Mordecai overheard a plot by Bigthan and Teresh, two of the guards at the palace gate. They had become angry with the king and were planning to murder him. When Mordecai learned of the plot, he told Queen Esther, who in turn told the king, giving Mordecai the credit. The king had the plot investigated and found that it was true, so Bigthan and Teresh were hanged on gallows. While the king watched, the entire incident was recorded in the chronicles of the kingdom.
COMMENTARY
A PERSIAN KING’S HAREM
In the ancient Near East, men and women lived in separate sections of the same house, coming together only for brief periods during the day or night. The man or men in the house decided when those periods would be. The Persian kings did the same thing. All royal women lived in a building separate from the main palace called a {harem}; [they still exist in parts of the modern Middle East]. The word itself means {sacred, forbidden,} and entry into the women’s quarters was forbidden to everyone but the few who had the king’s permission to go there. The king married many foreign women in order to keep on friendly terms with their home countries. They were considered important people, and their commands were usually obeyed. An unhappy foreign wife could result in a war with her native country. But they had to live their lives mostly in the limited area of the harem and the palace, and strictly according to the king’s wishes. The king kept another group of women for his own enjoyment. There primarily for his pleasure, they were called concubines. Persian women and female captives who caught the king’s eye were brought to the palace and lived there with limited rights. There was little a harem woman could do to be the favourite of the king except to have a male child. She played on the king’s emotions with {womanly wiles,} the only power she had. It could be effective enough to threaten not only rivals, but also political figures and kings.
In Matthew 6:25-34, Yeshua didn't say we shouldn't seek after material things--God knows we need them, after all--but he said to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness first. It's okay to desire good things in your life, as long as you keep them in perspective. God and his kingdom first. Family and community next. Wealth and fun...somewhere below those.
"If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him."
1J 2
Everyone serves multiple masters all the time, so what did Yeshua mean when he said "No one can serve two masters" in Matthew 6:24? Yeshua frequently used hyperbole in his teachings and this is a good example. He was using an exaggerated statement to teach this principle: When there's a conflict in the instructions of two masters, what determines who you will obey? Is it money, security, prestige, etc.? Or is it God, the ultimate arbiter of all right and wrong?
https://rumble.com/vt5cqy-matt....hew-624-everyone-ser
Good morning and happy Thursday! The weather is getting beautiful here in Michigan, so my thoughts are going outside, where I love to sit under the trees, or around the fire pit, enjoying friends and family. We have lots of ideas today. https://archive.aweber.com/awlist6425868/4.hnk
Believers should be shaping the world but are too often deceived by the world. 1Kings 11:5—6, “Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.” As wise as Solomon was, even he allowed himself to be influenced by the world.
"If thy hand or thy foot cause thee to offend, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life, halt, or maimed, than having two hands, or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire."
Mt 18
Thought for Today: Thursday May 11:
May YHVH rekindle the passion in your dreams, and fill you with the desire to see them come true. May Adonai bless you with more hope than your heart can hold… and use the overflow to fill you with the courage to do what you thought is impossible.
SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 16
A QUEEN DEPOSED
QUEEN VASHTI REBELS
From Esther 1
In the third year of his reign, King Ahasuerus gave a great celebration at his palace in Susa the capital, inviting his princes, attendants, and army officers. They came from all parts of his vast kingdom of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, stretching from India to Ethiopia. For six months the king showed his guests his great riches and royal power. Near the end of the celebration, he gave a banquet which lasted seven days. He invited all the palace staff at Susa, from the greatest to the least. Beautiful decorations hung throughout the garden of the king’s palace where the banquet was held. Blue and white linen hangings were fastened with purple cords and silver rings to pillars of marble. There were gold and silver couches, and a patio made of coloured marble, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones. The king gave orders that everyone could have as much as he wished to drink of the king’s wine, but no person would be pressed to drink more than he wanted. The wine was served in the golden vessels of the king. While this was going on, Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women of the palace. On the seventh day of the king’s banquet, Ahasuerus was in a happy mood because of the wine. He commanded the seven eunuchs who served as his personal attendants, Mehuinan, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas, to bring Queen Vashti with her royal crown before the king so that he could display her beauty to his guests, for Vashti was a very beautiful woman. But the queen would not come as the king had commanded. The king became very angry and counselled with the wise men who knew about the customs of the times, for it was his practice to discuss such things with the men who knew the laws and penalties of the land. These counsellors were seven princes of Persia and Media, men who came often before the king and sat in the highest places in the kingdom, men very close to the king. Their names were Carshena, Shethar, Adinatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan. [How should we deal with Queen Vashti, since she has disobeyed the orders I sent through the eunuchs?] the king asked these counsellors. Memucan replied, [Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the princes and citizens of the king’s empire. When other women hear what she has done, they will scorn their husbands also, saying, ‘If the queen can refuse to obey, so can I.’ They will answer their husbands as the queen has answered the king’s orders; and this will cause much contempt and anger throughout the land. If it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree, written in the laws of Persia and Media so that it cannot be changed. Let Queen Vashti come no more into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let another woman, more worthy than she, be chosen as queen. [When the king’s decree is heard throughout his great kingdom, then all wives will honour their husbands, no matter how great or how small they are,] The king and his princes were pleased with this counsel, and the king did as Memucan suggested. King Ahasuerus sent letters to all provinces of the kingdom, written in the language and script of each province, urging every man to rule over his own house and to speak with authority according to the customs of his own people.
COMMENTARY
MEN’S JEWELRY IN THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
In ancient Persia a wealthy man wore jewellery. His beard sparkled with small gems, his robe was covered with gold and silver sequins, elaborate necklaces hung from his neck and wide precious armbands glowed on his arms. The more jewellery he wore, the more he was respected and admired. The importance and wealth of any man was directly reflected in the amount of jewellery that covered his body. In fact, jewellery was so much a part of the life of the Persian male that soldiers wore great amounts of gold into battle.
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