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Episode 687: In this episode, we dive into Esther chapter 2, where King Xerxes, after regretting his decision to banish Queen Vashti, seeks to find a new queen. His attendants suggest a search for beautiful young virgins throughout the empire, leading to a beauty contest of sorts. We are introduced to Mordecai, a Jewish man in Susa, and his beautiful cousin, Esther, whom he adopts after her parents die. Esther is brought into the king's harem, where she receives special treatment and beauty preparations.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of The Bible Guys. So today in Estra chapter two, it looks like a pretty extreme beauty pageant, but really it's just a divine set up. Yeah for sure, because God's in the whole thing. Yep. Yeah, So that's what we're going to get to. Before we do, we have a segment called Stump the pastor. And yeah, these. Are questions that are written in by people who are our listeners, we assume. So this is from. Caleb b Okay, Hi Caleb, and Caleb has this question, what was God doing before he created the universe? Well, great question, Caleb. Yeah you know what. The answer is, whatever he wanted, that's right, and or we don't no and the end. Yeah. Yeah, this is the weird part. And this this is one of those kind of twist your brain a little bit. Sure. So God is outside of time, yeah yeah, So what you're trying to do is how did he The question really is because we cannot fathom, hardly, we can barely comprehend the idea of no time. Right, So what you're asking is how did he fill his time? That's what you're asking, how did he not get bored? Right? Right? Well, especially since the concept is God always was and all of eternity past and all of eternity future. Right, God always was, is and will be. So the idea that like his past is infinite, right, and so and so before the time of creation of man. Yeah, it's it does blow your mind. So, so there's no time. That's why Genesis chapter one, verse one says in the beginninning God, So God was before the beginning, right, So time time as you and I experience it. And this is one of those Einstein things, relativity, all that kind of stuff. Time exists for you and me because we're on a rock spinning and circling a star, and the star creates days and nights for us, and so we measure in minutes and seconds and hours and months. And we're also we grow old and die, right, So. We are we are, So we're measuring our beginning and our end by how many times around the sun we go and how many times the planet spins. Right. That's so for us, it's a big part of our life because of the sun around us before that, how do you measure how do you measure time? Fifteen galaxies over right or five right? So it's so the conversation is time is different all throughout the universe, but with God there was no time and is no time. A day is a thousand years. A thousand years is as a day, is what Peter tells us. But the Bible say a couple things. One, he was in perfect union and fellowship as the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, so everything was perfect. He didn't lack anything. But then one of my favorite pastores, so I usually if I sign all the other day we had a lady ask us to sign her bible, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I signed my Bible or her Bible, and then I wrote some of my favorite verses Psalm forty one through three. He lifted me up by the Marie Clay, set my feet on a rock, give me a new song. So I love that. The other passage excuse me that I often will sign is Ephesians chapter one, And in Ephesian Chapter one it says it was the whole chapter. No, I always forget the first number, so I have to look him up. Gotcha. But it's the passage where he says, it was always God's plan before the beginning of the world to adopt you to become his children. It's very own. Yeah yeah, I'm just kidding. I don't even know. Oh, I don't know. I have it here, I have it here, let me see I'm right. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well, so in verse four it says he chose Jesus before the beginning of the before the foundation of the world, to be the one that will solve our sin problem. And then you get a little further down and it says it was always his plan to adopt us. So you want to know what God was doing. He was in perfect union and fellowship outside of time, so he wasn't trying to figure out how to fill time, right, But he was in complete and total perfect union fellowship with the Father's Son, Holy Spirit. And then he was making plans, right. He was planning the intricacies of the universe. He was planning how all of this story would work out. He'd already decided that if this thing broke down into sin, Jesus would be the one that would come and pay the price. He'd already chosen you. He had a plan for you, specifically and so what was God doing before time? That's it. He was planning on you, and he was planning on rescuing you. I liked the I like the illustration of dragging the YouTube video. So the idea of like when we watch a video, there's that there's that little red dot on the bottom, and if you grab the video and you could move it forward and you can move it back back and forth. Uh, you know start started the point of the story that you want. That's God outside of time, right, he doesn't have to be limited by by the you know, watching the video of no controls, right, So yeah, that's it's a good illustration to help us understand. So, hey, great question, Caleb. And if you are listening and you would love to write in a question. You're like, you know, I've always wandered this. Please send us an email at info at the Bible guys dot com or just comment on any one of our platforms. W would be great. Yeah, very fantastic, you know, talking about great. Oh, I was going to say, speaking of time, it's time for a beauty. Fathhet that's even better. That's better. Let's let's go with that one. What time is it? It's time for beauty pageants. Okay, so its talking about beauty pageants. In Esther chapter two, it says, but after Xerxes Anger had subsided, he began thinking about bash Dan, what he had done and the decree he had made. Remember, they can't they can't revoke the laws of the Means and Persians if the king signs it. He signed it when he was drunk. Now he regrets it. And this was the same thing that they tricked Darius with when when Daniel was storming the lines. Then, so he's regretting what he did right here, which how many people have that story after a long party, no doubt? Right, Let me think you regret something at a party. Yeah, even even a king after after long seven days of drinking, regrets his decisions. So his personal attendance suggested, let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king. But the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of susa Hegai, the King's eunuch in charge of the harem, will see that they are all given beauty treatments. After that, the young women whom most young woman who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Ashti. This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect. At that time, there was a Jewish man in the Fortress of Susa whose name was Mordecais, son of Jair. He was from the tribe of Benjamin, who was a descendant of Kish and Shimiyan. His family had been among those who, with King Johoyakin of Judah, had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebukinezer. This man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin, Hadasa, who was also called Esther. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter. As a result of the king's decree, Esther, along with many other young women, was brought to the king's harem at the Fortress of Susa and placed in hegae Eye's care. Hegyaye was very impressed with Esther and treated her kindly. He quickly ordered a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments. He also assigned her seven maids, especially chosen from the King's palace, and he moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. Esther had not told anyone of her nationality and family background because Mordecai had directed her not to do so. Every day, Mordecai would take a walk near the courtyard of the harem to find out about Esther what was happening to her. Before each young woman was taken to the king's bed, she was given the prescribed twelve months of beauty treatments, six months with oil of myrrh, followed by six months with special perfumes and ointments. When it was time for her to go to the king's palace, she was given her choice of whatever clothing or jewelry she wanted to take from the harem. That evening, she was taken to the king's private rooms, and the next morning she was brought to the second harem, where the king's wives lived. There she would be under the care of Goosh Gods, the king's unit in charge of the concubines. She would never go to the king again unless he had especially enjoyed her and requested her by name. Esther was the daughter of a Baya Hail, who was Mordechai's uncle, Mordecai had adopted his younger cousin Esther. When it was Estra's turn to go to the king, she accepted the advice a heguy in the eunuch in charge of the harem. She asked for nothing except what he suggested, and she was admired by everyone who saw her. Esther was taking the king's xerxes at the royal palace in early winter of the seventh year of his reign, and the king loved Esther more than any of the other young women. He was so delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Ashdai their Vashdi. To celebrate the occasion, he gave a great banquet in Esther's honor for all his nobles and officials, declaring a public holiday for the provinces, and giving generous gifts to everyone. Even after all the young women had been transferred to the second Harem and Mordecai had become a palace official, est continued to keep her family background and nationality a secret. She was still following Mordecai's directions, just as she did when she lived in his home. Oh Will we keep reading. Yeah, yeah, it was not too many. There's not too many. On one day, as Mordechai was on duty at the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthana and Terrish, who were guards at the or the king's private quarters, became angry at King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. But Mordecai heard about the plot and gave the information to Queen Esther. She then told the king about it and gave Mordecai credit for the report when the When an investigation was made, mordecai story was found to be true, the two men were impaled on a sharpened pole. This was all recorded in the book of the History of King xerxes reign. Impaled on a sharpened pole. Yeah, that's a rough way to go. That is a rough way way. This guy was not a pleasant person. No, no, And and most people back then really weren't, were they. So this entire chapter again, UH, is a big setup to give us a lot of context of what's about to happen. And uh, and. We're introduced to a very very important person, which is Mordecai. Uh. There's an entire thing and the life application study Bible. Every once in a while, what they'll do is to give a huge paper like a character study, right, and and and and so it just it lists out the strengths and accomplishments of Mordecai, the lessons he learned from his life, the vital statistics surrounding his life, the key verse according to his life, and uh and and it basically lays out the importance of this character. And uh, the entire page here is dedicated to this guy. And uh, you know what, he is an unsung hero of this. Story, isn't he. Yeah? And it reminds me of. Like there are just unsung heroes in our lives, people who you know, he didn't necessarily. Have the spotlight at this moment. Uh, he was a key player in the story, but he gets credit for this, you know, for the assassination and information, which is great. But overall, when you. Look at the story of Esther, we're about to find out that Esther is going to be the true hero here, right. Esther is the one, but he's hurt confidant, he's her encourager. Yeah, yeah, he's. The person behind the curtain. You know, he's turning all the knobs and pulling all the strings, right, And it reminds me of you know what it reminds me of is Barnabas. And you know of Paul and Barnabas, right, So Barnabas, you know, it was was key in the New Testament for taking a guy named Saul who had a horrible reputation. Barnabas put his stamp on him, he introduced him to the disciples. He was the one that said, hey, I believe in this guy, trust this guy. And he leveraged his influence and leveraged everything about himself so that Saul can have influence. And the Saul eventually became Paul, and then and then Barnabas faded into the background, and now we know Paul as the guy. He's the guy who wrote half the New Testament. And Barnabas really truly is the key because with that Barnabas, there is no Paul. There is no Paul with that Barnabas, and and and that is that is what we learn here in the story of Esther. There is no Esther without Mordecai. Right. So this is a pretty It again highlights just really how horrible of a person's Eerxes is yeah, right, I met at my queen. I sleep with another virgin every single night. I only see her one time, then I send her away. She lives in a harem. She's not allowed to go anywhere else or do anything else. She has an incredibly boring existence. Afterwards, if I happen to think of her again, maybe I might have been my bed to another day. But they these kings collected women like they collected jewelry and the soldiers. Right, And you got to spend a year in preparation before you come visit me. Right, right, And so this is what's happening. The Bible does not endorse his bad behavior, no towards women or towards anything. It's just telling it as it happened. Right. Her family, along with others, were all captives. They were all slaves to these bad guys. This is during that seventy year window when they had been hauled away. And you know, this is just after that their family had been hauled away during the seventy years. This is just after the time that Cyrus had said they could go back only three years into xerxes reign and their family did not return. And then she gets hauled into the palace on this None of that is what is the Bible saying, Hey, this is a good thing. But God makes even the worst things he can use them for good. And this is what happens for her. But there's a note. Let me read this because again, get yourself a good study Bible. I like the life application study Bible because it will give you either theological understanding or historical context. And here it says Persian kings collected not only vast amounts of jewelry, but great numbers of women. These young virgins were taken from their homes were required to live in a separate building near the palace called a harem. This is where the whole idea of a harem came from. Is from these guys. Yeah, their sole purpose was to serve the king and to wait his call for sexual pleasure. They rarely saw the king, and their lives were restricted and boring. It rejected Esther would be one of many girls the king had seen once and forgotten. Estra's presence and beauty please the king enough that he crowned her queen in place of Ashta. The queen held a more influential position than a concubine, and she was given more freedom and authority than others in the Harem, but even as Queen, Estra had few rights, especially because she had been chosen to replace a woman who had become too assertive, and that becomes very important in this story. Yes, she's replacing a woman who had become too assertive, and so there's tremendous risk because now he has become very forceful in the way that he's dealing with all of the people around him, including the queen, and so there's some real danger coming for her. And thank God for Mordecai, this guy who kind of is her stabilizing force. Yeah, becausecouraging her. Hey, don't forget who we are and what we believe, and protect yourself. And I'm trying to think of so I think oftentimes when we tell a story like this, this is an epic story, I. Think of my son. So my son. I'm trying to decide whether my son knows what's happening in this story. Does he completely know it from start to finish, does he remember or is he hearing it for the first time. And the reason why I'm saying this is because oftentimes he listens to the Bible guy every day did you know that? Every day? And he drives like like half an hour. His name is Stephen Steve. Steven drives like half an hour of work. And so he listens to the Bible guys there and back and everything else. And so sometimes he'll say, man, dad, he goes, I learned this as a kid, but it's been a long time since I read this, and it seemed like a new story to me. But you know, he knows, he knows a lot, right, But sometimes he'll say, oh, I forgot that whatever, and then sometimes he'll just remember. And so anyway, as you're reading this, as you're reading this, in my mind, the only thing I can think of is I wonder if he remembers the veggietails. All right, right, right, ya hey, my queen, it's hilarious. It wasn't exactly like that. That wasn't entirely true in life. But yeah, because Larry the Cucumber was U was xerxes. Well, hey, it's been so long a lot of a lot of our listeners mind, and I even know about old veggiet tails. Oh yeah, well you got to be pretty old, right, yeah, if you like to talk two tomatoes okay, anyway, so I. Do think it's were you going somewhere with that or were you just talking about. No, No, what I was. What I was just going to say is actually, yeah, all those thoughts were connected to this thought. There may be people. Who are listening to us saying that Esther, you know, Mordechai is so important and Esther is going to display so much courage, but they have no idea what's going to happen next, right, And so what we have to understand is is that Mordecai was a Jew, right, And so that's important because again the Jewish people were still, you know, in exile in this particular case, some. Of them had gone back to jewsom but not all of them. That's the head lives. And remember we had talked about how like the Babylonians and the Meads and the Persians were somewhat generous in that they would allow captives to own land, run businesses, to build a new life and on new land, and so not everybody went back to Israel when Cyrus said you could go. Right and so and so Mordecai was a Jew, and then he knew that Esther was a Jew. In fact, he was that Esther was his niece, cousin, his cousin, his cousin. Yeah so so so he's related to Esther, who's now the queen, and nobody knows that connection and none of that. But Mordecai influenced the trainer of Esther, right that the person in charge of her preparations as a beauty pageant person, right, right, He had urged her not to share her nationality and family background. So so Mordecai had a sense to where he didn't want he didn't want her being a Jew to be to hinder her from being chosen as a queen, right, and so and it turns out that that that that's going to play out to be a really important part too. Right, So all of this is coming together for this, for this big moment of something it's about to happen. And then and then Mordecai is going to be the one that. Says, Okay, Esther, you have to leverage your influence as a queen and you have to step out and you have to influence the king. And then and the big risk is going to be have you met Xerxes? Yeah, exactly exactly, that's what the risk ruthless right, So over the last several weeks, I've mentioned the idea of diplomacy several times, and I've been kind of working through this framework for biblical diplomacy. I think I mentioned it to you here. Mordecai has told her a couple of times, don't tell the king that you're a Jew. Now. It is interesting because this guy liked her, was a hey guy, and he quickly ordered a special menu for her. Right, So some people have some ideas or she's like, no, just give me vegetables like Daniel and yeah, yeah, yeah, right. In some ways she's able to manage that part of her life, but it's not out in the open that she's Jewish. And I think it's interesting because as God's people, you know, we're not I'm not Jewish, but I'm one of God's people, you know, through what Jesus did. We know that we're supposed to be proclaiming who we are, but we should be proud. The Jewish people typically we're proud of their heritage all those kinds of things. But in this moment, he's saying, hey, just keep that on the download right now. And there's a diplomatic strategy. I think to that a little bit and she she's earning the right to be heard before she starts making demands to this powerful man. Right, it's gonna come out, she's gonna, but she's gonna have already proven. Hey, you're a man that has authority over me, and I'm going to show respect to you. You're the king, I'm a queen. You have absolute dictatorial power. You can do anything you want to do. I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to make any demands on you. I'm going to find a way to get the food I need to be able to follow my real religion. She's doing that, but she's going to earn the right. Then she brings good news. Hey, King, I know this guy Mordecai who works at your gates and he overheard an assassination plot. So now not only does Xerxes like her, Wow, she's pretty, she's also useful right as she's working for her, But she still hasn't exposed who she is or where she comes from. Later on, she's going to continue to do the same thing. She's building up this ability to make this strong declaration of who she is at the right time. But she's earning the right to be heard before she demands to be heard to the power above her. There's tremendous diplomacy in that. It's very very smart. Yeah, well, the Bible talks a lot about that, right, like submitting to authorities and sometimes member in Ephesians it says that we're supposed to serve the people that we work for as if we're serving God. Remember that. So, and by the way, that changed my entire perspective of bosses. That I didn't like. So it's like, I remember just thinking to myself, like, gosh, I just want to you know, mistreat this boss, disrespect this boss, whatever. And then I read in Ephesians. Where it says, no, no, no, you're placed under authority, and if you treat them the way that you know, the way that Christ commands you to, it's as if you're serving God. So then I remember teaching this as a youth pastor to my teenagers, and I remember saying, we don't serve our boss because of our boss. We serve our boss in spite of our boss, right, right, right, we serve we serve them in spite of who they are, right because because that's honoring God. And so and so, you know, by submitting to. Authority, not not compromising integrity and not compromising morality, but by submitting to their authority, even the people who mistreat you. The Boba says, you're honoring God in that way because you're loving them. You know, I. Wouldn't recommend anybody stay in a position where they're getting abused verbally or mistreated, right, I would just say quit, right, But but you. Know, sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you can't back up and go back to Jerusalem, right, right, right, and so now you're in the Harem right right. So sometimes you're just in a situation where you feel like you're and so you can honor God in any circumstance like that, right, Yes, So she's winning the right to be heard. But you can you can see in her life that God seems to have favor on her. And so even while she's you know, kind of managing the information about who she is, God's blessing is on her and that's evident to everybody around her. Yeah, and yeah, this is just an amazing story. We're getting get ready to really get into it here. Hey, so we have about a minute left. Sore share with them with our listeners, what you share with me about the origin of a marathon. Oh oh yeah. So Xerxes was defeated at marathon, and that's where we get the marathon race from. Is that the messengers that got out ahead of the Persian army to warn the Greek army. They had to run the twin six point seven miles or whatever that is, twenty six point whatever it is, put two whatever it is. It's it's it's far. Yeah, and some of them died or whatever. But that that's where the marathon race came from. Was this this race here, so yeah, where they were running to stay out ahead of the messengers were running to stay out ahead of the person. So this this very timeline that we're in with this character and his movement of the armies and everything else. All that was the birth of the marathon. Right and it was at marathon, and that's why the marathon is a city. Yeah. Yeah, so that's why we that's why we call it a marathon race. That was That's really cool. I bet you a lot of our listeners, even our runners, probably didn't even know that. Yeah. So if you've ever seen three hundred, it's kind of right after that that the marathon started. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Hey well, that's our time for this chapter, and so we'll pick up with chapter three. Hopefully you'll join us on the Bible gus