Esther 2:1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.
2 Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king:
3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them:
4 And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.
5 Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;
6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Ungodly people live very insecure and very unstable lives. We have already noted that alcohol affects the mind. The king made some very foolish choices. He accepted some very bad counsel. Now he had some regrets about those decisions. It is natural for him to remember his wife, Vashti. The Bible declares that when a man and woman get married, they become one flesh. The Bible also warns that man should not try to undo what God has joined.
Today there are those who claim they married wrong the first time or maybe even the second time, etc. They claim that as a justification for divorce. We know that divorce was a problem in Moses’ day, and it was also a problem in Jesus’ day. Marriage is not something that should be entered into lightly. Marriage is designed to be for life. In order to be able to find a spouse that you can live with for the rest of your life, you need more wisdom than you have. A good marriage is one that is directed by God. Yes, there are many ungodly people who get married and stay together. They do so through compromise. They never get to know the blessing that God intends a marriage to be.
In verse 2 we see that the king’s servants were more than ready to offer their counsel again. No thought of repentance here. They told him to move on and find a replacement for Vashti. They counselled him to find a young virgin that he could defile. In verse 3 they told him just how to go about finding the “right” woman for him.
In verse 4 we see that this whole matter was to please the king. It was a very one-sided event. We find that the ungodly often operate that way. They want to know what is in it for them. They do not consider the union that marriage is designed to be, according to God’s Word.
In verse 5 we are introduced to a Jew named Mordecai. This man’s lineage was given. He was a Benjamite. The first legitimate king of Israel was a Benjamite. The tribe of Benjamin did not have a rich history of being a God-fearing tribe. They were almost wiped out in the days of the judges due to their involvement in sodomy.
Mordecai was one of those taken in captivity during one of the invasions of the Babylonians. This Mordecai was the guardian to a young girl named Hadassah, also known as Esther. She was his uncle’s daughter. Her parents were killed during that invasion. Mordecai was willing to take this young girl into his care and raise her as his own daughter. We read in verse 7 that she was fair and beautiful. We, as men, are often drawn to a woman by what we deem to be her beauty. It has been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one person calls beauty, may not be so to another. In our text, God described Esther as fair and beautiful. That gives us a different view of her than we as people would have.
As we study this account we find that Mordecai was a quiet man. He did not make it known that he feared the LORD. He was not like Daniel and his three friends. He more or less faded into the woodwork, so to speak. There were only a few captured Jews who walked in the fear of the Lord. The majority were content to blend into the culture of the land they were taken to.
Mordecai had some sense of God. There are many people today like that. They have a sense of God, but they do not make Him known to others around them. Unless you asked them, they would never identify as Christians. They just want to get along with others. We will see as well that God has shown a special affinity with the Jews since He revealed His choice of Abraham as their father. He has made sure that the Jews will survive for all eternity. Not all will be saved, but the Jewish nation will never be destroyed. Nations have tried to do so, but all have failed. The familiar chant: “from the river to the sea” will backfire on those who chant it. Israel will not be destroyed, nor will they be removed from their homeland. This is because God has decreed it to be so. He works for His glory. He does not endorse everything that the Jews do. He tells us in His Word what He designed for them. He also warns of what the consequences will be for wrong choices.
Let us be careful to learn from the failures of the nation of Israel as well as from the blessings that God provided for those among the nation who walked in the fear of the Lord.
Pastor Bartel
