book of Esther this evening, if you don't mind, in your Bible, the book of Esther, in chapter number two. I'll remind you the study of Esther is a study into the silent sovereignty of God. Esther is one of those phenomenal little books of the Bible that is often overlooked and I told Pat this afternoon, I said, I'm just struggling with the book of Esther. I thought it would come much easier than it is, but there's a lot of questions I have as I study this book. And I guess it's always the case as you begin a study in the word of God, it opens one door and that door opens 10 more doors, which is good because it causes you to think, study, and also to see the depths of God's word. But in this book, we can see how God sovereignly rules and reigns. Not only in the affairs of kings and queens, but also even over our own mistakes. And even when we fail, and even when we don't understand, and when life's not fair, God is still there. And we need to be reminded of that again and again. In the book of Esther, I want you to read with me chapter number two, and we're gonna read together I made my New Year's resolution not to preach too long on Wednesday nights, but it is what it is. First 18 verses, Esther 2 verse 1 says, after these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti. what she had done and what was decreed against her. Then said the king's servants and ministered unto him, let there be fair young virgins sought for the king 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 and to the custody of Hegai, the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women and let their things be for purification be given them. And let the maiden which pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king and he did so. Now in Shushan the Paulist there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Zahir, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of Benjamite, 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 carried away. he brought up Hadessa 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. So it came to pass when the king's commandment in His decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together into Shushan the palace to the custody of Hegei, that Esther was brought also unto the king's house to the custody of Hegei, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him, and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, seven maidens which were meet to be given her out of the king's house and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her. Now when every maid's turn was come to go into King Ahasuerus, after that she had been 12 months, according to the manner of the women, for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the women. Then thus came every maiden unto the king, whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women to the custody of Shayashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines. She came in under the king no more, except the king delighted in her and that she were called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abahil, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in under the king. She required nothing but what Hegai, the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, and the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women. And she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast. And he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king." All right, we'll see how much of that we can get done this evening. Esther chapter number two I have titled this evening's study, The Search. for a new queen, or we may simply say, Esther's rise to the throne. The search for a new queen, or Esther's rise to the throne. You will remember, over the last couple of weeks, we've tackled chapter one of Esther, and King Ahasuerus, or King Xerxes, same guy, same person, King Xerxes, King Ahasuerus, is about to go out and make war with the Greeks, the Grecian Empire. His father began the battle and his father did not succeed and he wants to pick up where his daddy left off. And so in order to garner favor with the people, he throws a six-month party, and he invites all the governors and princes and royalty within his empire to come before him, and he is asking them to pledge their allegiance to him in the upcoming battle, the upcoming war. And after the end of that 180-day party, the 180-day sort of a fundraising campaign, if you will, he has a short party, a very, compared to the other, it's almost silly when you say it was a party that lasted seven days and it was short, but compared to six months, it was a short party, and at the end of which, if you'll remember, King Xerxes is drunk, he's well wasted with wine, and he calls his wife, the beautiful Queen Vashti, to come before him to flaunt her beauty before those that were there, and she refused. And those of you who are Bible students, you remember very well that her refusal cost her her role as queen. The king, with all his power and all of his might, a vast army and huge wealth, could control armies, navies, but he couldn't control his own wife. And so he goes to his wise men, to his counselors and says, what are we going to do? And they say, kick her out. You better get rid of her. If you don't get rid of her, she's going to start a movement. She's a Don't get the big feminist liberal movement going if you don't get rid of her." And so he listens to the advice of his counselors and removes Vashti from being queen. sends out this silly law, and it is silly if you'll just stop and think about it. I don't know how they ever thought they'd enforce this law, but passed a law that every man should rule his own house, and that every woman should obey their husband. And so at the end of chapter number one, she's gone, and chapter two begins with, after these things, And what we don't see and what you need to sort of give you a little background of this is that there is a couple year time period that elapses between the close of chapter one and the opening of chapter number two. King Xerxes, or King Ahasuerus, during this interval between where the writers broke chapter one or the translators broke chapter one and chapter two, in that interval there, about a two-year time period lapses, and that's when King Xerxes travels northwest and makes his attack on the Grecian Empire or upon the Greeks. And very frankly, King Xerxes gets his tail whipped. He has some initial success against the Grecian Empire, but because of a series of bad decisions on his part, because of some very bad weather that destroyed a large part of his navy, King Xerxes is handed a defeat quite handily by the hand of the Grecian Empire. And eventually, the Grecian Empire is going to take over the Medo-Persian Empire. That doesn't happen yet, but you have the Medo-Persian Empire. His father, Xerxes' father, Darius, had started this war. He couldn't finish it, so he has this big long party to curry favor with his people, to get military behind him, to get money behind him, and he goes out. makes war and then he loses and he comes, I say it like this, he comes back home to Xushan the palace after losing that battle with his tail tucked between his legs like a whip pup and he comes home trying to find a woman to console him but guess what? There is no queen there. He has had her removed. He doesn't have a queen at home. He doesn't have a doesn't have an official wife. And I just say that to say this, and we're going to lead into some almost uncomfortable conversations this evening as we study this, but it would have been common for a ruler, and it happened even in the Jewish world, where a ruler would have many wives and not only have many wives, but have many concubines. And so it was that probably that King Xerxes had some, and I don't mean anything derogatory by this, but just trying to help us relate it to their culture. He would have had some that were called wives, but they would have been lesser wives. They would not have been the queen. And he would have had a number of concubines, but he didn't have a queen. And that's how chapter two opens. Vashti's gone, he has been, embarrassed and I mean readily defeated at the hand of his enemy his daddy couldn't get it done now he can't get it done and he comes home and there's an empty palace there there's all these concubines and such but that is not what he is looking for he's looking for a queen in verse number one after these things when the wrath of the king Ahasuerus or Xerxes was appeased. He remembered Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her, and he remembers she's gone. And she was a good-looking woman, too. Chapter 1 says that Vashti was a very beautiful woman to look upon. And so we see him after this humiliating loss comes back. He's looking for some consolation. He's looking for the arms of his queen, but he doesn't have one. And so again, he leans on the counsel of these advisors, which becomes a problem for him. As you read the book of Esther, really he's sort of flighty in that he won't make some of these decisions on his own, and he turns to them, and it's gonna be a real problem when he starts leaning on Haman's advice a little bit later on. But he, leans on their advice, and in verse number two and three, the king's servants, probably, almost certainly, the same ones that ministered unto him, these advisors or counselors come up with this great idea, and that is, let's search through the whole Persian, Medo-Persian empire, and let's find as many young, virgin women that we can find, and we'll gather them all up to the palace, And we'll just let the king decide which one he wants. If you will allow me to say it like this, it is some kind of a involuntary beauty pageant where being good looking would have been more of a curse than it would have been a blessing. Because they send out and the king, you know, I don't know how else to say it other than just to say it, the king likes this idea. And what lost pagan, heathen man wouldn't like an idea like that, right? You go find the best looking women around and you bring them to me and I get the pick of the crop. I get whichever one I want. Any lost man would go for that. And so they suggest to him, you just go out, we'll go out here, we'll appoint officers in every district, in today's vernacular, in every state, in every county, in every city, and we'll appoint men to make sure they round up all the pretty women. And so they go out there, and they get women from everywhere. They get Miss Judea, and they bring her to Shushan, the palace. And they get Miss Samaria, and they bring her to Shushan. And they get Miss Mesopotamia, and they bring her. And all down the list goes. And they bring all these pretty girls to Shushan, the palace. And if you'll notice, they are to be kept by, verse number three, this man Haggai, the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women. And they are to be given things for their purification. We'll get into that more in just a minute. Look at verse four. And let the maiden, this young virgin, which pleases the king, be queen instead of hasty. And the thing pleased the king, and he did so. So he likes this plan. And folks, we're gonna have to deal with a little bit of some plain language out of this chapter tonight. And very frankly, he's got time to wait. He's not without female accompaniment. He's got plenty of wives, if you will, plenty of concubines, so his fleshly desires will be met. And so while all these women get dolled up, and we'll look more at that in a minute, get prepared and such and so forth he he'll wait to pick out the one he wants. But we are introduced now to the two prominent Jewish characters in the book of Esther. You remember me telling you how The author, the inspired author, doesn't begin with Mordecai, doesn't begin with Esther. Instead, he begins with the Hasheureus and with Vashti. He's setting the background for us. All that happened in chapter one, with the king's big extended party at the palace and with Vashti's refusal to obey him and her being kicked, all of that's just setting the stage and opening the door to what takes place here in chapter two where they go searching through the entire kingdom for all the good looking girls that they can find. And that just opens the door up for Esther to come walking through it. And in verse number five, 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, of Benjamai. And so they are here. The writer introduces us to Mordecai. It's the first time we've seen Mordecai. He is one of the most prominent figures in the Book of Esther, so we need to know about him. And what we learn from him is that, first of all, the writer says, now in Shushan the palace there was a certain And so, one of the first things a writer wants us to know is that Mordecai is a Jew. We get his name and we get his family background and we learn not only is he a Jew, but he is a Jew that is, in some degree, he is employed in Shushan the palace. His name was Mordecai. He'd been carried away, verse number six, his family had been carried away from Jerusalem. In fact, his great-grandfather. had been carried away and now he is third, fourth generation living in Babylonian captivity or Medo-Persian captivity now. He's a Jew. He's a Jew that works in verse five and six. We learned that he works there at the palace in Shushan, the palace, and he's a Benjamite. All of these things matter. All of this. When the author here introduces us to Mordecai, he's setting us up. Here's some things you need to know about Mordecai. Number one, he's a Jew. Number two, he has access to Shushan, the palace. We'll read that a little bit later on in the chapter. But he goes in and out, and he's keeping an eye on Esther. And then number three, he's a Benjamite. And that's one of the reasons why Haman hates it like he does, because he's a Jew, because he has a place of prominence, and because he's a Benjamite, the tribe of Benjamin. And then not only that, Mordecai is raising up his younger cousin, Hadesa. look here verse number seven and he that is Mordecai was raising or bringing up Hadessa that is Esther. Hadessa is her Jewish name Esther is her Persian name that name Esther almost certainly almost certainly comes from the Persian word Ishtar Star, Ishtar, you ready? Easter. We derived the name Easter from Esther, Ishtar, one of the pagan gods of Persia. And just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that was their Persian names, they had Jewish names. Daniel, I was also given a Persian name. So is Esther. And we know her not as Hadessa prominently, but we know her as Esther. And there's something to be said for the fact that this is a Jewish girl living in a Persian world. Did you get that? I know it ought to be a song, right? She's a Jewish girl living in a Persian world. But just stop and think. She's a young teenage, almost certainly young, middle to late teenage girl. And her life is going to be torn between her Jewish background and her Persian future. So we are given both her Jewish name and her Persian name. But Mordecai is raising her. She's an orphan girl. Look at verse number seven, and he brought up Hadesa, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter. For she had neither father nor mother. Her parents had died. This is an orphan girl. We don't know how or when. We just know that her parents were not around and that he was raising her. And verse number seven also makes it very plain that she's a good-looking girl. In fact, you get into the language, and I don't want everybody to walk out of here and think the preacher is some kind of perv, but the language in verse number seven says she had a great figure. She was shapely. Not only was she pretty to look at in the face, but she was also a shapely girl. She was in good shape. She was an attractive young lady. Verse seven says, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So he is raising her, Hadesa, which means Myrtle, or Esther, he is raising her just like she was his own daughter. taking care of her, providing for her. This orphan girl who is, you speak as people who are so far removed from that culture, but this orphan girl who's living in a place that, you know, this is not her Jewish home. I mean, obviously her family was there until they passed away, but for a Jew, Israel is home, Jerusalem's home, if you will, as his family was specifically taken from Jerusalem. And so she's in a tough place, but what she's got going for her, she's got an older cousin named Mordecai that loves her and is gonna help provide for her and her needs. And because of her beauty, in verse number eight, it comes to pass that when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, And when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace to the custody of Hegai, that Esther, she also was brought unto the king's house to the custody of this man who was the keeper of the women. This man was a eunuch, and he was responsible for the women. And they would employ eunuchs just so that there would be no impropriety. This is the king's... the king's women, the potential queen, and they're put under the custody of these units so that there would be no chance, any possibility of any type of sexual action or activity in between them. So word gets out, verse eight, that the king is gathering up, and I just want you to notice this out of verse number eight, that when many maidens were gathered together, So it's not just that there's a few, but you remember I tried to express to you the magnitude of the Medo-Persian Empire, the vastness of it, how huge that it is, and out of every province, out of every county, every state, every local principality, they gathered up these pretty young ladies and sent them to Shushan the palace. If I may, in sort of a light-hearted tone, you got to feel sorry for all the Jewish boys that are left behind, right? Because all the pretty girls are gone. And all that's left are the ugly ones. That's a little lighthearted humor there, but anyway. And I just think about these, that's how twisted my mind is, but all these girls, and this is what I call an involuntary beauty contest, because whether you like it or not, they are gathered up. And listen, this is foreign to us, our society, our culture. It's a different world. You try to do something like that in America today, there'd be World War III on your hands. You understand? But it's a different culture altogether. Some of these women, some of these young girls, and most of them would have been teenage girls. And again, it's a different culture. You know, girls today get up and get married in their 20s or 30s and this kind of thing, knocked in. And this time, you 13, 14 years old, you was married, having children. That's just the way that it was. And it wasn't a matter of them saying, would you like to go? No, they'd snatch you up and take you. Whether you wanted to go or not was irrelevant. Some of these girls, if you'll stop and think, they would have thought it to be high honor. Not that they wanted to be abused and to be a play toy, if you will, of the king, but to go from absolute poverty and obscurity to the possibility of being the queen, or living in the palace, some of them would have probably thought that, you know, this may not be so bad after all. But just so you don't think it was all hard on just the girls, because it was, and it was, and this is, you know, a foreign culture, and as we get into this, we're gonna try to develop this a little bit more, but just so you don't think that it was only hard on the girls, let me read something to you. An old historian, in fact, a lot of what we know about the Medo-Persian Empire comes from a historian, a man named Herodotus. Herodotus, he wrote and said that every year Herodotus reports that 500 young boys were gathered together each year and castrated to serve as eunuchs in the Persian court. One might argue that the women might have got the better deal, this writer says. The gathering of the virgins, whether consensual or not, was not sexism, it was just a brutal act typical of how power was used in the Persian court. Listen, everyone, whether male or female, was at the disposal of the king's personal whims. And it was hard, I mean it's just a different world, tough world in which you live. When they would take up 13, 14 year old boys and castrate them. This is what Jesus is talking about in the New Testament when he's talking about some that are made eunuchs by the hands of men, that's what he's talking about. There are some that are born eunuchs, they're born without the capacity to have children, born with some kind of deformity that they can't have children, and others are made that way. It happened in that culture. They take young boys and say, you're going to serve the king, but we're going to make sure you don't go messing around with any of the king's women, so that they castrate them. And then it's tough. I mean, I know it's a long way from our world, but that's the way that it was. So anyway, Esther is taken. She is among the beautiful maidens. Many of them, not a few, but many of them are gathered together and they're brought to the king's house, verse number nine, and the maiden pleased him. So I want you to get from this that Esther is more than just a pretty face. Now she is a pretty face, but she's more than that. I believe, and it is my conviction that I've studied this, and we'll get into some tough things here in a little bit, but I believe that it's not just her outside that makes Esther attractive, but it's also her inside that makes her attractive. And the truth about it is real beauty is inside anyway. And I know that's said and people just don't, especially young people, run right past it. They think the outside is all that matters. And I'm not gonna stand up here and say that the outside, the exterior doesn't matter. I'm not gonna say that because it does. But you'd be better off finding you somebody that's sweet and kind than you are finding you a Barbie doll that acts like the devil, I can tell you that. And I think with Esther, she's one of those unique, rare people that was gorgeous inside and out. And I'm not gonna defend everything she does, and we'll get into that more in just a minute, but she's more than just a pretty face. Look, verse nine, she, the maiden, that is speaking specifically of Esther, pleased this man. This guy was a high-ranking official. Even though he was a eunuch, to be in charge of all of these women was a position that would have been somewhat respected. Eunuchs were certainly looked down upon because of this, because of what has happened to them. But at the same time, this was a position, an honored or trusted position. And she, that is Esther, verse 9, pleases him. She obtains kindness of him. And he speedily gave her her things for purification. which such things as belong to her. Whatever she needed, he gave to her. And not only that, in verse number nine it says that he gave her seven maidens, seven helpers, if you will, seven women, just to help prepare her to meet the king. Out of the king's house, and notice at the close of verse nine, and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. So here Esther garners favor. It's almost like as we've read about Joseph earning favor, Daniel earning favor, these ones who earn favor by their faithfulness. And it's almost as if we read this about her I just think she has a sweet demeanor, a kind, submissive spirit. She's given seven girls to help prepare her. She's given everything she needs for her purification to beautify her. We'll read more about that in a minute. And she is preferred above all the others. So obviously he, even this eunuch, sees something in her. But verse number 10, there's an interjection thrown in, a parenthetical statement, if you will. And verse number 10 is that Esther hadn't told anybody that she was a Jew. Mordecai told her not to tell anybody that she was a Jew. Now, the writer, the author here, again, remember, he's setting the stage. He's telling a story. This is the Bible. It is inspired writing, but it is also wonderful storytelling. True life, real storytelling, not make-believe stories. And he is saying, Here's a king, kicks out the queen. Here's Esther making her way in. But just so you set the stage for what's going to happen, nobody knows that she's a Jew. And verse 10, Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred. She'd kept her ethnicity to herself. Mordecai had charged her, told her that she shouldn't tell it. And I don't think it's misleading. I really don't think it's wrong of them. There's some writers who are critical of them, of Esther and for Mordecai for saying they shouldn't have hidden that. And if she'd have been really living the way she ought to live, there's no way she could have hidden it. But I don't think there's any fault here. They did not. And you'll never find in here where they directly misled somebody, where they lied about it. I think Mordecai senses the anti-Semitism that is springing up in Shushanda Palace. This hatred towards the Jews, I think, though it's not mentioned, I think Mordecai sees it and knows it, and so he's wise enough to tell his young, good-looking cousin, don't go out here telling everybody that you're a Jew. Just keep your mouth shut about it right now. There's a difference between an omission and an outright lie. As I was preparing this, I couldn't help but think about our trip to Israel. We were told as we were flying out and as we were flying back in, you need to understand the context of this. You're getting on an Israeli-owned airline. It's called El Al Israel, El Al Israel, God Almighty Airlines. And you're getting on an airline that's owned by an Israeli, and they consider that Israeli property. And so before you get on their airplane, they run you through an inquisition. I think Brother Frank's been, and he can probably confirm this, they're going to ask you some questions. They're going to get up in your business. And so we were told, both when we were flying out there and when we were going to check back in to fly back to the United States, that don't lie to them, because they interview every person individually that's getting on that plane. especially if you're not a Jew. They interview you. They ask me what my kids' names were, how old they were, where I'm from, what do I do for a living, do I know anybody else? I mean, they just run through a series of questions. And you're like, man, I hope they let me on this plane. I mean, I'm serious. I mean, it's like a serious interview, like you're sitting in front of a detective somewhere. But they told us, they said, don't lie to them. But you don't have to tell them anything more than what they ask. If they ask, do you have children, say yes. If they ask how old they are, tell them. But you don't have to volunteer a lot of information. Well, they find out that me and my dad are flying together. And so they put me and him, they bring us both together at the same kiosk. And they start asking questions. And man, he starts singing like a bird. I mean, I ain't kidding you. He's telling them everything. They said, do you know him? Oh yeah, he's my son. He's 43 years old. I've known him all his life. He lives in Perryville. I'm looking at him like, shut up. You don't have to tell them all our business. I mean, really. And the week I finally got through the checkpoint, I said, did you not listen? He said, oh, I was just trying to help. I said, well, you'd help by listening to the people that have done this before. He was telling them everything. Anyway, but I just thought as I was preparing my sermon, there's a difference between downright lying to somebody and then not volunteering information. You'll never find where Mordecai or Esther lie about their ethnicity. They never lie about it. They just simply don't go around telling it all. And I want to say this. Before people go around picking on Esther for not broadcasting the fact that she's a Jew, how many times has God and the Holy Spirit convicted your heart to tell somebody that you're a Christian? and you hadn't done it. To take a stand for Christ and you hadn't done it. Now, before we go picking on Esther, maybe we ought to make an application to ourselves with it. There are times that all of us know that God, the Holy Spirit, has said to us, you need to take a Christian stand right now and be bold, and we cowered away. So don't be too hard on her when she doesn't do everything just the way we think she ought to do it. But here we find him, and I'm going to have to quit. I'm going to get all the way through. But here we find Mordecai. Verse 11, and Mordecai walked every day before. That's the fellow still laughing at my dad. Verse 11, Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her. So I want you to see in that, first of all, we know that Mordecai is somebody with some position. Otherwise, you don't get to just walk around Shushan the palace. They don't just let scrubs off the street go walking around where the king's future wife or queen is going to be. So obviously, Mordecai is a man of some stature within the Persian Empire. But not just that, he loves this little girl that he'd been raising. And he's concerned for her. And he wants to know, how's it going? She'd been taken out of his house, sent to Shushanda Palace, and is prettied up or dolled up. In fact, just so you can get an understanding of this, Vashti is removed in the third year of Xerxes reign. Couple of years of war. Esther is made queen in the seventh year. of Xerxes reign. So in the third year is when Vashti is kicked out. They go to war for a couple years, but then it is about two more years before Esther is chosen to take the role of queen. So day by day, Mordecai would check and see how things are going. Verse number 11 and then in verse number 12 Let me hurry get through a few of these things and then I'll quit in verse number 12 Says now when every mage turn was come to go into the king to go into him yet very plainly out of all these maidens They gathered up all these young virgins It's not right And it's not good But it is the way it was that all these young ladies would be brought in and they would spend a year, this is what verse 12 is telling us, that they would spend a year just to prepare themselves to go before the king. Six months with oil of myrrh, six months with sweet odors and with other things. And there's no other way to say it than to just say this, they would take these young girls, and they would pamper them. They would take milk baths. They would be doused in perfume so that by the, and they, they're not responsible for anything other than maintaining a shapely figure and a pretty face. And like Esther, she had seven maids, seven maidens that helped her. And by the time, a year, they do this for a year. A year of pampering and perfume and making your skin silky smooth. and clear and beautiful, then you're presented to the king. That's what verse 12 is about. Now when every maid's turn was come to go into the king. So whether he would do this day by day or whether he would, and I'm sorry for the plain nature of this, but it just, it is what it is. And his place and his authority took advantage of women. And he may decide he wants his concubine tonight or three concubines tonight. And then he says, tonight, I want to have one of my fair maidens. He could do whatever he wanted to do. I mean, not right, but that's the way it was. But they would take turns. They would come in, these maids, out of all of his kingdom, they would be brought in after a year. Verse 13, then thus came every maiden unto the king, and she would take with her whatever was desired, whether or not she wanted certain clothing, certain perfumes, certain jewelry, whatever that it was that she wanted to help, and this is just the plain language of it. It was her job. She had been trained, and I'm sorry, but this is the plain truth. She had been taught and trained how to please a man for a year. Pampered, perfumed, soft and smooth talk. Here's how you please the king because that's what she was there for. Whether or not it was right or wrong, for instance, is beside the point. I mean, it's wrong, obviously, but that's what they had to do. And this wasn't voluntary. I mean, you either do this or you die. And so night after night after night for a series of months, even for a couple of years, this goes on until finally it's Esther's turn. And that's where I'm going to stop, and where we'll just pick up next week with verse 15, because then it will be Esther's turn to come before the king. I want to only leave you a couple questions, okay? I want you to kick this around, and so when we come back next week, maybe you'll help me with some answers. Was it wrong for Esther to use her beauty to her advantage? Should she have refused to give herself to the king? Should she have fought even unto death? One writer I read after said that she should have committed suicide rather than going in to an uncircumcised pagan Gentile king. Was it right for her to intermarry with someone of a different faith? Was she in Mordecai wrong to hide their ethnicity? But before we judge Esther, let's all stop and remember we ain't been perfect on one of us here. Kick some stuff around. The writer here, and I'll just close with this, the writer is really not trying to paint Esther at this moment as a model of purity, and if you'll allow Christian conduct. He's just trying to tell the story like it happened. And I about guarantee I could go around to this room right here, and it'd be everybody in every pew which could look back over your life and say, I've done some things I'm not so proud of myself. I don't come down on Esther, but just stop and think. Now we paint her, and before this is over, she's gonna be responsible for helping to save a nation. But also don't forget there are certain things that God requires and God demands. So just pray and think on these things. God bless you. I love you.