Women in white raiment

by John Lemley

Esther, being fair and beautiful, was made choice of among other maidens in this collection of virgins which had been ordered, and was carried to the king’s palace and there committed to the care of Hegai, and was assigned to the best apartments.

This captive young woman was discreet. Those who have great beauty do not always have discretion. Depending upon the power of their personal charms, they neglect to cultivate the mind and soul. Physical beauty, like fruit, begins to decline as soon as it reaches its best. Mental and spiritual beauty grow with the years as long as the hygienic laws of grace are obeyed. But she was not only discreet, but also amiable. Amiability costs only self-control and unselfish love, and it is the best possible investment. Genuine amiability is God’s gift to those who trust Him to cleanse them from all that is contrary to love.

Then also this Hebrew maiden must have known severe discipline. She showed its effect in the gentle deportment that won the favor of the officers that guarded the king’s harem. She submitted her taste in dress and ornament to the one who had the responsibility of preparing her for the royal presence, and in the docility with which she heeded the advice of Mordecai.

These graces of mind and heart commended her to the king’s favor and she was advanced to higher honor, and subsequently, when Queen Vashti was deposed, Esther was crowned in her stead. Thus she was raised at once to the highest place that the world could give a woman at that day—as the queen and favorite of the mightiest monarch of his time.

This event was celebrated by a great feast which the king made to all his princes, called Esther’s feast, and which was attended with high honor, and by the presentation of gifts, “according to the state of the king.”

About this time Haman, the chief minister or vizier of King Ahasuerus, was promoted, so that his seat was “above all the princes.” The Targum and Josephus interpret the description of Haman, the Agagite, as signifying that he was of Amalekitish descent, the sworn enemies of the Israelites in their march through the desert, and the sparing of whom cost Saul, the first king of Israel, his crown. This Haman was the king’s favorite, and all the under officers and servants were required to pay reverence unto him.

But there was one man who would not bow. This was Mordecai, the porter at the royal palace. He would not salute Haman, the idolatrous descendent of the old enemies of his people. This greatly displeased Haman, but he scorned to lay hands on Mordecai, and knowing him to be a Jew, resolved to destroy him and his people. He took council and determined by lot on the day for the accomplishment of his purpose.

To do this successfully he must deceive the king and entrap him to do a wicked act. So he said to Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws; therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.” And so this hateful Amalekite, by offering to pay into the king’s treasury more than $10,000,000, obtained the royal decree to put all the Israelites in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus, extending from India to Ethiopia, to death.

When Mordecai heard of the decree, he and the Hebrews made great lamentation, and he made Queen Esther acquainted with the plot to destroy her people, and entreated her to go in unto the king and make supplication for their rescue. At first she excused herself, but being led to understand that she, too, was included in the decree, she put her life on the hazard for the safety of her countrymen. It was no light matter for the beautiful young queen to risk her life to save her people. Surrounded as she was by the luxury and elegance of that magnificent Persian court, keenly alive to the charm of all lovely things, it meant much for her to go down to the grave in the brilliant morning of her youth.

But when Mordecai turned to her for help, he reminded her that she had come to the kingdom for such a time as that. His faith asserted that God would deliver His people; and, if she failed to do her part, she and her father’s house would perish. She said she would make the attempt. “If I perish, I perish,” was her wail of submission.