September 14 - Miriam

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Ezra 6:14-22; Ezra 4:6; Esther 1-4.

So briefly at the beginning of today's reading, the temple in Jerusalem is finally completed, in spite of the fact that every time there was a new Persian king, new opposition was raised and always the kings decreed that the temple building proceed.  I can only imagine how joyful the completion of the temple and its consecration must have been for them after having been without a proper place of worship for so long.

Now we begin the story of Esther, a young Jewish girl who became queen of the Medo-Persian empire.  I was interested to notice that the book of Esther is considerably more detailed in its story-telling than many other books of the Bible.  For example, they even describe the length of time and a few of the beauty treatments that were administered to the virgins before they were presented to King Xerxes.  But they set up the scene very well.  Here is a king who "shows off" his great wealth and majesty for SIX MONTHS when he becomes king.  Then he throws a banquet for a week to finish the whole thing off, requests his beautiful wife to come before him so he can show her off, and she refuses to come.  (I don't know if I'd want to show up at a banquet full of men who've been drinking and partying for six months myself, but anyway...)  So Xerxes and his wonderful advisors decide she's setting a bad example for wives everywhere and consequently she's divorced and stripped of her "royal estate".  So she's not queen anymore.  Hopefully she was intelligent enough to realize that this was a blessing and not a curse.  Anyway, later Xerxes is kind of bummed out at no longer having a beautiful wife (although who knows how many beautiful women were in his harem) and they decided to have a virginal beauty contest.  Enter Esther.

I am always impressed most by Esther's bravery.  She knows what happened to Xerxes' previous wife.  She's been primped and preened and pampered for a year just to be presented to the king (and spend the night with him - did you catch that part?), which must be nerve-wracking in and of itself, and then she is chosen to be his wife.  I can imagine my heart sinking down to my toes upon realizing what the consequences of this could be, if I weren't very, very careful.  Of course, had she not been chosen, she would have had to remain in the harem under the care of a eunuch for the rest of her life, forbidden to marry anyone else.  After all, once one has spent the night with the king, one is ruined for all other men. (sarcasm)  But had that happened, she probably wouldn't have saved the life of the king by intervening in an assassination plot, thereby gaining his trust, and she wouldn't have saved her people.  But I'm getting ahead of the story. 

Moving right along... Enter Haman.  It amazes me how often people are so quick to judge an entire nation of people for having different customs and practices than they have themselves.  I would think Haman could have satisfied himself with all the other people who bowed to him all day long.  But no, he decides to wipe out an entire group of people all across the empire on one specific day.  Can you imagine all the people who would have to be involved in an undertaking like that?  I do not understand how so many people can go along with such an evil plan.  Of course, I understand that many of them would decide they had no choice, as it was a royally decreed undertaking and they are all under the rule of the king.  Not to mention that many of them probably didn't think much of the Jews in the first place.  But still.  To exterminate an entire group of people because they're different than you are?  I know it's happened over and over again, but I don't get it.  (Did anyone else think of the Holocaust while reading this?  Does anyone know how many times the Jews as a nation have been threatened with genocide?) 

Anyway, the royal decrees are issued and now the Israelites have almost a year to fret and worry and get their affairs in order before the axe falls.  (Or whatever other method they were planning on using.)  So now the king has inadvertently decreed that his own wife shall be executed.  She finds out from Mordecai what is going on and she decides to go to the king, knowing that anyone who enters the king's presence without his first requesting it will be killed unless he extends his sceptre to them.  She must have been terribly afraid.  Here she is, a young woman hiding the secret of her heritage from her husband the king and everyone else.  Her husband got rid of his first wife for disobeying him.  He's issued a royal decree at the behest of Haman, the most powerful advisor in the empire, and now she, who was chosen for her beauty and not necessarily expected to have brains, must attempt to see him without his having called for her, inviting a death penalty if he's not pleased to see her, and then convince him not to massacre her people and her along with them.  Whew!  I must say, I'm certainly glad I'm not her.  Or wasn't her.  You know what I mean.

All of this to say that it is easy, in hindsight, to see the hand of God guiding all these events, making sure both Mordecai and Esther were in the right place at the right time, finding favour with the right people, etc.  May we accept our roles in the work of God with grace, whether we're Vashti (stepping aside to make way for someone else, though we don't realize it at the time) or Esther (called upon to do things that terrify us, though probably won't cause death nowadays).

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow's reading, for sure!

Tomorrow's passage: Esther 5-10