When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem. Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.

I can only imagine what this would have felt like for Esther. Uprooted from her home, taken to the palace, and groomed by eunuchs to be presented to the king. Reality is, she was being presented to sleep with the king. And she had no choice.

She had already been orphaned. She may have had several friends, even ideas about a boy in town she fancied. These were all cast out the window in one edict. The thing that seemed to be her calling card, her beauty, was seemingly singled out to pull her out of her God-fearing home and her comfort zone.

Why does God allow self-serving people to impact our lives when it seems that all is going OK at the time? Well, Esther must have decided to trust God and make the best of it. She won over the heart of the head eunuch and got blessed with more and better provisions, seven attendants, and the best quarters.

How will I respond to having my dreams and plans uprooted, trampled on, and changed to my apparent disadvantage?

Lord, you understand and see the long game of my life. Your moves, the things you allow, are much greater than my comprehension. I will choose to trust you, though all I have worked for may seem lost. Because, in the end, your plans for me always work out for my good!