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.

My wife and daughter like a show called When Calls the Heart. (It is a Hallmark drama with lots of dialog about things guys typically don’t get excited about, but I pretend … to earn brownie points:)). As I was searching for this show, the title for a show was promoted in first place: Couple to Throuple. I had never heard of a Throuple, so I read the description: four couples experiment with adding a third partner to their relationship. This is evil and is not of God. It is immoral. And it was right there in the face of my family, my young kids, for them to see and think about, as if it is perfectly acceptable and normal.

What I realized about King Xerxes I and his nobles, is they were sexually deviant in a similar manner as this show is. He was basically sleeping with a new young virgin each night, sending them to his harem afterwards to be his concubines. And one “lucky” lottery winner would get to be his queen.

This was an evil and wicked man, who had no regard for God and his covenant of marriage. Furthermore, drunkenness was a hallmark of his reign, and the uncontrolled behaviors that come with it. Esther was brought into this system of injustice and depravity. Talk about objectification of women, this was the epitome of it!

And so, Esther is going to the king, unknown to him, but known to her God. Likely her first sexual experience in life is going to be with a sex-crazed king, much older than herself. As a father, this would crush me in pain for my daughter. I can only imagine how her Uncle Mordecai felt. And for Esther, it would be so very hard.

But she kept her faith and trust in God! And in an evil setting, with evil men bent on doing evil to her, God continued to bless her and gave her favor with those over her.

Another aspect to consider is that there was over a year of beauty preparations for a woman to be “fit” to present to this king. How vain he was! In contrast, God takes us as we are in our brokenness and sees the beauty and potential inside us! See what Jeremiah prophesied: “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” (‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭18‬:‭3‬-‭6‬)

This prophecy was specifically in regards to the nation of Isreal, but it applies to us too. Paul says in II Corinthians 4:7-10: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

Esther sought to understand this nature of God. His ability to take the broken pieces and marred clay of our lives and make them into something special. She was broken, orphaned, in exile, objectified, and given to a king she did not love. But she had faith in The Eternal Potter to remake her into a masterpiece, something of internal beauty!

Lord, thank you that you are so very faithful! You love us deeply! You seek to know us at a heart level. You never give up on us. Take these broken pieces of my life, they are really all I have to offer you. Continue to make me into something beautiful in your sight!