STUDY NOTES ESTHER 2:12-20 CONCESSIONS

Some nut sent me this and I absolutely loved it. The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro English". In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as

replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. There is a powerful point. Compromise is seldom sudden. It happens gradually as we yield ground to those small passions we desire more than integrity. Those small bits of personal compromise are called concessions. When we make small concessions about ethical and moral principles then we are gradually carried along in a stream of compromise. Do that long enough and you will change completely. Think about your life. How many times did you yield to temptation in order to gain something that you thought you had to have? What about when compromise is more covert than overt. You dont yield to temptation; you just dont stand for faith. Is it ever appropriate to shield your faith in order to preserve your life? Then is it appropriate to shield you faith in order to gain something you want really badly? Then is it appropriate to shield your faith in order to do something you know is wrong?

The story of Esther is the story of concessions. Small bits of compromise that changed her and her people until they came to a point where they no longer lived out faith. Here is the dilemma of Esther. The two supposed heroes of the book, Esther and Mordecai, are doing things elsewhere condemned in the Word of God, but they are not condemned here. Why is that? Do we infer from this that they were getting a pass from the Lord? I dont think so. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus said his word

never changes, Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. So if it was wrong for everyone else to do the things that Esther and Mordecai did, then we can assume that it was also wrong for them when they did it. So why doesnt the book of Esther say that. I mean, here is a beautiful young Jewish girl that is about to have passionate sex with an uncircumcised pagan king! There is NEVER a situation in the rest of the Bible where that would be considered a good idea! Yet, Esther is silent in regard to morality. Why? Some say, Esther is a hero. Wait. Shes doing things nobody else was allowed to do. Just because the Bible doesnt specifically denounce this doesnt mean that shes right. The silence is a way of defining the overall secular or worldly nature of this work. There is not good or bad. There is no right or wrong. The people werent governed by morals or convictions. Every man did what seemed best at the time. Its not that the Bible silently condones her. Its a literary form to show how secular not only Esther and Mordecai, but the entire nation had become. Nobody even blushed at sin. Sounds like now. Rather than wrestle with conviction, Esther rushed forward toward this opportunity. If things went well Esther might become queen and in the process Mordecai would be elevated. Nobody seemed to consider the terrible consequences in terms of conviction. Nobody understood the price she would pay for concessions. She was too locked on to her prize to see what she had to pay. 12 Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the womenfor the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women As mentioned earlier, 12 months of preparation. 13 the young lady would go in to the king in this way: anything that she desired was given her to take with her from the harem to the kings palace. go into the king, undoubtedly meant, to be despoiled.

14 In the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the kings eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not again go in to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. There is no room for glamorizing this or somehow glossing it over. The virgins were meant to have sex with the king. This wasnt dinner and a movie. 15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, came to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai, the kings eunuch who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. So immersed in the melodrama that her counsel was from the professional sex guy. Hegai knew the intimate ways of the king and he knew his particular fetishes. Esther would take those things that the king desired. And it worked. This twisted Hugh Hefner sex-off by a diabolical uncircumcised king caused Esther to become queen. Just because there is a happy ending to this story does NOT mean that she was right to do what she did. The point of Gods sovereign grace is that he can take our good and bad, our success and failures and turn them into his purpose and plan. And in the process he will open the door to redemption. But it is a costly door to pass through. Always at a price. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal palace in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And they lived happily ever after, the King and I. Uh. . . no. She was the favored one out of all the others. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. What did she do that caused him to favor her? Dont ask. We dont want to know.

Esther won the beauty contest but she did not win monogamy or fidelity. She would still share this man. She was never queen as we would consider a queen to be. The only queen. She was a queen in title. But she was never a wife. Just an entitled concubine. 18 Then the king gave a great banquet, Esthers banquet, for all his princes and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to the kings bounty. After the party what happened to Esther and all those other women? They went back to the harem. As far as we know, Esther never had any particularly privilege place beyond being called queen. Later in this book you will see that it was two months since she had even seen him. Notice verse 19. 19 When the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai was sitting at the kings gate. When the virgins were gathered . . . a second time. The gathering of virgins was a routine practice for the queen. He obviously had to keep a new and steady supply. This guy is into one night stands. All the time. Esther got her position, but she never really had a place. She wasnt his equal. He longed for an equal partner like Vashti but by now he was so deprived that sex was all he cared about and the women in his world were objects to use and dispose of. I think Esther pleased him because she reminded him of Vashti. But she never got to be Vashti in his heart. She had the crown, but not the man. Another bunny in Xerxes Hefners playboy mansion. Notice the promotion for Mordecai. He is now sitting at the gate. Things have looked up. Sitting in the gate is an idiom for authority. Those that sat at the gate were dignitaries. Officers. Lot was sitting at the gate in Sodom. Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. Ruth says that the elder Boaz was sitting at the city gate.

Ruth 4:1 Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, Even kings sometimes sat at the gate of the city.
2 Samuel 18:24 Now David was sitting between the two

gates; Royal officers sat at the gate. 2 Kings 7:17 Now the king appointed the royal officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate; Apparently this was the place where a person had to be allowed passage and it was power that was often abused. Proverbs 22:22 Do not rob the poor because he is poor, Or crush the afflicted at the gate; We know that this was a place of importance because Haman resented Mordecai being there. Esther 5:13 "Yet all of this does not satisfy me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the kings gate." Mordecais status improved after Esther became queen. 20 Esther had not yet made known her kindred or her people, even as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her as she had done when under his care. Notice the end of this section, Esther still kept the secret. Let me show you something. Esther gave up everything to be queen. But was it really what she expected? Esther 4:11 "All the kings servants and the people of the kings provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days." Here is a woman so afraid of her husband that she was afraid of going into his presence uninvited. In fact, she hadnt even seen him for 30 days. A month. Living in the same castle. Shes no queen. Shes just a

concubine with a crown. She gave up so much to get it, but what did she really get? Not her dream. Two quick insights.

I. Be careful what you want

I know that there are many things out there that seem so important. You can quickly decide that its worth whatever it takes to get it. Esther saw the position of queen in her future. Every girl wants to be queen right? Let me show you something.

II. Be careful the price you will pay

Small concessions over a large period of time can produce dramatic change. Someday you will wake up and look at yourself in the mirror and no longer recognize who you are. Be careful