The kids and I saw Queen Esther recently at Sight & Sound Theaters. I sat on the edge of my seat the entire time, laughing one moment and crying the next.
Walk with me through some of this story:
Hadassah, (later called Esther) is orphaned at a young age. Imagine the unspoken and little understood grief she experienced. The trauma. Abandonment. She is then raised by a cousin.
Now in her teens, she is forcibly taken to the harem of a heathen and undisciplined king. She is forced to be a contestant in the king’s beauty pageant. The king needs a new queen.
Imagine the horror, the fear and all the unanswered questions that are stampeding through Esther’s mind right now.
Esther quickly became the favorite of Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem. The ‘teacher’s pet’ isn’t always well treated by the other students. It couldn’t have been the easiest time for Esther, this year of preparation.
Then of course the big day when it is Esther’s turn to spend a night with the king. Imagine what she could have been thinking. A chaste Jewish girl, never been with a man and now it’s her turn to be with the king.
Esther is chosen as the new queen and she goes on to live in the Palace of Susa with the king.
Take a step back, and let’s look at this as a big picture:
Orphaned.
Forced to enter a beauty pageant.
Torn from the home and family she knows and loves.
Esther knows she will never be able to go home. She is now the property of a short-fused, tantrum-throwing king.
She keeps her nationality a closely guarded secret.
Is faced with 2 unbearable choices for a Jewish virgin: sleep with the king and then be sent to the harem to forever remain a concubine. Or, sleep with the king, be crowned queen and forever remain in a palace filled with deceit, intrigue and idol worshippers.
We know the script: Esther eventually reveals her identity and risks her life to plead for the salvation of the entire Jewish population. Her request is granted, the Jews are saved, the bad guys are killed and Mordecai (the man who raised Esther) is promoted to ‘Second Most Important Man of the Kingdom’.
Do you see the thread of redemption woven in this unusual story?
This is all of our lives in some way, shape or form. We experience loss. We know pain & grief. We submit to circumstances that we cannot control. We ask “Why? Where are you God?” We face fear. Sometimes huge, gigantic, overwhelming fears. Do we choose courage while staring in the face of that fear, like Esther did? Do we choose faith in Yahweh, despite the circumstances – like Esther did?
This is why faith is so very important! Faith is everything! That tenacious faith, clinging to the belief that ‘God is good all the time. God is with me. God loves me.’ This is faith!
Take a step back and view your own life through the Big-Picture frame. Can you pick up the theme of redemption in your life? It’s there, I promise you! And it’s not finished yet. Your story has not been closed. There are more chapters to come. These coming chapters just might be the craziest and best yet. Hold onto faith. Believe this Yahweh, He Who Makes That Which Is Made.
And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58.11
Choose faith, my friend. Choose courage.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
Nelson Mandela
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid; but he who conquers that fear.