Pride and a King

Esther 2:1-5

Chapter two begins, and to this point, we have not heard the name of Esther or anything about her family.  I’m sure that none of my readers have ever been under the influence of adult beverages, acted foolishly and the next day had regrets.  But at a younger time, a foolish time of my life, I did many stupid things and had scars on my soul and regrets for those acts.  

I believe the king also had misgivings about the actions he had taken in his anger over Queen Vashti.  But often Kings are like you and me, they allow pride to cloud those thoughts and never give a thought about asking for repentance, for who would a king of his own kingdom go for such advice?  Are you king of your kingdom?  I’m sure, like King Ahasuerus we often sit on the throne of our lives and allow pride to keep us from going to the LORD for forgiveness.

And most of us will have an advisor to give us a better way that leaves our pride intact, and it sounds good to us.  Now do not miss this truth, we like the king have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords guiding the affairs of our lives to bring about His purposes, and later we will see the hand of God in saving his people.

Verses 1-4, “Sometime later, when King Ahasuerus’s rage had cooled down, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what was decided against her. The king’s personal attendants suggested, “Let a search be made for beautiful young women for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom, so that they may assemble all the beautiful young women to the harem at the fortress of Susa. Put them under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women, and give them the required beauty treatments. Then the young woman who pleases the king will become queen instead of Vashti.” This suggestion pleased the king, and he did accordingly.”

And you and I thought the changing of the old model for a new, younger and a faster model was a new thing, but as dad always said the past is forever new, or there is nothing new under the sun.  King Ahasuerus’s rage had cooled down, and he was having regrets, but then the young men who took care of the king came up with a beauty contest of all the good-looking young babes of all 127 provinces.  And the king liked the idea, a new and better model would overcome all that he had done wrong.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice