Contemplative Bible Reading

Esther 2:3-4 (New Living Translation)

3 Let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of Susa. Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the harem, will see that they are all given beauty treatments. 4 After that, the young woman who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Vashti.” This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect.

The above verses are the what the personal assistants of Xerxes suggested to him after his Queen had rebuffed him. Xerxes liked this idea and did it.

Wait. This is all wrong. Gather young women who look right, bring them captive to the king, put them in his harem serve his sexual desires. This is all wrong. Can we write that often enough? This is all wrong. Yet, this is what happened. This is early in the (hi)story of how God used Esther and her relatives to save God’s people from annihilation while in exile. Everything worked the way God intended.

What? How can something that is all wrong lead to a conclusion that God wanted? As the song says, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.”

Current American politician does such-and-such. Christians cannot abide by that (let’s round up beautiful young women and put them in the presidential harem—YIKES). We shouldn’t abide by that. What do we do?

Okay, I don’t have a good answer. Please, someone else provide it. Pray for wisdom. Pray for survival. Trust in God and live my life as an expression of God’s love.