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Bible Reading Notes
June 2009
Saturday, June 27th – Esther 2: 1
In this verse, the phrase, after these things, indicates a time after the lavish celebrations of Ahasuerus had ended on a painful note of the king deposing his queen, Vashti, and presumably divorcing her. It was after a time when laughter had turned to legal oppression. It was also after the king had emerged from his wine-inspired gladness that had prompted him to anger and rash judgments. In the clear light of ordinary living that is free from the disguises of excessive and substance-stimulated celebration, men cannot avoid seeing, thinking, and feeling more clearly. In such a sober state, Ahasuerus may have felt the reality of how shamefully and lovelessly he had treated his queen, but clearly he sensed the grievous magnitude of the loss of his beautiful wife. His feeling the painful consequences of his sinfully foolish actions could have prodded him to own his sin and seek forgiveness from and reconciliation with Vashti. The pangs of a guilty conscience, painful though they may be, can lead a man to healing and restoration if he does not seek to dull them by denial or diversion from a rectifying course.
Sunday, June 28th - Esther 2: 1
We cannot know precisely how long it was after the events of Chapter 1 that the anger of Ahasuerus subsided. We do know that the lavish celebrations took place in the third year of his reign (Esth. 1:3), and that he took to his royal palace the replacement for deposed Vashti in the seventh year of his reign (Esth. 2:16). Even if we allow reasonable time for the process of the finding and selecting of Vashti’s replacement, Ahasuerus may have nursed his anger for years. Why would he have cherished his wrath for so long? Surely it was because anger is a reaction to injury suffered. There was pain afflicting the king, pain that he reckoned Vashti had caused him, and for which he sought retribution through making her suffer. Such anger may be nursed for a long time, but it does eventually die out, leaving the underlying pain exposed. That pain is far more difficult to endure than is the anger that diverts one from his pain. Yet, when anger subsides, truer thinking and feeling can no longer be avoided. Without his anger, the king had to seek true relief through repentance and reconciliation or pursue another diversion.
Monday, June 29th - Esther 2: 1-4
The painful problem of Ahasuerus is briefly set out in v.1. A solution for his problem is offered in vv.2-4. The proposed solution is typical of the false remedies that men concoct for themselves. Not all purported remedies heal our wounds, nor are they commended to us by caring and competent physicians. None of the components of the truly healing balm of our Great Physician appear in the remedy offered to the suffering King Ahasuerus. Let us learn to detect and refuse such false solutions as we would refuse to drink poison.
Tuesday, June 30th - Esther 2: 1, 2
At least some of the pain that Ahasuerus was feeling was due to his sinful treatment of his wife. Such pangs of guilt are good and right. If we face such pains as fruits issuing from deeper roots, we shall find sin and guilt to be those roots; if we regard our moral grief as our only problem, we shall seek only quick, simple, and pleasant treatments. Such treatments are readily available and seem for a time to bring relief. Yet, because they do not touch the underlying roots, but simply mask the painful fruits of our sin, such treatments complicate rather than cure our guilty condition. Ahasuerus stands at the crossroads of remorse and repentance.
Wednesday, July 1st – Esther 2: 1, 2
Remorse, or worldly sorrow, is when one grieves over the bitter consequences of his sin. With repentance, or godly sorrow, one grieves more over his sin than over the misery which is a consequence of sin. Those who repent turn from their sin and to their Lord. Those who are only remorseful seek to turn from their pain to pleasure. In v.2, we see how readily promises of pleasure are presented to those filled only with remorse. Counterfeit gold lies scattered on the ground while true riches must be patiently mined beneath the surface. The first solution presented to us as a remedy for our pangs of conscience is usually a false solution.
Thursday, July 2nd – Esther 2: 1, 2
Ahasuerus feels his pain but does not exert himself to search his own soul for the true cause of that pain. Instead, he expresses his sorrow in mood and action, if not in word, and waits for others around him to offer relief. Repentance is costly, calling for a personal probing of one’s pain, as one searches himself and tests his motives and actions in the light of the truth. Remorse, rather than leading one to do the work of self-examination, inclines one to whine and to wait for others to bring relief that is quick, easy, and desirable.
Friday, July 3rd – Esther 2: 1, 2
The king’s attendants served him with flattery rather than faithfulness. They therefore seek to ease the king’s sorrow by diverting him from the pangs of his guilty conscience with the promise of pleasure. This pleasure is to be enjoyed by the king’s receiving a replacement for Vashti rather than through his working toward reconciliation with her. Our Lord redeems, saves, and reconciles to Himself those who have truly sinned against Him. Men of the world do not redeem but dispose of those who sin against them, or even only appear to have sinned against them. Then the worldly seek a replacement they imagine may as easily or even more easily fill the void left by the one they have discarded.
Saturday, July 4th – Esther 2: 1, 2
Ahasuerus clearly delighted in Vashti’s physical beauty (Esth. 1:11). It may have been only her physical beauty for which he pined. His servants may have keyed off this and proposed a replacement that would appeal to this base fondness of the king. It is a tell-tale mark of false solutions for the painful consequences of our sin that such solutions pamper our flesh while ignoring our soul.
Sunday, July 5th – Esther 2: 2-4
The king’s attendants spiced the appeal of their proposal by focusing on a replacement that would be more physically beautiful than Vashti and, because she was to be younger than the erstwhile queen, the beauty of the replacement would outlast that of the king’s ex-wife. In order to ensure that such a prime and, at least physically pure, beauty would be found, the king’s minions would be dispatched to cull the empire for every beautiful young virgin, and all of these women would be brought to the king for his selection. These flattering courtiers make it sound as though where the king’s sin against Vashti had increased, at least his gladness (if not grace in his life) would abound all the more. Something so low in its focus and so overarching in its promise is too gaudy to be good, right and lastingly satisfying.
Monday, July 6th - Esther 2: 2-4
The young virgins were not to be presented to the king in a state of their natural beauty. The artistry of Hegai—presumably an expert in cosmetics—was to add supposed improvement to the physical beauty of the women. It is a carnal impulse that values artifice above authenticity, and ranks outward beauty above the enduring beauty of a godly character.
Tuesday, July 7th - Esther 2: 2-4
This replacement proposal pleased the king. His delight, however, was not in anything right, good, or holy. Instead, the anticipation of a protracted selection process, wherein a host of female beauties would be paraded leisurely before Ahasuerus and added to his harem, aroused in the king base and carnal excitement. He must also have delighted in the thought that the lasting fruit of the selection process would be a new queen for the empire and, for Ahasuerus, a new wife. In short, Ahasuerus was typical of all men and women in their fallen, natural, sinful state. They seek to discover loveliness to gratify themselves. However, our God, the King of kings, deposits loveliness in unlovely sinners by His first loving them. Those who are accepted by God in His beloved Son have an authentic beauty that shines from within and endures through time and eternity. No mere transient, outward beauty can ever compare to the lasting beauty of God’s beloved children.
Wednesday, July 8th – Esther 2: 5-7
These verses introduce us to the central characters of this book. Mordecai and his cousin, Hadassah (a Jewish name meaning myrtle), whose Persian name was Esther, both were descended from Jews who had been exiled to Babylon. The Jews had been exiled because of their sins against God. Most of them were allowed to return to the land of Judah after 70 years in captivity. However, Mordecai and Esther, like Daniel and others, had stayed as sojourners in the land of their exile that had been itself conquered by the Medes and Persians. These two lowly Jews will prove to be the most significant members of the empire of Ahasuerus, Esther becoming his queen and Mordecai becoming the savior of his people and of Ahasuerus himself. It is infinitely better to be humble and faithful believers, even under chastisement, than to be rulers of worldly empires.
Thursday, July 9th - Esther 2: 5-7
With the introduction of Mordecai, Scripture shows us a clear contrast between Ahasuerus and this humble Jew. The debauchery of Ahasuerus has been shown to us in Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2. In contrast, Mordecai is within three verses shown to be a man of discipline. While the king drew the attention of a great empire to himself, the Jew was giving himself to the task of raising his cousin. Ahasuerus was a rich and powerful king over a great empire, while Mordecai was a poor exile responsible for his tiny family. The king lovelessly abused his wife; the Jew lovingly provided for his cousin not only materially but especially, as we shall see, through the way he raised her in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. In sum, the king is a rich and powerful ruler only in appearance, while essentially he is a slave to his carnal passions and a dupe to his flattering servants. The Jew is outwardly an exiled subject to this king, but in reality he is rich with the treasures of salvation and more than a conqueror through his faith in his God.
Friday, July 10th - Esther 2: 7
We are told several significant things about Esther in this verse. First, she had no natural parents. In place of parental love and provision she had her presumably older cousin, doing his best to be both mother and father to her. Mordecai loved her, as he made her to be his adopted daughter. In compensation for her apparent familial disadvantages, Esther did possess physical beauty. Yet even that, as we shall see, serves to bring her to the godless, loveless king and the dangerous intrigues of his godless court. However, Esther had the one true treasure, namely, her faith in the Lord, the one thing necessary.
Saturday, July 11th - Esther 2: 8
The king would appear to have all that any man could desire. He possessed unsurpassed power, riches, and glory, and even though he missed his beautiful wife, Vashti, he had sure prospect of a replacement. Yet, even the greatest rulers on earth have their political vulnerabilities. What Ahasuerus did not realize was that a plot would be formed against his life, and it would be the Jewish exile, Mordecai, who would discover it and report it in order to save the king (Esther 2:21-23). Who but God could know what vital service the exile would perform for the king? Therefore, we find the Lord graciously and sinlessly superintending even the sinful lusts of the king in order to bring Mordecai close enough to him through Esther to perform his saving service. What gracious and vital blessing is our Lord preparing for us, His beloved children, to receive and to give through the incidental and even sin-laced circumstances of our lives?
Sunday, July 12th - Esther 2: 8, 9
Esther’s physical beauty rendered her a candidate for Vashti’s replacement. The prospect of becoming queen of a great empire and the wife of a rich and powerful man would be appealing to many women. However, Esther’s godly character, which shows and shines throughout this book, would incline her to regard such things as trinkets in view of the saving love of the glorious God of heaven that she already possessed and enjoyed. Therefore, she would have considered her selection to be part of the parade of beautiful candidates before the godless Ahasuerus as a curse more than a blessing. Yet, her Lord had great blessing in store for her and all of her people through this providence that surely was to her somewhat painful and perplexing. Similarly do our painful providences serve for our blessing (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
Monday, July 13th - Esther 2: 8, 9
Although Esther’s physical beauty was the singular feature that commended her to the servants of the king who were implementing their base and carnal project, the more substantial and significant aspect of her good and godly character outshone her outer attractiveness. The king’s servant, Hegai, had eyes to see this deeper quality, as we gather from the wording of v.9 which says that Esther not only pleased him but also found favor with him. Because Hegai perceived something more profound and precious than skin-deep beauty in Esther, he treated her as the special treasure that she was. Here is a lesson for all women (and men too!) not to become obsessed with their outer attractiveness but rather to cultivate the true and lasting beauty of inner holiness (1 Pet. 3:1-6).
Tuesday, July 14th - Esther 2: 10, 11
Part of the beauty of Esther’s character—whether the godless could define it or not—was her humble and submissive spirit. These verses indicate to us her humility in that she submitted to and obeyed in the royal palace the instructions her adopted father, Mordecai, had given to her prior to her having left home to be brought before the king. There is something impressive to all observers about any woman or man who submits with sincere and loving devotion to godly authority.
Wednesday, July 15th - Esther 2: 10, 11
If godliness is a believer’s true beauty and if we are to let the light of our gracious attitude and actions shine so that men might see our good works and glorify our heavenly Father, we must surely wonder why Mordecai instructed Esther not to disclose to the servants of Ahasuerus that she belonged to the Jewish people. Since we are charged by God’s Word to speak the truth in love, we ought to know that there is a right attitude, time, place, and way in which we should communicate the truth. This is called godly discretion, and it is one of the key and critical characteristics of both Esther and Mordecai. In essence, they both realize what we should understand and practice, namely, that there are times when it is not only most effective but also right and necessary for us to seal our lips and let God do the speaking to others through His Word and providential works. The necessity and wisdom of this policy will become abundantly vindicated by the fruits it will produce, as we shall see as the events in the Book of Esther unfold.
Thursday, July 16th - Esther 2: 10, 11
While Esther demonstrates her loving submission to Mordecai when she obeyed his counsel not to reveal her Jewish nationality and religion to her virtual captors, Mordecai demonstrates his loving sense of responsibility for and caring commitment to his cousin when he kept vigilant watch over her while she was in the court of the harem. Godly love bound this man and his adopted daughter together and directed all that each would do here and hereafter that would have such saving effect for all of the Jews, as well as for King Ahasuerus’ life. Those who are most heavenly minded prove to be of most earthly good; and those having a loving care for their families prove to be the best lovers of their neighbors and citizens in their nations.
Friday, July 17th - Esther 2: 8-11
We have noted godly virtues in both Mordecai and Esther. However, the account Scripture gives us to this point simply makes clear to us that they were Jews living in the land of their exile some years after they could have returned to the covenant land of Judah. We are given no explanation regarding why they were still living in Persia. Were they there for godly or self-regarding reasons? Clearly, had they returned to their own land Esther would have avoided becoming a virtual captive of a godless king. Does this mean that they were not where God had called them to be? In answer we may say that if they were in Persia for worldly reasons, they soon were led to grow in their faith and found their blessing and security in the Lord. If they were in Persia because they had been among the few compelled to stay, like Daniel, they learned and demonstrated to all believers that worldly men can never deprive believers of their security, freedom, and holy usefulness in Christ. If they were in Persia by clear divine calling, they were sustained through all tribulations and led to triumph in their Lord. Our God is ever good and gracious to His people wherever they are and whatever the reason might be for their being there. At any place in the world we will always have tribulation, but we have cause for confidence and joy, knowing that our Lord has overcome the world.
Saturday, July 18th - Esther 2: 12-14
These verses inform us of the elaborate provision made for the artificial enhancement of the natural beauty of the many young virgins that had been gathered to the king’s palace. No products were withheld; no detail of training in deportment was omitted as these young women were glamorized in preparation for their presentation to Ahasuerus. All of this lavish provision was not to bless or better these women but all served only to maximize the gratification of the king. By the fact that these women were gathered to the palace by royal decree, and that after each one was presented to the king she was compelled to remain in his harem as his concubine, we learn that all of these young women had become virtual prisoners of the lustful king. Base men desire and demand for their own sinful pleasure that women paint, powder, and dress (or undress!) themselves and so improve (or disguise!) their beauty according to the man’s carnal taste. It is a shame that these captive young virgins were compelled to do this; it is a worse shame when free women volunteer to make themselves immodestly attractive to such loveless male brutes.
Sunday, July 19th - Esther 2: 15
The implication of this verse is that Esther was no willing participant in the glamorizing endeavor. When her turn came to be presented to the king, she who had impressed Hegai with her character more than with the application of cosmetics submitted to that servant’s guidance in preparing herself for her royal interview. It is evident that godly character was the jewel in the crown she already possessed in the Lord. The mention at this critical point of her deceased father, Abihail, and her adoptive father, Mordecai, indicates that the true beauty of this young woman was her godly heart that had been nurtured not in worldly glamor but in vital godliness conveyed to her by these godly men. Such purity of heart shone from Esther with a beauty that all of the other women and king’s servants—however jaded—could not deny.
Monday, July 20th - Esther 2: 16, 17
These verses speak of Esther’s success and her security. All that the other virgins had failed to achieve through their cosmetic embellishment, Esther attained by her reliance upon her sanctified character. However, was this true success for this godly young virgin? Had she not succeeded only in becoming the prized possession of a godless, lustful, and loveless potentate? The answer to these questions is found in Esther’s security. Although she was compelled to go in to this king, she, like David before Goliath, trusted not in worldly artifice but rather in the name of the Lord. Accordingly, she, unlike David, did not slay her Goliath but transformed him. We note this when Scripture reports that the king loved Esther and treated her with supreme kindness. Therefore, she who loved with godly love conquered and civilized this king and caused reciprocating love for her to issue from him. Our greatest security is ever in our accepting our Lord’s love and giving godly love to others.
Tuesday, July 21st - Esther 2: 17, 18
King Ahasuerus may have lusted after physical beauty, but when he beheld the godly loveliness of Esther his lust was extinguished and true love and respect issued from him. We detect this from Scripture telling us that the king loved Esther, and that he showed her kindness. He demonstrated practical deeds of respect and cherishing devotion when he crowned her with royalty and exalted her as his queen, thus taking her not only as his wife, but also as his co-laborer in his work of ruling the empire. Great and transforming is the power that godly love has on those who receive it.
Wednesday, July 22nd - Esther 2: 17, 18
In contrast to the lavish and excessive celebration the king had earlier given to display his royal glory, Ahasuerus now gives a modest and simple banquet in keeping with the modest and pure character of his new wife. Through this banquet, others were also truly blessed by the gifts they received and the holiday they enjoyed. Carnal joy drowns out all blessing, but godly rejoicing issues from the root of holiness and produces the fruit of pure and lasting happiness.
Thursday, July 23rd - Esther 2: 19, 20
With Esther’s marriage to the king and her exaltation to her new station as queen of the empire, her life was greatly changed. Yet all seemed to be the same for Mordecai. He remained at his post of devoted watchfulness over Esther. Love led him to keep that lowly position, and that position would prove critical in due course (cf. vv.21-23). Meanwhile, Esther remained silent regarding her Jewish nature and kindred. Lest we think her silence on this point now became for her the hiding of an inconvenient truth that might threaten her new exalted position had it been known, we are reminded that she did this according to Mordecai’s instruction. Why he had so instructed her must remain a mystery to Esther and to us until the time when her revealing all to Ahasuerus would vindicate this policy of discretion (Esther 7:1-8:8). Carnal curiosity and proud exhibitionism can don a guise of pious candor and lead one to feel obligated to know and tell all to the ruin and not the help of many.
Friday, July 24th - Esther 2: 21, 22
Esther was exalted as queen over a great empire. She sat on a royal throne while her cousin who had adopted and raised her sat as a lowly and lone man at the king’s gate. Perhaps only he knew why he was there, and even if others did know that he was keeping loving watch over Esther, they could easily think the man foolish for thinking that she needed or wanted his feeble care when she was married to the glorious king of the Persian Empire. Yet, loving devotion is never wasted, nor is it impractical. We see in these verses how Mordecai’s keeping himself in the path of such loving devotion placed him also in a strategic position to discover a plot to kill King Ahasuerus. This discovery and its disclosure to the king through Esther served for the good of the whole empire. We never can tell what great services we can render collaterally as we determine lovingly to serve the members of our own families.
Saturday, July 25th - Esther 2: 22
This verse shows us a chain of blessed communication that was forged by the Lord. Who but our infallibly wise God could position humble descendants of exiles to render service of the most vital and significant character for the king of the empire that ruled over them? By our loving trust of our Lord and our loving devotion to our brethren we, too, will find ourselves placed in positions of vast strategic importance far beyond what those obsessed over their careers could ever imagine, let alone occupy.
Sunday, July 26th – Esther 2: 22, 23
Mordecai rendered a service that was vital to the welfare of the empire. His singular service in saving the king’s life was reported to Ahasuerus. The assassins were caught and hanged and although the matter was recorded in the royal history book, no reward was given in royal gratitude to Mordecai. This recording of the matter as well as the oversight and neglect of the king in his rewarding his loyal subject were both superintended by the Lord as factors that would in due time prove critical for the salvation of all the Jews and provide greater reward for Mordecai. Our God will always see to it when we are denied due honor that it only prepares the way for our greater reward.
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