For today's post I've decided to pick up again in the book of Esther chap, 2.  If you missed my first post on Queen Esther please scroll up and click on my July 14th post.  

Chap 2: Search for a new Queen

This chapter picks up after the Kings rage and anguish has subsided after he decided to fire his Queen for insubordination.  The King is in a funk missing his queen.  Throughout the history of monarchies, when the king or queen is in a mood everyone around him or her gets nervous.  Just try to fathom how many people throughout history have died for little or no reason other than momentarily irritating someone who woke up on the wrong side of the palace that morning.  So one of the Kings brighter assistants in a moment of self preservation speaks up and says to the King "I know what you need, we have to find you a new trophy queen".  And since this was the leader of the known world at that time, a ok or pretty good queen wasn't gonna do.  She had to be a WOW!!!   So they have first recorded beauty pageant in world history, with the winner not only being Miss Persia but the Queen of Persia.   

At this time there was a Jew named Mordecai who lived near the King's palace.  He was raising he niece after her parents (his uncle and aunt) died.  Her name was Hadassah (who we'll later know as Esther) who was very beautiful.  As we know that will become a very handy trait to have at that moment in time.  And we'll learn the later this trait will be crucial to the survival of God's chosen people the Jews.  It's amazing how God lets the grand plans and decisions of man play out all the while influencing them to suit His purposes and will.   You want to have a contest to replace a disobedient queen, well I have just the right candidate to win that context because I'm God and i seen what's coming down the road.  

Esther was brought into the palace to prepare for the contest which involved 12 months of beauty treatments (yes you read that right 12) to make the already beautiful even more so.   After their treatments each contestant was to took her turn to be brought into the King (to do exactly what you think that means).  This is where the King started to whittle the field down.  Those that pleased the King were brought back, those that didn't were eliminated and would not be Queen. By the time it was Esther's turn to go into King everyone who came in contact with her prior to that knew who would ultimately win the race for queen.  What they knew the King quickly realized as well and Esther was crowned Queen. 

Up to this moment you need to know a really important detail, no one but her uncle knew that Esther was a Jew.  You'll see later just how important this detail was later in the book.  Why stop at that detail?  Another seemingly inconsequential thing happened after her coronation.  Mordecai got wind of a possible plot to kill the King.  He told the Queen about it who told the King.  It was looked into and found true.  The perpetrators were rounded up and hanged.  Readers you need to realize if the Holy Spirit wanted this detail in the Bible, there was a reason behind it.  Our job is to continue to read and figure out why.  That concludes chapter two of Esther.