Context No. 3000 of 4322 · Esther (Greek)

Esther (Greek) 2:12-18: in context

12Now this was the time for a virgin to go into the king, when she had completed twelve months; for so are the days of purification fulfilled, six months while they are anointing themselves with oil of myrrh, and six months with spices and women’s purifications. 13And then the lady goes in to the king. The officer that he commands to do so will bring her to come in with him from the women’s apartment to the king’s chamber. 14She enters in the evening, and in the morning she departs to the second women’s apartment, where Hegai the king’s chamberlain is keeper of the women. She doesn’t go in to the king again, unless she is called by name. 15And when the time was fulfilled for Esther the daughter of Aminadab the brother of Mordecai’s father to go in to the king, she neglected nothing which the chamberlain, the women’s keeper, commanded; for Esther found grace in the sight of all who looked at her. 16So Esther went in to King Ahasuerus in the twelfth month, which is Adar, in the seventh year of his reign. 17The king loved Esther, and she found favor beyond all the other virgins. He put the queen’s crown on her. 18The king made a banquet for all his friends and great men for seven days, and he highly celebrated the marriage of Esther; and he granted a remission of taxes to those who were under his dominion.

After the long months of preparation, Esther's turn comes to go before the king. She follows exactly the counsel of the keeper of the women, asking for nothing beyond it, and she finds favor with everyone who sees her. When she goes in to King Ahasuerus, he loves her above all the others and sets the royal crown on her head, holding a great feast in her honor.

Esther is raised to the throne, and the text keeps stressing that she found favor with all. Behind the palace pageantry, God is quietly positioning a young Jewish woman in the one place from which she will one day be able to save her people. She does not yet know why she is there; she simply acts with grace and wins favor. God's providence so often works like this, placing his people, through ordinary favor and circumstance, exactly where they will be needed for a purpose not yet revealed. Her rise is not luck but preparation for a rescue only God can foresee.

Can I trust that God may be positioning me, through ordinary favor and circumstance, for a purpose I cannot yet see?

Sources

Esther (Greek) 2:17: "The king loved Esther, and she found favor beyond all the other virgins. He put the queen's crown on her."
Esther 4:14: "Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Proverbs 21:1: "The king's heart is in the LORD's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires."