The Making Of Queen EstherНамуна

 Scripture tells us that Esther was a very attractive woman. She is described as “beautiful of form and face.” Esther’s beauty got her noticed, of course, and she was chosen to be one of the women who would be placed on the path to become queen. Yet while her beauty may have gotten her noticed, there was something else about her that kept her noticed. As the R&B group The Temptations’ song goes, “Beauty is only skin deep.” Looks may turn heads, but looks alone won’t make those turned heads stay. It takes more than that. Esther possessed an additional special quality—we may call it today things like charisma, poise, presence or authenticity. Whatever it was, it evoked something longer than just a look. In fact, we are told she found “favor” with the person in charge of all of the women. And that favor wound up giving her an advantage with the king. We read,

When the king’s command and edict became public knowledge and when many young women were gathered at the fortress of Susa under Hegai’s supervision, Esther was taken to the palace, into the supervision of Hegai, keeper of the women. The young woman pleased him and gained his favor so that he accelerated the process of the beauty treatments and the special diet that she received. He assigned seven hand-picked female servants to her from the palace and transferred her and her servants to the harem’s best quarters. (Esther 2:8-9 CSB)

The favor Esther found opened doors for her to have seven maids, choice food and cosmetics given to her. It also had her placed in the best place to live as she prepared to meet the king. But not only did Esther have great looks and a special quality to her, she also had wisdom. She was wise enough to listen to her cousin Mordecai and not share with anyone about her Jewish heritage. She was wise enough to follow his leading in her life as they both sought this position of influence for her. Knowing this was their opportunity, Mordecai stayed close by.

Every day, the Scripture tells us, Mordecai would pace outside near the gates and doors of where Esther stayed in order to hear word on how she was doing and how her status fared. And every day, he would undoubtedly hear something along the lines of, “Not yet.” Until the day finally came when it was Esther’s turn to spend a night with the king.

To hear more about Esther, click here  to get an mp3 download of a sermon by Dr. Tony Evans, as our gift to you. We want to thank B&H Publishers for these excerpts from Tony Evans' book "Pathways: From Providence to Purpose, published in 2019.