We continue our series on Esther titled, “For Such A Time As This.” Thinking, not blaming is key for each one of us to make a positive, hopeful, joyful, and non-anxious impact in society and the lives of others. As you recall, Esther is the story of the Jews protecting themselves from persecution during the Babylonian Captivity. It is a story of a people delivered. The Jews experienced anxiety as did the political leaders. It was a complicated time.
Life is about relationships. And to be candid, relationships can be awkward. I was having a conversation with someone last week and the subject of appropriate social skills came up. Appropriate social skills are necessary for effective relationships. And when one is aware that they lack some of the appropriate social skills, it can bring about anxiety and even panic attacks.
Thinking about anxiety and its causes is important. Blaming anxiety on someone or something is not helpful. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines anxiety as “a nervous disorder marked by excessive uneasiness.
The “marshmallow test” is a classic research project that illustrates our lack of self-control and delayed gratification. For the study, the researcher would give a child a marshmallow, and tell them that they could eat the marshmallow OR they could wait until the researcher would return several minutes later, at which time they would get a second marshmallow. Videos abound on YouTube featuring kids, in successive versions of the original experiment, waiting, playing with, and sometimes eating the first marshmallow, forgoing their chances of a second marshmallow. In January 2020, the results of a new version of the experiment were released. In this new version, kids were paired up, played a game together, and then were sent to a room and given a cookie with the promise of another if they could wait for it by not eating the first cookie. However, some of the kids were put in what researchers called an “interdependent” situation in which they were told they would only get the second cookie if both they and their partner could wait and refrain from eating. The results showed that the kids who were depending on each other waited for the second cookie significantly more often. According to researcher Rebecca Koomen, “In this study, children may have been motivated to delay gratification because they felt they shouldn’t let their partner down, and that if they did, their partner would have had the right to hold them accountable.”[1]
The tension between concluding that being interdependent is better than being isolated supplies laughter and tears. To think is always more difficult than to blame. The purpose of the Book of Esther is to help us understand that God is active in all aspects of life. The Book of Esther helps us see that God positions each one of us to accomplish God’s will.
The Party Is Over (Esther 2:1-4)
King Xerxes threw a huge party, a lavish banquet (literally “drinking party”) that the king hosts for all of his officials and ministers. The army of Persia and Media as well as the nobles and governors of the provinces are in attendance. King Xerxes displays his great wealth and the party is an annual event usually lasting more than one hundred eighty days. Xerxes had summoned his wife, Queen Vashti, but she refused to come. The disrespect and insubordination by Vashti, raised the king’s blood pressure. The party came to an end. Anxiety has disappeared. King Xerxes has calmed and cooled down. In fact, King Xerxes remembers Vashti in the passive voice. The King remembers Vashti’s fate in passive light. King Xerxes moved on. Others had carried out his order. King Xerxes’ servants prepared the new harem from which the new queen would be chosen. A young virgin from a harem of young virgins who was pleasing in the king’s eyes would replace Vashti as queen. It didn’t take long for the king to return to his old self.
Esther is placed in the Royal Harem (2:5-11)
Mordecai and his cousin Esther were Jews who had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon/Persia. Their family linage is traced to the tribe of Benjamin. A rivalry emerges between Mordecai and Hamen. Hamen was an Agagite. Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. There was a rivalry between Saul and Agag. The tension is set further. Esther’s name resembles the name of the Babylonian deity “Ishtar” and Mordecai’s name that of the Babylonian deity “Marduk.” Esther’s name in Hebrew means “myrtle.” Mordecai is consistently identified as a “Jew.” Thus, all the Hebrew exiles were identified as Jews. Both Esther and Mordecai lived faithfully in a terrible situation. Mordecai told Esther to conceal her Hebrew identity. Mordecai emerges as a loyal Jew. Esther was more than a pretty face. Her humility won favor with the lead servant of the harem, and she was promoted to first place in the king’s harem.
Esther Is Chosen As Queen (2:12-18)
Each virgin, in the harem of virgins, was prepared for their evening with the king. This preparation was a twelve-month process in the beauty parlor. Each virgin received “rubbings” that is skin treatments. Each massage involved oil of myrrh and then unnamed perfumes. Esther obeyed the Persian laws in this case. She first obeyed her cousin Mordecai and then when selected for the harem, Esther submitted to the skin treatments. Each young woman was given one chance to impress the king. If their first night was successful, they moved from the harem of “candidates” to that of the “approved” concubines. When it was Esther’s turn, King Xerxes treated her with “love,” “favor,” and “devotion.” The king was so impressed, Xerxes placed the Crown on Esther’s head. Esther became Queen.
God Saved the King (Esther 2:19-23)
The peace in the King’s court didn’t last too long. Mordecai is put into protective custody, because two disgruntled eunuchs had plotted an assassination attempt on King Xerxes at the time of a second gathering of virgins. Mordecai somehow caught wind of the assassination conspiracy and was able to tell Queen Esther. The Queen told King Xerxes immediately and gave Mordecai credit. The conspirators were discovered and executed. This rescue operation plays an important part in another rescue operation of greater scale and significance.
Esther is the book about Jewish identity as a people, a nation. Purim, a Jewish high holy day, is a national day. It celebrates perseverance and preservation of a people. Faithfulness to God is the key to Jewish perseverance and preservation. Faithfulness vanquishes anxiety.
George Muller writes, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.”[2] You too can exercise influence for the common good. It was the way of Esther. It is the way of Jesus. Friends, faith in Jesus is the antidote to anxiety. Thinking, not blaming is necessary for such a time as this. Amen.
This sermon was preached the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday, 25 August 2024
by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary
at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas
Copyright Ó 2024
Steven M. Marsh
All rights reserved.
[1]The Staff, “Marshmallow test” redux: Children show better self-control when they depend on each other. ScienceDaily.com (1-14-20); Rebecca Koomen, Sebastian Grueneisen, Esther Herrmann. “Children Delay Gratification for Cooperative Ends,” Psychological Science (2020).
[2]George Muller in “Signs of the Times.” Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 95.
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