“Behind the Scenes of ‘The Bachelor’” - Audio
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If you have children, junior high or high school, you hopefully got an email this week. I am going to be dealing with some sexually explicit material, and if you'd like to make sure that your kids don't hear that, now is the time to send them away. Cassie, I think, is going to have them help out with children's church. Secondly, if you don't have a note sheet, that means you probably don't have a bulletin. Ones are stuffed in the notes sheets now, so if you'd like to grab one, that's where it is. But why don't we all stand up, and let's read from the Book of Esther. This is Esther 2, 5 to 18. Today's message is, "Behind the scenes of the Bachelor." I'm not the first to notice this, but yeah, this story looks a lot like the Bachelor. We'll see that in a second. But let's read it together, starting in verse 5. In Xuche and the Citadel, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite. Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been captured with Jekoniah, the king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had carried away. This just means that Mordecai's people have been carried away for a long time, since his people have been in Jerusalem. And Mordecai had brought up Hadasah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So what was, when the king's command and decree were heard, and we'll talk about what that was from last week, and when many young women were gathered at Shushan the Citadel under the custody of Hegai, that Esther also was taken to the king's palace, into the care of Hegai, the custodian of the woman. He's a eunuch who takes care of the ladies in the harem. Now, the young woman pleased him, this is Esther, and she secured his faithful commitment. So he readily gave beauty preparations to her, in addition to choice foods. And then seven choice maidservants were provided just for her, from the king's palace. And he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women. Esther had not revealed her people or family of the Jewish people. From Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it, and every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare, and what was happening to her. Each young woman's turn, Esther is one of many, many virgins who've been secured from all over the empire. And each young woman's turn came to go into king Ahasuras, after she had completed twelve months' preparation, according to the regulations for the women. For thus were the days of their preparation appointed, six whole months of oil and merch treatments. And that's, yeah, that's massage and whatnot. And six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women cosmetics. Thus prepared each young woman went to the king, and she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the women's quarters, clothes really, to the king's palace. In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, a separate harem to the custody of Shashghaz, the king's unit who kept the concubines, you might even read secondary wives. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her, and called for her by name.
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Teaching through Esther 2:5-18, Pastor Tom "pulls back the curtain" on the circumstances of Esther's selection by King Xerxes, revealing the acquiesence required to secure this selection, and God's faithfulness in the midst of it.