The second chapter of the book of Esther tells of the great search for a queen to replace Vashti, the dethroned queen of Persia. Xerxes, also called Ahasuerus, had dethroned her because she was disobedient to his command. In verse 12 we read, Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women.
These two six-month periods have a special spiritual significance. The six months of myrrh symbolize the dealings of God upon His bride-to-be while the preparatory work of the cross is being wrought in her. The six months of spices and cosmetics represent our beautification as the Lord imparts to us and blesses us. His own resurrection life lifts us up and prepares us for that wonderful marriage supper of the Lamb.
What is the historical picture and significance of the myrrh and the spices? Exodus 30:23–25 gives the formula for the anointing oil that was to be used in the Tabernacle. A mixture of spices—myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, and cassia—was added to olive oil. Myrrh was always associated with death. However, the anointing of the Lord not only works a death in us; it also works life. It embraces almost every dealing that God brings upon our lives.
When the wise men came to honor Jesus Christ at His birth, they brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Mark 14:3–9 tells of the woman who brought an alabaster box filled with precious nard and anointed Christ with the ointment. The nard was so pungent that the fragrance of it filled the entire house. In ancient times nard was considered the leading perfumed ointment. It came from India and was very costly. Consequently, the disciples were indignant because of the woman’s actions and asked why the ointment had not been sold and the money given to the poor.
However, the Lord answered, “Leave her alone, for against the day of My burial she has done this. Wherever the gospel is preached, this will be spoken of as a memorial to her.” That costly nard, with its deep oil base, was probably still lingering on His body while He was hanging on the cross.
The perfumes and ointments of those ancient times played an important part in the lives of the Jews. Remember that they were a very clean people. The Old Testament gave specific rules and regulations about cleanliness, such as washing before eating. Even though Palestine had a scarcity of water during this time, those rules were carefully observed. Imagine what was involved in taking a bath, when all the water had to be carried from the few wells in the land. As a result, perfumes and scented oils were very much in order. The people had none of our modern-day chemicals and deodorants. Only natural substances were used. Sodium carbonate, mixed with a little fat or grease, made an acceptable soap. Rosemary and marjoram, being very pungent herbs, were used as a poor man’s perfume. Anise was the breath mint of the day. They chewed it in order to sweeten their breath.
Stories in the Old Testament show us how valuable the various spices and herbs were. The Queen of Sheba brought camel-loads of fine spices as a gift to Solomon (I Kings 10:1–2). When Hezekiah stored his riches, he included spices and perfumes along with the gold and silver (II Chronicles 32:27). That was his idea of wealth. The Songs of Solomon give us a picture of the herbs and spices that were used in the preparation of a bride and bridegroom for marriage. This book tells of a young girl whose beloved came to see her. When she arose to open the door, her hands and fingers were dripping with liquid myrrh (chapter 5, verse 5).
From all of this, we can understand what a thorough preparation Esther experienced. For six months she was anointed with myrrh, and for the next six months, with spices and perfumes. She really had a sweet smell about her by the time she had completed that year of preparation. When Esther walked into a room, everyone knew she was there because of the aroma that filled the air.
The myrrh represents God’s dealings upon our flesh. He works a death in us so that the flesh, which is obnoxious and repulsive to Him, is eliminated. God is always working to eliminate the flesh.
The pattern for worship in the Tabernacle gives us a picture of the process that we must go through whenever we come into His presence. In the outer court of the Tabernacle was the altar where the animals were sacrificed. The smoking flesh and hides of the disemboweled burnt offerings, as well as the animals that were sacrificed whole, created a terrible stench as they were offered up to the Lord. In a very real sense, the Old Testament priesthood who offered the sacrifices were like butchers. They literally butchered the sacrifices in order to present them in an acceptable form before the altar of the Lord. It was a bloody, smelly procedure. After preparing the sacrifices, the priests had to wash themselves in the laver before they could go from the outer court into the holy place, where they ministered at the altar of incense. The fragrance of that incense could overwhelm the stench of the sacrifices.
All of God’s dealings with us, including delivering up His own Son to become a curse and to be made sin for us, have a great stench; but through it all we reach the place where our worship and praise can come up to God. Our worship is what sanctifies the whole process before the Father. The sweet incense of our prayers and worship continually brings a fragrance that is far more overpowering in the nostrils of the Father than all of the noisome, obnoxious qualities of the flesh and the events that have had to take place to bring us into that state of worship.
This is the process that is portrayed in the book of Esther by the year of preparation first with myrrh and then with sweet spices. One of the most significant verses in the entire book is Esther 4:14. The King James Version reads, … who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? The New American Standard Version says, “… And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” Esther succeeded Vashti as queen when Vashti was dethroned as a result of her disobedience to the ritual and procedure of that day. She had refused the king’s command that she appear before him and his princes at a banquet. However, when a law was passed later, allowing a massacre of the Jews, Esther risked her life in order to save her people by doing the reverse of what Vashti had done. She came into the king’s presence uninvited. For a person to appear before the king without being summoned was cause for death, unless the king extended his scepter of mercy toward that person. Yet Esther did this because her cousin Mordecai, who had adopted her and raised her as his own child, told her, “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
The name of God is not mentioned in the book of Esther, probably because it was part of the old Persian records in which the name of God was most likely not allowed. However, the hand of God is evident throughout the book. Mordecai told Esther, in effect, “God brought you to this place. You went through the time of preparation to come to this hour when you can be used of God.”
In order to understand the significance of what Esther did, remember that she was so prepared and so anointed by those months of preparation that she pleased the king exceedingly. After five years of marriage, he still loved her very much. She was probably the queen-mother in Persia at the time when the great events of restoration in the Old Testament took place. In 536 B.C., those who had been exiled in Babylon began to return to Jerusalem. Twenty years after that, in 516 B.C., the Temple was rebuilt. In 478 B.C., Esther became queen, and five years later, in 473 B.C., came the attempt to massacre the Jews. Not until 444 B.C. did Nehemiah go to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. Esther became queen approximately forty years after the Temple had been rebuilt in Jerusalem and thirty years before the wall was rebuilt under Nehemiah. Thus it is very possible that among the young men who were saved from martyrdom in that massacre were Ezra, the scribe, and Nehemiah.
God raised up this queen as an instrument by which a whole nation could be saved. At first Esther did not reveal her ancestry; she did not tell the king that she was a Jewess. This was to her advantage, as well as that of her people. Nevertheless, when the time finally came, she laid it all on the line and saved her people, because it was the will of God for her to do so.
God often raises up someone and places him in a certain position for just one purpose—to speak, at a moment of destiny, just one word of testimony. That is what God did with John the Baptist. His miracle birth and the many years of preparation in the wilderness all took place just so that he could make one announcement: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
In this day God is again raising up a remnant, not for a prolonged period of history, but for an end-time witness to speak the gospel of the Kingdom. Who knows whether God has brought you to the Kingdom for such a time as this, just so that you can speak one Word that brings back the King? As the gospel of the Kingdom is preached in all the world, wouldn’t you like to be the one who speaks that last Word which completes the present plan of God? Wouldn’t you like to be the one who brings the last declaration, the last proclamation of the Kingdom message which will fulfill the prophecy of the Scripture, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” Matthew 24:14.
The Kingdom message does not have to be accepted in order to be established; nevertheless, many people will accept it. God will have His remnant of the Kingdom throughout the world. It will be like the leaven that is hidden in three measures of meal (Matthew 13:33). God will hide it away in every nation upon the face of the earth, and then that Kingdom will come forth in the name of the Lord. In light of this, the book of Esther is a symbol for us, a picture of the things that are to come.
Esther certainly lived in a strategic time. In Esther 1:4, we read, Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus (also called Xerxes of Persia), the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces (the beauty contest in search of a new queen was conducted throughout his kingdom, which covered 127 various nations), … in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his princes and attendants, the army officers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of his provinces being in his presence, when he displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty for many days, 180 days. How would you like to go to a banquet lasting 180 days—almost half a year?
Notice that the army officers were invited. Following this banquet and the deposing of Vashti, Ahasuerus went on the famous expedition against Greece, in which the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis occurred. When he returned, he conducted a leisurely search for the proper virgin to be his wife, and Esther was chosen.
And when these days (the 180 days when he displayed his riches) were completed, the king gave a banquet lasting seven days for all the people who were present in Susa the capital, from the greatest to the least, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. Esther 1:5. The chapter goes on to express that there was a great deal of liberty at this feast. Verse 8 tells us that no one was under any compulsion to drink wine, but each was to do according to his own desires.
Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the palace, and everything seemed to be going along well. However, on the seventh day the king’s heart became a little too merry with wine. He began thinking what a beautiful queen Vashti was, and wanting to show the people her beauty, he called for her to come.
In view of today’s standards, no one can indeed evaluate the rightness or wrongness of this incident, because in those days the headship of the man was recognized much differently than it is today. Rarely, for several centuries, has any law of any country supported such a total headship as that which a man had then. In many of those countries, a man could sell or kill his wife or his children. He answered to no one. He could turn them over to the courts with any charges he desired, and they could be destroyed without any proof or evidence. In Old Testament times, parents could bring a rebellious son before the elders of the city and say, “This son is stubborn and rebellious.” Then all the men of the city would stone him to death (Deuteronomy 21:18–21). Family discipline was rather total then. Rebellious children did not survive very long. There also were very few rebellious wives in those times.
For this reason, when Vashti refused to come before the king, Ahasuerus sought counsel from his nobles about what to do. They told him, “This is not only against you; it is against all of us. If Vashti is allowed to do this, all of our wives will act with contempt toward us, too.” In order to make an example of her, the king deposed Vashti and began the search for another queen (Esther 1:13–19; 2:1–4). Among the women selected from 127 countries, Esther stood out as one of the most beautiful of form and face. However, hers was more than a physical beauty; she also had a beautiful spirit. Hegai, who was in charge of the women and their preparation for admittance to the king, immediately showed great favor to Esther and assigned seven choice maids to take care of all her needs (Esther 2:9). From then on, he gave her very special attention. When she finally came before the king, he loved her very much; and he was still very much in love with her five years later when she came into his presence uninvited.
King Xerxes died about thirteen years after their marriage. Although Esther was widowed after such a short period of time, she continued on as the queen-mother for many years. Perhaps she was a great influence in the lives of some of the men who served God so ably during the restoration.
How does Esther’s preparation relate to us? Like Esther, we have been chosen of the Lord. He has called us out of all nations and all peoples and has begun a deep work in our hearts to prepare us for what is to come. Hold that truth in your mind. Let it grip you so that you will never forget it. God does not put you through the work of the cross or the months of myrrh just so that you will be able to endure the rigors of the ministry for a few years. He is not like a dentist who takes care of an aching tooth by severing a nerve instead of pulling the tooth. God does not sever a spiritual nerve so that you will not feel anything anymore. It is true that He is bringing a death to the things of the flesh, but He is also bringing you into resurrection life so that you will be alive to God with a deep awareness of Him and oneness with Him.
The transition from the Church age to the Kingdom may be with many difficulties; but they are a means to an end. We are looking forward to the time when the Body of Christ rules and reigns with Christ. We are anticipating the tremendous position that He has for us in the great days of the Bride ruling with the Bridegroom. The preparation of heart that we are experiencing is not just for now. God is preparing our hearts for the Kingdom. He is preparing us for the faithful rule and reign in His Kingdom that is to come. Are we becoming more and more Kingdom-conscious? This present age is a passing scene that will disappear, but the preparation that God is working within our spirits now will never disappear. We are being prepared for the days when the King will come in His glory, and our submission to Him will be complete.
We are going through a beautification process. Revelation 19:7–8 urges us, “Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.” He is clothing us and preparing us now for the days to come! He is changing every one of us and making us beautiful before Him! As the Lord prepares us for Himself, we also relate better to every member of His Body; but peace within the Body is not the main objective. The main objective is our oneness with the Lord, that He be able to look upon us all, and we upon Him in whom our soul delights, knowing that He has prepared us all for Himself.