The Replacement

 

    Being the replacement is a unique position that can leave a person feeling vulnerable.  It can be exciting because now you are in the position to make some changes.  On the other hand, there could be self-doubt that you will live up to the person that you replaced.  It really depends on the situation.  How the person that you replace was removed or left is only one thing to consider.

    Queen Vashni was banished for being a strong woman that stood true to her integrity.  It is a valuable characteristic that cost her everything.  The king grew to regret his decision, but it had been done and he could not take it back now.  His attendants noticed that he was lonely, so they went throughout the land to gather virgins.  Among these virgins Xerxes would find a new wife.

    The girls that were gathered were placed in the care of Hegai, the king's eunich,  for months for beauty treatments.  After all, you want to look your best when you are introduced to the king.  The king would spend one night with each girl until he found his wife.  I get the pros for the king, but all the rejected girls had no where to go.  No other man would ever take her as his wife.

    Mordecai was a Jew that lived in Susa because he had been an excile.  He was the guardian of his cousin Hadassah.  She was known in the region as Esther, so that she could fit in better.  She was a natural beauty, so she became one of many taken to Hegai.  While she was in training Mordecai still watched out for her.

    Hegai liked Esther as a person, so he gave a little extra advice.  The whole time she was with the other girls, she hid the fact that she was a Jew.  It makes me believe that there was prejudice against the Jews in the land.  

    For a year the girls were trained on how to act when they met the king.  The rejected girls became his concubines to never see him again unless he asked for them.  Esther won the favor of all who met her, so of course the king took notice of her too.  She was to be the replacement queen.  When she was chosen there was a banquet in her honor.

    Esther kept her heritage a secret.  I guess it was not too hard since she was to be a trophy wife. He probably didn't care all that much about what she had to say.  Xerxes trusted that she had passed all the test before coming to him.  She was beautiful and pleasing and that was all that mattered at that time.  Everyday Mordecai would sit at the gate entrance and advise her.  

    One day Mordecai overheard a plot to kill the king, so he told Esther.  She got the message to the king and gave the credit to Mordecai.  The two conspirators were hung.  The replacement queen opened the doors that day to help the Jews and she did not even know it.  She was becoming someone that the king trusted.

Esther 2