Twelve Months of Preparation Esther 2:12 - Equipped for Battle

Esther is within the palace of Shushan in the best place of the women preparing to be presented before King Ahasuerus who desires a new queen. As she is getting ready, her older cousin Mordecai is walking in the court of women every day to check on her progress. In chapter two and verse twelve, we learn just how much preparation was required for a young maiden to be presented before the king. We read:

Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the women;)

If we use our imaginations we might be able to see the waiting period that was required to be presented before the king, however this verse begins, “Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women,...” Twelve months? It said, “twelve months, according to the manner of the women”. Most men will complain if their wives take twelve minutes to get ready, but for twelve long months these fair maidens prepared to see the king for what might only be a few moments – talk about your Olympic like beauty contest! Imagine all the conversations that took place during those twelve months, and think about all the exercise, bathing treatments, and such that these young ladies underwent. We gain more insight to what they endured in the next part of our verse.

The verse continues, “(for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) The idea behind this beauty treatment was “purifications”. These young ladies must be pure before they were to be presented to King Ahasuerus. Six months they were bathed with “oil of myrrh” and six months they were anointed with “sweet odors”. Oils, purfumes, and notice too, “with other things” were added as well. Who knows what those were. Nonetheless, the Persian servants knew that it was necessary for all of these beauty treatments to be applied before any woman would even have an opportunity to be seen by the king. One thing is for sure, if she couldn't be “pure” with all those treatments, she probably never would be.

As we consider these long months of preparation, let's consider how much faith and hope were involved. These young maidens were going through all these treatments just for a chance to be the queen of the Persian Empire. For certain the prize would be worth the endurance, but they must have all known that only one of them would be chosen. If we put ourselves in their place for a moment, would we have stayed? Would we have endured the purifications just to have an opportunity to see the king? Now let's consider this - what preparations and purifications are being made within our lives right now that are getting us ready to see King Jesus? Whatever they are, and no matter how long they last, of this we can be assured, King Jesus is ready to receive us to be His bride.

Next time we see the fair young maidens presented to the king, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow...there is more...

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” and the new marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.