Essence of the Feminine

Screaming, inconsolate, the little girl struggled to waken her mother with the glazed eyes.  Gently, they watched as she gleaned the dreadful knowledge, that mother could never move again.  In the pit of the stomach they felt the terrible shock of a child now bereft of  not one, but both parents.

Eventually it was the beloved elder cousin, Mordecai, who asked the family whether he might care for the little girl who had drawn him so close from the day of her birth.  Childless himself, he watched over his new charge assiduously, holding her when she cried, tenderly encouraging her to take a little of his favourite foods, rocking and singing  her to sleep in big, comfortable arms each night until she arrived again at a point of trust. Until she ceased her nightly crying and began to look to his loving attentions to meet her needs,  Until, once more, she began to hop and skip in the gardens of Shusan, and dance to the exquisite music of the Jewish harps.  Until joy again became her trademark.

What a wonderful job Mordecai had done with her, was the constant refrain of those who knew her circumstance, and observed the lightness of her step, the deep wells of trust in the big brown eyes as she skipped by his side on the Sabbath day of rest.  The two years it had taken to achieve this had also seen the change of name from Haddessa  (of Israel) to Esther (of Persia).  This had been part of a game Mordecai had encouraged in order to redraft her life and help her attach herself to him in a brand new fashion.  The two were inseparable. It had begun as a game of Persian ladies in the market place, with the little Hadessa imitating a slave-carriage born, and thoroughly bejewelled Persian princess.  Delighted at last to see her laughing, Mordecai had offered the Persian name to befit the occasion, and the little Hadessa had just as laughingly embraced the name, insisting upon its use as she daily pranced about his homely quarters announcing that she was Esther, the princess of Persia..

Following this minor incident, as if she had just begun again, she started, once more, to take a lively interest in her surroundings, asking many questions and absorbing new information like a dried up sponge soaks up water. 

Thereafter Mordecai began to teach the young child diligently, for she had questions about everything, and simply loved to learn.  He taught her as most men taught their sons, and had no less joy than they in the process.  There seemed no skill she could not acquire, no perception she could not embrace.  And always, uncle Mordecai was her first source of understanding and wisdom.  “How shall I find the right husband for this one?” became his constant query as she grew to startling beauty and comeliness, and indeed that query became a constant topic of the prayers he addressed to his adored Jehovah each day.  “For such a princess you will need to find a great king!” He chuckled one morning in those daily discussions.

Then it happened!  The news broke in the market place that soldiers were seeking beautiful young women to present to the King – something about a deposed queen who had disobeyed the Majesty.  Why had he warned her not to mention her Jewish nationality?  It happened so suddenly, and then she was whisked away!  It was Mordecai’s turn to tear his robes over his loss – the daughter he’d so treasured gone missing!

Then suddenly he ceased from his tears and drew himself to his tallest, not insubstantial frame.  In his prayers he raised the confident hands of assured hope, and praised the Most High God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, gaining the certain knowledge, as he did so, that the plans of Yahweh were far more than able to meet this situation.  Many of the old stories he studied again and again, looking at the impossible situations that Yahweh had made a joke of.  Hadn’t He saved a million or two refugees at the Red Sea and then dumped the whole Egyptian army right in it?  Hadn’t David felled the awesome giant Goliath, making him look an utter fool with a single shepherd’s slingshot?  What of Joshua and Jericho, David and the Amalekites at Ziglag, and dozens more stories of Jehovah’s victories?  Surely this occasion was one on which the Lord could be applied to again. The more he thought about it, the more he was certain that something was in the wind.  Why, maybe she was to be a princess after all.  Come think of it she was trained for it – trained to perceive and to search for understanding as the old Jewish books said of the duty of kings.  Daily he positioned himself at the palace, even though it was over a year that the young women were to be prepared and trained for the King’s pleasure.

Many palace secrets he learned as he sat there day by day – once even an assassination plot against the King of which he immediately informed Esther by messenger, that she may in turn, inform the King.  It was followed by the usual, very public hanging of the two men!  He’d witnessed it, but had played no further part, nor yet received the usual  acknowledgement.  That came later in one of Yahweh’s monstrous moments of fun turning a murder plot against the plotter!

The lonely year marched interminably slowly, until the news came through that the young virgins were now beginning to visit His Royal Majesty.  Oddly he felt an unusual peace in place of agitation about the news.  His beloved protégé had already been awarded the highest position among the women, the best of palatial accommodation and her own servants, and he’d been deeply warmed to know of this status.  In his eyes she had always been the royal princess of dreams.  Could she really become that magnificent figure of her own childish imagination?  Or had she been prophesying what was to become even as she spoke the words?  Well, time would certainly reveal the truth!

Time, indeed, revealed the Royal choice of Esther as Queen of Persia.  Mordecai, remaining daily, quietly, at the gate of the palace, observed all the festivities, keeping in touch through her servants. 

One there was, who went daily into the king’s presence, and prided himself on his position, whom Mordecai could never trust.  When this high courtesan, the king’s second in command, required his obeisance, along with that of all the rest of the king’s servants, he was greatly disappointed, constantly disappointed, and took umbrage, planning to kill him.  In fact he considered that all the race of Jewish people should be killed, as they would not honour the Persian gods and masters.  They were growing multitudinous, and seemed frightfully cunning.  Surely this posed a threat to the great Kingdom of Persia.  Would not the king honour him for exposing this threat, and having them all disposed of?  The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of the king’s pleasure and state reward for such loyalty. 

As he reviewed the situation within his family, among his good wife and ten sons, the subject arose of the Jewish massacre of the Agagites, when most of his tribe had been killed.  Hatred built up strongly as they reconsidered this event, and Haman became absolutely certain that he had to expose and overcome the threat of the growing tribe of Jews to the Persian empire.  Why, the next thing they would do would be to take the very throne of Persia if he didn’t put a stop to it.  It was no use just taking the life of Mordecai, because the whole Jewish race would become angered.  There would be riots, and the king would see it as his, Haman’s doing.  No.  He had to be cleverer than that.

There were those, of course, who said that the Jewish God was immensely powerful and that it was not possible to attack them.  That seemed ridiculous to him, seeing that they had been taken from Israel and brought as prisoners to Persia.  Far away from their own territory and their own God, they were easy to defeat.  It would simply take a proclamation from the King and it could be done.  He set about preparing his argument for the palace.  Mordecai and his threatening disloyalty would be out of his way for ever.

Carefully he laid out the dire situation, and his plan, before the king, and was delighted to be given the royal seal of approval.  He was to set a day when that whole race of traitors would be killed all at once. 



History tells, of course, how a little Jewish orphan girl not only became the royal queen of all Persia, from India to Ethiopia, but how the amazing collusion of the Queen of Persia with the Jew, Mordecai, who served the most high and glorious God and Him only, saved their people from  the genocidal plot of the anti-semitic Agagite, Haman through the trust and favour of the great King Xerxes who saw fit to bestow great honour upon his beloved and exceedingly beautiful queen before the assembled leaders of the120 nations of his magnificent kingdom.