As Christians we know God’s love is always with us, but the reality is that even as Christ-followers we may experience suffering and waiting. We simply live in a world that has trouble. Being completely honest, I have prayed the prayer before… what are you waiting on, God? Where are you, God, in this immense time of struggle? Where is the healing? Where is my spouse? Please give me a financial breakthrough. Please touch my family. And although being honest with God is really the best way to pray since he knows our hearts anyway, there’s also a bit of conviction in this prayer. Not because of the rawness and truth, but because we can tend to overlook just how blessed we really are.
We see this in Esther’s life on many occasions. At a high level we may not think Esther suffered, but suffering takes on many different forms and looks different for each one of us. We dug a little deeper into Esther’s sufferings and found that although she suffered, she had a blessing from God each time to counterbalance her sufferings.
Esther 2:7— 7Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. (NIV)
Suffering—Esther was an orphan. Likely her parents died while she was at a young age because she was unable to care for herself. Growing up without a father and mother was undoubtedly difficult.
Blessing—Although she was orphaned, Mordecai takes her in as his own and raises her, caring for her. God provided Mordecai to Esther in this time of struggle.
Esther 2:8-9— 8When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. 9The girl pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. (NIV)
Suffering—Esther was “taken” to the palace to participate in the beauty pageant. The NLT version and the KJV use the word “brought”, but the NIV uses the word “taken” to describe Esther’s participation in the contest to become King Xerxes’ wife. We cannot say for certain if Esther wanted to participate or if she was forced to participate by Mordecai. We tend to think that Esther was led by Mordecai because Mordecai worked for the palace and it made sense that he would want Esther to become queen. Mordecai could gain favor and authority with the king if he was able to get Esther in such a position. From Esther’s perspective, this contest was a big risk. If she was not chosen as queen, she would be a concubine, which would ruin her other prospects for becoming married.
Blessing—Although Esther was taking a big risk by participating in the contest, whether willfully or not, God provided Hegai to her. Hegai showed much favor to Esther and gave her special privileges that other women who were participating in the contest did not get. Even if Esther was forced to be in a “sex competition” she did not want to be in, God blessed her with comfort and favor during this time.
Esther 2:10-11— 10Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. (NIV)
Suffering—Esther was told to hide her identity to participate in the contest. She couldn’t tell any of those around her who she really was. She was in the palace, but she couldn’t share her ethnicity, her faith, or her heritage with anyone for fear of being rejected in the contest. Also, she didn’t appear to have much contact with her only family member that we know of, Mordecai. Verse 11 talks about Mordecai keeping in touch by walking by the Harem. Esther seems to be very alone during this period.
Blessing—God still provided for Esther, though. Again, God gave her Hegai and his favor. Also, if we look further in 4:16, when Esther accepts Mordecai’s request to approach the king we also see that Esther may have developed some friendships in the palace. This verse discusses how Esther instructs Mordecai that she will gather up her servants and they will pray and fast. Now, although we can’t tell for sure that Esther’s maids were “friends” this verse seems to indicate that. Remember, Esther was hiding her Jewish identity. By saying that she would gather her own maids to pray and fast it seems as though she’s built a friendship with these people. In other words, she is letting these people in on her secret of Jewish faith so there may have been some relational foundation there that indicates friendship.
Esther 2:12— 12Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. (NIV)
Suffering—Esther went through a couple of periods of purely waiting. She waited during the beauty treatments before she was chosen to be queen. Also, many biblical commentators believe there was a 3-5 year waiting period after Esther becomes queen, and before her request from Mordecai to approach the king to rescue the Jews. We don’t really know what she was doing during that time period, or more importantly, what God was doing with her heart.
Blessing—God still provides in this waiting. God ultimately made Esther the queen. Again, Esther may or may not have wanted to participate in the contest, but regardless she was a participant and ultimately becoming queen was the best outcome she could have hoped for given the circumstances. Once in this position as queen, God prepared Esther to save his people.
Oftentimes, suffering and waiting go hand in hand. It certainly did for parts of Esther’s story, and it does in many of our own lives. When the waiting and the suffering happen at the same time it can be especially difficult. But we must remember what God’s word says about these valleys in our lives. In the story of Job, Job calls out to God through his struggles and God seems to respond, can you see my blessings? This reality hit us hard. In our own times of struggles, we realized God always continues to bless us. Sometimes we just need to make a conscious effort to look for the blessings through our suffering. Zechariah 9:12 says – Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles (NLT).
Through preparation for this part of Esther, we felt God instructed us to follow up on Zechariah 9:12’s promise to us. We went back and looked through how many times the words “blessing” and “trouble” were mentioned in scripture. Troubles, trial, and tribulation were mentioned 236 times. For any variation of the word blessing, it was mentioned 491 times total. 236 x 2 = 472. So we saw that blessing was actually mentioned more than twice as many times as the word trouble in the Bible.
Deron Spoo is an author who wrote the book entitled “The Good Book.” In it he states, “When you encounter your next difficult season resist the urge to pray, God get me out of this! Instead, choose to pray, God what do you want to get out of this?” His book also discusses Ahn Kim, who was a Korean Christian political prisoner when the Japanese occupied her country during World War II, saying she managed to survive focusing on the physical and spiritual needs of those imprisoned around her. Every morning Kim would wake up in her prison cell and pray, “Jesus, who do you want me to love today?” Suffering is certainly no fun, but it may be an opportunity for God to transform us. He gave a beautiful example of this in the life of Esther.
Heaven will be so wonderful with no pain and no suffering. Maybe we should look at troubles on earth as our only opportunity to suffer for Christ? Being a Christian is not easy. It’s the hardest thing to follow in faith when the world around you seems full of pain, or when you’re hurting. But when you are in a season of suffering or waiting, and you’re crying out to God and feel like he’s not listening - just look for the blessings that are before you and you will find them in double. Be comforted that God has you, and he will never leave you.
5You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
Psalm 139:5-6 (NLT)