Winning Favour
What can one person do to change things around them? Most of
our lives consist of various choices, ones made by ourselves and ones made by
others who have various levels of influence on us. Our governments make choices about how our
country will run. Our culture and
communities make choices about behaviour and our societal norms. Our teachers
made choices of what we would learn and how we would learn it. Our parents made choices that shaped our
world view, our mind sets, our expectations and even influenced our personality. Sometimes it can seem there is a lot of
control being exercised over our lives, for better or worse, and sometimes, the
opportunities to shape circumstances around us are not obviously apparent.
The bible shares the story of a young girl, living in her
elder cousin’s home in a foreign land, exiled there after their country lost a
long war. She had also lost her
immediate family and was raised by her male relative, in a culture not their
own. The King of this foreign land was
wealthy and powerful, albeit somewhat fickle in his decision making, and under advisement
from his politicians, agreed to obtain a new wife after his previous one upset
everybody.
The process of this ‘wife hunt’ sounds absolutely horrendous
at best. Young, beautiful, virgin women
were rounded up throughout the realm and forcibly brought into the king’s harem
at the capitol to await his pleasure. There
was no choice in the matter. The young orphan of our story must have been beautiful
as she too was torn from her home and sent with all the others into the care of
Hegai, the king’s eunuch. This young woman
had lost her parents, her country, her home and family, and now on advice from
her cousin, was in a position where she had to give up her culture so as not to
be ostracised for being part of a minority group. Talk about not being in control of one’s
circumstances!
In spite of how much we may feel our circumstances are not
of our own making, the one thing we will always have control over is how we
respond to what we experience. The young
lady of our tale is of course Esther, and we well know the amazing journey and
dramatic twists and turns of her story.
How did she do it? How come she
didn’t become a broken and crushed victim without hope with such a beginning to
it all? Somehow, despite all that had
happened to her, Esther 2:9 says she ‘won Hegai’s favour’. And
not only his. Verse 15 says, “And Esther
won the favour of everyone who saw her.”
And not only that. Verse 17 shares
the king’s opinion too: “…and she won his favour and approval more than any of
the other virgins.” How did she do
that?? Was it just her physical attractiveness?
It’s possible, but not necessarily so.
Physical beauty on its own does not usually curry the kind of favour
Esther was experiencing.
Throughout her story, we see Esther as a young woman of
integrity, who seemed to carry herself with a level of grace and dignity that
did not align with the terrible experiences she had gone through. By rights, Esther could easily have been a
broken and victimised person, believing herself to be ‘damaged goods’ and of
little or no worth whatsoever. But
Esther did not choose to respond to her painful past in ways that we would deem
understandable or even justifiable.
Instead, she was the kind of person who ‘won the favour’ of others. So
much so that she was noticed by the king when she approached uninvited to
intercede for her people. So much so that the king offered her half of his
kingdom! So much so that she saved her whole nation!!
Favour. It’s not
usually something associated to control, manipulation or force. One dictionary
describes it as ‘an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual’. Synonyms
include words like goodwill, kindness, benevolence and friendliness. These are
the kind of responses Esther was receiving, plausibly because these describe
the kind of choices Esther was making on how to respond herself. They also remind us of how Yeshua responded,
particularly at the most stressful moment of His life when he offered
redemption and salvation to the man being crucified alongside Him. We too have the opportunity to respond in
ways that will win favour, particularly when we don’t dish out what may be
expected of us, but instead choose to act with grace, forgiveness, dignity and
kindness.
Esther, one person, brought incredible change to things around her, I believe in part, by how she chose to respond to her circumstances. May we too, as followers of Yeshua, be people who win favour with all who see us, bringing God’s light and hope into the circumstances around us, seeing ‘His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’.
Esther, one person, brought incredible change to things around her, I believe in part, by how she chose to respond to her circumstances. May we too, as followers of Yeshua, be people who win favour with all who see us, bringing God’s light and hope into the circumstances around us, seeing ‘His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’.