Royally Rejected

(Esther 1-8)

I recently shared a devo at our 2021 Youth Winter Camp where our theme was about overcoming fear and anxiety; a topic I believe many of us struggle with. I would like to share with you what the Lord showed me. Keep in mind, this is a devotional geared toward teenage girls.

We had the youth girls read Esther before camp to prepare for what we were going to be talking about. I opened the devo by asking them to describe rejection–what it looks like, feels like, and why some of us fear it. Then we dove into our Scripture passage…

Let’s begin by looking at the setting and context of the book of Esther. We are in the midst of the Persian Empire around 485 B.C. King Xerxes (or maybe some translations say King Ahaseurus) is giving a banquet…a huge party, lasting 180 days. And he’s doing it to show off all his wealth and splendor. Well, having had quite a bit to drink on one of these days, he tells the servants who attend his wife, Queen Vashti to bring her to display before his guests with her royal crown on her head. The text here kind of indicates that he wanted her wearing something highly immodest or maybe nothing at all, and her crown. –ahem– Jerk.

Well, Vashti refused. You go, girl!

But let’s look at the culture here. A husband could divorce his wife for “disrespecting” him like this. But being the wife of the king? I mean, he probably could have had her killed. But Vashti knew what was right. She was not going to smash her dignity to smithereens at the whim of a drunken man, even if that man were her husband and the king. Even though she is described as a very beautiful woman (Esther 1:11), her modesty was more important to her than flaunting her beauty.

And what happened? The king was infuriated, and his officials were like, “you need a new woman!” Vashti was deposed as queen. Wow, harsh much?

So I know that as girls it seems like we talk about this topic a lot. But it got me to thinking, what do we sometimes give up to avoid rejection? Are we willling to give our money—our time—our modesty to avoid rejection from our peers…or maybe even rejection from a boy? If someone is asking you to compromise your values to become their friend, I promise you their friendship isn’t worth it. And let me just say, there are little boys—and I call them boys because that’s what they are, because a young man would never act like this—but there are little boys out there, and maybe even some that you know, who want to treat you like Xerxes treated Vashti. They will give you some attention, and they will flatter you, and maybe give you gifts…but they don’t care about your heart or your values. And that breaks God’s heart. He wants a man for you that will truly treat you like the princesses you are, that will protect your heart, your modesty, your character. And more than that, he wants friends for you that do the same. He wants you to be that kind of friend too. That’s what you deserve, and that’s what Vashti deserved.

And Vashti knew that. And she stood up for herself. And you know what? At first glance, it doesn’t look like it turned out all that well for her. She was rejected by her husband, probably by her peers. And yes, sometimes that will happen to us. We will be rejected for standing up for what’s right, for not compromising. And I know sometimes that can be uncomfortable, and sometimes it hurts. But even though Vashti lost her status, her popularity, she held onto something that was WAY more important. I hope I always have priorities like Vashti.

Okay, so this book is not called “Vashti”, it’s called “Esther” right? Well, this is the part of the story where Esther comes in. The king found himself in a predicament…he needed a new queen. So he had all of the lovely young maidens in the land brought to the palace to sort of “try out” for the role. And one of those young women just happened to be a Jewish girl called Esther.

Well, long story short, Esther became queen. And I guess things went pretty well for a while…until the king’s head official, Haman, started stirring up trouble. See, Mordecai (Esther’s cousin and the man who raised her) had hurt Haman’s pride, and so Haman started going after the Jews. He got the king to give him the power to kill the Jews. Well Mordecai heard about it and sent word to Esther. She needed to appeal to the king. But anyone who went into the king’s presence without being summoned could be killed. Wow, talk about scary!

But Mordecai knew that if Esther didn’t speak up, she would probably lose her life anyway once her lineage was found out. Esther knew what she had to do.

Can you imagine her? Walking down the corridor toward the inner court, her hands trembling as she reached for the door, the creek of the door as it opened. And there was the king sitting on his throne. And then, ah the relief when he held out his scepter to her, when she realized he wasn’t going to have her executed for coming to him uninvited.

Now there’s something that needs to be pointed out. Esther was a Jew. But you have to understand a little something about their history. So about 100 years before this, the Jews were taken into Babylon as captives. They started to intermingle with the Babylonian culture. About 50 years later, Babylon was overtaken by Persia, and the Persian king Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their land. But only a small number of them went back. The rest stayed back to live out their lives in the Persian culture. A lot of them sold out. So do you see how radical it was for a young woman like this to stand up? When so many of her people were laying down—and we don’t know if Esther and Mordecai were that way, it seems like Mordecai was pretty radical in defying the culture. But think about it…God had put her in a position to be bold, and she was. Even though no one else would be, even though she faced the utmost rejection—execution—even though it was extremely hard and probably terrifying, she didn’t back down.

Have you ever experienced anything like that? When you had to do something really hard, but you knew it was the right thing? Maybe it was confessing something wrong you did, or asking a friend for forgiveness after a really hard fight. Or maybe it was standing up for what’s right in the midst of a group that wanted to do what was wrong. Or telling someone you couldn’t hangout with them anymore because you didn’t want to be influenced by their choices. Now, the penalty for doing these things aren’t death. But there it is again…the fear of rejection, the fear of being alone. The fear of losing popularity, friends.

We talked earlier about what we were willing to give to be popular. The world wants us to give up our time, money, and values to fit in with it. It’s really tempting. Because if we don’t do that, we can be called a host of things…intolerant, bigoted, hypocritical…we are rejected. We have to work work work to be accepted.

But you know what? While we have to strive and claw and fight to be accepted by the world, it doesn’t work that way with God. He isn’t like Xerxes, where you had to have an invitation to come to him. We can come to God with anything at anytime. We can even come to Him with our fear of rejection and struggles with acceptance from the world. He knows how we are, He knows it’s hard. Jesus was rejected, and spit on, and murdered because He stood His ground on the morals and values in His Word. He gets it. He will never reject you when you come to Him.
Instead of thinking about what we might give up in order to avoid the world’s rejection, let’s think about things we’re willing to sacrifice to the One who won’t reject us? The One who sacrificed everything in order to accept us into His kingdom? Are we willing to stand up for Him? To let go of things or even friends in our lives that don’t bring glory and honor to Him?

I know rejection hurts. But, girls, acceptance of this world is acceptance into Hell. Jesus said it Himself. What good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul? There is nothing more important that a man’s soul. I know the world’s acceptance feels good at the moment. But do you want a moment’s pleasure for an eternity of suffering? Or are you willing to pay the price of a moment’s discomfort for an eternity in glory?

That sounds really hard, I know. But you guys, guess what? God promises to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 2:7). Jesus says, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! For I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33).

Psalm 118:6-7 says: “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The LORD is with me; He is my Helper. I look in triumph on my enemies.”

Romans 8:14-15 says: “For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”

Not only will God not reject us when we come to Him, but He wants to accept us as His children, to never ever leave us! He wants to put His Spirit in us so that we aren’t afraid of rejection, so that we are never truly alone. If God is with you, you are the majority. Isn’t that awesome?

So I just want to encourage you girls. Vashti was willing to give up her title to maintain her honor. Esther was willing to give up her life to save her people. Jesus gave everything to be despised and rejected and crucified. Let’s ask the Lord to make us bold, to stand up for what’s right in a world that’s drowning in what’s wrong. He will. We just need to trust Him, and remember that if we’re in Him, we are never alone.