YEAR 3, WEEK 4, Day 4, Thursday, 22 January 2026

https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Esther+2

Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Thursday, 22 January 2026:

Esther 2:1-4 — King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done…. Then the king’s young men who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king…. And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.

After a failed relationship, king Xerxes pursued another relationship based upon physical attraction.

Time passes. Anger cools. Consequences remain. Vashti is gone, and regret sets in. The king’s solution is not repentance but replacement. A new queen will be chosen through a process driven by desire, power, and empire, not covenant, prayer, or righteousness.

This is the world Esther inhabits: decisions made by impulse, corrected by convenience. Nothing here looks holy. Nothing looks hopeful. Yet God is already at work within the aftermath of human pride. Scripture often shows that God’s redemptive movements begin not with noble intentions, but with the debris of human failure. Grace does not wait for ideal conditions.

Esther 2:5-7 — Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai….

Here the story narrows from empire to household. A Jew appears, quietly, almost incidentally. Mordecai lives in exile not because of faithfulness, but because his family never returned to Jerusalem. Esther herself is an orphan, raised under compromised circumstances, embedded in a culture far from covenant faithfulness.

Nothing about this situation suggests spiritual strength. These are not heroes returning from Babylon to rebuild the temple. These are survivors who stayed behind. Yet Scripture refuses to equate compromise with abandonment. God’s covenant mercy extends even here. Even now. Even to people whose obedience is incomplete and whose faith is muted.

The New Testament later makes this explicit: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God’s initiative always precedes human reform.

God was working His plan, unbeknownst to anyone, by placing the right people at the right place at the right time. What plans is God working with your life? Are you ready for the moment when God will orchestrate circumstances for the perfect opportunity to do His will?

Esther 2:7 — He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

Family takes care of family.

Esther 2:8-11 — So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed….

Esther is swept into a process she did not design and likely did not desire. She does not protest. Mordecai instructs her to conceal her identity. Silence, concealment, accommodation, none of this feels heroic. It feels morally ambiguous at best.

Yet this is precisely the tension of Esther. God’s people are not portrayed as spiritually exemplary; they are portrayed as vulnerable. The question is not whether they are strong, but whether God is faithful. And He is.

God’s sovereignty is not limited by human compromise. He works not only through obedience, but through restraint, timing, and quiet preservation. Faith here is not loud, it is barely visible.

Esther 2:12-18 — Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to the king….

The process is transactional and dehumanizing. Esther’s favor with the king is described, but not romanticized. She is chosen not because she asserts herself, but because she is received. The language of grace is unmistakable — she “found favor.”

This is the heartbeat of the chapter. Esther does not seize power; she is positioned by it. What looks like chance is actually choreography. What appears to be coincidence is sovereign alignment. God is not scrambling to fix evil; He is already ahead of it.

This anticipates the greater reversal to come. Evil systems believe they are selecting victims, but God is positioning instruments of deliverance. The same pattern appears most clearly at the Cross — where injustice believed it was eliminating a threat, and God was accomplishing salvation.

Esther 2:19-23 — In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate … two of the king’s eunuchs… sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai…. And it was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.

Mordecai remained loyal to his captor king and saved his life; however, he did not seek the credit Esther gave him. Mordecai was not motivated by careerism or prestige but rather faithfulness.

God orchestrated circumstances to prepare His people for future influence. Mordecai’s faithfulness to the ungodly king as well as Esther’s continued obedience to Mordecai were used by God for His purposes. God calls us to be obedient and to trust that He is in control.

The event is recorded and then forgotten. This feels anticlimactic, but it is foundational. God’s greatest works often begin as footnotes. The salvation of a people will later hinge on this seemingly insignificant act being written down and remembered at precisely the right moment.

The Cross followed the same pattern. Years of quiet obedience. Ordinary faithfulness. Then, at the appointed time, history turns. God’s deliverance rarely announces itself early; it reveals itself fully only in hindsight.

Esther 2 teaches us to recognize grace at work in morally gray spaces. God is not absent because He is unnamed. He is not inactive because evil seems organized. He is not defeated because His people are compromised.

What evil intends for destruction, God redirects for deliverance. What appears to be loss becomes positioning. What feels like silence is actually restraint. The Cross stands as the ultimate confirmation of this truth: the moment that looked like God’s greatest defeat was the hour of His greatest victory.

Hope, then, is not anchored in visible righteousness, moral clarity, or favorable circumstances. Hope rests in the unchanging character of a sovereign God who works all things, even sin, even exile, even injustice, toward redemption.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 22 January 2026: Examine where you may be tempted to lose hope because circumstances feel compromised, unclear, or unfair. Ask yourself: Am I measuring God’s faithfulness by what I can see, or trusting His sovereignty beyond what I can explain? Choose one deliberate response today: remain faithful in an unnoticed task, resist despair where evil appears to prevail, or thank God for grace already at work that you may only understand later.

Pray: “Father, when I cannot see You clearly, help me trust You fully. Forgive me for assuming that silence means absence or that compromise means disqualification. Thank You that You work by grace, not merit, and that You remain faithful even when I am weak or afraid. Teach me to recognize Your hand in quiet turns, delayed justice, and unseen preparation. Thank You for the Cross, where evil’s worst intent became my greatest hope. Anchor my faith not in circumstances, but in Your sovereign love. In Jesus’ name, amen.”