Who Is In Your Ear?

When was the last time you evaluated the people you have in your ear? Or examined what you allowed to be in your ear?

The book of Esther is filled with rich wisdom about surrounding yourself with the right people. Let’s dig in and reflect. It’s time to do inventory, friends!!

I was drawn to read the book of Esther in the Bible this week and chilllllldddd, there were so many lessons I learned in this book that I had to split this post into multiple parts. 👀👀

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I want you to be able to follow along with the story so here’s a recap from Esther 1:1-22 (NIV).

1. There was a king, Xerxes, who reigned over 127 countries from his royal throne. That’s plenty!

2. He wanted to show his riches to his people. Why? I'm not sure.

3. He hosted a party for his officials and for 180 days he displayed his vast wealth to all on the land. 👀

4. After the wealthy display, he held a 7 day party. Wow!! That's extravagant!! He invited ALL - from the least to the greatest.

5. There were scenes of abundance; the king commanded his servants to give guests WHATEVER they wanted. YESSSIRRR!! They drank wine to their heart's desire and ate whatever they wished!! Can you imagine?

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Look closer…

6. Now that everyone is feeling good and full, King Xerxes wanted Queen Vashti to show up to the party to display her beauty because she was CUTE! 😉

7. Queen Vashti said NOPE! YIKES!! 😩

8. King Xerxes became FURIOUS and BURNED with ANGER (Esther 1:12 NIV). 😤🤯

   
   

Come even closer…

9. King Xerxes called his advisory counsel to give them the tea and ask them what to do.

10. The ‘wise’ men said “Queen Vashti did not obey your request and has not ONLY disobeyed YOU but ALL of US and our country. The Queen’s behavior will influence our wives and they will say Queen Vashti did not listen to the King so why should I listen to you!! (MESSY!) There will be disrespect and discord to no end from our wives. Our advice is that Vashti never enters the presence of the king AND give her royal position away.

The king was pleased with the advice and shared it with all the land.

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Okay! Okay! Okay!! 😬 I don't know about you but I LOVE A JUICY STORY!! 😉

This story is juicy and messy all in one and there's so many angles that we can hit on.

Please know, there are 10 chapters in Esther and I ONLY recapped chapter 1. Go read it. It's good.

Here are a few of my thoughts…

1. King Xerxes was SHOWING OUT. He wanted others to see what he owned.

2. King Xerxes CONTROLLED the narrative and ALL THE ABUNDANCE he had in it.

3. King Xerxes allowed his people to ‘taste and see’ the abundance, yet this was controlled. Right? He commanded his servants to give his guests whatever they wanted, which is a temporary pleasure (Esther 1:8 NIV).

4. King Xerxes thought he could control Queen Vashti by DISPLAYING HER BEAUTY to his PEOPLE. When she said NO he didn’t like it. This sounds a little like a temper tantrum which we often see when some don't get their way.

5. Rather than making a rash decision, King Xerxes sought the advice of his legal and judicial advisors.

6. The wise advisors provided selfish reasons for why the King should not allow Queen Vashti to reign anymore; they too wanted to control what happened in their household.

   1. It’s interesting that in the scripture they define the advisors as wise.

   2. I believe this is a play on words. Are they wise? Was their advice wise?

   3. You get to determine that for yourself.

7. Uniquely when they shared their wise advice they already made a decision to remove “Queen” from Vashti’s title because they do not call her Queen Vashti (Esther 1:19) when they discussed their final decision.

Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!!

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This is ALL too much but what resonates with me are the following three thoughts:

1. Identify your true intentions when you go about doing your deeds. In this story, King Xerxes was FULL of control and this influenced all of his decisions and how people operated around him. This control may work for you but there may come a time where it may not. Self-reflect to determine, how do you operate when in peace and joy and then what does it look like when you are angered? Also, how does this play out when engaging with others at home, at work, and in other situations? You should be consistent in all environments - if you are shifty in your behaviors, you may need to evaluate your true intentions.

2. Be mindful who you keep on your advisory team and their intentions. King Xerxes wise advisors were FULL of their own desires, needs, and wants. They used their intentions to fuel how they guided the king. When working with others be sure to examine your wise advisors intentions to see how they align with yours. Are they filled with selfishness or are they filled with the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22 NIV). If they do not represent one of these, you may need to take them off your team.

3. Leaders influence in ways that pull people towards or away from you. I am curious why Queen Vashti did not want to display her beauty to the people. Why say no to the king? Why would she oppose this request? Was she aware of King Xerxes controlling habits? Was she hanging with her friends and did not want to be bothered at the moment? Like why? It could be that she was in a season where she was pulling away from the influence of the King and desired to remove herself from his requests. In real life, we all experience seasons where we gravitate towards people and then pull away from others. Each of us have our stories for why we pull or push away from relationships; however, with a watchful eye we must determine whether the behaviors exhibited by the leaders we are around displays behaviors that align with or pushes us further away from our destiny. YOU CHOOSE. 

Now it’s your turn!! I am so interested in reading your thoughts on this topic.

• What resonated with you the most?

• What are your takeaways?

• What can or will you do differently now that you’ve read up on Esther 1?

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