What Will Please the King?

Isaiah 61:10: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

After I read Tommy Tenney’s novel of historical fiction, Hadassah: One Night with the King, based on the book of Esther, I was excited to watch what turned out to be a beautiful movie version of the novel.

There was one scene in the movie that especially touched my heart. If you remember the story of Esther, you know that Esther (her Jewish name was Hadassah) was one of many beautiful, young virgins brought to the palace of King Ahasuerus as candidates to replace the former queen, Vashti. After one year of beauty regimens, each young woman would spend one night with the king, and he would choose one of them as his new queen.

In this scene of the movie, all the queen candidates were brought to a room that held the palace treasures. They were told to choose jewelry to wear for their night with the king. They were also told that they could keep whatever jewelry they chose, regardless of whether or not they were picked to be queen. The young women rushed to scoop up as much gold and jewels as they could carry, but Esther didn’t move from her spot. When Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, noticed her standing there, he asked, “Don’t any of the palace jewels please you, Esther?” And she replied, “What does it matter if they please me? I want to know what will please the king.”

The Lord has given us all we need to stand before Him as pure, holy, and blameless in His sight. We might grab onto everything the world has to offer only to find it’s too heavy for us to carry. Or we might try to do everything in our own power to make ourselves “look good,” but here stands Christ, holding His perfect robe of righteousness. All we have to do is put on Christ, wear His garment, and throw off our own filthy rags to be found pleasing before our King.