There are lots of reasons I love Esther, but the one I want to talk about today is the example she sets of true femininity.
Genesis 1:26-27 tells us, "Then God said, 'Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves...' So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them."
God created people to be uniquely masculine and feminine, these are essential qualities that reflect God’s very own nature. However, the images in media of men and women today are often caricatures of the real thing. For example, it’s commonplace for women to be portrayed as overly emotional, needy in relationships, unstable in decision making, weak or victimized, manipulative and controlling, and seductive, or as totally the opposite being offended by vulnerability and overly masculine. These portrayals are hardly the picture of wholeness and full-life that God desires for us, and they definitely don’t reflect the image of God we are created to bear.
In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus declares a message of healing and grace in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
God’s desire for us is healing and freedom, not bondage to broken identities.
True femininity displays an abundance of life and the ability to impart life, wisdom and discernment through communication with God (prayer), and trust and obedience without fear because of this intimate relationship with God.
So, how does Esther exemplify true femininity? Esther was an orphan, adopted by her cousin Mordecai, and she was exiled from her home in Jerusalem to Babylon. These circumstances would’ve given her ample reason to be needy, weak, victimized, and overcome by self-pity. However, she didn’t forfeit her opportunity to impart life in this land of the lost. Even though her own life was plagued with death and destruction, God’s unique destiny for Esther was sovereignly protected. Esther impacted generations because she lived in the fulness of true femininity, rather than the fractured nature of the false feminine.
We have the same choice today. We can allow the depravity of the world around us to consume us with fear, emotion, and need, or we can communicate our needs to the God of All Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-7), living in the freedom of His favor and love.
