The Beauty of Holiness - Part 7

Seven parts! Almost to the finish, but not quite yet...Today's verse/passage contains such an exciting to me revelation...this is what I hinted at in Part 1, the beautification process embedded in the Word. The story begins with the actual physical beauty of a woman judged such by the standards of her time...yet outward beauty wasn't enough...
The passage we will be looking at is Esther 2:12, 15, 17 (NASB):

12Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women...
15Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, came to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her...
17The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him...

 Notice that these already beautiful girls had to undergo a very specific process of "beautification"!  You know I love word studies, and it is eye-opening to know what "beautification" means:  in Hebrew, the word is מָרוּק and means "scrapings, a rubbings, bodily rubbings" and is formed from a root word meaning "to scour, to polish" .  Sounds a little painful! Immediately I thought of all the little bath and shower devices we use to rub off dead cells so that fresher, livelier skin is revealed!

The first six months were devoted to these rubbings and oil of myrrh.  It is interesting to really press in to what myrrh is all about: 1) the Hebrew word for myrrh is pronounced like "more" (which will really be ironic as we delve deeper); 2) Myrrh was a common spice used in the anointing oil, connected to love, connected with death and burial; 3) Myrrh has been used throughout time for its antiseptic properties and for its beneficial healing qualities; and finally, 4) Myrrh is associated with the fragrance and presence of Jesus.

Myrrh is the dried resin/sap of various trees and shrubs commonly found in the Mideast; it must be crushed for its fragrance to be released...

Is the Spirit within speaking already, making the connections in your soul and spirit?

In Biblical symbols and types, six is the number of man, of the flesh.  It is one number short of perfection (the number 7).  

Could it be that...
The answer to the problem of "the flesh" - the effects of  after our being in the world before "chosen" through salvation is the "oil of myrrh"...is more of Jesus - His Presence, His anointing - more healing, more death of the flesh, more identification with His death, burial and resurrection, more of His love...


This is how the forming of the "beauty of holiness" is worked in us...



Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6