All Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof and correction. There are applications of this passage for men and women.

Let us start with the men.

1. Do not consider women nice, sweet, compliant and without claws, teeth or weapons. They will use others as their weapons. They will appeal to authority. For their husbands and fathers will protect them
2. Similarly do not assume because a woman is nice to you that she agrees with you. She may be setting you up. The female will fight for her people and her children
3. If the circumstances are going well and your plans are moving without any difficulty, you are moving into a trap. You should be more alert.
4. And if you lose, leave fast, regroup, and survive. Do not plead. Do not apologize. At least have some dignity in defeat.

Haman is a good example indeed. He shows us precisely what not to do.

So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?” And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

And the king arose in his wrath from the wine-drinking and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

(Esther 7 ESV)

Now for the Ladies. You have an example: and it is Esther. She has softened the King’s heart: I have no doubt that he loved her at that time, and she has fed them, been pleasant, and he now offers her up to half the kingdom.

1. She now bursts into tears. Most men will respond to this: we are hardwired that way
2. She pleads for the life of her people. She knew they were his subjects, and did not ask for rights. She pled for her families
3. She said that they had been bought: they were as cattle for the slaughter, referring to the bribe the King had taken to bring in this law.
4. She gave an alternative. If they were to be made slaves, that would be better, for they would live
5. And when she is asked who it is she does not hesitate. She names Hamaan
6. She then fights him off when he comes to plead, ensuring his fate

For a woman, her weapons are her beauty, her charm and her ability play men like a cheap violin. Far more than her strength.

A crossfit example. Yesterday’s metcon was 6 snatches 16 lunges for 16 minutes. Robyn and I scaled. I did what I usually do at 55, almost 56 I lifted the prescribed woman’s weight. 35 kg (73 lb). The very fit women in the class were struggling as the time continued. I was touch and going two to three reps. If an older man — too old for the army in almost every time and country can do that, woman, be aware that your fitness, though good, will not protect you.

But the men who love you will.

So cling to God and your family. For, unmentioned by Esther, was this: it was the king, the state, that took that Bribe.