the book of Esther it's one of the more
exciting and curious books in the Bible
the story is set over 100 years after
the Babylonian exile of the Israelites
from their land and while some Jews did
return to Jerusalem remember Ezra and
Nehemiah many did not
and so the book of Esther is about a
Jewish community living in Susa the
capital city of the ancient Persian
Empire the main characters in the story
are two Jews Mordecai and then his niece
Esther and then there's the king of
Persia who's something of a drunken
pushover in this story and then there's
the Persian official Haman the cunning
villain now this is a curious book in
the Bible mainly for the fact that God
is never even mentioned not once
which might strike you is kind of odd I
mean isn't the Bible about God but this
is a brilliant technique by the author
who's anonymous by the way it's an
invitation to read this story looking
for God's activity and there are signs
of it everywhere the story is full of
very odd quote coincidences and ironic
reversals and it all forces you to see
God's purpose at work but behind the
scenes let's just dive into the story
the book opens with the king of Persia
throwing to elaborate banquet feasts
that last a total of 187 days and it's
all for the grandiose purpose of
displaying his greatness and splendor on
the last day of the banquet feast he's
really drunk and he demands that his
wife Queen Vashti appear at the party to
show off her beauty she refuses and so
in a drunken rage the King deposes
Vashti and makes the silly decree that
all Persian men should now be the
masters of their own homes then he holds
a beauty pageant because he wants to
find a new queen this is like a really
bad soap opera but it's right here that
were introduced to Esther and Mordecai
Esther hides her Jewish identity and
enters the beauty pageant and wins and
the King is so obsessed with Esther that
he elevates her to become the new queen
of Persia now after this and even more
serendipitous is the fact that Mordecai
just happens to overhear two royal
guards plotting to murder the king and
so he informs Esther who in turn informs
King and Mordecai gets credit for saving
the King's life now right here from the
beginning God's not mentioned anywhere
but this all seems providentially
ordered what is it the gods up to you
have to keep reading we're next
introduced to Haman who's not actually a
Persian he's called an egg a guide he's
a descendant of the ancient Canaanites
remember for Samuel chapter 15 the king
elevates Haman to the highest position
in the kingdom and he demands that
everybody kneel before Haman well when
Mordecai sees Haman he refuses to kneel
which of course fills Haman with rage
and when he finds out that Mordecai's
Jewish Haman successfully persuades the
King to enact this crazy decree to
destroy all of the Jewish people and to
decide the date of the Jews and
violation Haman rolls the dice a die is
called pour in Hebrew took that away for
later eleven months later on the 13th of
Adar all the Jews will die Haman and the
King then have a drinking banquet to
celebrate their really horrible decision
so the focus now turns to Mordecai and
Esther who are the only hope for the
Jewish people they make a plan that
Esther is going to reveal her Jewish
identity to the king and ask him to
reverse the decree but approaching the
King without a royal request is
according to Persian law an act worthy
of death so in a key statement Mordecai
he's confident that even if Esther
remains silent that deliverance for the
Jews will arrive from another place and
then Mordecai wonders aloud he says who
knows maybe you've become queen for this
very moment
Esther responds with bravery and she
purposes to go to the king with her
amazing words if I perish I perish now
in what unfolds we watch the ironic
reversal of all of Haman's evil plans so
Esther hosts the king and Haman at a
first banquet and she says that she
wants to make a special request of both
of them at an exclusive banquet the
following day so Haman leaves the
banquet totally drunk and he sees
Mordecai in the street he fumes with
anger and he orders that a tall steak be
built so that Mordecai can be in
bailed upon it in the morning it seems
like things can't get any worse for the
Jews and for Mordechai but all of a
sudden the story pivots it just so
happens that night the king he can't
sleep and he has the royal chronicles
read to him for good bedtime reading and
he just happens to hear about how
Mordecai had saved the King's life he
had totally forgotten so in the morning
Haman enters to request Mordecai's
execution and the king in that moment
orders Haman to honor Mordecai publicly
for saving his life
so now Haman has to lead Mordechai
around the city on a Royal horse telling
everyone to praise him now this moment
in the story it's a pivot for the whole
book it begins Haman's downfall and
Mordecai's rise to power watch how this
works the day after is Esther's second
banquet so the king and Haman arrive and
Esther informs the King that first of
all she's Jewish and second that Haman
has enacted a decree to murder her and a
murder Mordecai who saved his life and a
murder all of the Jews now the Kings had
a lot to drink so when he hears this
news he goes into yet one more drunken
rage and he orders that Haman be impaled
on the very stake he made from Mordecai
it's ironic and a grisly way for Haman
to go
Heyman's execution however doesn't solve
the problem of the decree to kill all of
the Jews so the focus now turns to
Esther and Mordecai as they make a plan
to reverse the decree they discover that
the king can't revoke a decree that he's
already made so instead the King
Commission's Mordecai to issue a counter
decree on the appointed day that all of
the Jews were supposed to be killed the
13th of Adar now the Jews are ordered to
defend themselves and to destroy any who
plotted to kill them then Mordecai
Esther and Jews everywhere hold banquets
and feast to celebrate this new decree
and Mordecai is elevated to a seat
beside the king eventually the decreed
day comes and the Jews triumph over
their enemies first they destroy Haman's
family and then any other persian
officials who had joined in Haman's plot
and then on a second day they get
permission to destroy any who plotted
against them throughout the entire
kingdom this results in joy in
celebration as the Jew
are rescued from annihilation the story
then tells about how Esther and Mordecai
established by decree this annual
two-day feast of poor em to commemorate
their deliverance from destruction in
the name of the Feast comes from Haman's
dice remember poor him the book
concludes with a short epilogue as
Mordecai is elevated a second in command
in the kingdom and we are told now with
His Royal greatness and splendor as the
Jews thrive in exile now step back
notice how this whole store has been
designed the story was full of moments
of ironic reversal but we can now see
the whole story is structured as ironic
reversal right down to the details so
the King's splendor and feasts and
decrees are mirrored by Mordecai's
splendor and feasts and decrees at the
end Esther and Mordecai they first saved
the king but now in the end they save
all of the Jews then you have Haman's
elevation and edicts and banquet that
gets reversed by Mordecai's elevation
and edict and banquet and then in the
center you have Esther and Mordecai's
planning scenes and then Esther's -
banquets that act as a frame around the
greatest moment of reversal in the whole
story
Heyman's humiliation and Mordecai's
exaltation beautiful another fascinating
feature of this book is the moral
ambiguity of the characters there's a
lot of drinking and anger and sex and
murder of which Mordecai and Esther are
apart not to mention their violation of
many commands in the Torah like marrying
Gentiles are eating impure foods and so
the story is not putting Mordecai and
Esther forward as moral example as if it
endorses all of their behavior but they
are put forward as models of trust and
hope when things get really bad and so
the book of Esther comes back to that
question with which we begin why God is
not mentioned the message of this book
seems to be that when God seems absent
when his people are in exile when
they're unfaithful to the Torah does
this mean that God has done with Israel
has got abandoned his promises and the
book of Esther says no it invites us to
see that God can and does work in the
real mess and moral ambiguity of human
history and he uses the faithfulness of
even morally
people to accomplish his purposes and so
the book of Esther asks us to be willing
to trust God's providence even when we
can't see it working and to hope that no
matter how bad things get God is
committed to redeeming his world and
that's what the book of Esther is all
about