OLD TESTAMENT

ESTHER is a gripping story with tension, subterfuge, danger – and a happy ending. Why it is in the Bible has been long debated; it doesn’t mention God, nor attempt to teach anything overtly. Yet it is a moral tale in which good eventually triumphs over evil. This is not a book for bit-by-bit study. It is revealing and its spiritual treasures emerge best if you read it in one sitting.

Set in Susa, the capital of Persia during the reign of Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes) about 480 BCE, before Ezra returned to Jerusalem in 445 BCE, it records an otherwise unknown incident. The pompous courtier Haman plots the destruction of the Jews (by tricking the king into signing a bogus decree) because Mordecai refuses to bow to him. Esther, Mordecai’s cousin and surrogate daughter, groomed in the royal harem, catches Xerxes’ eye after he expels his wife Vashti for insolence. In a second sub-plot, Mordecai saves the king’s life.

Hearing of Haman’s planned genocide, Mordecai and Esther conspire to tell the king the truth behind the decree he has just signed. Very annoyed, he issues another decree which annuls the first, executes Haman and promotes Mordecai.

Today, at the Jewish feast of Purim, the story is read and the audience boo every mention of Haman and cheer every mention of Mordecai.

Esther shows how God is sovereign in human affairs. The eye of faith can see him putting characters in place on the stage. They have no prophet to tell them God’s word, and no priest to intercede for them. God is apparently silent and distant. There are just some coincidences which add up to a remarkable deliverance through the human agency of two people who risk all.

Esther is the ordinary Christian’s book. Most of us live with problems for which solutions do not come easily. Yet looking back we see God’s ordering of events which aid us through the troubles. Esther’s message is, ‘don’t forget such signs’, look back with thanks and gratitude, and trust that God will show himself sovereign again. It is through circumstance and coincidence that this sovereignty works.