ESTHER 

I have some work to do, to succeed in reading the book of Esther with faith that says that God wrote every word in this ancient story for me.  

First obstacle: Esther is a beautiful young virgin.  (2:2) 

Fail.  

On all three counts.  

I dutifully remind myself of 1 Samuel 16:7: “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (NIV)”  

Somewhat consoled, I read on. I am determined to push past my rather imbedded first impression of Esther as a two-dimensional goody-good, and her Arabian Nights fairy-tale story that feels about as far away from my cold Monday morning in rainy, gritty Birmingham as you can get.   

Dear God and Father. Help. Please show me how to read Esther and hear what it is that you want me to hear.  

Re-immersing myself in the details of her story, compassion begins to stir when I wonder about the circumstances of Esther’s parents’ death. The Jewish Rabbinical literary tradition speculates that perhaps her father died during her mother’s pregnancy, and that Esther’s mother died during childbirth.1 Only God knows what really happened -- but there’s one bridge to Esther, anyway, for me. My mother passed away from colon cancer when I was 24. I was an only child, and my father had died twelve years earlier. Even though I was “orphaned” as an adult, when my mother died, I felt suddenly vulnerable, adrift from my moorings. There was a new, unmistakable, surreal sense of being Alone. And then there’s that awful, deep, spiritual question to wrestle with: why did you let this happen to me, God?  

I wonder how deeply this question was imbedded in Esther’s psyche. Esther was born into a discouraging time for the people of Israel, when God was shifting the tectonic plates of history, approaching the end of the Old Covenant and the advent of the New and better ministry of Jesus (Heb 8:6). The long-standing, uniquely favoured relationship with God seems lost: His people are exiled in a foreign land, separated from the values and customs of Yahweh.  To say that this time of prolonged political, spiritual, and emotional upheaval was traumatic for Esther’s people must be an understatement. In a very real sense, our patient and loving God (all according to plan, of course) was divorcing his beloved nation. 2 

 Anyone I have ever known, who was living in the family home while parents are divorcing, has had some level of struggle with the question, “how much of this divorce is my fault?” It seems certain that rejection, defeat and humiliation flavoured the consciousness of the culture into which Esther was born. 3 

Imagine, too, what it must have been like for a young woman (probably between 15 and 25 years old), raised with Old Testament Jewish values and doted upon by a protective father figure like Mordecai4, to be suddenly forcibly removed from whatever kind of “home” it was, where exiled Jewish families lived together, and taken into the harem of the King of Babylon. Whatever personal plans and dreams she might have been allowed to have for herself were derailed forever. The Septuagint says that Mordecai intended one day to marry Esther himself;5 but now, she is to be groomed to be one of literally hundreds of women whose main occupation in life is to compete to provide erotic entertainment for an arrogant, lavish, selfish monarch, who already has had sex with hundreds of women, and would continue on, with hundreds more. There was no guarantee, after her one night of intimacy with the king (which, by the way, made her a legal wife – - no less than Hagar was a legal wife to Abraham), that she would ever be invited back, or that she would ever have the chance to marry anyone else.6 She could even be given away on a whim as a gift to some other ruler, from some other distant land.  

 The royal harem was a glorified prison:  closely and jealously guarded, there was no chance to come and go as you please. No one could see anyone in a harem unless first carefully examined by senior officials.  The atmosphere around Esther was worldly, competitive, and dangerous. An ancient Persian harem was reputed to be “a notorious source of seditious plots.”7 Would any of us choose to live, much less raise children, in this kind of setting? Off to the Hunger Games with you, Catniss. Vanished are any hopes of romance, personal dreams, or traditional Jewish family life for this young girl.  

Esther was clearly helpless to stop the forces that were taking her life in a direction that she surely would not have chosen for herself. As I write this, I’m sitting my daughter’s apartment in Kiev, Ukraine, a city which has been front page news for the last several months since political protesters took over the central business district of the city, burned several prominent buildings (including one where the church has met for twenty years), and began the weeks of unrest here that have filled the newspapers. I think about my dear friend, Kay, back home in Birmingham, whose 56-year-old, kick-boxing, worship-leading, God-fearing and endlessly serving husband lies today helpless in his bed, only days or maybe now hours away from giving way to prostate cancer. I think about my friend, Samar, her family, and all the churches in our fellowship in the Middle East, who lost husband, brother, father, friend, mentor, evangelist, when Maher Al-Hinn was tragically killed in a car accident during a church leadership conference in December.  I think about another twenty-something-year-old friend I have in L.A., unable to work due to a worsening injury to his leg from seven years ago. His father is ill and unable to work; mother is dead, sister has a minimum wage job and they see one another rarely. At $40 a visit, no money to find the right doctor.  

 What happens to our faith and our vision, our trust in God, in times when life circumstances beyond our control turn against us? It can be easy for us to pull away from God, emotionally and practically. Even if I know in my head that I shouldn’t think that he’s aiming Bad Luck right at me for some punishing reason, in my heart and behaviour, I can spiritually withdraw in fear, like a turtle pulling into his shell for self-protection.8 Or we can become numb and paralyzed. Just waiting. Waiting for circumstances to become more favourable. Waiting for someone to tell us what to do.  

I actually think that Esther might well have been emotionally shut down at the time when God, through Mordecai, sent his life-changing message into her apartments in the harem and called her into action. (When I first read her story, I confess, I projected onto her personality a kind of celebrity-charisma that made everyone melt whenever she waltzed into a room. I no longer think this about her.)  

It’s interesting to compare Esther with Daniel, her brother Jew, also exiled, to Babylon, a century earlier. While Daniel’s faith compelled him to refuse the king’s rich food, unclean for a Jew, and set himself apart in that way, we see no evidence that Esther had, or took the opportunity, to refuse anything offered to her which might defile her according to Old Testament law – in fact, we watch her docilely submit to a course of action which we know was an abomination for a Jewess: sexually uniting with, and thus marrying, a pagan.  

Do I get stuck thinking that I’m not spiritual enough, not good enough, to be used in some kind of great way by God? When I start ticking off the list of things that disqualify me, aren’t I making myself, and my flaws, larger and bigger than God’s resurrection power in my mind? Crazy. 

We don’t know what Esther’s personality was like. Maybe she had a good self-image. Maybe she didn’t -- maybe she was an example of a beautiful woman who can’t fathom that she is beautiful. She could’ve been shy and melancholy, or feisty and outgoing. She might have been depressed and afraid when she was herded into the harem with the other dozens of young women. Maybe, being chosen for the harem carried with it the same kind of glamour and adrenaline-rush as something like winning “X Factor” today. Maybe it made her suicidal. There is a wide gamut of possibilities.  

One thing seems sure: Mordecai’s step-parenting instilled in Esther something that made her stand out from the crowd, a strength of character did not erode in the face of tough challenges, nor over time. Consider these three verses: 

2:10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 

2:15 When the turn came for Esther…to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favour of everyone who saw her.  

2:20 Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.   

Esther spent many months in the harem (anywhere from 1 – 3 years) before her turn came to go to the king, and yet the pressure upon her did not result in her abandoning the convictions with which she had been raised. She was humble, submissive, obedient – and not only to Mordecai, who was deserving of her love and trust, but also to the foreign, morally questionable authorities suddenly in control of her life. Why would Esther be so trusting in such a monstrous situation? In spite of all that had happened to her and to her people, Esther must have clung to the belief that God was good and would protect and deliver her.   

Interestingly, the language used here is the same as in Gen 39:21, in the story of Joseph.  In Esther 2:9, the phrase, she “found favor with him” uses the same words as in Gen 39:21, when “the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy” and gave him favour in the sight (ayin) of the keeper of the prison.  

At the point when Haman convinces Xerxes to issue the decree to annihiliate the Jews throughout their empire, Esther has been living in the harem for 5 to 8 years (2:16, 3:7).  A lot has changed in her life, since she lived at home, under Mordecai’s spiritual guidance and protection. She’s been away from a strong spiritual atmosphere for a long time. She’s become sexually active. She’s had to transfer her submission and obedience to people who don’t know God and don’t have God’s standard of morality. And then a life and death crisis hits. It takes a little convincing before she agrees to comply with Mordecai’s plan to ask the King for help to repeal his murderous decree, but when she agrees, we gain some great insight into Esther’s character and why God’s favour followed her.  

Esther 4:15-16 reads: “ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:  ‘Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’”  (NIV) 

After several years in the harem, where presumably she is the only believer in Yahweh, it’s clear that Esther still identifies herself with God’s people when she says, “go and gather together all the Jews who are in Susa.” She turns to God in fasting and prayer, and has clearly been sharing her faith over the years with her Persian, heathen maids, to the extent that she can spontaneously vouch for their willingness to pray and fast to Jehovah, right along with her.  

This tells me that Esther continued to be faithful to God even while living in a world of compromise that was far from her ideal.  Several New Testament Scriptures spring to mind, which call us to the same standard:  

 Col 1:22-23,  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight…if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. (NIV) 

Col 2:6, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, (NIV) 

2 Tim 3:14 continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, (NIV) 

1 Jn 2:28 continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. (NIV) 

I believe that Esther set herself up to be in a position to do a great thing for God, by being faithful in little things. She continued in the convictions that Mordecai had instilled in her as a little girl and did not stray from them in spite of tremendous pressure.  

What about us? Am I as faithful now as I was as a young(er) woman and a new Christian, in the basic spiritual disciplines that I learned to put into place as I began to walk with Jesus every day?  

What about prayer and fasting? Is this my first port of call, when I know there is a big challenge looming out in front of me? It is a detail not to be overlooked, that the game-changer in this story is a weapon that every one of us has at our disposal, no matter what our IQ, social status, wealth or lack of it, physical abilities or disabilities: we can all pray, and we can all fast – if not from food, at least from something, and devote more time to prayer.10 

Esther had a very mature understanding about the way God created us to function interdependently, in community. In her time of need, she immediately mobilized the community of the people of God and also the community of the closest women around her in the harem, and got them all to fast and pray with her.  She dared to ask. This too, is something all of us can do: just ask.  

At the end of the day, nothing that Esther did was out of reach of any of us. During the course of Esther’s life, as she continued in what she had learned and had become convinced of as a child, God was working powerfully in ways that were impossible for her to perceive. There was no way she could have known, the night that the king could not sleep (6:1), that God was working on her behalf in that way. There was no way she could she have known, that just as the king realizes that he owes Mordecai a huge outstanding debt of gratitude, that it would be none other than Haman who has “just entered” the outer court of the palace to come and speak to the king -- about having Mordecai executed (6:4)! All this is written for our benefit – to show us that our powerful God is working miracles, if only we will continue to be faithful to what we already know. 

*** 

Have I ever felt that the conditions around me are so bad that God just can’t possibly work any good ?  

Do I try to handle hard things myself? What can I learn from Esther’s instinct to immediately call upon the Jews in Susa and her maids in the harem to pray and fast with her?  

Has it been a while since I fasted? Is there anything worrying me that I should be committing to God through prayer and fasting?  

. 1 

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1 Midrash states that Esther’s father died during her mother’s pregnancy, and the latter died during childbirth (Esth. Rabbah 6:5; BT Megillah 13a). 

2 to make way for the new covenant, and his new bride, the church, which would include all nations and all peoples. See Hosea 1:2, 4; 2:2; 4:5-19; 5:1-15; Isaiah 2:2;  

3 read Lamentations, for example, to get a sense of how the people of Israel were feeling about the events described in 2 Ki 24:1-4; 2 Chron 36:1-20 

4  see Esther 2:10-11 

5 Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: Complete and unabridged in one volume. Peabody: Hendrickson. 

6 Ibid. 

8 See Gloria Baird’s book, Life’s Pitcher, for a great explanation of this insight 

9 in Esther 2:9, the English, “pleased him” is constructed using two words in Hebrew: : yatab and ayin.  

yatab: definition: 

:   to be good, be pleasing, be well, be glad 

to be glad, be joyful, to be well placed,  

to be well for, to go well with, to be pleasing, to be pleasing to 

to make glad, rejoice,  

to do well, do thoroughly 

to make a thing good or right or beautiful 

to do well, do right 

ayin  definition:  

  eye :  physical eye, showing mental qualities, of mental and spiritual faculties 

ayin is translated 887x in KJV – as eye, overwhelmingly (495x) sight 216x  other translations from 4-19 times : sight, seem, colour, pleased, think, and other misc translations 

examples from the OT: Gen 3:6 Eve saw the tree was pleasant to the eyes 

     Gen 3:7 then the eyes of them both were opened and they realized they were naked = literally and spiritually eyes were opened 

                                               Gen 16:6 Abram said to Sarah, do to Hagar as it pleases you . 

"Hebrew Lexicon :: H3190 (NASB)." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 13 Mar, 2014. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H3190&t=NASB 

"Hebrew Lexicon :: H5869 (NASB)." Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 13 Mar, 2014. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5869&t=NASB 

10 Prayer changes everything. I will never forget what, from my limited perspective,  was begun by the August 1989 prayer at the Boston World Missions Seminar for the Berlin wall to fall – it fell on 9 Nov, 1989, paving the way for us to go with a mission team into Moscow and the Soviet Union in July, 1991. A month after we arrived in Moscow with the mission team, President Gorbachev was taken hostage, tanks filled the streets. Not understanding the full extent of what was taking place, but sensing it was big, we called the team and newly-baptised disciples to prayer: every morning we met at 6am in the woods on the outskirts of the city, where no one would find us, and prayed. But that’s not all – the whole world was praying for us! I often wonder if more people prayed for that mission team than for any other: back in 1991, a majority of disciples in the world were living in the USA. Many of those disciples were old enough to have memories of the Cold War between the US and Russia, had grown up watching films where the villains were always Russian. It captured the imagination of Americans around the world in our churches, the sending of a team of mostly American teenagers into the Soviet Union! CNN helped keep our predicament on people’s minds, as round the clock news coverage showed the demonstrations and protests and unrest all around us. Missionaries from most other denominations fled. The Embassy told us all to leave. We stayed. Within a few days, power passed to Yeltsin, the USSR broke apart, and we continued to baptize – 850 in the first year. God did something amazing, and all we did was what anybody could do: prayed, and invited people to come see what we do at church.