Esther: The Way of Death to Self - Part 1
"All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary
by the purpose he has given them.”
— Oswald Chambers
Esther 4:14-16 (emphasis added):
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?
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 attendants 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.
The story of Esther is a remarkable story of how God orchestrated individual events to prevent the genocide of His people during the time of Persian rule in the late 5th century BC. It is also remarkable in that the key role of overturning the planned genocide fell on Esther. A young woman in a foreign land, slated to be a concubine in a harem but suddenly thrust into the position of a Queen. This makes for an exciting read. Suddenly she becomes the centre-piece. Esther the Deliverer—to be or not to be? Will she take the momentous decision risking her own life?
Esther’s Story
The story takes place in Susa (Hebrew “Shushan”) during the reign of Xerxes I (Semitic name Ahasuerus). Xerxes reigned from 486 to 465 BC. Not long after he began his reign, Herodotus the Greek historian described the great king as cruel and unpredictable. The Persian emperor’s own words are recorded on a monument found at Persepolis: “I am Xerxes, the great king, the only king, the king of all countries which speak all kinds of languages, the king of the big and far-reaching earth.” His kingdom stretched from India in the East to Ethiopia in the far West. It was all inherited from the conquests of predecessor kings like Cyrus the Great and his own father, Darius I.
Persian law was famous for its enforcement. Decrees once enacted were immutable. This explains why Xerxes allowed a second decree to be issued to give permission for the Jews everywhere to defend themselves: “Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.” More than 50 years before Esther, the prophet Daniel served in the reign of Darius. It was the same then, summed up in Daniel 6:15 “Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.”
It was a world of great pomp and splendour. Imagine holding a banquet that lasted 180 days! The treasures and wealth of the kingdom were displayed for the top officials and nobles to see. Beauty enhancements for the harem were quite extraordinary: “Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics” (Esther 2:12).
A member of the harem like Esther had several possible futures. She could be the next Queen, or be a regular concubine or she could be forgotten in her chambers just because the King did not ever call her out. She would then not be able to marry or have children—a virtual childless widow. Some commentators place the events in Chapters 1 and 2 at a time after Xerxes had returned from a disastrous invasion of Greece despite initially overcoming Sparta at the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans tried to stop the Persian advance—the story behind the blockbuster movie “300”.
Smarting from his defeat, he needed the Queen’s consolation but, unfortunately, Vashti was already deposed (or even executed) for her public refusal to be treated as a trophy or a sex object to be leered at by all the men at an all-male party. Hence the search for a replacement Queen, leading to the selection of Esther.
The world then was a world where women did not stand up to men—ever, let alone the King (Esther 1:16-22). You risked losing your life if you did. It was a world of double standards with regard to women. On the one hand, no man other than the King himself could ever be alone with a concubine. On the other hand, the beautiful queen could be paraded and ogled by the king’s officials. Women were simply chattel. This was the harsh reality of Persian society. Yet God used a young woman, Esther, to bring about justice and deliverance.
Like the Song of Songs, the book does not have the word “God” at all. This purposeful omission is a literary device used to accomplish two purposes. First, it helps the reader ask the question, “Where is God when His people are in trouble?” It actually helps to heighten the reader’s awareness of God when the reader looks underneath the surface story and events. When things happen they are not as random or coincidental as they seem. And, like the Song of Songs, the careful reader can actually see God everywhere. There is an invisible hand at work.
A second purpose is to help the reader enter into Esther’s world—a world of the heathen where the people of God are a minority. Esther’s real Jewish name is Hadassah, meaning myrtle, used only once in Esther 2:7 whereas Esther, her given name in Persian, is used 47 times. Esther means star in Persian. She is certainly the star of the story. Her name dovetails with the eventual deliverance celebrations where “the Jews had light and gladness and joy and honour” (Esther 8:16 ESV, emphasis added). In the midst of one of the darkest periods of Jewish history, readers are reminded that there is always hope even in a world where, by and large, God is not worshipped or acknowledged.
Esther was an orphan and was raised by Mordecai, her older cousin. When the story begins both of them were already in the capital Susa. Mordecai may have been an official in Xerxes’ administration—high enough to cause Haman to feel slighted when Mordecai refused to give him obeisance.
How was a young lady to navigate such a complex world? Well it so happened Esther had a wise cousin-mentor in Mordecai. Then there was the invisible hand of God behind every circumstance. God was also at work in the private thoughts and desires of the heart whether it was the king, Queen Vashti, Esther, Mordecai or Haman. This is the sovereignty of God.
The sovereignty of God
The sovereignty of God is one of the key truths in the book. It means that God is in control of everything—every person, circumstance or outcome to accomplish His purposes. A key verse that helps explain this doctrine is Romans 8:28 as expressed in the following translations (emphasis added).
NIV: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
NASB: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
PHILLIPS: Moreover we know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.
VOICE: We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.
Have you ever experienced how God actually arranges events and circumstances to achieve what He wants to be done? I recall one event that showed me how He arranged things even to the split second! This happened in early December 1980. Dolly and I had arrived in Hyderabad, India to pioneer the Navigator ministry there. Our team leader, John, was due to come up from Bangalore to see to our initial settling in and to discuss ministry plans. He was to be accompanied by Chander, a medical doctor from Singapore, also based in Bangalore then.
But there was a problem. The day before they were to arrive, we had moved house. There was no way John and Chander could locate us. We sent them a telegram but they were already on the train (those were the days when a land line took five years or more to get). The only way was for me to be on time at the railway station to receive them. This I did.
However, when I arrived, the train platform was completely empty. Asking around, I was told that the train had arrived early (most unusual!) and all the disembarking passengers had gone. There was no sign of the two friends. There was nothing I could do except to go back to our new home. The friends would probably waste their trip to Hyderabad.
Soon after I reached home, I felt a very strong urge to go to the bank to change some US dollar traveller’s cheques into rupees. Dolly was very surprised and she tried to dissuade me by reminding me that we still had a stack of Indian rupees in the drawer. But I could not shake off this feeling. I had to go. So I jumped into an auto (a three-wheeler scooter taxi), and told the driver to head to the bank. Along the way, as I passed a hotel near the railway station, I happened to turn my head to the right. At that very moment, I saw Chander poking his head out of the hotel door! I immediately stopped the auto and met with the two guys. Apparently, since the train arrived early John decided to just check into the hotel immediately, contrary to his practice of waiting, sometimes for hours.
It was so amazing that God arranged the timing down to the split second! Any earlier or later and I would have missed seeing Chander from the speeding auto.
At other times He may arrange circumstances with a humorous twist yet with very important outcomes. This story involves Cindy, daughter of retired OMF missionaries, whom Dolly and I met in Chiang Mai in a Christian retreat centre called The Juniper Tree. Cindy told us how she met her husband while she was back in the US attending college. She was standing in front of a grocery store, waiting for her younger brother to come out. A dog came and peed on her leg! Cindy had to find a quick solution so she borrowed a pair of scissors and cut off the leg pants of her slacks. The owner of the dog felt very bad and tried to make amends but she merely gave him her phone number and left it at that, being very keen to get out of her “fashionable” pair of slacks (those were the days before cut-offs were in vogue). Later on, the owner showed up at her home with a new pair of slacks.
The owner had a cousin who was a police officer who helped him track down her home address! So coffee followed. And later the two got married. From what we gather he is a very devout Christian, a devoted husband and son-in-law to her ailing parents. Cindy told us the dog had never peed on anyone before, nor ever after either. Talk about finding God’s will in marriage!
Stay tuned for Part 2!