What do you do when God seems to be absent? What do you think when things go wrong, even though you’re faithfully following Christ? Has God forgotten you? Were his promises unfounded? What about when you know you’ve disobeyed him or ignored him? Perhaps you’re the one who has moved away from God. Does that mean he has no part in your life, in your destiny any more?
They were the sorts of questions that exercised the minds of the Israelites in Exile in Babylon, then later in Persia. They knew they’d been sent into exile as a punishment for their rebellion against God. They knew they were no longer in the promised land, the place of God’s blessing. And so they feared that God’s care for them had ended, that they were on their own.
But that wasn’t the case. God was still their God. He was still interested in their welfare. He sent the prophet Jeremiah, a prophet who was mostly thought of as a prophet of doom, to reassure them that even in exile God was looking after them. One of the most quoted verses of the Old Testament is in Jer 29. God tells his people to settle in Babylon, build houses, plant gardens, find wives and husbands for their sons and daughters; to seek the welfare of the city in which they find themselves, because they’ll be there for some time. They mustn’t fear their exile because he will bring them back. Then he says: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." (Jer 29:11)
God says a similar thing to Ezekiel when he takes him in a vision to the valley of dry bones where Ezekiel sees a great army of skeletons come back to life as a sign of the life God is going to bring back to his people.
Of course this is nothing new. Elijah, if you remember, had an experience of God, speaking in a still small voice, reminding him that he wasn’t alone, that there were still 7000 prophets who hadn’t bowed their knees to Baal. (1Kings 19:18)
We too have the promise of Romans 8:28: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." We have Jesus’ promise that he will never leave us or forsake us. (Heb 13:5)
Yet there are times when we wonder, when things seem to argue against God’s presence with us, God’s providence watching over us; when life seems too hard for someone who has God on their side.
Well those are the times when we need to go back to God’s word to see the record he’s left us to reassure us of his love and care. That’s where this book of Esther comes in.
It’s interesting that the entire book of Esther contains no mention of God. God appears to be absent from the mind of the writer. It’s a bit like the story of Joseph where God is hardly mentioned, though there God’s action is acknowledged at the end very clearly. But here God doesn’t appear at all. That may be because the Jews are still in exile. The story is set after the first group of exiles returned to Jerusalem and this group have chosen to stay in Persia, so perhaps it’s indicative of their own decision to ignore God. Yet even then he’s still their God and he’s still Lord over history.
You see, although God isn’t mentioned his involvement is made apparent in the number of coincidences that shape the story - the King unable to sleep decides to read the Royal Chronicles where he’s reminded that Mordecai had saved him from assassination; Haman walks into the court just as Xerxes is wondering how to reward Mordecai; Xerxes returns to the banquet hall just as Haman falls at Esther’s feet to beg her to spare him.
When the first disaster happens to Haman, his wife and advisors tell him that because Mordecai is a Jew Haman will surely come to ruin. So the narrator has made the theological leap for us. Even though God isn’t mentioned by name, he’s very much present watching over his people.
In fact when the edict first goes out that the Jews should be killed, Mordecai suggests to Esther that perhaps she’s become Queen for just such an occasion.
And finally, Esther’s response to that suggestion is to tell Mordecai and the other Jews to fast for her, that is, as an accompaniment of prayer to God.
But let’s look at the story, remembering the underlying message, that when God seems most absent from human affairs, he may be most present and at work.
The story begins with Xerxes holding a lavish banquet, basically to show off his greatness. The extravagance and decadence of the event is shown by the fact that it lasts for 6 months. If you thought 3 months holiday was a long time, imagine a party that went on night after night for 6 months!
Mind you he had a huge empire so it may be that he had different regions coming to the banquet at different times during that 6 months. But then at the end of that time he held another banquet in the palace gardens for the people of Susa. Again this was an extravagant and decadent celebration of his wealth and power. And there was wine in abundance. The one rule for this party was that everyone could drink as much as they wanted.
At the end of the week, when Xerxes has had too much to drink, he makes a mistake. He sends for Vashti, his queen, intending to parade her before the men present at this drunken orgy. Well, Vashti knows what’s happening and refuses to be paraded as an object of male lust. What Xerxes is suggesting goes against all the rules of Persian etiquette where another man would never be allowed to look on the face of someone’s wife.
But her refusal causes a stir. What if other women hear about her behaviour. They might all decide to ignore their husbands’ authority. And so Xerxes has a problem. When he asks his advisors what to do their response is unanimous. She should be banished and her royal position given to another.
And so we come to Esther and Mordecai. Mordecai is one of the Jews who are still here, having been raised in exile. And his adopted daughter, his cousin Esther, is being raised by him. We’re not told what Mordecai’s position is, though he lives in the citadel, the area around the palace, he has access to the area beside the harem courtyard and we find him sitting in the palace gates, the place where judgement was given for civil cases. So it seems he’s held in some esteem by the king, though some people suggest that may have come about after Esther became queen. We are, though given some background. He’s a descendant of Kish, a Benjaminite. The author obviously wants us to be reminded of Saul, the son of Kish. We’ll come back to him later.
Esther is just a young girl who’s blessed with a shapely body and a beautiful face. But as the story goes on we discover she’s much more than that. She’s both courageous and resourceful. She shows a great humility in the way she deals with people. And her understanding of court politics comes out in the way she traps Haman in the end.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. 2 years have passed since Vashti was banished in which time Xerxes has taken an army to Greece to try to expand his empire but without success. Now he’s back in Susa and no doubt feeling lonely and bored. So he begins to fret over his loss of Vashti, his Queen. So his young attendants - notice these aren’t his old advisors but the young men who keep him company - suggest they begin a search for the most beautiful young girls in the kingdom. Then Xerxes can choose his favourite to be his new queen. That idea pleases Xerxes and so the search begins.
Inevitably Esther is one of those picked out for her great beauty. Again we’re not told what she or Mordecai thought about this. It’s very hard for us to get a grasp on how people in such a different culture view such a practice as kings having a harem with so many concubines they might only ever see them once. Did people see this as a way of advancement for their families? Did girls see it as a way of escaping the drudgery of life in their small village? Certainly no-one would have suggested that this was basically sexual slavery of these young women. No, it was just how things were. And when Esther was selected, she would have had no choice but to go along with it.
But here’s the interesting thing. Even though we’d understand this sort of practice as being contrary to God’s way of living, he takes Esther and uses her position to bring about a victory for his people over their enemies.
Well Esther immediately wins the heart of Hegai, the King’s eunuch in charge of the harem. You see it isn’t just her external beauty that matters here. There’s something about her character that makes people warm to her. Perhaps that something is shown by the way when it comes time for her to go to the King she listens to Hegai’s advice and takes only what he suggests.
In any case she wins the heart not only of the others at court but also, and most importantly, of the king. He falls for her and she becomes his queen.
Well that’s just the prologue to the story really isn’t it? That’s just setting the scene for what’s to come. But there’s one more incident that will also set the scene for a later outcome.
The next scene has Mordecai sitting at the gates of the palace, presumably with the other elders whose task it was to judge the civil cases that were brought to them as representatives of the king. As I said, some commentators suggest that he’s here because of his relationship with Esther, but we’re told that she’s kept that relationship secret, so it’s more likely that he was here already as a trusted representative of the king.
In any case he overhears talk of a plot to assassinate the king and passes on the message to the king via Esther. Mordecai is acknowledged as the source of the report, but is never rewarded. His name is, however, recorded in the Chronicles of the King. Here we see the hand of God at work, setting the scene for later action.
Just as we realise that Mordecai hasn’t been rewarded we’re introduced to Haman, who’s promoted to Prime Minister for some reason. Haman, we’re told is an Agagite. That is, he descends from Agag, king of the Amalekites.
Do you remember I mentioned that Mordecai is related to Saul in some way. Well, if you remember back to the story of Saul, it was Agag, king of the Amalekites, whom Saul was meant to have killed in his final failure as King. What’s more, it was an Amalekite who brought the news of Saul’s death to David. So Mordecai and Haman are natural enemies of one another. Haman is self important, self promoting and intoxicated by his success. He wants people to acknowledge his greatness by worshipping him. But Mordecai refuses. Just as Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego had refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, Mordecai won’t bow down to this mere mortal as though he were a god. And that makes Haman furious. He clearly takes himself much too seriously. And he’s very vindictive. It’s not sufficient to get his revenge on Mordecai. He decides to take it out on his entire race. But he’s not a hothead like Xerxes. He’s willing to wait his time. He gets a holy man to cast lots to determine the most propitious day on which to take his revenge. Presumably he wanted to ensure the gods were with him when he went to the king with his plan. (Except that the day is almost a year away, giving Mordecai and Esther plenty of time to do something about it.) Then he offers a sizeable bribe to the king to have him issue an edict to destroy an entire race of people. And the king agrees, even though Haman doesn’t actually say who these people are.
Here’s another example of something that seems outrageous to us, but obviously was nothing out of the ordinary in that culture. The Jews were a foreign race who were only there because they’d been defeated by one of his forebears. So what did it matter if they were destroyed. His kingdom stretched from India to Ethiopia. There were plenty of other races. So the King signs the edict, it’s sent out to all the provinces and the chapter finishes with the statement: "The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion."
So the scene is set for the destruction of the Jews throughout the Persian empire. Who can save them?
Well, Mordecai knows. Esther is in a unique position to do something about it. He sends her a message to tell here what’s happening and to ask for her help. She replies that she’s not sure she can help because the king has stopped asking to see her and she’d be risking her life to try to see him. Mordecai replies that she mustn’t ignore the plight of her fellow Jews. Again, there’s a clear inference that God is watching over the actions of his people. What’s more, he says, it may even be that she’s been put there (by God, naturally, though he isn’t mentioned) for just such a time as this. So she asks him and the other Jews in the city to fast (that is, pray,) on her behalf, then she’ll do what she can.
And there we leave the story until next week.
But let’s just think about what we’ve discovered so far. First of all, although God appears to be absent from the story he’s very much present and active.
But at the same time, the action in the story depends, as it so often does, on the faithfulness of ordinary people. Mordecai and Esther are just ordinary citizens, even if Esther does happen to have great personal beauty. But Esther is more than just a pretty face. She’s also gracious and humble. She has inner beauty. She has a deep trust in God that exhibits itself differently than with someone like, say, Daniel, who was able to stand up to the king. She doesn’t stand up to the king. That’s not possible for a young girl in that culture. But she does prepare to act on behalf of her people in a way that involves personal risk by asking them to pray for her. She’s aware of God’s providence and her need for his protection if her efforts are to bring success and so she calls on him in prayer. And as we’ll see next week she also has wisdom beyond her years.
If sometimes God seems far from us, the example of Esther may help us to realise that God is sovereign in every situation. Hopefully we’ll see that even more next week when we look at the second exciting episode in this story of a young Queen who saved her people from destruction.
For more sermons from this source go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/
