Today in our journey along Route 66 we are stopping to visit the book of Esther...
Author
Traditionally, Mordecai was thought to be the author of the book of Esther. But as with many of the books of the Bible we must admit that we simply don’t know who the author of Esther was. Nonetheless, it is evident that the author was a Jew, due to the focus on the Jewish festival of Purim and the Jewish nationalism that permeates the story. Plus, the author is obviously aware of Persian customs and culture.
Date
The setting for the story is during the Exile, and specifically during the reign of Xerxes whose Hebrew name is Ahasuerus. This is most likely a reference to Xerxes I who reigned from 486 to 465 BCE. The traditional date for the writing of Esther was presumed to be shortly after the events narrated, c. 460 BCE, before Ezra’s return to Jerusalem. Internal evidence suggests that the festival of Purim had been observed for some time prior to the writing of the book.
Modern scholars date the book later, suggesting it was written between 400 and 300 BCE, toward the end of the Persian period.
The story appears in a different form in the Septuagint where it has six major additions not found in the Masoretic (Hebrew) text. Intriguingly, Esther is the only biblical book not represented among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Themes
The author’s central purpose is, obviously, to record the institution of the Jewish festival of Purim. But the author also calls to mind a few motifs from earlier events in Israel’s history:
- Israelite conflict with the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; 1 Samuel 15; 1 Chronicles 4:43)
- Rest from conflict (promised in Deuteronomy 25:19 and secured in Esther 9:16,22)
- The remnant motif
- And the Joseph story (Genesis 45:7).
Feasting is another prominent theme in Esther. Banquets provide the setting for important plot developments. There are ten banquets. Three pairs of banquets mark the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
Duplications seem to be a favorite literary technique of the author. In addition to the repeated feasts there are two lists of the king’s servants, two reports that Esther concealed her identity, two gatherings of the women, two houses for the women, two fasts, two consultations of Haman with his wife and friends, two unscheduled appearances of Esther before the king, two investitures for Mordecai, two coverings of Haman’s face, two references to Haman’s sons, and the list goes on…
One of the most outstanding features of the book of Esther is the lack of any explicit reference to God. And yet there is a sense throughout the story that there is an unseen hand guiding all the events.
The book of Esther is part of the third great section of the Hebrew Scriptures called the Kethuvim (Writings). And within the Kethuvim, Esther is part of a smaller section called “The Scrolls” or “The Five Scrolls”. This smaller section includes The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. Each of these books was read during a different Jewish festival:
- Song of Songs on Passover (April)
- Ruth on Shavuot/Pentecost (May-June)
- Lamentations on the Ninth of Av, the remembrance of the destruction of the Temple (July-August)
- Ecclesiastes on Sukkot/Tabernacles/Booths (September-October)
- Esther on Purim (March)
The historicity of the book of Esther is an important question. The Jewish Study Bible refers to Esther as a pseudohistorical tale and goes on to say that …
…nothing about the events of the story is realistic, and therefore attempts to read history from it are misguided. The setting of the Persian court is authentic, but the events are fictional. There was no known Jewish queen of Persia. Moreover, the Persian empire was tolerant of its ethnic minorities and is an unlikely place for an edict to eradicate the Jewish population.
The story draws on conventional themes of ancient storytelling known from the Bible and from extrabiblical sources from the Persian period (especially Greek sources) …
Structure
- The Feasts of Xerxes (1:1-2:18)
- The Feasts of Esther (2:19-7:10)
- The Feasts of Purim (8-10)
Key Concept—For Such a Time as This
As many commentators and preachers have recognized over the millennia, Esther 4:13-14 are two of the key verses in this book. But let me set the stage for those verses by first summarizing the story of the book of Esther…
It is, as we have already noted, a story set in fifth century BCE Persia and the reign of Xerxes I. When Xerxes commands his wife, Queen Vashti, to parade her beauty before all of Xerxes’ male friends, Vashti says “no”. In retaliation, Xerxes banishes Vashti from his presence in perpetuity.
In Esther chapter 2, a sort of beauty contest is held throughout the land for Xerxes to choose a queen to replace Vashti. A Jew named Mordecai puts forward his niece, Esther, or Hadassah as she is called in Hebrew, as a potential candidate for queen. Esther makes the grade and joins the king’s harem, and in the end, she pleases the king more than all the other women in the harem, and so she becomes queen.
This is where the plot thickens. In chapter 3 we are introduced to Haman the Agagite, who is promoted by King Xerxes over all his other officials. Haman is a descendant of Agag, the Amalekite king who, hundreds of years before, was responsible for Saul’s loss of the kingship in 1 Samuel 15:8. The ancient enmity between Israel and Amalek informs the relationship between Haman and Mordecai. Mordecai refuses to bow before Haman when he is ordered to do so. And Haman, for his part, when he finds this out, develops a deep hatred, not only for Mordecai, but for all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews.
So, Haman hatches a plot to destroy the Jewish people. He convinces King Xerxes that the Jews are a disobedient people and that it is not in the king’s interest to tolerate them. Haman then offers the king a large sum of money for his royal treasury if he will issue an edict calling for the destruction of the Jewish people. The king agrees with Haman’s suggestion and issues the edict, and the day is set for the destruction of the Jews.
In chapter four, Mordecai learns of the edict, tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and ashes, and goes weeping and wailing before the gate of Xerxes’ palace. Esther learns of this and asks Mordecai why he is parading around in sackcloth and ashes. Mordecai informs her of the decree and Esther agrees with Mordecai that the situation is horrible. But, Esther says, there is nothing she can do about it because she can only enter the king’s presence when she is summoned. If she approaches the king without an invitation, it will mean certain death.
That is when Mordecai sends this message to Esther…
“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 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?”
Esther’s response is…
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.
So, Esther takes her life in her hands and enters the presence of the king without an invitation. Fortunately, the king extends to Esther the royal scepter and asks her what she would like him to do for her.
Esther, in turn, invites the king and Haman to a banquet, promising the king that she will tell him her request at the banquet. The king agrees and the three of them dine together. The king again asks Esther what she would like him to do for her. But Esther hesitates and invites the king and Haman to join her for a second banquet where she promises to tell the king her request.
Haman departs from the first banquet thrilled at being given a private audience with King Xerxes and Queen Esther, but his mood turns sour when he sees Mordecai in the palace gate and Mordecai does not rise in acknowledgement of Haman’s greatness.
Haman asks his wife what he should do about Mordecai. She encourages him to put up a stake, fifty feet high, and ask the king to have Mordecai impaled upon it. The proposal pleases Haman, and he puts up the stake.
That night, the king is unable to sleep. He orders his book of records be brought and read to him. From the records he learns of a good deed done to him by Mordecai and, also, that Mordecai has not yet been rewarded. The king asks who is in the court who can do his bidding for him. Haman is found lurking around the palace, waiting to ask his request of the king. The king asks Haman what should be done for a man whom the king desires to honor. Thinking that the king wants to honor him, Haman responds,
For the man whom the king desires to honor, let royal garb which the king has worn be brought, and a horse on which the king has ridden and on whose head a royal diadem has been set, and let the attire and the horse be put in the charge of one of the king’s noble courtiers. And let the man whom the king desires to honor be attired and paraded on the horse through the city square, while they proclaim before him: This is what is done for the man whom the king desires to honor!
The king agrees with Haman’s suggestion and instructs Haman to lead Mordecai around on the horse. Having no choice, Haman sheepishly carries out the king’s order.
Finally, Esther holds a second banquet with Haman and the king. The king asks her once again for her request. And Esther asks the king to spare her life and the lives of her people. The king asks who has put his beloved queen’s life in danger and Esther responds, “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman!” Da-da-da-daaa. Da-da-da-daaa.
Well, even if you haven’t read the book of Esther, you can guess where the rest of the story is going. It is a story of reversals. Haman ends up being impaled by the king on the stake he has set up to execute Mordecai. The king gives Haman’s property to Queen Esther and his royal ring to Mordecai. Furthermore, at Esther’s request, the king grants all the Jews throughout his realm permission to defend themselves and plunder the possessions of any attackers. And so, the Jewish people end up killing some 75,000 of their foes.
According to the book of Esther, the Jewish Festival of Purim finds its origin in the feasting and merrymaking consequent on this grand reversal. Haman had cast pur—that is, the lot—with intent to crush and exterminate the Jews, but the destruction Haman had planned for the Jews recoiled on his own head.
So, what are we to make of such a story? I think there are a few things to note…
First, the book of Esther contains a great story, told in the best manner of storytelling, with many Persian flourishes. It deserves to be read and appreciated right alongside such great literary works of art as One Thousand and One Nights.
Second, there is clearly a lesson in this story about the perennial danger of antisemitism.Whether or not the story of Esther is historical, we all live within the shadow of one of the greatest atrocities of human history, the Holocaust. And sadly, the same spirit of antisemitism that led to the Holocaust is alive and well in our society today. We must not let the seeds of such hatred take root and grow in our midst. Perhaps we all need to recall the words of Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice…
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
And that quote leads to a third point… we see in this story what happens to people who have been oppressed. Understandably, such oppressed people long for revenge.
The deeper we dig into the Old Testament during our journey along Route 66, the more I find myself turning to Jewish voices to help me understand the Hebrew Scriptures. One voice I listened to in preparation for this message was that of Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City. He delivered a brilliant sermon on Esther earlier this year in which he said, among other things, “…we must never, ever let the historic memory and lived reality of antisemitism provide cover for the violent excesses of an unhinged and messianic abuse of Jewish power.”
And then Rabbi Cosgrove quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr…
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
I would like to close today by posing a question. And the question is this: Are you ready for your Esther moment? Mordecai famously said to Esther, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
The thing is, none of us knows beforehand what might prove to be the most important moment of our lives, the moment upon which all other moments depend, the moment that may make a marked difference in the lives of countless others around us, and maybe even for future generations. And because we don’t know when our Esther moment will come, we must be prepared to live as God’s people, thinking the right things, saying the right things, and doing the right things at every moment. I believe there is only one way that we can be ready for our Esther moment, and that is if we are infused with something that the book of Esther never mentions. And that is the grace of God.
The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-10…
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
It is by getting God’s grace deep down into our hearts that I believe we will each be prepared for our Esther moment, whenever it may come…
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