Lessons from Esther

September 26, 2021

Did you know that the Old Testament book of Esther never mentions God?  It’s the only book in the Bible that does not mention God.  There are no prayers in Esther.  The temple is never mentioned. The main characters do not appear to be religious.  Women are treated like property.  Esther, the beautiful, young, Jewish heroine, is married to a Gentile, a clear violation of Jewish law and tradition.  We eventually learn that she is actually a wicked, scheming villain.  She eats non-kosher food and is so assimilated into the Gentile culture that her own husband does not know she is a Jew.  Thousands of people die in this book, many at the command of Esther.  It is racist, with overt hostility toward the Gentiles and the Jews.  During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther hated the book of Esther.  He said, “I am so hostile to this book that I wish it did not exist, for it Judaizes too much, and has too much heathen naughtiness.”

Back in 1908, a theologian named L. B. Paton wrote this about the book of Esther:

 There is not one noble character in this book.  Xerxes (the king) is a sensual despot.  Esther, for the chance of winning wealth and power, takes her place in the herd of maidens who become concubines of the King.  She wins her victories not by skill or by character, but by her beauty.  She conceals her origin, is relentless toward a fallen enemy, secures not merely that the Jews escape from danger, but that they fall upon their enemies, slay their wives and children, and plunder their property.  Not satisfied with this slaughter, she asks that Haman’s ten sons may be hanged, and that the Jews may be allowed another day for killing their enemies in Susa.  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. III, p. 868)

Okay!  I guess that’s why in my thirty-seven years as a pastor I’ve never preached a sermon from the book of Esther.  Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever even heard a sermon from the book of Esther.  So, why is it in the Bible?  Is it possible that there is a lesson or two or three from this book?  I think so.

First, here’s an abridged version of the story of Esther.  It opens with a drunken Persian king demanding his beautiful wife, Vasthi, parade her beauty before the king’s guests at a banquet.  When she refuses, the king is enraged and divorces her and eventually takes Esther as his wife and queen.  Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, who adopted and reared Esther, learns of a plot to kill the king.  He tells Esther, and Esther warns the king. The king’s trusted advisor, a man named Hamon, blames the plot on the Jews, and the king commands that all the Jews be killed, beginning with Esther’s cousin Mordecai.  But the king was so taken by the beauty and charm of Queen Esther that he gave her one wish.  Anything.  Up to half of his kingdom.  This is where our text for today picks up.  At another banquet the king asks Queen Esther what she wants.  One wish.  Up to half of his kingdom, he said.  Terrified, Queen Esther asks that her people and she be spared.  Then she tells the king that Hamon is not really his trusted advisor.  He is actually a foe and an enemy.  And in a very dramatic scene, Hamon is hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai. 

So, Esther saved her people and herself.  She and Mordecai were given Hamon’s palace, and the king signed a special decree to protect all the Jews.

So, what are the lessons from Esther?  I identified three; you may find more than that.  If you do, please share them with me.

Here’s the first lesson I see in Esther: Do not mistake the silence of God for absence.  God is never mentioned in this story.  Never do we see Esther or Mordecai pray.  They do join in a fast, but even that appears to be more about community solidarity.  Despite the lack of overt religious practices, God, like a silent, unseen actor in a play, works to save the people of Israel. 

That may be the way it happens in your life too.  We should not be discouraged when we don’t hear a voice thundering from the heavens or experience some other dramatic display of God’s presence in our lives.  My experience has been that God is subtle, more like the still small voice Elijah experienced.  Elijah had been so despondent that he prayed to die.  He went to the wilderness, Mt. Horeb, for forty days.  There, in a dramatic scene, God called him to be a prophet.  The winds blew so hard mountains toppled and rocks broke into pieces.  “But the Lord was not in the wind,” the text says.  Then came a violent earthquake.  “But the Lord was not in the earthquake,” it says. Then came a fire, “but the Lord was not in the fire.” Get ready. Then came “a sound of sheer silence.”  The older translations call it “a still small voice.”  That is where Elijah met God.

Barbara Brown Taylor was named one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English-speaking world.  What an honor!  She gave the prestigious Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School.  She titled her lectures, “When God Is Silent.”  She points out that when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, God was silent.  When Jesus called out from the cross, God was silent.  Here’s what she says, “The divine silence is not a vacuum to be filled but a mystery to be entered into, unarmed with words and undistracted by noise…Our job is not to pierce that mystery with language but to reverence it.”

So, if you’re not hearing thundering voices and seeing dramatic displays, don’t let that bother you.  Esther didn’t either.  Nor Elijah.  God may be in the sheer silence, the still small voice, an unseen actor working for good.  Do not mistake silence for absence.

Here’s another lesson from Esther: Do not equate your past with your potential.  Esther was an orphan.  We first meet her in chapter 2 where we learn that her father and mother had both died.  Her cousin Mordecai adopts her and rears her as his own daughter.  Some have noted that her status as an orphan mirrors the Jewish people’s status as exiles.  She and the people of Israel were powerless and marginalized.  I wonder if she ever said to herself, “I can’t do anything special.  I’m just an orphan with no power, no clout, no credentials.  I come from nowhere; God can’t use me.”

Obviously God didn’t care where Esther’s past.  God doesn’t care about our past either.  God cares about our potential.

I read about a church that did something creative and healing.  They created a website where people could anonymously confess anything and invite people to pray with them.  Some heart wrenchingly honest confessions were posted.  Many people carried deep shame about something in their past.  Two broke my heart.  A girl wrote about being raped when she was just nine years old.  She never told anyone. She began to act out in inappropriate ways.  She wrote that she was just a kid, but she considered herself to be a horrible person.  She ended her confession with this: “Because of what I did, I feel dirty and don’t think anyone will really love me.”

A young man confessed to videotaping his little sister undressing.  She caught him and told their parents.  Here’s part of what he wrote: “I hate myself for what I did.  I feel like I ruined my whole family.  My sister hates me.  My family hates me.  Everyone hates me.  I am a monster.”

My goodness!  How they need to hear this lesson from Esther.  God is not interested in our past, where we come from or what we’ve done.  God cares about our potential, so don’t equate your past with your potential.

Here’s one more lesson from Esther:  Don’t mistake fear for a lack of courage.  The king had ordered all Jewish people killed.  Esther was a Jew, though the king did not know it.  He threw a banquet and wanted to know her one wish.  Anything.  Up to half of his kingdom.  In order to save her people and herself, she had to admit to the king that she was Jewish, not knowing how he would respond.  And she did it.  I suspect her heart was racing, her breathing shallow, and her blood pressure up.  She was afraid, but she found the courage to do the right thing.

Sometimes we equate courage with fearlessness.  But that’s not true.  A better definition of courage is acting in spite of your fear.  Courage is the willingness to act fearlessly despite the fear you may feel.

Mark Twain got it right: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not the absence of fear.”

I’m not at all hostile toward the book of Esther.  It may be a bit unconventional for a book of the Bible, but it is in our Bible for a reason.  It has at least these three important lessons for us.

Do not mistake the silence of God for God’s absence.

Do not equate your past with your potential.

Do not mistake fear for a lack of courage.

Closing Prayer

 Lord, may these lessons from Esther find fertile soil in our hearts.  Help us to be comfortable in the silence, believe in our potential, and have the courage to step out in bold ways.  Amen.