Seeing the invisible God - Part 1

God is nowhere and everywhere in the Old Testament book of Esther, says Carla Lindsey. (Part 1 of 5)

Have you come across the ‘find the cat’ photos that have been going around social media? They’re an updated version of ‘Where’s Wally?’ pictures. They are usually an outdoor scene, in which there is a cat ... somewhere—you just have to find it. And that’s easier said than done. It’s not that the cat is hiding; it’s right there in front of your eyes. It’s just the cat blends so well into the background that it doesn’t draw any attention to itself. But it is right there in plain sight, waiting to be found by anyone who will take the time to look hard enough.

The Old Testament book of Esther is a bit like a ‘find the cat’ photo—only it’s a book, not a photo and we’re looking for God, not a cat.

At first glance, God doesn’t appear to be in Esther at all. His name isn’t mentioned once. There is no reference to worship, sacrifice, prayer, God’s law, the temple or anything religious. In fact, if we were to take out the word ‘Jews’ and substitute another group of people, we would find nothing in this seemingly secular book to even connect it to the Bible.

This is an issue that has disturbed many people! Some think Esther should never have been included in the Bible. Martin Luther said he ‘wished it had never come to us!’ But it has. And like the cat photos, when we look at Esther for a while, if we are prepared to stare at it intently, we will find God is in fact there, right before our very eyes.

In the book of Esther, God is both nowhere and everywhere. There is a tension between the hiddenness of God and the nearness of God. God is not obvious in the book, but he is behind everything that happens in it, weaving all of the small details together from the back to bring about his purpose.

In some biblical books, God is present in grand ways through visions and miracles. But in Esther, God is present in a quiet way. God is found in the small things, the little coincidences that go unnoticed but are actually part of something much bigger that God is doing.

Setting the scene

The first of these coincidences begins to take shape in the first chapter of Esther. Here the scene is set, the character of King Xerxes is established, and the circumstances through which God opens the door for Esther to become queen are recounted.

The anonymous Jewish author, writing sometime after King Xerxes’ death (BC465) and before Persia fell to the Greeks (BC331), uses a common ancient formula to open the book. He says, ‘Now it came to pass’, or as the New International Version translates it, ‘This is what happened.’ While scholars have raised questions about the historical accuracy of some parts of the book, this opening phrase indicates that the author intends for the work to be read as a historical account.

The opening verses of chapter one indicate that the events described in Esther took place during the reign of King Xerxes. Xerxes ruled the Persian Empire from BC485–65. He had four capital cities, and the book of Esther is set in one of these; the city of Susa, where Xerxes had his winter palace.

So, how does a story about the Jewish people come to be set in Persia? Well, in BC586 the people of the southern tribes of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon. A few years later, in BC539, the Babylonian Empire fell to the Persian Empire. Under the Persian king, King Cyrus, Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. But most didn’t. Esther’s family were among those who chose to remain outside of Jerusalem, in Susa to be precise.

The writer of Esther uses the first eight verses of the book to make sure readers understand Xerxes was a powerful man. He ruled a massive empire that stretched from modern Pakistan to Sudan, the largest empire in the world at that time.

But not only was Xerxes powerful, he was rich. The writer takes time to describe the curtains, the furniture, the garden, the precious stones, and the individually crafted golden drinking goblets. According to the ancient historian Herodotus, when Alexander the Great entered Susa in BC331 he found 40,000 tablets (1200 tons) of gold and silver bullion and 9000 talents (270 tons) of minted coins. Xerxes’s palace was exquisite and he liked to show it off!

Come to the party!

Three years into his reign, Xerxes held a 180-day banquet. For the full 180 days of his banquet he ‘displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendour and glory of his majesty’ (Esther 1:4). It must have been quite a party!

But this banquet was more than just a party. It coincided with the council of war Xerxes held in BC483. Xerxes was keen to invade Greece, and by wining and dining important people from the empire he could show off what a great and powerful leader he was and what wealth he had behind him. The banquet was a means of gaining support for his campaign.

At the end of the 180 days, Xerxes held another party. Just a seven-day affair this time. And it was during this party that something very unusual happened.

In Esther 1:9, the scene changes and we learn that while the men partied with Xerxes, Queen Vashti was throwing a party of her own for the women of the palace. On the seventh day of the king’s party, when ‘he was in high spirits from wine … he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him … to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at’ (1:10–11).

But the queen said, ‘I ain’t going!’

When the Queen says ‘no’

GASP! SHOCK! HORROR! No one said ‘NO’ to Xerxes! He was a ruthless man with a bad temper. When a storm meant a bridge he needed to use couldn’t be completed, he became so enraged he had the builders beheaded. When a wealthy friend requested that his eldest son be spared from going to battle, Xerxes had the son cut in two and then had his army walk in between the halves.
It was not a good idea to make Xerxes angry.

What was going on here? Surely, Vashti must have had a good reason for refusing to go?

Ancient rabbis thought the king was asking Vashti to appear before them wearing only her crown. And while we can’t be sure that was what Xerxes meant, the text does suggest Vashti was being treated as a sex object.

Women in that culture were largely covered up, so to put her beauty on display does suggest exposing herself in some way. Given that the men had been drinking for seven days and that ‘she was lovely to look at’ (1:11), we can safely say that it wasn’t Vashti’s intellect they were interested in! Xerxes had been displaying his treasured possessions, now he wanted to bring his wife out to be admired. As his very own living trophy.

But the plan hit a snag.
When Vashti said ‘NO!’ she must have known that ‘no’ might cost her dearly.

Unsurprisingly, King Xerxes was furious. It was bad enough for his wife to disobey him, but to do so in front of important guests meant the king was publically humiliated. Xerxes had just spent six months showing off what a wealthy and powerful man he was and now, in a minute, his own wife had undermined it all. How could he be taken seriously as a great leader on the battlefield when his own wife didn’t listen to him at home?

The proud man had lost face.So, what should he do? This was an unprecedented situation. How should it be handled?

Vashti’s defiance could not be overlooked, so Xerxes gathered his closest advisors. They concluded that since the queen hadn’t come when called, she should never be able to come to the king again. She would lose her position as queen and it would be given to someone ‘better’. (Presumably that meant someone more obedient.)

The scene is set for Esther

According to tradition, Vashti was executed, but the Bible simply tells us that Vashti was out of the picture—and because of that, the way was open for Esther.

On one hand, many aspects of Esther’s story are violent; but on the other, it is a very funny story. Esther is full of wit and irony. Just in chapter one, we see the most powerful man in the world brought down a peg or two by his wife.

Add to this, what begins as a marital disagreement is ridiculously turned into a state emergency. Xerxes listens to his advisors who fear other women might follow Vashti’s example, so he sends out a royal decree to everyone in the empire and in every language proclaiming that ‘every man should be the ruler of his own household’ (1:22). Talk about blowing something out of proportion!

By doing this, Xerxes brought more shame on himself. Those who knew nothing of the queen’s disobedience and the king’s shame certainly knew all about it after the decree! And the icing on the cake is found in Xerxes’s name. ‘Xerxes’ is the Greek form of his name, but in Persian it is ‘Ahwerosh’, which sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘headache’. Fittingly, the king who was in high spirits with wine and had a wife who was being a pain, was named ‘King Headache’. I’m sure he had one!

The scene is set. The king has no queen—but God is working. God has a plan. And in time everything will fall into place.

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by Carla Lindsey (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 22 August 2015, pp20-21.
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