This post is written by my friend and former seminary classmate, Zach Adams! Zach is a youth pastor, husband to Victory, and life-long learner. His main area of interest is Old Testament studies, specifically how land is portrayed in the OT. I’m thrilled to share his insightful words on Esther here.
The book of Esther is about a young asparagus who slowly rises in life to become a powerful queen. Okay, maybe not exactly, but VeggieTales did convince hundreds of thousands of young boys and girls—including my wife—that an asparagus was the most beautiful woman in the world. The real story of Esther is both harrowing and humorous as a threat rises against the Jewish people in Persia. The feature that sets Esther apart the most from other biblical books is the fact that, whereas other books are filled with mentions of the God of Israel, in Esther the name of God is absent entirely. What does this mean for a people who are under threat of annihilation? Could there be a powerful exodus to deliver the people from destruction when God is nowhere to be seen or felt? Esther is mainly about how, though God is hidden, God is at work providentially in the unseen details of life bringing about great change and deliverance for God’s people. But the way God chooses to work is extraordinary: through the choices and responses of normal people.
In this post, we will look at how God providentially uses the unique giftings and placement of a man and woman to bring about deliverance for their people. Esther, as a woman, has power and influence to which Mordecai does not have access; Mordecai, as one who is passionate for his people, has the motivation and inspiration that Esther needs to risk her life on behalf of her people. We will see how this story can speak to us today of how men and women need one another to do what God has called us uniquely to do. Sometimes that means submitting to the authority of a woman who has been gifted with position, power, and purpose for what must be done.
The Introduction: The Stakes for Esther
The first chapter of the book illustrates the danger through which Esther will have to navigate once she becomes queen. The Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes in some translations) is an indulgent king with a vast kingdom and expansive wealth. We enter the story during an elaborate party the king is throwing to display his wealth “and the splendor and glory of his majesty” (1:4; NIV), which lasts half a year(!). Meanwhile, the current queen, Vashti, throws her own banquet for the women of the palace. Drunk on wine (and power), Ahasuerus summons Vashti in order to parade her beauty before his nobles. However, Queen Vashti refuses to be reduced to a trophy wife and publicly rejects his summons—a scandal, emphasized by the fact that everyone else has indulged in the king’s selfishness. Retaining her dignity, Vashti falls victim to the king’s rage.
An interesting thing that’s not often highlighted in chapter one is what happens next. Ahasuerus consults his nobles for advice on what to do with Vashti and they advise that she must be dealt with swiftly. They fear that if the king does not respond decisively, then what Vashti has done will become known to all the women, and they will begin to imitate her in refusing their husbands’ authority. As one noble says, “There will be no end of disrespect and discord” (v. 18). Their solution is to issue an unrepealable edict banishing Vashti from the king’s presence and replacing her as queen. Their desired result is that “all the women will respect their husbands” (v. 20). And so the king sends out the edict, putting into unalterable law a patriarchal system that assures that “every man should be ruler over his own household” (v. 22).
The way this chapter introduces the story and its stakes is important, but too often glanced over. Yes, it is important to point out that Queen Vashti was banished, making room for Esther to enter her royal position, but we must also realize why this has happened: Vashti challenged the egotistical king and his men, inspiring other women to do the same. The men were afraid of the “disorder” that would happen when women begin to resist the abusive authority of the men who ruled over them. Vashti’s refusal to be reduced to the beauty of her physical body threatened not only the king’s ego, but also the patriarchal system of the Medo-Persian kingdom over which he ruled. How is this important for Esther? It shows us that in this kingdom, it is dangerous for women to defy men. There are real consequences for this defiance: Vashti is banished from the king’s presence (a phrase that will become important later on). These are the stakes for Esther as she enters the royal palace as queen and must navigate the king’s bruised ego and fragile masculinity to defy the men in the palace and save her people from annihilation. In Vashti, Esther sees a very real possibility of what could become her own fate. But God’s hidden hand is already at work in opening the palace for Esther, even if it means she must enter this dangerous place that silences women. This means that gender and the values assigned to it plays an important role in the book. Though it is not the main message of Esther, the book does have something to say about it. But what?
The Contrast: From the King’s Gate to the Presence of the King
There are many important details that we don’t have the space to get into, but I want to highlight a few things in summary. In chapter two we are introduced to Mordecai the Jew, the cousin of Esther who became her adopted father when her parents died. Mordecai and Esther together are the two most important characters in the book, to the point where it becomes a little fuzzy which one of them is truly the “main character.” Though Mordecai is constantly identified as a Jew by those around him, he encourages Esther to keep her Jewish identity a secret, presumably to keep her safe while she’s in the palace (code-switching and passing are not new realities). It’s clear throughout the story that Mordecai cares deeply for Esther. He constantly finds ways to be close to her and find out how she is doing (2:11).
On one of these occasions after Esther has become queen, Mordecai sits at the king’s gate and stumbles upon a plot to assassinate the king. There is a question as to why Mordecai was there at the king’s gate in the first place. It is possible that he was simply spending time hanging out at the king’s gate as a citizen, but many scholars point out that the king’s gate was often used as a place for officials to carry out important administrative duties. So it was highly likely that Mordecai served as some kind of low level administrator for the government. In one sense, this allowed Mordecai to providentially overhear the plot to kill the king, and to have an opportunity to inform Esther about it who was able to inform the king and save him. The point that I’d like to draw out here is that the king’s gate is as far as Mordecai was able to go. It’s as close as he could get to the king, whereas Esther had entered the very presence of the king through her position as queen. While Mordecai is unable to go into the king’s presence, through Esther’s power, his name reaches the presence of the king because “all this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king” (2:23; emphasis mine).
In the next few chapters, these positions are emphasized through repetition. Mordecai can only go as far as the king’s gate, while Esther has access to the king’s presence. In chapter three, for example, we meet Haman, another man with a fragile ego who is honored by the king. Though all the officials are commanded to bow to Haman, Mordecai refuses to do so, igniting Haman’s rage. We are not told why Mordecai refuses to bow, but it clearly has something to do with him being a Jew (3:4) and probably the fact that Haman is an Agagite (3:1), connecting him with the Amalekites, a long time enemy of Israel. In his rage, Haman decides to kill not only Mordecai but to find a way to “destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews” throughout the kingdom, young and old (3:13). This was set into law by the king—a law which could not be revoked.
This horrible turn of events poses a problem for Mordecai. How can he do anything to save his very people from annihilation? The simple truth is that he cannot because, as is repeated throughout this section, he can only go as far as the king’s gate and has no access beyond it. He is limited to this place (4:2, 6; 5:9, 13; 6:10, 12). The contrast that has been forged in the story is the contrast between Mordecai at the king’s gate, and Esther who has access to the king’s presence. So, Mordecai needs Esther to go where he cannot. Esther has been positioned in a place as a woman, because she is a woman, where Mordecai as a man has no access.
Yet when he sends a message to Esther asking her to enter the king’s presence on behalf of their people, she is hesitant. Anyone who does this without the king’s approval would be put to death, and Mordecai is asking her to plead with the king to repeal an unrepealable edict he had made. We have already seen how delicate this man’s ego is, and how tightly he clings to power. Mordecai is asking Esther to risk falling to the same fate as Vashti in chapter one. It is dangerous for anyone to challenge the king, but it is even more dangerous for a woman to challenge the authority of her husband.
In chapter five we find Esther “in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall,” preparing to approach the king. How did she overcome her fear to get there? Esther found comfort and strength in the words of Mordecai who saw in her position a providential placement that gives her the unique opportunity to be the hero of her people. Mordecai uses those famous words, “who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (4:14). Esther then resolves, “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (4:16).
I would like to make this point: Mordecai needed Esther to go into places that he had no access to in order to save him and all the Jewish people. Likewise, Esther needed Mordecai to empower and support her to do that very thing and risk her life to become a savior. Where the Persian kingdom was suspicious and fearful of strong women, Mordecai put all of his trust into one woman, realizing that she had been uniquely placed for such a time in a way that he hadn’t been. Mordecai is not the hero of this story; Mordecai and Esther are heroes together, each doing what the other was unable to do on their own.
The story reminds me of another story that might make some readers cringe: Frozen 2. At the end of the movie, when Anna realizes she needs to destroy a dam, she awakens giant rock monsters and baits them with her own life to lead them to it. Just in the moment when she is about to get crushed underfoot, Kristoff sweeps in to rescue her from death. At this part in most stories, the “prince charming” character would rescue the girl and then take the lead in winning the day, but Kristoff is different. Instead, he rescues Anna from danger—something she genuinely needed—and then says, “I’m here. What do you need?” He realizes that his role as a man in this situation is not to become the hero and muscle his way to victory. Instead, he uses his strength and ability to empower and support Anna in her calling and position. “Help me up,” says Anna, as Kristoff boosts her up onto the dam and quickly fades from the scene. Kristoff’s masculinity is not so fragile as the king’s is in Esther.
Mordecai does a similar thing as he empowers Esther to challenge the authority of the man who holds tight to power. Through this empowerment Esther uses her cleverness and skill to arrange the salvation of her people. Yet when reflecting on this story from a theological lens, it becomes clear it is not only Mordecai and Esther who are acting on behalf of the Jewish people. Though it is never explicitly stated, God can be seen divinely working in hidden ways to bring about great reversals in the story. Haman seeks to kill Mordecai, but instead suffers the very fate that he had planned for him; the king’s law is unbreakable, but it is broken by the influence of the queen; Haman was honored and lifted up, but ultimately it is Mordecai who becomes honored and lifted up. This honoring of Mordecai is powerful in its wording, for we are told in chapter eight that because of Esther’s cleverness and influence, “Mordecai came into the presence of the king” (8:1).
Implications: God Isn’t Afraid of Women
The fact that Esther is in our Bibles shows us that God is not hesitant to use women to do God’s work. There is no reason to limit this as an exception for a specific moment in history. In this story God providentially uses a man and woman together to overcome the patriarchal system of Medo-Persia that oppressed its people and clung to power. What other examples of these kinds of systems can God overcome today? We should allow this story to challenge the conventional expectations we have around gender and the way that God can use those we would not expect to bring about deliverance.
Too often men today are suspicious and fearful of women who use their gifts and positions to challenge those in power—or simply to bring love and beauty into the world in service to the Lord. Often the church looks more like Medo-Persia than it does the household of God. Ask the women, they’ll tell you. It’s discomforting that the words used by the nobles in chapter one in their fear of women are so similar to words used today. What could our world and our churches look like if we embraced the God who is not afraid to use both Mordecai and Esther to bring deliverance to God’s people? God is not afraid of women. What if men embraced Mordecai’s example and recognized that there are limits to what we are able to do, and that women can help us? It’s important also to point out that Esther is not just a model for women, and Mordecai for men. But men and women alike should look to Esther as a hero and seek to emulate her boldness and heroism, and to Mordecai for his boldness and humility. Ultimately, however, it is the God who works providentially in ways that we don’t expect, in times when we can’t see it, that we are meant to honor and worship and emulate.
Image: Lilian Broca, https://www.lilianbroca.com/queen-esther-mosaics.
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