Esther 1: Where is God?
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How do we live by faith when we feel far from God? What good is faith when God seems entirely absent from our lives? Such questions might cross our minds, but rarely would we dare give voice to them. In fact, we can struggle even to admit such feelings because they seem so impious. Yet, Scripture is replete with people of faith crying out to God, asking if we sees them or cares about them.
The Book of Esther goes a step further. God seems so far removed from his people’s lives that he is not even named in book God’s people are exile and facing extermination, but it seems that God himself is nowhere to be found.
The conspicuous absence of God’s name from this biblical book draws our attention to the distance from God that Esther and her people felt at this time. This narrative does more than just offer us the commiseration that other people have felt from God; the book invites us to consider how God is at work even when he seems absent.
Despite God’s not being named, three aspects of this book invite us to look for his activity. First, there are far too man “chance” occurrences to credit good fortune. Second, the main characters are, at best, morally ambiguous, and so we are not led to believe that they deserve the outcome. Third, the reversals are too pointed and dramatic to be attributed to natural causes. The account is told in such a way to invite us to see the hand of God at work even when he is not named.
God continues to work by his providence to keep his promises even when he seems far from his people.
The book of Esther comforts us that God continues to work by his providence to keep his promises even when he seems far from his people. God keeps his promises even when he is hidden.
For some, we need the hope of the hidden God being active in this world because, like Esther, we find ourselves in the middle of a crisis. We’re wondering how God could be present at at time like this. For others, we need the reminder of this hope precisely because there is no crisis. Life, by all appearances, is going well. And yet, God seems so far away. All the distractions and the noise do less and less to mask our sense that God feels absent.
Esther reminds us that God keeps his promises even when we cannot sense his presence. On the other side of the resurrection, the cross stands as the great reminder that God keeps his promises when he seems hidden from us and unengaged with the world. When Jesus was on the cross, the work of God was most hidden from our eyes. Where was God the Father as his Son was being crucified? Even Christ himself expresses a sense of abandonment, crying out,“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). Yet, precisely when God seems most hidden, we can, by faith, see him most clearly revealed in. Here is the love of God poured out for us, so that we who were far from God be brought home to enjoy life with him forever.
Historical Setting
Esther takes places in Susa (modern-day Iran) during the reign of the Persian King Xerxes (r. 486-465 BC). She lives in the period following the decree by Cyrus in 539 BC that the Jewish people could return to their land and rebuild their temple (See Ezra 1:1-4). The Jewish people were in exile because of their failure to obey the Lord. He had promised them in Deuteronomy 28 that disobedience would lead to their being driven from the land. This process had begun in 722 BC when the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom of Israel and took them into exile. Over 100 years later, in 586 BC King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would capture the southern kingdom of Judah and destroy the temple in Jerusalem.
The Babylonian kingdom would be short-lived, for in 539 BC, Cyrus the Great overthrew the Babylonian king Belshazzar (see Daniel 5). In conquering the Babylonians, Cyrus established the Persian Empire, which ruled from the tip of southeastern Europe, across the Middle East, and into the Indus River Valley. The Persian Empire existed from 539 BC until it was conquered by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
Cyrus the Great ruled until 530 when he died. The Empire passed under the control of his son and brother until it eventually reached another one of his relatives, Darius I. Darius ruled from 521-486 BC, and it his son Xerxes who rules during the story of Esther. The Greek historian Herodotus writes that Xerxes was the tallest and most handsome Persian king who was also a great warrior, ruthless ruler, and jealous lover. Xerxes is remember in Greek history for his attempts to conquer Greek city states. The Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) was one of Xerxes’s major victories against the Greeks. Xerxes’s reign ended with his assassination by close advisors, and his son Artaxerxes would take the throne after him.
Notes on Esther 1
1:1 - Xerxes is the Greek transliteration of the Persian King named Khshyarshan, whom the book of Esther names Ahaseuerus. This name has no meaning Hebrews but when said, the name would have sounded like “King Headache.”
1:2 - Susa was located in modern-day Iran. It was one of four capital cities and was used as the winter palace.
Reflect
How does the first chapter serve to advance the narrative of the book? What tension is being built here?
Why is it significant that God is never mentioned in this book?
As God is far from the text of Esther, do you think Esther herself felt far from God?
Do you ever feel far from God? How do you think the book of Esther encourages you when you feel from him?
How is God at work in the first chapter?
