Esther 5-7 | God’s Work through the Ordinary
These chapters prove to be the turning point of the whole book. Esther had resolved to risk everything and to identify with her people in order to save them. Over the course of these three chapters, she put her courage into action and presented her request before the king.
For Esther to appear uninvited before the king was to risk her life (4:10-11), and earlier, Ahasuerus had shown himself willing to depose a queen if she displeased him. Thankfully, the king extended his scepter to Esther and allowed her to come before him (5:3), but rather than immediately ask for him to intervene on behalf of her people, she invited the king and Haman to a banquet (5:4). On the first night of feasting, Esther did not appeal for her people but instead asked the king and Haman to come the next night to feast where she promised she would present her request (5:8).
The key turning point in the whole narrative comes between these two feasts. For all the drama and intrigue of this book, the hinge of the whole narrative comes through a rather mundane event: a sleepless night. Chapter 6 begins, “On that night the king could not sleep,” and so he ordered someone to read to him, “And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king” (6:1). It turns out that what was read was the account of Mordecai saving his life, and the king decided that he needs to honor Mordecai (6:2-3).
As with the rest of Esther, the author invites us here to see the work of God without ever directly referencing him. At this key turning point, it just so happened that the king could not sleep), and it just so happened that when he asked for the chronicles to be read, they read to him about Mordecai’s saving his life. Then, the king just happened to want to honor Mordecai. The alert reader recognizes that this was not happenstance but providence. God was at work in this sleepless night to bring about his good purposes.
God worked through this ordinary event to accomplish his extraordinary purpose. Esther’s courage proved successful because of God’s work. Plenty of courageous people fail, but Esther succeeds because of God’s work. Ultimately, God’s people were saved because the king could not sleep.
Often when we look for the work of God, we look for the grand and magnificent. This is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe, and so we expect his work to be dramatic. We expect Exodus from Egypt type of action: Ten Plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. Yet, Esther reminds us that God is always at work. He even works through ordinary, everyday events like sleepless nights.
When we doubt that God could work in ordinary ways or would even care to, we remember the miraculously ordinary work of the incarnation: God became like us. In order to rescue us, the Son of God became completely human. Our Lord Jesus was born in humble, ordinary beginnings. He lived for thirty years as a rather typical person leading an ordinary life. God became like us in order to rescue us. He entered into the mundaneness, the ordinariness of our existence in order to bring us to life everlasting with him.
God’s work throughout history and in particular in the book of Esther invites us to see him at work in the ordinary, everydayness of our lives. We’re invited to open our eyes to his providential care that daily surrounds us, and as we see more and more of his work, we’re filled with thankfulness for all that he has done and with hope for the future, knowing that our lives are in his hands.
This awareness of God’s work in the ordinary also fills us with courage to serve in the present. Like Esther, we can have the courage to risk it all for the sake of others because we know that we never work alone. As we seek to serve others by showing and sharing the love of Jesus, we have the confidence that God has been at work before us, is at work through us, and will continue his good work even after we’ve gone. We can serve courageously in Jesus’s name because God is at work in and through the ordinary.
