How can you live by faith when you feel far from God? What about he seems entirely absent from you life? The Book of Esther encourages us that God is at work even when he feels hidden from us. By his providence, God works to keep his promises even when his people feel far from him.
Esther 1
The first chapter introduces us to two essential details of the story: the setting and the silence. God’s people are in exile, far from their homes, but what makes it all the more heartbreaking is that God seems to be silent. He seems to have forgotten them in this faraway land. Is God here? Does God care? These are the questions that set the stage for the saga about to unfold in the book.
Esther 2
In Esther 2, we meet the title character herself. Esther is an orphan who is part of God’s exiled people. She is taken by the king as he seeks to replace the queen he has recently deposed. Esther seems to live by the whims of the powerful around her, but this will prove to be prelude for how God will work through Esther. As the story unfolds, we will see that it is actually God who has been in control this whole time. By this providence, he has been positioning Esther to preserve her people and to carry out his good purposes.