The Book involving Esther

Esther is not a very popular book.

Few people preach on Esther. Indeed, your lectionary, if you know how that works, only encourages us to read the idea once every three years. Contrary to the gospel of Mark, as an example, from which we will read like 50 times over the course of this season, we get only this one examining from Esther this year, after which the hem ebook retires to its quiet canonical position until 2003.

It is an unpopular publication. More – it is a questionable book. More – this is a book about which no less a character than Martin Luther said that he ‘hated’ it. That it was ‘perverse’ – ‘filled with much pagan impropriety’.

Esther is among only two books inside Bible that never says the name of God. It stocks this singular honour with the Song of Songs, which is also a controversial book.

It’s not only that the book doesn’t refer to God by name. It truly is that there is so little that is ‘godly’ taking place in the book. There is no praise, no reading of the Scriptures, no persons of outstanding godly identity in the book of Esther. You cannot find any mention of the great Biblical themes or templates of covenant and elegance. There doesn’t even are any love in Esther! Making love, yes, there’s plenty of love-making in Esther – another factor of similarity with the Melody of Songs. Yet Esther will go one step beyond Songs through bringing in that other terrific Hollywood theme – hatred.

Esther is a violent book. There is a lot of bloodshed in Esther. There appear to be a good hundred thousand people killed in the story connected with Esther – men, women, and kids – and Esther herself can much of the killing.

This kind of raises two questions:

Exactly why hasn’t somebody made a significant motion picture based on the story involving Esther?

Why is this book in the Word of god?

I’m going to shelve both of these problems until we’ve looked at the story, so that you might be in a better position to make up your own thoughts.

Chapter 1 introduces united states to both the environment in the story and to one of the main character types. We are in Persia in the later 5th Century B.H. The Jews are living in exile, and also a king by the name of Ahasuerus is for the throne.

Ahasuerus is better-known elsewhere in history simply by another name – Xerxes – and is best known for her complete failure to conquer the particular Greeks in the earlier years of his rule.

Yesterday I watched many of a marathon being perform. Many of you will know that the very first marathon was run after this battle of Marathon — where one poor Ancient guy ran so hard and fast after the battle to express to the good news of victory in order to his king that he died as soon as he had given the message!

Marathon was a victory on the Greeks over the Persians who were then led by Darius, Xerxes’ father. Xerxes delivered to Greece to avenge her father’s defeat in Four hundred and eighty B.C. with an military services that Herodutus numbered at A couple of.5 million! He overcome the Spartans at Thermopylae, but ended up being thoroughly destroyed by the Greeks inside naval battle of Salamis. He delivered to his capital outdone but, like his papa, and like his modern counterpart, Saddam Hussein, he managed to begin with to hang on to absolute electrical power in his own region.

One other story I remember about Xerxes ended up being that story about his friend who held a banquet for a great part of the army on the night before these people headed off to battle. In the morning, the friend asked Xerxes if his youngest son may possibly stay with him on the town to help him look after it. He had three other children in the army and considered whether the youngest one may possibly stay at home. Xerxes had the fresh lad brought forward, had your boy cut in half down the middle, had his military march between the two halves, in addition to said to his friend ‘enjoy your son’s company’ or something like that.

Xerxes/Ahasuerus is not a godly man. Yet he is the absolute ruler of many nations and lenders in this story, including many Jews.

Chapter 1 also works with Vashti, Xerxes’ wife, the first woman in the Bible to demonstrate feminine assertiveness. Xerxes brilliant mates are drunk and they invite Vashti in to come and also join the fun. Vashti tells the crooks to get stuffed. Xerxes responds using something as chauvinistic as Vashti’s actions was feminist – he maintains a beauty contest to find a fitting replacement for Vashti.

Xerxes pulls in girls from across the empire, has them dressed up along with perfumed up, gives every one of them a trial run in bed, as well as promises to the one who tickles his expensive most, that she will become the revolutionary queen of Persia. Enter Esther.

Segment 2 outlines Esther’s rise to power. She pleases the particular king more than any of the woman contemporaries, and is much prompted by her uncle Mordechai ( blank ) himself a loyal cleaning of the king who allows you uncover a plot so that you can assassinate Xerxes, and so earns the king’s favour.

Both Esther and Mordechai are Jews, however Mordechai seems to prefer to remain silent about his Jewishness, and induces Esther to do the same. Why? Since there seems to be a fair degree of anti-Semitism distributing through the empire, as gets to be clear in Chapter 3 when we meet Haman – the particular enemy of the Jews.

Why has been Haman ‘the enemy of the Jews’? Because he was an Amalekite, and because Amalekites and Jews experienced always hated each other. The challenge actually starts with Mordechai. Haman is employed Prime Minister, and everybody bows and also shows respect to them – everybody except Mordechai. Mordechai exhibits no respect to this dude, despite his office. Precisely why? Because he is a damned Amalekite.

That is a helpful reflection, I think, from the piety of Mordechai. What did it necessarily mean to him to be a Jew? Achieved it mean a personal devotion on the God of the Hebrews? Did it signify praying each day while struggling with Jerusalem? Did it mean a rigorous adherence to the 10 commandments? No! None of these things, but it did mean disliking the Amalekites. Mordechai was not a model Jew.

Haman makes the decision to punish Mordechai for their insolence by killing off all the Jews, and he convinces the queen that this is a good idea. He places a date for his holocaust 12 months hence.

In Segment 4, Mordechai appeals to Esther for help. Esther says that she’d like to help but that she are not able to really do anything at the moment since the king, it seems, has already cultivated sick of her. She’s unacceptable to just waltz in for a talk to the king uninvited. The california king is quite entitled to have the woman cut in half for displaying that sort of insolence.

Mordechai tells her that she shouldn’t live underneath the illusion that she will be harmless in the palace while others undergo. She will end up getting it in the neck too. Esther relents and in chapter 5 she takes the girl’s chances with Xerxes and wanders into his throne-room to invite him or her to dinner. Esther catches Xerxes in a good mood. He isn’t going to kill her, but will accept the dinner invitation.

Your king and Haman dine with Esther that night, which gets Haman so excited that he decides to accelerate his intends to murder Mordechai, and he builds your scaffold in his back yard to do the job.

Chapter 6 is a kind of comic relief, where the master can’t sleep one night and also gets it in his scalp that he’s being struggling because he never gave Mordechai his / her proper reward for alert him about the assassination piece.

Xerxes calls in Haman to ask for some advice as to how he need to reward Mordechai. Haman meanwhile has done his gallows and was about to move and lynch Mordechai. When Xerxes asks Haman what exactly he should do to reward one of his most loyal servants, Haman assumes that Xerxes is discussing him, and he recommends incredibly lavish treatment. So it is that will Haman ends up having to walk all around ahead of Mordechai, singing the good remarks of the man he desires to kill.

In chapter 7 every little thing comes unstuck for Haman at one more dinner party with the queen. Esther shows Xerxes that Haman is trying to get rid of her and all her individuals. Haman is promptly hoisted on his own petard.

Chapters 8 & 9 outline Esther’s reprisal. With the cooperation of Xerxes, the woman manages to not only have Haman hanged, but all his children, utilizing their bodies hung up on display later. She then asks your king if her people today might not go on their own hurting spree against their players, and indeed, she manages to have the best part of 100,1000 people killed over the space or room of only a couple of days, which is an enormous amount of bloodshed.

Chapter 10 concludes simply by telling us that this history is remembered each year with the feast of Purim, as really it is still remembered by Jews all over the world today. And the tradition is definitely, and it’s an ancient tradition, that will at the feast of Purim, you are entitled to drink so much homemade wine that eventually you can’t differentiate between the cries of ‘blessed become Mordechai’ and ‘cursed be Haman’.

This is related to one of the theories as to why the domain name of ‘God’ isn’t in the book. Individuals were regularly so drunk once they read it, they might accidentally use the name in vain.

And therefore let us leave this saga of drunkenness, sex, and so a great deal violence, and let us get back to our original questions:

Why hasn’t somebody made a big motion picture based on the story with Esther?

Why is this book in the Holy book?

The first question I’m not sure I can reply. The second question, I’m wanting to have a go at.

What’s this e-book doing in the Bible? It is such a violent story. The characters all seem therefore ungodly. What sort of role models for our young children to these Biblical figures make! It all seems so wrong, so violent, and so rattling irreligious!

Maybe that’s the point we can get from this book. Them points to the fact that there is an irreligious dimension to the Bible, as without a doubt, we might say, there is a quite irreligious dimension to God!

It is often traditional of course to think of Goodness as inhabiting a world of religion. God is present in His holy your forehead. God is present with his people gathered. God is at sort out the prayers of those who offer him bringing miracles and healings and salvation and lifetime. And all this is true.

And yet young children and can too that God that is present in His holy brow is also present in the palace of pagan king Xerxes with Susa. We know that God which meets us with His profile when we come to worship also are present with us when we get back. We know that the God that works through the prayers of his faithful people will certainly be at work when nobody is actually praying and when there are no faithful people to be found!

In the ebook of Esther, nobody is consistently praying to God, no person is talking about God, nobody even seems to be thinking about Goodness. But that doesn’t mean that Lord isn’t there. Indeed we all, who can look at the story while the larger body of the Scriptures, realize full well what is going on. God is protecting His old people. God is enjoyable His promise made originally to Abraham that he would protect these people. God is being true to the prophecies of expect given by the prophet Jeremiah to these people in exile. God is appearing in amazing and mystical ways to see that His will certainly is done at this point in human history. It’s just that nobody in the story really recognises the proceedings.

It seems like a series of happy coincidences for the Jews – Esther getting into a situation of great influence, Mordechai being saved by the fact that the california king had a bad night’s sleep one night, the fact that the full was in a good mood any time Esther took her life into your ex hands by going to see him or her uninvited, the fact that Mordechai fortuitously overhead the plot against the king. To the person of no religion, these guys just seem to be blessed. A person of faith calls this ‘providence’.

Providence is that great certainty that St Paul was pointing to when he was quoted saying ‘all things work together for good if you love and serve Him’. Providence doesn’t deny that Goodness can work in wonderful and incredible ways. It just asserts of which God can also work through really human and very ordinary strategies to ‘bring things together for good’. Providence doesn’t deny that The almighty will work through the prayers and also through the lives of those who work him. It just asserts in which where there is no one wishing or serving, God continues to capable of bringing all things collectively for good.

This is a great real truth, though it can be a little disturbing, the way it suggests that we might not be since essential to the plans of God as we might have thought.

You know what I mean? I like to believe the whole spiritual future of Dulwich Mountain is entirely dependant on us. I believe that God provides called us together on this place, and I believe that God has given us a objective in this area, and that it involves working with people on the periphery of our community, and that it involves building a Roscoe community that makes no distinctions between black and white people, among rich and poor, amongst educated and uneducated, in between male and female, between righteous and less-than-righteous. I do think that this is God’s is going to for us, that it is our dialing, and that if we are faithful so that you can God and can open your hearts and our households to one another, then we will see this happen and God’s may will be done.

And yet, plainly read rightly the book involving Esther, it would suggest to me this, even if we don’t get our own acts together, even if we stuff things up, and nearby our minds, and nearby our hearts and shut our homes to one another, then God’s will will still be accomplished!

This all seems a bit inexplicable, but it is something that is attended to directly in the book connected with Esther itself. I want to turn to the writing of the book of Esther again one more time, for there is a penetration there that speaks very directly to this precise problem.

In Esher chapter 4, Mordecai claims to to Esther:

“Do not reckon that in the king’s palace you will get away from any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, pain relief and deliverance will rise to the Jews from another quarter, but the truth is and your father’s family can perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have arrived at royal dignity for just such a time as this.” (Esther Four:13-14)

Mordechai is appealing to Esther’s self-interest. Perhaps Esther ended up being planning on dealing with the devastation of her people by means of minding her own business, Mordechai tells her in no uncertain phrases that she will certainly get it inside neck too. But there is more to Mordechai’s threat:

If the lady fails to do what is demanded of her, Mordechai seems to be convinced that ‘deliverance will rise for the Jews out of another quarter’. We’re not told precisely why he was so convinced of this. Had he had a dream about it? Had he read about God’s promises to the Jews in the Holy bible? Did his parents let him know about these things when your dog was younger? We don’t find out. But he certainly why don’t we on that he sees a number of greater destiny controlling the future of his people than the royal decree of Xerxes.

He also amazing things if Esther might not have been set up this position for just such a goal. He doesn’t call it God and he doesn’t even it is known as ‘providence’. But he seems to believe that things happen for a reason, and hubby wonders if this might be Esther’s future?

Now Mordechai might not have got his / her theology all worked out, and Mordechai may possibly not have read his Bible good enough to be able to articulate exactly what he or she intuits to be true, but I think you can fill in the blanks regarding him. Mordechai is right. It is no coincidence that Esther has been put in this location where she is able to save her people from destruction. God’s hand is in this particular. This is indeed God’s dialing upon her. God has worked in His own mysterious methods as to so order situations such that Esther is now given this heavenly opportunity for service.

And yet? if perhaps she doesn’t do it. When she fails her dialing. If she keeps the girl’s mouth shut and consigns your ex people to destruction, yet (Mordechai is in line) the promises of the Master will prove true. The lord will not abandon his individuals. We can be confidant really that, as Mordechai says, ‘deliverance will certainly arise from another district.’ God will find another individual to do it!

Isn’t that a great research into the place of Esther in the plan with God – she is a major player, but she is not necessarily vital. She is significant, and not essential. Isn’t this a great framework within which to understand the part that we all of play in the work of Goodness?

We are all called by The almighty to be servants of God in addition to soldiers in the army of Christ – called to accomplish His will in the various roles to which he phone calls us. And if we adhere to Christ and we do once we have been called to do, and then God’s will will be completed and His work will be done. And if we don’t genuinely abide by Christ and we don’t do just what exactly we’re called to do, then God’s will will still be carried out and His work will still be obtained – ‘deliverance will rise from another quarter’ – God can get somebody else will do it!

Were important players on God’s team, but we are not crucial to the team. We enjoy a significant role in the ideas of God for this world, but not an essential role. Each good work we do in the name of Christ contributes to a final coming of His Empire. And yet, even if we be unsuccessful completely in the works to which will God has called united states, His Kingdom will come anyhow.

I find this strangely calming when I think about our scenario here in Dulwich Hill. God features called us together right here to be his witnesses in this area. He has brought us with each other, I believe, to play that special purpose in caring for people for the periphery of our society. He has termed us together to build all of us into that all-inclusive Christian area. And if we are willing to create the sacrifices and follow Jesus and open our hearts and minds and open our residences, then we will see God’s deliverance visit this place. And if all of us fail to do it, then, I assume ‘deliverance will come from another quarter’. Goodness will choose some other group to do it. We’ll miss out on the particular privilege of being involved in that wonderful work. The work of the Kingdom of God may go on.

There is a beautiful standpoint there in the book connected with Esther, I think, that takes seriously the normal secular human world through which we live in, and which often recognises the validity regarding human decision making, and yet which usually, at the same time, recognises that this globe is God’s world initial and last, and that each of our decisions and actions, when significant, cannot ultimately over-rule The lord’s decisions about the future of our planet.

We are real players inside divine drama, but eventually He is the Alpha plus Omega. He is the beginning as well as the end. He is the creator and He is the saviour. His is the longer term and His is the Kingdom. Of course, if we can serve Him only then do we must serve Him. If we fail, then we fall short. And ‘If we perish, all of us perish’. And yet we can say in faith ‘Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever as well as ever. Thy Kingdom come. Amen.A