This week we will look at the story of Esther. The Book of Esther is a WEIRD Bible book. Why? Well, God is not mentioned in the book. Not even once. No one calls on God for help; no one prays to God, there is no praising or worshiping of God. And God’s self is absent in the whole story: God doesn’t appear or speak to anyone, not even through dreams or miracles – nothing. Nada. The book is like no other book in the Bible. Imagine that, a book in Scripture that doesn’t mention God! What is that all about?

Well, let’s start at the beginning. The story is set around the fourth century before the birth of Jesus. And it’s about the Jewish community living in exile in Persia during the reign of the mighty Persian Empire.

It all starts with King Ahasuerus, the ruler of Persia, who throws a feast that lasts for six months to show off his wealth and power. But as if that were not enough, at the end of the six months, he hosts this lavish and opulent banquet at which wine flowed freely. Separate from this banquet, Queen Vashti, his wife, hosts a banquet for all the women. After six days of partying, totally wasted, he demands that Vashti be brought to his party to “put on a show of her beauty” for those present and for the government officials. It does not take much imagination to figure out what he has in mind, but just in case you didn’t catch it; to “put on a show of her beauty” is a euphemism for a lewd sexual performance. He also instructs her to wear her crown, and many ancient historians suspect he meant for her to put on “only” her crown. Vashti flat out refuses to be humiliated and exploited in this way. I suspect Vashti’s dignity and self respect counted more to her than living in opulence and privilege as the queen of Persia. NO, is her answer.

In an act of total drunken stupor and rage he dethrones and banishes her from his court. No only that, it seems Vashti’s refusal is nothing short of a national emergency. If news of her behavior were to leak out, all the women in Persia would be out of control. The land will descend into anarchy. Really? You’ve got to be kidding! Apparently not, because an edict went out that from now on all women should be subordinate to their husbands. If you ever wonder where it was first said in Scripture that a wife should be subordinate to her husband, now you know. It was a rule made by a weak and drunken Persian king. Go figure!

Of course when he sobers up he realizes what he has done, but it is too late – the imperial edict cannot be reversed. To cheer him up his attendants suggest they start an empire wide search to find a worthy replacement for Vashti. Meaning someone who would listen and do as she is told. So the king sends out commissioners to every province in the empire to round up (yes, round up – there was no choice involved) every beautiful and young unmarried girl and bring them to the king’s palace. Esther, a Jewish girl, is among these girls, probably 12-14 years of age – girls usually married shortly after they reached puberty. Then for a year long, they were prepared with cosmetic treatment and instructed in the ways of how to “please” (if you get my drift) the king. Then they were brought one by one, night after night, to the king’s bedroom. The one he finds to be the most beautiful and who pleases him the most will become the new queen and the rest will live for the rest of their lives in his harem as concubines. Your heard me correctly – no one goes home. Today we would view this as kidnapping and sexual slavery.

Poor Esther, she always did what she was told – the very opposite of Vashti, probably one of the reasons the king liked her so much. She was an orphan, adopted by her uncle Mordecai whom she, according to the story, always obeyed. And when she arrived at the palace it was her survival strategy. The eunuch in charge of the girls picked up on it fast and favored her, giving her special attention, and instruction in the ways the king likes to be pleased. It worked and she became the new queen, all the while hiding her true ethnicity (on instruction of her uncle) – she was a Jewish girl. A foreigner, a minority with no legal protection living in exile in Persia.

Well she thought she was safe until her uncle refused stubbornly to bow down to Haman. Haman in turn responded with irrational anger vowing revenge not just on Mordecai but all his people.  So he schemes to annihilate every Jewish person living in the Persian Empire. On a specific day every Jewish man, woman, and child would be slaughtered. It was to be genocide. And he succeeds in his conspiracy by not only bribing the king, but by generalizing and telling half truths. “There is a group of insolent people who resist assimilation and who willfully disregard the king’s law,” said Haman. The truth of course is that there is just one man, Mordecai who refused to bow down to Haman. The king doesn’t want to deal with the “problem” so he gives Haman the authority to do whatever he wants to correct the “problem.” As foreigners, strangers in a foreign land, the Jewish population’s lot is sealed. A date for the genocide is announced – the day on which every Jewish man, women, and child will be slaughtered by their neighbors - and their land and property confiscated.

When Mordecai asks Esther to plead the Jewish case before the king, she at first refuses. Her situation is precarious so don’t judge her too quickly. Although she is the queen, she is still just a concubine who lives in the king’s harem. She doesn’t socialize with the king on a daily basis. The only time she sees him is when he summons her at night to his room for sex. In the morning she is returned to the harem. And she’s not that young anymore, she is now less often summoned by the king. Remember there are hundreds of girls in his harem. So she explains to Mordecai that she hasn’t been summoned to the king’s bedroom in 30 days - she knows the chances of seeing the king in the foreseeable future is small. She also knows all too well, after living in the harem for 5 years, trained in court etiquette, that if one approached the king unsummoned, the punishment is death. And so she refuses to risk her life.

Some people, especially some feminist Biblical scholars like Vashti, and dislike Esther. They view her as a push-over. In contrast to Vashti, who refused to be a man’s sexual object, Esther is viewed as the stereotypical woman in a man’s world. But the reality is Esther had neither any power as a woman in a patriarchal world or as Jewish minority living in exile in Persia. No civil rights, no protection under the law – no voice. She had no choice about entering the king’s harem.  But she refused to be a victim; rather she chose to be a survivor, who made the best of the situation once she found herself in the king’s harem.

But Mordecai helps her to face the reality; she has been lulled into a false sense of security. She’s not safe in the palace; this is where the threat is coming from after all. There are people who are aware of the fact that she is Jewish, so she can’t escape. She has survived so far, but isn’t truly safe. She is just as vulnerable as all the other Jewish people living in exile in Persia. So Mordecai says to her: Don’t fool yourself into thinking that, just because you are in the imperial palace, you will be the only Jewish person to escape. If you insist on remaining silent at this time, vindication and liberation will come, to our people through another source, but both you and your family will surely die. If there is one thing we learn about God in scripture and from the prophets it is that God is on the side of the oppressed and one way or another God will act through some willing human or another to save the oppressed and restore justice. But if Esther doesn’t do something, then she and Mordecai will surely die.

It is then that Mordecai says something that is maybe the only indirect reference to God in the Book of Esther: Who’s to say – you may have come into the royal court for just this moment. Who knows, Esther, maybe this is the reason you became the queen. All these coincidences, the king getting drunk, Vashti’s fall from grace, Esther becoming the new queen, may reveal that God was at work behind the scene all this time, but one cannot be sure. All Mordecai and Esther can do is act, and hope that their actions corresponds with God’s plan and purpose for them. There is no assurance for Esther that it will work out well.

Sound somewhat familiar? It’s not that different from how most of us experience our journey of faith. God doesn’t intervene directly or miraculously, say, as with Daniel in the lion’s den, or Joseph who had dreams, or God speaking to Abraham, or Moses who divided the Red Sea. Esther doesn’t know in the immediate circumstances if things will work out. The chances are big that she may not be able to sway the king, and Haman may succeed with his plans for genocide. She may risk it all for nothing. Esther and Mordecai cannot be completely sure if they are acting in accordance with God’s will. They just don’t know. All they can do is to act within the circumstances they find themselves, to take advantage of those opportunities with an attitude of hope, even when reality seems against its likelihood. How many times have you prayed, when your back was against the wall, when you did not know which way to turn, when you did not know what was the right thing to do, when you had to make a decision and did not know how it would work out, (prayed) to God for a sign; please God just show me what to do?  Will it all work out well?

In the words of Sidney White Crawford: Often life locates us in a situation where we are capable of taking action on behalf of some oppressed person or persons, but with negative consequences to ourselves. Esther’s consequences are clear and absolute: She faces death. The consequences for us may be less absolute but nonetheless devastating – loss of job, family rupture, embarrassment, to name only a few. The author of Esther has captured in two short verses the dilemma of the average believer: How does one find the courage and faith to do what is right in the face of divine and human ambiguity ?

Somehow Esther found the faith and courage to step forward and take control of her own fate. As Esther steps forward we realize something had changed in her, she has found her own voice. She is no longer told what to do; she no longer obeys; now she commands and tells Mordecai what to do. Wherever the chips may fall, live or die, I will do everything I can to save my people. Esther is willing to lose her life in order to safe the lives of many, to save her people. So Esther sends a message to Mordecai: Bring together all the Jewish people in Susa now and fast for me. Do not eat or drink, day and night, for three days. After that I’ll go to the king, in defiance of the law; and if I perish, I perish.

Esther’s dilemma reminds me of the words of Lisa Rhodes: Women have always had difficult choices to make between personal freedom and financial security, self preservation and the survival of their families, people and communities. What would you do? Vashti chose personal freedom, at the expense of giving up all the splendor of the Persian kingdom. Esther chose freedom for others, at the risk of death.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? There WILL come a time in life that you will need to say NO, and there WILL come a time when you may need to SPEAK UP on behalf of others. What will you do? Will you be able to find the courage and faith to do what is right in the face of both divine and human ambiguity?

I don’t doubt for a moment that many of you have already experienced a time in your life that you needed to say NO, or a time you needed to SPEAK UP. When you heard that small voice saying: What if you were called for such a time as this? When you had this gut feeling that “I’m finding myself in this time and place in my life where I’m called upon to act, to use what God has given me, my gifts, my life experience, my abilities, and my position of privilege.” Yet you also felt scared, afraid, unsure, and hesitant; you had so much to lose. What did you do? Were you able to find the courage and faith to do what was right in the face of both divine and human ambiguity?

I must admit that though there were times that I did indeed say No, or SPOKE UP, there were also many times that I did not, when I just could not muster the courage and faith to do what was right, fearful of the consequences it held for me. Those are the times in my life that I regret the most.

Sometimes I wish we could change the past,

Kobie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Bread for the Journey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.