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Perhaps you are looking back on a year that has been as you read this. Maybe you are looking ahead at a new year that is just now dawning. Whatever may be your case, I hope you are well for such a time as this. 

I will continue right on in our through-the-Bible series. Esther is our book this week. The scriptures were selected from Esther chapters 1, 3, 4 and 7. Truth is, this brief book would not take you long to read in its entirety. There are only ten short chapters. 

What a complex story full of intrigue, deception, strategy, and drama. Esther quite simply tells us about a moment in Hebrew history when the Jewish people were nearly wiped out in an act of genocide at the hands of the Persian empire. 

I’m not sure what recipe of factors causes the good volunteer to check out on an organization. I don’t know what causes a person who deeply loves another to decide the marriage is over anyway. I don’t understand all of what caused a pastor and an associate pastor of a church in a neighboring state to absolutely quit positions they’d held for over 20 years each.

In Esther, though, there is little mystery as to what caused two women who were queens of the Persian empire to decide that even if it cost them their lives, they were willing to risk it all. The drunken king was asleep at the figurative wheel, so chapter one opens with the first queen departing.

But now as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. Esther is a stand-alone book in the Old Testament. It doesn’t fit neatly into any one of the main categories or groupings that we use with Hebrew literature. 

Esther’s apparent purpose is to tell of a circumstance when Judaism was nearly extinguished during the time of Exile and under Persian rule. But it begins with a drunken party where the king of Persia is hosting a festival. After his queen is deposed for refusing a request he made, a contest to choose the next queen yields Esther as the winner. 

Her guardian and uncle, Mordecai, uncovers a plot to assassinate the ruler. Mordecai reports that, and the king is saved. He is promoted to a higher place of service at the palace. That ends in him refusing to bow to the king’s second-in-command. Now, in a disproportionate reaction, not just Mordecai is to suffer. Haman orders that all Jews should be killed. 

The balance of the book rests on Esther finding the courage to risk her own life. A queen in that empire carried the title only. She could not approach the king without having been summoned into his presence. She could not simply walk up to him and ask him for a favor. However, Esther does use her savvy to indeed win an audience with the king. 

Eventually, the plot to extinguish the Jews is reversed. Haman, the over-functioning assistant, is accused, and the king does away with him. Finally, the Jews are given permission to defend themselves in the likelihood that some regions pretend not to have heard about the reversal of orders. A bloody set of skirmishes break out, but the Jews prevail. 

Today, we have watched time after time on our 6 o’clock news as genocide efforts and unjust wars are played out. Women especially connect with the central figure, as Esther represents bravery and strength. 

Esther leaves us with a few obvious cautions. First, we see what happens when a ruler is limitlessly empowered, yet is so uninterested in governing such that he or she sleepily signs that absolute power over to corrupt underlings. Equally chilling, is what can happen when a patriarchal culture allows the misogynistic treatment of women. The demands and limits placed on both Vashti and Esther at the beginning of the book are so obviously wrong. They then become normalized and generations are mistreated or underappreciated. 

When greed for power and things runs amok, lives that get in the way can be placed in danger. When humans who are different from us also appear to be less than us, the unthinkable like genocide can happen. 

Esther is an inspiring story that makes us think again about doing the right thing even if it feels risky. A story that is about God’s providence at work among humanity. A brave, savvy woman who comes through for just such a time as this.

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.