Living in a World Without God (Esther 1-2) Chris Altrock – May 22, 2016

That Kind of Relationship

Several  years ago a movie focused on professional athletes and their agents. The movie was called Jerry Maguire.^[1] Most athletes and agents portrayed in the movie had relationships we would characterize as “professional.” They were cool and distant. But at the end of the movie Jerry Maguire and his one client, a professional football player, had endured so much in a shared journey that their relationship was something we might call “unprofessional.” They were more like family. In a closing scene, in front of a mob of reporters, they hugged tightly.

Another athlete, standing nearby with his agent, saw this intimacy. He turned to his agent and asked, “Why don’t we have that kind of relationship?”

That’s a question some of us might ask God: Why don’t we have that kind of relationship? It’s a question we might ask God when we read a book in the Bible like Acts or Exodus. Because when we read books like those we watch God, and he speaks to other people, does explicit miracles for other people and shows up around every corner for other people. But when’s the last time God spoke to you, did mighty miracles for you and showed up around every corner for you? After reading Acts or Exodus, you might find yourself asking God, Why don’t we have that kind of relationship?

It’s a question we might ask God when we watch other believers interact intimately with him. There is a woman I met in a class I took recently who, it seems, can walk into any setting, like a grocery store, and it seems like God guides her to just the right person and helps her say or do just what needs saying or doing for that person at that moment. She receives dreams which she attributes to God. Every time we talk she’s had another vision from God, another sign from God. And I want to ask God: Why don’t we have that kind of relationship?

In my experience God’s more hidden. Sure. Every now and then I get a taste of Acts or Exodus. I get a little taste of what that woman seems to experience every day. But that’s not my normal.

And if that’s not your normal, if that question is one you might feel like asking God, then the book of Esther is for you.

 

Secular not Sacred

The book opens with these words:

1 Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, 2 in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel…

(Esther 1:1-2 ESV)

These names and places may mean little to you. But one word summarizes them. The word is “secular.” Old Testament scholar Adele Berlin writes this in her commentary:^[2]

“Esther is the most secular of biblical books…” (Adele Berlin)

Think of the word “secular” as the opposite of the word “sacred.” By secular she means Esther takes place in a land where God seems entirely absent. It’s a secular land. It’s not a sacred land. It’s a place where God seems absent. Distant. Cool.

We are told in these lines that Esther’s story opens in a city called “Susa.” This is one of the capital cities of the ancient kingdom of Persia. The Persian royalty had four capital cities. Susa was the winter palace.^[3] The kingdom of Persia is what came after the kingdom of Babylon. And the kingdom of Babylon,  as Esther 2 tells us, is where God flung his people after centuries of disobedience. Esther’s family was one of those taken captive when the kingdom of Babylon attacked Israel. They were relocated to Babylon, now Persia. Susa was a capital city of Persia.

The kingdom of Babylon, now the kingdom of Persia, was secular. Israel and Jerusalem were sacred. Israel and Jerusalem, where Esther’s family used to call home is where you could see God’s miracles. That’s where God filled his temple with his presence. That’s  where God would visit us through his son. That’s where God seemed near.

But here, Susa, the capital city of the kingdom of Persia, which was once the kingdom of Babylon, where God sent his people from Israel and Jerusalem, where Esther now lived, was just the opposite. God seemed so far away here, so absent here, that according to Psalm 137, the Jews couldn’t even sing their worship songs here:

1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?  (Psalms 137:1-4 ESV)

Zion is another word for Jerusalem. Here in Babylon, which was then overtaken by Persia, where Esther lived, God seemed so absent that Jews like Esther could hardly even sing worship songs. That’s how secular this place was. Esther takes place in a land where God seems entirely absent.

Mercifully the Persians allowed the Jews to leave that pagan and godforsaken place and return home to Israel and Jerusalem. And in the years before the book of Esther opens, many of the Jews have done just that. They have fled back to those sacred spaces. Back to the place where God is present. Where God can be seen and heard and felt. Where worship songs can once again be sung.

But not everybody in secular Persia has fled to sacred Israel. Some remain–like Esther. Stuck here in this place of strange names like the ones we just read. Here there are no names like Abraham or Joseph or Moses or David. Surprisingly, here in Susa we do not even find the name “God.” The Hebrew words Yahweh and Elohim never appear in the book of Esther. In the book of Esther the word “God” never appears.

That’s how absent God seems to be.

That’s what makes this book strikingly different from a book written in a very similar time and place–the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel, just like Esther, is about a Jew who serves in the court of a pagan king during the time of the Jewish exile. But in the book of Daniel we see all kinds of miraculous events. God seems to be on every page. But God is on no page in Esther.^[4] That’s how absent God seems to be.

 

My Kingdom Come

The first two chapters show us just how distant God seems. Chapter 1 opens with two feasts. There are ten feasts in Esther. The first lasts six months. It is thrown by the king of Persia–Ahasuerus.

3 in the third year of his reign he gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him, 4 while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days. (Est. 1:3-4 ESV)

A non-biblical historian named Herodotus gives us insight into this feast. During this period the Persian king was rallying support from those within his kingdom in order to go to war against Greece.^[5] This feast was part of his scheme to persuade his fighters and his financiers to support his plan to take Greece.

That’s why he gets so upset when his Queen Vashti refuses to display herself  before his guests.

10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at. 12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him. (Est. 1:10-12 ESV)

This isn’t the frustration of an offended husband. This is the fury of a world leader bent on world domination. Queen Vashti was intended to be the climax of the display of his wealth. If any fighter or financier is still on the fence about supporting his quest to take Greece, one look at the queen should persuade him that this king is worth backing.^[6]

That’s how absent God seems to be in Esther’s world. This place is so secular the king throws a party for six months to influence his fighters and financiers to support his bid to rule over more of the world. Where Christians have been taught to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth,” Esther’s world is ruled by a king who wants his kingdom to come, his will to be done. In Esther, the entire world is this king’s kingdom.

 

Hallowed be My Name

The first feast culminates in a second feast for those in the capital of Susa that lasts for seven days.

5 And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. 6 There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars, and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones. (Est. 1:5-6 ESV)

Old Testament scholar Karen Jobes notes the language used here sounds very much like the language used in two other places in the Bible: the description of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem.^[7]

That’s how absent God seems to be from this place. It’s so secular the palace of this king is described in terms that make it sound like the temple of God. Why? Because in Esther’s world, the role of God is played by the king. Old Testament scholar Samuel Wells writes this:^[8]  

“Ashasuerus is God. That is how the book of Esther begins. There is much speculation over the presence or absence of God in this book of Esther. But the book begins with the one who is in charge of all the events and circumstances and arrangements and threats that affect the Jews. He holds the whole world in his hands…” (Samuel Wells)

Christians are taught to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” But Esther’s world the only named being hallowed is the king’s. In Esther, the king is God.

 

Give Me this day My Daily Bread

Chapter 1 opens up with a roundup of all the influential men so the king can eventually make war. Chapter 2 opens up with a roundup of all the beautiful women so the king can eventually make a queen.

1 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s young men who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. 3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the citadel, under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given them. 4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so. (Est. 2:1-4 ESV)

Esther is caught up in this dragnet of young virgins. They are forced into a contest to see which of them will become the new queen. There are two criteria for the new queen. The first is beauty. The virgins are given an entire year to meet this requirement. They are given six months of one type of beauty treatments and six months of another.

This is preparation for the second criteria: sex. The virgins are given one night to meet this requirement. They are given one night to please the king and gain the crown.

Just as Queen Vashti was a possession used by the king to try to impress his subjects, so these young women like Esther were merely property.^[9] That’s how absent God seems to be in this place. Christians are taught to turn to God and ask God to supply what is needed for their basic hunger. But Esther’s world is ruled by a king who turns to his own people and uses them in order to satisfy his every hunger. In Esther, people like Esther are property.

 

Providence

But unexpectedly Esther becomes the new queen.

16 And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. (Est. 2:16-17 ESV)

And from this new position, Esther saves the entire Jewish race from genocide. She along with the help of a Jew named Mordecai rescues the entire Jewish race from extinction. In fact, she, as much as anyone in the Bible, makes Jesus’ birth possible. Because without Esther, Jesus’ own lineage would have been wiped out and Mary and Joseph would have never been born.

And how did Esther gain the throne of Persia and thus the power to save every Jew and thus pave the way for the birth of Jesus? A careful reading of the book, this book that never uses the word “God,” reveals that all along God was intimately involved in all that was happening in this seemingly godforsaken place.

Perhaps most importantly, he did it without any visions and dreams. He did it without any explicit miracles. He did it without any voices from heaven. He did it without any divine appearances. He did it in the midst of the most secular people and places possible.

Here’s the basic claim of Esther: Even when God seemed most absent, he was very present; and even when God seemed most inactive, he was very active. This was such stunning news that, as the end of Esther reveals, the Jews celebrated it every year in a feast called Purim.

Purim was the antithesis to Passover. Passover celebrated those times when God worked in extraordinary ways, miraculous ways, and in supernatural ways that few could deny. Purim celebrated those times when God worked in much more ordinary ways, far less miraculous ways, hidden and invisible ways that most could easily miss. Yet through it all God was at work.

This is why in the worst days of World War II, Jewish inmates of Auschwitz, Dachau and other camps would write the entire book of Esther from memory. This is why they would read it in secret and celebrate Purim covertly in the concentration camps.^[10] Because they realized that even there, in the most secular of places, where God seemed most absent, God was still present; when God seemed most inactive, God was still very active.

And for those of you going through a dark valley, a tough crisis, a painful time, Esther’s story is your story. Even in the very worst of times, when some oaf of an overlord was taking over the world and had taken over her life, Esther lived a story that said God was nonetheless powerfully at work. And no matter what seems to have overtaken your life, God is still at work. No matter how absent he seems, he is still present. No matter how inactive he appears, he is still active.

Consider this summary of Esther:^[11]

“The book of Esther is perhaps the most striking biblical statement of what systematic theologians call the providence of God. When we speak of God’s providence, we mean that God, in some invisible and inscrutable way, governs all creatures, actions, and circumstances through the normal and the ordinary course of human life, without the intervention of the miraculous. The book of Esther is the most true-to-life biblical example of God’s providence precisely because God seems absent.”

I won’t speak for you, but the life I live is one in which I rarely see miraculous things happening. God usually works through the normal and ordinary course of human life for me. God’s movement in my life is more often invisible and inscrutable than bold and amazing. And sometimes I’m tempted to think there’s something wrong with that. But when I read a book like Esther I’m reminded there’s something very normal about that. That’s how God worked in her life. That’s how God works in my life. Perhaps that’s how he works in your life as well.

Ultimately, Esther urges us to give thanks. Give thanks for your Esther story. There is a tendency within American Christianity to think that if we’re not living out the book of Acts in our lives and in our churches, if we’re not experiencing the stories of Exodus in our lives and in our churches, something must be wrong. “Why don’t we have that kind of relationship?” we may wonder. But what Esther shows us is that those stories aren’t the only norms for life with God. Esther is another norm. God’s at work just as powerfully in an Esther-type of life as he is in an Acts-type of life. And so if you find yourself living in a season or a space when it’s hard to find God because things are so secular or just so standard or filled with suffering, trust that just as he was in Esther’s life, God is present and is active in your life. Give thanks to God for that. Don’t pine away wishing you had a different story. Give thanks for your Esther story. Even when God seemed most absent, he was very present; and even when God seemed most inactive, he was very active.