Another Chance

The book of Esther is quite a tale! Bravery, royalty, manipulation, and bribery— it’s all there. Except for one thing. God’s name is never mentioned. This leaves the reader to wonder, “Doesn’t God care to help the Jews when they get signed up for mass murder?”

Hadassah was an Israelite under exile in Persia. She, and other women, were taken into the palace because King Xerxes wanted a new queen. Warning Hadassah to keep her Jewish identity secret, her cousin, Mordecai, changed her name to Esther. After a year of royal treatments, Esther was chosen out of all the other women to be the queen of Persia.

Haman, a noble of King Xerxes, had a personal grievance against Mordecai, who also worked in the palace: Mordecai, the Jew, refused to kneel before Haman. So Haman sought revenge. He told the King that a certain people was a threat to his reign and advised Xerxes to wipe them out of Persia. The King simply agreed without even asking who the people were!

When Mordecai learned of the edict, he took it straight to Esther, calling on her to go to the King and plead for the nation. Esther bravely did so, at dinner with the King and Haman, revealing she was a Jew and her people were going to be annihilated.

Furious, the King had Haman executed and gave Mordecai his position! King Xerxes also passed a law that the Jews were allowed to defend themselves, which they did very effectively, preserving the Israelites as a nation.

To understand how God showed up in the book of Esther, we need to go back to the book of Genesis. There, God promised to make a great nation through Abram (Abraham) and that God’s people would bless the world (Genesis 12:1-3). And they did—because they were the ancestors of Jesus, the Savior of the world (Luke 2:11). In the book of Esther, we see God keep His promise, protecting Abraham’s people, carefully orchestrating the people and the events to bring about His good kingdom purposes for His people—upholding His promise to save (Romans 8:28-30). • H. K. Rausch

• What does God’s work in the book of Esther teach us about Him?

Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this. Esther 4:14b (CSB)

Read Verses:

1 John 1:9–2:1