The book of Esther is an often-disregarded story in the Scriptures. Many even question whether it should have been included in the Bible at all. It is the only book of the Bible to not mention God, Yahweh, or the LORD anywhere. It is also one of the few books that was not represented in any of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It is just different. Not a work of poetry. Not regarded as prophecy. None of the main characters show up anywhere else in the Bible except King Ahasuerus being mentioned once in Ezra and once in Daniel. It is alone with Ruth, Job, and Jonah in being a book that is a single story without an apparent larger surrounding framework. But even Ruth finds herself in the framework of the lineage of David; Job is at least also a work of poetry and Jonah is prophetic. Esther seems to be just a random-ish story that is never mentioned before or after in the Bible.
The story is apparently historical, for the Jews continue to celebrate Purim even today. Yet even this later-instituted feast was never mentioned again in either the old or new testaments of the Bible. Even Hanukkah, another late-addition feast of purely national Jewish origin, was mentioned in the Gospels.
The contents of the book of Esther are not at all controversial: It is a nice story with clear heroes and villains, and the good guys rout the bad guys for the perfect happy ending. But for some reason, the book of Esther seems to just show up, do its thing, and then disappear into the dusty corner of a bookshelf labeled “Christian topics to not give sermons on,” next to topics like Nephilim and Ezekiel’s Visions.
Maybe it is it’s disconnectedness with the rest of scripture that makes people not know what to do with it. Other books are so intertwined with characters and prophecy from elsewhere in the Bible that they are far easier for drawing parallels and using in topical studies.
So why was the book of Esther included in the canon of Scripture? What did the Apostles and early church fathers find in this book that was indispensable? It is a nice story of the salvation of the Jews, yes. But is that it? Is there anything to learn from it other than “God is good and wants to preserve His people?”
You rightly answered, “Yes,” of course, to this rhetorical question, because you guessed that otherwise I would not be writing this essay. I do indeed believe it contains much more than that.
The book of Esther is a parable – a parable of utmost importance to our Christian identity that sheds light on the mysteries of Jesus’ relationship with His New Covenant bride. It teaches us how to position ourselves before our King and Husband to take part in the salvation of His people.
Let’s dig in.
• The story is set during the reign of King Ahasuerus, which according to the book of Ezra, places it squarely during the restoration of Jerusalem, at the end of the Babylonian captivity. Ezra contains the history of this restoration, beginning with the decree of King Cyrus commanding the building of the “house of Yahweh, God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:3).” It recounts the restoration of worship with burnt offerings and the keeping of the Feasts of Tabernacles. The foundations of the temple are then laid with much joy and weeping. But adversaries of God then show up, troubling progress and frustrating their purposes throughout the reign of Cyrus.
Then it mentions, “In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem (Ezra 4:6).” This accusation is the story of Esther. Esther’s success against this accusation, however, apparently did not result in stopping God’s enemies from troubling the rebuilding effort. After Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes reigned and was convinced by the adversaries to stop all rebuilding by force. They were successful through his reign, until the time of Darius, who eventually issued another decree to rebuild the temple at the expense of the king’s treasury. The temple was finally finished and dedicated.
I find it interesting that in the larger context of the restoration of Israel, the only part of the story of Esther that is mentioned is the accusation that went out against the Jews. Not Esther or Mordecai or the great salvation that took place. After this salvation, there was apparently just more trouble during the reigns of two kings. Yet this is the backdrop during which we find the story of Esther taking place.
It is also the backdrop that Jesus and the early church found themselves in. The foundations of real worship had crumbled under the leadership of the Jews since their return from the captivity spoken of in Ezra and Esther. Jesus’ job was to rebuild Jerusalem as a spiritual entity and thus restore proper worship of the Father. He had many accusers set up against Him who wanted to maintain their power and the status quo.
• Esther qualified to be queen as the church qualifies to be the bride of Christ. Vashti was queen, but she showed extreme disrespect by refusing the King’s request to come and show her beauty to the people and officials at his banquet. Judah was still married to Yahweh under the Old Covenant in Jesus’ day, and they similarly refused to respect or even acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.
The king saw Vashti’s disobedience as an example to women everywhere. As Memucan, the king’s servant said,
Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the princes, and all the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen’s behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes, when they report, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come (Esther 1:16-17).’
Ahasuerus saw the queen’s role as one of subservience and obedience. His decree would state that “Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she (Esther 1:19).” The search for a new queen was underway.
Jesus told a story about a wedding feast, saying, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding (Matthew 22:8-9).”
A year of preparations were given to the virgins, and during this time, Esther already found favor in the eyes of Hegai, the women’s caretaker eunuch. She was given additional beauty preparations and the best quarters. She trusted Hegai, so that when it was her time to go in to the king, she brought only what he recommended her to bring.
In doing so, she showed her character trait of subservience, the one thing the king was truly looking for. The one trait that Jesus wants in His bride. This was her main qualification – the one that won Esther the queenship and the one that characterizes the true church. “Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all (Proverbs 31:29).”
• Esther was an orphan. Her parents had died, so she was raised by Mordecai, her cousin. The church Jesus raised up had been disenfranchised by the religious leadership who preached dead works. They later took part in the body of Christ by being adopted.
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Galatians 4:5).
Esther loved her people and Mordecai who raised her and was obedient to him always. “Now Esther had not revealed her family and her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him (Esther 2:20).” Again, this was the singular trait that endeared her to the king and later gained salvation for her people.
• Haman is a picture of Satan, the adversary. Esther 3:1 says of him, “After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.” Satan is often referred to as “prince of this world” in the book of John and elsewhere. And Ezekiel speaks of him by saying,
Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas;’ yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God (Ezekiel 28:2).
Haman plays the role of accuser to a tee. When Mordecai will not bow to him, as per the king’s command, Haman goes to the king, convincing him to destroy both Mordecai and all of the Jews. He cared very little about the king receiving respect from Mordecai, but wanted the honor for himself, and saw this as another opportunity for advancement.
Haman had no comprehension of what actual respect looks like. Mordecai had shown great respect to the king just prior to this when he overheard a plot against the king and advised him about it through Esther. He had shown genuine respect in honoring the king’s life. Not bowing down to him or Haman was simply honoring his God as number one, who had commanded “You shall have no other gods before Me…you shall not bow down to them nor serve them” long before Ahasuerus’ command.
• Esther is a perfect example of how to approach the Father and Jesus in prayer. With the life of her people and her own life on the line, she fasted for three days with all humility. She knew she could be killed for approaching the king unrequested, but death was also certain if she didn’t.
In the Old Covenant, it was not possible for anyone to approach the throne of the living God on their own and live. Only the high priest could do so, and only one day per year, on the day of Atonement. As such, this is a picture of the freedom granted in Christ to come boldly before the throne without an intercessor. The curtain had been torn in two, granting direct access to the Yahweh. King Ahasuerus held out the scepter to Esther, giving her mercy and granting her request to speak. The barrier between king and queen had been torn down.
When she spoke, she did so with both wisdom and boldness. Wisdom in throwing a banquet for the king two nights in a row at which time she would make her request known. Boldness in requesting Haman to be present at the feast as well. Her accusation would be made in front of the enemy himself, not behind his back, or from a place of safety. As Hebrews 4:16 states, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
• The result of her coming boldly before the throne was that the king held out his scepter to her.
So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter (Esther 5:2).
What comes next is the amazing part that we as the bride of Christ need to pay attention to. “And the king said to her, ‘What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you-up to half the kingdom! (Esther 5:3)’”
This is how Jesus views us when we come to Him in prayer. His will is to give us up to half of His kingdom! But our heart must be in the right place, standing before Him with fear and trembling in all humility.
Esther then used one more tool she had in her belt when she made request of the king: the words, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king…” She asks with humility and within the will of the king. Our prayers should always align with the will of God, not our own will.
• The next point is key for us in understanding a little bit of how the legal realm works in the spiritual world, and thus how prayer works. It will explain a lot about the relationship between the law and the New Covenant.
When Haman was accusing Mordecai of not upholding the law in bowing to himself and the king, he was correct. Mordecai had broken the law, and there were direct punishments in place for that. Yet when Esther went before the king requesting her people to be saved, in direct opposition to the edict that had been put in place by the king himself, it was fully within the king’s legal rights to grant her request. Why? Wouldn’t the king rather have had to uphold his own laws?
• Haman had followed the letter of the law for his own gain but his heart was not with the king. That Ahasuerus was not being respected by Mordecai was not Haman’s concern; it was his own pride that desired appeasement. Mordecai, however, had already shown his heart towards the king in revealing a plot against his life. Even though he would not bow to Haman or the king on account of his God, he cared for the king to save his life. This is a matter of the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. Ahasuerus, as the author of the law, knew the spirit behind it: Those who dishonor the king deserve death and those who honor the king are worthy of honor themselves. Once the hearts had been discerned, it mattered not the letter of the law.
This is how the spiritual world works. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and his accusations are accurate. We, the brethren, have broken the law, especially the letter of it. God, however, is a discerner of the heart.
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Yet the accusation will still stand until we show up in the court of God to make petition to undo the accusation. We tend to assume that because Jesus died and forgave us, that all of Satan’s accusations just fell away. But this is simply untrue. Satan has not stopped accusing after Jesus’ death and resurrection. We just now have access to the throne without dying and are expected to use that access if we want to see change! Had Esther not shown up in the court of the king, there would have been no opportunity to overthrow the accusation by Haman, and Mordecai, Esther and the rest of the Jews would have all been wrongfully killed, even though it would have looked rightful under the letter of the law.
• It is worth pointing out as well that, even if He was never named in the book of Esther, God Himself intervened in the king’s predicament in-between the two nights of banqueting. He was not able to sleep and commanded the records of the chronicles be read. The chronicles revealed that Mordecai had saved the king’s life and that he had never been honored for it. This was God’s timing, for as Haman was entering the court to request Mordecai to be hanged, the king called him and asked him give to Mordecai the honor that Haman thought was reserved for himself. This turn of events and especially its timing, was a divine intervention, a direct result of the fasting that Esther had done in preparation for her request and proof that He had heard her petition even before her petition had been given to the king.
After Haman is hanged on his own gallows, the king gave Esther the house of Haman and gave his signet ring to Mordecai. He was sharing his authority with those he knew he could trust with his life — with those whose hearts had been discerned. He had done so before with Haman because he was trusted to follow the law to the letter, not because Haman deceived him. Now he had opportunity to share his authority with those he could trust with the spirit of the law. A New Covenant.
He told them to author a new law to replace the one that had ordered the destruction of the Jews. He didn’t ask to see it first to approve it. He said instead,
You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke (Esther 8:8).
Jesus stated it this way: “If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:14).” We have His signet ring.
Both Mordecai and Esther were advanced in the kingdom up to the number two position. Only King Ahasuerus had more authority. When Esther went to make her request, the king had offered “up to half the kingdom!” She did not ask for half the kingdom, or anywhere close to it. She even went so far as to say, “But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace (Esther 7:4).” Yet it delighted the king to grant her and Mordecai half the kingdom anyways, simply because she had been subservient and humble, setting a good example to the women of the kingdom, and Mordecai had been trustworthy to make known to him the plot against his life.
Jesus delights to do the same for His bride. She is accepted as the bride because of her complete submission to Him and nothing more, which makes her completely trustworthy with the authority that He gives her.
• One last thing that needs to be discussed is the timing of these events. We already mentioned the background of the restoration of Jerusalem, but when does that restoration come to its spiritual conclusion? In the end-times. The timing for the slaughter of the Jews in Esther was decided by lot (Pur, in Hebrew), which was the method they used to allow God to decide on something. So God set the timing for Purim. The twelfth month was drawn – the last month of the year, which would signify the time of the end.
Why is this significant? I believe that the book of Esther is a parable for the end-time church spoken of in Revelation, or at least the portion of that church that will be counted as the bride (remember Proverbs 31:29, “Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all”). This is the time that all the accuser’s accusations come back on his head. Haman was literally hung by his head on the gallows. The day of Atonement described this futuristic event in Leviticus 16, where the Azazel goat had all the sins of Israel put on its head before it was released into the wilderness (or desert – a place devoid of kindred). Revelation 20:1-3 describes the end times version of the same event, where Satan is bound for 1000 years in the abyss – a place devoid of kindred.
This binding of Satan in Revelation is surrounded by descriptions of the marriage supper of the lamb, of those who live and reign with Christ for the 1000 years and of the new Jerusalem dressed as a bride.
The book of Esther is a picture of this bride and what is needed for the church to become like her, being wholly trusted by her and our Husband and King, Jesus Christ. This is the character required to be given the signet ring of Christ and granted half of His kingdom!
