Queen of the Persians #1

Introduction

We are going to be studying the book of Esther, and most of the action in this book occurs in the ancient city of Susa. This was located about 300 miles southwest of modern Tehran, and about a hundred miles north of the Persian Gulf. As it now happens, our country is currently on a war footing against the Iranians, who are the descendants of these ancient Persians.

As has been often noted, the name of God is not mentioned once throughout this entire book. At the same time, His providential hand is everywhere present, down to the craziest details.  

The Text

“Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)” (Esther 1:1).

Background to the Book

The first thing to do is to work on the pronunciation of the king’s name—aHAZyooEERus.

The next thing to address would be the identity of this king, which is a matter of some debate. Some identify him with Xerxes (486-465 BC), but there is still room for confusion. Ahasuerus was a common name, or possibly a throne name (like Pharaoh, or Caesar). The first verse distinguishes him from others of the same name. “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 9:1). And then there is this: “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).

Now the Jews had been taken into exile by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in three waves (597, 587, 582 B.C.). Daniel had been taken a bit earlier than that (605) as a very young man. When he was an old man, under Belshazzar, the Babylonians fell to Darius of the Medes and Persians (539 B.C.). Darius was perhaps another name for Cyrus, or maybe a general under Cyrus, or as I think likely, a lesser king. He is identified as a Mede, and Cyrus was Persian.  

A bit earlier the Persian Cyrus had led a successful revolt against Median in 550 B.C and had gotten power over both territories. In the merger, the Persian character became predominant, as it had previously been the other way. Cyrus was the one who ordered the Jews to return from exile (539 B.C.).

The material for a detailed reconstruction of the chronology is foggy, and everybody has a point, but I follow what is known as the short chronology, in which Ezra and Nehemiah are contemporaries (Neh. 8:2, 9; 12: 26, 36), and with the intriguing possibility that Mordecai was a contemporary also (Ezra 2:2; Neh. 7:7). “And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time” (Nehemiah 2:6). So this would place our events in the mid-fifth century B.C. during the reign of Artaxerxes I. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.  

God’s People and the Polis

In Scripture, we see two very distinct situations when it comes to law and governance, and how that relates to God’s people. In the one, we see how God would have His people live under His law when they are in covenant with Him as a distinct people set apart. We see this in the establishment of Israel after the conquest of Canaan. The law of God was given to them in order for them to live and abide by it, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

But we also have various examples of God’s people living righteously in a society that is not governed by God’s law. Not only do they live there, but we can see them thriving and even rising to positions of prominence—Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, and Esther in Persia. Jeremiah instructs the people explicitly in terms of this reality. “And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jer. 29:7).

So the path of divine wisdom can be very different, depending on what scenario you are actually in. Are you standing on Plymouth Rock, resolved to build a godly community from scratch? Or are you a stranger in a strange land, resolved to influence it as much as may be without compromise? This book is very much a description of the latter, and it is also a lot more like our situation.

It is the difference between de facto pluralism, which is a common reality, and de jure pluralism, which is simply an idol.   

Names and Ancestors

We can see the showdown coming from the very beginning of the book. Mordecai is descended from Kish, the father of King Saul (Esther 2:5). Saul is the king who lost his kingdom because he showed mercy to Agag (1 Sam. 15:26). Haman, the villain of this book, is a direct descendant of this same Agag (Esther 3:1). It is striking how many times Haman is called the Agagite (3:1; 3:10; 8:3; 8:5; 9:24). So we may call this story the “revenge of the house of Kish.”

But life is complicated. Mordecai is an open Jew, who will not bow down to Haman for that reason, and yet his name means “dedicated to Marduk.” Hadassah is our heroine’s Hebrew name, and it means “myrtle.” But she goes by her Persian name Esther, which means “star.”

Palace Intrigue and Sexual Politics

When Esther is taken into the harem, Mordecai instructs her to hide her identity as a Jewess, which would obviously mean foregoing any identifying Jewish rites or customs. At the same time, Mordecai positions himself in the palace gates, and was enough of a networker there that he became aware of a plot on the king’s life. He took the king’s side, not knowing if the conspiracy was going to be successful or not. Mordecai was a player.

The Situation

The book opens with the king putting on a grandiose display of feasting in order that all might recognize and honor his greatness. There may have been some instability in the realm that provoked this, or insecurity in the king’s heart, of the sort that bragging doesn’t fix. At the culmination of his boasting, while in his cups, he summons his queen Vashti so that all might see how beautiful she was. It is likely that this meant she had to come out unveiled, and she refused. The king is humiliated and angered—the king of the world is clearly not the king of his own house. The counsel he receives indicates that there may have been some incipient feminism in the empire, and so as a result the king turns his personal humiliation into a matter of face-saving statecraft.

Feasting is a major theme in the book—there are ten feasts or celebrations. The word for feast (mišteh) occurs twenty times in Esther, and twenty-six times in the rest of the entire Old Testament. And the events at these feasts are frequently central to the plot.

The story is exquisitely crafted. The story compares two queens. One queen was summoned and didn’t come, and the second one came without being summoned. There are many little touches like this.

Christ as Casting Director

As this story unfolds, you find yourself muttering, “It is almost as though a higher power was at work.” God and Christ are unmentioned, but they are everywhere present. Their hand is in everything. Why was Esther selected? How did Mordecai hear of the plot? Why was the king sleepless that night? How did Nehemiah become the cupbearer?

It is the same in our day. Paul once asked rhetorically, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). We might think to adjust the words slightly. “If God is for us, it almost feels like cheating.”