On the Same Page: Esther (Esther 4:12-17)

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We don't know when or by whom this story was record, but we know almost precisely  when it happened: in 487 BC, Xerxes became king of the empire of Persia, ruling over a territory 4500 miles from end to end, home to almost half of the world's people, of whom approximately 15% were Jews, spread out through the empire. 

There was one large territory in North Africa, another up into Eastern Europe, and another on the Asian continent. And linking all of those big areas was a little corridor along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing Israel. Right in the middle of that little corridor was the city of Jerusalem. 

Jewish eyes in that time looked out over the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. 

That was Esther's world.  

Rewinding from Esther's day, we can see the beginnings of how Israel came to be so scattered, so far from Jerusalem.  

In about 740 BC, the prophet Isaiah spoke for God, delivering God's message that if Israel continued on the path they were on, flirting and being unfaithful with foreign gods, that God would shake them loose and take them away from Jerusalem:  

Your land is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you, a desolation demolished by strangers, and the daughter of Zion (the city of Jerusalem) is abandoned like a shack in a vineyard after the harvest... (Isaiah 1:7-8) 

Around 586 BC, Babylon completed ongoing campaign of conquest and attrition against Israel. They besieged Jerusalem. It fell. It was emptied. It was destroyed. The Temple was looted and burned. The people of Israel were taken and scattered through the Babylonian empire.  

During those generations of exile, God spoke to His people through prophets. Ezekiel recorded an amazing vision of this story of exile in which he sees the Glory of the Lord in the holy of holies of the Temple. He saw the Glory—the presence—of God rise up and start to move out of the Holy of Holies, out to the court of the Temple, and pause. Then the Glory moves further to the threshold of the eastern gate, and pauses.  Then out of the city and away from Jerusalem, to rest on a mountain to the east. The Glory of God has step by step—almost with a sense of reluctance, almost with a sense of grief, of looking over His shoulder to see the damage left behind in His great house and His people—departed from Jerusalem, and settled far to the east. A voice speaks to Ezekiel:

Your relatives, your fellow exiles and the whole house of Israel—they are far away from the Lord. And this land has been given to the enemy as a possession. (Ezekiel 11:15)

But...

This is what the Lord God says: although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone. (11:16)

‘I sent them, but I went with them. I'm where they are.’  

I will gather you back from the peoples to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel. (11:17)

Later in Ezekiel's vision he stands again at that same eastern gate, seeing the Glory of God on the far away mountain. And the Glory starts to move—closer. Back towards Jerusalem from the east. Ezekiel says,

His voice was like the roar of mighty waters, and the earth shone with His Glory, and I fell face down and the Glory of the Lord entered the Temple through the gate facing east. (Ezekiel 43:1-5)

The Glory retraces its steps, back into the Holy of Holies. God has returned to the Temple—to Jerusalem. Just as the Glory of God had, sadly, reluctantly, step by step, slowly moved away from Jerusalem, Ezekiel sees the Glory of God rushing back, almost with joy to fill the Temple again.  

In around 540 BC, Ezekiel’s prophecy began to be fulfilled. Persia conquered Babylon, and gave permission to all conquered peoples to return to their homelands. By 520 BC the city of Jerusalem had been repopulated. Its walls and Temple had been rebuilt and rededicated just in time for Passover. Israel once again met Yahweh on Mount Zion. God’s presence had returned to Jerusalem.

About 40 years later—in 480 BC—1200 kilometres away as the crow flies, a Jewish girl became queen of Persia.  

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Esther's family was one of many who chose to stay put when their exile officially ended. They could have returned, but they chose to continue living the lives they'd built in what we call the ‘diaspora’ (dispersion) of Jewish people throughout the world. They had built new lives, and synagogues. They had continued to study Torah and pray together, consistent with Jeremiah’s prophecy to Israel when they were first exiled.

This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat their produce, [get married, have kids, have grandkids]. Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the Lord on that city's behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

God promised through Ezekiel to be a sanctuary for His people wherever they went. He told them through Jeremiah, “It's OK to be somewhere else because I'm with you, wherever you are.” Yes, Zion was the centre of the centre of the world for the Jewish nation—ground zero for encountering the presence of Yahweh, but... One of the remarkable things about Yahweh, the God of Israel among the all the other gods of all the other nations at that time, is that where His people went, He went. He wasn't tied to a particular location: the ocean, or a particular mountain.  

Moses understood this. When the people of Israel were still wandering and waiting for their homeland, Moses prayed to God,

If your presence does not go with us, do not send us from where we are... Unless you go with us, how will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16)

‘If You are not with us, how will people know that we're us?’ The presence of God is what makes Israel Israel. God was with them.

In exile they created new lives, building synagogues, praying together, reading the scriptures together. Sharing the truth of God's law, the promise of the prophets, the power of David's psalms, the wisdom of the proverbs. They continuing in their new homes and cultures to teach their children and to remind themselves of who they were: the nation of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. They were the nation of Moses. Deborah. Ruth. They were the nation of David and Solomon. They were the people of Yahweh, God. They were His nation, His people, and where His people are, He is.  

This is Esther’s identity. 

Esther’s parents gave her two names: a name of her place, and a name of her people. 

Esther was a Persian name, with connections to the supreme Persian goddess Ishtar, the goddess of fertility.  

But she was also given a Jewish name: Hadassa—a little green shrub called myrtle whose branches were used in celebrating the Jewish harvest festival, and pilgrimages to Jerusalem—part of celebration and homecoming. Even more, for the exiles reading the prophecies (especially of Isaiah) myrtle turns up in some eschatological (end-of-the-world) promises. Isaiah writes in chapter 55:12, “You will go out with joy and be led forth in peace.” He describes how God will make the deserts bloom, and one of the plants that will green the desert, replacing nettles and briers, is myrtle, “...as a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign never to be destroyed.” The name Hadassah was connected to an emblem of Israel's ultimate hope.  

So Esther walked among her people in two worlds: understanding the culture she'd been born into, but also recognizing that above and beneath everything she could see was the God of Israel's past, and of their hope. Her parents named their daughter to know who she was and whose she was—a citizen of Persia, but a child of Israel. 

I always come back to this question; where is God in this story? God's name isn't mentioned directly, and I think the closest we come is in Esther 4:14. Mordecai sends word to Esther,

If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place... And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. 

Mordecai reminds Esther that the Jews have a destiny... And it hasn't happened yet.  

Yahweh God has made promises, and He will be proved true... And it hasn't happened yet.  

God made a promise to Abraham, and reinforced it through Moses. He expanded it through the prophets during the years of Babylonian exile, talking about a king to come, to restore the nation, end slavery, restore righteousness, and raise up the dead... And it hasn’t happened yet. 

Esther has heard it all. She's steeped in it all of her life. She knows that Yahweh God is where His people are, that His people are His blessing to the world—and it hasn't happened yet.  

So where is God? God is with His people, even when His people are far from home.  

God was in Jerusalem meeting Israel in the Temple.

God was on the shores of the Mediterranean, Agean, Black, Red, Caspian, Aral, and Arabian Seas.

God was in Susa, a city that was violent and venal and corrupted, because that's where His people were.

God was present in the empire that thought it had the power to wipe out the work of God.  

And that genocide could not be prevented by someone worshipping in the Temple in Jerusalem. It had to be prevented by someone positioned to cut it off at the source. It had to be ended by someone who was there when it started.  

That's where God was. That was the work that Esther and Mordecai were given to do. that is the work that God did through them.  

As Mordecai said, if Esther hadn't stepped up God would have found another way, because His promise was too important to fail.  

This was Esther's opportunity to be part of the keeping of God's promise. Because God is always where His people are. 

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