Original Meaning

IN CHAPTER 1, Vashti risked her life by refusing to appear before Xerxes when summoned (1:12). In another of the story’s ironies, Esther now risks her life by appearing before the same king unsummoned (cf. 4:11). Archaeological evidence shows that her trepidation was not unwarranted. Two bas-reliefs have been excavated from Persepolis showing a Persian king seated on his throne with a long scepter in his right hand. An attendant standing behind the throne is a Median soldier holding a large ax.1 The threat of death and the hope of life are equally present as Esther summons the courage to approach the king.

After three days of fasting, Esther does not just try to make herself beautiful for her uninvited audience with the king, she appears before him in her royal robes. At the same time as she decides to identify with her people, she also claims her authority and power as the Queen of Persia in going before the king. The threat of death passes when Xerxes extends the golden scepter to her, granting her protected access into his presence.

For the first time in the story, Esther is directly addressed as “Queen Esther” when Xerxes offers her up to half of the kingdom (v. 3). This expression was an idiom commonly used by ancient royalty and was not intended to be taken literally. It simply meant that the king was disposed to be generous in meeting a request. Xerxes’ offer bodes well for the future of the Jews of Persia. Centuries later, John the Baptist died when Herod also offered “up to half my kingdom” to the daughter of Herodias (Mark 6:23). On that occasion in the presence of all his officials, Herodias knew that Herod would not risk losing face by denying her request for John’s head. Esther, however, is meeting the king in the privacy of his throne room; rather than demanding Haman’s head, she chooses a more oblique approach.

In answer to the king’s direct question, Esther invites the king to a festive meal and asks him to summon Haman as well. This pleases the king, and both he and Haman go to the banquet Esther has prepared. Esther now has Xerxes and Haman, the two most powerful men of the Persian empire, responding to her initiative.

At the banquet while the king is drinking wine, he again asks Esther why she appeared uninvited in her royal robes in the throne room. Previously in the story when Xerxes was drinking wine, Vashti ended up losing her royal position and power. Will the same happen to Queen Esther? Using a delay tactic, Esther again asks only that Haman and the king come to a second banquet on the next day. At that time Esther assures the king she will present her request. The suspense is heightened, not only for the king, but also for the reader.

Haman’s prideful excitement at being invited to a private dinner of the king and queen is marred when Mordecai shows no gesture of deference as Haman leaves the palace. Emboldened by the presumption that he stands solidly in the favor of both King Xerxes and Queen Esther, Haman takes the advice of his wife. Zeresh counsels him simply to eliminate immediately the cause of his dissatisfaction. Haman builds a gallows of extraordinary size, seventy-five feet high, not realizing that its size is the measure of his own pride.

Zeresh’s advice is reminiscent to that of Jezebel when her husband, King Ahab, was sulking like a spoiled child (1 Kings 21:1–16). Like Haman, all of Ahab’s power and entitlements failed to satisfy because he wanted just one more thing, the vineyard owned by Naboth. Jezebel’s solution was to arrange the murder of Naboth so that Ahab could have what he wanted. With similar reasoning, Zeresh counsels Haman simply to kill Mordecai. The satisfaction of human pride in its demand for honor and respect outweigh the value of human life in the pagan world of Persia.

The irony of this scene builds on that of chapter 1. Haman’s haste to elicit and follow the evil advice of his wife and friends (5:14) contrasts with the king’s order that “every man should be ruler over his own household” (1:22). By commanding respect through the brute exercise of power, the king and Haman may be able to save face, but reality laughs behind their backs.

Bridging Contexts

IN THIS SCENE Esther emerges as the dominant character in the rest of the story and as the power that drives the resolution of the plot. She begins to take the initiative and make decisions that will ultimately issue at the end of the story with the statement, “Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records” (9:32). As the four major characters are introduced in the story, one would least expect Esther, the woman who hid her Jewish identity, to emerge as a respected leader among the Jewish people on whose authority Purim still stands.

The transformation of Esther’s character from a person of “weak character” to one with “heroic moral stature and political skill”2 proceeds from that defining moment when she decides to identify herself with God’s covenant. Esther is referred to by name thirty-seven times in the story. In only fourteen of those references she is “Queen Esther.” All but one of those fourteen references to her as “Queen Esther” occurs after 5:1. Esther assumes the dignity and power of her royal position only after she claims her true identity as a woman of God.

It was “on the third day” after Esther’s decision to identify herself with God’s people that she appears in royal splendor before the king. A Jewish midrash on this scene points out that “Israel are [sic] never left in dire distress more than three days.”3 In this midrash, the “miracle” of deliverance through Mordecai and Esther is compared to events in the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Jonah, which also involved three days (cf. Gen. 22:4; 31:22; Jonah. 1:17). It links this miracle to the Jewish tradition that the dead will “come to life only after three days” from the start of the final judgment.4 This idea is based on Hosea 6:2: “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.”

The deliverance of God’s people from death and destruction is initiated “on the third day” after Esther’s decision, when Xerxes extends to her the golden scepter. Had the king not extended this mercy, her execution or banishment would have been a ominous portent of the things to come for the Jews. But on the third day in the throne room of the king, Esther was granted life instead of death. The golden scepter foreshadows the deliverance of her people, initiated by this audience with the king.

Christians and Jews alike would probably be reluctant to see in the ruthless and pagan king Xerxes a type of God himself. However, it is not necessary to cast aspersion on God’s character in order to see some picture of grace portrayed in this scene of Esther’s story. Martin Luther, for example, associated the king’s scepter with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his exegesis of Psalm 2:9 (“you will rule them with an iron scepter”) he writes, “This is the rod before whose tip, in the hand of Joseph, Jacob bowed (Gen. 47:31) and whose point the blessed Esther kissed (Esther 5:2).”5

On the third day the Persian king, whose word was irrevocable law, extends the golden scepter to Esther, lest she die for coming into his presence unsummoned. Esther approaches the king and completes this gracious gesture by touching the tip of the scepter. Her safety in his presence is thereby guaranteed. This scene pictures a gracious act of a king who holds life-and-death power. Had God not extended the cross of Jesus Christ to the world, all would die in his presence. “On the third day” after the final judgment transpired on the cross, Jesus Christ arose to imperishable life, guaranteeing safety to enter God’s presence to all who reach out in faith to touch that cross-shaped scepter.

Contemporary Significance

IN CHAPTER 4, Esther’s decision to identify herself with God’s people was compared to coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Each of us comes to defining moments when we must decide whether to continue to live as pagans or to take our stand with God’s covenant people in Christ. Esther’s decision put her life at great risk. Yet it is also that very decision that gave her the strength and courage to face the risk of going to the king uninvited. Esther’s decision empowered her to action that ultimately led to the deliverance of her whole people. As a result of her decision to identify with God’s people, she was personally transformed to the full dignity, courage, and power to be what she was, the Queen of Persia.

We have the benefit of knowing the end of the story and how Esther’s decision led her to power and fame. But at the time Esther made that decision, she did not know how her story would end. At that point her decision could have just as well ended her life, either in the king’s throne room or during the execution of Haman’s decree. Moreover, Esther may or may not have known the Hebrew Scriptures; but even if she did, God’s promise to protect his people was a promise collectively to the nation. Esther had no promise from God for her personal, individual safety. In other words, Esther could not have known at the time she decided to risk her life that it was that very decision that would fulfill her personal destiny as well as the destiny of her people.

In the original decision of “conversion” to Jesus Christ and in all subsequent decisions, we become the women or men God has created us to be by aligning ourselves with his covenant in Christ. As Paul wrote in Galatians, that covenant issues in the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit within us. Like Esther, we too need a transformation of our character so that we may no longer live as pagans. Obeying laws can never effect true transformation, because while we may conform our behavior to law, law by its very nature (even God’s law) is powerless to transform our character. Character transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit, who brings to fruition the qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in those who belong to Jesus Christ (Gal. 5:22–23). Without this transformation of character by the Holy Spirit, none of us can attain the full potential of our humanity. Without the work of God’s Spirit, we cannot be the persons God created us to be, nor can we attain fully to the purpose of our lives as agents of God’s redemptive work in history.

Esther’s decision reached far beyond her own identity, enabling her to be the agent through whom God would deliver a whole nation of people. At the same time, her decision also made her the agent through whom death and destruction would come to Haman. Esther’s defining moment was truly a life-and-death decision that went far beyond her own life to touch the lives of others.

As soon as Esther identified herself to the king as a Jew, she came under Haman’s edict of death. The dark powers and principalities of this world are against the Christian church just as they were against Jesus and God’s covenant people before him. When a woman or man takes a stand with Jesus Christ, he or she becomes part of a people who are targeted in spiritual battle by those who want to destroy the work of Christ in history. This is the point the apostle Peter makes when writing to certain Christians of the first century who had lost social and political standing in their polytheistic culture (1 Peter 4:12–19):

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And,

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,

what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

In spite of the overwhelming threat against them, the Jewish nation exiled in Persia was delivered because one person took her stand as a woman of the covenant. As we take our stand with Christ, we may experience suffering simply because we are Christians. American Christians generally do not face the forms of physical and mental suffering from persecution experienced by many of our brothers and sisters around the globe and throughout the ages. However, anyone who dares to believe in miracles in this post-Enlightenment, scientific age does potentially face a loss of standing simply for believing the foundational truth of Christianity, the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

Social ostracization and academic marginalization are modern forms of persecution against Christians. But we must remember that the reason for such suffering is at the same time the only hope of our deliverance. Because Christ triumphed in resurrection life over the ultimate evils of hell, death, and the grave, our union with him guarantees that same victory to us.