Where is God in the Book of Esther?
Craig Ho
Visiting Associate Professor of Old Testament
A Biblical Scroll without “God”?
It is obvious that the book of Esther does not mention God. Believers and scholars alike usually think that this is due to a unique rhetorical technique used by its author. They infer this from the fact that Esther is a biblical book, so its author has to be a Jew, meaning he has to be a theist, or to be exact, a monotheist. Since all other biblical narratives feature God playing a significant role in their story-telling, the absence of “God” is actually just the absence of his name. The divine presence must have been expressed through a special theological point of view. The Old Testament refers to God using seven names, which in transliterated Hebrew forms are as follows: YHWH (Yahweh), El (God), Elohim (God), El Shaddai (God Almighty), Elyon (Most High), Tzevaot (Hosts or Armies), and Yah (short for “Yahweh”); sometimes two names are used together, for example: YHWH-Elohim (Yahweh God), El-Elyon (Most High God), and YHWH-Tzevaot (Yahweh of Hosts). Intriguingly, none of these names appear in the book of Esther!
The book of Esther not only does not refer to God using any known biblical names or appellations, its author also seems to have deliberately suppressed anything religious in the story. For example, when Esther requests Mordecai to tell the Jews to fast for her, we expect that she would also ask for their supplication for God’s deliverance in their prayers. Yet, Esther asks only for support from her own people, the Jewish community, through their fasting while she herself will also fast with her attendants. Esther does not demand her people to pray, but only to fast with her. The author thus seems to have deliberately left out mentioning the much-needed supplicatory prayers in Esther’s dire situation so as to avoid any implied association with divine intervention in the resolution of Esther’s extremely dangerous situation. However, the fact that the Jews are on the brink of ethnic extermination is clearly due to their distinctive laws, which are largely religious in nature and “different from those of every other people” (3:8). Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to Haman in violation of royal decree (3:2) is very probably due to his adamant insistence on bowing down only to God (or the king?) but not to other gods or idols. And King Ahasuerus’s command for those under Haman to bow before him has effectively transformed his status into that of an idol. This seems to be the real reason for Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to Haman.
Is God to Be Found in the Unlikely Coincidences of the Story?
It may seem that the author wants to hint at a divine presence through many crucial coincidences in the story, without which Esther would be unable to have the opportunity to see Ahasuerus and to request that the lives of the Jews and her own be given to her (7:3). It thus appears that each of the following coincidences in the story did not happen by mere chance, but were arranged by a God who was deeply concerned with the well-being of the Jews: (1) that Esther could be selected as one of the king’s concubines was due not only to her beauty, but more importantly, to Vashti’s unexpected refusal to comply with King Ahausuerus’s demand to show off her beauty to the public and officials at the king’s banquet; (2) Vashti’s disobedience led directly to her disposal and Esther’s chance to be selected to enter the harem, and Esther soon won Ahasuerus’s favor and devotion and as a consequence the royal crown to replace Vashti as queen; (3) Mordecai learned by chance of a plot devised by two eunuchs for Ahasuerus’s life; (4) Mordecai earned credit for saving the king’s life, but had neither received recognition nor any reward; (5) Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, making him feel deeply offended, so Haman planned to destroy Mordecai and murder the entire Jewish community of the Persian Empire; (6) after learning this horrific news, Esther accepted Mordecai’s request to risk her life to see the king unsummoned in order to plead with the king for the lives of the Jews; Esther asked the Jews to fast with her for three days and three nights; (7) Esther was granted a favor by the king, who was willing to take Haman to her banquet; (8) Ahasuerus couldn’t sleep, and arose to read history, finding out then that Mordecai had saved his life without receiving any reward; (9) in the meantime, Haman was waiting in the royal garden to meet the king and asked him to have Mordecai hanged on a wooden frame made especially for this purpose; (10) the king consulted Haman for advice on how to reward Mordecai; (11) Mordecai rode a royal horse, led by Haman to tour the city to show the king’s favor on Mordecai; (12) the king took Haman to Esther’s banquet for the second time. During the banquet, the queen revealed Haman’s conspiracy to exterminate the Jewish people to which Esther belonged; upon hearing Haman’s plot, the king left the banquet with indignation and went out to the garden; (13) returning to the banquet hall from the royal garden, and seeing Haman lying on the couch Esther was leaning on, begging for mercy, the king thought that Haman was harassing the queen; (14) Haman was executed and hung on the wooden frame he had prepared for Mordecai; (15) the king granted permission to Esther and Mordecai to write an edict to the Jews, allowing them to use force against those who were prepared to harm them. Seven out of the above fifteen incidences (the parts marked in bold) were not deliberately planned by any characters in the story, but are thematically indispensable to the account of the deliverance of the Jews from Haman’s genocidal plot. The absence of any of these seven incidences would prevent the execution of Haman by the king and thus the reversion of the fate of the Jews.
One may also reason that since everything is ruled by God, nothing therefore happens by chance. It follows from the belief that “the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Prv 21:1) every seeming “coincidence” in the book of Esther should be understood as ensuing from divine intervention. So, while the book of Esther does not directly mention God, should we not infer from the narrative in Esther that the hand of God is working quietly behind human affairs to work out the deliverance of his people by means of “coincidences”? However, a reasonable interpreter may also think that since the author has deliberately and successfully avoided any mention of divine intervention at any of the seven critical moments mentioned above, why should we deliberately try to seek God out among them against authorial intention from a belief that may not be his own? The author of Esther might hold a similar view which one finds in Ecclesiastes concerning the existence of genuinely coincidental events which seem to fall outside divine intervention. In such events what one could find is not God but the snare of death:
… since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath. This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. … (Eccl 9:2-3)
What the preacher can be sure of is the commonality of suffering in the world; no one can avoid suffering through morality or religion. He also denies that we can use our efforts or talents to change the course of chance or to avoid disaster:
Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them. (Eccl 9:11-12)
The preacher points out that whether winning a race or a battle, getting food or wealth, or other people’s favor, things that we all enjoy, it has nothing to do with our efforts or talents. It is not through our efforts or talents, the preacher claims, but through chance and luck that we encounter these delightful things; just like how through chance, fish or birds meet their fate and eventually fall into the snare of death.
If one asks the preacher, “Then who is in charge of chance?” he has no answer, and Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 denies rather unambiguously that one can find God in chance, otherwise religious people who offer sacrifices regularly would have a better chance of leading a happy life. The preacher ponders life and comes to the conclusion that work and death are things that no one can escape; since we cannot work when we die, we have to look for God and his gifts in our work:
There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. (Eccl 2:24)
So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them? (Eccl 3:22)
This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot. Likewise all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them, and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil—this is the gift of God. (Eccl 5:18-19)
So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun. (Eccl 8:15)
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. (Eccl 9:9-10)
With the concept of only one earthly life to live, the preacher keeps repeating the theme of a God-given lot for all humans, which is found in his repeated advice to the readers “to eat and drink” (i.e., to live happily), to work hard, and to enjoy the rewards of our work. Ecclesiastes is not interested in nor has tried to explore the possibility of an eternity that cannot be experienced in this life. The teaching of Ecclesiastes seems therefore to be based entirely on the belief of a single life. Interestingly, it appears that the author of Esther would likely agree with the preacher of Ecclesiastes in the latter’s denial that God is to be found in fortuitous events.
The one place in the book of Esther where the author may be understood as suggesting a theological interpretation of events is in Mordecai’s message delivered to Esther where he takes great pains to confront Esther with the dire consequences to herself if she refuses to entreat the king on behalf of the Jews. Mordecai also challenges Esther to take her responsibility as the Jewish queen of Persia and help prevent the impending catastrophe from happening (Est 4:14). It has thus been suggested that the sentence “relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter” in Esther 4:14 is a hint of divine intervention in the absence of Esther’s initiative. However, such a “hint” could also be understood as purposeful avoidance of mentioning divine activities, similar to the avoidance of mentioning “praying” (4:3, 16; 9:31) which would clearly refer to God. Therefore, the wording of Mordecai’s message is better understood as the author’s attempt to dissociate it from any reference to possible divine activities.
Is God to Be Found in the Actions of the Characters in the Story?
If God is not to be found in unplanned or contingent events in Esther and Ecclesiastes, perhaps he is to be found in purposeful or planned human actions or activities that are necessary for solving the problems of living. According to Ecclesiastes, to work and to enjoy life is our God-given lot in being human. Work is hard but a necessity because through work we can harvest the fruits of our toils as food for survival and enjoyment. Work and enjoyment are therefore God’s common graces to humanity. The preacher’s view that “the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil” (Eccl 9:2) sounds very much like Jesus’ teaching about a loving God who “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45).
So, perhaps we should not look for divine activities in contingent events in the book of Esther, however significant they are in its narrative, because God is not there, otherwise the author would not have suppressed any hints of religious or divine activities in the narrative. Perhaps we should look for God in non-verbal psychological forces that drive purposeful actions or activities carried out by Esther, Mordecai, and the Jewish people, to see how they point to a divine presence in the narrative. “Non-verbal psychological forces” refers to non-verbal human dispositions upon which human actions or decisions are based without which inter-personal interactions simply would not have happened. The story in Esther has not mentioned Mordecai’s strong conviction that Jews do not bow down and do obeisance to anyone but their God; and it is precisely this conviction—the first psychological force—that has occasioned Haman’s plot to kill Mordecai and all his fellow Jewish people. The story has also not mentioned what brings about Esther’s change of mind to become so brave as to risk her life for the deliverance of her people. Perhaps she has been convinced to see a new meaning in her life—the second psychological force—as a Jewish queen in Persia revealed to her at the juncture of the life and death of her own people upon hearing Mordecai’s message. Neither has the story mentioned the collective faith—the third psychological force—displayed in the solidarity of the Jewish people as a response to Esther’s demand of fasting three days and nights with her. Religious conviction, a new meaning of one’s life, and the faith of the Jewish people are all indispensable psychological forces that drive the narratorial flow of the story in the text of Esther. They must be assumed to exist as the basis or driving force behind human actions, otherwise, the Jews would not be facing the possibility of genocide nor would they be “miraculously” delivered from it through many very unlikely coincidences.
It thus seems clear that we cannot find God in what has been narrated in the story in the book of Esther, because the author does not seem to think that God exists in physical events as narrated. We are then left with the possibility of “seeing” the divine presence in what has not been said but must be assumed, i.e., the driving forces of human actions described in the narrative. Are there other examples of the divine presence mediated through psychological forces in the Bible?
Intertextual Insights from Jesus’ Parables
Matthew 25:31-46 seems to be such a passage. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the king commended the righteous on his right side who were going to inherit the Kingdom of God as a reward for their kindness extended to the king when he was in need. The sheep were astonished and claimed that they had never seen the king in need and cared for him (vv. 37-40). Then the king rebuked those who were on his left hand because they had not extended a helping hand to him when he was in need. The goats on the left side expressed the same astonishment as the sheep and claimed that they had never seen the king in need and refused to take care of him (vv. 44-46). Thus, neither the sheep nor the goats in Matthew 25:31-46 have ever seen God and treated him kindly or ignored him.
When the king says that treating another person kindly (or ignoring him blindly) is the same as treating the king himself kindly (or ignoring him blindly), he means that we should treat another person as if they were infinitely important or had infinite value, i.e. like God. † Although it is impossible to measure the true value of a person in quantitative terms, God regards compassionate actions as infinitely valuable and therefore worthy of the reward of eternal life. Thinking along this line, it becomes clear that when a person treats another person kindly, that person is regarded as important and valuable, in fact—from the perspective of the king—as important and valuable as God himself.
The meaning of the parable in Matthew 25:31-46 is that although the “sheep” have never seen God, their kindness extended to a person in need has been felt and infinitely appreciated by God. Their loving actions have reached God, meaning loving people is equivalent to loving God.
In the same vein, when Mordecai takes up the responsibility of bringing up Esther as stepdaughter, he is treating her as a very important and valuable person. Mordecai’s love for Esther must have been felt and infinitely appreciated by God. When Esther makes up her mind to risk her life for the lives of her own people, she is treating their lives as valuable as that of her own. Her love for her people must have been felt and infinitely appreciated by God. When the Jews fast for three days, night or day, as demanded by Esther, their love for their queen and for each other must have been felt and infinitely appreciated by God.
Although neither the word “God” nor its equivalent appears in the book of Esther, we have to infer from Matthew’s parable (25:31-46) that the loving actions of Mordecai, Esther, and the Jewish people have been felt and infinitely appreciated by God. God works through their loving actions and brings about the deliverance of the Jewish people. John the apostle would say, “God is in their love.”
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† Without this view of the infinite value of a person, it would be very difficult to understand the biblical teaching of eternal life (i.e., infinite time-span living with God) and eternal punishment/separation from God (Mt 25:46).
* This article was adapted from a sermon delivered by the author at our chapel service (October 7, 2021). All Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version, and the words in bold are the author’s emphasis.