This week's Theme: The Thunder of His Power
Day 1: The Lord Directs
Famed British Director Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was known as the “Master of Suspense.” He was also a master of subtlety. Much of Hitchcock’s genius lay in his ability to create tension and suspense with several layers of ingeniously implied information. Film critic Robin Wood is quoted as saying, A Hitchcock film is an organism, with the whole implied in every detail and every detail related to the whole Alfred Hitchcock - Wikipedia.
With all due respect to Hitchcock’s genius, I believe that the technique of revealing details in startlingly unobtrusive ways is as old as creation. Thousands of years ago, David wrote: The heavens declare the glory of God... (Psalm 19:1).
Job too, cataloging some of the wonders of creation declares, Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26:14 -NKJV).
And then there is the book of Esther. “God is never mentioned,” is the often-heard observation. Yet the whole book moves and pulses and crackles with the power and presence of God.
God—the only, the ultimate Director who alone [makes] known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come… [who says], ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’ (Isaiah 46:10)—reveals Himself through seemingly unconnected, messy human details ranging from marital conflict and curious conjugal practices, to politics, murder and intrigue:
The current queen falls out of favor with Xerxes the king of Persia. A search for a new queen begins. A young woman, Hadassah, also known as Esther, is among many young women [who] were brought to the citadel of Susa [and] entrusted to Hegai who had charge of the harem. Esther is the adopted daughter of her cousin Mordecai who charges her to keep secret her Jewish identity. [Esther] pleased Hegai and won his favor. With his coaching she becomes the new queen (Esther 2:5-18).
Mordecai keeps a watchful eye on Esther from a distance—he sits at the king’s gate. From this vantage point he discovers a plot to assassinate the king. He relays the information to Esther, who reports it to the king, crediting Mordecai with the discovery of the plot. The incident is investigated, the would-be assassins are executed, and the whole incident is recorded in the royal files (Esther 2:19-23). And promptly forgotten.
Shortly after this, a certain man, Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, rises to prominence in Xerxes court. He becomes enraged when Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Becoming aware of Mordecai’s Jewish identity, Haman devises a plot to kill not just Mordecai, but also to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes. Through deceptive methods he persuades the king to sign a law to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day (Esther 3:1-15).
Mordecai and the entire Jewish Community are in great distress about the law, and news of Mordecai’s abject misery reaches Esther. She sends to find out the cause, and Mordecai sends her a copy of the annihilation edict and entreats her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people. Esther reminds Mordecai that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. She has not been summoned to the king for the last thirty days (Esther 4:1-11).
Esther and Mordecai continue their intense discussion back and forth until Mordecai explains the stark reality of her position: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther is finally persuaded to seek the king’s mercy and sends a final reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions (Esther 4:12-17).
After the people fast and pray (to God), several things happen: On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance. When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you” (Esther 5:1-3).
This opens the door for the plan Esther was devising. She asks the king and a very flattered Haman to attend a banquet that day, at which she then issues a second banquet invitation for the following day.
Haman’s euphoria is marred only by the sight of Mordecai at the king’s gate. The obsessed official is filled with rage that Mordecai neither rose nor showed fear in his presence (Esther 5:9). His wife and friends suggest a solution highly satisfactory to Haman—set up a death device and ask the king’s permission to execute Mordecai the following day.
Meanwhile, the king is suddenly beset by a bout of insomnia and decides on the most logical remedy: That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed… two of the king’s officers… who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. “What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?” the king asked. “Nothing has been done for him,” his attendants answered (Esther 6:1-3).
After this, several things happen quickly. The king delegates the “honor and recognition” plan for Mordecai to Haman, who, believing himself to be the intended honoree, creates an elaborate plan for a very public celebratory parade (Esther 6:6-11). Too late, he discovers, much to his chagrin, that Mordecai was the one the king intended to honor. Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him (Esther 6:12-13).
But things only get worse for Haman. At the second banquet hosted by the queen, she discloses her Jewish identity, pleads for her life and the lives of her people, and exposes Haman’s evil plot for what it is. The enraged king storms into the palace garden, and quickly returns to find Haman falling on the couch where Esther was reclining (Esther 7: 8).
The terrified official’s intent had been to beg Queen Esther for his life, but the king, in his intense anger, sees only evil intent in Haman’s posture: “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?” (Esther 7:8). Haman is immediately impaled on the elaborate contraption he had constructed in his plan to execute Mordecai.
However, the danger to Esther, Mordecai and the Jewish people has not passed. The edict has already gone out for their annihilation, and under Persian law, an edict of the king cannot be rescinded. But the king suggests a solution to Esther and Mordecai: Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked” (Esther 8:8).
The new edict gives the Jewish people the right and the ability to defend themselves, essentially eliminating the threat to their existence. Their fear and distress turn to celebration: For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating (Esther 8:16-17).
Thus was established the joyous Jewish celebration of Purim, celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar in the Hebrew calendar:
[Mordecai] wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor... For Haman… had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction… (Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.)
These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews—nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants (Esther 9:22, 24, 26, 28).
The joyous Jewish celebration of Purim and indeed the entire book of Esther reminds us that no matter who casts the pur, it is God’s mighty, majestic, often unseen hand that determines every outcome for His good and perfect will: The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps (Proverbs 16:9 -NRSVUE). The thunder of His power, who can understand?
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