Martin Luther who we know to have been a German monk and theologian in the 1400s and 1500s is credited with the reformation of the Protestant church. He was and still is very respected and admired for his work. Here are a few of his quotes.
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”[i]
“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”
“Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.”
Those words of his hold much truth and honesty and are good quotes for us to use in our own lives. Let me share with you one other quote of his.
“Martin Luther was hostile to the Book of Esther. In his Table-Talk, he declared that he was so hostile “to the Book of Esther that I would it did not exist; for it Judaizes too much, and has in it a great deal of heathenish naughtiness”. He criticized the Book of Esther, accusing it of being too aggressively nationalistic and containing no gospel content1.”[ii]
It would seem that Martin Luther wasn’t alone in his opinion. For some unknown reason, the Book of Esther is the only Old Testament book not found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are several theories as to why it wasn’t included. One school of thought is that “the male community at Qumran [location of the Dead Sea Scrolls] was not interested in a book in which the hero was a female.”[iii] Another thought is “the Qumran community was opposed to the book which describes a Jewish woman marrying a Gentile king and not following the Jewish laws.”[iv]
The Book of Esther is one of those books which we don’t know who wrote it.
One of the most unique characteristics of the Book of Esther is that God’s name is never mentioned. There are only two books in the Bible that can be said about it. Song of Solomon is the other one in which God is not named. There is no reference to prayer or faith in Esther’s book. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find a reference to the Book of Esther. Martin Luther wasn’t shy about not liking it. God nor prayer nor faith is even mentioned. Esther was completely left out of the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, why is it even included in the Bible?
First and most importantly, God wanted it in there. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ERV “All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. 17 Using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and will have everything they need to do every good work.” The other reason, in my opinion, is this. God’s name may not be mentioned. There may be no prayers or petitions made to Him. There may not be any references to faith in Him. But that doesn’t mean God’s hand isn’t moving all throughout the book. That doesn’t mean that God’s providence is on vacation. Even though God is silent, and it seems as if He has nothing to do with what is going on, God is still working and has His fingerprints all over this. Sometimes, in our lives, it may appear as if God is missing or He’s hiding. The truth is that God is never missing and He’s never hiding. It’s just a failure on our part to trust and recognize His involvement.
Esther. Her name means “star”.[v] And she will certainly prove herself to be a star of this story. But we aren’t ready for her just yet. First, let’s meet some of her supporting cast.
Esther 1:1 GW “In the days of Xerxes the following events took place. This was the same Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Sudan.”
The year is 483 B.C.[vi]
Hopefully, you remember that because King Solomon was not faithful to God and allowed pagan worshipping to take place, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom (aka Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (aka Judah). Unfortunately, the Jews had not learned their lesson and neither kingdom was obedient to God like they should have been. As a result, both kingdoms were taken into captivity. The Jews in the Northern Kingdom were overtaken by the Assyrians. The residents of the Southern Kingdom were captured by the Babylonians. This is how Daniel gets to Babylon as he is taken as a prisoner. King Nebuchadnezzar is sitting on the throne when Daniel is taken captive.
You may recall that King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that bothers him and he wants someone to interpret it for him. None of the astrologers or magicians are able to do that because the king doesn’t want to tell anyone about the dream. He feels that if they have the gift to interpret, they also have the gift to know what he dreamed without him telling the details. This is where Daniel comes in.
Daniel had been equipped by God to not only know the dream but also interpret it for the king. Daniel explains the king’s dream included a beautiful statue with a head made of gold, a chest and arms made of silver, the belly and thighs made of bronze, the legs made of iron, and the feet consisted of some iron and some baked clay.
In the king’s dream, a rock was cut out and hit the statue. As a result, the feet were smashed into tiny pieces. Then layer by layer, the iron legs, the bronzed belly and thighs, the silver chest and arms, and the golden head all collapsed into pieces that were carried off by the wind. No trace of the statue remained. But the rock became a great mountain and filled the earth.
The interpretation that Daniel is given by God was this. The statue represented different kingdoms that ruled. Daniel 2:38 NIV “ You are that head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
Nearly 7 decades later, that golden head of Babylonian reign crumbles, and the Medes and Persians swoop in and take control. They represent the silver part of the statue. This is when Cyrus becomes king. Cyrus played an important role because he was the one whom God impressed to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and city. This is who is in control during the days of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah who each take back a remnant of Jews to start the rebuilding.
However, many of the Jews chose to stay right where they were and chose not to go to Jerusalem. Some of them that had once lived in Jerusalem, they are too old to make the trip. They simply don’t have the strength or stamina to go back to their homeland. For many of the others, Babylon is the only home they’ve ever known. They’ve been born and raised there and Jerusalem represents where their ancestors came from. These people that have remained and not returned to Jerusalem are the ones that Esther will be concerned about once she’s introduced to us.
Does that give you some insight into how, when, where, and why the Book of Esther fits in with the other books of the Bible?
King Xerxes, we are told, is now sitting on the throne. It’s been approximately 56 years since King Cyrus took control of Babylon.
Esther 1:2 GW “ At the time when King Xerxes sat on the royal throne in the fortress of Susa, 3 he held a banquet in the third year of his reign. The banquet was for all his officials and advisers, that is, the military officers of the Persians and Medes, the nobles and officials of the provinces who had access to him. 4 He showed them the enormous wealth of his kingdom and the costly splendor of his greatness for many days, 180 to be exact.”
King Xerxes throws a banquet for his top-level people. Did you happen to catch the duration of this shindig? 6 months! 180 day! TLB puts it simply: “The celebration lasted six months, a tremendous display of the wealth and glory of his empire.” (Esther 1:4 TLB)
This ostentatious half-year-long party was billed to the citizens, the townspeople. It sounds terribly ridiculous to consider the cost and the pure wastefulness of it all. But King Xerxes had an ulterior motive.
The Greeks at this time were getting more powerful and more numerous. They were becoming more of a threat to the Persians and Medes. King Xerxes is starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and needs to get more people behind him. He needs to build and strengthen his military forces. He attempts to do this by impressing these high-ranking individuals with his wealth and his power in order to gain their respect and allegiance.
As if 6 months of partying isn’t enough, he throws a weeklong party for everybody else. Esther 1:5 HCSB “At the end of this time, the king held a week-long banquet in the garden courtyard of the royal palace for all the people, from the greatest to the least, who were present in the fortress of Susa. 6 White and violet linen hangings were fastened with fine white and purple linen cords to silver rods on marble columns. Gold and silver couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of red feldspar, marble, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones.
7 Beverages were served in an array of gold goblets, each with a different design. Royal wine flowed freely, according to the king’s bounty 8 and no restraint was placed on the drinking. The king had ordered every wine steward in his household to serve as much as each person wanted. “
Elegant and expensive decorations. Fancy cups. And no limit on alcohol intake. And this party lasts for a period of 7 days! Meanwhile, verse 9 lets us know that the queen, Queen Vashti, was hosting a banquet for the women. This clues us in on the fact that Xerxes’ weeklong party is a men’s only gathering. That is what makes the next little bit of Chapter 1 all the more disturbing.
Esther 1:10 CEV “10 By the seventh day, King Xerxes was feeling happy because of so much wine. And he asked his seven personal servants, Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas, 11 to bring Queen Vashti to him. The king wanted her to wear her crown and let his people and his officials see how beautiful she was. 12 The king’s servants told Queen Vashti what he had said, but she refused to go to him, and this made him terribly angry.”
The king is enjoying himself. He’s indulged in quite a bit of wine, and he’s become somewhat thoughtless. You see, he’s married to Queen Vashti who is apparently quite the trophy wife. He wants to show her off. He wants her to wear her crown and other regal attire and have her paraded throughout the crowd. He doesn’t just send for her. He sends SEVEN servants to fetch her. And she just simply says, “Nope. Not going.”
The big question that remains unanswered is this. Why did she refuse? Was it because she didn’t want to be rude to her own guests? Was it insulting to be summoned to be paraded as an object in front of a crowd of drunken men? Was she not the kind of woman who took kindly to demands? Or, do we just chalk this up to God’s providence? Because here’s the thing. Queen Vashti is in a position that needs to be filled by Esther. The only way Esther can fill those shoes is if Queen Vashti is no longer in them.
King Xerxes gets mad. Many translations tell us that he burned with anger. His wife has embarrassed him. She disrespected him. She is disobedient to him and he doesn’t like it. Not one little bit. There is no way this act of defiance is going unnoticed and unpunished.
King Xerxes is known for his anger issues. In fact, there is a story about King Xerxes that is quite telling. As part of his strategy in his war against Greece, he ordered that a bridge be constructed so that he and his army would have easier access to the Grecians. Before the bridge was completed, a storm moved in and destroyed it. “Infuriated with the sea, Xerxes ordered his soldiers to punish it by whipping it with chains 300 times and poking it with red-hot irons. Handcuffs were also tossed into the water to symbolize the sea’s submission to his authority. Finally, he ordered the decapitation of the engineers behind the bridge’s construction.”[vii]
Imagine, if you will, being commanded to beat a body of water with whips and to poke that same body of water with red-hot irons as a form of punishment for the water! It’s quite useless and irrational. But these men did just that and then were beheaded as a final act of his temper tantrum. If King Xerxes got that mad with an inanimate object, you can just imagine the fury he felt towards his wife and her disobedience.
This was embarrassing. The refusal of his own wife to obey his command certainly would not portray him as the great commander he was hoping to be. Remember, all of this had taken place in front of high-ranking officials he was trying to recruit to fight with him and for him against the Greeks.
He calls on his consultants as was the practice in those days. King Xerxes considered her defiance and unwillingness to do what she was commanded to do as breaking the law.
Esther 1:15 ERV “ 15 The king asked them, “What does the law say must be done to Queen Vashti? She has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes that the eunuchs had taken to her.”
16 Then Memucan answered the king with the other officials listening, “Queen Vashti has done wrong. She has done wrong against the king and also against all the leaders and people of all the provinces of King Xerxes. 17 I say this, because all the other women will hear about what Queen Vashti did. Then they will stop obeying their husbands. They will say to their husbands, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought to him, but she refused to come.’
18 “Today the wives of the Persian and Median leaders have heard what the queen did, and these women will be influenced by what she did. They will do the same thing to the king’s important leaders. And there will be plenty of disrespect and anger.
19 “So if it pleases the king, here is a suggestion: Let the king give a royal command and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media. The laws of Persia and Media cannot be changed. The royal command should be that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Let the king also give her royal position to someone else who is better than she is. 20 Then when the king’s command is announced in all parts of his large kingdom, all the women will respect their husbands. From the most important to the least important, all the women will respect their husbands.”
21 The king and his important officials were happy with this advice, so King Xerxes did as Memucan suggested. 22 King Xerxes sent letters to all parts of the kingdom. He sent them to each province, written in its own language. He sent them to each nation in its own language. These letters announced in each person’s language that every man was to be the ruler over his own family.”
This is a great example of making a mountain out of a molehill. King Xerxes was happy with the wine. He was intoxicated. He was most likely not thinking clearly when he sent seven servants to retrieve his trophy wife and have her make an appearance at this men’s only affair. Queen Vashti, is likely hosting an elegant and sober event with the women when she receives the command. Knowing that what she’s been asked to do was distasteful, she refuses. Warren W. Wiersbe had this to say. “But was the situation really that serious? When Vashti refused to obey, I wonder how many princes and nobles at the banquet said among themselves, ‘Well, the king’s marriage is just like our marriages! His wife has a mind of her own, and it’s a good thing she does!’ It’s doubtful that the king would have lost authority or stature throughout the empire had he shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and admitted that he’d done a foolish thing.”
But God.
Ephesians 1:11 GNT “All things are done according to God’s plan and decision;”
The providence of God is at work in all of these details. All of these things events are occurring so that the position of a queen is available for Esther to fill. God has a plan and a purpose for her. He is going to have Esther in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude to carry out just what He has planned for her.
Isn’t that just like God? When all seems to be going wrong, we are blind to His hands. When situations take a turn for the worse, all we consider is the tragedy. We fail to recognize that moments, occurrences, and situations are often God’s building blocks to create and develop His plan.
Beth Moore, in her Bible study on Esther, puts it beautifully. “The Book of Esther is filled with single moments that may seem isolated and independent at the time but end up profoundly impacting destinies. These ‘moments’ occur whenever a decision, encounter, or action becomes pivotal in the story line. Watch for moments that have lasting impact in the study of Esther.” “Let them awaken you to moments in your own life that may have seemed unconnected to anything God was doing all the time but ended up crucial in your own story.” “In His faithful sovereign hands, even negative moments of decision, encounter, or action can become treacherous steppingstones toward a grand Kingdom destiny.”[viii]
I happen to think Martin Luther missed the mark on this one. I think we have a lot to learn from Esther.
[i] https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/martin-luther-quotes
[ii] https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=673&q=MARTIN+LUTHER+ON+THE+BOOK+OF+ESTHER& cvid=50a92f29269748aa9d28d735d425fee2&aqs=edge..69i57j0l3j69i64.5451j0j1&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=ACTS/ https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2015/09/did-martin-luther-deny-the-canonicity-of-esther.html
[iii]https://www.bibleplaces.com/blog/2012/05/why-no-esther-in-dead-sea-scrolls/
[iv] https://www.bibleplaces.com/blog/2012/05/why-no-esther-in-dead-sea-scrolls/
[v] Esther – Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity | Nameberry
[vi] Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman by Beth Moore
[vii] https://www.ancient-origins.net/weird-facts/xerxes-bridge-0016747
[viii] Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman by Beth Moore
Beacons of Light 