Esther and Redemptive History

For Bible students, the book of Esther has always been puzzling. It is the only book in the Bible—with the possible exception of the Song of Solomon—that does not mention God at all. There is no reference to God, prayer, worship, prophets, miracles, visions or sacrifices. By all appearances, it seems to be a purely secular book. Yet, as we are discovering on Sunday mornings at UPC, Esther is the story of the invisible hand of God. It tells us about God’s loving providence in a world where God seems absent.

Esther not only tells us of God’s providence, but it is part of the story line of the Bible. While the Bible contains many stories, it is all about one story—the story of God redeeming His people (and all creation) from the reign of sin. So, all the stories of the Bible are tied together in the metanarrative of redemption. This story of redemption is also the story of a great, cosmic conflict between good and evil, the people of God and the Devil. It is the story of a battle that has been raging since the Garden of Eden and will finally end with the New Heavens and Earth.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, all of creation was placed under a curse. Yet, in the midst of pronouncing that curse, God gave us a wonderful promise. In Genesis 3:15 God pronounces a curse on the Serpent (which is the Devil) and says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (New International Version).

In this verse, God says that there will be an ongoing struggle between good and evil. More accurately, there will be an ongoing battle between Satan and the Offspring of the Woman. However, there will come a day when One will be born to the woman who will crush the Serpent’s head. That, of course, is Jesus, who defeated Satan through His life, death, and resurrection.

Still, the whole Bible—even all of human history—is the story of this conflict. It is the story of Satan’s attempt to destroy the children of God. Yet, even greater, it is the story of God’s providence in keeping His promise to send us a rescuer.

If you read the Bible in light of Genesis 3:15, it all makes sense. It explains why the nations were always bent on destroying the children of Abraham. Satan wanted to wipe out the Jews because God promised that the Offspring who would crush his head would be Abraham’s descendent. Do you think Pharaoh’s plot in Exodus 3 was simply the actions of a tyrannical ruler? Not at all. It was Satan’s attempt to wipe out the people of God so that the Redeemer would never come. In the Christmas story, do you think Herod is acting on his own when he orders the slaughter of all the boys born around Bethlehem? Pharaoh, Balaam, the Philistines, Herod, the Roman Empire under Nero and others, were all unwitting accomplices in a hellish conspiracy to destroy God’s people.

In the book of Revelation, John pulls this all together. In Revelation 12, he portrays the Serpent of Genesis 3 as a dragon. The dragon makes war against the woman and her children (just as God said he would in Genesis 3). He tries to devour her Offspring (which is Jesus). When he fails in his attempt to kill Jesus, he then turns against the children of the woman (which is the church). So, what Revelation 12 tells us is that we are in a spiritual war where Satan is seeking to destroy and harass the people of God. Revelation 12 is simply a “behind the scenes” look at what we are experiencing on a day-to-day basis.

The story of Esther, where Haman plots to exterminate the Jews, was not just a random story. It is another one of Satan’s attempt to make war against the children of God. That means that the story of Esther is part of the great storyline of the Bible. Satan continues his attempts to destroy the work of God and God continues to thwart his plans.

Also in the story of Esther, we see that Satan musters all the strength and might of worldly powers to destroy the work of God. God, in response, looks takes something (or someone) who is small and weak to thwart Satan’s plans. God often uses the most unlikely of candidates. Whom does God use against the giant, Goliath? An unarmed, untrained shepherd/warrior named David. When Satan brings the entire force of the Roman Empire against Jesus, putting Him on the cross, through the weakness of death, Jesus conquers Satan once for all. When the entire Persian Empire is pitted against the lowly Jews in the book of Esther, whom does God send as a deliverer? An orphaned Jewish girl (who had not even been a very good Jew), living in exile. Through this young lady, God thwarts all the machinations of one of the greatest empires the world has known.