Esther: Daring Faith for Such a Time as This Намуна

It seems that with every passing year, our world becomes more and more divided politically, religiously, and socioeconomically. I can remember my grandparents saying similar things, so maybe this is nothing new, but it feels more severe. As believers, we pray for and faithfully pursue God’s kingdom here on earth. But even when a country loses its way, when kings and presidents govern unjustly, and nations rise up against one another, we are reminded that it is God’s Son, Jesus, to whom every nation belongs (Psalm 2). He, alone, is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3).

The Persian empire was home to countless worldviews because it was home to many ethnicities and religions. Although the dispersed Jews in Persia were a world away from God’s appointed land for them and lived under the rule of a pagan king, God was still at work and fully in control.

Esther’s story opens with elaborate details about King Ahasuerus’s empire.

According to Esther 1:1-8, after 180 days of displaying “the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the magnificent splendor of his greatness,” he threw a bountiful banquet, complete with blue and white linen hangings, gold goblets, and an endless flow of fine wine.

The guest list for the king’s feast included the king’s entourage, officials, and special guests—1 Everyone, from the “greatest to the least.” It was an enormous crowd by any standard. The opulent display was meant to inspire loyalty to the king and, according to history, rally enthusiasm for a forthcoming military campaign against Greece.2 The king likely wanted to assure his kingdom that Persia was the team they wanted to be on.

Beautiful settings delight me endlessly—a well-appointed piece of art, a nicely placed fern, a polished nickel fixture. I can think of nothing more enjoyable than when a thoughtful setting is home to a slow and elaborate feast. But when an inviting space turns into a display of materialism and pride, when feasts become avenues of drunkenness and decadence, and lavish gifts are used to buy the allegiance of others (as seems to be happening here), I’m reminded that God’s good gifts can suddenly turn into deadly idolatry. This is the scene in which the curtains of the Persian Empire open.

Esther 1:4 reads, “He displayed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the magnificent splendor of his greatness” (emphasis mine). The possessive pronoun his is the most significant word in the verse. For King Ahasuerus, everything was about him and his splendor.

Consider the following passages:

To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

Proverbs 8:13

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

James 4:4-8

In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:5-7

Though King Ahasuerus’s display of wealth was absurdly over-the-top, we can be equally guilty of highlighting our possessions and accomplishments in subtler ways.

However, there is a King who is very unlike King Ahasuerus, who teaches us about a better kingdom. Approximately four hundred years removed from King Ahasuerus’s sprawling banquet, where the mostly well-to-do sipped wine without restriction, Jesus gathered the sick, broken, and beaten down on a Galilean hillside. There, He announced the arrival of His kingdom. One can hardly imagine a kingdom more unlike the one that hosted elaborate feasts in Persia.

Even the most powerful empires crumble. Kingdoms come and go. Wealth eventually corrodes, and gluttony never satiates. History tells us that only four years after Ahasuerus’s magnificent display of power and wealth, he suffered a significant defeat at the hands of the Grecian army. The humiliating loss cost him a great deal of his royal fortune. Esther’s original audience would have recognized this irony at the opening of Esther’s story.3 The powerful king Ahasuerus was about to have a very great fall.

Though the Apostle Paul had a different kind of eating and drinking in mind when he penned Romans 14:17, his words are especially appropriate to today’s study. “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” This is the kingdom Jesus spoke about, the kingdom we belong to.

Read Esther 1:1-8 and take a moment to thank Jesus for coming to institute a better kingdom.

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1. Joyce G. Baldwin, Esther: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 12, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 57.

2. Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, electronic ed., vol. 10, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 305.

3. Karen H. Jobes, Esther, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), 62.