Summer Reading: Esther 3-5


In these chapters we meet the villain of the story, Haman, and see the conflict. Haman is the second in command next to King Ahasuerus, and as such is entitled to respect in the form of bowing down to him, as ordered by the king (3:2). When Mordecai does not bow, the plot to exterminate not only him
but all the Jews is hatched.



We also discover the origin of the name of the holiday which results from the story (3:7). Pur is an Akkadian word for “lot”[1], and the holiday is called Purim (plural form). (More on the holiday in the concluding chapters.) The day of the pogrom is chosen randomly by casting lots. Other times lots are cast in Bible stories include the sailors discovering Jonah’s guilt (Jonah 1:7), the soldiers dividing Jesus’ clothes (Mark 15:24), and the selection of Matthias to succeed Judas as the 12th disciple (Acts 1:26).

Notice how legislation happens in this story; we’ll see it again in Daniel. A single person or small interest group convinces the king that there is a dangerous faction of foreigners who must be controlled for national security. A sum of money is paid and an irreversible edict is decreed and sealed by the king. As the story develops, the king will be directly affected by his own unjust (and unjustifiable) law, but is powerless to reverse, alter, or make exception to it. This lack of power on the king’s part is not historically verifiable, but serves the story.

Mordecai’s response is one of a faithful Jewish person: sackcloth and ashes are recognized as signs of mourning and repentance throughout scripture, as found in stories of the kings and prophets, and Psalms.

Haman’s plotting is here matched by Esther and Mordecai plotting a coup to save their people. 4:13-14, Haman’s encouragement to Esther to use her position within the palace to save the Jews in the kingdom, is perhaps the most familiar speech from this book. She is clever in her plan to continue in good graces with the king (remember Vashti!) and to win him over to seeing the predicament she is in because of his decree. How will the king respond? The tension builds.

Some questions:
This is a late story about Jews living in the Diaspora (away from Jerusalem/Judah) and probably by and for Jews living in the Diaspora. If you’re living away from the homeland, can you imagine why having all these familiar story elements that hint at other, older biblical stories, might be comforting?  
What do you think about the implication that justice, even God’s justice, is a reversal of fortune, with one side against the other, in a win-lose situation? Is there a different way to think about salvation and justification that doesn’t require “losing”, especially the loss of life?

[1] The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV. (NY: Oxford, 1991), 616.

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