True & Beautiful Things About the Bible--Old TestamentSample

Esther: God in the Shadows

Only God could have written Esther’s story.

Only He could have taken a young orphan from a Jewish community living far from their homeland and put her in the throne room next to the most powerful man in the world. God needed someone who would be courageous enough, strategic enough, and willing to sacrifice herself to save her people. If she had refused, God would have used someone else. But she didn’t—Esther was willing to fight.

While the events of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah happened nearby in the Middle East, Esther fought for the survival of her people in Susa, modern-day Iran. If she had been unsuccessful, the Jewish communities in Israel and throughout the region would have fallen to the inevitable genocide and among them killed would have been those in the line of David and the future Messiah. God protected Israel from satanic and maniacal plots and because He also had a sense of humor, orchestrated the most ironic and surprise reversals.

At its foundation, story of Esther is about how God protected His people who had forgotten Him. They refused to obey Him (and return to the land of Israel.) In this little side chapter of the Jews’ story, we see beautiful grace. They chose to live apart from God, but He chose to still protect them in His providence.

Providence is God’s hand in the glove of history arranging the people, events, timing, and outcome without once taking the credit for it. It’s God working behind the scenes. He’s the one who put Esther in the place of favor, influence, and opportunity “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14), just as Jesus’ entrance into our world happened, “when the fullness of time had come.” (Galatians 4:4) It happened at just the right time and in just the right way.

Esther’s story doesn’t mention God directly, but He was clearly playing an invisible chess game with Satan, countering every evil move. Even when His people were in a foreign land, even when they weren’t seeking Him or calling on Him by name, God kept His promise to be their God and protected this nation from whom Jesus would come to be our Savior.

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