WWUTT 769 Introduction to Esther?

Esther’s Place in the Bible and the Debate Over Its Canonical Status

Today, we begin one of the most popular stories in the Bible. Whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, you're probably familiar with the story of Esther. But even among Christian scholars, there's a lot of controversy about this book when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Well, today in our Old Testament Study, we get to one of the most popular stories in the Bible. It may not be one of the more popular books, but it's certainly one of the most popular stories, and that is the story of Esther.

Now, how can it be such a popular story and at the same time not be as popular a book? Well, because while many people are familiar with the story of Esther, there are also many who argue this book should not be included in the Bible.

Now this is not like the argument that exists over the authenticity of the book of Colossians, for example. Liberal theologians would question whether or not Paul was actually the author of Colossians, but it's a ridiculous argument.

The majority of scholarship, and of course the Orthodox side of historical Christianity, would say that Paul is the author of Colossians, and there isn't any reason to even question that or exclude it from the Bible.

With the book of Esther, however, there is even credible Orthodox scholarship that debates over whether or not Esther should be a part of canon. Now one of the most prominent names in church history that argued against the inclusion of Esther was Martin Luther, but at the same time, Martin Luther also argued against James being included in New Testament canon, and so you have to take Martin Luther with a grain of salt there, I think.

What would be some of the credible arguments against the book of Esther being in the Bible? Well, the number one argument is that this is the only book in the Bible, of all 66 books, it is the only book that doesn't mention the name of the Lord.

In fact, it doesn't mention God at all. It doesn't mention prayer. It doesn't mention the Spirit. All things considered, if you were to take the book of Esther out of the Bible and read it by itself, it appears like a very secular piece of literature.

And this hasn't just troubled Christian scholarship, there are Jewish scholars that have been bothered by this as well. The story of Esther promotes a festival that is not prescribed in the law of Moses.

So you think of all the feasts and festivals that are mentioned in the law of Moses, specifically given by God to Israel to celebrate. Well Esther, because of Esther, there is a Jewish feast that's celebrated called the Feast of Purim.

It falls somewhere around February or March, depending on where it is in the Jewish calendar. And this feast is remembering the deliverance of the Jews from the hand of Haman, which we read about here in Esther.

It's the most secular feast on the Jewish calendar. So not only the most secular sounding book in the Old Testament, also happens to be the most secular feast. Esther also doesn't fit the prophet, priest, and king motif that we have throughout the entire Old Testament.

And all of that was even pointing toward Christ, who is the greatest prophet, who is our great high priest, who is king of kings and lord of lords. That whole system in the Old Testament was pointing toward Christ.

And Esther doesn't even include any of that. Jerusalem, at the very least Jerusalem is mentioned in Esther, but the temple is not. So there's not even a mention of the temple there in Jerusalem. Of course, at this particular time, the temple would not have been constructed.

The book of Esther takes place during the events that we're reading about in Ezra. But while Ezra is kind of on things that are happening in and around Jerusalem, Esther is happening back in Persia. But the events that we've been reading in the Old Testament up to this point, Esther would have already taken place.

So in kind of the chronology or in the timeline, it would have fallen somewhere in the middle to early part of the book of Ezra. But anyway, all of these things are reasons why Esther just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the Old Testament and arguments that some scholars have made as to why it shouldn't be one of the books of the Bible.

What would be the arguments for keeping it in the Bible? Well, mainly because the Jews already considered it scripture by the time that Jesus was born. And by the way, Esther is not even quoted in the New Testament.

So there's nowhere in the New Testament that refers back to something that we read in Esther. But by the time Jesus, by the time of Christ, Esther was already considered scripture by the Jews. So there's not a reason to exclude it.

Like you think of the Apocrypha, the books that the Catholics would say are part of the Bible, but the Jews did not consider the Apocrypha inspired scripture. They did consider Esther to be inspired scripture, even though the author is anonymous, even though there's no prophet, priest or king, even though the name of the Lord isn't mentioned there.

Nonetheless, it was in the Jewish tradition included as scripture. And so that's why we have the books of the Old Testament that we do, because the Jews had chosen them as the inspired word of God by the time canon was decided.

So that would be the number one argument. And number two would be that without the deliverance that we read about in this story, the Jews would have been wiped out and God's plan of salvation would not have come to fruition.

So Haman had this wicked plan to destroy the Jews. And had he succeeded, then this promise that God had given to his people of a savior would not have taken place because the Jews, he was going to bring the savior through the line of Judah as prophesied.

They all would have been wiped out, though. And so that's that that's the number one argument for why Esther belongs in the Bible is because even though it's rather secular in content, nonetheless, in the historical narrative, we know that had Haman succeeded, then the savior never would have been born.

So though God is not mentioned, his providential hand is certainly there. And that we cannot deny. Still, this is quite a change from Ezra and Nehemiah, where praise and credit is constantly being given to God for all of the things that are working in the Jews favor.

They would praise the Lord because he is the one that was making it happen. Whereas in the book of Esther, his name isn't even mentioned, nor is his law. Again, it's just it's just very secular in tone.

Now, someone might say, well, isn't there a part of the story where Haman expects everybody to bow before him and Mordecai won't bow? And the reason why Mordecai doesn't bow is because the law of God says that you will not bow before any other God.

No, that's not the reason Mordecai doesn't bow. But I'm not going to tell you the reason until we get to Esther chapter three. So before we get started with the story, though, it is a it is a brilliant story.

I mean, it is absolutely a magnificent, genius work. So the reason why this story has captured the hearts of so many people, whether they are Jew or Gentile, whether they are Christian or unbeliever, it's pretty obvious why this story is so popular with people.

Now, one thing that doesn't often get talked about related to the book of Esther is that the story is very similar to the story of Joseph. As a matter of fact, the writer of Esther, who is anonymous, we don't know who it is that wrote Esther.

Some have argued Mordecai. It may have been Mordecai since he worked for the king of Persia would end up working in his court. As we read about at the end of this story, maybe he is the one that wrote it.

That would make a lot of sense. But again, because the the author is anonymous, we don't know who this was. But obviously somebody who is familiar with the scriptures, because we see a lot of similarities between Esther and the story of Joseph.

And I don't mean just in plot. I mean, some of the wording is almost identical to what we read in the story of Joseph. I'll give you a few examples here. So Genesis chapter 37, we read the following. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.

Then Jacob tore his garment a few verses later. Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. And he wept for him. Now, here's what we read in Esther chapter four.

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put sackcloth and ashes. And he went out in the midst of the city and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. Very similar to what we read in Genesis 37.

Here's another one. Genesis 43. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. And we read this in Esther four.

This is Esther talking. Go gather all the Jews to be found in Susa and hold a fast on my behalf and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish. So similar to what Jacob's words were in Genesis 43. Now here's Genesis 41. And he made him ride in his second chariot and they called out before him, bow the knee. Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt.

That's what Pharaoh did for Joseph. And then in Esther chapter six. So Haman took the robes and the horse and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights in honor.

So there's just an example of some of the similarities that we see between Esther and the story of Joseph. And that's just a few. There are several others passages that are much longer. I just didn't want to I didn't want to take up that much time.

But like I said, a brilliant story. We have we have everything in this story. We've got it's an action story. We've got a beautiful and courageous heroine in in Esther. We have the romantic kind of a thread going on between Esther and Ahasuerus.

We've got a dire threat to the good characters. So there's tension, there's drama going on there, and there is a thoroughly evil villain. Haman is is an evil villain and to a ridiculous level. On top of that, there's satire in this story with how just incredibly narcissistic Haman is to a point that it eventually comes back to bite him.

And he has to end up making a fool out of himself because of the lengths that he was trying to go to to exalt himself. Instead, he makes himself a fool. And we're meant to laugh at that. We're meant to see that as absolutely ridiculous.

Now, I don't know if you're familiar with this movie, but there was a film called One Night with the King, and that was the story of Esther. It's a pretty good movie. I don't remember knocking my socks off or anything, but but it was all right.

I will say that one of the biggest drawbacks, though, and this is the reason why I bring it up, the biggest downside of this film was their villain. Haman was just he wasn't written well. He wasn't played well.

It was a very disappointing portrayal of that particular villain. And a good movie really is only as good as its villain is evil. You know, the reason why people love Star Wars, most of the films are not really good.

But the reason why Star Wars was so famous is because Darth Vader is a brilliant villain. I mean, can you imagine Batman without the Joker or Superman without Lex Luthor? If you don't give the hero a menacing opponent, then the hero doesn't look all that heroic.

And in this particular story, Haman is truly evil. And that's what makes Esther all the more heroic, is that she is able to thwart his wicked plans. Sometimes Haman just flat out makes a fool out of himself and his attempt to try to succeed at his narcissistic plots.

He ends up falling into the pit that he has dug for somebody else. So we have kind of two main themes going on here in the book of Esther. Number one is divine providence. I think the the divine hand of God that is over this story, even though the characters in the story don't give credit to him like we see given in Ezra and Nehemiah.

Nonetheless, all of these things are happening by the providential hand of God. And I would say the second theme, there's really two main themes. That's the big one. The second theme would be just the absurdity of the wickedness of man, how great God is, how wicked we are and how how foolish we make ourselves when we try to exalt our own plans rather than submitting to God's will.

So God's plan is over this entire story. When somebody tries to enact their own plans, they just fall flat on their face. So that that is kind of the back and forth going on here in the book of Esther.

But, yeah, again, as a story, we just have so many great themes going on here. Suspense, dramatic irony. We have descriptions of exotic places. We've got poetic justice. There's a happy ending. What is there not to love about the story of Esther?

So let's get started with it. We're not going to get very far today. I didn't think that we would, but it won't take us very long to read through Esther. It's only 10 chapters and chapter 10 is even really short on top of that.

So, oh, what other little tidbit, little factoid I wanted to mention about the book of Esther, the longest verse in the Bible is found in this book. And I'll tell you what it is when we get to it. Let's start at the very beginning.

Esther 1:1-10 and the Opening Feasts of Ahasuerus

Esther, chapter one, verse one. Now, in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty seven provinces. Let's stop right there. So who are we talking about?

Well, according to history, this was Xerxes the first, and he reigned from 486 to 464 BC. He was mentioned in the book of Ezra in chapter four. And so that kind of gives you a timeline idea of where the book of Esther falls in the story of Ezra.

So in Ezra, we're focusing on things that are happening in Jerusalem in Esther. This is what was happening in Susa, the capital city of Persia, at the same time that the temple was being rebuilt in Jerusalem.

So again, Ahasuerus reigned from India to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty seven provinces. In those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel in the third year of his reign, he gave a feast for all his officials and servants.

The army of Persia and Medea and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and the pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days.

It's just a great big celebration of Ahasuerus. It is Ahasuerus exalting himself. And the writer of Ezra is setting this up here for for the comedy that's about to ensue. So he's got all of this land.

He's got all of these people that honor him. He even throws a big festival for himself for one hundred and eighty days, like half a year so that people would just recognize and honor him for being Ahasuerus.

So verse five now. And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa, the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace.

There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother of pearl and precious stones.

Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds. And the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king and drinking was according to this edict. There is no compulsion because ordinarily the law is that you can't drink unless the king drinks.

So no one's ever going to be more drunk than the king. If the king doesn't get drunk, you can't get drunk. But the king is basically saying here, hey, let's get sloshed, man. You drink as much as you want to drink.

There's no compulsion. You are not compelled to only drink when I drink. Let every man drink. That's that's what the king is issuing in his kingdom. For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired.

Well, that sounds culturally modern to today. Anyway, verse nine, Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus. Now, that was unusual, but it just kind of goes to show the level of feasting and partying that they were doing, that even the women were allowed to get involved and be a part of all of this celebrating verse 10.

Now, on the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, when he was good and drunk, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abigtha, Zether and Sarkis, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.

But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this, the king became enraged and his anger burned within him. So this is meant to be comedic. We're supposed to laugh at this, at the fact that we've just read about this huge kingdom that the king commands from India to Ethiopia and all of the people who are awed by him and admire him.

A hundred and eighty days of admiration he issued in his empire. And we also have this palace that is described for us as richly ornamented and decorated and very beautiful. And then we get to the king summoning the queen to come to him.

And although he can command an entire empire, he can't even get the queen to come to him. Although he's got all of this beauty and gorgeousness that he wants everybody to admire, yet he can't get his wife in her beauty to come and stand before everybody so that they would admire her.

So it just kind of shows that even the most powerful man in the world cannot tell a woman what to do. So, yeah, there's there's the comedy that we have already coming out here in the book of Esther, and we're going to pick it up again next week.

I'm sorry. That's where we got to stop. But that's our introduction. And we'll pick up the story again on Thursday. Let's pray. Our great God, we thank you for your guiding hand upon all things. We know that nothing happens in this world or in this universe that has not been providentially guided by our Lord God.

And so I pray that you would continue to bless us and keep us close to you as you have brought us near through your son, Jesus Christ. May we trust in you for all things. In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.