Of Esthers and Hamans
Disciplining our hearts to rest in the hidden providence of God
“...Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.” (Esther 3:6)
The theme of the book of Esther, if we were to sum it up in a phrase, might very well be “the hidden providence of God” — “hidden” because God is curiously (but intentionally, I think) never explicitly mentioned throughout the course of the story, and yet providential because His fingerprints are visible on every page.
Take, as just one instance, the instalment of Esther, a Jewish woman, as queen of Persia at precisely the time when Haman “the Agagite” (cf. 1 Sam. 15) is plotting their demise. This choice is more than mere happenstance. As the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly apparent that Esther’s surprising appointment to the office of empress is the decisive and pivotal factor in the deliverance of the entire Jewish people. Mordecai’s words press the point with eloquence and force: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (4:14). Esther’s exaltation undoubtedly carries with it the signs of divine agency.
And yet, on a very practical and human level, why was Esther selected? The text tells us: “The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at” (2:7). Consequently, she won “favour in the eyes of all who saw her” and the “king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favour in his sight” (vv. 15–17).
Put another way, Esther had a God-ordained beauty about her, and this beauty resulted not only in her becoming queen, but in the preservation and deliverance of the entire old covenant people of God. God ordained Esther’s appearance—everything from her form to her hair colour to her eyes to the shape of her nose and ears and cheekbones—in order to weave her into a story of salvation, a story that itself was composed of ten thousand other elements, each dependent and interwoven with myriad others.
The thought simply staggers the imagination. Yet such is the wisdom and providence of God.
Your Father Knows What You Need Before You Ask
In the face of such wonder, the takeaway for us is simple: we must learn, as Peter said, to entrust our souls to a faithful Creator while doing good (1 Peter 4:19). The temptation in this world, corrupted as it is by sin and filled with Haman-esque characters who are ever busy plotting the destruction of the righteous, is always to give way to fear. It is to surrender to that anxious and fretful spirit gnawing at the edges of our minds and drawing us toward either despair or rage. But the thing we ought to do in such times is simply remember the message of the book of Esther: remember, that is, the hidden providence of God.
We ought to remember that God is always at work in every given situation in more ways than we can possibly conceive of. And we ought never to take his hiddenness for inaction. Our inability to perceive the works of God is no measure as to their presence or efficacy. We are unaware of almost all the various functions of our bodies throughout the course of the day and yet they continue to operate just fine despite our happy ignorance. So it is with God. He upholds the universe by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3), causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45), cares for the birds of the air (6:26), ordains the motions of the stars, steers the course of nations, and keeps kings awake in the night (Est. 6:1) — all for His own wise and sovereign purposes.
Moreover, He does all this for the greater and penultimate purpose of one day bringing all things in heaven and earth under the headship of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10). Each event that takes place in the cosmos—from the seemingly insignificant motions of dust and dew, to the great and consequential movements of nations and kingdoms—is therefore a necessary step toward that final day when every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9–11).
So take heart, Christian. God ordained the genetic code of a Jewish girl in order to shame the wicked and bring justice to His people. Though no human eye saw it at the time, He was setting in motion the conditions of salvation long before that salvation was historically necessary. As Jesus tells us, “…your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8).
Remember this. Think on this. And then entrust your soul to God, put your head down, and get busy doing good.
“Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and whither like the green herb. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.” (Ps. 37:1-2)