I have been carefully reading the book of Esther recently, noticing how this book of Scripture comes to life today, illuminating several key societal themes still manifesting in cultures around the world.
The story itself is a great read, and I recommend it for its literary and entertainment value alone. The character and plot development, the rise and fall of the drama, and its ultimate resolution are unsurpassed in literature, within or outside the Bible, in my humble opinion. It has everything—tragedy, comedy, heroism, satire, history, revenge, and redemption.
Esther’s story is both a God-story and a human story. Although God is never mentioned in the book, and many scholars consider this the most secular of Old Testament books, His sovereign hand is evident in the mysterious unfolding of events.
At the same time, the story profoundly portrays that human characters often have an essential part in God’s plans. They must accept responsibility and take action on their convictions at the right moments. This is how heroes are made, civilizations are saved from destruction, and God is glorified on the earth.
Under the arching themes of divine sovereignty and human agency are more carnal issues of alcohol abuse, sexual objectification and exploitation of women, ethnic genocide, and closer to home, the kind of narcissism that renders leaders foolish, unstable, and cruel.
Alcohol in the story
Proverbs 31 presents inspired sayings of King Lemuel, including this admonition about leaders and alcohol:
It is not for kings…it is not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights (Prov. 31:4-5).
The unnamed narrator of Esther’s story seems to intentionally highlight how alcohol may have influenced decisions and events.
The story begins with a 6-month empire-wide bacchanalia hosted by the Persian King Xerxes. Then, as if they hadn’t partied enough, Xerxes tags on another week of festivities for his staff and palace officials. After serving the entire population for six months, perhaps the king felt that they deserved their own recognition and chance to chill out.
The description of this after-party party includes a curious note about drinking:
Drinks were served in gold goblets of many designs, and there was an abundance of royal wine, reflecting the king’s generosity. By edict of the king, no limits were placed on the drinking, for the king had instructed all his palace officials to serve each man as much as he wanted. (Esth. 1:7-8).
There is a reason for everything stated in Scripture. I can’t presume to know why this detail is provided, but it tells us that the king was in favor of allowing his staff to get as intoxicated as they wished—or not.
Exploitation of Women
The king allowed himself the same liberality with wine, because when he was “half-drunk with wine,” he followed a sudden impulse to summon his queen, Vashti, who was at that moment hosting her own party for the women.
He [Xerxes] wanted men to gaze on her beauty , for she was a beautiful woman. When when they conveyed the kind’s order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. This made the kind furious, and he burned with anger.” (1:11-12).
This strikes a note with me after having worked with alcoholics in recovery and seeing the effects of alcohol abuse on spouses and families. I’m not saying this biblical book is making this point; it is my own hypothetical conjecture:
What if Vashti had been dealing for a long time with this kind of demeaning, objectifying treatment at the hands of a narcissistic, alcoholic husband, and she had had enough. Either way, in the presence of other women who may have experienced similar treatment by men, she says, “Hell no, I won’t go.”
Amongst the boys, this simply cannot stand. The king’s advisors tell him he’d better punish Vashti severely for her insubordination. One of them, Memucan, opines,
“Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king but also every official and citizen throughout your empire. Women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learn that Queen Vashti has refused to before the king…the wife of every one of us…will hear what the queen did and will start talking to their husbands the same way. There will be no end to the contempt and anger throughout your realm.” (1:16-18).
Memucan’s recommendation? Dethrone Vashti, banish her, and hold a beauty contest to find a more compliant queen.
Esther, a closeted Jewess left behind after Jews began their return to their Promised Land, is beautiful enough to make the first round as a contestant. She quickly becomes the favorite of the eunuch assigned the task of preparing contestants for their first erotic encounter with the king. Esther got the best ointments, massages, and who knows what else. She waited with the other beautiful virgins for her number to come up.
The story implies that once a contestant had her encounter with the king, she would either be chosen as his queen or would be returned to the royal harem minus her virginity. The king might remember her and wish to have sex with her on occasion, but otherwise, she languishes in the royal harem, unmarriageable and childless.
Few would consider this an acceptable way to treat women, and yet it is still happening to millions today who are being trafficked, abused and sexually enslaved today. And in case you want to use this story as an indictment of biblical morality, I beg you to acknowledge that the Bible does not express agreement or in any way condone the behavior described. The storyteller tells the story as it happened without moral commentary. When people do unspeakably awful things to one another in the Bible (or in life), beware concluding that God approves of them.
Isn’t it fascinating that all of these things (and this is just Chapter 1!) had to happen to create the opportunity for Esther to become queen?
Narcissism
But there are a few more twists and turns and foolish, intoxicated decisions to come. For reasons not stated in the text, Xerxes establishes a special bond with a beast named Haman. If Xerxes is mild to moderate on the narcissism scale, Haman is all the way on the severe end. He adores having people bow to him, and will not tolerate Esther’s older cousin Mordecai’s refusal to bow or honor him as the king has commanded. Narcissists, in my personal and professional experience, blame everything on others, lack empathy, and have very limited insight into their own wicked behavior.
Antisemitism
The enraged Haman gets the king’s permission to circulate an edict condemning all Jews in the empire to be exterminated on a fixed date the following year, established by casting lots (Purim). Haman schedules a Jewish Holocaust. It reads as an insane idea, and yet the king rubber-stamps it. If we know anything about Nazi Germany, we know that this very same insane idea can actually be brought to fruition.
The rest of the story is what makes Esther famous. Because of her favor as queen, the plot is thwarted. Xerxes’ broken-down, alcohol damaged conscience, having been falsely bolstered by Haman’s company as a drinking buddy, has not been hardened beyond redemption.
Esther approaches the king without invitation, risking her life. She very cleverly devises a way to gain the king’s ear and his sympathies for her people. She opens his eyes to the evil, racist conspiracy of Haman.
The problem the king faced was that he had made an irrevocable decree to destroy all the Jews. Mordecai was elevated soon after Esther’s second dinner party to Haman’s second-in-command position while Haman swung on his own hastily built gallows. Mordecai and Esther consult with the king to find a path forward. They decide that if they can’t reverse the threat against the Jews, they can permit and equip the Jews to defend themselves against any remaining threats.
The king’s new decree gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, and to take the property of their enemies. (8:11).
Does this seem familiar at all? A people threatened with annihilation by enemies should have the right to defend themselves, fight back, and even take revenge. The revenge part is what many find morally indefensible in the story, and in Israel today. Again, the narrator, does not pass judgment, leaving us to seek God’s wisdom on such matters.
What adds irony to the story’s end is that many of the Persian, non-Jewish people became so terrified of the retaliatory power of the Jews that they pretended to be Jews so they wouldn’t be attacked.
Every year, Jews observe the feast of Purim to celebrate again their victory over their enemies and how God turned the tables, just in time.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief commentary on the complex narratives in the book of Esther. I’ve merely scratched the surface, unearthing discernible parallels between the 5th century B.C. story of a Jewish remnant in Persia and problems still widespread many centuries later.
Leaders still drink too much and make terrible decisions that harm their constituents, families, and communities. Malignant narcissists make life a hell for those subject to their tyranny.
Women are still objectified, disrespected, and exploited in countless ways, and some rebel with contempt toward their perpetrators.
Antisemitism is alive and well throughout the world, and it is only by the indecipherable grace and mercy of God that Jews still survive and thrive in a world where so many, like Haman, hate them fiercely.
This is what I love about the Bible. It doesn’t always put a smile on our faces or give us simple answers to complex questions.
But it is always relevant. It always speaks. It always relates. And it always matters, because it is true.
Always.
Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. (Mk 13:31).
