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What Is This Story Doing in the Bible?

Many Christians have a pretty clear-cut idea of what the Bible ought to be about. It should be about God. It should come right out and tell us how to live. It should reflect spiritual and historical truth. It should be solemn and serious. This is how much of the Bible is written. But there is one book of the Bible that is different. The book of Esther never mentions God, no one prays, no miracles happen, and the book is never even mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. It is as if God were on vacation during the time of Esther.

Little wonder then, that so many people just don’t seem to think the book of Esther belongs in the Bible. As far as we can tell, John Calvin never preached from Esther, and Martin Luther despised it, saying, “I am so great an enemy to the second book of Maccabees, and to Esther, that I wish they had not come to us at all, for they have too many heathen unnaturalities.” Very few preachers in the history of the church and more recent years have touched the book. Occasionally a preacher will do a handful of messages from the book, but rarely if ever has a well-known preacher preached through the entire book.

So, you may be wondering, why are we going to go through the book of Esther? Actually, the story of Esther is tremendously relevant for us today. Think about it. Doesn’t it often seem as if God is absent and evil abounds? Don’t good things happen despite any impure motives we might have? Don’t God’s plans move forward despite our failings?

Through the story of Esther, we see life as we know it: God’s perfect work through imperfect people. In the end, the saving of the Jews is not about the virtue of the individuals in the story of Esther. Rather, it is about the providence of God and his ability to accomplish his will, regardless of the imperfectness of his people.