Esther 1:1 - 1:22
For a book that sits within the Christian bible, the book of Esther is fairly unusual. Not once is God mentioned, and the characters, both Jewish and non-Jewish sit comfortably in a secular society where God is not named and the people seem to be indifferent to him. Esther therefore has a lot to say to people in 21st century Australia. Both Christian and pre-Christian people, too often see to be unaware and unconnected with God in our daily lives.
The overarching theme of Esther is that this unnamed and apparently unconnected God is active throughout bringing salvation to his people. The marvellous thing about God in this book is that whilst he works to bring about his people, he does it through the invidual actions and choices of the characters. There are no great miracles like in Daniel.
Through the characters in Esther we can learn that God is present in the places where we might never think to look.
Xerxes shows us that God is present in our stupidity - no decision that we make is bad enough that God can't bring his good out of it.
Vashti shows us that God is present in the silence. When we are surrounded by noise, and prefer that God speak to us directly, sometimes we need to still ourselves so that we can find God in the silence.
Mordecai shows us that God uses coincidences. What we may see as unrelated events in our lives, can be drawn together to fulfil God's plan, we need to be willing to act when God prompts.
Esther shows us that God uses our brokenness. We see value in strenght, but God uses our weakness.
Haman shows us that God uses our enemies. We need to ask what we can learn from our enemies and how they can help us grow in grace and as children of God.
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