Esther (3) - The Riddle of the Book of Esther
As Your Like It
(Bible Study - July/August 2003)

Letting people do what they want is potentially a very dangerous thing, as various parts of the Bible make plain.  The book of Judges in particular stresses the demise of Israel when everyone ‘did that which was right in their own eyes.’  People’s eyes vary considerably, and there can be no moral commonality and no real spiritual standards if people do as they like.

Persians doing as they like
Yet this is precisely what takes place in the book of Esther.  In the opening chapter Ahasuerus commands that ‘they should do according to every man’s pleasure’ (1:8 – note the potential irony here, freedom by commandment!).  It may seem only an insignificant and passing reference in chapter 1, yet in taking this step Ahasuerus opens the floodgates for all sorts of behavioural problems which arise later in the book.  The notion of what someone likes and doesn’t like (what they want and what they don’t, what finds favour and what doesn’t) is an unexpected yet dominant motif in the book of Esther, and one which is introduced in that passage from 1:8.  From then on it occurs more than twenty further times![1]

At first sight, many of the references seem to be focussed on King Ahasuerus and what he wants:

• If it please the king, let there go forth a royal commandment… (1:19).

• The saying pleased the king and the princes (1:21).

• Let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti.  And the thing pleased the king…” (2:4).

• If it please the king, let it be written that (the Jews) be destroyed (3:9).

• What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour? (6:6 and repeated 5 times!).

A weak-minded king
Yet these verses, which seem to put the king fair and square into the driving seat, actually mask an important truth.  Apart from the parties considered in earlier articles, Ahasuerus initiates remarkably few of the things that take place in the book.  Virtually everything he ever does in the book is suggested to him by someone else.  For sure, the suggestions are couched in the language of ‘if it please the king…,’ but in reality it is the person making the suggestion who is steering the king rather than the king himself plotting his own course.  It is the one who suggests who gets what he wants – the king being left as a rather weak figure who doesn’t really know what he wants unless someone else tells him!

Nowhere is this clearer than in 3:9, when Haman rushes his plan of genocide past the king.  Haman knows just how to play the king along, how to get the necessary kingly authentication for a plan entirely of his own concoction.  As far as we know, Ahasuerus has nothing against the Jews and no particular wish to destroy them.  He is manipulated into sanctioning such a plan by a man with greater cunning and a stronger will than he.  Indeed, so certain is Haman that he can get his evil scheme past the king that he casts lots to decide the day of the Jews’ execution before he has even got approval to lift so much as a finger against them (note the order of 3:7 then 3:8)!  The most mighty of monarchs turns out to have the weakest of wills.

Ahasuerus continually takes counsel
Haman’s technique for mastering his master’s will is very skilful.  He does not name the people he wishes to destroy, for he does not wish the king to identify any particular personal individuals whom he might lose if the edict is carried out.  Instead he says “there is a certain people…”  He makes the Jews’ difference the basis for suspicion, and it is only when he has raised suspicion about something which is incontrovertible (that the Jews are different) that he goes on to lie: “neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them” (3:8).

It is much easier to discuss the destruction of ‘a certain people’ who are uncomfortably different from oneself (in an inexplicit and undefined way), than it is to talk of killing real people with real faces who one knows.  The king has no defence for wiles such as these.  Elsewhere in the book, Ahasuerus’ other officials similarly direct the king’s course, and in doing so probably simultaneously pursue their own agenda.

So Ahasuerus turns out to be a most interesting and, to some extent pitiable character.  He has emotions, but he doesn’t know how to direct himself in response to them — unless someone tells him.  He wants to honour one of his subjects, but he can’t think how to do it himself without asking another subject what should be done.  He is angry when his wife refuses his command, but he doesn’t know what to do about it short of summoning the royal council for advice.  He is even more angry when he finds Haman has been plotting against his wife’s people, but the most proactive thing he can do (until a courtier brings to his attention Haman’s incredible gallows) is to go out into his garden to cool off!

Nevertheless, in the end it is this very character trait that provides the way for him to be helped to do the right thing.  For he has good advisors as well as evil, and in the end it is they who prevail upon his ear.

The impact of Esther
This transformation comes about particularly because of Queen Esther, the one who finds favour in the sight of the king above all other.  Indeed, before she even gets to meet the king she captivates the official who is in charge of the king’s harem:

• “And the maiden pleased Hegai (the king’s chamberlain) … and he preferred her…” (2:9).

• “Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her …” (2:15).

Esther becomes the focus for the affections and desires of others.  She finds favour, as it were, with God and man (although God is not mentioned, as a later article will consider).  The book implicitly argues that there is nothing wrong with being popular or being liked, so long as this gift is used to help people make good choices rather than ill.

As Esther rises above her contemporaries, there is a reminder of both Joseph and Daniel.  All three ascend to positions of great political or royal authority and find favour in the eyes of those they meet; there are more detailed parallels, but they cannot be explored here.

The verses just quoted come from Esther 2, in which the king gets to choose a bride from among the most beautiful virgins of the empire.  They are assembled and subjected to a 12 month purification process for his benefit (irony again – the king gets to try out each one for a night, yet the text is silent about his purity).  It is a scene of Solomonic proportions and excess, yet contrary to appearances, in the final verdict it is Esther rather than he who is in control as he falls helplessly for her charms.  The text records that “Whatsoever (a maiden) desired was given her” (2:13) when she went to spend the night with the king — she could take anything she wanted with her in order to be of greater appeal to him.  But Esther wanted nothing.  She went before the king as she was and was irresistible to him:

• "And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins" (2:17).

• "She obtained favour in his sight" (5:2).

Esther sought the benefit of others
No wonder, then, that she and Mordecai eventually got their way.  But it was not a selfish way.  What they wanted was the best for their people as well as for themselves.  What they wanted was salvation.  The route to get there was circuitous, but eventually what they desired became a reality.  Here are the references which show a changed king (one who is eager to please his wife), and a wife who, through approaching the king in an appropriate and appealing way, obtained that which she desired:

• "What wilt thou, queen Esther, and what is thy request?" (5:3; ditto in 5:6 and 7:2).

• "If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition…" (5:8; ditto in 7:3).

• "If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes…" (8:5).

• "What is thy petition, and what is thy request further?" (9:12).

• "If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews…" (9:13).

Right prevails in the end
In the end, Ahasuerus was prepared to hand authority over to his Jewish subjects so as to allow them to execute Esther and Mordecai’s plan:

• "Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you… (8:8).

• "(The Jews) did what they would to those that hated them (9:5).

There is an odd juxtaposition within the book and within Persian society between the love of law and legislation on the one hand, and people doing what they please on the other.  In the end one might say that it is the latter which gets the upper hand; laws, no matter how rigid, can be bent to suit the will of whoever wields the most power at the time or who can most successfully manipulate the king.  At first it is the king’s self-seeking advisors and the evil Haman who hold sway; but through the charms and demeanour of queen Esther, the heart of the king is moved in an entirely different direction.  Even the will of the mighty Persian empire may be bent, so the book would seem to say.  But there is a more personal message as well.  It is all about aligning what you want with what God wants.  If you want the right things, in the long run they might just turn out your way.

Mark Vincent

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