On Dangerous Texts

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22

One of the pleasures of scripture is the way it steps out of character from time to time, or at least the character that we tend to thrust upon it. It can be sweet, comforting, inspiring, and funny. It can also be ironic, harsh, inexplicable, or vulgar. Then you run across something like our text today. If one were to start attaching warning labels to certain passages of scripture, this would be a good place to begin because this text is definitely dangerous.

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Let’s review the story first. The setting is the Persian Empire at some point during the Jewish diaspora. The Persian king, Ahasuerus, on the advice of his counselors decides to replace his queen Vashti after she refused to come to him when summoned. He holds a long, drawn-out search for the perfect replacement, and settles on Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her pious uncle Mordecai. She becomes his new queen, but she keeps her Jewish heritage secret. Shortly thereafter, Mordecai discovers a plot to assassinate Ahasuerus, and reveals it to the king, thus potentially saving his life. The problems begin when king Ahasuerus’ new viceroy, Haman, takes notice that Mordecai, because of his Jewishness, refuses to bow and do obeisance when Haman walks by. This is an intolerable insult and he begins to plot not only Mordecai’s demise, which involves impaling him on a stake 50 cubits high, or about 75 feet. In addition, for good measure, Haman wants to destroy all of the Jewish people. Ahasuerus, who is hardly capable of an independent thought, gives his approval for Haman’s genocidal scheme. A date is chosen—the 13^th of the month of Adar—and a royal decree goes out to all the empire to see that it is done. Mordecai implores Esther to intercede with the King, but she fears doing so, because to appear unsummoned before the king is a capital offence. However, to make a long story short, Esther takes the risk, reveals her own Jewish heritage, and prevails upon the king to rescind the order.

As for Haman, the king mistakenly believes that he has designs on the queen, so he orders Haman executed on the very pole that was set up for Mordecai. Due to the nature of Persian bureaucracy, the king cannot annul his own order to kill all the Jews, so he adds an amendment permitting the Jews to band together to destroy those seeking to kill them. On the appointed day, in an epic reversal of fortune, the Jews slaughter over 75,000 of their Persian would-be oppressors in various cities throughout the Empire. Mordecai is elevated to the rank of Prime Minister, Esther remains the Queen, and they all lived happily ever after.