Reading Difficult Texts

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Reading Difficult Texts

• The Book of Esther
• Strategies for Pastoral Teaching and Preaching

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I dislike the Book of Esther and that of II
Maccabees, for they Judaize too much and contain
much pagan naughtiness. (Martin Luther)
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2 major issues

• 1. The absence of God
• 2. Ethical problems

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Solutions for the absence of God

• 1. Ignore Gods absence. Read as if he is
  present.
• 2. God is clearly present in certain details.

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Esther 414 For if you keep silence at such a
time as this, relief and deliverance will rise
for the Jews from another quarter, but you and
your father's family will perish. Who knows?
Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just
such a time as this.
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Solutions for the absence of God

• 3. Typology
• Ahasuerus is a type of Christ
• OR
• Mordecai is a type of Christ
• OR
• Esther is a type of Christ

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Solutions for the absence of God

• 4. Acrostics

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The divine name in acrostics

• Est 1.20 WnÝT.yI yviªN"h-lk'wgt ayhi_
• Est 5.4 AYëh !m'h'wgt l,M,Ûh aAby
• Est 513 yli_ hAltßv WNnltïyae hzlt
• Est 77 h'Þr"h' wyl'²ae ht'îl.k'-yKi

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Ways to relate to the absence of God

• 1. It emphasizes human initiative.
• 2. Forces us to search for God.

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It just so happens that ...

• There is a vacancy for a queen
• Esther, a Jew, wins the competition
• Her uncle, Mordecai discovers a plot
• The king cannot sleep
• So his servants read the chronicles
• On the very page which mentions Mordecai
• At the very time that Haman arrives

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Christian problems with Esther

• There is not one noble character in this book.
  (Lewis Bayles Paton, The Book of Esther,
  International Critical Commentary. Edinburgh T
  T Clark, 1908, p. 96)
• From the moral point of view the book has little
  to commend it to civilized persons. (Robert H.
  Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament New
  York Harper and Row, 1941, p. 747)
• The book is inspired by a fierce nationalism and
  an unblushing vindictiveness. (B. W. Anderson,
  Journal of Religion 39 (1950), p. 32.)

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Jewish problems with Esther

• 'The true reasons why we cannot regard the book
  of Esther as divine or inspired are, first,
  because of the spirit of cruelty and of revenge,
  so that it is not too strong to say ... that "its
  last pages reek with blood" and, secondly,
  because there is little compensation for this
  grave defect in any grandeur or beauty of
  teaching elsewhere.' (Claude G. Montefiore, The
  Bible for Home Reading London Macmillan and
  Co., 1899, 1907, 2405.)

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Adventist problems with Esther

• It seems, however, that the Jews plan of self-
  defense got out of hand when they began to wreak
  vengeance on their enemies. ... it seems out of
  reason. ... It is useless to try to excuse the
  ruthless vengeance of the Jews. (George T.
  Dickinson, Hidden Patterns and the Grand Design,
  Washington DC Review and Herald Publishing
  Association, 1967, pp. 121-22.)

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Mordecais refusal to bow
Esther 32 And all the king's servants who were
at the king's gate bowed down and did obeisance
to Haman for the king had so commanded
concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or
do obeisance.
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Genesis 237 Abraham rose and bowed to the
Hittites, the people of the land.
1 Samuel 248 Afterwards David also rose up and
went out of the cave and called after Saul, "My
lord the king!" When Saul looked behind him,
David bowed with his face to the ground, and did
obeisance.
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Esthers ethics

• 1. Sacrifices her virginity to become queen
• 2. Sleeps with a promiscuous pagan

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Esther 212-14 The turn came for each girl to go
in to King Ahasuerus, ... When the girl went in
to the king she was given whatever she asked for
to take with her from the harem to the king's
palace. In the evening she went in then in the
morning she came back to the second harem in
custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch, who was
in charge of the concubines she did not go in to
the king again, unless the king delighted in her
and she was summoned by name.
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Esthers ethics

• 3. Vindictive in her treatment of Persians

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Esther 87-11 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen
Esther and to the Jew Mordecai, "See, I have
given Esther the house of Haman, and they have
hanged him on the gallows, because he plotted to
lay hands on the Jews. You may write as you
please with regard to the Jews, in the name of
the king, and seal it with the king's ring ...
By these letters the king allowed the Jews who
were in every city to assemble and defend their
lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any
armed force of any people or province that might
attack them, with their children and women, and
to plunder their goods. Esther 95-16 So the
Jews struck down all their enemies with the
sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did
as they pleased to those who hated them. In the
citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed
five hundred people. ... Esther said, "If it
pleases the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be
allowed tomorrow also to do according to this
day's edict, and let the ten sons of Haman be
hanged on the gallows." ... The Jews who were in
Susa ... killed three hundred persons in Susa...
Now the other Jews who were in the king's
provinces also gathered to defend their lives,
and gained relief from their enemies, and killed
seventy-five thousand of those who hated them.
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Esther 78 When the king returned from the
palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had
thrown himself on the couch where Esther was
reclining and the king said, "Will he even
assault the queen in my presence, in my own
house?" As the words left the mouth of the king,
they covered Haman's face.
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Issues in Esther

• 1. Absence of God
• 2. Ethical problems

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Inadequate approaches

• 1. Ignoring the absence of God
• 2. God is clearly present
• 3. Not asking why God is absent
• 4. Ignoring the ethical issues

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Pastoral strategy for Esther

• 1. Highlight the absence of God from text
• 2. Accept the ethical challenges
• What are the consequences?

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• 1. We experience God indirectly
• 2. Through fortuitous coincidences rather than
  through miracles and direct speech
• 3. Gods presence is ambiguous in the book just
  as in our lives

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• The book invites ethical self-criticism
• The persecuted can become persecutors
• As a minority in our world, what ethical self-
  criticism should Adventists engage in?