This blog is based on references in the Bible to fear. God wills that we “BE NOT AFRAID”. Many theologians state that the eighth deadly sin is fear. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. By “the power of the Holy Spirit” we can be witnesses and “communicators” of a new and redeemed humanity “even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7 8). This blog is dedicated to Mary the Mother of God.
How do you deal with someone's insidious plot to murder you and everybody
like you?
The Bookof
Esther provides one possible answer to that question, tough
cookie though it is. Today, that query may not loom quite as large in America,
but it definitely does in many other places throughout the world (the
Middle East, Burma, the Congo—and about a dozen or more other places). It
happened to loom really large in the ancient Middle East too. In Esther's case,
though, no one seems to know if there really was a wicked counselor named Haman
who attempted to manipulate the emperor (probably Xerxes I, though here he's
called "Ahasuerus") into having all the Jews in the Persian Empire
murdered during the fifth century BCE. Nevertheless, you don't have to look too
deeply into Jewish history to find highly similar attempts at genocide and
persecution against the Jews. The story (which was probably written during the
third or fourth Century BCE) may have helped people who were living under later
rulers and needed to reckon with threats from above (regardless of how
historically accurate the story is—or isn't).
Good
Girl, Mad World
Esther is one of the first in a long line of stories about how a good and
clever woman helps a powerful, evil, and monstrous (or maybe just confused)
villain switch towards making the right decisions (in this case, it's King
Ahasuerus). In a way, it's a little like Beauty and the Beast—except
the Beast never sat around tacitly supporting a genocide, Belle never sought
vengeance against the people who were trying to kill her, and Lumiere never
walked around weeping and wearing sack-cloth. But despite all that, Esther's a
good example of this type of story. To give a non-Disney version, you could
think of The Arabian Nights, where the heroine gets her husband to
stop murdering his wives every night by telling him a series of entertaining
tales (come to think of it, actually that is a Disney example, because
Aladdin's part of The Arabian Nights). It's also a bit of an
unusual fit. It isn't one of the major books of the Tanakh or the prophets or
anything. It's wedged in with the "Writings," next to a miscellany of
texts, like The Book of Daniel and The Song of Songs. It's also particularly
odd because it doesn't really mention God, doesn't really fit into that whole
spiritual narrative which occupies the Torah and the Prophets. It's a suspense
and adventure story on the one hand, but it's also a more serious tale about
how the Jewish people manage to preserve themselves and their culture when faced
with a threat from hostile authorities. Additionally, one of Esther's greatest
contributions to culture—the holiday of Purim—is a time for fun and merriment
(and also an opportunity to look for spiritual meanings hidden within the
tale).
Why
Should I Care?
The Book of Esther has a James Bond-ish, ticking-time-bomb plot. It's also
heavy on action, drama, and Game of Thrones-style intrigue, while
being notably lacking in legal codes, commandments, theology—all that kind of
thing. This is one book of the Bible you could easily read while marinating in
a bubble bath, without feeling particularly sacrilegious (not that, uh, any of
us have done that here at Shmoop). Our point is that the book is compact and
smooth—a straightforward, streamlined example of an ancient Hebrew short story.
We're not suggesting that whoever wrote the book of Esther was exactly the Alice Munro of his or her time, but the
author was indeed another master storyteller. A closer comparison would be a
story that's a classic, but more focused on action than on character. Maybe F.
Scott Fitzgerald's "The
Diamond as Big as the Ritz" would work as an example of the style (if
not of the substance).
Darker
Dimensions
But Esther is more than an entertaining yarn. To be sure, it is more
of a "tale" than an epic investigation into the relationship between
God and humanity. (In fact, considering that it doesn't really mention God, it
might be the Bible's most secular book.) Overall, though, it's a story about
how a pair of scrappy underdogs—Esther and Mordecai—face seemingly
insurmountable odds and end up putting it all together in the end. The author
suggests that, while living in exile the Jewish people can—with tough work and
intelligence—secure a decent place for themselves within the kingdoms ruled by
Gentile conquerors. (So, maybe it's more like The Little Giants or The
Mighty Ducks than all that high-art literary Munro and Fitzgerald stuff.) Yet,
there are darker dimensions to the story, going beyond the basic theme of
preventing a genocide. Esther, Mordecai, and their allies seek vengeance
against the supporters of the evil counselor Haman, racking up a considerable
death toll, for one thing. As well, the king Ahasuerus is a bit of a cipher.
You can't really figure out what the dude's psychology is, or what he's
"on about" (to borrow a U.K.-ism). So, that's all disquieting food
for thought. But despite these violent and confusing undertones and the
somewhat confusing, momentary disappearance of God from the Biblical storyline,
the reader will undoubtedly be moved to repeat an immortal line from The
Royal Tennenbaums: "Go, Mordecai!"
Ester, Chapter 1, Verse 8
The whole nation of the just was shaken
with fear at the evils to come upon
them, and they expected to perish.
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