First and foremost, I would like to tell you, that the book of Esther is considered a historical narrative as well as a fictional narrative. However, it is one of two books in the bible that do not mention God. Nonetheless, God’s presence is not absent. But tell me, how can a book in the bible that never mentions God communicate any type of theology? It’s a simple answer, actually. The theme of Esther revolves around God’s providential protection of Esther’s people because, they are indeed His people, despite all of their flaws and failures. And do we not as modern believers have flaws and failures?
In this book, Esther chronicles a threat not only to the Jewish people, who by the way had just returned from exile and are trying to re-establish…show more content… However, what would be the purpose of a book in the Bible that does indeed record the deliverance of God’s people from ultimate destruction, which happens through a series of “chance” events, but never mentions God? That brings us to the theological purpose of the book.
The theological purpose of this book is to highlight God’s providence in ruling and overruling in human affairs. Also to demonstrate His protective care for His people and His purposes. God is clearly working behind the scenes in this particular book, and we see that when Mordecai (Esther’s uncle), does not want to bow down to Haman (the king’s evil right hand man, and he was evil. Side note, the king wasn’t even aware of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jewish race). Why? Because Mordecai only owes his allegiance to God, of course. At least, that is what a religious person might…show more content… That is part of the mystery of the theological purpose of this text, and you can see it from two different ways. The first way would be to see it as a deeper message or you can either see it as a quite entertaining story and a fundamentally secular story. You decide how you want to view this story.
Plus, there is another version of this book, and it is not contained in most Bibles you read today. It is from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), which includes added chapters that occur at a later date that attempt to give God a bigger role in the stories. It includes a chapter in which Mordecai and Esther pray for God’s intervention. There were some people that just weren’t content to see God implied in the story. They wanted to give God’s role more
