The Problem of Human Power

Esther is a strange book. Out of the 66 books of the Bible, it is the only one not to mention God, or use his covenantal name. It mentions nothing of the law, Torah, the history of the Jewish nation, or its hope for the future. Yet, this is part of its beauty and genius. Esther desires to show us how God’s power, even when unseen and unspoken, is still stronger than the mightiest of men. While it seems, on its surface, to be simply a story of how a feast came to be celebrated, we will hopefully see that it is much more than that. Let us begin by today looking into Esther 1, and how humans wrongly relate to power.