The Girl-Queen, the Captive Conqueror: A Devotional Commentary on the Book of Esther (5:1-8)

The picture of Esther in 5:1, dressing herself in her royal robes and stepping terrified into the presence of the Persian Emperor is profoundly striking when you let it sink in. From 4:11 we know that she’s standing there under the threat of death. Add to this the fact that she belongs to a condemned people. Add to this what happened to Vashti when she displeased the King, and the tension here should be palpable. The next verse will break the spell, of course: Ahasuerus extends the royal sceptre to Esther, sparing her life and letting us exhale, but hopefully not before we’ve felt it, how awful a thing it would have been to stand there, a humble Jewish girl confronting the Powers and Principalities of this world with nothing but her beauty and a royal robe to defend her.

It gets me thinking about how God’s saving plan works through our smallness, not our power. He toppled Goliath with a sling-stone flung by the youngest son; he will topple Haman through the courage of a faithful Jewish maid. And of course, if Esther is a type of the Messiah, then we have to note it down, that in the Cross of Christ, God saves the world through the suffering smallness of his Son.

There is something very compelling for us as God’s people, in this picture of an unlikely Jewish Queen, trembling in her royal robes and stepping into the Emperor’s presence. You and I are not big enough, really, to confront the evil of this age, either, anymore than Esther was big enough to confront Ahasuerus. In the presence of the worst corruptions of this age, we’re about as powerful as a scared, displaced Jewish girl swept up in events way beyond her control and hiding her heart in some royal robes not her own. But the message of Esther is this: that which we can do, we must do, as small as it might be. We face opportunities all the time to put on our royal robes (so to speak) and step into the King’s presence—small opportunities to be faithful in the face (or the wake) of profound despair.

Ours is not to dethrone Ahasuerus; the heart of the King is in the Lord’s hand. Ours is simply and courageously to be true to Him in the midst of our smallness. May God give us the grace to be so.