The Girl-Queen, the Captive Conqueror: A Devotional Commentary on the Book of Esther (8:11-17)

God’s deliverance of his people is breaking in to the story at last, with light, and joy and happiness and honor (8:16). Ahasuerus issues a new decree, one that empowers the Jews to defend themselves against their enemies, and, incidentally, perfectly reverses his decree back in 3:12-13, word for word, right down to the letter. But here’s the verse that I find fascinating. In 8:17 it says, “Many people of the land ‘became Jews’ because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.” What we’re seeing here is a relatively rare instance of Gentiles converting to Judaism, in the Old Testament. There are similar instances of Gentiles coming to recognize, acknowledge, even worship the God of Abraham, but this is the only place where it’s actually framed in terms of Gentiles becoming Jews—converting to and adopting the Jewish way of life. The Hebrew word that’s used there--yâhad—is a verbal form of the noun yehûd, “Jew”; that is, it’s a verb that means “to become Jewish,” and here’s the thing: this is the only place in the whole Old Testament where this verb, yâhad, is used. The ancient Greek translators of Esther picked up on this: in their translation of this verse it says, “they were circumcised and lived like Jews.”

Modern readers like us might gloss over this little piece of verbal trivia, but it’s actually a really big deal: in the Book of Esther, the outcome of God’s deliverance is that a) the Jewish community thrives (with joy, feasting, honor and light) and b) when the Gentiles see this thriving community, they are so awed by it that they become Jews themselves—adopted into Abraham’s Family, not by blood, but by faithfully following the Jewish Way of Life.

I can’t help but think of Acts 2:46-47, where Luke is talking about the very first Christian community, and he says almost the exact same thing: “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.”

 Am I the only one who thinks that sounds uncannily familiar? The outcome of God’s ultimate deliverance in Jesus is that a) the Christian community thrives, and b) when the non-Christians see this thriving community, they are so awed by it that they become Christian, too. As far as Acts is concerned, the outcome of Esther is quite literally fulfilled in the life of the Church.

There are of course, two differences, but these make all the difference. 1) In Esther, salvation comes about as the Jews slaughter the enemies that were set to slaughter them, whereas in Christ, salvation comes about as we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. And 2) in Esther, the Gentiles join the community by being circumcised and following the Jewish Way of Life, whereas in Christ, we are invited into the community through baptism (which is the fulfillment of circumcision; see Colossians 2:11) and by following Jesus, who is himself the Way and the Life.

The question that Jesus is asking us to ask ourselves through the Book of Esther, is this: is our Christian community thriving in the Esther 8:16/ Acts 2:46-47 sense of the word? And what might happen in our midst if it were?