Rachel's redemption

Rachel (רָחֵל) is the Hebrew word for ewe. Biblical Rachel appears for the first time in Genesis 29 with a flock of sheep. She was a gorgeous shepherdess who captured the heart of Jacob in an instant and remained his love for life, even long after she died, and she became a matriarch of Israel.

Though Rachel was barren for much of her life, she ultimately bore two sons from whom three of Israel’s twelve tribes descended. Hers is story of trauma and tragedy, but redemption follows. She was made to keep silent whilst her elder sister was married off in her place. She did not receive any inheritance from her father, who spent her share on himself. Perhaps in reaction, she stole from him and consequently fell victim of her husband’s curse which cost her her life.

So where is her redemption? Rachel died upon giving birth to her second son, whom she named “son of my sorrow,” and she was buried on the roadside. What’s worse is that hundreds of years later, the prophet Jeremiah portrayed her weeping in her tomb for her descendants who were slaughtered by ruthless invaders – God’s agents to punish their wickedness. (Matthew quoted Jeremiah in the second chapter his gospel.)

Rachel’s redemption is found in the story of Israel. Her first son, Joseph, became a saviour to his family through his promotion to “prime minister” of Egypt. From his high position, he was able (and gracious enough) to rescue his family from famine. Rachel’s second son, Benjamin, was the ancestor of Mordecai, and thus probably also Esther. It was this pair, Mordecai and Esther, who saved the Jewish people from annihilation in the Persian Empire in the fifth century BCE.

As for Jeremiah’s prophecy, it doesn’t end with Rachel weeping, but with [the LORD] promising reward, return from exile, hope for the future of her offspring. And this redemption is not too late to help Rachel so long after her death because though she died, she lives yet – for her God is God of the living, not the dead (Matthew 22:32).

Surprises in Esther

Jews around the world celebrate Purim every year at this time, a festival founded on the story told in the book of Esther. It’s an awesome record of God’s deliverance of his people, yet his name is not mentioned in the book nor is there any explicit reference to him. In the Hebrew Bible, only Song of Songs and Esther don’t mention God's name directly. Esther doesn't directly mention God at all. This is a bit of a mystery for us. Was the omission of references to God a rhetorical device intended to elicit a particular response from the readers? Was it to demonstrate that God is always at work behind the scenes? Was the author at risk of persecution or having his work destroyed if he mentioned the God of Israel? We don’t know the answer for certain, but we can see that he wrote very deliberately. For instance, the narrative has a symmetric structure, with a sleepless night for the king (Achashverosh/Ahaseurus/Xerxes) in the middle leading to a turnaround for the Judeans; danger mounts progressively through the first half of the book, but deliverance unfolds in the second.
Similarly, the author of Esther uses ironies and even ‘coincidences’ (implicitly God-ordained). He also seems to love presenting the historical elements in pairs, e.g. two queens, two fasts, two occasions where Zeresh speaks to Haman, two royal edicts, and so on.

Incidentally, Ruth and Esther are the only two books of the Bible named after women.

Symmetry

From danger (first half) to deliverance (second half), the text can be summarised symmetrically, as follows:

Prologue

Ahasuerus’ first decree, spelling death for the Jews

Haman's anger toward Mordecai

Ahasuerus gets no sleep

Modecai is exalted over Haman

Ahasuerus second decree, spelling deliverance for the Jews

Epilogue

Two-by-two

Many of these points have been borrowed from the NIV Study Bible:

• The 3 pairs of key banquets in a symmetric structure
• Two lists of the king's servants (1:10,14)
• Two reports of Esther concealing her Jewish identity (2:10,20)
• Two gatherings of the women (2:8,19)
• Two houses for the women (2:12-14)
• Two fasts (4:3,16)
• Two times when Haman speaks to his wife and friends (5:14, 6:13)
• Haman's wife, Zeresh, speaks twice:
  • the first time her advice is bad but Haman takes it: hang Mordecai (5:14)
  • the second time gives a good warning (don't try to destroy the Jews, 6:13), but Haman ignores it
• Two unannounced appearances of Esther before the king at the risk of her life (5:2, 8:3)
• Two investitures for Mordecai with royal garments and a crown (6:7-11, 8:15)
• Two coverings of Haman's face (6:12, 7:8)
• Two passages referring to Haman's 10 sons (5:11, 9:6-14)
• Possibly two appearances of Harbona (1:10, 7:9) – if these refer to the same person (Hebrew spelling differs)
• Two royal edicts (3:12-14, 8:1-13)
• Two references to the king's subsiding anger (2:1, 7:10)
• Two references to the irrevocability of Persian laws (1:19, 8:8)
• Two days for the Jews to take vengeance (9:5-15)
• Two letters to institute the commemoration of Purim (9:22-28, 9:29-31)
• Twice the king gives over his ring to an official (firstly to Haman, then to Mordecai; 3:10, 8:2)
• Twice Esther spoke to Hathach and sent him to Mordecai (4:5, 4:10)

Ironies and ‘coincidences’

• Vashti refused to appear before Ahasuerus, so he forbad her from seeing him ever again
• Haman hated the Jews, but was working under Esther and alongside Mordecai
• The king agreed to Haman's plot not knowing that it would kill his own wife and his prime minister, Mordecai
• Haman's suggestion to the king on how to commend and reward himself led to his own humiliation: having to do it for his enemy Mordecai
• Haman was accused of trying to attack or molest Esther, when he was actually pleading with her for his life
• Haman's body was hanged out on the gallows he made for Mordecai
• Like Saul, Esther was a Benjamite; Haman was an Agagite and thus an Amalekite. Samuel sent Saul to finish off Agag because of God's promise to destroy the Amalekites, but Saul didn't and Samuel had to do it himself. Now Esther and the Jews finally wiped out the Amalekites - Haman and his tribe
• Right before Haman was to charge Mordecai before Ahasuerus, Ahasuerus had a sleepless night and got his attendants to read to him; they read the story of how Mordecai had saved his life
• The irony of Haman taking his wife's bad advice but ignoring her wise warning

Contrasts and turn-arounds

• Vashti refused to appear before the king; Esther appeared unannounced before the king
• Exiled orphan becomes queen of a vast empire
• The victims become the victors; the oppressors are wiped out
• In Haman’s anger toward one Jew, Mordecai, he decided to kill all the Jews. In the end, Haman and all his kin, the descendants of the Amalek, were killed
• Instead of Haman getting everything of Mordecai, Mordecai ends up with Haman's whole estate

The Name of the LORD

Now for an even bigger surprise. The name of the LORD is encoded four times in the text of Esther. Twice in the text it is encoded forwards when a Jew is speaking, and twice backwards when a Gentile is speaking. It is twice the first letter of each of four successive words, and twice the last letter of each of four successive words, once by the Queen, once about the Queen, once by Haman, once about Haman.

Verse	Speaker	Topic: honour/dishonour	Reading	Letter position
Est 1:20	Gentile	About the Queen (Vashti), dishonours her (Est 1:19-20)	Backwards	First
Est 5:4	Jew	Esther speaking, supposedly honours Haman	Forwards	First
Est 5:13	Gentile	Haman speaking, dishonouring Mordecai after boasting in Est 5:12	Backwards	Last
Est 7:7	Jew	About Haman humbling himself	Forwards	Last

A random outcome? I don’t think so. Acrostics are not uncommon in the Hebrew Bible; authors used them deliberately for various purposes, including memorisation. Remember that there were no punctuation marks or even spaces between words (!) in the original Hebrew, so the readers were keenly aware of the first and last letters of each word. Also, the pairing revealed in the table above is in keeping with the writer’s use of pairs.

Look for God’s Name in the text below, according to the reading direction and letter of each word indicated in the table above.

Text	Esther
ונשׁמע פתגם המלך אשׁר־יעשׂה בכל־מלכותו כי רבה היא וכל־הנשׁים יתנו יקר לבעליהן למגדול ועד־קטן	1:20
ותאמר אסתר אם־על־המלך טוב יבוא המלך והמן היום אל־המשׁתה אשׁר־עשׂיתי לו	5:4
וכל־זה איננו שׁוה לי בכל־עת אשׁר אני ראה את־מרדכי היהודי יושׁב בשׁער המלך	5:13
והמלך קם בחמתו ממשׁתה היין אל־גנת הביתן והמן עמד לבקשׁ על־נפשׁו מאסתר המלכה כי ראה כי־כלתה אליו הרעה מאת המלך	7:7

Esther’s inclusion in the canon may have been controversial, but it was no mistake!

A type of Messiah

Finally, parallels may be drawn between Esther and Messiah. Esther left her home with her godly father and dwelt among a common people. She was used and profaned by the position she was called to. Esther did not want to ‘drink the cup’ before her but when the crucial moment came, she chose to lay down her life if need be (4:16, even as Isaac accepted that he was to be the sacrifice). In so doing, Esther proved herself, gained the favour of the king, and interceded with him for her people, pleading for their deliverance. In the end, the Jews and all who joined them (9:27), will forever rejoice in God’s salvation through Esther, the ‘shadow’ of the coming Messiah.

Here we have a female image of Messiah, a true saviour, and we are reminded that male and female together were created in God’s image. Indeed, only after Eve’s creation did the LORD call creation ‘very good’. Esther had a beautiful figure and was good looking (2:7)—she was the most beautiful woman from north Africa to Pakistan. Now that’s something to think about!