Despite Our Conclusions about Persian society last month, not all the male-female relationships in the book of Esther are necessarily examples to be avoided. The relationships of Esther herself are particularly intriguing and reveal a great deal about how women exert a vital influence of their own, irrespective of the pressures overbearing husbands might seek to impose upon them.
Esther and Mordecai
First, there is the vertical relationship with her ‘father’ Mordecai. True, this is not a marriage relationship, but it is nevertheless important in the book’s exploration of gender and partnership. The text asserts that she, “did the commandment of Mordecai (even when married), like as when she was brought up with him” (2:20). One might detect an understated naturalness about this: Esther as the model of filial piety, one who is in conformity and harmony with her father as if it were the most natural thing in the world. There may even be a comment to the effect that relationships and responsibilities to parents do not dissolve when a child gets married.
But the passage can be read in another way. Are not single people to leave their father and mother in order to cleave to their marriage partner, and is it not the word of the husband and not the father which should now take precedence for Esther? The text does not explore this reasoning, far less accept or deny it, but it may say sufficient to reaffirm the suggestion made previously that Esther is a ‘plant,’ an undercover operative in the royal court. Her allegiance may therefore be toward Mordecai and not toward her husband. Could this be the inference behind the narrative? Ahasuerus may think that he has control of his wives, but his new wife is operating according to an entirely different agenda! She is obeying the commandment of Mordecai, and the commands of her husband are but incidental. A man may wish for this or that, but each woman must choose whom she will really follow; there is nothing inevitable about it — a choice must be made, and every wife must make it.
Esther and Ahasuerus
Interwoven with the relationship of Esther and Mordecai and in tension with it is the relationship of Esther and Ahasuerus. The way in which Esther finds favour in the eyes of the king has already been considered; she is delightful to him, and he finds himself unable to resist her charms (chapter 2).
But once this point has been made and we are assured of the lure that she exerts over the king, the camera reverts speedily to Esther and Mordecai. The interplay within the partnership of Esther and Mordecai is fascinating to witness. First Esther informs Mordecai of the attempted coup of Teresh and Bigthana. This gives Mordecai the chance to inform the king and thus take the credit as a loyal official and perhaps obtain promotion. (Alternatively, news of the attempted coup might simply not have been taken seriously in Persian political circles had it come from a woman). Every day Mordecai passes by the court to see how Esther fares; his very pacing of the corridors of power creates a sense of suspense. Something momentous is about to happen.
Esther devises the plan
It does not take long to materialise. Once a crisis has arisen in the form of Haman’s plan, Esther and Mordecai work together particularly closely, each providing information the other lacks, until at last a plan is concocted. Mordecai has to encourage Esther’s engagement as she falters (a later article, God willing), but he does this in such a masterful way that she cannot help but respond. The two inspire and influence each other, the one adding to and improving the other, each offering something the other cannot.
It is important to note that the plan which is ultimately executed is Esther’s idea. Mordecai’s suggestion is as follows: …that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people (4:8).
But Esther knows her husband too well to attempt this direct approach. Something more subtle is needed, and she knows just the thing. It is an elaborate and round-about ploy involving two intimate banquets, but in the end it is this way, cumbersome though it sounds, which will be more certain of victory. The king has commands and edicts to exercise his control, but Esther has weapons of control all of her own. The process by which she persuades the king to undo Haman’s evil is very instructive.
Esther’s approach works
It begins with her appearance before him and his extending the golden sceptre. This is the moment of risk, the moment when things could have gone either way. But with the support of her people, self-discipline and dedicatory fasting, plus a good dose of courage (not to mention the unmentioned divine support), Esther takes the risk and is rewarded. She is met by a magnanimous offer by the king, to which it must have been very tempting to simply blurt out her true request. But she resists, knowing that the carefully planned course will ultimately be more likely of success:
What wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy request? It shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him (5:3-4).
The mismatch between the massive offer of the king (up to half the kingdom!) and the smallness of the Queen’s request is exquisite. All she wants is a tea-party with her beloved husband/king, a few pleasant moments in his presence! The same total imbalance can be seen when the king offers her the same choice now that the banquet has finally arrived:
And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther and said, My petition and my request is; If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request [hear the suspense building throughout this preamble!], let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said (5:6-8).
Like Aladdin with his lamp, Esther gets three wishes, for at the second banquet the king again repeats his gesture. Like Aladdin, she has apparently wasted her first two wishes – in Esther’s case by asking for pointless parties. Yet on the third occasion she finally and deliberately arrives at what she had been building up to all along. The suspense is full, for even in the passage above she had hinted that the true nature of her request would be revealed on the following day (5:8).
Esther’s technique is a classic example of a ‘wise as serpents’ approach. She knows her husband can never resist a good party, and the idea of an exclusive banquet with his queen and his favourite official is simply too much to refuse. One can sense his glee as he contemplates the prospect of the occasion when it is first offered to him!
Even though he might be quite happy to keep going to such banquets on a daily basis for the rest of his life, even such a keen party animal as the king knows that there must be something that Esther is really after. By now his interest is fully aroused and his attention hooked; what can it be that Esther really wants? It is only at this moment that she finally reveals:
If I have found favour in thy sight, 0 king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request; For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish… (7:3-4a).
How can the king refuse? He has been led to the point like an animal, and he is now fully paying attention as the true horror of the Jews’ plight is unfolded before him. Esther controls him completely through her skillful influence; in a short while Haman is dead and his edict as good as overturned.
Wife’s influence portrayed
There is a saying in Russia (which has come through to English to some extent) that if the husband is the head, then the wife is the neck — and it’s the neck which turns the head! Esther provides a superb illustration of this. She did not influence through edict or decree, yet if she was able to point her husband in a particular direction then there was a good chance her husband would go there.
There are of course many directions in which husbands can be pointed, and it remains a huge and demanding responsibility of the wife to make sure that her female influence is used to help her man take the right one. The power of the woman in this respect is enormous and not to be underestimated. The man and the woman bring different things to the party, and they both have particular roles within their relationship delegated by God. They both have the potential in their different ways to undermine or to establish the spiritual health of the family.
But we must leave Ahasuerus, now at last heading in the right way (thanks to his wife), and return finally to the relationship of Esther and Mordecai. At the end of the book, Mordecai makes a decree concerning the feast of Purim and sends out a letter throughout the empire to inform everyone of it. This is then followed up by a second letter, this time from Esther the Queen. It does not say anything new, it simply backs up and reinforces the first. Esther uses her own role and influence to establish what Mordecai has instituted. Strictly speaking, the second letter wasn’t necessary, for Mordecai had already written one; Esther could simply not have bothered, justifiably claiming that the job had been done. But how much more powerful the message when it is reinforced and emphasised in a slightly different way by her own letter. Those two letters, speaking as one and yearning for the same thing, are a little snapshot of man and woman working in tandem, each making use of their own influence and responsibility to help each other and the people over whom they preside to head toward the same goal.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One