Did you know the Book of Esther contains no mention of God or prayer?

The book of Esther is unique among all the books of the Old and New Testament—there is no mention of God and no prayers! Can we learn anything about prayer from such a book? Read on to find out.

Background

The king of Persia, Xerxes, and his wife, Queen Vashti, throw a large, week-long feast and party (the Persians were known for their extravagant feasts). The king, full of food and drink, demands his wife come to him, but she refuses. Stunned, he asks his counselors what he should do. (There is a touch of humor here: the powerful King of Persia is turned down by his wife and has to ask his political counselors how he should handle his marriage problems.) They tell him he should get rid of her and choose a new Queen from among all those in Persia.

A great beauty contest is held. Those chosen are given weeks of spa treatments and preparations. One of these girls is Esther, a Jewish woman who only has an uncle named Mordecai. Esther is the most beautiful of all and becomes the Queen of Persia.

Her uncle overhears a plot to overthrow the king. He tells Esther, who tells the king, and the men are caught and executed. But her uncle has an unrelated problem. The captain of the King’s guard is Haman, a proud man. As he walks through the city gates with his entourage, he requires all to bow before him. But Mordecai will not. This infuriates Haman, and when he discovers that Mordecai is a Jew, he plots to destroy all the Jews. He asks the king to make a declaration that on such a day, all the Jews will be fair game. The king signs it.

Mordecai goes to Esther, but her issue is that even the Queen is not to appear before the king on his throne unless summoned. After fasting, she appears before him. He grants her an audience, and she begins by inviting him to a dinner with her. She wants to proceed carefully because Haman is the second-most powerful man in Persia.

That night, the king cannot sleep, and so he calls for his attendant to read from the king’s records (that would probably put anyone to sleep). One of the passages read to him is the one about Mordecai uncovering the assassination plot. The king finds that nothing had been done for Mordecai, so he calls for Haman, and asks “What shall be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.” Haman, in all his arrogance, assumes the king means him. “ So he tells the king:

“For the man whom the king wishes to honor, 8 let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head. 9 Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials; let him robe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.’”

To his mortification, he tells Haman to do just that for Mordecai, and Haman should be the one who conducts him through the city, praising him.

But Haman was invited to the banquet between the king and Esther, assuaging his shame—but not for long. Esther tells the king of the plot to kill all the Jews—and that she is a Jew. The king, enraged, leaves the room to gather himself before deciding what to do. Haman, realizing his folly of trying to kill the Queen’s people, approaches her to plead for mercy. He is too close to her as the king returns, prompting the king, as he returns, to exclaim, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?!” The guards take Haman away to hang him on the same gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.

The king is unable to stop the declaration of the murder of the Jews because the king’s laws cannot be changed! So Esther suggests a second edict which ordered the Jews to prepare, assemble, and defend themselves. It was a great day of victory for the Jews. (There is again some bit of humor here, making fun of the idea that laws cannot be repealed, and the well-known complexity of Persian law-making).

The Jews celebrate, beginning the first celebration of an annual holiday known as Purim.

Meaning

The book of Esther was preserved because it tells of the institution of the feast of Purim. It also tells us about the difficulties Jews often faced when living under foreign governments.

Why are there no mention of God or prayer? It is likely because the authors wanted to tell a story, set in a pagan setting, where God works behind the scenes. We frequently have the idea that, in the Bible, God’s involvement is always miraculous. Yet we know from experience that most of the time, God’s actions in the world are in the everyday things of life, only visible to those with eyes of faith.

God and prayer underlie the entire story. A poor, orphaned girl become the Queen of Persia just in time to save the Jews from extinction? God and prayer were behind that. The king cannot sleep one night and just happens to read about Mordecai and decides to honor him? God and prayer were behind it. The king allows Esther to approach the throne at just the right time? God and prayer were behind it.

But there are some things in the book that are more obvious signs of God and prayer. When Mordecai tells Esther of Haman’s plot, and she is worried because she would have to approach the king unbidden, Mordecai says,

“Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

First, Mordecai’s words that “relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter” is an obvious reference to God’s deliverance. Second, his suggestion that “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” also points to God’s work.

Moreover, fasting is mentioned three times, and we know that fasting is always accompanied by prayer. When the edict of Haman goes out, the Jews fast (and pray) for deliverance. When Esther decides to go before the king, she asks Mordecai to get all the Jews in the city together to fast (and pray). Two fasts that imply prayers of petition. Finally, the feast of Purim involved fasting in celebration of God’s deliverance, which would have included prayer as well.

Application

The book of Esther helps us remember that prayer, and God’s answers, are not always obvious, grand, or out in public. An answer to prayer might be an every day event that most people would see as common. Or it might be a seeming “coincidence” that works out an answer to prayer.

This should not surprise us. God is not some outsider who normally breaks into the world to dazzle us with his appearance and actions. He created the world, he moves within it, and it in Him. Of course, he would work through the lives, events, and world to which He is so intimately and caringly connected.

An unbeliever might say, “oh, how lucky,” or “what fortune!” But the eyes of faith know it is God, working steadily in his world, for those who pray.