Leaders of the Bible: Esther
Esther is truly a unique and necessary book to take in as we seek to understand biblical leadership. Situated at the height of the Persian Empire, the Israel people remaining in what once was Babylon chose to remain in Exile in spite of the Persian authority being more than willing to let them rebuild Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2-3). Furthermore, The Bible Project and other commentators are sure to point out the moral ambiguity of Esther and Mordechai, as if it weren’t enough ‘God’ isn’t directly mentioned at all, there are even records of Esther on the cusp of exclusion from Biblical Cannon for these reasons. Yet we have Esther in our bibles, and for an intriguing purpose, especially as approaching the book as the young leaders we are.
As an orphaned child, in the care of a relative, Esther is entered into a beauty pageant, which she dominates, winning the position of the queen to Xerxes of Persia. Immediately proceeding this, the enemy of our story is revealed and Mordecai calls on Esther to draw from her newly acquired position to stop the mass genocide of her people. “He sent back this answer: ‘so not thinking that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?’” (Esther 4:13-14).
Mordecai is not calling Esther out of desperation as we might anticipate him to do. Instead, he is calling on Esther to use her position to join in God’s work of fulfilling the promise to protect His people and inheritance. Mordecai is confident God will send deliverance, regardless of Esther, but he wants Esther to play a part in this. So the famous lines come in agreeance to give aid to such deliverance, asking him to gather the Jews to fast and pray for her, which then brings the famous words “if I perish, I perish” (v.16).
Chapter 4 essentially embodies the spiritual rise to action of the story, and is arguably the most quotable out of all the chapters. So how does Esther do it? By navigating the royal code of conduct, and appealing to Xerxes’s deep love for banquets, Esther then appeals to the king to stop the madness of ethnic cleansing. She does this first by communicating the dire situation of her and her people and exposing the enemy Haman (7:3-6). Secondly, she goes on to approach the king again, falling at his feet and weeping for the sake of overruling the edict. This is what makes Esther so intriguing as a leader in the Bible, she takes advantage of the position God has her in, yes, but her act of faithfulness is asking the king two questions in sincerity. Not once is she said to be a great persuader, or a political mastermind before or after these events. Rather, both her and Mordecai are remembered for their deep trust in God and subsequent faithfulness.
God wants us to be sincere in the ways we serve the church and step into faithfulness. Was it Mordecai and Esther’s motivation to be remembered for the rest of human history? From what we know of them in light of the story, we can trust their motives are sincere. Anyone who has fastest, and taken big risks for the sake of ministry may agree that in the process of doing both, your selfish motivations are turned over. So when Paul sneaks in the word “sincere” in 1 Timothy 3:8 painting the picture for us what a Biblical Leader looks like, I believe Esther and Mordecai give us a great example of what this means and what it adds to our faithfulness as we go about the kingdom work.
When you think about yourself in leadership, is there pride that withholds you from being sincere and furthermore, vulnerable about your ministry needs and what you want God to do? Humbly ask God to remove any selfish ambition that robs you the willingness to take bold steps of faithfulness for His names sake.
