You've got the beautiful Jewish orphan Esther who is raised by her savvy uncle Mordecai. You've got a king looking for a wife. You've got a villain with serious anti-Semitic prejudices who's about to go on a Jewish massacre. You've got national beauty contests. Political intrigue. Rags-to-riches. High stakes. Suspense. Violence. Basically, everything that Hollywood loves. And if this was made into a Hollywood blockbuster, they wouldn't even have to eliminate the name of God from the original manuscript, for the word, "God," is never mentioned in Esther. At a first glance, the Silent Name seems to stay quiet in this book.
But says Jon Bloom:
If you’re not careful [in the book of Esther], you’ll only see a Hollywood-like story of a beautiful young orphan girl who against all odds becomes queen of Persia and, with a little help, recognizes her moment of destiny and courageously faces down a Persian Hitler.
And you would miss the real story.
The real story is not Esther’s inspiring courage or her beauty or Mordecai’s sage wisdom. This story is about what’s really going on behind the machinations of power.
And so suddenly you realize that this book is more than a good story about random people and lots of crazy coincidences. This book becomes about the Silent Name, the one word that never appears in the text. This unnamed character suddenly becomes the main character whose orchestrating hand is evident in every sentence.
Says Bloom again:
The book of Esther is the subtle, ironic living poetry of God where he chooses “what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27) and shouts his total sovereignty over cosmic powers (Ephesians 6:12), raging nations (Psalm 2:1), and the course of human lives without ever mentioning himself once.
Just because the word, "God," is never spelled out in black and white on the pages of Esther, His unspoken sovereignty becomes the trumpeting theme. Today we have a hard time with this notion. We talk about God's sovereignty a lot, I know I do, and in theory, we think it's true. But in practice, we doubt, don't we?
We think of God's sovereignty where it appears obvious to us - you know, in the good, spiritual places - the churches and the AWANA clubs and the seminaries and on the mission field and in the revival halls and on the pamphlets that say, "God is Good." We divide between the sacred and secular sectors of life. But God is not sovereign over one place and not another. God's sovereignty is the overpowering theme of all of our lives. Every random phone call, every chance encounter, every grocery clerk you get, every dentist appointment you make, every storm, every trial, every mess - everything is ordained by Him.
We're a short-sighted people. It takes conscious exercise for us to see the hand of God's providence in our lives and in the world today. So let's pause and just reflect. He is in control. We are not. He is all good. We are desperately sinful. Let's rest in His gracious providence, trusting His loving hand and seeing its effects weaved through our lives. The Silent Name is sovereign.