Where is God when you can’t see him?

The book of Esther doesn’t belong in the Bible.

At least, not at first glance.

In Esther, no one prays. No one praises. No one predicts the coming Messiah.

You know, all the things you would expect in Holy Writ.

Most surprising of all, God is never mentioned. That’s right. Esther is the one book in the Bible that never brings up the idea of God.

Because of this, Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin struggled to believe in its canonicity, skipping over it when writing their commentaries.

Why is that? Why would the Biblical authors write a whole book to be read by believers who never speak about their Savior?

I believe it’s intentional. Esther has quite a few spots where it would be natural to insert “the work of the Lord,” but the authors deliberately exclude the Divine.

Why would they do that?

Well, have you ever wondered: Where is God?

You witness a grave injustice. Evil seems to be winning. So you wonder where is God?

You have fallen into hard times, and every prayer seems to fall on deaf ears. So you wonder where is God?

You begin to contemplate the vast regions of the world that know practically nothing about the Savior Jesus Christ, and you wonder where God is for those people.

If you have ever asked that question, the Book of Esther is for you. It answers the question: Where is God when I can’t see him?

A quick review of Esther

The book of Esther takes place in about 480 BC. Many Jews have returned to Jerusalem after being exiled from their homeland, but some remain in the midst of the Empire of Persia.

King Xerxes is ruling, and the author portrays him as an arrogant, sloppy drunk who is aloof to the inner workings of his empire.

After deposing his wife for dishonoring him, he holds an empire-wide beauty pageant to find her replacement.

It just so happens that a Jewish man named Mordecai has a beautiful young relative named Hadassah. He encourages her to enter the pageant, disguising her Jewishness and hiding behind her Persian name, “Esther.”

It just so happens that she wins the contest, and Esther becomes the new queen of Persia.

At this time, there is also a narcissist, a psychopath named Haman, who is elevated to second in command in Persia. He is an Agagite, a descendant of the Canaanites. He is completely full of himself, demanding that everyone who crosses his path must prostrate before him.

But there is one person who stands tall, Mordecai. He will not bow down to this Canaanite.

Haman is livid. His anger burns so brightly that he is not satisfied with punishing Mordecai; he is to eradicate all of Mordecai’s ethnicity. He wants to exterminate the Jews.

Haman convinces King Xerxes that it would be in his best interest to eliminate “a certain” people group that keep themselves separate and don’t follow the king’s laws.

King Xerxes agrees and writes the edict for the genocide of the Jews.

Mordecai is distraught and convinces Esther to use her power to overturn the edict.

He tells her, “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 your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Mordecai’s speech persuades Esther. Although Esther’s life is put in danger, she uses her position to have Haman executed and her people saved.

Applying Esther to your life

The book of Esther is worth reading. It is filled with surprising reversals and dramatic heroism, but that still doesn’t give it a good enough reason to be in the Scriptures.

So, why did the Holy Spirit tell us this story? To answer the question, “Where is God when I can’t see him?”

According to the Book of Esther, God is in the coincidences. The Lord is at work behind the scenes in all the it-just-so-happened occurrences.

That’s where you will find him, too. Very rarely will God overtly show up in a great act of power. There was only one “parting of the Red Sea.” Usually, throughout history, God is in the coincidences. He guides our lives in ways that we can’t always see until he brings about a just, meaningful, and happy ending.

The book of Esther encourages us to pay attention to life’s so-called coincidences. God is at work even with people and places that don’t utter his name.

But you know his name.

You know the Lord Jesus, who has given you his Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit guides your life, brings evil to justice, and lifts up the repentant.

Pay attention to life’s coincidences, and when you see God at work, respond with courage.