1And the king Xerxes set a tax
upon the land and the islands of the sea, 2and the all of the doings
of his authority and his might and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai
whom the king had caused to grow, the not of them ones written upon the book of
the matters of the days of the kings of Media and Persia, 3because
Mordecai the Jew [was] second to King Xerxes and great to the Jews and one
pleased to the many of his brothers, one seeking good to his people and
speaking peace to the all of his descendants.
I’d like to record a thought which grows out of the timeline in this story. As I lamented in the last post, ancient records are notoriously undependable and seemingly always subject to debate, but from everything I have read, I see no reason to doubt that the Ahaseurus of this book is the Xerxes who reigned from 486-465 BC. I find Dr. John Whitcomb’s calculation of dates to be at least plausible, so I am willing to assume the following to be worthy of consideration:
Again, this Xerxes reigned
486–465 BC. In the third year of his reign (483 BC), he repudiated Vashti:
chap. 1. In the seventh year (479 BC), he married Esther (2:16), so it would have
been 478 BC when Esther was taken into the harem and started the one-year beauty
treatment program. It was then in the twelfth year (474 BC) (3:7), Haman issued
his evil decree, was hanged, and Mordecai issued his. Whitcomb says the 3:7,12, “the 13th
day of the first month (Nisan), in the twelfth year of Xerxes” would have been
April 17, 474 BC and the second decree from 8:9, the “the 23rd day
of the third month, Sivan,” would be June 25, 474 BC, or two months and ten
days later. This would also have been the date when Haman was hanged and
Mordecai elevated to Prime Minister. The decree was to be carried out on “the
13th day of the 12th month, Adar,” so it would have been
March 7, 473 BC.
To summarize:
486 BC – Xerxes begins reign
483 BC – Vashti deposed
478 BC – Esther taken into harem
479 BC – Esther becomes queen
April 17, 474 BC – Haman’s evil decree issued
June 25, 474 BC – Esther pleads, Haman hanged, Mordecai
elevated
March 7,8, 473 BC – Days of Purim
465 BC – Xerxes’ reign ends
What particularly strikes me about this timeline is, in reality, how short it is. That is the point I wish to ponder. When I read the book of Esther and particularly when I read this last chapter about Mordecai’s greatness in the palace and the good job he did, I am left with that feeling of “and so they all lived happily ever after.” I feel a sense that all of this took place over a very long period of time.
Yet Xerxes himself only reigned 21 years total. Before his death, Esther would have been his queen for only 13 years, and Mordecai his prime minister for only 9 years. The world has lost any records of what happened to Esther and Mordecai when the next king took over. If Esther was 16 when Xerxes married her, she would have been only 30 years old at his death. Being exceptionally beautiful, one could only assume the new king pulled her into his harem, but it would be very doubtful that he would retain her in the office of queen. Usually, when the king goes down, all his closest advisors go down with him, so it is unlikely that Mordecai would have continued as prime minister (although not impossible, as we saw with Daniel). One also wonders how the Jewish people fared without Mordecai’s influence.
So much we don’t know, yet I note how surprisingly short this entire timeline is.
But, then again, is that not the reality we all live in?
What is our life? Is it not a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes away?
The plain, simple fact is that, just like Esther and Mordecai, our opportunity to do good in this world is at best very brief. In a world without God, one would even wonder what’s the point of it all? Mordecai had 9 years to do good for the Jewish people. Even if, like Daniel, he survived the change of royalty and perhaps served for 40 years, still, that would seem a drop in the bucket of human history. No matter how long he served, he had no control whatsoever over those who would follow him and how they would treat his Jewish people. In spite of Mordecai’s sacrifices and good work, there was still, in the future of the Jewish people, a Holocaust to be suffered.
Again, I would ask, in a world without God, what’s the point? How easy it would have been for Esther and Mordecai to say, “Hey. We made it to the top. We have all the wealth and luxury to live ourselves in a dream world. Why should we risk any of that, so we can do good for a very short time to a bunch of people we don’t even know? Forget it! If it’s all for a very brief time, we’re going to make sure we grab all the pleasure we can!”
Can I suggest that, if you choose to live in a world without God, you really have no reason to do anything but look out for yourself? I will even go so far as to say, you’re a fool if you waste your life, if you sacrifice your own pleasure and happiness, to do good to a bunch of other people who will be here today and gone tomorrow.
That is…in a world without God.
Enter the Lord. Enter the truth that all of this does matter, that it is all a part of a grand and glorious plan, that, though like Esther and Mordecai, my opportunity may be brief, yet what I do or don’t do is recorded and remembered. What if the people around me aren’t just overgrown amoebas careening along in some arbitrary evolutionary accident? What if each of them is, like me, an eternal soul, created by and loved by the God who is running this universe and guiding it along in a very deliberate and good plan?
What if I can live with the words ringing in my head, “And whatever you do, do it with your whole heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23,24)? What if I hear Him say, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16)? What if my Hero and example in life is Jesus who “laid down His life for His friends”?
Ah, can anyone see that, though brief, what Esther and Mordecai did, the risks they took, the personal sacrifices they made, all the good they did was in fact very important—in fact, eternally important, and that precisely because this is NOT a world without God. Our God is quite real, quite present, and that very acknowledgment on our part is precisely what makes my life and yours worth living! I can and should do all I can to bless the people around me precisely because there is a God and He cares!
He loves people and I should too. He wants to do them good and so should I. This is my chance. Even if it’s short, that’s okay, because they matter. The period of time covered by the book of Esther is barely a blip in the course of human history, yet what they did mattered.
In this world with God, we never need ask, “What’s the point?” He makes our world matter.
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