John Piper - Esther

PS3566.I59E88 2012 2012007327 811'.54dc23 Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. OGP 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
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So we do that kind of thing. Not that very thing. But that kind of thing. Only God creates out of nothing. We are not God. But we are like him when we create.

Perhaps this is why I feel so at home when writing poetry. I dont mean I feel relaxed or in control. I usually dont. I mean: this is who I amwho God made me to be. A creator, a maker. I suspect that deep down thats the way we all feel when we are making what God made us to make.

A poem is not necessarily a better thing to make than a birthday cake, or a rose garden, or a website. But it is one of the things I love to make. What I mean by poetry is this: An effort to share a moving experience by using language that is chosen and structured differently from ordinary prose. Sometimes it rhymes. Sometimes it doesnt. Sometimes it has a regular cadence.

Sometimes it doesnt. But almost always the poet has experienced somethingsomething horrible or wonderful or ordinaryand he feels that he must share it. Using words differently from ordinary prose is his way of trying to awaken something of this experience (and more) in the reader.

The L ORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the L ORD (1 Sam. 3:21). This is amazing. We meet God himself by the Word. And when we do, we are affected. It may be terror, or it may be ecstasy, or it may be an inexpressible peace.

But for poets, at least, experiencing something inexpressible does not mean silence. Its precisely the inexpressible something that poetry is meant to help us see or feel. If it were merely expressibleif there were nothing ineffable about itthere would be no need for a poem. But everywhere in the Bible we meet reality that exceeds our comprehension. We must find a way to at least point or suggest or hint. Its too wonderfulor too somethingto keep to ourselves.

So it is with the book of Esther. This book never mentions God. But he is everywherethe invisible hand that moves empires for the sake of his people. The invisibility of his name in the book is a pointer to the invisibility of his majestic rule in history. Human designs are inexorably undone. And the way God turns the tables is breathtaking.

The king cant sleep. So someone reads to him the royal records of memorable deeds. All of this just so that Haman, the arrogant Jew hater, by a fluke encounter, would be forced to honor Mordecaithe Jew (Esther 6). Such things are everywhere in this book. The invisible God is everywhere behind them. Just as he was at Golgotha.

I wont try to say in this introduction what moved me most in reading Esther. Thats what the poem is for. But I will say how I go about it. I retell the story by filling in possibilities of what might have been, mingled with what really was. My aim is to respect what really was by creating nothing that could not have been. Nothing has been changed in the biblical story.

And what has been created is not Scripture. It is meant to awaken us to the wonder of what is really there. Here are some historical facts that we know:

• The kingdom of Babylon fell before Cyrus the Persian in 539 BC . The people of Israel had, by that time, been in captivity in Babylon for decades.
• In 538 BC , Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return to their homeland.
• Ahasuerus reigned as king of Persia from 485 to 464 BC.
• Esther became queen in Persia about the year 479 BC.
• Susa, where the story of the book of Esther takes place, was the capital of the Persian Empire and lay about 350 miles southeast of Babylon.
• Esther was Mordecais cousin, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai (Est. 2:15). 2:7).
• Mordecai was the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite (Est. 2:5). 2:5).

  I have treated Abihail and Jair as brothers and both as the sons of Shimei, who would then be Esthers grandfather. Shimei was thus old enough to have been among the Babylonian captives. I treat him as not returning to Palestine but dreaming of some destiny in Persia.

• Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon and was defeated by Cyrus the Persian.
• Borsippa was a city about twelve miles southwest of Babylon.
• Nippur was a neighboring city along with its surrounding region.
• Opis was the Babylonian city where Nabonidus made his last stand against the Persians.
• Hadassah was Esthers Jewish name (Est. 2:7), which means myrtle.

Beware of thinking the line breaks signal pauses or emphases. They dont. They will do their best work for you if you ignore them. Only pause when there is a punctuation mark. This way the stilted sound we associate with bad poems (ta-DA ta-DA ta-DA ta-DA, pause, ta-DA ta-DA ta-DA) will be, happily, avoided. There is a cadence that matters.