What Esther Says to Students Who Are Afraid

Most students walking into youth group are carrying something: fear. Maybe it's fear about the future, or the ever-looming life choices ahead of them. Some are afraid of disappointing the people they love, of living up to expectations, or even about the state of the world and what it means for their future. The book of Esther was written for people carrying exactly these kinds of fears, and it has more to say to your students than you might think.

The original audience of Esther wasn't so different from your students. These were 2nd Temple Period Jewish people, men and women who had returned from generations of exile to a foreign land. They were a small group of people in a chaotic world, likely living with a deep societal fear that they would one day again be oppressed, exiled, or even eradicated. They had questions too: Who is God? What is He like? Can He be trusted?

The book of Esther was written to answer those questions.

The author of Esther is unknown, but from his writing, we learn a lot about him. He is clearly confident in God's providence. This is evidenced most clearly in Mordecai's certainty that God will deliver his people, even if Esther's family is not a part of it (Esther 4:14). We also see this as the author highlights the obvious ways in which God displays His providence, such as Haman casting lots, as well as the more subtle ways, like the King not being able to sleep and then reading about Mordecai. The author has great care for the needs of his people, who are likely struggling with fear, unsure of what their God is like. The book of Esther acts as an assurance of hope from the author to his audience.

The overall message the author is conveying to his people seems to be this:

Your God is active and loving. He is working in the obvious and the subtle. He seeks to protect and deliver His people just as He did your ancestors. He is worthy of your trust, worship, and obedience.

The narrative of Esther takes place within the Persian Empire, mainly in a city called Susa. The King, Xerxes, is betrayed by his wife. Convinced by his officials, the King begins to search for a new Queen. Mordecai, a Jewish man living in Susa, encourages his niece Esther to rise to the occasion. After a year-long process, she pleases the King the most and is selected to become the new Queen. Meanwhile, a man named Haman rises in the ranks of the court and becomes highly established. One day, Haman enters through a city gate and is greatly offended when Mordecai doesn't bow to him. He seeks to destroy Mordecai and all the Jewish people by coercing the King to issue a decree, which he does. At this point, Mordecai pleads with Queen Esther to intervene on behalf of the Jewish people. She is nervous at first, but is ultimately convinced by Mordecai, who suggests that perhaps she was made Queen by God for this very reason.

Esther approaches the King, who pledges to give her whatever she wants. Esther requests that the King and Haman feast with her that day. After the feast, Haman laments about Mordecai. At the behest of his companions, he constructs gallows, intent on hanging him. That night, the King is restless and cannot sleep. He ends up reading the record of Mordecai's great deeds. That morning, he asks Haman how he should bestow honor on such a man. Haman, thinking the man is him, describes what should be done. The King then tells him to do so with Mordecai, which infuriates Haman.

Esther, the King, and Haman feast again, and Esther presents her request. She asks that the decree to exterminate her people be remedied, and reveals that the decree was a plot by Haman, who is then executed on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai. The Jewish people are saved, and Mordecai inherits the house of Haman and becomes a very great man.

In chapter 4, as Mordecai is pleading with Esther to intervene for her people, he says, "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14, ESV). This line encapsulates a significant theme in the book: God's sovereign purpose in preserving his people, played out in individual lives. As Mordecai invites Esther, so the author invites his audience to consider how God's providence is on display not just in significant ways in the world around them, but in the subtleties of everyday life.

The text doesn't mention God directly acting, but rather shows how He is moving with different ranges of subtlety. In a more obvious showing, Haman casts lots to set a date for the Jews' destruction. The result just so happens to be a date close to a year away, giving Mordecai and Esther the time they need to save their people. In a subtler move, on the night before Mordecai was to be executed, the King coincidentally could not sleep. He just so happens to read about Mordecai, which results in Mordecai receiving high honor from Haman that morning instead of death.

By not outright stating what God is doing, the author invites his audience to draw their own conclusions, hoping they will recognize that God is at work and cares enough to protect His people. This has the effect of training the reader to step back and consider how God is moving in their own time, and how He cares about them.

God was already working out his plan of deliverance before there was even a problem. Esther was made Queen before Haman's plot of destruction was even conceived. What Mordecai is suggesting is that God's providence is not reactive. He is not scrambling to fix things. He is already there.

The text also conveys the importance of faith and obedience in individuals. While God is sovereign and will always bring his purpose to pass, individuals who don't display covenantal faithfulness may miss out on that protection. Mordecai states this explicitly: "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise up for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish." (Esther 4:14, ESV)

So what does Esther say to your students who are afraid?

The same thing it said to its original audience. Your God is active and loving. He is working in the obvious and in the subtle. He was working before the problem existed. He can be trusted.

For the student living with fear about the future, about choices, about the state of the world: Esther is not a call to ignore those fears. It is an invitation to bring them to a God who has already been moving on your behalf longer than you know.

For the Christian student, we have something the original audience didn't yet have: the New Testament answer for God's ultimate purpose, the restoration of all of creation, and the plan and provision for that restoration in Jesus Christ. Esther should bolster our New Testament hope that God is working out his purpose in our individual lives as well. (James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 5:6-10; Ephesians 2:10)

The response Esther calls for hasn't changed either. Trust that God is faithful. And reciprocate that faithfulness to Him.