The Story of Esther Through African Eyes

A month or more ago, I was asked to speak at a women’s conference up country in Liberia. At first I refused, I’m not a speaker and they were using the term “Preacher” which I doubly am not. But they stopped using the term preacher and they said I could just teach a story instead. I can do that. Anyone can teach a story. So I started to think on what story to teach. I was thinking either Ruth or Esther because they are women and it was a women’s conference. I couldn’t decide though so I turned to my most trusted advisor, my mother, and we decided together Esther was the best choice. Liberia is the first African country to have a woman for a president. Madame Ellen Sirleaf is in her second term now and her presence as leader in Liberia has done a lot for giving women recognition and respect. Today, more than any other time, women in Liberia are able to take on important leadership roles in their society. So Esther seemed like an appropriate choice, I mean she is beautiful, she stood up to the man, she was firm in her beliefs and she shines out as an independent godly woman, right?

The awesome thing about storying or teaching bible stories orally is that I don’t actually do anything but tell the story and let God do the teaching through his own word. There are some rules to storying which I cling too, one is you never answer a question out of your own knowledge, you always refer back to the story and retell whatever portion is applicable to the question. Example: Q. “Did sin come into the world because Adam ate an Apple?” A. “What does the story say?  The story says God told Adam he could eat from any of the trees in the garden except from one, the tree that gives the understanding of good and evil….. etc.”  This allows me to be off the hook for my limited knowledge on ancient biblical script and hard to define theology and keeps erroneous personal thought from becoming new African Theology. Also it has the added benefit of not allowing me to crowd the discussion with my western ideas but instead really learn a story and the alternate way of viewing it.

So the Story of Esther, to my western mind, was about how Esther with God’s help, stood up for herself. It was about her independence, I mean she came alone to the harem she made a name for herself, she was praised above the rest, and then she stood up for her people. Y’all all saw “One Night with the King” right? I wasn’t a huge fan of that movie (I may have laughed so hard when her necklace exploded into sparkles that my friends made me leave the room) but it summed up a lot of how I viewed the story of Esther. It filled in all the “gaps” just as I had always been trained to fill them.

There were about 70 or 80 women at the conference from young adult to shameless dancing grandma’s also present were about 20 to 30 men who were there for curiosity sake or maybe they were spying on us? I broke the story down into 3 parts (it’s a long story) and told them in sections over the course of two days. After telling the part of the story twice I would ask them “what was your favorite part” and “For you, what was the hardest thing to hear or if it has happened to you what would have been the hardest thing?” I asked before I started the story who had heard the story of Esther before and only 3 or 4 people raised their hands. I was a little skeptical that so few had heard it before but when I ended the second part of the story before Esther makes her request to the King and they all started to ask “Did the King spare Esther? Did Esther go to the King?” then I knew they really hadn’t heard the story before.

Okay so without further ado, here are some of my observations on how the Liberians view the Esther story.

The Liberians were far more interested in whether or not Queen Vashti was right or wrong for refusing to come when the King called her than any American would be. We spent more time discussing this point than any other. There were a few women who voiced that they thought Vashti was ashamed to come and that’s why she didn’t come but no one thought she was right not to come. I tried to make them see my American version in my head by reiterating that the King was likely drunk. In the Americanized “One Night with the King” version, the King is drunk and orders for Vashti to come before him half naked and she refuses for modesties sake, but the story doesn’t really say that. It just says she was ordered to come wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at, the king might have been drunk but the texts is silent on whether that hindered his decision making. I wouldn’t exactly be upset if my own husband wanted to show me off in front of his friends, maybe a little embarrassed. There could have been cultural “no, no’s” that were being crossed but how can we know from the text? So the African view was predominantly that Vashti should have come whether the king was drunk or not he was still her husband and she should have obeyed him. They all seemed to agree (both the Liberian men present and the women) with the advisor’s decision to punish Vashti. They clapped when the decree was sent out proclaiming that “every man should be ruler of his own household.” Now they did not say “the King was right to put her away and take another wife,” but they did say Vashti should be punished. They didn’t clap when Vashti got put away; they all looked grave, like they were trying to decide if it was too harsh a punishment.

I never paid that much attention to Vashti, I always felt a bit sorry for her and thought the king was a jerk for putting her away but to me she was just the backstory. Whether or not the king was right or wrong was of no consequence to me as far as the story goes. But to the Liberians it was one of the most important points; Queen Vashti was disobedient and therefore was punished.

The second most important point is contrasted against the first; Esther was an obedient woman since childhood and therefore is rewarded. I never noticed it before in the text, twice before Esther is made queen the text says that “Esther kept her family background a secret because Mordecai told her to do so and she was always obedient to Mordecai since her childhood.” In fact, while crafting the story I considered leaving that line out but left it because of the hiding her family background part. I always noticed the keeping the background a secret that was a major piece to the plot, without that piece the king never would have made those decrees knowing his favored new queen was a Jew. The Liberians acknowledge that Esther was wise to keep it a secret because more than likely the Jew were not favored (that what they think, they didn’t give a reason but I suspect the reasoning is either “well why else would you keep your nationality a secret?” or maybe they caught on that Mordecai was in exile) but what they emphasis the most is that Esther is obedient to Mordecai’s command.

The women loved that Esther did not take anything with her to the king except what the man in charge of the women suggested. In fact, on their retelling of the story they kept on trying to embellish this part of the story (much like is seen in “One Night with the King”). To them, her following his suggestion is another sign of Esther’s obedient behavior and that she did not care about the outward appearance like the other women.

Something else they talked about a lot, which I had never given a second thought, is the fact the Esther was adopted by Mordecai and that she treated him with authority even though she was adopted. And they also brought up that God can use any body even orphans. I did not expect them to pay too much attention to the fact she was an orphan but it became a major sub topic. “She did not go running around and being disrespectful because he wasn’t her father; she listened to him and obeyed him like he was her father!”

Okay are you catching the differences here? To me this first part of the story is mainly back plot, “here’s how Esther became Queen.” To them, this part of the story is crucial, “here’s why Esther became queen; obedience” (and also “here’s why Vashti is demoted; disobedience”).

The second part of the story, from Mordecai revealing the murder plot at the King’s gate to Esther saying if “I perish I perish,” they focused on Mordecai a lot more than Esther. (What?! Hello! People this story is about independent Esther!) They were so proud of him for being brave enough to tell the King about the murder plot. They did not say too much about his refusal to bow, the pastor of the church made a point of it. I think they did not make any definitive statements about it because Mordecai was breaking the law by refusing to bow. The text again is quiet on whether Mordecai is right or wrong in doing this, just that he refused to bow. It doesn’t even tell us why he didn’t bow. In my Americanized version, Mordecai always makes a little speech about how he will only bow to God and not to man, but in the real story he doesn’t say anything. He just lets you interpret his actions. They were way impressed with him for tearing his clothes and putting on a display, when he hears about the forth coming doom of his people, especially since he was a marked man. They made comments like “If I were him I would have laid low, I would have been scared to make a scene.” This probably hit home to them a lot more being as during the Liberian civil war certain people groups became larger targets than others, you wouldn’t have wanted to put your neck out there like Mordecai did.

 They made approving sounds whenever Mordecai says to Esther “Do not think that because you are in the King’s household you alone among our people will escape. If you remain silent, help will come for our people from another place but you and your family will perish.” They were much more impressed with these two lines than the tagline the Esther story goes by in America “For who know that but you were given your royal position for such a time as this.” They made statements about how Esther did well because, unlike some people who would just forget their people when they came to power, Esther stood by her family. That line “Do not think that you alone among your people…” I think was the kicker for them, which is distinctly African. To me the story of Esther was always about a woman standing alone by God’s help but to them it was a woman remembering to obediently stand with her people with God’s help. As I told the story of Esther to the Liberians, which comes from the book titled for her, I began to see her as less of a major character. Esther is applauded because she is obedient, but Mordecai becomes the major hero for having raised and directed Esther, for standing against Haman, for saving the King’s life, for reminding Esther that she cannot stand alone without her people and for continuing to remember his people after he is made the second in command after King Xerxes. Why wasn’t it named the book of Mordecai?

In my telling of the story, for time’s sake, I left out the portion of the story involving Mordecai being honored, the part when Haman has to walk him around on the horse proclaiming “This is what the king does to him who delights to honor!” but one of the ladies present knew the whole story and went ahead and told the portion I had skipped during discussion time. I was glad she did. When I crafted the story I thought the major character was Esther but it turns out Mordecai is really more important. The Liberian’s loved that portion. The fact that Haman was forced to serve the man he wanted to kill. They were pretty excited about that. They said at the beginning of the story because Esther sowed a seed of obedience she reaped all the blessings of being queen. And they expressed the same sentiment for Mordecai’s story. Because he was a good man and reported the murderers and stood up to Haman he was rewarded.

Other high points: They clapped when the King extended the scepter to Esther. They clapped when the King gave Esther and Mordecai his signet ring to write the new law. They were very grave looking when Haman was killed on the pole. They all laughed when the king walks in on Haman falling on the couch to beg for his life and the King yells “will you even mistreat my wife while I am in the house with her?” It’s kind of fun to tell people a story new to them, it reminds you how you reacted the first time you heard it.

In closing Esther is an important part of the story, she’s just not as important as I thought. One thing they brought out about her that I found inspiring was that she did not go alone. That really is what made Esther and gave her that “for such a time as this” opportunity. One woman remarked, “I am really impressed with Esther because she prayed. That is the only reason that she was able to go to the king, she asked her people to pray for three days and she prayed too. That is the only reason she was able to do what she did and save her people.” Esther, the obedient orphan with the hero uncle stood by her people and prayed. She didn’t go alone.