NOTES for Est 6:1-14

The events narrated in the Book of Esther take a remarkable and completely unexpected turn. Haman, a royal courtier, describes to the king in detail the honors that should be bestowed on a deserving man, expecting to receive those honors himself. But the king commands that they be bestowed on Mordecai, the very man against whom Haman’s hatred had flared. “The irony of fate,” we would say. Those close to Haman put it differently: you will not prevail against Mordecai, because he is a Jew and the living God is with him. What happened is therefore ironic, but it is the irony not of an impersonal fate, but of Almighty God. Here one of the central ideas of the entire book becomes visible: God’s intervention in human lives, incomprehensible to people and often imperceptible to them.