“Like Moses, Queen Esther was liberator and
lawgiver. Moses promulgated the Torah, including the institution of the ritual
calendar and notably the celebration of Passover, the memorial festival of the
Exodus. Similarly, Esther experienced the grave threat of Purim and sanctioned
the celebration of Jewish victory. In the wilderness of … Ahasuerus’
Persian Empire, centuries after Moses,
"the command of Queen Esther
fixed these practices of Purim, and it was
recorded in writing" (Esther 9:32)”.
Charles
E. Hambrick-Stowe
It is more usual, I would suggest, to think of Jesus
Christ as a ‘new Moses’, that being the very theme of my (Damien Mackey’s)
recent article:
Unique
identity of Jesus Christ. Part Three: Jesus as the New Moses
But Queen Esther?
Well that, at least, is the opinion of Charles
E. Hambrick-Stowe, who has also likened the biblical Ruth to Abraham, in “Ruth
and the New Abraham, Esther the New Moses” (1983):
Regarding Ruth, I have followed an israelofgod.org lead (
http://www.israelofgod.org/ruth.htm)
in identifying her as
ethnically an
Israelite, and only
geographically a
Moabite. See my article:
Bible
Critics Can Overstate Idea of 'Enlightened Pagan'
Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe gives his intriguing new approach to
Ruth and Esther:
Christians
are accustomed to thinking of Jesus Christ as the second Adam and the new
Moses, and of John the Baptist as Elijah redivivus. Preachers and theologians
are adept at tracing literary images: linking Old and New Testament figures
whose lives reflect eternal patterns and renew the ancient message. Some still
think in terms of type and antitype. These are usually valid constructions, for
the Bible itself presents a scheme of prophecy and fulfillment.
Rarely,
however, are the women of the Bible included in these analyses. The two books
of the Bible named for women, Ruth and Esther, are, respectively, charming and
alarming in content. But they are commonly relegated to secondary importance in
the canon. It is said that Ruth simply explains David’s (and hence, Christ’s)
ancestry; that Esther recounts how the Festival of Purim secured a place on the
Jewish calendar. I would argue, however, that these two books belong in the
mainstream of the biblical narrative. Their message is vitally important to a
proper grasp of our hope for salvation. In startling ways, Ruth and Esther are
women who in their generations became primary carriers of God’s saving grace.
As did other Old Testament leaders, and Jesus himself, these two women embody
the spirit of the founders of the Israelite nation. Ruth becomes the new
Abraham, Esther the new Moses.
In
order for us to understand Ruth and Esther in these roles, the Bible must be
perceived as an integrated whole. The unity of Scripture lies in the central
theme running through every book from Genesis to Revelation, which may be
summarized in the Lord’s word to Jeremiah: "I will be their God, and they
shall be my people" (Jer. 31:33). This promise recapitulates God’s
covenant with Abraham: "I will establish my covenant . . . to be God to
you and to your descendants" (Gen. 17:7), and with Moses: "I will
take you for my people, and I will be your God" (Exod. 6:7). In Jesus
Christ, who spoke of "the new covenant in my blood," the promise is
fully revealed and available to the whole world. It is finally expressed in the
vision of "a new heaven and a new earth" in Revelation, where
"they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them" (Rev.
21:3).
Subthemes
of the covenant -- experiences of pilgrimage and promise, bondage and freedom,
duty and blessing, famine and plenty, barrenness and fertility -- weave their
way through both testaments. Even books frequently dismissed as of little
importance take on meaning within the whole. The Song of Songs, for example,
becomes intelligible as Scripture when the key verse enunciating the marriage
covenant is recognized: "My beloved is mine and I am his" (2:16).
The
Letter of James, easily ignored by evangelicals following Luther’s denunciation
of the book as "straw," speaks of the reciprocity of covenant life:
"‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. . . Draw near to God and he
will draw near to you" (2:8; 4:8). Individual and people are inseparable
when joined in God’s covenant relationship.
In
the Book of Esther, the crucial passage which reveals the salvific thread
running through the entire story is found in a scene of high drama. When Queen
Esther unmasks herself as a Jew, she pleads before her Persian king-husband:
"Let my life be given at my petition, and my people at my request. For we
are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed" (7:3-4). In Ruth, the covenant
theme pervades the book and is explicitly evoked in Ruth’s words to Naomi:
" . . . your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (1:16).
The
covenant -- this oneness of God with the people and of God’s people with one
another -- is the backbone of books written over more than a thousand years, in
widely varying political and religious circumstances, and in diverse
geographical locations. For believers, the Bible’s unity demonstrates not only
that scores of human authors were heirs of a common tradition, but that each of
them was guided through life and inspired to write by the same God. In this
context, the true significance of Ruth and Esther can begin to instruct God’s
covenant people today.
The
Bible is silent as to what it was within Ruth that impelled her loyalty and
courage, her desire to "go out to a place which [s]he was to receive as an
inheritance." There must have been some experience of call, as with
Abraham; just as "he went out, not knowing where he was to go" (Heb.
11:8), Ruth "left [her] father and mother and [her] native land and came
to a people that [she] did not know before" (Ruth 2:11). We may surmise
that Ruth had learned much about the worship of Yahweh and of the blessings of
the covenant from living with her late husband in Naomi’s household.
Abraham
was the first Jew. Abram’s and Sarai’s name change symbolized their new
identity as Hebrews. God’s creation of his people is, of course, a major strand
of the covenant theme. "Once you were no people but now you are God’s
people" (I Pet. 2:10). Israel, God proclaimed through Isaiah, was
"borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb. . . . I have made,
and I will bear; I will carry and will save [that is, deliver]" (Isa.
46:3-4). When Abram and Sarai were reborn as God’s new people Abraham and
Sarah, they could become fruitful and multiply. Similarly, when Ruth entered
the covenant she was blessed with goodness, plenty and fertility.
Ruth’s
not being Jewish [sic] when the story opened attests to the universalistic
impulse shown in the Old Testament; God created Israel to be a light to the
nations. The Book of Ruth suggests less an outward evangelistic thrust than a
quiet and loving ingathering, exhibiting at a personal level the later grand
vision of Isaiah, that in "the latter days . . . many peoples shall come .
. . that [God] may teach [them] his ways" (Isa. 2:2-3). Like Abraham long
before, Ruth came as a foreigner and became God’s chosen in the land of
promise.
Abraham
and Ruth shared the experiences of barrenness and of famine. Abram "went
down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land"
(Gen. 12:10). The stage was set for the Book of Ruth when "there was a
famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in
the country of Moab." For a decade, Elimelech and Naomi flourished. But
then suddenly barrenness appeared; when Naomi was past menopause, her husband
and her two sons died, and God had granted no children to the two Moabite
daughters-in-law. Naomi’s decision to return to Judah was marked by
desperation; she was as bitter as Job over God’s infraction of the covenant.
It
was Ruth, the non-Jew [sic], who, insistent on accompanying Naomi, looked
forward with hope. Her decision and her vow established her in the covenant,
for Ruth’s promise was not only to her mother-in-law but also to her new God
and to her new people. The spectacle of the two single, childless women making
their way across the desert calls up the image of Naomi’s biological and Ruth’s
spiritual ancestors: "So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and
all that he had" (Gen. 13:1). The women’s journey took an equal amount of
courage, or perhaps even more.
In
Canaan, as Yahweh had promised, the aged Abraham and Sarah were miraculously
blessed with fertility. For Ruth, the promise of a fruitful future is tied to
the barley harvest; her good fortune as a reaper under the wing of Boaz and
Yahweh portended her greater future happiness. God’s firm promise of personal
fertility in the marriage covenant became clear after their night on the
threshing floor; the six measures of barley that Boaz poured into Ruth’s mantle
for her to carry home symbolized Boaz’ own seed.
Those
who gathered to fulfill the covenant responsibilities for widows significantly
demonstrated that Ruth was now fully within the covenant circle. Then, with her
marriage to Boaz, Ruth entered the most intimate covenantal relationship of
God’s people.
God,
not the man and woman themselves, caused conception with Ruth and Boaz, as with
Abraham and Sarah (and other biblical couples). "The Lord visited Sarah as
he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived,
and bore Abraham a son (Gen. 21:1-2). "So Boaz took Ruth and she became
his wife; and he went in to her, and the Lord gave conception, and she bore a
son" (Ruth 4:13). The "son in his old age" theme in the Abraham
story is here applied to Naomi and expressed in the glad words of the neighbor
women in Bethlehem: "He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher
of your old age." God had kept his promise to Abraham, and Naomi rightly
understood herself as an heir of this promise.
The
most important comparison, however, is not that of Ruth with Sarah, or Naomi
with Sarah and Abraham. Rather, it is that of Ruth with Abraham. These two are
the primary actors in their respective stories. The faith of both Abraham and
Ruth was ultimately rewarded with blessings both spiritual and material. Both
had the courage and took the initiative to set out for the new land. God’s
promise to Abraham and Sarah was fulfilled first in the birth of Isaac, and
then in the birth of Obed, the grandfather of King David. It was David who made
the nation of Israel -- and hence, the name of Abraham -- great, thus
fulfilling God’s covenant with Abraham. In Ruth’s bold faith, in her journey to
the new land, in her embrace of the covenant, in her marriage and motherhood,
God’s promises to Abraham were once more confirmed. Ruth was the New Abraham of
her generation.
Like
Moses, Queen Esther was liberator and lawgiver. Moses promulgated the Torah,
including the institution of the ritual calendar and notably the celebration of
Passover, the memorial festival of the Exodus. Similarly, Esther experienced
the grave threat of Purim and sanctioned the celebration of Jewish victory. In
the wilderness of Xerxes’ (Ahasuerus’) Persian Empire, centuries after Moses,
"the command of Queen Esther fixed these practices of Purim, and it was
recorded in writing" (Esther 9:32).
In
another parallel, both Moses and Esther were Jews who rose to prominence in a
foreign court and, unlike Joseph in Egypt, for example, both at first were
secret Jews.
Moses
probably never exercised much authority in Pharaoh’s court [sic], though if he
had remained in Egypt he surely would have. He lived as Egyptian royalty for
more than 20 years, until he "had grown up." Yet somehow he knew he
was not Egyptian but Hebrew. The psychological dilemma posed by his true
identity was resolved when "one day. . . he went out to his people and
looked upon their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his
people" (Exod. 2:11). It seems unlikely that this was the first time Moses
had seen the slaves at labor, or that this was the first beating he had
observed. But the moment had come when he felt compelled to identify himself
with his biological, rather than his adopted, people.
In
Midian Moses was perceived by the daughters of the priest Reuel as "an
Egyptian," but he had left that life behind forever. However, when he
returned to Egypt with God’s word of liberation, he was instantly received with
respect and deference at court. No longer a secret Jew, nevertheless, "the
man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s
servants and in the sight of the people" (Exod. 11:3).
Esther
attained her position in the Persian court at Susa by winning the beauty
contest to replace the uppity, deposed Queen Vashti. Like the Hebrews in Egypt,
Esther and her uncle Mordecai were living abroad, though not as slaves. Their
residence in Persia was the aftermath of the Babylonian exile, and generally
their lot was quite good. In contrast to Exodus, the immediate goal of the Book
of Esther was not to return to the homeland, but to attain success and
prosperity in the foreign land. Mordecai’s ambition, personally and for his
people, prompted him to put Esther in the running for a place at court as a
wife of Ahasuerus. After the king selected her, she did not make known
"her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to make it
known."
Esther,
like Moses, was unable to live long in stately comfort (as Moses was unable to
live in Midian obscurity). When the oppression of their people became
intolerable, both responded to God’s call to become liberators. Though Moses’
burning bush experience was dramatic while Esther’s moment of decision went
unrecorded, God was the true liberator in both stories. Under both Egyptian and
Hamanite tyranny, the cries of the Jewish people preceded God’s intervention
(Exod. 2:23 and Esther 4:3).
After
Mordecai told Esther about Haman’s planned pogrom, she still had a choice, for
he explained: "If you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance
will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house
will perish." That "other quarter" was probably not envisioned
as God’s direct intervention, for Mordecai was a realist who believed in the
necessity of human agency; God’s invisible providence undergirded human
endeavor. The book is quite modern in this regard. "Who knows,"
Mordecai challenged, "whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?"
Esther
was ready to rise to heroism and replied that she would go to the king at risk
of her life. Heretofore a woman who had always obeyed the orders of others, she
now became God’s woman, acting courageously and intelligently to preserve the
covenant people. Now it was Mordecai who "went away and did everything as
Esther had ordered him" (Esther 4:13-17).
Esther
had become the most clever and powerful person at court. When she "put on
her royal robes and stood in the inner court" and "found favor,"
the king "held out to Esther the golden scepter" and she
"touched the top" (Esther 5:1-2). She was as much in control of
events as Moses had been with his supernatural rod.
The
genocide planned by Haman seems as modern as Hitler’s. The Jewish preventive
retaliation helps us understand modern Israel’s motives and behavior in the
1982 invasion of Lebanon. In Egypt, Scripture says, the God of Moses had acted
directly to save his people. But how different was Esther’s and Mordecai’s
military victory from the Passover deaths that enabled Moses and Aaron to lead
the people to freedom? The violent salvation of the Jews recounted in Esther
was the latest chapter in a tradition established at the time of the Exodus.
It
is possible, too, that "the destroyer’’ that ranged from house to house at
midnight in Egypt was in fact a human hand acting through God’s agency. The
sheer numbers of Israelites in the country made them far from militarily weak;
and they "went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle"
(Exod. 13:18). Was an Israelite militia in action in Egypt, as was the case
much later in Persia? Was Moses the commander-in-chief of this army, just as
Esther was in Persia? The effect of the redemption was the same.
As
Passover celebrates Israel’s deliverance through the Exodus, Purim was
proclaimed by Esther to be a festival of the survival of the Jews after the
failure of the Hamanite pogrom. There is a close connection between the
messages of the two festivals. The edict authorizing Haman’s troops "to
destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all Jews" was granted by the king on
the day before Passover. The two festivals of Passover and Purim are
specifically, consciously linked throughout the Book of Esther, even in minor
details. Scripture takes pains to explain why there are two days for each
festival. And both were judaized versions of pagan holidays (a process familiar
to Christians, who celebrate Christmas at the winter solstice). Moses and
Esther, as lawgivers, shared an ability to take popular days of springtime
revelry and transform them into memorials to the survival of God’s people and
the indestructible covenant.
The
significance of these women for the era in which the sign of the covenant was
circumcision cannot be underestimated. If women -- and "foreign" [sic]
women at that -- could be, for their generations, the new Abraham and the new
Moses under the old covenant, what possible barriers of gender, nationality,
race or class can stand under the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ?
Jesus
Christ fulfills God’s promises to every generation of covenant people. He reveals
the truly redemptive pattern of sacrificial love. On the cross Jesus
incorporated the suffering of all victims of the world’s oppression, while
completely repudiating the tempting solution of retaliatory violence. In
Christ’s gospel of love for the enemy and of God’s overarching plan of
salvation, we latter-day Ruths and Esthers may find grace for ourselves and a
future for this earth. God calls us to the task -- like Ruth and Esther, but in
a Christian framework -- of leading others toward liberation, the blessings of
covenant, and the promise of security and peace on our planet.
Ruth
clothed herself with the qualities of Abraham. Esther bore the responsibilities
of a Moses. Now, as St. Paul put it, "as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs
according to promise" (Gal. 3:27-29).
The
promise toward which Ruth and Esther, Abraham and Moses, and the entire
"cloud of witnesses" in Scripture reach is the consummation of the
covenant -- the final, complete unity of God and God’s people in the "new
heaven and new earth" of Revelation. The Books of Ruth and Esther, with
their tales of suffering, crisis and eventual triumph, testify that we are not
trapped helplessly in a destructive global fate. With bold faith, the two women
took events into their own hands to secure the future of the covenant. Their
stories shine as examples of the human side of covenant responsibility, and so
also reveal the divine side of protection and blessing. Ruth and Esther, read
through the prism of Christ, point us beyond global fatalism toward the hope of
the earth.
