Thread by @sometimesalight

The book of Esther as a narrative of Divine providence...

(as well as an exploration of female complicity in vs. female power to resist social evils)

#problematictweet #tweetsthatgetmeintrouble

You know who we don't talk enough about in the book of Esther? Zeresh. Haman's wife.

The wife he bragged to & strutted in front of. The wife who suggested he build a gallows & hang Mordecai. The wife whose primary interest seems to be political advancement.

In the end, Haman was hanged as were 10 of his sons, and Zeresh is left alone, without access to the power she sought.

Vashti, Esther, and Zeresh clearly lived in a world dominated by men--and men desperate to retain their power, at that (cf. 1:17). And yet, the story also shows women having the ability to choose to either participate in evil or oppose it.

There's some striking similarities to early chapters of Exodus that show God using women to resist the established male ruler's evil plans.

In both situations, women had to have courage & faith to resist powers that could easily have crushed them. They had to resist the temptation of self-preservation in order to pursue the common good.

The power dynamics actually serve to underscore the character of the women who resisted. It would have been easy & natural to go along w/ evil, to support & coddle the men who both had power over you & through whom you could gain more power.

But as the narrative of Esther brings to the front: Women are responsible for how they choose to relate to male abuses of power.

They can choose, like Zeresh, to support & further abuse. Or they can choose, like Esther, to understand that God's providence has put them in a certain place "for such a time as this."

Faithful women understand the role they play in a bigger story. In the face of evil, they will summon the prayers of the saints, place their hopes & lives in God's hands, and act.

biblegateway.com/passage/?searc…