One of the most striking features of the book of Esther is that God is not mentioned even once in the entire book. In fact, neither is prayer or worship, the Scriptures or the law, Jerusalem or the temple. We can only speculate as to why the author chose to do this. I’ll just give a few of my ideas. I’d be interested in hearing any others in the comments.

Perhaps it reflects the fact that Esther and Mordecai lived in a society in which Israel’s God was not on the agenda for conversation. As in our own culture, talk of God is not always welcome and sometimes downright suppressed, with even prominent figures such as Tony Blair and Wayne Rooney finding their opinions on God censored. It raises questions of how we present God to a culture that does not want to hear about him.

Or maybe it reflects the fact that much of the time for Esther and Mordecai, God’s presence was not obvious. There are no miracles in the book of Esther. It is only with hindsight that his presence and sovereignty is seen. The author invites us as readers to do what Esther and Mordecai had to do, to look with the eyes of faith to see God at work in the events, without always being able to comprehend why and how he is working. It prompts us to re-examine the story of our own lives, having faith to see God at work even in the apparently random events that we find ourselves caught up in.

Another possibility is simply that the author wants to use the power of story to make us reflect more deeply and look for signs of God. Often when we watch a good movie, the story stays with us for the next few days as we mull it over in our minds, wondering whether there was a “meaning” or a “moral” to the story. We might have to reinterpret events early in the story based on things we discover only at the end. Sometimes the director of the movie refuses to be drawn on what he was trying to say in the film, preferring to leave people to ponder the story. Jesus seemed to take this approach with many of his parables, often leaving them unexplained. This leaves a challenge to Christians who write novels or film scripts. Can we learn the art of telling stories that point to God without having to explicitly mention him?