Editor’s note: Today we continue our study of the Book of Esther, which was interrupted by a few weeks of Christmas and New Year’s themed meditations. If you’d like to start from the beginning or review, you’ll find the first four entries here:
- Things Are Not Always As They Appear
- 525,600 Minutes
- Good Girls Go to Heaven. Bad Girls Go…
- To Fight for the Right
Today’s Scripture: Esther 4:1-9 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):
This is the turning point in the book of Esther. In this chapter, the door leading to Esther’s triumph on behalf of the Jewish people begins to crack open. There are many heroes in the book of Esther — Vashti who stands up to the king, Mordecai the righteous cousin, and of course Esther herself — but the story would not have been possible without a eunuch named Hathach who shows up in Chapter 4. The key who unlocks the door to Esther’s triumph is an unassuming person of ambiguous gender. A transgender hero, right there in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures!
To understand this passage, you must first understand the black-and-white nature of gender roles in the story. In Chapter 1, you may recall, Queen Vashti throws a party exclusively for the women, while her husband has a party for the men. And when Esther becomes part of the king’s harem, she seems to be trapped in the world of the women. In this chapter, she’s unable to go to her cousin Mordecai, and he’s unable to visit her. He knows if he can get a message to her, she can go to the king, but as a man he has no way of entering her exclusively female world.
I also need to tell you a little bit about the role of eunuchs in the ancient Near East. (This was the subject of my Masters Thesis, but it won’t be wonky. I promise.) A eunuch in this context means a castrated man. In the ancient Near East, eunuchs were thought of as being neither male nor female, and were often given permission to guard — and cross — boundaries inaccessible to other people. For example, in the beginning of Esther’s story, we have eunuchs guarding the king and crossing the boundary between the royalty and the commoners. Eunuchs also guarded the sacred and profane borders of temples, as priests. And, naturally, eunuchs served as guards between men and women in harems.
So, when Esther needed to know what Mordecai was so upset about, she called Hathach the eunuch to carry the message. She needed someone who was neither male nor female to cross the boundary between her and Mordecai, and Hathach fit that bill. He was there to save the day, and turn the story in the direction of redemption for the Jewish people.
One more important thing to know about eunuchs: most were slaves who were castrated against their will. They didn’t choose to live as in-between people, that role was chosen for them. Considering Hathach’s place in the harem of the Persian king, this was probably true for him. The story of Hathach illustrates that people’s unique characteristics — even those parts of our story and our being that we didn’t choose and may not like — are usually the very things God uses to change the world.
Thought for the day: What boundaries are you able to cross that no one else can? Give thanks, be brave, and open those doors. What makes you unique may very well be the key that changes someone’s life.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.