Who? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
You might be surprised to learn Esther is my favorite book in the Bible. As a young man going through the text (I am unsure if I had hit my teenage years yet), I got to this book and knew nothing about it. As I started reading it, I could not put it down. It was like reading a modern adventure novel. I read through the whole thing in one sitting.
Something else fascinating about the book is that it never mentions God one time. That’s actually an added appeal to me. It’s not because I am opposed to God obviously, but because by this, you get to truly see how God is working behind the scenes. You know that some of the events that just seem to happen, are really the work of a divine hand.
I also wrote yesterday on your part in the story of God. At night, I go through a book of the Bible and read just one verse. This allows me to think on the text slowly. Right now, it is Esther.
If you had come to me knowing that I love the book of Esther and asked me who Memucan was, I would not have known. Who? Is that a video game boss or something like that?
No. He actually is a character in the book of Esther. At the start of the book, Queen Vashti refuses to do what King Xerxes bids so he has her banished from his presence. Then the question is asked what is to be done. Memucan comes up with the idea for this.
He gives a case why this is so and the king likes the idea and has Vashti banished. Thus, the king has no queen and it is because of the idea of Memucan. After all of this, what happens to him?
Nothing. His name never shows up in the rest of the book or anywhere else in Scripture. He is one of those bit characters that unless you were looking for him, you would not know he was there. He leaves the story just as quickly as he enters.
But it is a good thing that he entered it.
You see, if Memucan had never entered the story, then we would never have had the search for someone else to be the bride of Xerxes. We would have never had Esther be chosen then and she would never be queen. When Haman decides to go after all the Jewish people, that has nothing to do with what happened with Vashti earlier. Had Esther not been the queen, there is nothing that she could have done to stop it. It could be that help would come from another place, but we don’t know what would have happened. All we know is what did happen.
It depended in part on Memucan.
For many people, if they read the book of Esther today, they would say “I’m Esther!” or “I’m Mordecai!” No. More likely than not, if you’re anyone, you’ll be Memucan. It will not be a part that has a lot of glory here to it, but it is an essential part anyway. It is in part because of Memucan that the Jewish people were saved.
But really, shouldn’t any part you play in God’s story be a part that you are honored to play?
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)