We Should Read Lamentations and Esther Together

The last few months have been heavy for my wife and I. There are many needs of various kinds around us which we have opportunity to engage and pray for. However, it is tiring. As this season of life began, Ecclesiastes was the next book in my Bible reading. This served in giving me a biblical perspective on the difficulties I faced. I went from there to Lamentations (I’m reading in the original order of the Hebrew Old Testament…see more about in this VIDEO).

Lamentations

By its very name we see Lamentations as a dreary and heavy read. It is, in the words of Peter Y. Lee, “a collection of five poems that mourns the most tragic day in the history of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC.”¹

Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash

However, amid those sorrowful poems we have reminders of an ever important truth of our God. This truth is often sung in church: ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’ (Lam. 3:23). This remembrance of God’s faithfulness arises at a few points although not in those exact words. Although most of the book is a sobering record of God’s judgement, it closes with these four verses:

But you, O LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

Lamentations 5:19-22

Will the Lord restore? Will Israel be renewed? It seems like their end has come. Jerusalem, the great city, is in ashes, and its inhabitants are taken away. Such is the feel of these closing verses.

Then we come to Esther (again…going by the order of the Hebrew Old Testament [the TaNaKh]).

Esther

This book opens with:

Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel, in the third year of his reign he gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him, while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days. And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars, and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones. Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king.

Esther 1:1-7

When we go from Lamentations to Esther it is as though we can smell the smoke from Jerusalem, and hear the crackling wood as it smolders, but then we see this. These opening verses of Esther are in complete contrast to the close of Lamentations. Here we find King Ahasuerus and his governors and armies, his provinces and citadel, glory and splendor, gold and silver, violet hangings and royal wine.

Photo by Michaela Murphy on Unsplash

This city is alive, well and powerful. We know that it is the Lord who makes kingdoms to rise and to fall. It seems to us that Jerusalem is done and a new city has arisen. Jerusalem may at one time have known blessing in the days of David and Solomon, but now a new King has arisen “in Susa, the citadel.”

Two Books; One Story

It is here that I believe the story wants us to be considering the following:

• Will God be faithful to His covenant promise? Jerusalem was the city on which He set His name, and showed it to be so by blessing the temple.
• Even amid the lamenting of the first part to this story, there are glimpses of hope. In the middle of Lamentations (3:22-42) we have hope for a day of repentance and reconciliation.

Conclusion

When we consider the rest of the story of Esther we see how Lamentations-Esther give us a picture of the enduring faithfulness of God. Those infrequent whispers of God’s faithfulness in Lamentations leads us to see God’s faithful actions toward the Jews in Esther. He has not ceased, and what’s more, He moves by faithfulness even while his people are yet in exile. He does not wait for them to return to their homeland to then be faithful. No, even as they live in this season of being in, to use dad language: a big, long timeout; God remains faithful.

He preserves them from their ancient enemy Haman (which is a story of faithful redemption unto itself…maybe next week’s blog).

Remember…

By this story that spans across two books we learn that God’s faithfulness never ends. Even when His people have been unfaithful and broken the covenant again and again, what is the response:

if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

These words are words unto joy for the heart, giving strength for today, and renewing hope for the future.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Consider the Lamentations-Esther story and know that He is faithful.

1. Lee, Peter Y. A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament: The Gospel Promised. Crossway. 2016. 457. ↩︎