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 PrintableVersion EstherFor such a time as thisESTHER Tyndale OT Commentaries are no longer green, they are brown. The intention is to revise the entire series; pity the writer who has to redo the volumes originally by Derek Kidner. Why revise? Because, say the editors, ‘the questions confronting readers in the 21st century are not necessarily those of the 20th’. Fair point. And this is certainly a good commentary in the best Tyndale traditions of academic study, concision and faithfulness to the text, underpinned by the conviction that Scripture is from God for us. Dr. Reid is Director of Open Learning at Spurgeon’s College, and she has clearly taught Esther both in college and in her local church. She reflects on the value of Esther as testimony — both of Esther as an individual, and of her community. She is eager for us to grapple with the historical setting of the events, because it enables the revelation of the theological meaning of the book. She is wisely prepared to allow the book not to yield its meaning too simply; Esther taunts and teases us, she says, because it is hard to pin down. And after all, God doesn’t even get a mention in the book of Esther. Dr. Reid argues for a theme similar to Job and Ruth, namely ‘the apparent absence of God in the life of his people’. He may seem absent, and yet ‘coincidences’ happen and, more importantly, reversals happen: evil is brought down and good triumphs; surely God is at work, albeit from his hiding place. He is at work through his people; Reid stresses the interface between God’s providence and human behaviour. And these reversals, which are so obvious in Esther, are, for Reid, ‘examples of the dramatic intervention of God bringing about his purposes through his people’s preservation and ultimately by his Son’s gift of salvation to the world’. Each section of the commentary is divided into three, under the headings of Context, Comment, and Meaning (these are to be features of the whole renewed series, according to the Prefaces). At times this helps, at others it seems superfluous. Fortunately the sections on Context and Meaning are invariably short. There is an appendix to assist those who wish to understand the Greek additions to the book of Esther, which can be found as part of the main text in the Jerusalem Bible, otherwise omitted or placed in the Apocrypha. Perhaps we need to understand the book of Esther afresh in these days when God’s people are struggling and he does not seem to step forward into the centre of the stage. This commentary offers help in that understanding. James Dudley-Smith, © Evangelicals Now - July 2008 |
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