Originally posted on Facebook on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.

This is dark.

I'm currently studying the book of Esther.

It's easy to fall into a sanitized and romanticized version of this account, but the circumstances of Esther are heartbreaking.

Esther is a woman, young enough to be my daughter—a child, who is robbed of her God-given agency by a corrupt power system and forced into the sexual service of a powerful man, King Ahasuerus.

I didn't initially see that. My wife helped open my eyes to it as we were discussing the text and I ignorantly asked a variant of this question:

Would Esther's situation have been considered oppressive in her time? Wouldn't it have been considered a good thing to her? Wasn't it a promotion over her current state of affairs? She was being made royalty!

My wife said to me, "There's nothing anyone can offer me that's worth more than my choice."

I've been sitting with that ever since.

My line of questioning is very much the same logic oppressors have used to excuse sins of the past (and present).

It's no different than saying people were happy (or should have been happier) being slaves because their slavery afforded them more access to opportunity. But with their agency and resources left intact they could make their own opportunity.

It's also relativistic. It says that right and wrong, justice and injustice are relative to the culture and norms of that time. That's not God's standard.

I repent.

The problem isn't being ignorant but choosing to remain ignorant in the light of better understanding.

I've personally been to a church that did just that, where the preacher said that we cannot judge men of the past for things like slavery (chattel slavery to be specific) because it was just "the way things were" then.

Is that really how we're to discern good or evil? Consensus? It's ok if enough of us say it's ok? Or, if the people in power say it's ok?

No.

How then are we to evaluate these things?

Jesus.

Jesus Himself is the answer to how we evaluate righteousness.

One of the things that most impresses me about Jesus is that you could place Him in the year 3035 and He would still be ahead of His time. Though we encounter Him in texts written over 2,000 years ago—within cultures many of us may quickly label as archaic—Jesus consistently transcends both their biases and ours.

That’s why I don’t believe cultural norms are what ultimately determine whether something is just or good. Jesus is God's standard.

When I evaluate whether something is good, just, or reflective of God’s intent, I look to Christ in three ways:

Christ in Creation — What do we see of God’s intent for humanity in His good creation through Christ?
“God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
“All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16)

Christ in Redemption — How do we see God's intent for humanity in how Jesus relates to people, especially the vulnerable: the poor, the sick, and women?
“God shows no partiality.” (Acts 10:34)
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)

Christ in Re-creation — How is God’s intent for humanity demonstrated in the new creation Jesus establishes?
“Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)
"You have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." (Revelation 5:9)

Christ is the measure that tests every practice, culture, and time against God's ideal. This is the litmus test: Is this the way Christ would rule?

And by that standard, Esther’s oppression is apparent—not caused by God, but used by God for His good purposes (Romans 8:28).

Seeing the dark, problematic backdrop of Esther is a necessary element toward truly understanding and appreciating this text.

Against that backdrop, we confront the harsh reality of our state. Our ways are evil, our reasoning is corrupt, and our systems are oppressive, resulting in great suffering.

But, God.

Without naming the darkness, we misunderstand what God has done and we remain where we are.

He does not endorse our evil as so many use such texts to claim, but works to deliver us from it.

This account is not about Esther, Mordecai—or by extension, you and I—doing the right thing. But it is about God's goodness despite what we've done.

God's sovereignty in the darkest circumstances,
His providential hand even though He's not named,
His faithfulness even in our failure,
His deliverance, not because of what we’ve done, but from it:
This is the glorious lesson of Esther.