Esther

Esther tells how the Jews of the Persian empire were saved from annihilation in the days of King Ahasuerus, whose rule stretched from India to Ethiopia. Its author is unknown, though tradition has suggested Mordecai; it was written to explain and establish the feast of Purim, which Jews keep to this day. Famously, the book never mentions God by name, yet his providence moves through every banquet, decree, and sleepless night, guiding events for the exiles who remained scattered abroad.

When Queen Vashti is deposed, a Jewish orphan named Esther, raised by her cousin Mordecai, is chosen queen without revealing her people. Haman the Agagite, enraged that Mordecai will not bow, persuades the king to decree the destruction of all Jews on a day chosen by lot. Mordecai charges Esther that she has come to the kingdom for such a time as this; risking her life, she approaches the king unbidden and, over two banquets, exposes Haman, who is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai. A counter-decree lets the Jews defend themselves, and sorrow turns to joy.

Esther's enduring message is that God preserves his people even when he seems silent and unseen. It celebrates courage that accepts personal risk for others, and in Purim it turns a narrowly-averted catastrophe into an annual feast of gladness and gifts.