As we move into the closing days of Advent (as well as the closing days of this series), we’ll begin to pivot to some of the latest-written books in the Old Testament, including two fairly unique texts in Esther and Daniel. Last week we covered the time after the Babylonian exile for those who returned back to Jerusalem, with tension surrounding how best to rebuild during the start of the “Second Temple” period. This week we’ll spend time with those who continued to live in a foreign land, part of a wider diaspora in the wake of the Babylonian exile, and how they navigated being Jewish in places where they had little political or religious control.

The book of Esther is set in the Persian Empire as the Jewish population there is threatened by the jealousy and scheming of a court official named Haman, with their only hope represented by the Jewish queen Esther, who is asked to convince the king to save her people. In a different setting, but familiar struggle over court politics, Daniel as well as three other officials have their allegiance to God over state tested, first under the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and later by the Persian king Darius. The life-and-death stakes of each of these passages are dramatic, but they perfectly capture the tension between faith and empire that later readers would experience.

The relatively benevolent Persian Empire would eventually fall to Alexander the Great and what would become known as the Hellenistic (Greek) Empire, leading to wide-ranging transformations in language and culture (including the Hebrew Bible being translated into Greek), as well as a much more oppressive regime that took control of the land now known as Judea (formerly the Southern Kingdom of Judah). Despite the initial hopes of independence during the Second Temple period, the Jewish people were back squarely under the control of foreign powers. And yet an alternative hope began to grow for a day when God would be back in control, ushered in by a Messiah who would bring about a new era of peace, prosperity, and salvation.

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