Chapters one and two unveil the secret care of the hiding God for His oppressed elect as seen in Esther.
First, the hiding God established a top king in the Gentile world in prosperity, power, and glory over a great empire extending from India to Ethiopia (Africa)—1:1-2.
Next, the hiding God caused the top king to depose his queen because of her disobedience to his word at his great banquet with his high officials (vv. 3-22). The king commanded that the queen come before him wearing the royal crown in order that he might present her to those attending the banquet. However, the queen refused to come at the king’s command. As a result of her disobedience the queen was deposed, and the position of queen became vacant.
Finally, in His secret care the hiding God raised up Esther, a Jewish orphan virgin, to be crowned by the top king as his queen (2:1-18). Esther saved the king from being assassinated, telling the king in Mordecai’s name of those who planned to assassinate him (vv. 19-23).
Our God is omnipresent, omnipotent, merciful, and full of forgiveness. Although He is such a God, He is also the hiding God. Because our God is a hiding God, others may check with us and ask, “Where is your God? Where is His kingdom?” When we are questioned in such a manner, we may want to answer in this way: “My God is hidden. I cannot see Him, and you cannot see Him either. But you need to realize that sooner or later my hidden God will come in to do something on my behalf and to deal with those who do not believe in Him.”
I can testify concerning this from my experience. More than forty-five years ago, I, along with several other co-workers, was arrested and imprisoned by a small Chinese army that betrayed China and worked for the Japanese military police. The entire Christian community in that city was shocked, because they knew that we could very easily be executed like other Chinese who had fallen into the hands of the Japanese invading army. We did not know what to expect, but the hiding God intervened in a wonderful way using a particular person as an Esther.
The wife of the captain of the Chinese army under the Japanese military police had been the wife of a schoolmate of mine who had died of tuberculosis. When he was dying, his wife asked me to visit him, and I did so and had an intimate conversation with him. He eventually died, and some time later she remarried. After I was arrested and imprisoned, a medical doctor who was meeting both with us and with other Christians heard about my situation. He then went to speak to the woman who had married the captain of that Chinese army. The two were close friends, and the doctor who was meeting with us told the woman that I and several others had been imprisoned and that she should ask her husband to release us. She spoke to her husband about us that very day. He loved her and was willing to fulfill her request.
That night he appeared to judge our case. We were taken from our cells and stood before him to be judged. I was the first one to be examined by him. He looked at me, asked me my name, and told me that everything was all right and that I was free to go home peacefully. He said the same thing to the others who had been arrested with me. At the time none of us knew what had taken place behind the scene. Later I realized that, in His secret wisdom, the hiding God had prepared an Esther for us. He had raised up a Chinese widow to become the wife of the man who would judge our case. Just as the king of Persia listened to Esther and did what she said out of his love for her, so this man listened to his wife and released us from prison. This surely was due to the care of the hiding God.
Today we need to realize that the omnipotent God whom we are serving is still hiding Himself, especially when He is helping us. We cannot see Him, and apparently He is not doing anything for us. Actually, He is with us all the time and, in a hidden way, He is doing many things for us.