Conspicuous in His Absence

Studies in the Song of Songs and Esther

Chloe T. Sun

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780830854882
• eBook ISBN: 9780830854899
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Biblical Foundations Book Awards Runner Up and Finalist

In the biblical canon, two books lack any explicit reference to the name of God: Song of Songs and Esther. God's peculiar absence in these texts is unsettling, both for theological discourse and for believers considering implications for their own lived experience.

Chloe T. Sun takes on the challenges of God's absence by exploring the often overlooked theological connections between these two Old Testament books. In Conspicuous in His Absence, Sun examines and reflects on the Song of Songs and Esther using theological interpretation. She addresses three main questions: What is the nature of God as revealed in texts that don't use his name? How do we think of God when he is perceived to be absent? What should we do when God is silent or hidden?

The experience of God's absence or silence is an important part of the human condition. By exploring the distinct themes and perspectives of Song of Songs and Esther, as well as how they've been received in Jewish and Christian history, Sun demonstrates how both books serve as counter texts to the depiction of God and his work in the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus both contribute to a fuller picture of who God is and what it means to know him.

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THEOLOGY

DIVINE PRESENCE and ABSENCE

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

PSALM 22:1

IF GOD IS EXPLICITLY PRESENT in every single book of the Bible, how can we make sense of the reality that people do sense divine absence in their lives? Past scholarship has devoted much attention to the absence of God in the book of Esther, and to a lesser extent the theology of absence in Song of Songs, but rarely does this scholarship place these two books together to investigate how this unique literary feature of the absence of God’s name contributes to the theology of Hebrew Scripture.

Therefore, this chapter paints in broad strokes a picture of theological inquiries on the theology of divine presence and absence in the Hebrew Scripture.

As a part of the Writings in general and as an essential component of the Megilloth in particular, together having a close affinity with wisdom, Song of Songs and Esther demonstrate a unique yet often overlooked fact—that the way in which God works in this portion of Scripture differs from that in the Torah and the Prophets. Divine absence forms incomprehensibility, which is intrinsic to the ethos of God. Together with divine presence, divine absence presents a fuller picture of who God is. As a result, these two scrolls supplement and complement what the rest of the biblical books lack. This chapter concludes with the thesis that the absence of God in these two biblical books is a theological necessity if one attempts to articulate an Old Testament theology. The dominant mode of divine presence in other biblical books is not the whole picture of God if it does not include and integrate this theme of divine absence. The theme of absence also helps to align theology with real life, especially for those who experience suffering, trauma, loss, crisis, uncertainty, or evil in this world. In light of the global pandemic in 2020 and its aftermath, the inquiry of the absence of God cannot be more pertinent.

DIVINE PRESENCE AND ABSENCE IN SCHOLARSHIP

In Where Is God? Divine Absence in the Hebrew Bible, Joel Burnett observes, “The theme of divine absence in the Hebrew Bible involves a crisis of relationship.” In the same book, he states, “The theme of divine absence goes hand in hand with the problem of theodicy.”1 In the minds of the believers, God should be present at all times, especially during the times when they need him the most. Yet the lived experience of many believers speaks otherwise. Relationship, by nature, is mutual and dialogical. When one party remains absent, silent, or uninvolved, it creates a relational crisis. I would like to suggest further that divine absence not only creates a crisis of relationship, but also a crisis of intellect and a crisis of faith. By intellect I am referring to human reasoning and comprehension. If God is omnipresent, how and why would he be absent or choose to be absent? If we appeal to the compassion of God and to his special relationship with his chosen people, where is God when his people call on him but he is not there, as many lament psalms indicate? By faith, I mean the kind of conviction that God is present even though he cannot be felt, and the kind of belief that God is there even though he remains silent and hidden. Divine absence reflects a serious theological crisis, which is worth reckoning and grappling with. Yet scholarship on Old Testament theology has relegated this theological theme to the margins.2 Only in recent years has the subject of divine absence started to appear in individual monographs and gained gradual momentum in the study of the theology of Megilloth.3

Past scholarship on the theology of divine presence and absence can be segmented into three major but also overlapping approaches.4

1. 1. Diachronic: This approach advocates the position that divine presence gradually decreases and is replaced by divine absence. At the same time, human characters gradually take center stage, with the book of Esther as the ultimate example of this, in which the name of God is entirely absent, but human responsibility comes to the fore.
2. 2. Dialectic: Divine presence and absence is perceived as a dialectical relationship in which divine absence cannot be conceived apart from divine presence. In this view, there is divine presence in absence and divine absence in presence. The genre in question is concentrated primarily on the lament psalms and the exilic prophets.
3. 3. Canonical: Recent scholarship is starting to pay attention to the theology of the Writings, particularly the presence and absence of God in Wisdom books as well as the theology of Megilloth. Interest in the latter is gaining increasing momentum.

Throughout all three major approaches, the book of Esther has captured the imagination of scholars, whereas Song of Songs continues noticeably to be overlooked. The following synopsis of scholars and their works serves as representative of different approaches and is not meant to be exhaustive by any means.

Diachronic: From divine presence to divine absence. The proponents of this approach use a linear, narrative approach to portray the character of God. Many of them perceive a development or evolvement of the character of God and his activities throughout the course of the Old Testament narratives.

God as a dramatic persona. In the early 1980s, Dale Patrick wrote a biography of God. He claims that God appears as a dramatis persona in the Bible. He argues that the rendering of God in the Bible conforms to the principles that govern the mimetic arts. Patrick uses characterization and dramatic action as ways to present God as a consistent character who speaks and acts. This rendering of God proves his identity. For Patrick, there is a consistency of characterization in the biblical descriptions of God as God moves in bodily form among his creatures without harmful effect. The call of Moses provides God with a biographical identity because God identifies himself as “the God of the fathers.” The call of Moses also portrays God as one with emotions as he identifies with the suffering of his people. In addition, God also displays consistent virtue, including his power and intelligence, to rule history and to save his people.

For those character traits that are inconsistent, Patrick considers them “out of character.” He cites an example from Exodus 4:24-26, where God assumes the guise of a demon, attacking Moses at night, which is inconsistent with his character elsewhere. When the literary approach to the study of the Bible was at its peak in the eighties, Patrick’s work advanced this conversation, which opens a trajectory to interpret the character of God as a literary figure. In so doing, God has become susceptible to the reader’s analysis rather than being perceived as a transcendent deity to be revered and received incontestably. Patrick acknowledges the difficulty in establishing criteria for assessing God’s character. However, he contributes by painting a portrait of God that involves a development of character as well as drawing attention to God’s speech, action, and emotion, thus presenting God like a “real” character before readers’ eyes.5

God gradually disappears. In the 1990s, the prime supporter for this position was Richard Elliot Friedman. In his groundbreaking work, The Disappearance of God, Friedman observes the plot of the Bible. He notes that the presence of God first appears to be visible, active, talking to people face to face, and performing miracles, but then progressively becomes hidden, silent, and eventually disappears in the book of Esther. Language that conveys divine presence includes “the spirit of God,” “God appeared,” and “God said,” but these terms gradually disappear as the story line of the Bible unfolds. The presence of God that is apparent, that is a matter of public knowledge at the beginning of the biblical narrative, has turned into a hidden presence, a matter of belief or of hope. Friedman cites examples of God’s presence as a flame of fire to Moses (Ex 3:2), as the column of cloud and column of fire, and as the “glory of Yahweh” that is visible to human eyes (Ex 16:7; Lev 9:6; Num 14:10). When God appears on Mount Sinai, fire and thunder accompany his presence and inspire a sense of awe and terror (Ex 19:19). God even issues the Ten Commandments with his divine voice (Ex 20:1-17).6 Aside from God’s public and visible presence to his people, he also appears to individuals such as Moses, speaking directly to him, even mouth to mouth (Num 12:6-8). Friedman traces God’s direct interactions with the patriarchs, Joshua, Aaron, Samuel, David, and Solomon to further his argument of divine presence in the Torah and most of the historical books. At the end, he comes to the book of Esther.

Friedman cites Mordecai’s words to Esther in Esther 4:14 and highlights two phrases: “Who knows?” and “from another place.”7 These two phrases present a striking contrast to the earlier biblical narratives, where the visibility and activity of God are apparent in the public domain. Friedman sees Esther’s ascent to the Persian palace as by worldly means and not by divine involvement, as in the case of Joseph’s rise. He states, “The narrator does not suggest that this is a divine plan, and Mordecai’s words convey that Mordecai is depicted as truly not knowing for sure.” In Esther, the presence of God is no longer publicly visible and has turned into a hidden presence, falling into the realm of personal belief. Friedman further remarks that this is only half of the story.8

The other half of the story reveals the other side of the same coin, namely, that the weight of human responsibility gradually increases as the storyline of the Bible progresses. In other words, there is a transition from divine visibility to human responsibility. To demonstrate this fact, Friedman uses a parent-children analogy. In the Bible, God acts like a parent, and the people he created are like his children. When Adam and Eve take the forbidden fruit and eat it, they act like naughty children. As the Bible’s story line moves forward, Abraham questions God (Gen 18), and Jacob fights God (Gen 32). Human beings are confronting their Creator, and they are gaining participation and power in the divine-human relationship.9 In his own words, “In the Bible, God creates humans, becomes known to them, interacts with them, and then leaves.” For Friedman, this divine exit from the Bible is exemplified in its extreme by the book of Esther. He sees a shift in the divine-human balance, with Eve symbolizing humans’ initial estrangement from God and Esther being credited with ensuring humans’ salvation.10

Friedman’s work is both convincing and troubling. For him, God does seem to disappear gradually as the story line of the Bible progresses. God’s presence and activities do seem to give way to his absence and silence as the story advances. At the same time, human characters do seem to take matters into their own hands. The book of Esther does leave out the name of God entirely, and this is replaced by the actions and autonomy of the human hero and heroine. These are undeniable facts. Yet there is something we do need to consider further.

First is the question of canon. To which canon does Friedman refer? Friedman’s argument presupposes only a portion of the Bible, namely, the Pentateuch and the historical books, which is not the whole story line of the Hebrew Scripture, let alone the storyline of the whole Bible. The story line of this portion of the Bible indeed begins with Genesis and ends with Esther. However, the book of Esther is not the last book in the Christian canon. In the Christian canon, Malachi is the last book, and God does speak in the book of Malachi.11 In the Hebrew canon (here I am referring to the Masoretic Text), the last book is Chronicles, where God’s activity is conveyed through his stirring up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, to issue an edict, allowing God’s people to go up to Jerusalem (2 Chron 36:22-23). To pick and choose a portion or a corpus of the Bible and then attempt to determine its plot only tells a partial story, not the whole story. The order of the biblical books varies with different canonical traditions of the Scripture, and this suggests that different communities of faith present different versions of the portrayal of God in different time periods. For example, the Greek version of the book of Esther does include the name of God more than once.12 Seen through the trajectory of biblical canon, Friedman’s argument of the “disappearance of God” collapses accordingly.

Second, although Friedman retells the biblical story from only a portion of the Christian canon, which yields an incomplete story, it does provoke troubling thoughts, because God’s name does disappear from the book of Esther. This undeniably forms a significant contrast to the presence of God as portrayed in Exodus. This fact alone calls for inquiry. What Friedman may have missed is that God may not work the same way in the Torah as he does in the Writings. The “disappearance of God” or the “hidden face of God” does not necessarily mean that the character of God has changed or evolved through time. The difference in genre and in the historical time period of Esther versus Exodus should be taken into consideration when one attempts to reconcile or make sense of the dynamics between divine presence and absence. I will return to this point later in the next chapter when we discuss the wisdom element in Song of Songs and Esther.

God is like a human character. Following Friedman’s arguments, Jack Miles, in his national bestseller, God: A Biography, continues a similar thesis, tracing the “biography” of God from a creator in Genesis to a liberator in Exodus, and then ending with the book of Esther as “Absence” and Chronicles as “Perpetual Round.” He compares the book of Esther with the exodus story and suggests that regardless of the intent or purpose of the book of Esther, the absence of the divine name is precisely its effect, the point of the story. He states that the story lines between Exodus and Esther are quite similar, since both involve an averted genocide, but the story of Exodus epitomizes divine presence and activity, whereas in the story of Esther, Esther and Mordecai become the incarnation of God’s redemptive action. Miles specifically clarifies that Esther and Mordecai are not “God incarnate,” because if one calls them that, then the word God would have to appear, which is not the case in the book of Esther.13 Unlike Friedman, who ends his retelling of the biblical story with Esther, Miles ends it with Chronicles, particularly with the prayer of David in 1 Chronicles 29:10-19, where Miles construes the prayer as “God’s farewell speech.” He takes the la...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Theology: Divine Presence and Absence
• 2 Absence: Wisdom and Countertexts
• 3 Time: Song and Narrative
• 4 Temple: Garden and Palace
• 5 Feast: Passover and Purim
• 6 Canon: Resonances and Dissonances
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index
• Song of Songs Rabbah and Targum Indexes
• Notes
• Praise for Conspicuous in His Absence
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright