Many have noted that Megillat Esther has numerous connections with the story of Yosef in the book of Bereshit chapters 37-50. (For example see Gavriel Chayyim Cohen, Introduction to the book of Esther, in Megillat Esther, Hamesh Megilot: Da'at Mikra, 1990.) Both stories occurred outside of the land of Israel and in both cases, a person, Yosef and Mordechai, who was initially in the "outs" rose to become the virtual rulers of the country. Both Mordechai (Megillat Esther 2:5) and Yosef are descendants of Rahel (Bereshit 30:22-24), and both of them saved Jews and non-Jews. Yosef saved his family and all Egyptians from the famine, while Mordechai caused Esther to save the Jewish people, and saved the life of Achashverosh.
In addition, for both Yosef and Mordechai, their rise to power relates to two servants of the kings, the kings’ sleep or attempt to sleep, and there was a delay when Yosef and Mordechai received recognition from the king. Pharaoh had two dreams in his sleep, and because of his desire to understand the dreams he learned of Yosef due to Yosef’s interpretations of the dreams of two of his servants, the steward and the baker, two years beforehand, Bereshit 40:23, 41:1. Similarly, Achashverosh could not sleep and this led him to learn how Mordechai saved his life by overhearing the plot of two of his servants, but as noted by Achashverosh’s servant initially nothing was done for Mordechai, Megillat Esther 2:21-23; 6:1-3. After their rise to power, both Mordechai and Yosef got dressed up, rode through the streets, and people called out to them, Bereshit 41:42,43 and Megillat Esther 6:11. In both stories, the clothing of the protagonists demonstrates both their fall and rise.
In both stories the attainment of power is a turning point in the story. After Yosef rose to power this enabled him to meet his brothers again. Similarly, Achashverosh's knowledge of Mordechai’s good deed was crucial to the salvation of the Jewish people from Haman, see our discussion above on Megillat Esther 6:1, “Sleepless in Shushan” (https://lobashamayim.blogspot.com/2009/03/megillat-esther-sleepless-in-shushan.html) In addition, the dramatic moment in the story of Yosef and his brothers occurs when Yosef revealed himself to his brothers (Bereshit 45:3) and similarly in Megillat Esther (7:3,4) the dramatic moment is when Esther revealed her true identity to Achashverosh. Other linguistic connections between the stories are Bereshit 39:10 with Megillat Esther 3:4, Bereshit 44:34 with Megillat Esther 8:6, and Bereshit 43:14 with Megillat Esther 4:16 (Maybe also Bereshit 45:1 and Megillat Esther 5:10).
Is anything to be learned from the connections between Megillat Esther and the story of Yosef? Is this just an example of history repeating itself? A possible lesson is that both stories teach an important lesson about faith in G-d, and this idea relates to the question why is G-d's name not mentioned in Megillat Esther.
Avraham Korman (2001, p. 20) notes various explanations for why G-d's name is not mentioned in Megillat Esther. One answer is from Ibn Ezra (1089-1167) who suggests that Mordechai and Esther thought that the Megillah would be translated by non-Jews who would insert names of pagan gods by the name of G-d or instead of G-d's name in the Megillah. Thus, they thought it was best to leave G-d's name out of the Megillat Esther. A second answer is from R. Yitzhak Arama (1420-1494) who suggests that the Megillah was first written by non-Jews and only later copied by Mordechai and Esther. Hence G-d's name was not mentioned in the Megillah since the non-Jews did not include G-d's name when they wrote the Megillah. Korman suggests a third answer that initially Mordechai and Esther wrote the Megillah in a foreign language (Greek or Persian) and they did not want to write G-d's name in a foreign language. All these answer are technical since with all the approaches really G-d's name should have been included in Megillat Esther, but maybe G-d's name was not included in the Megillah as part of the message of the book.
Returning to the parallels between Megillat Esther and the story of Yosef, both stories occurred after G-d's presence became much less apparent. G-d spoke to the patriarchs, but G-d did not speak to Yosef. Similarly, Megillat Esther takes place after the destruction of the first Bet ha-Mikdash, (Megillat Esther 2:6) which also signaled a reduction in the presence of G-d in the world. The greatness of Yosef is that he constantly mentioned G-d, even when he was before Pharaoh, Bereshit 41:16, as he never lost his faith in G-d. Similarly, while G-d’s name is not mentioned in the Megillah, it is clear that the people had faith in G-d. For example, Mordechai told Esther that if she did not act to save the Jewish people, the people would be saved in another manner, Megillat Esther 4:14. Also, when Esther and the people fasted for three days (Megillat Esther 4:16) this fasting was their prayer to G-d. (Many understand that the Jewish people prayed when they fasted, which could be true, but the fasting itself was a form of praying.)
A lesson to be learned from both stories is that even if G-d’s presence is not apparent as it had been previously, still one must keep having faith in G-d. This lesson is enhanced due to the absence of G-d's name in Megillat Esther since this absence indicates a lack of G-d's presence in the world and still the people showed their faith in G-d.
In addition, both stories teach us what it means to have faith. Yosef did not depend on miracles but asked the steward to remember him to Pharaoh and this is how he rose to power, see our discussion on Bereshit 40:14,15 "Help." Similarly, Mordechai and Esther did not just rely on fasting, but Esther devised a very clever plan to reverse Achashverosh’s agreement with Haman. Her idea of a double banquet made Achashverosh inquisitive and then G-d arranged that in the middle of the two banquets, Achashverosh learned of Mordechai’s good deed. We learn from both stories that while we must believe in G-d, faith also means that we also must act in a rational manner to help ourselves without relying on miracles.