If I Perish, I Perish Series

For Such a Time as This: If I Perish, I Perish

Esther 4

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

08-23-2020

Check

When I was in high school, I belonged to the chess club. Yes, I was a dork! But I truly enjoyed playing chess against my friends, especially in study hall.

There were about one hundred students in this study hall and it was supervised by the football coach. Every once in a while, he would get so frustrated with the noise level that he would have everyone stand against the wall for the reminder of the class period.

One day, he ordered everyone to the wall…except for the four of us playing chess. We volunteered to stand on the wall as well, but he said we were the only ones being quiet so we could keep playing.

Imagine the scene. One hundred students mad about standing the rest of the period against the wall all watching the four geeks play their chess games. I never wanted to disappear so bad in my life!

I love chess. I love the fact that you have to think through multiple moves ahead and what may look like randomness can actually be a strategy.

What’s interesting about watching someone play is that sometimes you can see clearly from above the board what they can’t see at all.

“Why would they move their knight there? They are playing right into their opponents hands. Knight takes Rook. Saw the coming.”

In the book of Esther, a game of chess is being played, except with cosmic implications.

Satan carefully moved Haman into position and gleefully hissed, “Check!”

But we will see that God has his own plan and has a queen and a pawn moving in for the kill, or in chess language, “Checkmate!”

A Genocide in Coming

Last week, we watched as Mordecai uncovered a plot to assassinate King Xerxes. The two conspirators were hanged and this event was recorded in the chronicles of the king.

But instead of Mordecai getting a promotion, Haman the Agagite, was chosen to be Xerxes right hand man.

The Israelites and Amalekites had been enemies for centuries. Mordecai was a descendant of King Saul and Haman was a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites. This was like the Hatfield and McCoys on steroids!

Mordecai refused to bow to Haman and in response Haman decides to commit genocide and wipe out every Jew, (man, woman, child, young and old), in the entire province of Persia.

Using the “pur,” clay dice used for divination, a date was chosen - exactly eleven months from that day.

Haman approached the king and told him that there were people in his kingdom that didn’t obey his laws and it wasn’t in his best interest to tolerate them.

Haman offers an absurd amount of money to the king’s treasury and Xerxes responded with utter indifference: “do with these people as you please.”

The edict went out, arriving on the Jew’s doorstep the night before Passover. Would God save them again? Had they disobeyed one too many times? Why was this happening?

The entire empire, especially Susa, was thrown into complete confusion. But Xerxes and Haman went to have a few beers together.

This brings us to the hinge chapter in the book of Esther. Within these verses are the most two of the most famous statements in all the Bible.

Although God hasn’t been mentioned in this book so far, we are going to see that He continues to move behind the scenes to get everyone into position to delivery his children.

Let’s continue to remind ourselves that:

“God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” - John Piper

Turn with me to Esther 4.

Prayer.

Mordecai’s Mourning

“When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.” (Esther 4:1-3)

When Mordecai learned of Haman’s plan, he was overcome with grief. He tore his clothes. Clothes were expensive so this was an act of sacrifice. It symbolized their broken hearts. Throughout the Scriptures, we see examples of people tearing their clothes in anguish.

The Jews weren’t the only ones who tore their clothes when in their misery. The Persians would have recognized Mordecai’s distress because they tore their clothes as well, especially when they suffered military defeats at the hand of the Greeks.

He went home and got sackcloth out of his closet and put it on.