Mother's Day Message From Esther

Someday is Today

Esther 4:1-14

May 9, 2021

When I was a sophomore in high school some friends and myself went out on a Friday night. We just wanted to have some fun. One of my friends, who was a little bigger than me said, “I feel like getting in a fight.” We were not fighters. Nobody was around us, and we ignored his statement and went into an arcade to play games. We were only 15 minutes away from Skokie, but we were in a little rough north side neighborhood of Chicago.

Wouldn’t you know it . . . some other kid from that neighborhood came over to us and asked, “so you want to fight?”

I wondered how did he hear? How do I get out of here?

Before we knew it, we were surrounded by at least 30-40 kids who were not our friends. They pushed us and spit on us, and finally we got away. The next week we did the smart thing . . . we came back, but with about 40 of our friends . . . ready for a rumble.

There was only one problem, they were ready too. They numbered about 100. They had knives, guns, bats, and sticks with nails. I hid in a restaurant with friends, then we ran. We finally got picked up by the police, got dropped off at a friends car and went home.

Never to tell my parents. Fat chance. My mom ended up working with the grandmother of one of the kids who got hit in the head with a nail infested board. He had a few stitches and he told grandma I was there. You know the rest, she told my mom, who questioned me about what I did that night.

Have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time? You’ve been there before, haven't you? You just ended up being in the wrong spot at the wrong time and now you're having to deal with the consequences. My guess is, that’s how Esther must have felt. Esther is a wonderful story and we’re going to quickly go through those first few chapters. Esther reads like a soap opera. I want to encourage you to read this book sometime this week; it’s a wonderful story with lots of interesting characters.

Dr. John said it well . . .

I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time

I was sayin' the right things, but I must have used the wrong line

Have you ever been there? You ever felt you were in the RIGHT place at the WRONG time?

Or maybe it was the WRONG place at the RIGHT time.

Lots of times, we end up thinking we are in the WRONG at the WRONG time.

My guess is, Esther’s life was a series of those moments. In fact, the book of Esther is a series of wrong places, wrong times and right places and right times.

On this Mother’s Day, we are going to focus on Esther. I can imagine her feeling she was in the wrong place at the wrong time . . . and then again, sometimes it was the right time.

Esther is a wonderful story and it’s kind of like a soap opera; and I encourage you to read the book of Esther sometime this week. It’s a great story with lots of interesting characters.

In the first chapter, King Xerxes, who is the king over Persia is holding this huge, massive display of his wealth. For 180 days he’s inviting everybody to come and see how much splendor he has. Talk about a long party . . . 6 months of partying, and he was not done. Then when that party was over, he throws another banquet. This one lasts for 7 days. He tells the steward of the banquet, “Let people drink whatever they want to drink, as much or as little. Feed them whatever they want to eat; from the least to the greatest, everyone is invited.”

Eventually, “King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine,” (that’s a nice way of saying he had just a bit too much partying), and he asked for Queen Vashti to come in and show off her beauty and his power. She said, “No.”

Well, you didn’t say no to the king, and Xerxes was furious, so he gathered his top advisors and asked, “What do we do about this?” They agreed, “this isn’t good because if your wife doesn’t have to listen to you, our wives don’t have to listen to us.” In fact in verse 18 it says: “There will be no end of disrespect and discord.” So Vashti is banished. Vashti was in the right place, but it was the wrong time.