Esther
God loves to take that which is nothing in the eyes of the world and work his greatest wonders. As Paul was praying for God to remove what he called “a thorn in my flesh,” God said: 2 Cor. 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God has often used unlikely leaders to accomplish amazing deliverance and blessing for his people. Who would have thought a poor carpenter’s son from an obscure village in Palestine would be the Savior of the World and Lord of all creation? Who would have guessed that a shepherd boy with a sling and 5 stones would defeat the greatest warrior in the Philistine army and become the king through whom the Christ came? The biblical hall of fame is characterized by a long list of unlikely subjects who trusted God and were used by him to accomplish more than they could ask or imagine. Unlikely men, women and children, God has used and continues to use to do great things at critical times.
In today’s lesson we will look at another unlikely hero who God used to save the entire Jewish nation from annihilation. She is an orphaned Jewish girl named Hadassah, who was raised by her older cousin, Mordecai. We know her better by her other name: Esther.
Think about the times Esther lived in. It was a time of return for the Jewish exiles. It is a time of restoration of Israel in Jerusalem, a time of struggle for them as they rebuild and reestablish the worship and Jewish nation. It was also a time of preparation for war for Persia. The place is Susa, capital of the Persian Empire. The year is about 485 B.C. King Ahasuerus rules from India to Ethiopia and he is planning an attack on Greece. This may be the reason for the massive party we read about in the first chapter. This was Xerxes I whose attempt to take Greece ended in disaster for his army and navy. Through Esther we get a privileged personal perspective of this powerful king. This Persian king is rich, drinks a lot, and likes to have a show-case wife who will do what he wants. He’s not accustomed to having anyone say “no” to him. But at his big party in chapter 1, when drinking too much, he summons his queen wife, Vashti, to come display her beauty before his guests. Vashti is having a party of her own and she refuses to come.
Ahasuerus is completely bumfuzzeled. She said, NO! How can she say, no? Now what? How do you handle an insubordinate wife? He has to call a meeting of his advisors to figure out what his next move is. And do you know what they tell him? Ooooh. This is serious business. Vashti is a role model for every woman in the Empire! If she gets away with this blatant disobedience, all the other women of the empire will follow suit and there is no end to the problems this will bring. This feminist movement must be stopped now! Nip it, nip it, nip it in the bud! Here’s the plan… Depose Vashti and round up all the beautiful young women of the land to pick a replacement from one of them and install the one that pleases the king most in the place of that insubordinate Vashti. Ole Xerxes liked that idea. So that’s what they did. It was time to pick a new queen. Just about the time Esther was entering womanhood and was very beautiful. There’s a blessing and burden of being beautiful. Vashti has discovered that too. What will happen to Esther?
Well, the story continues. Esther is selected as one of the prospective picks of Ahasuerus. Mordecai tells her not to disclose her Jewish identity, so she somehow keeps that a secret which figures into the plot later. Well, you know what happens don’t you? Of all the beautiful women of the land, Esther is selected by the king. Within a short time, Mordecai hears about a plot to kill the king and he tells Esther. She relates this to the king giving Mordecai credit. An investigation takes place and the plot is uncovered and the king’s life is saved. This gets recorded in the chronicles, another matter that figures into the plot later.
At this point Haman, the enemy of the Jews, is introduced. For some unmentioned reason Ahasuerus promotes this guy to a very high position and everyone is supposed to bow before him when he goes by. But when he passes by Mordecai, Mordecai won’t bow or pay homage to him. There is some ancient bad blood between these two. Well, this makes Haman so mad he decides on a terrible revenge, instead of just killing Mordecai, he will have ALL the Jews killed. What a nasty guy! Well, Haman goes to the king and tells him that there are a certain people in the provinces that are disobedient to the king and who should be destroyed. He then offers to fund their extermination. Ahasuerus trusts Haman so much that he gives him authority to do it even giving Haman his signet ring to seal a decree to have them all killed. It appears that king Ahasuerus doesn’t know it is the Jews Haman is planning to destroy.
Haman wastes no time figuring out a date and getting an edict out to exterminate all Jews within the empire. When Mordecai hears about this terrible plan and sees the edict he tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth and ashes and cries bitterly and goes up to the gate of the palace. All over the place the Jews who hear about this all cry out and fast and put on sackcloth and ashes. Esther seems oblivious to what is going on, all she knows is that Mordecai is in sackcloth and ashes at the gate.
Listen to the scriptures at this point:
4 So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them.
5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was.
6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate.
7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews.
8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might urge her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people.
9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message for Mordecai:
11 "All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days."
12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.
14 "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Did you get all that?
These are times of desperation. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Look at Esther here. She’s an insider now. She’s under the umbrella of the kings protection as queen and besides, no one knows she’s Jewish. Her first impulse upon hearing Mordecai’s instruction to go to the king is fear. She’s not at all an insubordinate wife. She’s respectful and fully aware of the consequences of stepping outside her boundaries. Besides, what happened to the last wife that pushed his buttons? Huh?
Can you hear the fear in her words in verse 11? "All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days."
In other words, Mordecai, this is a dangerous thing you’re suggesting. Do you want me to be killed? That’s what happens to anyone he doesn’t call unless he happens to extend his scepter, and he hasn’t called me for a while.
Esther doesn’t seem to get the point, so Mordecai spells it out for her.
Look at Mordecai. First of all, it’s partly his fault the Jews are in this mess. There is nothing to suggest that Mordecai treated any other dignitary like he treated Haman. But, of course this response of Haman is an echo of what happened back in 1 Samuel 15 when Saul was supposed to have destroyed the Amelekites and spared Agag the king. Haman is called an Agagite, and Mordecai is from Kish, Saul’s family. So there’s an enmity between these two that has never been settled. Haman would like to settle it by destroying all the Jews.
But back to Mordecai, he sees the real danger here and he also sees the hand of God in events that have brought Esther to the position of queen. Esther is at the right place at the right time to do the right thing that will tip the scales in the right direction. Listen again to his instruction to her: 13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.
14 "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Mordecai sees the big picture, doesn’t he. He has the gift of insight that is rare. He sees clearly that Esther has a choice, but he also sees the consequences of her choices. She can try to save herself and she will lose. She can give up herself and try to save others and she might lose, but she might also win! Choice number one seems like the safe one, but actually it is the most ruinous of all. Choice number two seems like taking the greatest risk, but actually, it is the only worthy choice she can make.
Mordecai’s confidence is great here: Esther, if you blow it, deliverance will arise from another source, but you and your father’s house will perish! Esther, don’t take the coward’s way. It will end in failure. Take the honorable way. Why do you think you are where you are right now?
It is a tough choice. It is a risky choice. She could be killed. But she’s the one person who is in the best place possible to make the difference.
A dear friend of ours, Terry Baker, told about a time when he was young and he loved to sit in the front seat of his grandparent’s car and change the gears while his grandfather drove. They had a Corvare, which Ralph Nader had once called “unsafe and any speed.” One time when his parents and he and his sister were all going home together in that car, his granddad offered to let him sit up front and shift the gears, but Terry just did not want to do it. He cried when they tried to persuade him to and kept begging to sit in the back with his sister. Well, they let him. On the way home they had an accident and his grandmother was sitting where Terry would have been and she was killed in the accident. It appeared that whoever had been sitting there would have most likely died. Terry suffered for years about that, thinking he had caused his grandmother to be killed. When Terry was 40 he discovered he had cancer. He had moved with his wife and son to Powell, WY, and was working as an editor for a newspaper there. When he realized his condition was terminal he pulled out all the stops and began writing editorials about his cancer and sharing his faith in Christ as much as possible. The impact was amazing on their little town. Terry preached a sermon just a few months before he died saying, “Now I know why I was spared in that accident as a child. It was so that I could be here at just such a time as this.” Terry said that before he knew he was dying, he didn’t share the gospel with much urgency. But now, knowing that the time is short, he said, it really makes it clear, nothing is more important that being ready to meet the Lord and helping others to be prepared as well.
Mordecai’s words to Esther have inspired many through the years: Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Where has God placed you? Do you see the choices clearly and understand the times?
Mordecai’s words to Esther were tough, but you have to love her response: 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:
16 "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!"
She prayed and she went, saying, “If I perish, I perish!”
Do you see Jesus? For Jesus, there was no doubt. He didn’t go to Pilate with a prayer that he would be released. His mission wasn’t one with an escape hatch. The cross and the cup of sin waited for him and his choice was to take it or call for rescue. He had a choice too. And instead of choosing rescue, he chose to rescue you and me.
When God put a woman in her place, Esther chose to try to save her people even if it cost her her life.
When God put his son in our place, Jesus chose to save us knowing it would cost him his life.
