THE STEPS OF A GOOD MAN (ESTHER 8-10)
Do you know the safest cities to live? SustainLane, a San Francisco research group, used primary research as well as information from Risk Management Solutions to determine what cities are less vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and tsunamis than other cities. Man-made factors such as overcrowding, sprawl and crime were not considered in this survey. It turns out that Milwaukee and Mesa, Ariz., are the safest of the nation’s 50 largest cities when it comes to natural disasters. Tied for third place are four cities: Tucson, Phoenix, Cleveland and El Paso, Texas.
A problem, however, persists. The article asks, “So why are there 14 million people in risky Los Angeles and a few hundred thousand cheeseheads in Milwaukee? Why isn’t the film industry based in Cleveland? Why don’t they have Mardi Gras in El Paso?” Regional economist Jack Kyser answers, “It’s cold in Milwaukee and not very exciting. Almost anyplace that people want to live has some type of risk factor, and the people there are fatalistic about it.” The conclusion: “Many people want to live in cities where they actually do not fare as well, but not many people want to live in cities that they fare very well.” (Daily Bulletin 07/19/2006 “And the Safest Place in the U.S. is ...”)
Righteous people have their risks, but life is not about avoiding danger and minimizing risk at all cost, but overcoming adversity and surmounting obstacles in worthwhile struggles. There were a few things to wrap up before ending the story of Esther, which is why Esther’s risk of claiming who she was, coming to the forefront and championing for her people were important. The last few chapters look into the acts of the righteous in the face their wicked counterparts’ misdeeds. The fact is righteous people has less to fear than wicked people. The righteous always prevail through the struggles and setbacks. They win because they have learned to count on God, conquer their fears and care about people.
Why is struggling against evil the responsibility of all? What resources do righteous people need in the fight? How can we help?
Be Strong to Your Advantage
8:1 That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. 2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate. 3 Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. 4 Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him. 5 “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?” (Est 8:1-6)
The Episcopal minister George Ross used to love to tell the story about the woman in his congregation who was having terrible difficulty getting over the grief over the loss of her husband. She even went to see her physician and said, “You need to give me a prescription to help me with my melancholy. Every day I go to the cemetery and I put flowers on my husband’s grave, but it doesn’t help. It simply drives me deeper into grief. Give me a prescription to ease my pain.”
The physician said, “Before I give you a prescription, let me give you a suggestion. Instead of placing those flowers on your husband’s grave, why don’t you bring them to the hospital? I have many patients in the hospital who nobody ever visits and if you would visit them and bring them some encouragement in those flowers, it may be that you would bring a little joy into their lives.”
Strangely enough, even though she was resistant, she decided to do it and found that this was the turning point for her own healing. As she showed encouragement to others, she was able to drink deeply from the well of God’s own encouragement. http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/long_4603.htm
Courage is not the absence and avoidance of fear; it is summoning one’s strength to resist fear.
Finally Esther felt it was safe to tell the king how she was related to Mordecai. She had never been ashamed of her noble cousin. Now that the job was done and the enemy was exposed, Esther could breathe a sigh of relief. At times she must have felt like an impostor, a spectator and an outsider. In public she had to bite her tongue, grit her teeth, wear a face, hide her grief and hold her tears.
The issue was not merely about Esther and her family; more lives were at stake. Esther, however, showed her true colors at last when her part was said and done. This time, a dam and a flood of tears burst in her as she revealed to the king her identity. Tears of relief and joy welled in her (v 3). It might surprise you to know that the “tears” she cried appears for the first time in the book, even though the Jews were “weeping” in Esther 4:3. How are the two words different in Hebrew? The weeping of the Jews was generic for “crying” or “dripping.” The tears from Esther’s face often comes with the Hebrew phrase “lifted up their voice” (Gen 21:16, 27:38, 29:11, Judg 2:4, 1 Sam 30:4, 2 Sam 3:32, 13:36, Job 2:12). Esther’s was more dramatic, emotional and intense. Now that things were over, she could afford herself to cry her eyes out and fear after the fact.
Esther owned up to “my people” and “my family” (v 6). “Family” (Est 8:6, Gen 43:7) does not mean immediate family; the range of meaning includes birthplace, lineage and native country. NIV’s other translations of the same Hebrew word are “land of his birth” (Gen 11:28), “household” (Gen 12:1), “relatives” (Gen 24:4, 31:3, 32:9), “native” (Gen 24:7, 31:13, Jer 22:10, 46:16), “children” (Gen 48:6), “my own people” (Num 10:30), “homeland” (Ruth 2:11) and “ancestry” (Ezek 16:3). Up to now, she had not told the king she was a Jew, which the king did not care. If you noticed, when the king ordered Haman’s execution, he only knew he was harming Esther’s people but not her people’s identity. The king did not even bother to ask.
Something interesting also happened along the way. When Mordecai first told Esther about the plot that Haman hatched, he urged her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him (the king) for her people (Est 4:8), never for himself. But Esther did something else; she also pleaded for his cousin. Mordecai did not ask Esther to plead for him. He thought in his heart he was an old man, but Esther did both, with unplanned innovation. The Hebrew translation to “how he was related to her” (8:2) is better: “what he was to her” – how special, important and central to her.
Be Sensible to Your Advantage
15 The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. 16 Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder. (Est 9:15-16)
Fred Craddock told the story the story of a missionary (Oswald Goltar) sent to preach the gospel in India near the end of World War II. After many months the time came for a furlough back home. His church wired him the money to book passage on a steamer, but when he got to the port city he discovered a boatload of Jews had just been allowed to land temporarily. These were the days when European Jews were sailing all over the world literally looking for a place to live, and these particular Jews were now staying in attics and warehouses and basements all over that port city.
It happened to be Christmas, and on Christmas morning, this missionary went to one of the attics where scores of Jews were staying. He walked in and said, “Merry Christmas.” The people looked at him as if he were crazy and responded, “We’re Jews.” “I know that,” said the missionary. “What would you like for Christmas?” In utter amazement the Jews responded, “Why, we’d like pastries, good pastries like the ones we used to have in Germany.” So the missionary went out and used the money for his ticket home to buy pastries for all the Jews he could find staying in the port.
Of course, then he had to wire home asking for more money to book his passage back to the States. As you might expect, his superiors wired back asking what happened to the money they had already sent. He wired that he had used it to buy Christmas pastries for some Jews. His superiors wired back, “Why did you do that? They don’t even believe in Jesus.” He wired back: “Yes, but I do.”
http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/Ficca_4326.htm
With all the killing in the land, the Jews had to have the proper perspective and a positive outlook. They needed to forgive the ignorant, the uninformed and the clueless people who wanted to benefit from any slaughter. They were probably the rioters, the destitute and the hooligans. The Jews had worst people to worry about than these aimless folks. Their immediate concern was to “protect themselves and get relief from their enemies” (9:16). The ones they had to beware of were the enemies, those who hate them for their race, culture, background, society, customs, language and appearance. Those are the real enemies.
The Hebrew version is “to stand for their lives and have rest from their enemies” (v 16). The edict gave the Jews not only the right to protect themselves, but to have rest from endless fear and mindless terrorism, but also to go on the offensive, if they desired so. They could define who the enemies were but they did not prey on the helpless, the uninvolved and the bystanders.
Even though the Jews gained an upper hand in Mordecai’s appointment and announcement, they did not seek revenge but only defended themselves against their “enemies” (9:16), those who attacked them (8:11), not against neighbors or acquaintances who befriended them. It was not a license to kill; if so, they were no better than their enemies.
Also they were given the right to “plunder their enemies” in the new edict issued (8:11), but the Jews wisely never exercised the right. They did not want to provoke a backlash, generate more heat, pour oil on fire, rub salt into injury. They just wanted the assurance that they could walk the streets again and get their lives back.
Be Selfless to Your Advantage
10:1 King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. 2 And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king had raised him, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews. (Est 10:1-3)
A king once felt gravely ill. As each day passed he grew worse and worse. His doctors and wise men tried cure after cure, but nothing worked. They were ready to give up hope when the king’s old nursemaid spoke up. “I will tell you how to save the king,” she said. “If you can find a happy man, and take the shirt from his back, and put it on the king- then he will recover.”
So the king sent forth his messengers. They rode far and wide throughout the kingdom, and yet nowhere could find a happy man. No one seemed content; everyone had some complaint. “That stupid tailor!” they heard a rich man say. “He’s made these pants too short! And by the way, this food is terrible! Can’t that cook do something right?” “What’s wrong with our children?” the miller grumbled to his wife. “They never do what we say! Can’t they teach manners at school? And they make so much noise- tell them to go outside and play.” “My rook is leaking,” the candle maker groaned. “This ought not to happen! Can’t the government do something about it?”
Everywhere they went, the king’s messengers heard nothing but whining and griping. If a man was rich, he never had enough. If he was not rich, it was someone else’s fault. If he was healthy, he had a bad mother-in-law. If he had a good mother-in-law, he was catching a cold. Everyone had something to complain about.
Finally one night the king’s own son was passing a small cottage when he heard someone say: “Thank you, Lord, I’ve finished my daily labor, and helped my fellow man. I’ve eaten my fill, and now I can lie down and sleep in peace. What more could I want?” The prince rejoiced to have found a happy man at last. He gave orders to take the fellow’s shirt to the king, and pay the owner as much money as he wished. But when the king’s messengers went into the cottage to take the happy man’s shirt off his back. they (could not; they) found he was so poor he had no shirt at all. (William J Bennett, “The King and the shirt” 611 NY/Simon and Schuster/95)
St. John of Chrysotom said, “The desire to rule is the mother of all heresies.”
As I have said before, even though the book is named after Esther, Mordecai’s name is mentioned slightly more than Esther’s in the book – 58 to 56 times. Mordecai’s name (2:5) was first introduced in the book two verses before Esther (2:7), and the whole book plus last chapter ends with Mordecai (10:3), whereas Esther’s account had ended in the previous chapter (9:32). Mordecai was remembered, most of all, as a selfless person. Mordecai did not merely do an unselfish act; he lived a life of selflessness. The sacrifice of Mordecai brings a tear to readers’ eye. He brought up her orphan cousin who had lost her father and mother early in life (Est 2:7).
Jewish people will remember Mordecai for his greatness (10:2), but the book was written to detail his kindness. “Every day” he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her (Est 2:11). The Hebrew text began the sentence with “every day he walked back and forth,” and not “he walked back and forth every day.” Finally, there he was sitting at the king’s gate (Est 2:19, 2:21, 5:13, 6:10). He sat there while Esther was in court, when Haman bumped into him and as far as Xerxes remembered.
If you read again Mordecai’s plea to Esther (4:13-14), you will discover that the word “I” is unimportant to Mordecai; his priority was “You”: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” His plea to Esther was never for himself, but for others. Life was important to others; death was not frightening to him. He was more concerned that other people might have a future - women, children, youth, families. He never begged Esther or Haman for his life, but he did beg for his people’s.
Mordecai was an unlikely and unselfish role model, but he was a true hero. The Jews held him in high respect, but he was merely doing his duty. He was not proud, conceited or arrogant after that. Mordecai was not a politician of any kind. His double-fold motto in office was to seek the good of the people (10:3), not their wealth, as KJV translated. Also, he spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews, not just for some of them, the powerful, the rich, the special interest and powerful lobby groups. That was the story of his life. He raised Esther unconditionally, saved the Gentile king dutifully, and lived his life nonchalantly.
Conclusion: Do you envy or resent wickedness? Do you shun evil and do good? Do you repay evil for evil or overcome evil with good? Evil is doomed, as indicated by the future tense associated with the wicked in the Bible: The wicked will be silenced in darkness (1 Sam 2:9). They will perish (Ps 37:20) and will not remain in the land (Prov 10:30). They will have their fill of trouble (Prov 12:21) and return to the grave (Ps 9:17). They will be brought down by their own wickedness (Prov 11:5) and by calamity (Prov 24:16). He will die for his sin (Ezek 33:8).
God will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur on the wicked (Ps 11:6). He will destroy all the wicked (Ps 145:20). The power of the wicked will be broken (Ps 37:17), their offspring (Ps 37:28) and future (Ps 37:38) will be cut off, their longings (Ps 112:10) and hopes (Prov 10:28) will come to nothing, the name of the wicked will rot (Prov 10:7), their lamp will be snuffed out (Prov 13:9, 24:20), their stomach goes hungry (Prov 13:25), their house will be destroyed (Prov 14:11).
Victor Yap
Other sermons in the series and other sermon series:
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