I’ve provocatively entitled today’s sermon: Esther, the clueless Queen because of the following.
Esther, as you may know won a beauty contest put on by her husband, king of Persia. She had a chance to audition for the role because her husbands first wife refused to be part of a fashion show. You see, while drunk he ordered his servants to bring his wife in her royal attire that she might parade about in front of his guests that they might see how beautiful she was. She refused and in a fit of rage he divorced her. Later on he regretted his behavior but it was to late for his first wife. His servants proposed a beauty contest. Esther was collected by the kings servants, along with all the other good looking girls. She won and became the next Queen.
Now Esther had been raised by her cousin named Mordecai. In ch.3 Mordecai gets in trouble because he refuses to pay honor to the kings second in command named Haman. For this Haman hates Mordecai and upon finding out that Mordecai is a Jew he decides that not only must Mordecai die but all Jews in the whole of the Persian empire.
Note: 60 years earlier in 539 B.C Cyrus by God’s direction had decreed that all Jews could return to their homeland. Only a few bothered to return, the majority to apathetic to care.
Haman’s plan was simple. He approached the king and said there was a group of people in the Persian lands whose existence was at odds with the kings best interests. To appear as a real patriot Haman offers to pay for their extermination. The king agrees and tells Haman to keep his money and then ch. 3 ends with Haman and the king sitting down for to a few alcoholic beverages together while the news of the impending Jewish destruction is spread by the kings postal workers.
In ch.4:1-4 we are told that Mordecai and all the Jews in the whole empire were in absolute shock and misery over the news of their impending deaths. Q How would you feel? Meanwhile as the next few verses of the text attest, we discover the Esther has no clue, and hence my sermon title, of what is going on. While her people lie in fear, mourning, grieving, and fasting, she was enjoying the good life, the life of being the Kings Queen. She was completely unaware of the evil plan that had been hatched by the evil Haman.
READ TEXT (mention following 2 paragraphs first)
Esther is one of the favorite books of the Jewish people today. In fact God’s deliverance of the Jews in Persia has been celebrated annually for the last 2500 years. The celebration is called Purim. Once a year on the day of this celebration the whole book of Esther is publicly read in Jewish synagogues. One interesting feature is that every time the bad guys name (Haman) is mentioned, the listeners hiss or stamp their feet in loud derision.
The book of Esther has been a book that has perplexed various Bible scholars over the centuries. Martin Luther didn’t like the fact that this book has been included in the Bible. The reason for his dislike: God is not mentioned even once throughout all 9 chapters of the book. However, as astute readers one cannot fail to see God’s signature all over the book of Esther.
PRINCIPLES
One of the great themes of the book of Esther is that of God delivering his people, the Jews from their enemies. In spite of the fact that his people had not had a desire to return to their Jewish homeland, they still had a place in God’s heart for God, for God is clearly seen in this book to be protecting them from their enemies, from those who wished to wipe them out. Throughout history God has protected the Jewish nation from her enemies. He brought them out of Egypt, He repeatedly has delivered them from superior forces-documented in the scriptures and in the last 2000 years as well—the defeat of Hitler, the 1967 Jewish war being modern examples of God’s hand of deliverance.
Another of the great themes of the book of Esther is that of God working and moving in the lives of individuals and nations. The scriptures continually affirm that He directs the course of history, raising up kings and kingdoms, and bringing them down, all with the intent of accomplishing His sovereign purposes.
One of the defining verses of ch.4 that illustrates God’s working in the life of Esther and in shaping events is in v.14. In this verse Mordecai challenges Esther with these words “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
What’s very significant is this: In the back of Mor. mind is the conception that perhaps Esther has been placed in her position to effect the saving of the Jews in Persia. What’s clear is that Mord. is toying with the idea that there was some bigger reason and purpose than he had ever imagined or could have imagined before for his cousins elevation to being the King’s #1 woman.
The conclusion we as the readers of this story rightfully draw is that God is a work. The previously unexplainable event of Esther become Queen is now understandable. God put her in that spot for a reason, for a purpose.
Applic:
We seek meaning to life. We wonder at times why it is that our lives have taken the turns they have. The Bible affirms that are lives and the events of our lives are purposeful. After 20 years of being away from his family Joseph realized that God had a purpose behind his being sold into slavery. Joni Erikson has realized God had in greater purpose for her life, a purpose that involved allowing her to break her neck in swimming pool. Today she ministers to people in ways she otherwise could not without her disability.
God has a reason for allowing and bringing into your life the things he does. For the job you have or don’t have. For the abundance of wealth that you have or don’t have. For the education you have or don’t have. Whatever your situation is, God has a purpose for it.
Not always will we discern all of God’s purposes for us in this life. God didn’t tell Job why he experienced the grief’s he did-but he examples to us faithfulness to God in spite of whatever might happen.
While some of us ponder the why’s and purposes God has others of us don’t. It didn’t dawn on Esther until Mordecai brought it to her attention that there was a reason for her holding the position she did. Mordecai had to say “wake up” “can it not be that this is the reason you have the position you have?
Mordecai had sent Esther a message to go and beg for mercy before the king, for the Jewish nation. She sent a message back that her hands were tied. She was unable to help.
To this Mordecai sent a message back to Esther that first of all is rather harsh, and then secondly he challenges her to ponder a glorious possibility. The possibility that she is Queen for a divine reason. v.13-14
I would like to challenge you to see the divine possibilities for why you find yourself where you currently are.
You may or may not like where you are right now.
But consider this. Who is God having you rub shoulders with that He wants you to share Christ with.
Consider this: what ministry might God be preparing you for?
Consider this: what does God want me to do, how does he want me to serve him right now, in the place I’m at. What commitments does he want of me.
Consider this: what lesson may God be teaching you.
Consider this: what part of your character might God be working on.
Consider this: perhaps what is going on in your life may be God’s way of bringing you to place your complete trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
We need to consider the possibilities for why we are where we are. Mordecai said as much to Esther and as such the scriptures challenge us.
It’s obvious that Esther was a virtuous woman.
After the challenge she received from Mordecai regarding her seeing that perhaps her purpose for being Queen was for the deliverance of the nation, she changes. She goes from sitting on her hands and saying she can’t do anything to pledging to all that she can to rescue her people. She embraces the idea that indeed it may be that she was where she was for a greater purpose.
“If I perish, I perish” evidences her commitment.
In a moment I want to speak to you on the topic of fasting, but before we go there we must note the beginning of v.14
Mordecai tells Esther that is she drops the ball, if she does not use her position of influence that she will punished and that deliverance will come from somewhere else.
2 applications
1. Our failure to do what God has called us to do will in no way hinder God accomplishing his sovereign purposes. To our shame he will raise up others who will be faithful.
2. Our failure to do what God has called us to do will result in loss of blessing and the discipline of God.
So: God must first and foremost in all our plans and in all our ways.
I also want to talk to you about fasting today.
It is a practice that has largely and inexplicably been neglected by Christians in the last 100 years.
The early church fasted on Wed. and Friday to prevent any confusion with the Pharisees who fasted on Tues. and Thurs. The Bishop of Salomis in A.D 315 said, “Who does not know that the fast of the 4th and 6th day of the week are observed by Christians throughout the world?”
Throughout all of the scriptures one can find reference to fasting.
-David fasted for his son who God pronounced judgment on for his sin
-during times of great adversity the leaders of the land would call for a fast, that they might humble themselves in the site of God and seek his face in earnest and diligence
-the Ninevites when realizing that God was going to judge them fasted and even made their animals fast and God spared them
-In the book of Nehemiah, when the people became so convicted of their sins, they fasted, confessed their sins, and stood all day listening with a great hunger to the word of God as it was read to them
-at the beginning of his ministry Jesus fasted 40 days and nights
-Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6 that when we fast we are not to make a big show of it
-when his disciples were being criticized for not fasting Jesus replied in Matt. 9 that while he was with them that there was no need but they would when he was gone from them
-In the book of Acts 13:3 it was not until after fasting and praying that that Barnabas and Saul were commissioned for ministry.
I would like all of us to go away today committed to the practice of fasting.
Q Why? Because the Bible teaches it, Jesus endorses it, Jesus modelled it
Now some of you will say “I do not have to do this?” Indeed there are now “Thou shalt fast” commands and yet the principles of the scriptures teach that prayer combined fasting and a humbling of oneself before God is powerful and effective. The scriptures also suggest that fasting before God is at times the thing that will open the door to the working of God. Consider Mark 9:29 “This kind (of evil spirit) can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting”
Esther committed herself to going before the king even though it might cost her life. Yet she asked that one thing be done. v.16**
-3 days indicates just how serious an environment faced them. Typically one fasts for 1 day, one 24 hour period.
-even though the text doesn’t say they prayed that is implied, it’s a given with fasting. Esther asked that concerted prayer be made for her that she not lose her life and that God would use her to talk to the king about … Also implied is that confession and repentance would accompany the fast. An examination of self for sin, an commitment to living a right.
-also note that she calls for a corporate fast. Sometimes a person will fast as an individual and at other times a corporate fast will be called.
I think we need to face the facts that if we want God to do great things in our midst, if we want the outpouring of God in our midst, then we have to humble ourselves, seek his face, pray and we need to fast.
Tips on fasting: gleaned from “Fasting can change you life”
-don’t fast for the wrong reasons. Going without food will not twist God’s arm to doing what we want
-fast for a purpose (an important decision you need to make, the salvation of lost one, revival, your spiritual walk, the building of our church, for me, for a miracle- if that be God’s will)
-start out small (1 day)
-spend extra time that day in prayer and the reading of God’s word, in the meditating upon him
-if a med. Problem hinders you from going without food, treat your food as medicine and take it, other things can do, God knows your heart, your inner attitude
-the foundation is repentance, the confession of sin, then God hears us and our prayers are more meaningful and effective)
-fast because you want to be drawn into a more vital, more intimate, more personal relationship with God
-fast because you want to see the accomplishment of God’s will
-fast because you have a spiritual hunger that God can only fill, David longed and thirsted after God. He had a spiritual thirst and hunger, not quenched by bread and water, but by intimate times with God and in his word
Very soon I will be calling upon you as a church to fast and pray, if you already don’t, for the ministries of this church.
I trust you have a hunger for God. I trust that you want to see God work in your life and in his church in powerful ways.
It starts with us.
I leave you with this verse on the topic: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” II Chr.7:14
PRAYER:
-God in control
-help us to be faithful to you in the place you have us in right now
-help us see the opportunities for serving you in the place we are in right now, whether healthy or sick, rich or poor, broken or whole
-cause our hearts to hunger after you, may we find ourselves satisfied in your word alone,
-help us to start fasting as your word examples and teaches us to
-may we not be found complacent in matters of faith and practice. But rather may we be found serving, loving, worshiping, and modeling our lives after your teaches and life
