HADASSAH: SIN, SALVATION & SATISFACTION
Suffering from Selfishness, or Favors from Faithfulness
Esther 5-10
God, quite often, makes any experience a learning experience.
The Book of Esther is full of such lessons.
God's name is not used, yet it is full of God.
In the original Hebrew, the author encoded the name for God in the style of writing.
He would insert phrases where the 1st letter of each word spelled out the name of God in all of His sovereignty.
It was clear to the believer but hidden to the infidel.
This was not unusual in cultures with state mandated religions.
As we will see, God is, and always will be, the central theme of Esther.
Here we have an orphaned Jewish girl rising to become a queen.
Next we have that queen and all other Jews in Persia slated for annihilation.
This queen must appeal to the king, but the law prohibited anyone, including the queen, from approaching the king unless invited.
Queen Esther said, as Samuel had said before: "Here am I send me!" Or, in her words, "If I perish, I perish!"
Cousin Mordecai had explained it; and warned her:
4:14 …If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear from another source, while you and your father’s household perish.
No one can thwart the will of God, but, Mordecai explained:
It may very well be that you have achieved royal status for such a time as this!”
With this in mind, let's move on into Chapter 5:
5:1 It so happened that on the third day Esther put on her royal attire and stood in the inner court of the palace, opposite the king’s quarters. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the palace, opposite the entrance.
2 When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she met with his approval. The king extended to Esther the gold scepter that was in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.
God had prepared the way. Esther was welcomed into the throne room. She had the King's ear.
3 The king said to her, “What is on your mind, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even as much as half the kingdom will be given to you!”
It was not wealth that Esther wanted, but now she was free to make her requests known.
Lesson: Set the stage for maximum impact!
Why go straight to the point, when a scenic route reveals a much greater lesson.
She simply invited the King and Haman, his right-hand-man, to a luncheon.
Both were quick to accept.
At the luncheon, the King asked: "What is your request?"
Lesson: Mystery moves people!
Her request? She simply invited them both to a dinner… At that time I will do as the king wishes, she said.
By this time, Haman's inflated ego was about to explode.
He and the King shared a private lunch with the Queen.
Now, they were going to a dinner party too.
Haman gathered friends and family to share his importance with them, but Haman was filled with rage toward Mordecai…because Mordecai would not bow and honor him.
Lesson: When you focus only on yourself, life is always out of focus!
Haman was so thrilled with himself, he was on cloud nine!
All he could see was his own perceived importance.
13 Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
Haman’s wife, Zeresh, and all of his fair-weather friends, suggested:
14…“Have a gallows seventy-five feet high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.”
So Haman had the gallows built.
Meanwhile, back in the king's chambers, the king couldn't sleep.
There's nothing quite like reading the minutes of a business meeting to put you to sleep, so the king tried it.
6:2 …it was found written that Mordecai had disclosed that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
The king asked how Mordecai had been honored for this?
He was surprised to find that nothing had been done.
4 …“Who is that in the courtyard?,” the king asked.
Wouldn't you know: It was Haman with gallows on his mind.
The king asks Haman,
6… “What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?”
Thinking it was for himself, Haman eagerly suggested:
8 let them bring royal attire which the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden – one bearing the royal insignia! 9 Then let this clothing and this horse be given to one of the king’s noble officials. Let him then clothe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him lead him about through the plaza of the city on the horse, calling before him, ‘So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!’”
Lesson: Here's iron-clad proof: Truth is stranger than fiction.
Maybe this is the beginning of Murphy's Law!
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong!
It did!
The king ordered Haman:
Do it for Mordecai.
11 So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai. He led him about on the horse throughout the plaza of the city, calling before him, “So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!”
Haman, totally humiliated and shamed, slipped home with his head covered and shared his embarrassing experience with his wife and friends.
13 …These wise men, along with his wife, Zeresh, said to him, “If indeed this Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is Jewish, you will not prevail against him. No, you will surely fall before him!”
Oh how quickly the worm has turned!
Lesson: Wise words! When you pick on God's Chosen, you are playing against a stacked deck!
And God, Himself is the dealer!
While still licking his wounds, Haman's invitation to the banquet ah mjrrived.
At the banquet, the curtain dropped!
The trump car was played!
Queen Esther made her request:
7:3 …if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition. 4 For we have been sold – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”
The king demanded: Who did this?
6 Esther replied, “The oppressor and enemy is this evil Haman!”
Proud Haman was now terrified Haman!
The king was enraged!
He went into the garden to ponder the problem.
Haman, facing a catastrophic end, while groveling, he was also groping at the queen's feet on the couch.
The king returns and angrily asks:
8… “Will he also attempt to rape the queen while I am still in the building!”
One of the king's attendants suggested:
9 …“Indeed, there is the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, …near Haman’s home and is seventy-five feet high.” The king said, “Hang him on it!”
10 So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.
Lesson: Faithfulness is rewarded!
The once orphaned Hadassah is not only queen, but now she was given Haman's estate.
Esther assigned the estate to Mordecai.
Mordecai was made Prime Minister, taking Haman's place.
That eliminates the cause of their problems, but the problem still exists.
The Haman inspired king's edict had declared open season on all of God's Chosen.
It is an edict that, by law, cannot be rescinded.
It's like God's commandments. They cannot be changed.
God is immutable–always the same.
We are to trust that sameness!
We celebrate His immutability when He…so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…
We also cringe because…"all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God… and the wages of sin is death"?
What happened then?
What happens to us?
Queen Esther suggests:
8:5 …let an edict be written rescinding those recorded intentions of Haman… to destroy the Jews who are throughout all the king’s provinces.
Since the king's edict cannot be changed or rescinded, It can be annulled with a surrogate–
someone to stand between the law and us;
someone to take the blame and suffer the consequences.
Mordecai directed, with the king's approval, that all Jews in every city were:
10 … to assemble and to stand up for themselves – to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children, and to confiscate their property.
In effect, the king stood with the Jews!
This was to happen on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).
Lesson: The king's command could not be rescinded, but a new command was issued:
The king, Himself, stands with "His People"!
To kill those condemned by the first edict, you would have to first kill the king!
Not too many showed up to try to annihilate the Jews.
Yet some did! History records that nearly 75 thousand died throughout the kingdom while trying to kill the Jews.
Lesson: This tells us what happened to God's commandments after Jesus made the payment in full for all sin for all time.
We still fulfill the requirements of the Law when we submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit once we are "IN" Christ.
God's commandments are a picture of His Holiness.
When we violate God's commandments, we dishonor Him and His Holiness.
In Christ, God stands with us!
As we mature in the knowledge and wisdom of God, we grow in grace and understanding.
We become more Christ-like–more Holy!
Again: Living the Christian life is more a matter of letting than doing–99% letting; 1% doing.
The only thing God wants us to do is to turn loose of whatever is keeping us from letting Him do with us what he wants for us.
Once we are in the flow of God's will, He will supply everything that is needed for us to accomplish our purpose in Christ and live life to its fullest.
We will find purpose, power and provisions
as we trim our sails to His Spirit and
set our course according to His compass.
Our destiny, in Christ, will be similar to that of the Jews in Persia in Esther's time:
8:16 For the Jews there was radiant happiness and joyous honor.
Some people even pretended to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them.
Lesson: There are all too many in our churches who only pretend to be Christian. They are religious hypocrites.
They work at imitating Christians, rather
than letting God accept them in Christ.
For all who are in the right place for the right reason, we find:
9:3… the governors and those who performed the king’s business were assisting the Jews, for the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.
5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, bringing death and destruction, and they did as they pleased with their enemies.
10 … But they did not confiscate their property.
Those who sought to profit from the first law died according to the terms of the New Commandment.
Lesson: God's commandments have not been rescinded, just covered by the Blood of the Lamb.
In Him, we are protected by the presence of the king–of God Himself!
In Christ, by submission to God's love, we grow into compliance with the requirements of the original law–into the righteousness of God Himself.
19 This is why the Jews who are in the rural country – those who live in rural cities – set aside the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a holiday for happiness, banqueting, holiday, and sending gifts to one another.
Mordecai declared the 14th & 15th day of the month of Adar each year as the celebration of Purim.
32 Esther’s command established these matters of Purim, and the matter was officially recorded.
10:3 Mordecai the Jew…worked enthusiastically for the good of his people and was an advocate for the welfare of all his descendants.
Lesson: Today, Jesus Christ sits are the right-hand of God–in the place of authority–making intersession for us… as an advocate for the welfare of all his descendants.
Today is the Lord's Day, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
If you are not IN Christ, trust Him today; Be born of His Spirit so that you too can… rejoice and be glad in it!
Let us pray!
