Introduction:
Tonight I would like for us to look at the book of Esther. This is a strange book in the Bible due to the fact that God is not really mentioned. This has led some to cast it out, or think that it should not be part of the Bible.
Esther in Church History
1. Not one commentary was written on the book of Esther in the first seven centuries of the Church
2. John Calvin never preached from the book and did not write a commentary on the book
3. Martin Luther renounced the book, along with other apocryphal books saying, “I am so great an enemy to the second book of the Maccabees, and to Esther, that I wish they had not come to us at all, for they have too many heathen unnaturalities.
But while it never explicitly references God, the omission of such distinctive religious concepts or vocabulary is actually a rhetorical device that is used to show that it is indeed God who is active throughout the whole narrative.
I believe this book is to contrast with other events in the Bible. Esther is all about God delivering His people providentially, showing that He is not limited to a certain way of doing things. God can deliver however He chooses. He can deliver miraculously, such as through the Exodus; however, He can deliver His people in a more subtle way, such as we see in this book.
It reminds me of Elijah. Remember, Elijah was looking for God over in 1 Kings 19. That passage shows us that Elijah was looking for God in a big way. He had just seen God work in a mighty way on top of Mount Carmel, when we saw the huge showdown between Elijah/God and Baal and his worshipers. If you remember the story of Elijah, he had had this showdown with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, but then he was afraid of Jezebel, and this was when he was seeking God. Elijah was expecting God to show Himself in a great, mighty way. He looked for Him in the great and mighty wind, but God wasn’t in the wind. He looked for God in the earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. He looked for Him in the fire, but He was not in the fire. After the fire, Elijah heard a voice speaking in a soft whisper. It was the soft whisper that was where God was found, not in the mighty elements, but the still, small voice.
I believe God was using this instance to show Elijah he could work in great ways, but He could also work in small ways. I think this is what Esther is all about, seeing that God can work in small ways to achieve His purposes.
Background:
The Jews had stopped following God’s leadership and wanted a king, so God had allowed them to do what they desired, and so a monarchy was established and lasted through three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon. After Solomon, Israel was divided into two separate kingdoms, with the northern part being called Israel and the southern being called Judah. In 722 BC, Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and were taken into slavery, also called exile due to the fact that the Israelites had broken their covenant with God and He allowed them to be conquered. Judah was also conquered in 586 BC, but by Babylon. The Persian Empire, led by Cyrus, conquered the Assyrians and Babylonians. It is during this time of exile under the Persians that the events of the book of Esther take place.
King Xerxes [Greek name] (also called Ahasuerus) had a banquet and commanded his queen Vashti to come so he could show her off because she was beautiful, but she refused to come, so he divorced her.
Esther 1:19 “If it meets the king’s approval, he should personally issue a royal decree. Let it be recorded in the laws of Persia and Media, so that it cannot be revoked: Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus’s presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she.
Therefore, Xerxes held a beauty contest in order to find a new bride, and it just so happens (when I say that, I am not saying that it was coincidence, but rather to show that God worked in one of these small ways) that a Jewish woman named Esther was picked, although she kept the fact that she was a Jew secret.
I. DEATH TO THE JEWS! (ESTHER 3:1-15)
Xerxes had promoted this guy named Haman to the highest position available. He was second in command only to King Xerxes. Haman let this power go to his head a little. He reminds me of Kings Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, from Babylon in the book of Daniel. Remember Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made and commanded all to bow down to it, but the three Jewish guys by the names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to it and so Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into the fire. Darius also issued an edict that got Daniel into trouble and tossed into the lions’ den.
Haman fell into that same pride and made the royal staff at the King’s Gate, where Mordecai worked, bow down to him. But Mordecai, much like Daniel and those other three guys, refused to bow down to anyone but the one true God. All of these guys knew something that I want us to remember: because God is in control, we can live courageously.
So while Nebuchadnezzar and Darius punished Daniel and his friends for their disobedience, Haman decided he could do better than that. Now Haman was a descendant of Agag, who was the king of the Amalekites, the people who were Israel’s sworn enemy for generations (Exodus 17:14-16). Haman found out that Mordecai was a Jew, and decided he could just get rid of all of his people’s enemies. So he went to Xerxes and told him that this ethnic group that was scattered throughout his kingdom were living in isolation from the rest of the kingdom, because the followed different laws and refused to follow the king’s laws. He persuaded Xerxes to allow him to wipe them out. Xerxes thought this might be a good idea, and gave Haman his signet ring, with which Haman could write up this edict and make it officially the king’s decree.
Let me stop and make a point here. Once this edict went out, it could not be changed, not even by the king himself. Remember that Darius liked Daniel, but could not change the edict that he had made.
Let me make a spiritual application here. God has set His Law, his standard of perfection that cannot be changed. There is nothing that He can do outside of this perfection, or He would be guilty of breaking His own law and would therefore have sin. There is also nothing that we can do to get out from under this edict of God. There are no loopholes.
So the decree was made that all of the Jews were to be killed on the 13th day of the last month.
Mordecai learned of this plan and went to the only person he could think of that could help – his niece, Queen Esther, whom he had raised.
II. DATE WITH DESTINY
a. Meeting with Mordecai (4:13-14)
Mordecai sent Esther a message about what he had learned, as well as a copy of the edict. He asked Esther to approach the king and ask his favor and to plead for her people.
But there was a problem. There was a law that says that anyone who approached the king without having been summoned by him could be met with the death penalty. If someone showed up without an invitation, it was based on the king’s whim whether they would live or die. She says that she had not been summoned by the king for the last 30 days, so she may have been thinking that the king was displeased with her already. She wouldn’t even be the first queen he had gotten rid of.
Let’s pause here for another spiritual application. Our king is so gracious towards us that even if we have not met with him in a long amount of time, He still loves us and will not cast us out. He is always ready to meet with us.
Mordecai replied to Esther’s message with these words (vv. 13-14)
Mordecai told Esther that if she doesn’t do this, that the edict would be her death as well. It didn’t matter that she was queen. Not even the king could protect her from edict. It would be discovered that she was Jewish and she would die. The decree was that all the Jews would be killed.
Look at the faith that Mordecai showed in verse 14.
He said that if Esther kept silent, deliverance and liberation would come from another place. He showed great faith in God’s sovereignty and His power to preserve His people.
Let me give you another spiritual application. God wants to use us to do great things. He has plans for us. He has a purpose for us. But we can refuse to do what He desires for us. If we do that, because He is sovereign, His will shall still be accomplished, but we will miss out on the blessings that come from following His will for our lives.
Then Mordecai says “Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
Mordecai is saying that Esther didn’t just accidentally win the beauty contest and become queen, but God was setting all things into motion in preparation for this event. We must remember that God knows what is coming. We can always trust Him.
b. Guidance from God (4:15-17)
Esther sends a reply to Mordecai that showed great wisdom.
She decided that she and her servants would fast for 3 days and nights and asked that Mordecai would have all the Jews in the city to do so as well.
The text does not specifically say that they were praying, but it could be inferred. I personally believe that they were praying, seeking strength from God. What specifically they prayed, I cannot say with any certainty, but I imagine that it was probably a prayer for courage. In fact, I am certain that what Esther was praying for was courage. She needed God to remind her that He is in control, that He loved her, and that she could have the boldness to go talk with the king, to look death in the face and say the words “If I perish, I perish.” God gave her the courage to be willing to die for her fellow Jews.
I think this is a picture of Jesus. But Jesus didn’t say “If I die, I die.” Jesus said the Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for many.
c. Conference with the King (5:1-8)
In 5:1, we see Esther stepping out in faith. She goes to the king. Let me point out a little detail that could easily be missed. It says that Esther dressed up in her royal clothing. She prepared for this. We see that she prepared for this encounter with the king. She tried to look the best that she could.
And we see that Xerxes was pleased with her and allowed her life and offered whatever she wanted, even to half of his kingdom. Her request was simple – she wanted to prepare a meal for Xerxes and Haman. The king granted her request.
d. Heart-to-heart with Haman (5:9-7:10)
So Haman is invited to this special meal with just the King and Queen. He thinks he is all special. So he brags about how important he is to his friends and asks them to build a gallows 75ft tall to hang Mordecai on.
But, it just so happens that Mordecai had saved the king’s life and it just so happens that the king had this recorded in his book of records. It just so happens that the night before this meal was to take place, the king could not sleep and it just so happens that he commands to have this book read to him and it just so happens that what is read out of it is the report of how, Mordecai saved him.
So the king has Haman brought in and asks him what he should do to honor a certain man. Haman, so full of himself, thinks the king is talking about him. So he thinks about what he would like and tells the king. Then the king tells him to do this for Mordecai, the man Haman hates and plans to kill.
Haman realizes that his goose is cooked, so he returns home and tells everything to his wife.
Esther 6:13-14
13 Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai is Jewish, and you have begun to fall before him, you won’t overcome him, because your downfall is certain.” 14 While they were still speaking with him, the eunuchs of the king arrived and rushed Haman to the banquet Esther had prepared.
That night Haman is dining with the King and Queen when the King again tell Esther that whatever she wants will be given to her. This time she asks for the salvation of her people and explains about the scheme that Haman had cooked up. The king is so mad that he storms out of the room.
Esther 7:7
7 Angered by this, the king arose from where they were drinking wine and went to the palace garden.Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life because he realized the king was planning something terrible for him. 8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the house of wine drinking, Haman was falling on the couchwhere Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the palace?”
Haman seeks Esther’s mercy and forgiveness, but she was reclining on a couch and Haman accidentally falls onto the couch. It just so happens that the king walks back into the room at that time and thinks that Haman is trying to violate his wife and immediately sentences Haman to death on the gallows that he had constructed himself. Xerxes appointed Haman’s enemy, Mordecai, to his position.
III. DELIVERANCE OF THE JEWS (8:1- 9:2)
Although Haman was out of the way, the consequences of the edict still remained. Remember that not even the king could reverse of change this edict. He could, however, issue a new decree that would allow the Jews to fight back without worrying about disobeying the king’s initial decree. Well, the Jews did fight back and overcame those that sought to destroy them and so they instituted a new celebration, called the Feast of Purim, to celebrate the deliverance that God gave them through one girl who remembered that God is sovereign and we can live courageously because He is in control.
Remember what I said about God’s law not being able to be revoked? That not even He can revoke or change His initial decree?
His initial decree was that anyone that could not meet His perfect standard could not come into His presence. But God loved us so much that He made a way. He sent someone who could fulfill the initial edict to take care of the consequences. He sent His son Jesus Christ to pay the price for us. Through this second edict, we are able to defeat the Law and we are able to live courageously in Christ, because He is in control!
