ENGAGE
This last week I listened to a podcast that featured an interview with Carlos Whittaker, a well-known contemporary Christian recording artist and worship leader who was caught up in a battle with pornography that led to an inappropriate relationship that removed him from that ministry and nearly cost him his family. In that interview, he shared how for a long time, he thought that because of that sin, God could never use him again.
TENSION
So let me ask you a couple of questions this morning: What is the worst sin you have ever committed in your life? And has that past failure ever made you wonder whether God could ever use you again? Before we get to this morning’s passage, let me ask you a couple more questions to help put this idea in its proper perspective: Have you ever committed murder? Have you ever engaged in sexual immorality like Carlos did? Remember that David committed both those sins and not only was God still able to use him after those sins, he was called “a man after God’s own heart”. So if God didn’t disqualify David for his sins, what makes you think that he has “put you on the bench” because of your sins?
TRUTH
This morning, we’ll look at a passage that is going to help us get a better handle on this entire topic. And here’s the bottom line that we all need to take away from that passage.
A flawless God often uses
flawed people to accomplish His will
We left off in our journey through the Old Testament a couple weeks ago with Daniel’s prayer for his people in Daniel 9. We saw there that the exile of God’s people in Babylon was about to end, just as Jeremiah had predicted.
As you’ve probably figured out by now, the Old Testament books are not always arranged chronologically in our Bibles. That is going to become even more apparent over the next few weeks as we go from the book of Daniel, back to the book of Esther and then from there even further back in our Bibles to Ezra and Nehemiah. So I want to take a few minutes this morning to provide you with an overall timeline for the period we’ll be covering.
A few years after Daniel’s prayer, in 536 BC, a group of about 50,000 Jews returned to Israel under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the governor appointed by King Cyrus. Under his leadership the rebuilding of the temple was begun. This first return to Jerusalem is recorded in Ezra 1-6.
Roughly 50 years later, Xerxes, who is also known as Ahasuerus, becomes king of Persia. During his reign, Esther becomes queen and her influence in the Persian court paves the way for a second and third returns. Those events are recorded in the book of Esther and that will be our focus this morning.
A second return of a small company of only about 2,000 Jews takes place during the reign of King Artaxerxes in 457 BC, led by Ezra. That return is recorded in Ezra 7-10 and we’ll be looking at part of that account next week.
A third return takes place 13 years later in 444 BC when Nehemiah leads a small group back to Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding the walls. The account of that return is obviously found in the book of Nehemiah.
When I read the book of Esther again this week, I couldn’t help but think that this reads a lot more like a screenplay for a modern movie than a book of the Bible. There are political leaders who attempt to abuse women for their own pleasure. There are heroes and a despicable villain. There is deception and intrigue and there are plot twists all along the way. But the most surprising part of this story is that the hero of the story isn’t even named in the book.
It’s really easy to read the book of Esther and come away with the impression that the heroes in this story are Esther, and to a lesser degree, Mordecai. But, as we’ll see this morning, both are deeply flawed individuals who only seem to act when they are backed into a corner. As I read through the book again, I was inclined to agree with one commentator I read this week who wrote this:
And Esther and Mordecai are just one more example of reading the Bible through rose-colored glasses, seeing people in a way that makes us feel comfortable.
[Bob Deffinbaugh – “Esther’s Dilemma and Decision”]
The real hero of the book – God – is not mentioned even once by name in the book of Esther. But there is little doubt that He is in fact the hero, working behind the scenes to orchestrate every single detail to save His people and carry out His promises.
Obviously we don’t have time to read the entire book this morning, so let me give you a brief overview of the first part of the book and then we’ll pick up the account in chapter 4.
The book begins by describing the expansive kingdom of Ahasuerus, who is also known as Xerxes. It stretched from India to Ethiopia – from modern day Pakistan to Libya. At the end of a six-month military summit, the king threw a big party for all the men of the city of Susa. There was no shortage of wine for those men during the feast. On the last day of the feast, when everyone was drunk, the king summoned the queen to come parade herself in front of the men. But the queen refused to be used as an object for the pleasure of the men. The king became enraged and dismissed Vashti as his queen and made a royal decree that she was never to enter his presence again.
Four years later, after an unsuccessful military campaign against Greece, King Ahasuerus decided to pick a new queen by having a Miss Persia contest. The most beautiful women of the land were paraded before him so he could choose a new queen from among them. Among those women was a young Jew named Esther, who had been raised by her older cousin Mordecai. She won the king’s favor and became his new queen. But, in accordance with Mordecai’s instructions, Esther continued to live as an “undercover Jew”. She did not let the king, or anyone else know of her Jewish heritage.
After Esther became queen, a wicked man named Haman was appointed to be essentially the prime minister – second in power only to the king. When Mordecai refused to go along with all the others who bowed down and paid homage to Haman, he devised a plan not just to get rid of Mordecai, but to exterminate the entire Jewish people. And then Haman tricked King Ahasuerus into giving him the king’s signet ring which he used to seal the written decree that he sent to all the local officials in the entire kingdom which indicated that all the Jews were to be killed on a specific day one year later.
Now we’re ready to pick up the account in chapter 4.
[Read Esther 4:1-3]
When Mordecai learned of the decree, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes as a sign of mourning. He went up to the king’s gate, but was not allowed into the palace. The Jews throughout the entire kingdom also mourned when they became aware of the decree.
[Read Esther 4:4-12]
When Esther learns what Mordecai is doing, she sends some new clothes to Mordecai, but he refuses to put them on. So Esther sends one of her servants to find out what is going on. Mordecai explains what Haman has done and gives the servant a copy of the decree to take back to Esther. He tells the servant to ask Esther to go to the king and ask him to spare their people.
Esther, having seen firsthand the king’s well-known temper and knowing what had happened to the previous queen, is obviously reluctant to do that. She has not been called to see the king for 30 days and if she goes in on her own and the king fails to extend his golden scepter, she will likely die. The servant takes that message back to Mordecai.
[Read Esther 4:13-17]
This part of the text is very difficult to deal with. There are basically two ways to view this section.
One is to see it as a demonstration of Mordecai’s and Esther’s faith in God. And that seems to be the way that most commentators approach it and the way I’ve always looked at the book of Esther. If that is the case, then in verse 14, even though Mordecai never mentions God, when he says that deliverance will come from “another place”, he is saying that God will provide deliverance in some other way.
And when Esther says, “If I perish, I perish” in verse 16, that is an expression of her faith in God, similar to the way Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego entrusted their fate to God when they refuse to worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up.
But in reading the book again this week, I’m not sure that the passage doesn’t show exactly the opposite – a lack of trust in God on the part of both Mordecai and Esther. It seems to me that the fact that neither Mordecai or Esther ever speaks of God anywhere in the entire book is significant and it actually reinforces our main idea that…
A flawless God often uses
flawed people to accomplish His will
If all we had to go on was the fact that Mordecai and Esther never mention God, then I admit that would be a pretty weak case. But there are some other clues in the text that lead me to believe this is the more likely intent of the author.
The way that verse 13 and 14 are rendered in most English translations leaves us rather confused. Essentially here is what Mordecai is saying to Esther: If you don’t go talk to the king, all the Jews are going to die and as a Jew, you won’t be spared either. But then in verse 14, he goes on to say that even if Esther keeps silent, the Jews will be delivered by some other means, but Esther and her family are still going to die.
So imagine what Esther must have been thinking. “The Jewish people are going to live no matter what I do. If I somehow pull off the impossible and convince the king to change the edict, they will live, but if I remain silent they are going to be saved any way. If I remain silent, Mordecai says I’ll die, but if I go into the king and he doesn’t extend his scepter, I’m going to die there.” Not a real enviable position, is it?
But whole dialogue makes a lot more sense if verse 14 is translated as a rhetorical question rather than a statement as the underlying Hebrew allows. Then it would read something more like this:
“Do you really think that if you keep silent, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place?”
When translated as a question, Mordecai’s argument makes more sense. He is essentially manipulating Esther to act by telling her that if she doesn’t go to the king, there is no other way that the Jews might possibly be saved. Or in football lingo, he’s calling for the “Hail Esther” play. It’s a longshot, but this is the one chance for the Jewish people to be saved.
Given what Mordecai has said, Esther’s only possible hope is for her to risk going into the king on the chance that he might extend his scepter to her and that she can convince him to spare the Jews. Any other option is going to result in her death. If that is indeed her mindset, then in verse 16 when she utters the well-known words “if I perish, I perish”, that is probably more of a reflection of a fatalistic attitude than any expression of her faith in God. That seems especially appears to be the case if you compare Esther’s words to the response of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that I mentioned earlier:
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
(Daniel 3:16-18 ESV)
There is just nothing in the text to suggest that Esther’s response is in any way an expression of her faith in God.
Let me address one last issue in the text. In verse 3, we learn that the people fast when they learn of Haman’s plot to kill them. And then again in verse 16, we see that Esther tells Mordecai to have the people hold a fast on her behalf. I don’t know about you, but when I read that, my assumption was that this fasting was done in conjunction with prayer, as we often see that connection in the Scriptures. But again, if we just stick with is in the text, prayer is not mentioned at all, either here in chapter 4 or anywhere else in the book for that matter.
There are other examples in the Old Testament where fasting is not connected with prayer or other “religious” activities. Most of those are in relation to the death of someone. So there is at least the possibility here that these fasts are not a part of prayer, but rather a corporate lament for imminent death. In the case of all the Jews in verse 3, it would be a lament for the death of the entire people. And in the case of Esther, it would be a lament for her imminent death at the hands of the king.
This possibility seems to supported by the fact that Esther’s non-Jewish servants are going to fast with her which makes it more likely that this is not any kind of “religious” activity at all.
To me, the idea that Mordecai and Esther might not be quite as virtuous and godly as they are often considered to be actually serves to confirm what we’ve seen all throughout the Old Testament – even when God’s people refuse to be faithful to Him, He remains faithful to them.
None of us can be absolutely sure what the author had in mind here because there is just so much ambiguity in the text. But regardless of whether the author is trying to portray Mordecai and Esther in a favorable light or whether he is trying to highlight their lack of faith in God, there at least a couple of important ideas in this passage that are true either way.
TWO IMPORTANT TRUTHS FROM THIS PASSAGE
1. God is at work even when we can’t see that clearly
God had been working behind the scenes long before Esther was faced with the decision of whether or not to seek favor with the king. Had Esther come up with the idea of putting in her application to be queen, there is no way she would have ever been picked. While she was beautiful, she was young, inexperienced, a foreigner and an orphan – not exactly the kind of woman who we would expect the king to choose. But God made that happen anyway, knowing that He was going to use Esther down the road to carry out His promise to protect His people.
He had also put Mordecai in a place to learn of an earlier plot against the king, which would end up later earning him favor with the king which also contributed to the rescue of the Jews.
Many of you are familiar with the rest of the story in this book as God continued to work through Mordecai and Esther in unexpected ways to save His people from Haman’s wicked plot and to mete out justice to Haman.
As I said earlier, even though God is never mentioned, He is clearly at work throughout this entire series of events even though Mordecai and Esther never really seemed to see that.
God still does that today, doesn’t He? Even when we don’t see immediate answers to our prayers or when we just can’t see His hand at work, He is working to carry out His purposes, plans and ways. Sometimes God gives us little glimpses into what He is doing. But even when He doesn’t do that, He is still at work, just as Jesus reminded His disciples:
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
(John 5:17 ESV)
2. God works through flawed people
Even if we grant that the author is painting Mordecai and Esther in a favorable light, we still see evidence of their lack of faith in God. Mordecai consistently warns Esther not to reveal her Jewish roots and Esther follows his instructions. That was completely contrary to how God wanted His people to live as a unique people who would stand out as a living testimony for Him. No doubt both Mordecai and Esther doubted that God could protect them and use them if Esther’s true identity were to become known.
But God still used both of them anyway, the same way He previously used other flawed people like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Naomi, Ruth and David.
A flawless God often uses
flawed people to accomplish His will
APPLICATION
That’s an important idea for us to understand, but how should that truth impact the way I live my life?
IMPLICATION FOR MY LIFE
1. Don’t let yesterday’s sins keep me from serving Jesus today
I began this morning by sharing about a Christian leader whose sin ended one season of ministry and nearly cost him his family. I’m pleased to tell you that over time Carlos was able to reconcile with his wife and that he is now back in ministry again, although in a completely different capacity. He has even written a book titled Kill the Spider in which he is very open and transparent about his failures and shares how God was able to bring him through that time and restore him.
That was possible for Carlos – and for us - only because with Jesus failure is never final unless we allow it to be. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. And when we put our faith in Him, He removes the guilt of our sin and frees us from the penalty for our sin. But as we sang earlier, if we’ll allow Him to do it, Jesus does even more than that. The resurrected Jesus is resurrecting me – present tense. That means that every day He continues to work in my life so that I am able to do what Paul described in Romans 6 – to consider myself dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ.
As Carlos would be the first to admit, restoration does not always mean that we will regain everything that we had. Chances are that Carlos will never return to the ministry he had before and undoubtedly there will be lasting impacts on his relationship with his wife. But what it does mean is that God can use us in new and different ways in spite of our past failures.
What we see in Esther is that God can take a flawed person – even one who has failed Him repeatedly – and use that person to fulfill His flawless plan. He sees beyond our failures. But far too often, we fail to do the same thing. So we let those past failures keep us from serving Jesus today.
ACTION
So how do we make sure that we don’t do that? Let me suggest some…
Practical steps to take:
1. Ask God to reveal any past sins that are keeping you from serving Him. (Psalm 139:23-24)
2. Confess those sins to God (1 John 1:9)
3. Ask God to help you consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
4. Find a place of service (Ephesians 4:12)
INSPIRATION
Whatever sins you may have committed in the past do not disqualify from serving Jesus in the present, no matter how bad those sins may have been. God specializes in taking broken, flawed people and resurrecting them though faith in Jesus. He’s done that in the past for people like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Mordecai and Esther and he’ll do that for you’ll if you’ll just let Him. Will you take Him up on that offer?
Questions for the Bible Roundtable
1. Do you tend to think of the book of Esther as painting Esther and Mordecai in a favorable or an unfavorable light? Why?
2. Esther, along with one other book of the Bible (any idea which one?) doesn’t mention God even once. So why do you think it is included in the Bible?
3. Even though we see how God consistently uses flawed people throughout the Bible, why do you think we have a tendency to think God can’t use us because of our past sins?
4. What are some times in your life when God was working “behind the scenes” that you did not see until sometime later?
5. What are some ways God has worked through you to accomplish His flawless plans even though you are not flawless?
