Badge of Honor
From the Book of Esther
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15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
And we will skip down to to where she is speaking to the king:
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3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.
The Word of God for the people of God, thanks be to God.
Today’s sermon title is Badge of Honor. You will better understand the title as we go. For now, I want us to concentrate on two important aspects of today’s scripture.
Esther, though the Jews were in danger and she had not been identified as Jewish, proclaimed herself as Jewish, and embraced it,
and she was able to find peace in facing whatever might come her way as a result of being identified as a child of the One and Only God, as a member of His chosen people.
Though Haman had marked her people for destruction, thus as a people not even worthy of life, as below the value of all others in that nation, Esther willingly took on that designation as a Jew in solidarity with the family of God. She, as a queen, the beloved wife of the king, wore that badge with honor.
And, by the grace of God, she was able to stand with the people of God, proclaim her allegiance to their plight, and overcome her own concerns for her personal risk because God gave her the peace to do so.
For those not familiar with the story of Esther, Esther was brought to the palace of the king because of her beauty when he sought a new queen. She had been raised by an uncle and had been dutiful to him and obedient. When she entered the castle, her uncle asked her not to reveal that she was Jewish, so she never mentioned it.
At one point, her uncle had uncovered a plot to kill the king. Esther relayed the information to the king. An investigation was held and found to be accurate. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, was credited with saving the king’s life, but he was not honored for doing so at the time.
The king had a very powerful confidant and advisor, Haman. Because Mordecai, bound only to worship God, would not show Haman the deference and worship he desired, Haman hated him. Not desiring to single Mordecai out for death ONLY, Haman spoke ill of the Jewish people as a whole and recommended the king have them all killed. The king permitted Haman to create and proclaim a decree. And we read in Esther:
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12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. 13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. 14 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.
Mordecai was devastated for the people of God. He began to wear sackcloth and cover himself in ashes in his pain. When word made it to Esther that her uncle was in such a state, she sent someone to him to find out what was going on. She had not been informed of the decree.
Mordecai sent word back to her of the decree and asked for her to go to the king on behalf of the people to ask that they be spared. She sends word back to Mordecai that if she goes tot he king without being called by him, she risks death.
Then, we read:
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12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 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 your royal position for such a time as this?”
Mordecai’s love for the niece he raised as a daughter was great, but his love for the people of God was greater and his assurance that God will deliver his people gave him the peace he needed to take a risk with what he loved.
And, that overwhelming love for the preservation of the people of God--of which she was a part and the peace of God, entered into Esther, too.
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
And, this is one of my favorite examples of God working behind the scenes in a way that no human can...
6 That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. 2 It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
God started the ball to rolling….
And, yet, even as God was working behind the scenes, so was satan. But, even satan knew that going against the people of God would not turn out well.
We read of the advice given to Haman...too late, of course.
13 His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!”
And, as many of you recall, Esther has invited the king and the unwitting Haman to 2 banquets, the second of which she uses to reveal herself a a Jew. In response to the king’s offer to grant her her desires,
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3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.
If you are unfamiliar with the ending of Esther, please read the Book as they say. God is never mentioned by name in it, but it is a phenomenal story of His intervention in the presecation of his people.
No matter the predicament Esther had found herself in, she identified herself as one of God’s own and was given the peace she needed to stand and do as God would have her to do.
Magda Herzberger Was a little Jewish girl growing up in Romania in the late 1930s. Her prosperous family was Orthodox and had instilled in her, as she said, a “great love in our almighty God.” She was 18 when Hitler’s troops occupied Romania. It was at that time she and her family and all jews there were made to sew the yellow star of David on their clothing to mark them, in her words, as a “dirty Jew.”
Shortly thereafter her family was forced from their homes into the ghetto and then from the ghetto into Auschwitz concentration camp. As the family stood and awaited separation as the men were parted from the women, her father’s last words to her were “I want you to follow the path of love, forgiveness, and tolerance. Hang on to the three strongest pillars of life: faith, hope, and love. And never, ever let hatred enter your heart because hatred is an evil force and ultimately it will destroy YOU. “
Because she was a healthy teenager, Magda was kept alive to be a worker. I will spare our children the details of her gristly work assignment, but she describes the mental stress of trying to reconcile the horrors of what she has found herself surrounded by. She said that in order to survive, she had to accept her reality and cling to positivity and hope and console herself with the thought that her nightmare could not last forever.
Within 7 weeks and with two more camp moves, the once healthy teenager’s body became weak from the cold, the labor, and the starvation and was close to death. Still forced to work in this condition, one day Magda’s body gave up and she collapsed, amongst a number of bodies that had already passed away. Surrounded as she was by death, unable to move, and unable to speak, instead of focusing on the darkness that could envelop her, she reached for the light and prayed to God to take her soul to heaven. Even in the midst of a complete destruction of her nation, of her home, of her family, and even of her body, she clung to the one thing that could not be destroyed..her identity as a child of God and the peace that God had given her to endure anything the evil world used to tear her apart.
She also prayed to God for a miracle. She vowed to God to keep alive the memory of what had happened to her people. And, by a miracle, on that same day, the camp was liberated and although the bodies surrounding her were dead, a soldier noticed that she was not, and lifted her up and out of the camp. She was nursed back to health, and reunited with her mother.
In following years, she married, and immigrated to the US. With the life that God preserved for her...with the life God rewarded her with…..she became a marathon runner, a mountain climber, skier, a lecturer, and the author of 14 books. She attributes her faith in God for her ability to forgive and her opportunity to keep alive the memory of people.
In the words of one of her poems:
"O Lord, our God,
Please disperse
The seeds of peace
And brotherhood
Upon the earth,
As time rolls
On the wheels
Of the universe."
Despite what situation Magda found herself in, the key to her survival and her ability to thrive in the aftermath is because she continued to identify herself as a child of God and God granted her the peace to endure.
This theme of retaining and proclaiming oneself as belonging to God and relying on God for the peace to get through any crisis is taught again and again in the Word of God.
In Exodus 10 we read of Moses, once the son of the royal egyptian family, verbally and loudly calling God “our” God. Identifying himself not a the pagan worshiper of Egyptian Gods, but as one of the chosen people of the One and Only true God; God gave him the peace he needed to endure the long process of God extracting His people from their bondage.
25 But Moses said, “You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the Lord our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the Lord.”
And, when the Hebrews were in bondage in Babylon, these three young men continued to identify as worshipers of the One and Only God, and God sustained with the peace they needed to display His mighty power to protect.
King Nebuchadnezzar had et up a golden image in the plain of Dura and commanded that all his officials bow down before it. All who failed to do so would be thrown into a blazing furnace. Certain officials informed the king that the three Jewish youths, were refusing to worship the golden statue. The three were brought before Nebuchadnezzar, where they informed the king that God would be with them. And, He was.
Daniel was raised to a high office by his royal master Darius the Mede. Daniel's jealous rivals tricked Darius into issuing a decree that for thirty days no prayers should be addressed to any god or man but Darius himself; any who break this are to be thrown to the lions. Daniel continues to pray to the God of Israel, and the king, although deeply distressed, must condemn Daniel to death, for the edicts of the Medes and Persians cannot be altered. God sustained His child with peace as, again, God was able to demonstrate His aiblity to protect His people.
In all these stories, we see that the world ---where satan is the ruler---likes to mark the people of God as dirty, as worthy of complete destruction. But over, and over, the people of God take the marking, the identification meant for a stigma and wear it as a badge of honor.
Even today many sling the word Christian about as if those that are followers of Christ should be ashamed. I suspect that, eventually, it will become more and more difficult for those that call themselves Christians.
wear-something-as-a-badge-of-honor
Phrase
Defiantly reinterpret something said to be negative about oneself as positive.
My message to you today is this: No matter what happens in our world, ALWAYS identify yourself as one of the people of God and pray for and permit God to fill you with peace to endure. Our God is able to take care of His children, This world is not our home. The ruler of this world is not our ruler. You are a child of God, wear that identification with pride and ask your father for the peace to wear that badge of honor proudly.
*Scripture may be from copyrighted translations.
