For Such a Time as This
Esther 1:1-9
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
07-12-2020
Silence!
I walked into the small chapel on the campus on the church that I served at in Florida, fell on my knees, and wept hysterically. Mr dream job in Florida had turned into a nightmare and I had just had a meeting in which the pastor had made it clear that “it wasn’t working out.”
As I cried, the “whys?” came fast and furious:
Why would you open every door only to shut the door once we moved here?
Why would you give me my dream job on the beach, (the church is literally on an island), and take it away from me?
Why would you not simply provide a place for us to live that we could afford?
Why are you doing this us?!
Just then, my phone dinged and I received a series of text messages from God explaining in detail why He had allowed these things to happen. Then an angel appeared and touched my shoulder and said , “Get up. Let me show you the big picture” and I saw a vision….and a plate of oatmeal butterscotch cookies…
That’s not what happened. You know what I heard? Silence. Deafening, thunderous silence! When I needed to hear from God, when I needed an encouraging word, it felt like my prayers bounced off the ceiling and mocked me.
Have you been there? Have you gone through a time when you felt like God may have gone on vacation? Have you experienced what Andrew Peterson has described as the “holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God?” If so, you are not alone.
For Such a Time as This
This morning, we start a new sermon series from the Old Testament book of Esther. In the time that I’ve been here, I have preached through the books of Habakkuk, Jonah, and Galatians. We’ve gone verse by verse through Revelation 1-3, The Beatitudes in Matthew 5, the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, we explored the lives of several Old Testament heroes, and we dove deep into the 5 Solas of the Reformation.
The sermon series is entitled, “For Such a Time as This,” from the famous statement Mordecai says to Esther in chapter 4. I believe this is the perfect time to preach this book because I believe that this church has been placed in this community for such a time as this to make an eternal impact for the Kingdom of God!
The book is only 167 verses in the Hebrew and 10 chapters in English. It takes about 10 minutes to read and I would encourage you to read it at least once a week during this series.
In our Galatians study, each week I reminded you that “those who dance are thought crazy by those who cannot hear the music.”
In the coming weeks, I will remind you of one of my favorite John Piper quotes,
[Slide] “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”
In Esther, we will learn that God is at work in spite of appearances. Often it is behind the scenes, quietly weaving circumstances together in order to bring about His will for our good and His glory. Theologians call this the “hiddenness of God.” We will talk more about this at the end of the sermon.
Turn with me to the book of Esther. It is in the Old Testament and is the last of the 17 history books, located between Nehemiah and Job.
Prayer
Promise Keeper
I mentioned the idea of the “big picture” a minute ago. I want to start this series by looking at the big picture of Scripture and how Esther fits in.
Keep your place in Esther and turn with me to Genesis 3.
In Genesis 3, Eve is approached by satan in the form a snake and he puts doubt into her head about God’s goodness. She takes the bait, eats the fruit in willful disobedience to God, and gives some to Adam.
We call this the “Fall.” God pronounces curses on the first couple and exiles them from the garden.
But it is the curse of the snake that is what I want us to look at:
[Slide] So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)
The word “offspring” (seed) is singular. God is saying that there will come a descendant of Adam and Eve that will defeat satan once and for all (crush your head), even though satan will strike at His heels repeatedly.
This is called the “protoevangelium.” It’s the first time the Gospel is preached in the Bible. It tells of a rescue mission, driven by love, to save the human race from spiritual death.
As we watch the story unfold, there are many times we see the serpent trying to strike the heel of the people that would produce the Messiah, which ultimately would bring his downfall.
Pharaoh’s decree to kill all the Israelite male babies in Exodus 1 and Herod ordering all of the Jewish males two years or younger to be exterminated in Matthew 2 are examples of satan trying to derail God’s rescue plan.
In the middle of these two events, the story of Esther falls - the story of certain destruction of the Jews only to be rescued in an amazing way, as we will see.
In Genesis 12, God made a promise to Abraham:
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3).
In Esther’s time, the Jews, now in exile in a foreign land, were holding on to that promise. God was working out his plan for them, even when they couldn’t see it.
In time, the Messiah did come and satan sank his fangs into his heel. The only problem was that heel was nailed to a cross! Satan thought he had bested the Messiah by having Him crucified but it was through the cross that Jesus triumphed over him once and for all!
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Col 3:13-15)
So, as we begin the book of Esther, remember that God has promised to protect the Jewish people in order that the Messiah can come and rescue His people.
Background
Let me make some observations before we begin:
[Slide] It is one of only two books in the Bible that never mentions God..,.or Torah…prayer…or Temple…or anything religious…no dreams…no visions…no miracles. God seems to be silent as the plot unfolds.
[Slide] Also, the main characters are flawed:
Xerxes is an arrogant pagan king that seems to be drunk a lot
Haman is a petty, thin skinned, genocidal maniac
Mordecai is stubborn, encourages Esther to lie about her ethnicity, and nearly gets his entire people wiped out because of his refusal to bow to Haman
Esther, while she does become a hero in the end, she starts by breaking Torah dietary laws, sleeps with a uncircumcised Gentile king who is not her husband, and hides who she is in order to protect herself
Not exactly your typical role models.
But that’s what makes Esther so timely. These characters remind me of…me. And maybe you will see yourselves in them as well.
[Slide] Esther and Mordecai are strangers in a strange land. Nearly 60 years before, Darius had conquered the Assyrians and allow Jews to return to their homeland. For some reason, their family did not make the trip back and lived in a pagan culture where their Jewishness would be a source of conflict.
[Slide] At the end of the book of Esther, we see the feast of Purim being established, which the Jews still celebrate today annually. To the Jewish people it is a story of hope. So much so, that the Nazi’s banned it from being read in the concentration camps during WWII.
It’s a story filled with intrigue, assassination attempts, betrayal, sex, and astounding plot twist. No this isn’t Game of Thrones, it’s Esther.
Let’s begin in a palace at a party.
I’m Kind of a Big Deal
[Slide] “This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush: At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present. For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty. (Esther 1:1-4)
The book begins with the phrase “this is what happened,” which is how books of history begin like Joshua and Judges.
[Slide] We are introduced to our first character Xerxes, or in Hebrew “Ahasureeus.” He was described as a tall (nearly 8 feet tall), handsome man, a brutal warrior, ambitious, and a jealous lover.
[Slide] He inherited a huge empire from his father, Darius, that ranged from what is now southern Pakistan to modern-day Northern Sudan.
[Slide] The setting is Susa (in SW Iran now), where the summer palace of the king was located.
We are not sure who wrote the book of Esther but we are given the exact dates of when this took place.
Xerxes ruled from 486 BC to 465 BC and the third year of his reign would have been in 483 BC.
We are told he threw the mother of all parties. For six months, he displayed his power for all to see.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the party went on every day for 180 days but it was a time of celebration.
Notice who was there - the military leaders. Xerxes father had tried to invade Greece multiple times and was defeated each time. Xerxes wanted to finish whaat his daddy started and used this feast to plan his next war campaign against Greece.
When that party was over, he threw another party, this time only seven days long:
“When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa.” (Esther 1:5).
This party was for the common people and moved to an outside venue, the enclosed garden. Can you imagine a common person seeing what the author describes:
“The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and other costly stones. Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king’s liberality. By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink with no restrictions, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished.” (Esther 1:6-8)
[Slide] There has been archeological excavation done at Susa which has found what is described in these verses. It was extravagant beyond belief, just like the palace.
And, on top of it all, there was an open bar. For seven full days, there was a open bar. This fact will come into play next week as we say hello, and goodbye, to Queen Vashti.
Applications
[Slide]
The Glory of God
Xerxes was a powerful king and he liked to show off his power and revel in his glory. The Great Gatsby had nothing on him.
He ruled a vast empire that included most of the known world. People bowed to him. His word was law. He thought he was a pretty big deal.
We are sometimes awed by displays like this.
[Slide] Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback for the Kansas City Chief’s, signed a ten year contract extension worth at some estimates around 500 million dollars. That’s half a billion dollars for those playing at home!
[Slide] I read this week that Sting makes $2,000 a day off the royalties of the song “Every Breath You Take.” A day!
That’s chump change to a God who owns the cattle on 1,000 hills. (Psalm 50:10)
But our God reigns not just over the earth but the entire universe! He is the king of kings and the lord of lords.
"The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.” (Psalm 93:1-2)
Xerxes was a pretender…a fake.
And if you are impressed with Xerxes banquet, you will be overwhelmed at the banquet that we have been invited to which the Bible calls the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb.
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Rev. 19:6-9)
[Slide]
B. The Providence of God
When the boys were younger, I had a little 50cc scooter that we would ride around on.
One day, my oldest son Josh decided that when we would come to a stop sign he would flip a coin and that would determine which way we would turn. And we did that, driving all over Pontiac.
As we turned another corner, there was Shiann and a friend standing beside their car that was dead in the road. Her cell phone was dead and she just prayed that God would send her help.
After we drove away, Josh said to me, “Dad, I don’t think that our route wasn’t near as random as we thought it was!”
Although God is never once mentioned in the book of Esther, His fingerprints are all over the story. In fact, in many ways, He’s the main character.
The theological term for this is the providence of God, coming from two words meaning to see ahead.
I heard a story of a frog who went to a fortune teller and told her about how lonely he was.
As she looked into her crystal ball, she said, “I see a beautiful young lady who you meet soon that will be very interested in you.”
The excited frog asked, “When will I meet her?”
The fortune teller answered, “Next week in biology lab!”
Tony Evans described providence this way:
“There are many times in our lives when God is nowhere to be found. There are many times when we look for God, but He cannot be located. There are many times when it seems like God is letting things happen to you and me that He wouldn’t allow if He loved us and cared about us. But there is a term for God’s invisibility, when He cannot be located. That term is His providence, His unseen hand at work.”
Tim Keller wrote that when we read about the ten plagues in Egypt we can easily say, “That’s God at work!” But when Xerxes gets falling down drunk and starts bragging about how great he is, you don’t really say, “Now That’s God at work too!” But he cautions us to not to be so sure about where and when God is at work in the world and our lives.
I’ve been a Christian for 30 years and I’ve seen very few miracles. I know people who say that God speaks to them all the time, but I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve been absolutely sure that God was speaking to me about something.
Most of my life is confusing and seems to be a collection of a random patchwork of situations. But, sometimes, with 20/20 hindsight, I can make out an unseen hand guiding my life.
It’s like the huge tapestries in Europe. Viewed from behind, they are simply a tangled mess of yarn. But from the front, these random threads make up a beautiful picture.
It is only in seeing the big picture that we can truly trust that God is at work “even when we don’t see it…even when we don’t feel it” as we sang earlier.
While at the time decisions may seem random, looking back you can see God working behind the scenes to accomplish His will.
A 21 year old graduate student in Memphis suddenly becomes convinced that God wants him to move to North Carolina. He notices an ad in the paper and he quits school, his job, leaves his friends and a very serious girlfriend and moves to the mountains of North Carolina to work at a little Christian children’s home name Crossnore School.
A 21 year old missionary in Thailand is disappointed that her visa didn’t get extended and she has to return home in her parent’s house in Atlanta, GA. She notices an ad in the paper and she packs up everything she owns and heads to the mountains of North Carolina.
[Slide] How would I have ever found my little redheaded girl, if God hadn’t arranged all of those circumstances?
We see God’s Providence in the biblical story of Joseph (that we will study soon).
[Slide] * Joseph was an arrogant brat who was his father’s favorite and had dreams about his family bowing down to him.
* Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery.
The caravan sells Joseph to an Egyptian official named Potiphar. Joseph became Potiphar’s right hand man.
Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph of rape and he ends in prison.
Joseph ends up being the head of the prison’s right hand man.
While in jail, Joseph interprets two dreams for former officials of the king. He asked that they remember him. They forget him.
The king has a dream that he cannot figure out and the official remembers Joseph.
Joseph interprets the dream and tells them that the country of Egypt, in fact the whole region, is headed for a famine.
Joseph becomes the Pharaoh’s right hand man and is put in charge of storing up food for the famine.
His brothers become desperate and travel to Egypt to try to find food.
Joseph ends up revealing himself to them, causing them be terrified.
Joseph could see the big picture and says these famous words to his brothers:
“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” (Gen 50:19-21).
This was another time that God divinely protected the Israelites from destruction. Satan was trying to bite the heel but God flipped the script and all that happened to Joseph ended up saving their lives and, ultimately keeping the promise to Abraham alive.
We will see the same “coincidences” in Esther.
Mark Dever wrote:
“Esther is one of the longest sustained mediations of the sovereignty and providence of God. It is really just one long narrative illustration of Romans 8:28”
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
[Slide] William Cowper's suffered from depression and mental illness. One night, he decided to end it all and hired a carriage to take him to the Thames river where he attempted to jump. But the carriage driver pulled him back from the edge and took him home.
He arrived home and took poison but a friend found him and he was given an antidote. The next morning, he fell on a knife and the knife broke. He then tried to hang himself but a friend just happened by to check on him and pulled him down.
Many years later, he wrote this in one of the many hymns he composed:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sov'reign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
Job learned this first hand:
“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
[Slide]
C. The Silence of God
[slide]
In the play, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, two men, Vladimir and Estragon meet near a tree and spend the entire play talking and waiting for Godot. Twice a messenger comes and tells them that Godot will not be coming. And the play ends.
It’s theater of the absurd and “waiting for Godot” has come to mean to a situation where they are waiting for something to happen, but it probably never will.
But look at the word Godot. Who were they waiting for? God. Who didn’t show up.
Francis Schaeffer famously said, “God is there and He is not silent.”
Not to disagree with Francis but my experience is that God is silent quite a bit.
For the first 40 chapters of Job, God is stone silent as Job rants and raves and asks God for his day in court.
Where was God when I was on my knees in that little chapel weeping and asking why?
If you remember from our study of Habakkuk:
“Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” (Habakkuk 1:13)
Karen Jobes writes,
“Our Lord is omnipotently present even when He is most conspicuously absent.”
One of my favorite worship artist is Andrew Peterson who wrote, “Is He Worthy?” He has a song called the Silence of God that starts like this;
It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God
What are we to do when God decides to stay silent and hidden?
We are to trust in His promises, just like the Jews in Esther did. God is always doing 10,000 things and you may be aware of only three. He is working for his glory and our good to accomplish his will and further His kingdom on earth.
Take Jesus’ last words to his disciples:
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:20)
And quoting Deuteronomy 31, the writer of Hebrews reminds us;
…God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5)
And Paul’s words to the Romans:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)
And a few verses later:
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:31-32)
And one more:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)
Ask for a volunteer. We need to learn to trust these promises.
Where are the keys? Right here in front of you.
Blindfold. Where are the keys? Right here in front of you.
Shake the keys? Right here in front of you.
Have people yell. Right here in front of you.
Have Les come up and tell them the keys don’t exist. Right here in front of you.
Walter Chalmers Smith wrote these words when meditating on the hiddenness of God:
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
If we ever lose sight of the fact that God is sovereignly working behind the scenes for His glory and our good, all need to do is look to the cross. God was not silent on Calvary. His love thundered his mercy and grace poured over humanity at the cross.
And for the first time in all eternity, Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, experienced the deeply human - the silence of God his Father as He screamed into the sky, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Ending Song: He will hold me fast
