Someday is Today
Esther 4:1-14
May 9, 2021
When I was a sophomore in high school some friends and myself went out on a Friday night. We just wanted to have some fun. One of my friends, who was a little bigger than me said, “I feel like getting in a fight.” We were not fighters. Nobody was around us, and we ignored his statement and went into an arcade to play games. We were only 15 minutes away from Skokie, but we were in a little rough north side neighborhood of Chicago.
Wouldn’t you know it . . . some other kid from that neighborhood came over to us and asked, “so you want to fight?”
I wondered how did he hear? How do I get out of here?
Before we knew it, we were surrounded by at least 30-40 kids who were not our friends. They pushed us and spit on us, and finally we got away. The next week we did the smart thing . . . we came back, but with about 40 of our friends . . . ready for a rumble.
There was only one problem, they were ready too. They numbered about 100. They had knives, guns, bats, and sticks with nails. I hid in a restaurant with friends, then we ran. We finally got picked up by the police, got dropped off at a friends car and went home.
Never to tell my parents. Fat chance. My mom ended up working with the grandmother of one of the kids who got hit in the head with a nail infested board. He had a few stitches and he told grandma I was there. You know the rest, she told my mom, who questioned me about what I did that night.
Have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time? You’ve been there before, haven't you? You just ended up being in the wrong spot at the wrong time and now you're having to deal with the consequences. My guess is, that’s how Esther must have felt. Esther is a wonderful story and we’re going to quickly go through those first few chapters. Esther reads like a soap opera. I want to encourage you to read this book sometime this week; it’s a wonderful story with lots of interesting characters.
Dr. John said it well . . .
I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time
I was sayin' the right things, but I must have used the wrong line
Have you ever been there? You ever felt you were in the RIGHT place at the WRONG time?
Or maybe it was the WRONG place at the RIGHT time.
Lots of times, we end up thinking we are in the WRONG at the WRONG time.
My guess is, Esther’s life was a series of those moments. In fact, the book of Esther is a series of wrong places, wrong times and right places and right times.
On this Mother’s Day, we are going to focus on Esther. I can imagine her feeling she was in the wrong place at the wrong time . . . and then again, sometimes it was the right time.
Esther is a wonderful story and it’s kind of like a soap opera; and I encourage you to read the book of Esther sometime this week. It’s a great story with lots of interesting characters.
In the first chapter, King Xerxes, who is the king over Persia is holding this huge, massive display of his wealth. For 180 days he’s inviting everybody to come and see how much splendor he has. Talk about a long party . . . 6 months of partying, and he was not done. Then when that party was over, he throws another banquet. This one lasts for 7 days. He tells the steward of the banquet, “Let people drink whatever they want to drink, as much or as little. Feed them whatever they want to eat; from the least to the greatest, everyone is invited.”
Eventually, “King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine,” (that’s a nice way of saying he had just a bit too much partying), and he asked for Queen Vashti to come in and show off her beauty and his power. She said, “No.”
Well, you didn’t say no to the king, and Xerxes was furious, so he gathered his top advisors and asked, “What do we do about this?” They agreed, “this isn’t good because if your wife doesn’t have to listen to you, our wives don’t have to listen to us.” In fact in verse 18 it says: “There will be no end of disrespect and discord.” So Vashti is banished. Vashti was in the right place, but it was the wrong time.
In chapter two we find the search for a new queen is going on. It’s kind of like American Idol. Esther, who is being raised by her cousin, Mordecai, is the one who gets chosen to be queen. So chapter two has all these wonderful things going on for Esther. She wins the king’s favor, she gets the crown, there are robes and white horses, more parties and applause. It’s a great thing for Esther. Mordecai, tells her, “don’t tell them you’re Jewish. That won’t go very well.” Esther agrees. For Esther, she is in the right place at the right time.
Now in chapter three we get introduced to another person, his name is Haman. Haman is the second in command to the king. When he would walk down the street, people would bow down to him. One guy didn’t do that, Mordecai. He believed it was wrong to bow down to another person. He would only pay that kind of respect to God.
Haman was angry and found out Mordecai was a Jew, so he works it out with the king, telling him, “We’ve got all these foreigners living in our land, they’re not following your laws, and I will put in my own money for the bounty, about $3 billion. It sounded good to the king, so they picked a certain day of a certain month and the law is set that all the Jews in Persia are to be annihilated. As you might imagine, this distresses Mordecai.
Now we come to the key part for us. . . Let’s look at what happened in chapter 4 of the book of Esther ---
8 Mordecai gave Esther’s servant a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,
so that Esther might go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.
10 Then Esther spoke to her servant and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say,
11 “All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called,
there is but one law — to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live.
But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish.
And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.
I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if
I perish, I perish.” - Esther 4
There’s a wonderful challenge to Esther and I believe it’s a challenge we should hear as well. Here’s what Mordecai was saying to Esther. “Esther, now is the TIME, this is the PLACE and you’re the PERSON. Only you can do it Esther. You are the one . . . you are in the RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME.
Esther must have been thinking, “This isn’t really the right time, not right now.” This was a seize the day moment. This was, “Do something with the moment you have, Esther. Now is the time.”
Esther’s thinking, “I really wish I wasn't here right now.”
And Mordecai is saying to Esther, “What are you waiting for?”
I would encourage you to read the rest of the book of Esther and you’ll get the whole end of the story of what happens to Haman, Mordecai and Esther.
Esther has to make a choice. What are you waiting for? That’s a good question, isn't it?
I’m pretty confident many of us are waiting. Maybe you’re not a Christian. You’ve been kind of checking this “God-thing” out or maybe you’re trying to figure out where your faith really fits in and you say to yourself, “You know, I’m going to figure that out one of these days.
“Someday, when I have time, I’ll sort that out.” Or maybe you've been a Christian for a long time but you've been sitting on the sidelines. You look around and say, “there are other people here, they can do it, I don’t need to get involved. I don’t need to be plugged in. Someday I will . . . but not now, I’m kind of busy.”
Or maybe there’s some issue from your past that you know needs to be resolved, it needs to be addressed and you know it, “I’m going to get to that one of these days.” Maybe there’s a broken relationship that needs to be reconciled or at least needs to try to be reconciled and you’re saying, “I’ll get there. I’ve got time.”
But we wait. And why do we wait? Sometimes we’re afraid, fearful of dealing with whatever it may be. Sometimes we’re waiting for a better opportunity when circumstances look easier for us, and sometimes we’re just procrastinating.
The reality is sometimes we wait too long. We don’t take advantage of the moment we have right now. And what is life? It’s a piling up of our moments and how we use them. Now you may not have ear to the king or a president or even a fast food clerk but you have influence with somebody. You have something I believe you ought to be doing and I don't think there’s a better time for you than right now.
What do you gain by waiting? Maybe you miss the moments. I know what we say. “Well, someday I’ll get to that. Someday I’ll do what I need to do.” But the truth is, for every person in here, someday your somedays will be over and will you have done what you ought to have done along the way? Maybe it’s to be using your gifts and talents for God. Maybe it’s with your family, or friends.
I believe God gives us enough time in the day to do the things we ought to be doing. Our problem is we add on a lot of other stuff. And Mordecai says to Esther, “Now is the time. Seize THIS moment. This is the place, Esther. Esther, this is your time, God created you for this very moment, don’t miss it!!”
Esther was thinking, “Surely, any other place but this place.”
Now go back to chapter two. That was a great place to be, wasn’t it? Gifts and applause, robes, and crowns. But now, now this wasn’t such a good place after all. I get that, don’t you? I watch people marry and in the beginning it’s a wonderful place to be. But then something happens. I suppose for hundreds of reasons, all of a sudden that’s no longer the place. Maybe it’s a job we take. We’re so excited about it and then we get there and they want us to work! And maybe after all that isn’t the place. Or maybe it’s the neighborhood we live in or the circle of friends we have.
Here’s what many of us say, “You know if I were in a different place, I’d be a better person. If my situation was different, I would be different. If I were just in a different place, a better place, you’d see a lot more from me.”
The truth is, if we aren’t going to serve, we aren't going to serve anywhere. The place we’re in right now, is the place where God has placed us. Like it or not.
God has strategically placed you in the situation you are now in, it is a critical moment. You are not where you are by accident, it is a divine plan, by the divine author of life, God. Now what are you going to do about it?
Esther’s response is a lot like ours. We tend to think of the obstacles first. We tend to think of the risks and costs to ourselves, and often we stop right there. None of the Persians knew she was Jewish, especially her husband the king and Haman. To save her people she would have to risk her life.
She would have to appear before Xerxes without an invitation. Think of what was going through her mind — ‘the king hasn’t called for her in over a month, had she ceased to be the apple of his eye? Was there someone new, someone different who was taking her place?’
Can you begin to understand Esther’s apprehension? Esther clearly felt she wasn’t the right person for God’s job!
I didn’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing. I didn’t plan on being in Alexandria. I remember Debbie and I looking up Alexandria on a map. And now we’ve been here almost 14 years.
This is our home; this is where our kids were raised.
This is where we have made incredible friendships.
This is the place we’ve made an investment in the kingdom of God.
This is the place I believe God is making a difference in our lives and in other lives. All, in this place!
This is the place God is going to be victorious!!
But for this to happen, we had to ask the question, “is this the time? Is this the place?” The answer was a resounding YES!
God has each of us in the right place, right now. Esther’s thinking, “Why me? Who’s idea was it to enter that beauty contest. I’m not the person.” But at that time, in that place, she was.
You may think “I’m not very capable, I’m not very qualified.” Remember --
God doesn’t CALL QUALIFIED people; He QUALIFIES CALLED people.
Look at the group Jesus had with Him. Peter put his foot in his mouth and was impulsive, and denied Jesus.
Thomas is the one who said, if we die, we die, let’s go. Then he said “I don’t believe Jesus is risen, unless I see Him.”
Then there was James and John -- we call John the apostle of love. You know what the Bible calls those two brothers? Sons of Thunder. One time they went through a village and the place wasn’t very kind to Jesus or His followers. So they got everybody together and said, “we should just pray for these people, find a way to serve them.” No! They said to Jesus, “Let’s call down fire from heaven and wipe out these people!”
The only person we would have picked to be in our group, the guy who had the three-piece toga, patent leather sandals, drove a nice camel -- it was Judas. They put him in charge of the money. He was trusted but he never let God get hold of his heart.
Now is the time, this is the place, and we’re the people. If not now, when? Oh I know, someday. Someday you will. NOT!! If not here, where? “When I’m in another place, when I’m in a different group, when I feel like I’m more needed.” But if it’s not here it won’t be anywhere. And if not you, then who?
So ... what does Esther do? She tells Mordecai, I’ll go, and if I perish, I perish.
What great words from Esther. She took the God challenge. It was her day, it was her time and she did it. Notice she didn’t just run to see the king. She asked for some of the most significant prayer ever recorded in the Bible. She asked for a fast, not just for a day, but 3 days of no eating or drinking, her included. Only then does she enter in to see the king, and he is thrilled to see her. But you need to read the rest of the story to see what happens.
Esther grabbed hold of the offer from God. We never know when we might be able to make that difference we are called to make. Sometimes we need to go to the King, but our King always is accepting of your presence. There should never be fear as we come to God.
We’re also called to go and serve, to make a difference in the name of Jesus.
It’s to find those who have needs, and meet those needs.
Who is hungry around you . . . feed them.
Who is thirsty . . . give them drink.
Who needs clothing . . . give them clothes.
Who needs shelter . . . shelter them.
Who needs a visit . . . visit them.
Who needs a friend . . . be their friend.
Who needs a hug . . . hug them.
Who needs grace . . . give them grace.
God’s call isn’t so difficult, and when we follow His call, when we agree we’re in the right place at the right time . . . we realize in new and fresh ways, God’s blessings . . . and those are our rewards for being Christ on earth.
I don’t want to look back on my life and regret that I took the easy way, the safe way. “Did I enjoy the moment? Did I take advantage of God’s opportunities? Did I seize the day?” I don’t want regrets, I don’t want you to either. Only we get to make that decision.
Esther chose to take the risk, IF I PERISH, I PERISH! May you and I have the same heart . . . doing it all for the glory of God. Make SOMEDAY . . . TODAY!
