Esther One Shot
Text: Esther 4:6-17
So recently I was talking with someone and he mentioned that one of the most interesting things about the Book of Esther was that the Name of God is never mentioned, and the voice of God is never directly heard. And that is interesting! But I also think that it is very helpful to us who are believers today, because just like Esther, we often don’t directly “see” God either. We can feel His presence, and we can be directed by the Holy Spirit, but God’s voice isn’t thundering down from heaven to us.
We might want to see Him in a burning bush, or a pillar of fire by night. We might want Him to audibly speak to us and consume our enemies with 10 plagues – or something like that. But the reality is that, just like Esther, we have to listen carefully for a still small voice. We have to be guided by His Word… and there are some Christians who feel that God isn’t speaking to them, or that God is silent… but they haven’t opened His Word in years. They haven’t dug into it, and read it, and studied it, and learned it. They desperately want some Moses-like mountain top experience, but don’t understand that the Bible contains everything… and I mean EVERYTHING that we need for our lives, and our faith, and our decision making. It’s all right here in God’s Word!
Another reason that I find the Book of Esther interesting is because, we too; like Esther are strangers in a strange land. We’re in exile so to speak. We live in a secular world where everything that comes out of this world system is in opposition to our faith, and against Jesus.
So this morning we’re going to be looking at the Book of Esther, and I’m going to be reading a short passage from that book, but I’m also going to give you an overview of the entire book so that we all understand the context and are able to apply the lessons we go over from it.
So let’s take our Bibles and open them up to the Book of Esther, chapter 4, and please follow along as I read verses 12 through 17 (READ Esther 4:6-17).
Now this story of Esther takes place roughly 470 years before Jesus was born, and it was a rough time for the nation of Israel. The nation was in exile and were under the control of the Persian Empire. The emperor of Persia is a guy named Xerxes… and he’s not a good guy. In-fact he’s a pretty wicked and evil guy. The reason they were in exile is because they – as a nation, had been unfaithful to God. They worshiped idols, they became enamored with the world and the world system… and so in essence, it was almost like God saying, “If you want the world so bad, you can have it.” And Israel gets conquered, then Judah, and the people of Israel are now living in the world they were enamored with. But there were some who were faithful, and who still trusted in God… they were in the world, but were trying their best to not be OF the world.
So that sets the stage for this book of Esther…
Now if you’ve read the Book of Esther before, you know it’s a great historical account of how God saves and preserves His people… but it’s also a literary masterpiece. It starts out with a party. Xerxes is throwing a party for his nobles, and he gets a wild hair and decides that he’s going to show off his wife – Queen Vashti. So he orders her to appear before her guests and dance. But Vashti wasn’t having it! She was like, “I’m not here for your entertainment, and I’m certainly not here to entertain all your buddies.” And she refused. Well, Xerxes didn’t like that so much, and so he had her banished. Well a little while later, he was thinking maybe that wasn’t such a great thing to do, and he was feeling a little down about it, so his advisors came up with a plan. They would have a beauty pageant, and bring in young girls from all over the Persian Empire so that Xerxes could pick a new wife to replace Vashti.
So that’s what they did. And out of all the young ladies all over the Persian Empire, a young Jewish girl named Esther was chosen to be Vashti’s replacement.
Now Esther was being raised by her cousin Mordecai. He was a few years older than she was, and being that her parents were deceased, that duty fell on him. And Mordecai also worked for Xerxes as a low level bureaucrat. Well it just so happened that one day Mordecai uncovers an assassination plot against Xerxes and he relayed that information on to Esther, so that she could warn Xerxes. Xerxes was thankful, and he had Mordecai’s name written down in the annals of the king, and told his servants that Mordecai should be rewarded.
Well a little time passed, and Xerxes right hand man – a guy named Haman, who just so happened to hate the Jews, convinced Xerxes to make a law that everyone in the empire should bow down to Haman and Xerxes… and pretty much everyone did, except for Mordecai. He refused to bow to Haman as he walked by. This of course made Haman really mad, and so he came up with a plan. He went to Xerxes and convinced him that he should wipe all the Jews out, because they didn’t worship the Persian gods, and they didn’t bow down as they were commanded. Eventually news of this evil plan reached Mordecai, and so he met with his cousin Esther, and told her about what was happening, and that brings us to our text there in Esther chapter 4.
Now the first thing we need to understand here is that neither Mordecai or Esther are the heroes of the story. About 50 years or so before these events take place, Cyrus – the King of Persia had made it possible for the Jews to return to Jerusalem… Why were Mordecai and Esther still in Susa? Probably because Mordecai had a good job and was doing pretty good in this worldly system. And then… once Esther is selected as a candidate to be queen… she had to spend the night with Xerxes. That was the deal right?! The girls would stay the night with Xerxes, and who ever pleased him the most would be made queen. That’s not something that a godly girl should be doing. Why would she even do that? Well… to be married to a guy who is probably… at that time… the most powerful and wealthy man on the planet. Or maybe it was just that she was afraid. I don’t know, but you’d think that she’d rather die than be given to this godless, wicked, narcissistic man… and then there’s the fact that Mordecai told Esther to conceal her Jewish identity. Basically he was telling her to keep her faith on the down-low… Don’t let on that you’re someone who is in covenant relation with God… don’t rock the boat. That’s not Godly advice, and it’s sure not Biblical advice. Remember – Jesus says that we’re to be a city on a hill, and that we don’t hide our light under a basket, but we let it shine before all men.
So the truth is – both Mordecai and Esther have gotten used to compromising. And I have seen this so many times… I saw it when I was in undergraduate school… people who I knew went to church on Sunday and who professed to be Christian, but on campus they kept their faith hidden. I saw it when I was in the military… I’ve seen in the workplace… again, folks to go to church on Sunday, but during the week, while at work, they never mention God, they never mention Jesus, they hide their faith in order to not rock the boat.
And Church – that can be any of us, or all of us, at certain times. Whether it’s at school, or at work, or just out and about… at some point we are have opportunities to either stand up for Jesus, or bow down to our own kind of Haman… For Moses it was when he chose to stand with his people against Pharaoh. For Daniel it was at the den of lions. For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego it was at the fiery furnace. For Peter it was on the night that Jesus was betrayed and arrested… thankfully he got another chance. For you maybe it’s already happened? Maybe it’s happened multiple times? I mean… the truth is, it’s probably something we face multiple times a day. Are we going to be faithful or not? Are we going to stand with Jesus or not? Are we going to stand on God’s Word, or bow to the world?
Well Esther was finally forced to make a choice between what appeared to be the easy, comfortable, and safe route – as the Persian Queen, or the possibly deadly route of being identified with God and His people.
Now you know how the story ends right?
Esther does the right thing.
Well I’m just going to say it – we are at a point in history… and in our nation’s history where we are going to be faced with the same choice. Are we going to be willing to risk it all for Jesus? And the truth is – if we aren’t doing it now, in simple things, in the seemingly insignificant things, then how do you think we’ll do when it’s really on the line?
In Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus says, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Jesus NEVER EVER said that being like a city that is set on a hill would be easy. In-fact, in most cases that makes you a target for your enemy. But it’s what we’re called and commanded to do.
Esther and Mordecai provide a great lesson for us… they were people of God, who lived in a godless society… they had both made their share of mistakes… they had at times compromised, but when it finally – ultimately came down to it, they stood with God. And they weren’t seeing God in burning bushes. They weren’t seeing God part the Red Sea – what they did was a pure act of faith and obedience to what they knew. But ultimately this is a story about God! God protects His people! God keeps His promises! God moves in a providential way to bring His will to pass! God is in control – even when it seems like there is nothing but darkness and evil all around!
So let me encourage you – even when the secular world seems to be chugging along… and even when it seems like wicked people are getting away with wicked things, God can take those things and use them for His plan, His purpose, His will, and for His glory! And it’s true – we don’t always know what His plan, and His purpose, or His will is for a certain thing or event; but for us, that’s really not the issue. The issue is doing what we can, according to what we know. Esther says, “If I perish, I perish, but I’m going to do what’s right.” Or we could look again at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – they said, “God is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace… but even if He doesn’t, we will not bow down.”
You’ve got to trust that God is working in your life, and it’s not always easy, and it’s not always comfortable… but it is eternal. God works in our lives, not so that you can have your best life now like one famous TV preacher says… if your best life is now, then you’re going to hell. Our best life is yet to come in eternity with Jesus… So God isn’t working to give you your best life now, but to make you godly and to make you fit for the kingdom, and to make you more and more like Jesus.
And so as we look at the Book of Esther, I hope that we can see a little of ourselves there in that we can relate to Esther as she struggled against the pull of the world, and I hope we can see from her example that it is possible and that it is right, to stand for Christ, even if it costs us everything. Because who knows?... Maybe we have come into the kingdom for such a time as this. And lastly; I hope that as we think on this throughout our day, and through the coming week, we’ll be reminded that God is faithful, and He is working all things together for good, to those who love Him, and are the called according to His purpose.
Let’s Pray
CLOSING
