All I need to know I learned from Noah’s Ark, and it is quite amazing.
One, don’t miss the boat.
Two, remember that we are all in the same boat.
Three, plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Four, stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
Five, don’t listen to critics, just get on with the job that needs to be done.
Six, build your future on high ground.
Seven, for safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
Eight, speed isn’t always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
Nine, when you’re stressed, float awhile.
Ten, remember the ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by
professionals.
Eleven, no matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting.
There are 4 major lessons we learn from the book of Esther:
1. God has a plan for your life.
2. Satan has a plan for your life.
3. You have a choice.
4. God has the answer.
We’ll start with the 1st point, “God has a plan for your life.”
As you know the Jews rebelled against God by serving other gods and God punished them by having them carried into captivity. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was carried into captivity by Assyria followed by Southern Kingdom - Judah which was carried into captivity by the Babylonians.
This wasn’t the end of the story for Israel, because God had a plan of salvation for them. His intention was to bring them back from captivity and the book of Esther gives us a glimpse of God’s plan of salvation.
In fact, God had in mind a much larger plan of salvation than just bringing the Jews back to their homeland, you see, God planned all along that a savior would be born in Bethlehem to a Jewish family, and that that child would grow up to be the savior of the world. His name - JESUS.
In order for Jesus to be born to a Jewish family in Bethlehem, God had to release the Jews from their captivity and bring them back to their homeland.
The account of Esther begins in 483 B.C. some 37 years before Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls.
King Xerxes was throwing a big party that lasted 6 months.
His kingdom was expansive – ranging from India to Northern Africa, and he was entertaining all the VIPs from the 127 provinces that he ruled.
At the end of this opulent display of wealth, he had a final 7 day party/drinking binge and on the 7th day (when King Xerxes was half drunk) he ordered Queen Vashti to appear before him to show off her beauty.
The Queen refused and this caused King Xerxes to burn with anger. He asked his advisors what could be done and they advised him to divorce her – after all they couldn’t have all the wives of the kingdom rebelling against their husbands.
The King banished her from his presence forever and that was that until sometime later he began to miss her.
His palace officials were quick to offer a solution – a beauty contest. They would round up the most beautiful and desirable virgins in his kingdom and he could have his pick of a new Queen. Well, for some reason that idea really appealed to the king, so he told them to get on it right away.
Esther’s Hebrew name was Hadassa which means myrtal.
Her parents died when she was young and her cousin, a Jewish noble named Mordecai from the tribe of Benjamin raised her like his own daughter.
As the Miss Persia talent search progressed, Esther was selected as one of the contestants because of her beauty.
She was pampered, given special food and beauty treatments – she had a complete makeover.
When her time came to be considered by the King – he was so impressed with her that he made her the Queen.
Mordecai, however told her to keep her identity as a Jewess concealed, and so she did.
Xerxes probably didn’t care where she was from, hey – he was in LOVE and he had a new Queen.
Queen Esther must have helped Mordecai get a job at the palace, because the Bible tells us that while on duty at the palace he uncovered a plot to assassinate the King. Mordecai told Queen Esther who in turn informed the King and the assassins were caught and hung. The incident was quickly forgotten.
We’ll come back to this point that God has a plan for your life, but consider this…. God was setting in motion the plan of salvation for the Jews and he was using an unknown, virgin, Jewish girl to make it happen. Sound familiar? (Pause)
Alright, the 2nd lesson from the book of Esther is that Satan has a plan for your life.
Let’s read Esther chapter 3 :
3:1 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. 2 All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
3 Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king’s command?" 4 Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, they cast the pur (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business."
10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 "Keep the money," the king said to Haman, "and do with the people as you please."
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 little 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.
15 Spurred on by the king’s command, the couriers went out, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.
Right off the bat we understand that King Xerxes was a drunk and as a drunk he didn’t really care what happened in his far flung kingdom as long as it didn’t interfere with his partying.
Another pattern that emerges is the Devil’s desire to destroy the Jews. Why did Satan work so hard to destroy the Jews?
He tried to kill all the baby boys in Egypt – Why? Because he knew a type of a savior was going to be born – that savior (small “s”) was Moses. The Devil likes it when people are in bondage to him. The children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt and he loved it. It was a precursor to hell.
God had other plans, and he miraculously delivered Moses from sure death, and he went on to lead the Jews out of slavery.
Then Satan started working overtime to try to spoil God’s plans for the Jews. Satan was successful in tempting the first generation of Jews that escaped from Egypt, because none of them were allowed to enter the promised land because of their rebellion and lack of faith.
Again Satan tried to destroy the Jews when he led them into the rebellion of idolatry and witchcraft for which they were exiled to Assyria and Babylon.
And now, Satan hatched a plan to kill the entire population of Jews. We shouldn’t be surprised because Jesus said of Satan that in John 10:10, “that he comes only to steal and kill and destroy; But I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly.”
Satan knew that if he could wipe out the Jews, he would spoil God’s plan of salvation for the world.
60% of Americans don’t believe in the Devil. They think he is just a symbol of evil.
How can that be? Look, no where in the book of Esther is Satan mentioned, but when you study the footprints you can plainly see his handiwork. By the way, Esther doesn’t mention God either, but as you will see God was definitely at work to bring salvation to His people.
Do you recall that King Herod ordered all the baby boys born in Bethlehem during the time of Christ’s birth to be killed. Who do you suppose put that idea in his head? Hmmmmm?
Satan thought he was finally successful the day they nailed Jesus to the Cross at Calvary. Oh, was he in for a surprise!
When the church was born Satan had double trouble. Now instead of one group of God’s chosen people he hat two groups – Christians and Jews.
Historically, Satan has tried to eliminate both Christians and Jews. He was highly successful during the middle ages and more recently with the Jewish holicost in Nazi Germany.
Listen, Satan hates God’s people. He wants nothing better than to kill you, rob you and destroy your soul.
Satan has a plan for your life – his plan is to stop you from achieving God’s intended purpose for your life.
Don’t let him do it! Which leads us to our 3rd lesson from the Book of Esther: You have a choice.
You have a choice to make. A choice of faith which involves risk or a choice to do nothing (which also has a risk – the risk of loosing it all).
Lets read Esther chapter 4:
Est 4
4:1 When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2 But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. 3 In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.
6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.
9 Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, 11 "All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king."
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 royal position for such a time as this?"
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 maids 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."
17 So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.
Mordecai was right, Esther had indeed been chosen for just this time. She would be the instrument through which God would bring salvation to his people.
It would require faith in action on her part. It would require risk on her part. People were going to die if she didn’t act.
Listen, you are just like Esther today. People are going to die if you don’t act!
If you don’t put your faith in action, if you don’t take a risk, people are going die a thousand deaths in an eternity called hell.
Queen Esther made a decision to lay her life on the line to save her people.
What are you willing to die for?
Are you willing to give everything up for Jesus? Really?
Just how big of a thing is it to ask you to give up some of your time to serve the Lord?
Listen, we send missionaries and chaplains into the heart of darkness to bring the gospel to a lost and dying world. They leave home and family for long periods of time. They give up the American standard of living to live and work in jungles, deserts, and primitave villages in remote areas of the world. Some go to modern cities and college campuses, and some go to swamps and islands, isolated from modern convienences. But they all go putting their faith inaction because they realize that if they didn’t go – people would die without salvation.
Our missionaries lay it all on the line and sometimes they die on the mission field. Though murder, disease and accident are real hazards, they go anyway.
What exactly are you doing for the cause of Christ today?
Every one of you should have a job in this church.
God’s tired of your sad excuses as to why you can’t work for Him.
If you died right now – do you think God would be pleased with your performance?
Do you think he’s going to give you a crown of glory just because you showed up and occupied a pew on Sunday morning?
Do you think He’s happy with your attitudes?
Do you think He’s happy with your lack of zeal for Him?
Do you think He’s happy with your complaining?
Do you think He’s happy with your spiritual laziness?
Do you think He’s happy with your idolatry?
Do you think He’s happy with your excuses as to why you can’t serve Him?
Do you think He’s going to say “well done thou good and faithful servant?”
I’ve got news for you – God is not happy with us!
Church, we’ve got to repent!
Every one of us should be taking the risk to share our testimony with the unsaved.
Every one us must take up our cross daily and follow Jesus.
But instead of taking up the cross, we’re taking up sin. We’re impure, we’re immoral, we’re unholy.
Church we’re in trouble! We’ve sold our birthright for a bowl of porridge.
The American Protestant Church has been closing 2,500 churches a year for the last ten years. And it’s not just the mainline denominations, evangelical churches are loosing as well. This year the Southern Baptists lost 1% of their membership - the first time in their history this has happened. While the Assemblies of God gained only 1%. We’re going in the wrong direction church!
But there’s good news on the horizon, and this is the 4th lesson we learn from the book of Esther, and that is God has the answer.
God has not abandoned us! He has our best interest at heart! He is for us 100%. He is for you 100%. He wants to save you! He wants to baptize you! He wants to send you into a lost and dying world to share your testimony!
God has the answer, and the answer is Jesus!
If you don’t know Jesus as your personal savior, it’s time that you do.
So what have we learned today from the book of Esther?
1. God has a plan for your life.
2. Satan has a plan for your life.
3. You have a choice.
4. God has the answer.
Make the choice for Jesus today!
