Esther 3:1-15
Courage Tested
Woodlawn Baptist Church
July 18, 2004
Introduction
Over the course of the past several months, as I have been studying the Scriptures, I have seen over and over the providential hand of God at work. We have been watching God at work in Genesis, leading and guiding, using the actions of man to accomplish His will, and now in Esther, we are seeing the same thing again. God has so far used the sinful actions of king Ahasuerus and his wife Vashti to raise up a new queen, the Jewish girl Esther. It is a beautiful thing for the eyes of the child of God to be spiritually opened so they might see God at work in their lives. Too many believers live in a state of spiritual slumber, a condition the apostle Paul recognized when he said to the Ephesian believers that they needed to wake up. He told them they were living in perilous times, and the times in which we live today are no less perilous, so we too must wake up.
Think about Mordecai’s predicament in the closing verses of Esther 2. Bigthan and Teresh are plotting to kill king Ahasuerus, and Mordecai learns of it. Immediately he has a choice to make. Here is a battle to fight, not with swords and knives, but with decisions and words, with courage and valor. He must choose whether to let someone know or not. You might think that this is not such a battle, but it is. He has much to loose by revealing these men. If it went wrong, he could loose his own life and cost Esther her life. However, he had much to gain as well. Then, in Esther 3, Mordecai demonstrates great courage again, this time a more public courage that is even more costly than the first. Read verses 1-5 with me.
“After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment? Now it came to pass, when the spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.”
These are just the kinds of battles you and I face every day. We do not fight battles today with guns and such. The greatest battle we fight is the daily battle of whether we will live for the king or not. Will we choose to remain quiet and protect our lives? our security? our peace? A man said to me of a Christian brother one time, “I think he is afraid of dying.” That is our assessment of many people. But the truth of the matter is that most people are afraid of living, of really living. Remember the “make believe” worlds of our childhoods? We did not play games where we took our medicine and protected our investments. We took up spears and guns and swords and fought valiantly to the death. We played kickball and baseball without helmets or umpires and we got dirty and built castles and dreamed of marrying the prince or princess.
I was reminded the other night as I watched Peter Pan with my kids again how so many of us as adults have resigned ourselves to being the “good boys and girls” that we must be as adults. One man was asked what he thought it meant to be a good man. He paused for a long moment and said, “Dutiful…and separated from your heart.” Yes, we must be people of duty and responsibility, but many hide behind duty and responsibility and fail to answer God’s call to their hearts to really live with great courage.
There are many enemies of courage in our lives, and when we give in to those enemies we live in fear, and then we stop living at all. We just exist. That’s what the Israelites did when they decided they couldn’t take the Promised Land at Kadesh-Barnea. They said that there were too many giants, there was too much to risk, so they decided not to go in to take the land, and for 40 years they just existed, wandering in the wilderness waiting to die. That story isn’t in the Bible for nothing. It is there because it is a picture of what happens in our lives when we don’t exercise a courageous faith in God and conquer the land in our lives. Canaan is not a picture of heaven like we sing about. It is a picture of the abundant life that God wants us to go in and take, but to take it we must fight!
Some people are only courageous when people are looking. That is a cowardly kind of courage. That is a courage that won’t stand for what’s right when there’s nothing to gain. When Mordecai found out about the plot to kill the king, he didn’t think about what was in it for him – it was his duty as a citizen of his kingdom to stand for his king, with or without recognition. And how was his courage rewarded? Chapter 3:1 tells us, “After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman…” Who? Why didn’t he promote Mordecai? Haman didn’t do anything – Mordecai saved his life! You see, sometimes when you exercise courage standing for the Lord not only will you not be noticed, but someone else who didn’t do anything will get the credit! What do you do? You stand for the Lord courageously anyway.
Others will not take a courageous stand when the pressure gets too great. Look again at the verses we read. When Haman went by, everyone was to bow to him. In case you’re wondering, there’s nothing wrong with bowing to another human being. David bowed to King Saul. Many people bowed to King David. When Abraham wanted to buy a burial plot, he bowed to the people of Heth. There are other examples in the Bible of people bowing, so the problem wasn’t that Mordecai thought it wrong to bow to another man. There was something more to it. Though the Scriptures don’t say for sure, it is my opinion that just as the Pharaoh and those whom he appointed were considered deity, so also were the king and his appointed officials in Persia. I believe that when King Ahasuerus commanded the people to bow to Haman, they were to bow to him as some sort of deity, and as a God-fearing Jew, Mordecai could not comply.
The other servants began to pressure Mordecai to bow, and he refused. People who do not share the religious convictions of others cannot understand their reasoning, and these men could not understand. They went to Haman and told him what was going on. If the king had commanded it, then would it be enforced? If pressure was exerted from the throne, would Mordecai finally bow?
Let me let you in on something I have found to be very fascinating. We celebrate Esther’s courage later on in the book, but it is Mordecai who sets it all up. Mordecai chose to stand for his God, literally. He chose to obey God’s command to never worship a false god, to never worship an idol, no matter how much pressure was exerted, and because of his stand for God the rest of Esther 3 tells us how Haman passed a law allowing him to murder every Jew in the kingdom. Haman may have been the object of much praise and adoration, but it was Mordecai who had been chosen for greatness.
Did you know that you too were created for greatness? Created with a battle to fight? Created with great purpose that involves and yet transcends even your home and family? God has created you for something much bigger than you, a battle into which He has been calling you to take up arms and fight to the death. I asked you last week whether you have what it takes – and here’s the thing – you do! The Spirit of God who is holy and righteous and just, who is bold and daring and courageous is the Spirit that lives in you child of God! God has equipped you with everything you need, it’s just that so many never realize it, and many more live in such a state of fear that they never act on it.
Today I am asking you to act on it. Brother Kevin, “Why would I want to take those kinds of risks? You are always talking about the battle, and how we ought to jump in, but my life is fine like it is. Why stir things up?” You know what? Those are good questions. It’s a common feeling. Here’s how some of you can rationalize. Your marriage is not the best, but it’s okay. Your relationships are not what they could be, but they’re okay. Your finances aren’t just right, but you’ve learned to live with it. So you use some foul language on the job; you’ve got to talk that way or you’d stand out. We know there are some things that just aren’t right – abortion, the lottery, divorce – but people don’t really want to hear what we think, so why bother?
Why indeed? Because while we have been sleeping much has been changing – listen to me – not changing “out there,” but “in here,” in our hearts. We say the world is getting worse, but I say you ought to take a closer look at your Bible. The world has always been black with sin. The world is not getting worse, so much as we are getting used to the darkness. You stand in it long enough and your eyes begin to adjust. The change is ever so slow and subtle, but if we are not careful we change all the same.
You have probably heard the illustration of the frog in the kettle. If you took a pot of boiling water and put a frog in it, the frog would immediately jump out – the boiling water is a shock to its system, but if you took the same frog and put it in a pot of cool water, you could turn the stove on and begin heating the water until it was boiling, and the frog would stay in, slowly being cooked to death because it never noticed the ever increasing change in temperature. God’s people are just like that frog. When we are confronted with something that is an affront to our faith, we immediately and rightly reject it, but Satan has done a masterful job of lulling us to sleep by slowly turning up the heat, until we have failed to see what has been going on around us all the while.
Satan has done some of that in your lives. Think about your marriage for a moment. Just because you never fight doesn’t mean your marriage is what God wants. It may mean that you’ve surrendered your hearts and you’re not willing to be courageous enough to fight for a great marriage. Divorce is the easy way out, or giving in, or checking out. Some of you are fighting all the time – do you know what’s wrong? You need to stop shouting, stop manipulating, stop crying, and be courageous enough to love your wife like Jesus would, or to allow your man to lead like God wants him to. That’s courage.
Satan has lulled many a believer into accepting the world’s counterfeit for marriage – we call it living together, and you’d be surprised how many believers have come to accept it as a good alternative. Living together cheapens a wonderful relationship that God created called marriage. It takes courage to stand at the altar. It takes courage to stay together in the kitchen. It takes courage weather the storms. It takes courage, not in the better, but when it’s worse, not when we’re rich, but when we’re poor, not in good health, but when we’re sick and helpless and unable to contribute. That’s courage.
There are two kinds of people in this room today. When Kathy and I go out for steak, we are typical of you all. Some of you are like me. I like my steaks medium-well. When I get it, if it is not right, I’ll eat it anyway and pretend like I like it. I don’t want to risk making the waitress mad, or the cook, or anyone else. The rest of you are like Kathy. If her food isn’t right, she’s going to say something, and woe to you if you don’t make it right! Now those of you who are like me, you know you hate being that way. You know you want to stand up for yourself and get it done right. Listen, it’s time to send your steak back. We like to call ourselves peaceable and gentle and humble when often we are just cowardly.
Do you ever ask your wife how she’s feeling, even though you have no idea what to do with what she might say? It’s time to ask her. Do you ever speak up in a meeting at work or at church when something is wrong? It’s time to speak up. Have you opened up to a good buddy about something you’re going through and spoken honestly about your life? It’s time to open up. I don’t know your battles, but I know that if you’re following the Lord in your life then your life is going to be one battle after the next. Every day you are going to have to choose whether you will stand up for Christ in your life: I’m not talking about theology and church stuff – I’m talking about the normal, everyday, down in the trenches kind of stuff where you live.
God has created you for greatness. In your marriage God wants greatness. In your finances God wants greatness (maybe not riches, but greatness). On your job God expects greatness. In your relationships God wants greatness. In matters of personal morality God wants greatness. The next time you’re in line to play the lottery, you just remember that you weren’t created for that cancer on society – you were created for something better. The next time you’re being a jerk to your wife, remember that you weren’t created for that – God has something better. The next time you’re being a nag you remember there’s a better way. The next time God gives you an opportunity to take a stand for Him in the public arena – you take that stand, because whether the world pats you on the back or not, no matter how much pressure you get to bow, no matter how fierce the opposition from your enemies, you take that stand and know that God is standing with you.
As we continue to study the book of Esther, we’re going to see that Mordecai is eventually rewarded for his courage, and God doesn’t just reward him privately – He does it in such a way that Mordecai’s enemies are publicly shamed and he is publicly lifted up. You may not see the results of your courage immediately, but they will come if you will give them time. There are no quick fixes to some of your problems, particularly the problems you are facing in your homes – but I want to assure you that God will work through you to accomplish His will if you will let Him. The closing verse of Psalm 27 speaks well to what I am saying. David said,
“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
For some of you today, there is a battle being waged in the spiritual realm over your very soul. You feel the battle’s presence as the Holy Spirit speaks gently to you that you need to be saved – you need to give your life to Christ. There is a part of you that may be resisting God’s call, and for whatever reason you have resisted before. Maybe you wanted more time, or you’re afraid of what God might ask you to do. Some people feel like they’ve done too much wrong, or they think they’ve done no wrong at all. Let me tell you today that if you’ve never repented of your sin and trusted Christ to save you, it is a decision you need to make today. You don’t have to know what’s around the next curve – you just need to act on what God is telling you today. Won’t you step out in great courage and follow the Lord’s leading right now?
