You Can Make A Difference
Esther 4:1-4:17
In our world, it’s easy to underestimate the significance of one. What can I as one individual contribute to the overwhelming needs of our world, our church, etc.?
But the truth is, No one else can do the things that God has called and gifted you to do.
History is full of accounts of single individuals who have made a difference.
1. Think of battles that have turned on the axis of
one heroic person.
2. Think of the scientists, the inventors, the
explorers, and the technological experts that have
invented, found,and contributed
3. Think of the courageous preachers who have stood
alone in the gap and made a difference.
4. The face of the church was changed by significant
individuals—men like Augustine, Tyndale, Luther,
Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody, to name only a few.
Another angle, think of the difference one vote can make.
• In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be
executed;
• In 1776, one vote gave America the English language
instead of German;
• In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the union;
• In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson
from impeachment.
• In 1923, one vote gave Adolph Hitler control of the
Nazi party
From Genesis to Revelation, you can see God’s hand on individuals who thought and said and did what was right—regardless—.
Not many stories about great crusades and city-wide
revivals and mass meetings in the Word of God. More
often, I find individual men and women who made a
difference.
And only one woman named Esther decided it was worth
the risk to break with protocol and speak her mind,
and a nation was preserved.
I. The Jews have been threatened with extermination.
A. Wicked Haman has influenced King Ahasuerus or
Zurk-sez to order the Jews killed Because
Mordecai wouldn’t bow to him
1. What terror this struck in their hearts, what
fear in their minds!
2. “How can we continue?” “How can we fight this?”
3. This is the law of the Medes and the Persians.
It was final. Nobody could change this plan,
certainly no Jew.
4. It seemed like a hopeless situation.
God was not sleeping. He determined one person would make the difference. On this occasion, her name is Esther.
verse 1.When Mordecai found out about everything that
had been done, he tore his clothes and put on
sackcloth and ashes. He went into the middle
of the city and cried loudly and bitterly.
ILLUSTRATION:
When in bankruptcy or living with a dread disease or having buried a family member or having gone through some terrible disaster in one’s city, people in Esther’s day would commonly wear loose-fitting, dark-colored coarse garments made of goat’s hair, which hung on them like a large gunnysack. On top of that, they would take ashes from the remains of a fire and throw them on themselves so they would be covered with them and appear ghastly and unclean. Sometimes they would even sit in the midst of a cold ash heap and throw the ashes on themselves as a vivid expression of their grief.
B. Mordecai holds nothing back. His grief knows no
bounds. In sackcloth and ashes he stumbles toward
the gate of the palace.
v-2. He even went right up to the king’s gate.
(No one could enter it wearing sackcloth.)
1. Susa, the capital, was not the only place where
such Demonstrations of mourning were taking
place. t’s a picture of widespread sorrow and
loud mourning.
Verse 3 In every province touched by the king’s
command and decree, the Jews went into
mourning, fasting, weeping, and wailing.
Many put on sackcloth and ashes.
2. Hardship forces us to grab hands with one pull
up closer together.
Verse 4. Esther’s servants and eunuchs came and
informed her ëabout Mordecaiû. The queen was
stunned. She sent clothing for Mordecai to
put on in place of his sackcloth, but he
refused to accept it.
B. Esther cannot speak to Mordecai directly, so she
sends him clothing to replace his sackcloth, as a
way of offering comfort to him for whatever has
happened.
1. But Mordecai refused the clothing.
2. Esther then sends one of the king’s servants
to find out the truth from Mordecai.
Vv 5-8 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs appointed to serve her. She commanded him to go to Mordecai and find out what was going on and why.6So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the king’s gate. 7Mordecai informed him about everything that had happened to him. He told him the exact amount of silver that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasury to destroy the Jews. 8He also gave him a copy of the decree that was issued in Susa. The decree gave permission to exterminate the Jews. Hathach was supposed to show it to Esther to inform and command her to go to the king, beg him for mercy, and appeal to him for her people.
3. Mordecai not only informs Esther, through her
servant, of all that has happened he also
sends along official evidence—a copy of the
text of the edict.
C. Mordecai has asked her “to go in to the king and
beg for Mercy and appeal to him for her.
1.He knows if she acts on this it could
be “curtains” for her.
2. At present, no one in the palace knows she is
Jewish.
3. If she believes this information and acts on
it, as Mordecai is requesting, she is risking
everything, so this is no time for rumor.
4. Doing what God wants you to do will usually
involve taking a risk. You may have to loose
or give something up to do God’s will, or at
least be willing to loose it or give it up.
II. THE GREAT DELEMMA
A. If Esther obeyed Mordecai, she stood to risk of
loosing everything, including her life.
1. Although the king was her husband, she
couldn’t just scroll into his office and
casually unload what was on her mind. Things
didn’t work like that in ancient Persia.
2. He had to send for her.
3. And at that time, he hadn’t sent for her for a
month.
4. If she went to him without being summoned, he
could have her put to death.
5. On top of all that, she was Jewish. Who knows
how that Gentile monarch would respond when he
found that out?
B.It was a huge dilemma. But Mordecai knew Esther.
1. He had reared her. He had trained her.
2. He knew how far he could push.
3. Most of all, he knew her character. He knew the
stuff of which she was made.
C. This goes down in history as one of those “turning
point speeches.” Mordecai says,
VV 13-14 “First of all, if you do nothing, don’t think you will escape death. Being a Jew, you will die like the rest of us. And second, even if we die, God is not limited to you or me, nor will He allow His people to perish. He will use someone to save our nation. And then, third, how great it would be if He soverignly chose to use you. Could it be that this explains why you were chosen to be queen, my dear Esther—for such a time as this—for this very moment?”
1. Mordecai is saying to Esther, “this is your
hour. Stand. Speak! Die! But whatever you do,
Don’t be silent.”
2. Her words reveal enormous faith mixed with
courage:
read verse 16.
16“Assemble all the Jews in Susa. Fast for me: Do not eat or drink at all for three entire days. My servants and I will also fast. After that, I will go to the king, even if it is against a royal decree. If I die, I die.”
C. She’s had only a few moments to consider what
Mordecai had told her, a brief slice of time to
weigh his counsel.
1. She is determined to make a difference, no
matter what the consequences to her
personally: “If I perish, I perish.
2. She has changed form fear to abandonment and
faith, from concern for her own safety to
concern for her people’s survival.
3.She has reached her own personal hour of
decision and has not been found wanting.
D. David was asked to take some food and supplies to
his brothers fighting the Philistines at the
valley of Elah?
1.Got there, found the giant Goliath roaming
the battlefield, taunting and blaspheming the
God of Israel.
2.When he learns what is going on, he says, “Let’s
do something about it.”
3. And his older brother, Eliab, laughs and says
sarcastic stuff like, “Oh, so you’re going to
be the big-time hero, huh? How are all those
little woollies doing while you’re out here on
the battlefield with us?”
Remember young David’s answer? “Is there not a cause” (1 Samuel 17:29)? David implies, if not in words at least in his actions, “What are you doing sitting around in your tents with your knees knocking? There is a giant out there who hates the cause of the living God! What are you men doing standing here? Our God will fight for me.
III. IF I DIE, I DIE!!
A. Esther realized there was an enemy out there, not
only Of her people, but more importantly, of the
living God.
1. It is easy to underestimate the value of you:
your vote, your convictions, your determination
to say, “I stand against this.”
2. What does it matter if I get involved or not?
When we have been called “for such a time as
this,” how tragic if we are not there to stand
in that hour.
B. The King is pleased when Esther Approaches.
5:3 3Then the king asked her, “What do you wish,
Queen Eshter? What is your request? I will give
it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!”
1.Eshter is very wise with her request
Would the King and Haman come to a Banquet—
They come –the kings again asks, What is your
request?
2. Her request is to come to another Banquet she
will host the next day.
C. Haman Rages Against Mordecai
1.Going home Haman see Mordecai at king’s gate
doesn’t bow-Infuriated—
2. Wifge suggests—Build gallows—75’ tall-to have
3. Mordecai hanged that day on after the banquet
4. Mordecai has saved the kings life—King asks
haman how to honor(Haman thinks it’s him) and
he give way.
5.Haman discovers that Mordecai is to be honored
6. Plot is revealed and Haman is hanged on own
gallows
D. DOES ONE PERSON MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
1. Esthter Did
2. Jesus Did—Told Father, I will Go and he did
and he made the difference—Between Living and
Dying— Between Heaven and Hell
