From Fasting to Feasting
(Esther 6:1-10:3)
1. The expression, "bad hair day" has become popular within the last 10 years.
Dear Word Detective: I mentioned to a co-worker that another co-worker had been really grouchy and snapped at me over some little matter, and the first co-worker replied that maybe the other person was just "having a bad hair day." I made a fool of myself by replying that she had looked just fine to me! … I have heard the phrase often since then, but where did it come from? -- Sandy Curtis.
Well, live and learn, and welcome to the world of bad hair days. It does seem that your co-worker was using the term figuratively to mean that the person was simply having a difficult day, but literal "bad hair days" when your hair misbehaves are no fun either, and may actually have serious psychological effects on the victim. A study conducted in 2000 at Yale University found that a day when a person’s hair asserts itself in a lumpy, frumpy, flippy, flat or frizzy fashion can cause debilitating feelings of low self-esteem and vulnerability. Surprisingly, researchers found that men are more likely than women to be thrown for a loop by bad hair. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the study was underwritten by a shampoo company.
Tracing the exact origin of "bad hair day" hasn’t been easy. William Safire, in a column on this topic in 1993, traced the phrase to a 1991 comment by comedian Gary Shandling (known for asking "Is my hair all right?" as part of his stand-up routine). In 1995, TV personality Jane Pauley claimed on a number of occasions to have coined the phrase sometime back in the 1970s.
But research by American Dialect Society … uncovered the earliest verified use of the phrase in print, a 1988 column by Susan Swartz in the Houston Chronicle. Significantly, Swartz herself doesn’t claim to have invented "bad hair day" herself, and suspects she may have picked it up from nearby teen-aged girls. But since she is apparently the first one to use the phrase in a published work, Susan Swartz is credited in the Oxford English Dictionary for bringing us "bad hair day."
2. Those of us who are balding beg for an "any kind of hair day." (source: www.word-detective.com/072104.html)
3. But today we are going to see a man go from sitting on top of the world to fall all the way down and then some…the ultimate bad hair day for a man named Haman.
Main Idea: God sometimes does the absurd by turning "sure things" completely around.
I. Haman and MORDECAI Switch Destinies (6:1-8:2)
A. Act 7: The Turning Point – Haman Made to HONOR Mordecai (6:1-14)
1. When Insomonia changed a nation!
2. Had servants read the chronicles of the kingdom
3. Read about Mordecai saving king from assassination, realized not rewarded
--Haman was an early bird
--probably there to ask the king permission to execute Mordecai
4. Asked Haman how to honor a man; supposed it was himself…
--royal apparel, kings crown, king’s horse, paraded led by high official
5. After this, Haman and his wife knew they were goners…
--look at chapter 6, vs. 12-14
B. Act 8: Esther’s Second Banquet, Haman’s LAST (7:1-10)
1. King Xexes says, What is your request?"
2. My lives and the lives of my people are sold for destruction
3. Who is the evildoer? …this vile Haman
4. King leaves to the garden to cool off
5. Haman throws self on Queen Esther who is on her couch, begging for mercy
6. King thinks he is trying to molest her
7. Servants offer information that Haman had planned to hang the man who saved the King’s life, namely, Mordecai; the king orders Haman to be hanged on that same gallows
C. Act 9: Mordecai and Esther Given Haman’s WEALTH (8:1-2)
King gives Esther the land, Esther reveals how Mordecai was a relative, the king gives Mordecai Haman’s signet ring…
II. The Jews Are DELIVERED (8:3-9:10)
A. Act 10: The King Adds Another LAW (8:3-17)
1. He cannot revoke the first law
2. But he asks Esther and Mordecai to write another law
3. Note the law is 8:11
4. Note the result in 8:15-17
B. Act 11: The Jews Not Only SURVIVE, But Also Kill Enemies (9:1:10)
C. Act 12: Extending the KILLING (9:11-19)
--all together, 75,000 enemies of the Jews are killed
III. The Fasting TURNS to Feasting (9:20-10:13)
A. Act 13: The Fest of PURIM Introduced (9:20-9:32)
An annual festival celebrated in March by Jews to this day
Everybody hisses and shakes rattlers every time Haman appears
Re-enact the story of Esther
The names Esther and Mordecai are still popular first names for Jews today
B. Postscript: Mordecai Becomes the New Grand VIZIER
IV. God Still Works in Most IRREGULAR Ways
1. I Samuel 2:8 reads, "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; upon them he has set the world."
[note: the foundations of the world refer to the rulers of society and governments]
2. In Revelation 7:13ff, we read of those martyred for their faith in Jesus during the Tribulation:
3Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?"
14I answered, "Sir, you know."
And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.17For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
3. Who would have thought that Haman would be executed and Mordecai exalted?
4. Our lives are not usually quite so dramatic as Mordecais, Haman’s, or Esthers. But in a lesser way, we too are involved in a struggle.
5. The issue is not the survival of our race, b
ut the Glory of God.
6. If we do not know Christ, the issue is that of salvation. What shall it profit a man, Jesus asked, if we gain the whole world but lose our own souls?
7. Yet once we come to know Christ, the bigger issue comes into play: glorifying Him in all we do; pleasing Him with the details of life and the priorities of life.
8. Some of us stand boldly like Mordecai; some of us inconvenience ourselves and sacrifice our personal comfort, like Esther. Others of us choose to take the easy way out, to bow to the Mordecais and to not inconvenience ourselves for people who are not part of our own little worlds.
*Esther was not out for just her family, but her people
*Many Christians have not yet learned that fellow born-again believers are OUR people,
and that our church family is sort of an immediate family
*They pick up their views of church life from parents or society, not the Bible
9. We know nothing of missions. We know nothing of the persecuted church. We are not involved in any ministry that inconveniences us, that holds us to a schedule, that requires sacrifice of time or energy. We look at church as a spiritual business where we hire others to do the work and we but support it with our finances. We forget that every believer is to serve, and that we must do our part as part of the body.
Conclusion
1. The lesson of Esther is: Get INVOLVED and you’ll be surprised at what you see God do.
2. Keep to yourself and be a spiritual loser.
