9.14.25 Esther
In military training the teaching technique, originally attributed to Aristotle was often used:
- Tell them what you are going to tell them.
- Tell them.
- Tell them what you told them.
This planned redundancy, depending on the content and the presenter…can be tedious.
But it can also be effective.
Scripture does this, we have seen it throughout the Old Testament.
Here’s what’s coming.
What happened.
Why that happened.
In our reading we will soon be in the NT… we will see this played out in the life of Jesus.
The OT pointed to the coming Messiah…then the Messiah came…then, remember…we told you he was coming.
At the beginning of the year, we talked about a key verse to keep in mind this year.
“Watch your life and doctrine closely.” 1 Tim. 4:16
-Beliefs and behaviors must both align with the truth of God.
-What you believe to be true will show up in how you live your life.
I also gave a heads up, the very first week…to pay attention to the three levels of God’s work in the world…and we have seen this unfold as we have read…so as we wrap up the Old Testament…I want to highlight this again…here is what we have seen…
The Bible describes God’s work
-The Nations, all of human history
-A nation, Israel
-Individual People: Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Esther
All of this is to reveal Christ, the Savior of the world.
Today we are in the book of Esther:
This little book clearly demonstrates these three levels of God’s activity.
Nations, Israel, Individuals
We are going to see how these three levels intersect by looking at Macro and Micro events in the story.
Nations and individuals.
-Esther, Mordecai: Are the protagonists (heroes, if you will)
-Haman: Is the antagonist (villain)
God, though he is not mentioned by name in the book…is the point of the story, he is always the main character in the Bible and in human history.
His sovereignty over human history is seen in his providence in the lives of individuals.
Providence that is everywhere, but it is often invisible to those who don’t have eyes to see it.
What is the difference between the sovereignty of God and God’s providence?
In simple terms:
Sovereignty: Is the principle of God’s control
Providence: Is the practice of God’s control
God is sovereign (he is all powerful and all wise) and he acts in providential ways to bring about his own purposes.
Last week Trace told me that all the Southern Baptist College ministries in our state are seeing their largest numbers ever.
KSU, 1000 students
Pitt State, 100 students (it was restarted from scratch 13 months ago)
Ours, 200 students
What are the factors? Lots of them, God himself only knows.
One factor, Trace said, is that the incoming Freshman were 8th graders in 2020…Covid.
Many families stopped attending church that year and some never went back.
Now, God is at work in the hearts of some of these students, drawing then back.
Perhaps they would be dropping out of church as they go to college, instead, thanks partly to Covid, they are showing up at key time.
Two large guys walked into the Pitt state Challenge meeting this fall and stood at the back…not taking a seat.
-David Irons, the director, asked them “What are you guys looking for?”
Without a smile the reply was, “Jesus”
-There were not kidding, either.
Covid was tragic, I lost people dear to me to the virus…but it was not outside the scope of God’s sovereignty
It is something that he continues to use, providentially, today on campuses drawing students to himself.
In the story of Esther, we will see God act in providential ways…ways that seem to be “lucky” or “unlucky” depending on whether you are Esther or Haman.
But we know that luck has nothing to do with it…God is at work in the story.
God’s sovereignty does not diminish human responsibility it empowers it, encourages it.
Why live a sacrificially faithful life (Like Esther and Mordecai) if all of life is just a cosmic coin toss, if it’s all left to fate?
Science, which is often placed in opposition to faith in a sovereign God was founded on a belief in a sovereign God.
Specifically, since the universe is ordered cause and effect (not random chance) …we can come up with scientific principles and applications.
Einstein’s famous quote: “God doesn’t play dice with the Universe.” Gets at this idea.
If you want to read a good book about this, check out John Lennox, “God’s undertaker: Has Science buried God?”
Like science is built on a universe that is ordered and not random…our choices to live with faith and faithfulness are also built on a universe that is under God’s sovereign control…and our individual lives are lived out under his providential care.
Now, this is very complex for us to think about (it’s not complex for God, nothing is).
It is complex for us, because there are billions of us…we are one of many.
He is utterly unique…there is only one of him.
So, while it is true that he cares for each of us individually, his plan is not about us individually…it is about his Glory.
Jesus said that not a single sparrow falls without him knowing it.
So yes, he cares deeply for us, but no, it is not about us.
I’m going to give an overview of the book’s storyline, then we will look at some key Scriptures and then we will make personal application
If you are reading with us through the Bible, you will be in Esther part of this week and part of the next.
If you are not reading along, please read the book…it is super interesting in every way.
Esther gives the historical reason for the Jewish celebration of Purim.
It’s an annual one-day event that marks the salvation of the Jewish people during the time of the exile.
Esther is a unique Old Testament book most notably for the fact that it is the only one that does not mention God by name.
It is also one of two books named for a woman, the other being the book of Ruth.
We didn’t use Ruth for a sermon this year because I preached a sermon on that book in 2020…it was a Covid sermon.
It is also one of two books, along with Daniel, where the storyline takes place completely outside the land of Israel.
Though Esther does not mention God directly, God’s presence is everywhere in the book.
The story takes place in Persia (Iran) where the Jews are a persecuted minority and so it gives special insight into the difficult struggle to be faithful when there is religious persecution.
Aaron spoke to this last week from Daniel.
It also gives us courage to see God’s sovereign hand at work using the ordinary, sacrificial choices of his people to bring about his larger purposes.
Mordecai and Esther, as I said, are the human protagonists of the storyline.
Their family had been taken captive by the Babylonians a century earlier and it had not been one of those returned to the promised land.
Mordecai was raising his young cousin Hadassah, known by her Persian name, Esther.
Esther’s selection above all the other beautiful women in the land, and her guardian’s uncovering of a plot against the king are all building the storyline early on.
The antagonist, as I said, in the story is arrogant Haman.
His success goes to his head, and he demands that all bow before him.
When Mordecai, a faithful Jewish man, will not bow, Haman’s hatred becomes so great that he seeks to wipe out the entire Jewish race.
He talks the King into making an unbreakable edict that would allow a pogrom (poh grum) (an organized massacre of an ethnic group)
The Persian empire was so large that the king’s edict would have opened the door for a holocaust…potentially ending the Jewish race.
Lots are cast (like throwing dice) to select a day to destroy the Jews.
These items are called “pur” or in their plural form, “Purim.”
The date when the lots were cast just “happens” to be the very time of the Passover when God delivered his people from Egypt.
So, the narrative asks, “will God save his people again?”
The date selected to destroy the people, becomes a lasting day of celebration of deliverance by God.
The celebration is named after a toss of the dice (Purim)…but what is celebrated is God’s intervention…his providential care.
The tension builds as Esther understands that her intervention on behalf of her people could cost her life.
She struggles, who wouldn’t, but ultimately she declares, “If I perish, I perish.”
This is not fatalistic resignation, courageous faith in action.
It’s not an easy decision…she’s a real person…but she decides none the less, to put her own life at risk for others.
Strange coincidences collide in this amazing story.
I say coincidence tongue in cheek, because we the readers know better.
One night the King couldn’t sleep, and he decided to read the royal records, perhaps he knew they were tedious enough to put him to sleep.
He happened to read of the heroism of Mordecai, who had uncovered the planned coup…and realized that he had never rewarded him.
Just as he is reading this journal entry, Haman happens to come to ask for permission to kill Mordecai.
The King says, “Haman, perfect timing.”
“If you were me, how would you go about rewarding someone you highly regarded?”
Haman, ever the fool, believing the king is talking about him, Thinks… “Ah shucks, you shouldn’t have…but, since you are asking…”
Haman gives his dream list of how he would like to be honored, thinking the King will do this for him.
To his horror and dismay…the King says, “Good plan, go make that happen for Mordecai.”
Haman knows that he is toast at this point…but he acts even more foolishly and is killed on the gallows he himself erected.
The enemies of the Jewish people had hoped to overpower them, but Scripture says, just the opposite occurred.
All these circumstances fall into place, in a series of remarkably lucky events for the Jewish people.
But of course, it is no luck or coincidence it is all God’s providence.
God’s providence is his active governance and direction of the universe and all events within it, ensuring they align with his divine plan and purposes.
God’s sovereignty refers to His inherent right and power to do all that He pleases, his providence is the practical outworking of that sovereignty.
The threat to Israel’s existence, the end of the family line that would lead to Jesus……had been thwarted by the work of God through a forgotten act of bravery, a king with insomnia, and a woman’s physical beauty and courage.
All these apparent fortuitous circumstances were actually God’s providential actions to accomplish his sovereign will.
We should marvel at God’s ability to orchestrate all this…we could stop and worship right now…but we will press on.
Let’s look at the three main human characters one at a time.
Worst first. Haman.
Haman was a descendent of the Amalekites, the ancient enemies of the Jewish people.
King Saul had failed to obey God and to destroy them and it led to the loss of his kingdom and now, in Esther’s time, the threat of destruction of the Jewish people.
Haman rose up in the ranks and now was essentially the Prime Minister of Persia.
He reveled in the fact that all the other officials had to bow down and pay him homage.
He was enraged that a single Jewish man, Mordecai would not bow to him.
Mordecai sounds like Daniel…same kind of guy.
Look in your Bible at Esther chapter 5, verse 9.
This is a good biographical sketch of Haman…we can see who he was.
Esther had invited him to a royal banquet.
He was being set up, but pride makes you stupid…it makes you miss key things…there is no situation awareness when you are so self-focused.
Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. 10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and his wife, 11 Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. 12 “And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. 13 But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” 14 His wife and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built.
Esther 5
Imagine the level of pride, insecurity and folly in this man’s heart.
Everyone is bowing to him and because one man won’t…he has no satisfaction.
Has much is enough for the sinful human heart…a little more.
It is never satisfied unless it finds satisfaction in God alone…Haman is far too foolish for that.
His response…was not just to build a gallows, but to build one seven and half stories high.
Such a fool…he wants everyone to see Mordecai hang.
He is a personification of the enemies of God’s people through the Old Testament…and in history…Nero, Stalin, Mao, Hitler…they all build their own gallows…and God hangs them on it.
Haman, fixated on his own pride and image…will be hung 75 feet in the air on his own gallows..all will be able to see his shameful death.
Mordecai and Esther I will highlight by backing up and reading chapter 4
In chapter 5, Haman wanted to kill Mordecai in a very public way.
In chapter 3 he hatched his plan to wipe out the Jews…now in chapter 4 we read of Mordecai and Esther’s response to this existential threat to their people.
When Mordecai learned all that had occurred, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly. 2 He went only as far as the King’s Gate, since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate. 3 There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict reached. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4 Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them. 5 Esther summoned one of the king’s eunuchs who attended her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why. 6 So he went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened as well as the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews.
8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree ordering their destruction, so that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people. 9 He came and repeated Mordecai’s response to Esther.
10 Esther commanded him to tell Mordecai, 11 “All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard and who has not been summoned—the death penalty—unless the king extends the gold scepter, allowing that person to live. I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the last thirty days.” 12 Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.
13 Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. 14 If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
15 Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.”
So Esther went before the King.
Her life was preserved, and she found favor with him…the result was that her people throughout the world were saved.
What stands out to me about Mordecai is that he acted with wisdom and faith.
-He knew the strategic center of gravity for saving his people was the king’s heart, and he knew that Esther was the only hope, humanely speaking to get to him.
“Who knows” he asked, “perhaps you have come to your position for such a time as this?”
He isn’t trying to read tea leaves…guessing as to what God is doing in these circumstances…he is asking sincerely…”Is this God’s providence in putting you in this position?”
His faith is revealed not just in his perspective but in his personal practices.
The tearing of his clothes and wearing of sackcloth was tied to fervent prayer…he was desperately turning to God.
Sackcloth was coarse, super uncomfortable cloth made from goats’ hair…it would be hot, itchy, smelly…miserable.
I can’t stand a tag in my shirt…I can’ imagine wear sackcloth.
This was not merely a religious show, not trying to be tough…this was him showing God…from the heart…that he was not playing at this prayer…he was dying to his own comfort, he was serious.
It was a cry of “please help us!” “We are miserable, lost without you.”
Esther acted with courage and faith.
-She knew to go before the king uninvited was a potential death sentence.
Imagine her over life situation, her parents had died.
She had been raised by her legal guardian.
She had been taken into the king’s harem…this was no honor for a Jewish woman.
Maybe she had a young Jewish man she had loved, we don’t know…but that dream was taken from her.
Now, she hadn’t even seen the king for a month…and she was to go before him without an invitation…terrifying.
-She said, “I’ll go…if I die, I die.”
Again, this is not a fatalistic resignation…but courageous faith.
The faith was revealed in both her action and attitude.
She said to Mordecai…Get everyone you can to fast for three days, I’ll do the same.
-This was not merely just skipping meals; this too was about a desperate heart before God.
“God we need you, more than we need food…more than anything else…we need you.”
You know how it went from there, now let’s take a Macro and Micro look at the story.
Macro, big picture view:
-God is sovereign over the nations…the prophets predicated the rise and fall of Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, then Rome.
-God is protecting his people, Israel through it all. (correcting them, but protecting them)
-He is keeping his covenant promise that he made so many years before this.
-God is preserving the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah…the point of all it.
Micro, small picture view:
-Mordecai showed character and courage to forestall a plot against the king
-Mordecai refused to bow to Haman
-Mordecai raised his cousin when her parents died
-Esther listened to her guardian.
-Esther earned the king’s respect
-Esther put her life on the line
*Profound, courageous human choices…God is sovereign, and we are responsible to make faithful choices.
He is sovereignty and in his mighty wisdom and power…he uses our choices for his larger purposes.
God’s providence
-Esthers beauty, this was purely God’s choice in her life…not random genetics and not any human decision.
-Mordecai “happens” to be hanging out when he hears of the assignation plot against the king…not blind luck, God’s providence at play.
-The king can’t sleep and decides to read the annals…too many royal cheeseburgers keeping him awake?
No! It was God’s providence.
It is so interesting that God is not mentioned by name anywhere in the book and yet God is providentially, everywhere in the story.
I often hear or read of people saying something like, “Everything happens for a reason.”
Technically this is true…but most often, it’s not true like people think it is.
It is often said by people who don’t believe in a personal, sovereign God, who acts in the world to accomplish his purposes.
This is almost always vague, non-specific and self-serving.
People attribute this cosmic purpose to the universe, or chance or karma…impersonal forces not a personal God.
What reasons would an impersonal force have anyway?
Impersonal is irrational (without reasons)
These reasons, that all things are supposed to work out for… are things that I ultimately will approve of…that favor me, that are about me.
In the end, everything will turn out for the best.
How do you know this? Where did you get this from? Where is it written?
I just feel it to be true. I want it to be true. I need it be true.
This is often merely superstition or wishful thinking…putting a positive spin on what happens…because we can’t bear the thought of a universe without purpose or direction…more specifically, a life without meaning.
When people make up this kind personal meology…it fails them at the worst possible time.
We cannot be held up by our own wishful thinking when we are truly at the end of self.
We must hold several things in proper biblical tension, balance.
1. God is completely sovereign, and I am completely responsible.
His control over everything does not negate my need to make faithful and faith-filled decisions.
Do not try to do the math on this…it is true.
No one knows what energy is, though it is (we think) what everything(space) is made of.
We can measure it and use it, but we don’t know what it is.
No one knows time is, we can measure it, but we don’t know what it is.
So, if anyone accuses you of being irrational because you cannot fully explain how God can be sovereign, and your choices can still matter…
…ask them how it is that anyone could possibly explain the God who made time and space when they cannot explain the time and space that he has made.
Is not the maker more complex than the thing he has made?
It works…we live, right now, in time and space…without fully explaining how it works.
We live in God’s sovereignty, and we can and must make faithful (right) choices and faith filled (courageous) choices.
It works because it is real.
The second tension, in line with the first.
- God loves me deeply, cares about me personally…but it is never about me, it is always about his glory.
If we let go of one side, that God cares for me…then we are merely cogs in his machine.
Intimate providence falls to cold sovereignty.
If we let go of the other side, then we become delusional and we will be ultimate disillusioned…when life proves to not about us at all.
When his divine sovereignty falls to our ideas of self-serving providence…theology becomes meology.
We will be disappointed at best…destroyed at worst.
We say, “If I perish I perish” and we mean “I better not perish…I’m doing the right here…God, now you better do the right thing.”
There are a lot more people in history who died in the lion’s den, than were saved from it.
God got glory in every case.
*In Hebrews 11, the list of people who had faith in God…some were saved in miraculous fashion, some died in miraculous faith.
*Do not lose balance:
-God is involved in the details of your life…ask him for what you want.
-He is not far off and uncaring
-God’s glory is the point of your life…trust him for what he gives.
-His life is not for you, your life is for him
We must from a confident position of being loved by a Sovereign God…whose purposes cannot be stopped and whose glory will be revealed…live our lives with courage and faith.
We are not slaves of random chance…God providentially cares for his kids.
Faith:
“Who knows that you are in this position for such a time as this.”
We are not to slaves of our own selfishness…God’s glory is our greatest good.
Faithfulness:
“If I perish, I perish.”
“And God, help me to actually mean that…even if I perish.”
*ONE FINAL THING…WHY DIDN’T I ADDRESS ALL THIS IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD AROUND US.
*I DID, EVERYTHING I SAID TODAY DIRECTLY RELATES TO ALL YOU HEARD IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK
I WILL…BUT ITS BEST NOT TO RUSH TO THE MIC…GIVE PERSPECTIVE SOME TIME.
*Next week we will be back in Esther and look at some different applications of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility in a world that appears to have gone nuts.
*Don’t you think Mordecai and all the Jewish people felt that way when they heard of the edict that was a government sponsored, and government funded…eradication of their race?
I re-read my sermon this week from the Sunday after Sept 11, 2001…I wanted to remember what I was thinking back then…it’s not much different than what I think today.
The news has changed; but the Bible hasn’t.
After I had a conversation and prayer with family that morning…I spent the rest of the day…on base in uniform, in a room full of B1 pilots, ready, as far as they knew, to be sent to war…we had no idea what was going to happen next.
Why was a chaplain there? I wasn’t going to get into a bomber.
Because our commander was a Christian…and he wanted me there, with a cross sewn on my uniform over my heart…to communicate perspective where perspective was hard to find.
You and I need to walk around with the cross in our hearts and offer perspective where perspective is skewed and broken and missing altogether.
*Every week, as we engage the eternal word of God we are learning to live faithfully in the times we live in.
The news is always changing…the truth never is.
Don’t be blown around by news…be led by the truth.