For such a time as this - Esther 4:14-16

Scripture reading

Esther 4:14-16 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,  “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

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On my way home from church the last time we joined you we were talking about what my next sermon would be on.

I told the girls that I wasn't quite sure yet.

Suddenly Tianah says quite simply and boldly.

Haman!

I was thinking to myself, how does a seven year old know anything about Haman?

So I questioned her. Are you talking about the guy that gets hung on a gallows?

Yep! She replied.

I sat stunned for about a minute and told her I will pray about it.

I spent a couple of days reading Esther and asking God what He wanted to say.

His reply.

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Have YOU come into God's kingdom for such a time as this?

The book of Esther has a unique place in Scripture.

It takes place when the Jewish nation had become part of the Persian empire.

-- Because of Israels sins God allowed the nation of Israel to be taken over by Babylon.

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1 Chronicles 9:1 So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.

-- King Nebuchadnezzar took Israel captive 108 years before Esther.

-- forty seven years after their captivity by Babylon, the Persian empire took over Babylon

-- You may remember the story about the handwriting on the wall.

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Daniel 5:24-28

“Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed.   And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.   This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;  TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;  PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

-- We find Mordici and Esther a little over 50 years into the captivity of the Persian empire.

-- The Persian empire was pluralistic containing many different nations.

-- Scripture records that there were 127 provinces.

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Esther 1:1  Now in the days of A-hash-vay-rosh, the A-hash-vay-rosh who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,

-- You can only immagine how every captured nation desired to be in power and favored by the King.

-- A side note here is that some of you may be wondering why the Kings name is A-hash-vay-rosh in some translations and Xerxes in other translations. A-hash-vay-rosh is the Hebrew translation while Xerxes is the Greek translation.

-- Although the Persian empire alowed people to practice their beliefs individually and even collectivly to some degree.

-- The culture in Esther's time has become very secular.

-- Not once in the entire book of Esther is the name of God mentioned.

-- We also learn also that Mordecai told Esther to keep her Jewish heritage a secret.

-- Furthermore public displays of faith such as the Passover had fallen out of practice.

-- All indications that the book of Esther is written in a culture when God's people did not apply faith to their daily lives.

-- To add to this secularism in Esther it also seems evident that there was a strong anti-Semitic attitude, a hatred for the Jews.

In the middle of a pluralistic culture, when it can be risky to speak about God and live out your faith.

We find two people that are keeping their heritage a secret

Yet they come to a place where they are willing to take a stand and proclaim publicly who they are

Through their public acknowledgement a series of event occur in which God rescues his people.

We don't have time to talk about the entire book of Esther today but I do want to highlight some critical moments that pertain to our lives today.

-- Mordecai a Jewish man had taken in his young cousin Esther and was raising her.

-- Esther was a beutiful girl not only on the outside but she was growing in beauty on the inside.

-- Through a series of events in the kingdom the King was in search of a new Queen

-- The King gave orders that all beautiful young virgins to be gathered to his harem.

-- Esther was taken into custudy and brought to the palace with the other young women.

-- Through Esther's submissiveness and gentle nature she was found to please the servant of the King.

-- And then when she came before the King she won his favor.

-- The King chose Esther as his Queen.

-- Although the book of Esther does not mention God's name.

-- It is clear from the character of Mordecai and Esther that Mordecai was training Esther in the ways of the Lord.

-- Yet even as he was doing so Mordecai was afraid for Esther if she were to reveal her identity.

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Esther 2:20  Esther had not made known her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him.

Doesn't this sound farmiliar? How many times do we stay silent about who we are? Have we told our children not to tell others about Jesus Christ for fear that they will be persecuted or worse?

How does this affect our children when they grow up?

How do they understand publicly confessing their faith and witnessing?

As the history of Esther continues to unfold.

-- We find out that Mordecai is a servant of the King who sits with other servants at the city gate.

-- One day while Mordecai was sitting at the gate he hears of a plot to kill the King.

-- The character of Mordecai demands he take action for the life of the King and protection of Esther.

-- Mordecai tells Queen Esther of the plot to kill the King.

-- Queen Esther tells the King in the name of Mordecai

-- The plot is investigated and found to be true.

-- The huligans are impaled on a stake for high treason and the affair is recorded in the book of the chronicles.

Lets stop here for a moment

When we find out someone else is in danger do we warn them?

If we have the ability to help do we do it?

Mordecai was risking his life and relationships with those he worked with who wanted to kill the King.

Yet Mordecai stood for what was right and against those who would harm others.

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Have YOU come into God's kingdom for such a time as this?

-- Now we are introduced to the big troublmaker; Haman

-- For an unknown reason the King promotes Haman the Agagite above all other officials.

-- All the King's servants are told to bow down to Haman   -- However Mordecai refused to do so.

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Esther 3:2  And all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage.

There is some discussion over why Mordecai refused to bow and we will talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

However I think Mordecai was a believer and did not want to bow down to anyone other than God.

He was likley convicted by the second commandment.

Yet his confession to the public was that he was a Jew.

Does this sound like something you might say?

"Well I do this because I'm a Christian"

"This is my tradition"

"I have the freedom of religion" when in fact you have been convicted by God's Word that it you should obey Him?

In secular culture the church is often seen taking the easy path and telling others something they might relate to rather than the truth that they are convicted by God.

Well Mordecai's statement that he was a Jew sure did not sound good to Haman.

Haman became enraged that Mordecai refused to bow down to him.

Haman not only wanted to kill Mordecai but wanted to kill all of the Jews.

So Haman manipulated the King telling him that he knew of a people that were not obedient to him and were dangerous to the kingdom.

I want to stop here because there is an interesting backstory about this interaction.

Remember I had mentioned that there is some discusion about why Mordecai refused to bow down.

That is because Mordecai simply said his reason was that he was a Jew.

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One of the thoughts is that Mordecai refused to bow because Haman was an Agagite.

The feud between Israel and the Agagites went back almost a thousand years, when the Jews left Egypt and were attacked by the Amalekites.

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Exodus 17:8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.

Haman was a decendant of Amalek the grandson of Esau.

God had actually pronounced a curse on the family of Amalek when they attacked Israel and the Amelekites were decendants of Easu.

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Exodus 17:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

So Mordecai may remember that God has declared war upon the descendants of Amalek and made this something personal.

However because of the way God used this event and Mordecai I think Mordecai genuenlly wanted to obey God.

In fact Haman eluded to this when he was manipulting the King about what was going on.

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Esther 3:8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not to the king’s profit to tolerate them.

It is hard to know what to believe coming from the mouth of Haman

However it is very likley that the Jews still kept many of the moral commands of God.

For the overwhelming majority of them their obedience was likley more at home than open in public.

It would seem however that Mordecai had more character than the average bear.

It seems likely to me that Mordecai was willing to obey God more openly.

Which is why Haman is sticking it to him with this accusation. Mordecai's character to obey God more openly in his life, likley made him a leader as well as got him into hot water at times.

This time he and his people appear to be in a great deal of trouble.

Lets bring this into our context today. There are laws in our country that are made to destroy other men. They are in place to promote immorality that will end in the destruction of those who obey them.

Many times Christians feel public preasure to compromise their views or even how they act in the public rather than obey God. If Mordecai was convicted by God's law not to bow down to man made idolitry and outright blasphamy. He was right not to bow down and we would be right to join Mordecai and not bow down to man made idols and mans pride.

However if Mordecai did not bow down simply because Haman was an Agagite that was wrong.

Of the things that divide us in our country we also see issues between people from different nations.

We hear it used all the time in politics, so much so that it deafens real issues of hatred.

It becomes like the boy that cryed wolf.

However we do need to speak honestestly about our nations history.

This country does have a history of kidnaping men for forced labor.

Many of the grandsons and greatgrandsons of those slaves are our neighbors.

This kind of slavery was condemned in the Old Testiment and the punishment for it was death.

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Exodus 21:16  “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.

There is a hatred that is often stoked in our country based on the color of a man's skin.

I just want to be clear about this, that kind of behavior has no place in the body of Christ.

God has created man in his image, male and female.

We should treat everyone with that understanding.

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Acts 17:26a  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, ....

Have YOU come into God's kingdom for such a time as this?

Now lets get back to Esther

After Haman manipulated the King into killing the Jews

Haman had letters sent out to all 127 provinces with instuctions to destroy, kill and annihilate the Jews in one day

and plunder their goods.

When Mordecai learned about the new law to kill the Jews.

Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes and went into the city and cried out a loud and bitter cry.

Again Mordecai showing his willingness to publicly display his faith.

Then many Jews began fasting and weeping, many in sackcloth and ashes.

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Esther 4:3 And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Could you imagine the feeling that your government has set a date for your extinction and anyone like you in the future because they see your values as a threat to their rule of authority.

That is exactly what happened to Israel here.

It took a threat of genocide on Israel in order to trigger outward signs of faith and repentance from God's people.

When the church has placed its value in this life, the wake up call for the church is the destruction of this life.

Finally Israel takes to the streets with outward signs of repentance and faith.

Sackcloth and ashes is an outward sign displayed in public of inward distress and humiliation.

As I mentioned before there is no mention of God in Esther and like anything else we see in the book we could conclude that this was simply their tradition or a religious excercie.

However the implication from God's response is that this was genuine repentance turning to God.

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2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

When Esther heard about Mordecai fasting she sent him some cloths.

We see here that Queen Esther not knowing what is going on still wants to cover up the outward expression of faith.

Mordecai tells her the news of what Haman is planning through one of her servants

and that she needs to go before the king and plead with him on behalf of her people.

Esther replied to Mordecai that the king could kill her for going before him without an invitation.

Mordecai replies...

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Esther 4:14-16 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,  “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

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Have YOU come into God's kingdom for such a time as this?

Again it is hard to know what motivated Esther to action.

Was it that she realized that her own life was in danger?

Was it that Mordecai spoke so strongly to her and she had great respect for him?

Was it her compassion for her people?

Or was it something greater?

To obey Mordecai would be to disobey protocol.

It would be to directly go against the law of the land.

She would have to act in faith that God was with her and not cower in fear.

So Queen Esther dresses in her finest cloths and goes to see the king.

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Esther 5:2  And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

Having gained the Kings mercy and favor, Esther asks the King and Haman to join her at a feast that she has prepared.

The King tells Esther after drinking that she can have any request she likes up to half of his kingdom.

Esther asks the King and Haman to join her again for a feast the next night and then she will make her request known.

As we consider the culture in which Esther was raised it was a big step of faith for a young girl to confront the King with Hamans plot.

Esther was not quite ready to do it at this first feast but neither was she ready to call it quits.

God knew exactly what Esther needed for encouragement and it would soon happen.

Doesn't it always seem the case that when God is about to do big, that Satan throws everything he has at you.

Haman left the palace excited that he was so favored by the King and Queen

but when he gets to the kings gate he sees Mordecai in sackcloth and ashes.

Haman considers him the only thing holding him back from total happyness

So Haman has a gallows made seventy five feet high for Mordecai.

That very night the King could not sleep.

God was moving on the heart of the King.

The King had the book of memorable deeds brought in and read to him.

Isn't it interesting that the very thing that caught the Kings attention was how Mordecai had helped save his life.

As the King's heart is stirred to reward Mordecai he summons Haman and asks him what should be done for a man that the King delights in

Haman, thinking it was himself replies.

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Esther 6:7-10 And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set.  And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’”  Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry; take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.”

Consider what God has done here in one day.

Haman the proud and arrogant is going home in morning.

Now Mordecai who sat morning at the Kings gate is exalted as the man whom the King delights in.

Isn't it amazing how God works? When we are walking in faith, he knows exactly what we need.

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

How amazing is that? For those trusting in the Messiah, God goes before us, preparing our way to do the things he has for us to do before we even do them.

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So the answer to the question Have YOU come into God's kingdom for such a time as this?

Is Yes!

The time for Esthers second feast is at hand.

Haman has just been humiliated and has returned home in shame.

While Haman was talking with this friends and family about what had happend he is summoned for Esthers second feast.

Once again at the end of the feast the King asks Esther "What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even up to half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled."

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Esther 7:3-4 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”

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The King becomes visibly upset and says

Esther 7:5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”

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Queen Esther replys with equal enthusiasm.

Esther 7:6  And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

There is not more more to say other than the Agagites were destroyed and the Jews were saved.

The King hung Haman on the gallows Haman had prepared for Mordecai.

The King gave to Esther the house of Haman.

The King put Mordecai in charge of making a law so that the Jews could defend themselves from the oncoming attack.

and on the day that the enemies of the Jews attacked them hoping to destroy them, the Jews destroyed their enemies.

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Esther is a history during a culture similar to our own,

When God's people walk in faith. God does move the mountains.

Have YOU come into God's kingdom for such a time as this?