For Such a Time as This

Introduction

I want to go back to the first sermon in this series. I told you to imagine yourself in a foreign land, surrounded by a people who were not your own. And while this was all you knew, your parents and grandparents often talked about what it was like when your people were in their own land; the land God promised them.

And yet, up until this point, you’d lived a relatively comfortable existence. Yes, there were challenges (there always are in life), but ultimately, you knew what to expect most of the time.

Then one day, your world is turned upside-down. For reasons you don’t understand, the king of the country you live in had just sent out an edict that your people were to be slaughtered within a year. You don’t know why. But, ever more so, you have no idea what to do. You can’t exactly move, where would you go? You have very little money and the king rules most of the lands you could travel to anyway. How can you fight when the king controls one of the most powerful armies the world had ever known to that point? The horror would, no doubt, be overwhelming!

This is where the average Jewish person would find himself or herself, once Haman had convinced King Xerxes to allow him to destroy the Jewish people.

And yet, in the midst of all of this there is hope. God still has a plan and purpose for His people, as well will see!

In a previous sermon I mentioned that the book of Esther never mentions God once. And yet, this chapter teaches us more about God than many other chapters throughout the Old Testament.

This morning, we will see what this chapter teaches us about God; not just in Esther’s day, but in our day as well.

Body: Esther 4:1-17

Verses 1-3

Esther 4:1–3 ESV

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. 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.

...tore his clothes…put on sackcloth and ashes…cried out with a loud and bitter cry...

…entrance of the king’s gate...

…great mourning among the Jews...

Verse 4

Esther 4:4 ESV

When Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

Esther’s reaction to seeing Mordecai...

Verses 5-8

Esther 4:5–8 (ESV)

Then Esther called for Hay-thak, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Hay-thak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.

Esther cannot go to Mordecai…so she sends Hay-thak...

Mordecai explains what’s going on…

Mordecai challenges Esther to plead to the king on behalf of the Jews...

Verses 9-11

Esther 4:9–11 (ESV)

And Hay-thak went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hay-thak and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”

But, it’s not that easy:

To enter the king’s presence without being summoned could lead to death…why?

There only hope was that the king would extend his golden scepter as a sign of permission...

But, Esther hasn’t been summoned to the king in thirty days...

Verses 12-14

Esther 4:12–14 ESV

And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 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?”

One of the key passages in the entire book...

Mordecai’s challenge:

Don’t think that you will escape this purge if it comes…meaning, if you protect yourself, you will be found out.

If you do nothing, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place. Why would Mordecai say that?

Because Mordecai believed the promises of God to Abraham.

Genesis 17:1–9 ESV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

But your family will suffer if you do nothing.

That includes Mordecai himself.

It could be that you came to this position for this exact moment.

And, in fact, this is the exact reason she was in the position God put her in!

Verses 15-17

Esther 4:15–17 ESV

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.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Esther’s response:

Pray for me!

Fasting and prayer are often linked in the OT.

I will do it, even if it means I will die because of it.

So What?

What does this chapter teach us about God?

God uses people to accomplish His purposes, but He’s not limited by the actions or inaction of people.

“...if you keep silent…relief and deliverance will rise…from another place...”

It is an amazing thing that God uses fallen, often unfaithful, sin-sickened people to fulfill His divine purposes.

And yet, He’s not limited by our actions or our inaction either.

It’s important to hold this in our minds for a couple of reasons:

Our Western world increasingly teaches people that they are the center of their own universe...

For the believer, God is the center of our universe.

God will never need us.

He chooses to love us; to provide for us; to call us to fulfill His purposes…but He will never need us either!

A god who needs anything or anyone is not God.

God using us to fulfill His purposes is a gracious gift, one we should never take for granted...

There are always dire consequences for disobedience or inaction.

“...but you and your father’s house will perish...”

In Esther’s case, both Mordecai and Esther would eventually be killed if she did nothing.

For us, usually the price of disobedience or inaction isn’t death (though it can be). More often, the dire consequence is apathy.

The longer we live in disobedience or inaction to God’s call, the deeper our apathy to the things of the Lord becomes.

When this happens, we will:

Miss out on greater blessings;

Miss out on greater growth opportunities;

Live a bitter existence;

Potentially be the “workers of lawlessness” that Jesus warns against in Matthew 7.

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

God always has a purpose for His people.

…who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

I spoke about God’s sovereignty in our last sermon. This is what God’s sovereign purposes look like.

God had a plan from the get-go to put Esther in the exact right position to fulfill His purposes. Now, her choice is either to act or to not act.

God has a purpose for us as well!

It not like Esther’s circumstances, but they are part of His purpose, none-the-less.

How do I know?

Esther didn’t know until many years into her time as queen…so be faithful and watchful where you are at.

Always seek where God is at work around you and join Him there…

Listen to Christian mentors…do what you can to spend time with them!

Remember our general call: to make disciples, to baptize disciples, and to teach disciples. God’s purposes for you as His church today will have something to do with those.

God’s divine, sovereign purposes are more important than our comfort and feeling of security.

...if I perish, I perish...

We love our comfort and the feeling of security.

To the point that we often feel like comfort and security are the most important things.

And yet, comfort and the feeling of security can be the fast road to apathy...

Comfort and security is not something that believers have been promised, this side of Heaven.

Once we are in Heaven, we will be comfortable and secure for all eternity.

But that time is not here yet.

May have heard the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot and their missionary work to an unreached group of Indians in Ecuador. For those who haven’t, I want you to watch this brief video…((video))

Listen again to Jim’s words: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

That’s not a man who believed comfort and security is more important than God’s purposes.

The rest of the story:

Time magazine ran a cover story about this horrific event. Non-believers wondered why in the world Christians would go there in the first place. But Christians responded very differently. In fact, the deaths of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Eudarion, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCully sparked a fire in the hearts of thousand’s of Christians to go on the mission field to bring the Gospel of Jesus to people all around the world.

Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint would go back to the tribe, reaching many of them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, despite the fact that they had killed Elisabeth’s husband and Rachel’s brother. Why? Because God’s sovereign purposes are more important than our comfort and feeling of security.

What will God call you to? I don’t know. But, I’m going to bet that it’s not to comfort and security!

Yet, remember Jim’s words: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”