Loyalty to Our King

If you have a Bible with you, Esther 2:19 is where we will be starting tonight and we will read through chapter 3. Tonight and these past two weeks have really done nothing but set up the climax of our story. Esther is not like the book of Jonah where you get to the heart of the story within the first few verses. There is a gradual build up that will reach a climax in chapters 4-7 which we will get to over the next three weeks. In order to feel the true impact of the story, you often need these moments of build up and so that the rest of the story actually makes sense. When it comes to the book of Esther, we need these opening chapters to not only make sense of the story but to see the extent of God’s hand working behind the scenes. You need these moments of build up and explanation in order to make the climax of the story all the more sweeter. Sometimes the greater the build up, the greater the reward. The build up creates a tension that by the time that it is resolved, really makes the story seem all the more greater to the audience. I think of my favorite movie ever made, the movie Jaws. If you’ve seen or heard of Jaws before, you probably know that it is a movie about a giant, man-eating, great white shark. The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes long but did you know that in this movie about a shark, the audience does not get their first true glimpse of the shark until over halfway through the movie? The shark does not appear on screen until the hour and 21 minute mark and after that point, it is only seen in about 4 minutes of screen time. Yet, when people think about Jaws, they always think about that shark. In only 4 minutes of screen time, this fake shark in Jaws has caused more people to stay out of the ocean than practically anything else that I can think of. What made this movie so effective was that the build up to that moment when Bruce the Shark finally shows up behind Chief Brody was done extraordinarily well. Everything that happens prior to that hour and 21 minute mark serves a purpose to the greater narrative even if it was not the climax of the movie. Everything that we see in the first three chapters of Esther is sort of like that. There is this sense of tension over 3 chapters and then boom, chapters 4-7 happen. But to get to the action of 4-7, we have to get through 2-3. That’s not to say that these chapters are boring, as we’ve seen the last few weeks, there is a lot to take in from these chapters. What these chapters have done for us is that they give the answer to the why questions that will come later. Why is Esther queen? Who is Mordecai and why is he important? Why is there this plot against the Jews that we will read about tonight? These why questions and so much more are only answered through knowing what happens in these opening chapters. What I want us to do first is read Esther 2:19-23 and I want you to keep these verses in your mind as we get to chapter 6 in 2 weeks because these verses will be really important. After that we will see what we can through in chapter 3 and some background information on Haman which will be important for us moving forward. Let’s pray and then we will read Esther 2:19-23

Esther 2:19–23 ESV

Now when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 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. In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai. When the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows. And it was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.

The Unfolding Drama (Esther 2:19-23)

Now what is it that I want us to make note of from these verses? The first is that Esther is still not at center stage at this point. She acts but she only acts at Mordecai’s insistence and even when she does come to the king, she gives all the credit to Mordecai. Esther is not the person that I want us to focus on in this section, I want us to look at Mordecai and I want you to see 5 things that happen in these verses that are incredibly important moving forward. The first thing that we see is the plot that begins to develop. We see these two eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, become angry at the king and they start to plan an assassination attempt. We aren’t sure what they are angry about, but whatever it may be, it is something that has pushed them to respond in a dramatic and violent way. We don’t hear about them making any plan other than to kill King Ahasuerus. They don’t take the problem to the king, they don’t seek a political way to remove him from power, like many when they are faced with the decisions of an authoritative, powerful, and influential man that they disagree with, the first thought is assassination. The second thing to note is that Mordecai is somehow able to unravel this plan. Again, we don’t know how he finds out about it. The two eunuchs could have been dumb enough to just talk about it openly but one thing we can know for sure is that God’s providence is still at work. Perhaps by what appears to be total happenstance, Mordecai is able to uncover the plot that would have led to the death of the king. The third thing to note in this is that even though Esther informs the king of the plot, she gives all the credit to Mordecai but she still does not reveal her relationship to him or what people she comes from. The king still has no idea that Esther is of Jewish descent. The fourth thing is that when the king investigates the plot and finds it to be true, both men are hanged on the gallows. Some translations refer to a wooden beam that enemies of the king and criminals of the state would be impaled on. This was the Persian equivalent of what would eventually be a Roman crucifixion and this will come into play again in this book. The last thing that is worth noting is how the events that took place are written down in a book but nothing after that seems to happen. Mordecai saves the life of the king and it is as if it didn’t happen. All I know is that if you found out someone was about to kill me and you saved my life, I would probably at least offer to take you out to eat or something. Knowing me, I’d probably buy ya a book or something. But the king doesn’t do this. Instead, Mordecai is pretty much completely forgotten about but this doesn’t sway Mordecai’s faithfulness and allegiance to the king. Christopher Ash wrote of the report that was written, “There it gathers dust- and yet it ticks away like a time bomb waiting for its moment to explode.” If there is one thing that I want you to take home tonight from this section of Scripture, it is this: Mordecai is a good and righteous man. In his mind, it does not matter if he gets recognition or not for doing the right thing. Recognition or not, Mordecai knows that he needs to love his neighbor. He knows that he needs to honor the king. He knows that he needs to do the right thing regardless of what others may think of him. Mordecai does not turn a blind eye and neither should you. James 4:17 is an excellent reminder for us:

James 4:17 (ESV)

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Mordecai could have very easily said nothing. Mordecai could have very easily thought, “This might be the perfect way to get my people home. If the king is dead, my life might become easier.” But Mordecai acts righteously. You see it is one thing to unintentionally do something bad. It is another thing entirely to intentionally fail to do that which is good. If you are a Christian, that is no excuse for you to not do the right thing. If you see an opportunity to do good, you should probably take it. You don’t get to say, “I have been saved by Christ and now I can ignore everything around me and live however I want.” Thomas Lea said, “Whenever we fail to follow a conscious commitment to Christ, we have omitted a deed of obedience and are involved in sin. Any action in which we reduce or omit obedience becomes sin in God’s sight. Our failures to seek God by prayer, Bible reading, and worship are sins of omission. Our omission of helpful acts of service to other human beings constitutes an act of disobedience. We must be people who confess to God our overt acts of disobedience. We must also ask him to show us those things we have forgotten to do.” Mordecai could have very easily thought that but even if he did, he did not put it into action. He knew the right thing to do and he did it. We could spend hours fleshing this out but I want to get us into chapter 3. Let’s go ahead and read the entire chapter. Esther 3 says:

Esther 3 ESV

After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. 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. Then the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?” And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. 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. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, that they may put it into the king’s treasuries.” So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, “The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.” Then the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.

Haman’s Sinfulness

Now there are a lot of different things that we could look at here but I want us to focus in on three things and we will try to get through them all fairly quickly. The first thing I want us to recognize is why there may be such a tension that exists between Haman and Mordecai. There is a complex history that the author hopes the audience is aware of. It says in verse 1 that Haman is an Agagite. Now I don’t expect you all to know what that means by being an Agagite but an Agagite was a descendent of the Amalekites and these people going as far back as the time of the Exodus, were enemies of God’s people. In Deuteronomy 25:17-19 we read:

Deuteronomy 25:17–19 (ESV)

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

Then later on in 1 Samuel 15, King Saul is given the command to completely destroy the Amalekites but if you remember that story, he doesn’t. Instead he allows people to slip through the cracks and he saves some of the best of the bounty for himself. For centuries, the Amalekites, or the Agagites, have hated God’s people so Haman, knowing of this tension, is already hating the Jewish people. Haman does not just hate Mordecai, he hates the entire Jewish race. Mordecai just happens to be the placeholder for Haman’s fury. But the connection goes deeper than that of just Haman and Mordecai happening to be Jewish. Back in Esther 2:5, we see that Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin. This is the same tribe that Saul was from and beyond even that, both Mordecai’s father and Saul’s father have the same exact name. To Haman, Mordecai is a walking reminder of what Saul did to his people and that is a large reason as to why such a tension exists here. That’s the first thing that I want you to keep in mind because that is a key element for this story going forward. The second thing I want to touch on is how sin, pride, and power can so easily blind us to what is really going on. In these opening verses of chapter 3, we see that Haman is brought up to the second highest level of power in the entire kingdom. It is as if he is Ahasuerus’ prime minister. It is like the role that Joseph had with Pharoah back in the book of Genesis. Power can do a lot of good and it can do a lot of bad depending on the hands and the heart that it finds itself in. On the one hand, you do have someone like Joseph in Genesis who was a God-fearing man and did a lot of good, not just for his family, but to an extent the entire world. Then you have a man like Haman who is so self-obsessed that he is totally blinded to what is happening around him. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how him and Ahasuerus meshed so well together because they have more similarities than differences. Haman is so caught up in himself that he seems to be totally oblivious to the fact that Mordecai refuses to bow to him. All he sees are the masses that are bowing before him. It’s not until other servants at the gate tell Haman about Mordecai in verses 4-5 that he finally notices Mordecai and from that moment on, he is filled with fury. There’s really two types of people in the world: there are the people that only notice those that are praising them and there are those that only notice those that are critical of them. When the one that only sees people as praising them notices that not everyone is totally in love with them, it causes the selfish heart to do even more selfish things. It would have been one thing for Haman to just try and kill Mordecai but he is so caught up with sin and hatred that he seeks out the total destruction of all the Jewish people. He is hoping to do what Saul failed to do to his own people in 1 Samuel 15. When it comes to sin and hatred, there is often no rationality behind it. When you truly hate someone, there is no limit in your mind. Sin is so wicked and hatred is so unhindered that you can rationalize exterminating an entire race of people. Look at what Hitler did with the Jews and you see a clear example of that. When something like that happens, we can’t rationalize a reason to do it and that is because sin is totally irrational. Sin does not make sense because sin is contrary to all that is good and rational. It is rational and good to follow the Lord, it is rational and good to love our neighbor, but when we sin, we throw rationality out the window. We would all say that it does not make sense for a healthy person to inject himself with a deadly poison but that is what we do with sin! We know the consequences of it, we know the pain that it causes but we don’t care and do it anyway. Even as Christians, we sometimes seek to justify the sin that still entangles itself with us. Remember what Paul says in Romans 7:15-20

Romans 7:15–20 ESV

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Even Paul struggled with sin. He knew the right things to do but didn’t always do it. He knew the wrong things were wrong but still sometimes did it anyway. If we are left on our own to deal with sin, we will never win that fight. Thankfully Paul adds on in Romans 7:24-25

Romans 7:24–25 ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Paul understands that in this existence the battle between him and sin will rage on. He understands that while the war may continue, there is a day of deliverance before him. He understands that Christ saved him from sin, is saving him from sin, and will one day finally and fully save him from sin forever. With that future in deliverance in mind, Paul willingly wages war with the sin that remains and we are called to do the very same thing. Yes, it is Christ and Christ alone that delivers us from sin but we still have the responsibility to act in righteous and holy ways. We still have the responsibility to fight that which separated us from Christ in the first place. One last thing that I want to mention is that the people of God have always been hated. We see this numerous times in the book of Esther, we see this numerous times in Scripture, and we see it numerous times throughout the history of the church. We should not be surprised by this. Jesus tells us in John 15:18-19

John 15:18–19 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:12-13

1 Peter 4:12–13 (ESV)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the world hates us because the world has hated God from Genesis 3 onwards. But despite the threat of hatred and persecution, there is a great deliverance in store for the people of God. John Calvin said, “It is a cause of joy when God forces us to show our faith by persecutions, but this other joy far surpasses it, that the Son of God gathers us into the same course of life as Himself, so as to lead us with Himself to a blessed fellowship of heavenly glory.” While the world hates the people of God now, we know that just as we are delivered from sin, we will be delivered from their hatred. Our great Savior will redeem us from every trial and temptation and He will lead us into glory. Once again not to get to far ahead into the story of Esther. We see God’s providence still at work. It is by God’s providence that the day chosen for Haman’s plan is so far into the future, it is by God’s providence that a person of Jewish decent would save the people of God from certain death, and it is even there where we see a picture of Christ’s work. Just as Mordecai would save the king from certain death, just as Esther and Mordecai will save the people of God from certain death, Jesus will save His people, small and great, powerful and powerless, from a fate worst than death. It is Jesus that has been and always will be the great rescuer of the people of God and while we may not see Him working now, we can trust that He is and we will continue to see God work next week as we dive into chapters 4 and 5. Let’s pray together and then we will respond with worship.