He is Greater: Esther

Sermon Introduction

There’s a very interesting and inherently Christian concept, called “Providence”.... And yet like another important Biblical concept - the Trinity, the word doesn’t actually ever appear in the Bible

Providence is defined as, the “preservation, care and government which God exercises over all things that He has created, in order that they may accomplish the ends for which they were created.”

In other words, it refers to how God shapes and guides history to accomplish his purpose.

And as you can imagine, it’s incredibly important to our understand how God works in history, particularly to us Baptists...

For example, what many historians consider to be the first Baptist Church in North America was called “Providence Church”, which was planted in 1636

Meanwhile, one of the most prominent baptist pastors today, John Piper, draws from a lifetime in ministry, and recently wrote a book tackling the topic. It’s a massive book… over 750 pages long. And here’s how he describes providence:

From Genesis to Revelation, the providence of God directs the entire course of redemptive history. Providence is “God’s purposeful sovereignty.”

In one sense, part of the work of Biblical Theology, is to trace the providence of God throughout the Bible.

And our passage for today is a very interesting place to consider Providence, because in fact, God is never referred to in the entire book of Esther.

But before we get to that, let’s briefly recap where we are in Biblical History...

Scripture Introduction

You will recall that after the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split in two… the northern kingdom, which retained the name Israel, and the southern, which was called Judah.

Our last sermon in this series, which covered Naaman, who was the commander of the Syrian Army, and which occured in the northern kingdom.

At this time, Syria and Israel were kind of antagonistic towards each other, but sometimes they were also allies…

But eventually, Syria was conquered by the Assyrians, who then also conquer Israel, the northern Kingdom, in 722 BC. But Judah, stays safe for a while.

About a hundred years later though, in 630 BC, the Babylonian Empire conquers the Assyrians… Judah is able to resist the Babylonians for 12 years berfore themselves finally being conquered in 618 BC...

This is the period that we call the Exile because a significant portion of the Jewish population from the Kingdom of Judah was forcibly deported to Babylon by the Babylonian Empire

The Babylonian Empire deos not last very long, though, and in 539BC, it is conquered by the Persian Empire led by King Cyrus, who also begin to allow Israelites to return

It is during these periods, while Israel was under Babylonian and Persian rule from 600 to 400 BC that the last few sermons of this series will occur

The most important thing to note is that basically, the glory days of David and Solomon are long gone, and Israel was in their most desperate situation since being Egyptian Captivity.

The Story of Esther

For our particular passage today, we zero in on t he 430’s BC while Ahasueras, also known as Xeres I, was the King of Persia

At this point in time, as I mentioned Jews were already beginning to return to Israel, but they were still mostly scattered throughout the Persian Kingdom

Esther and her uncle Mordecai are in the capital city, Susa / also called Shushan… which, as you can see, is quite far from Israel

Very briefly, it with King Ahasuerus hosting a grand feast...

He summons his wife, Queen Vashti to display her beauty, but she refuses

And so, Vashti is deposed as queen for her disobedience

In Chatper 2, King Ahasuerus seeks a new queen through a beauty contest

And Esther, a Jewish orphan living in Susa and the cousin of Mordecai, is chosen as the new queen

Her identity as a Jew remains a secret.

After she becomes queen, Mordecai, who sits at the king's gate, overhears a conspiracy to assassinate King Ahasuerus

Mordecai informs Esther, who, in turn, informs the king, giving credit to Mordecai

In Chatper 3, we’re then introduced to Haman, an ambitious official in the Persian court, who is promoted by King Ahasuerus and becomes a powerful figure

Haman demands that everyone bow down to him, but Mordecai refuses

Obviously, Haman is furious, and for some reason, he decides to take out his grudge against Mordecai on all Jews

He plots to exterminate all Jews throughout the Persian Empire by basically bribing King Ahasueras with 10,000 pieces of Silver...

He convinces the King to allow him to create a decree… And so, as Esther 3:13 explain: “13 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.”

Mordecai's Response to the Decree

Mordecai of course learn about and according to Esther 4:1… “1 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.”

For those of you who are not familiar, putting on sackloth and ashes in the Old Testament is a sign of deep mourning and it’s obviously very public

Esther hears about this and sends messenger back to Mordecai to find out what’s going on, so, verse 8, Esther 4:8 “8 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 initially refuses, because what Mordecai requests from her is actually very dangerous...

Esther 4:11 “11 “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.””

Esther’s Immaturity

This brings us to our passage today, but before we see Esther’s respopnse, we need to consider one important thing… which is Esther’s Immaturity

This needs to be noted because when we think of Esther, we typically think of a dignified, strong woman, probably in her late 20s or early 30’s… right? This is typically how most movies made about this book would depict her as...

But when you think about it, that’s very unlikely to be the case...

Most likely Esther was fairly young… just a teenager, and probably quite immature and probably even a little sheltered...

Esther 4:4 gives us some indication of this… “4 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.”

So consider this… Esther hears about Mordecai in sackloth and ashses… which as we know, is a sign of great mourning… And what does she do?

She sends him some clothes...

Immature, sheltered… probably a little bit ignorant of what life is really like...

On top of that, she would have been quite isolated in the King’s harem… she can’t even go to Mordecai herself… she has to send messengers to him.

So we really need to consider this context important context as we think through Esther’s response from Verse 11… She’s is basically a scared little girl...

For Such a Time As This

Again, she points out the danger in what Mordecai is asking her to do… She’s probably thinking… Why me? Why not someone older… someone stronger… someone braver?

To this, Mordecai sends his famous response, found in verse 14...

Esther 4:14 “14 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?””

Which brings us back to what we started this sermon with.... Providence

“For such a time as this…” What a perfect phrase to encapsulate God’s purposeful sovereignty...

Obviously, the story of Esther has a happy ending… Esther steps up, and Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews is thwarted....

I’m not going to go through how that unfolds… Instead, I’m going to encourage you all to read it yourself… In fact, read through Esther from start to finish… it would only take about 30 minutes or so… It’s such a delightful little book.

For example, there’s this hillarious part in chapter 6 which leads to Haman having to honor Mordecai by putting him on the king’s horse and parading him throughout the city… “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”

Strength in Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Trusting in God’s Providence

Philippians 2:13–16 “13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

The Cross of Christ

Romans 8:31–32 “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”