Sermon Tone Analysis

The God Who Chooses Nobodies

INTRODUCTION

Need: There are many, in this very congregation, who want their lives to count.

You want your life to matter and the world says that the way to make that happen is to dream big, aim high and then work your fingers to the bone to climb the ladder that will take you to the accomplishment of your dreams.

Need: There are many, in this very congregation, who want their lives to count.

You want your life to matter and the world says that the way to make that happen is to dream big, aim high and then work your fingers to the bone to climb the ladder that will take you to the accomplishment of your dreams.

The Bible speaks a very different message: If you are faithful to the Lord in the little things of life on a daily basis … God has a way of taking nobodies like that, working out the details of their lives to put them in exactly the place they need to be, at precisely the right time … and using them to make an impact.

God’s name not mentioned in this book - but God is at work on every single page.

You read between the lines and you see the hands of God.

Over and over - in every situation.

Whether Mordecai .... Esther … King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) … even in Haman’s selfish pride .... God is working in all of it.

We need to remember this: No matter the circumstance … no matter how dark things look … God never loses His grip on the levers of control, working out the plot … God may seem to be absent in the situation … He’s not.

He is working it all out.

We need to remember this: No matter the circumstance … no matter how dark things look … God never loses the plot … God may seem to be absent in the situation … He’s not.

He is working it all out.

Everything you do, MATTERS.

We don’t always know HOW it matters - but God does.

He is working behind the scenes, between the lines of the story … He is in control, working it all out for His good purpose … but you matter.

The decisions you make, the places you go, the things you read and write, it all matters - your actions are not irrelevant, just because God is Sovereign.

1 AN EMPIRE-WIDE SEARCH FOR THE BEST, vv.

1-4

1 AN EMPIRE-WIDE SEARCH FOR THE BEST, vv.

1-4

Verse 1 begins chapter 2 with these words, “After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done ...”.

When you read these words, you could be forgiven for thinking that the events of this chapter follow after the events of chapter 1, after a matter of a few days … ‘King throws party … party is over the top … king drinks too much, makes an obscene request of his wife … wife refuses … king gets mad and makes rash decision … then sobers up, calms down and his anger fades away.’

Why, that all can’t take more than a week or two at the most.

That’s actually how I have read the Esther story all my life … until preparing for this message.

But if you look back at chapter 1, verse 3 - The narrator tells us that Ahasuerus’ 6-month party was in the third year of his reign.

Then if you look at chapter 2, verse 16, we read that ‘Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus’ royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the SEVENTH YEAR of his reign ...’.

So between chapter 1 and 2, there’s a gap of 3 years (I’ll explain why 3 years and not 4 in a minute).

So the question is - what’s been going on for 3 years?

History tells us what was going on.

The whole reason for the big party in the first place was to get enough support to wage a military advance into Greece to extend the Persian Empire - make it even bigger than it already was.

He did go to war - and it ended in disaster.

The movie 300 - battle of Thermopolae was about this war.

Ahasuerus had an army that outnumbered the enemy many times over … and yet he suffered a humiliating defeat … he was embarrassed, he spent way too much of the kingdom’s money and now he comes back home to Susa in defeat.

He walks through the doors of the palace with the weight of the world on his shoulders … needing comfort, needing arms wrapped around him … not a servant, not a hired hand, not an advisor … he needs the arms of a partner … a wife …

… but there is nobody home.

‘… he remembered Vashti’, verse 1 tells us … ‘and what she had done and what had been decreed against her’.

His anger is gone, Ahasuerus remembers the warmth of her embrace, the beauty of her face - her smiling eyes … remembers her in the good times ...but there is no bringing her back, even if he wanted to.

The law of the Medes and the Persians is a well-known saying - because it was well known that once a Persian king had made a decree or a law … there was no reversing it.

The king’s closest advisors see him slipping into a state of depression.

They come up with a plan to fix the problem: “Let’s get you a queen”.

This is not just a case of the king needing a woman.

He had the power to have any woman in the kingdom … the king doesn’t just need physical touch.

With his absolute power, he can snap his fingers and, in a matter of minutes, any woman he wanted, would be in his bedroom.

No, the king needs a companion … someone who cares … someone to walk with him through everything.

The king needs a wife.

The advisors see it!

Verse 2, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king.

(3) And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the citadel, under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women.

Let their cosmetics be given them.

(4) And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.”

“A god-king like you deserves more than just ANY wife … you deserve the best … so let’s put on a Miss Persia beauty pageant … we will search through all 127 provinces with a fine-tooth comb … we will bring the best of the best AND THEN … we will supply the cosmetics (because only the best will do) ...”.

In fact, take a look at v. 12.

It gives more details on the program for the girls who make the cut: “Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being TWELVE MONTHS under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women ...”

An entire year of spa treatments to prepare each young woman to be brought before the king!

The entire might of the empire is being brought to bear to find a woman suitable to be queen.

Verse 4, “And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.’

This pleased the king, and he did so.”

And the curtain closes on the scene.

________________________________________________________________________

2 A COUPLE OF NOBODIES, vv. 5

Verse 5 takes the camera outside the palace, to the household of a nothing foreigner, who lived in the capital city - far from the halls of power.

: “Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite, (6) who had been carried away from Jersualem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon had carried away.”

What a difference from a king who could comb the whole empire to have whatever woman he wanted, brought to him for a a wife.

See how many times in 1 short verse, the phrase , ‘carried away’ shows up: v. 6: ‘(Mord.)

had been carried away from the Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jec.

(the king), whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away’.

The same Hebrew word - means ‘forcibly removed from home and taken away.’

The narrator is making the point here - this is one powerless man.

Now, it sounds like the text is saying that Mordecai was one of the original exiles - born in Judah and forcibly removed alongside king Jeconiah.

But that can’t be - - would make him like 115 years old.

The point is that when the Jews were forcibly removed from home and taken to a foreign land … Mordecai was represented by them.

His whole identity is bound up with exile - - a foreigner, living out his life in a place that’s not really home.

He is a Jew, born here in Persia - he’s heard about the promises of God to His people … He listened to the stories told by his father and grandfather, about the golden age of Israel … and God’s promises for the future .... but all he’s ever known is Persia.

This is the only place he’s ever lived.

Susa is his address, but it’s NOT his home.

On the other hand, the man’s name IS ‘Mordecai’ … and that sounds a lot like ‘Marduk’ - the name of the god of the Babylonians.

Doesn’t mean that he worships the false god … he doesn’t.

But it does mean that his whole life is lived out in that wrestling .... living as a child of God, in a world dominated by other gods … a world where the God of Israel … the One God of heaven … seems silent.

The Bible doesn’t tell us whether or not Mordecai was ever married - he has no wife now … but verse 7 tells us that there is ONE other member of his household …that’s his much younger cousin -

, “He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother.

The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.”

If Mordecai comes across as a powerless nobody in mighty Persia - how much more does this teenage girl?

Hadassah is her Hebrew name, Esther is the name she’s known by in Persia - sounds a lot like Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of power and love.

… so here’s an orphaned girl, raised by her cousin … and not even known by the name of her people - her heritage.

Esther knows nothing about palaces or politics … all she’s doing is living out her life as a nobody, who belongs to the people of God, in the heart of the greatest empire of the day - that doesn’t even acknowledge God - and where God seems to be so silent.

You can identify, Christian - you know how what it feels like to be a Mordecai or an Esther.

We are strangers and aliens in this world … Our citizenship is in heaven … but we exist here in Persia .... and so often the voices of this world’s gods are so, so loud.

And the God we worship .... seems silent.

Esther’s story continues in v. 8

3 AN UNLIKELY RISE TO THE THRONE, vv.

8-18

Read vv.

8-11.

When you read these verses, do you picture a grand combination of Miss America, Miss Universe and some kind of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, royal courtship?

And you imagine … ‘what a life!

What a fairy tale fantasy!’

Verse 3 “Let their cosmetics be given them ...”.

I see the wheels turning in some of your heads.

Ladies - free makeup.

.... and this is on the royal budget.

My son, Noah, came home the other night all excited.

He had just been shopping at VV.