Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Born For Destiny*
*Esther 2:1-20*
* *
This morning we have focused on two little children,
- two daughters,
o to precious gifts from God.
Parents dream about the potential future of their child,
“What is God’s plan for my child?”
But today’s lesson also speaks to everyone in this room;
No matter who you are,
No matter where you been
No matter how poor a start you might have made with your life.
God still has a plan for your life and wants to use you for His kingdom purposes.
Not only does God want to use you, it is often in the most routine days that His hand is revealed.
Ordinary days become extraordinary – so pivotal, so different, they can change the course of our lives.
Enter onto the platform of our story today the character of Mordecai and Esther.
Look at their background.
First they are captives in a foreign land.
History of Jews in Persia;
Many years before Esther, the Jews had a civil war and the country divided into the Northern Kingdom called Israel and the Southern Kingdom called Judah.
God judged the Northern Kingdom for unfaithfulness and sent the armies of Assyria against them.
As a result the Jews of the Northern Kingdom went into bondage.
More than a 100 years later, God brought a similar judgment against the Jews in the Southern Kingdom.
Young Jeconiah had been the king of Judah for only 3 months when Nebuchadnezzar invaded and deported him to Babylon.
11 years later Nebuchadnezzar returned and destroyed Jerusalem and carried most of the Jews into captivity.
Later, Babylon itself was defeated by the armies of the Medo-Persians.
In 539B.C.
Exerses (in Hebrew: Ahasuerus) became king of the vast Persian Empire.
And now the book of Esther begins.
*Mordecai*:
Vs. 5,6
Mordecai was a descendant of those exiled Jews.
He was a godly man.
We will see his influence throughout the story of Esther.
But his most significant role was his relationship to his cousin Esther.
Let’s meet her now.
*Esther*: (vs.
7)
Esther is her Persian name meaning “star” and indeed she becomes the star of our story.
Her Jewish name, Hadassah, means “myrtle” – a lowly and fragrant shrub.
As a little girl she was orphaned - her mother and father had died.
Remember she is also a lowly Jew living in exile in the great and godless land of Persia.
I can imagine, Esther, as a little girl, crying her heart out at the death of her parents.
What an unlikely choice for someone to change the course of history for the Chosen People of God.
Yet that is our God; working silently and invisibly behind the scenes; taking the broken and crushed of this world and works His purposes out.
Mordecai, her older cousin, chose to raise this orphaned girl and brought her into his home.
*Last week:*
The Persian King Exerses threw an elaborate a ½ year banquet to show off his wealth and power to the nobles of the kingdom and then concludes inviting everybody to a 7-day feast.
He is now drunk as he commands his wife, Queen Vashti, to come and display herself in front of his guests.
She bravely refuses and he deposes her, banishing her from his presence.
*In the time interval between chpt 1 & 2.*
Four years have passed between the deposing of the Queen in chpt. 1 and the search for a new Queen in chapter 2.
We have to look to secular historians to discover what happened during those years.
We learn that King Exerses made an ambitious attempt to conquer Greece.
But it failed miserably.
The king returns to his palace dispirited by defeat.
We can imagine him longing for someone to personally care for him and his feelings at this time of defeat and loneliness.
It seems he now regrets his action of chapter one in deposing his queen.
Now his advisers recommend a plan to seek for a new wife.
They say in effect: /“We’ll comb all 127 provinces, and we’ll bring in every beautiful young virgin we find.
We’ll even let them enhance that beauty with cosmetics.”/
What they were suggesting is what we call today a beauty contest.
Let’s have a contest to find “Miss Persia”.
And the prize: the winner will become the queen of Persia!
What elaborate beauty preparations!
(This is not the lesson from Esther I want to bring forward for women today!)
(If you want a prince of a husband start your beauty treatments now!)
They spent one year preparing these women, polishing up their outward appearance, to enhance their physical beauty.
In vs. 8, our story tells us they discovered Esther and took her to the palace to join the others in the contest.
The verb indicates that she is taken somewhat reluctantly.
Esther is not caught up in the competitive spirit of this beauty pageant.
She goes but it is not her choice.
Imagine the petty rivalries, the in-fighting, the envy, and the jealously among those women vying for the place of recognition as most beautiful.
Imagine how tough it would be to maintain spiritual equilibrium when everything and everyone around you is emphasizing only the condition and shape of your body and the beauty of your face.
How demeaning!
How temporary and empty!
Yet in the midst of all this, Esther’s true beauty emerges.
This morning we want to learn from Esther not how to enhance outward beauty but how to cultivate inner beauty.
We want to discover some lessons as to the ingredients that made Esther a beautiful person her inner character.
1) Esther exhibited a /grace-filled charm and elegance.
/(vs.
8b,9)
Lit.
“She lifted up grace before his face.”
She does not display a sour attitude.
Instead she models grace before the face of the king’s influential servant, Hegai.
Her inner qualities captured his attention.
And he chose to give her first attention and to provide her with anything she desired.
2) Esther exhibited /an unusual restraint and control/
(vs 10)
Esther told no one she was Jewish.
Why?
Because that is what Mordecai instructed her to do.
She knew how to control her tongue.
Her inner beauty included the art of respecting her guardian’s advice and keeping secret her ancestry.
3) Esther sustained /a continually teachable spirit./
(vs. 10, 20)
By vs. 20, Esther has been chosen by the king.
Still she listened to her cousin Mordecai and learned from him.
Even though she is now in a high position in the courts of Persia, she still remains teachable.
How beautiful it is to find a servant-hearted, teachable spirit among those who occupy high-profile positions of authority.
Learning from our children.
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