Still Faithful pt8

Still Faithful pt8

Esther 4

Quick outline of Esther 1-3

King Ahasuerus- a king with a desire to show off all he had- even his wife

Queen Vashti refuses to be put on display, and as a result she is deposed as an example to all the wives in the kingdom and a nationwide search is declared for a new Queen to replace her

Mordecai was a Jewish man who had been captured during the Babylonian campaign against Israel and he was raising his uncle’s daughter Esther, because she was an orphan.

Esther was caught up in the search for a new queen- she didn’t volunteer, and she is not aware that she is a Jew

Esther wins the contest and become the Queen

As she serves as Queen, Mordecai becomes aware of a plot against the King, and he informs Esther and as a result the plot is thwarted

After this plot is broken up, Haman is elevated to a position of authority in the Kingdom, and he gets angry because Mordecai refuses to bow before him like everyone else.

He turns the King against the Jews and bribes him with 10,000 pieces of silver to set a date for all the Jews to be slaughtered. And the King seals the command with his ring and sends it out across the whole kingdom

(Read Esther 4:1-9)

We have all been Mordecai, we probably identify with him more than anyone else in this book of the Bible. We think we have it made and then the bottom falls out. Seemingly helpless as forces mass around us. Tearing out our hair as it seems, despite our best efforts, we cannot escape the ever encroaching march of inevitable demise. Job lost. Marriage ending. Prognosis bleak. Bank account empty. Kids out of control. And on and on and on.

But that’s not who this book is named after, and that is not who you are. In fact, I want you to stop and think for a moment, why is this book included in scripture? The name of God is not even in the book. Not once. Yet, God is all over this book. He is arranging and planning and setting the pieces on the board to rescue His nation.

And Esther is His chosen one.

Esther: An Introduction and Commentary (Reid) i. Mordecai Weeps in Sackcloth (4:1–4)

By dressing himself in clothes of mourning, Mordecai excludes himself from access to the king’s gate. As far as the story goes, this means that the barrier between Esther and Mordecai (and the Jewish people) has grown, which both adds tension and establishes Esther as ideally placed to emerge as their figure of hope.

(Read Esther 4:10-14)

Verse 14 is the key to the entire story.

Think of all that Esther has endured to this point. Plucked from her family. Groomed for a man she does not know. Knowing how the last Queen ended up. And now placed in a position where her very lineage makes her subject to death by the hand of her husband and Haman.

And yet, this is her time.

To say it is a person’s time is a very bold statement. We do a lot of things with time. Our time. And most of them do not give thought to the Author of time itself. See God created time. And He knows our times. And He prepared us for this time. You were born when you were born and you will die when you will die, precisely because God has ordained it. And He has a purpose for your days.

What will you do with your time?

You have some choices.

Some people are just marking time. By this I mean they are just getting by. They see life as something to be endured. They do not see themselves as significant or purposeful. They eat to live. They work to pay bills. Each moment is not significant or purposeful or holy. It is just a moment. They live in obliviousness to the world around them. They do not know God and if they even give Him a thought it is as a great cosmic unknowable.

Some of you today are just marking time. And as a result you will not leave a mark. You will accomplish nothing of significance and you will most likely die separated from God. I mourn for you. And I plead with you this morning, to hear the voice of God. To awaken out of your slumber and realize that this world is not just something to endure and depart. It is a foretaste of what is to come. You see, without Jesus this is the closest you will ever be to heaven and what you will inherit when you close your eyes here and open them in eternity is far worse and more eternal.

Jesus died so you could stop marking time. So your time could be redeemed (John 10:10)- the Hope of Something more is made real in Jesus!

Some of you are not marking time. You are doing something far worse. You are wasting it.

So many followers of Jesus today are taking the precious gift of life God has given them and spending it in ways that have nothing to do with God’s plan or time. We have bought into a lie. That God’s purpose for us, once we know Him, is to have a life of ease and pleasure. We see our jobs, our resources, our relationships, our personal beliefs and codes as the highest expressions of truth and worth. We have given ourselves over to a dream that is of this earth and not of the mind of God. We have become skilled at ignoring the promptings of the Spirit and have instead become focused on the promptings of impulse and pleasure.

Esther: An Introduction and Commentary b. Esther Takes the Lead (4:4–17)

God’s purposes are not thwarted by the failure of one individual to respond positively to his leading, and the individual is truly free to refuse it, though this leads to loss rather than gain.

Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (4) Mordecai Insists (4:12–14)

At this moment Esther’s life purpose was at stake. God had guided in her being chosen queen. In the biblical perspective election is for service, not just for one’s own benefit.

The results are catastrophic. In our country, the erosion of commitment to the things of God over the things of earth is destroying the Church. It is causing us to lose our saltiness, which means that the preservatory effectiveness of the church is waning.

It breaks my heart when I hear Christians bemoaning the lack of morality and the embrace of sin in our country. Not because that isn’t happening, but because we point our fingers at outside forces rather than looking in the mirror. We are wasting our time. We have given ourselves to quick fix charlatans with false promises and phony cure alls, rather than dedicating our lives to the hard work of evangelism and discipling other people. And then we have the gall to blame lost people for acting like lost people and pray for Jesus to come quickly to rescue us from the very people He has called us to.

What have we become!

We need people who handle time in a different way- in an Esther way, in a Jesus way! What we need to be are people who seize the times. Who see the moment as God sees it, an opportunity to rescue His people. (Read Esther 4:15-17)

Esther understands her time. She knows her position. She is willing to risk it all for the sake of God’s people.

Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther Notes

Possibly Xerxes’ choice of Esther as queen five years earlier was not totally accidental, not just luck. Maybe there was a providential purpose. Mordecai suggested that as wife and queen, Esther might have a divinely designed role to influence the course of history for the Jewish people.

Esther: An Introduction and Commentary b. Esther Takes the Lead (4:4–17)

The answer of Mordecai presents the inmost convictions of the author and at the same time moves the reader to deep sympathy with Esther. Her dilemma is at some time the dilemma of us all: circumstances hem us in and demand that we commit ourselves to act courageously and exercise faith.

Seizing time comes with risk. Esther is literally putting her life on the line for her people. She risks her very existence. What are you protecting? Why are protecting something that isn’t eternal?

Folks, there are people who are in your orbit who are worth the risk. They are God’s people. He is calling them to Himself. You are who is called to go to them. To share the Gospel with them. To disciple them in the faith. To call them to repentance. To help them return to the Lord. To equip them in the faith. You. It is your time!

What is holding you back? Do you doubt God’s calling? His equipping? His provision? His Word?

He has made you, positioned you, equipped you, and prepared you for such a time as this!

Will you seize the time?