Esther 3
Notes
Transcript
Welcome back the the Book of Esther. A book filled with stories on how God uses the good, bad, and ugly to place you where you wants you and how God works in unsuspecting ways, even in situations where evil is oppressive and overwhelming.
Last week, we ended on a good note. Esther becomes the Queen all by the hidden hand of God. Only God could line up Esther and her hidden nationality to find favor among the top official over the girls, the court, and a powerful megalomaniac - King Xerxes.
In addition to seeing God work in unsuspecting ways, Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, reveals a plot against the king. His loyalty is rewarded with honor for him and Esther.
And most of us are content - the story has been resolved. God made a miraculous thing happen in the midst of a people who wouldn’t even utter his name.
However, here at the start of chapter three is where things start to get messy. Read Esther 3:1-2 with me
Esther 3:1-2
1 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles.
2 All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
Although the king owed his life to Mordecai, the promotion went to Haman the Agagite.
Jewish listeners, familiar with their history, heard “Haman the Agagite” and their eyebrows popped up. He was an Agagite!?
When Israel came out of Egypt after the Exodus, they ran into a people called the Amalekites, who became their first official enemy. After Israel defeated them, God said, “Write this on a scroll… I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven”
Fast-forward three or four hundred years to the reign of Israel’s first king, Saul. (Wait, didn’t we hear something about Saul last week? Wasn’t he the son of Kish? And Mordecai was also a descendant of Kish? What a coincidence!) God sent King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites once and for all. Saul won a great victory, but he wanted a trophy, so “he took Agag king of the Amalekites alive.” That was the beginning of the end for Saul and the doom for Agag, whom Samuel killed on the spot. But evidently some of Agag’s descendants lived on, always the mortal enemies of the Jews, and now half a world away, a relative of Saul and a descendant of Agag meet again. Another coincidence!
Even though Haman is the second most powerful man in the greatest empire on Earth, Mordecai will not give him his props; he will not bow when Haman passes by. That is a problem: a big, big problem.
Though God reigns, his people are never far from mortal danger. Let’s look at 3:3-6
3 Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?”
4 Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.
6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
Mordecai stubbornly refused to submit for any reason to Haman; indeed there seems to have been a general lack of respect for this man, otherwise there should have been no need for a royal command that people should bow down to him.
Here, Haman is pictured as a proud person who constantly desired human praise. He was hungry for power.
But now the story begins to fall into place. The revelation of God’s purposes in bringing Esther to a position of power and the reason why Mordecai had Esther hide her identity has now become clear. Even in an empire that was a true melting pot, Jews were in danger because Jews are the people of God in a world that is hostile to God.
That never changes. Jesus told us that all who follow him will be in constant danger from the world around us. All it takes is one wicked man with the right opportunity, and a holocaust is being plotted.
Listen to how Haman spun his pitch to Xerxes.
7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.
9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”
10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
Haman is crafty. He begins with a truth, “there is a people dispersed among your kingdom,” leading into a half-truth, “their customs are different and they don’t obey the king’s law.” Yep, they did have different customs, but that does not make them a threat to national security . Finally, he ends with a lie, “they do not obey you.” This is false, but Haman convinces this dimwitted king to agree to send out couriers to every province with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews - young and old, women and children - on a single day in the future.
Esther 3:15 says
15 The couriers went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.
Don’t you hear that and think, how can this happen? How can two men, one of them probably drunk, decide to annihilate an entire people group - God’s people? Brace yourself, friends: that is an old story, and the last chapter has not been written yet.
For the two most powerful men in the empire, it was a “final solution” and time for a drink. In the city around them, people were aghast, confused, bewildered. And as for the terrified Jews, on the next day - the 14th day of the first month - they celebrated the Passover, as they had done for 1,000 years, remembering the time the angle of death passed over their blood-marked houses in Egypt.
But where was God this time? Where was God when powerful people used their position for evil? Where is God when no one mentions his name? Where was God when Mordecai tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and wailed loudly and bitterly in the city? Where was God when Jews in every province went into great mourning with fasting, weeping, and wailing?
Let’s turn our attention to Esther 4:5-14 and see where God appears
5 Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.
6 So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate.
7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.
8 He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.
9 Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said.
10 Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai,
11 “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”
12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai,
13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.
14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Mordecai petitions with Esther about her people’s impending doom. He presents the evidence and pleads with her to use her position to beg for mercy. But Esther is weary about this - Mordecai, you have seen what the king does to those who are not asked into his presence. What makes you think it’ll be different for me? Access to the king is strictly controlled. You have seen for yourself that others plot to assassinate him.
It is here that Mordecai speaks the greatest truth about God’s involvement in the entire book. “Esther, God will work for us in a different way if you do not. And do not think you’ll be spared from destruction because of your status - but it is clear that God has placed you in this position for such a time as this.”
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.
Like the woman who refuses to get up from a seat on the bus. Like the chaplains that gave their life jackets to fellow soldiers trusting in their God. Like the Christian missionaries in China, India, and Afghanistan who remain faithful to the call of God on their lives. Like the parents that refuse to let their children attend a birthday party that includes an R-Rated movie. Like the teenager who stands between the bully and the bullied.
Wherever you are is exactly where God can use you. How we use our honor and position, whatever it may be, matter to God and may be a matter of life and death.
Esther knows what she needs to do. She needs to use her position for good to bring life to her people. And that is what you are called to do right now, where you are at, in this moment. Do good and bring life to those around you.
However, you cannot do it alone. Even Esther was aware of that. Look as she gathers her people to fast and pray.
Esther 4:15-16
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:
16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
She gathered her people to fast and pray before their God who works in unsuspecting ways before she uses her position to prevent evil and destruction. Friends, it is not enough to do good - doing good is never enough. What is enough is doing good with God, regardless of the outcome, knowing he is still at work.
Esther uses her position to come before the king unannounced and in a moment of panic for her, the king was pleased with her. He holds out his golden scepter as a sign of mercy to Esther.
In this mercy Esther asks the king and Haman to join her at a banquet she has prepared. What? She did not ask for the mercy of her people? Doesn’t the author know how anti-climatic it is?
It is clear that God is doing something that is not visible to us. God has given Esther wisdom and confidence that is not her own through corporate fasting and prayer.
A wisdom that hosts the king and Haman two nights in a row before presenting her plea for mercy.
A wisdom that only God could provide because in his timing and work as Haman was leaving the banquet he witnessed Mordecai refuse to pay him honor and respect again!
Esther 5:10-14 tells us Haman’s plot against Mordecai
10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife,
11 Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.
12 “And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow.
13 But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”
14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.
Haman, with all his power and authority, uses his position for evil, to destroy God’s people, while Esther uses her position for good to bring life.
How are you using your honor and position? How is your position as a parent, spouse, teacher, student, manager, or employee being used by God to bring good to his kingdom?
I am reminded of the words of former President Jimmy Carter, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something… my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
Wherever you are is exactly where God can use you. You do not need to be on the school board, a spiritual leader, or a CEO for God to use you. Trust in the God who works in unsuspecting ways to use the good, the bad, and the ugly using you wherever you are for his glory and his kingdom.
Will you pray with me?
