Esther 4:1-17 | Where is God when trusting Him is hard?
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Good morning Emmanuel Family.
And to all of our moms, Happy Mother’s Day.
We recognize that today for many of you is a really happy day! Many of us have already enjoyed the blessings of the hard work of Jim, Tricia, and many others this morning at the breakfast.
And the unique reality of a church on days like today, is that while some are having a really happy day today celebrating, others are struggling for various reasons. And whether you are rejoicing or mourning today, we are grateful that we can be together as we turn our focus from the temporal joys and sorrows of this world, and set our hope on Christ.
Five years ago was the last Mother’s Day I had with my mom. As many of you know, she entered Heaven in June of 2017. One of the many blessings that she left my family was her well worn bible.
And it is such a blessing that my sister and I (primarily) to share it, passing it back and forth and reading her many notes in the margins.
Last year, a good friend of mine shared this meme with me:
MEME OF BIBLE
This was especially funny to me knowing that Tracy and I have perused passages in Mom’s bible wondering why she highlighted some of the passages she did.
So the point to me sharing all of this about my mom’s bible alongside this meme is moms, be women of the word. May your time in the Word of God be evidenced in your bibles and in your life. Mark up your bibles and allow your bible to mark up you.
And don’t forget to bring your bibles home - I have a highlighter and I am not afraid to use it...
Well, we have come to scene three in Chapter 4 of the book of Esther.
Review
1. Overwhelming Grief
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.
2 He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.
3 And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
2. Obvious Deliberation
A. Superficial Fix
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.
5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.
B. Suitable Answer
6 Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate,
7 and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
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.
C. Substantial Cost
9 And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say,
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.”
3. Obedient Intervention
A. Relayed Promise
12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said.
13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
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?”
B. Reliant Action
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
Mediator
Line from Esther to Jesus
Secondary line from Esther to Jesus to Us
Where is God when trusting Him is hard?
He is here, as always, faithfully fulfilling His plans and promises.
God is sovereign and chooses to use people to fulfill his purposes.