Themes of the Bible: Unseen (Esther 4)

Themes of the Bible: Unseen (Esther 4)

This week you were to read the 4th chapter of Esther. For next week, your homework is to pre-read Job 1. Now, I need to apologize in the sense that it's very difficult when you have a story like Esther, the account of Esther has so many moving parts, that it's really difficult to pick one chapter out and read it on its own and understand the full scope of what's happening. So, I need to give you that background so that we can make a full understanding of what's going on in Esther chapter 4. Alright, so this where we’re going to set the stage. When you read Esther, you have a world where Persia is the dominant empire. You can think of it today with the United States is the lone superpower, at least for now, and before us, Great Britain dominated the world, France before them, and before France it was Spain that conquered and dominated the world. Before these Western European kingdoms, you had the Roman Empire, and before them you had the Greeks. And right before the Greeks, Persia is dominating the world. So, this who area of the world is part of the Persian Empire, and within Persia there's their primary seat of government, an area called Susa. And it's in Susa, this province that is controlled by the Persians that you have a high concentration of Jews. A bunch of God's people, left over from the Babylonian Exile, now live in Susa, controlled by Persia. And one of those individuals who is a Jewish person that's living there is an attractive young lady named Hadassah. Hadassah is a Jewish girl living in Susa being raised by her older cousin Mordechai. Mordechai has a job as a scribe for the king of Persia’s court. Persia is fighting this upstart country, the Greeks. Ultimately, Greece would destroy their empire and be the ones that dominate the Persians and come to take over the world. At this point, they haven't done that yet, Persia is trying to fight them off and King Xerxes, who is the king of Persia, is really frustrated at his inability to put down the Greek resistance. He wants to defeat the Greeks and it isn't working. He keeps having these skirmishes and he's not able to extinguish the Greek problem, so he decides he needs to get his whole country involved and get the people fired up for a war against the Greeks. So, he calls a council of war to get all of the men together in the country and have a seven-day drunken rager. They’re getting plastered, then they're sleeping it off and they're coming back and doing it again, day after day, and about seven days into this some of the men who are there are saying, ‘hey, Xerxes, you've got an attractive wife, Queen Vashti. Why don't you get her to come down here to the party and kind of walk around, parade herself around for us, that'd be great.’ So, Xerxes says, let's bring Vashti down, he summons her, but Vashti is self-respecting and says to him, ‘I’m not going to come down and parade around for all of you drunken men at your little war party.’ Well, this is humiliating to Xerxes, particularly given their time period and culture. If you're a woman, you do not tell a man ‘no.’ Can you imagine the calamity that would befall a society if women thought they could tell their husbands ‘no’? That would be ridiculous! So, Xerxes does the obvious: he deposes her. The king now has no queen.

Well, Xerxes understands that for political purposes you’ve got to have a queen, and she needs to be an attractive queen, like Vashti, so he decides to hold a beauty pageant. This is all that’s happening that makes up the background for what you read in chapter 4. The king holds a beauty pageant, he says, ‘all of my men go out into every area of Persia, all of the provinces, all of the areas I control and find the attractive young virgins. Bring them in, doll them up, parade them around in front of me, and I’ll select my new queen.’ Alright, so we’ve established that Xerxes is a really classy individual. So, all of these guys go out and guess who gets chosen? They go into the land of Susa, and Hadassah, an attractive young Jewish girl is taken to be in the pageant, but Mordechai and her talk in advance, and he says, ‘listen, it's not always great for Jewish people, when they're living in foreign kingdoms, that’s kind of the story of the Jewish people anyway, so you need to protect your identity and take on a different name.’ Hadassah is way too Jewish, so take on the more Persian name of Esther. So, Hadassah becomes Esther. She’s the same person, but she's hiding her Jewish identity from the new kingdom that she's going to be a part of. Well, she goes to the beauty pageant figuring that she's going to be in a couple rounds and probably when it gets to the evening gown competition, she's going to be eliminated. That's probably what she's anticipating, but it doesn't happen. She’ the winner of the whole pageant and she becomes the queen.

Now, imagine for a second being Hadassah. You're out there playing your Jewish games, having your Jewish fun, and all of a sudden these guards from Persia show up and they pull you in and they doll you up and they parade you in front of the king and then you're told, ‘hey, guess what? You're the new queen over this pagan land of Persia.’ Well, Esther goes along with it.

I want to stress this to you because of what Hollywood does with this story. Hollywood takes the story of Esther, and it's always made into a love story. There are some good adaptations, but this is not a love story. There are amazing love stories in the Bible, but this is not one of them. Hollywood tells this story by taking the pure little Jewish girl who melts the heart of this hardened war-like king. In the biblical account, that does not happen. He is a pagan king, he has a harem, and she just fits into his political structure. Alright, she goes along with it, she participates as one of many women in the. . . sexual life. . . of king Xerxes. See, this is not a love story, and I really really really need you to remember that. Ok, so Esther’s the new queen and she has no idea why she's there other than because she's got to be there because the king's chosen her, and it's at that point that we get introduced to the bad guy in this account.

Haman is the bad guy. So, what do we know about Haman? Well, chapter 3 verses 1 and 10 tell us that Haman is an Agagite, and he is growing the seed of vengeance in him towards the Jews. Well, why in the world would he be mad at the Jews? It seems like everybody's mad at the Jews, but why is this guy mad at the Jews? Remember last week we talked about how God had ripped the kingdom away from king Saul and given it to David? What Saul had done that had upset God and made him rip the kingdom away is in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel. Saul is told to go and wipe out the Amalekites, the evil, cannibalistic, ritualistic, pagan Amalekites, wipe them out, every single one and don't leave their animals alive. Torch their buildings, don't leave their pets alive, wipe it all out because we don't want any remnant of the Amalekites. Now, the king of the Amalekites, his name was king Agag, and Saul did not obey God, which is why he loses the kingdom. He didn't obey God and he let king Agag live. He wipes out a bunch of Amalekites, but king Agag he allows to live, and what is the consequence of this bad decision? A descendant of Agag, named Haman, comes to be powerful in the kingdom of Persia and has it in for the Jewish people that had wiped out so many of his forefathers. Go ahead and tell me that scripture is just made up. There are some guys sitting there coming up with this story that has everything interlocking through generations and centuries. All of this stuff, you read oh the Agagite, that sounds interesting, and you don't have any concept that all of this goes back generations, and it goes back to king Saul and his act of disobedience.

Well, Haman rises to second in command in the empire, he's given the signet ring of the king, which allows him to sign decrees with kingly authority. We don't know how he gets there, but Haman becomes number two in command, and he gets Xerxes to issue an annihilation order of the Jews. You can picture what Haman says, ‘hey you're fighting the Greeks and you're never going to defeat the Greeks as long as these Greek-sympathizing Jews are living in your kingdom. They are going to undermine you; they are working with the Greeks to cause all of these problems. You’ve got to exterminate them.’ And Xerxes, frustrated about not being able to defeat the Greeks, agrees. ‘Let's do it, lets wipe them out’ and he issues the decree. Remember, he doesn't know that his queen is a Jew. He's completely unaware of that.

Can you not see Satan at work in all of this? Here’s what I love about being able to read this story thousands of years later; we're watching what Satan’s doing and Satan thinks he's so smart, he's piecing all of this together, Haman is angry with the Jews and I’m going to put him in this position, and I got him to issue this decree he's going to wipe out the Jews, and if I can get him to obliterate God's people, you know what can't happen: the Genesis 3:15 promise.” This prophecy can't happen of a coming messiah. Do you notice how every page of the Old Testament is this eternal struggle where Satan is trying desperately to end the Genesis 3:15 promise from coming true? It started with Cain and Abel. ‘Well, if I can corrupt Cain and get him to kill Abel, then it's all over.’ Every step along the way, Satan thinks that he's going to stop God's will from coming into fruition and it never happens, because the master chess player, God, is always 50,000 steps ahead. And that's the benefit of reading it with hindsight. We're standing back looking at all of this, laughing because Satan thinks he's got Haman right where he wants him to be, and he has no idea that this little Jewish girl who gets sucked into a beauty pageant because a drunken king deposed his self-respecting queen. All of these things that seem so unrelated and meaningless, that's the master chess player putting the pieces exactly where they need to be. Satan thinks he's so smart, but God is working on behalf of His people. That's the lesson that we're going to find in the book of Esther.

What's fascinating to me about the book of Esther is that it's one of only two books in the Bible that don't mention the name of God. Esther and Song of Solomon, they don't mention the name of God. You can certainly say that they hint at the existence of God, like in Song of Solomon there is a whole chapter about love, and it's describing the attributes of love and we know that God is love, so it's kind of describing God. But they don't mention the name of God. Xerxes is mentioned 175 times in this story, in these 10 chapters. So, it seems like man-like authority is mentioned but God isn't mentioned once, and yet if you read all 10 chapters, and if you've got time, I would highly encourage you to read all of the book, especially after this week, and you’ll understand what's happening here with God in the background. There is no question who the main character of this story is. It isn’t Esther, it isn't Xerxes, it isn't Haman, it isn't Vashti, it's not Mordechai, there is no question that God is the main character of this story. When you step back and look at how all of this is fitting together, you don't see his name mentioned but his fingerprints are all over this story in remarkable ways. You see his divine involvement in the affairs of humanity, his hand of providence is visible in every tiny detail, and there's no coincidence in this book.

You may not be able find an equally complex account anywhere in scripture where the presence of God is more powerfully visible than what you see when you read the account of Esther, which tells me that God will often work through human history and normal life events.  He works through human history, often times not through miracles, but through completely normal events. Everything in the book of Esther is a completely normal event in the affairs of humans doing human things, and God is intricately involved in all of that. The book of Esther is trying to tell you to not to make that mistake of thinking that God is only working when he's reaching down and ripping the Red Sea open. No, when a king gets drunk and deposes his queen, God is at work, and he's at work on behalf of his people.

Ok, the decree is given at Haman’s request; exterminate the Jews. Esther’s Jewish cousin Mordechai hears about this because he's a scribe that sits inside the king's gates, and so he is frantic and he sends a message to Esther through a servant, because he can't go himself, so he sends a servant to go and tell Esther these things and that she has to go before Xerxes the king. She has to reveal her identity as a Jew, and she has to plead for her people. Go tell Esther she has to do that for us and for herself, and that's when we pick it up in verse 10.

If you've got your Bible make sure you're open to Esther chapter 4 and we're going to look at verses 10 and 11. [Read Esther 4:10-11]. When I read in those words of Esther, I read that she's scared to death. She's scared to death with good reason.

Number one, she knows she's a Jew and she knows that the Jews are to be exterminated. Number two, she's not allowed to go before the king unsummoned. And one thing we know about Xerxes is that he's a guy that cares a great deal about protocol. Remember, when Vashti didn’t come to him she was deposed. So, Esther naturally thinks, ‘you're telling me that as his new queen I’m supposed to break protocol and walk in front of him?’ And on top of all of that, don't you see how Haman’s going to use this? Haman is going to say to Xerxes, ‘what did I tell you? I told you that the Jews were allied with the Greeks and they're going to try to infiltrate and sabotage everything you're doing. Look, they even put one of their own right next to you in the palace.’ You can bet that he's going to play off of this big time. Esther knows that and then we say, ‘but come on, she's his wife. He's not going to kill his wife.’ At our house, if Christiana and I had a rule that I do not come into her presence unsummoned, and if I do that and I approach her unsummoned, she's not going to have me killed because I’m her husband and she's my wife and we're married.

See, this is not a love story. It's been a month since he’s even had any interest in seeing her, he has plenty of other women, he has a harem, and he has not called on her for a month, which means that he is completely satisfied without her. This is no love story. That’s not what's happening in this account. It is completely logical that she's scared to go before the king and it's completely logical why she would consider silence. He doesn't know she's Jewish and even if he's going to carry out this account maybe, she’ll survive. Maybe, she thinks, that's how God is going to preserve his people, through Esther by keeping her identity hidden. So, she can come up with all sorts of great reasons not to make a scene and open her mouth. She sends that message back to Mordechai and then the most powerful part of this chapter, I hope you caught it in verses 12-14, I’ll read them to you. [Read Esther 4:12-14]. There is so much in that statement to understand, to see, and to imitate in our lives. First of all, what incredible confidence Mordechai exhibits in God's ability to keep his promises. Look, whether you do this or not, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place. That's Mordechai saying that God keeps his promises, and I know he's going to fulfill everything he's going to fulfill through our people.

Then, there’s that famous line. If you want to make sense out of Esther, and want to know why little Hadassah is now the queen over Persia, perhaps it was for this very moment. This is God preserving his people. You, Esther, are that chess piece that he's put right here for this moment to make an impact for his kingdom. Isn't that an incredible opportunity for you Esther? This statement that Mordechai makes is affirming divine sovereignty, that God's in total command over all of this.

This story unfolds in the next several chapters After Esther goes into the king’s throne room, he spares her life and does something we really wouldn’t expect. Esther invites Xerxes to a banquet. She invites him and Haman to come to a banquet, so they show up at this banquet and Esther tells Xerxes everything. She reveals her identity, exposes Haman for everything that he's been doing and trying to do to her people, which leads to Xerxes becoming furious with Haman at all of this, and he storms out of the room. At this point in time, Haman gets up pleading with Esther to spare his life and throws himself at Esther pleading with her, just as the king walks back in, just in time to see Haman lunging at his queen and thinks wrongly that this is an attempted assault that's taking place. So he says, on top of everything else you've done you're going to assault my wife in my house and he goes and he has Haman hanged on the very gallows that he had built for a different Jew named Mordechai, Esther’s cousin to die on.  

That's the super abbreviated way the story unfolds, but the question that we've been asking through this entire series is, why did God preserve this for us? What is God saying to us in this story? Obviously, Esther points towards Jesus, the savior of God's people. There is that parallel that we should not miss, but this is the lesson I want to make sure we get today: that the hiddenness of God in our everyday lives, when you don't see God moving, that is not the absence of God. God is not absent and he is not silent. I will never be convinced that the omission of God's name in this book wasn't intentional, that the Holy Spirit avoided mentioning the name of God in this book for a reason and that reason is to draw us into understanding how our life's events are divinely ordered even when we don't see the hand of God actively moving.

Nothing in this story is coincidence, none of it is random. There is a designer behind everything. There is a designer behind this king getting drunk and becoming arrogant, a designer behind the fact that Vashti has self-respect and is full of integrity, and all the male chauvinism and all of that of that era and the patriarchy and the way their entire system was set up, that God uses this beauty pageant was not coincidence, and the fact that Esther happened to be pretty and wins the beauty pageant, and just happened to strike the king's eye that isn't coincidence. That Mordechai, the Jewish scribe and parent of Esther overhears and then he's able to tell Esther who then tells the king and his life is spared and then that's written down in the annals of history, and then one night the king can't sleep and he calls in one of his readers to come in and read the annals of the history of Persia to put him to sleep. And the reader just happens to start on the page that reveals that Mordechai had saved his life in that plot to kill the king that's not coincidence and then the king says, ‘you know what, we need to honor Mordechai, and Haman needs to go and do it.’ Nothing is random in this entire account. There are no miracles that you can point to in this book, and yet all of it is a miracle of God's divine providence. On every single page, the people, the places, the actions, all of it, it's amazing to see God's hand at work. Satan could not destroy the Genesis 3:15 promise, Haman and all men cannot destroy God's purposes, no one can thwart the will of God, and the book of Esther is a reminder of that.

Nothing that is happening in American culture, in society, in our world today, in this community, none of it surprises God. He knew that our culture and our world and our community would be right where it is at this very moment, and he intentionally chose to put you here and me here for this very time. Think about what that means and think about this as your Esther moment. You have been chosen for this moment. What are you doing with it? You're building the kingdom of God.

Let’s pray.