Posts
Finding Hope and
Purpose in Esther, 1. "Ordinary Obedience & Loyalty." Esther 1:17; 2:5-15;
3:1-15
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The story of Esther is a story of
contrasts in character. Its focus is
on the anger and excesses of the king, the hatred and deceit of Haman versus
the submission and obedience of Esther, and wisdom and loyalty of Mordecai.
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Some among the rich and powerful
love to throw expensive, opulent parties to put their power and affluence on
display for the world to see, but the parties of the 21st-century cannot compare
with those of the court of the king of Persia.
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Ahasuerus, he was called by the Jews,
and Xerxes by the Greeks, in the third year of his rule he threw what must have
been one of the most lavish and expensive parties in history.
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For 180 days he displayed all the
wealth and power of Persia like a male peacock fanning his feathers and
strutting about for attention.
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Attending this six month feast were
all the nobles, officials, and officers of Xerxes' court, so the business of
governing the Empire was postponed as the King lavishly entertained his
government.
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At the end of the 180 days, Xerxes
put on a seven day bash for all the men of Susa, and the decadence of that
second party appears to be worse than the lavishness of the first, if you can
imagine.
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The king put no limit on the amount
of wine that he served and he ordered that each man was to do as he desired.
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And on the seventh day of the king's
second drunken, licentious feast, he decided show off his most treasured
possession, his queen in her crown because she was very beautiful to behold.
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But Queen Vashti was giving a feast
of her own for the women of Susa, and she refused to obey the king's order, and
not shame herself and the royal court by appearing in nothing but her crown.
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At her refusal, the king became
enraged. Xerxes was well known for his temper, and in his pride and drunken
state, the king refused to back down in front of the partying public.
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We already have a pretty good
picture of the king's character. Here was a man full of pride, selfishness,
anger, and who lived to glut.
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The king allowed his pride to
destroy his relationship with his queen.
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Pride is a destructive force that we
need to learn to more than swallow because it will just keep popping out again.
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The only solution to the problem of
pride is learning that every person will be judged by God for their words and
deeds, their character.
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The King was unable to make a
decision about his own household, and instead of apologizing to his queen, he
consulted with his magicians and legal experts.
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One expert spoke up, "If the
Queen refuses to obey the king, then all the women of Persia will treat their
husbands with contempt, so if it pleases the king, let a royal edict be
declared and let it be written among the laws of the Medes and Persians so that
it may not be revoked, that Vashti is never again to come before the king. And
let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she."
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From this plan, Vashti would live
out her days in the king's harem, never called, never acknowledged, childless,
and unloved.
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Perhaps Xerxes was regretful, and
the young men who attended him later noticed that he was in a different temper,
so they suggested that young women from all over the kingdom be brought to the harem
in Susa under the care of the chief eunuch.
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These young women would undergo
beauty treatments and the one which most pleased the king he would choose as
queen.
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At that time, a Jew by the name of
Mordecai was living in Susa. He was
bringing up Hadassah, called Esther, after the deaths of her mother and father.
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Let's stop and highlight the contrast between the character the king
and the character of Mordecai.
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The king displayed no loyalty to his
queen, whereas Mordecai displayed a high degree of loyalty to his family, especially Esther.
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And that loyalty makes Mordecai
available to be used by God.
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We need to value loyalty because it
is part of our character that makes us available for God's purposes.
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The Bible says that Esther had a
beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, so because of the king's decree,
Esther was among the many young women who were taken to Susa and placed under
the care of the king's chief eunuch, Hegai.
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Something about Esther caused Hegai
to favor her above all the other young women and he gave her the best place in
the harem and started her beauty treatments immediately.
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In all this, Esther did not reveal
that she was Jewish because Mordecai specifically asked her to keep it a
secret.
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And every day Mordecai walked in
front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening
to her.
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Now, with Esther keeping her Jewish
identity to herself, and with Mordecai checking up on her every day, we see two
character qualities revealed by their ordinary daily lives that make them
available for God's purposes.
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Esther
was
obedient and submissive. She
listened to the direction of Mordecai without question.
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How
many of us could say the same thing of our relationship with our parents or of
our relationship with God?
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How
often are we asked to do something by someone in authority and do it? How often
does the word of God tell us how to live, yet we don't to follow his
instructions?
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Let's look at Mordecai. He was unceasingly loyal. He loved and
cared for Esther like she was his own daughter, not even letting a day go by
without checking on her.
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How
is our loyalty? How are we at sticking
by people through thick and thin?
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We need to test the levels of our
obedience and loyalty to Christ and to his church because of these two character
traits make us available to God for his purposes.
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We know what happens in the story of
Esther and Mordecai. We see how their character made them available and how God
used them.
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What we don't know is how our
character will make us available next week, next month or next year, but the Holy Spirit wants to leverage our
character so that we are available for God's purposes.
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Our obedience and loyalty make
us available for God's purposes.
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After the 12 months of beauty
treatments were completed, a young woman from the harem was brought to the king
to spend the night with him, but would not return to the king unless he
summoned her by name.
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Each young woman could have whatever
she wished to take from the harem to the king's palace, but when the time came
for Esther to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except for what the
eunuch Hegai advised, trusting that he would know what the king liked most.
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Here again we see Esther's
character. She deferred to Hegai,
submitting to his care and advice obediently.
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And when she was taken in, the king loved
Esther more than all the other women, finding grace and favor in the eyes of
the king and he set the royal crown on Esther's head and made her queen.
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Esther continued to keep her Jewish
identity a secret as Mordecai instructed her and she obeyed him just as she did
when she was a child. What about us? Like Esther...
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Our obedience and loyalty make
us available for God's purposes.
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Not long after that, Mordecai
overheard a plot to kill the King and he reported it to Esther and Esther
reported it to the king.
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After an investigation the two men
were hanged on the gallows, the episode was recorded in the chronicles of the
king, and was forgotten.
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Mordecai reported the plot, not to
be rewarded, but because of his loyalty and his strong sense of doing what's
right for righteousness sake, rather than personal gain.
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Later, the king promoted Haman the
Agagite to be his right-hand man and commanded that everyone who served at the
king's gate was to bow down and pay homage to Haman, but Mordecai would not bow
down or pay homage.
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Here again we see Mordecai's loyalty and this time it's his loyalty to
God.
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However, his loyalty to God doesn't
look like it's doing him any favors.
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In fact, it looks like it's about to
get them into a pile of trouble.
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The other servants pestered Mordecai
day after day and he told them that he would not bow down and pay homage
because he was a Jew and Jews are commanded by God to bow down and worship only
him.
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Mordecai's coworkers told Haman and
when Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage to him he was
filled with rage.
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What about us? Do we refuse to compromise our loyalty to the Lord our God only as long
as it doesn't get us into trouble? Or do we maintain our loyalty to the Lord
even in the face of trouble?
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If we compromise our loyalty to God,
then we compromise our character.
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Our obedience and loyalty make
us available for God's purposes.
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Now Haman was an Agagite meaning his
ancestor was King Agag of Amalek.
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The Amalekites caused problems for
Israel earlier in their history.
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Amalek came to fight against Israel
in the wilderness, so the Lord promised to erase the memory of Amalek from history.
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Many years later, the Lord sent King
Saul to fulfill that promise, but Saul disobeyed the Lord and spared King Agag.
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Samuel, however, carried out the
commandment of the Lord and killed King Agag in the Lord's presence at Gilgal.
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When Haman, a descendent of King
Agag, found out that Mordecai was a Jew, an Israelite, who would not bow down
and pay him homage, suddenly it was not enough for him that one man be punished
for his disobedience to the king's order.
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Haman wanted much more than that; he
wanted revenge for the death of Agag and revenge for the nation of Amalek.
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Haman did not hesitate to use his
power and position to orchestrate a plot to destroy all the Jews throughout the
entire kingdom of Persia.
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He deceitfully convinced the king of
a conspiracy for which he had no evidence, but the king took Haman and his
word.
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To sweeten the deal, Haman offered Xerxes
a bribe, 10,000 talents of silver, about 34,000 kg.
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The king was taken in by all this
and passed over his signet ring to Haman, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
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I want to take a moment to contrast Haman with Mordecai because Mordecai is
this loyal guy and if anyone is deserving of a promotion or a reward it is
Mordecai, but the king forgot about how Mordecai foiled the plot against him.
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In Mordecai's place, the king
promotes Haman, a proud, selfish,
vengeful, hate filled, ambitious individual who is prepared to fuel
genocide to accomplish his personal agenda.
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What about us? Are we prepared to be loyal when there's no promise of earthly reward?
Are we prepared to be loyal to others even when there's no evidence that they
are loyal to us?
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We live in a time when many
Christians are focused on the self, the individual.
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At times, we get wrapped up in
ourselves, in what God can do for us, and how Christianity benefits us.
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We look to what is convenient for us
rather than what God says is right.
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We forget that we exist through him
and for him and not for ourselves.
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We live in a time when submission
and obedience are dirty words.
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Rather than submitting to one
another out of reverence for Christ, we are concerned about our rights,
privileges and plans.
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The book of Esther gives us another
picture of life, a picture in which the world does not revolve around us, our
plans, or our preferences.
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Our obedience and loyalty make
us available for God's purposes.
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What
do our first glimpses into the story of Esther show us about how we live and
how we ought to live?
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We don't know if Esther had other
plans or dreams, but we do know that she obediently submitted to the leadership
of her cousin Mordecai.
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Her willing obedience demonstrated
her gentle, humble character.
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She didn't act like she already knew
it all, instead she submitted to those in authority over her, knowing that she
needed their guidance, wisdom and advice.
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What about loyalty? Mordecai did not
seem too concerned that his loyalty to Esther or his loyalty to the King
remained unrewarded.
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Going unnoticed for uncovering a
plot to kill the King didn't seem to matter to Mordecai.
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The only thing that appears to
matter to Mordecai was that he did what was right.
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Do
we do what we do to be seen and rewarded? Or do we do it because it's what's
right?
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Do
we also do what's right because we know God is carrying out his purposes?
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Our obedience and loyalty make
us available for God's purposes.
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