Esther, Courage and God's Hidden Hand

Good morning. It's great to have entered the fall Holy Day season. We're now between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. I was reading Leviticus 23 to my kids last night, and I was struck by the translation I was reading. It called the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the appointed month in early autumn. It reminded me of how it feels in early autumn when the air starts to cool down, and it gets crisper, and it feels cool in your lungs when you step out, and the breeze picks up. It's an exciting time of year. It always has been for me, especially growing up in the church and always knowing that the Feast of Tabernacles is coming. But then there are pre-Feast trials. That's an expression that anyone who's been in God's church is probably familiar with. We have the phrase pre-Feast trials because over the years we've noticed that there's this strangely consistent pattern of this phenomenon where leading up to the feasts, different things seem to happen. Sometimes there's just problems and challenges that kind of come at you from different directions, and often they have a more spiritual side to them. Often they're more spiritual than physical, it seems like. It might be at your work somebody who is especially giving you trouble about taking time off for the Feast or about some other aspect of your faith. It could be a family conflict that you're having along those lines. Often it seems like there's just something in the air at this time. At the same time, we're getting excited about the Feast. We're getting energized by the change in weather. There's this competing force. It's a negative, restless feeling that especially permeates the mood and words of those around us in the world and those in the media. Often it comes out as a general feeling of anxiety. You see it in the news. August, September, October, it seems like it's always in that stretch of time. You see it. You see it in regional conflicts that percolate up. You see it in the economy. And even we can be affected by it. And we know what's happening. In Ephesians 2, 2, Paul describes Satan as the prince of the power of the air. Revelation 12, 9 tells us that he deceives the whole world. We know that Satan is trying to get at us as well, to make us stumble, to cause us anxiety, to discourage us, but why now? Why especially now at this time of year? Today I'd like to exhort us to take courage by looking at a bit of history that reveals why we can have courage. I'd like to look at the story of Esther. And I'd like to take a look at a few parallels between the book of Esther and the time we live in that can give us this courage for the future. So let's turn to the book of Esther. We're getting in our time machine now. We're going back 2,500 years, almost 2,497 years. Some stories in the Old Testament are difficult to date, but this is one that through other sources, historical sources, we can pretty much pinpoint. We're going back to 484 BC. Now if we step in our time machine and we want to go back to that time and we want to go to the center of the world, where do we go? At this time, all roads don't yet lead to Rome. The Greeks didn't have their act together quite yet. Instead, if you were, say, a Martian and you landed your Martian spaceship on Europe or Asia and you asked somebody, take me to your leader, eventually you get pointed to Susa. The Bible calls it Shushan, the capital of the empire of Persia. At this point, in this year in history, the king of Persia rules over 50 million people. And that may not sound a lot by our standards today, but consider that the entire population of the earth at that time was just over 100 million people.

So, the king of Persia, a man named Ahazu Eris in the Bible and Xerxes to the Greeks, he reigned over 44% of the earth's population. No one has ever done that before or since throughout history, not even at the height of the Roman Empire. And the Persian's capital, the seat of power for this great empire, is in Susa. The book of Esther contains an amazing story about a young Jewish girl named Hadassah, who lives here in the capital of Persia. One hundred years earlier, of course, the Jews were taken into captivity when the Babylonian Empire conquered it. The Babylonians, in turn, were conquered by the Persian Empire, which allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem if they wished. And many did, but many stayed. And that's where we find Hadassah. Now, the king had dethroned his previous queen in great anger. He was drunk, and he had commanded her to appear before the noblemen in his court. So they could gaze at her beauty. When she didn't do it, he banished her forever from his presence. In Esther 2, which we'll go to now, we have recorded for us in history, in the Bible, the very first season of the bachelor. Right here. This is where it all started. Esther 2.1.

After these things, when the wrath of King Hadassah subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done and what he had decreed against her. Then the king's servants, who attended him, said, Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king, and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the Citadel into the women's quarters under the custody of Haggai, the king's eunuch, custodian of the women. And let beauty preparations be given to them. Then let the woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This thing pleased the king, and he did so.

In verses 5-7, we're introduced to Mordecai and Hadassah. We learned that Mordecai is a Benjaminite who brought up his young cousin Hadassah as his own daughter after her parents died. She's described as lovely and beautiful. Hadassah had another name by which the Persians knew her, Esther. We don't know if she or Mordecai chose that name to de-emphasize her Jewish background, or if she was given that name Esther by the Persians. Esther was the name of the pagan goddess Ishtar, Astarte. But it's possible that that name by this time had also been kind of normalized in society, the way that parents might not give a lot of thought to naming their daughter Diana today. Her cousin Mordecai's name is also based on a Babylonian god's name, Marduk. There's something else interesting about Esther's name, though. Some people have noticed that Esther would have sounded much like the ancient Hebrew word meaning hidden. It's been suggested that her name may have had a sort of subversive purpose to it. It's a name that felt familiar to the Persians, didn't sound Jewish, yet to the Jews it may have acknowledged her hidden identity. And here we come to the first parallel between us and Esther. This is a book in our inspired Holy Bible. It's about a divine intervention which saved the Jewish people across the Persian Empire, which, remember, was pretty much everywhere that the Jews were at this time. The story of Esther is celebrated every year at Purim to remember God's deliverance of the Jews. But it's a book that doesn't mention God by name at all.

Instead, we're left with this title for it, Esther, a word that sounds like the word hidden. As we will see as the story unfolds, the hand of God usually goes unnoticed. Even at times, Esther and Mordecai do not know what God is doing. This is like the world we live in, in our lives, and even up to the days leading to the return of Christ. The hand of God goes unnoticed. It's hidden to most. So our first parallel is that God's hand in world affairs today goes unnoticed. It's hidden. Esther 2, 8.

I wonder why she would have possibly wanted a special menu besides her allowance. Esther had not revealed her people or her family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it. And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. Now, down in Esther 2, 21, we read, The doorkeepers became furious and sought to lay hands on the king. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on the gallows. And it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king. Going forward to Esther 3, 1. After these things, the king promoted Haman, the son of Hamadata, the gagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And all the king's servants who were within the king's gate bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. This brings us to our second parallel in this story. Mordecai would not bow to Haman. Mordecai even defied the orders of the king to not bow to Haman. Why wouldn't he bow to Haman? It could be because the way that the king expected people to bow or to show this respect was tantamount to worship. That is one possibility. But it may not be the reason. It may not be the only one. It could also be something else. It could be that Mordecai was well aware of Haman's ancestry, which Josephus and Jewish tradition hold that as an agai-gate, he was the descendant of King Agag of the Amalekites, whom God told Saul to utterly destroy, though he apparently failed to completely do so. The Amalekites were a particularly vicious and ruthless people. Their practices were so corrupt that God told the Israelites to destroy them and even their possessions and livestock and not plunder any of it. They would have nothing to do with the Amalekites. God would repossess their land and give it to the Israelites as an inheritance. Mordecai had no way of knowing at the time, but he would eventually be raised to replace Haman in his high office in recognition of his real loyalty and trustworthy character. Likewise, we need to remember not to bow to Satan. We know that one of the ways Satan tempted Christ was to offer him a position of great power if he would bow down and worship him. Matthew 4, 8 reads, Satan was offering Christ a shortcut here, but Christ knew that Satan's time is passing. Any authority Satan has to offer is God's to give to whom he will as a true and lasting inheritance.

Christ was, in fact, going to be ruler. He is, in fact, going to be ruler of all the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, but not under Satan and in God's name and in God's time. We also need to make sure that we do not accept Satan's offers. We need to make sure we don't accept Satan's offers of temptation. But we also need to not succumb to Satan's attempts to discourage us as well. We can't give power to Satan by living in fear or worry. Instead, we need to go to God for the strength and peace we need every day.

In Esther 3, 5, back to her story, These other people who worked with Mordecai had told him that he was a Jew. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahazur-Eris. You would think Haman would just want to get revenge on Mordecai. He's the one who's not bowing to him. Why not just this one man? Why the whole people? And not just the man and his family, even? Why all the Jews? Well, this brings us to a third parallel. We see a lot of parallels here between Haman and Satan. The third parallel is that Haman probably always hated the Jews because of their inheritance. As we saw before, Judah, Benjamin, and the rest of the tribes of Israel had mostly wiped out Haman's ancestors, and God had given them their land. This was probably a hatred that ran very deep. We also find in chapter 6 later on that Haman had a pride problem.

He sees himself as the only one that could possibly deserve the king's favor. Satan also had a dream like this, to lift himself up to heaven. Isaiah 14, 13, you can jot down. Isaiah records this. This. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.

Satan hates us as well because of our inheritance. He once held a great position of glory and authority. He thought he should be even higher, like the Most High. He continues to have some power, but he knows that everything he had will be taken from him and given to whom God wills.

In Esther 3, verse 8, continuing, then Haman said to the king, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from all other peoples, and they do not keep the king's laws. Therefore, it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let it decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work to bring it into the king's treasuries.

This brings us to our fourth parallel. Haman noticed that the Jews are different. We're different as well.

One Jewish rabbi a few years ago wrote this. For two thousand years, Jews have asked themselves the question an increasing number of Americans are now asking, Why do they hate us? When I lived in Oxford, I heard all kinds of academic theories proffered as to the cause of anti-Semitism, but few seemed as straightforward as the reason given by the first documented genocidal anti-Semite, the biblical Hitler, Haman. He says, there exists a people dispersed and scattered among the nations and all the provinces of your kingdom, and yet their values are entirely different from everybody else's. Jewish singularity, Jewish peculiarity, a refusal to blend in and be like everybody else, is what Fomen's hatred and Haman's breast. Why do you Jews hold yourselves aloof? Why don't you just become like everybody else? Do you think you're better than us? Add to this a steadfast commitment to espousing morality, and you have the perfect formula for hating the foreigner who not only rejects your way of life while living in your country, but makes you feel inferior to boot. The Talmud says that Mount Sinai, literally Mountain of Hatred, was given its name because after the Jews received the Torah and committed themselves to living lives of ethical virtues, the enmity of the world's inhabitants, who now stood out as immoral, descended heatedly upon them.

How about us?

Another verse you can jot down. John 15, 18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 3, 19, you can also jot down, reads, And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. We see even back all the way to the earlier days of Sodom, that the citizens there would not tolerate the messengers of God in their midst out of basic pride. God's people often stand out as different. Thankfully, in some elements of our society today, we have a Judeo-Christian background. We're admired for this, and we're helped by it. We're certainly more trusted because of it. But when push comes to shove, the world will reject the people of God, because we live a life that is a kind of self-apparent truth. It's a light, and it exposes the darkness and the choices that other people make.

So the king agreed to Haman's plan, and he allowed Haman to issue a decree in the king's name. That decree was sent out to all the governors and officials in every province. It was translated into every language in the Persian Empire. They were to completely annihilate all the Jews everywhere, young and old, women and little children, in a single day. In Esther 3, 7, in the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Hazariras, they cast Pur, that is, the Lot, before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. This was not like the casting lots that the Jews did. It wasn't like the casting of lots that Jesus' disciples did whenever they had to replace Judas Iscariot. Haman's use of lots, the way that he was doing it, was by its nature a cultist and pagan. The Nelson Study Bible notes that the fact that the Lot was cast at the beginning of the year to determine the best time to destroy the Jewish people fits with the culture of the day. The Babylonian religion maintained that the gods gathered at the beginning of each year to establish the destiny of human beings. This system was called Pur, which is where we get the name of the Jewish holiday of Purim, named for the way Haman selected the day that the Jews would be destroyed. And here, perhaps, we see God's hidden hand at work again. For the Lot landed on a day that was 11 months later, about as long as it possibly could have been. Though Haman would never know it, this delay would become important later on. And that brings us to a fifth parallel in this story. God can turn even Satan's plans into God's plans. Even Satan's timing can become God's timing. We see those in many other points in biblical history. Perhaps most explicitly in the story of Job, we see how God continually turns Satan's devices into accomplishing his purposes. Even in the end times, when it looks, perhaps most, like Satan is winning, Christ will return and Satan is put away.

In chapter 4, when Mordecai found out what happened, he was greatly distressed. He tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and the Jews mourned greatly throughout all the king's provinces. Queen Esther was distressed to hear of Mordecai's despair, and she tried to send garments to clothe Mordecai, but he rejected them. So she sent her servant, Hatch-Hatch, probably still didn't say that right, did I? Hatch-Hatch? He sent him out to speak to Mordecai and find out what was going on. And Mordecai told Hatch all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews. Verse 8, he also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, Susa, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her. That he might command her to go to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. So Hatch-Hatch returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spoke to the servant, Hatch, and gave him a command for Mordecai. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king who had not been called, he has what one law put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go to the king these thirty days. So they told Mordecai Esther's words.

And Mordecai told them to answer Esther, Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all of the other Jews, for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. But you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

We know the end of the story. Mordecai did not know how this would play out yet, but he knew that the Jews would be delivered. The Jewish people only still existed because of God's deliverance time and again. And God had made many promises that could not be fulfilled if the Jews were destroyed at this time.

We do not know how the events in our lives will play out, but we can be certain of our deliverance. And we can be certain of the removal of the one who tries to destroy us. Mordecai had confidence that God was going to deliver the Jews. His question to Esther was, will you be a part of what God is going to do?

In chapter 4, verse 15, then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise, and so I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

This brings us to a sixth parallel in this story. Esther sought strength from God in fasting. She had decided what to do, but she knew she needed to seek out God's strength and guidance through this fast, just as we do whenever we go through the trials and temptations in our life. In chapter 5, verse 2 of Esther, Then Esther went dear and touched the top of the scepter. And the king said to her, What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you, up to half the kingdom. So Esther answered, If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.

Then the king said, Bring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has said. So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther, What is your petition? Tell me now, it should be granted to you. What is your request? Up to half the kingdom? It shall be done. He knew that there was something on her mind. He knew there was something that she wanted to ask for here. Then Esther answered and said, My petition and request is this. If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.

We don't know why Esther asked him to come back for another banquet. We don't know why she delayed it. But we do know what happened. That it allowed an amazing series of events to play out that she could not have anticipated. But God knew. And this is true for us as well. When we find ourselves in challenging situations, it often isn't until later that we see God's hidden hand working things out. Because when we moved to chapter 6, that night, the king could not sleep.

So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. There's no better way to go to sleep than that. He must have found that from experience over time. Just pull out the official record and start reading through it, the minutes, the meeting minutes, basically. They'll knock you right out. And it was written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, the doorkeepers, who had sought to lay hands on the king. And then the king said, What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? And the king's servants who attended him said, Nothing has been done for him. And this was quite a problem in a sense, because for Persian kings in their culture at this time, they were very generous. It was a social rule, in a sense, or an acknowledged custom, that the kings would be very... that they would reward those who helped them, and they'd do it in a public way. And yet here, this custom had gone by. Somehow he'd lapsed, and he hadn't done what he knew he ought to do here.

So the king said, Who was in the court? Perhaps he heard the guards off in the outer court. And now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's servants said to him, Haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. So Haman came in, and the king asked him, before he had a chance to say anything, What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?

Now Haman thought in his heart, Well, who would the king delight to honor in more than me? And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe, He had this whole plan already worked out, apparently. This just came right out, didn't it? It was like he'd already come up with this and or been dreaming of it a long time. For the man the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, And a horse on which the king has ridden, And which has a royal crest placed on its head.

Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, That he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

Then the king said to Haman, Good idea! Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, And do so from Mordecai the Jew, who sits within the king's gate. Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken. Ouch! When Christ returns, Satan will be there to see his victory, And he will be there to see the results of the rest of the first fruits, Raised to eternal life, the eternal life that he had tried to deny them as God's own children.

And Satan, like Haman, will soon after have injury added to insult, When he is finally shut up in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, As is written in Revelation 20. Back to Esther's story in chapter 7, verse 1. So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, And on the second day at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Up to half the kingdom.

It shall be done. Then Queen Esther answered and said, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, And if it pleases the king, let my life be given at me, Let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, Although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss.

So the king answered and said to Queen Esther, Who is he, and where is he? Who would dare to presume in his heart to do such a thing? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. So Haman was terrified before the king and queen. Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. But Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, For he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was.

And then the king said, Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house? As the words left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. It seems that the guards had been through this kind of thing before. They already knew what they needed to do here. Now Harbana, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, Look! The gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, Who spoke good on the king's behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.

Then the king said, Hang him on it. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath subsided. In chapter 8, verse 1, reading from the New Living Translation, Haman, who had plotted to kill Mordecai and the Jews and take their property. Now Haman's own personal wealth was given to Mordecai.

So Esther came before the king again, falling before his feet in tears, Because the Jews were still to be destroyed by a law of the Medes and Persians, That she knew could not be revoked, even by the king. And he again showed favor to her, and allowed her and Mordecai to write a new decree in the king's name. However they saw fit in order to protect the Jews. In verse 11, the king's decree, written by Mordecai, gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, And try to take the property of their enemies. And they would be allowed to take the property of their enemies. And it's interesting, in the language that Mordecai wrote this, it used, lifted a lot of these quotes directly from the original decree. People would have seen the similarity there. And here it is again, important that when Haman cast that lot, it landed on a day 11 months later. And when this order went out, it meant that the Jews had a great deal of time to prepare. And the whole empire had time to let the series of events, these two decrees and the stories which would have come out of Shushan, to let those sort of percolate and sink in and think about what it all meant. In verse 15, and the people of Susa celebrated the new decree, The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere. In every province and city, wherever the king's decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday. And many of the people of the land became Jews themselves. So here's the first idea that we see of converting to Judaism in this kind of language. For they feared what the Jews might do to them. Probably wasn't a real sincere conversion from any of them. Tom Robinson in our Bible commentary wrote that, No doubt news had also spread of all that had transpired. And this was a cause of great fear of the Jews among the people of the empire. No doubt due to the perceived supernatural favor that must have rested on them. Surprisingly, this sparked a mass conversion. The change was so drastic that it was now deemed dangerous to not be a Jew. This brings us to our last parallel. When Satan is finally put away, God's way, the righteous way that leads to life, that will be the safe path. It will be the encouraged path. There will be teachers to say, This is the way. Walk in it. If you find yourself in the midst of trial or temptation, remember that God's hidden hand is directing his plan. Even in the midst of chaos and confusion, even though sometimes you can't see which turns you're taking and where you are in it, he is carefully bringing about his goal of bringing many children to glory. We must not bow to Satan. We must not be ignorant of his devices. But we have no need to be intimidated by them either. Satan will not win. He would destroy all humanity if God allowed it. And perhaps just at the point where he seems closest to that goal, that's when he'll fall into the trap long of his own making. First, at the beginning of the biblically prophesied millennium, and again for good at the end. We will not have to deal with Satan forever. We know that we can gain strength by drawing close to God in prayer and fasting, to bring our will in line with his, which will by his own nature give us peace. And we know that at the end of all things, God wins. And the way we strive to live, weird as it may sometimes be, as it might seem today to those around us in a dying world, it'll be the way that we will help train all people live and thrive as Christ reigns on the earth.