Sermons

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For Such a Time As This
August 4, 2002
First of four in a sermon series on Mentors in Faith
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
Esther 4:13-16

Well, it’s August…! And during August, we are looking at ways that God wants to build our character as we walk with Jesus. To do that, we are enlisting four people to help, people from the Old Testament. The first one is a woman named Esther.

Esther is the book in the Old Testament found immediately before Job, and the Psalms. Esther is also the answer to a key Bible trivia question: Which book of the Bible does not mention God? Yep. The book of Esther. At least, it doesn’t mention God explicitly. But though the NAME of God is nowhere…the PRESENCE of God is everywhere.

As I light our scripture candle, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Esther, and just keep a finger at Esther 4. We’ll read there in a few minutes.

To learn from Esther, you really need to understand the Esther story. And since it is long, I’m going to just tell you the key parts of it. There are FIVE people that you will particularly want to know about as we go:

1. the King, Ahasuerus. He was the king of Persia, living in the capital city of Susa, or modern day Iran. His kingdom stretched from India to Ethiopia.
2. his Queen, Vashti.
3. Mordecai. Mordecai was one of the Jews who still lived far away from Jerusalem, whose ancestors had been deported from Israel many years before.
4. Esther herself, the cousin of Mordecai. Esther’s parents had died at an early age, and Mordecai had adopted the beautiful and gentle Esther.
5. Haman, the evil advisor to the king…every story has a bad guy. Haman is this one’s.

In fact, even to this day, there is a minor Jewish holiday called “Purim,” which is centered around this story. And each year, when the day comes, the Esther scroll is read out loud, and each time HAMAN’s name comes up, the congregation members boo and hiss and shake noisemakers!

So the story goes like this. The King became extremely displeased over Queen Vashti’s rebellious behavior, and decided to look for a new queen. Given that Internet computer dating services were not up and running, the king searched over the entire kingdom. Esther was invited to the palace along with others, where she quickly caught the king’s attention and he made her his queen. It would appear from the way the story unfolds that Esther did not mention her Jewish heritage. A couple of things happened right away. First, Queen Esther’s cousin Mordecai uncovered a plot against the life of the king. Mordecai told Esther about it, Esther told the king, and the men were caught and hanged. The incident was written down in the history book of the kingdom, which will become important later.

At about the same time, an up and coming star on the political scene was promoted to be the King’s cabinet as his highest advisor, sort of a Grand Vizier. His name was Haman, and he was so powerful that everyone trembled and bowed when he walked by.

Except Mordecai. Mordecai refused to bow. That infuriated Haman, but he thought it was beneath himself to directly deal with Mordecai…but he did do a little research, and found out that Mordecai was a Jew. And he decided to simply eliminate ALL the Jews in that huge kingdom… including Mordecai. He talked the king into it by concocting a plan which he said would eliminate a troublesome group of people in the King’s kingdom, AND bring some extra money into the coffers. And the King rather carelessly said, “Sure.” And so Haman sends out an edict in the King’s name, giving orders to destroy or annihilate all the Jews through the entire kingdom. [It is, of course, not the last time in world history that someone will try to eliminate the Jews.]

Mordecai, meanwhile, hears about the plan and goes into public lament over what is about to happen to his people. Esther hears about Mordecai’s anguish, and finds out what Haman has ordered. Mordecai wants Esther to plead with the king on behalf of the Jews. However, that’s easier said than done. Even a queen couldn’t get an audience with the king anytime she wished. In fact, anyone who went to the king’s court without being summoned by the king…could be put to death. Esther would rather not risk that. And when Mordecai hears of Esther’s response, he sends back this message to her:

“Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance WILL rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days…After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:13-16)

The words of Mordecai cut Esther like a knife. It is clear to her what she should do. And so she and Mordecai and all the Jews in Susa fast for the three days, and then she risks going to talk with the king, showing amazing courage. Fortunately, she catches the king at a weak moment. He says he not only wants to talk with her, but will do almost anything for her…even giving her “up to half my kingdom.” Now, rather surprisingly, all Esther asks for is that the king and Haman would come to lunch the next day. [That seems like Bill Gates granting you anything you want, and asking to have lunch at McDonalds!] Well, they have lunch, and Esther says nothing at all about the problem. At the end of lunch, Esther once again invites both Haman and the king to another banquet the following day.

Now, that evening, two more amazing things happen:

First, on the way home Haman just happens to walk by Mordecai, who as usual does not bow or honor him in any way. Haman is so infuriated, he has a gallows built 70 feet high at his house, so that everyone will see him hang his enemy.

The second thing is that on that night, of all nights…the King can’t get to sleep. And so he has someone come and read to him from the record book of the kingdom…surely THAT would put anyone to sleep (like reading the minutes of committee meetings)!

But as he reads, he hears again the story of how Mordecai had helped to stop the plot against him, and he realizes that Mordecai was never rewarded for such faithful service. Amazing timing. So the king calls Haman in, and asks what the best way to honor someone is?

Haman, who really can see no further than the mirror in front of him, says to himself, “The king must want to honor ME,” and so he tells the king the best way to honor someone is to put him on the king’s horse, with robes and a crown, and have a palace official take him to the public square and honor him before all the people. And so, in an amazing twist, the king actually tells Haman to honor Mordecai (his hated enemy) by robing him and lauding him in the public square of the city. It’s the beginning of the end for Haman.

That day at lunch with Haman and the king, Esther tells the king that she and all her people are about to be destroyed. The king indignantly asks who would presume to do this, and Esther says it is this wicked man Haman (boo, hiss)!

The king is furious, and has Haman hung on the very gallows that had been built for Mordecai. In addition, the king allows Esther and Mordecai to send out a new edict through the land that keeps the Jews from being killed, and indeed grants them special favor.

And so it is, each year in the Jewish synagogue, this story is read again from the scroll, and the people are called to remember God’s amazing deliverance from the brink of extermination.

And perhaps you see why it seems that although God’s NAME is not in this story…God’s PRESENCE is everywhere in it.

So what is it in the story of Esther that helps build God’s character in us? To help answer that question, I want to ask you three related questions:

1) How would our lives look different if…we just did what we knew was right, regardless of the cost?

This was the place that Esther came to. In the first part of this story, Esther seems to be quite passive. Even when Mordecai tells her to talk with the king, she is reluctant to stick her neck out, or risk the consequences. But when the Word comes to her, when she knows…she knows. Oh, she stops to fast and pray. She gathers the support of the community, good things to do. But when she knows what is right, she acts, and “If I perish, I perish.”

It’s the same kind of thing you hear from people who hid the Jews from the Nazis in the 1940s: “It is the right thing to do. And if I’m caught…it was still the right thing to do.” Not every decision is life and death, of course. I talked to a friend this week who owns a small business, and had to decide whether to put up with some verbally abusive and unfair behavior from a business partner. Either he would just take it…or he would stand up and speak. And if he did, there was a good chance it would mean the end of his business. But eventually that didn’t matter. He knew what the right thing to do was, deep down inside.

I believe God actually speaks to us like that as well. Certainly not in every decision, but I believe that through our consciences, and through God’s voice, the Spirit of God lets us know the right thing to do. Certainly Jesus is our primary model of following the right course of action, in spite of the consequences…when he knowingly went to the cross for our sake.

2) How would our lives look different…if we quit believing in coincidences?

The more we talk about things happening by pure chance, the more we try to convince ourselves that God is unable to orchestrate them. Look at this story of Esther, all of the things that must line up in order for the Jews to be saved:

• a vacancy for a queen,
• Esther being the right age and beauty for the moment,
• Mordecai’s discovery of a plot against the king,
• Esther approaching the king at the right time,
• the king’s insomnia,
• turning the history book to the right page

…on and on. Any one of these events could just happen, of course. But when you line them up, and realize that each step HAD to happen to save all of these people, it is difficult to believe that the hand of God was not involved.

You’ve had things like this happen…so have I. You are in a tough time, and an old friend drops by at just the right moment. You meet your future spouse because the carpool to the church retreat amazingly has only two people in it: you and him.

Six years ago, we moved to a church in Minnesota. We felt like God was calling us there, though for the life of us we couldn’t figure out why. Lots of things happened over three years, but one thing that happened was that the senior pastor of the church suddenly had to retire on medical disability, and we were already there and available to help the church through some of the grief and transition.

Now how does this all work? Where does God’s hand move, and where do we move of our own accord, where is the line between God’s providence and our free will? That’s a whole separate topic! But if we quit attributing so many things to coincidence, we might be more able to see where God is guiding us.

3) How would our lives look different if…we believed God wanted to use us right where we are?

“Who knows?,” Mordecai says, “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can change…our job, our neighborhood, or whatever. And there’s nothing wrong with that…unless our rush to change means we miss what God has for us where we are.

“Who knows? Perhaps you live in the neighborhood you do for just this time…for just the family that you have met there.”

Who knows? Perhaps you are in your job because God wants to reach someone through you.

Who knows? Maybe you’ve been able to achieve a position of responsibility so that God might work through you in a particular way.”

Who knows? And since we don’t know…we need to be watching for where God might be at work.

Our lives would be radically different…if we believed that, whether we see it or understand it all…God is everywhere in YOUR story, and in mine. And Esther helps us realize that.

This morning, we get to share in the Lord’s Supper together. Each time we come to this table, something marvelous goes on. We reaffirm that God is in our stories, in our lives. We remember again that God has provided for us in Jesus Christ, that WE are the people that God has saved… Saved from ourselves. Saved from sin. Saved from lives without meaning. We experience God’s touch and presence as we come to the One who said, “Come to me all you who bear heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” And so if you would draw near to Jesus this morning…you are invited to his table.