“By Faith – Esther”

Scripture: Esther 4:1-17

Last week, we considered the faith of Job – a man who was, by God’s description, a righteous man. He had been greatly blessed in life, but through the Lord’s agreement with Satan, had lost nearly all that he had. Even in this struggle, though, his faith in God never wavered. Today, we examine the faith of another person, but one whose life had its own ups and downs.

Esther had been born in captivity, and there is a high probability that her parents may have been born there, too. She was of the tribe of Benjamin (Esther 2:5-7), but in life, she was, for all practical purposes, a Persian. The Persian-Medo Empire had conquered Babylon before Esther was even born, and the present king, Xerxes, commanded a huge empire, extending from the Mediterranean through today’s Iran, and from Turkey to the Indian Ocean.

Xerxes found himself in need of a new queen, when he banished Queen Vasti from his presence for disobedience. So he ordered that a search be made for the most beautiful young virgin in the entire empire. Esther, among many other young girls, were chosen to be interviewed by the King, and after many months of preparation, she was finally chosen to become Queen of the empire.

Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, had raised her when her parents died years earlier, and he continued to be a faithful, if not unofficial advisor. He would covered a plot to assassinate the king, and through Esther, was able to warn of the treason and save the monarch’s life. But an advisor to the king – Haman – discovered that Mordecai was a Jew, and, because of a great degree of hatred and jealousy against him, and with a great deal of intrigue involved, plotted to have all the Jews, throughout the empire, executed. And this is where we begin in our text for today.

Read Esther 4:1-5

Mordecai goes into mourning, and whether it is out of a sense of hopelessness or a sense of guilt over his bringing the impending calamity upon his people, puts on sackcloth and ashes and heads through the city to sit at the king’s (and Esther’s!) gate.
As queen, Esther has an extensive entourage of servants. They must have known that Mordecai was her cousin, and therefore, that she, too, was a Jewess. But out of loyalty to the queen, they would never reveal this fact. And when they discover Mordecai’s lament at the gate, they report this to Esther.

Esther, and the Jewish community in captivity, remained faithful, at least in spirit, to their Almighty God. They would have studied together, but could never worship because that could only be accomplished at the rebuilt temple (See the book of Ezra) in Jerusalem, which they couldn’t get to. It is also interesting to note that the name of Jehovah God is never even mentioned in this book, and yet God’s presence and activity is so apparent.

Somehow Esther had been able to keep her heritage secret. It is unclear as to what the consequences might have been for her, but at the very least, she obviously felt that it would not do her any good to reveal the fact of her blood line, and her servants honored her desire.
So she was confident in trusting her servant Hathach to contact Mordecai to discover the reason for his predicament.

Read Esther 4:6-11

Mordecai reveals the plot and all the details to Hathach. It is unclear how the cousin learned of such intimate details, but he shares them all with Esther’s trusted servant, who, in turn, relates them to the queen. Mordecai expects that Esther will do as he asks – after all, he had raised her since she was a child and she had always trusted him in the past. But now, Esther’s faith seems to be a bit shaky, for her greatest concern is for her own safety, and not of saving her fellow Jews from annihilation.
Had she lived as a Persian for too many years? Had she begun to think in a more secular way? Had she forgotten who she actually was? Was she enjoying the royal life so much that she had no desire to return to the old way?
Esther’s story is a lot like ours, isn’t it. Issues surrounding our personal security and secular success always seems to raise their ugly heads at the worst possible times. A job promotion requires work on Sundays and socializing with your customers most evenings. Faith and family begin to take a back seat to the demands of the world. We find our self with people who aren’t Christians, and when the conversation turns heatedly against Christian principles, we find that silence is the easiest way out. When our children’s sports teams schedule practice and games on Sunday mornings, we decide that skipping worship for a few months is easier than taking a stand in favor of worship.

Esther knew that approaching the king without an invitation could bring about dire consequences, and her safety issues would quickly take precedence over doing the one thing that she was uniquely positioned for. But it had been a month since she had been called to appear before the king, and it’s certainly possible that her royal favor had begun to wane. But the need for her to approach the king was still vitally important. What should she do?

Esther wasn’t the first person in scripture to hesitate in her faith-call, and she wouldn’t be the last. Moses had offered up a number of objections to God when he was instructed to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land (Exodus 4:10-17). When Jeremiah was called to be a prophet, he replied that he was unsuited for such an exalted position because he was only a child (Jeremiah 1:4-8). Thomas refused to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead until he could put his finger in the nail holes and his hand into the wound made by the spear (John 20:24-29). Esther wasn’t alone – not then, and not now. When have we hesitated to trust the Lord?

Read Esther 4:12-17

Even though Esther had been thinking only of herself, Mordecai continues to have the entire community in his heart, and he points out the consequences of her reluctance – that just because she is the queen, that doesn’t mean that she will be spared. Either she takes the initiative, or God (even though he isn’t specifically mentioned) will use another means to save the people, and she and her entire family will suffer the wrath of God. Being a child of Israel brings with it obligations and consequences, whether they remember, or admit that or not.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ also brings with it obligations and consequences, but for each of us, the responsibilities and commitments may be different. Remember the parable of the Talents? (Matthew 25:14-30) One servant was given 5 talents to care for, another 2, and a third was given 1, “each according to his ability”. The first two doubled the money entrusted to them, and were rewarded beyond imagination. The third buried the money that was entrusted to him, and at the accounting, he not only lost all that he had, but he was thrown out of the Master’s presence. Christ’s call on each of our lives is unique, but by our confession of Jesus as Lord and Savior, we also accept the responsibility that Jesus assigns to us. We can be faithful to His call and know the Lord’s blessings beyond measure, or we can deny the call and lose all that God has promised us.

Esther would finally accept the call, even though she wasn’t all that confident in the outcome! She was fully aware that death was the sentence for violating the edict of the king, but she had also come to know the necessity of the responsibility that God had placed on her. But just as Esther did, we don’t have to work for the Lord alone – she asked for prayer and fasting from all of the Jews in Susa, and she, along with all of her servants, would pray and fast, too. And as we all know, prayer is powerful! (James 5:16)

Esther would take the risk, the plot would be exposed, the duplicity of Haman would be revealed, and not only would the threat to the Jews be overturned, but Haman and his sons would all be executed. And since the king’s edict to destroy the Jews could not be withdrawn, he issued an additional order that they were allowed to defend themselves, which they did, and which was highly effective.

By faith, Esther would open the way to save all of God’s people throughout the Persian Empire, and that day of salvation would be remembered even to this day through the celebration of Purim. Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter as two days closely associated with our salvation, but how often do we celebrate our own personal day of salvation – the day we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior?

Maybe we should start! Maybe we all should be more like Esther!