Esther: For Such A Time As This
Series: EstherPastor Ed Riddick - Sunday, January 8th, 2006
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I. Her name
Her parents named her Hadasseh which means myrtle after a beautiful flowering tree.
Her Persian name was Esther, which means star
Could have been for a number of reasons.
After Ishtar the pagan goddess
May have received it because the myrtle tree bears a beautiful
star-like flower.
May have been to hide her Jewish identity.
For whatever reason she was full of beauty and grace.
And she became a great blessing to her people and to the gentiles as well.
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”” NIV
Proverbs 31:10, 30 ” A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” NIV
Luke 16:15 “He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” NIV
She was a commoner from the village.
She was an orphan
She was raised by her older cousin, Mordecai.
She was a foreigner who embraced a country not her own.
II. Her Story
The events of her story take place during the Persian period of ancient history (539-321 B.C.) during the reign of King Xerxes 486-464 B.C. It portrays only a brief, but important slice of her life.
Biblically her story takes place between Ezra 1-6 and 7-10.
Many Jews have returned from exile in Babylon to Palestine.
Esther’s family preferred the comforts of the Persian Empire.
Xerxes: Had a very bad temper especially when drinking
A Failed Bridge
They then began to build bridges across the Hellespont from Abydos to that headland between Sestus and Madytus, the Phoenicians building one of ropes made from flax, and the Egyptians building a second one out of papyrus. From Abydos to the opposite shore it is a distance of almost two-thirds of a mile. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm came on and cut apart and scattered all their work.
Xerxes flew into a rage at this, and he commanded that the Hellespont be struck with three hundred strokes of the whip and that a pair of foot-chains be thrown into the sea. It’s even been said that he sent off a rank of branders along with the rest to the Hellespont! He also commanded the scourgers to speak outlandish and arrogant words: “You hateful water, our master lays his judgement on you thus, for you have unjustly punished him even though he’s done you no wrong! Xerxes the king will pass over you, whether you wish it or not! It is fitting that no man offer you sacrifices, for you’re a muddy and salty river!” In these ways he commanded that the sea be punished and also that the heads be severed from all those who directed the bridging of the Hellespont.
A Father’s Request
As he marched out the army, Pythias the Lydian, dreading the heavenly omen and encouraged by the gifts given to him by Xerxes, came up to Xerxes and said, “Master, I wish to ask a favor of you, which would be a small favor for you to render, but would be a great favor for me to receive.” Xerxes, thinking that he knew everything Pythias could ask for, answered that he would grant the favor and asked him to proclaim what it was he wished. “Master, it happens that I have five sons, and they are all bound to soldier for you against the Greeks. I pray you, king, that you have pity on one who has reached my age and that you set free one of my sons, even the oldest, from your army, so that he may provide for me and my possessions. Take the other four with you, and may you return having accomplished all you intended.”
Xerxes flew into a horrible rage and replied, “You villainous man, you have the effrontery, seeing me marching with my army against the Greeks, with my sons and brothers and relatives and friends, to remind me of your son, you, my slave, who should rather come with me with your entire household, including your wife! You may now be certain of this, that since the spirit lives in a man’s ears, hearing good words it fills the body with delight, when it hears the opposite it swells up. When you at one time performed well and promised more, you had no reason to boast that you outperformed your king in benefits; and now that you have turned most shameless, you shall receive less than what you deserve. You and four of your sons are saved because of your hospitality; but one of your sons, the one you most desire to hold your arms around, will lose his life!” Having answered thus, he commanded those charged to accomplish this to find the eldest of Pythias’s sons and cut him in half, and having cut him in two to set one half of his corpse on the right side of the road and the other on the left side, and between these the army moved forth.339
Two Banquets:
The first was 180 and involved his advisors, the regional rulers and his military leaders.
The text does not specifically tell us why the king held such an elaborate celebration, but it seems clear his intent was to display his power and glory to those in his kingdom (1:4). Secular history may shed light. The following year Ahasuerus will wage war against the Greeks.
~ a pep rally. Noblemen and women from the many provinces (127) of this kingdom were present to behold the great power of this king and to see first hand that he was capable of undertaking great tasks (such as this six-month banquet)
~ planning the military campaign which was to be waged against Greece. The king is most certainly out to make an impression on his guests so that they will submit to and support his leadership as he enters into battle
Retell the story
III. The Story
Many Christians suffer from what I have come to call a “pious bias.” Simply put, “pious bias” is the presumption that all the people we find in the Bible were “pious”. We are therefore reluctant to see Jonah as the scoundrel he is: willful, arrogant, rebellious, and (worse yet) self-righteous. Here is a man who stations himself outside the city of Nineveh so that he can watch the entire city (including innocent children and cattle) go up in flames, even when he knows that God has purposed to save it.
You cannot read Esther without asking questions. Why is there no reference to God or religious activities? Why does Esther hide her Jewish identity? Why is there no reference to the Feast of Passover even though the date for that feast may be inferred? Why did Vashti not appear before the king? Why did Mordecai refuse to bow to Haman, and why does Haman react so out of proportion? Did Ahasuerus ever have an original thought? Did anyone ever eat at the banquets or only drink? Why did Esther not just come out and accuse Haman instead of doing the two banquets?
You can see that Esther is a deeper book than meets the eye, but what purpose do these literary devices serve? The answer is that they underpin the central message in this book, which is the providential care of God for His people.
Let me clarify this term.
Providence means foresight. Our word comes from Latin (pro video) and means to see the affairs of life before they happen. (Vs Hindsight bias) The acquired meaning of providence, what it has come to mean through usage, is activity resulting from foresight. We can see at once that people can never exercise providence as God can. We have very limited powers of foresight. We do not know what a day will bring forth (Prov. 27:1). God, on the other hand, foresees all things and can act because of that foreknowledge.
The theological doctrine of providence is that God both possesses and exercises absolute power over all the works of His hands.
A. The Method of Providence
It shows that even though people do not acknowledge God’s presence He is always at work. His control becomes especially clear at the end of the book (10:3). Events had turned around completely from the way they were at the beginning of the book. Instead of being in peril, the Jews were now at peace. God not only rules over the major issues in life, but He also uses the trivialities of life to accomplish His purposes. Some of these trivialities were: the king’s decision to summon Vashti after he got drunk, Vashti’s refusal, Haman’s hatred for Mordecai, the king’s insomnia, and the passage his servant read to him.
God’s providence is all-inclusive. That is part of its method. No person or detail of life escapes God’s control (Rom. 8:28). “All things” includes all individuals and all events.
B. The Principles of Providence
God proceeds on the basis of perfect knowledge: intimate, accurate, absolute knowledge (Ps. 11:4).
Another principle of His providence is His undeviating righteousness. God’s providence works in harmony with man’s freedom. It never coerces people. The king made his own decisions; God did not compel him to act as he did. Haman plotted his own intrigues, made his own arrangements, built his own gallows. The same was true of Mordecai and Esther. Yet the sphere in which they made their decisions was God’s sovereignty (Acts 17:28a). Haman built his gallows, but God hanged him on it.
A third principle of God’s providence is that of absolute power. God is reat enough to give people genuine freedom and yet cause things to turn ut the way He wants them to. God causes human freedom to contribute to is divine purpose. We cannot comprehend this truth completely. We annot contain revelation within reason. That is why it is impossible to ring all of revelation into a comprehensive philosophy. Philosophy is that is reasonable, but revelation goes beyond reason. Not that it is irrational; it simply transcends reason.
C. The Results of Providence
On the human level there are two results. To those who recognize divine providence comes great confidence and courage. However to those who do not come panic and punishment. We can see this most clearly in the characters of Esther and Mordecai, and in Haman.
On the divine level the result of providence is that God progresses toward His ultimate goal. Throughout all of Scripture we see this identical mighty movement.
The message of this book is that God is, and God acts through history to accomplish His purposes regardless of whether humans acknowledge Him or not.