Take A Stand

Esther 4:4-17

When Queen Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was deeply distressed. She sent to him clothing to replace the burlap, but he refused it. Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been appointed as her attendant. She ordered him to go to Mordecai and find out what was troubling him and why he was in mourning. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the square in front of the palace gate.

Mordecai told him the whole story, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasure for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued in Susa that called for the death of all Jews. He asked Hathach to show it to Esther and explain the situation to her. He also asked Hathach to direct her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people. So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.

Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.” So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.

Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Background and Context:

The book of Esther opens up by telling us about King Xerxes, who had become a very powerful and successful ruler. His kingdom spanned 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. Xerxes decided he would hold a banquet to celebrate his greatness. The bible describes it as “a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.”

King Xerxes had a wife, queen Vashti, who was very beautiful woman. In the midst of his feast at a point where he was in high spirits he decided he wanted his queen to come into his presence wearing her crown so that all the people of the land could admire her beauty. The king was trying to show off, but the queen was not interested in being paraded around like a thoroughbred horse and declined his invitation.

Her disobedience angered him and he sought the council of his many wise advisors. They came to the conclusion that the queen’s actions would encourage all women in the empire to treat their husbands with contempt because the queen had done so to the king. To avoid this so called disastrous scenario they decided that the king should issue a decree that banished queen Vashti from his presence forever more. The king liked this and issued the decree but soon realized that he missed his wife.  To rectify this, the kings advisors said that he should seek out a new queen to replace Vashti and a search throughout the empire began.

Esther was a young virgin who was being raised by her cousin following the death of her parents. She was beautiful girl and of age to be presented before the king. When Esther was presented to king Xerxes, she pleased him far more than any of the other young girls that were presented to him and he immediately placed the crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Esther did not disclose her family background as she had been instructed by her cousin, Mordecai, not to do so.

Mordecai had become a palace official and during his service he overheard a plot to assassinate the king, which he passed on to queen Esther, who told the king and gave Mordecai credit for the information.

There was a man called Haman who the king promoted above all other nobles and made the most powerful official in the empire. All the kings officials would bow before him and show him respect when he passed, except Mordecai.

Haman was deeply angered that Mordecai would not bow to him and decided that he would not only destroy Mordecai, but he would destroy all his people as well.

Haman constructed a reason to destroy the Jews and went to the king to lay a proposal and proposed to pay 10,000 large sacks of silver in order to gain permission to destroy all the Jews scattered throughout the empire of Persia. The king agreed and issued the decree causing the fortress of Susa to fall into a state of confusion.

There are no mistakes

If you were to look at Esther’s life you would think: “what a poor girl to suffer such misfortune as to lose both her parents” or “how kind of her cousin to adopt her and raise her as his own daughter” you may even think “first they were exiled from Jerusalem and now she has lost her parents. What else is going to go wrong for her?”.

What if I said to you that all that happened to Esther, however unfortunate it was, happened so that she could be where she needed to be for God to fulfil the purpose that he had for her life?

What if I said that sometimes the circumstance that surrounds you is there to put you right where God wants you to be so that he can use you for his glory?

Esther was taken from her home with Mordecai and placed in the kings harem because she was a virgin of the right age. So again, she was a victim of her circumstances. She really didn’t have much choice in being taken to be part of the kings harem. The bible tells us that Hegai, the kings attendant who was in charge of his harem, was impressed with Esther and treated her kindly. God gave Esther favor above all the young girls in the harem. We are told that Hegai, prescribed a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments. He assigned her seven maids specially chosen from the kings palace and he even moved them into the best place in the harem. Hegai probably didn’t even know why he was so impressed with Esther, if you asked him he would probably say “I don’t know what it is but there is something special about her. There is something that makes her stand out but I just don’t know what it is. There is a glow, an aura, a countenance that none of the other girls have.”

Even in a circumstance that had been thrust upon her Esther had favor. God touched the heart of Hegai making him show special attention and care towards Esther.

When you belong to God, no matter what the circumstance is, you will find that God will assign someone to care for you. Help will come from somewhere you are not expecting it. People who you do not know will show you kindness and special favor. You will be attended to and taken care of.

I remember my graduate appointment. I was assigned to a team which produced reports for National Grid and I conducted some analysis on the accuracy of data from some weather stations in the UK. My report had a number of recommendations and it needed to be issued to senior executives to enable them to make a decision on the future of these weather stations. I wrote the report and I believed it was an amazing report, as you do, but unfortunately it wasn’t. It was dismal and it needed to be re-written. Now I had a lead statistician who I reported to who looked out for me, and really helped me out on a daily basis. I also had a project manager who I didn’t think liked me very much. He was always very abrupt with me and was highly critical of me and it turned out that he was the person who would be reviewing my report before it was issued. He read my report and he took it apart completely. I had never seen so many comments and red marks before and I was actually frustrated and disappointed. To top it off, he put a meeting in the diary for 9am the following morning and I took this as a bad sign. I thought to myself “I’ve had it! He’s going to have HR with him and I am going to be in serious trouble”. I turned up to the meeting ready to be chastised further but instead received a coaching session on report writing. He explained to me that the content was good but the structure was all wrong. He gave me examples to look at and then worked with me to restructure my report into something that was effective and achieved its purpose. My help came from the most unlikely place and the help I received gave me skills that propelled my career to a level beyond my expectations.

God used the person I least expected to give me a set of skills that to this day, set me apart from many people. He used someone I didn’t expect to teach me skills I now use in ministry.

When God has purpose for you, he will use every circumstance in your life to get the skills you need to fulfil your purpose into you. He will use people you never expected to teach you and care for you. It may look to you like you are in the wrong place but God doesn’t make mistakes. Even when we walk the wrong way, God will put opportunities for course correction in our path.

Be humble, ready and receptive

Esther was being prepared in many ways for the position that she had to play in a soon to come future. She was being made ready for a king who would find immense pleasure in her and be willing to do anything for her.

Mordecai had raised Esther as his own. The bible does not go into the details of how he cared for her and raised her but it does enlighten us that Esther and Mordecai shared a special relationship.

Mordecai checked on Esther regularly to see how she was doing throughout the time she was in the king’s harem. He advised her and she heeded his advice. She was obedient to his instruction and she obeyed the requirements of her role.

Mordecai himself also had a role to play. He had a role he had to fulfil as a palace official and he observed his role with humility and loyally served at the palace. In Esther 2 we are told of a time in Mordecai’s service to king Xerxes where he learns of a plot to assassinate the king and he takes this information to queen Esther, who relays it to king Xerxes crediting Mordecai for the report. Mordecai could have chosen to turn a blind eye at this point. He could have said to himself that Xerxes was not his king for he was a Jew and the Jews were in exile in a foreign land. He could have come up with plenty of excuses why he should turn a blind eye to this plot and allow it to happen but instead he passed the information on and served as a loyal official to the king. He carried out his role in the place with integrity and held steadfast to his morals.

Sometimes holding on to your values can put you at odds with people in authority. It is human nature to become puffed up at ones position and stature. It is rare to find people that remain humble as success comes their way. Even in the body of Christ, people become puffed up in their positions as pastors, elders, deacons, teachers or whatever title they have been given. People become so impressed with where they have been elevated to that they forget that they were put there and it was not by their own doing. One cannot promote himself/herself for someone else of greater stead and authority will come and appoint someone else to the position that is being claimed. Furthermore when it comes to the kingdom of God the higher God allows you to be promoted in service to him, the smaller you need to become. Promotion in the kingdom is to a higher level of servitude therefore you need to become less so that God can become more. You need to serve more so that God can be further glorified but as I said, it is human nature to become puffed up by promotion.

This was true of a man named Haman. He was promoted by king Xerxes to the highest post making him the most powerful official in the Persian empire. His promotion meant that when he walked by, other officials bowed to him and showed him respect. His promotion not only promoted his status but also promoted his ego.

Mordecai refused to bow to Haman or show him respect as the king had ordered. Now we can only assume that his refusal was due to the ethnicity of Haman and its significance to the Jews. The did not mention the origin of any other officials and it also goes on to express that Haman did not like the fact that Mordecai was a Jew. He was not satisfied with laying hands on Mordecai alone but sought to destroy all Jews.

Mordecai’s decision to ignore the command of the king in relation to Haman seems to stem from a history between the Agagites and the Jews. We are not party to what this history is but it is clear that Haman is not fond of the Jews and Mordecai is not fond of the Agagites. Either way, there was bad blood between the two of them and given his new found position of authority, Haman was going to do everything in his power to destroy the Jews.

In our lives we have our very own Haman to deal with. We have people that we believe have nothing but bad intentions toward us and especially when it comes to our kingdom family we have people out there who seem to be dedicated to destroying the lives and liberties of the Christian community.

As Christians we are told that we spew hate and intolerance when we share what we believe. We are told that our views are old fashioned and dated. We are told that we are not accepting of others and their lifestyles because we choose to believe biblical principles. These are the people I would class as the ‘Haman’ that the Christian community has to deal with. To these people I challenge with this. True Christianity is based in love and acceptance of the individual, irrespective of what they believe and their lifestyle. Am I any better than someone because I am a Christian? Of course not! It was the same Jesus that died for my sins and wrong doings that died for ever other individual. We are the people that have created a scale for sin. In the eyes of God, sin is sin and all sin is displeasing to God in the same manner. There is no sin that is worse than another so how dare I judge someone because their sin is not the same as mine? I don’t have the right and neither does any other Christian. I’ll tell you this, any Christian that does not impart mercy and grace in the manner that it has been imparted to them does not understand what Christianity is about. Jesus came for all and the bible is very clear when it says “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. It doesn’t says “for all have sinned but some sinned only a little bit so they are cool and can judge the rest that they feel have sinned more than them”. In doing so, you are committing the same sin that got Lucifer kicked out of heaven. You are filled with pride and puffing yourself up as though you did something to earn your love from God. Anyway, I digress! Back to the main topic.

Mordecai told Esther to withhold the information about her family background and nationality. We are not told reasoning behind this decision but none the less it is an important part of Esther’s story. Esther demonstrated a humble and obedient spirit as she not only heeded the instruction of Mordecai as though she were still living under his roof but she also listened to and accepted the advice of Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, and asked for nothing more than what he suggested. The bible goes on to say that she was admired by everyone who saw her and I believe that her obedience resulted in favor. Obedience breeds favor and I believe this biblical principle applies in every area of life. Obviously when someone is asking you to do something dishonest and illegal, following that advice is just stupidity and unfortunately there is no cure for that!

Even when she had been made queen Esther did not reveal her family background or nationality. Esther served as queen, respected the laws of the king and was loyal to him in her duty as queen. She observed the law of the land she was living in and fulfilled her role as queen. Esther did not reveal her nationality until the time was right.

We as Christians do not walk into places and say “Hi, my name is John and I’m a Christian”. It would be extremely odd and inappropriate. I do believe that our Christianity should be visible in the way that we live and people should know that there is something different about us. The glory of God should shine through us and we should be light to others. As Christians we have many opportunities to demonstrate our faith in how we conduct ourselves, in the respect we show others, by how we carry out our roles at work and how we conduct ourselves in business. Most importantly, the way we love others unconditionally. With all that said, there comes a time when you will be required to make a bold confession of faith and be vocal. It may be that there are some misconceptions about Christians being spewed in your office and you need to stand and challenge those views or it may just be that you see some injustice in the world and you want to offer a none judgmental viewpoint that expresses the love of God. Whatever the scenario is, there will come a point when you have to take a stand and declare your Christianity.

Esther was hesitant when her opportunity arose, and she did what we all naturally do. We make an excuse as to why we can’t do something or more to the point, why we won’t do something. The response that Mordecai gives her is stunning and is pertinent for Christians today. He says this:

“don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

We think that our position will make us exempt for persecution or ridicule. In most cases we think that our faith will cause of colleagues, our friends, our employers or whoever it may be to think of us differently or to deem us incompetent or inept in our roles. What if, as Mordecai told Esther, you were placed in that specific place for such a time as this? What if that very moment where you have a chance to speak up is the reason that God placed you where you were?

I recall a moment in a meeting where a conversation about the banking crisis of 2008 came up. We were talking about greed and somehow we got on to the topic of how certain people responsible for such crimes are never prosecuted. We then moved on to the difference between the legal system and the justice system. At that point I offered my opinion and I felt led to say why I believed this. I could have ignored this urge but I had already made up my mind that I would no longer be afraid to share my faith even if it resulted in me losing contracts with major institutions. I told the people in my meeting that I did not know their background or what they believed in but I take a biblical view on life and in the eyes of God all sin is equal and therefore only God is just and can repay people justly for the wrong that the do. Interestingly enough, the whole room came alive and people started to profess their faith and the conversation soon became about how we as Christians have become too timid and afraid because of how we feel people will react.

I am not telling you to act out and just shout irrationally about your faith, I am saying that when the time comes, will you stand in the face of what may look like adversity and resistance and declare your biblical viewpoint?

Esther approached her situation with wisdom. She sought the face of God and fasted 3 days and 3 nights before she approached the king. She was resolute in her mind that she would speak up and stand even if it cost her everything and her life. In our daily lives we need to be bold and brave knowing that if God has given us an opportunity to take a stand, then it means that we are not standing alone and he is standing behind us.

We can do all thing through Christ who strengthens us but the first step is that step of faith. Be brave and step out of the shadow when your time comes. If we remain silent in the face of injustice and persecution then God will raise up one who is not afraid and the one who is will become salt with no taste whose fate is to be thrown out and trampled under feet as worthless.

I wish I had more time to really get into this story but I’ve had to try and be as brief as I could, but I hope I have done it justice. Do not forget the liberty that the grace of God gives you. Remember that grace is not a thing, grace came as a man and grace is seated at the right hand of the father interceding on our behalf.