Esther 3 The Danger of Obedience

Well, good morning. Welcome. Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here and I just want to say thanks for coming. I am very glad that you're here. A couple of announcements to kind of get started.

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And we do pray for you throughout the week if you fill that out. So we appreciate getting those back. Now, I'm really glad to be back. I missed you guys the last couple of weeks. Obviously, I was here last week, but I wasn't in the pulpit preaching and I really missed that.

I'm glad to be back. Had a good vacation and this thing came with me. So like something grew on my face and it just stayed. So here it is. I think it's maybe the inner mountain man in me coming out from being down.

I don't know. Okay, that's enough about that. We'll see if it hangs around. I really am grateful for Preachers Willing to kind of step up while I was gone. My brother-in-law coming from Ohio to bring the Word.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed that. And then also very grateful, very thankful for an elder team here who is willing to step up in my absence and is willing to bring the Word. I recognize and I experience what a weight that can be sometimes bringing the Word of God.

And so I'm very thankful for Zach Lloyd presenting last week, particularly on the topic of prayer, a sermon that challenged me and hopefully challenged you as well. We're going to shift gears. Hopefully we're able to mentally shift gears and jump into worshiping God.

And at the beginning, I like to kind of introduce the text. And so we're going to be jumping back into the book of Esther. We've been gone from that for a couple of weeks. But so let me catch us up to speed.

We've seen the hand of God working through circumstances and events. Our sovereign God, we're looking at His working in history, in the life of the Jews who have been exiled into a foreign land. How many of you would like to be exiled into a foreign land, like somebody conquers Michigan and drags you to Canada?

Okay. I mean, that's just weird. I mean, that doesn't even make sense. But would you enjoy that? I don't think so. I don't think we'd like to be conquered very well, but that's what happened. And we see God working through circumstances to raise up a Jew who is among the minority of her people.

And she is raised up and elevated to the position of queen over all of Persia. An amazing circumstance. And we've done that already. We've been there in the text. And the setting is 500 years. Those of you who enjoy history, 500 years before the life of Christ.

So that's when Esther fits into chronology. And they've been exiled, like I said, to a foreign land. In our text this morning, we're going to see that persecution is real and that following God and taking a stand for the worship of God has ramifications for our lives.

Now, granted, sometimes when you take a stand, like think about your workplace. You take a stand for God and you speak about Him. Sometimes cool things happen, like Christians come out of the woodwork.

Have any of you ever had that experience where suddenly, like you're all nervous and you're like afraid to tell somebody you're a Christian and then you tell them and they're like, me too. It's like awesome, let's get together and pray at lunchtime.

Awesome, great. Have you been there? Okay, where it's like you're scared, they're scared, and all of a sudden you're a brother and sister in Christ or brothers in Christ or whatever. But sometimes it doesn't go that way, right?

Sometimes it's like, I'm a Christian and they're like, Christians suck. And you're like, oh, oh no. Have any of you experienced that? Okay, and it's like now you're on their blacklist and things don't go well for you.

So persecution is real and that's what we're going to encounter here in this text. But I would suggest to you that it's often in our lives at the darkest places and sometimes in the darkest times that the glory of God shines the brightest.

When things feel and seem hopeless, hold your breath and wait for God to break through. Have you experienced that part of life? Sometimes things have to get pretty dark before we see the shining of the glory of God.

And by the end of this text things will be pretty dark. It's a little bit heavy. Things will seem relatively hopeless. And so what we see here in Esther chapter 3 is actually the darkening before the dawn.

It's like the grave before the resurrection. And that's what we're going to see in our text. The Jewish race will seem like it is on the brink of extinction and that God's great promise is that a Messiah, one would come and be born of the Jews who would save all people.

And it's like, how can one be born of the Jews if the Jews are extinct? If they're done away with historically, how is Jesus going to come to earth through a Jew if there are no Jews? Get it? So that's what we're looking at and that's a pretty dark time in history.

And for some reason, God, I don't really get it, but I've experienced this in my own life, I've seen it in other people's life, and I don't really know why, but God loves to rush in at the best moment, which is often the last moment, and save the day.

Have you experienced that? The last moment, it's like, I don't really know how this is going to work out. And then God comes in. You see, our God is a rescuer, and as we come to worship this morning, and as the team comes to lead us, I want you to think about these things.

God is a rescuer. Our God is a redeemer. He is a savior. And He often does so in the darkest circumstances of life. But I think first, sometimes, we have to see the darkness. We have to look in the mirror and see our own depravity and see our own sinfulness and see dark times in order to appreciate the light all the more.

And that's what we're going to see in our text. So I want you to open your Bibles to Esther chapter 3. If you want to take the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you, take that out. It's easy to find.

Page 354, page 354 in that Bible. And if you're here with us this morning and you don't own a Bible, please take that one with you. It's our desire that everybody owns a copy of Scripture. But follow along with me as I read Esther chapter 3, which is page 354 in that Bible.

Follow along as I read. After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hemeditha, and advanced him and set his throne above the officials who were with him. And all the king's servants, who were at the king's gate, bowed down and paid homage to Haman.

For the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king's servants, who were at the king's gate, said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king's command?

And when they spoke to him day after day, and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury, but he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone.

So as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast purr, that is, they cast lots, before Haman day after day, and they cast it month after month, till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad, and dispersed among the people, in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them.

If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries.

So the king took a signet ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of Hemeditha, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, The money is given to you, the people also, to do to them as it seems good to you.

Then the king's scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king's satraps, and to the governors over all the provinces, and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script, and every people in its own language.

It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed with the king's signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces, with instructions to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province, and proclaimed to all the people to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel.

And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. Let's pray. Father, we come to a text, historical, fairly dark, really talking about some heavy themes like genocide, and evil wickedness of pride in one man's heart that leads to his desire and hunger for the destruction of an entire people, your people.

And we can get lost in some of the details and misunderstand that this applies to us, that we can see ourselves in this text if we would open our eyes and see that sometimes we go through the darkness and sometimes we have to recognize that we are in a hopeless state without you intervening.

That we would be an enemy to our own souls, that we would be self-destructive and bring ourselves down to the grave if it was not for your grace and your mercy to us. And so Father, we are in desperate need of you to break into our circumstances today, this week, that you would show us your power and your glory, and that Father, as we sing these songs that we would exude praise to the one who has saved us, the one who has provided a way through Jesus Christ.

I pray that you would be with us to turn our attention and our focus to you who sits on the throne of the entire universe this morning. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, big thanks to the band for leading us in worship.

I appreciate the work and the time and the effort that they put into it, knowing that the point is that we worship God, not that we just listen to good music or sing along. So, if you would, if you need to at any time, it looks like maybe there's literally five donut holes left up here and maybe three back there, my wife is saying.

So, help yourself. Two now. And there's some juice and some coffee. So, feel free to get up. All I'm saying is just make yourself at home, feel comfortable to get up at any time if you need to during the next dozen minutes, several minutes.

Last time we were together, we were going through the book of Esther and we saw a very short text, this would have been three weeks ago now, where we saw that there was a plot to kill King Xerxes. Now, everywhere you see in the text of Esther the name Aesurus, that's actually the Hebrew form of the name Xerxes.

So, like the ancient historical king, have any of you heard the name Xerxes before? King over, has anybody here ever seen the movie 300? Oh, gruesome. That's that king that was, the king of Persia that was attacking Greece at the time.

That's what that's all about. Xerxes is the king and we saw that there was a plot to assassinate him. Two of his guards that guarded the threshold to the king's palace, guarded the gate into the king's palace, had plotted together, they got angry at some policy that he had made or something.

They wanted him dead and one of his scribes named Mordecai, a good Jew, who is also the adopted father of Queen Esther, foiled the plot. He found out, uncovered it. Some of you remember that from when we were together last time.

So, what would you expect kind of to happen if one of the servants of the king foiled a plot to assassinate him? What would you think would logically flow from that? Some form of reward, right? Wouldn't you expect him to get some kind of commendation, some kind of reward, a medal pinned on his shirt or something, right?

And so, it's ironic when we come to the beginning of Esther chapter 3 that we find somebody rewarded. And it is not Mordecai. Somebody else is going to get promoted in his place. He's not even remembered in this text for what he did.

It's like we've just moved on and we actually are introduced to an individual, a vile and evil man named Haman. And this is the first time that we encounter Haman in the text and he's going to prove to be the bad guy throughout the remainder of the text.

He's promoted, it says in the text, he's advanced and set above all the officials of Persia. He is in essence promoted to the position of prime minister of all of Persia, this vast empire that goes all the way from modern-day Pakistan all the way down into the middle of Africa.

A huge empire and Haman is made the prime minister of that entire area. And we're introduced to him in this text and he has become right away at verse 1 a very powerful dude in the text. So, Haman is identified as an agagite.

That probably settles everything for you, right? When you hear that Haman was an agagite, you're like, okay, I get that, right? No. What in the world is an agagite? Well, it is a reference to a former passage of Scripture, 1 Samuel 15.

If you're taking notes, if you'd kind of like to follow up on this later or have some reading throughout the week, I encourage you to read 1 Samuel 15. You'll actually find an account of a king over the Amalekites named Agag.

And that is the reference that we're seeing here. So, it's a reference back to 1 Samuel 15. You don't need to go there and turn there, but jot that down to look it up later. And he's mentioned there, but you have to go back a little bit in history.

So, the Amalekites had this king named Agag during the time of the life of King Saul over Israel. But if you go back even further to the time of Moses, the Amalekites were a thorn in the side of the Israelites all along their history.

So, you go all the way back to one of the defining moments of the nation of Israel, the Exodus. Way back with Moses, remember, they were captives in Egypt. They were slaves there. And God did a bunch of miracles and brought them out of Egypt.

And then what is the first intense, probably one of the most memorable miracles in the entire Bible? They go through the Red Sea, walk through on dry ground, and they come out the other side of the Red Sea.

The Egyptians, who are on their tail, are destroyed. And they meet a group of people called the Amalekites, who take war to them immediately. Before they get to Mount Sinai and the giving of the law and all that, they're attacked by the Amalekites, who want to eradicate them.

So, the Amalekites were a thorn in the side of the Israelites all along in the process. And so, then you fast forward a few centuries to the life of King Saul. They've now come into the land they've conquered under Joshua, which we studied last summer.

And they're in the land, and the Amalekites are still constantly bringing war to them. And God tells King Saul, he says, it's time. Your military power is strong. Stop letting them bring the battle to you.

It's time for you to go take the battle to them and eradicate them. Destroy them. It's time. Okay, they've been a thorn in your side all along. But in the end, King Saul disobeys God's command, and he saves the life of their king, Agag, and some of the other people.

Okay, and he disobeys God. And you can read all about that, like I said, in 1 Samuel 15. But some then think that Haman was a literal descendant of King Agag. Some, like me, would believe after some study that the term Agagite came to be a phrase, a word, that meant, in essence, anti-Semitic.

So it means you are opposed to the Jews. That's what an Agagite meant, even during the time that we're looking at here of Esther. And just to give you a little tidbit of information about that, the word Agagite is still a Hebrew word that is used today.

Jews in Israel will occasionally refer to a particular Palestinian as an Agagite. That's a phrase that is actually used in politics today. So you get this notion that Jews still have this notion of, and still tie into this history, and see that as kind of an anti-Semitic phrase.

So that's still going on. So Haman is raised up to a high standing, so high that the king issues a command that all are to bow and pay homage to him when they come into his presence, which is something that's somewhat humorous.

As you study, and I do a lot of study every week, and as you understand the culture and the history of Persia, okay, it was quite common, like think about in Japanese culture, or Chinese culture, or even in Indian culture today, East Indian culture, what do they do for somebody who is higher than them in standing?

They'll bow, right? Bowing is pretty common in the East. It was in that culture too, so that deference to a boss, to a superior, to a grandfather, to a grandmother, was to bow to them. So it was not like, it was just a cultural norm.

Do you get that? But the king here commands people to bow to Haman. There's a little bit of irony in that, because it implies that the king did not have confidence that everybody was going to naturally bow in the presence of Haman.

I'm going to make a law that you have to, because some people were not eager to bow in the presence of Haman, and I think there's some, probably some reasons for that as we get to know Haman in this text, because it was a custom.

The fact that the king has to command it implies that, I already said that, Haman's character is going to unfold in this text. As we're going to see it unfold, it's going to become apparent that there might be some very strong reasons, because of pride and arrogance on his part, that I believe was actually there before he was raised up to high position.

How many of you know that sometimes, given responsibility, sometimes pushes out of us things that were already in there to begin with? That pride or arrogance or things like that can sometimes be accentuated by being elevated or lifted up?

It was already there to begin with. The raising up to the position does not cause it, it just gives a vent to it or gives a way for it to get out of us, and I think that's what we're seeing in Haman's case.

I'm confident that there were many in the empire who were not very pleased at Haman's promotion. Now we know from previous chapters that Mordecai was a servant in the king's gate, and he was required therefore to bow before Haman, but verse 2 states emphatically that Mordecai, the Jew, did not bow and did not pay homage to Haman.

Now we're not told explicitly, you can look in the text and try to find why did he not bow. Go ahead and look down at those verses for just a second, verses 2 and 3, see if you can see it. Is there any reason given why he didn't bow?

There isn't one there. There's no reason explicitly given, but since this is going to be a turning point, a pivot point in the entire book of Esther, because Mordecai standing here is the reason all the Jews are going to be in jeopardy.

So the fact that he takes a strong stand is going to be the point, a centerpiece of the book. Are you understanding what I'm saying as far as a pivot point? He makes a stand and now all the Jews are going to be in jeopardy because of one man's decision to defy the king in regards to bowing before one of his servants, or the prime minister in this case.

And also we're going to see later in the text because Mordecai says the reason he refuses to bow down is because he is a Jew, I think it is safe to say that Mordecai refuses to bow because of his Jewish faith.

So I would make a case from kind of implicit in the text is that he refuses to bow because he is a Jew. Are you getting what I'm saying in that? And that is a against something because of his Jewish faith and we're going to see what that is here in a minute.

Now I don't think that Mordecai was ignorant to the potential problems of disobeying the king's command. He had been around the king for a while. What does he stand to lose by disobeying the king's command?

His head. Okay, like I mean kings and tyrants and people like that are very impatient with disobedience to their edicts and their rules and commands. I don't think Xerxes was any different. So I think Mordecai has full understanding of what this could cost him for disobeying and not bowing to Haman.

And for that reason I don't think that Mordecai refused out of some general stubbornness or his own arrogance like I deserve to be promoted and Haman now is promoted and I'm jealous and so therefore I'm just gonna not bow.

I don't think that's the the sum total of what we've got going on here. I don't think he's risking his life out of selfishness or out of a bruised pride. I believe that Haman accepted the promotion of the king and believed that he deserved genuine worship.

That Haman himself is claiming some semblance of deity and is saying look at me I am the second in command of the this largest empire on the face of the planet. I am a god. And he takes the king's edict a step further and says don't just bow to me worship me.

And that's what is going on here. Haman is accepting worship from others. So Mordecai takes a strong stand and that should lead us to consider where we're willing to take stands in our own culture. Where do we stand?

At what point do we cut our losses and say we can no longer run in this direction anymore? We can no longer run with this crowd anymore? We can no longer do these things anymore? Because things have started to solidify into cut and dried black and white categories with this group of people with this group with this type of behavior.

Are you getting what I'm saying? But the reality is that how many of you have been had a group of friends come to you or somebody come to you and say hey you know what on Friday night we're going out to worship some statues?

Would you like to come along? Have any of you had that? Because I mean that would be weird but I'd like to talk with you if you've had that happen. Things are a little bit more muddy in our culture than that aren't they?

I mean when it comes to morality and what we worship and what we idolize and idolatry in our hearts isn't it a little bit fuzzier than that and a little bit harder to grasp and get our it's kind of slippery isn't it?

The sins that we face and the things that tempt us to worship it are just different and it's hard. So like at what point am I no longer enjoying baseball and I'm worshiping it? Is that a hard and fast line that I can just draw for you this morning?

No I can't. But I can tell you this I sat with I don't know that was 8 ,000 people that were at the program yesterday. Is that what the number that they gave us? We went to this thing called home plate yesterday.

We got to watch a Tigers game and then we got to hear players testimonies and one thing just struck me as I was sitting there and I recognize the culture I understand where we're coming from but bear with me on this illustration.

We're sitting there and we're hearing these players share about the glory of a changed life through Jesus Christ. Now they face some pressures in their lifestyle and the things that they have to face and see from other players and being on the road and being away from their wives and all the temptations that come into that and all that and we're seeing these players and they're getting up and they're testifying in the glory of Jesus Christ and at times while they're sharing I'm just looking out over the crowd and you know there's some watch checking and you could hear a pin drop and I'm thinking to myself you put a bat in one of those players hands and have them go yard and hit the ball 400 yards and what does the crowd do?

Stands and shouts and cheers and we're excited and we're and that happened later in the day but what are they doing standing up and proclaiming the glories of salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we sit back on our hands and I was challenged in my heart.

I mean part of me I recognize if I stood up and did what my heart was telling me to do everybody would have been like what in the world is going on? Call security and get this guy out of here. Do you see what I'm saying though?

At what point would we stand up and worship and in essence isn't that kind of an act of worship when we stand up and cheer and shout at somebody? I mean that's a pretty cool thing to see a home run at a key clinch time in a game but really?

I mean are you getting what I'm saying here? So I'm not trying to convict you. I'm not trying to tell you what you need to do but I am just not trying to say but I want to let the Holy Spirit settle on these things and help you out on it.

At what point do I cease to be just shopping and I am beginning to worship stuff? I've crossed a line into materialism. Are you getting what I'm saying at that? We need to work through these things in our lives and the thing is I like posing questions but my job here despite what many pastors would think and I think what many would even think my job is I don't believe my position is primarily to tell you what to do.

I don't believe a pastor's job is to tell you how to live. I believe a pastor's job is to lighten this text to bring a light to this and then I get the privilege of tapping out and letting the Holy Spirit take you from there and wrestle you to the mat and pin you on where you need to be.

Are you getting what I'm saying? I could come up with a list. I could come up with a half a dozen things right now that I think you struggle with, right? And then seven of you would go, he didn't hit mine.

Are you getting what I'm saying? It's not my job to tell you how to live. It's my job to bring light to the text and then let the Spirit wrestle with you. So I come here early in the morning on Sundays and I walk around this place and I pray that God's Spirit would be present with us and would come down in your hearts as you hear the word as light is brought to it and that you in turn change because the Spirit is telling you to change.

Not because Pastor Don is standing up here saying shop less, watch less baseball. I mean where do I draw the line on things like that? The line looks different for you than it does for me and let's think about this from another perspective.

You struggle with things I don't and I struggle with things that you don't, right? I can tell you honestly I've never been tempted I think to shop too much. So I'm doing pretty good on that one so I could pat myself on the back on that.

You know what it is and I pray that the Spirit deals with you in regards to idolatry. What is it that you are elevating above Him? What is it that when push comes to shove you would let Him off the table and take this to yourself?

What is it? Let God's Spirit do business with you this morning on those issues. And so check this out, Mordecai doesn't just take a stand against idolatry and the things that were being worshiped in that culture but he does so and takes a strong stand in the face of persistent and significant peer pressure.

So all of his friends and co-workers in the gate are bowing before Haman when he walks in. Everybody that he knew, everybody around him, Haman walks in the door and they're prostrate on the floor, right?

You see that? And not only that but they're actually challenging him. They're like, dude what is up? You're going to get in significant trouble. Everyone bows because the king commanded it so you need to get down too, right?

Do you see that in the text? Verse three and they don't leave it alone. It actually says in verse three, day after day, this is persistent peer pressure to cave in. But Mordecai remains strong and refuses to be dissuaded from his stand against worshiping a mere mortal man.

So what would any good co-worker do in that situation? Tattle on you. Go to the boss and say, hey did you notice that Mordecai doesn't bow Haman when you're around? That's exactly what they do. Apparently in the flocks of adoring masses, Haman hasn't noticed yet that Mordecai doesn't bow in his presence.

Somehow he's avoided that situation. Mordecai maybe just has tried to avoid him to some degree or something but he hasn't he hasn't noticed it. And it's an interesting phrase in verse four that the other servants wanted to see whether or not Mordecai's words would stand.

That's a kind of testing word. Something about Mordecai telling them he was a Jew and his refusal to obey the king tempted them to test his words. So they were like, well let's put this to a test. If Mordecai was basically throwing down a gauntlet of some type and saying, I'm challenging this by his behavior, he was saying it's not gonna, it's gonna be okay.

This leads me to believe that Mordecai likely told them that he had a hope in his God to protect him in this circumstance, in this situation. I believe that Mordecai's stand was similar to that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Now when I say those three names, raise your hand if you've heard of them before. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Some of you haven't heard those names. These are three guys who were basically friends of Mordecai's great-grandfather.

So we're talking about a couple generations, a few generations older than him. They were actually wrenched from their land and taken to Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. They were the ones who were exiled.

Now Mordecai is kind of like the son of the son of the son who was brought over here. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were told there's a 50-foot statue that King Nebuchadnezzar set up. And they said, when the music plays, we're gonna have musicians all over, and it's a big festival, and it's gonna be awesome.

And when the music plays, we're just gonna make this kind of a fun time. Music plays, bow to the statue and worship it. Let's be fun. Let's be cool. And so everybody does that, but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say, by no means.

We will not bow to this golden statue that the king has set up. Does the king like that? No, the king doesn't like it. As a matter of fact, he says, come into my presence. Okay, you guys have some kind of misunderstanding here.

Something hasn't quite registered with you. So let me say it in front of everybody. You three stand here for a second. When the music plays, okay, are we good so far? Music. Let's give a little sample here.

There's some music. Okay, when the music plays just like that, you bow down to the golden statue. Okay? Capisce? Or, if you just, let's say for example, and of course you wouldn't refuse my command, but in the event that you might refuse, we've got this furnace, okay?

And it needs some stoking, and we're gonna throw your bodies in there, okay? You're gonna burn, and that's not pleasant. So let's just get this over with. Music plays, and this is what the three say. This is what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say to King Nebuchadnezzar.

Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. What? Like to a king over, like, probably the most powerful man on the face of the planet? We don't even need to answer you about this.

Whoa. These guys are kind of taking a strong stand, wouldn't you say? If this be so, that is, if it's so that you are going to throw us into a furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, oh king.

We have trust in that. We believe that. We believe that we're going to be delivered in this case. We're taking a strong stand against idolatry. We believe that you, that our God can. He's able. We trust that He will.

But even if not, still quoting scripture here, but even if not, be it known to you, oh king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. So let's just get this over with.