WWUTT 784 For Such a Time As This?

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Haman wanted to wipe out the entire Jewish race. Esther, who was a Jew, was married to the king of Persia, so that she might deliver her people from the hand of this wicked man by the providence of God when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Thank you, Becky. Today we continue our study of the book of Esther, and we will be in chapter four.

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If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. Last week, studying through chapter three,

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I tackled one of the common myths that comes out of the story of Esther, and that's concerning why

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Mordecai would not bow to Haman, though he was commanded to. Whenever you hear this story taught, more often than not, it is said that the reason why

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Mordecai didn't bow is because of the second commandment. Exodus 20, verse four, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

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You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous

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God. Very similar thing said in Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 19, beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the

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Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole of heaven. You have the story in Daniel of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego not bowing down to the huge golden image whenever the music played.

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So this command was given in the law of God not to bow down to any false gods. Mordecai would not bow down to Haman, so therefore we make the connection that the reason why

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Mordecai wouldn't bow was because he was a Jew, and to bow down before Haman would be to break the second commandment.

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But that's not the reason why Mordecai would not bow. As I said before we started our study of Esther, the law of God is never mentioned in this book.

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God himself is never mentioned, nor the temple. It's actually a very secular story. All things considered, though we certainly see the providential hand of God over everything that happens in this book.

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The reason why Mordecai wouldn't bow is because Haman was an Agagite. He was a descendant of King Agag, who was king over the

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Amalekites, one of the sworn enemies of the Jews. And Mordecai believed that to bow down to Haman would be to violate who he was as a

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Jew in some way. And so he refused to do so, but in so doing ended up blowing his cover that he was a

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Jew. Mordecai had told Esther not to tell anyone that she was a

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Jew, but when Mordecai refused to bow before Haman and explained why he would not bow, he had to say that it was because he was a

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Jew, thus blowing his cover. And Haman realized, oh yeah, okay, so I remember a thing a few hundred years ago about the

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Jews wanting to wipe out all the Amalekites, all of my ancestors. And we read about that in 1

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Samuel, which we looked at that last week. King Saul was ordered to destroy King Agag and all the

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Amalekites, which he did not do. And had he obeyed God and done so, we would not be in the situation that we have here in the book of Esther with Haman plotting to wipe out all the

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Jews. So because Haman remembered, yeah, okay, the Jews wanted to wipe us out, well, I'm going to return the favor because Mordecai will not bow down to me, therefore

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I'm going to wipe out all of the Jews. That's what I'm going to do. And so he manipulated

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King Ahasuerus, Xerxes I, into believing that an entire race of people needed to be wiped out.

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And he said lies about the Jews. In chapter 3, verse 8, he said, 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 prophet to tolerate them.

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But that simply wasn't true. There wasn't anything in the law of God to his people that they should not bow down to kings.

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In fact, you had a King David bow down to Saul. You had Nathan the prophet bow down to David.

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We just read through the book of Nehemiah in which Nehemiah was a servant in the court of the king of Persia.

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He was the king's cupbearer. Is that a position he would have been appointed to if he had refused to bow before the king?

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Now, there were certainly occasions in which you shouldn't bow before kings. Like, for example, Moses did not bow down before Pharaoh because Pharaoh thought of himself as a god.

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You shouldn't bow down to Caesar for the same reason. He thinks of himself as a deity. But showing that kind of honor is not somehow a violation of the second commandment.

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The reason why Mordecai didn't bow is because Haman was a sworn enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai's concerns were verified.

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When Haman then plots to wipe out all the Jews. So of course Mordecai had reason not to show this kind of respect to this man because this man hated the

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Jewish people. Mordecai was one of them. So he plots to wipe them out.

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The king agrees to it. It's this absurd law which threw the entire kingdom into confusion.

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And that's the way that chapter three ends. 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.

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But the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. What's the big deal about the Jews? Why do we want to wipe all of them out?

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It doesn't even make sense committing genocide against an entire race of people. So now here we start at the beginning of chapter four.

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When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city.

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And he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king's gate for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.

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So we sat there at the entrance and wept in this state in this morning.

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Verse three, in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the

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Jews with fasting and weeping and lamenting. And many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes in a lot of different cities in the

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Persian Empire. The Jews responded the same way that Mordecai was responding. And of course they would.

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Their execution had just been ordered and there was nothing that they could do about it. They didn't have lands that they could retreat to or get supplies from.

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They had no weapons with which to defend themselves. So if the king of the empire that they had been exiled into wanted to wipe them out, he could do it and there'd be nothing that they could do to stop it.

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Verse four, when Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her about what Mordecai was doing, the queen was deeply distressed.

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She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

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So this was her first response. And it's worth pointing out here that Esther did not yet know why

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Mordecai was weeping and mourning like this. So first of all, she tries to clothe him. He refuses.

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So then she's going to try to find out why he's responding in this way. Then Esther called for Hathich, one of the king's eunuchs who had been appointed to attend her and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.

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Hathich went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the

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Jews. Now if you'll remember going back to chapter three, the amount of money that Haman promised was absurd.

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I didn't really talk about this last week when we were studying through chapter three.

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But in verse nine, when Haman was talking with King Ahasuerus, he said, if it please the king, let it be decreed that they, the

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Jews, be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business.

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That they may put it into the king's treasuries. Now unless we deal in this kind of currency, it's difficult for us to to wrap our minds around how much money we're talking about here.

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So we might try to quantify it according to the currency that we use.

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We talk about ten thousand dollars. Well, that's not a whole lot, you know, ten thousand pounds.

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That's a little bit more. Ten thousand pesos, ten thousand yen. That's hardly anything. That's less than one hundred

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American dollars. But so what are we saying here? Ten thousand talents. Well, a talent was seventy five pounds.

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So yeah, you're talking seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds of silver, which was two thirds the the income of the entire

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Persian Empire. That's absurd. Heyman did not have three hundred and seventy five tons of silver that he could put into the king's treasury.

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So what's you know, is he promising the king that if we wipe out the Jews, we can take all of their silver and then we've got all this silver that we can use to replenish the treasury, which had actually been depleted because of an unsuccessful war against the

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Greeks at this particular time. So maybe that's why this was enticing to the king. Heyman also got him drunk.

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Maybe it was just gullible because he was drunk. I don't know. But nonetheless, what it does highlight for us is just the absurd lengths that Heyman was willing to go to in order to wipe out the

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Jews just because one guy would not bow down to him.

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So Mordecai reported to Esther's messenger the amount of money that was going to be paid for the destruction of the

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Jews. And verse eight of chapter four, Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.

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Now, it would not have been Esther's responsibility in any way to know about the things that were going on in her empire like this.

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As a matter of fact, her job was probably to just be happy so that she could keep the king happy.

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So she did not concern herself with news of wars or the economy or gossip and slander going on in the kingdom or any of these other things.

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Remember when we were studying through Nehemiah and I talked about Nehemiah being the cup bearer of the king of Persia?

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One of the responsibilities of a cup bearer was to be upbeat and happy, which was why when the king realized that Nehemiah was unhappy, it was a very fearful thing for Nehemiah.

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I'm not masking my sorrow well and the king notices it.

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And if the king is displeased, well, he can have me cast from his presence or even killed. So this was concerning for Nehemiah.

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He was supposed to be upbeat and happy and keep the king pleased and happy. So likely this was the case with Esther as well.

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Remember that Vashti had been expelled from the palace. She had been essentially divorced from the king as his queen.

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She had been cast out from the kingdom because Vashti did not please the king. She did not do what the king had asked.

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So Esther doesn't really concern herself with political matters. She doesn't have a position of power or authority.

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She's just the king's arm candy. So she did not know about this decree that had been issued and sent throughout all of the kingdom.

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Mordecai had to show proof of this decree and gave the decree to Esther's messenger that she might see it and know that her people, the

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Jews, were scheduled for execution. So she, in her position in the palace, on the king's arm, might be able to do something to save her people.

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Verse 10, Then Esther spoke with Hathich and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say,

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All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live.

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But as for me, I have not been called to come into the king these 30 days.

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So it had been a long time since Esther had seen the king. Now you might be thinking, Wow, 30 days.

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What is the king doing to entertain himself if he hasn't been with the queen?

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Well, remember, he had a harem, so he had all of these other concubines that he could please himself with.

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It wasn't just the queen. She was just brought out in very special occasions, and it was always to please the king, to make him delighted and happy.

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Esther dreaded having to make this kind of request for the king, especially when she had not been summoned.

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She had no authority. So if she went into the king's presence and it was during some kind of important thing going on, because see, it says here that he would be in the inner court and she had not been called.

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If there's some sort of important thing happening and she goes in there and interrupts it and it makes the king mad, he can have her executed or thrown out just as he had done to Vashti.

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So she could literally be laying her life down on the line. She could be put to death if she had not been summoned by the king.

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That's what she is reminding Mordecai of this order that has been, you know, this applies to everybody, including the queen.

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If I've not been summoned and he does not extend to me the golden scepter, just going to him to ask him this thing could cost me my life.

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Esther and Mordecai are not speaking face to face here. Notice that they're going between a messenger.

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It is already known that Mordecai is a Jew. If Esther were to reduce herself to a position of leaving the palace to go out to the king's gate and have a conversation with Mordecai, it would be known that Esther, as a relative of Mordecai's, is therefore a

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Jew. And that's what both her and Mordecai are trying to protect at this particular juncture.

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So all of this is going through a third party. It is not the two of them speaking face to face.

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Verse 12, and they told Mordecai what Esther had said. The messengers go back to Mordecai.

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They say what Esther told them to tell him. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther.

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Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other

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Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the

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Jews from another place. But you and your father's house will perish.

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And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

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This is the most Christian thing that is said in the entire story of Esther, even though the name of God is not even mentioned here.

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It's clear that Mordecai acknowledges that God will deliver his people.

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If you don't do this, deliverance will rise for the

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Jews from another place. Mordecai is mourning over the fact that this decree has been passed to wipe out the

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Jews. Nonetheless, he has confidence in God that he will deliver them. Maybe it will still be at the hands of severe loss, but they won't be totally annihilated.

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Mordecai knows that God will bring up his people. He will fulfill his promises again, even though the name of God is not even mentioned here.

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That's clearly the inference. I don't know why the name of God is never mentioned in the book of Esther.

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It could be that Mordecai is the writer of this story. And at the time that he is writing it, he is serving in the court of the king of Persia.

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That's what ends up happening by the end of this story. Sorry to blow the ending for you, but I'm just taking for granted you've heard this before.

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At the end of the story, Haman is executed, Mordecai gets the position that Haman had.

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So if Mordecai is working in the court of the king of Persia and he writes a record of this in order for it to be preserved by the

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Persians, it might be that Mordecai cannot mention the Hebrew God.

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That may have been the reason. I don't know. But nonetheless, in this particular section,

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Mordecai acknowledges the promises of God for his people.

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He has been faithful to deliver them in the past. It has been told through the prophet Jeremiah that they will not perish while they are in exile.

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And again, that's still what's going on here. They have not yet returned to Jerusalem. A portion of them have, but the temple is still being rebuilt.

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The walls have not been rebuilt yet. Nehemiah has not yet gone back to Jerusalem. That's kind of the timeline that we're at here in this particular part of the story.

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So God has been faithful to deliver his people. The prophet Jeremiah said

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God will deliver his people again back to the promised land. Mordecai knows that they will be delivered.

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So deliverance will come in some way. But if Esther doesn't do anything and she thinks to herself, well,

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I'm not going to associate with my people because I know that I'm safe here in the palace and I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to put my life on the line by going to the king.

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I'll be safe here. You guys fend for yourselves. Mordecai saying if that's going to be your response, judgment will come upon you.

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You, your father's household will all be wiped out. This is the fear of God that Mordecai is appealing to here.

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And he's doing this out of love, love for his people and love for Esther. He does not want

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Esther to fall under the judgment of God. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this

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God by his providence has placed you there in the house of the king, that you might be in this position to deliver your people from certain annihilation.

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And how does Esther respond? Verse 15, Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, go gather all the

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Jews to be found in Susa and hold a fast on my behalf and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.

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I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king though it is against the law.

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And if I perish, I perish. Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

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First Thessalonians chapter five, verse nine, for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, whatever you are going through, if you are a Christian, if you are a believer, a follower of Christ, you will not perish by anything in this world or anything that is unseen.

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God is faithful to his promises that all who are in Christ Jesus will be delivered, will be saved, and will enter into his glorious kingdom forever.

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Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your

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Bible learning. If you would consider a gift to this ministry, please visit www .wutt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Give online or send a check in the mail.