Esther 2:19-23 God of the Plot

Setting the Historical Stage for Esther

Let me let me just set the stage for our text here in Esther chapter 2. Some of you have been here since the last couple of weeks, but some of you have missed out. And so even just for those of us that have been here It's good to kind of get a refresher about where we're at in history when we read and open up our Bible at any time.

When we open up our Bible and read we're reading a historical document that was set in a historical and cultural context. And so sometimes particularly in the Old Testament is important that we understand the flow of what God is doing in history.

To get down to the point of why are we even reading about this this Esther this Queen? This Jew who is raised up to the office of Queen in Persia. Like what's that any of you ever? What's that got to do with anything.

Or sometimes you read in the Old Testament you read the prophets and say I don't get this. They're talking about the this this nation called Edom or they're talking about this and any of you ever been there before like read through the prophets and there's Gonna be some confusion there without understanding some history or some culture.

And so what we have here is the Jews were God's chosen people that God came and came to a guy named Abraham. Okay, after all that Noah and the flood thing happened and all of that in history you know Adam and Eve broke the world basically by sinning taking the fruit and eating it and rebelling against God and everything's been broken since.

Then and God came to this guy named Abraham and gave him a promise and it was a three-part promise he said if you will if you will take me as your God and worship me and follow me and Keep up that end of the bargain and follow me and me alone.

And I will give you a law and some ways to go about that and things like that. If you will do that, then I'll give you three things. I will I will make you a great nation and that nation Ultimately ended up being Israel and then I will give you a great land and through what we studied last summer.

It was going through the book of Joshua and seeing the conquest of the land the taking of the land and understanding. That's the promise that was fulfilled in the giving of a lands to them. But the last part was a yet as of Esther an unfulfilled part of the prophecy and that was that one from your line will come who will bless all peoples a seed from your children will come forward and be the one who will save people from their sins and We know as a backwards looking people who look look back in history and understand some of the central things of our faith happened in History past right that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of that third promise that was made.

But after centuries of patience with the people of Israel, so he made these promises they enter the land they're given a land but they begin to Take their eyes off of God and put their eyes on other things now.

Can have you relate to that to some degree all of us are kind of like Israel. We replicate their behavior often in our lives and a lot of the Old Testament is just a reiteration of the way We live our lives in the way that we relate to God, too.

But they rebelled and ultimately to the degree that they went to such depths that they were literally sacrificing children on altars to idols. Can you imagine how how bad things could get and that's what was going on at this at this era and at this time and so God being greatly patient with them and that's when you get to the prophets in the Old Testament.

To make sense of the prophets you just need to understand that's God's patience to his people. He's sending prophets to them warning them time and time again. Malachi, Isaiah, Jeremiah all of these prophets Joel Amos.

They're all prophets basically saying you've broken your end of the deal and it's not going to go well for you. Get back in your relationship with God and forsake all these idols or else. And so if you read a lot of times you read the prophets and it sounds like doom doom doom, right?

But it's actually mercy mercy mercy grace grace grace patience patience patience of God. I'm sending prophets you warning you it's coming. Well, it came and he used Babylon to conquer his own people and raise them up.

It says in some of the prophets He's raising up a pagan people who are gonna come in and conquer you your God's chosen people. But you're going to be conquered, you know better than them because you are acting like them and so they're conquered by the Babylonians.

Taken into exile and in the process of that exile a couple years later. The Babylonians are conquered by the Persians and That's where we get to the place where we are in the book of Esther. So that's where we're at in history the people of God conquered taken out of their land and at this time in history.

They're starting to be restored to their land slowly, but surely the king under Darius before Xerxes the king. Before him and then throughout the reign of Xerxes he's allowing small bands caravans of Jews to go back to Israel to rebuild the walls to rebuild the temple and to basically populate their own land once again.

Esther, Mordecai, and the Persian Court

And so that hopefully sets the stage for some of the history of what is going on here. And then in the past two weeks We've seen how God used the twists and turns of everyday life. To bring a young Jewish lady named Esther to the high status of Queen over the entire Persian Empire a huge massive empire that stretched all the way from India to Africa just a Gigantic force during that time.

She was an orphan. She was raised by her cousin Mordecai both of her parents had passed away and we get to experience the text of Esther. This is one of the main points throughout the entire Book is we experience the text like the main characters experience their lives.

And so How many of you on a routine basis have God appear to you in the morning and tell you how things are gonna go? I? Want to know if that's the case because I'd like to put in a plug for him telling you what it's gonna happen to me.

Too that would be kind of cool. But um, that's not how we experience life. Generally speaking is it as a matter of fact is quite rare in scripture that God tells the future. But he can write and he does occasionally through the prophets tell what's gonna happen in the future.

But for the most part don't we experience life with kind of this like one-sided conversation with God? Do you know what I'm talking about? Is that is that really in reality what the majority of our lives are spent like now sure we have God's Word.

And so we actually do have a two-sided conversation. We interact with God's Word. He speaks to us through here and then but when it comes to the specifics of daily life. And so that's one of the reasons I'm convinced that we see an absence of the name of God in the book of Esther that we might actually Experience the story of Esther in the same way that they would have when they were living during that time you getting what I'm saying.

They don't have any promises that things are gonna work out. Esther had no promise that entering into this contest. She was gonna be raised up to Queen. She didn't know she was gonna win or lose the contest all different kinds of things and In the text that we don't know how it's gonna turn out or they didn't know how it was gonna turn out and no promises.

And really ultimately we don't even really see a lot of prayer in this text. But God is there even though he's not mentioned and he is not telling everyone how all of the things are gonna go down. And so we come to verse 19 and we find that the king who last week.

And in the text had basically set up this contest and he had gathered all of these young eligible Young ladies in the kingdom to this contest. Esther one, but we find that He's still preoccupied with the ladies right at the beginning of the text.

So you see now when the virgins were gathered together a second time the second time.

Now.

Apparently.

According to the text there was a second gathering of eligible ladies for the service of the king. And although the Hebrew phrase here is a little bit sketchy and there's a lot of different interpretations and views.

It seems like the best interpretation I've encountered is that The king in this text by the time we get to the end of chapter 2 is still expanding his harem. Okay, that's still going on. It's an ongoing thing.

He's gathering more even so that's what you're getting at here and that's probably what I've seen is the best interpretation of the Hebrew in the text is. He's still expanding his harem now at the end of verse 19.

We find that Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate. Sitting in the king's gate now. We have a major cultural problem when we see the word gate here, right like. How many of you ever seen ancient gates?

Okay, maybe a couple of you maybe a picture online or something. What do you have in your mind when you hear the word gate is a little garden gate is? The gate to your backyard a chain-link fence. What do you have or is it a big bra a big?

You know wooden gate and kind of like arched or something, you know. You know comes apart in half or something like that needs to need a couple trolls to open it or something Lord of the Rings kind of whatever.

What do you have in your mind when you think of a gate because whatever we have in our mind in 2012 is very far away from what's going on here because we hear the word gate and we think an opening to achieve Entrance to something and in that time and in that era Sitting in the king's gate had a significant difference in the way that it was Thought of or what what was actually going on because the gate in ancient culture was the primary interface Between the common people and the nobility between the king and the peasants.

Okay, this is the Secretary of State's office. So to speak it is the courtroom where Hearings are actually tried this is and so you have in your mind when you hear gate like probably entrance to the city.

How many of you had that in your mind entrance to the city? No, this is entrance to the the the palace precinct. So within the city there is a gate where everybody is barred from the palace and that is the gate that we're talking about here and entrance into that gate was a place of of All kinds of interactions going on from from trials and court hearings to complaints being heard and all of this is going on.

Is that making sense to you? This very gate has been uncovered in the archaeological dig of Sousa in night in the 1970s French archaeologists discovered this gate. And it's an amazing structure 13 ,000 square feet of space in this one huge gate hall.

Which was the interface again? All kinds of side rooms for trials to take place and for people to meet privately and things like that and The king's officials would meet there and judges would hear cases by the commoners.

Now commoners never sat In the gate and that's one thing that helps us to understand and interpret this when we see Mordecai sitting in the gate commoners never had a place to sit that was inappropriate only Officials had a seat in the gate.

And so what does that imply about our character Mordecai here? You can see how understanding the history and understanding the culture gives you some indication of who Mordecai is and what he did. Mordecai was at least a scribe and most Tradition Jewish tradition would say he was a scribe.

They would they would leave it at that. It's possible He could have been a judge. We don't know exactly what his office was nor do we really know if he held that office? Before Esther was raised up to Queen or when she became Queen he was granted a high position either one.

We really don't know but one thing I am curious about is Whether or not his high standing in that culture and in that society is one of the things that kept him from joining one of The caravans to go back to Israel because that would have been a major pressure on Jews during this time is Why aren't you going back to the promised land all good?

Jews should want to go back to Israel is the mindset. And so why are you not going. Mordecai quite possibly had a significant level of influence in that culture and in that community? And wanted to stay we don't know it's being a little hypothetical there.

But there is still a lot that can be discerned from just this one phrase that Mordecai sat in the king's gate. He has official business being there. He works for the king so to speak and then verse 20 reiterates a fact that we already know from verse 10.

If you look back at verse 10, it almost says the exact same thing Esther had not let anyone know that she was a Jew yet. The text tells us that very clearly. She kept the secret because Mordecai her adopted father and cousin had commanded her.

And now whenever we see repetition in Scripture, we need to take it kind of like, okay God really wanted us to know this the author really wanted us to know this. There's something about the character of Esther that he's trying to highlight here.

So in verse 10, he's gonna tell us she didn't tell anybody she was a Jew and then in verse 20 She didn't tell anybody that she was a Jew a couple of different things and it highlights her obedience, too.

Do you see that in the text in verse 20 it highlights her obedience to Mordecai? Okay, so there's something about her about her personality about her character that she has significant character in obedience.

She was obedient and an obedient and a compliant young lady. It says she obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him. So we see that she has a history of being obedient and compliant. How many of you would say that that's true of you by the way a history of obedience and compliance?

I see a couple of people kind of grimacing out there like I don't know if that defines me Esther was an individual who followed authority in her life and that is going to come into play in a significant way later.

When she is going to be asked by one of her authorities Mordecai her adopted father the main male authority in her life at the time. She's gonna be asked by him to literally break the cultural protocol within the courts and approach the king unannounced.

Can you see what kind of it down in the future when we get to that text? Can you see what kind of tension is gonna be in this young lady? Where she's being asked by one authority to basically oppose another authority and can you imagine that kind of strife?

How many of you struggle with that kind of decision? How many of you have ever been in a catch -22 where it's like I got to disobey this person or this person. I've got to do this or this it's not a comfortable place to be you want to get out of that as quick as you Can right?

That's what that's what we're gonna see her struggling with on down the road in the text. She followed authority in her life though, and the question is how well do we do with authority? How well do we do with authority think about the authorities in your life?

How many of you have an authority in your life that you can think of immediately? The bare minimum hopefully God but. Would obedient or compliant be reasonable descriptions for you in regard to that authority you just thought of in your mind?

Obedient compliant. Working together with carefully. This is highlighted in Esther because the authors want this to be clear about her character. And it is hard to have a solid testimony of love for God and be defiant against authority at the same time as a matter Of fact Romans chapter 13 tells us that all authority is given by God.

How many of you kind of struggle with that like you want an exception clause in there? Except for tyrants and really mean people and people who don't do what I want them to do. People who don't lead like I Want them to lead now that that's a different story, right?

Would you like an exception in there read it? You can go back and read Romans 13 1 through about 4 and you're not going to find an exception clause in there except for tyrants and rulers and really mean People.

There's no exception all authority is given by God. Wow.

Praying for Those in Authority

So.

It's quite possible that some of you are sitting here and saying It is hard for me because I have good reason to Not follow my boss or whoever it is because they they just don't get it. They're not very smart.

They're not very bright. They're they're they're they're not getting the you know, the business model, correct. Or they're not maybe they're the ones who aren't following the rules, right? Like there is a time to like jump ship and run if you're being asked to do things that are you know immoral or Breaking laws or rules, right?

Would there be an appropriate time to confront a boss? Okay, there'd be a proper time to follow correct channels and do that. Not the passive-aggressive thing that we deal with in our culture all the time.

Right that might not be the proper channel for disagreeing with authority, but there are proper ways to do that. So if you're here and you're struggling with defiance and maybe even for a good reason I would suggest that you spend some time praying for those who are over you.

And if you ever try that Maybe you're frustrated with a boss. Maybe you're frustrated with a spouse or somebody in a relationship with you or parents or Somebody who exercises some level of authority in your life and you're struggling with them.

Have you considered that possibly what you ought to do is pray for them? I Think you would find that your heart begins to change Regarding that individual as you lift them up before your Heavenly Father and ask for their blessing and I'm not talking about Imprecatory prayers, you know God smite them.

That's not what I mean when I say pray for them. Okay, not like that I'm talking about praying for their blessing praying for their good and you will find that your heart begins to melt and change towards that individual.

Or that maybe God opens the doorway for you to gently and cautiously and carefully in a godly way confront. Particularly if there's anything that is legitimately sinful in that relationship. Verses 21 through 22.

Mordecai Foils the Assassination Plot

Somehow in Mordecai's job at the gate He becomes aware of a plot to assassinate King Xerxes. King Xerxes by the way some of you who haven't been with us for the last couple weeks King Xerxes King a source a source is the the Hebrew way of Speaking the name Xerxes and so that's pretty well documented.

But two of the Kings eunuchs were angry about their boss. It says it says right in the text. They got angry and so they begin to plot to lay their hands on him now. Maybe he had cut their wages. But I think they have significant cause to be angry just in the identification that he has made them Eunuchs.

Okay, so hard to tell what's making them angry, but they are angry and by the nature of their position as Gate guards to the palace this these are not idle threats. They have the means and the position and the location to actually carry out this plot.

They have access to the king. They are guardians of the actual it's the text actually says Threshold or gate they have access and they see the king on a regular basis. Now it's interesting to note that I believe that assassination of ancient Kings was just kind of like an ancient hobby.

Okay, so like it, you know like at to Brute they loved to drop Their kings they they like to kill them. Ironically years down the road Xerxes is literally going to be assassinated. Okay by the captain of his guard and With the help of one of the eunuchs who served in the guard.

So he's going to be assassinated now. Fortunately God wanted him around fortunately for him God wanted him around a little bit longer. So Mordecai is able to foil this plot, but it's not gonna end that it's still gonna end that way for him in.

Ultimately, so we know how Xerxes died and he is actually going to be assassinated but God wants him around for a little bit longer and so Mordecai finds out and how many of you know that the fact that Mordecai finds out does not necessarily mean that this ends well for Xerxes like at this point if Mordecai wants to be done with Xerxes all he has to do is Do nothing, right?

All he has to do is just sit back and let this thing roll. He doesn't have to say anything. Are you seeing what I'm saying in the text and? Somebody once said something on something that effective the only thing that has to happen for evil to prosper is for good people to do Nothing.

Does anybody know who said that? I'll have to give credit to that later. That was not that was not me. But um.

He.

Actually, let's take it a step further and actually let's Esther know and Then Esther told the king and ultimately gives Mordecai credit for it. Do you see in the name of Mordecai? She tells the king and gives him credit and I am not sure that Mordecai had a lot of love for Xerxes.

Because nothing in the text that indicates that one other thing that indicates that he was really against him either. But I'm not sure but I do not doubt that Mordecai loved Esther. And the fact that he informs Esther shows that he wanted her to be in the know about this as well.

I mean, you know something bad happens to Xerxes something bad could likely happen to Esther as well and everything gets really muddy there. So what motivated Mordecai is a little bit fuzzy, but I think in the end We at least know that he does the right thing in this case, right?

He does what you would want him to do for you if if he knew that somebody was gonna kill you, right? So he does the right thing. After the king is informed an investigation takes place and the plot is uncovered just like Mordecai had said and Big thin and Toresh are punished soundly with death.

And since the word gallows is gonna come up a few times in the text if it this was the only place I might just Pass over it because translators really super struggled with what word to put in here because there's a Persian word that we don't quite have equivalent for in English and fortunately In America, we haven't really applied this method of capital punishment.

And so we don't really have a word for it and it's actually kind of gruesome and horrible and very ancient. This is we have in our minds probably something like the wild wild west when we hear gallows, right?

But this is the wild wild east that we're that we're looking at here and they did things different. So big thin interest were killed and their bodies were skewered on a stake and lifted up. That's the picture of the gallows here.

We don't have a word for that method. And it's unclear whether they were dead before they were skewered or not and usually but the main point is to display. This is what happens to those who plot against the king a little bit of a deterrent.

Would you say? Maybe I would think I would hope that that would be a deterrent in any culture to plot against the king with dead bodies. Rotting in plain sight for everybody to see so pretty gross and disgusting, but that's the way that they rolled there.

All of these events were recorded in the king's official diary. Kings had scribes that kept a running journal of their events and all that happened under their the events that happened under their rule.

You get the picture that probably. Everywhere that the everywhere that and he ordered a Big Mac and then he did this and then he did that and how many you'd like. A scribe just walking around following you everywhere that you went recording everything that you did.

That'd be kind of annoying except that you have if you have Facebook. You probably already have something like that you could go back and see what you were doing this day last year. But that's the way that they were that's what that's what they did then.

So I bet that was some sound solid reading like wouldn't that be great to just go through your own Diary that the scribe was pretty boring as a matter of fact later on in the text. We're actually gonna see the king has a hard time sleeping one night.

So he calls for one of his scribes to open up the diary and read it like that'll put me to sleep. So So that's gonna happen later. But even the fact that it was recorded is going to prove to be significant.

Because not only is he gonna have a hard time sleeping down the road. But the scribe is gonna open up one of the diaries and where is he gonna open up to?

This account.

The account that we're reading about Mordecai foiling a plot to assassinate the king and in the middle of the night He's gonna have a hard time sleeping. Probably just a coincidence right that he had a hard time sleeping probably just a coincidence that the book happened to be open to This account.

No, of course not. No, no real coincidences in that and it's gonna prove to be a significant part of the plan of God to save the Jews. So what we have in our text is a pretty straightforward accounting of a plot that was foiled by one of the king's servants a Crisis was averted the traitors were punished and things returned to business as usual.

It's important to note Mordecai is never rewarded for this which is significant later down the road. Everything just returns to normal without this chain of events. That are about to happen in the book of Esther without what happens with the rest of the story.

This would just be a king scribe Doing his duty right just a king scribe doing what a good scribe ought to do and saving the life of the king. But God is working in the events. You see a man named Haman is going to get a bee in his bonnet about the Jews in general and about Mordecai specifically because Mordecai is gonna refuse in a couple of chapters to bow to Haman and Haman is one of the officials one of the advisors one of the one of the rulers over all Persia and he's gonna say everybody Needs to bow in my presence and Mordecai is gonna say what and not bow and so he's gonna get all Frustrated and bent out of shape about that and he's gonna use his authority to convince the king to pass a law of genocide Against all the Jews.

He's gonna basically set a date and say on this day make this a royal law. Please King I'm on this specific date. Would you make all Jews fair game so that we can have a big? Celebration of genocide and kill every single Jew in the Persian Empire, please and the keys you know, ah, whatever here Stamp done and that's literally going to happen.

So that every single Jew all throughout the entire realm of Persia on one day is supposed to be killed and not only that but the Motivation so you're like, why would you want to why would these people want to well?

And it's a free-for-all because you get to take their property you kill them you get their property and all of their stuff. You see how desperate that situation would be. The promise of wealth and the promise of hey if you kill them you get there you get their stuff.

And so the Persians are looking, you know, yeah. All right. Here we go. And that's going to actually happen but one night as I mentioned the king is gonna have a hard time sleeping as this plot is unfolding against the Jews and when the diary is opened and read a man named Mordecai is gonna rise to the surface in the story a Jew who has not been honored or rewarded and it's gonna put Mordecai at the right in front of the king at an Extremely crucial time a pivotal point in the history of What looks to be the demise of the Jewish nation.

Is that making sense? So that's what's gonna happen here. Now this is a short account. But it is amazingly significant in the scope of the major promise in History that God would bring a Savior to the world through the people of the Jews because if the Jews are extinguished No Messiah.

He promised that the Messiah would come through the line of the Jews. And so I believe that when we get to Haman and we get to some of these some of these subplots of things that are Working I believe we're actually seeing a bigger.

We don't get a picture of what's going on behind the scenes. But I think we're seeing a cosmic plot. I think we're seeing Satan actually working behind the scenes to try to thwart the plan of God and he knows He knows the promises.

Satan understands that the Messiah would come from the Jews. That's why he's trying he's trying to get rid of them. Are you getting that? So that that he's working behind the scenes in all of these things.

Looking Back to See God's Hand

Now this has a significant application for hindsight. Like the ability to look at this text and look back and see God's hand in it. Is that pretty clear? Okay, as we go through the book of Esther you can kind of see okay history and and so how many of you can do That with your own lives.

You can look back and you can trace God's hand and see how he moved you here. And he did this so that this would be accomplished any of you there. Have you been able to do that? That's a that's a significant thing and you can see sometimes things that were seemingly insignificant or inconsequential actually producing major Results like for example for me personally one one of the first weekends.

I was in Bible College. I went to Bible College in South Carolina and not Bob Jones, but another one Columbia Bible College in Columbia, South Carolina. I actually wanted to get kind of far away. I was raised near Grand Rapids and I was kind of I just want to go to I want to go to college and I Want to get out of state and if you Feel that way okay, so I went out of state and I was the only one that I knew there like I arrived on campus and I ended up rooming with a guy from Ecuador and just got to know a lot of people, you know, it's just fun.

It was exciting and I'm a little bit outgoing anyways and so but Nobody that I knew there not a single person on that campus not a single person in Columbia that I knew and so it was all Fresh and new and I remember one of the very first weekends there.

A guy said hey, there's a group of us you play basketball. There's a group of us that's gonna get together and play basketball at the gym. Would you like to join us? It might I don't think classes had started yet.

So I think the first weekend that I was there and I was like, okay Yeah, I like to hoop so we went down to the gym and I met another guy that was from Michigan. And he's from Lansing and I was like we hit it off and obviously being from the same state and he was a Michigan fan.

I'm a Michigan fan. So we were alone in a sea of North Carolina fans. It was that was ugly. That was when you know, and I was there when the whole Chris Webber timeout thing happened. It was that was bad.

But um, anyways, um. So I went I played basketball that night. I met this guy from Lansing a couple years down the road I went there my freshman year. He became my best friend. At the end of my sophomore year didn't know what I was gonna do for the summer and he's like hey There's this camp in northern, Michigan that um, you know, if you don't know what you're gonna do why don't you come up and be a camp counselor up here and Lo and behold the very first week that I'm at camp that summer I Meet this lovely wonderful amazing young lady named Linda and.

The rest is history.

But so so yay.

So you look at those things and you kind of go what if I what if I hadn't gone and played basketball? What if I hadn't met Jeff how wouldn't it be in the best man in our wedding? What. What if you know what I'm saying?

What if and I mean I don't want to get all back to the future on you and particularly because we all know that If you're gonna make a time machine, you wouldn't use a DeLorean anyways, but um. Well, maybe you would though.

That'd be kind. I mean it is stainless steel, but um. Yeah. Yeah, but it would not run on garbage. Okay? But anyways, uh.

The.

You know, you can kind of look and you can say well what if what if what if I can see God's hand in those? Events, do you see what I'm saying? And so how many of you can piece together some chain of events that it's like one?

Insignificant thing led to some major things in your life. You can you can see that right? But it's interesting because let's take let's take a moment. And I look back and I give glory to God for the way he has worked in my life in those simple things.

But hindsight is 2020, isn't it? Like how do we know what are the significant events in our lives today? Tomorrow or what should we be doing to make significant things happen? Are you getting what I'm saying?

How do you know what's gonna be significant? I didn't go into that basketball game feeling a strong sense of purpose. You know, it was like it was electric and I was like, oh something substantial is gonna happen tonight.

I and I wasn't down on my knees praying God. Should I go play basketball tonight? Give me a sign. Tell me what I should do. Went and hooped with some friends, you know, and and it worked out.

Some.

People could be paralyzed By a desire to know God's perfect will for you. Some of us might even be there right now kind of looking at the future and saying I don't know what I should do. But you see real life.