1And Mordecai knew all which was done and Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sack cloth and ash and he went out in the middle of the city and he cried out a cry great and bitter. 2And he came in even to the faces of the gate of the king because not to enter to the gate of the king in clothing of sack cloth, 3and in the all of a province and a province from a place which the word of the king and his law arriving, mourning great to the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing. Sack cloth and ash was spread to the many. 4And the maids of Esther came in and her eunuchs, and they told to her, and the queen was deeply distressed, and sent clothes to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sack cloth from upon him and he did not take, 5and Esther called to Hathak from the eunuchs of the king who was caused to stand to her face and she commanded him upon Mordecai to know what this and upon what this? 6And Hathak went out to Mordecai to the plaza of the city which [was] to the faces of the gate of the king, 7and Mordecai told to him all which happened to him and the exact amount of the silver which Haman said to weigh upon the treasuries of the king in the Jews to destroy [them]. 8And the copy of the writing of the law which was given in Shushan to destroy them he gave to him to show Esther and to tell to her and to command her to go in to the king to seek favor to him and to seek from his face upon her people. 9And Hathak came in and he told to Esther the words of Mordecai, 10and Esther spoke to Hathak and she commanded him to Mordecai. 11“The all of the servants of the king and the people of the provinces of the king knowing that every man or woman wo goes to the king to the court of the inner, who was not called, the one of the law of him to kill, except from whom the king extends to him the scepter of the gold, he will live, and I have not been called to go to the king this thirty of day.” 12And they told to Mordecai the words of Esther, 13and Mordecai said to reply, “Esther, do not think in your soul to escape the house of the king from the all of the Jews, 14for, if to be silent you are silent in the time of this, relief and the deliverance will stand to the Jews from a place of another and you and the house of your father will perish and who knowing if to a time like this you have arrived to the kingdom?” 15And Esther said to reply to Mordecai, 16“Go, gather the all of the Jews found in Shushan and fast upon me and do not eat and do not drink three of days, night and day. I also and my young women will fast thus and in thus I will go to the king, which not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish.” 17And Mordecai passed over and he did according to the all of which Esther commanded upon him.
Last time I tried to draw out the very real terror that bore upon Mordecai and Esther and also the indications of Mordecai’s faith even in the horror of it all. This time I want to think deeply about our girl Esther and what she teaches us from this passage.
When she hears that Mordecai is dressed in sackcloth and ashes and wailing, the NIV says she was “in great distress.” The old KJV translated it, she was “exceedingly grieved.” The Hebrew word actually describes a woman in labor! What a contrast: Haman and Xerxes plot the senseless, cruel murder of millions of people, and what do they do? They “sat down to drink.” When our Esther hears of someone else’s distress, it hits her like labor! What a contrast. They are oblivious to the pain of others. Esther is smitten with it.
Remember again she is a very beautiful girl and now she is a queen living in fathomless opulence with every possible luxury afforded her. She doesn’t need to care about anyone! The king doesn’t. Why should she? The king insulates himself from other peoples’ pain—Mordecai could not even enter the king’s gate because he was dressed in sackcloth and ashes. Our Esther obviously could have taken the same attitude but instead, when she hears of someone else’s distress it hits her like labor! She is a girl who lived the NT principle of “Rejoice with them that rejoice; Weep with those who weep.” She allowed herself to feel others’ pain…and so should we.
I love too that she is a girl who’s in the habit of doing right. When Mordecai instructs her to go in to the king and plead for her people, what is her first response? “But that’s against the law.” “That would be breaking the rules.”
Good for her. If any group in any country is its law-abiding citizens, it should be us believers. If any group in any company is its compliant employees, it should be us believers. Even under a government without God, the Bible tells us, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1). As we will see in Esther’s case, there is a time for what we call “civil disobedience,” however that is not the norm for us believers. It is a rare exception.
Especially in the workplace, I would maintain that part of the reason bosses will often “like” us is because they find us easy to lead, that we are to them unusually compliant and dependable. They often find other people “difficult” and perhaps not always dependable. Then there is the Joseph, the Daniel, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the Nehemiah, the Ezra—the believers who found their way into high places specifically because they were very good workers. Now we have our Esther whose humility and sweetness landed her in the position of queen. If we ever do face a situation where we will need to “disobey,” then like Esther, it should be totally out of character for us.
Some commentators make a big deal about Esther’s reluctance and suggest it is a matter of fear. I would say, certainly she would be fearful when the penalty is death, yet I think we do her a great disservice to paint her simply as someone paralyzed with fear. Again, she is a good girl who grew up humbly obedient to her father. The first thing we should expect from her would be reluctance when suddenly asked to commit a capital crime!
Then we get to see a glimpse of this father/daughter relationship and what a good father Mordecai was. Although we would expect her initial reluctance simply because she’s not in the habit of “breaking the rules,” yet Mordecai knows Esther is young and very well could give way to fear. If we look closely at what he tells her, I hope we can all realize what he’s doing is helping her “think it through.” Once again, I would suggest this is “nothing new.” I would suggest we see that Mordecai is not and never has been a father who simply says, “Do it because I say so.” He certainly was firm with Esther growing up (to raise such a sweet daughter), but he was a father who shepherded her heart, who helped her to not only do right but, more importantly, to think right—and that is exactly what he is doing here.
He doesn’t say, “Yeah, I know it’s dangerous. Just do it anyway.” Look what he does. Without mentioning God’s name (in this book of the Unseen God), he draws Esther to see her world through God’s eyes. Because he knows fear is a very really threat, a very real path down which her heart could run, he says, “Do not think that you of all people will escape this calamity.” That is the truth and what she needs is truth. It is the truth that she is a Jew and the king’s decree is the death of all Jews. Truth. Then he reminds her that this annihilation cannot succeed in the end because there is a God in heaven, this is His world, and in it, He has promised to preserve and bless the Jewish people. If you don’t do the right thing now, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jewish people from somewhere. Truth.
Further, because God is very real and very present, we can rest assured that acts of cowardice and self-preservation will one way or another suffer His chastening hand. It is a NT principle but was just as true then, “He who saves his life will lose it; He who loses his life for My sake, the same shall find it.” Truth.
Then this loving father tells his daughter one of the immortally greatest encouragements in human history: “And who knows but that you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” So much of what people tell each other is sarcastic, discouraging, demeaning, and anything but encouraging. But not this Dad. He tells his daughter exactly the words she needed to hear, words that encourage her to grasp what was without a doubt her greatest opportunity to serve the Lord and her people. “You can do it, my daughter.” I wonder how many times before he has encouraged her with words just like these? No wonder she could rise to be a queen. Her father always knew she could! And he told her so. May we all learn to be encouragers. As you and I speak to others, may we be people who strengthen their hands and help them to battle on, to become all they were born to be!
Then our text turns back to Esther. How will she respond? She says, “I will go into the king, even though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Obviously we could praise her for many things. We could praise her faith. We could praise her courage. But I think it’s worth going even deeper yet. What gives her such faith? What makes her so brave? She actually draws back the curtain of her heart in 8:6. Listen to what she says there: “For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”
What is going on? Love. Jesus told us “Greater love has no man than this: that he should lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Again, I call our attention to the contrast. Godless Haman and Xerxes can “sit down to drink,” in utter disregard for the miseries of others. Godless Xerxes can decree that no one enter his presence in mourning. The plain simple truth is that their hearts without God were also hearts without love. With God, Esther’s heart is so full of love, she goes into “labor” when she hears of someone else’s grief. She sends clothes to Mordecai, probably so he could enter the king’s gate and be closer to explaining to her what was wrong. And now her big heart of love says, “I will go into the king, even though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
The greatest horror of a world without God is that it will be a world without love. God is love and calls us as “dearly loved children” to “live a life of love.” In His world, He would have us know that the two greatest things you can ever do is simply to “love God and love people.” We can pause to acknowledge that there is love that goes on even in the lives of people who care nothing for God. However, this is precisely because even they were made in the image of God and, even though that image may be horrifically marred, yet still it will show like the face you see in the shards of a broken mirror. It is part of what we call “common grace,” the fact that the Lord sends His rain on the just and the unjust—that He does allow blessing into the lives of even those who hate Him.
But again, what a contrast: godless men who seem to have not a whit of love in their hearts compared to a girl whose heart bursts with it. They possessed everything this world values most. Esther had the one thing that mattered most. That is what knowing God will do for you and me—He’ll make us love more. And to love more means to enjoy relationships more. And then the day comes when we realize that was the only thing that really mattered anyway.
May Esther teach us all to let God give us hearts of love. May we care deeply for others around us, may we allow ourselves to sincerely feel their pain, and may God help us all day everyday be people who “lose their life for Jesus’ sake” only to find we gained it after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment