Esther 6:4-10 “Hope”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴And the king said, “Who [is] in the courtyard?” and Haman had come into the outer courtyard of the house of the king to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows which he had built to him, ⁵and the servants of the king said to him, “Look! Haman [is] one standing in the courtyard.” The king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶And Haman came in and the king said to him, “What to be done in the man which the king delights in honoring him?” and Haman said in his heart, “To whom does the king delight to do honor more than from me?” ⁷And Haman said to the king, “The man whom the king delights in honoring him, ⁸let them bring the royal clothing which the king has clothed in him and a horse which upon it the king has ridden and let be given a royal crown in his head^{. 9}and give the clothing and the horse upon a hand of the man of the most noble princes of the king and let them clothe the man whom the king delights in honoring him and let them cause him to ride upon the horse in the street of the city and let them call to his face, ‘Thus it will be done to the man which the king delights in honoring him!’” ¹⁰And the king said to Haman, “Hurry to take the clothing and the horse as you have said and do thus to Mordecai the Jew, one sitting in the gate of the king. Do not let fall a word from the all of which you have said.”

For those of us who have to live and work in this “world without God,” these seven verses offer great hope. What we have before us is frightfully wicked leadership—the two most powerful men in this nation—who possess great power to hurt us, our families, and friends. Then, not only do they have the power, but that is exactly what they intend to do with it. Xerxes would bring great harm on his people primarily because he has no concern at all for them. He has other (selfish) agendas besides being a good king and working for the welfare of his people. He would hurt them through his neglect.

Haman, on the other hand, is aggressively wicked. He actually plans to hurt people!

That is, sadly, the exact kind of leadership you and I find ourselves under today. There are many people in our government and in our companies who can cause us all great harm simply through their neglect. The don’t do their jobs. Congress is case in point. They long ago completely forgot the entire reason they’re there is to work together for the good of the American people. Instead, they are so caught up in their scheming for power and money, they hurt this country deeply precisely because they don’t do their job. Unfortunately, sitting next to them are others who actually have wicked, evil agendas to aggressively destroy this country, to deprive us of our rights, and to oppress us and our children. Our government is run by wicked, evil people just like Xerxes and Haman.

It is also sad that too many companies are no different. I have said for years the biggest problem in this country is not poor leadership, it’s no leadership. Managers today think their job is to sit at their desk and hope the phone doesn’t ring. The fact is that good management is very hard work. Unfortunately, few have any intention of working hard at their jobs. They are more than willing to collect a manager’s salary, but like Xerxes they see it only as a position of ease and wealth for themselves. Then like Haman there are those corporate climbers who will happily crush others in their own personal quest for power and wealth.

As has been true before, I can be accused of being negative. I will maintain I’m just being realistic. The picture before us is a picture of our world. It was Esther and Mordecai’s world, but it is ours too. If you and I would love well in this world, this is the kind of world we’ll have to do it in!

This is precisely where hope enters—if we join the few who see the God who is there. Though His name may not be mentioned in this passage, can there be any doubt it is Him who is clearly in charge here? It would take a committed atheist to believe this is all happening “by chance.” The king has no idea why he can’t sleep this night. His servants “just happen” to read the account of Mordecai. While others have been richly rewarded in the last five years, Mordecai was not. Haman arrives very early in the morning, gets ushered into the king’s presence, but meets him fresh off his chagrin at having overlooked Mordecai. It “just happens” the king has something so urgent on his mind he doesn’t even give Haman a chance to launch his nefarious scheme. And what is the outcome of it all? “Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Hurry. Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.”

In fact, “The heart of the king is in the Lord’s hand” (Prov. 21:1). “The Most High rules in the nations of men.” That was precisely the lesson Nebuchadnezzar had to learn some 100 years earlier. It was Daniel’s hope in Babylon. It is Mordecai and Esther’s hope in Persia, and it is our hope in our world today. The Most High rules. All things will “work together for good to them that love God…” Though we may see extremely wicked people in power over us, yet we can know that the Lord is still on His throne. As Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no power over Me except it be given you from above” (John 19:11). The Most High rules.

The other huge lesson we should all take from this passage is to see the horror of a proud heart. Haman himself is a lesson in the folly of pride. The Bible warns us, “Humility comes before honor, but pride goes before a fall,” and “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble.”  In his pride, Haman “thinks in his heart, ‘Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?’” Conceit. Too high an opinion of himself. Impressed with himself. And where does it get him? At the very moment he thinks he’ll enjoy one of his greatest successes—seeing Mordecai hanged—he instead suffers his most unimaginable disgrace, and must instead publicly honor the very man he hates.

Once again, if you and I would profit from these verses, we must see the Haman in our own hearts. I am just as capable of getting too high an opinion of myself, and when I do, I can know for certain where it is leading. Pride goes before a fall. I can rest assured it will not end well. We must learn to be seriously mortified by the thought of our pride.

As I type these words, however, I am painfully aware that my evil pride hides itself from my eyes. It is a self-deceiving sin. “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” While it may be patently obvious to everyone around me that I am “full of myself,” I may not see it at all. Here is a place where we need to call out to God to rescue us from ourselves, to help us to see when we’re being proud, then to give us the grace to humble ourselves and whatever it is, just stop it! Without the Lord, I will be a blind slave to my evil, self-destructive pride, but, with His help, I have the hope of being rescued from it!

Haman suffers a fate that to him must have been unthinkable and unimaginable. The Lord might as well have dropped a 20-ton block out of the sky and squished him where he stood. That’s where pride got him, and that is where it will get you and me. Fortunately, we also have the examples of Esther and Mordecai to encourage us. With the Lord’s help, we, like them, can be humble people. We can be a force for good in our worlds instead of being like Haman who, in his pride, inflicted only misery on those around him.

And too, like Esther and Mordecai, we can rest assured our God is in control. Though we live and work under evil people, even those with wicked intentions, we have the hope of reminding ourselves what Daniel taught us, “The Most High rules in the nations of men.”

Esther 6:1-3 “Forgotten”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹In the night of the that, the sleep of the king fled and he said to bring in the writing of the remembrances of the things of the days and they were read to the face of the king, ²and it was found written which Mordecai told on Bigthana and Teresh, the two of the eunuchs of the king, ones keeping the door, which they had sought to send a hand in the king Xerxes, ³and the king said, “What has been done honor and dignity to Mordecai on this?” and the servants of the king, from his ministers, “Not a thing has been done for him.”

There is another momentously important lesson to be drawn from these few simple verses, if you and I would serve the Lord well in our own versions of this “world without God.” As we would go to work every day and sincerely seek to do good to others, to work hard, to be kind, to deal honestly and fairly with people, there is one reality we must be willing to accept: Being forgotten. Overlooked. Unappreciated. Unrewarded.

Mordecai was. Esther was made queen in the “seventh year” of Xerxes’ reign (2:16), which then, in the text, was immediately followed by the account of Mordecai exposing the plot of Bigthana and Teresh (2:21-23). Now this entire matter of Haman’s plot against the Jews is taking place in the “twelfth year” of Xerxes’ reign (3:7). That means it has probably been five years since Mordecai risked his own life to save the king. I say “risked his own life,” knowing that the intrigues and plots surrounding any king are unimaginably complex for us commoners to barely perceive.

Mordecai would have had no idea just how big that conspiracy was and who was involved. He knew about Bigthana and Teresh, but he couldn’t possibly know who else was part of it all. As we know from the text, he had no direct access to the king, so he could only “warn” the king through messengers. Mordecai of course first sent the warning to Esther (2:22), but even that had to go through a messenger and then even Esther’s warning had to be passed through a messenger. Had they confided the warning in the “wrong” person, it could have been ignored, the king killed anyway, and, as soon as someone else took the throne, they could have/would have had Mordecai and Esther killed.

My point is to emphasize that what Mordecai (and Esther) did was no small act of loyalty to this king. That was now five years ago and what recognition has Mordecai received for it? In Xerxes’ servants own words, “Not a thing.” There you go. Mordecai works hard at his job, looks out for the king’s best interest, sticks his neck out at great risk to himself and what does he get for it? “Not a thing.”

If you and I would learn from our Bibles, we mustn’t run too fast past events just like this. These things were written down “for our admonition.” If we’re going to serve the Lord well here, we must be willing to be nothing. Forgotten. Overlooked. Unappreciated. Unrewarded. That may sound sentimental in a Sunday morning sermon but when it really does happen to us, we’ll find it painful. We can all praise Jesus for how He emptied Himself, how He set aside the free exercise of His divine attributes and “made Himself nothing” in order to save you and me from our sins. We can speak wistfully about “making ourselves nothing.” It is an entirely different thing when it happens, when we stick our necks out, then get no recognition for it.

Solomon of course warned of this in Ecclesiastes: “There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man” (9:14,15). Joseph was forgotten in prison. David served Saul faithfully and was hunted like an animal. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, but they could not “watch with him one hour.”

Jesus made it patently clear that your job and mine in this world is to love. That means a lot of things in a lot of different situations but certainly at work it means to work hard at our jobs, to sincerely look out for the company’s best interest, to help others succeed, to be dependable, to be as kind as possible, etc. Most of the time, that will actually sweeten our lives, as we find we’re living for the things that really matter after all. However, like Mordecai, it will also be true that sooner or later we will feel the pain of being forgotten.

Let us learn again from Mordecai. How did he respond? His job in chapter 2 was something to do with being present at the king’s gate. He did that job faithfully but was forgotten for it. Now, five years later, where do we find him? At his post in the king’s gate. Mordecai didn’t quit. Just think, in five years, how many people Mordecai watched be rewarded for various contributions they’d made. But he got nothing.

Yet he kept on. Herein is a huge advantage of faith in God. Our reason to love is tied to the Lord and He is eternal. Col. 3:23,24 speaks to this: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Mordecai had a great eternal reason to go to work, to do his job, to love. By faith we can order our lives to love God and love people, then (like Mordecai) go on doing it whether we get rewarded here or not. It is our privilege to labor for something far better than recognition or reward, to love for the sake of love itself.

It is, of course, Jesus Himself who makes this possible. He loved us for the sake of love and now to know Him is to enter His universe of love. We come to Him broken and undeserving, yet He draws us to His heart, forgives us, and makes us “dearly loved children.” Having received such grace, it is our response to be people of grace—to show others the same welcoming, forgiving, embracing kindness we have enjoyed from the heart of our God.

Mordecai illustrates for us, also, another perspective on all this. Yes, Mordecai did great good and went seemingly unrewarded. But, since we know “the end of the story,” we know there was a reason why the Lord let him be “forgotten.” It is because the Lord was preparing for this very night. The entire reason Mordecai was even allowed to discover the guys’ plot and warn the king was because the Lord had plans for something monumentally important five years later. Herein is another reason we can love for the sake of love—we can trust the Lord that, as we do, He is always up to something. He may or may not let us know what it is, but we can be assured He is at work. Again, that is where faith comes in. We are not living in some arbitrary evolutionary cycle, where there is no final answer to the question, “Why should I?” We do it for the great Reason. And since He who is the Reason is also Love itself, we are free to love recklessly in a world He totally controls.

God gave Mordecai and Esther something to live for that far transcended recognition and reward. This side of the Cross, you and I have all the more reason to strive to love well…even if we’re forgotten.

Esther 6:1-3 “Trusting”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹In the night of the that, the sleep of the king fled and he said to bring in the writing of the remembrances of the things of the days and they were read to the face of the king, ²and it was found written which Mordecai told on Bigthana and Teresh, the two of the eunuchs of the king, ones keeping the door, which they had sought to send a hand in the king Xerxes, ³and the king said, “What has been done honor and dignity to Mordecai on this?” and the servants of the king, from his ministers, “Not a thing has been done for him.”

If we would learn from these verses, this is another place where I think it critical to stay “in the moment.” What I mean is that, once again, as these events unfold, no one knows the end of the story. Just like us, they live “in the moment,” facing all the realities of life, always without the luxury of knowing what the future holds. That said, if we are to learn from them, we have to join them “in the moment,” in spite of the fact that we do know the end of their story.

Here is the king. He can’t sleep. Maybe he knows “why.” Maybe he is stewing over something or maybe he simply had too much coffee (or chocolate) too late and it’s the caffeine that’s keeping him up. Or maybe he has no idea. Either way, he can’t get to sleep. In his “world without God” he can’t possibly know or even surmise that the Lord is up to something—that his sleeplessness is part of events of eternal significance.

And so what does he do? He does what people “without God” always do—whatever makes sense to them at the time. Being a very wicked, selfish man, it’s hard telling what he’ll demand of his servants this time. Of course, he totally couldn’t care less that he’s keeping them up in the middle of the night, that he himself won’t let them sleep, but then he’s the king, so why should he care how he affects anyone else? His solution tonight is to have the chronicles of the kingdom read to him. Commentators offer a lot of possible reasons why he would ask for this, but my personal opinion is it’s because they’re just flat boring. As an engineer, I often have to go back to the minutes from City Council and Village Board meetings to hunt down decisions that were made and I can say without any doubt it’s all one can do to stay awake reading them. Boring. Soporific to the n^th degree!

At any rate, the servant picks a particular scroll and opens it to a particular place and starts reading. Once again, as people without God, they think they know why they turned where they did. Maybe it was deliberate or completely random, but what they don’t know is that the God they cannot see is guiding their every step.

Let’s pause too and think of the other people in our story. Esther is perhaps sleeping in her apartment but whether asleep or awake, at this very moment, she has no idea what this next day will bring. On this day, she of course will provide for the king and Haman a banquet and then lay out her request, which will involve accusing the king’s favorite counselor. She has no idea what will happen. But note too that, even in this moment, she doesn’t know that the Lord Himself is orchestrating events to bring an outcome far better than she could possibly imagine. She is just having to try and trust God right now. She doesn’t know what He’ll do. She just has to trust that somehow, He will work all things “together for her good”—just like you and I have to.

The same goes for Mordecai, although isn’t it interesting that there are two plans in place for Mordecai in this coming day? Haman is lying in his bed, relishing the joy of seeing Mordecai hung from his gallows. Haman is another wicked, selfish man who is quite sure he can impudently murder another man and totally get away with it. Of course he is a prime example of the folly of wickedness—he thinks wickedness will bring him happiness but what he doesn’t know is that in a world where God does rule, often the most terrible judgment which may fall on a person is simply to suffer the consequences of their own sin. But then, hey! There is no God, so why not? Well, there is a God and He has the other plan for Mordecai. Guess who will win? I guess we could say there are two plans for Haman as well as Mordecai. Haman’s plan is to murder another man and be happy. God has the other plan for Haman. Guess who will win?

Then there are the Jewish people themselves. All over Xerxes’ kingdom, on this night, as Jewish people lie in their beds, whether they are asleep or happen to also be awake, they are faced with the horrible prospect that within just a few months they will all be killed. Each man is living under the horror that his wife and children and he himself will be brutally murdered on the 13^th day of Adar. The edict said, “to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and little children…” No doubt there were those among them, like Esther and Mordecai, who were praying and trying to trust God in it all, but remember they do not know the end of the story. They can only hope and trust.

I once again find it very instructive to ponder on these simple verses. You and I live in the same world—this world, it would seem, without God. In this book of Esther, we don’t even get to hear His name. As you and I bump around our world, if we would “see” God, we must see Him through the eyes of faith, just as is true in this book. You and I read this account and it would seem the Lord jumps off the page—it would seem so obvious that He is quietly intervening in all these people’s lives. Back in the book of Ruth, we got to trace the lives of those three people—Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz—but listen in as they “saw” God in every detail. They were people of faith and the book helped us see Him through their eyes of faith.

Here in the book of Esther, just as in your life and mine, we must see Him through our own eyes of faith. In this book, we’re not given the luxury of seeing Him through their eyes. We must see Him for ourselves.

As Esther would lie on her bed this night, she can only remind herself the Lord had said, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness…For I, the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, ‘Fear thou not, for I will help thee’” (Isa. 4110,13). Mordecai and all the Jewish people must lie on their beds and remind themselves He had said, “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘Plans to do you good and not to harm you, plans to give you a d future and a hope’” (Jer. 29:11).  But remember, for them, these are only promises to believe. They don’t know the end of the story. But then, in our own lives, neither do you or I.

What do you think? Should they trust Him? Can they say with David, “I will both lay me down and sleep, for Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety”? We know the end of their story. We know God is up to good things in their lives in spite of how bad it looks on this night. We know they can trust Him.

Can we?