Imagine
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This morning, as we study the book of Esther, understand that this is not Hollywood and this is not a big movie production with high paid actors and actresses acting out their parts. This is real life, the people are real, the places are real and the storyline is real. And as you read the book of Esther you see this whole story set up by the hand of God as He positions people and events for an ultimate outcome, as we shall see. This truly is the story of the providence of God, because His signature is seen throughout the story as He moves to save His people, the Jews, from destruction.
Remember that Esther was a Jewish maiden who was elevated by God to be queen in Persia. As she kept her position as queen, she remained in the palace, really isolated from the outside world. She was not necessarily kept abreast of what was happening outside of the palace. There was no Nightline, or news shows or newspapers to inform her of various happenings in the kingdom. Because of that, she was totally unaware of a plot that became a decree to have all the Jews living in Persia exterminated on the 13th day of the 12th month.
Now the reason for this whole ugly plot coming into existence was because of a wicked man named Haman, who was second in command in Persia. He was upset at Mordecai, a Jew, who refused to pay him homage and bow before him, like all the other people were required to do and did. And this filled Haman with anger, and as that anger boiled over, he asked the king to sign a decree that not only would have Mordecai put to death, but every other Jew in the kingdom would also be destroyed. "And the king said to Haman, 'The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.'" Esther 3:11.
King Ahasuerus gave Haman the go ahead on his plan and we read beginning in verse 13 of Esther chapter 3, "And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions. A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day. The couriers went out, hastened by the king's command; and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan the citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed." Esther 3:1315.
Imagine this decree being posted in your city, to wipe out innocent people that have been living by your side for years, causing you no harm. There was much confusion in the city of Shushan. Not only that, but seeing that decree posted for 12 months on a day in and day out basis must have brought great fear upon the Jews. They saw their death sentence signed and posted. Their extermination date had been set and their seemed to be nothing that they could do.
This brought Mordecai to his knees as he cried out to the Lord in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther, the cousin of Mordecai, is totally unaware of this decree, so she sees Mordecai in these worn and torn clothes, and sends him some new clothes to wear, maybe that will cheer him up a bit. But Mordecai refused the clothes and continued mourning before the Lord over what is about to take place. Now Esther gets word that Mordecai is still carrying on, and since she could not just go and talk with Mordecai to find out what was going on, she sends one of the kings eunuchs, Hathach, to go and see what is troubling Mordecai.
And Mordecai tells this eunuch everything, and to make sure that Esther doesn't think he is overreacting to this situation, he sends a copy of the letter or decree, with their death sentence stated upon it, to Esther. And as Esther takes all this in, she is uncertain what she can do about it. You see, you could not just go and see the king anytime you wanted, even if you were the queen! Ahasuerus has not seen queen Esther for 30 days, and she feels her hands are tied in this matter. For unless the king calls for you to come to him, you could not just approach him. If you did and he did not hold out the royal scepter, you could be put to death. That is why Esther is so tentative in what to do.
This is where we will pick up our story in Esther chapter 4, beginning in verse 13, as Mordecai responds to Esther's predicament and tries to encourage her in the right thing to do in this situation.
As I said on Thursday, I see 3 important points emerge from these statements of Mordecai regarding Esther. First of all, she is not going to be able to hide behind her position as queen, for ALL the Jews will be killed! Secondly, if she refuses to take that step of faith and intercede for her people, to try to stop this evil plan from going through, then God will raise up another to intercede on His behalf. Someone else that He will work through to save His people. And the third point is this. Esther's entire life may have been directed, prepared, to fulfill this one task and save the Jews from destruction. From her birth, to the death of her parents, to being raised by her cousin Mordecai, to becoming queen in Persia, is all because of the hand of God moving her into position so that He may work through her.
No, this is not Hollywood, although it is very dramatic and would make a great motion picture. But the point is this, as God said in Ezekiel 22:30, "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one." God is continually looking for people by which He can work through as His instruments for the kingdom of God. Esther was put in such a position, as were many others throughout the Bible, and throughout history, and even in our own lives. People who are called by God to take a step of faith that He may do a work through.
A great example of this is seen in the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob. He was thrown into a pit as a young lad by his brothers and then sold into slavery because they hated him, they were jealous of him. As a slave in Egypt he was the head over Potiphar's house, he was trusted and placed in this position, and yet he once again was ready to take a fall, and not because he was at fault or deserved it. Potiphar's wife had a thing for Joseph and tried to seduce him, which he refused her advances until one day he went running away as she had a hold of his robe. When Potiphar heard what had happened, knowing the woman his wife was, he only had Joseph thrown in jail, instead of being killed. And yet the jail was a horrible place to be. There was no library, no weight room, no gym, no computers, no prisoners rights, only a dark, damp dungeon for someone that did nothing wrong. It seems so unfair.
Now while in jail he once again finds favor with the guards and is in charge overseeing the prisoners. And while in jail he just happens to run into the kings butler and baker, who have been accused of an assassination plot against the pharaoh, but pharaoh is unsure which is guilty, so he puts them both in jail. While in jail they both have a dream that they are unsure of what they mean and they tell Joseph about them. And Joseph gives all the glory to God for the interpretation of these dreams, he takes no credit himself.
As the butler explains his dream to Joseph, he tells him what it means. The butler is told that in 3 days he will be restored to his position in the kingdom, serving pharaoh as he had done before. And Joseph reminds the butler to remember him to pharaoh when he gets out, for he has done nothing wrong to deserve this kind of punishment, he was an innocent man.
Now the baker hears the good news of the butler and he too asks Joseph to interpret his dream, but his interpretation is not so good. Joseph tells him that in 3 days he will have his head cut off and his body will hang on a tree so the birds of the air would eat his flesh.
Now all this came to pass but the butler, after he was released from prison, forgot about Joseph for 2 whole years, until pharaoh had a couple dreams that troubled him. As the butler heard of these things he remembered Joseph, the man who can interpret dreams, and told pharaoh all about him. And pharaoh sent for Joseph to come quickly and interpret these dreams he had.
And Joseph told pharaoh that there will be seven good years of abundant harvest followed by seven lean years where there will be famine in the land. And pharaoh places Joseph in charge of all the produce in the land so that during the years of famine, there will be plenty of food in the land to sustain the people. Pharaoh recognized that the Spirit of God was upon the life of Joseph.
Now some 21 years have passed between the pit he was thrown in till his brothers came to him, unaware that it was their brother, asking for food during this famine. And through a series of events you can read about in Genesis, Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers and is reunited with his father Jacob. There was some 21 years of preparation, which almost seems unfair, and yet every place that Joseph was at, was important to fulfill this task.
You see, Joseph had a proper perspective of the situation he found himself in, and I think that is what made him so strong. After the death of his father, Jacob, his brothers feared that he would retaliate for what they did to him many years ago. But Joseph responds by saying in Genesis 50:1920 "...'Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
Also, in Genesis 45:5, 78 we read "But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life...And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."
Joseph saw the providence of God, the hand of God upon his life. It is how he survived from the pit to the throne, you might say. God was preparing Joseph to save the Jews from being destroyed by this famine. He could have been angry at his brothers, he could have been angry at God for placing him in the pit, into slavery, into prison, but he saw the bigger picture and realized that God was preparing him for such a time as this, just as he was preparing queen Esther!
Now don't think that just because the Word of God has been completed, that God has stopped working through our lives. Not at all! He is preparing each of us for the work we will do. Yes, at times it seems unfair the things we are going through, and we don't always understand why, and sometimes it seems that other Christians are going through an easier time than we are, and we just want to give up, throw in the towel, and play "Christian couch potato". If that is the way you feel, you need to get a proper perspective of the situation. We all go through difficult times, times of testing, times of drawing closer to God, as He molds and shapes us for His plan, and all He asks us to do is to take those steps of faith and trust in Him!
All of us are probably aware of what transpired with the Heaven's Gate cult back on March 26, 1997. The news reported that 39 members of that cult all committed suicide so that they may exit these bodies of flesh and be caught up to the next level and be carried away by the socalled "spaceship" that they felt was trailing the HaleBopp comet. They never saw this spaceship, but the truly believed it was out there.
One of the remaining cult members said "The way they described it to me was simply that Jesus was an alien...Jesus would come back with a spaceship and pick up those who were ready to go." Marshall Applewhite, the cults leader and son of a Presbyterian minister, felt that he was "The present representative of the spirit that filled Christ, 2,000 years ago."
And as you listen to his teachings, the teachings of Applewhite, you can see a bizarre twisting of Christianity and what the Bible teaches, with celestial, numerological and many other nonChristian practices. And understand that these people were successful and highly intelligent people, but they also were terrified at the complexities of life. And when they joined this cult they left behind, husbands, wives, children, everything they had to live, and now they have died with the false belief of joining up with a spaceship and living for eternity on this journey through space.
When people see this tragedy that took place, 39 people dying for a lie, they want to blame Christianity for the road Applewhite and his followers took. "'The Bible is filled with absurdities', said Ann Gaylor, president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, an Atheist group based in Madison Wis. 'Talking bushes. Talking snakes. Jesus healing blindness with spit,' Gaylor said. 'If your going to tell people that this is true, what's so strange about UFO's and hooking a ride on a comet?'"
A very interesting statement, and for some, very confusing. Many will not know what to believe. But the answer is simple, one is a lie, and the other is the truth. And it is not just blind faith by which I make that statement, it is taking what the Bible has to say, and seeing if it is true. Searching through the Scriptures to see if they are true, and you know what? They are!
Now as the families and friends herd of what had transpired, many tried to distance themselves from those that had committed suicide. They did not even come to claim the bodies of their loved family members. They wanted nothing to do with them, they did not want to be associated with their bizarre ideas and the tragic ending of their life.
And can you imagine how the children of the cult leaders, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles, who died in the 1980's of liver cancer, felt when all this took place. How their parent influenced the death of 38 people. You would think they would just want to crawl into a cave and hide till all this has blown over. What can you really say when your father has convinced 38 people to leave these bodies of flesh to be joined to a UFO trailing the HaleBopp comet?
But instead of hiding away and not saying anything, Mark Applewhite, the son of Heaven's Gate cult founder Marshall Applewhite, spoke out about what has transpired. And what he has to say should awaken us out of our spiritual sleep and our comfort zones that we are living in. It should cause us to be ready for these days and not be taken in by the error of the enemy wrapped inside a seductive package.
You see, Mark Applewhite is a bornagain Christian, a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and not the alien that is supposedly driving the spaceship. And even though he hasn't seen his dad since he was 5 years old, that was when his parents divorced, he still had plenty to say regarding what has transpired. He said "If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is to find the truth in the Bible and teach it to your family so that they cannot be swayed by false teaching...I pray that God will take this terrible news...and turn it into a message of hope, the hope found only in the Bible, for all to hear." No anger of what his father did to him, leaving him alone as a child with his mother to raise him. Mark's wife said "Not knowing the whereabouts of his dad or whether he was alive or dead, he just kind of put that behind him along time ago...Being a bornagain Christian, he knows that the Lord has filled every void that was left by his dad."
Mark Applewhite had a choice to make, to keep silent and thus avoid all the publicity that this tragedy has opened up, or to speak the truth, which he did. It is as Paul said in Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."
You see, his whole life was being prepared for this moment in time, that is not to say that God is done using him, but that God was going to turn a tragic incident into a message of hope that is found in the truth of God's Word!
In saying all that, what is God preparing you for? What difficult situations have you been through lately or are going through right now? And as you have gone through these times or are going through them right now, are you angry with God for the circumstances you find yourselves in? You see, I believe that if we truly trust that God is in control, that we believe in the providence of God, then as Paul said in Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
If God is calling you to take those steps of faith, then do it. Trust in Him for if you don't, He will raise up someone else to work through. But how do you know, all that you are going through right now, is not the hand of God orchestrating the events to prepare you for a certain time to accomplish His work? You see, I believe He is working in us and through us for His glory. Don't give up the opportunity, but walk by faith, trusting in Him who delivered you from sin into abundant life!
Lets go back to Esther chapter 4, and beginning in verse 15, lets see the response of Esther to what Mordecai had to say.
Esther fasted and prayed to seek direction from God, and then put her life into His hands. Whatever happens, happens, knowing that God is in control. That is the proper perspective to have. Give it to God, all of it, and let Him do according to His will and not ours. And it is not easy, but it is necessary for each of us.
Notice Paul's response to ministry in II Timothy 4:68. He said "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."
Paul sees his life on earth coming to an end, his earthly ministry coming to a close, and believe me, he is not looking for some spaceship! Paul said in II Corinthians 5:68 "So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." You see, Paul realized as this life in these bodies of flesh comes to and end, he knows he will spend an eternity with the Lord he has been serving. He put his life into the hands of God to do according to God's good pleasure, whatever that may be. His only desire was to finish the race, to complete the work that God has called him to, taking advantage of the various situations that God has placed before him. As Jesus said in Revelation 3:8 "I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name."
Listen to these words from a poem by Annie Johnston Flint:
Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way
He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died
He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.
We are the only Bible the careless world will read,
We are the sinner's gospel; we are the scoffer's creed;
We are the Lord's last message, given in word and deed;
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?
What if our hands are busy with other work than His?
What if our feet are walking where sin's allurement is?
What if our tongue is speaking of things His lips would spurn?
How can we hope to help Him or welcome His return?
As God sets the stage, puts people and situations in place, are you ready to be used by Him and step onto the scene to accomplish that which He has called you to do? Yes, God does not need us, but He chooses to use us as His instruments to spread the Good News to a lost world. Yes we are not fit for the job, we are not worthy for the job, and God would still get the work done without us. It always scares me when I hear people say that a certain ministry will fall apart when they leave. How foolish, unless that ministry has been built upon you, and not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Understand that God is not looking for ability, for none of us would qualify, but availability, a willingness to take those steps of faith. And as you do, have the proper perspective of things, just as Esther did, risking everything and trusting her life into the hands of God. That is why she was able to say in Esther 4:16 "...And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!"
And Esther did not perish in this situation, but found favor before the king, and saved her people from destruction. What is God going to do through you? As director of our lives He is calling us to take those steps of faith, He is saying "Action!"