Esther

8He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people. 9Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 10Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai: 11“All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” 12They told to Mordecai Esther’s words. 13Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. 14For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai, 16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” 17So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. 1Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house. 2When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter.

Great flakes of snow falling thick enough to hide the sky make the heart of anyone watching warm and full. Go outside on a day it has snowed all night, and the whole world is white, as though covering everything in it were snow’s own duty. Wrapping the world so softly, it seems to be telling people to cover the weaknesses of others, and cover them again, and hold them close. Jesus Christ is the one who gives love in that satisfying measure, like heavy snow. Believers must take that love as their pattern and learn the wisdom of sacrificing themselves, and must work at covering the weaknesses of their brothers and sisters in faith.

Esther is the person who gladly sacrificed herself to cover her people’s weakness. The events of Esther fall between the first return from captivity under Zerubbabel in 538 B.C. and the second return under Ezra in 458 B.C. Esther’s husband, King Ahasuerus of Media, was a king of enormous power who ruled a broad territory reaching from what is now Pakistan to Ethiopia. By God’s grace Esther became queen and was living in plenty.

The Jews living in the palace at Susa at this time were those who had stayed in a foreign land even after Cyrus, moved by God, issued a decree permitting the captives to return. They had lived long years in a foreign people’s land, so some of them must have owned a great deal of property and some must have held power. For people who had lived many years in a second homeland, giving it all up and returning to Jerusalem cannot have been easy. God protected the people who went home to their own country, and he also protected the lives of those who stayed in a foreign land. The place God’s people are to return to is Jerusalem; but he protected the people who had put down roots in a foreign nation just the same.

The events of Esther are exactly what tells us in detail about the love of a God who protects the people he has chosen, wherever they live, so that the wicked cannot harm them. That Esther, a Jew, became queen was an astonishing providence: God knew Satan’s plan in advance and meant to bring their evil plan to nothing. Esther’s name is a Persian name meaning *star*, and her Hebrew name was Hadassah.

Esther had a cousin, Mordecai, who was as good as a parent to her. Mordecai was of the tribe of Benjamin, like King Saul, and his name, oddly enough, means *worshiper of Marduk*, the Babylonian god. But he held a particular faith in God; he was a man who loved God deeply, and he raised the orphaned Esther and loved her like a daughter.

Esther 3:1-2

1After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. 2All the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him homage.

King Ahasuerus favored Haman, so he commanded that everyone, high or low, kneel and bow to him. To bow to Haman, in the polytheistic kingdom of Media and Persia, carried the meaning of acknowledging him as a god. Mordecai was one of a people who serve the one God, and so he would not bow to Haman, meaning that he would not acknowledge him as a god.

Haman was an Agagite, and Agag was the Amalekite king defeated in war by Saul. Agag had been taken captive, but when King Saul let his heart be stolen by plunder, Samuel rebuked him — obedience is better than sacrifice — and killed Agag. Haman was a descendant of that Agag, and that is why he carried a hatred of the Jewish people and was always watching for a chance at revenge. The Amalekites had opposed Israel right after the exodus, and God told Israel to destroy them utterly; Israel did not obey completely, so they went on afflicting Israel. To such a man Mordecai would not kneel and would not bow. Haman found this Jew Mordecai’s refusal to bow so outrageous that he schemed not merely to kill the one man but to kill the whole Jewish people. When Haman offered ten thousand talents of silver in exchange for the killing of the Jewish people, King Ahasuerus sealed the decree.

Haman sent the decree bearing the king’s seal to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Persian empire, with a message that on one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the property and the lives of Jews, men and women, young and old, could all be taken. Once that day came, they would have to die for being Jews. On the surface this affair looks as though the Jews were brought to the brink of massacre because Mordecai disobeyed the king’s command and would not bow to Haman.

But look at this affair spiritually and it is Satan trying to wipe out God’s people; and historically there is a plan hidden in it, of Amalek’s descendants trying to wipe out God’s people. Everything that happens in the world is like this — a scheme by Satan, who opposes God, to kill God’s people. God knew this scheme of Satan’s, and to block it he had already seated Esther in the queen’s place, and by that he blocked the plan itself.

God saved the lives of the Jews through Mordecai’s wisdom and Esther’s obedience. Look at him using Esther’s beauty and Mordecai’s faith, and you see that God uses the faith and the gifts believers already hold. And if there is someone with wisdom beside you, as Mordecai was beside Esther, God’s will can be spread through the world.

The people who heard that Haman’s decree to kill all Jews on a fixed day had gone out to every province must have been badly shaken. From that day on they would have to die simply for being Jews. They had to die with no idea why, only because a king of this world had commanded that all Jews be killed.

King Cyrus, who defeated Belshazzar of Babylon and founded the Persian empire, gave them the chance to return to Jerusalem; and the Jews who did not go were brought into great danger by Haman. Like Lot’s wife, they must have stayed in a foreign nation because they could not leave behind what they had piled up in the world. But God had raised up Cyrus to end their captivity, which is why they had to return to Jerusalem. Believers are to enjoy to the full the grace God has given them in this world, and then, when God tells them to come back, to put it all down and go.

In the garden of Eden God warned Adam that if he sinned he would fall into eternal death. And still Adam was taken in by Satan and sinned. Unless there was a righteous man to pull us out of that death, every human being would have to go into the fire of hell; and unhappily there was not one righteous person on this earth.

Jesus Christ is the savior who came into this world where there was not one righteous person, in a human body, and atoned for sin. Jesus’ sacrifice, taking up the cross so that people would not fall into death, is what let people overcome death. Just as Jesus died for the forgiveness of sin, the Jewish people, in danger like a candle in the wind, needed someone with the faith to say, if I die, I die. Only when there is someone who dies to the world, to human nature and to the cravings of the flesh, for the saving of souls, does the Holy Spirit work salvation through that faith.

Friends, you must offer your faith so that God can work. Because Jesus gave his own life, the work of salvation could be completed; because Esther devoted herself at the risk of her own life, the Jewish people could live. In the same way, only when you offer devotion that rises from the heart can God take it as a tool and work with it. Even when he means to rebuke your enemies, if you are living exactly as they live there is no good tool, and so he cannot judge them. Do not forget that only when you offer him a good tool with which to rebuke them can he work on your behalf.

Esther 4:16

16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

The king had so many enemies that Mordecai happened to overhear a plot to assassinate him. To protect the king’s person, then, anyone who came into the king’s court without permission was killed. Esther knew perfectly well that not even a queen was an exception, and going before the king must have weighed on her. When Esther still would not go to the king although every Jew was about to die, Mordecai rebuked her: do not think that you alone will survive, when all the Jews are dying, because you are in the palace. If you keep silent while God’s people die, he rebuked her, God will save the people through some other event, but you, who had the power to stop it and would not act out of fear, will perish. Keep in mind, he told her, that you, a Jew, could become queen because God, who knew the Jews would come into danger on a day like this one, set you in that place to save them.

The Bible has a man who met eternal death exactly as Mordecai described. There is a man who had the power to stop Satan’s plan, could not decide, and was judged forever: Pontius Pilate. When the chief priests and the Jews were trying to kill Jesus, he knew Jesus was innocent and could easily have stopped it. Pilate’s wife tried to stop him, saying Jesus must not be killed, but he did not want to lose the power he held, so he killed Jesus. Because of that sin it is still said to this day that Jesus was killed by Pontius Pilate; and he was killed not only by Pontius Pilate but by Jews who coveted nothing but the glory and the knowledge of this world.

God calls wicked anyone who has the opportunity to preach the truth and the power to do good, and does not obey because of their own interests. If Esther had done nothing out of fear while the Jews were on the brink of massacre, God would have saved them another way, but Esther would have been cast off by God, by Mordecai and by the people.

King Ahasuerus had not called Esther for thirty days, so it took courage for her to go and see him. To go when the king has not called means death. But Esther asked Mordecai and her people to keep a three-day fast with her, for her. Just as Jesus threw himself into the middle of the cross and saved sinners, Esther took courage and threw herself into the middle of death, and only then could she save God’s people.

Satan will have thrown all the fear he could at Esther, to make her fasting fail. Jesus had a human body, and when he prayed before taking up the cross that this cup might pass from him if it were possible, his heart must have been in the same place. Jesus held both divinity and humanity, and so he felt fear too. Had he refused the cross out of that fear, people would never have come out of eternal death. But just as he took up the cross gladly because the whole human race had to be saved, Esther, who had to save her own people, fasted and pleaded for God’s grace.

The Jews all became one and began to fast and pray. They had been carried off as captives and had lived decades in a foreign people’s country, so their faith in God and their interest in him must have grown distant. But however much time passes, God’s people finally cannot live mixed in among foreigners, and the fact that they are a chosen people does not change. Just as a jewel and a stone, mixed together for a long time, are finally sorted back into jewel and stone, a chosen people can never become one with the people of the world.

Among the Jews there must have been some who abandoned God and lived like foreigners, and some who devoted themselves to the kingdom of Media and Persia. And there must have been some who thought only of God and lived by faith. But regardless of their faith or their circumstances, all of them were to be killed for the single reason that they were Jews. Being a Jew does not change, and that is why it could not be escaped. Look at this affair, and you see that when God’s people try to become one with the world, the effort is wasted. When Haman set out to kill the Jews, however cooperative a man might be toward King Ahasuerus, he was a Jew and so he had to die. The world is a place that throws you away without mercy the moment you lose your value.

Esther could easily have refused Mordecai’s request. She had become queen while hiding that she was a Jew, so even if the Jewish people died she could have kept her life. But that choice would have meant abandoning God and abandoning the lives of a chosen people — a wicked decision — and so Esther could not make it. Two roads lay in front of Esther. Depending on which she chose, Esther could die, or she could betray her people and live alone.

What would you choose if you stood at this fork? Would you gladly throw away your own life for Jews whose faces you have never seen? Or would you keep the queen’s place, to hold on to the wealth and glory you have piled up, even at some discomfort of conscience? The world lays out the road of faith and the road of unbelief before you endlessly like this, and waits for your choice. But Esther chose death in order to save God’s people. This resolve of a believer is exactly what God wants.

Matthew 10:39-40

39He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. 40He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

Whoever gives themselves up for God’s will is the one who is alive. In this world, though, the only way to save your own life is to go along with the world and persecute Jesus Christ and the church. But the law God has fixed does not change — that eternal life comes only by hoping for heaven — and so a person who works at living for the world will not receive eternal life.

Esther has now given up her own life for God’s people. If the king does not hold out the golden scepter, Esther is a dead woman. She knew all of this, and after fasting three days and three nights she went before the king. Esther’s courage came out of a faith that steps over death, and she could find that courage because all the Jews helped her by fasting with her. And so the enormous plan Satan had built with such care failed.

A whole fast offered to God like this carries a power that works. Fasting is a resolve to lower yourself utterly before God. It is a way of laying a desperate and earnest request before him, so a right fast is one where you deny yourself completely and lean on God alone.

Esther 5:2

2When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter.

Esther wore the queen’s robes on the outside and had prepared herself with perfumes and myrrh; but she had fasted with a repentant heart before God, in sackcloth and ashes and in grief, so she must have shone spiritually.

The king knew that Esther’s life was in his hand, but he did not know that Esther was already standing there as one dead to him. Turn it around and Esther could die at the king’s decision; but she had already died in God, which is why she had nothing to fear. Esther stood before the king without permission, and because she was so lovely to him he promised to grant her any request at all.

The way a believer stands toward the world should be exactly Esther’s way. Go out toward the world with ability and authority and a bold bearing; but a humble faith comes only when you keep the thought that you are a weak person who would die on the spot if God did not help.

When Esther laid down her life and made her resolve, the king’s love was restored to her as well, and the crisis became the occasion for Haman to be judged instead. This is what the feast of Purim commemorates. In a world racing toward the last days, the church is a target of persecution. At such a time believers must stand on the rock by faith, as Esther stood boldly before the king with the faith that said, if I die, I die.

King Ahasuerus (Astyages) could do as he pleased with Esther’s life, and he granted her request because he was taken with her beauty; in the same way, only when a believer gives off the light of Christ spiritually does the world not attack carelessly. Just as Esther saved her people from the place of death, believers can save precious souls only by standing straight in faith. Haman fixed a day to wipe out the Jews, and God made his plan fail and restored the Jews instead.

I have watched God use delightful methods. Esther had a queen’s dignity, of course, but the fasting brought out the beauty of a woman with a physical frailty about her. God used the heart’s love as the means of saving the Jews. The heart of a man who loved Esther was God’s tool. Let a child of faith simply stand straight, and God will use a king of this world to save his people.

Esther’s fast was absolutely necessary for God to work. Esther had to offer a good tool even to receive God’s help, and only then could God use it to save the Jews. The reason believers must live by faith every day is exactly this — to offer God a tool with which to work. Keep in mind that however much God wants to help, if believers do not live by faith there is no tool to help with, and so he cannot help. To put it simply: when my child has quarreled with another child, if my child has lived well as a rule, I trust my child and can speak up for them and settle the matter. My child’s good conduct is itself the tool that settles it.

When Esther gave herself up, she could save her people; when the Jews repented before God, all their lives could be saved. Esther saved her own people, and the Jewish people kept the feast of Purim every year. Letting go of worldly greed is never easy, but resolve in faith and the Holy Spirit will take that faith as a tool and help you.

For the people of the kingdom you enter by dying, holding greed toward the world is wrong in itself, so God will give a special grace when believers do their utmost in faith in the circumstances given them. Believers must change first before they can receive God’s help; believers must be born again first before God can gladly give them worldly blessing. If believers are recognized by God for their faith, then, just as Esther used the queen’s place as a sacred office, the worldly place and authority believers hold are themselves tools for God’s work and a sacred office.

May you be holy believers who, like Esther, enjoy the glory of this world, devote themselves to the saving of souls, and hope for eternal life.