“Esther”

I sometimes like to ask the question, “Why are you here?”  It’s a question that can be taken several ways.  Why are you at Christ Fellowship?  Why did you choose to worship with us this morning?  Why are you here instead of some other place?  Or, why are you in Wise County, Texas or the United States?

But this morning I want to ask the question, and I don’t want you to answer out loud.  I want you to think to yourself why God has put you specifically where you are in this life?  What is your job to do?  I’m not talking about what profession.  I mean, to whom are you here to witness to, serve, minister, mentor or just make friends with?

If all you are trying to do is get through this life the easiest, wealthiest and most comfortable that you can, I believe you are not going to live as rich and full of a life as you could.  If, at the end of your life, all you can say is I made it; I got to the finish line, then what have you really done?  I mean, that’s the life of a cow not a Christian.

We have all heard it said that nobody, on their death bed, wants their stuff around them.  They want their loved ones to be there.  They want to know that they have made a difference in this life and you do that by making a difference in the life of somebody else; not your own.  Mark Twain said, “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”

I fully believe that God has never created a person that He did not intend for them to meet somebody else’s need.  We all have a reason, a purpose for our lives.  Some people know what that is at an early age and some never do find it.  And for those who never find it, I believe joy and peace will be hard to find as well.

In the annals of history women have often taken a back seat to men when it comes to perceived purpose.  Men are the conquering heroes, the kings that make history and the most talked about, whether good or bad.  And women…women are their mothers and wives, relegated to footnotes and trivia questions from the history books.  You may have heard that behind every good man is a woman.  Or that behind every good man is a surprised mother-in-law.

But I can guarantee you that behind every good man is a mother who raised and trained him, a wife who loved and shaped him, a sister who influenced him or a daughter who motivated him.  And while the outcome of the man has a lot to do with the choices he makes, God has chosen those women to influence him and chose him to influence them as well.  We all have a reason, a purpose, a meaning for our lives and it comes down to how are we going to influence the people that are in our lives?

With Mothers Day coming up in 3 weeks, I would like to spend these weeks talking about 3 different women who had great influence on those around them.  John Cheever was being interviewed and was asked about his wife.    He said, “Women are an inspiration. It's because of them we put on clean shirts and wash our necks. Because of women, we want to excel. Because of a woman, Christopher Columbus discovered America."  The interviewer said, “Queen Isabella?”  He said, “Well I was thinking of Mrs. Columbus.”

Well, I’m sure Mrs. Columbus was influential but today I would like to look at the life of a woman in the Old Testament named Esther.  And you can find her story in, of all places, the Book of Esther which is between Nehemiah and Job.  The Book of Esther is unique in several ways.  It never mentions God or prayer or faith or so many other topics that the Bible teaches and yet you see the hand of God all through it, like the director of a play, just off stage directing people and events.

It is also one of the most humorous books in the Bible.  There are parts of the book that will make you literally laugh out loud.  It would make a great movie.  I can’t believe nobody has done it yet.  It’s another example of truth being funnier than fiction.  It’s a short book and easy to read.  If you have a few minutes and need a good laugh, go to Esther.

But since it is short and because most of you have probably read it before, I’m not going to spend a lot of time giving the background.  I want to get right to the meat of the book.  And its most famous passage comes from the 4^th chapter.  So, if you have not already, I will ask you to turn there to the 4^th chapter of Esther.  And as you do, I will briefly tell you what is happening.

Esther is a Jew.  Her ancestors were Israelites who were taken into captivity when Israel was disobedient to God and the people were dispersed and taken into slavery all over the Middle East.  God had told Abraham that if they were obedient that He would bless them but if not there would be consequences.  And they found out about those consequences.  But God also told Abe that there would always be a remnant of the Jewish people.  That was God’s promise.

The years come and go and kings and kingdoms came and went and the Jewish people are no longer slaves in Esther’s day but most had not gone back to Israel like they should.  They were comfortable where they were and you know how God is when we get too comfortable.  He is going to shake things up a bit.  Some of you can testify to that this morning.

But while they were no longer slaves, some people just didn’t like the Jewish people.  In other words, some things never change.  Even today, little old Israel is the lightning rod for hate all over the world.  And I will just add that God’s covenant with Abraham still stands and is all the more reason our country should support Israel since God said in Genesis 12 that “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.” 

But Esther had a choice to make.  Esther was the queen now.  She had been an orphan who was raised by her cousin, Mordecai.  But now she was the queen.  She was living the good life or as good as most women could expect in those days.  She had all the money, furs, jewelry and Cadillacs she wanted but there was a problem.  A decree had been sent out that on a certain date all the Jews were to be killed.

This was to be a holocaust on the scale of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.  Millions would be put to death just because of their nationality.  So Mordecai gets word to Queen Esther that she should go to the king and beg for mercy.  Let’s pick up with Esther’s response in Esther 4:9-17.

Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, ¹¹ “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”¹² When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, ¹³ he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”¹⁵ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

This book was written about 2500 years ago.  It was set in a land that is on the opposite side of the earth in a culture as far away from ours as can be imagined.  And with God not being mentioned one time we can still see His hand, not just on Esther, but on each one of us as well.  This might as well have been written yesterday and with the title of “Carol” or “Morris” or “Anthony” instead of “Esther”.

Because, just like Esther, each one of us is here on this planet for a reason.  Esther was able to have influence over the king like nobody else in the kingdom.  And do you know how she got that influence?  I’ll be honest with you.  Esther may have been sweet and nice and wise and smart but she got to be queen because she was good looking.  She entered a beauty pageant that had no interview section.  She never got to answer a question about world peace.  It was all based on physical beauty.  And God had given her that gift of beauty, I believe, as did Mordecai, for this very reason; for this very situation.

And while that worked for Esther, I’m pretty sure some of us aren’t here because of our ravishing good looks.  Now, I understand that short, fat and bald is the new tall, dark and handsome but even so, I believe that some of us are going to have to rely on something besides our looks to make full use of our influence.  But whatever gift God has given you, He has not given it to you to be used selfishly.

God has given us all gifts that are, of course, to be used for His glory.  But these gifts also open doors to people that otherwise might not be opened.  Do you realize that the first event that led to David becoming king happened because he was good with a slingshot?  Joseph was a punk but he could interpret dreams.  Daniel was a good administrator.  And all of them used these gifts to open doors to influence people in godly ways.

I know.  You’re sitting there thinking that you’re not that good looking.  You can’t interpret dreams or even use a slingshot.  You can’t think of any real talent that you have.  Well, Esther’s gift wasn’t really a talent.  It’s just who she was.  And maybe all you are is “just” a good mama or “just” a good friend.  You have the opportunity to influence somebody that nobody else can.  There is somebody in your life, in your sphere of influence that you can talk to that nobody else can.

Maybe the gift God has given you is just the address at which you live.  And because you live there, you are able to talk to the goofy neighbor next door.  Do you see the significance in that?  You may be the only one that can talk to that person about Jesus.  You may be the only person to pray with that person.  Do you know that some people go their whole lives without anybody ever praying for them, much less with them?  What if God put you at that house “for such a time as this”?

Poor Esther.  Until she became queen she had lived a very difficult life.  Both of her parents had died when she was young.  And she was raised by her cousin in a foreign country where people hated her because of her race.  She had a lot of baggage.  She had a lot of problems.  It is my opinion that she had even made some bad decisions.  I don’t believe she was really in God’s will at any point.  She should have been back in Israel instead of trying to marry a man she didn’t love.  That’s why they don’t mention God and why they don’t ever pray because people outside of God’s will don’t pray.  And yet, God used her when she allowed herself to be used by God.

If you don’t know the story, here’s a spoiler alert.  Esther does go to the king, he does extend his scepter towards her and he does prevent the genocide of the Jewish people.  It says that the king was pleased to see Esther and wanted to grant her wish.  Who would ever have believed that a poor orphan would grow up to be able to request such a huge thing from the king of Persia?  But everything in her past had actually led up to this moment.  Every bad circumstance, every bad break, every bad decision was leading Esther to be where she was supposed to be and do what she was supposed to do and say what she was supposed to say.

And this was ordained by God because it was His will, His plan and His promise to Abraham so many years before that there would always be a remnant of God’s chosen people and that they would be blessed wherever they were.  And it happened because Esther had gone through all that she had gone through just to get there.

I’ve told you before about my friend Scott Parrish being able to talk to a man in New Orleans that I was not able to talk to.  Scott and I and several others went down there after Hurricane Katrina and we tried to help some folks affected by the flooding.  We were shoveling mud out of this old man’s house and he was glad we were doing that but try as I may, he didn’t want to hear anything from me about the Lord.

He was mad at God for killing his son.  That’s what he kept saying over and over.  But Scott, who had lost his own son at about the same time the man had, was able to talk to him and give him another view of God.  I wanted to quote chapter and verse and even go “hellfire and brimstone” on him if I had to.  But Scott, with his horrible, painful, unfair baggage was able to be the man God used, not me.  And who knows but what Scott had to endure that pain for such a time as this.

I want to go back now to verse 14.  I am fascinated by this verse, spoken by her cousin Mordecai.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.

Relief and deliverance will come from another place?  What place?  Does he mean another person or another country? Will it be Mordecai himself or will it be another Jew or from where?  Do you know the answers to those questions?  Because I don’t.  And I don’t believe Mordecai knew either.  But even if he wasn’t in the will of God, he knew what the will of God was for the Jews and so he knew that God would make sure His will was done, with or without Esther.

And it is the same for us today.  We don’t always know what God’s will is in every situation of our lives but we can know some things that are His will.  We saw last week that it is most definitely His will for us to go and make disciples of all nations.  And His will is going to be done.  Now, you may say, “Why should I worry about it?  Why should I get involved if somebody else is going to do it if I don’t?”

Look what Mordecai is saying to Esther.  If you don’t then somebody else will but in the meantime, you will pay the price for your disobedience.  In other words, you can get in the boat and help paddle upstream or you can just float along and go downstream with everybody else right over the waterfall.  God’s will is going to be done in this church to the best of our abilities and with the help of the Holy Spirit to guide and give wisdom.

And you can be a part of God’s will in this church or not.  You can be a part of God’s will in your neighbor’s life or your child’s life or anybody’s life…or not.  You can do it but, while God provides everything you need to do it, you still have to put out the effort to do it.  God provides the opportunity, the boldness, the words.  All you have to do is take that step, say yes, knowing that it is possible that you will crash and burn but even if you do that God will bless you for your obedience.

It is God’s will that we tell others about Jesus, inviting them to church, inviting them into our lives so that we can make them into disciples like we are and more.  And if you don’t do it then hopefully somebody else will but you will forfeit your blessing and instead receive the consequences.  I haven’t talked about it in a while but BOOCOD is all through the Bible.  Some of you know what BOOCOD is.

BOOCOD is the concept of there being blessings of obedience and consequences for disobedience.  Through the life of Esther, through the life of David, Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, Peter, Paul and on into our own lives we can look back and see that when we do God’s will, He blesses us and when we don’t, there are consequences.  Will you do what you are supposed to, go where you are supposed to go and say what you are supposed to say?

If you don’t then who will?  And who knows, maybe with your special gifts and even through the bad choices you have made that you have come to your position for such a time as this?