Esther 2:21-3:15
ASSASSINATION
- One day, Mordecai's at the palace working. He's doing whatever he's supposed to do and in the process, he hears these two eunuchs, who happen to be guards on the king's private chambers, planning an assassination of King Xerxes. They were angry with him for some reason, and so they were going to kill him.
- They had the access, the opportunity... what could be better?
- Except that Mordecai overheard and told Esther about the plot. In turn, Esther told the king about the plot and gave Mordecai all the credit for saving the king.
- When the king investigated the story, it was found to be true. The two eunuchs were impaled on a sharpened pole.
- The whole story was recorded in “The Book of the History of King Xerxes' Reign.”
- How faithful are you in your job? Do you go above and beyond the call of duty? Or do you do the bare minimum?
- Mordecai didn't have to tell Esther anything. He could have just let it play out. “It's none of my business.” or “There's people to take care of that.” or “Somebody else can deal with it... I'm too busy.”
- Whether for love of Esther, or just because Mordecai was the kind of man who took his life and the lives of those around him very seriously.
- How often do we pass the buck and let somebody else handle whatever comes up? Or just don't worry about it if it doesn't effect us directly?
- The parable of the talents in the Matthew 25:14-30, gives us a picture of stewardship. When the master gives us something to do, He doesn't want us to just let our gifts and talents sit there. If He places us in a position, it's for a reason. We are there for a purpose. Christ doesn't want us to go through life only doing the minimum.
- If you think of your everyday life as your witness, or as your job directly from God... then it's harder to say, well it'll be ok if I only do part of this...
- God didn't send His Son into the world to be a light to... some people. Or part of the people. We are to be His imitators... so our life isn't lived in front of... some people... it's lived in front of ALL people.
- When we go to work to do our jobs... we need to be a light. If someone can look at your work ethic and go... “well... if that's what a Christian is, they're all lazy...” or even to look at you... and NOT know you're a Christian... and just assume you're just like them... that's not a good thing. If people are surprised when you say “yeah, I go to church,” then you need to check yourself...
- Mordecai was faithful. He didn't have to be... but he was. And even though Xerxes just kind of took it all for granted and didn't really do anything right then as a way of thanking Mordecai, if we're doing right things just because they're right... and not because we are seeking accolades... it won't matter if we get thanked or not.
- Romans 12:1-21
- Proverbs 13:4
- Ecclesiastes 5:10-20
- Acts 20:18-35
- I Corinthians 15:54-58
- Galatians 6:1-10
- II Peter 1:3-11
THE PLOT
- Now we have this guy named Haman entering the scene. Xerxes has promoted him to be over all the other nobles. He is now the most powerful official in the entire Persian empire. I don't know what Haman did to gain the king's favor... but whatever it was, must have been pretty good.
- So all the king's officials were supposed to bow down to Haman when he walked by, but Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect.
- Now whether Mordecai wouldn't bow down because he felt like it was a worshiping action, or because he knew what kind of man Haman was and couldn't tolerate the thought of showing him any kind of respect... I don't know... but the palace officials noticed...
- They asked Mordecai “Why are you disobeying the king's command?” I mean this wasn't just ignoring Haman... this was something the king had put into action... and Mordecai was in essence disobeying a direct order from the king.
- So the palace officials go tattle on Mordecai to Haman. “Hey! There's this guy who refuses to bow down to you! What are you gonna do about it?” Now my NLT translates to say that “they spoke to Haman about this to see if he would tolerate Mordecai's conduct, SINCE MORDECAI HAD TOLD THEM HE WAS A JEW.” Apparently... somebody knew that Haman had an issue with the Jews. (Which we'll get to in a minute.)
- When Haman heard about this, he was filled with rage. Not just kind of mad. Not just ticked... he was filled with rage. Boiling over with anger.
- He learned that Mordecai was a Jew and it suddenly wasn't enough to just take care of Mordecai... He wanted to kill ALL Jews. Throughout the ENTIRE empire. Forget just one town, or one city, or one man... He wanted to obliterate them all.
- Have you ever had somebody get mad at you for seemingly no reason? Or take a little petty thing and turn it into a massive “I'm not speaking to you until you apologize” thing?
- I was talking to a friend of mine the other night and she has this co-worker who is driving her nuts. For seemingly no reason whatsoever, this woman hates my friend. And she is making life miserable at work... My friend said, if she were to go file a complaint or talk to the supervisor, it would seem like she herself was being incredibly petty. Most of the things this woman does is just make biting comments, or change things around the office that my friend has taken the time to organize or set up, or just tells her that she's better than her all the time... Just an overall hateful attitude.
- My friend can't think of anything that she's done to make this woman hate her so much... and yet it's there...
- Now, how should my friend respond? Should she lash back? Should she drag this woman to the supervisor and demand her job? It may sound a little corny... but “what would Jesus do?” Did Christ lash out at those who came against Him? Did He strike them? Did He bring down judgment upon them and their families?
- No. Christ, even in His darkest moment, showed love and compassion. When Judas came to lead the guards to Jesus... don't you think He felt something then? If one of my friends had come to me that night to kiss me on the cheek, give a sign of affection... just so he could get some money for turning me over to be killed... I don't think I could have kept from hitting him or something.
- Jesus however, looked Judas in the face and said “My friend, go ahead and do what you have come for.” Wow. “My friend”. How could you look Judas in the face and call him “friend”. And yet that's exactly what He did...
- I know the work place can be a hard place sometimes. I've had a horrible couple of weeks lately... but you know... sometimes God puts us in positions exactly so that we can prove something to those around us. Somewhere, somebody needs to see Christ in us...
- They might get offended... Haman got offended. So much so that he was ready to kill the entire Jewish population... But would it have been better for Mordecai to bow down to Haman and give in to something that he felt wasn't right? What about somebody who had been watching Mordecai, admiring the way he carried himself or his life in general... what would they have seen if Mordecai had bowed down?
- Matthew 5:21-26
- Philippians 2:12-18
- II Peter 3:13-22
- Hebrews 13:1-18
MARCH 7
- In the month of April during the 12th year of Xerxes reign, lots were cast in Haman's presence to determine the best day and month to take action. The day selected was March 7. Almost a year later. (These lots were called purim... which is important later.)
- So Haman has thought this through and he's come up with a plan... “There's a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So it is not in the king's interest to let them live.”
- Wow... what a way to turn that one around... Mordecai refused to bow to Haman... so therefore, no Jew in any province obeys laws... hmmm...
- You know, I can't help but think of other times in history that the Jews were persecuted... I mean WWII stands out among the rest... The Crusades are another... A constant barrage of “this group of people are heathens or dangerous and therefore, kill them all...” And somehow... they have still survived... still continue to thrive... hmmm God much?
- Anyway, Haman basically pays the king off... “If it please the king, issue a decree that they be destroyed, and I will give 10,000 large sacks of silver to the government administrators to be deposited in the royal treasury.”
- So first, Haman makes sure that he makes this people sound detrimental to the king and his kingdom... “they don't follow your rules... they have their own... they're going to riot and turn against you...” Then he goes... “so... if you'll give the order to kill them all off... I'll put a ton of silver in the king's treasury... just as a nice thank you for removing this cancer...”
- Well how hard of a decision was that? Get rid of a really big problem and get paid in the process... it's a win win!
- The king sealed his decision by taking off his signet ring and giving it to Haman, “the enemy of the Jews.” Then Xerxes told Haman, “The money and the people are both yours to do with as you see fit.”
- footnote- “Officials in the ancient world used signet rings as personal signatures. The ring's surface had a raised imprint made of metal, wood, or bone' Xerxes' was probably made of silver or gold. Each individual had his own imprint. Letters were sealed by pressing the ring into soft wax, and official documents were certified by using the royal signet. By giving Haman his signet ring, Xerxes gave him his personal signature and with it the authority to do whatever he wished. Little did the king realize that his own ring would sign the death warrant for his queen, Esther.”
HISTORY
- Now why did Haman hate the Jews so much? It says that Haman was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. Ok... so what does that have to do with anything? Well, if you go back to I Samuel 15, there is a story about a king Agag. Saul was supposed to go in and kill all the Amalekites. Samuel had a word from God and told Saul to “go and completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation—men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.”
- Not even the animals were supposed to be left alive...
- But when Saul went in... he spared king Agag and kept the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, fat calves, and lambs... they only destroyed what was worthless or of poor quality... and left the rest alone...
- When Samuel came to tell Saul he had sinned and disobeyed God... Saul lied. “I have carried out the Lord's command!”
- This is when God rejected Saul as king...
- Samuel took King Agag and executed him. He sawed him into pieces at Gilgal.
- So this king is Haman's ancestor. You think there wasn't some anger and resentment there? He's probably heard stories from the time he was a child about the horrible Jews who killed great granddad or whatever he was... Notice also... that Mordecai was a descendant of Saul's father Kish. That's a little too much of a coincidence...
- Had Saul been obedient in all his actions... the story of Esther may have never been written. There would have been no Haman hating the Jews... There may have arisen another... but Haman at least wouldn't have been in the picture.
- When we are disobedient, we not only harm ourselves, but others as well. Saul endangered the lives of every Jew alive almost 500 years after his act of disobedience.
- This also works in another way. If we look at out lives and only get rid of part of our sin... or we only get rid of most of it... it will come back to destroy us later. Oh it might seem harmless... Not enough to do any damage right? Until it rears its head up and starts to fight harder than ever before.
- God doesn't want partial followers. He wants sold out believers who are committed fully to Him.
- I Samuel 7:3-4
- Matthew 19:16-30; 22:37-39; 10:37-42; 16:24-28
- John 12:23-28
- Luke 9:57-62
DECREE
- On April 17th, not too long after the lot was cast (Haman worked the king pretty quick there...) the king's secretaries were summoned and the decree was written exactly as Haman had dictated. It was sent out to all of the king's highest officers, the governors of the respective provinces, and the nobles of each province in their own scripts and languages.
- And the decree of course had the king's name and signet on it... This wasn't something that could be mistaken or assumed false...
- “All Jews—young and old, including women and children—must be killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on a single day.” (Which is what Saul was supposed to do to the Amalekites... hmmm...)
- Can you imagine the panic this ensued? Not only for the Jewish population, but also for those who were of other races within the kingdom? If Xerxes could on a whim decide to kill off one race... why not another as well?
- The property of the Jews would be given to those who killed them... well that's incentive to kill them all off... People are gonna be lining up outside of the Jewish homes the day before so they can get their stuff...
- “A copy of the decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that they would be ready to do their duty on the appointed day.” That sounds so cold... So for a year... the Jewish people are waiting to die. The decree has been issued... all that's left is to sit and wait on somebody to break down the door on the day of.
- I wonder how many Jews contemplated suicide. Or planned to burn everything they owned so there would be no reason to kill them... hoping that no one would kill them just to kill them...
- The king and Haman sat down to a celebratory drink... “aren't we so smart and great?” But the city of Susa fell into total confusion.
- It doesn't say that the Jews only were confused and running around like crazy... it says the CITY...
- Satan is king of confusion. If he can confuse you, he can make you doubt. If he can make you doubt, then he can make you weak. If he can make you weak... he can destroy you.
- James 1:2-18
- Hebrews 2:14-18
- Psalm 23
- Matthew 10:26-31
FLESH AND BLOOD
- If we use the picture of Haman as Satan for a minute... we get a very clear picture of the way Satan works in our lives...
- Satan comes against us sometimes in very round about ways... so it doesn't look like it's an attack from him... but rather from someone else.
- So Satan comes to your boss. He starts telling him that you're not doing your job. Or you're working hard so you can bump the boss out of his position.
- So for seemingly no reason, the boss starts giving you a hard time. Starts making you work really weird hours, or starts giving you jobs that are below your job description... but expecting you to do it.
- Then other people pick up on this... well there must be some reason that the boss is making life difficult for you... must be something wrong with you... so they start picking too. Which makes the boss happy with them so he promotes them into positions that they probably don't really deserve just to see if he can make you mad... or make sure that there's somebody else sitting on you.
- All Satan has to do... is start an initial thought... then he can sit back and watch everything play out in a most chaotic fashion... All he has to do is let human nature take over. He doesn't have a hard job...
- In our lives, Satan can use just about anybody to start making life hard... just like my friend and her co-worker above... but you know... we can get so distracted in fighting for sanity, that we forget that “we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.- Ephesians 6:12
- If we remember that we are not fighting against people, but rather against the unseen... granted... our battles will still be there... they're not going away any time soon... and it's hard to think “This person is not really mad at me... even though they're screaming in my face, or even though they've hit me... this is just Satan trying to get at me...” Most of the time, when somebody gets in my face... it's hard not to fight back... It's hard not to just smack them...
- But they're not who we're fighting... our true battle is a spiritual one. It is a battle with many difficulties and seemingly many sabotages.
- We have to remember who we are in Christ and that He is ultimately in charge of us.
- Remember the story of Elisha in II Kings 6:8-23? There was this king who was attacking Israel... but every time he and his officers would sit down and make a plan, Elisha the prophet would warn the king of Israel. So the king of Aram was getting pretty angry... he thought one of his officers was leaking information... but when they told him it was Elisha... he sent a great army to surround the city where Elisha was.
- When Elisha got up the next morning, he looked out and there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere! His servant was incredibly scared.
- And Elisha says “Don't be afraid! For there are more on our side than on theirs!” Okay... there's an entire army outside the city... how in the world do we have more than they?
- And Elisha prayed that God would open the servant's eyes... and He did... and when the young man looked up again, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
- God struck the army blind. Elisha went out and led the army to Samaria... where God opened their eyes again... so they could see that they were right in the middle of the main Israelite city... with the king and all his soldiers... oops...
- But the point is... even though we may not be able to SEE it all the time. God's army is right there ready to fight beside us in this battle. We just have to make sure that we're battle ready ourselves... Because God is always stronger than the enemy.
- Ephesians 3:10-11
- II Corinthians 4:14-18
- Colossians 1:15-20
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