Courage, and that from God

In the morning services as well. So if you turn to chapter four of Esther, and while you're turning, we will kind of get you caught up if possible.

The first chapter of Esther we entitled God Providence includes wicked kings. And certainly that was true as we read through the book. King Asarus, known as Xerxes in history, had scheduled a feast that lasted for six months. They were great for parties, those people that live in high places. And then another feast that lasted seven days.

There was much drinking that went on. And during the seven day feast, King Assurus, likely drunk or at least having showed off his great armies and as much wealth, now wanted to show off his wife Vashti. And it was wrong for a woman to display her beauty. And we don't know what all that entails, whether it was uncovered face or uncovered body, we don't know the details, it doesn't say. But she refused to do that which was unacceptable for women to do in the kingdom of Persia.

And so King Assurance gathered together his advisors and they all said, listen, this rebellion was liable to go on to our wives as well, and the wives of all the providence and country. And so we dare not let this happen. We have to. You have to take her away. And so he dethroned her.

And in chapter two, there was a search for a new queen. We entitled that God is working out his purposes. All of this God working through the hands of a wicked king or through the deeds of a wicked king, has a divine purpose. For God knows there's going to be a man coming along named Haman that is going to hate the Jews and want them annihilated. And God sets up for that well in advance, years really, before it happens, so that he can offset this wicked plan of Satan.

So now they're searching for a new queen, and she will pay a key role in defending God's people. Now remember when God, who has promised throughout the scriptures to protect his people, has another even greater goal in mind, and that is to protect his people so that his son, the promised seed of woman, could be born to deliver his people from their sins. Keep that in mind as you look at this too. That's all God has made a promise. And God will keep that promise no matter what opposition.

Come along. So there's a search begins for a queen. And the invite is to all the beautiful women of all the kingdom of Persia, which is the world, come and bring their beautiful woman. And Mordecai sends Esther. And Mordecai was Esther's uncle, and Mordecai had Raised Esther and she was very beautiful inside and out.

And she won the favor of Haggai, the guy that was in charge of all of these contestants for queen. And he put her in a special place and treated her special over all the other people that the women that had applied for this, she. And in the end, she wins the heart of the king as well. So after Esther becomes queen, she remembers Uncle Mordecai and puts in a good word for him. Now, the scriptures don't say that, but that's what is seems to be happening.

And Mordecai is made a judge in the city courthouse, called the Gate in those days. And he becomes a high place. And being in a high place, this is all God's providential hand, folks. And being in a high place, Mordecai hears of a plot to kill the king Assuras, who is also Xerxes, and he tells the plot to Esther, and Esther tells the plot to the king. And the king has it investigated, and it's true.

And the chronicles are read and tells of this plot to kill the king, and writes that Mordecai was the one that had discovered the plot and saved the king. Very important for what's coming up that Mordecai's name goes down in the chronicles. This is all part of God's divine and amazing plan to save his people so that his son could be born, to save his people from their sins. Very important to see how this goes through. So God is moving now.

Interesting as we say all this. You remember Esther's, the one book in the Bible that God's name is never mentioned. And it's the one book in the Bible that you see God's hand more than anyplace else. The providence of God in all this.

In chapter three, Haman plots the destruction of Israel.

Now, when Haman plots the destruction of Israel, we have to understand who Haman is. Haman is a man that's risen up within the kingdom and very powerful and very rich. And Haman is liked by King Assuras, and he's appointed the king's vice regent, number two in power in the kingdom. And the king says in order for this man to receive the proper respect whenever he walks down the streets of Susan, people are to bow to him in respect. But Mordecai was a Jewish, and Mordecai knew it was wrong to bow before any man.

He would only bow before God. And he feared God more than he feared man. And so he refused to bow. And Haman became very angry at Mordecai Remember, he had risen to a high place in the kingdom. He's one of the judges, right at the city gate of Shushan, where the king's palace is at.

But Haman held his anger. I'm sure it showed in his face, but he plotted in his heart. And he reasoned that if the reason Mordecai won't bow before me is because he's a Jew, then none of the Jews will ever bow before me. Getting rid of Mordecai won't change that. I must get rid of all the Jews.

You see how it's unfolding? So he plots a way to annihilate the Jews. And he comes to the king and he says to him, there is a certain people. Didn't say the Jews, there is a certain people in your kingdom, scattered all over the Persian Empire, that will not obey your laws. Now, the law they weren't obeying was to bow down to him.

But that's what he said. They will not obey your laws. And it's my advice that you eradicate these people, lest that spread and other people from other groups start doing like they do and we have an uprising within the kingdom. And he offered an immense amount of money, since he was a very rich man, in order to for the king to have, so that there be no excuse. We can't afford to eradicate these people.

It's too expensive. Here's whatever money it takes to do whatever you seem fit to do. In fact, if you don't want to use it now, use it however you want. I'm giving you the money. And so the king agreed to the plan of Haman, sent out a decree sealed by the signet of the king's ring.

It was as the law of the Mede and Persians. It could not be changed. And it went out. The whole kingdom, the whole empire received it. That the certain day of the certain month, the Jews were to be eradicated.

Great grief fell upon all Jewry throughout the kingdom of Persia. Great grief. Great confusion and perplexity was on all the people of Persia. For the Jews were loved and likely were not hated. Many of them were friends, and the country was perplexed.

What's going on? What's happening? And it's at this point we come to chapter four, where I asked you to turn.

And in chapter four we find Mordecai and probably some other Jews. Obviously we do, wearing sackcloth and ashes. We'll also see Esther wearing deep concern for Mordecai. What's going on? And at last, before the chapter ends.

We'll see Esther putting on the garments of courage. Amazing chapter. Father, bless us now as we study your word today. Thank you for it. May we learn a great deal about courage and that from God.

In Jesus name, Amen.

When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried out with a loud and a bitter cry. He went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every providence, where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and wailing. And many lie in sackcloth and ashes. Clearly in these verses we see that much grief has came about to the Jewish people in a particular way, knowing that.

That a certain day, 11 months from then, there was going to be the eradication of the Jewish people, that the rest of the land was to rise up and kill them and everything, whoever they did away with, they could have all their things as their own, claim them as their own. It was a command. It was a decree.

And so here are the Jewish people, and particularly we see in this section Mordecai wearing sackcloth. John Whitcomb says, for centuries this act has served as a sign of mourning. Lamentation for personal or national disaster, penance for sin by the poorest of people or by mourners. Okay, penance for sin, special time of prayer for deliverance. And the poor people, in a particular way, showed it that way.

Others as well. I'm sure at times ashes are a symbol of the worthlessness used in mourning and penance, humiliation and abasement. So you quickly get the picture that they're wearing these sackcloth and ashes over their head, and they're letting everybody know they're in deep mourning, deep humiliation, deep abasement. And then he tore his clothes. Usually these tears are from the bottom of his.

Of his robe up, another signifying of grief and a tearing apart of a person's soul with a grief that they're stricken with.

It was later. It was a later form of the earlier primitive practice of gnashing of the flesh, gashing their flesh. Remember, in the days of. Of Elijah, the prophets of BAAL would gash their flesh, cut their flesh again, crying upon God and showing their humiliation for God to do that. So Mordecai wore sackcloth, and he wailed loudly throughout the city, showing his utter and deep distress.

We believe it was designed to get God's attention. We believe it was to show that he was poor and worthless and had great needs.

Mordecai knew well the violent hostility that now was planned against the Jews and felt a deep remorse over it.

This brought the crime against the Jews to the attention of the people. Up to that time it was just a certain people now. But now the certain people had been identified as the Jewish people.

And it bothered the people in the community because they had many friends that were. That were Jews.

This also was served to get Esther's attention. He went as far as the city gate or as far as the gate into the palace, in hopes that Esther somehow would would hear that not only are other people acting this way, but uncle Mordecai is acting this way.

He couldn't go into the city gate on sackcloth. So that's a way he caused the attention of Esther to be aroused. And then in verse four, Esther is aroused. She does see what's happened or told what's happened, and she goes into deep concern. Listen.

So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. So she's concerned about the attire of her uncle. It was deeply distressing to her. I would imagine she was even embarrassed for those few people in the palace that knew that was her uncle.

And here he was, dressed like that, acting like that, screaming and crying around the city and at the city gate, making a spectacle of himself. Quick, take him some nice clothes, excellent clothes. Take away his sackcloth and throw them away. But he refused the deeds of kindness. He didn't want to embarrass Esther, that was not his goal.

He didn't want to reject her kindness, that was not his heart. But he wanted to make a point to her that his sorrow was deep for what was happened, that it wasn't a small matter, that what was happening was earth shaking and would affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people of his own race, including himself. It's not surprising that Esther didn't know what was happening, because just cause the decree went out from the palace, the queen was never involved in the business affairs of those people. So it's no surprise that she didn't know what happened. And therefore she tried to solve the problem, not knowing what the problem was.

The problem becomes sackcloth instead of the decree, because she wasn't even aware of the decree. And if she was, it was A certain people. And she probably said, yeah, if they're not obeying the king's law, we got to get rid of them. Not realizing that Haman had pulled a prank that was so serious. So she was concerned over her uncle's attire.

Verse 5 through 11. She's concerned over her uncle's commandment.

Then Esther called Hattak, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend to her, and she gave him a commandment concerning Mordecai to learn what and why this was. Go out in the streets and find out why people are acting that way and why Mordecai is dressed like that. So Hattak went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that was happening to him and the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay the king's treasures to destroy the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for this their destruction, which had been given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain to her that he might command her to go in to the king and to make supplication to him and to plead before him for her people. So Hatak returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

Then Esther spoke to Hatak and gave him commandment for Mordecai. All the king's servants and the people of the king providence know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king who has not been called, he has but one law put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, then he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 days. So she is very concerned over the commandment of Mordecai to go in and talk to the king about this decree.

Hastak comes back and says, here's the reason. There's been a decree sent out that all the kings are eradicated about 11 months away. So Mordecai says to Hattack, now you tell Esther she's going to have to. She's got the inside ear of the king. She's going to have to talk to him and and get this turned around notice.

He also tells about the bribery money that's telling to bribe the king to go ahead and and do this evil deed, as well as the decree and and encourages then to go and make her supplication to the king. But Esther responds, her hands are tied. Esther hesitates.

All right, you ladies, let's pause. Are you wearing Esther's garments right now? As the queen of Persia, you're to go in before the king, having not been invited. And there's a rule in the kingdom that says that anybody does that is to be killed unless the king holds out his golden scepter to her. Are you willing to risk your life?

Esther hesitates. Wouldn't you?

Honest but faint hearted is the response.

Consider the inadequacy she must have felt. Who? What can I do? Who am I?

Consider the overwhelming sense of responsibility that she felt. But if I don't, who will?

Consider what she knew. Lie on the other side of the door in the inner court where all the business was transacted and all the great people of the kingdom was there. What if she embarrassed the king even as Vasti earlier had embarrassed him?

Josephus says around his throne stood men with axes to punish any who would approach the throne without being summons. Wow.

Esther also explained I'm out of his favor, perhaps because it's been 30 days since he's even spoken to me.

To approach it this time would be unwise. Let's wait. Maybe it'll change. This is just not the right time. How many times you wanted to knew somebody should be witness to, but you say it's just not the right time.

Or you knew you needed to do something to help that person, but it just wasn't the right time. Esther's hesitating. It's just not the right time to approach. She's thinking to approach it all is unwise, but to approach now is insane.

Faint heartedness is a natural reaction to such a challenging situation.

She's made of human stuff. She's not superwoman.

And she doesn't feel up to the challenging situation. In fact, she probably feels like a coward.

And cowardice in the right timing, in God's timing and what God wants you to do can be a great sin.

God is sovereign behind the scenes. He's raised Esther up.

But though God is sovereign, God's sovereignty is accomplished often through human responsibilities.

God had Mordecai in his hand, God has Esther in his hand. And God brings Mordecai to be in his place and Esther to be in her place to bring about his purpose. And Esther hesitates in her place of action.

Verse 12 and 13.

So when Mordecai.

So they told Mordecai Esther's words and Mordecai told them to answer. Esther, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the King's palace any more than all the other Jews. In other words, you're a Jew. Are you thinking that you will escape?

Mordecai is being utterly realistic. Ask in your heart, Esther, do you think you'll escape? You're a Jewish. And he's also being short and sharp. Wake up, girl.

Even if your identity remains secret, could you live with yourself after we're all wiped out because you wouldn't speak up?

What chance do you have for your identity to remain secret? But even if it does, can you live with a guilty conscience?

Won't your conscience haunt you by saying, I should have tried?

And what will you say to God on Judgment Day, Esther?

You ever been in those situations when you needed to speak up? And you can think of every reason in the world not to. You all have been there, and so have I. And we become experts at talking ourselves out of them, don't we? We have every excuse imaginable.

We can just do the job and we can almost live with ourselves. But every once in a while, something brings it back to memory, and it bothers us.

So Esther wears deep concern, but beginning in verse 14, she wears courage.

For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place. Boy. The faith of Mordecai, huh?

But if but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, go and gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days and nights my maids and I will do fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.

Esther puts on courage, courage first of all that God would deliver his people.

That God was the God of the Jews.

Did he not say to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. Had not Israel been called to be great and to be a blessing?

And was it not God that called them? But how can God wipe us out if he's made such a promise to Abraham?

Mordecai reminds her of a delivering God. Just keep your finger there and try to find Psalms 33. What a great verse. Set of verses we have in Psalms 33, verse 16 it says, no king is saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

A horse is a vain hope for safety, neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. No great armies, no great horses, nothing but God is the great deliverer. In Psalms 127:8 it says, Our hope is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Why would you hope in a horse when you've got a God that's power comes forth from his mouth and he speaks the worlds into existence?

And a God who's made promises to protect Israel. Why would you open God? I mean, why would you open horses or guns or tanks? Mordecai reminds her that God is a delivering God, and if, if you don't do it, he'll raise somebody else up to do it. But what if you were called for this very purpose?

I love the faith of Mordecai, don't you? But you're going to love the courage of Esther as well.

Mordecai urges Esther that it's more important to fear God than to fear people.

God's purposes are greater than the obedience or the disobedience of one person. If she chooses to disobey, God's purpose will still be accomplished.

Psalm 16 Proverbs 16, 4, 9 says, the Lord has made all for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of doom.

And then verse nine, a man's plan, a man's heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps.

God's purposes are greater than any one purpose. Whatever he's purposed, he will bring to pass, with or without Esther, in spite of Haman, in spite of Ahsos, decrees to annihilate the people.

So Esther wears the courage that God would deliver his people.

She also puts on the courage that God perhaps has raised her to be up to be king for this very purpose, for this very hour.

Notice Mordecai doesn't say Esther is going to deliver Israel. He says God's going to deliver Israel.

Esther now begins, through the courage, encouragement of Mordecai, to think beyond the little things, the troubles, and to see clearly God as the God of great deliverance and protection of his people, beyond the day's experience and into the overall plan of God. It's so easy to get caught up in whatever's going on right now and think that's the way it's Always going to be and not see the overall plan of God for your life, what he's got in mind, the unfolding purposes. Perhaps, she says, that's why I was chosen queen.

This perhaps is my moment of destiny.

So Mordecai's plans are irresistible to Esther. The promise of God's protection, the providence of God's intervention, the purpose of God for the people of Israel, all clung onto Esther's heart and thrust her forth with courage, Courage that she may be chosen as queen for this very purpose. I stop there for, as I say, have you run into things in your life where you wonder, could I be here for this very purpose? Could we have met, the two of us, strangely, in this circumstance, for this very purpose? Could this have happened just because God wants me to?

For this very purpose, you wonder? Folks, there's a lot of that in my life. I could unfold tons of things. If you're looking for it, if you're wanting to see the hand of God, the affairs of your life, look for it. It's there.

It'll give you courage.

Thirdly, Esther received courage through prayer and fasting. Courage that God would hear and see and come to the rescue of her and her people.

It was time for Esther and the people of God to put their utter dependence upon God because the civil world had let him down.

And so she called for fasting and doesn't mention prayer. I think there's a reason why it doesn't, because in the Persian Empire, something to do with it all kind of hides the name of God and hides words of prayer. But fasting is there, and fasting is always accompanied with prayer. So we're going to add the prayer with it. Of course, prayer and fasting, it was a time to show your utter dependence on God.

Fasting is only commanded one place in the Bible, and that was for Israel on the day of atonement. But fasting was often done and as far as I know, always accompanied with prayer. It was a way of abstaining from whatever may interfere with their prayer life and with their devotion to God at this time concerning a major issue, it was a sign of earnestness and seriousness and sorrow and repentance.

The only warning I would have as it relates to fasting is, remember, our body is the temple of God. Don't fast to where you harm your body.

And just because Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights doesn't mean you can fast that long. See, but many have, and I encourage you when you have some major involving thing in your life that you need to earnestly deal with God about this. Fasting would be a wonderful way, accompanied with prayers.

And so she fasted before God. Psalms 118, 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than the confidence of princes. Psalms 146:5, 9. Happy is he who?

The Lord, who? The God of Jacob for his help. I'm sorry. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heavens and earth, the sea, and all that's in them, who keep truth forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to prisoners.

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises those who bow before him. The Lord loves the righteous, the Lord watches over the strangers, he relieves the fatherless and the widows by the way of the wicked. But the way of the wicked he turns upside down. And you notice the phrase there.

The Lord does it. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, he's the great deliverer. And so Esther goes to prayer and fasting, and. And she asks that all jewelry go in prayer and fasting too. And it says, hey, Mordecai did what she requested, and so he went out and he got all the Jews to go into prayer and fasting too.

For three long days, all of God's people gave themselves to eating nothing and praying continually.

Jesus was one of great prayer. We know of him praying all night sometimes.

And certainly if Jesus was one of great prayer, we need to be people of great prayer. Esther knew her need for great prayer, and she went to the Lord for the courage that can come through prayer and fasting, that God's ear will hear their prayers, that God's eyes will see the brokenness before him through the sackcloth and ashes.

And lastly, she needed courage. And the words of Mordecai helps here too, as she came to realize in verse 16 and 17 that the death is actually better than doing nothing. If I perish, I perish. Death is better than doing nothing. There's lots of things in life worse than death.

Not that we invite it, or encourage it or run to it, but if it comes upon us, there's things that's worse, such as going through life with a guilty conscience.

Courage that death is better than doing nothing. Some have called her words, if I perish, I perish. A sign of resignation, a little like Jacob over Benjamin when he said, if I'm bereaved of my children, I'm bereaved.

Or even Jonah and Elijah as they became depressed. They said things like that. Given up? I don't think so. I don't see her going backwards.

I see her going forwards.

I see this as words of courage. I'm going to go in, and if I perish, I perish. So see it, so be it. We're going to put this in the hands of God and the results lie with him. I have to do what's right and what I'm called to do, regardless of the outcome.

She's reasoning.

Esther thinks perhaps of Judgment Day and thinks, what would I say to God? What kind of feeble excuse could I give.

Courage like Job when he had lost his health and he'd lost his family and he'd lost all his wealth. And he says, though he slay me, yet I will trust him if I die, if I perish, I perish.

Courage like Shadrach, Meshach and abednego in Daniel 3. He says, if this is the case, our God whom we serve will deliver us from the fiery furnace. And if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve our gods, your gods, nor set up worship of gold image will we serve. If I perish in the furnace, I perish, but I won't bow to your gods. Mordecai thought, oh my, look at the gild.

Look what I've done that's caused all this to come on Israel. But I won't bow to Haman.

I'll do what's right, even though it may cause great problems for me or for my people, or maybe for Esther. But I've got to do what's right.

Esther had her fears, but she performed great acts of courage in spite of fears.

A rash man acts without fear. A brave man acts in spite of fear.

She had courage and that from God.

Have you ever faced a great and fearful thing?

What did you do?

Did you call those who you really trust and believe in to pray for you?

Did you pray and fast, and when you were done, did you do what was right anyway, even though the results might not turn out the way you want? That it might be the fiery furnace of Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, it might be the lion's den of Daniel, it might be the parish of Esther, but you did what was right anyway. You took the courage to trust God and to do what he says anyway. What a passage, what a chapter in the Bible to give us courage to do what's right in a day and an age when everybody's going pell mell into immorality going pell mell into anti God, anti this. Don't even salute the flag and put God's name in it.

All this stuff. So running Christianity and all we believed out of our lives, you and I may not be able to change all that. We'll try, but we won't bend to it.

We'll still pray three times a day facing Jerusalem no matter what the threat. We'll still go before King Assurus.

And if I perish, I perish will still be God's kind of people in this kind of a world.

Thank God for the Mordecai's who encourages the Esthers to do what's right. Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture. We are always encouraged in the book of Esther and encouraged this morning as well. That we would be this kind of a person, that your Holy Spirit would work in us, your holy truth and word would work in us, and we would be a light in this world, that we'd be salt in a flavorless world. We'd be pleasing in your sight.

Thank you for these lessons. In Jesus name, amen.