We left our story last week with Haman the Agagite announcing
a decree that by the end of the year, on the 13th day of the 12th
month, all Jews were to be killed and their property plundered. Since Haman’s
specific target was Mordecai, it would be easy to say Mordecai caused this
problem. Had he simply bowed to Haman like everyone else the plot never would
have unfolded. But don’t forget there are hundreds of years of historical
animosity between the Amalekites and the Jews. More was going on here than
personal revenge.
Prov 19:21
Many are the plans
in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
Esther 4:1-3 When Mordecai learned
all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes,
and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and
bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was
allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every
province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great
mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of
them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Mordecai’s reaction, though strange to us, was typical to
the Jews. When grief and anguish are far too great to hold inside, they have to
be expressed. We cry, we scream, we throw things. In that day tearing your
clothes identified you as one who had a broken heart. Even today, the Torah
tells Jews tearing the clothing is an expression of pain and sorrow when a
loved one has died. It exposes the broken heart.
That’s what Mordecai was doing. Distraught at the dark future
for God’s people, he was exposing his broken heart. But he didn’t stop there.
He took it a step further. He put on sackcloth and covered himself with ashes.
Sackcloth was a coarse material, similar in some ways to
burlap. It was typically made from a black goat’s hair – the fibers of which were
extra stiff and pricked the skin with uncompromising vengeance, making it miserable
to wear. Where tearing of the clothes indicated a broken heart, sackcloth
demonstrated a broken man. Tearing the garment was to let people know you
were in anguish. The sackcloth was a sign to God to show brokenness and
abject poverty before Him. Coupled with ashes, you were saying to the Lord, “I
am in desolation and absolute ruin. You are my only hope.” It was a cry for the
mercy of God to be enacted upon your life.
In the story of Jonah, after Jonah had spoken God’s message
of destruction, Jonah 3:6-9 The word reached the
king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered
himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and
published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let
neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or
drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them
call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the
violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent
and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
The message is clear, but…we throw ourselves onto the
mercy of God. We have heard our verdict, but…maybe there is room for
another answer. We hear what seems a settled matter, but…is this God’s
final answer? We can’t change the outcome, but…we can submit the matter
to God and wait. Perhaps He will change the outcome as He has in the past.
Tearing the garment, sackcloth and ashes are all outward
signs of Mordecai’s inward condition. It revealed his grief. But by these
symbols, Mordecai isn’t grieving as those without hope. He is saying: but
God. His eyes are turned upward, anticipating God’s intervention. In his
desperation and without his own solution, he says: only God can fix this. This
seems a bit over the top, but you understand this if you have ever gotten to
the point in life where God is Your only answer.
It’s called Mental Anguish
- Suffering that someone experiences as the result of a traumatizing experience or the anticipation of a traumatizing experience.
- A high degree of emotional torment, distress, or suffering.
Esther 4:4-9 When Esther's young
women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She
sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but
he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach,
one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered
him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was all about and why. Hathach went out to Mordecai in
the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told
him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had
promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the
Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa
for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her
and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf
of her people. And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had
said.
We have the old saying that ignorance is bliss or [what
I used to raise my parents]: what you don’t know can’t hurt you. But all
that does is delay the moment when reality catches up to us. Even though Esther
didn’t know what was going on, she was nonetheless affected by it. Her life
wouldn’t be spared any more than Mordecai’s or any of the Jews living in Persia,
just because she lived in the palace. But her ignorance didn’t stop
God’s plan.
Prov 24:12 If you say, “Behold, we did not
know this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who keeps watch over your soul
know it?
Write this down somewhere, preferably on your heart: God
knows!
What fights within us against believing God knows? It’s what
God said through David Ps 50:21 You thought that I was
just like you…
We often get God confused with someone else. If we don’t
understand God as He is, we’ll give Him characteristics He doesn’t have. We’ll
make Him human, more like us. Problem? He isn’t just like us. His ways are
higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
We look at ourselves and, since we’re untrustworthy, we’ll
think God is untrustworthy. Since we’re unfaithful, we’ll think God is unfaithful.
Since we’re unmerciful, we’ll think God is unmerciful. Since others have
let others down, we’ll think God will let us down.
It goes on: if we don’t know something, we’ll assume God
doesn’t know it either. If we can’t change things, we’ll assume God
can’t change things. If we have no plan, we’ll assume neither does God.
So, without more details, Mordecai tells Esther, “Here’s
what you must do. Use your position as Queen to speak to the King and get this
ruling changed.”
Esther 4:10-12 Then Esther spoke to
Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, “All the king's
servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman
goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one
law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden
scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in
to the king these thirty days.” And they told Mordecai what Esther had
said. Which basically was her saying, “I can’t do that.
You’re asking too much of me.”
Why do we say we can’t do something?
- We don’t want to.
- We feel we don’t have what it takes.
- We’re afraid we might fail.
- It’s asking more from us than we’re willing to do.
Esther felt she had legitimate reasons:
- I haven’t seen him in a month.
- There is a rule that no one goes before the King without being summoned under penalty of death.
- Even if I get summoned, unless he acknowledges me by extending his scepter, I will be killed on the spot.
“Do you understand what’s at risk? This is my life we’re
talking about.”
Ever hear the expression: not my monkey, not my parade?
We use it when someone’s asked to take responsibility for something that isn’t
their responsibility. They’re asked to commit to the feeding and care of an
obligation that isn’t their job. Esther is saying: “This isn’t my monkey; this
isn’t my parade. I’m not responsible for fixing this problem.”
But all of that is about to change. There are two profound
statements in the Book of Esther. Here’s the first:
Esther 4:13-14 Then Mordecai told them
to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you
will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at
this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but
you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not
come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Mordecai is saying, “This is why you must do this anyway. You
are the right person at the right place at the right time. There could be no
greater reason for why you are Queen than this moment.”
It’s the wake-up call for action. It’s the moment the hero
decides to do what places him or her at greatest risk. It’s when the first
responders rush into a disaster scene. It’s when the military takes off on a
dangerous mission. It’s when we decide God’s way is the best way.
King Asa was facing an unbeatable foe. The Israeli army
didn’t match up with what was coming against them. But they had to fight. It
was a defining moment for what kind of king Asa would be. He prayed: 2Chron 14:11 “O LORD, there is none like
you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we
rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you
are our God; let not man prevail against you.”
“God this moment is bigger than we are. We’re too small for
what we face. But here we are. And because we believe you have placed us here
in this moment, at this time, you have plans for us that go beyond what we can
see. We surrender to whatever you choose.”
Esther 4:15-17 Then Esther told them to
reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold
a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I
and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though
it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
Mordecai then went
away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
This is the second most profound statement in the Book of
Esther, perhaps in much of the whole Bible. It defines the moment of surrender
to what God wants, saying what God wants is more important than what we want
for ourselves. It’s Jesus in the Garden praying, “Not My will but Yours be
done.” Regardless of the outcome, we will trust God.
Jim Elliot was to be a missionary to the Acua Tribe in
Ecuador. On the first trip in to make contact with these hostile people, he and
his team were attacked and killed. People wondered how God could let this
happen. They were on a holy mission. Why didn’t he rescue them, or at least
prevent them from going? Later, among Jim’s writings, they found this
statement: He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep, to gain what
he cannot lose.
What was Jim Elliot saying? Regardless of the outcome, I
will trust the Lord. And if in doing so I perish, I perish.
Esther was just an ordinary person, yet God had plans to use
her to do something extraordinary. Something nobody but she could do. She had a
choice, but yielded her choice to courageously allow herself to be used by God.
Even though she had become Queen, she was willing to give up her crown, her
status and her life, to do what God had positioned her to do. Only she
was in the right place at the right time to make a difference.
There is no mention of what Esther wore to go before the
King. It is obvious she didn’t tear her clothing, put on sackcloth and pour
ashes over her head. What did she wear that expressed the content of her heart?
Peace.
I believe when she chose to go before the King, that though she
started out carrying the burden of her people and even her own life, she laid
that aside and covered herself in peace. Look at what she decided to do. Fear
doesn’t make decisions like that. Grief doesn’t push us to selflessness.
Anguish doesn’t move us to sacrifice. Only peace. Peace comes when we release
the burden to the One who controls the outcome.
Col
3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in
your hearts,
Rule means letting peace settle the matter. It is the
picture of an umpire controlling a game. The umpire decides the outcome of the
plays, not they players. What he says goes. Paul is saying: Let peace be the
deciding factor. Choose to let peace overrule our emotions, our anxiety and our
fears.
Prov 27:19 As in water face reflects face, so the
heart of man reflects man.
If our heart is being exposed on the outside, revealing all
that’s going on inside, what is it showing? The distress of our anguish, the
fear of our panic, the blackness of our grief, the agony of our heartbreak, or
the peace that passes all understanding?
Two little girls gave their mom a very nice potted plant for
Mother’s Day. They bought it with their own money, and mom was very happy,
until she read the pretty ribbon that said, ‘Rest In Peace.’ One of the little
girls beamed and said, “We knew this was perfect for you since you’re always
asking for a little peace so you can rest.”
For such a time as this, we must let the peace of Christ
rule over us. Without peace there will be no rest. It doesn’t matter what’s
going on, we must allow the peace of God to decide the outcome. We must
surrender ourselves to His best.
One of Winston Churchill’s most famous speeches came after
France fell to Germany in June, 1940. And it was clean Britain was next. He
said:
“What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is
over... the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the
survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and
the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and
might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will
have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all
Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad,
sunlit uplands.
But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United
States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the
abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the
lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties,
and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for
a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
This was Esther’s finest hour. This was why she had become
Queen – for such a time as this. Next week, we’ll find out what she did next.
TAKEAWAYS:
- Wherever we are is the perfect place for God to work.
- He doesn’t have to change our location or our circumstances to fix our problems, most of the time He only has to change our hearts.
- When our hearts agree with God’s purposes, peace rules over us and gives us rest.
- If we don’t have rest, it’s because we don’t have peace.
- If we don’t have peace, it’s because we haven’t surrendered the outcome of our circumstances to the Lord.
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