Desperate

Up until the plot to kill the king, Esther's relationship with Mordecai was a secret. No longer. She has now sent Hathach to find out why Mordecai is behaving as if some terrible tragedy has happened, and the detail of the account is compelling:

"Esther called for Hathach, one of the royal eunuchs whom the king had assigned to wait on her, and told him to go to Mordecai and get the full story of what was happening. So Hathach went to Mordecai in the town square in front of the King’s Gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him. He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people.

Hathach came back and told Esther everything Mordecai had said. Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message: “Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.” "

Proverbs 20:28 says "Love and faithfulness keep a king safe; through love his throne is made secure." which the CEV translates as "Rulers are protected by their mercy and loyalty, but they must be merciful for their kingdoms to last."  Xerxes did not have love and mercy to keep him safe so, to ensure his own safety, he  had surrounded himself with such an amount of physical and legal barriers that not even his own wives could see him unannounced.

It sounded like such a simple request: just ask Esther to go and tell the king what is going to happen.

Yet it was so much more. Moredecai was well aware that the order to massacre the Jews had come, albeit through the hand of Haman, directly from the king: signed and sealed.  He must have thought so highly of Esther that he believed that she could get the king to change his mind. Was Mordecai unaware of palace protocol? Or was he so desperate that he wanted Esther to do everything in her power - and beyond it - to help save their people?

Am I so desperate to love and serve God that I will do everything in my power to save His people?


Esther 4:8 - 11

Comfort and encouragement

Interesting. Esther's first response to her uncle's distress is, perhaps, to try to pretend that there is nothing the matter. Why? Because she sends him fresh clothes to replace his mourning garb. It is a poor response: it negates his feelings, tells him he is doing the wrong thing and that he should 'get a grip' and return to normality.

But of course he can't, He, his family and his entire people face annihilation. Refusing to bow to Haman had revealed his ethnicity: now, it was confirmed. All of Susa would have seen his actions and wondered, and I imagine the rumours must have reached Esther's ears. Nevertheless, she sent a trusted servant to find out the full story.

But perhaps her wish was primarily to restore his dignity and get him in a place where he would be presentable enough to return to work and, even, to meet with her. Perhaps her connection with him was already known. Perhaps her maids had told her about Mlordecai, knowing the relationship; or, perhaps, it was all just part of the palace gossip.

What she heard could not have been comforting - the rumours could not have sounded worse than the actuality.

Yet Esther had, in a sense, already lost her life. She had been taken from her family and it was only by the grace of God that she was where she was. (Who knows, with such a king, what could have happened otherwise?) She had been brought up a Jew in a family which was so well assimilated into the culture that their identity had been kept secret, so how well did she know the mighty Jehovah who had saved his people from slavery in Egypt? Did she recognise what he had done for her?

Paul knew. He could shout out, in his letter to the Corinthians: "All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." The God who "who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."

So Esther tried to comfort Mordecai in his mourning, sending him clothes, then sending someone to find out what the matter was.

We all need comfort and encouragement: Maddie MacMath reminds me: "when we are living under the weight of insecurity ourselves, we become incapable of thinking about others. We are concerned about self: how we feel and how we can improve our self-confidence. No one wants to feel like they aren’t enough or they are a failure, so we naturally focus on digging ourselves out when we fall into that hole of lies. But the catch is that we all have insecurities because we all have weaknesses. We focus on improving our weaknesses (through Christ, of course), which is a good thing. It’s the process of sanctification. But there’s a danger. We run the risk of missing out how the Holy Spirit is moving in someone else’s life, and getting the humbling privilege of encouraging them in that. And they miss out on the blessing and community that encouragement brings. I’m reminded of what Paul says about our weaknesses. . .it’s all too familiar:

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

 2 Corinthians 12:9

My insecurities, my weaknesses – I have to remind myself that those are the places Christ is made strong. Those are the areas where I can’t rely on myself. They are places where I am reminded that when you squeeze me in my flesh, nothing good or righteous or holy comes out. I am 100% dependent on Christ and His Spirit in me. So, the places that spur on my personal sanctification should also be promoting my encouragement of others. Because Scripture tells me that my weaknesses are never meant to point back to me; they are meant to point back to the God who has victory over all of them. The holy, holy, holy King who pours out such GRACE upon us. Insecurity can kill encouragement. Because insecurity keeps us focused on us. But it shouldn’t be that way. Yes, we are weak in our flesh – but that only means that Christ that much stronger! So maybe we should step outside of ourselves and recognize what He’s doing in the people around us. Because everyone, even the most confident and seemingly secure people need to hear Truth. Write a letter. Send a text. Meet someone for coffee. Pick up the phone. It doesn’t matter how the encouragement comes. What matters is that it does, and that’s it’s rooted in Christ. Not encouraging others because you are too focused on fixing your own insecurities (or because you are “too busy”) doesn’t build up the Body of Christ. Encouraging superficial things or offering fake compliments doesn’t build up the Body of Christ. Jesus-lovers should be the most encouraging people around because we’ve been saved and encouraged in the most undeserving way. Even if encouraging others is a weakness of yours – whether in the family or outside of it – it’s not a fatal flaw; it’s just another place where Christ can show Himself stronger and more merciful than you could ever imagine."

Encouragement. Esther was trying to do that, but what she really needed to do - couldn't do, because of who and where she was - was to come and sit with Mordecai in his distress.

Uncomfortable. Comforting others, really really comforting others in God's spirit, might, perhaps be uncomfortable. Esther discovered that...

Esther 4:4-7

Broken

"My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise." Psalm 51:17

Or, as it says in the Message so meaningfully: "Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.  I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice."

So: "When Mordecai learned what had been done, he ripped his clothes to shreds and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went out in the streets of the city crying out in loud and bitter cries. He came only as far as the King’s Gate, for no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed to enter the King’s Gate. As the king’s order was posted in every province, there was loud lament among the Jews—fasting, weeping, wailing. And most of them stretched out on sackcloth and ashes." (Esther 4:1 - 3)

Devastated in the face of impending death. Perhaps it might be easier to face one's own inevitable death: but the thought of the terror and barbaric cruelty inflicted on those we love strikes us down.

We become broken.

And none of us want to feel like that: it's unpleasant, to say the least. Overwhelmed, destroyed, traumatized. We become reduced to chaos, disorder, completely helpless.

Yet it is when we have no strength left, that we cannot take any pride in the least of our abilities, that God is able to take and use us. He desires the sacrifice of ourselves, the complete emptying of our spirits because he knows that then HIS spirit is able to fill us, overwhelm us, empower us in ways that would not be possible if we had some of our own strength left.

Hate and anger

"Bulletins were sent out by couriers to all the king’s provinces with orders to massacre, kill, and eliminate all the Jews—youngsters and old men, women and babies—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar, and to plunder their goods. Copies of the bulletin were to be posted in each province, publicly available to all peoples, to get them ready for that day."

Unbelievable. Wholesale slaughter. Yet we have seen it in modern times in Rwanda, and countless times inbetween. Driven by hate and anger. Prejudice and jealousy. Grudges and resentment.

And Jesus said; "You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

 “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God." (Matthew 5:21 - 24)

Sobering stuff. The disciples took it very seriously, as we must:

" Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble....Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him....Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." 1 John 2:9 - 10, 3:15, 4:20

Paul adds: "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone." (Titus 3:3)

This is a continuing challenge: not to harbour envy, anger, resentment...but to bring every ugly thought to Jesus, admitting my sinfulness and utter dependency on him.."...we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  (2 Corinthians 10:5

And we know the end of the story, but just think of the fear and the terror the Jews must have experienced. The sense of betrayal in a country they had learned to call home....

Esther 3:13 - 14

Fear

"The king’s secretaries were brought in on the thirteenth day of the first month. The orders were written out word for word as Haman had addressed them to the king’s satraps, the governors of every province, and the officials of every people. They were written in the script of each province and the language of each people in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring."

The detail. Haman lost no time in implementing his plan. It must have been just a few days later that he gave the order, ensuring that it was written out exactly in every language in the empire, so that there could be no possibility of any Jews managing to survive.

I am almost in awe. Such a clever manager. Imagine the news travelling by courier: by camel or donkey caravan, on foot, carried rolled up in cloth or in leather bags. The messenger meeting the dignitaries of a city, the leaders of a town, the head men of the village, announcing it in the market place to a gathered together population. Were people shocked? Did they know for sure who the Jews were? Mordecai and his family had blended in so well that he could keep his identity a secret; were there many like him? Or, had the Jews kept faithfully to their heritage and customs, living quiet, God-fearing lives? Either way, they would have prospered: Jeremiah's prophecy many years earlier had told them to "... settle there (Babylonia) and build houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. Get married and have children, then help your sons find wives and help your daughters find husbands, so they can have children as well. I want your numbers to grow, not to get smaller.
Pray for peace in Babylonia and work hard to make it prosperous. The more successful that nation is, the better off you will be." (Jeremiah 29:4 - 7, CEV)

And so "Bulletins were sent out by couriers to all the king’s provinces with orders to massacre, kill, and eliminate all the Jews—youngsters and old men, women and babies—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar, and to plunder their goods. Copies of the bulletin were to be posted in each province, publicly available to all peoples, to get them ready for that day." (The Message)

How long did it take for the news to travel? Did rumours reach remote parts of the empire before the official communication? How long did the people live in fear, knowing that, by the end of the year, they would all have been killed?

The Jews had obeyed God's command to settle in the country. They had prospered and lived in peace in the midst of a violent kingdom. They had done what God said, but now? Did they trust in God's good plans for them or did they give in to fear?

Do I?

Esther 3:12 - 13

Evil plans

The Bible is very specific about the exact time Haman chose to speak to the king and get permission. Ironically, this was the month of the Passover, when the Jews celebrated their release from slavery in Egypt. Now, this month would be when their annihilation was decided.

To make sure he got what he wanted, he chose his words carefully, using language so inflammatory as to ensure that the king would agree with him:
'Haman then spoke with King Xerxes: “There is an odd set of people scattered through the provinces of your kingdom who don’t fit in. Their customs and ways are different from those of everybody else. Worse, they disregard the king’s laws. They’re an affront; the king shouldn’t put up with them. If it please the king, let orders be given that they be destroyed. I’ll pay for it myself. I’ll deposit 375 tons of silver in the royal bank to finance the operation.” '

So of course the king said yes! We have had no indication so far that Xerxes was anything but selfish and capricious: now we add greed to his list of unpleasant characteristics. He accepted Haman's payment, but magnanimously gave Haman the confiscated wealth of all the about-to-be-murdered Jews. (He must have been incredibly rich to forego so much wealth as would have belonged to an entire people.) And so he gave the royal seal of approval, literally: his signet ring.

How foolish of the king to put so much trust in a man of violence.

Oh, how Psalm 52:2 speaks truth about Haman: "You plan brutal crimes, and your lying words cut like a sharp razor."

Things are looking bad for the Jews... I try to imagine how I would feel in the same situation, knowing that a licence to kill was being printed and it was only a matter of time when I would be attacked and brutally murdered.

As is happening even now to Christians in Iraq.

Imagine the fear, the terror, the feeling of helplessness and powerlessness.

Esther 3:7 - 11

Pride

"Haman was furious to learn that Mordecai refused to kneel down and honour him. And when he found out that Mordecai was a Jew, he knew that killing only Mordecai was not enough. Every Jew in the whole kingdom had to be killed."

Pride. Hurt feelings. Anger.

I can be like Haman. I have felt angry,  as he was - not furious, perhaps, but still angry enough for feelings to cloud my judgement, spoil my joy and affect my relationships.

Rejection does this. I'm working on it, focusing on God's love for me, dealing with the deep feelings that modern day slights, petty offences or downright rudeness and rejection awake in me.

But I have been like Haman. I have let hurt pride poison relationships with other people who are connected to the perpetrator. I have let hurt pride cause me to react with inappropriate anger. I have let hurt pride cause me to dwell on the sin and ugliness in those who have offended me instead of covering them with the oil of forgiveness.

I know the truth of "Too much pride will destroy you." (Proverbs 16:18, CEV)

Scary. But I am NOT like Haman. I have confessed my sin to Jesus. I have opened myself up to the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart. And I am learning to nestle close to the Father heart of God, to know that, whatever happens, I am loved.
(Esther 3:5 - 6)

Truth - at last

Interesting. A detailed background sketch of the man who will emerge as villain in the piece. Haman proves to be not only wicked in his own right, but is a descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites, who were a cruel enemy of the Israelites. God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites completely but Saul spared their king, Agag. The prophet Samuel himself then  killed Agag, but his descendants lived on, with intent on complete annihilation of God's people.

We don't know all this yet, though. We know only that Haman has risen to the position of chief favourite who can do no wrong, and so: "All the king’s servants at the King’s Gate used to honour him by bowing down and kneeling before Haman—that’s what the king had commanded."
Egoistic, power hungry...
But...
Except Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t bow down and kneel. The king’s servants at the King’s Gate asked Mordecai about it: “Why do you cross the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him about this but he wouldn’t listen, so they went to Haman to see whether something shouldn’t be done about it. Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.  (The Message Esther 3:1- 4)

Mordecai has, at last, revealed his true identity. Because this is the crunch: Psalm 95:6 tells us, as do many many other verses: "So come, let us worship: bow before him, on your knees before God, who made us!"

Not before anyone else. Before God. It is God only who we should worship and adore: not men, however powerful, or clever, or gifted or talented...GOD.

This morning, this day, let me worship God alone. Putting him before everything else and especially before my standing with others...

Love God Greatly, the study I am doing this with, reminds me:

"1. It is never to late to take a stand.

Even though Mordecai didn’t stand up from the beginning, he decides to take a stand now. And we can do the same. We can choose this day to say, “No more” to the things that we have been letting slide that we know we should really take a stand for. Is it a TV show that we really know isn’t benefitting us? A gossip conversation that we have been a part of that we know we need to stop? Even if we have failed to take a stand in the past, it isn’t too late to say today is the day!

2. We can choose to bow to the Lord our God.

Psalm 95:6 invites us to worship and bow down before the Lord our God our Maker. Take a moment to read this verse and let it sink in. What have you been bowing to other than the Lord? Idols have a way of creeping in without us even realizing it! Take a moment to think about what has become an idol in your life, and confess. Then choose to bow to the Lord!"

My prayer: God, keep reminding me of who You are: awesome, majestic, the only one worthy of worship, adoration and praise.

God's plans

The plot thickens...first Esther is chosen to join the king's harem, now Mordecai has a job at the palace. How did he manage that? He has already shown himself to be astute; now, perhaps, he worked his way into the palace in order to be nearer Esther.

The Living Bible says: "Even after all the young women had been transferred to the second harem and Mordecai had become a palace official, Esther continued to keep her family background and nationality a secret. She was still following Mordecai’s directions, just as she did when she lived in his home."

A known relative of an important person would have expected to be given a favourable position at the palace, but Mordecai's position was relatively lowly, as his duties were at the gate to the palace or the entrance to the women's harem. Here, he could keep in closer contact with Esther; and here, he discovered a plot by disgruntled servants to kill the king.

Esther was the king's wife, his possession...but it was not marriage as we know it. Xerxes had already demonstrated a lack of mutual respect and trust in his marriage to Vashti, and Esther follows this tradition, keeping her family background secret and following Mordecai's instructions. Yet, when the plot against the king's life was discovered by Mordecai, he told Esther and then SHE told the king. Did the king then ask her how she knew, and, perhaps, as she admitted that Mordecai had told her, what the relationship was? Did the secret come out?  Or was Mordecai still just a lowly servant? He certainly doesn't seem to have received any reward for his service.

Here, again, we see how God uses this unpropitious circumstances to work things together for good: the plot is discovered, the perpetrators disposed of and Mordecai's service in this respect is recorded in the official record books. (Esther 2:19 - 23)

Proverbs 19:20 reminds: "Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life." Accepting advice means admitting that we need it; we need help; we have to humble ourselves.

Not always easy...

Waiting and preparation

As Esther joins the harem, she gets special beauty treatments in preparation for meeting the king. It seems to take five years before she actually gets to meet the king (beauty treatments took a year, but then the girls were taken in turn to the king), but then he falls in love with her straightaway and makes her his queen. There are great celebrations: a special dinner, a national holiday, and Esther joins the wives.

It was all worth waiting for.

Esther has made friends, especially the king's personal servant Hegai who had advised Esther and told her what to take with her when she went to the king. (I can't begin to imagine all the sexual tricks and contrivances Esther had probably become acquainted with during her time of preparation. I'm not going there.)

She is queen, with a hugely prominent position within the country.

And what, in this situation, did Esther see as 'good'? Would she have preferred to stay with Mordecai, living simply and humbly away from palace intrigue? Or in the security of the harem, rather than becoming queen...did the shadow of Vashti and her downfall loom over her? Or was she simply delighted to have become Xerxes' wife?....

Who would have thought that an orphaned foreigner could attain such heights?

Esther 2:12 - 18