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“ESTHER: STANDING STRONG WHEN THE PRESSURE IS ON”June 23, 2013Cornerstone Community ChurchYou may or may not remember reading this short poem at some time in your life; it’s by a man named Edward Everett Hale who was both a poet and a pastor in the late 1800s, and it reads like this:I am only one.But still I am one.I cannot do everything.But still I can do something.And because I cannot do everything,I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.We live in a big world, a world of big cities, big corporations and big problems. To think that one person, a person like you or me, could make much of a difference … well, it just seems fanciful, doesn’t it? Years ago there was a cartoon called “The Animaniacs.” Those of you with DirecTV can watch reruns of the show on channel 294 (Don’t ask me how I know that). The best part of the cartoon was some of the songs these characters sang. One of my favorites was “Yakko’s Universe” – here’s the chorus: “It’s a great big universe, and we’re all really puny. We’re just tiny little specks about the size of Mickey Rooney. It’s big and black and inky, and we are small and dinky. It’s a big universe and we’re not.”And yet the truth is that as big as the world is and as inconsequential as we sometimes feel, one person can make a big difference. For example, a few years ago some historians published a study demonstrating the importance of one vote. Though there’s some debate about this, here’s one election result that stood out to me – in 1923, one vote gave Adolph Hitler control of the Nazi Party. About 2500 years before Hitler set in motion the extermination of six million Jewish people, there was a man named Haman who was plotting the elimination of the entire Jewish race. But while Hitler wasn’t stopped until thousands of Allied forces battled their way across Europe, Haman was stopped by a young girl named Esther, who risked her life to save her people. Every March our Jewish friends celebrate Esther’s bravery with the Feast of Purim. Esther is a true star; in fact, the name “Esther” – which is her Persian name – literally means “star.” And this morning we are going to partner up with Esther so she can teach us how God can use a single person to change the world when that one person determines to stand strong even when the pressure in on. Esther’s DilemmaEven if you are a devoted Bible reader, it’s easy to miss the Book of Esther. It’s the 17th book in the Bible, tucked in between the Books of Nehemiah and Job. The Book of Esther has always had a special place in my heart for a simple reason – Esther is my Mother’s name; my Mom was named after this very courageous woman.In one way Esther is a very curious book to even be in the Bible. It is the only book in the Bible which never mentions God. God’s name is not used in this book, and no one prays to God in the course of this book. And yet while God is not center stage in the Book of Esther, there is no mistaking his involvement in the story. As many Bible students have observed, God’s fingerprints can be found everywhere in the story of Esther. Have you ever watched any of the CSI or NCIS shows and seen them dust a door handle for fingerprints? No one saw the suspect enter the room, but his fingerprints on the door handle prove that he was there. God doesn’t appear in a burning bush in Esther like he did in Exodus, but there is no denying his handiwork in this story.To appreciate the story we need to understand a little Old Testament history. You may recall that Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt where they had been slaves for over 400 years. Joshua then led the Israelites into the Promised Land, the land God had long before promised to Abraham. Once in the land the people asked God for a king, just like all the other nations had, so he gave them one – King Saul. Saul didn’t do so well, so he was replaced by David, and David was followed by his son, Solomon. Under Solomon Israel became a great world power. But after Solomon died things went downhill. The nation split into two. In the year 722 B.C. the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians, and in 586 B.C. the southern kingdom was captured by the Babylonians, who carted away most of the remaining Israelites to Babylon, which as you know is present day Iraq. But the story of Esther doesn’t take place in Babylon, because the Babylonians were themselves conquered by the Persians, as you can read about in the Book of Daniel, and the Persians took the Jewish people to their own homeland, which is present day Iran. Esther’s story begins in the year 482 B.C. in the land of Persia where the people of Israel are once again in captivity. The king of Persia was named Xerxes, who is 37 years old when we catch up to him. Xerxes was a true male chauvinist pig; if you happen to be a closet male chauvinist, you’re going to like King Xerxes. You’re also going to like Xerxes if you like parties, because the Book of Esther begins with Xerxes throwing a six-month long party for all his nobles and military officials. Here’s how the book begins:This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present.For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty. When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest, who were in the citadel of Susa … By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. (Esther 1:1-5, 8)So what does Xerxes do to celebrate the conclusion of his six-month long party? He throws another party, this one a week-long party for all the people of the capital city of Susa. And, as you can see, this is a drinking party, where people are allowed to drink as much as they want for as long as they want.Then Xerxes had a thought, the kind of thought a drunken person might get. The Queen of Persia, and Xerxes’ wife, was Vashti. For some reason Xerxes thinks it’s a good idea to have his servants fetch Vashti and have her come and dance in front of all his drunken buddies. Some Bible scholars interpret the language of the text to mean that Xerxes wanted his wife to dance in the nude in front of the drunken crowd, but in any event we can understand why this might not be a good thing. Vashti certainly thinks it’s not a good thing, so she does something women in those days didn’t dare to do – she refused. She dared to disobey her husband and her king. Vashti’s refusal does not sit well with the king or with the nobles. If the Queen gets away with disobeying the King, other women might be emboldened to disobey their husbands. So Xerxes does what a male chauvinist would do – he has Vashti stripped of her crown and banished from the kingdom. But in time Xerxes comes to realize that he’s made a mistake. So to cheer him up Xerxes’ servants come up with an idea. They propose that Xerxes hold a beauty contest, that a search be made of all 127 provinces Xerxes rules and that every beautiful virgin they can find be brought to Xerxes for him to choose a new wife. Xerxes thinks this is a good plan, as you might suspect, and orders that it be done.Then the text introduces us to two very important people in this story:Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai … who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon … Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. (Esther 2:5-7) “Lovely in form and features” is the Hebrew way of saying that Esther was smoking hot. She, along with hundreds of other women from all over Persia, is brought to Susa to spend a year taking beauty treatments. And at the end of that year each of the women are brought one by one before the King. And who should King Xerxes choose as his new queen but Esther. And already we can see the fingerprints of God in this story. How else would an orphaned Jewish girl living in captivity become the Queen of the most powerful nation on earth unless God was involved?Now there’s one point the text makes over and over in these first few chapters, a very important point. Esther, the Bible tells us, made sure not to tell anyone in the palace that she’s Jewish. Hadassah is her Jewish name, but she is careful to use her Persian name of Esther. The King and his subjects all assume that she’s Persian. Neither do the King nor his subjects have any idea that Esther is related to and has been raised by Mordecai, whom people know to be Jewish.The Bible then, almost as an aside, mentions one other fact, something that at first blush seems to be irrelevant to the story. While Mordecai is sitting by the city gates he overhears two men plotting to kill the King. Mordecai reports the plot, the two men are captured and hanged, and a notation is made in “the book of the annals in the presence of the king” of Mordecai’s good deed. The King doesn’t know anything about this, but the Bible wants us to know that this fact is written down for future reference.We then meet another character as we get to chapter 3 – his name is Haman. If this were a movie the music would turn very ominous and Haman would most certainly be wearing a black hat. I am told that whenever this story is reread during the Feast of Purim, the listeners, upon hearing Haman’s name, will spit and will use mallets to pound stones on which Haman’s name is written. (Sounds fun, doesn’t it?) Haman is Xerxes’ right-hand man. Xerxes issues an order that everyone is supposed to bow down whenever Haman passes by to honor him. Everyone obeys this order except for one person – can you guess who? Mordecai. Being a devout Jew, Mordecai refuses to bow before any man, and while God’s name is not mentioned in the text, we understand the reason for his actions is that Mordecai will bow only to his God, the God of Israel. Haman does not take kindly to Mordecai’s stubbornness. Listen to what we read next: “When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead, Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.” (Esther 3:5-6) Since Xerxes thinks so highly of Haman, it doesn’t take Haman much effort to convince Xerxes to issue an order to eliminate the Jewish people. Esther 3:13 says, “Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews – young and old, women and little children – on a single day, the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.” This order, by the way, was issued in the first month of the year. In other words, Haman not only wanted to exterminate the Jewish people; he wanted them to know it was coming. He wanted them to spend the next twelve months living in fear of their certain demise.Now the first thought that comes to our minds as readers is something like this: “Well this is easy! Esther is Jewish, and she’s the Queen. Surely she can do something to help.” And Mordecai urges Esther to do just that, to use her position to influence King Xerxes to spare the Jewish people. But it’s not that simple. Listen to Esther’s response to Uncle Mordecai:“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 he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But 30 days have passed since I was called to go to the king.” (Esther 4:11) Here’s the dilemma. Esther may well be the only hope of the Jewish people. But even though she’s the Queen, the law forbids her from coming uninvited into the presence of the King. Under the law, anyone who does so is to be put to death, no questions asked. For Esther to walk into the King’s court uninvited is to risk her life.Esther’s DecisionMordecai understands Esther’s dilemma. But this is obviously an extreme situation. This is a risk, he believes, Esther has to take. So Mordecai sends this message back to her:“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 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 royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14) Mordecai never uses the name of God, but is there any doubt that God is on his mind when he tells his young cousin, “Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” The message is pretty clear – “Esther, it is no accident that you, an orphan, a Jewish captive living in a foreign land, have become the Queen. And it is no accident that you are the Queen at this moment in time. God put you where you are for a reason. God has orchestrated events so that you alone have a chance to save the people of God. Esther, I know the pressure is on, but this is your time.”Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War 2. When London was under attack by the Germans and the circumstances looked especially grim, Churchill delivered this challenge to the House of Commons: “Let us brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” It’s decision time for Esther. Will it or won’t it be her finest hour? Think of the risk she will be taking; think of the pressure she’s under. First there is the risk that she will be cut down at the moment she opens the door to the King’s court; it’s quite possible she won’t even get a chance to offer a word of explanation. Second, there’s the risk that the King, when he finds out his Queen is Jewish, will have her stripped of her crown and banished from the kingdom, just as he did with Vashti. More likely than not, it must have seemed to Esther, this was going to end badly.But listen to Esther’s response to Mordecai:“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 maids 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.” (Esther 4:16)Esther decides to take the risk. Notice that the first thing she does and the first thing she asks Mordecai to do is to fast. Now what does a Jewish person do when they fast? They pray. The text doesn’t say they pray, but every Jewish reader of this story understands that Mordecai and Esther spent the next three days fasting and praying and asking God to intervene. But Esther’s decision to act wasn’t conditioned on assurance of success. She didn’t say to Mordecai, “I’m just going to wait on God, and if he tells me to do something, then I’ll do it.” Esther has already made her decision. She’s going to stand strong, whether she’s successful or not. And if she dies, she dies.Esther’s DeliveranceLet me give you the highlights of what happens next. Esther enters the King’s court, and the King has mercy on her – he allows her to enter his presence uninvited, even though her actions are in violation of the law. But when the King asks what she wants, she doesn’t just blurt it all out. She’s smart as well as beautiful. She knows the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. So she invites him to dinner. Oh, and she also invites Haman. Haman in the meantime has built a gallows to hang Mordecai. But then another odd “coincidence” happens. The night before the dinner the King can’t sleep. To help him sleep he orders the book of the chronicles of his reign to be read, and the servant reading the book to the King happens to read the record of how Mordecai saved the King’s life by uncovering a plot on the King’s life. The next day Haman approaches the King to let him know he’s going to have Mordecai hanged, but before Haman can get in a word the King tells Haman to put his robe on Mordecai and to escort Mordecai through the city in honor of what Mordecai had done for the King. And there they are again – the fingerprints of God. Clearly none of these events are an accident.Finally, once the King is fed, Esther gets to the point. Someone has targeted her people – the Jewish people – for annihilation. Now Xerxes could have been angry with Esther for hiding her nationality from him … but he doesn’t. He loves her too much. Instead he asks Esther, “Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?” (Esther 7:5) And all Esther had to do was to point across the table at their dinner guest – Haman is the man. The King then orders Haman to be hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and while there are more details to the story, the end result is that Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jewish people is foiled.A number of years ago a group of 50 people were gathered for a unique sociological study. What made the study so unusual is that each of the participants was at least 95 years old. Each of them were asked this question: “If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?” Three answers dominated the responses given by these 50 chronologically gifted people: (1) If I had it to do over again, I would reflect more; (2) If I had it to do over again, I would risk more; and (3) If I had it to do over again, I would do more things that would live on after I die.What is most striking to me is that these 50 people, looking back on over 95 years of life, wished they had taken more risks. Have you heard this saying: “The person who thinks he never had a chance never took one.” In my office I have a poster of a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. The poster is entitled “Risk” and it says this: “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” When asked to look back on 95 years of life, 50 people said, “I wish I had taken more risks. I wish I had taken more chances. I wish I had the courage to lose sight of the shore.”When Esther looked back on her life, she didn’t have to say, “I wish I had taken more risks; I wish when the pressure was on I had the courage to stand strong.” Esther took her chance. She took it knowing that she might fail, that she might lose her life. But it was a risk she believed was worth taking. And because she took it, an entire nation was saved.Do you remember the movie “Forrest Gump”? Do you remember that feather that keeps floating in and out of the picture? The feather is in the movie to remind us of something Forrest asks as he reflects on his life: “Do we have a destiny, or are we all just floating around kinda accidental-like, like a feather on a breeze?” That’s a question we all have, isn’t it? We would all like to know whether we have a destiny or if we’re just floating through life, kind of accidental-like.Here’s the Bible’s answer – your life is no accident. You have been destined by God for something very special, just as Esther was. I have a hunch that God has put an itch in your soul to do something of lasting significance with your life. God has gone to a great deal of effort to make you who you are, to place you very strategically where you live and work, because there is something significant God wants to do through you. God has gifted you and he has equipped you in such a way that you can accomplish something great for the kingdom of God that no one else can do. You were created and gifted by God for such a time as this. What he’s calling you to do is most likely not easy. Most likely it’s pretty risky. It will require you, I’m sure, to stand strong when the pressure is on. I don’t know what it is God is calling you to do, and it could be that you’re not sure just yet yourself. But here’s what I believe – God has something special in mind for you, something that I can’t do, something your parents can’t do, something no one but you can do, something that will impact the lives of many people who need you to step up. May God give each of us the courage and the grace to live out his calling on our lives. ................
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