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STUDIES IN ESTHER
By Glenn Pease
CONTENTS
1. PROVIDENCE IN THE WORLD
Based on Esther 1:1‑9
2.
PROVIDENCE THROUGH WOMEN Based
on Esther 1:10‑22
3. THE PARADOX OF PLEASURE
Based on Esther 2:1‑4
4. FATHER AND DAUGHTER Based on Esther 2:5‑11
5. THE POWER OF BEAUTY Based
on Esther 2:5‑18
6. THE IMPACT OF INFLUENCE Based on Esther 2:15‑23
7. THE PARADOX OF PATRIOTISM
Based on Esther 2:19‑3:6
8. COINCIDENCE OR PROVIDENCE?
Based on Esther 6:1‑11
9. THE HUMOR OF HISTORY Based
on Esther 9:20‑28
10. PROVIDENCE IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Esther 10:1‑3
1. PROVIDENCE IN THE WORLD
Based on Esther 1:1‑9
Time
magazine covered the extravagance of the Shaw Of Iran back in 1971. It was the 2500th year anniversary of the
founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great. Nine kings and five queens were there, along with princes and
princesses, and 16 presidents. It was a high class elegant affair that cost
$100,000 dollars. As extravagant as it
was, however, it could not hold a candle to the banquet thrown by his
predecessor many centuries early.
Esther begins with an account of possibly the greatest most plush
banquet of all time. It will probably
never be excelled until the redeemed enter into the marriage supper of the
Lamb.
King
Ahasurus, better known as King Xerxes, had a banquet for all of his princes,
military leaders, and political leaders.
It lasted for 180 days, or one half of a year. Now that is what you call a party, it was a six months smorgasbord. Then he topped that off with a seven day
banquet for all the people in the capital city of Susa. Xerxes, like most absolute rulers, could be
very cruel, but you can be sure of one thing, nobody ever called him a party
pooper. The one thing wealthy people
have in common is a love for parties.
This is their way of revealing their wealth and status. Mrs. Cornelious Vanderbuilt use to spend
three hundred thousand a year on entertainment.
Scholars
are convinced that Xerxes is trying to make a big impression. He has an ambition to conquer the Greeks,
and rule, not just most of the world, but all of the world. This half‑year
banquet was to get all of his leaders together to persuade them to cooperate,
and plan the strategy. Verse 4 stresses
that Xerxes paraded his riches and glory before them, and you get the
impression it is like may day in Russia, when all of the big rockets, tanks,
and other weapons are paraded before the leaders, in order to build the ego,
and say to all, look at how great and powerful we are. You can be sure that everyone was impressed
with the power and glory of Xerxes. He
had wealth beyond our imagination, and we will never see as much gold as he had
until we look down as we walk the streets of the heavenly city.
There is
no point in trying to describe the splendor of his kingdom. The point we need to see is that the story of Esther takes place in an
environment of pleasure and treasure without measure. Almost the entire book takes place in the palace of the
king. It is in the midst of glory that
we see only in fairy tales. Esther, the
Jewish girl, was a mere nobody, and she was exalted into this atmosphere of
elegant royalty. It is a true
Cinderella story. It is important that we see the environment in which the
story takes place. That is the only way
you will be able to grasp why things in this book seem to be acceptable that
would be totally unacceptable in any other context, for both Jews and Christians.
Martin
Luther never could enter into the context of Esther, and see it from the
perspective of ancient Eastern royalty.
The result is, he despised the book of Esther, and felt it was immoral,
and ought not to be in the Bible. You
don't have to like what went on in the palace of king Xerxes, but the fact is
we can learn a lot of relevant truth about God's working in history by taking
advantage of this behind the scenes peek.
We are privileged to get an inside view of what is happening in the
palace that affects the people of the whole world. We get to follow God into the most exclusive setting, and see how
He providentially works behind closed
doors in the decision making centers of world governments. Just to be aware that God works in such ways
is a valuable revelation that can change your world view.
The
first thing the book of Esther does for us is it forces us to broaden our
perspective on the sphere of God's working.
God is not limited to Israel. He
is not limited to His chosen people.
God is the God of the whole world, and His providence works even in the
pagan world. Mal. 1:5 says, "Great
is the Lord, even beyond the borders of Israel." In
verse 11 God says, "My name will be great among
the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun." Esther brings us into a Persian setting,
where we see the whole history of God's people bound up in what happens in
Persia. God did not start working in
Persia just because Esther and the Jews were there. He had been providentially working in and through the Persians
from the start of their kingdom.
Cyrus
the Great conquered the Medes and the united them with the Persians to form the
Medo‑Persian Empire. He was a
master strategist who figured out ways to conquer the unconquerable. Mounted Lydian spearmen blocked the road of
his forward march.
It was like a man with a bebe gun going against a
tank. But he sent his baggage camels in
front of his lines, and the sight of these beasts frightened the Lydian horses,
and they ran off in disorder, and Cyrus marched on to victory.
When
Cyrus marched into Babylon, and made it a part of the Persian Empire in 539
B.C., he had some reason for pride. He
got a bit heavy on the titles, however, when he proclaimed, "I am Cyrus,
king of the universe, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon,
king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the
world." That just about covered
it. He was the richest most powerful
man in the world, and he was a pagan.
So we write him off as of no value to the purpose of God in history‑right? Wrong!
He played a major role in God's plan, and that is the point we want to
stress, for if we limit God in the sphere of His providence in history, we fail
to see Him as the God of all history, and all people, even the pagan people's
of the world. There is only one God,
and He is the God of all, whether they know it or not.
In the
case of Cyrus, the Bible is so clear in its revelation that we cannot miss
it. 22 times the Old Testament refers
to Cyrus the Great, and everyone of them is positive. Some are so positive as
to be shocking. Daniel served under
Cyrus, and his successor, Darius, and
he was greatly blessed. Darius was the
Persian king who had him thrown into the lion's den, and who was so grateful that
Daniel was spared. The Persians played
a major part in God's plan for Israel.
God said of Cyrus the Great in Isa. 44:28, "He is my shepherd and
He shall fulfill all my purpose."
God used this great pagan ruler to get his people back into the promise
land. He sent them back, and he paid
for the rebuilding of God's temple in Jerusalem. He also sent back with them all the treasures that had been
carried away in Babylon.
God used
him like he was an Abraham, Moses, or a Joshua. But the fact is, he did not even know the God of Israel who was
using him. Isa. 45:1 says, "Thus
says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to
subdue nations before him,
and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before
him that gates may not be closed: I
will go before you and level mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of
bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron..." After other promises of guidance, God says, "I call you by
your name, I surname you, though you do not know me."
Now I
don't want to go on studying Cryus, for it could take a full message just to
look at the text dealing with this man's role in God's plan. I share this brief glimpse so we can see the
close interrelationship of Persia and the people of God. They were intertwined from the
beginning. The book of Esther is just
one chapter in the context of their interrelationship. Here again it is the king of Persia who is
the power who will either destroy or deliver the Jews. They will perish or prosper depending upon
his choices. So we see God again
working behind the scenes to lead this king to fulfill His purpose in
history.
Do not
think that God does not work in the pagan governments of the world. Do not put God in a box by thinking that
pagan leaders will never do anything good in the world, and never make
decisions to further the cause of God in the world. This is not only narrow thinking, it is anti‑Biblical. God never did pull out of Persia. When we come to the New Testament, the very
first people to receive the message of the Messiah's birth were the three
wisemen, or the Magi of Persia. John
Chrysostom, the great golden mouthed preacher of the fourth century, wrote,
"The Incarnate Word on coming to the world gave to the Persians, in the
persons of the Magi, the first manifestation of his mercy and light‑so
that the Jews themselves learned from the mouths of Persians of the birth of
their Messiah."
St. Thomas
brought the Gospel to Persia, and there has been a continuous history of Jewish
and Christian influence in Persia. We
cannot cover this whole history, but let me share some highlights, for it
relates to what we see God doing in Esther.
Esther is just a peek into a vast world of God's providence. It cannot all be a part of Scripture, or the
world could not contain the acts of God in history. The point I want to make is that God has been working in Persia
from its beginning, and we will know many people in heaven who came to Christ
in Persia. In the third century many of
the famous doctors of Persia were Christians.
In 485 A.D., the chief advisors to the king of Persia was a Christian.
Some of the kings of Persia married Christian women, and so you have other
stories like this of Esther, where a Jew becomes queen of Persia, married to a
pagan king. Christians were among the
best educated, and so even when the Arabs conquered Persia in 632, the
Christians continued to get the key positions in government and institutions of
higher learning.
In the
1200's when Marco Polo visited Persia he found a flourishing Christians
community. The Christians had become
the favored minority over the Muslim majority. There is much more that is
positive, but we need to look at the negative side also, which explains why
Christianity is not a power in Iran today.
Iran is, of course, the modern name of Persia. God's providence is to give His people a chance to do His
will. He does not force them, and if
they chose to disobey they can lose His blessing.
The
Christians had it made by their wise living, and they could have won the whole
nation. But when Christians refused to
be Christian, the message of the Gospel does not work. The first mistake of Christians in Persia
was their refusal to use the language of the masses. They had their Syriac Bible, but would not use the Arabic, the
language of the people. When the Arabs
took over, and used Arabic, the masses became a part of Islam instead of
Christianity. Today the church goes
into all the world to give people the Bible in their own language. Christians have learned from history, if you
don't give people the Bible in their own tongue, you will not be able to build
on a lasting foundation. Persian
history is a perfect example.
Christians were very well educated.
They were leaders in the land.
Instead of being loving toward the masses, they mocked their ignorance,
and despised their pagan customs, and deliberately drank wine on their holy
days to show their contempt. You don't
have to know much history to know what is the inevitable result of such
folly. In 1369 Tamberlane, a descendant
of Genghiz Khan, came to power in Persia.
He unleashed a reign of terror on Christians. They were rounded up and murdered, and the churches were
destroyed, and Christianity never recovered from this scourge. Yes, there will be many in heaven from
Persia, but the sad fact is, there will be many less than there should be,
because God's providence is not the only force in history.
We need
to see this side also, lest we be superficial and conclude, that sense God is
providentially working in history, we don't have to worry about anything. Not so, for man is still responsible for his
decisions and choices, and what he does can make a big difference in the course
of history. Not everything that is, is
just how God wants it. Man is
constantly making choices that are foolish.
God's people can get a break and then
blow it, and all can be ruined.
Mordecai
made this clear to Esther in 4:14 where he warned her when she toyed with the
idea of not getting involved. He said,
"For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance
will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your fathers house
will perish." In other words,
Esther still had to make a free choice to go along with the providence of
God. She could have said no, and blown
it, and gone down in history as a famous traitor rather than a heroine. In all our study of providence, let us never
lose sight of the full responsibility of man to follow and obey the will of
God. If God opens the door, and I do
not go through it, I will not experience the providence of God, and the
blessing is lost.
Now,
having looked at all this history surrounding and growing out of the book of
Esther, the question is, how is all of this to have an effect on our lives
today? It is to have this effect in us,
that we never write off politics as a sphere where God is not active. No matter how dirty, corrupt, and scandalous
politics can be, it is a key area of life where God is at work to accomplish
His purpose in history. Yes, government
is secular, but that is the point of the book of Esther. God is active in the secular world. God so loved the world, not just the church,
and His own people. God loved the
world, and still does, and He works in the sphere of that secular world He loves. Esther has no reference to God, or anything
religious. It is a secular story from
beginning to end. It is in the Bible to
make it a clear revelation to all people for all time, God is the God of the
secular world as well as the religious world.
Grasping this can change your whole outlook on life, and make all of
life and history more exciting.
Do not
ever assume that a non‑Christian leader or politician cannot be a channel
of God's purpose in history. To do so
is to be blind to the record of God's actual working. God used the pagan rulers
of all the great empires of world to achieve His plan. The Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and
Romans, everyone of them played a major role in God's plan, and many of them
came to be true believers in each of
these great empires. But whether the leaders did or not become believers, God
used them. He used Caesar Augustus to
make a decree to tax the world. This
fulfilled the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem. Pagan kings and Centurions were constantly
playing roles in Paul's life and ministry.
When he ended up in Rome, the pagan authorities gave him great freedom
to teach and preach about Jesus.
Without God's providential leading in the lives of pagan authorities,
Paul would not have gotten to share the Gospel in the capital of the world, and
impact all of world history.
We see
it so clearly in Esther, how God used pagans for His purpose, but it was not
new. God has always worked outside of
Israel, for His providence is universal.
Moses was one of the greatest leaders in the history of Israel, but who
had a major influence on his life? It
was Jethro, his father‑in ‑law, who was a priest of Midian. He was not a part of Israel, but Moses
married his daughter, and got to know him well. They became good friends, and it was Jethro that Moses turned to
for advice when the burden of judging Israel too heavy. In Ex. 18 we read of how Jethro told him to
set up many lower courts with good men to judge, and he would then be the
supreme court where the hardest cases would come. Moses gave heed, and this outsider changed the course of Israel's
history.
Melchizedek was such a godly priest in Salem that even though he was a
Gentile outside of the people of Israel, he was chosen of God to be a type of
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
is called a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He was not called a priest after Aaron, or
after Israel's priesthood, but after the Gentile Melchizedek. Abraham, the father of Judaism, even paid
tithes to this Gentile priest. God was
working in a powerful way outside Israel.
We tend
to focus on men, for men have, all through ancient history, been the leaders
and decision makers. Esther has a
balance of male and female cooperation.
It took both Esther and Mordecai to fulfill the plan of God for Israel. God used both female and male
for the Gentile world as well. Vashti by her refusal to do what was
immoral, set the stage for the whole drama that brought Esther to the
throne. God is an equal opportunity employer
in His providential guidance of history.
We will see more of this as we continue our study.
The
queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, and she was so impressed by his wealth
and wisdom, she became a believer. She
took her faith back to her Gentile land, and only eternity will reveal how
God's providence worked through her, but we will know, for Jesus said she will
be in heaven judging those who refuse to see the light Christ brought, which
was even greater than that of Solomon.
We read in Matt. 12:42, "The queen of the South will arise at the
judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the
earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon
is here."
It is
hard for us to grasp that God is working in the lives of people outside the
church. It was hard for Peter to comprehend this when in Acts 10 God was
working in the life of Cornelius, and Italian Gentile who had never heard the
Gospel. God had to use a vision, and
speak to Peter directly, to get him to go to Cornelius. But finally, Peter became a believer in
God's providence in the lives of those outside the people of God, and he said
in Acts 10:34‑35, "Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality,
but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable
to Him." Peter became aware that
God so loved the world, and so was at work in all the world to seek and to
save.
Jonah
not only could not grasp this truth, he hated it. He expected God to wipe out the pagans of Ninevah. Instead, God used the message He brought to
bring them to repentance, and He had mercy on them. They were a nation of pagans, and yet God loved them and spared
them. Numerous are the examples of God
sparing pagan peoples. There are no
people that God does not care about.
Those who would be truly Christlike must be world conscious people. There must be a love and concern for all
people to truly fulfill the will of God.
Never has this been more true than today when our world has become so
small, that whatever happens to any people can affect all people. We need to be aware of, and be excited about
the fact that God is providentially working in all the world.
2. PROVIDENCE THROUGH WOMEN
Based on Esther 1:10‑22
Paul
Aurandt tells this fascinating true story that deals with the paradox of
positive rebellion. In April of 1847 it
looked as if Mexico was ready to make peace with the United States. President James Polk chose Nicholas Trist to
go as a peace commissioner. On his way
Trist spoke to reporters and told them too much. President Polk was upset, and sent a letter to Trist telling him
to return. Trist read the letter and
responded by saying he did not want to return.
The President was infuriated, and blasted Trist, but he could not stop
his negotiations with the Mexicans.
Today, of course, this could never happen with our speedy
communications, but in 1848 it was a different story. Trist, with no authority to do so, signed a treaty with the
Mexicans, and brought it back to the U. S.
He was immediately banished from government, and his salary was cut off,
and he was forced to go to work for a railroad to feed his family.
The
president and congress accepted the treaty he signed, however, for it was too
good to refuse. It gave the U. S. what
is now all of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and part of
Wyoming, and Colorado. Not a bad deal
for a guy who was actually fired, and not suppose to even be on the job. It cost him dearly, but his rebellion gained
for the rest of us a large portion of our nation.
You just
never know what blessings are going to come out of what seems to be so
negative. Vashti provides us with
another example of this in the first chapter of Esther. She rebels against the
order of her husband, the king of Persia, the most powerful man on the
planet. It cost her dearly to refuse
him and rebel, but it was a major step on the road to Israel's being saved as a
nation. If she had not rebelled and
lost her place as queen, and likely even her life, there would be no way for
Esther to come to the throne, where she was the key to her people's
deliverance.
Here is
a pagan Persian Queen making a drastic decision that will change the course of
history for God's people. She, of
course, does not even know that she is doing it. Her action has nothing to do with anyone but herself. The question is, why did she do it? The context makes it quite clear that she
was a victim of stag party morality.
While she and the ladies were having their banquet in a separate place,
the king and his leaders were really living it up. Nobody was forced to drink, but verse 10 says the king had his
share and was feeling merry with wine.
The banquet was in its seventh day, and there was only one thing left to
do before it ended. They had seen the
glory of all that men can make, but men still loves most of all to see the
glory that only God can make‑the glory of a beautiful woman.
Vashti
the Queen was a beauty to behold, and the king was determined that the climax
of his six months and one week of banqueting would be the marching of his
lovely wife before this hoard of bleary‑eyed, drunken, and lustful
men. From his perspective at the time,
being full of wine, it sounded like his best idea ever. He later sobered up and regretted his folly,
but by then the damage had been done.
The most
powerful argument for abstaining from alcoholic beverages is the history of
man's fool decisions under its influence.
One of the greatest causes of human sorrow in the world is that the
leaders of the world tend to mix alcohol and government. Prov. 31:4
says, "It is not for kings...to drink wine, or for
rulers to desire strong drink lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
Herodotus, the Greek historian writes much about the Persians, and tells
us that it was their custom to get drunk when they deliberated on weighty
matters, but that they then reexamined their decisions the next day when they
were sober. Xerxes did not follow this
rule in our text,
and many have failed to do so throughout history.
Thank
God we do not know how many of the decisions that affect our lives are made by
men whose minds are under the control of booze. What we do know from history is frightening enough. One example should be enough to see the
potential for the kingdom of darkness.
In 1643 Governor Kieft of the New Netherlands had a drunken party with
his council. They decided it was time
to teach the Indians a lesson. In the
dead of night they attacked a sleeping village, and massacred 80 helpless
Indians. This lead to a history of
sorrow and heartache for both whites and Indians that is beyond
calculation. Kieft was the first white
man to offer a reward for Indian scalps, and that is why it became so popular
among the Indians to take white scalps in revenge. That one drunken party led to hell on earth, and hell forever,
for masses of people on both sides.
Satan
can offer no better suggestion on how to improve the evils of leadership than
by mixing alcohol and decision making.
Yet, it has been the way of world all through history. To the shame of
Christian nations, the Islamic nations have seen the folly of it, and have
forbidden alcoholic beverages. Alcohol
reduces inhibitions, and men will do under its influence what they would never
allow when sober. Lot was a righteous
man, but under the influence of alcohol he became incestuous with both of his
daughters. Noah's one day of folly was
due to his getting drunk. Add up the
foolish acts of otherwise sensible men, and you will discover the great
majority of them are made under the influence of alcohol.
Stonewall Jackson was a strict temperance man, and his example cause
many of his officers to be the same. He
was once out in a drenching rain, and a fellow officer insisted that he take a
drink. "No sir, I cannot do
it," he replied. "I tell you
I am more afraid of
King alcohol then of all the bullets of the
enemy." If more men feared it, as
he did, there would be far fewer tragedies in this life. Yet men have the audacity to blame God for
suffering in this world, when a large share of it can be clearly traced to
man's choice to drug his brain with alcohol.
I was
impressed with the story of a boy in Scotland who was slow, and so he was the
butt of many jokes by his village peers.
On one occasion they were teasing him, and trying to entice him to
drinking. Whereupon, this supposed
simpleton responded with true wisdom. He said, "If the Lord Almighty has
given few wits to me, He has at least given me enough sense to keep the little
I have." Unfortunately, Xerxes was
not as wise as this simpleton.
But Vashti was no fool. When she got the order to come over to the men's banquet, she
knew she was being used to satisfy the kings lust for a new thrill, and she
refused. It was either the kings
majesty, or the queens modesty that had to be sacrificed, and so she chose to
defy his request, and, thereby, became the first truly noble person in the book
of Esther. Some even feel she was more noble than Esther.
Morgan,
that prince of expositors, cries out, "Let the name of Vashti be held in
everlasting honor for her refusal."
The majority of commentators agree, but some feel it was her duty to
obey her husband regardless of the circumstances. This view would have some basis if it was an innocent request for
her to come and greet his honored guest.
But we know too much about Persian history, and human nature, to think
that is all it was. Herodotus tells of
how some Greeks made the mistake of bringing some of their wives to a Persian
banquet. The Persians kept making
sexual advances toward them even while their husbands were there.
Vashti
had her banquet for the women in a separate place from the men, not just for
lack of space, but because the women knew what the men were like after they had
been drinking. Sooner or later, and
usually sooner, a group of men would get around to the subject of women, and where alcohol is involved you can
count on it, the subject will turn to the immoral. What all this means is that Vashti was to be the frosting on the
cake at this stag party. She was to
march in, and satisfy the lust of this drunken crowd of men, and she said,
"No! I won't do it!" She is the equivalent of the movie star who
is offered fame and fortune for becoming a centerfold, and she says,
"No!" Vashti was a pagan
woman, but let us not forget, even pagans have moral standards, and here is one
who lived by hers, even at great cost.
She was the wealthiest and most famous woman on earth, but she
sacrificed it all, and became a nobody, rather than humiliate herself.
Xerxes
and Vashti are prime examples of the fact that riches are not the key to a good
marriage. That key is not riches, but
respect. Xerxes could sleep in a golden
bed, and drink from a golden cup, but that did not make him a good husband. He exhibited the common danger of all who
have wealth and power. He treated
people like possessions, and this included his wife. The records reveal that many professional men tend to use their
wives as show pieces. The wives soon
learn they are not loved for themselves, but for the statis they bring to their
husbands, and the marriage collapses because women demand to be treated as
persons. Thus, we see the paradox of
beauty. A beautiful woman is a delight
and a danger. She can be a blessing or a
burden to herself, and to men. Most, if
not all, men, are women watchers, and
this is simply a recognition of the handiwork of God. The problem is that it can be excessive, and go from looking and
appreciating to lusting and aggression.
Faust
sold his soul to the devil for the right to have any wish he desired, and he
requested that Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, be
reincarnated so he could see her. His
request was granted, and he feasted his eyes on the face that launched a
thousand ships. He sold his soul out of
lust for beauty. That is
excessive. We need to keep a sense of balance,
however, lest we knock beauty. Esther
became the Queen, and saved her people because she was unusually beautiful. Beauty can be used for the purposes of God
and good, as well as for the kingdom of darkness and evil. Beauty is good in itself, but like all good,
it can be misused and abused, and become a tool of evil.
Vashti
was Queen because of her beauty, but it was also her beauty that led to her
downfall, for had she not been so beautiful, she never would have been selected
to please the lustful eyes of those
drunken men. The burden of beauty is a paradox that many women have had to
bear. In our culture the beautiful
woman is showered with opportunities.
Beauty contests offer them scholarships, great jobs, much wealth. They can go on to movies, the stage, and
rise to the top. But, the other side is
that they face such pressure to use their beauty for what is immoral. The point is, the story of Vashti is a story
that is repeating itself over and over again all through history. Non‑Christian women are making choices
like she had to everyday. They are
choosing self‑respect and dignity rather than conformity to the lust of
men.
You can
respond by saying, "Big deal!"
There are for every Vashti who says no, hundreds of others to fill in
the gap of their refusal. This is true,
but, nevertheless, the refusal of the few can change the course of history. And that was the case with Vashti.
The few stubborn women who take their stand against
impossible odds are the women who have helped make the women of our day the
most free in history. Vashti was alone against
a government totally dominated by men.
Susan B. Anthony grew up in a society very similar, but she revolted
against it, and made a big difference because of the Christian principles that
forced men to modify their methods.
She was
born in 1820 into a Quaker family where women were treated with respect and
equality. Her father went bankrupt, and
so she and her sisters became teachers.
For 15 years they taught with three dollars a week as their top
salary. Men teachers were receiving
three times that amount. She decided to
draw up a Declaration of Rights for women, and she presented it to the New York
legislature. She got the signatures of
ten thousand women, but the bill was rejected.
She went back to the people and kept gathering signatures, and kept
lecturing across the state. She covered
54 out of 60 counties, and every time she went to the legislature she was
turned down. Six times she went with
her petitions, and six times she was rejected.
Finally, after unbelievable personal sacrifice, she returned the seventh
time, and in 1860 the New York legislature adopted a bill granting women the
right to own property, and the right to the money they earned, plus other
rights.
The next
battle was women's right to vote. She
persuaded 15 other brave women to join her, and they marched into the polling
headquarters in Rochester in 1872. She
told the election inspectors they were there to vote. They told her it was illegal.
She pulled out a copy of the U. S. Constitution and said, "Prove
it!" They couldn't, and so she and
her three sisters, and other women, voted.
The newspapers splashed the incident across their front pages. It was a report of what King Xerxes advisers
told him. These women had to be
punished, or all women would think they had a right to vote. Had Susan B. Anthony lived in Persia, she
would have gotten no further than Vashti, but she lived in America, and had the
freedom to express her views. She
toured the Midwest and drew large crowds to her lecture which was titled, Is It
A Crime For A U. S. Citizen To Vote? We
don't have time to look at her spectacular trial, but she won, and went on as
president of The National Women
Suffrage Association to prepare the way for the 19th amendment that gave women the
right to vote. By her rebellion she
changed the course of history. She did
it, because like Vashti, she had the courage to say no, and refused to submit
to what was not right.
It is
always right for any male or female to resist cooperation with evil, and God
can use that resistance for His purpose of overcoming evil. Vashti said no to immorality, and God used
that, right along with Mordecai's saying no to idolatry. These two personal responses of saying no,
led to the providential yes of redemption.
Never say, never say no, for words like refusal and rebellion in the
proper context, as we see them in Esther, are not vices, but virtues.
Xerxes,
with all his power, found out he could not order his wife to do anything he
pleased, and get his way. What an
enormous embarrassment. He had just
spent 6 months and one week impressing all the leaders of his Empire. He could conquer the Greeks and rule the
world, but then his wife says no to him.
He can't even conquer one woman.
The battle of the sexes is the oldest war on earth, just because it
cannot be won. There can be peace and
reconciliation, but there can be no total victory in this battle, because both
sexes have a higher allegiance than to each other.
Joseph
Parker, the great English preacher wrote, "There is a higher law than even
the will of a king than a husband‑the law that gives a woman the right to
guard her own modesty when those who should guard it for her do not. Vashti obeyed that higher law written by the
Creator....and we can think nothing but good of her in the matter." William Taylor, author of many books, wrote,
"No husband has a right to command his wife to do what is wrong, and
liberty of conscience ought to be as sacred in the home as in the state."
This act
of rebellion by Vashti was a case of civil disobedience to the government, as
well as disobedience to her husband, for he was also the king, and the absolute
law of the land. We see here that what
is true for the authority of a husband and a government are the same. There authority does not allow them to
violate a persons moral dignity. No
earthly authority has the right to command what is contrary to a persons
religious and moral principles. One is
always right to obey God rather than man.
This does not mean one will not suffer consequences for their
stand. The head of the house, or the
head of the state may have power beyond your ability to escape. Such was the case for Vashti, and such is
the experience of millions of Christians.
If you
have dreamed of being a queen, and feel that is the highest goal of life, you
are taking your dreams from fairy tales, and not from history. The average American woman is far more
blest, and richer in true values than most of the queens of history. Narah Lofts in her book, Queens Of England
writes, "I am sure that if all the Queens the world has ever known would
rise from their graves and give a truthful account of their lives, the majority
of their stories would be on the sorrowful side." Even Esther had to endure isolation,
neglect, and fear for her life. I point
this out in order to emphasize the greater power, freedom, and rights that you
have as American women, then the royalty of the ages have enjoyed. Most queens would envy you, and gladly
traded their castle to have what you
have.
The
surprising thing is you have what you have because of the providence of God in
the lives of women like Vashti. She was
used to save Judaism, and this is our heritage as Christians. Before her, God used other pagan women to
keep his program alive. Moses was saved
by an Egyptian princess. She helped make
him the mad God used to change all of history.
When we look at the genealogy of Jesus in Matt. 1, it is surprising that
Jesus was not a pure Jew. Gentile blood
flowed in his veins. This means that
the blood he shed for the sins of the world was both Jewish and Gentile blood. Where did it come from? From pagan women God used to change the
course of history.
One such
woman was Rahab the Caananite, also called the harlot, who aided Israel in
taking Jericho. She became a part of
the blood line to the Messiah. After
her came Ruth the Moabitess. She was
another Gentile who came into the blood line, so that two of the four women in
the genealogy of Jesus were Gentiles, and one of the two books of the Bible
named after women was a Gentile‑Ruth.
When we come to the New Testament we see Jesus dealing with the
Samaritan woman at the well. Samaritans
were hated by Jews, but Jesus loved her and won her, and she became His best
evangelist, and through her many Samaritans were saved.
Jesus
could identify with her, for He too was a mixture of Jewish and Gentile blood,
and He was doing in the flesh what He had been doing all through history, using
women, be they rich or poor, pagan or Jewish, to accomplish His purpose in the
world. What women decide, and what
women do, has been, is, and will be, a vital part of human progress, for
history keeps on confirming what the Bible clearly reveals: God's providence works through women.
3. THE PARADOX OF PLEASURE
Based on Esther 2:1‑4
Alexander Selkirk was one of those men who always had to learn
the hard way. The records of his church
in Scotland show that he was disciplined several times for causing trouble in
the church. In May of 1703 he said
good-bye to all that, and at age 27 went off to sea. He tried to run things on the ship as he did church, and he got
into a furious argument with the Captain.
They were anchored off a small island four hundred miles from Chile.
Alexander got so mad he packed up his possessions and went ashore. "You don't dare sail without me,"
he shouted to the Captain. The Captain
was not impressed with his conviction, and gave the order to sail. Poor Alexander could not believe it. He thought he was indispensable. He was wadeing out up to his arm pits
pleading for the Captain to forgive him, but the Captain was as stubborn as he
was, and he sailed away, never to return.
Fortunately for Alexander the island had been inhabited by Jon
Fernandez two centuries earlier, and he had left some goats on the island. These gave him food and skins. For four years and four months he depended
on them for survival. When he was
finally rescued, he could hardly remember how to talk. When he got back to England he was a
sensation, and several books were written about him. The most famous was fiction, but it used his experience as a
model. The book was Robinson Crusoe.
That was a tough way to learn to keep his mouth shut. It is so hard not to do something, or say
something foolish or destructive when you are angry. Even great men often have to learn the hard way that loss of
temper can be costly. Xerxes was the
ruler of the Persian Empire, he could have anything he pleased, but he lost his
wife, whom he truly treasured, because of his anger. Xerxes had a reputation for losing his temper when he could not
have his own way. He once wanted to
cross the waters of the hellespont, but it was so rough his troops could not
build a bridge. He got so angry he took
chains to the water, and he began to flog it.
Like most temper tantrums, it was not very effective.
It is so hard to play God when nature and others will not
cooperate. The water would not stop for
him, and his wife would not start for him, and he blew his stack. And why shouldn't he? He was the most powerful man in the world,
and why should he not get angry for the same reason the rest of us get
angry? Why do we get angry? Primarily because something or someone has
spoiled our pleasure. We are not
different from King Xerxes. He had his heart set on seeing all his noble
leaders gape in envy as he revealed the beauty of his wife to them. Half the joy of possessing something is in
showing it to those who don't. Vashti
had the audacity to rob him of this pleasure.
He blazed with anger within, because she would not grant his whim.
If you examine your own life, you will discover that most of
your anger is based on the hindrance of your pleasure. You have plans, and somebody does not
cooperate, and the pleasure you hope for is lost, and you are angry. Children cry most often because they can't
have their own way. Somebody is always
hindering them from having their pleasure.
They want to play with the new camera you just bought, and you insist it
is not a toy, and there heart is broken.
They want to run barefoot in a junk infested lot, and you deny them of
their pleasure. On and on goes the list
of pleasures a child desires that are constantly being hindered by parents, who
get no pleasure out of picking up pieces of a two hundred dollar camera, and
rushing to the emergency room for stitches.
What we see then, is that from the beginning, life is a battle
to see whose pleasures are met, and whose are denied. Striving for pleasure is a far more powerful factor in all of our
lives then we realize. Because we do
not examine our lives from the perspective of the pleasure motive, we look on
the events of the book of Esther with some degree of shock.It is scandalous
that every beautiful virgin in the empire was to be made available to the king,
to meet his demand for pleasure. Keep
in mind, he is the most powerful man in the world. The whole book revolves around his pleasure. What pleases him determines the life or
death of every human being of his time.
If he pleases, whole nations are destroyed,and if he pleases, they are
spared. God's providence had to work
through His pleasure motive.
The first two chapters reveal that he was dominated by sensual
pleasure. His party life and sex life
established the environment in which the entire story takes place. Xerxes is no different than the rulers of that
part of the world today. A reporter who
traveled to all of the oil rich Arab countries, and interviewed all of the
kings and sheiks, reported that they lived just like Xerxes did. Wine, women, and song, and every pleasure
man is capable of was a way of life.
Xerxes is said to have offered a reward for anyone who could invent a
new pleasure. This is the challenge
today for those who have so much money they cannot think of any new way of
spending it.
The book of Esther is not dealing with something old and
irrelevant, but rather, with a subject so real and relevant to all of us, but
one that we often fail to think about seriously, the subject of pleasure. Before we get all bent out of shape about
Xerxes, and his lust for pleasure, lets examine our own lives. When we do, we will discover that we are not
so different from this sensual king.
The main difference is that we do not have the power and wealth to
command the pleasures he had, but the difference is really only one of degree.
We too enjoy parties with good things to eat and drink, and we enjoy beautiful
furniture and drapes. We enjoy nice
clothes, and I have seldom heard of a Christian who does not enjoy sexual
pleasure.
The more we examine the Christian life, the more we begin to
realize we are very pleasure oriented.
We don't feel the lest guilt for enjoying the pleasure of music,
fellowship, an all that being a part of the body of Christ involves. Why should we? Jesus enjoyed the social pleasures of His time. He enjoyed the party, the wedding, the
feasting, the singing, the fun of fishing, and fellowship. So what we have is, the paradox of pleasure.
It is both something we are to crave and seek and enjoy, and yet it is something
that can be so dangerous that it can quickly lead us to fall, and be out of the
will of God. Pleasure is both a virtue
and a vice.
The search for pleasure is the primary motivation behind the
evil of man. Satan appealed to the pleasure nature to get man
to fall. He said, taste the forbidden
fruit and you will have the pleasure of being like God, and they jumped at the
chance. But good is also motivated by
pleasure. The Gospel is an appeal to
the pleasure nature as well, for Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Jesus offers men the joy
of eternal life, and the pleasure of abundant life. There is not available anywhere in the world a hope for greater
pleasure than what Jesus offers those who put their faith in Him.
What this means is we cannot afford to be reacting as
Christians so often do. They look at
Xerxes, and his six months banquet of gluttony, drunkenness, and perpetual beautiful
virgins for his lust, and they say this is disgusting. Then they think their mission in life should
be to prevent as much pleasure as possible.
This over reaction to evil pleasure in the world has caused Christians
to totally misrepresent Christ, and pervert the Gospel so that it loses its
appeal to most everyone but sadist who delight in pain. History is full of the folly of Christian
ascetics, who thought they pleased God by pain rather pleasure. They wore hair
shirts to itch and be miserable. They
flogged themselves thinking that suffering was the key to sanctification. Fun and pleasure were so related to sin that
misery and boredom were exalted to the level of virtues.
To avoid this reaction to worldly pleasure we need to see
where the Bible stands on the issue of pleasure. The first thing we see, as we examine God's Word, is that God is
the Creator of pleasure. He made the
world and man, and said it is very good, and He took pleasure in all that He
had made. He made man with a nervous
system capable of enjoying much pleasure of sight, sound, taste, smell, and
feeling. He designed man to be a
pleasure loving creature. Every
pleasure we are capable of is a cause to thank God, for it is by His will we
have that capacity. David acknowledges
God as the source of all of life's pleasures in Psa. 36:7-8. "How precious is thy steadfast love, O
God! The children of men take refuge in
the shadow of thy wings. They feast on
the abundance of thy house, and thou givest them drink from the rivers of thy
pleasures."
God gives rivers of pleasure, even in time, before the
believers dwell by the River of Life, where all pain will be forever gone, and
life will be endless pleasure, for, "At God's right hand our pleasures for
ever more." (Psa. 16:11). God delights in the pleasures of His
servants says Psa. 35:27. God is a
personality who enjoys great pleasure Himself.
Psa. 149:4 says, "For the Lord takes pleasure in His people." As we, as parents and grandparents, take
pleasure in seeing our children grow and develop, so God delights in His children.
God wanted the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, and He said to the
people in Hag. 1:8, "Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the
house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says
the Lord." God is no where revealed
as a vast cosmic machine. God is a
person who feels, and His goal is to accomplish what is good and
pleasurable. Phil. 2:13 says, "For
God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good
pleasure." Jesus said in Luke
12:32, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you
the kingdom."
Let's get it straight in our minds, God is not a sadist who
loves pain and delights in suffering .
The goal of God is pleasure for Himself, and for all His people. He makes it clear in Ezek. 18:23. "Have I any pleasure in the death of
the wicked, says the Lord God,
and not rather that he
should turn from his way and live?"
God's goal for every man is a goal of pleasure. Hell is pain and heaven is pleasure, and
heaven is always God's goal. I looked in a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms,
and found this list of the opposites of pleasure. Listen to them, and see if you catch the flow of heaven or hell.
Displeasure Evil Desolation
Sorrow Pain Anxiety
Woe Hurt Burden
Grief Wound Adversity
Suffering Affliction Trouble
Vexation Anguish Unhappiness
Worry Despair Tribulation
Sickness Misfortune
This is not an ideal shopping list for Christmas, or any other
day in life. In fact, the only place
you can get that list fulfilled perfectly is in hell. Not a one of them will be a part of heaven. So we are stuck with an enormous paradox. The entire plan of God, and the goal of
Christians, is pleasure. Yet, that
seems to be the major problem of sinful man, and the primary method of
worldliness. Even Plato could see it
and say, "Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil." It is the pleasure principle that leads men
into every form of lust, and which takes them lower than the beast. Yet, it is the pleasure principle that leads
men to the highest levels of godliness, and enables them to fulfill the purpose
of God.
The book of Esther is a perfect illustration of the paradox of
pleasure. It begins with a feast that
is dedicated to worldly pleasure, and gratification of the senses. It ends with the proclamation of a perpetual
feast that will also gratify the senses, but will be in thanksgiving for the
providence of God. The pleasure of the
people of God at a banquet is no less enjoyable than that of the sensuous
secularist. Xerxes had more of every
sensual pleasure, but the fact is, he did not enjoy eating, sexuality, and
other aesthetic
pleasures anymore than the
Jews did, or than Christians do today.
How then can we
distinguish between pleasures which are displeasing to God, and those which
please Him? How can we unravel this
paradox so we know which side we are on? How can we know if we are at Xerxes's
banquet, or Esther's banquet? The first
thing we need to do is to recognize pleasure is not evil. It is good, and from God. Then we need to recognize that all good can
be perverted and abused. That is what
evil is-it is good used in a way that God never intended.
C. S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters has the Sr. devil writing
to the Jr. devil explaining the work of temptation. He writes, "Never forget that when we are dealing with any
pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on
the Enemy's
ground. I know we have won many a soul through
pleasure. All the same, it is His
invention, not ours. He made the
pleasures; all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to
take the pleasures which our
Enemy has produced, at
times, or in ways, or in degrees, which he has forbidden."
The tempters task is to get men to think, if a little is good,
a lot must be better. If he can get men
to use God's pleasures to excess, he can get them hooked, so that the very
gifts of God become idols, that lead them astray from God. Such is the subtle plan of the deceiver, and
it is a very effective plan. We live in
a culture where pleasure is no longer a gift from God, for it has become
god. Norman Lobsenz has written a book
titled, Is Anybody Happy. It is a study
of the American search for pleasure.
The goal of life for Americans is a good time. Our national Mecca is Disney World. Pleasure is the alpha and omega of life. The national heroes are no longer the titans
of industry, or the somber statesman, or solitary inventors. Now it is the movie star, the sports hero,
and international playboy, who have taken their place.
The important thing now is to have fun. Lobsenz writes, "Advertisers, never
slow to sense a trend, have leaped on the bandwagon, and there is now hardly an
artifact or an activity that is not intimately connected with spine-tingling
happiness. Brushing your teeth with a
certain tooth paste, of course-is fun.
Cutting the grass-with a certain lawnmower-is exciting. Do you want to know the real joy of good
living? Drink a certain beer....soap
flakes give glamorous suds. It is fun
to paint your house with so and so's paint.
Eye glasses are bewitching.
Light bulbs are romantic.
Building materials are festive.
Soft drinks are sociable.
Kitchen appliances are smart.
Anything you buy that is made of shining aluminum will mirror your
laughter. Even paying the bills for
these items is a pleasure if you have
an account at a certain bank."
Lobsenz says he expects someday to see a billboard with the bony finger
of Uncle Sam pointing at him asking, "Have you had your fun
today?"
We are under a new morality-the fun morality. It says, if it feels good do it. It is not new of course, for Xerxes was a
pro at it 2,500 years ago. Instead of
feeling ashamed for having too much pleasure, from now on we are to feel guilty
if we do not have enough. People are
now going to psychiatrist and asking, "What is wrong with me? I can't let go and have enough
fun." People feel so obligated to
have fun they attack it with all the energy they use to put into
achievement. This pursuit of pleasure
often ends in broken marriages, broken lives, and death, especially for those
who find their pleasure in alcohol and other drugs.
Is the Christian approach to try and be a kill joy, and oppose
pleasure, and call people back to a work ethic, where go go go is the battle
cry? Not at all! The Christian is for pleasure too, for that
is God's plan for man. The Christian
simply needs to point out the folly of making pleasure an idol. It is not the end of life, but a means to a
higher end. "Man's chief end is to
glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
We are into pleasure too, but because it is not an end in itself, but a
means to the end of enjoying God, we have an objective standard by which we
measure the value of all pleasures. In
other words, we count the cost. Satan
does not want man to count the cost, for his whole strategy is to get men to
choose pleasure at any cost. The cost
factor is what enables the Christian to have a guide to legitimate
pleasure. You can tell if you are being
excessive in your pursuit of pleasure by what it is costing you.
Any pleasure that costs you your growth in Christian
fruitfulness is folly, and excessive pleasure.
Jesus made this clear in the parable of the sower, where the seed that
fell among the thorns did not lead to fruitfulness. He tells us in Luke 8:14, "There are those who hear, but as
they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of
life, and their fruit does not mature."
They pay too much for their pleasure.
They lose the highest pleasure of life-the pleasure of pleasing God, and
being what He wills, for the sake of pleasure that will pass away. They trade in their diamonds for
marbles.
The Gospel is not a call to forsake pleasure, but it is a call
to rise to higher pleasure, and to enjoy that which lasts forever. The motive for all self-denial, which keeps
the Christian from immoral pleasure, is the hope for enduring pleasure. Listen to Paul giving counsel to the rich
Christians who could so easily indulge themselves in excessive pleasures. He writes in I Tim. 6:17-19, "As for
the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hope on
uncertain riches but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to
enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich
in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good
foundation for the future. So that they
may take hold of the life which is life indeed."
Paul is saying, you only go around once in this life, so do it
with gusto. But for Paul, that does not
mean to drink beer, it means to enjoy the higher and lasting pleasures of doing
the will of God, which guarantees we will have abundant life now, and an
eternal life of pleasure on the highest level.
The Christian is one who evaluates pleasure, and does not just grab at
it indiscriminately. He asks, does this
enlarge, or does it enrich my Christian life, and my attitude of gratitude to
God? The Christian is on the greatest
pleasure trip possible. If we could not
assert that the plan of Christ leads to the greatest pleasure for the greatest
number, we would be saying that there is a better way. The fact is, no one even pretends to offer a
better way than Christ. We can say with
the advertisers who are confident of their products, "If you can find a
better way than Christ-take it."
When referring to God, it is an absolute truth that Father
knows best. He forbids only those forms of pleasure which, in the long run,
lead to pain greater than the pleasure. God never forbids any pleasure which
will last, and be a part of your growth toward the goal of becoming like
Him. He only forbids that which costs
too much. Forbidden pleasure is a rip
off. It costs you the favor of God, and
usually has a kick back of pain that far exceeds the pleasure. How often people take drugs to feel good,
only to end up in jail or worse, and feeling rotten, and with problems that are
now worse than before. Biblical
morality is a fight back morality. It
is a demand that you don't be a sucker, and get ripped off by cheap imitations.
Jesus Christ, and He alone, offers the real thing-life
abundant and life eternal. He paid and
enormous cost, and endured the pains of hell, that we might enjoy the pleasures
of heaven. Whatever price we need to
pay to be loyal to Him is small cost for so great a gift.
The martyr who suffers death
rather than deny Christ, does so for pleasure.
He knows the cost is nothing compared to what he will enjoy at Christ's
right hand. That is why one of my
favorite preachers, F. W. Boreham, said, "The tragedy of the age is not that people are getting too much
pleasure, but that they are not getting enough." Life Xerxes, the world is pleasure mad, but in all of their
sensual self-indulgence, they do not find the pleasure of peace and meaning, or
eternal hope. They pursue pleasure as a
god, and are left empty. The Christian
pursues the will of God, and is filled with pleasure.
The world grabs the rose and clutches and thus must bare the
pains of the thorn. The Christian does
not need to grasp it, but can enjoy it, and not cling, for he knows he cannot
lose the rose even if it dies, for he is a child of the rose's Creator, and
knows the rose will be his forever.
Honey is bought to dear by those who risk the bees stingers. The Christian is one who is wise in his pleasure seeking. He enjoys all God has given us to enjoy, but
avoiding excess and the forbidden, knowing this leads to the greatest
pleasure.
Contrary to the view that Christianity is opposed to the
search for pleasure, the opposite is the case.
We have found the very thing man is searching for, the way to the
highest most lasting pleasure of which man is capable. With this highest goal of salvation settled,
the Christian then can enjoy the lesser pleasures of life more completely, for
they are not so essential that he has to cling to them for meaning. The highest and permanent being assured in
Christ, he can relax, and enjoy the passing without the risk of idolatry.
To sum it up, the paradox of pleasure is that the pursuit of
pleasure can lead you to the pit of hell, or to the pinnacle of heaven. It is life's most dangerous or delightful
path to travel.
The ecstasy of victory, or
the agony of defeat, awaits all who travel it.
Which you find depends on whether Xerxes is your example, or Jesus
Christ. You either do what pleases you
with no higher loyalty than your own pleasure, or you do what pleases God, with
His will as your motive for rejecting or accepting pleasure. Those who choose the way of Christ, saying,
not my will but thine be done, will enjoy at God's right hand pleasure for ever
more.
4. FATHER AND DAUGHTER Based on Esther 2:5‑11
George Barnell, a Jew living in North Carolina, back in 1871
fathered one of the most unusual daughters in Americans history. Jane Barnell grew up to become the famous
Lady Olga, the bearded lady of the circus.
She had a thick beard hanging 13 and a half inches, and also a large mustache. The beard started to grow when she was 2 and
at 4 she was being displayed, and 65 years later she was still going strong.
When Jane was a toddler, and her father was out of town on
business, her mother took her to the Great Orient Family Circus, and came home
without her. When the father returned
home he was frantic. He appealed to the
police, and North Carolina and surrounding states were scoured, but the circus
and Jane had vanished. They had gone to
Europe. It was several years later in a
Berlin orphanage that the father finally found her, and brought her back to the
United States. She grew to adulthood on
a farm where she shaved just like the young men. At 21 she was persuaded to let her beard grow and enter the
circus. She did, and spent the rest of
her life traveling the world as an exhibit to the curious.
The story of Mordecai and Esther is also a story of a Jewish
father and daughter, but with this distinction that Esther was as unusually
feminine as Jane was unusually masculine.
Esther was one of the most beautiful girls that ever lived. She was the Miss Universe of her day. She was the most beautiful girl in the
Persian Empire, which included most of the known world.
Our focus on this Father's Day is not upon Esther, however,
but upon Mordecai. A contemporary
bitter male said, "The only thoroughly masculine domain not yet invaded by
women is growing a mustache." He
obviously never saw Lady Olga, or the many other bearded ladies of
history. The real uninvaded domain of
masculinity is fatherhood. No woman can
beat a man at this role, for no matter how good she is with children, she is
always a good mother, and not a good father.
Mordecai was an excellent father event though there is no
record of his having any children of his own.
Esther was his adopted daughter.
We have established in a different message that you do not have to give
birth to a child to be a good mother.
The same holds true for being a father, and Mordecai is proof of
this. Joseph was also a good father to
Jesus, even though he did not actually father Him in the sense that He was from
his seed. That is the easiest part of
fatherhood. The real challenge is to so
love a child that it becomes a mature and balanced adult with a solid
foundation of spiritual principles to guide them through life. Mordecai was this kind of father to
Esther.
Most all of the Bible accounts of fathers are those who deal
with fathers and sons. Here we have a
rare case of a father and daughter combination. And what a combination they were! They saved Israel from destruction, and they changed the course
of history. It is of interest to note
the balance of the Bible where we see any combination of people can be used of
God to accomplish His purpose. In the
New Testament it is Mary the mother and Jesus the Son, with the father only
faintly in the picture. Here in the Old
Testament we see Mordecai the father and Esther the daughter, with the mother
not in the picture at all. God can, and
does, use any combination, for any of them can be winners.
It is important to see
this, for life is complex and uncertain.
There are all kinds of ideals that are best, but the fact is, they are
not attained by millions. I don't know
why Mary had to raise her family without Joseph, nor why Mordecai had to raise
Esther without his wife. Nor do I know
why there are so many other less than ideal family situations. All I know is that there is good news, for
any of these less than ideal situations can be used of God for His glory, and
for His purpose, and life can be full of blessings. Let's look at some examples of how Mordecai was a successful
father in a less than ideal situation.
He gave to Esther three things that made her a successful daughter, and
him a successful father. First of all
he gave her‑
I. AID IN ADOPTION.
Esther was of a minority race, in a foreign land, and a pagan
culture, plus she was an adopted child.
Adoption can be less than the ideal simply because there are complications
in the minds of adopted children. They
tend to struggle with insecurity, and their self‑esteem. The father is in danger of trying to protect
them so much that they become over dependent.
On the other hand, to so push
them into independence that they feel rejected and unloved. It is a tough job maintaining just the right
balance so an adopted child can feel adequately loved, and still press on to be
mature and independent. This, of
course, is the same battle all fathers have, but with an adopted child there is
an added complexity. Blessed is the
father who can provide the aid that is needed.
I have not known many adopted children, but the few I have
known have all struggled to some degree with their self‑image. It takes a wise father to help them see and
feel that they are just as loved, and just as valuable, as their own seed. Mordecia clearly succeeded with Esther, for
she was a loving daughter, and one who could be fully independent of
Mordeica. She could listen and follow
his guidance, and was as beautiful within as she was on the outside.
This is not to say that the father of an adopted child not
turning out well is a poor father.
Some of the finest fathers fail in attempting to reform a rebel. Andrew Jackson as President of the United
States had to write this letter to his adopted son Andrew Jr. He was in trouble already at age 14, and by
25 he was a heavy drinker and deeply in debt.
He wrote this on April 14, 1835.
"I now address you with
the fondness of a father's heart.
How care then you ought to be
to shun all bad company,
or to engage in any
dissipation whatever and particularly
intoxication. When I reflect on the fate of your cousin
Savern, reduced to the
contempt of all by his brutal
intemperance I shutter when
I see any appearance of it
in any branch of our
connection."
When General Jackson died he was 24 thousand dollars in debt
due to his rebellious unheeding son. I
do not believe he was a bad father.
Mordecai may have failed with this son also. All I am saying is, that in a less than ideal situation he did
succeed with Esther. She adapted to a
life that was full of tragedy and sorrow as her people were carried away
captive, and her parents were taken in death.
We are not told if they died from violence or natural causes, but either
way she was left an orphan in a foreign land.
Mordecai aided her in adapting to her circumstances, and she became a
beautiful well‑rounded person. It
would have been easy to become bitter and hateful toward the Persians. Mordecai had to teach her not to hate the
Gentiles she lived among, and she did adapt and learn to love them. The second thing we see that Mordecai did
for her is that he taught her the‑
II. ACCEPTANCE OF AUTHORITY.
Esther became the Queen, and she had more power in the snap of
her finger than Mordecai had in his whole life. He was nobody in terms of real power, and yet Esther obeyed his
authority, and did not reveal that she was a Jew. Her loyalty to her father's authority is a key factor in God's
providential plan to save the Jewish race.
Had Mordecai failed to teach Esther to accept authority, and to be loyal
to authority, the whole plan of God would not have worked out as it did.
One of the greatest tragedies of life is a father who does not
win respect for his authority from his children. It is a recognized fact that a major cause of the breakdown of
the American family is the loss of authority by dads. A little girl inquired, "Mommy, if the stork brings babies;
if Santa brings our presents; if the Lord gives us our daily bread, and Uncle
Sam our social security, what is daddy good for."
It is no joke when kids really feel this way. Colonel Farley, founder of Boy's Ranch says
90% of the youth who come to him come from homes where there was little or no
influence of the father. Between 80 and
90% of the boys in Boy's Town come from the same type of home. Judge Leibowitz of Brooklyn's highest
criminal court has concluded that the number one factor in criminality is
failure of the father's role.
If a father does not influence his child to respect authority,
the opposite is what will take place, and they will reject authority. They will tend to become problem makers in
society. Diogenes the Greek was said to
have stuck the father when the son swore.
He was illustrating the direct influence of the father on the son. Weak influence of fathers is a major cause
of weak people in all areas of life. Studies show that 94% of veterans under
treatment or psychiatric reasons experienced father rejection.
We need to balance out what we are saying here by looking at
the total picture revealed by the book of Esther. Strong influence of fathers is not necessarily good either. There is another father in this book by the
name of Haman, who is the enemy of Mordecai.
The whole book is like a Hatfields and Macoys type story, for it is
about two fathers and their children who are determined to eliminate each other
from the map of Persia.
Haman had all of the advantages. He had 10 sons, and Mordecai had only one daughter. Haman had position and power, and all
Mordecai had was hope in the providence of God. The point I want to make here is that Haman was basically a
strong father. This book reveals that
he had a powerful influence on his sons, and they did respect his
authority. They joined him in his
battle of bigotry, and gave their lives because of their loyalty. Because evil fathers can teach their
children good principles, we need to rise above the secular level to see a
Christian father's duty. Doubtless,
there are fathers in the Mafia, and other underworld organizations, who teach
their children strong respect for authority, and they become loyal people to
the cause of crime. You can't even be
good at being bad without respect for authority.
We need to see, therefore, that no father has done his job
well until his child respects the highest authority, which is the authority of
God. Haman failed because his sons
obeyed only human authority, and they were loyal to folly that was contrary to
God's will. Mordecai taught Esther to respect his authority also, but his
authority was based on his obedience to God's authority. We see this in chapter 4 where Esther begins
to waver in her obedience to his authority.
He responds by lifting her sights to a higher level, and by getting her
to focus on the providence of God. In
4:14 Mordecai says, "For if you keep silence at such a time as this,
relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, 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?"
Esther was moved by this to go ahead and risk her life
trusting in the providence of God. The
lesson is clear: No father can be the
final authority, for all fathers fall short of the glory of God. Only those fathers who give their children
an ultimate foundation can be called good fathers in the biblical sense. A good father is a fallible father with
faith in the infallible Father in heaven, and he passes on this faith to his
children. This means a good father does
not need to be uptight about his weaknesses and failures, for he does not have
to pretend he is perfect and infallible.
The respect for his authority is not based on its infallibility, but on
his respect for the authority of God.
A Christian father needs to be honest about his own mistakes,
and not try to pretend that he is always right. Joseph Bayly, the popular Christian author, has raised 7 children. He has punished them when they were
innocent. He has failed to tell them he
is sorry. He has inflicted pain by his
ignorance. He sat one of this little
boys on a log in the woods to rest. He
had short pants on and there was poison ivy all around the log. You can imagine the fun dad had trying to be
innocent and intelligent after that.
Bayly says there is no escape from guilt. He had to travel so much when his little girl was small that when
he came home she would not recognize him when he wanted to hold her. The point is, he did not need to fear that
his failures would cause his 7 year old to be out pushing sweet old ladies in
front of cement mixers. They were taught
that human authority is to be respected in so far as it conformed to God's authority,
as revealed in His Word. this is the
goal of all who would be truly successful fathers. The final value we see imparted by this first rate father is‑
III. ABUNDANCE OF ATTENTION.
Note verse 11 where the text says that every day Mordecai
checked on Esther to see how she was doing.
Not every weekend, or every month, but every day. She is a married woman, and she is the Queen
of the Persian Empire, yet Mordecai does not let a day go by without letting
her know he is concerned. This gives us
a strong hint as to the kind of father he was.
He was an available father. In
our busy world nobody seems to have enough time to do all that should be done,
and the result is fathers are often not available to their children.
Children , by their very nature, are not interested in doing
what matters for even the long run, let alone eternity. They specialize in the trivial and the
transient. In other words, kids love to
do what is a waste of time. That is
contrary to adult intelligence. We
cannot waster time, and so we are always trying to make all time count. The fact is, it is very biblical, for we are
told to redeem the time. The problem is
that we become legalists, and we forget that Jesus also taught we must become
as little children. There is a time to
waste time. That is, we must learn to
enjoy doing things like children love, which are very momentary fun as an end
in itself.
I must confess that I have struggled with this for years, and
even as I preach it, I do not always practice it. I am conditioned by the philosophy that we must try to kill two
birds with one stone, and make every moment count. Don't waste time, or time will waste you. I still believe these things, but more and
more I realize that it is an error to fail to balance this thinking with a
childlike love for the enjoyment of the present. Jesus had time in His short life, and even shorter ministry, to
enjoy living. He had times of fun,
fellowship, laughter and song. He took
time out from healing and preaching to go fishing. We always miss the boat when we take our eyes off Jesus, and push
any truth to an extreme.
This comes home to you when you read that Boswell, the famous
biographer of Samuel Johnson, who said he would never forget the day his father
took time out of his bush schedule to take him fishing. It is a highlight of his life, and he
learned so much. Boswell's father kept
a diary, and when he died it was found, and that day that meant so much to his
son had this entry in it. "Gone
fishing today with my son; a day wasted."
Maybe it was wasted in the sense that he got nothing done, but
if getting nothing done is what it takes to be available to your child, and
make them feel your attention and care, then nothing is what needs to be
done. This is not the kind of nothing
that Aristotle defines when he said that nothing is what rocks dream of. That is really nothing, but the nothing of
wasting time with your child is really something. It is an investment in the future. A father who cares enough to waste time for his child's sake will
produce a child who will redeem the time for God's sake.
Availability is the
key to being a good dad. One daughter
tells of an interesting thing her father did as she was growing up, and he was
her only parent. When she started
school he gave her a dime and said, "Patty, I want you always to keep this
dime in your purse. Anytime you need
me, you call the plant. Tell them you
want to talk to your dad, and I guarantee they will let you right
through." Many years later she
wrote, "There is no way I could tell you what that ten cent piece from my
father meant. Even when I didn't need
him, just to know I had it in my purse made me feel secure." Little things can help your child feel
secure because they give them that sense of access to your care and
concern.
This is what Mordecai did for Esther. He made it clear that he was always
available. So often you read of a father,
or see one playing the role on television, who gets a phone call for a business
obligation just as the family is ready to go on vacation. So often they choose the business obligation
rather than the family obligation, and the family feels that they are always
secondary. Mordecai may have had many other things to do, but he made contact
every day with Esther. She knew he was
always available. He wanted to know how
she was. A father needs to be informed
about his children. When dad knows what
is going on in the life of his child, that child feels loved. A study found that a high percentage of
children do not even know what their father does for a living. This indicates very poor communication
between fathers and children. Too many
fathers feel they cannot waste time by being available to their children.
A group of 300 7th and 8th graders kept accurate records of
just how much time dad spent with them over a two week period. The average came out to only 7 and a half
minutes per week. Many only saw their
father at the supper table, and many did not see him at all for days at a
time. One of the best gifts any dad can
give a child is what Mordecai gave to Esther.
It is sometime every day showing them attention. Mordecai did it for his
daughter who was a grown woman. How
much more is it needed for those still in childhood. May God help us as fathers to see the wisdom of Mordecai, and
make sure our children feel that we are available to them on a regular
basis. This is the key to being the
father our children need.
5. THE POWER OF BEAUTY Based on Esther 2:5‑18
In its 4,000 years of history only one woman became Emperor of
China with absolute power. She was Wu
tes‑t'ien. She got to the throne
of China for the same reason Esther got to the throne of Persia. She was a startling beauty. As a young girl she was renowned
for her beauty, and the
Emperor made her his concubine.
Ordinarily a concubine like her would be relegated to secluded quarters,
after the death of the Emperor. She
would live her life out in quiet retirement.
She was so beautiful, however, that the son of the Emperor also desired
her as a concubine. She was not only
beautiful, she was clever. She bore him
several sons, and then promoted them among the leaders as the legitimate heirs
to the throne. She gained many
political allies, and so maneuvered behind the scenes that when the Emperor
suffered a crippling stroke, she was made Empress in 655 A.D. She was brilliant as well as beautiful, and
was excellent in administration. She
cut taxes, won a war,and had a united prosperous country under her long
reign.
It is rare, but the fact is, there are many cases in history
of women doing an excellent job of leading a whole nation. One thousand years before Esther, in 1520
B.C. Hatshepst became the first woman Pharaoh of Egypt, for 21 years she
reigned, and glorious monuments exist to praise her success. When Julius Caesar marched into Egypt in 48
B.C. there was a vicious dispute going on as to who the next ruler should
be. Should it be Pothinius or his
sister Cleopatra. Cleopatra wanted to
plead her case before Caesar, but she knew if she tried to get to him her
brother would have his spies kill her.
Nobody would dare interfere with a gift for Caesar, however, and so a
beautiful oriental carpet was sent from her palace to Caesar. Imagine his surprise when the carpet was
unrolled and a 19 year old girl stepped out to announce she was Cleopatra, the
rightful Queen of Egypt. Caesar fell in
love with her beauty, and she did become the Queen.
If you want to read of how Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain,
England, and other nations, were all ruled by greatly honored women, you can
find these fascinating histories in Mildred Boyds book, Rulers In
Petticoats. My interest in these
stories for our study of Esther is that they confirm what we see to be a major
theme of this book, and that is, there is power in beauty. Women know it, and that is why one of the
largest industries in the world is the beauty industry. Billions are spent each year by women who
know their greatest asset is in looking beautiful. Brains and other qualities are also vital, but it is beauty that
opens the door for these other gifts to get a chance to function.
Many modern women admit they use beauty to their advantage in
industry. They say they dress in a
deliberate attempt to win favor with those who have power, and thereby they are
raised to positions of power themselves.
If conflict is developing between them and a male boss, they can calm
the waters by coming on with some feminine charm. In beauty contests there is nothing subtle and hidden. They are on open display to win prizes,
prestige, and power by means of beauty.
Many object to the whole emphasis on beauty as pagan perversion. They feel nothing is more secular than the
parading of female bodies before the world.
The book of Esther, however, forces us to focus on this type
of secular scene, for God in His providence uses just such a beauty contest to
save his people. It was Esther's
beauty that got her into the palace,
and into a position of power where she could be used to save her people. No other quality but beauty could have
gotten her there. King Xerxes was not
looking for a female genius, or the best woman runner, or sports figure. He was looking for beauty. His demand for beauty was far beyond what is
demanded for a Miss America or Miss Universe contest. His contestants had to spend one solid year doing nothing but
beautifying themselves just to spend a night with him. After a year of using oils, spices, and
ointments, they would be as soft and smooth as a baby.
Esther had to have been one of the most beautiful women to
ever live. Out of all the beautiful
girls of the Empire, she won the favor of Hegai, the keeper of the women. Verse 15 indicates she was also voted Miss
Congeniality by the other girls, for she was favored by all who saw her. Now this really is a Cinderella story in
that, aside from her beauty, Esther had all sorts of disadvantages. She was a poor orphan in a foreign land, and
part of a minority group. Fortunately
for her she had a relative who took her in when her parents died. Mordecai was her cousin, but he adopted her
as his daughter. Here is a rare case of
cousins becoming father and daughter.
Her Hebrew name was Hadassah.
That is not a name known to us, but the largest Jewish organization of
women in the world is called Hadassah, and they support the Hadassah Hospital
in Jerusalem. Esther was her Persian
name and this has become more popular among Gentiles. Esther means star. Estelle
and Stella come from the same root. Take female beauty out of this book, and
the star is gone. This poor adopted orphan
would never have been heard of in history had she not been blest with
beauty. Even with her beauty would she
have won the contest with all her competitors had she not spent a year using
all of the beauty aids available in her day?
The Bible puts you in a real bind if you are dogmatically
against beauty aids, for they were part of the providential plan of God that
saved the Jewish race. Dr. William
Stidger, one of the great American preachers, and author of over forty books,
comes on strong in favor or beauty aids.
He writes, "As far as I am concerned.....there is something sacred
in the everlasting passion women have for making themselves more
beautiful. I have no sympathy with
these reformers who find nothing more important to do than harangue women for using rouge, powder, clothes, and
what have you, to make themselves more beautiful."
Certainly we can all agree, there is nothing spiritual or
superior about being unclean, unkempt,
and unpresentable for public viewing.
All of us enjoy beauty, but like all good things, this too is so easily
perverted. Conrad Hilton, the
multimillionaire owner of the Hilton hotel's around the world, was once married
to Zsa Zsa Gabor. He discovered that
with her, beauty was a full time affair.
She started at ten in the morning before her dressing table. He says it was a ritual with bottles, jars,
and pots, both large and small.
It could have been the rite
of ancient Aztex temple. After lunch
and shopping it was back to the dressing table for more make‑up, and
agonizing decisions on furs and jewelry.
Hilton learned first hand about the idolatry of beauty, and of how
impossible it is to live with a woman who is obsessed with vain‑glory.
So what we have in the power of beauty is another paradoxical
power. It can drive you to the heights
of virtue, or plunge you to the depths of vice. It can lead to one praising God for this gift, or it can lead to
pride that competes with God. It has
the power to produce stories of victory, or stories of vanity. One of the reasons women are so effective in
taking the Gospel into all the world is there beauty. Beauty attracts, and if the attracter points to God, her beauty
is a stepping stone into the kingdom of beauty, the kingdom of God. Many have the testimony of the poet‑
The might of one fair face
sublimes my love,
For it hath wean'd my heart from low desires;
Nor death I need, nor
purgatorial fires.
Thy beauty‑ante‑past
of joys above
Instructs me in the bliss
that saints approve,
For Lo! How good, how beautiful must be
The God that made so good a
thing as thee.
Is by the power of beauty that women have had their fair share
of the control of history. By beauty the weak can master the strong, and Esther
decides the course that the absolute monarch will take. The Biblical ideal of female beauty involves
the mental as well as the physical.
Brainless beauty is a joke.
Prov. 11:22 says, "Like a gold ring in a swine's snout is a
beautiful woman without discretion."
In other words, a beautiful woman has to use the inside of her head as
well as the outside to have any real power in her beauty. Capito wrote, "Beauty alone, may
please, not captivate; If lacking grace, tis but a hookless bait."
Beauty can be superficial, and without depth, and this is what
has led to the saying that beauty is only skin deep. Prov. 31:30 agrees when it says, "Charm is deceitful and
beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." So we come again to the paradoxical nature
of beauty. It can be vain, but it can
also be a great value. It is the
paradoxical nature of reality that leads to so much overreaction, and imbalance
in our thinking. Because everything
that is good can also be bad, and perverted, so as to become a source of evil,
there is the constant temptation of abandoning what is good to avoid that
danger. All through history Christians
have abandoned what is good, and left Satan free to use it as a tool for
evil. Just as tanks abandoned on the battlefield
will be used by the enemy to fight those who abandoned them, so beauty, when
abandoned by Christians, will be used by enemy forces against Christians.
The value of studying the book of Esther is that it forces us
to reevaluate our views on the secular realm of life. It forces us to look at beauty as a tool in the hands of God, and
it forces us to ask questions about beauty, as it did about pleasure. What we find when we search the Scripture is
that beauty is no minor issue in God's plan.
It is basic and vital to the plan of God, and not just for the saving of
Israel, but for saving all men from the pit of hell. It is no surprise that God is portrayed in the Bible as ultimate
beauty. After all, He is the author of
all beauty. Someone said, "God is
not only the all‑wise and all‑powerful, but the all‑beautiful." In Psa. 27:4 all that David longs for is to
dwell in the house of the Lord and to behold the beauty of the Lord. The hope of all believers is to see the King
in His beauty. When that great event
takes place, we will all partake fully of His beauty, and become perfected, and
be like Him.
The goal of God is that all the redeemed might be like
Jesus. To be glorified is to be
beautified with the beauty of Jesus.
But beauty is not just the goal, it is a powerful element of the
Christian life on the way to the goal.
Three times the palmist says we are to "Worship the Lord in the
beauty of holiness." The power of
worship is in beauty. Beauty runs
through the Bible, and we are called
upon to behold it over and over.
There is the beautiful robe, beautiful women, a beautiful situation, a
beautiful heaven, a beautiful crown, a beautiful gate, and even the beautiful
feet of those who proclaim the Gospel.
There are numerous beauties in the temple, and there is the beauty of
wisdom.
Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest American preachers, came
to the conclusion, as he studied the Bible, that beauty was really at the very
heart of all theology. We tend to think
of beauty as a secular subject, but he made it the heart of his sacred
theology. This man changed the course
of history in America, and he made beauty the unifying theme of theology. He could see what most Christians never
notice. God is beautiful, and all that
He does is beautiful, and so the good and the beautiful are one. We could not love God if He was not
beautiful. If He was only powerful, He
could force us to do His will, but He could not force us to love Him. Love is a response we can only give to
beauty. If we had no revelation of
God's beauty in nature, or in the plan of redemption, we could not love
God. God could only win man's love by
the power of beauty.
It works the other way also.
Man is ugly in sin, and so it would be hopeless for us to have
fellowship with God, but Jesus became a man, and by the beauty of His holiness,
and the beauty of His sacrifice, the way was opened for all to become
beautiful, and, thereby acceptable to God.
Grasping the loveliness and the supreme excellency of our Lord is the
beginning of the victorious Christian life.
Those who do not see the beauty of Christ will not have the motivating
power to follow Him. They will be
sidetracked constantly by the
superficial beauties of worldliness.
All the fruits of the spirit are expressions of the beauty of Jesus in
human life.
Edwards said, "God is the foundation and the fountain of
all being and all beauty." Sin is
a deformity and lack of beauty. All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That is, no one measures up to the beauty God intended for
them. They are all defective. To be saved is to be restored to the place
where you have the right to begin the process of beautification. The doctrine of sanctification is really a
doctrine of beautification. To grow in
Christlikeness is the same as growing in beauty. Beauty is the measure of God's presence, just as ugliness is the
measure of God's absence. If a man is
insensitive to beauty, and can see no beauty in life, or in people, he is
alienated from God. The man who sees
most beauty, and is full of appreciation for it, is the man closest to God.
When all beauty is gone, and all of life is ugly, that is when
people take their own life, for the loss of all beauty is hell. In hell there will be no beauty, and in
heaven there will be nothing but beauty.
One's relationship to beauty in this life is the measure of the hell on
earth, or the heaven on earth, that one experiences. The only way to get heaven on earth is to see the beauty of
heavenly things, and the loveliness of God's way. Only those captivated by the power of beauty will be open to the
working of God's Spirit. Edwards says
that in the hierarchy of values, first is existence, and then excellence; first
is being and then beauty. Anything
defective in beauty is defective in being.
The ability to discern what is truly beautiful from what is
only superficial beauty is the key to the abundant life. Jesus only used the word beautiful once in
the New Testament record, and it was a warning about the danger of superficial
beauty. In Matt. 23:27‑28 we
read, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which
outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and
all uncleanness. So you also outwardly
appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. Here is surface beauty. It has no depth, and is mere veneer.
Superficial beauty is Satan's primary method of
deception. All men chose what they feel
is beautiful. The first sin of choosing
the forbidden fruit was made very attractive.
All sin is made to seem beautiful.
Satan does not expect anybody to be tempted by the ugly.
He knows God made man in His
image, and so He knows man is made to select the beautiful, and shun the
ugly. So he can only attract men to
evil by making it seem beautiful.
People chose folly for the same reason they chose wisdom. It looks good, and seems like the best way
to go. The liquor adds portray the
camaraderie of the bar. Sports and sex,
and all that seems adventurous is linked to this drug, for drunkenness is not
attractive or beautiful. They never
show the dead and twisted bodies of drunk drivers. They never show the ugliness
of the vomit, and the awful agony of families ruined by drinking. Evil can only survive by using the power of
beauty to attract.
God wants us to chose beauty.
We are made to do so, and in Christ we are given the Holy Spirit, who
will lead us to chose the highest in beauty.
Christian morality and ethics are built around beauty. Whatever is truly beautiful, and by truly
beautiful I mean lasting beauty, is right.
What is wrong is that which may have temporary beauty, but which leads
to permanent ugliness. Christian
maturity is growing in your discernment so that you can see the whole, and not
just the part. Much of life is
beautiful in part, but awful in the whole. A poison snake is beautiful in part,
as are poison berries, but they are not wise choices, for as a whole they are
ugly and destructive. The power of evil
lies in its use of superficial and partial beauty to entice men to chose the
way of folly. Evil is a parasite which
depends on what is good for its existence.
This brings us back to Xerxes and Esther. It is because Xerxes lives for beauty and
pleasure that God was able to use his choice for His own purpose. Pagan people, all through history, have
chosen what they feel is beautiful.
This does lead to great evil because of Satan's deception, but let us
remember, the world is full of true beauty as well, and even evil men often
chose what is good because of its beauty.
Esther was a beautiful and godly woman.
Her beauty went to the heart, and was not just skin deep. Her beauty would be attractive to most all
men in history, pagan or Christian. The
point is, Satan is not the only one in the beauty business. God's providence also works through
beauty. The beauty of women is one of
the key ways God has worked in history.
Esther in her day, and in our day, one of the great stories is
that of Mei‑ling, better known as Madam Chaing Kai‑shek. Chaing Kai‑shek was a Chinese war lord
who was very successful in battle. One
of the Christian families of China sent their daughter
Mei‑ling to America to
be educated. When she returned, she
was active in the political and social
affairs of the nation. On one occasion
Chaing Kai‑shek's path crossed that of
Mei‑ling, and for him it was love at first sight. He could not resist the charm and beauty of
this Americanized daughter of the Orient.
We cannot go into the details of the long five year battle to win her
hand in marriage, but battle it was, for he was a godless immoral warrior
living with a concubine, and she was a beautiful Christian. His love for her beauty changed his history,
and he became a Christian. He went on
to become the Generalissimo of China, and together they did great things for
the cause of Christ. It never would
have happened without beauty.
What all this means is that we need to keep a dual perspective
on life, and especially the secular life.
Take beauty contest for example.
Yes there is lust and perversion of beauty, but do not forget, God is
not shut out of that realm of life. God
is working through beauty, and often the winner of these contests is a
dedicated Christian woman. She
goes on to touch many lives for Christ,
and all because she was beautiful.
Not all of us have the gift of beauty that attracts kings,
generals, and wide popularity, but all Christians have gifts that are
beautiful. All the gifts of the spirit
are attractive, and they are designed to attract others. Every Christian is to be a light in a dark
world attracting the lost to the Savior.
Nothing is really finished until it is fully beautiful, and that
includes us. God will never be done
with us until we are perfectly beautiful.
Beauty is our goal, and beauty is what we need to pray for. The more beautiful we are in every aspect of
life, the more likely the providence of God will work through us to accomplish
His purpose, for there is power in beauty.
6. EVERYBODY TOUCHES SOMEBODY Based on
Esther 2:15‑23
Harriet Beecher Stowe was a preacher's daughter who was born
in 1811. She certainly didn't look like
she would ever amount to much. She was
shy and had a large nose and a hunched back.
She considered herself to be quite homely. Calvin Stowe, professor of Biblical Lit. in Lane Theological
Seminary in Cincinnati, saw beauty in her, however, and asked her to marry
him. He was not exactly prince charming
himself with his balding head and problem of overweight and nearsightedness.
It was never a very smooth marriage, for they both had such
bad self-images. Calvin had such fits of self-contempt that he got sick in
order to escape duties. The result was he never made enough money to support
his wife and seven children. Harriet had to work to support the family. She wrote articles and short stories. She so
dispised slavery and all it did to degrade people, and she longed to use her
gift of writing to fight it, but it seemed so hopeless. She was a nobody living in a day of great
male writers, all of whom also hated slavery, but avoided writing about it.
Longfellow, Hawthorn, Emerson, Melville, Thorew and Whittier were just some of
the great names of her day.
Harriets sister kept insisting she should write to show the whole
nation what an accursed thing slavery was.
One Sunday as she sat in church during a communion service the plot of
her book formed in her mind. It is hard
to doubt that it was a God-given plot, for her book called Uncle Tom's Cabin
took the world by storm. It sold 300,000 copies in America, and 1,000,000 in
England the very first year. It was
translated into 36 languages. The
impact of her book was so great it is considered one of the most influential
books in the history of America.
Abraham Lincoln's response when he met her was, "So this is the
little lady who made this big war."
Here was a woman who changed the course of history. She was not a beautiful woman like
Esther. Her power was still the power of
beauty, however, for it was the literary beauty of her book that moved people
to action. Beauty has many different
forms. It may be artistic, literary,
intellectual, or physical, but the point is, God's providence in history always
works through one form of beauty or another.
That is why the apostle Paul writes to Christians in Gal. 6:9, "Let
us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not
lose heart." The Greek word for
well is the word for beautiful. Paul is
saying do not grow weary in beautiful doing or beautiful action. Acting beautifully is the key to your reward
and the reaping of a harvest. It is not
just being beautiful, but beautiful actions that become a part of God's
providence in history.
The book of Esther is full of the beauty of doing as well as
the beauty of being. Esther's beauty of being depended upon the beauty of doing
to accomplish God's purpose. We see
from this that all of us can be part of God's providence. The beauty of being may be limited to the
few, but the beauty of doing is open to all.
Everyone of us can do
beautiful things that aid the fulfillment of God's plan. The book of Esther reveals that God's
providence is always working with a balance of male and felmale imput. Men are constantly being influenced by
women, and women by men. In our text we
are looking at the key men in the life of Esther. We want to focus on the least
of these three men in order to see how the influence of even the least can be
great.
Hegai is certainly one of the least known characters of the
Bible. I have never even heard of him
being used in a Bible quiz. Rare would
be the person who knew of Hegai, the keeper of Xerxes harem. He was eunuch, which means he was incapable
of sexual function. His purpose in life
was to see that the women in the harem were always in the best condition for
the pleasure of Xerxes. It would be
easy to past by Hegai without mention, and leave him in the limbo of neglect,
but a careful reading of chapter 2 reveals that he was key link in the chain of
events that led to the salvation of the Jews.
Verse 9 reveals how he took a special liking to Esther, and
quickly got her started on the beauty aids and proper diet. He became her coach, as it were, to win and
event over emorous competition. We see
here the beauty of friendship. This was
not a sexual male and female relationship at all. Hegai appreciated Esther's beauty and her personality. He liked her as person, and he saw her as
the best for the king. Esther also came to appreciate Hegai. She obeyed his coaching and took his advice.
In verse 15 we see that when her chance came to see the king and impress him,
she took with her only what Hegai advised her to take. He was the best counselor she had. With him Esther had an inside track to the
heart of the king.
The paradox here is, we have a pagan, who cares nothing about
the Jews or God's plan for Israel, playing a key role in God's plan for their
deliverence. God did not need Hegai, for
He could work out things in another way if He chose. In fact, later on Mordecai says that God did not even need
Esther. Nobody is indispensible to God. He can always get His purpose accomplished,
but the point is, He chose to use the influence of this pagan servant, and that
choice of God opens up a fascinating insight into God's providence in
history.
We have a tendency to limit God, and we assume He will only
work through His own people. This
limited view makes us miss the values that God can achieve through the
influence of non-Christians. Hegai was
a pagan. He did not even know the God
of Israel, and Esther could not be a witness to him, for she had to keep secret
she was a Jew. There is no evangelism
or witnessing on the part of Esther. She was just a friend to Hegai. This reveals that our relationship to those
outside the kingdom of God can be a factor in our success in serving the
kingdom of God. Do not think that non-Christians play no role in your
life. There are many examples of how
non-believers are a key influence in believer's lives.
Joseph's whole life was a series of encounters with pagan
people. He was thrown into prison
because of a bad encounter, but gets out of prison to share his dream by the aid
of a pagan servant of the king. He went
on to become a leader in Egypt and had a positive relationship with a pagan
Pharaoh. All around him there were
pagan people who respected him and depended upon him. Joseph lived most of his life in a relationship with
non-believers. Daniel had a simular
experience as a political leader in Babylon.
He had his close Jewish friends, but he also had a good relationship to
the king.
The Apostle Paul was constantly envolved with non-Christian
Roman leaders. One of them was to him
like Hegai was to Esther. In Acts 27 we
read of the Roman Centurian named Julius.
He is another very obscure character of the Bible. He was in charge of Paul as he headed to
Rome to stand before Caesar. In Acts
27:5 we read, "And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to
his friends and be cared for."
Later, when they were caught in a storm on the sea, the Centurian
listened to Paul and cut loose the boat some were going to use to escape. By so doing, this entire ship of pagan
sailors was saved. 276 persons were
spared by the providence of God, using the influence of a pagan leader.
There was a crisis when the Roman soldiers felt the only wise
plan was to kill all the prisoners lest they escape. Paul would have died had it not been for the friendship of this
pagan Centurian. In Acts 27:43 we read,
"But the Centurian, wishing to save Paul, kept them from caring out their
purpose." The beautiful acts of
friendship between Paul and this pagan leader led them to be a team that
brought everyone through the entire ordeal.
God used a believer and a non-believer together to fulfill His plan of
sparing all these lives. Doctor Luke
then goes on to record in Acts 28, after they were all safe on the Island of
Malta, "And the natives showed us unusual kindness." The cheif, whose name was Publius, showed
them great hosptiality for three days.
Then when they sailed, we read in verse 10, "They presented many
gifts to us."
These experiences of Paul with pagan friendship and kindness
reveal that what happened to Esther was not just an isolated incident. All through history God's people have been
blessed by the kind and beautiful acts of those who were not believers. God's plan includes doing many good things
in history by the influence of non-believers as well as believers. There are millions of Christians who have
been healed, taught, spared and aided by non-Christian doctors, teachers and
professionals of all kinds. You are a
rare Christian indeed if you have never been positively influenced by a
non-believer. They are not saved by the
many good works they do for us, but God's will is often done on earth because
of their good works.
The relationship we have to all people is important, for God
can use everyone's influence for His purpose.
One of the most amazing examples is the experience of Stenborg, the
painter. Over 200 years ago in
Dusseldorf, Germany, he painted his famous Gipsy Girl. His model let her black eyes wonder about
his studio. Then they were arrested by
the thorn crowned faces of Jesus he had painted for the church. She begged the artist to explain the
picture. He told her the story of the
cross. When he finished the Gipsy girl
said, "You must love Him very much when He has done all that for
you." The painter was stung with
shame, for the fact was, he did not love Jesus. That remark motivated him to respond to Christ, and then, as a
painter who adored the Saviour, he painted another picture of Christ, and
displayed it int he public gallery of Dusseldorf. Underneath he inscribed the words, "All this I did for Thee;
What hast thou done for me?"
One day, Count Zinzendorf, a rich young man, stood before that
painting, and the question challenged him to the depth of his soul. He surrendered to Christ and became the
founder of Moravin Missions. In a few
years there were missionaries going to all parts of the world. The Moravinans had a profound influence on John
Wesley, who was used of God to change the world, and the influence goes on and
on and on from a little Gipsy girl who simply asked a painter if he loved
Jesus.
John Donne was right when he said no man is an island. Paul put it in Rom. 14:7, "For none of
us lives to himself, and none of us die to himself." None of us live or die without influencing
others for good or ill. This is not
just a law for believers, it is true for all men, for even the lost have an
influence for good or ill. This world
is better or worse for every person in it.
It has been better because of people like Hegai, Julius, the Gipsy girl,
and innumerble obscure nobodies. What
are the implications of this reality?
For one thing, it means your relationship to non-Christians
can be a significant part of life.
Non-Christian family, friends, neighbors, and others may play a very
important part in your life.
Non-Chrisitan authors may influence you in many directions. Paul read pagan poets and found in them
truths that he could quote in his sermons.
In his famous sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17:28 he said, "For in
Him we live and move and have our being, as even as some of your poets have
said, 'For we are indeed His offspring.'"
Paul quotes the pagan poets because they confirm what the Bible
says. Today, preachers are constantly
quoting non-Christian poets, scientists, psychiatrists, and a host of other
authories, who in their realm of study discover that Biblical principles are
true, not just for Christians, but for non-Christians as well.
What we need to see is that a Christian has a duel
relationship to the world. Some of the world is like Haman, who hated God's
people and God's truths, and they do all they can to persecute and destory. But, there is also a world that is sympathic
to God's people and God's truths. It is
open to the influence of God's people, and can be used as an instument in the
providence of God. When the Bible
warns us not to love the
world, and not to be comformed to it, it is referring to the danger of getting
intrapped in the world's value system.
Some Christians interpret this to mean, have nothing to do with
non-Christians. This leads to a life of isolation where they have no
influence on the world because they are not open to be influenced by the
world. Separation from the world means
separation from the sin of the world, and not separation from people. Jesus was a friend of sinners, but totally
free of sin.
Christians who feel they have an obligation to be obnoxious
and unkind to non-Christians are blind to the way God's providence works in
history. Paul said Christians are to
live peaceably with all men as much as is it possible. Paul knew from his own experience that good
relationships, to even pagan people,
can mean a better atmosphere in which the providence of God can work toward
positive goals. The pharisees were very strict in not associating with the
unclean people. They did not relate to
non-Jews and even other Jews who did not attend the synagogue. One of there chief objections to Jesus was
that He would eat with anyone, even the publicans and sinners. These people were to them mere nobodies, and
not a part of God's people. These
godless nobodies did not count with them.
They failed to see that everybody is somebody with God, and everybody
touches somebody in a way that hurts or helps.
Jesus blasted them, in spite of their high and strict principles,
because they did not love people and relate to them in helpful ways.
We should never be so proud that we cannot take advice from a
non-Christian. Esther took Hegai's advice and it was the best thing that ever
happened to her. We may never have heard of her had she not listened to this
pagan friend. She could have chosen to
snub this Gentile pagan, and instead inquire of her Jewish neighbor.
But her Jewish friend may
have told her to eat onions and leeks before she went in to see the king. You recall, the Jews were willing to give up
their freedom to get back to Egypt so they could have onions and leeks. Esther could have taken this advice
and have been so offensive
to the king that she would have been dismissed on the spot. The point is, Hegai was the best authority,
and she was wise to follow his advice.
It is wise for any Christian to follow the wisdom of a non-Christian who
is authority in his field. It is not
only not wrong to follow such advice, it is wrong not to follow it if it does
not conflict with the revealed of God.
You could be missing God's will by neglecting it. Do not count anybody out as a resource for
knowing God's will.
If God uses everybody to touch somebody, and that includes
obscure pagans like Hegai, how much more does He use His own children to touch
the world? Do not be deceived, you are
constantly influencing everyone who knows you for good or ill. The poet has written,
My life shall touch a dozen
lives
Before this day is done,
Leave countless marks of
good or ill,
Ere sets the evening sun.
This, the wish I always
wish,
The prayer I always pray:
Lord, may my life
help others' lives
It touches by the way.
May God help us all to pray
such a prayer everyday, for everyday, everybody touches somebody.
7. THE PARADOX OF PATRIOTISM Based on Esther 2:19‑3:6
Newscaster Paul Harvey, some years ago, told his radio
listeners this remarkable story from World War II. From the Island of Guam one of our mighty B-29 bombers took off
for
Kokura, Japan. It was carrying deadly cargo as it circled
high above the city. A cloud covered
the city, so the plane kept circling for half an hour, and then for three
quarters of an hour, and finally after 55 minutes the gas supply was reaching
the danger zone. The plane had to leave
its primary target, and go to a secondary target where the sky was clear. Then the command could be given, "Bombs
away!"
Only weeks later did the military receive information that
chilled many a heart. Thousands of
allied prisoners of war, the largest concentration of Americans in enemy hands,
had been moved to Kokura a week before the bombing mission. Had it not been for that cloud, thousands of
Americans now alive would have been killed, for that B-29 was carrying the
world's second atomic bomb. It was
taken instead to the secondary target-Nagasaki.
The direction history takes, so often is determined by such
minor things. Small things play a big
role in life. The illustrations of this
are numerous, yet it is a truth that demands balance, or it leads to
folly. God's providence is constantly
working through little things,
but not every little thing
is of significance. To think so can
lead to becoming neurotic, for you will search for meaning in every trivial
event of life. The danger of this is
illustrated by the little girl who came running into her house sobbing. She threw herself into her mothers arms, and
cried out, "God doesn't love me anymore!" The mother was shocked and puzzled at what could produce such a
crisis. "Why do you say
that?" she asked, assuring her
that God does love her. "No mother!"
she wailed. "I know He doesn't
love me. I tried Him with a
daisy." In case you have never
tried that less than fool proof method of predicting love, by pulling off
petals to, "He loves me, he loves me not," let me recommend that you
never start, if you are going to take
it seriously.
The fact is, there are little things that are just little
things. They are minor and
insignificant. They are not subtle and
hidden methods by which great things are accomplished. I don't think it is a healthy exercise to go
through life trying to figure out if God is trying to say something through
every minor event. When God does work
through such events, it is only known as we look back and see the minor event
as a link in the chain that leads to the fulfillment of His purpose.
This is what we see in the life of Mordecai. As a cloud saved many Americans, so a conversation
saved many Jews. Mordecai over heard a
couple of the kings servants plotting to assassinate him. This was very common in the ancient world,
because the only way to get rid of an absolute monarch was by
assassination. They never quit, and
could not be voted out, and so violence was the only method open for
change. Many of kings of Persians were
assassinated, including Xerxes. He was
saved by Mordecai, but fourteen years later one of his servants succeeded in
his plot to kill him.
Assassination was common even in Israel. In I Kings 15 we read of how Baasha
conspired to kill Nadab, the king of Israel, after he had reigned only two
years. Baasha became king then, and
reigned 24 years, but he was also a evil king, so nothing was gained by the people
in this politics of violence. His son
Elah became king, and 2 years later his servant Zimri assassinated him, and
became king. Once you killed the king,
you had to kill the whole family, and many of his friends, so the violence of
the ancient world was terrible.
There are other gruesome
assassinations in the Old Testament. I
point this out so that we can see clearly the nature of Mordecai's political
decision, when he chose to become an informer, and revealed the conspiracy
against Xerxes
We see in Mordecai's experience good reason for why political
decisions are so paradoxical, and why it is that politicians are often so
variable. We see it in Mordecai's patriotism. In the last paragraph of chapter 2 we see
Mordecai as a defender of the state,
and then in the first
paragraph of chapter 3 we him as a defier of the state. He first saved Xerxes life, and then he
turns around and refuses to obey his orders of bowing to Haman, his highest
representative. In the one place Mordecai
is a conservative, and in the next he is a liberal. In the one he is a loyal citizen, and in the next he is a
rebel.
We need to study both sides of the patriotism of Mordecai, for
the Bible and history make it clear that the Christian who cannot be
paradoxical in his politics and patriotism will not be able to live a life of
wisdom in relation to the state. The
paradox is, inconsistency
in relationship to man is
the only way you can be consistent in your relationship to God. Let's focus first
on the positive side.
I. MORDECAI AS DEFENDER OF THE STATE.
By defender, I mean Mordecai risked his life in order to a
loyal citizen, and to maintain the order of the state by reporting the
conspiracy to kill the king. Mordecai
was a foreigner, and he could have had the attitude that this is not my
country, so what do I care?
The believer is one who
knows God is the God of order, and unless the leaders of a state are so corrupt
that a revolution is demanded, those leaders should be honored. Many Christians have, and do now, live under
tyrants, and forms of government that we could not tolerate as Americans. They live with far less freedom than us, but
they still love their country, and are patriotic.
One of the reasons the Jews have been able to become leaders
in nations all over the world is because they have practiced the principle of
honoring and defending the state they are in.
Paul in Rom. 13 lays this down as a principle for Christians in any state. "Let every person be subject to the
governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God..." They
are to receive our respect and honor.
By practicing this Christianity has been able to thrive under all sorts
of governments.
Mordecai was a great example of this principle, and thus a
great asset to the Persian Empire. By
becoming an informer he took a great risk for the sake of Xerxes, for informers
tend to get their names added to the hit list.
Vincent Teresa was the number 3 man in the New England Mafia. He had stolen 10 million for himself in
crime, and 150 million for his bosses and confederates. When he turned informer, back in the early
70's, dozens of big times mobsters ended up in prison. It took the FBI's most brilliant minds
working constantly just to
keep him alive. Assassination squads
were everywhere. Doctors, lawyers, and
even policeman were paid by Mafia to get him.
It may have not have been this hot for Mordecai, but had the assassins
found out he was the informer,
he would have been their
first target. He took risks to be a
defender of the state.
He was a hero of the state, and he was later greatly rewarded
for his loyalty. Patriotism played a
major role in God's providence in his life, and all of Israel. Patriotism is a virtue, but we must see that
it also has its limitations. When the
state is exalted to the level of God, then defense of the state is idolatry. Patriotism can have many motives, and this
is why it is only a relative, and not an absolute, virtue. Even the Mafia are patriotic towards
America, for its freedoms make it the greatest place on earth for crime. Vincent Teresa closes his book, My Life In
The Mafia, with this paragraph.
Let me tell you
something: I'm the proudest guy in the
world to be an
American. Before I went to jail I had
plenty of chances to take
off and go live in a villa on
the Italian coast, but I
wouldn't leave this country. I'd
rather spend 20 years in the
can in America than 20
years free in Italy. The reason is, I love this country,
and that's the way it is
with most mob guys. The mob
will not stand for anything
against this country. They'll
rob from government arsenals
and rob government
stock and sell it; but if
they could discover that anyone's
trying to overthrow the
country or anything like that,
they'll fight him. Most mob guys that I know of vote.
We vote whatever is the best
way to make money. If
its going to be one of these
guys who is going to be on
the reform kick all the time,
we'll all band together and
vote against him.
There is a higher percentage of the Mafia who vote, then of
born again Christians. So what I am saying is that patriotism is good, but not
an absolute good. If not modified by a
higher loyalty to God, it can become an evil.
Thus, we turn to the other side of Mordecai and see-
II. MORDECAI AS THE DEFIER OF THE STATE.
Verse 2 of chapter 3 makes it clear that bowing to Haman was
not a mere matter of courtesy, it was the law of the land, for the king had
commanded it. Not to bow was an act of
defiance against the state. Mordecai
refused to bow. He had just risked his
life for Xerxes, but now when there is no risk at all involved, he will not
join the others and bow. What has happened to his patriotism as a loyal
citizen? Mordecai seems to be
inconsistent. After all, he let his
daughter marry the king, so he is related to him, and yet he will not pay him
the respect of bowing to his highest representative.
The result of this stubborn refusal is that Haman becomes
hateful, and determines the entire Jewish race will pay for this
insubordination. Either Mordecai is a
stubborn fool, or he is standing for a principle more precious than life
itself. The only clue we have is in
verse 4 where Mordecai's only defense for his action is that he was a Jew. In other words, we are dealing here with an
issue of religious liberty, or the multifaceted and complex issue of the
separation of church and state. What
Mordecai is saying is that as a Jew there is a limit as to how far he can go in
conforming to the state. He could risk
his life for the state, but he could
not give up his religious liberty by bowing to Haman, for he would be giving to
the state the allegiance he owed only to God.
The issue here is really a matter of idolatry. Do we obey God or
man?
The whole thing would be sheer folly if it was a matter of
personal pride. If Mordecai just didn't
like Haman, his action would be disgraceful.
He risks the lives of his people out of stubborn pride. If we see it as a battle for religious
liberty, however, then we can see what has been a pattern of God's providence
all through history. Mordecai had his
priorities straight. God is number one,
and the state can never be obeyed if it attempts to usurp that place in our lives.
The defenders of the state must become defiers of the state when the
state threatens to crush religious liberty.
The state has a right to our loyalty as long as it recognizes its place
in God's providence. When it begins to
encroach on God's domain, then our loyalty to God demands that we defy the
state. The state becomes Satanic when
it demands of us allegiance due only to God.
We must chose then either to deify the state, or defy the state.
We know the issue of
bowing to Haman was an attempt to deify the state, for we have the record of
Herodotus the ancient historian. He
tells us of others who came to Xerxes, and who refused to acknowledge him as
god. He tells of the Lacedoemonians
whom the guards forced to their knees before Xerxes, yet, they refused to bow
their heads, for they said they had not come to Persia for the purpose of
worshipping a man. Xerxes excused them
from bowing, for he had respect for their religious liberty. Haman, you will note,
never told Xerxes that his
hatred of the Jews and Mordecai stemmed from Mordecai's refusal to bow to
him. This was never reported to Xerxes
at all, for if it had been, he would have nipped it in the bud right there, for
he allowed for religious liberty.
Haman is the culprit in the book of Esther, for his personal
hatred, based on his desire to be treated like deity, is the cause for all the
evil in the book. He plotted to get all
the Jews killed so Xerxes would never even know why. What we are dealing with here is a corrupt politician in an
otherwise reasonably just government.
Haman had let power go to his head, and he will not tolerate being
treated as secondary to God. He will
get revenge on those who dare to put God first. The lesson of Esther is that the believer can never do anything
other than defy those who presume to take God's place. The history of America revolves around this
basic principle.
A hundred years before the revolutionary war, king Charles II
of England demanded that the Mass. colony relinquished its religious liberty,
and let the Church of England control things, with only church members having
the right to vote. The Puritans were enraged,
and went into their pulpits preaching that they must defy the kings
orders. Better that they die free than
submit to such tyranny. The king heard
of their rebellion, and ordered 5,000 troops to sail to Mass. to crush the
rebellion. Increase Mather called for a
day of prayer and fasting, and later they learned that king Charles had died on
that very day of 1685. The result was
the army never set sail. The Puritans were
convinced that defiance to a state which threatens religious liberty is obedience
to God. This principle
became the foundation for
the American Revolution.
The result is we are a nation where the right to defy the
government is guaranteed. If the state tries to interfere with our religious
liberty, we can take the state to the supreme court, and fight for our
rights. We have a Constitution which
gives us a right to protest and demonstrate against our governments
policies. Thank God for freedom that
most of the world has never known. What
we have is based on the basic truth that man has the right to put God first,
and to defy any authority that tries to take that first place in our
lives.
Most of us have never lived through a period where the state
is deified, and demanded absolute allegiance.
Hopefully we will never have to, but the Christians under Hitler had to.
I never realized until recently that Hitler established his own church in
Germany. It was called The German
Church Of Positive Christianity. Its
design was to counter-act all Christian
opposition, and destroy Christianity.
It was extremely effective, and won most of the youth of Germany. Julius Leuthenses wrote, "Adolf Hitler
is own living witness of the present era, who confirms the good work of the
eternal Divine Spirit in history, and who, through his activity, enables us to
understand in a new way the teachings of Christ and His mission. Our watchword is not that Hitler is equal to
Christ, but: Through Hitler to Jesus
Christ."
That is just the beginning.
Soon the preaching of the cross was forbidden in church. The picture of
Hitler was hung in front of all churches, and he was referred to in official
statements as the way, the truth, and the light. All Germans were urged to die for him,
and make their dying words
heil Hitler. Hitler was so clever, only
the devil himself could have been guiding him, for he completely revised
Christianity, and made Nazism a perverted Christianity. He declared mount Hesselberg his sacred
mountain, and Julius Streicher his high priest. Standing before the bonfire he said, "When we look into the
flames of this holy fire, and throw our sins into them, we can descend from
this mountain with clean souls. We do not need priests and ministers. We have become our own
priests."
Hitler actually became
a god to millions of people who could not see their folly until it was to
late. I share this because Hitler and
Haman were two of a kind. There pride,
racial hatred, and abuse of power make them brothers of the pit. Both sought to wipe out the Jewish
race. But there were Mordecai's in
Hitler's day as well. They defied the
state, and fought Hitler, and they made a difference. The tragic fact is, these Mordecai's were two few in number. The majority of Christians, both Catholic
and Protestant, were deceived by Hitler's clever use of patriotism. The people were whipped into a religious
frenzy of love and loyalty to the Fatherland.
Hitler could do not wrong, and Germany could do no wrong. The Patriotic fervor so captivated Christians,
that the voices of the church in opposition were muted. Hitler was free to do the works of Satan
with little resistance. Millions of
Christians cooperated in the killing of 6 million Jews.
It is the story of history repeating itself over and over
again, because of idolatry. God's people bowed down to a false god, and as
always, the result is tragic judgment. Had there been more Mordecai's defying
the state when it began to encroach on God's territory, the tragic and demonic
history of Germany could have been avoided.
Many Christian leaders are writing today of the danger of an American
Civil Religion. It uses Christian
terminology, just as Hitler did, but it is not Christian. It is a state religion that is designed to
convince Christian people that everything the state does is the will of God. It
is a powerful political tool.
Because of the ever present danger of the state becoming a
god, the Christian must be all the more conscious of the need to exalt the
Lordship of Jesus. Nothing is
Christian, no matter how good, or how American, which does not bow to Jesus
Christ, and confess Him as Lord.
Mordecai, as a Jew, would bow to none but Jehovah, and you and I, as
Christians, can bow to none but Jesus.
Because it is so, we must be ready to both defend and defy the
state.
8. COINCIDENCE OR PROVIDENCE? Based on Esther 6:1‑11
Everyone experiences coincidence somewhere in life. Two people say the same thing at the same
time. You go to call someone and the phone
rings, and it is the person you were going to call. You flip open the hymnal, and it opens right to the number you
were looking for. On and on we could go
until we listed one you have experienced, for coincidence is common to
all.
But sometimes coincidence rises to a level that is more
amazing. Such is the case with the
death of my father. The coincidence is
in relation to Lavonne's father. It is
not very likely there are many mates in the world who had fathers with the same
name of Charles,
who lived in the same town,
worked in the same meat packing plant, lived in the same house where they both
died, only a few feet apart, although ten years apart, both in the night in
similar ways, and both were buried in the same cemetery, on the opposite side
of town from where they died.
Lest you puzzle over why they both died in the same place, let
me explain. My parents bought Lavonne's
parents trailer home after her father died.
You have to admit this is an unusual series of coincidences. It is rather amazing to me just because it
is so highly unlikely, but as far as I know, it has no significance
whatever. I share it for that very
reason, to illustrate that coincidence, however amazing, and contrary to the
odds, may be no more than just a matter of chance. Nothing would be affected in anyone's life, that we are aware of,
if our fathers had not lived and died with these coincidences. I see no value or loss in what
happened. It just happened to work out
that way.
Coincidence, therefore, does not necessarily have
meaning. But what if coincidence does
have meaning? Then we rise to the level
where coincidence becomes providence. Providence is coincidence with a purpose‑God's
purpose. It is no longer a mere matter
of chance, but is the fulfilling of God's plan in history. This too can be illustrated by what took
place when my father died. I had no
intention of going to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I had already written my
parents and told them we would not be coming. Dad was failing fast, however, and we did not know if he could
hold out much longer. Lavonne told this
Jan Toy, and Jan shared with Steve, and Steve talked to the deacons. He then called me and urged me to take a few
days off to go see my father.
I called home that
night and mom said it would be appreciated if I would come home for a few
days. We went, and found dad in
terrible shape. He had aged 20 years in
the months since I had last seen him.
We talked off and on through the day, and he listened to one of my
sermons on heaven that I had on tape.
That night my older brother and I visited with him. He was more alert than he had been for
sometime. In the morning mom called
saying, "I think he is gone."
I leaped out of bed and ran into dad's room, and saw at a glance that he
was dead. I told mom to call his
doctor. While she was gone I pushed his
eyelids closed.
I was surprised he had gone so fast, yet I was calm, for I had
prayed before going to sleep, "Lord if he cannot get well, take him
home." I was only repeating the
prayer he had prayed himself a few hours earlier. Lavonne and I were there to take mom to the funeral home, and
make all the arrangements, and then to the cemetery to finish arrangements.
Then we went back home to spend the day contacting relatives all over the
country. Had we not been there when we
were, we would have missed the chance to be with dad on his last day, and mom
would have been alone. Neither my
brother nor my sister could have helped her that day. It was perfect timing that we had made it.
What a coincidence that the
church would give me time off just when it was most needed. Nobody could know it was the best time, but
God did, and so we see a coincidence with a purpose, and we consider this the
providence of God. God was working in
minds, events, and timing to accomplish a blessing in the lives of His
people. The blessings were so marvelous
that none of us really started the grief process until sometime later. The point of this long introduction is to
make clear that there is a distinction between coincidence and providence.
Coincidence is a matter of chance, and it makes no real
difference in life, one way or the other.
It may be amazing, but if it never happened, no one would be hurt. If I had never gotten called by someone I
was going to call, or had never flipped open the hymnal to the exact page, it
would not have made any difference. Providence,
on the other hand has clear purpose and meaning. You can see the hand of God in it, and you cannot help but thank
and praise Him for His guidance. Esther
is a book that has one coincidence after another. Because each of them is so vital to the survival of the Jews, and
to their victory over their enemies, it is a book that specializes in the
providence of God.
No where in the Bible will you find the providence of God more
conspicuous then in this book, where God is never mentioned. Vashti, the Queen of Persia, rebels against
her husband and loses her throne, so that the Jews can have a Jewish Queen on
the throne, just when she was needed for their deliverance. What a coincidence! The keeper of the harem favored Esther, and
he helped her, out of a host of beautiful girls, to so please the king, that
she was selected as the Queen. What a
break!
Mordecai overheard two men plot to assassinate the king, and
by reporting it he saved the kings life.
Now we come to chapter 6, and the whole story revolves around an amazing
coincidence. The king could not sleep
one night, and it happened to be the same night in which Haman, the Jew hater,
was plotting to destroy Mordecai. What
a marvelous coincidence that the king would call for the book of memorable
deeds to be read to him that night, and that the forgotten deed of Mordecai
would be read to him just minutes before Haman came to request that Mordecai be
hung. If this coincidence had not take
place, the whole story would have been tragedy rather than comedy, and the Jews
would have been destroyed. Mordecai
will be hung, or be a hero, and it all depended upon the coincidence of the
kings being read this particular page in the record book he turned to.
The destiny of God's people swings on the hinge of
coincidence, but coincidence with such purpose and importance that we see
clearly the providence of God. It is
the hand of God in history directing the timing of events so as to determine
the course of history. There is no
miracle here at all. Everything is
perfectly normal and natural. The king
can not sleep, and so he calls for records to be read. He may have done this three times a week for
20 years. There is nothing marvelous
about it. But this night the
coincidence of reading about Mordecai's noble deed of saving his life, just
before Haman came to request his death, changed the course of history. The coincidences of the book of Esther are
not amazing or startling in themselves.
They are rather trivial even, but the purpose they fulfill shows them to
be the providence of God.
We need to be alerted to the providence of God in our lives by
evaluating coincidence. Because we take coincidence for granted, we likely miss
much of the evidence of God's leading in our lives. In other words, we do not sense that everyday the trivial events,
contacts, and turn of events could be the providence of God. Katherine Marshall tells of her experience
after the death of Peter Marshall. She
was going to write the story of her famous husband's life. But did not know how to get information on
Peter's step‑father.
She had exhausted all
possible sources of information, she thought.
Then one night, an English couple she had met invited her to
dinner. In the course of the evening
she felt and urge to tell them about her need.
She could have suppressed that urge, considering it to be inappropriate,
but she went ahead and shared.
The man interrupted her as she told of her need, and said,
"Certainly you couldn't be speaking of Peter Findlay?" "Yes," she said, "Why?" The atmosphere was electrified. The man
responded, "I worked beside him for years in the same office at Stewarts
and Lloyds in Glasgow. I knew him
well. What do you want to know?" Katherine Marshall had just experienced
coincidence with a purpose, and thus,
in the providence of God, she received what she needed. There were 800 thousand people in the
District of Colombia, and only one of them knew anything about Peter Findlay,
and he was the one who invited her to dinner.
That experience of providence gave Katherine the courage she needed to
go on to become one of the greatest Christian authors of the 20th century. By this event of providence, she heard God
saying to her, "I'm in this with you."
God may be seeking to guide us, and answer our prayers, by means
of purposeful coincidence. We need to
be aware of this, and learn to be more sensitive to this kind of leading in our
lives. It may be happening more than we
realize, and we miss it, or because we do not recognize it as the way God
works, we fail to experience what God has for us in His providence. I am not saying that God will remove all of
our problems if we are more sensitive to His providence. I do not see any such promise in the
Bible. But God will work in all things
for good with those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose. This
simply means we need to be on the lookout for the purpose in coincidence, for
this is one of the common ways in which God brings good out of all sorts of
situations.
If a coincidence has no particular value, or purpose, then it
is coincidence, and that it that. It is
a matter of chance events. By chance
events I mean, those things that happen that are not directed by God's purpose,
but are the result of the laws of nature He has created. Because He created
these laws, He is, in a sense, the author of all that happens. But when he just
allows the laws to function, and does not enter into them to interfere for a
specific purpose, you do not call that providence.
For example, I worked for 4 years at a printing company. My job included the laying out of paper for
the paper cutter. I would lay out tons
of paper on any one day, and over the years filled out thousands of
orders. Every once in while I would go
the shelves of stock with an order. The
order would call for 325 sheets of blue 20 lb. paper 18 by 34. I would start counting the sheets in an open
package, and to my surprise, I would end up with exactly 325 sheets‑just
what I needed. It was always a
surprise, because it was a rare coincidence, but it did happen, and I was
impressed with how often the unlikely could happen by chance. What I was experiencing was
coincidence. It had no meaning or
purpose. It would happen to anyone who
spent hours everyday counting out paper.
It was a mere matter of chance.
The only way it could be of value would be if it happened every time,
and made you the best paper counter in the world, because you would not need to
count at all, knowing the package had just what you needed. If a coincidence does not serve any
meaningful purpose, it cannot be considered providential.
Paul Aurandt in The Rest Of The Story tells of a marvelous
coincidence in the filming of the Wizard of Oz. Frank Morgan played the wizard, and Professor Marvel, the
traveling sideshow man that Dorothy met.
MGM'S wardrobe department was notified that they needed a coat for
Professor Marvel. It had to reflect a
sort of shabby gentility, a grandeur gone to seed. The staff went to second hand shops in Los Angeles, and they came
back with 50 coats. The director and
Frank met to select one. The one they
decided on was a Prince Albert coat, with a velvet collar. It was worn, but spoke of former
elegance.
One day, as the Professor Marvel scenes were being shot, Frank
Morgan pulled out the pocket of his coat, and he noticed the name of the
original owner. It was such a surprise,
the MGM executives wired the tailor in Chicago to confirm what they had discovered.
It was confirmed‑the coat they had selected was originally made for the
man who wrote the book‑The Wizard Of Oz.
It is an amazing story, it is so highly unlikely that you feel almost
compelled to see forces beyond man involved.
But because it has no significance or meaning, that is recorded, it is
not likely it was providential. It made
no difference, for had it not been his coat it would have served the same
purpose. No purpose was achieved by
this amazing coincidence, and without purpose it is not providential.
Why is it important to make the distinction between
coincidence and providence? Because, if
you don't, you end up with a superficial theology that loses all sense of
balance, and makes God responsible for much that is evil and folly. Just as an example: If God is responsible for all coincidence,
then God is the key supporter of the gambling establishments of the world, and
thus, the great benefactor of the Mafia, and other underworld
organizations. Every time a slot
machine comes up with three of a kind, that is a coincidence. Every time the roulette wheel stops where
you have your money placed, that is a coincidence. If God intervened in this system of chance, the entire world of
gambling could be eliminated in one day, for enough of these coincidence would
destroy gambling. Christians could own
Las Vegas in a week if God worked providentially in gambling. God does not do so, however, for it is not
His plan to prevent men having a free choice to be foolish. Man is free to choose to gamble, and God
will not interfere with that choice.
The point is, gambling is a world of coincidence, and not a
world of providence. This is not to
say, God never works providentially in this realm, but in general it is a world
system guided by the laws of chance, and is not a God guided system. If it was, and all coincidence was of God,
then the Christian would have an obligation to both gamble and promote it, as a
way of achieving God's purpose in history.
Coincidence can be good, evil, or indifferent. Providence is always
good, for it is for the fulfilling of God's purpose. Coincidence can be very
negative. Two cars meet at the same
time at the intersection, and life is taken.
Millions of coincidences happen in which wrong timing leads to evil and
death.
In Esther we see Haman being the victim of God's judgment
through His good providence to Mordecai.
In other words, for Mordecai to be spared, and all the Jews to be saved,
the enemies of the Jews had to be destroyed.
So there can be a negative side to providence as well. Haman was hung because of the providential
guidance of God in protecting Mordecai.
If you can show that tragedy to someone is the key to the survival of
someone else in God's will, you can see providence is good, even in negative results. Most accidents, however, do not fall into
this category, but are in the category of coincidence which is determined by
chance, and not by God.
God still works in all things for good, and can bring values out
of life's negatives, but the negative is not necessarily a part of His
plan. If I chose to be a fool, and
gamble away a thousand dollars, my loss and depression may lead me to change my
life in a very positive way. This does
not mean that God's plan was for me to be a fool and gamble. It just means that
His providence never ceases to seek ways of bringing good out of evil. The
evil, however, is not part of His plan.
The entire issue of prayer is based on the distinction between
coincidence and providence. If all that
happens in life is God's plan, then, of course, prayer is meaningless, and we
just as well sing, whatever will be will be, and forget it. If, however, we live in a world where there
is a combination of natural law, and wills that determine what happens, then
prayer makes sense. What we are doing
in prayer is asking that God exercise His will, and guide events to accomplish
His purpose. Prayer is saying to God,
"I know you can make a difference in the events of life, and I want to
cooperate in seeing those differences made that fulfill your will for
me." Why pray, "Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven," if it will be done regardless? The point is, it won't be done unless we
cooperate with God's providential guidance.
With this attitude in mind, you can face every day as an
adventure in which all that you do, and all that you say, can make a difference
in your own destiny, and the destiny of others. Even trivial decisions can take you down a path to values you
might have otherwise have missed. God's
method of guiding is not usually by miracle, but by providence, as we see all
through the book of Esther. The Jewish
race was saved in Esther by the providential timing of trivial events. It is the most common way that God has for
protecting His people from tragedy yet today.
Let me close with an illustration of how God once
providentially answered the oft repeated prayer, "God save the
Queen." Queen Victoria was on the
express train racing through the night to London. Suddenly the engineer saw a strange sight in the engine's
headlight. A weird figure in a black
cloak waving its arms caused the engineer to grab for the brakes, and bring the
train to a grinding halt. He and his partner
jumped out to see what it was. They
walked down the track, and stared in horror, for they saw a bridge washed out,
and toppled into the swollen stream.
All would have been killed had they not stopped. But they could not find the one who warned
them. The engineer climbed back into
his cab and switched on the lamp. At
the base was a huge dead moth. He held
it up to the lamp, and it cast a shadow which explained what they saw. The Queen was told, and she said, "I'm
sure it was no accident. It was God's
way of protecting us." It was
clearly an amazing coincidence, that was also the providence of God.
9. THE HUMOR OF HISTORY Based on Esther 9:20‑28
It was one of the greatest celebrations in the history of the
American people. The bells rang in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. There was a hundred gun salute in City Hall
Park of New York. In Chicago there was
a volunteer possession of people seven miles long. In California they
celebrated for two days. This happened
in May of 1869. It was when the
railroad from Omaha and the railroad from Sacramento met at Promontory Point,
Utah. The last spike of California gold
was driven by Governor Leland Standford.
Two locomotives drew up close to each other, and the news was sent by
telegraph all over the country. People
rejoiced and celebrated because the United States was now, by means of the
railroad, really united. Carl VanDoren
writes, "This was probably the most important and most exciting non‑military
ceremony in the whole history of the American people."
It thrilled a whole nation then, but today you would find it
hard to find an American who even knows it happened. Those few historians who do know certainly do not throw a party
to celebrate it. Some great events in
history do not live on to capture the minds and hearts of all future
generations. But, on the other hand,
some events live on perpetually, and even grow in their intensity with time. Such is the case with the event called
Purim. It means next to nothing to us
as Gentiles, but to the Jews it means a great deal. A study of this Jewish holiday and feast will help us understand
the book of Esther, and the purpose for it being in the Bible.
One of the greatest paradoxes of history is that the Jews, who
have suffered so incredibly, have also been the source of incredible
laughter. Tevye, the Jewish father in
Fiddler On The Roof, was a funny man in a very unfunny and tragic situation. This has always been the case with Jews who
love the book of Esther, and keep the feast of Purim. Purim, says Herman Wach, the Jewish author, is the nearest thing
in Judaism to a carnival. It is a time
of riotous rejoicing. In some places it
has made a street festival just like the Mardi Gras.
It is the one day in the year when disordered hilarity is
permitted in the synagogue. Reverence
and restraint are virtues all year long, but not on this day. They are cast to
the wind, and what would be outrageous any other time is permitted on this
day. Children are given noise makers of
all kinds, and they take them into the synagogue. All is silent as the first two chapters of the book of Esther are
read. Then the reader comes to chapter three where he reads the name of Hamen
the Agagite, and this triggers off a hurricane of racket. Everyone stomps their feet, and the children
make a staggering contribution to the noise with their noise makers. Eventually
the dim dies down and the reader continues, but when he comes to the name of
Hamen again, all bedlam breaks loose.
Since Hamen is named often in the book of Esther, the amount of noise is
both frequent and enormous.
This celebration has been going on for well over two thousand
years among Jews all over the world. It
is Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, the Fourth of July, and Halloween all
rolled into one great two day celebration.
Jewish schools have all sorts of plays, skits, and music, to reenact the
drama of Esther. Is the day of all
kinds of silliness, jokes, and laughter.
Men and youth dress up like clowns and play tricks, and tell jokes. Children wear masks and go from house to
house. Gifts are exchanged, and all are
required to share with the poor so that it is a fun day for all, no matter what
their economic condition.
Now you must certainly wonder why all of this hilarity,
frivolity, and laughter? What makes Purim so different from all other feasts of
Judaism? The answer is the profound Jewish conviction that the drama of history
is a comedy and not a tragedy. This is
not to say life is not full of tragic events, but rather, that when history is
over, God will have the last laugh, and there will be a happy ending for all
who are a part of the family of God.
This is a basic Biblical philosophy of life, and it explains how the Jews can be so optimistic through all of
their trials. It also explains why
Christians have even a greater hope because of the greater revelation we have
of ultimate victory in Christ.
Purim is a holiday which proclaims the humor of history. In a very real sense the book of Esther is a
joke book. It is based on the same
theme that makes millions of people laugh every day as they watch cartoons. Evil plots are made to capture, injure, or
destroy the innocent, but they always backfire and injure the one who planned
them instead. That is the basic theme
repeated in multitudes of cartoons, and that it the theme of Esther. Hamen, the powerful Jew hater, so despised
Mordecai that he plots not only to destroy him, but all of the Jews. He is so clever, as evil men often are, that
it looks like he has a fool proof scheme to annihilate them.
By surprising providential events, however, a Jewish woman
becomes the Queen, and by her superior cleverness Hamen the bigot ends up
swinging from the very gallows he built
to hand Mordecai. Mordecai then gets
Hamens job as the leading official in
the Persian government. All of the Jews
of the world are not only spared,
they end up with greater
power and influence than they ever would have had if wicked Hamen had not hated
them so. It is another great Biblical
story of good out of evil, and that is why Esther and Mordecai wrote letters to
all of the Jews, and established the feast of Purim, and ordered that it be a
perpetual holiday for all of history.
Just as Jesus established the Lord's supper as a perpetual
remembrance of His death, that Christians might never forget the source of
their salvation, so the feast of Purim is established that God's people might
never forget that for them history is a
comedy. No matter how dark or miserable
it gets, it will have a happy ending.
No matter how much you are
forced to weep, tears will not endure, for the story will end with
laughter. Will there be laughter in heaven? Just as certainly as there will be weeping
in hell.
Christopher Fry wrote an article in Vogue back in 1951 in
which he describes the dream a friend shared with him. He dreamed of a great book with a tragic
page and then a comic page. He turned
them with excitement to determine which the last page would be, for this would
reveal if the meaning of life was to be tragic or comic.
The final page contained 100
words and they were uproariously funny.
He awoke laughing. This is the message of Esther and Job, and
the book of Revelation. Comedy and
humor are not an escape from reality, but, rather, an escape into ultimate
reality and the Kingdom of faith. There
is salvation in a sense of humor. We are not talking about saving faith in the
sense of being granted eternal life. Faith in Jesus Christ alone is the only
faith that saves like that. A sense of
humor will not save anyone in this sense, but it will, and has saved millions
from the valley of pessimism and discouragement.
Carl Kassulke, the
Minnesota Viking star football player, who was paralyzed by a motor cycle
accident, told of his experience in the University of Minnesota hospital. He was always up to some prank, but one
night he threw a water balloon at one
of his roommates in the middle of the night.
The bed was drenched, and the
roommate returned the attack. A
near riot broke loose as half the floor was awakened. It was the greatest water fight he ever had, and they were all
crippled. He writes, "In view of
how easy it was to become depressed about our future‑ and there were moments of awful despair‑we
really needed some silliness in our lives."
Therapy was not enough. They needed the therapy of laughter and
humor to endure the battle. Suffering
is serious business, but if you take it too serious you become a frowning
skeptic and a scowling cynic. Even
suffering must be faced with a sense of humor to allow the healing of God to
take place.
Bob Hope, and dozens of other comedians have traveled millions
of miles to bring laughter to men in
the armed forces who faced death constantly.
This seems like a strange
paradox. Those in the gravest danger
laughing at silly jokes. Is this a sign
of man's depravity to be filled with laughter in the face of man's greatest
enemy? No! It is not. It is, in
fact, just the opposite. It is a sign
of mans being made in the image of God.
It is proof that that image, however marred by the fall, was not
demolished, but continues to shine even in fallen mankind.
A sense of humor in this war‑torn, sin‑scared
world is a testimony to the great Biblical truth that laughter will last
forever when all tears are wiped away.
If people are funny, it is because God is the author of humor, and he
has built humor into history so that we might see His smile and hear His
laughter even where He is not even
mentioned. Esther is notorious for
having no reference to God whatever. As we study the book we will see that this
is part of the fun of it all. It is
like Walt Disney's invisible man who can do all sorts of amazing things without
anyone seeing him. It becomes all the
more hilarious because he is apparently not there.
Esther seems like a totally secular story. There is nothing religious about it. There is no worship, no prayer, and no
reference to God, Scripture, or preaching.
If fasting was not in the book,
there would not be the slightest hint of anything religious. The funny thing about it is‑God is
more active in this book then where He is often mentioned. It is one of the most spiritual of all the
books of the Bible. And what makes it
so unique is, it is fun to study it because it is filled with humor‑the
humor of God's providence in history.
It is God's joke book revealing His sense of humor.
Judaism is an earthly religion, and so God's Old Testament
revelation of the humor of history ends with an earthly victory, and an earthly
feast with joy and laugher. In the New
Testament Jesus brings life and immortality to light through the Gospel, and so
we as Christians look at this same truth on a far higher level. We focus on the
great marriage supper of the Lamb as our goal, and basis for
optimism. Let us not forget, however, that we, like
the Jews, still need to live in time.
Therefore, we still need to grasp the practical and positive philosophy
of life God gave us through the book of
Esther. The spirit of optimism was in
Israel long before Esther, for it goes with faith. Everyone looked at Goliath and said, he is so big I can't mess
with him. But David said, he is so big
I can't miss him.
By faith in God the weak
challenge the strong and they win, and the heart is filled with laughter.
Christians can be a part of the problem instead of part of the
solution if they fail to develop a proper sense of humor. This is what happened to the Pharisees in
the time of Christ. They were godly and
sincerely religious people. They were
not a part of the answer, however, but a part of the problem, because they
lacked a sense of humor. They took
themselves too seriously. This type of
person always becomes a legalist. Every
T must be crossed just so. Every i must
be dotted just so. They make religion a
burden rather than a blessing like Jesus did.
Jesus had fun in living, and He was being supremely religious and
spiritual all the time. Jesus said His disciples did not fast because life
with Him was like a wedding reception where fasting was not appropriate. It was
a fun‑filled life of service with singing and rejoicing, and feasting was appropriate
because so many people were being saved, healed, encouraged and enriched.
The Pharisees did not like all of this light‑heartiness
connected with religion. They saw some rules being broken. Never mind that the man or woman who had
been a cripple or blind for life is now praising God with hilarious joy. The real issue for them was, are these
things appropriate on the Sabbath? No
sense of humor and no spirit of joy
that responds with laughter when evil is overcome and
outwitted by the forces of
good ever characterized the Pharisees.
All they cared about was being serious about every technicality of the
law. If you study history you will discover
this pattern repeating itself over and over again. When people cease to laugh, and take everything too seriously,
they do not develop true faith, but instead, they destroy it.
The Quamram community left us the Dead Sea Scrolls. They withdrew from life and became super‑serious legalist. Laughter and fun were banished. It is no wonder they became a dead end, and
ceased to exist as a channel God could use in history. Christians have tried this same route and
failed equally. The monasteries became places of fanatical
legalism where life was 100% serious
and solemn. Laughter was not only secular it was
sinful. If God had not raised up such
fun‑loving saints as Francis of Assissi, there would have been little of
value to come out of the millions of miserable man hours spent in mindless
obedience to man made rituals.
Any time you see a man or movement taking itself so serious it
cannot laugh at itself, you can be assured it has lost a key to balance, and
will likely go to an extreme, and cease
to be an effective tool for God. As a
teen‑ager I use to love to listen to that great Catholic preacher on TV‑Fulton
J. Sheen. He was easy for me to listen to because he was humorous. He was convinced Jesus came into this world
to teach men about the divine sense of humor.
H e wrote these words about Jesus‑ "Everything He said,
everything He did, could be summed up in these words: Nothing in this world is to be taken seriously, nothing except
the salvation of the soul. What shall
it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul."
The Pharisees took everything to seriously, and the result
was, they made religious faith about as
much fun as a one sided teeter totter.
The balance life will have ups and downs, for both sorrow and joy are
real and legitimate. The Pharisees lacked
balance and stressed only one side of the reality of life. Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian
said that Christianity has the most humorous view of life. Wise are those who see this and make sure
that humor
plays a major role in their
Christian life.
The cross was Satan's plot to destroy the Son of God. By it he hoped to eliminate the plan of God
to save man. This diabolic scheme
backfired and became instead the door
to its fulfillment, and the cause of his final defeat. The cross is a symbol of
joy and rejoicing because it is a symbol of the victory of good over evil. It is the ultimate symbol of the humor of
history.
If you saw a cartoon where huge tanks were sent out to do battle
with a rabbit, and you saw them coming
back defeated, you would laugh, for it would be ridiculous. The Bible is full of this humor. It is not only in Esther, but in the New Testament where the combined powers of
Rome and Judaism came together to keep a dead man in the tomb. The huge rock is sealed, the Roman guards
are in place, and yet the story ends with a dead man escaping. The resurrection
is God's delightful sense of
humor at its greatest. It reveals
that history, for the believer is a
comedy‑a story with a happy ending.
Dante called his greatest work The Divine Comedy because he had a
Biblical view of history, and he knew when God wrapped it all up it would have
a happy ending.
The message of the Bible is clear‑never give up, hang in
there however rough the battle, for the victory is certain, and in Christ we
will always have the last laugh. Eugene O'Neill captured this theme in his play
Lazarus Laughed. After His resurrection from the dead Lazarus says,
"I heard the heart of Jesus laughing in
my heart‑and I laughed in the laughter of God." He had lost all fear of death,
and the play ends with
Lazarus being threatened by the authorities, but he does not deny his Lord, but instead, he dies a
martyrs death, laughing. That is the
way all of God's children could die if they were fully aware of the humor of
history.
10. PROVIDENCE IN AMERICAN HISTORY Esther 10:1‑3
Great leaders are often providentially preserved from what
ought to have been certain death. This
happens before they rise to a level where they are a blessing to many people.
In the history of the Jews, Mordecai is one of these leaders. He came within minutes of being hung on a
gallows, and instead, became a powerful leader for the good of his people.You
can go to Iran yet today, and in Hamadan, North East of Baghdad, you will find
the tomb of Esther and Mordecai. Their
dark hardwood coffins stand side by side, and the Hebrew inscription craved
along the upper edge is Esther 10:3.
God's providential protection of Mordecai changed the course of history,
and the Jews have celebrated the event every year since, on the holiday called
Purim.
The fourth of July brings us to the place where we see history
repeating itself. We celebrate this day
for the same reason the Jews celebrate Purim.
It is a day of celebration for America, because God just as clearly
delivered our nation as He did the nation of Israel. It was a matter of providence, just as sure as that we see in the
book of Esther. As we look at it, we soon see why it is that history repeats
itself. It is because God just loves to
repeat a good story, and the stories of the weak conquering the strong, and the
simple outwitting the wise, are His favorites.
George Washington, the father of our country, was one of the
most godly leaders in history, and God's providence in his life has blessed all
Americans, just as that in Mordecai's life has blessed all Jews. We can't begin to share them all, but let me
give you a taste. In the battle of
Monongahela, Washington was a young officer in the Virginia Militia. In that battle this 23 year old officer had
two horses shot out from under him, and 4 musket balls passed through his
coat. The Indians, who were expert
marksmen, were so impressed with his survival that the chief prophesied he
would be a famous leader, for the Great Spirit protected him. The chief shared that with Washington
himself years later. Washington was not surprised, for he sensed the hand of
God on him also. He wrote to his
brother after the battle, "Death was leveling my companions on every side
of me, but by the all‑powerful disposition of providence, I have been
protected."
It was no accident that Washington with his weak, untrained,
and outnumbered frontier farmers whipped the strong, and well trained British
soldiers. They were the best army in
the world of that day. It is the most
common story of God's providence. It is
David and Goliath all over again. It is
Mordecai and Haman again. Haman is the
next most powerful man next to the king.
He had almost absolute power. If
he abused it, no questions were asked.
He could do as he pleased.
Mordecai, on the other hand, was a Jew, and had no power at all, in
comparison. It was like the 13 colonies
challenging the mighty power of England.
They didn't have a chance. But
the beauty of history is that it is not left to chance. God steps in, time and time again, and the
little guy wins.
By the providence of God, David won over Goliath, and went on
to become king of Israel. By the
providence of God Mordecai won over Haman, and went on to become a key leader
in Persia. By the providence of God
Washington led the 13 colonies to victory over the British, and went on to
become the 1st president of the United States.
It is not coincidence that the pattern keeps repeating itself in
history. It is providence, because it
is the way God loves to work, so we can see His hand in history.
Let me share another parallel between the providence in
Mordecai's life, and that in the life of Washington. Mordecai's life was spared because of some obscure servant
opening the book of records to the account of his saving the kings life. God has used books to change the course of
history for millions of people and many nations. We see it in Washington's life as well. The British had held Boston for a year and a half. They were secure there, with British ships
in the harbor. They were ready to blow
anyone off the map who dared to come near.
Washington, on the hillside over looking Boston, knew he did not dare to
even fire a shot. Washington went with
his officers to try and figure out a way to retake this key city. It seemed hopeless, and no idea stood a
chance of succeeding.
That night, Rufus Putnam, a young amateur engineer, was
passing by General Willis Heath's quarters, and decided to pay him a
visit. While there he saw a book on the
general's shelf on field engineering. That
discovery was a trivial thing, but it changed the course of history. In that book Putnam found plans designed by
the French for a defensive weapon that would eliminate the threat of the
British cannons. It was a large wood
frame filled with hundreds of bundles of tightly bound sticks and dirt. He ran to share this discovery with
Washington. He saw the value of it
immediately, and commanded 800 men to work through the night constructing
them. At dawn, the British were stunned
by what they saw. When the cannon balls
hit these barricades they bounced back doing no damage whatever. The Americans in one night neutralized the
enemies key weapon. Now the Americans
had the advantage, and so the British pulled out of Boston. Washington marched in taking the city
without the loss of a single life.
Was that stumbling across an idea in a book a mere accident,
or was it the providence of God? Those
who were there praised God. If there is
one word that stands out more than any other, when you read the history of the
Revolutionary War, it is the word providence.
It was in the vocabulary of nearly all who wrote of it. When Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson
drew up the draft of the Declaration of Independence, the congress insisted
that these words be added. "And
for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of
divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and
our Sacred Honor!" Those men who
signed the Declaration risked everything to do so. Many of them paid the price, and it was everything.
That is why the first vote was only 9 of the 13 colonies in
favor. The debate was hot and furious,
and good men differed greatly on their views of what was wise and right. They
needed a unanimous decision, and so the debate went on. There were many parallels with the conflict
we see in Esther. Haman hated Mordecai
and his religion. Britain hated the Americans for their religious liberty, and
for starting so many churches not loyal to the Church of England. British troops turned many of the churches
into barns for their horses, or bars and grog shops. The pews and pulpits were burned. More than 50 churches were totally destroyed, and many others
damaged severely. The spiritual
conflict played a major role, and those Americans who believed in religious
liberty were the ones who finally persuaded the others that the Declaration of
Independence had to be passed.
God worked in other providential ways, and when the next vote
was cast, it was 12 for and 1 abstaining.
It was unanimous, and the U. S. was born. The people of the colonies celebrated just like the Jews
celebrated Purim for their deliverance.
The Americans will celebrate the 4th of July until Christ comes again,
just as the Jews will celebrate Purim, for they both stand for the providence
of God in history.
John Adams, who fought for the Declaration, and later became
president of the U.S., wrote to his wife after it passed, and in that letter he
said of that day, "It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance,
by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.
It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games,
sports,
guns, bells, bonfires, and
illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time
forward and forevermore." That
sounds just like the words of Mordecai in chapter 9, where Purim is to be
celebrated by all Jews of all time forevermore.
As Americans we have experienced the providence of God just as
the Jews did in Esther. And as
Baptists, we have experienced a double dose.
Few Baptists realize it, but in the thirty year period from 1770 to
1800, when all the great events of the American Revolution took place, the
Baptists grew like wildfire. In that
short time they went from a place of relative obscurity to become the largest
denomination in America. Other churches
were dying, and in a state of decline, but when the Revolution was over the
Baptists had twice the number of people as the next largest denomination. In a very real sense, the birth of our
nation, and the birth of the Baptist denomination went hand in hand, and this
too was clearly providential.
The Baptists had only a handful of churches in the 13 colonies
in 1740. How did they grow so
fast? It was because Baptists were
democratic in their form of church government.
The very principles that were driving the colonies to seek independence
from the oppressive authority of England were already seeing in operation in
the Baptist church. Most all other
churches were run from the top down.
The people did not have the
freedom to decide. Many were
still run by the state church in England, and others by a powerful higher
hierarchy. The Baptists alone were free
and democratic. As American people felt
the need for freedom from political oppression, they felt it also in the realm
of religious oppression. New leadership
in the Baptist churches were sick and tired of mere survival within the Puritan
system. The Puritans did not allow for
religious liberty, but the Baptists became bold and aggressive, and were
determined that America would be the land of the free, where people could
worship with complete religious liberty.
Issac Backus, the Baptist leader in New England, began to
write tract after tract dealing with the folly of mixing the church and
state. People came to America to escape
that sort of thing in England and Europe.
They came here to get away from a state controlled church. He insisted that the state should have no
control over the church. The cry for
religious liberty within the colonies became the cause of Baptists. The
Baptists were the most consistent people in their longing for liberty, for they
wanted it, not only from England, but from the oppression in New England. Baptists were taxed in the colonies to
support the Puritan churches. They were
experiencing taxation without representation right here. The Baptists, therefore, had a war going on
two fronts. They fought for civil
liberty from England, and religious liberty within the colonies.
Roger Williams was the founder of the first Baptist church in
America. He didn't seem to have a
chance. The law was against him, and the
church was against him, and the political leaders were against him. It was the most spectacular trial in
American history to that point, when he was taken to court because of his fight
for religious liberty. He was found
guilty and sentenced to banishment.
Americans were not yet ready for such radical liberty, and they wanted
this man out of the country. Fourteen
men were hired to surprise him in the night, and drag him to a ship where he
would be carried into exile. Governor
Winthrop, who was his secret friend sent him a warning. He kissed his wife and new born baby, and
fled into a blinding snow storm. For weeks he survived without bread or any
weapon. He ate roots and nuts, and was
finally rescued by friendly Indians.
It was only by the providence of God that his life was spared,
and that is why when he established a permanent home he called it Providence,
Rhode Island. It was the first place on
earth where there was total religious freedom, and separation of church and
state. He founded the first Baptist
church of America there in 1639. His
marble statue stands in the Hall of Fame in the Capital building in Washington
D.C. More biographies of Roger Williams
have been written than of any other American next to Benjamin Franklin. What he did laid a foundation for religious
liberty for the rest of our history.
The Baptist church had a spirit of liberty, which gave it a
built in appeal for an nation ready to fight for liberty. Baptists were so clearly in tune with the
temper of the times that people began to regard the Baptists as the truly
American church. The result was,
people flocked to the church
of liberty, and the Baptists came through the Revolution, the largest
denomination in this new nation of liberty.
Ever since the Baptists have played a major role in the history of our
land. Samuel Francis Smith, a Baptist
pastor,
wrote one of our finest
patriotic hymns: My County Tis Of
Thee. Francis Bellamy, another Baptist
pastor, wrote The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Mark Watkinson, still another Baptist pastor, inspired the
Secretary of the Treasury in 1861 to get congress to approve putting, "In
God We Trust," on U. S. coins.
Baptists played a key role in getting the Bill of Rights into the
Constitution, and have been the major force in maintaining the separation of
church and state.
The point of all this history is to illustrate that we
celebrate the 4th of July for the same reason the Jews celebrate Purim. It is a day to look back and see the providence
of God in our history. It is a day to
recognize that we are a blessed people, because God does put His hand into
history and give victory to those who honor Him. It is great to be an American, but greater yet to be a Christian
of any land, for the greatest liberty of all is to be set free from the power
and penalty of sin. All other freedoms
are of little worth without freedom in Christ.
"If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed."