Through the Bible - Esther

Now it came to pass... after the death of Haman the king Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen, and Mordecai came before the king... And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. — from Esther

When the name of God is never spoken, His hand is still everywhere—Esther is the story of a soul, a spirit, and a flesh that must be destroyed.

A Great Story That Some Wanted Out of the Bible

When it comes to Bible stories, Esther is one of the all-time greats. You can read straight through it and not really need a commentary. Yet some throughout the years have debated whether this book belongs in the Bible at all, because Esther never mentions the name of God or the worship of the Almighty. They argue it only gives Jewish history without speaking much about God.

But if you've read it, I don't think you can miss the hand of God in this book. It's very clear how God works in it and through these characters. Like the books before it—1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah—Esther is a historical account. These things actually took place, around the 480s B.C., and we can find these characters even in secular histories like Josephus and Herodotus.

Written for Our Admonition

These accounts also have application for us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:11:

Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

That verse is like a cipher on the Old Testament. These things are not just neat bedtime stories; they were written to teach us and direct our lives as believers.

Esther is largely a story about a king and his queen. Over the last several weeks, the king has been the predominant picture, and allegorically the king speaks of the soul of man—the deciding power. When the king chose righteousness, the nation followed; when he chose wickedness, the nation went down toward destruction. As Paul says, if you sow to the flesh you reap corruption, but if you sow to the spirit you reap everlasting life.

Setting the Stage

After Solomon, Israel split. The northern ten tribes were carried off by Assyria, and about 150 years later Judah and Benjamin were carried into Babylon. But after 70 years of exile, Israel was restored, just as Isaiah promised. Right in the middle of Ezra and Nehemiah comes Esther. Though it sits after them in our Bibles, the events of Esther actually take place before Nehemiah's return, and they set the stage for the rebuilding of the wall.

The king here is not the king of Israel but Ahasuerus, king of the Persian Empire—the man secular history calls Xerxes. The book begins with Queen Vashti. In chapter 1, the drunken king—choosing the things of the flesh—calls his beautiful queen to parade her before his princes, apparently in an immoral way, and she refuses. His advisors fear that if the queen says no, all the women will say no to their husbands, so Vashti is put away. Vashti pictures the spirit of man—the one who would not go after the immoral things of this world, but who, like in Genesis, is separated and put off when man chooses the world.

Esther, Mordecai, and the Flesh

In chapter 2, another queen comes on the scene: a Jewish woman whose Hebrew name was Hadassah but whose Persian name was Esther. The king still desired a queen, so they gathered the most beautiful women in the empire to the palace at Shushan and gave them a full year of spa treatments—oils, pampering, everything imaginable—before each was brought before the king. Esther was raised by her cousin Mordecai after her parents died, and Mordecai pictures the Spirit of God in this book.

So we have the king (the soul), the queen (the spirit), and Mordecai (the Holy Spirit). But man does not only have a soul and a spirit—he also has the flesh. We meet the flesh in chapter 3:

After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite.

Notice "the Agagite." Back in 1 Samuel 15, God commanded King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites—who picture the flesh, descending ultimately from Esau—but Saul spared King Agag. Samuel finally killed Agag, but it appears a descendant escaped. Now, generations later, here is Haman the Agagite, a type and picture of the flesh, and one of the most prideful characters in all the Old Testament.

A Man Who Would Not Bow

The king exalted Haman above all the princes—the advisors closest to him. When you exalt the flesh, you know exactly what it leads to: destruction. The flesh wars against the spirit, so who will Haman war against? Esther, Mordecai, and the Jewish people.

And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman... But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.

The Holy Spirit will not bow to the flesh. In the presence of God, no flesh shall be justified; no flesh can stand. When the servants asked Mordecai why he transgressed the king's command, he told them he was a Jew—he would bow only to the one true God. When Haman saw it, he was full of wrath, and he sought to destroy not only Mordecai but all the Jews throughout the kingdom.

Before we leave chapter 3, look back at chapter 2:

And the king loved Esther above all the women... so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

See the correlation: you and I have received grace and favor in the King's sight, and He has placed upon us a crown of righteousness—not because of anything great in us. Esther was lovely in form and in character, and the king delighted to make her queen.

Haman's Plot

Haman is so consumed by this one man who will not bow that all his wealth and honor avail him nothing. He goes to the king and says a certain people, scattered through the realm, refuse the king's commandments. He even offers to pay for their destruction out of his own pocket. The king gives Haman his signet ring, and a decree goes out: on the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar, all the Jews are to be killed and their goods plundered. Haman even casts lots to choose the day.

When Mordecai hears of it, he tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and ashes, and mourns at the king's gate. Esther sends him a change of clothing, but he refuses. Through her servant she learns of the decree, but there is a problem: no one may approach the king unless summoned, and to come uninvited is death—and she has not been called for thirty days.

Then Mordecai speaks perhaps the most memorable words of the book:

Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place... and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther replies: gather the Jews to fast for me three days and nights, and I and my maidens will fast also.

So will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

The Third Day and the Banquet

Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court...

I think you can see the importance of the third day here. The king holds out his golden scepter, she touches its top, and again she obtains favor. He offers her up to half the kingdom. But Esther only asks that the king and Haman come to a banquet she has prepared—a banquet in Haman's honor. Haman believes himself the king's golden boy: now even the queen wants to celebrate him.

At the banquet the king presses her again for her petition, but Esther only invites them to a second banquet the next day. We don't fully know why she waited; perhaps she perceived it was not yet the right time, stirred by the Holy Spirit. Haman goes out joyful—until he sees Mordecai at the gate, still refusing to rise. At home he boasts of his riches, his children, and his promotion, yet says:

Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

The flesh is never satisfied. His wife Zeresh and his friends counsel him to build a gallows fifty cubits high and hang Mordecai on it before going merrily to the banquet. The plan pleased Haman, and the gallows was built.

God Intervenes in a Sleepless Night

On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles...

There it was found written how Mordecai had once exposed two of the king's chamberlains who plotted to assassinate him—back in chapter 2, Mordecai had heard the plot and warned the king through Esther, and the men were put to death. But nothing had ever been done to honor Mordecai. The king asks who is in the court, and at that very moment Haman has just arrived to ask permission to hang Mordecai.

The king asks Haman, "What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" Haman, certain the king means him, answers grandly: bring the royal apparel, the crown, and the king's horse, and parade the man through the city. The king replies:

Make haste... and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate.

So Haman must lead Mordecai through the streets, proclaiming his honor. He hurries home mourning, his head covered. His wife and wise men warn him: if Mordecai is of the Jews, you will not prevail but surely fall before him. While they are yet speaking, the king's chamberlains arrive to bring Haman to Esther's second banquet.

The Flesh Destroyed

At the banquet the king again asks Esther's petition, and now she answers:

Let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.

Notice her grace: had they merely been sold into slavery, she would have held her tongue. The king demands to know who would presume such a thing, and Esther answers, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." The king rises in wrath and goes into the garden. In his terror Haman falls upon the couch where Esther reclines just as the king returns, who cries, "Will he force the queen also before me in the house?" They cover Haman's face. Then a chamberlain points out the gallows Haman built for Mordecai, and the king says, "Hang him thereon." So they hanged Haman on his own gallows, and the king's wrath was pacified.

As we saw with the Amalekites in 1 Samuel, the only way to deal with the flesh is to utterly destroy it. You can never appease it; it is never satisfied. Haman had riches, glory, and an exalted seat, yet one man's refusal to bow ruined it all. The principle stands: we must destroy the flesh, or it will destroy us.

Reversal and the Feast of Purim

The king gives Haman's house to Esther, and Mordecai receives the signet ring; Esther sets him over Haman's house. Because the law of Persia could not be reversed—not even by the king—Mordecai is given authority to write a new decree. On the very day Haman appointed for the Jews' destruction, the 13th of Adar, the Jews are now permitted to gather and defend themselves against any who attack them.

The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities... to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people.

Relying on the word of Mordecai, the people stood against their enemies. This event established the Feast of Purim, the Jewish holiday celebrated around March or April, commemorating the day the Jews stood against those who came against them.

The Hidden Hand of God

You can see the correlation Paul speaks of: the battle between the flesh (Haman) and the spirit (Mordecai and Esther), with the king—the soul—as the deciding power. God has given you and me free will. As Moses told Israel, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life." As Joshua said, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." We choose daily whether to sow to the flesh or to the Spirit. If you exalt Haman, he will destroy the spiritual life and vitality the Holy Spirit has given you.

To those who say Esther shouldn't be in the Bible because God is never named—do you see His hand? It just so happened that Mordecai overheard the assassination plot; that his cousin became queen; that the king could not sleep the very night before Esther would plead for her people; that the servant read at exactly that place; that Haman was in the court at that very moment. As Paul told the Romans:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

That doesn't mean all things are good things. Esther was torn from her family; an entire people was marked for death. Those were not good things. But God is able to work all things together for good. Looking back, hindsight is 20/20—and one day in heaven we'll see clearly that God knew what He was doing. The sun shines on the just and the unjust; we will all face trials. But the believer's joy is to look back and see that God had a plan.

Why Job Comes Next

It's striking that Esther precedes Job, where again there is sometimes no answer given for the trials people face—things happening outside time and space that we do not understand. Job's suffering came because of a discussion between God and Satan that Job knew nothing about. There may be things happening in your life tonight that you cannot explain, but there is a reason. God has a plan, and ultimately it is for our good—our eternal good, not merely our temporal good.

Consider Nehemiah 2:6: "the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him)." There's a very good possibility that queen sitting beside Artaxerxes is Esther—which would explain why the king knew about the Jews and their work in Jerusalem. See how God prepares and readies things.

The Problem of Pain

God does not desire that we live eternally here. Part of why our bodies break down, I believe, is that God is making sure we don't want to stay here forever. It's the same reason He gave Israel manna every day for forty years in the wilderness—He didn't want them comfortable enough to stay.

One of the greatest objections raised against Christians is the problem of pain. No other religion deals with it the way we must, because we believe in a God who is both all-powerful and all-loving. The philosophers ask: if God is all-powerful, He could prevent evil; if He is all-loving, He would want to—so why is there suffering? Muslims don't face this because they believe in an all-powerful God who is not all-loving.

But there's a flaw in the question. It assumes this world is the world God intends as His best. He has created another world, where He will wipe away every tear, where there is no more sorrow and no more pain. That is the very world the humanist longs for—yet he calls our God untrue because he assumes this life is God's best. This isn't His best; this is what He is using to prepare us for His best. And all things ultimately do work together for good.

Closing Prayer

God, I thank You for the testimony of this book, the book of Esther. I pray that You would help us take from it these truths we've considered tonight, and that You would help us to see, even in the difficulties we might be facing right now or will face tomorrow or next year, that You still have a plan and that this world is not all there is. Those who believe such things declare plainly that we seek a city, a country whose builder and maker is God. We don't want to be here for eternity, Lord. I look forward to the day—and I'm sure my brothers and sisters do as well—when we'll stand before You, when we'll see You and be like You, in Your kingdom and in Your presence, where there is fullness of joy. We look forward to that day, and so we pray: Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.