Who’s Your Daddy? | Sunday, June 20, 2021

Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace... So it was when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court that she found favor in his sight and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter... And the king said to her, "What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you up to half the kingdom." ... Then Esther answered and said, "...let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said." (Esther 5:1–8)

How a backslidden people in captivity rediscovered courage—and what their spiritual heritage teaches us about facing fear with faith.

A Father's Day Word to Dads

Happy Father's Day, Cross Connection. I'm Pastor Mark, and Pastor Miles has asked me to sit in and teach from the book of Esther, chapter 5. There are some real nods to Father's Day here and to the spiritual heritage we're meant to pass along.

To you dads, know that you have a very important job. The most important ministry we men have, when we're married, is to our wives and to our children. What a valuable thing it is to have a father involved in your life who loves the Lord and follows the Lord.

The Background of Esther's Crisis

What we've seen so far is that Esther is called into the position of queen through an astonishing series of events. Near the beginning of her queenship, a character named Haman enters the scene. Haman is an Agagite, and he carries a hatred for Mordecai—Esther's uncle—and for the Jews as a whole.

Haman launches a plot to get the king to sign off on killing all the Jews in the 127 provinces of Persia. The king consents, almost without thinking, and then they sit down to a drinking party. Scripture says the people were in confusion, perplexed as to how this all came about.

Esther, who had been undercover as a Jew at Mordecai's instruction, is now placed in a position where she must reveal her identity to the king. The order he signed is also her death sentence. This is a supernatural, spiritual problem, and she begins to prepare in a spiritual and supernatural way—entering days of fasting, asking the people of God to fast with her, even her maids fasting alongside her. She is drawing very close to the Lord.

Where Their Courage Came From

How did two people—fourth-generation captives in Persia, far removed from Israel, even a bit backslidden in the call to return—suddenly become so in touch with their faith and with God? Where did they draw from?

I believe much of the answer is their spiritual heritage. The Jewish people were faithful about writing things down and passing down traditions and Scripture. They recited the Shema three times a day, from childhood into adulthood, to be reminded of who they were and where their hope came from. They also erected stones of remembrance, so that when their children's children passed by and saw the stack of stones, the people could give an account of the great thing God had done in that place. They remembered their heritage even when they weren't fully obedient to it. It was who they were.

One story these two surely remembered is Deuteronomy 25:17–19—how the Amalekites attacked from the rear, taking advantage of the weakness of God's people, showing no respect or reverence for God. Israel was told never to forget it, that God would always remember, and that the Amalekites would eventually be wiped from the earth. And here they are dealing with Haman, a descendant of that very tribe.

We Remember What Matters

My old pastor once asked me whether people had forgotten about 9/11, saying he'd read that folks moved on fairly quickly. My response was that we were still mad about December 7th. We hadn't forgotten Pearl Harbor—it was part of our history, passed on to me as a child. We remember things that are important to us, history repeated and taught to us when we're young.

One of the most important things we do as a church is Sunday school. I didn't grow up in an overtly religious home, but my parents respected God and his people, and they took me to a local Lutheran church—St. Mark's, in the Encinitas area, I believe. At five years old, I couldn't tell you the lessons. But here's what I carried with me: Jesus was the good guy, the devil was the bad guy, Jesus went to the cross for our sins, Jesus was the Son of God—and I got a really great snack, in a place where people loved me.

Those seeds were planted and proved so important as I became an adult and searched for answers. So I want to congratulate you dads who have poured time into your children and encouraged your wives in teaching them the Scriptures. While it may seem children forget, those lessons are implanted, and they never truly forget them. That's part of a spiritual heritage—it gives us a baseline to remember.

Approaching the King

Esther's situation is dire and very real—this is not fake news. But we also know God is faithful. Esther and Mordecai enter this without knowing how it will end. They have to trust God and do the right thing. It's a powerful lesson.

What's transpired is that Esther must engage the king in conversation, and this is no small thing. It was well known that you didn't just go and bother the king. He was probably the most powerful man in the world, with influence over much of the known earth and virtually no oversight. If you approached him uninvited and he did not extend the golden scepter, the result was the death penalty. So it was no small leap of faith for her to come before him.

Spiritual Problems Need Spiritual Methods

Esther was prepared for a spiritual problem. She didn't just blurt out her request when the scepter was extended; she had a plan—one I believe she received as she sat before the Lord, fasting and waiting. Spiritual problems need spiritual methods. We cannot tackle spiritual problems with merely practical wisdom.

As I've told my own children again and again: you do not get biblical results without biblical methods. Fasting puts everything else to the side and concentrates you on being in God's presence. He sees the earnestness of your plea, the sacrifice, and you waiting on him intently. Drawing close to God in the best way you can—because you expect an answer—engages the Lord.

So much in the world is designed by our enemy to rob our attention off our mission and off God. Through our phones, iPads, televisions, and podcasts, there are countless things meant to draw us away and make us worry—almost as if a force were trying to convince us that God was losing.

The Lie That God Is Losing

Look at the news. We're in Pride Month, and that's discouraging, because we know it isn't a healthy attitude toward what is sin—it's not good for the nation, not good for those celebrating it, and it ends in disaster. We see the trans movement rammed at us, divisive politics, fear of sickness and world events—all designed to take our trust and turn it into worry, eroding our faith little by little so that, even for a minute, we might compromise a standard.

But the truth is that the things being broadcast so loudly are a minuscule percentage of what's actually going on. God is in control. We know how the story ends: God wins. We go to be with our Lord and Savior, and Jesus is coming back. That's why we hold an optimistic view and hope for the future—because of the return of Christ. Esther and Mordecai are tapping into that same spiritual heritage, trusting that God will ultimately win, even though they don't know how or what part they play.

Timing, Focus, and Knowing Your Opponent

Esther's actions show that timing and focus are everything. I fish—it's part of my family's heritage. One of the greatest experiences I've had is fishing far off the coast of Mexico for cow tuna over 200 pounds. You can always spot an inexperienced angler: the moment that line peels out, he sets the reel into gear and yanks back as hard as he can out of excitement. But timing is everything. The experienced fisherman slowly brings the reel into gear, lets the big fish pick up the slack, and lets the circle hook do its work. That takes insight, patience, and trust in the method. That's what we see in Esther.

She's been given insight into the two men she's dealing with—her husband the king, and Haman the adversary. King Ahasuerus, as we've read, has a weakness for beautiful women; he has upwards of 600 wives. He also loves to drink. He's a womanizer and a boozer—a "waboozer," if you will. So much drinking drives these conversations, and his decisions don't reflect much wisdom because he's driven by indulgence. Esther knows this and uses it.

When she showed up in the royal court that day, it took real faith—she had not seen the king in over 30 days, and he had a bad reputation for how he treated his queens. If she ran afoul of him, she'd be looking for a new job, so to speak.

A Royal Weakness Across the Generations

Interestingly, Proverbs 31:1–5 records a mother's warning to her son, King Lemuel:

The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him: What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.

She saw the danger of women and wine for a leader. Years later, King Ahasuerus struggles with the very same things. And consider his phrase, "I'll give you up to half my kingdom"—an idiom, an expression. The very same language appears years later in Mark 6, when King Herod, at a banquet flowing with wine, was so pleased by the dance of Herodias's daughter that he offered her up to half his kingdom.

Herodias, guilty because John the Baptist had called out her unlawful marriage to Herod, prompted her daughter to ask for John's head on a platter. This grieved Herod, who feared John's following, but he was caught by his own rash promise and had to follow through. It became part of his demise—an arrogant, proud man who fancied himself king of the Jews but was nothing more than a Roman puppet, undone by giving himself to women and drink. It's a very old problem, and we see its effect even on kings.

Setting the Trap for Haman

Haman's issue was pride and arrogance, and Esther knew exactly how to pump him up. She set up a banquet of wine and invited only the king and his number-two man. Because Haman was prideful, this private invitation flattered him—and then she did it a second time.

I can't tell you why it took two banquets; perhaps one day we'll ask Esther. I can only imagine that, having spent time with the Lord, she was listening for cues and waiting on supernatural knowledge to know what to do. She knew Haman's weak spot was pride, and Haman fell for it.

So Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai... "Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet." And this thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows made. (Esther 5:9–14)

The Sickness of Haman

After reading this, I thought, "This guy has a problem." I actually called a friend who's a mental health professional, asked her to read the end of Esther 5, and she texted back a link on narcissistic personality disorder—"Oh, definitely." Haman fits the bill. He has an inflated view of his own importance; the reality of his life can't conquer the vision he has of himself, to the point of sickness.

Haman is second in command of the largest nation of his time. He has power, riches, children, and respect everywhere he goes—except from Mordecai. Yet because one man will not bow, all his blessings go out the window. His very name, Haman, translates as "the magnificent." He was very in love with himself. He had everything, but he had lost his soul.

It begs the question: was Haman really fighting Mordecai, or was he struggling with God? His hatred for the Jews is supernatural—you can't conjure that up on your own. He seems to think that if he can eliminate this man, or all the Jews, he can somehow eliminate God's influence over his life and stop fighting God. As Jesus asked in Mark 8:36, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Haman is exactly that man.

Bad Counsel and a Tainted Heritage

Look at Haman's counselors. The wording suggests his friends were magicians or wise men, engaged in black magic or sorcery. He surrounds himself with like-minded people giving him advice that is certainly not from God.

Then there's his wife, Zeresh—an important character. She, too, has a spiritual heritage. Her father appears to be Tatani, who shows up in the book of Ezra as a Jew-hater and discourager, trying to hinder the rebuilding and reforming of Israel. Some commentaries suggest Zeresh herself was a sorceress—a real witch. Her advice is tainted, ungodly, and counter to God. She tells her husband to murder an innocent man and then go merrily on his way to the banquet. She's under the influence of something, and it is not the Lord. And, as we'll later see, she already senses her husband is going to lose; her counsel ultimately lacks any wisdom.

A New Way to Kill a Savior

I enjoy reading Jewish commentaries on this, since it's a Jewish story. One commentator points out that Zeresh needed to invent a new way to kill a Jewish deliverer. Look at how God's people have always been targeted: Pharaoh couldn't kill Moses by the sword, nor could forty years in the desert. Joseph's imprisonment didn't kill him—he came back stronger. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego couldn't be burned in the furnace. Daniel wasn't eaten by the lions.

So the gallows appears here, suggested because the other methods failed. It was about 50 cubits high—some seventy-plus feet—and would look like a toothpick with an olive. They would impale the victim over the point and apply pressure. It was a horrendous, graphic death, designed to strike fear and warn people never to run afoul of the king. This was Zeresh's answer for an innocent man—followed by, "then go merrily to the banquet."

The Ultimate Narcissist

Where does all this narcissism and cruelty come from? The ultimate narcissist, the one who truly suffers from this disorder, is the devil. Lucifer's history with God is that he wanted to be worshipped. He craved glory that belonged to God. He had an inflated view of his own beauty and value that didn't match reality.

My old pastor used to say the devil always overplays his hand. As the story continues, that's exactly what happens with Haman, under the devil's influence. We know how this story ends. And we know how our story ends—with the triumphant return of Christ.

When I imagine Mordecai and Esther in this moment, they don't know exactly how it will end. God can be victorious whether they survive or not. They move forward only in the knowledge of God's greatness, goodness, and—most importantly—his covenant with his people. They walk by faith in a very real situation, facing real fear, where they would be exterminated if the edict were carried out.

Choose Faith Over Fear

How does this affect us today? We're living in a world where, as I said, we know how this ends. The Bible tells us it ends with the triumphant return of Christ and his victory. His promise is that he will never leave us nor forsake us, that he is always aware of our suffering and our challenges. We need only to honor him, spend time with him, and give him the attention, respect, and love he is due—not in robotic obedience, but in a love relationship through Jesus Christ.

So I would encourage you: choose faith over fear. Do not buy the lies of the enemy. So many have gone before us through far deeper valleys than what we see on the news. As for me and my house, we will choose to follow the Lord.

God bless you, Cross Connection. I pray you have a great week in Christ, that you see many victories, conquer fear and distraction, and honor the Lord in great victory. God bless you.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord, we thank you that you are our heavenly Father. As we look into the Scriptures, the story of your people, we see how you keep your promises and intend to keep your covenant, and how you use imperfect people to do this perfect work. We're thankful that we can relive this story and learn lessons from it. Be with us, send your Holy Spirit to guide us, lead us, and teach us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.