Grace Bible Church
Rick Kabrick
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Perhaps you should realize that you are here for just such a time as this. We will see that is what Esther needs to motivate her into action.
Cyrus: the Jews released by Royal decree from captivity to return to Jerusalem in 539 BC;
Darius I: the rebuilding of The Temple completed by 515 BC, Ezra goes to Jerusalem in 458 BC;
Ahuserus (Xerxes): the events of Esther, Mordacai, Esther and King Xerxes to deliver the Jews from their enemies and institution of Purim;
Artaxerxes I: He is the King to which Nehemiah is the cup bearer and allows him to go to Jerusalem in 445 BC become the governor there and rebuild the wall, which we have seen.
EST 4:13-14, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”
PSA 37:9-13, “For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.
ROM 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love GOD, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
The Lord Jesus Christ who controls the history contained in that tapestry.
ROM 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
The Queen was so prominent that, if she were allowed to rebel against the King without consequence, then other women might follow her example and would show contempt for the authority of their husbands. Of course the princes and others didn’t want that.
When such Royal decrees were made, they were recorded in the laws of the Empire, the chronicles, and then could not be altered.
Mordecai was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin.
Mordecai went everyday to pace in front of the court of the women’s quarters. There he sought to learn about Esther’s well being,
Esther’s turn to visit the King came four years after Vashti was deposed.
To celebrate the crowning of the new Queen, the King held a great feast for his officials and servants in her honor. He proclaimed a holiday and gave gifts to the people.
The King exalted Haman till he was above all the princes of all the provinces. In such a great Empire, this was a very exalted position.
Mordecai’s reason for refusing to bow was based on his religion and nationality as a Jew.
Nationality was the reason for his refusal to bow. Haman decided that, rather than just attempting to lay hands on Mordecai, he would attempt to destroy all the Jews in the whole empire.
Haman had everything, but it was not enough that he was honored with one of the highest positions one could have and have great favor with the King.
Haman’s downfall will be not getting over one little Jew who would not bow.
Many people cannot handle power without becoming proud and conceited.
Mordecai had proved his loyalty to the King. Yet the king will be willing to slay all the Jews because Mordecai did not satisfy Haman’s vanity.
When inspired men did such by God’s guidance, the result would be accurate. But here Haman appealed to his sources, which no doubt were false gods or probably astrologers or magicians.
The book of Esther shows that God watches over and cares for His people. We may suffer and be tried, but the final result will be for our good.
To achieve his goals Haman went to the King to obtain permission to slaughter the Jews. He stated some partial truths, but of course not the whole truth.
Evil people always pursue their goals by half-truths and false insinuations.
10,000 talents of silver would be about 350 tons!
1 Co 15:33 says, Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals.
We must be very careful of the influence people have on us and whose advice we take.
Had he alone been threatened for his conduct, that would have been one source of grief. But his conduct had led to a decree of destruction, not just against him or even against his whole family, but it was decreed against all Jews, everywhere.
When we face difficult circumstances, we may grieve that is normal, but ultimately we must trust God for deliverance from the problem.
God may show you the action to take, we must be willing to do it, not to sit on sidelines and watch.
All she could do was to look at the difficulties and see them as obstacles and then make excuses. And she actually had some good arguments and excuses.
Had any of us been in Esther’s place, we would no doubt have also been concerned about these problems. Yet it was also clear that such objections would not relieve her of her duty.