The Hero Behind the Hero
Grant van Boeschoten
December 2, 2007
Our message today comes from the book of Esther and the main character is the Hero behind the Hero, Mordecai.
Mordecai was born into captivity. He was a Jew living in Persia, in the city of Susa. Mordecai’s cousin’s Jewsish name was Hadassah, her Persian name was Esther. Esther was orphaned as a little girl and so Mordecai adopted her and treated her as his own daughter.
The name Esther means “Star”, but the Jewish name Hadassah means the two words “lovely” and “beautiful”. When you put those two words together in the Jewish culture you find that they mean “exceedingly beautiful” which was a very good description of Esther.
Mordecai and Esther lived under the rule of King Ahaseurus, (ah has you EH rus). In your Bible it might say Xerxes, but that is simply the greek translation of the word Ahaseurus.
King Ahaseurus was a man of passion who made his decisions in an instant, sometimes with very little foresight. He ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia and the Pride that was in his heart was evident to everybody.
The story begins with King Ahaseurus throwing a feast, which could be accurately described as a 7 Day Drinking Party. When the King was good and drunk he ordered that his queen Vashti be brought to him so that he could put her on display in front of all of his friends.
Vashti denied the Kings request and the result was that she was removed from her position as Queen. A search began across the land of Persia for all of the beautiful young ladies. These ladies would be added to the King’s Harem, and from them the next Queen would be chosen.
The guards began to look all over the land for the beautiful ladies, and Mordecai and Esther saw that the writing was on the wall. She was going to be added to the Kings harem whether she liked it or not.
But before the guards came to collect her, Mordecai had a very important instruction for his adopted daughter, “Don’t tell anyone that you are a Jew, and if anyone asks, don’t even tell them who your family is. Keep it a secret.”
The guards came and Esther was taken into the harem of King Ahaseuras. When she arrived she was put under the care of a eunuch by the name of Hegai (HEG igh). Esther found favor with Hegai and he provided her with cosmetic treatments, the best portion of foods, and the best place in the harem.
The Bible uses the word Favor to describe how Hegai looked at Esther. It also uses the word favor to describe how God looks at his chosen people. In the Old Testament that was the Jews and in the New Testament that is the Church.
The word favor can accurately be described as “Loyal Love”. Do you know that this is the way that God looks at you if you are a Christian? He has loyal love for you. It does not waver, it does not depend on your actions, and it is loyal to a fault.
Favor is loyal love. When you find somebody who has that kind of love for you it is a wonderful thing. The best families have loyal love operating on all levels. The best Churches treat each member with loyal love.
Favor is one of the best gifts that God gives to us. He loves us, his people, and his love towards us is loyal. It is consistent; it is yesterday today and tomorrow. God’s love towards us is something that we can count on day in and day out.
Esther found favor in the eyes of Hegai, the Eunuch, and she was promoted to the best place in the Harem with the best food, and the best cosmetics and 7 maids to attend to her every need. But she did not reveal to anyone that her father was Mordecai or that she was a Jew.
The amount of time that a women was in the harem before ever seeing the King was 12 months. That gave her 6 months to be treated with oil & myrrh, and 6 months to be treated with perfumes and cosmetics. Esther spent her year of preparation and then it was her turn to meet the King.
Here is where the story gets just a little bit R rated. So I am going to do what the Bible does and spare you the details. The bottom line is that King Ahaseurus really, really liked Esther.
He liked her so much that he made her queen and he gave everyone the day off work. Seriously, King Ahaeurus proclaimed a national holiday and held a feast that he called “Esther’s Banquet.” He put the royal crown on her head and now the beautiful Esther was Queen Esther.
Mordecai was doing pretty well for himself too. Shortly after Esther became Queen, we hear of Mordecai’s position of power at the Kings Gate. This was the official place for business, and from that place Mordecai could also keep himself in the loop with his daughter, Esther.
It was in that place at the gate where Mordecai learned of an assassination attempt against the King. 2 Eunuchs were really upset, and I suppose that if I was a eunuch I might be upset too. (A unique is a man that has been operated on so that he is no longer able to reproduce. These were the men that guarded the kings ladies, they had the King’s trust because of their physical limitations.)
So these physically limited eunuchs made a plan to kill the King and when Mordecai caught wind of it he immediately told Esther.
Esther passed the information on to the King and an investigation was launched. When Mordecai’s report was found to be true, both of the eunuchs were hung and Mordecai’s name was entered into the books of the official history of the King.
This event almost seems like a side note in the book of Esther, but it plays a huge role in the later stages of the book.
That is how it is in life some times. All that you are doing is being obedient to God, but that act of obedience sets you up for victory later in life. The key is to be obedient in everything that you do, and your life can be wonderfully used by God.
After this event happened a certain man was promoted in the Kingdom by the name of Haman. He was placed in the powerful position of Prime Minister, he answered only to the King.
The King thought so highly of Haman that he commanded the servants at the palace gate to bow down in respect every time that Haman passed through. Everyone obeyed the King’s orders except for one man, Mordecai.
We are not exactly sure why Mordecai was disobedient in this regard. This was not an issue of Mordecai breaking the first commandment by bowing down to an idol instead of God. There are many other recorded instances of Jews bowing in respect to authority.
Some scholars have speculated that the reason Mordecai would not bow down had to do with the family that he was from and the family that Haman was from. If you trace there ancestry back you find two feuding families, and it is possible that this feud was the reason why Mordecai would not show respect to Haman.
The other servants asked Mordecai what his problem was, “Why won’t you bow down to Haman?” They reported his actions to Haman saying that “Mordecai the Jew won’t bow down to you.”
This really got under Haman’s skin. He hated that Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him. He hated it so much that he wanted to go out and kill Mordecai himself, the only thing that stopped him was his pride.
Haman was so full of himself that he thought it too low to go and kill Mordecai, and so he devised a plan that would see Mordecai and all of his people killed.
How many of you know, that Pride is a very dangerous thing.
• It causes you to think illogically,
• It takes away your compassion for mankind
• It allows you to lose your better judgment.
• Pride opens you up to manipulation.
Proverbs 11:2 (NLT)
2 Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Haman knew about how highly King Ahaseurus thought about himself. He knew that the King was a proud man, and that if Haman were to play to his pride, he could manipulate that king to act against his better judgment.
And so Haman said to the King, “There is a certain people scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the Kings laws, so that it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the King’s treasury.”
King Ahaseurus is thinking to himself, how anyone dare defy my laws. How dare any people live in my kingdom and ignore my own decrees.
He didn’t stop to consider if Haman was telling the truth and he didn’t even bother to ask who these people were. He was just so upset at the disrespect being shown to him that he took off his ring and gave it to Haman as a sign of authority.
That ring was like a blank cheque to go out and do whatever it was that Haman deemed necessary to solve the problem.
Haman proceeds to write a law stating that on the 13th day of the 12th month everyone who lived in the Kingdom of Persia could attack, murder, loot and plunder all Jews in the land. There was incentive throughout the decree, because you got to keep all of the goods from any Jews that you killed.
The law would result in nothing short of a holocaust, the extermination of the Jewish people. As it was sent out across the land the King and Haman casually sat down to enjoy a drink together.
When Mordecai learned about the new law he tore his clothes and put on sack cloths and ashes and he went out into the city wailing with a loud voice and a bitter cry. He went all the way up to the King’s gate, because no one could go pass that point wearing sack cloth.
Queen Esther saw what her adopted Father Mordecai was doing and she was heart broken. She sent down some fresh clothes for him to wear, but he refused them. She sent down a messenger to find out what the problem was, and he sent back the letter that Haman had written and signed with the Kings ring of authority.
He sent this message back with the letter to Esther, “Our people the Jews have been sold for a price. Now go to the King and beg for our salvation.”
Esther read the letter and listened to what Mordecai was asking her to do, she sent back this message to him.
“There is one law that affects everyone in the land the same, it affects the slave, the beggar, the priests and it affects me the Queen. If anyone appears before the King without being called they will be put to death. Only if the King holds out his scepter to someone that person may live.”
And then she goes on to explain the severity of her situation to Mordecai, “I myself have not been called into the king for 30 days.”
Now, if you are married to somebody and they forget about you, or put you off, or don’t want to see you for 30 days, you might be able to say that there is a breach in the relationship. Esther hadn’t seen her husband for 30 days.
Maybe they had a fight. Maybe he was annoyed with her for some reason. Maybe she burnt his toast. I don’t know exactly what the reason was, but Esther was not in the Kings good books. She was scared that if she appeared before him uncalled that she would be put to death.
Mordecai gets the message from Esther and immediately replies with some necessary perspective. Some times perspective is really important in life by the way.
Sometimes you get so caught up in a situation that you fail to see the big picture.
• Maybe you form a strong bias in a relationship and you need some perspective from someone who’s not emotionally involved as you are.
• Maybe you have been working on a project so long that it has taken over your life and you don’t even know it.
• Maybe you are immersed in a culture that is pulling you away from God and you need some godly perspective to snap you out of that way of living and that destructive way of thinking.
Esther needed some perspective because all she was thinking about was herself, and there was a bigger picture at play.
Esther 4:13-14 (NLT)
13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed.
14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
That is perspective for you. It’s wisdom. It’s advice from a father to a daughter that changed the course of a nation. It took guts to say it, and it might have even been something that Esther didn’t want to hear.
What Mordecai did was heroic though, because it caused somebody else to rise to heroic measures. He inspired Esther, he lifted her up, he caused her to see God’s plan for her life, and his words left a mark.
Esther called a 3 day fast for all of the Jews living in Susa, which is where she lived. That gave her time to come up with a plan and it gave the Jews time to call out to God for help.
On the third day Esther dressed herself up and started the journey of a lifetime towards the King’s throne. Ahaseurus sat on the throne in his hall, and from far across the room in the inner court he sees the beautiful Esther.
AS SOON as he sees her he holds out his scepter and pardons her life. Esther breathes a sigh of relief, approaches her husband, touches his scepter and he says to her, “What is it Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.”
Can I just pause the story right here to say that prayer works. Prayer is for real, it gets the attention of God and he acts with favor towards those that he loves. God’s love towards you can be described as loyal, and he watches your life with great interest and anticipation. When you pray, you have a Father who here’s you.
So Always Pray, and Never Give Up, because you have the attention of God Almighty.
Back to the story, the King told Esther that she could have whatever she wanted and she replies, “All that I want is for you, my darling husband, and Prime Minister Haman to come to a special banquet that I have prepared for you.”
Haman is sent for and he and the king go to Esther’s Banquet. They eat and they drink and the King asks Esther again, “What is your petition? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.
Esther replies, “If I have your favor then please come back with Haman for another Banquet tomorrow night and then I will tell you what this is all about.”
Haman leaves that Banquet feeling pretty awesome about himself. “What a stud I am, I’m Prime Minister, I’ve got the king’s ring of authority and even his wife likes me. Life is good.” And as Haman is walking home he goes through the gate and everyone bows down to him to show respect, everyone that is except for Mordecai.
And Haman is suddenly not very happy at all. I mean, if he was living today a doctor might prescribe a prescription for bipolar disease because one moment he was on top of the world and the next he was so mad at Mordecai that he couldn’t even think about those good things anymore.
He gets home and his wife can see that something isn’t right. “What’s wrong Hammy?” she says.
And he goes into his spiral of despair. “The queen makes this awesome feast and nobody is invited but the King and I, and she even invited us back for another banquet tomorrow.
Yet all of this does me no good so long as I see the Jews Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.
Now, before we go on with the story here I think that we need to pause and learn a lesson from our friend Haman. Human nature sinks to it’s lowest level at all times. It is a roller coaster of emotions, it is unstable and it cannot be relied on. In the Bible it is referred to as the flesh.
Romans 7:5 (NRSV)
5 While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
When your flesh is in control of you, life is unstable and eventually will lead to death.
The alternative of course is to let God be in control of you. When situations and relationships around you become unstable you don’t have to become unstable yourself. You can hang on to the words and promises of God in the Bible which is a strong constant Rock in life.
God’s character is that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If you want to find balance and stability in life then look no farther than God. He is the only true stable thing that there ever was and ever will be.
Haman, unfortanatly, was not relying on God. He was being controlled by his flesh and he was in a rather precarious emotional state. Life was great, but man did he ever hate Mordecai.
His wife had a real bright idea for him. She said, “Build a gallows 75 feet tall and then bright and early tomorrow morning you can go to the King and ask him to hang Mordecai. That way when you go to the Banquet all your problems will be behind you.
The advice pleased Haman, and so he had the gallows made.
During that very same night the King was having difficulty falling asleep, and so he gave orders for the history books on his life to be brought out and read to him.
The story about Mordecai came up when the books were being read, how he caught wind of an assassination attempt against the King and how on the words of Mordecai an investigation was launched and the King’s life was saved.
The King said, “What honor was given to Mordecai for his actions, have we given him the distinction that he deserves?”
This of course was all happening outside of the knowledge of Prime Minister Haman. He had Mordecai on his mind as well, but he was hoping to have him hanged instead of honored.
He came into the courtyard to seek an audience with the King with the special request on his mind, so the King’s servants told Ahaseurus that Haman was there. “Bring him to me,” the King said and they let Haman into the throne room.
“Haman,” the King asked, “What should be done for the man whom the King wishes to honor?”
And Pride takes over Haman once again. His brain immediately jumps to the conclusion that the King must be talking about him, I mean, who else could he ever possibly want to honor.
And so Haman dreams up the perfect way for the King to honor him, it involves wearing the king’s royal robes, and riding the King’s royal horse and having a messenger lead the horse throughout the city yelling, “This is what the King does for the man that he honors.”
Truly, this was a great idea that Haman had. The King really liked it, it was perfect. “Don’t change a thing,” he said, “Go out and do exactly what you said for the Jew Mordecai who sits at the Kings gate, leave nothing out.”
Now for a guy who was as unstable as Haman was, that was a real blow to the old ego. But he has to obey the King and he is humiliated as he is forced to honor the man that he wants to hang.
They have their little parade throughout the city and when they get back to the castle Mordecai returned to the King’s gate, but Haman rushed home mourning and with his head covered.
Esther 6:13 (NCV)
13 He told his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Haman’s wife and the men who gave him advice said, “You are starting to lose power to Mordecai. Since he is a Jew, you cannot win against him. You will surely be ruined.”
Wow, what a shift, what a turning point. The momentum has completely left Haman and his own family is prophecying his demise.
While they were still talking with Haman the king’s eunuchs arrived and brought him to the Queen’s banquet. They ate and they drank and the King asked Esther once again what her request was.
Esther 7:3-6 (NRSV)
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request.
4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”
5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?”
6 Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
The King is so upset and mad that he went out into the palace garden to vent. Under normal circumstances he would have immediately made up his mind what to do, but he was really mad.
Haman realized that he had been set up. The Queen didn’t like him too much after all. He saw that the King was probably going to kill him and so he went over to Esther’s couch to beg for his life.
It only made matters worse thought because when the King returned from the garden Haman was begging in a compromising position on the couch and if you thought the king was mad before, boy oh boy, he was a real grouch now.
“Will you even assault the queen in my own house!” And as the words left the kings mouth the servants covered Haman’s head with a cloth, this man was going to die.
One of the Eunuchs stood up and pointed across the courtyard to Haman’s house where the 75 foot tall gallows was constructed. “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai is right there.”
“Hang him on it.” And the king’s anger did not cease until Haman was hung dead.
Esther 8:1-2 (NRSV)
1 On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.
2 Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. So Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
Mordecai became the new Prime Minister and together he and Esther wrote a new law, stating the Jews could defend themselves and that they could legally take all means necessary to defeat any one who would attack them.
Esther 8:15-16 (NLT)
15 Then Mordecai left the king’s presence, wearing the royal robe of blue and white, the great crown of gold, and an outer cloak of fine linen and purple. And the people of Susa celebrated the new decree.
16 The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere.
The Jews had so much going for them that people all around were converting to Judaism.
Esther 9:1 (NRSV)
1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain power over them, but which had been changed to a day when the Jews would gain power over their foes.
What the devil planned for evil, God turned into good. Evil tried to wipe out the people of God, but God reversed those plans so that his people would be all the more powerful.
And behind the Hero Esther was a Hero named Mordecai. He was the hero behind the hero and you can be too!
Be the Hero behind the Hero
1. If God has favor on you, then you can have favor on others too.
a. Loyal Love
b. Faithful Friend
c. Pushing others to succeed.
Proverbs 17:17 (NLT)
17 A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.
Challenge others to greater heights.
d. Mordecai challenged Esther to put her life on the line. She needed to hear his perspective
Proverbs 27:17 (NLT)
17 As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
Point those around you to salvation in Jesus
e. Never give up on anybody, God is powerful to save
f. Never be ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of your salvation.
g. Never miss an opportunity to introduce a friend to Jesus.
Romans 10:13-15 (NLT)
13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
