Opening illustration: When I talked to some young men shortly before D-day during Gulf War II, I observed that they were scared. None of them wanted to die. However, the vast majority expressed their conviction that the cause for which they were fighting was right and worthy of the risk.
Queen Esther had similar feelings. She didn’t want to die. She called for a 3-day fast to acknowledge her need for God’s special help. According to Persian custom, if she went uninvited to the king and he was displeased, he could order her execution even though she was his wife. Yet Esther loved her people enough to take that risk.
Today in the United States, we honor the men and women who died in the service of their country. Their sense of patriotism compelled them to put their lives on the line. Whether they had volunteered or had been drafted, they joined in the defense of their homeland. Sometimes they traveled to faraway places to support other countries in a fight for freedom. They risked their all and died.
Just as we are indebted to those who died to make freedom possible, so we ought to thank God for His Son who died to set us free from the bondage of sin. On this day we have much to be thankful for.
This morning we are going to look at Esther 4 from God’s Word and glean from it what God wants to teach all of us about the price that is paid for our freedom.
Introduction: In this book, what is not said is vitally important. Sadly, many who read and study Esther (including Bible scholars who write commentaries on the book) “fill in the blanks,” rather than leaving them blank and learning from the silence of the author. As we begin our study of chapter 4, I want to ask you to make a commitment: commit yourself to accept the text just as it is. When the author specifically mentions certain things, take note of them. And when the author omits certain crucial elements, do not think he really meant us to assume them; rather, the author expects us to note their absence. In so doing, you will read the text as it is and learn from what is not said as well as from what is.
“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4: 14
WHAT grand faith was here! Mordecai was in God’s secrets, and was assured that deliverance and enlargement would come to his people from some quarter - if not from Esther, then from some other; but he was extremely anxious that she should not miss the honor of being her people’s emancipator. Therefore he suggested that she had come to her high position for this very purpose.
Well none of us know, at the first, God’s reasons for bringing us into positions of honor and trust. Why was that young girl suddenly made mistress over that household? Why is that youth taken from the ranks of the working - people, and placed over that great City church? Why is that man put forward in his business, so that he is the head of the firm in which he served as an office‑boy? All these are parts of the Divine plan. God has brought them to the Kingdom that He may work out through them some great purpose of salvation. They have the option, however, to serve it or not. They may use their position for themselves, for their own emolument and enjoyment, that they may surround themselves with strong fortifications against misfortune; but in that case they court destruction. Their position and wealth may vanish as suddenly as it came; or ill‑health and disaster may incapacitate them.
If, on the other hand, all is used for God, though at the risk of perishing - for it seemed to Esther as though the action to which Mordecai urged her meant that - the issue is blessed. Those that love their lives lose them; those that are prepared to forfeit them keep them. The wheat grain which is buried in the soil bears much fruit.
What is the price of freedom?
1. Putting your life on the line for others & Christ (vs. 10 – 12)
The Persian kings surrounded themselves with an almost impassable circle of forms. The law alluded to was first enacted by Deioces, king of Media, and afterwards, when the empires were united, adopted by the Persians, that all business should be transacted and petitions transmitted to the king through his ministers. Although the restriction was not intended, of course, to apply to the queen, yet from the strict and inflexible character of the Persian laws and the extreme desire to exalt the majesty of the sovereign, even his favorite wife had not the privilege of entree, except by special favor and indulgence. Esther was suffering from the severity of this law; and as, from not being admitted for a whole month to the king’s presence, she had reason to fear that the royal affections had become alienated from her; she had little hope of serving her country’s cause in this awful emergency.
She had decided to break the law of her husband and risk her very life for her people (cf. John 15: 13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”). God’s providential care had brought Esther to this point, but Esther accepted the challenge that might cost her, her life.
Illustration: Our own life in the middle-east. If you want to break the law, break it for Christ sake not for worldly pleasures! Not to become heroes or martyrs for Christ but God pleasers.
2. If you don’t someone else will / God has put you there in a time as such (vs. 13 – 14)
His answer was to this effect, that Esther need not indulge the vain hope she would, from her royal connection, escape the general doom of her race - that he (Mordecai) confidently believed God would interpose, and, if not through her, by some other deliverer, save His people; but that the duty evidently devolved on her, as there was great reason to believe that this was the design of Providence in her elevation to the dignity of queen, and therefore that she should go with a courageous heart, not doubting of success.
(i) First of all, if Esther does nothing, she too will perish when this decree is carried out, for she was a Jew. She could not hide behind her position, for ALL Jews were to be put to death!
(ii) The second point is this. If Esther refuses to step in and try to stop this evil plan from being carried out, then God will raise up someone else to deliver His people. God was not interested in her excuses for not taking that step of faith, but rather will she take that step or will she refuse to take that step of faith. I believe Mordecai knew from the Scriptures that somehow, some way, God would spare His people. And again, if she refused to take that step of faith, as frightening as it may be, God will use someone else to work through and deliver His people.
(iii) The third point is this. Esther’s entire life may have been directed so that she may fulfill this one task and save the Jews from destruction. Her entire life was prepared for this moment, and yet it is her choice in what she will do. As Paul said in Philippians 2: 13 "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." And in Proverbs 24: 11-12 we read "Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ’Surely we did not know this,’ Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?" You are the only hope of deliverance. If Esther does not act on her behalf and on behalf of her fellow-Jews, there is no other hope. How could we possibly reach such a conclusion? Does the text not indicate just the opposite? Does Mordecai not indicate to Esther that if she does not act to save her people, God will bring about their deliverance in some other way?
(iv) If we know what needs to be done, and yet you refuse to step in, God says that is a sin. James says in James 4: 17 regarding this point "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." God wants you to take those steps of faith, not because you are so great or so talented, or so smart, but because God is and He will strengthen you for the work He has called you to do, or if you refuse, you will be put on the shelf and God will work through someone else. Let us not forget that Matthew 16: 25 says, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
3. Attempt / Pursue to take on the challenge for freedom (vs. 15 – 17)
The appeal of Mordecai was irresistible. Having appointed a solemn fast of three days, she expressed her firm resolution to make an appeal to the king, though she should perish in the attempt. It is probable that she had surrounded herself with Jewish maidens, or women who were proselytes to that faith.
The pressure is too great. Esther gives in, sending word to Mordecai that she will intercede with the king for her people. Now that she has taken orders from Mordecai, she begins to give orders. She instructs him to assemble all the Jews who live in Susa and to have them fast for her. None of them is to eat or drink for three days, night or day. She and her maidens will do likewise, and then she will attempt to see the king. She will break the law of the land and take her life into her own hands. Her final words are most instructive:
“. . . and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16b).
There are those who make a hero of Esther. One might be able to stretch the facts far enough to look upon her as a hero. Statements like these below are not the exception, but the rule.
I would not argue that Esther was regarded as a hero by the Jews and even by the author of this book. It is apparent she is still looked upon as such by most Christians today. And I am willing to grant that Esther and Mordecai are heroes, though I find the evidence far from compelling. But I am not willing to concede that Esther and Mordecai were godly. One can be a hero, a true patriot, without being godly. I think Esther and Mordecai were, at best, ungodly heroes. I conclude this for the following reasons:
(i) Esther is willing to risk her life only when pressured by Mordecai, and only after he informs her that her life is in danger also. In other words, Esther acts reluctantly, and in large measure, in self-interest.
(ii) Esther’s words, “If I perish, I perish,” are far from an affirmation of faith; they are, instead, a declaration of fatalism. Many years before Esther’s time, Jacob was unwilling to let his son Benjamin go to Egypt with his brothers. He had good reason to fear for his safety. But when he is finally forced to let Benjamin go, he says, “And may God Almighty grant you compassion in the sight of the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved” (Genesis 43: 14). At least Jacob refers to God, while neither Esther nor Mordecai do. But Jacob’s words fall far short of those of a man of faith.
We all come to crossroads in our life, just as Esther did. And she is willing to take that step of faith, but before she does, she has all the Jews in Shushan, all her maids, fasting and in that I believe that prayer also is involved, and prayer to God. She was willing to risk all to take that step of faith, trusting in God to spare her people. She committed her life to God and basically said "All of me or none of me!" It is as Job said "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him..." Job 13: 15. The day of reckoning is coming; it is only 3 days away!
Application: If Esther and Mordecai are not examples of godliness and faith whom we are to imitate, what are we to learn from this book, particularly from our text? Are we to learn a negative lesson? We are to be warned by what we read in our text.
We must understand that Christ paid the ultimate price for our freedom from sin and the clutches of Satan. The price of our freedom from sin was paid in blood.
How do we respond to that sacrifice will ultimately determine our eternity too!
For all those who are saved and born again, how has the sacrifice of Christ and the shedding of His blood on the cross transformed you? Do we take it seriously or just a cruel joke? Our response to Christ is very important.
