Sermon Tone Analysis

As we begin this morning, would you please turn in your copies of God’s Word to Esther 3. If you are using the pew Bibles, you will find this on page 355.

We will be reading the first 13 verses of chapter 3 shortly, so please have them marked and ready for that time.

Last week we looked at King Xerxes failed military campaign against Greece, at the beauty contest in all 127 provinces to find the most attractive woman they could, to replace Queen Vashti, a contest won by Esther.

This was all a part of God’s perfect plan, a plan that is unfolding in miraculous ways more and more as we travel through the pages of Esther.

We also saw Mordecai uncover a plot to kill the King, yet for some strange reason he never received the recognition or reward that would commonly be given in situations like this, of course since we have the completed story, we know that this was also a part of God’s perfect plan, the reward would come, but not until the Sovereign Lord picked the perfect time.

We will see that in chapter 6.

We ended last week with an introduction to Haman and saw his plot to commit genocide on the entire Jewish race, because of his hatred for Mordecai.

A hatred that stemmed from, what many theologians consider, a prideful Mordecai’s refusal to bow before Haman.

In last weeks message, we looked at one reason why his refusal to bow wasn’t necessarily motivated by a devotion to God, but possibly pride.

Had Mordecai been that devoted to God, he would have gone back to Jerusalem with the returning exiles of Ezra chapter 1. Had he done that, the Jews would not have been facing the very real possibility of genocide.

I’d like to look at 2 other reasons this morning.

The first is this;

There is no command in Scripture to not bow to before another individual.

In fact there are many instances in Scripture of one individual bowing before another.

From Jacob bowing before Esau, to Josephs family bowing before him, Ruth bowing before Boaz, to David bowing before King Saul, to other people bowing before David and a whole host of other examples.

However, we are clearly commanded not to bow before idols.

Because bowing before an idol would be bowing in worship, while in most instances bowing before another individual would be more of a show of reverence or respect.

2. It is highly unlikely that Xerxes would have issued a command to bow to one of his officials, if it wasn’t also a requirement to bow to him as the King.

Yet we see no indication that Mordecai refused to bow before the king in all of this Biblical account in Esther.

Now, I do want to add, Scripture is not definitively clear on why Mordecai refused to bow, outside of the fact that he was a Jew.

There are many solid godly Biblical scholars, who believe that his refusal to bow was specifically related to his devotion to God, that in the Persian culture, bowing before a ruler was in some ways the same as bowing before a god, small “g”.

And that was a line Mordecai was not willing to cross.

They could easily be correct, but one of my main struggles with this conclusion is there being no mention of Mordecai refusing to bow before King Xerxes.

Now that we have set the stage for this morning,

Will you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

Next Slide

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

Take a moment and look at verse 7:

Next Slide

I’ve titled this verse: Next Slides

Haman’s Big Plans Put on Hold.

Now to understand this verse you first have to understand Haman.

Historians tell us that Haman was a very superstitious man.

I am certain that his desire was that the Jews be killed as soon as possible, but his superstitions would not let him just pick the soonest date possible.

Instead he called all of his magician and astrologer friends and they decided that in order to pick the best day possible, they needed to cast Pur, now remember the word Pur, because that word comes in to play towards the end of Esther.

To cast Pur meant to cast lots, which is sort of like throwing the dice to determine the best day.

My guess is that as they started with the first month, which was the current month, in my mind I picture Haman waited while holding his breath, probably disappointed when that month wasn’t selected.

Month after month went by, each month got a “No” answer, finally the lot fell on the 12th month, basically a year out.

I imagine Haman was less than thrilled, but at least he had a specific month and day.

But having the date almost a year out, was all part of our Sovereign God’s plan to turn the tables on the wicked Haman.

Next Slides

In the next few verses we see Haman’s successful attempt to:

Haman’s Pulls the Wool over the Kings Eyes.

Next Slides

Esther 3:8-11

Now I want you to notice something here, something very important.

At no point in time do we see Haman identify the people he wants destroyed.

He purposely hides their identity, and amazingly Xerxes doesn’t seem to even care who the people are, but that shouldn’t surprise us, we have already seen Xerxes is an irrational man.

It becomes clear in chapter 6 that King Xerxes had no idea of the identity of the people, but we will get to that later.

The title of this series on the Book of Esther has been “God Behind the Scenes”, but it is important for us to realize that God wasn’t the only one working behind the scenes.

Satan was also at work, he is ultimately the mastermind of Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jews.

You see he understood that God’s redemptive plan for all mankind flows through the Jews, and if he can end this race of people, he completely undermines the work of God.

While Haman was listed in Esther as “an enemy of the Jews”, the ultimate enemy is Satan himself, Haman is a tool in his hands.

This is key for us, because we have a tendency to look at those who oppose us as our ultimate enemies, when in fact they are tools in the hand of our ultimate enemy.

What I am saying is this: Next Slides

Satan is our Real Enemy.

So, why is this important to us?

It is important to us because if we harbor bitterness and hatred for those who come against us, as if they are our enemies, we generally close the door on any chance we have at reaching them with the love of Christ.

You see:

Hatred and bitterness has yet to win a single soul for Christ.

Instead, we need to see those who may oppose us and our faith as tools in the hands of Satan, and seek to love them and pray for them, and who knows but God may use us to bring them to Him.

We have now reached chapter 4, a very key chapter in the Book of Esther that includes Esther’s most popular verse.

To begin with we see: Next Slides

Next Slides

Esther 4:1-11

Finally we see, for what I believe to be the first time, a broken and humbled Mordecai go where we have no indication he had gone for quite some time, the throne of the Almighty.

In verse 3 we see that “in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great morning among the Jews, with fasting”.

It is important to note that while we don’t see prayer mentioned, in historical Jewish settings, prayer always accompanied fasting.

While we see a humbled Mordecai’s heart changing, Esther isn’t quite there yet.

We read in verse 4 & 5: Next Slides

Based on my reading of these verses, similar to Mordecai, it appears that Esther had become accustomed to her comfortable surroundings.

She had now lived in the palace for at least 6 years. 1 year as a part of the pageant of 400 women vying for the heart of the king, and now 5 years as the queen.

And here the man that had raised her as if she was his own daughter is mourning in sackcloth and ashes at the entrance of the Kings gate and the first thing she does is send him a change of clothes.

There is no indication that she is at all concerned over why he is mourning, only that he is not dressed properly for the entrance of the kings gate.

It’s like she is thinking, “Hey, we have reputations at stake here.”

But as we see, he refused the clothes she sent.

Finally in verse 5 we see her send to find out what is causing him to mourn.

Next Slides

What we are seeing in these verses is: Next Slides

Esther Reminds Mordecai of the Laws of the Medes and Persians.

Vs. 11

She pointed out accurately that she couldn’t just go before the king without being summoned, to do so could easily cause her to loose her life.

So what does Mordecai do?

Next Slide

Esther 4:13-17

Next Slides

Mordecai Reminds Esther of the Laws of the Medes and Persians.

Vs. 13

Mordecai reminds her that just because she is the queen, does not mean she is safe from the edict of the king.

Mordecai then declares what is the most popular verse in the Book Esther.

Next Slide

This is a very powerful verse.

As I read this verse, one key thing becomes clear to me.

Next Slides

A Broken Mordecai’s Change of Heart.

I believe that a Mordecai had had a change of heart.

Rest assured during his time of fasting and prayer, Mordecai had now sought the Face of God on what to do.

His repentant heart did what repentant hearts always do: Next Slides

Repentant Hearts Always Move the Heart of God.

I believe that when Mordecai was mourning, praying and fasting, that God spoke to his heart and let Mordecai know that He was the Sovereign God and He was still in control.