Rev. David Holwick Z Esther, #1
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 1, 2013
Esther 1:1-7
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I. An obscure story of deliverance.
A. Esther has a lot of action and romance.
1) There is a beauty contest that Esther wins.
2) There are plots and counter-plots and twists galore.
3) Good guys and bad guys abound - and the good guys aren't
always that good.
4) One commentator even suggested it is a historical novel,
sort of like a Harlequin Romance.
a) He says it didn't really happen this way, but the
story is like one of the parables of Jesus - fiction
that makes a spiritual point.
b) I prefer to take it as history unless there are really
compelling reasons to do otherwise.
B. I have never preached from the book of Esther.
1) I am not alone - even Jesus and the New Testament writers
never quote from it.
2) It is the only Old Testament book that has not been found
in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
3) Luther questioned why it was even in the Bible.
C. It seems to be the least religious book in the Bible.
1) God is never mentioned in it.
a) His name or title never appears.
2) The Jews in the book never pray or sacrifice or worship.
a) There is a reference to fasting, however.
b) Even then, Esther tells the people to "fast for ME."
3) Later Jews tried to fix it by adding a special chapter
where Esther prays.
a) You can find it in Catholic Bibles (the Apocrypha).
b) But the original book is entirely secular.
D. Nevertheless, God is the real hero of the book of Esther.
1) In spite of impossible odds, his people are delivered from
destruction through a series of chance events.
2) Odds are actually a distinctive feature of the book.
a) The date that Jews are to be destroyed is determined by
the casting of lots (=dice).
1> From this we get the name Purim, which is one of
the favorite holidays of Jews today.
b) Even Christians sometimes wonder - is my life the
result of chance circumstances, or is there a God
who is really in charge?
3) God does most of his work behind the scenes.
a) He lines up circumstances so they work out for our good.
b) Even when we cannot see or feel him, he is there.
II. It helps to know some background.
A. Esther takes place during the Exile in Babylon.
1) It happens after the events of Daniel, and around the same
period as Ezra and Nehemiah, about 400 years before Christ.
2) The Persians - Iranians - have taken over the Babylonians
and rule their empire.
3) The Jews have now been allowed to return to Israel.
a) Unlike Ezra and Nehemiah, Esther's Jews decided to
stay put.
B. It was a time of absolute tyrants and intense hatreds.
1) The king wanted to be treated as a god.
a) In Israel, you were only in mortal danger if you dared
to approach God in the temple's holy of holies.
b) In Persia, the same thing happened if you tried to
approach the king.
2) Most people hated the Jews.
a) They were a defeated people, on the bottom of the heap.
b) But Jews were stubborn and would only bow to their God,
not to humans. 3:2-4
c) One Persian, Haman, took offense at this and conspired
to wipe out the Jews.
III. God is quiet, but he is there.
A. God doesn't tend to work through miracles and drama.
1) We would like him to do this, just like he does in many
Bible passages.
2) But even in the Bible, God's work tends to be subtle -
miracles are actually rare.
3) God is best seen in the quieter events of everyday life.
a) He uses circumstances and coincidences to reveal his
will for us.
B. Divine coincidences in the book of Esther.
1) Esther, a secret Jew, becomes the favorite queen. 2:17
a) You might say this is not coincidence, but great
genetics.
b) But it is a coincidence that this happens at the best
possible time.
c) She is in this position of influence just when her
people the Jews are threatened with annihilation.
2) Mordecai overhears a plot against King Xerxes. 2:21-22
a) His help is noted, but not immediately rewarded.
b) As a matter of fact, it is completely forgotten.
3) Haman throws dice (lots) to pick a day for destruction. 3:7
a) He does this because he is superstitious and he
considers the outcome to be chosen by the spirits.
b) The resulting date is almost a year away, giving the
Jews enough time to come up with a counter-plan.
4) King Xerxes has insomnia. 6:1-2
a) He has the government archive read to him. (If you have
insomnia, the Congressional Record can work wonders!)
b) His aides happen to read the account of the conspiracy,
and Mordecai's faithfulness to the king. 6:1-2
1> Mordecai gets honored - by his enemy Haman. 6:10
IV. Esther portrays Romans 8:28 in the Old Testament.
A. God will work out everything for good to those who love him.
1) He uses not just good events - nice events - but all events.
2) The best things that happen to you, and the worst things
that happen to you, are God's tools to mold you.
a) You may feel that everything is in turmoil and nothing
makes sense.
b) Only in hindsight, perhaps years later, will you
recognize God's hand in it.
B. It is a promise that is limited to those who love God.
1) Paul's verse does not teach that everything always works
out for everybody.
2) It is a specific promise for born-again Christians.
3) If you know God through a personal relationship with Jesus,
you can trust that every event has a divine purpose.
V. Do you recognize God's invisible hand in your life?
A. Rabbi Chaim Jachter makes this observation:
The twentieth-century philosopher and mathematician Bertrand
Russell, an outspoken atheist, was once asked what would
happen if, after his death, he would unexpectedly find
himself before God.
He replied that he would say that God did not supply sufficient
evidence for His existence.
The book of Esther provides a response to such superficial
thinking.
Esther teaches that there is abundant evidence of God's
existence and mastery of the world.
But we have to make the correct choice to discern God's hand
operating behind the superficial, secular mask.
#64275
B. God is there if you chose to see him.
1) A story from Russia.
In the 1930s the Communist dictator Stalin ordered a purge
of all Bibles and all believers.
In Stravropol, Russia, this order was carried out with a
vengeance.
Thousands of Bibles were confiscated, and multitudes of
believers were sent to the gulags.
Most of them died there for being "enemies of the state."
Years later, right after the collapse of communism, a
Christian mission organization sent a team to Stavropol.
When the team was having difficulty getting Bibles shipped
from Moscow, someone mentioned the existence of a
warehouse outside of town.
It was rumored to contain thousands of confiscated Bibles
that had been stored since Stalin's day.
After much prayer by the team, one member finally got up
the courage to go to the warehouse and ask the officials
if the Bibles were still there....
The answer was, "Yes."
The next day mission team returned with a truck and several
Russians to help load the Bibles.
One helper was a young man - a skeptical, hostile, agnostic
college student who had come only for the day's wages.
As they were loading Bibles, one team member noticed that
the young man had disappeared.
He had slipped away, hoping to quietly take a Bible for
himself.
What he found shook him to the core.
The inside page of the Bible he picked up had the
handwritten signature of his own grandmother.
It had been her personal Bible.
Out of the thousands of Bibles still left in the warehouse,
he stole the one belonging to this grandmother - a woman
persecuted for her faith all her life.
He was found weeping - God was real.
#30097
2) Is God real to you?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#30097 “Against All Odds, He Found His Grandmother's Bible,” Wit and
Wisdom by Richard G. Wimer, October 27, 2005; original source
is Christian Reader, Sept/Oct 1995, p. 57.
#64275 “Does God Leave Enough Evidence?” adapted by David Holwick from
Rabbi Chaim Jachter’s article, “Why is Megillat Ester Written
in Such a Secular Style?", March 11, 2006.
<http://koltorah.org/ravj/15-24_Why_is_Megillat_Ester_Written_in_Such_a_Secular_Style.htm>
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