Good evening. Welcome back to our series of studies through the book of Esther. Tonight we'll be back in chapter four. We'll be studying verses four through eight, but first let's just do a quick review of what we what we studied last time. In that study last week, we began chapter 4. And I had identified it as a key chapter in that the Lord really sets His direction for the rest of the book. It opens with Haman's decree having been issued. It's now public knowledge that on the 13th day of the 12th month, All of the inhabitants of Persia are ordered, and remember, this is ordered by a royal decree. They're ordered to rise up against the Jews, to rise up to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, not one. is to be left alive. And we saw that beginning with Mordecai and then all of the Jews throughout all the provinces, they responded to this decree in what I termed as a very understandable way. They responded by mourning. And then we looked at the bigger picture, which we're meant to see in this, is the Lord working behind the scenes. In that passage that we looked at last week, it's through Mordecai's actions in response to this decree put out by Haman. And the Lord is at work, again, behind the scenes. He's not mentioned, He's not named by name anywhere, but He is definitely at work behind the scenes, positioning Esther to very soon now emerge onto the scene, into the story, as Israel's Savior-Redeemer. which sets the direction for the remainder of the book. Now, in verses four through eight, which we'll be looking at tonight, Mordecai communicates to Esther all of the difficulties that have been going on, everything that has transpired between him and Haman. He describes to Esther the depth of hatred that Haman has for the Jews and the lengths that he is, that Haman is ready, willing, and able to go to, to express this hatred. He sends her a copy of the actual decree that has by all natural means, it has sealed the fate of every Jew living within Persia. And then the passage concludes with Mordecai giving Esther a command. And it's a command that will test her. It will test her commitment to Mordecai. And even more importantly, it will test her commitment, her faithfulness, and her devotion to the Lord. So let's read the passage. It's Esther 4, verses 4 through 8. It says, when Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathak, one of the king's eunuchs who had been appointed to attend her and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her. and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. Amen. I want to begin with looking at verses four and five together. And one thing that immediately caught my attention in this passage is that events outside of the king's palace, even empire-wide, important, significant events like Haman's decree, they were not always common knowledge to the inhabitants within the king's palace. Apparently, what was known inside of the king's palace was closely guarded and it was censored. Now, we're not told exactly, but I'm going to say presumably by Haman, the king's right-hand man. In this case, what we're talking about specifically here is all of the turmoil of the past month that's been going on between Mordecai and Haman and the decree that Haman has issued to annihilate the Jews. all of this stuff was unbeknownst to the queen. Now, in that culture, the queen, for the most part, she had no involvement with the king's business. She was there strictly to meet his own personal needs when he wanted her to. She had no participation in any government matters, unlike the first lady of the president in our culture, in our government. She had no participation in government matters. So the king would not have informed Esther anything about the decree or what was going on. So while the entire city of Susa had been thrown into confusion over this, Esther was completely unaware. She would not have known anything about the situation until Mordecai brought it to her attention. Now, another thing that caught my attention is what I'm gonna call the channels of communication within the king's palace. Okay, first we see Esther's young women and her eunuchs bring her information from the entrance to the king's gate. And then we see Esther calling for Hathak, who was one of the king's eunuchs who had been specifically appointed to attend Esther. Now the distinction between these two, and I'm talking about Esther's young men, young women and eunuchs and Hathak. Okay, the distinction between these two, it suggests that there were different channels of communication within the palace. As with any and all organizations, there seems to have been an unofficial channel of communication, what we would call the grapevine. Have you ever heard that term before? I heard it through the grapevine, right? So there seems to have been unofficial communications like that and official channels of communication. You know, the lower level members of the help always seem to know what's going on, even though they're not included in official communications. Years ago, many years ago now, I worked in a corporate environment, and in that environment, Senior and executive management, they did their absolute best to keep critical and sensitive information hidden from the staff until they thought, until management thought, it was the right time to disclose it, if ever. But this information, it was always, and I mean always, it was known and it was communicated to the staff long before management ever wanted it to be. It was communicated to the staff by the, where I worked, they were called administrative assistants. They were like the executive's secretaries. And they knew what was going on. The admins always knew what was going on and always communicated it very openly. They were the grapevine of the organization. So the fact that Esther's young women and eunuchs are not introduced in the story by name, just her young women and eunuchs, to me this seems to indicate that they were part of that lower level help. category, which would make their report to her somewhat of an unofficial communication. You know, along the lines of just in their day-to-day interaction with the Queen, something along the lines of You know, Queen, the talk around the palace is that Mordecai, he's dressed in sackcloth and covered himself with ash, making a spectacle of himself right outside of the king's gate. Now, this report clearly concerned Esther. The text states that she was deeply distressed. And this word that we've translated to distressed, the original Hebrew word, it means to experience feelings of writhing, anguish, and pain. Elsewhere in scripture, this same word is used to describe the level of physical pain that a woman feels when giving birth. So it's intense. And then when we take into account the modifier that's used here, deeply, she was deeply distressed, it's clear to see, and this is the point I'm trying to make here, it's clear to see that Esther was very concerned when she heard this report. Now, the most logical reason that I see for her distress is that she was concerned for Mordecai's well-being. Remember, he's a, he's a king's gate official of some degree of importance and status. So the behavior that he was showing, this type of behavior and appearance, could have an adverse effect in regard to his position. She has no idea at this point why he's behaving this way, why he's dressed this way, but what she does know is that it's drawn the attention of at very least the palace staff. They know what's going on. Her young women and eunuchs knew about it, and that concerned her, and it concerned her deeply. So what she did was she quickly sends a change of clothes out to Mordecai to remedy the situation and the potential danger to Mordecai or his position. Now, we're not told how or by whom she sends these garments out to him. Presumably, she sent them via her young women and eunuchs. We don't know. It's not critically important. All we're told is that she sent him these garments and he refused them. So at this point, I believe that her concern was most likely at least amplified. She's already deeply concerned. Now he's refused to take the clothes. So her concern was most likely amplified when he wouldn't accept the clothes and continued drawing attention to himself. Now, if you remember in our study of verse 2 last week, I developed the idea that Mordecai's intention in approaching the King's Gate the way he did was to bring Haman's decree and the overall situation to Esther's attention. In the palace, Esther's sheltered from the knowledge of Haman's plan. She knew nothing of what had been happening between Mordecai and Haman. She knew nothing of the decree. She was clueless at this point. And Mordecai needed to make sure that she became aware, that she knew all of what was going on. through his behavior and his appearance at the entrance to the king's gate, and by now refusing to stop at Esther's somewhat, at this point, subtle attempt, what Mordecai has accomplished at this point is he's captured Esther's needed attention. So at that point, what does Esther do? She turns to a more official channel of communication. She summons Hathak. who must have been her primary attendant. He was one of the king's eunuchs. The king had many. The king presumably, presumably this was the king who appointed him. He selected Hathak and assigned him to attend to Esther. Now what this means, to be appointed to attend her, it literally means to be face to face with her. Okay, so Hathak was in direct contact with Esther. He was able to speak directly and privately to Esther. His sole responsibility was to serve her, and to protect her when she wasn't in the King's presence. Most likely, this was also a means the King had to keep track of her whereabouts and her activities. So the situation is this. Mordecai, being dressed in sackcloth, covered in ashes, and having refused the change of clothes that Esther had sent out to him, he was unable to enter the king's gate. He was unable to get in any type of direct contact with Esther. And the queen certainly couldn't go outside of the palace to speak to him directly. So the queen sends Hathak. She orders her attendant to go out to Mordecai. And the order that she gives to him is very specific. The text says, to learn what this was and why it was. So Esther does not want an abridged version of the situation. She wants to know everything. She's demanding details. She doesn't want bullet points. She wants details. She wants to know not only exactly what is going on, she wants to know why also. That brings us to verses 6 and 7. Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. So here we see Hathak goes outside of the palace. He goes outside of the king's gate to speak to Mordecai. Now we're given this detail that Mordecai and Hathak spoke in the open square of the city, which was right outside of the king's gate. Let me give just a brief explanation of this. The open square was very common in major cities of that day. It was usually in the center of the city. It's where all of the major roads in the city intersected. It was considered to be the hub of the city. It was a relatively large area, a large open area. We would refer to it as a plaza. It was open to the public, and it's where inhabitants of the city would go to meet, to do business, to discuss business, to gather socially, anything like that. It was just, like I said, like the hub of the city. So given Esther's deep concern over Mordecai, and considering her attempt to dampen the attention he was drawing to himself, I'm confident that her instructions to Haythak would have included taking Mordecai to a more private place to interrogate him. Get him off by yourself and have a quiet but thorough conversation with him. Now, back in verse 1, again, which we studied last week, in verse 1 the text really emphasizes the public and highly visible aspect of Mordecai's mourning, of his behavior and appearance. I had said, he was not sitting quietly in his own home, mourning and grieving over the decree that Haman had put out and what it meant. What he did was he went out into the city, or more accurately, he walked through, throughout the city, walking up and down the streets of the city, making himself seen and heard by many, if not everyone, in the capital city. Remember, his intention here was not to draw attention to himself per se, but to draw attention to the atrocity that had been decreed. This public display of Mordecai's was to accomplish at least two important objectives. It influenced the Jewish community to follow his example, which it did. We saw that in verse three. And number two, to make Esther aware of the threat to all the Jews throughout Persia. Now, he is right in the midst, Mordecai is in the midst of this second objective. So I would imagine that despite Haythak's any attempt on his part to converse with Mordecai quietly and privately, I think that it was, I believe that it was Mordecai who drove the open and public aspect of their conversation. And in that conversation, it sounds like Mordecai didn't pull any punches, meaning he didn't hold back anything in this conversation. The text states that Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, all that had happened to him. So the account that Mordecai gave to Hathak it would begin with the events right after Mordecai saved the king's life. That's back in chapter 2, verses 22 and 23. So let me do just a brief review of this backstory. Beginning there, Mordecai saved the king's life. The king didn't reward or even acknowledge Mordecai for his act of tremendous service to the king. He didn't reward him or acknowledge him in any way. Instead, what the king did was he promoted Haman. He advanced him beyond all of the king's officials to be second in command, literally the king's right-hand man. Now, the king didn't know that Haman was the sworn enemy of the Jews, therefore the sworn enemy of Mordecai's, but Mordecai knew it. And I'm confident that he communicated this to Hathak in his conversation, part of telling him all that had happened, along with all of the historical details that led up to it. Okay, going on, the king then issued a command that all the servants at the king's gate were to, if you remember, bow down and pay homage to Haman every time they saw him. Mordecai certainly would have included in his description to Hathak that he, that Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, refused to pay him homage, along with all of the details as to why. How could a Jew possibly assume a posture of worship to a descendant of an Amalekite king. Once Haman became aware of Mordecai's refusal to publicly worship him, to bow down and pay homage to him, as all of the other officials did, what happened with Haman? He became enraged. He became enraged, and his anger and rage grew day by day every time he would see Mordecai. And Mordecai refused to bow down, refused to pay him homage. The flames of his rage were fanned. He just became more and more and more angry. to the point of Haman was so filled with fury, so filled with anger, that when he found out, when he was told that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman sought to destroy not just Mordecai, but he sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire kingdom. And then when the time was right, Haman very cleverly manipulated the king into giving him carte blanche to destroy the Jews. Remember, the king gave Haman his signet ring. Part of this manipulation, part of Haman's manipulation was committing to pay into the king's treasury 10,000 talents of silver. Remember when we studied that, we talked about it was just a huge, a tremendous amount of money. this evil deed of Haman's was to be carried out by way of an official decree sealed by the king's signet ring. Now, Esther would have been well aware that any decree sealed with the king's signet ring was irrevocable. She would know this. Irrevocable even by the king himself. So at this point in their conversation between Mordecai and Hathak, Mordecai would have outlined the details, the specifics of the decree. This is what it said. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. I can imagine Mordecai in describing all of this to Hathak. I can imagine him insisting that Hathak emphasize to Esther Haman's use of these three separate verbs to describe and instruct one horrible act. Destroy, kill, and annihilate. I could see him Mordecai instructing Hathak to ask Esther, wouldn't it have been sufficient for the edict just simply to instruct the inhabitants of all the provinces just to kill all Jews. Wouldn't that have been sufficient? Why these three separate words of destruction? Why? The redundancy serves no real purpose except to display Haman's rage, his anger, the depravity of his heart, and the heinousness of his crime. Make sure you communicate that to Esther. I can see Mordecai giving that type of instruction. I don't think that I'm exaggerating the description of what Mordecai communicated to Hathak when he told him all that had happened to him. Now, A detailed description of the circumstances such as this would have probably been enough for most people. But Mordecai, he doesn't want there to be any possibility that Esther might not fully understand the gravity of the situation. He doesn't want to leave anything to chance. He doesn't want to leave any room for doubt in her mind. So look at verse eight. After all of this, it says, Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might, that Hathak might show it to Esther and explain it to her. and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people." So here, what Mordecai is doing is, Mordecai, he doubles down on this by giving a copy of the decree, a copy of the actual decree to Hathak to show it to Esther, to put it in her hand for her to hold it. He insists that he explain it to her. In other words, he's saying, give this to her, put this in her hand, but don't just hand it to her and be done with it. No, make sure she reads it. Make sure she thoroughly reads it. and make sure that she understands the meaning of every single word. Mordecai understands that evidence, hard evidence, in addition to his own testimony, is important. very important, critically important. And it's so important because of the intense gravity of the situation and because of the command that he's about to give to Esther. The very difficult decision he's asking her to make. See, this cannot simply be on the basis of Mordecai's own assertion. Esther, seeing with her own eyes The words written in the decree, holding it in her hand, reading it for herself now, firsthand, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children. seeing with her own eyes the stamp of the king's signet ring, her husband's signet ring. It's a powerful communication, a very powerful communication. And it will ratify in her heart, in her mind, that all Mordecai has said all that he has said to her through her servant Hathak, that it's all true. It's all 100% true. There's no exaggeration in what Mordecai has described. There's no embellishment here, and there is no ulterior motive. At this point, Esther must know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is not any type of a personal vendetta of Mordecai's against Haman. She needs to know the absolute accurate truth. that it is nothing less than an all out annihilation campaign against God's people. And then the end of this verse is Mordecai's command to her. Esther faces what I believe is the greatest spiritual test of her entire life. Remember that Mordecai had earlier commanded Esther to keep her ethnic identity a secret. You remember that? Well, his command here in verse 8 to plead with the king on behalf of her own people meant now revealing her ethnic identity. So what's changed? What has changed? There is a time when standing firm for the Lord takes precedence over anything and everything else, even our own personal safety, even one's own life. Mordecai himself displayed this when he refused to bow down and pay homage to Haman. He knew that if he did that, if he bowed down, if he paid homage to Haman even once, that he would be compromising his faithfulness to the Lord. He knew, as we should all know, that there is nothing in all of existence that is important enough or valuable enough to compromise one's faithfulness to the Lord. This is the same degree of faithfulness that Peter and the other apostles displayed in Acts chapter 5. Let me read a short passage, verses 27 through 33. It says, And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. That didn't stop Peter and the other apostles. Mordecai is now requiring that same level of devotion and trust in the Lord from Esther. This is a truly a life defining test for Esther. She is facing two very different paths. She must choose which path to follow, which direction to take. Now, we know the whole story, right? But consider, just for a moment, the outcome if she were to choose the wrong path. There are times when God places His people, you and I, in particular positions or particular circumstances, all for the purpose, all for His purpose of doing His will when called upon to do it. Sometimes being faithful to the Lord and being faithful to His call in your life, sometimes that comes with a price. Sometimes it can cost you time, convenience. Sometimes it can cost you certain luxuries that you have, that you enjoy, or maybe that you desire to have in the future. Sometimes it can cost you proximity to those you love. Sometimes it can endanger or even cost your own life. This is what Esther is facing now. I'm setting up a bit of a cliffhanger here. Later in the chapter, we will see how Esther wrestles with this and how she resolves this internal conflict and difficulty of obeying Mordecai's very challenging command. I look forward to that. Just before I close the study tonight, I want to share one final thought. When Esther sent Hathak to speak to Mordecai, I doubt that Hathak understood the important part that he was playing in God's plan, in God's plan to defeat Haman, to defeat Haman's evil plot and to save the Jews. I want to, I want to quote, I want to read a quote from a, this is a well-known Bible teacher and author by the name of Warren Wiersbe. This is the quote. He says, so often in the work of the Lord, he uses obscure people to accomplish important tasks. What was the name of the lad who gave Jesus his loaves and fish? Who were the men who rescued Paul by lifting him over that Damascus wall in a basket? What was the name of the little servant girl who told Naaman to go see the prophet? We don't know. But God used these people to accomplish his purposes. As great doors can swing upon small hinges, so great events can turn upon the deeds of quote unquote small and sometimes anonymous people. End quote. From God's perspective, there are no insignificant individuals. There are no insignificant tasks when it comes to kingdom work. What the world might consider to be small and insignificant, the Lord considers to be great and mighty. Hathak, he only appears in this one situation. And then he just quietly fades from the narrative, not to be heard from again. It's the last we hear of Hathak. This should remind us all that there is no service to the Lord that's small or insignificant. Many of us and many of our actions in serving, truly serving the Lord, they may go unacknowledged, even unappreciated at times by others, but never by the Lord. The Lord sees and appreciates everything that we do in obedience to him. Every assignment that he gives to us is important and it's significant to him and his kingdom. Many of God's most faithful servants are called upon to operate behind the scenes, just as God himself is at work behind the scenes throughout the entire story, the entire book of Esther. I want to encourage us here tonight. Don't ever allow how the world or even other believers at times might see the fulfilling of your spiritual life assignment as small or insignificant. Don't ever allow that to discourage you from giving yourself 100% to the work to which God has called you. Think about this, living a life, doing and accomplishing the good works God prepared for you from before creation is living a life of significance. Living a life, doing and accomplishing works that you have prepared for yourself, regardless of how great others might consider those works, is living a life of insignificance. I encourage us all tonight to be like Haythak and to live lives of significance. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for this passage that we've studied here tonight. Father, Every word in your precious book is a treasure. We know that. We acknowledge that. I pray that we will each recognize your treasure in what we've just studied, your treasure. I pray that we would meditate on it, recognize the treasure, that we meditate, think about it. and the hours and the days to come. And I pray, Father, that we would, or that they would sink deeply and permanently into our hearts, that they would make a difference in us, that they would change us, Father. Thank you, Father, and amen.