to the Old Testament book of Esther. Esther is a really neat book. I love this book, and there are certain women in the Scriptures that are heroes, and Esther is in that category. She really is a hero that God used in a mighty way, which I think should be an encouragement to all of us, and all of you ladies especially, that God does use women in mighty ways for His glory, and that God wants to use every single one of you ladies for His glory to do great things for His kingdom. So this is a great book. There's a lot of great things here. And we're going to be looking at Esther chapter 3 and 4 tonight. We're going to do two chapters. We haven't done that in a long time, but we're going to try to do two chapters tonight. And so we'll see how that goes. I don't know how you guys are, but I'm one of those people that loves a good story. I love to watch a good movie. I especially like movies that are based on true stories. Because most of the movies that they make that are based on true stories, most of them at least, are very inspiring. Some of them are tearjerkers. I'm sure some of you have watched them. Me and Dee, I've said this before though, me and Dee have watched movies together. We always, especially to get to the part that you would want to cry, I always try not to cry because men shouldn't cry, you know. I mean, we do cry. And we look at each other and we start laughing to see who's going to cry first. But I like movies that are inspiring, you know, and that are those tearjerkers. Movies like Rudy. Movies like Radio. Remember the Titans. The Pursuit of Happiness, We Are Marshall, Brian's Song. You remember that old one, Brian's Song? You know, movies that are based on true stories like Forrest Gump. That's based on a true... No, just kidding. Forrest Gump, Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre. Those are some of the really good true stories I like. Just kidding. Seriously, as we look at the book of Esther, though, the book of Esther has always been one of my favorite true stories. And it is a true story. It's in the Word of God. And we find this wonderful story here laid out for us. And what I love about this story is that we see the hand of God working on behalf of people's lives to accomplish God's ultimate purposes, even though they don't see it. Now, we've talked already in our previous studies about this book really being probably one of the best examples in Scriptures about the providence of God and how God providentially works. As we look at this book, it's really neat because we see that God works on and in, in and on, let's see, in the lives of His people and on behalf of the people. That's what I wanted to say. Now, we've already seen that God uses circumstances at times to bring about His desired will. God also uses people in the midst of those circumstances. And even at times, God will use nominal believers and non-believers as well. Now, that may surprise some of you to think that God would use even unbelievers. But yes, God does oftentimes use unbelievers to accomplish His purposes. And we can see that happening in our story. I think it happens more often than we realize. I know that there's been times in my life that God has spoken to me very clearly through an unbeliever. I remember one time my dad said something to me. He was not a Christian at that time, and he said something to me that was really profound. And I remember I went into my room after he said it, and I wept because the Lord spoke to me directly through my father. And so again, we see that God can use whoever He wants to use. Tonight we come to chapters 3 and 4, and I want to do them together because there is a great fit in these chapters. I wish we could do chapter 5 as well, but I know we're not going to have time for that. But we really get into the heart of the book here in chapters 3 and 4, the how and the why God raises Esther up to do some great things through this woman's life and how God raises her up to this position as a new queen over Persia. We already looked at that a little bit. How her outward beauty got her part of the way there. She won, if you will, that beauty contest that they had amongst all the women, the beautiful young virgins that were brought before the king. She was picked by the king. But in essence, what we see is the providence of God put her there. It was God that kept her there. And it was God that used her there. And I'm sure that she didn't realize when all of this was happening to her while it was happening. Remember, you know, she probably didn't realize all of the ins and outs of what was going on. These people that we read about in the Bible, and sometimes I think we forget this. These people that we read about in the Bible were just like us. They were living everyday lives in the moment. We live our lives in the moment. And as they were living their lives in the moment, and even when we are living our lives in the moment, we can't often see God's hand in what is happening in the present. A lot of times we can look back and we have hindsight and we can say, oh yes, I can see how God was working there and there and there, and we can look back at something and realize that God was there and God was working. But sometimes when we're in the middle of it and we're in the moment, when we're in the present, we don't see it happening. Well, I believe that that's what was going on with Esther and Mordecai in this story. As these events unfold, I think it becomes more obvious to them that indeed God's hand was upon them. I've seen this happen many times in my own life, and probably you have as well, where at some point on life's journey or in the middle of a circumstance, the light suddenly goes on. And you suddenly realize, oh, it's the Lord. I can see it now. And that's, I believe, what happens in this story. That's happened to me many different times as this sort of a progression of, or God progressively unveils His plan in what's going on. So this story, to me, is an awesome story. It's a story of good versus evil, right versus wrong. It has a lot of twists and turns in this story, and ultimately God wins out in the end. What I would like to point out as we look at this story, and we'll see as it goes on a little bit more later on, that Haman is really trying to do some things here. But he's in the midst of a chess match with God, and no one can play against God in chess and win. And so we're going to see that Haman ultimately loses in this story. Let's go ahead and jump into it. We have a lot of ground to cover tonight. Let's begin by looking at chapter 3 and verse 1. After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hamadathoth, Hamadathoth, I thought I had it practiced earlier, and the Agathites, there we go, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. I want to tie this in with verse 22 and verse 23 because it will help us in the context. But look back at verse 22 and verse 23 of chapter 2. It says, So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed and both were hanged on a gallows, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. As we look at this context here, it seems kind of odd here that Mordecai, who had done this great thing in exposing this plot to assassinate the king, they confirm, they catch the perpetrators, they have them hung on a gallows, yet Mordecai is never really acknowledged or rewarded, at least not yet. Now, we'll see that in God's time, the Lord is going to bring a reward about for Mordecai. And it's going to serve a greater purpose than just some temporary reward or a personal pat on the back. A greater good is going to come from it. And God seems to always see to that. Sometimes when we're doing right, and Mordecai did the right thing. Remember last week he exposed those guys. He heard about the plot to assassinate the king. He exposes them. But there's no reward immediately. And sometimes when we are doing the right thing, it seems like nothing good is coming from it. Abe and myself were having a conversation about something very similar to this yesterday. Sometimes it seems like you're laboring, you're really striving, you're really trying to do the right thing, you're trying to do good, and it seems like everything that you try, nothing's good coming out of it, at least in your mind, and you don't see any fruit happening. But it is of great comfort to know that God has all of this under control. Some of my favorite verses in the realm of the ministry, or even just being a Christian and walking with the Lord and doing good, are verses like Galatians 6, 9, which tells us, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 1 Corinthians 15.58 says, Dear brothers, stand firm and let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor for the Lord is not in vain. And then in 2 Chronicles 15.7 it says, But as for you, be strong, and do not give up for your work will be rewarded." So, in God's time, in God's timing, at the proper time, we will be rewarded for living for the Lord. Now, Mordecai does a great thing here, but nothing happens. But we should always live our lives, whether or not anything happens right now, or whether it's going to be that our rewards are in heaven, we should always be living our lives with that mindset that we are not going to grow weary in doing good. Now we see in this story that God makes all things beautiful in His time. You know what's amazing? I wrote this scripture down. God makes all things beautiful in His time. Wrote this scripture down, took a lunch break today. I walked in and popped on the stereo and Greg Laurie started off, I had just written it down, Greg Laurie started off his sermon today with this exact verse that God makes all things beautiful and his time is taken from the book of Ecclesiastes. So God's timing is always perfect. And I have to remind myself of that great fact often because God's timing isn't always my timing. And that's why we often must learn to wait upon the Lord. How many of you guys find it difficult to wait upon the Lord? Anybody? That's a hard one, isn't it? And yet, that's one of the great lessons that we learn in Scripture is that many times God is calling us to wait upon Him for His timing. Now, here into our story enters this guy named Haman. He becomes one of the main players in the book of Esther. This guy Haman comes, as he comes into the picture, we see here he gets promoted. Mordecai, who deserved to get promoted, gets a big fat zilch, a nada, a big nothing. And Haman gets advanced, apparently for no good reason. We're told here that he is set above the princes who were with him. Sometimes it seems in this life that there are a lot of injustices. Why would this guy get promoted? He's a wretch. And here's Mordecai who's trying to do the right thing and nothing happens. Psalm 73 is one of my favorite psalms because it really addresses that whole issue. The psalmist writes, I think it's Asaph that writes in that psalm, and he writes about how he became so bothered by the fact that here he was trying to live for God and do all the right things, and the wicked were the ones getting blessed. And he was the one going through the trials. And Mordecai must have thought like that when he watches Haman get promoted here, and he doesn't get anything out of it. Now, as he gets advanced to this place, We see though, as we go on in this story, that Haman is a real scumbag. He's a real dirtbag. He's a kind of, and he's really a politician is what he is in this story, but he's the kind of politician that gives politicians the bad reputation that politicians often have. I have really learned that lesson. It's really come screaming home a lot lately. A guy told me even this morning, I was at the gym this morning, and he said to me these very words, he said, most politicians are as far as trustworthiness are one notch below a car salesman. That's what he told me, and I thought, well, that's not very good. And, you know, a lot of people look at that. Well, this guy Haman really lived down to or up to that reputation. Look at verse 2 down to verse 4. It says, And all the king's servants who were within the king's gate bowed and paid homage to Haman. For so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. the king's servants, who were within the king's gate, said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king's command? Now it happened when they spoke to him daily, and he would not listen to them." and they told it to Haman to see whether Mordecai's words would stand. For Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew." Now remember for quite a while in our story now, Mordecai had kept the fact that he was a Jew secret. He had also kept the fact and told Esther to keep the fact that she was Jewish secret. Now as Haman is exalted here, The exaltation comes with a command from the king, much to Haman's delight, I'm sure, and I'm sure he ate it up, and all the other leaders who served the king had to bow down when Haman passed by. And everyone was doing it. Whenever Haman would pass by, all the other leaders would bow down to Haman except for one, and it was Mordecai. And when he refused, all the other leaders were told here, and we talked about this last week, but Haman sat at the gate, and that's where the leaders sat, that's where the judges sat, that's where decisions were made. So Mordecai had apparently been exalted to that place, but as Haman walks by, Mordecai refuses to bow down to him. He must have been standing on some principle. The thing is that we're not told what principle he was actually standing upon. I believe that we should be, as Christians, people of principle. And there are times when we just cannot bow down, when we just cannot compromise, even if it is the unpopular decision or it is the thing that could cost us. This is what Mordecai is doing here. He is not bowing down to Haman and he's standing upon some principle. Now the million-dollar question is why was he not bowing down and what was that principle? Now, was he not bowing down for religious reasons? That's a question. Some believe that maybe that's why he wouldn't bow down after all the Jews were only to bow down to one, to the God of heaven. It is questionable, though, whether or not this is why he wouldn't bow down, because it doesn't seem from our story, at least up to this point, that Mordecai and Esther were truly or really extremely devout, practicing Jews. But it is a possibility that that's what was going on. It could have been, others believe maybe, that it was some personal issue that Mordecai had with Haman. He just didn't like Haman or respect Haman as a person. He wasn't a very respectable person, so that may have been why he just said, you know what, I'm not going to bow down to you. You don't deserve me to bow down to you. Others think that he refused to bow down, and this is probably the most probable reason. Others believe that he did not bow down to Haman because he was an agagite. There we go, an agagite. And an agagite was Agag, remember, was the king of the Amalekites. And so you have to kind of go back into Israel's history to understand this story. It's sort of a long-standing bitterness that was going on between the Jews and the Amalekites. Back in the days of King Saul, God had commanded Saul to wipe out the Amalekites completely. That's one of those stories in, I think it's in 1 Samuel chapter 15. We've been through it and we've read about it, but it's one of those stories that is, almost anyone can read that story and go, why in the world would God have told Saul to wipe out the Amalekites like that and to kill men, women, children, animals, everything. And see, Agag was the king of the Amalekites and Saul, instead of obeying the Lord completely, brought back some of the spoils, brought back some of the lambs, and brought back the king. And Samuel came into the picture, if you remember, and rebuked Saul. And Samuel ended up lopping off the head of King Agag. Now, that may be why there is this animosity between Mordecai and Haman, because Haman was a descendant of Agag. And he was an Amalekite, and the Jews and the Amalekites did not like each other. But it may be even going further back than that. When the nation of Israel was wandering through the wilderness those 40 years, it was the Amalekites who attacked the children of Israel from their rear flanks. or their rear ranks, I mean, or flanks, I guess it could be. And they attacked them, and they attacked them where they were weakest and where they were weary. The people that were weakest were in the back, and the Amalekites came in and just attacked them and wiped out a bunch of the Jews. And so way back in the book of Exodus chapter 17 and also in Deuteronomy chapter 25 God said that he would utterly destroy them because of their treachery towards his people. That's why when you move forward to 1st Samuel chapter 15 God tells Saul to utterly wipe them out because of what they had done to the Jews in not showing mercy or sparing the women or the children or any of that. So Saul was commanded to wipe them all out, but he did not obey the Lord, and it comes back to haunt both Saul personally and also the nation of Israel because of Saul's disobedience. Saul was actually killed in battle by an Amalekite. And because the Amalekites lived, one of their descendants now, Haman, is about to be used by the devil to try to annihilate the Jews off the face of the planet in an attempt to thwart God's plan to send the Redeemer, the Savior, who came from the Jews. So there's a lot going on in this story, a lot more than we see on the surface. There's a lot of history involved, and there's a lot of spiritual warfare involved in this story as well. Now, it's interesting that Saul was a Benjamite, And so is Mordecai. So God's going to use Mordecai, a Benjamite, to destroy Haman, the Amalekite, like it was supposed to happen in the first place. Now, today the Jews celebrate. They have different things that they celebrate. They have different feasts and things. And one of the feasts that they celebrate, or their celebrations, is Purim. And now, during the Feast of Purim, the book of Esther is read. It's kind of neat when you look at what the Jews do today. They read the book of Esther during this feast, and every time Haman's name is spoken, they have a tradition. Every time the name of Haman is spoken, the people stomp their feet and they all say out loud simultaneously, may his name be blotted out. So you can imagine, you're reading through the book of Esther, Haman's name is read, and all of a sudden everyone stomps their feet, may his name be blotted out. because Haman really became the symbol of anti-Semitism. that has existed throughout history and will culminate when the Antichrist tries to destroy the nation of Israel, but Jesus is going to return and defeat him and cast him into the lake of fire there in the book of Revelation. We'll get to that later on in our study through the book of Revelation. So Jesus is ultimately going to rescue the Jews, and they will finally acknowledge that He is their Messiah. So this is probably why Mordecai refused to bow, because of the long-standing animosity between their peoples. Look at verse 5 and verse 6. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai." We'll stop right there just for a little bit. We see Haman here is a very, very vile and a very vengeful man. It's not enough for him to get back at Mordecai for not bowing before him. Now he comes up with this evil plan to totally destroy the entire Jewish nation that was living there in the provinces that were under the king. There were 127 provinces. The nation of Israel had been exiled to Babylon. Babylon had been defeated by the Persians and now Persia ruled. And there were lots of Jews that were still living in the Persian Empire. Some estimate as many as 16 million Jews were still living there during that time. So, Haman's plan is to kill every single Jew, man, woman, and child. This guy had a lot of hatred and a lot of animosity in his heart. You ever wonder why the Jews have been so hated throughout history? Well, there's some reasons, I believe, and one of those reasons is because they are the originator and the keeper of God's Word. They're also, we're told, the chosen people of God. They are the apple of God's eye. They are the heart and the soul of God's plan and biblical prophecy. which is centered on the Jews and centered on a Savior that would come from the Jews. And that Savior, of course, is Jesus Christ. Salvation is of Israel, because Jesus was Jewish. I remember one time I was talking to this Catholic lady, and this Catholic lady said, Jesus was a Catholic. I said, no, he was a Jew, you know. It was so funny. People have a lot of ignorance about things. But, you know, Jesus was Jewish. Salvation is of the Jews. So Satan has inspired anti-Semitism. Because he hates God. He hates God's people. And he hates God's people, both Jews and Christians. We have been grafted in to the nation of Israel. We're also sons of Abraham by faith. So, this whole idea of anti-Semitism or hatred against Christianity is prevalent around the world even today. As you look at what's going on in the world today, Even in good old Silver City, there are people that hate Christians. You know how I know that? I found that out in the last several weeks. I've been going door-to-door and I had the door slammed, even myself, I've had the door slammed in my face three times now because I'm a pastor, Christian, and a candidate that's a Christian. And there are a lot of God-haters in this world. It's alive and well. People that hate the Lord, people that hate Jews, and people that hate Christians. So the evil wheels of Haman's mind begin to form this evil conspiracy against the Jews. I believe it's satanically inspired. Satan was using him. It reminds me of the words, like I said earlier in Psalm 73, that whole psalm is speaking about the wickedness of man's heart. And it says there, the callous heart, from their callous hearts comes iniquity, and the evil conceits of their minds knows no limits. And so we see here this evil that is permeating from this man Haman and Satan. We're told about Satan that he takes people captive to do his bidding, to do his will. He takes people, prisoners, to carry out his purposes. Just like God uses people, understand that Satan will use people too. A lot of times we don't recognize that, but we are in a spiritual battle. The Bible does tell us that our battle is not against flesh and blood. However, Sometimes the battle manifests in flesh and blood. Sometimes the battle manifests in the physical realm, and Satan will use people just like the Lord uses people. God wants to use us. We're led by the Spirit. God wants to use us as His instruments. Well, Satan has his instruments as well, and Haman was one of those That's why, as I look at what's going on in the world today, some of what's going on in the world today is pretty scary, because I really believe that Satan's got a lot of these leaders in the palm of his hand, and he's using them for his purposes. Look at verse 7. It says, In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast per, that is, the lot before Haman, to determine the day and the month until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. What's going on here? The Persians were very superstitious. They practiced and they worshiped the worship of idols. They practiced the occult. What they do here is they cast the lot to see what day they would carry out this murderous plot of Haman. Now, it does give the Jews some time here, and the Bible does say that the lot is in the hands of the Lord even, so God overrides their little evil plan here, and all of these things begin to fall into place. Look at verse 8, down to verse 15. We'll read it. We'll kind of comment on it. It says, Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered... Now, notice he doesn't say that they're Jewish. He just says, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from all other people's, and they do not keep the king's laws. Therefore, it is not fitting, or is it not fitting for the king to let, it is not fitting for the king to let them remain." So, he plants this thought in the king's mind, that there's a group of people in this kingdom of yours that are going to be trouble to you. They don't obey the laws. They're different than anyone else. They're a bunch of troublemakers. Now, so he plants this evil thought in the king's mind. Now, what we've seen about Ahasuerus is that he was very easily swayed. Remember when his leaders came up to him and said, well, you ought to kick out your wife and pick a new king. You know, he seemed to just go with whatever anyone said. Verse 9, if it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed. and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work to bring it into the king's treasuries." So he offers to pay big bucks here to those that would carry out the work and the money would then go into the king's treasuries. Now, this also probably was somewhat of a temptation for the king because they had just lost a war remember to Greece, to Alexander the Great. They fought against him, they lost the war, and they were probably, you know, kind of hurting for finances, and so he says, look, I'll pay you a lot of money. I'll pay the people money to do this. Now what he offers here is a lot of bucks. 10,000 talents of silver. That's about two-thirds, historians tell us, about two-thirds of the annual income of the entire nation of Persia. This man, Haman, was extremely, extremely wealthy. And often riches equals power. And he offers here about 750 thousand pounds of silver. That's millions and millions of dollars into the king's coffers to accomplish this purpose, this evil purpose. Verse 10, So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of whatever that guy's name is. The Agagite. There we go. The enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, the money and the people are given to you. Do with them as seems good to you. Then the king's scribes were called in the thirteenth day of the first month. So he gives them the green light. He says, go for it. He says, go ahead and carry out the plan. Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded." This guy totally gets his own way. This whole evil plot that he plotted up in his mind is being carried out now because the king gave him the green light. So he commands to the king's satraps, to the governors who were over each province, and to the officials of all the people, to every province according to its script, and to every people in their language. Now remember, he was king over 127 different provinces that they had conquered. So there was a lot of different languages, a lot of different dialects. So there was a lot to be done here as far as making this a law now and setting that law into each of these different provinces. It says, in the name of the king Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king's signet ring, verse 13. And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions. So they send out, now remember back then they didn't have faxes, they didn't have telephones, they didn't have email, so they had to send out this letter by horseback or donkey or camels to all these 127 provinces. So this is going to take a little bit of time to get it out there, but they have time. They're going to do it all and murder and slaughter every Jew on that same day. Verse 14, a copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day. The couriers went out, hastened by the king's command, and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan, the citadel. So the king and Haman, now this is kind of creepy here, you know, after he accomplishes this wicked thing to literally kill millions upon millions of innocent people, It says, so the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed. The NIV says that they were bewildered, the people, because the people were saying, why? These people haven't done any evil. They haven't done anything wrong. Why in the world would the king all of a sudden issue this decree to kill all the Jews? The people were perplexed about it. Chapter 4. It says, "'When Mordecai learned all that happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry.'" Think about this. Put yourself in Mordecai's shoes. His act, that one act of not bowing down, whether it was personal or spiritual or cultural, causes the decree to go out to murder every Jew man, woman, and child. And Haman had the money, he had the power, and he had the influence over the king. And as we look at this story, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts. Absolutely, how true that is. So all of this havoc comes from one evil man, and one evil man and the devil's hand can do a lot of damage. So Mordecai feels that it's his fault. He has to feel that way. That's a pretty heavy responsibility to bear on your shoulders. And I believe that it's here, though, that things will begin to change because of His response. And over and over, when you look at how the Jews responded to God, whenever they would turn their hearts to God, whenever they would respond correctly to God, over and over we see the same thing happen. And God always takes note of it. When men will humble themselves and when men will come to the Lord At the end of themselves, when men will cry out to God, God always sees that and God always hears that when men humble themselves. So this is what He does here. He tears His clothes. He puts on sackcloth and ashes and He went out into the midst of the city. He's crying out with a loud and a bitter cry. Kind of a wailing cry. Sackcloth was something that they put on when they were in mourning or when they were repentant before God. It was made of goat's hair. It was extremely pokey and itchy. And they wore it as an outward sign of humility and mourning. And it was very uncomfortable to the flesh. Now Mordecai walks through the streets crying out loud with this bitter cry. Why? Because it was a bitter moment. It was a moment of remorse. It was a moment of sorrow. Desperate times, desperate measures. Be aware of this. As we look at what's going on here in this story, and the anti-Semitism that is in this story, that is going to happen again during the seven-year tribulation period. It's going to happen again towards the believers, and there will be believers during the tribulation period that become believers during the tribulation period that miss the rapture of the church. And there's going to be persecution. But you know what? There could be persecution that comes before all of that happens, before the rapture of the church. I'm not counting out the fact that if things don't change in America and we keep going farther and further away from God, that some of these great evils that are on the horizon, that are on the rise that people are trying to bring before Congress and trying to make laws, pass laws against Christians, There's a lot of anti-Christ stuff going on in our nation today that we might be the ones putting on sackcloth and weeping out loud pretty soon if things don't change. We might become the ones that are being persecuted, especially, and I want to say this to all you guys that are Christians in this room, especially if we keep sitting on our hands and sitting back and doing nothing and being apathetic and indifferent. I believe that the church, we the Christians in this nation, we better wake up and we better fight the good fight of faith. Helen Keller said, Science may have found a cure for many evils, but it has not found a cure or a remedy for the worst of all evils, and that is apathy. Apathy is an evil. When we don't do anything, when we don't say anything, if we don't stand up, If we don't do anything, we might become the tyrannized of the silent. Because we are silent, we will then become victims of tyranny. Look at verse 2. It says in verse 2, And he went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. So they had a lot of rules. And he comes to the king's gate where he had normally served as a leader. But now he could not enter in clothed like he was clothed. Now, that's kind of interesting. Why did they have that rule that you could not enter into the king's gate in sackcloth? Well, I found out just from studying that historians tell us again that the Persian kings were protected and sheltered from any bad news or from sorrow. So, they didn't like anything bad, so they protected them. So nothing bad could come into the gate. Never bad news could ever enter in. So they were sheltered from that. So that's why they made that rule. So here he is now in sackcloth. He's weeping his mourning. But he cannot enter in to the king's gate. Look at verse 3. It says, And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing. And many lay in sackcloth and ashes. For the Jewish people, this was a national day of mourning, a national tragedy. Imagine, let's just kind of bring it to 2008. All of a sudden, when do they inaugurate the next president? Is it in January? January what? About the 20th? Let's just say that on January the 20th, let's just pretend, that on January the 20th, when the new president gets inaugurated, that all the Christians, a decree goes out for all Christians in the United States to be killed and all of their goods to be plundered. Men, women, children, dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, everything. Everything that we have, everything that we are, we all get wiped out. How do you think that we would feel if a decree came out like that? You can imagine how the Jews felt when this decree came out there in Persia. What would we do? See, it was decreed into Persian law, which was irrevocable, at least by men's standards. You see, men could not override the law once it was given. But what's awesome about this story is that God could. Never forget, with God, nothing is impossible. Luke 137 tells us that. Nothing. The word nothing is an important word in that verse. With God, nothing is impossible. And I love Romans 8.31, it says, if God is for us, what? Who can be against us, right? If God is for us, who can be against us? And Isaiah 54.17 says, no weapon forged against us shall prevail. So the whole of the nation of the Jews humbles themselves before God. They all do the same thing that Mordecai was doing. Now, even though God's not mentioned in our story, I believe the intent of what they're doing is turning towards God. They're crying out to God for help. Now, next, we see that Queen Esther catches wind of what's going on. Look at verse 4. It says, So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. She's sad. She's like, why is he so bummed out? Why is he crying? Why is he weeping? It's apparently she doesn't know the whole story yet. And so she just wants to, you know, Mordecai raised her. That's like her dad. And she's like, send him out some clothes, take him some clothes to put some clothes on. Verse five, then Esther called Hathak, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai to learn what and why this was. What's going on? Why is he weeping? So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king's gate. And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him. and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her. and that he might command her to go into the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people." So Mordecai says, look, he gives a message to this guy, this eunuch, and says, tell her everything that's going on and she has to go and plead for us before her husband, the king. Now, notice the response, though, in verse 9. So Hathak returned. Man, these names are so hard. Now, "...returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spoke to Hathak and gave him a command for Mordecai." So they're conversing back and forth. Rather than her going out to meet him, they're just sending this guy back and forth with these messages, back and forth, back and forth. And so she sends a message back, verse 11. And she says, all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king who has not been called, he has but one law, put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 days. She sends a message back to Mordecai and says, Mordecai, look, I can't just walk into the king's presence. You know the law. If I walk in and I just walk straight in, anyone that does that will be killed. They can be killed instantly. So, you know, the king, the king back then had supreme authority and supreme power. Even if his wife went in and he was in a bad mood that day, he was a goner. The only way that she could go into His presence is if He called her or if she went in and He extended that royal, the golden scepter to her, then she would survive. Verse 12, So they told Mordecai Esther's words. So it seems to me that Esther here at the beginning at least is a little bit hesitant. She's a little bit concerned. She's a little bit concerned for her own life. But think about it. How many lives were on the line They're amongst the Jewish people. Tons and tons of lives are on the line. So she's a little bit concerned about going in. Look at verse 13, And Mordecai told them to answer Esther, Do you think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews? He says, Look, Esther, you're a Jew too. The decree is to kill every single Jew. And when the king finds out that you're Jewish, and you've been keeping it hidden all this time, as I told you to do, but when he finds out that you're Jewish, don't think that you're going to get away. You're going to escape being killed as well. Verse 14, For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. But you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to this kingdom for such a time as this." This is one of the greatest verses in all the Bible when we talk about the providence of God. God had raised Esther up. God had given Esther her beauty. All of these things had happened, and God was the one moving the pieces. And we look at this story here, and Mordecai, he reasons with her. And he says, look, if you remain silent, then relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. Many believe that Mordecai had understood the promise of God to the nation of Israel, the promise that God had given to Abraham that God was going to watch over and to protect the nation. So Mordecai basically says to Esther, look, you have an opportunity here to be used by God. But if you refuse to be used by God, God will just deliver us from some other way. And you know, I thought to myself, I wonder how many times that's happened in our lives, where God desires to use us. He wants to use us. But because of fear or for whatever selfish reason that we have, we decide, no, I'm not going to be the one. You know what? If we don't get used by God, I'll raise somebody else to be used. So we have to be willing to say, OK, Lord, use me however you want to use me. And so he kind of, you know, gives her a little bit of a nudge here, a little bit of an exhortation. We talked about the gift of exhortation in the New Testament, but he gives her some exhortation here. So he says, look, if you don't do it, someone else, God will use someone else. Yet, who knows, he says. Whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this, and how awesome this is what he tells her, that God has placed you in your position as the queen for this very moment in history. God's going to use you if you will let Him. And so it's really neat. You know, look at your own life. You know, God has placed us in this generation, in this time, because what does God want to do? He wants to use us to reach our generation with the gospel. You know, you have influence over people's lives, whether you realize it or not. You, as a Christian, have influence. And God wants to use you to influence other people. Whether it be you, Bob, on the golf course, or, you know, you, Jesse, as you're out working in the community, or Debbie and Tamara as teachers, Shane, as he's helping people in his job. You know, all of us have influence over people's lives. And God wants to use us. And so God has raised us up for such a time as this. And this generation that we live in, to me, is such an exciting time in history because we look at what's going on in our culture and Bible prophecy and all that's happening in these last days that we live in. God wants to use this generation of Christians to make a difference in this world. I really believe that. But we can't sit back and not do anything. And we have to get over apathy. We have to get over indifference and we have to be willing to get involved. And so he challenges her with this awesome challenge. Verse 15, Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai. They're going back and forth, back and forth. Verse 16, Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. I love that. She says, look, pray for me, fast for me. I'm going to fast too. I think that that's something that we as Christians have really lost. Not many of us do this, do we? We pander and cater to the flesh. I used to fast a lot. And I have to admit that I don't fast like I should anymore. But I think that there's times when fasting is very appropriate, when we ought to fast and we really ought to seek the Lord. You know, when something's going on that we should fast and then we should pray. And that's what's going on here. She says, look, declare a three day fast. where there's not anything, no eating or drinking. Now it's tough not to drink for three days. You could kill yourself almost. You should be careful with this. But she declares this as the queen for Mordecai to go out and to declare a fast and that she was going to herself fast. And she said, you know what, I'm going to do it. She made up her mind that she was going to stand up. She was going to do the right thing, even if it cost her. And sometimes that's the choice that we have. Sometimes the right thing for us may mean it's going to cost us something. It may mean sacrifice. And in this case, she said, if I perish, I perish. She was willing to literally do the right thing even if it cost her her very life. I am resolved that I'm going to do the right thing, and if I perish, I perish. I wish more of us Christians had that resolve in our hearts. I'm going to serve the Lord. I'm going to do the right thing. And if I perish, I perish. Verse 17. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him. Now we don't have time to go on to the next chapter, but it gets really cool after this. I wish we could do it. It's really exciting. I love this story. It's so cool. Just read it. Just see how God works. It's like amazing. all the stuff that happens. And so next time we'll look at verse chapters 5, maybe chapter 6. And it's so awesome what God does as these people say, okay, Lord, I'm going to do the right thing. And I believe that a lot of times when we're scared to do the right thing, but once we do the right thing, we meet God there. God's there. The hard part is to take the step of faith and actually say, I'm going to do it. And then once you do it, then you find God's there. So that's the cool part about this story is that God wants to use ordinary people, God wants to use our lives, but what God is really looking for, He's not really looking for ability as much as He is looking for availability. So as we close tonight and we finish off this study, I believe that we can gain from this story great confidence as the people of God. We can gain great confidence in the faithfulness and the trustworthiness of God. And as we keep reading, you guys read ahead, and you'll see how awesome God works and how awesome God comes through. And as you read this story, let your faith be built up. J. Bernard McGee points out in his commentary about the Jews, and I love what he says about the Jews. He says this in his commentary. He says, The Jew has attended the funeral of every one of the nations that tried to exterminate them. Isn't that awesome? Everyone that tried to wipe the Jews out, they've been to their funeral. Because God was on their side. And we are the people of God. We haven't replaced the Jews. We're part of one big family of the people of God. So God is on our side. And so, God blessed Israel. And God, today God, we're told that God will bless those that bless Israel. God will curse those that curse Israel. But I believe that that could apply to the church as well. So Jesus promised. Remember Jesus promised to the church? We just read it in Philadelphia. Really cool promise there. He promises to the church, He says that those who would make, that there would come a day when He would make even our enemies to come and worship before us at our feet and acknowledge that Jesus Christ has loved us. So the next time some evil person slams you, just remember that. You don't have to tell them that. Someday you're going to bow before me. You don't have to tell them that, but just remember that. That the enemies of God someday will pay. And there's going to be a day when God is going to exalt His faithful. So let's be in that group that are living faithful lives to the Lord. And God will be with us as we do it, even as we see in this great story that we've looked at tonight. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time in your Word. It's just been a great blessing. I love this story, Lord. I thank you for it. Lord, it's so exciting and so encouraging, Lord, to look at your Word and the great things that you do. Lord, when we are willing to trust in you, to cry out to you, to take a step of faith and to just literally say, Lord, if I perish, I perish serving God. Help us to have that heart, Lord. Help us to live with that zeal and that passion. Help us, Lord, not to live lukewarm Christian lives. Help us to be on fire for you, Lord, and to be living our lives totally sold out for you, not ashamed of the gospel. Lord, help us not to to love our lives so much as that we would shrink from death, but to be willing to literally die to ourselves to really live for you full on. So we ask for your help. We ask for the empowerment of the spirit. and the enablement of your spirit. To live in this world as Christians, in Silver City, every one of us in this room, Lord. To live as Christians in our town, in our families, that would be bold and make a difference for the Kingdom of God. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.