“Who Knows?” [Matt's Messages]

“Who Knows?”

Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen Esther

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

November 9, 2025 :: Esther 4:1-17  

What was troubling Mordecai?

By verse 5 of chapter 4, Queen Esther wants to know. But we already know what is troubling Mordecai: 

The genocide of the Jews has been placed on the calendar.

The people of God are in grave danger. We read last week that Queen Esther’s cousin Mordecai, who had raised her since her parents died, had refused to honor Haman, the enemy of the Jews.

And Haman who had been promoted to the top spot in the kingdom, like a Grand Vizier, had become enraged by Mordecai’s actions and hatched a plot to exterminate all of the Jews. Not just Mordecai and his family, not just the Jews in the capital city of Susa, but the Jews throughout the Persian kingdom from India to Ethiopia which included all of the Jews in Israel.

And this Haman, full of hate, manipulated King Xerxes (also know as Ahasuerus) to hand over to him the executive authority to carry out mass executions.

They rolled the dice. They cast the lot. They cast the “pur.”  And it “just so happened” to land on Adar 13th. Eleven months from now. The clock of death has started ticking down. 

The royal order has been signed on Passover Eve, Nisan 13th, and sent out by couriers to every corner of the kingdom. And it says in all the languages, by irrevocable royal decree of the king of kings in Persia, King Xerxes I, that everyone in this kingdom is ordered “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods” (Esther 3:13).

The evil genocide of the Jews has been placed on the calendar. That’s what was troubling Mordecai. And it was troubling all of the Jews and even many of their pagan neighbors. 

Last week, we ended with a cliffhanger. While Xerxes and Haman are partying it up and drinking away, the city of Susa was bewildered.

The Persians are wondering what this means for them. Will they have to  kill their Jewish neighbors, young and old? And who is next? If Haman and Xerxes can just purge an entire race, who might be next in line? [I got this insight from Mike Cosper.]

And even more bewildered and terrified are the Jews. What can they do? Can they run away? Can they hide? Can they try to mount a defense? Against all of the Persians, the greatest world power of the day? The kingdom of bronze? The two-horned ram? The bear-like beast? What can the Jews do?

They can mourn. That’s what they can do. They can prepare to die. They can ready themselves for thousands and thousands of funerals. Death looms over them, and they feel it.

And they feel the question, “Where is God?”

Why is He letting this happen?

Where did He go?

Does He even exist?

Why isn’t He doing something?

Where is God?

Have you felt that question? Recently? If you haven’t felt it yet, just wait.

Now, chapter 4 is probably the most famous and familiar chapter in the Book of Esther.

Chances are if you know any line from the Book of Esther, you know one or two from this very chapter. It’s famous for a good reason. (For such a time as this, right?)

Well, that’s all the more reason to remember to pretend as we read that you don’t know what is going to happen. Because the people hearing the story for the first time didn’t know what was going to happen. And a story is almost always better if you don’t know the ending in advance.

But even more importantly, the people in the story did not know what was going to happen!

Mordecai sure didn’t. Mordecai even says (in verse 14) that he doesn’t know. He says the words, “Who knows?”

“Who knows?”

Who knows why this or that has happened?

Who knows what is going to happen?

Who knows the future?

Mordecai didn’t know what was going to happen, and so he mourned. And he took action.

This chapter is full of courage. We’re going to see real courage on display. 

Real courage is often different from what we expect it to be. Everybody has a mental image of courage, and but real thing doesn’t always look like you might think. 

As we read through this chapter, keep your eyes peeled for real courage.

Like, for example, the courage to be vulnerable.

Mordecai mourns. Look with me at verse 1 of chapter 4.

“When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king's gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it” (vv.1-2).

It think this took courage.

Have you ever been so upset that you tore your clothes? Ruined your good clothes on purpose? That’s what Mordecai did. The Jews did this to express great emotion, and so did the Persians. The historian Herodotus says that the Persians ripped their clothes when they lost their wars to the Greeks. 

And Mordecai went way beyond that. He changed his clothes into scratchy clothes. “Sackcloth” is like scratchy clothes made out of goat or camel hair. So that you may be covered, but you are never comfortable. Your clothes on the outside feel like you do on the inside. In distress.

And he went to his fireplace and smeared ashes all over himself. What a sight! And he didn’t stay at home. He went out into the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. He’s howling.

Have you ever howled in pain and sorrow? I have. When our first daughter died in utero, I wailed in that hospital room. And I did the same when I came back from the scene of Blair Murray’s plane crash.

Mordecai took this wailing into the streets right up to the king’s gate.

Why didn’t he go in? That’s his workplace. He’s got the access codes. Because they had a law that you couldn’t go in there if you were wearing sackcloth. Your access codes don’t work if you are in mourning. The king didn’t want to see that.  Only “shiny happy” people are allowed inside the king’s gate. 

And Mordecai was anything but happy. And neither were any of the Jews. Verse 3.

“In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

Many were probably saying, “Where is God?” Some of them were saying, “We are sorry, God.” I’m sure that most of them were saying, “Please help us, God!”

You know, this chapter comes the closest of all of the chapters in the book of Esther to actually naming God and talking about...prayer.

We’ve already learned that the name of God never appears in the Book of Esther. And neither does the word, “prayer” or “pray.” Not once. But there is a word here that is so very often linked to the word “prayer” in the rest of the Bible. What is it?

“Fasting.” Fasting is the deliberate choice to not eat for a good reason. And the reason is often, in the Bible, to express sorrow, heartache, mourning, and...repentance to God. And to put an exclamation mark onto our prayers.

Fasting is like an exclamation mark to our prayers!

These three exact same words, “fasting, weeping, and wailing” appear here in Esther 4 and also in the book of Joel chapter 2, verses 12 through 15 where the Prophet writes, “‘Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and [wailing].’ Rend your heart and not your garments. [I think he means not just your garments.] Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing...” (Joel 2:12-15a).

Who knows? Perhaps verse 3 is hinting that the Jews were repenting all over the kingdom. And they were asking God to rescue them once again.

Remember, so many of them were still in exile because of the broken covenant. All of them were in distress. And that distress reaches the ears of Queen Esther. Look at verse 4.

“When Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.”

Esther is worried. “He can’t stay out there like that. Why is he dressed like that? He’s so conspicuous like that. He’s drawing attention to himself. I know he doesn’t bow to Haman, but this is going to get every eye in the citadel focused on him. He’s going to get into trouble.” 

Esther is bewildered. She sends down new clean clothes for Mordecai so that he can come inside and maybe then they can talk. But if he’s dressed like that, she can’t come anywhere near him.

Remember, she has been keeping her Jewish identity secret because Mordecai told her to. "Why is he is drawing attention to himself like that?"

Is it possible that Esther has not heard? I think it’s quite possible. Mordecai just found out in verse 1. And Esther is sequestered in the harem. She is sheltered from a lot of what goes on outside in the rest of the kingdom. 

And most people might not have thought to tell her about the king’s edict because why would it affect her? She’s all Persian. They don’t know that she is Hadassah.

But she will soon find out what’s up. She springs into action, calling a trustworthy messenger named “Hathach.” Verse 5.

“Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.”

It’s a good thing Hathach is trustworthy because there have been a number of “bad eggs” in this administration. Remember Bigthana and Teresh from chapter 2?

Hathach is a good go-between, and he will get his steps in running back and forth between the two cousins. Look at verse 6.

And, remember, everybody be ready to drown out the name of Haman with boos and hisses when we reach verse 7. He is only named once in this chapter so we only have one chance to “diss” the enemy of the Jews. V.6.

“So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people” (vv.6-8).

Mordecai lays it all out to Hathach to explain to Esther.

It’s interesting that he gives him a copy of the edict and asks him to explain it to her. It’s quite possible that Esther has never been taught to read. Even though she’s a queen.

Maybe she can read, but Mordecai wants to make sure that she understands. On Adar 13th, all of the Jews are going to be annihilated. Haman has told her husband that the Jews are problematic and need to be exterminated, and he’s told her husband that he will raise 2/3 of the annual kingdom budget by doing this mass murder. And now she knows.

By the way, this is a good reminder to check your sources when you hear bad news. Don’t believe every bad story that you hear, especially online, especially if it’s something that you want to believe, that confirms your prior opinion. We need to deal with facts not rumors and gossip.

Out in the open square, Mordecai lays out the facts for Hathach to lay out for Queen Esther. 

And more than that, Mordecai urges Esther to act. He urges Esther to do the exact opposite of what he has always told her to do up until now. He encourages her to out herself as as Jew and assume her true identity in public before the king.

“[G]o into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.” 

Think about this:

Esther’s own husband almost certainly doesn’t know that she is a Jew. If he did know, it’s not how he thinks about her. He only knows her as Esther, not as Hadassah.

It must have been so hard for Mordecai to give these instructions to Esther. It took courage to go weeping and wailing through the city and out in the open square to lay out the problem and send his beloved Esther whom he has always protected to what might mean her death. Because that’s what Esther hears. Look at verse 9.

“Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, ‘All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king’” (vv.9-11).

“You understand, cousin Mordecai, what you are asking me to do? I can’t just waltz in there any time I want. I have to be summoned. He calls for me. I don’t just go to him. And he hasn’t called for me in a month. We’ve been married for five years. He might be getting tired of me and thinking about holding another contest. I’m getting older and he likes them young.”

And we think, why she didn’t just ask for an audience? Why didn’t she go through some official channels to see if it would be okay if she stopped by with a request? Well, who do you think manages the official channels? Probably a guy named Haman.

Here’s the rule. If you come into the king’s presence without being summoned, then you end up like Bigthana and Teresh hanging in the front yard. This protects not just the king’s time but his life. Access to the king is very limited. Unless the king is feeling merciful. And Ahasuerus was not known for his mercy.

Esther doesn’t want to go. This feels like a bad idea. It’s risky. It’s dangerous. Remember what happened to Vashti? This could turn out much worse!

Mordecai knows all that. Mordecai feels all of that. He doesn’t dispute it. But he thinks it’s the less worse choice. And so he urges her in no uncertain terms to be courageous. Verse 12.

“When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: ‘Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?’” (vv.12-14).

That’s one of the greatest speeches in the Bible and in human history. And it marks a turning point in the story. And to think it was sent through intermediaries! Ash-covered Mordecai standing there in his scratchy clothes is, from a distance, trying to persuade Queen Esther to risk it all.

He starts by saying, “Yes, you might die, but you’re probably going die either way. Your Jewishness will come out sooner or later. Your connection with me is known, and I’m out. And soon I’ll be dead. There are no safe choices here. I can’t protect you. In fact, if you remain silent, you and your father’s family will perish. That’s me, I was his brother. We will perish. I can just about guarantee it. You will be siding with Haman against your real people. You will go down."

But notice this little glimmer of hope! Did you catch it? I always focus on “for such a time as this,” and it’s easy to miss the “relief and deliverance” thing. Look closely at verse 14 again.

“...if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place...”

What’s he talking about? Mordecai believes that the Jews are going to be saved. Mordecai believes that the Jews will experience “relief and deliverance.” Maybe not all of them, but enough of them!

He doesn’t say why. He doesn’t have to. We can guess. 

Maybe it’s because there is Someone Who loves them. Maybe it’s because there is Someone Who has promised to preserve them even in exile. Maybe it’s because there is Someone Who has promised to send a Messiah to save them once and for all. And that Messiah must be Jewish Himself.

So, “relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place...” If not from her then from somewhere else.

You see how close He comes to naming the LORD?! He can’t help it. The LORD may be hidden, but He’s still there. And He still has a plan. And who knows? Maybe the plan includes Queen Esther.

Who knows? That’s what Mordecai says. Verse 14.

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?'"

Just think about your life, Hadassah. What are the chances that chapter 1 of this tale would happen? What are the chances that chapter 2 of this tale would happen?

How is that you were taken? How is that you have found favor with everyone? How is that you have found favor with the king so many times? If not in the last 30 days? Remember, there is no such thing as coincidence and there is no such thing as chance. But there is a such a thing as providence. 

Who knows? Maybe Somebody has been moving things around (including you and me) for such a time as this, for this particular situation? You have been exalted and embedded into the very palace of the king. I kind of doubt that that’s an accident.”

Now, let me you ask all of you.

Does Mordecai know that Esther is going to save the Jews? No, he most certainly does not. 

He says, “Who knows?” And the answer to that question is:

#1. WE DON’T.

We sure don’t. 

Mordecai didn’t know what was going to happen. Not down to the details. He believed that the Jews were going to be saved, and he believed that enough that you could say he knew it, but not how and not by whom or not from where. Maybe from Esther. But just maybe. He didn’t know. He didn’t know if she was there to change things or for some other reason or reasons.

Life is like that. There is so much we don’t know. Why are we placed in certain situations? I don’t know. Why are you and I in this family or this church or this job right now? Who knows?

I can guess. Sometimes it will be abundantly clear a least for a moment, especially in retrospect.  But most of the time, it will not. And that’s why so often it will take courage for us to do the right thing.

Because courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing the right thing even when you are afraid. Real courage is doing what you think is the right thing even though you don’t know what will happen if you do it.

Like our veterans. When you go off to serve your country, you don’t know if you are coming back. Many do come back, some do not. You don’t know. That’s one of the reasons why we honor you who have served. Thank you once again for your service. Thank you for your courage.

Real courage is often when you don’t know the outcome, and you still do what you believe you should do.

And now is the moment in this story for Queen Esther to choose. Look at verse 15.

“Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ‘Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’ So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.”

It’s interesting that verse 14 was the last time in this book that Mordecai was giving the instructions.

Now Esther is. And Mordecai is carrying them out.

Queen Esther comes to the crossroads of her life, the defining moment, and she chooses to be brave.

Esther takes a deep breath and steps up and says, “Ok. Here we go. First things first, let’s all fast. [And you and I know what that means. Wink, wink. The storyteller won’t use the P word, but we know. Three days of no food for any of the Jews. That’s extreme! And no food for Esther and her beauty team? These are the gals who had the special food in chapter 2. Now, they take no food.]

And then Esther will take her life in her hands and go see the king.

And she just knows that she will prevail, right? No. She does not know! She hopes. She prays. She asks others to pray. I mean “fast.” But she doesn’t know what will happen. That’s what makes this courageous.

And that why she’s a great example for every Christian woman and every Christian man and every Christian child. 

“If I perish, well, okay. Then I perish.”

Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).

We don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. We’re going to do the right thing anyway. Because who knows? Maybe Someone is going to use this to do His thing!

Where do you need to be courageous these days?

Do you need to be more vulnerable? Mordecai really set himself up by putting himself out there in sackcloth and ashes. Crying in public. That’s not a power move. That’s a weakness move. Same thing with fasting. It takes courage to be vulnerable.

To humble yourself before someone who could hurt you–maybe with their words? Maybe with some piece of information about you that you believe you should share, but you’re scared because you don’t know what will happen?

It takes courage to identify with the people of God. Sometimes it takes real courage to tell people that you are a Christian.

“You’re one of those? Okay.”

It takes real courage to not just remain silent. Sometimes it takes real courage to share the gospel with your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member. Especially if they haven’t asked you for it. Because you don’t know how they are going to react.

“What if they ask a question I don’t the answer to?”

Esther would say, “That’s your big worry? Say, ‘If I don’t know the answer, then I don’t know the answer.’”

“If I perish, I perish.”

You don’t have to almost die to be courageous. You just have to do the right thing not knowing what might happen next. To say the thing that needs said.

Not just the gospel--though that’s the main thing--and the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

But we also sometimes need to say a hard word about lots of other things. Standing up to a bully. Speaking out for the vulnerable.

There are times when we need to confront a loved one about something they are doing that is destructive for themselves or someone else.

And we don’t know how it will be received.

We don’t know.

But we do know that the Lord has placed us in their lives and, maybe, for such a time as this. We are not here by accident. There is no such thing as coincidence and no such thing as chance. That doesn’t mean that we know why we are placed here, but we do know that we have been placed.

Do the thing that only you can do.

Only you are uniquely placed in your situation, whether you got there by pain or by pleasure. By being taken or being favored. For Esther it was both!

Where have you been placed? You might feel like it’s hard to relate to Esther. You haven’t been placed in a palace. But you also haven’t been asked to advocate for all of the Jews in the world either.

Where have you been placed? What power have you been given? Are you using it?

The courageous thing you are supposed to do could seem like a little thing, but it feels risky. Or it could seem really big. Big or small, do it!

Some people act like they are being courageous, but they are really just showing off. We call that “virtue signaling” or “being performative.” The real test of courage is when you don’t know if you will get any “likes” for it. We need to say the thing we should say that could get us into real trouble.

And do the thing we know we should do even if we don’t know what will happen as a result. 

Fear and worry tell us that they know what’s going to happen. “Bad things are going to happen.” Don’t listen to them! They don’t know what’s going to happen.

#2. GOD DOES.

Only God does. 

The Book of Esther doesn’t say His name, but we are allowed to here. We know the One who knows the future. We know that has given us His great and precious promises, and He knows how He will bring them all to pass.

I have this little saying that I use. “I don’t know the future, but I know the One who holds the future in His hands.” And that’s good enough. The Lord knows.

True hope is trusting in God’s promises and His knowledge of how He will work everything out for His glory and our good.

And I think Mordecai had that kind of hope because he said, “[R]elief and deliverance...will arise from another place” with or without Esther’s help.

And that kind of real hope can engender in us real courage.

There is another kind of real courage. And that’s when you absolutely do know that the worst thing is still going to happen even if you do the right thing and you still do the right thing.

That’s the kind of courage that Jesus had. Because unlike Mordecai or Esther, Jesus knew. Jesus knew He was going to perish. His courage was even greater because He knew what was going to happen when He went to the Cross. He was going to die for our sins in our place. He wasn’t going to get out of it at the last second. He was going to endure the pain and the shame.

And then He also knew that He would rise again. So that all of us who put their faith and trust in Him can know our ultimate future, too.

We’re going to leave Esther right here in chapter 4 on the cusp of her courageous move. We know what was troubling Mordecai and why. And now Esther is troubled, too.

Nothing has changed...except for Esther.

The Jews are still scheduled for genocide. The clock of death is still ticking down.  But Esther has made her decision to come out of the shadows and identify herself with them. And she’s stopped eating until she does it. 

She doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. Another cliffhanger! 

And while we wait to find out, we can always start to follow her example.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23
03. "Bewildered" - Esther 3:1-15

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“Bewildered” [Matt's Messages]

“Bewildered”

Where Is God? - The Book of Esther

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

November 2, 2025 :: Esther 3:1-15

I’ll be right up front with you. This chapter ends on a cliffhanger. 

You know, one of those moments where the hero of the story and their friends are in danger, hanging from a cliff, and you don’t know what’s going happen to them. 

“Tune in next time to find out!”

That’s this chapter. Because we are slowing down and studying this story instead of just retelling it, at times, we have to leave things unresolved along the way.

In fact, the last word of this chapter in the NIV is, “bewildered.” The King James Version has “perplexed.” Many other translations say, “in confusion.” We’re only going to get to the part where nearly everybody in the story is agitated, perplexed, confused, and bewildered.

Have you been there? Are you living there right now? 

Bewildered. What a terrible feeling that is! You don’t understand what is going on around you. Not only are you not in control of your story, you don’t even comprehend what’s going on in the story in which you are living. It’s painful and scary and disorienting. Bewildered.

In chapter 3, this story–which has been filled with twists and turn–takes another turn, and this time, it’s a downturn.

There have been hints of a grave danger looming over this story in the first two chapters. And now, the true threat is revealed and made real.

Chapter 3 tells the story of an existential crisis for the people of God. A crisis, a plot, a conspiracy that affected and endangered all of the Jews and even potentially endangered our salvation. Your salvation and mine!

And it all swirled around a character that we have not yet met in this story, a villain named “Haman.” Esther does not show up in chapter 3, but this enemy does. His name is Haman, and he is called in verse 10, “the enemy of the Jews.”

When the Jews have retold this story throughout the years, they have taken great delight in making a monstrous racket every time Haman’s name is mentioned in the story. They will put on a play that re-enacts the story of Esther. And when Haman is mentioned, the kids in the audience, especially will set off noisemakers like rattles and stuff like that. I once watched a play like that and every time Haman was named, we went “Boo, Hiss” like an old-time melodrama. Where the bad guy had a curly mustache and is always rubbing his scheming hands together.

We’re not going to do that every time that Haman is mentioned in the next several weeks, but let’s do it at least once a week the first time I read his name. We’ll go, “BOO” or “HISS” to remember that this man was an enemy and drown out his name.

There have been a lot of twists and turns to get to this point in the story. It all started at a royal banquet in the citadel of Susa where King Xerxes was drinking it up with all of his buddies and foolishly demanded his queen, Vashti, appear before them to show herself off. She refused! And Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) allowed himself to be talked into banishing her and looking for a replacement queen. (That was chapter 1.)

Xerxes did this cruelly by taking pretty girls from all over his kingdom and subjecting them to a beauty and sex contest. The losers get life in a harem. The winner became queen. (This was not a great kingdom for women.) But (plot twist!) the lovely woman who won the contest and the favor of everyone turned out to be a beautiful orphan girl whose family was in exile from Israel. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, and her Persian name was Esther. The Star Queen.

We know that she is a Jew, but nobody else does. Her cousin Mordecai had been raising her and told her to keep her Jewish identity secret. He was apparently doing the same as he worked as a lowly civil servant at the king’s gate, probably doing some kind of administration.

At the very end of chapter 2 we learned that Mordecai, in that position, “just so happened” to hear that two of the king’s security guards had gotten angry and planned to assassinate the king. And Mordecai told Esther, and Esther told the king, and the two security guards were left impaled in the front yard as a warning for all to see.

And do you remember how Mordecai was rewarded for this? (Plot twist!) He was NOT rewarded for this. They wrote it down, but then nothing happened. Which was really weird in Persian culture.

And you know what? If that happened to me, you know how I would feel?

Bewildered.

“Why? Why did that happen? My cousin is the queen. I stopped a plot against the king of kings in this era, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt? My name got written down in a book. Thanks a lot.”

And it’s worse than that. Somebody else did get a promotion. Let’s read verse 1 of chapter 3 again and get ready to boo and hiss.

“After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles.”

What?! Not only is Mordecai not promoted, but this guy is?! And it’s not even Memucan or any of the other 7 dummies from the council of advisers in chapter 1! We don’t even know if this guy was around back then, but all of a sudden here he is, and he’s the top guy. V.2

 “All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.”

The plot thickens! The king had commanded that everybody bow before Haman. That’s interesting because it’s what was normal in that culture anyway. Lots of bowing to each other, especially to those who are in authority. But the king felt that he hand to tell everybody to do this Haman. It doesn’t say why. Perhaps it was just a formality. Or perhaps this was like what he demanded all of the wives do for their husbands in chapter 1. He demanded respect instead of earning it. And he demanded honor for this Haman whether or not Haman was honorable. Perhaps nobody would have honored Haman if it wasn’t the rule!

 

Well, one person decided that he was not going to honor Haman in this way. Our man Mordecai.

It doesn’t say why. Why do you think? It’s not that the Jews refused to honor those in authority. They will even do this kind of bowing towards others. This is not the same thing as what Nebuchadnezzar wanted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to do in Daniel chapter 3.

Some interpreters assumed that it must have been like that and that maybe Haman was carrying around an idol in his pocket. So that Mordecai was faced with the same ethical choice about worship. Or that Haman was claiming some kind of divine status. But it doesn’t say that here at all. Mordecai just refused to honor Haman.

Some have thought that he must be jealous of Haman, and that’s why he did it. It’s pride. That’s possible. It doesn’t come out and say. 

I think that at least, partially, it comes from a very old family feud. Two words make me think that. One is the word “Agagite” from verse 1 of this chapter and the other is one that I told you last week to tuck into your brain from chapter 2, verse 5. The word, “Kish.” Kish was either Mordecai’s great-grandfather or his ancestor even further back.

Haman was related to Agag in some way. And Mordecai was apparently related to King Saul whose dad was named Kish. 

That’s a deep cut. Do you remember those names from your Old Testament history?

It’s been more than 500 years, but these memories are long. Agag was an Amalekite. The Amalekites were the first nation to attack Israel without mercy when they came out of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. You can read about it in Exodus chapter 17. The Lord did not forget what they had done and told Israel to not forget and promised in Deuteronomy chapter 25 that the Amalekites would be judged for it.

Fast forward to 1 Samuel chapter 15, and King Saul (whose dad’s name was Kish) was sent to bring that judgment on the Amelekites and their king who name was Agag. And Saul (being partially obedient, which means he was disobedient) did not execute King Agag as he was supposed to. And Saul lost the kingdom over that, which then went to King David.

So these two families have some unsettled business. Both have found their way far away from the boundaries of Israel, and they are locked into their conflict hundreds of miles away in the Persian citadel of Susa.

I think that’s at least part of why Mordecai won’t bow. Not just because of a basic family feud (like the Hatfields and the McCoys), but because the Agagites have been trained through years and years of enmity passed down from generation to generation to hate all of the Jews  and want to see them wiped off the planet.

It’s not just jealousy that someone is grand vizier and Mordecai is not. It is that HAMAN is grand vizier and he doesn’t deserve honor and must, in fact, be dishonored. At least, I think that might be what is going in Mordecai’s mind. The narrator doesn’t come out and say. All it says is, “Mordecai would not kneel or pay him honor.”

This bewildered Mordecai’s co-workers. They try to get him to go along with the crowd. Verse 4.

“Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, ‘Why do you disobey the king's command?’ Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.”

(The plot thickens. This plot is getting really thick!) 

It’s out! Mordecai has outed himself as a Jew. When his co-workers couldn’t convince him to comply, they ran to Haman to get him into trouble. (What a great workplace!) They wanted to know if they really had to do this, too.  And if anything was going to happen to Mordecai because he had told them he was a Jew. It’s no longer a secret. 

Mordecai has decided that now is the time for him to go public with his identity, and that must have taken courage. Because now the gloves come off. The danger really begins. Haman suddenly becomes aware of Mordecai. Verse 5.

“When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.”

I don’t know how he’d missed it. Perhaps he was so full of himself, that he wasn’t looking at who didn’t bow. He was just assuming that everybody did every time he went by. And he was so high, he didn’t even look down there at those peasants to see if they were bowing or not.

“But now that you point him out, I can’t miss it! “Every time I see him, he just stands there when I go by.”

It’s also possible that he knew Mordecai was doing this but he was hoping that Mordecai would get into line without him having to actually do anything about it. He’s cowardly like that. But once it was pointed out, Haman had to do something. 

And it wasn’t go to Mordecai and confront him and work this out. It was punish him. Punish Mordecai. And punishing just Mordecai, only Mordecai, wasn’t going to be enough. Verse 6.

“Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.”

Where is God???

Where is God when you are not recognized for your hard work?

Where is God when you are overlooked for a promotion?

Where is God when your enemy gets the promotion you deserve?

Where is God when someone is out to get you?

I’m sure that Mordecai was feeling those questions.

What is God doing in this chapter? He has not been mentioned. He has not been named. He is never named in this entire tale.

Is He here?

Because Haman is fixing to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews. And up to this point, they were not just Mordecai’s people, they were God’s people. Where is God?

Do you feel how personal it is? The evil in chapters 1 and 2 was more general evil and foolishness. That kind of evil hurts people, too. Selfish rulers and their foolish choices can bring a lot of pain to the people around them. Just ask the families of all of those pretty girls who were in Xerxes’ contest.

But this is a lot more personal. This is not just foolishness. This is hate. And it’s hate on a grand scale. Haman wants to (v.6), “destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.” And that kingdom includes Israel. It stretches from Pakistan to Northern Sudan. From India to Ethiopia. And remember what’s in the middle. And Haman is going to come up with the plan and the power do it. Look verse 7.

“In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, they cast the pur (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.”

Do you get the picture? This is the 12th year that Xerxes is king. That would probably make it 474 BC. How long has Esther been the queen? Did anybody do the math? About 5 years!

Has Haman been angry at Mordecai for five years? Has Mordecai been refusing to honor him for five years?

It doesn’t say. Maybe all of this happened in the same year, including Haman’s rise to power.

But now Haman tries to figure out a good time and day to kill all the Jews.

He uses what you and I would consider a randomizer. He “casts the pur” which is a Persian thing kind of like a set of dice which the Persians thought would reveal by divination the most propitious day for some action. We use these dice for our Yahtzee game at home. Are these magical? No, they are not. But the Persians had something they thought was. The pur. [Plural: Purim.]

We don’t know the system they used, but they use their system, rolled the dice, they cast the pur, the lot, and it “fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar” which would have been in the late winter, early spring–March of 473BC about 11 months in the future.

Interestingly, these months were named by the Jews while they were in captivity. They were just called first, second, third month, etc, in the Torah, but they gave them these proper names when they were in exile. Nisan (first month) and Adar (twelfth month).

So Haman has his date for this massacre, and now he goes for the authority to do it. Verse 8. And, boy, is he sly.

“Then Haman said to King Xerxes, ‘There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. 

If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business” (vv.8-9).

Do you see what I mean about “sly?”

He doesn’t mention Mordecai at all! He doesn’t mention their grudge. He doesn’t talk about himself at all except as the man with the plan to rid the king of this pesky problem that he probably hasn’t even noticed.

He starts with truth. “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered [true] among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom [true] whose customs are different from those of all other people [also true. They are supposed to be different. They are holy.] and who do not obey the king's laws [Maybe not the ones where the king says you have to honor Haman, but I don’t think there are a bunch of other Persian laws that we’ve seen the Jews disobey. They even went along with the queen contest!]; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them.” 

Never mind that Mordecai once saved your life!

This is a good reminder to check on people’s stories about others. To check sources. To not believe every bad report you hear about somebody. Some of that is going to turn out to be gossip and slander. Especially if it they benefit from the bad story in some way.

Haman says that these people contaminate the kingdom and should be exterminated from it. And he’s got a plan. Just leave it to him.

“And don’t worry about money, O King. Money will not be a problem. I’ll make sure this initiative is fully funded.”

The Greek historian Herodotus said that about this time the entire income for the Persian king in a year was around 15,000 talents of silver. Haman promises 10,000 talents of silver. 375 tons of silver! That’s like 2/3 of the entire kingdom budget for 474BC!

He might be exaggerating, but maybe not. He was probably planning to get that money from all of those Jews that they were going to kill. That was the plunder. And Xerxes who keeps losing all these battles with the Greeks sure needs money to keep up his wars. Follow the money. Verse 10.

“So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ‘Keep the money,’ the king said to Haman, ‘and do with the people as you please.’”

That is one of the most chilling sentences in the whole Bible.

It’s like Pilate washing his hands. King Ahasuerus gives Haman, the enemy of the Jews, the executive authority to do whatever he wants with all of the Jews.

By the way, the phrase the NIV translated, “Keep the money” might not mean “keep the money.” It’s literally something like, “the silver to you.” and it could be translated something like, “Well, it’s your money, so okay!” “Deal!” “Use as much of it as you need to effect your plan. And of course, I’ll take the rest.”

How terrible that the king didn’t even ask Haman the name of the people that he was going to exterminate.

He’s not curious in the slightest. He just delegates this authority to do mass murder! He’s so careless.

There’s a negative lesson here about how to wield the authority that we are given in our own domains. Whether we are parents or managers or leaders in church, home, work, government.

This week, if you are a voter, go out and vote for those whom you think will do the best job with the authority they are granted.

Ahasuerus couldn’t be bothered to even ask about the details. He just hands over his ring. And Haman takes the ring and runs! Verse 12.

“Then on the thirteenth day of the first month [which is probably April 17, 474BC] the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman's orders to the king's satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring.

Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day. Spurred on by the king's command, the couriers went out, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered” (vv.12-15).

That happened fast. As soon as Haman had the authorization, he put everything in place for the massacre. Just like the Vashti order in chapter 1 and the contest order in chapter 2, this order is translated into language and sent out as law, binding irrevocable Persian law, to every province in the kingdom.

And the instructions are simple. “Destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews on March 7th. It’s almost a year away. 

What a terrible thing to anticipate. The holocaust of holocausts. A genocide of Jews. In one day.

And the architect of this evil and the willing dupe behind it sit down for more drinking to celebrate each other.

“Good job, Grand Vizier Haman! Drink up!”

“Good job, O King Xerxes! I toast you!”

V.15 “But the city of Susa was bewildered.”

“What is going on? What does all of this mean? Who all is affected? How are we really going to pay for this?"

“Does this mean I need to kill my neighbor? Does this mean I get his stuff?

“Does this mean we’re going to die? In eleven months? Our whole family? Even grandma? Even the baby? Even...Hadassah?”

Where is God?

That’s where we’re going to stop today.  I told you it was going to be a cliffhanger. Mordecai and his people are in danger, and that’s where we’re going to leave them, in danger. We’re going to leave them bewildered.

And that’s probably helpful for our hearts because that’s where we often live as Christians today. Sometimes we are going to be bewildered. We will feel confused, lost, disoriented, perplexed. Feeling, if not asking, the question, “Where is God?” If you haven’t had that feeling yet, just wait. It’s coming.

And stories like this in the Bible are helpful for teaching us that we’re not necessarily doing something wrong if we feel like that.

Where is God when life is unfair? Christians will face this. We live in an broken and unjust world.

 

Where is God when people hate us? Christians will face this. Not just Jews.

Where is God when we live under a threat?  So many Christians around the world face persecution for their beliefs. And though Christians in America have mostly experienced a somewhat privileged status in our national history and almost no violent persecution, that could always change, and there are still plenty who hate us with malice in their hearts.

Where is God when evil abounds? Christians will face this.

We have an enemy. The same enemy that Haman was (unwittingly) working for. 

So it’s probably good that we end on a cliffhanger and feel the dark clouds of threat and danger that hang over the city of Susa and the kingdom of Persia, especially in Israel. 

This is real. This is where we often live.

The main application of Esther chapter 3 is that God’s people will often have to face injustice and malice. We shouldn’t be surprised.

The New Testament tells us how followers of Jesus are supposed to actually respond to this. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount and Peter taught us in his first letter about loving our enemies and blessing those who persecute us. We’ve studied both of those things in the last few years. 

But the key idea here is just to not be surprised when we are bewildered.

At the same time, there are also little hints of hope even in chapter 3. And they provide wisdom for us, too. 

I thought of three points to keep in mind from the little hints in this chapter, and here’s number. I think this chapter hints that:

#1. GOD IS NEAR.

The very fact that God is never named in Esther makes me think about Him all the more. Is that how it works for you? As soon as I found out that fact, I have always  then looked for Him in the story. Because this is in the Bible! The Bible is about God! So if there is a story about God that doesn’t talk about God, it just about yells His name!

And this story is about evil. Raw evil. Well, how do we know it’s evil? What makes something evil? It’s evil over against what is righteous, right? What is holy. The reason why these words are so shocking is because of God. “Destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews...”

Where is God when great evil happens? He’s near. None of this evil takes Him by surprise. He may even have a plan for it. This world is not out spiraling out of control. God is not absent. He’s just telling a story with some awful things in it. Some bewildering things. But we know that they are not outside of his control.

Here’s one of the hints of that. In verse 7, when they cast the pur (that is, the lot), what does every Hebrew child who has memorized the Proverbs of Solomon know about the lot?

Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”

There’s no such thing as a coincidence, and there is no such thing as chance. For all of our intents and purposes the lot is random. But there is no such thing as luck. We don’t understand it all, but we know that God controls all the twists and turns of our stories. He might not be named in Esther 3:7, but we know that every decision of the lot is from the LORD. He’s near.  

Second, I think that Esther chapter 3 hints that:

#2. THERE ARE WORSE THINGS THAN BEING HATED.

I wouldn’t want to be in Mordecai’s shoes. But there are shoes in chapter 3 that I would want to be in less. I’d hate to be in Xerxes’ shoes. And I’d really hate to be in Haman’s.

Chapter 3 presents these two guys as examples of how not to live. Negative examples.

Xerxes is clueless, careless, and callous. He’s irresponsible with his power and authority. He’s greedy and thoughtless about the people under his authority. He’s selfish and unjust. I would rather be Mordecai than Xerxes even if it means being bewildered. Even if it means being murdered.

And Haman? Haman is malicious. He’s full of bitterness and pettiness. He’s sly and slanderous. He’s out for revenge. He’s on a power trip. He’s full of diabolical rage. I’d rather be Mordecai than Haman even if I didn’t know the rest of this story. Drinking it up while the world burns! There are worse things than being hated.

Followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to be different than the world. We, like the Jews, are dispersed and scattered all over the world. We live “in” the world, but we are not supposed to be “of” it. We live among the Hamans of this world, but we are not supposed to become like them. Not even so that they like us! There are worse things than being hated. There are even worse things than being killed.

Last hint of hope from chapter 3, and this will take us to the Table. I think that Esther chapter 3 hints that:

#3. GOD WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE.

He has before.

Here’s one last hint from chapter 3. In verse 12, did you notice what day it was when the royal secretaries wrote out the order to exterminate the Jews?

Of course you didn’t! And neither did I. We don’t know what is “the thirteenth day of the first month.” But the Jews did. That was the day before Passover. That was Passover Eve. The fourteenth day of the first month (see Exodus 12.) April 18 that year of 474BC.

Now, one level, it’s terrible that they are being threatened again on the very day that they are supposed to celebrate their great rescue. 

But I’ll bet that when they saw the order come across from King Xerxes and that was the date on the order, there were a lot of Jewish heads nodding  at each other from across the room.

“He rescued us before. He can do it again.”

And more than that, God has promised to send them a Messiah to save them once and for all. And if God lets Haman kill all of the Jews, that Messiah will never come. And you and I will never be saved.

Yet here we are at His Table again.

So I don’t think we have to stay bewildered.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23

Read More

“Hadassah” [Matt's Messages]

“Hadassah”

Where Is God? - The Book of Esther

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

October 26, 2025 :: Esther 2:1-23  

“Where Is God?” That’s the title of our new series on this unique book of the Bible called, “Esther.”

“Where is God?” That’s a question that we have all asked from time to time, and we have all felt in our bones.

“Where is God?” Especially, where is God when bad things are happening to us?

We saw already, last week, that the Book of Esther answers that question in a subtle way. It doesn’t just come out and hit you with the “right answers.” It allows you to feel the question and to feel your way to the answer by following this rollicking good story.

“Where is God?” 

Especially when He is not mentioned. We pointed out last Sunday that unlike the Book of Daniel that had all of those amazing names for God that Shaggy referenced in his song. Unlike the Book of Daniel with all of those amazing names for God, in the Book of Esther, God is never named.

God is never mentioned! Not even once. We read chapter 1 last week, all about the fateful banquet that King Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) threw to impress his kingdom and the trouble he got everybody in when he required his queen to appear and make a show of herself before a crowd of drunken men. When Vashti refused, Xerxes dug in and made it all worse. He allowed himself to be talked into publishing his spat with the queen and make it an unrepealable law that Vashti could never enter his presence again and her place as queen be given to someone else.

And in all of that story, God was never mentioned. 

Where was God in Esther chapter 1? Was God present and active in the foolish court of the pagan king of Persia? Or was He absent, inactive, missing, gone? I think the story is hinting already that God, though perhaps hidden, is very present and very active, and we just need to keep our eyes open and our ears tuned to catch what He is up to. What do you think?

It’s also possible that He’s there, but we aren’t going to know or understand what He is up to. We wouldn’t understand if we did know.

In Esther chapter 2, Xerxes is still on the throne, but he feels alone. Let’s look at verse 1.

“Later when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her.”

He’s feeling it, isn’t he? He’s finally sobered up and cooled down. And he’s thinking about Vashti. I wonder if he regrets at all what he did. I wonder if he was brooding.

Xerxes never seems to ever think he did anything wrong. Notice it says that he remembered what she had done. As if Vashti was the real problem here. Not what he had demanded that she do. But he also remembers what he had decreed. By law, he was never supposed to see Vashti again. And that law had been translated and broadcast into every language in his kingdom from India to Ethiopia. 

I wonder if he was depressed?

And Xerxes has even more on his mind during this time period. Do you remember last week that we said that Xerxes wasn’t happy with the size of his giant kingdom. He really really wanted to conquer...what other kingdom?

Greece! His dad had tried it and failed. He was going to try it once again.

How did that go?

Do you remember the vision of Daniel chapter 8? That’s the one that Daniel had in Susa (where this story takes place), and it was about a Ram and a Goat. And the ram had two horns (one longer than the other one), and it was the Medes and the Persians. Do you remember what the goat was? Ran so fast it didn’t touch the ground. The goat was the Greeks. And they ran at each other. And which animal won? The goat won. Ultimately, years later, with Alexander the Great.

So Xerxes could not conquer the Greeks. Even when he had superior numbers! Some of you may remember from your high school history classes the battle of Thermopylae. Or the 300 Spartans that held back the oncoming onslaught of the giant army. Well, that was Xerxes army, and it was right about this time.

So Xerxes may have been feeling like a loser. He had lost to Greece, and he had lost his queen. He had lost to his queen. With her refusal, she had made him look weak, a joke. Even though he was perhaps the most powerful man on the planet at that moment, Xerxes was down.

So his staff tried to come up with a solution to cheer him up.

“You know what you need, O king? You need a wife. You need a queen. You need a replacement queen. An upgraded queen. And to get there, you need a lot of sex.”

You can almost see his head bob up in verse 2.

“Then the king's personal attendants proposed, ‘Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful girls into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti’” (vv.2-4a).

This is another terrible idea.

Instead of fixing his problem with his old wife, or instead of choosing a new queen from those who might be qualified by their wisdom and experience in overseeing other important responsibilities, the king’s personal attendants proposed...a giant beauty and sex contest. A star search. 

A reality show where beautiful young ladies of marriageable age are brought from all over his vast kingdom for the king to try out one at a time.

Survivor: Queen Edition. Persian Wife Search. “Tune in at 9, 8 central.”

This is a terrible idea.

His advisors make it sound so legitimate with “appointing commissioners,” and placing these women under the care of Hegai, and providing them with beauty treatments. How nice for them to get a day in the spa!

But this is not nice. This is brutal, when you think about it. Because I don’t think that these women were, for the most part at least, volunteering. They were being subscripted. Just like the army. Just like the eunuchs. The commissioners were snatching up the beauties from all over the kingdom. “You, you, you. Come with me.” [I got this "you, you, you" wording from Christopher Ash.]

It was more like a kind of kidnaping. More like coercion. More like royal human trafficking than just a version of “The Miss Persia Contest.”

And the only thing they were looking for was superficial youthful beauty. They had to be young, of marriageable status, and beautiful. 

Apparently, King Ahasuerus and his friends did not know what Lemuel’s mother had taught him, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

Guys, you don’t want a queen whose only qualification is that she is great arm candy or lots of fun in bed.

But that’s the plan! Gather up the beautiful young girls and have them put under the care of Hegai, a man that Xerxes has most likely had castrated so that they will be safe with him. [Interestingly, even though Vashti and Esther are not named in Herodotus’ history, this Hegai may be!]

And place them in a harem. “A house for the women of the king.”

Every time a harem is mentioned in Scripture, it’s presented as a bad idea. Bad for women. And bad for nations. And bad for the king who thinks he should have one. [This includes King Solomon who was a Hebrew!]

So what does Xerxes do? Verse 4.

“This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.”

Of course, he did.

Where is God?  Xerxes doesn’t know and doesn’t care. He just knows what he wants. And he’s the king, so he’s going to get what he wants! He’s all cheered up. He’s rubbing his hands together. [By the way, this tracks with what we learn about Xerxes during this time period. He was famous for his affairs and adulteries and chasing after his pleasures.]

“Great idea, guys! This will be expensive. What big a undertaking! But I am totally worth it. Start bringing them in. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

Now in verse 5, the focus of the story changes. The storyteller introduces two more key characters in this drama, including the one from which the book gets its name. Look at verse 5.

“Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah” (vv.5-6). Stop there for a second.

There was a Jew named Mordecai, and this is his story.

Where does he live? He lives in Susa. That’s this Persian city where Xerxes has his winter fortress. In fact, he lives in the fortress. He’s somehow attached to the citadel. Perhaps he’s a low-ranking official in Xerxes’ government. 

Why does he live there? If he’s a Jew, why doesn’t he live in Israel? Well, it’s complicated. His family was carried off into exile in 597 BC. We read about Nebuchadnezzar’s uprooting and hoisting away the second-to-last king of Judah named Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah) in 2 Kings 24 and Jeremiah 24, and 27, and 29. Apparently, Mordecai’s family went with King Jehoiachin into exile, and Mordecai has found his way not just to Babylon but to Persia.

By the way, it almost certainly must mean that his great-grandfather Kish was carried into exile because it’s been like 114 years since that happened, and I don’t think Mordecai was that old!

But Mordecai is in Susa because of the broken covenant. And because of some other decisions by his family. For over 50 years, they have been allowed to immigrate back to Israel. Xerxes’s grandfather Cyrus said so. But only about 50,000 Jews went back to Israel at that point. Most of the rest of them decided that they would try to make a go of it in the land where they had been replanted.

Was that good and wise?

It’s hard to say. It was definitely hard. It was hard to maintain their Jewish identity when they were embedded in Persia.

Mordecai’s name for example is almost certainly Persian in origin. It was probably a variant of Marduk one of the gods of Mesopotamia. It’s possible that Mordecai had a Hebrew name, too, but the Bible doesn’t tell us that. To us, he’s just Mordecai, son of Shimei, the son of Kish.

By the way, keep that last name in your head. It may become somewhat important as the story unfolds.

But we need to move on from considering Mordecai to gazing upon his young charge. And her name was “Hadassah.” Look at verse 7.

“Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.”

Her name was Hadassah which means “myrtle,” which is a fragrant star-shaped flower. It’s a beautiful name. I’m sure her parents loved bestowing it upon her when she was born. But they had both died. The storyteller tells us that twice in this one verse. We need to understand that Hadassah was an orphan.

Where was God when her parents were taken from her?

At least, Hadassah had her cousin. Mordecai had taken responsibility for Hadassah and was bringing her up. 

And Hadassah also had another name. This is the only place in the Bible where we read her name as “Hadassah.” She had another name that was much more famous. Her other name was Esther. Esther is probably her Persian name. It’s probably related to the name of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. And it is related to the word “Star.” Esther is, in many ways, the star of this story.

I have so many questions when I read this book.

I wonder if she loved both of her names? I wonder if she had a hard time with the Esther name. Just like I wonder about Daniel (who was also called Belteshazzar) or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah a.k.a. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Those guys didn’t think these names were worth fighting over or dying over. It was a just a name, after all. But I wonder how they felt about it.

I really wonder how Hadassah felt about what happened to her next. Because just as soon as the storyteller let us know that Esther was “lovely in form and features,” every person listening to the story so far said, “Uh oh! I can see where this is going!”

Esther is a pretty young thing, and Xerxes is looking for some pretty young things. Let’s read verse 8.

“When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem.”

So many questions.

I wonder how she felt about it. It doesn’t say that she resisted. Apparently, on some level, she was willing. She maybe didn’t feel she had much choice. She didn’t have much choice. She was at the king’s mercy.

When that decree went out, I wonder how all of the parents in the kingdom felt about it. Some may have wanted their daughter to get into the program. A shot at being the queen! An honor to be picked just for the harem itself, and as we’ll see, a relatively safe and secure future in an uncertain and scary world. There are worse things than being in a harem as much as I would not want it for any woman I know. 

Other parents probably rushed to marry off their daughters to someone they knew and trusted before the king’s commissioners could take them away from them.     

Did you feel that word “taken” in verse 8?

I felt that word like I had never felt it before as I studied Esther this week.

“Esther also was taken...”

[And there was no Liam Neeson with a particular set of skills to go rescue her.]

How did she feel? There go her hopes and dreams. She would never marry a nice Jewish boy and move back to Jerusalem. She would never live in her home with her guardian cousin again.

Her parents had been taken from her, and now she was being taken from everything she knew.

Where was God when Hadassah was taken to the king’s palace?

By the way, the Bible does not tell us all of this because God was okay with it! This part of the story is not presenting the king’s audition program as the biblical way to get a wife or a queen. Far from it! God does not condone this treatment of women.

The Bible is telling us this part of the story to bear witness that this is what happened...and to hint that God can use even this evil for His glory and our good.

Mordecai lets her go. He probably doesn’t think he has much choice either.

And then something interesting happens...

Esther rises to the top. Look at verse 9.

“The girl pleased him [that’s Hegai] and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.”

Now, just like that word “taken” was important in verse 8, so is the word “favor” in verse 9.

 

Hegai just loved Esther! She was perfect in his eyes. Hegai was a talent spotter, and he could see something special in this one. She was a real beauty! She won his favor. And the word translated “favor” in verse 9, is the Hebrew “hesed.” Which we normally think of as something that God has for us. Steadfast love. Lovingkindess. Loyal love. 

It’s in our new memory verse, Psalm 117. “Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his [hesed] toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.”

Hmmm. I wonder if there’s something special going on here? Not a miracle, and yet...

Hegai gives her nothing but the best. Special beauty treatments, special ointments, massages, exfoliation, and special food. And unlike Daniel and his friends, Esther says, “Okay, I’ll eat your food.” It probably wasn’t kosher. In the best part of the harem, she got seven [count them seven! Just like the 7 eunuchs and 7 advisors last week, Esther gets 7] maids to be on her beauty staff to get her ready to meet the king!

Now, is this a good thing that she’s doing all this? It’s hard to say. Unless she is going to pull a Daniel and the lions den or a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and face the furnace, she doesn’t have much choice. So she makes the best of it.

I don’t judge her. And I don’t think the Bible presents her as necessarily doing something wrong here.

She made a hard choice in a hard place.

If she was doing something wrong, it’s probably the next thing, in verse 10.

“Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so.”

Nobody knew she was a Jew. Nobody knew that she was Hadassah. They just knew she was Esther, the Star. She was quiet about it. She didn’t deny it. But it was a secret.

She kept it secret because Mordecai told her to. We don’t know why he did that, but we can guess. It’s called “antisemitism,” and it’s been around a long long time.

We’ll find out in the next chapter that Mordecai had good reason to fear hatred of the Jews in Susa.

But it’s not completely clear if keeping this was the right thing to do or not. It’s always tempting to keep quiet about our connection to our God. It’s often easier to be a “secret believer.” It’s easier if you are living in two worlds, to keep quiet about the one when you’re in the other. Making little compromises and losing your true identity in the process.

Or perhaps, in that moment, it was wise and strategic to stay silent. I can’t say. I don’t think the Bible is clearly saying one or the other in this part of the story either. But there is probably coming a time in this story when Esther will need to reveal that she is also Hadassah, and it might take some courage to get there.

Mordecai is keeping a close eye on her. Verse 11.

“Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.”

He has not given up on her, even though she was taken. He’s right there checking on her every single day. 

I think, men, that we could learn something from that! Checking on the well-being (literally the shalom) of the key women in our lives every single day.

Mordecai was probably worried about her. What was going to happen to Hadassah?

Verses 12 through 14 explain the process that all of the girls in this program went through. Look at verse 12.

“Before a girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. [A whole year!] And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. [Perfumes, clothes, jewelry, aphrodisiacs, special food. Anything that she thinks would really please him.] In the evening she would go there...and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name” (vv.12-14).

I love how careful the storyteller is with the details.

We don’t have to have it all spelled out for us.

She prepares for a year. She gets herself all dolled up. She goes in the evening. She stays the night. She goes from the part of the harem for virgins to the part of the harem for concubines. She is no longer in the realm of Hegai but of Shaashgaz.

Her life has changed.

She has “auditioned.”

Her status has changed.

She has been inducted into a new reality.

She is not quite a wife. She’s still a prisoner, really, and always will be. But she could be called back for some more if the king calls her by name. And not many were called back.

That’s what happened to all of them. What about Hadassah? What happened to her in particular? In verse 15, her time has come.

“When the turn came for Esther ([to be clear, that’s Hadassah] the girl Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. [Favor!] She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.”

That was probably 479BC. Church, that was four years since Vashti had been banished! Has Xerxes been trying out new girls for four years?!!

Verse 16 says again that Esther was taken. 

Her parents were taken from her.

She was taken from her guardian.

She was taken from the harem to the king.

And verse 17 says that there she found favor with him. Look at verse 17.

“Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti” (v.17).

Ahasuerus took a big high royal turban and set it on her head.

“And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality” (v.18).

Esther won! Esther won the contest. She won hands down. She was the best in the king’s eyes! 

The king even threw her a banquet!

We said last week to keep an eye on the banquets in this story. “Mishteh.” Every time a banquet happens, the story changes. This girl went from a nobody orphan exile at the bottom of society to be rocketed to the tippy top! Hadassah is now Queen Esther! She was married. Not just a concubine but a wife. And not just a wife but a queen. Never had she ever expected anything like this. What an honor! What possibilities may stretch ahead of her!

Is this a good thing?

Well, there’s certainly good things about it. I don’t think a good Jewish girl was supposed to go bed with an uncircumcised pagan they weren’t even married to. And they weren’t supposed to marry outside of the twelve tribes either [see Ezra 9-10 for more about this!].

But it’s not like she had much choice, and now a Jew (though a secret one) is now the Queen of Persia. In a place of honor and power. And everybody in the kingdom is celebrating. The king has gotten generous like he did at the last banquet with the wine. He’s giving out gifts with “royal liberality.”  Probably canceling taxes so that everybody celebrates a Esther’s Banquet. Three cheers for our new Star Queen!

There’s one more part to this story, and then we’ll try to do a little application; though I think it’ll just be a hint of application this week.

In verse 19, we read another story about Mordecai and something he heard. Look at verse 19.

“When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. 

It's not quite clear why they were assembled. My guess is that the contest is actually over now that Esther has won, so they are getting grouped together to be sent home. Which would be a relief to many of them and a disappointment to some. Or it could mean that the king enjoyed the first round of this contest so much, he was starting a second one. It’s not clear.

But Mordecai is still doing his job at the king's gate. That's not just sitting around at a doorway! The king’s gate is where the official business of the kingdom was often conducted. V.20

“But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up. [The storyteller tells us this again. It will probably be important as the story goes on.] During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai.  And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were hanged on a gallows. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.”

Do you get the picture? Mordecai gets wind of this plot to kill the king. Maybe he even overheard “Biggie and Terrie” conspiring together. 

Mordecai is immediately concerned for Esther! If the king gets killed, what does that mean for the queen?

Apparently they still talk regularly, maybe every day. Mordecai tells the queen. The queen tells the king. The secret service conduct an investigation into the threat, and later that day Bigthana and Teresh are hanging from gallows, or, to be more specific, impaled on poles in the front yard as a cautionary tale for whoever might even think about trying to kill the king. 

Isn’t it interesting that Mordecai just so happened to be there to catch wind of this plot?

And isn’t it interesting to see how handsomely Mordecai was rewarded. Wait. He wasn’t rewarded, was he? No. Everything gotten written down in the log. “Recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.” "Mordecai. Bigthana. Terish. Gallows. Got it."

But, contrary to Persian practice, Mordecai gets overlooked for recognition. Somebody else rises in the kingdom whom we’re going to meet in the next chapter. But Mordecai gets nothing and is forgotten.

Hmmm. I wonder if that might become important later in the story?

So, let’s think together about application from this chapter of the Bible. What lessons could we learn because we’ve studied Esther chapter 2?

How to find a wife?

How to pick a queen?

How to snag a husband?

How to run a harem?

I don’t think so. I think we get the best applications for this chapter by asking once again our key question for this series.

Where is God?

Where is God in Esther chapter 2? He’s never mentioned. He’s never named. So if we see Him, it’s just a glimpse. It’s just an echo. Just a whisper. He’s hidden in the Book of Esther, after all. If we see him, it'll be just a glimpse in the corner of our eye.

I thought of three things we might say. Three things that are hinted at in this chapter and are definitely true in the rest of the book and the rest of the Bible. Number one. 

Where is God in Esther chapter 2?

#1. HE IS THERE WITH OUR SUFFERINGS.

He is present in our pain. He is on hand in our trauma.

God wasn’t absent when Hadassah’s parents died.

God wasn’t absent when she was orphaned.

God wasn’t absent when Esther got taken, violated, imprisoned. 

He wasn’t away on vacation that day.

He was there. He was right there.

How do we know that? 

Well, this story tells us what happened. It bore witness to the history of her life. And of Mordecai’s life. And their entire exiled family’s life. The storyteller tells their story. 

 

And we know Who the ultimate Storyteller is! And just because it happened, doesn’t mean that it’s good. Life is hard. The Bible says that clearly. And it’s hard for believers, too. We are not exempted from death or sexual assault, or systemic injustice.  Just because we have a Mighty Fortress does not mean that we will escape pain and harm and trauma in this life. We will not escape pain and harm and trauma in this life. But that doesn’t mean we are alone.

At the fall retreat, we memorized Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”

Just like Mordecai checking daily on Hadassah, the LORD is watching over His children.

Present in our pain. He knows! The LORD knows what you have gone through. That thing that person did to you? God was there. And He cares. 

He knows your story. And He dares to tell it. And He’s doing something with it.

We might not ever know this side of eternity what in the world God was doing with all of that suffering that He allowed into our life. But we know that He was there for all of it. And He has the ability to turn it all for our good.

We know that. The Bible says so. The Bible says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

And that, in the process, He will never leave us nor forsake us. 

Where was God? He was right there with our sufferings.

Second hint. Where is God in Esther chapter 2?

#2. HE IS THERE WITH OUR SUCCESSES.

He’s not just there with “taken.” He’s there with “favor.” It’s both.

Where do you think all this favor for Esther was coming from? It doesn’t say! But it sure makes you wonder. Where did all of this “hesed” come from all of sudden? How did Hadassah go from the bottom to the top in one year?

Hmmm. I wonder. God is not just sovereign over the hard things but the happy things, too.

Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” ]

Xerxes ends up wherever the LORD ultimately wants him to end up. He makes all of his own choices for himself. Terrible as they often are! But Xerxes’ choices don’t stop the LORD’s purposes from being fulfilled. And that includes Esther finding favor with him and with everyone. It’s not because she’s so great (as great as she probably was!) but because the LORD was with her. It doesn’t say it. But... And any more successes that are in this story, especially the big surprising ones, I wonder where they might come from?

And last but not least. Where is God in Esther chapter 2?

#3. HE IS THERE WITH OUR SALVATION.

I know we haven’t seen it yet, only just a hint, but next time, Lord-willing, in chapter 3, we’re going to learn of a grave danger that threatens the people of God and yet does not catch God by surprise.

Even though His name never appears in the story. There just might be Someone who has a plan that He’s been putting into place from before even chapter 1! There just might be Someone who just might have a plan that includes little details that just so happened to happen in chapter 2. Because maybe there is no such thing as coincidence. 

Maybe Someone is sovereign over even the small things that make our lives. The details. The things even we’ve forgotten much less everyone else. Even our bad choices along the way.

The odds were stacked against Hadassah and her people. But I think we might see as this story unfolds, that there is salvation on the way.

That’s what happened at the Cross and the Empty Tomb, isn’t it?  Everything was stacked against us there. All of our enemies were winning. The World, the Flesh, the Devil. Our backs were against the wall, and we had nobody to blame but ourselves. 

But our God had a plan. He had a plan before the story even began. And it was a plan that we would have expected or come up with our own.

God sent His Son to rescue us from our sin by taking our sin onto Himself and giving us His righteousness. So that when Jesus went to the Cross, He died for our sins. And then when came out of the Tomb, He came back to life to give us life forever with Him!

Not because of anything we had done or would do.

Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And we know this because of the Word of God alone. God had a plan and all who repent and put their trust in His Son will enjoy the blessings of that plan forever. To the glory of God alone. 

God is not hidden. He is with us in our salvation.

Psalm 46:11, “The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

***

Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22

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