The Plot against the People of God Esther 3:1-15. I remind you of the setting. After Persia conquered Babylon, some of the

Transcription

1 July12, 2015 Trinity Lutheran Church, Cottage Grove, OR James L. Markus Bible. The Plot against the People of God Esther 3:1-15 We are looking at the book of Esther. Join me in chapter 3, p. 411 in a pew I remind you of the setting. After Persia conquered Babylon, some of the Israelites returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and city and some of them remained in Persia. The book is set in the third King of Persia s reign, Ahasuerus (aka Xerxes). In chapter one we learned of the King s Banquet and the Queen s Banishment. Three years pass and in chapter 2 we learned of Esther s beauty so that she was selected as Queen. Now another 5 years pass and we learn of the Plot against the People of God. We are going to look at chapter three under three headings, the Promotion, the Plot, and the Proclamation. First the promotion of Haman (Read 3:1-6) An inept King, Ahasuerus. A beautiful Queen, Esther. Her cousin, the protector, Mordecai. And now the villain, Haman. What do we learn about him? He is promoted. We haven t heard anything about him up till now. It seems like out of nowhere he has this meteoric rise to power. The exact position is not mentioned. We are simply told that he is set above all the other officials. He is the son of Hammedatha, who we know nothing about, but then this little detail. He is

2 an Agagite. Scholars are divided on this point, but it is possible that he is a descendant of Agag the King of the Amalekites. If that is true, Haman should not even be born because the Israelites were to have completely destroyed the Amalekites. I know this idea of God wiping out the ungodly nations is problematic and even repulsive to some. But the question you have to wrestle with is this: Does God have the right to judge the nations? Of course. Does He then have the right to even use His own people to do so? Yes He does. Keep in mind that God also used the ungodly nation of Babylon to bring judgment on His people by destroying Jerusalem and taking the people into exile. So if, and it is a big IF, IF Haman is an Amalekite, we now have a reversal of what God intended. God intended that the Amalekites would be wiped out, but now in the book of Esther, an Amalekite is seeking to wipe out the Israelites. Why? What does Haman have against the Jews? We are told in v. 2 that the King had commanded his servants to bow down and pay homage to Haman. To bow was a common sign of respect. When respect needs to be commanded, it is not true respect. Children if you show respect to your parents only so you don t get into trouble, that is not true respect. The servants bowed before Haman, sincerely or not, we don t know. But there was one man who didn t bow. Mordecai the Jew.

3 Why didn t he bow? There isn t anything in the Mosaic Law that would forbid paying respect to another by bowing. David bowed down to Saul (1 Sam. 24:8). The Jews bowed to one another. (See 2 Sam. 14:4 and 18:28.) This would appear to be an act of his personal conscience. It was something his own conscience would not allow him to do. Other Jews could freely bow, but Mordecai did not. A matter of personal conscience has been in the news lately. The Oregon bakers refused to participate in a gay commitment ceremony by baking a cake. They were fined for not doing so. There is no direct biblical instruction or prohibition on baking cakes for such occasions. That is why it is a matter of personal conscience. Some Christian bakers would not have the same struggle. The issue is not who is right and who is wrong in baking a cake, for that will lead to self-righteousness and legalism. The issue is, do we have freedom of conscience. If the ruling holds, and it is being contested, then the answer in the State of Oregon is no. Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage. It is about a business refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal. But the bakers did not refuse service to someone based on sexual orientation. The bakers had served these individuals on other occasions. They were not turned

4 away because of their identity. The bakers did not discriminate against individuals but against an event. I have been asked to give the invocation at the Mayor conference hosted by Cottage Grove at the end of this month, to which I agreed. Don t I have a right not to participate if Planned Parenthood asked me to do the same? The issue is personal conscience. Do we have the right to live out our beliefs? In areas of personal conscience, like Mordecai, there is freedom to disagree with each other without any fear of judgment, What kind of Christian are you? Without self-righteousness. However, where God s Word is clear, we will take our stand regardless of the consequences. Jesus took his stand for us in his trial. He could have denied who he was, he could have denied his identity and not gone to the cross. But he took his stand for us. He identified with us. He died for us. Mordecai had the right not to bend the knee. Haman didn t like Mordecai s response, so now we move on to the Plot. (Read 3:7-11) Haman plotted not simply to kill Mordecai, but all the Jews. They cast a lot known as a Pur to determine the month and day of the extermination. As v. 7 says, they started in the first month and ended in the last month. In the first month they would cast the Pur, like a die, day after day and if the proper symbol was up that

5 would be the selected day. They did the same for each month. So, this was a yearlong process. As we will see later, the 13 th day of the last month was selected. So now that Haman had his day selected, he approached the King with his request. The Jews were not identified by name. They are described as people scattered throughout the kingdom who have different laws and who do not keep the king s law. What laws weren t the Jews keeping? The only one mentioned is that Mordecai didn t bow to Haman. It was God s plan from the start for His people to be a peculiar people set apart from the nations. Although we don t understand the rationale for all the ceremonial or dietary laws that they followed, we do know that the law s purpose was to make Israel a distinct nation. Israel was to be a light to the nations. Other nations would observe Israel and wonder why things were going so well for them. The answer was because of their relationship with Yahweh. Haman doesn t like this. Differences can make us uncomfortable. When someone dresses or looks different outside of the norm we wonder what they are trying to say. When you show up at a party overdressed or underdressed you feel uncomfortable. When someone is different from you, you sometimes feel like they are judging you; that your way is not right. The Jews were different from the Persians, at least they should have been. But who is flying under the radar?

6 Esther. She is not doing anything, under the counsel of Mordecai that would identify her as a Jew. Haman doesn t like them because they are different. In addition, Haman says that they were not keeping the king s laws. This might be a false charge, much like the false charges brought against Jesus in his trial. The religious leaders knew that religious charges would not hold up before the Roman Governor, so they brought up false secular charges against Jesus. He was crucified under false pretenses. False charges were brought up against the Jews by Haman. What is it about the Jews that has elicited hatred from others over all the years? People and nations have wanted the extermination of the Jews for different reasons. Here it is because they are different. In the middle ages they were hated because of their rejection of Christ. It is often argued that Adolf Hitler s hatred of the Jews was inspired partly by his rejection by a Jewish director when he had applied to art school in Vienna. Today some hate the Jews because of their politics and the issue with the Palestinians. Let s be clear, we can disagree with the politics of the nation of Israel and still not hate them and certainly not want them to be pushed into the sea. How does the king respond to this plot? He gave Haman authority to do whatever he wanted. All of this is so similar to chapter one. When one woman, Vashti, insulted the king, he passed an edict that impacted all the women of his

7 kingdom. Now when one man, Mordecai, insulted Haman, the king allowed an edict to be passed that impacted an entire race. Haman felt disrespected by Mordecai. There is a little or not so little Haman in all of us. I know, I know you haven t desired the extermination of an entire nation or race of people. Have you? But I would like you to reflect on how you respond to the person who disrespects you. How do you respond to the driver that is thoughtless on the highway and cuts you off? What are your thoughts and actions to a friend or family member that doesn t properly respect you? What do you think of the rude or unfriendly cashier at the store; the person who doesn t bother holding the door open for you; the discourteous waiter or waitress? Did you respond in anger, frustration, hurtful words and actions or did you respond like Jesus did? Think how he was disrespected. Mocked, spat upon. Ridiculed. As we have done to others, we have done to Jesus. How did he respond? Father forgive them, they know not what they do. What did he teach us? Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Jesus taught it and lived it. There is a little Haman in all of us and that is why we need Jesus. The Proclamation Read 3:12-15.

8 An entire year was spent casting the lot to determine the day of the extermination. It would be the 13 th day of the 12 th month. The proclamation was made on the 13 th day of the 1 st month. Time was needed to spread this proclamation throughout the kingdom and for the enemies of the Jews to get prepared. Of course, this would give the Jews the opportunity to get prepared as well. Does the 13 th day of the 1 st month, the month of Nisan, ring a bell? On the 14 th the Jews were to be observing the Passover. Think of the timing of this. The Jews, at least those in Susa, learn that in eleven months they are going to be exterminated. They learn this, the day before they celebrate the Passover which marks God s faithful deliverance of them from the slavery in Egypt. The Passover reminds them of God s promises and I m sure gave them some hope even in their confusion. Today we have seen the plot against the people of God. That plot continues today against the people of God, the Church. There will be people who will hate us because we are different. They will feel disrespected because we don t bend the knee to them. Under the power of the law, that is through force, they don t want us to speak of Christ. When your way of life is threatened; when your life is threatened remember the promises of the one who conquered death for you. Jesus stood for us. We can

9 stand for him. Jesus suffered for us. We can suffer for him. He rose for us and we will rise with him.