Risking Everything
Sermon
Heroes of our time, like Bonhoeffer or Edith Cavell or Martin Luther King are remembered and admired for generations. Some, like Nelson or Francis Drake, pass into history and are taught in schools so their memory never fades. They are usually taught by the means of stories or films about their lives, so that people realise for themselves the excitement and adventure, the danger and risk these people undertook.
One of the Jewish heroines is Esther. Her exploits are recounted in the Book of Esther, which is very important for Jewish people but less well known by Christians. Esther's deeds are remembered and celebrated annually by Jews at the two-day Feast of Purim, but the events of the Book of Esther are not thought to be historical, more of a very exciting novel.
Esther lived in Persia around 800 miles away from Israel, so it is the only book of the Bible in which events take far away from Jerusalem. It's also the only book which doesn't mention God and in the earliest versions, doesn't mention prayer.
Esther's family had probably been deported from Jerusalem to Babylon in the time of Jechonias (599 B.C.). On the death of her parents she was adopted by her father's brother, Mordecai, who lived in Susan, the capital of Persia. Some Jews were left behind in Babylon after most of their compatriots had returned from exile in 538 BCE, although the final group didn't return until 432 BCE, after the events of the Book of Esther. So Esther was a Jewish exile, but one who personally knew nothing of her homeland since she had been raised in Babylon.
The story takes place during the reign of King Ahasuerus or Xerxes, 485-465 BCE. Xerxes was married to Vashti and during a banquet requested Vashti's presence, for obvious reasons. Vashti refused, whereupon the king promptly divorced her. Xerxes then demanded that the most attractive maidens in the kingdom should be brought to his court, so that he could choose Vashti's successor.
Mordecai urged his beautiful ward, Esther, to present herself at court but to keep silent about her origins. Esther did this and she was chosen by the king to be his queen. Meanwhile, Mordecai hovered at the gates of the palace in order to be available to advise and help Esther in her new role. Whilst there, he overheard a plot by two of the royal eunuchs to overthrow and kill the king. He informed Esther who informed the king, the plot was aborted and the plotters were duly executed. The king was grateful to Esther and her uncle and Mordecai's name was entered into the court records.
This enraged Haman, the Prime Minister, who became insanely jealous of Mordecai and probably somewhat anxious about his own position, with this evidence of the royal favour turning rather pointedly towards Mordecai. In a cunning plan to rid the country of all Jews, Haman drew up a royal edict, reminiscent of the edict which caught out Daniel and his friends in the book of Daniel. Haman decreed that all should prostrate themselves in worship of the royal house. Failure to do so would be punished by execution on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month.
Naturally, no god-fearing Jew would consent to this, so in effect. Haman was planning a Jewish massacre. Mordecai, from his perch by the gate, got wind of the edict and begged Esther to intervene. But Esther was in an impossible position, since to enter the king's presence without being summoned, was also punishable by death.
In the end, Esther asked Mordecai to have all the Jews fast and pray for three days. She and her maids would also spend those three days in fasting and prayer. After that, she would approach the king.
On the third day Esther did indeed approach the king, with a subtle plan requiring both courage and patience. The king received her graciously and promised to grant her request whatever it might be. Esther didn't mention the edict against the Jews, but merely invited both the king and Aman to dine with her.
The banquet was such a success that Esther promised to repeat it the following day. Haman was overjoyed by the honour and issued orders for the erection of a gallows on which he proposed to hang the hated Mordecai as a sort of entertainment. But that night the kingwas unable to sleep and ordered the chronicles of the nation to be read to him. He then discovered that Mordecai had never been rewarded for his service in revealing the plot of the eunuchs, so next day he asked Haman to suggest a suitable reward for one "whom the king desired to honour".
Haman immediately assumed that the king wished to honour him, Haman and suggested the use of the king's apparel and insignia. The king ordered these to be bestowed on Mordecai.
At the second banquet, Esther informed the king of Haman's plot which involved the destruction of the whole Jewish people. She revealed that she herself was Jewish and pleaded that they should be spared. The king was mortified that he had signed the edict without reading it and ordered that Haman should be hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai. He confiscated Haman's property and gave it to Mordecai.
After these events, Mordecai replaced Haman as chief of staff. But since an edict once sent out cannot be revoked, a new edict had to be published, nullifying the first one. The solution was that the Jews could defend themselves on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The final chapters of the book go into great detail about the numbers of those slain who opposed the Jews including Haman's ten sons who were hung on request of the Queen. This escape by the Jews from their planned slaughter and the subsequent slaying of their enemies is the basis for the festival of Purim.
In this exciting little book, the Jews were prepared to risk death for an ideal -- to worship their God and only their God. Esther too was prepared to risk death by defying the sacred protocol and approaching the king unsummoned. She put herself in great danger for the sake of other people.
Do we risk everything for our God or our worship or our people? Perhaps we should, for as Jesus later remarked, those who are willing to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel will find them.
One of the Jewish heroines is Esther. Her exploits are recounted in the Book of Esther, which is very important for Jewish people but less well known by Christians. Esther's deeds are remembered and celebrated annually by Jews at the two-day Feast of Purim, but the events of the Book of Esther are not thought to be historical, more of a very exciting novel.
Esther lived in Persia around 800 miles away from Israel, so it is the only book of the Bible in which events take far away from Jerusalem. It's also the only book which doesn't mention God and in the earliest versions, doesn't mention prayer.
Esther's family had probably been deported from Jerusalem to Babylon in the time of Jechonias (599 B.C.). On the death of her parents she was adopted by her father's brother, Mordecai, who lived in Susan, the capital of Persia. Some Jews were left behind in Babylon after most of their compatriots had returned from exile in 538 BCE, although the final group didn't return until 432 BCE, after the events of the Book of Esther. So Esther was a Jewish exile, but one who personally knew nothing of her homeland since she had been raised in Babylon.
The story takes place during the reign of King Ahasuerus or Xerxes, 485-465 BCE. Xerxes was married to Vashti and during a banquet requested Vashti's presence, for obvious reasons. Vashti refused, whereupon the king promptly divorced her. Xerxes then demanded that the most attractive maidens in the kingdom should be brought to his court, so that he could choose Vashti's successor.
Mordecai urged his beautiful ward, Esther, to present herself at court but to keep silent about her origins. Esther did this and she was chosen by the king to be his queen. Meanwhile, Mordecai hovered at the gates of the palace in order to be available to advise and help Esther in her new role. Whilst there, he overheard a plot by two of the royal eunuchs to overthrow and kill the king. He informed Esther who informed the king, the plot was aborted and the plotters were duly executed. The king was grateful to Esther and her uncle and Mordecai's name was entered into the court records.
This enraged Haman, the Prime Minister, who became insanely jealous of Mordecai and probably somewhat anxious about his own position, with this evidence of the royal favour turning rather pointedly towards Mordecai. In a cunning plan to rid the country of all Jews, Haman drew up a royal edict, reminiscent of the edict which caught out Daniel and his friends in the book of Daniel. Haman decreed that all should prostrate themselves in worship of the royal house. Failure to do so would be punished by execution on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month.
Naturally, no god-fearing Jew would consent to this, so in effect. Haman was planning a Jewish massacre. Mordecai, from his perch by the gate, got wind of the edict and begged Esther to intervene. But Esther was in an impossible position, since to enter the king's presence without being summoned, was also punishable by death.
In the end, Esther asked Mordecai to have all the Jews fast and pray for three days. She and her maids would also spend those three days in fasting and prayer. After that, she would approach the king.
On the third day Esther did indeed approach the king, with a subtle plan requiring both courage and patience. The king received her graciously and promised to grant her request whatever it might be. Esther didn't mention the edict against the Jews, but merely invited both the king and Aman to dine with her.
The banquet was such a success that Esther promised to repeat it the following day. Haman was overjoyed by the honour and issued orders for the erection of a gallows on which he proposed to hang the hated Mordecai as a sort of entertainment. But that night the kingwas unable to sleep and ordered the chronicles of the nation to be read to him. He then discovered that Mordecai had never been rewarded for his service in revealing the plot of the eunuchs, so next day he asked Haman to suggest a suitable reward for one "whom the king desired to honour".
Haman immediately assumed that the king wished to honour him, Haman and suggested the use of the king's apparel and insignia. The king ordered these to be bestowed on Mordecai.
At the second banquet, Esther informed the king of Haman's plot which involved the destruction of the whole Jewish people. She revealed that she herself was Jewish and pleaded that they should be spared. The king was mortified that he had signed the edict without reading it and ordered that Haman should be hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai. He confiscated Haman's property and gave it to Mordecai.
After these events, Mordecai replaced Haman as chief of staff. But since an edict once sent out cannot be revoked, a new edict had to be published, nullifying the first one. The solution was that the Jews could defend themselves on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The final chapters of the book go into great detail about the numbers of those slain who opposed the Jews including Haman's ten sons who were hung on request of the Queen. This escape by the Jews from their planned slaughter and the subsequent slaying of their enemies is the basis for the festival of Purim.
In this exciting little book, the Jews were prepared to risk death for an ideal -- to worship their God and only their God. Esther too was prepared to risk death by defying the sacred protocol and approaching the king unsummoned. She put herself in great danger for the sake of other people.
Do we risk everything for our God or our worship or our people? Perhaps we should, for as Jesus later remarked, those who are willing to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel will find them.
