Has God Forgotten Us?

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn over in your Bible with me now to the book of Esther, Esther chapter two.

Esther chapter two, the last book of the historical books. If you get to Psalms, turn back one book, it's after Ezra in Nehemiah. Esther chapter two, and this morning we'll be looking at verses 19 through chapter three. Esther chapter 2, if you're using your pew bibles, that's going to be on page 444. Esther chapter 2, beginning at verse 19. Hear now God's word from the older covenants.

When virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai sat within the king's gate. Now Esther had not revealed her family or her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him. In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Asuarius. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. And when an inquiry was made into the manor, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king." Now, this is an interesting part of the story.

This is where we think back to old times, third world times, and we think of plots and assassinations, of people wanting to one-off their leaders, and we think of far distant lands. But yet, this morning when I was even looking up, I wonder how many U.S. presidents, we've had four presidents who were assassinated. I thought, we also had two other presidents who were attempted to be assassinated. I thought, I wonder how many times the Secret Service has caught other assassination plots.

And it's over a dozen times. So let's make sure that we don't think of this as something that's way far removed from us. Somehow that we're so civilized in America, we would never have any problem like this. Brothers and sisters, we've only had about 40-something presidents. And over half of them, there have been multiple assassination plots discovered.

Here we find Mordecai. We find Mordecai in the king's gate. This is a massive room that would have been the entrance into the palace. This room that was about 130 feet by 90 feet with four columns of marble on each side, raising up into the sky. And there Mordecai is, and he hears two eunuchs talking, two of the king's officials talking. And he overhears a plot. What's this plot? That they're wanting to try to assassinate Xerxes, Ashawarius himself. So what does Mordecai do? I mean, you have to think, Mordecai has a few different options here, right? Mordecai could say, well, it's not my problem. Just walk away. I don't want to get into this. This is not my deal.

But instead, what does he do? He goes and he tells Esther, and Esther turns around and she goes and she tells Ashuarius, and Ashuarius looks into the matter and they find out that, yeah, this is actually the case. Now, this is something peculiar, isn't it?

I mean, this is Mordecai living in a non-Jewish land. He's living in the land of Persia, not in Judea. He's living under a pagan king, a king who outright has this harem of wives, this pagan king who has a whole slew of gods, who worships Marduk. And yet, what do we find Mordecai doing? Does he say, Not my king, not my problem. He doesn't serve my God, he doesn't serve my people, not my problem.

No, we find Mordecai doing what's upright. Seeing that there's a rightly instituted king, and so even though he might have qualms or problems, he goes and he tells Esther, who turns and she tells Asherwarius, and Asherwarius goes and he inquires into the matter, and that's it.

Kind of a dull part of the story, isn't it? Most of you have read the book of Esther, you've seen the movies of the book of Esther, you know what's coming, but at this time and age, this is a dull point, okay? Nothing happens. Yeah, he discovers this plot and there's no praise for him, there's no exalting him, there's nothing.

Just nothing, and just in case you thought that, you know, maybe it was pretty quick that the later part of the book happens. As we get into chapter three, we're going to see chapter three is nine years after chapter one. Nine years later. So instead of Mordecai being promoted, instead of Mordecai being there, instead of Mordecai being exalted, it seems like He's just forgotten. He's just forgotten. And instead, in verse one of chapter three, instead of Mordecai, it starts with someone else. Look with me at verses one through six.

After these things, King Asuarius promoted Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, and advanced him and set him above all the princes who were with him. And all the king's servants who were within the king's gates bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him."

This is something that we might not recognize right off. This section of Esther is steeped in Old Testament Leviticus, Exodus history. Why does it name who Haman's ancestors are? Who in the world are the Agagites? Why does it say this? Well, Agag was the king of the Amalekites. When the Israelites came up out of Egypt, they crossed over the Red Sea, they went to the promised land, they tried to go through the land of Amalek, and guess who the king of Amalek was? Agag. who said, no, you will not cross through my land, and instead met the Israelites with a hostile army, tried to kill the Israelites instead. So we have Haman now, an Agagite, an Amalekite by birth, and this is something that God found in Exodus so disturbing that he said that there would be perpetual enmity, there would be generation to generational war. between the Israelites and the Amalekites.

And here it seems like that enmity is going to continue. Haman, the Agagite, advances instead, but the king had commanded concerning him, but Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. Verse 3, then the king's servants who were within the gate said to Mordecai, why do you transgress a king's command? Now it happened, when they spoke to him daily, he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman, to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, because why? for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.

Now this is an interesting point, isn't it? Last week we talked about what, they're not wearing their Judaism on their sleeve, but yet now all of a sudden we find Mordecai saying, I need to take a stand here. Mordecai, we don't have it anywhere in the text saying that he took a stand when he was eating the food There's nothing in the text that tells us that he was still celebrating all the different rituals and all the dietary laws and all the customary laws of what they were allowed to wear and not wear and how they were able to not mingle with Gentiles. None of that's here. But yet there comes a point in life in which you can't just skate along anymore with your faith. And that's what we find in Mordecai here. Notice, remember how we were introduced to Mordecai.

Mordecai was a son of Benjamin, a child of the first king, Saul himself. And so when we find Mordecai as a son of the tribe of Benjamin, it was Saul himself who, when God had given him victory over his enemies, he had told him to totally wipe them out. And do you know which one king he did not kill? The king of the Amalekites. And God judged him for that. God took the crown away from him for that.

And it's as if Mordecai says, I know the disobedience of my fathers beforehand, that they got the comfort of the Amalekites and they just lived with them. They were willing to just push down God's word and just live with these people who God said we weren't supposed to live with.

And it's like here, all of a sudden, all of this baggage comes to the forefront. I can't bow down to him. I can go into the king's palace and I can report treasonous things to the authorities. I can deal with keeping my Jewish identity on the DL, keep it quiet, but I am not going to bow down to an agagite. Now this is really harsh. in the Jewish mind, so much so today that if you were to talk to a modern Israeli, they would talk of their enemies as Amalekites. As in the first century during the Roman era, do you wanna know what the Jewish people during Jesus' time would use as a slur word against the Roman authorities?

Children of Agag. I won't bow down to him. I can't go that far, there's a line, and I can't cross that line. I can't bow down to Him. God forgot us, or God forsook us, God turned His back away from us, it seems, because we were kicked out of the promised land, our people, land was taken away from them, and now we're here in exile because of our disobedience to oppose people like that. It can't do it.

So Mordecai told them that he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage, Haman was filled with wrath. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for he had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Asuarius, the people of Mordecai."

Haman is enraged by this. We saw in chapter one and two how fickle the pride of the Persian court was. You know, all the women of the land must obey their husbands, and here we have Haman who's not just, I just don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna just get more, I wanna get all of them.

There's gonna be a total pogrom, a total genocide, a total holocaust, just kill all of the Jews. That's the rage and fury he has. And so in verse 7 and 8, or verse 7, what does he do? He takes the dice, he casts the dice to try to figure out when he's able to do this.

In the first month, which is in the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of the king Asuarius, they cast Purr, that is Lot, before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. The twelfth year. Esther chapter one verse three started with the third year. Nine years has passed.

It's amazing how scripture can do that. It's like you're on fast forward and you didn't even know it. Nine years later, he throws the dice. He casts it, and if this was chalk and talk, I would put up a picture and I would show you some archaeological evidence of these little dice that they've found, that they wouldn't use them for gambling, they would use them for divination to try to figure out what was the will of the gods. So he cast it in the first month, but he's not able to do this insidious deed until the 12th month. So there's an 11 month, almost full year gap where he's going to plan and plot and try to figure out how to kill the Jews. And he comes up with this plot. Look with me at verses eight and nine.

Then Haman said to King Asuarius, there is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from all other peoples, and they do not keep the king's laws. Therefore, it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king's treasuries." Haman has a plot to kill all the Jews, all of them.

Notice what he does here. He doesn't tell King Ashurarius the real reason. There's this dude over there. I think he's a real prig. He's just a real jerk. He told everyone to bow down to me. He won't. My pride's hurt. Can I just take his head off, please? No, what does he do? He says, no, there's a whole people. It's like an infestation. It's like a virus in your kingdom. Asher, Warris, you need to be careful. These people won't listen to your laws. They don't listen to our customs. They don't do our stuff. They don't walk our ways. They need to be done away with. We just need to get rid of all of them. So he shows, he's saying the foundation of your kingdom is going to crumble if you don't get rid of them. and to back up his words, or to bribe the king, whichever way you want to see it, he offers the talents of gold.

Now, we might not think that much, because we don't know how much this is in our day and age, right? 10,000 talents of gold. This is 300 tons, sorry, of silver. This is 300 tons of silver. Now, don't go looking on Google right now for the spot price of silver, but I'm telling you, in my terms, that's called a buttload of money.

This is a ton of riches he's taking. This is a boatload of cash he's giving to the king. A king who has just lost a costly battle to the Athenians. A king whose coffers are empty and he's lined his pockets. But there's something interesting. There's something interesting in the next few parts. Look with me at verses 10 through 15.

So the king took a signet ring from his hand and he gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, the money and the people are given to you to do with them as seems good to you. Then the king's scribes were called on the 13th day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded, to the king's satraps, the governors who were over each province, the officials of all people, to every province according to its script, and to every people in their language. In the name of King Asuarius it was written, and sealed with the king's signet ring. And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions. A copy of the documents. was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people that they should be ready for that day. Their couriers went out, hastened by the king's command, and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan the citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed. On the 13th day, of the first month, he goes to the king, he makes this plan, and he sends out a decree.

I'm going to ask you a rhetorical question, because I didn't know it. As I was translating, I thought, why in the world does it say the first month, which is the month of Nisan? Why did the writer of Esther put that detail in there? And normally you only read the dates written like that in things like Leviticus, where there's some type of festival or feast or something going on. But I wasn't expecting it in Esther chapter three. What's special at that time?

Brothers and sisters, the 14th of Nisan was the Passover. the feast that the Jews celebrated, to show that God was with His people, that He had not forgotten His people, that He was going to destroy all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, that if they put their faith in Him, and they put that lamb's blood across the lintel of their house, and upon the doorpost of their house, that the ghosts would pass over their houses, they would be saved, but their enemies would be killed, and now it seems like the world has flopped on itself. Has God forgotten them?

This is like somebody issuing a death decree to all Christians on December 24th. Just as you're excited to celebrate Christmas, just as you're ready for all the excitement of the next day to celebrate God's loving kindness to you and to all his people, all of a sudden you get a letter nailed to your door saying, on this day all Christians are gonna be killed. That's what this was like for them. And you have to imagine what was going on in Mordecai's mind, what was going on in Esther's mind, what was going on in all the Jews' minds as they were receiving this word.

Really? Has God totally forgotten His people? He exiled us, He sent us to the nations, we were kicked out of the land. Has He really forgotten all of us? getting this news on the eve of Passover. As you sit down with your family the next day and as you cook the Passover lamb and as you sit there and you think, why am I doing this? God saved his people in Egypt. Is he gonna save us? He saved our forefathers thousands of years ago when He brought them up and displayed His mighty love for them.

But now we're no better off than we were when we were in Egypt. Has God forgotten us? Brothers and sisters, the disciples felt the same way. Remember, it was Jesus Christ who got his death letter on the eve of Passover. It was Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, who was arrested on this same night. Imagine how the disciples would have felt, really, has God forgotten us?

Really, Lord, I was willing to die for you, but now you're letting the Romans take you? Really? And Jesus, is this really the way it's supposed to be? Some people outright scattered, other people just lingered on near, but then later denied him and walking away, not understanding, Lord, this is dark. This is heavy. I don't know. Why is this happening? Have you forsaken us? Could you imagine what it would be like? to have actually seen Jesus taken away like a thief, to be arrested and to be ripped.

He was the hope. This was the Messiah. He was supposed to be the king. The Passover is supposed to be this time where it shows that God is going to lovingly care for his people. Has he forgotten them? Brothers and sisters, we know the answer is no. We know that God has not forgotten his people. He did not forsake his people when he gave them that Passover lamb.

He had not forsaken his people when he had allowed Haman to write this disgusting decree. And he had not forgotten his people, even though he allowed our Lord to be arrested. But see, there's a reality. while the world, or while Haman wanted to kill all the Jews just because of who they are.

Brothers and sisters, we're the ones who lived our lives under the threat of death. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So brothers and sisters, when we come to the book of Esther chapter 3, we don't know what's going, the people living then didn't know what was going on in God's plan. All they knew was that there was despair, all they knew is that there was fear, all they knew is that there was this joy turned into sorrow.

But as we're gonna find out later in that book, that sorrow is turned back into joy because God is going to do a marvelous work. And brothers and sisters, God has done a marvelous work in Jesus Christ. Scripture's this weird book. The Bible is so fun. Because it takes all of our preconceived notions of how the storyline should go and it flips it on its head. In Esther it does that, in Exodus it did that, and in the Gospels it does that.

That Jesus Christ would come to save sinners, like you and like me. So brothers and sisters, when life is hard, right? Life is going to be hard. There's gonna be trials in your life, whether you're struggling with your sin or whether you're struggling with the realities of the sinful world in which you live. The days might be dark, the government might seem hell-bent on destroying the church, the world might seem set against Jesus Christ and his throne, but brothers and sisters, let me tell you, not everything is the way it seems.

God was in control in Egypt. and had His eye upon His people. God was in control here in Esther chapter 3 and had His eye upon His people. God was in control on that fateful night when Jesus Christ was arrested on Passover Eve. And His eye was on His people. And brothers and sisters, Jesus' eye is on His people now.

We don't know why things are going on in our world the way they are. I'm sure our brothers and sisters in China are thinking, why in the world are we back in hiding? Things had gotten so much better. I'm sure our brothers and sisters in Muslim countries that we're afraid to say the names are worried about why is God allowing the church to be so suppressed by Islamic rule?

We don't need to worry about how God is doing things. We trust. We trust God's promises that his Passover lamb has come and that he loves his people and that he has delivered us and he will always deliver us with his mighty right hand. So look to the Lord in those dark times. Don't get freaked out. Don't go on a panic scare when the governments and the ways of this world seem hell-bent against the church. Trust in the Lord. He has not forgotten his people.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you look upon us as a shepherd and that you love us. Father, I pray that if there was any wrong or foolish thing I said, Father, please let that be stripped away. Please let our minds be focused upon what is true and what is right. And Lord, we pray that you would let us exalt in you. We pray that we might walk out of here with a confidence in your Holy Spirit, that you indeed work all things together for the good of those who love you and have been called according to your purposes. Father, let us believe it deep down in our souls and live it out in our daily lives. In Jesus's name we pray, amen.

Will you please stand together with me now as we sing Psalm 91, Selection B. Please stand if you are able as we sing together Psalm 91, Selection B. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.