Esther 2 - How do You Live a Life of Faith When things are Out of Your Control?

Lord, help our hearts to be in tune with You – that we would respond to a Father who loves us.
Esther 2: 2 After these things when the anger of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s attendants, who served him, said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. 3 Let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given them. 4 Then let the young lady who pleases the king be queen in place of Vashti.” And the matter pleased the king, and he did accordingly.
You could have guessed that part of it!
We looked at the removal of Queen Vashti last week – she refused the king and she was gone. That set up the conditions necessary for Esther to become queen – without those few words – the rest of the story would not have happened. There were these bizarre events that led up to this – this half a year of the king showing off his glory – and then when he was really drunk, he made this ungodly request of his wife and she refused – and those events radically changed the history of the Jewish people. What strange events might change our world forever?
Things we look at – and ask, God, why is this going on in my life – this seems to have nothing to do with me serving you – things that come out of nowhere – and we think – where did that come from? And yet, God wants to use things in our lives to do His unique work. The king’s harem is about to grow, and he has no problem with that. The king’s problem is his excess – and it will destroy his kingdom. We have a land of excess – and it may destroy us. None of us is thinking of starting a harem – but there are so many forms of excess that I think we may be blind to – that are such a part of our culture that we don’t realize it is excessive. You know what some of them are. There are others that we probably haven’t even thought of. Food, technology, sports, entertainment. We live in such excess I don’t think we know what excess is. You’ve heard the phrase, all things in moderation (not that that is even true, because there are some things that shouldn’t even be done in moderation) – but excess ruins good things.
Rather than taking an initiative to make things right – the king lets others make decisions for him – and he is manipulated – he goes to these young men and is manipulated by them. He has appointed people who will tell him exactly what he wants to hear – not what he needs to hear. That is true today – there are those in power who appoint and hire only those who will tell them what they want to hear and not what they need to hear.
The young men said – King – you have this problem – you need MORE WOMEN! Do we have friends who will tell you what you need to hear? Or only those who will tell you what you are comfortable hearing? True friends are able to tell you what you need – whether you want to hear it or not.
5 Now there was at the citadel in Susa a Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, 6 who had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the captives who had been exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled. 7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
Again – Taken. Things are taken here. We are introduced to the two heroes of the story. Both are Benjamites, of noble blood – coming from the line of King Saul – and the key is this word Taken – when these heroes are spoken of – it is always in the passive voice. They – Esther is always passive until the end of the story. She takes no initiative – but things happen TO her.
8 So it came about when the command and decree of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s palace into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women. 9 Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and food, gave her seven choice maids from the king’s palace and transferred her and her maids to the best place in the harem. 10 Esther did not make known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make them known.
The Jews are taken captive – no power to resist.
Mordecai takes Esther when she is young
The king takes Esther again –
The story is when you have no power – you can’t do anything about it. The book basically says – you can’t fight city hall. When things are out of your hands and out of control, how do you live a life of faith? We all have times when there are events that influence our well-being and there is nothing you can do about it. How do you live by faith in that situation? We like to fix things – that is who we are – what it means to be an American. Esther can do nothing about her predicament. She is unable in every way imaginable.
When things are totally out of your hands – that is when faith matters most – your faith – and my faith – matter the most.
You’ve probably noticed that God likes to get us in those circumstances where things are out of control because God wants us to trust Him by faith.
The twist in all of the Esther story – and it sets the whole thing up – there is an unseen hand controlling everything. The king, his friends, the guy in charge of the harem – are not in control.
The guy in charge takes Esther to the very best place. This passivity also has a good aspect to it. Part is bad, but there are good things happening behind the scenes.
10 Esther did not make known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make them known.
Mordecai says – do not – whatever you do – tell them you are a Christian (to put it in today’s terms). Our thinking would be What? Why would he say that? Esther would have made a terrible Christian football player – scores a touchdown – and no pointing to the guy upstairs – no dance - nothing.
We want to share our faith – but there is a key concept in Esther – things are not always so black and white in life. We want things to be clear cut – black and white – but if you have read your bible much – you know it is just not that way. This is a key principle in this story.
11 Every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and how she fared.
Here is Mordecai – we get some glimpses into his character and we find he is a good man. He took her when she was little – an orphan – and he raised her himself – and he is doing all he can to protect her. On a side note – those of you with grown children – our responsibility for our kids does not end when they leave the house! It grows!
12 Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women— (Imagine this – it would be like having an unlimited credit card to Ulta!) for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women— 13 the young lady would go in to the king in this way:
This is not a beauty contest. Nothing like it. It is – I’m sorry – but it is what it is and it is everything that it is.
anything that she desired was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the [e]custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not again go in to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
We can’t sanitize this and we shouldn’t – to understand this story we need to understand the reality of Esther’s situation. We ask – how could she submit to this. We have never walked in Esther’s shoes. We just haven’t. As you study this book, there are those who criticize Esther – and others who sanitize it and say it isn’t what you think it is.
15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, came to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the women, advised.
Esther understands how wise decisions affect the outcome of things. There is a cleverness to our heroes – Mordecai and Esther. It is not just about taking things – it looks that way – but it looks that way on purpose.
And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal palace in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17 The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
So with all that – this whole story and how it unfolds – God works through a lot of garbage, doesn’t He? Through a lot of junk. And that is no different today. He knows how to work through our junk and the junk that is dumped on us. Esther lived as faithfully as she could in an unspeakable circumstance.
Bonhoeffer lived in Hitler’s Germany. When the other Christians were leaving – Bonhoeffer went back. They knew that Hitler was persecuting pastors who stood up for the gospel. In his story – he was involved in an assassination attempt against Hitler. We could look at that and say no good Christian should ever be involved in that! But we didn’t live in that situation. I wasn’t there. There were Christians who hid Jews – and they lied – and life is not always black and white – it wasn’t in the Bible and it isn’t in our reality either. There are a lot of things that God leaves to personal conscience that we force into right or wrong.
The opposite of that is true also – there are things that are right or wrong and we say – oh, no…..
This story leaves many wholes – on purpose. The Spirit-inspired author of Esther chose to leave a lot of things blank.

18 Then the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his princes and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king’s bounty.
19 When the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20 Esther had not yet made known her kindred or her people, even as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her as she had done when under his care.

Mordecai Saves the King
21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s officials from those who guarded the door, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
There is a coup about to be taken! This is in the day before social media!
22 But the plot became known to Mordecai
Right place – right time – accidentally! How did THAT happen? It is all about this unseen hand that reveals a secret to Mordecai – and he…
and he told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. 23 Now when the plot was investigated and found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.
What we have – this is one of those – spoiler alert – we went to see Star Trek – it starts off with Captain Kirk – and he has this ancient artifact – and he puts it in the archives of the Enterprise – and it plays an important part in the future.
What we have in Esther is a spoiler alert – Esther is all about those who plot evil – evil will come upon them. There is this unseen hand engaged in every way. We know that name. We know how to connect with Him and contact Him. But our problem – we don’t like it when the hand is unseen. We want it to be more obvious. That goes back to the beginning of the message – when it is unseen and we are not in control – that is when it is most important to live by faith.