Positioned For Purpose | Esther
INTRODUCTION
Positioned for a purpose.
Do you believe that whatever phase of life we are at, we are “positioned for purpose?”
My dear brethren, I greet you in the name of Jesus.
Well, in a few minutes, we are going to say goodbye to this year and a great year is awaiting us so, let’s thank God for this year. Indeed, through it all God has been faithful. Seasons have come and gone but God has been good to us. After all, God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and He will lead us successfully in 2020.
Why do you think God has brought you to the end of this year while others could not make it? Why has God birthed you in a particular family given you the education and then provided the job or business that you have?
God does nothing by accident, His plans are not random, and His purpose for you was even before you were born. Friends, God created you for such a time as this, He has a plan for you so if you are here right now, you are here for a purpose, a God-ordained purpose.
Positioned for Purpose
You have been brought by God to this moment in history and positioned where you are for God’s purpose and His glory.
Esther 4:14
who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?
The name of God is not mentioned in this book but the ruler who is featured in this book is mentioned about 175 times. So, if anyone reads this book they will know that God is the main character in the book and that He is in control over every event and every matter from the beginning to the end.
1. God is in Control Over Everything
God certainly was in control over your life in 2019 and God will be in control over every detail of your life, your family, and our country in 2020. Even when we think God is not present, He indeed is.
Chuck Swindoll’s commentary on Esther says, “God seems absent from the moment, distant, preoccupied yet later we realize how present He was all along.”
God is beautifully orchestrating every one of our lives so let’s see how that unfolds out in this book. And see how we are positioned for purpose.
BACKGROUND
The story of Esther begins with a powerful king Xerxes (519 to 465 BC). Xerxes is the Greek name for the Hebrew form Ahasuerus, who reigned over the Persian empire which spread from India to Ethiopia, and the capital was Susa.
He was the son of Darius the Great. He was the grandson of Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler who decreed that the Jews could go back to their land after 70 years of captivity.
The Queen Disobeys the King
Now, King Xerxes has called for a 6-month strategy meeting and the meeting ends with an extravagant celebration, then the king gives a banquet lasting 7 days where the food is plentiful, and the wine flows freely. When the king and his men are all drunk the king decides to bring his beautiful queen Vasthi to parade her before all. Vasthi decides not to come. The king’s advisors advised the king to take action because this sort of response could start a woman’s liberation in the kingdom. Due to her disobedience, Vashti lost her title.
Now the king needed a new queen, so they had a beauty contest, Miss Persia beauty contest. The king’s people go and collect approximately 400 beautiful women out of approximately 25000 women from all over Persia and bring them to the king’s harem.
Two Main Characters
At that point, the biblical text introduces us to the two main people in the story, two Jewish cousins, Mordecai, and Esther. Mordecai is roughly fifteen years older than his young cousin who’s an orphan named Esther.
Her parents had died when she was very young and so Mordecai had raised her. Esther’s name in Hebrew is Hadassah means “myrtle,” a plant. Also, they live in the city of Shushan and are the descendants of the original Jewish captives from the Babylonian captivity. A century earlier, the parents of Esther and Mordecai were brought to Babylon.
Josephus, the historian says there were 400 virgins. After that year, the virgins were taken to the palace and presented to the king. The king would then make his choice and one of them would be given the title of ‘queen’.
This is like a Cinderella story where Esther stole the king’s heart. She becomes his queen. An obscure Jewish orphan who is exalted to the highest position and every woman in the entire world desires for that position. Well, this is no coincidence because there’s a power working here and God is in control over everything.
2. Victory hinges on small events
Big doors swing in small hinges
Do not neglect your small beginnings, do not neglect the small things that you are doing because if you look back into your life you will find out that what seemed like small events have turned out to be the most significant of events in the larger scheme of things. Maybe you are doing an insignificant thing now but remember in that insignificant thing, great doors can open up.
When the opportunity came, Esther could use her influence to save the Jewish race from genocide, and that’s the story of how Esther, a woman in God saved the Jews from genocide. She was positioned for a purpose.
Significantly, through the entire process, Esther keeps her Jewish heritage a secret. Mordecai told her to do that because there was much anti-Semitism in the Persian Empire.
3. There is a Time to be Quiet and a time to speak
As we work for the Lord in the places God has placed us, we also need to be careful of what we speak. Sometimes we need not even speak but rather we can be just the salt and the light where God has placed us.
When the time comes you can speak.
Esther did not tell anyone of her nationality and family background as Mordecai had told her not to say so. She is residing in Persia, where the people do not believe in the God of Israel, also some are critical of Esther saying she should have told her identity.
I felt she should have done that but sometimes we have to understand that there is a time to hold back information. Esther was just being the salt in the situation. She only spoke when the right opportunity came.
So, Esther was chosen to be the queen and not long after Esther is crowned, her cousin Mordecai is sitting at the entrance of the palace. He was positioned for a purpose too.
The Gate
The Gate is a place where issues of the community were dealt with and it is a place that we call “court” for justice, however, it is not a place of idling.
So, Mordecai’s position at the “gate” indicates he was a person of dignity and also part of the judges in the decision-making. It is like the ‘elders’ in other places of the OT where they were responsible for judging cases, but Mordecai was not hanging around like an idler rather he was in a responsible position.
So, while he was there, he overhears two of the king’s doorkeepers planning to assassinate the king. He reported it immediately to Queen Esther and she informed the king in Mordecai’s name. Immediately, an inquiry was made, and both were hung on the gallows. This incident was written in the book of Chronicles in the presence of the king.
Esther
Here, you are introduced to a man named Haman who is the second in command after the king and an Agagite, and he also hated Mordecai and the Jews. To understand this hatred, we need to go back almost a thousand years, to the Exodus from Egypt.
Well, the Israelites come out of Egypt but then they’re attacked by the Amalekites, Ex. 17. The Amalekites are descendants of Esau. God curses the Amalekites, Deuteronomy 25 says, “One day they’re going to be extinct.”
Haman, a descendent of the Amalekites
Four centuries later, King Saul conquered the Amalekites in 1 Samuel. Saul captures their king Agag. Saul was supposed to kill Agag, but he didn’t do it. And he incurred the Lord’s displeasure. The prophet Samuel went and hacked Agag to pieces, 1 Samuel 15. Now, almost hundreds of years have passed since the hacking of Agag to death. Haman knew his family history and he knew that it was a Jewish man who had hacked his royal ancestor to pieces.
To make it worse, Mordecai is a descendant of Kish, Esther 2:5 and Kish belongs to Benjamin then again Benjamin is the line of Saul. They knew their history. There was deep-seated animosity between the descendants of Saul and the descendants of Agag.
Hostility
The hostility erupts in chapter 3. “All the king’s servants who were within the king’s gates bowed and paid homage to Haman. However, Mordecai wouldn’t bow or pay homage. The Jews were given special privileges as they would bow down only to God, So Mordecai was not doing anything against the law. However, Haman was filled with wrath. In revenge, he sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai.
So what does Haman do? He gets permission from the king. Telling that ‘certain people’ (2:8) are a threat to the kingdom. Then goes on to say that the kingdom can be rich if they are killed and their assets come to the king. So, the king hands over his signet ring to Haman and he dispatches a royal decree throughout the Persian empire to kill the Jews on a particular date.
Esther 4:3
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.
When Mordecai heard about this decree, he tore his clothes, and he dressed in rags then he put ashes on his head and mourned openly.
Was this just a simple payback by Haman? No, it’s much bigger than that, Satan’s involved in this, as Satan is against what God likes. Satan is involved here. It is the satan who wants to kill the Jews. Thus, to bring to a halt God’s purpose of redemption on their behalf is after the believers today.
In the meantime, Esther was in the comfort of her palace unaware of all these developments. She didn’t know that she was positioned for a purpose.
4. Be Connected
Stay Connected with the events around us
We need to step out of our Christian bubble and pay attention to the world and the people around us.
Now, Mordecai could not meet Esther as there was high security, and neither was Esther trying to contact Mordecai or her people.
This is Esther’s problem here. She has no connection with her own people’s news. She was in a secluded place having all royal beauty treatments. But, she has no idea about her people outside the palace.
Finally, Esther attends tells her that Mordecai is in sackcloth. She sends him some good clothes, but that is not what he wants. Certainly, Mordecai is thinking, “Esther, this is not about new clothes, our existence is in a crisis.” Esther needed a wake-up call. So, he sends her the decree signed by the king, authored by Haman to execute all the Jews. He was reminding Esther, that she was positioned for a purpose. </p>
Disconnected
Esther is a lot like many of the Christians today. We don’t know about what is happening around us. Most Christians are living in a bubble, this is a bubble of their prosperity, their work, and their family, and do not know what is happening around us some Christians only associate with fellow Christians.
They go to Christian café, Christian gyms, and Christian workplaces, well am not saying this is bad, but they do not know what is happening outside. This is how they live in a Christian bubble. Disconnected from what is going on around them. Disconnected from how people are suffering. How people need to hear the gospel. What is happening in the political realm? Likewise, Esther disconnected herself, and she needed a wake-up call. Do you know, you are positioned for a purpose?
So, Mordecai asked Esther to go to the king and plead for the lives of the people. In Persia, they will kill if they go into the king’s presence without prior permission. So, Esther was breaking royal protocol, but also risking her life. well, the king hadn’t even seen her in thirty days, and she was afraid of potentially violating her irrational husband who had demoted Vashti for one act of non-compliance, and above that, Esther could even lose her life.
Well, Mordecai comes back and calls for courage. He knew he was positioned for a purpose.
Esther 4:13-14
13 “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 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 your royal position for such a time as this?”
Mordecai is saying positively you have to act and take the risk. If you don’t, even you and your family will perish. He is warning her, don’t think you are safe in the palace, you and your family are also in danger. So, act, don’t fear or be selfish. And then he says these famous words, “Yet who knows whether you’ve come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
5. You are purposed for such time as this
Mordecai affirms divine sovereignty, and he affirms his confidence in the revelation of God that he would preserve his people, but he also understands that Esther can perish, and he can perish and many other Jews can perish if she doesn’t act.
Esther gets into action and asks to gather all the Jews in Susa to fast and pray for 3 days.
Esther 3:15-16
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “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 attendants will as 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.”
Esther was a real believer in character.
Crisis does not form our character. People reveal their character in crisis.
Christians are a lot like teabags. Only in hot water, you will know their strength.
When people go through difficulties, they find out what their commitment to the Lord is, and we see Esther was a woman of character.
The fasting prayer by Esther was for justice to prevail in the land. Every nation has just laws. Even we have our constitution. Ask for God’s intervention for our rights and privileges. That’s our calling.
God moves when we fast. He moves when we stand up for him.
After 3 days, Esther goes to the king and he extends the scepter and him, “Queen Esther. What is your request? It shall be given to you up to half the kingdom.” She asks Ahasuerus to put on a banquet for Haman and her later that day. During the banquet, The king said to Esther, “What’s your petition? Up to half the kingdom, it shall be done.”
She said, “Let’s meet tomorrow and have another banquet.” Now Haman loved this. A private banquet with the king and the queen. It is the highest honor. So, that night, Haman slept soundly as he prepared the gallows to execute Mordecai the next day.
That night, the king is back in the palace, but he does not get sleep. So, he got the royal records to read about Mordecai and how he saved the king’s life. Then in the morning Haman arrives back at the royal court and goes to get permission to hang Mordecai. But before he can say anything, Ahasuerus asks him a question.
Esther 6:6
When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?”
Haman thinks it’s him and so he says, “Give him a royal robe; let him ride on the king’s horses with a royal crest on his head proclaiming.
‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor.’
In a shocking twist of expectations, the King says, “Hurry then, and take the robe and the horse that you’ve suggested and done so for Mordecai.” Haman has no choice, so he leads the parade for Mordecai through the city and honors Mordecai.
After this Haman goes home looking for comfort from his family and friends but he doesn’t find it.
Esther 6:13
His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!”
6. The Enemies of God shall surely come to ruin
Esther asks the king to spare the life of her and her people and then tells the king about the plot of Haman. Now the king was burning in anger, he stormed out into the palace garden. Then he remembered the entire plot of Haman and how he had misrepresented the Jewish people as a potential threat to the empire. So, the king signed the decree into law that involved the murder of his queen.
Well, Haman’s still at the dinner table. He falls at Esther’s feet. He begged for his life. The king, returning from the garden:
Esther 7:8
Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?” As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. The king had him executed in the same pole Haman had set up for Mordecai.
The Enemies Of God Will Surely Come To Ruin
The king issued another decree to override the previous. When Mordecai and Esther stood up in their position, God protected his people.
The result of Esther and Mordecai’s Intervention
A. Jews got the Upper Hand
Esther 9:1
on this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned, and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them.
B. Everyone was afraid of the Jews
Esther 9:2
The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.
C. Everyone helped the Jews
Esther 9:3
And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s administrators helped the Jews because the fear of Mordecai had seized them.
4. Mordecai was powerful
Esther 9:4
Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.
5. Instead of tears, there was feasting and Joy
Esther 9:18
The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth, they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.
6. God promised Mordecai
Esther 10:1-3
1 King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. 2 And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.
CONCLUSION
Where is God in the Book of Esther? His providence is at work in filtering down 25000 women to just one, a Jewish woman. In Mordecai, we can see God’s Providence as he is in a place where he can hear a plot and warn the king. The king reads the royal record about Mordecai not getting the reward. Again, we can see His providence there.
The invisible hand of God is evident everywhere. God thunders through the book of Esther. Not Haman, not Satan using Haman, could destroy the people of God.
And the message for you is this. The Lord is still on the throne. God is ordering every detail of your life. And if you belong to Him and are in the covenant of His love, He will take care of you. Recognize now that you are positioned for a purpose.
If you remain silent, God will raise someone else
Here is what you need to do, that is Seize the moment, and look for opportunities in 2020. Don’t disconnect from the news around you and what is happening around the world. Do not disconnect yourselves from the People of God because God placed you where you are for such a time as this. These are challenging times to live in and you are the person to stand in the gap because God has been prepping you for this moment.
God can take impossible situations and turn them around for his glory.
ILLUSTRATION
A certain man lost his way on an island. He painstakingly made a small hut from the wood and for weeks he lived in that little hut on the beach, he would scan the horizon looking for a ship to approach, but none came.
On a particularly warm day, he returned to the hut after scavenging the island for food, only to find it in flames.
The man didn’t put out the fire in the hut before leaving for the hunt and it devoured the entire hut. He was in complete dismay and hopeless, at that point.
The next morning, he woke up and heard a voice. It was certainly the voice of a man. The captain of the ship said,
“We saw your smoke signal and we came to rescue you.”
God can even work through calamity to bring his glory into your life.
We learn from Haman – You will reap what you sow
Galatians 6:8
Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Everyday morning you have this choice whether you sow in your flesh or sow in your spirit 2020.
ILLUSTRATION
Someone said, “I have two dogs and they are always fighting.” His friend asked him, “Which dog wins.” He said, “I decide which dog wins.” “How do you decide that.” He said, “Whichever one I feed the most wins.”
You have this fight going on in your nature and you are going to decide which is going to win. It depends on who you feed more. This year sow into the spirit. Think about the way you live your life. Use your opportunities for God.
Sow a thought and reap an act, sow an act and reap a habit, sow a habit and reap a character, sow a character and reap a destiny
You are here because you want to sow in the spirit.
Esther was willing to lay her life for her people. She stood in the gap.
Question
God wants you to be that person with purpose, are you willing to be one? You need to ask yourself this question. Why am I here? Am I positioned for a purpose? I cannot change what is happening to me but what I can do to bring glory to God? How can I take the position that I am in, good or bad, easy or hard, and use it to bring glory to God? How can I productively use my position? It is time to do what God has called you to do.
How to position for Purpose
1. Maturity
2. Ministry
3. Mission
Grow in Spiritual Maturity, grow in Ministry, grow in Missions.
For more related Sermons;
The Sign of Jonah| Matthew 12: 38 – 40
Grace Abounding | Matthew 1: 1 – 17
Wisdom in Trials| James 1: 2 – 10