Esther - Mordecai (the intercessor)

100 years after Babylonian exile – during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah

Story set in Susa, the Persial Capital – modern day Iran

Main characters: Esther (Hadassah, her Hebrew name)

Mordecai, the cousin

King Ahaserus of Persia

Haman, the evil interloper

The story opens with a big party or banquet feast.

King Ahaserus: “I am the great King of Persia – everybody loves me, I can have or do anything I want because I am King. I am good looking, smart and wise. Doesn't everyone agree?”

The party goers: “Yes, of course my King. You are handsome, smart and wise. There is none like you in all the world.”

King Ahaserus: “I am so wonderful. I have the most beautiful wife in all the land. Bring me Queen Vashti!”

But Queen Vashti will not come – she knows the King is drunk and only wants to brag about her beauty and parade her in front of all the party goers, just to make himself look good.

King Ahaserus: “What do you mean she won't come? I am the King! I demand that she come! If she does not come then she will be banished from my sight – she will be exiled out of this land – I willfind another Queen!”

So, King Ahaserus holds a sorty of “beauty pageant” to look for a beautiful young queen that will once again make him look good.

Cousin Mordecai: “Hadassah, the King is looking for a new queen – he wants only the purest girls – you must hide yourself and if you are discovered, never let the Babylonians know you are a Jew or that you name is Hadassah. You must be known as Esther if you enter the King's court.”

So it is that Hadassah/Esther is taken with the other young girls in the land.

King Ahaserus: “Look at all these beautiful young ladies. But that one over there, yes, that one, bring her to me! Yes, this beautiful young lady will be my Queen.”

Thus, King Ahaserus and Esther are united in matrimony.

As it happens, the Lord has placed Esther's cousin Mordecai in a unique position in the Persian Palace. He is in the King's court as one of the Kings scribes. As he is in and out of the palace he overhears a plot to kill the King!

Mordecai: “Esther, I have overheard a plot to kill the King. You must tell him this and he will be spared being murdered by poision!”

Haman the Agagite (a descendant of the Canaanites that had troubled Israel for a long time 1 Sam 25) “I am Chief Advisor to the King. I answer to no one but the King. Everyone but the King must bow to me!”

But Mordecai refuses to bow whenever Haman passes by. You see, Mordecai knows that he should bow to only One, that is the God of the Jews. This so infuriates Haman that he begins to think of a way to get rid of Mordecai.

Haman: “That lousy, pompous old Jew! Why won't he bow to me? Doesn't he know who I am. I am second only to the King? I could have him killed if I wish. But then I would never see him bow to me. I will make him pay. I know, I'll destroy the Jews because if this one man won't bow, the others might not bow either and I'll never have control over these people!”

So Haman drafts a decree or law to destroy all the Jews and persuades the King to sign it. Unknown to Haman, he has decreed that the King's own wife, Esther is to be killed.

Since Esther/Hadassha, has not yet revealed her heritage, what is to be done? Based on a “roll of the dice” for the day of the event, the Jews are scheduled for execution about a year from the date wicked Haman had this law signed.

Esther and Mordecai realize that she must now reveal her true identity as a Jew to the King. But to approach the King unsummoned is to die.

Esther: “Cousin Mordecai, how am I to go unsummoned to the King? You know it is forbidden and I could lose my life for this act.”

Mordecai: “My dearest Hadassah, maybe you have come into the Kings palace for just such a time as this.”

Esther: “Cousin Mordecai, yes, it is dangerous and yes, I could lose my life. But in my heart I am determined that “if I perish, I perish, but I must try.” I will make a feast and invite my King and Haman and tell of my petition to spare my people. It is then that I will make my heritage known.”

After learning of being invited to a banquet given by the Queen, Haman proudly struts home to tell his family. On the way home, once again, he encounters that insolent old Jew, Mordecai, who will not bow to him. It makes him so made he orders a gallows built to hang Mordecai. One way or another, this Jew must die!

But one night before the Queen's banquet, the King has trouble sleeping. He orders that the records/chronicles be read to him. While listening to the records/chronicles being read, the King zeroes in on the story of his scribe, Mordecai and how he stopped a plot to kill the King. The next day he looks to his right hand mane, Haman, to give him counsel.

King Ahaserus: “Haman, there is a man I understand has done a great service for the King. What should be done for a man in whom the King delighteth to honor?”

Haman: “If I please the King, let a royal robe be brought, a horse from the King's own stable for the man to ride and a crown be put on the man's head and let this man ride through the streets being led by one saying 'this is the man in whom the King delighteth to honor.'”

King Ahaserus: “So it is written, so it is done. Haman gather all this and give and for Mordecai, the scribe and say 'this is the man in whom the King delighteth to honor.'”

So, Haman had to do that for Mordecai!

Haman had to parade the streets with Mordecai in the Kings robe, a crown and the Kings horse under him and say “a man in whom the King delighteth to honor,” to the old Jew who would not bow to him! Boy was he not a little upset!

Back to the Queen's banquet:

King Ahaserus: “Esther, my Queen, what a deligthful feast. Now, what is it you wish to ask me?”

Remember, Haman is at this banquet too!

Esther: “If I have found favor in thy sight, O King, and if it please the King, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish.” (7.3,4)

King Ahaserus: “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”

Esther: “The adversary and enemy this wicked Haman.”

And the King arising from the banquet – realizing the entire matter...had Haman hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. (7.7-10)

Esther: “If it please the King, and if I have found favor in his sight...let the decree written by Haman for the destruction of the Jews, be reversed.” (8.5)

So it was written, so it was done.

Because of Divine Providence in putting an exiled people in the the King's household, an ENTIRE race of people, the Jews were spared.

1. How would you feel if you had to be taken from your home to live among strangers who did not believe as you did?
2. Would you remain true to your beliefs or conform to riducule?
3. Did you know that God is not mentioned once in the book of Esther?
4. Do you believe He ordained events to preserve a race of people?
5. How do you know thing? Was it mere coincidence that placed Esther in the kings palace?
6. Is it coincidence or Divine Providence, that orders events in your life?
7. Who was the intercessor or guide in this story? Who gave Esther direction? (Mordecai)
8. Who is our intercessor or go between in talking with God? (Jesus)
9. Who was the mountpiece for Mordecai? (Esther)
10. Who speaks for the intercessor to God? Who speaks for Jesus from the pulpit? (preacher)
11. Who, in the story, is a type of the Lord Jesus as intercessor? (Mordecai)
12. Who is witness of what goes on in the King's house? (Esther)
13. Who is to be a witness for the Lord Jesus? (believers/christians)
14. If you don't know the King, the Lord Jesus, how can you testify of Him?

Nehemiah - wallbuilder

• (1.8) Because Nehemiah, like Ezra the Scribe, knew the law of God that said He would “scatter them among the nations” (Deut 4.25-27), also understood why the people were captive and the walls of Jerusalem were “broken down.”
• God's unchangeable law of sowing and reaping (Gal 6.7) applies to all
• Have you seen things go wrong because you did wrong?

• (1.11) Nehemiah was the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes – and while this may seem a noble position be aware many wanted to poison the King – so the cupbearer who also “tasted” the contents of the King's cup – lived with the possibility of death every day!
• This could also be a picture of the sinner under the condemnation of God! “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6.23)
• Are you living under the condemnation of God's law? Are you saved?

• 
  (2.1-8) But God in wrath remembered mercy. N. was sent by the King to survey the damage and gather the materials needed to rebuild the wall. The King gave N. “letters of passage” for each step of the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. Just as we have God's Word to guide us safely to heaven in the journey of life.
  
• (2.10, 19, 4.1, 62) As always, Satan attempts to halt N's progress. Sanballat & Tobiah did not want N to rebuild, most likely for no other reason than jealousy.
• Has grace been applied to your life of “broken down walls?”

• (2.11-16) N kept all the details to himself and examined what was to be done by cover of night. So it is when the Lord gives one a directive, one d/n boast and say, “Look what I've done!” Because without God you could do nothing. I also believe another reason for surveying what should be done by cover of night was so that Satan c/n get the upper hand in the details. To keep the devil from knowing what God has put on YOUR heart, is another reason not to brag!
• Do you brag about doing good deeds or are you satisfied that you did what was right and need no praise?

• (2.20) So, they began to build, according to the encouragement of God's man.
• Are you encouraged by the preacher's message to “build” in the work God gave for your life?
• (4.2) When you work for the Lord – you know you are doing a thing He has placed on your heart – prepare to be mocked – as Sanballat and Tobiah mocked the Jews.
• (4.6) But, because of the encouragement of the preacher and God's Word, “the people had a mind to work.”
• (4.7,8) Because of the fierceness of the enemy, God's people had to “watch & pray” (Mt 26.41). They worked with a weapon in one hand and laboring tools in the other. (4.17)
• Be warned to NEVER let down your guard when all seems to be going well – thank God for the good stuff and keep going.
• It is Satan's mission to exploit Christian's at their weakest point.
• Do you continue to pray and read God's Word when things are going well and especially when they aren't?

• (6.15) God honored their faithfulness and the work was finished in 52 days! No electricity, machines or running water. No grocery stores, cars or fast-food restaurants.
• What have you faithfully put your hand to that God honored?
• What walls have you built to strengthen your Christian walk and to keep the enemy out?

Ezra - Scribe

scribe: a public writer. In Ezra's day: (8.1) A writer and a doctor of the law; a man of learning; one skilled in the law; one who read and explained the law to the people.

Ezra's job was to unify the people with the Word of God

The Book of Ezra describes how he led a group of Judean exiles living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem (Ezra 2.1, 8.2-14) where he preached observance of the God's law, exhorting the Israelite people to be sure to follow the Law and not to intermarry with people of other lands and religions that did not know God.

Decree to rebuild the temple and the people's reaction:

Ezra 1.3 – Cyrus, King of Persia to build a house to the Lord

• 3.4 offerings to the Lord
• 3.10-11 worshiped in song with the foundation was laid
• 3.13 they shouted and wept for happiness

What is your reaction to the Word of the Lord?

Satan's interference:

• Artaxerxes, King of Persia sent a letter from Zerubbabel, an elder of Jerusalem, saying the people had sinned and didn't deserve a place to worship and most certainly would not pay taxes! (4.1-13)
• Then a letter was sent to the next King, King Darius, explaining how the first temple was destroyed and they were unable to rebuild at that time. (5.1-17)
• But this King had a heart for the subjects of his kingdom and King Darius decreed by for the temple to be rebuilt. (6.1-13)

What do you do when Satan interfere's with your desire to do a thing for God?

But somebody was praying:

• “And the elders of the Jews builded, … (6.14) God always used the elders to direct the younger folks in His work. In building the temple, listen to the Word of the Lord about how it is to be financed:
• let the expenses be given out of the king's house.” (6.4) Where else but the “king's storehouse” do we find our every need met?

Are you always mindful of listening to your “elders?” Do you agree they usually know more than you do about life?

The work was completed during the reign of

• 3 Persian Kings: Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes,
• two prophets; Haggai, Zechariah and
• one scribe, EZRA (6.14)

Ezra described (7.6, 10, 12)

• ...a ready scribe in the law of Moses,
• Ezra had prepared his heart

Is your heart “ready to receive God's Word in faith and obedience?

God answered their heart's desire: (7.13)

King Artaxerses gave leave to “All that were minded, of their own free will to go to Jerusalem (to worship)”

Ezra's response to answered prayer: (7.27, 28)

• Ezra's prayer of thanksgiving for the Lord working out all the details to rebuild the temple and restore the captives back to their home.
• “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem:
• And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and ...might princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me...

How do you respond to answered prayer? Have you ever had a prayer answered?

After all the effort and answered prayer made

on their behalf for a place to worship...

The people's response after answered prayer: (9.1-3)

After all this, the people sinned in that the men began to take wives of the people of other lands, in direct disobedience to the law, thus Ezra set down and tore his cloths and plucked off the hair in his head and his beard

Ezra's petition for the sins of the people (9.5-15, 10.1-19)

He begins to beg God for the sins of the people. In anguish he tears his clothes, tears out his hair and his beard. The people seeing the results of their sins against God by way of the prophet's actions and prayers, repented.

So, the people were ready, to begin the building of the Temple.

Would you agree, God is One of mercy?

Why?

What was His response even though the people sinned?

Who prayed for them?

Who petitioned the Lord to forgive them?

Who interceded for them?

Who intercedes for us for mercy from heaven? The Lord Jesus