Esther 4:15 – Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,

Esther 4:16 – Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Esther 4:17 – So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

Esther 5:1 – Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.

Esther 5:2 – And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.

Esther 5:3 – Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.

Hello readers, hope you’ve had/having a good weekend. Today I am going to be talking about when Esther went in to see king Ahasuerus to plead for her people. There’s so many different things we can learn from this story. It’d be good to read the book yourself. Esther was a Jewish girl who’d been raised by her uncle Mordecai. She came into great favour of king Ahasuerus when he was looking for a new queen. But noone knew she was a Jew.

Many people try being private Christians. We do believe, but we are afraid of what others will think, so we live as secret believers. But there comes a time when you choose who you are and whether you’re going to obey Jesus Christ in your life, as she obeyed Mordecai. You gotta stand and have that attitude she had… if I die, I die. So often our fear is worse than the actual event. You see, there was a bad guy in this story called Haman, and he wanted to kill all Jews because of Mordecai. Mordecai didn’t bow to him. Haman was going to kill all the Jews because of this, and that’s why Esther had to go in to see the king who’d signed the stupid decree to kill them all at Haman’s behest. Haman deceived the king, Satan will deceive you all the way to hell if you keep listening to him.

Reader, Mordecai is a picture of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ, the true God of the Bible, he bows to nobody. Jesus isn’t going to bow to you, reader, you bow to him. He’s not going to bow to you coming to him your own way, to your beliefs, to your way of life, to your whatever. God doesn’t bow to you, you bow to him. We’ve gotta stop bowing the truth to lies, bowing the Bible to the rubbish of this world and our own lives.

Anyway, Haman hated all Jews because of Mordecai, who was a Jew. You know why this world will hate you if you believe? It’s because they hate Jesus Christ, thus they hate you if you are a Christian. As in… a true Christian. See, he hated them because they were Jews by birth, and when you have the birth, that new birth born of the Spirit of God, this world is going to hate you.

Well, Esther was in a position to go in and plead for her people. Haman had convinced king Ahasuerus to made a law that would mean all Jews were killed. Ahasuerus was an idiot, listening to Satan, this world and your flesh will sure make you an idiot, and make you do evil things… but he kept promoting and entertaining Haman, who is a picture of Satan. He was listening to Haman and honoring him rather than Mordecai. Bit weird seeing as it was Mordecai that had saved the king’s life, but instead he’s honoring Haman with his life. Jesus Christ has done all the good that is in your life, and you honor Satan with that breath of life and grace that God alone gave you.

You know, Jesus Christ has delivered us from so many things in our lives. Even without us knowing. We don’t even know what he’s saved us from. We don’t know the great price he paid… at all. He’s shown so much grace, and we’ve forgotten it, and done nothing with it… just as king Ahasuerus did, or rather, didn’t do. Ahasuerus one night could not sleep and read what Mordecai had done for him and realized he’d never honored Mordecai for saving his life. Is God troubling the waters of your life? Is he moving? He’s making you a bit uncomfortable, he’s taking your sleep, because he wants you to read about what he’s done for you and start honoring his Son with your life. Maybe one day you’ll read the Bible and it’ll hit you what Jesus has already done for you. That Jesus… that Christ… the one you have dishonored and forgotten about while you’ve been promoting Satan at every turn in your life. Haman was in that outer court ready to speak to the king, and you better believe the battle will be on, Satan doesn’t want you honoring Jesus Christ.

Anyway, Esther the Jew, her uncle had told her to go in to the king. Go and see the king and plead for the lives of your people Esther. Well that was a tough command. It was at great risk to her in every way. It’d jeopardize her future, her acceptance, her life. And she put it off, and she made excuses why she couldn’t. We’re like that with God. Procrastinating, telling him why we can’t obey him, why it can’t be done. It’s too dangerous, it’ll be too hard, I can’t obey you Jesus. In our lives, often going in is last resort isn’t it. We need to be told many times by the Holy Spirit before we obey. It’s pretty hard going in to see the king. When you go and witness to an unsaved person, it’s pretty nerve wracking. We’ll tend to put it off. You see, we don’t know how they are going to react. Maybe they won’t hold out the sceptre to me! And I’ll die!

If you went in to see the king unbidden, you would be put to death. You would only be spared if the king held out his golden sceptre to you. Holding out the sceptre signifed favour, entry and acceptance. Well Esther was unbidden, but decided to go in, for the sake of her people. She decided to do as Mordecai had said. She made a step of faith. She went beyond her ability, it’d require the power of God. One day, we have got to choose who we are and who we are going to stand with. This business of trying to please everyone, and have everything, it’s not going to fly. People’s salvation may be depending on what you are doing in your own life. Our lives impact those around us one way or another.

There’s never going to be a time where you are bidden. We wait for perfect moments that never  come. Meanwhile Ahasuerus was listening to Haman, and Haman was really running his life. While Mordecai had saved Ahasuerus and had his best at heart, Haman was using Ahasuerus and putting him on an evil, lost, deceived and destructive path in life. That’s the difference. You serve the devil, your flesh, and this world… they’ll use you, and at the end you’ll be in hell. Meanwhile Jesus Christ has died for you, he’s looking out for you, he wants to save you. He’s done everything for you, without you even being there.

Ahasuerus the king would’ve been better off promoting Mordecai, but for a good part of the story, all he’s doing is listening to Haman’s council and following it, and Haman is causing him to do very stupid evil things. Imagine signing a decree to exterminate a people… man, woman and child… for no reason other than they’re Jews, and because one of them didn’t bow to the guy advising you. This world hates when you don’t bow to their beliefs, their philosophies, their ways. It’s not that Christians are bad, just your life revives the conscience and conviction of sin in their own life… and they hate it.

Sometimes you just gotta go in. Esther said… I’m going in. Pray for me. You’ll be surprised that instead of the death that you dread, the king will hold forth his golden sceptre. The king’s heart is in the Lord’s hand. When we obey God, God is already way ahead of us. He won’t command us to do that he doesn’t give us the grace to do and deal with. Esther had a unique position in life to access the king. We each have a unique access point to different people’s lives… Esther’s connection and her person had enabled her to have an audience that noone else in the realm could get. Reader, you have an ability to reach people that I and many others never will. Someone may have an ear and just through you to the gospel. Instead of being trapped by our own fear and excuses, we could make a difference to the glory of God. Instead of waiting for another way, an easier way…  there was no other way, it was go in. So often we want another version of truth, or God to fit with our plan, but we need to listen to and obey Jesus Christ, and do things his way.

The other side to this story is the good decision that the king finally made when he chose to spare Esther. See, he was finally letting someone into his court, into his life, that had his best at heart. This was the beginning of change in the book of Esther. Mordecai didn’t go in, but Esther went in. Christ will use you to reach people and change someone’s destiny. But the old sinner like this king… he makes a wise call when instead of putting the message of the gospel to death…he said I want to hear this, this has a place in my heart. Lost sinners need to come to that day when the man of God, when the preacher, their message of God’s word finds favour in their sight rather than rejecting the power of God to save them which is the declaration of the gospel.

We’ve gotta watch what we are letting into our inner court, into our heart and mind. We need to kick Haman out of there, he’s spent enough time in there ruining us. We need to instead let Esther in. We need to listen to people who bring God’s word, the gospel, people who stand for truth. Haman had owned that inner court, he had had the king’s ear, but all that was about to change. He started listening to Esther over Haman. Your new life will start when the gospel, when truth… it finds it’s way to your heart, and instead of putting it to death, you hold forth the sceptre and say come in, and speak to me. Speak God. Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. The king started listening to Esther rather than Haman. That’s what will turn your life around. Start listening to God’s word.

So there’s so many things we can learn from this story, and there’s so much more. This is an amazing book of the Bible. Esther is a girl that every Christian woman can model her life on. But Esther is someone for us all as believers to learn from. She listened to Mordecai, she never forgot him, and she obeyed him. We need to be like that with the word of God, with Jesus Christ. And Jesus will use us to change other people’s lives. Esther delivered her nation through her faith and courage and obedience. This king, this king who’d been a mess, who’d been making so many bad and evil decisions, who’d been listening to the wrong person, who’d had the wrong people in his courts… finally made a good decision. Come in Esther. Speak Esther.

The gospel is all through this story and this book. Often we are like that king. We’re doing a lot of stupid things in our lives, we aren’t thinking straight, and we’re promoting Satan rather than Jesus Christ in our life at every turn. We’re listening to him and doing his bidding. He’s using us, and we are too dumb to even realize what he’s doing to our lives. But there’s an Esther. The word of God has come to us. We are without excuse, when the gospel comes to you, what will you do with it? Hold out the sceptre or have her killed? People are like that with the wisdom of God. They hear the word of God, and they’re like nup, I don’t want none of that… I’ll keep listening to Haman. Esther and Mordecai and their people can all die right.

See, the king would’ve been a murderer. Satan will produce a life that is full of sin and evil and wickedness. He’ll have you making terrible decisions. Look at this world, full of every sort of wickedness. Who’s in your inner court? What are you letting in your life? What’s in your heart and mind and soul? See, what’s going on inside, that’s going to determine everything you do in life. We need a victory inside, we need to honour Mordecai rather than promote Haman. We need to listen to Esther, we need to hear what she’s gotta say. Esther was doing what Mordecai told her to do. Listen to the person who is obeying God’s word and carries the message of God’s word. The gospel is what will change your life.

Jesus came to die for us all. We are all sinners, we all need saving. That doesn’t mean just getting out of hell, it means deliverance from sin in our lives. If you love your sin, if you love the darkness… well then what can be done for you? You put Esther to death. When is the gospel going to find favour in your sight… ever? Often we are favouring sin, lust, pride… rather than favouring truth, light, God’s word. Esther found favour in the king’s sight… finally the king made a good decision, he held out the sceptre, she was accepted. You see, as previously stated, there’s a law that was in place where if you came in unbidden, you would be put to death unless the king held out his sceptre. And in this… another amazing truth… you will do something with the truth. You’ll either receive it… or it’ll be put to death. If he hadn’t made the decision to hold out his sceptre… she would have been slain.

Today is the day of salvation reader. Today make a good decision to believe God’s word, to take ownership of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s Son who offers forgiveness of sin and life and life eternal if you will just repent and believe. This is the time. Now is the time. For such a time as this! But either way, you WILL and have made your decision. Something will be done with Esther in your life, you will do something with the truth that came to you. What will it be? Hopefully you believe the word of God. Mordecai, Jesus Christ, has been good to you, he saved the king’s life, and he’ll save your life. Maybe start honoring him today rather than once again letting Haman talk you up and talk you into destruction. Hold out the golden sceptre, start favouring and honoring Jesus Christ and his word in your life. That’ll change things, that’ll even trump that stupid law that you signed o king. God’s word, the gospel… it trumps everything that’s gotten a hold on us, all that’s working death in our lives. Choose life. Jesus Christ is Lord, believe on him today.

Blog Bible Christ Christian Esther Faith Gospel Holy Spirit Jesus KJV Lord Mordecai Salvation Saved Truth