The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Sermon: To Bow or Not To Bow? (Esther 3:1-6)

To Bow or Not To BowSunday, January 26th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 3:1–61After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. 2And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. 3Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment? 4Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. 6And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
Prayer
O Father, Your Word says that “great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” We ask now for such peace, for such delight in your commandments, that nothing may cause us to stumble. We ask for your Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
The title of our sermon this morning is “To Bow or Not To Bow.” And here in our text we are confronted with the question, “Should Mordecai bow to Haman?” We know that he refuses to bow, and we know that Haman’s reaction is an evil and unjust over-reaction, but was Mordecai right in the eyes of God to not bow and give reverence to Haman? That is the question we will take up in this sermon.
Now before we search the Scriptures to try to answer that question, let us begin with a brief survey of our text, and gather all the facts.
We might think of ourselves in this sermon as judges sitting in the gate, and we want to give Mordecai a fair hearing. So that means hearing his testimony as described in this text, and then judging it by the law of God (as we did with Vashti), comparing Scripture with Scripture.
And it is always good in matters of judgment to recall some important proverbs.
For example, Proverbs 18:17 reminds us, “The first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him.”
And against rushing to judgment before hearing both sides it says in Proverbs 18:13, “He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.”
So before we attempt to render any judgment on what Mordecai should or should not have done, and by extension what we ought to do in similar circumstances, let us hear the facts of the case.
Verse 1
1After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
So recall that Mordecai has just saved the king’s life, Bigthan and Teresh have been executed, but instead of Mordecai getting promoted, we are told that Haman is promoted, the king “set his seat above all the princes that were with him.”
We said last week that the temptation for Haman will be to let this newfound status and power go to his head, and the temptation for Mordecai will be to get bitter and/or to envy Haman. So how does Mordecai respond?
Verses 2-3
2And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. 3Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment?
Note here that Mordecai is numbered amongst the king’s servants, and we saw last week that to sit in the king’sgate it is to serve as a governing official and lesser magistrate. And perhaps the closest modern equivalent would be to serve as a Senator or member in the House of Representatives. You might not have immediate access to the king, but you are under his authority and exercise authority on his behalf.
Thus far we have seen in this book references to many different kinds of governing officials. There are princes, servants, nobles, chamberlains, lawyers, wise men, officers, and of course the queen. So the king is portrayed as being surrounded by a host of lesser powers,and when Haman is promoted, the king issues a commandment that those lesser servants bow and reverence Haman.
We might think of Haman as functioning like a Vice-President or Prime Minister who has the highest civil office after the king. Given that he still operates in the king’s gate, he is likely the “Speaker of the House” amongst that governing body.
We should also note what the other servants say to Mordecai, they ask him “Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment?”
So from a human and civil perspective, Mordecai is breaking the law (there is no dispute there), and as we saw with Vashti’s refusal to obey the king’s commandment, things usually do not go well for those who go against the king.
We see then in verse 4 that Mordecai’s fellow servants are concerned about this violation.
Verse 4
4Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew.
Now notice first that Haman has to be told that Mordecai is not bowing. Haman has not yet noticed any personal slight against him.
And given the size of the king’s gate, which we saw last week was a building larger than an NBA gymnasium, we can imagine that it would be fairly easy in a large crowd for Mordecai to go unnoticed in his lack of bowing and reverencing of Haman.
Or perhaps given what we will learn about Haman later, he is just so full of himself that he is hardly aware of anyone else’s existence.
Whatever the case, the people who do notice are Mordecai’s fellow servants, and it is those servants who report this to Haman to, “see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand.” Well, what are these matters?
We are not told what exactly those matters/reasons (דִּבְרֵ֣י, λόγοις) are, but given that the next phrase is, “for he had told them that he was a Jew,” the most likely explanation for Mordecai not bowing has something to do with his Jewish beliefs or heritage.
This lack of an explanation is a major omission in data that we will have to reckon with when we try to determine whether Mordecai was sinning or being faithful. His own personal reasons and intentions do matter.
However, given that these servants “spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them,” we can at least rule out at this stage any ignorance as an explanatory for his actions. Mordecai knew what he was doing, and he knew he was violating the king’s commandment. So that leaves us with two basic explanations for his disobeying the king: either he was being faithful to God’s law, or he was being obstinate against it. Whichever it is, his refusal to bow and do reverence is deliberate and ongoing.
So, Mordecai will not bow, but will his matters stand before Haman?
Verse 5
5And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.
Now that Mordecai has been put on Haman’s radar, Haman finally notices and is enraged, “full of wrath.”
In Hebrew there is a wordplay here between Haman’s name and the Hebrew word for wrath (hemah). So the text sounds like this: haman hemah (הָמָ֖ן חֵמָֽה׃).
We might also note here that in Hebrew Haman’s means something like rager or rioter, and he is also called an Agagite, and in Hebrew Agag means flaming or burning.
So given Haman’s name and lineage, we might expect to see some burning rage and fiery wrath from him, and indeed we do.
Verse 6
6And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
Now this phrase, “and he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone” gives us some insight into the kind of person Haman is.
Haman thinks that to punish Mordecai alone, would either make Haman appear petty, or be insufficient to satisfy his wrath.
So while Haman could ask the king to hang Mordecai for insubordination right now (he will attempt this later in the story),he decides it would be better (and perhaps more becoming his own honor and dignity) to destroy all the Jews with one stroke. For Haman, the blast radius to destroy Mordecai has to include all the Jews throughout the empire.
Perhaps he thinks that if Mordecai the Jew will not bow and reverence him, neither will any other Jews, and therefore these lawbreakers need to be dealt with.
Next week we’ll see how he attempts to pull this off.
So those are the basic facts we are given, now we need to see what the rest of Scripture says about bowing and giving reverence to rulers and then try to determine where Mordecai’s actions fall and what his motives might have been.
There are three principles that can help us answer this question.
Principle #1 – No Bowing Down to Idols
According to the 2nd commandment, we read in Exodus 20:4-5, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”
What is forbidden here is the making of some image in order to bow down and worship it.
And we know this is not a prohibition on the mere drawing or sculpting of such images, because God Himself commands that certain images be made for his temple (cherubim, palm trees, pomegranates, bronze oxen, etc.).
So the second commandment forbids bowing and giving worship to any idol or lifeless creature.
But is Haman a graven image? No. But the reason I start with this principle is because in some of the Jewish commentaries they argue that Mordecai did not bow to Haman because Haman was wearing a little idol somewhere on his person. So would it be idolatry to bow to someone who has a little figurine on their necklace? (I don’t think so). But that is at least one later Jewish defense of Mordecai’s refusal to bow.
Everyone agrees that if the choice is between committing idolatry or being thrown into the fire like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we must suffer the fire. The question is, given what we are told in the inspired text, is Mordecai being commanded to bow to an idol? To this I think we have to say no.
Principle #2 – God Commands Subjection to The Higher Powers
In Psalm 82 and Exodus 21:6 we see that God gives the name gods (lower case g) to judges and civil rulers.
And in Romans 13:1-2 we read, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” And then he says in verses 6-7, “For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”
So Mordecai is required by God to render to Haman the tribute, custom, fear, and honor that is due to him. And then the question becomes, Is bowing and reverencing Haman a lawful custom or honor?
The answer to this is yes, so long as the action is not intended to treat the person as God, but as one under God’s authority. In proof of this we have numerous examples of godly men and women bowing and giving reverence (the same Hebrew words, כרע and חוה, or in Greek: προσκυνέω) to people who are not God.
For example, in Genesis 23:7, 12 we read that when Abraham buried Sarah he, “stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth…And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.”
Note that Abraham is bowing before Hittites, who will later be dispossessed when Israel enters the promised land. So these were not godly people, they were idolaters who you did not want your sons to marry. A few chapters later we read that Esau marries two Hittite women to Isaac and Rebekah’s grief (Gen. 26:34-35).
So even if Haman was an idolater, Abraham himself had no scruple about bowing before the Hittites. Abraham the man of faith knew God’s promises, and that one day their land would be his.
We see also in Genesis 37 that Joseph dreams that his brothers will one day bow down before him. And indeed, that dream comes true when we read in Genesis 42:6, “And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.”
So to bow before Joseph was a lawful honor and custom, and one that the original twelve sons of Israel observed.
In Exodus 18:7 we read that Moses “did obeisance” and gave reverence to Jethro his father-in-law. And this same custom of bowing continued in the time of David.
We read in 1 Kings 1 that both Bathsheba and Nathan the Prophet bow and give reverence to King David.
It says in 1 Kings 1:16, “And Bath-sheba bowed, and did obeisance unto the king.”
And in 1 Kings 1:23, “Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.”
More examples could be given but note that bowing and giving such reverence to civil rulers is a lawful and permissible custom, not an instance of idolatry. And by this standard, it would be no violation of God’s law to bow and reverence Haman if that is what the king commanded, and indeed it would be disobedience to Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, etc. to refuse to give such honor.
Now there is one qualification to this rule which we will consider under Principle #3.
Principle #3 – Divine Worship Belongs to God Alone
Recall that when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness,Satan’s bargain was, “If You will worship [bow down, προσκυνήσῃς] before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” (Luke 4:7-8)
The Greek verb for serve here is λατρεύω (the noun form is λατρεία), and in the New Testament God alone receives this special service/λατρεία.
Paul says in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable λατρείαν (service).
So while the New Testament commands that we serve one another in love, and servants are to obey their masters, λατρεία is a special form of worship that it is reserved for God alone.
And this is where we make one exception to the kind of bowing and reverencing we may give to other creatures (whether angels or men). We must not give the bowing of λατρεία to anyone but God, either inwardly in our heart, or externally through sacrifice.
So when the early Christians like Polycarp (martyred 155 AD) were being persecuted and under compulsion to offer sacrifice to Ceasar, they were right to not comply. And that is because Ceasar was not merely calling himself lord, but he was also demanding sacrificial worship, and blasphemy again Jesus Christ. To comply with that kind of command would be to transfer λατρεία to Ceasar. In those cases, we must obey God rather than men.
So given those three principles, what should Mordecai do or have done?
I think it is safe to conclude that Haman was not claiming divine worship (λατρεία) for himself, nor could he have since Ahasuerus is the one who issued the command.
If we wanted to argue that Haman was wearing an idol, you could do that but there’s no basis in the text.
So I don’t think Mordecai can claim any exception here on 1st or 2nd commandment grounds. And if that is the case, we would have to conclude that Mordecai was disobeying Romans 13, and the example of Abraham and other Old Testaments saints who bowed and gave reverence to civil rulers.
Ahasuerus had issued a lawful command to honor Haman, and Mordecai was stubbornly disobeying it. That is one possible judgment of the facts.
Under this interpretation, Mordecai is repeating the sin of Vashti’s rebellion, Haman is a Satan figure who tries to condemn all God’s people, but God mercifully turns it for good.
Another support for this reading is that Mordecai’s refusal to bow is essentially the same sin that the Jewish leaders were committing in Jerusalem before, during, and after the exile, refusing to submit to the foreign governments that God commanded them to serve.
Also recall, one of the etymologies for Mordecai’s name is “my rebellion.”
However, if we wanted to try to defend Mordecai, we could do so a few different ways.
If we limited ourselves to only what is in the text of Esther, we count point out that the story ends with Mordecai as the great hero. The final verse is Esther 10:3 and it says, “For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.”
And so wouldn’t it be odd for God to elevate Mordecai and reward his disobedience (if indeed that is what it was)?
We might also add that in chapter 5, after the first feast Esther throws for Haman and Ahasuerus it says, “Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai” (Esther 5:9).
So if Mordecai sinned by not bowing, and then he repents and fasts and prays to God, then wouldn’t true repentance look like bowing and reverencing Haman here? And yet he doesn’t, so perhaps it was not sin in the first place.
Now the counter argument would be that Mordecai has not had anything to eat or drink for three days and so he cannot get up or move, he’s symbolically dead. Perhaps he does not even notice Haman because he is in mourning.
But we could still try to vindicate Mordecai by pointing to the fact that eventually he replaced Haman, the decree against the Jews is reversed, and he gets to that position without ever bowing or reverencing him.
Under this reading, Mordecai is not Vashti, instead he is a new Joseph or Daniel figure, faithful to God in a foreign palace and rewarded for not compromising.
Another way we could try to vindicate Mordecai is by an appeal to the ancient war between Israel and Amalek, Saul and Agag.
On this view, Mordecai (son of Kish) gets a divine exemption because it says in Exodus 17:16, “The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
And again in Deuteronomy 25:17-19, “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”
So perhaps we could argue that Mordecai has a special dispensation from the Lord to wage war on Haman because he is an Agagite, a descendent of Amalek. And that justifies his refusal to bow before an enemy.
A third way to defend Mordecai is by appealing to the Greek additions to Esther, which we Protestants rightly consider Apocryphal. We don’t know exactly who wrote these Greek additions, but they clearly felt the need to vindicate Mordecai’s actions.
I’ll read you a quotation from those additions. Mordecai prays to God and says, “Thou knowest all things, and thou knowest, Lord, that it was neither in contempt nor pride, nor for any desire of glory, that I did not bow down to proud Aman. For I could have been content with good will for the salvation of Israel to kiss the soles of his feet. But I did this, that I might not prefer the glory of man above the glory of God: neither will I worship any but thee, O God, neither will I do it in pride.”
So if that was the inspired Hebrew text, we would certainly want to vindicate Mordecai. However, since it is not, we can only take it as one early Jewish opinion.
A fourth option which tries to split the difference between these views, is that Mordecai intentionally disobeyed the king’s commandment, but it was in order to provoke a lawsuit between him and Haman that would come before the king. So Mordecai is intentionally challenging the king’s commandment and trying to get an exemption based on his status as a Jew.
At this moment in the story, Mordecai has two aces up his sleeve.
One is that he saved the king’s life and has not yet been rewarded.
And two, is Esther the Queen. Mordecai is the king’s father-in-law but the king does not know it yet.
So on this theory, Mordecai is a shrewd man, playing politics, and this refusal is part of his plan to overtake or depose Haman and win a position above him. However, as we will see next week, this plan backfires. He was trying to make himself the target, but ends up endangering all the Jews instead.
Conclusion
So whatever you think is the best explanation for Mordecai’s actions, each can have their own opinion. But what is beyond dispute, and of far greater importance, is whether you are giving to God the latria, the worship, the bowing and reverencing that God demands and deserves.
It says in Psalm 95:6, “O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”
God says in Isaiah 45:23 says, “Unto me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall swear.”
He says in 1 Samuel 2:30, “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
So are you giving to God the honor and reverence that is due to Him? Do you ever get down on your face and bow before Him? Because that is the external sign of what your heart’s posture must become. And when your heart is proud, it is great remedy to put your face in the dust and remember from what the Lord made you.
The Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1, that the Christian who lacks virtues like temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, is a person who is “nearsighted even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
In other words, we forget that God is the potter, and we are the clay. We forget the hell God saved us from and the heaven God saved us to. So give the supreme honor to the Supreme One, and then marvel at His promise that “Them that honour me I will honour.”
May we attain to such honor by His grace, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon: After the Honeymoon (Esther 2:19-3:1)

After the HoneymoonSunday, January 19th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:19–3:1And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate. Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai’s name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king. After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
Prayer
O Father, we thank you for the promise that for those who by patience possess their souls, not a hair of our head shall perish. Please preserve us in such faith, keep as the apple of your eye, that we might attain to such glory where all our troubles are forgotten. We ask for this hope in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
The title of my sermon this morning is After the Honeymoon. And that is because in these six verses in front of us, the first four-five years of Esther’s marriage to Ahasuerus are covered. Just to give you a sense of where we are in this story chronologically:
The book of Esther opens around the year 519 BC, “In the third year of Ahasuerus’ reign.” And after much feasting and pomp, Vashti was removed for her rebellion, and not long after that the search for a new queen better than Vashti began.
However, four years would go by before such a woman would be found. After twelve months of purification, we read in Esther 2:16-17, “So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign (515 BC). And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.”
Now the next timestamp we are given comes in Esther 3:7, where Haman has lots cast to determine when the Jews should be exterminated. And we are told that that event takes place “in the 12th year of king Ahasuerus.”
So in the 7th year Esther is married, in the 12th year the lots are cast for the Jews’ destruction, and in the five years between those events, there are just a few details that the author of the book wants to tell us. But they are details that will become pivotal to the Jews salvation. And it is to those details we shall now turn.
Division of the Text
In verses 19-20 we learn that Mordecai Sits in The King’s Gate.
In verses 21-23 Mordecai Foils an Assassination Attempt. And yet in spite of this good deed we see…
In verse 1, Mordecai Is Not Promoted.
These are the details that set up the entrance of the great villain Haman. So let us consider these verses in some depth.
Verses 19-20
19And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.
20Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.
There are two oddities in these two verses. The first is that virgins are gathered together a second time. But we are not told why or for what purpose, only that when they are gathered, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.
One possibility is that although the King has married Esther and loves her, his lust is so great that he desires even more women for his harem of concubines. On this interpretation, this is a new gathering of virgins distinct from and in addition to the first gathering that Esther was a part of.
Another possibility is that this is a continuation of the events in verse 18 (just prior), which is Esther’s wedding feast. On this interpretation, these virgins are the “losers” of the Miss Persia contest, and they are being gathered this second time so that everyone can see how Esther’s beauty surpasses them.
Rabanus Maurus who wrote the first Christian commentary on Esther give the spiritual/allegorical sense of this text and says it refers the ingathering of the Gentile church. Jesus is the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name (Ahasuerus calls Esther by name), but who also says, “other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”
So whatever we are to make of this second gathering of the virgins, Esther’s Coronation is the happy conclusion to the disruption that Vashti’s rebellion had provoked. And what the author wants us to know is that this gatherer is occasion for Mordecai sitting in the king’s gate.
We should also note here that the King’s gate (see photos in bulletin) was a large government building with a central hall and other side rooms in it. As best we can tell from the archaeology, it was about 131 x 92 feet. For reference, an NBA basketball court is 94 x 50 feet. So the king’s gate was larger than your average gymnasium, and it was where official government business was conducted. Mordecai sits in this court as one of the king’s servants (or lesser magistrates).
The second oddity is that even after Esther is married to Ahasuerus, we are told that she is still concealing her identity and doing this in submission to Mordecai.
So what is this but a failure to obey Genesis 2:24? “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
It appears that Esther has failed to leave Mordecai and cleave to Ahasuerus her husband. This transfer of headship and authority that God commands in marriage is not being observed on Esther’s part. And this is dangerously close to the kind of thing that got Vashti removed. Vashti did not submit to her husband as head. And we wonder whether Esther is endangering herself by continuing to conceal her identity.
Can you imagine being married to someone for five years, but they refuse to tell you who their family and relations are? Would that foster trust between Esther and Ahasuerus?
It is also odd that Ahasuerus would marry Esther in the first place without knowing this information. Did he really never ask her “tell me where you are from?” That is usually one of the very first questions we ask someone when we get to know them. Who are your people, tell me about your family?
So we can only speculate as to what their marriage looked like with Esther concealing who she is. Perhaps Ahasuerus liked the mystery. Perhaps he already knows and is just waiting for Esther to come out with it. Perhaps the human reason why he permits the decree against the Jews is to force Esther to reveal herself. The text never tells us, but the whole situation is very odd.
So to summarize these two details: 1) Mordecai is in the king’s gate, 2) and Esther is still concealing her identity in submission to Mordecai. And no explanation is given.
Verses 21-23
21In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. 22And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai’s name. 23And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king
First observe that somehow Mordecai gets information that Bigthan and Teresh are plotting to kill the king. How did he get this information we wonder? Again, we are not told.
One Jewish interpretation is that Mordecai was a member of the Great Sanhedrin andknew 70 languages, and so while Bigthan and Teresh are plotting in their native tongue thinking no one else can understand, Mordecai knows without them knowing.
Second, observe what Mordecai does with this information. He gives it to Esther, and Esther tells the king on Mordecai’s behalf.
This action by Mordecai and Esther is a strong argument against the view that Ahasuerus is some evil wicked tyrant. If Ahasuerus had indeed forced all these virgins to come to his palace, kidnapped them from their parents, and then slept with each one, and Esther was amongst these women forcibly taken and married against her will, it is very hard to reconcile that theory with their actions here which save his life.
If Ahasuerus was such an evil man, why not be rid of him? Why not let Bigthan and Teresh carry out their plot?
A much more likely explanation is our theory that Mordecai and Esther want to be close to the king and in his favor, and this good deed is what any loyal citizen (or covert father-in-law) would do.
In either case, this is a good deed in the eyes of God and should increase the favor they have with Ahasuerus.
Third, observe that when this report comes to the king, a formal inquisition is carried out, and it is only after their plot is confirmed, that these men are executed. As with Vashti’s rebellion, there is a very deliberate process that takes place before a judgment is made, and then once that judgment is made it is written down in the chronicles of the king.
If we were to give the spiritual sense of this event, we could say that Bigthan and Tereseh signify the Scribes and Pharisees (gatekeepers of the law) who plotted to kill Christ. Or to apply this to our own day, they signify false teachers who are found guilty of heresy and then excommunicated from the church.
It says in Hebrews 6:6, that when Christians abandon the faith, “they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Bigthan and Teresh are a cautionary tale of what happens when you try to “lay hands” on the King of Kings.
Now returning to the historical sense, we would expect to read immediately following these events that Mordecai is rewarded, promoted, and exalted to high office. And if that had happened, what a different story this would be. But instead, we read in chapter 3 verse 1…
Verse 1
1After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
This is a surprising twist in the story. Again, there is a strange absence of information as to why Haman was promoted, or if he deserved such advancement. There is also no explanation as to why Mordecai did not receive any honors or rewards for saving the king’s life.
And what all this absence of information leaves us with is questions. And I think that is the point. God intentionally inspired this book to be ambiguous, to omit many details we would have liked to know, so that would we be forced to ponder His inscrutable ways, His good providence in the lives of Esther, and Mordecai, Haman and Ahasuerus. For it is only with knowledge of how the story ends, that we can then go back and appreciate the wisdom of God.
So let us pause and consider this moment in the story from two perspectives: Haman’s perspective and Mordecai’s perspective.
From Haman’s perspective, this is a happy day. He can go home and tell his wife and children; he can thank whatever gods he worships for giving him favor. And although Haman will eventually become a villain, he is not yet, and for all we know, he might have really deserved this promotion for years of faithful service to the king.
We naturally assume Haman does not deserve this promotion, but Haman could have been full of the spirit like King Saul, humble and small in his own eyes, and only after being exalted did the power go to his head and he became evil. We are not told anything about Haman’s life prior to this promotion, and if Haman had chosen the path of virtue, his life would have gone very differently.
The great danger for Haman after this promotion is to let his newfound authority go to his head and think of himself more highly than he ought. As we shall see next week, this sin of pride is what ensnares him and leads to his downfall.
Haman failed to take to heart that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Now what about Mordecai?
From Mordecai’s perspective, who is he? He is the loyal servant who has been overlooked. He is the hard-working employee that gets passed up for a promotion. And what is the temptation for those who do good but are not quickly rewarded?
The temptation is to get bitter, to feel entitled, to become jealous or envious of whoever did get promoted, and then to compare ourselves and our merits with them. Or perhaps we just feel sorry for ourselves and wonder, What is the point of doing good if there is no benefit to us?
Perhaps Mordecai feels as Solomon speaks in Ecclesiastes 8:14, “There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.”
Or perhaps he feels as Asaph in Psalm 73 who wonders, “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocence.” And also, “For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
The temptation for us when our hard work is not immediately rewarded, is to complain, to grumble, and even to despair; to wonder if there is justice in the world. Or as the memes on the internet would call it, “to take the black pill.”
For Mordecai this is the test. What pill will you take? Who are you going to be? Will you be like King Saul (your tribal father), or will you be like King David (the forerunner of the Messiah)?
Saul saw that David’s star was rising, and he became jealous and persecuted him. The women are singing “Saul has slain his thousands but David his ten-thousands” and he cannot endure to hear it.
This is the envy test for all of us. Can you honestly rejoice at another’s good fortune? Can you trust that God is the one who appoints our lot and station in life, who sets up rulers and removes them, who can turn the heart of anyone at His whim? Or do we try to take matters into our own hands like Saul, and rather than fulfilling our own royal duties, we persecute the Lord’s anointed?
An evil eye and a proud mind sets itself in the judgment seat. And in that mindset, we think we know better than our superiors how to rule, we think we know better than anyone else, including God, who should get what and when. But this is the god-complex that Haman fell into, and Mordecai must avoid.
As it says in Proverbs 26:12, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.”
And again in Proverbs 3:7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
David is the great counter example to such proud thinking, for David refused to grasp for the kingdom, even when he had been anointed, and Saul’s life was in his hands. And later when David’s own son Absalom tries to steal the kingdom from David, David receives it as God’s judgment. He knew he had failed as a father. He had let injustice go unpunished in his own household, and he accepted Absalom’s coup as God’s rebuke and chastisement for his sins.
Recall the words of David when Shimei curses him on the way out of Jerusalem. “Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the Lord has ordered him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day” (2 Samuel 16:11-12).
This is the posture of a righteous man, a meek man, even when the wicked have the upper hand. We cast ourselves upon the mercy of God, we confess our failings, and we regard our present humiliation as the means of preparing us for future glory.
Christ did this perfectly, even taking our sins and making them his own, and because of his great humiliation and death on the cross, it says in Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So from Mordecai’s perspective, and for all those we might feel overlooked, the test is, What do you do in the meantime? Do you obey Romans 2:7 and, “by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality?” Or do you complain, grumble, and get bitter?
If we would do the former, and patiently persist in doing good, we have the example of Christ to guide us, and many words of promise to encourage us.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 5:24-25, “Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.”
And in Psalm 37:34 it says, “Wait on the Lord, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.”
Mordecai’s action to save the king’s life might seem forgotten. Your hard work, your hidden labors might seem in vain. But God is watching, and God remembers, and in due time, if you continue to trust Him and persist in doing good, He shall reward.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Purified For The King (Esther 2:11-19)

Purified For The KingSunday, January 12th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:11-19And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.
Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for the sevenfold purity of your word, through which our hearts are made clean, and we are fashioned by your hands into vessels of mercy, honorable and sanctified for every good work. Please form us and reform us as we hear your word now, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
This morning, we come to a very happy section in the book of Esther which is her marriage to King Ahasuerus and her elevation to the office of Queen instead of Vashti. And this royal marriage also marks the conclusion of one of the important sub-plots of this book which is that the King needs a new and better queen, and it also sets up the second sub-plot where the King needs a new and better advisor or prime minister.
So the basic flow of this book is that first Esther will replace Vashti, then Mordecai will replace Haman, and then through a series of great reversals, God shakes the nations, many Gentiles are converted, and God’s enemies are destroyed.
So while we are focusing in on just one part of that story, we don’t want to forget the broader narrative which all of Scripture testifies to and that is God’s love for the human soul, and Christ’s love for the church. The Bible begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve, and it ends with the marriage of God to Humanity, Christ to His Bride, and we will see that marriage foreshadowed here as Esther is purified, chosen, and wed to the King.
So in the sermon this morning I am going to first give you the literal or historical sense of these verses. And then we’ll double back and consider the spiritual sense that those realities point to.
The Literal Historical Sense
We can divide our text into two sections.
In verses 11-14, Esther is Purified.
In verses 15-19, Esther is Glorified.
Verse 11
11And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her.
Recall from two weeks ago that we are working on the assumption that Esther wants to marry Ahasuerus, not that she was taken as a captive or slave into the house of the women.
We also conjectured that the most likely reason for Mordecai and Esther desiring such a marriage would be for the prosperity of the Jewish people. If Esther becomes queen and has a son, that son could become future emperor of the Persian Empire. And that is a strong motive for marriage for anyone living in those 127 provinces.
We also see that for an entire year, Mordecai was able to walk “every day before the court of the women’s house,” and get intel on how Esther was doing.
This suggests that Mordecai is not only an anxious/caring father, but is some kind of politician or governing official, given that he has this kind of access to the palace.
We will see in verse 19 thatafter Esther’s wedding, Mordecai sits within the king’s gate (this was where elders and judges sat), and in chapter 3 he is explicitly numbered amongst the king’s servants.
So Mordecai and Esther are a Father-Daughter duo working together to secure the good of the Jews from within the Persian court.
Continuing in verses 12-14, we then have a description of life within the house of the women.
Verses 12-14
12Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) 13Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. 14In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.
Now there are two basic options for what is being described here.
One view is that Ahasuerus sleeps with a different virgin every night. And then after sleeping with these women, they become concubines who only exist for his sexual pleasure and that is only if he can remember their name.
If that is the case, we could put Ahasuerus in the same category as men like David and Solomon. David and Solomon were both godly men who committed grave sins. Both fell short of the marital ideal in Genesis of one man and one woman married for life.
David had multiple wives and concubines (2 Sam. 5:13), and Solomon famously had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), and yet both men were used by God and even wrote large portions of Scripture.
So while the idea of having many wives and concubines rightly scandalizes our Christian sensibilities, polygamy of this sort was a common vice of ancient kings and Ahasuerus would be the exception (a man better than David) if he did not have concubines.
So that is one possible interpretation of what is going on here, and the majority opinion, but I think there are some problems with that reading both logically and textually.
One logical problem is that it makes entering the king’s house (from my perspective) into a very high stakes gamble for Mordecai and Esther. If the options in front of you are Queen of Persia, or one-night stand concubine for the king, would you really take that risk, or allow your daughter to take that risk? Perhaps if you are desperate (and perhaps they are), but otherwise, I don’t think so. Or we would have to radically re-evaluate Esther and Mordecai’s character.
Another problem is that it makes sexual performance into the metric by which the new queen is chosen, rather than finding a woman more virtuous than Vashti. Again, this does not fit with what we have seen so far from the king’s decrees regarding Vashti and his search for a new queen.
So those are two logical problems with the majority view. But there are also some textual problems as well which some of the better commentators have acknowledged and puzzled over.
One problem is that in verse 15, when Esther goes “in unto the king” it says she “obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her.” Who are all these people?
Either there are a bunch of people in the king’s bedroom, or the context is the King together with his advisers and officials interviewing each girl to see if she has the manners, beliefs, and qualities that would make her better than Vashti. Remember that was the whole purpose of this gathering of the women, to find a new queen to rule with Ahasuerus, not just to find a pretty face.
Another problem is that the location to which these women are said to go into is “the king’s house.” And “the king’s house” is the same place where Vashti gave her feast for the women (Esther 1:9), the royal throne is in “the king’s house (Esther 5:1), “the king’s house” has an inner and outer court, and at the end of the book we read, “Mordecai was great in the king’s house.”
So the king’s house is a large complex from which he rules the empire, it is a place of feasting and governing with his advisors, not merely his private bedchamber.
So to summarize my view: I think these woman received 12 months of purification, and while some of that was for cosmetics, the primary purpose was for their education in royal manners. It does not take a year to get the smell of your native land out of your skin, but it does take a year (at least) to learn royal manners and customs. So these women were in “Princess School” learning which spoon to eat with, when to speak and not to speak, etc. And while 12 months might seem like a long time to us, remember they are preparing these girls from nowhere to possibly become the most powerful woman in the whole world, the Queen of Persia. From that perspective, 12 months is a short timeline.
So to me it makes the most sense that once these girls have been purified, perfumed, and educated, they go before the king to be interviewed, not necessarily to sleep with him.
This would explain why when Esther goes before the king, she finds favor in the eyes of all, not just the king.
This would also explain why it says in verse 13, “whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house.”
This was part of the test and interview of each girl’s character. What do you bring with you and why? An instrument, a painting, jewelry, a garment you made. This item would give each maiden the opportunity to distinguish herself from the others and become memorable to the king.
Whether the king then slept with her, the text never actually says. But if he did, the author has chosen not to emphasize that, and so neither shall we.
Moreover, the mention of virgins in verses 17 and 19 seems to refer to the maidens who have already gone into the king.
So it is certainly possible that this house of concubines is not a harem for sex, but rather the place where these maidens lived until the king decided who his next queen would be. After that, they would most likely become maidens to the queen or servants in the king’s palace.
This would also make Mordecai and Esther’s decision to enter this contest in the first place a lot more reasonable. The worse that can happen is Esther is not chosen and becomes a servant in the palace.
So those are two possible interpretations, and I leave to your judgment which makes the most sense of all the data.
Now after Esther is purified for 12 months, her time finally comes to go before the king. And recall that it has been about 4 years since Vashti was deposed.
Verse 15
15Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her.
Note that we are told here who Esther’s biological father was, a man named Abihail, which literally means my father has hayil, or my father is mighty/valorous. So Esther is descended from men of hayil, and in the eyes of Ahasuerus, Hegai, and all who look upon her, she is herself a woman of hayil, a virtuous woman.
We might imagine Ahasuerus saying to Esther the words of Proverbs 31:29, “Many daughters have done virtuously, But thou excellest them all.” For that is certainly the universal opinion of Esther at this stage in the story, and because of her excellence, the king chooses her above all others to be his wife and queen.
Verses 16-18
16So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.
So here Esther’s wedding feast is described, and it is significant that we are given the exact year and month in which this marriage takes place, because there is an important contrast between these events in Shushan, and what is happening at the same time in Jerusalem.
We learn from the book of Ezra that while Esther was entering the king’s house for her 12 months of purification, meanwhile in Jerusalem the temple was finally completed (Ezra 6:15), and the Jewish people are undergoing various rituals of purification.
It says in Ezra 6:19-20, “And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat.”
So while Esther is in Shushan, the priests are offering the Passover on her behalf in Jerusalem.
And then after this purification for Passover, we read that Ezra himself sets off from Babylon with a bunch of silver and gold and a letter from Ahasuerus to beautify the temple, appoint judges and magistrates, and teach the people the law of God.
So while Esther is being beautified and educated in the king’s house, Ezra is on his way to beautify and educate the Jews in God’s house.
However, when Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, the princes come to him and confess that many of them have not separated themselves from the idolaters, and in fact many have intermarried with the Canaanites contrary to God’s law.
It says in Deuteronomy 7:1-4, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.”
And then we read in Ezra 9:2-3 how Ezra responds to such sin, “For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.”
So this is the scene in Jerusalem just 10 days or so before Esther goes before Ahasuerus. God’s bride in Jerusalem has defiled herself with idolaters and need to be purified through repentance. And we are told in Ezra 10:16 that it was on the first day of the 10th month, the same month in which Ahasuerus marries Esther, that they began the process of ending these idolatrous marriages according to the law of God.
So as we said before in earlier sermons, Esther represents the faithful remnant, the myrtle tree (Hadassah) of God’s everlasting promises. And God has given us these particular dates in Scripture so that we can see these parallels.
The whole purpose of the Jews repenting and purifying themselves was so they could approach God, find favor with him, and dwell in His house. The whole purpose of Esther’s purification was to prepare her to approach Ahasuerus, find favor with him, and dwell in his house.
And this of course brings us to the spiritual sense or application of these events for us as the bride of Christ. The question we all ought to ask ourselves is: Are we prepared to go in and stand before the king? Are we ready for our interview, our assessment in the eyes of Christ’s Heavenly Court?
This judgment takes place every Lord’s Day here in worship, it shall take place for each of us at death, and it shall take place in full at the end of history when all shall receive either resurrection unto glory or resurrection unto damnation.
For those who purify themselves in this life, glory shall follow.
But for those who defile themselves with sin, with demons, with falsehood, to them belongs the wages of sin, fearful punishment and death.
So how do you purify yourself in the twelve months of your preparation for the king?
We are told that Esther’s purification consisted of “six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours.”
And what does this signify but the same bitter myrrh and sweet odors of God’s holy anointing oil?
We read in Exodus 30:22-30, “Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane, five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the Testimony; the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense; the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base. You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests.”
So this oil that makes holy is none other than the Holy Spirit. In the words of Acts 15:8, the Holy Spirit “purifies our hearts by faith.”
And if your soul is a little flame, when the Holy Spirit is poured upon you, the fires of love burn hot. To have oil upon the head is to have God upon your mind, it is to think of him and love Him, and desire Him more than anything.
In the words of Song of Songs 8:7, “Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can the floods drown it.”
Love for God is the sign that the Holy Spirit is within you. And it this love of God that purifies us, covers our sins, and makes us to live a life without condemnation. For as it says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Conclusion
So are you walking in love? Are you keeping in step with the Spirit?
For Jesus says that only the pure in heart, shall see God. And that you must be holy, even as He is holy.
It is this perfect purity and holiness which Christ died to give you. And so receive His cleansing by faith, regard yourself as His Temple, and do not grieve that Holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The State of the Church 2025

The State of the Church 2025Sunday, January 5th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
John 21:15–25So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
Prayer
O Father, from the rising of the sun unto its going down, your name is to be praised. Make our prayers to ascend to you as incense, as a pure offering, so that your name shall be great among the heathen. Show forth the power of your Word, as we receive it now into ourselves, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
On August 24th, 2012, the idea of planting a reformed church in Lewis County was being contemplated by a certain Joe Stout, and that idea was also expressed (via email) to a certain Dave Hatcher, pastor of Trinity Church (CREC) in Kirkland.
However, seven years would go by before that idea would start to take shape, and that idea become a gathering of men, called Reformation Roundtable, which met for the first time in January of 2020.
Another year went by and then in January of 2021, those men and their families began to worship together, practicing the liturgy on Sunday evenings.
And then finally, five months later, on Pentecost Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, Christ Covenant Church was born. There were 59 people in attendance, many of whom are still here today, some who are not.
Fast forward to January of 2025 (today) and we are a 3.5-year-old toddler of a church. And yet we have a building we can now call our own. We have a young and growing classical Christian school (also known as our children’s church and youth ministry, for those wondering). And last week we had 199 people who came here to “rise and worship the Triune God.” Who are we but those who have received grace upon grace upon grace?
God’s mercy and provision has been so abundant towards us, that while Joe planted, and Dave watered, and many of you have given of yourselves, your time, your prayers, and your resources to build up this body, we all say with one voice, the words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3, “we are not anything, it is God who gives the growth.” It is God who planted us, and it is God who waters us. It is God who has loved us, and established us, and shall never abandon us. And we want God increase so that He may be all and in all.
It is a marvelous work in our eyes, that God sent Christ to deliver us from ourselves. From our sins of self-absorption, our selfishness, our thinking far too highly and far too frequently of ourselves. Christ died and rose and ascended to heaven, to draw you up and out of yourself into God.
And what’s more, God has gathered us out of ourselves so that we can be woven together, this particular body of saints, to be one body. A body diverse in so many ways, in age, in vocation, in background, in skill and learning, and yet united in our common confession of faith, in our shared hope of heaven, and in our fervent love for the Savior. We have the great privilege and challenge of sojourning together on our way to heaven.
So make no mistake, it is God’s grace that has built this church, and it is God’s grace that shall continue to build us and make us glorious if we will cooperate with His Spirit.
Now it has been our custom to have around the beginning of the New Year, a “State of the Church” sermon. And these sermons are a kind of memorial to what God has done for us in the past, so that we can be encouraged to trust Him and run even harder after Him in the year ahead.
This is keeping with Paul’s words in Romans 15:4, where he says, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
How are you hope levels? How is your “rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in everything” going? This sermon is given to replenish our tanks, and to remind us of what we signed up for when said to Jesus, “I will follow you, come what may.”
And so there are Five Lessons I want to draw from our text. Five Smooth Stones from how The Gospel of John ends (and the Apostolic Church begins). So let us walk through this text and gather those lessons along the way.
Lesson #1 is a question – Do you really love Jesus?
Verse 15
15So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee…
Recall that Peter had boasted earlier about how even if all the other disciples fall away, Peter would not. Peter’s name after all means Rock, and he thought he would be that rock immovable, who would lay down his life for Christ when nobody else would.
We read in Matthew 26:35, his boastful words, “’Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And so said all the disciples.”
And yet we know how the story goes. All the disciples, including Peter, are scattered and run for their lives. Peter lies, he denies knowing Christ, and he does this three times in bold contradiction of his profession of love for Jesus.
Peter talked a big game, but when the game was on, he faltered and was humiliated.
However, after Christ’s resurrection, that fear of death is conquered in Peter. And unlike Judas who betrayed Jesus and then committed suicide, Peter betrayed Jesus but then sought to be restored by Him.
And this is the difference between a true Christian and a false one. What do you do after you sin? What do you do after you fall? Do you humble yourself, run to Christ, own up and confess that sin to Him? Or do you just feel bad for yourself, and conclude, what’s the use of even trying?
It says in Proverbs 24:16, “For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.”
Likewise, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, there is a worldly sorrow that leads to death, but there is a godly sorrow that works repentance unto salvation.
So what do you do after you sin? Because you should feel sorrow. You should feel bad. But the question is, What do you do with that sorrow, with that sadness? Do you let it eat you into the grave, or do you cast those sorrows before the cross of Christ, and by His grace rise again?
That is the mark of a true Christian, not that we never stumble, but that when we stumble, we rise again. We do not make excuses, we do not blame our circumstances, or our spouse, no, the mark of a true Christian is that we own up to our failures honestly before the Lord and plead with Him to restore us.
Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?
And three times a now chastened Simon Peter replies, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”
So this is the first lesson and the most important question: Do you really love Jesus? And do you love him not only in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth?
Jesus says the greatest of all commandments is to love God, and then your neighbor. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:22, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.”
If you would like to live a blessed life not only in 2025, but for all time, you must really love the Lord Jesus, and you must seek forgiveness from Him whenever you sin. That is the first lesson and without it you cannot go further. As Paul says, without charity we are nothing.
Now if we have charity, if we have authentic love for the Lord, then we should want to manifest that love according to our unique calling, vocation, and season of life. Paul says in Galatians 5:6, that “faith works by love.”
And so Lesson #2 derives from Christ’s threefold command to Peter as an Apostle to, “feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.” If you really love me, then feed my sheep.
And so for those of us who are sheep, what is our job? To eat!
Lesson #2 – Feed on God’s Word.
How did Jesus fast for 40 days and overcome the devil in the wilderness? He had the law of God upon his lips. As a man he lived not by bread but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
How does the Apostle Paul say we can have peace in our hearts? By letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16).
Who is the man we read about in those Psalms, whose leaf does not whither, and whatsoever he does prospers? He is the man who meditates/chews upon the law of God day and night.
So the Shepherd has his job, he must feed the sheep. A preacher must give milk to newborn lambs, and meat to the strong. But the sheep also have a job if they would follow the Good Shepherd. They must receive His Word.
James 1:21-22 says, “Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
Paul says likewise in 1 Thessalonians, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).
So are you hearing God’s Word with a noble mind, like the Bereans, of whom it says in Acts 17:11, “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
What kind of soil is your mind? Is it noble, fertile, ready to receive? Or has it been hardened by ignorance and sin. Or worse, do you have no spiritual appetite anymore because the cares of this world have choked you out?
The Good Shepherd wants to feed you. He wants to make you lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside the still waters. The Lord wants to restore your soul and lead you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. But you must follow Him and you must eat with thankfulness what He puts in front of you.
That means committing to reading, hearing, and knowing the Scriptures, and paying close attention to the Word as it is preached from this pulpit.
So that is Lesson #2, “Feed on God’s Word.” And we find in Lesson #3 some added motivation.
Lesson #3 – All Sheep Must Eventually Die
Jesus says to Peter in verses 18-19 (NKJV), “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
Tradition holds that Peter was bound and then crucified upside down. And whether that specific form of execution is what actually took place we don’t know for sure, but what is certain is that Christ guarantees to Peter some 30 years before it will happen, a death that no man would naturally choose for himself. And then with that promise of a painful death, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.”
To follow Jesus is to follow him into the grave. For Peter as an apostle, it meant certain painful martyrdom by which he would glorify God. He would be dressed and carried where he did not want to go, and yet at the same time, God would be carrying Peter, to a place that He had prepared in advance for him, a place in the Father’s House, where there are many mansions.
This is the great challenge of following Jesus. Eternal life, abundant joy, is offered to us, but only through death. In this life we must die daily unto ourselves, we must put to death our own passions and sinful desires. And all of that dying in faith is meant to culminate in our eventual putting off of this mortal flesh, so that we can put on a body incorruptible.
All sheep must eventually die. And no man knows the day or the hour in which that judgment shall come upon him. But every man can be certain that such a day shall come, and you do not want to be caught unawares.
Moses prays in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
And Solomon likewise testifies in Ecclesiastes 7:2, “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”
Have you taken to heart that you must die? And are you ready to give an account for what you have done in the body?
You cannot truly live in freedom, until you have reckoned with that absolute inescapability of your death. And while probably none of us are worthy of the glorious crown of martyrdom, all of us should desire to be. We should all desire to glorify God in life and and in death.
Paul says in Romans 14:8, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”
If you are following Jesus, you are following the one said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Summary: Lesson #3 is that All Sheep Must Eventually Die, therefore make your plans accordingly. Number your days and become wise.
Now we see in our text that Peter’s response to Jesus is to then inquire about John’s future. What about the disciple whom Jesus loved, what about him?
Verses 20-23 (NKJV)
Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”
So even after Peter is restored to the Apostleship, and his love has been confirmed by Christ, and his glorious martyrdom foretold. He somehow still finds a way to get rebuked.
And this leads us to Lesson #4…
Lesson #4 – Mind Thy Own Business
Followers of Jesus are not immune to distraction. If an apostle can stumble here, so can we.
Peter thinks it is somehow relevant to his life and ministry to know John’s destiny. But Jesus says otherwise. “What is that to you? You follow me.”
These are words from Jesus that you must hammer into your soul. It is a question you must learn to hear from Christ whenever peace and joy is lacking. “1) Do you know your business? and 2) Are you doing it faithfully?”
Paul puts it this way in Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.”
You will be tempted this year to expend time, energy, and attention on things that God has not asked you to expend any time or energy on.
Some of you are like Paul, a high-functioning over-achiever. And your temptation is to eat the bread of anxious toil (or to not eat at all), to rise early and sit up late, and to forget that unless the Lord is building through you, your labor is in vain (Ps. 127). For those who love and delight in hard work, you must learn to stop and rest, to find true Sabbath.
Some of you on the other hand are a little too leisurely (that is my nice way of calling you lazy). Perhaps you lack ambition or focus, or perhaps you are just disorganized. Or perhaps you lack diligence and never finish anything because you procrastinate. There is only one path to faithfulness but many paths to ruin.
It says in Proverbs 24:30-31, “I went by the field of the slothful, And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, And nettles had covered the face thereof, And the stone wall thereof was broken down.”
Whereas it says in Proverbs 22:29, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.”
So wherever you fall on that spectrum of labor and laziness, all of us should want to aim at being able to say what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
The sign that you are minding your own business, working hard with God’s grace, is that you have peace. You have joy. You have the fruit of the Holy Spirit coming out of you, not fear and anxiety.
By the way, this comes from heeding Lesson #3 and numbering your days and counting yourself dead to the world already.
So when the next controversy arises on the internet. Hear the words of Jesus, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
Or, when you are tempted to compare yourself to that person or this one, to envy her, or covet his stuff. Hear the words of Jesus, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11, “aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” That is your calling: Mind Thy Own Business.
Finally, we will close where John’s gospel closes.
Verses 24-25
24This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. 25And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
The fifth and final lesson is…
Lesson #5 – Become A Good Book
John wrote only a tiny fraction of the things that Jesus did. And when you receive Jesus into your heart, you become a book written by Him.
So what kind of book do you want to be? What kind of testimony to Christ will your life have?
What will the chapter of your life for “2025 Year of our Lord,” read like in heaven?
The Author and Finisher of your faith is ready to write. That is to say, He is overflowing with grace and truth and wants you to receive His Spirit in greater measure. So will you receive Christ anew, will you walk in that Holy Spirit, will you keep in step with the Spirit of Christ into and out of the grave?
May you ever be, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: A New Queen (Esther 2:1-10)

Sermon: The Heavenly Blueprint (Christmas Eve Homily 2024)

The Heavenly BlueprintTuesday, December 24th, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Ezekiel 43:1–12Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever. Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
Prayer
O Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, and how you give faith through them to those who hear with a humble heart. Give us such meekness to receive the implanted Word, that we might bear fruit for You. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
When a wise man sets out to build a great house, what does he do before he digs the foundation? What does he do before he calls in excavators, the concrete trucks, before he hires the various tradesmen to put in electrical, plumbing, framing and so on?
Before a wise man builds a great house, he makes a plan. He gets blueprints. Perhaps he hires a surveyor, an architect, an engineer, certain specialists to help him draw up those blueprints, but he does this all so that when he starts to build, he knows exactly what he is building, he knows what materials he needs, he knows what the finished product should look like. Before a wise man builds anything, he first gets the pattern, the form, the vision, the blueprints, in his mind and on paper, so that he can measure and judge the finished product by that mental image.
The All Wise Builder
God is the wisest of all builders, and for those who have eyes to see, the infinite wisdom and goodness of God is evident in all creation.
It says in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
Likewise, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20, “For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.”
God created the world to show forth His infinite goodness and glory. But He specially created you, a rational intellectual spiritual creature, in His image and likeness, so that you might know Him and love Him, even as He knows and loves you.
God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
And Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
So there is a divine pattern and blueprint that God has for humanity. And the way He communicates those blueprints to us is through the Holy Scriptures, and within the Scriptures he gives certain laws, certain commandments, certain examples, and even the descriptions of various buildings, physical structures, furniture, materials, dimensions, all to teach us what our lives should look like.
We just heard in our reading from the Prophet Ezekiel, God says we are to measure ourselves by that divine pattern and see if we measure up. He says in Ezekiel 43:10-11, “Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house.”
Every individual person is a kind of house. Every family, every nation, every group of people who dwells together are in God’s eyes a kind of house. And so when God gives us heavenly blueprints, He intends for us to study those blueprints, those patterns, and then to judge ourselves and conform ourselves to that divinely given pattern.
So how do you measure up to what God has revealed? How does your family measure up? How does your church measure up? How does your city, your state, your nation measure up to what God has revealed in His Word?
God says through Ezekiel, “show them the form of the house, that they be ashamed of all they have done.”
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
We are not the first, nor the last people to fall very short of God’s good design for humanity.
What was the first structure that God commanded to be built? It was a big boat we call Noah’s Ark. And why did God command that such an enormous three decker ark be built?
We heard earlier from Genesis 6:5, it was because, “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
In Noah’s day, the world had so perverted God’s blueprint for humanity, they had fallen so short of the glory that God intended for them, that from justice God cleansed the old world with a flood, but not before commissioning Noah to build the Ark as a testimony of the judgment to come and then preserving him and his household within that floating three-floor cosmos.
It says in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
Later on in human history, God showed to Moses upon the mountain top, and through him to the people of Israel, the architectural form of the tabernacle and its furnishings. And this portable tent was given by God to show Israel in the wilderness how they could approach Him who is Most Perfect and Holy, and not die.
So in order to enter the outer court and offer a sacrifice you had to be clean. And then only a priest could burn that sacrifice on the altar. And then only through sacrifice could a priest enter the holy place, and only the high priest once a year could enter that most holy place and come before the throne of God.
And so the moral lesson of all these rituals and washings and sacrifices was to make Israel measure themselves by that heavenly pattern. To show them what must take place if they want God’s presence within them, if they want God’s house to be their house.
What is needed? Cleanness from every impurity and holiness in every part of our being.
Four-hundred and eighty years after that tabernacle was built, God commissioned a more glorious form of His house to be constructed. And this new form of God’s House was to show Israel that God intends to take us from one degree of glory to another.
The tabernacle was portable and wandered about, covered in the skins of animals. But the Temple was stationary, built of gold, silver, and precious stones, a sign of God’s desire to dwell permanently with His people, and to give them a permanent and royal inheritance as their King.
And so David made the preparations, under Solomon that temple was completed. But almost as soon as that more glorious house was built, the people fell away from the Lord.
And because of that falling away from God’s pattern, that falling short of God’s glorious design, eventually God’s glory packed up and left that house desolate. And this is what the Prophet Ezekiel sees in the days of Babylon. Babylon destroys the temple like a flood. They are God’s instrument to punish his rebellious house. But God carries the righteous, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and others through that fiery judgment. And after that temple is burned to the ground, God shows to Ezekiel in a vision a new form, a new pattern, a new house that is so glorious and holy, that no human hands could ever build it.
Even when humanity falls so short of God’s glory, God promises and reveals to the righteous, a structure more glorious than before.
In the words of the Apostle Paul, “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” and the sins of men, however evil, shall not stop the infinite and all wise builder from constructing a glorious kingdom, even out of the evil intentions of men.
For as Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
This is God’s building plan, and that plan shall not be thwarted.
So what then is the blueprint? What is the ultimate form, design, and patter for humanity? What structure is the permanent resting place for God?
It is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom it says in Colossians, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). And “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell” (Col. 1:19).
And in John 1, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth…And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
The man Christ Jesus, the eternal Word from the Father, is the house not made with hands. He is the one who says of his body, “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He is the Ark into which we enter by faith. He is the altar upon which we die and rise again. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory, the express image of his person, and he upholds all things by the word of his power. John calls him the logos, the Word, the eternal form and pattern of the divine intellect who was born in human flesh.
This is Who we have come to worship tonight. This is Who we celebrate at Christmas and on every other day: The infinite and all wise builder has come down, and by faith in Him all can be made new.
So I close with exhortation from St. Paul in Hebrews 3:1-6, “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider [measure] the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence [the faith] and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
May you hold fast to this rejoicing in Christ, and Christ shall rejoice to dwell in you forever.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Hadassah (Esther 2:1-10)

HadassahSunday, December 22nd, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:1-10After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king’s house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.
Prayer
O God we thank you for Your Word, which is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. Open our eyes, that we might behold wondrous things from Your law, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we were introduced to the man Mordecai, and in order to better understand this wonderful story of Esther that God has given us, we have been trying get inside the minds of each character and see the world from their perspective. We did this first with King Ahasuerus, then with Vashti, then with Mordecai, and this morning we are going to begin to do something similar with our heroine, Esther. So this will be a kind of biographical sermon on Who Esther is, and then once we are all familiar with the main characters of this drama, we can then pick up the pace and get into the actual narrative and the many questions it provokes.
So our focus this morning will just be on verse 7, where Esther is introduced, so let me read that verse again for us.
Verse 7
7And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
So we are first introduced to this fair and beautiful maiden as a woman who has two names. And these two names, Hadassah and Esther, suggest a kind of double identity. And it is this question of, “Who is Esther?” that shall play a decisive role in whether the King has favor upon her and her people, or whether they are destroyed.
One of the hinges upon which this whole story turns is whether Esther has the courage to embrace and reveal her Jewish identity, or whether from shame or fear or some other motive, continues to hide that identity.
And so to understand the conflict within this young woman, we need to consider the meaning of her two names Haddassah and Esther.
#1 – Hadassah (הֲדַסָּה)
This name Hadassah is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for myrtle or myrtle tree.
And I have included on the back of your bulletin a picture of the myrtle tree and flower, along with the 4 other instances where the myrtle is mentioned in Scripture.
And if you look at those four instances, you will notice that they are all describing the Era of Restoration after Exile in which this Esther/Hadassah is living.
In Isaiah 41, the context is God encouraging His faithful remnant to not be discouraged or afraid when their enemies attack them.
Earlier in Isaiah 40:17-18 it says, “All nations before him are as nothing; And they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto him?”
So for the Jews in exile, who feel like a small disgraced minority scattered amongst the nations, dispersed amongst those 127 provinces of the great Persian Empire, God’s Word to them is, “those nations are as nothing, even less than nothing, compared to Me.”
For Esther and the Jews in the Era of Restoration, God’s Word to them is “consider My incomparable greatness, not the seeming and very fleeting greatness of the nations in power.” God is the one who shakes the world, so that His Kingdom which cannot be shaken shall remain. Empires can fall as quickly as a person falls, and it is God who determines those times and places.
And so with God’s greatness firmly established, he then makes many gracious promises to them.
He says in Isaiah 41:10-13, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: They shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, Saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
So that is God’s promise of help, but what will that help look like in their day? Well Isaiah goes on to describe this help using the image of trees planted in the wilderness.
He says in Isaiah 41:18-20, “I will open rivers in high places, And fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, That the hand of the Lord hath done this, And the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”
So God likens His people to different kinds of trees that He will plant, He will water, and He will nourish, even in the wilderness, and one such tree that is added for the very first time in Israel’s history is the myrtle. The הֲדַס.
Isaiah says further of this hadas, this myrtle tree in Isaiah 55:11-13, “My word shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, And be led forth with peace: The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
So God’s effectual Word is going to plant this myrtle tree, and when it blossoms (when it is brought up), it shall be to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign that shall never be cut off. The fir tree and the myrtle tree are evergreens, and they are intended to signify the everlasting promises of God’s salvation.
So when you look at your Christmas tree, or the many great evergreen forests we have here in the Northwest, you ought to remember this verse in Isaiah. God planted those trees and ordained that they might signify His evergreen promises which climax in Christ. If the trees are clapping their hands with joy, how much more should we His saints?
So who is Hadassah? She is this myrtle tree, whom Mordecai brought up in the wilderness of exile, who has become fair and beautiful. And although her father and mother have died, she is not abandoned, God has looked after her. God has made her lovely. He has watered her from rivers in the high places, just like He promised through the prophet Isaiah.
So in her name Hadassah, Esther embodies the faithful and sweet-smelling remnant, who by their very existence within the Persian Empire testify to God’s everlasting promise to save. And the question Esther will have to face in this book is: Will she trust those promises? Will she be true or false to her identity as Hadassah?
So that is her first name, her Hebrew name, Hadassah, the myrtle tree. What about this second name, Esther?
#2 – Esther (אֶסְתֵּר)
This name Esther, kind of like the name Mordecai, has both a Persian meaning and a Hebrew meaning.
Recall that Mordecai’s name means either “man/servant of Marduk,” or it can be read in Hebrew as “my rebellion,” or “bitter oppression.”
Likewise, Esther according to its Persian origin means “star.” You can even hear it still in our English words for both Esther and star.
So her Persian name and identity is Star. And in both biblical and pagan cosmology, stars are powers or rulers that govern the night.
It says in Psalm 136:9, [God made] “The moon and stars to rule by night: For his mercy endureth for ever.”
Likewise, God had said to Daniel just a generation before Esther, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
So stars signify rulers, and Esther will certainly live up to this Persian name in becoming the new Queen of Persia. Vashti rebelled; she is a fallen star. And now the King needs a new Queen to help him rule the night.
So while star is a good and fitting name for Esther, it means something else in Hebrew which also describes her actions in this story.
In Hebrew the verb סתר (satar) means “to hide” or “conceal,” or “to keep secret.”
The Hebrew noun סָֽתֶר (sater) means “hiding place,” or “covering,” or “protection.”
And so if you read Esther’s name according to its Hebrew etymology (אֶסְתֵּר), it means something like “I am hidden/concealed.”
So in Persian, Esther is the star in the sky, the Queen that everyone sees, but in Hebrew she is the hidden one, whose identity she has concealed and will continue to conceal even from her husband, until God forces her hand.
Now next week, we will take up the question, “Why did Mordecai command Esther to conceal her identity?” But for now let us just consider one further aspect of this idea of concealment/hiding as it relates to Esther.
The Hiding Place
When God made His marriage covenant with Israel in the wilderness, He told them that if they rebelled and committed idolatry, then He would punish them, exile them, and hide/conceal (satar) His face from them.
It says in Deuteronomy 31:16-18, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.”
So Mordecai was amongst those men who lived through this “hiding of God’s face.” He witnessed Daughter Jerusalem divorced and made desolate by Babylon, but he had also heard the promise of God through the prophet Ezekiel, that after a time of shame, God would turn His people (like we read in Psalm 80, “turn us again O God), and His face would shine upon them again.
It says in Ezekiel 39:24-29, “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”
So Esther is living in the time that Ezekiel prophesied about. And while some Jews had returned, and some progress had been made in rebuilding the temple, still the fullness of these promises were yet unfulfilled.
And so what marks the turning point for God’s people in this Era of Restoration? When does God’s face shine upon them again? The book of Esther is given to show us that turning point. For it is behind the dark clouds of Haman’s wicked plot, that God’s favor shines forth and delivers them.
Recall Esther is that one book where God’s name is never mentioned on the letters of the page. If ever there was a story where God seems to be absent, seems to hide his face, but in the end turns out to have been present all along shining through, this is that story.
Now from a human perspective, what is the turning point in this book that begins to reverse all the harm intended against the Jews?
Surprise surprise, it is repentance and faith.
It is Mordecai repenting in sackcloth and ashes. It is Mordecai telling Esther, you need reveal to your husband and king who you really are. It is Esther calling for all the Jews in Shushan to fast and pray for three days, so that she can go before the king, see his face, and live.
And so what happens when Esther makes God her hiding place instead of hiding who God made her to be? What happens when Esther faces down her own fears and through faith says, “If I perish, I perish?”
It turns out, her worst fears were unfounded, and the King is far more favorable to her than she could have ever imagined. Three times the King says to her, “What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”
When Esther tells the king who she is, her husband executes justice for her. He promotes Mordecai. He gives them his signet ring and says decree whatever you want in my name. He gives Esther the house of Haman. He gives her everything she asks for. And by the end of story in chapter 9, the King is saying to her, “what is thy request further, and it shall be done” (Esther 9:12).
Isn’t this what God says to us?
Jesus says in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Esther was a myrtle tree. And Jesus is the vine. And if you live inside of Him, if your soul marries God, and if you are not ashamed to call him Lord, then His favor will be abundant towards you.
Your Lord and Your King is far more good and kind and loving than you presently think He is. The goodness of God is infinite, His ways past finding out. And we can scarcely comprehend a fraction of that Divine Goodness.
Jesus says in Luke 11:9-12, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Conclusion
God is ready and willing to give you Himself. To give you eternal life. To make His face shine upon you. It says in Proverbs 11:13, “He who conceals his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
You tell God who you are, and then He will tell you who you are in Christ. He will make you brand new.
May God grant you to receive such a name as it was written in heaven before the foundation of the world. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Mordecai (Esther 2:1-7)

MordecaiSunday, December 15th, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:1-7After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Prayer
O Father, we thank You for the Lord Jesus, who is the eternally begotten Word, and from whose mouth proceeds a perfect word, a sharp two-edged sword that distinguishes between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, temporal and eternal. Make us to live by every word that proceeds from his mouth, for we ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
Introduction
I begin with a question this morning. Who would you say has been the most influential person (or persons) in your life?Who has most formed you and shaped you and taught you, (for good or ill) so that you are who you are today? I think all of us would have to include on our list of most influential people, our parents.
Who gave us our last name? Our father.
Whose likeness and image do we bear? Our parents and grandparents.
Where did we get our mannerisms, our ways of walking and talking, our bearing, our micro-expressions, our temperament, our looks? In some mysterious way, we got those in large part from the people who begot us, the people who raised us, and the people who taught us. From both nature and from nurture, we become who we are.
Jesus puts it this way in Luke 6:40, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.”
The Apostle Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1, Phil. 3:17).
God has so arranged the world that we become like our parents, like our teachers, like our friends, like our heroes, for good or ill.
It says in Proverbs 17:6, “Children’s children are the crown of old men, And the glory of children is their father.”
Solomon says there is a kind of shared glory, or shame, that is transmitted across the generations.
He says a few verses later in Proverbs 17:25, “A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to his mother.”
And earlier in Proverbs 10:1, “A wise son maketh a glad father: But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”
And so because wisdom is justified/vindicated by her children (as Jesus says in Luke 7:35), our wisdom, or lack thereof, our virtues, or our vices, either give glory to God and our fathers, or brings shame to the family name.
So what kind of reputation are you giving to your fathers, both heavenly and earthly? It says in Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.” And so are you winning a good name for those who bore you, begot you, taught you, and trained you? Or are you by your folly bringing shame to yourself and to them?
This morning, we are introduced to the man Mordecai. And the way that God introduces Mordecai is by giving us some names from his family history, specifically tribal names and the names of his fathers. And Mordecai, like most of us in this room, has a complicated family background.
The very etymology of Mordecai’s name (מָרְדֳּכַ֛י) is suggestive of this complicated identity.
In Persian, the name Mordecai means something like “man/servant of Marduk.” And Marduk is the name for the highest of the Babylonian gods, so this could refer to YHWH, or it could be refer to an idol, just like our English words “God/Lord” can refer to the true God or false gods.
However, in Hebrew, Mordecai’s name has at least two possible derivations.
1. If Mordecai comes from the two Hebrew words mar and dach, it would mean something like “bitter oppression.”
2. However, if it comes from the Hebrew word marad/mered, together with the possessive form, it would mean something like “my rebellion.”
So the very makeup of this name Mordecai is a puzzle in itself, and yet given Mordecai’s ancestry, and the actions of this book, this name if very fitting.
Mordecai has some good fathers and some bad fathers. Mordecai has some fathers who really shouldn’t be imitated and some who should. Mordecai, like all of us has imperfect and sinful earthly fathers. And the question that hangs over Mordecai in the story of Esther is, What kind of man and father is he going to be? Will he follow in the footsteps of his sinful fathers, or will he cover their shame and win glory for God?
That is the question before Mordecai and the question before all of us. Whose example are you going to follow? Christ or the devil? God, or the world? The righteous or the wicked?
And so as we consider Mordecai’s lineage, his complicated past, I want you to also consider your own. And ask the Lord, what parallels, what contrasts, might be made, and are you repeating the sins of the past? Or are you walking the paths of the righteous?
Division of the Text
Our text divides into two sections.
In verses 1-4, we have The King’s Search For A New Queen.
In verses 5-7, we have An Introduction to Mordecai and Esther.
Next week we’ll consider the King’s Search and Esther’s lineage, but this morning we will just focus on verses 5-6 which describe Mordecai’s background.
Verses 5-6
5Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; 6Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
Many names, places, and relations are listed here. So let us make us an orderly list and then consider the importance and meaning of each.
Geographic Locations
We’ll start with locations. Where is Mordecai from, where has he been, where is he now? For those of you have done much traveling, you know that living or just being in a foreign place has the power to change your perspective. And Mordecai is a man who has indeed traveled the ancient world.
1. First, we are told in verse 5 that Mordecai is presently living in Shushan the palace. And we saw in chapter 1 of Esther that Shushan is the capital of the Persian empire, a great city and center of political influence from which laws and decrees are made.
Shushan is kind of like if we combined New York City and Washington D.C. together, but without any modern technology. That is where Mordecai is now.
2. Second, we are told in verse 6 that when Mordecai was younger, perhaps a baby or a young man, he was “carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.”
This event is recorded in at least 4 other places in Scripture: 2 Kings 24, 2 Chr. 36:9-10, Jeremiah 24, and Jeremiah 52. And so let me read you just a sample of what God says about this event, because it has direct relevance and application for Mordecai’s life.
The year is 597 BC, about 10 years before Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And about 5 years after Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and was elevated to be prime minister of Babylon (Dan. 2:48-49).
So at this moment in history, if you are a faithful man of God, the place you want to be is Babylon, not Jerusalem. And God communicates this message to His people in Jeremiah 24.
Jeremiah 24:1-7 says, “The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”
So notice that when Jeconiah is taken into Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar also takes “the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths.” In 2 Kings 24:15-16 we are given more details when it says, “And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.”
And so Mordecai was amongst the Jewish nobility, and in the words of Jeremiah, he is either a good fig that is very good, or a bad fig that is very bad. And since Mordecai is someone who lives to return to Jerusalem (as Ezra-Nehemiah record), we can conclude that God has shown favor to him. God has given Mordecai a heart to know the Lord, even while living in exile in Babylon.
So for 60 years of Mordecai’s life (from 597-537 BC), he is amongst the exiles in Babylon.His job for that portion of his life is to obey Jeremiah 29, seek the peace of Babylon, get married, settle down, have children, build a house. And then when Cyrus of Persia comes to power, and decrees that the Jews may return to Jerusalem and rebuild God’s House, Mordecai is amongst those Jews who return.
It says in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 that Mordecai amongst “the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai.”
So to summarize Mordecai’s life and locations:
His life begins in Jerusalem as the son of the nobility, but he is taken to Babylon by God’s merciful providence.
For 60 years he lives in Babylon, and during those years he watches Jerusalem fall, then Babylon fall, and then Persia rise to power.
During those 60 years in Babylon, he has Ezekiel as his pastor (priest of the exiles), Jeremiah is the senior prophet writing letters to them from Jerusalem, Daniel is the prime minister in the province of Babylon. He knows of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the fire. And he is rubbing shoulders with Zerubbabel the future prince of the Jews, Ezra the scribe, and Nehemiah the future cupbearer to Ahasuerus.
Mordecai is amongst all the movers and shakers of this period in Israel’s history.
So he is at least 60 years old when he returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, but when the work stalls out due to opposition, he chooses for some reason (we are not told) to relocate to Shushan the capital of Persia, and that brings us to the year 519 BC, when the book of Esther begins.
Mordecai is at least 78 years old (perhaps older); we are never told whether he got married, or has a wife, or other children, all we are told that somewhere along the way (in all his travels), he adopted Esther and raised her as his own daughter.
So that’s the times and places of Mordecai. What about his people? His fathers? His lineage?
There are Five Fathers listed in relation to Mordecai.
They are Judah, Benjamin, Jair, Shimei, and Kish.
In verse 5 it says, “Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite.”
So Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin, that is his tribal identity. But because he was a citizen of the kingdom of Judah, after the exile, regardless of what tribal identity you had, all Israelites were called Judahites/Jews. That is the spiritual-political identify of God’s people as they await the Messiah, who would come from the line of Judah.
So Mordecai is a Benjamite by blood, but a Judahite by covenantal allegiance. And then within the Benjamite bloodline, Mordecai is explicitly called a son of three men, Jair, Shimei, and Kish. Who are these fathers of Mordecai?
While it is possible that these are just the previous three generations of Mordecai, so Kish is his father, Shimei his grandfather, and Jair his great grandfather, what is far more likely is that the author has selected these three names because he wants us to remember these three important figures from Israel’s history and then compare and contrast them with Mordecai.
For example, God says to Moses, “I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” even though those men were Moses distant ancestors. That is probably what is going on here. Jair, Kish, and Shimei are Mordecai’s distant ancestors who have some relevance to the story of Esther. In either case, God as the ultimate author of this book thought it was important to include them to introduce Mordecai.
So who were these men, and what shadow or glory do they cast over Mordecai?
#1 – Jair
The name Jair means “he enlightens” or “one giving light.” And so Mordecai is introduced more literally as “the son of one who gives light.” When we survey the Old Testament, we find at least 3 men named Jair.
In Number 32 and Deuteronomy 3 we read of a Jair the son of Manasseh who conquered land on this side of the Jordan before Israel crossed over.
In Judges 10, we read of Jair, a Gileadite, who judged Israel for 22 years.
But I think the Jair we are intended to call to mind is the Jair of 1 Chronicles 20:5, where the context is war with the Philistines under David the Judahite. It says, “Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.”
So here in 1 Chronicles 20, we have a son of Jair who kills Goliath’s brother. And so if you are called a “Son of Jair,” you are not only the son of one who enlightens, you are also a giant killer.
Will Mordecai live up to this name? Will he be a Jair to Esther? Will he enlighten her? Will he (or she) kill any giants in this book? We shall see.
#2 – Shimei
The name Shimei means, “one who harkens/listens.” And there are many Shimei’s in the Bible from various tribes, some good and some bad. But the most famous Shimei is the one who like Mordecai was from the tribe of Benjamin, and from the House of Saul, who came out and cursed David when David was exiled from Jerusalem during Absolom’s coup. However, when David is brough back to Jerusalem, Shimei goes out to David and pleads for mercy.
We read in 2 Samuel 19:15-23, “Then the king returned and came to the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to escort the king across the Jordan. And Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite, who was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over the Jordan before the king. Then a ferryboat went across to carry over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Now Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan. Then he said to the king, “Do not let my lord impute iniquity to me, or remember what wrong your servant did on the day that my lord the king left Jerusalem, that the king should take it to heart. For I, your servant, know that I have sinned. Therefore here I am, the first to come today of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.” But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said, “Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord’s anointed?” And David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel?” Therefore the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king swore to him.”
So this Shimei is one of Mordecai’s actual tribal relatives, and he sins and curses King David, but then he repents and his life is spared.
However, when King Solomon comes to power, Solomon calls for Shimei and says to him in 1 Kings 3:37-38, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere. For it shall be, on the day you go out and cross the Brook Kidron, know for certain you shall surely die; your blood shall be on your own head.” And Shimei said to the king, “The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.”
Now three years go by, and two of Shimei’s servants run away. And Shimei breaks the King’s law, he leaves Jerusalem, and as result, Solomon puts him to death when he returns.
So the life of Shimei has many parallels to the life of Mordecai.
Both are from the royal tribe of Benjamin and connected to King Saul.
Both live in Jerusalem for a time, but both eventually leave.
Both transgress the king’s commandment and suffer the consequences. Shimei is executed, Mordecai escapes execution.
Both men struggle to submit to civil authorities that they don’t like. For Shimei it is David. For Mordecai it is Haman.
So the question for Mordecai is, will his end by the same sad and rebellious end as Shimei. Or will he hearken and listen to God, will he succeed where Shimei faltered?
#3 – Kish
The name Kish has an uncertain etymology, and so some say his name means “gift,” while others derive it from the verb, “to ensnare.” So whichever
is correct, the most important thing about Kish is that he was the father of King Saul.
We read in 1 Samuel 9:1-2, “Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power (hayil). And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and handsome/goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.”
And so to call Mordecai a “son of Kish,” is to place him in the position of Saul. It is to cast the long shadow of King Saul’s life, his rebellion, and his failures over the life of Mordecai.
This will become even more explicit later in the book when we are told that Haman is a descendant of Agag. Agag, the king of the Amalekites was the occasion for King Saul’s rebellion and fall from grace. King Saul had obeyed God and executed Agag and destroyed all the Amalekites, there would not ever be a Haman in the first place.
So the book of Esther is calling us back to an ancient war between Israel and Amalek.
Amalek was the nation that attacked Israel right after God brought them out of Egypt. And because of this attack, God says in Deuteronomy 25:17-19, ““Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.”
Now because Israel failed to remember Amalek and blot him out, especially King Saul, it is left to Mordecai, son of Kish, to finish the job.
So will Mordecai win a good name for his fathers? What kind of Benjamite will he be? A giant slayer or a rebel? A faithless Saul or a loyal Jonathan?
Conclusion
This same question before all of us. Who are your fathers? Your natural fathers, your spiritual fathers, your civil fathers? For all of us it is probably a mixed bag. Some good figs, some very bad figs. Many we don’t know. So I want to leave you with an exhortation as you ponder who you are and where you are in the great story that God is telling. And that is:
Remember the 5th commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
None of us got to choose who are father and mother would be. God chose for us. And so whether you had or have a great father and mother, or a terrible father and mother, the promise of the gospel is that God will adopt you as His child, and will be a perfect and everlasting Father to you.
And what your Father in Heaven commands of you in this life, if you want to live and prosper, is to honor His choice in giving you the parents He gave you. Put another way, don’t tell God that you can do a better job than He can at running the world. Honor God, by honoring the father and mother he gave you. In the words of the Apostle Paul, “Who are you O man to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why has thou made me thus?” Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom. 9:20-21).
If God permitted you to be born into a house of shame, a house of slavery, a house of unbelief, well welcome to the human race where all of us are born children of Adam and Eve. All of us are born sinners deserving God’s wrath and the punishment of death.
And so if you find it hard to forgive your fathers, to honor the authorities God has placed over you, then consider the example of Jesus, the perfect son.
Jesus is the one person who chose to be born into this world. The Eternal Son of God could have chosen to just stay in heaven, never suffer, never die, never experience the pain and mortality we all feel. But for love, he chose to come down, and to make our fathers, his fathers, our sins, his sins, so that His Father, could become our Father, and His perfection, our perfection.
That is what God freely chose to do because He loves you.
It says of Christ in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Remember the two genealogies we are given for Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3? Who does Jesus choose to make himself a son of?
He has Mary as his natural mother, Joseph as his adopted father.
And through them he makes himself a son of many unruly, sinful, and wicked men. In the line of the Messiah men who committed idolatry, polygamy, incest, child sacrifice, adultery, and murder. Jesus makes himself a descendent of many shameful men and women whose lives are not worthy of imitation.
Ultimately, he makes himself together with all of us, a son of Adam. As Paul says in Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
So imitate the perfect Son, who honored His Father in heaven by covering your sins, your shame, and winning for you who do not deserve it, a good name, even a name written in heaven, that shall never be blotted out.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.