Sermon: Plot Uncovered

Well, let's pray together as we come to God's Word. Would you join me? Oh Lord. We have just sung that we need you every hour and we have just asked, oh Lord, in song that you would teach us your will and that you would teach us your rich promises and in us fulfill them. Oh Lord, we ask that this very hour you would teach us your will. We pray, oh Lord, that your rich promises would be fulfilled in us as we seek to live

for your glory in light of your revelation. And Lord, we all recognize we need you. And so too does the preacher. And so would you be with him, that his words would be true, that they would be faithful, that they would honor you. Bless us now our Savior, for we come to you in Christ's name. Amen. Well, this evening we are going to continue our series in the book of Esther, Esther, chapter two. You can turn right there to page four 11 in your pew Bible

This evening, we will be considering verses 19 through 23, just the ending few verses of Esther chapter two. Thus far in the book of Esther, we have had both characters developed and a plot line developed. Remember that, uh, as we come to this passage and as we come to the book as a whole, Esther is a historical narrative book. It is history. It is history. These are real events that happened in real time in a real place.

And Esther is recording of that history. It's also a narrative, meaning that these historical events, which are recorded in the book, are recorded in the form of a story. They're told, like a story, a true story. And so there's a plot line, there are characters and, and those are being developed. We've already begun to see that thus far we've been introduced to nearly all of the main characters. There's maybe one other main character that we have not

yet been introduced to, but we've been introduced to hazardous or Xerxes, as he is also known by. He's the king of Persia. That's where these events are taking place in Persia. And he's the king. He's powerful and he's also proud. He is fickle and foolish. We've also been introduced in chapter two verse five to Mordecai. Mordecai is a Jew, but he is living as a foreigner in a foreign land. He's, he's not living in the land of Israel,

the promised land for the Israelites, but he's living as a foreigner in Persia. He's also Mordecai. This Mordecai is a father or a father figure, at least an adoptive father to his orphaned cousin. He's raising her, he's treating her as if she were his very own. And her name, this orphaned cousin, her name is Hadassah, we find out in chapter two, verse seven. That's her Hebrew name, Hadassah. We know her and even this book indicates, tells us

that she has another name which we know her better by. And that's Esther, that's her Persian name. The fact that she has two names shows that she has a dual identity.

She's a Jew by birth, by ethnicity, and she is known and is living in Persia and in some ways is living like she is a Persian. It's complicated. And that is going to be coming up. And I've already said she's orphaned. She has no biological father or mother. Uh, she's also not just destitute, but she is a, a young woman who is beautiful and that is a noticeable trait. She is the unlikely selection in part based on her beauty

to replace Vashti, a Haus queen that he disposed of. And so Esther is the queen of Persia. That's the character development that we have seen thus far in tandem with the character development. There's also been a plot line developing. They've been, they've been developing in tandem with one another. Esther chapter one and chapter two is setting up a story. It's setting the stage for a, a main story, a main plot line that we will begin to see beginning in chapter three.

These final verses that we come to tonight in Esther chapter two continue to set up the narrative. And so let's read, uh, these verses from Esther chapter two, beginning in verse 19 and through, uh, verse 23. And listen carefully for this is God's word. Now, when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her

for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him in those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, big, thin and tars, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold became angry and sought it to lay hands on King of Haus. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther. And Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai, when the affair was investigated and found to be so,

the men were both hanged on the gallows. And it was recorded in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king.

Now, if this happened today, these events happened today, you would see it and you would hear about it in the headlines of the news. You can, you can almost see it and hear it. Assassination plot against the king uncovered and foiled breaking news.

The conspirators are named big, thin and tar. Uh, these men were servants of the king Serving as guards of the king, guardians of the king's spaces, guards in his courts. Their motive for conspiring against the king was personal anger. Anger that resided within, directed toward him, and they were found guilty and they were put to death for their conspiring. Either they were hung on gallows, like you might think of from pirates of the Caribbean.

They try to hang Jack Sparrow on the gallows unsuccessfully. Or it could be that these gallows were actually large stakes, stakes in the ground or stakes that were fixed to a, a platform perhaps, that these men were impaled on.

They were put to death for their conspiring. That's newsworthy.

It would hit all of the news today if it happened in our day and age. But that's not the whole story. That's not the whole story of what had happened. This next part might not come into the news. There's a lot actually in Esther chapter two, actions that are taken that might not come into the news. You, you often find the news dwelling on the plot, on the conspiring, on the people who are found out to be the ones conspiring.

What was their history? What was their background? What were they like? What, what are their parents like? Let's go ask their teachers what were they like in school? The news will focus on those things, but that's not the whole story here. There's more to it. And these are important details. The plot, the plot of these conspires came to light through Mordecai. He too, like these men, these unex were ser was a servant of the king.

Mordecai was serving as a king's official. That's what it means, that he was sitting at the King's gate. He was an official in in the king's palace. He was working for the king. And it was at this time when he was official, an official working for the king, that he became aware of this plot and he took the information that he had heard, and he took it to Queen Esther, his adopted daughter, who then ensuring that credit was given to Mordecai

for discovering the plot takes the news and the information to the King, king Haus, who after investigating the information, has the conspirators punished, put to death. And then we have that final detail here in our passage, and it was recorded in the book of the Chronicles, in the presence of the King, Mordecai was recognized for his part. He was recognized for taking action, this action to uncover the plot, this action

to save and spare the king. He was recognized, but he was not rewarded.

Sometimes if you walk around the city or you look on the news or you receive a newspaper in your mailbox, there, there might be some notice that someone has gone missing or that there is someone who is most wanted. Oftentimes you will see in that information that a reward is offered. If you have information leading to the arrest of these most wanted fu fugitives, you'll receive some sum of money for bringing that information.

That's kind of how it worked back in these days as well. And you can understand why if the king's life was spared, he would wanna reward that man. He would want people to, to be willing and eager to come with information that might harm him so that he would be spared. But that's not what happens in this case. Mordecai is recognized, but he is not rewarded.

What is the significance of all of this at this point? It's, it's rather hard to tell. It's not clear. We haven't made it far enough in the narrative to know the significance of all of this. It's not even clear at this point if there is anything more significant than the event itself. It could just be that this was a interesting event, an interesting story, and that's the significance. But as we're gonna come to find out in coming weeks,

this section of Esther is incredibly significant, far more significant than just the event itself. All of these little details, all of them, because they are foreshadowing things that are going to come to pass later in the narrative. Now, most of you have probably read this story and so you know what's about to come, but there may be some of you that haven't. And I am not going to spoil the end of the story for you. I am intentionally leaving you with a cliffhanger so

that you can read ahead or you will come back next week, uh, to find out more. We don't know just what all the significance is, but here's what we do know. Here's what we are told here in Esther chapter two. We are told about three actions, three different actions that take place in this little vignette. And all three of them are going to be significant in the larger narrative foreshadowing what will unfold in the plot as it comes.

And what I wanna do tonight is have us to look at each of these actions a little bit closer. And then I want to help us to think about some application from these actions. And you're gonna notice maybe you perhaps already have. All three of these actions are connected to our responsibilities given to us in the fifth commandment. All three of these actions are connected to our responsibilities in keeping the fifth commandment.

And I'm gonna show you that this evening. The fifth commandment, uh, as I will remind you, comes from Exodus chapter 20, verse 12, which says, honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Now, before we look at each of these three actions and how they're connected to the fifth commandment and what we might learn from the fifth commandment through these actions, uh,

probably some preliminary words are necessary. Okay? First, this might be self-evident already, but I'm gonna say it anyways. The fifth commandment is not just for children, honor your father and mother is not just for children. So I don't want 80% of you to start tuning out just now. Okay? I'll show you that as we go along. Here's a longer preliminary word before we get going in, seeing the fifth commandment at play and at work here in Esther chapter two.

It's important that we get straight in our minds how the law of God, how the 10 Commandments are to be used, how the 10 Commandments are to be used, and the reformed tradition. We speak of three uses of the law. Three uses the law, restrains wickedness the law of God. The 10 Commandments will show us our sinfulness. And in showing us our sinfulness, they will point us to Christ, the sinless Christ who kept the law perfectly.

And there's a third use of the law. And the third use is that the law of God, the 10 Commandments teach us how to live the 10 Commandments, teach us how we are to live in a way that pleases our Father. The 10 Commandments reveal God's character. The 10 Commandments reveal God's will. And in doing so, it reveals to us how we may please him as his children. John Calvin called this third use, which I've just laid out, the principle use of the law.

Those other two are legitimate uses, good uses of the law, but the the principle use is the third use. The 10 Commandments instruct us how to live. Others have called it not the principle use of the law, but the highest function of the law. It is to help believers to know how they may bring glory to God and honor him with their lives. And let's be clear, let's be clear. Your obedience to the law dear Christian, has not saved you.

It could not save you, and your obedience to the law does not contribute to your salvation in any way. Okay? You don't get yourself, Christ doesn't save you 99.5% of the way. And the 0.5% remaining is by you obeying the law. It's not how it works. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Christ is in all sufficient Savior. The 10 Commandments even teach us that could the 10 Commandments, if you will go to the beginning

of the 10 Commandments before all 10 are laid out, the words of introduction to the 10 Commandments are this, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I have saved you. You contributed nothing. And now as I have saved you and made you my own people, here's how I want you to live. Here's how you can live for my glory and your good.

So why keep the law? Why keep the law if it doesn't contribute to your salvation? Well, let's be clear once more. If you are a Christian, the 10 Commandments instruct you how to live in a way that pleases God, and that is the chief desire of God's child. I, I want to please my father who loves me and saved me. I want to live for him. And God has told us how we may do so. So as God's children, we keep his law to please him.

We keep his law to honor him. We keep his law to express our love to him and for him. Think of John 14, verse 15. If, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Keeping God's commandments is a way we show our love for him. And keeping his commandments is also a way to express our thanksgiving to him. So as we have a look at each of these actions here in Esther two and how each of them is connected to the fifth commandment,

remember that the commandment to honor your father and mother is a divine instruction that is given to you by a God who loves you to help you to please him.

So having made some of these preliminary, uh, statements, let's have a look then at each of the actions here in Esther chapter two. You'll see them in verse 20, in verse 21, and in verse 22, the first one is found in the second half of verse 20, the first action. And that is Esther obeying Mordecai. Verse 20 says, Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her for Esther obeyed Mordecai just

as when she was brought up by him. Now, I gave you just earlier the fifth commandment. It begins with honor, the word honor, honor your father and your mother. This word in the fifth commandment, honor means heavy, heavy or weighty. I see that we have some new parents among us, some very first time new parents among us. I think if we were to ask some of you new parents here in this room, you would say already, I have just

taken on a very weighty role. I have a very weighty responsibility. They sent me out of the hospital with a child to keep alive. That is a weighty task. There are important responsibilities, and that's right. Parents have an important role, a weighty role. That's what honor is getting at. And the, the the meaning, weight or heavy. And the fifth commandment is about giving to parents the respect and honor and appreciation that they are due for their office,

for their responsibilities. We are to respect their weight. Now, I don't mean that in a physical sense, okay? As as if like, oh, my dad is so big and so strong and he can beat me up, therefore I better respect his weight. No, we respect the weight. We honor him, my father, in the authority that he has. I honor him for the responsibilities that he holds honor. There are three aspects to honor three aspects. The first aspect to honor is reverence. Reverence.

Reverence is about the heart, about the heart attitude. We are to fear. We are to show proper reverence and respect for our parents.

Depending on the culture that you are from, the culture that you may live in, there might be different expressions, different cultural expressions about how honor looks or what honor looks like. The clearest example that I've ever experienced was when I was in college. I was a, a boy from the Midwest and I moved to the south, and the south is ain't like the north. I remember vividly one night there was a, a classmate of mine.

She was on the phone and I didn't know who she was speaking with, but she was just, she was just a, a few steps away so I could overhear some of her conversation. And she said repeatedly, yes, sir, yes sir, yes sir. Man, she must be talking to someone very important. And come to find out she was speaking to her dad, okay? Where I was raised and born. If I said, yes sir, most likely I would've been scolded for that because the expression would've been You're sass in me.

Yes, sir. It's a way of sass not in the south. That's the proper way to show honor and reverence and respect for your parents. Yes sir. Yes ma'am. Okay. Culturally, there may be some differences of how honor looks, but here's something that, that transcends cultural expressions. It's the heart, it's the heart attitude. That's what we're after. And reverence is all about a heart attitude. And that's what the root of this command

and all of the commands 10 commands are all about. It's about the heart. That's what Jesus reminds us of when he teaches about how murder, uh, about how anger is actually murder. So we are to show parents reverence and respect even from the very heart. Second aspect to honor submission or obedience. That's what Esther is doing here in our passage. She shows honor to Mordecai her father figure by submitting to and obeying his command.

And this is the command. This is a command for all of, for all children. This is not just an Old Testament command. You think of Ephesians chapter six, verse one, which says, children obey your parents in the Lord. For this is right.

Now, I'm gonna do this here early on. Know I'm sort of slowing us down. We'll pick up, I promise, before we get too far, I know that some alarm bells are going off in people's heads, and I wanna address those right now. Okay? Some of you might want to raise your hand and as soon as you hear obedience or submission or proper reverence, yes, but what about, and so a question is going to be asked, are there limits to authority?

Are there, are there limits to obedience, to authority? And the answer is yes. Okay, I'm gonna give you these two here early on. There's, there's two limits I think that you could think of. One, one limiting principle would be drawn from Acts five, for example, or maybe from the example of Daniel, which would be sort of a parallel of this book. If a parent commands you to disobey God, who are you to obey God or your parent God,

they are in conflict with one another. God is the highest authority we owe our obedience to him ultimately. So that would be one limiting principle. A second would be this. Sometimes by our age or our circumstances in life, uh, there would be a limit to, to, uh, the authority or obedience required in this command. So for example, when one gets married, the Bible commands that you would leave your parents and cleave to your spouse.

And so honoring your parents is going to look different. When you are now out of the home or you've moved out, you've aged out. That would be another limiting principle. But here's the thing. In both of these limiting cases, we ought to attempt as best of our, as best as we can to the best of our ability to show respect to our parents, even if we must disobey them in order to obey God. And that's what we see here with Esther.

Esther has aged up and aged out, and yet she obeys mordecai's command in this situation. Despite her change in circumstances, there are legitimate limits and qualifications to submission.

But I don't think that's the problem in our day and age. There's, there is, as one person has said, there is an angst about authority in our day and age. I think he's right. And when we're in that day and age, what we probably need to hear more loudly and more clearly in some ways is that God legitimately expects children to respect their parents and to obey them in the Lord. For this is right, he says in Ephesians chapter six,

so honor this command to honor first includes reverence, second submission or, and, and obedience. And third honor includes gratitude. This aspect of honor, showing gratitude seems to be as difficult as the respecting and submitting aspects.

Have you ever thought to yourself or wondered about your own self? Why is it so hard to say thank you.

I confess that it is for me. Maybe it's not for you. I have a wonderful dad and mom, and I did not say thank you to my parents like I should have.

Even worse, I rarely even had the thought that saying thank you to my parents would be appropriate or would be right. I took all of the blessings that they afforded to me for granted. It is far more difficult to thank parents than it is to complain about parents,

why they did something that I didn't want them to do. Why didn't they do what they should have done? How they failed or complaining about not trying how, trying hard enough So we honor our parents. That is what we see from Esther. And we honor them with reverence, with obedience, and with gratitude. That's the first action in Esther two. The second is in verse 21, and that is the action of the eunuchs. The conspire conspirators who plot

to harm a hazardous in this action. Two is connected to the responsibilities in view in the in the fifth commandment. The fifth commandment teaches us that we are to honor our parents, but we are also to honor all authorities in our life. The catechisms that the reformed catechism will catechisms will express this very well. Listen to this question and answer from the Heidelberg catechism. Question 1 0 4, what does God

require in the fifth commandment? Here's the answer that I show all honor, love, and fidelity to my father and mother and all in authority over me, all in authority over me, and submit myself to their good instruction and correction with due obedience. And also patiently bear with their weaknesses and infirmities since it pleases God to govern us by their hand. There is a, a broader application to the fifth commandment

that is appropriate. And that would include honoring authorities like spiritual authorities, your elders or your husbands or your employer. And also in this case, civil authorities. Something that we don't see big, thin, and tar doing. In this passage, we are prone to be suspicious of authority. We're prone to resist authority, even the best of authorities. You think of Adam and Eve, their decision to eat the forbidden fruit.

It demonstrates that the human heart is prone to resist authority, even the best of authority. And if it is difficult to respect and to honor even the best authority, then of course it must be even more difficult to show honor to the worst of authorities.

And here's what we must reckon with in this life, in this world, there are no perfect authorities, not one.

There is no perfect authority figure apart from God himself. If we spent time in this room trying to name all of the poor examples, we could spend the rest of the night together, coming up with poor examples of authority, Authority, figures will fail us by not fulfilling their duties to us as their, as our superiors. They will have foibles, they will have faults. And part of our duty to those in authority over us, according to the Heidelberg catechism, is to patiently bear

with their weaknesses and infirmities. We don't excuse their sins, but we also don't expect perfection. We are willing to forgive those in authority over us for their mistakes. Even when those mistakes have made things more difficult for us. We should attempt to overlook the offenses of our superiors. And we should be patient with them, patient with them, just as we would like them to be patient with us.

The Bible does not tell us why the conspirators were angry. It does not tell us whether their anger was justified. We do know that this king, king of Haus was far from a perfect man. He had plenty of faults. He had plenty of things that we would condemn.

It only tells us that they attempted to harm the king in their anger. So the text does not explicitly condemn their actions. But here's what we do have. We have a contrast, a contrast here In This passage. Mordecai protecting the king in a similar station of life, not plotting to harm the king, but to preserve the king, protecting his life. And that's the third action we see in verse 22. When Mordecai hears of the plot, he acts

to stop it from being carried out.

Why should we honor? Civil authorities?

Might be a hard question for you to answer. Why should you honor civil authorities? The Bible gives us a number of reasons. The first reason is that God has put them there. Another would be that God has given them authority to exercise and to wield over us. Another reason would be what we heard in the catechism, that God intends to govern us as the sovereign of the universe through secondary authorities. God can governs us through them. They're governing over us.

And Another reason is that by voluntarily submitting to our civil authorities and human authorities, we obey God. We obey God. Here's two verses for you, two passages for you to listen to. And here on this note, Romans 13 verses one and two, let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resist

what God has appointed. And those who resist will incur judgment. And then first Peter, chapter two says, be subject to the for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him, to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do. Good honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God, honor the emperor to dear brothers and sisters, when we honor the authorities

that are over us, human authorities over us, it is not showing a lack of faith, especially when that ruler, that authority might be undeniably wicked. It's not showing a lack of faith, but it's, it's a practice of our faith for what we are showing when we submit ourselves to them. For the Lord's sake, it is showing that our trust is in God, a sovereign God who rules overall. It is showing that our hope is in God, in his sovereignty,

that God can at a moment's notice,

judge the wicked hope in God's justice, his final justice. God will do all things well. He will have justice on the wicked.

And it gives, it shows our hope in the world to come. This world is not our home. We will live in the new heavens and the new earth. A perfect place where there will be peace, where righteousness will reign, we will be with God. It is showing our hope.

Mordecai here shows his respect for the King by protecting his life. You may never have to do that, and I hope you never have to. You never have to protect the physical life of an authority over you, though I hope you would. But you see, there are opportunities that you have every single day, every single day, to honor God, to live for God by honoring authorities, both in private and in public, through your speech, through your conduct, through your behavior,

and ultimately in your heart, ultimately coming from your heart as an act of worship to God. So three actions connected to the fifth commandment, helping us to live for God in this world. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven? We thank you for your word. We thank you that it instructs us how to live. Oh Lord, we confess that we need your help. We need your help to live in a way that honors you and pleases you. It feels so difficult sometimes in this world of sin

to honor you as we ought. Would you help us by your spirit continue to sanctify us, transform our desires, transform our wills so that they look more like Christ's? It's in His name than we pray. Amen.