Faithfulness when God Seems Silent - Esther 2 - 3

Back in 1958, an old painting, a damaged oil painting, which was a depiction of Jesus, came up for auction at a sale house in London. The painting was a mess. The wood frame that had been set on at some point had split in two, so the painting had been damaged. Woodworms had chewed their way through the wood and the canvas. They'd left holes in the nose, I don't think in the right spot.

Unfortunately, someone at some point trying to fix some of the damage had scrubbed the painting with some chemicals and then some people had painted over parts of it. They'd done some more painting to try and fix it. And what it meant was that on the surface, this painting was a complete mess. So when it came up for auction, it sold for 45 pounds, grand total of 45 pounds. It then floated around for 50 years.

At one point, it was hanging in a stairwell in Louisiana in the US. It eventually ended up in the early 2000s in the home of an art conservator in New York. She had spent her whole life fixing, restoring old artworks. And she saw that on this painting there was one part of it that pointed to something significant. It was a wreck.

But the curls down one side of this face of Jesus had survived. And the painting, these curls, were so distinct that the art conservator recognized them as practically what she said later, practically a signature of the author. And so she carefully started to fix the mess that was on the surface. And bit by bit, the original work became more and more clear. And underneath the mess, there was a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.

This battered old painting that had sold for 45 pounds, then sold for $450 million. You know, I thought of that story this week as we come to the opening chapters of Esther, because as we come to this section, if we just look at the surface of Esther 2 and 3, all we see is a mess. We have a young woman who's taken into a pagan king's palace. We have a faithful man, Mordecai, who is overlooked and forgotten. And then we have Haman, a man who hates God's people get promoted.

It's a mess. But while it looks like a mess on the surface, if you look carefully, the signature of the great artist is unmistakable. It's there at work under the surface. And so, as we come to the text today, I want to highlight these three things, these three biblical truths up on the screen there about the way that God works. First, God works through what is hidden.

Second, God honours what goes unnoticed. And third, God overrules what is meant for. For evil. And so we're going to turn to chapter two and verse ten. We finished off in week one.

You can catch up online in chapter two and verse nine. And this is our first point. God works through what is hidden. So verse 10. Esther had not told anyone of her nationality and family background because Mordecai had directed her not to do so.

Every day, Mordecai would take a walk near the courtyard of the harem to find out about Esther and what was happening to her. And then down to verse 17. And the king loved Esther more than any of the other young women. He was so delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Vashti. To celebrate the occasion, he gave a great banquet in Esther's honor for all his nobles and officials, declaring a public holiday for the provinces and giving generous gifts to everyone.

Even after all the young women had been transferred to the second harem and Mordecai had become a palace official, Esther continued to keep her family background and nationality a secret. She was still following Mordecai's directions, just as she did when she lived in his home. In chapter one, we met Esther. We saw that she is a Jewish exile, an orphan living in the palace in the Persian capital of Susa. We saw that she'd been taken in by her cousin Mordecai, who had raised her as his own daughter.

We looked really briefly at the two names of Esther that we see. Firstly, we see her Hebrew name, Hadassah, which means myrtle. It's this biblical picture of restoration. And then we had her Persian name, Esther, which sounds like the word for star. Sorry, which is the word for star in the Persian, but is also very close to the Hebrew word for hidden.

And in verse 10, this hiddenness becomes really significant. Here in the palace, we read that Esther keeps her Jewish identity, her real identity, hidden. She doesn't tell anyone that she's Jewish. Her cousin Mordecai has told her to keep it a secret, and so she does. The text doesn't tell us why.

It doesn't give us insight into why Mordecai said, keep this a secret. But we can fairly safely make the assumption that he knew the climate that she was walking into. He knew that he'd seen enough to know that it was risky to be a Jew in the Persian capital of Susa. And so he knows the safest thing for her is to keep it hidden, to not reveal that she is one of God's people. We read there in verse 20 that even once she's queen, Esther still honors Mordecai's instructions.

It seems like a throwaway line, it seems like a small thing, but we shouldn't forget that she is now the queen of the most powerful empire on earth. She's there in the palace, she has the crown, she has more power than a orphan exile could have imagined. And yet, even in that place, she continues to honor Mordecai. She continues to honor the person, the man that God had put in her life to raise her. And so, as we look at Esther being hidden, we shouldn't read this and say this means we should be like Esther and we should hide our faith.

We shouldn't tell anyone that we know Jesus, that we follow Jesus. We should hide our faith. Remember in week one, we talked about passages in God's Word that are descriptive and other passages that are prescriptive. Descriptive, telling us what happened, prescriptive, telling us what God says we should do. This is a descriptive part of Esther we're reading here, that she keeps her real identity hidden.

So the point is not you should do the same. The point is that God can still work his purposes through a hidden person, a hidden identity in a hostile place. Now, there should be encouragement in that for us this morning, because I wonder if Esther ever thought, what good can I possibly be for my people? I'm here in the palace, I have this incredible opportunity, I have this position, this power to do something great for God. How can God possibly use me when I'm hidden, when I haven't revealed who I am?

But hidden doesn't mean inactive. And even in the palace, we see Esther quietly honor Mordecai. You see, Esther might have thought she was on the sidelines while God was doing his work, maybe back in Jerusalem, but it's not the case at all. We're going to see in a few chapters time. So, you know, you'll have to come the next couple of weeks if you want to see, find out what happens.

But we're going to see in a few chapters time that the very thing that Esther has concealed her identity as one of God's people is the thing that God is going to use.

Let's turn to verse 21, and to our second point, God honours what goes unnoticed. So one day, as Mordecai was on duty at the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Big Thana and Teresh, who were guards at the door of the king's private quarters, became angry at King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. But Mordecai heard about the plot and gave the information to Queen Esther. She then told the king about it and gave Mordecai credit for the report. When an investigation was made and Mordecai's story was found to be true, the two men were impaled on a sharpened pole.

This was all recorded in the book of the history of King Xerxes reign. So we read that Mordecai is on duty at the king's gate. He's just there doing his job. And somehow the text doesn't tell us exactly how all of this played out, but perhaps in the middle of an ordinary day, he overhears two of the king's guards plotting to assassinate him. Remember, throughout this book, God's name isn't mentioned.

It's not mentioned anywhere. There are no prophets, there are no prayers, there are no angels. But it's like that painting. At the start, God's signature is everywhere. His fingerprints are everywhere throughout it.

What seems ordinary to Mordecai is God's providence directing behind the scenes, positioning Mordecai exactly where he needs to be at exactly the moment he needs to be there to hear exactly the thing he needs to hear. We could read this and say, he just happens to be on duty, he just happens to be in earshot, he just happens to understand what's being discussed. But nothing in the book of Esther just happens. You see, hearing the plot, that was God's doing. But what Mordecai chose to do with it next, that was Mordecai's doing.

Because Mordecai could have sat back, he could have just let it play out. He had every reason to do that, because the man whose life was at risk was not his own. It was the king. And we can't forget that this king is Xerxes. This is the man who had rounded up women from across the empire and taken them as his own.

This was the man who had kidnapped Mordecai's own cousin and his adopted daughter and taken her. This was a pagan king, not one of God's people, who had mistreated the Jews. You see, in the midst of a place where being honorable and being faithful wasn't valued, Mordecai shows clearly what it means to live with integrity. He's in a position of responsibility. He has a terrible boss.

Like, if you think your boss is bad, Xerxes, I would argue, is probably worse. He has a terrible boss, and yet he still chooses to act with integrity. He warns the king and saves his life. Now, it shouldn't surprise us that this is the way Mordecai acts, because back in verse 11 that we read a few moments ago, you can look back in the text. We see how Mordecai responds to Esther being taken.

We see that every single day he walks near the courtyard where Esther is, just to find out how she's going. Day after day after day, he walks there to find out how Esther is. So this faithfulness in protecting the king isn't out of character. It's exactly who Mordecai is. Even when all he can do is care for his daughter.

Because be faithful to his daughter from a distance. That's what he does. You see. He's faithful in the big things, he's faithful in the small things, he's faithful in the seen, and he's faithful in the unseen. I want to highlight something else here.

Mordecai tells Esther the plot about Xerxes. So Esther tells Xerxes that Mordecai's overheard it, and there's an investigation that takes place there. Now it's probably good for Mordecai that that investigation finds out that Mordecai was right, he's telling the truth. But did you notice? Apart from the two guys being impaled, that was a bit gruesome.

Apart from that, nothing happens. Nothing good happens for Mordecai, who doesn't get a promotion out of it. He doesn't get a reward out of it. There's no banquet. I mean, Xerxes loves throwing a banquet.

Remember at the start we had six months of banquets. Now he can't even be bothered to throw Mordecai, the man who saved his life, a banquet. All there is is a couple of lines written in a book that Mordecai doesn't even get to see. Hardly seems fair. It's not the way we think.

Well, at least I think the world is supposed to work. If I was Mordecai, I think I would be asking God, where is your divine favor on my life? You know, honourable people should thrive, faithfulness should be rewarded. Surely, perhaps you found that question in your own life too. Perhaps you found yourself saying, God, I've been faithful, I've done the right thing when no one was watching.

Where's my reward? But here's the thing that Esther's story and Mordecai's story shows us. We see here that God sees what we can't. God sees what we can't. If we stopped reading right in this moment, all we would see is a faithful man that has been passed over and forgotten about.

But God sees it differently to us. He sees the beginning and the end. He knows what's coming. He sees that there will be a night, years from now, when Xerxes won't be able to sleep, when he'll ask for the royal records to be read to him. And someone will turn to these very lines, these two lines forgotten about at the bottom of a page, and what looks like unnoticed faithfulness God is going to honor.

Because God is going to take Mordecai's faithfulness and use that as the groundwork for the rescue of his entire people. Here's the thing I want you to see before we move into point 3. What the world overlooks, God sees and he honors. Hebrews 6:10 says this for God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers as you still do.

If only Mordecai had access to the words of Hebrews like we do, it might say, mordecai, remember God is not unjust. He won't forget how faithful you have been. The world might forget, Xerxes will forget, but God does not forget. And the same is true for you today. As you serve faithfully.

When no one sees, you can be confident that God sees it. God remembers it, and in his timing and in his way, he will honour it. Because what the world overlooks, God sees and he honours. Let's move into chapter three and to our final point for this morning, God overrules what is meant for evil. Sometime later, verse one.

Sometime later, King Xerxes promoted Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agite, over all the other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire. All the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king had commanded. But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect. Down to verse five. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage.

He had learned of Mordecai's nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes. So in the month of April, during the 12th year of King Xerxes reign, lots were cast in Haman's presence. The lots were called Purim to determine the best day and month for to take action. And the day selected was March 7, nearly a year later.

We've just seen in chapter two, Mordecai's faithfulness seemingly go unrewarded. And then we turn the page, and the very next thing that happens, a man named Haman is promoted. And we're told a couple of things about Haman. Firstly, he's Haman, son of Hammeditha, the. The agite.

The fact that he's an agite is significant because it means that by race, Haman is a descendant of the Amalekites. Takes us back to First Samuel, when Saul was supposed to defeat them and wipe them out, but he didn't. And so Haman becomes incredibly powerful, and with that power, he comes with it. Pride. And so he expects all the other officials to.

They're going to bow down to me. Xerxes commands it. And so when Mordecai refuses, Haman is filled with rage. There's something to be said here about Mordecai's actions, and I just want to reflect on it briefly. We don't have time to unpack all of it this morning, so just let me say this.

Mordecai was happy to honor the king. We saw that a few moments ago, didn't we? Mordecai spoke and protected Xerxes life. So he wasn't a man who struggled to show respect or honor. But there is a line that Mordecai won't cross.

You see, bowing to an agite, the sworn enemy of God's people, was that line. This isn't stubbornness or pride from Mordecai. It's the same covenant faithfulness that we've seen from him or all through this story. He would honor the king, but he would not bow to the enemy of his God. And so Haman discovers that Mordecai is a Jew, and he decides not just to act, this is the pattern we've seen from the first couple of chapters.

He's not going to just get rid of Mordecai. He decides he's going to get rid of all the Jews, and so he plans to have them wiped out. And he takes this plan to Xerxes. Xerxes agrees with it. And then we read what happens in verse 13.

Says dispatches were sent by swift messenger into all the provinces of the empire, giving the order that all Jews, young and old, including women and children, must be killed, slaughtered and annihilated on a single day. This was scheduled to happen on March 7 of the next year. The property of the Jews would be given to those who. Who killed them. A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples so that they would be ready to do their duty on the appointed day, at the king's command.

The decree went out by swift messengers, and it was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa fell into confusion. I think there's something quite understated about the last part of verse 15 there. We've just read a death sentence has been signed and sent out to the empire, that every Jew is to be killed. And Haman and Xerxes sit down and what do they do?

They have a drink. It's a celebratory drink. If you're Esther and Mordecai in this scene, must have been devastating to see that decree go out. I wonder if they said, God, where are you? Where are you?

Again, if we just read to the end of chapter three, we'd think evil had won. God hasn't said a word. What's God doing?

But I want to highlight this because Haman cast lots to see the day of the massacre to determine which day this massacre would happen. The lots, perhaps dice, that they were throwing, fall on a day nearly a year later. Haman thinks this is by chance. The dice have determined the day of the massacre. And yet it's another signature of God's hand at work.

Proverbs 16:33 says this. We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines that how they fall. You see, that's how God works. He doesn't always stop the dice from being thrown. He doesn't always stop the evil from being planned.

But he is sovereign over all things. You see, with this date set nearly 12 months later, the Jews can't be touched. Now, this decree has been made that their death warrant is signed for that date 12 months later. So what was signed as their death order becomes their protection order. There is 12 months now where they can't be touched.

You see, God was using Haman's scheme to keep his people safe. Because this is what God does. The very thing that was meant for evil. God turns it into the very thing he'll use for his good. We see that pattern in Genesis, don't we?

You might remember this story. Joseph stands there in front of his brothers. He's been sold into slavery by them. And then he's turned around and rescued them from famine. And they come to him afraid, afraid that now that their father has died, that he's going to turn on them.

But he says this, you intended to harm me. But God intended it for good. He brought me into this position so I could save the lives of many people. You see, Joseph says, what we see in Esther, God overrules what was meant for evil. There's no greater example of it than Jesus.

You've only got to look at the cross. It looks like evil has won, but God overrules evil and uses it for good. As we close this morning, I want to take us back to that painting from the start. I was thinking this week, I was wondering what made, what was the difference between the art conservator and all the people that had looked at it for decades prior? Because she wasn't the first expert to look at this painting.

What was the difference between what she saw and what all the others saw? And I think it was this. What made the difference was not just that she hoped there was something good underneath. It wasn't just that she hoped it was there. The difference was she saw the signature, she knew whose hands had been at work, and so she could trust what was there before it was even uncovered.

I don't want you to take from the message this morning some vague sense of hope that God is at work, some vague sense of hope that maybe God is working. I want you to have confidence that you can see the signature of his hand at work in your life. You know, maybe this morning you can identify yourself a bit with Esther. You feel hidden. You feel like you're in a season where you're wondering, has where God has placed me, does that even matter?

Remember that Esther shows us that hidden doesn't mean forgotten in God's eyes, and it doesn't have to mean inactive. God works through what is hidden. Or maybe Mordecai's experience has been a bit like your own. Maybe you think, God, I've been faithful for years. Do you even see me?

And I want to tell you this morning that as you serve and as you are faithful, you're not waiting for God to notice you, because he already has. We don't serve, we don't be faithful to get his attention. Because in Jesus we already have. See, God honours what goes unnoticed. Maybe this morning you're looking at your life and you're seeing a situation or something that feels evil.

It feels like evil you can't overcome. A decree has already gone out and as far as you can see, it's signed, it's done, Evil is won. But I want to remind you this morning that you can't see what God sees. God sees what's happening on the other side of it, and God overrules what was meant for evil. So, church, let me encourage you, be confident that as you see the signature of God's hand in your life, that you can know that he is at work.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for Esther's story. We thank you for Mordecai's faithfulness. Lord, we thank you for the way that you are sovereign over all things, that even as it seems like maybe you're silent, Lord, that you are arranging and orchestrating, Lord, that you are turning evil and using it for your good. Lord, we thank you that these are scriptural truths, they're biblical realities about who you are.

And so we can be confident that you are doing the same thing in our life, Lord, that you are at work, Father, that you see our faithfulness and you reward it, God, that we're not working or serving to try and get noticed by you. But in Jesus we have it, Lord, we have. We've experienced salvation that comes through the cross, that you looked upon our sin and our failure and you sent your son. And so we thank you for that. We pray your blessing upon us now.

Lord, you know the situations in our lives, Lord, you know what we're struggling with at the moment. So God, we just pray that we would see glimpses of your signature, of your hand at work in our life. And we pray this in Jesus name, mighty name, Amen.