We are going to go back a little bit because we stopped the last teaching at an awkward place, due to the contraints of time on a live broadcast. So, let's back up to verse 9.
9If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silverd into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”
10So the king removed the signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11“Keep your money,” said the king to Haman. “These people are given to you to do with them as you please.”
Many times we read a measure of something in Scripture and just gloss over it. For example, notice here that Haman did not even identify the targeted people group. He did not even name the Jews! And, the king allowed Haman to do whatever he liked to this anonymous subset of his empire. With what seems like incredible casualness, he decreed the utter genocide of the entire (former) nation of Judah! Nor did Haman tell the king how MANY of these people there were. There could have been a million; there could have been ten million. The entire transaction was staggeringly cavalier...
Another thing: if you had asked me to tell the Esther story, before I began to prepare for this study, I would not have even known Haman offered the king such a large bribe to get his request granted. Let’s see how much 10,000 talents of silver would be in today’s terms. When I checked today, silver was $23.47 an ounce. A talent of silver was equivalent to 2400 ounces. Therefore, the monetary value of a talent of silver today would be $56,328. Now, of course, Haman was offering the “royal treasury” ten thousand times that amount, which would equate to $563,280,000. Don’t you find that astounding?! Haman was willing to finance the entire extermination campaign, himself. The god of this world tries to allocate riches for the defeat of the one, true God’s purposes, but God’s purposes will triumph every time. If the king lost tax revenue due to the loss of these human subjects, Haman’s bribe more than would have made up for that.
Haman also made the argument that the king would not have to take care of this onerous task himself. All he had to do was to “let it be recorded”. As long as blanket permission was granted to Haman, the king would not have to worry himself about it. Haman would see that it got done, done well and the ones who did it amply rewarded.
Apparently, the king was persuaded by, if by nothing else, Haman’s fervor. And, amazingly, he told Haman to keep his money! The king’s treasury would finance this annihilation!
In giving Haman his signet ring, the king was giving Haman full authority to act on the king’s behalf. Since the signet ring was used to sign the king’s official documents, whomever had it could use it to do so, and no one would question, especially not question an official so high in authority as Haman.
Vs. 12-15
12On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.
13And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
14A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued in every province and published to all the people, so that they would be ready on that day. 15The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.
The timing is important here. This conversation with the king, like the casting of the lots, as well as the writing of the edict, occurred on the 13th of Nisan.
The commentators say that these edicts were confidential to the satraps, as it is stated in vs. 12 and 13, but that when they were posted publicly they did not specify what the military action on the 13th of Adar would be. All the common people were told was to “be ready”. This was done because Haman was afraid to openly and publicly call for the utter destruction of the Jewish people. The lack of specificity, though, is what caused the city of Susa to be “in confusion”. No doubt, the other municipalities and town squares were in a similar state. “What could possibly going on?”, they wondered...
Some have remarked on the strangeness of how hastily the decree was published, since it would not be carried out for eleven months. It has been theorized that it was done hastily so that the king could not change his mind. Another reason was so that word would leak out to the Jewish communities throughout the empire, and they would be agonized in the waiting for the guillotine, so to speak, to descend and cut off their heads. Sadistic in the extreme. Even in the concentration camps, the Nazis kept the Jews mostly in the dark about their fate, until the moment they were ushered into the chambers...Haman’s wickedness knew no bounds.
The chapter ends with more or less an “eye roll” moment, as we learn that Haman and the king sat down to drink together. There again, Haman took part in this for one or two reasons, or perhaps for both. He may have feared the king would try to rescind the edict. Getting him intoxicated was a good form of insurance against that, until the couriers were too far away to be recalled. And, another reason was likely that Haman was really and truly celebrating his “fait accompli”. He no doubt felt as though he had won the lottery. However, a person could theoretically spend over $500 million dollars on lottery tickets, but if the Lord God is against him, he will lose utterly.
Now then, we will move on to chapter four.
I've been asked about what versions of the Scriptures I use in my teachings, and often I use the Peshitta Holy Bible Translated, which is a translation of the Old Testament from the 1st century CE Aramaic scrolls. That is the translation I am using today.
Vs. 1
1And Murdacai knew everything that was done, and Murdacai ripped his clothes and he put on sackcloth, and he sprinkled himself with ashes, and he went out and cried out within the city with a great and bitter wailing.
How did Mordecai come to know the particulars of how this heinous edict from the king came to be? The Scriptures do not say. It is interesting to note what the Jewish sages speculate on this matter, however. Rashi, for example, holds that Mordecai was told about it in a divine dream. Rav Eliezer of Worms believed that the prophet Elijah appeared to him and told him. Yismach Lev, another ancient rabbi, said that he did not learn it from the Ruach haKodesh, because Shushan was not a place that studied Torah joyfully and joy is a prerequisite to the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit. This opinion is a great example of what Jews of the past and even today believe about the presence of God’s Spirit. And, it is an important point. Whereas followers of Yeshua believe that the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, comes to live in the “heart” of each one of them, as the “downpayment”, the assurance, of eternal life, the Jews by contrast believe that God’s Holy Spirit came and went according to the will of God, “resting” on people on a particular person for a particular time. In other words, having the Holy Spirit dwell permanently within a worshipper of God was not believed to be possible, not even a man as “righteous” as Mordecai.
If there had been any doubt of Mordecai being Jewish, he removed all doubt when he cast off his royal, high-official attire, tore it, rubbed ashes on his body, donned scratchy, itchy sackcloth garb, and walked through the streets of Shushan crying out loudly.
2And he came unto the gate of the King, and there was no law that a man may wear sackcloth and may come to the door of the King. 3And in every province, whenever the message of the King arrived, there was great grieving with the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and lamentations, and sackcloth, and ashes; it humbled a multitude.
It was not only Mordecai who was mourning in such an open fashion. It was all the Jews of Persia. And, apparently, like Mordecai’s example, they were very public about their mourning.
On the day I am writing this teaching, in real time, this is a day that has been proclaimed by the chief rabbis of Israel to be a nationwide day of prayer and fasting. The phrase, “it humbled a multitude” really speaks to me. There is nothing that will humble a person or a nation before God as will extreme adversity. And, being faced with annihilation is about as extreme as it gets. I watched a video this morning by a pro-life ministry leader in Jerusalem, and read a Facebook post by a notable Jewish leader, a man, both of them saying how frightened the people of Israel are in the midst of all this. The man said that more anti-anxiety meds are being prescribed by doctors in Israel for the people than has ever been done at any other time in the nation’s 76-year history. Those of us who love Israel and the Israeli people are similarly grieving. Many of us fasted and prayed and lit candles of remembrance on Nov. 6th, 2023, in solidarity with the Jewish people.
Vs. 4
4And the Eunuchs of Esthir came to her and they told her, and the Queen trembled greatly and she sent garments to clothe Murdacai and to take off the sackcloth from him, and he did not accept.
Now, surely, Esther knew that Mordecai had other clothes; so, isn’t it interesting that she had more “proper” clothes sent to him?
But, consider, if she wanted to speak with him, he had to be properly attired. Otherwise, he could not enter the king’s palace.
Yet, perhaps because of his deep grief and agony of spirit, he would not accept the clothes. Esther, seeing that she could not speak to him herself, personally, made other arrangements to find out what was going on. The commentators say that if his intense grief were of a personal nature, he would not have been public about it. So, apparently, she was told by the palace personnel that Mordecai was making a public display of extreme grief, but did not tell her the reason for it.
There has been much speculation as to the phrase “trembled greatly” or in other translations “was greatly distressed”. The literal Hebrew says that she “became full of hollows”, which has been interpreted by some to mean that she lost control of her bowels or that she miscarried a baby.
Regardless, we begin to play a game of Messenger next.
Vs. 5 and 6
5And Esthir called for Hathach, the Eunuch of the Eunuchs of the King who stood before her, and she commanded him to the presence of Murdacai that she would know what this was and why. 6And Hathan went out to the presence of Murdacai in the street of the city before the gate of the King
It is unknown who the chamberlain or Head Eunuch, Hathach, was, although one of the more fascinating interpretations was that he was a very, very old Daniel. I at first found that to be preposterous, until I read in Daniel 9:1 that he was still alive and well during the reign of Queen Esther’s and King Ahasuerus’ son, Darius! Whoever he was, he was a very trusted member of the palace staff, to be selected to carry these messages back and forth. He could keep a confidence.
Some believe the wording at the end of verse six indicates that Hathach took a circuitous route in order to “just happen to encounter” Mordecai, and that they purposely spoke in the public square so that the noise surrounding them would prevent them from being overheard. Furthermore, no one would attach any importance to them meeting by happenstance and conversing in such a manner.
Vs. 7 and 8
7And Murdacai related to him everything that had occurred to him and the amount of money that Haman said to weigh out to bring to the treasure house concerning the Jews that they would be destroyed. 8And the copy that was put in Shushan the Palace he gave him to show Esthir and to order her, ”You shall enter to the presence of the King and you shall beg of him and you shall make earnest supplication to him for the people!”
Under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, Mordecai felt led to play his “ace in the hole”, to “activate his sleeper cell”, you might even say. To do that, he begins by sharing with Hathach, i.e. with Esther via Hathach, the WHY of his quite public grief, and then he issues to her a challenge: “It is up to you to save the day!” Recall that in the original decree, the annihilation of the Jews had not been mentioned. The original decree was that the people were to make themselves ready to “rise up” and go to battle against an unknown enemy. But, Mordecai had The Palace Copy of the decree, the first-hand source, which was more forthcoming. The commentators say that it also contained reference to the large sum of money that had been involved in the transaction, and that this was a warning to Esther that money would not sway the king in this particular matter.
Vs. 9-11
9And Hathan entered and told Esthir the words of Murdacai. 10And Esthir spoke to Hathan and she ordered him to join Murdacai, saying. 11“All the Servants of the King know that every man or woman who enters before the King to the inner courtyard who is not commanded, this one who is coming comes to be killed, apart from the King reaching to him the scepter of gold and he lives, and I have not been called to enter before the King now for thirty days.”
Esther finds Mordecai’s suggestion incomprehensible. Her response is that the king had closeted himself off in his private chambers for the past month, which was not only inconvenient, but also a little strange. And, didn’t Mordecai realize he was asking her to risk her very life to approach him uninvited? Why, EVERYONE knew that! What if she was no longer in his “good graces”? Some commentators have suggested she wanted to wait … for a more advantageous time, such as a time when surely the king would call for her. And, it would be at that time she would talk the matter over with him.
But, Mordecai would not take “no” for an answer, as we see below.
12And he {Hathach} showed Murdacai the words of Esthir.
13And Murdacai said: “Say to Esthir, do not think in your soul that when in the house of the King you will escape, you of all the Jews! 14If you are silent at this time, the Jews will have relief and salvation from another place, and you and the house of your father are destroyed, and who knows if you have been called and have been brought to the kingdom for this time?”
If I had been Esther I’d have been a little insulted by his response, that is, by the first part of it. He seems to indicate that Esther’s only thought was for herself and her own safety, when that likely was not the case at all. But, she’d have been a fool not to at least consider the possibility that approaching the king uninvited could cause her own death. And, then, where would the cause of saving her people be, should that happen?
Also, you know, it is hard to determine “tone” when notes are being passed back and forth, in this fashion. LOTS of misunderstandings have happened due to this, as we all know and have probably experienced.
Mordecai’s argument here is surprising to me. I might have begged Esther to save her people, sort of along the lines of “Help us Obi Wan Kenobi! You are our only hope!” But, instead, Mordecai does the exact opposite of that! “The Jews will survive, whether you fulfill your God-given role or not.” Wow! How did he know this? Because he believed God’s promises to His people! He believed God’s promises to Abraham, and he knew that until they were fulfilled, the Jews would not ever be totally annihilated! What great faith!
You might think Mordecai is trying to give Esther an “exit strategy”, but NO! He goes on to say that if she does not speak to the King and try to stop this madness, she and her father’s house will be destroyed. Not the house of the King, but the house of her father. That seems extreme! I mean, Esther could be accused of cowardice for not stepping up and stepping in, but to destroy her father’s house? As we might say in today’s lingo “that’s HARSH!”.
The Bible has several instances where kindness was extended to cowards. For instance, before going out to war a kohen (a priest) would speak to the soldiers assembled for battle and would urge any who lacked the courage to go to leave the army and go home. We find this recorded in Deut. 20:8. They were not put to death for their lack of courage or nerve! And, in the Apostolic Writings, the Newer Testament, look at the example of Simon Bar Jonah, the apostle Peter. Was he put to death for denying his association with Yeshua three times? No! So, other than the influence of God’s spirit, it’s hard to understand why Mordecai threatened Esther so, essentially telling her that “silence is not an option.”
In the Hebrew, there is more than one word meaning “silence”. One is “lishtok” and the other is “lehacharish”. The word “lishtok” is often applied to inanimate objects being silent, as in Jonah 1:12, where Jonah tells the other sailors that if they throw him overboard “the sea will be silent from upon you”. So, “lishtok” has connotations of “being still”. By contrast, the other word used for “silence” is only used for humans, who can communicate as sentient beings. In its noun form it refers to a deaf person. Therefore, in a way, it connotes silence by “making oneself deaf” and it follows, also “dumb”, with “dumb” meaning “mute” or … silent.
And, in its verb form in verse 14, the verb “lechacharish” is in what is called an “emphatic” form. It is doubled, for emphasis. You see, there is no such thing as an exclamation mark, in Hebrew. So, in the infinitive verb form, for instance, you will often see this “infinitive of emphasis”. In vs. 14, it is written as “im hacharesh tacharishi”. Now, here’s a kicker - - there is only one other place in the entire Torah where this verb appears in a doubled form like this. Want to guess where that is? In that same passage in Numbers 30 which we studied in our last session together. Isn’t that amazing?
When we look back at Numbers 30, and recall from our last teaching in Esther 3, we can recall that the “husband” in this passage (analogous to Esther in the Esther story) has 3 choices - - he can affirm his wife’s vow; he can annul his wife’s vow; or he can keep silent (lechacharish) in the face of her vow, maintaining a state of oblivious neutrality. Numbers 30:15 tells us that by remaining silent on the day he first heard of the vow, he has, in essence, affirmed the vow. In Esther’s situation, as with the little-known passage from Numbers about affirming/annuling vows, deafness is not a true option, and Mordecai uses this argument to make his point with Esther.
But, let’s go on. In Numbers 30:16, God specifies the consequences of the husband’s silence, his refusal to take a position, his “sitting this one out”... “he bears her sin”. This is the basis of Mordecai’s declaration that the legacy of Esther’s father’s house will be destroyed if she stays silent. And, as the husband in Numbers 30 is given only a single day to dispute his wife’s ill-considered vow, Esther is told by Mordecai that “the time is now”. There is a strong sense of urgency in Mordecai’s words.
There are worse things than dying, and do you know what one of them is? It’s failing to fulfill the purposes God wants for your life. The “for such a time as this” question was such an important one for Esther. But, it is an equally important one for us.
“Oh, but I’m not an Esther,” you say. Well, there was only one Queen Esther. However, this critical question is one we can ask ourselves every day, in our day-to-day decisions. Something we fail to realize as followers of Yeshua is that even our small, everyday actions and decisions matter, because they all add up to the totality of who you are in Messiah Yeshua. And, each of us becomes more like what we practice daily. He or she who is faithful in little will be faithful in much, as the parable goes in Luke 16:10.
I was reading a sermon earlier this week on this very important question. The pastor made the point that each of us, in our daily halacha, is either sending circumstances our way that prepare us for what He has ahead for us down the line (just as he used the events in chapter 2 to prepare Mordecai and Esther) OR
He has allowed us to get into situations right now that are divinely-orchestrated opportunities to glorify His name in all the earth. “for such a time as this”.
But, actually, both of those are “for such a time as this” phases of our lives, because one leads to another, if we walk by faith and in obedience to Him.
Vs. 15 - 17
15And Esthir said: “Say to Murdacai: 16“Go gather all the Jews who are in Shushan the Palace and fast for me and you will not eat neither will you drink three days, night or day, also I and my Maidens will fast in this way; then I will enter before the King, which is not according to my law, and if I am destroyed, I am destroyed.” 17And Murdacai went and did everything which Esthir sent to him.
What do you do, or what have you done, when you are or have been faced with a perilous situation in the future?
Have you chosen to break the law of the land in which you live? Have you chosen to commit a felony for a righteous cause? Would you choose that? Would you risk that?
That is exactly what Esther did! Notice she is not saying this: “fast and pray for me for 3 days while I make my decision”. No, she had already made her decision, to risk her very life.
She also did not ask her fellow Jews to do something she was not willing to do herself. She also fasted and prayed for three days.
In the book “Megillah of Esther”, we read this commentary about the fast:
“This was an unprecedented effort of prayer, never before or after equaled. A tremendous wave of repentance swept over the Jews everywhere when they heard the stunning decree of the wicked ruler and his Amaleki executioner. The spirit of Israel was so greatly renewed thereby that they accepted the Torah anew in the days of Ahasuerus, and God accepted their prayers.”
Have you ever made a fast that was not required by a holy day? Have you ever fasted, to seek the face of God? For reasons that are not completely understood, fasting while praying is biblical. That is, we see in Scripture that God often responded favorably to His children when they fasted and prayed.
Most of my listeners are familiar with fasting as a spiritual discipline. So, I’m not going to go into that. Although I do love this definition by John Piper: “Christian fasting is, at its root, is a hunger of homesickness for God.” It is an outward practice that seeks an inner transformation.
In Psalms 35:13 and in 69:10, David stated that fasting was a way to humble himself before God. The prophet Joel affirms that fasting is a key part of teshuva, of returning to the LORD, when he said in 2:12 “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning”...
And, Yeshua said, “WHEN you fast...” (not “IF you fast..”). According to biblestudytools.com fasting is mentioned over 70 times in the Bible. So, obviously, it was a spiritual discipline that was widespread among the people of God. Sometimes, people fasted out of mourning something tragic that had happened, such as when Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle (1 Samuel 31:13).
But, where are some other places in Scripture (besides the book of Esther) we see this, that fasting can turn the heart of God?
***Exodus 34:28. Moses fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, to receive the Torah
***Judges 20. The sad story of the War between the Tribe of Benjamin and the other tribes. The other tribes of Israel fasted and sought the face of God in how to proceed in battle against their brothers.
***2 Chronicles 20, vs 3 - - the Fast of Jehoshaphat - - to determine how best to deal with the approaching Edomite horde, and God answered in vs. 15-17.
***Ezra 8:23 - - fasting in preparation for selecting men to lead the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple.
***Jonah 3:5-9. The Ninevites fasted and turned to God, and He relented of the annihilation he was going to pour out on them.
***One of the most famous is in Daniel, when he and his teenaged friends refused to eat the king’s food. (1:8-13)
***And, again, in Daniel 9, when a very old Daniel was praying for God to restore His people to the Promised Land, and in response God sent a vision by an angel, whereby Daniel received his famous prophecy of the “70 Weeks”.
***Acts 13:2 Saul and Barnabas were chosen as missionaries
***Acts 14:23. For God’s favor and guidance to appoint elders of the churches
***Luke 4:1-2. Yeshua fasted for 40 days and 40 nights as well, to prepare for His ministry
***Mark 9:29. The breaking of spiritual strongholds
Well, we’d better get back to Esther, and wind up chapter 4.
Esther’s words, “If I perish, I perish” are better translated, “What I have lost, I have lost.”
Before closing, let’s make a calendar note here. Recall from the last Esther teaching that Haman cast the lots on Nisan 13. It was that very day, according to the commentators, that Esther learned of Haman’s genocidal plan and calls for a 3-day fast, which begins on Nisan 14 (at night that begins that day) and ends during the day of the 16th, that very day Esther takes it upon herself to go into the presence of the king. In our subsequent sessions in Esther, we’ll explore this further, but it is important to mark the timeline at this point.
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