Stand

Esther 7

If you've been keeping up on my posts centered on the book of Esther you'll recall that Esther has had to go through quite a bit of personal change. To get to the point at which we find her in this chapter she has had to transition from someone who tried to cover up a problem, to making excuses, to a willingness to do the right thing, to putting her life on the line, to a person who is now willing and able to confront evil face to face. At the banquet she explains to the king: "I and my people have been sold for destruction" (vs. 4). When the king asks who would do such a thing she identifies him as Haman. I picture a scene out of an old Perry Mason episode. Perry asks the witness, "Is the murderer in this room?" and the witness stands dramatically and points: "Yes! It's this man." I can almost see Esther stand up and point at Haman: "The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman." I imagine Haman with a smarmy Jon Lovitz-like "who me?" smile, but the fact was, his career just got flushed. Certainly it was not Esther's intention to destroy Haman; she just wanted to stop him from destroying her people. To do this she had to put it all on the line and take a stand.

Here I think is the application in this chapter: sometimes we have to take a stand. That is much easier said than done. We live in a culture that venerates conciliation. I have thought more than once that it seems like the only thing that is wrong is to say something's wrong. I mentioned in an earlier post that the book of Esther had a kind of subtlety about it, and that is definitely true, but there is also a time for confrontation. Confrontation is not an excuse for being rude or disrespectful, we still need to speak the truth in love, but in being loving we can't forget the truth. We don't want to sin by our silence. This chapter reminds me of an old REM song, "Stand." Here is the first verse:

Stand in the place where you live
Now face North
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven't before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't before

We all need to ask ourselves "what's the cost in not taking a stand for the truth?" The first cost, and the most expensive, is that if no one will stand for the truth, then falsehood wins. If falsehood wins then, as Jesus warned, light becomes darkness (Mat 6:22,23), not just in us, but in our whole culture. When that happens people not only reject the truth, they eventually will reject that there is such a thing as truth. Oh how great is that darkness.

The second cost is personal. Your existence means something. There is a collection of things that make you who you are. You cannot deny your own existence, and yet if there is nothing for which you are willing to take a stand, what is your existence? That may seem harsh, but if we are not willing to take a stand for what we say we believe in, we probably don't believe it in the first place. That means if there is nothing we take a stand for there is nothing we actually believe. What kind of person has no beliefs, or at least beliefs worth fighting for? So, in our attempt to be conciliatory to all beliefs we end up assimilating all beliefs. If everything is right, then there is no such thing as right or wrong. That cost is huge because we lose ourselves.

Martin Luther stood at the Diet of Worms and was commanded to retract the things he'd said in his writing. Luther spoke what are now well-known words: "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." Whether Luther spoke those actual words or not is a matter for church historians to debate, but this much is true: Luther did take a stand for what he believed to be true and changed the world. So did Esther. So can you.

Silent Partner

Esther 6

If you have ever had anything to do with a play you know they require a lot of work. Long before the night when you sat in the dark and were entertained by the actors, someone had begun the process of bringing that play to the stage. In a small production, say at a high school or community theatre, that person is the director. The director oversees all aspects of the production, but, except for a bio in the program, their presence is all behind the scenes. This parallels in some ways the book of Esther. God is not mentioned (not even a bio), but we see his work all throughout the book. This is never more apparent than in chapter six.

In reading this chapter you probably noticed the chain of events that occurred here:

1. The king can't sleep so he had the chronicles read to him.
   
2. His attendants read how Mordecai exposed the assassination attempt.
   
3. The king wants to honor Mordecai and Haman is in the court waiting for permission to execute Mordecai.
   
4. The king asks Haman what should be done for someone the king wants to honor. Haman answers, thinking the honor is for himself.
   
5. The king commands Haman to honor Mordecai.
   
6. Haman honors Mordecai.
   
7. Haman arrives at home just before the king's eunuchs arrive to take him to Esther's banquet (where she plans to expose his plot to kill all the Jews.)
   

We can look at the juxtaposition of these events in one of two ways: they were either fantastic or ordained. By fantastic I mean coincidental. Coincidences happen all the time in daily life. They are interesting and fun to read about. (Here is an article you can download that I got from Reader's Digest.) By ordained I mean the hand of God. Certainly coincidence and the hand of God are two different things that ultimately reflect two very different worldviews. For a moment let's think of Esther 6, in a general sense, as a picture of life. Just as we can look at this chapter in two different ways, so we can look at life in two different ways. We can't see God, but we can see the effects of God. Two people can read Esther 6. One sees nothing but coincidence and another sees the hand of God. Two people can look at life. One sees nothing more than a constellation of events and another sees the ordaining hand of God as he oversees his Grand Design for everything.

Just so you know, I hold to the second view. I think God lovingly and wisely oversees my life and yours. David said "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16, but read the whole psalm.) Also, read Psalm 31:14, 15 where he says: "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands…" I mean, doesn't that make sense? If there is a God, he wouldn't put us on this planet just to fend for ourselves. What value would there be in that? Just because we can't always see his hand doesn't mean he's not working. Think of Esther and Mordecai. At the time they couldn't see how everything was going to play out. God is no different today than in their time. He doesn't love us any less that he did them. The point here is that we need to trust him. Do you remember what Jesus said on the cross? "Into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46. Note: Jesus is quoting from Psalm 31) Jesus is saying more than just "I am about to die, so take me home." In the presence of hostility, he is entrusting his life to the only One qualified to care for it.

That is, it seems to me, the only viable option in an uncertain world: trust God. Anything else leads to despair.