FOURTH QUARTER 2023
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #12
DECEMBER 23, 2023
“ESTHER AND MORDECAI” - REVISED

 

This week’s lesson looks to the story of Esther and Mordecai as an example of cross-cultural missions.  Esther and Mordecai were cousins and they lived in the Persian Capital of Shushan, as did many of God’s people.  They had not returned to Judah but has instead stayed in the land of their captivity.

Through a series of events Esther became queen in place of Vashti as Esther found grace and favor in the eyes of King Ahasuerus, the current ruler of the Medo-Persian Empire. She was not only beautiful, but likely well versed in the Persian culture, as was her relative Mordecai who served in governmental capacity as a royal official sitting at the gate of the palace.

Haman, a Persian official, had risen to a place of power and honor above all the other officials.  Mordecai was required to kneel before Haman in a manner that would have violated his conscience to worship no other except God. He refused to bow.  Haman was so upset that, using his influence and power, he was able to get the King to pass a law that not only would call for the death of Mordecai but would allow for the genocide of all the Jews in all the provinces of the Medo-Persian empire.

God’s people had found themselves in extreme danger as they faced a death decree in this foreign land.  Queen Esther, a Jewish believer herself, had been positioned by God in the Kings favor for “such a time as this.” 

The King, up to this point, was not aware that this law of Haman’s would affect his favored queen.  And so, before the day the death decree would be enforced Esther presented herself to Ahasuerus, risking evoking the King’s displeasure and her own death.

The story ends with Haman being exposed for the evil he had caused and a remedy being made for God’s people facing the death decree.

This story illustrated several points when it comes to mission in a foreign land:

 

1.       Remaining faithful to God will bring challenges and opposition wherever you are, as Mordecai found out.

2.       God will not necessarily save His people from all trouble, but He most certainly will be with them and save them in all the trouble they face.

3.       Though challenges will arise, God will always provide and see His people through every difficulty.

4.       There are some who God will allow to be in positions of influence in a “foreign land” for a purpose. At times those in positions of influence will appear unfaithful or compromising to those not placed in those positions, like Esther may have appeared to fellow Jews since Esther kept her faith less public until “such a time.”

5.       While public proclamation and sharing of faith is part of mission in a foreign land, mission also includes working together with officials and leaders of that foreign land, and doing so does not necessarily mean compromise and unfaithfulness.

6.       God will not only save His people through the trouble, but in the process will bring many foreigners to faith as well.

7.       Mission and conversion comes not only by public evangelism, but also by public faithfulness of God’s people in the face of opposition and trouble at “such a time.”  

 

This story illustrates how Mordecai, Esther, and God’s people at large were missionaries in a foreign land.  But if we take a step back, we can see that Mordecai, Esther, and God’s people were the mission field as well.

Two decrees have already been made for God’s people to leave captivity (Ezra 1:1-4, in 437 BC, and Ezra 6:3-12, in approximately 415 BC).  The call to come out of Babylon and restore and rebuild the temple had been made twice and for whatever reason (you can think of several I’m sure) they didn’t heed the call and many of God’s people, including Mordecai and Esther (or perhaps their parents), had chosen to stay in captivity and not return to Jerusalem to restore the sanctuary.

The words of the prophet had already beckoned them:

“Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD:

for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.  Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of  his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me” (Zechariah 2:6-9, KJV).

“It was those ‘whose spirit God had raised’ (Ezra 1:5) who had returned under the decree of Cyrus. But God ceased not to plead with those who voluntarily remained in the land of their exile, and through manifold agencies He made it possible for them also to return. The large number, however, of those who failed to respond to the decree of Cyrus, remained unimpressible to later influences; and even when Zechariah warned them to flee from Babylon without further delay, they did not heed the invitation.

“Meanwhile conditions in the Medo-Persian realm were rapidly changing. Darius Hystaspes, under whose reign the Jews had been shown marked favor, was succeeded by Xerxes the Great. It was during his reign that those of the Jews who had failed of heeding the message to flee were called upon to face a terrible crisis. Having refused to take advantage of the way of escape God had provided, now they were brought face to face with death.” —Ellen G. White, Prophet and Kings, p. 600, emphasis supplied.

The “unimpressible” people’s unfaithfulness and failure to hear or follow the call to come out of Babylon put themselves in this situation, setting up the whole death decree dilemma.  You might have thought that it was Haman that was responsible for the death decree, but primarily it was the unfaithfulness of the people of God to heed the call to come out of Babylon that brought it on.

Through Esther we see a glorious example of God intervening on behalf of the “unimpressible” people that were not participating in the restoration of the gospel edifice of His sanctuary. God was working to spare them and give them yet one more opportunity to return to His holy city and finish the work.  God is the missionary and His people are the mission field. In this story we see a people of faith, far from where God had called them to be, finding faith at the eleventh hour in the face of a death decree.  They were spared to be given another chance to hear and respond to the call to come out of captivity.  The faith that they found was God’s faith in them, seen by His holding back the winds of strife yet again that they might have opportunity. 

The death decree should have been a wakeup call to leave captivity.  “But it was not until several years later, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, the successor of Xerxes the Great, that any considerable number returned to Jerusalem, under Ezra.” —Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p 602.

As I consider the biblical narrative here described calling them out of Babylon in their day, I cannot help but see the correlation of their story to our story and the call to come out of Babylon today.

The first call to come out came to us as a people in the summer of 1844.  And after the passing of time and the disappointment in the fall a relative handful actually came out of Babylon. In addition, the sanctuary was restored to its proper place and the way into the most Holy Place was made clear.  This is another way of saying that the gospel was being restored.  The true relation of the law and the gospel was being reestablished and first-day adventists became Seventh-day Adventists.

As the advent movement continued to grow, they became very good at understanding and defending the biblical basis of their faith. They found the law’s place in the gospel but by and large they had yet to experience the gospel’s place in the law.  Ellen White wrote the following in 1890 looking back on this past experience, “As a people, we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain.” —Review and Sabbath Herald, March 11, 1890.  And “as dry as the hills of Gilboa” was known to mean without the inworking of the Holy Spirit. (e.g. “There are many flippant talkers of Bible truth, whose souls are as barren of the Spirit of God as were the hills of Gilboa of dew and rain.” —Ellen G. White, Testimonies to the Church, volume 5, p. 166.)

Adventists became good at knowledge but lacked the Spirit of God to make it a living reality in their lives. They had information but lacked an experience.  So in 1888 and beyond “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” —Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, Vol. 14, p.128, Written to O. A. Olsen, from Hobart, Tasmania, May 1, 1895.

Here is found a clear reference to the restated call to come out of Babylon, found in Revelation 18, that is given with greater power as it is attended with the Latter Rain.  In other words, an antidote to the dry hills of Gilboa was sent.

Yet like Esther, Mordecai, and those that remained in captivity rejected the second call out of Babylon, so we as a people rejected our second call out of captivity and the antidote to the dry hills.

“An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord’s message through Brethren Waggoner and Jones. By exciting that opposition, Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world.” —Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 1, Lt. 96, 1896.

And thus, we as a people have chosen to stay in the land of our captivity.  The servant of the Lord, speaking of the post 1888 years, put it this way, “We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years as did the children of Israel; but for Christ’s sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action.” —Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 16, Lt. 184, 1901.

And now we no longer need to say “we may have to remain” but rather now we should be able to clearly say that we have remained here in this world because of insubordination many more years as did the children of Israel.

Oh, may it not take a death decree to awaken us to the realization of our ongoing captivity and helpless condition, but rather may we look upon the uplifted Saviour, who tasted death for everyone (see Hebrews 2:9).  May we see His changeless love for each one of us and realize the power that has been given Him to bring to us all that we need.  May we freely desire to have and therefore receive from Him the gift of His own righteousness which alone, lived out in our lives by Him, will enable us to truly keep the commandments of God and keep the faith of Jesus.  Only then will we find escape from our captivity and be ready to be a spectacle before men and angels for such a time as this.  And then at last will the citadel of the gospel, His sanctuary, be restored.

“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14).

 

~Kelly Kinsley