Esther 4:5 Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.
How we understand the Word of God will depend on how we approach It. In Genesis 3 we see the manner in which the devil wanted Eve to approach God’s Word.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Rather than accepting God’s Word as Truth, he put doubt into the mind of Eve. He said: “yea hath God said …?” That is the common approach to God’s Word today. That is why there is such a proliferation of religions.
The proper way to approach God’s Word is:
Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
Fifteen times we find the phrase: “teach me” in the Bible. The devil came to Eve with the attitude that he knew better than what God had said. Job and others came to the Word of God and accepted It and the God of the Word as true. They realized their need to be taught the Truth. It is not a natural thing for us as people to know or even to accept the Truth. It is imperative that we know and accept the Truth, but it will require humility on our part to be willing to submit to the Truth.
As we have noted, the book of Esther never mentions the name of God. Mordecai never spoke of God. Esther never referred to God either. However, those who know the Lord, can clearly see His hand at work in this book. We see that God works even though those who are supposed to be His people refuse to acknowledge Him. God is greater than man and when He declares something, He follows through to see that fulfilled.
God declared to Abram/Abraham, that He would make of him a great nation. He declared that this nation would not be destroyed. This promise was not conditional on Abraham’s obedience. God knew that Abraham would fail Him at times. God also knew that the Jews would fail Him many times. However, God’s promises can never fail. The loser is man. Adam chose to disobey God. He lost out. Abraham chose to disobey God and took Hagar and had a son with her. The loser was mankind. The descendants of Ishmael have been a problem not just for the Jews, but for the world.
In the book of Esther, Mordecai chose to blend in with the Persians. Yes, he kept some of the Jewish traditions, but he was not known to be a Jew, until he publicly declared it to be so. Esther was raised under that deception. She was allowed to be used by the pagan Persian culture to be joined to a drunkard. She had a conscience, but it was seriously flawed. Furthermore, in the Old Testament, they did not have access to God’s Word in the same manner that we have it today.
We see as well the results of a people who once knew God’s Word, but chose not to honour God’s Word. Abraham knew God’s Word. He passed It on to his son Isaac. Isaac passed it on to his son Jacob. Through all of that, God appeared to these men Personally. They all knew His will. Yet by the time of Jacob, we see a breakdown in the marriage law. Jacob had two wives and two concubines. We know from Genesis 2 that this was not God’s design. God used that, but He did not teach that way of living. God shows us the conflict that results from relationships that are not according to His will. He shows us this throughout the Scriptures.
In the book of Esther we continue to see the consequences of trying to live a somewhat more conservative lifestyle without choosing to live according to God’s Word. It creates many problems.
For those who are saved the saying: ‘but for the grace of God, there go I’ is true. We cannot sit in judgment of others as though we have arrived and would never do the same thing. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that without God we are nothing and we cannot choose wisely. It is important to know Him and serve Him humbly.
The Bible is also clear that when we sin against Him, there is ONE profitable solution. Of course that is based on the fact that we have come to know Him as our personal God and Saviour. Without that, man cannot please God.
Those who know Him, have the privilege of going to God and confessing their sin and being forgiven by Him. God’s forgiveness includes enabling His child to improve upon his walk with God. As we have noted in our opening verse from Job, we need to know God and ask Him to teach us to follow His way.
As we continue our study in the book of Esther, that should be our approach. We should never approach the Word of God by looking for a loophole to justify our sinfulness. We should always approach God’s Word as the Truth and for the way of blessing. When we sin, and every saved person will sin against God at times, we need to have the humility to accept His revelation of where we sinned and we need to accept and utilize His solution to that sin. That is the way of blessing for us and the way we can be a blessing to others.
How do you approach God’s Word? The wise person is the humble person who accepts God’s Word as Truth and humbly asks God to show him his error and His way to fix that error.
Pastor Bartel