ESTHER 02 FROGS IN THE KETTLE

Im sure youve heard the story of the frog in the kettle. Frogs are cold blooded which means they assume the temperature of their environment. If you take a frog and place him in hot water he will quickly jump out. Smart frog. But if you take that same frog and place him in cool water and then very gradually turn up the heat, he will stay in the pot until he boils. Dont go out and do that to some poor frog. Boiling the frog has become a metaphor for compromise. How do you boil a Christian? Put him in an environment that is obviously corrupt and sinful and he will react and reject it. But if you place him or her in situations that are marginal, where the lines of right and wrong are blurry. Then he or she will eventually drift along like a frog in the kettle until his convictions are completely dissolved in the corruption of his culture. We are frogs in a kettle. The key to the Christian walk is found in John 17. In BUT OUT. That is the theme of Esther. How do we stay in the world without getting boiled.

So the second option is to stay in the world and try to fit in. In but not out.

IN BUT NOT OUT

Thats the theme of Esther. The name of God is never mentioned in this book. Nobody ever prays. No one goes to church or offers a sacrifice. There is nothing about the spiritual life. No word about dietary laws or Sabbath observance. That I by design. This is a book about spiritual people living as if God no longer existed. They have been secularized. Their witness marginalized. This book is the story of God forcing his people to rediscover his sovereign grace and reconnect to him as lord. The fact that Gods name isnt used is a literary device to depict how secularized they had become. He is all but forgotten in their world. It wasnt that they didnt believe in him. They just didnt think he was there for them. They were immersed in the world they couldnt control so they simply tried to make the best of it and fit in. Persecution and oppression can do that. One wag said, The same boiling water that softens the noodle hardens the egg. Troubles will usually do one of two things. It will soften you and make you more sensitive to Gods grace and power or it will crush and harden you with disappointment and despair. Most of the Jews had grown hard. Im reminded of a scene described in the forward of Elie Weisels book, Night. Weisel is a young boy at Auschwitz standing in ranks to witness an execution. A young boy with the face of an angel is brutally hanged by the Nazis. Weisel heard old men behind him say, Where is God, where can he be now? The writer said, At that moment Weisels God died. Persecuted people sometimes grow stronger. Sometimes they grow hard and bitter. Weary. Its not that they have rejected God, but the disappointment is so deep that they can no longer trust him. In time they learn to ignore him. They still believe, but they live as if they dont. They feel like they are on their own. Just trying to fit in. That is the life of the Persian Jews. That is the story of Esther and Mordecai and so many of the others. The thought was this, If we can make ourselves less Jew-like then maybe we can enjoy life more. Maybe the enemy will leave us in peace.

I. The Theme
The key to understanding the book of Esther rests in our relationship with the Lord and how that relationship is expressed with the world. John 17 Jesus said, you are in the world but not of the world. Paraphrase, in but out. Several weeks ago we looked at this. People dont like to be out. They want to be in. So the church typically responds I one of two ways.

NOT IN
Some will try to leave the world in order to create a world where they are in. Get the church out. Make us unique and distinct. Get the world out of the church. It is impossible for you to maintain a witness when you are out. Jesus said, John 1718 "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

Maybe thats where you are right now. You think If I dont bring Jesus into my regular world then I my regular world will be better and less complicated. I wont have to defend my faith. So Ill just fit in. Over time you lose more than you realize.

Nehemiah 1:3 The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire. This is 445 BC. 90 years after Zerubbabel returned. 90 years is a LONG TIME for civilization to languish. Thats the distance between us and WWI. Can you imagine living that long without any progress? Nehemiah was a dignitary in the Persian palace. Thats 40 years after the events we are discussing in the book of Esther! So why did so few return? There was nothing to return to. Wilderness and hardship. The vast majority of Jews stayed in the land of Persia and Babylon. Comfort. Civilization. Normalcy. They gradually forgot the promise of land and became ethnic Jews. Like frogs in a kettle.

II. The Setting

After Kings David and Solomon, the nation of Israel had a civil war and divided into two separate nations. Israel in the north. Judah in the south. Israel survived another 200 years or so until the Assyrians conquered them in 722. Judah was left until 586 when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took them captive. This is known as the Babylonian captivity. In 539 Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians. The next year, he told the Jews they could return to the land. A man named Zerubbabel led 42360 Jews back home. The rest of the Jews stayed behind, living scattered across the ancient world. Why? Why didnt all the Jews return to Jerusalem and Israel? Remember, Jerusalem was a barren wilderness. Hostile people inhabited the land. Let me show you something. If you look in your bible you will see that Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther are in that order. Thats because Ezra and Nehemiah were originally part of the same work. They later divided them. Historically, Esther fits between Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra chapters 1-6 describe the first wave of immigration back to the Promised Land in 536 BC. Ezra 3:3 describes the moment when Zerubbabel and company re-set the altar on the foundation of the temple. For they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands There was virtually no law or conveniences. The Jews that returned had a very tough go of it. Even 90 years after the first Jews had returned, during the time of Nehemiah, 445 BC the land was still in chaos. He asked some Jews from Jerusalem how things were going in the homeland and the report was bleak:

III. The Main Characters

The two main characters of this book are a couple of Jews named Esther and Mordecai. Mordecai and Esther are not introduced until chapter 2 but we need to bring them up now so that you will grasp the spiritual principle of this book.

Mordecai
Esther 2:5-6 We are introduced to Mordecai. Son of Jair. Son of Shimei. Son of Kish. Benjamite. 5 Now there was at the citadel in Susa a Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, 6 who had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the captives who had been exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled. We have to be careful here because the reading seems to imply that Mordecai was a part of the original deportation. The first deportation of Jews occurred 10 years prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 597 BC. We know that the events of Esther took place from 483 473 BC. For Mordecai to be a part of the original deportation he would have to be more than 100 years old! The problem is the way its worded. The one that was taken from Jerusalem was Kish, Mordecais great grandfather. Read it again and dont let the verse break it.

. . .the son of Kish, a Benjamite, 6 who had been taken into exile from Jerusalem. . . So here is what we learn. Mordecai was a Benjamite, southern tribe. And he had grown up away from the Promised Land. IN fact his family had been out of the Promised Land for three generations. Mordecai knew Persia far better than he knew Jerusalem. In the Bible names are important. Mordecai is an interesting name. It means, One who worships Marduk. Marduk was the chief god of the Babylonians, and he was embraced by the Persians. Why would a good Jewish boy go by the name of a person that worships a false god? Mordecai is probably NOT his given name. He would have had a Jewish name. So Mordecai is most likely a name the Persians gave him. Does it imply that Mordecai was actually a worshipper of the gods of the Persians and Babylonians? I dont think so. I think it was probably a compliment from the Persians. Mordecai was a man that worshipped YHWH. They didnt know his gods name so they simply called him the one that fears Marduk. God fearer. Still, its common for the Bible to give us both names when a person is renamed. Daniel 1 is a good example of this. 6 Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego. I still think that God, in his magnificent creativity, was delivering a double entendre here. The author deliberately omits Mordecais Jewish name. This is a literary tool to show us how secularized Mordecai had become. Mordecai, the god fearer had lived so long among the Persians that he was now a Marduk worshipper. Not overtly. Not by commission. It was through omission. Mordecais philosophy had been, Go along to get along. In the process he had moved from faithfulness to compromise. His love of the world had gradually replaced his love of the father, and progressively, over time, he had grown into his new name. It happens. I think of a couple of young men I had in my student ministry. I poured so much into them. Hours talking to them about Jesus

and his purpose for their lives. But after college, they blew apart. Today, neither of them are very faithful to church or the Lord. What happened? I dont know. They just gradually replaced the love for Jesus with other things.

Esther
7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncles daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. Notice we are given Esthers Hebrew name. Hadassah. It meant, myrtle. Esther meant star. Esther is the only person in this story that has both names. Again, this is a literary devise to tell us something. Esther must choose whether she will be a myrtle or a Persian star. She must decide whether she will serve God or the gods of Persia. So we get both of her names. Esther is an orphan. Those were hard times. Im sure there were many orphans. Mordecai is her cousin. Mordecai took Esther in and was rearing her as his daughter. Esther was beautiful. Not just in face, but in form. She was smoking hot. Great figure. Great everything. God gave her that. He equips us for the adventure he wants us to take. She had the very tools she needed to do her job. But listen, in the early part of this book, Esther is not a heroine to be emulated. As we will see, she did some questionable things without ever once showing the slightest inkling of conviction. She slept with an uncircumcised king. She hid her true Jewish identity. She ate foods that were forbidden the Jews. As far as we know she never kept any of the dietary or Sabbath laws. We never see her pray. She never confronts her culture in any way. One guy that set her up as more of a spiritual heroine said this, Though she was brought to the harem and participated in these things reluctantly, Esther did not display a sour attitude. Im convinced she sensed Gods hand in her situation. Why else would she have been there? Finding herself unable to say no . . .

Wait a minute. Stop right there. Im not willing to give Esther a pass on this. Finding herself unable to say no? Cmon. What about Shadrack? Do you remember him and his two buddies Meshack and Abed Nego? They were carried away to Babylon and told to either bow to a false god of the Babylonians or die in a blast furnace. Saying no to king Nebuchadnezzar meant instant death. But thats what they did. Just before they went in they said, God is able to deliver us, but even if he doesnt, let it be known, we will not serve your gods or bow to your idol. (Daniel 3:18). Do we ever get to a point where we cant say no? Missing this misses the point of the entire book. Esther was a natural woman in a secular world just trying to fit in and save her skin. The hero here isnt Esther. And it isnt Mordecai either. The hero of this story is God. Even though he isnt mentioned. The sovereign grace of God is all over this work. We see it in the way he orchestrates events that bring Esther to the palace. We see his hand in the timing of things. And we see his grace when his people humble themselves and cry out to Him for deliverance. The truth is, Esther and Mordecai were trying to stay under the radar and fit in. But God doesnt want us to fit in. He wants us to stand out.

IV. The Point

Two principles and Im done.

Compromise happens slowly

Like a frog in a kettle. Mordecai and Esther didnt wake up one day and say, Im finished with faith. That happened gradually over a long period of time. As little by little they yielded themselves to the values of the world around them. Maybe thats happened to you. You look at yourself in the mirror and ask, how did I become what I am?

Gods grace is still available

Doesnt matter where youve been. The only thing that matters is where you are going. God reaches down and changes everything. For Esther and Mordecai. For the Jews. For us.