Esther 5-7
YES, Christ Jesus is the solution God gives to every difficulty. "All things were created by Him, and for Him, and He is before all things; and by Him, all things consist." (Col. 1:16, 17). The conditions of distress and darkness, where no light is, in the incidents given in His word, are but to familiarize the mind with the bringing in of Him for whom the whole Scripture is written.
Accordingly, we find that in the history which we have been studying, as so full of the gracious thoughts of God, that "three days" have prominent mention, as the time in which Mordecai and Esther, and the Jews in Shushan were to fast. And then, at the end of three days, "Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house." Now, what shall we find in the three days, but God's thought of death and resurrection? In the day of captivity in Egypt, Israel was to go three days' journey into the wilderness, to offer sacrifices unto Jehovah. This would bring them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, on to, a new ground—a type of the resurrection ground, on to which God brings His people now; those who believe in Jesus Christ, whom He raised from the dead on the third day. It is the well understood type of resurrection, and is used in numerous places in the history of Israel.
So, having passed through the season of fasting and humiliation, the full acceptance of the sentence of death, on the third day she goes before the king. What a moment! The lifting or the not lifting of that rod would decide everything in her case. She was cast simply on his mercy and love, and she knew it, as her words "If I perish, I perish," tell.
Have you, dear reader, ever taken your place thus before God? Have you ever left the issues of life and death in His hands, risked all on His own character, for Him to make a way in righteousness and grace, to show you favor? He has made known His nature as love. He has commended His love toward us as sinners. He so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son. He spared not. His Son. What 'do you think of that? What would be the prospect for mercy from such a One, for such a one as you—a sinner?
God gives the answer in the story of this eventful moment in Esther. There she stood before the king. Would she obtain favor in his sight? Would he hold out the golden scepter? Ah, he did, he did! So Esther drew near, and touched the top of his scepter. God's authority is perfectly righteous. He is holy. This is what this golden scepter tells. He has set forth Christ Jesus a propitiation (mercy-seat) through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins, that He might be, just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.'! (Rom. 3:25, 26).
Esther had but to stand there in her helplessness, where all her own thoughts would have declared she deserved death for her presumption; and the king did the rest, for reasons perfectly clear and righteous to himself. It was grace indeed, but a righteous grace. And how richly it was offered, to the half of his kingdom! What security! What confidence may fill the heart in response!
And now she is to have a banquet with the king. She shall refresh him, and have her title to that place and fellowship confirmed. Follow for your own soul's comfort, beloved reader, the order of the Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Romans. After learning in chapter 3 that God is just and the justifier, then in chapter 5, the result is peace. It has been found that Jesus Christ, His own Son, was "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification," (4:25), and therefore there is no offence charged against us.
And now, I am exceedingly anxious that you should see that the way unto the King is open, the way to God on His throne of righteousness is clearly open to you, in a way of holiness, where God has taken care of His own honor. To stand there approved, was a different and distinct thing from being taken to his side on the ground of love, as his bride. There, it is the official and judicial approval; here, it was the longing of the heart for the object met.
And yet it "was not according to law." Such was Esther's thought and such was the ground she took. Was she not wise in it? And how is it with you? Is it lawful for a sinner to stand-before God? Not naturally, not on his own, ground, being a sinner; but on God's ground for a sinner. Your ground would be, to say "we are all sinners," but still to expect to go to heaven, on the plea that God is merciful, understanding neither God nor heaven nor mercy. You will have reason to thank God forever that He is not one bit like you have thought. Him. Esther was loved by the king, and his love found a righteous plea for her. God loves the sinner, and that love has opened a way for you. He loves because He is love. What a link that scepter of gold formed between them at that moment! It is just God and the sinner clasping hands in Christ, the sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, and wholly meeting sin.
But this feast was really for the sake of Haman that he might be exposed, and cast down at the moment of his supposed greatest triumph. The justification of the sinner through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, involves the annulling of Satan's power, and putting him under judgment. It was at the cross that Satan seemed to have achieved his grandest conquest, causing the very people whom Jesus came to deliver to give Him up to the Gentiles to be slain. It was there, indeed, that by their choice of Barabbas instead of Christ and their utter and malicious rejection of their King for Caesar, that Satan was manifested as the prince of this world. But it was there that he was judged and the world that chose him was put under judgment, also.
The soul that accepts that judgment, seeing in the cross of Christ his condemnation, and in Him risen his deliverance, is taken out of the hands of Satan. "The Lord rebuke thee, Oh Satan," was the word of Jehovah to Satan, as he stood at the right hand of Joshua, the high priest, to accuse him. (Zech. 3:2). But he was there in all his impudence and assumed right to accuse and destroy. It seems terrible to think that sin has so let him in that he can stand before God to accuse and to use his power to defeat the work of salvation.
But, blessed be God! a stronger than he has appeared for the sinner, and for the believer; One who hag bound the strong man and spoiled his goods.
How Haman gloried in the distinction the queen had red, him, little knowing that she, who had the heart of the king, was in the, same condition or doom as the hated and faithful Mordecai, whose refusal to bow still took all the sweetness out of his possessions and his honors; and not knowing that the love of the king for her would find a door of deliverance, by his destruction. Oh, this is the strength of our case as sinners, that God means to destroy the works of the devil! If men would only let Him have the whole case! If the poor lost sinner would just count on Him who has shown His mighty power, raised up Jesus from the dead and seated Him on the right hand of the Majesty on high, as Sin-Purger! The whole matter has been so richly looked into and met. For you, it is only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The result includes everything.
In the honor that falls to Mordecai (chapter 6.) we have set forth the character of faith. It takes the highest thing. It is associated with resurrection. Mordecai, in his low place at the king's gate, altogether unnoticed and forgotten of the king, even in his deed that had saved the king's honor and life, is as good as dead and buried. But what, a wonderful transformation, to wear the royal apparel and ride the royal beast, and have it proclaimed throughout the city, "Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor!" In this, Esther is associated, as it wars through her, that the matter was recorded. She is one with the king, and he is honored above all in the kingdom. Surely love and righteousness have wrought here, for it was a righteous thing on the part of the king to do this great honor to Mordecai. And he that will do this, shall he not devise a way of escape for those so exalted, and for their 'people?
So the case of the sinner, desperate as it is, is in the hands of infinite Love and Righteousness. "The gospel of Christ Is the power of God unto 'salvation, to every one that believeth; for therein is God's righteousness revealed on the principle of faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith," (Rom. 1:16,17). And infinite power is shown, in bringing us into a new creation, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord from the dead! It is a righteous thing for God to raise us up with Christ. The Lord Jesus has fully glorified Him, as Mordecai looked to the honor of the king, and God has exalted Him to His own right hand, the right hand of the Majesty on high. Thus faith beholds Him, the sufficient reason for confidence and joy forever.
And the Lord Jesus is not satisfied with less than this for the sinner who believes. Faith must take just such a place of exaltation, for resurrection brings us into a new place altogether. It is to stand in another, the New Man. In that precious story, Luke 10, where Christ gives answer to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" we learn the matchless character of the compassion of Christ Himself, that is set forth in the Samaritan putting the poor man, whose wounds he had bound up, upon his own beast. It is being lifted up into the same position with Himself, seated where Christ is seated! So in this story of Mordecai 'upon the royal horse, which the king was accustomed to ride, what an exquisite meaning do we get for faith to take hold of! It is that we are lifted off of our own feet, upon which the sinner can never stand before God. That man on the horse tells us this; that we are not to walk on our own feet, not to be left in our own position, but to be lifted into. His place, to be treated forever as He is treated.
Only let God tell His story in His own way, the story of His love to sinners, of the infinite way in which He meets their ruin,' bringing them to Him as sons, justifying and glorifying those who were once His enemies and guilty and lost! Chapter 7 gives the banquet of the second day to which the king and' Haman came with Esther " In 'this, Esther tells out her danger and her fear, founded on the fact of her being of the doomed race. And yet, there she was, loved by the king. Just so, many dear souls see the love of God, in sending His Son to die for them, whereby they have a sense of favor and forgiveness of sins; but they have not peace, settled peace. They need to know more than the forgiveness of sins, in order to be delivered from fear. Israel, though delivered from Egypt by the blood on the door posts, yet looked behind them with fear and quaking, lest the enemy, Pharaoh, should overtake them after all, and destroy them. So the soul needs to know more than the forgiveness of sins and the love that forgives for Christ's sake. It must know that the enemy that caused all the mischief is dead, to be free from fear. Though I may be forgiven, if I still look upon the nature, myself, as the same living man, an enemy to God, for if I live still, I am an enemy, I cannot know but that I may be lost yet. And many there are, knowing no more of the truth of God than the forgiveness of sins.
Here then death must come in; and we find that as soon as Haman, is exposed as the cause of all this trouble, he is slain. "So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai." It was by Christ suffering our death that we are saved. And then in that cross we have died too, the very death belonging to a criminal. Look carefully at Rom. 6:1-14, for the teaching on this matter as pertaining to the believer in Christ. "How can we, that have died to sin, live any longer therein?" (ver. 2). "We have been planted in the likeness of His death," (ver. 5). Then see verses 6, 7, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified With Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin; for he that is dead is freed (justified),from sin." Death is a wonderful instrument, in God's hand, of deliverance. It makes a clean sweep. How much we owe to it! But this will be more clearly brought out in the following chapters, which tell us of death as God's way out of all that pertains to us as sinners, as men.