Intro: For our Advent season this year, I have chosen to enjoy the Jesse Tree by sharing a 24-day practice to prepare us for the celebration of Christ’s birth; the event we celebrate and honor at Christmas. From the root of Jesse’s stump, we will discover or rediscover the people in the family Tree of Jesus Messiah who were instrumental in bringing the presence of God near to us in order to revive the Spirit-led family of faith. With each day’s reading, we will add a new symbol—an ornament—to our family tree.
Today, is day sixteen of our journey and our symbol is the Crown.
The word Crown is found over seventy-five times in Scripture. In the Old Testament, a crown is used as a symbol of joy, honor, wisdom, a virtuous woman, and righteousness, as well as royalty. In the New Testament, a crown is used as a symbol of victory, ruling power, spiritual authority, rewards, as well as mockery [the crown of thorns].
In biblical times, it was unusual for a woman to wear a royal crown or posses power, but in our lesson today we meet a woman with both: Queen Esther, a descendent of Jesse, who rises in unexpected success to save her people while they are far from home [Israel] exiled in Susa, Persia. Queen Esther’s crown reminds us that sometimes God picks people to serve in His work who do not “fit” social or religious norms. Sometimes God uses the weak to shame the strong; He is sovereign.
In our passage, Mordecai, a Jew and government official to the King, convinces his cousin, Queen Esther [a young Jewish woman] to ask the King for a favor. She is hesitant to do so, until Mordecai says, “Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” At that moment, courage spoke louder than fear and Queen Esther approached the King without being summoned.
Queen Esther asked the King to reverse the edict Haman tricked him into putting into place; a plan to kill the Jews. But, because the King was considered a god by many, the edict could not be changed. So, the King allowed Mordecai, the privilege of writing another edict that would help right a wrong. The Jews would be allowed to defend their lives and loved ones if anyone first attacked them on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—the day set for their destruction. The Jews rejoiced and celebrated, because Hope had come.
Racial hatred is sinful and we must always take a stand against it. Every person, whether they believe it or not, has been made in the image of our God; therefore, every person has worth and value. A spirit of genocide is evil. Christ would take issue with racial hatred and we must take a stand against it, as well. Fear tries to keep the righteous silent, but we need to place our confidence in God’s promise to be our righteous and victorious crowned King.
Esther 4:9-17 NLT
9 So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.
10 Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.” 12 So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.
13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. 14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” 17 So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
Esther 8:4-11, 16a NLT
5 Esther said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor with him, and if he thinks it is right, and if I am pleasing to him, let there be a decree that reverses the orders of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who ordered that Jews throughout all the king’s provinces should be destroyed. 6 For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?”
7 Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on a pole because he tried to destroy the Jews. 8 Now go ahead and send a message to the Jews in the king’s name, telling them whatever you want, and seal it with the king’s signet ring. But remember that whatever has already been written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring can never be revoked.”
9 So on June 25[a] the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a decree was written exactly as Mordecai dictated. It was sent to the Jews and to the highest officers, the governors, and the nobles of all the 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.[b] The decree was written in the scripts and languages of all the peoples of the empire, including that of the Jews. 10 The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Mordecai sent the dispatches by swift messengers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king’s service.
11 The king’s decree gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, and to take the property of their enemies.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for this lesson from Queen Esther. Help us to be bold and courageous for righteousness; to take a stand with you. You have called us a royal priesthood; may crowns of rewards await your children. In Jesus’ name. Amen.