A recording of If I Perish, I Perish,
by W.
E.
N.
Thomas, commencing in Chapter 1.
I'm tired of religion, and to be entirely
honest, I know of nothing quite so boring
as Christianity without Christ.
Have you ever tried to start a car
without fuel, until there wasn't a spark left
in the battery?
Then you will know exactly what I mean,
for there are few things more frustrating than
a car that will not go.
Everything is nicely greased and in its rightful
place, and all the working parts move beautifully,
but try as you may, there isn't a
suspicion of a kick, nor the tiniest evidence
of life in the engine.
You might just as well dump the thing,
for all the chance you have of getting
it on the move.
Countless people have stopped going to a place
of worship, simply because they are sick of
going through the motions of a dead religion.
They're tired of trying to start a car
on an empty tank.
What a pity it is that there are
not a few more people around to tell
them that Jesus Christ is alive.
I spoke of nothing more boring than Christianity
without Christ, but I know of nothing so
exciting, utterly exciting, than being a Christian, sharing
the very life of Jesus Christ on earth,
right here and now, and being caught up
with him into the relentless, invincible purposes of
an almighty God, and with all the limitless
resources of deity available for the job.
Can you imagine anything more exciting than that?
Do you know what it is to live
purposely?
Is there an urgent sense of mission, or
some compelling thrust within you which makes life
add up to the sheer adventure that God
always intended life to be?
Or are you simply engaged in the struggle
for existence and survival?
Worse still, far from being caught up into
the invincible purposes of an almighty God, have
you been caught up into the rat race
of competitive existence, haunted by the fear of
being overtaken on the bend, breathlessly trying to
keep abreast of events that travel faster than
your capacity to cope with them?
If so, I think you will be interested
in the following extracts from a letter I
received several years ago from a student attending
Bible college.
I am writing to thank you for your
six devotional lectures, the effect of which, upon
my life, it would be difficult to exaggerate.
I have been a Christian for four years,
but I came home feeling like a person
who has just discovered that he has passed
the last four years sitting unwittingly on a
million pounds.
Only the riches I have discovered cannot justly
be compared to that sort of trace.
That is how the letter began, and I
would like to share with you a little
more of what he had to say.
I believe that God prepared me for those
lectures.
Last term, I had to prepare a talk
on I Am the Truth from John's Gospel,
chapter 14, verse 6.
One of the two main headings under which
I was collecting and jotting down my thoughts
was, Jesus is the Truth.
The fundamental characteristic of truth is consistency.
It must fit every known and unknown fact
and situation, and its absence.
I get the picture in my mind of
a giant jigsaw puzzle.
If I have anything but the truth, at
least one of the pieces will not fit,
and others will need forcing into place.
The fundamental idea behind Jesus is the truth
was that Jesus is the key to the
understanding of all things, and almost the first
thing you said was that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the final exegesis of all things.
Thus God prepared my mind.
As I listened, as I copied up my
notes, and as ever since I have read
my Bible and thought about it, pieces of
the jigsaw puzzle have been falling over each
other in their eagerness to tumble into place.
It is as if I had been collecting
pieces for the past four years, but just
flinging them into the box without any real
thought of fitting them together.
Now, each time I come across one of
these pieces, it seems to fit into the
total scheme of spiritual life, and into the
whole scheme of things in general, from verses
of Scripture to insignificant things of everyday experience.
I find it difficult to describe the sense
of being utterly at one and in harmony
with the Lord Jesus.
Spiritual wisdom has become part of a sum
total of experience, rather than something detached and
fragmental.
My life since my conversion has been one
of striving to work for Christ, instead of
letting Him work through me.
What a difference there is now that He,
and not work for Him, has the preeminence.
Now I really realize that not only am
I in Christ, but that Christ is in
me.
I also realize that there is no further
basic issue to face.
Humanly speaking, those six lectures have helped me
more than all the talks, lectures, sermons, books,
and examples which I have experienced since my
conversion.
The Lord Jesus said, I am come that
they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly.
I know now what He meant, because I
have it.
The writer of this letter was a pilot
with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship in Ethiopia, and
quite recently flew me over the mountains in
Japan, Hispanola.
It was thrilling to discover that the intervening
years had served only to establish ever more
firmly in his own experience the principles of
true discipleship which he had so readily embraced.
Trading his poverty for Christ's wealth, his weakness
for Christ's strength, this young man has exchanged
the bankruptcy of the fallen Adam for all
the fullness of the life of Christ, and
has discovered the sheer adventure of allowing Jesus
Christ to be God in his own experience.
For God He is.
I wonder whether you have learned to do
the same.
To detach your Christianity from Christ is to
reduce it to the impotence of a dead
religion, impersonal to him and impersonal to you.
It is just an intellectual exercise, or a
sentimental formula, and Christianity is neither.
Christianity is Christ.
It involves a principle of life which pulsates
with divine energy, and cannot be explained apart
from God Himself.
It is essentially miraculous, even though it does
not have to be sensational.
It is always supernatural, in that it lies
beyond the scope of mortal man apart from
the indwelling presence of the Risen Son of
God.
It is with the object of making the
same wonderful discovery that we are about to
embark together upon this series of studies in
the book of Esther.
You may be somewhat surprised at my choice
of the book of Esther for this particular
purpose, but I know of no other single
book in the whole of the Old Testament
which more lucidly illustrates the principles governing the
Christian life.
Nor is there a book which demonstrates more
clearly what spiritual rebirth really involves, and what
conditions must be met to be filled with
the Holy Spirit and to become effective for
God.
Within the pages of the book of Esther,
there is to be found a wealth of
understanding concerning the implications of true discipleship, and
concerning that relentless war for final supremacy being
waged within the soul of man between good
and evil, between God and the devil.
It is fascinating beyond description to find, with
the unfolding of the story, so meticulous an
explanation of so much that often baffles the
honest but hard-pressed elite.
If you are genuinely concerned to find the
key to victorious living, and to that dimension
of spiritual experience that makes you more than
conqueror, then read on, and join me in
the desperation.
Before we begin to examine the story, I
would like to say a word concerning Bible
exegesis, or exposition, which I trust may be
helpful to all, and especially to those whose
responsibility it is to take the Word of
God and unfold its message to us.
It is important to bear in mind that
the whole Bible throughout both Old and New
Testaments is a total revelation authored by the
Holy Spirit, and that no part may be
detached from the rest, nor be incompatible to
the truth as consistently revealed throughout the whole
of Scripture.
In the fourth chapter of his Epistles to
the Galatians, and with reference to the birth
of Isaac and Ishmael, Paul writes in the
twenty-fourth verse which things are an allegor.
The Apostle clearly recognizes that behind the historical
events there is a unique symbolism by which
the Holy Spirit has chosen to illustrate in
the Old Testament spiritual truth enunciated in the
New Testament.
It is a correct understanding of this hidden
symbolism which offers to us the key to
correct spiritualization, which in turn provides the basis
for accurate biblical illustration.
Correct spiritualization provides the expositional constants to which
all biblical illustration must be true, if it
is to be accurate and safe, for these
constants involve principles which may never be violated.
Allow me to explain to you what I
mean by an expositional constant.
The Holy Spirit, as author of the Bible,
has chosen particular people, nations, countries, animals, or
inanimate objects as symbols with which to convey
certain different spiritual meanings.
Once you have learned the language of the
Holy Spirit, and recognized one of these symbols
in any particular portion of the Bible, you
will be alerted to the fact that he
is making reference to that which is represented
by the particular symbol which he is using.
It is the spiritual significance of these symbols
which I have described above as a spiritual
constant, because of the relentless consistency with which
the Holy Spirit uses these symbols throughout the
whole of the Bible.
One such which readily comes to mind is
oil, which in both Old and New Testaments
always represents the person, office, and work of
the Holy Spirit himself, as indeed do wind
and fire.
Another which I am sure you will recognize
at once as being equally obvious is the
snake or serpent, used by the Holy Spirit
to represent Satan, or the sin that has
its origin in Satan.
The devil is pictured as a serpent in
the record of man's fall into sin, Genesis
chapter 3 verse 1, and is directly referred
to in this way in the twelfth and
twentieth chapters of the Revelation, that old serpent
which is the devil.
Paul was certainly in no doubt as to
whom he was referring in the second of
his epistles to the Corinthians, chapter 3 verse
11, but I fear less by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtleties,
so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of the Pharisees
as a generation of vice, having told them
plainly, Ye are of your father the deaf,
and the lusts of your father ye will
do.
John's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 44.
An allegory is the describing of a subject
under the guise of another which resembles and
suggests it, as, of course, was the case
in the use made by the Lord Jesus
of parables.
By this means he clarified the truth which
he wished to communicate, underlined it, and impressed
it upon his hearing.
Another example of an allegory in more recent
times is Bunyan's Children's Progress, or his Holy
War, and a still more recent authorship, The
Screwtapes Letters, by C.S. Lewis.
I would like to make it clear to
you, therefore, at the outset of our journey
together, that although there is in my mind
absolutely no doubt as to the historical accuracy
or divine authorship of the book of Esther,
I shall be using the story as an
allegory, clarify and illustrate spiritual truths soundly established
and substantiated elsewhere in the Bible, and all
of which must be entirely compatible with the
total revelation given to us by the Holy
Spirit in the whole of the Scripture.
This being so, I need hardly say that
I do not claim any monopoly whatsoever in
the interpretation of the book of Esther, but
simply add these thoughts to the countless others
which have already been legitimately expressed with the
earnest prayer that God may be pleased to
own them and to honor them in the
hearts of my readers, and that, as one
such, you personally may be enriched and encouraged
in your knowledge of our wonderful Lord Jesus
Christ, and that, in consequence, He, for His
part, may be allowed to enter ever more
fully into His inheritance in your lives.
It might not seem to you entirely logical,
but I would like you to begin with
me at chapter three in the book of
Esther, for in the first two verses we
are introduced to three characters, all of whom
play a significant role in the unfolding of
the story.
After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman,
the son of Hammedator, the Abagite, and advance
him, and set his feet above all the
princes that were with him.
And all the king's servants that were in
the king's gates bowed and reverenced Haman, for
the king had so commanded concerning him, but
Mordecai bowed not, nor did he reverence.
King Ahasuerus reigned, we are told, in chapter
one, verse one, from India unto Ethiopia, over
a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, and
may well be identified with the better-known
King Exepsi, who reigned from 486 to 465
B.C. The Zonderman Pictorial Bible Dictionary gives
four close similarities between them which support this
identification, and in the same volume it is
noted that in all probability the Ahasuerus of
Ezra, chapter four, verse six, is also the
same person.
As the king and his palace, Ahasuerus will
represent for us the soul of man, for
it was within the palace that decisions were
made, policies declared, and decrees published.
The kingdom of 127 provinces will represent the
human body, for throughout the length and breadth
of the land the laws promulgated in the
palace have their repercussions being communicated in this
way to the outside world.
From the largest city to the tiniest village,
the conduct of the people and the way
they behaved was affected by the king's command.
It is within the soul that human behavior
is determined, for it is within the soul
that decisions are made, plans conceived, and the
will exercised to bring the body into action.
In this way the thoughts and the intents
of the heart may be communicated to the
outside world in terms of human behavior.
I have dealt more fully with the function
of the soul as the seat of human
behavior in the Mystery of Godness, in the
chapter entitled The Nature of a Man, but
it is necessary here to remind you that
the will is exercised under the influence of
the mind and the emotions.
Whatever influence it may be that controls the
mind and the emotions will ultimately control the
will, and this fact leads us to consider
the role of Haman the Agagite in the
story recorded in the book of Acts.
Haman the Agagite will represent what in the
New Testament is called the flesh not, of
course, the human body, but that perverted principle
which perpetuates in man Satan's proud hostility and
enmity against God.
You will notice that from the outset of
the story Haman is already deeply entrenched within
the palace, firmly established in the king's affections,
and enjoying his complete confidence, for he advanced
him and set his feet above all the
princes at the witness.
In his presence, as an act of reverence,
every head had to bow.
Haman, from within the palace, had constant, unhindered
access to the king, and in his own
subtle way coloured the king's thinking, stirred the
king's emotions, and with his malicious evil influence
moulded the king's decisions, so that by every
royal decree to the very extremities of the
kingdom the character of this wicked man made
its impact upon the nation.
On the other hand, sitting in the king's
gate outside the palace, and having no access
to the king, and exercising no influence whatsoever
over him, was one who refused to bow
in the presence of Haman.
His name was Morikei.
Morikei will represent the person of the Holy
Spirit, of whose presence the unregenerate soul is
destitute, and you and I were born in
this unregenerate condition.
The Holy Spirit is the inveterate soul of
the flesh, for the flesh laughs at against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary the one to the
other.
Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 No doubt by
now you are beginning to get the picture.
Here is man in his fallen condition, his
soul dominated by the flesh, and destitute of
the Holy Spirit, just as the king was
dominated by Haman, and deprived of the counsel
of Morikei.
Man's humanity is prostituted by Satan, and deprived
of those gracious and benevolent influences of the
Spirit of Christ, by whose indwelling it was
God's original intention that man should share his
life, and become by creation a partaker of
the divine nature.
The story begins with the wrong man in,
and the right man out, and the problem
to be resolved becomes quite obviously apparent.
How to get the wrong man out, and
the right man in.
This is what the gospel is all about.
Quite obviously, to get the wrong man out
and the right man in, and thus to
exchange the malicious evil influence of Haman for
the gracious benevolent influence of Morikei, is going
to involve an entirely new situation within the
palace, and a radical change of government.
Needless to say, such a change of government
within the palace is going to have far
-reaching consequences throughout the kingdom.
No one will be left in any doubt
as to what is really happening.
In the spiritual sense, nothing less than this
will be involved, if in becoming a Christian,
it is your desire to be the Christian
that you have become.
Amalek, at it again.
You may wonder why things are begunning for
Haman, and may ask, why have you got
your knife into him?
What has Haman done to deserve it?
And what reasonable excuse do you have for
painting such a sinister picture of the man?
Maybe you even feel a little sympathy for
Haman, and think that it is presumption on
my part to blacken his character without ever
having put him on trial, allow me to
disillusion you, gentle friend, if out of charity
you feel inclined to champion his cause.
Haman is full of hate, and hidden in
his heart, beneath the veneer of disarming charm,
there is murder in the making.
His ways are the ways of death.
It is in the person of Haman that
we are alerted by the Holy Spirit to
the main thrust of the book, for if
we examine his pedigree, we discover in Haman
one of those expositional constants to which I
have already made reference in the preceding chapter.
Haman did not like the Jew.
This is a fact which we may readily
ascertain from the most casual reading of the
text.
And the king took his ring from his
hand, and gave it unto Haman, the son
of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy.
Chapter 3, verse 10.
On that day did the king Ahasuerus give
the house of Haman, the Jew's enemy, unto
Esther the queen.
Chapter 8, verse 1.
The ten sons of Haman, the son of
Hamadathah, the enemy of the Jews, slew they,
but on the spoil laid they not their
hands.
Chapter 9, verse 10.
Because Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite,
the enemy of all the Jews, had devised
against the Jews to destroy them.
Chapter 9, and verse 24.
Why did Haman hate the Jews?
Did he not like the look of their
faces?
Or was there a deeper significance to this
murderous hostility, in which was to be conceived
the bloodthirsty plan to destroy, to kill, and
of course to perish all Jews, both young
and old, little children and women, in one
day, even upon the thirtieth day of the
twelfth month, which is the month Adah, to
take the spoil of them for a prey.
Chapter 3, and verse 13.
In my book, The Saving Life of Christ,
I have devoted two chapters to the study
of Amalek, grandson of Ethel, and father of
the Amalekites, with whom God had declared himself
to be at war from generation to generation.
If you have not already had occasion to
read The Saving Life of Christ, please forgive
my boldness in suggesting that you take the
earliest opportunity of doing so, for its contents,
especially in reference to Amalek, have a strong
bearing upon the spiritual contents of the book
of Esther.
Suffice it, however, for the moment, that we
might get the sense of the matter, to
make this quotation.
In Esau, the spirit of Satan was incarnate.
What do I need of a birthright restoring
me to dependence upon God?
I am independent, and I am self-sufficient,
and I will be what I am by
virtue of what I am.
Why did God hate Esau?
Because God can do absolutely nothing with a
man who will not admit that he needs
anything from God.
Esau rejected God's means of grace.
He repudiated man's need of God's intervention.
He despised his birthright.
And God never forgave him.
This is the basic attitude of sin.
It makes God irrelevant to the stern business
of living, and gives to man a flattering
sense of self-importance.
God can do nothing for the man eaten
up with the spirit of Esau.
Amalek was Esau's grandson, and Malachi tells us
that the descendants of Esau were a people
against whom the Lord had indignation forever.
Malachi 1.4 And Exodus 17 tells us
that God was at war with Amalek from
generation to generation.
Perpetuated in Amalek was the profanity of Esau,
the man who refused the birthright.
There was no good thing in Amalek.
There was absolutely no salvageable content in Amalek.
There was nothing in Amalek upon which God
would look with favor.
That was God's mind, God's will, and God's
judgment concerning Amalek.
But Saul forgot to remember.
Though he smote the Amalekites, Saul took Agag,
the king of the Amalekites, alive, a king
of Edom whom God had sentenced to death.
Saul presumed to find something good in what
God had condemned.
This was the sin of Saul.
He kept the best of what God had
hated.
So Agag was an Edomite, a descendant of
Esau, the despiser of the birthright.
And Agag was the king of the Amalekites.
Thus Haman was also an Amalekite, for Haman
was an Agagite.
Esther chapter 3 verse 1.
And the Amalekites were the inveterate enemies of
Israel.
In the person of Haman, descendant of Agag,
king of the Amalekites, Amalek was at it
again.
As Satan hated God, so Cain hated Abel.
And Ishmael hated Isaac.
And as Ishmael hated Isaac, so Esau hated
Jacob.
And Amalek hated Israel.
And as Amalek hated Israel, so Haman hated
the Jews.
In this connection, it is interesting to note
that Herod the Great, who in his attempt
to kill the Lord Jesus, ordered the destruction
of all the children in Bethlehem, two years
of age and under, was an Edomite.
According to John Peter Lange's commentary on Matthew,
Herod the Great was the first sovereign of
the Idumean race of Edomites, which from the
year 40 before Christ, reigned over Jerusalem under
the supremacy of Rome.
Herod was an Amalekite, descendant of Esau, and
of a kith and kin of Haman.
In this commentary on Matthew's gospel, it is
stated, and I quote from page 60, in
the design of Herod, the old enmity of
Edom against Jacob seems to reappear.
We are involuntarily reminded of that murderous purpose,
I will slay my brother Jacob, which Esau
relinquished in his own person, but bequeathed to
his posterity.
Genesis chapter 27 verse 41 Haman was true
to his breed, and within his wicked heart
there sieved this inherent enmity against the promised
seed.
For God had promised, there shall come a
star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall
arise out of Israel.
Out of Jacob shall come he that shall
have dominion.
Numbers chapter 24 verses 17 and 19 Haman
was a ready tool in the hands of
the devil in the pursuit of Satan's vicious
ambition to thwart God's redemptive and regenerated purpose,
that of reestablishing his divine sovereignty within the
soul of man.
Here, indeed, was murder in the making.
If there was one thing more than another
which made Haman livid, it was the fact
that in the king's gate there was one
who looked him straight in the eyes with
cold contempt, and whose head was never bowed
in his presence.
Then the king's servants, which were in the
king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou
the king's commandment?
Now it came to pass, when they spake
daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto
them, that they told Haman to see whether
Mordecai's matter would stand.
For he told them that he was a
Jew.
And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not,
nor did him reverence, then was Haman full
of wrath.
Chapter Three, Verses Three and Five Haman recognized
in Mordecai his arch-enemy, for in him
he saw the ultimate of all that which
elicited his hatred for the Jews.
There is something frighteningly authoritative about the look
of quiet, unflinching confidence upon the face of
a man who knows that he is right,
and at peace with God.
The high priest and the council discovered this
when, looking steadfastly on Stephen, they saw his
face as it had been the face of
an angel, and heard him denounce their guilt
without any suggestion of apology, nor hint of
fear.
In words which cut them to the heart,
you stiff-necked and uncircumcised, in heart and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.
As your fathers did, so do ye.
And they gnashed on him with their teeth.
It was the look upon the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ which perhaps more than
anything else frightened Herod and Pontius Pilate on
that day when they both washed their hands
of him, and were made friends together.
A bad conscience is always uneasy in the
presence of truth, and whether it be in
the presence of Mordecai, or Stephen, or the
Lord Jesus Christ himself, it cries out hysterically,
Hang him!
Stone him!
Crucify him!
You may shoot truth between the eyes when
it looks you quietly in the face, but
it will not be truth which falls victim
to your bullet.
It was not truth that lay bleeding, dying
on a stony slope on the day that
Stephen was stoned to death, nor was it
truth that hung upon a cross to be
buried in a tomb.
Sin was there condemned, and Satan judged.
For what the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, enforced sin, condemned sin in the
flesh, that the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans, chapter eight, verses three and four.
On the third morning, truth was vindicated.
Gospel truth.
And Jesus Christ was declared to be the
Son of God with power by his resurrection
from death.
Romans, chapter one and four.
The Son of God, who came into this
world to get the wrong man out by
taking the flesh into the place of death
upon the cross, and to get the right
man in by the gift of the Holy
Spirit to those who claim redemption through his
blood.
He is the truth.
The truth that sets men free.
Haman saw in the Jews a threat to
his authority, a threat personified in the unbending
defiance of Mordecai.
And he thought scorn to lay hands on
Mordecai alone, for they had shown him the
people of Mordecai.
Wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews
that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahazuel,
even the people of Mordecai.
And Haman said unto King Ahazuerus, There is
a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among
the people in all the provinces of thy
kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all
people, neither keep they the king's laws.
Therefore it is not for the king's profit
to suffer if it please the king.
Let it be written that they may be
destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents
of silver to the hands of those that
have the charge of the business to bring
it into the king's treasury.
Chapter 3, verses 6, 8, and 9 Haman
recognized that laws had been entrusted to the
Jews which, were they to be imposed upon
the land, would involve a radical change of
government and introduce an entirely new way of
life which would be incompatible with that which
derived from his own evil influence.
It was this that had to be resisted,
at all costs.
Whose then were these laws entrusted to the
Jews to which Haman took such strong exception?
They were the oracles of God, and represented
that true spiritual content of the Jewish nation
of which, as a people, the Jews gave
but feeble expression.
For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh, but he is a
Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart, in the spirit, and
not in the letter, whose praise is not
of men, but of God.
What advantage, then, hath the Jew?
Or what profit is there of circumcision?
Much every way, chiefly because that unto them
were committed the oracles of God.
Romans, chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, and
chapter 3, verses 1 and 2.
He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes
and his ordinances to Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any other
nation.
Psalm 147, verses 19 and 20, in the
Campsified Bible.
Don't forget that in the unfolding of the
story of the book of Esther, Haman represents
for us the flesh, and Mordecai the Holy
Spirit.
And we understand from the epistles of the
Romans that they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but
they that are after the spirit, the things
of the spirit.
So we may interpret Paul's words to the
Roman Christians this way.
For to be carnally minded, Haman-minded, is
death.
But to be spiritually minded, Mordecai-minded, is
life and peace.
Because the carnal mind, the Haman mind, is
enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can
it.
Romans, chapter 8, verses 5 to 7.
Being hostile to God himself, it follows that
the flesh is hostile to the law of
God, and any steps which God might take
to re-establish His law in the heart
of man will be resisted, tooth and nail.
Being already entrenched within the human soul by
nature, as Haman was already entrenched within the
palace of the king, the flesh is in
an admirable position to incite the mind, the
emotions and the will of unregenerate man to
defy God, resist His grace, and keep the
right man out.
It was to this end that Haman approached
King Ahasuerus, representing the human soul, and persuaded
him with his subtlety that the introduction of
the divine law into the affairs of the
kingdom could only be to the detriment of
the king's best interests.
And that the voice, therefore, of this people,
the Jews, who represented that law, must be
ruthlessly silenced.
This is a lie which continues to be
propagated by Satan today, which signals success in
the hearts of countless men and women, and
boys and girls who have allowed themselves to
be persuaded that to give themselves back to
the God who made them, and to submit
themselves to His sovereignty, is to be robbed
of that liberty which makes life really worth
living.
Such people are not necessarily insincere in this
conviction, but are the victims of their own
ignorance, which makes them dupes of the devil,
whose chiefest delight is to exploit that ignorance.
Their moral understanding is darkened, and their reasoning
is beclouded.
They are alienated, estranged, self-banished from the
life of God, with no share in it.
This is because of the ignorance, the want
of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness that
is deep-seated in them, due to their
hardness of heart, to the insensitivity of their
moral nature.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 18, from the Amplified
Bible.
For the God of this world has blinded
the unbelievers' minds that they should not discern
the truth, preventing them from seeing the illuminating
light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, the Messiah, who is the image and
likeness of God.
The second of Paul's epistles to the Corinthians,
chapter 4, verse 4, from the Amplified Bible.
It is for this reason that so many
do now what the king not insincerely did
then.
For he took his ring from his hand,
and gave it unto Haman, the son of
Hamadathah, the Agagapteth, Jew's enemy.
Chapter 3, verse 10.
To understand the interesting significance of this act,
we need to turn to a parallel passage
in the Old Testament found in the book
of Genesis.
It concerns Pharaoh's relationship to Joseph, as expressed
in what Pharaoh had to say to Joseph
in the day that he took his ring
from off his own hand, and placed it
upon Joseph's feet.
Thou shalt be over my house, and according
unto thy word shall all my people be
ruled.
Only in the throne will I be greater
than thou.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have
set thee over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh took off his ring from his
hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and
arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and
put a gold chain about his neck.
And he made him to ride in the
second chariot which he had.
And they cried before him, Bow the knee!
And he made him ruler over all the
land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh,
and without thee shall no man lift up
his hand nor foot in all the land
of Egypt.
Genesis chapter 41, verses 40-44 In other
words, this means that although Pharaoh retained his
titular sovereignty, all the executive powers of government
were vested in Joseph, and the symbol whereby
this transfer of authority was sealed was Pharaoh's
ring upon Joseph's finger.
In the same way, King Ahasuerus expressed his
utter confidence in Haman by placing his ring
upon Haman's finger, thus investing him with all
the executive powers of government throughout the length
and the breadth of his kingdom.
Thereafter, no inhabitant of the land might lift
up his hand nor foot save at Haman's
behest, and under his total jurisdiction.
King Ahasuerus was sold out to Haman utterly,
as the soul of the unregenerate is sold
out to the flesh, and his behavior subject
to the demands of a rebel regime that
denies to God his right to be God.
Then were the king's scribes called on the
thirteenth day of the first month, and there
was written according to all that Haman had
commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the
governors that were of every province, and to
the rulers of every people of every province
according to the writing thereof, and to every
people after their language, in the name of
King Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with
the king's ring.
And the letters were sent out by post
into all the king's province to destroy, to
kill, and to cause to perish all Jews,
both young and old, little children and women,
in one day, even upon the thirteenth day
of the twelfth month, which is the month
Adar, and to take the spoil of them
for a prey.
Chapter 3, verses 12 and 13 Thus the
murderous decree was published according to all that
Haman had commanded, but in the name of
King Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with
the king's ring.
What a startlingly accurate picture this gives of
the human soul, dominated by the flesh and
becoming party, however unwittingly, to every carnal ambition
that would silence the voice of God and
resist the claim of his Holy Spirit.
It is amazing with what enthusiasm man is
prepared to allow his humanity to be prostituted
by the devil.
And yet, even though he may seek to
justify himself, and be persuaded of the virtue
of his action, there is an intangible restlessness
within that leaves him baffled and perplexed.
For the posts went out, being hastened by
the king's commandment, and the decree was given
in Shushan the palace, and the king and
Haman sat down to drink.
But the city Shushan was perplexed.
There were strange whisperings in the city of
Shushan, and little groups of people huddled together
on the streets.
As the king and Haman sat down to
drink in this unholy alliance, somehow the people
sensed that all was not well with the
king.
The city Shushan was perplexed.
Are there those indefinable moments in your life,
the inaudible whisperings of a restless soul, moments
of perplexity, when you sense that all is
not well with you?
Commencing chapter four of the book If I
Perish, I Perish.
With the approach of the day set for
the massacre, the shadow of death hung heavily
over all the Jews in the land.
Nothing but a change of governments within the
palace would have seemed to offer any hope
of escape from the impending disaster, yet nothing
seemed less likely than such a change of
government.
If Mordecai held the key to their deliverance,
the major problems still remained to be resolved.
How to get the wrong man out and
the right man in?
Of all the lessons that the book of
Esther has to teach us, perhaps the most
important is this, that to get the wrong
man out and the right man in, it
is necessary first to get the right man
in to get the wrong man out.
Let us turn our attention for a moment
to Mordecai and discover what we may have
out here.
Now, in Shushan the palace, there was a
certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, a Benjamite,
who had been carried away from Jerusalem with
the captivity which had been carried away with
Jechoniah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king
of Babylon, had carried away.
Chapters 2, verses 5 and 6.
This Mordecai is not to be confused with
the one mentioned in the book of Ezra.
Chapters 2, verse 2.
Though he too had been carried away into
captivity in Babylon.
Although the one may not be mistaken for
the other, it is interesting to note that
both, in a unique way, represent the gracious
work of God, the Holy Spirit.
It is recorded in the first chapter of
the book of Ezra, that the Lord so
stirred up the spirit of fire as king
of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout
all his kings, and he put it into
writing, saying, Thus saith fire as king of
Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth, and
he hath charged me to build him an
house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all his
people?
His God be with him.
And let him go up to Jerusalem, which
is in Judah, and build the house of
the Lord God of Israel.
Then rose up the chief of the fathers
of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and
the Levites, with all them whose spirit God
had raised, to go up to build the
house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.
Ezra, chapter 1, verses 2, 3, and 5
Among those who went up out of their
captivity and returned to Jerusalem was this other
Morikea.
Together with the rest, it was to be
his noble office to rebuild the temple, and
to cleanse it so that it might be
filled again with the glory of God.
This, of course, is the special work of
the Holy Spirit in your life and mine,
that our bodies, as temples of the living
God, might be filled afresh with his glory,
and be cleansed for his use as instruments
of righteousness.
Similarly, the picture presented to us in the
book of Esther is of Morikea as representing
the Holy Spirit, gaining access to the life
of King Ahasuerus, representing the human soul, so
that his own gracious and benevolent influence might
replace the evil and malicious influence of the
flesh, as represented by Haman, and that throughout
the kingdom, representing the human body, it might
become gloriously obvious to the rest of the
world that something wonderful has happened within the
palace, changing completely the character of the land.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature.
Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are become new, and all
things are of God.
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 5, verses
17-18 The Holy Spirit receives I'm sure
you have been wondering where Esther herself, from
whom the book has gained its title, fits
into the story.
So let us consider for a moment the
role she has to play.
Before Morikea could come into the life of
the king, he had first to come into
the life of Esther, just as the Holy
Spirit must first be restored to the human
spirit before he can begin to take control
within the human soul.
Esther, the queen, will represent the human spirit,
just as Ahasuerus, the king, represents the human
soul.
The two are wedded, the one to the
other, so they must not be confused the
one for the other.
It is fascinating to discover by what means
Morikea came into the life of Esther, that
through her he might come into the life
of the king.
And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther,
his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father
nor mother.
And the maid was very fair and beautiful,
whom Morikea, when her father and mother were
dead, took for his own daughter.
Chapter 2, verse 7 Morikea came into the
life of Esther on the basis of adoption.
What a beautiful picture this is of the
Holy Spirit.
As it became Morikea's responsibility to educate and
care for Esther, disciplining her life, guiding her
steps, and quickening within her a solemn sense
of responsibility and divine destiny, so it is
now the office of the Holy Spirit in
your life to accomplish these things in you,
leading you into all truth.
For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.
For ye have not received the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but ye have received
the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba,
Father.
Romans, chapter 8, verses 14 and 15 But
when the proper time had fully come, God
sent his Son, born of a woman, born
subject to the regulations of the law, to
purchase the freedom of those who were subject
to the law, that we might be adopted
and have sonship conferred upon us, and be
recognized as God's sons.
And because you really are his sons, God
has sent the Holy Spirit of his Son
into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Father.
Galatians, chapter 4, verses 4-6 in the
Amplified Bible The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of adoption.
It is the coming of the Holy Spirit
into the human spirit, which constitutes that spiritual
new birth by which we may be born
into the family of God and become his
children.
And it is the presence of the Holy
Spirit within the human spirit which constitutes the
seal God sets upon this new relationship.
In the relationship that existed between Mordecai and
Esther, we have a beautiful picture of the
relationship that exists between the Holy Spirit and
those who, by faith, have received him.
At the same time, it is necessary to
remind you that the faith through which we
receive the Holy Spirit is the very faith
through which we claim redemption through the blood
of Christ.
Nor may the one be obtained without the
other.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the Lord, being made a curse for us.
For it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians, chapter 3, verses 13-14 It is
when through faith you have claimed redemption, the
forgiveness of your sins, through the blood of
Christ shed vicariously for you, that God is
able to send his Holy Spirit into your
human spirit, and it is then that you
begin to experience what John describes when he
says, He that believeth on the Son of
God hath the witness in himself.
It is the witness of God which is
greater than the witness of men.
The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
Romans, chapter 8, verse 16 Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ.
Our Saviour, Titus, chapter 3, verses 5 and
6 In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the
riches of his grace.
Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 7 In whom ye
also trusted after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom also after that ye believed, he was
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Ephesians, chapter 1, and verse 13 Have you
claimed forgiveness from God through the death of
Christ on your behalf?
Do you know that you have received the
Holy Spirit, in whose person the Lord Jesus
has come to live within you, and who
bears witness to your spirit that you have
become a child of God?
If not, would you do this now, before
you read another page, and settle this issue
forever?
You will be so glad if you do.
The Holy Spirit grieves In chapter 3 we
saw the Holy Spirit resisted.
In chapter 2 the Holy Spirit receives.
But in the opening verses of the fourth
chapter, we have another picture.
It is of the Holy Spirit grieved.
The spirit of adoption has become the spirit
of sackcloth and ashes.
For we read, when Mordecai perceived all that
was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put
on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into
the midst of the city and cried with
a loud and bitter cry.
Chapter 4, verse 1 Esther herself was exceedingly
grieved and bewildered by the situation, and did
her best without success to comfort Mordecai.
But he would not be comforted.
She sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai, and to
take away his sackcloth from him.
But he received it not.
Chapter 4, verse 4 The picture presented to
us is crystal clear.
For although Mordecai had come into the life
of Esther, he had not yet gained access
through the palace into the inner councils of
the king.
There, Haman still wore the ring and dominated
the scene.
This is the carnal, or fleshly Christian.
If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ
as your Redeemer, then the Holy Spirit, as
we have already seen, has come to take
up residence within your human spirit, and you
have been born again, and God has set
a seal upon you as His child.
But if that old Adamic nature, the flesh,
still dominates your soul and monopolizes your personality
by colouring your thinking, sparking your ambitions, capturing
your affections, and subtly persuading your will into
submission to its claims upon you, then you
too are a carnal Christian.
You are what Paul describes as a babe
in Christ, and the Holy Spirit will be
green.
He will become the spirit of sackcloth and
ashes.
However, brethren, I could not talk to you
as spiritual men, but as to non-spiritual
men of the flesh, in whom the carnal
nature predominates, as to mere infants in the
new life in Christ, unable to talk yet.
For you are still unspiritual, having the nature
of the flesh under the control of ordinary
impulses, for as long as there are envy
and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you,
are you not unspiritual and of the flesh,
behaving yourselves after a human standard and like
mere unchanged men?
1 Corinthians 3, verses 1 and 3, in
the Amplified Bible If the Holy Spirit is
grieved within you, then you will not comfort
him by a change of reigns, but only
by a change of governance.
He will never be comforted until the ring
is on his feet and Haman on the
gallows.
Esther did not understand her own case, because
as yet she did not know the character
of Haman.
You may be sure that on such occasions
as those upon which he may have encountered
the queen, Haman was as suede as they
come, dripping with charm, for the flesh is
well-tutored in the art of being disarmingly
wimpy, as well as being brutally sadistic, degrading
and cruel.
It was not his circumstances that bothered Moritea,
but the situation in the palace.
For as long as the ring remained upon
the wrong finger, there could only be disaster
in the land, and a change of reigns
would not put that right.
I wonder if you have been bewildered at
this point in your Christian experience.
You know you are converted, but beneath the
outward practice and profession of your faith, you
are conscious of the inner nagging of a
troubled spirit.
True inner peace eludes you, and you sigh
for release.
Perhaps, like many another, you have said to
yourself, I need a new church home.
I do not think I fit into this
community, but given a different spiritual environment, I
am sure I would make good.
Soon, you are on the road again, for
this is not the first time this has
happened.
You will not make good.
You will simply create as much trouble in
the next church as you made in the
last, for there is nothing wrong with your
spiritual environment, but there is something desperately wrong
with you.
Fail to get that right, and you will
be a spiritual tramp all the days of
your life.
Preacher, you may say to yourself, I need
a new pastorate.
I cannot get through to these people.
They are so hopelessly unresponsive, and I am
wasting my gifts.
No, preacher.
Flame the pulpit, not the fuel, and examine
your own heart before you inflict yourself upon
another weary congregation.
Perhaps you are a student at Bible college
or seminary, and you said to yourself, I
know that my spiritual life is at a
pretty low end, and that I am defeated
in many areas of temptation, but I have
been too busy with my exams to nourish
my personal relationship to Jesus Christ.
After all, student days only come once in
a lifetime.
I must admit I am not as concerned
as I used to be about the lost,
but of course, when I get to the
mission field, that will all be different.
It will not be different.
You will be a dead loss there as
you are a dead loss now, for a
change of geographical location will no more put
the matter right than a change of pastorate
or spiritual environment.
As long as Haman is still strutting around
in the palace and wearing the king's ring,
you may get on board ship and sail
to some far distant land, but wearing a
topee and a khaki shirt, carving your way
through the jungle with a Bible tucked under
your arm, will not make you into a
spiritual giant.
If the spirit of adoption has become the
spirit of sackcloth and ashes, then you may
have got the right man in, but you
have not yet got the wrong man out.
The ring is still on the wrong finger.
If that persists, the noose may soon be
around the wrong neck, and somehow that has
got to be put right.
It will take more than a change of
raiment to do that.
You need a new prime minister.
Esther, being unsuccessful in her attempts to comfort
Mordecai by her own devices, decided that the
only sensible thing to do would be to
allow Mordecai to explain the situation to her
for himself, and give her his instructions.
To this end, she called for Haytack, one
of the king's chambers whom he had appointed
to attend upon her, and gave him a
commandment to Mordecai to know what it was
and why it was.
Chapter Four, Verse Five Mordecai responded immediately to
her request, as the Holy Spirit responds at
once to you and to me the moment
we are prepared to set aside our own
preconceived notions and allow Him to speak to
us as the One whose office it is
to convict us of our sins and to
lead us into all truth.
And Mordecai told him of all that had
happened under him, and of the sum of
the money that Haman had promised to pay
to the king's treasurers for the Jews to
destroy them.
Also he gave him the copy of the
writing of the decree that was given at
Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto
Esther.
Chapter Four, Verses Seven and Eight Before Haman
could be brought to the gala, Mordecai knew
that it would be necessary first to convince
Esther the queen of the wickedness of this
sinister character and of the murderous intent that
lay beneath his charming manner.
It is just at this point, too, that
true spiritual conviction begins.
It is an activity of the Holy Spirit
within the human spirit before its fullest impact
is made upon the soul.
It is perhaps difficult to locate the feet
of human conscience, but it is important for
us to recognize the fact that in addition
to the moral conscience, there is an animal
conscience, and it is easy for us to
mistake the one for the other.
The conscience of convenience.
The conscience of convenience acts upon the basis
of what is consequentially right or wrong, as
opposed to what is morally right or wrong,
and it is located within the soul.
It is the animal conscience.
Maybe you can remember the first time you
had a puppy in the home, the sweet,
fluffy little thing.
You had not had the puppy in the
home for long, however, before you discovered that
it needed to develop a conscience about certain
matters.
Can you imagine slipping out to do some
shopping some morning, just before lunch, leaving a
nice, juicy piece of steak upon the kitchen
table?
Needless to say, in your absence, the puppy
begins to make a reconnaissance, and climbing onto
the kitchen table by easy stages hides the
piece of steak with obvious admiration.
Now, just put yourself in the puppy's position.
If you were a hungry puppy and found
yourself within chewing distance of a piece of
steak, quite frankly, what would you do?
Of course, the answer is a foregone conclusion.
You would wrap yourself around it.
That is exactly what the puppy does, and
when you return sometime later, you find the
steak inside the dog, the sweet, fluffy little
thing.
Perhaps the first time it happens, after your
first flush of indignation, you tend to take
a charitable view of the matter, and somewhat
amusingly recount the story to your friends.
Not indeed that you exempt the puppy altogether
from a timely smack, and a deep-voiced,
BAD DOG!
Mind you, to be quite honest, the puppy
remains baffled at the exercise, quietly thinking to
himself, what extraordinary people these human beings are.
Whatever can be wrong about a hungry dog
eating juicy steak?
When on some future occasion, and for the
second time the puppy consumes your lunch, somehow
the sweet, fluffy little thing is neither quite
so sweet, nor quite so fluffy, do you
thrash that dog?
Slowly, but without any moral enlightenment, the puppy
gets the point.
And when on yet another occasion the dog
is left exposed by your carelessness to similar
temptations, it restrains its appetite, and gazing at
the tempting morsel, with saliva dribbling down its
cheeks, it says to itself, I really do
not see why I should not eat it.
But the last time I did so, that
woman really got mad at me.
The first time was not so bad, but
the second time it really hurt.
When she thrashed me, it does not make
sense to me, but maybe I had better
wait till she gets back.
The dog now has a conscience about stealing.
Not, of course, that it has any moral
value, whatever, but it has learned that in
life there are certain things that are smack
wrong, and therefore better to be avoided for
the consequences they incur.
Smack wrong.
In the meantime, you may be teaching the
dog to beg, and the thoughts that it
has about you in the process would probably
be less than flattering.
I can't think of anything more stupid than
expecting me to sit on my hind legs
and stick my paws out in the air.
I'm just not made that way.
I'm not that shape.
However, when the dog discovers that every earnest
attempt receives its due reward, it learns that
there are not only things in life that
are smack wrong, but there are things in
life that can be right.
Not right because they are right, but simply
right because they get rewards.
Can be right.
You may be shocked at the suggestion, but
this is the primary stage in the education
of a baby.
You do not moralize in flowery language when
it grabs the tablecloth and pulls the best
china onto the floor.
You teach it the hard way that this
is one of the things in life which
is smack wrong.
And when it has swallowed the last mouthful
of spinach and gets a piece of chocolate,
it knows that this is one of the
things in life which is can be right.
If you still fail to grasp what I'm
getting at, then ask yourself next time you
are driving too fast in a speed-restricted
area why it is you look so often
and so anxiously in the mirror.
It is probably because you are less morally
concerned about the speed limit than you are
consequentially concerned about the speed car.
It is smack wrong.
On this basis, a thing may be socially
right or socially wrong, ecclesiastically right or ecclesiastically
wrong, financially right or financially wrong, or, for
that matter, evangelically right or evangelically wrong, without
any real moral issue being involved on the
part of the individual.
He is simply trimming his behavior on the
one hand to avoid the smack and on
the other hand to get the candy.
I am convinced that there are tens of
thousands of young people who profess to be
Christians but whose conduct within the evangelical context
conforms to certain prescribed patterns that make them
acceptable within the society to which they adhere,
not because they have any deep spiritual conviction
in the matter, but simply because they have
been evangelically house-drawn.
Send them off to a secular university, draft
them into the armed forces, or, in some
other way, detach them from the evangelical mold
to which they have been conformed, and the
results are inevitably disastrous, because, confronted with the
cold facts of life in a world of
other standards, they discover that they never had
any real conscience about anything.
They simply did what their counselor told them
to do.
The Conscience of Conviction If the Conscience of
Convenience determines only what is consequentially right and
what is consequentially wrong, then the Conscience of
Conviction determines what is morally right and what
is morally wrong.
In other words, what is right because it
is right, and what is wrong because it
is wrong, and for no other reason.
The Conscience of Convenience is comparative, and will
be subject to every changing wind of fashion,
and will readily subscribe to the new morality
which makes immorality acceptable to society.
On the other hand, the Conscience of Conviction
is absolute, as absolute as God Himself.
It may well be that within the human
spirit of the unregenerate soul there remains a
vestigial image of the righteousness and glory of
God in whose image man was created.
It may be this which gives to the
unregenerate, and even to the most degenerate, that
strange inner sense of right and wrong, which
is so much nobler than that which derives
only from the smack wrong, can be right,
the Conscience of Convenience.
Even so, it is unreliable.
It may be seared, distorted, colored and twisted
by tradition, culture and circumstance, and in itself
does not speak with that final authority that
makes it impossible for a man to rationalize
in such a way that wrong becomes right,
and right becomes wrong.
The first thing that the Holy Spirit does
when He comes to take up residence within
the spirit of a man is to establish
again those absolute standards of righteousness within the
moral conscience which reflect the very nature and
character of God Himself.
This takes place even though such restored standards
do not at once become articulate, as it
were, within the soul.
The regenerate sinner himself is not at first
able to define this new principle of life,
and all that he can say when challenged
as to why he no longer does the
things he did or say the things he
said is this, I do not know, I
cannot explain it, but somehow deep down inside
me I know now that to do and
say these things is wrong.
This is why the deepest work of repentance
within a man's life is brought about by
the Holy Spirit's subsequence to conversion, rather than
prior to or at conversion.
It is true, of course, that there can
be no genuine faith in Christ without some
measure of repentance, but such initial repentance tends
to stem more from the fear of the
consequences of sin than from sorrow for the
sinfulness of sin.
When the Holy Spirit begins to reveal to
your human spirit the naked wickedness of the
flesh, as Mordecai revealed to Esther the naked
wickedness of Haman, such distressing conviction may result
that you begin to wonder whether you were
ever really saved.
This is a healthy symptom, and one of
the surest evidences of a genuine spiritual rebirth.
The Holy Spirit is like a man with
a lamp entering a dark and dirty room,
and what you have learned to live with
in the dark becomes repugnant in the light.
In this way, you come to realize the
nature of your case, and that you need
a deeper work of grace than simply that
which gets you out of hell and into
heaven.
You will begin to cry out with the
slowness of all, out of the bitterness of
self-discovery.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the end with
pious.
Hide thy face from my sin, and blot
out all my iniquity.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, and
take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Mark 51, verses 5, 6, and 9 to
11 Esther had to discover the kind of
company she had been keeping in the past.
And it wasn't a pleasant discovery.
It is always an ugly experience when the
Holy Spirit first introduces you to your own
hayman, and rips the mask off his evil
face.
You feel you want to flee with Peter,
and weep bitterly.
End of chapter 5 Shocked, and not a
little frightened to discover that the affairs of
the kingdom had been placed in such wicked
hands, Esther was no less alarmed at Mordecai's
explicit instructions, now that the enemy had been
exposed.
Hathab had been sent by Mordecai not only
to show to Esther the copy of the
writing of the decree that was given at
Shushan to destroy the Jews, but also to
charge her that she should go in unto
the king to make supplication unto him, and
to make requests before him for her people.
Chapter 4, verse 18 The queen knew full
well, however, that to enter unsummoned into the
presence of the king was to pass sentence
of death upon herself, for such was the
law of the land.
It was not simply that those who crossed
the threshold into the royal presence without being
caught would be put on trial and judged.
Sentence was automatic.
The moment Esther's foot crossed the forbidden line,
she knew that she would be as good
as dead, save in the unlikely event that
the king should hold out to her the
golden scepter.
It was little wonder, then, that Mordecai's instructions
came as a shock to the queen, and
that her natural reaction was to recoil and
protest.
Thus it was that she sent her reply.
Again Esther spake unto Hathab and gave him
commandment unto Mordecai, All the king's servants and
the people of the king's provinces do know
that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come
unto the king into the inner court who
is not called, there is one law of
his to put him to death, except such
to whom the king shall hold out the
golden scepter that he may live.
But I have not been called to come
in unto the king these thirty days.
Chapter 4, verses 10 and 11 A fierce
conflict now raged within the heart of Esther
as she argued within herself.
From chapter 2, verse 20, we understand that
Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor
her people, as Mordecai had charged her.
But now she was to come out into
the open and identify herself with God's people,
God's purpose, and God's power.
And in doing so, she would at once
expose herself to Haman's hatred of the Jews.
Under these circumstances, it seemed to be altogether
unreasonable to sentence herself to death by seeking
so recklessly an audience with the king.
If Haman is as wicked and cunning as
Mordecai makes him out to be, then at
all costs I must survive, for I am
indispensable to my people.
Maybe I can outwit him, beat him at
his own game and thwart his ugly plans.
Or maybe there is a better side to
his character that needs to be encouraged.
Perhaps, after all, there is some good in
him that Mordecai has overlooked.
But to die?
Self-sentence?
No!
There must be some more reasonable alternative to
death.
Resisted, received, and grieved.
The picture now is of the Holy Spirit
quenched.
For until Esther was prepared to die to
her own ability to bring Haman to the
place of death, Mordecai would be unable to
put him on the gallows.
The lesson to be learned was as hard
for Esther then as it is for us
today.
It was not to be her responsibility to
hang Haman, for that belonged to Mordecai.
It was to be her responsibility to do
as she was told, simply to obey instructions,
even though death itself might seem to be
the only possible consequence.
As Esther had to die to her own
ability to hang Haman, so you too must
die to your own ability to deal with
the flesh, for you cannot crucify yourself.
That is God's business.
To walk in the Spirit is to have
such utter confidence in Him that you first
seek His instructions, then ask no further questions,
but just do as you are told.
For all such, the promise of God is
that they will not walk in the lusts
of the flesh.
The Holy Spirit is fully able to deal
with the flesh, and to put it and
to keep it in the place of death.
It is His business to hang Haman.
And they told Mordecai Esther's words.
Then Mordecai commanded the one to Esther, Think
not with thyself that thou shalt escape in
the king's house more than all the Jews.
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at
this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place.
But thou and thy father's house shall be
destroyed.
And who knoweth whether thou art come to
the kingdom for such a time as this?
Mordecai made it abundantly clear to Esther that
she was not indispensable to God, but that
God was essentially indispensable to her.
He made it equally clear to her that
a moment had come in her life which
would be fraught with tremendous consequence.
It would be decisive, one way or the
other.
Mordecai said to Esther in so many words,
You stand upon the threshold of that destiny
for which you have been chosen and prepared.
And if you choose right, then this can
be your greatest hour.
On the other hand, if you choose wrong,
throw it all back into God's face and
hold your peace to save your own skin.
Then do not flatter yourself that you will
escape the consequence.
For in seeking to preserve your own life,
you will lose it.
If you are prepared to lose your life
for God's sake, you will find it.
This is your hour of destiny.
Choose wisely.
Do not throw it all away.
I believe that such a moment comes in
the life of every child of God.
The moment when God's purpose for your life
hangs delicately in the balance.
It may be that at this very moment,
these words find you too poised upon the
threshold of that for which Christ redeems you
and for which his presence is waiting to
empower you.
And at one and the same time, you
are both frightened and excited at the prospect
Fulfillment comes with the realization that you do
not have in yourself what it takes.
Death to all that you are in your
own inadequacy is the only gateway through which
you may enter into the fullness of all
that Christ is so that you may live
miraculously in the power of his resurrection.
Crying from the heart, Lord Jesus, I can't,
but you can.
And that is all I need to know.
Let's go.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any
man will come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow
me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it, and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it.
Matthew, chapter 16, verses 24 and 25 The
Holy Spirit obeyed.
With the issue so clearly defined, the response
which Esther gave was both crisp and courageous,
and the picture that it presents of true
discipleship is thrilling and dramatic.
Then Esther bade them return, Mordecai, this answer.
Go, gather together all the Jews that are
present in Shushan, and fast in ye for
me.
And neither eat nor drink three days, night
or day.
I also and my maidens will fast likewise.
And so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law.
And if I perish, I perish.
Chapter 4, verses 15 and 16 Esther the
queen did not give away her beautiful dress,
nor renounce the luxury of the royal court.
She neither relinquished her crown nor dismissed her
servants.
She did not need to.
The die was cast, and the decision had
been made.
The issue she faced was final and embraced
all other issues.
Esther now was alive to God alone, and
dead to self and all self-interest.
Three days and three nights Esther was already
buried.
Resolved to die, she had forsaken all, as
good as dead.
As well she knew, only the golden scepter
could raise her from the dead on that
third morning, as she entered uninvited into the
presence of the king.
What a wealth of significance there is to
be found in this amazing picture.
Three days and three nights, the third morning.
Does this remind you of anything?
It was on the third morning that Joshua,
taking his people into the place of death
in the depths of Jordan, was preserved miraculously
with the whole of Israel by God's divine
intervention, and brought through on dry ground into
the land of promise.
The people were raised from the dead on
that third morning to enter into all the
goods of that for which they had been
redeemed, out of Egypt.
Three days and three nights, Joshua was on
the belly of the whale, thrown overboard at
his own request, dying to his own self
-will and disobedience.
Buried with the weeds of his own waywardness,
wrapped about his head, only to be raised
again, alive from the dead on the third
morning, brought up on the seashore to be
recommissioned for the task, and to save a
people from perishing.
It was on the third morning that Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place
of Pharaoh, in Genesis chapter 22 and verse
4, the place where a knife was to
be plunged into the heart of Isaac, his
only son.
Isaac, in whom was comprehended for Abraham all
the promises of God, all his noblest aspirations,
life itself.
And as the knife flashed in the sunlight
on that third morning, God provided the ram
in the thicket as a substitute, and raised
Isaac in a figure from the dead.
Hebrews chapter 11 verses 18 and 19 Willingness
to die is the price that you must
pay if you want to be raised from
the dead, and live and work and walk
in the power of the third morning, sharing
the resurrection life of Jesus Christ on earth.
In this, you are identified with Him in
the relentless unfolding of God's redemptive purpose, which
are to find their final consummation in the
glorious appearing of our triumphant risen Lord.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God.
Set your affections on things above, not on
things on the earth, for ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in
God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in
glory.
Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 Lips
quivering, every limb trembling, and with a heart
thumping fit to burst.
It was a pale-faced slip of a
girl who stepped out on that third morning
as she crossed the threshold of the royal
court into the presence of the king.
Uninvited, she had nothing to lose, for she
was already dead, self-sentenced.
But she had everything to gain.
Compelled as though by some unseen inner thrust,
Esther threw her life away.
Others gasped as they saw her go, for
to them it was an act of reckless
folly.
But in her heart a little voice kept
saying, God take the consequences.
And He did.
Now again, in chapter 5 verses 1 and
2 Now it came to pass on the
third day that Esther put on her royal
apparel and stood in the inner court of
the king's house.
And the king sat upon his royal throne
in the royal house.
And it was so when the king saw
Esther the queen standing in the court that
she obtained favor in his sight.
And the king held out to Esther the
golden scepter that was in his hand.
So Esther drew near and touched the top
of the scepter.
God had raised her from the dead.
Dead to herself and alive to God.
All responsibility now rested fairly and squarely upon
the shoulders of Mordecai.
Esther knew the emancipation of obedience.
There were no more issues for her to
face.
Only instruction to obey.