3 Aug 2025 – jeffersonvann

BE BRAVE

Esther 4:12-17 NET.

The stories in the Old Testament serve as lessons for us. They show the actions and behaviors that are expected of God’s people or reveal the opposite—the things believers should avoid. We need to pay close attention when reading because some Old Testament characters change their roles halfway through. They might start rebellious and then repent, or begin righteous and make a wrong turn or a terrible mistake. Therefore, reading these Old Testament narratives is not always easy.

We need to read the stories in the order we received them because that provides us with context. Context helps us understand what the characters are doing and why they are doing it. For example, today’s text is set during exile. This is the period when the Israelites are no longer in the land of Israel. They have been condemned by God for their lack of faithfulness and punished by exile. Exile is when people are taken from their land and brought to a new land by their conqueror.

Esther recounts the story of the Jews in Persia. The king had dismissed his queen, and he chose a new queen who happened to be Jewish. The villain of the story is an Agagite named Haman, who was violently anti-Semitic long before Hitler. Haman schemes to use the king’s power to eliminate the Jews.

Another key character in Esther is Mordecai, the cousin and guardian of Esther. Mordecai discovers a plot to destroy the Jews and appeals to Esther to intervene. When she learns of the plot, she wants to help save her people, but there is a problem. The protocol for appealing to the king is that he must first summon you. But Esther had not been called into the King’s presence in a month. Anyone who dares to enter the King’s presence without an invitation risks being executed. Esther understood the situation and chose to bravely enter the King’s presence to plead for her people’s lives.

If we look a little further back, we can see that another layer is at play in the story of Esther. There is a broader background as well as a more immediate one. In Esther, the sovereign God is protecting the people of Israel, from whom the Messiah will eventually come. That is another aspect we should recognize in these Old Testament stories. All of them reveal something about our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament prepares the way for Christ’s first coming.

The book of Esther highlights one aspect of faith. It is a quality of biblical faith that isn’t often emphasized when we discuss what it means to have faith. In the New Testament book of Revelation, we find a list of all the people who will be excluded from eternal life and will be destroyed in the lake of fire. It states this: “But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

I find it interesting that the first item on the list of those who will be destroyed in hell is cowards. Of all the things that the Bible describes as bad or evil, why put cowardice first?

I think there is a very good reason for this. Remember that the New Testament also tells us that our adversary, the devil, is prowling around looking for someone to devour. It does not ask us to hide from him. It does not tell us to run from him. It does not ask us to aim our rifles at him while he is far away and shoot him. It says that we are to resist him. Resistance requires contact. We must put ourselves in harm’s way and trust that God will accomplish his will. There’s no guarantee that we will always win.

There is no bravery without an obstacle.

We learned from Queen Esther not to let obstacles prevent us from standing up against enemies’ attacks. The obstacle Esther faced was that she had to enter the King’s presence to appeal to him on behalf of her people, but doing so could have cost her life.

Other biblical characters face the same challenge. Doing what is right could very likely cost them their lives. Daniel faced the lions in the den, his three companions faced the fire in the furnace, David faced Goliath, and Paul went to his death in Rome because he knew God wanted him to share the gospel with the emperor. One of the signs of faith in the Bible is that the people of God bravely set their sights on doing God’s will even when doing so is dangerous.

Another lesson we learned from Esther is that God is at work in every conflict, but we still must be brave.

I used to enjoy playing certain computer games where you faced dangerous challenges. I especially liked playing those games in what we called God Mode. If you set your settings to God Mode, then the bullets wouldn’t hurt you. The game remained challenging, but you had all the time you needed, and you could make all the mistakes possible without dying. Some people think that Christian life is like playing a game in God Mode. They believe they can face any challenge and don’t need to worry because their faith will protect them from losing. But that’s not what the Christian life is about. Esther is an example to follow, not because she was immune to danger, but because she wasn’t. She truly risked her life to do what was right. The world is full of cowards who aren’t willing to do the same.

God says that if we acknowledge Him before people, He will acknowledge us in the presence of His angels. But cowards hide behind their ignorance. They proclaim themselves as agnostics because they don’t want to offend anyone by claiming that Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords. They think they are saving themselves through their cowardice. But the fact is that refusing to bow the knee to Christ is like what Haman did. He built gallows, intending to hang Mordecai on them. However, he ended up being hanged from the very gallows he built.

The book we are reading today is called Esther because Esther showed faith to stand up and be counted to save her people. Esther had faith, and that faith was brave. But this is not just a story of one person’s faith. Before Esther went into the King’s presence, she told Mordecai to gather all the Israelites praying and fasting for her.

Not every Christian will face the kind of challenges she did, but we should all be ready to support those who do.

The New Testament encourages us all to pray and fast, but not solely for our preservation. Note these specific times when the apostle Paul asked others to pray for him.

He asked the Roman Christians to pray that he might be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea (Romans 15:31).

He asked the Ephesian Christians to stay alert and persevere in prayer for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).

He also asked them to pray that he would stay bold in proclaiming the gospel even though he was in chains (Ephesians 6:20).

He asked the Colossian Christians to pray that God would give him and his team an opportunity to speak the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:3).

He asked the Thessalonians to pray that as he and his team traveled to other places, the word of the Lord would spread quickly and be honored just as it was with them (2 Thessalonians 3:1).

Biblical faith is courageous faith. One reason we can be brave is that we know an army of prayer warriors is backing us up.

Communion Meditation

John 10:18

“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I received this command from my father.”

We have discussed bravery as an aspect of faith. Esther demonstrated this bravery when she risked her life to save her people. She feared death, so she called for prayer and fasting on her behalf. Her bravery wasn’t the absence of fear; it was the courage to do what was right despite her fears.

Jesus is our example of that kind of courageous faith. He didn’t want to die, but he was brave enough to submit to God’s will and die in our place.

Today’s communion text tells us that God commanded both Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. The father told the son to do it, and Jesus bravely did it. His one active obedience demonstrated both his compassion for us and his obedience to his father.

Genesis 44

Genesis 44:1 Then he commanded the one over of his house, and this is what he said “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack,

Genesis 44:2 and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph commanded him.

Genesis 44:3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys.

Genesis 44:4 They had gone only a short distance from the city. Then Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow after the men, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

Genesis 44:5 Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil by doing this.'”

Genesis 44:6 When he caught up with them, he said these words to them.

Genesis 44:7 They answered him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your slaves to do such a thing!

Genesis 44:8 See, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?

Genesis 44:9 Whoever of your slaves is found with it will die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”

Genesis 44:10 He said, “It will be as you say: he who is found with it will be my slave, and the rest of you will be innocent.”

Genesis 44:11 Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.

Genesis 44:12 And he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

Genesis 44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.

Genesis 44:14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground.

Genesis 44:15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?”

Genesis 44:16 And Judah said, “What will we say to my lord? What will we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has discovered the guilt of your slaves; notice, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”

Genesis 44:17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found will be my slave. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Genesis 44:18 Then Judah went up to him and said, “O my lord, please let your slave speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your slave, because you are like Pharaoh himself.

Genesis 44:19 My lord asked his slaves, and this is what he said, ‘Do you have a father, or another brother?’

Genesis 44:20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a younger brother, the child of his old age. His other brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’

Genesis 44:21 Then you said to your slaves, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’

Genesis 44:22 But we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, because if he ever left his father, his father would die.’

Genesis 44:23 Then you said to your slaves, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’

Genesis 44:24 “When we went back to your slave my father, we told him the words of my lord.

Genesis 44:25 Then when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’

Genesis 44:26 we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we can go down. Because we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’

Genesis 44:27 Then your slave my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave birth to two sons for me.

Genesis 44:28 One left me, and I said, he must have been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.

Genesis 44:29 If you take this one also from me, and injury happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs by hardship to Sheol.’

Genesis 44:30 “So now, as soon as I come to your slave my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his throat is bound up in the boy’s throat,

Genesis 44:31 as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your slaves will bring down the grey hairs of your slave our father grieving to Sheol.

Genesis 44:32 Because your slave has become a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, and this is what I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will absorb the failure before my father all the days.’

Genesis 44:33 So Now, please let your slave remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

Genesis 44:34 Because how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? Or else I could not look on the evil that would find my father.”

Genesis 44 quotes:

“Judah knew what it would mean if they had to go back to Canaan and face their father without Benjamin. The thought of that was something none of them could bear. Judah stepped forward. He made the most tearful plea you could ever imagine. The first thing he sought to do was turn Joseph’s wrath away from Benjamin. “Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh” (Genesis 44:18, italics mine). Judah’s aim was to persuade the governor not to be angry with Benjamin. He said in effect, “Turn to me, blame me.””

Kendall, R. T. God Meant It for Good. MorningStar Publications, 1988. p. 142.

“Reference to Joseph’s divining cup may seem strange, but we do not know that he actually used it for that purpose, and mention of it was probably part of his strategy to convince the brothers of his Egyptian identity.”

Williams, Peter. From Eden to Egypt: Exploring the Genesis Themes. DayOne, 2001. p. 36.

“As we pick up his story, we come to what seems to be a rather uneventful incident. In fact, Martin Luther had trouble with Genesis 44 and once wondered why the Spirit of God took the time to preserve such a trivial thirty-four verses.” Why indeed. The truth of the matter is that it is in the trivial and mundane details of life that our attitude is tested the most. Most of life is not “super-fantastic”! Much of life is just a cut above toothpaste — just plain, garden-variety, ordinary stuff, not that much to write home about.”

Swindoll, Charles R. Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness: Profiles in Character. Thomas Nelson, 1998. p. 136.