Hadassah
Sunday, December 22nd, 2024
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:1-10
After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king’s house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.
Prayer
O God we thank you for Your Word, which is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. Open our eyes, that we might behold wondrous things from Your law, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we were introduced to the man Mordecai, and in order to better understand this wonderful story of Esther that God has given us, we have been trying get inside the minds of each character and see the world from their perspective. We did this first with King Ahasuerus, then with Vashti, then with Mordecai, and this morning we are going to begin to do something similar with our heroine, Esther. So this will be a kind of biographical sermon on Who Esther is, and then once we are all familiar with the main characters of this drama, we can then pick up the pace and get into the actual narrative and the many questions it provokes.
So our focus this morning will just be on verse 7, where Esther is introduced, so let me read that verse again for us.
Verse 7
7And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
- So we are first introduced to this fair and beautiful maiden as a woman who has two names. And these two names, Hadassah and Esther, suggest a kind of double identity. And it is this question of, “Who is Esther?” that shall play a decisive role in whether the King has favor upon her and her people, or whether they are destroyed.
- One of the hinges upon which this whole story turns is whether Esther has the courage to embrace and reveal her Jewish identity, or whether from shame or fear or some other motive, continues to hide that identity.
- And so to understand the conflict within this young woman, we need to consider the meaning of her two names Haddassah and Esther.
#1 – Hadassah (הֲדַסָּה)
- This name Hadassah is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for myrtle or myrtle tree.
- And I have included on the back of your bulletin a picture of the myrtle tree and flower, along with the 4 other instances where the myrtle is mentioned in Scripture.
- And if you look at those four instances, you will notice that they are all describing the Era of Restoration after Exile in which this Esther/Hadassah is living.
- In Isaiah 41, the context is God encouraging His faithful remnant to not be discouraged or afraid when their enemies attack them.
- Earlier in Isaiah 40:17-18 it says, “All nations before him are as nothing; And they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto him?”
- So for the Jews in exile, who feel like a small disgraced minority scattered amongst the nations, dispersed amongst those 127 provinces of the great Persian Empire, God’s Word to them is, “those nations are as nothing, even less than nothing, compared to Me.”
- For Esther and the Jews in the Era of Restoration, God’s Word to them is “consider My incomparable greatness, not the seeming and very fleeting greatness of the nations in power.” God is the one who shakes the world, so that His Kingdom which cannot be shaken shall remain. Empires can fall as quickly as a person falls, and it is God who determines those times and places.
- And so with God’s greatness firmly established, he then makes many gracious promises to them.
- He says in Isaiah 41:10-13, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: They shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, Saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
- So that is God’s promise of help, but what will that help look like in their day? Well Isaiah goes on to describe this help using the image of trees planted in the wilderness.
- He says in Isaiah 41:18-20, “I will open rivers in high places, And fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, That the hand of the Lord hath done this, And the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”
- So God likens His people to different kinds of trees that He will plant, He will water, and He will nourish, even in the wilderness, and one such tree that is added for the very first time in Israel’s history is the myrtle. The הֲדַס.
- Isaiah says further of this hadas, this myrtle tree in Isaiah 55:11-13, “My word shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, And be led forth with peace: The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
- So God’s effectual Word is going to plant this myrtle tree, and when it blossoms (when it is brought up), it shall be to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign that shall never be cut off. The fir tree and the myrtle tree are evergreens, and they are intended to signify the everlasting promises of God’s salvation.
- So when you look at your Christmas tree, or the many great evergreen forests we have here in the Northwest, you ought to remember this verse in Isaiah. God planted those trees and ordained that they might signify His evergreen promises which climax in Christ. If the trees are clapping their hands with joy, how much more should we His saints?
- So who is Hadassah? She is this myrtle tree, whom Mordecai brought up in the wilderness of exile, who has become fair and beautiful. And although her father and mother have died, she is not abandoned, God has looked after her. God has made her lovely. He has watered her from rivers in the high places, just like He promised through the prophet Isaiah.
- So in her name Hadassah, Esther embodies the faithful and sweet-smelling remnant, who by their very existence within the Persian Empire testify to God’s everlasting promise to save. And the question Esther will have to face in this book is: Will she trust those promises? Will she be true or false to her identity as Hadassah?
- So that is her first name, her Hebrew name, Hadassah, the myrtle tree. What about this second name, Esther?
#2 – Esther (אֶסְתֵּר)
- This name Esther, kind of like the name Mordecai, has both a Persian meaning and a Hebrew meaning.
- Recall that Mordecai’s name means either “man/servant of Marduk,” or it can be read in Hebrew as “my rebellion,” or “bitter oppression.”
- Likewise, Esther according to its Persian origin means “star.” You can even hear it still in our English words for both Esther and star.
- So her Persian name and identity is Star. And in both biblical and pagan cosmology, stars are powers or rulers that govern the night.
- It says in Psalm 136:9, [God made] “The moon and stars to rule by night: For his mercy endureth for ever.”
- Likewise, God had said to Daniel just a generation before Esther, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
- So stars signify rulers, and Esther will certainly live up to this Persian name in becoming the new Queen of Persia. Vashti rebelled; she is a fallen star. And now the King needs a new Queen to help him rule the night.
- So while star is a good and fitting name for Esther, it means something else in Hebrew which also describes her actions in this story.
- In Hebrew the verb סתר (satar) means “to hide” or “conceal,” or “to keep secret.”
- The Hebrew noun סָֽתֶר (sater) means “hiding place,” or “covering,” or “protection.”
- And so if you read Esther’s name according to its Hebrew etymology (אֶסְתֵּר), it means something like “I am hidden/concealed.”
- So in Persian, Esther is the star in the sky, the Queen that everyone sees, but in Hebrew she is the hidden one, whose identity she has concealed and will continue to conceal even from her husband, until God forces her hand.
- Now next week, we will take up the question, “Why did Mordecai command Esther to conceal her identity?” But for now let us just consider one further aspect of this idea of concealment/hiding as it relates to Esther.
The Hiding Place
- When God made His marriage covenant with Israel in the wilderness, He told them that if they rebelled and committed idolatry, then He would punish them, exile them, and hide/conceal (satar) His face from them.
- It says in Deuteronomy 31:16-18, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.”
- So Mordecai was amongst those men who lived through this “hiding of God’s face.” He witnessed Daughter Jerusalem divorced and made desolate by Babylon, but he had also heard the promise of God through the prophet Ezekiel, that after a time of shame, God would turn His people (like we read in Psalm 80, “turn us again O God), and His face would shine upon them again.
- It says in Ezekiel 39:24-29, “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”
- So Esther is living in the time that Ezekiel prophesied about. And while some Jews had returned, and some progress had been made in rebuilding the temple, still the fullness of these promises were yet unfulfilled.
- And so what marks the turning point for God’s people in this Era of Restoration? When does God’s face shine upon them again? The book of Esther is given to show us that turning point. For it is behind the dark clouds of Haman’s wicked plot, that God’s favor shines forth and delivers them.
- Recall Esther is that one book where God’s name is never mentioned on the letters of the page. If ever there was a story where God seems to be absent, seems to hide his face, but in the end turns out to have been present all along shining through, this is that story.
- Now from a human perspective, what is the turning point in this book that begins to reverse all the harm intended against the Jews?
- Surprise surprise, it is repentance and faith.
- It is Mordecai repenting in sackcloth and ashes. It is Mordecai telling Esther, you need reveal to your husband and king who you really are. It is Esther calling for all the Jews in Shushan to fast and pray for three days, so that she can go before the king, see his face, and live.
- And so what happens when Esther makes God her hiding place instead of hiding who God made her to be? What happens when Esther faces down her own fears and through faith says, “If I perish, I perish?”
- It turns out, her worst fears were unfounded, and the King is far more favorable to her than she could have ever imagined. Three times the King says to her, “What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”
- When Esther tells the king who she is, her husband executes justice for her. He promotes Mordecai. He gives them his signet ring and says decree whatever you want in my name. He gives Esther the house of Haman. He gives her everything she asks for. And by the end of story in chapter 9, the King is saying to her, “what is thy request further, and it shall be done” (Esther 9:12).
- Isn’t this what God says to us?
- Jesus says in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
- Esther was a myrtle tree. And Jesus is the vine. And if you live inside of Him, if your soul marries God, and if you are not ashamed to call him Lord, then His favor will be abundant towards you.
- Your Lord and Your King is far more good and kind and loving than you presently think He is. The goodness of God is infinite, His ways past finding out. And we can scarcely comprehend a fraction of that Divine Goodness.
- Jesus says in Luke 11:9-12, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Conclusion
God is ready and willing to give you Himself. To give you eternal life. To make His face shine upon you. It says in Proverbs 11:13, “He who conceals his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
- You tell God who you are, and then He will tell you who you are in Christ. He will make you brand new.
- May God grant you to receive such a name as it was written in heaven before the foundation of the world. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
