If I perish, I perish – Preaching
Preaching Outline on Esther 4:16 – “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, day or night, and I and my maidservants will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, though it be not according to the law; and if I perish, let me perish.”
Introduction to Esther 4:16
My brothers and sisters, the story that the book of Esther takes care to tell is the story of the people of Israel when they lived under the rule of King Ahasuerus, King of Persia. It also tells how a people were freed from the death sentence and became victors over all those who were their adversaries and persecutors and, finally, how a woman. Esther was able, even though she was unworthy because she was Jewish, to become queen and risk her life for what she believed in and loved.
The passage above is a fragment of a dialog and possibly the most important dialog portrayed in this book. It is a portrait of a distressing moment that all the Lord’s people went through, when Haman and all the Lord’s enemies succeeded in having the death of all the Lord’s people decreed, says the Bible “And Haman said to King Ahasuerus: There is a people scattered and divided among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, whose laws are different from the laws of all the peoples, and who do not keep the king’s laws; therefore it is not good for the king to let them remain. If it seems good to the king, let them be put to death; and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, that they may enter the king’s treasuries.” (Es 3:8-9) “
Then they called the king’s scribes in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the same month, and according to all that Haman commanded, it was written to the king’s princes, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the rulers of every people; to every province according to its writing, and to every people according to their language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed with the king’s ring.” (Esther 3:12).
Death
The death that was decreed for the people of Israel was irrevocable, that is, no one could undo what Haman had done, not even King Ahasuerus, because the Law determined that the King’s final word, that is, where there was the royal seal, could not be contested and could not be revoked.
Therefore, no one could free the people from the condemnation that “they should destroy, kill and cause to perish all the Jews, from the young to the old, children and women, on one day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month (the month of Adar), and that they should plunder their goods” (Esther 3:13).
Dear brothers and sisters, much can be announced through the verses we read. There are many revelations, many things that can apply to our lives through the texts mentioned and based on the whole book of Esther. However, I just want to touch on two points: Firstly, we were also under the condemnation of the Law and, at this point, I make it clear that unlike the edict made by Haman and sealed with the King’s ring, which was evil, hateful and greedy, the Law of the Lord given to Moses is good, perfect and just.
Therefore, the problem of our condemnation was not in the Law, because “the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ” (Gal 3:24a), but in the man who walked according to the flesh “For the inclination of the flesh is enmity against God, because it is not subject to the law of God” (Rom 8:7) and, consequently, is condemnable before Him.
Although it’s not my field, I would venture to say that humanity is living through a “spiritual cancer” that began with the first contact with the Adversary, from the first disobedience.
This is because Man was born to be the image and likeness of God, Man was made above all to love God, to praise his glory and to be exactly as God is: loving, just, good, full of peace, gentle. Instead, his DNA has undergone such a profound change that man has turned his back on the Lord. The Bible says: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands, none who seeks God.
Everyone has gone astray, they have become worthless together; there is no one who does good, there is not even one … they do not know the way of peace. In their eyes it is useless to fear God. (Rom 3:10-18)
But despite all this, despite our sinfulness, despite our faults, despite our “righteousness”, despite our “goodness”, even so, despite us, God loved the creature of his hands in such a great and incredible way that he longed to rescue us.
Salvation
The Lord, in his plan of salvation, sends his beloved son, the Lord Jesus, to seek out the sheep that were lost, to lead back his flocks, to bring back those who had been corrupted by the Law of sin and death and who, like the people of Israel in Esther’s time, were doomed.
And so, following this plan, Jesus took the cup of God’s wrath against the sin that had invaded and wounded his loved ones, satisfying God’s justice and bearing our sin on that tree so that in him we could have new life. Therefore, Jesus, the Messiah, also became the first martyr and only in him can we be sure of experiencing such great Salvation and Eternal Life.
The Lord Jesus, like Esther, did not hesitate to say “I will go to the king… and if I perish, I perish”. By going to the king, he became the only mediator between us and the almighty God. By his stripes we are healed, in his hands are marked our names and the price of the love that saves mankind.
The second point I would like to make in this message is one that Paul, in his letters to the churches, touches on insistently. We must be imitators of him (Paul), in what he is an imitator of Christ.
The Faithful Church
Dear ones, we know that Queen Esther is portrayed as a faithful woman who feared the Lord and was extremely concerned about the progress of the Lord’s people. For these characteristics she is identified in biblical typology as the type of the Faithful Church. We also know that we are living in a terrible time in God’s prophetic time, the period of darkness. This is the time of maximum darkness that foreshadows the dawn of the New Day, that is, the coming of the Lord Jesus and the rapture of the Church.
So, I ask myself, what has happened to our lives? Where are the men and women who would do anything to preach the Gospel of Christ? Where is the gratitude for all that the Lord has accomplished in our lives? “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
I know that there are many faithful servants, but the Lord’s concern is to remind us that Christ has commissioned us to carry out an Eternal Project. There is a Work that goes far beyond human understanding, far beyond our understanding and the understanding of denominations and churches, because “…now we see in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I also am known.” (1 Cor 13:12).
My concern with this message is that, today, you abandon the “Glory to God”, the “Glory to Jesus”, or the “What a blessing”, because everything we seek must be, without the slightest doubt, exclusively for the honor and glory of his name.
Haman the enemy
However, what we honestly NEED to adopt and say with all our heart is “Jesus, I love you”, “Lord, make me love you better”, “Revive your work, Lord”, because the times in which we live have killed many believers with heresies, made multitudes go into Apostasy and Haman (the Enemy) is trying every day to flood our homes with all kinds of secularism, obscenities and abominations, whether on TV, in magazines or movies.
More than ever, it’s time to renounce this evil world. Let’s do it like Queen Esther, who renounced everything for her people and went to the king without being called. She left everything, risking her life for the sake of a people who were called by the name of the Lord of hosts.
Not only her, but many men and women were stronger than death and gave up their lives, dying in the name of a Pure and Faithful Gospel. If we stop for a moment and try to remember the names of the Martyrs, we will know that, with the exception of John (evangelist), all the apostles died bearing the shame, pain and Glory of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were: Andrew, Bartholomew, Philip, Judas Thaddaeus, Matthew, Paul, Peter, Simon Zelotes, James, Thomas and Stephen.
And they were all faithful until death, they imitated the Lord Jesus in everything. However, the fires and persecutions didn’t end; in the 20th century alone, more than 45 million people died for carrying and proclaiming the Eternal Gospel, they died in wars, dictatorships, missions, they died to reach lives and to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
These men and women, like Esther, believed in the Lord’s power to transform situations that were completely terrible and left a message that, whenever it is remembered, shakes the foundations of any human being: Jesus Christ is alive and for this God it is worth dying!
Conclusion of Esther 4:16
Finally, brothers and sisters, I need to remind you that nothing can be more valuable than the Lord’s love and for those who are faithful there is no death, there is no tribulation, there is no anguish, there is no weariness, because God continually makes us overcomers in all things. I emphasize that the Lord Jesus has made us victorious over the condemnation of sin and death and, today, no one will ever be able to take that away from any of us, the faithful remnant.
I’ll say it again: nothing and no one can stop a redeemed person from confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, not the Enemy and not Men, because great and powerful is the Lord Jesus Christ who overcame everything for us, left the Holy Spirit to comfort us and direct us on the path left by God the Father. He awaits us daily, to be with Him(them) forever in eternity.
I invite you now to experience, live and practice the word of the Lord and you will see that there is no one who can contain the power and majesty of the Lord of hosts. Amen!
“…whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mk 8:35)
Preaching Outline on Esther 4:16 – “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, day or night, and I and my maidservants will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, though it be not according to the law; and if I perish, let me perish.”
More Preaching Outlines
- Ahasuerus’ banquet – Esther 1:1-8
- The God who repeals evil – Esther 8:3-4
- Esther’s ascension to the throne – Esther 2:1-18
- Vashti’s rejection – Esther 1:9-2
