THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF ESTHER
[p. 182] THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF ESTHER
There are three books in the Old Testament that bear a certain relation to each other, in each of which there is established a marital relation, and where we find that as a result of exercise and of God’s dealings, it is evident that affection has to be brought into play. God acts upon us in two ways: upon our minds and upon our affections; and in the three books in question the latter is what the Spirit of God draws our attention to. I refer to the books of Ruth, Esther, and the Song of Songs.
I propose to take up the book of Esther, and especially to make clear the manner in which the Spirit of Christ is set forth in that book. There could be nothing so interesting as tracing the Spirit of Christ in the Scriptures; the Spirit of God delights to enlarge upon it. You will find it presented in a variety of ways, for in truth no other spirit shall obtain in God’s world. It began with Abel. We are told that he was a keeper of sheep; that was the Spirit of Christ, for Christ is the great Shepherd; He keeps His sheep. When I speak of the Spirit of Christ you can easily perceive it is not a question of the Holy Spirit as we know Him at present; it is the Spirit of God expressed in a man. Now that involves a great deal. It is the nature and character of God finding its expression here upon earth, in a man; it is a wonderful thought. God by His Spirit garnished the heavens (Job 26:13); but His Spirit was to take form in a man, and it was indicated from the outset that the man that should obtain in the presence of God should be controlled by that Spirit. Any other spirit is obnoxious to God, so that we are told that, “If any one has not the [p. 183] Spirit of Christ he is not of him”, Romans 8:9. It is a very solemn thing to consider that if devoid of the Spirit of Christ we are absolutely outside the pale of christianity viewed essentially, be our profession what it may, but the Spirit of Christ possessing us renders us acceptable to God and to man. That was seen in Jesus; He found favour with God and also with man. I do not say with the natural man, but with man according to God. Men who have divine instincts appreciate the Spirit of Christ.
Now I want to show how that Spirit is traced in the book of Esther; I shall dwell more particularly on Esther as the object, as it were, of the Spirit of Christ. I speak of Mordecai as also expressive of the Spirit of Christ, but he is more than that; we may all express the Spirit of Christ, but in Mordecai we have also a type of Christ.
The first point I would call attention to is a very important principle which is established in chapter 1. Mordecai does not appear there; it is a gentile scene, but there is a principle established which I may say governs God’s world; namely, that a man should bear rule in his own house, and that he should speak in his own tongue; in other words, that his rule should be perfectly intelligible in house. That was the decree issued by the king; see verse 22, and it was universal. In order to seize the import of the book, we have to gather up the instruction in the preface, and that is what we find there: a man should rule his own house. We may apply this principle to the Lord Jesus; it is evident that He rules His own house, and speaks in His own language; that is, His articulations are perfectly intelligible to His house. No one can make himself understood as the Lord does, and He rules His own house.
Following upon that we may see how Christ is in type set forth in Mordecai. In the first place,
[p. 184] we are told that he sat in the king’s gate, and that there he defended the throne. You may think that these are strange thoughts to put into a book in which the name of God is absent, but the book describes certain conditions under which the people of God were found; they were driven out from their inheritance and from Jerusalem; they were far away from the land of promise, and were scattered throughout the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.
Now those conditions enable the Spirit of God to present that which is for our comfort; that is, that on the one hand God is ruling in favour of His people providentially, and on the other hand the Spirit of Christ is active in their behalf, although not acting among them officially. There was neither priest nor Levite, tabernacle of witness, nor ark of the covenant; all were absent, but the Spirit of Christ was there, and the people of God can never be deprived of that; it shone in Mordecai; he sat in the king’s gate, and as there he protected the throne. You will find in the end of the chapter, verse 21, that there were those who conspired against the king, and Mordecai had the matter exposed and the offenders brought to justice. One could enlarge on how that spirit shone in Christ: how every right of God’s throne was defended by Him, how He went into death in order to overthrow the enemies of the throne, and how completely He has overthrown them! But I must pass on.
The next thing we find in Mordecai is his absolute refusal to recognise Haman the Agagite. That also is the Spirit of Christ. It shone in Him personally; He refused the Agagite at every point. We are all more or less acquainted with Agag the Amalekite, of whom Haman was the representative. Haman had gained great ascendancy in the empire, and that is a marked illustration of our own day.
[p. 185] We see that order of man in the place of rule today, and he has attained a wonderful position of ascendancy. Now what I would especially point out is the refusal on the part of Mordecai to bow to him. He sat in the gate; he defended the king; but never would he recognise the Amalekite. Haman represents a principle or element that dominates the christianised world. I want to make it as practical as I can for we all have to do with him. His boast was the multitude of his children, chapter 5:11; it was one of the leading features of his greatness, and there are ten of them specially mentioned by the Spirit. I need not enlarge on that. Now here is an exile Jew under reproach, yet sitting in the gate without any outward support, and he refuses to bow to Haman. Die he might, but recognise Haman? Never! That is the Spirit of Christ.
Now I want to show you how that Spirit acted towards the people of God, for you may rely upon it that that which defends the throne, that which refuses satanic power, will take care of what is of God. These two things go together, and we find that what illustrates the character of Mordecai more than anything is his attitude towards Esther.
In my apprehension of the book, Esther refers to the remnant of the people of God as they then were. Her father and mother were dead. We have to do with conditions that are exceedingly like this. God will not own the public body today; He hides His face from it. One can easily see that from the addresses to the assemblies in the book of Revelation; but I only just state here that the public body is no longer owned of God. It has become a huge Babylonish system dominated by the spirit of Haman, whose children and the multitude of whose sons are distinguished therein. But has God abandoned His people? Never! God is unchangeable. He is ordering things in our favour, and you may depend [p. 186] upon it that all the political movements in the world are guided providentially in our favour. The more you know of God the more you can pray to Him in regard of the world, for He is the sovereign Ruler of the world. He never gives up that place, and He rules it on behalf of His people. He is hidden behind the scenes, but He has His eye upon us, and correlatively the Spirit of Christ is active, although not officially. It is useless and unsuitable to pretend to officialism today; the day is over for that. In the ruined condition of things there is no officialism, but the Spirit of Christ remains. Thank God for that! I am sure every soul in this room has been conscious of, and affected by, the Spirit of Christ as active here upon earth.
As I have already remarked, Esther may be taken to represent the remnant of God’s people. She is deprived of her parents, and is in a state of orphanage, and what we find is that Mordecai comes forward. Now the light of God entering the soul is intended to produce movement. If the light is received there must be movement, and directly you are moved by the light, you have to abandon certain things that you have leaned upon for protection. You are deprived, speaking morally, of your parents, of all that which supported you naturally. Well, Mordecai comes forward, and he takes Esther, and he not only provides for her in his house, but he takes her to be his daughter; there is affection. He may have had a sense of obligation to look after her, but it was affection that led him to take her to be his daughter.
It is a touching thing that you find affection springing up in the heart of Christ which is ready to express itself on your behalf so that you suffer no loss for what you have lost naturally. But further, he not only takes her to be his daughter, he would promote her. The Lord Jesus Christ is set for your [p. 187] promotion. He is set for the promotion of the whole assembly. Without coming forward in what one may call an official way, He acts for the promotion of His own. Now that is a wonderful thing to be going on for us at the present time, and in this world too. As to the type which I am dwelling on here, it is not a question of who sat upon the throne; it was in fact a gentile potentate, but that is not the point. It was the throne; the throne of God really, and the Spirit of Christ in Mordecai was set for the promotion of Esther, of God’s people, and on account of that they have to go through a certain course of experience or exercise.
Now Mordecai had light. It is a great thing to have light, a great thing to know what to do. Many christians are hampered because they do not know just what to do. Mordecai understood the situation and recognised the elements that were available, and what would be for the advantage of Esther. There was Hegai, the keeper of the women, a notable man; one who was acquainted with all that was in the house of the women. Without making things too literal, I am free, in using them as types, to say that the Holy Spirit is acquainted with all the resources of the house, and with all that there is for our advantage, and I think that the Holy Spirit is set forth typically in Hegai as taking account of Esther. She found favour with him, and as she progressed in her experience in the palace she was wise enough to recognise him; she declined to take anything save that which he prescribed.
Now I use these things as illustrations. The Holy Spirit is acquainted with all that is in the house, and He endows you with that which makes you presentable, so that coming forth as clothed, and adorned, and perfumed by Him, you are presentable; and as you are presentable you are promotable; you must be presentable in order to [p. 188] be promotable. Esther was fair to look upon by nature, I dare say, but she became more desirable by the attentive service of the keeper of the house of the women; and finally she is presented to the king. I do not enlarge upon that, although a good deal might be put into it; but the result is that she is not only presented to the king, but she obtains the place of honour; she is the queen! Now that was a wonderful feat to accomplish. Mordecai was a wonderful man, as we shall see further on, but here it was a wonderful feat, to place a lonely orphan, as queen upon the throne of the Persians! But what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplishes with every believer is greater. We may think lightly of it, but it is a wonderful thing to be placed presentable before the king, and it was all the fruit of the affection and wisdom of Mordecai.
Now I pass on to the last chapter, because, after all, whilst the Spirit delights to set forth the effect of Christ’s work, His great aim is to bring in the glory of Christ. You can never reach the divine end unless you apprehend the glory of Christ, and Christ reaches the pinnacle of glory whatever be the road He travels. In every path which the Lord takes up He reaches that end, and what we find here in type is that He reaches it by His prowess. That is to say, it is not presented in an official way. What we have set forth here in Mordecai is Christ in the exercise of His care for His people, and His wisdom in carrying it out. Ultimately Mordecai comes into recognition in the empire, and Esther greatly aided him in that. You may say, that in applying the types to Christ, it detracts from the glory of Christ to imply that we might aid Him in reaching this wonderful position; but what I mean is, that as we are adorned by the adornment of Christ we commend Him.
I desire to be exceedingly guarded in what I say,
[p. 189] but it was Mordecai who had put Esther in her place of honour, so there can be no question as to who was the greater of the two. And if the Lord Jesus Christ has adorned you with His graces, what is the effect? He is made known in public. By whom? By you and by me. One great point in the holy city in Revelation is that she is “the Lamb’s wife”, Revelation 21:9. But it was He who formed her. The heavenly city is the product of Christ, the product of His quickening power, and she is the Lamb’s wife. The Lamb is the sufferer; it implies the Lord Jesus Christ in rejection. God honours Him, and His wife comes down from heaven adorned with His graces. She, too, honours Him, and what He has made her promotes His glory. As it is said of the wise woman in Proverbs 31:23, “Her husband is known in the gates”. And so I may say here as to the type, Esther becomes the means of Mordecai’s exaltation, and eventually Mordecai appears as next unto the king.
Now God has exalted Christ to His right hand. Before ever the assembly existed historically the Lord was placed in the highest pinnacle of glory, in the right of His own Person, in the virtue of His own work, apart from the assembly, apart from the saints. But it is a wonderful thing, to my mind, to see how that His own formative work here upon earth sets forth His glory in another way. The product of His quickening power brings into the universe that which is the living expression of Himself. But personally He is rejected, He is the sufferer, and so she descends out of heaven as the bride, the Lamb’s wife. I think if there is anything that I shall cherish in that day it is, that as the result of His own quickening power, I add something to His glory. He is praised in His own works; they promote His glory. We find later in the book that Esther made known to the king that Mordecai was [p. 190] related to her, and as a result Mordecai became supreme, universally influential in the empire of the Medes.
Hoping that I have made clear what is in my mind as regards the Spirit of Christ as set forth here, I want just to dwell upon what marked Mordecai at the end. He is said to be “next to king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews”. He had not previously been great among them evidently, but he had acquired a greatness among them. That has a peculiar application to our day. The term Jew, I take it, has reference to the people as coming under reproach. It was not a term known in Solomon’s day, it came in later. From the use of the word in the addresses to the assemblies it seems to refer in our day to what is genuine. There are those “who say that they are Jews, and are not”, Revelation 2:9. We want to find the Jews, beloved friends, the genuine ones; and what we find is that Christ is great among them.
I am sure it is to our advantage to recognise that the Lord has a great place among us. He ought to have a great place among us. I am not speaking of His death, of all that He has accomplished for the assembly and for the universe, but of what He has accomplished for ourselves. What has He not achieved for us! Hence He has obtained a supreme place amongst us. If you have come into contact with Him in your soul, He acquires a great place with you. It is said of Mordecai that he was “great among the Jews”. I trust that the Lord Jesus Christ is great among us. We cannot add to His greatness. He is far above all principalities and powers in the heavens, but He also becomes great to us, through His care for us and His interest in us.
Then He is acceptable to all His brethren. I need not say that we have that place. Genuine christians [p. 191] are the only true Jews upon earth today, and genuine christians are the only true brethren that the Lord Jesus Christ has upon earth. And “he is accepted”, we are told, “of the multitude of his brethren”.
Then we read that He is “seeking the welfare of his people”; their deliverance was complete. We can thank God for every deliverance. Every deliverance is the result of the Lord’s interest, but besides that He ‘seeks our wealth’. You may be delivered and yet be poor. Many nations have obtained deliverance and have become poor through it. These Jews, who were scattered throughout the empire were delivered. Mordecai had effected complete deliverance for them, but they needed to be made wealthy. Now Mordecai is said to be seeking the wealth of his people. I do not think that we should be poor. It is true that the Spirit of God in Zephaniah refers to the remnant as “an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord” (Zephaniah 3:12); but the Lord is seeking to promote our wealth in His own riches. He who was rich for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be enriched. The Lord has never given up that; it is not His thought to leave us poor; He is seeking the wealth of His people.
To proceed a little on that line; if the Lord brings you into wealth spiritually, what is the result? I am speaking in a very practical way. You can afford to bring a bullock if you are wealthy; that is to say, the wealth that He endows us with reverts back to God. I do not know anything in the book of Ruth, for instance, more interesting than that the result of her union with Boaz was a worshipper; Obed was a worshipper. You may depend upon it that Obed was a wealthy man, for his father was wealthy, and the wealth of the father, we may be sure, descended to the son. Your worship will be [p. 192] greatly limited unless you are spiritually wealthy. I repeat, that the Lord seeks the wealth of His people, and, if you are wealthy spiritually you have something to bring to God when you come to Him. You come with a bullock. A bullock was a very large offering, and could only be offered by one who owned one. You could not offer a borrowed one; the bullock must belong to you; and so, when you are wealthy, you draw near to God with a bullock, and God gets His portion, and the saints get theirs.
Finally we read of Mordecai, that he was “speaking peace to all his seed”. I suppose we may be regarded as “his seed” in that light, for the saints are viewed in different ways. We are Jews as genuine; we are Christ’s brethren; and we are His seed. The Lord regards us in all these lights, and the Spirit of God closes with this presentation of Mordecai — he was “speaking peace to all his seed”.
May the Lord continue to speak peace to us! The seed of the righteous will never beg bread, Psalm 37:25; will never suffer loss, but it is a wonderful thing that the Lord speaks peace to us. If you hear the voice of trouble, you may depend upon it that it is not the Lord’s voice. The voice of trouble is very prevalent, muttering discontent; but it is not the voice of the Spirit of Christ. The Lord speaks peace to us, and wherever His Spirit prevails it is the Spirit of peace. We are told that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of those that make peace.
I think you will see from what I have said that this book sets forth in some way the conditions in which we find ourselves; the resources that are available for us in Christ; and how intensely active the Lord is, as I have been showing, not officially, but as speaking peace. It seems to me it is continuous; there is the speaking of peace to all His seed, and that will continue to the end.
[p. 193] May the Lord bless His word to us! What one feels is the great need, for young christians especially, to apprehend what is for them in Christ, and how constant and enduring it is.