Christ In Esther
Christ in Esther
Bro Timothy Ting | 16 August 2026 | Esther 4:14–16
" 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
— Esther 4:14-16
The Book That Never Names God
The book of Esther is unlike every other book we have studied in this series. It does not directly mention God. It contains no direct prophecy of Jesus Christ. And Esther herself is not listed in the genealogy of the Messiah as Ruth is in Matthew 1. It would be easy, for that reason, to think that Esther has nothing to say to us about Christ.
But that is not true. When we study the whole book, we can see a beautiful pattern — pointing us toward Jesus. The Christ may not be named in the palace of Shushan, but His fingerprints are all over the pages. This quiet, hidden book reveals how God has been at work behind every scene, moving history for the sake of His people, and preparing the greater story that would one day be told at the cross.
Four Themes Woven Through
Four themes run through the whole book, and each of them points forward to Christ:
Providence — God at work, unseen
Mediation — one who stands in between
Reversal — the weapon turned back
Deliverance — a people preserved
You will feel each of these as we walk through the story of three unforgettable characters — Esther, Mordecai, and Haman.
Esther — The Picture of Christ the Mediator
The crisis of the whole book is Haman's decree — a decree that condemned every Jewish person in the Persian Empire to destruction. In such a moment, only one person was positioned to intervene: Esther, a Jewish orphan girl who had unexpectedly become queen.
But to approach the king unsummoned meant risking her life. She could have stayed silent. She could have hidden her Jewish identity and saved herself. Instead, hear her answer:
"Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!" (Esther 4:16)
If I perish, I perish. This is Esther standing between the death sentence and her people. She approaches the king. She risks her life. She pleads for her people. She brings deliverance.
Do you see who this looks like?
"Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25)
Esther approaches the king. Christ approaches the Father for us.
Esther risks her life. Christ actually gives His life.
Esther pleads for her people. Christ intercedes for His people.
Esther brings deliverance. Christ brings eternal salvation.
Esther is not Christ Himself. But her role as intercessor — willing to die for her people — gives us a Christ-like pattern. She is a shadow of the greater Mediator to come.
"For Such a Time as This"
There is one line in this book that has echoed across every generation of God's people since it was first spoken. Mordecai says it to Esther when she hesitates:
"Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)
Do not miss the weight of these words. Esther's position as queen was not accidental. Long before the crisis ever came, God had been quietly placing her exactly where she was needed. She did not know it. Mordecai did not know it. But God did.
And this points us to a far greater truth. Paul writes:
"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4–5)
God prepares salvation before His people even see the danger. Christ came at the precise, God-appointed time. And even today, God is at work in ways we may not understand — arranging circumstances long before we see how they will be needed. When the moment comes, we will look back and see the plan that was there all along.
Haman — The Enemy of God's People
The villain of the book is Haman — a man consumed with pride and hatred. When Mordecai the Jew refuses to bow before him, Haman is not satisfied merely to destroy Mordecai. He wants to destroy every Jew in the kingdom.
But the quarrel is bigger than Haman and Mordecai. It echoes the ancient, recurring conflict between God's people and the forces that seek their destruction — and behind Haman we can see, in shadow form, the devil himself.
Look at Haman at the peak of his power:
"Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king…" (Esther 5:11)
Riches. Children. Political influence. Access to the king. Personal glory.
Haman had everything the world tells us to chase.
And by chapter 7, verse 10:
"So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai." (Esther 7:10)
Rich today. Gone tomorrow.
This is exactly what Jesus warned us about:
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19–21)
And James adds:
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (James 4:13–14)
Haman invested his entire life in wealth, influence, and personal glory — and lost it all in a single day. What Christ tells us instead is to invest ourselves in God's kingdom, in righteous character, in serving others, and in eternal life. These treasures cannot be taken from us — not by moth, not by rust, not by thieves, not even by death.
The Great Reversal
Here we come to one of the most striking themes in the whole book. Haman, in his rage, builds a gallows fifty cubits high on which to hang Mordecai. He is so confident of his plan that he prepares for the execution before even asking the king's permission.
But look how the story unfolds. On a single sleepless night, everything begins to turn:
"That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh… who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus." (Esther 6:1–2)
The king discovers that Mordecai had once saved his life — and had never been honoured for it. When Haman arrives the very next morning to ask for permission to hang Mordecai, the king speaks first, asking Haman:
"What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?" (Esther 6:6)
Haman, believing the honour was for him, describes the most elaborate ceremony he can imagine — royal robes, royal horse, royal proclamation through the city. And then the king answers:
"Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king's gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken." (Esther 6:10)
The very thing Haman planned for his own glory became the very thing he had to do for the man he hated. And in the end, the gallows he had built to destroy Mordecai became the gallows on which he himself died.
The instrument of evil became the instrument of the enemy's own downfall.
And this points us to the greatest reversal in all of history. Look at the pattern:
In Esther: the enemy prepares death → God's servant is delivered → the enemy is destroyed
In the gospel: Christ is put to death → Christ rises → the powers of evil are defeated
Paul writes it beautifully:
"having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:14–15)
At the cross, apparent defeat became the means of victory. From Satan's perspective, the crucifixion of Jesus must have looked like the ultimate triumph. Judas had betrayed Him. The religious leaders had condemned Him. The Roman soldiers had crucified Him. His disciples had fled. And the Messiah truly died. From every human angle it seemed clear — evil had won.
But then, on the third day…
Here is a truth we must never forget: it was not the devil who forced Jesus to the cross. It was Jesus' own obedience to His Father that took Him to the cross.
"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Hebrews 2:14)
The devil used death as his weapon. Christ used His own death to destroy death's power. The very gallows the enemy had prepared for us became the very instrument of the enemy's defeat. This is the greatest reversal ever written.
Mordecai — From Humiliation to Exaltation
The third character in the book is Mordecai. And his story traces a pattern that runs straight through the life of Christ.
Unrewarded — He saved the king's life and was forgotten (Esther 2:21–23)
Opposed — He was hated by Haman and set for destruction (Esther 3:1–6)
Reversed — On one sleepless night, God stirred the king to remember him (Esther 6:1–3)
Exalted — He was clothed in royal robes and led through the city in honour (Esther 6:10)
And by the end of the book:
"For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen." (Esther 10:3)
Here is the vital principle: Mordecai never demanded recognition. He remained faithful. He accepted suffering, but he did not abandon his conviction. And when God's timing came, this unrewarded faithfulness became the very reason for his exaltation.
Faithfulness may sometimes come with suffering. But vindication follows.
Now watch how perfectly this pattern is fulfilled in Christ:
"He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." (John 1:11) — rejected
"…plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him." (Matthew 26:3–4) — opposed
"…declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." (Romans 1:4) — vindicated
"He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name." (Philippians 2:8–9) — exalted
Mordecai's pattern was faithfulness → suffering → vindication → exaltation.
Christ walked the same path — perfectly.
And now, having been given all authority, Christ uses that authority not for self-interest but for the welfare of His people — exactly as Mordecai did in the closing chapter. Authority given by God is meant to bless others.
"Their Fate Is My Fate"
Before the king, at the crisis point of the whole book, Esther says something that ought to break our hearts:
"If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request." (Esther 7:3)
Esther could have stayed silent. She could have hidden her Jewishness, kept her position, and let the decree fall on her people. Instead, she identified herself with them. Their fate would be her fate. If they were condemned, so was she.
This is exactly what Christ does — only infinitely more:
"For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Hebrews 2:11)
Esther shared her people's fate — but Christ went further. Their death He took upon Himself. He was not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. He put on our humanity. He walked among us. And when the time came, He did not merely intercede for us from a safe distance — He bore our judgment in His own body on the cross.
The Pattern and Its Fulfilment
Esther is not Christ — but her intercession mirrors His.
Mordecai is not a prophecy — but his humiliation-to-exaltation pattern is fulfilled in Him.
A sentence of death exists — yet God provides a lawful means by which His people may live.
God always provides a way out. And God's providence rests on those who put their faith in Him.
Even in a book that never names God, He is on every page. Behind every sleepless night, every sudden reversal, every seemingly-chance meeting, every position that "just happened" to be occupied by the right person at the right moment — God is at work, unseen.
If God was working like that in the Persian palace three thousand years ago, do not doubt for a moment that He is working like that in your life today.
Come to the King
If Esther's story teaches us anything, it teaches us this: there is a death sentence that hangs over every one of us. Not from a wicked Haman, but from our own sin. And no earthly queen, no earthly hero, no earthly effort can lift it from us.
Only Jesus can. He is our Mediator — not risking His life, but giving it.
He is our Great Reverser — not building a gallows, but tearing down the one death had built for us.
He is our Exalted King — vindicated by the Father, seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and still today interceding for every one of us.
And He calls you to come to Him. God has done His part by sending His one and only Son to live and die and rise for you. Your part is to hear the gospel, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, repent of your sins, confess Him before others, and be baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection — that you may rise with Him to newness of life. And then to remain faithful— knowing that even if the road passes through suffering, vindication and glory await those who belong to the King.
Whatever season you are in today — do not stay silent. Do not hide. Do not chase a Haman's treasures that will vanish tomorrow.
Come to the King. Trust the God who has been arranging everything, long before you saw the danger, for such a time as this.
