Sermon Tone Analysis

God’s Providence

Esther 2-9

Every person can see God’s providence in this passage by seeing the events that cause victory for the Jewish people.

Introduction: 

     Captain Johnson was serving his men as chaplain on an inland in the South Pacific.

He prepared to go on a bombing rain on Jap-occupied islands several hundred miles away.

The mission was a complete success.

On the homeward course the plane began to lose altitude and the engines seemed to fade out.

But God had provided an island, and a safe landing was made.

Later they learned that the enemy was just one –half mile in each direction, yet their landing had not been discovered.

The staff sergeant came and said, “Chaplain, you have been telling us for months of the need of praying and believing God to answer in time of trouble, and that He does it right away.

Now it is your chance to prove what you have been preaching.

We’re out of gas, base several hundred miles away . . .

and almost surrounded by japs.”

Johnson began to pray and lay hold of the promises and believed that God would work a miracle.

All afternoon he was on his knees.

Night came and the crew slept on the ground.

Johnson continues to pray.

About 2 a.m. the staff sergeant was strangely around and walking to the water’s edge, discovered a metal float, which had drifted up on the beach – a barge on which was fifty barrels of high octane gasoline.

In a few hours the crew reached their home base safely.

An investigation revealed that the skipper of a U. S. tanker, finding his ship in sub infested waters, had his gasoline cargo removed so as to minimize the danger of a torpedo hit.

Barrels were placed on barges and put adrift 600 miles from where Johnson and the plane crew were forced down.

God had navigated one of these barges through wind and current and beached it fifty steps from the stranded men.

We can clearly see how God provided for these men, through the prayers of a faithful chaplain.

I would like to look now at the events of Esther’s life and examine God’s providence there.

Event I.  Esther is made queen

A. Esther is a Jewish girl in Babylon.

She like most of the people I haves spoken of over the past several weeks is there because of the exile.

This Jewish girl somehow ends up being the queen of Babylon.

But, before she can become queen the existing queen needs to get out of the way.

King Xerxes was irritated when Queen Vashti is not willing to show herself off at a party like he wanted.

In his anger he has the queen deposed.

He was having a party before he heads off to make war.

So when he gets back he does not have a queen.

One of his advisors suggests that the king have a sort of beauty competition, where all of the most beautiful women of the kingdom are brought to the king and he would choose a queen from among these women.

B.

Out of all of the women in the kingdom, Esther is chosen to be one of the beautiful young women and she is chosen as the one to become the queen.

Esther gained the attention of the king over all of the other women, and she also had a good reputation among the others in the harem who were watching over all of these women.

This was not just a matter of chance.

The time is coming when the existence of the Jewish people is threatened.

Having a Jewish woman right next to the king seems to be a very strategic move.

At this point however, the king does not know that Esther is a Jewish woman.

This is not just a matter of chance.

It is God’s providence at work.

He manufactured this situation to preserve the existence of the Jewish people.

C.

Esther was a Jewish girl, and she had been raised by her cousin Mordecai.

Mordecai taught Esther how to be a good Jew; consequently she might not have had the desire to be in this place.

She is going from being a nothing to being the queen sitting next to the king.

It was a big responsibility.

Perhaps something too big for her to take on, but it was something she choose to do.

D.

Perhaps you have been called on to do something, thinking I really don’t want to do this.

Or maybe your response was I don’t feel equipped to carry out this task.

That might be true if you are trying to do it by yourself, but if you are following God’s plan you will know that God will give you the resources you need to do the task and to do it well.

Don’t shy away, just because it is undesirable, or seems like more than you can handle.

Event II.

Mordecai uncovers a conspiracy

A. Mordecai is kind of a lurker.

He is Esther’s cousin who took the responsibility of raising Esther.

Now he is staying close to the palace.

It seems as if he is there to keep an eye on Esther.

If it is possible he makes contact with her.

Mordecai is Esther’s unofficial advisor.

He has told Esther that she is not to tell anyone that she is a Jew.

This is supposed to be a secret kept by Esther and Mordecai.

B.

While he is staying near the palace gates he hears of a conspiracy by a couple of the king’s guards.

They were angry with the king and they were working on some way that they might assassinate the king.

Mordecai heard about the plot, reported what he heard to the queen, who in turn tells the king.

The king investigates this and finds it to be true.

He has the would be assassins hanged, and he also has it recorded in the official record that Mordecai had uncovered their plot.

C.

This really seems to be a minor point.

Mordecai simply does what needs to be done.

He acts as a good citizen and protects his king from harm.

He is also protecting his cousin’s husband.

It is all the work of a good person.

There is one short sentence that is very significant in 2:23, “All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.”

Mordecai was just doing his duty, but it causes him to be noticed by the king.

That little sentence slips by so quickly that we could almost forget it ever happened.

Now the king knows who Mordecai is.

D.

Maybe doing the right thing never really seems to be a big deal.

Maybe it is such a small deal that we forget to do the right thing.

Mordecai does the right thing and it pays big benefits for him.

Maybe by us doing the right thing it could pay big benefits for us as well.

Event III.

Esther uses her influence

A. Another character in this story is Haman.

He is the bad guy.

In chapter 3 he is honored by the king and given a place higher than all of the other nobles.

Whenever Haman shows up everyone bows down in recognition of his greatness, except for Mordecai.

This really gets under Haman’s skin.

It is such an irritation to him that he is not satisfied with getting rid of Mordecai; instead he learns that Mordecai is a Jew and decides to have all of the Jewish people killed.

He even gets the king to agree to this plan.

He kind of stretches the truth to convince the king.

He says, “"There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.”

3:8.

they agree that on a certain day, all of the Jewish people will be killed.

Basically it will be all of the Babylonians given permission to execute the Jewish people however they want.