Esther 5-7

Introduction**record**:

-On September 29th 1985, there was TV series that aired their first episode

-The show was created by Lee David Zlotoff, starring Richard Dean Anderson, about a blonde-haired secret agent with a mullet named — MacGyver

-And what made MacGyver unique, and made the show famous, was MacGyver’s ability to use any kind of materials to fix any kind of problem

-He can make a jetpack out of seatbelts and a powerwasher

-He can make tear gas out of vinegar and cayenne pepper

-He can even make an airplane out of bamboo, a wheelbarrow, and a lawnmower engine

-The ability of MacGyver to use just about anything to fit his purposes is what made people marvel at the show

-But tonight, we’re going to spend some time marveling at the wonderful things that God uses to Providentially accomplish His purposes

-Because in a much more incredible way, as we’re going to see tonight, God uses anything and everything to accomplish His purposes and work for the good of His people

“what kind of things does God use?”

-I’m glad you asked! We’re going to look at that this evening

-So, we’re going to work our way through the account given to us by God

-And then we’re going to spend some time worshipping God and thanking Him for His incredible providence

-Sound good?

Background:

-So remember, this story is set while the Jews are in Exile

-The Babylonians were the ones who took the Kingdom of Judah into captivity

-But 70 years later, Cyrus of Medo-Persia conquers the the Babylonians and allows the Jews to return home

-This story is set in Shushan, the capital of the Medo-Persian Empire 50 years later

-And it focuses on Jews who did not return home for whatever reason

-King Ahasueras gets upset with his queen and removes her from her position

-He then gathers a lot of young virgins throughout the empire to the palace to see which one he likes the best, in order to make her the new queen

-Esther the Jew is the one chosen, but she does not reveal that she is a Jew

-5 years later, a wicked man named Haman is put in a position of power and influence with the king

-Esther’s uncle Mordecai, for whatever reason, refuses to bow and pay homage to Haman

-So Haman decides he doesn’t just want to kill Mordecai, he wants to kill all the Jews

-So he goes to the King and gets the King to sign off on a law that will make the genocide of the Jewish people legal on a certain day

-Mordecai and the Jews are devastated and go into mourning

-Mordecai tells Esther that she must go to the King and plead for the Jews

-She tells Mordecai that you can’t just go to the King whenever you want

-As a matter of fact, if you do, you’ll be killed . . . unless the King holds out his golden scepter to you

-Mordecai tells Esther that if she doesn’t do this, deliverance will arise for the Jews

-But maybe it’s for such a time as this that she’s been placed in this position

-So Esther agrees that in 3 days, she will go in to the King

Scene 1 (5:1-8)

-The author wants us as readers to feel the tension

-The fate of Esther, and the fate of her people seems to hang in the balance

Vs. 1-2

-From the outside, it looks a lot like luck

-But for those of us who know the Lord, we see His hand of providence

-The King asks her to make any request and he’ll grant it!

-So Esther requests that the King and Haman come to a banquet she’s been preparing

-The King immediately has someone grab Haman and they go to the banquet

-At the banquet, the King once again wants to know what Esther really wants

Vs. 6-8

-The tension is rising, the suspense is building

-What will happen to Esther and to her people

Scene 2 (5:9-14)

-Now, after the banquet, Haman, is a great mood

-He’s on top of the world!

-Until . . .

Vs. 9

-So he goes home and gathers all his friends and his wife and begins to brag about all that he has and all that he has done and how he’s even been invited to this feast with Esther and the King

-but notice this:

Vs. 13

-No matter what Haman has, he’s incapable of enjoying it because Mordecai won’t pay homage to him

-One guy in all the kingdom who won’t give him his respect, and all the riches, money, power, family, and friends mean nothing to him

So his wife makes a suggestion:

Vs. 14

-So here’s the problem

-Esther is going to have a banquet the following afternoon or evening

-But Haman is having servants build the gallows that night

-And he’s planning on going in to the king first thing in the morning and asking permission to put Mordecai to death

-So even if Esther makes her request at the banquet, Mordecai will be dead

-And she probably won’t even realize it until sometime later on that day

-Mordecai’s life is a few hours from being ended, and neither Esther nor Mordecai knows it, nor is in a position to be able to stop it

So what’s going to happen?

-This verse right here, 6:1, is the turning point of the entire story

-The whole story pivots on this one verse right here

Scene 3 (6:1-14)

6:1

-Is that not the most unremarkable verse you’ve ever read?

-Think through some of our favorite accounts from Scripture:

-Think of how the fate of the children of Israel hangs in the balance, and God parts the Red Sea and lets them all walk through on dry ground

-Think of when the Midianites are oppressing Israel, and God miraculously uses Gideon and 300 men to gain victory

-Think of when the Assyrians are going to wreck Jerusalem and Hezekiah, and at the crucial moment, God sends an angel who kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night

-God throughout the history of the Jews has intervened in absolutely miraculous fashion

And in this account, in which God is not named, the entire account turns on the fact that a pagan king has trouble falling asleep one evening

-And so he gets his servants to read a record of what’s been going on in the kingdom

-I mean, this brings up a myriad of questions:

-did the king normally have a hard time sleeping?

-Or was this a very rare occasion?

-Was having the records read to him a normal thing?

-Why not a story?

-Was this his melatonin, or way of counting sheep?

-Why was that particular record read?

-Mordecai may have uncovered that plot up to 5 years earlier

-Why were earlier records not read, maybe from 10 years ago?

-Or why not more recent records, like within the past year?

-We don’t know the answer to any of these things

-But we do know that this saves the life of Mordecai

-And while it may seem to the average person that Mordecai is saved but an incredible stroke of good luck, we know this to be the providence of God

-And while the average person may think, “whew, Mordecai was this close to being dead”

-We know that God had planned this from eternity past

-God wasn’t sitting there like “oh no! I didn’t see this coming that Haman would try to kill Mordecai this morning! what am I going to do?? I have just a few hours to think of something.”

No, God knew from the beginning

-And He divinely decreed that this pagan king would have trouble sleeping and divinely decreed that he would read from those specific chronicles that had the account of Mordecai saving his life in it

-and if God can work providentially in this way, what do you think he’s doing in your life and circumstances?

-The king’s memory is probably jogged, and maybe he remembers the incident that’s being read

-But there’s one thing he can’t remember, so he asks:

“what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”

-The servants look over the record carefully, and then give their reply:

“nothing has been done for him”

-Just at that exact moment, guess who happens to arrive in the king’s court?

Vs. 4

-Haman enters at the perfect time, right about to ask for the life of the man is being discussed

Haman, comes in, and the king, who’s not all that creative of a person and who seemingly spends his life relying on the suggestions of others, has a question for Haman:

Vs. 6

Now, the irony here is as good as it gets:

Now, irony means:

“a literary technique . . . by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.”

-Oxford Languages

-In other words, we have knowledge that one of the characters doesn’t have

-And in this case, we’re meant to get a big laugh out of it

-It’s like in the movies when one of the small characters is talking about another big character

-You have the small little guy saying, “man, if that big stupid brute was here, I’d beat him up! he’s nothing compared to me! I’m not afraid of him!”

And standing behind him the whole time he’s saying this is the 6’5, strong guy

-And his friends are trying to tell the small guy that the big guy is right behind him, but he’s not getting it and is going on and on

-And it finally hits the small guy, and he slowly turns around to see this other guy towering over him

-We laugh at that because of the irony

-We know information that the small guy doesn’t know

-And that’s what’s happening here, and we’re meant to get a big laugh out of it

So vs. 6a (read again)

-and what does Haman think?

Vs. 6b

-Haman, because he’s a puffed up, arrogant narcissist, can’t imagine who the king would want to honor more than himself

-He can’t fathom that anyone other than he would be deserving of the praise of the king

-And so Haman goes for it!

-He’s about to make all his dreams come true!

Vs. 7-9

-I mean, what an absolutely pompous buffoon he is!

-Just going on and on about all the honor the king should heap on this guy

And then the punch line hits him like a ton of bricks:

Vs. 10

-This is the ultimate humiliation

-He was moments away from asking for Mordecai’s head, and instead he’s the one who has to parade Mordecai around on the king’s horse

-Never in a million years would Haman have imagined that he’d be the one leading the horse instead of on the horse, much less that the guy on the horse would be Mordecai

-Afterwards, Haman hurries home with his head covered in shame

-And he tells his wife and friends what has happened, and this is what his wife says to him:

“If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”

-but before he has time to respond or reflect on what she’s just said, he’s whisked to the second banquet with Queen Esther

Scene 4 (7:1-10)

-So the king and Haman, come to the banquet, and while they’re drinking wine, the king asks Esther once again what her request is, assuring her that he will grant it

-She then tells him that her and her people have been sold to destruction

-that she and her kinsmen will soon be annihilated

And here’s where it all comes to a head:

Vs. 5-6a

And Haman, is terrified

-He’s gone from having the world at his feet only yesterday, to being humiliated, and now to his life being in danger

-And what happens next is so funny and so fascinating

-The king, to his credit, leaves and goes out to the palace garden

-Now, for a guy who has been portrayed as pretty hasty and impulsive, he actually doesn’t do anything, and instead decides to go out from his wine drinking into the garden for a few minutes

-So maybe there is a chance this can get sorted out a little

-Because, things aren’t quite what they seem

-Haman clearly never knew Esther was a Jew and clearly was not intending to do any harm to her when the made this law

-And so the king leaves, and Haman is scared out of his mind

-He fears for his very life at this point

-So the only person left to make an appeal to is Esther

-and maybe in his hysteria or desperation, he falls down beside her as he’s begging for his life

and looks what happens next:

Vs. 8

-the king comes back in at the perfect time (or the worst possible time for Haman) and it looks really bad as you have Haman falling all over Esther on the couch

-And any possible thoughts the king may have of sorting this out or being somewhat gracious are gone

-Because to him, it looks like Haman is trying to violate his queen right there in front him

So look how all of this ends:

Vs. 9-10

-And in a period of about 24 hours, Haman has gone from having it all to being executed by the king on gallows so high that all would be able to see it

Application

-Now as we move to application, I want to just show you what the author wants us to see

-Remember, this story is all about God reversing the destruction of his people, and instead giving them triumph and victory over their enemies

**look at the Haman/Mordecai chart**

Now, what does this mean for us today,

-let’s just look at all the things that God providentially uses to orchestrate His purposes, just from our passage today

-If God employs all of these things to accomplish His Divine Purpose, do you think that your life is any different?

-And I’m not sitting up here just saying that God can use any of these kinds of things in your life to accomplish His will

-I’m saying He IS using all of these kinds of things in your life

-There is truly nothing in our lives that God is not using to accomplish His purposes

-And what is God’s purpose?

-Romans 8:28-29 teach us that God is conforming us to the image of Christ

-S you can rest assured, that every coincidence, every act of nature, every act of man, good or evil, any seemingly insignificant detail is being used to accomplish God’s good purpose of Christ-likeness in the lives of His children

-And on the flip side of that, if we are angered, or discouraged, or driven to annoyance or despair when things don’t go our way, it shows that we don’t really believe in the good Providence of our God, doesn’t it?

-So brothers and sisters, take heart.

-Repent of not trusting God’s loving sovereignty in your life if necessary

-If you have been made a child through faith in the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, then God is truly using all things in your life to conform you to Christ-likeness