Whose Plan will Prevail?

If you have your bibles this morning turn with me to Esther 5, I have titled the message this morning. “Whose plan will Prevail?”

Pray with me..

So where have we been. Remember in the beginning of this series we are introduced to Xerxes the powerful king of the Persian Empire, the Empire that stretched across the whole known world at that time. And this King had everything, including what he and others thought to be a troublemaker for a queen because she did not go along with everything he wanted, which led to the crowning of Esther who as we saw the last few weeks is going to play a significant role in this story, and she has to because of what we saw back in chapter 3 when Mordecai did not acknowledge and bow down to Haman infuriating him so much so that it led him to come up with this plan to destroy the Jews from an Edict from the king, and when Mordecai found out about this as we saw last week, he pleaded for Esther to be an intercessor for her people, and we see this begin to be played out today…

And as we move through the text this morning what I want you to see is this…

No matter what our plans may be, God’s plan will always prevail.

In this text again we see loads of application from Esther, Mordecai, and Haman, when it comes to how we should make and take action on our plans but ultimately we will see that if God is not in them they will never truly work.

Lets go to the Word of God, and see how last week’s text is acted upon today.

Esther 5:1–3 ESV

1 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, in front of the king’s quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. 2 And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. 3 And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.”

Our plans must be acted on in faith.

If you remember at the end of the text last week, Esther told Mordecai…

Esther 4:16 ESV

16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

Remember she petitioned her people to go and fast for her, because what she was about to do was indeed something that could cost her her very own life.

Remember what was said last week if she she approached the king without being called she would surly meet her fate.

I was reading in preparation for this message that there is actual evidence of a Persian king who in fact had this long scepter in his right hand with a soldier standing behind his throne with a large ax ready to eliminate those who came in uninvited.

But despite the threat of her death she took a step of faith, and once the King saw her she won his favor yet again. Remember the beauty of Esther, and to add to her beauty she was wearing the royal robes which most likely added to the kings eye because it was most likely covered in gold and jewels.

With her faith and her beauty this plan starts to unfold when Xerxes asks her What is it QUEEN Esther? What is your request? And he goes on to add It shall be given to you, even to the half of my kingdom…

Now if this language sounds familiar to you, its may be because in the new testament John Baptist head was cut off, because of the request of Herodias who after doing a provocative dance, got to ask whatever she wanted and this led to a death that Harod wanted no part of because he knew deep down that John the Baptist was a man sent from God.

Interesting enough later on, historians note that another women, once took advantage of Xerxes when he made the same promise and asked for the beautiful robe that Amestris, his wife, had given him. The results were disastrous and finally brought about the death of Xerxes’ brother and family.

But going back to Esther in the situation she is in its like the King Xerxes threw her a softball. The Story could end here, she could tell the King Listen, I would love to accept that offer you have given me, In fact the truth is I am actually a Jew and there is this Edict from you per Haman will in fact is going to kill not only me, but all my people, and I would kindly ask that you reverse that edict so my people will not perish, nor will I.

But she doesn’t do that which if you are reading this for the first time, you might ask why? Sometimes a plan isn’t as simple as it seems, and we even see that in the grand plan of our own redemption through Jesus Christ.

Instead of Esther being blunt she was strategic which leads to my second point.

Our plans must be thought out.

listen to what happens next…

Esther 5:4–8 ESV

4 And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king.” 5 Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther has asked.” So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. 6 And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, “What is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” 7 Then Esther answered, “My wish and my request is: 8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”

Here you can begin to see Esther is up to something… Because she invites the King, and she invites Haman to this feast, and if we have learned a thing or two about the King so far is he likes a good feast…

Why she invites Haman in the moment we dont know but what we do know is both he and king show up.

There is much debate on why she was so strategic with all this, was it customary if you were going to ask a king for something to make sure his belly was full, and he had a good time first. Seems risky to me knowing how Xerxes shifts like the waves of the ocean,

however One man says the perfect words to describe what is happening.. He says.. We can also see an indication of God’s wisdom given to Esther. She sensed that the time was not right for her important request. In God’s providence time was needed for some other details before Esther made her request. We need to be sensitive to God’s timing and not be impatient with delays. Another man adds that the delay allowed time “for Haman’s misguided self-confidence to mature.”

So instead of her exposing Haman and the King to her plan in the moment, her plan is to just delay it one more day, and as we read on we will see why that will be so crucial to how this story unfolds..

Esther 5:9–13 ESV

9 And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. 10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. 11 And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. 12 Then Haman said, “Even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. 13 Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

Third thing I want you to see this morning is this..

Our plans should not be based on our emotions.

We already know about this hatred of Haman to Mordecai right, hence why we are here in the text.

And Haman seems to think after this edict, after this death sentence of Mordecai, and the Jews that Mordecai should bow down to him, which makes no sense to me Mordecai is already a dead man walking why we he bow down to Haman, and this filled Haman with more wrath…

Guy just got a great meal, invited to another meal, and all that is wrecking his life. All because one man would not bow down to him. Oh folks how many times have we let one person wreck our lives I know I have, and when we think with our emotions we can quickly change the plan when we should have to a different plan.

So filled with rage Haman goes and settles himself down enough to go home and he has for himself this meeting of friends and his wife, and begins to tell them about all he has.. About how many riches he has, those friends can be annoying huh, and all his sons he has, but not daughters so some of us couldn’t relate in here, and he goes and tells them the fact that the King himself even honors me, and how great I am to be above all of you really, because if the king has a right hand man its me, and guess what guys the Queen is inviting me again tomorrow for feast with them!!!

Yet all that I have which is really great is worth nothing to me if this man Mordecai still breaths..

He hates this guy so much so that it causes him to lose focus on everything else… And he has based this plans on that very thing.

A lack of contentment can lead to contempt. You can get so infatuated because one thing is going so wrong that you fail to see all that is going right. And this is what happened to Haman himself.

He was so ate up with the fact that one man would not acknowledge him, it led him to want him dead.

Listen to the last verse in this chapter.

Esther 5:14 ESV

14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast.” This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

Last point today is this..

Our plans should be rooted in the wisdom of God.

We see again like we saw all the way back in chapter 1. Human wisdom at its finest. Which pales in comparison to wisdom of God.

Haman’s wife and friends have the idea if you hate this guy so much why don’t you just get rid of him. Just kill him in fact do it before the dinner with the king tomorrow so you can have a great time. Could you imagine if that is how it worked here in the United States, sadly it does happen that way in other places, and in our country with abortion on demand..

..Now Many commentators think “seventy-five feet” is an exaggeration. It may be the use of hyperbole to show the large size; it could also suggest that the gallows were placed on a hill to be more visible to the public. never the less Haman wanted the people to see his victory over Mordecai. He and his advisors took for granted that the king would immediately grant his request.

The Edict against the Jews, the gallows for Mordecai happened because their plans were not rooted in the wisdom of God.

The scripture speaks so clearly about God’s wisdom, and if you think about the greatest plan the plan of redemption we see how it ties into all the points today..

For example.. When God created Adam and Eve he called it good, yet Adam and Eve sinned against God, and God being righteous had every right to condemn every man and women from all of history to hell, because he hates sin, and no-one could fault him for it. Yet he carefully unfolded his plan to save his people, to make his people see that he was the one who was saving them all along, ultimately by sending his Son Jesus to come and save his people in such a way they have never seen before. Making a once and for all sacrifice on the cross, dying for sinners, being buried and rising again on the third day.

And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter’s 1 and 2 the kind of wisdom God has which is totally different than anything man could ever come up with listen to these words and follow along with me… While I compare it just a little to the wisdom of God we see in the story of Esther so far..

1 Corinthians 1:18–31 (ESV)

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Think about the situation we are in the the story of Esther. In God’s wisdom he carefully carried out this plan even though the people of God thinking they themselves were going to parish, and thwarting the plans of Haman, and as we will soon see leading to this quote on quote wise man’s destruction. The Jews were looking for God to move in such a way he had done many other times in the past yet he was going to work in his own plan, a plan no man could ever truly have at the time. So he uses Esther one who was timid and weak to rise up to become strong, showing he can do anything

By sending his Son to die on the cross, he destroyed the idea that only the worse die on the cross, showing that in his power he can save his people through this horrendous act on death on the cross, destroying the idea that people can be saved in any other way outside faith in Jesus Christ. Showing that what appears to not be wise in the eyes of men, are not even close to the foolishness of God even though there is no such thing. Because God’s wisdom is greater and wiser than any plan any one has ever came up with or ever will come up with.

look back in 1 Corinthians 1.

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Who was Esther? She was a women who had no mother or father she only had Mordecai who wasn’t anything special himself, and God raised up this queen whom he gave great beauty to to convince a man who had this great power to save a people he had nothing to do with, who as I have told you were not the people with the most favor, yet he used Esther to show others God was still with them, so no one could boast.

Like God rising up the most unlikeliness of people in Esther to this day he uses those who the world would not define as anything special, people like me, and you to show his power. And to show his wisdom and grace showing us all that he is the one who did this all, and he and he along should get the glory.

Keep following along now in chapter 2, and see the wisdom of God’s plans in Christ unveiled.

1 Corinthians 2 (ESV)

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Think about the book of Esther, and Pauls words here. God did not make Esther into this great prophet proclaiming about God, the book shows us the power of God without even saying a word, thats how powerful God truly is, and the story of Esther shows the power of God at his finest.

Paul made sure that he preached the truth, not relying on anything but the truth of the gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit, so they would believe in Jesus and nothing else, proving everything about him is true..

Keep listening..

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

We dont always know what God will do in his wisdom, or how people will respond to his wisdom, but we know by this story in Esther, and through the words of Paul that God will always do things outside the wisdom of the age, and there wisdom will pass away just like this world will but we know this God’s word will never pass away, and having the word of God, and his Spirit means that we can have this wisdom so that our plans align with his.

We going forward for the rest of our days need to understand that no matter what our plans may be, God’s plan will always prevail, but when we have a plan, we need to act on it. Man I will tell you something I have great plans for this church, and I must put them into action if I want to see if they are in the will of God. I still have many cards, and door hangers that I haven’t passed out, many people that I have not talked to about Jesus and this church, but Ill tell you something, If we want to see if God want’s to do something here we have to act upon our faith. And that goes for every thing God has called you to do. James says we must be doers of the faith.

Our plans must be thought out. Esther was methodical when unfolding her plan, to often we do things impulsively especially acting upon our emotions rather than seeking the wisdom of God.

So what plans are you thinking through today.. Do you need to take the next step, and act of those, to plan them out, to be wise about them..

If you do use that method and if God is for it, he will see you through it…

Finally, the greatest plan someone can have is where they plan on spending eternity…

See the plan of salvation was simply this.. In the wisdom of God Jesus came and saved his people, by living a perfect life by dying on the cross, being buried, and rising from the dead in 3 days, in order that his people can be saved but in order to be saved you must repent and believe. You have to act on that faith. One is not saved by how that feel in the moment, because feelings change, but the wisdom of God does not.

Don’t leave here today without knowing where you plan on spending eternity let us pray…