God gives us hope

· Thursday: Esther (Esther 1-10) God gives us hope.

How many people have been to Jamba Juice before? They have all these different smoothies like the Razzmatazz. And all these drinks have different ingredients. The razzmatazz has three different fruit juices, orange sherbet, strawberries, and bananas. Then they take all those ingredients and put them into a blender and let them rip. The blender takes them, crushes, and forces them all together. And what started out as a bunch of separate unrelated things is now a new thing wonderful creation.

As an employee in the Jamba juice store mixes the smoothie, God is doing the same with the universe. God is always taking things, people, and circumstances and blending them into something new, something bigger and better. The book Esther is the best example in the Bible. The Book of Esther is the only book in the Bible that doesn’t mention God’s name in it at all.

If you read every word in the book of Esther, you will not see God’s name. That is not true anywhere else. You will not see anyone praying to Goy. You will not see people talking about the word of God, and you will not see anyone mention God’s law. This has caused a bunch of questions on whether God could be the author if God doesn’t show up in the book. Well his name might not have shown up but his figure prints are all over it.

There is a word for this in theology; the word is “providence.” Providence is the hand of God in the glove of history. It is the work of God whereby he integrates, blends, events in the universe in order to fulfill His original design for which it was created. It is God sitting behind the steering wheel of time. Providence refers to God’s governance of all events so as to direct them toward an end. It is God taking what you and I would call luck, chance, mistakes and happenstance and stitching them into achieving His program.

Yesterday I talked about looking for what God is doing and engaging with him. Well providence is God working behind the scene. You don’t actually see God, you just see stuff happening. Sometimes things happen that you think shouldn’t be happening. Sometimes it looks like a mistake, chaos, and out of order. But what is really happening is God is pulling strings and making things happen for his perfect plan.

Yesterday I was talking about this pattern in the old testament where God’s people would do right in God’s eyes, then there would be times when they would do wrong. This is one of those times. Ester takes place after Daniel. The Jews had been released from the Babylonians/Persians and God told them to return to Israel, but many stayed in Persia because they got comfortable. They were living a comfortable life but outside the will of God.

So God took a step back in this book because his people were living outside of his will. But he still teaches us about him through this Diva named Esther. Esther is a young lady described this way.

7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

The word Esther means “Star.” The Bible says she was beautiful, she had a fine figure, lovely to look at. She might not have had a lot going for her. She lost her mom and dad but Esther “Star” was beautiful.

So the story before Esther busts onto the scene and becomes the star of the show Ahasuerus the King of Persia was having a banquet. Actually, in these chapters, he has like 5 banquets. The king liked to party, and the way they did these parties they would have two parties at one time. They would have a party for the men and a party for the ladies.

The king's wife’s name was Vashti and she is described as very beautiful. And one night during the party the king called for her to show her off to everyone. He said come on in here girl and let me show you off. Now we believe this meant more than just come in here and spin for us. It probably meant uncovering and disclosure. Not a thing a husband should be telling his wife to do.

Vashti knew that it was inappropriate and she tells the king, “you must be crazy!” “I’m not doing that!” Ahasuerus says, “um I don’t think you understand, I’m the King!” She replied you are a fool! I’m not putting myself on display like that!

I am really summarizing like two chapters here. The Kings court told him he couldn’t let his wife get away with this. They were like all the nation is going to find out and think less of you and our wives will think they could act that way to us. You have to get rid of her. So the king got rid of her. Lesson #1 You don’t make the wisest decisions…

Ch2:1

2 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.

In other words, the king came to his senses and was bummed. He realized he wanted to change his mind but that same rule with Daniel exists here. It was the law of the Meads and the Persians, but simply said when you make a decree you can’t reverse it. When the king makes a decree. He made a decree that Vashti is banished, he can’t reverse his decree and now he’s depressed. He has gone from drunk to Prozac.

So, the king’s attendants come up with an idea. They said “Why don’t you …” verse 2, “… let all the beautiful virgins be brought before the king and let’s get a new Vashti.” Let’s get another fine lady to take her place. You know, ain’t one fish in the sea. There a whole lot of pretty women out here. So, don’t get all depressed about Vashti. Let’s, parade the most beautiful women in the kingdom.

Now, the author wants you to know Esther was pretty. Girl was looking good and she was one of the ladies identified to be brought before the king for consideration to be his new bride. “So it came about …” in verse 8, “… when the command and the decree of the king was heard and many of the young ladies were gathered in the citadel of Susa …” verse 5, “… the young lady pleased him …” Esther, “… and found favor with him so he quickly provided her with cosmetics and food and gave her seven choice maids from the king’s palace and trans-transferred her and her

“Esther did not make known her people or her kindred for Mordecai …” her cousin “… had instructed her that she should not make them known.” Girl don’t tell them who you are, just go and look pretty, but don’t tell them who you are. Now the plot thickens because there is a guy in the kingdom named Haman. Haman has been promoted in chapter 3 verse 1 by the king to a high position and like a lot of folks who get promoted he got the big head and thought he was more than him, of himself than he ought to have thought.

“The king commands that everybody give recognition …” verse 2 of chapter 3, “… to Mordecai. Then the king’s servant who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, ‘Why do you transgress the king’s command?’ ” In other words, Mordecai wouldn’t bow to Haman who had been promoted. “That was when they had spoken daily to him. He would not listen to them and they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s reason would stand.” Why he wouldn’t bow, “… for he had told them he was a Jew.”

So here, we got this Jew who ought to be happy he’s alive, refusing to bow to Mordecai who has been promoted. “Haman …” verse 5, “… is filled with rage.” That Mordecai won’t bow. So he decides, verse 6, “… to kill all the Jews …” He’s ticked off at one man and he wants to wipe out the whole race.

Now that’s the story to this point. In the first three chapters, we got a pretty girl who catches the eye of a king because his first wife wouldn’t do right. It’s just a story of life. We’ve got intrigue because we’ve got a man being promoted, a man who won’t bow to the man being promoted and the man who’s been promoted wants to kill the whole race of a man who won’t bow. The woman who catches the eye of the king is the cousin of the man who won’t bow, Mordecai. Mordecai has raised her up because Esther’s mother and father have died.

A law gets passed at the end of chapter 3 and the law by King Adjahar-, Ahasuerus says, “Kill the Jews.” Haman wants them dead, get rid of them. So, this is bad news. When the law is passed, verse 1 of chapter 4. I just went through three chapters real quickly. “When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly.” That means cried like a baby. When he discovered the law had been past to exterminate all the Jews because he wouldn’t bow, he buried his head and he cried like a baby.

Mordecai sends a message to Esther giving her a copy of the text. Remember, Esther has not told her husband she’s a Jew. That’s private information to this point.

Mordecai sends a message to Esther who’s now living in the palace with the king. Now is the time to tell him who you are. I told you keep quiet before, this is not a keep quiet moment. The Jews are up for genocide. They’re gonna destroy us. Now is the time to reveal who you are. Esther writes back, diva writes back, Mordecai you don’t understand how things work up here in the palace, because up here in the palace you just can’t go into the king like that. In fact, the king and I haven’t hooked up for 30 days. We, are not even talking right now. We got issues going on in the palace and for 30 days the king and I haven’t been any, and if you walk and the king’s ticked off at you and you walk in and he doesn’t hold out that scepter, they gonna kill you.

You don’t understand, Mordecai, I’ve come from rags to riches. I’ve come from the outhouse to the white house. I did come from walking to a Mercedes chariot. I did come from Target to Neiman Marcus. I have come a long way and what you’re asking me to do is risk my future and my well-being for yours. I don’t live with y’all no more. I live in the king’s palace. My name is Esther, I’m a star. I’m big time now, so, I don’t think I can facilitate y’all. I can’t help you all right now because it’s too risky.

Say, it’s risk going before the king because I might lose everything I have and I like my life. I like how I’m living. I like how I’m treated. I had to wash stuff by myself, now I got maids to do stuff for me. I didn’t have no money when I was living with you. Not I got more money than I could ever spend. You don’t understand. Life is fine for me. Now I’m sorry for y’all and I wish you all, you know, I hope you all work it out, but I can’t let you jeopardize, she said because if I go before him and he doesn’t hold up the scepter, I’m gonna risk losing it all.

Mordecai gets the note and he has a note. His note is in verse 13, verse 13, “Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not imagine …” because it’s just your imagination running away with you. “Do not imagine …” Let’s put it this way, “Don’t think for a moment that you living in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, deliverance arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?’ ”

There it is right there. He says, Esther, you do not understand. You think because you’re not willing to act God’s not gonna act. He says, “Don’t think you’re gonna escape by keeping quiet, because one monkey don’t stop the show.” You a fine monkey but you don’t stop the show. One good-looking diva is not gonna stop Gods’ program. I don’t care how good looking you are. How fine you are, how rich you are, how upper crust you are, I just want you to know if God can’t use you, He will find somebody else. He makes a very powerful statement that everybody in this room needs to know and that is, God don’t need you. He says, if He can’t use you, he created you pretty, He can get rid of one. He already got rid of one wife, so getting rid of women is no problem for this man and finding pretty women is no problem for this man either, so this man can’t get rid of you like he got rid of Vashti. What he says is, if you keep silent in other words, what he’s saying is, Esther had not made the connection.

Here it is, between her beauty, her opportunity and the kingdom of God. She had not understood that how she looked and the position she now holds was tied to a kingdom purpose. She wasn’t just to look good so she could dress up. God had placed her in a position of influence to deliver His people. It wasn’t just about her car, her clothes, her furniture, her lifestyle, her bank account.

Have you ever considered that maybe God has you here in the kingdom for such a time as this? That everything that has happened till now was moving to this point. You are thinking about you, you’re not thinking about the kingdom. The kingdom is the rule of God, the purposes of God, the agenda of God. In the kingdom one-thing matters and that is this, you are blessed to be a blessing. You’ve been blessed with good life and good looks. You’ve been blessed with unique opportunity to be in the king’s palace and now that you’ve been blessed, all you’re thinking about is you. I can’t go before the king because if I go before the king, I’m gonna be in trouble. If he doesn’t hold out his scepter to me, then I can lose my life. The only thing that matters to you girlfriend is you. And that means you missed the kingdom.

Today we live in a world of pomposity. We living a world of people getting the big head because they got a little something some you know people like that. You know people who all of a sudden, because now they got a nice job. Think them somebody. Still can’t use English, but they got a nice job. You know people who drive a nice car and expect to be treated a certain way. They have developed a wrong view of themselves. If you wanna know who is a great person?

A great person is a person who God has blessed but he never forgot where his blessing came from. A great person is a person who has been given a unique opportunity but hadn’t forgotten where the opportunity came from. A great person is a person who’s been blessed and is seeking opportunities to be a blessing. They wanna be used by God as a conduit, not merely as a cul-de-sac.

So, she takes the risk. And says, If I perish I perish. She now goes in and is preparing to go to her husband while Haman plots the destruction of the Jews. Now here’s, remember I started off talking about the blender. How God blends things. I want if you ever learn this truth about God, it’s called providence where God behind the scenes is working stuff out. All right. You can’t see it, but He is working stuff out that you can’t see. Now watch this. Haman has decided he’s building gallows now to hang Mordecai as a prelude to killing all the Jews. He wants to get rid of them. The whole book hinges on chapter 6 verse 1. See the book doesn’t hinge on what I just told you just now. That’s just setting up the book. The book hinges on chapter 6 verse 1. “During that night …” Somebody say that night All right. Say that night again. “During that night the king could not sleep.” Everything in the book hinges on the inability of the king to go to sleep.

Okay. Now that’s a minor, that seem like a minor thing. Okay. The king can’t sleep. I’m sure there were a lot of nights the king couldn’t sleep. Well, he can’t sleep this night. The king couldn’t sleep even though he doesn’t know any of this stuff is going All he knows is, boy, I can’t sleep. “So he gave an order to bring the book of records, the chronicles and they were read before the king.”

So now, of course there’s a lot of things happening in the kingdom, so the, the record keeper comes. He flips pages and decides to just read a page to the king. “It was found written …” verse 2, “… what Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers …” body keepers, “… that … “bodyguards, “… that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. The king said, ‘What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?’ Then the king’s servants who attended him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him.’ ”

Okay, you can’t miss this. The whole book hinges on the fact the king could not sleep. Mordecai is already building the gallows to hang; I mean Haman it building the gallows to hang Mordecai the next day. But that night, say that night. In other words, just in the nick of time, God oversees in the shadows, he can’t sleep.

The King who can’t sleep now, you know, there’s a problem that the king can’t sleep. If the king could go to sleep, none of this would happen. But, the king can’t sleep. And so, because the king can’t sleep he says wait a minute. You mean this guy Mordecai saved my life. Yeah, the guy Mordecai. What have we done for Mordecai? Well, we haven’t done anything for Mordecai. Well, shucks if Mordecai saved my life, I better do something for Mordecai. To make a long story short, he calls Haman in.

Haman, let me ask you a question. Haman, I wanna know something. If there was somebody great in the kingdom who had done a great thing, what should we do for somebody great? Bible says, “Haman thought, Ahasuerus was taking about him.” So, he said everything he could think of. I’d buy him a house, I’d buy him a car, buy a boat. I’d give him a bank account. I’d hold a banquet, I’d hold a party. Somebody who did all of that, I would throw the bank at him.

He said, good idea, why don’t you go set it up so that we can have it for Mordecai. Oh, wait a minute. All this happened because the king couldn’t go to sleep. Let me tell you how great God is. God works behind the scenes keeping folk awake when they ought be sleeping when you decide to take a risk to be used by Him, you don’t see God moving in the shadows until she decides to take a risk and says if I perish I perish.

So he makes a party, watch his now, Bible says, “… that Haman went home and cried like a baby …” He got to make up a party for the man who he was getting ready to hang. God, he goes and cries like a baby. And, when he does, Esther says, “I want you to preserve the Jews from someone who wants to kill them. Ahasuerus says, who wants to kill the Jews? She says Haman wants to kill the Jews. He got ticked off at Haman, had to walk outside to think what he was gonna do.”

“Haman comes over and grabs the Queen to plea for his life, but Ahasuerus comes in and sees his arms wrapped around his wife …” he said, “Oh, no, you didn’t. Oh, no, you didn’t.” You mean to tell me I have been thinking about whether I’m gonna let you live or die and you gonna be groping on my woman? Oh no, the Bible says, “… before he had a chance to utter a word, they came and put a cape over his head …” and then it says, “And they hung him on the gallows he had built for Mordecai.”

Listen no matter what circumstance you are going through God can turn it around. God can work it out. Don’t quit on God. Don’t throw your talent on God. He can work it out. He can work it out. Don’t quit on God. He can work it out. Don’t you stop praying? Don’t you stop witnessing? Don’t you stop testifying? God can work it out. He can work it out. He can work it out for you. He can work it out.