Who Rules the Universe?
Notes
Transcript
Claim - God’s people will be saved and His enemies shamed and destroyed - despite what it often looks like.
Focus - The world may look like it’s winning - and believe it is winning - until it is not!
Function - to remember God rules even when we can’t see that he does - so trust the mediator Jesus who stands between us and judgement.
Basically I want us to see that the world will often look like (and believe it is) winning (Haman has his big spike up and ready to kill MOrdacia, he even thinks the King is going to honour him and the Queen must also think he’s amazing! Ultimately though - Esther is setting him up, and the King was planning to honour Mordacia, not him)
So we shouldn't be tempted and swayed by the world around us - rather we must trust God’s plans of salvation - even when they are hidden from us.
Pray
So, we’re well into our book of Esther, and things are hotting up.
Haman the enemy of the Jews has got agreement from King Xerxes to anhilate all the Jews on a certain day coming up in the future.
Mordacia the Jew has persuded his cousin, Esther, who has found herself Queen, to take the risk and approach the king to beg for mercy for the Jews.
And this is what’s about to happen:
After 3 days of fasting a praying by Esther, her household staff, and all the Jews she makes her approach:
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.
Will the king, as per the law, have her put to death for approaching him uninvited?
Or will he extend his scepter and welcome her.
At this point in the story, if you were living through it, you’d be unsure what God’s plans are.
Is God’s people the Jews and their impending doom all down to luck?
Or is God are work?
Well after the unfolding events we follow today, there is too much here for mere luck or coincidence.
Someone is at work.
When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the sceptre. Then the king asked, ‘What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.’
It couldn’t have gone much better so far.
The offer of half his kingdom isn’t a literal thing - but more of a common phrase.
- the offer is to ask for something very significant - the king is feeling generous.
Esther doesn’t launch straight in with her request for the King to make a plan to save her people, she’s playing the longer game.
She invites the King and Haman (the real enemy) to a banquet at which the kIng again asks what her request is.
Again she delays and invites them to another banquet the following day
- perhaps she’s building the tension and weight of her request, so that when she finally reveals it - it will be hard for the King to deny it.
Or perhaps she’s buying trust with the King and getting Haman to thinks she’s his biggest fan, so as to catch him off guard later.
If that’s the plan - it’s working:
Esther 5:10–14 (NIV 2011)
10b, Haman… Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honoured him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. ‘And that’s not all,’ Haman added. ‘I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.’ His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.’ This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.
Could the tension be any higher - or more ironic!
Haman thinks the Queen is honouring him - while she’s about to throw him under the bus,
and at the same time,
Haman is ready to impale Queen Esther’s guardian - adoptive Father on a colossal 25m pole!
Looks like Mordaicai is done for, the banquet wont be until tomorrow evening, but Haman is going to ask the King in the morning to have Mordacia killed!
If luck is at work - it’s about to run out for Mordacia.
But fortunately for God’s people - luck is not a thing!
That night the King can’t sleep - so does what we all do - find something boring to read.
IN reading the Chronicles of his own reign, he’s reminded of chapter 2 from Esther - where MOrdaica overheard a plot to kill the king and saved the KIngs life by reporting it.
The king wants to then honour MOrdacia - for he apparently wasn’t honoured rightly at the time.
So very early in the morning - he makes plans.
What a plot twist!
The king said, ‘Who is in the court?’ Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him. His attendants answered, ‘Haman is standing in the court.’ ‘Bring him in,’ the king ordered. When Haman entered, the king asked him, ‘What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?’ Now Haman thought to himself, ‘Who is there that the king would rather honour than me?’
Poor old Haman!
Pride really does come before a fall doesn’t it.
He thinks Esther is about to honour him,
now he’s convinced the King is about to honour him as well,
SO he doesn’t hold back on the honours that he suggests to the King for this ‘man’ that is to be honoured!
He thinks it’s all coming his way!
Bring the Royal Robes, the Royal horse, the Royal Crest, and the highest of nobel princes.
Put them all upon the man to honoured and have him led through the city for all to honour him.
Poor Haman.
He then gets instructed by the King to do exactly that,
but not for himself - for Mordaicai!
Haman planned to have him impaled on a 25m poles,
God intended for him to be honoured like a King for the day by his very accuser!
You have to laugh or cry - it’s a really awkward tale of events.
Mordacia was basically dead in Haman’s sight, and yet Haman finds himself honouring Mordacia above all others.
It’s looking clear that this is not a world of luck and chance - but a world where God will uses evil to honour His people.
Perhaps as Jesus was killed on the cross, no doubt God’s enemies, Satan himslef, thought that they had won.
The pole is erected - the end is inevitabel.
But how satan and God’s enemeies where actuaally doing God’s work.
Jesus had to die - and God used their evil to save those who repent and believe.
YOu have to laugh in joy at what Christ has done for us in the face of evil that thought it had won,
or you have to cry - for as Jesus rises from the dead and we realise we have lost the battle - we’re in very deep trouble.
Mordacia’s family seem to have realised this at last.
They have picked the wrong fight:
Afterwards Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisors and his wife Zeresh said to him, ‘Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!’
You see deep down, even God’s enemies know they cannot win.
And how right they are,
for while they are ‘still’ talking about their newly recognised fear of God’s and HIs people,
The Kings Enuchs arrive to take Haman off to the Banquet with the queen.
He doesn’t realise it yet - but this is absolutely the beginning of the end for him…
So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, ‘Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.’ Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have found favour with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.’ King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?’ Esther said, ‘An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realising that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.
A couple of days of wineing and dining has paid off - the King is furious that someone has dared to kill His queen and her people.
She reveals publicly for the first time that she is a Jew - and Haman knows his days are numbered.
The king steps outside to compose himself - meanwhile Haman falls at Esther’s feet to beg for mercy - how the tables have turned.
And when the King returns he thinks Mordacia is now trying to molest the queen.
The deep and sad irony doesn’t ended there,
Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, ‘A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.’ The king said, ‘Impale him on it!’ So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.
Impaled on the pole he set up for Mordaicai, right in front of his wife!
And the irony - the complete reversal of power, and honour continues:
That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate.
Everything that belonged to this Prince of this world, Haman - is passed onto the mediators of God’s people.
Mordacia is elevated to sit at the the right hand of the King.
It’s an amazing story.
And it’s not over yet
- there is still the set date for the anhilation of all God’s people to consider -and we’ll deal with that after Christmas.
But by now - we know luck will play no part.
But for now, there is much to learn for us
as observers for how the world is,
and how God operates in it,
and will ultimately over come it.
We’ve seen repeatedly how Esther and MOrdacia act as mediators
- prepared and or facing death - they keep acting in faithful obedience to God.
And how God is unquestionably at work according to his will.
It’s a massive encouragement to those of us trusting and waiting patiently for God to bring justice to our world,
when Christ returns to end the evil of Satan and the world,
to put Satan on the pole that he intended for God’s own people.
For Jesus our mediator to be fully and finally akanoweldge by all as the true King
- sat at the right hand of the Almighty.
We will not loose if we belong to Jesus - our mediator.
Who came that first Christmas
Who died in our place, and rose to new life.
But perhaps we haven;’t fully considered just how easy it is to be blind to this reality,
while we are in and of this world.
Haman - really had no awareness of what was really going on - or going to happen.
From his perspective - he was winning in every-way.
He was being invited to the banquets - a family that worshipped him, a king he thought was about to honour him.
Life was Good.
It’s a wake up call to those of us who are looking in the wrong place for joy and comfort, success and riches.
Are we sure we’re not being blinded by our worldly ways and success
- and that a very rude awakening of judgement isn’t around the corner!?
Waiting for us at our next party!
sucess isn’t actually the enemy,
Esther after all and now Mordacia are ‘successful’ in our story.
The question really is ‘who are we living for?’
Ourselves or the God who is silently directing all things towards his ways and judgements.
How do we think and act and make decisions.
Are we the:
How will I get the next promotion,
How will I satisfy my desire for power, respect, satisfaction?
When we should be remembering the one who rules the universe:
In every decision I make, I need to know—and remember—who rules the universe.
Will I tell the complete truth? Remember who rules the universe.
Will I be sexually pure? Remember who rules the universe.
Will I forgive? Remember who rules the universe.
Will I entrust my career, my family, my marriage, my health, to the one who judges justly? Remember who rules the universe.
Remember Jesus, God Almighty. Mediator for you and me,
And—if we follow Jesus—we too will share in His glory and victory.
It’s the same message Jesus teaches in the parable of a rich man.
The problem is not actually his riches - but who he is living for:
And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” ‘Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ ” ‘But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” ‘This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.’
Remember the one who rules the universe - and be rich towards him - not ourselves.
Pray
