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ILLUSTRATION: Debbie and Rebekah meeting in West Virginia. Debbie and Diane meeting at Target in Batavia. Talking with people at the Strawberry Festival booth.

As Christians, we do not believe in luck, chance, fate, accidents, or coincidences because the Bible teaches us that God has a plan for everything and that nothing can interfere with His decisions.

Isaiah 46:9–10 NASB95

“Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

Providence : God, especially when conceived as omnisciently directing the universe and the affairs of humankind with wise benevolence.

Providence is the visible result of God’s invisible plan.

The Providence of God in Esther

Bible Passage: Esther 1-10

Once upon a time...

King Ahasuerus/Xerses of Persia requested beautiful Queen Vashti to attend a party and she refused, disrespecting him in front of everyone.

Esther 1:10–12 NASB95

On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and the princes, for she was beautiful. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command delivered by the eunuchs. Then the king became very angry and his wrath burned within him.

The King sent Vashti away, and called for beautiful young women to be brought to him so he might select a new queen.

Esther 2:3–4 NASB95

“Let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given them. “Then let the young lady who pleases the king be queen in place of Vashti.” And the matter pleased the king, and he did accordingly.

Hadassah (AKA Esther), was a young Jewish woman who was adopted by her uncle Mordecai after her parents died. Mordecai presented her to the King’s servants so she could be prepared to meet he King and possibly become a queen, but he told Esther to keep her Jewish identity a secret.

Esther 2:8–10 NASB95

So it came about when the command and decree of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s palace into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women. Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and food, gave her seven choice maids from the king’s palace and transferred her and her maids to the best place in the harem. Esther did not make known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make them known.

The King was impressed with Esther and made her his new queen.

Esther 2:17 NASB95

The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

A man named Haman hated the Jews and especially Mordecai because he did not bow to Haman like the other respected men in the kingdom. Haman approached the King and convinced him to authorize a document that called for all of the Jews to be killed on a certain day.

Esther 3:5–6 NASB95

When Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, Haman was filled with rage. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were; therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Mordecai discovered Haman’s plan and sent a message to Esther persuading her to speak to the King on behalf of her people so they might be spared.

Esther 4:10–16 NASB95

Then Esther spoke to Hathach and ordered him to reply to Mordecai: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.” They related Esther’s words to Mordecai. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will 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?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

Esther intercedes for the Jews and asks the King to save them from Haman’s plot to kill her and her family.

Esther 7:1–10 NASB95

Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine at the banquet, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.” Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request; for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would presume to do thus?” Esther said, “A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen. The king arose in his anger from drinking wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king. Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, “Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman’s house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.

The King agrees and allows Esther and Mordecai to write a new decree which allowed the Jews to defend themselves if they were attacked.

Esther 8:7–8 NASB95

So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because he had stretched out his hands against the Jews. “Now you write to the Jews as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.”

When the day of Haman’s plot came, everything had changed in favor of the Jews. They defeated those who tried to kill them, took their enemies’ property for themselves, and celebrated the destruction of Haman and his descendants.

Esther 9:1 NASB95

Now in the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar), on the thirteenth day when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, it was turned to the contrary so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them.

Here are three quick observations from the Book of Esther that we can consider this morning....

1. Esther’s Position Was Planned

If she hadn’t been selected as the Queen, she would not be able to ask the King to save her people. If she was not loved by the King, he would not have extended his scepter to her when she approached his throne with her request.

2. Esther’s Timing Was Planned

The timing of many of the events in the Book of Esther is critical to the story playing out like it did. If parties were delayed, words not overheard, or paths not crossed at the right moments the plot of Haman would have succeeded.

3. Esther’s Opportunity Was Planned

The precise details of the story come together to reveal that her life was part of God’s bigger plan to deliver His people in that period of history.

Likewise, our lives and our circumstances are planned...

Your Position is Planned

You have a unique role in the lives of those around you every day, and you can exercise the influence you have to talk to people about Jesus. Your job (or lack thereof) is not an accident. The people you care for at home, in the community, or at work are not accidentally in your care, either.

Your Timing is Planned

The person driving slowly in front of you may interrupt your plan, but they can’t interrupt God’s plan. The conversation you are waiting on with that person in your life will not come later or earlier than God intends it to. The answer to your prayer that you are waiting for will come precisely when God wants it to.

Your Opportunity is Planned

Sometimes seeing a need should also be seeing an opportunity to meet that need. One of the ways you can identify whether an opportunity is God’s will may be the fact that you see it and can do something about it. You can’t exhaust the opportunities God makes available in your life, but you can ignore them.

Show YouTube Video of Jake the Grader.

This week, I will ask God to show me...

How my position in life can be useful to Him.

How the timing of things in my life is part of His plan for me.

What opportunities He has put in front of me to serve Him.

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