Esther - Part 3 - A Great —Reversal
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! Welcome to CHCC. We find ourselves right in the middle of the book of Esther today as we are looking at chapters five and six. What has transpired thus far has left the Jews in a frightening predicament. Haman has just received permission to send out a decree to have all the Jews killed. This arose because Mordecai refused to bow before Haman the Agagite. We discussed the centuries long struggle of Jews against Agagites and it is highlighted here with the feud between Haman and Mordecai in the book of Esther.
The decree sends a wave of shock and unrest in the city of Susa and Mordecai puts sackcloth and ashes on as he mourns the situation. Esther seeks to console him, and in turn comes to find out about this decree. Mordecai challenges Esther to go before the king and request to save her people.
To this, Esther tells Mordecai that no one may come before the king unless he has called for them. To do so could result in her immediate death.
Then Mordecai tells Esther the most memorable line in all of the book.
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Here, verbalized, Mordecai points out God’s divine providence. “Perhaps, Esther, God has placed you here in this exact spot for this exact moment!” Esther finds herself in a a position unlike any other—the wife of king Ahaseurus and the Queen of Persia. Why? For personal gain and enjoyment? No; rather it is something far grander and has been put into place by God Himself.
And upon hearing this, we see the leadership of Esther come to the forefront. She tells Mordecai to gather all the Jews in Susa and hold a fast (and prayer) for three days. She will do the same along with the young women in her royal court.
After that, she says she will approach the king and says, “If I perish, I perish.”
And that is where we pick up our story this morning. Things are looking bleak, but we see that a reversal is in the works—God is pulling the strings.
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Esther 5.
PRAY
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. 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. 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.”
The central theme of Esther, as we have mentioned each week throughout our study, is the providence and sovereignty of God. But along with that, perhaps a sub-theme is that we see how God works through the obedience of His people.
And that is an overarching theme throughout the Bible; God working through the obedience of His people. He isn’t looking for perfect people. The reality is that He isn’t even always looking for the most equipped and qualified. He is simply looking for the obedient.
We think of Moses—a runaway, adopted Egyptian with a speech impediment. This is the guy that will stand up to the greatest human leader on earth.
What about the judge, Gideon? God chose him to lead an army of 300 against the Midianite army of roughly 135,000. Well according to Gideon, he said, “Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” In other words, I’m nothing special. But to God he was! Why? Because he was obedient.
King David? Just a simple shepherd boy, the youngest of Jesse’s sons. And it was his faith and obedience that God used him to be the greatest king in Israel’s history (aside from Jesus, of course).
This is something we must understand; we cannot look at ourselves and highlight all the weaknesses, the lack of skillset…”I don’t know how to do that, I’m not good at remembering Bible passages, I don’t have experience here or there…I’m not equipped for that.” But guess what? God is! And what God calls us to, He will carry us through.
So do not allow your inadequacies to define you and dictate if you will or will not obey God. Because throughout Scripture, it is always about a God who can even when His people, on their own, cannot.
And the story of Esther is no different. She began as a simple Jewish orphan, raised by her cousin Mordecai. But God raised her up, placed her in a position as Queen of the greatest kingdom of her day to stand in the gap for the Jewish people.
And so here we see Esther put herself in a very precarious situation; the reality is that Esther’s story could have ended before it really began. Now we know that God is in control of the whole situation, but it doesn’t make the whole situation very intense for Esther. If Ahaseurus does not hold out his scepter to her, she will be dead.
But she boldly and faithfully stands before Ahaseurus, trusting God in the moment. But before she stepped before him, Esther gives us a wonderful example for each of us to consider. She enters into fasting and praying.
And the reality is that Jesus is our perfect blueprint for this. Before every big moment, the gospels reveal to us Jesus going before the Father in prayer.
In Matthew 4 it tells us that Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days and nights to fast (and pray) before being tempted by Satan.
In Luke 6, it tells us that before selecting His disciples, Jesus spent the night in prayer.
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Again, just before His arrest, Jesus went into the Garden to pray.
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
On the cross, in the midst of great suffering, it reveals Jesus praying to the Father. Jesus, before great decisions, before demanding moments, before pain and suffering, would enter into intimacy with the Father and pray.
And I think one of the problems in the Western church today (and I did mention this a bit last week) is that we have a tendency to lean on our abilities, our own strength, our own wisdom, our own knowledge, our own cleverness. But the reality is, no matter how great those things are, the spiritual battle will not be won unless we pray! And when we pray, it shows our utter dependency upon God.
I would even contend that to pray or not pray lands us on two opposite ends of the spectrum. To not pray, and thus rely solely on my own ability—when we peel everything back and get to the root of it—is just human pride. “I got this…”
But when we go to God, lean on His might, His wisdom, His strength, His power—it shows a surrender and a dependency upon God and thus a sign of great humility.
The next thing we see here in Esther is her wisdom. She has won the favor of the king, he has asked her what she would like, up to half his kingdom. So let us see her request; verse 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.” 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. 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.” Then Esther answered, “My wish and my request is: 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.”
Esther knew the king well, and she knew that he loved feasts. So what does she request? She requests one feast with Haman and then at that feast requests a second feast! She knew how to gain his favor and was setting the whole ordeal up beautifully.
The story then changes focus for a minute. It moves from Esther to one of the guests of the party—the enemy of the Jews—Haman.
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. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. 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. 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. Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
Haman walked out of the feast on cloud nine. You can almost picture him floating as he walked, nose high in the air, feeling like a million bucks. But that euphoria in a moment turns to anger. He sees Mordecai at the gate. His anger and hatred toward Mordecai are so great that he isn’t even able to enjoy this moment. All it takes is seeing him and he is beside himself.
However, Haman does restrain himself for a short moment. Rather than make his way over to Haman and begin some sort of anger fueled shouting match, or worse, he decides to head home and share of his great evening to his family.
And we see the character of Haman play out here. There is nothing wrong in being happy of your success, but Haman is completely self-absorbed as we will continue to see in chapter 6 this morning as well. And the words of Proverbs would have proven beneficial to Haman, but we can learn from him today.
One’s pride will bring him low,
but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.
Elsewhere in Proverbs it says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace…”
Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
be assured, he will not go unpunished.
With those words in mind, we can see how this may be playing out for Haman. What is more, we once again find poor council in Esther, this time it is Haman’s own household. After sharing his anger and frustration about Mordecai, here is what his wife and friends tell him. And no, they don’t tell him to let it go; it’s not worth your energy and anger. No! They feed into Haman’s rage.
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.
There is a comparison and contrast to be made when looking at the character of Esther and Haman. One is working patiently, humbly, and trusting God to do a mighty work. The other is taking poor advice and following their pride and their anger. And as we will see, it plays out as one might expect.
I think it should also be noted the courage of Esther here as well. It takes courage as a believer living in a pagan world. As Wallace P. Benn notes of Esther:
We see exemplified in Esther the lovely combination of courage and wisdom that the Bible commends for God’s people. Her conviction of what was the right thing to do galvanized her into prayerful action, and from this point on in the story she becomes the dominant player.
I love that phrase—”prayerful action.” This is what is needed as believers if we are going to stand for our convictions in a world so absolutely opposed to the Word of God.
As we enter into chapter 6, we come across one of those “little coincidences” that we’ve mentioned on occasion. We know by now that the book of Esther never mentions God, but we see His handiwork on display throughout. Like a puppeteer pulling at the strings to get the characters into place. Here is one such instance, as the king finds himself restless.
On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king’s young men who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
Talk about providential timing! Haman is waiting outside to request permission to make the gallows and have Mordecai killed upon them. And the king needs some insight and wisdom, so he requests the one man who is in the court at this late hour—his right hand man, Haman!
And this may be one of my favorite parts of the story. I love how the whole thing is set up and how king Ahaseurus asks the question.
And the king’s young men told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?”
Do we see God’s work here in the story? The king is unable to sleep. He asks for the book of memorable deeds to read from. He just so happens to read about Mordecai’s eavesdropping that saved his life. Curious, he asks what has been done for Mordecai because of this. And nothing has been done!
In our first week in Esther I mentioned that Persian kings were known to honor loyalty greatly. So it would have been surprising for the ancient readers to see that no reward was given to Mordecai in the moment. But again, this is God’s providence over the situation. All these “little coincidences” are making for a big miracle.
And then the cherry on top, we see that God uses Haman’s pride as well. Haman asks to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” Haman thought the king was asking so he could honor him! He was so wrapped up in himself that was his conclusion.
And so Haman really lays it on thick.
And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set. And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’ ”
This is wild. Let him wear royal robes for the king that the king has worn. Let him ride the kings horse with the royal crown upon its head and lets make a parade of it too! Let this guy be led through the city with (and this is key) the king’s most noble officials and shout, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”
And remember, Haman is imagining himself in this situation. To request to wear the kings royal robes and ride his own horse is wild stuff. We know from historical records of the time that the Persians put a crown on the head of some of their royal horses. Haman was asking to be dressed like the king and to ride the horse of the king. He was almost asking to be treated like the king himself.
Then in perfect comedic timing, king Ahasuerus says, “Perfect! Go grab Mordecai!”
Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry; take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”
Haman was absolutely shocked! He was going to have to put into operation his own suggestions, not for himself but for his hated enemy! As we read the story we cannot help but chuckle to ourselves and praise God for his amazing sovereignty in human events.
A loyal deed by Mordecai was remembered at the last possible second; coincidence? I don’t think so. More like divine providence. Let us see what happens next.
Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”
These two chapters mark the beginning of the reversal here in Esther’s story. The first four chapters, things looked bleak. The fate of the Jewish people hang in the balance. It still does here at the end of chapter 6 but we are seeing favor swing to the Jews.
For Haman, he has also seen a reversal. Things were going so well for him! And we are seeing the destruction of his pride play out. Had he just let Mordecai’s refusal to bow to him go, had he just let that go, he would not be in the predicament he will soon find himself in. Had he not been so focused on Mordecai’s fall perhaps he doesn’t find himself in the king’s court at that hour.
He goes from thinking he would be on the kings horse in the kings robes, to being the one leading Mordecai through the streets as his greatest enemy is honored. And interestingly, his wife, who had earlier fanned the flame of Haman’s hatred, now gives some great insight. “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”
And she is correct, because chapter 6 ends by setting up the conclusion to Haman. If he thinks things were bad when he paraded Mordecai through the streets, they are about to get a whole lot worse.
While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared.
Part of me wonders if Haman shuffled off nervously or was this perhaps a reprieve from his sorrow. He has no idea Esther is Jewish, so I imagine he is looking forward to getting his mind of this humiliating moment. So we now get to the big reveal. Let’s read together, chapter 7.
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”
Esther picked the right moment at the second feast to make her request. We may wonder why she waited until then to do it. It would appear that she was using her feminine charm to string her husband along. She wanted to ensure that she had him in the best possible frame of mind. Then Esther responds with more tact and wisdom, which we’ve come to expect.
Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”
Then the king, anger rising, demands she tell him who has dared to do such a thing.
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”
I imagine Haman’s heart froze here. He had no idea Esther was Jewish; had he known that I imagine he would have been more tactful in his approach with a plan to eradicate the Jews. But again, we see God’s divine providence at work. There was a reason why Esther was to keep her heritage hidden, and now we see it.
And Esther is turning the tables in this moment.
And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
In a sense, she is saying, “This enemy is not just an enemy of me and my people, but also an enemy of the king!” Upon hearing this, the king goes outside to the palace garden, perhaps trying to clear his head and make the proper decision. And during that time, Haman decides to make his dire situation worse.
And the king arose in his wrath from the wine-drinking and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face.
While the king left the room where the feast was taking place, Haman stayed back and tried to convince Esther to spare his life. However, by choosing to do this he did something that was considered a breach in palace protocol. For no other man could be alone with the queen.
To make matters even worse, he fell upon the couch Esther was reclining on. And king Ahaseurus walks in to see this whole moment and his anger rises further.
Perhaps yet another providential “coincidence.”
And so his fate is set. Verse 9.
Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.
A final ironic moment in the life of Haman. The very gallows he had built for his enemy, Mordecai, end up being the device of his own death.
This then was the second reversal. Not only was Mordecai honored rather than hanged, Haman was hanged on the gallows outside his own house, the gallows intended for Mordecai.
So with these three chapters now concluded, there are a couple things I think we should be reminded of as we close.
First, God loves to rule and overrule the humanly inevitable. The things that we consider so difficult, so impossible, so humanly unresolvable, God loves to overrule and work through, for his glory and for the good of his people. We looked at two reversals—first when Mordecai was honored instead of Haman and then when Haman was hanged rather than Mordecai.
And for us, the ultimate reversal is seen in the cross. That Good Friday it seemed that Jesus was defeated, but Easter Sunday and the empty tomb reveal that it was Jesus that was victorious and Satan who was defeated! Peter reminds us of this in his Pentecost sermon.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Secondly, God’s people should never despair or be pessimistic in the affairs of life, but keep trusting and remaining dependent upon God. This passage, as does all of God’s Word, calls us to be confident in the sovereignty of our God, to be confident in the fact that our God reigns. Even if we can’t always see his purposes or understand his ways, we need to trust him to act for the well-being of his people, whom he will ultimately save.
As Paul Williams explains:
God delights in turning around apparently “impossible” situations. He loves to act when everything seems lost with no apparent way to change circumstances. It is then that God is glorified as the unmistakable architect of events. Knowing that should give us the determination to keep plodding away at building the kingdom of God, even when (and especially when) everything seems lost.
So we walk in hope, regardless of our circumstances because we know that ultimately, we have the hope of heaven. We trust God and His will and His plan because He is greater and His ways are higher than our ways. The book of Esther is a wonderful reminder for us that even when things seems hopelessly bleak, God has a way of intervening that is beyond human capabilities. And those “little coincidences” add up to a great and mighty miracle.
PRAY
