Sermon Tone Analysis

God’s plan: Don’t fight it

: Unseen in our sowing

We are starting to wrap up the narrative of Esther and what I love here is that today we will see Esther and the king punish Mordecai.

Now as much as we like bad guy stories we need to realize that they could have done things differently as well.

We are going to look at three areas today.

First is tact, what you say in important, but so is how you say it.

How do you say?

After that we will see what happens when we allow anger to drive our lives, the pain the devastation.

Inside out.

Finally, we will look at an often neglected ideal in Scripture reaping what we sow.

Turn with me to Esther7.

Let's pray!

So, the king and Haman went to dine with Queen And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther?

It shall be granted you.

And what is your request, up to half the kingdom?

It shall be done!”3

Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.

Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.” 5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”

We see the new beginning for the dinner companions begin, they come back to Esther's for another banquet, and the king asks the question again, this time Esther is ready to answer.

This time the answer is a shock to the king as she reveals that she is a Jewess.

Surprise!

What is interesting here is the way in which she asked, remember her life was on the line here, so she appeals to the genuine love between her and the king.

"If it pleases the king, if I have earned favor."

The lesson here is that when we have to have hard conversations, the right tact is helpful.

Tact.

She asks for her life and the people of Israels life.

Esther said, that had it just been slavery she would not have troubled the king knowing that no one could have paid enough offer them to cover his loss, but this, this is their lives.

DO I ASK THE KING FOR LIFE?

The king has an incredible response here, "who would dare presume to do such a thing?"

The tradition in Persia was to see the king as a god so anytime that they were wrong they had to be able to blame someone that is the purpose here of finding out the name.

It's also really who can we blame.

Proverbs 16:34-  Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.

The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

God is in complete control and He even uses the wicked on their day, which for Haman has come, imagine the feeling he must have right now knowing that the jig is up.

Uh-oh.

The last thing to look at here is the kings question have we dared to presume that we could do something?

Not your call.

If so we must understand that one day we will be found out.

We need to understand that God, has a plan and will enact it at the right time.

The first lesson here is simply to remember that God gives us warnings and that any plan that will try to stand against His will fail.

He warned Haman by honoring Mordecai, and then through his own wife, yet Haman persisted.

Is God using actions and situations to tell you to stop?

Are you stopping?

Will you try to fight against God? Israel?

How many times does He have to win before we stop fighting?

Haman's anger and stubbornness made others angry as well, that is the next thing to explore.

6 And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” So, Haman was terrified before the king and queen.7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.

8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was.

Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”

As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

Boom!

Goes the dynamite.

She speaks clearly to the king that Haman is at fault, and what we see here is fear grip the prime minister.

It says that he was terrified before the king and queen, that is a lesson for us as well.

When people tell us things is our rage all they know?

Rageahol.

Here we see the first of two cultural things that take place in Persia if the king left the table before the meal was done that was bad.

At the moment that the king arose, Haman had his fate sealed.

Do we act that way?

Do we seal peoples fate?

Even before they speak?

Is my reputation such that they would not want to cross me?

Hulk smash.

What happens next is while the king is gone Haman pleads with Esther for mercy.

I find this interesting that she could have shown him the mercy of God, but did not.

Mercy is a choice.

While the king was gone Haman was begging so intensely that he ended up laying on Esther, the king came back and saw it as assault.

That's bad.

We see here that second cultural quark, once someone was convicted to death they were no longer permitted to look at the king so they would have their face covered.

Sentenced.

We are so quick to laud this event as victory.

I mean the good guys win after all.

Yet what we fail to see here is that it could have been better.

What if Esther had shown mercy?

What if she followed God in resolution?

What if anger didn't rule the day?

So often it seems in our lives we let anger win! Anger.

Jesus gave us a clear way to handle conflict and yet when we become angry that all goes out the window what we are going to learn is the consequences of living with anger.

Let's move forward.

9 Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look!

The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.

"Then the king said, “Hang him on it!” 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.

Then the king’s wrath subsided.

As we conclude we see that Harbonah, "remembers" the gallows that Haman had built the day before, and he wanted to use them here for Haman as his punishment.

The king agrees and they go hang Haman on his own gallows.

At that point the king's wrath subsided.

There is a lot to tlk about here, and we should start with a principle mentioned much throughout the Scriptures.

The truth of sowing and reaping.

Haman had lived his life in anger and designed devices to execute, now the result of his anger s more anger and his death on the gallows.

REAP/SOW.

- Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.

15 He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made.

16 His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.

- Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.

Haman had acted with hate and anger and he was met with hate and anger.

He built gallows for his enemies and had those be his end.

Do we understand that what we sow is what we will reap?

What are you sowing?

What are you reaping?