God's Quiet Providence

Last week I had all the main points there for you and didn’t make you fill in any blanks, so this week I’m having you really work for it!

I’ve been studying the book of Esther because I got this commentary… (Christ-Centered Exposition)

Esther is a really interesting book

God is not directly referred to in the whole book.

We are only told what happened and there is no commentary. We’re left to draw a lot of our own conclusions...

About who these individuals are.

Why they do what they do.

What is right and wrong.

I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like it when I have to decide the end of a story for myself...

So it’s an interesting and slightly frustrating book to study. That’s why I was so excited to study with this commentary.

This is a great commentary series by the way...

I want to make sure we are all caught up on the story of the book of Esther and the Feast of Purim, so I’ve got a video for us to watch, and then I’ll fill in some other details.

show The Story of Queen Esther: Sandy Tales

pray

God is always acting for the glory of his name and the good of his people.

We all have times, whether those are good times or bad, where we don’t see God’s hand at work or we forget that He’s at work. But this part of our history reminds us that He is, even in the mundane. It doesn’t have to be spectacular.

In 2012, Kristen and I were driving down the interstate in Kentucky returning to our home in Louisville from an interview with a church in the Cincinnati area. I liked this church… I had also been talking to a church in Texas, Kristen was leaning a little more towards this church. I made a deal with Kristen, while we were driving down the interstate in Kentucky. If the license plate of the car in front of us was Texas, we’d go to Texas. Remember, we’re in Kentucky. (You could show a US map here.) Texas is way over to the southwest. And Iowa is a few hundred miles to the northwest. Also, I can already see the car in front of us and see the blue and white license plate. Guess what other state has a blue and white license plate though? That’s right, Texas. I rolled up on that car and my mouth dropped open when I saw a Texas plate. That car got over and then I saw the license plate in front of it, Iowa. The Texas church I had been talking to was in Iowa Park, Texas!

Now I did not decide right then where we were going, but I knew it wasn’t a coincidence! God is at work, exercising his sovereignty, even in the little things. We see this all over this story.

The video mentioned that Esther was chosen to be queen, but didn’t go into detail. What chapter two tells us is...

Does that sound familiar to anyone??

Throw a The Bachelor logo on screen. Remember to take into account how much your audience may now about the show.

Gathered all the beautiful women, put them in a house. I’m sure they had all the good wine they wanted. He had a first round and sent a bunch home.

I don’t know how he informed the ladies who was staying, but I can tell you this: the national flower of Iran, which is where the nation of Persia was geographically, is the red rose. You can’t make it up! God is at work even in the little things!

Then in the next round the king spends a night with all the remaining ladies. The fantasy suite.

The Bachelor got there idea from this! King Xerxe’s search for a wife is just a more disgusting and demeaning, probably just a sin filled version of The Bachelor!

But, Esther wins the contest. How was she the one who won?

Proverbs 21:1 HCSB

A king’s heart is like streams of water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever He chooses.

God working behind the scenes. He is always acting for the glory of his name and the good of his people. Scripture tells us this.

Isaiah 46:10 HCSB

I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: My plan will take place, and I will do all My will.

Romans 8:28–29 HCSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

So that means we can either work with God for his purposes, or we can work against him.

Will we turn from our objections and praise his power and grace, and bow with glad submission to the absolute sovereignty of God? Or, will we stiffen our neck and resist him? Will we see in the sovereignty of God our only hope for life in our deadness, our only hope for answers to our prayers, our only hope for success in our evangelism, our only hope for meaning in our suffering? Or, will we insist that there is a better hope, or no hope? That’s the question we will face.

-John Piper

I will do my best to work with God and praise his power and grace, and I hope you will as well. There are a few things we see here in the climax of this story that help us understand how to work with God.

God uses imperfect people.

We have to believe God will use us.

Esther and Mordecai are our two human heroes in this story. This whole thing started when Mordecai refused to bow.

We aren’t told why he refuses, but Jewish law didn’t prohibit it.

Maybe it was because Mordecai wasn’t going to bow to someone who didn’t deserve it. Maybe it was because there’s an old family rivalry going on here that goes all the way back to when Saul was king of Israel.

Either way, the Lord had told his people to be good citizens in the land He was sending them to and Mordecai wasn’t doing it.

Then there is Esther. After Mordecai hears about the law Haman made, he starts freaking out in the middle of the city. Esther sends someone to see what’s going on and here is what happens.

read 4:8-11

Her initial reaction here is fear, not faith. Neither Esther nor Mordecai seem to be outstandingly godly people. Just normal people God is calling to action.

That’s who God uses, with one big exception.

Look at David...

Look at Peter...

Look at Paul...

These weren’t perfect people, but God still used them.

We have to believe that God will use us to accomplish his will, that He will make us a part of what He is doing in the world.

It doesn’t matter what sins you have committed, God can use you.

It doesn’t matter how boring you think you are, God can use you.

It doesn’t matter how insignificant you think you are, He can use you.

It takes one thing, that’s what we see next.

We must act boldly in faith.

We’ve got to have faith and act on it.

read 4:13-17

I love that response that Mordecai gives, and the credit he gives to God for being at work in the midst of all this, even though he doesn’t outright say it. At least, I think he’s looking towards God when he says it.

So Esther calls for a fast among the Jews and then she acts in faith.

read 5:1-3

She takes a big step in faith and God blesses it and begins to use her to save her people. We have to walk in faith.

I started reading a biography when I was in seminary, I’ll finish it one day. It’s about a man named George Muller. He was a pastor and he opened an orphanage. He didn’t know how he was going to pay for it, but he felt God telling him to do it, so he walked in faith and God provided. He felt God telling him to expand and he didn’t have space or funds, but he started working on it and God provided. There were journal entries he had where he’d talk about not having money he had to have that day and then later in the day someone would just show up with an envelope full of cash. All this happened and he never asked people for money! They’d run out of food and someone would should up with a fat ham. Muller’s attitude was not “I’ll wait and hope God will provide”, it was “I’ll take a step and I can’t wait to see how the Lord provides for his work!” He walked boldly in faith.

We should walk this same way. It’s not easy, but we must walk by faith and God will use us. We have to have that Field of Dreams attitude!

Hebrews 10:38 HCSB

But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him.

We have to have faith. Faith that God’s Kingdom is real, more real than the kingdom we live in now. Faith that makes us live for that kingdom. Faith that makes us store up treasures for the Kingdom and not this one.

Faith the obeys when God says it’s time to quit your job.

When God says to go to another city for another job.

When God puts someone on your heart to share the Gospel with.

When He tells you to leave the team.

When He tells you to leave that relationship.

We must act in faith if we are going to work with God rather than against Him. And if you want to act in faith, then you have to humble yourself and believe that you are not the most important thing happening.

God hates pride.

We must rid ourselves of pride. We could probably put this on our list of “Five clearest things in Scripture”. God never rewards pride.

You guys remember that time I tore my Achilles tendon? What about that time right after that, when I tore my Achilles tendon?

You know what the last thing I said right before that whole ordeal started was? “Hey, watch this!”

God will not reward pride! Haman is a prime example of this! He goes to a banquet with the king and queen and is invited to another one tomorrow, and here is what happens when he leaves.

read 5:9-13

Wow! Haman is all about Haman! His offended pride is what has led him to want to lead a genocide. The Lord hates pride, He is offended by it, and that’s because it is an offense against Him!

James 4:6 HCSB

But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

James Meyer is quoted in the Christ-Centered Exposition commentary and he says that most sin leads you away from God, but pride is the only sin that tries to take you above God.

So if we want to work with God and not against Him, we must humble ourselves before Him. And not just before Him, but before everyone!

So if we want to work with God and not against Him, we must humble ourselves before Him. And not just before Him, but before everyone!

Philippians 2:3-4

Philippians 2:3–4 HCSB

Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

When we are always seeking to make our own names known, to move others out of our way, to gain attention and adoration, to walk over people to get what we want, we are not working with God to accomplish his will, we are inviting Him to act against us!

Matthew 23:12 HCSB

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

God hates pride, we must therefore humble ourselves and exalt God and serve others. This is joining with God in accomplishing his will.

And he will accomplish his will. And it is his will to save his people.

God sovereignly saves his people because they can’t save themselves.

This is where it gets good. Everyone who is on the side of God’s people is asleep, yet this is the moment where things turn for them…

read 6:1-11

Wow! Think about all the stuff that “just happens” in this story…

Esther just happens to be chosen

Mordecai just happens to over hear the plot to assassinate the king

The king just happens to be happy to see Esther even though he apparently hasn’t wanted to see her for a month

The king just happens to not be able to sleep the night before Haman is going to have Mordecai executed

When they open the records to read him to sleep, they just happen to open to the page telling about Mordecai saving the king’s life

Haman just happens to be the only guy in the court at that moment

That’s too many “just happens” y’all. In all these little things, even though He’s never directly mentioned in the book, God is at work to save his people because they can’t save themselves.

So see the story of Esther and remember to have faith in God and know that He is at work for the glory of his name and the good of his people. Even in the small and the mundane, God is there. Making sure all his plans come to pass. His plans for the nations of the Earth and his plans for each of his people. Trust in his goodness.

Trust that He still saves those who can’t save themselves. The story of Esther was a foreshadowing of an even grander story of God putting someone in a position to intercede for his people and save them when they were helpless.

Satan would see us destroyed, and just when he thought he did it, Jesus came out of the tomb to save us. We were dead in our sins, but God, rich in mercy, with a great love made us alive with Jesus.

If you have not been saved from your sins and made alive with Christ and you want to make today the day that you join with God as He accomplishes his will, then call on his name today...