Esther 5 Will Evil Triumph
“Will Evil Triumph?”
Esther 5
Game of ‘hangman’. Often used in the car to help the long drive pass more quickly.
- Sketch a hang man’s gallows
- come up with a word
- Count the # of letters in the word
- Draw out the number of spaces as a clue
- The other person was the guess the word one letter at a time,
- If you guessed right > the letter went in the space
- If you guessed wrong? The hang man’s noose was drawn on the gallows started and you began to lose > your life!
- What a morbid game!
In this morning’s episode of the story of Esther, we’re going to read about a game of hangman.
- you can cut the tension with a knife
- the evil Haman – whom the king had promoted to second place in the entire kingdom – had hatched a diabolical plan to destroy God’s people.
- And it looked like he was going to pull it off!
- Next week we’ll discover that his plan would backfire > but for our story today we remain with the question: “Will Evil Win?”
- Yes, Haman is playing a high-stakes game of ‘hang-man’.
In our story of Esther the plot has grown tense.
- the Jewish nation was now poised for extermination.
- Esther, the newly appointed queen was a Jewess.
- Her cousin Mordecai – whom Haman hated and wanted dead – had persuaded her that she was in the royal palace for such a time as this.
- Before approaching the king – and in doing so putting her own life at risk – Esther has called all the Jews to fast for 3 days and nights.
Read: Esther chapter 5
This is Esther’s Finest Hour
Making her move on the third morning of the 3-day fast, Esther is ready and prepared.
A time for prayer – a time for action.
Now: “If I die, I die.” That is in the hand of God.
I must do my part.
Esther has
- confidence from God,
- A plan of approach and
- Determination to proceed.
This is her hour.
The king does not intimidate her.
No matter how wealthy his treasury.
No matter how vast his kingdom
No matter how powerful his armies.
Prov. 21:1 “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes.”
Are you facing an impossible situation?
Give it to God.
God can handle anyone.
He can handle your husband.
He can handle your wife.
He can handle your kids.
He can even handle your pastor – just pray for him!
He can handle the person who gives you grief.
He can handle your ex-mate.
…the person who made you all those promises and broke most of them.
He can handle your enemy.
He can handle the most intimidating situation, because in the hand of the Lord, any heart is like water.
Esther walks in that confidence.
“Esther stood in front of the king’s hall”
She is not trembling.
Though she is doing what’s never been done before,
- knowing that what she is doing could cost her her life,
o she stands tall, confident in the Lord.
And when the king saw her standing in the court, she once again obtained favor in his sight and he extended his golden scepter to her.
Remember, without that gesture from the king, she would die.
And now, confident, she touches the top of the scepter, making a connection with the king.
The king says simply: “What’s on your mind?
What’s troubling you?”
In fact he goes further. He says:
“What can I do for you?
Name it. There’s no limit.”
Now this is her moment to bring down the roof on Haman –
but she doesn’t.
Not now. She has a plan.
In many cultures still today, an important issue that needed to be discussed would only be done after a social meal. Esther knew how to properly present her request so she invites the king – and Haman – to come to a banquet she has prepared.
Esther is in control.
She knows how to approach the king.
Prayer has given her confidence.
This is her moment.
At the end of the meal (one would never be so rude as to discuss important business while they were eating – different from our Western culture) while they were drinking their wine, the king once again brings up the matter. “What is your petition.”
And Esther replies: “My petition and my request?”
And she still does not make it known yet.
Again in her world, she knows that with a matter so important, this is not something to be blurted out.
No, it requires proper etiquette to be followed.
So she continued:
“Well, if I have found favor with the king,
and if it pleases the king to grant what I ask
and to fulfill my request,
let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I shall prepare for them,
and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”
Notice, if the king does accept this second invitation, he is effect saying, yes, I will grant your request – no matter what it is.
Usually the king would call on his counselors but not this time. Esther has the upper hand.
God’s timing also requires one more day.
In the interval, evil again attempts to thwart the plan of God.
Once again we are confronted with the question,
“Will God win?
Or will Evil triumph?”
Evil’s Powerful Plot
Exit Haman from the banquet. And the storyteller follows Haman.
He is strutting around like he’s on Cloud Nine!
He walks out of the palace thinking,
Boy am I ever in clover.
I’ve just had a private dinner and audience with the king and queen.
What an honor.
My star is on the rise.
The sky’s the limit.
It was the opportunity to drop names. Can you imagine Haman at the office the next day?
“I was with the king and queen last night, and – yeah, a banquet for just the three of us.
Yes, I was the only one invited.
As expected, I received a personal invitation from the queen.”
So he walks out of the palace, bursting with pride and ego, and he runs into Mordecai – that Jew who will not respect him.
Despite Haman’s official status and power,
despite his evil decree,
Mordecai is still not intimidated by Haman.
He knows his God is greater than Haman.
So when Haman walks out of the palace, Mordecai doesn’t look at all impressed.
Again, Haman is furious.
But this time he bites his tongue and heads for home.
There he brags to his wife and friends.
He repeats over and over again about how he has been promoted and exalted.
But he is not satisfied.
People like this are never satisfied.
There is one man – a Jew – who won’t respect him.
He can’t stand the thought.
His wife finally says, in effect,
“So why don’t you do something about it?
I’m sick and tired of hearing you complain about this guy Mordecai.”
She and her friends have a plan to shut Haman up.
Vs. 14 – “His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Have a gallows built 75 feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.’ This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built.”
Has Esther waited too long to uncover the evil plot of Haman to the king?
Is she going to save the lives of her people only to have her beloved cousin, Mordecai, killed?
We are in the midst of a very suspenseful plot as the curtain closes upon yet another scene.
We wait with baited breath – but the storyteller pauses for a pregnant breath.
And we the listener wait with the question still in our minds.
Will God save Mordecai and his people?
Or Will evil yet prevail?
And this is an important question for every person to wrestle with.
Will I trust God – even when all the odds seem to indicate that my trust would be foolish?
Perhaps this morning you are facing what seems an impossible situation.
You have prayed about it and instead of doors opening and a resolution being evident, the situation only becomes more and more bleak.
It seems God has run out of options.
Is there any sense to my continued trust in God?
Will evil prevail?
This is a question each one of us deals with – perhaps with different intensity – at various times in our lives.
Our faith in God is tested.
There’s no guarantee in life that bad things won’t happen.
Many times its waiting for us right around the corner.
There’s a humorous story that comes from Belfast Ireland:
This guy who found himself on the streets of Belfast in the middle of the night.
He hoped to get back to the hotel without being attacked...
when suddenly a dark figure jumped out of the shadows
and grabbed him around the neck.
He stuck the point of a knife against his throat and asked in a gruff voice..
“Are you Catholic or Protestant?”
Seized with panic the man reasoned with himself...
“If I say Catholic and he’s Protestant –I’m dead!
But if I say Protestant and he’s Catholic... – then I’m dead!
But then he thought of a way out... He said, “I’m a Jew!”
The mugger laughed, “HA! I’m the luckiest Arab terrorist in Belfast!”
Sometimes you just can’t win in life.
I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow – do you?
So we need to entrust ourselves to the God who DOES know tomorrow.
Haman had the gallows built.
There is less than 12 hours ‘till sunrise.
Time is running out.
We are out of options.
We trusted God.
There is nothing left to do but wait.
The gallows of Haman’s day are not like the hanging we picture in some Western movie today.
The hanging was actually more like a crucifixion.
A stake was thrust into the body, and then the impaled body was hung on a pole.
It was an anguishing, humiliating, torturous death.
Years later the Romans would drive nails into the hands and feet.
About to be crucified was the good man of our story.
Evil Haman was about to get away with murder.
Will evil prevail?
Some 500 years later, this same question was asked of God again.
This time the stakes were higher.
The good man was the only righteous man.
In Him there was no sin.
This man was none other than the very Son of God.
Born of the Virgin Mary.
Begotten, not created.
Of this man, no accusation could be proved.
The mock trial was held.
The sentence was delivered.
He was handed over to the soldiers to be crucified.
Would God intervene?
Would God send 10,000 angels?
Would God remove His son from the cross in a miraculous salvation plan for His son?
No. Jesus died.
His last words:
It is finished.
Into your hands do I commit my Spirit.
Right to the last, Jesus trusted God.
But it appeared that evil triumphed.
But, no.
“It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.”
At the crucifixion, God was superintending from behind the scenes.
“Immortal, invisible, God only wise.”
God is working out His Eternal Redemption Plan.
There on the cross,
as evil did his worst to the perfect, sinless Lamb of God,
God was planning for your salvation, and mine.
Victory was declared three days later
God displayed His might
raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the grip of death
and exalting Him to the highest place
and giving him the name that is above every name.
The message from Esther?
The message from the Bible?
The message for us some 2,000 years later?
God is in control.
Evil does NOT win!
He is worthy of your trust.
You are invited to place your faith in Him and He will direct your path.
But the choice is yours to make.
The personal question still remains:
Will Evil Triumph?
Will I (you) trust God even when all the evidence is against such trust?
In our story the answer hinged on Esther’s response.
Today, the answer for your life depends upon your response.
You have a free will to choose for God.
You can choose to win for God against evil.
But this is a personal moment.
You see, the Bible says that the evil is in each person’s heart.
Each one of us has turned away from God to our own desires.
Each one of us is a sinner deserving the wrath of God.
That is the evil that Jesus faced on the cross – your sin.
So as evil stands declaring victory
Where does that leave us?
I’m thinking of one word
- it has 5 letters
- the first and the last are the letter that looks like a cross
- right in the middle of the word is ‘U’.
The word is ‘TRUST’
