Giving Thanks to the God who Turns the Tables
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Welcome
Meeting after service.
Happy Thanksgiving -
Bella’s card.
It is a good thing to give thanks to God.
Today, I want to see that one reason we can give thanks is -
Our God is able to turn the tables around.
He is able to change situations, work miracles, stand on our behalf.
He’s the God who saves, delivers, answers prayers, makes a way where there is no way!
Today we continue the series:
The Hidden Hand of God
The Hidden Hand of God
Story based on book of Esther, set in empire of Persia, under Ahaseurus, the king around 480 BC.
The king’s banquet, Vashti’s refusal.
The Rise of Esther
young orphan girl
brought up by a godly uncle, Mordecai
A beautiful young woman, obedient, with favor upon her life
crowned queen
The Rise of Evil
Haman, an enemy of the Jews
One of the foremost officials of the king
Developed an intense hatred for Mordecai because he won’t bow to him
hatched a plan out of the very pit of hell to annihilate the Jews.
Last week we left off he presents his plan to the king who agrees; they sit down to eat and drink but the city thrown into confusion.
Today we will see how God turned the tables.
1. Mordecai’s lament
1. Mordecai’s lament
1 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry.
put on sackcloth and ashes - Wearing sackcloth and ashes further indicated grief and repentance.
went up to the king’s gate - place where decisions are made
seeking to raise the awareness of the Jews, the Persians, Esther herself to the looming disaster
One man took upon himself the burden.
He began to lead in this dark hour.
In times of turmoil, trouble, God will raise up men and women who see the danger and are willing to take the lead.
One man! One with God is a majority.
Abraham - one man - to birth a nation
Joseph - one man - to save a nation
Moses - one man - to free a nation
Gideon - one man - to deliver a nation
David - one man - to kill a giant
Jesus - one man - to save the world
One shall a thousand.
God needs leaders, that one man, in the church.
Aren’t you glad that there was one man who took on his shoulders this responsibility?
Are you that one man? God said “I looked for man.”
Word gets to Esther. She was distressed that her uncle was in mourning. SO she sends proper garments for him to wear.
He refuses to take off the sackcloth. Esther inquires why is he in distress. HE responds and sends a copy of the actual decree.
This is no rumor. No fake news.
He asks Esther to go and plead with the king.
Although she is the queen, she doesn’t have free access to him.
11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
Access to the king was strictly limited
protect him from assassination attempts
someone had to be summoned before they enter the inner court or they’ll be executed unless he extends his golden scepter to them.
Mordecai’s response
Don’t think you will escape because you are the queen
His faith is revealed in the next verse
14 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?”
The God of the Jews, the God of his fathers, who is faithful to His people, will raise up a deliverer.
But Esther, you are here now. You are in the right position at this specific time.
Is there not a reason?
And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
M - I am leading this charge. I need help right now. You are uniquely positioned by divine providence to do something.
God has you and me in the kingdom for such a time as this.
Don’t wish you lived in another time period.
God has planted you in this church at this time, in His kingdom at this time, for what? .....
The strength and power of a church lies in its people.
God has planted this church in Cliffside area to impact the neighborhood. This church will be the spiritual home of this neighborhood.
We have not quite done that but we can and we will!
2. Esther’s response
2. Esther’s response
16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
Esther takes up the challenge. She responds to the words of Mordecai. He was being prophetic.
Gather all the Jews.
Hold a three day complete fast.
We will fast too
Then I will go to the king
then those memorable words:
If I perish, I perish.
She was ready to lay down her life, risk her life for her people.
She is going the way of sacrifice
For Abraham - it was being ready to kill his son
Jesus - “Not my will but thine be done.”
Paul - “I am crucified with Christ.”
She approaches the king, wins his favor
2 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.
He asks her - What is your request? I’ll give you, up to half my kingdom.
I’d like to invite you and Haman to a feast today.
They arrive, enjoy the feast. He asks, “What is your request?”
She says “Would you and and Haman come to a feast tomorrow?”
Esther was led by God. After all the prayer and fasting.
I’d have made my complaint the very first opportunity. But something, someone was holding her back.
So often timing is everything!
She had the right attitude, the sacrificial heart, a noble cause, kingdom business but that first day was not the right time.
Patience is virtue. We must learn to wait on God. Be patient. Listen for God’s timing.
Don’t rush.
That one day wait was critical to her success. That one day’s wait paved the way for things to fall into place.
During that 24 hour period, two important events occurred.
3. Haman plans to hang Mordecai.
3. Haman plans to hang Mordecai.
9 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.
10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh.
11 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.
12 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.
13 Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
14 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.
His boasts - riches, sons, promotions, power, position.
His hatred of Mordecai is rising.
He builds a gallows to hang Mordecai.
Mordecai will have an early taste of what’s coming to all the Jews.
Oh but beloved, you and I know that there is a God in heaven who sits above the circle of the earth, who’s eyes go to and fro, beholding the good and the evil, who is ready to act on behalf of His people.
“Oh, I have never the righteous forsaken or His seed begging for bread.”
this is where we see things beginning to change.
The table begins to turn.
6.1
English Standard Version Chapter 6
On that night the king could not sleep.
4. The king honors Mordecai
4. The king honors Mordecai
God has a way of getting to leaders.
He had an acute case of insomnia. He’s tossing and turning.
He opens up his Kindle, sees the ..
He calls for the chronicles to be read.
He reads about the past assassination attempt discovered by Mordecai.
What was done for Mordecai? Ah… nothing. Nothing?!
The king comes up with a plan
4 And the king said, “Who is in the court?”
Now Haman had just entered the palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
He was told -“Haman is there.”
The king said, “Let him come in.”
6 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?”
SO full of himself.
7 And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor,
8 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.
9 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.’ ”
[HE comes up with an elaborate plan to honor himself]
7 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
hand them to one of the king’s most noble officials.
Let them dress the man
then lead him through the the city,
proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’ ”
10 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.”
11 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.”
The table continues to turn.
There is shift now. There is a change in the atmosphere
12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.
13 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.”
5. Esther unveils Haman’s plot.
5. Esther unveils Haman’s plot.
The king asks “What is your request?”
3 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.
4 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.”
5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”
6 And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
The king is angry and leaves the banquet.
Haman stays to beg for his life
He’s falling on the couch where Esther is.
The king returns to find him there in that awkward position.
English Standard Version Chapter 7
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. 9
Then one of the kings officials says,
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.”
6. The table turns
6. The table turns
Haman is hanged on the gallows that he built for a man of God he despised.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper.
Then the king gives to Esther the house of Haman.
1 On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.
2 And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
Wicked Haman is executed. Mordecai is saved and promoted.
Yet the Jews are still in jeopardy. The decree is still in effect.
3 Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews.
6 For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”
The king instructed Mordecai - you write as you please regarding the Jews.
11 saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods,
English Standard Version Chapter 9
on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them
2 The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples.
3 All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.
Mordecai is a type of Jesus
He is the prophet who takes on the burden of his people, mourning over their pending doom.
The enemy wants him to bow as Satan demanded of Jesus
The same way a gallows was built for Mordecai, a cross was there for Jesus.
Mordecai saves his people, brings joy and gladness to the city.
Just as Mordecai steps out in His royal robes of blue and white, even so will Jesus return as KOK and LOL., with a golden crown, and royal robe.
Conc
AS we celebrate thanksgiving, let us give thanks to the God:
Who watches over His people
Who blesses His people with favor
Who is steps ahead of Satan, steps ahead of us. Long before Haman concocted his plan
Vashti is dethroned
Esther was in place
Mordecai discovered a plot on the king’s life
Raises up leaders that he can use
Raises up people who make sacrifices for the KOG
Responds to our cries and fasting
Able to reach to the most powerful men on planet earth
Destroys the plans of wicked men
Turns their wicked plans on their own heads - What a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Who delivers his people from the plans of Satan.
He is the God who turns the tables.