Sermon Tone Analysis

Providence and Protection

A window into some of my recent times of prayer and contemplation:

A visual of a dam— the little outlet is what we think we know about God.— What’s on the other side of the dam is “actually” what God is.

Our perception is key.

What do we think we know about God? How does that compare to what God actually is?

A guiding concept throughout the story has been God’s providence.

It’s this big scary kind of theological word, but it is something that we need to grasp and get our minds and hearts to understand more deeply.

B.B. Warfield— The “Lion of Princeton”— seminary professor from 1887-1921

Westminster Confession of Faith: (Year 1646, Reformed)

Chapter 5, Article 1:

“God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.”

Sounds like the greatest king, the greatest Lord, the greatest God we could ever have.

What that means to me is that no one is here today, no one is watching online, or listening even months from now by accident.

You are not an accident.

That also means that everything that happens to us, all our circumstances did not happen by chance either.

Now that gets a little bit more personal doesn’t it?

But as we have been mentioning several times throughout our series, our circumstances, the things we are facing— are these all my doing?

Or they all God’s doing?

Neither.

They are both God’s doing and my doing.

And listen, there are things happening ALL throughout our days— even today, that are all conspiring to undermine my trust in God’s providence.

That’s the work of our enemy to destroy or at least disrupt our faith.

There are times when I basically have said— “this is not good”.

And I’m guessing— no I know, that right now some of you are saying that same thing.

Because our real experience in these toughest times is to say “Ok, God, I know that you are in control— but your control doesn’t feel good, it’s not comfortable, it’s not clear that whatever I’m facing is going to actually work out--”

But as we have seen here in the story of Esther— when we can be faithful, God will be glorified, and He will work all things out for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose.

(That’s Romans 8:28)

That’s what we are seeing here in Esther as the curtain keeps being pulled back week by week— We get to see a little bit more of how God is working, but those involved can’t actually see it— His hidden providence, and how it is partnering with the visible and active faith of Esther and Mordecai.

God invites us to participate in life with him— to find strength and stability in the “providence pulley”— And for Esther and Mordecai, this was God’s ultimate plan to “deliver” His people from what seemingly is an “undeliverable” situation.

God continues to do that today.

Remember last week we learned about the “dead end” for Haman and his evil pride.

His hatred for Mordecai, the big stake, and the gruesome end that pride, selfishness, and hatred will lead us to.

We were reminded that Jesus hung on a big “stake” also for us— and through his death he “flipped” the script on the enemy.

Overcoming death, by his death.

Verse 10 of chapter 7 kind of sets up today’s message in chapter 8:

We all might have just taken a little sigh of relief at that point, right?

Everything is going to be ok— but is it?

No.

It actually isn’t.

The king’s anger being calmed down is fine— but can you remember or guess what is still wrong?

Yes, the law is still intact.

The edict and decree to destroy the Jews is still there!

These people had no idea if— or even how God would deliver them.

Once again there are four separate sections of this passage today:

The Reversal (v.

1-2)

The Plea (v.

3-8)

The Counter-Decree (v.

9-14)

The Celebration (v.

15-17)

The Reversal (v.

1-2)

Reversal of power

Reversal of possessions

Reversal of position

What we are observing here is a gradual shift - things are moving toward the favor of the Jewish people.

They were once only captives, but now there are two very powerful players in the palace— Esther and Mordecai.

As we see things in life move toward Jesus’s lordship, power, possessions and positions all come under his Lordship as well.

The Kingdom of God seems upside-down when compared to the Kingdom of the world!

We’ve seen all sorts of things changing “radically” in this story— we could list all of them— something is going this way— and suddenly it does a 180 degree turn and goes the other direction.

But if you notice- When God is in the change— it’s always better!

That is exactly the way I see things happen today too.

A marriage that is struggling— Jesus redeems the hearts of the couple, and power, possessions and positions all become radically changed.

Let’s see how God might bring about this radical change once again for His people:

The Plea (v.

3-8)

Esther mentions three criteria for her request: (v.5)

If it pleases the King

If the King regards Esther with favor

If it’s the right thing to do

She is basically asking him to retract, or return the words that he had decreed before.

Like getting the toothpaste back into the tube— Like blowing on a dandelion and trying to get all the seeds back.

The king can’t actually do that.

BUT GOD!

Who has the signet ring now?

Who has what they need to possibly figure out a way to fix this problem?

It rings of the wonderful interaction we read in Mark 6:30— Jesus looks at his disciples, with 5000 or more hungry people surrounding them— and he says:

Mark 6:37 (NIV)

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

Moses is stalling at the thought of returning to Egypt and leading the entire nation out of slavery— “I can’t do this, You’ve got the wrong guy, I don’t speak so well, and finally he gets really personal— “What if when I say you sent me, they don’t believe me?”

Let me point something out for all of us to understand here— The Esther we see here in Chapter 8- is NOT the Esther we saw back in Chapter 4. Is she?

IN 4, she is basically terrified and Mordecai tells her you MUST go and do something.

Who knows?

Maybe it’s you that the Lord is calling to save all of us!

She has realized something— something very powerful.

She’s taken an evaluation of all her power, all her possessions, all her position— and she has concluded that all of that doesn’t matter in comparison to her:

PURPOSE!

I’m here to serve God in his plan to save people.

Is it that clear for you today too?

You’ve been saved by grace— saved that we might be used in His plan for the world.

(INSERT WORD ART SLIDE HERE: Bringing power, position, possessions all under purpose_)

The Counter-Decree (v.

9-14)

Mordecai crafts a decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves.

The decree matched Haman’s decree.

The Celebration (v.

15-17)

The whole city celebrated with Mordecai.

This decree is the opposite of the 1st decree- that sent people into turmoil— this one gives them reason to celebrate.

All the Jewish people rejoiced.

Once again, instead of sorrow- fasting, mourning and crying— they are filled with the joy of peace and God’s redemption.

After observing and understanding all that had happen to the Jews— some joined them!

They wanted to share in this great victory.

Remember they still haven’t been redeemed yet!

They still had about 8-9 months to wait for the 13th day of Adar.

The redemption is complete— for now they have Joy, regardless of the circumstances.