Esther 6 March 14, 2021

Background:

Esther is a book that does not mention God a single time, and yet, the reality of God’s providence is obvious front to back. God is sovereign in the big things at the beginning, and at the end. But here in this chapter we see a different kind of God’s sovereignty. His hand in the details, the seemingly insignificant.

This is the hinge point in the book upon which it turns. And the event is about as insignificant an event as you could imagine. Somebody has insomnia. There’s no massive war, no struggle for the throne, no big event at all!

Beneath all of what’s going on, we see the hand of the sovereign LORD. This sermon series is called “The God who is There” exactly because we see God’s hand in every detail of this story, even if the author never mentions his name.

I used to work for a window company. I won’t say which one. But we manufactured the windows from start to finish. I worked in the paint department, although I moved around when the need arose. But my main job was to bring long pieces of window frame into a large paint booth and spray them with paint. They would later get cut and put together and the glass would go in and then we put screens in them and wrap them up and shim them out. Well at any point along the assembly of these windows things can go wrong. And we used to have a saying, and it was “don’t worry, it’s a commercial job”. What that meant was that the order was placed by a contractor who was putting in the windows into some kind of big business building. Now that’s different than an order placed by a homebuilder who is putting them in his own house. You know what the difference was? The homeowner cared a whole lot more than the contractor who was putting them into somebody else’s building. So the saying “don’t worry, it’s a commercial job” meant that, if there were details in the windows that were not perfect, who cares, they probably won’t complain. You could get away with a lot more mistakes and cut corners on a commercial job because they typically didn’t care about the details.

Now, had I been a more godly man back then my response should have been “actually, this job belongs to the LORD, and he cares about the details”.

Our God is a God who cares about the details. Not only does he care about the details, but he providentially causes all things, details included, to work out for his glory. Remember that this chapter falls in the middle of a larger than life story that shows God’s sovereignty over entire nations. Remember that God caused to stand up against Xerxes, and out of all the women of the provinces of Xerxes kingdom, Esther was found to be the most desirable to Xerxes. And we’re going to see that God’s hand of protection was on the hand of his people throughout the whole Persian Empire. So in those chapters it’s obvious that God is the God over the big stuff, but this chapter right in the middle focuses down on really a few people, on a single night, in events that are seemingly insignificant.

It is the joy of the believer to recognize and partner with the providence of God.

1. God is sovereign over every detail of life, and he’s accomplishing something with those details. (Verses 1-5) Esther 6 March 14, 2021

The opening verses of this chapter, we are met with a number of small, seemingly insignificant events. A king who can’t sleep; a book of records opened to exactly the right page; a good deed left unrewarded; a man in the right place at the right time to give some ironic advice.

When we think of God’s providence, we tend to think of it as grand and overarching. It is, but these verses clearly show us that God’s providence is just as powerfully displayed in the mundane, the ordinary, and the small details.

If God is sovereign over every detail, and he providentially ordains them. Then it must be true that the everyday happenings of our lives has significance. Its’ not just the big things and big decisions in life that are of importance, it’s all of the things we do. This is true only by the very fact that it is God who does the ordaining. Let’s put it this this way. Can God make mistakes? Nope. Can God do anything half-hazard or sub-par? Nope. God always works, to the utmost of his ability, strength, wisdom, love, justice, and we could go on. So if that’s the case, then even the minute details of life, the things that we think are insignificant are actually meaningful and God is doing something with them.

Now if that’s the case, then we have to come to the conclusion that God is accomplishing something with whatever situation you are in right now in life.

It means that God uses the normal circumstances of our lives to accomplish his tasks. There is no miracle in this chapter. There is no parting of a sea or angel army or raising of the dead. God’s providence happens in the “normal”.

What a glorious thought that God uses the normal for his glory.

[One of my favourite books that I have read a handful of times and I plan on reading it again is short little biography of a pastor named Tom Carson. Tom was a church planter and pastor in Quebec in the mid 1900’s. The whole point of this book was the Tom was ordinary. He never pastored a mega church. He never preached to hundreds or thousands. He never wrote a book. To our standards we was nothing extraordinary. But God used the normal workings of this man’s life to save souls, and grow up Christians in their faith. He had kids, whom he and his wife just faithfully preached the gospel to. One of his sons, Don Carson, grew up to become a very influential preacher/pastor/biblical scholar/theologian who has greatly influenced my faith in Christ and many others.]

How glorious is it to know that God is provident over the normal things of our lives, to accomplish his tasks.

It also means that our hardships and struggles are not insignificant, and they are not forgotten by the LORD.

You don’t think felt cheated back in chapter when he uncovered the conspiracy plot and saved the king’s life, and never got anything from it? Don’t you think it felt a little insignificant?

I’ve talked to some of you even this week, who are going through painful seasons. And for every person I have talked to, there are a dozen more who I haven’t, and yet are enduring hardships of many kinds.

Can I just say directly to you, those hardships matter. The God who causes sleep to flee from the king, to make him read a record, opened at the right page, at the right time, to make come to pass God’s will. This God is the same God who is providentially loves you. Esther 6 March 14, 2021

James writes in the opening of his letter

“Consider it pure JOY my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Do you see that our hardships are put there by the Lord, for the purpose of molding us and forming us into the likeness of Jesus? That’s what it means to be mature and complete, not lacking anything does it not? So our pains and struggles are not insignificant or a waste, but God is using them to make us more like Jesus, and growing our excitement of one day being in his presence. And if that’s the goal of all that happens in the Christian’s life, then James can say with confidence “consider it pure JOY”.

That only makes sense if the provident hand of our God is behind every detail of our lives.

It is the joy of the believer to recognize and partner with the providence of God.

But…

2. It is equally true that we chose actions that either glorify God or glorify ourselves. (verses 6-9)

The king calls in and asks Haman his advice as to what should be done for someone who the king wants to honour. Now there is no way that Haman has any idea that Xerxes means Mordecai. We have that information because we get the big picture and whole story. We can feel the great irony in this part almost to the point of being comical. Haman of course is blinded by pride and cannot fathom the idea that there is anyone else in all the world that the king wants to honour more than himself. So he muses at what he himself would love. Had he asked who it was for, he could have avoided this altogether. But you see, Haman is acting exactly according to his desires. His desires of course come from his prideful and narcissistic nature.

Haman acts according to his nature. Glorifying the self.

Oh how many times we come to this conundrum in Scripture where we see these two things at the same time. 1, that God’s will is always done, and that he makes come to pass every single thing, without exception. And 2, that we are responsible for our choices.

The reality is that God is sovereign over all things, and at the same time we always chose actions in accordance with our desires.

Haman’s actions here are exactly in line with his nature. And he is by nature an object of wrath. He is selfish and hateful and prideful…he actually WANTS to choose what he chooses. He uses his will to choose what he does. He chooses to polish his pride.

[If you come over to my house for lunch, and I, being a hospitable host, put before you 2 different lunches. On one plate is a dead fish I found that washed up on the rocks down by the marina, on the other is a delicious pizza. You have the choice which you will chose. I do not force you to choose the pizza, but I guarantee you will.]

Do you see that God has ordained this, but also that Haman has chosen this according to what he desires? Esther 6 March 14, 2021

We are all like Haman left to your own devices aren’t we. Scripture is clear that we are all, like Haman, objects of wrath as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2. We gratified the cravings of our sinful nature, not because we were forced to, but because we wanted to. Nobody forced me to sin, I chose that, and I liked that.

What we need is new desires. And thanks be to God that when we were dead in our sins, willingly rebelling against God, God made us alive in Christ by grace through faith. We are new creations those of us who are in Christ. We have new tastes now. Yes we still wrestle with the flesh, but our deepest desire ceases to become ourselves, and becomes Christ.

When we come to faith in Christ, we die to our former selves who desired sin, we are washed clean by Christ’s work on the cross, and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who empowers us for obedience and creates in us a delight to recognize and partner in the providence of God.

It is the joy of the believer to recognize and partner with the providence of God.

So God ordains all things, and we chose our actions according to what we desire, whether it’s a desire to glorify God or a desire to glorify ourselves, but the reality is that our actions have consequences.

3. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (verses 10-13)

Haman the proud is brought down to the dust, Mordecai who humbled himself and saved the king is lifted up in honour. How humiliating for Haman to parade around town announcing honour for his bitter enemy! You don’t get the sense from this book that Haman’s and Mordecai’s relationship problems were private. The king’s gate was a public place, and remember the king had ordered previously that everyone give Haman respect. It would have been noticed when Mordecai refused to bow down to him.

Haman a case study in stubbornness, pride, hatred, rebellion, greed. I study this book and look closely at Haman and even knowing how it ends I find myself wanting him to stop! I find myself wanting him to repent, because I know where his life will lead, it ends in the next chapter! He is a case study of where stubborn pride leads.

This is a glimpse of what is to come. Will you honour yourself and enjoy the things of this earth like Haman, but ultimately be brought low when Christ returns? Or will you humble yourself now, and be exalted later.

Look at this, it’s very cool when you think about. What is significant about what Haman suggests? He asks to be paraded around, in the king’s clothes, on the king’s horse with the king’s seal, led by a king’s attendant, honoured by the king. He wants to be associated with the king! Think about. This both speaks to the honour of being king, and the honour of being associated with the king.

Haman’s pride leads to humility, but Mordecai’s faithfulness to the king leads to his association with the king.

Is it not true of the Christian, that our honour is being associate with the King of kings? He have no honour in and of ourselves, but as we humble ourselves and are faithful to the King through the work of Christ, our reward is to be associated with the King! Esther 6 March 14, 2021

We are bought by the King’s blood, we have the King’s Spirit indwelling us, we pilgrim towards the King’s kingdom. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Our reward is like the reward of Mordecai but infinitely better.

And what is this reward dependent on? Humility. Humility to serve the King. Humility to acknowledge that we are not worthy in ourselves, but that we are sinners in need of grace from the King. Humility to acknowledge that we derive our worth from him.

Will you humble yourself today before King Jesus and receive the honour of being associated with him when he returns? Or will you continue in your glorification of the self and be ashamed and dishonoured like Haman. Its’ over for Haman, he’s long dead. It’s not over for you. Read the next chapter today, he had everything the world could offer, but he would not humble himself before God.

I’m pleading with you, because the end has already been decided. I’m pleading with you to humble yourself, come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and receive the joy of being associated with the King.

It is the joy of the believer to recognize and partner with the providence of God.

4. God’s loving faithfulness ensures that his people will prevail unto glory (13-14)

This half a verse is maybe the closest we get in this book to a proclamation of God’s sovereignty. This little sentence is packed full of cosmic truth.

This verse is nothing short than the realization that God has promised his loving, covenant faithfulness to his people, and no power can rescind that. I don’t know if word got around of these covenant promises. Perhaps rumours abounded after somehow the Jews survived extinction where other nations did not. But this reality is nonetheless so obvious here in this verse.

It’s amazing to think that the Holy Spirit put these words into the mouth of a pagan, to be written by the unknown author of Esther, neither of which I’m sure got the deep significance of what was said, but was preserved for us to read today. This statement is a proclamation of the promises of God given to Abraham in Genesis 12 that Abraham’s seed are God’s special people. It brings us back to Genesis 15 where God walked through the cut animals signifying his covenant with his people. Even more than looking back, we now see that this promise is more fully fleshed out in Romans 9-11 where Paul describes all of God’s people, Old and New Testament, are true Israel.

No enemy of God’s people will ever truly prevail.

It can just as easily be said today to any enemy of God’s people “since the Church, before whom your downfall has started, is of Christ’s origin, you cannot stand again them, you will surely come to ruin”.

Christ’s work on the cross and his glorious resurrection has in a sense begun the downfall of every enemy of his people, and the victory of Christ and his people are certain! Christ’s resurrection from the dead is a giant neon sign to the nations that he is the eternal King, and that he will return one day to realize his eternal kingdom, which means the destruction of his enemies, and the vindication of his people. Esther 6 March 14, 2021

This is the goal isn’t brothers and sisters? This is our hope. This is what we look forward to. This is what we strive for, assured that God has ordained it.

It is the joy of the believer to recognize and partner with the providence of God.