Daily Devotioanl – August 21

The Rest of the Week and Looking Forward to the Lord’s Day

Isn't it nice to know this another week is about behind us and looking forward to the weekend. I always look forward to the weekends, look forward to Saturday. I normally take my day off and try to get some rest and some refreshment in, do something special just to break up the routine and then anticipate the Lord's Day.

I like to get rested and refreshed on Saturday so have a good Lord's Day together on Sunday and do look forward to gathering with God's people and opening the word and hearing what God has for us from Ephesians chapter 6 on this coming Lord's Day.

God’s Hidden Providence in the Book of Esther

Well this past week in my morning devotions I read again the the book of Esther. I know you're familiar with that story, I'm sure you are. It's a very popular story especially among children and elevating Esther the Queen and all of that.

It makes it a very fascinating story. It is not only a fascinating story but a captivating story as well. But are you aware, I'm sure you are, you've probably heard this before, that in the book of Esther God never appears.

There is no reference to God whatsoever. There's no worshiping of God, there's no praying to God, there's no sacrifices to God, and this is Old Testament and none of that is there. The closest thing you have to it is when Esther tells Mordecai, have the people fast, call a fast.

The assumption is that with that fasting there is prayer, but that is an assumption. It's not spelled out in the text. The Jews weren't the only people who fasted. Fasting was a very common expression of concern and anxiety over a given situation.

So in the book of Esther God never shows up. I mean he's never mentioned, but he's always there. He's working behind the scenes. I've preached through the book of Esther a couple times and I have a little different approach to the book than, you know, kind of the standard thing that, you know, holds up Esther as a great paragon of virtue and all the rest of that.

I'm not going to go into that, but what I want to emphasize is it's kind of playing off a quote that I put up on Facebook today from Eugene Peterson where he said this, he said, in difficult times the Christian is surprised not by disaster, but by providence.

The Christian is surprised not by disaster, but by providence. Well the funny thing is in the book of Esther, God's people were startled by the disaster, the impending disaster. Haman had devised this plan where all of the Jews would be exterminated and when that decree went out on such-and-such a day several months down the road that all the Jews should be exterminated, they were terribly surprised by this disaster, but when the book of the Esther is done, what's really surprising is the repeated expressions of God's providence, even when he is not acknowledged in the book at all.

So when I preached through this series several years ago, I stopped one day and just thought about all the what-ifs in the book of Esther. What if God had not intervened providentially? And so here's a list.

If this intrigues you, you need to refresh your memory about the book of Esther, you know, hear this list and then go back and read the book for yourself and you can see where I'm going with it. But what if the fear of the Jews had not gripped the Persian Empire?

Was that fear of the Jews that kept them, the Persians in the Persian Empire, from slaughtering? What if the fear of the Jews had not gripped the Persian Empire? What if the king had not given Mordecai so much authority and God providentially orchestrated things so that Mordecai was given a position of authority that ended up saving the Jews?

What if the king had not held out his scepter to Esther when she went to the king to beg for her people, for her people's welfare? If the king didn't hold out his scepter, Esther could have been imprisoned or could have been executed.

But the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and the king held out his scepter. What if the king had not had a sleepless night? Do you remember that when Haman had planned to have Mordecai hung and that night the king couldn't sleep and he went through the annals of the Chronicles just to read something boring to put him to sleep?

And when the reading was done, when the reading was going on, he was reminded of this effort by Mordecai to save the king's life, which then led the king to exalt Mordecai in a particular way. What if the servant had read a different chapter in those Chronicles of the Empire?

What if God in his providence didn't have him open up that particular scroll? What if Mordecai had already been honored? Now what I'm getting at there is that Mordecai, you remember, he uncovered this plot to assassinate the king and he made sure the king found out about it, but then nothing was done about Mordecai.

He was just kind of forgotten. And instead, Haman was exalted to a position of prestige. Well, what if Mordecai had already been honored? What if Memucan, one of the king's servants, what if Memucan overheard the plot to kill the king instead of Mordecai?

What if Haman did not show up when he did? That is, when the king was musing over what to do for Mordecai. What if Esther had not been willing to approach the king? What if Haman had not convinced the king of the Jewish threat?

What if when Haman cast the lot, the lot fell 21 days hence, not several months down the road, when the Jews would have had no chance and Esther and Mordecai wouldn't have had any chance whatsoever to try to do something to save the Jews?

What if Mordecai had paid the respect that was due to Haman when he went by? Hmm. What if Haman didn't really care about Mordecai's disrespect? What if it didn't bother him in the least bit? What if Mordecai hadn't reported that rumored plot and the king ended up being assassinated?

What if Mordecai had received the position that was given to Haman? Oh, let's go back even further. What if Esther had not been selected to be the queen? Hmm. What if Esther had declared her nationality to begin with when she went before the king and she spent the night with the king before they were married, before she was chosen to be the queen, by the way?

What if she said, oh, by the way, your highness, I'm a Jew. What if Esther had not received favored treatment by the eunuch that was over the harem? Hmm. What if Esther wasn't fair and beautiful? What if the king had not divorced Vashti?

What if Vashti followed the king's wishes? What if the king had not made such an unreasonable demand upon his wife? Oh, and we can go back even further, can't we? What if the parents of Mordecai and Esther had returned with the exiles to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple?

What if? Now here's the thing about that, that whole story. Here are two individuals, Mordecai and Esther, who were not really living as God's people should be living, and you could understand if God in his providence just let things play out to their own heartache and destruction, but God in his providence cares for his people, and it is the startling thing in the book of Esther how through all of those twists and turns in the story, God is providentially working through it all to preserve and to protect his people.

Oh, it's not disaster that surprises us, that's part of this world, isn't it? It's the providence of God that preserves and protects us. That can be wonderfully surprising. Well, I wonder if you've been surprised by God's providence recently.

If not, I'd encourage you to keep your eyes open, see what you can see, God working in your day-to-day life, that all of a sudden you go, wow, look what God has done. Our Father in heaven, I pray that you would open our eyes to see when you so wonderfully and surprisingly work.

This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, all right, you have a good rest of your Friday, a wonderful weekend, and if you can make it on the Lord's Day, 1030 for the morning worship service, we would be delighted to worship together around the things of the Lord on the Lord's Day.

So, have a good day, God bless.