The Beginning of Judgment (Esther 7) — Esther: The Invisible Hand of Providence

Now, the book of Esther, as we continue in our series through this great book, and it's a great book for many reasons, but not least of which is that it demonstrates to us that God is present for his people, even when he seems absent.

And he's present to deliver them from enemies that seem insurmountable. And what's more, he delivers them at times, and this is what's so paradoxical about it, by elevating their enemies, right?

One thing that this book should teach us is that we should never be dismayed by the riches or power of the wicked, because God is ordering all of these things, right?

By him, kings reign, and so we don't need to be concerned by the position of evil men around us, because God is on our side, amen?

In Esther, we see that God's providence is really inevitable, right?

There's nothing that the enemy can do to thwart his intent to deliver his people. And again, even

God is positioning his enemies for their own destruction by allowing them, though not merely allowing them as if a bare permission, but God is allowing them to further set themselves against God and his people, that their destruction would be great.

And we see this in Esther, we see it throughout scripture, really, and even in the death of Jesus, as Peter says in Acts chapter two, verses 22 and 23, men of Israel, hear these words,

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which

God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken by wicked hands, have crucified and slain.

And then later on in verse 36 of Acts two, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same

Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. The pattern of God and his destruction of his enemies is to let them think that they've won, right?

To permit them to do their worst against him. And then using their worst, God displays his best to destroy them utterly with their own works.

The book of Esther teaches us this clearly, even when we can't see what God is doing clearly in it. And so today, as we continue in this series, again, through the book of Esther, we're gonna revisit together chapter seven.

On Easter Sunday, we looked at this chapter specifically through the prism of the typological, right?

In its connection to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross and how that death was actually the vehicle through which

God would bring life and salvation to his people. But today, as we work through chapter seven, as we make our way through this text once more, we'll stay a little more connected to the specifics of the narrative.

And in so doing, we'll see, I hope, that while God is the first cause of all things in the falling out of his providence, he does, in fact, use means, right?

In the words of the Westminster Confession, in his ordinary providence, God maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure to accomplish his ends.

And so with that, let us hear the word of God from Esther chapter seven, this Lord's day.

Hear the word of the Lord. So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, what is thy petition, queen

Esther, and it shall be granted thee? And what is thy request, and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom?

Then Esther the queen answered and said, if I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request, for we are sold,

I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen,

I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto

Esther the queen, who is he, and where is he, that dares presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, the adversary and enemy is this wicked

Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. And the king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went into the palace garden, and Haman stood up to make requests for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon

Esther was. Then said the king, will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered

Haman's face. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which

Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, hang him thereon.

And so they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

This is the word of the Lord, and thus ends the reading of God's holy word. May he write it on our hearts by faith.

Thank you, God. Let us pray. Father, again, we thank you for your word, and we ask your help this day as we would consider this chapter,

Esther chapter seven, once more, that you would grant to us an understanding of it, Lord, that you would help us to receive it in faith,

Lord, help us to apply it appropriately to our lives, Lord, and that you would show us,

Lord, what it is that you have for us to learn this day. We ask your help in Jesus' name, and amen.

Amen. Again, this chapter is one of those moments in scripture where everything seems to happen quickly, right?

Yet it took a long time to get here. But there's a sense in Esther seven that a trap has been set, right?

The bait has been taken, and now the snare springs shut on Haman. And yet behind every human scheme stands the living

God who doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, according to Daniel chapter four and verse 35, right?

There are times when God's people live under pressure that feels immovable, right? A decision has been made, a law has been written, a deadline has been set, a threat hangs over the future, and there's no obvious path to safety for them.

But the book of Esther, I think, is written for such times. And Esther seven in particular shows us what it looks like when judgment begins to fall upon the enemy of God's people.

And at the same time, this chapter teaches us how God ordinarily works, right? God does not typically merely drop deliverance from the sky upon his people when they need it, right?

He works through prayer, he works through courage, he works through the wise use of means, he works through providential reversals that no human mind could orchestrate.

One of the hardest burdens for the saints is not suffering itself, but suffering that looks inevitable, right?

There's a kind of suffering where the pain is very sharp, but it's short, right? And you can see the end of it.

I can remember when I was in college, and some of you may remember this feeling, but feeling this way around final exam week, right?

Feeling the pressure of it, the anxiety of it, but knowing that it would be over soon, right? There's an end in sight, right?

And there's a great relief that you can have because of that. But there's another kind of suffering where the threat feels fixed, right?

It feels permanent. It feels like it's written in stone. It feels like the future has already been decided because of it.

That the suffering that you're in, and when I say suffering, right, this can mean many things. It can mean the pressure or the burdens that you're carrying, whether it's work, business, whatever it may be, parenthood, right, or more macro types of suffering as well, like living under God -hating regimes, right, that are at enmity with God and His people.

It could feel like at times those things are never gonna go away, right, that that weight will be with you forever.

That's where the people are at here in Esther chapter seven. That's where the Jews are at in the book of Esther and at that time in Persia.

In Esther three, the decree is written and it's sealed, right, it's established for them. In Esther four,

Mordecai mourns, and Esther's uncertain about what the future might be, what she's supposed to do within it.

The Jews are marked for destruction on that particular day a few months out, and then in Esther five,

Esther acts, right, and then Esther six, God is working, right, God's working in the background.

The king can't sleep, Mordecai is honored, Haman is forced to crown this man. We can kind of see the tide turning, right, but in the midst of all of this, right, we get to see it from the perspective that we have reading this word several thousand years later, and yet the

Jews at the time, they feel very likely that this is a pain, a suffering, a burden that will never go away, that they will live the rest of their lives and that they will die in very likely.

But in Esther chapter seven, we see that the moment of public exposure of all these things arrives, right, and their suffering seems to have a path out by the end of it, and we need to understand what this chapter is doing for our faith with these things in mind, right.

First, it's teaching us that God's providence is real, right, God's providence is a real thing, a real thing that we should believe and see and respect as he works in and amongst and around us.

God's providence is real, and God's providence uses means, right, it doesn't cancel human responsibility, it doesn't negate the need for prayer, for courage, for wisdom, but rather,

God's providence gives purpose to all those things, God's providence gives purpose to human responsibility, to prayer, to courage, and to wisdom.

Second, this chapter teaches us that God's judgment often begins with reversal, right, but not only that, the weapon formed against the righteous very often will be the weapon that destroys the wicked.

And third, it teaches us that such reversals are not merely moral lessons, but they're signposts pointing toward the greater reversal at the cross of Jesus Christ.

And a very important thing about this reversal, right, this judgment of God in these moments, moments like this in history, so they very often begin at the top, right, the places where you would imagine, the story ends with the final boss, right, you would think in most, you know, video games and all those sorts of things and in the movies, but in the story of God, his pattern, the story begins, redemption begins with that, at the top of the judgment food chain, if you will.

So let's walk through this chapter together, starting in verse one, naturally. First thing to notice is that Esther's deliverance begins with a question, right?

Actually, we're gonna start at verse two, but the king says, what is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee.

And it's a remarkable thing that this question comes from Ahasuerus, right? Ahasuerus has been portrayed as a man of appetite and impulse.

He's a king who can be manipulated by flattery, we've seen. He's a king who makes rash decisions.

He's a king who was not careful all the time with the lives around him. And yet even this king understands something about royal authority, that the one who has power can invite a request, right?

And Esther has been waiting for this moment. Twice the king has asked this question of her. In chapter five, he asked when she came before him in the throne room, she delayed.

He asked in chapter six, the first banquet, she delayed. And now again, he asks, and now it seems the time has come for Esther.

But before she answers, we should take the king's question and let it teach us something about prayer, right?

If a pagan king can say to his wife, ask, how much more then does the living

God who has made covenant with his people, we are the bride of Christ after all, say ask, right?

James chapter four, verse two is born. He says, ye have not because ye ask not. There are needs that we carry, right?

That we never bring to God. There are fears that grow in the dark because we don't open them in prayer, right?

There are sins that we fight against with our own strength because we don't ask for God's grace, for his help by his spirit.

There are burdens that we keep private, right? Because we're embarrassed. You know, we don't necessarily, we think people are gonna judge us or think differently about us or whatever.

But we keep these things private because we forget that God is not only sovereign, but he is a father and he cares.

He knows even. And what's more, he's powerful and he's able to help his people.

Christ himself commands bold prayer of his people. Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, ask and it shall be given you.

Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. And he tells us why we can ask this question because God is a father who gives good gifts, who delights even to give good gifts to his children.

Now, obviously we have to be careful, right? Bold prayer is not the same as demanding prayer, right?

We don't know better than God. We can go to him because he's able. We don't know better than him. Bold prayer is not barking orders at God.

He's not a vending machine. But bold prayer is confident prayer. It's prayer that comes from faith in God's promises and in God's character.

Hebrews chapter four, verse 16, invites us to be this confident as we come before him. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and we may find grace to help in time of need.

We notice, very importantly, what the verse doesn't say. It doesn't say come boldly to the throne of merit. It doesn't say come boldly to the throne of we'll see.

It says the throne of grace. The throne is not a place where the saints are pushed away or evaluated.

But it's a place where mercy is obtained and where grace is found. And so ask, right?

But also notice as you read Esther that God's invitation to petition is not an invitation to passivity, right?

Esther was at the banquet because she acted, right? She fasted, she prayed, she risked her life by approaching the king.

She planned her words, she arranged her banquet. She chose her time and she had other people pray for her as well.

But this is an important principle that God's providence does not erase means, right? God's providence establishes the meaningfulness of means, the purpose of them.

And God has given us means. He's given prayer. He has given the word. Romans 10, 17, and so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

He has given the gathered life of the church. Acts 2, 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.

The means of grace weren't just decorative to them. It wasn't just because they loved hanging out with each other and breaking bread and chatting it up, letting each other know what the issues were.

They were means of grace. They believed them to be so. They were God's appointed channels of nourishment and strength for his people.

God has given us the armor of God as Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter six. Verse 11, he says, put on the whole armor of God.

He's given us truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the word, and prayer. God has also given us corporate courage as a means, right?

He's given us one another, right? We don't exist on our own. We're not islands. Even our households are not islands to exist on their own.

We have one another. There's a kind of obedience that can be private, but there's also a kind that cannot, right?

There are certain things that happen within your home. There's an obedience within your home. That's for you, for your home. But there are other elements of obedience that happen with all of us.

Galatians 6, two, bear ye one another's burdens. And what? So fulfill the law of Christ.

Right, you can't do that in isolation. You can't just do that behind the four walls of your home.

Right, that's a life lived together as the body of Christ. Right, that is the life of the body.

Micah chapter six and verse eight tells us to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with thy God. Justice and mercy, they don't, those aren't things that we just think about.

Those aren't just ideas. It's not just ethics, right? It's applying it.

It's living it in your communities. Right, they show themselves in what we defend, what we stand for, right?

Who we protect, what we refuse to tolerate around us. Right, so the king's question to Esther is a mirror for us.

Do we believe that God invites petition, right? We're in the king's presence every single week. Do we believe that God invites our petitions, invites our requests?

Or have we quietly decided that prayer is only for small things, or even really serious things, or really sad things?

Right, do we believe that God invites us to be bold, or do we pray like servants, you know, who don't even think we deserve to speak before him, even though he said otherwise?

And if God invites petition, then we will use the means that God has given, right? Word, prayer, sacrament, corporate life, not as ornaments, but as lifelines.

This is the way that God invites us into the life of Christ, is relying upon these means.

Again, each Lord's Day, we believe that we're invited to banquet with the king of heaven, right? Just as Esther here is banqueting, although she initiated it, right, it's a picture to us.

It's a banquet with the king. We are, every week, gathering for a banquet with the king of heaven.

And during the prayers of the people, the Lord is effectively asking us, right? You're not bringing your prayers to me.

You're not giving me your prayer requests. There's nothing I can do. For most all of these prayer requests, there is nothing that I can do for you.

But you are bringing your prayer requests to God. You are speaking through me. I'm a representative of Christ here, that's it, right?

I'm a minister to the people that God has appointed to serve you, to be a picture to you of the Christ that stands behind me and above us, right?

It's his throne that we bring our petitions to, right? The Lord is asking us, what is it, what can

I do? He knows, he knows, but he invites us anyways to give voice to it as an act of faith and trust.

Esther knows that God's gonna deliver the people. Mordecai already told her that. God's gonna deliver us.

He'll bring enlargement from somewhere, but perhaps for such a time as this that he's put you where you are.

We know that God knows what we need, what our petitions are, and yet he invites us every week to give voice to them because we're standing here in his presence, right?

The Lord is asking us, what is thy petition? What is thy request that I may grant it to you? If Ahasuerus can say that to his bride, how much more so will the

Lord of heaven say that to his? Do we answer with the same boldness that Esther does here, with the same conviction, right, that we belong in his presence because he's extended the scepter to us in Christ?

The king's question to Esther is an invitation, right? And she responds in faith that this petition to the king will be heard and that it will be granted.

Now, as we look at verse three, she begins it carefully. She says, if I found favor in thy sight,

O king, and if it pleased the king, right? She's not flattering in a manipulative way, right?

She's speaking wisely, shrewdly even, right? She recognizes her station before the king.

She's approaching authority with respect, even while she must speak with courage, right?

And she asked for something that would seem shocking, certainly to the king, and we see that eventually that it is very shocking to him, but let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request.

And there's two things to notice. Esther first binds herself to the people of God. She doesn't say, save them, save these

Jewish people in your kingdom, as though she's above them, right? As if she's to be spared, she's gonna be spared.

She says, my life and my people, right? She recognizes her covenant solidarity with these people.

And second, she asks for life as a gift. She doesn't claim it as a right from this king. She knows that she stands under his authority, and so she asks, she pleads.

And she explains the crisis in verse four, for we are sold, I and my people to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish.

Now, it's important for us to note that this language is not chosen at random, right? She's quoting the decree's own terms back to the king, right, and she's forcing the king to confront the meaning of what has been signed.

And a brief aside here, again, this is why it's so good to pray. When we pray to God, pray the word back to him.

It's not as if he's forgotten what he said, like Ahasuerus didn't even say these things, right? This was Haman speaking for him.

But God doesn't forget his word, but it is good for us to pray his word back unto him, right? Because we are calling on him,

Lord God, you are our God, you have said this, may it be so for me, right? But Esther, as she comes before the king, she's forcing him to confront the meaning of what has been signed in his name, right?

She continues in verse four, if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

What she's saying is that, I'm not trying to stir up trouble here, right? This isn't meant to be a trifling thing, right?

This isn't just some lesser suffering that I don't want me and my people to have to endure. She's not asking for comfort.

She's not saying we want to have the, we want to live in the nicest neighborhood in town. She's praying against extermination, right?

Why is that significant? Because I think it shows that Esther understands what's at stake, right? The Jews have known slavery.

There are people that have known slavery at this time. They were in Egypt, they knew their history. They were in Egypt for over 400 years as slaves.

They were exiles in Babylon. They know that God can keep his people through bondage and hardship, right?

That wouldn't necessarily be something that would be cause to do something like this for Esther, but destruction and perishing that was at stake at this time threatens the covenant line itself.

The promise to Abraham was not merely that Abraham would have comfort, but that through Abraham's seed, blessing would come to the nations.

And the threat in Esther is in the end, satanic hostility against the people through whom the

Messiah would come. And so in many ways, just as Mordecai said previously, God must deliver them in this season.

They know that he will deliver, right? And so Esther is acting using the means that God has given to her to be a part of that deliverance potentially, right?

She acts. Again, chapter four, verse 14, Mordecai says to her, who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

But before he said that, he says, if you keep silent, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place?

Mordecai believes that deliverance is gonna come because God is faithful, right? That there's no question on the faithfulness of God to his promises.

Mordecai's confidence is not fatalism, right? And we see this by Esther doing this.

It's not a fatalistic view of providence, right? As much as some people who bemoan providence, bemoan sovereignty, will try to shame you, try to like make fun of you.

Oh, you must be just a fatalistic, deterministic person or whatever. This is just, that's just silly, right?

Fatalism says that whatever will be, will be. So it doesn't matter what I do. But a biblical understanding of providence is that God rules all things.

Therefore, what I do matters because God uses means like this, right? This is exactly what the

Westminster Confession teaches in chapter five, paragraph three. God, in his ordinary providence, make it the use of means.

Yet he's obviously free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure. That sentence gives balance to our understanding, right?

And it tells us to avoid two errors. Not just us, but again, people who would even seek to dismiss you because, oh, how could you believe in providence and all these sorts of things?

But there are two errors that people will tend towards that that sentence gives balance to. One error is anxiety, right?

As though everything depends on us, right? And that error turns the means, right, into idols.

Like if I don't pray, then God's not gonna do it, right? That's, we don't believe that. That would be foolish, right?

It turns planning into control and it turns effort into a sort of self -salvation. But the other error is passivity, right?

As though nothing involves us at all, right? That error addresses laziness in a kind of religious language.

It calls a lack of action trust, right? Maybe you could think about this like in medical situations.

I refuse the treatment because God's gonna heal me. Right, it's foolish, right? We don't wanna be people that think like that.

Not to say that we take every treatment there is, obviously. But scripture keeps providence and means together, right?

These are things that we have to, we have to understand and balance. There may be a tension there, but we have to take it in balance as much as people might try to, you know, strawman you into having one or the other view of it.

Right, we wanna maintain balance because that's what the scripture teaches in this situation. Nehemiah chapter four, verse nine, we read, "'Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our

God "'and set a watch against them day and night.'" So Nehemiah doesn't choose prayer or watchfulness, right?

He does both. And even he connects the two. That we made our prayers to God and in so doing, we set a watch, right?

Their work was part of their prayer and trust in God to sustain it. I think this is why Paul says in first Thessalonians chapter five, never stop praying, right?

Pray without ceasing. Because life is meant to be a life of prayer. And not just that you're always talking or talking to God in your head or out loud, but that you're actually just living out the prayers.

You're living a faithfulness and a trust to God. So we pray without ceasing in that way. And that's what they're doing in Nehemiah chapter four.

Their work and their prayer are the same thing, right? They pray to God and so they set a watch. Philippians chapter two, 12 and 13, "'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling "'for it is

God which worketh in you.'" We work because God works, right? God is at work in us and his work in us is our faith in action, right?

So again, it's a living out the prayers. It's living out the faith. That's what God calls us to.

That's what a life of prayer looks like. And so when someone says to you, thinking that they put you into some sort of logical trap that, well, if you believe that God is sovereign, then nothing matters.

So you might as well just do nothing, right? The answer is God's sovereignty is the reason that everything matters.

Everything matters more because God is sovereign. If God is sovereign, then prayer is not talking to the air.

It's speaking to the living God who rules. If God is sovereign, then courage is not meaningless heroism, right?

It's obedience empowered by grace. If God is sovereign, then means are not vain attempts to change fate.

They're God -appointed paths through which he will bring his will to pass. And so Esther's plea is action in the stream of providence.

She's doing this because she trusts that God would use it, because she agrees with Mordecai that perhaps

God has put her here for such a time as this. She has faith in the inevitability of God's promises, and so she's bold to act, not content to be fatalistic.

Do you see the difference here? And so when she speaks, she brings the hidden decree into the light, right?

So she's bringing this to the king. The king can no longer remain ignorant. The king must respond, and the king's response,

I think, reveals that he's kind of waking up, you know, to use kind of the modern parlance.

He's turning into, yeah, he's woke. He's the woke rite, you might even say. The king's response revealing that he's waking up.

He's beginning to see, right? Perhaps for the first time in many ways, the true shape of the evil that has been done in his name.

And obviously you see it with the sleeplessness before the chronicles of the history of Persia are read, and he has this great affection and love for Mordecai for what

Mordecai did. It's kind of this constant waking up, right? Or this strain of waking up that's happening here in the narrative for the king.

Verse five, then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther, the queen, who is he and where is he?

That there's presume in his heart to do so, right? To kill the Jews, kill Esther and her people. The king's outraged, right?

He speaks as though this is an act of rebellion against him. And in one sense, obviously it is, right?

Haman manipulated the king and he used the king's authority for personal hatred and vendettas.

But in another sense, this is an implication against the king, obviously, right? The decree was written with the king's consent, right?

The ring was given to Haman. That was his choice. No one made him do that, right? The edicts went out.

He didn't press Haman for more information when Haman brought the idea to him and told him about this people who refuses to become like, refuses to kind of acculturate to the

Persians. And this is one of the sobering realities, I think, of human authority, right?

That leaders can be careless, right? And when leaders are careless, many people can and often do suffer because of it.

And yet, again, in this story, we're seeing that God is able to awaken even a careless ruler, right?

And perhaps we can take heart with this today in our context, that God can even awaken careless rulers among us who maybe do things or are doing things that we don't agree with.

And may we pray that God would turn them and awaken them to some of the things that are happening around them, even though they don't currently see it.

Esther answers in verse six, the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman, right?

It's this one that you've trusted so much, right? This is the adversary who's aiming to do this, who's disobeying the king so blatantly next to him.

And the text says, then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. Now, this tells us something about wickedness, right?

Wickedness is often bold until it's named, right? Until you're pointing it out and you're displaying that this wickedness is actually evil, it will be very bold.

But then when it is exposed, things start to change. When it begins to be exposed at the very least, the enemy often thrives in shadows, right?

In insinuation, in whispers, in half -truths. But when the righteous speak plainly, we see what happens to Haman here, starts to happen as well for us even, that fear comes upon the wicked.

And the king's reaction is immediate. The king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went into the palace garden, right?

He can't even remain seated, he's so angry, right? It's driving him out of the room, he can't even be around it. Now, again, we have to be careful here with application, but there's something here for us.

It's tempting for Christians to assume that God can only work through the godly, right?

But scripture often shows that God is working through sometimes surprising instruments, right?

Romans 13, one says that the powers that be are ordained of God. That doesn't mean that rulers are always righteous, doesn't mean that they're always on our side, but it means that God is sovereign over rulers.

And in Esther, God uses this pagan king's wrath to begin the downfall of Haman. I think this is a warning against spiritual pride.

God may restrain evil through imperfect authorities, right? That's a good thing, that's a good thing.

A lot of Christians struggle with that idea, that God could use imperfect authorities to restrain evil. God may deliver through allies who do not share all of our convictions, right?

Especially against certain cultural ills, perhaps we need to be less restrictive on who we'll work with in order to end the scourge of abortion, right?

We don't have to agree with everybody on everything to work with them on different matters. God may use someone who has been foolish to do something wise at a decisive moment, right?

So we don't wanna be too dismissive of anybody and everybody around us, especially those with power, right?

Because we may, who knows what God may do, right? He may use them for a good and wise purpose as he sees fit.

Now, again, this doesn't mean that we compromise truth, but it means that we don't despise providence, right?

We can't despise the providence that we've been given. We hold fast to the truth, we never compromise on it, but we don't despise the providence that we've been given.

It's easy to think that everyone should agree with me on everything, right? Frankly, I think that everyone should agree with me on everything, it would be a lot easier for all of us.

Not here, but just in general, right? It's easy to think that, right? And everything would work out, right?

The way that they should if everyone would just do that. But God doesn't do that, right? No one seeks for God, and yet God is working on his purpose, right?

God doesn't need everyone to agree with him in order to work out his purpose. We don't need everyone to agree with us on everything for things to work the way that they should.

God doesn't need a perfect unity to accomplish his purposes. Obviously we want that, but he doesn't need that.

God uses imperfect vessels, and even sometimes adversarial ones to accomplish his purposes.

So again, Christians can get so caught up in this ideal that it becomes a prideful obstinance in many ways that refuses to use the means that God has given us.

Oh, you know, our rulers aren't the same types of Christians as me. Well, not getting my vote, no way, right?

He's not even worth working with. No point in even trying. Can you imagine if that was

Esther's disposition here? Well, Ahasuerus isn't even a Jew, so we're not working with him, no way.

There wouldn't be a book of Esther, right? Christian Interface, which I think Esther is a great book on Christian Interface with the civil magistrate, especially in a time like ours.

Christian Interface with the civil magistrate should look a lot more like Esther than the modern American evangelical who buries their head in the sands of Israel, right?

It uses the access that God has granted to us to petition our government for the things that we want, right, and that are good for us, right?

We should be doing that, right? Just as Esther's doing it, she's petitioning her government. Obviously, her access is great, but we should be petitioning our government.

We have great access in the model of government that we've been given that our fathers have blessed us with here. Even if the magistrate that we have are also pagan idolaters, right?

The idea that we should just be waiting around for the perfect Christian to rise up before we start the work of petitioning our magistrates is just, it's a lazy idealism, or that we should refuse to vote for people who are more friendly to us than the alternative just because they're not perfectly aligned with us.

Again, that's a prideful idealism. We have a lot to learn from Esther on the need to trust that God will use the means that he's given us and demonstrate that trust with courage in difficult times.

Now, while the king is gone, returning to the text here, while the king is gone, the scene tightens a little bit.

We know that Haman is afraid according to verse six, because bold Christians terrify the enemy.

Remember that, bold Christians terrify the enemy. So Haman is afraid. And then in verse seven, Haman stood up to make requests for his life to Esther the queen.

The man who wrote the death sentence is now begging for mercy. And the text adds, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

Haman knows that the tide has turned. The enemy knows that he has no chance, or at least it would seem.

And the enemy rarely accepts defeat calmly. Again, we need to be ready for that when we start winning more.

And even when we do win, we notice this, the enemy hates it. A few years ago, the decision of Roe v.

Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. Right, and what has happened since? There have been more abortions in America over the past few years than there were in the years preceding it.

Right, the enemy doesn't respond to defeat calmly. Right, there's panic.

There's more and more activity even, it would seem, on the part of the enemy when they start to lose.

They don't just give up when they're exposed, or they have one loss. They don't stop, they scramble.

And then we see with Haman, it pleads. It begs for mercy even. Haman is begging

Esther to relent in her boldness. Right, and this is what the enemy would do to us as well.

Right, this is, again, the Roe v. Wade is a great example, and the Dawes decision, a great example of this.

There's this idea that we need to be more merciful than God. Right, the enemy here with Esther is aiming to do this.

You know, you've been bold. You know, you've been faithful, and the fruit is good. But wait, you don't really want to destroy me, do you?

Don't be so bold. Christian, aren't you a Christian? Where's mercy? The enemy will seek to do this in all of our lives.

Right, you've labored in faith, and the Lord has blessed you. But the enemy will try to distract you.

He'll try to soften your resolve, and try to convince you that you've gone far enough. Now it's time to go easy on the enemy.

Right, we see this with sin. Parents, you see this with your children. You know, things are going really well. Discipline seems to be going really strongly.

Oh, you know what? Yeah, you can take your phone up to your room. You can do this or that. Right, oh, you can stay out late with your friends.

No. You can't, you can't relent. This is attempts for mercy, right, towards sin, potentially, not to say all those things must be sinful.

But that there's a great potential for sin, and so you can only grant those things when it's wise to do so. Right, we don't do it because of any emotional manipulation.

Right, so again, the enemy is looking to get us to waver, to get us to give in, to be merciful somehow to them.

But Esther doesn't waver, thank God. What an example that should be to us, right?

Christians are, as we should be, a merciful people, and yet, I think we often try to our shame to be more merciful than God is with his own enemies.

But this woman, and that is an important thing to state here, this woman, as women are often more prone to extend mercy in places where it probably shouldn't, right, this woman gives us an example of resolve.

And this is, again, a sign of judgment against the people of God, that it takes a woman to be this strong against evil, because the men wouldn't do it.

Right, if Esther were written today, the script writers, and again, even the Christian ones, right, they would probably have Esther forgive

Haman here. And they all become friends in the end. Everyone's happy. That's not always the way that things play out, nor it should be.

Haman has set himself against God and his people. There is no mercy for that.

He's not repenting, he's sorrowful and looking for cover. Right, Christians need to be able to tell the difference between those two things, between people who have a godly grief that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that leads to death.

Esther exemplifies that wisdom, that discernment for us here. And what's more, some crimes, no matter what the repentance might be, even if it is a good and godly grief and a godly repentance, some crimes require a worldly judgment against them.

But that takes a resolve in our faithfulness, right, that we wouldn't waver from the righteous path because someone's manipulating us emotionally, that we feel sorry for them.

Again, this is why I emphasize that it's so interesting that Esther obviously is a woman here, right, because women are more prone to respond emotionally, to want to be more merciful and more nurturing to somebody, especially when they're down, right, whereas men tend to be a little bit more rational and reasoned, less controlled by their emotions in these situations.

So it's incredibly interesting and compelling to us that Esther would have the resolve of faith to not be manipulated by Haman in these moments.

Now, as we come to verse eight, we read that the king, he's returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine.

And Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Now, whatever the precise details of that are, the optics are not good for Haman.

He's far too close to the queen, far too close to the king's wife. Haman's pleading has crossed a line.

And the king speaks, will he force the queen also before me in the house? Even if Haman's intent was only desperation, evil often ends by revealing itself.

And the king, again, is waking up, as it were, to the evil of the man that he trusted. I think this is why Jesus says that it'd be better for a millstone to be tied around your neck than you would try to deceive one of my little ones.

That's the same anger that the king is returning with, to see his bride, the enemy trying to trip up his bride.

Better for a millstone to be tied around your neck. It's increasing the wrath of Ahasuerus in these moments.

But sin in its final moments becomes reckless. And in Esther seven, God is using, even this moment,

Haman's fall upon the couch to seal the judgment against him. That last maneuver becomes the last bit of evidence that was needed.

And then the narrative moves from exposure to execution. And with the king's words, the verdict is effectively pronounced.

The covering of Haman's face signals that judgment is not a possibility, but it is inevitable, it's underway. And the chapter brings us to that great reversal, which we talked about a few weeks ago, that Haman dies by the instrument that he built for Mordecai.

And it teaches us not only about justice and history, but the pattern of God's salvation.

Again, in verse eight, the text says, as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbonah speaks, behold also the gallows, 50 cubits high, which

Haman had made for Mordecai, standeth in the house of Haman. Providence has been quietly arranging this the whole time.

Haman built those gallows expecting Mordecai's humiliation, but God has turned the situation.

And the king says, hang him there on. And so they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.

Again, this is the kind of justice that scripture often describes as God's way with the wicked.

Psalm seven says of the wicked, that he made a pit and digged it and has fallen into the ditch which he made. That's the story of Haman, right?

Psalm seven continues in verse 16, his mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his pate.

Galatians six at verse seven, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Haman sowed hatred and he reaped death. Haman sowed pride and he reaped humiliation. Haman sowed violence against the innocent and he died by the violence that he had prepared.

Now, two clarifications are needed here. First is, this is not a call for personal vengeance.

Hopefully that's obvious, but scripture is clear here, right? Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves as Romans 12, 19. Avenge not yourselves, for it is written, vengeance is mine,

I will repay, saith the Lord. Second, this is not a guarantee that every wicked person will be visibly judged in this life, right?

So if we're not seeing it, we're not seeing the judgment that we wanna see, don't be dismayed by that. Sometimes the wicked prosper for a season.

Sometimes their downfall is delayed. Psalm 73 wrestles with this, and that downfall is delayed so that they would go to higher places, so that when they do fall, it'll be even greater.

This is, that's the work of God, right? We trust him with that. Because God sees, God remembers, right?

God is able to turn the tables. And when God begins judgment, he begins with a reversal like we see here in Esther 7.

Now we notice the end of verse 10. Then was the king's wrath pacified. In the immediate story, the king's anger is satisfied because the threat to his queen and the shame of having been manipulated himself has been addressed.

But for the Christian, that phrase naturally presses us toward a greater question. How is the wrath of God pacified?

Again, we spoke about this a few weeks ago, but it's not by the death of Haman, right? God's wrath, it's not even by the death of the enemy, right?

Because we have sinned against God, right? God's wrath against sin is satisfied only in the death of Christ.

Romans 3 .25 says of Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

Propitiation means that God's righteous wrath is turned away by a sacrifice, right? And in that sense, the story of Esther points us forward.

Haman is the enemy of God's people. Satan, obviously, is the ultimate adversary who seeks the destruction of the saints.

And the cross is the place where God begins that final judgment against the kingdom of darkness, right?

We notice that keyword being the beginning. God begins the final judgment against the kingdom of darkness at the cross.

Colossians 2 .15 says that Christ spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Hebrews 2 .14 says that Christ took flesh and blood that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.

But again, we notice a pattern that Esther helps us to understand, that Haman's death is decisive, right?

Haman dying is a decisive blow. God has essentially declared that they were going to be victorious in this.

But the deliverance of the Jews is not completed in this chapter. We'll see this in the weeks ahead. The decree still exists and the story continues.

There's still three chapters left to go in the book of Esther. In the same way, the cross of Christ is decisive, but the full outworking of that victory unfolds until the last day.

1 Corinthians 15 .25, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

That's quoting Psalm 110, obviously. And then the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

And so Esther 7 gives us a picture of that already and not yet in the same way the cross does.

Judgment begins and it even begins with a figurehead. It begins at the top of the kingdom of darkness and the enemy falls, but full deliverance is still to unfold and is unfolding.

And that is meant to strengthen you, right? If you live in a time when evil feels settled, which we do in a time and place that feels like evil just has the power, they're in control.

Even in the sides that we think were for us, it seems like we don't even have control there. Esther 7 tells us that it can be reversed.

The Lord may be working even now, but even if he isn't working now, he will bring enlargement and deliverance from somewhere for his people.

So if we live in a time that where evil feels settled, feels like it's in control, Esther 7 tells us that God is still in control.

If you live in a time when you can't see the full deliverance, Esther 7 tells you that with the death of Haman, just as with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, judgment against the enemies of God and his people has begun and it has begun at the top of the kingdom of darkness.

But it will not stop until God's purpose and judgment against those enemies is complete.

A judgment which he is pleased to use us in carrying out. Just as we'll see, as he was pleased to do with the

Jews in the closing chapters of Esther. And so as we close today, that's the important thing that we need to remember, right?

God is using us in the means that he's given us to carry out his purposes for history. According to his providence, he's using boldness and conviction to topple governments, to defend his people.

He's using prayers and petitions. He's using word and sacrament. He's using your daily work and your daily sacrifice.

And this work is the carrying on of God's judgment against his enemies, right?

As you work, as you labor, that is God judging his enemies. What started at the cross continues with us.

The power of the resurrection life of Christ bearing fruit all over the world. And so all his enemies have been defeated and his glory covers the earth.

He defeated and he bound Satan so that now we go forth in power to defeat the enemies who remain.

That's what he has for us. The enemy still rages, right? Though Satan is bound, though their leader is bound, but their doom is sure, right?

And God showed us this at the cross. God has promised to us to crush his and our enemies under our feet in Romans chapter 16 and verse 20.

And so as long as we love one another, right? We build households, we raise children, we work diligently in our vocations, we build and rebuild culture here in Massachusetts, whatever it may be, right?

We need to do it with a faith like Esther's that trust those two things, that God in his providence will not fail us, but rather would use us according to his appointed means.

And at the flow of God's judgment starts at the top as he did with Haman and with Christ finding Satan through his death and resurrection.

And then it flows out to these lesser enemies that remain from there. And God is pleased to use us to carry it out.

And so we work in that faith, right? That we will crush them for God has promised it, right?

So live like it, right? Live victoriously, that is live in obedience to God. That's what it means to live a victorious life, in obedience to him, because that's how we crush the enemy.

We destroy death. We defeat the culture of death through life, right?

In the life of Christ that by that, we fulfill the law of Christ. We obey him and we crush the enemy around us.