Book of Esther - Part 17

The Providence and Immanence of God in Esther

Well good to have each of you with us today. I see a few visitors here today. It's good to have each of you. And I see a few home folks. It's always good to have you as well. Good to be back in the mode of school so that people are back from vacation.

Because in our church, like two, three families go on vacation at once. It's like the rapture came. And we missed it. The rest of us missed it or something. So we're really glad to have a good crowd here today.

I see here we have Charlotte's sister with us today. Marsha Jones, right over there by Charlotte. And I think most of you know Marsha, but good to have you visiting with us today as well. So we're going to be in the book of Esther today.

And we've had some folks that came for a while. I think it was Adam and Jenny Taylor came for a while. I don't remember if it was Esther, but we were in a book and they moved away. Gone for about a year, came back, moved back in, still in the same book.

So that's kind of how it goes sometimes. So like when you're studying verse by verse, you don't really care how long it takes. You just go until you're done and then you pick another one. So that's kind of how it's working here with Esther.

And we've gone all the way through chapter 6 pretty recently. So we're going to be starting with right at chapter 7, verse 1 this morning. I want to talk to you a little bit about, you know, in case you're visiting, you hadn't been with us, just bring you up to date on where our story is here in Esther.

But Esther is an interesting book because it's actually a book about the providence of God. It's a book about, as we just finished a study last Sunday, on the eminence of God. And the theologians have debated these two concepts forever.

You can go back for 2 ,000 years and read debates about it. And one group believes God is transcendent and the other group believes he's eminent. And transcendent means that they believe that God is separate from sin and he's off outside of time and space and he doesn't touch any of this.

And so it's almost as if he created everything and then he just withdrew from it and he's just maybe observing from a safe distance. So he's transcendent. The other group believes that he is eminent, which means he's in everything.

And what's interesting is whichever group, like if you take it to that full extent of the belief of that group, they're off a little bit because they're not balanced. And what's interesting about it is that the only way that, apparently, I mean it's the way it is, so it must be the only way it could be that God could be both of those, is if he existed as a triune God.

In other words, you've heard of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is how this is because God, that you think of as the Father, is transcendent. He is totally separate from sin. Sin will not come into his presence.

He will not go into sin's presence. And he is also not bound by time or space. He is totally outside of it. He's the I Am. He's not in time. He's always present tense, if you can imagine that. So he is transcendent.

But Jesus Christ, when he came into this world, one of his titles was Immanuel, which means God with us. So God is also imminent. And Jesus went so far as to say, Without me, you can do how much? That much.

Nothing. So he's imminent. He's right there with you. He's all around you. But he's also inside of you. And he's part of everything you're doing. He is the vine and you're the branch. And all a branch does, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, is it holds fruit.

It doesn't make the fruit. It just holds it. The fruit comes from the root and from the branch. And that's Jesus. And so he has made us, created us, and chosen us to take part with him in all of his work.

But we don't do it on our own. And the sad thing is, modern theology today in the church, among Baptists and everybody else, they had a name for it years ago. They called it Arminianism, but most people don't even know what that means anymore.

But basically what it is, is modern theology starts with man and moves out from man. And that's wrong. That's nothing more than the atheist concept of secular humanism, only it's theological. And it's sad because it starts with man and moves out.

It's like how a baby is. You know, when you have a baby that's just born all the way up to around 2 years old, they literally believe the whole universe centers around them. It lasts longer than 2 even, doesn't it?

It goes on up to like 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 years old. They think you're there for them, right? The young child thinks you are there for them. And it takes them a little bit longer. Usually about the time you have the second babies, when they start figuring out, well, there's some problems with that theory.

Because now part of it's about that one over there too. So how many of you were only children for at least a year or two? Jenny, right. So things change after that, right? And that's how the baby Christian believes.

The baby Christian believes he caused it all. That he caused his own salvation by accepting Jesus. And that he was looking for God. And as he begins to study the scriptures and himself and learn more about God, he learns more and more that it just simply didn't happen that way.

You take the Apostle Paul, when his name was still Saul, going down the road to Damascus, hating Christians, killing Christians, imprisoning Christians. He was not looking for Jesus Christ. He thought he was doing God a favor by killing Christians.

He would have killed Jesus Christ if he could have. And all of a sudden, Jesus flips a switch and Saul becomes Paul. He just flips a switch and causes Paul to look up at him and Paul sees him for who he is for the first time in his life and finds him irresistible and receives him as his personal Lord and Savior.

His whole life has changed. Right on that road. He was not looking for it. Jesus was looking for him, if you want to put it that way. Jesus was tracking him. Jesus was wooing him to himself. And that's what we see the more we read.

Now, Esther is a book that has to do with the eminence of God. The fact that God is involved in every little detail. We get taught the idea that God takes care of the big stuff and we're supposed to do the little stuff.

It's not that way. For without me, you can do how much? The little things. For without me, you can do a lot of little things, but when the big thing comes up, you need me. Is that what he said? No, it's not what he said.

He said without me, you can do how much? Nothing. And so Jesus Christ is a part of every detail of our lives. The things we call little, things we call big, things we call normal, the things we call problems.

Every bit of it, he's part of that. And Esther teaches it again and again. So in Esther, it's kind of interesting, when we were in chapter 6, we began to see God working behind the scenes in this thing and orchestrating some things that literally almost came out humorous.

I think some of it was humorous, but, I mean, it was serious nature as well. But you also see Satan working here because you have this man named Mordecai who was a Jew and he was raising Esther because Esther's parents had been killed.

All the Jews had been taken captive and brought into Babylon. And then you have the king of Babylon who chooses Esther to be his next wife. And she becomes the wife of the king. The king doesn't know she's a Jew because the man, I'll just call him her dad.

It wasn't really her dad, but he raised her. And Mordecai said, don't tell them you're Jewish. And she obeyed her dad, so she didn't. And here the king's married to a Jew and then the king has a right-hand man that he loves named Haman.

Haman's people go all the way back to Esau. In the time of Esau and Jacob. And Esau and Jacob have always hated each other. The descendants of Esau always hated Israel and still do to this day. And so Haman hated the Jews and the king made a proclamation that said everybody will bow down and worship when Haman walks by.

And so everybody did that except for guess who? The Jew, Mordecai. He couldn't do it because he had been taught not to worship anything but the true God. So Haman walked by and Mordecai just kind of stood there like this.

Made Haman angry. Because Haman was full of pride. And so Haman got in his mind, he said, I'll not only kill Mordecai, I'm going to kill all of his family, the whole Jew, the entire nation of the Jews.

I'm going to kill them all. So he went in before the king, the most powerful king of the day. His name in secular history is called Artaxerxes. Powerful man. Ruled the entire known world of that day. He goes in before that king and his right hand man and convinced him that it would be good and right and smart for him to exterminate the Jews.

And so he got the king to pass a law that even provided the money. It even financed it. That's better than President Obama ever does. I mean he comes up with these great plans, he just can't finance them.

But this king could. This king financed it. He put out the money and said anyone who will kill Jews will pay you to do it. So the whole plan was made and financed and everything and Haman was so happy.

Remember how he went home and he told his wife and all of his buddies how rich he was and how smart he was, how handsome he was, how strong he was. And at the same time all this was going on, Mordecai had told Esther, you better use your influence with the king or we're all going to be killed including you.

So she said, well you pray about it. You pray for me. And I'll have my girls over here pray for me. And they all prayed. She couldn't even sleep that night I'm sure. And so while Haman is over there bragging, Esther is making up a plan that God's putting in her heart and mind.

An interesting plan. And she goes before the king and the king loves her. He says, well I know you came in here because you want something. That's how most husbands think. Are you awake ladies? You're supposed to go, oh me.

But she walks in there and he's thinking, well I know you came in here, you want something. And he's so happy that day and he loves her so much he just looks at her. He looks at her and he says, I'll give you anything you want up to half my kingdom.

That's kind of how it is in Texas, isn't it? But anyway. So I told you the King James is written in Texan, most of it. So she's happy because he could have killed her because he didn't invite her in and she went in anyway and that was part of the law of that day too.

So he loved her, he didn't kill her, he offered her anything she wanted basically. So she said, well all I want is I want to have a banquet and I'm going to invite two people, you and Haman. Well Haman couldn't believe that.

He goes home, he starts bragging. He says, look, not only am I rich, handsome, famous, king loves me, I'm his right hand man, but Esther, the queen, is throwing a banquet with all the servants, all the food.

Guess who got invited? Two people, king and me. And he was so happy. Well that night, the Lord woke up the king, wouldn't let him sleep. And this is like the eminence of God. I mean God is so involved in the details of everything that he actually woke that king up.

King couldn't sleep so he had his servants come in and he said, read me from the chronicles, tell me what's going on in my kingdom, I need to stay up with that anyway. So they read him a story about how some assassins were going to kill him.

And this man saved his life by telling Esther who told him and he had the assassins killed. And they said, well who was that man's name? And they said his name was Mordecai. And he said, what great thing did you do for this man who saved the king's life?

They said, we didn't do anything for him. And so you know the story. He says, who's in the palace tonight? Well Haman was there because he had come by to try to get the king to let him kill Mordecai. He had already built gallows.

He was going to hang Mordecai and he was going to get permission from the king. So he was there to do that. And the king brought him in before he could say a single word. He said, hey Haman, what would you do if you were the king and you had a man that you loved more than any other man in the kingdom who you just wanted to give this man everything you could and raise him up above all the kingdom, what would you do?

And Mordecai, I mean Haman thought he was talking about him. So he told him what he would want. So he said, go get your white horse, go get some of your old kingly clothes and let this man wear the kingly clothes and then have someone else lead him around on the horse and all through the city and say, this is what the king does to people he loves and just have him paraded around.

The king said, that's exactly what we'll do and that man's name is Mordecai and you're the man that's going to lead the horse. Is that not funny? So now he goes home the next night and he's not bragging.

He goes to his wife and he's whining. He says, oh my soul, let me tell you what happened. He tells the whole story. And she with all these friends of his said, oh my soul, if that's true and that man's a Jew and you already told the king to kill all the Jews and fund it and all that, your power just fell.

You're falling at the hand of Mordecai. You will have no more power. And he was so worried and while they were telling him, the door starts knocking on the door. And it was the king's servants coming to get him and take him to the banquet that King Esther was throwing for the king and for him.

So that's where we pick this up. Now, there were two banquets. He'd already been to one. And then he came home bragging. This one he's going in trepidation and fear because he knows something has changed.

So let's pick this up in Esther 7 .1. So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther, now he has said this, what, four or five times now by this point?

And remember, Esther thought she might walk in there and he would have her killed because she was not invited to come in by the king and that was part of the law. She told her dad when her dad said, you need to go in there to that king and use your influence.

He said, dad, he has not invited me in in 30 days. If I go in there, he'll kill me. She lost sleep that night and that's a great lesson about our imaginations. We always make mountains out of molehills.

We always blow our things bigger than they are in our mind. And she goes in there and on the contrary, this king just was in love with her and said, you can have half my kingdom. Well, here he says it again.

And the king said again unto Esther, on the second day at the banquet of wine, what is your petition, Queen Esther? I know you're wanting something. You've already fed me last night. Now you're doing another banquet tonight.

Go ahead, tell me what you want. You can have up to half my kingdom. He says it shall be granted to you. What is your request? It shall be performed even to half of the kingdom. Ask. Well, there are a lot of types in this story.

Do you know what a type is? Like a symbol. A type or a symbol. It's like an object lesson that teaches us spiritual things. One thing that teaches us is that God is that way with us. I mean, sometimes a king can picture Jesus Christ the king, but my point is God is that way with us.

We do not realize that God is in the mode of saying, what can I do for you? What can I do for you? And we just don't ask. We don't ask. In fact, the scripture says, you have not, for ye ask not. So anyway, so verse three, then Esther the queen answered and said, and she already had this formulated in her mind.

She had this whole plan. If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and now she already knows she has, right? She flat knows she has. If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition.

In other words, just by me asking, my life will be given to me. It won't be taken. And the life of my people at my request as well, meaning the Jews. Now I'm sure the king thought that was a strange request because he still does not know she's a Jew.

Remember? Dad told her don't tell him. And then verse four, she goes on. And just think about this brilliant king, this brilliant mind this king has. He runs the entire world. You can imagine what kind of man this must have been.

And he's starting to think, what is she getting at? I figured she'd want that part of land over there just to put her house on or something. And here she's just asking for her life and she knows I love her.

Why is she asking for her life to be spared? Why is she asking for her family? I love her family. They're part of my family. She goes on, she says, for we are sold, I and my people. And not only that, we're sold to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.

That's three times as bad as just dying, isn't it? Right? I mean, we're not only going to be destroyed, after that they're going to slay us. And after that we're going to perish. I mean, she was using the strongest language she could use to make her point.

But if we had been... Then she says this, and she's a brilliant woman as well. It wasn't just her looks that made her where she could be queen. It was her mind, her brain. She was witty. She was brilliant.

And so she says, we've been sold as bondmen, and if that were all it was to it, if we had been sold as bondmen and bondwomen, then I would have held my tongue. I would not have even asked you for my life and for the life of my people.

I wouldn't have said anything if all that happened is we'd been sold as slaves because we want to serve the king anyway. That's her point. Although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. Now that language is a little difficult.

Would you agree with that? Who wants to hop up and raise a hand and volunteer to tell me what that means? Come on. It's like Bill does to us in Sunday school. Tell us what that means. It's not always easy because I read the passage and got a head start on you, didn't I?

But it's kind of cumbersome language. So let's... Now let's look at this just a minute. What she is saying here is that if we'd just been sold as bondmen and bondwomen, that'd be all right. I wouldn't even say anything because we want to serve you anyway.

It doesn't even matter. But we've been sold in order to be slain. We've been sold so that someone can kill us and this person is the enemy. And she starts to place that down as part of her argument in places in the king's mind.

Now look how subtle this is, ladies. You can learn some stuff from this woman. Look how subtle she is. She is not just telling that king, here's what I want. Don't do this and don't do that. She didn't handle it that way.

She's more subtle than that and she lets the king think it's his decision. How many of you ladies think that's smart? Okay. Lets the king think it's his decision. Wipe that smile off your face, Charlotte.

All right. Now she says, she says now, I would have held my tongue because it would have been all right if we were just bondmen, but you're going... This enemy. Now she places the thought in the king's mind that whoever this person is whoever this person is that has paid the money to have all these people slain is the enemy.

You see how she placed that in his mind? She hadn't even named his name yet. And then she says, not only that, but that enemy does not have the ability to countervail the damage this would cause to the king.

She's saying, look, if the king does this because the enemy said to do this, he will have a great loss and that person won't be able to restore that loss. He will lose from this. The king will... His entire nation will suffer and no one will be able to make it right.

That's what he's saying. So that's when he's just talking about countervail. To countervail something just means to offset it. To set... Like if something's pushing against you, push against it with the same pressure.

You're offsetting something. And where it says the king's damaged, it means the king's lost. So what she is saying is that whatever this enemy wants to be done, if it is done, the king will lose from this and that person won't be able to restore that to the kingdom.

So now she's placed that in the king's mind. So the king now thinks there's an enemy and he knows the enemy is about to cause him a loss that can't be fixed. Isn't that interesting? And she hasn't even said much yet.

Just a few words. So look at verse 5. Then the king Ahasuerus... Now remember that's the same as Artaxerxes if you look at it in secular history. ...answered and said unto Esther, the queen, Who is he?

Where is he? He's starting to get angry. Who is he and where is he that presumes in his heart to destroy you? Now you've got to remember this man loves this woman. And you're family. And Esther said, The adversary...

Now I want you... I want you to stop right there a minute. The adversary and enemy. Like I said, there are many types, many symbols in this book that are object lessons that teach us spiritual truths.

This is going to begin to launch into a little area of study about the one that the Bible calls the adversary. Can anyone tell me who that is? Who is our adversary? Satan. So now all of a sudden Haman becomes a type or a symbol of Satan himself.

So now we can learn some spiritual truths and lessons for us in how we deal with Satan. In fact, Esther's already begun to teach us some spiritual truths about how we deal with the enemy. But let's look at this.

Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. And he points at him and he's sitting right there at the table. And I'm sure he choked on his food right there and knocked his glass over. Because he thought he was there to be honored.

Do you think that he began to sweat though when she started the story? Yeah. Then she names his name and points at him. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. Now look at verse 7. And the king was so angry.

Now I can picture my dad. I got a story about my dad here. It's because it helps me picture this. But this king was so angry. In verse 7 it says,. And the king arising from the banquet table, the banquet of wine, in his wrath, went into the palace garden.

He just walked out because he's so angry. He didn't want to do anything without thinking for a minute because he was so angry. And he was angry at guess who? Who's he angry at? Haman. His right hand man who he had trusted.

One time when Ginny was a baby, she was just old enough to to disobey me the first time. And you've heard the story a million times. That's why I like to tell it. It's not for you. It's because I like the story.

I'm telling it because I like to hear it. And she's sitting there in her high chair. And by the way, if you're a young parent, just remember, by the time they get to the high chair, it's just about time to start whooping them.

They're not too little. All right. So she had her juice there and she looked at me and smiled. And she and I had just been best buddies up to that point in her life. I had been nothing to her but a buddy.

And she knocks that across the table, that juice glass, and just looks at me and smiles. And I said, no. And I grabbed it. It had a lid on it. I stuck it back on there and I looked at her. I said, no, Ginny, do not do that.

I said, weird. Boom! Knocked it off again. So she got her first spat. And I slapped the back of her hand like, don't do that. And then I cried. But she did too. She looked up at me like, you've only inflicted joy in my life and you just inflicted pain.

What's that about? That was the look she had in her little eyes. I'll never forget it. And so that was her first one. Well, not long after that, we were up at my dad's house having lunch around his table.

And Ginny's high chair was there. And my dad, that's his first grandbaby. So you know what he's thinking. Like, she's more important than David or anybody in the kingdom. That's Ginny, my first grandbaby.

So she tries sitting there thinking maybe I won't do anything, I guess. I don't know. So I told her, no. She did it again. So I picked her up out of that chair. And I think I took her, did I take her?

No, did I just spat her? Just spat her hand again. Same as at home. And she cried. And my dad started going like this. Well, when he cleared his throat, that meant he was not happy. He did that my whole life.

When I heard that, if there's at least two of them, I'm running for the cave. So he did that twice. And he got up out of that chair as quick as light. And he walked out that garage door and slammed the door and went out in the garage.

That's what this king was doing. He went out in that garage. And I'm sitting there, what was that all about? I mean, all I did was just like that. And man, he was gone. I bet you remember it. He was gone out there for, you know, three or four minutes.

And then he comes back and sits down. And he goes, and I wait to see if he's going to say anything. He said, son, don't you ever spank her in front of me again. And I said, dad. And I'd never said anything like this to him in my life.

That before or since this time. But I looked at him and I said, dad, she's my child. Don't you ever correct me in front of her again. And he went, well, you're right. I'm sorry. That's the only time I ever said anything like that to my dad.

But I never had to say that again. And you know what? Later he gave her a whooping one time. Maybe not you, but certainly Paul. At least Paul. Never gave you one. But Paul got one. So here, you know, you see this king so angry that he has to leave the table.

Haman is worried. All right. Now, he goes on here. And, you know, you talk about goes outside. Haman stood up to make a request for his life to Esther, the queen. Now, imagine this. The king goes out into the garden.

Esther and the king are sitting there. Now, you picture this like an American table, aren't you? Like a dinner table. That's not how it was in the east. They used to lounge when they ate. They had sometimes, if you were rich, you know, if you were a king, you actually had like a little lounge chair that you could lay on and sit there and eat.

And that's how you ate. I think that should come back, don't you? I mean, you guys especially. All of us think, does they lounge around? That's the best way to eat. Maybe put a big screen TV out there, too.

They didn't have that. But be nice. And so they were lounging there. So he goes out. Now, so you got the queen laying there on her couch. Esther stands up and makes a request for his life. Says, you can save me.

Please save me. Please tell the king not to kill me. That's exactly what he's telling her. And he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Now watch this. Tell me this is not amazing and humorous.

God has a sense of humor. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine. And Haman by that time had fallen down. He was like, he wasn't even thinking what he was doing.

He stood up and he said, save my life. And he just fell over onto her couch and was pleading with her on her couch to save his life. When the king walks in and Haman was falling upon the bed. They call that a bed.

It was just a couch where they were eating. Wherein Esther was. And then look what the king says. He went out there in the garden to figure out, okay, now I passed a law to let this dude do this. And you can't break the laws of the Medes and the Persians.

So what am I doing? So he had to have a way, he had to have another law that would make it where he could get around his own law. You see, he's out there. He's worried about this, but he's also angry.

So he figured one out. He figured out a law that would counterman this other law. Because he walks in, he sees him over there laying on the couch with the queen begging for his life. And the king says, oh, will he force the queen also before me in the house?

Now you adults probably figure out what the King James language means there. Force the queen. The king accused him of that. And as the word went out of the king's mouth, the other servants ran over and covered Haman's face with a hood.

When they ran in and heard the king saying, oh, he forced my wife. Now there's a law that they had in the kingdom. You touch the queen, you're dead. Right? Wouldn't you think that's a pretty smart law?

And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, behold, also, Haman just got through building some gallows 50 feet high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, the man you loved the most in the kingdom who saved your life from the assassins, who had spoken good for the king.

And the king said, hang him on it. That's the end of that part of the story. Now isn't that fascinating? Verse 10 says, so they hanged Haman on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

Now there is so much in there right there. Like we can read that this morning, but we can't preach on that this morning. There's like so much in there that has to do with spiritual warfare. Let me just say this.

Haman is a picture of Satan. Let me read this to you. He's called the adversary. Listen to this. First Peter 5 .8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, you are told to resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren.

You're not the only one the devil's after. He's after all of your brothers, is what that's saying, that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while.

It is true we will have some suffering in this life. Make you perfect, established, strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You see here that this is all being pictured in this little story.

The king is a picture of God. Esther is a picture of you, the bride. Haman is a picture of the adversary, the devil. And God tells us in First Peter that our adversary, the devil, is roaming about all the time seeking whom he may devour, among whom?

The sheep. He could care less about the lost world. You know, he's got them. The ones he hates are the ones that love Jesus, because that's who he really hates. And we could talk more about that, but we won't this time.

But the point is, that's who he hates. So he's walking around looking at you, gentlemen, number one. He'll look at the man in the household, see if you're weak. If you're not particularly weak, then he's going to look at the wife and see if she's weak.

And if she's not particularly weak, then he's going to start looking at the children one after another and find a weak spot. And then, if that doesn't happen, he's going to switch to another family in the church.

And then he's going to do that all through the church. And it's like we've huddled up together around a fire at night as a bunch of sheep. And he's walking out there just past the light, around in a circle, around all of us, watching us.

And he's patient. He's got all the time in the world. He's not going to die. I mean, there's going to come a time he's going to experience being chained in hell forever, but he still will be conscious.

So he's not going to die, and he doesn't believe that stuff anyway. He's not a believer. He doesn't believe he'll ever be chained. So he thinks he's got all the time in the world, so he's patient. So he'll just walk around out there, just at the edge of the light, just beyond it, and watch you and me and all of us.

And he's looking for the weak one. He's looking for the youngest one, if you want to look at it like a spiritual baby. Or he's looking for a sick one, which would be one of us who's not a baby, but we've gotten out of the Word, and we're not praying like we should, and spiritually we're weak all of a sudden, and we're a little bit sick spiritually.

He's looking for one of those two, and he's going to get one of them. He's patient. He'll wait until he sees that, and when he sees the opportunity where one of those sheep strays out to the edge of the light and gets into that darkness, he'll grab that sheep and destroy it, physically.