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Finding Hope and Purpose in Esther, 3: "Whose Purpose & Plan?"
Esther 5-6, The Message (MSG)
o
The first week in our study of
Esther we saw contrasting characters and we learned that loyalty and obedience
make us available for God's purposes.
o Last week we saw from the responses of Mordecai, Esther and God's people that our hope is in God's overruling mercy within all of life's messy circumstances.
o We paused in our study where Esther asked Mordecai and the Jews of Susa to fast for three days, a fast she also kept, after which she committed to go to the king.
o 5 1-3 Three days later (that is, after the three days of fasting) Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king’s throne room.
o No one was allowed to appear before the king in morning and he had not called on Esther in 30 days, so after three days of fasting, she gets up and puts on her royal robes and presents herself beautiful before the King.
o The king was on his throne facing the entrance. When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand.
o Here was his beautiful bride, his queen, whom he had not called on or seen in 30 days, and there she was looking strikingly beautiful, so the king couldn't help but extend his scepter to her.
o His scepter was her life.
o Out of honor and respect for the king, Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.
o Knowing this was no mere social call and that Esther had risked her life coming to see him unsummoned, the king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!”
o How did she reply?
o 4 “If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”
o A banquet was a socially acceptable way to invite the king to discuss serious issues. Esther was simply doing what royal custom required, and the king knew immediately that Esther wanted to talk to him about something very important to her.
o By including Haman at the banquet, Esther allowed the eventual public revealing of his wickedness.
o How does the king respond to her invitation?
o 5-6 “Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.”
o So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged.
o After they ate, as they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”
o In ancient times, it was considered bad manners to have serious discussions while eating. Therefore, after the meal, when the wine was served in that relaxed atmosphere was the time for serious conversation.
o 7-8 Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”
o Esther here wasn't just inviting the king and Haman to another banquet. She was asking the king in advance to grant her request by agreeing to come to the second banquet.
o Therefore, by agreeing to come the king was agreeing to grant her request even though he didn't yet know what it was.
o The king agreed to grant her request without yet hearing it.
o Already, Haman's doom is sealed. Esther's strategy has worked; and her prayers answered with a divine, "yes." God has revealed to Esther that he will rescue his people because he always keeps his promises.
o The irony is that Haman does not yet know it.
o Let's listen to what happens next.
o 9-13 Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him.
o Haman was furious with Mordecai. But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government.
o “On top of all that,” Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.”
o Do you see the irony?
o 14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, “Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.”
o Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.
o 6 1-2 That night the king couldn’t sleep. (That very night!) He ordered the record book, the day-by-day journal of events, to be brought and read to him. They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh—the two royal eunuchs who guarded the entrance and who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
o 3 The king asked, “What great honor was given to Mordecai for this?”
o “Nothing,” replied the king’s servants who were in attendance. “Nothing has been done for him.”
o 4 The king said, “Is there anybody out in the court?”
o Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him. (There it is again! Do you see the irony?)
o In his eagerness to set his plan in motion to have Mordecai killed early, Haman arrived early at the Palace that he might be summoned by the king.
o Haman's arrival provided the king with a trusted advisor, but God made sure that his agenda would never see the light of day.
o 5 The king’s servants said, “Haman is out there, waiting in the court.”
o “Bring him in,” said the king.
o 6-9 When Haman entered, the king said, “What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?”
o Ironically, the king fails to mention the person he wishes to honor by name.
o Haman thought to himself, “He must be talking about honoring me—who else?” (More irony) So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, do this:
o Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head.
o Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king’s most noble princes.
o Have him robe the man whom the king especially wants to honor; have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!’”
o To wear the royal robes, to ride the king's horse emblazoned with a royal crest would have been an incredible honor and Haman couldn't imagine an honor greater than touching royalty.
o 10 “Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King’s Gate. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.”
o 11 So Haman took the robe and horse; he robed Mordecai and led him through the city square, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!”
o Haman concocted his own humiliation. Every detail of Mordecai's recognition had come from Haman's own mouth.
o Can you imagine? Can you picture Haman during all this in your mind's eye?
o I can hear Haman in my mind doing and proclaiming angrily all that he said should be done for the man whom the king wanted to honor, for Mordecai the Jew.
o I can visualize him leading Mordecai on the king's horse dressed in royal robes, resentment and fury written all over Haman's face.
o Isn't the irony rich?
o Here was Haman so full of pride, leaving Esther's banquet with the biggest swelled head you ever did see, and thinking that everything was proceeding according to his purposes and plans.
o He goes home and he toots his own horn, bragging to his family and his friends:
o "Look at how awesome I am! Look at all the stuff I have! Look at the size of my family, my many sons! Look at how much the king and the queen think of me!"
o Everything Haman wanted looked like it was falling into place before him. But it still wasn't enough to satisfy his pride.
o Here was a man who had everything he could ever want, but it wasn't enough.
o Even though he had his way politically and all the Jews were going to die by edict of the king, that wasn't good enough for Haman's pride.
o He couldn't wait for the edict. He wanted Mordecai dead. NOW!
o But God arranged it so that the king couldn't sleep, so Xerxes has the daily chronicles read to him to lull him sleep, but he is reminded of the plot to assassinate him that was foiled by Mordecai.
o After all his plotting, Haman's revenge appeared to be spoiled by a night of insomnia for the king, but which also verified the sovereign hand of God in answering the prayers of his people.
o Let's continue with the story.
o 12-13 Then Mordecai returned to the King’s Gate, but Haman fled to his house, thoroughly mortified, hiding his face.
o For Mordecai, nothing had changed. Following the parade, he returned to the king's gate. Life went back to normal. As far as he knew, the Jews still lived under the threat of destruction, genocide.
o But Haman returned home grief stricken, humiliated, hiding himself as if morning his own death.
o When Haman had finished telling his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his knowledgeable friends who were there and his wife Zeresh said, “If this Mordecai is in fact a Jew, your bad luck has only begun. You don’t stand a chance against him—you’re as good as ruined.”
o 14 While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the dinner that Esther had prepared.
o Although Haman was ruled by his feelings and felt shattered by his shame, the edict of destruction for the Jews remained, and Queen Esther's banquet remained.
o Before Haman had time to recover, he was summoned to the banquet with the prediction of his ruin by his wife and friends still ringing in his ears.
o This morning as we think about the story of Esther in chapters 5 and 6, let's ask a question: Who is in control?
o Haman thought that he was in control; he thought that everything was proceeding according to his purposes and plans.
o But the events show us that Haman didn't have anywhere near the control he thought.
o The king thought that he was sovereign over Persia, but his compulsive attraction to his beautiful wife Esther and his insomnia prove otherwise.
o Mordecai and Esther both lived in ways that demonstrated that they knew that Someone greater than Haman and the king ruled by His purposes and plans.
o Whether God-fearing or not, people live out their lives by their routines, principles, and goals; and God develops these things to achieve his purposes and plans.
o God appointed each event in the story of Esther.
o Is it a coincidence that after fasting for three days, and not being summoned by the king for 30 days that the king extended his scepter to Esther although unsummoned?
o Is it a coincidence that the very night Haman built his gallows the king cannot sleep and hears read how Mordecai saved him?
o Is it a coincidence that the following morning Haman is waiting to see the king to ask for Mordecai's hanging, but the king summons Haman and instructs him to honor Mordecai instead?
o Are these things just happy accidents? Or are they something much more, the development of the purposes of the Master Planner?
o Artist Bob Ross developed a video curriculum called the Joy of Painting many years ago by which he became a household name.
o In the following clip we’ll hear Ross use an interesting choice of words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n4f-VDjOBE
o Did you catch that statement?
o "We don’t make mistakes, we have happy accidents."
o Bob’s sentiment may be great for the Joy of Painting and it may be the right attitude for approaching the canvas, but how does it hold up outside the art studio?
o Is Bob right? Do we live in a mistake free world in which there are only happy accidents?
o Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to know that off the canvas we make mistakes in our lives and they’re often much more than mistakes, but real blunders, sinful and painful.
o Even more, followers of Jesus Christ ought to know that since God is in control there are no happy accidents.
o Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Even when we can't see God at work, God is still working out all things according to his plans.
o What do the Scriptures say about this?
o In Isaiah 46:8-11 God reveals through his word that there are no coincidences and no happy accidents.
o 8 “Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it."
o In these verses God's word clearly says, Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
o Here again we see that, Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan. And God's plans are good for those who love him.
o Romans 11:33-36 says, 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Inscrutable means mysterious.)
o 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
o 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen
o God doesn't make mistakes. There are no accidents where his plans are concerned and they include everything and everyone.
o His plan is to rescue all that are his, everyone who belongs to him.
o God turned Haman's evil intent and pride against him to accomplish his plans.
o Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Let's not be like Haman convincing ourselves that our life is only meaningful when we rub shoulders with those who are greater than ourselves.
o We don't need to settle for second hand honor because we know the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ and he is seated at the right hand of God ruling over all things for his purposes.
o Let's live like we know that it's true.
o The only way to do that is to: (1) practice prayerfully putting our trust in God every single day, (2) enjoying the reality that he is in control, (3) worshiping him because he is in control, (4) obeying his word, and (5)submitting to him because...
o Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Last week we saw from the responses of Mordecai, Esther and God's people that our hope is in God's overruling mercy within all of life's messy circumstances.
o We paused in our study where Esther asked Mordecai and the Jews of Susa to fast for three days, a fast she also kept, after which she committed to go to the king.
o 5 1-3 Three days later (that is, after the three days of fasting) Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king’s throne room.
o No one was allowed to appear before the king in morning and he had not called on Esther in 30 days, so after three days of fasting, she gets up and puts on her royal robes and presents herself beautiful before the King.
o The king was on his throne facing the entrance. When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand.
o Here was his beautiful bride, his queen, whom he had not called on or seen in 30 days, and there she was looking strikingly beautiful, so the king couldn't help but extend his scepter to her.
o His scepter was her life.
o Out of honor and respect for the king, Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.
o Knowing this was no mere social call and that Esther had risked her life coming to see him unsummoned, the king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!”
o How did she reply?
o 4 “If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”
o A banquet was a socially acceptable way to invite the king to discuss serious issues. Esther was simply doing what royal custom required, and the king knew immediately that Esther wanted to talk to him about something very important to her.
o By including Haman at the banquet, Esther allowed the eventual public revealing of his wickedness.
o How does the king respond to her invitation?
o 5-6 “Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.”
o So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged.
o After they ate, as they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”
o In ancient times, it was considered bad manners to have serious discussions while eating. Therefore, after the meal, when the wine was served in that relaxed atmosphere was the time for serious conversation.
o 7-8 Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”
o Esther here wasn't just inviting the king and Haman to another banquet. She was asking the king in advance to grant her request by agreeing to come to the second banquet.
o Therefore, by agreeing to come the king was agreeing to grant her request even though he didn't yet know what it was.
o The king agreed to grant her request without yet hearing it.
o Already, Haman's doom is sealed. Esther's strategy has worked; and her prayers answered with a divine, "yes." God has revealed to Esther that he will rescue his people because he always keeps his promises.
o The irony is that Haman does not yet know it.
o Let's listen to what happens next.
o 9-13 Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him.
o Haman was furious with Mordecai. But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government.
o “On top of all that,” Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.”
o Do you see the irony?
o 14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, “Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.”
o Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.
o 6 1-2 That night the king couldn’t sleep. (That very night!) He ordered the record book, the day-by-day journal of events, to be brought and read to him. They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh—the two royal eunuchs who guarded the entrance and who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
o 3 The king asked, “What great honor was given to Mordecai for this?”
o “Nothing,” replied the king’s servants who were in attendance. “Nothing has been done for him.”
o 4 The king said, “Is there anybody out in the court?”
o Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him. (There it is again! Do you see the irony?)
o In his eagerness to set his plan in motion to have Mordecai killed early, Haman arrived early at the Palace that he might be summoned by the king.
o Haman's arrival provided the king with a trusted advisor, but God made sure that his agenda would never see the light of day.
o 5 The king’s servants said, “Haman is out there, waiting in the court.”
o “Bring him in,” said the king.
o 6-9 When Haman entered, the king said, “What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?”
o Ironically, the king fails to mention the person he wishes to honor by name.
o Haman thought to himself, “He must be talking about honoring me—who else?” (More irony) So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, do this:
o Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head.
o Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king’s most noble princes.
o Have him robe the man whom the king especially wants to honor; have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!’”
o To wear the royal robes, to ride the king's horse emblazoned with a royal crest would have been an incredible honor and Haman couldn't imagine an honor greater than touching royalty.
o 10 “Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King’s Gate. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.”
o 11 So Haman took the robe and horse; he robed Mordecai and led him through the city square, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!”
o Haman concocted his own humiliation. Every detail of Mordecai's recognition had come from Haman's own mouth.
o Can you imagine? Can you picture Haman during all this in your mind's eye?
o I can hear Haman in my mind doing and proclaiming angrily all that he said should be done for the man whom the king wanted to honor, for Mordecai the Jew.
o I can visualize him leading Mordecai on the king's horse dressed in royal robes, resentment and fury written all over Haman's face.
o Isn't the irony rich?
o Here was Haman so full of pride, leaving Esther's banquet with the biggest swelled head you ever did see, and thinking that everything was proceeding according to his purposes and plans.
o He goes home and he toots his own horn, bragging to his family and his friends:
o "Look at how awesome I am! Look at all the stuff I have! Look at the size of my family, my many sons! Look at how much the king and the queen think of me!"
o Everything Haman wanted looked like it was falling into place before him. But it still wasn't enough to satisfy his pride.
o Here was a man who had everything he could ever want, but it wasn't enough.
o Even though he had his way politically and all the Jews were going to die by edict of the king, that wasn't good enough for Haman's pride.
o He couldn't wait for the edict. He wanted Mordecai dead. NOW!
o But God arranged it so that the king couldn't sleep, so Xerxes has the daily chronicles read to him to lull him sleep, but he is reminded of the plot to assassinate him that was foiled by Mordecai.
o After all his plotting, Haman's revenge appeared to be spoiled by a night of insomnia for the king, but which also verified the sovereign hand of God in answering the prayers of his people.
o Let's continue with the story.
o 12-13 Then Mordecai returned to the King’s Gate, but Haman fled to his house, thoroughly mortified, hiding his face.
o For Mordecai, nothing had changed. Following the parade, he returned to the king's gate. Life went back to normal. As far as he knew, the Jews still lived under the threat of destruction, genocide.
o But Haman returned home grief stricken, humiliated, hiding himself as if morning his own death.
o When Haman had finished telling his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his knowledgeable friends who were there and his wife Zeresh said, “If this Mordecai is in fact a Jew, your bad luck has only begun. You don’t stand a chance against him—you’re as good as ruined.”
o 14 While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the dinner that Esther had prepared.
o Although Haman was ruled by his feelings and felt shattered by his shame, the edict of destruction for the Jews remained, and Queen Esther's banquet remained.
o Before Haman had time to recover, he was summoned to the banquet with the prediction of his ruin by his wife and friends still ringing in his ears.
o This morning as we think about the story of Esther in chapters 5 and 6, let's ask a question: Who is in control?
o Haman thought that he was in control; he thought that everything was proceeding according to his purposes and plans.
o But the events show us that Haman didn't have anywhere near the control he thought.
o The king thought that he was sovereign over Persia, but his compulsive attraction to his beautiful wife Esther and his insomnia prove otherwise.
o Mordecai and Esther both lived in ways that demonstrated that they knew that Someone greater than Haman and the king ruled by His purposes and plans.
o Whether God-fearing or not, people live out their lives by their routines, principles, and goals; and God develops these things to achieve his purposes and plans.
o God appointed each event in the story of Esther.
o Is it a coincidence that after fasting for three days, and not being summoned by the king for 30 days that the king extended his scepter to Esther although unsummoned?
o Is it a coincidence that the very night Haman built his gallows the king cannot sleep and hears read how Mordecai saved him?
o Is it a coincidence that the following morning Haman is waiting to see the king to ask for Mordecai's hanging, but the king summons Haman and instructs him to honor Mordecai instead?
o Are these things just happy accidents? Or are they something much more, the development of the purposes of the Master Planner?
o Artist Bob Ross developed a video curriculum called the Joy of Painting many years ago by which he became a household name.
o In the following clip we’ll hear Ross use an interesting choice of words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n4f-VDjOBE
o Did you catch that statement?
o "We don’t make mistakes, we have happy accidents."
o Bob’s sentiment may be great for the Joy of Painting and it may be the right attitude for approaching the canvas, but how does it hold up outside the art studio?
o Is Bob right? Do we live in a mistake free world in which there are only happy accidents?
o Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to know that off the canvas we make mistakes in our lives and they’re often much more than mistakes, but real blunders, sinful and painful.
o Even more, followers of Jesus Christ ought to know that since God is in control there are no happy accidents.
o Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Even when we can't see God at work, God is still working out all things according to his plans.
o What do the Scriptures say about this?
o In Isaiah 46:8-11 God reveals through his word that there are no coincidences and no happy accidents.
o 8 “Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it."
o In these verses God's word clearly says, Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
o Here again we see that, Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan. And God's plans are good for those who love him.
o Romans 11:33-36 says, 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Inscrutable means mysterious.)
o 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
o 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen
o God doesn't make mistakes. There are no accidents where his plans are concerned and they include everything and everyone.
o His plan is to rescue all that are his, everyone who belongs to him.
o God turned Haman's evil intent and pride against him to accomplish his plans.
o Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
o Let's not be like Haman convincing ourselves that our life is only meaningful when we rub shoulders with those who are greater than ourselves.
o We don't need to settle for second hand honor because we know the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ and he is seated at the right hand of God ruling over all things for his purposes.
o Let's live like we know that it's true.
o The only way to do that is to: (1) practice prayerfully putting our trust in God every single day, (2) enjoying the reality that he is in control, (3) worshiping him because he is in control, (4) obeying his word, and (5)submitting to him because...
o Everything proceeds according to God's purpose and plan.
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