Sermon
# 17 Through The Bible Series
Title: Esther
Subject: The Wonder of Divine Providence
Text: Esther 4:10-16
Date: Tuesday
Evening— 2003
Tape # X-56b
Readings: Bob Duff and Larry Criss
Introduction:
Over the years I have often
told you that there are three great facts that constantly sustain my soul, give
me peace and joy, and inspire me with confidence. When I am faced with trials,
troubles, heartaches, -- when my soul is downcast and circumstances begin to
fill me with gloom, -- when I find myself sinking beneath any load of care,
these three grand, old gospel truths refresh, invigorate, and comfort me.
§
The Substitutionary Work of Christ
§
The Sovereignty of God
§
The Providence of God
As the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah display the salvation of our souls in the re-building of the temple
and its walls at Jerusalem, the Book of Esther shows us a picture of the secret
workings of divine providence to accomplish his purpose of grace for his elect.
Proposition: The Book of Esther is intended
to assure us that our God sovereignly manipulates all things for the salvation
of his people, to assure us that no matter how things appear all is well
because our God is still on his throne.
(Psalms
115:3) "But our God is in
the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."
(Psalms
135:6) "Whatsoever the LORD
pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep
places."
Let’s begin in Esther
4:10-16.
(Esther
4:10-16) "Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai; {11} All
the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that
whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court,
who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death,
except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre,
that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these
thirty days. {12} And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. {13} Then
Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt
escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. {14} For if thou
altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall
there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but
thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? {15} Then Esther
bade them return Mordecai this answer, {16} Go, gather together
all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye
for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my
maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not
according to the law: and if I perish, I perish."
The Book of Esther is a
beautifully simple historic narrative of the events that took place in the
king’s palace at Shushan in Persia, during the days
of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, when Ahasuerus was king.
Many have suggested that this could not be an inspired Book because the there is no mention of God’s name in it. Going on that premise, we would have to say the same thing about the Song of Solomon, because there is no mention of God’s name in that Book either. It is true, God’s name is not to be found in this Book; but God’s finger is everywhere, ruling and over-ruling all things for his chosen.
Still, according to scholars, though God’s name is not spelled out in the Book of Esther, it is hidden in the Book. These Hebrew scholars tell us that his name is hidden away in the Hebrew text in the form of acrostics five times. Be that as it may, it is certainly hidden in our English Bible. There is a reason why God’s name was hidden in this Book. The Lord told Israel that if they forsook him he would hide his face from them (Deut. 31:16-18).
(Deuteronomy
31:16-18) "And the LORD said unto
Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up,
and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to
be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made
with them. {17} Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day,
and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be
devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say
in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not
among us? {18} And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the
evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other
gods."
The Lord hid his face from
his people because they had deliberately chosen to stay in the land of their
captivity, dwelling among the heathen, instead of returning to Jerusalem
(instead of returning to him) with Zerubbabel. The
events of this Book took place during the 60 years between the first remnant
returned under Zerubbabel and the second, smaller
remnant return under Ezra.
The
Story
There are four principle
characters in this Book:
§
Ahasuerus—“Venerable Father”
§
Mordecai—“Little Man”
§
Esther—“Star”
§
Haman—“Magnificent”
This is how the story goes.
§
Ahasuerus had a big party to show off his greatness, “according to
the state of the king”. It lasted for many days.
§
One day, when he had had a little too much to drink, he called for his
wife, Vashti (“Beautiful”), to come show herself to
his guests, “for she was fair to look on”.
§
Vashti refused the king’s request. She may have been the
first feminist in history; but this was not a good idea. The king’s request was
no mere request!
§
All the king’s men were enraged. If the king’s wife could get by with
such arrogant defiance, all their wives would try to imitate her.
§
King Ahasuerus divorced Vashti.
§
After a while, he began to miss female companionship.
§
In chapter two, they held a great beauty pageant—A Miss Persia contest.
§
Esther won the prize, hands down.
§
Ahasuerus could not have been happier. The old king was about to marry
the most beautiful woman in the land.
(Esther
2:17-18) "And the king loved Esther
above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour
in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her
head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. {18} Then
the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's
feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the
state of the king."
§
Then, in chapter 3, the king promoted a man named Haman to be prime
minister of his great empire.
Everybody bowed and scraped
before Haman, everybody except one man—Mordecai.
(Esther
3:5) "And when Haman saw that
Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath."
There was some backbone in
that old Jew. He
was made of stern stuff. He was not about to prostrate himself before one so
haughty and so depraved as Haman, even if he was the king's favorite.
§
Haman hatched a plan to destroy all the Jews, Mordecai included, and conivingly got Ahasuerus to go along with it. A letter was
written and sealed with the king’s ring and sent throughout the land, declaring
that at a set time all the Jews, men, women, and children, should be
slaughtered and their spoils taken.
§
When Haman exalted even more greatly, he built a huge, high gallows
upon which to hang Mordecai.
Everything was set. The
hated Jews were about to be eliminated. That meant that God’s promise could not
be fulfilled. His purposes would be foiled. Christ could not come into the
world from the seed of Abraham, as he had said. None of his chosen could be
redeemed. You and I would be forever lost.—Not a chance!
Divine
Providence
All that had transpired,
though it appeared to everyone to be against the God of Israel and his purpose
of grace to his people was but the secret working of divine providence to
accomplish his purpose.
(Psalms
76:10) "Surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
Behold the wondrous mystery
of God’s providence (Rom. 8:28-30) and rejoice.
Divine
providence is the direction God gives to every thing, animate and inanimate,
good and evil. It is the sovereign rule of God in the determination
of history. It is the hand of God in the glove of
history. Our
God is at the steering wheel of this universe. Providence means that God is
behind the scenes, shifting, directing, controlling and manipulating everything
for the salvation of his elect and the glory of his name (Rom. 11:33-36). Providence
is the way God coaches the man on second base. It is the way God secretly and
sovereignly forces all things to do his will. As recorded in the book
of Esther, the entire Jewish nation would have been slain had it not been for
the providence of God. God stands in the shadows, keeping watch over
his own. Let me show you something of the wonder of God’s
providence in this Book. We will not read the Book now. Time will not permit. I
hope you will read it again before you go to bed tonight. I will just point you
to the highlights.
1. God always puts
the right person n the right place at the right time to accomplish his purpose. He has his
servants exactly where he wants them.
(Esther
4:14) "For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there
enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and
thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art
come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
2. God restrains
evil and governs his enemies to perform his good pleasure.
3. He arranges the
smallest, most minute things to accomplish his great purpose (Matt. 10:30).
§
When Esther decided to go into the king’s court, uninvited,
he just happened to pass by (5:1).
§
One night, the king just could not sleep, so he had his
servant to bring out the chronicles of the kingdom and read them. These
chronicles contained the records of 127 provinces. The servant just happened to
read the chronicle of Shushan.
(Esther
6:1-3) "On that night could not the
king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles;
and they were read before the king. {2} And it was found written, that
Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh,
two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand
on the king Ahasuerus. {3} And the king said, What honour
and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants
that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him."
§
About that time Haman walked in, and the king asked him, “What
shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?” And Haman
gave the counsel that would destroy him, exalt Mordecai, and save the Jews!
4. Now, watch this—When
God is about to do a great work for us and with us, he moves his people to seek
him.
(Esther
4:16) "Go, gather together all the
Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me,
and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will
fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according
to the law: and if I perish, I perish."
5. Our God always
accomplishes his purpose.
§
What wonders are unseen!
§
How safe we are!
§
We have a Guardian in the Kin’s Palace!
Pictures of Grace
I am fully aware that
typology can be strained, and often is, making passages Scriptures say what
they do not say. Yet, we are assured that everything written in the Book of God
speaks distinctly of our Lord Jesus Christ and the things he has accomplished
for us as our Substitute (Luke 24:27, 44-45). Christ crucified is “all the
counsel of God” (1 Cor. 2:2; Acts 20:27).
1. Esther’s
Intercession for Israel.
Here is one
willing to lay down her life for her people, interceding before the king as one
pure and lovely and delightful in his sight.
2. The Golden
Scepter
(Esther
5:2) "And it was so, when the king
saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the
golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther
drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre."
WHAT a beautiful type this
is for each of us in our approaches to God!
For the repentant sinner.
You may have said with Esther, "I will go into the king's presence, and if
I perish, I perish." But it is impossible for you to perish. None ever
perished at the footstool of mercy. God is faithful to his promises, and just
to his Son; and He can do no other He wants to do no other than forgive. As you
stand amid the throng that surrounds his throne, He will espy you, and accept
you graciously, because of the God Man who sits at his right hand, and ever
lives to intercede. In his name you may come boldly and obtain mercy.
For the suppliant. You have
a great boon to ask for yourself, or another. The King's court stands open;
enter and lodge your petition. He will be very gracious at the voice of your
cry: the golden scepter extended, his word passed, that He will answer with the
whole resources of his kingdom. The answer may not come at once, or in the way
you expected; but no true suppliant was ever turned away without his complaint
or cause being graciously considered, and in the best way met and adjusted.
For the Christian worker.
Surely Esther represents a Paul prepared to be himself accursed, a Luther, a
Brainerd. It is a lovely sight when the child of God is so oppressed with the
burden of other souls as to sacrifice all else in order to plead their cause.
Surely such find favor with God; they are kindred spirits with his own, and He
bids them share his throne. God will do anything for those who are consumed by
his own redemptive purpose.
3. The Decree
Sealed with the King’s Ring
(Esther
8:8) "Write ye also for the Jews,
as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with
the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and
sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse."
4. The Jews Ruling
Their Enemies (Rom. 16:20)
(Esther
9:1) "Now in the twelfth month,
that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day
of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in
execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over
them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them
that hated them;)"
5. Mordecai Seeking
the Good of His People
(Esther
10:3) "For Mordecai the Jew was next
unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of
his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his
seed."