Providence Over Power

Esther: Truth to Power

“Providence Over Power”

Text: Esther 6

Focus: People can amass power, but God’s providence always reigns supreme.

Welcome to our teaching time, friends. My name is Wally and I am on the Pastoral leadership team here at Jericho Ridge.

• Today we are continuing in our series in the book of Esther and we find ourselves in Esther chapter 6.
• So if you have a Bible or a device, I’d encourage you to open it to Esther 6. 
  
• Before we get into the events of Esther 6, I want us to begin by thinking of the times in our life when things were not what they seemed.
• Parents, perhaps you can think of a time when your toddler was playing so nicely and quietly in the next room, giving you that extra time to finish whatever you are doing… only to discover that they were face deep into the bag of flour you kept at the bottom of the pantry.
• Pet owners, you can remember a similar scenario when your new puppy finally plays quietly and independently in the backyard… only to discover that she’s actually been digging holes in your newly manicured lawn.
• Or perhaps in the work place, that employee who thinks they have been doing a great job when they get called into their supervisor’s office, only to leave on probation, or worse…
• Friends, we all have those times in life when we discover that things are not what they seem and we are not in control of a situation like we thought we were.
• So let’s hold that thought as we enter into Esther 6.
  
  Last week, Pastor Brad focused on both chapters 5 & 7 and we skipped over chapter 6.
• In chapters 5 & 7 the plot of Esther’s story begins to thicken as Esther initiated her plan to save her people, the nation of Israel.
• Esther plans two banquets for King Xerxes and his righthand man, Haman, who has plotted the extermination of the Jewish people.
• As discussed in the last message, Haman’s ego is always driving him with no concern for anyone else.

So when Esther invites him, along with the king, to not just one, but then a second banquet, Haman immediately assumes that the Queen is holding him in very high esteem and that good things are in store for him… obviously, the Queen (and the King) are pleased with him and want to honour him.

The first banquet goes very well for Haman, but after leaving banquet #1, Haman sees Mordecai, Esther’s adopted father who would not bow to him nor give him the homage that Haman thought he was due.

• And Haman is infuriated at the sight of his nemesis.
• Yet, by the time Haman gets home, his ego has puffed him back up and he recounts to his wife and friends how special he is to have been invited by the Queen to a second banquet the next day.
• But all of this gets overshadowed again as we read in 5:13 “Then Haman added: But this is all worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting at the palace gate.”
• Mordecai’s refusal to bow to Haman is driving Haman crazy.
• So his wife Zaresh and his friends suggest that he set up a 75-foot sharpened pole, and in the morning ask the King to impale Mordecai on it, so that Haman can go and enjoy banquet #2 in peace later that evening.
• And chapter 5 ends with the words, “This pleased Haman, and he ordered the pole set up.”
  
  Let’s pick up the story later that night, reading in Chapter 6, which is sandwiched between the two banquets.

6 That night the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered an attendant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it could be read to him. ² In those records he discovered an account of how Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the door to the king’s private quarters. They had plotted to assassinate King Xerxes.

³ “What reward or recognition did we ever give Mordecai for this?” the king asked.

His attendants replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”

⁴ “Who is that in the outer court?” the king inquired. As it happened, Haman had just arrived in the outer court of the palace to ask the king to impale Mordecai on the pole he had prepared.

⁵ So the attendants replied to the king, “Haman is out in the court.”

“Bring him in,” the king ordered. ⁶ So Haman came in, and the king said, “What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?”

Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” ⁷ So he replied, “If the king wishes to honor someone, ⁸ he should bring out one of the king’s own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden—one with a royal emblem on its head. ⁹ Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king’s robes and led through the city square on the king’s horse. Have the official shout as they go, ‘This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!’”

¹⁰ “Excellent!” the king said to Haman. “Quick! Take the robes and my horse, and do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the gate of the palace. Leave out nothing you have suggested!”

¹¹ So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!” ¹² Afterward Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home dejected and completely humiliated.

¹³ When Haman told his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends what had happened, his wise advisers and his wife said, “Since Mordecai—this man who has humiliated you—is of Jewish birth, you will never succeed in your plans against him. It will be fatal to continue opposing him.”

¹⁴ While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and quickly took Haman to the banquet Esther had prepared.

Don’t you love the counsel that his wife unloads on Haman in verse 13?

• In other words, “Don’t get your hopes up, honey. You’re on your way out if you keep opposing Mordecai.”
• In other words, Mordecai the Jew, has something, someone, working on his behalf who is going to take you out.
• And in Chapter 7, as we heard in last week’s message, that’s exactly what happened to Haman.
• During Banquet #2, Esther reveals her wish to the king to save her people, the Jewish nation…
• The King is furious that someone would want to eliminate his wife, Queen Esther, and demands to know who should pay for such a threat.
• Haman, the architect of the plan to exterminate the Jews, including Queen Esther, is called out.
• Haman tries to plead his case with the Queen but the King sees his attempt as an assault on the Queen and Haman ends up being impaled on the sharpened pole that he prepared for Mordecai.
• Why? Coincidence? Happenstance? Fluke? Accident?
• Why? Because things are not always what they seem to be!
• Why? Because God and God alone is always at work accomplishing his purposes.
  
  You see friends, as was the case for Haman, we humans can amass certain power, but God’s providence always reigns supreme.
• In Esther 6 we see the unquestionable providence of God.
• Everything unfolds according to God’s way and God’s timing so that his purposes are accomplished.
• No one could have planned for the events of chapter 6, let alone all of the events that prepared the way for those in this chapter.
• Only God could have patiently orchestrated such a reversal of injustice.
• Only God could have turned such egotistical power on its head.
• In Esther 6 the tables are turned… and we emphatically see that evil is not able to succeed against God.
• Yes, it seemed to have had the upper hand, but as we talked about at the onset, things are not always as they seem.
  
  Let’s probe a little deeper into the events of this chapter through this lens.
• After a night of banqueting and partying, King Xerxes, full of food and wine, should have been out like a light.
• Esther doesn’t present her problem at the first banquet, but instead, simply asks for a second banquet.
• So there is nothing to worry about for the king and yet, he cannot sleep.
• No big deal, right, we’ve all been there.
• And yet, this is a crucial turning point in the story.
• Rather than toss and turn or go get a glass of milk, King Xerxes decides to have someone read him a bedtime story from the book chronicling his reign.
• His attendants could have opened the book to any page of King Xerxes’ 12-year reign to that point, and yet it’s opened to the events of Mordecai saving the life of the King, which we recount from Chapter 2 of Esther.
  • If you recall, after Esther was made Queen, Mordecai overhears a plan to assassinate the king.
  • He reports this to Queen Esther, who informs the King.
  • She tells the king that the intel is coming from Mordecai.
  • The story checks out and the king’s life is saved.
  • But strangely nothing is ever done to reward Mordecai.
  • If we pause here at the end of chapter 2, we can already begin to see God at work years before his plan comes to fruition in the later chapters.
  • If Mordecai had been duly honoured back in chapter 2, then this would be a non-event in chapter 6 as the king lay in his bed that night.
  • It would have been just another record in the chronicles, slowly causing the king to fall asleep.
  • Instead, all these years later, the king is reminded of the events and realizes that something has to be done to rectify this oversight of such a significant event.
  • Mordecai needs to be properly rewarded, which sets the stage for the rest of this chapter.

God’s plan, begun years ago, is starting to unfold … he has not forgotten his covenant with his people.

Now it’s early morning and the King notices someone in the outer courts.

• • Of course, it’s Haman, who again, with his power, has come for his own purposes… to ask the king to let him kill Mordecai.
  • But Haman is presented with an ambiguous scenario by the king.
  • The king asks Haman what he would do for someone who pleased the king and deserved to be honoured.
  • Naturally, Haman’s ego assumes the king wants to honor him and so he comes up with an elaborate plan of events to honor such a worthy individual.
  • But things are not as they seem.
  • There are contrasting agendas: the king wants to honour Mordecai; Haman wants to impale Mordecai and be honoured himself.
    
    Notice that God’s providence takes over in the managing of human affairs, right down to the smallest of details.
  • In the conversation, the King doesn’t even mention Mordecai’s name until the very end.
  • Had he done so, the story again changes dramatically.
  • Such seemingly small and insignificant details – the timing of events, the mood of a person, the words spoken or left unspoken… God uses all of it for his purposes.
    
    As I said, Haman thought the king was talking about honouring him.
  • After all, the Queen had just invited him to a second banquet… back-to-back banquets!
  • Between these banquets, who else could the King possibly be thinking of?
  • So, how would Haman like to be honoured?
    • It’s as if your boss told you that you were getting a promotion and you could decide how high up the corporate ladder you wanted to go.
    • Haman decides he’s worth the highest of honors!
    • A royal robe the king has personally worn, a horse the king has ridden with a royal crest on it.
    • A most noble official leading through the city streets shouting the praises of the man on the horse.
  • Again, Haman wants nothing else but the personal praises of people to boost his ego.
  • And the king is seemingly drinking all this in and orders that it be done just as Haman says… but for someone else.
    
    Finally the name of Mordecai is mentioned.
  • The king’s command is abrupt and its timing is shocking for Haman!
  • There’s no debating a king’s command. No discussion. No turning back.
  • The man Haman wants impaled on a public pole is going to be paraded around through the city.
  • And the noble official leading the way? Who else, but Haman.
  • God has not forgotten about his people; about his servant Mordecai.
  • God’s providence is beginning to displace Haman’s power and return it to the people with whom he has a covenant relationship.
  • Notice, that as the King announces such reward and prestige be given to Mordecai, he also calls Mordecai a Jew…
  • Another signal that the tide is starting to change as we see the king gaining a glimpse of admiration for Jewish people.
    
    Such a series of events, going back years, unfolding… subscene building upon subscene.
  • No one, not even Mordecai and Esther, could foresee this coming.
  • Oh they may have had a hope in God to somehow save his people, but there is no way they could have anticipated or scripted this narrative.
  • This is God’s script and he is the director behind this script.
  • The events in chapter 6 are not just one piece of the puzzle, they are many orchestrated pieces of the puzzle coming together.
    • Without Esther’s delay in exposing Haman at the first banquet, the king would not have been in the position to reward Mordecai.
    • Without his personal agenda, Haman would not have been in the outer courts that morning.
    • And Haman’s personal agenda didn’t even come from himself, it was his wife and friends who put him up to it.
    • And as we discovered last week, in Esther 7, Haman ends up facilitating his own death by impalement.
      
      These are not happenstance or isolated coincidences.
    • Each small piece is coming together in the right timing and right manner to contribute to the fulfillment of God’s plan.
    • For any one of these events to have not taken place, the plan as is would have been derailed.
    • From a human perspective, we can say in hindsight, “things were not as they seemed”.
    • From a divine perspective, God says in real time, “things are exactly as I am working them out to be.”
    • We may see a piece of the puzzle, or maybe we are able to see several pieces of the puzzle, but rarely if ever does God reveal the entirety of the puzzle to us in advance.
    • Esther 6 is a revelation of this truth.
    • Esther 6 reminds us to step forward in humble faith, trusting that God is at work, and then, to look back in praise of what he has done.

We learn to treasure the workings of God in our lives, and we learn to appreciate his divine providence as we witness it unfold over time in our lives.

So let me ask you this morning, how’s your vision?

• • • We see power being amassed all around us and often it is not used for righteous purposes.
    • And our focus can become fixated, either in an enviable manner or in a “doom and gloom” mindset.
    • We become fixated on what we see happening at present right in front of us.
    • And we begin to become demoralized, believing that evil is winning the battle.
    • We begin to believe that things really are as they seem.
      
      Friends, I’m not talking about the images of our puppies digging up our new lawn in the backyard or a toddler creating havoc in the pantry.
    • Where are you seeing power misused and abused?
    • Where are you as God’s daughter or son beginning to believe that God has deserted his creation? His people?
    • Where are we believing that truth, justice, righteousness no longer seem probable outcomes?
    • I’m a very visual learner/observer, so I can get very fixated on the events/people I see in the now, so I need to be careful with how much and what type of media I consume.
    • Or another example in my life is that I often struggle with the misuse and imbalance of global economics…
      • And that sense of right and wrong then often filters down to my personal finances.
      • I worry about how God might judge me over my uses of our finances rather than focusing on how God is providing for our family and wanting us to be generous in response.
      • I see certain negative outcomes due to potential scenarios and focus on those.
      • And yet, as Sylvia and I pray, trust and follow God, we see over and over again, in real-time and in hindsight, that God’s promises and providence trump those “what if’s” and potential pitfalls.
      • Even when we are the victims of someone or something, or when we ourselves make mistakes as sinful stewards, God’s mercy and grace always come into play as part of his providential plan for us.

Now that is not to say that we go around doing whatever we want or go around declaring that all negatives are a positive… “oh, it’s so good that I lost my job due to Covid, because now God can bless me with a better one.”

• • • • That may sound super spiritual, but if you asked me in that scenario, it might not be a positive, I might not have received a better job, the effects of losing my job might have rippled to a whole host of more challenging circumstances.
      • Friends, God’s providence is not an excuse to glibly go around and hyper-spiritualize everything.
      • We still need to be in prayer and discernment in every situation and not superficially declare God’s providence before he reveals and declares it.
      • And quite frankly, that is a hard reality and tension to live in.
      • Let’s be clear, Mordecai and Esther had to live through that very same challenging tension.
      • They did not know the outcome of events, which is why we harken back to Esther’s words in 4:16 when she decided to speak truth into power by asking the King to save God’s people… if you remember, her fear in approaching the king, she said, “if must I die, I die”.
      • This is a far cry from thinking, “Oh well, I’m sure God will work everything out for my good.”

Esther knew the real-life tension of living in a broken/powerful world and God’s providence over his creation… and so must we.

• • • • We need to remember the state of the world we live in.
      • We need to be keenly aware that confronting evil usually comes at a personal cost.
      • We need to understand that evil does have the power to win a fight.
      • And at the same time, we want to have faith to believe that God always wins the battle … the outcome is decided.
      • We want courage to declare God’s hand in our lives.
      • We want determination to see God’s purposes coming to fruition, even if that requires long-term patience.
      • We must not manipulate God’s providence for our own ease or peace of mind.
      • We must not misrepresent God’s plans and derail what he is actually doing.
      • We must not mislead others into thinking that God is at our beck and call for our purposes.

As Esther and Mordecai, so courageously modeled, we need to be in prayer, consistent communication with God…

• • • • We need to be listening intently so that we can be patiently in step with God as he puts one piece in front of us after another, revealing his providential plan and purposes.
      • As we do, God can and will reveal more and more of his unseen hand at work.
      • It takes time, but yes, we can begin to train our spiritual muscles to see and know when God’s hand is guiding the courses of our affairs for his purposes.
      • We can begin to embrace the fact that sometimes things are exactly what they seem to be and we need to step into that with God’s power…
      • And other times things are not what they seem to be and we need to wait on God to work out his purposes…
      • And part of God’s sovereignty is having the right to let us know the difference between these two scenarios when and how he chooses to do so.
      • Our role is to take a humble posture of obedience; to remain faithful to the promises and to those things we know to be true of our God.
      • Which is why the Psalmist could write in Psalm 121,

¹ I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there?
² My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!

³ He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.
⁴ Indeed, he who watches over you never slumbers or sleeps.

⁵ The Lord himself watches over you!

Friend, always know that God is constantly present in every situation … He sees you, he knows you, he is pursuing you, he is for you.

• Evil will not defeat his plans and purposes.
• Human power will not prevail against God’s providence!
• Yes, we live in the tension of real evil, power gone awry and abused, but that is not God’s end of our story.
• And so we humbly, patiently and persistently submit ourselves to God’s script.

Friends, in just a moment, our worship team is going to lead us in singing as a response to what we are hearing.

• God is the central author and producer of our lives when we humble ourselves and submit ourselves to his plan for us.
• Perhaps today you are wrestling with a particular circumstance or relationship in your life, not knowing if or how God is at work behind the scenes… questioning if it’s possible for God’s providence to trump human power.
• Perhaps your eyes are tired and you can no longer see that things are not what they seem to be.
• We would welcome the opportunity and privilege of coming alongside you and praying into this with and for you.

Our pastoral staff is available…

• At any time, you can push the “Request Prayer” button if you are watching live, or otherwise, you can email and we’ll respond to your email as quickly as we can.