Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #187. When God Turns Everything Around: Hope and Providence in Esther 6–10

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#187. When God Turns Everything Around: Hope and Providence in Esther 6–10 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  Speaker 99: This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  Speaker 99: I'm Stephanie Hickox.
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  Speaker 99: As we look at the second half of Esther in chapters six through ten, We'll witness how dramatically circumstances can change in a day, which will remind us of Jeremiah's words, His mercy is new every morning: great is thy
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  Speaker 99: faithfulness."
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  Speaker 99: And God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel has been remarkable.
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  Speaker 99: This tiny nation has had innumerable enemies throughout history many have been devoted to destroying it entirely, But none were successful.
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  Speaker 99: the Lord has had his hand upon this nation, And we can be so thankful to be grafted in to God's people and plan.
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  Speaker 99: We left off at the end of chapter five where Haman was invited to a feast with Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus He's feeling pretty good, but then on the way home, he sees Mordecai and his pride is provoked.
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  Speaker 99: His wife recommends that a gallows of fifty cubits high be made for which to impale Mordecai This equates to a 75-foot post because some in the Persian Empire were known for impaling their enemies.
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  Speaker 99: Whoever would be thrust upon this post would be on display for all to see.
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  Speaker 99: At the beginning of chapter six, the king has a night of supernatural insomnia This is right after the first feast, and instead of calling for Esther or one of the ladies in his harem, which he has repeatedly done
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  Speaker 99: in his life, he asks for the Book of Chronicles, the royal record, to be brought and read to him And by no accident, but by the providence of God, the very account of Mordecai saving the king's life by
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  Speaker 99: discovering the plot against him is read.
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  Speaker 99: of all the historical accounts and records that could have been selected the king discovers that Mordecai has never been honored for his faithfulness to the crown and the king sets his mind on fixing this injustice the next morning
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  Speaker 99: It just so happens that Haman is on his way to ask for Mordecai to be executed Instead, the conversation takes a very humbling turn for Haman.
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  Speaker 99: The king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?"
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  Speaker 99: And Haman said to himself, Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?"
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  Speaker 99: And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown
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  Speaker 99: is set.
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  Speaker 99: And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials.
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  Speaker 99: Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights
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  Speaker 99: to honor.'"
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  Speaker 99: Then the king said to Haman, Hurry, take the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate.
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  Speaker 99: Leave out nothing that you have mentioned."
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  Speaker 99: Haman is mortified and humiliated, but he obeys the king.
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  Speaker 99: Can you imagine having that answer so readily available on the tip of your tongue?
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  Speaker 99: To recommend that someone wear the king's royal robes that he's known for wearing and to ride on his horse he's known for using.
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  Speaker 99: If I were the king, I would be pretty paranoid about this guy.
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  Speaker 99: Haman goes home where his wife tells him, It looks like you're gonna fall to the Jewish people."
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  Speaker 99: And at that moment, Haman is escorted to Esther's second night of feasting While they're eating, the king asks Esther a third time, What is your wish, Queen Esther?
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  Speaker 99: It shall be granted to you.
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  Speaker 99: And what is your request?
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  Speaker 99: Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."
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  Speaker 99: I'll admit it, it's always seemed odd to me that Esther had two feasts back to back.
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  Speaker 99: why didn't she ask her request on the first night?
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  Speaker 99: But my Moody commentary suggests that Esther was already prepared to give her life for the people, so the delay isn't out of self-preservation.
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  Speaker 99: Instead, she was looking for an opportunity and evidence that the Lord had moved in the situation.
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  Speaker 99: When Mordecai was elevated publicly earlier that day, it gave her confidence and assurance That God was sovereignly working and was answering their prayers and fasting In chapter seven, verse three, Queen Esther answered, If I have found favor in
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  Speaker 99: your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish and my people for my request.
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  Speaker 99: for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.
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  Speaker 99: If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king."
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  Speaker 99: Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he and where is he who has dared to do this?"
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  Speaker 99: And Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman.
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  Speaker 99: Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
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  Speaker 99: And the king arose in his wrath from the wine drinking and went into the palace garden.
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  Speaker 99: But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king.
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  Speaker 99: And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was.
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  Speaker 99: and the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?"
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  Speaker 99: As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face.
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  Speaker 99: then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king said, Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high."
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  Speaker 99: And the king said, Hang him on that."
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  Speaker 99: And they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
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  Speaker 99: Then the wrath of the king abated.
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  Speaker 99: In her request, Esther used the exact same phrasing that the king's edict recorded that someone was determined to destroy, kill, and annihilate her and her people.
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  Speaker 99: It's odd the king doesn't recognize his own language, but as the text tells us multiple times, he has been drinking wine.
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  Speaker 99: After Haman is pointed out as her enemy, why does the king get up and leave her with him?
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  Speaker 99: There probably would have been servants there, but it seems completely illogical to leave her alone with the enemy The king was probably blinded by rage and not thinking clearly.
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  Speaker 99: when he comes back in, what he sees confirms Haman's death penalty.
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  Speaker 99: The plot that Haman set up for Mordecai is now entirely reversed and applied to him.
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  Speaker 99: In fact, the next several chapters are full of reversals of things that Haman formerly had that are now being bestowed upon Mordecai.
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  Speaker 99: Mordecai is given control of Haman's home.
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  Speaker 99: He's given the king's signet ring.
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  Speaker 99: And because the former edict could not be revoked, a new edict is written declaring that the Jews have every right to defend themselves.
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  Speaker 99: This provides a deterrent for many of their attackers and chapter 8 verse 17 tells us that many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.
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  Speaker 99: Is this an ethnic conversion?
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  Speaker 99: Certainly not.
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  Speaker 99: It's a religious conversion.
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  Speaker 99: All of a sudden, the Jews are elevated and given respect.
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  Speaker 99: And we have historical record of this.
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  Speaker 99: Prior to the days of this king, records of Jews are nearly, nonexistent in the Persian record.
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  Speaker 99: But after this time, we see an abundance of Jewish names being recorded This new decree allowing the Jewish people to defend themselves is sent out through the famous ancient Persian postal system This was established by Cyrus the Great
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  Speaker 99: And it was one of the first communication networks in history The Greek historian Herodotus described that these couriers were stopped by neither snow, rain, heat, nor gloom of night.
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  Speaker 99: And you might recognize those words because they helped inspire the unofficial motto of the US Postal Service.
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  Speaker 99: The Jews defend themselves and they're allowed to continue doing so the next day.
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  Speaker 99: Throughout the Medo-Persian Empire, 75,000 enemies of Israel are defeated.
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  Speaker 99: But unlike Saul in the Book of Samuel, who plundered the Amalekites' wealth even though God forbid it, the Jews here don't plunder any of their enemies' goods Then Mordecai, with the power of the king behind him, sends out
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  Speaker 99: documentation to all the provinces that the people are to keep this feast of Purim And Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, both near and far,
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  Speaker 99: obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had
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  Speaker 99: been turned for them from sorrow into gladness, and from mourning into a holiday that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another, and gifts to the poor this is
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  Speaker 99: a feast still maintained by the Jews in celebrating God's deliverance of them once again.
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  Speaker 99: Chapter 10 concludes telling us that Mordecai remained as second-in-command to the king There's so much about the Book of Esther that is intended to remind us of God's deliverance to the people in the Exodus.
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  Speaker 99: First, God raises up someone in power in a pagan nation to advocate for his people.
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  Speaker 99: Both of these protagonists or good guys, are pretty hesitant initially.
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  Speaker 99: Remember Moses's reluctance at the burning bush?
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  Speaker 99: the deliverance is provided for both people groups on the very same day, the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan.
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  Speaker 99: And both result in the evangelism to the surrounding people and both are honored and celebrated with a feast.
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  Speaker 99: Passover for the Exodus and Purim for the events of Esther.
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  Speaker 99: these two festivals bookend the Jewish year, one occurring on the first month and one on the last.
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  Speaker 99: You know, if I'm honest, when Esther approaches the king to plead for her people, I've never been too struck by the intimidation of the moment.
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  Speaker 99: I don't think I've ever been very convinced that the king would actually execute her.
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  Speaker 99: He spent years picking her, and he elevated her above all the other women would he really kill her for drawing near?
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  Speaker 99: But as I'm thinking about it more, I realize that a king who would banish a wife for not coming before him would probably banish a wife for coming before him.
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  Speaker 99: His advisors could have convinced him, "Look, here's another woman not submitting to you.
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  Speaker 99: You can't let anyone think that she controls you.
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  Speaker 99: Get rid of her."
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  Speaker 99: But God works in the king's heart and gives her favor.
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  Speaker 99: And what I'm realizing more and more is that Esther wasn't just risking her life.
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  Speaker 99: She was risking her position and her prosperity She was raised as an orphan, far away from the homeland that her parents loved.
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  Speaker 99: I think when they named her after a flower that was native to Jerusalem, it pointed back to the hope of the Promised Land but she lost them and then was provided a life of luxury and privilege.
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  Speaker 99: And approaching the king without being summoned could certainly have put an end to it all.
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  Speaker 99: She was taking a greater risk than I'd formerly realized.
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  Speaker 99: I appreciate what Tim Keller says of Esther and challenges us with, You're not being faithful and obedient to God unless you're willing to risk all the pleasures of the palace In Esther sacrificing the glory of the kingdom to
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  Speaker 99: save her people, she points to Christ, who left the glory of heaven to come and lay down his life to rescue and redeem us.
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  Speaker 99: So in summary, I would say that in the Book of Esther, God's sovereignty and timing is undeniable.
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  Speaker 99: And in life, when we're going through seasons where we just don't understand or see how God could intervene, we can remember what a difference a day made in the lives, particularly of Haman and Mordecai.
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  Speaker 99: God performed a complete reversal in twenty-four hours.
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  Speaker 99: He is the God of all hope.
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  Speaker 99: And we can be thankful that his mercies are new every morning.
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  Speaker 99: Great is his faithfulness.
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  Speaker 99: And as Jesus said, "Don't worry about tomorrow, for today has enough worries of its own."
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  Speaker 99: We can have hope for every single day and choose not to despair in our circumstances, and that can be a difficult lesson to teach kids, especially ones that are being raised in a society with such instant gratification But
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  Speaker 99: patiently waiting upon the Lord and trusting in His redemption is a lesson woven throughout the pages of scripture And it shouldn't be neglected no matter how efficient our technology gets.
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  Speaker 99: finally, let's be people that are willing to sacrifice all that we have, whether it's our reputation, our comfort, our finances, all for the glory of Jesus Christ, because He laid down the treasures of heaven for us Heavenly Father,
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  Speaker 99: we praise you that the absence of your name is not indicative of an absence of your involvement You were thoroughly guiding the circumstances to protect Your people in the Old Testament, and You are thoroughly involved today in the
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  Speaker 99: lives of Your people.
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  Speaker 99: We know this doesn't always mean that You spare our lives on this earth, but we praise You for our promised eternity in Your presence Help us to hold the comforts of this life loosely, and that ultimately our hope
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  Speaker 99: would be in heaven and not upon earthly blessings.
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  Speaker 99: Help us to walk in patience and trust you when the wait seems so long.
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  Speaker 99: We pray you'd give us wisdom about how to raise children that also wait well onto you, and whose faith doesn't waver when the rescue and the testimony is not instantaneous.
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  Speaker 99: We love you, Jesus, and we praise you once again that you set your sights on us and left the glory of heaven to restore us back to the Father.
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  Speaker 99: It's in your name that we pray, Jesus, amen.