God’s Purpose in Disguise

Welcome to our women's Bible study on the book of Esther, which we have titled, When God Works in the Shadows. And today we're gonna cover chapters five, six and seven of the book of Esther. Before we start in, I want to ask you a question. We've all experienced something that we call coincidence, right? Every one of us, we know what that means, right? I have a good definition of coincidence that I wanna put up on the screen for you. I think this is a great Christian definition of coincidence, God's purpose being carried out in disguise. Isn't that a great definition? Can you relate to this being true in your life? In the life of Esther, this has been true for sure. In these chapters, we're even going to amp up God's hand working in the shadows, and we're going to see God's purpose being carried out in disguise. So let's recall where we left off in our last episode, right, when we left off, we had this edict that went out from the king to annihilate all the Jews. And the edict went out on what would be the equivalent to our Christmas Eve. It was the eve of Passover, this happy time that it was said that they should all be killed 11 months later. And the incentivization for the Persians to kill them is if you kill the Jews, you can have their stuff. Weird, just a weird situation. And so we read about how Esther and Mordecai were able to dialogue about this crisis through a messenger. And Mordecai ended up giving Esther this warning, this promise, and this exhortation which ended with these words, and who knows, but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this. And the way I read it, for both of them, the light bulb came on in their head and in their heart. Yes, none of this has been a coincidence. It is not a coincidence that Esther had become queen at this moment in history. It was not a coincidence that Mordecai, what did not go back with the people to Jerusalem to rebuild, but he stayed in the position at the king's gate. So this was God's purpose being carried out in disguise. And so Esther had called for that fast for three days. She fasted, her girls fasted, and all of the Jews fasted, and then she screwed up her courage, and she was ready to go and talk to the king. And as these chapters begin now, we have different kind of timestamps that open these chapters, because remember some of the first ones were after these things, and that could have meant three years or five years or eight years. But now the story gets going faster and faster and more definitive, and our chapters open with after three days or that very night or something like that. So let's get started on chapter five. It begins like this. On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the king's quarters while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room, opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. And we all breathe a sigh of relief. Things are looking positive. The king was pleased with Esther when he saw her, but we're not surprised about this, because we happen to know a scripture, Proverbs 21 one says, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And so clearly God can put it in the king's heart to be favorable toward Esther, and he must have done that. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter, and the king said to her, what is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even the half of my kingdom. And Esther said, if it pleased the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king. And we pause right there, and we might be a little bit puzzled because we're like, this was your chance. This was your big moment to talk to him, and all you did was invite him to dinner. But there's some wisdom going on here. Esther was walking in wisdom, and I wanna name three ways she was walking in wisdom. Number one way is she knew men. With men, it's food first, talking later. And that's what Esther did, smart girl. Number two, she knew her man. And her man was the kind of man that had done a banquet for six months long to influence all the people, to do the talking, to influence people. So she knew this was his happy place. This was his love language. Number three, Esther knew the art of timing, and she knew the art of self-control. There would be plenty of time for her to tell her story, but first, she needed to position him in a place to influence him his way. That's a lot of wisdom, isn't it? What can we glean from this for our own lives? Number one, men haven't changed, food first. You know what, that's not just men. That's not a defect. I'm not saying men are defective. You have to feed them first. A lot of women are this way. A lot of our kids are this way. This is just wisdom. Feed people, get them happy, and then start talking. Number two, for us wives, do you know your man like she knew her man? How does he connect? Men are so different. You know, some people are like cup of coffee, eye contact, face-to-face across the table. That's how they wanna communicate. Some people, that's death to them. They hate that face-to-face eye contact. You have to communicate with them in the car side-by-side or taking a walk side-by-side. And this is the same for kids. I have kids in both categories. And so you have to learn, where are they comfortable? But with our husbands, if you have something to say, it might be best to just wait until you're up on the mountain hunting or the gym or whatever it is, wherever they're comfortable. It's really wise to make sure that the person who you wanna communicate to you is comfortable. And then do we practice the art of timing and the art of self-control? And this isn't just for husbands. This is anybody. Very few people want to start a conversation with you and you just blurt out everything that you have to say. You just blurt out your problems or what's going on. You know, there's the art of timing, a little bit of self-control. So this is what she did. The invitation was given. Here comes the acceptance. In verse five, the king said, we'll bring Haman quickly so that we may do as Esther has asked. So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, what is your wish? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. And then Esther answered, my wish and my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleased the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them. And tomorrow I will do as the king has said. So this is self-control on steroids. And she says, okay, my request is this. Let's do this all over again tomorrow with Haman again, which might sound a little bit weird to us, but remember, this is the man who had a six month long banquet in order to influence people. It didn't sound weird to him to say, let's do it again. He's accustomed to this. It's also was smart of her to keep Haman close. You know that saying, keep your enemies close? That's what she was doing, I think, by saying, let's us come back at it again. But she also, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but this built up Haman's perspective of himself and what to expect. It kind of spoke to his pride so that he thought to himself again, it's only Esther, the king, and I. I'm the only one that is invited. And so there's a lot of things going on that are working in her favor here. In verse nine, Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and he went home and he sent and brought his friends and his wife, Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons and the promotions with which the king had honored him and how he had advanced him above the other officials and servants of the king. And then Haman said, even Queen Esther, let no one come but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also, I am invited by her together with the king. And so filled with pride, Haman got his wife and his friends and he began to brag about his money, his kids and his position, right? We'll handle the problem of pride in a minute, but what I want to observe here first and preface for is Haman's emotional stability or instability as the case may be. Emotional, unstable people flip-flop extremely quickly from, depending on their circumstances, from being filled with joy to being filled with wrath. That's emotional instability. Emotionally unstable people can be triggered by just thinking about something bad in the past, thinking about an offense that was done to them. Emotionally unstable people forget about everything good in their life when faced with something that upsets them. And this is what Haman did. Let's read about it. Verse 13. He says, Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. And then his wife Zeresh and all of his friends said to him, Well, let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast. Well this idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made. Now in our last episode, we talked a lot about not being easily offended like Haman. Not only is it not Christ-like for us to be offended that way, but when we put the spotlight on some small offense against it, it's not healthy for us. It wipes out, it overshadows everything that is good in our lives. And those are God-given emotions for us to be grateful for things. It turns us into grumpy people. So look at what Haman did. He was telling everyone about all the great things in his life, but then they all faded to the background when he said, But that Mordecai. He couldn't remember any of those things anymore. And I just want to say that this is a mistake that we also can't afford to make. Counting our blessings and walking in gratitude, being content with our lives, these are things that God has given us to keep us healthy, to keep us emotionally healthy, even physically healthy when we walk in those things. So we can't afford to let these offenses cause those things to drift to the background. And I think we can extend that way beyond the border of offenses. Even just circumstances we're not content with, things that we just don't like about our lives. We can't afford to let them overshadow all of the good things. But I've mentioned multiple times in our Bible studies how, especially going through the Old Testament, I've mentioned how friends and family are sometimes our worst advisors because they want us happy more than they want us holy. And that's exactly what's going on here. Friends and family, friends and wife. Look at what Zeresh. You deserve to be happy. Get rid of these irritations. Have Mordecai hanged and be happy. That's basically what exactly the counsel that she gave him. So in our study guide, I asked the question about you as a counselor. How do you receive people when they come to you with information? And I think I said in there, are you a fencer or are you a fueler? So someone comes to you and lets go about something that happened in their life. Do you help them build a fence around that offense or that difficulty and contain it so that it doesn't overshadow the blessings in their life? Or are you the kind of person that tends to throw fuel on it and make it bigger? It's like, oh yeah, well, I wouldn't put up with that if I were you. You know, it's something to think about. What is our habit? Are we fencing or are we fueling? You know which one we want to do. So I have a couple, you know, since this is his wife that's speaking, I have three scriptures from Proverbs that I want us to just read through. I don't know if any of these were in the study guide, but let's just read through these on the screen. From Proverbs 14, 1, the wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands, the foolish woman tears hers down. Proverbs 12, 4, a wife of noble characters, her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones. And Proverbs 31, 11 to 12, her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good and not harm all the days of her life. I love, as we're going through the Old Testament, where we can find these examples of a proverb and say, well, this is what it looks like with skin on. This Zeresh was not a good example of a wife. She was tearing down her own home. Also noteworthy here before we move on, that one of Haman's things that he came to the king with is he said, these people don't obey the king's laws. And Haman himself is trying to circumvent the king's laws by killing a Jew 11 months before the edict. Just kind of fascinating. Chapter 6 starts, on that night, the king could not sleep. Might have been the banquet food, might have been the wine, might have been the Lord. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. Now, this was eight years ago that this happened. What a coincidence, huh, that the book of chronicles after, you know, all this time just happened to be opened to that exact place. And the king said, well, what honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? And the king's young men who attended him said, nothing has been done for him. And the king said, well, who's in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's young men told him, Haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, well, let him come in. So Haman came in and the king said to him, what should be done to the man who the king delights to honor? And since Haman has such a high opinion of himself, he filtered that question through the lens of his own ego, thinking, of course, the king is about to honor me. So he says to himself, well, whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman said to the king, so 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 on whose head is a royal crown is set and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials and 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 it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And then the king said to Haman, hurry, take the robes and the horse just as you have said and do so to Mordecai, the Jew who sits at the king's gate, leave out nothing that you have mentioned. And we just have to stop and laugh because it's so incredible. It's like a Shakespeare play right at this moment. I do believe Shakespeare must've gotten inspiration from the Bible in order to write all the twists and turns of events that he wrote into his plays. But here Haman had come to ask for the life of Mordecai and he ends up being asked to honor Mordecai. It's incredible. Verse 11. So Haman took the robes and the horse and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And so for Haman to see Mordecai honored had to have been one level of frustration for him. But for Mordecai's voice to be the voice of honor must have just been in his mind the greatest humiliation, a complete new orbit of humiliation. And so here we have Haman who started his day being Mordecai's judge and ended his day being his servant. Verse 12. Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to his house mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife, Zeresh, and all of his friends, everything that had happened to him. And then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, well, if Mordecai before whom you had begun to fall is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but you will surely fall before him. I find it kind of interesting that there's, they're not just called friends now, they're also called wise men. And you know, they do honestly have some wisdom that Haman doesn't have here because they could see Zeresh and the friends can see something going on that Haman doesn't even see yet himself. It's like you're doomed guy. This is, this is the end there. That's what they're basically saying. So verse 14, while they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared. Oh, that's right. We still have a feast going on. You know, there's so many things happening so quickly. I don't think Haman was even thinking about this feast, but off they go. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, what is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. And then Esther answered, if I have found favor in 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." And then Esther begins using a very, very shrewd vocabulary that I want us to take note of. She says, for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent. Our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king. Now why did she say they had been sold to destruction? That's not the way we understood the edict last session. We didn't hear anything about selling. They had been decreed for destruction. It was an edict, right? Well Mordecai had told Esther the exact amount of the bribe that Haman had given to the king. And a bribe, the 10,000, whatever amount it was, it could be described as a business transaction. Here, I will give you this money in exchange, you sign this edict for the destruction of these people. They had been sold to destruction. And it was very shrewd of her to use that word and to bring that picture into the king's mind. Also, I want us to note Esther's exact words in verse three. She said, if it pleased the king. In the NIV, it says, if it pleased your majesty. This was very diplomatic. And she didn't say, I want you to, or I think you should. She basically started in with, if it pleased the king. And sometimes as wives, when we have something to say, we start off with, I think you should, or I want you to. So go home and try this. If it please your majesty. And then I'd like you to report back and tell me what his face looked like before you said that. I'm not really making fun, I'm just saying that we have room to be more respectful sometimes and to be more diplomatic, even in our familiar relationships like our marriages. And stop blurting out, I think you should. I'm going to try that this week. Verse five, then a king, King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, who is he and where is he? Who has dared to do this? And Esther said, a foe, an enemy, this wicked Haman. And then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. And the king arose in his wrath from the wine drinking and he went into the palace garden. And what I read into this, this is just my own picture of how it goes, is that the king suddenly realized a whole bunch of things about himself that he hadn't realized before. Number one, he was culpable in this. She pointed out Haman, but I think he needed a moment and he needed to leave the room because he realized right then that he also was culpable. I think he realized that he never knew that the queen was a Jew. You know, his advisors back in the day said, what you need is a pretty face and a pretty body. Let's go find one. And he agreed with it. And that's what he got. He never bothered to ask her background. He didn't know that she was Jewish. I think that bothered him right then in the moment. And I think he also never realized how manipulated, how easily manipulated he had been by his advisors all along. And that Haman had so easily manipulated him into selling the Jews for destruction. That's just what I think that he's doing out in the garden. The Bible doesn't say that. I think that's what's going on. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. 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. And the king said, will he even assault the queen in my presence in my own house? And as the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. And then Harbona, 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 50 cubits high. And the king said, hang him on that. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, and then the wrath of the king abated. And so in a satisfying reversal, we see that Haman perished on the device that he had created for Mordecai. But I just want to wrap up these chapters with three sort of random thoughts for us. The first thought that I have is that history is important. I love it when we, in Women of the Word, are back in the Old Testament to study some of these historical narratives, because we can get a little myopic about our life. And you've said it, I've heard people say it, I've probably said it, I just don't think the world can get any worse. Jesus has to come back, it can't get any worse than this. Look, we don't have the worst world that we're reading about here, okay? And that's why history is important, because it points out to us that sin has been a problem from the beginning. It's a problem today. It was a problem in the Persian Empire. But look at the Persian Empire. Look at the brutality that we've read about. I mean, taking a whole people group and saying, just kill them, annihilate them. What about this gallows? This isn't like an old-fashioned Old West noose that you hang people from. No, this is a pointy stick that you pop a person down on and hang out. This is weird, this is brutal. Other times and places in history have been worse than we are in Western civilization now. Clearly, things are bad now, but history is important to enlighten us to say sin has always been a problem and it always will be a problem until Jesus comes back. Number two, the thing that I want to point out is that God doesn't only use the godly, he also uses the ungodly for his purposes. And before I explain that, I want you to look at this passage from Psalm 75.

It is clear for us to see, as we study this book, that God used Esther for his purposes, that God used Mordecai for his purposes. But it's also becoming clear to see that God used Haman for his purposes. God used King Ahasuerus for his purposes. King Ahasuerus was a wild card. He was a pagan. He cared nothing about the one true God. And yet we see God using him. His grandfather Cyrus was used by God in the same way. He was the one that issued the decree that said any Jews that want to go back can go back and build their temple, build their city. And so I love to think about the fact that God uses godly people, he uses ungodly people. Why is that important for us? Well, we're very close to another election. And this causes us to think about all things political, causes us to think about our leaders, whole bunch of our leaders all through my whole lifetime. You could pick up and put in the ungodly category. But this inspires me in my prayers for ungodly people. When I say to myself, God uses the ungodly for his purposes. This should inspire us to say, I ain't going to stop praying. And whatever happens, whoever we have as mayor and senators and governors and presidents, we pray for them and we have faith because God uses the ungodly just like the godly. So the last thing is the fact that there are number three, there are no coincidences in life. Everything that we call a coincidence, there are no coincidences in life. God is sovereign and God watches over the affairs of man. Now this is a huge topic, but just for our purposes in closing today, I want to say this. Coincidences are God's purpose being carried out in disguise. I don't know if you read on page 28 in your study guide, those six points of evidence to see God's hidden hand at work in these three chapters. Those were just taken from these chapters. There were signs of evidence of God working in the previous chapters, and there will be more yet in the chapters to come. But let's just bring this home by talking about my life, talking about your life. What coincidences have happened recently in your life that now you can sit here and say, oh, that was really God's purpose being carried out in disguise. And when we realize that, there's a few questions we should ask ourselves. Have I acknowledged that that was God's purpose? Have I thanked God for his purpose? And lastly, have I allowed my faith to be built up because I have seen God's purpose being carried out in disguise? Father, we just want to thank you for the lessons that we can draw from these chapters, and we thank you for giving us this book, which is really fascinating to read, a great story, but Lord, where there's so much wisdom packed in it, and even the things that we talked about that relate to wives or relate to relationships. I pray that we would walk in wisdom like we see here and that we would take some of these things to heart. But Lord, as it relates to the things that happen unexpectedly in our lives, I pray that you would build up our faith that we can see that you are working in disguise, however we word that, that your hand is working in the shadows, and that Lord, we will take heart, we will calm down, we'll just simmer down and trust that you are watching over the affairs of our lives. And we thank you, Lord, that you are in Jesus' name. Amen.