The Story- Chapter 20- The Roll Of The Dice Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• A saying in Vegas is “MY LIFE IS WRAPPED UP IN THE ROLL OF THE DICE.”

• In Vegas you can beat the odds and win it all with a roll of the dice or you can lose it all in a roll of the dice.

• It seems as (when no one is cheating) that it is all about luck. Many people play the lottery, how do you win the lottery? Most everyone doesn’t. Is winning the lottery about skill? Not really, it is about beating the odds, or as many would put it, you need to be lucky.

• For many, as the famous philosopher Forrest Gump once said, “LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET.”

• Life can seem like a bunch of coincidences, just a bunch of “rolls of the dice.”

• Science or I should say the Religion of Evolution tries without proof to tell us that everything pertaining to the beginning of life and the universe just happened by chance, or by the roll of the dice.

• So it is all luck, and chance or will we discover that God is working behind the scenes to fulfill His grand, saving purpose.

• The book of Esther shows us that God has an upper story and that we in the lower story can affect the fine details of God’s plan, but we cannot thwart God’s ultimate plan.

• In other words, we have free will and God does not circumvent our freewill.

• God desired Adam and Eve to not eat forbidden fruit, they did, God did not stop it, but God had a plan.

• We will see in one part of the message something that happened 550 some years earlier plays a part in the story of Esther.

• One other thing of note about the Book of Esther, God is not mentioned by name (although implied) anywhere in the book of Esther. Interesting that it is in the Bible.

• So the question is this, “is life just a roll of the dice or is there something larger working behind the scenes?”

• Let’s begin by examining one of the main characters in the book of Esther.

• SLIDE #2

SERMON

I. Haman steps up to the table and rolls the dice.

• We are in about the year 480 BC. In 538 the first group of Jews went home to rebuild the temple that was completed in about 516 BC.

• Many Jews up to this point had decided to stay in Persia. The story of Esther takes place in the capital city of Susa where many Jews still lived. There were many Jews scattered throughout the 127 PROVINCES of Persia.

• In the capital city of Susa, there was a man named Haman. Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites.

• Now let’s talk a moment about a roll of the dice.

• Somewhere after 1050 BC, God commanded King Saul to do something.

• He wanted Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. Why?

• The Amalekites not only were persistently wicked, but they were the first people to try to stop Israel from entering the land of Canaan, which meant they were directly opposed to the unfolding of God’s upper story plan.

• God will accomplish his plan, and he wanted Saul to eliminate them completely, but because of Saul’s disobedience, 400 Amalekites survived, and Haman is descended from them, explaining his grudge against the Jews.

• Now if God were making us follow a script, Haman would have never existed because Saul would have wiped out the Amalekites.

• He did not, he disobeyed God and now around 480 BC, some 550 years after Saul’s disobedience we see a descendant from the surviving Amalekites getting in the mix again.

• Now we can see why Haman may have a pre-disposition to not be too fond of the Jews!

• Now Haman who seemed to carry a grudge now was in a very high position in the Persian Empire under Xerxes.

• Haman has been placed in a high position and Haman is a man FULL of pride, he expects everyone to bow down to him.

• SLIDE #3

• Esther 3:2 (NIV) All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.

• Esther 3:5 (NIV) When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.

• So what does a man full of himself do? He looks for revenge! Haman has been rolling the dice his whole life and he has beat the house. He should not even have existed since King Saul SHOULD have wiped out ALL the Amalekite over 550 years before.