Building Your Own Gallows

Building your own gallows

Esther 7 10/25/06

This is our last study in the book of Esther for the time being. I hope you have gotten something out of the lessons that you can use down the road of life. If you haven’t gotten anything else, which I believe you have, I want you to remember this we find in this chapter and that is don’t fret because of evil doers because Psalm 37 verse 2 reads for they soon shall be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. God says it is just a matter of time that they will be cut down. That would be a good verse to put to heart and read it or quote it often. It will help you along the journey. It may seem like that evil is doing well but it is just a matter of time, and that is God’s timing, that evil will be put down.

Now when you read this book, it just builds up to the chapter and the end we have tonight. I hope you read the book in its entirety and you will see the suspense just build from chapter to chapter.

Now when you read the first verse, you find the principles mentioned. We have the king, Haman and Esther. The king doesn’t know the truth of what is happening around. Haman has so much hatred for the Jews and has built the gallows for the Jew Mordecai to hang him on. But Haman doesn’t know that Esther is a Jew. Then Esther knows what she is going to do. The Jewish people led by Mordecai have had a prayer meeting and now Esther has the answer. So the king and Haman are in the presence of the queen who is having a banquet for them two.

That brings us to the point of the message and we will call it THE QUEEN’S EXPLAINATION. Now the queen is getting ready to present her case to her husband the king. Look at verses 2-4.

The king said to Esther on the second night of the banquet what her petition is. He had already said that he would give her anything she wanted even up to the half of his kingdom. So we have her answer in the 3rd verse. She tells the king just exactly what is going on. What she does is to reveal identity to the king and Haman. I wouldn’t be surprised if now Haman didn’t recall the words that his wife had told him before he left to come to the banquet. Esther pleads for her life and the life of her people. So, we have surprise number one for the king that his wife was Jewish.

That leads us to the second point. We see not only the queen’s explanation but also THE KING’S EXPLOSION. Look at verses 5-8.

Now we have two surprised men in front of the queen. The king did not know what was going on and Haman did not know that the queen was Jewish. Now both understand that the queen is a Jew. Also the king understands now that a decree has been sent out and stamped by his own ring that would kill his own wife.

Now look at verse 5. The king asked who is the man that has done all of this? In asking this question, the king made another startling discovery and that is the man that he had trust in was his enemy. Someone he had trusted wanted to destroy the queen he loved so much. He asked who is the man and discovered who it is as you read verse 6.

It is always a blow to you when someone you have trusted becomes the one who lets you down. Do you ever think about those who have served in the ministry of our Southern Baptist Convention have forsaken the faith? Folks, we probably will not know this side of heaven the damage that has been done to our wonderful Lord because of the ones who turned to the world. What happened? They let up on the praying. They let up on their attendance to the church. They took their eyes off the Lord. I want you to understand that this pastor is not beyond doing the same thing and that is why I need to stay close to the Lord. We all need to pray because all of us are tempted to turn our back on the Lord.

Look at verse 7 now. The king got up and went into his garden to gather his thoughts. The king was known for his quick temper. We all have a button you can only push so long till we could have a temper explosion. There is an anger that is not sinful. I get fighting mad today at some of the leadership we have in the nation. Still I know that the congress and even the White House do not have the answers for this nation but the answer is found in the Word of God. Isn’t it something that we have the answers to the nation’s problems in the Word of God yet they turn to all the worlds’ sources and blind to the fact it is near them?