Changing The Unchangeable

Sept. 14, 2003 Esther 8

“Changing the unchangeable”

INTRODUCTION

“Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.

“The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in. The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.

“Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do …she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.

“Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.

“A few days after the trauma, the reporter who’d initially written about the event contacted Chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore -- he just sits and stares."

“It’s not hard to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over . . . That’s enough to steal the song from the [strongest] heart.” - Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, Word Publishing, 1991, p. 11.

Esther knew what Chippie felt like. She too had been sucked in, washed up and blown over. Her husband had signed the edict that if carried out would cause the destruction of her people. In doing so, he had unknowingly signed her death warrant as well. Most people in a situation like Esther’s would have given up hope. It definitely looked like a hopeless situation. Esther, like Chippie, had just about lost her song. But as someone has said, “There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.” - Clare Boothe Luce. Esther wasn’t one to give up hope. As we saw last week in chapter 7, Esther took advantage of her final opportunity and told the king about Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews. The king believed her and had Haman executed on the same pole that Haman had built to execute Mordecai. It looked like everything was going to work out okay. But there was still some unfinished business to be worked out. Yes, Haman was dead, but his legacy lived on. The law that he had written and signed with the king’s signet ring – the law that commanded the destruction of the Jews – was still in place. Any law written in the Persian Empire was unchangeable, irrevocable, set in stone for all time. You can almost hear Haman laughing from the grave. They could kill him, but there was no way that they could overcome his law. It was unchangeable.

Maybe you are dealing with a situation that looks unchangeable. It could be a spouse that just will not change no matter how much you pray and no matter how much you love them. It could be a child, still maturing or full grown that refuses to change their actions or attitude. It could be a disease that doctors have said is incurable. It could someone that you know that refuses every attempt that you make to bring them to Christ or talk with them about spiritual things. It could be a document – custody papers, credit history, debt, criminal record, job situation; things that from man’s perspective seem unchangeable. Be encouraged! This morning, I want to show you an unchangeable situation that God changed in order to let you know that God can change anything.

THE STORY

 A changed heart (vs. 1-6)

When we ended last week, life had begun to turn around for Esther and the rest of the Jews. Things continued to get better. Look at vs. 1-2. [read them] “Haman, who had hoped to confiscate the Jews’ property (3:13), now had his own property removed and given to, of all people, Esther, who in turn appointed Mordecai to oversee it.” – Bible Knowedge Commentary, Walvoord and Zuck Normally, the property of condemned criminals became the property of the king, but for some reason, Xerxes chose to change that custom and give the property to his wife. What happened here sounds a lot like the promise of God in (Prov 13:22) …a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous. With Haman now dead, the Prime Minister position was vacant. Xerxes could think of no one more qualified to fill that position than Mordecai. So not only did Haman lose his wealth to Esther; he lost his power to Mordecai. Everything that Haman had been counting on to give significance to his life and to be an unchanging security blanket for him was now gone.