Coincidence, Or God At Work?

MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

TEXT: The Book of Esther

(I have taken advantage of a message about Esther written by Reg Watson, a minister in Maryland.)

INTRO. My message this morning will be a reinforcement of what some of you already know. And I trust that for the rest of you I can tell the story simply & convince you that God is still active, listening, & pouring out his grace upon us today.

I believe God & His Holy Spirit have worked behind the scenes on a number of occasions that people say are "just coincidences." Someone has defined “coincidence” as “a miracle for which God chooses to remain anonymous.” I like that, & I'm convinced that can be seen in the Book of Esther!

One thing that makes the story of Esther thrilling is the fact that it is not fiction. It really happened. The Book of Esther describes actual events that took place among Jews living in the Persian Empire.

The story occurs during the reign of Xerxes, ruler of Persia. In fact, at that time no ruler on earth was as powerful as he. His empire included all of what is now northern Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northeastern India, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, & Libya.

And in order to control this vast kingdom it had been divided into 127 provinces with nobles, officials & military leaders in each province.

A. Our story begins with King Xerxes, in the third year of his reign, proclaiming a national festival. Esther 1:4 says, "For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom & the splendor & glory of his majesty."

Historians tell us that Xerxes had brought together all these nobles, officials & military leaders from throughout his kingdom for this festival to impress them & to gain their support for the raising of a "million-man army" to invade Greece.

Well, after this 6-month-long extravaganza, Xerxes hosted a royal banquet that lasted 7 days. And according to Esther 1:5, every man was invited “…from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa,” the capitol of his kingdom.

Esther 1:7-8 tells us, "Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, & the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king's liberality.

"By the king's command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished."

You see, his goal was to demonstrate the wealth of the kingdom, & make them aware of his greatness, & to make his enemies afraid of him.

Esther 1:10-11 tells us that on the last day of this tremendous banquet - when the King was “in high spirits from wine,” (in other words - when he was drunk) he ordered his servants "to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people & the nobles, for she was lovely to look at."

Think about it. He was drunk, & His motive was to impress. In fact, every-thing he had done was for show - the glory of his palace, the gold & silver couches, the beautiful garden & its tapestries, the golden goblets, & the lavish servings of food & drink.

And now, suddenly, when he obviously was not thinking clearly, he orders his wife to come out & display herself in front of his drunken guests. She is offended by the order & refuses to do it.

How did the king respond? Look at vs. 12, "Then the king became furious & burned with anger." By the way, if you read about the life of Xerxes you will find that he had a terrible temper, & did some very foolish things.

Evidently he felt that Vashti had embarrassed him in front of his guests. She had made him look weak when he wanted to look strong. So he turned to his advisors, & they told him that Vashti had done a terrible thing.

“If the Queen can refuse to obey the King's command, then other wives might follow her example & disobey their husbands too.” They tell Xerxes that unless he does something quickly, "There will be no end of disrespect & discord." (Est. 1:18)

King Xerxes promptly removes Vashti as Queen & then gets busy preparing to conquer Greece. He raises his "million-man army" & his personal bodyguard of 10,000 elite warriors called "The Immortals."

They invade Greece & make their way south. They are slowed down at Thermopylae by 300 brave Spartans who fight to the death. Continuing on, they take Athens & the city is burned.

But then things turned very bad for the Persians. An unusually terrible storm with extreme winds forced the Persian ships to bunch close together in a narrow strait. A few Greek ships with “Greek fire” attacked. Soon the entire Persian fleet was on fire. And what the fire didn’t destroy, the terrible storm did.