For Such a Time as This
Part 7: The Victory Begins
Esther 7:1-10
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - July 1, 2012
BACKGROUND:
*Five hundred years before Christ, Esther the orphan and secret Jew was chosen to be queen of the Persian Empire. Esther was put there by the invisible Hand of God to help deliver His people from total annihilation. This destruction was plotted by Prime Minister Haman, because of his pride and his bloodthirsty hatred of the Jews.
*In Chapter 4, the queen was persuaded to risk the death penalty by going before the king to plead for her people. After 3 days of prayer and fasting, Esther approached King Xerxes in Chapter 5, and he spared her life. Then she began to carry out a plan to save her people. The plan involved inviting the king and his prime minister to join the queen at two banquets.
*In Chapter 6, God intervened after the first banquet by keeping the king awake that night. The restless king called for the royal records to be read to him. And King Xerxes realized that his life had been saved when Esther’s cousin Mordecai foiled an assassination plot against the king.
*The king also discovered that Mordecai had never been rewarded for his loyalty. So, the evil Prime Minister, Haman, was forced to honor Mordecai the Jew.
-Mordecai was the man Haman hated with a passion.
-Mordecai was the man Haman planned to hang on a scaffold 75 feet tall.
*By the end of Chapter 6, even Haman’s wife and friends could see that Haman was going to fall. And it was time for the second banquet. With this background in mind, let’s read Esther 7:1-10.
INTRODUCTION:
*This is a wonderful story. It shows us how God so often works behind the scenes in our lives. And it has so much more to teach us:
-Truth about our purpose in this world.
-Truth about faith, family and fasting.
-Truth about our desperate need for Godly leaders.
-And more.
*As we explore Chapter 7, there are important spiritual comparisons we can make; more eternal truth from Esther’s trouble.
1. First, in vs. 1-3, please notice Esther’s vital request.
1. So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther.
2. And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half my kingdom? It shall be done!''
3. Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let MY LIFE be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
[1] “What is your request, Esther?” -- “My life!”
*Esther made the most important request: She pleaded with the king for her life.
*By this point, Esther must have been pretty confident that King Xerxes would grant her request. Three times he had already promised to give her half of the whole Persian Empire. But how much more confidence can we have in our King, the King of Kings, who died on the cross to give us life!
*Suffering Job had this confidence in Job 19:25-26. There he proclaimed:
25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth;
26. and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God,
*Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will give eternal life to everyone who receives Him as Savior and Lord. This involves hearing the Lord, honoring the Lord, and believing in the Father who loved us enough to send His only begotten son into the world.
*The Lord explained it this way in John 5:21-27:
21. "For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
22. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
23. that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
24. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
25. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
26. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
27. and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
*Esther made the most important request: She pleaded for her life.
[2] But that’s not all, she also pleaded for the life of her people.
*In vs. 3, the queen said: “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, AND MY PEOPLE at my request.”
*Here Queen Esther reminds me of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:1-3, where he said:
1. I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2. that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
*Then in Romans 10:1, Paul added this: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.”
*William Faye exemplified the urgency we need for others to be saved. It was on a flight just days before 9-11. William struck up a conversation with a flight attendant, and he felt deeply impressed to share Christ with her.
*William is an evangelist, who often witnesses to people, but there was a strong urgency about this lady. William gave her a tract about Cassie Bernall because he had been a chaplain at the Denver Police Department when the Columbine shootings took place, and Cassie’s story was close to his heart.
*The flight attendant quickly responded: “You know this is weird. You are the sixth person to hand me one of these in the last two weeks. Why did you give this to me?”
*That opened the door for William to tell her about the love of Christ, and she committed her life to the Lord. Just days later, she died in one of the hijacked planes on 9/11. (1)
*God wants us to be like William Faye, and Queen Esther and Paul. God wants us to urgently care for the lost and dying people all around us.
-These are the lessons from Esther’s vital request.
2. But also notice the king’s righteous rage.
*We see King Xerxes’ rage in vs. 3-7:
3. Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
4. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss.”
5. Then King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?''
6. And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!'' So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
7. Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.
*In chapter 3, Xerxes was oblivious to the suffering and destruction he had ordered for the Jews. But here it all came crashing in, and Xerxes was overwhelmed with anger:
-Righteous anger that he had been manipulated.
-Righteous anger that his order not only meant the death of his beloved queen, but also the death of Mordecai, the man who had saved Xerxes from death.
*Much of our anger is selfish, petty and uncalled for. But there is a righteous anger, and we see it best in the Lord. Listen to these words from Psalm 2:10-12:
10. Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11. Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
*Psalm 7:11 tells us that “God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.”
*One of the best places to see the Lord’s anger is in Mark 3:1-5, where Jesus:
1. . . entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.
2. And they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
3. Then He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward.''
4. And He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?'' But they kept silent.
5. So when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand.'' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
*1 John 4:8 tells us that “God is love.” -- But the King of Kings also has a holy anger against selfish, hard hearts and all kinds of sin. This is a good lesson for us from the king’s righteous rage.
3. But also notice Haman’s desperate reaction.
*We can see it in vs. 7&8:
7. Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.
8. When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?'' As the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.
*Isaiah 55:6&7 urges us to:
6. Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
*But in Genesis 6:3, the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.”
*There is an invisible line that men cross over, where all hope is gone. It was too late for Haman.
-The queen couldn’t help him.
-The king wouldn’t help him.
-And Haman had no desire to call on the name of the Lord.
*To Haman, the Lord was only the god of the hated Jews. In Psalm 37, King David spoke of men like Haman. Here’s part of what David said:
1. Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb.
3. Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4. Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
12. The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth.
13. The Lord laughs at him, For He sees that his day is coming.
14. The wicked have drawn the sword And have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay those who are of upright conduct.
15. Their sword shall enter their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.
35. I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a native green tree.
36. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; Indeed I sought him, but he could not be found.
37. Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; For the future of that man is peace.
38. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; The future of the wicked shall be cut off.
39. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble.
40. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him.
*This is a good lesson from Haman’s desperate reaction.
4. But also notice Haman’s terrible reaping.
*We can see it in vs. 9&10:
9. Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, "Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king's behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.'' Then the king said, "Hang him on it!''
10. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath subsided.
*How ironic that Haman died on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. You reap what you sow.
*This was one of the things that caught my attention at Leeman Stamper’s funeral. He liked to say: “Sow the things you want to reap, because God guarantees the harvest.”
*This echoes what the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6:7-8:
7. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
8. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
*We reap what we sow. Greg Stuckey explained: “This is a spiritual law, as constant as the Law of Gravity. It is inescapable. Neither individuals nor nations can escape the consequences of their actions.
*We reap what we sow.
-We reap the fruit of what we sow.
-We reap more than what we sow.
-We reap in a different season than we sow.
-And we reap in proportion to what we have sown.” (2)
*Eric Ritz added this insight: “We see this so painfully now in our own culture. Many of our young children belong to the first generation of parents who never went to Sunday School and church. We see the moral confusion and anarchy in the ethical dimensions of everyday living. Americans spend twice as much money on beer as they do on books.”
*And we reap what we sow.
-“Sow a thought, reap an act.
-Sow an act, reap a habit.
-Sow a habit, reap a character.
-Sow a character, reap a destiny.” (3)
*Larry Kalajainen told the story of a country newspaper that ran a series of articles on the value of going to church. One day, the paper got a letter to the editor that said: “Print this if you dare. I have been trying an experiment.
-I have a field of corn which I plowed on Sunday.
-I planted it on Sunday.
-I did all the cultivating on Sunday.
-I gathered the harvest on Sunday, and I hauled it to my barn on Sunday.
*I find that my harvest this October is just as great as any of my neighbors' who went to church on Sunday. So where was God all this time?”
*The editor printed the letter, but added this reply at the bottom: “Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts in October.” (4)
*God is amazingly patient, but He will settle His accounts. We reap what we sow.
CONCLUSION:
*Tonight we have explored more eternal truth from Esther’s trouble. This truth came from:
-Esther’s vital request.
-The king’s righteous rage.
-Haman’s desperate reaction.
-And Haman’s terrible reaping.
*We reap what we sow.
-Let’s ask God to help us bear much more fruit for the Kingdom of God.
1. Be Still America, Amy Bartlett, 2002, p.79 - Source: “In Other Words” - September, 2011 - #1 by Dr. Raymond McHenry - 6130 Barrington - Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net
2. Sermons.logos.com sermon “The Law of Sowing and Reaping” by Greg Stuckey - Hosea 1:2-11, Gal 6:7
3. ChristianGlobe.com sermon “The Second Commandment: WHAT IS YOUR GOLDEN CALF?” by Eric S. Ritz - Exodus 20:1-21
4. Larry R. Kalajainen, “Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time” - CSS Publishing Company, Inc, 1994 - Source: Sermonillustrations.com - 10/17/2004
