Introduction:
A. The story is told about 9 people who were hanging from a rope that came down from a helicopter.
1. The group of 9 people hanging from that rope was made up of 8 men and 1 woman.
2. All 9 people agreed that that one person should get off the rope, because if they didn't, the rope would break and everyone would die.
3. No one volunteered to let go, so finally, the woman gave a very touching speech about how she was willing to give up her life to save the others, because women were used to giving up things for their husbands and children, and were used to not receiving much appreciation in return.
4. Well, when she finished speaking, all the men hanging on the rope were so moved by her speech that they started clapping for her. And she didn’t have to sacrifice herself afterall.
B. Oh, the power of a woman! Those words have become proverbial among us.
1. Occasionally, they’re said forcefully, usually by feminists who embrace the notion of a familiar bumper sticker that brashly announces, “The right man for the job is a woman!”
2. Of course, sometimes that’s true, even though I’m cynical of the put-down attitude behind it.
3. But there are other times “the power of a woman” is said quietly, and with enormous feelings of dignity and respect.
4. And who has not witnessed the power of a woman when a hurting child crawls up into the gentle arms of a mother or grandmother?
5. And who has not witnessed the power of a woman who capably steps into a chaotic setting and brings order and meaning back into the scene.
6. Such powerful women can thrive on challenges, see past the obstacles, and refuse to be intimidated by the odds.
7. I have been blessed in my life by many godly women like that; including my wife, my mother, my mother-in-law, and my grandmothers, just to name a few.
C. But then, there’s “the power of a woman” who finds herself thrust into a threatening situation that has no visible escape route.
1. In the midst of all the uncertainty and danger, the woman both survives and excels.
2. It is as if she were made “for such a time as this!”
3. The woman in the Bible named Esther is that kind of woman.
4. Esther was unwittingly victimized by an unbearable situation, but she stepped up and determined, by God’s grace, to make a difference.
5. In so doing, she saved her nation from extermination by a Hitler type evil man.
6. Now that’s what I call power!
D. It’s that kind of stuff that makes the story of Esther so captivating and inspiring.
1. That’s why I’m excited for us to begin a sermon series today on the story of Esther.
2. I’m calling the series: “Esther – For Such a Time as This!”
3. In addition to the book of Esther found in the Old Testament, I will be using a book from Charles Swindoll’s book series “Great Lives from God’s Word” titled, “Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity.”
4. If you haven’t already fallen in love with Esther and her story, then trust me, you will.
5. As we study the person of Esther, a verse from Proverbs will surely come to mind, again and again, “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.” (Pr. 31:25)
6. That is a beautiful and certainly accurate description of Esther.
E. As so, we’re off on another exciting, and unusual journey into God’s Word.
1. The road will take several surprising twists and turns, but don’t worry, we have not lost our way, rather we are simply following the Leader, who is our God.
2. God often has a way of keeping us wondering at times where we are going and why it seems so confusing on this journey called life.
3. But the good news is this: God knows what He is doing, and even though His way may not be as we expected, it is the only way to go.
4. So as we journey along through Esther, we will clearly see the power and wisdom of an awesome God and the power of a godly woman – what a winning combination! Amen!
I. Gaining a Deeper Understanding of God
A. Sometimes God’s presence is not as intriguing as His absence, and sometimes His voice is not as eloquent as His silence.
1. Who of us has not longed for a word from God, or searched for a glimpse of His power, or yearned for the reassurance of His presence, only to feel that God seemed absent from the moment?
2. In those moments, we may feel abandoned, wondering if God is unconcerned, right?
3. But then later, looking back on the situation, haven’t you then realized just how very present God was all along?
B. Though God may at times seem distant, and though He is invisible to us, He is always present and invincible.
1. This is one of the main lessons of the Book of Esther.
2. Though God is absent by name from the pages of this particular book of Jewish history, God is present in every scene and in the movement of every event, until He ultimately and finally brings everything to a marvelous climax.
3. In the end, God shows Himself to be the Sovereign Lord of His people, the Jews.
C. Before we delve into the story of Esther, I want to help us gain a deeper understanding of God so that we might have the ability to grasp how God works in Esther’s life and in our own lives.
1. To do that, let’s look first at the statement of Paul from Romans 11, that we read as the Scripture Reading: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
2. What do we learn about God from that statement?
3. First, we learn that God has a mind, which Paul describes as “unsearchable judgments.”
a. It defies the human mind to find the depths of the mind of God.
b. We may be able to plumb the depths of another person’s mind, but we cannot begin to scratch the surface of the depth of God’s mind.
c. God told Isaiah the prophet, “My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:9)
d. Paul repeats the words that first fell from the lips of one of Job’s questioners, and later from the prophet Isaiah, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” (Rom. 11:34)
e. And what is the answer to that question? NO ONE!
f. Who has known the mind of God? No one! Who has ever given God counsel? No one!
4. Second, we learn that God has a will.
a. God’s will and God’s ways are inscrutable (which means “not easily understood, mysterious, unfathomable”).
b. Try though we may, we cannot unravel the tapestry of God’s plan, not fully at least.
c. When I think of the power and will of God, I like to think in terms of God’s “sovereign control.”
d. God is in sovereign control, not only in the events of Esther’s day, or the apostle Paul’s day, but in the events of our own day.
e. In the midst of those very circumstances that today have me and you baffled, that have us wondering what we’re going to do, or even how we are going to go on, we can rest assured the God’s power and sovereign control are already at work.
f. Our God never knows frustration.
g. God never has to scratch His head, wondering what in the world He’s going to do next with the nations of the world, or with people like us.
D. So we must never doubt God’s invisible providence.
1. God is with each of us on our own personal pilgrimages.
2. God’s unsearchable mind is working in concert with His unfathomable will to carry things out under His sovereign control.
3. Sometimes we toss around the word “providence,” but do we really understand its’ meaning?
4. The word comes from the Latin – “pro” means “before” or “ahead of time,” and “videre” means “to see,” from which we get our word “video.”
a. Put those meanings together, and you understand that God’s providence means that God “sees ahead of time.”
5. God sees the events of life before they happen.
a. That, of course, is something we can never do.
b. Our hindsight is almost always 20/20, but our foresight is cloudy.
6. We have no clue as to what will happen one minute from now, but that is not the case with God.
7. Our invisible God, in His providence, is continually, constantly, and confidently at work.
E. So what does all of this have to do with the Book of Esther?
1. After all, God is not mentioned once in the Book of Esther.
a. In fact, it is the only book in the 66 books of the Bible where God is not named.
2. No prayer is offered to the name of God.
3. No one in the book says, “God is here! God is in charge. God is working all these things out.”
4. God is absolutely invisible, and yet God is at work.
II. Seeing the Invisible Workings of God
A. In the Book of Esther, we find God’s power and presence at work through the lives of five people that carry out His will.
1. These five people are the main characters of the story.
2. We’re going to see a lot of them, so it’s time we get acquainted with each one.
B. The first character is a king, named Ahasuerus.
1. At the time when Esther’s story begins, Ahasuerus was only in the third year of his 21 year reign (485-465 B.C.)
2. He was a very powerful king, who from the capital of Susa, ruled the vast Persian empire, which stretched from India to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces.
3. There was no more powerful man on earth at that time than the Persian King Ahasuerus.
C. The second significant person in the story is Ahasuerus’ queen, Vashti.
1. Although we don’t know a great deal about Queen Vashti, we do know that she was a strong-minded, independent-thinking woman who was not afraid to go against the wishes of her husband, the king.
2. Ultimately, it is her strong-mindedness that begins the conflict in the story, but we will get to that later.
D. The third character is Haman, a wealthy and influential officer in the court of the king.
1. Haman, in fact, occupied the highest position next to the king.
2. We will soon get well-acquainted with Haman, the deceitful, conceited, and anti-Semitic villain of the story.
E. The fourth person of significance in our story is a man of God named Mordecai, a Jew who was living in Persia.
1. Many years before Esther’s story began, the Jews had a civil war, and the Jewish nation divided into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.
a. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel, and the Southern Kingdom was called Judah.
b. Most of the kings in both kingdoms did not walk with God, but that was especially true of those of the North.
c. Eventually, God judged the people of the Northern Kingdom and allowed the Jews of the Northern Kingdom to be taken into captivity by the Assyrians.
d. More than 100 years later, God brought a similar judgment against the Jews of the Southern Kingdom and allowed the Babylonian Kingdom under King Nebuchadnezzar to take them into captivity.
e. Later, the Babylonian Kingdom fell into the hands of the Medo-Persians.
2. The Book of Esther, then, is a slice of history from the life of the Jews living in exile in Persia.
3. Mordecai was a descendant of some of those exiled Jews.
4. He was a godly man, and his most significant role was his relationship to the fifth, and final character of our story – Esther. Mordecai was Esther’s older cousin who was raising her.
F. Esther is the most important character in this story.
1. Esther is a young Jewish woman.
2. Hadassah is her Jewish name, but she is better known by her Persian name, Esther, which means “star.”
3. This is an appropriate name, since she is truly the star of the show, and the heroine of the story.
4. The immortal, invisible, and all-wise God is certainly working behind the scenes, hidden from human eyes.
a. Only such a gracious and all-knowing God would have His hand on some forgotten orphan, a little girl who had lost her mother and father.
b. Only such Providence would be at work in the life of a lowly Jewish girl living in exile in the great land of Persia, where Ahasuerus ruled in cruel sovereignty, and the self-serving Haman officiated in evil deceptions.
5. Certainly there is a powerful message here for anyone who has ever experienced brokenness, for anyone who has ever been crushed by life, for anyone who has ever felt that his or her past is so discolored, and so disjointed that there is no way in the world God can make reason and meaning out of it.
6. Here was a little girl, Esther, who must have cried her heart out at the death of her parents, who was bereaved and orphaned, and yet who years later would become key to the very survival of her people, the Jews.
7. God and God alone can do such things – God, in fact, does do such things, working silently and invisibly behind the events of our lives.
Conclusion:
A. And so, when we come to the Book of Esther, a book that never mentions God, we see Him all the more profoundly and eloquently portrayed throughout it.
1. God is there in the invisible ink.
2. And that’s just how God works in our lives.
3. I’ve never seen skywriting from God saying, “I’m here, David. You can count on Me!”
4. I’ve never heard an audible voice in the middle of the night reassuring me, “I’m here, My son.”
5. But by faith I see God and, inaudibly, I hear Him on a regular basis, reading Him written in the events of my life and in the lives of others.
6. I see God written into both the crushing blows that drive me to my knees and in the joyous triumphs that send my heart flying high.
7. When I pause long enough to look back, I can clearly see that it is the unsearchable mind, and the unfathomable will, the sovereign control, and the irresistible providence of God at work.
8. Though God is invisible, He remains invincible.
B. So our point in studying the Book of Esther is not to just learn the story of ancient Persian history.
1. The point is that we learn to see the truths communicated in the story of Esther and to be able to relate them to the everyday reality of our lives.
2. Life can be so hard and we all face what seem as insurmountable obstacles, so what should we do?
3. Initially, we need simply to be quiet before the Lord.
a. We need to be very still, and, for a change, just listen for Him.
b. We need to pause and submit ourselves to the God who is God.
c. We need to stop reaching back into our own treasure of security.
d. We need to stop trying to pull the strings ourselves.
e. We need to stop trying to manipulate people and situations.
f. We just need to be quiet and still and wait upon the Lord.
4. Ultimately, we need to be convinced that God can be trusted.
a. The immortal, invisible, all-wise God, who is hidden from our eyes, is at work.
b. We need to learn to say to God convincingly, “I know that you are at work amid the gallows of my life. I cannot change the events, but I know You are there in the midst of them. Rescue me. I come to You through Christ. I come to You alone. I am quiet, and, finally, I am convinced.”
C. Let me end with the remarkable story of the English poet William Cowper (pronounced: Cooper).
1. William Cowper, at the young age of 32, wracked by deep depression and despair, finally decided to end his life.
2. He hired a carriage to take him to the Thames River.
a. The carriage driver, a total stranger, seeing what the desperate young man intended to do, grabbed him and kept him from jumping into the swift current.
3. Back alone in his own home, Cowper took poison.
a. But someone found him in time to provide the necessary antidote.
4. That night he took a knife and fell on it, and would you believe…the blade broke!
5. Early the next morning, he hung himself, but a neighbor, concerned about Cowper, found him and cut him down before he died.
6. Because of the unfathomable, unsearchable, inscrutable power of God, invisible though it was, William Cowper was unable to take matters in his own hands…he couldn’t even take his own life.
7. Suffering from acute depression and mental distress, verging on insanity, Cowper turned increasingly to Christ and Christ alone for consolation.
8. Later, he struck up a friendship with the great John Newton.
9. Thirteen years after his suicide attempts, Cowper himself began writing hymns.
10. Eventually, Cowper and Newton collaborated on a publication called the Olney Hymns in which Newton released his best-loved hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
11. Cowper wrote 67 hymns in that hymnal, including “Oh for a Closer Walk with God”, and “There is a Fountain, Filled with Blood.”
12. But the hymn Cowper wrote that appeared in that hymnal that want us to end with is this familiar one:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sov’reign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
D. We’ll observe all the things mentioned in that song through every twist and turn of Esther’s life.
1. And may God help us to see and trust in His invisible providence in our lives.
a. As God moves in mysterious ways.
b. As the clouds break forth with mercy and blessing on our heads.
c. As we see God’s smiling face and see His purposes ripen.
d. And in the end, of course, God will make all things plain.
2. We can trust in God’s invisible providence in our lives!
Resources:
Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity, by Charles Swindoll, Word Publishing, 1997.
