INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• A saying in Vegas is “MY LIFE IS WRAPPED UP IN THE ROLL OF THE DICE.”
• In Vegas you can beat the odds and win it all with a roll of the dice or you can lose it all in a roll of the dice.
• It seems as (when no one is cheating) that it is all about luck. Many people play the lottery, how do you win the lottery? Most everyone doesn’t. Is winning the lottery about skill? Not really, it is about beating the odds, or as many would put it, you need to be lucky.
• For many, as the famous philosopher Forrest Gump once said, “LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET.”
• Life can seem like a bunch of coincidences, just a bunch of “rolls of the dice.”
• Science or I should say the Religion of Evolution tries without proof to tell us that everything pertaining to the beginning of life and the universe just happened by chance, or by the roll of the dice.
• So it is all luck, and chance or will we discover that God is working behind the scenes to fulfill His grand, saving purpose.
• The book of Esther shows us that God has an upper story and that we in the lower story can affect the fine details of God’s plan, but we cannot thwart God’s ultimate plan.
• In other words, we have free will and God does not circumvent our freewill.
• God desired Adam and Eve to not eat forbidden fruit, they did, God did not stop it, but God had a plan.
• We will see in one part of the message something that happened 550 some years earlier plays a part in the story of Esther.
• One other thing of note about the Book of Esther, God is not mentioned by name (although implied) anywhere in the book of Esther. Interesting that it is in the Bible.
• So the question is this, “is life just a roll of the dice or is there something larger working behind the scenes?”
• Let’s begin by examining one of the main characters in the book of Esther.
• SLIDE #2
SERMON
I. Haman steps up to the table and rolls the dice.
• We are in about the year 480 BC. In 538 the first group of Jews went home to rebuild the temple that was completed in about 516 BC.
• Many Jews up to this point had decided to stay in Persia. The story of Esther takes place in the capital city of Susa where many Jews still lived. There were many Jews scattered throughout the 127 PROVINCES of Persia.
• In the capital city of Susa, there was a man named Haman. Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites.
• Now let’s talk a moment about a roll of the dice.
• Somewhere after 1050 BC, God commanded King Saul to do something.
• He wanted Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. Why?
• The Amalekites not only were persistently wicked, but they were the first people to try to stop Israel from entering the land of Canaan, which meant they were directly opposed to the unfolding of God’s upper story plan.
• God will accomplish his plan, and he wanted Saul to eliminate them completely, but because of Saul’s disobedience, 400 Amalekites survived, and Haman is descended from them, explaining his grudge against the Jews.
• Now if God were making us follow a script, Haman would have never existed because Saul would have wiped out the Amalekites.
• He did not, he disobeyed God and now around 480 BC, some 550 years after Saul’s disobedience we see a descendant from the surviving Amalekites getting in the mix again.
• Now we can see why Haman may have a pre-disposition to not be too fond of the Jews!
• Now Haman who seemed to carry a grudge now was in a very high position in the Persian Empire under Xerxes.
• Haman has been placed in a high position and Haman is a man FULL of pride, he expects everyone to bow down to him.
• SLIDE #3
• Esther 3:2 (NIV) All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
• Esther 3:5 (NIV) When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.
• So what does a man full of himself do? He looks for revenge! Haman has been rolling the dice his whole life and he has beat the house. He should not even have existed since King Saul SHOULD have wiped out ALL the Amalekite over 550 years before.
• So when Haman finds out that Mordecai is a Jew, he decides that killing Mordecai is not enough.
• SLIDE #4
• Esther 3:6 (NIV) Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
• So Haman devises a plan. He gets Xerxes to go along with the plan.
• So lots were cast (like throwing dice) and a date for the plan was established! The Jews were to be killed, it was more or less Jew season in about a year.
• Now God promised the Messiah would come through the line of David, kind of hard to do if everyone is dead. So once again, our freewill seems to have affected God’s plan.
• Had Haman’s ancestors been wiped out as God commanded, there would be no issues now.
• God’s had is still at work to ensure that His will and His Upper Story are carried out!
• SLIDE #5
II. Esther and Mordecai step up to the table and rolls the dice.
• Now let’s get to a couple of the other main players in the story. Esther and Mordecai.
• Esther is a Jewish girl whose parents died and her cousin Mordecai raised.
• Here is what the Bible says about her.
• SLIDE #6
• Esther 2:7 (NIV) Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
• Lovely figure AND beautiful! Not fair!
• Well Esther is going to be a part of a beauty pageant and the winner gets to be queen!
• Xerxes needed a new Queen because his wife Vashti, the queen would not come to the King when he called her. He wanted to show off his wife.
• Now, here is the dice again, or is there something bigger happening? The Queen would still be the Queen if she would have simply did what the King asked her to do and then we have no Esther and all the Jews may have been slaughtered.
• Well Esther, after a yearlong process becomes Queen. Looks like she got lucky! Or was there something bigger going on behind the scenes.
• Esther was not only beautiful but the king’s handler was so smitten by her that she received a lot of special treatment.
• Back to Mordecai. In chapter 4 of Esther, he reads the decree that was sent out concerning Jew season.
• SLIDE #7
• Esther 4:1 (NIV) When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.
• Mordecai convinces Esther to appeal to Xerxes to stop the upcoming genocide of the Jews.
• This move could cost Esther her life, she seems to be a little reluctant to approach the king because doing so without being called by the King could mean death.
• I want you to let Esther 4:14 sink in.
• SLIDE #8
• Esther 4:14 (NIV) For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
• Mordecai says if you are not willing to step up, relief and deliverance will arise from another place.
• In other words, if you will not do it, God will see that someone else does the job.
• Folks, God’s plan will be carried out by someone!
• Also Mordecai points out to Esther that it was not by luck or the throw of the dice that she was Queen. He implied that God placed her there for such a time as this!
• Esther tells Mordecai to have all the Jews fast and she will do the same.
• Esther approached Xerxes, he accepts her presence and offers her up to half his kingdom.
• Esther’s asks for the King and Haman to come to a banquet, her plan is now in full swing!
• SLIDE #9
III. Haman stays at the table too long!
• How do folks end up being big losers in Vegas? Their “luck” runs out? No, they stay at the table too long. This is what happened to Haman in a figurative sense.
• Haman will exposed and executed because of his evil plot to kill the Jews.
• If you read Chapter 20 of the Story you will remember that Mordecai stopped a plot against Xerxes.
• Well one night Xerxes cannot sleep.
• SLIDE #10
• Esther 6:1–3 (NIV) That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. “What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?” the king asked. “Nothing has been done for him,” his attendants answered.
• Xerxes tells Haman he wants to honor a man and Haman thinks that the king has him in mind, not Mordecai.
• Haman thinks he is going to be honored and to his horror the honor that he thought was his, Xerxes made Haman give to Mordecai!
• Haman had to parade Mordecai as a hero through the city!
• At a private dinner arranged by Esther, Haman is exposed as the one who seeks to have all Jews killed on Adar 13th and he is executed on the very gallows he had built to kill Mordecai.
• In a twist of fate, Haman is executed on the very gallows he planned to kill Mordecai!
• SLIDE # 11
IV. Esther and Mordecai walk away winners!
• Xerxes cannot revers the decree, but he allow Mordecai to make a new decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves; and do they ever, they killed over 75,000 attackers throughout Persia, but they did not take any plunder.
• The Jews prevail and the Jews declare Adar 13th (our March 10) as the Feast of Purim, the Festival of the Dice.
• Mordecai is honored by taking Haman’s place as an official in the Empire and beautiful, courageous Esther continues as Queen!
CONCLUSION
• IS life just a roll of the dice, did life itself just happen by accident or luck or chance?
• Proverbs 16:33 tells us that God controls the roll of the dice. God’s name is not mentioned in the Book of Esther, but his behind-the-scene-presence guides all that seems to happen by “coincidence.”
• Colossians 2:16-17 tell us Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all Old Testament feasts, including Purim. We need not be afraid of anything.
• Name your fears…illness, aging, not enough money, loss of job, loss of home, family breakdown, being alone, wayward children, depression, death…whatever.
• Take a courageous stand, like Esther and Mordecai, knowing that life may look sometimes just like the “roll of the dice,” but God is behind the scenes working all things out for the good (Romans 8:28).
