Introduction
Video Ill.: The Story of Esther - Second Look Films (segment 3)
We are continuing our study today based loosely on Max Lucado’s book, You Were Made for This Moment.
When we started, we saw that Esther and Mordecai just wanted to blend in — to be cosy in the Persian culture. Don’t stand out. Don’t be different. Just fit in.
But God has called us to be set apart — to be different — to be holy, because He is holy. Sometimes that means we have to make hard decisions in our lives.
Last week, we learned that we have to be prepared to make the tough decisions — we need to have a plan in place before the storm comes. We need God’s full armor to be able to stand firm when we are standing up for God. And maybe, just maybe, God has put us where we are because He has some purpose in mind for us. We were made for just a time as this.
As we begin today, when we think about God, there are many views of God in our world today.
America's Four Gods
Source: Paul Froese and Christopher Bader, America's Four Gods (Oxford, 2010)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2010/december/2121310.html
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According to the authors of the book America's Four Gods, Americans differ widely from one another on two key areas of belief about God: (1) the level of God's engagement in our world, and (2) the extent of God's judgment of evildoers.
In other words, is God actively and meticulously engaged in what happens in your life and in your world? Or is he distant, remote, uncaring? And secondly, does God judge wrongdoers in this life? Does God express wrath toward people and nations in this age? Or is God only kind, forgiving, and helpful to people in need?
Based on those two differences, the authors say that Americans divide into four major understandings of God.
First is the Authoritative God. The Authoritative God is very involved in the world to help people and does judge evildoers in this life. Even so, he is loving, and is seen as a Father figure. The author's research shows that 31 percent of Americans have this understanding of God.
Second is the Benevolent God. The Benevolent God is very involved in this world to help people but does not feel anger toward evildoers and does not judge anyone. Twenty-four percent of Americans have this understanding of God.
Third is the Critical God. The Critical God does not involve himself in the affairs of this world or its people, but he does take careful note of how people live and will judge them in the afterlife, holding them to account for evils done. Sixteen percent of Americans have this understanding of God.
Fourth is the Distant God. The Distant God is more a cosmic force or Higher Power than a person. This God created everything but is no longer engaged with the world and does not judge its inhabitants. Twenty-four percent of Americans have this understanding of God.
Five percent of Americans are atheists.
Concerning agnostics, the authors write: "We find that when pressed, individuals who first describe themselves as 'agnostic' are actually believers in a Distant God. For the most part, agnosticism is a reaction to conventional images of God that strike the believer as mistaken."
I would take that one step further and say that there is another view, which may be entwined and a combination of the first two, but is more like this: God is the creator and sustainer of all the world. In other words, God is actively involved in the world.
How we see God has a huge impact on how we live our lives. It affects our morals, our science, our money and possessions, our culture, and how we see everything in the world.
Scripture teaches us in Hebrews 1:3 that it is God who upholds all things the power of His word.
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. (Hebrews 1, NIV)
God is upholding, as one translation reads, is sustaining, is keeping this world going. God is absolutely involved in this world — by His powerful word.
This is never more evident than in the next part of Esther and Mordecai’s story. God has certainly orchestrated the events in today’s text.
Let’s look at these events a little deeper this morning.
The events
Our story takes us to after when Esther has approached the King. She has already entered his chambers and was given grace and mercy because of his love for her.
Esther has already made her request — a intimate dinner with just the King and Haman.
Haman comes over to the palace for the dinner. All goes well. Everyone has a wonderful time at dinner.
Haman leaves, feeling pretty good about himself. After all, he was the only one that the queen had invited to have dinner with her and the king. He must be in pretty good standing with the king and queen to have been invited for such a dinner.
No one else had been invited.
Just Haman.
The world is a great place. Haman is on his way up in the world. Who knows what could possibly be next for his career and his standing in the kingdom!
On his way home, though, he sees Mordecai. As the video said, his mood darkened.
Haman was angry. Extremely angry.
When he got home, and started to vent to his family, his wife suggested that if he was that upset by Mordecai, why not build some gallows and have Mordecai executed?
Immediately Haman jumped on this plan. It was perfect. He ordered that the construction of the gallows begin immediately. They were to be seven stories tall — high enough that all could see what happens when you disrespect the second in command.
Then, as a matter of fact, he decides to go back to the palace and get permission from the king to have Mordecai executed.
Haman goes, and is hanging around the outside courts of the palace, waiting for the king to get up from bed.
All the while, the king cannot sleep. He is restless in his sleep, so he calls for the royal records to be brought and read to him. Max Lucado makes the comment that not much has changed in 2500 years. Business meeting minutes are about the most boring reading you can have.
It is during this time that the king is reminded of Mordecai’s heroics. He had saved the king, but no one had rewarded Mordecai. Something must be done to correct this wrong.
And who just happens to be there? Haman, waiting outside. What better person than his second in command to determine how to honor someone who has done something great for the king.
Now, as a side note, it is very interesting here that the king now knows that Mordecai is a Jew.
Maybe all that Mordecai had been doing in the street had made its way to the king — the weeping, the wearing of sackcloth, the ashes on Mordecai’s head.
Mordecai had made his statement about the impending annihilation of the Jews.
Despite the death order for the Jews, the king still wanted to honor Mordecai for all that he had done.
And honor was exactly what Mordecai received. A parade through Susa, led by none other than old Haman.
What a twist of fate.
2. Was it coincidence that everything happened in that order?
I think not.
Coincidence or Providence?
Source: G. Peter Fleck in The Blessings of Imperfection. Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 9.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1997/april/3107.html
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[A]s somebody said, ... "Coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous."
Consider, for example, the earth!
Only Earth Has Rainbows
Source: Jon Dykstra, “Only Earth Has Rainbows,” Reformed Perspective Tidbits (3-18-22)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/september/only-earth-has-rainbows.html
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Life on Earth requires a lot of “fine tuning.” Our planet is just the right distance from the Sun to allow freezing and melting, and the planetary axis is tilted just right for us to have seasons. There is a moon for tides to circulate and cleanse shores and oceans, an atmosphere to distribute heat (otherwise the sun-side would cook as the night-side froze), and a magnetic field that contributes to our protection from harmful solar radiation.
That all these needs were met (and many more) is all a big (coincidence) for evolutionists – we just lucked out and got just what we needed.
But we didn’t need rainbows. And yet, as astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez recently noted, we’re on the only planet in the Solar System to get them. What’s needed for a rainbow is:
Suspended water droplets in the atmosphere and the direct sunlight that results from the sun being between the horizon and 42 degrees altitude. This typically occurs just after a thunderstorm has passed and small droplets are still in the atmosphere, and the sky is clearing in front of the sun. Seems like a simple setup. This must be a common phenomenon in the cosmos, right?
But it isn’t so simple. Our moon doesn’t have the atmosphere. Mars doesn’t have the moisture. Venus has too thick an atmosphere and as we head further out, the other planets don’t have liquid water. So, the only planet to have rainbows is the only one with people on it to see them. To evolutionists that’s just one more (coincidence). To God’s people, just another example of his love and care. It’s as if someone has been trying to get our attention with a pretty shiny object spread large across the sky, saying, “Look here. ... This is important!” “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Gen. 9:13).
I really do not believe there are true coincidences. There is a reason and a purpose for everything.
You’ve heard the phrase, “The devil is in the details.” Really, it is God that is in the details.
In the story of Esther, God was orchestrating all of these things. It was God working to bring honor to Mordecai. Was it coincidence that Haman just happened to go back to the palace?
No.
God was behind his decision to go.
Why? So that God could work out His plan.
You see, God had not forgotten His people. Though God is never mentioned by name in the book of Esther, God is most certainly there, moving through every moment, every event, every detail of the story.
God is there, working to bring about the deliverance of His people, even though up to this point, His people had forgotten about Him.
Solomon says in Proverbs 16:
9 In their hearts humans plan their course,? but the Lord establishes their steps.
(Proverbs 16, NIV)
There is no doubt that God was working in the lives of Esther and Mordecai back then.
3. And there’s no doubt that God is still working in our lives today.
You see, God isn’t the critical or distant type.
God isn’t the craftsman who just created the world and set things in motion.
God is involved in His world.
It was God who orchestrated the events in Susa.
It was God who created the world by the power of His word. It is God who continues to sustain this world by the same power of His word!
It was God who saved Noah and his family from complete destruction.
It was God who orchestrated Joseph’s journey to Egypt, whereby he would save his family from famine.
It was God who parted the Red Sea so His people would be saved from slavery.
It was God who parted the Jordan River so that His people would enter into the Promised Land.
It was God who sent Jesus at the right time so we could receive salvation.
It was God who moved in the lives of the apostles and established the church during the times of the Roman Empire so it could flourish and spread around the known world.
It is God who is working in our lives each and every day.
When God’s Hand Is Invisible
Source: Sandra McCracken, “When God’s Hand Is Invisible,” CT Magazine (April, 2021), p. 24
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2021/may/when-gods-hand-is-invisible.html
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Sandra McCracken writes in Christianity Today magazine:
A few years ago, I sat on the front porch of an old farmhouse in Vermont … with two friends. Above us, at the corner of the house, hung a hummingbird feeder. Tiny winged visitors stopped by intermittently to eavesdrop while sipping nectar from the glass globe.
Hummingbird wings move at about 50 beats per second. But when they (hover), hummingbirds can appear completely motionless. A miracle of fitness and form, God made these creatures to be a delicate display of paradox: They are still and active at the same time.
These birds are a moving metaphor for the kind of trust that God outlines in Isaiah 30:15: “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence” (CSB). When I think of God’s grace at play in my own life, my most successful moments happen when I hold steady at the center. Confidence is not found in productivity, but in quietness of heart.
Our plans are not like his plans. As the hummingbird moves, his wings are invisible to us. So too the work of God is often hard to see in the moment, but nevertheless something remarkable is happening. This is what the Lord says: “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it?” (Isa. 43:19).
Never take for granted what God is doing in our lives.
We often have trouble seeing it, understanding it, knowing it, but God is there. He is moving, working, and orchestrating the events of this world.
Lucado, Max. You Were Made for This Moment Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video (p. 43). HarperChristian Resources. Kindle Edition.
Max Lucado writes, “Always assume that God is at work. Move forward as if He is moving forward!”
Do not get stuck wondering if God is there. Put our faith and trust in His promises.
Conclusion
Lucado, Max. You Were Made for This Moment Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video (p. 51). HarperChristian Resources. Kindle Edition.
The events leading to Mordecai’s recognition by the king could only have been orchestrated by God. Everyone had to be in the right place at the right time for such a reversal of fates to occur — for Haman, who wanted to execute Mordecai, to end up planning a parade for him instead. It’s easy to recognize the hand of God in stories like this. But it’s harder to recognize the hand of God in our own lives, especially when heartbreak, tragedy, and confusion seem to be around every corner. We may wonder if God is really in the details — or is it the devil after all.
Take hope to know that God really is involved.
Have you wondered why God is involved? Why would He want to be involved in our world, in our lives? Because God loves us and wants the very best for us.
I love the way the contemporary Christian group Unspoken says it in their song Reason. Listen to the words of this powerful song.
Video Ill.: Reason by Unspoken
Take hope in God’s word:
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29, NLT)
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. 29 For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8, NIV)
This morning, if you are discouraged by the events going on in your life, try to look toward Heaven — remember that God loves you! Just because you can’t see God working, doesn’t mean that God isn’t there.
Seeing the Fish Jump
Source: Jill Briscoe, "In the Father's Arms," Preaching Today, Tape No. 141.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1998/october/5399.html
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Jill Briscoe, for Preaching Today, wrote:
I remember a time when I was waiting for soon to become now. I went down to a little lake where we live, and I sat there very early in the morning praying, pleading with God that my soon would become now. "God, I cannot see you working. What about all these prayers that people are praying? This is a terrible situation. What are you doing about it?"
God said to me, "Any fish in that lake?"
I looked at the lake, which was like glass, and I said, "Sure. Of course there are fish there."
"How do you know? Do you have to see fish jump to believe they're there, Jill?"
I remember sitting there for a long time until I could say to God, "If I never see a fish jump, I will believe they're there and active. If I never see you answer a prayer, I will believe."
If you too are waiting for soon to become now, I promise you that God is working through all situations in our lives. We may not be able to see it today, tomorrow, or in the future. But He still loves you and me. That never changes.
God Amidst the Ruins
Source: Eric Liddell in Disciplines of the Christian Life. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 9.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2006/april/239.html
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Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. Our broken lives are not lost or useless. God's love is still working. He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out his wonderful plan of love.
Heaven, this morning, is in motion. The gears are turning. The wheels are moving. God is in control.
So why not this morning, give your worries, your struggles, your challenges to Him. Let Him have complete control over your life. Surrender to the one who sustains all of life just by the power of His word — love.
