Esther 7:1-10
Victory Over Enemies
Woodlawn Baptist Church
September 19, 2004
Introduction
“In 1567 King Phillip II of Spain appointed the Duke of Alba as governor of the lower part of the nation. The Duke was a bitter enemy of the newly-emerging Protestant Reformation. His rule was called the reign of terror, and his council was called the Bloody Council, because it had ordered the slaughter of so many Protestants. It is reported that one man who was sentenced to die for his biblical faith managed to escape during the dead of winter. As he was being pursued by a lone soldier, the man came to a lake whose ice was thin and cracking. Somehow he managed to get safely across the ice, but as soon as he reached the other side he heard his pursuer screaming. The soldier had fallen through the ice and was about to drown. At the risk of being captured, tortured, and eventually killed – or of being drowned himself – the man went back across the lake and rescued his enemy, because the love of Christ constrained him to do it. He knew he had no other choice if he was to be faithful to His Lord.”
That’s quite a story – could you have been so noble and faithful? A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. "What are you most proud of?" he asked. "Well, " said the man, "I don’t have an enemy in the world." "What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!" said the reporter. "Yep," added the old man, "outlived every last one of them."
Sometimes I think it would be wonderful to live life without any enemies, and then I realize that one day I will! The Bible tells us of that wonderful time when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will sit on the throne in His kingdom and rule and reign with righteousness and peace, and in that day things are going to be different than they are now – but until then we might as well get used to the fact that not all people are going to like us, and in fact, many will even hate us.
As believers in Christ, we all go through a wide range of feeling and emotions when it comes to those who would do us harm or have ill feelings toward us, and nowhere is this wide range better expressed than in the Psalms. There were times when David prayed for his enemies. There were times when he prayed about them; going so far as to ask God to destroy them on occasion. Sometimes as he prayed, David would ask for wisdom and guidance in the face of his enemies, or that God would keep him in the way of righteousness. Sometimes David wondered how long his enemies would have the upper hand; why did he have to suffer when he was in the right? David praised the Lord for victory over them, for his protection from them, for God’s provision when pursued by them. He asked God not to hand him over to them. Sometimes David wondered whether God was using his enemies to punish him for some sin of his, or that God was permitting them to defeat him for some purpose he didn’t understand.
It can be a confusing thing to deal with an enemy. You and I naturally want God to deal with them. We can begin to harbor feelings of hatred and bitterness and anger and can even begin to pray in that state. I have asked God on occasion to remove an enemy from me, and at times I wish the Lord would deal harshly with them as they have with me. Other times I remember what Jesus said about loving our enemies, and then I feel guilty for my anger and hatred. How do you respond in the face of your enemies? Do you know who they are? If I could share with you a plan for how you could be guaranteed victory over your enemies, over those who hate you or use you, and you knew that you were assured that victory, would you try it? Would you implement it in your life? Today I’m going to give you three criteria for victory that are found in the 7th chapter of Esther, and as you write them down ask God to help you be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.
“So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? And it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom. The Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request: For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and queen. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.”
Identify The Real Enemy
Do you know who your enemies are? It would be wonderful if they were always so easy to identify as Haman was to Esther. She had been agonizing for days now over Haman and his wicked plot to kill all the Jews. He loathed her people and wanted them destroyed, and now he sat here in her banquet hall feasting easily at her table not knowing that she was one of those he despised, but she knew.
When you think about your enemies, there are two that really stand out as being your most formidable. First, the Bible identifies Satan as our great enemy. He is the thief of whom Jesus spoke, who “comes not but to steal and to kill and to destroy.” He is our adversary, the devil, who walks about like a roaring lion, “seeking whom he may devour.” He is a liar and a murderer. He is the great deceiver: that wicked one that wants to destroy your life and your testimony. He wants to render you useless in God’s service by whatever means possible, and he is relentless in his pursuit of your heart and mind.
You see, most often we think of our enemies in terms of the people in our lives; people like your parents, your spouses, your children, coworkers or classmates or business partners. Sometimes you may not know them, but very often they are people who know you more than others. Our enemies are usually ordinary people who are mean, impatient, judgmental, self-righteous, and spiteful – or just happen to disagree with us. Sometimes conflicts come into our lives from our friends or our fellow church members. Conflict and opposition can come from a spiteful neighbor, political foe or simply some acquaintance we have that wants to cause trouble.
Here’s a little exercise I want you to do. Write down the name of an enemy you have, or the name of someone who is bringing a great deal of conflict into your life that you’ve been wanting God to deal with, then I want you to listen to the words of Ephesians 6:11-12.
“Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Think about something from this passage - those people we think of as being our enemies aren’t really our enemies at all – they are simply being used as instruments against you. You see, our real enemies aren’t those of flesh and blood. Your parents are not your enemies. Your wife, your husband, your boss: that’s not where the real battle is taking place – it’s a spiritual battle we fight and the real enemy behind those battles is Satan, and the truth of the matter is that the real battle is between God and Satan.
I realize that knowing and acknowledging the spiritual battle that is taking place doesn’t eliminate the fact that there are people in your lives who hate you and want to do you harm, but what I want you to see is that when you consider those people – that hateful family member, that schoolmate or whoever it may be that is giving you grief – remember that there is more at work in the battle than we realize.
While Satan is certainly a formidable enemy, there is another that I want you to identify. This enemy will give you more trouble than any other. He will keep you from enjoying your relationship with God, will keep you in turmoil, will hound you day and night, will fight you every step of your life, will dog you without regard to who you are, what you do, how young or old you are or how spiritually mature you are. You can not escape this enemy, can not avoid him, can not hide from him – for he is you. The truth of the matter is that you are most often your greatest enemy!
Paul said, “O wretched man that I am!” When I want to do good I don’t, and when I don’t want to sin I do! Your enemies will come and go. You may outlive them all, but for all your life you are stuck with you. It is on the battlefield of your heart and mind that you fight your toughest battles. Will I surrender to God or not? Will I obey Him or not? Will I answer His call or not? Will I choose purity or not? Will I forgive or not? Will I love or not? And on and on it goes! Your greatest enemy is you.
Turn Your Enemy Over To The King
Once you identify your enemy, you have a choice to make. I want you to notice that nowhere in this entire book of Esther do we find Esther or Mordecai trying to take issue with Haman. They didn’t plead with him; they didn’t fight him or do anything else. We’re not even told that they spoke to him! They did the only thing that was going to help – they went straight to the top. The choice is simple – will you waste your life, your time fighting your enemies? Or will you turn them over to God and allow Him to work the change that He desires?
Listen, you can waste your life trying to fight your enemies, but its not going to get you where you need to be. Now, let me qualify what I’m saying. First, I’m not talking about national issues. When we talk about national enemies then we get into issues of national safety and security and war. I’m also not advocating remaining silent on issues of doctrine and morality. Let your voice be heard and don’t be afraid to let people know where you stand – but you must do so in a spirit of Godliness!
Esther and Mordecai knew their only real hope for help would be to make an appeal to the king. Esther arranged for these dinners, and in the right time she poured out her heart to him, leaving her fate in his hands. Whatever happened from there happened for good or for bad. All she could do was trust in the goodness of the king.
There are so many things that you and I cannot know when we get into trouble with an enemy. We don’t see the big picture. We don’t know why God has allowed them in our lives. We don’t know what that person is going through or where they’ve come from. All we know is that they have come into our lives and we don’t want them there – but that’s human reasoning and carnal behavior. God alone knows all the answers. God alone sees all the details – so it stands to reason that we ought to allow Him to carry out His will as He desires and to stay out of His way while He’s doing it. Turn your enemies over to God, and then finally…
Do Not Fall Into Sin On Account Of Your Enemy
Let me remind you that the most important priority in your life is your relationship with the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. You cannot be in right fellowship with the Lord when you are filled with anger and malice and bitterness. You cannot on the one hand wish evil or want vengeance on your enemy and claim to be in right relation to the Father. You see, Jesus said to “love your enemies and to pray for those that despitefully use you.” But that’s a command you can only obey when you are in right relation to the Father.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…” Those aren’t exactly the kinds of things we feel when in conflict with someone, but that’s because they are the offspring of true fellowship with God! The moment you begin to seek vengeance or harbor evil in your heart, you have broken fellowship with God and have in essence stated to Him that you are unwilling to turn your enemies over to Him. That’s why it is of utmost importance that you armor up and maintain intimacy with the Lord. The flesh is weak and is all too willing to launch an all out attack on any and everyone that stands in opposition to you.
So no matter who that enemy is – you turn them over to the Lord and pray for His will to be done in their lives. When you turn them over to God, be patient enough to allow God to do what He wants. Remember that justice delayed is not justice denied. Whether you ever see God deal with your enemy is irrelevant. What is important is that once you turn them over to the King you leave them there and allow Him to do what He wants in His perfect timing.
When you seek vengeance, you’ve fallen into sin. When you take justice into your own hands, you’ve fallen into sin. When wrath, or strife, or hatred enter your heart and you begin to camp there, you’ve fallen into trouble that is not easily gotten out of – so be careful that you don’t fall into sin on account of that enemy of yours.
I see so many couples do this. It almost always starts small. She does something he can’t stand, so he does a little something to get back at her. He isn’t what she thought he would be, so she begins to harbor bitterness toward him. Before long the relationship is one of tit for tat, a jousting match fought with words and feelings where there are only losers, and it could all be avoided if either had realized that they were not the real enemy, if they would only turn the matter over to the Lord and choose to walk the high road of obedience to the Scriptures rather than falling into sin themselves.
Conclusion
Don’t kid yourselves into thinking that I’m talking about someone else this morning. I’m talking about you, and whether your enemy is your mother-in-law or your boss or another church member is irrelevant. We must not give place to Satan and allow him to work strife and division not only in our relationships with other people, but with our God. We cannot allow Satan to erect strongholds in our hearts so that we cannot follow God’s command to love others unconditionally.
I don’t know who your enemies are. I do know that the Scriptures teach that the world is going to hate you when you’re really living for Christ. It is the battle between darkness and light, good and evil that has been going on since the beginning of time, a battle that you and I did not choose, but have been thrust in to simply by being born into this world. And while I don’t know who your enemies are or what they may be doing to you, I do know this: you can have victory over those enemies regardless of how difficult the battles are.
Am I saying that God will always put down your enemies? Am I saying today that God will always remove them from your life? Not at all! In fact, your enemies may only grow in their resolve against you, but that has nothing to do with your victory over them. An enemy is only an enemy when you allow him power over your life – and the simplest way to deal with that is to turn them over to a power greater than they are, and even in the midst of your greatest troubles you can enjoy a peace and a calm because you know that it is out of your hands. Psalm 23 says, “He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies!” Now that is victory!
Perhaps today you have been suffering defeat after defeat, setback after setback, and you are down and discouraged, feeling like you’re fighting a loosing battle. That can change for you today. Maybe you feel like you’re in a no-win situation and you have nowhere to turn. You can change that this morning. I want you to notice one last thing that made a world of difference for Esther – it was her special relationship to the king.
There was a time when Esther was unknown to the king, and in that condition she would never have been granted an audience with him, let alone him offer her “even half the kingdom.” It was only because of her relationship to the king that she was allowed to pour out her heart to him and cause him to come to her defense.
Folks, the quickest way to the heart of the King is through a personal relationship with Him, a relationship that can only be entered through the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible teaches that until you enter that relationship you are considered an enemy of God. But God loved you so much that He wasn’t willing to allow you to remain in that condition. He gave up His only begotten Son so you might have life, and so you might enjoy intimacy with him through the shedding of his blood, through the perfect and complete sacrifice He made on your behalf, and all you are required to do to enter that relationship is admit your sin before God, repent of it, and confess Jesus Christ as your one and only Savior.
Foster, Elon. New Cyclopedia of Prose Illustrations: Second Series (T.Y. Crowell: New York) 1877, p. 296, as retold in John MacArthur’s Commentary on the book of Matthew, Volume One, page 346
http://www.christianglobe.com/Illustrations/theDetails.asp?whichOne=e&whichFile=enemies
