Episode 15 – Esther Part 3
Hi! Welcome to the Proverbs 9:10 Podcast, No Trash, Just Truth. We are your hosts and founders of Proverbs 910, Chris Paxson and Rose Spiller.
We are in the middle of a series called Women in Scripture. In this episode, we are continuing in the book of Esther.
When we left off in the last episode at the end of chapter 4, Esther had called for her cousin, Mordecai, and all her maidservants to fast for 3 days because she had decided to go ahead and approach the king even though he hadn’t called for her. She knew doing this could cost her her life, but she had to try and save her people.
Chapter 4 ends with Esther’s famous line in 4:16, “if I perish, I perish.” Chris, Esther shows a lot of courage. Is there anything you’d be willing to stand against even if you were all alone against everyone around you, and even if it might cost you your life?
Well, Rose, I think about both of us who have kids in the military willing to die for their country. I would hope that I’d be willing to stand alone, and even risk my life, for anyone, and especially for Jesus. I know there’s days when there are certain people I would have trouble laying down my life for.
Hmm. Well I hope I don’t catch you on one of those days if I need you to risk your life for me!
Rose, you know I’d lay down my life for you! I mean, I do love you even more than I love my cats!
Now that’s saying something! (But I’m not sure I really believe you) Anyway, Chris, you and Esther are among a list of people who have stood alone and risked their lives for a cause they believed in. One is the German monk, Martin Luther. During the 1500’s, Martin Luther challenged the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church who believed that the ultimate authority over the things of God was the church.
Luther rightly believed that the Bible was the only authority on God and everything Christian. He knew that, as the Bible says, salvation was only attainable through faith in Jesus Christ, which was not what the church was teaching.
To us, we see Luther’s beliefs and we think of course he’s right about the Bible and salvation! But to the Catholic Church at that time, he was a heretic and an outlaw. He was arrested and put on trial by the Pope and the princes of the country on charges of treason, which was punishable by death.
Luther paved the way for many others to step forward and challenge the corruption that was going on in the Church. You know, Rose, Luther is revered as a hero in the Protestant faith, but the Catholic Church still thinks of him as a heretic and a poison to the Christian faith.
Crazy, isn’t it?! Another example of someone willing to stand alone is Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks is best known as the woman who refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus. Her action is credited for launching the Civil Rights Movement and initiating the Montgomery bus boycott.
Rosa had been the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP since 1943, She knew of the NAACP was challenging the Jim Crow laws, and she fully supported their plans to start a bus boycott in protest. What I find interesting is that Rosa Parks said that she didn’t refuse to give up her seat due to being physically tired. She said, “the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
And we could go on for hours talking about others who willing risked their lives for something they believed in.
We could. And even today, there are many who are doing it. There are countries where Christianity is illegal and having a Bible out in public or preaching about Jesus is punishable by death. Yet despite this, Christianity is growing in these countries thanks to the heroic efforts of some to reach people with the Gospel, even at the cost of their life.
Let’s see how things work out for Esther. As we said, Chapter 4 ends in a cliffhanger. Chapter 5 opens 3 days later after everyone had fasted. Chris, although the text does not say it directly, indirectly we see that everyone was waiting on God. Under Jewish Law, fasting was used to dedicate oneself and a specific situation to God. It would have always been accompanied by prayer. Here is an example of the author purposely leaving out words like, “God” and “prayer.”
Everyone was waiting on God. We see in the book of Isaiah, what happens when we wait on God, Isaiah 40:31 says, “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” This verse doesn’t mean if we just wait, God will give us the answer we want. What is does say is that we gain new strength because when we wait on God, something amazing happens. Our weakness becomes strength.
Not only that, but when we wait on God, we also get a better perspective on our situation. Chris, did you know that Eagles can spot fish in a lake several miles away on a clear day? When Isaiah tells us we will soar like eagles – he is saying that as we wait on the Lord, we are able to better see what we are dealing with.
Isaiah also says that waiting on God renews our strength. This is true for 2 reasons. One, because in the waiting, we build up our energy so that when we finally do deal with what we are waiting on, we will have the strength we need. But it’s also that the very fact that we are waiting on God means that we realize it is God who ultimately fights our battles for us. Knowing this is what will give us strength like we have never known.
Chris, I think an important truth we need to understand, a truth we see clearly in the book of Esther is that when it seems like we are just waiting and nothing is happening, a lot is actually happening! Esther was trusting in this. That’s why after 3 days of fasting and praying she bravely goes before the king, even though she had no reason to expect him to extend his scepter to her, and even though she knew the king wasn’t very gracious with his last queen!
Esther was completely trusting God regardless of the outcome. And just like God turned Xerxes heart towards her when he picked her as queen, He does it again and Xerxes extends his scepter to Esther. He says in Esther 5:3, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”
First crisis averted! Esther doesn’t get axed by the executioner by Xerxes side. In fact, not only does the King extend his scepter to her, he tells her to make any request of him. He will give her whatever she wants up to half his kingdom.
Rose, when King Xerxes said he would give Esther up to half of his kingdom, he didn’t mean that literally. This was a proverbial offer. It is just like when King Herod offered his step daughter up to half his kingdom. It means that he was ready to grant almost any request of hers.
You’re right, Chris. Xerxes wasn’t ready to relinquish half his kingdom to Esther; but he did realize that she took an enormous risk appearing to him when he didn’t summon her. He wanted to let her know that it was all good. She had nothing to fear and could ask him for whatever she wanted.
You would think with that kind of encouragement from the king, it had to be tempting for Esther not to make her request right then and there, but she doesn’t.
No she doesn’t. Instead, she invites the King and Haman, the guy responsible for the edict to annihilate her people, to a banquet.
Rose, we now see what Esther has been doing during her 3 day fast. She was praying and waiting on God, but she wasn’t spending her time crying in bed just waiting for God to fix things. She was proactive. She was preparing a banquet to invite the King to. This is an important point. There is a definite balance between us waiting on God and His timing and being proactive about our situations.
There is. God can certainly miraculously change a situation without us doing anything at all, but usually, He changes our situation through the practical and godly actions we take to help our situation.
Right. So Esther does her part, and trusts God with the rest. Esther shows a real understanding of diplomacy and tact when she invites the king and Haman to a banquet instead of just blurting it out in the throne room. She knows what she was going to ask of the king was a big ask! Not only is she asking for a solution to an irrevocable law, but she was also asking the king to give up the 10,000 Talents that Haman promised him, not to mention the risk of the king losing face with his advisors for acquiescing to his queen.
And don’t forget in order to make her case, Esther was going to have to reveal that she was Jewish. Doing that opened her up to backlash from the King who she had been deceiving about her religion for 5 years. So like you said, she shows wisdom and instead of blurting out her request in the throne room, even when encouraged by the King, she waits. She wanted to win the Xerxes’ confidence in her first, and she also wanted Haman at the banquet so she could expose his wickedness to the king. Sometimes patience and timing is everything!
It is. Which may be why when the king and Haman come to this banquet, and the king again says to Esther, “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted,” she still doesn’t tell him about the edict against the Jews. You would think being encouraged like this twice by the king, it would be the perfect time to tell him, but she puts him off again, instead inviting Xerxes and Haman back the following day for another banquet.
We don’t know why she put him off another day. Maybe she lost her nerve, or maybe she had a deep sense that it wasn’t the right time, but either way, God was in it and was sovereign over it. For whatever reason, Esther made the decision not to tell the king that night, and that is exactly what God wanted and needed her to do as we will see.
Right. After this first banquet, Haman, pretty full of himself, swaggers home. While he is walking, he comes across Mordecai, who again refuses to bow to him. Haman’s good mood is completely ruined and he becomes furious. Rose, why do you think Haman can’t get over Mordecai not bowing to him?
Haman’s biggest problem is that he has the sin of pride. C.S. Lewis said pride can never be satisfied because you only feel good about yourself until one person makes you feel otherwise. Haman was Prime Minister of Persia. He was wealthly, he had a family, and had just come from a banquet as the exclusive guest of the King and Queen. He should have been flying high, but one person refusing to bow to him sends him into a downward spiral.
Haman’s whole world revolved around his fragile ego. When it was stroked by being invited to Queen Esther’s banquet, he was happy, but it only took one person refusing to acknowledge his power, to make him miserable. He self-worth was so shallow, that one thing that didn’t go his way cancelled out all of the good things he had going on in his life. So to try and make himself feel better, he gathers his family and friends around to tell them how great he is to restore his pride.
That’s pretty obnoxious! But what Haman craved most of all was significance. He was just looking for it in all the wrong places. All of us are born with a “God sized hole.” If it is not filled with God, it will be filled with other things: idols, power, addictions, greed, pride, etc. So while it is hard to feel any sympathy for Haman, we need to acknowledge that what we longed most for was not a bad thing.
No it wasn’t’, he just looked in all of the wrong places to find his self worth. After he tells his family and friends how amazing he is, he says in Esther 5:13, “But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” You know, Rose, even if Haman had been successful in his plan and the Jews were exterminated, he still would not have been happy. Something else would have come along to set him off again. This is exactly how it is for us when we try to find our significance in anything other than God.
It is. And we see that Haman’s wife and friends just add to his problem. Instead of giving him any kind of wise counsel, they tell him to build a gallow 50 cubits high, which is 75 feet and impale Mordecai on it!. They wanted Mordecai humiliated as much as possible, and killed in the most agonizing way possible. Instead of trying to talk some sense into Haman, and trying to help him get over himself and his sinful pride, they tell him to feed it by taking personal revenge on Mordecai.
Rose, we see God using everyone’s natural personality to achieve His goal in the book of Esther. Haman’s pride, Mordecai’s stubbornness, Xerxes lust, and Esther’s procrastination. In just chapter 5, we see everyone’s natural inclinations working to fulfill God’s plan.
Exactly. Xerxes lust and attraction to Esther grants her a chance to make her request. Esther puts off her request for another day, Haman’s pride is pricked when he sees Mordecai at the gate and he won’t bow, and Mordecai is stubborn and still refuses to bow even though his life is now on the line.
Even the bad advice Haman’s family and friends give him works right into God’s plan. Everyone is working independently and of their own free will, but without knowing it, they are all working to bring God’s plan to fruition. As we have seen throughout the entire book, ordinary things that, on their own, don’t seem like God has anything to do with, are working together and to fulfill God’s plan in God’s exact timing.
Makes your head hurt, doesn’t it?
It does!
Well then, this part may just blow your mind! Remember back in the beginning of the book, when Mordecai was hanging out at the gate checking up on Esther, and discovered two of the king’s men plotting to kill the king?
Yep. After Esther told the king and gave the credit to Mordecai, he should have been immediately rewarded, but for some reason he never was.
Well, here in chapter 6 we see what that reason was. God’s Hand was all over this. He needed Mordecai not to get rewarded at the time of the incident because God was going to use it to further His plan several years later.
You’re right. Chapter 6 of Esther opens with “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.” This seems like a casual event, and in a way it is. It was not unusual for the king to have his annals read to him to help put him to sleep.
God made the king have insomnia on this exact night, request his chronicles read to him, and for the reader to turn to the exact page that recorded what Mordecai had done for the king. Four to five years have passed! The king only now, on this night, realizes that nothing was done to reward Mordecai for revealing the plot to kill him. Because of the oversight, the king wants to do something big to honor Mordecai.
And just as he usually does, he is looking for someone else to advise him on what to do. He asks who is hanging around the court. When his attendant tells him Haman is, the king orders him brought in.
When Haman comes in, the king asks him, “What shall be done for the man the king delights to honor?"
This is pretty cool what God does here. The king could have asked "what should I do for Mordecai who saved my life years ago? Or even, what would you do for someone you forgot to reward for saving your life? But he doesn’t say anything like this. His question is so vague that Haman has no way of knowing exactly who the king is talking about. Coincidence? Of course not!
Exactly! And we see why God orchestrated it this way. Since the king isn’t specific about who he is talking about, Haman immediately thinks the king is talking about him! His pride is so out of control, he can’t imagine that the king would want to honor anyone else but him. He says in Esther 6:6, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”
And because he thinks it’s him that will be honored, he comes up with this elaborate plan. Esther 6:7 – 9 says, “So he answered the king, for the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him to on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor.”
You can almost imagine Haman all puffed up with pride thinking he is going to be that man that is honored this way.
Yeah, you can.
This next part is one of my favorite parts of the book of Esther… The king tells Haman to "go at once" and do the things you just suggested for Mordecai the Jew. At this point, Haman was probably feeling pretty good about himself. He had Mordecai and the Jews exactly where he wanted them. The whole race would be wiped out in a few months, and he would get personal revenge on Mordecai by impaling him on a 75 ft pole, but now he has to honor Mordecai by doing the very things he came up!
I love the irony God uses here! I would have loved to see Haman’s face when Xerxes ordered him to do this for Mordecai.
Me, too! And disobeying the king wasn’t an option, so Haman does as he’s told, but you can imagine how much he must have hated doing it.
Just in this one chapter of the book of Esther, we see God's providential hand working in the ordinary things to unfold His plan. Everything from the sinful plans made by two men, to the perfect timing of Mordecai overhearing those plans but not ever having been honored for telling the king, to a specific night that king Xerxes could not sleep, to the specific part of the chronicles that were read to him, to a king who cannot make choices for himself many times, to Haman being the first one waiting to see the king, and on and on.
Allistair Begg once said, "The purposes of God are brought about by those whose only view is to fulfill their own purposes". Chris, nothing has ever been, is now, or ever will be out of God's control.
Goldsworthy says in his book,“History is not the story of God's trial of something good that failed, thus requiring Him to come up with some emergency package as an afterthought. Gods ultimate creation plan was not Adam and Eve in Eden, but Christ in the Gospel.”
Well that is a perfect place to end this episode. Thanks for tuning in! Join us for our next episode where we will wrap up the Book of Esther
As always, feel free to leave and feedback, comments or question you may have.
And don’t forget, if you like what you’ve heard, rate and review us on whatever platform you listen on.
You can also check out our website www.proverbs910ministries.com, and like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Have a blessed day!