And It Just So Happened

The Lord’s Day Evening

November 29, 2009

Esther 4:14

“And It Just So Happened”

The Reverend Mr. Jeremy H. Smith

What are we to think about providence, or as we were reminded this morning, when it comes to the truths taught in Scripture, it’s never enough just to know what to think about it, how are we to live in light of providence? I suspect if we went around the room, many if not all of us would affirm God’s sovereign control over all parts of this world, over all parts of our lives. But how are we to consider that, and how are we to live in light of that? I want to focus our attention tonight on the Word of God, the story of Esther, and we’ll look at Esther chapter 4 - really just the fourteenth verse of Esther chapter 4, as we consider how to live in light of providence. Before we read God’s Word, let’s look to Him in prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. It records events from a long time ago in a place far removed from here, and yet it is so timely. It speaks to us in the twenty first century, even in the West, even in Jackson, Mississippi, but Lord for us to apprehend it, for us to comprehend it, for it to make a difference in our lives, we need the work of Your Spirit. So we ask that You would help us tonight. Help us to hear Your Word and to be changed by it for Christ’s sake. Amen.

As we come to Esther chapter 4 we have stepped into the Persian Empire in the fifth century. That’s maybe in the 470’s BC. We’re in the capitol city, in Susa. A man named King Ahasuerus is on the throne. We know him better perhaps by his Greek name, King Xerxes. And as we come to this fourth chapter, there is much trouble in the empire of Persia – trouble for God’s people. Let’s read God’s Word – Esther chapter 4 and verse 14 – and this is Mordecai speaking to his cousin, now Queen Esther. And he says this:

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Amen. This is God’s very Word.

Esther is a book about God’s providence. It doesn’t mention God by name, but His hand is everywhere in the events that transpire. When we come to the fourth chapter, all that has taken place has led us to this moment. God has been directing, God has been orchestrating, the events that lead up to this chapter. There are three things about providence I want us to see from the story of Esther and particularly from this fourteenth verse of chapter 4.

I Providence.

First is a word or two about the reading of providence. How do we read providence? How do we understand what God is doing in providence? A lot has taken place to bring us here. Back in the first chapter we were told that King Ahasuerus has had a domestic dispute with his queen, Queen Vashti. It has been such a dispute that he has summoned his advisors to find out what he should do in light of her actions. He has summoned her and she has refused to come, and so he brings his political advisors and says, “What shall we do in this circumstance?” And these advisors who have been placed here for the purpose of giving sound counsel have taken it into consideration and said that this act of Vashti is so significant, that not only should the king get rid of her, banish her, be done with her as his wife and as the queen, but in fact a statement should be read in every home in the entire Persian Empire, a statement that suggests, that teaches, that commands, that a husband will be the ruler of his house. They are afraid that Vashti’s example will spread upon the womenfolk in the Persian Empire and will sow seeds of discontent in homes. And so not only is this king to send away Vashti, he is to send around a message that the husband is the head of every household.

And now, sometime later, the king now without a queen is missing her. And so his advisors come to him a second time and say, “Now is the time for a new queen. We’ll need to have a contest though to find this queen. Let’s have a beauty pageant throughout the Persian Empire. Let’s bring together all of the most beautiful women of the empire in order for the king to choose his next queen. And so a young orphan, a Jewish girl, living in Susa, finds herself being brought into this pageant and in so doing she is soon to be the queen. This was an orphan who was living in the capitol of the Persian Empire. Now when we come to this part of Esther, when we come to the entire book of Esther, it follows the return of some of the Jews back to Jerusalem. That edict has already happened under Cyrus some time ago. The events of the opening chapters of Ezra had already happened. He has allowed the Jews, those who wish, to return to the Promised Land. And some in fact have, but for whatever reason, Queen Esther’s family has not. They have chosen to remain behind, have stayed in Persia, and so she is on the streets in Susa when she is found to be a participant in this beauty contest that will lead to her becoming the queen.

Now, even as these events are transpiring, one of her relatives, actually her cousin Mordecai, who himself is a rather insignificant member of the king’s officials, has had a dispute with a prime minister. The prime minister, a man we will come to see as the man Haman, and as a result of that dispute, Haman has come to hate Mordecai. And that hatred has extended not only to Mordecai himself, but to all who would be related to Mordecai, such that he wants to end Mordecai and Mordecai’s immediate family, and even more than that, all who are of the same ethnic origin as Mordecai. The hatred, the animosity between this prime minister and this lowly court official rises to the level that Haman comes to the king, King Ahasuerus, and he says, “King, there is a group of people who live in your empire who are dissidents. They have strange customs and they don’t like to follow the law, the law of the Persian Empire, and so the wise thing for us to do O King, is to rid ourselves of this entire group of people.” King Ahasuerus says, “Fine, whatever you want to do, go ahead and do.” So Haman, under the authority of the king, brings about a law that says – “On such and such a day, all Jews in the Persian Empire will be gathered together to be executed.” It’s genocide on an empire wide level, including all of the Jews who have returned to the Promised Land. Those living back in Jerusalem would be under the ban that has now been passed.

There is this series of events and it just so happens that there was a domestic dispute, and it just so happened that the king had such unwise advisors, and it just so happened that a young attractive Jewish orphan was living in Susa, and it just so happened that her cousin Mordecai would come into conflict with this man Haman, and it just so happened that Haman was prime minister, and on and on and on it went. These events in the providence of God and into that circumstance, if Mordecai speaks his famous words – “and who knows whether you have not come into the kingdom for such a time as this” – but I would put it to you, if you had paused, if you had stopped to contemplate what God was doing at any point prior to this moment, you would have had a very hard time reading providence. What to make of what God is doing in the life of this person or that person, in this circumstance or that person? What went into the decision of Esther’s family to remain in Susa and not return to the Promised Land? Consider that young girl whose parents had been killed, who had died from one cause or another, and she contemplates her own life – “Why am I an orphan? Why are my parents dead? Why am I being kept by my cousin Mordecai? Where is God in the midst of this pagan capitol city where I find myself?”

If you had stopped and asked and tried to understand, to read providence at any point before this statement that Mordecai makes in chapter 4, I suggest to you that it would have been very hard to see exactly what God was doing. Our tendency is to look at each individual event in our own lives and to ask the question, “What is God doing to me in this moment?” and to want an answer. If I happened this morning, I’d like to see that answer on my desk by this afternoon. When in fact, providence is often seen best in its broader strokes. Now that’s not to say that God is unconcerned or uninvolved in the details of our lives. Jesus Himself will say that not a hair falls from our head apart from the will of His Father – a truth that has more and more consequence for my head as the days and the years go by. But even though Jesus may say that each detail of providence is under the care of the heavenly Father, He does not say that each detail of providence will be explained by us or will be discerned by us, will be comprehended by us, especially in the moment. Nowhere are we promised that God will make each detail of His providential ordering of our lives plain to us in the moment. No, often times providence is seen best in its broader strokes.

I think we can say two things about reading providence from the story of Esther. The first is this, that God is often, always, doing bigger things than we can see. Our sight sometimes goes no further than ourselves. We want to know, “What is God doing to me in this particular trial? What is God doing to my family in these particular events, these days and these weeks and these months, what is it that God is doing to me?” When in fact, often, always, God is doing much, much more. And when we define God’s providence, when we limit God’s providence to how His providential ordering is affecting me, we sometimes can miss the bigger picture, the broader strokes, of what God is actually doing. Because here, that little orphan in Susa, will in fact be used by God to be the instrument of His providence, to be the instrument of His redemption, to be the instrument of His protection of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.

II. Our involvement in providence.

God is often, or always, doing bigger things than we can see, but secondly we can see that God’s tendency is to do more and to do better than we can imagine. We wonder, “Why did my car not start on the morning that my boss was making his final decisions about that promotion at work making me late for work and maybe costing me a promotion?” We want to know why that specific event happened to us, when in fact, because God is doing bigger things, God is often doing more glorious things than we could ever possibly imagine. We’re reminded of the disciples. The disciples at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, they’re gathered there with Jesus in Jerusalem, and Jesus has died, has been raised, and has spent some weeks with them and is now about to ascend back into heaven. And at the point His disciples, one of them, asks Him a question – “Jesus, are you now going to establish the kingdom?” Perhaps what they meant was – “Jesus, are you now going to get rid of the Romans and reestablish the nation state of Israel to its prominence in this world?” When in fact, Jesus’ purpose is to invite, to call, to cause, to come, billions and billions from all the nations of this world. That as He has built His kingdom and as He will one day return in the power of His kingdom, in that interim period Jesus’ purpose is to have billions upon billions of men and women and boys and girls come to know something of the grace of God. It’s far grander than His disciples at the outset of the book of Acts could ever have imagined. So it is with God. He is often doing more and His tendency is to do greater than we ever could have imagined.

A couple of words then about reading providence – it’s also a word or two about our involvement in providence. As we come to this chapter there are two dilemmas facing Esther. On the one hand there has been an execution date established. It is some many months off but it is still on the calendar. And Haman, on Haman’s calendar, there are the words – “Kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire” – with that date circled in red. It’s on the Persian official calendar. And here she is the queen, you would think with special access to the king, but in fact things are not what perhaps you would have thought. For there is a barrier between Esther and her husband, the barrier of the law, the law which makes it clear that one may not enter into the presence of the king without being invited. And she had not seen her husband the king in over a month. She seemed to be in this privileged position, and here stands this law. In fact, the assumption is that any who would dare enter into the presence of the king uninvited will die. That’s the default position. And it’s only if the king chooses to extend mercy, to commute the sentence as it were, that the person would have the opportunity to live. To walk into the presence of the king is to walk into your own death.

And Mordecai, Mordecai is clear in this chapter. He says, “Esther, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go into that throne room where the king of the Persian Empire sits and I want you to plead the cause of God’s people. I want you to tell him of this evil that has been perpetrated. I want you to tell him of this law and I want you to tell him of the consequences that will become to the Jews should this law remain.” Esther’s in a tough spot. She’s in a tough spot. She hasn’t seen the king in a month. Mordecai’s logic goes something like this – He says, “Listen, maybe this is why you’ve been made queen. Maybe this is the reason you find yourself in this exalted position. Maybe this is what God is doing, what God has been orchestrating from the beginning. It’s an unexpected opportunity to do a big thing for God, which is frequently the way God invites us to take on big things for Him – completely unexpected.” And frankly we could say it even more, it’s an inconvenient time. Maybe if this had happened a few months ago and she had been enjoying the presence of the king it would have been a little easier. Or maybe if this had happened at the beginning when she had first been named queen and they were enjoying the beginnings of their marriage – perhaps she had more regular access to him, he was in love with her deeply. Maybe that would have been a better time. This is a terribly inconvenient time for her to go and see the king and make this request and it comes at great person risk. She is risking her life to go and make this request. And frankly that’s often how God orders His opportunities for His servants. He places challenges to be faithful to Him at times which are not convenient, which at least carry the possibility of personal risk. But Mordecai’s words to her are clear – “You must, you should go, you must go to the king.”

But he doesn’t say this – He doesn’t say to Esther, “You must go and plead the cause of the Jews because you are our only hope.” That’s not Mordecai’s logic. In a sense, she’s the only one that’s got a chance and yet Mordecai’s not going to tell her, “You are our only hope,” but in fact what we read was, “Esther don’t think of yourself as our only hope.” Mordecai is reminding, actually he is reminding us, that God is in no way dependent upon us and the ordering of His will. God has a plan, God has a will, and in this case Mordecai says, “God was going to save His people, and if it’s not going to be through you, He is going to raise up another deliverer. But God has a plan, God has a will, God has an ordering of how He will cause things to come about. And though perhaps you have been placed in this circumstance for just this time, and although it may require personal cost and it certainly is an inconvenience for you, don’t think of yourself as the only hope for God’s people. God is the only hope for God’s people. He has a plan and He’ll do it. He doesn’t need us.” Mordecai is saying, “He does invite us to participate, though He doesn’t need to, He doesn’t have to, though He’s not dependent upon us, God often does invite us to participate in what He is doing and to be meaningful agents in His work.” Such is the opportunity that stands before Esther in our passage this evening.

I could ask you the question – Where is it that God has placed you? Where is it that God has placed you? It may be that there is a student here and God has placed you in your school and in His providence He has given you favor in the eyes of those who do not know His Son. And there may come a time when He calls upon you to do something that is inconvenient, that may seem risky, that you are called to be faithful to Him. I can remember, I was fifteen years old, I had just started a public high school in Maryland and I was on the football team and we were maybe a month into the season. And we were standing around after practice one afternoon and we were talking I suppose. I had just begun making friends in the school, begun making friends on this team, and one of my teammates turned to me and I don’t know what caused him to ask this question, but he looked at me and he said, “Jeremy, are you a virgin?” I was fifteen years old. The only thought that was going through my mind was, “Jeremy, whatever you say, don’t say yes. Whatever it is that you’re going to say, don’t say yes.” And I was beginning to formulate some kind of answer that was going to be something along the lines of, “It’s none of your business,” but as my mouth began to form those words what came out of my mouth was a sheepish, “yes.” Everything in my mind, everything in my will, was to say “no” or to say something else – to say anything but “yes.” And for whatever reason, my mind and my mouth were not together on that one. And out of my mouth came the word “yes.” And perhaps any good that could have come out of that was undone by the feebleness of the answer. Maybe God’s going to place you in a position where He would call on you to give faithful testimony to service to His Son amongst those whom He has given you favor, and if you are faithful to Him, it sure looks like it is going to cost you. Or perhaps He has placed a trial on you, a trial on you that seems unfair, that He has placed upon you in order for those around you to watch as a mature Christian undergoes the trials of this life. Where is it that God has placed you?

III. The context of providence.

There’s a word or two about our involvement in providence, but finally there’s a word or two about the context of providence. This is a terribly worldly set of circumstances that lead us to the events in the book of Esther. It’s a terribly worldly set of events. I told you that there was a marital dispute between the king and the queen. What actually happened was that the king got drunk and he was there with his buddies at a party and he wanted his buddies to see how pretty his wife was. And so a man who was inebriated said to his inebriated friends, “Hey listen, let me show you how pretty my wife is.” And that’s what caused him to summon her – a request she promptly refused.

And Haman, this epitome of wickedness throughout the book of Esther, he hates Mordecai so much he is willing, not just willing, desires to eliminate an entire ethnic group of people off the face of the earth because he doesn’t like this one fellow Mordecai. Actually, Mordecai to this point doesn’t really glean that much accolades, at least as the story is told. You know what that dispute was between Mordecai and Haman? Haman was the prime minister, he was the number two, he was the king’s second man. And as such, he had a certain amount of honor that was shown to him by others in the kingdom. They bowed to him when he came into the room. It’s not unlike our own president. When the president enters the room, everyone in the room stands up. That’s the honor that Haman was used to receiving. When he entered the room, everyone was to bow; only Mordecai wouldn’t. I don’t think there was anything of a religious stance taken by Mordecai. He just seems plain stubborn. And as a result of his stubbornness and through the wickedness of Haman, the entire people of God are put at risk.

Esther herself is no model of virtue to this point. We suggested that it was a beauty pageant, but it wasn’t just a beauty pageant. Yes all the women, all the beautiful women of the empire were rounded up, and they were rounded up and put together in a harem. And this harem underwent twelve months of beauty treatments, at the end of which each girl was then called into the chamber of the king. And his choice for the next queen of the Persian Empire was based merely on the appearance of the girl and on the performance in the chamber room. And based upon that chamber room performance, Queen Esther was chosen. I would suggest to you that not many of you would hold out Esther, at least in the opening chapters, as a paradigm of virtue. You would not tell your daughters to be like Esther. In the midst of all this worldly set of circumstances, we see the providential hand of God at work.

Two important I think we might say about the context of providence. The first is this – there is no situation too seedy for the rule of God. Sometimes we get this view of God’s holiness that almost leads us to want to shelter God like He were a small child, like there are certain sinfulnesses that happen and that we want to cover His ears or put our hands in front of His eyes so that He will not see. That’s not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is the God who gets His hands dirty in the complicated, twisted, sinful circumstances that we sinners place ourselves in. In fact, there is no situation that is too sinful for God. God is at work, and in His providence, a mighty work, even in the most twisted of human experiences. That’s the first things we might say about the context of providence.

The second is this – Esther’s not disqualified from being a celebrated part of God’s redemptive work by the manner in which she has been made the queen. Esther is not disqualified from being an even celebrated part of God’s protective and redemptive work of His people by the manner in which she has become the queen. You don’t have to go very far in the Bible to realize a truth like that. Go to Jesus’ genealogy and look at the women who make up the ancestors to our Lord and Savior. They are Tamar; there’s Rahab – one a professional prostitute, the other who pretends to be one in order to seduce her father in law. In fact, some of God’s choicest servants have their most grievous sins recorded for us in Scripture. Think of Samson, think of Peter, or even Paul who persecuted the first century church. No, Esther is not disqualified by the manner in which she has been made queen.

What do we do with all of this? What do we do with these words about the reading of providence and our involvement in providence and the context of providence? I’ll close with three thoughts. First, you may yourself this evening find yourself in one of these positions, in one of these positions to which Mordecai might have said to you, “Perhaps this is why God has placed you in this circumstance.” If that is your place tonight, then Esther is a call to you to do what is right.

Second, you might find yourself in one of those situations and that the providence of God seems unknowable, unsearchable, even baffling. To which I would remind you of two truths – one, God is doing more than you could ever imagine and there are no inconsequential actions of providence. God is doing more than you could ever imagine and there are none, there are no events that are inconsequential in the providential ordering of God.

And third, there may be some who have been standing on the sidelines because you believe God couldn’t or wouldn’t ever use you. You may look back on your own lives and say, “God would never, ever use someone like me to do something for Him.” And to you I would say that the story of Esther is a reminder – God uses the most surprising people to carry out His providence. God is at work, sometimes in unseen, sometimes in what seems like unknowable ways, but in every way He is at work doing good for His people and all for His glory.

Let’s pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we do ask that You would give us faith to believe and eyes to see and hearts that long to serve You wherever You have placed us. This we ask for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Would you stand for the benediction? Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

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