Preached in Markham Baptist Church, September 2, 2007

There are times in life when God seems distant.  They are often times of trial and difficulty.  God always seems close in the sunshine, but when times are difficult and the future looks bleak, God seems to be nowhere to be found.

So it was with a little bit of interest that I started a study of Esther for our survey today. It is a book in which God seems distant. He is not even mentioned in the book, nor is there any mention of godly things. No mention of the law, of special Jewish feasts, no mention of the beloved temple, no mention of the promised land. At first glance it is a godless book which tells the story of a drunk, a bigot, a beauty queen and a politician. It almost sounds like the beginning of joke. “Have you heard the one about the drunk, the bigot, the beauty queen and the politician?”
 But upon closer examination we see that this book is so much more. Something is happening here that goes beyond the facts. There is a force at work here that goes beyond the plans of kings, the sins of people, the plots made in secret, is beyond despair and dark times.

There is a hand moving, controlling and guiding the events. The hand is in the shadows, hidden, undetected by most people, unrecognized but as you read the story this guiding force, this unseen moving hand is at work! And we have to step back and say, God’s fingerprints are all over this book - He is at work after all.

That is why I read the story with interest, because there are times in life, as I related, when God does not seem to be at work. The world seems to be spinning out of control and evil and darkness seems to be gaining ground bringing discouragement and despair. But the word of God in the book of Esther says “no”. God is active. He is in control and He is working all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

You can write Romans 8:28 across the book of Esther - it’s a picture of that truth.

There are five lessons about God’s activity in the world that this book teaches. 

The story begins with rule of King Xerxes also known as king Ahasuerus. We read in history that Xerxes ruled Persia from 486-465. We learn in verse three of chapter one that in the third year of his reign he throws a huge beer bash, a massive tailgate party, though much classier. He invites representatives from each of the 127 provinces under his rule. Vernon Magee suggests that the king was trying to win their support for a war Xerxes wanted to launch against Greece.

During the party King Xerxes is smashed, plastered and maybe a little bored – after all the party has been going on for more than 180 days – and he orders his queen to come and parade herself in front of the boys. She refuses – causing the Persian men to ask, “Has the king lost control? What if all women defy their husbands?”

Please remember this is a godless kingdom – there are no lessons to be learned here for Christian marriages – except to avoid this kind of behaviour.

At the end of chapter one we see King Xerxes getting rid of his queen.

It’s interesting that a book that pictures God’s hand at work, God’s will moving forward, that it begins with a picture of a king of the greatest kingdom of the time commanding something to be done and he is denied. There is a contrast happening here.

We sometimes think that we are in control of situations, but the book of Esther begins with the greatest king of the age being denied. His will is NOT done.

It’s lesson number one. Our desires, our will is not supreme. Daniel 2:20-21 says, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.”

Our will is not supreme. We like to think it is and when things don’t go our way, boy do we get angry with God. We yell and scream and have our tantrums, “God, this is the way it should be going. This shouldn’t be happening to me, This is what I wanted.” It can be source of great discouragement and despair when we don’t get our own way.

To be sure, we may be able to exercise our will over our kids, our employees, our dog. But it is not supreme – it can be thwarted. Our kids can rebel, our employees can quit, our dog can pretend not to hear us. There is only one will that cannot be thwarted and that is God’s, and the sooner we learn that our will and our desires are not supreme, we take a step closer in Christian maturity. To be able to say not my will but Your will be done is a step closer to spiritual health.

Lesson one, our will is not supreme. 

Between chapter one and chapter 2 there is a passage of 3 years and during this time the history books tell us that King Xerxes does indeed go to war against Greece. He is defeated twice, humiliated by the Greeks’ supreme navy. King Xerxes comes home defeated and deflated.

Seeing that he is in the dumps, the king’s advisors devise a plan – they hold a beauty pageant. They would choose a Miss Babylon, Miss Persia, Miss Palestine, Miss Egypt, Miss Syria. And they would crown one to be the most beautiful of all.

One of the contestants is a woman named Esther. She is an orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai. We learn that he is a good man, an official in the King’s court. She fair and beautiful (Esther 2:7) and both of them are Jews.  Esther wins the pageant – at verse 17 of chapter 2 – obtaining grace and favour of the king.

Now it just so happens that Mordecai overhears a plot to kill the king. He tells Esther and she tells the king and the schemers are put to death.

In chapter 3 we are introduced to the last player in the story – the evil Haman – “boo!” To this day the book of Esther is read in Jewish households during the feast of Purim and every time the name of Haman is spoken, the children are encouraged to “boo!”

But Haman is an awful man. He is power-hungry, has a huge ego and wants everyone to bow down to him. And when Mordecai refuses, he sets out to destroy Mordecai and his people, the Jews.

Being the kings closest advisor he is able to convince the king of doing just that very thing. At verse 13 we read that a decree is sent out saying that 12 months from now every Jew was to be killed and destroyed both young and old, little children and women.

And in chapter 4:3 we are told that “In every province where the king’s command and decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.”   It is a very dark time.

And here is the second lesson to learn about God’s activity in the world and it is that circumstances are not an indication of God’s activity.

At this point in the story all looks lost for the Jews. It’s been decided and the decree has been sent out. The Jews are to be wiped out. All is lost. It’s as good as done. Start building the coffins.

But the story of Esther teaches us that just because the circumstances look bleak doesn’t mean that God has stopped working. What Haman hasn’t taken into account is that God is at work. He doesn’t know that of all the women what could have chosen as queen, the king has chosen a Jew. He doesn’t know that the very man he hates and is seeking to destroy has saved the life of the king.

Haman, even the Jews themselves have failed to take God into account. And we do it all the time too. I do it all the time. I look at the darkness and the difficulty and the trial and think all is lost. This is never going to work. Situations are never going to change

People are never going to change. They’re apathetic today, they’ll be apathetic tomorrow. If they’re indifferent today they will indifferent tomorrow. They revival we pray for will never happen. We’re so materialistic, so caught up with busyness that we have no time for God or to serve God. Everything is bleak and despairing and we fail to take God into account.

Circumstances are not an indication of God’s activity. He is at work regardless of the circumstances. We are simply unable to see it most of the time.

It’s like that poem entitled “Footprints in the Sand”. It speaks of a person reviewing his life and most of the time he is able to see two sets of footprints in the sand, his own and God’s. But during the hard times and the difficult times there is only one set of footprints. And he complains to God, “Where were you God during that hard time?”

And God responds, “Those footprints in the sand are mind, I was carrying you.”

Circumstances are not an indication of God’s activity.

Thank God for those who are able to see God at work during difficult times. You are familiar with Glen and Lucille and their recent struggles with Lucille’s poor health, her muscle failure and weakness. In a recent public email Glen wrote,

Without a doubt, we both undergo our individual trials, frustrations and tears. Time and time and time again we are reminded in the midst of these uncertainties and difficulties that we are not to be anxious, but are to rely on God because He truly cares for each of us. God is in the details of our life. Sometimes friends give us a "long overdue" call because they "felt the urge" to do so; sometimes a card carrying a specific message for the current problem arrives; sometimes a devotional reading provides the exact encouragement needed at that moment; sometimes a "chance” meeting with an old friend provides comfort and re-assurance; sometimes it's a word from a television program or a sermon on DVD that speaks to us. So often, it's memorized scripture verses that remind us that God is in control, has a plan for us, and that as we wait upon Him, we will be renewed, and mount up on wings like eagles, just as Isaiah says. It really happens.”

Those are the words of one in the midst of it.

I give thanks for the two of them, for they constantly remind me that circumstances are not an indication of God’s activity. Just because circumstances look bleak and dark doesn’t mean that God has stopped working. 

At the end of chapter four Mordecai pleads with Esther to do something – she hesitates but he writes to her and says in verse 13 and 14, “If you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

It’s a statement of faith in God’s provision but it also gives us the third lesson about God’s activity and that is – we are instruments through which God acts.

Mordecai says to Esther, “Don’t discount yourself. It is possible that God has placed you there as queen for this very time for this very purpose.”

Often when we think of God acting we think of ourselves as passive observers. So we pray, God convert my sister – bring her to a saving knowledge of yourself in Christ. Well, have you ever thought that God will do that through you?

Or we pray, God comfort so and so and we have this picture of God’s Spirit descending on the person and they all of a sudden feeling warm and fuzzy all over. Have you ever thought that you would be the one through which God brings comfort?

We complain, Why isn’t God working? Why don’t we see God at work, the times seem so bleak. It may be that God’s work isn’t as evident as we’d like because God’s people aren’t listening to him and responding to his Spirit to be instruments of His grace and compassion and presence.

We complain, “Why isn’t this happening in the church – why don’t we have more prayer, more missions, better stewardship, friendlier people, more Sunday School teachers etc.?” Has it every occurred to you that you have come to this church for such a time as this – God has brought you to this place at this moment for a reason – He is looking to work through you!

We are intstruments through which God works. 

Well the story continues with Esther gaining the king’s through a banquet. Haman continues in his hatred toward Mordecai and builds a huge gallows on which to hang him. Then in chapter six we read at verse 1 that “that night the king could not sleep.” He has insomnia.

You can imagine what happens here. The king tosses and turns upon his bed, he can’t sleep and of course when the king can’t sleep neither can anyone else. Around 3 o’clock in the morning he says, “I can’t sleep, why should any one else sleep. Hey guard, go and fetch me my librarian.” And you see the fellow come running into the royal bed chamber of the king - he’s still got his pajamas on. He bows to the king, “Your majesty.”

And the king says, “Read me something.”

“What shall I …?

“I don’t care what, just read me something.”

So you see him - the librarian rushes to the wall, he grabs the first book that comes to hand, he rushes back, opens it up, begins to read half way down the page …

And like we have seen so many times before in this series, God gives the angels a nudge and says, “Watch this.”

Of all the books in the palace library, look at the one he gets. Of all the places he could have begun to read, look where begins to read. He begins to read about a man named Mordecai who saved the king’s life. Mordecai’s great work had not been forgotten, it had been written into the diaries of the king. It had not been forgotten but it had not been rewarded.

This is the fourth lesson we learn about God’s activity. God uses seemingly trivial things to bring about His plans. We see it again and again throughout Scripture.

Way back in the book of Exodus, when Pharoah decided to exterminate the Jews by having every male child killed - all God had to do was to arrange it so that when the princess came down to the river she saw a basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. And the text says, “He was crying and she felt sorry for him.”

That’s all. That’s all God needed - a tear on the cheek of a baby turned the whole course of history forever. Just a tear.

God uses the small things in life to further His plans. We often think what can we do? What can we do to demonstrate God’s presence? What can we do for His kingdom, we are small and insignificant. But when we give ourselves to God He is able to use the little we have and do great things.

My previous church in Acton was on the main street of the town. Right across the street was the flower shop, the dutch shop and the butcher. I would visit these shops once in a while and have a chat with the shopkeepers. I remember when I left that church they had a dinner for me and Janet and they had an open mike. And the butcher was there. He stood up and said how much he appreciated me dropping in and chatting with him. It had meant a great deal to him. He made it sound like I was there very week. But I only remember dropping in a couple of times. He and his family eventually started coming to church, he accepted Christ as Saviour and was baptized. But I remember thinking at the time, how small a thing it was to drop in and talk. How I thought it was a fruitless visit. It was a small thing but God is able to use the small things to show others His presence. I was reminded of all this as I received notice this spring that Al died tragically. But he died a believer in Christ.

God uses seemingly trivial things to bring about His purposes. 

In the final chapters we have the results of God’s workings. Haman is discovered for who he is – a vile man – and he is hanged on the gallows. The Jews are saved and Mordecai is elevated to second in command to the king.

The final lesson we learn from all this is two-fold. The first is that God can be trusted. All things work together for good to those who love Him. It means that ultimately we are safe in God’s hands. Even if we die, we are safe in God’s hand through faith in Jesus Christ.

Will you trust Him? He is at work you know.

There is a song which we sing. The chorus states, “ I shall not be moved, I shall not be shaken.”

Those are brave words and I have found them difficult to sing. I often feel that I am moved, I am shaken by life’s events.

But the truth is God is not moved. He is not shaken. I can’t always sing of my steadfastness in the face of difficulty. But I can sing about the fact that God is a great fortress, His plans are not thwarted, His will is done and His desires are fulfilled.

And the second part of this lesson is that if God can be trusted because He cannot be shaken or moved – His plans will come to be – well, it means that I can cooperate with God with great courage and great confidence. And that means that we can sing that chorus, “I shall not be moved, I shall not be shaken,” not because of something that is in me – but because we are cooperating with the One whose will is supreme, and whose desire will be realized. We do indeed come to a place where we are not shaken, we are not moved by lifes difficulties and the dark times. 

The message of Esther, the message for us today – is that God is active. He is at work. He has not forgotten you, He has not forgotten me, but is calling us to trust Him and to cooperate with Him for the glory of His name. 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - September 2007

[Home] [Coming Up] [Programs] [Sermons] [About Us] [Contact Us]