In his autobiography 'Out of the Black Shadows', the Zimbabwean Stephen Lungu tells the story of how he came from being a gang member to being a Christian. The book contains the amazing account of how he met his wife.
One day when Stephen was praying he had what he describes as a sort of waking vision. In this vision he saw a young woman seated before him, dressed in a loose blue outfit and holding a Bible. The Bible happened to be upside down yet in the vision he could see what page it was opened at—Acts 26. This was hugely significant for Stephen as the Lord had used Acts 26 previously in his life. This vision came to him two more times over the following two years and he occasionally thought about it and wondered what it meant.
When he was visiting another part of the country a friend mischievously suggested that he must meet a girl called Rachel. A few days later he was speaking at a youth meeting. After he had preached he was talking to a man who was asking him questions about faith. Stephen’s eye was caught by the person seated just behind the man—a girl in a loose blue outfit, holding a Bible, which happened to be upside-down and open at Acts 26.
The next day he decided to visit the man he had been talking with. When he arrived the houseboy told him that he was out. Seeing Stephen’s disappointment the houseboy invited him in and told him to wait a moment. Then a young woman appeared. Stephen could not believe his eyes. It was the young woman from the vision again, the man’s sister, Rachel.
Do you think that Stephen Lungu thinks those events were simply a strange set of coincidences? Of course not! He recognises that these were the actions of God. Similarly as we read the book of Esther we are to see not a series of coincidences ordering events but the invisible hand of Almighty God. While God may not be mentioned in this book he is working behind the scenes bringing about the rescue of his people.
Collision course established (Chapter 5)
On the third day of fasting Esther dressed herself in her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king. When Xerxes saw Esther he was pleased with her and he held out to her his golden sceptre that she might live. Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even to half my kingdom, it will be given you.” Xerxes would have known that only some weighty issue would have prompted her to risk her life and appear before him uninvited.
Esther doesn’t plead for her people straight away. Instead she invites Xerxes, together with Haman, to come to a banquet that she has prepared. She has a plan for how she will address the issue. We may assume that as she had fasted and prayed she had earnestly sought God’s guidance and figured out what to do. As we will see Esther’s prayer-based plan works out perfectly.
In the second part of chapter 5 the spotlight is on Haman. He thinks that he is having an excellent day. He went from the palace happy and in high spirits. However, at the king’s gate Mordecai neither rose for him nor showed fear in his presence. Haman was filled with rage but restrained himself and went home.
At home Haman called together his friends and his wife, Zeresh. He boasted to them of his wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honoured him and how he had been elevated above the other nobles and officials. “And that is not all,” Haman added, “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow.”
Haman is a man devoid of humility. Boasting about ourselves might impress others but it displeases God. Boasting denies our dependence upon God, it lacks love towards people—competitively measuring ourselves against them, it is entirely selfish and it lowers others to elevate ourselves. What a contrast such boasting is to the Christ-like attitude to which Christians are called: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3).
There is a fly in the ointment as far as Haman is concerned. He tells his friends “. . . But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see the Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” Haman has already secured the edict for the annihilation of the Jews yet he can not wait that long for Mordecai’s death. He won’t be satisfied until Mordecai is dealt with. So his wife and his friends advise him to have a massive gallows built, —three times the normal height. Haman should ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, and all will see his end, then he will be able to go with the king to the dinner and be happy. Haman was not familiar with the Scriptures but he could have done with the warning that is found in Proverbs, ‘pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’ (Proverbs 16:18). While God remains in control over what will happen to his people he also remains in control over what will happen to those who oppose his people.
Seeming coincidences, perfect timing and an irresistible force (chapter 6)
At the beginning of chapter 6 Xerxes can’t sleep! So he asks for the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. In this book it was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who had guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. King Xerxes asks what was done to honour Mordecai for this—at the time it had been overlooked. Are we supposed to think that it was a coincidence the king could not sleep that night? Was it a coincidence that Xerxes decided to have the chronicles of his reign read, and that Mordecai’s actions to save the king were contained in the portion recounted? Was it a coincidence that Mordecai hadn’t been honoured at the time so that Xerxes now wished to honour him? Was it a coincidence that all this happened just before Haman is planning to ask for Mordecai’s execution? Of course not! Here is the unseen God directing events!
At just that time Haman entered the outer court. Haman has arrived to request that Mordecai would be hanged. Xerxes gave instructions for him to be brought into the inner court, and asks him “What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?”
Thinking that the king would surely want to honour no-one more than him Haman does not hold back in his recommendations. How sickened he will be when he sees the honour that he is setting up for Mordecai. Xerxes tells Haman to get the robe and horse and do as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew. Mordecai is paraded through the city by Haman and then returns to the king’s gate. Haman then rushes home with his head covered, in grief.
Haman tells Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that happened to him. Notice that their advice lacks the confidence that it had at the end of chapter 5. “Since Mordecai, before who your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!” They can see the writing on the wall. They realise that Haman is fighting against more than Mordecai. They are beginning to recognise the irresistible power that was protecting the Jews. One preacher says, ‘Ultimately you cannot stand against God’s people . . . If you stand against the church of God, ultimately you will come worst off. People may mock, insult, torture and even kill followers of Christ but one day there will be a reckoning. A day of justice . . . On that day what will happen to you? Where will you have aligned yourself? With Christ and his people or against them?’ (Lee McMunn)
The ultimate poetic justice (chapter 7)
While Haman’s nearest relatives and advisors were still talking to him, the king’s eunuchs arrived in a hurry to escort him to the banquet Esther had prepared.
There, in chapter 7, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”
Now is the time for Esther to bring the case of her people before the king: “If I have favour with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”
King Xerxes demands to know who would have dared to do such a thing. Esther informs him that “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.”
In a rage the king leaves for the palace garden. Haman realises that the king has already decided his fate. He reckons that Esther is his only hope. Now the man whose plot began with a Jew who refused to bow to him is bowing before a Jewess. There is no evidence of regret or repentance on Haman’s part, it is not as if he has had a change of heart, he is simply motivated by fear!
Persian court etiquette demanded that a discrete distance be kept between any man and the king’s wife. However as the king returns he find Haman falling on the couch where Esther is reclining. He thinks that Haman is assaulting her. Things could not be going worse for Haman. Haman’s face is covered—it was customary to cover the head of a condemned prisoner.
Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, points out that Haman has a gallows outside his house which was built to hang Mordecai. In effect this introduces a second charge against Haman, his attempt to kill the king’s benefactor. In an act of perfect poetic justice, Haman is hanged from the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.
Think of Haman’s day! It began well. He seemed to in an honoured position invited with the king to Esther’s banquet. It ended with him hanging from the gallows. What if our day was to turn out like his? The Bible says that if we have not enthroned Christ as our king then we are hostile towards God (Rom. 8:7). You may like some people who are Christians but you are actually opposed to what they are. Without Jesus we stand condemned before his Father. What if the Lord was to return today and we had not availed of God’s mercy? What if we were to die today and our opportunity to turn back to God were now over? Like Haman, all that would be in front of us is a dreadful judgement! We would face what our sin deserves. Be warned! Hell awaits those without Christ!
Conclusion
At the time of Esther God’s people were surrounded by cultures with a strong belief in fate, chance and astrology. Yet this book teaches that our lives are actually in the hands of Almighty God. Our lives are in the hands of almighty God. In these chapters we see evidence of his working in seeming coincidences, perfect timing and an irresistible force.
To what end is God’s invisible hand working? He is in the process of bringing deliverance for his people and judgement to those who oppose them. The same is true in all of history. His hand was at work preserving this people from whom the Messiah would come. He orchestrated events so that Jesus would be crucified at just the right time to save his people from our sin. And one day Christ will return to vindicate his own people and punish those who refused to acknowledge him as their Lord. So turn to Christ while you have time and live in Christ with the joy that his hidden hand is working all things for the good of those who love him!
One day when Stephen was praying he had what he describes as a sort of waking vision. In this vision he saw a young woman seated before him, dressed in a loose blue outfit and holding a Bible. The Bible happened to be upside down yet in the vision he could see what page it was opened at—Acts 26. This was hugely significant for Stephen as the Lord had used Acts 26 previously in his life. This vision came to him two more times over the following two years and he occasionally thought about it and wondered what it meant.
When he was visiting another part of the country a friend mischievously suggested that he must meet a girl called Rachel. A few days later he was speaking at a youth meeting. After he had preached he was talking to a man who was asking him questions about faith. Stephen’s eye was caught by the person seated just behind the man—a girl in a loose blue outfit, holding a Bible, which happened to be upside-down and open at Acts 26.
The next day he decided to visit the man he had been talking with. When he arrived the houseboy told him that he was out. Seeing Stephen’s disappointment the houseboy invited him in and told him to wait a moment. Then a young woman appeared. Stephen could not believe his eyes. It was the young woman from the vision again, the man’s sister, Rachel.
Do you think that Stephen Lungu thinks those events were simply a strange set of coincidences? Of course not! He recognises that these were the actions of God. Similarly as we read the book of Esther we are to see not a series of coincidences ordering events but the invisible hand of Almighty God. While God may not be mentioned in this book he is working behind the scenes bringing about the rescue of his people.
Collision course established (Chapter 5)
On the third day of fasting Esther dressed herself in her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king. When Xerxes saw Esther he was pleased with her and he held out to her his golden sceptre that she might live. Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even to half my kingdom, it will be given you.” Xerxes would have known that only some weighty issue would have prompted her to risk her life and appear before him uninvited.
Esther doesn’t plead for her people straight away. Instead she invites Xerxes, together with Haman, to come to a banquet that she has prepared. She has a plan for how she will address the issue. We may assume that as she had fasted and prayed she had earnestly sought God’s guidance and figured out what to do. As we will see Esther’s prayer-based plan works out perfectly.
In the second part of chapter 5 the spotlight is on Haman. He thinks that he is having an excellent day. He went from the palace happy and in high spirits. However, at the king’s gate Mordecai neither rose for him nor showed fear in his presence. Haman was filled with rage but restrained himself and went home.
At home Haman called together his friends and his wife, Zeresh. He boasted to them of his wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honoured him and how he had been elevated above the other nobles and officials. “And that is not all,” Haman added, “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow.”
Haman is a man devoid of humility. Boasting about ourselves might impress others but it displeases God. Boasting denies our dependence upon God, it lacks love towards people—competitively measuring ourselves against them, it is entirely selfish and it lowers others to elevate ourselves. What a contrast such boasting is to the Christ-like attitude to which Christians are called: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3).
There is a fly in the ointment as far as Haman is concerned. He tells his friends “. . . But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see the Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” Haman has already secured the edict for the annihilation of the Jews yet he can not wait that long for Mordecai’s death. He won’t be satisfied until Mordecai is dealt with. So his wife and his friends advise him to have a massive gallows built, —three times the normal height. Haman should ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, and all will see his end, then he will be able to go with the king to the dinner and be happy. Haman was not familiar with the Scriptures but he could have done with the warning that is found in Proverbs, ‘pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’ (Proverbs 16:18). While God remains in control over what will happen to his people he also remains in control over what will happen to those who oppose his people.
Seeming coincidences, perfect timing and an irresistible force (chapter 6)
At the beginning of chapter 6 Xerxes can’t sleep! So he asks for the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. In this book it was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who had guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. King Xerxes asks what was done to honour Mordecai for this—at the time it had been overlooked. Are we supposed to think that it was a coincidence the king could not sleep that night? Was it a coincidence that Xerxes decided to have the chronicles of his reign read, and that Mordecai’s actions to save the king were contained in the portion recounted? Was it a coincidence that Mordecai hadn’t been honoured at the time so that Xerxes now wished to honour him? Was it a coincidence that all this happened just before Haman is planning to ask for Mordecai’s execution? Of course not! Here is the unseen God directing events!
At just that time Haman entered the outer court. Haman has arrived to request that Mordecai would be hanged. Xerxes gave instructions for him to be brought into the inner court, and asks him “What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?”
Thinking that the king would surely want to honour no-one more than him Haman does not hold back in his recommendations. How sickened he will be when he sees the honour that he is setting up for Mordecai. Xerxes tells Haman to get the robe and horse and do as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew. Mordecai is paraded through the city by Haman and then returns to the king’s gate. Haman then rushes home with his head covered, in grief.
Haman tells Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that happened to him. Notice that their advice lacks the confidence that it had at the end of chapter 5. “Since Mordecai, before who your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!” They can see the writing on the wall. They realise that Haman is fighting against more than Mordecai. They are beginning to recognise the irresistible power that was protecting the Jews. One preacher says, ‘Ultimately you cannot stand against God’s people . . . If you stand against the church of God, ultimately you will come worst off. People may mock, insult, torture and even kill followers of Christ but one day there will be a reckoning. A day of justice . . . On that day what will happen to you? Where will you have aligned yourself? With Christ and his people or against them?’ (Lee McMunn)
The ultimate poetic justice (chapter 7)
While Haman’s nearest relatives and advisors were still talking to him, the king’s eunuchs arrived in a hurry to escort him to the banquet Esther had prepared.
There, in chapter 7, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”
Now is the time for Esther to bring the case of her people before the king: “If I have favour with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”
King Xerxes demands to know who would have dared to do such a thing. Esther informs him that “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.”
In a rage the king leaves for the palace garden. Haman realises that the king has already decided his fate. He reckons that Esther is his only hope. Now the man whose plot began with a Jew who refused to bow to him is bowing before a Jewess. There is no evidence of regret or repentance on Haman’s part, it is not as if he has had a change of heart, he is simply motivated by fear!
Persian court etiquette demanded that a discrete distance be kept between any man and the king’s wife. However as the king returns he find Haman falling on the couch where Esther is reclining. He thinks that Haman is assaulting her. Things could not be going worse for Haman. Haman’s face is covered—it was customary to cover the head of a condemned prisoner.
Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, points out that Haman has a gallows outside his house which was built to hang Mordecai. In effect this introduces a second charge against Haman, his attempt to kill the king’s benefactor. In an act of perfect poetic justice, Haman is hanged from the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.
Think of Haman’s day! It began well. He seemed to in an honoured position invited with the king to Esther’s banquet. It ended with him hanging from the gallows. What if our day was to turn out like his? The Bible says that if we have not enthroned Christ as our king then we are hostile towards God (Rom. 8:7). You may like some people who are Christians but you are actually opposed to what they are. Without Jesus we stand condemned before his Father. What if the Lord was to return today and we had not availed of God’s mercy? What if we were to die today and our opportunity to turn back to God were now over? Like Haman, all that would be in front of us is a dreadful judgement! We would face what our sin deserves. Be warned! Hell awaits those without Christ!
Conclusion
At the time of Esther God’s people were surrounded by cultures with a strong belief in fate, chance and astrology. Yet this book teaches that our lives are actually in the hands of Almighty God. Our lives are in the hands of almighty God. In these chapters we see evidence of his working in seeming coincidences, perfect timing and an irresistible force.
To what end is God’s invisible hand working? He is in the process of bringing deliverance for his people and judgement to those who oppose them. The same is true in all of history. His hand was at work preserving this people from whom the Messiah would come. He orchestrated events so that Jesus would be crucified at just the right time to save his people from our sin. And one day Christ will return to vindicate his own people and punish those who refused to acknowledge him as their Lord. So turn to Christ while you have time and live in Christ with the joy that his hidden hand is working all things for the good of those who love him!
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