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For Such a Time as This
Part 7: The Victory Begins
Esther 7:1-10
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - July 1, 2012
BACKGROUND:
*Five hundred years before Christ, Esther the orphan and secret Jew was chosen to be queen of the Persian Empire.
Esther was put there by the invisible Hand of God to help deliver His people from total annihilation.
This destruction was plotted by Prime Minister Haman, because of his pride and his bloodthirsty hatred of the Jews.
*In Chapter 4, the queen was persuaded to risk the death penalty by going before the king to plead for her people.
After 3 days of prayer and fasting, Esther approached King Xerxes in Chapter 5, and he spared her life.
Then she began to carry out a plan to save her people.
The plan involved inviting the king and his prime minister to join the queen at two banquets.
*In Chapter 6, God intervened after the first banquet by keeping the king awake that night.
The restless king called for the royal records to be read to him.
And King Xerxes realized that his life had been saved when Esther’s cousin Mordecai foiled an assassination plot against the king.
*The king also discovered that Mordecai had never been rewarded for his loyalty.
So, the evil Prime Minister, Haman, was forced to honor Mordecai the Jew.
-Mordecai was the man Haman hated with a passion.
-Mordecai was the man Haman planned to hang on a scaffold 75 feet tall.
*By the end of Chapter 6, even Haman’s wife and friends could see that Haman was going to fall.
And it was time for the second banquet.
With this background in mind, let’s read Esther 7:1-10.
INTRODUCTION:
*This is a wonderful story.
It shows us how God so often works behind the scenes in our lives.
And it has so much more to teach us:
-Truth about our purpose in this world.
-Truth about faith, family and fasting.
-Truth about our desperate need for Godly leaders.
-And more.
*As we explore Chapter 7, there are important spiritual comparisons we can make; more eternal truth from Esther’s trouble.
1.
First, in vs. 1-3, please notice Esther’s vital request.
1.
So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther.
2. And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther?
It shall be granted you.
And what is your request, up to half my kingdom?
It shall be done!''
3. Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let MY LIFE be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
[1] “What is your request, Esther?” -- “My life!”
*Esther made the most important request: She pleaded with the king for her life.
*By this point, Esther must have been pretty confident that King Xerxes would grant her request.
Three times he had already promised to give her half of the whole Persian Empire.
But how much more confidence can we have in our King, the King of Kings, who died on the cross to give us life!
*Suffering Job had this confidence in Job 19:25-26.
There he proclaimed:
25.
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth;
26. and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God,
*Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will give eternal life to everyone who receives Him as Savior and Lord.
This involves hearing the Lord, honoring the Lord, and believing in the Father who loved us enough to send His only begotten son into the world.
*The Lord explained it this way in John 5:21-27:
21. "For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
22.
For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
23. that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
24.
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
25.
Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
26.
For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
27. and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
*Esther made the most important request: She pleaded for her life.
[2] But that’s not all, she also pleaded for the life of her people.
*In vs. 3, the queen said: “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, AND MY PEOPLE at my request.”
*Here Queen Esther reminds me of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:1-3, where he said:
1.
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2. that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
*Then in Romans 10:1, Paul added this: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.”
*William Faye exemplified the urgency we need for others to be saved.
It was on a flight just days before 9-11.
William struck up a conversation with a flight attendant, and he felt deeply impressed to share Christ with her.
*William is an evangelist, who often witnesses to people, but there was a strong urgency about this lady.
William gave her a tract about Cassie Bernall because he had been a chaplain at the Denver Police Department when the Columbine shootings took place, and Cassie’s story was close to his heart.
*The flight attendant quickly responded: “You know this is weird.
You are the sixth person to hand me one of these in the last two weeks.
Why did you give this to me?”
*That opened the door for William to tell her about the love of Christ, and she committed her life to the Lord.
Just days later, she died in one of the hijacked planes on 9/11.
(1)
*God wants us to be like William Faye, and Queen Esther and Paul.
God wants us to urgently care for the lost and dying people all around us.
-These are the lessons from Esther’s vital request.
2. But also notice the king’s righteous rage.
*We see King Xerxes’ rage in vs. 3-7:
3. Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
4. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.
Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss.”
5. Then King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?''
6.
And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!''
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
7. Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.
*In chapter 3, Xerxes was oblivious to the suffering and destruction he had ordered for the Jews.
But here it all came crashing in, and Xerxes was overwhelmed with anger:
-Righteous anger that he had been manipulated.
-Righteous anger that his order not only meant the death of his beloved queen, but also the death of Mordecai, the man who had saved Xerxes from death.
*Much of our anger is selfish, petty and uncalled for.
But there is a righteous anger, and we see it best in the Lord.
Listen to these words from Psalm 2:10-12:
10.
Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11.
Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
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