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If God Is For Us
These are the words of a Jewish man to a young Jewish girl that set the stage for God’s glorious delivery of His people.
The Book of Esther begins with a banquet given by King Xerxes.
The events of the banquet led to the king’s disapproval of the queen.
This event is vital in understanding the book as a whole.
The anger Xerxes exhibits toward Vashti, and her subsequent departure, sets the stage for Esther to come forth and deliver her people.
The
And so it seems, trouble is the common lot of humanity.
We see it everyday in the news.
It reminds me of one actress who was having a very hard year.
In one day she found out she was losing her television show and that her her husband was leaving her.
She responded, “I know the Lord won’t send me more trouble than I have strength to bear, but I do wish He didn’t have quite such a good opinion of me.”
Can you relate?
How do we respond to trouble?
There are those who deny that life has difficulties and that the answer is:
You can’t have a negative confession.”
Others are aware of life’s problems, but say — There is no answer, no deliverance.
What do we do in times of trouble?
Is there deliverance?
Who should we look to?
Scripture has an answer!
And Paul explains how this works.
Romans 8:
And then Paul masterfully draws out the answer beginning with this question:
What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?
And what’s the answer?
Absolutely nothing and no one!
The book of Esther illustrates just this.
But it does so in a very human way.
What I mean by that is that the book of Esther is conspicuously absent of God by name, but you can see God’s providentially working as the events reveal someone greater than all of us.
This speaks to us today.
It speaks to you wherever you’re at in life and whatever you’re going through.
It may look like God is absent, but God is not absent.
He is near, very near.
And dear Christian, He is for you.
Through all the events and unlikely circumstances of life, God’s providence proceeds.
Let’s see how God is For Us by investigating the Story of Esther.
We want to do so by looking at first, the Plot, then the Characters, and then finally, Lessons we can learn from this amazing story.
I.
The Plot
I’m assuming you have read the book recently or at least sometime before and that you know the basic story of Esther.
So, we will not consider each and every event, but focus on the main storyline and the main events that push story along.
The book of Esther begins with a banquet given by King Ahasuerus, king of Persia.
Ahasuerus is also known as Xerxes.
Ahasuerus reigned from 486B.C. to 465 B.C.
The events of the baquet led to the king’s disapproval of the queen, Queen Vashti, as she refused to come into his presence at his request.
This event is vital in understanding the book as a whole.
The anger the king exhibts toward Vashti, and her susequent departure, sets the stage for Esther to come forth and deliver her people.
I’m assuming you have read the book recently or at least sometime before and that you know the basic story of Esther.
Esther becomes Queen
As a good Mespotamian despot, the king exercises his right to divorce her and depose her as queen.
So, he then looks for another queen, and by royal decree, the search for a qualified queen begins.
And in chapter 2, Esther the woman after whom this book is among those picked as candidates and all are prepared for the king to choose one.
We are told in chapter 2:17:
Esther is then, chosen to be queen.
But there’s a big secret.
Esther is a Jew!
Esther is now the queen.
But there’s a big secret.
Esther is a Jew! Esther does not reveal her ethnic background or birthplace, as Mordecai directed her.
Mordecai is Esther’s uncle and guardian, since her parents died.
An interesting event then takes place.
The Assissination Plot to kill the king
An interesting event then takes place.
Mordecai, as he sits at the King’s Gate, overhears two eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, “became infuriated and tried to assissinate King Ahasuerus.”
Mordecai reports the plot to Esther who tells the king.
The report is investigated and verified, and both men were hanged.
Chapter 2 ends with — “This event was recorded in the court records of daily events in the king’s presence.”
Keep this in mind because it becomes important as the plot moves along.
Haman comes to power
Chapter 3 begins with another important event.
The rise of Haman to power fits into the storyline of Esther because Haman is the great antagonist.
He hates the Jews, and we’ll see why later.
But it really comes to a head when Mordecai refused to bow to Haman.
The king cannot be let off the hook since he is also to blame for the events that unfold because he gave Haman his signet ring of authority and the power of the entire kingdom.
The king commanded the people to honor Haman.
Mordecai’s refusal is what gets the Jewish people into this mess.
Who will save them?
Haman sends out a document.
The Jews will be destroyed, killed, annihilated — young and old, women and children and their possessions plundered on the the 13th day of Adar, the 12th month.
And as we find out later in chapter 8:
Mordecai Morns, But Believes
Esther 4:1
We see him morn
When Mordecai hears about the decree he reacts by grieving.
Mordecai morns.
And he also has faith.
You say, “Well, I see he morns, but where does he believe?
Where’s his faith in God?”
Now this is absolutely essential to seeing who is really at work here.
Look at Mordecai’s appeal to Esther to act.
Esther 4:13
Notice the last statement “Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
When you think back through the events that brought Esther to where she is at this time, you can see, this is not of her doing and this is no concerted effort of any person.
This is God!
Now keep this in mind, because we want to revisit this in a few moments.
Esther Approaches the King
Here is the faith of Esther as well, as she sends back her reply to Mordecai:
Esther 4:15
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