11 JUNE 2006: God Cares for You!

TOPIC: Preparation; Sovereignty (God’s), Love (God’s), Will of God (providential and permissive)

TITLE: QUEEN ESTHER: God Cares For You! (Adapted from "God Cares for You: The Story of Esther," S. R. Miller; Proclaim, Summer 1998, pp.19-21)

TEXT: 4:14a

"... if you remain quiet at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place ... "

COMPANION SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:26-31

TRUTH CLAIM: Even though, Martin Luther says, "the Jews more esteem the book of Esther than any of the prophets" [Gill], the Book of Esther (5th Century BC) was almost excluded in the Jewish canon (Old Testament); had it been it would be difficult to see it included in the Christian canon (New Testament).

What's the reason for the hesitancy? No mention of God! Many explanations have been offered for this … I simple ask - So what? Just because the word "god" appears nowhere in the text doesn't mean God doesn't appear in the text!

Far worse than this is the reality that many people don’t have the word God written in their hearts. They say they don't believe in God.

This is remarkably bizarre since they often are heard to refer to Him and many times think of God … e.g., "If there‘s a God, He sure doesn't care about me. Who am I that God should notice me? What are my needs to Him?”

Those who believe in God experience the same thing - even Christians! You! Me!

It's a true statement that God cares for you, profoundly! It matters not that you don't believe in Him, He believes in you!

Let me tell you a story from the past …

[KING'S VISIT] Once upon a time a great king visited a town to lay the cornerstone for a new hospital; thousands of school children greeted him and sang for him.

After the king departed, a teacher saw a young girl crying. She asked, "Why are you crying? Didn't you get to see the king?"

The little girl sobbed, "Oh, yes, teacher, but the king did not see me."

How different Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone, is from earthly kings. Not only does He give life to each one, but He is also personally interested in and personally maintains each life.

God, speaking to the Jews through the prophet Zechariah (to the Church prophetically), said: "he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye." Think for a moment how you protect your eye! Protection of the eye is one of the fast reflex movements known to man!

Royal Esther, like humble Ruth, affords ua a wonderful illustration of God's enduring and unchanging concern for His own. Her story reveals hope-filled truths for the overwhelmed spirits of all believers.

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: How do we see God in the book of Esther?
EXPANDED OUTLINE:

I. WE SEE HIM IN THE PREPARATION OF ESTHER! (Chapters 1-2)

Is God caught by surprise at our dilemmas/circumstances? Never! In fact He is proactively involved in your dilemmas/circumstances! [Romans 8:28]

A. QUEEN NEEDED: consider what's required for God's people to receive His protection – He must have an inside accomplice …

• He arranged that Esther and her cousin Mordecai be taken in captivity
• Ahasuerus (a.k.a. Xerxes I) must become king
• Esther's dad, Mordecai's uncle, had to die
• Mordecai had to agree to be her kinsman redeemer
• King must have seven day, drunken bash
• Vashti must spurn king’s entertainment command
• King must hold "Miss Persia of 487 BC" contest
• Esther’s Jewish nationality and race must be hidden
• He caused Esther to be queen

Nowhere is God mentioned as having had a hand in any of this and yet His fingerprints are everywhere seen.

So God accomplishes step one in His people’s providential care and Esther is elevated from orphan to queen.

B. KING’S LIFE SAVED: consider the odds of a lowly immigrant being in the right place at the right time – a better chance of winning the Uzbekistan National Lottery.

• Mordecai must be a willing student of ethics and morality
• Mordecai must sit in the gate; a kind of judge for Jews
• He must overhear a plot against Xerxes
• Authorities, non-Jews, must receive a Jew’s report; beyond reproach
• Authorities must act (uncover plot)
• Would-be assassins must be put to death.

God accomplishes step two in His people's providential care; all players are in place, including Haman who is manipulating things to his own ends.

II. WE SEE HIM IN THE REMOVAL OF AN OBSTACLE! (Chapter 3)

Consider the complexities of halting a depraved plot by reversing the social status of two everyday good people with one highly placed immoral person.

Think of doing this while preserving freewill, while depending solely on the evil of the one and the good of the other, and while informing no one of your plans.

This is what God did … even though it nowhere says it was Him!

• Haman had to be in place
• Haman was king's prime minister; evil & vain guy
• He insisted everyone genuflect in his presence
• The king and queen didn’t have to, Mordecai wouldn’t
• Haman hated Mordecai (jealous of his morality & principles)
• Haman knows Mordecai is a Jew and plots to kill him
• Hate so evil he plots against all Jews ("troublemakers")
• By deceit ($) he gets king’s edict for ethnic cleansing
• If successful, Messianic line might possiblly expire ????
• Lots cast for date to commence cleansing
• Mysteriously, the lots fall one year hence; the obstacle is delayed

III. WE SEE HIM IN NATURE OF THE RIGHTEOUS! (Chapter 4)

God is not limited in His options.

A. Esther is raised for a purpose:

• God's providential will; must be faithful remnant
• Mordecai says:

"… who knows but that you have come to [this] royal position for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14b NIV

• Recall, God's ways and thoughts are unlike ours, and higher [Isaiah 55:8-9]

B. She is challenged by circumstances:

• Mordecai says:

"… if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish."

Esther 4:14a NIV

• Esther had all she desired; she lacked nothing
• Going to the king uninvited was unlawful and deadly
• She invited the king to a banquet to expose Haman
• God’s timing is faultless and that night wasn’t right
• Banquet rescheduled for the following night

C. God chooses servants for what others cannot see:

• God turns the person inside out.
• She prepared for her task by preparing with God

"… assemble all the Jews … , and fast for me; don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens will fast in the same way also. And thus I will go in to the king …"

Esther 4:16

• Esther sees big picture: "… and if I perish, I perish."
• Esther found favor in the sight of the king
• She demonstrated remarkable wisdom in dealings with king

Do you suppose she went alone? Our gentle and loving God held her hand throughout her pilgrimage.

IV. WE SEE HIS ABSENCE IN THE NATURE OF THE UNRIGHTEOUS! (Chapters 5-6)

Like that local toad here in San Carlos, Haman was inflated with arrogance and self-love. Haman, like most of the self-centered, missed much of what was going on.

Not only was God lacking in his life, moral qualities were as well. Your sins will reveal you:

• Haman’s ego obscured Esther’s kinship with Mordecai
• Had he spent as much time with the people he would have known Mordecai
• Rage cultivated bitterness (he saw Mordecai on way home from the queen’s first banquet)
• Wife told him to hang Mordecai; like Ahab’s Jezebel
• Orders gallows; THEN goes to king for approval

God will not allow the unrighteous to long remain hidden

V. WE SEE HIM IN THE DELIVERANCE OF THE JEWS! (Chapters 7-9)

No "thing" arises outside the reach of God’s will. There’s no good luck or bad luck! There are no disasters or circumstances He is unaware of!

A. The Incident:

• God works with more than just people and circumstance, He also works with insomnia and tradition
• Xerxes couldn’t sleep because he worried about what his delightful bride wanted to tell him
• It’s tradition of leaders to record their histories (of course God had nothing to do with that either); and read each others
• Xerxes order scribes to read from the court records
• How astonishing they should read the records which revealed Mordecai's service to the king
• King asks, "Was a reward given"? None sought, none given

B. The Irony:

• So Haman came in and the king said to him, “What’s to be done for the man that the king desires to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Who else would the king desire to honor more than me?” (Esther 6:6)
• Haman tells the king:

“… let them bring a royal robe the king has worn, and the horse the king has ridden, on whose head a royal crown has been placed; and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback throughout the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘So it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’”

Esther 6:8-9

• Horror of horrors, Mordecai’s the man, he’s the prince!

C. The Justice:

• At the party Haman discoveries he is to be revealed
• Pleading for mercy he literally falls on Queen Esther
• In walks Xerxes; Haman is accused of accosting queen
• Esther reveals the plot
• King orders Haman hanged on Mordecai’s gallows
• King orders the Jews may chase down the plotters, destroying them as they planned to destroy the Jews
• The Feast of Purim celebrates God’s deliverance
• Jews pray and fast at Purim

"God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil."

Ecclesiastes 12:14

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: Do you glimpse our majestic God; the One who involves Himself in our lives and who loves us more than we can conceive or imagine?

Here is a window into the nature of God, the God who cares so much He prepares in advance, so that the lowly and innocent may avoid life’s obstacles, and who deliver us from harm’s way.

Does it matter that the name of God is not mentioned in this book? No! When the person and character of God are seen at every turn, do we need to see His name to know Him? No!

This was Esther’s and Mordecai’s problem; how big is yours?

… Moses said to the people, "Fear not! Stand by and see the LORD’s salvation which He will accomplish for you this day; for the Egyptians whom you have seen, you will no more see them again forever. Today the LORD will fight for you while you keep silent."

Exodus 14:13-14

How many times have you been confronted one of life’s challenges and chose the easy way out? I can’t tell you how often I have been blessed by taking the way of faith and trust!

God may be moving His pawns around the knights and bishops of this world in order for our King to take evil’s king!

As the world, the devil, and the flesh confront us with crisis after crisis, remember our God is lovingly interested in us!

He is a God who is sovereign in all things! A God who has promised to care for us! He works in every relationship, event, and situation for His own glory and for our benefit. Rejoice! Again, I say, Rejoice!

Topic TAGS: Esther, Faith, Hope Love,
Old Testament, Peserveration, Preaching,
Preparation, Peserveration, Sermons, Will of God