Good evening and welcome back to our series of studies through the book of Esther. Tonight, we'll be continuing through chapter 5. Specifically, we'll be looking at verses 5 through 8. But before we get started, let's do just a real brief review of what we studied last time. Now, in our study of verses 1 through 4, We saw what I termed as a dramatic change from the closing scene of chapter four. For the prior three days, remember, all the Jews throughout Persia, and this includes Queen Esther and Mordecai, they had all been fasting and praying. And it was all about the fact that Queen Esther had an important and a very dangerous appointment with the king. And what made this appointment so dangerous is that the king was unaware of it. It was unscheduled. It was unapproved. And for most in Persia at that time, an uninvited visit like this to the king, it meant, according to Persian law, it meant certain death. But remember, Queen Esther, she wasn't on her own errand. She just wasn't operating on her own, but she was on an errand of the Lord. But still and all, She didn't know for sure that her life would be spared and that she'd be granted an audience with the king. I mean, just because she's doing God's work doesn't necessarily mean, or didn't necessarily mean, that the Lord was going to spare her life there. So she didn't know for sure. But what she did know for sure is that the Lord's will would be done. Now, I had stated that the three days of total fasting, and remember, the total fast, it was a 24-hour-a-day fast. It wasn't just sunup to sundown. And it was no food, no water, absolutely nothing. So it was a total fast. I had said that it was It was a wise and really a very appropriate thing to do. It was an appropriate method of preparing for such an important task. And then the time came to approach the king. And we saw Queen Esther Display continued to display wisdom far beyond her age, far beyond her own intellect. That is, she was displaying the Lord's wisdom. even in the details, even down to how she dressed to approach the king. And then, of course, what we also saw was the Lord continuing to work behind the scenes. He's not mentioned. He's working behind the scenes, but he's continuing to work, unfolding his plan of salvation for his people. Now, in tonight's passage, We're going to see the king respond very favorably to Queen Esther's invitation to what ends up being, or what works out to be, her first banquet for the king. It's not titled that way, but we all know the whole story. It is the first banquet for the king. And we'll see the king and Haman. They will have a wonderful feast. And afterwards, while drinking some after-dinner wine, relaxing, the king will again ask Queen Esther to disclose her request. And he, again, he attaches to his question a promise to give her whatever she desires. And then the passage, tonight's passage, will close with another response that is, at first glance, again, a bit confusing. But we know from our last study that things are not always what they seem to be. at first glance. This response, like her first response, is demonstrating wisdom from the Lord. And again, we will see, it also is a demonstration of the Lord continuing to work behind the scenes, unfolding His plan of salvation for His people. So let's get started. Let's read Esther chapter 5, verses 5 through 8. Then the king said, bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther has asked." So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Esther answered, My wish and my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the King, and if it please the King to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the King and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them tomorrow. And I will do as the King has said." Okay, so verse five opens with the king's response to Queen Esther's invitation for the king and Haman to attend a feast that she has prepared for the king. And his response here, it has a distinct sense of urgency. He says, bring Haman quickly. And although this is uncharacteristic of the king, this urgency seems to be a desire to please his wife. And I say that because he gives a brief explanation of that when he says, so that, the reason he's saying this, bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther has asked. You know, maybe Queen Esther just caught the king on a good day. Maybe she just caught him on a benevolent day. Or maybe it was that the king just wanted to be done with his day's work, just wanted to go home and have a good meal. or any other reason. There's no way to be certain what his motivation was. But I am convinced that the Lord was at work influencing the king in this, in finding favor with Queen Esther. I think this sense of urgency that the king has is a desire to please his wife, Queen Esther, and that it was the Lord's influence that gave the king this desire. I don't think that it's a stretch to attribute the king's response to divine influence. I believe, I think, that it was a direct response of the Lord's in influencing the king this way to the fasting and prayer that had been going on for the prior three days. I think that the Lord is answering prayer right here. Now apparently the king understood that Queen Esther didn't risk her life by approaching the king uninvited simply or merely to invite him and Haman over for dinner. That wasn't her goal. I think the king understands this. I think that he presumed that she was going to reveal her request, the reason that she approached the king this way, I think that he felt, he presumed that she was going to reveal that request at the feast she had prepared. And to me, this is apparent by the fact that they both, the king and Haman, they both go to the feast without any further questioning about her request. They just go. And then verse 5 concludes with the simple declaration that the king and Haman had attended, or attended, Queen Esther's feast. Now, just for a moment, let's look at this from Haman's perspective. It must have been an incredible honor for him, for Haman. I mean, Queen Esther, the queen of Persia, had prepared a special feast for her husband, the king. And she included Haman in her invitation to attend this feast. It was just the three of them having dinner together, having a feast together. It's unlikely, and from everything that I can tell, it's unlikely that court officials like Hayman were routinely, if ever, honored in such a way. That they were ever invited, basically, to have dinner with the king and queen. So from Haman's perspective, his perception of himself must have been growing in the feeling that he was a very, very important man in the kingdom and that his future in the kingdom was secure. He must have been ruminating on these types of thoughts as he ate and drank with the king and with Queen Esther, as he was sitting there at the table and then relaxing afterwards, drinking the king's wine. He must have been thinking along those lines. All right, verse six says, and as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, What is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. So now we have fast forwarded a little bit through the meal. It's now after the feast. The king and Haman, they've eaten their fill. They're now sitting and relaxing with Queen Esther, drinking wine. This was a a very customary thing in Eastern culture of that day, to spend time after a feast, a banquet, a big meal like this, relaxing, sitting back, relaxing, drinking, and enjoying conversation. Just a time of enjoyment. Most likely, you know, this is speculation because it's not explicit in the text, but most likely the king and Haman were not discussing business, kingdom business. They were probably or most likely, you know, sitting, they're drinking wine, they're getting drunk, right? They were probably Their conversation was probably along the lines of congratulating themselves on their marvelous accomplishments throughout the kingdom. They were probably patting themselves and one another on the back for all of the wonderful, glorious things that they're accomplishing. Haman was undoubtedly, he's still reveling in the decree that he had recently issued throughout the empire. In his mind, he had just secured eleven glorious months of tormenting his arch enemy, his arch rival, Mordecai and Mordecai's people. And this would all culminate in their mass annihilation. So Haman's pride and his self-worth must have been just swelling as he sat with the king and queen, satiated after a glorious feast, drinking royal wine, most likely from the king's own private reserve of wine. Haman, I think he was on top of the world. He was feeling really, really good about himself. And then, to top it all off, right in the center of all of this, the king then initiates a very personal and private matter in Haman's presence. He speaks to his wife and initiates a personal and private conversation. He turns to Queen Esther, his beautiful wife, and he asks her, what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Now in this, the king's interrogation of Queen Esther in this verse, it intensifies, as does his promise to grant her request. I want to compare it just for a moment to the way he responded to her in verse three. In verse three, he asked, what is your request? And then he gave a promise to grant it. He said, it shall be given you even to half my kingdom. Now, in that study, I developed the idea that this statement is somewhat of a common, almost a ritualistic statement that means that he is ready, willing, and able to grant whatever request she might have. It was a common statement that's recorded in many historical Persian accounts of generosity. Generosity extended to trusted or beloved individuals. Now here in verse six, the king adds something to that. He adds, what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And he says, what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Now, these two statements that he makes here in verse six, they're essentially the same statement. The Hebrew words that are translated to wish and request, they are different words, but they're virtual synonyms. They basically mean the same thing. It's repetition. He's saying the same thing over again, but he's saying it twice in a little bit different way. but he's saying it twice. It's repetition, and repetition is usually used to emphasize a point that's being made. In this case, the king is emphasizing, he's assuring Queen Esther by this repetition that there is nothing that she could possibly request, nothing that she could possibly ask of him that he won't grant her. We would term it as the king giving Queen Esther a blank signed check. You fill it out, but here you go. Whatever you ask, it's yours." And that's what he was saying to her. Whatever she asks of the king is hers. Now, one more point of emphasis that I wanna make before we move on, and this is easily overlooked because it's not explicit in the text, but it's there. And that is that the king has made this promise, this promise to Queen Esther, He's made it to her, but he's made it in the presence now of a witness of Haman. Remember, Haman's right there with them. So the king has really gone all in on his commitment to give Queen Esther whatever she asks of him, right? Okay, now, verse seven. Verse seven is very interesting. It says, then Esther answered, my wish and my request is, and that's the end of verse seven. Now that captured my attention. In verse seven, The translators chose to separate verse 7 and verse 8. You know, these verse breaks aren't there in the original language. The translators do that. And you can easily read verse 7 and verse 8 together. It kind of all flows together. But the translators chose to separate the two and end verse 7 where they did. question. Was there an intentional break there in Queen Esther's statement as she was speaking? Was it maybe like a momentary stall as she searched for the right words? You know how it is with speakers. Have you ever heard someone, as they're speaking, they begin a statement and then They need a little bit of time to think about the next word. And what they do is they'll use filler words, things like um. So they begin to speak, and then there's that pause while they're searching for the right. Is that what Queen Esther was maybe doing, or perhaps Was she hesitant or fearful to make her request? Was she having second thoughts? Second thoughts about obeying Mordecai's command from chapter four, verse eight. Second thoughts about fulfilling her role that the Lord had assigned to her as the one through whom the Jewish people would receive relief and deliverance. In other words, was she about to beg the king's favor and plead with him on behalf of her people and then stopped? Stopped out of apprehension. I don't think so. I don't think that's the case. If that was, that would mean that all of verse 8, which we're going to look at in just a moment, that would mean that all of verse 8 was just a stall tactic to facilitate a change of mind or a change of heart. I don't think that's the case. Now, there is no definitive, that is, there's no explicit answer to this question, but I believe, I think, I lean in the direction of many commentators, good, solid commentators, who build a linguistic case that in the original language, there is an indication of a dramatic pause after verse 7, before Queen Esther completes her statement in verse 8. And that's why they broke verse 7 and verse 8 up the way they did. And that this is an indication that her answer to the king, her answer to the king's question, that is, her wish and her request, is not that the king and Haman attend a second feast, but that what she's doing is she is humbly and submissively and carefully delaying her answer to the king until the next feast. I believe that's what's happening here. I believe that's what she's doing. Now, characteristically, I could see the king becoming annoyed and even angry over Queen Esther refusing to do as he's asked. He's asked her now twice. He's asked her, tell me what you want. And twice now she's not done it. His characteristic attitude toward her would have been more along the lines of, simply tell me what you want. Okay, enough with the delays. Dinner was great. Sure, I'd love to come to dinner again tomorrow. It's all good. But come on, I'm a busy man, and I don't like to be strung along. What is it that you want? Remember his response to Vashti when she refused to do as he had asked her to do? He had her dethroned and banished from the palace. That's the kind of man he is. But he doesn't have that attitude. toward Queen Esther here. See, I think that this coy pause or delay that Queen Esther employs here before responding to the king's inquiry, I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it has an almost playful feel to it. I think that it must have piqued the king's curiosity and interest in what his queen wanted. I think that it gave her greater favor and endeared her even more to the king. And as we will see, as we progress, it ends up serving the queen and her quest to save her people. It ends up serving her very, very well. Okay, now let's look at verse eight. So she finishes the statement. She says, if I have found favor in the side of the king, And if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said." Okay, so verse eight, notice, Verse 8 is not an answer to the king's question, what is your wish and what is your request, but it is a response to his question. She's not answering him, but she's responding. to Him. She's not saying that her wish and her request is for Him to come to another feast, just like it wasn't the first time. Rather, what she's doing here is she's stating that at the next feast, she will answer the king's question. She will disclose to him her wish and her request. She'll tell him why she took it upon herself and endangered herself to approach him uninvited. Now, she begins her response with the same tactic, but in an amplified way, that she began her response back in verse four. There, in verse four, she began by saying, if it please the king. And here, she adds to that, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king. So again, she is also, she's saying the same thing, but she's amplifying it. She's not embellishing, she's amplifying it. So here, just as she did in verse four, what she's doing is she's acknowledging the king's authority, acknowledging the king's superiority over her. She's taking a submissive posture before him, She's giving him the sense that he is in control of this entire situation, and that if he accepts her now second invitation, it is still all his idea to do so. And now this added element of, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, what she's doing is she's doubling down on her tactic. She's using what What was known in generations past, you don't hear this too often anymore, but in past generations, it was termed as using her feminine wiles. Okay, meaning she was using her femininity, her own physical attributes to which she knew her husband was very attracted. She's using this to persuade him to do something. Now, Queen Esther, she knew that the king found her very beautiful, very attractive, and that he loved her very much, very deeply. So in essence, what she's saying here, she's saying to the king, if I have been a good wife to you, if you are pleased with me, if you find me beautiful, if you find me pleasurable to look at, notice her carefully chosen words here. She says, if I have found favor in the sight of the king. Remember how important physical attractiveness was to the king. And then she connects that to, if it pleased the king, to what she's already, what he has already promised to do, grant my wish and fulfill my request. So this whole introduction of hers is really serving as a rhetorical question. Think about it. The king has already made it abundantly clear that whatever Queen Esther, whatever she asks, will be granted to her. He's made it abundantly clear that she has found favor in his eyes. And He has stated twice now that whatever she asks, He will give to her. So the obvious, the only possible answer to her question or her statement, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleased the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, the only possible answer is yes. Yes, of course, whatever you wish. The big question that we're left with in verse eight is, just like last time, the big question is, why then another feast? Why then more delay before begging the king's favor and pleading with him on behalf of her people? I mean, she once again seems to be in the ideal position to make her request. She seems to have the king right where she wants him, right where she needs him. She successfully made it through the first challenge of approaching the king uninvited. She wasn't killed. She made it through that one. Then the king accepted her invitation and he brought Haman to the feast which she had prepared. She wined and dined them both. And the king again showed her grace, showed her mercy, showed her generosity by essentially telling her, whatever you want, I'll grant it to you. You name it, it's yours. So doesn't this seem like the perfect time, the perfect opportunity for Queen Esther to beg the king's favor and plead with him on behalf of her people? Once again, It's like I stated last time, if she delays, she might not have this opportunity again. You know, you can't count on the king being in this good mood all the time. But just like before, even though it might seem to be the perfect time to you, to me, probably even to Queen Esther, she refrains. She doesn't make the request. So instead of pleading the case for her people and asking the king to intervene, she invites the king and Haman to another feast that she'll prepare for them the following day. Now, she adds to this invitation a promise. a commitment. Now, this is the first time she's done this. She makes a commitment. She says, I will do as the king has said." Meaning that if the king and Haman will attend this second feast of hers, she will finally reveal to the king her wish and her request. She's making that commitment. She'll disclose to the king why she risked her very life by disobeying Persian law and approaching the king in the inner court without being called. So again, why the delay? Why the second delay? Why, why, why? Well, it certainly adds suspense to the story, doesn't it? I mean, if you were writing a story or a movie, it adds a lot of suspense to it. And it's interesting how some commentators that I've read feel that that's the reason. And it just adds suspense to the story. But I don't agree with that. The Lord is not dragging things out here unnecessarily. He's not simply adding drama and suspense just to make it a better story. No, the reality is this. There is still much yet to take place before it will be the right time for Queen Esther to make her request. There's a lot that the Lord still has to do. It's just simply not time. The Lord has not accomplished all that he intends to accomplish before she makes that request. Now, in all likelihood, Again, we don't know for sure. I'm just saying, in all likelihood, Queen Esther had no idea what still needed to take place. In our next study, we will begin unpacking and developing the series of events that lead up to Queen Esther finally revealing her connection to the Jewish people and asking, really, the impossible from her husband, the king. Now, we don't know. how much of Queen Esther's tactics or her actions here were based on direct knowledge of God's plan, or how much was maybe just God's influence in her heart and mind without her being fully aware of it. We don't know the balance there. But the point is, the point that we're meant to see in all of this, is that the Lord is at work. The Lord is at work behind the scenes. Maybe, and most likely, even behind the scenes to Queen Esther. He's working in the mind, in the heart, and in the mind of each and every person involved here. Not just Queen Esther, but everyone who's involved in order to accomplish His will. He has a particular outcome, and he also has a particular way for that outcome to come to be. This is a very important element of the Christian life, of our lives. We need to be, we must be obedient. We must be submissive and faithful to all the directions the Lord gives us throughout our lives. Many times, the direction He gives us is very direct, is very obvious, and it's easily discerned. But not always, right? Not always. Sometimes, the Lord's direction is found very subtly behind the scenes of our lives. Many times, it's counter, the exact opposite of what we want. or what we think we need, and what the world is telling us that we need or that we should do. Many times, the Lord's direction is also counter to what is generally permissible, meaning that simply because a particular direction is not inherently sinful, that doesn't always mean, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the path the Lord is directing us to travel. So how do we know at these times how the Lord is directing us? Do I go to the left or do I go to the right? What do you want me to do, Lord? Well, it's only through knowing and understanding the nature and character of God. by walking in close and constant relationship with the Lord. And that is only found and accomplished through constant and ongoing interaction with His revealed Word, the Bible. That's how we know God's character, His nature. That's how we know Him. That's how we have a relationship with Him, through His Word. through daily Bible reading, through daily meditation in His Word, through regular deeper study of His Word, by all the means and the ways that He's given us to interact with His Word. And that combined with, of course, the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who resides within each one of us. The Holy Spirit provides for us peace in our hearts that confirms It never contradicts. It doesn't take us in different directions, but it confirms what we know of God's character and nature through constant interaction with His Word. And that will always lead us as we will see as we continue this series of studies through the book of Esther. It always leads us in the right direction and it keeps us on the right path. Praise God. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for always revealing to us the perfect amount of your plan in our lives. the perfect amount for us to grow, to mature, and to be conformed more into the image of Your Son day by day. You know what's best for us. Thank You. Please give us the grace, Father, we need to trust You in every step of the way, and to have faith, always have faith, that You are in full control, that You know, that You are aware of all the details of every circumstance in our lives. And to know that if we follow you, if we never give in to the temptation to get out in front of you, our lives will be filled with joy and our destination will be the fullness of your glory. Please help us in that, Father. Thank you and amen. Praise God.