the book of Esther. It's been a few weeks since we were here in this book, so I'll take just a few minutes during the message to bring your mind back to what all is taking place. Esther, the good-looking orphan girl who had been plucked from her home being raised by her cousin Mordecai, had earned the favor of the king and been promoted to the Queen of Persia, most powerful woman, at least to our understanding, most powerful woman on the planet, although it was more of a position, really, simply because during that time period and in that culture, they didn't allow women to hold really seats of authority, but her position was a very high position in the land. But if you'll remember, there was a man who hated The Jews, and in particular hated Mordecai, his name was Haman. Haman the Jew-hater. Haman the anti-Semite. And he had convinced the king that it would be in his best interest, King Ahasuerus or Xerxes, same guy, he had convinced him that it would be in his best interest to just get rid of all the Jews. And this was early in the first month. He made this plan and presented it to the king that in the 11th month, 10 months after this time, on a set day that all the Jews would be killed in the entire Persian Empire and anybody who killed them could lay siege to all of their land and property. And of course, this came as shocking news to all of the Jewish people and in particular to Mordecai, who convinced his young, good-looking, cousin Esther, who was queen, to try and do something. If she didn't get involved, it could mean death for all the Jewish people. In fact, he tells her, don't get the idea that just because you're living over in a palace, you're not going to have any trouble. They may kill you right along with the rest of us. And, you know, we have chapter divisions, and they're great for helping us find a place in the Bible, but sometimes it cuts right into a story right so let's pick up with our reading and then roll right through the chapter division at the close of chapter 4 with verse number 13 and you'll see this conversation that goes on between Mordecai and between Esther and his encouraging her to do something. She's queen, you need to do something in the behalf of your people. So chapter four, verse 13 reads, then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews, for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. So Esther is saying, if you don't do something, it may just be that God sends somebody else to do it, and you'll miss out on the blessing. But he says, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And if you don't do something, we are all going to die. And these famous words, at the close of verse 14, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return to Mordecai this answer. Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, that's the palace, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law. That's important. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Now it came to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house, and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter. Then said the king unto her, what wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, if it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther had said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, what is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee, and what is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther and said, my petition and my request is. If I have found favor in the sight of the king and if it pleased the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them and I will do tomorrow as the king has said. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up nor move for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman refrained himself, and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh's wife. Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said, moreover, yea Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king under the banquet that she had prepared but myself. Tomorrow I'm invited under her also with the king. Notice this, yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then says Eresh his wife and all his friends unto him, let a gallows be made of 50 cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon, then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman, and he calls the gallows to be made. My thought for this evening is the plot thickens. The plot thickens. My mother may get mad at me for telling this, but I'm gonna tell it all the same. When I was a young boy, teenage boy, my mother used to love to watch soap operas. She loved days of our lives. and some general hospital. Now, she loved men. I'm not gonna point any fingers, because there may be somebody else around here that has had such an inclination in the years past. Of course, it's probably far worse now. It wasn't great 30 years ago, but I'm sure it has worsened by now. But it seemed like about every Friday, they would muster up some kind of a cliffhanger. right just to get you back to watching it come Monday. My dad used to fuss and kick and stomp. He said, honey, you could watch that show every Friday and you could keep up with what was going on. As long as they drag all this out, you could keep up with what's going on. And you may think, you know, come Friday afternoon as they build up this cliffhanger that come Monday they're going to reveal everything, but most of the time come Monday there'd be some kind of little twist or turn of the plot and they wouldn't show you everything after all. In other words, they'd just keep you hanging on for a little bit longer. That's really what this chapter of the book of Esther is like. We see these things about to take place. There's a cliffhanger at the close of chapter four where the daring queen says, I'll go before him, and if I die, I die. If I perish, I perish. And there's a cliffhanger there. And then we come Monday morning, if you will, we open up chapter 5, and we think it's going to be resolved. We're going to find out what the twist or turn is. But no, that's not what happens. Instead, it's pushed back a little bit further. And all of this is, if you'll allow it, is adding drama. But this is not fake. This is real life drama. This is not reality TV. This is reality Bible. This is reality story. Where all of this is culminating, the plot is thickening. God is working to culminate into the great deliverance of the Jewish people. even through the hands and the work of a queen, what was once a little orphan girl. Here in this fifth chapter, we see Esther. She goes before the king. If you'll have your Bibles right there, just flip back real quick. Look at chapter four, verse 11, where it says, all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death. except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live. And then she includes, but I've not been called to see the king for these 30 days. And that's why, at the close of that fourth chapter, she says to Mordecai and to all the Jews, for him to spread word to all the Jews in the palace around Shushan, around this area, that they are to give themselves three days. It says specifically to fasting, but I believe they were praying and fasting during this time period and says at the end of that three days i will go in before the king and if i perish i perish so the first thing i want you to pull out of this fifth chapter is i want us to see esther's bravery And I want us to see Esther's beauty, her bravery and her beauty. Verse one, chapter five says it comes to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel. It is as if it is saying she had joined them, Mordecai and putting on sackcloth and mourning and weeping for three days and praying and fasting for three days. But that's not how she's going to come before the king. She's going to come before him in her royal apparel. She pretties herself up. She puts on the attire of a queen and she comes before him and she stands at that inner court where we just read that if you go down there uninvited and the king doesn't reach out his scepter to you, they will kill you on the spot. This was to protect the king, both his privacy and his security. And it was the law of the Medes and the Persians that you could not simply approach the king uninvited, even if you were the queen, you couldn't do it. So I sort of imagine it's something like this. The king is sitting on his throne. And there's the inner court, something like our entranceway back here, but bigger, of course. And as he's sitting here on his throne, He looks and he sees someone standing there, and he recognizes it is his beautiful wife, Queen Esther, standing there. And I think it is a measure, not of any kind of manipulation, but some godly wisdom on her part, that she pretties herself up, reminds him, this is the woman you married. In fact, tells us that he showed favor, he was moved. Look at verse 2, and it was so when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court that she obtained favor in his sight. Same word that reaches all the way back to when all of the virgin girls had been brought to him. Among all of them, she obtained favor in his sight. Same language right there. In other words, it's almost even though he hasn't seen the queen in 30 days, It brings right back to mind, there's that pretty girl I married. There's that pretty girl I married. But think about her bravery. I don't want to play it up too much, but it would be hard to do this because she is literally taking her life into her own hands. If the king is in a foul mood and does not reach out that golden scepter, that scepter is just a sign of power, a symbol of authority. His scepter is a golden scepter. And if he's in a foul mood, he's had a bad day, things aren't going well in the empire, and he refuses to reach out, and all he has to do is turn his hand towards her, if he refuses to do that, they will take Esther out and kill her, even if she is the queen. So see not just her beauty, but her bravery in this. I have tried to say to you that I don't want to be overly critical of Esther and her decision making, but we had to acknowledge that her giving herself, seemingly, willingly giving herself outside of wedlock to a pagan gentile king was wrong. It was unbiblical. It was unscriptural. I mean, I don't want to be overly critical because who knows what any of us would do in her position. It was sort of assumed that you either do this or you'll die, so I don't want to be overly critical of her even marrying him, which again, it doesn't matter if he's a king or a pauper. It was against the word of God for them to marry unbelievers. So without being overly hard on her, we have to acknowledge that even if some of the decisions that she has made in the past We're not good, strong, scriptural decisions. Right now, she is showing immense bravery by standing in front of the world's most powerful man, taking her life into her hands, and saying, if I die, I die. If I perish, I perish. I'm going to try and do something to stop this genocide from happening. And while it would be easy to for you and I to stand back and say, Esther, what are you worried about? You know, everything's going to be all right. Well, that's because we've read the rest of the book. We know how it's going to turn out. She's the one who I will imagine, as she was putting on her royal robes and her queenly apparel, her little knees might have been knocking as she made her way to the inner court. She might have been frightened or afraid that she may be walking to her own death. So let's not make little of this. In fact, let's acknowledge that regardless of what has transpired in the past, right now, a young girl from obscurity, an orphan whose parents had died and was being raised by an uncle and had been ushered off to get primped and prettied up to be given to the king in a sexual manner, this young girl now is standing between life and death of an entire nation. She is standing in the behalf of her people. So I think we can see in this, not just her beauty, but her bravery, Esther's beauty and her bravery. But we find at the close of verse number two, what happens when she stands there? She obtains favor in the king's sight. The king, close verse two says, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter. In closing verse two and verse three, I see the king's benevolence, the king's benevolence. Ahasuerus or Xerxes, whatever you want to call him, we see his kindness, his mercy to his queen. He did not have to show her mercy, but he did. Once again, I wrote in my notes, once again, enraptured by her beauty, her gentleness, and her meekness, he shows mercy to her. He asked her, what is your request? Why are you here? It's almost as if the king, and Xerxes is sort of a flighty king. He sort of gets pushed around way too easy for a king, but it's almost as if he's aware that if she's here, there must be something going on. If she has endangered her life, he's aware that what she's done is endangered herself. So to some degree, he's thinking this must be something serious going on if she's willing to do this. So he asks her, what is your request? What do you want? Why are you here? Now I'm gonna dig myself into a hole, maybe I can get myself out of it a little bit later. But he has to ask her any number of times. Any of you fellas know what it is to ask your woman, what's wrong? What do you need or what do you want? And you seem like you keep asking and asking and asking before you ever get an answer out of them. Well, turns out it happened back in the Old Testament days too. Especially that what did I do wrong thing. You ask that a lot of times before you ever get an answer out of them. But let me press on. Verse three, just notice this real quick, just so you see what I'm talking about. Verse three, what wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy request? Look at verse six. The king says unto Esther at the banquet of wine, what is thy petition? And this shall be granted thee, what is thy request? In chapter seven, Verse number two, he asked again. Chapter seven, verse number two, the king said unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, what is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? So even if you're the most powerful man on the planet, you can't pry an answer out of a woman till she's ready to give it. Now let me move on. But here he extends his golden scepter, she reaches out and touches it, which we should see in that an act of humility. She's a queen, but she still knows she needs the mercy of the king. And so she touches his golden scepter, she accepts his benevolence, and he asks her, what is it that you want? And I'll grant it to you even up to half of my kingdom. Now, he's not gonna give her half the kingdom. That's really just a hyperbole. It is an expression. No one would be so bold as to ask for half of the kingdom. They'd probably cut your throat if you did ask for half the kingdom. But in his way of saying, honey, what do you want? You name it, and it's yours. And so in this, he shows benevolence to the queen. And to respond to him in her womanly manner, In verses four through eight, we have Esther's banquet. In fact, it's Esther's first banquet. We see her bravery, her beauty, we see the king's benevolence, but now we see the queen's banquet. In fact, the first banquet that she has, verse four, that Esther answered, if it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman, not just the king, but she is including Haman in this. I'll just give you this. You can do what you want to do with it. There's a lot of speculation. Why would she invite Heyman when he's the very source of the problem? Why would she invite him to these banquets? It'd be a banquet that she's prepared for this day and a banquet also on tomorrow. And some speculation is that she's trying to drive a measure of jealousy between Haman and the king by inviting him. Some simply think that it's just, you know, he's the right-hand man to the king, so it's only fitting that he is invited to this. And I don't know. I know it certainly adds drama to it, and it will on the next day as he is again invited. She says, here's what I want. When he asks, what is it you want? She says, I want you to come to my banquet. She has obviously already prepared. So she's working by measure of faith, right? You don't just throw a banquet. In those days, it takes time to prepare these things. And when she comes to him, reaches out, and touches his golden scepter, He says to her, what is it that you want? And she says, come eat lunch with me, or come eat dinner with me, or whatever that it is, and then I'll let you know what my petition is. And folks, honestly, that's not what we're expecting, is we're reading the narrative. This is one of those twists or turns of the plot. Three days of prayer and fasting have taken place, She risked her life. She now has her opportunity to stand in front of the king. And the king says, you name it and it's yours. And what does she ask for? Come eat lunch with me. That's just not what we would expect, right? I mean, it's not what we're expecting. That's why I sort of compared it to one of these dramas, old TV dramas, because it's just not what we're expecting. The writer here, you know, recording what took place just adds this drama, this twist to it. And she says, I want you and Haman to come to the banquet that I've prepared for you. And then the king replies by saying, well, sure, we'll be happy to do that. And he says to his help, in verse 5, the king says to his stewards, his servants, y'all go get Haman, and you tell him to hurry up. The queen's got a meal ready for us. And that we may do, verse 5, as Esther has said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. So at her request, she stands there in her queenly attire, approaches the king and says, I want you to come to the banquet that I've prepared. So verse six, they go to the feast, they go to this banquet, and I believe very prudently, very shrewdly, she waits till they've got their belly full. I wish I could pretty it up some, but I think that's really how it is, verse six. And the king said unto Esther, at the banquet of wine, what is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom, it shall be performed. So they go to the feast, as she is request. And again, while they're there, the king says, what do you want? But it isn't time yet for her to reveal her request to the king. I like what one commentator said, one commentator that I read after said the three days of fasting, and I believe mingled with prayer, gives to Queen Esther a godly wisdom and a strong confidence that is not her own. A godly wisdom and a strong confidence that is not her own. So that when the king asks, she knows what to do and when to do it. And she knows, for whatever reason, godly insight, if you will, she knows that right now is not the time to make this request. And of course, her central request is going to be what? Don't kill the Jews. I mean, that's her major request. Don't let my people die. Of course, he doesn't know it this time. Again, remember that. He doesn't know. And nobody knows that she's a Jew. That's been kept under wraps. But her ultimate request will be, I want you to save my people. I don't want them all to die. But first, she wants the king to be as happy as he can be and in as good a mood as possible. So she feeds him a good meal and promises of another one on the morrow. Now ladies, if I've not dug myself in deep enough, let me go a little deeper tonight. Y'all should have heard me on Sunday. I really did make some friends preaching down in Florida. I will simply ask that you would affirm, is it not true that you know, by experience, that there are better times to talk to your husband about something than other times? Is that not true? Would you not agree that if he's come home from a hard day at the office and he hadn't had any dinner yet, that may not be the best time to tell him you lost your checkbook? I mean, I'm not trying to be silly as much as it's just true. It's just the world we live in. There's a reason they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And so with a measure of wisdom and shrewdness or godly instruction, she says, I've got something I'm going to ask him, but I'm going to get his belly full first. I know it works at my house. I don't know about your house. Some of the people who live in our house are grumpy before they eat. And you can get their belly full and act a whole lot differently. I'm not pointing any fingers, unless I'm pointing at myself. But like the old saying is, face powder may get a man, but baking powder will keep him. Right? So with a little wine in this system and with his belly full, she says, here's my request. And you know, he's fine. Thank goodness I done asked her half a dozen times already. What do you want? In verse seven, then answered Esther and said, my petition, my request is this, verse eight. And she just builds it up. If I found favor in your sight, if it pleased the king to perform my request, then let the king and Haman come back tomorrow to the next banquet I've got prepared for you. So again, not what we're expecting, right? Another twist. The plot is thickening. It's getting bigger. And then she says to him, at the close of verse number eight, tomorrow I'll tell you what's on my mind. And yet again, we're surprised. Why not ask now? Why not say right now? And I think that it is because she's aware that there's still some people praying. And there's still some people fasting, and I'm gonna spend one more night in prayer. But of course, you and I know that whether or not Queen Esther fully realizes why, we know that God is working behind the scenes. Because on this very night, the night of that first banquet, King's not gonna be able to sleep that night. And it just so happens that the queen has said, I want y'all to come back the next day, and then that's when all of this drama's gonna come to a head. That's when it's really all going to culminate. The silent sovereignty of God was working behind the scenes to keep the king from a good night's sleep, to keep her from asking right then, There's a, and if you're a Jew, you gotta stop and think. If you're a Jew reading this, and here's this guy named Haman whose heart's desire was to destroy all your people, and the drama just keeps building and it just keeps building, and it's almost like a volcano that is swelling and swelling. It's getting ready to blow up. And as they're reading this, they read that with a measure of anticipation and excitement as they see Queen Esther in her beautiful apparel saying to the king come eat lunch and then come back tomorrow and eat lunch again and then tomorrow i'll tell you what i want all the time them knowing that hayman's about to have his bubble burst on him his whole world is about to be turned upside down so she tells him again come back tomorrow to another banquet that i have for you and then the story now turns The last few verses of this chapter to Haman. To Haman. And in the last few verses here, we see Haman's bliss and Haman's bitterness. And in fact, we see both of them in verse number nine. Having left from the banquet hall, verse nine says, and Haman went forth, or then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart. And I mean, he's happy, right? And we would understand why. If the first lady has this big meal planned out and she invites the president and she invites you, you're liable to leave there with your chest poked out just a little bit, right? I mean, whether you, you know, governor or whatever the role is, you're going to leave there saying, you know, I'm Mr. Big Stuff. I got invited over to the private meal with the First Lady and the President. And you're going to, you know, you'll be leaving there, you'll be pretty happy about things, too. I've got this position. I'm somebody. Out of all the people in the empire, there was only three of us there, me and the king and the queen. And that's where he is, and you see Haman's bliss. He's happy about this. He leaves that palace thinking he really is somebody. But in the same verse, we see not only his bliss, but his bitterness. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. How quickly our emotions can change. Did I not just tell the truth right there? How quickly our emotions can change. Can we not go from bliss to bitterness in a hurry? All of us can. All of us can. Or from bitterness to bliss. Sometimes it doesn't take much to nudge us one way or another. But here is his nemesis. his arch enemy, Mordecai. Mordecai having returned from being dressed in sackcloth and ashes, he's returned to the King's Gate to whatever his role is, his position there. And as Haman leaves the palace, having left that banquet, skipping and bouncing and jubilant that he got invited in the most inner circle of the most powerful people on the planet, He sees Mordecai. Mordecai won't bow for him. Mordecai won't move for him. Mordecai's not shaking in his boots because of him. And it turns him sour and bitter. He clearly hates Mordecai. In verse 10, but he doesn't stop. He doesn't do anything about it right that minute. Nevertheless, Haman refrained himself. And when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife. So even though he's angry, he doesn't do anything about it. In the back of his mind, he remembers just a few more months, they all gonna be dead. A few more months, they can be dead. When he gets home, he calls his wife together and his friends together, and he starts bragging to them, verse 11 and 12, about his riches, his ten prominent kids, or sons, his promotions, his high standing within the kingdom. That's what verses 11 and 12, he's telling them, man, you're not going to believe the day I had. You know, I got invited to a banquet. Verse 12, the only people there was the king and the queen. Look how great my life has been. I mean, things are really going in the right direction. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I've been invited back to another banquet with nobody but the queen and the king. And yet verse 13 turns again when Haman says, yet all of this, all of my power, all of my prestige, all of my promotions, all of that means nothing as long as I have to look at Mordecai. Isn't that what he says? As long as I have to see that low, down, dirty Jew, all of that means nothing. You're talking about some animosity. Some real bitterness. Sad to say sometimes even God's children can act like that towards people. We can number all God's blessings for us, but we'll let one little person rob us of all of it. There ain't no way to be. When we see him as the second most powerful man in the empire, being robbed of all of his greatness because of one little Jew, it's sort of like a giant whale bellowing. because he's been denied minnow's food. Like a mighty lion who lays down licking his wounds and whimpering because he's denied sparrow's fare. Listen to this mighty man of the Persian Empire saying, all I have means nothing to me because of this one little Jew. This anger and bitterness, friends, is working to bring about God's purpose. We learn, I believe the book of Proverbs tells us, that even the wrath of man will praise him. Even this wrath and anger of Haman will work out to the glory of God. And then finally, in verse 14, his wife and friends come up with a grand plan. Let me tell you what to do. His wife, his friends, they say, look, Haman, listen, don't worry about that Mordecai. Tomorrow morning, you're going back in to see the king. You just tell him, I'm sick of this fella. He ain't nothing but a nuisance to the empire. The world would be better off without him. A hasherious king. Can I have your permission to kill this guy? And he likes that plan. Heyman likes that plan. In fact, they say you go on out there and you get a gallows built 50 cubits high or 75 feet high. We're talking seven stories high. You get a gallows built seventy-five feet high. And just as soon as the king signs off on this tomorrow, you have him killed. Probably, without going into a long argument, rather than being hung on the gallows, impaled upon the gallows. That's probably what this is. Seventy-five, way high. This is to Feed his pride, obviously, his great victory over Mordecai the Jew. I'm gonna have him hung 75 feet high, impaled 75 feet high. Some great plan they've come up with, right? It don't work out too good for old Haman before this thing's over with, does it? Little do they know that God is the one who's in charge. God is the one who is writing the pages of history. Not humanity. God's in charge. They've got their little scheme worked out. But they don't know that the king ain't gonna sleep good that night. And God's working behind the scenes in this. Their petty plans will amount to absolutely nothing against the providence and sovereignty of Almighty God. God's will will be accomplished. God's people will be spared Mordecai. will not be hung on those high gallows at all. Friends, I don't know what tomorrow holds, but if I can, if you'll allow me, I know who holds tomorrow. And it may not seem like, you know, we may go through life sometimes like Esther, with our knees knocking, afraid, not knowing what the future holds, but God is working behind the scenes. I don't have an answer for everything. When this man asked me today, why, why, Did my 28-year-old adopted brother fall dead unexpectedly with a six-month-old baby? I said, I don't have an answer for everything. But I'm not going to leave God out of the equation. There is a plan. And one of these days, I believe, we'll fall down before God Almighty and the person of Christ, and we'll say, you've done all things well. I didn't understand it then, but we'll understand it all a little better farther along. by and by as the old song says we'll understand it by god bless you i love you