Jeremiah chapter 29, and we will begin reading in verse four of that chapter. Hear now the reading of God's holy, inerrant, inspired word. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful that we have your word before us, that we get to open to end our Lord's Day. We are grateful that we get to do so together, that we get to meet in a place that has good lighting and temperature control and safety and we get to be together and you have blessed us in 10,000 ways that we often forget. Father, I pray for your blessing on our time tonight as we open your word and discuss the book of Esther. Pray that you would help us to attend to your word and what you have for us. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. So as I said, we are in the book of Esther, so I'll give you a moment to find your way back there. And as you're doing so, I was thinking of a question, a number of questions that are raised by the book of Esther. Would you rather be winning the culture war or losing the culture war? Would you rather be in the driver's seat of culture, on top, having the upper hand calling the shots? Or would you rather your enemy had control? I think we would probably all rather be in control, would rather all be on top rather than be at the mercy of those who might even wish to do us harm. There are definite advantages to being on the ascendancy, aren't there? But we don't always get to live that way. In fact, the church throughout the ages has very often been in the minority. Not just in the minority number-wise, but in the minority, being ruled over by people who were not friendly to the church. Church has very often been on what appears to be the losing side. So one question that Esther addresses for us is, where is God in those times? Where is God in those times? So, we are continuing on with our Ark of Redemption series and working through the books of the Bible, one book at a time, addressing one sermon to each book attempting to look at what the book has to say in its totality and then also how it fits in the broader picture of what the Bible is telling us. And so Esther is a unique one. Esther is an unusual book, one of only two books in the Bible named after a woman and with a very unusual plot. And so let's join together and look at the book of Esther in the next few minutes together. I want to make some introductory remarks about the book itself. The events that are found here occur basically between 486 B.C. and 464 B.C. So if you remember the timeline that we talked about when the people from Judah went into exile. It was around 600. There was a multiple waves of deportation from 606 to basically 587. Three waves of deportation in there. And so 587 BC is when the kind of the final deportation to Babylon was. And here we are some 100 years later, basically 486, the beginning of our story, and then 464 by the conclusion of our story. When it was written, don't know, but seems like shortly after those events. There are some literary things and other references that are present or absent that make us think that it was probably written more closely to that time. Something else unusual about the Book of Esther, it is not quoted in the New Testament. Interesting. Nor is there a single verse of it found in the Dead Sea Scrolls." Also interesting. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the translation from Hebrew to, well, that's the Septuagint. Many were in Greek, many were in Hebrew, but in the Dead Sea Scrolls, this Qumran community had gathered and collected Old Testament writings, but then also commentaries and other writings that were non-biblical and things like that gathered. And in that collection, you do not find the book of Esther. Unusual. And actually, it's interesting that when you look at the majority of New Testament, well the Christians immediately in the early church right after the New Testament accepted it without, I mean, they accepted the Jewish canon as it was. They didn't have a lot of questions. But by the time you get later on, you have people like Martin Luther questioning really why this is in there. In his mind, it was entirely too Jewish. It was entirely too lacking in gospel. And the fact that, something else very interesting, it does not mention God. only one of a couple of books in the Bible, Song of Solomon, that doesn't mention God. And so those are interesting things. Not quoted in the New Testament, doesn't mention God, and so that kind of raises the question in a lot of people's mind, why is it in the Bible? Why is it even there if it's not quoted later on, if it's not mentioning God explicitly in its story? Well, in order to understand that, I think what we need to do is think our way through the story. I would encourage you, if you've not read the book of Esther, read it. Work your way through it. It's a very fascinating story. It's even funny at times God's humor that you see in the book the way he turns fortune And it's it's a very engaging story. It's a very interesting story and it moves right along there. They're Fascinating characters and the storyline itself is interesting. So if you've not read Esther, I would encourage you to Read it this week and you'll love it. It's a it's a great story. Very encouraging story. And so, just to give a, you know, kind of a walkthrough of the plot line, you remember, of course, that King Hasuerus, who is Xerxes, is his Greek name. He was giving these massive feasts for months on end and something interesting, as I was reading through it, I tend to watch for patterns. repeated words and phrases and things like that in a book that helps to tell you what the theme of the book is or what some of the themes are. So I always pay attention to repeated phrases and it's interesting how often the phrase drinking wine occurs in this book. more than really anywhere else probably, except maybe Proverbs, which is telling you the cautions about it. But it's again and again, wine drinking is discussed in Esther. And in these feasts that Ahasuerus is giving, there's lots of drinking and it's kind of a debauch time. And that's part of the reason that people later on, I think Jerome had problem with the book of Esther and it's because of the debauchery that's spelled out and not condemned, it's just described. and you're kind of left hanging reading about it. But he gives this big feast and then, well, a number of banquets and goes for months on end and stuff. Well, he calls his wife, Queen Vashti, to come and present herself to the men with whom he's partying. And she declines to do so. I don't speculate much more about what exactly was going on there, but Since everybody's drunk, I imagine that it wasn't a great thing. Anyway, she refuses to do so. She says she's not going to do it. And so he gets angry and deposes her as queen. She's gone. She's no longer the queen. And so now, into chapter 2, he's got to find another queen. since he has done away with Queen Vashti because she wouldn't obey. It's interesting and almost comical to read how the panic is, oh no, wives will disobey their husbands. If word of this gets out, then wives everywhere will start just doing whatever they want, not obeying their husbands. That's the kind of interesting discussion between Ashweros and his wise men. But nevertheless, he goes to replace the queen in the beginning of chapter two, and so they hold They hold this competition, this contest, and of all of the eligible young women, and there's a choice made and whatnot. And so at the conclusion of that, Ahasuerus ends up choosing Esther, who is this She has no parents. She's been adopted by her cousin or by her uncle, Mordecai, and so she's an orphan. But she's beautiful and she wins this pageant and she becomes the queen. And in that process, when all that happens, it's all described and things like that. Well, when she is queen, her uncle Mordecai, her cousin Mordecai, he overhears a plot. So he's some sort of low-level official, something like that, but he's this Jewish man who's raising his Jewish cousin or niece. Anyway, he overhears a plot to kill the king. He goes and tells Esther about it. Esther tells the king, and the king's life is spared. It's almost like an aside. Just a brief moment there at the end of chapter 2 and that happens. The king's life is spared because of Mordecai and so he lives and so that's a great thing. Well, we move on to chapter 3. and you see that there's this interesting butting of heads between Haman who is this very high government official and Mordecai and everyone's supposed to bow down to Haman when he comes through and it's this big ostentatious thing and Mordecai just won't do it. For whatever reason, for good or for ill, whatever his motives were, he wouldn't bow down to Haman. And Haman just hated that. And when Haman found out Mordecai was a Jew, suddenly Haman gets it into his mind he's going to just kill them all. And so he has this plot that he concocts. He tells the king, basically, there's this really rebellious, hard-headed people that we need to deal with. It would be better and safer for you, O king, if we would just do away with all of them, so let's do that. And so the king says, okay, basically. And he gives him this ring. And in chapter three, in verse 12, it's explained to us that when a command is given and sealed by this ring, it can't be changed. It can't be changed. And so you have this unbreakable edict in chapter 3 and verse 12, the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month and an edict according to all that Haman commanded was written to the king's satraps and to the governors all over the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. You get it everywhere. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring. And when a command of the king, an edict is sealed with this ring, it's finalized, it cannot be broken. It cannot be rescinded. It cannot be repealed. It's out there. that these Jews are to be freely exterminated wherever they are in the kingdom. This edict goes far and wide, translated into everybody's language and all this. So that can be accomplished in chapter four, as you can imagine. there is a big response by Mordecai and Esther. Mordecai learns about it at the beginning of chapter four. He tears his clothes, he puts on sackcloth and ashes. He's mourning terribly. And there begins this conversation between Mordecai and Queen Esther, who is his relative, and they're talking back and forth about what she's going to do about it. And so, There's a danger to her. She's the queen. Okay, that's a great thing, but she's the new queen. And the king doesn't just allow anyone to come into his presence. He doesn't take kindly to people barging in on him and things like that. And so for her to go and approach him has its own danger in that regard. But there's also the danger that, what is this edict about? This edict is about killing all the Jews. Oh, and by the way, I'm a Jew. And this edict is unbreakable. Does that mean that the king finding out that she's a Jew would mean that he would just kill her? That he would just side with Haman and kill her? Her life is very truly at risk. And so it's not as if she's shirking her duties, but it takes a little bit of conversation back and forth between the two. Nevertheless, in the end, she decides, yes, I need to act. And so you have this situation that happens in chapter five. And in chapter 5, you've got this situation where she goes in, she decides to approach the king uninvited, which is risky it very well could cost her her life but she does she approaches and he gives her grace and you know doesn't lop off her head right there so you know very gentle husband you know lets her come in and and she comes in with a plan and she says oh king can I invite you to dinner today you and Haman your trusted official, can I invite you to dinner? Oh, that's a great idea. And so they come to dinner that day at her place, and you're thinking, oh, she's going to break the news, she's going to tell what Haman has been up to and say these are my people, and she's going to out this plot right now, but she doesn't. What does she do? She says, well, the king says, why'd you invite me here? And she says, so I could invite you to dinner tomorrow? And I don't know why she did that. I don't know what her reasoning was. Is that excessively, is she scheming? Is she very smart? Is she scared to death? No idea. Nevertheless, that's what she does. Okay. And she survives. And you see what happens with that situation. So she's a little nervous, whatever, and she says, okay, can you come to dinner tomorrow? And Haman is over the moon because he's getting invited to dinner with the queen and with the king. This is a great thing. He loves to be honored. He is being honored. This is the greatest day. And as he's walking out of that meeting, as he's going home for the day, he passes by Mordecai who won't bow to him. And he's just furious. It's just spoiling his wonderful day. Greatest day ever. He's been honored by the king. He's been honored by the queen. He's been honored at being invited back. And this is just wonderful, but that lousy Mordecai. And so he just goes home and he can't shake that. And he talks to his family about it. And they say, all right, here's what we do. Build this gallows so that you can hang Mordecai on it tomorrow. And then you don't have to worry about him. Just kill the guy. And so Haman thinks, well, you know, sounds like a good plan, right? And so he builds this gallows. And then chapter 6, it's that night, this is between the two meetings, the king is laying there and he is unable to sleep. He can't sleep and he's thinking back through whatever and so he has his person read to him from the chronicles of the king, you know, just what's been going on, whatever. He's having this read and he asks the question because he runs across the fact that, remember there was a plot against my life. Yeah, that's right. And I heard about it and I was able to foil this plot and survive. And so, wasn't that Mordecai did that? Wasn't it Mordecai who was the one who found out this plot and told me about it and stuff like that? And whatever happened with him, what kind of a reward did I give him? Oh, nothing. Nothing happened with him. No blessing, no benefit, there was no reward given. Oh, well that's not right, so let's fix that. And so we see in chapter six and verse six, Haman shows up and he's ready for his day with the king and the king says, let him come in. And verse six, so Haman came in. Remember Haman, who loves that honor. He loves the praise of man, especially the king, right? So Haman comes in, the king says to him, what should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. And Haman's like, well, I know who that is. I mean, after all, I was invited to dinner with the king and queen yesterday. I'm invited to dinner with the king and queen today. Obviously, he means me. Now that's not in the original Hebrew. I'm reading between the lines. I imagine that's what's in his head, right? The king says to him, what shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? And Haman said to himself, whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman said to the king, for the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn. and the horse that the king has ridden, on whose head a royal crown is set. And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials. Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. I mean Haman really hammed it up, right? He really, he thought of all the things that would just make all those people who haven't honored him appropriately, make them so jealous of him. The robe and the horse and the being led and the proclamation being made, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. He really lines up all of his favorite, most desired ways to be honored. His wish list. The whole thing, he lays it out. I mean, the king asked, after all. And he's thinking, this is gonna be so great. I get to kill Mordecai today? And I get to wear the king's robe? and I get to ride on the king's horse, and I get to have this trusted official honor me. This is a wonderful, wonderful day, he thinks, between verses nine and 10. And then verse 10. Then the king said to Haman, hurry, take the robes and the horse, as you've said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned. Can you just feel his anger? Can you sense the humor of God in this situation? Now, Mordecai has this great honor bestowed upon him because Haman has no choice but to do it. And so he honors Mordecai. He is forced to do so. And that's when the story gets even more interesting. Verse 14, while they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther and on the second day as they were drinking wine after the feast, again there's the drinking wine thing, The king again said to Esther, what is your wish, Esther? I mean, why did you invite us? It was yesterday and today. It shall be granted to you, he says, and what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Queen Esther answered, if I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the laws to the king. Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he, and where is he who has dared to do this? And Esther said, A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman. But then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. What he thought was going to be the best day of his life has just resulted in trouble for him. And the king arose in his wrath from wine drinking and went into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. The king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. The king walks back in and sees this scene. And the king said, will he even assault the queen in my presence, my own house? As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king said, moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai. whose word saved the king is standing at Haman's house 50 cubits high. And the king said, hang him on that. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king was abated. Mordecai hangs on his own. Haman hangs on the gallows that Haman had intended for Mordecai. And there is this incredible salvation that's given. We still have a problem. We still have a problem. Remember the edict that had been signed in blood, as it were, by the king, cannot be rescinded, giving permission for all people throughout the kingdom to kill these Jews. That edict cannot be repealed. It's hanging out there. It can't be taken back. What's going to happen? What do you think is going to be the result to the people when the king who has all this power and all this authority has mistakenly, and now he wishes he wouldn't have done so, but has given this instruction? What's going to happen? Well, chapter 8 tells us about the fact that the Jews are given permission to defend themselves. Another edict is given, chapter 8 and verse 8, but you may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king and seal it with the king's ring. For an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked. So a second edict is given that says, oh, by the way, while you're trying to attack and kill these Jews, they can defend themselves. They have every right to defend themselves. And so you have this interesting legal situation that is happening there, where now they have the freedom to defend themselves. An interesting thing is that Haman's plot happens in month one of the year, and the death, the assault, the extermination is almost the language they use, is to happen in the 12th month. So there's a long time of preparation. It's not like it's next Tuesday. You've got a whole year to think and plan about this and all this stuff. Nevertheless, this instruction is given. And then in chapter 9, having permission to destroy their enemies in self-defense, the Jews do so. And there is instituted a new Jewish holiday. It's not from the Law of Moses. This is another reason that certain people have been skeptical about this being a canonical book because we have the institution of a new feast that's not a part of the law of Moses. It's the Feast of Purim and it's about this exact deliverance where God delivers his people. And so the enemies of the Jews are destroyed and the numbers are given of how many there because they defend themselves. This new holiday is instituted where they're supposed to celebrate it every year. in commemoration of God's deliverance of his people. And then chapter 10 concludes, a very short chapter, it concludes with the glories of Mordecai, his greatness in the kingdom. Particularly in contrast to Haman who thought he was all that. Mordecai in that position is actually a wonderful man, is actually a wonderful leader. And so that's the plot line of the book. What do we make of this? Well, a couple of redemptive historical contributions or comments that we could make. First of all, God will preserve His remnant through exile. In case we are wondering and worrying that maybe God is only able to protect His people or only going to protect His people when they're safely ensconced in the land, which is where they ought to be, but of course their disobedience has driven them from that, but that hasn't taken them beyond the reach of God's protection. There's a similar, we're not talking about Ezekiel right now, but Ezekiel's writing around the time when they're being deported from Judah. into Babylon and he has this vision of this wheels within wheels and the throne is there and what all does that mean? I don't know what all that means, but the way that machine, that thing is described means that God's authority can go wherever it wants. It's not like it's stuck in a house in Jerusalem. It's mobile. It goes wherever it wants, even into exile, so that God has the authority even there. Here in Persia, not only in Babylon, but in Persia, in Susa itself, he has authority. His authority is there just as equally as it is in Jerusalem at the temple. So God will preserve his remnant through exile. That's the first redemptive historical contribution. This one, I was thinking about And I hold this one loosely, but it's some observations that I make here. You see Esther is a royal who intercedes with the sovereign at great risk to herself for the lives of her people. Does that hint at Christ? I don't know. I don't want to stretch it, but it's an idea that occurred to me, and it seems like it fits that you have Esther right here who is a royal, but nevertheless, she's going to the sovereign one. And she may die in the process, and she's willing to do that to deliver her people. Does that point to Christ? Maybe. I haven't written the book on that yet, but I think so. Here's another interesting one. I hold this one relatively loosely as well. There's a section of the Hebrew Bible that is read through various feasts and different times throughout the year. That section begins with Ruth and ends with Esther. So it begins with one book named after a woman and concludes with the only other book in the Bible named after a woman. And in those stories, you have something very interesting. In Ruth, if you remember what happens, you have a Moabitess, a foreigner marrying a Judean and residing in Judah. So you have this idea of the nations coming to Israel to be blessed. She converts, you have the whole story of Ruth and all that that happens, but she's coming to them. That's the beginning of the story. Esther tells the story about this Judean girl going to the nations, marrying into this foreign royal line and staying there. Now what does that mean? Again, I hold this very loosely, but I can't... You have under the Old Covenant the idea that God's house has been set up, there is a nation established, and the nations around it are invited to come to it. And you see that happening to a certain degree, but you also see it failing. What do you have in the New Testament? You have the people of God going to the nations and making disciples, baptizing them, etc. And it's interesting that while these Jews are defending themselves, In the destruction, the attempted destruction, you have, if I can find the verse offhand, you have many of those in the nation around converting to Judaism. The instruction had been given to go and kill the Jews, but through what God does here, you have actually those people converting to Judaism because of God's deliverance of the people. So I think that's interesting to look at the storyline of the Old Testament image of the nations coming to the house of God in Israel and the New Testament image of the people of God scattering hither and yon to take the gospel there. Again, I hold that with an open hand. I haven't written that book yet either. Nevertheless, I think those are some redemptive historical contributions when we think about what's going on here in Esther. Some theological contributions. One is a very common theme in the, particularly in the prophets, the minor prophets, particularly the reversal of fortune. The reversal of fortune. Look at chapter nine, verse one. Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred and the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. It was right on the verge. It was about to happen. We have an edict from the king. We've been given permission. We've been given this instruction. We have this opportunity. We have everything in our favor, and zoop, God reversed it. Verse 22. Zoop is Hebrew, by the way. Verse 20. And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the 14th day of the month Adar and also the 15th day of the same year by year as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies and as the month when that month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. There's a reversal. Yes. 17, thank you very much. So 8, 17. Thank you, I wrote that down in the wrong place. And in every province and every city where the king's command and his edict had reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday, and many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them. Right? So you have this notion of Are people converting as a result of this going on? No. Was the conversion genuine from the heart? They had fear of the Jews. They were nevertheless declaring themselves to be Jews when the day before they had been declaring themselves those who were gonna kill the Jews. That's a difference. So the first theological contribution there is really the reversal of fortune. There's another thing. There are nine feasts throughout the book of Esther. So along with all this wine drinking, There are nine feasts throughout the book of Esther. The first five are Persian and the last four are Jewish. There's a transition. There's a transition that happens. There's a transition from Persian to Jewish. And the same with Haman being this respected official and in the conclusion it's Mordecai, the very man he hated the most. So you have this reversal of fortune happening. Another aspect of a theological contribution that we can observe here, God protects his people and punishes his enemies. The people having been scattered doesn't mean they're beyond the shepherding care of God. He protects his people, he punishes his enemies. Thirdly, Coincidence equals providence. Coincidence equals providence. Why would there be no mention of God in this book? Seems highly irregular for a book of the Bible not to mention God explicitly. Why would that be? What does it accomplish? Well, first of all, it doesn't mean that God is not in the book, does it? You see God's hand everywhere. His fingerprints are all over the place, right? We see the providence of God at work. This is a book here called Promises Made, the message of the Old Testament from Mark Dever. And I wanna read, I was gonna sit down and compile this and then I saw that he had already done so. I will read you what he says. Esther just happens to be Jewish. She just happens to be beautiful. Esther just happens to be favored by the king. Mordecai just happens to overhear the plot against the king's life. A report of this just happens to be written in the king's chronicles. Haman just happens to notice that Mordecai does not kneel down before him and he just happens to find out that Mordecai is a Jew. When Haman plots his revenge, the dice just happen to indicate that the date of exacting revenge is put for almost a year off. Esther happens to get the king's approval to speak, but then she happens to put off her request for another day. Her deferral just happens to send Haman out by Mordecai one more time, which just happens to cause him to recount to his friends the whole story. They, in turn, just happened to encourage him to build a scaffold immediately. So Haman just happens to be excited to approach the king early the next morning. And it just so happens that the previous night, the mighty king could not command a moment's sleep. And he just happened to have a book brought to him that recounted Mordecai's deed. He then happened to ask Mordecai how he had been rewarded, to which his attendants happened to know the answer. Simply consider for a moment the fact that Mordecai happened not to have been rewarded for having saved the king's life. How unusual this must have been. Someone who saved the king's life not rewarded? I wonder if Mordecai ever chafed under that. Anyhow Haman happens to approach the king just when the king is wondering how Mordecai should be honored. Later on the king happens to return to the queen Just when Haman happens to be pleading with Esther in a way that can be misconstrued. And the gallows Haman built for Mordecai just happens to be ready when the King Xerxes wants to hang Haman. Just happened. Coincidence equals providence. God can intervene in history visibly and miraculously. Like in the ten plagues and passing through the Red Sea. He can do that, but much more often he is working behind the scenes providentially. Matthew Henry said, though the name of God be not in it, the finger of God is, directing many minute events for the bringing about of his people's deliverance. The absence of direct reference, this is me now, that was the end of the quote. The absence of direct reference to God tells the story in a way that highlights the role of God's invisible hand of providence at work in the development and resolution of the account. I think the fact that God is not mentioned by name causes us to look all the harder for Him. It causes us to pay more attention to those coincidences that are happening. It heightens our sensitivity to what's going on so that we see, oh, he's there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and then there. Never mentioned, and always at work. I think that's helpful for us in our day and age because God still does miracles. Usually not. Usually not. Usually He's just working quietly behind the scenes, ways we don't notice, ways we can overlook and just say, yeah, it just happened. It just happened. When it's God's hand, it's Him working. And so, when we read books like this, when we read the Old Testament, when particularly this book of Esther, because God is not particularly mentioned so as to highlight God, we need to look at life that way. We need to look at our life that way because I don't watch miracles happen. I read about them in Scripture. I believe they happen. I know they have happened even since Scripture. I don't see them. And God is at work. Coincidence equals providence. A couple of ethical contributions. Look at chapter 4. Verse 12, and they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told him to reply to Esther, do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. This is during the time when the threat has been discovered and they're discussing with themselves what they are to do. Mordecai, they're communicating by means of this messenger who goes back and forth, back and forth. And Mordecai is saying, don't think that you're safe where you are. You're in the same danger we are. Verse 14, for if you keep silent at this time, listen, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? personal responsibility under the providential hand of God. This book tells us both that God is at work accomplishing his purposes and that you and I have responsibility to act. The fact that God is sovereign does not mean that we have no responsibility. does not mean that we don't have a part to play. Under the providential, absolutely to the detail, sovereign hand of God, we are invited in to participate. And Mordecai says here to Esther, don't misunderstand this. The fate of the world is not on your shoulders, Esther. God is going to deliver His people, but you won't have played a part. You will have dodged your responsibility. God, in His providence, will work, and you are graciously called in to take a part in that. Those are some powerful words that He has there. Personal responsibility. Secondly, self-defense. Self-defense. Reading in chapter 8 verse 11, In other words, children and women are also allowed to defend themselves. is what's being said. This isn't saying, yeah, just, you know, when your neighbor attacks, you kill him and kill his kids. That's not what's being said. The freedom to defend yourself is given not just to the men, but to the women and to the children as well, to defend themselves and to plunder their goods. But it's interesting, three times we are told they didn't lay hands on the plunder. Chapter nine, verse 10, 15, 16, they didn't lay hand on the plunder. The purpose is to show that the Jews were pure in their response, not driven by some kind of greed or hatred of their neighbor. They were simply defending their lives. It's interesting how the way, the means of defense or the means of preservation of the people in this case was not another edict on high that stalled or forestalled the attack on them. No, they were just given permission to defend themselves, and by those means, God defended His people. And I think there's application for us nowadays in regard to ideas of pacifism and things like that, that we have the innate right given from God to defend ourselves. And particularly in situations like this, we can defend our families, we can defend our lives. More could be said on that, But it's interesting that that's the means of the people being delivered in this book. A third ethical contribution is love of neighbor. Esther is willing to face Ahasuerus' wrath to stand up for her people. She's willing to do that. She's willing to go and put her neck on the line for the sake of her people because she loves them. and that's how we ought to love our neighbor is as ourselves. We also see the same idea in Mordecai's qualities and his success there in chapter 10 in verse 3. Mordecai the Jew was second ranked to King Ahasuerus and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers. For he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people. Mordecai is exemplary. in his character in this regard as well. And so those three ethical contributions there about personal responsibility in light of the providence of God, about self-defense, and about love for neighbor. So we started by asking where is God in times of greatest danger and looming disaster? Where is He? You can't see Him. You can't just find Him on the horizon. Look for the glowing, moving, no, you don't see. Where is He? Well, He's right there at work, just behind the scenes where you can't see Him. By the way, this is a large part of what I believe the book of Revelation's talking about. I know we're not there yet in the Ark of Redemption. It's a peeling back of the curtain so that we can see all the stuff that God is doing, all that's going on behind the scenes because we just see this and we think, there's nothing going on there. And the revelator says, look at this, look through the curtains pulled back there and see. Well, that's what Esther is doing for us here. God is at work behind the scenes where you can't see him. No matter how things appear to be going, no matter how late in the game it is, God can work a reversal of fortune for his people in an instant. Do you believe that? Or do you feel like, well, momentum's kind of going the wrong direction? Sure seems like things are headed downhill. I don't know. We're all tempted to be like that. I'm tempted to be like that worse than most. God can work a reversal of fortune for His people in an instant. Boom, all of a sudden, wow, the sun came out. That was amazing that God did that. reversed our fortune like that. In the end, God protects his people. He punishes his enemies, even when that looks to be impossible. God does that. The story of Esther turns, seems to turn on the good luck of the Jews. Things just happened. Things just happened to work out for the best. As Christians though, we have to be able to translate good luck into what it really is. The providential working of the sovereign God in hidden and mysterious ways show themselves as common coincidence. That is our every single day life. And that's the encouragement from the book of Esther. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much that you are always at work, that your being at work is not dependent upon us recognizing that you are at work. You are at work. We're thankful also that your being at work is not dependent upon it being big and miraculous and visible and colorful and explosive and resounding and all of that. You are at work. You are at work redeeming sinners, sanctifying your people, guiding history in the direction you want it to go, accomplishing purposes we can't imagine, and accomplishing purposes we can't imagine how you could be, and you're at work. Father, we are grateful and I take very great comfort knowing that you are at work, knowing that you will accomplish your purposes. You will save sinners, all those you've chosen. You will sanctify those saved sinners. You will glorify your name. You will work in my heart and in my life because you said you would. You are accomplishing your purposes, though we don't see the explosions. Father, we take comfort from that. May we remember the words of this book. May we remember Your great working, Your invisible hand at work, guiding nations and the heart of the King in this book. And may we take that and translate that into our own lives, seeing that You are at work in giant ways, world-changing ways, geopolitical, economic, shattering ways, and subtly in our own heart. In that relationship, in this situation, you are at work. Father, we're grateful and we thank you and we worship you tonight. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.