ESTHER 1-7 YOU CAN TRUST GOD TO WORK2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Esther 1-7 You Can Trust God To Work

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Well, here we are in the book of Esther, and what an incredible book it is, and it's exciting to go through every time. It is a book that really recounts for the Jewish people the history of the feast they celebrate called Purim.

which is where they celebrate how God delivered the Jewish people from this attempted genocide by Haman and under the authority of King Xerxes. And so there was this attempt and it was foiled.

through this woman named Esther and the way that God worked and orchestrated these things was incredible. And so this book recounts that. It's a big deal for the Jewish people. It's something they celebrate every year. In fact, the Feast of Purim is coming up

in just a few days, about 10 days. This year, it lands on March 20th and 21st. And so you'll probably be reminded of that if you have any Jewish friends or see that kind of news come across. But there's going to be the celebration again, remembering of these events that took place. And as we look at this account of Esther, I've titled the message this morning, You Can Trust God to Work.

And I think that's one of the great lessons that we learn from the book of Esther. And that is, you really can trust God to work in the midst of crazy circumstances and situations, in the midst of great adversity and animosity and hatred, in the midst of unfairness and, you know, things that are just completely out of your control. Yet, when all of those things are going on, here we can see the hand of God at work and

in the midst of the chaos and the craziness that Esther and the Jewish people are experiencing at this time. Now, I chose this background for the message this morning because, does anybody know what kind of flower that is or what kind of bush that is? It's a myrtle bush, which that's what Esther's name in Hebrew means. Esther is a Persian name.

which means star, but her name in Hebrew is escaping me at the moment, Hadadah or something like that. But it means it's a myrtle bush and it produces these kinds of flowers. I thought, hey, that's a really beautiful flower. So that's the background for today to remind us of God's beauty in the midst of craziness. Now, the context here is we're in the Persian empire, right?

which is modern-day Iran now, but the Persian Empire extended across what we would know as Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, parts of Egypt and the Sudan, Libya, Arabia. I mean, the Persian Empire was massive. It was the empire that ruled after the Babylonian Empire.

And the timeline where it fits, the accounts of Esther fit right in between the things that we've just been reading about in Ezra and Nehemiah.

The temple was rebuilt, and then the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. But in between those two events, about 40 years on either side, right in the middle was this account of Esther and the things that God did here, and that's what they celebrate each year with Purim. Now, one of the things that's always interesting about Esther is that God, the name of God, is not mentioned at all throughout the book of Esther.

And yet, as we look at this, we can see that God's not absent, but his name is not mentioned. Prayer is not mentioned. And yet, we see the hand of God at work and the power of God at work in the midst of it as well. And so there's a great testimony here, again, of the reality that you can trust God to work, even in circumstances and situations where

God is not mentioned, where, you know, it's not necessarily a spiritual focus or anything like that. And yet at the same time, the hand of God is not limited or reserved to just special circumstances. But even in larger contexts like this, we can see the hand of God and the work of God, and you can trust that God will work. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way.

The name of God is not mentioned in this book, but the hand of God is seen throughout the account. A primary lesson is that God is sovereign in the nations of the world and his people must surrender and do his will.

God is sovereign. That means he reigns over all. He rules over all. And that includes nations. That includes contexts where he's not mentioned. He's not, you know, a focus. He's not a priority. And yet in the midst of that, us, his people, need to be and is appropriate for us to be focused on the will of God and the work of God that he's called us to do.

And so we're going to look at this from a few different angles as we see some of the main characters in this account. We have the king, King Xerxes, also known as Ahasuerus. We have Esther, who eventually becomes his queen. You have Mordecai, who is the uncle of Esther. And then you have Haman, who hates Mordecai and as a result wants to kill all of the Jews throughout the whole kingdom. And that is the plot that he attempts to fulfill in this book.

But you can trust God to work in the midst of that. And so four points we'll look at. Again, looking at it from a few different perspectives. First, just to consider in general from the Jewish people living throughout the empire. And so we're going to jump to Esther chapter 4 and look at verses 1 through 3 to start looking at point number 1, which is trust God to work in massive conspiracies. Verse 1 of chapter 4 of Esther says this.

When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes."

Here we find the Jewish people are in great distress. Not just Mordecai, who is there in the capital city and right there where the events are unfolding, but now all throughout the region. Now, there was several million Jews living throughout the Persian Empire.

A few had returned to Jerusalem, which was still within the realm of the Persian Empire. But there was, I think, maybe 60,000 that returned. But the majority of the Jewish people were dispersed throughout the empire. And that's even what Haman tells the king, right? There's this people dispersed among the empire. And so there's Jewish people all over and they get this news. The word goes out and it goes out in every language. It goes out to every province. This is worldwide, essentially, this news.

Command is given. This opportunity is given. And basically what it is, it's an opportunity for anybody who wants to, to kill Jewish people and take what they want for themselves.

So, you know, you have a nice car and you're Jewish, you know, your Persian neighbor can just kill you and take your car if they want. That's the rule, the law that Haman got the king to put into effect and spread out throughout the kingdom. On this special day, on this certain day, there was going to be this time and this opportunity and people could do whatever they wanted against the Jewish people.

And so as the news goes out, verse 3 describes this great mourning amongst the Jews. And there's fasting, and there's weeping, and there's wailing because of this pronouncement against them. And there's a great threat here for the Jewish people to be completely wiped out, to be completely eliminated from the face of the earth because, well, they were a minority and

and dispersed, spread out throughout the whole kingdom. And so it was going to be easy for the peoples around them to get rid of them if they desired. Now, what led up to this was found in the first part of Esther chapter 3, where King Ahasuerus promotes this guy named Haman.

And he likes Haman, you know, and sometimes that happens. Leaders, they just pick someone and they decide, I'm just going to like this guy. And so there just develops this kind of special favoritism towards Haman. And we don't have any context to why, but he picks him, he raises him up. He begins to, you know, just give him whatever he wants. And he becomes greatly honored as a result, except for verse 2 of Esther chapter 3 says,

tells us that Mordecai would not bow or pay homage to Haman. So everywhere Haman would go, people would bow down to him, people would honor him, people would recognize him in that way. But Mordecai decided, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bow before Haman. So verse 5 of Esther chapter 3 says, When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath.

And so here, this refusal of Mordecai to bow down before Haman provoked Haman to say, you know what? I'm going to get you back, but not just you.

I'm going to kill all of your people throughout the whole world because of how much you irritate me. And so that's Haman's plot. That's the motivation behind it. He rolls the dice to set a day and he specifies this day where it's legal to kill the Jews and take whatever you want. The day is set. It's about 12 months away from

When these things begin to unfold, they have about a year to prepare for this law to be effect or for this day to take effect. And so we see the decree spreading throughout the kingdom. We see in Esther 4, the great mourning amongst the Jews as Haman seeks to fulfill his plot of

to execute this conspiracy. And yet, as you look at these things, and again, we're just kind of getting a little snapshot, little snippets here and there. If we'll back up for a moment, we can recognize that Haman is really just a pawn in this conspiracy. Haman is not, you know, some mastermind and like that. He is a wicked guy, and we'll talk about that as well. But he's really just a pawn,

I think it's interesting to note, if you'll go and pay attention in Esther chapter 3, in verse 3, it says, So notice, the people around Mordecai are recognizing, hey, you're not bowing down when Mordecai comes like the rest of us.

And so they ask him, why do you do that? Verse 4, now it happened when they spoke to him daily that he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman to see whether Mordecai's words would stand for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. And then in verse 5, when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. So what we see happening here is that Haman didn't come to power with a plan already in place.

He didn't have a conspiracy, a plot, you know, something ready to go. And then, man, if only I had the power. And then he gets the power and so he begins to execute it. No, he's just a guy who is seeking after power. He's a guy who's seeking to be raised up. He's a guy after authority. He's a guy pursuing those things. You know, he has that kind of ambition, but he doesn't even notice Mordecai.

Mordecai is the only one not bowing down. But you know what? Haman doesn't even notice that. It's not on his mind. How does it come to his attention? It's the people around Mordecai who notice, who bring it to Haman and said, hey, look at this guy. He's not bowing down. And then Mordecai, well, not Mordecai, but Haman begins to see it. Then he begins to recognize it. And then it really begins to bug him.

So here we have this guy Haman. He's a wicked guy, but he's kind of just a pawn. He's being manipulated, first of all, by the people. But you back up behind that and you can see that this is a total work of and plan of Satan himself. This attempt to wipe out the Jews entirely, Haman did not come up with this.

The people did not come up with this. The people around Mordecai didn't come up with this. This was the plan and the plot of the enemy of God and the God's people, Satan. And we've seen Satan try this before, right? In Egypt, he hatched a plot to kill all of the boys as they were being born, right? In the nation of Egypt. So that eventually the nation would dwindle down and be wiped out or assimilated into the Egyptian empire.

We see this happen later on with the birth of Jesus, where again, Satan tries to kill the Messiahs by killing all the baby boys in this region. We can look at other examples, you know, throughout history, biblical history and just, you know, our own regular history, secular history. Satan has been attempting to defeat the plans of God from the very beginning. And I think it's important to kind of back up and consider that perspective because

Because we recognize then, as you see these conspiracies unfold, as you see these plans begin to be laid out, it can easily become very stressful. It can easily become something to be worried about and concerned about. And yet, for some reason, for me at least, when I remember who's actually at work behind the scenes...

Well, then it reminds me to come back and trust the Lord. And it reminds me that we can trust the Lord even in the midst of massive conspiracies. There is...

Well, there's a lot of people who get worked up about the possibilities of conspiracies. And you can imagine the Jews in their situation, they would be pretty worked up, right? They are distressed. They are freaked out. They are stressed out. There is this day coming and there is this guy who hates them all of a sudden. And there is this plot and this plan and this conspiracy to rob them, to kill them, to just, you know, strip them of everything and possibly eliminate them altogether. Right?

You could imagine them being distressed over this conspiracy. Haman is the front man. He's the face of the conspiracy. But Satan is the one at work. And as hard as he tries, the enemy is not able to defeat the plans of God. As much as he attempts, as much as he wants to, he cannot destroy what God has established.

This often reminds me to go back to something the Lord spoke to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 11, it says, "...the Lord spoke thus with me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled."

the lord of hosts him you shall hollow let him be your fear and let him be your dread god tells isaiah you want to be freaked out about something don't be freaked out about the things that other people are freaked out about he says don't walk in the way of this people now isaiah is there in the midst of israel

This is, you know, before the events that we're reading about in Esther, this is when Israel was still in existence and they were in rebellion against God and there was all kinds of conspiracies to destroy Israel and from within Israel to align with, you know, other nations that were ungodly because Israel itself was ungodly. There was all these conspiracies and there was people all worked up and trying to, you know,

Thwart the plan of God. Thwart the impending doom that was upon them. And so there was this talk about conspiracy all over the place within Israel. And God says, Isaiah, don't be like the rest of the people. They're all freaked out about conspiracies. Listen, you want to be freaked out about something? Be freaked out about God. The Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow. Don't say conspiracy concerning all the things that people call all kinds of things conspiracies.

But don't let that occupy your mind. Don't be afraid. Don't be troubled by those things. Come back to and focus on the Lord of hosts. Let him be your fear and let him be your dread. And this would be great counsel for the Jewish people dispersed throughout the Persian empire at this time. It's appropriate for them to weep and to mourn, not trying to take away from that. But at the same time, this conspiracy has its roots in Satan himself.

And although it's big, although it's massive, although it seems impossible, they need to fear the Lord. They need to focus on trusting the Lord. And God is going to work in the midst of this situation. There's a lot of things that people will call conspiracies today.

There's political conspiracies, financial conspiracies. You can talk about the Illuminati. You can talk about the Freemasons. You can talk about Flat Earth. You can talk about chemtrails. Not that I'm encouraging you to look up all these things, but I'm sure you've heard, right? There's this conspiracy here, this conspiracy there, and people get all worked up over all of these plans and plots and all of these things that perhaps might be happening in spite or behind the scenes and

And even if all of those conspiracies are true, I would suggest a lot of them are just nonsense, right? But even if those conspiracies are true, this encouragement to Isaiah is really fitting. Don't get freaked out about those things. Don't get worked up about those things. You want to be worked up about something? Be worked up about the Lord and put your trust in him and trust God in spite all of those things. Even if all of those conspiracies are true, trust God to work.

in those massive conspiracies. And it's not like, you know, difficult for God to work, even if all of those things are true, right? It's not like it's so big of a conspiracy that God's not able to handle it. That's why for me, I go back to the perspective of this is the work of the enemy and his plans always fail coming against God's plans.

It seems big when you just consider it on the human level. But when you remember the spiritual realm and the things that are happening behind the scenes, you remember it's destined to fail. It's not going to succeed. God's plans will ultimately prevail.

And God doesn't require, you know, some massive effort. What does he require? He requires a woman in the right place at the right time, right? Esther chapter four, Mordecai sends a message to Esther as she's reluctant to go address this issue before the king. And he says, if you remain completely silent, Esther 4.14, if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, right?

Mordecai here has the perspective of the Lord here. He's like, look, this is a massive conspiracy against the Jews. It's going to fail. Now, Esther, you might be there, right? You might, this might be the work of God that you are right there for this very purpose for such a time as this. If you don't act, well, God's going to deliver the Jews through some other means, right?

If that's not your part to play, okay, well, God's going to do it in some other way. He really does trust God in the midst of this massive conspiracy, even though he's mourning, even though he's upset and distressed over the call. But he comes back to this place of trust that he recognizes God's going to do something in the midst of this. And we can trust God even if everyone is against us in this way.

Matthew Henry talking about this says, this was the language of a strong faith which staggered not at the promise when the danger was most threatening, but against hope, believed in hope. A language of strong faith. If you remain silent, deliverance will arise from another place, Mordecai says. He really believed and trusted. He knew that God would do a work amongst the Jewish people.

And so he said, if you don't speak up, if you don't address it, God will address it some other way. He sets for us a good example. Trust God to work in massive conspiracies. You want to be freaked out about something? Be freaked out about God. You want to be all worked up about something? Be worked up about God. Don't get caught up with those conspiracies. But you stay focused on God, his work, and your part in it.

Now as we continue to consider this account of Esther, we're going to jump now to Esther chapter 2 for point number 2. And this time we're going to focus on Esther herself. Here point number 2 is trust God to work in unfair circumstances. Unfair circumstances. Think about Esther, her position, her situation, where she was at. A little girl growing up, you know what she had? She had some pretty unfair circumstances. Her parents died or were killed somehow and

She was orphaned, later adopted by Mordecai, which was, I'm sure, a great blessing for her. But then as she grows up, she now is taken into this relationship with the king that was not every little girl's dream. Verse 8 of Esther chapter 2 says, So it was.

When the king's command and decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered at Shushan, the citadel, under the custody of Haggai, that Esther also was taken to the king's palace, into the care of Haggai, the custodian of the women.

Now the young woman pleased him and she obtained his favor. So he readily gave beauty preparations to her besides her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king's palace and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women. Here we find Esther in this situation where King Ahasuerus, he misses his wife.

Going back to chapter one, Vashti displeased him because she refused to be immodest and inappropriate in front of all of his party guests. And so he banished her at the advice of his counselors. And now, this is several years later, I think it's about four years later, he misses her and he decides through his advisors again,

let's kind of hold a beauty pageant. We'll have Miss Persia and the winner will become the new queen. Now, culturally, as you read through this, this story is pretty crazy for us. It's radically different than our time, our society. As crazy as the political spectrum is, some political leader would try to do these things. In the United States today, there would be...

massive riots and upheaval, right? Because it's really different from what we know and what we understand. Looking at the context here, jumping into verse 12,

Avester chapter 2, it says,

In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shashgaz, the king's eunuch who kept the concubines. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name.

Culturally, this is really strange for us, right? I mean, think about this. Now, it's estimated by, I think it was Josephus, the Jewish historian, that 400 women or girls were gathered at this time for this process. And they're given a year, beautifying treatments for a year, all kinds of preparations, all kinds of, you know, work. It wasn't lounging around. It was, you know,

preparation time for this year so that they would have the opportunity for one night to go to be with the king and then after that night with the king then they would go live with the concubines and so there was the house that they lived in which was not the palace it wasn't the house of the king they would go visit the king for one night then there was a second house that the women would be kept at which was

Well, they're not virgins anymore. They've been with the king, and now they're just with the rest of the concubines. And so they were separated from the people that they'd spent a year with. They were separated from the king. They were not in a good or what we would consider favorable condition, right? Again, this is like really strange for us culturally that this would exist, that this would happen, that this would occur. But it was the culture of the day.

It was not strange in the sense that they couldn't believe this was happening. It was just like, well, that's what the king said. And having a harem, having concubines, having this type of separation, this was normal within their culture. So that part of it wasn't shocking. But at the same time, I'm just picturing Esther here. This had to have seemed so unfair. This is not what I wanted.

Would you want to be taken, right? Kept. This is not like you have the freedom to just leave whenever you want to. This wasn't something you volunteer for. This was, you know, they're walking around, they're saying you, you, you, you, and then now you're in. Whether you like it or not, here she is. She's part of this program. She didn't sign up for it. She didn't, you know, go for it. She didn't

planned for this. This wasn't her dream. She didn't grow up as a little girl thinking, I can't wait to one day, you know, be in the harem of the king of Persia. That just wasn't what she would have expected or planned for herself.

But now she's part of it. She's caught up in it. She has no way to escape it. In verse 15, now when the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abahel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as daughter to go into the king, she requested nothing but what Haggai, the king's eunuch, the custodian of women advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus and to his royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign.

The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins. So he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And so here we see it's finally her day. She's brought in before the king. The king loves her and crowns her as... So she finds favor. But again, not the, you know, ideal, dreamy, romantic love story that

We would want, right? You wouldn't want this for yourself. You wouldn't want this for anybody you know. It works out, but not really the way that you would plan it or desire it. Esther, she becomes married. Actually, all the women, so just in case that's a concern for you, all the women of this program, essentially, what's happening is they are being married to the king.

So it's not that they spend one night with the king and then they go out to the clubs the next night and go party with everybody else. That's not, you know, it was for the rest of their lives, they were the king's concubine. They were the king's wife. It was a lower class of wife, but it was a wife of sorts. And so she becomes married to the king along with these other girls, but she is the one who is the queen. She is the one who is to sit beside the king and have this special place of honor. It's a special place of honor, but still it's unfair. It's not

It's not what she would have desired. If you go back to Esther chapter 1, you see the treatment and the way that Vashti was treated. You can see this all began in unfairness. This all began in things that we would consider horrifying in chapter 1 and then chapter 2. Like all of this, it's not what we would expect. It's not what we'd want. It's not what we would desire.

And think about that for a young woman, right? One year of preparation for one night with the king for a chance to maybe be queen, but forever you are the concubine of the king. It's not a good circumstance for anybody who wants that for their life.

Nobody plans that, right? Well, that's what I think. But then, you know, we have shows like The Bachelor. I don't know why guys at work have been talking about The Bachelor and saying that their wives make them watch it. But then they know all these details. So they seem to be a little bit interested. But people sign up for crazy things. So I don't know. Maybe some of these ladies did want this. They were like excited about this opportunity and this chance. And so maybe, and maybe that was...

in Esther's heart as well. We don't know. It doesn't give us that kind of insight, but it doesn't seem so. It seems unfair. Caught up in circumstances and things you don't have any control over, and yet in the midst of that, you can stop and remember that God is at work. And Mordecai's words to Esther in Esther chapter 4 verse 14, stand out again and ring true. Yet who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this.

Even though the situation was unfair, even though it wasn't what Esther probably would have planned for her life or desired for her life, she didn't sign up for this, but here she is in this system, in this program, in this situation. She is now the queen. Now there is this decree against all Jewish people of which she's part of. Mordecai begins to recognize, perhaps God has allowed these circumstances and situations, unfair as they are,

strategically God has placed you in the midst of it for this time, for, well, for the work that God desires to do. J. Vernon McGee says it this way. He says, it's obvious that Esther did not accidentally win a beauty contest. She was not accidentally the one who became queen. She is there for a very definite purpose. And God has been arranging this all the time.

When we're stuck in circumstances that we can't control, we, you know, would deem unfair. It's not what we would plan for our life. It's not what we would desire for our life or even for anybody else's life. But we're stuck in those circumstances. It's not appropriate for us, you know, to rebel and run away. Here we are. We're in this. It's not fair. It doesn't seem right. But you know what we can trust in? We can trust in the fact that God knew about all these things and

And perhaps he is strategically placing us here in these circumstances to accomplish something for his purposes. And we'll see later on in chapter 7.

Queen Esther is able to present her request before the king and she becomes the agent to deliver the Jewish people throughout the whole realm of Persia as she has this unique position, as this favored one before the king. And she presents the issue and then the solution to the king at that time.

And so we'll read more about that as we continue on reading through the Bible in three years in 8, 9, and 10 of Esther these next few days.

But think about the things that had to align for Esther to be in this situation. I mean, it had to be the perfect timing. She had to be the right age. She had to be unmarried after Vashti was, you know, banished. And she had to be Jewish in order for all of this plan to work. She had to have this wise uncle. She had to be beautiful. She had to be chosen by a hashish. She had to have this guy Haman rise up in the same time. I mean, like all of these things, it's not just random chance, but it's God's

working out these details and placing Esther right where she needed to be in order to be an agent of the Lord to accomplish something great. And what if your circumstances, unfair as they are, are part of God's plan? And God is able to work in the midst of, well, maybe some huge, massive conspiracies. Maybe they don't have to be that massive, but at the same time, God is able to work in

In the midst of the circumstances that you face, Pastor David Guzik puts it this way, wherever you are right now, God has a purpose for it. Maybe a short purpose or a long one. Perhaps a large purpose or a small purpose. But God has a reason. Trust God to work in unfair circumstances. You would wish things could be different. You would wish, you know, things, you wouldn't plan it this way. You would want it to happen differently. But here you are, in the midst of your situation,

And in the midst of that, God has a purpose and a work for you to do. Let me remind you of what Paul says in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

In the midst of all the unfair circumstances and situations that you don't have control over, God has prepared a path of good works, a path of representing Him, a path of obeying Him and honoring Him, a path of serving the Lord.

And we can't control the circumstances. We can't change those things, but we can control and change our attitude and our heart towards the situation and trust God to work and look for those opportunities, those things that he has called us to in the midst of it. Perhaps you have been placed here for such a time as this to accomplish something that God desires in the situations that are around you. Well, moving on.

To the next point, we're going to jump back to Esther chapter 2 again. Here, we're going to look at Mordecai, and the point is, trust God to work in people you love. As I was reading through the passage, the chapters again this week, reading through the book of Esther, I was thinking about Mordecai. So you think about Esther, how unfair that was. Think about Mordecai and what he might have experienced watching all of this unfold upon Esther and his people.

Esther chapter 2, jumping into verse 5, it says, That's Esther's Hebrew name, Hadassah. That is Esther, his uncle's daughter.

For she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So it was when the king's commanded decree were heard and many young women were gathered at Shushan, the citadel, under the custody of Haggai, that Esther also was taken to the king's palace and to the care of Haggai, the custodian of the women.

Here you find Mordecai, same context, same situation we're talking about here in the book of Esther. But just considering from his perspective, here's this little girl. His brother and wife have died. They left behind this girl. What a tragedy. What a difficult situation. He takes her and he adopts her. He says, I will raise you as my daughter.

Mordecai is not some distant uncle who they saw each other once a year at Christmas parties and stuff. He's her dad, essentially. He's raised her. He's loved her her whole life. He's poured into her and helped her to grow up and become the woman that she is. But now she's taken out of his hands.

He's not able to control what happens to her. He's not able to change the circumstances. He's not able, again, just as Esther probably didn't dream this for her life, this is not what Mordecai dreamed for her. This isn't what he wanted for her, but this is where she's at. And here's Mordecai in the midst of this situation. I think he provides for us a good example, and I'm not going to go into great depth here, but here's a

A couple quick insights from his life. When people you love face circumstances you can't change, you can follow the example of Mordecai and love them. You can't change their circumstances, but you can love them. Mordecai does this. In verse 11 of chapter 2, it says, And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. He cared immensely. He loved her and he...

He spent his time in a way that would also let her know that he loved her. He demonstrated his love. He wasn't, you know, he was there for his own concern because he loved her. But also the way that he loved her let her know and she knew that she had his love and support. That no matter what was happening to her, you know, she knew that he loved her. She knew what he felt about her. He

Couldn't change. He wished he could, right? He couldn't change it. And it was difficult. But he also didn't just, you know, write her off and say, well, there's nothing I can do about that, you know, and just try to forget it because it's too hard to think about. No, he put himself in a position where he was there every day, concerned, loving, present. When you love people and they face circumstances you can't change, just love them. You're not responsible for resolving the circumstances.

That's not your job. You don't have the power, but you can love them and express your love in that way. You can also advise them. Mordecai advised Esther well throughout this whole process. In verse 10 of chapter 2, it tells us that Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it. And we don't know all the circumstances, what informed his decision to give her this counsel, but it was wise counsel.

And the Lord used that to bring this big reveal later on that she is a Jew at the right time in order for the situation to be resolved in the way that God desired. In Esther chapter four, I've mentioned to it a few times already, right? Mordecai sends her great counsel to go in before the king to address the situation. He reminds her, he gives her the truth. Look, if you don't speak up, you're not gonna be safe more than any of the other Jews. You're in danger just like the rest of us.

So he encourages her. He tells her things that she doesn't want to hear, but needs to hear that kind of stuff. Right. And in a loving way, he challenges her and encourages her. Hey, maybe, you know, you need to do this because God has placed you here for this time. And so throughout this whole process, he can't change her. He can't force her. He can't, you know, command her, but he advises her and he gives her great advice, gives her wise counsel and directs her in the ways of the Lord and what God would have for her.

He can't change her circumstances, but he can love her and advise her and he can pray for her. When she agrees, okay, I will go before the king. She says, please go fast and pray. Gather people and fast and pray. She doesn't actually say pray. Prayer is not mentioned in the book, but it's implied. Go fast, gather people and fast for me and for the situation. And it tells us in Esther chapter four, Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him. He went and he prayed for her.

He sought the Lord on her behalf. He interceded for her. There's a lot of people that we love and there's circumstances that they face that we wish we could change, but we can't. So in the face of that, here's what we can do. We can love them, we can advise them, and we can pray for them. And those are important things for us to do on their behalf. Well, I want to finish up with one last look at a

this account, and that's looking at the man Haman. And here we get point number four, trust God to work against the wicked. In Esther chapter seven, if you want to jump there, here we find the kind of beginning of the end where Esther reveals the situation that she is a Jew and that this decree has been made against her people. She is there at the banquet with the king and Haman and

In verse 6 of Esther chapter 7, Esther says, And so she reveals, here's the adversary in this account. It's Haman. And the king is shocked. This is his favorite, right? This is the one that he has raised up and shown great honor to. But he has been working against the king in this way and against the Jews. And he says,

In verse 9 of Esther chapter 7, it says, Haman, he was a pawn in Satan's scheme.

But he wasn't an unwilling participant. He was a wicked guy. He was proud. He was petty. He was wicked. And so Esther says, the enemy is this wicked Haman. We see this kind of activity happen to this day. Wicked people doing terrible things, atrocious things. What do we do about that?

We can trust God to work against the wicked. Whether that be wicked directly attacking us or whether that be wickedness that we see in general, Haman here provides for us a good reminder, God will deal with the wicked.

No matter how much power they have, how much favor they find, you know, with the powers that be, God will deal with the wicked. I like what the psalmist says in Psalm 37. It's a Psalm of David. He says, do not fret because of evildoers. You ever do that? You ever fret because of evildoers? Don't do it. Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness.

The psalmist goes on in Psalm 37 to say, God's going to deal with them, and their own weapons are going to be their destruction. Their own weapons are going to be used against them. Boy, the book of Esther really plays this out for us. In Esther chapter 6, it says,

The king's sleepless night, right? And then, oh my goodness, you just imagine Haman's position being forced to proclaim honor to Mordecai, this guy that he hates, and what prompted him to try to kill all the Jews altogether. And now he has to walk around honoring him. And he's so upset, he builds these gallows to hang Mordecai. But those gallows that he built are now used on him. You got to love righteous irony, right? It's the way that God works. Don't fret over the wicked.

They do wickedness. They are wicked. It's terrible. But you know, God is going to deal with it. God will address it in the right time, in the right place. Trust God to work against the wicked. In the Feast of Purim that they continue to celebrate today, there's a special part of the feast. It's a cookie that they have for this feast. They look like this. You know what they call these cookies? Haman's ears. And so every year...

They just take a little bite, go, oh, that's so good. Hmm, Haman's ears. God took that wicked man, turned his wickedness against him, and destroyed him. It's a reminder, the enemies, they're wicked and they do terrible things, but you don't have to fret about them. It's not pretending like they don't do hurtful things, that it's not painful. It's not, no, but look at the bigger picture and remember you can trust God to work against. One day you're going to eat that enemy's ears. It's going to be delicious. Put a smile on your face and you think,

wow, God, you turned that around and turned wickedness upon itself. You can trust God to work against the wicked. And so here in the book of Esther, we get this great reminder, great reason to trust God, whatever might be happening, be it a massive conspiracy. And maybe some of those conspiracies are true. Probably not, but maybe some of them are true. Even so, we can trust God to work. He's able to handle it. And he's got people exactly where they need to be

to resolve things, to work His work, and to bring about His purposes. For your own life, personally, trust God to work in unfair circumstances. You don't like the things that you're going through. You don't feel like it's deserved, or you're not facing what you desired. You're not in the place that you would have planned. You can still trust God to work, and keep yourself in a mindset that perhaps there is a work for you to do, and that's one of the reasons that God is allowing these things to unfold in your life, that you're

For such a time as this, you've been placed there strategically. Trust God to work in people you love. You wish you could change their circumstances, but you can't. But you can love them. You can advise them. You can pray for them. And trust God to work in the midst of it. And then trust God to work against the wicked. Whether it be against you or someone you love, or again, part of that massive conspiracy. God's going to deal with them. Don't fret about the evildoers. The psalm also goes on in Psalm 37 to say, God laughs.

They work so hard, these wicked people, to fight against the plan of God. And God just laughs. He's not concerned about it. He's concerned about it in the sense of the harm and the hurt that is being, you know, caused. But he's not concerned about it that he's threatened, like they might win somehow. He's got it covered. You can trust God to work against the wicked, to deal with the wicked. It will be taken care of. And so we can trust God to work. Amen. Let's pray.

As we do on first service, I'll begin in prayer and then leave it open and you can pray as the Lord prompts your heart for service, maybe for circumstances or conspiracies or loved ones or wickedness, whatever the Lord has put upon your heart. Lord, this morning we thank you for the great reminder and the encouragement that we have from the account here in the book of Esther and

Lord, every way we look at it, we can look at it from many different angles, but what we see throughout is your hand at work. Reason to trust you, reason to rely upon you, reason to place our life in your hands and walk in your ways. And so, God, I pray that you would help us to do that. Lord, whatever is upon our heart, whatever is keeping us up at night, Lord, and weighing heavy upon us, I pray, Lord, that you would remind us and bring us back to this place where we can look to you and

And we can recognize your hand at work in our lives. Help us, God, to trust you, to place our faith in you. Help us to not get caught up in the zoomed in picture of all of the events that are happening and we can't see past that. But Lord, help us to be able to zoom out and fit you into the picture and see, Lord, that you are still at work.

And you have something that you desire to do. And perhaps, Lord, you desire to give us some specific instruction about our place in this bigger picture work that you have going on. Help us, Lord, to trust you to do that and to listen to you. Lord, that we would follow your instruction. Lord, that we would be at the right place at the right time to bring forth your message and

and to accomplish your purposes. And so, Lord, I pray that you would lead us by your Spirit as we trust in you and rely upon you. We pray this in Jesus' name.