09 Nov The God who is sovereign

Book Week is one of the highlights in the Australian schools calendar. Once a year, kids come to school dressed up as their favourite book character. And they usually have prizes for best dressed. The only thing is sometimes you look at the costumes the kids come dressed in, and you think, how much of this was the kid’s doing and how much of this did the parents do? Because there’s absolutely no way that was made by a kid. It’s definitely a mum and dad job, which is fine, I’m not competitive at all, but Noah made his costume this year. He chose to come dressed as Noah, as in Noah’s ark. And it’d be totally unfair if he didn’t get the prize for best dressed just because someone else came in a costume that was made by their parents, or bought online from TEMU or something, while Noah spent months working on his. Rant over.

Well, today, we’re back in the Book of Esther. If you remember we did Esther 3-4 last time, the longest bible reading in the history of Rock Sydney. I could see a few knees shaking. Well, this week, I’m back. And we’re in Esther 5-7. We’ll be exploring the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, which can be a bit like book week costumes sometimes. Was it the kids or was it the parents? Is it God or is it us? What are we responsible for and what is God responsible for? Like cutting up an apple pie. How do we split this?

But you might be asking so what? What’s the big deal? Well, the reason why this matters is sometimes, people will say, well, if God is sovereign, then it doesn’t really matter what I do. We become fatalistic, and we say, what does it matter if I go this way or that way, or I choose this or that? I mean, God’s already determined what’s going to happen anyway. In this scenario, the slice of the pie we give ourselves is too small. On the flip side, maybe we make too much of ourselves. We believe it’s all up to us. We give ourselves too big of a slice. And we end up carrying a burden we were never meant to carry, as we try to be everywhere, do everything, know everyone, but we can’t because we’re limited. We aren’t all powerful. We aren’t in control. We aren’t sovereign. But today, these chapters in Esther challenge both these assumptions. And where we end up is at neither of these two extremes, but a third way.

 

But we start with the first wrong assumption: It’s all up to God.

 

For the longest time, when the kids got home from school, they’d throw their bags on the kitchen floor and start the next thing, whether that was homework, an afternoon snack, getting changed out of their school uniform. And so, there’d be stuff everywhere. Lunch boxes and drink bottles. Uniforms all over the dining table. Musical instruments all over the floor in the hallway. And Kez and I would always clean up after the kids, so that over time, they learnt that Mum and Dad are going to do it anyway, so why bother? Not so with Esther. When it comes to God’s sovereignty, she’s not fatalistic, saying, ‘It doesn’t matter what I do. God’s going to do it anyway, with or without me. I’ll just sit back and do nothing.’ There’s none of that with Esther.

See there in

1 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.

If you remember in the previous chapter in Esther 4, Esther asks Mordecai to

16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.”

Well, it’s been three days. And so, Esther gets ready to meet the king. It’s not like Esther never prays ever again. But Esther doesn’t stay praying forever. She gets up and does the thing that she’s been uniquely placed by God to do, that only she can do.

And that’s the first thing. God’s sovereignty doesn’t mean we do nothing. We’ve got to do what we need to do. And not only this. But God’s sovereignty doesn’t stop us from making wise plans. Esther is like the ultimate wedding planner, with the excel spreadsheet open, multiple tabs, flow charts, and everything. She’s got a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D. And Esther executes her plan perfectly

See there in

2 When he (the King) saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

Esther doesn’t rush into the King’s court unannounced, making demands of the king. No.  Praying to God doesn’t give you the right to be silly, or mean you’re exempt from the consequences of doing unwise things. As Esther has already told us through Mordecai, no one can enter the King’s inner court without being summoned by the king. And so, anyone who does come uninvited is at risk of being put to death, unless the king holds his scepter out and spares their life. By approaching the king, Esther is putting her own life at risk. But it’s a calculated risk. And remarkably, the King extends the gold scepter to Esther.

And 

3 Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”

If it was me, I’d say, ‘Here’s your chance, Esther!’ Tell the King what you want! But look at Esther’s response.

4 “If it pleases the king,” replied Esther, “let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.”

We aren’t told why Esther doesn’t make her request immediately known to the king. Maybe Esther is buttering up the King and Haman, loosening them up a little with wine, so that they’d treat her request favourably. I’m not sure. But what’s obvious is that there is definitely something else going on here. Esther is cunning. She’s scheming, planning, and moving things into place. Even when the king asks Esther a second time at the banquet what her request is, she refuses to make her petition known. Instead, she invites the King and Haman to a second banquet. Esther’s got a plan. God’s sovereignty doesn’t mean we don’t plan.

But all of this to say that those who do nothing because if God is sovereign, then it doesn’t matter what I do, God’s going to do it anyway, consider the example of Esther. She uses everything that God has given her, all her influence, her position, her gifts, so that she might woo and persuade the King. By taking a risk and approaching the king, Esther sets in motion everything else that is about to happen. Without Esther, Esther 5, 6, 7 and so on doesn’t happen.

See, God doesn’t bypass us. He doesn’t need us or depend on us to achieve his purposes. That’s true. But it seems God’s usual way is to use ordinary means, even people like you and me, to do his will. It’s been said that God’s how is often answered by who. It’s not how God is going to do something, but who God is going to use to do it.

Take for example how God sustains the world. Yes, he could make food rain down from the heavens. He’s done it before. I don’t see why he couldn’t do it again. But last time I checked, sunlight and water make plants grow, which are picked by harvesters, and packed by factory workers, distributed by truck drivers, and sold at the shops and cooked and cleaned by chefs. There’s no magic to it. God’s how is often answered by his who. 

And listen to this from the Westminster Confession, which is a historical document written in the 17th century as a summary of what Presbyterians believe. You know, those weird Christians that are only ever about the Bible, Bible, Bible all the time. It says

1. God from all eternity did by the most and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

What’s it saying? Even though God is sovereign, he still works through second causes,

ordinary means. In fact, it’s these second causes by which the Westminster Confession goes on to say

1. God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

That’s how God makes things happen. He could choose to do something extraordinary. The king gets sick and dies. Somehow, Mordecai becomes king in his place. And God’s people live happily ever after. But he doesn’t do that. God’s usual way is to work through ordinary, normal, mundane, secondary causes, like you and me, even Esther. That’s the first wrong assumption: It’s all up to God.

 

The second wrong assumption is ‘It’s all up to me’.

 

See, while God doesn’t skip over us, he also doesn’t need us or depend on us to do his will. I’m finding that the worst in me seems to come out, that kind of over-confident, stubborn, I’m not going to listen to anybody, ‘I can do this’ macho man, when I come home from the shops. I do it every time. I think to myself, ‘How do I limit the number of trips I need to make from the car to the kitchen bench?’ So I load up. I put things in my pockets. I’m stacking things against my chest. I’ve got milk on this finger. Chips between these two. The bag of apples in this hand. Washing detergent on this finger Inevitably, I end up dropping things on the way and making a mess, getting grumpy at my wife, Kezia, because ‘no one is helping me’, and ending up stuck at the front door because my hands are full and I can’t get the keys in my pocket to open the front door. I’m using my head or my elbow to knock on the door. Beb Beb Let me in … Why do I do this to myself? But it’s not only when I come home from shopping

There’s lots of times when I am over confident, I don’t ask for help because I can do this on my own, or I believe it’s all up to me to get things done. And yet, as we go deeper into the story of Esther, we’ll see how foolish this is. Because nothing happens without God. God is the unidentified hand in Esther working behind the scenes, hidden, quietly, in the seemingly random events of the story. It starts there with a series of ‘coincidences’ in Esther 6, which one commentator describes as … arguably the most ironically comical scene in the entire Bible. I think we’ll see why very soon.

The first coincidence is there in

1 That night the king could not sleep;

Really? It just so happens that this night of all nights, the night before Queen Esther’s banquet, the King can’t get to sleep? Coincidence? Or God?

The second coincidence.

1 That night the king could not sleep; so (what does he do?) he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.

Surely that will be so boring that it’ll put him to sleep. It’s his version of counting backwards from 1,000. Does anyone do that? 1,000 999 998 997 996 Zzzzz …Why is this so important?

Well, look at what happens next.

2 It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

You might say, well, maybe it’s not a very thick book. We’re only 12 uneventful years into King Xerxes’ reign. But really? Out of all the places in the book of chronicles, it just ‘randomly’ opens to the time when Mordecai, who by the way, just so happens to be the target of Haman’s fury and the King’s edict, foils a plot to assassinate King Xerxes and he isn’t rewarded for it at the time it happens. Come on. Coincidence? Or God?

The third coincidence. I don’t know if you remember, but if you think back to Esther 2, we learn then that Mordecai had saved the king’s life. At the time, I was thinking, ‘How random. What’s this got to do with anything? Why are we being told this?’

Well, here’s your answer.

3 “What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?” the king asked. “Nothing has been done for him,” his attendants answered.

That’s why. For such a time as this. So that on the very night that the king can’t sleep, and he opens up the book of chronicles, and he just so happens to read about the time Mordecai saves his life, at a time when Mordecai’s own life is in danger, and not just Mordecai, but the lives of God’s people as well, the king owes him one. How good is this. Now, let me ask you again. Coincidence? Or God?

Coincidence number four. As we know already, the king loves to seek advice from his nobles and officials before making any big decisions. It’s no different here as he seeks advice on how he might reward Mordecai for saving his life. And which one of the king’s nobles walks in at that exact moment? None other than Haman, who, by the way, has only come to get the king’s permission to have Mordecai’s head impaled on a pole

4 The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him. 5 His attendants answered, “Haman is standing in the court.” “Bring him in,” the king ordered.

It doesn’t get any better than this. You can’t make this stuff up. Is this why Esther delays the banquet until the next day? No! No one could’ve seen this coming, not even Esther. No amount of strategising, scheming, smarts, could’ve made this happen. It doesn’t matter how meticulous and well thought out your planning is. There’s just no way And yet, this is what happens. Random? Accident? Coincidence? Miracle? No. It must be God.

As one writer says,

A coincidence is a miracle in which God prefers to remain anonymous

Is God sometimes hidden? Yes. Silent? Yes. Slow? Sometimes. But absent? Never. Put simply, none of this happens without God, which is why it is folly when we think that it’s all up to us. That we’d do very well without God. We don’t need God. Or even that we can meet God halfway. Like people say,

Just do your best and God will do the rest.

It’s just not true. Do your best, sure I can accept that. But don’t think you do anything where God isn’t right there working in and through it, he isn’t underneath it, over it, behind you, in front of you, and all around you. God is in everything, whether it’s obvious or not. And yet, God’s sovereignty doesn’t cancel out our responsibility.

If we look at the rest of Esther 6, we see that God is working with Haman. He doesn’t go around him. He doesn’t need to. Haman gives God lots to work with. I mean who else, when the king asks Haman in

6 When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”

Who does that?! Haman is an egomaniac. He’s so self-absorbed and conceited that he can’t possibly imagine a world whereby the king wants to honour anyone else other than him. He’s completely delusional. But God uses all of this. As we’ll see, Haman effectively plans his own downfall

It says

7 So he (Haman) answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, 8 have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’ ”

This is amazing. Because completely unbeknownst to Haman, the king has no intention of honouring Haman. He’s actually asking about Mordecai. Do you see? Even though God is completely sovereign and free, he often works with what he’s got right in front of him, even the stupidity of Haman. Again, second causes. That’s point two. But where does all of this leave us? If it’s not all up to God. And it’s not all up to us, then what is it?

 

Point three now: It’s both us and God.

I had a wonderfully encouraging conversation the other day. We recently moved our church to Rozelle. And on one of our first Sundays there, I invited a lady who was a part of the church a long time ago when it used to be called St Paul’s Presbyterian Church. They had a centenary celebration in 1973, 100 years, and she was listed as one of the members in the centenary brochure as ‘Sunday School Superintendent’. I interviewed her. What was it like? What did you use this room for? What is your prayer for us as we move here? Anyway, I met her again the other day, and she asked me how it was all going. And as I was sharing with her, she said to me, ‘Well, Jeremy, keep going. I pray for you and Rozelle every day.’ I said, ‘Really, Joan?’ ‘Oh yes, of course.’  To think that there are people right now, some I know, but mostly people I don’t know, who are praying for me and for Rozelle. And really, it’s prayer that expresses beautifully how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility come together. Because while we can’t manipulate and strong-arm God by our prayers, we can’t make God do anything, but it’s also true that God is pleased to work through our prayers. Our praying matters. If we didn’t pray, God wouldn’t do what he’d decreed do.

It was Hudson Taylor who helps us here when he said

It is possible to move men, by prayer, through God alone

What does it take to move men? To bring about radical change, unexpected conversion, conviction of the reality of God and the gospel. Well it takes prayer. And it takes God.

1. By prayer;
2. Through God alone.

And the story of Esther is the same. It’s the story of God and man, or rather, God working through man, not because he has to, but because he is pleased to. Just see how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility come together in Esther 7. The King asks Esther again what her request is. And finally she petitions the king

3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.

Esther still has to face up to the king at the risk of losing her own life. If Esther doesn’t do what she does, then God’s plan to rescue his people, the Jews, it falls apart. She is very much responsible for the outcome and the welfare of her people. But at the same time, none of this happens without God. Again, look at how what seems to our eyes and our senses to be ‘coincidence’, is actually God’s divine hand at work. See there

5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?” 6 Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

Let’s keep reading. Notice what happens at just the right time.

8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?” As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.” The king said, “Impale him on it!” 10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

Don’t tell me any of this happens without God. As one commentator has said

Without the craft and cunning of the Jewish characters (that is, Esther), the divinely inspired coincidences would have fallen to the ground, and without the coincidences, all the wit in the world would not have saved the Jewish people.

God is clearly the divine conductor, orchestrating these events, bringing his sovereign purposes to pass. But equally, don’t say it wasn’t Esther. It matters what Esther does and doesn’t do. Without Esther, the king, Haman, Mordecai, there is no story of Esther. All of them play a vital role in God rescuing his people. As he often does, God is pleased to work through human agents to achieve his good purpose and will. In this case, God is pleased to use Esther, even Haman, for the rescue of his people. God’s sovereignty? Human responsibility? It’s both.

I’ll finish here. We see today this glorious third way, where it’s both/and, us and God, working together, God through us and in us, his human agents, to bring about his good purposes. It’s not all up to us. But neither is it simply all up to God and we do nothing. Three things God’s sovereignty means for us today. I haven’t applied the text as I usually do as we’ve gone along, but I’ve left it to the end.

1. Be faithful.

Esther was faithful to do what God had given her to do. She didn’t jump too far ahead. She didn’t look sideways for someone else to step in and do what God had given her to do. She trusted God and did the next right thing, whether that was getting dressed, or bringing a petition before the king on behalf of her people. It wasn’t easy. Esther risked her life by petitioning the king. But it’s a wonderful example for us of ordinary faithfulness. I wonder how many of us are looking sideways? How many of us are looking to others to do what God is calling us to do? Not many of us will find ourselves in the same position as Esther. But just as he did with Esther, God is calling us to 10,000 faithful steps, one foot in front of the other in obedience to God, that God will use, to bring about his purposes? Because maybe, you’re it. You’re here, in this place, among these people, for such a time as this.

1. Be patient.

 

It took years, a king who couldn’t sleep, and a chance reading of the book of Chronicles, for Mordecai to finally be rewarded. I wonder if at the time, Mordecai was disappointed. He was wondering why he was never rewarded. But imagine how Mordecai would’ve felt when it all came together a couple of years’ later just as Haman is threatening his life and the Jews. How it all made sense. And Mordecai could look back on a painful moment in his story and say, ‘I see now why it had to happen this way’. I wonder if there’s an encouragement here for us to be patient. We expect things to happen immediately, and when things don’t happen straight away, we wonder if we’re in the right place. But as 2 Peter 3 reminds us

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

God’s timing is not our timing. We’re in a rush. God is not. We get impatient. God doesn’t. We need things to happen right away. God is slowly working out his purposes according to his infinite wisdom, mercy, and kindness. We work in seconds. God sometimes works in years. Because maybe that’s how long it takes for God to keep his promise. The one thing we can know for sure is that he will certainly keep his promises, whether it takes a day or a thousand years.

1. Be humble.

None of this happens without God. Are we living in our own strength, boasting about how we did this, we did that, we went there, and we built this? Instead, Esther encourages a sense of smallness in light of God’s bigness. Learn to esteem yourself rightly. You see it on the school playground all the time: kids who overestimate their abilities. The kids jump thinking they can make it, but they’re nowhere near close. And yet, do we do the same?

James 4 says this

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

Did you know that you’re not all knowing, all wise, all good? God is. Trust him. Today, in light of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility, Esther teaches us this morning

Be faithful

Be patient

Be humble

And we can do all of this because as Esther teaches us today, divine sovereignty and human responsibility come together. As one commentator has said about these chapters:

Be wise and trust God, knowing that if we are unwise, we can rest in the comfort of knowing that whatever we do, we can’t frustrate God’s will or his plan.

Let’s pray.