27 Jul The God who is there
The thing about our dog, Arlo, is he makes his presence felt.
He’ll be in your face
If he’s not jumping all over you, tail wagging, you’ll probably see his hair.
He sheds all the time.
It gets everywhere and on everything
He’s scratching our doors, trying to get our attention, wanting to come inside
There’s no chance of you missing him
And yet how different it can be with God sometimes.
God doesn’t give us much to go on, does he?
In fact, if we just go off the first chapter of the Book of Esther, it would seem that God is completely absent and not present at all
Arlo will jump on you at least
But God?
Nothing.
Today, we’re in the first chapter of the Book of Esther, and the big question we’ll be asking is where is God?
Because maybe some of us look at our own lives and it’s not obvious to us whether God is present or not
Does he care about us?
Is he providing for us?
Is this all part of the plan?
Is he working all things out for the good of those who love him?
Will he really make all things right one day?
And I have three points this morning as we consider these things
- The God who is nowhere to be found
- The God who works in an unusual way
- The God who will one day make all things plain
But we start with the first one: The God who is nowhere to be found.
The Book of Esther starts with King Xerxes on centre stage
And as the book goes on, the Persian King gets mentioned 167 times
That’s nearly once per verse
It’s obvious who is running the show
The spotlight is firmly on him
See there from
1 This is what happened during the time of Xerxes (which one?), the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush
Xerxes is a powerful man
He rules over the area from modern day Pakistan to northern Sudan
If we keep going
2 At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, 3 and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present. 4 For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty.
This is the party of the century
All the important people are there.
You can imagine the red carpet as the top brass in the military, princes and nobles all make an appearance
The who’s who of Persia and Media have come
And this party goes on for 180 days.
That’s half a year
Imagine trying to cater for that
And the clean up!
Not only this, but Xerxes has a second banquet
This one only goes for seven days
But still no expense is spared.
The excess, the extravagance is mind boggling
See there in
5 When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa. 6 The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and other costly stones. 7 Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king’s liberality. 8 By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink with no restrictions, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished.
Anything the guests wanted, they got
Let all who come worship King Xerxes and praise him for his glory and splendour
That’s what all this is for
By way of comparison, God is nowhere to be found.
He’s not even mentioned once.
And for God’s people living in exile who didn’t return home under King Cyrus when the Persians defeated the Babylonians, but stayed, they’re wondering where God is, because right now, it feels like God is nowhere to be found
And yet, could it be that God’s silence is not his absence, that God is present even if it might not be immediately obvious to us that God is there.
Point two now: The God who works in an unusual way
Next we read that Queen Vashti has her own banquet
It’s just for the women
And it’s held in the royal palace of King Xerxes
It says there
10 On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Karkas— 11 to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. 12 But when the attendants delivered the king’s command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.
At first, it’d be easy to think this is a nothing event
What’s this got to do with anything?
It’s just a disagreement between King and Queen
But very quickly it becomes something more.
King Xerxes is furious
See there
13 Since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and justice, he spoke with the wise men who understood the times 14 and were closest to the king—Karshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memukan, the seven nobles of Persia and Media who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom. 15 “According to law, what must be done to Queen Vashti?” he asked. “She has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes that the eunuchs have taken to her.” 16 Then Memukan replied in the presence of the king and the nobles, “Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes.
Woah!
How did we get here?
Queen Vashti goes from refusing King Xerxes to now being accused of wronging all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes
The king’s nobles fear that other women would follow Queen Vashti’s example and refuse their husbands as well
See there in
18 This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen’s conduct will respond to all the king’s nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord.
And so, the king’s nobles advise King Xerxes in
19 “Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.
Now, you might say, ‘I still don’t get it. What’s this got to do with anything?’
Well, everything.
Because as a result of this decree, if you know the rest of the story, this is how Esther rises to replace Queen Vashti and uses her position to influence King Xerxes and rescue God’s people
And yet, where does it all start?
With Queen Vashti’s refusal.
She’s completely unaware, of course
In fact, no one could’ve guessed that this was the moment which would singlehandedly change the fortunes of God’s people forever
If you were to come up with a plan to bring home the exiles who are left behind in Persia, I don’t think anyone is thinking, ‘Well, why don’t we get Queen Vashti to refuse King Xerxes, and this will make him so mad, that he will go into a rage and decree that Queen Vashti is never allowed to enter his presence ever again, he’ll start a search for her replacement, which will result in Esther one day saving God’s people’
And yet, this is what happened.
You can’t make this stuff up
God works in an unusual way
When Kezia and I were newly married, we hosted a bible study at our apartment in Burwood
We had a small group of 5 students come over to our place each week to work through Mark’s Gospel
There was nothing impressive about what we did
We were newly married so we didn’t have much furniture
We lived on the top floor of an apartment block with no lift, so for those who don’t like to walk, it’s not the easiest place to get to
We didn’t have much to give.
Maybe some tea, coffee, biscuits
Some weeks, it ended up being just the two of us.
Everyone else cancelled at the last minute
I wasn’t sure that anything would come out of our time together
And yet, in God’s kindness, to my complete surprise, about 10 years later, I found out that one of the girls in that group had become a Christian, was married, and she’s now working with her husband on a university campus reaching students
How cool is that!
Do you see?
God’s ways are not our ways
I wonder as you look at your life, do you think, ‘I have no idea what God is doing right now’?
How is this going to turn out for good?
How is this good?
It’s like the story of ‘The Drowning Man’
There once was a man stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.
Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.”
The stranded man shouted back, “No, it’s OK, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.”
So the rowboat went on.
Then a motorboat came by. “The fellow in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in, I can save you.”
To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”
So the motorboat went on.
Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, “Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety.”
To this the stranded man again replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”
So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.
Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!”
To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”
Isn’t it the same with us?
We expect God to work a certain way
And yet, we just don’t know what God will do and why he does it
God is not like us
He works in unusual ways
He doesn’t do as we might do
He doesn’t think like we might think
God often works differently to how we think he ought or should.
And so we need to learn to trust him for his grace
That he is good.
He only ever does what is best for us.
Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Philippians 4.11, said this,
If you are poor you should be well content with your position, because depend upon it, it is the fittest for you. Unerring wisdom cast your lot … Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, God would have put you there. You are put by him in the most suitable place, and if you had had the picking of your lot half-an-hour afterwards, you would have come back and said, ‘Lord, choose for me, for I have not chosen the best after all’ … Then be content; you cannot better your lot. Take up your cross; you could not have a better trial than you have got; it is the best for you; it sifts you the most; it will do you the most good, and prove the most effective means of making you perfect in every good work and work to the glory of God.
Do you believe it?
The final point now: The God who will one day make all things plain
While we might know what happens next if we read the rest of the Book of Esther, remember, the characters in the story don’t
They don’t know that Queen Vashti’s refusal is what leads to the rise of Esther as Queen, the way God will rescue his people
And so that’s what Esther 2 is all about
It helps us make sense of Esther 1
See there from
1 Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2 Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.
The search is on.
It’s like an episode of ‘The Bachelor’
All the young virgins in the land are being rounded up to live together in the one place
And each of them will be given one night with the king
If he’s pleased with them, they’ll be allowed to come back.
It’s a horrific abuse of power.
And yet, this is how Esther comes to power and replaces Queen Vashti
See there
5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. 8 When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem.
Esther receives favour from Hegai, who gives her special food, the best room in the harem, better beauty products (she gets the Korean stuff), seven attendants, and the inside tip on how best to please King Xerxes
And as it turns out, it says there at the end of the chapter in
17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
None of the characters in the story knows yet that in the next couple of chapters, Esther’s very own people, the Jews, will be in danger because of Haman, why is why God has placed Esther in the palace, in a royal position, with power and influence to rescue her own people
But we do.
The over the top banquets
Queen Vashti’s refusal
The bad advice of the King’s nobles, who turned a household dispute into a national crisis
The tragedy of Esther’s upbringing, raised by her cousin Mordecai
The favour of Hegai
All of it.
Every single thing that has happened until now is a piece of the puzzle that fits into a long chain of events that will ultimately lead to God delivering his people and bringing about his saving purposes.
The characters in the story, they can’t see it from where they’re standing
But for us as readers of the story, we can see it
We know what happens next
We have the benefit of hindsight
We’re given Esther 2, not just Esther 1
It’s plain to us that this is the way that God delivers his people
We can say to the exiles who have been left behind and are living in Persia under the rule of Xerxes, ‘If only you knew … If only you could see what I see … I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but God’s actually got a plan to get you out of here. He’s got a plan for your good and your future. I know you can’t see it. I know you can’t make sense of it right now. But if you just hold on. Sit tight. If you keep trusting God. Very soon, you’re going to see.’
And we’re being called to do the same thing.
To trust God that one day God will make all things plain
Yes, from where we stand in Esther 1, we often can’t see what God is going to do in Esther 2 and 3 and 4 and 10
We don’t understand why he would have us go through what we’re going through
The painful things
The tragic things
The unjust things
That loss, this humiliation, the grief, the difficult moments, that disappointment
And yet, we see here, in part, in Esther 2, God will make it plain one day
Yes, there may be times, where God gives us the explanation
Years later, maybe we look back on a difficult season in our lives, and we say, ‘Yes, I can see what God was doing then, why he had us there, why he put us there’
But more often than not, we won’t ever find out until we see Jesus in glory, face to face
It’s like that popular poem, Footprints in the Sand.
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you.”
Whatever you think of the poem, that’s what it’s like.
We look back, and we only see one set of footprints.
Immediately, we jump to conclusions and we accuse God, saying,
Why would you leave me when I needed you the most?
But we see only what we can seem, from our perspective
We don’t see what God sees
But one day we will know
One day we will see and it will all make sense
Everything you have endured, all that you have suffered, will reach its finale and we will receive that final consolation that will suffice for all hearts
But until then, what?
In Hebrews 11, the writer of Hebrews lists example after example of God’s people who trusted God, walked in obedience to God even when they couldn’t see, didn’t understand, weren’t able to make sense of what God was doing, I mean, build a boat when it’s sunny and everyone else is mocking you, that’s faith
Well, the chapter finishes by saying
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised
Many of them, if not all of them, got to the end of our lives, and they still hadn’t got the answer from God
Why did this happen?
What good were you working in that situation?
What was all that pain for?
What did that heartbreak achieve?
And yet, they trusted God.
As one writer puts it,
This is faith. To live with advance knowledge is not faith. To trust the Lord to keep His word to us – no matter what our circumstances may be (and I would add here whether we can make sense of it or not) – to rest content to live by His word, come wind, come weather, that is faith!
One of my favourite hymns of all time, God moves in a mysterious way
It says
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
and rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
of never-failing skill;
He treasures up His bright designs,
and works His sov’reign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust Him for His grace;
behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
and He will make it plain.
It might not be today.
It may not be tomorrow.
But one day he will make it plain.
Until then, trust him for his grace.
I’ll finish here.
As we start this new series in the Book of Esther, there are really two ways to read the Book.
One way is to say, there is no mention of God, and so there must be no God
And you could read it that way.
There is no God.
No God who is working behind the scenes, hidden, unseen
No God who is sovereign over all the events
No God who is working for the good of his people
No God who is restraining evil, so that it’s not as bad as it could be
No God who is patiently working out his purposes
And mind you, you can also live your life this way.
Or you can read it a different way.
There is a God.
In fact, although there is no mention of God, and his presence isn’t felt like you would feel Arlo’s presence if he were here right now, God is there.
His fingerprints are all over everything.
He is, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, upholding everything by his almighty and every present power, and so rules over everything that
… leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.
Nothing is random.
Nothing is coincidence.
Xerxes.
Vashti.
Mordecai.
Esther.
Haman.
None of it just happened.
It was all part of God’s plan to save his people.
It makes for a much richer reading of the Book of Esther.
And imagined if we lived our lives this way, that God is here, there, everywhere, in everything, over it all.
Wouldn’t that change everything?
Wouldn’t that fill your life with colour to know that the Lord is king?
That everything you are experiencing right now, everything you are going through, it isn’t meaningless or random
It actually has purpose, meaning, a Creator, a beginning and an end.
That there is a God.
He knows you and has made himself known to you in the person of Jesus and he invites you into a relationship with him, to be with you in all the ups and downs of life.
That this is my Father’s world.
William Temple described the difference this way.
He said,
When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.
Once we confess and believe that there is a God, we start seeing coincidences everywhere. The miraculous is all around us. It’s not that all of a sudden God becomes real, but for the first time, the scales fall off our eyes and we can see.
We’re filled with gratitude, joy, thankfulness, for the God who made us, sought our joy, sent His Son to die for our sins, and saved us by his grace.
That’s what life, if there is a God, is like.
Two ways to read the Book of Esther.
In fact, here are two ways to live.
Either there is a God, or there isn’t.
So, which is it?
Discussion questions:
- What struck you the most from the sermon?
- How do you think God’s people living in exile under King Xerxes might have felt about God, his promises, and their own safety?
- Look at Queen Vashti’s refusal and what it leads to. What does this teach us about the unusual way God works and the unlikely people and situations God uses as his instruments to bring about his saving purpose?
- Later on, we learn that God uses Esther as a result of her royal position to rescue his people. How might this change how we view the things that seem random and insignificant to us today?
- How does the gospel assure us of the God who is always there?
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