Life in Plan B: “Seven Truths You Need to Know About God” – Esther 6:1-7:10

Some time ago, I clipped an article that Rev. Chris Kelly from Summit Church in Oakley, California published online that got my attention. His title was: “Five Little Things that you should know about a Big God”. I am not using them in this message, but I did get the idea for this teaching from his approach. I think you will quickly understand why…

Consider three simple pictures and you will get the idea: 1) Here’s this cute little girl washing dishes for her Mom. What a delight — until you find out that she’s washing a laptop! 2)  A man is leaning on his expensive Porshe to stretch his legs and thinking He’s helping, another guy comes along and pushes it over the cliff! 3) Someone is sitting at the desk in the coaches office as the fiery wrath of the coach is poured out — and you find out it’s a nun! When you first see the picture you make a conclusion. With further and deeper observation – it is not at all what you first thought. Many things in this life are not what we say they are:

1. A firefly is not a fly – it is a beetle

2. A prairie dog is not a dog – it is a rodent.

3. India ink is not from India– it is from China and Egypt

4. A horned toad is not a toad – it is a lizard

5. A lead pencil does not contain lead – it contains graphite

6. A douglas fir is not a fir – it is a pine

7. A silkworm is not a worm – it is a caterpillar

8. A peanut is not a nut – it is a legume

9. A koala bear is not a bear – it is a marsupial

10. An English horn is not English and it isn’t a horn – it is a French alto oboe.

The fact is that many things are not what we say they are, and still others are not as they appear to be.

Key Principle: We cannot discern spiritual realities by looking at the physical world alone – often things are far different than they appear.

We have such a passage in Scripture to consider today. There are truths about God that are revealed even in a story where His name is not employed!

When it seems like your efforts are forgotten by God – they are not.

Esther 6:1 During that night the king could not sleep so he gave an order to bring the book of records, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. 2 It was found written what Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 The king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

A few quick insights are worthwhile here:

First, God knows what time it is. The passage opens “that night”… THAT night… the king couldn’t sleep! I’m sure He tried everything. He tried counting sheep, chariots, the number of his concubines… but nothing worked. Hmmm… don’t you find it interesting that on the very night that Haman was plotting to kill Mordecai… that the King couldn’t get to sleep? Sometimes God’s miracles aren’t so much in WHAT He does… as WHEN He does them!

One Pastor wrote: “I mean, you can dismiss the parting of the Red Sea by Moses as an oddity caused by an earthquake or a wind-storm if you want… …but aren’t you just a little curious that it happened at the exact moment that Moses hit the water with his staff? Doctors write off people being cured by cancer as a fluke of nature, but isn’t it amazing that it happens right after their church had an all night prayer meeting? A lot of people have tried to explain the miracles found in the bible by natural means… but what they haven’t even come close to explaining… is the timing of those miracles!”

Second, God knows how to keep score. It may seem like God is invisible when you work hard and don’t get rewarded. When you take a risk for another for the sake of love, you may feel let down when no one realizes what you have done. Even worse, when you sacrifice for others and they don’t seem to even appreciate it – you can wonder if life is fair… With God in control, things are not what they appear! It’s tough to remember when you’re in the middle of a crisis.

God’s man did the right thing – he acted out proper values to protect his king, and that testimony gave the Lord a platform to work off of. He could have worked totally apart from Mordecai’s earlier faithfulness, but often God builds on the testimony of the obedient believer.

Esther 2:23 offers this slice of a detail on the work of Mordecai – long before the Jews were in danger. “Now when the plot was investigated and found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.” It is terribly important to remember that God may decide to use our obedience – even in simple matters – to build a great work. When we faithfully follow the Lord and do what pleases Him, we offer our lives for His use – even if it is MUCH
LATER than when we expect it. We should not mistake the dormancy of any reward for God’s ignorance – that is not so. He calls upon the believer to do the right thing, consistently, so that He can use that testimony as a secure platform to launch his work. If you don’t seem to be rewarded – don’t worry. God knows what you did, and He sees the heart with which you acted.

Knofel Staton, shares this story about a woman named Nellie Matthews. Nellie was a senior saint (very senior). She was stooped over, could not talk plainly, and always shook back and forth. But she never missed church services and always sat on the forth row to the left on the end seat. She never looked up into my face, for she couldn’t. She never spoke to me, and I would not have understood her anyway. But she was always there. She seemed to have a gift of being present, and I noticed that as a teenage boy growing up. When I was in Korea sitting in a tent chapel, I would often think about my hometown church. And guess whose image consistently came to mind? Nellie Matthews. Her faithfulness spoke volumes to me. She didn’t try to be someone else. She didn’t try to impress people with what she wasn’t. She walked to church, sat in the fourth pew, and that work helped change my life. She was a gold, silver and precious stone person. She used whatever gift that she had. And because she did, she helped put something more permanent into my life. Without saying a word, she helped build solid people onto a solid foundation, because she herself was
solid and not a fake.

Remember, nothing will go unrewarded — No word of encouragement, No prayer in the middle of the night. God is always aware and He never slumbers. God knows how to keep score, and he knows where we are in the timing of things. When you think He has forgotten you – He hasn’t!

When you think you outmaneuvered God – you didn’t.

Esther 6:4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace in order to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him. 5 The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” 6 So Haman came in and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?” 7 Then Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king desires to honor, 8 let them bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed; 9 and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’” 10 Then the king said to Haman, “Take quickly the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate; do not fall short in anything of all that you have said.”

Observe for a moment the arsenal God has to work with to get something done – that we may not even perceive..

· God can disrupt the sleep schedule of one He wants to speak to (6:1). His is the God of “orchestrated insomnia.”

· God can select the reading list for those He wants to speak to (6:1).

The king ordered one of his servants to his royal library and get his “Book of the Chronicles”… (the official records of his reign up to this point.)

He could have called in one of his concubines, or a court musician… maybe play a card game… but instead he decided to have a bedtime story. I think He must have been trying to get back to sleep – because (based on the records found in excavations) this book was likely a mind numbing list of ancient budget meetings, names of people who had given and received favors, and a monotonous list of daily happenings. It would’ve been like reading the phone book or the dictionary…So as the servant drones on and on…

“Shamshi Adad, 4083 Canal Rd.…returned your call about re-upholstering your golden throne for the banquet hall. Send a scribe and two servants to carry the chair to the outer court for a quote. Don’t forget to select the specific fabric to be used.

Anu Enlil, 1441 Bazaar Row, gives to you the King his most grateful praise and adoration for the donation of a donkey to the Children’s hospital.

Iannu Utu, on this 15th day of Arah Aru (the month of the bull), in the ninth year of the reign of our exalted King Xerxes, has dutifully unplugged your drains and fixed the leaky watercourse that services your kitchen…

The kings eyelids are getting heavier and heavier as the servant drones on…

Mordecai of Susa has on this day rendered an exemplary service to the Crown by thwarting and attempt on the life of the King and of his kingdom. Xerxes will forever be in his debt….

Una Tubettem of Una’s Rug Emporium offers the King his highest praise by donating to the grand hall a new carpet lovingly made with the hands of his servant girls of Persia….

Wait a minute… what did you say?

I said Una’s Rug Emporium…! Not that, the thing before.. something about Mordecai… ( ‘Mordecai of Susa has on this day rendered an exemplary service to the Crown’)…That’s it! Read on! Read on!… (‘by thwarting an attempt on the life of the King and of his kingdom. Xerxes will forever be in his debt.” )

Does it say anything about his reward? (No, your highness.)

Well, we’ve got to do something about that!

Now, of all the texts that could have been selected by the librarian from the records of Xerxes’ 12 years of rule, isn’t it amazing that the one chosen contained the account of Mordecai’s uncovering the assassination plot in Esther 2:21-23. (widely adapted from Rev. Chris Kelly, sermoncentral illustrations).

· God can direct people to be where He wants them – even when they don’t know why (6:4-5).

Late in February 1916, a British student bought a book at a used-book store in a railway station. He’d looked at that book and rejected it at least a dozen times before, but on that day he purchased it. It was called, Phantastes by George MacDonald, a famous English preacher… and reading that book eventually led to that young man’s conversion. His name? C.S. Lewis, a great defender of the Christian faith in this century. C.S. Lewis later wrote, concerning his first reading of Phantastes at age sixteen, “… I had not the faintest notion what I had let myself in for by buying Phantastes.” (Wikipedia)

· God can use our heart of arrogance to allow us to bring justice on our own heads (6:6).

· God can use our veil of ignorance to pronounce the penalty of our attempt at deception (6:7-9). Chuck Swindoll in his book on Esther writes that… “Momentous events often hang on the tiniest trivialities”.

· God will use the principles of His Word to frame reward and judgment (6:10). In this case, the “do unto others” principle became a standard of judgment! God used a positive principle of His Word, and turned it so that Haman could not object to the application of it in the life of Mordecai. It is what HE said should be done to honor someone, so it is what HE had to “make good” on.

When you feel like you have been abandoned by God – you have not.

Esther 6:11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.”

A pre-kindergarten teacher found an exciting new thing for the Sunday School class. The teacher wrote a song about popcorn, taught it to the children, and had them crouch down on the floor to sing it. At appropriate points in the song, all the children would “pop up.” The teacher soon had them “popping” all over the classroom. One day, the popcorn song was in full swing, when the teacher noticed one child remained crouching on the floor while the other children “popped” all over the room. “Why can’t you ’pop’ like the other children?” The little child replied, “I’m burning in the bottom of the pan.” While the world goes merrily along around us, we can be burning in the bottom of the pan. Where is God when this is all going on? Where is He when we need him the most? (Pastor David Elvery).

God will recall the right things at the right time –even when we think He has forgotten. Mordecai could easily have felt that God forgot – since in short order Haman’s decree to kill his people came AFTER the good work of Mordecai!

If you think you can gather counselors to hold back God – you cannot.

Esther 6:12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried home, mourning, with his head covered. 13 Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him.”

Only a fool believes he can collect counsel against God. The people that Haman collected together (including his wife) offered advice to build a gallows before securing the king’s permission for an execution. It seemed prudent, but it was inherently wrong. He was killing a man out of ego – and killing a race for the same perverted reasoning. Because we collect a large number of people who agree with our egotistical goals does not make them right. The Bible defines a FOOL as someone who distances himself from the Person and standard of God. The Bible speaks of a number of kinds of fools:

1. The unbelieving fool. Psa 14:1 “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”

2. The ignorant fool. Prov.1:7 “fools despise wisdom”

3. The self righteous fool. Prov. 12:15 “the way of a fool is right in his own eyes”

4. The mocking fool. Prov.14:9 “fools mock at sin”

5. The self deluded fool. Rom.1:22 “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”

6. The Rich Fool. Luke 12:16 “thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required.”

(from a list by Pastor Jerry Shirley).

If you think you will choose the time to face God’s judgment – you will not.

Esther 6:14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hastily brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

One of the great ploys of the enemy is the notion that we can “handle” or “control” events to keep ourselves from harm. Every person sitting in a jail cell today can claim they “thought they could get away with it.” Imagine following Dante Alighieri into Hades and asking the people that same question… Did you really think you would escape judgment? It would probably be about the same as the number of people who foolishly live today thinking they will escape death. How has that worked out in the past? The enemy delights in people who disconnect the effect from the cause. The enemy celebrates “victim” thinking – I am stuck and there is no one to help me. It isn’t true – that is why we call Him SAVIOR.

If you think you can talk your way out of judgment – you cannot.

Esther 7:1 Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. 2 And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine at the banquet, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.” 3 Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request; 4 for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king.” 5 Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would presume to do thus?” 6  Esther said, “A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king arose in his anger from drinking wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

Some people think they can TALK there way out of everything. I have recently been introduced through Netflix the TV show “Lie to Me”. It is fascinating to imagine how many people have been trained to see lies that are non-verbally communicated! God knows all, and He will not, in the end, let you talk your way out of the fruits of judgment grown on your carefully cultivated life.

If you think your actions to challenge God have been ignored – they have not.

Esther 7:8 Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, “Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman’s house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.” 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.

Haman got his payment in THIS LIFE before he got it in the next one. But, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it looks like a man or woman got away with the troubles and heartbreaks they caused on earth.. it isn’t as it appears. The writer of Hebrews warns: 9:27 “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment…” Haman’s life can be summed up in a proverb of the Bible – Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Yet, no matter what you have done, there is still hope if you are still breathing. The end of the “appointed to die” statement of Hebrew the writer goes on to say.. Heb. 9:28 “…so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

You can unburden yourself from the judgment that you have built up. You can listen now, surrender to the Savior and change the end of your story! Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,  But a wise man is he who listens to counsel. Hear the counsel of the Word of God: You can be saved from judgment!

Do not be deceived! We cannot discern spiritual realities by looking at the physical world alone – often things are far different than they appear. It is possible that you LOOK like you are walking with God – but you know you are not. You are far from it. You have the language of a believer, but not the life. What can you do? You can unlock the closed heart and surrender…. Nothing else will get the job done.