Will you turn, please, to the book of Esther, the book of Esther. If you have a hard time finding Esther, like I do, just go in at the book of Job and turn left, and she'll meet you there in front of the book of Job. Esther, Job. So we're looking at Esther. The Book of Esther is a book that has been criticized quite a bit. Even Martin Luther is supposed to have said in one of his impulsive moments that the Book of Esther shouldn't be in the Scriptures because God wasn't in the Book of Esther. Well, I'm sure he wouldn't say that today, now that he's in the presence of the Lord. It is strange that God seems so absent in the book of Esther. His name never occurs in the book, and you never hear even the word prayer mentioned. When Israel about to be wiped out, you don't hear anybody say, let's pray. And when God miraculously delivers them, You don't hear anybody say, praise the Lord. God just doesn't seem to be in the book of Esther. Now, I don't know, maybe Brother Spauldt could tell us, but I'm told by Sidlow Baxter that God's name is in the book of Esther. Five times. I don't know my Hebrew well because I thought I was going to flunk Hebrew, and so I dropped it, like an idiot, and I've regretted it ever since. So I can't tell you for sure, but Sidlow Baxter says that, and you'll find that in his book entitled Explore the Book, that the name of God occurs five times in Esther, but it's in a hidden form. written as an acrostic. You know, like when I was a kid, I used to fall in love with every girl that had those long ringlets. You remember, you young folks don't remember this probably, but the older folks remember when girls used to have these beautiful long curls that were like springs, you know, you could pull them and they'd bounce back up. And I'd fall in love with every girl that came along that had those beautiful curls. So in school I would think I was very smart to write our love letter and to number all the letters in the alphabet, you know, A is one, D is two, and so on. And so I'd write a I love you and send a secret note around to or through the class, not knowing that everybody in there knew that code as well as I did. Well, maybe that's a little bit like an across. It's something hidden. And so the name of God, for example, he cites in chapter one of Esther, verse twenty. He says it's like this. The first letter in each word is a letter in the name Jehovah. For example, if this were in Hebrew, where you have the word and, the first letter A would be in the Hebrew, the little yod, for the first letter in Jehovah. And then the next word, first letter only, the W, when the first letter W would be in the Hebrew, it would be the second letter in the name Jehovah. And so on, till he spells the name Jehovah. He tells us that occurs four times and cites the chapters and verses. And then he says also in chapter five, about verse seventeen that the word Ege is used, which is another name for God, and it's written in a secret form, an acrostic. So the point is, he says that in some of the manuscripts, some of the oldest manuscripts, those letters only are in italics, which would make them stand out very prominently. So that any Jew reading this would readily see that God is in the book of Esther. Well, if that's true, then it certainly fits what Esther is all about. For Esther is dealing with a time when Israel were out of fellowship with God. They had been in captivity for seventy years, and now God has allowed them to come back to the land. But only fifty thousand of Israel had the heart to return to the land of God. All these other multitudes of Jews stayed out in the Gentile lands, enjoying their own selfish lives. And so the question is, what will God do about his people? Well, he does not show himself as he did when they walked hand in hand with him, as he says, through the wilderness, and God delighted in walking with Israel. And he performed all those miracles we've just been citing in Psalm He just did overt miracles. Water out of the rock, quails out of nowhere. Food, water, care. In every way he performed overt miracles for them. But now that they were out of his fellowship, they would not come back to the land. What will God do? He no longer shows himself as being with them. But in his faithfulness, God is working behind the scenes. He doesn't come right out, and it showed that his great arm of power, as Rahab cited, they knew that, God, they'd heard of his power. No, not now. God is behind the scenes. And there's not one miracle in the book of Esther. but it is what I would call the super miracle. And that is that God lets wicked men do their own thing, and God causes it to turn around on their own heads and to deliver his own people. I believe it would be much easier for God to call fire down from heaven and consume his enemies and deliver Israel, then what he did do, and that was let these wicked men do just what they planned, and let it turn out to the salvation of his people. If I were to put an Old Testament verse and a New Testament verse over Esther, I would put Psalm psalm seventy six verse ten says surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of wrath shall thou restrain what is that verse saying it's saying man does his worst and god causes it to turn out to god's own glory and anything that man might do, evil men, might do, that God cannot turn it to his own purposes and glory. He won't even let it come to pass. Now that's not speaking of Christians, that's just speaking of all men. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath, any wrath that he cannot turn to his own glory, the remainder of wrath shall thou restrain. Calvary is the chief example of this principle. For at Calvary Satan and man did their worst. And as the poet put it, the same spear that pierced thy side drew forth the blood that saves. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shall thou restrain. The New Testament verse that I'd write over this book of Esther is Romans eight, verse twenty eight. But we know that all things, all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. How big is your God, and how little is your God? I don't mean that God is a little God, but do you realize that God is so great that the psalmist says, even the heaven of heavens cannot contain these? He so did a God. And yet, God, in His grace, confines Himself. Think of God, saying of the tabernacle, that little room that was fifteen, a cube, fifteen feet in each direction. And God says, I will appear above the mercy seat. in the cloud, and God dwelt in that little room. He consigned Himself to dwell in the midst of Israel. And one day God Almighty came down and dwelt in humanity. He became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we beheld His glory. And Paul said, The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And he continues, The life I now live in the flesh, it's no longer I that live it, but Christ that lives in me. He is such a mighty, great God, and yet He becomes small enough to fit your heart and mind and to dwell in you and me, to live in and through you and me, and also to enter into the minute details of our little lives which we think are so insignificant. God comes into the tiniest detail of your life. Otherwise, he could not say Romans eight, twenty-eight. All things, all things work together for good to them that love God. And this is what we see in Esther. First of all, we see in Esther the king whose title is Ahasuerus, is having a great feast. And he calls for Vashti, his beautiful queen, to make her appearance before what is now a drunken mob, for they've been feasting for weeks. And this is the final day of the feast. And Vashti doesn't appear. The king was furious. And he turns to his advisors and they say, Your Majesty, we advise... you, in the light of what she's done, they said, Your Majesty, if you let your queen get by with this insubjection, you're going to start one of the biggest women's live movements that you ever saw. And we advise, therefore, that you divorce your queen. And so the king, drunk anyway, listens to their advice, and divorces his queen. Then in chapter two, the king has sobered up, and the king is missing his beautiful queen. Well, his advisors get their heads together, for they realize that they've gotten themselves in a jam. And so they advise the king. Your Majesty, we recommend that you have a Miss Persia contest. and you let them pick the most beautiful women in each province of your vast empire, and then bring into the capital city these winners out in the provinces, and you pick Miss Persia, and she'll be your new queen. Well, this pleased His Majesty, and so that's exactly what they did. And when He chose His Queen, it was none other than than a Jewish named Esther. Now Esther was the adopted daughter of her elder cousin, Mordecai. And Mordecai, knowing the attitude of Gentiles toward Jews, had advised her not to tell that she was a Jew. And so the king didn't realize he had married a Jewish. And now she is queen in this great Gentile world empire, the Persian empire. Now we're told what looks like a little footnote here in chapter two, verses twenty-one through twenty-three. He just comments here and passes on. But he says that In those days there was a plot by two men to take the king's life, and a Jew named Mordecai overheard the plot, and he reported it to the queen, who now, of course, is Esther, and she, in turn, reports it to the king in Mordecai, the Jew's name. In other words, she says, a Jew named Mordecai overheard this plot to take your life. And here are the details and the names of the men involved. So it was investigated and proven true. And these two men were slain, and the king's life was saved. And they wrote this in the book of the Chronicles of the King. This was the custom of the King. In all the Persian kings, they had recorded every event that took place during their reign. And so that was entered in the book. And that subject is dropped at that point. Chapter three presents us with a new character. His name is Haman. Haman is an Agadite. That is, he's a descendant of Agag. the Amalekite, that family that King Saul spared, and now here's one of his descendants, Haman, and he is called Haman, the Tater of the Jews. And the way that came about is explained here. Haman was second in power to the king. He was... the king's favorite, and he elevated him above all that were in his kingdom. In fact, the king was so partial toward this man that he made a proclamation that whenever Haman appeared anywhere in the Persian Empire, that you must bow to Haman and even as you must bow to the king himself. Well, as Haman came forth one day in all his pomp and glory, he passed by Mordecai, who worked outside in the king's gate, not inside in the court, but outside at the gate. And Mordecai didn't bow. But why didn't he bow? Frankly, I don't know why. I can think of two reasons. One might be that he knew that the bowing to the king, and Haman was getting the same reverence that the king was entitled to. In those days, the Persian king claimed divine power, that he was deity. And as a faithful Jew, Mordecai wouldn't bow to show that. honor to any man. On the other hand, it could be that he knew this man's character, the low, miserable character that Haman was, and so he wouldn't bow. But at any rate, he wouldn't bow. And so some of the men that worked alongside him said, you know, it's the law of the land that you bow to Haman, but Mordecai still wouldn't bow. And so some of what I would call his frenemies went to Haman, and they said, did you know there's a man named Mordecai or Jew who won't bow to you? And the Scripture says this made Haman so furious that he decided he would not only get Mordecai, but hearing that he was a Jew, he decided he would wipe out the entire Jewish race. And so he went to resorting to these spirits to find the guidance of the gods in how to take the Jewish nation and Mordecai along with them. And he came up, they cast lots to divine, to find the mind of the gods. And the lot was called pure in their language. And he cast pure of the lot. And the Spirit revealed that the way to do this was on a certain day they were to allow all, not allow, but command that all the Gentiles throughout the world empire of the Persians were... to kill every Jew, men, women, and children, and if you killed a Jew, you had the perfect right to take his property as spoil. And so this proclamation went out throughout the whole land. Haman was so dedicated to this heat of his that he told the king that he would supervise the operation and he would even finance it and offer the king ten thousand talents of silver. Now I was estimating this according to what gold was earlier this year and on the basis of gold at that time it was over two hundred and thirty million dollars worth of gold and he hated the Jews that much that he would give this vast fortune to pay for the operation of wiping out the whole Jewish race. And that was to take place as that lot pure had determined on the twelfth month, the thirteenth day of the month. And these notices were published in every province of the Persian Empire. Chapter four, we see Mordecai. Having heard this proclamation, he goes into mourning. He puts on sackcloth and ashes, and goes out with a loud and bitter wail at where he worked, out at the king's gate, a place where you should never appear, except in your best appearance, because it would cast a reflection upon his majesty's beneficent reign. Esther hears about this, and I suppose she thinks that Mordecai's in bed straight financially, so she sends him a brand new suit of clothes and warns him about what he's doing, and he just returns the clothes to her. And so then she wants to find out what it's all about, and she sends Hathas... one of the units that served her. She sent him to find out what the problem was. And Mordecai sent her a copy of the decree to destroy the Jews on the twelfth month, the thirteenth day of the month. And he told her about what Haman had done and that he had offered to pay for this operation. And it was because he hated Mordecai. And he said, furthermore, you're going to have to now show the king who you really are. You're going to have to go in and plead for your people's lives. Well, she sends the king back a message. And, I mean, sends back Mordecai a message. And she says, you know the decree. Everybody knows that you can't just walk into the king's inner court. where you are to ask favors of him unless he invites you. And no matter who it is, if a person dares to enter into the king's inner court without an invitation from his majesty, it's automatic death. And she says, besides, he hasn't sent for me for thirty days. That would indicate that the king's love had cooled a bit toward Esther, wouldn't it? And for her to venture in uninvited might be her death. Well, when Mordecai got that note from her, he sent her back a sizzler. He said, Now listen, Miss Prius, don't you think you're going to get off? If the rest of us die, you're going to die too. And who knows but what? You came to the kingdom but for just such a time as this. Well, that seemed to get to Esther. And so she said, all right, fast three days and three nights. And I and my maidens will fast three days and three nights. Now that's the nearest thing to anything religious in this whole book. She didn't say pray even. but fast, and even the heathen did that, of course. And so she said, I'll go in on the third day, and if I perish, I perish. She didn't have much faith, did she? But she sure had courage. And so on the third day she went in. And in chapter five, we see her in the king's inner court. Ah, what a clever lady she was. She was not only beautiful, she was smart as well, because she went in in all her royal apparel. Imagine when that king looks up and sees the most beautiful woman in the world dressed in her finery. He did what any red-blooded man would do. He held out the golden scepter to her, which was the symbol that he spared her life rather than her having automatic death. And then he said to Esther, Esther, what is your request even to the half of my kingdom? Now, he just about wrote a blank check, didn't he? To the half of my kingdom. Again, Esther is a smart woman. She did like my wife so often does me. You know, I get home from these safaris preaching the word, and when I get home, invariably there are lights out in the carport and other high places, and my wife doesn't like to stand on step ladders, and so that is my job. to put in those light bulbs. And, you know, she'll say there's a light bulb in the car for it that's out, would you replace it? And I say, yes. And then I get busy in days passing, and then all of a sudden I see my favorite dessert, chocolate ice cream. And I'm just enjoying it, and she says, oh, by the way, did you forget to put that light bulb in? So I get to it at last. And so Esther, when the king said, what is your request to the half of my kingdom, she didn't tell him her request. She said, I want you to come over to my palace tonight for a banquet, and would you bring Mr. Haman with you? And the king said, why, certainly, for he knows that she's got her request of her sleeve. And so he calls for Haman. And Haman goes with him to the feast. And while they are sitting there, the king says, All right, Esther, what's your request, even to the half of my kingdom? And Esther says, I would like to have another feast for you. And will you and Mr. Haman come back for another one tomorrow night, and I'll do as you requested. And the king chuckles, I suppose, and says, all right. And so he and Haman leave that banquet. And as Haman comes out, he's on cloud nine. He starts down the street, and he thinks how great he is, how the king has promoted him. And now that he's been invited, along with his majesty, to the queen's banquet, even the second banquet, And he's just on cloud nine, and suddenly there right in front of him stands Mordecai the Jew. And Mordecai didn't bow. He barely restrings himself and goes home. And when he walks into the house, his wife and friends are there, and he says, You know, I've got wealth beyond measure. I have a big family. I'm next to the king in power. The queen has invited only myself to the palace with his majesty for a banquet two nights in a row. But he says there's one thing eating me up, and that's this Jew named Mordecai. He will not bow to me. And so his wife and his friends say, well, if he's eating you up that bed, why don't you build a gallows seventy-five feet high, and go in and ask the king's permission to hang him on it, because he does everything you ask anyway. And so that's exactly what Haman does. And you hear the hammers flying that night as that gallows rises seventy-five feet high. to hang Mordecai the Jew on it. Then we come to chapter six. On that night could not the king sleep. Why that night? Why not some other night? Why couldn't the king sleep? I don't know. Maybe it was that southern fried chicken that she fed him at the banquet. gave him indigestion. I just don't know. But he couldn't sleep that night. That's no miracle, is it? Many times you and I can't sleep. Well, this king had a habit that when he couldn't sleep, he was like my wife. When she can't sleep, she reads a book, and that puts her to sleep. That would wake me up, but that's what puts her to sleep. And this king was the same way except that being a king he didn't have to read to himself he had a servant read to him and so he calls for one of his servants and he says would you bring me one of those books out there in the archives do you realize there were hundreds and hundreds of those scrolls stacked out there in those archives all the kings of persia had had those books filled with every deed that they had done in their rings, and they were in those scrolls, and he said, Go get one of those books, and come here and read it to me. And it just so happened, and I say that in quotes, that this servant went and just got this scroll, and he brought it out, and it just so happened that that he unrolled it and he started reading at that place. That place was that footnote that we saw a while ago in chapter two verses twenty one through twenty three. He read that a Jew named Mordecai overheard a plot to take the king's life and he reported it to the queen who in turn reported it to the king himself. And it was investigated, proven true, and those men were killed, and the king's life was saved. And instead of going to sleep, the king waked up. And he said, Say, what's been done for that Jew that saved my life? That Jew named Mordecai. And his advisors say, Nothing, Your Majesty. And he says, Well, we better get busy and do something. Just that instant, mind you, it just so happened there was a sound out in the court. Who would dare come toward the king in an hour like this, in the middle of the night, and the king had a miserable night? No one else but Haman. And the scripture tells why he was there. In verse four of chapter six, Haman was coming to the outward court of the king's house to speak unto the king, to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. If he had opened his mouth, we would have had utter chaos. The king invites him in, and the king, before Haman can say a word, the king says, What would you recommend that I do for a man that I want to honor in my kingdom? And the scripture tells us that this egotist, Haman, thinks to himself why he wants to honor me, myself, and I. That's all he thought about was himself. He wants to honor me. And so he thinks, well... He didn't say this out loud, but he thinks, I've got all the money I can use. I'm as high in rank as you can get next to the king. Oh, I know. He says, Your Majesty, I recommend that to honor the man you want to honor in your kingdom, that you have another noble come and bring your royal apparel and put it on this man. and your royal diadem that you wear, and put it on him, and bring forth your royal charger that you ride upon, and put him upon that charger, and lead this man through the streets of the capital city, and cry before this man. Thus shall be done for the man. The king delights to honor. The king answered, That's a good idea. you go and get my apparel, and my crown, and my charger, and do exactly what you've said for Mordecai the Jew, and don't let anything fail of all that you have mentioned. Can't you imagine poor Haman as he leads Mordecai, the Jew, through the streets of the capital, crying, Thus shall be done for the man the king delights to honor. Do you not see how God is working the little details? God is over all, and even the wrath of man will praise him. And so in the conclusion of this book, we find that this plot is unveiled by Esther, and Haman is hung on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai the Jew. Oh, my dear Christian brother or sister, you may have a Haman in your life. I beg you, don't fight. Just turn it over to God. Don't try to defend yourself. Let God handle it. Pray for that person. When we have problems with other Christians, we can't walk off. We can't give them a hard time. We've got to swallow our pride and walk humbly and lovingly. and seek to get justice, but not by fighting, not by trouble, not by discord, but by grace, and by faith in a God who's the God of the super-miracle. And so finally, Mordecai received the very authority of Haman, next to the king. and they issued the decree that authorized all Jews to defend themselves on that thirteenth day of the twelfth month, and the result was fear. who just swept across the Persian Empire. People saw this Jew was next to the king, and many became Jews, and the army came over on the side of the Jews. And when that thirteenth day came, it was the Jews who slaughtered the Gentiles, and they celebrate to this day the two days called Purim, the plural of Purim. as if they laughed at what man might do for the very plot called pure that was to destroy them was the very day, the very way in which the plot was reversed by God using minor details to work it out and to make Israel the head and not the tail, the victors and not the victims. This is our God. He's the God of Esther. He's the God of the super miracle, and he's working it in your life and in my.