Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog

“Queen Esther’s Banquet”Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchNovember 30, 2025 :: Esther 7:1-10  
We have finally reached “Queen Esther’s Banquet.”
It’s actually Queen Esther’s Second Banquet, isn’t it? Because she put one on in chapter 5, as well. But this is the one that everything in this story has been driving towards. This is the banquet where Queen Esther is planning to reveal her big secret and to plead for her life and for the survival of her people.
Queen Esther has a secret and that is that she is a Jew. Very few people know this. You and I know this, but Xerxes I the King of Persia also known as Ahasuerus (to whom Esther is married!) does not know this about her. 
You and I know this, and the Jews in the city of Susa in the fifth century BC (who have been fasting for her three whole days and nights) know this, but their archenemy, Haman (boo/hiss) does not know this.
We know that Esther has another name, Hadassah, but most people in the kingdom only know her Persian name, Esther, the Star Queen. Because her cousin Mordecai who raised her ever since her parents died had told her to keep her Jewish identity a secret...until now. But now things are desperate. Now it seems that it’s time to speak up and speak out and speak for her people, the Jews.
Because the Jews are in danger. Mordecai has angered the Grand Vizier Haman by refusing to fall before him in honor. And Haman was so angry that he conspired to kill, not just Mordecai but all of Mordecai’s people throughout the Persian kingdom–from India to Ethiopia which included all of Israel.
Haman slyly manipulated Xerxes into authorizing the extermination of the Jews on a single day nearly a year from now, the 13th day of Adar, which was chosen “at random” by casting the pur, which was like rolling the dice. Haman offered Xerxes ten thousand talents of silver for the royal treasury to get this done. Probably from taking the Jew’s stuff after killing them. Something like two thirds of the kingdom’s incoming budget for the genocide of the Jews.
Xerxes had hardly paid attention to the details and thoughtlessly gave over his royal ring for Haman to authorize the decree “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day” (Esther 3:13).
Things had become desperate now for the Jewish people. They were all in danger. And so Mordecai, grieving in sackcloth and ashes, had urged Esther to use whatever influence she had with her husband the king to try to stop this murder of all of her kinsmen throughout the world.
Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, Esther had been elevated to this royal position for such a time as this. For such a time as Queen Esther’s Banquet.
This banquet was Esther’s idea of how to persuade King Xerxes to spare her people. Esther knows how much her man loves a banquet. He gave two of them in chapter 1. It’s how she ended up being the queen! One of the king’s banquets lasted half of a year! Ahasuerus loves to party hardy!
But how to get him there? That was the first problem. Because Esther wasn’t allowed to just walk up to him and talk to him. She had to be invited, and she hadn’t been invited for thirty days. Esther had not been the flavor of the month. But she decided to go anyway, and if she died, well, then she died. But she was going to do what was needed, what was right, no matter what.
And the king had...welcomed her into his presence  (whew!), and asked her what she wanted. What was her request?
Esther requested...his presence at a banquet. Every banquet (every mishteh) in this book (and there are like ten of them!) is consequential.
Esther invited the king and the enemy Haman to a banquet in chapter 5 where they ate and drank, and where the king asked her a second time what Esther really wanted. And she said, “I’ll tell you (and Haman) tomorrow at banquet number two.”
And that’s where we are in chapter 7, “Queen Esther’s (Second) Banquet.”
But before we got there, there was this whole chapter 6 thing!
What a week these people are having!!!
Because just yesterday on the way home from the first banquet Haman had seen Mordecai who was still refusing to fall down in honor before him and didn’t even seem scared by him. Mordecai just stared at Haman as he went by. And that had so steamed up Haman that he decided that night to have a gallows built (probably a giant wooden pole for impaling someone) that was 50 cubits high which translates to 75 feet tall! The tallest thing in the city of Susa, taller than the palace itself. Ridiculously high, a skyscraper of death to make an example of Mordecai.
And Haman was going to ask the king for permission to kill Mordecai on these gallows that day. Not waiting for next year’s Jewish genocide. But today, right before Queen Esther’s Banquet.
Do you remember this? For some of you this might be the first time you’ve heard this story.
But during that night the king could not sleep! 
I wonder why?! So many things happening at once, all moving towards this crucial day.
The king could not sleep, so he made his servants read to him from the chronicles of his reign, and they just so happened (wink, wink) to read about a time a few years back when Mordecai had thwarted a plot to assassinate this king. Almost everybody had forgotten about it until that sleepless night.
And they realized that Mordecai had never been honored for saving the king’s life, and so he decided to do something about it right then and there. Remember this?
He decided to ask Haman, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Thinking Mordecai. But Haman, thinking Haman, suggested a royal robe, a royal horse, and a royal parade. And the king said, “Yeah, do that for Mordecai the Jew.”
One of, if not the, funniest chapter(s) in the whole Bible! Keagan just read it to us. Haman has to lead Mordecai around town on a royal horse in a royal robe and say to everyone, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”
And, all of a sudden, Haman’s plans seem to go sideways. Haman goes home in grief from that moment, and his family and friends all tell him that he’s doomed. “You will fall.” And the king’s servants come and grab him to get to Queen Esther’s Banquet on time.
Do you feel how desperate this banquet is? How precarious this situation has become? Everybody is on edge!
The king has not slept in over 24 hours. How does that make you feel? Rough, right? Hard to make good decisions when you haven’t slept. Emotions are raw. It’s easy to get angry when you’re tired. And Xerxes isn’t known for controlling his emotions in the first place.
And Haman has just had to honor his enemy all over town and been told by his closest friends that he himself is going down. He was filled with grief, and he’s probably nervous and anxious, like a trapped animal.
And Esther? How does she feel at this banquet? It doesn’t say, but I would assume that she is scared to death. Maybe she’s heard the wild story about what happened to cousin Mordecai this morning on the horse. That would be encouraging. Maybe she hasn’t heard. We don’t know. Regardless, she didn’t know what was going to happen next.
This is a very precarious situation. Esther is laying a table for two very dangerous men. One is her sworn enemy (even if he doesn’t know it!), and he may have some terrible trick up his sleeve. He may be cornered, but he’s still dangerous.
And the other man is unpredictable and unreliable. We have seen over and over again that Xerxes is not a good man. And she has been basically lying to him for their whole marriage. Keeping her deepest identity secret.
But Esther has gotten these two dangerous men to her banquet, and she’s going to try her dead-level best to make a difference for her people.
Esther chapter 7, verse 1.
By the way, let’s do this with the name of Haman this time. As the Jews have done for millennia, we have been drowning out the name of Haman with noises like boos and hisses at times as we read this tale.
Let’s do it in verse 1 and verse 6 and verse 10 today. The beginning, the middle, and the end of chapter 7. I’ll remind you. 
And here’s your first reminder. Let’s read verse 1.
“So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, and as they were drinking wine on that second day, the king again asked, ‘Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted’” (vv.1-2).
That’s the third time that he’s asked. He might not ask again.
He knows that something is up. He knows the Esther has more on her mind than food and wine. He doesn’t know what it is, but he knows there is something. She’s gotten all dressed up in all of her royal robes. She has laid out quite a spread yesterday and today. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish. (Oh, no, wait that was us on Thursday.) We don’t know what food was on her table, but it was the best of the best. She had pulled out all of stops for two days.
And the best wine. And they’re all laughing (maybe nervously?) and enjoying themselves. Maybe Haman is beginning to relax a little. Maybe his day is going to turn around again. Maybe he can still get Mordecai dead by bedtime if he plays his cards right. He’s obviously still in the king’s good graces and Esther’s, because here he is the only other guest at Queen Esther’s Banquet!
And the king wants to know, “What is your request? I will grant it. I want to be seen as incredibly generous. Just say the word.”
Everything in her story has been leading up to this moment. This is the “such a time.” And Esther does not chicken out. She does not suggest a third banquet. She clears her throat and courageously pleads. Verse 3.
“Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life–this is my petition. And spare my people–this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. 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’” (vv.3-4).
I have three things I want to point out in Esther chapter 7–three things we can clearly see and learn from at Queen Esther’s Banquet–and here’s the first one:
#1. TRUE COURAGE.
I don’t know if I could have done what she did. I would hope I could, but I could also see myself chicken out.
“Let me get back to you on that, King. I’ll send you an email. I didn’t think about what it would be like to say it to your face. Or to say it in front of him.”
No. She just goes right to it. “Grant me my life...And spare my people. I’m a Jew, and the Jews are in trouble, and you’re the only one that can save us.”
Now, it’s amazing how careful and wise she is in how she does it. Esther is teaching a master-class here in diplomacy and persuasion. She starts with two “ifs.” “IF I have found favor with you, O king, and IF it pleases your majesty...” She isn’t demanding here. She’s building off of their relationship. She has always found favor with him up to till now. And she is careful to couch things in a way that appeals to his best interest. She says that she wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn’t so desperate for them and so consequential for him. 
There’s a little bit of ambiguity in verse 4. It could be understood to mean that she is pointing out that if they weren’t killed, they could be put to better economic use than just eliminating them. As it is, he’s going to lose a giant ongoing workforce if this plan goes through. And, of course, they will all die–including his wife Queen Esther.
Notice that she doesn’t accuse him. She could, right? She could say, “You’ve been duped and really messed up my life, Ahasuerus!”
No. She doesn’t say, “You have sold my people. She says, “I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation...” Those are the very words of the order that was sent out in chapter 3, verse 13. But she doesn’t name him here directly.
She does directly ask for him to spare her and her people. Esther comes out and clearly identifies with her people. 
True courage. 
She doesn’t know how this will go. I can imagine a situation where the king says, “You are a Jew?! Get lost. Take your things and move to the back of the harem. This is the last time I will ever see your face. You and Vashti can hang out from now on. You lied to me.”
I can imagine a situation where Haman says, “Oh, you’re a Jew? King Xerxes, she’s part of the problem around here. She’s part of that group I was telling you about last week. She’s right that they are on the schedule to die. That’s a solution, not a problem.” And the men agree together, and that’s it. 
She doesn’t know what’s going to happen when she speaks up. She may die. But if she dies, she dies. She speaks up anyway. That’s true courage.
She could have tried to hide. Maybe just ask for an exception! “You know, O kingy-poo, you had that order about destruction, slaughter, and annihilation? That doesn’t apply to little old me, does it? There’s an exception for queens, right?” No, she stands with her people and intercedes for them. It’s one for all and all for one.
Notice that true courage is not something that we are only called to do once, and then we’re done. Esther had to take her life in her hands in her hands yesterday. And she has to take her life in her hands today. She had be courageous yesterday, and she had to be courageous today.
And our Lord is calling you and me to be courageous, too.
He is calling us to bear witness to Him. To tell others that we are Christians that we belong to His people, too.
He is calling us to share the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death and victorious resurrection and how that saves us from our sins.
He is calling us to use what influence we have, however small or however large, to intercede for others and their good.
To speak up, even in a dangerous world.
In Matthew chapter 10, our Lord Jesus told His followers, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
That sounds like Esther to me. She is so shrewd with how she used beauty, hospitality, and persuasion to make her case as good as she possibly could. But she doesn’t manipulate or lie to get there. Innocent as a dove. But she does go out among the wolves! She knows that she’s vulnerable. She’s a sheep among the wolves, but there she goes. And so should we!
Where are you being called to be courageous?Where are you being called to stick out your neck?Where are you being called to speak up and speak out and speak for others that need you?
Esther shows us how.
She had one shot, and she took her shot...and it hit the target! Verse 5.
“King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?’”
Woah! That sleepless man is angry! And he’s not angry at her. He’s acutely felt the injustice correctly. This thing is bad, really bad. He roars, “Who is he? Give us a name. Who has dared to do such a thing to my wife and her people?”
And we’re thinking, “Can you be this clueless? You don’t see your part in all this?”
But that’s not where Esther goes. She points the finger, perhaps with her whole arm shaking, at someone else in the room. Look at verse 6 and get ready to drown out his name. Verse 6.
“Esther said, ‘The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.”
That took so much courage! To face her enemy? To say that he is her adversary and the enemy of the Jews? To name him. “This vile Haman.” That took so much courage. 
And Haman has no courage. He’s filled with an intense fear and has no courage to deal with it.
Can you feel how much emotion is in this room?
Haman is terrified. Xerxes is infuriated! Verse 7.
“The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden.”
He can’t stand this. He has to think. He has to think about what he’s going to do. 
Maybe it’s dawning on Xerxes that maybe he shares some of the fault here. He’s allowed Haman to put him in this situation. And he’s going to lose face either way. Xerxes never thinks that he’s the problem. He’s so mad at Haman for getting him into this. What’s he going to do? He’s pacing out in the garden, grunting, groaning, maybe throwing things.
And where’s Haman? Haman should not have stayed in that room. He’s not supposed to be alone with a member of the king’s harem. He should have left at that point, but if he leaves, he can’t do anything directly about his situation. The king didn’t want him to follow him, and you can’t enter the king’s presence without being summoned. Look at verse 7.
“But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.”
How is that for irony?! Maybe this is the funniest chapter in the Bible?! The darkest humor. The enemy of the Jews who wants to kill all of the Jews is going to get on knees before a Jewish woman who is his queen and beg for his life. V.8
“Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. [Please, please, please. Help me, please. Mercy!] 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.”
I don’t know if Ahasuerus actually believed that Haman was trying to assault Esther at that moment, maybe he did. Maybe he saw this is a convenient way out, of solving his problem of saving face. Accuse Haman of sexual assault, and we don’t have to into all of that stuff about the royal ring and all that. Or maybe he was just filled with rage and seeing red.
He sees Haman falling. The very thing that Mordecai would not do, “fall” before Haman? The very thing that Zeresh said that Haman would do “fall?” That’s exactly what Haman is doing. Falling before Esther and falling in the eyes of the king. And then his face is covered by the servants. Like he’s not even there anymore. He’s condemned. It’s over for Haman.
And that’s when we hear from Harbona. Harbona was one of the servants who was sent to bring Vashti to the king’s banquet in chapter 1. He’s been hanging around in the background wondering which way the wind was going to blow. It’s obvious now, and so Harbona pipes up with a helpful piece of information. Verse 9.
“Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, ‘A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman's house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.’ The king said, ‘Hang him on it!’” 
Verse 10. Last time to drown out his name today.
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided” (vv.9-10).
The second thing we clearly see at Queen Esther’s (second) Banquet is:
#2. POETIC JUSTICE.
Which is true justice. The punishment here perfectly fits the crime.
Yes, Haman is executed for a crime he did not commit. He wasn’t attempting rape. But he was attempting genocide. And he dies for it. And he dies upon the very instrument of torture that he had wanted to kill an innocent man upon.
Harbona said, “He had it made for Mordecai who spoke up to help the king.” And the king said, “Hang him on it!” 
He was impaled in his own front yard. At the top of the highest point in the city.
Solomon says in Proverbs 26:27, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them” (Proverbs 26:27, NIV).
We’ve all seen this happen from time to time. But we’ve all also wondered if it would happen from time to time. Because we all see a lot of injustice in the world. People digging a pit and pushing other people into it. That’s how Haman had gotten where he was. That’s how Xerxes had gotten where he was!
But now Haman has received poetic justice, and we are told that there is even more poetic justice on the way.
“Be sure your sins will find you out.”
Remember what we learned this summer about justice from 2 Thessalonians?
Paul wrote that persecuted church, “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
Perfect justice is on the way. It will perfectly fit the crime.
And we can rejoice in that. Because that means that everything that is wrong will be made right. Like said last week, we are living in a comedy. We are living in a story with a happy ending for all of God’s true people. 
All bad things must come to an end.
King Jesus is going to bring perfect poetic justice in His forever kingdom. We just have to wait.
But that should also scare you if you are not yet one of God’s true people. If you are living like Haman, living for yourself, your pleasures, your agenda, your happiness, your kingdom, then you can expect poetic justice to roll back on you. Repent now while you still can. 
Haman’s story is a cautionary tale. It’s just a matter of time.
And one last thing that we can see and learn from at Queen Esther’s Banquet?
#3. HIDDEN PROVIDENCE.
Where is God? That’s been the title of this series all along. Where is God at Queen Esther’s Banquet?
Well, He’s never mentioned. He’s never named. But I don’t think, at this point in the story, we can miss seeing signs of His  presence. I don’t think we can miss seeing his handiwork in how the story is playing out.
How in the world did Hadassah get to be Queen Esther? How in the world did Queen Esther get the King and Haman to this precarious banquet? For such a time as this. How in the world did this unlikely story come about? How in the world was Esther still standing and not Haman at the end of chapter 7? 
What are the chances? What is there is no such thing a chance?
How in the world did Haman and Mordecai end up switching places? He may be hidden, but the Lord is clearly sovereignly ruling all things–what we call “providence.”
Now, we’re going to stop here and pick it up again in chapter 8, Lord-willing. 
Haman is dead. The king’s anger has subsided. But not everything is resolved. The fate of the Jews is not yet fully decided.
Because when the Persian king makes a law, it cannot be revoked or repealed. And that’s a problem. Because there is a law on the books that says that the Jews must be eradicated in eleven months. Even though Haman won’t be there to see it! The clock is still ticking down, down, down.
It feels like the tide has turned, but maybe not? Or maybe, just maybe, the hidden hand of providence will show up again in ways we cannot predict and maybe cannot even see until it’s all over.
But think about this.
Mordecai was saved because his enemy Haman took his place on the wooden pole. You and I are saved because our enemy Jesus took our place on the wooden pole.
The Bible says, “...God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [still enemies!], Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
He took our place, willingly.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13, NIV).
Haman was cursed, but he deserved it. We were cursed, and we deserved it.But King Jesus took our curse, and He didn’t deserve it.
And all who put their trust in Him will be redeemed.
I hope that includes you.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23
03. "Bewildered" - Esther 3:1-15
04. "Who Knows?" - Esther 4:1-17
05. "What Is Your Request?" - Esther 5:1-14
06. "That Night the King Could Not Sleep" - Esther 6:1-14

LEFC Family Advent Readings: “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”Isaiah 61:1-3 :: November 30, 2025Week #1: “From Our Fears and Sins Release Us”
“Advent” means “coming.” Christmas is coming. Jesus has come and is coming again. During this year’s Advent Season, we will anticipate the arrival of our Lord by reflecting on the scriptural truth captured in the classic carol, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” It begins with this plaintive cry:
“Come, Thou long-expected JesusBorn to set Thy people freeFrom our fears and sins release usLet us find our rest in Thee”
[LIGHT FIRST CANDLE.]
Our first candle is candle of freedom.
This song by Charles Wesley, first published in 1774, expresses intense longing for the Messiah to come and bring true freedom–freedom not simply from earthly captivity but from all fear and sin.
Imagine a life unshackled by worry, concern, anxiety, dread, and fright!
Imagine a world unfettered by wickedness, iniquity, and evil in all its forms!
The Prophet Isaiah spoke of One who would one day bring such freedom. He wrote:
[READ ISAIAH 61:1-3.] 
Many centuries later, after the Lord Jesus had been born and grew into manhood, one Sabbath day, he read that prophecy of Isaiah in a synagogue and then dramatically proclaimed, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21).
The long-anticipated Messiah had come to release His people from our fears and sins, and one day soon, our sins and fears will be gone forever, and we will find our rest in Him.
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus!

Photo by Jonas Von Werne

“That Night the King Could Not Sleep”Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchNovember 23, 2025 :: Esther 6:1-14  
Timing is everything.
In so many areas of life, so much comes down to timing. What happened when. How fast something unfolded. What came first. What came last. What happened at just the right time...or at just the wrong time!
Timing is so important. Especially in storytelling. Right? Especially in comedy. Have you ever told a joke that just fell flat because you got the timing wrong? I’ve done that up here! 
The storytelling in Esther chapter 6 is all about timing. And when you really get it, you see that it’s comedic timing.
Esther chapter 6 is, perhaps, the funniest chapter in the whole Bible, depending on your sense of humor. I know that most audiences just laugh and laugh when they get it for the first time...and for all the times after that! And it all comes down to timing.
Now, nothing was funny at the end of chapter 5. Because, speaking of timing, there were two clocks ticking down towards  death for God’s people. One was ticking more slowly, but it was the bigger clock. All of the Jews in the world were slated for genocide in just eleven months.
Haman, the enemy of the Jews, had manipulated the Persian King Xerxes (also known as Ashasuerus) to authorize the extermination of all of the Jews in the Persian Kingdom of the fifth century BC because one of the Jews, a man named Mordecai, had refused to honor Haman.
Mordecai was a low level civil servant in the king’s city of Susa. His enemy Haman had risen to the top spot in that kingdom, just below the king. As high a non-royal person could go. Like a prime minister.
But Haman was not content with that position, especially because Mordecai would not bow in honor to him. So Haman had cast the “pur,” he rolled the dice, and randomly chose the 13th day of Adar in about a year to [this was the wording of the irrevocable decree he got the king’s ring to authorize to] “...destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day” (Est. 3:13).
And the big clock was ticking down.
There is one person who may be close enough to the king to do something about this wicked plan. Amazingly enough, it is Mordecai’s own cousin whom he had raised, a beautiful orphaned Jewish girl named Hadassah, and her Persian name was Esther.
Amazingly enough, Esther had been chosen to be the queen! She had pleased the king over all the other girls taken into his harem and been chosen for the top spot. 
Nobody knew, even apparently her husband, that Esther was a Jew. She has been keeping it secret because Mordecai told her to. But now, Mordecai has asked her to take her life in her hands and ask the king to save her and her people.  
Maybe, just maybe, she had been raised to this position for such a time as this! Timing is so important!
Did she do it? Not yet. First, she fasted and asked all the Jews to fast with her. For three days! No food or water! And then she went and broke the law. This is what we read about last week in chapter 5. 
Esther robed herself in courage and royal dignity and wisdom. And she approached the king without being summoned–which unless the king extended his golden scepter meant death. But she had decided that if she died, she died. But she was going to do what was right. And she did.
And...big relief...the king extended his golden scepter and asked her what was up. What did she want? And what did she say?
She said, “I want you to come to lunch with me. How about a banquet? Me, and you and Haman.” And that pleased the king because he loves banquets. Oh boy, does he love banquets! And then when they were at her banquet, he said, “Ok. Now what was it you were going to ask? What is your request?” And she said, “I’ll tell you tomorrow at the next banquet.”
She’s teasing him! She’s pulling him along. He loves this. Esther has great timing!
Probably tomorrow she’s going to ask him to do something to save the Jews. (Unless she invites him to another banquet! She just might have a third one up her sleeve.)
But that’s when the second clock started ticking down. Because Haman saw Mordecai on his way home from Banquet #1, and he was filled with rage again because Mordecai still would not honor him. And Haman poured out his anger and pride and hate at home, and his “friends” and wife there egged him on to do something about it right then and there. They said, “Don’t wait for next year. Kill Mordecai tomorrow. Build a gallows, a killing machine that towers above all of the buildings in this city and ask the king in the morning to execute Mordecai on it tomorrow before Banquet #2.
Timing is everything. Esther may have dodged death today, but little did she or her cousin know, Mordecai was headed for death tomorrow. The carpenters had been hammering all night long. The second clock is ticking down towards death, and it’s not months, it’s hours, it’s minutes.
But here’s where it gets funny! Because the very next thing that happens is that king passes a sleepless night. First words of chapter 6, verse 1. Our title for today:
“That Night the King Could Not Sleep”
My friend Nick Boonstra’s sermon on chapter 6 was titled, “Sleepless in Susa” with apologies to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 
That night (there’s timing for you!) the king could not sleep. The Hebrew is even funnier. It says something like “the sleep of the king fled.”  The Christian Standard Bible says, “Sleep escaped the king.”
Ever felt that way? Sleep got away from you. Tossing and turning. Warm side of the pillow. Cool side of the pillow. Warm side of the pillow. Cool side of the pillow. Look at the clock. Stare at the ceiling. “I don’t think I’m going to sleep.” Talk about timing. Have you ever had a big day planned, and the night before is the night that you just can’t sleep?
It doesn’t say why he couldn’t sleep. Maybe this happened to him often.
Maybe it was all that rich banquet food he ate. I know I can’t sleep if I eat too much. Maybe he was worried about something like “What was Esther going to ask tomorrow?” Or when would his army ever defeat the Greeks? Maybe he was excited about something. “I can’t wait to see Esther tomorrow and find out what she has planned for our banquet!” Too keyed up to sleep. Or maybe there’s this sound of hammering in the distance that is keeping him awake. “What’s all that construction noise?”
It doesn’t say why. It just says that it just so happened (wink, wink) that “That night (of all nights!) the king could not sleep.” We laugh, but he didn’t think it was funny. The most powerful man in the world, and he can’t even get himself to get some rest.
What do you do when you can’t sleep? Do you count sheep? Here’s what Xerxes did: 
He decided to listen to a podcast. Or something like it. He turned on C-Span. Look again at verse 1. 
“That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.”
To me that sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry.
He calls in his night staff, and says, “Read to me from the record of my reign.” Maybe he wants to bore himself to sleep. Or maybe if he has to be awake, he wants to hear stories about how great he is and how great his kingdom has been. And be reminded of all of the great things he’s done or have been done for him and his glory. So they are reading to him from these history books. And it just so happened (wink, wink, that verse 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.”
Do you remember that story? It might have been 4 or 5 years ago. That was way back in chapter 2 soon after Esther had become queen. 
What are the chances that Xerxes would have had this story read to him on the very night before Haman would ask for Mordecai’s head? Timing!
Now, this is very important to the king. He puts his reader on pause, and he asks a question. Verse 3.
“‘What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?’ the king asked. ‘Nothing has been done for him,’ his attendants answered.”
And that’s correct. We heard about that back in chapter 2. They wrote it down, but then nothing happened. As far as we know, the king has never met Mordecai. He’s just some guy who works on the first floor. Works out by the door. It sure doesn’t seem like the king knows hardly anything about him–especially Mordecai’s real connection to his wife. 
But he’s been reminded of that day that he saved his life through his wife. And it’s important for a Persian king to reward that kind of service. Because if people know that they will be rewarded for exposing a threat to the king, they will exposes more threats to the king. And that will keep him  safe and will show him to be generous. And this king loves to seem generous!
“‘What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?’ ...  ‘Nothing has been done for him...”
“Oh, that’s not right! We’ve got to fix this now.”
And it’s apparently reached morning. It’s tomorrow already. He hasn’t slept, but now he’s on a mission. And he’s headed for a collision. Timing is everything.
Speaking of timing, let’s do this with the name of Haman today. Let’s drown out his name the first time he’s mentioned as we read this chapter and the last time. So here in verse 4 and then again in verse 14. I’ll remind you.
Xerxes wants advice. He never does anything without getting advice which can be a good idea if you have good advisers. He’s got some of the worst.
He want some advice on what to do to honor Mordecai who once saved his life. Who should he asked? How about Mordecai’s worst enemy? Verse 4.  [Remember: Boo and Hiss for Haman!]
“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 hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had erected for him."
He can hardly wait! This is the day that Mordecai dies! He’s there first thing to ask. Verse 5.
"His attendants answered, ‘Haman is standing in the court.’ ‘Bring him in,’ the king ordered. When Haman entered, the king asked him, ‘What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?’” Do you feel it? Do you feel the timing? It just so happened (wink, wink) that Haman was on hand to take this question.
And the king doesn’t say who he’s talking about! Which just sets things up for a classic case of comedic misunderstanding. Like a sitcom where everybody is assuming something different and talking past each other. And it just gets funnier and funnier!
The king doesn’t give Haman a chance to open his mouth. He doesn’t say good morning. He just launches in with, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?”
And who does Haman think he means? Himself, right? Haman is a narcissist who is completely full of himself. He can’t think of anybody else. And he’s always been honored before.
In fact, he’s always been successful at manipulating this king before. Haman assumes that he can do it again. Verse 6.
“Now Haman thought to himself, ‘Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?’ So he answered the king, ‘For the man the king delights to honor, 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. 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!'”
I almost titled this sermon “The Man the King Delights to Honor” because he repeats it over and over and over again.
Haman doesn’t ask for much, does he? I would have asked for cash, but he’s already loaded. What he wants is to be king for the day. He wants to wear the king’s clothes and ride the king’s horse and be given a king’s parade. He wants everything but the king’s wife!
And I think he wants Mordecai to see it. He’s now happy to wait for Mordecai to hang until after Mordecai sees Haman paraded around town as “the man the king delights to honor.”
Haman craves glory for himself. He is so proud. So proud he doesn’t realize what he’s done. Timing is everything. Verse 10.
“‘Go at once,’ the king commanded Haman. ‘Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.’”
I don’t know if the king has an idea of the rivalry between these two guys. It’s possible that as he heard what Haman thought should be done, he picked up that Haman thought it was all about him, and he enjoyed playing this practical joke on Haman. That’s possible. It sure doesn’t seem like he knows the beef between these two. He just says, “That’s a great idea. Do that! Robe, horse, parade. Mordecai the Jew. Go! Now! Timing is everything.”
Can you imagine the look on Haman’s face? I see him opening his mouth. And then closing it. And then turning on his heel and swallowing hard and gritting his teeth and doing everything just like the king said. Because you don’t disobey this king. He doesn’t get to say why he came early. He has to honor his enemy. V.11
“So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’”
Can you imagine what this was like for Mordecai? He probably didn’t know about the gallows, but when Haman showed up at his house, he must have thought this was it! And he is forced to take off his sackcloth and put on a robe that King Ahasuerus has worn! And get up on a horse that King Ahasuerus has ridden. This horse has some kind of royal crest on his head. It’s like the horse has a crown! And his enemy, the enemy of his people, is leading the horse around town and shouting, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor! This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor! This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”
I can’t imagine what he must have been feeling. All we’re told is that he got dropped off back at work. But we are told what Haman was feeling. V.12
“Afterward Mordecai returned to the king's gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, [The tables have been turned. Look who is mourning now...] and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, ‘Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him–you will surely come to ruin!’”
That’s not what they said yesterday! Yesterday, he was on top of the world, and they were riding his coattails. But now, they say, “It’s tough to be you. You know you can’t win against the Jews.”
And, speaking of timing, Haman doesn’t have time to come up with a plan. Look at verse 14 and remember to drown out his name. Verse 14.
“While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet Esther had prepared.”
This isn’t going so well for him. All of a sudden, Haman is finding out that he’s not in control of his life after all. He’s rushed away to the second banquet that Esther had prepared.
Which we will read about next Sunday. Yep, it’s another cliffhanger. Because there is enough stuff in this chapter for us to think about more deeply today.
What can we learn from that night that the king could not sleep?
Let’s start by asking ourselves this question:
Who is the hero of Esther chapter 6?
It’s obviously a very funny story and has a happy ending...so far. Mordecai has dodged the bullet so far, but the big clock is still ticking down. His people are still scheduled for annihilation. We don’t know what’s going to happened at this second banquet. They don’t know. We don’t know.
But chapter 6 was very funny and very happy. 
Who made that happen?  
It wasn’t Esther, right? She didn’t do anything in chapter 6. She didn’t even start anything that then played out in chapter 6. She’s doing her part. She’s been courageous and prepared these banquets, but she’s hardly even mentioned in this chapter.
Is it Mordecai? Did he save the day? No. He’s pretty passive in this chapter. He goes for quite a ride! But it all happens to him. It’s not stuff he’s doing. He’s not the hero.
It sure isn’t Haman!
And I don’t think it’s Xerxes either. I mean, he does something right. He decides to fix something that was wrong and give credit where credit was due. But he’s not sweeping in to save Mordecai’s life. He doesn’t even know Mordecai was in danger.
Who’s the hero?
Nobody...that is named. But it sure feels like Somebody is moving things around in this story, doesn’t it? Timing is everything.
There sure are a lot of coincidences in this story.
How many times in re-telling it did I said, “It just so happened that...” How is that the king would be robbed of sleep that night? How is that the king would have read to him about when Mordecai saved his life that night? How is that Haman would have walked into the court at that very moment? How is that they would have talked past each other in that way? What are the chances?
What if there is no such thing as chance? Who could be doing all of that?
Someone who has not been named. Someone else is driving this story. It sure seems like the Author of this Story is the hero who is making it all happen.
I have three points for us to consider to apply Esther chapter 6 to our lives, and here’s the first one. They are all things for which we can be eternally grateful this Thanksgiving. 
#1. SOMEONE IS WORKING WHEN WE ARE NOT LOOKING.
Someone–this book does not say His name, but He’s very important to the story nonetheless–is working when we are not looking. 
He’s working in all of the details of our lives, no matter how seemingly insignificant. 
He’s working in our sleepless nights.He’s working in our random meetings.He’s working in our misunderstandings and when we’re talking past each other.He’s working in the smallest of details to accomplish His grand plan.
Do you believe that? I do.
That’s something to be grateful for on Thursday when you’re having the turkey. Be thankful for (I’ll say His name, God’s) providence. God so orders the world that He uses every single thing that happens to accomplish His purposes. 
That doesn’t make everything good. Sleepless nights are not always good. You don’t have to pretend they are. But God is always good, and He’s working every single sleepless night for our good! Even when we can’t see it. Especially when we can’t see it.
He is working when we are not looking. [I got that phrase from Nick Boonstra. I’m loving his sermon series on the Tale of Queen Esther.] And we don’t have to see His hand or even His fingerprints to know that they are there.
Often, we’ll only know in hindsight. Looking back. Looking back in your life, what are some of the super small things that made a big impact when you look back on them?
I think about the time I met Heather Joy. Her maiden name was Lundeen. My last name was Mitchell. We just so happened to be put in the same orientation group at Moody Bible Institute. Our last names just so happened to be close together in the American alphabet. And we just so happened to be at Moody as freshman at the same time. 
Did we know that day that Someone was working towards our marriage and our family and our ministry here in Pennsylvania? No. We were not looking. (I mean, I was looking! And I liked what I saw. But I had no idea.)
How about you? Looking back can you see some ways that Someone was working when you weren’t looking?
How about how you came to know Jesus as your Savior? What all had to come together for that to happen? What “just so happened” so that today you are saved? If today you are saved.
I think that this is the turning point of the Book of Esther. It feels like it. Even the Persians feel it (v.13)! Even Haman’s evil wife feels it! Someone is working when we’re not looking. He’s working all the time and in every thing that happens, big or small. 
That might be an even greater miracle than all the miracles we read about in the Book of Daniel! Because this is every single thing in the world in history being worked together into achieving God’s grand plan!
He’s doing it on His own timing. Talk about timing being everything. He doesn’t do it on our timing. But His timing is perfect. Down to the smallest thing. Down to the sleepless nights and silliest misunderstandings. Someone is working even when we are not looking. And here’s what He’s doing:
#2. SOMEONE IS OPPOSING THE PROUD BUT GIVING GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.
Haman is so proud, and he’s going down.
It seemed like he was never going down. His trajectory was just up, and up, and up. And it didn’t matter whom he trampled on to get there. All he cares about is himself. He’s the only person he can imagine that king might want to honor.
Think about that. And ask yourself if that’s been you.
I know it’s been me. I have to regularly remind myself, “It’s not about you, Matt.”
It’s not about you. Stop thinking just about yourself and focus on others. Humble yourself and God will lift you up. The humble are the ones that the King delights to honor! But if you keep making everything about yourself, then you will find that Someone is opposing you. Someone is going to stop you, and you don’t want this unnamed Person as your enemy.
Haman would have done much better if he had known and taken heed to Proverbs 25:6&7.
“Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not claim a place among great men; it is better for him to say to you, ‘Come up here,’ than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.”
Or 1 Peter 5:5, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
God is in the business of reversing things. Making everything right. He does it in his own perfect timing. Not on our timing. But He’s doing it. Haman was finding that out the hard way. God is going to settle all accounts. He’s going to bring perfect justice. Just like Mordecai was finally rewarded for his service to his king, we know that our King will one day reward all faithful service to Him. Justice will be done and will be seen to be done.
This story we’re living in is a not a tragedy. It’s a comedy. 
A comedy, in the classic literary sense, is a story that turns out to have a happy ending.
Lots of bad things can happen in a comedy, but the ending is always one of joy.
Church, we are a living in a comedy! I’ve read the end of the story, and our Hero wins! Remember: All bad things must come to an end! And this little chapter gives us just a hint of that. That’s something we can be give thanks for on Thursday. We living in a comedy, not a tragedy.
And one other thing that Someone is doing when we’re not looking...
#3. SOMEONE IS KEEPING ALL OF HIS PROMISES.
You know Who I mean! 
Did you notice why Haman’s wife and friends say that Haman is going down? Was it because Mordecai was such a great guy? Was that what they emphasized?
No. If you still have your Bible open, look at verse 13. It’s the thing that keeps getting mentioned over and over about Mordecai. It’s not that he’s a hero or an example or even really strong-willed and defiant. Verse 13.
“Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started [they expect it to continue!], is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him–you will surely come to ruin!’”
Now, they could be wrong. They are not prophets. But they have this sense that the Jews were protected. They have this sense, maybe they’ve heard some things about Daniel and his friends over in Babylon fifty years ago. Or maybe they’ve heard ancient prophecies from the Bible like the Eastern prophet Balaam’s in Numbers 24 about how if you curse these people you will be cursed.
Or the promises given to their ancestor Father Abraham. Promises of land, offspring, and blessing no matter what. Promises that the Promise Maker is going to keep.
Not on our timetable! He’s going to do it on His own schedule.
Timing is everything, and His timing is inscrutable and unimprovable.
So He’s going to do it. He’s going to keep every one of His promises. Including the promise to send a Messiah, a Savior who saves His people, not just from death but from their sins and eternal death. And He promises to allow that Messiah to suffer and die for His people’s sins, but then to be raised to life and given the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That’s what’s going to happen to the Man the heavenly king delights to honor! 
And we can count on it. Someone is keeping all of His promises, every single one, and we just need to trust in them and in Him.
And give thanks for His faithfulness forever!

***
Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23
03. "Bewildered" - Esther 3:1-15
04. "Who Knows?" - Esther 4:1-17
05. "What Is Your Request?" - Esther 5:1-14

“What Is Your Request?”Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchNovember 16, 2025 :: Esther 5:1-14  
Queen Esther is about to do the bravest thing she has ever done.
Queen Esther is about to embark on what might be, for her, a suicide mission.  She is going to take her life into her own hands and break the law of the land for the sake of her people.
Queen Esther is about to go stand before the king.
Esther is married to this king, King Ahasuerus, mostly likely King Xerxes I, Xerxes the Great of Persia. The year is probably 474BC.
And her husband the king has been manipulated by his evil adviser Haman to give his royal authorization for all of the Jews in the Persian kingdom from India to Ethiopia to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated on a single day, eleven months from now (3:13). Every single Jew was to killed on that chosen day. Young and old. Women and little children. Leaving no survivors. And all of their stuff was to be confiscated for the glory of the Persian Empire.
The Jews throughout the world are in danger of extermination, and they have gone into bewilderment and mourning. They have dressed in sackcloth and ashes and are weeping throughout the world.
Including Mordecai. Mordecai was Esther’s cousin and guardian. He had raised Esther ever since her parents died. And he was a Jew working in the king’s own administration. 
And, yes, that means that Esther was a Jew, as well. Her Jewish name was Hadassah. But nobody knew it! Mordecai and Esther had kept it a secret all these years.
But now, Mordecai had gone public with his identity. He had refused to bow to Haman which had so enraged Haman that he had come up with this plan to kill not just Mordecai but all of the Jews.
And now Mordecai, dressed himself in sackcloth and ashes, has howled his way through the city of Susa up to the palace to call upon Esther to go public, as well, and to approach her husband the king asking him if he could to put a stop to the genocide.
And that would be very dangerous for Queen Esther. Because they have a law in this kingdom that nobody but nobody comes to the king unless the king calls them. And the punishment for breaking this law is death! The king determines who comes and goes in his presence. We saw in chapter 1 that this king had called his previous queen, Vashti, to come, and she had refused. And she was stripped of her crown and banished to never see the king’s face again. What would happen if this queen shows up without being called?
She hasn’t been called for a month. The king hasn’t had any time for Esther. Not interested! This is very dangerous, and Esther didn’t really want to go.
But Keagan just read to us what we studied last week where Mordecai tried to persuade her to go anyway. He said that she was in danger either way. Someone was going to find out that she was Jew, and all of the Jews are supposed to be killed. 
The king probably doesn’t know that Esther is a Jew. How does she probably want to him to find out? Probably from her own lips and not from someone else!
And maybe, just maybe, she has reached this place, being the Queen of Persia, for such a time as this. Who knows? 
How is it that someone like Esther could be where she is today? This is a very unlikely tale! What are the chances? Perhaps Someone who has gone unnamed throughout this story is orchestrating the story, even the hard and bad parts, so that Esther has reached this place to do this thing? Who knows? It’s possible.
And Queen Esther has received this counsel and made up her mind. She asked Mordecai to gather all of the Jews in the city to fast for her for three days. And we know that probably means to pray for her for those three days, as well. And she and her team in the palace are also going to fast for three days. And then she is going to go to the king, no matter what. Even if she dies. She said, “If I perish, I perish.”
And that’s where we are when chapter 5 begins. Esther, Mordecai, and all of the Jews have fasted for three days.
Have you ever gone without food for three days? I have not. Not even close. I don’t like to go three hours. I can’t imagine not having eaten since Thursday! Can you? Or drank anything?! I’m thirsty just thinking about it. I can’t imagine going three days without drinking something! How did Esther do it? How did she feel? Weak. Dehydrated. Headache-y. 
No matter. In her weakness, she was strong. And courageous. Look at verse 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.”
What a moment! I don’t think we can truly imagine what it must have been like for Esther. It’s the third day. There’s something about third days in the Bible, isn’t there?! This is the third day of the fast. It doesn’t say that she ate anything. But she did get dressed up. 
She doesn’t go in sackcloth and ashes. She goes dressed in royalty. The Hebrew basically says, “She wore royalty” or “She wore the kingdom.” Esther put on her most breathtakingly beautiful royal clothes and left the harem, walking in regal dignity down the hallways.
What must have gone through her head? We’re going to see in moment that she has not just sat around for three days doing nothing. Esther has been busy thinking and planning out what she will say and do if the king does not have her killed on sight.
There is only once chance of survival. If the king decides to be merciful (and Xerxes was not known for his mercy), then he can hold out his golden scepter to her, and she would be safe. But there is no telling whether or not he will do such a thing. It could go either way.
There are ancient paintings of the King of Persia sitting on his throne with a Median soldier standing behind him with an axe. Ready to cut off the head of someone who comes when they weren’t called.
Esther must have been holding her breath in this tense moment!
Notice that she exercises prudence and caution. She does not just waltz all the way in. She stops at the entry way to the king’s hall where he can see her. But she just stands there and waits. Attracting his attention but waiting for his response. That’s courage! Verse 2.
“When he 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 is still alive!
But the Jews are still slated for death. What’s going to happen next? Look at verse 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.’”
The king is intrigued. He knows something must be up if Esther has appeared without being summoned.
“What is it, Queen Esther?” I love it that he calls her by her full name. Even though she hadn’t eaten in three days, she was clearly at her best. Her beauty had always charmed him, and now there was something more.
I picked the king’s question in verse 3 as the title for this message because it’s a turning point in the story, and it gets repeated in verse 6, as well. In fact, it will show up several more times before we get to the end of the book: “What Is Your Request?”
Ahasuerus wants to know what Esther really wants. And he offers her up to half the kingdom. I think that’s an exaggeration. It’s a figure of speech that means that he is ready to be extremely generous to her. He is feeling magnanimous. Like when he poured out all of the wine to his guests in the banquets of chapter 1. Or when he forgave everyone’s taxes when Esther was picked to be queen in chapter 2. Or when he loaned his royal ring to Haman to put his wicked plan into place. This king loves to be extravagant.
“What is your request?” 
What would you have said back to the king if you were Esther?
The other reason I picked these words for the title of this message was that they got me thinking about what I am asking my God to do for me. Because our Lord wants us to bring Him our requests, as well. He is much more dependable than Xerxes[!], and He is even more interested in hearing us ask for things.
The Lord Jesus taught us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8. See also Luke 11:9).
What is your request?
In studying chapter 5, I came up with three requests. Here’s number one.
#1. THAT I WOULD HAVE COURAGE LIKE QUEEN ESTHER DID.
Do you want that, too?
The more I study this story, the more I realize how brave she really was. Esther didn’t know if she was going to live or die, but she still did what she thought was right. That’s courage. As we learned last week, courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the right thing even if you are afraid. 
Today, we have three Christians who are going to be baptized.
That takes courage. To stand before your friends and family in public and say, “Jesus has saved me. Jesus died for my sins and came back to life to give me life. I believe in Him. And I want to tell the world.”
Well done, you three. Way to be courageous! These three are not staying silent. They are, like Queen Esther, going public with their truest identity. 
“I belong to Jesus!”
Have you been courageous in this same way? Some of you are Christians who have not yet taken the step of water baptism. And for some of you it’s because of fear. Fear of the water, fear of saying something in public, fear of being identified as one of those extreme Christians. 
Let me encourage you to be courageous like Queen Esther and step forward in baptism. And step forward out there in sharing the gospel with your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, strangers, and even enemies. 
If Esther could do this, what could you and I do?
“Lord, we request courage.”
What do you think Esther is going to ask for?
We know what she wants. She wants to save the Jews. Does she just come out and ask for that? Sometimes the direct approach is the best one. But Esther has thought about this, and she’s got another idea.  She knows her man. Look at verse 4.
Oh, by the way, remember to boo and hiss when we get to the name of the enemy of the Jews. 
I went to the middle school play on Friday night, and they did that every time Copper (aka Duke Dreadful) showed up on stage.
Let’s drown out the name of Haman in verse 4.
“‘What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.’ ‘If it pleases the king,’ replied Esther, ‘let the king, together with[...]Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.’”
“Wait, what? You came over here to invite me to a banquet? I love banquets!”
This is a surprise. Esther has done something unexpected. And we’re seeing a new side to her character. Not only is she beautiful. Not only is she regal. Not only is she courageous. But she is wise.
This is not a spur of the moment thing. Esther isn’t chickening out and putting off the inevitable. No, she knows her man loves a banquet. And she’s been preparing one for him while fasting! I never thought about that until this week. She says that she’s been overseeing the preparations for a feast while she has been fasting from food and drink!
There’s a method to her madness. She’s wily and wise. And she’s setting the hook.
‘If it pleases the king...come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.”
Remember banquets (Hebrew: mishteh) are very important in this story. There are about 10 of them, and every time there is a banquet, something really important happens.
This one is put on by Queen Esther, and she has invited both the king and  (surprisingly) Haman.
Why did she do that? We don’t know, but it sure seems like she has a plan.
The king loves it! “Well, sure we can do that! I thought you were going to do something hard.” Verse 5. [Don’t forget to boo and hiss.]
“‘Bring Haman at once,’ the king said, ‘so that we may do what Esther asks.’ So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared.”
The scene has changed. They are now in a different part of the palace, perhaps a banquet hall. It’s just Esther, Xerxes, and Haman. And they are eating and drinking. And probably drinking and drinking and drinking some more, knowing Xerxes and Haman. That could get dangerous. But Esther has a plan. Verse 6.
“As they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, ‘Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.’”
“There’s got to be more, right? You didn’t come all the way over here and risk your life just to invite me to dinner, did you?”  Verse 7.
“Esther replied, ‘My petition and my request is this: If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king's question.’”
Surprise! She doesn’t just blurt out, “My name is Hadassah. Please save my people!” No, she says, “I’ll tell you tomorrow at banquet number two!”
She’s not chickening out. She’s got a plan. She’s building anticipation. She’s using her gifts. She’s practicing persuasion. She is using wisdom.
My friend Pastor Nick Boonstra at our Free Church in State College preached through Esther this time last year, and I’ve been listening to his messages to cheat, I mean, to gain insight from him.
And Nick brought out a whole host of the Proverbs that Esther was embodying in this part of the story, like:
Proverbs 15:28 – “The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.” 
She thought about what to say and weighed it all out before blurting something out.
Proverbs 13:15 – “Good judgment wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful leads to their destruction” (NIV).
Good judgment, that’s wisdom, wins favor. That’s what she was after with the King. That’s what she got from this king over and over again. She received favor because of God’s grace, but also because she exercised God’s wisdom along the way.
And I want that for me, too. That’s my request, Lord.
#2. THAT I WOULD HAVE WISDOM LIKE QUEEN ESTHER DID.
That I would grow in my understanding of how to live well in this world. That I would understand how people think, what makes people tick. And that I would become more persuasive. Not to manipulate people but to serve people well.
Esther is at the top of her game in wisely relating to these two powerful, dangerous, volatile men. She’s a woman in a dangerous kingdom for women, and she’s using every  bit of wisdom that she can put to work to serve her people who are also in danger.
She isn’t just just going off half-cocked. She isn’t just typing whatever she wants onto social media and seeing what happens. She has weighed her answers and used good judgment in seeking the favor the king.
I’ve been reading some books recently about how to have better conversations especially when you disagree with the person you’re talking to. I want to grow in that. My tendency is to run away from hard conversations, and when I can’t do that, I tend to talk too much and not listen as well. The right approach is to listen much and then courageously say just what needs said.
And that takes wisdom. Wherever would we get that?
The Bible says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
What is your request? That I would have wisdom like Queen Esther did.
At this point, Esther steps off stage. The next banquet isn’t until tomorrow, and she’s got a lot of work to do to get ready for it. At least she can eat now!
But in the last few verses of chapter 5, we follow Haman on his way home from Esther’s banquet. And he’s really happy with himself. Look at verse 9, and don’t forget to boo and hiss. Because he’s really earning it here. Verse 9.
“Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. ‘And that's not all,’ Haman added. ‘I'm the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate’” (vv.9-13).
What a great guy, huh? I think we might use the word “narcissist?” Haman is so full of himself. He leaves the palace whistling. He’s probably drunk from the banquet, “happy and in high spirits.”
But his happiness dissipates immediately when he sees Mordecai in his sackcloth and ashes and he still doesn’t honor him. Mordecai doesn’t even say anything. He just stands there looking at Haman in defiance. He doesn’t even seem scared! 
And that just sends Haman over the edge again. He just about loses control and attacks Mordecai right then and there, but he doesn’t know exactly what to do so he just goes home fuming. And there are his “friends” and his wife. And he sits there and tells them all kinds of things they already know. How much money he has. How many sons he has. My guess is that Zeresh already knows that! The answer is 10 (see Esther 9:10), but that doesn’t keep him from talking about. These are all markers of greatness in Persian culture. Haman is obsessed with being seen as great.  
“All of the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.” 
“Have I told you how great I am?” He’s got to talk about himself. Egocentric. Vain. In love with the sound of his own voice. Prideful. And you know what the Proverbs say about pride...  Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverb 16:18).
Just as Queen Esther was personifying wisdom, Haman was personifying foolishness.
“And that's not all...I'm the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow....But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate.”
It wasn’t enough. Nothing was ever enough for Haman. His heart was so controlled by pride, and greed, and hate, and anger that he could not be thankful for the many gifts that he had been given. 
I don’t know about you, but I don’t to end up like Haman. So that’s my request.
#3. THAT I WOULD HAVE GRATEFULNESS LIKE HAMAN DID NOT.
I want to live with contentment and thanksgiving. And not just this time of year, though it’s really good to concentrate on thanksgiving at key times like this. 
I don’t want to become like Haman, ruled by my circumstances and my emotions. I want to be filled with gratefulness for all the good gifts that God has given me.
Haman’s wife Zeresh seems to be tired of hearing him complain about Mordecai. So she suggests he do something about him once and for all. “Let’s not wait until next year when we kill all the Jews. Why don’t you kill Mordecai tomorrow? If you are so high and mighty, how about that? And let’s make him an example like you’ve never seen before. Remember Bigthana and Teresh hung in the front yard? Let’s do that but on steroids.” Verse 14.
“His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.’ This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built.”
Just when you think it couldn’t get worse! 
Haman’s loving Jezebel-of-a-wife has suggested he build a gallows that is taller than the palace. The columns on the front of this palace were 70 feet tall. Is that more exaggeration in Persian-style storytelling? Or just the outsized ugly expression of outsized hateful hearts? These gallows were probably a scaffold on a base perhaps on a hillside out which rose a very tall pole upon which the victim would be impaled.
And you see how Haman feels about this? He loves Zeresh’s idea! He calls the carpenters out of their homes to build it over night. You can hear the hammers pounding all through the night. A skyscraper of a killing machine.
Haman feels better and goes right to sleep. And Esther and Mordecai don’t know what’s coming.  Who will get to Xerxes first? Esther or Haman? We don’t know. And we’re going stop the story right there because we have some baptizing to do. 
But before we do, we need to remind ourselves just how grateful we should all be.
Haman had many gifts. But we have so much more. We have God’s amazing grace, amen? We have salvation through Jesus Christ.
Because our Lord Jesus Christ went to the gallows himself. He was nailed to a cross of wood. He was lifted up to save all who put their trust in Him.
He took all of our sin–all of our pride, all of our hate, all of our hot-tempered anger, all of our dissatisfaction with our circumstances, all of our transgressions, and He paid the penalty for it all.
At the cross. He took our place. And then He was buried. And then on the...third day--there’s something about that third day in the Bible--Jesus rose from the dead!
And that’s what these three who are coming to be baptized today believe.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23
03. "Bewildered" - Esther 3:1-15
04. "Who Knows? - Esther 4:1-17

“Who Knows?”Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchNovember 9, 2025 :: Esther 4:1-17  
What was troubling Mordecai?
By verse 5 of chapter 4, Queen Esther wants to know. But we already know what is troubling Mordecai: 
The genocide of the Jews has been placed on the calendar.
The people of God are in grave danger. We read last week that Queen Esther’s cousin Mordecai, who had raised her since her parents died, had refused to honor Haman, the enemy of the Jews.
And Haman who had been promoted to the top spot in the kingdom, like a Grand Vizier, had become enraged by Mordecai’s actions and hatched a plot to exterminate all of the Jews. Not just Mordecai and his family, not just the Jews in the capital city of Susa, but the Jews throughout the Persian kingdom from India to Ethiopia which included all of the Jews in Israel.
And this Haman, full of hate, manipulated King Xerxes (also know as Ahasuerus) to hand over to him the executive authority to carry out mass executions.
They rolled the dice. They cast the lot. They cast the “pur.”  And it “just so happened” to land on Adar 13th. Eleven months from now. The clock of death has started ticking down. 
The royal order has been signed on Passover Eve, Nisan 13th, and sent out by couriers to every corner of the kingdom. And it says in all the languages, by irrevocable royal decree of the king of kings in Persia, King Xerxes I, that everyone in this kingdom is ordered “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods” (Esther 3:13).

The evil genocide of the Jews has been placed on the calendar. That’s what was troubling Mordecai. And it was troubling all of the Jews and even many of their pagan neighbors. 
Last week, we ended with a cliffhanger. While Xerxes and Haman are partying it up and drinking away, the city of Susa was bewildered.
The Persians are wondering what this means for them. Will they have to  kill their Jewish neighbors, young and old? And who is next? If Haman and Xerxes can just purge an entire race, who might be next in line? [I got this insight from Mike Cosper.]
And even more bewildered and terrified are the Jews. What can they do? Can they run away? Can they hide? Can they try to mount a defense? Against all of the Persians, the greatest world power of the day? The kingdom of bronze? The two-horned ram? The bear-like beast? What can the Jews do?
They can mourn. That’s what they can do. They can prepare to die. They can ready themselves for thousands and thousands of funerals. Death looms over them, and they feel it.
And they feel the question, “Where is God?”
Why is He letting this happen?Where did He go?Does He even exist?Why isn’t He doing something?
Where is God?
Have you felt that question? Recently? If you haven’t felt it yet, just wait.
Now, chapter 4 is probably the most famous and familiar chapter in the Book of Esther.
Chances are if you know any line from the Book of Esther, you know one or two from this very chapter. It’s famous for a good reason. (For such a time as this, right?)
Well, that’s all the more reason to remember to pretend as we read that you don’t know what is going to happen. Because the people hearing the story for the first time didn’t know what was going to happen. And a story is almost always better if you don’t know the ending in advance.
But even more importantly, the people in the story did not know what was going to happen!
Mordecai sure didn’t. Mordecai even says (in verse 14) that he doesn’t know. He says the words, “Who knows?”
“Who knows?”
Who knows why this or that has happened?Who knows what is going to happen?Who knows the future?
Mordecai didn’t know what was going to happen, and so he mourned. And he took action.
This chapter is full of courage. We’re going to see real courage on display. 
Real courage is often different from what we expect it to be. Everybody has a mental image of courage, and but real thing doesn’t always look like you might think. 
As we read through this chapter, keep your eyes peeled for real courage.
Like, for example, the courage to be vulnerable.
Mordecai mourns. Look with me at verse 1 of chapter 4.
“When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king's gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it” (vv.1-2).
It think this took courage.
Have you ever been so upset that you tore your clothes? Ruined your good clothes on purpose? That’s what Mordecai did. The Jews did this to express great emotion, and so did the Persians. The historian Herodotus says that the Persians ripped their clothes when they lost their wars to the Greeks. 
And Mordecai went way beyond that. He changed his clothes into scratchy clothes. “Sackcloth” is like scratchy clothes made out of goat or camel hair. So that you may be covered, but you are never comfortable. Your clothes on the outside feel like you do on the inside. In distress.
And he went to his fireplace and smeared ashes all over himself. What a sight! And he didn’t stay at home. He went out into the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. He’s howling.
Have you ever howled in pain and sorrow? I have. When our first daughter died in utero, I wailed in that hospital room. And I did the same when I came back from the scene of Blair Murray’s plane crash.
Mordecai took this wailing into the streets right up to the king’s gate.
Why didn’t he go in? That’s his workplace. He’s got the access codes. Because they had a law that you couldn’t go in there if you were wearing sackcloth. Your access codes don’t work if you are in mourning. The king didn’t want to see that.  Only “shiny happy” people are allowed inside the king’s gate. 
And Mordecai was anything but happy. And neither were any of the Jews. Verse 3.
“In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.”
Many were probably saying, “Where is God?” Some of them were saying, “We are sorry, God.” I’m sure that most of them were saying, “Please help us, God!”
You know, this chapter comes the closest of all of the chapters in the book of Esther to actually naming God and talking about...prayer.
We’ve already learned that the name of God never appears in the Book of Esther. And neither does the word, “prayer” or “pray.” Not once. But there is a word here that is so very often linked to the word “prayer” in the rest of the Bible. What is it?
“Fasting.” Fasting is the deliberate choice to not eat for a good reason. And the reason is often, in the Bible, to express sorrow, heartache, mourning, and...repentance to God. And to put an exclamation mark onto our prayers.
Fasting is like an exclamation mark to our prayers!
These three exact same words, “fasting, weeping, and wailing” appear here in Esther 4 and also in the book of Joel chapter 2, verses 12 through 15 where the Prophet writes, “‘Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and [wailing].’ Rend your heart and not your garments. [I think he means not just your garments.] Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing...” (Joel 2:12-15a).
Who knows? Perhaps verse 3 is hinting that the Jews were repenting all over the kingdom. And they were asking God to rescue them once again.
Remember, so many of them were still in exile because of the broken covenant. All of them were in distress. And that distress reaches the ears of Queen Esther. Look at verse 4.
“When Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.”
Esther is worried. “He can’t stay out there like that. Why is he dressed like that? He’s so conspicuous like that. He’s drawing attention to himself. I know he doesn’t bow to Haman, but this is going to get every eye in the citadel focused on him. He’s going to get into trouble.” 
Esther is bewildered. She sends down new clean clothes for Mordecai so that he can come inside and maybe then they can talk. But if he’s dressed like that, she can’t come anywhere near him.
Remember, she has been keeping her Jewish identity secret because Mordecai told her to. "Why is he is drawing attention to himself like that?"
Is it possible that Esther has not heard? I think it’s quite possible. Mordecai just found out in verse 1. And Esther is sequestered in the harem. She is sheltered from a lot of what goes on outside in the rest of the kingdom. 
And most people might not have thought to tell her about the king’s edict because why would it affect her? She’s all Persian. They don’t know that she is Hadassah.
But she will soon find out what’s up. She springs into action, calling a trustworthy messenger named “Hathach.” Verse 5.
“Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.”
It’s a good thing Hathach is trustworthy because there have been a number of “bad eggs” in this administration. Remember Bigthana and Teresh from chapter 2?
Hathach is a good go-between, and he will get his steps in running back and forth between the two cousins. Look at verse 6.
And, remember, everybody be ready to drown out the name of Haman with boos and hisses when we reach verse 7. He is only named once in this chapter so we only have one chance to “diss” the enemy of the Jews. V.6.
“So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people” (vv.6-8).
Mordecai lays it all out to Hathach to explain to Esther.
It’s interesting that he gives him a copy of the edict and asks him to explain it to her. It’s quite possible that Esther has never been taught to read. Even though she’s a queen.
Maybe she can read, but Mordecai wants to make sure that she understands. On Adar 13th, all of the Jews are going to be annihilated. Haman has told her husband that the Jews are problematic and need to be exterminated, and he’s told her husband that he will raise 2/3 of the annual kingdom budget by doing this mass murder. And now she knows.
By the way, this is a good reminder to check your sources when you hear bad news. Don’t believe every bad story that you hear, especially online, especially if it’s something that you want to believe, that confirms your prior opinion. We need to deal with facts not rumors and gossip.
Out in the open square, Mordecai lays out the facts for Hathach to lay out for Queen Esther. 
And more than that, Mordecai urges Esther to act. He urges Esther to do the exact opposite of what he has always told her to do up until now. He encourages her to out herself as as Jew and assume her true identity in public before the king.
“[G]o into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.” 
Think about this:
Esther’s own husband almost certainly doesn’t know that she is a Jew. If he did know, it’s not how he thinks about her. He only knows her as Esther, not as Hadassah.
It must have been so hard for Mordecai to give these instructions to Esther. It took courage to go weeping and wailing through the city and out in the open square to lay out the problem and send his beloved Esther whom he has always protected to what might mean her death. Because that’s what Esther hears. Look at verse 9.
“Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, ‘All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king’” (vv.9-11).
“You understand, cousin Mordecai, what you are asking me to do? I can’t just waltz in there any time I want. I have to be summoned. He calls for me. I don’t just go to him. And he hasn’t called for me in a month. We’ve been married for five years. He might be getting tired of me and thinking about holding another contest. I’m getting older and he likes them young.”
And we think, why she didn’t just ask for an audience? Why didn’t she go through some official channels to see if it would be okay if she stopped by with a request? Well, who do you think manages the official channels? Probably a guy named Haman.
Here’s the rule. If you come into the king’s presence without being summoned, then you end up like Bigthana and Teresh hanging in the front yard. This protects not just the king’s time but his life. Access to the king is very limited. Unless the king is feeling merciful. And Ahasuerus was not known for his mercy.
Esther doesn’t want to go. This feels like a bad idea. It’s risky. It’s dangerous. Remember what happened to Vashti? This could turn out much worse!
Mordecai knows all that. Mordecai feels all of that. He doesn’t dispute it. But he thinks it’s the less worse choice. And so he urges her in no uncertain terms to be courageous. Verse 12.
“When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: ‘Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?’” (vv.12-14).
That’s one of the greatest speeches in the Bible and in human history. And it marks a turning point in the story. And to think it was sent through intermediaries! Ash-covered Mordecai standing there in his scratchy clothes is, from a distance, trying to persuade Queen Esther to risk it all.
He starts by saying, “Yes, you might die, but you’re probably going die either way. Your Jewishness will come out sooner or later. Your connection with me is known, and I’m out. And soon I’ll be dead. There are no safe choices here. I can’t protect you. In fact, if you remain silent, you and your father’s family will perish. That’s me, I was his brother. We will perish. I can just about guarantee it. You will be siding with Haman against your real people. You will go down."
But notice this little glimmer of hope! Did you catch it? I always focus on “for such a time as this,” and it’s easy to miss the “relief and deliverance” thing. Look closely at verse 14 again.
“...if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place...”
What’s he talking about? Mordecai believes that the Jews are going to be saved. Mordecai believes that the Jews will experience “relief and deliverance.” Maybe not all of them, but enough of them!
He doesn’t say why. He doesn’t have to. We can guess. 
Maybe it’s because there is Someone Who loves them. Maybe it’s because there is Someone Who has promised to preserve them even in exile. Maybe it’s because there is Someone Who has promised to send a Messiah to save them once and for all. And that Messiah must be Jewish Himself.
So, “relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place...” If not from her then from somewhere else.
You see how close He comes to naming the LORD?! He can’t help it. The LORD may be hidden, but He’s still there. And He still has a plan. And who knows? Maybe the plan includes Queen Esther.
Who knows? That’s what Mordecai says. Verse 14.
“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?'"
Just think about your life, Hadassah. What are the chances that chapter 1 of this tale would happen? What are the chances that chapter 2 of this tale would happen?
How is that you were taken? How is that you have found favor with everyone? How is that you have found favor with the king so many times? If not in the last 30 days? Remember, there is no such thing as coincidence and there is no such thing as chance. But there is a such a thing as providence. 
Who knows? Maybe Somebody has been moving things around (including you and me) for such a time as this, for this particular situation? You have been exalted and embedded into the very palace of the king. I kind of doubt that that’s an accident.”
Now, let me you ask all of you.
Does Mordecai know that Esther is going to save the Jews? No, he most certainly does not. He says, “Who knows?” And the answer to that question is:
#1. WE DON’T.
We sure don’t. 
Mordecai didn’t know what was going to happen. Not down to the details. He believed that the Jews were going to be saved, and he believed that enough that you could say he knew it, but not how and not by whom or not from where. Maybe from Esther. But just maybe. He didn’t know. He didn’t know if she was there to change things or for some other reason or reasons.
Life is like that. There is so much we don’t know. Why are we placed in certain situations? I don’t know. Why are you and I in this family or this church or this job right now? Who knows?
I can guess. Sometimes it will be abundantly clear a least for a moment, especially in retrospect.  But most of the time, it will not. And that’s why so often it will take courage for us to do the right thing.
Because courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing the right thing even when you are afraid. Real courage is doing what you think is the right thing even though you don’t know what will happen if you do it.
Like our veterans. When you go off to serve your country, you don’t know if you are coming back. Many do come back, some do not. You don’t know. That’s one of the reasons why we honor you who have served. Thank you once again for your service. Thank you for your courage.
Real courage is often when you don’t know the outcome, and you still do what you believe you should do.
And now is the moment in this story for Queen Esther to choose. Look at verse 15.
“Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ‘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 maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’ So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.”
It’s interesting that verse 14 was the last time in this book that Mordecai was giving the instructions.
Now Esther is. And Mordecai is carrying them out.
Queen Esther comes to the crossroads of her life, the defining moment, and she chooses to be brave.
Esther takes a deep breath and steps up and says, “Ok. Here we go. First things first, let’s all fast. [And you and I know what that means. Wink, wink. The storyteller won’t use the P word, but we know. Three days of no food for any of the Jews. That’s extreme! And no food for Esther and her beauty team? These are the gals who had the special food in chapter 2. Now, they take no food.]
And then Esther will take her life in her hands and go see the king.
And she just knows that she will prevail, right? No. She does not know! She hopes. She prays. She asks others to pray. I mean “fast.” But she doesn’t know what will happen. That’s what makes this courageous.
And that why she’s a great example for every Christian woman and every Christian man and every Christian child. 
“If I perish, well, okay. Then I perish.”
Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).
We don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. We’re going to do the right thing anyway. Because who knows? Maybe Someone is going to use this to do His thing!
Where do you need to be courageous these days?
Do you need to be more vulnerable? Mordecai really set himself up by putting himself out there in sackcloth and ashes. Crying in public. That’s not a power move. That’s a weakness move. Same thing with fasting. It takes courage to be vulnerable.
To humble yourself before someone who could hurt you–maybe with their words? Maybe with some piece of information about you that you believe you should share, but you’re scared because you don’t know what will happen?
It takes courage to identify with the people of God. Sometimes it takes real courage to tell people that you are a Christian.
“You’re one of those? Okay.”
It takes real courage to not just remain silent. Sometimes it takes real courage to share the gospel with your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member. Especially if they haven’t asked you for it. Because you don’t know how they are going to react.
“What if they ask a question I don’t the answer to?”
Esther would say, “That’s your big worry? Say, ‘If I don’t know the answer, then I don’t know the answer.’”
“If I perish, I perish.”
You don’t have to almost die to be courageous. You just have to do the right thing not knowing what might happen next. To say the thing that needs said.
Not just the gospel--though that’s the main thing--and the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
But we also sometimes need to say a hard word about lots of other things. Standing up to a bully. Speaking out for the vulnerable.
There are times when we need to confront a loved one about something they are doing that is destructive for themselves or someone else.
And we don’t know how it will be received.
We don’t know.
But we do know that the Lord has placed us in their lives and, maybe, for such a time as this. We are not here by accident. There is no such thing as coincidence and no such thing as chance. That doesn’t mean that we know why we are placed here, but we do know that we have been placed.
Do the thing that only you can do.
Only you are uniquely placed in your situation, whether you got there by pain or by pleasure. By being taken or being favored. For Esther it was both!
Where have you been placed? You might feel like it’s hard to relate to Esther. You haven’t been placed in a palace. But you also haven’t been asked to advocate for all of the Jews in the world either.
Where have you been placed? What power have you been given? Are you using it?
The courageous thing you are supposed to do could seem like a little thing, but it feels risky. Or it could seem really big. Big or small, do it!
Some people act like they are being courageous, but they are really just showing off. We call that “virtue signaling” or “being performative.” The real test of courage is when you don’t know if you will get any “likes” for it. We need to say the thing we should say that could get us into real trouble.
And do the thing we know we should do even if we don’t know what will happen as a result. 
Fear and worry tell us that they know what’s going to happen. “Bad things are going to happen.” Don’t listen to them! They don’t know what’s going to happen.
#2. GOD DOES.
Only God does. 
The Book of Esther doesn’t say His name, but we are allowed to here. We know the One who knows the future. We know that has given us His great and precious promises, and He knows how He will bring them all to pass.
I have this little saying that I use. “I don’t know the future, but I know the One who holds the future in His hands.” And that’s good enough. The Lord knows.
True hope is trusting in God’s promises and His knowledge of how He will work everything out for His glory and our good.
And I think Mordecai had that kind of hope because he said, “[R]elief and deliverance...will arise from another place” with or without Esther’s help.
And that kind of real hope can engender in us real courage.
There is another kind of real courage. And that’s when you absolutely do know that the worst thing is still going to happen even if you do the right thing and you still do the right thing.
That’s the kind of courage that Jesus had. Because unlike Mordecai or Esther, Jesus knew. Jesus knew He was going to perish. His courage was even greater because He knew what was going to happen when He went to the Cross. He was going to die for our sins in our place. He wasn’t going to get out of it at the last second. He was going to endure the pain and the shame.
And then He also knew that He would rise again. So that all of us who put their faith and trust in Him can know our ultimate future, too.
We’re going to leave Esther right here in chapter 4 on the cusp of her courageous move. We know what was troubling Mordecai and why. And now Esther is troubled, too.
Nothing has changed...except for Esther.
The Jews are still scheduled for genocide. The clock of death is still ticking down.  But Esther has made her decision to come out of the shadows and identify herself with them. And she’s stopped eating until she does it. 
She doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. Another cliffhanger! 
And while we wait to find out, we can always start to follow her example.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23
03. "Bewildered" - Esther 3:1-15

“Bewildered”Where Is God? - The Book of EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchNovember 2, 2025 :: Esther 3:1-15
I’ll be right up front with you. This chapter ends on a cliffhanger. 
You know, one of those moments where the hero of the story and their friends are in danger, hanging from a cliff, and you don’t know what’s going happen to them. 
“Tune in next time to find out!”
That’s this chapter. Because we are slowing down and studying this story instead of just retelling it, at times, we have to leave things unresolved along the way.
In fact, the last word of this chapter in the NIV is, “bewildered.” The King James Version has “perplexed.” Many other translations say, “in confusion.” We’re only going to get to the part where nearly everybody in the story is agitated, perplexed, confused, and bewildered.
Have you been there? Are you living there right now? 
Bewildered. What a terrible feeling that is! You don’t understand what is going on around you. Not only are you not in control of your story, you don’t even comprehend what’s going on in the story in which you are living. It’s painful and scary and disorienting. Bewildered.

In chapter 3, this story–which has been filled with twists and turn–takes another turn, and this time, it’s a downturn.
There have been hints of a grave danger looming over this story in the first two chapters. And now, the true threat is revealed and made real.
Chapter 3 tells the story of an existential crisis for the people of God. A crisis, a plot, a conspiracy that affected and endangered all of the Jews and even potentially endangered our salvation. Your salvation and mine!
And it all swirled around a character that we have not yet met in this story, a villain named “Haman.” Esther does not show up in chapter 3, but this enemy does. His name is Haman, and he is called in verse 10, “the enemy of the Jews.”
When the Jews have retold this story throughout the years, they have taken great delight in making a monstrous racket every time Haman’s name is mentioned in the story. They will put on a play that re-enacts the story of Esther. And when Haman is mentioned, the kids in the audience, especially will set off noisemakers like rattles and stuff like that. I once watched a play like that and every time Haman was named, we went “Boo, Hiss” like an old-time melodrama. Where the bad guy had a curly mustache and is always rubbing his scheming hands together.
We’re not going to do that every time that Haman is mentioned in the next several weeks, but let’s do it at least once a week the first time I read his name. We’ll go, “BOO” or “HISS” to remember that this man was an enemy and drown out his name.
There have been a lot of twists and turns to get to this point in the story. It all started at a royal banquet in the citadel of Susa where King Xerxes was drinking it up with all of his buddies and foolishly demanded his queen, Vashti, appear before them to show herself off. She refused! And Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) allowed himself to be talked into banishing her and looking for a replacement queen. (That was chapter 1.)
Xerxes did this cruelly by taking pretty girls from all over his kingdom and subjecting them to a beauty and sex contest. The losers get life in a harem. The winner became queen. (This was not a great kingdom for women.) But (plot twist!) the lovely woman who won the contest and the favor of everyone turned out to be a beautiful orphan girl whose family was in exile from Israel. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, and her Persian name was Esther. The Star Queen.
We know that she is a Jew, but nobody else does. Her cousin Mordecai had been raising her and told her to keep her Jewish identity secret. He was apparently doing the same as he worked as a lowly civil servant at the king’s gate, probably doing some kind of administration.
At the very end of chapter 2 we learned that Mordecai, in that position, “just so happened” to hear that two of the king’s security guards had gotten angry and planned to assassinate the king. And Mordecai told Esther, and Esther told the king, and the two security guards were left impaled in the front yard as a warning for all to see.
And do you remember how Mordecai was rewarded for this? (Plot twist!) He was NOT rewarded for this. They wrote it down, but then nothing happened. Which was really weird in Persian culture.
And you know what? If that happened to me, you know how I would feel?
Bewildered.
“Why? Why did that happen? My cousin is the queen. I stopped a plot against the king of kings in this era, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt? My name got written down in a book. Thanks a lot.”
And it’s worse than that. Somebody else did get a promotion. Let’s read verse 1 of chapter 3 again and get ready to boo and hiss.
“After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles.”
What?! Not only is Mordecai not promoted, but this guy is?! And it’s not even Memucan or any of the other 7 dummies from the council of advisers in chapter 1! We don’t even know if this guy was around back then, but all of a sudden here he is, and he’s the top guy. V.2
 “All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.”
The plot thickens! The king had commanded that everybody bow before Haman. That’s interesting because it’s what was normal in that culture anyway. Lots of bowing to each other, especially to those who are in authority. But the king felt that he hand to tell everybody to do this Haman. It doesn’t say why. Perhaps it was just a formality. Or perhaps this was like what he demanded all of the wives do for their husbands in chapter 1. He demanded respect instead of earning it. And he demanded honor for this Haman whether or not Haman was honorable. Perhaps nobody would have honored Haman if it wasn’t the rule! Well, one person decided that he was not going to honor Haman in this way. Our man Mordecai.
It doesn’t say why. Why do you think? It’s not that the Jews refused to honor those in authority. They will even do this kind of bowing towards others. This is not the same thing as what Nebuchadnezzar wanted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to do in Daniel chapter 3.
Some interpreters assumed that it must have been like that and that maybe Haman was carrying around an idol in his pocket. So that Mordecai was faced with the same ethical choice about worship. Or that Haman was claiming some kind of divine status. But it doesn’t say that here at all. Mordecai just refused to honor Haman.
Some have thought that he must be jealous of Haman, and that’s why he did it. It’s pride. That’s possible. It doesn’t come out and say. 
I think that at least, partially, it comes from a very old family feud. Two words make me think that. One is the word “Agagite” from verse 1 of this chapter and the other is one that I told you last week to tuck into your brain from chapter 2, verse 5. The word, “Kish.” Kish was either Mordecai’s great-grandfather or his ancestor even further back.
Haman was related to Agag in some way. And Mordecai was apparently related to King Saul whose dad was named Kish. 
That’s a deep cut. Do you remember those names from your Old Testament history?
It’s been more than 500 years, but these memories are long. Agag was an Amalekite. The Amalekites were the first nation to attack Israel without mercy when they came out of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. You can read about it in Exodus chapter 17. The Lord did not forget what they had done and told Israel to not forget and promised in Deuteronomy chapter 25 that the Amalekites would be judged for it.
Fast forward to 1 Samuel chapter 15, and King Saul (whose dad’s name was Kish) was sent to bring that judgment on the Amelekites and their king who name was Agag. And Saul (being partially obedient, which means he was disobedient) did not execute King Agag as he was supposed to. And Saul lost the kingdom over that, which then went to King David.
So these two families have some unsettled business. Both have found their way far away from the boundaries of Israel, and they are locked into their conflict hundreds of miles away in the Persian citadel of Susa.
I think that’s at least part of why Mordecai won’t bow. Not just because of a basic family feud (like the Hatfields and the McCoys), but because the Agagites have been trained through years and years of enmity passed down from generation to generation to hate all of the Jews  and want to see them wiped off the planet.
It’s not just jealousy that someone is grand vizier and Mordecai is not. It is that HAMAN is grand vizier and he doesn’t deserve honor and must, in fact, be dishonored. At least, I think that might be what is going in Mordecai’s mind. The narrator doesn’t come out and say. All it says is, “Mordecai would not kneel or pay him honor.”
This bewildered Mordecai’s co-workers. They try to get him to go along with the crowd. Verse 4.
“Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, ‘Why do you disobey the king's command?’ Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.”
(The plot thickens. This plot is getting really thick!) 
It’s out! Mordecai has outed himself as a Jew. When his co-workers couldn’t convince him to comply, they ran to Haman to get him into trouble. (What a great workplace!) They wanted to know if they really had to do this, too.  And if anything was going to happen to Mordecai because he had told them he was a Jew. It’s no longer a secret. 
Mordecai has decided that now is the time for him to go public with his identity, and that must have taken courage. Because now the gloves come off. The danger really begins. Haman suddenly becomes aware of Mordecai. Verse 5.
“When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.”
I don’t know how he’d missed it. Perhaps he was so full of himself, that he wasn’t looking at who didn’t bow. He was just assuming that everybody did every time he went by. And he was so high, he didn’t even look down there at those peasants to see if they were bowing or not.
“But now that you point him out, I can’t miss it! “Every time I see him, he just stands there when I go by.”
It’s also possible that he knew Mordecai was doing this but he was hoping that Mordecai would get into line without him having to actually do anything about it. He’s cowardly like that. But once it was pointed out, Haman had to do something. 
And it wasn’t go to Mordecai and confront him and work this out. It was punish him. Punish Mordecai. And punishing just Mordecai, only Mordecai, wasn’t going to be enough. Verse 6.
“Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.”
Where is God???
Where is God when you are not recognized for your hard work?Where is God when you are overlooked for a promotion?Where is God when your enemy gets the promotion you deserve?Where is God when someone is out to get you?
I’m sure that Mordecai was feeling those questions.
What is God doing in this chapter? He has not been mentioned. He has not been named. He is never named in this entire tale.
Is He here?
Because Haman is fixing to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews. And up to this point, they were not just Mordecai’s people, they were God’s people. Where is God?
Do you feel how personal it is? The evil in chapters 1 and 2 was more general evil and foolishness. That kind of evil hurts people, too. Selfish rulers and their foolish choices can bring a lot of pain to the people around them. Just ask the families of all of those pretty girls who were in Xerxes’ contest.
But this is a lot more personal. This is not just foolishness. This is hate. And it’s hate on a grand scale. Haman wants to (v.6), “destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.” And that kingdom includes Israel. It stretches from Pakistan to Northern Sudan. From India to Ethiopia. And remember what’s in the middle. And Haman is going to come up with the plan and the power do it. Look verse 7.
“In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, they cast the pur (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.”
Do you get the picture? This is the 12th year that Xerxes is king. That would probably make it 474 BC. How long has Esther been the queen? Did anybody do the math? About 5 years!
Has Haman been angry at Mordecai for five years? Has Mordecai been refusing to honor him for five years?
It doesn’t say. Maybe all of this happened in the same year, including Haman’s rise to power.
But now Haman tries to figure out a good time and day to kill all the Jews.
He uses what you and I would consider a randomizer. He “casts the pur” which is a Persian thing kind of like a set of dice which the Persians thought would reveal by divination the most propitious day for some action. We use these dice for our Yahtzee game at home. Are these magical? No, they are not. But the Persians had something they thought was. The pur. [Plural: Purim.]
We don’t know the system they used, but they use their system, rolled the dice, they cast the pur, the lot, and it “fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar” which would have been in the late winter, early spring–March of 473BC about 11 months in the future.
Interestingly, these months were named by the Jews while they were in captivity. They were just called first, second, third month, etc, in the Torah, but they gave them these proper names when they were in exile. Nisan (first month) and Adar (twelfth month).
So Haman has his date for this massacre, and now he goes for the authority to do it. Verse 8. And, boy, is he sly.
“Then Haman said to King Xerxes, ‘There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. 
If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business” (vv.8-9).
Do you see what I mean about “sly?”
He doesn’t mention Mordecai at all! He doesn’t mention their grudge. He doesn’t talk about himself at all except as the man with the plan to rid the king of this pesky problem that he probably hasn’t even noticed.
He starts with truth. “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered [true] among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom [true] whose customs are different from those of all other people [also true. They are supposed to be different. They are holy.] and who do not obey the king's laws [Maybe not the ones where the king says you have to honor Haman, but I don’t think there are a bunch of other Persian laws that we’ve seen the Jews disobey. They even went along with the queen contest!]; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them.” 
Never mind that Mordecai once saved your life!
This is a good reminder to check on people’s stories about others. To check sources. To not believe every bad report you hear about somebody. Some of that is going to turn out to be gossip and slander. Especially if it they benefit from the bad story in some way.
Haman says that these people contaminate the kingdom and should be exterminated from it. And he’s got a plan. Just leave it to him.
“And don’t worry about money, O King. Money will not be a problem. I’ll make sure this initiative is fully funded.”
The Greek historian Herodotus said that about this time the entire income for the Persian king in a year was around 15,000 talents of silver. Haman promises 10,000 talents of silver. 375 tons of silver! That’s like 2/3 of the entire kingdom budget for 474BC!
He might be exaggerating, but maybe not. He was probably planning to get that money from all of those Jews that they were going to kill. That was the plunder. And Xerxes who keeps losing all these battles with the Greeks sure needs money to keep up his wars. Follow the money. Verse 10.
“So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ‘Keep the money,’ the king said to Haman, ‘and do with the people as you please.’”
That is one of the most chilling sentences in the whole Bible.
It’s like Pilate washing his hands. King Ahasuerus gives Haman, the enemy of the Jews, the executive authority to do whatever he wants with all of the Jews.
By the way, the phrase the NIV translated, “Keep the money” might not mean “keep the money.” It’s literally something like, “the silver to you.” and it could be translated something like, “Well, it’s your money, so okay!” “Deal!” “Use as much of it as you need to effect your plan. And of course, I’ll take the rest.”
How terrible that the king didn’t even ask Haman the name of the people that he was going to exterminate.
He’s not curious in the slightest. He just delegates this authority to do mass murder! He’s so careless.
There’s a negative lesson here about how to wield the authority that we are given in our own domains. Whether we are parents or managers or leaders in church, home, work, government.
This week, if you are a voter, go out and vote for those whom you think will do the best job with the authority they are granted.
Ahasuerus couldn’t be bothered to even ask about the details. He just hands over his ring. And Haman takes the ring and runs! Verse 12.
“Then on the thirteenth day of the first month [which is probably April 17, 474BC] the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman's orders to the king's satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring.
Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.
A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day. Spurred on by the king's command, the couriers went out, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered” (vv.12-15).
That happened fast. As soon as Haman had the authorization, he put everything in place for the massacre. Just like the Vashti order in chapter 1 and the contest order in chapter 2, this order is translated into language and sent out as law, binding irrevocable Persian law, to every province in the kingdom.
And the instructions are simple. “Destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews on March 7th. It’s almost a year away. 
What a terrible thing to anticipate. The holocaust of holocausts. A genocide of Jews. In one day.
And the architect of this evil and the willing dupe behind it sit down for more drinking to celebrate each other.
“Good job, Grand Vizier Haman! Drink up!”
“Good job, O King Xerxes! I toast you!”
V.15 “But the city of Susa was bewildered.”
“What is going on? What does all of this mean? Who all is affected? How are we really going to pay for this?"
“Does this mean I need to kill my neighbor? Does this mean I get his stuff?
“Does this mean we’re going to die? In eleven months? Our whole family? Even grandma? Even the baby? Even...Hadassah?”
Where is God?
That’s where we’re going to stop today.  I told you it was going to be a cliffhanger. Mordecai and his people are in danger, and that’s where we’re going to leave them, in danger. We’re going to leave them bewildered.
And that’s probably helpful for our hearts because that’s where we often live as Christians today. Sometimes we are going to be bewildered. We will feel confused, lost, disoriented, perplexed. Feeling, if not asking, the question, “Where is God?” If you haven’t had that feeling yet, just wait. It’s coming.
And stories like this in the Bible are helpful for teaching us that we’re not necessarily doing something wrong if we feel like that.
Where is God when life is unfair? Christians will face this. We live in an broken and unjust world. Where is God when people hate us? Christians will face this. Not just Jews.
Where is God when we live under a threat?  So many Christians around the world face persecution for their beliefs. And though Christians in America have mostly experienced a somewhat privileged status in our national history and almost no violent persecution, that could always change, and there are still plenty who hate us with malice in their hearts.
Where is God when evil abounds? Christians will face this.
We have an enemy. The same enemy that Haman was (unwittingly) working for. 
So it’s probably good that we end on a cliffhanger and feel the dark clouds of threat and danger that hang over the city of Susa and the kingdom of Persia, especially in Israel. 
This is real. This is where we often live.
The main application of Esther chapter 3 is that God’s people will often have to face injustice and malice. We shouldn’t be surprised.
The New Testament tells us how followers of Jesus are supposed to actually respond to this. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount and Peter taught us in his first letter about loving our enemies and blessing those who persecute us. We’ve studied both of those things in the last few years. 
But the key idea here is just to not be surprised when we are bewildered.
At the same time, there are also little hints of hope even in chapter 3. And they provide wisdom for us, too. 
I thought of three points to keep in mind from the little hints in this chapter, and here’s number. I think this chapter hints that:
#1. GOD IS NEAR.
The very fact that God is never named in Esther makes me think about Him all the more. Is that how it works for you? As soon as I found out that fact, I have always  then looked for Him in the story. Because this is in the Bible! The Bible is about God! So if there is a story about God that doesn’t talk about God, it just about yells His name!
And this story is about evil. Raw evil. Well, how do we know it’s evil? What makes something evil? It’s evil over against what is righteous, right? What is holy. The reason why these words are so shocking is because of God. “Destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews...”
Where is God when great evil happens? He’s near. None of this evil takes Him by surprise. He may even have a plan for it. This world is not out spiraling out of control. God is not absent. He’s just telling a story with some awful things in it. Some bewildering things. But we know that they are not outside of his control.
Here’s one of the hints of that. In verse 7, when they cast the pur (that is, the lot), what does every Hebrew child who has memorized the Proverbs of Solomon know about the lot?
Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
There’s no such thing as a coincidence, and there is no such thing as chance. For all of our intents and purposes the lot is random. But there is no such thing as luck. We don’t understand it all, but we know that God controls all the twists and turns of our stories. He might not be named in Esther 3:7, but we know that every decision of the lot is from the LORD. He’s near.  
Second, I think that Esther chapter 3 hints that:
#2. THERE ARE WORSE THINGS THAN BEING HATED.
I wouldn’t want to be in Mordecai’s shoes. But there are shoes in chapter 3 that I would want to be in less. I’d hate to be in Xerxes’ shoes. And I’d really hate to be in Haman’s.
Chapter 3 presents these two guys as examples of how not to live. Negative examples.
Xerxes is clueless, careless, and callous. He’s irresponsible with his power and authority. He’s greedy and thoughtless about the people under his authority. He’s selfish and unjust. I would rather be Mordecai than Xerxes even if it means being bewildered. Even if it means being murdered.
And Haman? Haman is malicious. He’s full of bitterness and pettiness. He’s sly and slanderous. He’s out for revenge. He’s on a power trip. He’s full of diabolical rage. I’d rather be Mordecai than Haman even if I didn’t know the rest of this story. Drinking it up while the world burns! There are worse things than being hated.
Followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to be different than the world. We, like the Jews, are dispersed and scattered all over the world. We live “in” the world, but we are not supposed to be “of” it. We live among the Hamans of this world, but we are not supposed to become like them. Not even so that they like us! There are worse things than being hated. There are even worse things than being killed.
Last hint of hope from chapter 3, and this will take us to the Table. I think that Esther chapter 3 hints that:
#3. GOD WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE.
He has before.
Here’s one last hint from chapter 3. In verse 12, did you notice what day it was when the royal secretaries wrote out the order to exterminate the Jews?
Of course you didn’t! And neither did I. We don’t know what is “the thirteenth day of the first month.” But the Jews did. That was the day before Passover. That was Passover Eve. The fourteenth day of the first month (see Exodus 12.) April 18 that year of 474BC.
Now, one level, it’s terrible that they are being threatened again on the very day that they are supposed to celebrate their great rescue. 
But I’ll bet that when they saw the order come across from King Xerxes and that was the date on the order, there were a lot of Jewish heads nodding  at each other from across the room.
“He rescued us before. He can do it again.”
And more than that, God has promised to send them a Messiah to save them once and for all. And if God lets Haman kill all of the Jews, that Messiah will never come. And you and I will never be saved.
Yet here we are at His Table again.
So I don’t think we have to stay bewildered.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23

“Hadassah”Where Is God? - The Book of EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchOctober 26, 2025 :: Esther 2:1-23  
“Where Is God?” That’s the title of our new series on this unique book of the Bible called, “Esther.”
“Where is God?” That’s a question that we have all asked from time to time, and we have all felt in our bones.
“Where is God?” Especially, where is God when bad things are happening to us?
We saw already, last week, that the Book of Esther answers that question in a subtle way. It doesn’t just come out and hit you with the “right answers.” It allows you to feel the question and to feel your way to the answer by following this rollicking good story.

“Where is God?” 
Especially when He is not mentioned. We pointed out last Sunday that unlike the Book of Daniel that had all of those amazing names for God that Shaggy referenced in his song. Unlike the Book of Daniel with all of those amazing names for God, in the Book of Esther, God is never named.
God is never mentioned! Not even once. We read chapter 1 last week, all about the fateful banquet that King Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) threw to impress his kingdom and the trouble he got everybody in when he required his queen to appear and make a show of herself before a crowd of drunken men. When Vashti refused, Xerxes dug in and made it all worse. He allowed himself to be talked into publishing his spat with the queen and make it an unrepealable law that Vashti could never enter his presence again and her place as queen be given to someone else.
And in all of that story, God was never mentioned. 
Where was God in Esther chapter 1? Was God present and active in the foolish court of the pagan king of Persia? Or was He absent, inactive, missing, gone? I think the story is hinting already that God, though perhaps hidden, is very present and very active, and we just need to keep our eyes open and our ears tuned to catch what He is up to. What do you think?
It’s also possible that He’s there, but we aren’t going to know or understand what He is up to. We wouldn’t understand if we did know.
In Esther chapter 2, Xerxes is still on the throne, but he feels alone. Let’s look at verse 1.
“Later when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her.”
He’s feeling it, isn’t he? He’s finally sobered up and cooled down. And he’s thinking about Vashti. I wonder if he regrets at all what he did. I wonder if he was brooding.
Xerxes never seems to ever think he did anything wrong. Notice it says that he remembered what she had done. As if Vashti was the real problem here. Not what he had demanded that she do. But he also remembers what he had decreed. By law, he was never supposed to see Vashti again. And that law had been translated and broadcast into every language in his kingdom from India to Ethiopia. 
I wonder if he was depressed?
And Xerxes has even more on his mind during this time period. Do you remember last week that we said that Xerxes wasn’t happy with the size of his giant kingdom. He really really wanted to conquer...what other kingdom?
Greece! His dad had tried it and failed. He was going to try it once again.
How did that go?
Do you remember the vision of Daniel chapter 8? That’s the one that Daniel had in Susa (where this story takes place), and it was about a Ram and a Goat. And the ram had two horns (one longer than the other one), and it was the Medes and the Persians. Do you remember what the goat was? Ran so fast it didn’t touch the ground. The goat was the Greeks. And they ran at each other. And which animal won? The goat won. Ultimately, years later, with Alexander the Great.
So Xerxes could not conquer the Greeks. Even when he had superior numbers! Some of you may remember from your high school history classes the battle of Thermopylae. Or the 300 Spartans that held back the oncoming onslaught of the giant army. Well, that was Xerxes army, and it was right about this time.
So Xerxes may have been feeling like a loser. He had lost to Greece, and he had lost his queen. He had lost to his queen. With her refusal, she had made him look weak, a joke. Even though he was perhaps the most powerful man on the planet at that moment, Xerxes was down.
So his staff tried to come up with a solution to cheer him up.
“You know what you need, O king? You need a wife. You need a queen. You need a replacement queen. An upgraded queen. And to get there, you need a lot of sex.”
You can almost see his head bob up in verse 2.
“Then the king's personal attendants proposed, ‘Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful girls 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. Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti’” (vv.2-4a).
This is another terrible idea.
Instead of fixing his problem with his old wife, or instead of choosing a new queen from those who might be qualified by their wisdom and experience in overseeing other important responsibilities, the king’s personal attendants proposed...a giant beauty and sex contest. A star search. 
A reality show where beautiful young ladies of marriageable age are brought from all over his vast kingdom for the king to try out one at a time.
Survivor: Queen Edition. Persian Wife Search. “Tune in at 9, 8 central.”
This is a terrible idea.
His advisors make it sound so legitimate with “appointing commissioners,” and placing these women under the care of Hegai, and providing them with beauty treatments. How nice for them to get a day in the spa!
But this is not nice. This is brutal, when you think about it. Because I don’t think that these women were, for the most part at least, volunteering. They were being subscripted. Just like the army. Just like the eunuchs. The commissioners were snatching up the beauties from all over the kingdom. “You, you, you. Come with me.” [I got this "you, you, you" wording from Christopher Ash.]
It was more like a kind of kidnaping. More like coercion. More like royal human trafficking than just a version of “The Miss Persia Contest.”
And the only thing they were looking for was superficial youthful beauty. They had to be young, of marriageable status, and beautiful. 
Apparently, King Ahasuerus and his friends did not know what Lemuel’s mother had taught him, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).
Guys, you don’t want a queen whose only qualification is that she is great arm candy or lots of fun in bed.
But that’s the plan! Gather up the beautiful young girls and have them put under the care of Hegai, a man that Xerxes has most likely had castrated so that they will be safe with him. [Interestingly, even though Vashti and Esther are not named in Herodotus’ history, this Hegai may be!]
And place them in a harem. “A house for the women of the king.”
Every time a harem is mentioned in Scripture, it’s presented as a bad idea. Bad for women. And bad for nations. And bad for the king who thinks he should have one. [This includes King Solomon who was a Hebrew!]
So what does Xerxes do? Verse 4.
“This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.”
Of course, he did.
Where is God?  Xerxes doesn’t know and doesn’t care. He just knows what he wants. And he’s the king, so he’s going to get what he wants! He’s all cheered up. He’s rubbing his hands together. [By the way, this tracks with what we learn about Xerxes during this time period. He was famous for his affairs and adulteries and chasing after his pleasures.]
“Great idea, guys! This will be expensive. What big a undertaking! But I am totally worth it. Start bringing them in. Let’s see what we’ve got.”
Now in verse 5, the focus of the story changes. The storyteller introduces two more key characters in this drama, including the one from which the book gets its name. Look at verse 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, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah” (vv.5-6). Stop there for a second.
There was a Jew named Mordecai, and this is his story.
Where does he live? He lives in Susa. That’s this Persian city where Xerxes has his winter fortress. In fact, he lives in the fortress. He’s somehow attached to the citadel. Perhaps he’s a low-ranking official in Xerxes’ government. 
Why does he live there? If he’s a Jew, why doesn’t he live in Israel? Well, it’s complicated. His family was carried off into exile in 597 BC. We read about Nebuchadnezzar’s uprooting and hoisting away the second-to-last king of Judah named Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah) in 2 Kings 24 and Jeremiah 24, and 27, and 29. Apparently, Mordecai’s family went with King Jehoiachin into exile, and Mordecai has found his way not just to Babylon but to Persia.
By the way, it almost certainly must mean that his great-grandfather Kish was carried into exile because it’s been like 114 years since that happened, and I don’t think Mordecai was that old!
But Mordecai is in Susa because of the broken covenant. And because of some other decisions by his family. For over 50 years, they have been allowed to immigrate back to Israel. Xerxes’s grandfather Cyrus said so. But only about 50,000 Jews went back to Israel at that point. Most of the rest of them decided that they would try to make a go of it in the land where they had been replanted.
Was that good and wise?
It’s hard to say. It was definitely hard. It was hard to maintain their Jewish identity when they were embedded in Persia.
Mordecai’s name for example is almost certainly Persian in origin. It was probably a variant of Marduk one of the gods of Mesopotamia. It’s possible that Mordecai had a Hebrew name, too, but the Bible doesn’t tell us that. To us, he’s just Mordecai, son of Shimei, the son of Kish.
By the way, keep that last name in your head. It may become somewhat important as the story unfolds.
But we need to move on from considering Mordecai to gazing upon his young charge. And her name was “Hadassah.” Look at verse 7.
“Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.”
Her name was Hadassah which means “myrtle,” which is a fragrant star-shaped flower. It’s a beautiful name. I’m sure her parents loved bestowing it upon her when she was born. But they had both died. The storyteller tells us that twice in this one verse. We need to understand that Hadassah was an orphan.
Where was God when her parents were taken from her?
At least, Hadassah had her cousin. Mordecai had taken responsibility for Hadassah and was bringing her up. 
And Hadassah also had another name. This is the only place in the Bible where we read her name as “Hadassah.” She had another name that was much more famous. Her other name was Esther. Esther is probably her Persian name. It’s probably related to the name of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. And it is related to the word “Star.” Esther is, in many ways, the star of this story.
I have so many questions when I read this book.
I wonder if she loved both of her names? I wonder if she had a hard time with the Esther name. Just like I wonder about Daniel (who was also called Belteshazzar) or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah a.k.a. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Those guys didn’t think these names were worth fighting over or dying over. It was a just a name, after all. But I wonder how they felt about it.
I really wonder how Hadassah felt about what happened to her next. Because just as soon as the storyteller let us know that Esther was “lovely in form and features,” every person listening to the story so far said, “Uh oh! I can see where this is going!”
Esther is a pretty young thing, and Xerxes is looking for some pretty young things. Let’s read verse 8.
“When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls 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.”
So many questions.
I wonder how she felt about it. It doesn’t say that she resisted. Apparently, on some level, she was willing. She maybe didn’t feel she had much choice. She didn’t have much choice. She was at the king’s mercy.
When that decree went out, I wonder how all of the parents in the kingdom felt about it. Some may have wanted their daughter to get into the program. A shot at being the queen! An honor to be picked just for the harem itself, and as we’ll see, a relatively safe and secure future in an uncertain and scary world. There are worse things than being in a harem as much as I would not want it for any woman I know. 
Other parents probably rushed to marry off their daughters to someone they knew and trusted before the king’s commissioners could take them away from them.     
Did you feel that word “taken” in verse 8?
I felt that word like I had never felt it before as I studied Esther this week.
“Esther also was taken...”
[And there was no Liam Neeson with a particular set of skills to go rescue her.]
How did she feel? There go her hopes and dreams. She would never marry a nice Jewish boy and move back to Jerusalem. She would never live in her home with her guardian cousin again.
Her parents had been taken from her, and now she was being taken from everything she knew.
Where was God when Hadassah was taken to the king’s palace?
By the way, the Bible does not tell us all of this because God was okay with it! This part of the story is not presenting the king’s audition program as the biblical way to get a wife or a queen. Far from it! God does not condone this treatment of women.
The Bible is telling us this part of the story to bear witness that this is what happened...and to hint that God can use even this evil for His glory and our good.
Mordecai lets her go. He probably doesn’t think he has much choice either.
And then something interesting happens...
Esther rises to the top. Look at verse 9.
“The girl pleased him [that’s Hegai] and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem.”
Now, just like that word “taken” was important in verse 8, so is the word “favor” in verse 9.  Hegai just loved Esther! She was perfect in his eyes. Hegai was a talent spotter, and he could see something special in this one. She was a real beauty! She won his favor. And the word translated “favor” in verse 9, is the Hebrew “hesed.” Which we normally think of as something that God has for us. Steadfast love. Lovingkindess. Loyal love. 
It’s in our new memory verse, Psalm 117. “Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his [hesed] toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.”
Hmmm. I wonder if there’s something special going on here? Not a miracle, and yet...
Hegai gives her nothing but the best. Special beauty treatments, special ointments, massages, exfoliation, and special food. And unlike Daniel and his friends, Esther says, “Okay, I’ll eat your food.” It probably wasn’t kosher. In the best part of the harem, she got seven [count them seven! Just like the 7 eunuchs and 7 advisors last week, Esther gets 7] maids to be on her beauty staff to get her ready to meet the king!
Now, is this a good thing that she’s doing all this? It’s hard to say. Unless she is going to pull a Daniel and the lions den or a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and face the furnace, she doesn’t have much choice. So she makes the best of it.
I don’t judge her. And I don’t think the Bible presents her as necessarily doing something wrong here.
She made a hard choice in a hard place.
If she was doing something wrong, it’s probably the next thing, in verse 10.
“Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so.”
Nobody knew she was a Jew. Nobody knew that she was Hadassah. They just knew she was Esther, the Star. She was quiet about it. She didn’t deny it. But it was a secret.
She kept it secret because Mordecai told her to. We don’t know why he did that, but we can guess. It’s called “antisemitism,” and it’s been around a long long time.
We’ll find out in the next chapter that Mordecai had good reason to fear hatred of the Jews in Susa.
But it’s not completely clear if keeping this was the right thing to do or not. It’s always tempting to keep quiet about our connection to our God. It’s often easier to be a “secret believer.” It’s easier if you are living in two worlds, to keep quiet about the one when you’re in the other. Making little compromises and losing your true identity in the process.
Or perhaps, in that moment, it was wise and strategic to stay silent. I can’t say. I don’t think the Bible is clearly saying one or the other in this part of the story either. But there is probably coming a time in this story when Esther will need to reveal that she is also Hadassah, and it might take some courage to get there.
Mordecai is keeping a close eye on her. Verse 11.
“Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.”
He has not given up on her, even though she was taken. He’s right there checking on her every single day. 
I think, men, that we could learn something from that! Checking on the well-being (literally the shalom) of the key women in our lives every single day.
Mordecai was probably worried about her. What was going to happen to Hadassah?
Verses 12 through 14 explain the process that all of the girls in this program went through. Look at verse 12.
“Before a girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. [A whole year!] And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. [Perfumes, clothes, jewelry, aphrodisiacs, special food. Anything that she thinks would really please him.] In the evening she would go there...and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name” (vv.12-14).
I love how careful the storyteller is with the details.
We don’t have to have it all spelled out for us.
She prepares for a year. She gets herself all dolled up. She goes in the evening. She stays the night. She goes from the part of the harem for virgins to the part of the harem for concubines. She is no longer in the realm of Hegai but of Shaashgaz.
Her life has changed.
She has “auditioned.”Her status has changed.She has been inducted into a new reality.
She is not quite a wife. She’s still a prisoner, really, and always will be. But she could be called back for some more if the king calls her by name. And not many were called back.
That’s what happened to all of them. What about Hadassah? What happened to her in particular? In verse 15, her time has come.
“When the turn came for Esther ([to be clear, that’s Hadassah] the girl Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. [Favor!] She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.”
That was probably 479BC. Church, that was four years since Vashti had been banished! Has Xerxes been trying out new girls for four years?!!
Verse 16 says again that Esther was taken. Her parents were taken from her.She was taken from her guardian.She was taken from the harem to the king.
And verse 17 says that there she found favor with him. Look at verse 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” (v.17).
Ahasuerus took a big high royal turban and set it on her head.
“And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality” (v.18).
Esther won! Esther won the contest. She won hands down. She was the best in the king’s eyes! The king even threw her a banquet!
We said last week to keep an eye on the banquets in this story. “Mishteh.” Every time a banquet happens, the story changes. This girl went from a nobody orphan exile at the bottom of society to be rocketed to the tippy top! Hadassah is now Queen Esther! She was married. Not just a concubine but a wife. And not just a wife but a queen. Never had she ever expected anything like this. What an honor! What possibilities may stretch ahead of her!
Is this a good thing? Well, there’s certainly good things about it. I don’t think a good Jewish girl was supposed to go bed with an uncircumcised pagan they weren’t even married to. And they weren’t supposed to marry outside of the twelve tribes either [see Ezra 9-10 for more about this!].
But it’s not like she had much choice, and now a Jew (though a secret one) is now the Queen of Persia. In a place of honor and power. And everybody in the kingdom is celebrating. The king has gotten generous like he did at the last banquet with the wine. He’s giving out gifts with “royal liberality.”  Probably canceling taxes so that everybody celebrates a Esther’s Banquet. Three cheers for our new Star Queen!
There’s one more part to this story, and then we’ll try to do a little application; though I think it’ll just be a hint of application this week.
In verse 19, we read another story about Mordecai and something he heard. Look at verse 19.
“When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. 
It's not quite clear why they were assembled. My guess is that the contest is actually over now that Esther has won, so they are getting grouped together to be sent home. Which would be a relief to many of them and a disappointment to some. Or it could mean that the king enjoyed the first round of this contest so much, he was starting a second one. It’s not clear.
But Mordecai is still doing his job at the king's gate. That's not just sitting around at a doorway! The king’s gate is where the official business of the kingdom was often conducted. V.20
“But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up. [The storyteller tells us this again. It will probably be important as the story goes on.] During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai.  And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were hanged on a gallows. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.”
Do you get the picture? Mordecai gets wind of this plot to kill the king. Maybe he even overheard “Biggie and Terrie” conspiring together. 
Mordecai is immediately concerned for Esther! If the king gets killed, what does that mean for the queen?
Apparently they still talk regularly, maybe every day. Mordecai tells the queen. The queen tells the king. The secret service conduct an investigation into the threat, and later that day Bigthana and Teresh are hanging from gallows, or, to be more specific, impaled on poles in the front yard as a cautionary tale for whoever might even think about trying to kill the king. 
Isn’t it interesting that Mordecai just so happened to be there to catch wind of this plot?
And isn’t it interesting to see how handsomely Mordecai was rewarded. Wait. He wasn’t rewarded, was he? No. Everything gotten written down in the log. “Recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.” "Mordecai. Bigthana. Terish. Gallows. Got it."
But, contrary to Persian practice, Mordecai gets overlooked for recognition. Somebody else rises in the kingdom whom we’re going to meet in the next chapter. But Mordecai gets nothing and is forgotten.
Hmmm. I wonder if that might become important later in the story?
So, let’s think together about application from this chapter of the Bible. What lessons could we learn because we’ve studied Esther chapter 2?
How to find a wife?How to pick a queen?How to snag a husband?How to run a harem?
I don’t think so. I think we get the best applications for this chapter by asking once again our key question for this series.
Where is God?
Where is God in Esther chapter 2? He’s never mentioned. He’s never named. So if we see Him, it’s just a glimpse. It’s just an echo. Just a whisper. He’s hidden in the Book of Esther, after all. If we see him, it'll be just a glimpse in the corner of our eye.
I thought of three things we might say. Three things that are hinted at in this chapter and are definitely true in the rest of the book and the rest of the Bible. Number one. 
Where is God in Esther chapter 2?
#1. HE IS THERE WITH OUR SUFFERINGS.
He is present in our pain. He is on hand in our trauma.
God wasn’t absent when Hadassah’s parents died.God wasn’t absent when she was orphaned.God wasn’t absent when Esther got taken, violated, imprisoned. He wasn’t away on vacation that day.
He was there. He was right there.
How do we know that? 
Well, this story tells us what happened. It bore witness to the history of her life. And of Mordecai’s life. And their entire exiled family’s life. The storyteller tells their story.  And we know Who the ultimate Storyteller is! And just because it happened, doesn’t mean that it’s good. Life is hard. The Bible says that clearly. And it’s hard for believers, too. We are not exempted from death or sexual assault, or systemic injustice.  Just because we have a Mighty Fortress does not mean that we will escape pain and harm and trauma in this life. We will not escape pain and harm and trauma in this life. But that doesn’t mean we are alone.
At the fall retreat, we memorized Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”
Just like Mordecai checking daily on Hadassah, the LORD is watching over His children.
Present in our pain. He knows! The LORD knows what you have gone through. That thing that person did to you? God was there. And He cares. 
He knows your story. And He dares to tell it. And He’s doing something with it.
We might not ever know this side of eternity what in the world God was doing with all of that suffering that He allowed into our life. But we know that He was there for all of it. And He has the ability to turn it all for our good.
We know that. The Bible says so. The Bible says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
And that, in the process, He will never leave us nor forsake us. 
Where was God? He was right there with our sufferings.
Second hint. Where is God in Esther chapter 2?
#2. HE IS THERE WITH OUR SUCCESSES.
He’s not just there with “taken.” He’s there with “favor.” It’s both.
Where do you think all this favor for Esther was coming from? It doesn’t say! But it sure makes you wonder. Where did all of this “hesed” come from all of sudden? How did Hadassah go from the bottom to the top in one year?
Hmmm. I wonder. God is not just sovereign over the hard things but the happy things, too.
Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” ]
Xerxes ends up wherever the LORD ultimately wants him to end up. He makes all of his own choices for himself. Terrible as they often are! But Xerxes’ choices don’t stop the LORD’s purposes from being fulfilled. And that includes Esther finding favor with him and with everyone. It’s not because she’s so great (as great as she probably was!) but because the LORD was with her. It doesn’t say it. But... And any more successes that are in this story, especially the big surprising ones, I wonder where they might come from?
And last but not least. Where is God in Esther chapter 2?
#3. HE IS THERE WITH OUR SALVATION.
I know we haven’t seen it yet, only just a hint, but next time, Lord-willing, in chapter 3, we’re going to learn of a grave danger that threatens the people of God and yet does not catch God by surprise.
Even though His name never appears in the story. There just might be Someone who has a plan that He’s been putting into place from before even chapter 1! There just might be Someone who just might have a plan that includes little details that just so happened to happen in chapter 2. Because maybe there is no such thing as coincidence. 
Maybe Someone is sovereign over even the small things that make our lives. The details. The things even we’ve forgotten much less everyone else. Even our bad choices along the way.
The odds were stacked against Hadassah and her people. But I think we might see as this story unfolds, that there is salvation on the way.
That’s what happened at the Cross and the Empty Tomb, isn’t it?  Everything was stacked against us there. All of our enemies were winning. The World, the Flesh, the Devil. Our backs were against the wall, and we had nobody to blame but ourselves. 
But our God had a plan. He had a plan before the story even began. And it was a plan that we would have expected or come up with our own.
God sent His Son to rescue us from our sin by taking our sin onto Himself and giving us His righteousness. So that when Jesus went to the Cross, He died for our sins. And then when came out of the Tomb, He came back to life to give us life forever with Him!
Not because of anything we had done or would do.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And we know this because of the Word of God alone. God had a plan and all who repent and put their trust in His Son will enjoy the blessings of that plan forever. To the glory of God alone. 
God is not hidden. He is with us in our salvation.
Psalm 46:11, “The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
***
Messages in this Series:
01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22

“The King Gave a Banquet”Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen EstherLanse Evangelical Free ChurchOctober 19, 2025 :: Esther 1:1-22  
You might be wondering why we are tackling the tale of Esther today.
That’s a good question, and there are a lot of reasons why I thought this was the right next book for us as a church.
For one, it seemed like it was already time to get back to the Old Testament. We were in Paul’s two letters to the church of the Thessalonians for five months of this year. It seemed like a good idea to jump right back and learn some more from the “First Testament” which the Lord gave us for our instruction (Romans 15:4).
And on top that, Esther seemed like the right next book of the Old Testament. I was going to preach Ezra next in our ongoing series recounting the Big Story of the Old Testament. 1-2 Kings, Jeremiah, Daniel, and then...Ezra, right? Because we saw back in Daniel in the Winter and Spring that the events of Ezra had already begun while the Book of Daniel was unfolding. So, Ezra would make sense. 
But Esther is another book that, like Daniel, tells a story of the Jews in Exile.  The entire story takes place far away from the Promised Land. And like Daniel, we learn in Esther how to live in a kingdom that is far from the kingdom that has been promised to us. I think that was helpful to learn about in the winter, and it would be good for us to think about some more as the next winter approaches.

There are a lot of similarities between the Book of Esther and the Book of Daniel.
But there are also a lot of differences!
In Daniel, there were lots of miracles–circumventing the laws of nature.In Esther, there are none. 
In Daniel, there were lots of visions–revealing the future.In Esther, there are none.
And here’s the biggest one:
In Daniel, there were lots of names used for the one true God.In Esther, there are none.
The name of God does not appear in the Book of Esther. That’s one of the most amazing things about this book! It’s in the Bible, but the LORD is not named in it.
If you remember, just about every message in Daniel, I picked a different name for God from that chapter to be in the title of that message for that chapter. The God of Heaven, The King of Heaven, The God of Gods, He Who Lives Forever, The Ancient of Days.
Not one of those names appears in the Book of Esther. And I don’t think that’s a coincidence. That is not a minor thing about this book. That’s a major thing about this book. This book does theology without ever talking directly about God. 
God seems conspicuously absent. And I think that’s on purpose.
Some people have thought that maybe the Book of Esther doesn’t belong in the Bible since it doesn’t mention God. It’s just an interesting story. But the Jews and the Church have disagreed with that idea. God’s people have recognized that this story is a sacred story. It belongs in Holy Scripture.
Because God inspired it to help us when we feel the question:
“Where Is God?”
Have you ever felt that question? I know you have.
Where is God when bad things are happening to me?Where is God in this day and age?Where is God in this situation that I’ve found myself in?Why does it seem like God is not here?
In many ways, Esther is a lot easier to relate to than Daniel. Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve never gotten a vision from God. But I have lived in a world where I wondered if God was even there.
The world goes about its business acting as if God is not present. And sometimes (often) it feels like it.
Is God here?Is God at work?
Sometimes He sure seems invisible...and quiet.
Where is God?
The Tale of Queen Esther answers that question with subtle genius. It doesn’t just come out and say the answer. No, it allows you to feel the question and to feel your way to the hope-filled answer by following this rollicking good story!
This is one of the greatest stories of all time!
It’s got it all: 
Political intrigue: money, sex, and power.Twists and turns that you would never see coming.Tragedy and violence.Comedy and humor. Even physical humor. There is so much irony and satire in this story, especially in how the storyteller paints the characters!
How foolish some of them are!How wicked some of them are!How brave some of them become!
This is one of the greatest stories of all time!
There’s a reason why Esther is so many peoples’ favorite. I will try not to bungle it for you as I re-tell it.
And it all begins at a party. “Once upon a time.” Look with me, please, at Esther chapter 1, verse 1.
“This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush...”
What a great opening line! The storyteller places this story in history and geography. It happened during the time of Xerxes. Your Bible might say, “Ahasuerus.” Same guy.   His Hebrew name is “Ahasuerus” or more woodenly, “Ahk-ash-way-rowsh.”
And nearly everything points towards him being the same king that is known in Greek history as “Xerxes (I) the Great” who reigned from 486 to 465 BC.
His name in Persian is something like “Khshayarshan.”  
But “Xerxes” is the easiest to pronounce, so we’ll go with that. Same guy.
I’ll try to throw in the Hebrew name from time to time because that’s actually here behind the NIV translation. But it’s the same guy.
And the storyteller wants you to know who he is. They say, “the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush.” That’s from modern day Pakistan to modern day Ethiopia, maybe Northern Sudan! This guy was a big deal in geopolitics for a few decades in the fifth century BC.
Kind of like Nebuchadnezzar, he was just about “the king of kings” of his day. It’s that Xerxes. That king.
Now, what beloved nation was within his territory? From India to Cush? Israel was. It’s not named, but we all know it. Xerxes was the High King over Israel. Remember, Israel was a football kicked back and forth between teams. That’s probably important.
Which kingdom was this one?  Remember what Daniel learned in his visions? Like the one of the big statue in chapter 2.
The kingdom of Babylon was the head of gold.What was next? Chest and arms of silver.
We said that was probably the Medes and the Persians. Look at verse 2.
“At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa...”
Susa was in Persia. Modern day Iran. Xerxes was the grandson of King Cyrus of the Medes and Persians. The one who conquered Babylon the night of Belshazzar’s Feast. Remember that from Daniel chapter 5? 
King Cyrus had a daughter named “Atossa” and a son-in-law named “King Darius the Great” who built up a great winter fortress in Susa. And King Darius and Atossa had a son named “Xerxes,” and he took over and ruled over a vast kingdom.
But not every country was in his domain. Can you guess which nation he was unsuccessful in defeating?
Remember Daniel’s statue? The belly and thighs of bronze? Which we said looked to probably correspond to the Kingdom of Greece. The land of Socrates (who born about this time), the land of Pythagorus (with his famous algebraic equation. He had already lived and died by this time). And the land of Herodotus the historian who wrote a lot about Xerxes in his book about the Greco-Persian wars.
Xerxes wanted to conquer Greece. In fact, that might have been what his banquet was all about.
And what a banquet it was! Look at verse 3.
“At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, and in the third year of his reign [probably 483BC] 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. For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty” (vv.2-4).
We’re supposed to be impressed.
That is one long party! A banquet that lasted 180 days. That’s six months!
The word translated “banquet” in verse 3 (and v.5) is “mishteh,” and it shows up more in Esther than anywhere else in the whole Bible. The storyteller uses it 20 times these short chapter, and it only shows up 44 times in the whole Bible! Nearly half of them are right here in the tale of Esther.
The whole story turns on what happens at these “mishteh,” banquets or “feasts.” There are like 10 banquets in these 10 chapters, and every one is entertaining and important to the story. Whenever there is a banquet, pay attention!
This is the longest one, and it has all of these military people at it which leads a lot of readers to think that this is a political rally to get Xerxes’ armies all psyched up to go attack Greece.  For six months, they party. Maybe that’s an exaggeration? Maybe they work some and party some, but the whole festival is six months? I don’t know.
I do know that this party was an extravaganza! “For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty.”
And when that party was over, he threw another party! Verse 5.
It is possible that this is the actual banquet referred to in verse 3 which came after the display of wealth. It’s hard to say for certain if there are one or two banquets. In the end, it doesn’t really matter.
“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. 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 [red feldspar?], marble, mother-of-pearl and other costly stones” (vv.5-6). Stop there for a second. Do you see the ostentation?Do you feel the opulence?Do you see the glitz?
This banquet isn’t kingdom-wide. It’s at home in Susa. And the king has opened up the doors of the palace to anybody in town. Thousands of people. Everybody was welcome for seven days to come check out this palace. 
They have the latest and the greatest stuff!They have couches made of gold!Couches made of silver. 
That word “couch” means “couch.” Like a thing you sit on with pillows. They had so many of these, the historian Herodotus says that after the Persians left Greece in defeat, they left behind gold couches that they forgot. Not coins or statues, but couches (Cosper, pg. 3)! Golden couches!  
Now, before we go much further, I’ve got to warn us all to be careful.
Don’t get too impressed here. 
Xerxes was trying to impress everybody in the kingdom. And it’s easy to fall right into it. I mean, just imagine walking through this party especially if you are a normal person with a normal house, and you see all of this wealth on display. Wow. Wow. Wow!
But think for a second about where this wealth came from. Nearly all of it came from unnecessary violence. From war. From setting out to conquer other kingdoms and bring back the plunder and start collecting the taxes of tribute.
Yes, it’s sumptuous, but it’s also blood-soaked. And it’s so exorbitant. It’s so excessive. Yuck.
The music was bumping. The wine was flowing. Look how much wine. Verse 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. By the king's command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished” (vv.7-8).
No two goblets were same! And everybody could drink as much as they wanted. The bar never closed. I think the point of verse 8 is that they didn’t have to drink just when the king drank. Often the rule was, if the king is drinking, you’re drinking. And when the king is not drinking, you’re not drinking. But this time, the king said, “Don’t pay attention to me. Drink as much as you want, guys. The only law here is you’ve got to drink all that you desire."
What could go wrong? A bunch of men drinking as much as they want for a whole week. King Ahasuerus was showing off. 
I think we’re going to soon see that the story of this banquet is a story of foolishness.
So I have three points of wisdom that I think we can glean from Esther chapter 1, and here’s the first one:
#1. DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE BIG SHOW.
Not everything that glitters is gold. And even real gold isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things. (In heaven, we’ll walk on the stuff!)
The world tries to convince of us its greatness.
With whatever is big.Whatever is flashy. Whatever is expensive.
Social media makes things look great, and then you order something online, and it’s so disappointing when it comes, right? Politicians make big promises and say how wonderful they are and wonderful everything is going to be if we just for vote for them. Influencers show off their homes and cars and girlfriends and boyfriends and piles of cash.  Celebrities with their record deals. Athletes with their clothing contracts. 
The world is trying to sell us something. We need to be wary, Church.
Xerxes was trying to impress everybody, but he was not a great man.
Who are you tempted to be impressed by and why? Not somebody else. Don’t think about the mistake they’re making. Look at yourself and your own heart. Who are you tempted to be impressed by and why?
This creeps into the church, too. We get impressed by the big church, the mega church, the pastor who is clever and sharp, with the best social media presence. The most exciting sermons. The worship band that really bumps or whatever the kids say today.  The most books sold. No matter what’s in them. The most “followers.”
Don’t be impressed by the big show.
This feast reminds me of Belshazzar’s feast from Daniel chapter 5. That’s the day that Xerxes’ granddad killed Belshazzar of Babylon and took over his kingdom.
What were they doing that day? Drinking it up. Acting as if the LORD did not exist. Are these people thinking about the LORD? No way. He’s the furthest thing from their mind. “Where is God?”
All they can think about is money and power and drink and probably sex.
Because here’s what comes next. 
By way, if you know this story, and most of us do, try to pretend like you don’t, while we read it. Try to think what it was like to hear this story told to you for the very first time. So you don’t know what’s going to happen next.
The next thing is the Queen. And her name is not Queen Esther. Her name is Queen Vashti. She, too, is giving a banquet. Verse 9
“Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.”
We don’t know much about her. She may be the same woman Herodotus names as “Queen Amestris” in his history books, but it’s not for sure.
At this point, this woman was the leading lady of Ahasuerus’s harem, and the queen of Persia, and she was beautiful.
Some scholars believe that this banquet was a wedding banquet meant to celebrate Xerxes and Vashti’s marriage. That’s possible, but it doesn’t say. What it does say is that King Xerxes wanted Queen Vashti to leave the banquet for the women and come over to the banquet for the men.
Who had been drinking. And drinking. And drinking.
Including the king himself. Look at verse 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 Carcas–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” (vv.10-11).
Xerxes was drunk.
“High in spirits from wine.” The CSB says, “feeling good from wine.”
Oh yeah. Not the best time to be making big decisions. But Xerxes did. He decided to call in his staff, seven eunuchs who served him. And, yes, they were mostly likely castrated so that they could be considered “safe” around the harem. Xerxes was a brutal king. He was not afraid to abuse and use people.
He calls these seven guys to him. They all have hard-to-pronounce names, and many scholars that I read this week say that’s on purpose to bring out the comedic effect. The storyteller might have even changed their names for the book to make everybody giggle when they heard them.
And it’s also comedic that the king sends seven guys to collect one queen. Like so much else in this story, it’s outrageous overkill. It’s going to take seven guys to bring back Vashti. 
But what’s not funny is why he wants her over there. He wants to show her off. He wants to “display her beauty” to a bunch of drunk men. I don’t think that’s anything like the beauty of a bride on her wedding day. This is most likely showing off how “smoking hot” his trophy wife is.
This is making her an object. It is probably degrading, insulting, humiliating. Treating his queen just like all of his other property. He wants to use her as further proof of his greatness. He wants everyone in the kingdom to envy him. And it’s an assault on her dignity.
Many Jewish readers came to believe (though it doesn’t say this outright), that verse 11 implies that Xerxes wanted Vashti to appear at this banquet wearing only her royal crown. Which was probably a high turban.
Xerxes was not a good king. He was not a good husband. He was not a good man.
Don’t be impressed by the big show.
Now, pretend for a second that you don’t know what happens in verse 12. What would the reader expect to happen? Given what we’ve heard so far. This king rules from India to Ethiopia. He has just shown everybody what “great king” he is. What do you expect to happen?
The queen will obey. Right? She will obey her summons and follow, maybe be carried by, the seven eunuchs from the women’s banquet to the men’s banquet and perform whatever duty the “great” king requires.
But that’s not what happened! Verse 12.
“But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.”
We don’t know why she said, “No.” The Bible doesn’t tell us. Perhaps she didn’t want to be treated like a showgirl. Maybe she was sick. Perhaps she didn’t feel safe. Maybe she was making a point. We don’t know.
It certainly was a gutsy move. She was taking a big risk because she was bringing “shame” on King Xerxes in the thousands of eyes of his guests.
And, boy, did he hate that! He got so angry. So angry, that he didn’t...go and talk to her and solve this problem in their marriage. 
He called his buddies together and treated it as problem for the whole nation. Look at verse 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 and were closest to the king–Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, the seven nobles of Persia and Media who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom” (vv.13-140).
I think we’re supposed to giggle at those names, too. 
Seven more men. These are “wise men,” perhaps astrologers and lawyers and (definitely) politicians because they told him what he wanted to hear.
By the way, in this book, King Ahasuerus almost never makes any decision without consulting someone else. He can never make up his mind on his own. He has no moral compass. Sadly, Daniel has been dead for nearly fifty years, so he’s not in this bunch of advisors. And the king does not get good counsel. V.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.’”
Often a bad sign when they start talking about themselves in the third person. 
These “wise men” are in a difficult position. The best advice would be for them to encourage the king to repent. To see his mistakes here. To sober up and apologize to the queen for putting her in that position.
But that’s...not what they say. Look at verse 16.
“Then Memucan 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. For the queen's conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, 'King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. 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.’"
The kingdom will fall apart!
"‘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. Then when the king's edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest’” (vv.16-20).
This is terrible advice.
Memucan is trying to convince Xerxes that this will make their society fall a part if the word gets out that Vashti has shamed him like this. So he suggests that they spread the word that...Vashti has shamed him like this! What?!
And he tries to convince the king to make a law that cannot be revoked–as if the king couldn’t make a mistake in making a law–that Vashti will be banished from the king’s presence. [Which by the way, might have suited her just fine. That’s what she wanted, right? She didn’t want to see him. Even though it came with a demotion, effectively a divorce. Notice that he’s not called “queen” in verse 19. Just “Vashti” now.[
And, interestingly, if Vashti is to be equated with Queen Amestris, then if Herodotus’s history is right, she must have risen back to power after the death or fall of Esther. We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say what happened to these folks after chapter 10.
And if he makes this law, then “all the women in the kingdom will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest.”
Sure! That’s what will happen. Just because there is a law on the books, all the wives are going to do what Vashti did not do. It doesn’t make any sense. How are you going to enforce that one?
He’s trying to save face by legislating respect without earning it.
So, of course, Xerxes loved the idea!
“Great idea, Memucan! Yes, yes, let’s do that.”
I think that Memucan might have had trouble at home, himself, and was hoping that this would fix things there (Chuck Swindoll raises this idea in his book on Esther).
Memucan definitely was sending the message, “The men of Persia will love  you for this, O king.” (This idea was raised by Mike Cosper in his book, pg. 8). Look at verse 21.
“The king and his nobles were pleased with this advice, so the king did as Memucan proposed. He sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, proclaiming in each people's tongue that every man should be ruler over his own household” (vv.21-22).
There. We told them!
Here’s lesson number two for this foolish banquet:
#2. DON’T BE FOOLED INTO THINKING THAT YOU’RE IN CONTROL.
Xerxes was not in control. He might have thought he was, but he was no such thing.
He wasn’t in control of himself. He was drunk and making bad decisions.He wasn’t in control of his wife. He didn’t earn her respect and couldn’t command it.He wasn’t in control of his kingdom. You can’t make the kingdom respect you by making up some law that says they must. You can’t buy everybody’s love either.He wasn’t in control of his life or his destiny.
What he did made him look weak, ineffective, and silly. 
He was a joke. As the story goes, “The emperor had no clothes.”
Don’t be fooled into thinking that you are in control. And don’t try to seize control of things you can’t and shouldn’t.
Some people (especially certain types of guys) read verse 22 and say, “That doesn’t sound so bad. ‘Every man should be rule over his own household.’” Just sounds like “biblical manhood” to me.
But the Bible never tells Christian husbands to subject their wives. The Bible never tells Christian husband to make their wives submit to them.
Yes, it tells Christian wives to submit to their Christian husbands as unto the Lord (Ephesians 5:22).
But it never says that the husband is supposed to seize control. He’s supposed to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (see Ephesians 5:26). That’s biblical headship!
Xerxes wasn’t saying that to the men of Persia. He was saying that women are second class citizens if they are citizens at all. Women are just objects to be used and abused and consumed. Property to be shown off. Prizes to be won and enjoyed.  Women are something to control.
Brothers, don’t be fooled. Sisters, don’t fall for it.
Women are to be cherished. Women are to be respected.Women are to be honored.
Wives are to die for.
Because our King, King Jesus, didn’t kill to get His glorious majestic wealth. 
Our King, King Jesus, was killed to give us His wealth.
And our King, King Jesus has given us the model to follow.
Now, we’ve gotten to the end of chapter one, and we haven’t even yet met anyone named Esther. The storyteller hasn’t even mentioned the Jews yet. Much less God. It’s just been these pagans with their pagan king and their pagan queen and their pagan drinking party.
So where is God?
Where is God at the king’s banquet?
Is He here? Nobody has mentioned him. If He’s here in this story, He is hidden.
I think that’s it. He is here, but He’s hidden. Lesson number three and last:
#3. DON’T BE FOOLED INTO THINK THAT THE HIDDENNESS OF GOD MEANS HE’S MISSING.
God is not AWOL. Ahasuerus is not in control of his story.
Whoever is telling the story is in control of his story.
I wonder who is telling the story?
Isn’t it interesting that now the king has a new problem? He’s going to wake up one day and realize that now he doesn’t have a queen. There’s a vacancy in his organization...near the top! What’s he going to do about that?
And is it possible that Someone Who hasn’t been named in this story is moving everybody around for His own purposes? Behind the scenes, so to speak?
Is it possible that Someone is not interfering with signs and wonders and miracles but is just nudging everything and everyone into place for His own glory and the relief and deliverance of His people?
I wonder.
Is it possible that Someone is taking into account even the foolish choices of a drunk king and the dangerous choices of his previous queen and the stupid counsel of his seven dummies (I mean wise men). Taking all of that into account and weaving it into a story that will astonish and delight people in Pennsylvania 2,500 years later?
Maybe Someone is not missing. He’s just hidden right there in plain sight.

A sermon series on the Thessalonians Correspondence from May to October 2025 for Lanse Free Church.
1 Thessalonians

01. "To the Church of the Thessalonians" - 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
02. "We Loved You So Much" - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
03. "You Are Our Glory and Joy" - 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
04. "Do This More and More" - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
05. "Encourage Each Other With These Words" - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
06. “We Belong to the Day” - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
07. "To Each Other and To Everyone Else" - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15
08. "This Is God's Will For You" - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28

2 Thessalonians

09. "In Every Good Deed and Word" - 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
[Bonus Historical Message: "Forever: Hell" - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, October 30, 2005]
10. "God's Judgment Is Right" - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-10
11. "We Constantly Pray for You" - 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
12. "Stand Firm" - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-15
13. "The Lord Is Faithful" - 2 Thessalonians 3:1-514. "Never Tire of Doing What Is Right" - 2 Thessalonians 3:6-18

“Never Tire of Doing What Is Right”Eternal Encouragement - 1&2 ThessaloniansLanse Evangelical Free ChurchOctober 5, 2025 :: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-18  
Do you ever feel like giving up? Do you ever feel discouraged and ready to throw in the towel? Do you ever feel the question, “Why even bother?”
I think that most of us can feel that way at least some of the time, and some of us can feel that way most of the time.
“What good does it do, anyway?”“Why keep trying so hard with so few results?”“Why do I keep punishing myself? Why do I keep beating my head against this wall?”“Why do I keep trying to do what is right?”
In verse 13 of chapter 3, the Apostle Paul tells the Christians in this beloved baby church to not give up. He says, “And as for you, brothers [and sisters], never tire of doing what is right.”
The updated NIV has, “...never tire of doing what is good.” The ESV and CSB both have, “...do not grow weary in doing good.”
In other words, don’t give up, and don’t give in, and keep on doing the right thing. Keep putting one good foot in front of another. Do the right thing. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t lose your enthusiasm for well-doing. Stay diligent. Stay steadfast. Don’t grow weary. Do the good thing.
“[N]ever tire of doing what is right.”
That’s maybe easier said than done, but it was the Lord’s word for the Thessalonians back in the day, and it’s His word for you and me today. “[N]ever tire of doing what is right.”
Our series on the letters to the church of the Thessalonians has been called “Eternal Encouragement,” and we have noted that encouragement comes in two basic flavors: consolation and exhortation. Comfort and command.
A great majority of the encouragement in these two letters has been the first kind–comfort and consolation. It has been so encouraging to hear how much Paul loved this church, and even more how much Jesus loved this church. And what good hope He’s given them! It’s been so encouraging to hear what the Lord has in store for this church–protection from their enemies, strengthening them for every good word and deed, perfect justice, eternal life with the eternal Lord. Return, resurrection, rapture, reunion! Eternal encouragement!
But in this last section, it’s mostly the second kind of encouragement. The kick in the pants. The encouragement to get off our seats and into the game. And to stay in the game even when it feels like it’s a losing game. “Never tire of doing what is right.”
Last week (in verses 3 through 5), the Apostle Paul assured the Thessalonians that the Lord is faithful and would both strengthen them  and protect them from the evil one and empower them to do what He has commanded.
He said, (v.4) “We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.” Paul expected them to obey because the Lord was at work in them, and the Lord’s work will work. God’s love and Christ’s perseverance would see to that (see v.5)!
And now in verse 6, Paul tells them what the specific commands he expects them to obey actually are. Starting with: staying away from disorderly Christians. Look at verse 6.
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers [and sisters], to keep away from every brother [and sister] who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.”
I have three points of application to summarize this passage, and here’s the first one:
#1. AVOID CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE TIRED OF DOING WHAT IS RIGHT.
I was surprised this week at how strong Paul was here. He gives a command “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And we know that the Lord Jesus Christ has all of the authority in heaven and on earth.
And so it’s nothing small when Paul invokes that name and says, “Here’s the apostolic command in Jesus’ name: KEEP AWAY from every brother who is idle and does not live according the teaching you received from us.” 
Wow. That’s strong language. We need to take it to heart. This is serious stuff.
So, who is that we are supposed to avoid?
The old NIV says someone who is “idle.” That’s someone who isn’t doing the work they are supposed to be doing. They are idle. 
The updated NIV has, “idle and disruptive.” There’s clearly more to what’s wrong with this kind of people than just basic idleness. 
The Greek word is “ataktows,” and it’s a little hard to capture in English.
We saw Paul used it before in chapter 5 of his first letter to the Thessalonians when he said, “Warn those who are [ataktows] idle and disruptive...” 
The King James has “walks disorderly.” The CSB has “walks irresponsibly.” The NASB has “leads an unruly life.” 
The idea is someone who is “out of line” and not doing what they are supposed to be doing. (Like working for example.) This is someone who claims to be a Christian (notice that Paul calls them a “brother” or a “sister”) but who “does not live according to the [authoritative] teaching” that Paul and his team had given to the church.
In other words, they had tired of doing what is right. They had gotten lazy and undisciplined and unruly and disordered. And given up. They were out of line. And Paul tells the Thessalonians to keep away from brothers and sisters who are doing that.
Now, down in verses 14 and 15, Paul is going say more about what that “keeping away from” means and doesn’t mean. It’s clearly not a complete avoidance. Because he says they should not “regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” (That’s verse 15.) So there is some level of relating that is still supposed to happen. But Paul also says that they should “take special note of” someone like this and, “Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed.” (That’s verse 14.) The idea is that the brother or sister in Christ will be embarrassed to be left out of the fellowship and be motivated to repent and change.
One commentator I read this week said that we should remain “aloof” from folks that are like this. Make sure they know we love them and that we are not mad at them. That’s not why we are keeping our distance. But because we want them to know that what they are doing is serious, and we must take it seriously so that they might change. Not ostracism, but also no close fellowship until there is repentance. Avoid Christians who have tired of doing what is right. Including stopping their rightful work to freeload on others.
Paul says that he and his ministry team showed them how they were supposed to live. Look at verse 7.
“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle [and disruptive, ataktows] when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you” (vv.7-8).
Paul, Silas, and Timothy had worked and worked and worked when they were in Thessalonica. Paul was a tentmaker by trade. So he spend a good deal of his day making and mending tents and selling them in the marketplace and then also sharing the gospel and building up the church. He did both night and day!
And he didn’t take support from the church that he was planting. Now, we can see in other letters, that he sometimes received missionary support from churches after he had planted them–like from the Philippians. But when he was planting, he didn’t want to come across as a grifter or be a burden on the fledgling little church that was struggling so much to survive in the first place. So he took he didn’t take support from them.
I think that’s what he means by “did not eat anyone’s food without paying for it.” I don’t think that means that if they had him over for supper one night that he insisted on paying for their hospitality. That would be rude. It means that he didn’t expect them to do that night after night after night. (And he would probably have them over for supper from time to time on his dime.) The same thing was true of housing and clothes and other basic necessities. He worked for them all.
We talked about this back when we studied 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 (see v.9). Could Paul have asked them to support him? Yes, he could! A gospel worker is worthy of his wages. (See 1 Corinthians 9:3-15, 2 Corinthians 11:7-9, Matthew 10:10.) It’s not wrong for you to support me as your pastor, and how well you do it! Thank you for sending us next weekend to the district retreat for pastors and wives (see also 1 Timothy 5:17-18)!
But Paul intentionally did not do that here. Look at verse 9.
“We did this [eschewing your support], not because we do not have the right to such help [we do!], but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.  For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’” (vv.9-10).
Paul was showing them how important it is for Christians to be faithful to work and to be self-sufficient to the degree that we can. So much so that he gave them this rule of thumb:
“If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
If you follow that rule, that will be really motivating! I don’t know about you, but I like to eat!
Now, the most important word there is “will.” And it really means “will” as what they are willing to do. Where is their heart in this?
It’s not talking about someone who is disabled and can’t work, or sick and can’t work, or too young to work, or too old and infirm to work, or has tried to find work and can’t get work. Or if it’s illegal for them to work.
Paul is talking about Christians who are capable of work who refuse to work. They rebel against work. They are not willing to work. The “rule” is “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
And if he will not work, then we should keep from away from him, as well. Not only should we not keep feeding him, we shouldn’t keep fellowshipping with him either.
I’ll be honest. I don’t know that I’ve ever done this quite like this. I’ve definitely chosen not to feed someone who I was pretty sure was just gaming the system. Our Ministerium has a fund of Neighbors Helping Neighbors that we are collecting for at Blessed to Be a Blessing this afternoon, and we have turned people down that have requested help when it was clear that they were just trying to freeload.
But I don’t know if I have ever told another Christian that I can’t hang around them unless they work harder at getting a job. Most of the Christians I know follow Paul’s example of working hard for their upkeep. But there are folks out there who have tired of doing what is right. And there were, apparently, some among the Thessalonians. Look at v.11.
“We hear that some among you are idle [and disruptive]. They are not busy; they are busybodies.”
Yikes! Imagine being that guy or that gal when the church read Paul’s letter for the first time. “I heard about that guy [and everybody turns to look at him] among you who is out of line. They are freeloading on your church family.”
Now, it doesn’t say why. Perhaps they were just lazy. Some people have the exact opposite problem. The work too much. We call that “crazy busy,” right? Or workaholics. 
There are people who make work an idol. They worship their work instead of worshiping the Lord. But Paul is talking about the other kind of idle here. The opposite problem. Refusing to work. 
Not crazy busy, but “crazy lazy.” (I got that phrase from Alistair Begg.) What the Proverbs call “The Sluggard” or we often call “The Slacker.”
Some of these folks might have gotten the wrong idea about how to wait for the return of Christ. Paul has been teaching them all about the return of Christ and how they should be ready for it, right? These two letters are full of the return of Christ. He’s referred to it at least once a chapter up to this one. And some of these folks might have thought, “Well, if Jesus is going to come back soon, then why bother working? Let’s all quit our jobs and just sit around and talk.”
I wonder if anybody quit their job last week when that guy on TikTok said that Jesus was coming back on September 23rd?
But what did we just say before we sang, “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand?” “The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service, and energetic mission” (EFCA SOF #9). We’re supposed to be motivated to work by the return of Christ, not the other way around.
Notice what happens when we let ourselves become idle. We don’t just stop working, we start sinning.
Paul says (in v.11), “The are not busy; they are busybodies.”
That’s trying to capture the word play in the Greek. It’s kind of like when we say, “Are you working hard or hardly working?” But it’s stronger than that. When we stop doing the business that we’re supposed to do, we often start getting ourselves into other people’s business.” And become meddlers and gossips and busybodies. 
I read a book about gossip once. It’s apparently a bad thing. Should be resisted!
These folks aren’t working for their upkeep or for their families or for their Lord. They are working for their disordered interests. And we should not support them. And we should avoid them. And we shouldn’t be like them. See what Paul says to do instead. Verse 12.
“Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.” 
Literally, “to work quietly and eat their own bread.” And then verse 13. “And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.”
#2. NEVER TIRE OF DOING WHAT IS RIGHT.
Don’t be like those guys who have given up on working for the Lord and refusing to work for themselves. Get busy and stay busy, quietly working away until the Lord returns.
Paul had similar instruction for the Thessalonians in his first letter, chapter 4, he said, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thess. 4:11-12). That’s how a Christian is supposed to live!
Now, I don’t know about you, but whenever I read this chapter, I can be tempted to be proud. Proud of my work ethic. I love to work! I like working more than resting. I’m not good at resting. I’m good at working. And that’s a problem I have because the Lord calls me to rest every night and every week, not just to work. But I don’t tend to have a problem with idleness, and I can be tempted to  look down my nose at those who do. I’m tempted to say, “Yeah, Paul stick it to those slackers! You tell them.”
And if you are a slacker, this passage is speaking to you. It’s encouragement to get off of your seat and into the game. Paul commands YOU and urges YOU in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread you eat! But this passage is not just for the idle. It’s for all of us. It’s also for those of us who are considering throwing in the towel. Who are discouraged by the state of the world and tempted to give up and give in. We all need to hear verse 13!
“[A]s for you, brothers [and sisters], never tire of doing what is right.” Never tire of doing what is good.
This week, I had my prayer retreat, and I tried to pray for every family in the church directory. I didn’t get through all the names. I’m still working at it. I prayed for all of you together and many of the names, and all of the little prayer cards you gave me. But I haven’t made it through the whole directory yet. And I was tempted to give up. Those prayer cards sure are heavy. You folks are battling difficult stuff. You have a lot of cares and concerns. Valid ones for your health, your families, your workplaces, your country, your world. And it felt heavy.
But I was reminded of what we had read in verse 3 and what we had sung last Sunday. “The Lord is faithful.” And kept praying. And I will continue to pray. And by God’s grace, I will obey verse 13 and never tire of doing what is right.
Sadly, some of these brothers did not. So the church needed to take note and avoid and warn them. Verse 14.
“If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.”
And keep doing it as the Lord leads. Never tire of doing what is right. Never tire of doing what is good. I like the update of the NIV translation here because it’s not just what is morally right but what is morally good and beautiful. [The Greek word is “kalopoiountes” (used only here in our Bibles) which has the “kalo” pre-fix which makes it mean something like “doing beautiful goodness.”]
Think about it.  When we who are capable of working do our work, we not only can provide for ourselves and for our families but what else? For other people. For the genuinely needy!
The Lord doesn’t just want us to not be freeloaders. And He doesn’t just want us to be self-sufficient. He wants us to be generous (see Ephesians 4:28 and Acts 20:35)!
He wants us to fill the fridge for our needy neighbors.He has blessed us to be a blessing for our needy neighbors.He has given some of us strong bodies that can not only do our work but can help others who can’t do their work.
And we’re gonna. And we’re not going stop. We’re going never tire of doing what is good. And we’re not going to look down our noses at those who wear out, but we are going to encourage them to get back in the game.
“[A]s for you, brothers [and sisters], never tire of doing what is right.”
How’re we going to do that?
How’re we going to do that when everything is stacked against us? Think about this little baby church in Thessalonica that had so much against them. They were new and small. They were being attacked. They were being persecuted by the Jews and the Romans. They were being hounded and pounded by their neighbors. They were getting confused by unsettling teachings about the end times and even maybe fake letters from somebody pretending to be Paul. How were they going to keep going?
God’s peace and God’s grace.
#3. EXPECT THE PEACE AND GRACE TO KEEP DOING WHAT IS RIGHT.
In verse 16, Paul prays once again. Just like he has over and over again through these two letters, Paul pops out with a burst of prayer. Verse 16.
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”
“This is no fake letter. No forgery. You can tell this is from me by the handwriting. And I’m praying for you.”
I’m praying for peace. Notice that He uses the Lord’s name here. Just like verse 6 and verse 12 and verse 18. He prays for the Lord of peace Himself to give them peace. Just like our memory verse. Not just the Lord’s messenger or agent. But the Lord Himself. The Lord of peace Himself. I’m praying that Jesus would give you His peace. And at ALL TIMES and in EVERY WAY. That’s peace, peace, peace, peace, peace! 
We can have that!
Even when persecuted.Even when attacked.Even when the world wears us down.
We can have peace all the time and in every way. Why?
“The Lord be with all of you.”
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”
That’s how. That’s what we need! Peace and grace from the Lord Himself.
How encouraging that must have been for Paul to leave that little church with that last word! A last word not of a kick in the pants, but a shot in the arm, a long cool drink of water for a thirsty soul, a belly full of nourishing food, a tank of gas. Expect it! Whatever it takes to keep on going. All of the peace and all of the grace to never tire of doing what is right.
And it’s found in our Lord Jesus Christ alone.

***
Messages in this Series:

1 Thessalonians

01. "To the Church of the Thessalonians" - 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
02. "We Loved You So Much" - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
03. "You Are Our Glory and Joy" - 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
04. "Do This More and More" - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
05. "Encourage Each Other With These Words" - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
06. “We Belong to the Day” - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
07. "To Each Other and To Everyone Else" - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15
08. "This Is God's Will For You" - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28

2 Thessalonians

09. "In Every Good Deed and Word" - 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
[Bonus Historical Message: "Forever: Hell" - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, October 30, 2005]
10. "God's Judgment Is Right" - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-10
11. "We Constantly Pray for You" - 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
12. "Stand Firm" - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-1513. "The Lord Is Faithful" - 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5