Below is a sermon manuscript from November 3, 2024. Watch the sermon here.
Esther 5
Introduction
Have you ever done something very foolish and you thought it was a great idea at the time? Maybe you even put thought into it, and others agreed with your plans, but it was really dumb. I’ve had many of those moments. I was in youth ministry for over a decade, and one thing that I did early on was at retreats. I would tell students that they could stay up as late as they wanted as long as a couple of leaders were up as well. My thought was students tend to open up, and great conversations can take place on retreats like this. It was leveraging the time to allow them to stay up late. This was a dumb idea. The students and leaders could barely stay awake the next day, and they were irritated with one another. Still, I thought – maybe we will put a time limit so it won’t be all night. Eventually, I became the “lights out, stop talking” person.
Walk in Prudence; Rest in Promise
Walk in the way of wisdom
Esther acts in a way that wins her favor and creates an environment where her request can be heard. She is prepared through fasting in one sense, but she doesn’t just charge in with a request. Her action and the juxtaposition between what she does in this episode and the immediate scene with Haman is intentional. It causes us to contrast the two characters. Here, Esther embodies what wisdom literature celebrates, and Haman is the stereotypical fool. Listen to just a few proverbs and how they relate here.
Proverbs 13:15
Good sense wins favor,
but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.[1]
Proverbs 16:22
Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it,
but the instruction of fools is folly.[2]
Proverbs 19:11
Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.[3]
Think about that first one: good sense wins favor. That is what Esther is attempting to do. She is likely participating in the act of fasting and maybe even sackcloth. But here, she adorns herself in royal attire. Notice that it is her that acts. Before, she had been taking advice from others, but here she is, the one who decides. In the royal palace, she wears royal garb. She does not just charge ahead with a request, but she tries to act in a way that will be well-received. Courage is wedded with wisdom. Prudence follows prayer. We can learn from this. We often think, “Well, I will just go ahead and do what’s right and let the chips fall where they may.” But what if this is arrogance? What if it’s a presumption that God will bless our every effort? What if the way we do something matters along with what we are doing?
Some will roll their eyes at that statement. You may have the mindset of D.L. Moody. The story goes like this,
One day a woman criticized the legendary D.L. Moody for his methods of evangelism. Moody’s reply was, “I agree with you. I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?” The woman replied, “I don’t do it.” Then Moody reportedly replied, “Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”[4]
The point is that we should do it, even if we don’t have the best way. But we also need to be careful not to be complacent in evaluating our methods. Laziness can operate both ways. We can spend all day thinking of the best way to do something and never do it. Or just be critical of others but never do it ourselves. We can also do something and be less effective because of the method. It’s not one or the other; it’s both/and. Some will be more gifted toward one and, therefore, more prone to one error than the other. Be careful to only see the flaws in each other instead of their gifts and strengths. For Esther, we see both wisdom and action.
Proverbs 19:2 says,
Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.
Use wisdom in your speech.
Think about the care that Esther takes in going before the King with her request. She is slow in her approach.
The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.[5]
She takes time to answer and chooses her words carefully. The king says that he will give her anything, even up to half of the kingdom. This is a figure of speech. We will see it again later in the narrative. It’s unclear if the King is saying it flippantly or in passing here. Perhaps not, since he quickly handed over the signet ring to Haman. But still, she has not gone to him in 30 days. Perhaps there is an issue that was not common. Now, there is favor, but this may not be the best time to bring something up. A meal is more intimate. Throughout Scripture, we see the value of table fellowship. She brings the conversation down to the appropriate parties. To announce it right there may have been tantamount to showing the King’s folly and putting him in an impossible position in front of others. So, she chooses her words and actions carefully.
It might have seemed tempting at first for Esther to lay out her request immediately, while the opportunity was there, but consider the numerous challenges that faced her. First, she was asking for the reversal of an irreversible law, which had been sponsored by the most powerful man in the empire and signed with the king’s own signet ring. Granting her request would cost the king ten thousand talents—less than half his empire, to be sure, but as much as half the annual tax revenue of his empire, and so no small sum. Perhaps even worse, though, it would be hard for the king to accede to her request without losing face, since the edict had been officially authorized by his own royal person. Finally, in order to make her request she would have to reveal her hidden Jewish identity, risking a potential backlash from the husband she had been deceiving for the past five years.
Nothing short of a miracle would enable Esther’s request to be favorably received, and even though she had spent three days fasting and (implicitly) requesting divine assistance, she was in no position to presume on extraordinary assistance from on high. Unlike Moses and Elijah, she had no dramatic signs and wonders that she could call upon to convince a skeptical audience. Instead, she would have to follow the best strategy she could come up with and rely on God to make it effective in changing the king’s heart.[6]
Reasoned and thought-out speech is important. Today, we often value authenticity and extemporaneous speech, but the ability to speak well off the cuff is a skill, not a virtue. It’s only honorable if we are deeply informed and have the ability to speak wisely in various situations. This doesn’t just happen but requires intentionality and foresight. Being quick on your feet to respond could be an indicator of intellect or ignorance. We live in an age of the latter, where hot takes on current issues are seen as more valuable than careful framing of various factors at play. Esther is wise. She is slow. Perhaps in our age this can be a challenge for us. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.
Be careful of pitting promise against prudence
A danger for us is that we should be careful of pitting promise against prudence as if these are mutually exclusive. Sometimes, promise can transcend reason or correct our faulty reason, but it doesn’t contradict reason rightly ordered.
One example from a New Testament promise comes to mind. It’s that God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. In doing student ministry, this one was a common go-to for illustrating this principle. We should not take this principle and say, “This means I can go to that party, hang out with my significant other alone with no one watching, visit any website I want because God won’t let me be tempted beyond what I can bear.” No God has given us a brain to know that we shouldn’t put ourselves in certain situations that are more than we can handle. We don’t jump into a volcano because we have a fire-retardant suit.
Again, this can go the other way as well. We can lose sight of promise because we are focused on our approach and how it will be received. This can make us lose both altogether. As J. Mack Stiles said,
“It’s easy to go from being a welcoming church to becoming a church that jettison’s the gospel in its desire to be ‘friendly.’ Unfortunately, many churches fall into this heresy when their main concern because the non-Christian rather than fidelity to the gospel. The quickest route to heresy and error is ‘relevant’ evangelism. Good-hearted motivations that try to shape the church for the needs of man and not the glory of God are the death of Biblical churches.”[7]
So, we trust in the Lord and his ordained methods even as we seek to live wisely in this world. It was not Esther’s will to act that changed the direction of the narrative. In fact, it seems like things are getting worse. That may be the case for us as well. We are seeking to be faithful; there is a decisive shift in our lives. Maybe we come to know Jesus as our savior; we start to live for him. But we still have practices and habits that are working against us. We still have circumstances in our life that remain unchanged. Listen, coming to Christ will transform us, but it doesn’t mean everything will be easier or better in the here and now. Often, things are more difficult. We suddenly become more aware of our sin than ever before. We notice how we have contributed to certain situations. We desire the good of others, but they don’t have that desire for themselves. It’s hard. Although we have had a personal encounter with God, he seems absent in so many areas of our life. But like here in Esther, God is here with you even if he seems silent.
While it doesn’t necessarily get easier in some ways, there is great freedom. We can walk in confidence, knowing that we belong to the God of the universe. We can seek to be faithful and rest that he holds the world in the palm of his hands.
Don’t walk in foolishness; learn from folly
It’s foolish to be mastered by your passions
Proverbs 12:16
The vexation of a fool is known at once,
but the prudent ignores an insult.[8]
Proverbs 13:16
Every prudent man acts with knowledge,
but a fool flaunts his folly.[9]
Proverbs 15:14
The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,
but the mouths of fools feed on folly.[10]
Provbers 29:11
A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back.[11]
Ever say something in the midst of frustration and later regret it? Ever lash out at those closest to you, and it had less to do with them and more to do with the state of your own heart?
Haman’s favorite Disney song might be Let It Go except for the fact that there are only slight moments where he shows any restraint. We get a brief glimpse here where he doesn’t kill Mordecai on the spot. Still, he characterizes the fool who is run by their passions, letting this dictate how he lives. This contrast between Esther and Haman is meant to be instructive for the people of God.
For Haman, he is ruled by the praise of others. It is helpful for us to understand when we live by our vices, we die by our vices. The praise of people brought life and meaning to Haman, but the lack of praise brought pain and misery. Being ruled by passions signals a deeper issue going on in our hearts. We are not meant to live for our own glory. We are not the center of the universe. We are meant to be in a relationship with the God we made us and cares for us. Rejecting this and placing anything else in the center is a recipe for heartache and destruction.
It’s foolish to neglect the blessings you have
Give thanks for what you have
Do you notice what Haman does? He focuses on the one thing that went wrong, and it wrecks him. Why did it have so much power over him like that? Because, we have seen that he is living for himself and finds value in the praises of others. But we can all fall into this mentality. Even those who seek to live for the Lord can have times or seasons where our hearts are starting to turn and focus on what we don’t have instead of what we do have. We can lose contentment and start to covet. One remedy for this is the spiritual discipline of thanksgiving. Our prayers are formative. We can fall into the ruts of only presenting requests and neglecting thanksgiving. But giving thanks for what we have re-orders our loves. It both reminds us of God’s blessings and also reminds us of where the blessings come from, the hand of God who desires the best for us. Do you make it a habit to give thanks, or is it merely going through the motions? Too often, our requests can come with urgency and thoughtfulness, but our thanksgivings can be relegated to rote repetitions. Try writing out what you are thankful for. Read some of the thanksgiving Psalms and use those as a guide as you pray.
Recognize your place in God’s kingdom
We should give thanks. We also should recognize our place in God’s kingdom, which will recenter us. Haman is elevated in his role within the Kingdom, but it’s not enough. He needs to have recognition from everyone, or his entire mood is ruined. But when we are living as citizens of a greater Kingdom it counters this. Paul says that we are citizens of heaven.
Trying to live as the center of our own kingdom can spoil the best circumstances, but in God’s providence, he can use the worst of circumstances for good.
Maybe your work is hard. Maybe home life is hard. Whatever your situation, it can still be used for good. I remember a camping trip out west with my family. We had a camper that we pulled behind the truck and were heading from Michigan to Colorado and Wyoming. It was incredibly hot, and on the way, one of the tires blew out on the camper. We stopped and repaired it thankfully, we had a spare. We decided to get another spare tire just in case. Sure enough, we blew out another tire. We lost a bunch of time, and so we just kept driving after that one was changed, and we blew out a third tire. Since we didn’t have a spare this time, we had to leave the camper on the side of the road and drive to several different places to find a spare tire. It was one of those moments where “you should have gotten another tire. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s so hot outside, and the prairie dogs are mocking us.” Kind of things. It wasn’t something you plan. It’s not something you want to happen. But it’s a fun memory that our family has. Yes, we saw Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. But we also will never forget the blown tires. It brought us closer together – after the fact – during it, we were frustrated with each other. But think about it. We all likely have moments like this. Unplanned, unexpected, endlessly frustrating our plans, yet God uses them in pretty spectacular ways. Don’t forget to thank him for those, too; it might just change the way you view your current frustration.
It’s foolish to surround yourself with people who fan your folly
Proverbs 13:20
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm.[12]
It is common today for people to let their passions or temporary feelings dictate what is true and how to behave. It’s seen as loving to validate feelings no matter what. We could say that smashing the like button or celebrating whatever they are feeling in the current moment is exactly what Haman’s family is doing here. Instead of acknowledging how he is feeling and evaluating it, he instead compulsively acts, and they are there to celebrate with him. But that is the easy path. Everyone wants to be celebrated as they are heading on a fast break to dunk the basketball, but that’s not the appropriate action if they are about to dunk on the wrong basket. When we are living by folly, we are living life in the wrong direction, heading to score on ourselves. Do we have people around us who are willing to speak the truth in love? This is an attribute of Biblical friendship that we discussed in our recent series. Here, we see the opposite when it comes to Haman; they are all too happy to tell him what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear.
Learn from folly
The goal is not to have our folly ticked but tackled. We need to not burn with sinful passion but turn from sinful passions. One way we do this is be recognizing the goodness of God’s design. Another way this happens is when we experience the consequences of living according to folly. Maybe you have experienced this yourself. Maybe you have
Conclusion
For Haman, everything he had was for a loss if he didn’t get the glory and respect he desired. But contrast this with the apostle Paul. He had terrific earthly credentials. He had the education, the upbringing, the opportunities. But for him, all of this was for a loss; it counted for nothing – not because he wanted more – but because he had everything he needed in Christ. What a contrast. We should rightfully use wisdom as we live in this world. But the cross of Jesus transcends human wisdom. It is folly to those who are perishing, as we see in 1 Corinthians. But for those who are being saved, it is the power of God for salvation.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.[13]
We are left with Haman and friends seemingly winning. The gallows have been built. Mordecai’s death seemingly awaits. Evil will triumph; the people of God’s hope is in vain. Sometimes, that is exactly how we feel. Yet, God was at work. The people of God could trust in his promises even if they couldn’t see an end in sight with their eyes. The God who delivered them from Egypt could deliver them from an edict. This is the same God who can and does deliver us from the decree of death that sets upon every person. The good news of Jesus Christ is transcendent wisdom that can only be seen with the eyes of faith. Is that you?
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 13:15.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 16:22.
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 19:11.
[4] “I Like My Way of Doing It,” Church & Culture, January 11, 2016, https://www.churchandculture.org/blog/2016/1/11/i-like-my-way-of-doing-it.
[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 15:28.
[6] Iain M. Duguid, Esther and Ruth, ed. Richard D. Phillips and Philip Graham Ryken, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2005), 62.
[7] J. Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus, 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches Ser (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 87.
[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 12:16.
[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 13:16.
[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 15:14.
[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 29:11.
[12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Pr 13:20.
[13] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Co 1:18–25.
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