Forgotten OT Books: Esther—The Unseen God
Has anyone here actually ever seen God?
Has anyone actually seen heaven, like the Apostle Paul may have in 2 Corinthians 11?
Has anyone actually seen a miracle?
Like someone rising from the dead?
Like a man with a shriveled arm made whole?
We cannot see or touch God, yet we believe that he is there.
This is what FAITH really is.
Hebrews 11:1 ESV “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
We work, think, and act all believing that God is alive, good, powerful, and active.
This morning we are going to read a story where God is working powerfully behind the scenes.
The Book of Esther.
It’s a unique book.
Not once is the name of God mentioned. Not once. Isn’t that odd?
Not once are key biblical words mentioned, like Faith, prayer.
Take it out of the context of the Bible, and the book reads like a good story, but you wouldn’t get much indication at all that God is the Great Player in the Story.
But read in the context of the Bible as a whole, we can easily see the hand of God working powerfully to bring good out of bad.
Esther quietly tells us that God is Alive and Well and Watching out for his people.
The book is about God’s providence.
God’s providence: in some invisible and mysterious way, God governs all things through the normal and the ordinary course of human life, usually without the miraculous.
We believe in the Unseen God.
In our world today, we can grow anxious and afraid about our lives and our world.
Disease. Financial challenges.
We see insane things in our country, and in other nations.
We see RULERS doing unimaginable EVIL.
And we can wonder, who is truly in charge? Is God SILENT? Inactive?
Or is he working powerfully and surely behind the scenes?
Lessons from Esther:
- Though we cannot see him, God is always at work.
- As Israel was commanded to celebrate the events of Esther, we too can learn to celebrate the work of God in our lives.
Background
We are going to read a large portion of Esther this morning.
But FIRST, we need some background to the story as a whole and to Chapter 1:
- Jews sent into exile 100 years before by Babylonians. (This is when Lamentations was written.)
- Persians conquered Babylon 50 years later.
- Then some Jews return to Palestine, but most remained in exile.
- Now some 50 years after that, we insert the book of Esther.
- This is during the reign of a Persian king, Ahaseurus, or Xerxes. 470’s B.C.
- King Ahaseurus deposes his queen. Searches for new queen.
- Esther becomes queen.
Events in Esther are near the end of OT era. So chronologically, Esther should appear in the Bible near the end.
Read Chapters 2-7
Let’s read, starting in Chapter 2. Page 410.
Chapter 8-10
For sake of time, we cannot read the remainder of the story.
But here’s a summary:
- In this astonishing turn of events, Mordecai takes the place of Haman as the second in command of the most powerful nation on earth, the great Persian empire.
- Under Mordecai’s recommendations, the king issues a decree that the Jews can defend themselves against anyone who tries to kill them under the earlier decree concocted by Haman.
- The Jews actually do defend themselves, killing 75,000 who try to attack them.
- The whole event becomes the reason for an annual Jewish celebration, the Feast of Purim. Still celebrated to this day. It is a reminder of God’s protection of his people, even when facing extraordinary odds and bleak situations.
Lessons out of Esther
What can we learn here from this unique book that never mentions God’s name and doesn’t use important biblical words like faith or prayer?
Is it a book merely of random circumstances that happen by LUCK? By Chance?
Or is an INVISIBLE God behind it all, moving and orchestrating people and circumstances to bring a great deliverance for his people?
Is it coincidence that:
- Vashti is deposed as queen
- Out of hundreds of women, Esther is chosen to be queen.
- Mordecai hears of a plot to kill the king.
- Out of all the people in the kingdom, the one
- man Haman hates is Mordecai
- Haman plots to kill all the Jews.
- The king has a sleepless night, and has his chronicles read to him.
- Haman comes in at that precise moment.
- And on and on
Are these mere coincidences? Or is our Invisible God orchestrating events to bring a mighty deliverance about?
First Lesson
One great lesson I take out of this is that we should look for God working in and behind the scenes.
God is always at work, even when it appears he is silent or absent.
And he generally works through the normal circumstances of life.
This is God working in his Providence.
One author said this:
“The great paradox of the book of Esther is that God is omnipotently present even where God is most conspicuously absent.”
God is unseen, yet this is the essence of faith.
Hebrews 11:1 ESV “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
We often look for God in the miraculous. The phenomenal.
Sometimes he does that.
Yet in biblical history and in our own history, God typically works through the ordinary.
We might say some things are just accident or by fate, but we ignore a great God who cares for his people, is always watching them, and who works all things together for good.
In the case of my wife’s health, why did she have a stroke? Other people we know the same age didn’t. Yet we know people with strokes at a much younger age.
She has not miraculously been healed. Does this mean the Lord is not at work? Not at all. In some ways, our story is like Esther’s: God is at work mysteriously, almost silently, in the background. He is working through hundreds of people as they pray, serve, care, write, visit. Is God any less? No!
Here in Esther, everything appears just to be coincidence. Happenstance.
Yet when we read Esther with the rest of Scriptures in mind, we know that God is always present. He is always attentive to the cry of his people.
The Psalmist said:
Psalm 116:1 ESV “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.”
Psalm 46:1 ESV “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
One of the purposes of the Great Stories of the Bible is to help us see God at work in real time and in real history.
And then to inspire us to walk by faith through our daily lives.
Whether through the Mundane days, or through the Terrifying days.
In the stories being written of our lives: God is at work mysteriously, invisibly in the background.
We can call this the PROVIDENCE of God.
Second Lesson:
Celebrate what God has done.
Matt said last week, we’re not good at mourning, grieving.
Similarly, we are not good at celebrating.
The annual Feast of Purim.
Esther 9:20–22 ESV Mordecai… sent letters to all the Jews… obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
We can celebrate at least three things:
- Breaking of bread.
The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Through his Son, God has brought out a Deliverance far greater than the story of Esther and Mordecai from an enemy worse than Haman.
We do this every month. But you can do it more regularly as a household.
We are commanded to celebrate the work of Jesus.
- Our own salvation.
If you have believed in Jesus Christ, you have been BORN AGAIN.
If you know the date on which you repented and believed, you should throw a birthday party. It’s more important than your physical birth.
If you don’t know the date you believed and were born again, CHOOSE a date and start throwing a party.
Have a meal. Invite friends. Give them gifts.
- Many other good things the Lord does.
We should look for them, and celebrate them.
Annette and I talk almost daily about the kindness of the Lord to us even in our circumstances.
For example: About two weeks ago, some close friends stopped by to see us at the precise moment we needed encouragement and strength and help.
I told them, “GOD SENT YOU.”
That type of thing has happened dozens and dozens of times.
A phone call. An email. A visit. An offer to serve. A meal.
And perhaps best of all, prayer.
And when she finally comes home from rehab, we are going to have a Welcome Home and Thank God Party!
We should look for excuses to celebrate the Lord’s good work in us.
As a church, two or three times a year we have a meal as a church. We celebrate Good Friday, Thanksgiving, and sometimes other important events.
We do it together.
Conclusion
In Esther, we SEE the UNSEEN God.
He is alive.
He is active.
He is concerned.
He is powerful.
We see he works through the ordinary, even the MUNDANE circumstances of life.
God is calling us to walk by faith.