The Queen Gets Her Way (Esther 7)

In the previous chapter, no mention had been made of the heroine of the story, but in chapter seven she assumes centre stage. Very few, if any, would have expected her to have much influence. And she would not have any if God was not at work behind the scenes and in the scenes. No doubt, several thoughts come to mind as we read the chapter. Here is one that came to my mind as I thought about the details.

Does God work in murky situations? The chapter tells us that he does. When we read the account, we see a ruler who likes to drink and an adviser who hates God’s people. Neither the king or Haman believed in God, yet both of them on this day were used by God to fulfil his will. God in his providence led the king to punish Haman, and in his providence he used the instrument that Haman himself had made to punish him. We live in a world that is full of murky situations. Yet while God never approves of the sinful attitudes and actions that are taking place, we can never decide that he is not there, working out his purpose.

The chapter opens with a meal, except it is one with a small number of guests. Two of them – the king and Haman – are unaware of what is going to happen at it and one person – Esther – does not know if her plan will be successful. Yet, as we have seen so often in this book, the person in charge of events is not named. The Lord is working out his plans and he is willing to use feasts to bring about his purpose.

Haman and his demise

Haman has realised that his plans for getting rid of Mordecai are beginning to unravel before his eyes. In divine providence, he has had to sit through a day of feasting knowing that there was the possibility of his enemy Mordecai escaping from his grasp and becoming very important in the place of power in the empire. Yet he does not know that Esther is a Jew, nor does he know that she is related to Mordecai. One suspects that Haman would have spent day one of the feast trying to think of a way of sorting out his plans. But whatever he thought, he was trapped.

Eventually, he heard the king ask Esther what she wanted? I suspect this would have pleased Haman because he would have imagined that once Esther had revealed her wish he could go away and focus on his own interests. Remember that he had no idea that his interests were also the interests of Esther, but in a very different way. So he must have been shocked when he heard what her request was, and how she described him.

What could Haman do when the king went out to the garden to consider his response to what Esther had revealed? He could ask the wrong person for help. It may have seemed easier to ask Esther, of course, but the easy way was a mistake. What should Haman have done? He should have asked for mercy from the only one who could show mercy to him. If he had gone into the garden after the king, he would not have found himself in the embarrassing position in which he found himself. And because he did not ask the right person for mercy he did not get any.

When we think of this man’s experience, surely the words of Psalm 73:17-18 come to mind: ‘Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!’ Other Bible passages remind us that God can take the worldly wise in their own craftiness and bring to an end all their machinations. 

Esther and her deliverance

When we consider the contribution of Esther here, we can see several important aspects of her life as a believer as well as a queen. The first is that we see in her response the importance of the principle of identification. We have noticed before that one of the intriguing issues of this book is whether or not the heroine will act according to her Persian name or to her Jewish name. On this occasion, Esther did not have to say that she was a Jew when she was speaking to the king. He did not know that she was a Jew and neither did Haman. She could have made her request and merely said that Haman had planned to kill the Jews. She probably would have been safe in the palace, and the outcome would have been the same if the king listened. But we can deduce from this incident that it is not right for a believer to act in a way that hides that he or she is a believer, even when they get the desired outcome.

A second suggestion about Esther to contemplate is this: does God use weak people to fulfil his will? Esther was the queen, but any influence she could have depended on the whim of the king. It is true that previously Esther had prayed to God about asking the king for help, and no doubt she would have prayed about her plan to identify Haman as an enemy. But there was the possibility that king would not believe her; after all, Haman was his trusted advisor, and many people would have expected the king to support Haman. Still, there was only one way to find out if God would help her and that was to proceed with her plan. Everything Esther did here, she would have to do it trusting in the character of God.

Then a third matter to observe about Esther is, how should a believer behave in the presence of a sinful monarch? Esther acknowledged the king’s authority and waited until he asked what she wanted. It looks like she had to wait until the second day of her feast. Although she had known power with God previously, she waited until the earthly power allowed her to speak. We might say that she knew the providential sign for her to speak would be the moment the king allowed her to say what was in her mind. Even if that was not the case, she showed respect for the king, even although he had passed an unjust law. Of course, she knew that the real enemy was Haman.

Fourthly, we may notice that here God once again gives to Esther wisdom to say the right thing at the correct moment. Of course, we do not know if she had pre-planned what she would say. The wisdom is seen in her not stressing what the loss of the Jews would mean to them, including herself, but what the loss would be to the king. Probably, she is referring to the numerous ways in which the Jews scattered throughout the empire contributed to the life of the empire by their trades, gifts, peaceful living and other ways. They could still have made those contributions even if they became slaves to the king, but they could not make them if they were killed. The loss of the Jews would be disastrous for the empire.

Fifthly, she called a spade a spade, or she described Haman in precise terms when she said he was a wicked man. She did not try and water it down a bit by calling him the king’s counsellor or a similar title of respect. Instead, she described him as he was in the sight of God and through his own behaviour. She reminds us that sometimes we have to speak the truth and say who a person truly is, even when that person is powerful in worldly terms.

Applications

Earlier we thought about the fact that God works in murky places. There are many examples of this in the Bible as well as elsewhere. Take the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had sinned. That was a murky situation. Before the Lord came to question them, there was only the devil and our guilty first parents standing there. When the Lord came to question them, the responses of Adam and Eve resulted in making the situation even murkier as they refused to acknowledge their guilt, but instead blamed others. Yet in the midst of all that murkiness, the Lord gave to them a wonderful promise about a coming Deliverer who would defeat the devil. Although it was a murky place from one point of view, it was full of divine light.

We can go to an even murkier spot – Calvary. It was known for its murkiness, because it was the place that the Romans used for public executions. On the occasion that we love to think about, when Jesus was brought there to suffer, it was made murkier by the actions of Pilate (injustice), by the soldiers (cruel indifference), by the Jewish leaders (hatred) and by the disciples (desertion). Yet we know that there Jesus paid the penalty of sin, gave a promise of glory to a condemned criminal, and caused soldiers to confess his deity. Although it was a murky place from one point of view, it was full of divine light.

How about another murky place – the place where you were converted. I don’t mean if you were converted in a church or thinking about the gospel in a shop or praying on a train. Maybe you were seeking for a while, but even if you were you had not managed to make yourself any better. You were still a sinner who needed cleansing; you were in a murky place caused by your own sin. Maybe you were not even interested, but all of a sudden you found yourself wanting to know more. Yet you were still spiritually blind. But God cams to where you were with the gospel and enabled you to see the truth. Although it was a murky place from one point of view, it was full of divine light.

We also thought about God using Haman’s plans to bring about his defeat. Does God do this often? In his wisdom, that is how he defeated the devil at the cross. The devil worked to get Jesus arrested and crucified, but the writer of Hebrews tells us that it was through death that Jesus destroyed him that had the authority of death and delivered them who through fear of death were held in slavish fear. Jesus used the devil’s plan to defeat him. Of course, the devil was unaware of what Jesus was doing, but he discovered that God had outmanoeuvred him, and in the process the Lord had delivered his people from spiritual death.

Another detail that we observed was Esther’s willingness to say that she was a Jew. The lesson from this is obvious. If you are a Christian, tell people who you are. Don’t try and get a result by hiding your light. This does not mean that you must always say that you are a follower of Jesus. It may not be the best response if you have done something wrong. Nevertheless, it is the case that normally a Christian should confess his faith. Given that the king and Haman had planned to kill all the Jews, it would seem a dangerous decision by Esther to admit that she was a Jew.

We also thought of Haman asking the wrong person for mercy. Of course, we are not surprised because he would have seen that Esther had some influence over the king and maybe she could persuade him to show mercy. Leaving the case of Haman, we are aware that many people fail to ask God for mercy and choose instead to imagine they will get help elsewhere. But all other possibilities will fail. The only One who can forgive us is the Lord and he is the One that we should ask for mercy.