Wait on the LORD.

Everything seemed to be going from bad to worse for the Israelites living in Babylonian captivity.  They only good thing was that one of their own, Esther, became queen.  That won’t do any good, though, when they are all put to death under the king’s proclamation.  Haman, the king’s right hand man, is winning.  Now, he thinks the king wants to honor him above all others in the kingdom.

So he replied, "If the king wishes to honor someone, he should bring out one of the king's own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden--one with a royal emblem on its head. Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king's robes and led through the city square on the king's horse. Have the official shout as they go, 'This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!'" (Esther 6:7-9 NLT)

Little did he know that the king wanted to honor Mordecai, the Israelite, instead.  Mordecai got the royal treatment and Haman had to lead him around town proclaiming Mordecai’s greatness.  The Israelites won a victory that day.  God worked through the king’s dreams.

Queen Esther replied, "If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared. For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us. If we had merely been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would be too trivial a matter to warrant disturbing the king." "Who would do such a thing?" King Xerxes demanded. "Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?" Esther replied, "This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy." Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen. (Esther 7:3-6 NLT)

Haman thought that dinner with the king and queen was something good.  Little did he know that queen Esther was going to do her part of the LORD’s plan.  She would stand up for her people to the king.  God worked through the king’s wife.

On that same day King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Then Mordecai was brought before the king, for Esther had told the king how they were related. The king took off his signet ring--which he had taken back from Haman--and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of Haman's property. (Esther 8:1-2 NLT)

Perhaps they would have never known the blessings of God without seeing the very real curses that were befalling them.  Maybe they needed the stress of the problems so they would experience the relief of the solutions.  Or, it could have just been the timing of God’s plan unfolding with a very real enemy fighting desperately with one last ditch effort.  Whatever the reason, God worked things out through God’s plan in God’s timing.  They simply needed to trust and wait on the LORD.

Mordecai the Jew became the prime minister, with authority next to that of King Xerxes himself. He was very great among the Jews, who held him in high esteem, because he continued to work for the good of his people and to speak up for the welfare of all their descendants. (Esther 10:3 NLT)

They didn’t realize it while they were going through it, but God was setting up His next several moves.  Esther as queen and Mordecai as prime minister would start to set the tone for the Babylonian empire treating the Jewish nation differently.  Ezra would soon be allowed to return and rebuild the temple of the LORD.  Nehemiah would then be allowed to return and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  The Israelites would then be allowed to go home and live as a remnant-nation again.  God was setting the stage for the next move: Jesus.

How about you?  Do you trust God to work things out through God’s plan in God’s timing?  Do you do your part and trust God to do His part?  Do you wait on the LORD?

What is God’s part?

The Israelites are in captivity.  Women are being subjected to men. Haman is second in charge of the Babylonian empire and he wants to kill all the Jews.  Now the king, Xerxes, has agreed to a proclamation that will allow the Israelites to be wiped out.

Haman was a happy man as he left the banquet! But when he saw Mordecai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously before him, Haman became furious. (Esther 5:9 NLT)

Even with Esther becoming queen, Mordecai was not safe.  She agreed to speak to her husband, the king, after three days of fasting and prayer.  That’s because she and Mordecai both knew the truth: it’s not their plan.  God is the one with the plan.  God is the one working things out.  God is the one working in and through many people to bring a solution to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, "Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself." This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up. (Esther 5:14 NIV)

Sometimes things get worse before they get better.  Sometimes it seems like God is being slow in keeping His promises, but it is not slowness at all (2 Peter 3:9).  God is simply working out much more than we realize.  We only experience peace in all circumstances when we trust God to have the plan, we join God by doing our part, and then we trust God to do God’s part.  Sometimes, God’s part includes something that we didn’t see coming.

When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed Him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified--one on His right and one on His left. (Luke 23:33 NLT)

How about you?  Do you trust God with the plan?  Do you join God by learning and then doing your part of God’s plan?  Do you trust God to do God’s part?

What is my part?

We all face problems in life.  Working through them is much easier when we trust that God has a solution.  The Israelites were in captivity and now one of their own is queen, even though she hasn’t told the king Xerxes that she is a Jew.  Esther and her cousin, Mordecai, are starting to see God’s solution to their problem.  Their problem is about to get worse, though.  A new character enters the story: Haman.

Some time later King Xerxes promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite over all the other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire. All the king's officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king had commanded. But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect. (Esther 3:1-2 NLT)

Haman gets power hungry and full of pride.  He wants respect from everyone as the king’s right-hand man.  It probably wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he wants to one day be king.  Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him, so Mordecai became the focus of his anger.

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordecai's nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes. (Esther 3:5-6 NLT)

Now, a problem between Haman and Mordecai has become a problem between Haman and all Israelites.  They will all be put to death because of his pride and anger.  He even convinces the king.  Now, Esther and all of her kinsmen will die.  Her cousin Mordecai tries to convince her to go talk to the king.

Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: "Don't think for a moment that because you're in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?" Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: "Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die." (Esther 4:13-16 NLT)

There is a moment in every solution that we end up asking ourselves a question: What is my part?  This is good and God wants us to ask the question.  God has a solution to our problems, but God also offers to involve us in that solution.  When we ask what our part is, we are asking God to lead us in our involvement.  When we do, we experience more than peace.  We experience a sense of joy that comes from doing our part of God’s plan.

How about you?  Do you trust that God has a solution to your problems?  Do you ask God how you should be involved in that solution?  Do you ask, “What is my part?”

God has a solution.

The Israelites had a problem: they were in Babylonian captivity because of their rebellion.  Women in the day had a problem: they were made subject to men of the kingdom by king Xerxes’ decree.  King Xerxes had a problem: he just banished his beautiful wife from ever being in his presence again.

But after Xerxes' anger had subsided, he began thinking about Vashti and what she had done and the decree he had made. So his personal attendants suggested, "Let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king. (Esther 2:1-2 NLT)

When we have problems, we search for solutions.  Sometimes we turn to God to give us the solution.  Sometimes we ask God to help us come up with the solution.  Sometimes we don’t even think about God or even ask.  Even when we forget to ask, though, God is at work.

[Mordecai and h]is family had been among those who, with King Jehoiachin of Judah, had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. This man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin, Hadassah, who was also called Esther. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter. As a result of the king's decree, Esther, along with many other young women, was brought to the king's harem at the fortress of Susa and placed in Hegai's care. (Esther 2:6-8 NLT)

Got was starting to work out a solution for Xerxes.  God was starting to work out a solution for women.  God was starting to work out a solution for the Israelites.  An Israelite woman was about to become the next queen of the Babylonian empire.

Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in early winter of the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther more than any of the other young women. He was so delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Vashti. To celebrate the occasion, he gave a great banquet in Esther's honor for all his nobles and officials, declaring a public holiday for the provinces and giving generous gifts to everyone. (Esther 2:16-18 NLT)

Sometimes faith is the most important part of finding a solution to our problem.  We believe that God exists.  We believe that God has everything under control.  We believe that God works together for the good of those who love God and are called according to God’s purpose.  When we trust that God has a solution to our problems, we stop trying to come up with our own.  Instead, we start watching for God.  And, we have peace.

One day as Mordecai was on duty at the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthana and Teresh--who were guards at the door of the king's private quarters--became angry at King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. But Mordecai heard about the plot and gave the information to Queen Esther. She then told the king about it and gave Mordecai credit for the report. When an investigation was made and Mordecai's story was found to be true, the two men were impaled on a sharpened pole. This was all recorded in The Book of the History of King Xerxes' Reign. (Esther 2:21-23 NLT)

How about you?  What do you do when you have a problem?  Do you try to come up with a solution?  Do you involve God in the process?  Do you trust God to work things out?  Do you believe God has a solution?

We have a problem.

This entire series, we’ve been walking through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  We’ve looked at the Israelites returning from captivity to rebuild the Temple of the LORD and the city walls of Jerusalem.  I said that we had reached the end of the Old Testament chronologically and that was true.  What I didn’t say was that we had skipped a book.  That is the book we will cover this week to finish out our time in the Old Testament.  It is the book of Esther.

These events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. At that time Xerxes ruled his empire from his royal throne at the fortress of Susa. In the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. He invited all the military officers of Persia and Media as well as the princes and nobles of the provinces. The celebration lasted 180 days--a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty. (Esther 1:1-4 NLT)

The book of Esther shows up after Ezra and Nehemiah in our Bibles, but it actually occurred before those books chronologically.  King Xerxes reigned in the Babylonian empire during the time that the Israelites were in captivity, but they were not allowed to return to rebuild the Temple or the walls yet.  Things were bad for the Jews.

On the seventh day of the feast, when King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine, he told the seven eunuchs who attended him...to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman. But when they conveyed the king's order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. This made the king furious, and he burned with anger. (Esther 1:10-12 NLT)

Xerxes wasn’t doing so well either.  He looked at his wife through a drunken stupor and only saw an object of lust.  He tried to get all the other men to see her that way, and his wife refused to show up.  So, he got angry and declared that she would never be allowed in his presence again.  He just banned himself from his own wife.  Things were bad for Xerxes.

The king and his nobles thought this made good sense, so he followed Memucan's counsel. He sent letters to all parts of the empire, to each province in its own script and language, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home... (Esther 1:21-22 NLT)

Out of anger, he also sent a proclamation throughout the whole land stating that women needed to be subject to their own husbands.  Whatever the man says, goes.  Throughout the land, things were not going well for women, either.  It reminds me of another time when people were being cursed for their actions.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?  They had God, each other, and a whole garden to enjoy.  They only thing they were warned against was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  When they eat from that, they will surely die.  They ate that fruit.  The serpent was forced to slither around on its belly.  The man would now need to work by the sweat of his brow.  The woman was punished also.

Then He said to the woman, "I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16 NLT)

When we come to God, the Bible, and Church, we often show up because we have a problem.  The problem gets us down.  We struggle with facing the problem.  We don’t know what to do about the problem?  We’re hoping that God is bigger than, the Bible will have the solution to, and the Church will help us through the problem.

How about you?  Do you have a problem?  Is that why you are turning to God?