Tony Evans - Divine Coincidences (03/09/2018)
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This sermon from Esther 5-6 explores God's providence over luck, showing how Esther's prayerful delay, the king's insomnia, and Mordecai's elevation were all divinely orchestrated "coincidences" that flipped the script on Haman's genocidal plot.
No Such Thing as Luck
Our world is consumed with the concept of luck—chance happenings that just kind of take place. People will regularly say, "Wow, you sure are lucky," or, "That's bad luck." But the book of Esther says that there is no such thing as luck. There is Providence: God causing or allowing things and events to work toward his purposes. Esther has been promoted to be queen. Mordecai has told her that Haman wants to kill all of the Jews, and it's now time for you to go to your husband, King Ahasuerus, and tell him Haman's plot against the Jews.
Esther is saying, "I can't do that. It's too risky. I love y'all, but not that much," because to go before him when he has not requested her could cost her her life. Mordecai has said to her, "Don't you know that you are called to the kingdom for such a time as this? That you were put up here in this royal position 'cuz God knew this moment, your moment, would be now. Don't miss your moment, girl. This is your moment to be a tool of God to deliver God's people." When she hears that message from Mordecai, she says, "Okay. I want all y'all to go on a three-day fast. I need y'all on your knees for this one, 'cuz this is a big one. You're asking me to risk it all, and I'm gonna go do it. And if I perish, I perish. If I die, I die, 'cuz you're right. This is bigger than just me."
The Step of Faith
Chapter five opens up on the third day because it was a three-day fast. Esther puts on her royal robe. She goes to the inner court of the king. The king is sitting on his throne. When the king sees her in verse two, he extends the scepter, which means it's okay for her to come in and talk to him. She comes near, touches the top of the scepter out of respect, and then the king says to her, "What is troubling you, Queen Esther? And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it will be given you. Just tell me what you want."
Esther says in verse four, "If it pleases the king, may the king and Haman," who is out to kill the Jews, "come this day to the banquet that I have prepared for him. I'm gonna tell you around dinner. We're gonna have it, we're gonna fix your favorite food, we're gonna lay it out, and I want you to bring Haman, and I'm gonna tell you then what's going on around dinner." You will never get to see God's providence at work in your circumstances until and unless God sees you move in accordance with his will. The reason she prays first is because she needs to know how to approach this dangerous situation. She needs some divine insight for a difficult problem, so she goes to God in fasting. This was a life and death issue, so she needed her antennae raised to hear what God had to say about this situation.
The second thing you need to do is take a step of faith. But she couldn't just say, "I'm a-fast, I'm a-pray, and I'm gonna wait on God." No, she was instructed to go before the king. She had to take a step of faith. So she trusts God, she believes God, she prays to God, and then she makes a risky step because there are no guarantees in advance. What does she get in return? Well, so far, what she gets is a plan. The plan is, "I'm gonna take my husband to dinner, and I'm gonna tell him to invite my enemy Haman." In other words, I'm gonna get Haman on home court advantage. I got to get him in on my territory. He says okay. It's a banquet, it's a dinner. Okay, bring Haman to dinner and let's go from there.
The Critical Delay
So she invites her husband and her enemy to dinner. Guess who's coming to dinner? So the banquet is prepared, and they drank their wine, verse six, at the banquet. So it is a big dinner party for her husband and the king. And the king said to Esther, "What is your petition? Okay, you brought me here to dinner, you fed me good. What do you want? For it shall be granted to you, and I mean I'm gonna do it big, 'cuz whatever your request, even the half of the kingdom, it will be done. I'm gonna take care of you. What did you make this dinner for?" Oh, it's getting tricky now. Verse seven: So Esther replied, "My petition and request is… My petition and my request is…" Watch this. "If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and do my request, may the king and Haman come to the banquet which I have prepared for them tomorrow."
Wait, the man just told you he will give you half the kingdom. What you want, girl? She says, "King, my request is, can we have dinner tomorrow?" She made the dinner to make her request to save the people from the genocide of Haman. She got them both sitting there. Dinner is fine, they've been drinking, everybody's ready to go. He's offered her the kingdom. What do you want? And she says what she wants is… Something happened between verse six and eight to cause her to change her mind about making her petition. She changes her mind because she didn't even finish the sentence. She just jumps to, "Let's do this again tomorrow." So I know your question is, what changed her mind? She pauses and says, "Come back tomorrow." Something is happening here.
Divine Orchestration in the Night
Well, Haman is now smelling himself because Haman went out, verse nine, glad and pleased of heart. He's feeling himself. He says, "Boy, I was invited to eat with the king today. Boy, this is really rising on the ladder here." The problem is, when he goes out, he runs into Mordecai, verse nine. And Mordecai would not stand up, nor respect him. This man is out to kill him, and he's not gonna stand up. Haman was filled with anger against Mordecai. So he's already mad at him, but now he's really ticked off 'cuz he just came from a party with the king and the queen. "I'm standing before you, and you don't recognize who I am? They just invited me to be with them. You don't know who I am?" So he is ticked off. But he controls himself, verse ten. He doesn't lash out there. He goes home and tells his wife.
He says, "Wife, let me tell you about my day. I am the man. I am the man. Look, I'm rich, we got these ten sons." He says, verse eleven, "And the king magnified me and promoted me, and I'm above all the servants. And then, guess what, baby? First of all, Esther the queen had me—no one but me—come to be with the king to eat. Oh yeah, I'm boss. I'm the boss man, girl. I own it. This is my day. But there is one problem. All this doesn't matter to me because this Mordecai the Jew is sitting at the king's gate, and I can't stand it. I can't take it any longer."
So his wife says, "We got to get rid of Mordecai. You build the gallows. We gonna kill him in the morning. We're gonna kill him." That night, chapter six, verse one, the king could not sleep. This is not a regular night. This is on a particular night. Insomnia sets in, and so the king needs help to go to sleep. So according to verse number one, he tells his servant, "Go get me something boring to read." God is so detailed in his coincidences. He leads the servants to the right book, and he makes them read the right page. And on the page that they read, it was found written, verse two, what Mordecai reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
That goes all the way back to chapter two when Mordecai uncovered an assassination plot against the king. And it just happened to be written in the book, in the chronicles, on the page from the books that he had them read that night. Not all night—*that* night he could not sleep. Okay, I know, I know. "It's just… look, I know it's just chance. I know it's just something that just kind of happened." I got that. So he's reading the book because of his insomnia. It just happens that when they hit Mordecai, the king said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You've been reading all these names and all these events, but this got more to come. Mordecai? Mordecai? Mordecai? He saved my life, right?" "Yeah, king." "Well, tell me, verse three, what? How do we honor him? How do we tell him we appreciate him for saving the king's life?" The servants say, "Oh, we didn't do anything for him."
The God of Intersections
You see, God's providence is tied to time. Even though the timing may go over years—because this is years—even though you thought something should happen five years ago or eight years ago, you know… But God is doing more than just you. He's doing a series of things at the same time because his kingdom is bigger than just you. You are not the kingdom. You are a representative in the kingdom, to be used by the kingdom for the kingdom. But you're not the only one in the kingdom. And so timing becomes everything. And so now we find ourselves with the game 'cause night is now past, and on the day Mordecai is supposed to die, he's reading a book with Mordecai's name in it, just 'cause he can't sleep on that night. Okay, watch this.
The king asks in verse four, "I hear somebody outside. Who's outside in the court? It's early in the morning. Who would be up this early out there? Who's there? Who's in the court?" And it says in verse four, "Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace in order to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him." The king's servants say, verse five, "King, behold, Haman is standing at the door." "Let him come in. Come in." He might not know, but you guys, let him come in. So Haman came in, and the king said to him, "What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?" Dun-dun-dun-dun. Don't you do it. Don't you do it. He didn't even say *who*. "What is to be done with the man whom the king decides to honor?"
Now Haman thinks the king is talking about him. Haman thinks the king is talking about him. He's number two; he's the number two guy in the land—we learned that early in the book. So the king says he wants to honor somebody. So Haman, you know, 'cuz he's smelling himself, thinks, "You want to honor me? Okay, let me go for the gusto. You want to honor somebody? Okay, let me tell you what you should do. Here's what you should do. Okay, bring out the royal robe. Let him wear the king's robe, which the king has worn. Then bring him the horse on which the king rides. Then put a royal crown even on the horse. Then let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes, and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor, and lead him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, 'Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.'"
And so what happens? The king says, "Then the king said to Haman, verse ten, 'Take quickly the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew.'" Wait, wait, wait. What? You just said…? I like that. Hey, I like that. Hey, what you gonna do? I'm on a collision course with Bernie Mac? Invitation now. Definitely. Just go ahead, go ahead and do it for who? Mordecai? You listening to me? Seriously. God is the God of intersections. He connects things that don't look connectible when the timing has hit just right. And everything is looking wrong. See, everything is looking wrong. On this very day, this morning, Esther has had to shift her plan to another dinner. This is not a good day. But she has gone before God, she has acted in faith, and so she's picking up signals that cause her to delay a dinner. She's picking up signals.
The Script is Flipped
So Haman, verse eleven, took the robe, took the horse, arrayed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city square and proclaimed before him, "Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor." Okay, so that's it. Follow Mordecai. This is the man the king will honor. That's called making your enemies your footstool. Hey, man, how you feel now? Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate. But Haman hurried home, mourning with his head covered. He told his wife Zeresh, "This is what happened today." This whole thing is reversed. His wife says, "Well, yeah, it looks bad for you, boy." She says, "'Cuz you've fallen before this Jewish man. You've fallen before this Jewish man." Brothers and sisters, this is 24 hours. So he's walking in humiliation. Okay, why am I telling you that? 'Cuz I'm telling you the providence of God can even address racism. Okay? Don't miss me.
The providence occurs 'cause we got racism. He wants to genocide all of the Jews because they are Jewish. It was religion, but it was racism. They were Jewish. The providence of God can handle racism. It was the providence of God in 1955 when a woman named Rosa Parks happened to be on the bus, happened to have a man talk to her, she happened to not be willing to get up, which led to a civil rights movement which changed the laws of the land. God knows how, when he gets the right people with the right things at the right time in the right place to do the right thing, to flip the script even racially. Okay?
It's about 1969, maybe, yeah, around 1969, one of my professors in college asked me to go to a church with him, to his church, in around 1969. I went with my professor. I go inside the church, and when I walk out of the church, all hell breaks loose because blacks were not allowed in the church. My professor didn't agree with that. He asked me would I go. I went. I didn't know all this, so I went. And the church went into convulsions because this is all coming off the civil rights era and all that, and they went into convulsions over this black man coming into the church. So they had a meeting about what the church's official position was going to be, and there was a split among the leaders and among the congregation.
On the Sunday that I went, they had a guest preacher who was candidating to be their new pastor. I didn't know he was going to be preaching, but he was candidating to be their new pastor. He preached. They had all planned to bring him in. He found out their position in light of me going to the church. He wrote the church and says, "I cannot pastor a racist church." So he said, "I'm not coming to this church." That split the church even more. From that day forward, the church began to go downhill, downhill, downhill, downhill, until it became a glorified Bible study. Five years ago, I get a phone call from the chairman of the deacon board. He says, "Our church has never recovered from that day you came with the professor. And we recognized the reason God has not answered our prayers, the reason God has not rebuilt our church, is because of the racism that we did to you way back in 1969."
"So I have been asked, on behalf of the deacons, to call you to apologize to you for the racism we gave to you back in 1969. And I am calling you, and I'm humbly requesting, would you come preach?" Because God knows the right time to turn a situation again. I'm trying to tell you, you don't know who you're dealing with.