Providence

Well, we're beginning a new series on the Book of Esther this morning.

We're leaving our past series, which focused on spiritual revival in light of the blessed hope of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And so this morning, we're taking a shift to the Book of Esther.

The Book of Esther may be familiar to you, maybe not, but before I read the passage that's printed in your bulletins this morning, I'm going to walk through the events of the chapter to give some context.

If I were to describe the scene in one word that we encounter as we begin this account, we might use the term power.

Israel at this time is in exile under the rule of the Persian Empire, and King Ahisurius is king.

The empire has 127 provinces under its governance, spanning from modern-day Pakistan all the way to northern Sudan.

And so this is a large empire encompassing many people, many different groups, different languages, ethnicities, religions.

And as you can imagine, trying to maintain their loyalty and support in such a diverse and widespread empire was no small feat, which meant high control.

And so in the third year of King Aeserius' reign, he decides to show off some of the power of the empire with some pomp and ceremony.

And he gives a huge feast for all of his officials and servants.

And when you and I think of a big party, we think of nothing in light of this.

I mean, this was 180 days in duration.

And then on the heels of that, he gives a seven-day feast to those in the citadel of Susa, where the palace was located.

A feast spanning seven days in the palace garden.

We're talking all of the finest materials, all the nicest furnishings, no restrictions on drink consumption, which by the way required a law to be relaxed in order for that to take place.

So that gives us something of the sense of how controlling this empire was, the king and the empire.

And so this was an all-out, no holding back, lavish banquet.

Well, meanwhile, while this is going on, the queen named Vashti is also celebrating her own banquet.

And that's where things begin to get a little bit unruly.

The king, likely having drunk a little too much, commands his servants to go get Queen Vashti and to appear before him as a form of pageantry before all of his guests, royal crown and all.

The queen is not having it.

And so, in a very bold move, perhaps aided by her own excessive consumption of drink, defies the king and refuses to come.

Well, the king is furious about this, and so he gathers together his cohort of wise advisors who give a laughable suggestion and prove themselves to be anything but wise, in trying to enforce respect from wives to husbands throughout the empire through law.

And so, in this highly controlling environment, Queen Vashti is used as a pawn to express what ought to happen if such disrespect is shown.

And so she's shown the door, exiled from the king, exiled from the harem, and a vacancy is made in the royal court.

Well, some time passes after that, and once the king stops fuming, his young attendants propose a suggestion, hey king, you need another queen.

And so the search goes out for beautiful young virgins to before, brought before them, where after making the cut, they would then spend a whopping twelve months in a further beautification process where they would then be prepared to spend a night with the king and to be in the running for the honorable position of queen.

And so Esther comes in on the scene.

She knows something of the mystery and hardship of life with the death of her parents, and she's had Mordecai, another Jew, come and take her under his wing.

And so Esther is one of the young ladies that is taken to the king's palace, and being beautiful in form and appearance, she makes the cut to take a place in the king's harem.

And so this is an empire where the leadership sees people as a mere commodity for consumption.

The chief assets are charm, beauty, and compliance.

And it's with that in mind that we now turn to the remaining portion of this account.

And if you turn to your bulletins of Pew Bibles, we'll begin from verse 15.

Here now the reading of God's word.

When the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abbail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go into the king, she asked for nothing except what Heggai, the king's eunuch, who had charged the woman, advised, who had charge of the woman advised, sorry.

Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

And when Esther was taken to King Iserius into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tibeth, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in the sight in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants.

It was Esther's feast.

He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.

Lord, we pray that we would be open and receptive to your work in us and through us, even as we hear the proclamation of your word to us this morning.

And so we pray and ask that you would do this work in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So what I want to focus on in light of this fascinating account is on God's providence.

When you read through the book of Esther, you may begin to notice that there is no mention of God in the entirety of the book.

And it's the absence of that mention that in some ways speaks loudest.

Because we're left asking ourselves, what is going on here?

What is God doing?

It seems as though things are going backward.

And these questions are no stranger to us.

And so I want to focus on providence this morning in three ways.

First, I want to speak to the nature of providence.

What is it?

Second, the mystery of providence.

And then third, the joy of providence.

And so, first, the nature of providence.

What is it?

Well, the definition of providence, as coined by saints in the past and described in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, is that God's providence is his completely holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing every creature and every action.

And so there's nothing outside of God's realm, nothing outside of his control.

What the author is communicating in the silence is that although God is invisible, he is always working for the good of his people.

And yet he often uses means.

In the midst of kings and queens and the powers of this world, we see God working as the one who governs everything, whose wisdom exceeds all other wisdom, whose plans and statutes are always holy.

God's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways.

They're higher, they're better.

And so in this highly controlling and superficial environment, it's the brilliance of God that he would, in his timing, bring a young Jewish woman called Esther to take the power of the Persian Empire and have it be used in his service.

That's the nature of providence.

His authority, his control, his execution of his plans are always good, subservient to no one.

Always wise, always holy, because he is these things.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is the mystery of providence.

The next thing you may notice about this book is how much detail is omitted.

And it's good to pay attention to that to try to get a sense for what the author is trying to communicate.

For example, we aren't given any idea as to the inner state of Esther in being brought forward to be part of a harem.

We aren't told of why Mordecai didn't stick out his neck to try to protect Esther with the power that he had.

We don't know why Esther didn't make her Jewish identity known until later on.

There are many things that seem to be unanswered or unresolved.

And the writer has a reason for that.

And I think the reason is because that there is mystery in God's providence.

And so as we read through Esther, it can sometimes feel like a bit of a chess game where one piece is moved into place and it seems to be getting an upper hand, only for another piece to be played to obscure the clear advantage of the prior move.

And so it can be a little tit for tat at times.

And yet even then we see God orchestrating things.

The point is that to our eyes, God's providence may not always seem like a straightforward providence.

Life contains mystery, it's messy.

And so Esther is a story of reversals.

Big reversals.

Things that turn lives upside down.

I mean, as I just mentioned, in listening to this account, we're so far we're left asking, what in the world is going on here?

And it's true in our experience, isn't it?

I think we're no, no, none of us would say that we haven't experienced something of this mystery.

Pressing questions that don't seem to find an immediate answer.

Providence that doesn't seem to make sense.

How are we to view such things?

Where's the hope so as to gain confidence in God's fatherly goodness?

That's the question.

And perhaps some of you are facing withering circumstances yourselves at this time.

Seasons of trial.

You've faced hard providences.

You have a child in your life who seems to be making all the wrong decisions.

Or you have a situation where love is leading you into the heat of battle and the conflicts feel like a death.

Maybe you have tasted the bitterness of a sinful habit, and you'd love to be rid of it.

You feel a withering under such things.

I was observing this week with one of our boys the leaves on the tree outside of our front doorstep.

And at this point in time, this tree seems as though it is moving in the wrong direction.

The leaves are dying, moving away from the fruitfulness and beauty that it was showing.

And yet, as I thought about this, I determined that my hope and confidence for seeing a living and lush tree on our front step, once again, was not based on the present circumstance, but on the law written into nature that spring is sure to come with it.

And with it to bring forth fresh buds and new leaves.

You see, if I only took things at face value, I would lose hope.

But not when I look at the tree with a view to spring.

The anchor for hope, in other words, is not to be found in looking to our circumstances, but in looking to the blood-bought promises of God.

Not merely a law written into nature, but even surer, written into the very character of God.

His unchangeable nature.

Your life may feel upside down, but the promise will remain.

The promise that all things are working together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

You may not always know what God is doing, but hold on to his promises in the midst of mystery.

As we often sing, when darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

Give it time, and spring will come and bring with it fresh life.

The bitter frost of the morning is sure to lead to the warm evening sunshine of his mercy.

In fact, all of the paths of the Lord are mercy, and he is working all things together for good.

Not just a few things, not just many things, but all things.

Even the hardships and trials that we go through are work for your good.

You know, it's likely that there are thousands of things going on in your life right now that God is doing.

And you are probably aware of a few.

So take comfort in the fact that he is sovereign over your life.

Embrace the mystery and hold on to his promises.

And so, in the mystery of providence, the Almighty may seem for a season to be your enemy in order that he may become your eternal friend.

He wounded Adam before giving him the blessing of a companion.

He sent Abraham away from his land before he gave him the promise of a more permanent and abiding home.

He touched the joint of Jacob's hip and lamed him when he was going to bless him.

He tied Zechariah's tongue and made him mute for a season before filling his mouth with spirit-filled words of blessing.

He refused the request of the Canaanite woman for a while.

But afterwards she had her desire fulfilled.

The powers of this world are content with superficial change, cosmetic touch-ups, a shuffling of the deck.

Tom mentioned it over the past few weeks.

But God's love runs deeper.

He goes after deeper change that yields greater reward, to bring about lasting and eternal significance.

And to that end, he often uses trials and distresses in our lives to shape and refine us.

And so we must be prepared to take these promises and at times wield them against our doubts of his fatherly goodness and say, Begone of foolish doubt.

This is my father's world.

And he has better things in store for me than cosmetic touch-ups and superficial treatments.

Our weaknesses and troubles at this present time are not just any weakness or trouble.

In Christ, they are a sanctified weakness.

So that we are being delivered from all of the influences of sin, from every evil habit, from all the advances of former sin.

Everything that diminishes the brightness of his grace in us, which keeps us from experiencing his delight, is being burned away.

Nothing will be wasted.

He will not burn away that which is good.

But oh friends, we do struggle with this, don't we?

We're no strangers to it in human relationships.

I may have told the story before, but I'll tell it again.

It's of a man who came to the Welsh minister, Dr.

Martin Lloyd Jones, who later ministered in Westminster Chapel in London.

And he had a man who came up to him who was at the end of himself because of his concerns about his troubled marriage.

And so this man came to Lloyd Jones and he listed off all of the things that he had thought to do in an attempt to fix his troubled relationship.

And none of them seemed to be working.

And Lloyd Jones wisely said to him after he'd listened to him for some time, he said, it's quite clear what your problem is.

In all your attempts to try to analyze your wife, to try to analyze things, you've forgotten to relate to your wife.

You see, he tried to control things.

He tried to dissect her behavior.

What he really needed to be doing was to relate to her.

And that was clearly hard for this man.

He'd shied away from it.

There was some mystery in her, and it was easier to analyze her than to relate to her.

And yet, insofar as he would relate to her, he would be in a position to get to know her in greater measure.

And he would be able to see the mystery taken away.

And although there is always a degree of mystery in someone, since there is always more of a person to know, she would become less mysterious and more deeply known.

And that example in many ways highlights God's same intent for us.

He is concerned that as we experience the mystery of providence, even hard providences, that he would be more deeply known and trusted.

And so, friends, it poses the question: are we content to analyze our problems at the expense of engaging God?

Attempting to keep things within our own wheelhouse?

Or are we learning to take the mystery of our circumstances?

To Jesus, to inquire of his mind, know his heart toward these things.

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

I know my sheep.

And they know me.

If Christ is of no value to you, then if you fail to see him good news, then this is crazy.

And so we can be honest about the fact that God's providence is not always smooth sailing.

And yet, as we ponder over our lives from the high ground of hindsight, we must conclude with David that it is good that I've been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

And so there is a mystery to providence.

But even then there is a joy to be found in God's providence.

It's a great exercise to look back, as I said, from the high ground of hindsight over our lives and to see and marvel over God's providence in it.

Especially when we're prone to doubt his fatherly goodness.

To see how he truly does have our best interests at heart.

I know a number of you are no strangers to this and have even sought to do this in community with one another, and I'd certainly encourage that.

Even just to look at one thing and to see God's goodness in it can lead to joyful thanksgiving.

This is a practice that, especially at this time where things are so pressing on us, where we're so in the moment, it's just a great exercise to do.

We can't give thanks to God for the things that we don't attribute to him.

And so the ability to reflect and meditate in hindsight on his works in our lives can bring with it a lot of sweetness and even hope in present circumstances.

As we reflect, we may come across mercies in our lives that we particularly cherish because of the nature of the circumstance.

Perhaps you were in a position where everything was failing you, everyone was failing you.

And God sent down a mercy to help you at exactly the right moment.

There may be mercies that he has used as a catalyst or had a snowball effect to bring forth many other mercies.

Perhaps he provided you with employment, and then it led to a number of fruitful relationships and fruitful endeavors that you never would have even dreamed about.

Or a hard conversation that, taken to heart, bursted into many other mercies.

Perhaps it was mercies extended, even as we've seen today, of the loving, godly parents who, albeit imperfectly, tried to train you and discipline you, and who desired to see, keep your corruptions from growing, but who sought to do so with patience and gentleness, seeking after the fruits that would be a blessing to you.

Oh, there are so many mercies that He has showered on us.

At other times we might ask, where is the good in a particular circumstance?

In a particular providence.

And on these occasions, we can bring them into light of God's word so as to seek to understand them.

The psalmist, in wrestling with the mystery of God's providence, he did this.

He began at one point in his life to ask the question: why is it that sinners seem to be at a greater advantage than I as God's chosen?

And his heart became embittered with envy at their prosperity.

But then he said, When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the house of the Lord and I discerned their end.

You see, it was in God's light that he saw light.

And so as he was awakened to this light, fresh joy came into his heart.

And he went on to say, Nevertheless, I am continually with you.

You hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me into glory.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Now, did you hear the number of times he said you?

He was awakened afresh to the preciousness of God in his life.

Weaned away from the lusts of his mind.

And peace and joy were restored to his soul.

And although a hard lesson, I'm sure, learned at the time, I'm sure he wouldn't have traded it in for anything.

Oh, the joy of insight into God's providences in light of the truth.

How innumerable and how tender are his mercies toward us.

A few years ago, a family member of mine, a cousin, got hold of a diary from my great-grandfather.

And she compiled for the extended family a number of his meditations that he wrote in his diary from the late 1800s to early 1900s.

And I got it out again this week to read it and was just refreshed through reading some of his journaling.

And it's been sweet to read of the mercies he captured during his life as he reflected back on it.

And so I offer this as an example of another kind of meditation in the form of journaling.

This is one of the tender mercies he wrote about in reflection upon his childhood.

My sister Mary, now 10 years old, took charge and managed very well.

One morning when I got up, Mary had some surprising news to tell me.

And this is kind of in New Zealand terminology, so the moms and the mums and things like that.

Mum had some surprising news to tell me.

Dad was away in the buggy to bring mom home, and she was bringing me a wee baby brother to play with.

At last it did and drew nearer and nearer till it reached the house.

Sure enough, there was Mom with the baby wrapped in a warm shawl.

I'd never seen so young a baby before.

It did not trouble me where or how she'd got it.

The all-important thing was its reality.

Not like a make-believe doll, but alive in its own right.

Moving, puffing, blowing or sneezing, all the things dolls are not able to do.

It was created, not manufactured.

The mystery and miracle of life.

Perhaps we grown-ups are too apt to take for granted what the child sees in bitter reality.

He then writes Psalm 139, 313 and 14, which says, For you have formed my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well.

You see, the mystery and miracle of life had impressed upon my great grandfather the miracle of its author, the mystery of its author, Jesus Christ, and his wonderful works.

And at that moment, it led him to the reality of a deeper fellowship and sense of interest with him in his world.

He had another taste of his mercies new every morning.

And so whether you experience a hard or a pleasant providence, are you learning to credit your father's many, many mercies toward you to his account?

Or are you leaving them uncashed?

That has everything to do with joy.

Oh, that we would be strengthened with a greater consciousness of how our Heavenly Father has and continues to shape our lives for good.

God's throne is for ruling, yes.

But his throne is also for interceding for our good.

We find no greater mystery and seal of that reality than at the cross.

That Christ could be the obedient, glorious love of God, and yet at the same time be the full measure of our disobedience.

Both at once is the most profound of all mysteries.

O friends, may we be given by the Spirit a view to our Heavenly Father's many, many mercies founded on this one and most precious of mercies.

And walk in ever-increasing joy.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Oh great and glorious Father, we thank you for so many of your tender mercies toward us.

We thank you for your mercy toward us this day.

We thank you for all of the mercies that you have extended to us over the course of our lives.

Father, please renew us in our appreciation and thanksgiving to all that you have done, that we may sing your praises all the more in ever increasing enjoyment.

And we pray all these things in your Son's name.

Amen.