1. "To be honest, I think sometimes poetic justice can feel more like karma than Christianity. We forget that we ourselves are in fact in more need of mercy than we are of justice."

2. "The self satisfaction we feel, if our true hearts were known, would quickly turn to become our own accuser. Our hearts, it turns out, are not the best instruments for measuring justice."

3. "So this is not Esther, the beauty queen we meet in chapter five, dressed for a night with the king. This is Esther, in royal robes to be sure, but dehydrated, gaunt, with fear-filled, bloodshot eyes. It's not her beauty she's dependent on, but her courage and faith in God, like we saw last week."

4. "What do you crave? What makes you angry? That's how we can see which things we believe to be our servants have actually become our masters."

5. "We often think about pride as self-exaltation, which it is, and that's on rich display in Haman's life. But pride is also self-orientation, seeing the world only through your own eyes."

6. "Pride began with Satan in heaven. It has flourished here on earth. It ends in hell. Do not ally yourself with anything on that trajectory."

7. "God has never once, not even for a moment, felt threatened, let alone been threatened by his enemies. They do not threaten him, he uses them."

8. "There is no conflict at all in these chapters of Esther between Esther's intricate planning and God's sovereign working. And so with us as Christians, we are neither fatalists nor are we atheists. We strategize for good, and we depend entirely on God to do good."

9. "There are many times in life when it actually takes more faith to disbelieve God's activity than to believe it, even when he's hidden."

10. "The greatest injustice in this universe is not any injustice that could ever happen to you or to me. It is the injustice of God not being seen and known and delighted in as the glorious God he is."

Observation Questions

1. Read Esther 5:1–3. What risks is Esther taking by entering the inner court, and how does the king respond to her unexpected appearance?
2. In Esther 5:4–8, what does Esther actually request from the king at the first feast, and how does she frame her request for a second banquet?
3. According to Esther 5:9–14, how does Haman’s mood change from the time he leaves the feast to when he gets home, and what do his wife and friends advise him to do?
4. In Esther 6:1–5, what sequence of events follows the king’s sleepless night, and what do we learn about Mordecai’s past actions and lack of reward?
5. Look at Esther 6:6–13. What honors does Haman suggest for “the man whom the king delights to honor,” and what happens when the king commands Haman to carry out this plan?
6. Read Esther 7:1–10 and 8:1–2. At the second feast, how does Esther describe the threat against her and her people, whom does she identify as the enemy, and what becomes of Haman’s estate and position?

Interpretation Questions

1. How does Esther 5:1–3 show both Esther’s vulnerability and God’s quiet favor toward her, especially in light of the king’s earlier law about uninvited visitors?
2. Why do you think Esther delays revealing her full request until the second feast (Esther 5:4–8; 7:1–4), and how does this relate to the sermon’s emphasis on humble planning under God’s sovereignty?
3. In what ways does Haman’s behavior in Esther 5:9–14 and 6:6–13 illustrate the sermon’s point that pride is both blinding and self-destructive?
4. How does the timing and “coincidence” of events in Esther 6 (insomnia, the chronicles, Haman’s entrance) support the sermon’s claim that God is actively working justice even when He seems hidden?
5. How does the dramatic reversal of fortunes in Esther 7 and 8:1–2 (Haman executed on his own gallows, Mordecai exalted) help us understand what the sermon called God’s love of “poetic justice,” and how might this prepare us to understand the reversal of the cross?

Application Questions

1. Using Haman as a mirror (Esther 5:9–14; 6:6), what do your strongest cravings for recognition and your angriest reactions this week reveal about possible idols or pride in your own heart?
2. Esther fasted and depended on God even as she planned carefully (Esther 4:16; 5:1–8). In one situation you’re facing now, what would it look like to both plan wisely and express deeper dependence on God in prayer?
3. The sermon noted that pride can keep both unbelievers and believers from coming to Christ with “empty hands.” Where might you be resisting confession, help, or obedience because you want to keep control?
4. When you feel unseen or alone in doing good, how can remembering God’s hidden work in Esther 6–7 reshape your attitude and choices in your workplace, home, or church this week?
5. Our hearts often delight more in seeing enemies get what they “deserve” than in seeing undeserved mercy. How might God be calling you, in light of this passage, to extend mercy or withhold gloating in a specific relationship?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Psalm 2:1–12 — Shows God laughing at the raging of earthly rulers and establishing His chosen King, echoing Esther’s theme that God is never threatened by His enemies but uses them to accomplish His purposes.
2. Job 1:6–2:10 — Reveals Satan having to seek God’s permission to afflict Job and introduces the pattern of innocent suffering that, as the sermon noted, becomes a “mold” for the cross.
3. Exodus 14:1–31 — Describes God leading Israel into apparent disaster at the Red Sea, then dramatically rescuing them and destroying Pharaoh’s army, another powerful example of God’s dramatic reversals.
4. 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 — Explains how the “foolish” message of the cross is actually the wisdom and power of God, directly connecting to the sermon’s theme of God’s surprising wisdom and ultimate reversal in Christ.
5. Ruth 1:1–22 — Begins the story of a Moabite widow whom God exalts into the royal line of David, illustrating again how God lovingly overturns expectations and raises the lowly, much like in Esther.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Appeal and Danger of Poetic Justice

II. Background: Esther Chapters 1-4

III. Esther's Courageous Approach to the King (Esther 5:1-8)

IV. Haman's Pride and Plot Against Mordecai (Esther 5:9-14)

V. God's Sovereign Timing: The King's Sleepless Night (Esther 6:1-14)

VI. Esther's Revelation and Haman's Downfall (Esther 7:1-8:2)

VII. God Works Justice Through His Enemies' Proud Folly

VIII. God Works Justice Through His Servants' Humble Planning

IX. God Works Justice Through His Own Surprising Wisdom

X. Trusting the God Who Orchestrates All Things

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Poetic justice is when virtue is rewarded and vice is punished in a particularly suitable way. So many great works of literature from Oliver Twist to Shakespeare's Macbeth to the Mahabharata to the Count of Monte Cristo are built on this idea of poetic justice. And not just great works of literature. Earlier this week, Lauren Laster sent me a website where the demise of 20 villains in the Indiana Jones franchise are ranked according to poetic justice. Turns out poetic justice sells.

Let me give you one example that's probably familiar to you from the Syrian fable of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Ali Baba is a poor woodcutter. He stumbles across a cave and overhears an outlaw speak those famous words, Open sesame to get inside. When the outlaw leaves, he goes in himself and discovers a treasure trove, wealth unimaginable the thieves have left there. Well, Ali's brother, Qasim, treacherously discovers his secret and tries to take the treasure for himself, but he forgets the magic password once he's inside, and when the thieves get there, they kill him.

The thieves meanwhile know their secret is out, and they set a trap for Ali Baba, but Ali's clever and loyal servant, Morgiana, discovers these plots one after another and saves Ali's life, eventually catching the thieves in their own trap. As the story closes, kind Morgiana marries virtuous Ali's son, and they all live happily ever after, poetic justice for Ali's treacherous brother and the 40 wicked thieves neatly tied up in a bow.

So I want you to take that feeling, that feeling of satisfaction you have after you read a story like Ali Baba's, or maybe your own personal favorite example of poetic justice, take that feeling and just pull it out to look at it. Why do we enjoy these so much? Well, because there's something in every one of us that wants more than just justice. We want more than for evil to be punished and virtue to be rewarded. We want it to be done in a broadly visible and delightly suitable way, like those 40 thieves getting caught in their own trap.

We love the show. Yet that same delicious, self-satisfied feeling should give you pause about your own instincts for justice. Why don't we feel that same delicious, self-satisfied feeling when we read about undeserved mercy? And isn't our delight in poetic justice a little simplistic? What if one of those thieves had a virtuous son who's now orphans?

Why does he have to suffer? To be honest, I think sometimes poetic justice can feel more like karma than Christianity. We forget that we ourselves are in fact in more need of mercy than we are of justice. And consider how self-satisfied we are when we celebrate poetic justice. What does that tell us?

What suggests that we think we ourselves would, of course, never be on the wrong side of justice? Perhaps there's even some poetic justice in what a story like Alibaba sets up in our emotions. The self-satisfaction we feel if our true hearts were known would quickly turn to become our own accuser.

Our hearts, it turns out, are not the best instruments for measuring justice. God, of course, is the ultimate worker of justice. He promises that one day all wrongs will be made right, but God also gives us glimpses of future justice by sometimes pulling it forward, both to encourage us that justice will one day be done and to warn us that justice will one day be done to us. We have so much to learn from how God works justice. Today is the third of five studies in the Old Testament book of Esther, which you'll find on page 413 of the Bibles that you're going to see in the pews and the chairs around you.

Here in Esther chapters 5 through 7 and the first two verses of 8, we are privileged, really, with front row seats to see how God works justice in the present. And what we learn is that God uses all things, from the folly of his enemies to the plans of his servants to work justice, but most importantly, we learn that God also loves the show. He also loves poetic justice, but for very different reasons than we do. So as we watch and listen to the events of Esther, we can learn important truths about our God, and about ourselves and about our Savior. The three chapters of Esther we're going to be reading today are, I think, the most intricate and dramatic of the book.

So, after I get you up to speed on the first four chapters of Esther that we've gone through the last few weeks, I'll read through our entire passage, stopping along the way to make some comments. And just to warn you, at that point in time, we will be nearly halfway through the sermon. In case at that point in time you're wondering if we have, you know, two hours left to go. And then we're going to consider three observations for how God works justice so that we can better praise our God of perfect justice and lavish mercy. So first, some background.

Esther takes place in the seat of power of the Persian Empire in the fifth century BC. We read really a mocking portrayal of that empire in Esther chapters one to two, and it's proud, Surprisingly, sorry, can't even say that word, surprisingly impotent and cruelly exploitative king who, though king of nearly half the world's population, seems obsessed with appearances but woefully short on substance. Chapter two ends with the orphan girl Esther elevated to queen and her uncle Mordecai, who saves the king's life, curiously unrewarded. In chapter 3, the king's lieutenant, Haman, launches really a heinous plan to destroy all the Jews throughout the empire provoked by Mordecai's refusal to honor him. And we saw the biblical backstory behind all that last week.

Esther is persuaded by Mordecai to use her influence with the king to seek mercy for her people, the Jews, as Mordecai recalls God's promise to deliver his people. But this comes for Esther at great risk. As she says in chapter 4:11, All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. Esther, thinking about what she's about to do, asks Mordecai to gather all the Jews in the capital city of Susa together to fast in her behalf, to neither eat nor drink for three days, and she and her attendants do likewise. Which brings us to chapter 5.

You can think of Esther chapters 1-4 like the slow climb up the roller coaster hill. Right, now it's time to put up our hands and scream, because it's going to get very exciting. So let me read our passage in pieces, offering some explanation as we go. Esther chapter 5.

On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter, and the king said to her, what is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of my kingdom.

And Esther said, if it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king. Then the king said, 'Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther has asked. So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, 'What is your wish? It should be granted you.

And what is your request? Even the half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled. Then Esther answered, 'My wish and my request is if I have found favor in the sight of the king. And if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.

The first time Esther went before the king, she prepared with 12 months of beauty treatments, but this time, with three days and nights of fasting. No food, no water for three nights. Do you think she slept very well as she considered the quick and brutal end that might face her when she walked unbidden into the king's court? Talk about a hostile work environment. So this is not Esther, the beauty queen we meet in chapter five, dressed for a night with the king.

This is Esther in royal robes, to be sure, but dehydrated, gaunt, no doubt with fear-filled, bloodshot eyes. It's not her beauty she's depending on, but her courage and faith in God, like we saw last week. And she finds favor in the king's eyes. Verse 2, no doubt, a gift of the God she was trusting. And now just as Mordecai obeyed Esther at the end of chapter 4, the king himself is obeying Esther here in verse 5, almost tripping over himself to do her bidding.

Which leads to the banquet of verse 6, and the king's second promise to give her whatever she asks. And then the camera turns, and it follows Haman as he departs from the palace in verse 9.

And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife, Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king. Then Haman said, Even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared, and tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king.

Yet all this is worth nothing to me. So long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it; then go joyfully with the king to the feast. This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

Haman's idolatry of acclaim and adoration is on full display, kind of a Persian version of Lady Gaga. I live for the applause. If only fame had an IV. A special audience with the king and queen has pushed Haman to the height of joy, verse 9. But when Mordecai denies him what he craves, he's enraged.

Incidentally, those two diagnostics, I think, can also unveil our own idols. What do you crave? What makes you angry? That's how we can see which things we believe to be our servants have actually become our masters. And from what we know of Haman, this response of his, a hastily called boasting party, really is no surprise, though it is laughable.

And given Esther's designs for him at the second feast, His boast of verse 12 is especially laughable. Even Queen Esther, let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared, and tomorrow also I'm invited by her together with the king. It reminds me of the old far side cartoon where one dog is in a car with his head out the window, boasting to a second dog staying at home, Guess what? I'm going to the vet to get tutored. Haman lost his self-obsessed joy in verse 9, and so his wife, Zeresh, suggests murder is the key to recover it.

Verse 14, which Haman thinks is marvelous. But then something happens. Chapter 6.

On that night, the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And the king said, what honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? The king's young men who attended him said, Nothing has been done for him.

The king said, who is in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's young men told him, Haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. So Haman came in, and the king said to him, what should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?

And Haman said to himself, Whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set. And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials. Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

Then the king said to Haman, Hurry, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned. So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. ' Then Mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him. While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried.

To bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared. We know from the dates that Esther gives us that this particular incident the king is reading about occurred five years earlier. Yet it just so happens that on this night of all nights, he stumbles across this account which provokes this question? And as it turns out, this man Haman is standing there to answer it. And Haman's answer to the king's question of how to honor this man who Haman believes to be himself is as treacherous and treasonous as it is laughable.

Robed in the king's own attire, led on the king's own horse, who does Haman think he is? A king. Even the horse is wearing a crown.

How Haman's pride has blinded him. And note the prediction of Haman's wife and his wise men. Just as the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4 were terror-struck by the ark of Israel in their midst because of what God had done to the Egyptians 400 years earlier, it seems that Zeresh also knows what happens to those who seek to destroy God's people. God, it appears, has acquired quite the reputation. But for Haman, time is running short.

The king told Haman to hurry to honor Mordecai, verse 10, after which Haman hurries home in morning, verse 12, the eunuchs hurry to Haman to his fate, verse 14, the hand of God is quickly overtaking him. Which brings us to chapter seven. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, what is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you.

And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it should be fulfilled. Then Queen Esther answered, if I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, Let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.

Then King Ahaziah said to Queen Esther, who is he, and where is he who has dared to do this? And Esther said, A foe, an enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. And the king arose in his wrath from the wine drinking and went out into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was intended against him by the king.

And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, Will he even assault the queen in my presence in my own house? As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the life of the king, is standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high. And the king said, Hang him on that.

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated. On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.

And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

Well, at long last, Esther fully and publicly identifies with her people, the Jews, pleading for her people, verse 3, deliberately stepping in to the death sentence that Haman had set out. The king believes her immediately, no questions asked, which is odd given his attitudes toward women earlier in the book. Perhaps he himself had begun to suspect Haman's motives back in chapter six. That may explain in part what happens to Haman in verse 8, quick execution without any attempt at the due process we saw back in chapters 1 and 2. The king's in a sticky place.

He cannot repeal a law of the Medes and the Persians, such as this edict from chapter 4 to annihilate all the Jews. He cannot blame Haman for it since it was issued in his own name. So I have to wonder if he seizes on Haman's unfortunate posture toward Esther as a pretext to do away with one who has become an inconvenient counselor. In the end, we have textbook poetic justice as Haman is executed on the gallows he built for Mordecai.

Well, that is our passage this morning with all of its glories and reversals. And intrigued, so back to the question I asked earlier, how does God work justice? There are three observations we can make from this passage. First, God works justice through his enemies' proud folly. Second, through his servants' humble planning.

And third, through his own surprising wisdom. Through his enemies' proud folly, through his servants' humble planning, through his own surprising wisdom, that will be our outline for the rest of the time we have in this passage this morning. So first, God works justice through his enemies' proud folly, referring, of course, to Haman. Haman's fall is entirely self-inflicted, a result of his proud folly and It is used by God to rescue God's people. It was Haman's pride, after all, that led to this conflict with Mordecai.

Haman's pride that disdained, chapter 3 verse 6 tells us, to lay hands on Mordecai alone but sought to wipe out all of his people. And Haman's pride that set up his own humiliation with his enemy receiving the accolade that he himself designed. Given enough time, it's amazing how often pride collapses in on itself. And the fact is that pride blinds us. It blinds us even to simple logic.

Everyone else can see your pride, but you're just barely beginning to make it out. I think sometimes we can see pride better by expanding what it looks like. We often think about pride as self-exaltation, which it is, and that's on rich display in Haman's life. But pride is also self-orientation, which we also see in Haman, seeing the world only through your own eyes. Haman cannot imagine the king's honor would be for anyone but him because, well, frankly, he never thinks about anyone other than him.

Be on your guard for the pride of self-exaltation, but also for that more subtle pride of self-orientation. The Bible tells us, Philippians 2:3, to in humility count others as more significant than yourselves.

That requires that you view the world through the eyes of others. I think, frankly, that can be especially challenging for men, which is why 1 Peter 2, sorry, 1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands to be considerate as they live with their wives. Don't just remember her needs, put her at the center of your marital universe. And I think only my wife can appreciate the earnest hypocrisy of my telling you that.

Pride is the beginning of every sin. That's what John Chrysostom told us in the fourth century. And we extinguish pride, he so astutely observed, by knowing God. For if we know him, he said, all pride is banished. My friend, that is the true answer to pride.

Don't merely think less of yourself. Don't merely think of yourself less. Seek to think more of God.

But the point here of this passage is that Haman's pride is not merely blinding. It's also laughable in the most tragic of ways. That's how the author of Esther intends us to read this account, laughable, darkly comic. I wonder if there's any comic relief our God in heaven gets in what you, in all seriousness and pride, consider to be your greatest virtue. I think I have long had unfortunate fashion instincts, but looking at a photo of me wearing a cowboy boots and a sailor's hat, when I was four doesn't make me cringe nearly as much as the flannel shirt tucked into a pair of shorts in my 20s.

There's something about pride advanced in years that's especially laughable and cringe-worthy. And my friends, if only pride were only as serious as bad fashion. But it will destroy you.

Make it a point sometime this week to ask someone in this church, How am I proud? Not, Am I proud? I don't have that high an opinion of you. How am I proud? Or if you don't know someone, you can ask that question of, Work and pray for a friendship where you can ask questions like that and see what you can learn.

And pride is so serious because it can keep us from Christ. Sometimes we miss that because we call pride by other names: self-reliance, freedom, integrity, all those can be dressed-up names for pride. But the Christian gospel demands that we come to Christ with empty hands, which is intolerable for human pride.

See, we are all sinners. We have spent our lives working overtime, earning the wrath of God due us for our sin, And in God's unbelievable mercy, He did not leave us there. He sent Jesus, God made flesh, to live the life we were to have lived and to die in our place, the death we deserved.

He offers us forgiveness and new life if we would repent of our sins and put our faith in Him. His offer, in fact, is the only way. That you can ever be forgiven of your sin and reconciled with your God. But if we listen to pride, that is a pill we just cannot swallow. We so want our fate to be in our own hands.

But pride, my friends, is laughable. Why coddle it a day longer? Come empty to Christ and he will fill you. And pride keeps Christians from Christ as well. Right?

Is your pride disparaging the confession of a particular sin as unnecessary? Is it dismissing a public stand for Christ as unrealistic? Is it disdaining sacrificial love for others as impossible? My friend, why would you ever listen to your pride, repent of your pride, Pride began with Satan in heaven. It has flourished here on earth.

It ends in hell. Do not ally yourself with anything on that trajectory.

Yet despite Haman's pride pitting him against God, God uses Haman's pride and that's a point we cannot afford to miss. Haman may be convinced that he's winning the game but he is merely a piece on God's chessboard. So God coordinates the timing of all the events in this passage just perfectly. For when the king could not sleep, for when the king read of Mordecai, for when Haman walked into the palace, God coordinates the timing just perfectly so that Haman's pride will undo him, which is what makes Haman's fate such poetic justice.

And that's true of all God's enemies, right? The Bible is not some great battle of good and evil like King Kong and Godzilla, right? God is entirely in control. Psalm 2 speaks of God laughing, it says, of his enemies. The Lord holds them in derision.

God has never once, not even for a moment, felt threatened, let alone been threatened by his enemies. They do not threaten him, he uses them. So when Satan wanted to torment Job, what did he have to do? He had to ask God's permission. And then what does Satan do with that permission?

He makes the innocent Job suffer. He introduces the concept of innocent suffering. Did he have any idea what he was doing? In his spite for God's people, he was pouring a cross-shaped mold, establishing the categories for the means that God would one day use to save his people. God's amazing.

And just like Haman, Satan also designs his own execution, which my friends is poetic justice. That is the relationship between God and his enemies. And it is that God, if you are in Christ, who acts for you. We need not fear his enemies. You see, whatever perspective you might be looking at from your very limited vantage point, oh, I promise you, God is always playing on a higher level.

Even here in Esther, just think of what a glorious picture of the gospel Haman gives us. This man from the street, wrapped in royalty not his own, paraded in the honor of a king, What a picture of what Jesus has given to us. But God doesn't merely work through his enemies. In this passage, he also works through his servant, Esther, the perfect foil to Haman, which is our second observation from this text, that God works justice through his servant's humble planning.

And humility is an important part of this. I think when you're reading quickly through Esther, you might miss her humility, but like we saw last week, She is not impressed with herself for being in her position for such a time as this, though she is keenly aware of her danger. And far from seeking to win the king's favor with her charm and dashing looks, she stands in the king's court, wasted and gaunt after three days of fasting, dependent entirely on God. Apparently Esther considered three days of asking for God's favor. To be a better ticket for securing the king's favor than to rely on what up until now has been her most obvious advantage.

What's more, and this is important, Esther doesn't know all that's happened between her first feast in Esther 5 and the second one in Esther 7. She seems to live in the harem in great isolation. It seems that she doesn't know that the king has been awakened to his debt for her Jewish uncle. She doesn't know that Haman has been humiliated. She doesn't know that God is already at work answering her prayers.

Esther is courageous, yes, but she is also humble, and her humility, I think, is most clearly evident in her dependence on God.

But Esther's also a planner, a godly schemer, you might say. And I want you to just think for a moment, what a delicate operation she is undertaking here.

Whose name is on Haman's genocidal decree? Whose ring sealed that decree? The king's, not Haman's. Who foolishly handed Haman his royal authority without ever bothering to ask who these people were who he intended to exterminate? That same king.

Who is Esther's only hope to reverse what has been ordered? Again, the king. Whose ego rivals Haman's in its size? The king's.

So when she explains to the king what he's done, he will humbly and quickly admit his mistake and make everything right, right? No. Of course not.

How many women have had you, like Esther, carefully thread this same needle, delicately helping a proud man to see and correct his errors without offending his pride?

So she spins the king up until he's ravenous with curiosity about her request. She quotes directly from the king's promise to her in chapter 7, verse 3, Let my life be granted for my wish and my people for my request. So the king can't possibly deny her request and save any kind of face, which seems to be his major concern. She quotes directly from the king's edict in chapter 7, verse 4, destroyed, killed, annihilated, but she never names his role in that. And when the king in verse 5 demands who has done this, still clueless that it's actually him, she points not to the king but to Haman.

Esther is a brilliant planner. But her plan wasn't the clincher, was it? God is the one who gave her favor in the sight of that king. God, unbeknownst to Esther, is acting behind the scenes in chapter six to set her up for success. But there is no conflict at all in these chapters of Esther between Esther's intricate planning and God's sovereign working.

And so with us as Christians, we are neither fatalists nor are we atheists. We strategize for good and we depend entirely on God to do good. How is that not a contradiction? Well, because we recognize that our ingenuity, our strategizing, our innovation, our insights are all part of God's plan. So when Paul in Colossians 1 desires the maturity of the believers, he says, For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

No conflict between our strategizing and our dependence on God. It's been said before that we should work as if it all depends on us and pray as if it all depends on God. I'm not a fan of that saying. For one, I don't think many of us are capable of that kind of internal contradiction. But secondly, that leads to an anxious discipleship, not a restful discipleship.

I think a better phrase is the one Paul gives us in Colossians 3:23, We work unto the Lord. We work, strategize toward God honoring ends, deploying our ingenuity and our strength and our skill like Esther did.

Because that's what pleases him. And at the same time, we recognize that even if our work succeeds and its success depends on God, the real spiritual aims we have in mind are entirely dependent on God, not to mention that we as his creatures ourselves are entirely dependent on him. And in that providence, we find rest. So you may work tirelessly to advocate for the unborn. And that is wonderful pleasing to God no matter the final outcome, and pleasing him should be your supreme motivation.

He may well use your work to change laws and systems and even to change hearts and minds, but you know you're dependent on him for that. So in his providence, your work is skillful and it is restful. And one more thought before we leave Esther's example as a humble planner: See in her plight to petition this earthly king a wonderful inducement to pray to our King. Matthew Henry makes that connection. He writes this: Let us from this story infer, as our Saviour does from the parable of the unjust judge, an encouragement to pray always to our God, and never give up.

Hear what this haughty king says. What is thy petition and what is thy request that should be granted thee? Shall not God hear and answer the prayers of his own elect that cry day and night to him? Esther came to a proud and imperious man. We come to the God of love and grace.

She was not called. We are. She had a law against her. We have a promise, many a promise in favor of us. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

She had no friend to intercede for her, while on the contrary, he that was then the king's favorite was her enemy. But we have an advocate with the Father in whom he is well pleased. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Come tonight so we can come boldly to the throne of grace as we pray. But God didn't accomplish His purposes merely through Haman's pride or merely through Esther's humility.

He was also working justice, which is our third point, through His own surprising wisdom.

Because God is quite busy in this section of Esther. We see that in the impossible timing that makes chapter 6 work, right? The king couldn't sleep on that particular night, so we asked for that particular book and it was open to that particular incident, resulting in that particular question, which is to be answered by that particular man who chose that particular moment to walk into the palace.

There are many times in life when it actually takes more faith to disbelieve God's activity than to believe it, even when he's hidden.

We also see the work of God and how this section of Esther is structured. The book of Esther, as you read through it, is remarkable in its symmetry. Folding back over itself. So events in the first half of the book, including those feasts, pair with events in the second half of the book with perfect symmetry. I think we'll probably see that more clearly in two weeks.

Now, in general, in ancient literature, when you have symmetry like that, the center of the symmetry, the spine of the book, so to speak, is the most important point. And so you would think, that the book of Esther would have as its center, chapter 7, because that's the dramatic climax with Esther as the hero.

But when you look at these pairings of events, what you realize is the center of all that symmetry is chapter 6, when Esther and Mordecai are asleep, but God, the real hero, is at work. Behold, Psalm 121:4, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

I wonder if you ever feel alone in the good you're seeking to do. No one's there to notice. No one's there to help. And the good that needs doing seems to outstrip any time and energy available to do it. Do you ever feel alone in that task?

Oh, I bet Esther did. She must have felt terribly alone standing there in the king's court, looking at those armed guards at the other end.

But she was not alone, was she? God was with her, and God was not merely with her, he was choreographing everything from the king's sleep to Haman's ego to deliver exactly what she needed. My friend, you are never alone in the good you seek to do.

So God is very much at work in this section of Esther. What's he doing?

Well, he is working all these surprising reversals that we see, humbling the proud, exalting the humble, One interesting aspect of Esther chapter six is that most of that chapter about everything Haman does and his humiliation is quite unnecessary for the plot to move forward. And that is quite unusual for the book of Esther where it seems that pretty much every detail is critical to what's going on. Just look at your Bible. If Esther chapter six had ended in verse three, Esther would still have had everything she needed to save God's people in chapter seven. So that dramatic humiliation of Haman, that is the rest of chapter six, is surprisingly unnecessary.

You might even call it a gratuitous detail. Why? What is God doing? Well, God is doing what he so often does in the Bible. He is carefully architecting a surprising reversal of fortune.

A word I'm using intentionally, as I think is ironically appropriate in the book of Esther. Haman starts out on top, he ends up on the bottom. That's what we see this week. God's people start out on the bottom, they end up on top, which we'll see next week. And my friends, God loves these surprising reversals.

Right? He didn't just lead his people from Egypt to the Promised Land, he allowed them to become slaves to the most powerful king on earth, and then he wrested them in power from his grip. And he didn't just lead them to Egypt, then walking lazily down the road, he led them into a trap with Pharaoh's army pursuing from behind and the Red Sea looming up ahead. And then he parted the sea and led them through and destroyed Pharaoh's army. This is the God who took a starving woman from Moab, Israel's enemies, and made her the mother of his royal line.

This is a god who passed over all of Jesse's tall and handsome sons for the youngest they'd left out in the field. This is a god who did not simply rescue Jerusalem from Assyria in the time of Hezekiah. He waited until Jerusalem had shrunk to a small island amidst hostile forces, and then he sends his angel to single-handedly destroy the greatest army on the planet. God loves these surprising reversals. He loves poetic justice.

But again, we have to ask the question, why? We put your cynic's hat on for a moment. Is God some kind of drama queen? Some divine diva? Right, these reversals may make for great storytelling, but they are exhausting.

They are exhausting for those who follow God.

Why not just be undramatic for once and nip Haman in the bud before all this happens? Why not just nip Satan in the bud? Why not just quietly send Jesus, the Savior, in the Garden of Eden before everything got so crazy bad?

Why all these surprising reversals? What's with the show? Two things. This is how God shows us himself. This is how God shows us the cross.

First, God is showing us himself. But Esther 6 exists because more than God wanting to see justice done, he wants the doing of justice to be seen. The humiliation of Haman is like God's exclamation point on this reversal, circling it, starring it, underlining it. God doesn't merely love justice, he loves visible justice. He wants us to see what he is doing because he wants us to see what he is like.

The empire of King Ahaz, as we saw in the opening chapters of Esther, is obsessed with appearances, appearances unsupported by substance. Yet one of the greatest ironies of the book of Esther that Haman's humiliation underscores is that the God who works underneath all this, he also cares about appearances. That's what's behind all these ups and downs of the book of Esther, all these dramatic reversals, these just in the nick of time come from behind dramatic moments.

God cares about the substance of justice, but he also cares about appearance. Or to say that in more biblical language, God loves his perfections and he loves his glory. And that is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Because the greatest injustice in this universe is not any injustice that could ever happen to you or to me. It is the injustice of God not being seen and known and delighted in as the glorious God he is.

And I do not mean that to be hyperbole. No injustice can overshadow the injustice of the one who is love itself being called hate.

The one who is the embodiment of all good, uniting perfect love and perfect justice, without God being dismissed, is uninteresting. The one who is power itself, disregarded as weak. The one whose patience lasts centuries, being spurned as demanding. I could go on. The greatest injustice in the book of Esther is not the plotting of Haman or the oppression by the king, it is God being ignored.

And more than your healing or your comfort or your peace or even your justice, God holds out a far greater ambition for you that you might know the glory of who he is in all of his glorious wonder. You may be content to live out a drama-free life of comfort and ease, but God has better, more everlasting joy in mind for you. That's why he loves these grand reversals, this poetic justice, because he does not want us to miss him.

But let's keep the Senate going. Why doesn't he just tell us? Why all this sneaking around in the background? Why the hidden God of Esther?

Because without Faith, it is impossible to please God. Until you understand why Christianity is a religion of faith, you have not understood it at all.

But there's a second reason for all these surprises and reversals in Esther. They are showing us how illusory the power structures of this world really are. They are showing us how weakness can turn out to be power. And power, weakness, they are preparing us, in other words, for the cross of Jesus Christ. As one writer spoke so well of that fateful day, he said, His enemies might deride his pretensions to be king and express their mockery of his claim by presenting him with a crown of thorns, a reed, and a purple robe and nailing him to a cross.

But in the eyes of unfallen intelligences, he was a king. A higher power presided over that derisive ceremony and converted it into a real coronation. That crown of thorns was indeed the diadem of empire. That purple robe was the badge of royalty. That fragile reed was the symbol of unbounded power.

And that cross? The throne of dominion which shall never end.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:18, With all the reversals of Esther in the backdrop, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' I wonder if the Pharisees of Jesus' day had paid closer attention to the book of Esther, maybe they wouldn't have so quickly dismissed a Messiah who was God incarnate hanging on a Roman cross. And for you and I as well. To whatever extent the surprising reversals of the cross of Jesus Christ become a stumbling block to us because they glory in humility and demand that we submit to a higher wisdom than we can understand, then we also need the preparatory work of the book of Esther. What looks powerful and secure is often not.

What looks like foolishness and folly in God's hand is wise. The first shall be last and the last first. Do not ever fall into the trap of acting as if you are wiser than God. I want to call to mind again that wonderfully delicious feeling you get from well-crafted, well-told poetic justice. I hope you can see how much better God's working of justice is than even our own daydreams of it.

We seek to punish the proud, forgetting, of course, that we ourselves are very often proud. But God humbles the proud while using the proud for good. We love the intricate plans that reward virtue and punish vice, God's intricate planning encompass even our own, turning our plans into something so much better than we intended. We love simple justice, God's justice.

So often is preparing the way for mercy. So like Esther, do you ever feel alone in seeking good, good that you seek to do at work, in your family, in your relationships, in your church?

Like Esther, you cannot see God's hand and the road ahead seems steep and hard and lonely. Like Esther, while you were sleeping, God was at work. Like he was the mastermind behind the story of Esther, he is the mastermind behind the story of your life. And my friends, in that there is a wonderfully satisfying trust.

Let's pray together. O our God in heaven, we marvel at yout works.

We marvel at how patient yout are to humble the proud, not wanting anyone to perish but all to come to repentance.

We marvel that you do bring the proud down. And yet for those who trust in Jesus Christ, Father, you save us.

We marvel at how little we can understand of what you do.

And yet the bit we do understand is glorious. Father, help us to keep that feeling in mind as we enter the unknown of this week. That you are marvelous, that your plans are marvelous, that you are good, that we can trust you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.