Message
for Esther 7
Doing God’s Will Whatever
the Cost
The Mask Comes Off!
When you walk into a masquerade party of friends and
everyone is in full-costume hiding their identity
for fun you don’t really mind because
you’re among friends…But when you are
among concealed friends AND enemies, what
then? The masquerade party is no longer fun,
in fact, it’s downright scary! You know something wicked is afoot, and the
unknown is disturbing.
As it turns out, all people are a mixed bag. Sometimes a friend,
and sometimes enemy. Hopefully, we are
mostly a friend! I say this because
we all sin, and when we do we play the role of an enemy, so to speak. We may be
operating out of a motive we don’t see,
and it could be sinful. Another word for
sinful is wicked, which means evil or morally wrong, so although we may not
want to see ourselves in this light, God’s Word defines sin as such. And when we have impure motives, the enemy
will try to use them for destruction. Then we are exhorted by the Apostle Paul to
put on the full armor of God that we might be able to stand against those demonic
schemes.
For he said, “… our struggle is not against [a]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of
wickedness in the heavenly places.” Eph 6:12
When we get to our Bible story in Esther, we will
see a very vivid picture of this very thing, except, Haman, to us readers is
the obvious enemy, although not to King
Ahasuerus at that time. Haman’s diabolical
plot and his true motives to murder God’s people will get unmasked, however, as
all things hidden will eventually be revealed. Jesus said, “For nothing is hidden that will not
become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”
Luke 8:17
Esther is facing the fact that a sinister enemy has
plotted destruction but has hidden truth from the King. Plans to expose the wickedness are in place,
but will it work, or will she fail?
At this point in our story, at banquet #2, Esther is
poised firmly to do the right thing, but likely frightened to bring truth to
the banquet table. Perhaps she is waiting for not only God’s perfect time but for the courage that comes with it to
put forth her request. She knew her
life could be snuffed out at one swift imperial
command! What a horrid situation!
If she didn’t come forward and use her position to try and save her
people, the consequence would be horrific!
Previous to chapter 7, we learn Haman’s current
circumstance is humbling and troubling to him. Leading a procession to praise the man he
despised was as low as he could go. Even
his family could see God was with Mordecai, but Haman was drunk on himself. He
would not relent of his hidden vicious plot, but God would intervene! Let’s
look at Esther’s God-given wisdom.
Let’s read Esther
7: 1-6
Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen.2 And
the king said to Esther on the second day also [a]as they drank their wine at the banquet, “What is
your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted
you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom, it shall be done.” 3 Then
Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it
pleases the king, let my life be given me as
my petition, and mypeople as my
request; 4 for we have been sold, I and my
people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had
only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent,
forthe [b]trouble would not be commensurate (proportionate)
with the [c]annoyance to the king.” 5Then
King Ahasuerus [d]asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is
he, [e]who would presume to dothis?” 6 Esther said, “A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!”
Then Haman became terrified before the
king and queen.
Esther is wise with great
tact in making her petition personal.
She does not immediately identify herself as a Jew targeted for massacre-even
as Haman also hides the identity of the group he targets when he makes his
request.
Ahasuerus, lost in the emotional plea from his beloved
Esther, could have remembered signing a decree Haman insisted on earlier in the story, but his heart was moved
by the wisdom and grace of Queen Esther.
His darling was in danger?! WHAT?!!
Who would do such a thing to my
Esther?! (He may have thought)
Esther reminds the king
of the decree he had approved to wipe out the Jewish nation. In fact, her words are almost verbatim from
the decree. (3:13). Ahasuerus now realizes he had unwittingly consented to her murder!
Esther continues by
pointing out that the king has been paid to issue this decree (vv9-11). “If he
sold the Jews as slaves, such a payment might have been just. ‘I would have kept quiet’. ‘Why bother the King with that?’ she said, ‘But to sell them to death and
total destruction was something for which nobody
had enough money.’ The Queen bravely
interceded for her people.
Perhaps she remembered Prov. 16:3-4,
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The Lord works out everything for His own ends—even
the wicked for a day of disaster”. ~Be Committed by Warren Wiersbe
At her revelation, the
King became furious and strode out into the garden palace to think and calm
down. What shall I do??
“Now we can better
understand why God directed Esther to delay her pleas:
He wanted to give Ahasuerus opportunity to learn what Mordecai had done, that Mordecai was a Jew, and that he deserved to be
honored. If a Jew has saved the king’s life, why should the king exterminate
the Jews?
We’ve already learned
that Ahasuerus was a man with a short temper (1:12), but on this occasion, his
anger must have been volcanic. His
masculine pride was hurt because he had
misjudged the character of Haman. He had made a fool of himself by promoting
Haman and by giving him so much influence.
The king also erred in approving
the decree without first weighing all the facts. (Prov. 18:13). As a result,
he had endangered the lives of two very special Jews—Mordecai, who had saved
his life, and Esther, his beloved wife.”
Be committed by Warren Wiersbe
No doubt he was pacing
out in the garden to cool off. The anger
of a king has severe consequence as we’ve seen in the book of Esther thus far,
and in Prov. 16:14, “The wrath of a king is as messengers of death” and also “The king's wrath is as the
roaring of a lion” (19:12) No wonder Haman
became terrified. He must have been
white as a ghost with blood drained from his face
!
Perhaps Haman had one
last chance?! Could he plead for mercy
from the Queen? Perhaps he could tug on her heartstrings
and gain pity. But Esther knew Haman
was a tool of the devil determined to destroy her Jewish people. And had Haman known Esther was a Jew, he may
have cleverly worded the decree to exclude her!
But God was in control of that!
It was Haman’s hatred for the Queen’s cousin Mordecai that started the
whole conspiracy (Est. 3:5-6), but Esther wasn’t about to abandon the one man
who had meant so much to her”
And we see what a bully’s
character really is at the core; a coward! When the authority of the king was
behind him, he could strut around, demand respect and give orders, but now that
the anger of the king was against him, Haman’s true character was
exposed. He was not a giant; he was only
a midget full of pride and hot air! And
all the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn’t put Haman’s life back
together again. Haman was so controlled
by pride and malice that he was blind to the dangers that lay ahead~ Be
Committed
Now, we’ll see how God
sets Haman up because of his inflated sense of self-worth.
Pride goes before a fall, we recall.
Let’s continue reading
Esther 7:7-10
The king arose in his anger from drinking
wine and went into
the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for
he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king. 8Now when the king returned from the palace
garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on the
couch where Esther was. Then the king said,
“Will he even assault the queen with me in the
house?”
As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they
covered Haman’s face. 9Then
Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before
the king said,
“Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman’s
house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!”
And the
king said, “Hang him on it.”
So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he
had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prov. 11:8,
“The righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead.” We see this was definitely true and played
out in this chapter.
Now, Haman may or may not have been aware of his
motives. I wonder if he was even aware
of his hatred for Mordecai? The Bible
tells us that sin blinds. 1 John 2:11 But anyone who hates
another brother or sister is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person
does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness. So, likely
Haman was oblivious to his sinful state of mind and heart as are some people to
this day.
This includes motives or hidden intents of the heart.
So we now know motive is an underlying reason for any action. Proverbs 16:2 says,
“All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.”
Because the human heart is very deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), we
can easily fool ourselves about our own motives. We can pretend that we are
choosing certain actions for God or the benefit of others when in reality we may have selfish reasons. God is not
fooled by our selfishness and is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Motivations vary and are sometimes negative. Pride, anger, revenge, a sense of entitlement, or the desire for approval can all be catalysts for our actions. Any motivation that originates in our sinful flesh is not pleasing to God (Romans 8:8). God even evaluates the condition of our hearts when we give offerings to Him (2 Corinthians 9:7). Selfish motives can hinder our prayers. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Because our hearts are so deceitful, we should constantly evaluate our own motives and be willing to be honest with ourselves about why we are choosing a certain action.
We can even preach and minister from impure motives (Philippians 1:17), but God is not impressed (Proverbs 21:27). Jesus spoke to this issue in Matthew 6:1 when He said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Those involved in ministry must stay alert to this tendency because ministry begun for pure reasons can quickly devolve into selfish ambition if we do not guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23).
So what is the right motivation? First Thessalonians 2:4 says, “Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts” (NLT). God is interested in our motives even more than our actions. First Corinthians 4:5 says that, when Jesus comes again, “he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.” God wants us to know that He sees what no one else sees. He knows why we do what we do and desires to reward those whose hearts are right toward Him. We can keep our motives pure by continually surrendering every part of our hearts to the control of the Holy Spirit.
Here are some specific questions to help us evaluate our own motives:
1. If no one ever knows what I am doing (giving, serving, sacrificing), would I still do it?
2. If there was no visible payoff for doing this, would I still do it?
3. Would I joyfully take a lesser position if God asked me to?
4. Am I doing this for the praise of others or how it makes me feel?
5. If I had to suffer for continuing what God has called me to do, would I continue?
6. If others misunderstand or criticize my actions, will I stop?
7. If those whom I am serving never show gratitude or repay me in any way, will I still do it?
8. Do I judge my success or failure based upon my faithfulness to what God has asked me to do, or how I compare with others?
Motivations vary and are sometimes negative. Pride, anger, revenge, a sense of entitlement, or the desire for approval can all be catalysts for our actions. Any motivation that originates in our sinful flesh is not pleasing to God (Romans 8:8). God even evaluates the condition of our hearts when we give offerings to Him (2 Corinthians 9:7). Selfish motives can hinder our prayers. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Because our hearts are so deceitful, we should constantly evaluate our own motives and be willing to be honest with ourselves about why we are choosing a certain action.
We can even preach and minister from impure motives (Philippians 1:17), but God is not impressed (Proverbs 21:27). Jesus spoke to this issue in Matthew 6:1 when He said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Those involved in ministry must stay alert to this tendency because ministry begun for pure reasons can quickly devolve into selfish ambition if we do not guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23).
So what is the right motivation? First Thessalonians 2:4 says, “Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts” (NLT). God is interested in our motives even more than our actions. First Corinthians 4:5 says that, when Jesus comes again, “he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.” God wants us to know that He sees what no one else sees. He knows why we do what we do and desires to reward those whose hearts are right toward Him. We can keep our motives pure by continually surrendering every part of our hearts to the control of the Holy Spirit.
Here are some specific questions to help us evaluate our own motives:
1. If no one ever knows what I am doing (giving, serving, sacrificing), would I still do it?
2. If there was no visible payoff for doing this, would I still do it?
3. Would I joyfully take a lesser position if God asked me to?
4. Am I doing this for the praise of others or how it makes me feel?
5. If I had to suffer for continuing what God has called me to do, would I continue?
6. If others misunderstand or criticize my actions, will I stop?
7. If those whom I am serving never show gratitude or repay me in any way, will I still do it?
8. Do I judge my success or failure based upon my faithfulness to what God has asked me to do, or how I compare with others?
Jesus reminds us in Matthew 23, that the Pharisees were a mixed bag of motives too. The religious leaders demanded others to obey God’s laws, but their objective was to LOOK righteous. But Jesus saw their hearts and motives; they did their
deeds to be seen. But Jesus didn't call them out to condemn them, but to bring them to repentance and restoration.
Personal satisfaction, such as taking a vacation or winning a competition, are not wrong in themselves. Motivation becomes an issue when we are not honest with ourselves about why we are doing things. When we give the outward appearance of obeying God but our hearts are hard, God knows. We are deceiving ourselves and others, too.
Study in God’s Word is
a key element in exposing our motives. Hebrews
4:12 says, ”For
the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest
two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It
exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”
The only way we can operate from pure motives is when we
“walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16, 25).
When we allow Him to control every part of us, then our desire is to please Him
and not ourselves. Our flesh constantly clamors to exalt itself, and only when
we walk in the Spirit will we not gratify those desires of our flesh. ~https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-motives.html
God is long-suffering and will give time to
repent once we see a muddied motive.
Some will interpret this season of “time” as that God will not deal with
that issue. But it is critical we repent and give God a freshly surrendered self,
otherwise, He will allow a circumstance to be used as a disciplinary tool to
move us toward repentance.
And although we are all a
mixed bag of motives and all stumble in some manner even as followers of
Christ, he doesn’t condemn us, but offers forgiveness. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
We’ve also seen that when evil is on the loose, the
right thing to do is seek God and pray and
sometimes necessary to fast. Sometimes
for wisdom in dealing with it, sometimes in deliverance for someone from it,
sometimes for protection from it, sometimes for
endurance. And although God can change circumstances without our
involvement, He loves to work with us and teach us to overcome! “For we are laborers together with God…~
I Cor. 3:9
Our Take away
is;
1.
Motives
wear masks.
2.
Everyone
has hidden motives.
3.
Unexposed
motives can leave us vulnerable.
4.
The
devil looks to use our vulnerabilities.
5.
The
devil seeks to use unrepentant places of the heart.
6.
Sinfull
motives will lead to some kind of destruction.
7.
We are all a work in progress.
8.
God is patient.
9.
God is love.
10. There is no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
11. The Word of God is alive and able to
expose our innermost desires and intents
12. The blood of Christ is sufficient to
wash away ALL sin when confessed to Him.
13. Walking in the Spirit is the answer.
14. If we walk in the Spirit, we won’t gratify the
desires of the flesh.
Let’s pray:
Dear heavenly Father, We are
thankful for your Word that shines a light into the dark motives of our
heart. We are thankful you are love and
therefore patient with us. We don’t have
to experience condemnation, but if we do, it’s not from you. We are thankful we can confess any hidden
motives you reveal to us and be washed clean by your blood, Jesus! We ask for
help to walk in the Spirit so we don’t
gratify the desires of the flesh. In
Jesus Name! Amen.
