Esther 5 | “Humility and Haughtiness”

Sunday morning sermon audio from Preston Highlands Baptist Church.

Much Has Happened Since March 15th

We last gathered as a church on March 15th, twelve weeks ago today.  A lot has happened in the world since then.  Protests and riots have swept the country in response to George Floyd’s death.  For the first time in a decade, we launched astronauts into space.  And of course most of the world shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A lot has also happened in our church.  Seven people have gone through the membership process and are ready to be recommended to the church for membership.  Our college students finished another semester of college.  Some graduated and have moved away to start their careers (Pat, Cassidy, Luke).  Many of them have started summer jobs or ministries.  Some of our members have decided to relocate to other parts of the country (Castleberry’s).  Some had to reschedule their weddings (Wes).  Some had a baby (Surguine’s and Housel’s).  Some made a baby (Puls).  Some started new jobs (Rosa).  Some wrote songs (Mason).  Some grew a beard (me!). 

The Lord has worked in and through our church during quarantine in numerous ways.  The gospel was shared, acts of kindness were done, money was given to those in need, phone calls and texts and notes were sent, Zoom meetings were held, prayers were prayed, and the Lord was worshipped in our homes.  Who knows all that the Lord did in us and through us during this time?   

Covid-19 isn’t an accident in history.  God is up to something during this crazy time.  God uses everything to accomplish his purposes.  There are millions of things that God is doing in and through the coronavirus and the ensuing shut-down of our society.  Who knows all that he’s accomplishing?

Summary of Esther 1-4

At the beginning of May, we started studying the Old Testament book of Esther. The main point of Esther is that God providentially preserves the Jews because from them his Messiah will come.  There are dozens of things that had to happen in just the right way for the Jews to be saved.  And they all happened. 

This theme of God’s providence continues in Esther chapter 5.  Before we look at that chapter, let’s recap where we’ve been.  The story starts with Ahasuerus, the King of Persia, hosting a banquet to show off his wealth and power.  Queen Vashti refuses to come when he calls for her, so he gets rid of her and gathers up beautiful young virgins from around the empire in order to pick a new queen.  Esther, a Jew, is one of these young ladies.  She wins the beauty contest and becomes queen.  Her cousin and adopted father Mordecai tells her to not make her Jewishness known, so she doesn’t.  Then enters the evil villain Haman who hates the Jews and concocts a plan to kill them.  Mordecai learns of the plan and tells Esther that she must go to the king on behalf of her people and beg him to save them.  At great risk to herself, she agrees to do it.

In chapter 5, we see God’s providential plan unfold through Esther’s humility and Haman’s haughtiness.  God uses everything to accomplish his purposes.  He uses the humble and wise choices of Esther and the proud and foolish boasting of Haman to move the plot to save his people forward. 

Esther’s Humility

Let’s begin by looking at Esther’s humility in verses 1-8.  Esther’s humility really starts back in chapter 4 when she chose possible death over her cocoon of comfort in order to identify with the people of God.  Her humility moved her to mobilize the people of God to pray for her.  Only after prayer would she act. 

Here in verses 1-8, we see what course of action her humility took.  Esther’s humble wisdom is seen in her dress, her demeanor, and her dinner plans.  Verse 1 says that she put on “her royal robes.”  She thought carefully about what to wear.  She presented herself as the king’s counterpart.  She dressed like the queen, not like the other women in the harem. 

She also approached the king with the right demeanor.  Verse 1 says that she “stood in the inner court of the king’s palace.”  She knew what would happen if she approached the king (4:11).  So she went far enough to be in his line of sight, but without approaching his throne. 

Verse 2 says that she “won favor” in the king’s sight, so he held out the golden scepter to her.  Esther touches it, indicating that she’s responding according to protocol.  She’s doing what’s expected of anyone called into the king’s presence.  Before she went to the king, she put on the right clothes and the right attitude.  She went into the king’s presence with courage and caution.   

In verses 3-8, we learn of her dinner plans.  Verse 3 is undoubtedly hyperbole.  This was likely a conventional phrase that meant something like, “There’s no limit to what I can do for you.”  The king is basically saying, “I’m in a good mood and would love to help you.”

In verse 4, we’d expect Esther to lay out her request, but her answer is super anti-climactic.  We’re not told why Esther chooses to not bring her request just yet, but it turns out to be a really good move. 

There’s so much subtlety here, so much wisdom on Esther’s part!  She knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  She’s also indulging the king’s ego.  She starts with flattery, “If it please the king,” and then adds more by telling him that the feast is for him, “a feast I have prepared for the king.”  In chapter 1, the king gave a feast for himself.  But here Esther is giving one for him.  We all love it when people do things that honor us.  Honor is more meaningful when it comes from other people.  By having the feast already prepared, she may be subtly forcing his hand, making his refusal all but impossible.  Esther’s request was shrewd, as it gave the king what he loved and made it hard for him to refuse what she wanted him to do.    

Pandering to the king’s ego worked and the king agrees to come to the feast (v. 5).   Then in verse 6 the king asks Esther what her request is for a second time.  In verses 7-8, again when we’d expect her to lay out her request, she instead asks for another meal together.  The way verse 7 reads in the original has the sense of Esther beginning to answer, but then breaking off her answer and inviting him to another meal instead.  It’s like she’s saying, “What I’d like you to do for me is….come to another feast!”  Esther is in no hurry.  The Jew’s aren’t scheduled to die for about a year.  So Esther decides to wait another twenty-four hours before telling the king what she wants.

There’s no way to know for sure what’s going on in Esther’s mind.  But the suspense and tension in the story is palpable.  Why doesn’t Esther just ask him already?  The tension and suspense builds as we’re forced to wait to see what happens. 

Some think that Esther lost her nerve.  But why would she keep inviting Haman – the evil man behind the decree to kill all her people, to these feasts if she was so scared?  Rather, I think she’s dragging this out on purpose in order to build an insatiable curiosity in the king, so that, when she does tell him what she wants, he’ll be more inclined to give it to her.  Esther seems to be provoking the king’s curiosity, not losing her confidence.  You’ve heard that “curiosity killed the cat,” but in this case it seems that “curiosity caught the king.”  Maybe this curiosity is why the king couldn’t sleep that night (6:1)? 

In verse 8, Esther continues to play to the king’s ego, “If I have found favor in the sight of the king.”  She’s implicitly saying that he must grant her request because she has found favor with him.  At the end of the verse, she adds another stroke to his ego by saying that she’ll tell him what she wants in response to what “the king has said.” 

Esther is shrewdly carrying out her well-designed plan to maneuver the king into committing himself in advance to do what she wants him to do.  She humbly and wisely approaches the most powerful man in the world in such a way that he’ll all but have to give her what she wants.

The application for us here is that, when something needs to be done, we shouldn’t just rush ahead and take action and then think through our actions.  Rather, we should think and pray through our actions, considering different angles and scenarios, and then act.  Too many people act before they think.  As Proverbs says, “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house” (24:27).  And Jesus in Luke 14:28 says, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”  The great problems that face us today demand that we act, but acting before thinking can end up doing more harm than good.     

Esther was no fool.  She didn’t gain Hegai or the king’s favor by being a dummy.  She was humble and she was wise.  She understood how things worked.  She understood how to get things done.  She was what Jesus called his followers to be, “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16).  She wasn’t making things up as she went.  Her approach was carefully planned and executed.  She knew how to appropriately approach the king.  She even seems to know how to get him to give her what she wants. 

Why are we surprised that she’s acting with such wisdom and boldness?  Remember that Esther and all the Jews in Susa had been fasting and praying for three days.  God loves to empower his people when his people pray and fast!  Is there something in your life that you need to enter a season of prayer and fasting over?

Haman’s Haughtiness

In contrast to Esther’s brave and wise humility, in verses 9-14 we see the haughtiness of Haman.  Haman reminds us of Proverbs 26:12, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him.”  Haman is full of himself and his pride will be his downfall.

Verse 9 says that he left Esther’s feast “joyful and glad of heart.”  Haman’s joy was the kind of joy the world offers.  It was based on how much stuff he had and the position he’d attained.  But when he didn’t get what he wanted, his joy quickly turned to rage (v. 9b).   

What we get unnecessarily angry about often reveals our idols, the things we love more than God.  When Haman’s idol is challenged, his mood changes quickly.  The praise of people is what gets him up in the morning.  It’s his reason for living.  He has the highest position in the empire, outside of being king, but one man refusing to praise him makes him furious.  His glad heart quickly becomes an angry heart when his idol was threatened.    

One commentator says that Haman’s idol left “a void at the center of his life that no amount of success could fill.”  He tried to fill this void by surrounding himself with people who’d tell him what he wanted to hear.  To feel better about himself, in verses 10-12 he gathers up his friends and wife so that he can tell them how great he is.  He brags about his wealth, his family, his position, and about his invitation to dine with the king and queen.  He’s the person that loves to talk about himself.  He doesn’t have time to listen to others because he has no real interest in anyone else.  He can’t see around his idol of self to the needs and concerns of others.  We also can’t truly serve others as long as we’re consumed with ourselves.

Haman’s idol is so powerfully lodged in his heart that he says that all his stuff is “worth nothing to him” as long as Mordecai lives (v. 13).  As long as there’s one person who doesn’t worship him, Haman can’t be happy.

In verse 14, his wife and friends suggest killing Mordecai.  The height of the gallows, 75 feet, is as ridiculous as their plan.  Its absurd height reflects Haman’s absurdly inflated ego.  These people are so evil that they tell Haman that, after he kills Mordecai, he can then “go joyfully with the king to the feast.”  What kind of person can kill someone and then go happily to dinner?  Apparently Haman can.  He was delighted with the evil plan his wife and friends came up with.

Proverbs 12:23 says, “The heart of fools proclaims folly.”  Foolish plans come from foolish people.  Haman, his wife, and his friends are foolish people doing foolish things.  They’re full of themselves, out of touch with reality, and enslaved to their idols.  The ironic thing is that Haman thinks he’s in control.  But the judgment of the One who’s really in control waits for him just around the corner.  Haman will reap what he’s sown. 

God Uses the Humble and the Proud

The writer of Esther wants us to see the contrast between the humble wisdom of Esther and the proud foolishness of Haman.  Esther’s humility leads her to risk her life for the good of her people.  Her plan started with prayer and included the people of God.  She used all her powers of persuasion to accomplish the justice that her people needed.  She’s an example for all who want to serve God.  She’s wise, not foolish; courageous, not cowardly; patient, not hasty; thoughtful, not careless; humble, not proud.

Haman’s haughtiness leads him to be unstable emotionally, care more about his image than his character, listen to bad advice, make stupid and hasty decisions, and ultimately leads to his downfall.  He’s an example of what happens when we live for ourselves instead of God.

But the main point of this text is that God uses the humble and wise choices of Esther and the proud and foolish boasting of Haman to move the plot forward.  God has sovereign purposes behind every wise and foolish decision.  This doesn’t mean he likes folly or that he doesn’t care how we live.  It means that he’s wise enough to incorporate these things into his plan

We Must Become Like Esther to Be Saved

This wasn’t the last time God used the foolishness of man to save his people.  500 years later he used the pride of the Jewish leaders and the indifference of Pontius Pilate and the folly of Judas Iscariot to bring about the death of his Son Jesus.  His humble and wise and innocent Son was sent to the cross by the hands of sinful men, and all of it was carefully planned and executed by God (Acts 2:22-23, 4:27-28). 

God used sin and sinners to send Jesus to the cross so that he could die for sin and sinners.  Everyone who trusts in him and turns away from their sins will be forgiven of their sins and will not have to reap what they’ve sown.  Everyone who confesses that their hearts are like Haman’s and everyone who becomes humble like Esther will have the golden scepter of mercy extended to them.  They’ll get to come into the king’s presence and will avoid the gallows they’ve built for themselves through a lifetime of rebellion against God. 

By grace and through faith we can be transformed from Haman’s to Esther’s.  Over the last twelve weeks of quarantine, has your heart been growing more humble and wise (like Esther’s) or more proud and foolish (like Haman’s)?  Wherever you find yourself, look to Jesus, the God of Esther.  As you seek him, you’ll look more like him and be empowered to serve him in ways you never imagined.

 

 

 

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