Today we enter the second half of our study on The Story of Esther. And today, we will observe a “Plot Twist” in the story of Esther.
We left off last week with Haman becoming offended at Mordecai (again) and doubled down on his plans to destroy him and the Jews, even going so far as to have a large gallow set up to hang Mordecai from. The gallow casts a shadow over us as we walk into chapter 6. Things seem hopeless. We still aren’t seeing God mentioned in the book, but God is still working.
So far, Esther has hosted meal #1 and is getting ready to host a second meal in today's first passage…
Exaltation & Humiliation
As we open this chapter, the King can’t sleep. Remember that we have discussed that bad news is supposed to stay away from the King. He just ate a good meal and promised another the next day. I think this is pretty clearly a position where we can see God working in this book. I believe sleep issues can, a lot of times, be God trying to get our attention.
If we are stressed and can’t sleep, surrender. Randomly waking out of sleep might mean it’s time to pray for someone. Dreams, when you don’t typically dream, can be a message from God.
So the King can’t sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. This is like when you turn on a tv show that you know is designed to make you fall asleep. 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 Xerses.
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.” And the king said, “Who is in the court?”
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?”
So we see this idea of Exaltation & Humiliation getting ready to happen, and let me encourage you with something today if you only take one thing away from this message. Stop trying to exalt yourself. When you consistently try to exalt yourself, it will eventually lead to your humiliation.
Do you see the trap that the Lord is weaving closer and closer around Haman? Again, God may not be mentioned by name in this book, but that is supposed to help us see his invisible hand working. So far, we have this:
The king so happens to have insomnia.
The king responds by asking for the royal records to be read.
They happen to turn to the page where Mordecai’s good deed was recounted.
It just so happened that Mordecai had the opportunity to perform that good deed and the heart to do it, even for his enemy.
The king so happens to ask who is in the court.
Haman so happens to be in the court.
Haman’s mind so happens to be on the destruction of Mordecai and just so happens to mistake the king’s request to concern himself.
Haman thinks he is about to get the royal robes, crown, and a ride/parade on the king's horse that the king has ridden and on whose head a royal crown is set. Haman wants to exalt himself but is humiliated and is forced to parade his enemy Mordecai through the square and cry out his honor.
Ever ask yourself the question, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” Here is an example of it. The Israelites did not follow God and wiped out the Amalekites. Haman is from that lineage.
The Israelites disobey God and are in captivity, and the people they failed to wipe out, are now in the position to wipe them out. But God is working the scenario so that while they are temporarily in Haman’s hand, God’s glory will shine.
We question God about a paragraph in our life story when we fail to look at the page, the chapter, the section, and the book. Do we trust the author of our story to write our story or not?
Book Structure
There is still a lot in the narrative to be solved. The Jewish people are still under a decree of genocide. We still don’t know whether Esther’s plan will work. But this is when the trap is sprung, and the Lord begins to unravel the enemy’s plots.
The story of Esther is crafted into a Literature style called Chiasm.
What this means is that in the book of Esther, the story's first half is mirrored in the second half. One example is that the story starts with the exaltation of Ahasuerus in the context of two feasts. At the end of the story, that will be mirrored in the splendor of Mordecai in the context of two feasts. The whole story is shaped like an X that folds around a central point.
What is that central point in Esther? Because when you find Chiasm, usually the most important point, the point the author wants you to see as essentially the most important moment in the story, is where the lines cross, the center of that X. And this moment—Haman’s humiliation and Mordecai’s exaltation—is the center of this chiasm.
What that tells us is that whatever theme we find here at the crossing of the lines, at the center of the X—that is likely to be the mega-theme the author would have us see.
What is that theme? The Lord delights to use the very schemes of the enemy to destroy God’s people to exalt his people. He delights in displaying his glory by making the enemies of God’s people lead them through the public square, shouting their honor.
However, too often, we throw in the towel before we hit the critical mass moment and experience the pain but none of the forward progress. Let’s now read Esther 7…
Now, the Jewish people are still under the genocidal decree. We will see how God resolves that over the next two weeks. But I want you to know the shape of this story—that shape we saw at the center of the X—is not just an interesting plot device in an interesting story.
This isn’t just a cute story about getting back at a bad guy who got what was coming to him. No, this is the exact shape of the center of the biblical narrative. See it with me:
The people of God rebel against God, but in his mercy, God warns them, pleads with them, and when they refuse to hear, exiles them and sends them to their enemies—in this case, Persia. Those enemies rise up in pride: “Look at my power! Their God couldn’t keep them from being conquered!” And those enemies plot and rise up to destroy God’s people.
God uses the plotting of those enemies like a birch rod to chastise his people and call them to repentance—to bring them to the point where they see their sin, see their need, and cry out with the realization that they can’t save themselves.
God then uses the very schemes of the enemies to destroy themselves. This is what it means when the prophet Isaiah promises the people of God in Isaiah 54 that no weapon formed against them will prosper.
God delights to turn enemies' schemes on their heads and use their very attempts to destroy God’s people to deliver, serve, and even exalt them.
This is the shape of the entire biblical story. That story whispered about here in Esther is shouted on the cross of Christ. What was Jesus doing on the cross? He was using the same plotting of the serpent, of the enemy, to crush him.
What is the cross?
The cross is the world's salvation, the salvation of a world stuck in sin, captive to the serpent, and in love with darkness.
The cross is the forgiveness of our sins.
The cross is the foot of Jesus coming down on the head of the serpent who plotted his destruction.
The cross is Satan and fallen humanity building a great stake in the ground to pierce and hang the Son of God, only to find themselves hanging there instead.
When Jesus, as Paul put it, became sin on the cross, that we might become the righteousness of Christ—that is what you’re seeing. The Son becomes an embodiment of sin, death, and everything holding you and the world captive so that those very enemies might be destroyed through death.
When Jesus rose, he left those old enemies crushed, battered, bloodied, and defeated in the grave. And he rose, exalted, glorified, vibrant with new creational life, and ready to give that life to his freed, forgiven, and befriended people.
No weapon formed against the Son of God or the people of God can prosper because we worship a God who delights to use their very attempts at evil to destroy evil. And listen: He is doing that for you all the time, with every aspect of your life, from here into eternity.
God has promised you that he is doing what he did to Haman to every single enemy that would come against you. This is your promise: In Christ, God will make your enemies into your servants. He will force them to parade you through the square on the way to exaltation. “Thus shall it be done to the man the king delights to honor!”
But I want to challenge you with something. You were once an enemy of Christ when you weren’t following Christ. So don’t look to make people parade you around. God will exalt you, but don’t look to make others exalt you. If you do, you might wind up like Haman.
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