Gtcotr/ss302419
Have
you ever disliked someone so much that you sat around imagining their downfall
or day-dreaming about how you might turn the tables and get revenge? Revenge is a human character flaw that can
all too often capture the minds of men and women and control their lives. The desire
to get back at someone for some perceived or actual injustice can totally
consume a person. Revenge minded people are tortured souls.
Decisions that aren’t motivated by love and tempered by mercy give
way to the very worst elements in us. Acting on
unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, strife, division along with selfish acts and
attitudes is the most like the devil we can ever be as a Child of God. Satan
cannot possess a Born-Again Believer, but hatred can … jealously can … envy can
… anger can …
Our
Bible story today deals with a man who could not get over the feeling that he
had been done wrong and he became totally consumed with the idea of revenge. This
man went to such extremes with his plans to get revenge that it consumed him
and controlled everything he said and did. God did not support him, and the man
ended up hanging himself on the very gallows he had built for the one he felt
had done him wrong. For the past 2500 years, every year on a special day, there
is a remembrance of God stepping in to save His children from the vengeance of this
man named Haman. That special day is called “Purim”
and it was celebrated this past week on March 21st. Do you pur? We’ll talk more about that
later.
Let’s
turn our attention to the Scriptures in the Old Testament Book of Esther. The
account of Queen Esther is a familiar story to some of you. But, for our
purposes today, allow me to give the highlights before we make the points and
discover the principles God has for us this morning.
Esther 1:1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this was
the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from
India to Ethiopia),
Nearly
480 years before Jesus was born there was a Persian King named Ahasuerus. He
had a reputation of being quite rash in his behavior. It is recorded that he
once scourged the sea and put his engineers to death because a storm destroyed
a bridge that had been built for him.
2 in those days when King
Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the
citadel,
3 that in the third
year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and
servants — the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the
princes of the provinces being before him —
4 when he showed the riches
of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many
days, one hundred and eighty days in all.
The
King made a feast and invited all of the important people from his kingdom. The
feast lasted 6 months. During the last portion of the King’s celebration of himself he made a request of his queen, a
very beautiful woman named Vashti, to present herself before him and his
friends so that the King could show off her beauty. She refused and as a result
was banished from the presence of the King forever.
About
2 years later, in the fifth year of his reign, King Ahasuerus led 2,000,000 soldiers
to war in his attempt to conquer Greece. He had a habit of feeling pretty good
about himself. However, his progress was arrested by Leonidas, warrior king of
Sparta, and his famous 300 at the Pass of Thermopylae. That would not be his
last disastrous encounter with the Greeks. In the end Ahasuerus, also known as
Xerxes, returned to Shushan with only 5,000 of the 2 million soldiers he set
out with.
Esther 2:1 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus
subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decreed
against her.
After
his return the King began experiencing some depression and regretted his decree
against Queen Vashti. The King’s servants came up with a plan. They gathered
all the beautiful young virgins in the provinces and gave them one night with
the king to see if any one of them could cheer him up and ultimately replace
Queen Vashti. One of the young virgin’s was an orphaned Jewish girl named
Esther. She was being raised by her cousin named Mordecai. Mordecai was a
devout worshipper of Jehovah and he initially encouraged Esther to keep her
ethnicity and her religion a secret. She obeyed Mordecai.
Esther 2:16 So Esther was
taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is
the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
When
it came Esther’s turn to be with the King, he was smitten with her he and asked
her to become his new queen.
About
4 years into the marriage Haman, the villain of this story, was promoted above
all the other princes in the land. He sat beside the King and enjoyed great
influence with him. However, Haman was a selfish and prideful man. Haman felt entitled
to royal privileges and he demanded everyone bow down to him as he rode through
the streets of the city.
Esther 3
5 When Haman saw that
Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath.
6 But he disdained to lay
hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai.
Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the
whole kingdom of Ahasuerus — the people of Mordecai.
Mordecai,
the cousin of Esther, refused to bow and pay homage anyone but Jehovah. Haman
felt disrespected and publicly humiliated by Mordecai, but Haman had no real
power to punish him. So, Haman began to hatch a plan to get revenge. He wanted
to destroy Mordecai and everything Mordecai stood for – namely, the worship of
Jehovah and therefore, all the Jews. Haman just needed to get the King’s
approval. First, Haman needed a fool proof plan. Remember … he knew King
Ahasuerus was a rash man …
Esther 3
7 ¶ In the first month, which
is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur
(that is, the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month,
until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of
Adar.
“they cast Pur” – Pur
means to
cast lots … roll the dice … pick a card … read the tea leaves … flip a coin …
shake bones. Fortune tellers or diviners or wise men, casts lots for Haman so
that he could find the very best day on which to take his vengeance on Mordecai
and the Jews. Haman looked to the world for his answer. He devised a devilish
plan to succeed.
Let’s review the
characters:
The King, Ahasuerus; Queen Esther; Mordecai, the good guy cousin who raised
Esther; and Haman, the bad guy who hated the good guy and wanted to kill him
and exterminate the Jews.
Haman
must have imagined that some super astrological being, perhaps the God of pur,
was in charge and on his side. However, Jehovah is in charge of everything
including the roll of the dice. God caused Haman to believe that the best day to
get his revenge was yet 11 months away. Haman believed the pur, silly man, and
this gave the Jews almost a year to pray and prepare and position themselves
for the deliverance God would send. When the bad guy Haman decided on the date,
he went to the King with his plan.
8 Then Haman said to King
Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people
in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other
people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not
fitting for the king to let them
remain.
The
King agreed to let Haman kill Mordecai and all the Jews and gave him the
authority to send letters in his name to every Province in the Kingdom
declaring the 13th day of Adar as open season on Jews and their
possessions. Anyone could kill and steal and rob any Jew of anything, including
life, without penalty on that day.
You
can read the rest of the story and see how God brought deliverance to His
Children through Esther. Even though she was afraid and stood to lose
everything, she nonetheless stood before the King and won a great victory for
her people. When Haman saw his plans were thwarted, he went home and hung
himself on the very gallows he had planned to hang Mordecai.
We
can learn a lot from Haman and Queen Esther. Both of them were faced with real
concerns … they both made critical decisions that affected their lives and the
lives of others. Let me ask you:
Do you
pur?
How do you make decisions? Is life a roll of the dice for you? Are there any
standards that guide your life or does anything go? Does your strategy come
from Jehovah God or from the God of this world? How do you handle being done
wrong? Are you vengeful or unforgiving?
Haman
was a bad man, but You don’t have to be a bad man to
have a bad plan. We can get plans from so many sources, but unless our
plan comes from God – it might be no more successful than Haman’s.
How
can we know if we have a God plan?
1. A God plan is motivated by love.
a. A satanic plan is
motivated by hatred.
b. Mordecai and Esther
cared more about others than themselves.
Haman
only cared about himself. He was arrogant and prideful. He thought he was
better than others. He felt entitled. Each Purim Jewish family reads the book of Esther together. Every time the name of Haman
is mentioned the crowd in unison “boo” the name.
When a person only cares about themselves no one else will care for
them.
2. A God plan won’t end up with you on the
throne.
a. A God plan won’t end
with other people bowing down and paying homage to you or telling you how right
you are.
i. If that’s what
you’re going for … think again!
ii. If you want to be
great … it will come through humility!
b. A satanic plan will
end up with you becoming the grand master of all truth and wisdom. But it won’t
work … it’s an empty life.
c. A God plan might end
up with you being promoted but it won’t pass through the land of you promoting
yourself.
i. Self-promotion is
not promotion … (John 8:50)
ii. “For a man to seek
his own glory is not glory.” (Proverbs 25:27)
3. A God plan won’t violate God’s Word, His Will
or His Way.
a. Other plans promise
love, joy, peace, prosperity but they won’t deliver.
b. The devil’s plan
will get you hung.
i. Especially when
you’re trying to hang someone else.
ii. Whoever roles a
stone or digs a pit will fall in. (Pro 26:27)
c. From where or from
whom did you get your plan?
i. Do you Pur or Do you
Pray?
ii. Go to the
Word, not to the World
Romans
12:19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves,
but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is
Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
