Alright, we're in the book of Esther, chapter number 2 this morning. Book of Esther, chapter number 2. We looked at chapter number 1, saw King Ahasuerus and his queen Vashti, and we saw how through the king's pride, Vashti lost her position. because she rebelled against the decree of the king. King wanted her to do something she wasn't comfortable with. She said, I'm not going to do it. And she wound up being dethroned. And we talked about how life is not fair. And sometimes people can be cruel. And we look at that and we see that to be the case in Vashti's life. But also, we want to understand it Nothing can frustrate the plans of God, and that's what we want to see today in our study. We're just about to get into Esther chapter number two as we cut off, and we're going to be introduced today to Esther and Mordecai. And we see in Esther 2, verse number 1. I want us to see first of all here, man does not do things God's way. When you take a look at folks in this world, They don't go about things necessarily the way that God would do them. And that's including our life. God's ways are so much different than our ways. Look at the ways of King Ahasuerus here. Esther chapter 2 verse 1, After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, He remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king. Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins into Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, and to the custody of Hegia, the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women, and let their things for purification be given them. And let the maiden, which pleases the king, be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king, and he did so. Now, we know man does not always do things God's way. Isaiah 55 verse 8 and 9, God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Now here we see the best laid plans of man to replace the queen. And even though man does differently than what God does, God can use what man does to bring about His own will. Amen. And that's what we're going to see here. Man's going about to do this thing His way, and I'm sure they actually believe that this was their plan. But listen, God had His own plan. From the very beginning here, before Vashti ever lost her place, God knew what was going to happen in the matter of Haman. We haven't been introduced to Haman yet. But He knew that Haman was going to try to destroy the Jews. And I want you to think about the ramifications of the destruction of the Jews. I mean, He was going to wipe them all out. That was His desire. Well, that would go against the the Word of God, go against the plan of God. We know that through the Jews, God was going to bring the Savior and salvation was going to come through there. And so, you know, Satan working through Haman, trying to upset the plans of God. But listen, nothing, nothing's going to upset the plans of God. God's going to bring about his will. And that's why we need to understand about things that are happening before us today. Man, we just see things tumbling around us, and we see the things that we stand for, and the things that we preach, and the things that we believe are good and right, and the things that are the principles of God's Word, and they're being attacked. And on every hand, it seems like. And it's so easy to fret and so easy to get upset about all of that. But realize that nothing's going to frustrate God's plans. Obama can do whatever he wants. Clinton, she can get in office and she can do all the wickedness that she wants to do. And I'm sure she will both get in office and do all the wickedness she wants to do. But God's plans are not going to be frustrated by the one of those. And we're going to be upset. I don't want a President Hillary Clinton. And I'm going to vote against her, I guarantee you. You know, she's not getting my vote. And we need to make sure we're registered and that we do our part. God's going to hold us accountable for how we vote. And we need to vote our convictions. Amen. Vote our convictions of where we know that we should stand. But listen, it's in God's hands. And the Lord's able to even turn the hearts of the most wicked of leaders. And here, King Ahasuerus, he's wicked. People that are there in his court, they're wicked. But God's using all of this stuff in their lives to bring about his plan to save his people. That's the whole story of Esther. It's the story of Purim. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. But I'm sure that they actually believed that this was their plan, but God had his own plan. As we said before, Proverbs 21.1 says, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. Let's keep that in mind. Man does not do things God way. Second thing is God makes plans in advance. Even before the foundation of the world, God had the plan of salvation. He established it before man ever sinned in the Garden of Eden. He knew man was going to sin, knew there was going to need to be a plan of salvation. We can sit here and we can question, why did he make man then? It's not for us to question. It's all for His glory, though. I guarantee you. Everything is to be regarding the glory of God, and that includes our lives. We're going to take a look at that this morning in the Sunday morning worship service. God's desire in your life and my life as believers is to bring Him glory. Now, He is going to be brought glory as he brings us to himself there in heaven. And we are glorified with the Lord Jesus Christ. But right now, God wants to get glory out of your life as a believer. How does he get glory out of your life as a believer? Well, it's through obedience. And God was going to get glory out of this situation that we see here. God makes plans in advance. Look at verse number 5. We see that it just so happened that Mordecai was working in the palace. Do you believe that? It wouldn't just so happen. Look at verse number 5. It says, Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite. It just happened to be this certain Jew named Mordecai working there in Shushan the palace. Mordecai and Esther, understand, were there by providential design. Look at verse number 6. He says this one Mordecai who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. Now we've seen in our study on Wednesday night regarding the book of Daniel the very first verse of Daniel tells us that the Lord is one who gave gave the Jews of Judah over into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. God's the one that did that. And God used that incident there to place these characters exactly where they're at. Mordecai and Esther were there by providential design. They weren't killed in that frucus, were they? They weren't killed. had his hand upon them and actually brought them through that attack by Nebuchadnezzar on Judah. They got carried away into captivity just like a lot of Jews did. And then they were... Mordecai just happens to be working in the palace at this time. Now we see verse number 7 that Mordecai was a very dear man. Look at verse 7. He brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, I think I like Esther better than Hadassah, don't you? How many of you ladies like to be called Hadassah? Esther is a whole lot better. You brought up Hadassah that is Esther, his uncle's daughter. That means it's his cousin. This is his cousin. For she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. And so the words brought up there means to nourish. He took responsibility for a child that was not his own. He was Esther's cousin, but raised her as if she were his own daughter. There are all kinds of folks that are like this in the world. Praise the Lord for those. I've got a nephew and his wife who have taken into their house three kids. And boy, they were wanting to adopt one. Wanting to adopt one. The foster agency said, well, we've got three. They've got to go together. And they took the three in. And they've been nurturing them. and wanting to adopt all three. They were able to adopt the daughter, adopt the girl first, and then the two boys. Just this past week, the Supreme Court there in Missouri denied the appeal by the dad. He's in prison, challenging their trying to adopt these two boys. But it looks like they're going to get them. Praise the Lord for that. But what I want you to see, you know, there's folks who are like my nephew and like Mordecai who They don't have no blood, maybe not have no blood, close blood, but they still raise them up. And she was blood, but we see that he raised Esther as if she were his own daughter. So God makes plans in advance here. We see that God exercises his will through man's plans. Look at verse number 8. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shusan the palace, to the custody of Hegea, that Esther was brought also unto the king's house, to the custody of Hegea, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him. And he speedily gave her such things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her out of the king's house. And he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women." Can you see God's hand here? God's hand positioning Esther. She's given favor. She's placed in a higher place. I will give her the best room. All this stuff's working together. God's working. The Lord used the plan of man to fulfill His will here, even though none of these people knew what the future held for the Jews. Now understand, this time they didn't know she was a Jew. They don't have any idea she's a Jew because Mordecai, we're going to find out, has said, don't tell anybody whose people you are. That was wisdom on his part to say that. And we see Esther Splendor here. There in verse number 8 and 9, she just brought on the grace and all that carried her to a preferred place in the house. And we see her secret there in verse 10 and 11. It says, Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her. Now, he's working in Shushan the palace, and he's just kind of keeping an eye, sweeping the floor over an area where she'd be. I don't know what he was doing, but he was making sure that he could keep an eye on Esther. But she had that secret, and skip down to verse number 20. And it tells here again, Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai like as when she was brought up with him. Now, it's a good thing here. She respected authority. And we don't see much respect for authority in our day and time, do we? Plastered all over the news this week, a police officer slamming a girl to the ground who refused. Three different sets of authority. She told the teacher, no. She told the principal, no. And she told the police officer, no. And that's the kind of times that we live in, where people have no respect for authority. We live in a lawless time. And so, well, he ought not have slammed her like that. She should have just done what she was told. I can guarantee you, my dad would have been the one to slam me if I had done that to just the teacher. I can remember Ms. Boswell in the first grade. Ms. Boswell was one of my favorite teachers. She knew Mom and Daddy. If I had done something like that, all she had to do was call up Daddy and say, David, you need to come down here and take care of your boy. And you know what would happen? Daddy would come down there and take care of his boy or mama, either one. I guarantee you it wouldn't happen. But now we live in a time where authority, respect for authority is nil. Here we see Esther respecting the authority of Mordecai even though Mordecai is not her daddy. He's in the place of her dad. Her mom and dad's gone, and she respected the authority of him there in his place. Now we see that Esther gets all spruced up. Look at verse number 12. Now, when every maid's turn was come to go in to King Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women. For so were the days of her purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with a whole of myrrh, and six months with weed-overs, and with other things for the purifying of the women. Talk about taking a long time to get ready. for the party. Honey, are you ready yet? Give me another six months. I'm not quite ready yet. It took 12 months before she was ready to go before the king. But we see Esther's simplicity there in verses 13 through 15. We're going to see here she could ask for anything she desired, but she didn't require any more than what had been appointed to her." Don't you like folks that are just plain and simple? You know, just simplicity. Look at the simplicity of Esther here. Look at verse 13. Then thus came every maiden unto the king. Whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women into the king's court. In the evening she went out, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women to the custody of Shayazgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines. She came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by a name." So this is just telling us how each one of these maidens, how they were treated. They had come before the king, and she got whatever she needed, come in, go out, and then she'd go back to the second house, and she'd stay there, and the king would have to call her. If he delighted in her, he'd have to call her a second time. But that was the way it was with everybody. Now look at verse 15. the daughter of Abahel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king. Notice, she required nothing but what? Hegiah, the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther, notice this, obtained favor. Now, how did she obtain favor? Same way Joseph obtained favor. Same way Daniel obtained favor. It's from God. God's hands. Even though God's not mentioned here, God's hand is on Esther. God's hand's on the situation. Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her. We see... Here, Esther in the spotlight, look at verse number 16. So Esther was taken in unto the king Ahasuerus and to his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor. Again, where does all that come from? Who turned the king's heart toward Esther? It was God. Who gave her that grace and favor? It was God and His sight more than all the virgins. virgins that had come before the king, Esther is exalted above them." Notice the last phrase there, "...so that he set the royal crown upon her head, made her queen instead of Ashti." That's God at work. God did that. Notice verse 18. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast. He made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king. When the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. Esther had not showed her kindred nor her people, as Mordecai had charged her. For Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him." Now we see in verses 21 through 23 that God puts His servants in the right place at the right time. Notice verse 21. Those days while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, Two of the king's chamberlains, Big Than and Tiresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus." There's a plot to take down the king. Verse 22, "...and the thing was known to Mordecai." You know, Mordecai working around Shushan the palace, he hears things, he sees things. And so this was known. We're not told how he knew. But God made it so that he could know what was going on. Again, you see God's hand in this. thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen. Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name." In other words, basically she's saying, you can believe this fellow. He said this, and you can believe that this is happening. If he said it, I'll tell you that he's telling you the truth. Verse 23, and when inquisition was made of the matter, In other words, they sought it out. I guess they called the FBI in and did all the questioning with bright lights and all. We're not told how they did it. But anyway, when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. In other words, they found it out to be true. Therefore, they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles before the king. So here you've got a good deed done by Mordecai. And Mordecai's a what? He's a Jew. So remember this. This is going to come up later. This is written in the Chronicles of the King. This is set in there. And later on, we're going to see the king has a bad night. He can't go to sleep. What do you do when you have a bad night and you go to sleep? Has somebody ever given you something and said, you know, we have trouble going to sleep, why don't you try reading this? Maybe it's your insurance manual. I know when we signed up for health insurance, the guy said, you know, it's about yay thick. He said, you have trouble sleeping at night, just try reading that thing, you'll go to sleep. Well, that's the way it was with the Chronicles. He'd go back and read the things that had happened. It's a history book. Just reading history of his reign, looking over, seeing if anything had been missed. And we're going to see that later on, but just remember that, okay? This incident was written in the Chronicles before the king. And it was there. God's working in all of this. God had that written in there. God had this incident taking place. God had it recorded in the book. And God's going to be the one to make the king where he can't sleep at night, where he's got to read the Chronicles in order to go to sleep. We'll see it later. I mean, God's all over this thing, even though His name is not here. Now, before we leave this chapter, Mordecai and Esther are both central to the story here that we find in this book. Both have certain qualities that made them usable by God. And both were positioned in such a way that they accomplished great things for God. And they were both blessed more than they ever dreamed. Can you imagine Esther as a child? I mean, she probably had dreams like little girls always do. Being a princess or being a queen, but really in her wildest imagination, probably never thought that it would come to this. But what were the qualities that they had? Well, both of them had the quality of love. Mordecai loved Esther. And his love for Esther caused him to take her in and raise her for the glory of God. He raised her with the principles that you see, these principles in her life. That's important. Listen, moms and dads, your children are giving you And they're giving you to take and raise for the glory of God. That's what they're giving to you for. Children are heritage of the Lord. They're heritage of the Lord. And when they're in your hands, you're to train them. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, as Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 6. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Well, Mordecai loved Esther even though it wasn't his child. He treated her as his child. Esther loved Mordecai and her love for Mordecai caused her to be obedient to Mordecai. And we see love was a great quality. Wisdom was also a good quality. We see the quality of wisdom here. Mordecai's wisdom proved itself in his admonition for Esther to not reveal her people or kindred. There's no need for the king to know this. Don't prejudice him against you because you just happen not to be of the people of the land. You're one of the people of the captivity. Don't prejudice him against that. Esther's wisdom is proved in her listening to Mordecai. Can I tell you, a child's wisdom is proved in listening to their parents. Listen to what mom and dad have to say. Mom and dad have a lot more wisdom than we did. I know my mom and dad did. They weren't perfect, but they had a lot of wisdom. When I listened to their wisdom and I lived my life accordingly, things went well. When I didn't, things did not go well. I had some of both, as probably you did. But I can look back on my life now. Back then I didn't know that. But now I look back and say, hmm, mom and dad, I see what they were trying to do. And you know what I did? Emulated some of those same things when we were bringing up our children. And our daughter's using some of those same things that we used on her to bring up her children. Why? Because they are what's needed to help bring children up. It's the wisdom that's needed. So you've got love, you've got wisdom, you've got simplicity. Simplicity. Mordecai's simplicity is seen in the way that he raised Esther. And Esther's simplicity was shown in her choices before the king. She could have requested anything she wanted. She just chose to remain with the simple things. because she had been raised with a manner of simplicity. And then courage. Esther demonstrated courage as she went through the process of becoming queen while maintaining her heritage and her dignity. And in the closing verses, they both demonstrate courage by exposing this plot by these two men to assassinate the king. And we'll see later that even more courage is required on the part of them both. They're going to show even more courage than they have here right now, especially on the part of Esther. She's going to have to take a thing that's going to be, well, it's either going to be good, really, really good, or it's going to be really, really bad. You're going to be asked before the king, and you'll be able to tell him what your request is, or because he didn't call you and you went before him without him calling you, it's going to be certain death. That's the way it's going to be. But remember the main truth here is that absolutely nothing will frustrate the plan and purposes of God. Now, let's take a look at the next chapter. We're not going to get very far, just the first couple of verses here, but I want to introduce you to the wicked man by the name of Haman. And when we think about Haman, we need to consider how he got to be where he was. Notice chapter number three, verse number one. So after these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamida, Hamidatha, the Agagite. Boy, I wish they had simpler names, don't you? And advanced him. I'm the one having to pronounce them, and you're the one that's having to suffer through my butchering them, okay? But we see that he advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him, and all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence." Now, we see here Haman was given a promotion by the king. Now, we don't know why he was promoted, but we do know that his promotion was significant. In fact, he appears to be the second in command, probably acting in a manner of prime minister, somewhat like what Daniel, we've been seeing in the book of Daniel, what Daniel was to the king and the land there. Whatever his position, though, we read that all that were and the king were to bow to him. Mordecai said, uh-uh, I'm not going to bow to him. I understand that Haman should never have been around to begin with had it not been for the disobedience of King Saul years earlier. I want to take a look at that. It says here that Haman was a son of an Agagite. That's important, an Agagite. Look at 1 Samuel 15. The Agagites were of the Amalekites. Here in 1 Samuel 15 verse number 1, Samuel also said unto Saul, and this is talking about King Saul, Samuel said unto King Saul, the Lord has sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how ye laid wait for him in the way when he came from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Look down in verse 7. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Hevelah until thou comest to Shur, that is, over against Egypt. And he took Agag." Here's where the Agagites come from. He took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive. Utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword, but Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen and the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refused, that they destroyed utterly. And then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried to the Lord all night." And of course, we know that Samuel wound up confronting Saul about this issue. But God had declared that all of the Amalekites were to be destroyed. Saul chose to spare Agag. And no doubt when it says spare Agag, probably some of the family members too, you know, the family of Agag. We're not told, but undoubtedly some were spared. And this heir to the Amalekites, the focus of God's wrath, is in a position here to wipe out the children of Israel, the people of Israel. Had Saul been obedient to what Samuel told him to do, we'd never be in the position of the book of Esther even needing to take place. Back to Esther. Chapter 3. Look at verse number 3. Now we saw that Mordecai didn't bow. We're not showing any reverence to to Haman. Look at verse 3. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? It came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, he hearkened not unto them, but they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did reverence him, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for he had showed him the people of Mordecai. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai." Now we see here a very vile hatred, don't we? Haman's hatred manifested itself when Mordecai would not bow to him or show him reverence. And the reason for this was twofold. Mordecai knew that Haman was from an accursed race. He knew the scriptures of Deuteronomy 25 verse 17 through 19. where God originally pronounced this cursed race of the Amalekites. And Mordecai knew that this kind of worship is only due God, not men. You're not to bow to men, mere men. And so we see Haman's hatred is magnified. Think about it. Haman's hatred spread from one man to a whole race of people, to the whole race of the Jews. Talk about a big leap. This guy didn't bow down to me. Everybody's like him. Talk about a hate crime. I guess you'd call that one of the first hate crimes. But really, one of the first hate crimes was all the way back when the first murder took place. All murders because of hate, really. Cain killed Abel. That was a hate crime. It was murder. Just murder. That's all it was. But we'll come back next week, Lord willing. We'll take a look at Haman's plot and see how God uses the position of Esther, uses the wisdom of of Mordecai to unravel this plot and to spare the people of Israel. I'm also going to take a look at the present day. An article from a little magazine that I get regarding Purim, the present day celebration of Purim, how they celebrate it today, and the reason why they do what they do, and what's involved in it, and as we get to the very end of the book of Esther. That won't be next week. When we get to the end, we'll be talking about Purim, the story of Purim and the feast of Purim that still takes place even to this day. All that's wrapped around what we're studying about here in the book of Esther. All right, let's pray. Father, we just thank you for the time we've had together in this Sunday school hour. Lord, help us to see the principles that are given us in Scripture. And Lord, these principles are to be applied in our lives. And Lord, help us to see your hand at work around us. Even in the midst of bad things that are going on and the things that are happening in the world, we can see Lord, the end times, the end events that are mentioned in Scripture, we can see how they are unfolding. And Lord, as they unfold before our eyes, our hearts ought to be just thankful for the truthfulness of the Word of God. And it ought to be longing for your coming, and looking for your coming, and Lord, living for your coming. And Lord, I just pray that we would be the people that you would have us to be in the times that we live in. Esther and Mordecai were what you wanted them to be during their time, and that you had a purpose for their lives. And Lord, we're living in this time, this hour, this place where we're at. And Lord, you have a purpose for our lives. And Lord, help us to fulfill our purpose in our place. to do your will, Lord, so that we might accomplish that that brings glory to you. Just help us now as we move into the morning service. Just pray that you be with each one that comes today. And Lord, just move upon the hearts of the folks that will be here today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.