When God Seems Silent... Judgment is Coming (Esther 7:1-10)
Here’s my message from Esther 7, delivered on April 5th, 2020. You can get the audio and video here.
You’ve probably heard about the five stages of grief. Pastor Elliot Grudem recently talked about stages he’s seen in our culture, transitions that spill over into social media. Take this coronavirus crisis. It starts with joking. Dark humor. Memes and such. It then transitions to anxiety, fear, and sorrow. It then ends up in anger, in judgment. I think we’ve all seen some of that over the past couple of weeks. Hear me: it’s just going to get worse. A lot worse.
Well, today I’m going to talk about that anger, that judgment, that you no doubt have felt. I’ll talk about where it all comes from. As well as where we can find help to fight it. And how, in whatever stage of grief you find yourself, you can find hope. How you and I can deal with the fear that drives that anger.
Yes, today’s sermon is about God’s judgment. When I first told my wife, she looked at me, with that look on her face, and she said, “Sounds really encouraging. I think I’m gonna skip this week.” But before you close out that window on your computer, or switch out of our YouTube channel, hear me out for just a second. Yes, I want to question some of our thoughts on the subject. Yes, some of it may be slightly uncomfortable. But if you wait till the end, you might find this to be one of the most encouraging sermons you’ve heard in awhile. Especially today. Just give me a chance with that, please. Stick around to the end.
In Karis Church, we preach through books of the Bible. We do this to make it more likely that what we hear, when we come together, is actually coming from God. It’s not just me spewing about my opinions on a subject. We’ve been going through the book of Esther, a book in the Bible’s Old Testament. Here we see the story’s villain, this man named Haman, getting judged. And in seeing him taken down, we’re going to find help and hope - in times like these.
Previously on Esther
You’re used to recaps on podcasts or Netflix shows. So that’s what I’m going to give you now. Listen up for a few minutes. Otherwise, you’ll be lost. Previously on “When God Seems Silent.”
God’s people, the Jews, find themselves in exile, because of their rebellion, in Persia, in a city called Susa. The King of the empire, a man named Ahasuerus, gets mad at his queen and boots her from the palace. The King’s homeboys come up with this plan to choose a new queen - basically through a twisted sex contest.
That’s where we meet our two Jewish characters. Mordecai works in the King’s citadel. He’s raising his cousin, a woman named Esther. She enters - or gets drafted - into the contest. And she wins. Sometime after, Mordecai overhears a plot to assassinate the King. He passes it along to Esther - who shares it with her new husband. And Ahasuerus the King lives on.
Around that time, King Xerxes makes a wicked man named Haman second in command to him. And for reasons we’re not sure about - and won’t go into again - Mordecai refuses to give honor to him. And that makes Haman mad - so mad that he resolves not just to destroy Mordecai - but all of his people, the Jews, along with him. He creates a plan to do exactly that. And the King signs off on it.
Mordecai goes then to Esther and convinces her to make a risky move. To approach the King - something people just didn’t do - and ask him to put a stop to Haman’s wicked plan. She’s welcomed by the King, and instead of explaining it to him immediately, she asks if she can throw a banquet for him and for his right-hand man. She holds the feast. And at that party, she calls the King and Haman to another party. There she promises, she’ll make her request. Then Haman goes out celebrating and ends up constructing gallows. He plans to hang Mordecai on them as soon as he can.
On that same night, the King can’t sleep. He has a servant read to him from a book of honorable deeds done in his kingdom. He then hears about Mordecai exposing the earlier plot against his life. And the King ends up making Haman honor Mordecai for what the Jew had done. He ends up parading his enemy through the street, encouraging people to praise Mordecai. And, that of course, makes the evil enemy even madder. And as he goes home with his tail between his legs, those same guys and his wife tell him, “You know, it may not be a good idea to oppose that dude.”
Today’s Episode
And that brings us to today’s episode. We’re in Esther chapter 7. We’ll walk through it now. And as we do, I want to remind you of those four main themes I first said we saw in the book of Esther. They’re right here, too. In verses 1 through 6, we see the King ask Esther again the reason she’d brought them all together. And this time she answers and boldly. Let’s hear Esther again, in verses 3 and 4. Hear the queen:
Esth. 7:3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request.
Esth. 7:4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”
Notice what the queen has been doing here. She’s spent all of this time buttering her King up. Really she’s been liquoring him up. She’s making it really hard for him to refuse whatever she asks. But what she brings up startles and surprises the King. She describes this plot that someone really evil has put together - a plan to kill her, along with all of her people.
The King - who we already know is emotionally unstable - is getting worked up. And He’s no doubt drunk off of his butt. He usually was. And he yells out, verse 5, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?” And Esther the Queen, to everyone’s surprise turns and points and says, “That guy right there.” “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” And Haman the horrible starts shaking in his boots.
In verses 7-10, we see the King jump up, really hacked off. He storms out of the room. He goes to drink some more. And Haman finds himself in a really bad situation. If he runs out, he’s acting guilty. If he chases the King, that’s not going to go well. So he falls facedown before the queen. Now that’s quite a change! The Persian falling before the Jew! But he begs for his life. But that only seems to be the lesser of three evils. Because no one but the King was ever supposed to be alone with those of his harem - and especially his queen. The King walks back in and cries out, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” And Haman now is completely toast.
They cover his head - he’s about to be executed. And a servant named Harbona says to the King, “Hey, there are actually some gallows right outside. Ones Haman was gonna use on Mordecai.” And the King says, “Great idea.” And verse 10 says, “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.” Really, he’s impaled on a big pole. The enemy is judged. Esther breathes a big sigh of relief.
Back to those four themes I mentioned in our first sermon in Esther. First, God’s commitment to His people. He’s not gonna let them get squashed by this plot. Even if they’ve not deserved His covenant love, they’re gonna get it. Second, the hidden providence of God. Haman builds his own gallows. As a part of God’s plan. Yes, he’s responsible, too. Haman boldly sins. But still God is in control. He’s not silent. Or absent. He’s very much working, and speaking.
Third, the calling of God’s people. Esther’s in the palace by God’s will. Yes. But she still boldly obeys. She’s responsible, too. She embraces the fact that she’s put there to rescue her people. She goes to the King. Fourth, the hope of reversals. This is a massive one in Esther. It looks like Mordecai’s gonna get executed. All the Jews are gonna die. And everything gets turned upside down. In a moment. All here in chapter 7. But here’s the main thing I want you to see here. The enemy of God’s people is taken out here. God may seem silent, but judgment is coming.
Judgment Is Coming
I have four straightforward points I want to walk us through in the time we have remaining together. Here’s the first: all of us, as image-bearers, desire judgment. When I say image-bearers, I mean people made in God’s image - to look and act like Him. And that’s every one of us. We all - deep down - desire judgment. Whether or not we admit it. Truly we do.
Most of you at sometime have seen the greatest Christmas movie of all time, Die Hard. If you have, you can probably visualize right now the face of Hans Gruber, the wicked enemy in the movie - as he falls in slo-mo off the building to his death - at the hands of the hero, John McClain. Why do we cheer as we watch that scene?
We long for judgment. As humans. As those made in God’s image. We look at this sinful world. We witness people doing evil. We want it all to stop. We want those people to pay. We do. Now we can say, “No, I don’t want people judged. I just want us to forgive. I want us to forget. I want to be a person of love.” But think about it. How loving is that? If you had a sister brutally raped. Or a kid hit killed in a drive-by shooting? How loving is that to them? If you aren’t angry - if you don’t want justice - something’s wrong. Judgment isn’t opposed to love. It’s actually an expression of love.
Now don’t mishear me here. I’m not saying this is always easy for me to grasp and embrace either. But I’ll tell you who tends to be opposed to this concept of judgment. Really sheltered people. And that includes me. Theologian Miroslav Volf puts it this way:
“My thesis…will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West…I suggest imagining that you are delivering a lecture in a war zone…Among your listeners are people whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit…The thesis: we should not retaliate since God is perfect non-coercive love. Soon you would discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God’s refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die.” (Miroslav Volf)
Elsewhere, he talks about hundreds and thousands killed in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He talks about not being able to “imagine God not being angry.” He says:
“How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandfatherly fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators’ basic goodness? Wasn’t God fiercely angry with them? Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God’s wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn’t wrathful at the sight of the world’s evil. God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love.” (Miroslav Volf)
Why do we get mad at this kind of evil? Why do we cry out for judgment? We image our God. And we want a God like that. Yes, He’s love. What great comfort, right? But what if God didn’t hold people accountable? If He didn’t judge? How loving is that?
If we were in a courtroom, and a man was being tried for murder, and the judge just said, “Whatever. I’m feeling extra loving today” - and he lets the guy skate. We would be outraged, because that’s not what good judges do. It’s not just at all. And it’s not really love. It’s not love to the victims and their families. It’s also not really loving to the perpetrator to not hold him accountable. It enables. It emboldens. We want judgment. We want a God who judges. People like Haman and Hans Gruber.
Maybe you’ve felt this the last few weeks. Anger at those who’ve spread the virus or left us unprepared or have spread misinformation. Maybe at people who’ve hoarded all the hand sanitizer. That anger is normal. And it images our God. But our problem is that we’re not good at handling our anger, at dispensing justice. The punishment doesn’t usually fit the crime, when it comes to us. But God’s judgment is always in balance. It’s always just. We’re more like the King here. Or Haman himself. We want to burn the whole house down. But all of us, as image-bearers, desire judgment. We want a King who judges evil, who holds wicked people accountable. We all do.
But second, all of us, as sinners, deserve judgment. There’s a second category of people who try to deny the need for judgment. Not just really sheltered people, but self-righteous people. And I’m in that camp, also. They - we - look out at the world and see people who are mostly pretty good. They definitely put themselves in that category. Yeah, some people do bad things - but it’s due to their biology, or maybe their environment. Perhaps it’s a lack of education or scarcity of resources. But most people are pretty much ok. And they just need love. However, I’d say we still have a category for people like Adolph Hitler or Jeffrey Epstein or Bernie Madoff or Charles Manson. You know, the really bad people. But I want you to hear that we have more in common with them than we realize.
We can hold it together somewhat - until we’re thrust into a powerful position or given millions of dollars - or we’re suddenly thrust into the role of our kids’ homeschool teacher. We can see the little Haman roaring out of our kids when we tell them to do their math or practice the violin. But that monster’s inside of us, too. I’ve seen it rear its ugly head just this week in me. Maybe it just hasn’t been fed. Or truly exposed.
You see, Haman’s not the only bad guy in this story. Mordecai has compromised. Esther has, too. She’s a part of the harem of this wicked queen. He was complicit in getting her there. The Jews aren’t really any better than the Persians around them. That’s why they’re in exile in the first place. They just belong to God. And that’s what makes the difference.
The Bible says this, in Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We’ve missed the mark and done bad things. More that that, we’ve not lived for His glory. And that’s why we were created. We’ve done good things, but for the wrong reasons. To draw attention to ourselves. And the Bible calls all of that sin. And what sin earns us is, yes, judgment. As Romans 6:23 puts it, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s physical death, yes. But also a spiritual death. That’s separation from God in a sense. But also experiencing His anger forever. And that’s hell.
Now this is the uncomfortable stuff I mentioned. But hang on for the hope. It’s coming. I promise. But first, you might think, “Hell, seriously? You pay forever some sins in this life? Come on.” But we so often don’t understand the implications of what we’re doing and saying. Let’s say you go up to your professor after a class, and you say to her, “This lecture made no sense. That last test was a mess. I’m not getting my money’s worth. You and this course are a joke.” And you give her a glare. You roll your eyes. And you storm out.
But you have no idea that she was up all the night before rocking a crying baby. You didn’t know that her father just died in a car crash two works before. You’re ignorant of the fact that she’s the first member of her family to get a college degree. That she worked three jobs all the way through to get her PhD. That she just got an email that her position could be eliminated. That she was beating herself up for all the same things herself. You have no idea what your words and actions really convey.
In the same way, you may think you’re just having a bad day. Or trying to do good the only way you know how. Looking for love. Protecting your family. But you may be flipping off the One who created you. Rolling your eyes at the One who owns you. Stomping out on the One who has provided every good gift you’ve ever had. Slapping the face of the One who you holds you on His lap - even if you’ve had no idea. And yes, as hard as this is for us to understand. We’re ignoring and dishonoring an infinitely glorious person. An infinitely good God. And maybe that merits an infinitely, long, infinitely painful judgment. All of us, as sinners, deserve judgment.
That leads us to our third point. And where we start to get to the hope. Christ, although innocent, endured judgment for us. Here in Esther, we see the bad guy get the gallows while the “good guy” goes free. But here’s the good news - that’s what the word gospel means - the truly good guy - Jesus the perfect One - gets the gallows - the cross - why the bad guy - that’s you, that’s me - gets to skate.
Jesus takes the punishment we deserve. He dies in our place on the cross. God is still righteous. Justice is served. But we go free. We get to live. Now that’s good news, friends. Hear the words from God’s word, the Bible:
1Pet. 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…
Rom. 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We’re heading into Holy Week. Where we remember Christ’s march to the cross. Why’d He go there? Get up there? To pay our penalty. And that brings hope. We can escape this judgment. A judgment that we all want, even if we often don’t realize it. A judgment that we all deserve, even if we often won’t admit it. We can escape it because Jesus did die on that cross. And He took it for us. Our judgment. His death.
We’ll receive life that will last forever. Our bodies will one day be resurrected. We’ll live with Him physically. In a restored creation. And we’ll live with Him spiritually forever. And that starts right here, right now - when we believe. Not just believing a list of facts. But trusting our lives with Him. Finding our life in Him. Salvation from judgment through His work. His work on the cross.
The Jews here forget an important event in their history. Back when they were in Egypt. When God told them to paint blood - that from a lamb - on their doors. So God would pass them by. And they wouldn’t die, but live. God wants them to remember that, so they would trust Him in Persia. With Haman’s sentence over their heads. But He wants us to trust this right now, also. To trust in the blood of Jesus - what that blood pointed ahead to. Not so we won’t get the coronavirus. But so that we’ll be forgiven for our sins.
Fourth, and this is the main hope I want to leave you with today: His judgment gives hope, not only to us, but also to the whole world. Esther points ahead to a greater hero. A greater mediator. A greater intercessor. The God-Man Christ Jesus. But Haman also points ahead to another, greater enemy, Satan. The offspring of that serpent in the garden.
Think about this. Satan had his fool-proof plan all set up. The gallows were made. Jesus was gonna hang on them. And He actually did. He went up on that cross. And everyone around thought it was all over. But ironically, that was the death blow to Satan, sin, and death. On that cross, the great enemy was defeated. He was mortally wounded. Now he’s staggering around, still causing destruction. But He’s already been destroyed. It’s just a matter of time.
Remember those themes again. That cross was actually God’s plan - His providence - all along. Through that work, He showed His commitment to His people. Now He’s given us a calling, to go out and shout this good news. And this is the greatest reversal the world has seen and ever will see. The cross. The resurrection. And when He comes back - makes everything sad untrue - and hangs Satan on His gallows. What hope!
And it even gives us hope during this pandemic. How’s that? If we think about it at all, we tend to just think about what could be called moral evil. Bad things we do to each other. Ways we turn our backs on God. But there’s another category of evil. Natural evil. Tornadoes. Tsunamis. Cancers. And yes, pandemics.
You may not have heard this before, but this isn’t the way the world was meant to be. When human beings sinned, a curse fell on creation. And that leads to viruses like COVID-19. While God is still reigning over the universe, in this age, He’s still giving Satan some freedom. In these last days, as we, His church, go out and share the good news. And tell people about the kingdom of Christ.
But one day, Satan’s gonna hang on His own gallows. As Revelation 20 puts it, he’ll be thrown in the lake of fire - along with death and hell itself. Jesus will return. There will be a full, final judgment. There will be relief for us, the people of God.
We see this at the end of the Bible, in Revelation 21:1-5.
Rev. 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev. 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Rev. 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Rev. 21:5 ¶ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
No more crying. No more dying. No more worry. No more fear. No more pandemics. Through Jesus our Lord. Do I think this is the end of the world? No. It could be. But I have a hard time thinking, just because it’s hitting America, it must be the end of everything. One thing I do know is that the end will come someday. And that will be a good thing, right? Really it will be just the beginning. Of life as it was intended to be. Forever and ever. In the presence of Jesus.
Help and Hope for Today
Well, I started out by saying we’d find help and hope here in Esther chapter 7. Let me review and tie it all together. First, help. As we drive by the people who clearly aren’t social distancing - as we see the misinformation spread on social media - we have to remember. We, too, are sinners and fools. We yell at our kids. We hoard toilet paper. We too often hate people who don’t agree with us. We’re too tied up with our own wants and needs.
We deserve judgment - just like them. It may be hard to see ourselves as Haman - wiping out a whole group of people. Of course, that’s easy to say when we don’t have the power. But it’s not quite as difficult to see ourselves in Esther and Mordecai - people who live double-lives and cut corners to get to the top. We’re all human. We’re all sinners. We’re all in the same boat. Our only hope is the death of Christ. Where He pays for our sins. And we can then go free. Every person we look at - either they’ll find salvation through Christ’s judgment - or they’ll be judged themselves. And that means we can forgive. That’s how we deal with all of this anger.
Second, hope. This pandemic is scary. It’s going to kill thousands and thousands of people in our country. It’s hard to be too hopeful right now. Especially as it’s going to hit our part of the country hard - in just a week or two. But there is hope in Jesus and what He came to do. If it kills us, if we are His, if we trust in Him - we go to be with Him. And eternity in joy and glory just starts a bit earlier for us.
But there’s more. When He came to earth, He said His kingdom had arrived. And He began going around, touching people and healing them. We can beg Jesus to step into our world right now and do just that. And maybe He will. But those healings pointed ahead to a future day when this world would finally be rid of all sickness and sadness and pain. To a new heavens and earth. When His kingdom would fully and forever come.
And just before that day, Jesus will take our great enemy, Satan, the one Haman here in this story points ahead to, and He’ll punish Him once and for all. The world will be rid of the one who “has the power of death.” Sin and death will be defeated. Forever and ever. The greatest story ever told, the one all of our stories points to - will end. Or really, just begin. The hero of heroes, Jesus Christ, will have won. That’s what we do with all of this fear. We trust there’s a happy ending. Satan intends to destroy us. The Lord wants to use all this to draw us near. Let’s pray.