Divine Timing | Esther 5:1 - 6:14

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to The Bible Guys. Today is Friday. Man. We are in the Book of Esther and the queen is about to risk it all for the people she loves. Esther chapter five. This is the moment in the Book of Esther, and it is intense, and we're all wondering what's going to happen? Talking about intense, Chris, Oh, yeah, we've been trying to figure out how to amp up the roll in on our show. Yeah. Sure, we don't have a jingle. So we're trying to put together a theme song and this has been kind of fun. We've been going back to old TV shows yeah and the like from our childhood, yes, and singing theme songs. Yes, well, we haven't been singing them. I yeah. So I typed in and asked chet Gpt to help me write a theme song for The Bible Guys, a show about two guys who like to talk about the Bible and fun of practical ways, and I wanted to write the theme song to the tune of the Brady Bunch the Brady. But and this is what it gave us, and I think it's pretty amazing. So if you'd sing it, because you're the singer on this show, yeah, whatever, and so let's have it. Oh, Chris, here we go. I hope I can get this right. Yeah, yeah, well I don't know. I'm not word about the two. It's the fitting of the words. Yeah, look at you. See you're the singer. You can do it. It's not me. You can do it. No, no, no, no, this is your moment. All right, here we go, shine shine, maybe for such a time as this. Oh, here it is. Okay, here we go. Here's a story of two Bible buddies who were reading through the Word most every day. One was funny, one was thoughtful and steady, and they had a lot to say that. It's the story of a deeper mission to explore the truth and laugh along the way. And the spirit brought them both into a podcast and they were listening. Today that we're listening to. Yeah, I messed it up. See that's what I was worried about. Okay, there we go, And the spirit brought them both into what podcast that we're listening to day down here goes ready, from the lions to the walls of Old Jericho, from the prophets to the crossing empty grave. They break it down with wisdom, wit and laughter, learning how the Word still saves the Bible guys down, the Bible guys down. That's the way we. Became the Bible guys. That's it. That's awesome. Chris, there it is. You are so awesome. No, I think that should be a GPT. Oh that that feels like the one. That Bible guys. The Bible guys literally from the from the seventies. It might have been from the sixties. I think it's seventies, early seventies. My guess is seventy one. Oh, that's so funny. When was the first episode to The Bretty Bunch aired? Oh? Really, it didn't come up and do it? You're gonna do that. I'm working thing well, talking about. Trouble with the connection. Let's try again later. Yeah, Okay, what is your what does she call you? Have we talked about that lately? No, not really, let's try it. Hey, sirih what's my name? It's Chris Sarba. Oh I didn't I didn't do it. Oh, she's getting rebellious. See that's what happened. Vash Hey, Siri, what have I asked you to call me? Calling kings arba mobile? Okay, he knows to call you kings Arba. Remember Vashti lost her job over. This disrespect me. I'm ready to decree I'm banishing. Okay, well, talking about being in trouble with the king. Oh there it is, yeah, yes, is where we're at. And we're in chapter five, and here's what it says. On the third day of the fast, Remember Mordecai and all the other Jews in Susa, and then Esther and her handmaids are all fasting and praying for three days, three nights. On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner court of the palace, just across from the King's hall. The King was sitting on his royal throne facing the entrance when he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court. He welcomed her and held out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter. Then the king asked her, what do you want, Queen Esther, what is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom. Okay, wow, yeah, then he ben She caught him in a really good mood. The favor of God. Right there, sixty three provinces or something like that. And by the way, the first episode of the Brady Bench was nineteen sixty nine. I couldn't stand it. I had to look it up. Okay, there you go, all right, So now you know what do you want, Queen Esther, what is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom. And Esther replied, if it pleased the King, let the King and Haman or Haymen Hamon come today to a banquet I have prepared for the king. The King turned to his attendants and said, tell Hayman to come quickly to a banquet as Esther has requested. So the King and Haman went to Esther's banquet, and while they were drinking wine, the King said to Esther, now tell me what you really want. What is request. I'll give it to you, even if it's half the kingdom. Esther replied, this is my request and deepest wish. If I have found favor with the King, and if it pleases the King to grant my request and do what I ask. Please come with Hayman tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for you, and then I'll explain what this is all about. Haman was a happy man as he left a banquet, But when he saw Mordecai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously before him, Hayman became furious. However, he restained himself and went home. Then Hayman gathered together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, and boasted them about his great wealth and his many children. He bragged about the honors the king had given him and how he had been promoted over all the other nobles and officials. Then Hayman added, and that's not all. Queen Esther invited only me and the King himself to the banquet she had prepared for us, and she has invited me to dine with her and the King again tomorrow. Then he added, but this is all worth nothing as long as they see Mordecai, the Jew, just sitting there at the palace gate. So Hayman's wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy feet tall seventy five feet tall in the morning, asked the king to impale Mordechai on it. When this is done, you can go on your merry way to the banquet with the King. This pleased Hayman, and he ordered the pole set up. That night, the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered then a tenant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it could be read to him. In those records he discovered an account of how Mordechai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Terrish, two of the eunuchs who guarded the door to the king's private quarters, and they had plotted assassinate King Xerxes re ward or recognition. Do we ever give Mordecai for this, the king asked. His attendants replied, nothing has been done for him. Who is that in the outer court? The king inquired, As it happened to Hemi had just arrived in the outer court of the palace to ask King to impale Mordecai on the polly prepared. So the attendants replied to the King, Haman is out in the court. Bring him in. The king ordered, so Hamen came in and the King said, what should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me? Haman thought to himself, home, would the king wish to honor more than me? So replied, if the King wishes to honor someone, he should bring out one of the king's own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden, one with a royal emblem on his head. And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king's robes and led through the city square on the king's horse. Have the official shout as they go, this is what the king does for someone who he wishes to honor. Excellent, the king said to Haman, quick, take the robes and my horse, and do just as you have said for Mordecai, the jew who sits at the gate of the palace. Leave out nothing you've suggested. So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king's own horse, and let him through the city square. Shouted this is what the king does for someone. He was just to honor. Unbelievable. Afterward, Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home, dejected and completely humiliated. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends what had happened, his wise advisers and his wife said, since Mordecai, this man who has humiliated you, is of Jewish birth, you will never succeed in your plans against him. It will be fatal to continue opposing him. While they were still talking, the king's eunuchs arrived and quickly took Haman to the bank. What Esther had prepared, Oh man, so chapters five and six, and guess what they are building and building and building. It is an unbelievable thing. And I love how chapter six begins and says that night the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered a lieutenant to bring him every book of history of his reign so can be read to him. And those recordings he discovered an account how Mordechai exposed the plot of assassination. So, in other words, get what I'm saying, is this is that God somehow? Uh? And it doesn't say so, It does not say so. But I have to believe that this is a reflection of everything that we've ever read in the Old Testament. Remember how like God hardened Pharaoh's heart with Moses. Remember, and then you know, and then and and all of a sudden, you know, the mood can be changed by the influence of God, the God of Egypt. When Joseph was stood before him, uh, you know, he was troubled because of a dream. Right, I'm sorry, what did I say, the God, the God of Egypt? Right, exactly, So, the Pharaoh of Egypt was troubled because of a dream. So so Esther walks in front. Of the king in chapter five, and not only is she worried about losing her life, but then the opposite extreme happens. I have to believe that's the favor of God. It doesn't say it doesn't say so, right, but I have to believe that'sying. Yes God, yesdays and three nights, and it is at the end of that time. Yes, these things begin to unfold. And then all of a sudden, we have the seventy five foot poll that's going to be set up that Hayman's wanted to impale Mordecai on, and all of a sudden, coincidentally, quote unquote, the king has trouble sleeping, right, and then in somehow some way he orders history records to be read, and then coincidentally they read about Mordecai, and he goes, we need to honor this man. I forgot, Yeah that happened. I need to honor this man. So all of this is orchestrated by God right behind the scenes. And who would have ever thought that it would play out this way? Right, Yeah, And Hayman's like, he goes home, Hey, I have the most kids, and I've got the most money and so much influence. I'm so powerful. He's dumping his chest and from his family, he said, but I'm never going to be happy as long as that one guy right right never bows down me. Well, he says, all of this is nothing. It's nothing, right, Yeah, He's the most powerful, second most powerful man in the world, in the world, and he's like pouting over the fact that this one guy doesn't show him respect and it means nothing to me. All the rest is just horrible. I might as well just not even go outside anymore. Right, He's just pitching a fit about this, And so they ask, he asks us, so what should I do, what should I do about it? And they're like, set up a pole right and have him executed. Man, that's going to be so awesome. Seventy five feet high. That must have been on a wall somewhere, or on a top of a building, very prominent, very high. He wanted everybody to see Mordecai suffer. Oh yeah, what a horrible way. Seven a half stories. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Yeah, it had to have been. Yeah. And by the way, because he's the second most powerful man in the world, he could do whatever he wants. So let me read this note. This may be the most powerful note we've read in the Lectification Bible for a while. Oh yeah, it was at first. For verse nine, hatred and bitterness are like weeds with long roots that grow in the heart and corrupt all of life. Haman was so consumed with hatred toward Mordecai that he could not even enjoy the honor of being invited the Ester's party. Hebrews twelve fifteen warns us to watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Don't let hatred and its resulting bitterness build up in your heart. Like Cayman, you will find it backfiring against you if the mere mention of someone's name provokes you to anger, confess your bitterness is sin. Ignoring bitterness, hiding it from others, or making superficial changes in behavior is not enough. If bitterness isn't completely removed, it will grow back, making matters worse. Yeah, that's what that Hebrews Versus talk about, that root of bitterness. Yes, and by the way, that is a uh, that's a practical tell. If you mention somebody's name and then immediately feel anger or hatred, that's a problem. Yeah, you still have bitterness and it's going to catch up. It's going to kill you. Yeah. So Hebrews says it's like a root and it's a poisonous route, and it grows down and then the vine grows up and kills the tree. And we were in Costa Rica a number of years ago, and they took us to this place where these vines were everywhere through the trees. But then they showed us how the vines will interact and totally wrap around a tree, and then they begin to grow together. And what happens is the vines push all their leaves up above to the top of the canopy and then spread their leaves over top of the trees and kill all the trees. And then the vines aren't strong enough to make it to the top of the canopy by themselves, they have to climb the tree. Then they completely surround the tree. And so there were trees that five of me and you could not hold hands and reach all the way around. That weren't the actual trees. They were the vines that had grown together and killed the dead tree. And we walked inside of a tree that was as big as this room multiple times where the tree was completely dead and it was this vine. It was like a hollow tree. Yeah. Yeah, the tree was gone. It was just those giant vines that had grown together and had ripped place the tree once was. Yeah, but one of the guides that we were with, he took me over and he showed me. He said, this is the beginning of that, and he just pulled one of those little vines out of the ground. He said that one won't kill this tree. Right. It was just it was just as easy as pulling it out of the ground. But if you let it go, it eventually completely replaced who you really are, right, that's it. Right Now, I've got some wild grape vines. I have some woods on the back of my yard, and I have some wild grape vines that are growing up, and that they're doing the same thing. They're growing up to the top and starting to build camping. So I had to go out and cut them all. I got my chainsaw out and cut them all out. We've been hauling them out of the trees. And because that little root, it's easy when it's little to get rid of it, and yet it seems so important to us. It's the only thing you think of. He had all the advantage of the most powerful man in the kingdom, who wasn't the king right, he had everything, but that little root winds up costing him everything. So before I go on about the hilarity of Hayman having to do this for Mordecai, we got to get to that. Yeah, God has a great sense of humor. Yes, So let's go back to the idea of of the bitterness you were talking about. Don't want to brush that off. You know, God says that bitterness and forgiveness, right, letting go of bitterness, which is forgiveness is not for the. Other person's for us. Right, So all all Hayman would have had to have done is, you know, decide to not hang out a bitterness to Mordecai. And guess what that would have affected? Who more than anybody else? What affected Hayman? Right, Hayman is so plagued by bitterness that he can't enjoy anything in life. Even even as he's bragging, and even as he's listing everything that he's listing, he's saying, I can't. Enjoy because a bitterness. And if you had to let go, to let go of. Bitterness, then then he could have, you know, obviously enjoyed everything he just talked about. And and so all that to say, bitterness is the thing that we need to get rid of because it hurts us. We think it's hurting the other person, but it's actually us who suffers. So that's why Jesus says it's a command to forgive, because it's not for the other person, it's for you. Right when you forgive, you're the only one that benefits. Yeah, right, I mean obviously the other person benefits of you know, I'll be on the receiving end of forgiveness. But the person that's affected the most is you, right, because you're letting go of your bitterness and hatred. You're right, yep, right, that's really powerful. Yep. So let's get back to this. I'll say one more thing. Yeah, for me, you know, and I've told my store before, so a lot of abuse and difficulty in my early childhood. God rescued my mom and I from that, but I dealt with abandonment and a lot of those memories for many, many years. And I think that the forgiveness for me, the discovery of what real forgiveness was, because always felt like forgiveness meant you're kind of saying, Okay, it doesn't matter, and it does matter. It breaks God's heart, right when people abuse people or whatever, that's not it. It's when you finally come to the point where you know, Romans chapter twelve says, don't pay back evil for evil, pay back evil with good because God says Vengeance's mind says the Lord, I will repay, right. And that was the day when when I had to confront you know, my father this way. I realized on that day I did not need to be the judge and executioner and so all I did was say, okay, God, you repay him, not me, right. And on that day, it wasn't that I said it was okay. It was that I was okay with God being the judge, not me right. And Buddy, I'm telling you, I felt completely free from that point on, where when you just release your right to prosecute and you go okay, you do it, and you know, God did his. Thing because because that's what God asks of us. Yeah, for him to be the. Judge, right, let me be the judge. Yeah. And when you that's the I think that God requires forgiveness from us. It's not that I have to say it's okay. It's not that I have to decide we're going to have this extensive friendship or relationship or give access none of those things. It's just God, I'm not in control. You are. You bring the judgment necessary, and I'm going to go on with my life. I'm not gonna think about it anymore. I'm going to you know, so those things come up. I think about those things, but I'm not trying to figure out how to maneuver and manipulate, Whereas in my mind I'd always thought, you know, he broke my mom's nose three times, he broke her jaw twice, he broke her ribs, He ran us over the car. He did so many horrible things. And I always thought, if I ever meet him, I'm going to beat him up. And then the day because I went from eight years old to forty something years old before I met him again, and the day I opened up the door, I was thinking I'm going to beat him up. I opened up the door and it was an old man. Yeah, and God just washed over me and go, you're not the judge, and this isn't any of your business, right, So I just kind of let it go over those next couple of days. It was a big one. So that's a big thing anyways. Yeah, So that might be the message for you today is bitterness is a root and it's poisonous and it will consume you and you won't even be the same person if you let it go. Or you've got to say, Okay, God, you're the one that's in control. I'm trusting you. Yeah, and maybe the judge not me. And it's a pretty tall order for somebody who's hung on to bitterness for years. Yep, right, I mean. Because the offenses are life changing in most cases, right, people hang on to bitterness for ten years in most cases, unless you're just a petty person, it's because this person has offended you and affected your life in a very great way. And so I know people very very very very close to me who you know here. It is years and years later they can't even say a name of somebody without feeling complete anger. Yeah, but it is possible, It is possible. Free from that. Yes, when you finally realize, you're not saying it's okay, you're just saying God's the judge and executioner. That's great, that's great. Okay, So let's shift over to take. This is one of the best things man. God is so funny. Yes, And so Hayman comes walking into the courtyard just as the king is like, what have we done for Mordecai? Nothing? I should send somebody, go do something good. Who's out in the courtyard right now, Mordecai is hey, Mordecai, ham Hey, Haymen come in. Yeah, it's so funny. I love how Haman puts together the most extravagant display of honor, thinking that it's for himself. Oh yeah, it's for me, Who else would he want him honor me? Oh, you should give him a robe, rig put him on your horse, have a noble leading through and shout, hey, everybody, this is what the king does for the people who do good for him. Yes, and then he says, he says, leave nothing out, nothing out, So Haymond has to do it. So here he is. Can you even imagine? Can you even imagine the person that you were planning on killing. You're like, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna put this guy in a poll. Instead, you find yourself walked through the city and you're you're the one leading the horse, right, so the second most powerful command. So I have to believe that that Mordecai probably sees this as a super natural. Turn of events in the world. How in the world did we go from this to that? And in fact, in fact, he was honored in such a way that even Haman's wife said, you're gonna have a problem. Going up against this guy, right. So his wife's even saying, like, do you realize what you have done to yourself? Right? You've let him, You've let him. Through the streets, and you've honored him in such a way that if now your petty. You know, genocide order goes through. You're never gonna be able to take Mordecai down because now what you've done. Right, She's like, hey, we should back off, right, we should. This is not a good thing. Right, Yeah, that's an incredible thing. I love it, man. This is one of the best best turns of events in the whole Bible. What a surprise, because I mean, we're all the way into chapter six before this happens. There's no way this was going to happen in chapter three or four. Yeah, you know, as we're reading through, this is just bad news. This genocidal maniac now is out there. This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor, all right, dragging a horse through the streets. I have to believe that even the people who've watched the Veggietails and know the story didn't quite understand all the details like this right right, right, Like they didn't quite understand it. Really. You think some of the details got left out in a vegetail show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. But by the way, those are the best. You remember Larry City songs with Larry part of the show, Will Larry comes out and sings a city song. Right. Sorry, but anyway, all that to say like this is an epic epic unfolding. And so because today's Friday, we have to wait until Monday in order to pick up with the story. So people are gonna have a cliffhanger. Who knows, big time cliffhanger. Yes, but it turns. Out I wonder how it turns out. Well, it's gonna be epic. Yeah, you're gonna be glad you turned back in. That's right, that's right, don't miss it. So hopefully we will see you then next time on the Bubba guys. H