Transcript

Good morning, church. We're in part four of our series through the Book of Esther, and we'll be picking up in chapter seven today. We've entitled this series the Hidden Hand of God. Because in this book, and it's a unique book, the name of God is never mentioned. It's unique for two reasons.

One is of all the books in the Bible, it's the only book of the Bible that the name of God has never mentioned. And it's also one of only two books in the Bible named for a woman, the other being Ruth. And so God's name may not be mentioned, but he is not missing. We can see his evidence throughout the book and we can see him moving behind the scenes in this book of Esther. In previous weeks, we've seen that Esther is elevated to being the queen.

After winning the first ever Miss Universe contest of Persia, she is elevated to being the queen. This little exiled orphan girl who is adopted by a man named Mordecai, who is her actually her cousin, but raised her as her father. He uncovers a conspiracy and his honoring for that is delayed. There's a man named Haman, who's a wicked man who wants to kill all the Jews, and he wants to start with Mordecai. And we see this background, this background leading us up to this place today where God's starting to weave all these threads together, all these events to what might be described as the great reversal that he's going to turn all these things inside out.

And God's been quietly arranging these events according to his purpose. And I don't know, today, maybe you've seen someone do something wrong and they appear to get away with it. Has that ever happened in your life? Someone seems to get away with everything. And I don't know about you, I'm the kind of person that got caught.

Every time I tried something, you know, if it was in school or whatever it was, if I. If I did something, I got caught. Looking back on it now, I think that was the grace of God. It's best that I got caught right, you know, talking in class and so forth. I remember there was a little girl that the teacher would always pick her to take names.

I don't know if they still do that today, but I don't know what the teacher was doing. She'd step out of the room for a while and she'd pick this little girl named Joan to take names. And Joan would write my name down every time. And then I'm up at the chalkboard. I must not talk you know, 100 times or whatever.

It was just amazing torture. I had to just. I would beg Joan not to put my name down, and she would smile and write my name down every time. But maybe you see people who seem to get away with it. Have you ever wondered why the proud seem to prosper?

Why dishonest people seem to advance while people that manipulate and wound seem to find success, while the faithful apparently suffer? In other words, why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people? We struggle with these things. Causes us to ask questions about God. Stuff like, does God see what is happening?

Is he looking? Is he watching? Why does he seem silent?

Will evil ever be exposed? Will justice ever come? Will God ever be able to heal what seems to be hopelessly broken? These are the kind of questions that we ask. And the Book of Esther, really, if we look for the timeless principles, speaks directly to these kinds of questions.

Because there are seasons when God's hand feels hidden and the wicked seem to be winning. But yet God is still at work. He may seem silent, but he's never absent. In the Book of Esther, chapter 7, the author recorded how God providentially reversed the wicked plot of Haman, the Persian official, and saved the Jewish people from destruction. And I believe today that God is still working behind the scenes, still working providentially to turn the tables, to overturn the schemes of the wicked in order to rescue his people.

So we'll be looking today for three ways that God is still doing this, turning the tables today. Let's start in verse 14 of chapter 6, just one final verse in chapter 6, and then all of chapter 7. While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried to meet Haman, to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, what is your wish, Queen Esther?

It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Queen Esther answered, if I 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. 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. Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, who is he? And where is he who has dared to do this? And Esther said, a foe, an enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

And the king arose in his wrath from. From the wine drinking and went into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, will he even assault the queen in my presence in my own house?

As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house 50 cubits high. And the king said, hang him on that. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

This is God's word. We're looking for three ways that God reverses the plans of the wicked to save his people. And the first way that we see here is by exposing hidden evil. By exposing hidden evil. When we're reading a narrative like this, a story, a historical event, we have to search for timeless principles in order to see what is God trying to teach us.

We, I think, begin best by understanding. The Old Testament is best understood by reading through the lens of the New Testament and of Christ and of the Gospel. And so it's best to read the New Testament first and get an understanding there and then try to read through that lens. And then we should also look for timeless principles. In other words, when you're reading a narrative, be careful to look for what is normative.

Not everything in a narrative is normative. You're looking for that which would be true for all time. So what we've been looking for since God's hand is hidden. Yet we see events being orchestrated. We start asking, where else in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, where it's more clear, how can we answer the question, how does God work?

How does God work? And so looking. The first thing you see here is throughout history and throughout Scripture, we see that God reveals hidden sin. He uncovers it. He's the God of light.

And so here we see in this story that Queen Esther, as a representative of the Lord, she's fasted for three days. She's asked the Jewish people to fast. And now she's come to that place where it's finally time to address the evil by uncovering what the wicked Haman has done. This decree he has put out to destroy all the Jews and to hang Mordecai upon a gallows, which we have learned, as we've studied more about the way the Persians would practice execution was actually a pole that he would be impaled upon. And so we see in this story that Esther represents the Lord in uncovering to the king Haman's evil.

You see, this is something that God does. He doesn't allow hidden evil to stay hidden forever. Let's look at the story with a little bit more detail. Would you be recalled if you were here last week? You'll know, but if you're watching any TV series, it always begins with what happened last time.

And what happened last time was Haman thought he had it made. He had decreed this decree that all the Jews were going to be killed on a certain day in the 12th month. And then he gets invited. He's already been honored as the second in command in the Persian Empire. But then he gets invited by Queen Esther as the only man that's invited to the king and queen's banquet.

And so he comes home from that first night, because notice here, it says the second night in chapter seven, verse two. And on the second day, so on the first day, he's invited to this feast, and he enjoys it, and all is good, all is great. And he goes home from the feast, and he sees Mordecai at the city gate, and he hates Mordecai because Mordecai won't bow down to him because he's a Jew. And so he goes home, and he has his wife and his friends at his house, and he begins to glory in himself. He goes, I was the only one that was invited to the feast with the king and the queen.

I was the only one. I'm the second in command. I'm wealthy, I have 10 sons. And he went on and on to his wife and his friends about how great and how glorious his life was. But then he says, but none of this means anything to me.

It means nothing to me as long as Mordecai won't bow down to me. That's what he said. And so that's what's going on in the background here. And so then he says this to and then his wife Zeresh, and his friends say, well, don't let that bother you? Why don't you build a gallows and hang Mordecai?

Why don't you kill him? And he goes, that's a good idea. That pleased him. And so he gets up at the crack of dawn on the second day. Now this is the second day after their three day fast.

He's already had one feast. He gets up early and he goes to the king's court. Unbeknownst to him, the king had a sleepless night and had the Chronicles read to him, like to keep him, you know, make himself sleepy. And he finds out that Mordecai had actually uncovered a conspiracy that saved the king. And so he goes, what did we do to honor him?

And they said, oh, nothing, we didn't do anything to honor him. And he goes, was there anybody in the court? Now this is early, early, I don't know, this is 4 or 5 o' clock in the morning, maybe, something like that. Mordecai couldn't wait. He's in there by himself.

And they go, I mean, excuse me, Haman's there. And they go, haman's in the courtyard, Haman's in the courtyard. And they go, bring Haman up here. King says, and so he comes up and he goes, what would you do to the man that the king wants to honor? And Haman thinks to himself, well, who else would it be but me?

And he says, I tell you what I'd do. I'd put the king's robes upon him. That king had wore the king's crown on his head. I'd let him ride on the king's horse, and I'd have one of the officials lead him through the city, going, thus is the way that one that the king wants to honor would honor him. And the king says, good, Haman, you do that for Mordecai.

That gets us towards the end of chapter six, because he goes home, he goes home and he tells them, and then his friends and his wife, who gave him the idea of killing Mordecai, say, yeah, you're dead.

This is all going wrong for you, man, that's a tough group of friends and his wife to boot. And so that brings us to verse 14, because there he is while he's yet talking to them, and they're basically saying to him, you're going to fall before him. The king sends his eunuchs and they basically get him, they rush him back to the second feast, right? I don't think he wanted to go to the second feast. And they rush him back and he gets there.

And this time the king asked for the third time. He asked the first time, when she came into his throne room and lowered his scepter, he goes, I'll give you half of my kingdom. What's your wish? And she said, come to a feast. And they came to a feast.

At the feast, I'll give you up to half of my kingdom. What's your wish? My wish is you come to a second feast. Comes to the second feast. And he goes, I'll give you up to half of my kingdom.

What's your wish? And she goes, that you don't let my people get annihilated. If you just sold us into slavery, I wouldn't have said anything. I'd have stayed silent. But since we're going to be annihilated, I had to bring it to your attention.

And he goes, who is the one who did this? Where is he? And she goes, right, there he is. Well, that's my version. I feel like she pointed at him.

But he's sitting there. He's sitting there. I don't know if he has food in his mouth right now. I don't know if he's drinking wine. I've got a picture in my head that Haman thinks he's got it made.

And the tables turn just like that. This man, this wicked Haman, is the man. It upsets the king so bad that he gets up from his wine drinking and goes out of the area of the feast in the palace and goes out into his gardens and starts pacing around, talking to himself. I can't believe. I can't believe I elevated him.

And while he's gone. And the way they would eat in those days and this time in Persia is they would recline and eat, so they would be like on a couch, and they would be on their side and they would be eating and drinking like that. And so while the king is out, Haman knows it's all going bad for him. So he falls at the feet of Esther, and he's just begging her, please don't let him kill me. I could tell the king's mad, you know, he's just begging.

That's when the king comes back. What a coincidence that he's just. And so little. Little. Maybe you don't realize this in the story, but you can't touch the queen.

Only the king can touch the queen. That's a capital offense. And here he is like that. His pride seals his fate, his passion and his desire for forgiveness. It just seals his fate on top of everything.

So the king says, will you even take my queen like that? You obviously want my throne. And so he's a goner. This is the story. This is the great reversal that God has brought about.

But it all begins, what with Esther as God's representative in the story of uncovering Haman's wickedness, his hidden evil. It says in the book of Hebrews that nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. God is omniscient. He sees all.

Nothing is hidden. In fact, Jesus talks about this, and he says even those things that apparently are hidden will one day be uncovered. He says, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light. And what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

He's basically saying that that skeleton you have in the closet is going to be dancing on the roof. People are going to know. It's going to be put out. It's going to be revealed. This is a principle.

This is a timeless principle in God's economy, that evil will be uncovered. In the Book of Numbers, it's stated very clearly. Behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. It says, if sin is personified here, that sin comes looking for you. The sin that you planted comes after you.

You see, a physician can't heal what's been concealed. You might go to the doctor and you. You have some symptom that you're complaining of, and you. You show up and. And then the doctor has to get to the bottom of it by uncovering what's underneath.

You show up at the doctor's office, the first thing they do is make you step on a scale. I always wish they would let me take my shoes off first. I'm sure that's a couple of pounds, right? They step on a scale, and then they put a blood pressure cuff on your arm, and they check your heart and they check your blood pressure, and you got to go, ah. And all these things.

And then they might even have you take further tests, blood tests, and other kinds of tests. All the while, what they're trying to do is to uncover that which is hidden. And the truth is, sometimes, and this has happened to some of us, maybe it's happened to you. You go with one symptom and they take all these tests and they uncover something else that you didn't know you had and sometimes disease grows silently with no symptoms. But then a scan reveals it.

The diagnosis is painful but necessary. You can't heal that which is still concealed. You have to come clean, has to be exposed, to be dealt with, admitting your feelings. The beginning of healing. And so we see that God's in the business of exposing that which is hidden.

Secret bitterness, private compromise, hidden habits. God's exposure of sin is not merely punitive. Often it's merciful. Often the only way to get healing is for you to come clean and to admit your sin. It's better for God to uncover your sin now than to expose it later on the judgment day.

Ask yourself this question today. What am I hiding? That needs to be brought into the light. Because a principle that we see here in Scripture is that God exposes evil. He brings it into the light.

Here's the second way that we see God turning the tables on evil in order to save his people. It's by overruling the sinful schemes of man. By overruling the sinful schemes of man, Haman's own actions and intentions began to collapse upon him. He had a plan.

He even had a gallows built. He was going to get rid of his enemies. He hated the Jews. This is the great reversal of Esther. And God uses Haman's own panic to seal his doom.

In the eyes of the king, Haman had appeared untouchable, the second in command, wealthy highest official in Persia, favored by the king, architect of the genocidal decree. Yet moments the king's perception of him changed, he lost favor and his scheme collapsed. This is the providential principle of God, overrules the schemes of man. He subverts and overrules human schemes. Who has dared to do this?

The king says, and she says, that wicked Haman, he's the one. And the king arose in his wrath. It says that whenever the king spoke that the word covered his face. That's an unusual picture, isn't it? I think that's in verse eight.

Will he even assault the queen in my presence in my own house? As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. It's like the word came out of the king's mouth and became like a hood that went over his head, like an executioner's hood. Because when the king spoke, his word is law. And when the king speaks, action follows.

It covers his face. And the author here seems to want us to see that his face just fell in horror like that, that this word came upon him, this word of judgment. Came upon him. And God is overruling his scheme to destroy Mordecai and the Jews. It says in job chapter 18, the confident stride of the wicked will be shortened.

Their own schemes will be their downfall. This is what I was talking about earlier. When we're reading a narrative, we look in other places of scripture to find support for timeless principles. Is this how God. It looks like God's doing this big reversal here.

He's taking the scheme of Haman. Haman wants to destroy God's people. And he takes the very gallows, the very scheme, and he reverses it and puts it back on Haman. Is this something that just happens once? Or is this a timeless principle?

And we see Job talks about it, we actually see the psalmist talk about it. We see this. In fact, we could say that perhaps Esther in her three day fast had some insight from the Lord on how to progress in this story. Remember when she first came into the king's chambers, he said, what do you want? And he extended his scepter.

I'll give half the kingdom to you. I would have just said, yeah, I want to be rescued right there. But that's not what she does. She goes, I want you to come to a feast. And then he goes, okay, now I'm at the feast.

What do you want? I want you to come to another feast. And if it hadn't have been for that delay, that waiting, then he wouldn't have had a sleepless night, he wouldn't have found out about Mordecai, Haman wouldn't have built the gallows. All these pieces fell into place on that second day. On that night and that second day.

What a coincidence. What a God incidence. God was moving and weaving his threads of his purpose into place. The timing of it, I'm sure Esther looked back on it and went, oh my goodness. It's as if she were following the psalmist instruction from Psalm 37, be still in the presence of the Lord.

She fasted for three days, wait patiently for him to act. She brought him to two different feasts before she spoke out. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. She left it to the king, to the Lord, to handle the problem. We can see God at work behind the scenes here.

It reminds me of a story in the book of Acts, chapter four, where Peter and John healed a cripple. You probably remember the story. It was a man who'd been a cripple since birth. And as they were walking up to the Temple Mount, to pray. Peter saw him and he said, silver and gold have I none but what I have, I give to thee.

Rise up and walk. And the man jumps up, starts leaping and running through the temple courts and going, these men have healed me in the name of Jesus. It attracts a crowd. Long story short, the high priest send guards in there to shut this thing down. And they arrest Peter and John.

They have to spend overnight in jail. And then the next morning, they appear before the high priest and the leaders, the Jewish leaders, and they go, haven't we told you to stop preaching in the name of Jesus?

And they threatened him and they said, stop preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus. Because of fear of the crowd that was believing what. And they were amazed by this healing. They let him go. And as they leave, they go to a prayer meeting that was already in action because they were praying for Peter and John.

And they get up in that prayer meeting and start praying, and they pray like this. This is not the way I would pray. Probably in this situation. I'd be praying, lord, go get those guys and do something to them. They've threatened us.

I'd probably be praying like that. But that's not how they pray. This is how they pray. This is in Acts, chapter four. Lord, look upon their threats.

That's it, Lord, you look at that. And grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness in the name of your holy servant Jesus.

Lord, you look at their threat, you look at their threats. And so sometimes we get very anxious, don't we? We hear the news, I don't know which Alphabet news you listen to. Cnn, you know, fox, abc, cbs, NBC, whichever. I don't know if it's, you know, if it's, you know, where you get your news, or maybe some of you have tagged out and you're not listening to the news anymore.

But you hear it, you know, everywhere you go, and it just makes you anxious and you feel the threats of the world, and you get so distracted, and it makes you like, God, where are you? But what if we prayed like Peter and John in that prayer meeting? We just said, lord, would you look at that for us so we don't have to. And empower us and strengthen us to teach and preach in the name of Jesus. Help us to be what you called us to be.

Because we don't have to worry about. Because the schemes, the wicked schemes of man will be overturned by you. They will be subverted by you. You'll turn them back on the heads of those who came up with the schemes. We're just going to let.

We're not going to try to get revenge. We're not going to try to get back at those people. We're not going to be anxious or worried about it. We're going to walk and talk. Jesus, that's how they prayed.

You may be living in a chapter of life right now where the wicked seem to prosper. Someone's lied about you, someone's hurt you, someone's opposed you. Remember, God has not surrendered the pen. He's still writing your story.

So be still. Wait on the Lord, pray. Lord, you look upon their threats and then live for Jesus. That leads us to the third way that God is turning the tables against the wicked in order to save his people. It's by executing righteous judgment.

By executing righteous judgment. We're in the final couple of verses, verses 9 and 10. We've been working our way through this narrative, this story, and we see here that God uses the very gallows that Haman built order to carry out judgment against Haman. The very scheme, the very gallows he built provides the rescue that Mordecai needed. This is the providential principle of retribution, or what we sometimes call poetic justice.

It just seemed poetic that this is how it would work out for him. While we look forward to a final judgment at the end of days. Because the Word does teach us that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. And we all know that this is true. But here we see that in history that there are previews of God's justice, that it comes up that these things happen.

There's retribution even in this life. Notice how it takes place here. We've got the major characters have been described. We have Queen Esther. We have King Ahasuerus, also known as King Xerxes I, king of Persia.

We have Mordecai, who is an official. He's one of the officials, and he's the adopted father of Esther. We have Haman. We've mentioned the second in command. Now we got a new guy shows up and starts talking here at the end of chapter seven.

His name's Harbona. Harbona is one of seven eunuchs who stand before the king continually. They're advisors and guardians of the king. They guard his, I guess, access, and they also give him advice. How do I know he's one of the seven?

Well, if you go back to chapter one, verse 10, his name is listed there as one of the seven. Well, here he's going to talk. He hasn't talked up to now, he's going to talk, boy. He chips in right when Esther needs him too. You never know when God has an ally for you in some place of power, first you often have to, by faith, speak up yourself.

And then sometimes an ally will come out of the woodwork. Here's one named Harbona. He says this. Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, speaking of that conspiracy he had uncovered, is standing at Haman's house 50 cubits high. He just sort of drops that in that, you know, we already got this inflamed situation.

Haman's already over there like that. And then Harbona walks up and oh, by the way, O King, he built. Just last night, he built a gallows to kill Mordecai, who saved you. By his word, by the way, that's who this Haman is. He chips in on Esther's team, man.

50 cubits high. A cubit's about 18 inches, so it's 75ft high. The whole city of Susa, the capital of Persia, would see this in the Hebrew. The king replies with two words. It takes four words to translate it into English.

Hang him on that. The king's so angry, can't even talk. Hang him on that. And so they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

It says in the book of Galatians, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, they will also reap. That's the principle of sowing and reaping, principle of the harvest. Do you know this principle?

It's hardwired into creation. God, it's just built in. The principle of sowing is that you sow, and what comes up comes up later. It comes up according to what you sow, and it comes up more than what you sow. My, you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

You sow an apple, you get an apple tree, you sow a tomato seed, you get a tomato vine, you sow a lemon seed, you get a lemon tree. You know, you know this principle, right? Just, duh, makes sense, right? You reap what you sow comes up. It doesn't come up immediately, it comes up later.

Which is why we have this saying to remind ourselves, never dig up and doubt what you planted by faith. Don't get up the next morning after you plant something and dig it up to see if it's Doing anything, let it just keep watering it, keep believing. Because the principle of harvest is that it'll come up later. And God's the one who causes the growth, not you. You water it, you plant it by faith, but God.

And it'll come up according to what you planted, and it'll be more than what you planted. That's the principle of multiplication. If you plant an evil seed, if you plant sin in your life and you think you're getting by with it, you're not. It'll come up later, it'll come up in the same kind that you planted, and it'll be multiplied. If you plant good, if you plant righteousness, it'll come up later.

Mordecai at the end of chapter two, it looked like he didn't get credit. And you got to get all the way to chapter six before you see him get credit for rescuing the king. Because God sees everything. No good thing goes unnoticed. You think you're serving in obscurity.

You think you're doing good for the Lord. Moms and dads taking care of their children, sacrificing, serving at the church, doing the things behind the scenes, doing extra work at the workplace or in your classroom. And while others seem to be getting credit, no one notices. God notices.

He's at work behind the scenes. And he also notices those that are planning evil. And those principles are built in God's doing this. Whatever you sow, you'll reap. To illustrate this principle, the psalmist describes it like this.

Psalm 7. The wicked conceive evil. They are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies. So it's using the metaphor of pregnancy and how nine months later it gives birth. They dig a deep pit to trap others.

Then they fall into it themselves. The trouble they make for others backfires on them. The violence they plan falls on their own heads.

Haman should have read this psalm, because that's exactly the pit he dug, is the one he fell into. Some of us have been digging a pit for a long time.

Some of us need to come up. You know, we describe it like this. In the world, what goes around comes around.

Maybe we call it karma, but it's not karma. It's God's created, governed order of things. When the wicked prosper, believers are tempted to discouragement, to. To despair or even retaliation, to take it into our own hands. Wait on the Lord, pray, say God.

You consider that. You take a look at that for me. Allow me to keep living for Jesus without becoming bitter, without being focused on those things. I would just Challenge myself and challenge all of us today. Don't.

Don't become unfaithful in doing good, even though the delay of planting seeds. Keep planting, keep watering, knowing that God sees. God sees. And to those of us that have hidden sin areas, we have skeletons in the closet in order to receive healing. Someday you need to come clean.

Because someday, whether you do or not, it'll all be exposed.

And God is merciful. And often coming clean is the most merciful action you can take. In fact, sometimes when you dig a pit and you're the one who falls in the pit you dug, the only way to get you to look up is to be so far down, there's no place to look but up. Maybe that's you today.

Maybe that's you today. We've seen that God reverses the plans of the wicked to save his people by exposing hidden evil, by overruling sinful schemes and by executing righteous judgment. But the book of Esther points beyond itself, as all of the Old Testament does. The whole old testament, all 39 books are preparing God's people in order to recognize Jesus when he comes to recognize Messiah. The greatest table turning is not Esther.

Although this is pretty great, it's pretty impressive. The greatest reversal happened at the cross on that Friday. It looked as if evil had won. It looked as if the religious leaders plotted. Rome condemned.

Satan seemed victorious. Mordecai, like Jesus, was the one marked for death. And like Haman's gallows, the cross appeared to be the instrument of defeat. But God reversed everything. The very instrument that was intended for Christ's destruction became the means of Satan's defeat and our salvation.

The enemy thought he was digging a grave for God's Son. Instead, he dug his own pit and fell into it himself. Crucifixion of Jesus looked like a tragedy, but it became a triumph. The cross becomes God's greatest reversal. Jesus took my sin and offers his righteousness.

Jesus took my separation from the Father, crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He took my separation and offers his sonship, his relationship with the Father, and he took my death, and he offers his eternal life. This is the greatest reversal of all. And Esther is an echo, a foreshadowing of what Christ has done for us on the cross. The hidden hand of God is never more visible than it is at the core cross.

And because of Christ, what seems evil, what seems like it's winning in your life today, will quickly be overturned. Its tables will be overturned. When we trust in Jesus, let's pray Lord, thank youk for your word. Thank youk that yout've overturned the tables that were against us. That you've reversed our sin, our separation, our death by allowing Jesus to take all of that in our place.

You made the cross which was a place of suffering for Jesus. You made it the symbol of our salvation.

Lord, I pray for the person today that's never made a commitment to this Jesus that we're talking about. Is that you, my friend, this morning, right in your seat, right where you are, listening to God's word, the Holy Spirit knocking on your heart's door? Why not pray like this? Why not pray right now? Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner.

I know that you can see my heart.

But I believe you died on the cross for me and that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. Come and live in me. Forgive me of my sin. I want to be a child of God. Adopt me into your family.

I want to follow you as my Lord and Savior all the days of my life. I commit my life to you. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing he'll save you, and the great reversal will be your changed heart for him. Others are here today and you're a follower of Jesus. You've given your life to Him.

But you have an area of your life right now that's hidden and it's destroying you. And you've yet to turn it over to Him. It's a hidden thing. He wants you to come clean. He wants to bring it into the light where you can have healing.

Would you confess it to him right now? Would you give it to the Lord? Would you entrust it to Him? Lord, we thank you now that you're at work in our lives. In Jesus name, amen.