ESTHER 7:1-10, 9:20-22

7:1  So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.

2  On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."

3  Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me--that is my petition--and the lives of my people--that is my request.

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 held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king."

5  Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?"

6  Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

7  The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him.

8  When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?" As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face.

9  Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on that."

9:20  Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

21  enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year,

22  as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

The world is full of people who do bad things. Now we’re not talking about your every day run of the mill bad things.   We’re not talking about people like the man who was shocked and embarrassed one day when his dog brought home a dead rabbit.   The man immediately recognized the rabbit.  It belonged to his landlady and it was deader than a doornail.  It’s fur was all dirty and matted.  To his credit though the man didn’t panic.  He knew that his landlady wouldn’t be home from church for a couple of hours.  So he took the rabbit over to the sink and washed the dirt off the poor unfortunate creature. He then got a hair dryer and after fluffing the fur up all nice and pretty he put the rabbit back in it’s cage.  Later that morning when his landlady came home from church he heard her crying hysterically in the backyard.  The man went out to comfort and console her.  “There, there,” he said.  “Don’t cry.  These things happen you know.”  “I know that,” the landlady said, “but I already buried it three days ago.”

There are people who do bad things and then there are people who do really bad things.  Unfortunately, all you have to do is read the newspaper to see that the world is full of terrorists and troublemakers, drug dealers and dictators, bank robbers and bombers, cold blooded killers and criminals.

Some of you may remember Sonia Weitz.   She preached a sermon here about 10 years ago.  Sonia was a survivor of the Holocaust and she wrote a book about her experiences called I Promised I Would Tell.  In the book she talks about an old man who tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists on a barbed wire fence.  Sonia said that when the Germans found him lying there they were furious.  They immediately rushed him to the infirmary and stitched him up.  Then they marched him out in front of the entire camp and executed him.  The Germans wanted everyone to know that they were the ones to decide when it was time for you to die.

Yes, the world is full of people who do really bad things like Bernie Madoff, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Haman. 

The Book of Esther tells the story about Haman’s diabolical plot to kill all the Jews in Persia.   Haman was motivated by jealousy and hatred.  It all started when Haman was given a position of honor in King Ahasuerus’ court and Mordecai refused to bow before him.   Mordecai refused to bow before him because he was a Jew and his faith said that you were only supposed to bow before God.  So, Haman conjures up all kinds of lies and gets the king to agree to his plan to kill all the Jews in the kingdom.

Unfortunately, it’s true.  The more things change the more they stay the same. Back then there were people who did really bad things just as there are people today who do really bad things.  Do you ever get discouraged by all of the terrible things that you see going on in the world?   After watching all those deadly demonstrations all around the Arab world the past couple of weeks I found myself turning again and again to the words of the psalmist.

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

                        How long will you hide your face from me?

                        How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

            Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;

            lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’

                        lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”                             (Psalm 13)

Sometimes you feel the same way a little boy felt after listening to his Sunday School teacher talk about the arrest and crucifixion.  After the teacher finished telling the story she asked the children if they had any questions.  “Yes,” the little boy said.  “I have a question.  Where were the State Police when all of this was going on?”

It is easy to get discouraged by all of the hate and greed and evil that you see going on in the world.   The Book of Esther though makes it clear that there is a reason to be hopeful.  There is a good reason to be hopeful.  In fact there is a very good reason to be hopeful.  Look at it this way.  Do you think it’s just a coincidence that a Jewish woman by the name of Esther was queen at the same time Haman was getting ready to annihilate all the Jews in the kingdom?  Do you think it’s just a coincidence that the queen was a Jewish woman who was able to use her influence with the king to turn the tables on Haman?

I’m sorry but I don’t believe in coincidences.  I believe that a coincidence is simply God choosing to remain anonymous.   So even though God is never mentioned by name in the Book of Esther God was there working quietly behind the scenes.  God used Esther to turn the tables on Haman and put a stop to his evil intentions.   Esther’s uncle Mordecai hit the nail on the head when says to her, “who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (4:14)

God used Esther to put an end to Haman and his evil intentions.  Now that may make some of you a little uncomfortable.  That’s because we talk so much these days about God’s love that we forget sometimes that our Creator is also a God of justice.  As someone once said, God’s love is always there to comfort the afflicted and God’s justice is also there to afflict the comfortable. 

Yes, evil is very real but so is God’s justice. Just look at the Berlin Wall.  Just look at Nelson Mandela and the system of apartheid that existed in South Africa.  Just look at what happened to the Pharaoh of Egypt when he defied God’s will and refused to let the people go.  Or how about Herod and his plan to kill the Christ child.  Do you think it was a coincidence that the wise men brought expensive gifts with them to Bethlehem?  No.  That gold and frankincense and myrrh were all part of God’s plan.  Those expensive gifts made it possible for Joseph, a poor carpenter to flee to Egypt with his wife and the Christ child.

Those who do evil would do well to remember the words that Jesus spoke in the Garden of Gethsemane.  “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.”  Or in Haman’s case, “He who lives by the gallows shall die by the gallows.”  

The psalmist has these words of warning for those who defy God by sowing seeds of hatred and evil.  “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision…he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury…”  (Psalm 2)

When Louis XIV died in 1714 hundreds of dignitaries gather to pay their final respects to the French king.   In the cathedral the glory of the famous king was there for everyone to see in the solid gold casket at the front of the church.   The only light in the cathedral was a single candle on the altar which was there to symbolize the majesty of the great Sun King.  When the time came for the eulogy Bishop Jean Baptiste Massillon walked over to the altar and quietly snuffed out the candle.  The people gasped.  Then in the darkness, they heard just four words, “Only God is great!”

Yes, only God is great and sooner or later, somehow someway God’s justice will always have the last word.  Just ask Haman.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

September 30, 2012