God Always Plans Ahead

Esther 3:7-15

⁷ In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. ⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not to the king’s profit to tolerate them. ⁹ If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, that they may put it into the king’s treasuries.” ¹⁰ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. ¹¹ And the king said to Haman, “The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.” ¹² Then the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring. ¹³ Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. ¹⁴ A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. ¹⁵ The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.

Chapter 3 introduces Haman and tells us many things about him, most of which are not good. In today’s reading we find him casting lots to determine what day would be best to carry out his evil plot of destruction. So we know that he is ruled by superstition. We also learn that he is ruled by greed, and prejudicial hatred. This is a miserable human being. The casting of lots determined that his requested massacre should happen 12 months after asking the king’s permission. That fact alone gave the Jews time to act. The refusal of Mordecai to bow down to Haman becomes the sin of an entire ethnic group and Haman marks them for total extermination. It is important to keep in mind that the Persian Empire is made up of dozens of people groups who had been conquered by the Persians. His incredible arrogance will mean the execution of millions of people.

Living among every other people, the Jews had to resist amalgamation with them and absorption into a mixture of races if they were to observe the religious, social, and dietary regulations which were known to them from “the law of Moses”. However, their distinctiveness did not demand that they refuse to keep the king’s laws, as Haman claimed. Haman’s superstition was the first step to his ultimate downfall.

Brug, J. F. (1985). Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (pp. 172–173). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

In the midst of all of this planning and intrigue, God has not forgotten His people. Five years earlier He had Esther seated upon the throne of Persia. Keep that fact in the back of your mind. Five years earlier God was moving to secure the safety of His people. God’s knowledge of and preparation for the future cannot be missed here. And He has that same knowledge today. There is nothing coming up in your life for which the Lord is not prepared – absolutely nothing. Even when you cannot see it, God is taking care of your details and none of them will slip through His fingers. While His name isn’t mentioned, we find Him in action. I love that.

There are some in Christendom today who teach that God is making up His plan of salvation as we go along here. That is simply not true. God’s plan was firmly in place before the foundations of the world. Paul reminds us in Romans that His plan of salvation was set before we even knew we needed a Savior.

Romans 5:6–11

⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The story of Esther, Haman, Mordecai and the king reminds us yet again that God is always in control. He is in control of your everyday life and has not let you or your details out of His sight.