Esther 5
McGeeCHAPTER 5THEME: The sceptre of grace
Esther 5:1
The king was sitting on his royal throne opposite the entrance to the palace. Around him were his court attendants dressed in all of their finery. Imagine the color! In addition to that were the awnings, the tapestries, the gold and silver and marble of the throne room. The king was probably conducting state business when Esther stepped out from an alcove, or from behind a pillar, and stood there in her royal apparel. And I want to say, friends, that she was beautiful.
Esther 5:2
Esther had prepared herself to appear before the king. You will remember that when she came the first time before the king and won the beauty contest that she required none of the fine clothing or elaborate accessories that the other girls had required. By her natural beauty she had won, and the king had fallen in love with her. But this time I am sure that she spent a great deal of time on her dress. We are told that “Esther put on her royal apparel,” which means that she put on the finest that she had. It meant that she looked the best that she could. In fact, if I may use the common colloquialism of the street, she knocked the king’s eyes out! I tell you, she was lovely. When she stepped into that royal court and waitedit was certainly a dramatic momentthe king looked at her. The question is: Will he raise the sceptre or will he not? And in that moment I am confident this Hebrew girl prayed, although there is no record of it. She must have recognized how helpless and hopeless she really was. And then the king held out the golden sceptre to her, and possibly smiled. Then she advanced and put her hand on the sceptre, which was the custom of the day. What a picture we have here. In this book I have been emphasizing the law of the Medes and Persians and comparing their law to the Law of God. God’s law says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die …” (Eze_18:20). And, friends, God has never changed that. It is as true now as it ever was. That is God’s law. It is immutable. He could not change that without changing His character. There is another side to the story. We see that in holding out the sceptre to Queen Esther, the king was giving her her life. May I say to you, our God holds out the sceptre to mankind today. It is true that “…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom_3:23). It is true that we are “…dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph_2:1). It is true that “…the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze_18:4).
But, you see, our God had to overcome that tremendous law, and the only way in the world He could overcome it was for Him to come to this earth Himself, and take upon Himself our sins, and pay that penaltyfor that law was not abrogated, and it is not abrogated today. When God saved you, my friend, it was because Somebody else paid the penalty for your sins. He died a substitutionary death upon that cross for you and me. As a result of that, God holds out to the earth the sceptre of grace, and He says to any individual, “You can come to Me. You can touch that sceptre of grace. You can receive salvation from Me.” Now Esther has come into the presence of the king, and he recognizes immediately that she would never have made this effort if an emergency had not arisen.
Esther 5:3
He knows she did not come to him in this manner because of some petty problem. He knows she did not come to ask for money to buy a new hat or to suggest that they go out to dinner at the local restaurant. He knows something is troubling his queen. He sees that she is trembling and greatly distressed. He wants her to feel comfortable, and so he says, “It shall be given thee to the half of the kingdom.” This is not an idle expression. To make her feel at ease, he hands her a blank check and invites her to fill in the amount.
Esther 5:4
Esther does not make her request known right away. She simply invites the king to lunch and asks him to bring Haman too. She wants Haman present when she lets the king know that the thing he has demanded is not only the death of the Jews but her death also. What Esther did was an audacious and brave thing. She knew she was the only help for her people. After all, God had placed her in the position of being queen by His providence. I am sure that Esther would never have said that she was there by the will of God. In fact, she does not even mention the name of God. But she did go into the presence of the king knowing that it might mean her death. The die is cast. My friend, we are all going to stand before the King of kings some day. Every believer will stand before Him to see whether or not he will receive a reward. This judgment will be at the Bema seat of Christ. There is another judgment where only the lost will appear. This will be at the Great White Throne, where they will be judged according to their works. As the king held out the sceptre to Esther, and she stepped up and touched it, so God holds out the sceptre of grace to us today; and He asks us to come and touch it by faith, accepting what He has to offer. He is not gracious to us because we are beautiful. My mirror tells me I’m not beautiful, and I’m ugly on the inside, too. Sin comes out of the human heart. We hear much about the fact that we should take care of all the pollutionand I am all for itbut I want to start where all the trouble begins, which is the human heart. God is holding out the sceptre of grace to all who will receive His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Esther 5:5
You can see the feeling of the king in this verse. He said, “You tell Haman that Esther has invited us to dinner and that he is to come that he may do as Esther has said.” The king has been very generous to Haman. He has made him prime minister. He gave Haman his ring and let him send out the request that he wanted to slay the Jews. But when the comparison is made with Queen Esther, Haman must obey her. She is the queen. So this puts her in a very favorable light indeed. The king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
Esther 5:6
At the banquet Esther is obviously nervous, and the king can see that there is something that is deeply troubling her. He asks her what her request is and offers her up to half of the kingdom. As we have seen, this idiomatic expression means she can have anything she wants. He sees that she is still anxious, so he hands her this blank check. There is a lesson here. God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, has given us a blank check. Paul could say in Php_4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” God has given us a blank check, but the amount is not filled in, even though He has signed it. How wonderful it is to have such a King. But He is more than a King. He is our Savior. He is the Savior of the world. He is holding out the sceptre of grace to a lost world. Why is this cruel king being so gracious and patient with Esther? Pro_21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” In the story of Esther, the Lord is moving the king in a definite way.
Esther 5:7
Esther still does not have the courage to express her request to the king, so she says, “I am having another banquet tomorrow. We have just had a smorgasbord today, but you come back tomorrow and I will prepare a real banquet. Then I will let you know what my request is.” You can see the fear that is in the heart of this girl. There was nothing more for the king and Haman to do but to finish the meal and then depart.
Esther 5:9
Haman came out from the banquet very happy that he only had been the guest of the king and queen. His ego has been greatly expanded. He had made such a hit with the queen that she invited him back the next day for another banquet. This section illustrates that “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Pro_16:18). The Greeks also have a proverb. It goes something like this: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” As Haman left the banquet, all the functionaries of the kingdom bow before himexcept one, Mordecai, a judge, who stands erect. You would think that a man in Haman’s position would ignore a little thing like Mordecai’s refusal to bow to him. But he is not going to ignore it. He is full of indignation against Mordecai, but he restrains himself for the time being. He thinks, “I’ll get even with you in a few days.”
Esther 5:10
Haman is certainly playing the fool. He wants to do a little bragging. As you may have noticed, when a man starts bragging, there are usually three areas he talks about. First he boasts about his riches, the money he makes. Then he talks about his fine childrenor grandchildren (that’s what I do). Then he will generally boast about his promotion and high position. Haman went all the way. He boasted in all three areas.
Esther 5:12
There is another thing that men boast about. They like to boast about being great with the ladies. He had had lunch with the queen today, and tomorrow he was going to have dinner with her! Haman was very human as well as being a rascal and villain. He does not know what is in store for him. He would do well to turn down the queen’s invitation, but this man will not do that.
Esther 5:13
There is one little fly in the ointment. He cannot get over the fact that Mordecai won’t bow to him. all of the things on the credit side of the ledger don’t mean a thing when compared to the indignity given him by Mordecai. Someone has said that you can always tell the size of a man by the things that irritate him. If little things irritate him, he is a little man. If it takes big things to irritate him, he is a big man. My friend, what bothers you? Do little things like that annoy you? Oh, don’t let insignificant things mar your life. That is the mark of littleness. Yet most of us must confess that it is the small things, the “little foxes that spoil the vines” as far as our own lives are concerned. Haman revealed himself to be a little man. After all, Mordecai was only a judge, a petty judge, in the kingdom. Haman was the prime minister. Ignore the fellow! Not Haman. “All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew, sitting at the king’s gate.”
Esther 5:14
Zeresh, his wife, and his friends suggested that he build a gallows for Mordecai. So late that evening they built a gallows fifty cubits (that’s about seventy-five) feet high! Think of that! Remember that the meaning of the name Mordecai, is “little"he was a short fellow. To erect a gallows seventy-five feet high on which to hang a short fellow reveals the resentment, the hatred, and the bitterness in his heart. However, with this happy solution Haman goes to bed.