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THE LOTTERY QUEEN #9

HOIST BY MY OWN PETARD

Walter Lord, who wrote the bestseller A Night to Remember several decades ago, describes the night of April 14, 1912 as “a classic Greek tragedy.”  What did he mean by that?

After 135 pages of describing all of the details, the factors, the million and one big things and little things which caused a huge luxury liner like the unsinkable Titanic to go down, he compiles a list:

“If the Titanic had heeded ANY of the six ice messages on Sunday,” he writes.  “If ice conditions had been normal . . . if the night had been rough or moonlit . . . if she had seen the berg 15 seconds sooner — or 15 seconds later . . . if she had hit the ice any other way . . . if her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher . . . if she had carried enough boats . . . if the Californian had only come.” 

That’s a tough list, isn’t it?  I’m sure relatives of the victims had to agonize endlessly over the “what-if’s.”  Walter Lord concludes:

“Had any ONE of these ‘ifs’ turned out right, every life might have been saved.  But they all went against her — a classic Greek tragedy.”

Well, that’s Walter Lord.  But certainly grieving, bereaved relatives have to wonder at a time like that, or on the deck of the Carpathia: “Where’s the real Lord?  Where is God when every single event, every strand of circumstance, aligns itself to create disaster?”

And then there’s the flip side, a story like this one — the saga of Queen Esther.  Where again, there are so many factors, a million and one little, unnoticed events or tendencies . . . and all of them line up right to create a powerful, positive miracle.  It has to remind all of us of the wonderful New Testament verse which says this in Romans 8:28: 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” 

That’s good news, isn’t it — that for the believer, everything will work out right in the end.  And also that God has a plan, a purpose.  What looks like many random events, all skewed in mixed-up directions, just a cacophony of mindless noise and hurt . . . actually hides from our view, temporarily, a loving Father who just keeps on working out His will in a way that none of us can stop or resist.

This takes us back to our story, and over today and tomorrow we’ll discover how the book of Esther brings together so many “pieces of luck.”  Lottery jackpots that appear to be a one-in-a-million long shot.  A factor here and a variable there and a miracle in the middle.  And all the way through, God is working.

We’ve already seen part of this, as Mordecai is suddenly rewarded by the king.  And Haman, the villain, begins to sense that he’s dealing with something supernatural here, something he can’t conquer simply by building himself a 75-foot-high scaffold with a hangman’s noose dangling from it.  And now in Esther chapter seven, the moment of confrontation is about to occur at Banquet #2.  All of a sudden Haman doesn’t want to go, but palace officials come out to the Hammedatha estate and insist that he get into the White House limousine. 

Well, there’s more wine and more Persian hors d’oeuvres as we begin chapter seven, and then in verse two King Xerxes returns to the business at hand.  And we hear this for the third time, this time from the Clear Word paraphrase:

“Esther, now tell me what it is that you really want.  You know that I’m ready to give you anything you ask, even to half of my kingdom.”

Well, after two false starts — and actually, it was sheer genius and heavenly providence that Esther waited until now — she’s ready to tell the king everything that’s on her heart. 

“Then the queen answered, ‘Your Majesty, if I have found favor in your eyes, grant me my life.  That is my request.  Spare me and the lives of my people.  That is all I ask.’”  And then she lays it on the line: “‘My people and I have been singled out for genocide.’  ‘We are sold,’” says the King James, “‘I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.’”

And this incredible statement just hangs there in the air.  The king and his queen and Haman — and this announcement of a death sentence sends the king’s senses reeling.  Even though he just signed the thing himself, he has no concept of what Esther is talking about.  Here’s verse five:

“Ahasuerus asked Esther, ‘Who dared give such an order?  Who is he?’” King James: “‘Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”

And this is such a marvelous moment, so rich in passion, in payback, in raw human power.  I wish we could all see it where this beautiful queen, savior of her people, stands up to her full height, and in feminine but godly strength, points a finger.

“The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.”

Isn’t that a tremendous moment?  She has him.  Or, we should say, the God of all righteousness has him.  The enemy of God is unmasked, uncovered, left naked.  As Bible scholar David Clines writes in his New Century Commentary:

“The banquet has turned out exactly as planned: Haman is both unmasked and outnumbered.”

It’s just him against both the king and the queen.  Finally, at last, it’s two against one.  And he’s dead.

I guess this takes us back to that Titanic illustration, and our theme verse for the whole two weeks.  Mordecai said it to Esther earlier in the crisis: 

“Who can say but that God has brought you into the palace for just such a time as this?”

We’ve said that the book of Esther never explicitly mentions God, but what I just read was the Living Bible paraphrase, and I believe author Kenneth Taylor got this one exactly right.  Listen friend, Esther was no “lottery queen”; God brought her to power.  God intervened to let her win that beauty contest; He placed her on the right throne at the right time for the right purpose.

And all these factors, one by one, reveal a heavenly design.  Why did Mordecai uncover that assassination plot?  And why did the king fail to reward him until this very day?  Why couldn’t he sleep the night before?  Why was King Xerxes in a good mood, accepting the new queen into his presence without a royal invitation?  Why did Esther wait an extra day before presenting her request to the king?

And yet heaven doesn’t do it all without our help; divine agencies cooperate with human beings.  God gave her boldness, true; but twice now this Jewish teenager has had to speak out herself.  And let’s not lose sight of the fact that her success here in this story — being welcomed into the palace, being able to get this “half my kingdom” offer, enjoying the king’s support and favor — all rested upon the quiet but quality reputation Queen Esther had built up in four unheralded years of royal service.

Well, let’s finish up, because this is colorful stuff.  The king is so enraged he doesn’t trust himself.  The Bible says he went out into the garden to calm down and get his pulse rate under control.  Here’s verse seven:

“But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.  Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.”  Can you get that picture in your head?  Photographers from the National Enquirer, with their telephoto lenses, got it; that’s for sure.  Here’s what happened next, and the Living Bible is very descriptive: “‘Will he even rape the queen right here in the palace, before my very eyes?’ the king roared.”

He was probably being a bit theatrical, but one commentary tells us that an Assyrian harem regulation from that era of history stated that “if a courtier speaks with one of the women of the palace, he must not come closer to her than seven paces.”  And Haman here is falling all over the queen, crying like a baby for his life.

The Bible tells us in verse eight:

“Instantly the death veil was placed over Haman’s face.  Then Harbona, one of the king’s aides, said, ‘Sir, Haman has just ordered a 75-foot gallows constructed, to hang Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination!  It stands in Haman’s courtyard.”  And you know what’s happening next — it’s just too perfect.  “‘Hang Haman on it,’ the king ordered.”  And the story closes with this: “So they did, and the king’s wrath was pacified.”

I’ve mentioned before the old saying: “Hoist by my own petard.”  In other words, hung on my own gallows.  Caught in my own trap.  Blown up by my own bomb.  And we enjoy the irony, the perfect sweetness of God’s perfect revenge, but let’s not forget to notice how very often we hurt ourselves with our own plots against others.  We hate others, and our hatred destroys us.  We tell so many lies that we become self-deceived, and pay our own piper for it all.

Well, friend, I don’t know if your life has been a Titanic experience or a Queen Esther one.  Has the deck of life been stacked against you or for you?  I do know this: in the end, in all stories where God is permitted to have His role, in all lives where His influence and power are permitted to be exercised, those stories end in triumph.  I mentioned how Paul, who got pretty beat up most of the time, wrote how all things work out for good to those people who love God.  Just three verses later, Romans 8:31, he adds this marvelous Queen Esther line:

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”