GOD'S LOVE LETTER - The Book of Esther Pt 2 - The Providence of God

Definition - From the word 'provide'/ carefully preparing for future needs/ wise economical use of resources/ so lucky that it seems planned in advance by a greater power/ a caring force providing for mankind/ a perpetual evolution of good results in our lives no matter what happens to us.

Scripture - Romans 8:28 - 39

1.  Have your eyes been opened to the providence of God on your life?

• Flavel - "He who observes providence will never be long without providence to observe"
• God's people were in distress, BUT wisdom can bring good out of evil, "even as a chemist distills healing drugs from poisonous plants".
• You have to stand before you can walk, eg, baby to toddler - 
• Romans 5:2, "We have access by faith into this grace in which we now STAND"
• 2 Corinthians 5:7, "Walk by faith, not by sight"
• Seeing and experiencing GRACE = providence gives you the confidence to walk by faith when you are in distress until providence breaks your way!

2.  Where has life positioned you in this season?

• That is the providence of God - ask Him to open your eyes to it.
• You may prefer a different position or circumstance but serve God where you are and see what happens.
• God has his AGENTS (you) hidden in fitting places for doing his work - sometimes you're a lamp hanging in a dark place - shine there.
• Providence doesn't mean God does it all and you do nothing.
• He calls us to be active - Esther 4:14, "If you remain silent, deliverance will arise from another place"
• God's methods are men.
• Note that prayer and fasting featured prominently in this story.

3.  God in His providence lets His people go through trials:

• We are sons and daughters, not bastards - Good parents discipline sinful children.
• Even Esther has to 'risk death' in approaching the king.
• If you have a high position, it's not for ease but for purpose.
• Gold isn't known as real gold until after it is tested in the crucible.
• God is able to test us in the fire (with a peaceful heart) because He knows that the metal He has made us from CAN ENDURE and pass the test and be transformed into what He made us to be by being in the fire.
• The wicked carry within them the weapons of their own destruction.
• Haman, in his HASTE to do evil to Mordecai, built the gallows and rushed in too early after the kings disturbing sleep, and is asked the fatal question. 
• Million to one chance that the king should end up reading the story of Mordecai the night before his intended hanging.

Conclusion: 

• God's wisdom is seen - when you look back on your life since salvation and see His design.
• Rejoice that your God sits on the throne.
• Rejoice that in the end the Lord achieves total defeat of His foes and total safety and sustenance for His people.

God's Love Letter - The Book of Esther

A Jewish heroine saves Israel from extermination by their enemies.  Her success comes because of:
1. A great love for God.
2. A genuine love for her people.
3. A humble respect for authority.
4. A good relationship with a foreign king.

Sometimes your work is not in the centre of your church or your nation but at the heart of some foreign regime - but it's there God has work for you.
A Jewish orphan in exile becomes Queen of Persia and foils a plot to exterminate the Jews.

Esther 1:10-12; 2:2-4, 7-8, 11-12, 17, 19-20, 22, 23; 3;1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 13, 14;  4:8, 9, 10-17, 5:2-4, 6-8, 9-14; 6:1, 3-14; 9:17b; 10:3.

Destiny:  "For such a time as this"
- The privilege God entrusts you with in allowing you to contribute to His Kingdom purpose on the earth.
- Esther 4:13-14

• His faith and confidence in God's rescue
• A reminder - your favour from God is not just for your own comfort.
• There is a privileged purpose (destiny, opportunity) that goes with it.

You:  "You have come into the kingdom for such a time as this"

• The church is good for you - but are you good for the church?
• Can it be built on your faithfulness and grow from your fruitfulness?
• There is something for each believer to do - a work which can't be delegated to others.

The ship of your life - is it wrecked before it leaves the harbour?

• Are you living your agenda for God, or God's agenda for you?
• Do you separate your interests from God?
• Are you in the same vessel which carries your Lord and His disciples or have you constructed your own life, your own vessel, your own goals, separate from Him?
• You can't create a heaven for yourself - you will fail, your boat will be wrecked, you will be lost.
• Break that chain of selfishness that keeps you in slavery.
• Come to God - live unto Him, love others, let Him prepare an estate for you.  Don't set your own, apart from Him and His cause.
• Win the victory over sin or it wins the victory over you.  Serve God, not sin.

What have your ancestors left you with?
What will you leave yours with? - neglect?  treasure?


You are in the body of Christ for such a time as this.

• We've been lifted from the scrap heap and set among princes.
• But you're not the proprietor of what you have amassed - your the steward.
• You will have to give an account to God of your life - what was it used for?

You may have been raised out of poverty into comparative wealth.

• Like Esther, a position you never dreamed of.
• For such a time as this.
• He does not bless the hand for the hands sake, but for the sake of the entire body.

A foster child became Queen.
You are the key to a lock which no other key can open.

In God - you have a whole new capacity beyond what you thought you were capable of.
"Here and I, send me."

Conclusion:

• Be confident, you are safe.
• It looked so grim for Mordecai - he and his people - an irrevocable edict to destroy them.
• It looked grim for Esther - losing her loved ones at a young age.
• Yet in the face of death, she put her key in the lock God showed her and it worked - and saved her people.  What an Ancestor!