Where Is God? - The Tale of Queen Esther
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
November 30, 2025 :: Esther 7:1-10
We have finally reached “Queen Esther’s Banquet.”
It’s actually Queen Esther’s Second Banquet, isn’t it? Because she put one on in chapter 5, as well. But this is the one that everything in this story has been driving towards. This is the banquet where Queen Esther is planning to reveal her big secret and to plead for her life and for the survival of her people.
Queen Esther has a secret and that is that she is a Jew. Very few people know this. You and I know this, but Xerxes I the King of Persia also known as Ahasuerus (to whom Esther is married!) does not know this about her.
You and I know this, and the Jews in the city of Susa in the fifth century BC (who have been fasting for her three whole days and nights) know this, but their archenemy, Haman (boo/hiss) does not know this.
We know that Esther has another name, Hadassah, but most people in the kingdom only know her Persian name, Esther, the Star Queen. Because her cousin Mordecai who raised her ever since her parents died had told her to keep her Jewish identity a secret...until now. But now things are desperate. Now it seems that it’s time to speak up and speak out and speak for her people, the Jews.
Because the Jews are in danger. Mordecai has angered the Grand Vizier Haman by refusing to fall before him in honor. And Haman was so angry that he conspired to kill, not just Mordecai but all of Mordecai’s people throughout the Persian kingdom–from India to Ethiopia which included all of Israel.
Haman slyly manipulated Xerxes into authorizing the extermination of the Jews on a single day nearly a year from now, the 13th day of Adar, which was chosen “at random” by casting the pur, which was like rolling the dice. Haman offered Xerxes ten thousand talents of silver for the royal treasury to get this done. Probably from taking the Jew’s stuff after killing them. Something like two thirds of the kingdom’s incoming budget for the genocide of the Jews.
Xerxes had hardly paid attention to the details and thoughtlessly gave over his royal ring for Haman to authorize the decree “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day” (Esther 3:13).
Things had become desperate now for the Jewish people. They were all in danger. And so Mordecai, grieving in sackcloth and ashes, had urged Esther to use whatever influence she had with her husband the king to try to stop this murder of all of her kinsmen throughout the world.
Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, Esther had been elevated to this royal position for such a time as this. For such a time as Queen Esther’s Banquet.
This banquet was Esther’s idea of how to persuade King Xerxes to spare her people. Esther knows how much her man loves a banquet. He gave two of them in chapter 1. It’s how she ended up being the queen! One of the king’s banquets lasted half of a year! Ahasuerus loves to party hardy!
But how to get him there? That was the first problem. Because Esther wasn’t allowed to just walk up to him and talk to him. She had to be invited, and she hadn’t been invited for thirty days. Esther had not been the flavor of the month. But she decided to go anyway, and if she died, well, then she died. But she was going to do what was needed, what was right, no matter what.
And the king had...welcomed her into his presence (whew!), and asked her what she wanted. What was her request?
Esther requested...his presence at a banquet. Every banquet (every mishteh) in this book (and there are like ten of them!) is consequential.
Esther invited the king and the enemy Haman to a banquet in chapter 5 where they ate and drank, and where the king asked her a second time what Esther really wanted. And she said, “I’ll tell you (and Haman) tomorrow at banquet number two.”
And that’s where we are in chapter 7, “Queen Esther’s (Second) Banquet.”
But before we got there, there was this whole chapter 6 thing!
What a week these people are having!!!
Because just yesterday on the way home from the first banquet Haman had seen Mordecai who was still refusing to fall down in honor before him and didn’t even seem scared by him. Mordecai just stared at Haman as he went by. And that had so steamed up Haman that he decided that night to have a gallows built (probably a giant wooden pole for impaling someone) that was 50 cubits high which translates to 75 feet tall! The tallest thing in the city of Susa, taller than the palace itself. Ridiculously high, a skyscraper of death to make an example of Mordecai.
And Haman was going to ask the king for permission to kill Mordecai on these gallows that day. Not waiting for next year’s Jewish genocide. But today, right before Queen Esther’s Banquet.
Do you remember this? For some of you this might be the first time you’ve heard this story.
I wonder why?! So many things happening at once, all moving towards this crucial day.
The king could not sleep, so he made his servants read to him from the chronicles of his reign, and they just so happened (wink, wink) to read about a time a few years back when Mordecai had thwarted a plot to assassinate this king. Almost everybody had forgotten about it until that sleepless night.
And they realized that Mordecai had never been honored for saving the king’s life, and so he decided to do something about it right then and there. Remember this?
He decided to ask Haman, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Thinking Mordecai. But Haman, thinking Haman, suggested a royal robe, a royal horse, and a royal parade. And the king said, “Yeah, do that for Mordecai the Jew.”
One of, if not the, funniest chapter(s) in the whole Bible! Keagan just read it to us. Haman has to lead Mordecai around town on a royal horse in a royal robe and say to everyone, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”
And, all of a sudden, Haman’s plans seem to go sideways. Haman goes home in grief from that moment, and his family and friends all tell him that he’s doomed. “You will fall.” And the king’s servants come and grab him to get to Queen Esther’s Banquet on time.
Do you feel how desperate this banquet is? How precarious this situation has become? Everybody is on edge!
The king has not slept in over 24 hours. How does that make you feel? Rough, right? Hard to make good decisions when you haven’t slept. Emotions are raw. It’s easy to get angry when you’re tired. And Xerxes isn’t known for controlling his emotions in the first place.
And Haman has just had to honor his enemy all over town and been told by his closest friends that he himself is going down. He was filled with grief, and he’s probably nervous and anxious, like a trapped animal.
And Esther? How does she feel at this banquet? It doesn’t say, but I would assume that she is scared to death. Maybe she’s heard the wild story about what happened to cousin Mordecai this morning on the horse. That would be encouraging. Maybe she hasn’t heard. We don’t know. Regardless, she didn’t know what was going to happen next.
This is a very precarious situation. Esther is laying a table for two very dangerous men. One is her sworn enemy (even if he doesn’t know it!), and he may have some terrible trick up his sleeve. He may be cornered, but he’s still dangerous.
And the other man is unpredictable and unreliable. We have seen over and over again that Xerxes is not a good man. And she has been basically lying to him for their whole marriage. Keeping her deepest identity secret.
But Esther has gotten these two dangerous men to her banquet, and she’s going to try her dead-level best to make a difference for her people.
Esther chapter 7, verse 1.
By the way, let’s do this with the name of Haman this time. As the Jews have done for millennia, we have been drowning out the name of Haman with noises like boos and hisses at times as we read this tale.
Let’s do it in verse 1 and verse 6 and verse 10 today. The beginning, the middle, and the end of chapter 7. I’ll remind you.
And here’s your first reminder. Let’s read verse 1.
“So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, and as they were drinking wine on that second day, the king again asked, ‘Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted’” (vv.1-2).
That’s the third time that he’s asked. He might not ask again.
He knows that something is up. He knows the Esther has more on her mind than food and wine. He doesn’t know what it is, but he knows there is something. She’s gotten all dressed up in all of her royal robes. She has laid out quite a spread yesterday and today. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish. (Oh, no, wait that was us on Thursday.) We don’t know what food was on her table, but it was the best of the best. She had pulled out all of stops for two days.
And the best wine. And they’re all laughing (maybe nervously?) and enjoying themselves. Maybe Haman is beginning to relax a little. Maybe his day is going to turn around again. Maybe he can still get Mordecai dead by bedtime if he plays his cards right. He’s obviously still in the king’s good graces and Esther’s, because here he is the only other guest at Queen Esther’s Banquet!
And the king wants to know, “What is your request? I will grant it. I want to be seen as incredibly generous. Just say the word.”
Everything in her story has been leading up to this moment. This is the “such a time.” And Esther does not chicken out. She does not suggest a third banquet. She clears her throat and courageously pleads. Verse 3.
“Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life–this is my petition. And spare my people–this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king’” (vv.3-4).
I have three things I want to point out in Esther chapter 7–three things we can clearly see and learn from at Queen Esther’s Banquet–and here’s the first one:
#1. TRUE COURAGE.
I don’t know if I could have done what she did. I would hope I could, but I could also see myself chicken out.
“Let me get back to you on that, King. I’ll send you an email. I didn’t think about what it would be like to say it to your face. Or to say it in front of him.”
No. She just goes right to it. “Grant me my life...And spare my people. I’m a Jew, and the Jews are in trouble, and you’re the only one that can save us.”
Now, it’s amazing how careful and wise she is in how she does it. Esther is teaching a master-class here in diplomacy and persuasion. She starts with two “ifs.” “IF I have found favor with you, O king, and IF it pleases your majesty...” She isn’t demanding here. She’s building off of their relationship. She has always found favor with him up to till now. And she is careful to couch things in a way that appeals to his best interest. She says that she wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn’t so desperate for them and so consequential for him.
There’s a little bit of ambiguity in verse 4. It could be understood to mean that she is pointing out that if they weren’t killed, they could be put to better economic use than just eliminating them. As it is, he’s going to lose a giant ongoing workforce if this plan goes through. And, of course, they will all die–including his wife Queen Esther.
Notice that she doesn’t accuse him. She could, right? She could say, “You’ve been duped and really messed up my life, Ahasuerus!”
No. She doesn’t say, “You have sold my people. She says, “I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation...” Those are the very words of the order that was sent out in chapter 3, verse 13. But she doesn’t name him here directly.
She does directly ask for him to spare her and her people. Esther comes out and clearly identifies with her people.
True courage.
She doesn’t know how this will go. I can imagine a situation where the king says, “You are a Jew?! Get lost. Take your things and move to the back of the harem. This is the last time I will ever see your face. You and Vashti can hang out from now on. You lied to me.”
I can imagine a situation where Haman says, “Oh, you’re a Jew? King Xerxes, she’s part of the problem around here. She’s part of that group I was telling you about last week. She’s right that they are on the schedule to die. That’s a solution, not a problem.” And the men agree together, and that’s it.
She doesn’t know what’s going to happen when she speaks up. She may die. But if she dies, she dies. She speaks up anyway. That’s true courage.
She could have tried to hide. Maybe just ask for an exception! “You know, O kingy-poo, you had that order about destruction, slaughter, and annihilation? That doesn’t apply to little old me, does it? There’s an exception for queens, right?” No, she stands with her people and intercedes for them. It’s one for all and all for one.
Notice that true courage is not something that we are only called to do once, and then we’re done. Esther had to take her life in her hands in her hands yesterday. And she has to take her life in her hands today. She had be courageous yesterday, and she had to be courageous today.
And our Lord is calling you and me to be courageous, too.
He is calling us to bear witness to Him. To tell others that we are Christians that we belong to His people, too.
He is calling us to share the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death and victorious resurrection and how that saves us from our sins.
He is calling us to use what influence we have, however small or however large, to intercede for others and their good.
To speak up, even in a dangerous world.
In Matthew chapter 10, our Lord Jesus told His followers, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
That sounds like Esther to me. She is so shrewd with how she used beauty, hospitality, and persuasion to make her case as good as she possibly could. But she doesn’t manipulate or lie to get there. Innocent as a dove. But she does go out among the wolves! She knows that she’s vulnerable. She’s a sheep among the wolves, but there she goes. And so should we!
Where are you being called to be courageous?
Where are you being called to stick out your neck?
Where are you being called to speak up and speak out and speak for others that need you?
Esther shows us how.
She had one shot, and she took her shot...and it hit the target! Verse 5.
“King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?’”
Woah! That sleepless man is angry! And he’s not angry at her. He’s acutely felt the injustice correctly. This thing is bad, really bad. He roars, “Who is he? Give us a name. Who has dared to do such a thing to my wife and her people?”
And we’re thinking, “Can you be this clueless? You don’t see your part in all this?”
But that’s not where Esther goes. She points the finger, perhaps with her whole arm shaking, at someone else in the room. Look at verse 6 and get ready to drown out his name. Verse 6.
“Esther said, ‘The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.”
That took so much courage! To face her enemy? To say that he is her adversary and the enemy of the Jews? To name him. “This vile Haman.” That took so much courage.
And Haman has no courage. He’s filled with an intense fear and has no courage to deal with it.
Can you feel how much emotion is in this room?
Haman is terrified. Xerxes is infuriated! Verse 7.
“The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden.”
He can’t stand this. He has to think. He has to think about what he’s going to do.
Maybe it’s dawning on Xerxes that maybe he shares some of the fault here. He’s allowed Haman to put him in this situation. And he’s going to lose face either way. Xerxes never thinks that he’s the problem. He’s so mad at Haman for getting him into this. What’s he going to do? He’s pacing out in the garden, grunting, groaning, maybe throwing things.
And where’s Haman? Haman should not have stayed in that room. He’s not supposed to be alone with a member of the king’s harem. He should have left at that point, but if he leaves, he can’t do anything directly about his situation. The king didn’t want him to follow him, and you can’t enter the king’s presence without being summoned. Look at verse 7.
“But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.”
How is that for irony?! Maybe this is the funniest chapter in the Bible?! The darkest humor. The enemy of the Jews who wants to kill all of the Jews is going to get on knees before a Jewish woman who is his queen and beg for his life. V.8
“Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. [Please, please, please. Help me, please. Mercy!] The king exclaimed, ‘Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?’ As soon as the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.”
I don’t know if Ahasuerus actually believed that Haman was trying to assault Esther at that moment, maybe he did. Maybe he saw this is a convenient way out, of solving his problem of saving face. Accuse Haman of sexual assault, and we don’t have to into all of that stuff about the royal ring and all that. Or maybe he was just filled with rage and seeing red.
He sees Haman falling. The very thing that Mordecai would not do, “fall” before Haman? The very thing that Zeresh said that Haman would do “fall?” That’s exactly what Haman is doing. Falling before Esther and falling in the eyes of the king. And then his face is covered by the servants. Like he’s not even there anymore. He’s condemned. It’s over for Haman.
And that’s when we hear from Harbona. Harbona was one of the servants who was sent to bring Vashti to the king’s banquet in chapter 1. He’s been hanging around in the background wondering which way the wind was going to blow. It’s obvious now, and so Harbona pipes up with a helpful piece of information. Verse 9.
“Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, ‘A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman's house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.’ The king said, ‘Hang him on it!’”
Verse 10. Last time to drown out his name today.
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided” (vv.9-10).
The second thing we clearly see at Queen Esther’s (second) Banquet is:
#2. POETIC JUSTICE.
Which is true justice. The punishment here perfectly fits the crime.
Yes, Haman is executed for a crime he did not commit. He wasn’t attempting rape. But he was attempting genocide. And he dies for it. And he dies upon the very instrument of torture that he had wanted to kill an innocent man upon.
Harbona said, “He had it made for Mordecai who spoke up to help the king.” And the king said, “Hang him on it!”
He was impaled in his own front yard. At the top of the highest point in the city.
Solomon says in Proverbs 26:27, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them” (Proverbs 26:27, NIV).
We’ve all seen this happen from time to time. But we’ve all also wondered if it would happen from time to time. Because we all see a lot of injustice in the world. People digging a pit and pushing other people into it. That’s how Haman had gotten where he was. That’s how Xerxes had gotten where he was!
But now Haman has received poetic justice, and we are told that there is even more poetic justice on the way.
“Be sure your sins will find you out.”
Remember what we learned this summer about justice from 2 Thessalonians?
Paul wrote that persecuted church, “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
Perfect justice is on the way. It will perfectly fit the crime.
And we can rejoice in that. Because that means that everything that is wrong will be made right. Like said last week, we are living in a comedy. We are living in a story with a happy ending for all of God’s true people.
All bad things must come to an end.
King Jesus is going to bring perfect poetic justice in His forever kingdom. We just have to wait.
But that should also scare you if you are not yet one of God’s true people. If you are living like Haman, living for yourself, your pleasures, your agenda, your happiness, your kingdom, then you can expect poetic justice to roll back on you. Repent now while you still can.
Haman’s story is a cautionary tale. It’s just a matter of time.
And one last thing that we can see and learn from at Queen Esther’s Banquet?
#3. HIDDEN PROVIDENCE.
Where is God? That’s been the title of this series all along. Where is God at Queen Esther’s Banquet?
Well, He’s never mentioned. He’s never named. But I don’t think, at this point in the story, we can miss seeing signs of His presence. I don’t think we can miss seeing his handiwork in how the story is playing out.
How in the world did Hadassah get to be Queen Esther? How in the world did Queen Esther get the King and Haman to this precarious banquet? For such a time as this. How in the world did this unlikely story come about? How in the world was Esther still standing and not Haman at the end of chapter 7?
What are the chances? What is there is no such thing a chance?
How in the world did Haman and Mordecai end up switching places? He may be hidden, but the Lord is clearly sovereignly ruling all things–what we call “providence.”
Now, we’re going to stop here and pick it up again in chapter 8, Lord-willing.
Haman is dead. The king’s anger has subsided. But not everything is resolved. The fate of the Jews is not yet fully decided.
Because when the Persian king makes a law, it cannot be revoked or repealed. And that’s a problem. Because there is a law on the books that says that the Jews must be eradicated in eleven months. Even though Haman won’t be there to see it! The clock is still ticking down, down, down.
It feels like the tide has turned, but maybe not? Or maybe, just maybe, the hidden hand of providence will show up again in ways we cannot predict and maybe cannot even see until it’s all over.
But think about this.
Mordecai was saved because his enemy Haman took his place on the wooden pole. You and I are saved because our enemy Jesus took our place on the wooden pole.
The Bible says, “...God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [still enemies!], Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
He took our place, willingly.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13, NIV).
Haman was cursed, but he deserved it.
We were cursed, and we deserved it.
But King Jesus took our curse, and He didn’t deserve it.
And all who put their trust in Him will be redeemed.
I hope that includes you.
***
Messages in this Series:
01. The King Gave a Banquet - Esther 1:1-22
02. “Hadassah” - Esther 2:1-23
03. "Bewildered" - Esther 3:1-15
04. "Who Knows?" - Esther 4:1-17
05. "What Is Your Request?" - Esther 5:1-14
06. "That Night the King Could Not Sleep" - Esther 6:1-14
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