Esther 7:7 – 10 “Miracles?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷And the king rose in his anger from the banquet of wine into the garden of the palace and Haman stood to seek upon his soul from Esther the queen because he saw that the bad from the king was finished on him. ⁸And the king returned from the garden of the palace to the house of the banquet of the wine and Haman [was] one falling on the couch which Esther [was] on, and the king said, “Will [he] also violate the queen with me in the house?” The word went out from the mouth of the king and the face of Haman was covered. ⁹And Harbona, one from the eunuchs to the face of the king, said, “Also, look! The gallows, which Haman made to Mordecai who spoke [intensely] good on the king, standing in the house of Haman fifty cubits high,” and the king said, “Hang him on it!” ¹⁰And they hung Haman on the gallows which he had caused to prepare to Mordecai and the anger of the king abated.

One last thing I’d like to note before I leave this chapter.

Generally, when we think of the Old Testament, one thing that surely comes to mind is miracles. The history of Israel, in particular, is attended with seemingly endless times when the Lord intervened in miraculous ways. All of that started with Abraham and Sarah having a baby long after it would have been humanly possible. Moses was called by a bush that burned but wasn’t consumed, then we read of all the miracles the Lord did bringing Israel out of Egypt. He parted the Red Sea, then drowned the Egyptians. He led the Israelites by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. He spoke in a thundering voice to them from Mt. Sinai, gave them manna to eat and water from a rock, then dropped the walls of Jericho and gave the Promised Land to Abraham’s descendants. Elishah raised the Shunamite’s son from the dead. Daniel’s friends walked out of the blazing furnace. Even Jesus’ ministry and that of His Apostles were attended with wondrous miracles.

We all would long to live in that kind of world. We’d love to see the Lord do great miracles right in front of the whole world’s eyes. In fact, we do from time to time hear about things like miraculous healings, but can we all be honest and say we see today very little of that miraculous world of the Old and even New Testaments? It is a very rare thing, in our world, if the Lord steps in and does something all can see is undeniably miraculous. We see no parting of the Red Sea or people walking out of blazing furnaces.

It would seem we live in a world without God.

Here is an interesting observation: Our two girl books, Ruth and Esther, notably record no such miracles. We all thrill to see the Lord land Ruth in Boaz’s field, then follow the story until the two are married and produce their baby Obed who would become the grandfather of King David. As believers, we would call it all miraculous, yet, may I observe it is clearly not “miraculous” in the typical Old Testament sense? No one gets raised from the dead in the book of Ruth. As we read that story, the Lord is very present, but that is mainly because Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi see Him clearly in even the seemingly mundane events of their lives, and their words are recorded like when Boaz says to Ruth, “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (2:12). Theirs was seemingly a world where God was very real, but, again, that is because these people of faith saw Him through the eyes of that faith, and their words were recorded for us to read.

In our book of Esther, we get neither. Once again, no one gets raised from the dead. No one walks out of a blazing furnace. And we aren’t even afforded the pleasure of actually hearing Mordecai or Esther express their faith. In Esther, we really do see what seems like a world without God.

May I point out again that Esther’s world looks an awful lot like ours? Esther and Mordecai didn’t get to live in Israel. They lived in a totally godless, pagan place called Persia. In order for them to “see” God, they must see Him by faith. Is our world typically any different?

Here is what I want to suggest: For most of us, we would call it “miraculous” as we read, “So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.” Yet, can we admit that is a different kind of “miraculous”? No angels appeared. There were no loud voices from heaven. A man got hanged. In that sense, it was nothing unusual. What made it “miraculous” was the chain of otherwise seemingly mundane events which produced, in the end, a miraculous outcome. Somewhere in my life, someone called these “miracles of providence” to distinguish them from the stupendous kind of miracles which in some way supersede the normal laws of nature.

What I want to observe is that that is exactly the kind of “miracles” that will attend your faith and mine. The Lord is certainly capable of doing stupendous miracles in our lives—and He might. However, what we should learn to appreciate are His miracles of providence. In other words, as we live in our own version of “a world without God,” in this basically godless, pagan society, we should expect the “norm” to be the miracles where God works through natural law. Our miracles will be seeing God do things in ways that other people may think are just coincidences, yet, as with Esther, we can see those “coincidences” are so far beyond possible, they are clearly the hand of God.

That is what I believe we all see in the book of Esther. No one rises from the dead. However, as we watch the specific chain of events that culminate in Esther’s victory and Haman hanging, it is undeniable that there is some kind of very powerful force arranging those events to bring about a wonderful conclusion. Vashti was deposed and Esther rose to be queen of all Persia. Mordecai “just happened” to be in a place to overhear Bigtha and Teresh’s plot, so he could expose them and save the king’s life. Though his loyalty was recorded, it “just happened” that all the king’s officials forgot about him and he received no reward or recognition at that time. One night it “just happened” that King Xerxes couldn’t sleep, and it “just happened” that he asked his servants to read from the royal diaries, then it “just happened” that what they read was the account of Mordecai’s loyalty. When the king wanted advice on how to reward him, who should “just happen” to be out in the court but evil Haman. When Esther finally exposes him, it “just happened” that Haman had built a gallows 75 feet high on which to hang Mordecai, and it “just happens” that Haman is the one who ends up hanging.

Every one of those events could be regarded as mere coincidences. An unbeliever can scoff and blow them off. However, with the eyes of faith, it is easy to see that that chain of events is so utterly unlikely, there is obviously some sovereign Hand guiding them. In addition, it is clear that sovereign Hand is determined to do good to Esther and Mordecai and the Jewish people.

Of that same Hand, we read in the New Testament, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” (Rom. 8:28).

We all know that verse and quote it often to ourselves and to each other. May we learn from the book of Esther to appreciate when we find that His “miracles” in our life, His working all things for our good, turn out to be almost always these miracles of providence. May we not be disappointed when we don’t get to see the amazing, undeniable kind of miracles so often recorded in the Bible. Even for Israelites, Boaz and Naomi and Ruth teach us to see God working miraculously in the seemingly mundane events of our daily lives. Daniel and his friends teach us that, even in a godless, pagan world, the Lord is still quite able to work His stupendous miracles. However, Esther teaches us, like Ruth, to see those miracles in the mundane of our lives.

One thing you and I can count on: the forecast for our lives is the kindness of God. Let us be thankful and acknowledge Him whether He chooses to actually do what we would call miracles or if He chooses to simply miraculously guide the mundane of our lives to do us His good. As Elijah had to learn, our Lord is often not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire. Rather we should expect He will be present as that “still, small voice.” In a sense, He is so great, He can work for our good even without stupendous miracles. His miracles may be stupendous or just providence.

May we learn to acknowledge and appreciate whichever He chooses!