Esther was concerned whether the king would acknowledge her presence and grant her an audience. If he didn’t, it could mean her immediate execution; and she knew how unpredictable were his moods. The Jews had been fasting and praying for three days, asking God to intervene and save them from annihilation, and now Esther had to act.
What Esther did ranks among the great deeds of faith in Scripture and could have been recorded in Hebrews 11. It wasn’t enough for the Jews to pray and have faith that God would work. Somebody had to act, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). But Esther wasn’t operating on the basis of “blind faith.” She knew that God had covenanted with the Jews to deal with their enemies (Gen. 12:1–3). She also knew that the God of Israel was a forgiving God who would hear His people when they humbled themselves and prayed (2 Chron. 7:14). Furthermore, God had allowed a remnant of Jews to return to their land and rebuild the temple. Surely it wasn’t God’s will that they perish and their work stop. Unlike Esther, when we come to the throne of grace, we don’t have to wonder what our Father thinks about us, because He always loves His people and welcomes them into His presence. One of the greatest needs in the church today is for intercessors who will pray faithfully for a lost world and for a church that desperately needs revival. “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor” (Isa. 59:16). When the needs are so great and the privilege of prayer is so wonderful, well might the Lord wonder that His people neglect the throne of grace. As John Newton wrote: Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For His grace and power are such None can ever ask too much.
Let’s note that Esther prepared herself to meet the king. (You’ll recall that Ruth prepared herself to meet Boaz. See chap. 3.) If you knew you were going to meet the president of the United States at the White House, or royalty at Buckingham Palace, you would prepare for the meeting. Like Peter sinking into the sea, there are times when we have to rush into God’s presence and cry out for help. But the power of those “emergency prayers” depends on our day-by-day fellowship with God, and that fellowship demands preparation. Preparing to pray is as important as the praying itself.
The king officially recognized his queen and invited her to share her petition. “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand” (Prov. 19:21). “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will” (Prov. 21:1; see Ezra 6:22). The sovereign God was in control.
Why didn’t Esther immediately inform the king about Haman’s evil plot? For at least four reasons. For one thing, it wasn’t the right time. The king was unprepared to receive the shocking news that his number one officer was a scoundrel. In the midst of kingdom business, Ahasuerus might have considered her accusation an act of treason if not just a piece of palace gossip.
But neither was it the right place for her to intercede. There were no doubt retainers serving the king in the throne room, and it would have been a breach of palace etiquette for the queen to make her plea publicly. The sight of a weeping, pleading woman before the throne might have annoyed the king and made matters worse. Better she should speak to the king in the privacy of her own apartment than in the throne room.
The third reason was that Esther wanted Haman, and only Haman, present when she told the king about his prime minister’s evil plot. With womanly intuition, Esther was confident that Haman, caught off guard, would in some way admit his guilt and do something foolish that would anger the king. It turned out that she was right on both counts.
But there was a fourth reason—one that Esther herself was unaware of at that time. One more event had to intervene before she could share her burden with the king, and it would take place that very night. The king would discover that he had never rewarded Mordecai for saving his life five years before, and he would rectify that mistake immediately. He would honor Mordecai, but at the same time humiliate Haman, and this experience would help prepare the king to hear Esther’s petition.
Esther’s banquet was already prepared. Thus, Haman and the king had to hurry to attend. In answer to prayer, God so worked in the king’s heart that he not only cooperated willingly with his queen but he also made Haman cooperate. Such is the wonder of the providence of God.
False confidence (5:6–9a) What an honor for Haman to attend a special banquet with the king and queen alone and in the queen’s private apartment at that! It’s unlikely that any official in the empire had ever been so honored. As Haman ate and drank with Ahasuerus and Esther, his confidence grew. He was indeed an important man in the kingdom, and his future was secure.
When the king asked Esther to state her petition, it gave the prime minister even more confidence, for here were the king and queen discussing a personal matter in his presence! Haman was not only the king’s confidant, but now he was sharing in the intimate concerns of the queen as well. Since the queen had invited him to the banquet, she must certainly value his counsel.
At the banquet, we see three more evidences of the sovereignty of God. First, the Lord restrained Esther from telling Ahasuerus the truth about Haman. While there may have been fear in her heart, I don’t think that’s what held her back. The Lord was working in her life and directing what she said, even though she wasn’t aware of it. God was delaying the great exposure until after the king had honored Mordecai.
We also see the sovereign hand of God at work in the way the king accepted the delay and agreed to come to the second banquet. Monarchs like Ahasuerus aren’t accustomed to being told to wait. “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue” (Prov. 16: niv). “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (19: niv). Whatever plans Ahasuerus had made for the next evening were canceled to make time for the queen’s second feast.
A third evidence of God’s sovereignty is that none of Esther’s attendants who knew that she was a Jewess tried to convey this important information to Haman. Had Haman known the queen’s nationality, he would have immediately devised some plan to prevent her from interfering. Palace intrigue is a dangerous game, and any of the attendants could have profited by telling Haman what they knew.
The fact that Esther invited Haman to the second banquet only increased this evil man’s confidence (Est. 5:12), and that’s exactly the response the queen wanted. As long as her enemy was overconfident, she knew it would lead to a fall. “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe” (Prov. 28: niv). Like the rich fool in our Lord’s parable (Luke 12:16–21), Haman was confident that he was set for life, when in reality he was just a few hours away from death.
Two other men come to mind whose false confidence led to their death: King Belshazzar and Judas Iscariot. King Belshazzar held a great feast during which he blasphemed the God of Israel, and by sending handwriting on the wall, God announced his doom. That very night Babylon was conquered and Belshazzar was slain (Dan. 5).
Judas, an apostle of the Lord, was not a true believer (John 6:70–71) but a traitor and a thief (12:6). In the Upper Room, he sat in the place of honor at the table, and none of the other disciples knew what was in his heart. But Jesus knew what Judas was and what Judas would do, and He hid this knowledge from the disciples. In fact, Jesus even washed Judas’ feet! Confident that he had everything under control, Judas betrayed Jesus to the enemy and ended up committing suicide (Matt. 27:1–10).
The only safe place to put your confidence is in the Lord.