The Providence of God # 5

As we study the Providence of God, we will be using the Old Testament Book of Esther which describes Haman’s wicked plot to kill all the Jews in Persia and how God saved them 

Today, we are discovering the Providence of God at work in Mordecai and learn that God ordains that His purposes will prevail over evil  

Haman the enemy of the Jews built a 75-foot-high stake to impale Mordecai by way of execution, but Mordecai became the Prime Minister of Persia ‘with the authority next to that of King Xerxes himself’                                                           

Esther 5: 14; Esther 10: 3                                                                                              

Genesis 50: 20 

Esther 2: 5-6 

Mordecai was a descendent of one of the Jewish families that were exiled to Babylon from Judah and Jerusalem about 587 BC. 

It is likely that Mordecai was born in Babylon and returned to Judah and Jerusalem with the exiles because he is named as one of the returning leaders by Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra 2: 2a; Nehemiah 7: 7a, ‘Their leaders were Zerubbabel, Jeshua (Joshua), Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, (Nehemiah 7: 7 Nahamani) Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.’ 

Then Mordecai returned to Persia to take care of his cousin Esther who had been bereaved of her parents. Mordecai may have intended to bring Esther back with him to Judah and Jerusalem but as we know God had different plans for them in Persia 

Esther 2: 7

King Xerxes had deposed Vashti as his queen and had instructed his officials to bring him candidates from throughout the Persian Empire from which he would choose for himself a new queen and by the Providence of God Mordecai’s cousin Esther was one of those candidates 

Esther 2: 1-4; Esther 2: 8-9

Mordecai advised Esther not to reveal her nationality and family background to anyone and visited the palace courtyard every day to check on her welfare  

Esther 2: 10-11, 20 

And by the Providence of God king Xerxes chose Esther to be his new Queen and Esther 2: 19b ‘Mordecai had become a palace official’  

Esther 2: 12-20 

And sometime later, by the Providence of God Mordecai learned of a plot to have King Xerxes assassinated and reported the plot to Esther who then told the King who had the assassins executed and recorded the investigation in the Book of the History of King Xerxes Reign 

Mordecai’s actions to protect the king were guided by the prophecy of Jeremiah that was given to the Jews who had gone into exile, Jeremiah 29: 7 ‘work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.’    

Please notice the 2^nd part of the verse where it says, Jeremiah 29: 7b ‘for its welfare will determine your welfare’ 

Esther 2: 21-23 

Mordecai’s faithfulness to King Xerxes ultimately determined the welfare of the remaining Jewish exiles in Persia 

And now we come to the massive drama in the Book of Esther: Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire 

Esther 3: 1-6 

Esther 5: 14 

If Mordecai was, according to Jeremiah 29: 7, praying for and working for the peace and prosperity of Persia then why did he dishonor Haman ‘the most powerful official in the empire’ and second only to King Xerxes!?    

To answer that we need to remind ourselves of Israel’s history 

When Israel was freed by God from their slavery in Egypt and were journeying to the Promised Land, the first enemy they met were the Amalekites, at Rephidim (The Amalekites were the descendants of Esau who opposed his brother Jacob) 

Exodus 17: 8-13; Deuteronomy 25: 17-18 

And later as the people of Israel were newly settled in the Promised Land they were attacked again by the Amalekites and after that they were attacked several times more  

Numbers 14: 43, 45; Judges 3: 13; Judges 6: 3-5, 33; Judges 7: 12; Judges 10: 12 

The Amalekites were so evil that God said they must be completely destroyed from the earth, Deuteronomy 25: 19 ‘Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies in the land He is giving you as a special possession, you must destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven. Never forget this!’ 

Israel’s first King, Saul, also battled with the Amalekites but failed to destroy them as God had said; so, Samuel the prophet rebuked King Saul and after one battle it was Samuel who killed the Amalekite king Agag  

1 Samuel 15: 2-3, 33 

Israel continued to do battle against the Amalekites for another 300 years (King David 1010 BC – King Hezekiah 716 BC) leading up to the time of Israel’s Northern Kingdom being exiled to Assyria and later Judah and Jerusalem being exiled to Babylon 

1 Samuel 27: 6; 1 Samuel 30: 1-20; 1 Chronicles 4: 43 

And as it is recorded in the Book of Esther, the battle continued against the Amalekites in the form of Haman who was an Amalekite and a direct descendant of the Amalekite king Agag, Esther 3: 1 ‘Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite’ 

And what about Mordecai – what was his background?  

Mordecai was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin and as a descendent of Kish and Shimei, that made Mordecai a royal descendent of Israel’s first king, Saul, who failed to destroy the Amalekites! 

Esther 2: 5b ‘Mordecai son of Jair. He was from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and Shimei.’ 

Because Mordecai refused to bow down to him, the hatred in Haman towards the Jews was stirred up and he plotted to kill Mordecai and all the Jews in Persia 

But in His Providence God caused king Xerxes to have a sleepless night and He reminded Xerxes that it was Mordecai who saved him from the plot of the 2 assassins to kill him, so Xerxes had Mordecai honored – by Haman! 

Esther 6: 1-12

And after Haman’s plot to kill Mordecai and all the Jews was revealed to King Xerxes, Mordecai was promoted for a 2^nd time and later he was promoted for a 3^rd time ‘with authority next to that of king Xerxes himself’   

Esther 8: 1-2 

Esther 10: 1-3 

Today, no one identifies as an Amalekite, but the ‘spirit’ of the Amalekite lives on in those who hate the Jews and the Jewish State of Israel, Exodus 17: 16b ‘the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.’ 

In the mid 20^th Century, the ‘spirit’ of the Amalekite through Nazi Germany perpetrated the worst mass genocide in Jewish history when 6 million men, women and children were executed during the Holocaust  

And on October 7^th, 2023, the Amalekite ‘spirit’ was stirred up again this time through the so-called ‘Palestinians’ living in Gaza who went on to commit another genocide against Israel when they attacked and killed nearly 1, 200 innocent Israeli men women and children camping in southern Israel’s Negev desert 

Psalm 83: 4 perfectly describes the ‘spirit’ of the Amalekite, ‘Come, they say, let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence.’ 

There is no need to fear for Israel because as the Lord says, Numbers 24: 20b ‘Amalek was the greatest of nations, but its’ destiny is destruction!’ 

And finally, back to the Book of Esther  

God in His Providence was working through Mordecai to save the remaining Jewish community in the Persian Empire