Esther Chapter 5 Verses 1 – 9

· For three days Esther has been preparing for this. And as we saw last week, her preparation was to fast, to weaken her flesh, (clear and enlighten her own perspective), so that she would be spiritually predisposed when the time came to approach her circumstance. And then when she comes to the going, she couldn’t have been wiser…

· She puts on her royal robes. Where did she get those? Xerxes! What do they mean? That she is his. That she has respect and love for him. Where does she go to? Not into his presence but rather into the inner court of the King’s Palace. What does she do? She waits for his readiness.

· All of these things communicates and messages care, respect, love, propriety, humility, kindness and reverence. Y’all, what she messages isn’t more important than the message that she carries BUT her preparation, strength in the spirit, her wisdom knows that her messaging is the only thing that can and will enable her message…

· People ever get you wrong? Or maybe you never got the chance to tell someone what you needed to tell them or perhaps get what you needed to hear? Your regular, daily messaging to someone is probably the deficit that led to the failure. Kindness and care and respect and reverence, as Paul told us in Romans 12:10, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another,” is the conduit through which effective, mature communication flows… God Himself is the perfect display of this truth! That it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance (Romans 2:4) (repentance means the bad news gets in there too)!

· It and of itself the messaging is not the message. The Message will be what you tell them with clarity and with purpose… But that clarity and purpose, the message, often times will never be permitted because the messaging is unkind, not-filled will respect… Notice I didn’t say disrespectful… Because to be disrespectful is evil. To not fill your demeanor with respect with others is not necessarily evil, its just unwise and unprofitable…

· How do you do it? Can’t set out to do it being convinced that its good or right for you to do… You will fail and it will be fake. It is exactly as Esther does… To be filled with respect, preference, kindness, brotherly love for others takes one thing only and that is spiritual preparation. I can promise you now, if I’m not in the Word and spending time in prayer and even fasting when needed…, I really don’t care about y’all…, I’m GOING to be stuck on self!!

· When she’s ready, she doesn’t barge in, she doesn’t jump right to her problem… She hasn’t sent that email; she hasn’t posted that post… She has waited, calmed her nerves, strengthened in the Spirit and now proceeds in patient reverence… and that, on anyone, is attractive, especially to a man, and double-especially to a king… (Beauty is attractive to a man, but character is attractive to a king)

· Whoa, whoa, whoa… What’s this bit about Haman, though? “Let the king AND HAMAN come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him!” The banquet is prepared for the KING… This isn’t a them it’s a him in the end of Esther’s request. So why invite Haman? Incredible courage, wisdom and strength. The king is the not the problem. It’s Haman…

· We in our flesh talk to everyone about the problem which is typically someone else… But the strongest, wisest, smartest and royalty among us always talks to the problem about the problem. NOW, two sides of that sword… WE have to be equally as royal to be able to hear at times that we are the problem and instead of defending, deflecting and denying (the devil’s three best friends), react appropriately to the offense and issue being communicated to us…

· What’s that look like? Care, respect, love, propriety, humility, kindness and reverence. “Be kindly affectionate to one another which brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another,” Do this and every problem anyone ever has with you will be solved and you will be as the Bible says in Proverbs 18:24, “a fried closer than family.”

Esther Chapter 5 Verse 10

· Not the worst thing he could have done. I mean just on the surface level here… Of course, he doesn’t take his concern to the Lord which is the first and best thing to do but he does restrain himself, a quality quite lacking even in some “mature” Christians today and he calls for his friends and his wife…

Esther Chapter 5 Verses 11 – 13

· Perhaps an attempt to encourage himself and perhaps just a brag session. In the end, in the midst of all that he has, just because he doesn’t have this one thing, he can’t enjoy everything else he has. Sound familiar? Why? Because that’s you. HA! That’s all of us! All of us struggle with this… If I just had that thing, that job, that something that someone else has or that someone that someone else has… But the nature of the flesh is childish…

· Let me let you in on something. The more you give your flesh temporary satisfaction, the more you meet the needs of your flesh, the more demanding it becomes. Think of a child. Whining for what they want. Throwing fits to have it their way. What is the worst thing you can do? Well, in the moment the worst thing for YOU is to discipline them and deny them of what they want…, because they’re just going to scream louder, fit harder or you’ll look like a monster to everyone…

· So, go ahead and submit to that child’s demands… what happens next time that child sees another thing they want…? They are that much more emboldened to act out because it worked last time! The flesh is just like that! Feed it once, satisfy whatever the crave of the moment is and then right when that wears off it comes back more dissatisfied and more demanding than ever!

· You will never have peace or satisfaction or strength if you are unable to discipline your flesh…, to train it in a way to shut up, sit down, be respectful and act right! So just that next thing, eh? That’s a craving. That’s a desire of the flesh… When you already have SO much! Here’s the secret to being effective, strong, mature, respectful, and ultimately able to enjoy what you have…

· 2 Corinthians 8:12 says, “If there is first a willing mind (intentional discipline) (the word in the Greek is prothymia, meaning, “zeal, spirit, eagerness, inclination, effort of mind”) it is accepted (highly favored) according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.” That releases you to not only enjoy what you have but then to live even generously within abundance.

· That chapter goes on to say, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.” Why? Because when you are always in search for more, you never have enough. It’s a sick trap to lose all you have for the one thing you don’t have, just to get it and realize all that you had was far better, but now it’s far too late…

· Ok, perhaps an odd subject to pull from Haman’s mental state but its amazed me over the years how so many fall prey to want and desire to be more or different and yet all they are today isn’t being realized and all they have today isn’t being appreciated…

· So, Haman pouts really… And he has called his friends and wife for encouragement. Let’s see what they say…

Esther Chapter 5 Verse 14

· Your enemies are my enemies… His squad is ride-or-die! His wife actually seems far more awesome than Job’s first wife, that’s for sure! “Make a gallows 75 feet tall so that everyone sees how important honoring Haman is…” Sounds good, but that appeal is to your flesh, isn’t it!? Ugh!

· Everyone of us wants a wife or a husband or friends that will take our side and watch our backs no matter what… In fact, in the scheme of the carnal male psyche, nothing is more important than loyalty and honor… BUT, this kills him…

· This advice satisfies his heart for the night but kills him in the morning… You’ll see that next week as we get into the next chapter…

· “Um Haman, honey, I love you, and I care about you and I want to help and support you… If you don’t make things right with Mordecai and give HIM the honor you rightfully want for yourself, things aren’t going to work out for you…” That would be the Godly advice based on Biblical principle… Of course, not what Haman is going to get but here’s the point…

· Haman could have humbled himself, begged the king to issue a new decree (which is going to happen anyway through Esther) to save the Jews and bring honor to all people. Preference to all people over preference for himself and his point of view only… and this book could have been called “Haman,” and not “Esther…” But the ride-or-die took position over the ride-for-right…