Sermon: The King’s Favor (Esther 5:1-14)

The King’s Favor
Sunday, February 23rd, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Esther 5:1-14
Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said. Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate. Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

Prayer

Father, we thank you that through the intercession of Your Son, we can find favor in your sight. And on that basis we now come boldly, like Esther, unto your throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in our time of need. Grant us Your Holy Spirit now, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

In Proverbs 18:12 it says, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, but before honor is humility.”

• Here in Esther Chapter 5, we have a fulfillment of this proverb.
  • Queen Esther has humbled herself, she has fasted for two days from food and drink, and now in that fasted state, she arises on the third day to go in unto the king. If I perish, I perish she said, and now the time to possibly perish has come. This is humility.
  • At the same time, we see Haman, proud, prosperous, and pitiful. For although Haman is materially speaking, on top of the world: chief advisor to the king, glorious in his riches, he has a wife, friends, a multitude of children, and two exclusive invitations to dine with the King, still in his own words, “Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
  • Haman is the man who has it all, a world of wealth, power, and status, and yet he is unable to enjoy any of it, because he is fixated one man’s refusal to bow. This is pride.
• “Before destruction Haman’s heart is haughty, but before honor Esther humbles herself.”
• This is the great contrast of Esther Chapter 5. The two figures closest to the king are the Queen and his Prime Minister. Both want something from the king, and both have made plans to get what they desire. Haman wants Mordecai swinging from the gallows, and Esther wants Haman’s decree overturned.
• And so this morning, I want to explore three question that this chapter provokes.
  • 1. Why does Esther delay her actual request until after two feasts with Ahasuerus and Haman? And we might also ask, why is Haman even on the guest list?
  • 2. Why does Haman change his mind, and decide to hang Mordecai now, rather than keeping with the day in which the lots were cast? The whole purpose of casting the lots was to pick a day to have his vengeance, but now suddenly he can’t wait, and he wants Mordecai hung tomorrow.
  • 3. What is the spiritual sense of all these events?

Q1 – Why does Esther delay her request?

• First of all, recall the danger that Esther feels she is in.
  • For one, it is against the law to come into the inner court of the king uninvited, and those who do so are to be put to death, unless the golden scepter is held out (Esther 4:11).
  • Moreover, it has been a full 30 days since the king has called Esther into that court. And so Esther fears that the king’s love for her may have cooled.
  • And then on top that, we remember the fate of Queen Vashti. Vashti broke the law, she refused to come when she was called, and for this she was deposed. Esther of all people knows what happens to disobedient queens, for she would not be queen herself unless Vashti had transgressed.
  • And so this is a great risk she feels she is taking, first just to go in unto the king against the law, then to request that his chief advisor’s decree be overturned, and why? Well because I am actually a Jew, I have hidden that from you for 5 years of our marriage, and now I am asking you for my sake, to change the decree that just went forth in your name. Will you change the law for the sake of your wife?
  • Esther does not know if she has sufficient funds to write this check, to make this ask, at this time. And so having humbled herself and fasted, she now puts on her royal garments and risks it all. This is Esther casting a lot of her own. She is the lot, casting herself into the king’s court.
• We read in verse 1, “Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel.”
  • Remember the third day is often in Scripture a day of judgment, a day of testing, a day of vindication for the righteous.
  • As it says in Hosea 6:2, “After two days will he revive us: In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”
• And so Esther after fasting for two days is revived in her spirit though her body is weak. And on the third day she dawns her royal apparel in hope that she might live in the king’s sight.
• And thus we read in verses 2-3, “And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.”
  • So here Esther has survived the first test, she has run the first gauntlet and lived. And while she could make her big request now, when the king has just offered her up to half the kingdom, she chooses to entreat the king with a feast. However, there is something peculiar in her request.
  • Note carefully the wording of verse 4, “And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
  • Put yourself now in King Ahasuerus’ shoes. Who is the him that this banquet is for? If it is for Ahasuerus, why is Haman and only Haman invited too? This is an awkward date for the king and queen to have, why the third wheel? But if on the other hand this feast is for Haman, why has Esther just risked her life to make this invitation? Why would Esther throw a feast for Haman? Has something in the last 30 days changed that I don’t know about? Well, yes.
  • The King is in the dark here, but he is also intrigued. What does Esther actually want? What is she going to ask me for? And what does Haman have to do with it?
  • From the king’s perspective, this is all very odd.
  • So the King and Haman come to the feast. And this is likely a lunch feast because Haman is going to have enough time afterward to go home, talk to his family, and build gallows to hang Mordecai.
• So they are at lunch, wining and dining, this odd trio. King, Queen, and Prime Minister. And you can just imagine the nerves that Esther must feel, the pit in her stomach (trying to eat), sitting at table her arch-enemy on one side, the man who has decreed her people’s destruction (though he does not know it yet), and on the other side is the man who has the power to turn the tide, her husband and king (who also does not know the decree is against her). Esther has a secret, and she has a request, but before she makes that request, she wants to be sure that Ahasuerus is on her side, and not Haman’s.
  • And so already she has sown suspicion in the king’s mind against Haman by inviting him and making it ambiguous who this feast is for. We read in verse 6 that as the wine course is being served the king asks, “What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”
  • The King’s favor is still there, the offer still stands, what does Esther want?
  • And yet again, she does not come out with it. Why?
  • Note the wording of her second invitation in verses 7-8, “Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said.”
  • So if there was any doubt in the king’s mind about who that first feast was for, here Esther leaves no doubt. This second feast is for the king and Haman, for them.
    • Esther is heightening the suspense. And it is this suspense, this suspicion about Haman, that is going to leave the king sleepless that night, as we will see in Chapter 6 verse 1, “       On that night could not the king sleep.”
• So why does Esther do this? Why does she invite and involve Haman this way?
  • Humanly speaking, the most likely motive is twofold.
    • 1. She wants to be sure she is truly in the king’s favor.
    • 2. She wants to insinuate that Haman is not to be trusted.
      • We’ll explore this second motive in a future sermon, but for now just note that Esther is in a competition with Haman for the king’s loyalty and favor.
      • Ahasuerus had given Haman a blank check, his signet ring, to make whatever decree he wanted against that unnamed lawless nation. And so Esther has to find a way to wield a different kind of power, a power of persuasion, of insinuation, to undermine Haman and expose him.
• So that’s part 1 of this chapter: a feast and an invitation to a second feast. And now in verses 9-14, the camera follows Haman on his way home.

Verses 9-10

9Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.

10Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife.

• So recall that Mordecai had broken the king’s law by not bowing, and now Haman is enraged because Mordecai won’t stand. He won’t bow, he won’t stand, he won’t acknowledge Haman’s superiority. And this personal slight against his honor cannot be tolerated.
  • Haman regards Mordecai as the pebble in his shoe, as the lone cockroach in his spaghetti that must be exterminated by killing all cockroaches everywhere (the Jews).
  • Recall that earlier in Esther 3:6, Haman felt it was beneath him to take vengeance on Mordecai alone, and thus he plotted and schemed to destroy all the Jews, and all so that no one would think he was petty.
• This is the great irony and folly of pride. Haman is a balloon so full of himself that even the slightest prick will pop him. When our pride is puffed up, we become extra-fragile to anyone’s disrespect. In fact, pride can even make you hallucinate, to see and hear things that were never said or done. The proud mind only has eyes and ears to find fault, and Haman finds that fault in Mordecai, and inflates it into a fault that is punishable by death.
• So note that Haman’s pride makes him fragile. Haman’s pride also makes him easily angered. And while Haman at present can restrain himself, he will not be able to restrain himself for long.
• We have then in verses 11-13, Haman giving vent to his rage.

Verses 10b-11

And when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife.

11And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

• What kind of state must you be in to brag to your own wife about how many children you have? Or to brag to your own friends and wife about how rich you are? Haman cannot see how silly he looks.

Verse 12-13

12Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king.

13Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.

• This is the great tragedy of Haman’s life. He is rich, powerful, and prosperous but he cannot enjoy any of it because of the poverty of his soul.
  • The prophet Jeremiah warns of this snare in Jeremiah 9:23-24 saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”
  • Haman could have wielded his wealth, power, and influence for the glory of God and the good of God’s people. He could have been like Hiram of Tyre, building up the temple. He could have been like Cyrus the great, funding true worship of the true God.
  • But instead, Haman falls into the same snare as the devil. Not content with his already high position, he desires more than is good for him and falls (like the devil) to his own destruction.
• To keep us from this same fate as Haman and the devil himself, The Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17-18, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
  • All this Haman could have had. But his hatred for Mordecai blinded him.
• Finally, in verse 14 we hear the counsel of the ungodly, Haman’s wife and friends.

Verse 14

14Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

• This is where Haman changes his mind. Up to this point, Haman’s plan was to wait until the 13th day of the 12th month (11 months from now) when Mordecai could be just another casualty amongst all the other Jews. The Jews are Haman’s cover to kill a single man.
• But now, upon the advice of his wife and friends, he is persuaded to act now. So he has gallows made 50 cubits high. That is something like 75 feet high, about as high as a government building’s flagpole.
• And then we’ll see in the next chapter that Haman does not even wait until the morning, he goes to the king in the middle of the night to ask for Mordecai to be hung. Talk about an impulsive decision, he does not even sleep on it.

Q2 – Why does Haman do this? Why does he change his mind?

• We could answer question according to multiple causes:
  • 1. Because he could not rule his angry spirit but instead gave vent to his hatred for Mordecai. When hatred is given both power and opportunity, murder is not far off.
  • 2. Because when Haman gave vent, he was surrounded by evil counsellors (his wife and friends who make this whole ghastly proposal seem reasonable). Rather than bringing Haman to his senses, they encourage him in evil. Zeresh is like Eve in this moment, handing Adam the fruit that will kill him.
  • 3. Because God, in His providence, permits the wicked to lay a snare for themselves, only to catch them in their own devices.
    • Who is going to hang tomorrow from those 50-cubit high gallows? Haman.
    • As it says in Psalm 7:15-16, “He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.”
• This brings us to our third and final question, which is…

Q3 – What is the spiritual sense of these events?

If Jesus says that all of Scripture testifies to Him, where is Christ and His gospel here?

• What is signified by Esther finding favor in the king’s eyes, but the church, the bride of Christ, finding favor with our king.
  • Like Esther, we must humble ourselves in prayer, in fasting, in mourning over our wretched condition, and then from that place of humility, we arise in faith to seek Divine Mercy.
    • Who does Jesus say went home justified between the Pharisee and the Publican? It was the man who beat his breast, who would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, and called out, “God be merciful unto me a sinner.” After which Jesus says, “for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14).
    • And isn’t this exactly what happens to Esther? After mourning and fasting for two days, she puts on the royal garments. And what are these garments but the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ? What are these garments but the clothing that grants you access to heaven’s throne?
  • And so when God sees you standing in His inner court (your prayer closet, your heart), wearing Jesus, What does he do? He welcomes you in! He extends the golden scepter. He says to you what the Father says to Christ at His baptism, “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
  • Do you know the Father’s good pleasure towards you? Do you believe that in Christ, God’s favor is unfailing towards you? That as it says in Psalm 30:5, “his anger is but for moment, but his favor is for a lifetime.” The Father’s discipline is temporary and even that discipline is because He favors you.
  • This is the good news that Esther foretells. And what happens when you are granted entrance into the king’s presence? He offers you everything.
    • Ahasuerus offered Esther up to half of his kingdom, but what does Christ offer His Bride? The whole thing. The entire kingdom. Everything. God and all things in God.
    • Paul says of this inheritance in Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Conclusion

Perhaps you feel like Esther, and that God has not called on you for 30 days. Perhaps He feels distant, and you wonder if God’s affections towards you have cooled. Or perhaps your soul has never married God and called Him Savior.

• If that is you, then remember that if the basis of God’s grace towards you was just you, and your chosen lifestyle, then grace would no longer be grace. But if the basis of God’s favor towards you is Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection and his ascension and his constant intercession for you, well then that changes everything. Because God is never displeased with His Son.
• Sin does indeed displease and dishonor our king, and this is why God feels distant at times even when He is ever present.But what displeases and dishonors God more is you keeping those sins and using those sins as an excuse to not come to him for mercy. For if favor with God came by the law, then Christ died for no purpose! Paul says in Galatians 2:21, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
• And so what displeases God is when you refuse to put off the old man and put on the new (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10, Rom. 13:14).
• What displeases God is a soul too proud to put on the royal garments. As God says in Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: But the just shall live by his faith.”
• So you can be proud like Haman and pursue glory and honor and riches apart from Jesus. Or you can be humble yourself like Esther and seek glory and honor and riches by faith in Christ.
  • Paul says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
• So are you diligently seeking Him? Because God is waiting at the doorstep of your heart, knocking and waiting anxiously for you to open up.
  • Perhaps you think to yourself, but it is dirty in here. My house is not clean, I haven’t confessed my sins in months (or ever!), the rooms of my heart are impure and filthy. Well then let God in so He can wash you! He already knows what is in your heart, and he knows it is actually way dirtier than you think it is. So open in faith to Him.
• The reason the Father sent the Son to die was to dispel your fears, to conquer your doubts, and to give you a full assurance that God really does love you. Will you argue with the cross? Will you argue with the empty tomb?
  • Paul says in Romans 5:8-11, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath [God’s eternal displeasure] through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”
  • What is the reward for those who by faith diligently seek him? For those who reach out and touch the golden scepter?
  • David says in Psalm 16:11, “In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
  • All this was purchased for you and is freely offered. So seek the king’s favor, and you will most certainly have it.
  • In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen