Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: From the beginning, God's chosen people have been villainized by a variety of hostile adversaries. And among the most cunning was Haman. He convinced King Ahasuerus to eliminate the Jews from Persia. And if it weren't for one woman's willingness to wait on God and then act on his strength, history would have taken a tragic turn.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll replays the grand moment when Esther stepped into the king's presence uninvited. Chuck is teaching from the fifth chapter of the book that bears her name, and he titled today's message, Esther's Finest Hour.

Chuck Swindoll: The king said to her, "What is troubling you, Queen Esther? What is it that you request? What's your request? Even to half the kingdom, it will be given to you." Esther said, "If it please the king, may the king and Haman come this day to the banquet that I have prepared for him." Here is a woman for three days has been working with her maidens on this fabulous banquet she's going to serve her husband, the king, and her enemy, Haman. And she says, "I have it ready."

By the way, this is a perfect time for me to say when you wait on the Lord, it doesn't mean that you do weird things like walk around humming Sweet Hour of Prayer. It doesn't mean you go on a hillside and eat birdseed and strum a guitar. It doesn't mean you wear a robe and look for the closest monastery. You go right on with your business, you go right on with your activities, you just focus fully on the Lord. You can do that. While preparing the banquet, she was thinking about how God was working. He gave her the thought, "Serve a banquet, invite Haman. Here's what you need to say." She began to capture these fleeting thoughts. It was an unusual surprise to her, I'm sure.

Will you notice what she doesn't do? She doesn't tell everything that's troubling her. She doesn't point a finger at Haman. She doesn't play on the king's emotions by bursting into tears and manipulating him to do what she wants him to do, as you can do, ladies. You can do it. You can turn it on. And we can too, men. She determines not to do it her way. She very calmly said, no frenzy, no tears, she says, "I planned a banquet. I'd love to have you and Haman attend."

Well, the king says, "Great idea. Banquets are my thing." Verse 5: "Bring Haman quickly that we may do as Esther desires." Look who is in the driver's seat. Oh wait, you're going to say Esther. It's the Lord. The Lord is having His way. She is virtually invincible in the nucleus of God's plan. That's the beauty of this whole story.

"Bring Haman quickly that we may do as Esther desires." So the king and Haman came to the banquet which Esther had prepared. What a surprise. Two days ago, they had no idea it was going to work. And here they are in the middle of a banquet, and Esther must have been sitting there thinking, "Isn't God great? I could have lost my head a day ago, and here they are at this banquet I prepared. It's working beautifully." What a surprise.

May I say to you that God is still full of surprises? But it takes a sensitive spirit. It takes the ability to still be jolted when he reveals his surprises. You haven't just begun to mouth all these Christian songs, have you, and spout all these Christian verses from this Christian book? You haven't become cauterized, have you? Your Christian life hasn't gotten jaded, has it? See, when that happens, you become callous and insensitive, and you're in for a life of boredom and mediocrity. The walk of faith is the most adventurous walk, filled with periodic surprises you would never, ever guess.

Sometime Christian talk drives me crazy when it is marked by cliché and tired sayings. Doesn't it just make you want to throw up, especially when you look back a day or two and you realize you were guilty of it? You were guilty of it. And I'll tell you, as long as that's going on in our lives, the Christian life has lost its zip. We're no different from the lost person, except for our eternity. We're just as empty as they. Esther has stepped into a banquet because she was willing to trust God to do the unexpected.

Are you still open to the unexpected? I mean, are you really waiting on the Lord to do His will? Let's say you're single and you really want to be married, and you're waiting on the Lord to do what? Find you a mate? Are you ready for Him to say, "My answer is that you find happiness in being single for the rest of your life"? Oh, you say, "Wait a minute, that's not surprising, that's tragic for me to think about something like that."

You may be married and be in deep water with your mate. And you may think as you wait on the Lord, "God, take care of him. Take care of her." And you may be surprised to know in the waiting period the Lord says, "We got to take care of you. You're a greater part of the problem than your mate. You may not have run, but you're a major reason that mate ran." That's hard to hear that, but it could be.

Could be with a wayward child that God uses the waiting time for the parent to realize, "I'm part of the reason that child is such a rebel. As I look back on the way I reared that boy or that girl, I realize almost too late that I'm part of the problem, not part of the answer." Or God may be saying to you, "My plan for you is not you stay in this area forever like you think you will." Are you open to a move? Are you willing to shift agendas for God to get His way? Oh, I know your roots are deep and I know you're set. But not that set, are you?

I would have never guessed her plan would have been like this or God's plan, but it was. Here she is at the banquet, verse 6, with the king and with Haman. By the way, she never told the king what was troubling her, remember, up in verse 3? She didn't answer. She said, "You got to come to the banquet." So he comes to the banquet. And he says to her as they're sitting together at that feast, "What is your petition, for it shall be granted to you? What is your request? Even to half the kingdom, it'll be done. Tell me."

Look at her answer. She said, "My petition and my request is come to another banquet." That's what verse 8 is. "If I have found favor in the sight of the king and if it please the king to grant my petition and do what I request, may the king and Haman come to the banquet which I shall prepare for them and tomorrow I will do as the king says." This lady is into banquets. I mean, she says, "This is a nice one. Tomorrow we'll have another one." So the king says, "Why not? Okay, we'll go to that one."

Can you believe this? So convinced is she of God's hand in the whole thing—I say this carefully—she can almost toy with the situation. She says, "Let's have another banquet tomorrow." She could have done everything tomorrow that she did today. But she's trusting God. She said, "There's something I want to say, and I want to wait until tomorrow." And you're going to find out next message we have on this what tomorrow would bring and why in God's timing it required overnight. His plan is so intriguing. Sometime my mouth drops open.

So he says, "Sure, let's do it." Now before the tomorrow comes, Haman, verse 9—remember Haman? He's the guy you love to hate. Haman went out that day glad and pleased of heart. He is walking on cloud nine. I mean, look at it. When Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate and that he did not stand up or tremble before him, Haman was filled with anger against Mordecai. He controlled himself, however, went to his house and sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh.

He walks out of this meeting thinking, "Boy, was that great. I was in audience with the king and the queen. I was the only one invited to be there. They shared things that only I got to hear." I mean, it was the ultimate opportunity to drop names. Can you imagine Haman at the office the next day? "I was with the king and queen last evening. We had a banquet for the three of us. Yes, I was the only one invited. She personally sent me an invitation."

You can imagine that. And he walks out and he runs into Mordecai who will not stand up or tremble before him. I love Mordecai. He is a great kind of guy. By the way, he is in the king's gate. Remember the last time? He couldn't go in the king's gate because he wore sackcloth with ashes. I take it he's changed clothes because he's now in the king's gate. He senses God's at work. He knows that something great is about to happen, and he's still unintimidated by Haman. So great is Mordecai's God.

Haman walks out, Mordecai doesn't stand up or tremble, he instead... Haman comes to his home, invites a few friends and his wife. Look at verse 11. Ever been at a party like this? It is the pits. Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the number of his sons, and every instance where the king had magnified him and how he had promoted him above the princes and the servants of the king. Gag me. Can you imagine being in a group like this? Ick. Here is a guy who says, "Now this is what I'm worth."

You could just see his wife. "Oh boy, we've been over this before." And my sons—chapter 9, verse 10 tells us that he had ten sons. A Jewish Targum says Haman had 208 other sons in addition to his own ten. That's another story, no need to get into it. But he has a lot of kids, and so he reviews all of the sons—not the quality he has with them, relationship, but how many. What kind of a guy is this? And then he tells instance after instance where he is promoted and exalted. Such arrogance. You would think he had enough to be satisfied, but people like this are never satisfied.

He's got one worry: Mordecai who won't stand up or tremble before him. Now you would think if the guy has the world by the tail, has over 200 kids, if he has all of these riches, and if he has been invited to be in an audience with the king and the queen, that'd be enough. But what bothers a person like this is that everybody doesn't bow to them. And if one doesn't, it becomes his sole worry. Look at how he puts it. He says he had been promoted and magnified, verse 12, "Even Esther the queen let no one but me come with the king to the banquet which she had prepared. Tomorrow I'm invited by her with the king. Yet all of this doesn't satisfy me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

Hear a little antisemitism in that? "Every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." So his wife pipes up and says, "Why don't you do something about it? I'm tired of hearing you complain about Mordecai." Zeresh his wife and all of his friends said, "Have a gallows 75 feet high made. And in the morning, ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, then go joyfully with the king to the banquet." Haman thought, "Hot dog of an idea." And he put the guys on the gallows detail and they started building it. Now I call that overreacting. 75 feet. That's seven and a half stories.

And it doesn't mean gallows. You know what the word means? The original word here means tree. In fact, literally, it means pole or stake. They didn't hang them from a noose. In Persia, they impale them. The pole was thrust into the body and the body was hung on a pole seven and a half stories high. You know the Romans got the idea of crucifixion from the Phoenicians who learned it from the Persians. That's why Jesus was referred to as hanging on a tree or on a pole. Romans developed the idea of driving nails in the hands, but the Persians simply impale the body on a pole.

It was an anguishing, torturous death. You see, that's what you do with people you hate. And that's why Jesus was put on a cross. It pleased him to do that, and he went to sleep that night listening to the thump and the bump and the pounding of the construction crew through the night as they were building the pole on which his enemy would hang. It's a great story. It certainly isn't anywhere near over.

But let me pause here and say some things that are what I call direct and timely advice for today. Let me share with you three or four thoughts that I get as I read through this passage regarding our lives and how we must deal with difficult situations. Here's the first. When preparing for an unprecedented event, wait on the Lord before getting involved. When preparing for an unprecedented event, wait on the Lord before getting involved. Maybe I said it too quickly earlier, so I want to repeat it now.

At least as important as the thing we are waiting for is the work God does while we wait. He works on us, He works on others, He works on our circumstances. If we plunge in, if we run ahead, as it were, His hands are tied and we frustrate the better arrangement. You're on the verge of a big decision. I suggest you wait. You wait. Don't hurry. Especially if it's unprecedented. If you have to cut a new path. If you're walking a journey that you've never walked before and there's no map, better wait. Better wait for the Lord. And I don't know how long. Could be three days, could be three weeks, could be three months. But in the waiting period, don't get involved. Wait on the Lord.

Here's a second. When dealing with an unpredictable person, count on the Lord to open doors and hearts. When dealing with an unpredictable person—I'm thinking here of the king—count on the Lord to open doors and hearts. And remember Proverbs 16:7, "When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." Count on the Lord to do that. Amazing things happen to our courage while we're waiting. Rather than getting more afraid, we become less afraid. The Lord becomes more important. His presence overshadows the threatening, even intimidating circumstances that would otherwise immobilize us or paralyze our thoughts. When dealing with an unpredictable person, count on the Lord to open doors and hearts.

Here's a third thought. I get it again from chapter 5. When working through an unpleasant situation, trust the Lord for enduring patience. When working through an unpleasant situation, trust the Lord for enduring patience. Realize the patience she had to carry out when she was in the presence of Haman, the man who hated her people. Realize the patience she had to have to serve the banquet only to serve another banquet and to wait for just the right time. Perhaps she sensed it wasn't the right time. In situations that are unpleasant, timing is as important as actions, sometimes more so. Pace yourself. It takes patience for the situation to become bearable and workable.

Fourth and finally, when standing against an unprincipled enemy, ask the Lord for invincible courage. When standing against an unprincipled enemy, ask the Lord for invincible courage. You know what occurred to me when I was speaking on this earlier? Perhaps in the midst of that first banquet, she sensed a growing invincibility and courage, and she sensed the need for that to continue to build for her to say what she's going to say, as recorded in chapter 6. When standing against an unprincipled enemy, ask the Lord for invincible courage.

The good news is God will grant you your request. It may not be as you plan, but He will give you the courage to see it through. I said earlier, nothing touches the heart like a song, like a story. You know the one to whom we sing more songs than to any other person who has ever lived? Jesus Christ. There are more songs composed to the person of Jesus Christ than to any other human being who ever lived. You know why? Because his story is like none other.

Did you know that they put him on a pole? That they hung him up to die? Did you know that more people hated him than loved him? You know that more cheered than wept? You know that when he died, more applauded than sighed? Despised and hated by men and women, he died. Why do we sing to him then? Because like no other person who ever died, he came back from the dead alive. And he gave us a song. He arose from the grave and he still lives.

Now the question, real question is, is do you know why he died? Not because some Haman hated him and decided to put him on a pole. He died because you and I are sinners. The only way to satisfy the demand of a holy God in dealing with humanity was to pay the penalty for sin. And that required the price of blood from the unspotted Lamb of God, Jesus himself. I'd like us to bow together for a moment of reflection, for some of us a time of gratitude and for others a time of decision.

All the way through this message, I've talked about waiting on the Lord. Now I'm going to encourage you to do just the opposite. If you do not know this Lord Jesus Christ to whom I referred here at the end of the message, you don't need to wait any longer. You can meet Him today in the sacred sanctuary of your heart, where He has built a conscience where you have been pouring sin and failure and hopelessness all the years of your life, and He has come to cleanse your heart and to give you a new inner person, a new being on the inside. He's come to forgive you and to release you from the grinding prison of guilt.

Today, the Lord Jesus Christ is knocking on that door, waiting for you to open it. Won't you let Him in today? In a big church like this, it's easy to busy ourselves with finding our cars and getting into our vehicles and finding our way to home or to lunch, and to miss the most significant part of a worship service, and that is coming face to face with the reality of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Come today. Don't put this off any longer. You're surrounded by people who, like you, thought they could make up their mind later and finally came to the realization that the most intelligent decision they could make was to give their life to Christ.

Father, I thank you today that in the incomplete story that we are reading and learning, there is truth to live by. Thank you for giving some this day courage to continue to wait. For giving others the determination to stand alone, even if it means personal loss and public misunderstanding. Thank you for modern-day Esthers, women and men alike, who have stood up to be counted. They model for us what the Christian life is all about.

And Father, I pray for the person who, like Haman himself, has blamed others for his unhappiness and deserves the very gallows upon which he would place Mordecai, that you'd bring us to an end of our blaming. And bring us to an end of our sinful lifestyle and bring us face to face with the claims of Jesus Christ. We this day acknowledge His right to rule in our lives, and may He be glorified with our decision to trust Him and Him alone for eternal life. We pray together in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bill Meyer: What Esther discovered in those three days of waiting, God wants you to discover too: that His timing is perfect, His strength is sufficient, and His hand is never far away. This is Insight for Living and the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll. Esther is one of the most engaging, enduring, and inspirational stories in the Bible. And here at Insight for Living, we prepared a Bible study workbook for you from our Searching the Scriptures studies. You won't find this resource anywhere other than right here.

Many of our listeners are using it like a journal for their personal devotions. Others have bought multiple copies for their Bible study small groups. To purchase the Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for Esther, call us at 800-772-8888. Today, we saw Esther courageously enter the king's court uninvited. Rather than immediately revealing Haman's plot, she wisely invited the king and Haman to a banquet and then a second banquet, demonstrating patience and divine timing. The story unfolds like a movie. What she did next has echoed across 25 centuries.

In his book on Esther, Chuck Swindoll pulls back the curtain on one of Scripture's most riveting confrontations, where palace intrigue, personal courage, and the quiet sovereignty of God collide in ways that will take your breath away. This is a story you won't want to rush through. To purchase Chuck's book on Esther, A Woman of Strength and Dignity, call us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/offer. Thanks for remembering that your gift, no matter the size, empowers us to share Chuck Swindoll's teaching every day on this station and the many other places you can freely access Insight for Living.

To send a donation in the mail, write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. That's Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. Or visit insight.org/donate.

I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll describes the twisting plot for Esther and her courage through it all, Monday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, Esther's Finest Hour, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 1997, 2005, 2018, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.