Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: God is never mentioned in the book that bears Esther’s name. But woven into this fascinating biblical story are the obvious signs of God’s sovereign control. It’s a reminder that although we often find God’s ways mysterious and even baffling, His wisdom transcends our comprehension.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll provides a fast-paced summary, tracing the remarkable story of God’s chosen people and the extraordinary life of a young orphan named Esther. In the event that you missed any portion of yesterday’s program, we’ll begin with helpful highlights. Chuck titled his message, God’s Invisible Providence.

Chuck Swindoll: Mordecai was among the Jews who remained in Persia during the reign of Ahasuerus. He is a godly man but his most significant role has not been mentioned. It appears in verse seven. Look. He was bringing up Hadassah—that is, Esther. Her Persian name means star, like star in the night. She’s the star of the story. She’s the heroine. She actually becomes the queen.

He was bringing up Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. We’re not told why; we’re not told when she lost them. This young lady was beautiful of form and face, and I might add strong of character. And when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

Who would have ever thought God would have His hand on some forgotten orphan? A little girl who had lost her mother and dad? Who would ever expect that a Mordecai, a Jew, a no-name in the great land of Persia where Ahasuerus and Haman ruled in evil? Who would ever expect that Mordecai, as his hands and arms would touch this lovely young woman and rear her to be a woman of God, who would ever expect that she would be the link to the survival of the Jews? She is of course fifth and main character of the book.

Look at chapter two and the end of the chapter. In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh—they sound like bad guys, don’t they? They are; they’re wearing dark hats. Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s officials from those who guarded the door, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. It’s another way of saying there was a conspiracy to assassinate him.

But the plot became known to our guy, Mordecai. And Mordecai told of course his adoptive daughter, Esther. And Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. Now when the plot was investigated and found to be so, they were both hanged on gallows. Who? Bigthan and Teresh. And it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.

Who cares? I mean honest to Pete, who cares about Bigthan and Teresh? Nobody! Only a secretary writing down in the chronicles, Bigthan and Teresh got hanged today, thanks to Mordecai, period. You put that on a back burner, okay? Because what you would call an insignificant day to a secretary—not for Bigthan and Teresh, but for a secretary—what you would say is insignificant, who really cares, becomes vital in the plan of God.

I love this about God. Why? Because He is unfathomable and unsearchable. Albeit invisible, He is nevertheless invincible, then as well as now.

Haman hates Mordecai because Mordecai will not bow to him. So Haman talks the king into a game plan. If you follow my rules, I will pour money into your treasury. All I ask is that you give me the right to rid the land of all these Jews. And so the King Ahasuerus, believing in Haman and ignoring such simple things as anti-Semitism from a Gentile ruler, Ahasuerus passes it off with a passing of his hand. Go ahead, do whatever you need to do.

Sure as the world, Mordecai gets the word and becomes worried. Pacing back and forth, he decides Esther has to know the plan. See, nobody knows Esther’s a Jew, a Jewess. He told her not to tell anybody, and she didn’t. Even though she becomes queen, no one knows she’s Jewish. So Mordecai comes near the court of the king and says, I need to get a message to Esther. End of chapter four, turn there. Now remember what I told you to keep in your mind. Just let it linger there, minutes from the chronicles. Look at chapter four, verse thirteen.

Mordecai told them to tell Esther, do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from the Jews from another place. You think he didn’t believe in the preservation of the Jews? It may not be you, Esther, we’ll be killed, but someone else will deliver. And you and your father’s house will perish. And I love this: and who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?

He said to her in verse sixteen: Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me. This is what Esther told Mordecai. Fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, day or night, and my maidens will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

Now in the meantime, nobody knows about this. It’s whispered among the Jews. Esther plans a meeting with the king. Haman thinks she wants to honor him because she asks him to come along. Esther gets the two of them together and says, I’ve got a plan, I want to have a banquet, and I want to announce my plan when we get together.

She says in verse eight of chapter five, if I’ve found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition to do whatever I request, may the king and Haman come to the banquet which I shall prepare for them tomorrow. I will do as the king says. Haman was thrilled! He thought, I have been invited with King Ahasuerus. Xerxes and I are going to have a time with the queen. I mean, she really thinks I’m something.

On the way back home, he runs into Mordecai and he’s infuriated. So when he gets home, he says to his wife—she’s quite a lady, Zeresh. He says to her, that Mordecai drives me nuts. Verse fourteen: Zeresh and all of his friends said, build some gallows, build them seventy-five feet high, called here fifty cubits, and ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows and go joyfully with the king to the banquet. The advice pleased Haman and he got all of his guys together and they brought all these two-by-fours and they started building seven and a half stories of gallows.

Next verse. Look! It’s great. Unfathomable, unsearchable, immortal. Look, the king can’t sleep. During the night, while Haman and all of his guys are building gallows to hang Mordecai, Ahasuerus has insomnia. And nothing will make you go to sleep quicker than notes and minutes from the meeting. And so he says to somebody, bring the chronicles, bring the records.

Listen. That night! Is that like God? That night! While Haman’s building gallows to hang Mordecai, Ahasuerus is listening to the chronicles. It was found written that Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. He’d forgotten all about that.

The king said, what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Is that great? You don’t look like you get it. Mordecai is about to be honored, and Haman is about to kill him! And so the king in the middle of the night says, we gotta find a way to honor Mordecai. What honor’s been done? They said nothing was done. Somebody flipped him a dime and said, good job or something like that, but it wasn’t a big deal.

The king said, who’s in the court? Now, it’s early morning, dawn’s coming. Haman’s tired, been up all night building gallows. He shows up! He shows up ready for the big deal with Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus. He said, who’s in the court? Haman had just entered. Isn’t that like God? He’d entered in order to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared.

The king’s servant said, Haman’s out there hanging around the court, he’s available. King said, let him come in. Haman came in and said, what is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor? Is that great? What do you think we ought to do for the man we really want to honor? Haman said to himself, whom would the king desire to honor more than me? He thinks he’s going to get honored. So he lists all these great things. I love stories like this.

Bring a royal robe, verse eight, which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed. That’s not a drink, that’s a crown. And let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, thus it shall be done to the man whom the king honors.

King said, good idea! Look. Take quickly the robes and the horse and do it for Mordecai the Jew. Oh, no. No. No. You see, when God calls the shots, nobody can stop it. The most powerful man in the land gets his hands tied and his mouth silenced. God and God alone can do such things.

Haman throws a little fit before his wife, verse thirteen. He’s all depressed. I love his wife’s counsel. Haman, verse thirteen, recounted to Zeresh his wife and all of his friends everything that had happened. Zeresh his wife said to him, if Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him. Very supportive, huh? Being quoted from the original Aramaic, don’t get your hopes up baby, your days are numbered.

That’s exactly what happened. Exactly! And he winds up, verse ten, chapter seven. Look at this. I love it! They hanged Haman on the very gallows which he prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided. Of course! Why? Because of God, and God alone.

The immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, Victorious, Thy great name we praise. Wonderful story. When I come to a book that never mentions God, I see God all the more profoundly and eloquently written through it. It’s an invisible ink, just like life.

I’ve never seen the skywriting that says I’m here, Chuck, you can count on me. I’ve never heard an audible voice in the middle of the night speaking to me, assuring me. But by faith I see Him on a regular basis written in the events of life. In the crushing blows that drive me to my knees. In the marvelous experiences I hear from others as well as experience myself.

And I realize it is the unsearchable mind, the unfathomable will. It is the sovereign control, it is the invisible providence of God at work. Because He, though invisible, is invincible. Now, my talk has little to do with history; it has everything to do with life. I care nothing about your learning Persian history. I don’t care if you forget the name Ahasuerus by nightfall. Who gives a rip?

What I care about is that you realize that the gallows you think are prepared for you are not at all. What are the gallows? Some horrible pain? Some threat of surgery? Some emotional stress that is leading further and further to what appears to be your emotional demise? Some fractured relationship that you cannot bring closure on? Some uncertainty concerning your career? Some financial duress?

How about worst of all, spiritual vacuum that will mean your death if you can’t get a handle on it? I have great news: be still and discover that God is God. Stop reaching back into your treasury of security and pulling the strings yourself. Stop manipulating people. Stop ignoring and rationalizing your way around life.

First piece of advice: be quiet. The immortal, invisible, all-wise God hid from your eyes is at work. Be still. Listen. Second, be convinced. Say to the Lord God, I am convinced You are at work in the gallows of my life. And I can see them in the dawn of the morning sunrise. I know You are at work and I cannot change the events. Rescue me. I come through Christ, I come to You. I am quiet, I am convinced.

James Hastings captures the essence of the book of Esther. This book of Esther does not say much about God, but His presence broods over it all and is the real spring that moves the movers that are seen. Centuries after Esther lived and years before James Hastings, there lived a man named William Cowper, spelled C-O-W-P-E-R, often pronounced Cowper.

At the young age of thirty-two, he lost his mind. And in his emotional state of affairs, without a friend in the world, William Cowper decided to take his life. He hired a carriage to take him to the Thames. And the carriage driver who never had known him before grabbed him as he began to make plans to jump into the raging waters and he held him back.

He drove him back to his home. He took poison; someone found him and antidote was provided and he lived through that. That night, he took a knife and fell on it and the blade broke. Early the next morning, he hanged himself and a neighbor concerned about him found him and cut him down.

Couldn’t even take his life because of the unfathomable, unsearchable, inscrutable power of God, invisible though it was. He struck up a friendship before too many months with the great John Newton and the two of them collaborated on a publication called Olney Hymns, O-L-N-E-Y. In which Newton released the great, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound has saved a wretch like me.

But Cowper wrote sixty-seven hymns, the most significant of which in the Olney Hymnal was this one: God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. He plants His footstep on the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright design and works His sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.

The providence looks as though it’s frowning, but I’ll tell you there is a smiling face. I want you to block out all visual stimuli. I want you to close your eyes. I want you to imagine the face of God. More than likely, you have seen Him all your life as frowning, angry, full of rage at you. You are wrong.

That face was the face that faced the cross. All of God’s wrath, all of His anger was poured out on Christ and will not be poured out on you if you are in Christ. Nearer, nearer, nearer I cannot be, for in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.

Whatever your pilgrimage, whatever your story, whatever your gallows, be assured that behind a frowning providence there is hidden a smiling face. My invitation today is an ancient invitation. It’s to every one of us to release the controls of our lives and let God be God. What will it take?

Our problem is that we are so self-sufficient, so smart, so healthy, so capable. The last thing that seems logical is to let go of the controls. Let Him have His way. Let His amazing grace take over. Come to the cross today and give Him that place of significance. He will take you as a sinner and He will turn you inside out and make you into a child of the King, because Christ is the one that took your place on the gallows and died in your stead.

I’ve listened to this message about God’s providence and you’ve heard an invitation to let God have His way in your life. I can’t let this moment pass without taking a few moments to pray for you, especially you who are hearing God’s call to surrender your life to Him. So let me pray for you.

Dear Father, thank You for the amazing grace that You have showered on us through Jesus Christ, who died in our place on the cross. I pray for the person who this very moment is coming to You with empty hands, ready to receive Your grace.

It’s only by grace that we’re saved through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is a gift from You. Draw this woman or man close to Your side and pour out Your gracious gift as he or she invites Your Son to be Lord and Savior. Fill this dear soul with the assurance of Your salvation and Your everlasting love. Bring glory to Yourself today as we pray with gratitude in the name of our Savior and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Bill Meyer: Behind every frowning providence is a smiling face. That’s the quiet unshakable confidence the book of Esther offers every one of us who’s ever wondered whether God is truly there. If Chuck Swindoll’s prayer touched something deep inside you today, we hope you’ll stay close to this series on Insight for Living.

We’ve only begun to trace God’s invisible fingerprints through this remarkable story. Plus, Insight for Living offers a variety of Bible study tools that will help you trace every single fingerprint. First, our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for Esther makes that kind of study genuinely accessible.

It includes thoughtful questions, rich content, and a spiral binding that lays completely flat next to your open Bible. There’s space throughout to capture your own insights, your own prayers, and your own discoveries. It’s a Bible study that fits the way you actually live. To purchase the Bible study workbook for Esther, call 800-772-8888.

You may not think of yourself as a leader, but if you’ve ever guided a child, managed a team, or simply tried to influence someone for good, you are one. And Nehemiah’s story was written for you. God gave him an impossible assignment: rebuild Jerusalem’s walls from rubble, against fierce opposition, with limited resources.

And what Nehemiah did has been studied by leaders ever since. Chuck Swindoll brings that story to life in his remarkable book, *Hand Me Another Brick*. And we want to send it to you when you make a gift to support Insight for Living. You know, your gift accomplishes far more than covering the cost of a book.

It will help someone you may never meet to place their trust in God. We’ll send you *Hand Me Another Brick* today when you call us at 800-772-8888. You can also mail in your donation and request for the book by writing to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. Or you can request it online at insight.org/donate.

I’m Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues this fascinating study on the life of Esther, Thursday, on Insight for Living.

Guest (Male): The preceding message, God’s Invisible Providence, 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.