May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. And let's turn to
the Book of Esther, the book we read from, and the third chapter,
and we'll just read the last clause in the third chapter. The last clause in the third
chapter of the Book of Esther. But the city of Shushan was perplexed. Well, that's quite a short text
this morning, isn't it, really? But it's very appropriate, really,
in so many ways. Because this city of Shushan,
and of course the city of Shushan was apparently the capital of
the nations which King Ahasuerus was king over, and it was very
many, a very large part of the world, and therefore this city
was perplexed. And we might say, well, why were
they perplexed? Well, they were perplexed because
of the situation which had developed. They were perplexed because this
decree had been passed that all the Jews should be slain. No doubt, not only the Jews,
but all the people were wondering why this had come to pass and
why would it come to pass. Now, it wasn't going to happen
for some nine months, but nonetheless, it was ordained and it was approved
by the king, this wicked decree that Haman had obtained from
the king. And so we see here, the city
Shushan was perplexed. Well, this occurred on this occasion,
but we should recognize that there are many occasions when
there are perplexities. There are many occasions in the
Word of God when things are perplexing. There are many things perhaps
in our lives when we find things are perplexing. And this word
perplexing really means it's puzzling, it's bewildering. And there are things which we
have to say God brings into our lives which we don't understand. And as we ponder them, we don't
come to any real conclusion as to why such things come into
our life. I want this morning, as God helps
us, to realize that this particular decree, which was passed, was
issued against all the Jews, never came to pass. In fact,
the decree was totally reversed against the Jews' enemies. And therefore, if today we find
ourselves perhaps in a perplexing situation, we should not think
that this is the end of the matter, but we should realise and put
our trust in God that those things which appear to be against us
may in the end prove to be a time of blessing and a time of favour. And so may you be encouraged
this morning as we meditate in this little statement, but the
city Shushan was perplexed to realize that these perplexities
still continue today. And let us just touch on a very
important issue. And that was with regards to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And His death, that indeed was
a perplexing occasion to many people. Indeed, we might say
the majority of people found it very perplexing. And we are told that when the
women went to the tomb early in the morning to find the Lord
Jesus, and He'd be risen from the dead. And what did they say?
And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed, much perplexed,
there about behold, two men stood by them in shiny garments, who
were able to enlighten them as to the reason why the Lord Jesus
was risen. But you see, this was an amazing
occasion, was it not, in the history of the world. a most
blessed occasion. And there you see there was that
perplexity. And as we trace out some of the
issues and some of the situations which continue, we can carry
on in that theme with those two. As they traveled on the Emmaus
Road, they were perplexed. They didn't understand what had
happened. Although the Lord has spelt out
to his disciples what was going to occur, but you see they hadn't
really understood. Their ears hadn't really taken
it in and so they were perplexed. And so we can move on and we
can think of other examples. We can think of Jacob in the
Old Testament. Jacob couldn't understand the
pathway. He was perplexed and he made
that statement, didn't he? all these things are against
me. But they weren't. They weren't. And all these things
were not against the Jews. And all those things were not
against the blessed, wonderful life and resurrection and ascension
of the Saviour. No, they were all working together
for good. So it's good therefore this morning
As we think of this word, the city of Shushan was perplexed
and rightly so, and you and I perhaps in our lives may be perplexed
and rightly so, yet may we be able to look beyond that which
appears on the surface and be able to say, it is the Lord,
let him do what seemeth him good. because the Lord has a perfect
will. And the Lord's purposes are to
be worked out. The Lord's purposes will be worked
out. What a mercy, therefore, if the
Lord gives us grace and spiritual understanding to realize the
wonderful favor of our God toward us. Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Corinthians, he was perplexed. The great Apostle Paul, he was
perplexed. And he tells us in the 2nd Corinthians
and the 4th chapter and the 8th verse, we are troubled on every
side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. So we have encouraging words
in the word of God, encouraging examples to direct us to trust
in the Lord at all times, ye people. To cast all our care
upon him. And remember that here was a
very dramatic situation which had occurred and therefore the
city of Shushan was perplexed. But it's good to trace out the
hand of God in the life of the Jewish people on this occasion,
in this time of Esther. And we can see God's hand upon
it from the very beginning. Indeed, when Ahasuerus had that
party with all his nobles, and obviously it wasn't a good party,
it was an evil one. And he called for Queen Vashti
to come and display her beauty. And we can only make an assumption
as what that really meant. And she refused to come, and
rightly so. And therefore, it was decreed,
the princess said, well, look here, King, If she's refused
to come, then no one is going to obey us. They're all going
to follow Queen Vashti's example and therefore she should be demoted
from being Queen. And King Ahasuerus thought it
was a good idea and therefore she was demoted from being Queen. She hadn't done nothing wrong.
But nonetheless, God's purposes were to be brought about in a
strange way. And so what happened was it was
decreed that they should look for someone to replace Queen
Vashti. And strangely enough, Queen Esther,
a Jew, was brought eventually before the king. It was because
Mordecai was there. Mordecai was, of course, one
of the captives. He'd been brought up from Jerusalem,
And here he was now in this place of Shushan, ordained by God to
be in this place at the very time when this thing happened
so that he was able to put forward his niece, this lady Esther. And she at last was selected
to be queen. She found favor in the eyes of
King Ahasuerus. And again, it's interesting and
important to notice that here was Mordecai, sat before the
king's gate, and there were those two men he heard planning to
take the king's life. And he told Esther, and Esther
told the king, and the result was those two men were hanged. You might think, well, just something
that occurred, something very natural. But you see, that was
all part of the wonderful plan of God in overturning this decree. Overturning this perplexity which
existed in this city of Shushan. You should always realize, God
moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform And so it
came to pass that this evil man Haman, again you see King Ahasuerus
was not a good man and therefore we might say they were companions
in crime. These two men and Haman therefore
hated the fact that this Jew Mordecai didn't bow down to him. He had no right to demand that
Mordecai should bow down to him. And yet he was so angry and cross
that because of Mordecai, who he knew was a Jew, he determined
to eradicate all the Jews. Everyone in all those over a
hundred provinces of all different languages. Quite an amazing thing. And yet, you see, he came to
the king and the king willingly accepted his request. and told
him to get on with it and do what he wanted to do. And so
he formulated this decree. The decree was written. The decree
was sent out by all the posts. And the posts went out, being
hastened by the king's commandment. And the decree was given in Shushan
the palace. And we read, and the king and
Haman sat down to drink. Well, what a sad, sad position
that was. They didn't care. They had no
concern about the fact that lives were going to be taken. They
sat down to enjoy themselves. No doubt get drunk with wine
and to satisfy their own ego. And so we have this situation
then. And then the city Shushan was
perplexed. You might say, well, however,
Was this decree going to be overturned? Well, again, it's good to realize
the Lord's hand in a most remarkable way. The king couldn't sleep. You might think, well, that's
nothing very unusual. The king couldn't sleep. And so he asked
for the records to be brought to him in red, those things which
had occurred. And one of the things which was read was about
Mordecai telling Esther that these two men had sought the
king's life. So, the king said, well, what's
been done to him? To reward him? Nothing. You see, it could have been done,
but the king's purposes were to be brought about in this wonderful
way under the hand of God. This thing had been laid aside. But now, now at this time, the
Lord had decreed that the King should ask the question, what's
been done to this man? Nothing. So he then decided to
do something and he said, well, who's in the court? And unbelievably
there was Haman. that wicked king who'd come to
ask that Mordecai, none less, should be hanged on the gallows
that he had built. Well, the king asked Haman a
question. What shall be done to the man
the king delighted to honour? So Haman deceitful man than he
was, thought, who else can it be but me? And so he gave a wonderful
statement as to what should be done. And the king said, go and
do it to Mordecai, who sits at the king's gate. What mortifying
situation that must have been to Haman. But nonetheless, it
was all ordained by the king to overthrow this decree which
was so perplexing to Esther. Now, as we run through this,
let us think in our own little lives. Things perhaps may indeed be
very perplexing. Let us watch and wait for the
Lord's purposes to be worked out in quite an amazing way. A way that we would never anticipate.
You and I would never have been able to write such an account
as this. And yet the Lord graciously fulfilled
His will for the wonderful blessing of the Jewish people. And so,
what happened was, Haman had to do that which the king had
commanded, and to bring Mordecai on the king's horse, robed with
the king's robes and the king's crown, and shout before the people,
this is what happens to the man the king delights to honour.
Well, the queen then of course had come and had asked the king
that there might be something done for her. And she asked that
the king might come to a banquet that he'd prepared, she'd prepared.
And she asked that Haman should come also, and Haman of course
came to this banquet. And then when they came, she
asked that they might come again the next day. And the king agreed,
and they came the next day. And of course, Haman had built
this great gallows to hang Poro Mordecai on, He came to the banquet,
and at that banquet the king asked what was her wish. And she was able to tell the
king what had been decreed for all her people. And Hasuerus
was obviously not aware that she was a Jewess. She came and
told him that there had been decreed against her and all her
people, they should be destroyed." And the king said, whoever has
issued this statement? And she said, it is that wicked
man Haman. The king then, as you may know,
rose and went outside and Haman pleaded for his life to the Queen
and fell upon the bed that she was lying on. The King came back
and saw him and said, will he now force the Queen? And someone
said, behold the gauze that's been erected to hand Mordecai
on. And the King said, hang him upon
it. And so Haman was hanged upon
the gallows that he had erected for Mordecai. So then we see
the gracious work of God now asking Esther what should occur. What should occur? What do you
want? And the result was that Esther
asked that the writing might be reversed. So instead of all
the Jews being slain, all the enemies of the Jews should be
slain. And Mordecai, that despised Jew,
was ordained to be the one who should write the decree. And
so he wrote the decree, which completely was opposite to that
which had so perplexed the city of Shushan. We see God's gracious
work, wonderful work, being performed. And then we read in the ninth
chapter of Esther, now in the twelfth month, that is the month
Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment,
his decree, drew near to be put in execution, in the day that
the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, though
it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them
and hated them." Well, what a wonderful occasion really we have here
in this account to turn around that great and terrible edict
which had gone out against all the Jews. And as we retouch an
account as this, I hope this morning that you and I, in our
little lives, as we may have perplexities, things again which
we don't understand, that we're able to commit them to the Lord
and to observe His good and gracious mind and work and blessing upon
us You know the Apostle Paul in his life, he had a thorn in
the flesh. We're not told what it was. It's
a good job we're not, so that this can soothe all of us in
our lives, whatever difficulty and perplexity we may come into.
As the Apostle Paul did, he came in this perplexity and he prayed
that it might be taken from him, this thorn that the Lord had
given him, But the Lord didn't see fit to remove it from him. And again, it may be so in our
lives. We may have something in our lives which is very difficult
and hard to bear, but we may wish it wasn't there. We may
have prayed the Lord to remove it. The Lord hasn't seen fit
to. We may be, like these people
in Shushan, perplexed. All was perplexed, no doubt.
But what did the Lord say to him? And perhaps what did the
Lord say to us? He said this, My grace is sufficient
for thee. You see, God's grace was indeed
sufficient for him. What a wonderful mercy it was. It was so to be a true blessing
for him. that which he wouldn't have realized
was a favor. And yet, you see, it was a blessing. And it turned out to be so. And the Lord gave him that wonderful
favor of his grace. And what a mercy it is, therefore,
in our lives, if the Lord very graciously comes and blesses
us with that same wonderful favor. when we find that things aren't
working out perhaps as we expected. And you may remember, of course,
that the Apostle Paul had been wonderfully blessed. He'd been
wonderfully blessed because the Lord had taken him up to the
third heaven and there he'd been blessed with that personal view
of the Saviour. But that didn't bring him into
a situation where he would not be freed from such a situation
from this thorn in the flesh. And so the Lord graciously brought
this upon him so that he was able to glory in what God had
done. You know, he lists also in his
life a great list of sufferings that he had to endure. None of
us are to suffer anything like the Apostle was called upon to
pass through. But nonetheless, it was wonderfully
blessed to him because he was able to come and confirm, as
we're told, towards the end of the 11th chapter in the 2nd epistle
of Paul to the Corinthians, He tells us, if I must need glory,
I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie
not. Well, what a blessing the Apostle
gave him, you see, that grace to endure and that grace to be
blessed with that wonderful favour and to be able to say as he did
after this blessing my grace is sufficient for thee for my
strength is made perfect in weakness you see the lord he weakens our
strength in the way he doesn't allow us to press on in our own
strength he weakens our strength in the way we may think we're
strong We may think we have our own way, and we think it's the
right way. Well, it may be, it may not be. And so, having been
blessed with this word, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my
strength is made perfect in weakness, what does the Apostle say? Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. power of Christ, the
evidence of the blessing of the Lord upon him. A perplexing life,
yes, but a life of favour, a life of blessing. Therefore, he says,
therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake,
and let us not forget that, That's the relevant statement. For Christ's
sake, what a mercy when the Lord deals with us. For his sake,
for his honour and glory to bring us down that he might raise us
up. And so he says, for when I am
weak, then am I strong. We're not then strong in ourselves.
We're strong in the Lord. We're not strong in what we can
do. We're strong in what the Lord
does for us. I am become a fool in glorying,
ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you.
For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though
I be nothing." Isn't that a lovely statement? Isn't it good? When
the Lord graciously comes and instructs us in this way and
brings us down to realise that in the sight of God we're as
nothing. indeed less than the least of
all saints. It's a very humbling experience.
It's a very blessed experience. It's a very favoured experience.
It's the wonderful evidence that the Holy Spirit of God is dealing
with us as sons and daughters of the Most High God. And so
as we may perhaps feel sometimes like these people in Shushan
perplexed might feel like the Apostle Paul, perplexed. But remember what the Apostle
said. Although he was perplexed, he
was not in despair. That's a mercy, isn't it? Not in despair. Because as we've
already said, and he wrote to the Romans, he realized that
all things were working together for his good, for his good, for
those that love God. And what a blessing if we don't
have the evidence that we're loved of God. We're loved of
God. It's because we're His children.
And if we're His children, He takes us in hand and deals with
us as His children. And we know, don't we, that children
need to be directed. Children need to be corrected. Children need to be guided. What a blessing it is then to
have a God who looks upon us and deals with us in love to
ourselves. I was thinking of this, I was
thinking of that title that John Flavel, he wrote a book and it
was called Mystery of Providence. It's a wonderful title really.
Think of it in our lives, God's providence toward us in one way
or another and often it might seem to us a mystery. Often it
may seem to us perplexing, but you see nothing is perplexing
to Almighty God. No, the Lord does that which
you and I cannot do. Again, going back to the Old
Testament in a perplexing situation, you may remember that well-known
occasion of Jehoshaphat when he was surrounded with the enemy
And he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do. But what he did was so wonderful.
He prayed to God and he explained the situation to God. Isn't that
good? He explained the situation to
God. Neither know we what to do. But our eyes are upon Thee. The Lord heard Jehoshaphat's
prayer. And the Lord heard Jehoshaphat's
prayer. And there was a wonderful deliverance
granted. There was a prophet there who
was raised up and able to tell them what to do. And they were
told there'd be no need to fight in the battle, because the battle
was the Lord's. Sometimes God takes away all
glory for man. So you and I can't fight battles. We can't say it was our skill. We have to recognize it was the
Lord who fought the battle for us. And on that occasion, old
Jehoshaphat, he told the people to begin to praise the Lord. There was no victory. The battle
hadn't even begun. But there was anticipation of
the victory. Therefore they were able to begin
to praise the Lord out loud. And as they began to praise the
Lord, the Lord set the enemy against themselves. a wonderful
victory for the Israelites or Judah. You see, the Lord heard
the prayer of Jehoshaphat. There he was in a perplexing
situation. How could it turn around to be
a time of blessing? Well, you see, he was brought
down to that situation. We had to say, neither know we
what to do. All my skills gone. All my capabilities
not there. The Lord appeared. The Lord granted
the victory. My friends, what a mercy it is
now we come back to this, which we mentioned earlier, the great
mystery of the crucifixion of the Savior, the great mystery
of the resurrection the great mystery of the Ascension. And
you see, until the Lord graciously opens our eyes to see the glory
and the beauty of it, we're blind. We see it with our natural eyes,
our natural understanding, but it's only when the Holy Spirit
comes and takes away the perplexity and shows to us the glorious
plan of salvation that we then rejoice in it and bless God for
it. And when the Holy Spirit comes
and reveals to us that we are needy sinners, that we are lost
sinners, we are undone sinners, there is no hope in ourselves,
we stand condemned before a holy God to an endless punishment
in hell. and then to be directed to the
glorious work of the Saviour, which was completed upon the
cross at Calvary. Those people that witnessed it
physically, their eyes were beholden, they didn't understand. The two
on the road to Emmaus, they were there, they didn't understand
it. What a humbling experience it is when the Holy Spirit comes
and opens our understanding to realise that Christ Jesus died
upon that cross at Calvary to redeem our souls, to take away
all our sins. He shed his precious blood in
order that you and I might be redeemed. Well, you see, the
perplexity then disappears and the view is open to our spiritual
eyes. And we rejoice in that finished
work. We rejoice to hear those words
spoken on our behalf. It is finished. That great work
of redemption completed upon Calvary. The perplexity disappears. For our faith views the suffering
Saviour upon Calvary's cross, suffering in our place bearing
the punishment instead. And then you see, he rose again. Death could not hold him. He
rose again, a conqueror, a glorious, wonderful conqueror over sin,
death, hell and the grave. That one who has conquered the
devil on our behalf. No doubt, on that occasion when
Christ, you see, died, the devil thought he'd gained a victory.
Yes, the Lord had died, but he rose again. That's the glory
of the gospel. He had to die. He had to rise
again. Bless God today. He ascended
up on high. He led captivity captive and
received gifts from men, yea, for the rebellious also, and
there he is in glory today. At the Father's right hand to intercede
for us. You see the mystery of the gospel.
What a blessing when the Holy Spirit opens our spiritual eyes. My friends, until that occurs,
you know, It's just an historical account. It goes over our head. But bless God, when we're able
to see the glory of the wonderful work of salvation and to know
today that it's only through that that you and I have hope
of eternal life. in glory with a Saviour. It is a wonderful prospect indeed
for the Church of God. And so as we read these few words
this morning, but the city Shushan was perplexed. Have we been perplexed
in our spiritual life? Have we been perplexed perhaps
in our natural life? And as the Lord appeared for
us, and opened our spiritual understanding and opened our
natural understanding to be able to bow down before the Lord and
say, it is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good. A humble submission to the will
of God is a wonderful blessing and a wonderful favor. And if
so, we can understand in some small way why we have such an
account, a lengthy account, in this book of Esther to give us
some understanding of the gracious work of God in turning around
totally that which appeared at one time to be right against
the Jews, but it turned out for their blessing. Well, if things
appear to be right against us, may we have faith to believe
in the wonderful mercy and blessing of God They will turn around
for our eternal good.