God’s Timing....

God’s timing isn’t our timing. His is so much more timely and appropriate. We may think we have a plan, but God’s plan is far superior to ours. Here in Esther, we see God’s sovereignty working out a rescue for Mordecai. Haman is about to kill Mordecai but God mysteriously works out His plan by giving the king a severe case of insomnia. Because of his inability to sleep, the king brings out the records of his reign, to be read to him. He learns of Mordecai’s foiling of a plot to assassinate the king, that went unrewarded. The king decides to reward Mordecai, and of all the people to determine his reward, he asks Haman to come up with the protocol. Haman thinks the reward is for himself, so he devises this elaborate, glorious plan; only to later find out it’s for his despised enemy, Mordecai. He then has to carry out this celebratory reward by leading Mordecai out on the king’s horse while he wore the king’s royal robe. Oh, the irony. The story gets even better, but I’ll end it here. God’s timing is always the best timing, sometimes we might even lose all hope before we get to experience it. God knows what He’s doing. We have to trust Him.

9 Haman was a happy man as he left the banquet! But when he saw Mordecai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously before him, Haman became furious. 10 However, he restrained himself and went on home.Then Haman gathered together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, 11 and boasted to them about his great wealth and his many children. He bragged about the honors the king had given him and how he had been promoted over all the other nobles and officials.12 Then Haman added, “And that’s not all! Queen Esther invited only me and the king himself to the banquet she prepared for us. And she has invited me to dine with her and the king again tomorrow!” 13 Then he added, “But this is all worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting there at the palace gate.”14 So Haman’s wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested, “Set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it. When this is done, you can go on your merry way to the banquet with the king.” This pleased Haman, and he ordered the pole set up. Esther 5:9-14 1 That night the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered an attendant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it could be read to him. 2 In those records he discovered an account of how Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the door to the king’s private quarters. They had plotted to assassinate King Xerxes.3 “What reward or recognition did we ever give Mordecai for this?” the king asked.His attendants replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”4 “Who is that in the outer court?” the king inquired. As it happened, Haman had just arrived in the outer court of the palace to ask the king to impale Mordecai on the pole he had prepared.5 So the attendants replied to the king, “Haman is out in the court.”“Bring him in,” the king ordered. 6 So Haman came in, and the king said, “What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?”Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” 7 So he replied, “If the king wishes to honor someone, 8 he should bring out one of the king’s own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden–one with a royal emblem on its head. 9 Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king’s robes and led through the city square on the king’s horse. Have the official shout as they go, ‘This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!’ ”10 “Excellent!” the king said to Haman. “Quick! Take the robes and my horse, and do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the gate of the palace. Leave out nothing you have suggested!”11 So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!” 12 Afterward Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home dejected and completely humiliated.13 When Haman told his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends what had happened, his wise advisers and his wife said, “Since Mordecai–this man who has humiliated you–is of Jewish birth, you will never succeed in your plans against him. It will be fatal to continue opposing him.”14 While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and quickly took Haman to the banquet Esther had prepared. Esther 6