Esther: Victory Over Enemies

Esther 7:1-10
Victory Over Enemies
Woodlawn Baptist Church
September 19, 2004

Introduction

“In 1567 King Phillip II of Spain appointed the Duke of Alba as governor of the lower part of the nation. The Duke was a bitter enemy of the newly-emerging Protestant Reformation. His rule was called the reign of terror, and his council was called the Bloody Council, because it had ordered the slaughter of so many Protestants. It is reported that one man who was sentenced to die for his biblical faith managed to escape during the dead of winter. As he was being pursued by a lone soldier, the man came to a lake whose ice was thin and cracking. Somehow he managed to get safely across the ice, but as soon as he reached the other side he heard his pursuer screaming. The soldier had fallen through the ice and was about to drown. At the risk of being captured, tortured, and eventually killed – or of being drowned himself – the man went back across the lake and rescued his enemy, because the love of Christ constrained him to do it. He knew he had no other choice if he was to be faithful to His Lord.”

That’s quite a story – could you have been so noble and faithful? A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. "What are you most proud of?" he asked. "Well, " said the man, "I don’t have an enemy in the world." "What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!" said the reporter. "Yep," added the old man, "outlived every last one of them."

Sometimes I think it would be wonderful to live life without any enemies, and then I realize that one day I will! The Bible tells us of that wonderful time when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will sit on the throne in His kingdom and rule and reign with righteousness and peace, and in that day things are going to be different than they are now – but until then we might as well get used to the fact that not all people are going to like us, and in fact, many will even hate us.

As believers in Christ, we all go through a wide range of feeling and emotions when it comes to those who would do us harm or have ill feelings toward us, and nowhere is this wide range better expressed than in the Psalms. There were times when David prayed for his enemies. There were times when he prayed about them; going so far as to ask God to destroy them on occasion. Sometimes as he prayed, David would ask for wisdom and guidance in the face of his enemies, or that God would keep him in the way of righteousness. Sometimes David wondered how long his enemies would have the upper hand; why did he have to suffer when he was in the right? David praised the Lord for victory over them, for his protection from them, for God’s provision when pursued by them. He asked God not to hand him over to them. Sometimes David wondered whether God was using his enemies to punish him for some sin of his, or that God was permitting them to defeat him for some purpose he didn’t understand.

It can be a confusing thing to deal with an enemy. You and I naturally want God to deal with them. We can begin to harbor feelings of hatred and bitterness and anger and can even begin to pray in that state. I have asked God on occasion to remove an enemy from me, and at times I wish the Lord would deal harshly with them as they have with me. Other times I remember what Jesus said about loving our enemies, and then I feel guilty for my anger and