Do you know those nights when the pillow feels too hard, the silence too loud, and you get up and sit in an empty room staring at a bare wall? This sermon walks through the book of Esther (Esther 5-7), where a death decree hangs over a whole people, Haman spends the night building a huge stake for Mordecai, and on that very night sleep escapes the king. The speaker shows that God makes himself present not only through miracles, but also through strange coincidences and through people who fight for what is right despite their helplessness. Listen if you are asking today where God is while evil unfolds around you.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- After three days of fasting, Esther goes to the king uninvited, then twice postpones her request and invites him to a banquet. What does Esther 5 reveal about her courage and the tension the Jews in Susa were living under?
- Haman leaves the banquet in high spirits, yet Mordecai's refusal to honor him steals his joy and drives him to build a towering pole. What does this scene show about pride and what really rules Haman's heart?
- God is never named in the book of Esther, yet the king's sleepless night and the reading of the chronicles save Mordecai. How do you understand the idea that God is at work beneath the cloak of coincidence?
- Looking back, what coincidence in your life do you now see as a sign of God's guidance, for example on your way to faith or to this community?
- The speaker noted that when one person harms another we say God is absent, yet we fail to see Him when people help each other, as when families took in refugees from Ukraine. How does this change your question about where God is in suffering?
- In the face of helplessness, Esther and Jesus choose not what is easy but what is right. In what situation this week can you stop watching from the sidelines and do what is right?
