But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command delivered by the eunuchs. At this, the king became enraged and his anger burned within him
– Esther 1:12
And thus the first domino falls in the book of Esther. Without going into all the details about the context here and what’s to come in the book of Esther from here, this moment eventually leads to Esther becoming queen, which eventually leads to the salvation and deliverance of God’s people from decreed annihilation by the king.
Esther 1:12 teaches us God works in ways we do not see.
And it all starts with something where Esther’s not even involved. And as I read this, I just think about God’s sovereignty over all the details in the world, in ways that affect our lives in which you and I are not even involved. God is working in so many different ways, millions, trillions of ways that we don’t see.
Just think about that, and I think about details like how I met my wife and all the different things that were going on in her life and her family’s life that led her to visit the church I was a part of, with a friend of hers that led her to go to a summer camp where we first talked. And I’m not going to bore you with the whole story, but so many details that were totally out of my control, that were totally unknown to me, that God was working in to lead me to my wife or so many other things in my life and in your life.
Esther 1:12 reminds us to trust God with the details.
So today, I just want to encourage you to trust God with the details, not just of your life, but with the details of the world, to trust that even when we don’t understand, even when we don’t see, even when we have questions about what we do see happening in our life or in others’ lives or in the world, we can trust that an all-sovereign, all-wise, good, loving, gracious, merciful, just faithful God is in control.
And so we pray, oh God, we trust in you. All of our trust is in you. We pray that you would help us to trust in you with the things we see and with things we confess, we don’t see, that you are doing in our lives and in the world around us. We trust that in all these things, just like you say in your word, you are working together, all those things, including the things we don’t see, for our good.
And so help us to live today with steadfast faith in you, for you are faithful to us. We praise you for how in Esther, you are writing a story that only you could script, and we trust that in our lives, even amidst the challenges we find ourselves walking through, you are writing a story that only you can script that will ultimately lead to our good, to our joy, to our eternal joy, and not just our eternal joy, but the eternal joy of the nations and all who trust in you.
Prayer for the Jat Sidhu People
Oh God, we pray today specifically for the Jat Sidhu people of India, half a million of them from Sikh traditions, no known followers of Jesus. Oh God, work the details around the Jat Sidhu people. Work details today. Start the dominoes rolling. If they’re not what we trust, they already are started in some different ways to send followers of yours, your children, to the Jat Sidhu to share the gospel with them, that they might experience your salvation.
God, we pray for that. Work all things together for the good of Jat Sidhu men and women who you have died, Lord Jesus, to pay the price for their sins. God, we pray that you work for their good as we trust that you are working all things together for our good. We pray all of this because of your sovereignty and your wisdom and your power and your love on display in your word, in places like Esther 1:12.
And one more thing God, knowing that this is a pagan king that you are working in, in Esther 1:12, we just say as we look at the headlines around us in the world, we trust in you with the details of everything going on in the world. We are not afraid. We will not be shaken. You hold the leaders of the world in the palm of your hands, and we praise you, Lord Jesus, as the king over all of them. And we pray all of this in your name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
