Introduction

Keep a finger in Romans 8 and turn in your Bible to the Book of Esther. We’ll pick up the story in chapter 3. Leading up to chapter 3, Satan had used a man named Haman to put together a scheme to destroy God’s people. Haman had manipulated the political system of his day to set the king against the Jews. It says in Ester 3:6b “…Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai…”

Back in chapter 2, Mordecai had stopped a coup against the king’s life, but still he was unwilling to bow down to Haman. That made Haman really mad. Let’s begin reading in verse 8. Listen to Haman’s evil description of the Jews as he talks to the king. Haman says, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not to the king’s profit to tolerate them. 

⁹ If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver [several million dollars] into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, that they may put it into the king’s treasuries.”

¹⁰ So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite /ag-ag-ite/, the son of Hammedatha /ham-med-ah-THA/, the enemy of the Jews.”  I think the king probably didn’t realize or remember that Haman was referring to the Jews. He did not have a problem with the Jews – especially since Mordecai the Jew had stopped the plot against his life.

¹¹ And the king said to Haman, “The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.”

This is looking bad for the Jews. Haman persuaded the king that the Jews were against the king’s kingdom and needed to be dealt with severely. The king signed a decree and it says in Ester 3:13, “¹³ Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar [February-March], and to plunder their goods.”

So a date was set. All the Jews were slated to be systematically slaughtered and all of their things were going to be taken by the King. There could not have been a more difficult trial facing a group of people. Could you imagine what that must have felt like? Let’s go to chapter 4. Verse 3 says, “ ³ And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

The Jews had only one hope or survival. One of the king’s wives was a Jew named Esther. They pleaded with her to intervene. Mordecai went to Hathach /Hath-AH/ one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend to Esther. Verse 8 says  “ ⁸ Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.”

It was very risky for Esther. She was only supposed to go into the king if called. Going in without an invitation could lead to her death. If she died, the Jews only hope for survival died as well. She responds by saying in verse 11, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”

Understandably, Esther was not eager to rush into a meeting that might lead to her death. Then Mordechai reminded Esther of her unique position and how God had placed her there for a very specific purpose. He continues in verse 14, “¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Considering the risk she said down in verse 16, “¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” Keep this idea in mind: Esther had no idea how this was going to turn out. She might live and save the Jews or she might die right along with them. However, as one of God’s people, eternity was already given to her. Life was already hers forever. Even death was hers because it would lead ultimately her to everlasting life with God. That’s how she can say, “if I perish, I perish.”

In chapter 5, Esther puts on her royal robes and enters the king’s palace unannounced. Verse 2 says, “ ² And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. ³ And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.” The Lord had intervened! Not only did the king not kill Esther (like she had rightfully feared), but he offered her anything she wanted! Esther invited him and Haman to dinner.

They have dinner. In verse 6, it says, “ ⁶ And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, “What is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” With this second offer of generosity from the king, Esther invites the king and Haman to a feast that she wants to prepare the next day.

Haman begins to find his way back home and he runs into Mordecai. Let’s continue in verse 9, “⁹ And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. [He had just finished a feast as well as a fair share of wine] But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.” In his pride, he’s saying “doesn’t Mordecai know who I am? He should bow down to me!”

¹⁰ Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh /ZAY-resh/. ¹¹ And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. ¹² Then Haman said, “Even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. 

Ironically, the only reason he was invited was because Mordecai and Esther had a plan to thwart Haman’s evil intention against the Jews. After all Haman’s bragging is over, he goes on to gripe about how irritated he is with Mordecai. Verse 13:

¹³ Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” ¹⁴ Then his wife Zeresh /ZAY-resh/. and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made [that is about 75 feet high], and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast.” This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

What a jerk! Full of himself, buzzed on wine and teeming with pride, Haman build this monstrosity, then calls it a night and prepares for the big feast the next day.

The Lord hears the prayers of His people and He goes to work. The Lord brings to the king’s mind the man who had earlier stopped the plot against his life. In chapter 6, the king asks one of his servants in verse 3, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this [for stopping the coup]?” The king’s young men who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

At the same time, Haman had entered the palace with the intention of letting the King in on his big plan to hang Mordecai on the extremely tall gallows he had constructed. Let’s read on and see how it works out.

⁴ And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. ⁵ And the king’s young men told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶ So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?”

Haman thought he was planning his own reward…. And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?”

⁷ And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, ⁸ let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set. ⁹ And let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’”

¹⁰ Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry; take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.”

Can you imagine how Haman must have felt when he was personally put in charge of honoring the very man he was planning to publicly execute that day!

In Esther 7, the feast is held for the king and Esther finally has her chance. Starting in verse 3:

³ Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. ⁴ For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” ⁵ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?” ⁶ And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

The king is outraged and then he finds out what Haman had conspired against the Jews and that Haman had built gallows in front of his own house, nearly 75 feet high in order to kill Mordecai – the very man who the King wanted to honor. Verse 10 says, “¹⁰ And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

But the story isn’t quite over. The very best part comes at the beginning of Chapter 8. In verse 2 it says, “ ² And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.”

If Mordecai and Esther had simply saved the Jews from all being killed, I think we could say that they conquered Haman. However, God not only stopped Haman’s evil plans but he turned Haman into Mordecai’s servants.

• Haman was forced to plan the Mordecai’s celebration.
• Haman even built the massive gallows that he would be executed upon.
• Haman’s household was given over the Mordecai to be his servants

I would say that Mordecai not only conquered Haman, but he MORE THAN CONQUORED Haman! This story was a historical account of how God literally preserved His people, but this story also has spiritual lessons to lean.

Turn back in your Bible to Romans 8. When we are faced with affliction, the Bible does not say that we are ‘just conquerors.’ It does not say we will overcome, barely, by the “skin of our teeth.”[1] It says in Romans 8:37 that we are “more than conquerors.” “More than conquerors” means to overwhelmingly conquer. It literally means to hyper-conquer or over-conquer. It carries with it the connotation of “conquering with success to spare.”

When the Bible says “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” it means that more has been done than just defeating an enemy. It implies that God makes your enemy into your servant. A conqueror defeats his enemy, but someone who is “more than a conqueror” makes his enemy serve his own purposes.

God transforms afflictions to serve His purposes

So let’s move from our definition of an “over-conqueror” to the reality of what that means for us in our everyday lives. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “ For this light momentary affliction [the enemy] is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…[what the enemy does]” In this verse, we could say that ‘affliction’ is one of the attacking enemies. The affliction could be a man like Haman. It could be cancer. It could be a Roman arena. It could be anything that would try to hurt us or destroy our faith in God. So when Paul has faced this enemy, what was the result of the conflict?

First of all, we know that the conflict did not in any way remove Paul from the love of God. Christians often face affliction. Affliction does not come because God is withdrawing His love from His people.   Nothing is able to separate us from the Love of Christ. No matter how severe the trial, Jesus still loves us perfectly and completely. Affliction is part of His good purposes.

BUT… there is more. The affliction itself has been taken captive. The affliction has not only been conquered, but it has been made into a servant. The very affliction that was seeking to hurt Paul’s spiritual life is now serving him by conforming him to the image of Jesus.

The enemy, that Paul called ‘affliction,’ is no longer working against Paul but is now working for Paul to prepare him for “an eternal weight of glory.” His enemy is now his servant. Not only has God conquered the enemy in Paul’s life, but He has made Paul a hyper-conqueror or over-conqueror.

Affliction raised up its knife to cut off Paul’s faith and God used that same knife to cut out some of Paul’s sin. In this way, affliction can be made into a servant of godliness and humility and holiness in the life of a believer. The very thing that Satan intends to use in order to hurt or discourage or destroy us can (by the power of Christ) be turned around to make us more like Jesus.

It is what the Joseph meant when he said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” It is what Paul means in Romans 8:28 when he wrote, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

The affliction that Haman conceived in order to destroy the Jews ended up leading to the deliverance of the Jews. It led to rewards for Mordecai. AND it showed that the God of the Jews was powerful and in control. God used that trial for the good of His people.

The affliction that was purposed to destroy Paul worked for him so that he was able to stand under an even greater weight of glory than he would have been able to endure if there had never been a fight with affliction to begin with. In this way, Paul was made “more than a conqueror.”

I need this truth! As a pastor, I’m not sure how I would be able to withstand the pressures of ministry if I wasn’t convinced that God is taking every set-back, controversy, discouragement and pain, stripping it of its destructive power and making it work for my good, and my conformity to Jesus – all so that I would be even more satisfied in my relationship with God.

We need this truth! There is so much pain in this fallen world. But our great God can take the massive affliction that you and I face and turn that affliction into servants of our godliness:

• Cancer serves us to making us look forward to perfect bodies in heaven
• Tragic loss serves us so that we don’t hang on too tightly to this world and see the tremendous value in God’s kingdom
• Persecution serves us so that we are forced to see our greater treasure in Jesus Christ.
• Even death serves us by delivering us from this fallen world into the ever-lasting joy in the presence of our King

The promise that God will use all things – both pleasurable things as well as afflictions, disease and weakness – for our good gives us the assurance we need in order to takes risks for the Lord.

Life Application:

In Queen Ester’s life, she had the courage to take a huge risk for the Lord because she was already “more than a conqueror.”

• If the king listened, then God’s people would be served by their miraculous deliverance. The very trial they faced would show the power of God.
• And if she died, then her very death would deliver her into everlasting glory in the presence of the King of king and Lord of Hosts.
• Either way, she would be made “more than a conqueror” through the power of God at work in her life.

If we think that the afflictions we face are simply a distraction from what God is really trying to do in our lives, we might miss the whole purpose for the affliction to being with. God uses afflictions to serve His purposes in our lives. Often, it is only a time of affliction that can produce the kind of results God is trying to achieve in us.

We begin the battle victoriously because Christ has already given us the free gift of salvation. Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” We can end our times of affliction, as “more than conquerors through him who loved us” when we allow God to transform our enemies into servants that make us more like Jesus.