Introduction

Father’s Day is a special day to honor and appreciate fathers. I can say without a doubt that being a good father & a good husband is the most challenging responsibility we can ever face. Absentee Fathers are one of the social ills of our society that really needs to be looked at more closely. As a nation we are challenge with fatherless homes and it has fuel the current crisis for the simple fact, it affects so many other areas of our communities. Children from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, become involved in drugs and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens. 71% of high school dropouts are fatherless.

Children of single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to commit suicide. A study of nearly 2000 children age 3 and older living with a residential father or a father figure found that children living with married biological parents had significantly fewer behavioral problems than children living with at least one non-biological parent.

Sadly, many men neglect to see the importance of their role as a father that is why the term “dead-beat dad” was originally coined. As a result, kids are growing up in unbalanced and dysfunctional households. In fact 39.6 % of the children in America are going to bed every night without their biological father in the home. Fathers are important and make a difference.
In our study of Esther we learn that Mordecai made a big difference in her life.

I Mordecai Behaved as a Surrogate father – 2:7 & 11

1. Now we do not know if Mordecai was ever a father but we do know that he had taken as his own daughter his cousin Hadassah. Look with me at these two verses. They teach us what a good father does and that is how God is with his children.

2. Men if you desire to be a good father even though you may have had a poor or harmful experience with your own father. Getting to know God as “our Father” is the key and it requires we understand that He is a loving, caring, protecting correcting, and compassionate Father. If you are like most men you want to be a good father even those you may have had a poor or harmful experience with your own father.
You want to be there for the ones you love and protect and care for them. God is like that. He declared that in Isaiah 41:10: Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

3. Our Father did exactly that for Mordecai and Esther and the Jewish people; for what we witness in chapter six and seven is God at work behind the scene orchestrating the circumstances to protect his children from extinction. It is truly miracle after miracle. The judgement begins by God at…

II. Esther’ Banquet 7:1-6

1. Now when you read the first verse, we see the king, Esther and Haman have come to the banquet that the Queen prepared. Haman was summoned just as he was complaining to his wife and friends in chapter 6:12-14. Note the advice he was giving. God was showing him the handwriting on the wall as it were. His demise was very apparent he just did not know it.

2. King Xerxes doesn’t know the truth of what is happening and that Haman has so much hatred for the Jews that he built the gallows for Mordecai to hang on. Second, Haman doesn’t know that Esther is a Jew. The king did not know what was going on and Haman did not know that the queen was Jewish. God knows… For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. Proverbs 5:21 / Proverbs 15:3

God our Father was working behind the scene as prompt by prayer. Mordecai led the Jewish people to fast and pray; do you remember from 4:16 and the queen now has a banquet for the king and Haman.

3. Esther, showed great tact when she finally made her request to King Xerxes. She did not immediately identify herself as a Jew, targeted for massacre – even as Haman also hid the identity of the group he targeted when he made his request. In verse 4 now both understand that the queen is a Jew. The king understands now that a decree has been sent out and stamped by his own ring that would kill his own wife.

4. Let’s look at verse 5, the king asked, “Who would do such a thing? Esther spoke and basically said Haman is that man. Haman now feared for his life.

Application
That is the way of the wicked. They never think that they will ever be discovered. Let me tell you something about the devil that you can count on. He doesn’t care that he destroys his own. In Revelation 9:1 we find that this “star fell” from Heaven. The original Greek wording is “fallen” (to descend from a higher place to a lower) and is past tense. It is speaking of a masculine personal pronoun and is in the perfect tense, denoting completed action in the past. This “star fallen” is none other than Satan himself. Getting to know God as our Father is important because you can count on the devil wanting to expose your sin. —Proverb 21:12

III. God our Father Triumphs 7:7-10

1. The king got up and went into his garden to gather his thoughts. King Xerxes was known for his hot temper. Someone he had trusted wanted to destroy the queen he loved the same man that he trust in was his enemy. Haman never thought for one moment that he would ever be caught. Isn’t it something that Haman wanted to destroy the Jewish race and now we find him pleading with a Jew to save his life? King Xerxes sees Haman at her feet and in his rage said, Will you even assault the queen right here in my palace, before my very eyes?”

2. You will notice that nowhere in this entire book of Esther do we find Esther or Mordecai trying to take issue with Haman. They didn’t plead with him; they didn’t fight him or do anything else. We’re not even told that they spoke to him! They did the only thing that was going to help – they went straight to the top. The choice is simple – will you waste your life, your time fighting your enemies? Or will you turn them over to God your father and allow Him to work the change that He desires? Getting to know God as “our Father is important!

3. Over 11 times in the Pauline epistles does he tell us that God is our Father. He entreats his reader with grace unto you and peace from God our father and the lord Jesus Christ.

Esther and Mordecai knew their only real hope for help would be to make an appeal to the king. The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.- Proverb 21;1 Let your voice be heard and don’t be afraid to let people know where you stand – but you must do so in a spirit of Godliness.

4. Esther exposed the truth about Haman – that he was not a faithful servant of the king, he was instead an adversary and enemy, more interested in his own fame and status than the benefit of the king. Haman found his end on the same apparatus he had intended for the death of Mordecai; he was caught in his own trap against Mordecai. Haman’s head was covered as a preparation for execution. God often works this way and we should pray as the Psalmist did
Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood. He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown. Psalms 7:14-16

Conclusion:
Listen, you can waste your life trying to fight your enemies or you can let God your father fight your battles. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands. — I Samuel 17:47

God alone sees all the details – so it stands to reason that we ought to allow Him to carry out His will as He desires and to stay out of His way while He’s doing it. Turn your enemies over to God your father. You have no better choice! So no matter who your enemy is , turn them over to the Lord and pray for His will to be done in their lives. Psalm 23 says, “He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies!” Now that is victory!

Perhaps today you have been suffering defeat after defeat, setback after setback, and you are down and discouraged, feeling like you’re fighting a losing battle. I want you to notice one last thing that made a world of difference for Esther – it was her special relationship to Mordecai her surrogate father. God is your father and he loves you.

Let me remind you that the most important priority in your life is your relationship with the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.