The Divine Conductor

The Divine Conductor
Esther 6-10
“For Mordecai, the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.” (10:3).

Imagine that you are blind and attend a Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra concert.  You would hear rapturous music, with each instrument playing in perfect harmony to achieve the beauty of the music.  You would listen to the rhythm of the drums, the soothing sound of the violins, and the crescendo of the trumpets.  As you hear, you wonder how all these musicians keep in perfect time and blend together.  What enables them to play in such perfect harmony? Then, as the music captures you, you realize that there must be one person guiding the music, one who serves to unite all the instruments into one harmonious song.  That one person is the Conductor.  Unseen by you but manifested by the music.

In the book of Esther, it seems as if there is no conductor in the first part of the book.  The events seem to be the working of random chance that conspire against Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews.  The music is playing but dark, foreboding, and disjointed. The music is filled with dissonance.  However, suddenly the music changes to soft and wonderful as the conductor leads the orchestra in another direction.  Such is the case with this book.  In a series of events, the Jews go from the threatened to the aggressors, from those threatened by the King to those who enjoy the favor of the king.  The change is dramatic and unexplainable.  The night that the events are at a critical point, by “chance,” the king suffers from insomnia and makes an unlikely request—that the book of records is brought and read to him.  By “chance,” the guards grab the one book that has the record of Mordecai saving the king. By “chance,” when the king asks for a court official, Haman happens to be the one standing in the court (vs. 4-5).  By “chance,” Haman assumes that the king seeks to honor him and recommends that the person be promoted to a position of high honor. By “chance,” the King is so pleased with the banquet that Esther provides that he offers her anything she desires.  The music suddenly changes from dissonance to perfect harmony.  What orchestrated the change: The divine conductor, unseen by the reader but revealed by the way the music moved into a crescendo of perfect balance.

God is not the orchestrator of evil. He is not the cause of evil.  Death, pain, and sorrow resulted from our choice to reject God’s rule and try to usurp his position.  Our sin, evident in the Garden of Eden, brought evil into the world.  But even the presence of evil is not a threat to a sovereign God.  He remains in control and orchestrates the events to accomplish the good he desires.  Paul writes that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28).  He does not say that all things are good, for evil is never good.  But God, as the divine conductor, moves within the circumstances to accomplish what is eternally good.  The Act of our sin and rebellion enables God to display his grace and forgiveness.  When the pain of tragedy strikes, God shows his sustaining grace.  When man plots to destroy God’s people, God reveals his sovereign deliverance.  Although God is not mentioned in the story, the whole narrative shouts that a divine conductor is bringing harmony from the dissonance of life.  As our life moves through the daily events of triumph and tragedy, remember there is the divine conductor, unseen by us, who orchestrates the circumstances to accomplish his perfect purpose.