In Esther, chapter six, verse one, the providential workings of God are evident in this chapter. He used the sleeplessness of the king to bring about the exaltation of Mordecai by his enemy, as in verses two through eleven. Day and night, God watches over those who are faithful.
The sleep of the king fled away. Here, in the most striking way in the book, the workings of God’s providence on behalf of His people are shown. “God Himself is here, though His name is absent.” The king’s sleepless night falls after the day when Haman has resolved to ask on the morrow for Mordecai’s execution, a foretaste of the richer vengeance he hopes to wreak on the whole nation of the people of God. It is by a mere chance, one would say, looking at the matter simply in its human aspect, that the king should call for the book of the royal chronicles and not for music. It was by a mere chance.
It might seem that the reader should happen to light upon the record of Mordecai’s services, and yet when all these apparent accidents come up into the coincidence they make, how completely is the providence visible, the power that will use men as the instruments of its work, whether they know it, or know it not, whether they be willing or unwilling, whether the glory of God is to be manifested in and by and through them, or manifested on them only.
How vain are all the contrivances of foolish man against the wise and omnipotent God, who hath the hearts and hands of kings and all men at his disposal, and such trivial accidents change their minds and produce such terrible effects?
The divine government of God rules over the tiny concerns of men. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without him. Trace the steps that providence took towards the advancement of Mordecai. The king could not sleep when providence had a design to keep him awake. We read of no illness that broke his sleep, but God, whose gift sleep is, withheld it from him. He who commanded a hundred and twenty-seven provinces could not command an hour of sleep.