Overview of Esther, Adult Discipleship Class

Does everyone here have papers or notes? If you do, wave them. Wave them, wave them, awesome, awesome. She’s got two. Hey, anyone need one? She’s got two. Awesome, awesome. Sorry, I printed out 41. One for me as well. Oh, you have the previous week’s. Wow, gold star, brownie points.

So we’ve been studying the Old Testament, and this has been a very, an encouraging study for me, myself. There are, it’s amazing when you, especially with like Dave’s sermon today, like when you start to understand the Old Testament context behind Matthew, it just, like the whole idea of the Jews wanting to be separate from the Gentiles that he was talking about, there’s so much history behind that. And it’s really helpful when we come to the New Testament to better understand things about the Old Testament.

We made it through Nehemiah finally, right? And don’t worry, thank you Dave, I think everyone’s always grateful whenever preaching goes shorter than expected. It’s gonna be the same for my teaching too, I promise. Coming in early, you won’t have to stay later, or come to the normal time.

But we make it to the book of Esther today. And if you take a look at your notes, the main theme of the book of Esther is the God who preserves. It’s sort of a little bit redundant. God’s faithful, right? He’s the God who reconstructs, restores, or restores then reconstructs and preserves as we’ve been studying in these post-exilic narrative texts. But Esther is really unique. Esther, if we were to think of how to divide it, I have it in your notes there. The first section can be sort of understood as the threat to the Jews in chapters one through four. And the second section is the triumph of the Jews in chapters five through ten.

Now I put on here it’s debated because, you know, people are sometimes, they like to see things, I think, in places where it really isn’t there. And that certainly is the case with commentaries and the biblical studies disconnected from systematic theology.

A lot of people think that there’s a chiastic structure in Esther. In fact, most would say that there is. And a chiastic structure is sort of like a Hebrew literary device where there are parallels in a narrative, in a section, in a psalm, whatever it is, in the literary portion. that parallel each other, the beginning and the end. And then another section towards the middle with another section, where the meaning of it really is here. Now for Esther specifically, this is highly debated. Those who sort of put up the proposed chiastic structure, which again, chiasm is just this, put it around different places. So some would say that this here is where the king can’t sleep.

Others would say that there is Esther’s feast because of the feasting throughout the whole book. And I like their thought process a little bit because they’re observing important things. They’re observing there’s a lot of parallels in the book of Esther, even though they haven’t determined with their chiasm what they think is the best structure. That’s why I’m not buying it completely.

But what it goes to show is there’s many things happening in the book of Esther that are reversals. This is a very important thing in understanding the book of Esther. We think of Vashti in Esther, reversal. We think of Haman in Mordecai, reversal. We think of the enemies of the Jews in the Jews, reversal again. And as we look into the narrative of the book of Esther, it’s important that we make sure we understand that.

Something else that makes Esther very unique is that someone isn’t mentioned in the book of Esther. Who is that? God, right? It’s kind of crazy when you think about it. God is not mentioned in the entire book of Esther. And Esther is the only book in the Old Testament where God isn’t mentioned. Some debate and say whether Song of Solomon, God was mentioned. I think he is. And I think one of the, like the, what’s translated the flame of the Lord, and I believe Song of Solomon chapter eight, is an instance of that. So it doesn’t qualify in this group where God is not mentioned. And people have proposed different reasons for that. Of course, the liberals love to do all their stuff, come up with their theories of why God isn’t in there.

But if we’re continuing our same theme, well, ultimate theme of the whole Old Testament, we have these different themes. The main one and the main character of the Old Testament. Who is the main character of the Old Testament? Jesus, God, right? Absolutely. God is the main character of the Old Testament. And so when we come to a book of Esther, what do we do? And upon further study in the book of Esther, I know it is made clear that it was intentional, that God wasn’t mentioned. If we think about the historical context, this is the post-exilic era. We’re sort of going back in time from the book of Nehemiah.

Ezra, right, begins with the decree of Cyrus, and in fact the 2nd Chronicles ends with that as well on a more hopeful note. Cyrus allows Jews to go back into the land after the Babylonians had taken them from Judah into captivity. And the Jews are now back in the land. They have many trials and difficulties with regards to their enemies and sort of seeking political favor with the Persian kings who had conquered the Babylonians.

Ezra, the temple, is ultimately built, and there are reforms within the people. And Nehemiah comes along and then helps reconstruct the walls in Jerusalem. And again, there is more reformation of the people. Yet there’s still problems, but there is some sort of reformation of the people wanting to go back to obedience to the Mosaic covenant.

Esther kind of comes back from where we were at in Nehemiah. So as mentioned before, we have these six kings. of the Persian Empire coming from the beginning of Ezra to the end of Nehemiah. We have Cyrus, we have Cambyses, and I had a friend from seminary I called recently about Esther, and he corrected me on many of the pronunciations of these names, so I apologize. We have Bardiya, which is very brief, and I think I mentioned that last time, that people wonder if it really even was the authentic Bardiya. After Bardiya, we have Darius I, And after Darius I, we have Xerxes, or Ahasuerus, as we’ll see in Esther.

And then after Xerxes, we have Artaxerxes. So in the book of Nehemiah, we were learning about events that were unfolding during the reign of which one of these Persian kings? Artaxerxes, right? Artaxerxes, that’s where we left off. But in Esther, we go back to the reign of Xerxes, or also Ahasuerus, the more Hebrew, Aramaic sort of name of the same king, where Xerxes, I believe, is more Greek.

Same guy. And so we’re going back in time to Xerxes. And not only going back in time, we’re changing geographic location. The last few books have been concerned in Jerusalem, in the land of the Jews. And now we’re going to one of the capitals of the Persian Empire, Susa. So let’s take a look at the book of Esther, chapter one.

It says, now it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, once again, Xerxes. the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces. In those days, as he sat on his royal throne, which is in a citadel in Susa, which by the way is modern day Iran. In the third year of his reign, he held a feast for all his princes and servants, the military officers of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of his provinces, being in his presence. And verse four says this was 180 days, half a year that they met, all of the rulers in his empire.

It’s because, and I think MacArthur in his sermon, he did one sermon on Esther that at least I’m familiar of. He does a great job on the historical context of this. This is because Persia is getting ready to try and take over the Greeks’ land. They’re getting ready for battle, and he’s sort of planning with them at this citadel, this sort of fortress, in one of the capitals of Persia, in Susa, modern-day Iran. And verse 1 through 9 is trying to talk about how big-time Xerxes really is. He’s huge. and has much power and much authority. One of the biggest world empires ever in history is this Persian Empire. And so, whenever the threats come to God’s people, that’s sort of amplified with this knowledge of Xerxes.

And at the end of that section, we are introduced to Queen Vashti, his queen, who also is hosting an event for the women in the royal house, which belonged to Ahasuerus Xerxes. And so then, in the next section, we see Queen Vashti refuses the king. This is a big deal in verses 10 through 22. So King Xerxes at the end of this hundred and eighty days has a week of sort of this drunken party where he has all of these leaders with him and he wants his wife Queen Vashti to come before them to present her beauty to them.

There’s a lot that isn’t mentioned in Esther for motives or reasons behind why people There is conflict, like why did Vashti refuse? Was it something inappropriate that he was asking her to do? Was it because she didn’t want to be involved in a place with all of these men who were completely drunk? There’s lots of different, I don’t know, guesses as to what that could be, but nonetheless, she refuses the king. And we see that in verse 12, that she refused to come at the word of the king. And this is highly problematic. This is very problematic, not only for Xerxes, but for the rest of the rulers in the Persian Empire that are present.

They catch wind of this, and they see… that if what Vashti did is tolerated, then the same is going to be true of the rest of the empire. It’s sort of like they’re trying to thwart sort of a women’s liberation movement. And so they ended up, or they should say King Xerxes, removed Queen Vashti from her position, which then leaves a vacancy. In between Esther 1 and 2, again, I think MacArthur does a really good job talking about this, is that campaign against Greece.

And the Persians are unsuccessful. Much is learned about Xerxes in that time. He has horrible wrath, like a very, very hot-tempered man. And there’s several examples of water destroying bridges of his army and him being so mad he orders his men to whip the water. just because he’s that angry. And so when Xerxes is angry, he’s really, really angry. And so now in chapter 2 we come to looking for a replacement for Vashti.

This is a pretty big deal. I don’t remember what the exact number was of the Persian Empire, but I think the estimates were somewhere around 50 million people in this empire, which for back then, mind you, again, population of the world was much smaller. So this is a big deal. And what is proposed is that all of these young women, and again if you think of 50 million people, like the amount of women that likely would have been an empire would be 25 million. Many of them married of course, and there’s a lot of different things you have to consider, but still a large amount of women brought into the harem of Xerxes.

And he was trying to choose a queen. Now, I want you to take a look at verse 5 here. I love the way that Esther in the narrative sort of describes events unfolding. Remember, is God mentioned in the book of Esther? No. But does that mean he’s not present? No, no, not at all. In fact, I would argue that there’s no other book in the Old Testament that makes it more clear that God is the main character than Esther, even though he’s not mentioned.

There’s sort of this, like, coincidental language, but it’s not coincidental, and the author doesn’t mean to paint this as coincidence, but Providence. We read in verse 5 that in Susa, the citadel, There was a Jew, and his name was Mordecai, the son of Jer, the son of Shammai, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite. Does anyone know of another Old Testament figure who was a son of Benjamin and was the actual son of Kish?

Saul. Yes, Jeannie. Yes. Saul was. So interestingly, a descendant of Saul. That’s going to be important for later. And his descendants, or probably father, had been taken away from Jerusalem into the exile to Babylon, which the rest of verse 6 talks about.

And he was bringing up this girl, Hadassah, which the text makes clear is Esther, his cousin, his uncle’s daughter. She had no parents, she was an orphan. And the text says that the young lady was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance. It’s really amazing when you consider the whole of Esther about how God used all these little details that weren’t coincidences, but really were acts of his providence. Even though he was quiet, even though they were in exile, God still was with his people. He was still preserving his people. And he was still bringing together his plans to protect them, even in light of their enemies.

We learned in Genesis 3.15, we learned about one that would come that would crush the head of the serpent.

But also in Genesis 3.15, it was promised that there would be enmity between her seed and his seed, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The people of God, as well as those who are sons of the devil, really, all of us by nature, there’s this constant clash with God’s people in the world. And this continues into the book of Esther. when we think about the Abrahamic covenant, which we talked about had three components, and what were those components?

Land, seed, blessing. Good job, guys. Thanks, Dad. I heard you. Land, seed, blessing, right? And that blessing component, if we think about it for a second, we talked about this with Ezra and Nehemiah, the blessing component involved in Abraham and his descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But also, those who blessed Abraham’s descendants would be blessed, and those who cursed Abraham’s descendants would be cursed, right? So when we come to the book of Esther, the author of Esther has this in his mind, okay? When he’s writing Esther, he has all of this in mind when he’s writing this.

And he’s intentionally not including God’s name to show, even though God’s quiet, and even though it seems like things, hope is dim, being in Susa, and being in exile, and not necessarily the people come back to the land, but being under the authority of the Persian government rather than the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.

God is still faithful. God is still with his people. And so, there’s this event. It’s when all these young ladies are brought to the harem of Xerxes. And Esther is one of them. We see this in verses eight through 16. And we see how God’s providence was working. Even with her favor with one of the king’s eunuchs, we see in verse nine, that she was good in his eyes and she advanced in the loving kindness before him and was given, ultimately, the best place in the harem. We see in verse 10 an interesting detail that she didn’t tell anyone that she was a Jew. Didn’t tell anyone about her people or kinsmen because Mordecai commanded her not to.

And there’s sort of these debates about whether or not Esther really is a hero. And I think that those debates can be resolved with understanding God’s the main character, and that no one of us, or no individual human in the whole Old Testament is the main character God is, and he works in spite of people, not because of them. And so Esther is not telling people about her being a Jew, and I don’t think that’s really a positive characteristic, at least the way the narrative is going.

And so eventually each lady had their turn to go see Ahasuerus, and whichever one he chose would be selected. And Esther eventually is made queen verses 17 through 20, because she advanced in favor before Xerxes. And again, as I was mentioning, and I don’t remember if it was Ezra or Nehemiah, there’s no reason for the Persians to show favor to the Jews. Absolutely no reason. If we were to think about Cyrus’s decree, there was nothing that Cyrus really stood to gain by issuing that decree, which goes to show God’s sovereign over even wicked rulers, as Dave was talking about today.

So it’s amazing to see how the Lord has brought up Esther to be made queen, a Jew, even though the text does say she was beautiful in appearance, but that isn’t the ultimate reason. It’s because God is the one who’s orchestrating these circumstances to protect His people. And again, in verse 20, we see affirmed again that Esther hadn’t told anyone that she was a Jew, because she was following Mordecai’s advice. Again comes the providential language in verse 21.

In those days while Mordecai, her cousin, was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs from those who were doorkeepers, became furious and sought to send forth their hand against King Ahasuerus. But the matter became known to Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther said it to the king in Mordecai’s name. Then the matter was sought out and found to be true, so they were both hanged on a gallows, and it was written, in the book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.

What are the chances? What are the chances that Mordecai is sitting at the king’s gate? What are the chances that Esther is made queen? What are the chances that Mordecai can communicate to Esther in time that these two are plotting to kill the king?

I mean, all of this is huge. It goes to show, it’s so many coincidences, and maybe you know that in your own life, when you see so many things that happen and fall into place where it’s very clear the Lord has worked in your life. Like, what are the chances that I would hear the gospel? Or that those things would touch my heart and pierce my heart? God’s word would be there in that trial. And that I remembered what that one person had said.

It’s very clear that circumstances aren’t by accident. There’s no maverick molecule in the universe, as the Dr. Sproul said. But no, God’s in control, and he’s in control even here, not only in Jerusalem, but also in Susa. And so chapter three, we’re introduced to Haman. So Haman is one of the rulers in Persia that the king exalts and brings up to be sort of second in command because verse one says that he set his seat above all the princes who were before him.

Now it’s really, really interesting because it says in verse one that he was the son of Hamath, once again, sorry, Hamaditha, Hamaditha, what? Agagite, Agagite, right? You remember Agag? Remember that story? 1 Samuel, right? Who was the king who was commanded to kill Agag, not spare him? Saul. And who is the descendant of Saul in the book of Esther? Mordecai. And whose descendant is Haman? Agag’s. So it’s really interesting. There’s a lot of history behind this.

You really see Haman and Mordecai as representing a conflict between Amalek and Israel, which Agag was one of the Amalekites, and the Amalekites were the ones who attacked Israel when they were leaving Egypt and Exodus. And God actually commanded them to wipe them completely out, the Amalekites, because of what they had done. And so you have represented in Mordecai and Haman, not only Saul and Agag, but also Israel and their enemies, the Amalekites. And so verse two says, all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate were bowing down and prostrating themselves before Haman. The king had commanded everyone to do that. But does Mordecai bow down? No, he does not. Mordecai does not bow down. And again, why did Mordecai not bow down? Just like why did Vashti refuse? We’re not told in the text, and so it’s just speculation.

But it is interesting to know all this history. I wonder if Mordecai knew that he was an Amalekite, that he was an Agagite. And he remembered that he was a descendant of Kish, of Saul. I wonder if there was something about a recognition that God’s enemies wouldn’t ultimately prosper there. Or if Mordecai is just, I don’t know, didn’t feel like he wanted to be undignified in the moment by prostrating himself before him. We don’t know. It’s just speculation, but it’s an interesting history to consider.

The king’s servants were at the king’s gate, said to Mordecai in verse 3 and asked him, why aren’t you bowing to Haman? And it was told them eventually in verse 4 that Mordecai was a Jew. And so when Haman finds out that Mordecai isn’t bowing, it makes him extremely frustrated, very angry. But he also finds out that Mordecai is a Jew. And Haman, once again speculating, might know the history between the Amalekites and the Israelites. And so Haman not only seeks to wipe out Mordecai, but also the rest of the Jews.

And so he goes in verse 8 to King Ahasuerus, After, a lot is cast per, which means lot. Purim means lots. The festival of Feast of Purim later is the Feast of Lots because of Haman doing this in a recognition of God’s protection. But he goes to King Ahasuerus and he says, That’s not necessarily wrong. Exodus 19, God gave Israel a unique role as the nation among the nations, to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, right? Absolutely. That’s true. That’s, I mean, so Haman’s not slandering him completely.

But then he also says, they do not do the king’s laws, so it is not worth it for the king to let them remain. That’s pretty slanderous, and the king doesn’t like this, and Haman even offers to pay 10,000 talents of silver into the royal treasury for those who would carry this out throughout the whole empire, extermination, genocide of the Jews. The city of Susa in verse 15 was ultimately in confusion. This is a pretty crazy radical order. But again, Xerxes, are we dealing with someone who’s pretty mellow, individual? No, we’re not. We’re dealing with a very hot-tempered ruler. So chapter 4.

This is one that if you’ve read Esther you’ve probably highlighted. Some have proposed this to be the center of Esther in terms of the meaning of the book. I think it’s certainly significant but again when it comes to the chiasm I don’t really know. I’m not buying it completely. Esther ends up finding out through Mordecai of Haman’s plans to exterminate the Jews. And she ended up telling Mordecai that there wasn’t much he could do. I mean, if anyone were to go into the king unannounced, and he didn’t extend the scepter to them, would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

This guy’s bad. In fact, in that same instance where the water had destroyed those bridges, MacArthur’s the one who mentions this, the historical records show that the king was so mad he got all the engineers of those bridges and had them all decapitated in front of him just because there was a storm or something that was outside of their control. That’s how crazy of a madman he is. And so she knows this. Esther notes, this guy, he’s not that chill.

If I go in, I’m not extended the scepter, I’m not gonna live, and everyone knows that. But then Mordecai responds, and this is probably the verses that you’re familiar with. He tells the people, the eunuchs that are involved in the harem to tell Esther, Do not imagine, verse 13, that you in the king’s house can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance might arise for the Jews from another place. Does it say might? Relief and deliverance might arise, will, it will arise.

How would someone know that? How would a human know that without God in their worldview? How would they know anything? Absolutely, especially about the Jews. I think this is another instance that shows the author isn’t trying to operate in sort of like an atheistic worldview, but instead it’s assumed the Jews will be delivered because God is faithful. And then, of course, at the very end, and who knows whether you have not reached royalty for such a time as this.

This was planned, Esther. This was planned. And how could things be planned without God in the worldview, without recognition that God orchestrates all circumstances towards the counsel of His will? So again, the language doesn’t mention God explicitly, but God’s everywhere in Esther. I mean, you look everywhere and He’s at work.

And so Esther calls for a fast. And one of the interesting reversals that I’ve noticed in the book of Esther, and that others have as well, is the reversal from fasting to feasting. And this is significant. And so Esther and the Jews fast because of this terrible decree to wipe out all the Jews. And Esther is seeking to build up the courage to go in and speak to Ahasuerus. So on the third day of this fast, Esther goes in. Esther goes in.

We’re all on the edge of our seat in the narrative. What’s going to happen? Verse two. It said, it happened that when the king saw Esther, the queen, standing in the court, she advanced in favor in his eyes. And the king extended to Esther the golden scepter, which was in his hand. Why did he extend, see favor, or give her favor in this text? The text doesn’t say why. Why did she advance in favor? It’s because of what God has done. He’s orchestrating these circumstances. And even though it’s not explicitly mentioned, the only reason why Esther, or I should say the ultimate reason why Esther is advancing in favor is because God is preserving his people. And so he asks Esther, what’s troubling her?

They end up planning to go to this feast, and Haman loves this idea, right? If you think about it, if you’re Haman, you know, if you’re invited to a party where only the queen and king are invited, I mean, that’s a cause for pride. And so Haman goes out in verse nine, glad and merry of heart, but then he sees Mordecai. He sees him working at the king’s gate where he normally was, and that Mordecai didn’t stand or tremble before him, did not show him respect, and Haman was filled with wrath.

And he comes back home, and he’s talking about, man, can you believe it? I’m going to this party with Xerxes and Esther. No one else is invited. I mean, super exclusive. But I just can’t get over the fact that Mordecai still won’t bow. Verse 13, yet all of this is worth nothing to me every time I see Mordecai the Jew, not just Mordecai, Mordecai the Jew, sitting at the king’s gate.

Then Zeresh’s wife and all his friends said to him, have a gallows 50 cubits high made in the morning to say to the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. So they end up making these 50 cubit gallows, which most likely was like the length from like your elbow to the end of your finger. So think about how long that is, 50 of those.

And they made these gallows. Also, gallows in the Persian Empire were a little different than the gallows we know of. Gallows we know of, we think of a noose and sort of like the hangman game we played. That’s what we think of when we think of gallows. This is being impaled on a massive structure, a gallows. That’s what the gallows is there, so pretty brutal. Chapter six is so crucial, which is why a lot of people have put this part in the middle of the chiasm.

Again, it’s like there’s so many coincidences, this is impossible to be anything but divine providence. It says in verse one, during that night, sleep had fled from the king. So he said for them to bring the book of Memoranda, the Chronicles, concerning, sorry, and they were read before the king. It was found written what Mordecai had told concerning Bithana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs from those who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to send forth their hand against King Ahasuerus. Again, think about all the things that had to happen for this to take place. One, the king had to sleep pretty horribly. Two, the records were brought.

Three, they went to the part in the records where Mordecai had saved the king, and the king, fourthly, had the memory to remember there was nothing that they did for Mordecai. I mean, again, this is totally divine providence, and it just keeps on getting thicker and thicker, the providence in the text, at least the way that we see it. And so, verse three, the king said, what honor or greatness has been done to Mordecai for this? And the king’s young men told him nothing. And so the king asked, he said, who’s in the court? Who’s in the court?

Again, think of reversal, think of providence, this is key. It says, now Haman had entered the outer court of the king’s house in order to speak to the king about doing what? Killing Mordecai. Think about how crazy this is. Haman, you know, he’s just strutting, walking around, going into the king’s court, all feeling good about himself that he’s the only one invited to the party with Esther and Xerxes, and getting ready to get rid of his enemy. And the king ends up asking Haman in verse 6, What is to be done for the man whom the king delights to honor? And I love that the text, this time we do get a sense of what they’re thinking in their mind. It says, And Haman said in his heart, Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?

Right? And he said, you know, for the man whom the king delights to honor, let them bring a royal robe, which the king clothes himself in, and the horse on which he’s ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed. And this is really great. And let the robe and the horse be given over to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, and let them clothe the man whom the king delights to honor, and lead him on horseback through the city square, and call out before him, thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Haman really wanted that. And we see in verse 10 a fantastic reversal. Then the king immediately says to Haman, take quickly the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew. You can just imagine the look on Haman’s face.

What? The Veggie Tales depiction of this is really funny. You have to be kidding me. Mr. Lunt, a paw grape, right? And what he ends up saying is, do not fall short, in verse 10, do not fall short in anything that you have spoken. Don’t cut any corners. Do exactly what you told me, everything.

So Haman was the one who ended up having to do that. He was the noble ruler that was assigned to take the robe and the horse and clothe Mordecai in verse 11, lead him on horseback through the city square. And Haman called out before him, thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

You can just imagine Mordecai’s reaction too, right? Yeah, I know. It’s so funny. And then, of course, Mordecai returns to the king’s gate, verse 12. Haman hastened home, and the text doesn’t spare the details, that he was mourning and his head was covered. His pride had been crushed. Haman recounts to his wife, his friends, what had happened.

And this is really interesting too. Another one of those things that is sort of like, who knows if you were made for a time like this. And that help would certainly come for the Jews whether it was Esther or not. Another similar phrase. The wise men in Zeresh’s wife said to him, if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the seed of the Jews, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him. That’s pointing back to the Abrahamic covenant.

That’s pointing back to Genesis 3.15. God will preserve and protect his people and his enemies will not prosper.

And so we see in chapter seven that the king and Haman come to drink wine with Esther. And the king asked Esther on the second day as they drank their wine at the feast, what is your petition, Queen Esther? Like anything up to half of my kingdom, you can have it. Like what is it that you want?

And Queen Esther ends up saying, and this is the second time that this happens. The first time she doesn’t mention anything about the Jews or her being a Jew in Haman’s plot. The first time she asks for another feast. This is the second one. shows she’s human, just like the rest of us.

She says, if I have found favor in your eyes, O king, verse three, and if it seems good to the king, let my life be given to me as my petition, and my people as my request. For we’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed. And she ends up saying, if this was just slavery, I wouldn’t do anything about it, because I didn’t want to trouble the king. But because it has to do with the extermination of me and my people, I am bringing this before you.

And then the king is wondering, who on earth could do this to the queen and her people? And she gets right to the point in verse six and says, an adversary and an enemy is this evil Haman. And it says that Haman became terrified before the king and queen. Verse 7 kind of goes to the next scene, or the next part of this scene. It says, the king arose in his wrath. Once again, is Xerxes a mellow dude? No, he’s not mellow. He’s a very, very angry guy, especially angry right now.

And when he returns back to the room, he finds, verse 8, Haman falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king says, will Haman, he even assault the queen with me in the house? I mean, once again, the providence in this, the fact that he just so happened to walk in when Haman was at that particular spot. I mean, it’s very clear that God’s preserving His people and His enemies will fall. And so, as they’re there and they’re wondering what to do with him, one of the eunuchs who were before the king in verse 9 reminds the king. or at least tells him about the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, and that they are standing at 50 cubits high, and what does the king say? He says, hang Haman on it. Hang Haman on those gallows, the very gallows that he created to hang Mordecai on, to impale him on, impale him there.

Again, a reversal, very clear, showing that even though the circumstances seem bleak, even though hope sometimes is hard to be found, There should be hope because God is the same God who’s preserving his people even in the post-exilic era and not only in Jerusalem but also in Susa. And so Haman is ultimately hanged and there’s much irony here pointing to, again, divine providence. We get to chapter 8. In chapter nine, really, it’s kind of a little bit of a difficulty with different people interpreting Purim. The Jews go out and fight their enemies. Why is the solution to the enemies killing the Jews to go out and kill their enemies?

Well, oftentimes in that culture, and there’s many people who have interpreted this different ways, I think one of the plausible explanations is because in that culture, whenever the king had a decree, it was never annulled. When the king said something in their culture, it always had to stand. And I don’t quite get it. Again, it’s a different Eastern cultural thing that it was just assumed. And so part of me wonders if that was decreed more as like a self-defense, that he made a new decree that they would wipe out their enemies as an act of self-defense so that they wouldn’t be exterminated.

And so then after that, the Jews go out. In fact, Haman’s sons are actually killed as well, which is fulfilling God’s promise to wipe out the Amalekites. And after this, there’s a feast that’s established called Purim. And Purim, again, pure or poor. means lot and then im, whatever you see that like in a Hebrew word that always just means plural like our S in English. So lots, the feast of lots is established because verse 24 in chapter 9 says, Haman, the son of Hemedithah, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, it’s got quite the resume, huh? Had devised against the Jews to cause them to perish and had cast purr, that is the lot, to throw them into confusion, cause them to perish. But ultimately, It worked towards the favor of the Jews, and the Jews were protected because God is faithful.

And that’s why they would want to remember this event. We see in the end of verse 28, these days of Purim were not to pass away from among the Jews, nor their memory come to an end from their seed. This feast, non-mosaic Jewish feast was important to remember the way that God had delivered them in the past.

And I think that kind of leaves us at a really good point for us to all think about. It’s so important for us to remember how God has delivered us in the past. And we can do that in a variety of ways. We can tell people about it. We can write about it in like a journal. But regardless of however you do it, it’s so important to remember that.

Because when difficult times come, it’s such an encouragement to remember, no, God has delivered me from that back then. He’s held me fast through this trial. He’s held me fast through this. He’s held me fast through this. His word says this. He’s been faithful to his word. Why wouldn’t he be faithful now?

And that’s exactly why the Jews were to celebrate Purim, was to remember how God had delivered the Jews. Again, not in Jerusalem, post-exile, things did not look super great, but God still preserved his people. And so at the very end, we have a little section about Ahasuerus and Mordecai. And actually, interestingly enough, that last section has led to much debate between people who don’t think God’s the main character as to whether Esther or Mordecai is the main character of Esther. But as we know, even though he’s not explicitly mentioned, who’s the main character of the book of Esther? God is. Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you so much for your word. Lord, we learn so much from Esther that we can apply to our own lives. First of all, that you’re faithful to your promises, that you preserve your people, that not one circumstance is outside of your divine providence. And Lord, even especially when things are quiet and it seems like you seem distant, we know from your word that you will never leave us or forsake us, that you work all things according to the counsel of your will, that you will do your good pleasure. that you reign, that you’re in the heavens and do whatever you please. And so Lord, especially in this crazy time in our culture, in the midst of all the personal trials that we have and the fight against sin, whatever it is, help us always to remember that you are present, that you are faithful to your promises. And in light of that, why would we ever want to sin against you?

We should come to you first, as Dave even mentioned in his sermon. And I pray, Lord, that you would remind us through the book of Esther and through the ways you’ve delivered us in our own life to come to you first before we try and figure things out on our own. We love you and praise you. And it’s in your name we pray these things. Amen.