Esther Part 10

Well folks we have finally made to the end of our series in the Book of Esther, as we consider the last two chapters of the book. It’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs, we have seen the rise and fall of villains, those that once kept secrets revealing all. There have been twist and turns throughout and it has been amazing to see how God worked through it all.

These final chapters record a great victory and celebration by Jewish people. The Jews overcome their enemies. They institute a feast to celebrate their great victory and some of their number ended up with considerable influence in the world.

It would be easy for someone to read these two chapters and conclude that this is nothing more than an expression of Jewish nationalism.

But the only way a person could interpret this passage in a nationalistic sense is to read it apart from its wider context in the rest of Scripture. While God is not mentioned anywhere in Esther, those who read this book through biblical lenses cannot help but see God’s hand all over the place. It’s undeniable that God has been moving to protect his people. The preservation of the people of Israel and the prestige that was enjoyed by Esther and Mordecai were not simply matters of national pride. These things demonstrated that God was being faithful to his covenant promises. He preserved Israel so that the salvation that he had promised to bring to the world through Israel would not be thwarted.

I want you to get that this afternoon when dealing with Israel, we must always remember that God is a covenant keeping God, that’s why Israel is not done with today, they are still part of the programme, and God will fulfil that what he promised –

Remember the difference between the Church and Israel, is that the Church are a heavenly people with heavenly promises, and Israel are and earthly people with earthly promises.

Let’s get into the text, and see that firstly…The Victory is Won… verses 16

I. The Victory Is Won vs 1-16

a. The passage begins by describing what took place on the day when the edicts of Haman and Mordecai collided.

i. Both edicts specified the thirteenth day of Adar as the day on which what they commanded was to be carried out.

1. Haman’s edict commanded the residents of Persia to annihilate the Jews and plunder their goods on this day.

2. And Mordecai’s edict said that the Jews were allowed to defend themselves against any who tried to carry out Haman’s edict on this day.

b. What will be the outcome in this battle of the edicts?

i. The text does not leave us in suspense very long, telling us that in verse 1, that the tables were turned on the enemies of the Jews

ii. Instead of being victims, the Jews were victors.

1. What was the cause of this great victory?

a. Was it the Jews’ superior numbers?

b. their superior weaponry?

c. their superior strategy?

iii. It was not any of these things.

1. As it says in verse 2, it was because “the fear of them fell upon all people” Now, what would have caused that to happen?

a. What made the Jews so terrifying to their enemies?

b. Did they paint themselves blue or something like that?

c. There is no reason for us to think that the Jews did anything to make their enemies afraid of them.

2. Instead, what is said here reminds us of something that the Lord told his people back at the time of the conquest of Canaan.

a. In Deuteronomy 2, God said, “This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. (v. 25)

b. In Deuteronomy 11, Moses said, “There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you. (v. 25)

c. And in Joshua 2, Rahab said to the spies, “And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.” (v.9)

3. These words were spoken in the context of holy war, in which God was going use Israel to bring his judgment upon the Canaanites.

a. As we noted in our study of Esther 8 last week, Mordecai’s edict showed that God was going to do the same thing here.

b. It was God who caused the enemies of the Jews to be terrified of them.

c. And this underscores the fact that this victory belonged to the Lord.

c. When the king told Esther about what had happened on the thirteenth day of Adar, he asked if she had any other requests.

i. Esther asked for two more things.

Esther 9:13 KJV 1900

13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

1. First, she asked that the Jews be given one more day to carry out Mordecai’s decree.

a. This would ensure the complete destruction of those who set themselves against God’s people.

b. Esther did not ask this because she was vindictive.

c. This was what God commanded his people to do in situations of holy war.

d. Esther wanted to make sure that God’s people faithfully carried out this holy war against those who were under God’s curse.

2. This is closely related to Esther’s second request.

a. She wanted the bodies of Haman’s sons to be publicly hung.

b. While this might seem unnecessarily gruesome, it made an important theological point.

c. It declared that these men were under God’s curse.

i. Joshua did the same thing with the bodies of the Canaanite kings after the Israelites conquered them. (see Josh. 8:29; 10:26)

Joshua 8:29 KJV 1900

29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.

Joshua 10:26 KJV 1900

26 And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening.

d. One other detail in this account of the Jews’ victory bears mentioning.

i. Three times in this passage we are told that the Jews laid no hands on the plunder.

ii. Mordecai’s decree permitted them to take the plunder, but they refused to do so because they understood that this was a matter of holy war.

iii. By refusing to take the plunder, they avoided the sin that led to Saul’s downfall

1. Let’s read 1 Samuel 15:1-22. Remember Haman was a decedent of Agag

iv. The Jews were not engaging in this warfare in order to enrich themselves but in order to be God’s instrument in bringing judgment upon his enemies.

Transitional – So the victory has well and truly been won which leads us to find that… The Feast has Begun verses 16-28

II. The Feast Is Begun

a. After the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them, they instituted a religious festival to memorialize this great moment in the history of God’s people.

i. This is one of only two Jewish feasts that were not instituted in the days of Moses.

1. The other is Hanukkah, which celebrated the Maccabean revolt in the second century B.C.

2. Apart from Purim and Hanukkah, all of Israel’s other feasts were connected with the exodus, which was the key act of redemption in Old Testament history.

ii. But Purim was instituted because the Jews realized that a critical moment in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation had just taken place.

1. The chosen race had been preserved from extinction.

a. Esther and Mordecai rightly understood that God’s deliverances need to be celebrated.

b. By doing so, we are reminded of the connection between what God has done and who we are as his people.

2. The name Purim points back to the historical events that it celebrates.

a. Purim is the plural of the Hebrew word Pur, which means ‘lots.’

i. You will recall that Haman cast lots back in chapter 3 in an attempt to discover the best time to hatch his plot against the Jews.

ii. “In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.” Esther 3:7

3. One of the things that characterizes all of Israel’s feasts is that they look back to key moments in the historical unfolding of God’s plan of redemption.

a. The faith of Old Testament saints was a faith that was rooted in history, and the same is true of the Christian faith.

b. Your identity as a Christian is bound up with what God has done in past history.

i. This is why it is important for us to celebrate God’s historical acts of redemption.

ii. We do not as the Church celebrate Purim or other Old Testament feasts today, but we do have celebrations that mark God’s mighty deeds of salvation within history.

1. The most important of these is the celebration that takes place fifty-two times per year: The Christian Sabbath or the Lord’s Day.

a. The Sabbath stands as the memorial of Christ’s finished work.

b. It serves as a foretaste of heaven.

c. As we gather for worship each Lord’s Day, we are being reminded that our lives are part of God’s covenantal drama of redemption.

d. The Sabbath helps you remember who you are.

b. In addition to the Sabbath, we can deduce by good and necessary consequence that it is appropriate for us to set aside other times of celebration.

i. It is good for us to celebrate Christ’s birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

ii. It is fitting for us to use special days to rejoice and be glad over the great salvation that Christ has accomplished for us.

iii. It’s important that we remember and recognise what God has done for us

c. Israel fully understood that their deliverance was from the Lord, and the Feast of Purim was instituted to remember that

Conclusion

Things have ended on a much better note for the Jewish people that it looked like it would. They have relative peace and their main man Mordecai is 2nd in command of the Land, with Esther still the Queen.

At this point however we must interject to point out that while things look good for the time being, we understand that history will reveal further perils to come for the Jewish nation. Mordecai would not be in power forever, Esther would not be Queen forever, the only on that the Jews could ultimately rely on was their God. The problem was time and time again, the people forgot this.

Often we are the same, awe get through the hard and perilous times clinging to God, and then as soon as we get out the other side, we drop God like a safety blanket that’s not needed anymore. Then off we march while life is okay until the next crisis hits then we want to cling to God again to get us through.

Folks we need God at all times, through all of life’s good and bad times, we need him.

The Book of Esther, reminds us that God is always there, always moving even when think he is not and to have the victories we need to understand our utter dependence upon him. With God we have the victory, with God we are overcomers, Why?

Because Our God is a God who brings victory to the oppressed.

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”

Our God is a God who brings assurance to those who are afraid.

Psalm 56:3-4 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”

Our God is a God who brings praise to our circumstances.

Esther 9:28 “And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.”

What is it you’re going through right now, what threat is looming over you, what worry encompasses you? Whatever it is God will take it if you give it over to him and submit your life to him. Do that and you, just like the Jews in this account, will have your day of deliverance.