Reversals Coming from Esther’s Request

Intro

Once upon a time - and many of you may not remember or even know this - I started a series in Esther

In fact, going through my notes, the first message was July of 2020, so we are almost 4 years in!

You can go on our website if you want to watch the earlier messages

With our series in Mark, it has been over a year since my last message in Esther

But, amazingly, this is actually the 10th sermon in that series!

Since it’s been so long, let’s catch up a little on the book of Esther

To do that, let’s watch this video…

Video

5:12 of The Bible Project: Esther video

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/esther/

Recaps Esther 1-6

Transition

The video goes on and I encourage you to go on to YouTube and watch the whole The Bible Project video for Esther (and watch some of their other videos as well - they do a great job of helping understand the various books of the Bible)

As we prepare for our transition into church planting, my one request from Ken was the opportunity to finish

This week and next we are going to be in Esther

We pick up today in chapter 7, but going to move quickly with goal to cover rest of the story in 2 weeks

Instead of standing for the Scripture reading, we are going to break it into 3 parts

Walk through the narrative and see the Lord’s faithfulness throughout

Esther 9:1 “Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.”

As we dive into Esther here, this phrase “the reverse occurred” is really useful

We are going to see a series of reversals where what we knew or learned earlier in the story is going to be reversed or undone

Esther’s Feast: Take Two or “Haman’s Plot Revealed” (7:1-6)

Esther 7:1–6 ESV

So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?” And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

Esther throws second party for Xerxes and Haman in 2 days

Esther 7:2 “And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.””

Xerxes makes his offer for the third time

Being the 3rd time he has made this offer - up to half of my kingdom - he is all but obligated to give her whatever she asks for at this point

And now Esther will finally make her reveal

Esther’s wish and request

Xerxes offer

“What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. What is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled” (7:2).

Esther’s response

“If I have found favor in your sight, o king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request” (7:3).

Observation 1: she is buttering him up, playing to his delight in her and his sense of supremacy

“Found favor in your sight”

“Please the king”

Observation 2: she frames her response in line with his offer

He offers a wish and a request

She responds with a wish and a request

Esther’s rationale

Esther 7:4 “For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.””

“I and my people” (7:4)

Reversal: She makes her first public identification with the Jews

Throughout the story, she had hidden her identity as a Jew

“Sold” (7:4)

Esther 3:9 “If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, that they may put it into the king’s treasuries.””

Remember the 10,000 talents of silver Haman offered Xerxes in 3:9?

Reversal: Destroyed, killed, annihilated (7:4)

Haman’s decree: “with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews…” (3:13)

Esther’s appeal: “to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated” (7:4).

She uses the exact language from Haman’s edict

I wonder if Haman is getting nervous

Does this language sound familiar to him?

But clearly Xerxes doesn’t get it

“If we had been sold merely as slaves…” (7:4)

She appeals to Xerxes sense of self-importance that even matters of slavery of not worth his time or concern

We already know Xerxes doesn’t concern himself with matters of state

Observations

Throughout this whole sequence, Esther is like a fisherman who knows the fish is biting and she is about to secure the hook

She, like Haman, never names the Jews specifically, only “I and my people” (7:4)

She never names Xerxes as the one who sold the Jews

She paints Xerxes as the one with the opportunity to be the hero, when reality is probably a little grayer than that…

She never names Haman as the culprit

But she is making sure the king knows there is a bad guy to blame

Again, offering the king someone to pin the blame on

Who would dare mess with the queen?

Isn’t that the question going through Xerxes’ mind right now?

No rationale person, no matter their agenda, would threaten the queen’s life

Remember: even now Xerxes and Haman don’t know she is Jewish

Esther 7:6 “And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.”

Strong language right?

She is about to name him, but first: “foe and enemy!”

She is stacking the deck on how Xerxes will respond

Uh-oh!

Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen (7:6).

Of course he was… even Haman knows he’s not getting out of this one

Haman is hanged (7:7-10)

Esther 7:7–10 ESV

And the king arose in his wrath from the wine-drinking and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

King arose in his wrath

Reminds us of 1:12 where Vashti’s action led to “his anger burned within him”

Went out into the palace garden

First time in the entire story of Esther that we see Xerxes alone

He needs to figure out what to do next

Haman begs for his life from Esther

If he didn’t know earlier, he knew he was in trouble now

It was clear to everyone that the king was siding with Esther, not Haman

“Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was” (7:8)

Two great things are happening simultaneously here

Falling: this is the same word that Haman’s wife and friends used to depicted his future in 6:13 (“If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall…”)

Using the same word here highlights the immediate fulfillment of those words from Zeresh

Reversal: Haman hated Mordecai the Jew for failing to bow before him (3:5)

Now here Haman is bowing before the Jew, Esther

King returns to see this

And the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” (7:8)

Is there even a chance that this is what was happening? No!

My sense: Wandering around the garden didn’t offer any clarity

He knew he had to take care of Haman, but also, he was the one who handed over his signet ring

He needed a reason to kill Haman that everyone could buy

And certainly Haman making a move on Esther would qualify

So… “hey, there’s an idea.”

Haman sentenced to death… on his own gallows

Esther 7:9 “Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.””

Ok, I love this

There is absolutely no reason for Harbona to open his mouth here

And it probably was a risk for him to do so

So how badly must he have disliked Haman to say this?

But he sees a chance to stick it to Haman!

Esther 7:10 “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.”

Reversal: Haman dies on his own gallows

Both a wonderful reversal and delicious irony

The king’s anger is abated

Aside: Take just a brief detour here because this is interesting language

It is the death of Haman on the gallows that appease the wrath of the king

The enemy of the king must die to abate the king’s wrath

But the gospel is the ultimate reversal because the wrath of Great King is abated not by the death of his enemies, but by the death of his Son on behalf of his enemies!

Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

One of the ways the book of Esther points us to the heart of the gospel is by revealing how great is our King that he would satisfy his own anger by pouring out righteous judgment on Jesus, not on us

A Better Edict (8:1-17)

Esther 8 ESV

On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews. But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.” The king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king’s service, bred from the royal stud, saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods, on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. A copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies. So the couriers, mounted on their swift horses that were used in the king’s service, rode out hurriedly, urged by the king’s command. And the decree was issued in Susa the citadel. Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

Reversal: whole chapter is a sequence of reversals

Esther and Mordecai are related

Shocking, right?

But apparently even up till the revelation in 8:1, Xerxes still didn’t know

Esther is Jewish

Question: How did Xerxes respond upon finding out Esther was Jewish?

Quite frankly, it doesn’t seem that he cared

Didn’t seem to bother him at all

How much of this could (would) have been avoided if Esther had not hidden her identity up till now?

Would Haman really have called for a death warrant on the Jews if he had known the queen was Jewish?

Esther continues to honor Xerxes (8:4-5)

Bows before him, “if it please the king”, etc.

Even now, knowing pretty well she is safe and the king is on her side, she continues to honor him, never becoming arrogant

Esther 8:7 “Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews.”

Xerxes doesn’t get being concerned for others (8:7)

Throughout story, only person he is really concerned for is himself

His big growth as a character in the whole story is saving Esther and Mordecai’s life

Though remember one is his wife and the other saved his life, so not all that noble of a sacrifice!

He is not concerned for the welfare of the people in his kingdom

He doesn’t seem to even understand why Esther is still worrying about the rest of the Jews

He had hanged Haman

She and Mordecai are safe… Isn’t that enough?

But it is not - Esther acted to save not just herself and her cousin, but for all the Jews

So the king authorizes Esther and Mordecai to draft a letter and to sign it with his ring to protect the Jews

More on that in a minute

Aside: A second important way that the book of Esther points us to the heart of the gospel

The Jews across Persia were under a death order

An edict granting all others to kill, destroy, and annihilate the Jews

What the Jews needed was one who could stand before the king to mediate for them

We are like those Jews, under a death edict, desperately in need of one who could stand before the Great King and intercede for us

Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Jesus, the one who died, rose and ascended into heaven forever lives to intercede for us, his people

Timing (8:9)

Only 2.5 months have passed from Haman’s edict to Mordecai’s edict

But still 9 months to go until the day ordered by Haman’s edict

Mounted couriers riding swift horses

The content of Mordecai’s edict is in 8:11-12

Notice: it is framed before (8:10) and after (8:14) by telling the reader that Mordecai’s edict is distributed by couriers riding swift horses from the king’s royal stable

Point: They were going to make sure the edict was distributed to the far reaches of the kingdom in time

A Better Edict: Mordecai’s edict

Mordecai’s edict was a defense decree

It was almost a word-for-word rebuttal of the previous decree

Not going to go into detail, but if you look on the back of your notes, there is a comparison of chapters 3 and 8

Want you to see the reversals at play as these two chapters are set up in a very parallel way

Point: Narrator wants us, the reader, to see the undoing - the reversal - of all of Haman’s wicked plot

It did not give the Jews permission to go on the offensive, but only to protect themselves against attackers

Conclusion

Ok, we have covered a lot of ground this morning

Really, gone through two full chapters in the story

So much more could be said in these two chapters about the courage of Esther, the promotion of Mordecai to second in the kingdom, the deposing and death of Haman

But I want to close with taking us back to those two asides I discussed earlier

Because there is an incredible contrast between King Xerxes and the Great King, the one true God

King Xerxes abates his wrath by the death of the offender, his enemy, Haman

But the Great King abates his wrath by the death of his sinless Son, Jesus

Thereby inviting us to no longer be enemies, but friends of God

King Xerxes needed Esther to mediate for the people of God because he, the king, was just going to let it all go

After all, the queen was now safe

But even Esther as mediator was only for a time - that time

But our God, the Great King, has appointed his own Son to mediate for the people of God for all time

And one final way for this morning that the Great King is not like King Xerxes

And it flows very directly from those other two

Because the wrath of God was satisfied by Jesus and because Jesus lives forever to intercede for us

Esther had to wait for the king to extend his invitation into his presence by holding out the golden scepter to his

But the Great King has invited to come, and to come boldly, into his presence

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Brothers and sisters, because Jesus took our just discipline when we were enemies of God and because Jesus forever intercedes with us, let us draw near to the throne of grace, with confidence

Because it is into the presence of the one true King, the good King, that we are invited forever

Pray