Esther | A Feast of Reversals | Esther 7-8

Esther 7-8

When you watch superhero movies or read fantasy novels, do you ever have a doubt in your mind who is going to win in the end? Even if one part of the series leaves you on a cliff hanger, you still know, this is a triumph story. There are plenty of exceptions I’m sure, but with every story, it’s embedded deep inside us: The good will come out on top and evil will be vanquished.

Today, we’re going to find God’s people the Jews in an already-not-yet kind of solution. The victory is there, but not yet fully realized. And we’ll notice how this compares to our lives even now. We find ourselves in the in between: We have past salvation from Christ, but we’re not yet in eternity where all of our salvation is in full possession.

Main point: God’s hidden providence reverses the plots of the wicked that He may reverse the fate of the righteous.

2 sections where we see these reversals happens at feasts. A Feast of just desserts, and A feast redemptive delights. As it turns out, reversals and feasts are not just in this story, but are hinted at in the story of redemption, providing a frame through which we can behold the beauty of our savior.

A Feast Just Desserts- ch. 7

Haman here is at a feast. And though he throws back his wine and wolfs down hors d’oeuvres, as one scholar put it, he’ll be served his just deserts.

Today we continue our narrative and see two feasts with two unexpected endings or results. These are feasts of reversals.

There’s something nerve wracking and yet, amusing when a dinner party doesn’t go the way you expect. Have you been there? Maybe it was an awkward conversation at Thanksgiving that derailed the whole night. Maybe it was a dinner party with friends that ended so badly that you left cringing and laughing at the same time.

Let’s see how this goes for Haman our villain (Ch. 3) and for God’s people. Through it, we’ll see who the true hero is, who is truly in control, and what truly grounds our hope.

Reversal #1- The great reveal vv. 1-6

So right in the middle of the feast, Esther time comes yet another time to present her request.

Haman here is probably relishing the moment that he is exclusively with the royal couple and his plot is going to come to fruition, first, his plot to hang mordecai and his ultimate plot to destroy the jews.

Remember, Haman secretly tore down the Jews’ reputation to the king, secretly tricked the king into signing his wicked edict, but now look at the reversal (read vv 2-4)

No more secrets. Of course, we see Esther having favor in the king’s sight, she is successfully mediating on behalf of her people, but we can’t ignore the human element of this. The rhetorical flourish of her speech has much to be commended about it.

In God’s providence, it also lends toward the reversal.

First, Haman’s secret is being revealed. You can almost picture that as soon as she starts begging for her life, Haman’s ears perk up… Then as she reveals that her people have been sold, you can almost picture Haman choke on his sholezard! (Saffron, Persian rice pudding)… It’s all unraveling! How did she know?!

Second, Esther cleverly wins the favor of the king to display her closeness to him. In the last chapter, she simply speaks to the king referring to him in the third person. Now she says “If i have found favor in YOUR sight.” She displays her relationship to the king.

Third, she appeals to the edict of Haman as she says essentially in vs 4, if we had only been sold as slaves, then I would have stayed silent because something as small as slavery wouldn’t be enough to both you my king. The word in the Hebrew for “Destroy” Is the same word for “enslaved” which indicates that when Haman sold the jews to the king, he used an ambiguous word to potentially indicate slavery too which again, deceived the dull king who is a bit slow to catch on to things.

In all of this, we see the hidden hand of God enabling Esther to craft a plea that perfectly satisfies the king and terrifies Haman.

The king is obviously now white hot with anger. Kids you’d be right to picture the steam shooting from his ears. And he asks “Who could have done this?!” Still not recognizing that the murderer is sitting right next to him.

Look at Esther’s response (read v 6)

There’s our first reversal. Evil that is hidden, is not reveal when it is successful, but it is drug into the light and his plan falls apart—then, instead of it being Haman and the King against Esther, now the King and Queen are against Haman.

Reversal #2- The great downfall vv 7-10

Here we have another humorous turn of events. Look at what our second reversal involves.

The king is livid—overflowing with wrath but needs a moment so he just goes to the palace garden. No doubt he’s bewildered as well as angry. The man he trusted for so many years, now deceptive murderer. But The king missed it. Haman this whole time was power hungry. Go back and trace the story since chapter 3—you notice an insatiable desire for power. If anyone didn’t respect him or got in the way of his power, he wants them dead.

One commentator made the helpful observation that this is the repeated patern throughout history. Various hamans are raised up

“Adolf Hitler had a never-satiated ego that wanted to conquer the whole world, and, like Haman, he thought nothing of trying to wipe out the whole Jewish population in the process. As the ruling power in Haiti for nearly three decades, the Duvalier family fostered a personality cult and lavish lifestyles to aggrandize themselves, while at the same time using force and corruption to slaughter nearly 30,000 Haitians and to plunge the rest of the people into poverty virtually unrivaled in the Western world.

Similarly, in North Korea, the ruling Kim family has also insisted on a personality cult that includes deification and has accumulated massive wealth and power, while much of the country lives in squalor. Anyone not showing the proper reverence toward their Supreme Leader receives swift punishment, whether in the form of hard labor or execution.” - Bryan Gregory

And now for Haman this lust for power that he has built for so long has come crashing down on him as the King finds out the truth.

The dignified one, Esther, just a moment ago was the one begging for her life, and now Haman, the seemingly powerful is begging Esther for his life.

Then we have the humorous part—it’s okay to laugh.

In v 8, the king walks in and sees Haman begging for his life—He’s falling on Esther’s couch or the Hebrew can indicate a bed, a place where one lays down. And the King, who has misunderstood Haman since his deception, misunderstands him again, and thinks he’s assaulting the queen! (A word in hebrew suggesting forceful sexual asssault- Read)

And no sooner did the king finish his thunderous claim than the Kings servants covered Hamans face. A symbol of shame and disgrace. Haman covered his face after he exalted Mordecai last chapter, now his face is covered to finally get his exectution.

And what we find is Hamans ultimate reversal—He is hanged. How the tables have turned. The man who desired to be lifted up and exalted and now he’s lifted up—his head is lifted up nice and high on the gallows that he himself crafted for Mordecai.

The hope found in God’s providence

No mere human author could have written such a historical account. The reversals appear as mere coincidences, but God almost humously is at work behind the scenes.

This is God’s story. God wrote this and it reflects the big story of Scripture, as well His hidden providence which gives us hope day to day.

We highlight this theme over and over again because this is the theme or message of this book: God appears absent from this story, yet His providence is ordering every seeming coincidence that he may preserve His people and fulfill His promises.

First, look at the promise that is fulfilled almost in seed form: The seed of the serpent (The enemy of God’s people promised in Genesis 3:15) has his head crushed. He’s hung on the gallows and it points us to the fact that there is coming a day where the messiah, deliverer, Savior Jesus Christ, the promised seed of the woman will come—truly God, truly man—and deliver the true blow to Satan’s head once and for all and render him eternally defeated. This happened already through His cross and resurrection and Assencion. In Christ’s ultimate victory 2,000 years ago, you have hope now.

And it also gives us comfort that, though we desire to see the Hamans of this world come to faith in Christ, there is still temporal and eternal justice to be served. Though they seem powerful and in control, they wont have the final word; God will usher them to their day of reckoning.

John Flavel, the puritan preacher once observed, “If there is not an over-ruling Providence ordering all things for the good of God’s people, how does one explain that the good and evil which is done to them in this world is ultimately repaid to the ones responsible for them?”

I’m not asking you to savor eternal judgement here in some sadistic sense. But just like when a parent is relieved when justice is given to the murderer of his or her child, we must have comfort in our hearts that no matter what has been done to you, even if the person got away with it, there is still a day coming where all will stand before the judgement seat and not one secret will be hidden and not one deed will go unpunished.

Providence is revealed when the enemies of God’s people have their plots reversed.

A Feast of Redemptive Delights- Ch. 8

Chapter 8 opens here with almost a broad summary of the reversal of the fortunes of the righteous! The people of God, though humble and lowly are now exalted! As Haman fell, Mordecai was rising. The contrast could not be starker.

And yet, it’s interesting that the full resolution has still not yet arrived.

Reversal #3- The righteous receive their riches vv. 1-2

You may not be aware of this, but belonging to the people of God doesn’t mean that you are primarily now a mover and a shaker in God’s army—this Christian life begins with the posture of empty hands receiving. True saving faith is the extended empty hand by which we lay hold of the treasure of Jesus AND every treasure He possesses.

Here Esther and Mordecai receive riches: Esther now rules over everything Haman ruled over—His house is given to her. Mordecai receives authority by being given the King’s signet ring, the same ring used to seal the edicts and the Kings rules or decree. Then Esther gives to Mordecai the house of Haman.

Haman, who wanted Mordecai to respect his authority, now has authority taken from him so that Mordecai over his whole house. That’s quite the reversal.

Think of what this reminds us of: Many years later, a King would arrive lowly as a Baby from the Jewish line. And upon dying and rising again, Christ receives the vindication due to him just like Mordecai. Mordecai is exalted temporarily, Christ receives the name above every other name. Mordecai He receives authority over Hamans house, Christ receives all authority in heaven and earth, having disarmed Satan, binding him to plunder his goods once and for all.

And in Him, we receive, through faith, the storehouse of riches anyone could receive. If you don’t have Christ, you have nothing but death. If you have Christ, you have all you could ever need or desire.

Interestingly, this is the already side of our redemption. We already have our verdict “Not guilty” which is a verdict that’s supposed to be for a future judgment day. We already have our adoption into God’s family though beholding our Father will only come in the future. We already have our sancitification or holiness but we will not be perfectly holy until He comes in the future.

So what you need to know about the Christian life is it is one big in-between life. We are stuck between the already and not yet. We already have the riches, we don’t yet possess them in their fullness. We only know in part. But when Christ comes, we will know fully. It’s like viewing a mirror that is fogged up. We see some semblance of who we truly are, but it’s not in the full clarity that we long for. Let’s see this already-not-yet theme play out more as we go on…

Reversal #4- The righteous receive a mediator vv. 3-8

This is another instance where we see Esther take the place of mediator. But Didn’t she already mediate for her people? Kind of like the Wizard of OZ: Ding dong the wicked witch is dead! Celebration, independence! and yet, there’s still another witch out there, and Dorothy and her friends still have a mission to complete. Well, Ding dong the wicked Haman’s dead! But there’s still an edict out there!

So Esther begs once again before the king for him to reverse the edict. No matter what, though Haman is dead, the edict he signed with the kings ring was still in effect and was irrevocable. So she mediates again, finds favor in the kings eyes. And yet, he cannot change the just rule of canceling the first edict. But he tells them in exchange, they can write a new edict that in a sense, reverses the other one while not violating the kings rule.

What do we have in our Christian life? We have a mediator, named Jesus, go in before the almighty presence of God the Father, be a mediator between God and man that we may enter in and have real access to our God. And yet, we don’t quite have access like we want to because, alas, we don’t see Jesus face to face just yet.

So, because we live in this fallen world and heaven and earth have a very real separation, Christ is in heaven and as our current mediator, He is still the means by which we access the father. Because Christ always lives to intercede or pray for us, we are always accepted as God’s righteous child, but one day, Christ’s work as mediator will reach it’s conclusion when heaven and earth are reconciled once again forever and our access to our God is utterly unhindered by the veils and affects of sin.

Reversal #5- The righteous receive an almost-victory vv. 9-14

In these verses, we see the new edict. It’s a happy one on the part of the Jews. The reversal comes in the new edict written: The jews will be allowed to destroy, kill, and annihilate any of those intruders employed by Haman to come and destroy, kill, and annihilate them. Same language as Haman’s, edict, but now the Jews are the ones able to destroy the destroyers when they finally come.

Note a few things:

First, this is is not God commanding the Jews to invade and take a savage-like revenge. No, this is just self-defense granted by the King and in God’s providence, granted by God.

Second, the reversal is found in the fact that in the exact month the jews were gonna be destroyed, instead they will finally be preserved and delivered.

Third, this victory is sealed. The victory belongs to the Jews. It is real and sealed but has not yet arrived. Instead, in all the waiting, the people are equipped, the couriers have their swift horses, and now it is widely known: The good will come out on top.

Now, who likes an almost victory? This is a tough place to be, but also hopeful because knowing how a story ends, changes the way you interact with or experience the story all the way through.

Like knowing how a movie ends, actually changes the way you experience it altogether. Some hate spoilers. They see it as a mortal sin to spoil anything. But others have their anxiety alleviated when they know how the story ends. Thankfully, as Christians, though this world is filled with sin, evil, and death, we know how God will work in his hidden providence and reverse the evil in the world that His people would be redeemed forever.

Christian, you know how things are. But you MUST be convinced of what will be. I can summarize how the world ends in just two words: Jesus wins. Period. Once he comes, it’s a wrap. Every wrong is undone and His kingdom will come and when He does, every mouth will be stoped and there will be nothing to stop His triumph from being heard.

When you know what will be, it changes the way you experience how things are. Jesus wins in the end, and what He did in the past on the cross secures and ensures His final victory. Because we know that, we know that nothing can ultimately move us.

Nothing can ultimaely nullify God’s promises to us. I don’t care whether you’re in the deepest pit you’ve ever been in as a parent, a grandparent, a student, a kid; evil will not have the final word. So this allows you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death fearing no evil—you know He is with you, and you know His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It’s this victory that gives Christians the pep in the step, the twinkle in the eye, the smile in the midst of the pain. Defiant joy just does not exist if we forget how the story ends.

This life is only a vapor—that includes your suffering. Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, you have confidence, not only in past fulfilled promises but also future ones. It reminds you daily that the hardest thing is never the last thing. As if this were not beautiful enough, we have our 6th and final reversal to top everything off.

Reversal #6- The wicked rejoice in a saving King vv. 15-17 (Read)

Beloved, behold the reversal brought about by God’s hand of providence, and get a glimpse for how your story is found within God’s big story.

Remember Haman again. I think we need this contrast: He was robed in royalty. Given authority. The Kings right hand man. Powerful and yet, when the wicked rule, the people groan. And that’s exactly what happens in chapter 3. Remember the end? The edict went out, Haman single-handedly condemned the Jews to death. Remember the response of the people? Confusion. Distress. Mourning. Weeping.

Now look at Mordecai. Something highlighted multiple times through the book is his glory and rise to power in the place of Haman. He’s crowned. He’s exalted to second in command. He’s vindicated after all of his mourning crying and misery. And the people, in light of a man who is humble reigning over the provinces, there is rejoicing. Feasting. This is a feast of redemtive delights. It’s not simply because a nice guy is ruling, but a man who is indirectly responsible for the salvation of an entire people group is reigning along with the righteous queen who also stood up in the face of evil.

Who would not rejoice when someone rules to save and saves to rule.

Here we see two principles from other passages fully illustrated in our text.

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Psalm 30:5, 11-12 “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning… You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”

You are meant to see that the arrogance of the wicked will always be the cause of destruction and the reversal will be a humiliation.

But the humility of those who are underserving and wicked who trust the saving rule of King Jesus will result in their exaltation, not at their own hands, but His.

This is where the divine author is drawing us in to see fulfillment in the person of Christ. Like Mordecai, Christ is exalted and transfigured, but not yet fully exalted. But also like Mordecai, Christ saves sinners through His weak yet triumphant destruction of the devil and this is how he establishes His saving rule over His people. He is exalted. Granted the name above all names. Seated at the Fathers right hand with the scepter of His Word and Spirit ruling His own.

This is a Savior who rules over all things to save His people and saves His people to rule over them. And any ruler would be scary if we didn’t know HIm. But by showing us the glory of His sacrifice and the righteousness He acheived for us through His death and resurrection, we look at our King crowned with thorns, mourning, and then glory and triumph, and what’s our response? Rejoicing. Dancing. Victory has come. How could we do otherwise?

Remember, Christian, your entire CHristian life is one of reversal.

This is why i’m changing the main point of our sermon now at the end: Originally it was: God’s hidden providence reverses the plots of the wicked that He may reverse the fate of the righteous. Now it’s: God’s hidden providence reverses the plots of the wicked that He may reverse the fate of the wicked.

None of us were the inherently righteous ones, basically good people who deserved deliverance and reversal. You were the undeserving wicked one, on your way to eternal destruction and judgement, Jesus was adored by angels in heaven. He became the least. He humbled Himself so that your direction could be changed. You were granted repentence. Jesus took the judgement, you go free. Jesus humbled himself, you’re rewarded by God. Jesus obeyed, but was treated as the disobedient. You were disobedient, but now treated by God as if you always obeyed. Jesus deserved the blessing. He was cursed. You were the cursed, now you receive every spiritual blessing in Him.

And in our text, as they feasted in the presence of the new second in command, many other people in the provinces who were not committed to Yahweh, become Jews and now commit to Yahweh! I’m not saying that means they’re truly saved, but nonetheless the influence of a redeemed and rejoicing people is to spread glory like wild fire so that many others will behold them too and become born again.

Conclusion

If Jesus reversed your story, what makes you think He won’t do it more with those around you?

Here in our text, restoration and redemption came through the most unexpected weaknesses. Esther reminds us that though God appears absent in your life, this is the moment when He may just be the most behind the scenes restoring broken things, turning beauty for ashes, and exchanging garments of sorrow for garments of praise.

Though the wicked are feasting in their wickedness, In the end, they will feast upon their just desserts, and we both now and for eternity get to feast on redemptive delights, all because of the reversals of redemption worked by our Savior.