Sermon Tone Analysis

The End of the Story

The End of the Story

At the beginning of the series, I said that this would make for a great epic movie (as long as Hollywood didn’t wreck it, like it has done with so many biblical stories turned into movies).

All of the elements are here for a great epic.

There is lavish luxury and power - at the heart of the vast kingdom of Persia - the superpower of the day.

There is palace intrigue - people with agendas trying to climb to the top.

There is a massive crisis, with grave danger - a day of genocide decided for an entire race.

There are plot twists along the way - turns that you don’t see coming.

There are great reversals - just when you think the future is decided, there is a flip upside down - and the opposite happens.

READ 9:29-10:3

This morning, we come to the end of our journey through this magnificent book in God’s holy word.

And what a fantastic story it is.

Many comments, over the course of the series - how much you’ve come to love the book of Esther.

Rightly so.

Then you have the characters - great characters in this book: Powerful king Ahasuerus - all powerful in his empire and self-consumed.

There is the perfect villain that everyone loves to hate: Haman - who just happens to be a descendant of Agag - a historical enemy of God’s people.

There is the hero and the heroine - Mordecai the Jew and the cousin that he raised, from time she lost her parents.

Foreigners - nobodies as Jews in a land that doesn’t belong to them.

At the beginning of the series, I said that this would make for a great epic movie (as long as Hollywood didn’t wreck it, like it has done with so many biblical stories turned into movies).

All of the elements are here for a great epic.

So how have the characters developed at the end of the story?

Remember - nobody ever stays the same - the circumstances of life - the choices you make, the people you choose to spend your time with, the decisions about how you will entertain yourself and the things you will dream about and aspire to - - the choices you make in what seem to be the small things - they will shape your character … and you will either become more and more like the child of God that Jesus has saved you to be … or you will become more and more like the world in all of its pathetic emptiness.

brings the king back onto center stage: “King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

(2) And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?”

There is lavish luxury and power - at the heart of the vast kingdom of Persia - the superpower of the day.

There is palace intrigue - people with agendas trying to climb to the top.

There is a massive crisis, with grave danger - a day of genocide decided for an entire race.

The dark specter of death hangs over most of the book.

But even with the darkness – there’s humor (Haman – leading Mordecai around on the king’s horse – proclaiming how favored he is by the king).

There are plot twists along the way - turns that you don’t see coming.

There are great reversals - just when you think the future is decided, there is a flip upside down - and the opposite happens.

Then you have the characters - great characters in this book: Powerful King Ahasuerus - all powerful in his empire and self-consumed.

There is the perfect villain that everyone loves to hate: Haman - who just happens to be a descendant of Agag - a historical enemy of God’s people.

There is the hero and the heroine - Mordecai the Jew and the cousin that he raised, from time she lost her parents.

Foreigners - nobodies as Jews in a land that doesn’t belong to them.

What’s the text telling us about the king?

Well, to get an idea - flip back to the very beginning of the book: - “Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces.”

See how the first verse of the book emphasizes how vast this king’s empire is.

Chapter 10, at the end of the book - takes it even further.

He imposed tax ‘on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.”

That’s a way of saying - that this king rules over the whole known, inhabited earth.

So, what the Bible is telling us is that by the end of the story, Ahasuerus is even more powerful than he was at the beginning.

He is imposing tax on the entire known world of the day.

Taxes are never voluntary.

Nobody says, “Hey king - I have more money than I know what to do with - and I’d like to give some to you, so you can build another palace and buy another Rolls Royce.”

Nobody says that.

Kings impose taxes and people pay them because they know the king has power to make their lives miserable - or short - if they don’t pay up.

So how have the characters developed at the end of the story?

Remember - nobody ever stays the same – Here this kids – young people.

NOBODY EVER STAYS THE SAME in the story of life.

The circumstances of life - the choices you make, the people you choose to spend your time with, the decisions about how you will entertain yourself and the things you will dream about and aspire to - - the choices you make in what seem to be the small things - they will shape your character … and you will either become more and more like the child of God that Jesus has saved you to be … or you will become more and more like the world in all of its pathetic emptiness.

Let’s look at the characters in the true story of Esther.

King Ahasuerus ends the story more powerful than he began it.

1 KING AHASUERUS

Next character is Haman.

Look at v. 2, “And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the kings of Media and Persia?

(3) For Mordecai the Jew was second in rand to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews ...”.

brings the king back onto center stage: “King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

(2) And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?”

“Wait a minute,” you say.

“I don’t see Haman’s name here!”

That’s precisely the point.

Haman ISN’T here.

But when you see, in v. 3, the Mordecai is second in rank to the king … that’s supposed to remind you of Haman - because that WAS Haman, at the beginning of the story.

, “

What’s the text telling us about the king?

Well, to get an idea - flip back to the very beginning of the book:

Haman has the position - he has plans for more, because he’s driven by self.

When he is insulted by Mordecai refusing to bow and pay homage to him - he becomes driven by bitterness and anger.

Remember his schemes.

Remember his manipulation, whispering into the king’s ear - plotting a genocide of the Jewish race and rolling the dice to pick the perfect day for it to happen.

He gets the king’s approval.

- “… in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces.”

See how the first verse of the book emphasizes how vast this king’s empire is.

Chapter 10, at the end of the book - takes it even further.

He imposed tax ‘on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.”

The Bible talks, in other places, about kingdoms that reach to the coastlands of the sea – for one.

It’s a way of saying - that this king rules over the whole known, inhabited earth.

So, what the Bible is telling us is that by the end of the story, Ahasuerus is even more powerful than he was at the beginning.

He is imposing tax on the entire known world of the day.

Halfway through this book - it looks like Haman has won.

He’s unstoppable!

Taxes are never voluntary.

Nobody says, “Hey king - I have more money than I know what to do with - and I’d like to give some to you, so you can build another palace and buy another Rolls Royce.”

Nobody says that.

Kings impose taxes and people pay them because they know the king has power to make their lives miserable - or short - if they don’t pay up.

King Ahasuerus ends the story more powerful than he began it.

“But do not be deceived,” the Bible says.

“God is not mocked - whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.”

Haman has a date on the calendar, for the holocaust of the Jews, he has a gallows built in his backyard for Mordecai, his most hated of all Jews, to be executed and hoisted onto.

2 HAMAN

Next character is Haman.

Look at v. 2, “And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the kings of Media and Persia?

(3) For Mordecai the Jew was second in rand to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews ...”.

Everyone here has had a Haman in life ...

“Wait a minute,” you say.

“I don’t see Haman’s name here!”

That’s precisely the point.

Haman ISN’T here.

But when you see, in v. 3, that Mordecai is second in rank to the king … that’s supposed to remind you of Haman – because, at the beginning of the story - that WAS Haman.

Well Haman ends up being a real life illustration of