Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Esther 8*
No title – used in place of “And the Walls..”
There is a Christian college in the US Midwest where there was once a large lovely tree that was a central part of the landscape.
It was one of the places students chose to meet and talk.
For decades this giant oak brought beauty to the campus and shade to thousands of students.
Then one day, a loud crack echoed across the campus s this leafy monument of memories plunged to the ground.
When they examined it, they noticed that disease had been growing within this massive tree, to the point where all that was left was the outer trunk; inside was nothing more than an empty shell.
So, when the harsh winds blew that day, the hollow tree fell.
We are on week number 8 of our story from the book of Esther.
Next week we will conclude as we join the Jews in celebrating the certainty that in the end our God wins.
This story of Esther is told annual by the Jews in a celebration called Purim.
Esther:
She was a simple Jewish orphan girl who became Queen over the entire Medo-Persian world.
She was a teenager who maintained her faith in God and her love for her people, despite her personal rise to status and opulence.
She was a young woman who maintained her love and respect for her cousin, Mordecai, who had taken her into his own home and raised her as his own daughter.
But Esther’s story also includes that of wickedness trying to achieve the upper hand.
[That battle between good and evil has been seen throughout history – sometimes evil prevailing – sometimes the good.]
The very reason the Jewish people were in a foreign country and not in Judah was their own sin and disobedience against God.
God had used a foreign army to exact his hand of discipline.
But that battle between good and evil is not only within nations but within the human heart.
When we are honest, we must admit there is evil warring in our own individual lives trying to dominate.
Sometimes it takes the form of a friend who stabs you in the back;
sometimes it comes from the evil desires that are within.
In Esther’s story, evil comes in the person of Haman, the Agagite.
For generations his people had been enemies of the Jews.
It seems nothing has changed.
Our story from Esther has marched along as Haman and Mordecai have played off against each other as rivals.
Mordecai, reminding us of the importance of worshipping God and none other, refused to honor Haman.
Haman’s anger went far beyond the rebuke he might have received.
(Anger is like that.
The one who is angry is never in charge.
Anger is always in charge of him and goes way beyond appropriate measure.)
Haman put into motion an edict that could not be changed or altered.
The edict commanded the citizens of all the empire to rise up on a certain day and to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews and to plunder their goods.
What Haman did not realize is that the edict includes the king’s beloved queen, Esther.
In a daring but well planned move, Esther invited the king and Haman to a banquet on two consecutive days after which time she would make a request of the king.
We pick up our story as the curtain rises on Act 7 Scene 1. (In your Bibles we are at chapter 8)...
The King and Queen are reclining in the banquet room of the palace.
Our narrator begins:
/“That same day…”/
A lot has happened on *that* day.
- insomnia on the part of the king
- the king’s decision to honor Mordecai.
- Haman’s suggestions as to how to honor someone.
- Haman having to carry out his own recommendations for his enemy Mordecai.
- Haman returning home in disgrace.
- Then Haman was hurried to the second banquet with the king and queen.
- After the banquet, Esther accused Haman of his wicked plot to kill all her people.
- In anger, the king ordered Haman executed on the very gallows Haman had erected to hang Mordecai.
- Now news has come back that Haman is dead.
- The king’s rage has subsided.
Vs 1a
/“That same day King Exerses gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.”/
It was the custom that any properties of an accused man would be seized by the state.
The king gave that property to the queen.
Vs 1b
/“And Mordecai was admitted into the presence of the king, for Esther had informed him how of all that he was to her.”/
Mordecai was given the rare and privileged status of one who would be allowed into the kings’ presence without being summoned.
Vs 2
/“The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai.
And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate.”/
The king is now happy.
He is ready to put this unhappy business of Haman behind him.
I’m sure he was ready to go to his room and attempt to get some sleep.
But not Esther.
She was not yet ready to retire.
She is not at peace.
She still had to face an irrevocable and unchangeable edict to kill, destroy and annihilate her people.
Haman may be dead,
but the edict is still very much alive.
It has been written, *it will be done*!
It is irrevocable and unchangeable.
The Jews will die in December.
Today things are reversed and altered with a measure of regularity.
We hardly raise an eyebrow when someone in authority changes his or her mind.
But for the Medes and the Persians that was unheard of.
Esther knew that.
And this brought her to address the king once again, this time in tears.
*Esther 8:3-8*
Act 7 Scene 2
/ /
Vs. 9a
/9//And so the royal secretaries were summoned at that time – on the 23rd day of the 3rd month, the month of Sivan./
Note the significance of the dates.
The dates for both Haman’s edict and now Mordecai’s.
It was 70 days between the edicts.
Numbers were very significant to the Jews.
*70*
– the same number of days as the number of years God’s people were in the Babylonian exile.
Very intricately our storyteller wove into this story the echo of a larger story – the story of the 70-year exile in Babylon.
Yes, although God’s name in never once mentioned in the story of Esther, He is evident in every scene.
Back to our story as the scribes hold their pens ready for Mordecai’s dictation.
Vs.
9b -
/“They wrote out all of Mordecai’s orders: /
/to the Jews, /
/and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the provinces:/
/the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush /(which is the upper Nile region of Ethiopia)/.
/
/These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and their own language.”/
/ /
Don’t you love it?
Now the Jews have prominent place.
This new edict, written by a Jew is first to the Jews and opposite from Haman’s this one included their own language in its translation.
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