Sermon Tone Analysis
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Well, we have come to scene three in Chapter 4 of the book of Esther.
If you are joining us for the first time, we have broken the book of Esther into 5 scenes answering a particular question that surrounds the application of that text to our daily lives.
In Scene 1 - Chapters 1&2 we answered the question:
Where is God when those in charge are wrong?
Last week we look at scene 2 in chapter 3 and answered the question:
Where is God when evil surrounds me?
And each week we have found God to be:
Right here, as always, faithfully fulfilling His plans and purposes.
Review
So far in our story you have:
King Xerxes (the ruler of the known world of this time) in the middle of 5th century BC.
He ruled a huge portion of that side of the globe, except a section of Greece that he failed to conquer.
Other than that, he is ruling over 127 provinces that span from upper Egypt to India.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Darius the Great, Xerxes is all about everyone knowing how awesome he is.
So he throws a 6 month long party and invites many of the important people in his provinces to come celebrate him.
One day, Xerxes decides to have his wife, Queen Vashti, leave a party that she was hosting to come and show off her beauty to all of his friends.
She refuses, and Xerxes is furious.
He receives some bad council from his advisors and they put a plan in place to banish Vashti and write an edict that would be sent to all the provinces that woman are to submit to their husbands.
After the rage (and alcohol) wear off, Xerxes misses his wife and slumps into some form of depression.
His helpers devise a plan to bring in all the available young woman from all the provinces in order to refresh Xerxes by finding him a new Queen.
It just so happens, that Esther (an ethnic jew who remained back from the Babylonian Captivity) wins the favor of the King and becomes the next queen.
It also is serendipitous, that Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who is also her guardian, overhears a plot against the King and is able to send a message to safeguard Xerxes life.
The assassins are caught, and Mordecai’s name is recorded in the history records.
And the curtain dropped on Scene 1.
Scene 2 opened with a new Character named Haman who was promoted to second in command of the whole kingdom.
And as the story progresses, we find that there is a long lineage of evil that surrounds Haman’s ancestors toward the ancestors of Mordecai and Esther.
For debatable reasons, as all the other prominant figures were bowing to Haman, Mordecai refiuses and ends up making Haman pretty upset.
So upset, in fact, that Haman decides to kill off Mordecai’s entire race.
Haman then devises a tricky plan to persuade the king to sign off on the masacre.
The king agrees, and Haman is given the power and authority to extenguish an entire people group.
An edict is written and sealed with the King’s ring and sent to all 127 provinces that all the Jews will be killed on a particular date about 11 months after the signing.
Scene 2 closes with the King and Haman drinking to their decision to get rid of these Jews while all the city is in confusion.
And that is where scene 3 picks up, as we see Mordecai and the other Jews in their:
As we approach chapters 5:1-8:2, we note five key components to our story as outlined by Christopher Ash:
1.
Time has slowed.
The story began in the third year of Xerxes’ reign (1:3), continued in the seventh year (2:16), and by chapter 3 is in the twelfth year (3:7).
The events of chapters 1–3 have been selected from the many events that must have happened in the Empire over that nine-year period.
What happens now takes place over just two days.
We watch everything slowly and in detail.
2. These events take place at the heart of the Empire.
We are in the citadel, the place from which absolute power governs the known world.
3. Things turn upside down.
Watch for reversals, both in these chapters and continuing in chapter 8.
4. The hidden hand of God in His providential governing of events is perhaps more evident here than anywhere else in the story.
5. Unusually for Hebrew story-telling, we are given an insight into Haman’s heart.
Christopher Ash, Teaching Ruth and Esther: From Text to Message, ed.
David Jackman and Jon Gemmell, Teach the Bible (Ross-shire, Scotland; London: PT Resources; Christian Focus, 2018), 225–226.
Why is it called when wrong is called right?
Sermon
The Patience of Esther (5:1-8)
The Prideful Plan of Haman (5:9-14)
The Plot Twist (6:1-8:2)
Now, pay attention to how God works:
Coincidence, I think not!
But it gets better!
Good plan, right!
This is so good!
Remember the request at the first meal she prepared?
Come back tomorrow…
God’s providence is truly something to awe at in this story as the Theological Antinomy we saw last week is at work again (God’s Sovereignty/Human Responsibility):
The king couldn’t sleep
The chronicles were read
Haman builds the gallows
Mordecai is honored
And now, as Haman sulks at home, the carriage shows up to take Mordecai to the second meal.
Can you imagine for a moment what Haman is thinking and feeling here?
God has avenged Mordecai.
But He isn’t done.
Magnificent story of how the roles and rule was reversed.
There is a plot twist of who is in charge in the known world.
As we zoom out and consider the rest of Scripture, we see who is in charge of the whole world.
This story in Esther helps point us to the good news of the Gospel, doesn’t it?
As we consider the story of the whole bible, we can’t help but remember the ultimate reversal that changed the course of humanity forever.
Paul writes about it in Philippians 2:5-11:
Throughout the course of the OT, we see the people of God anticipating the coming Messiah who would make all wrongs right.
The One who would fulfill the OT law.
The One who would relieve them from the tyrannical rulers of their day and reign as King of the Universe.
And although it didn’t happen exactly how they thought, the Messiah did come.
And Jesus did conquer the tyrannical rule of sin and reigns at the right hand of the Father waiting for the day when he will return.
The rule reversal we read of in Esther, helps point us to the rule reversal of the resurrection.
And both proclaim the emphatic truth that:
God rules the universe.
God rules the universe.
Can you read that with me church:
God rules the universe.
And this truth challenges our faith in two ways:
1.
It challenges our faith in a culture that consistently calls wrong right.
Just because a vocal majority may believe that something is right, does not make it right.
Just because a ruling official decides something (like exterminating a whole race here in Esther) is right, doesn’t make it right.
The bible is our ultimate authority for faith and right living because it comes from God - and God rules the universe.
Therefore, the Bible defines morality, not our culture.
The bible defines gender, not our culture.
The bible defines at what stage a life becomes a life, not our culture.
The bible defines what marriage is, not our culture.
As we get to know God through the Bible, we learn what He has to say about the details of our faith and right living, and as we submit to what he says, we respond rightly to the truth that God rules the universe.
Not only does the truth that God rules the universe challenge our faith in a culture that consistently calls wrong right, but it:
2. But it challenges our faith as our own hearts call wrong right.
Our affections leak.
We tend to view the sins of others much more severly than we view our own.
So we look at the sin of homosexuality as something morbid, all the while we have heterosexual relationships and desires outside of God’s plan of marriage and think we are ok.
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