Book of Esther - Part 7

Let us turn to the book of Esther and chapter 3 this

morning.

Esther chapter 3.

And let's just we've made our way down

to verse first five or six.

Let's go ahead and read them again and kind of get the get the context as we move.

Fathered with vigour as President Kennedy would say

so many years ago after these things did King

Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hamadatha the Agite

and advanced him.

I think he advanced him because he felt sorry for him because of his last name and he

set his seat above all the princes that were with him and all the

king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced.

That's the same as worshipped Haman.

For the king had so commanded concerning him but Mordecai bowed not nor did

him reverence.

That verse got us two months of Bible studies we studied.

Why did he not bow down.

Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate said unto Mordecai why transgresses

thou the king's commandment.

Now I came to pass when they spake daily unto him any hearken not unto him.

That they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand now.

That's a friend isn't it.

They were so friendly.

Mordecai refused to keep the king's commandment.

They said well why don't we just tell Haman and we'll see if Mordecai is right or not.

I mean they knew that is probably the death penalty.

For he had told them that he was a Jew.

And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not nor did him reverence.

Then was Haman full of wrath.

So he had let himself get caught up in his own title.

Hadn't he he got promoted.

Now all of a sudden he's believing that he is worthy of worship.

And he's angry when he doesn't get it.

That didn't take long did it to get to that point.

So the new title corrupted him.

And verse 6 says.

And he thought scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone.

You see Haman thought he was so big so important that it wasn't enough just to kill

this one man.

He's gonna kill the whole race.

For they had showed him the people of Mordecai.

In other words he knew he was a Jew.

Wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of

Ahasuerus even the people of Mordecai.

So now Satan puts in the heart of Haman to destroy a race.

Why do you suppose Satan would be interested in that.

Now how do I know Satan did this.

Does the scripture say it.

Yes it does.

It says it over in the New Testament.

It says we battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and

powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.

So Haman was not the battle.

Was he.

It was the one who was driving him to do these evil deeds.

And that is Satan himself.

Why do you think Satan would be interested in the destruction of the Jewish race.

Because Satan is the world's greatest the universe's greatest Arminian

and humanist.

You see Arminianism is the theological side of what we call in the secular

world as humanism.

Arminianism teaches that man is in control and it is a false

position to take Satan is the father of that position.

Actually because Satan believes that he can control things.

Satan has even read the scriptures.

I'm sure he's read the last book.

He sees how it says it will end.

And he doesn't believe it.

Why.

Because he's not a believer.

He's an unbeliever.

He doesn't believe God is who he said he is.

He doesn't believe Jesus Christ is who he says he is.

And therefore he truly believes he can change the outcome of the sovereign

God's plan.

That's impossible of course.

But that's how he thinks.

And he's the father of that thought process.

He is the father of secular humanism and of religious humanism as well.

Keep that in mind now.

That's not to say that there aren't errors on the Calvinist side.

If you go all the way swing the pendulum to that side to the far right.

We have what we call the hyper Calvinist.

And that position is equally false.

And that is a person who believes.

I've heard them say before that.

Well if you had someone out there and in the deepest jungle who never heard the gospel

but he was of the elect he'd be saved anyway.

You see now they've allowed their position to make them be unscriptural

because the Bible says that no one will be saved on this side of the cross without personally receiving

Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

So it's best not to be an Arminian or a Calvinist but to be a Biblian

arian like brother Otis used to say he was just take the scriptures and don't let any

theological position cause you to become unscriptural.

Let the Bible interpret the Bible.

And there are nine other nine or ten other principles as far as proper Bible

interpretation.

Use them all and let the Bible be the instructor.

I have something I've learned since I became a more mature individual.

I'm 56 years old now so I think it's time that I can think as a man.

And I've been doing that since I was approximately 45 years old all the rest of time I was a boy.

My wife will concur to that she raised an extra child in the

family until I turned 45.

Then it clicked and I figured it all out.

Not really the one thing I did learn somewhere in there in the 40s is that I

don't have to take the position of all my mentors theological books

and all the things I've read.

I don't have to take those positions.

What I can do now is go to the Bible and start there and sieve everything else through

that.

And the danger is what we tend to do is take the theological positions that we learned and let that be the sieve and we

put the Bible through that.

And that is not honest.

So start from the Bible and move out rather than coming back to the Bible through the books we've read.

How's that for a mature way to study now.

I know that the books help.

Even the Apostle Paul had books they help because they speed up the process of learning.

And you can take a theological book that once you've read it you may totally disagree with it but you know what it'll do.

It'll show you all the points of scripture that were looked at in that discussion and it just saved you a bunch of time.

You know where the scriptures are that are pertinent to that thought process and so you can go study.

But what I'm saying is study those scriptures first then go back read the book and judge the book by the scriptures

rather than judging the scripture by the theological books.

That makes sense.

And you come out way closer to the truth that way.

I'm convinced that if any group of people were to take the 10 11 12 pending on

how you divide them up proper principles of Bible interpretation and they all use those

diligently that as they walk together their positions will come closer and closer to agreeing.

They'll never agree on every little jot and tittle but certainly on the major points

and on many of the minor ones they'll come together be very close in agreement if they use proper Bible

interpretative methods.

So anyway here we have

Mordecai refusing to bow down.

His friends say well we'll see the end of this.

We'll just tell Haman and Haman begins to try to destroy the entire race of

the Jews because Satan had placed that in his heart.

Now why would Satan place it in his heart.

Because Satan is a being who believes he controls

things.

He believes that God is not sovereign that there's a lot of wiggle room

there.

And so he theorizes that if he could destroy the race the book says the

Messiah would be born of the Jews.

If he destroyed the Jews then it couldn't happen and he would win.

Now think about that thought process because that's what we tend to move into.

I believe that every Christian who is saved when you're first born again you are an Arminian.

You believe you did it.

You believe that you went out and decided to receive Jesus and that that

thrilled him so much that he saved you and to be honest it did thrill him and all of heaven.

That part's true.

But where you're a little bit off and you'll find that out later as you mature as a Christian and you grow and you read and

study the scriptures is that the truth is God knew you before the foundation of the world with

love and he adored you and

he was tracking you the whole time and you were going to be saved.

And he brought you the place where you saw Jesus for the first time.

And he became totally irresistible at that moment.

And you begin to learn as you study the word more and more who is in control.

And you're so thankful for it.

God is in control.

What if men were.

What if men really were in control.

Where would we be.

And so Satan though thinks that men can be in control.

He thinks that he can be in control.

So he attempts to change God's plan or to intervene and

cause it to be different by his own will.

Does that make sense.

You see that is the father of that false thought process.

And the further we move from that.

But what we understand is as we grow we always have to be careful of reverting to that because we grew up

thinking that way.

All humans grow up.

They're born that way thinking they're in control.

The littlest babies in this building think they're in control more than any of the rest of us.

Correct.

You young couples that have little ones the younger they are the more in control they think they are.

And then as they progress they're better psychologists than we are and all to

control us.

They don't believe you're sovereign in the home parents.

They don't believe you're sovereign.

They think they are.

So we all grow up that way theologically most the most prevalent

doctrines in the world today among Christianity are Arminian oriented so

that man is in control and we cause everything and God just sits up there with his arms folded and watches in

hopes that it works out.

Okay.

And when we mess up he responds you know that that sort of thought process and we

grew up thinking that way.

So as we go into different crises and things in our lives we have to be

reminded that it's not that way and we can comfort in the fact that it's not that

God is in control.

Listen.

Isn't it good that God was in control and not Haman.

Isn't it good that God was in control and not Lucifer.

And so you they cannot stop God's plan

but they try and they revel in the thought that their own free will

changes things so that God's plan will not come out like it would have.

Therefore now I'm king now I'm sovereign now I'm in the center of the universe.

It makes me feel so much better.

You see how we have to battle that even in our own lives.

Now Haman.

Let's look at this man for a moment.

See what his background is.

He is an Amalekite he came

from one of the most famous ones in his lineage was Agag who was a king

of Amalek in the time of King Saul.

Actually.

And this man Haman came to be one of the favorites of

King Artaxerxes.

For whatever reason we're not totally sure how he came came up to that point of

favor.

But he did and all of the king's servants were commanded to pay reverence to

him to bow down to him and all of them obey obeyed the king's order except

for one man and he was a Jew.

His name was Mordecai and he happened to be sitting at the king's gate which is where

apparently he lived in close proximity there maybe even on the king's.

Well of course everything was the king's property that's just how it was in those days.

But he lived very close there maybe even inside the grounds of the palace.

And he didn't pay reverence to Haman when he passed by

and he never bowed down to him.

It exceedingly displeased this man and he didn't want to lay hands on this

man only but he wanted to destroy the entire race as we've seen

now there was a time picked

for this in fact Haman went to what do you call it like a

seance you know a person who deals with familiar spirits and tried to get

this fortune -teller to tell him the best date to do this on so that he would be lucky.

And he actually it's recorded in Scripture that he did this and

so he you know he had a very long and deep hatred of the

Jews going all the way back to his lineage and that's what's interesting about it now.

His lineage was not the Arabs he actually came from Esau

and so there's always been a battle there between Esau and Jacob's lineage.

So on the first day of the first month which is the

month of Nisan he called together his diviners these witches and

warlocks and people who could supposedly talk to the people

on the other side and he wanted to find out what day would be the most fortunate or

luckiest to put his plan into execution.

And they met together and did all the things that they did I guess they

boiled a few frogs and put some roots in there and stirred it up or whatever

they did and they they also cast lots is another thing they would do.

And so they began to cast lots for each month and that's how they

determined that the 13th day of the 12th month which was called Adar

would be the day that would be the most lucky.

So that was the day that they picked to do this.

And so they went to great detail to figure out how to accomplish this.

So let's continue this as we go.

I think it would be interesting to kind of take a look at the things we've been through

already we see the sovereign God working in the life of of Esther to

bring her to the right place at the right time and she has been selected as the most

favorite of all of the young women in the entire kingdom and he chose her to be his wife King

Artaxerxes did if you remember.

And all of these things had happened before this.

Now what's interesting about it was Haman was lifted up high

to be the highest among the people and the people were required to worship him and

Mordecai refused to do it.

And yet there's a lot being set up here to to cause

Esther to be able to have some influence and God would work through her in this as we'll see a little

bit later.

Now if you go if you continue to look at this man Haman you can go back into many

places in the Old Testament.

Judges chapter 6 is just one place where you can see his lineage and you see the hatred how it

built over the years hundreds and hundreds of years.

And it's kind of interesting to go back to Judges 6 and look at this where the children of Israel had trouble with these people

before it says the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord delivered

them into the hand of Midian for seven years.

So they became servants for seven years and the hand of Midian

prevailed against Israel.

And because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the

dens which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds.

And so it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up and the

Amalekites now the Amalekites is the lineage that Haman came from.

And so here you can picture that Israel would go out and sow the fields and right when the crops were

coming up.

Of course this was their pretty much most of their economy along with the animals they had.

Then the Amalekites and the children of the East even they came up against them and they

camped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth.

So they would come in and burn their crops at night.

They would sneak out and find places where the crops are coming up and they would burn Israel's crops

till they came unto Gaza and left no sustenance for Israel neither sheep nor ox nor ass.

So they came through and destroyed their crops kill their animals or stole them and just

butchered the land in the economy of Israel.

Now think about this.

These are called the Amalekites.

And what's interesting about it is you trace them back to Esau and Esau very clearly the

scripture says is a type or a picture of the flesh.

If you talk about the world the flesh and the devil are three enemies.

Esau was a picture of the flesh and this is his lineage.

And so here we have this picture of the flesh coming through and destroying all of the prosperity

of Israel.

Now isn't there a lesson there for us.

If we allow our flesh to rule rather than our new man we allow the flesh to rule.

It will come through.

It will destroy our crops.

It will destroy our livelihood.

It can destroy our families.

It can destroy our nation.

And we see this pictured here so vividly.

For they came up with their cattle in their tents and they came as grasshoppers for multitude

for both they and their camels were without number.

And they entered into the land of Israel and destroyed it in Israel was greatly impoverished

because of the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord

so they were brought low by their own flesh.

Could that happen to us today.

Yes we get off into sin.

We get off into the flesh.

We don't allow the new man to walk hand -in -hand with Jesus and control this body.

This body gets out of hand gets in trouble and the trouble can be very deep.

It can even be the point where it impoverishes a whole family lineage.

You know you can look at one particular sin and I don't really mean to be picking on it.

But you took you if you look at a family that's had problem with alcohol where maybe

the grandfather was an alcoholic and maybe one of his sons became one.

And then you find the children in that family and a lot of times they don't even have shoes to wear.

Isn't that true.

You know they just don't have anything and and it comes from that

sin of the flesh that just goes down to the second third generation in that family lineage and it's pictured

so much here by this.

And so when Israel became so impoverished because of this enemy that destroyed their

crops and everything that they had which is a picture of our flesh they finally cried out to the Lord

and began to pray again.

They drew closer to God again.

And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because the Midianites that the Lord sent a prophet

unto the children of Israel.

So we see this picture through here.

Haman was a descendant of Agag in the 16th generation and

so he was an Amalekite.

The Malachites are not Arabs but they're a stock related to the Edomites which

means they're kinfolks to the Hebrews.

And it's concluded from scriptures in Genesis 36 12 and 1st Chronicles 136

and so forth.

But Amalek was a son of Esau's firstborn son

Eliphaz.

So it takes it all the way back there and that's where they the people got the name for their very nation.

He was the son of Esau's firstborn son Eliphaz and his concubine

Timnah.

And so this whole race of people sprung up from there and therefore they are a picture of that enemy that we have called the flesh.

So that's kind of interesting.

So now we see that Haman came from that lineage and that his entire family

lineage has always hated Jacob and the Israelites.

Do you see.

So it's a long time hatred.

He had been taught to be prejudice against the Jews.

He had grown up hating him.

So when he saw this opportunity to destroy them he was delighted.

Now we pick it up here in Esther 3 verse 7 in the first month that is in the month of Nisan in

the twelfth year of the king of Ahasuerus they cast poor.

That is the lot that's just the word they use for casting lots before Haman

from day to day and from month to month to the twelfth month that is the month of Adar.

And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus there is a certain people skin.

Now listen to this.

This is how the enemy talks about you being a Christian.

Okay.

This is how people will treat you who are moved by Lucifer himself

to treat you this way.

Watch this.

Because these principles will come back upon us and our children.

It says.

Here's how he discusses to the king.

Haman comes before the king and he says this.

There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people

in all the provinces of your kingdom.

And their laws are diverse from all people.

Neither keep they the king's laws.

Therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them.

That means to allow them to live now.

That is an accuser isn't it.

Satan is the accuser of the brethren.

And here is a vivid picture of how Satan will work to destroy God's people.

If he can because he is an Arminian and he thinks he can change things.

Doesn't he.

He thinks he can thwart God's ultimate plan.

He thinks he can stop the second coming at this point.

He can lie about the rapture either say it's never gonna happen.

He can say it's already happened.

There was a time in Paul's day when there was a cult group out there saying the rapture had already happened and it was creating

havoc in the church and Paul had to address it.

So he's always about lying about God's people.

Now notice the two lies here.

He says they are dispersed among the people.

What does that imply.

They're dispersed throughout all of your people.

So they're dangerous right now.

Can you picture as we move into the end times someone a political

personage raising up in a place of power who might

not like Christians very much might not like born -again people because they're dispersed everywhere.

They're just embedded among all the people of the land.

And they're dangerous now here's the second thing.

Their laws are diverse.

Now if you look at the Hebrew word shall know it means their laws

are different.

Now think about that their laws

are different.

They are transmuted altered.

They're given to change.

Their laws are given to disguise.

No one can understand the stuff they believe.

Can you imagine anyone saying that about you.

And the other word that used to translate this word shall not into English is the word perverted.

They're dispersed among all the people of the land.

And they're dangerous because the stuff they believe is perverted and different and you can't even understand it.

Do you think that could ever be said about Christian people in the end times.

So this is going to come back the same Satan who put this in the mind of Haman

is going to put it in other minds in the end times to create all manner of destruction

against the church.

Now can they destroy the church.

No.

But do they think they can absolutely.

Why.

Because they think they that their free will can change God's plan.

Verse 9.

If it please the king let it be written that they may be destroyed.

Can you imagine the eloquent language with which this man must speak to the king.

We have leaders even now in our country that can speak very well.

Don't we one in particular won't give his name

or initials.

And if it please the king let a law be written that they might be

destroyed.

And I will pay 10 ,000 talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of this

business to bring it into the king's treasures.

And the king took his ring off his hand and gave it to Haman the son of

Hamadatha the Agagite the Jews enemy.

And the king said unto Haman the silver is given to thee the people also to do with them

as it seemeth good in your sight.

Isn't that sad.

So now the political power and the money to carry it out has been given to Haman

then where the king's scribe called on the 13th day of the first month

and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded into the king's lieutenants and to the

governors that were over every province and to the rulers of every people of every province

according to the writing thereof this took the entire known world was under the control of this man.

Now and to every people after their language in the name of King Ahasuerus

was it written and sealed with the king's ring who had his ring Haman

that is a picture of Satan having control of the leader of the world leader of that

time.

And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces to destroy to

kill and to cause to perish is how the law was written now I mean it.

I mean they pretty well covered it.

Here was the law.

Three points to the law.

Number one we will destroy the Jews.

Number two we will kill the Jews.

And number three will cause the parent to perish all the Jews

both young and old.

This is all part of the law little children and women in one day even upon the

13th day of the 12th month which is in the month of Adar and to take the spoil of them

for a prey.

Now think about that little interesting part of the law.

Not only were they told to kill and destroy the entire race the little children the women

and they named every group.

So be very clear we want them all killed and we want it done in one day.

And it says then when you've killed them you can go take everything out of their houses and keep it for yourselves.

Now let me tell you which race has always been known as a race that was good with money

the Jews.

So if the leader tells his lieutenant okay here's my ring do what you want to do.

And the lieutenant makes it very meticulous detail law that they should all be

killed and you get to keep everything they had.

Do you know that.

That's exactly what Hitler did years later.

Same Satan same inspiration same law.

The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people that they

should be ready against that day.

The post went out being hastened by the king's commandment and the decree was given in Shushan the

palace and the king and Haman sat down to drink.

But the city Shushan was perplexed.

I think we'll leave it there for this morning.

Isn't that interesting.

They write the law they get the full power of the king behind it.

They send it out to every province and the people when they read the law they were perplexed because the Jews were good

they were good for the land.

Why would the king give such a law.

It was perplexing to them.

And we'll we'll leave it there and pick this up next time.

Let's stand and have prayer together.

But here's here's the here's thing to remember.

We've seen Satan do the same thing more than once.

We've seen him do it in this time period.

We've seen him do it in Hitler's day.

And the Bible teaches that we will see him do it again in our future only.

Not only will it affect the Jews in that day it'll also affect the Christians every people of the book.

If you're a person of the book it will affect that those groups.

And so it's fascinating to see the mindset.

And who's really behind it all.

Let's pray father we thank you that you are sovereign.

We thank you that Satan is not in people or not.

We thank you that you're ultimately in control and that you have us in the palm of your hand.

And it's as if we're in the Father's hand and Jesus hand and covers us up on top and we're totally

kept in your hands of safety.

We thank you for that.

We thank you that you give us the wisdom to live in our day.

Lord we ask that you would continue to draw each of us in this room towards more

sanctification more purity in our lives more

consecration to live unto you that we might be prepared for this day and for your coming.

And use the scriptures like this that we study together to prepare us and cause our hearts to to

want to just walk with you hand in hand and to stay away from the flesh.

Lord help us to remember from this message that the flesh can destroy our crops.

It can destroy our economy.

It can destroy our families and our nation.

And so help us to walk in the spirit.

Lord we ask you to bless our fellowship time now the food we're about to have and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.