Walk Through Esther Part 3

Okay, we are going to get started. Grab a

Bible. If you're online, open up your favorite Bible app or grab one of those analog paper things that they used to publish.

Are you guys familiar with these things? I'm an early adopter into digital ink, so I love being able to have my whole library with me wherever I go.

It's kind of nice without having to carry boxes. And you can do a word search. Yeah, and I can do a word search.

That's right. In my whole library, it's nice. All right, we're going to pray and we're going to get started as we continue back on our study of the book of Esther.

Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that through your Holy Spirit we may rightly understand what you have revealed there.

In line with the theme of today regarding the tenacity and the evil of the devil who is pursuing

Christ and pursuing those who believe in him, we ask, Lord, that you would give us strength and courage in the face of persecution and suffering and to cry out to you in prayer and fasting that you may deliver us.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay. There's nothing on the screen. There's nothing on the screen?

Not yet. All right, hang on a second here. I've got to, I thought I did that already. Hold on. It says that it's monitoring.

Let's see here. Mirror built in display. How's that? All right.

Okay, so last time when we left off, we start, we're already now two weeks into a study of the book of Esther.

It is the only book of the Bible that does not mention the name of God. And I consider it kind of like, if you would, a vignette, a story of what it's like to be in exile.

We Christians are in exile. We noted that 1 Peter specifically talks about us Christians as being in exile.

And so we also have noted how God has had mercy on Esther despite the fact that she was a

Jewish girl. She was in a precarious situation where she could have become basically a glorified sex worker for the rest of her life as a concubine.

But God had mercy on her, and she won the beauty contest, and she's now the queen of the kingdom, which is rather fascinating.

She has not yet revealed what her ethnic identity is. That never came up as an issue.

And this makes sense in the kingdom of the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians.

They were a melting pot kind of empire, if you would. They had a similar idea regarding different ethnicities all kind of blending into one big ethnicity the way we do.

They kind of pioneered that in the ancient world, and they were unique in that sense.

But if you remember, there's a fellow by the name of Haman who has now become the premier of the kingdom.

And he bears a grudge against a fellow by the name of Mordecai, who is the uncle of Esther.

And the reason why he bears a grudge is because Mordecai will not bow down to him. And apparently the way the bowing down, the way it took place at this time, it invoked somehow that the political official was divine.

And Mordecai, keeping the first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods, refuses to bow down in this way to Haman.

And Haman has decided that not only is he going to kill Mordecai, he's come up with this fantastic scheme, he's going to kill all the

Jews and just wipe them all out. And he's got the power of the king, so he's made an edict that on a particular day, all the people of the kingdom can rise up and they can kill the

Jews and feel free to take their plunder. And Mordecai has promised a huge amount of money to the kingdom in the treasury as a result of this internal conquest of this ethnic group.

Now all that being said, we need to note then that when an edict like this goes out, according to the rules of the

Persians and the Medes, that this kind of edict cannot be overturned. It cannot be undone.

So when this does finally come to the attention of King Ahasuerus, that he will not have the authority to say, call it off, let's not do this.

That's not in his authority. Instead, he's going to have to give a different kind of authority, and you'll see this as the story unfolds.

So for the purpose then of remaining in our context, I'm going to back up just a little bit into chapter 3.

The king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month in an edict, according to all that Haman had commanded, was written to the king's satraps and the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script, and every people in its own language.

It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring. The letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the instruction to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all

Jews. Lovely, right? Young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar.

And you're going to note something here. Does this not kind of invoke what we heard in the sermon today from Exodus chapter 1, where all the male children were going to be annihilated?

Does this not sound a lot like Herod, basically trying to annihilate all these children, these male boys, who were two years and under, for the purpose of eradicating the

Messiah? Same thing is at stake here, because guess what? The descendant of Jesus Christ is in Persia.

The guy who was next in line to the throne of David is in Persia.

You wipe out every Jew in Persia, and then the devil can wipe his hands and say, the

Messiah ain't coming, I win. So you'll note that we learn from other passages of Scripture how to interpret what's going on here, although it doesn't explicitly say this is how we're to understand it.

Other passages with similar themes teach us this. And you're going to note that when Jesus gives parables, that early on Jesus explains how to interpret the parables, and then as he gets later and later into his parable teaching, he basically asks the disciples, do you get it?

And they go, yep, we got it. And the idea here is that this is the same theme. This is the murder of the innocents of the time of Moses.

This is the murder of the innocents of the time of Herod. Let's kill all the Jews. Jesus is a

Jew, by the way, more than just a Hebrew. So when we talk about... By the way, that's another important point.

Not everybody who's descended from Abraham genetically is a Jew. Only those of the tribe of Judah are.

Levites are not Jews. They're Levites. Jews are named after the tribe of Judah.

So we would say that they are Israeli. They are Israelites. But if somebody's not of the tribe of Judah, then technically they're not a

Jew. Now, it's weird that we don't make that distinction. So they're Hebrews or Semites. But the idea then here is that this is a specific order to annihilate all the

Jews. And who do you think's behind all of this? The devil. Haman is doing the work of the devil.

And remember in the sermon I said the devil is like Wile E. Coyote, man. This is another example of that stupid

Wile E. Coyote thinking that he can kill the Messiah or destroy the church. It ain't going to happen.

In fact, we can almost think of what Haman is going to do here. Haman's going to build a gallows.

And he's going to end up hanging on it himself. So this is the Acme anti -Jew gallows that Haman's going to end up hanging from, like Wile E.

Coyote. It's just this nonstop litany from the beginning of Scripture to the end of Scripture that everybody who's plotted against God, and when the devil has acted,

God just kind of sits there and goes, this is silly. I think of one of the Psalms. Why did the nations rage in the people's plot and bane against the

Holy One of the Lord? He's the one who's established them. Good luck plotting against Jesus.

That ain't going to work. That ain't going to work. So they're going to annihilate all the Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar.

I hate reading things like this because I feel like I'm going to become like Chuck Pierce. Oh, the month of Adar. I misappropriated

Hebrew for a prophecy. Bingo. Anyway, but you'll note then that this takes place in history.

There's months, and we know the time. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation, all the peoples to be ready for that day.

The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa, the citadel, and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.

So as soon as the order goes out, it's signed with a signet ring. This is an official edict and a decree, and you can imagine all the

Jews living in exile are realizing we are in really deep danger, huge danger, but can the word of God be broken?

No, no. So you'll note that God has already acted on behalf not only of the

Jews, but here's the best part. By saving the Jews, God has acted on behalf of humanity because Christ is the one who is the king of the

Jews who bleeds and dies for you. This isn't just about wiping out the Jews. This is about wiping out the

Messiah, wiping out salvation. You think God's going to let that happen? No, that ain't happening.

So when Mordecai then learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes.

Now the text doesn't say it, but sackcloth and ashes are part of one particular religious practice, praying and fasting.

To say that he put on sackcloth and ashes means that he is praying, he is fasting, he is basically humbling himself before God, crying out to God for help, which is what we are to do as well.

Read Book of Revelation if you're unsure about this. In the face of all the murderous attacks and assaults of the devil, what do we do?

We pray. So Mordecai, sackcloth, ashes, went into the midst of the city.

He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.

And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the

Jews with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Ah, what are they doing? They're crying out to God, right?

You think God's going to ignore that? No, not at all. When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her the queen was deeply distressed, she sent garments to clothe

Mordecai so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathah, one of the king's eunuchs who had been appointed to attend to her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.

Hathah went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasury for the destruction of the

Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and commanded her to go to the king and to beg his favor and to plead with him on behalf of her people.

And Hathah went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. When Esther spoke to Hathah and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live.

But as for me, I have not been called to come into the king these 30 days."

And so now the plot thickens a little bit. It seems like a pretty simple thing to do for Esther to have a conversation with her husband, the queen to have a conversation with the king, but here's the issue.

There's a rule, there's a law, and that is you're not allowed to be in the king's presence, especially on official business, unless the king has invited you, and it's been a month since Esther has seen her husband.

A month, he hasn't called her. And to walk in while he's conducting his official business is to risk death.

If I walk in and he doesn't want to see me, I'm not called in there. The rule is

I get put to death unless he shows me mercy, unless he shows me favor, and there's a particular ritual that goes along with that mercy and that favor and the grace of the king.

He holds out the golden scepter, and the person to whom he holds it out to can then touch the end of it, and that person, rather than dying, gets to live.

And so the situation is complicated. The situation is difficult, but here's the thing.

Who put Esther in place? God did. God did.

So you're going to note that long before Mordecai cried out to Yahweh in sackcloth and ashes, long before the

Jews in Susa and the other cities in the Persian Empire were crying out to God, weeping bitterly in sackcloth and ashes and fasting and praying, long before that,

God had already set things in motion to, well, answer their prayer.

Even before they cried out to him, he knew what their need was, and he maneuvered everything into its proper place.

So if you watch a movie or you see a play or you hear a sermon on the book of Esther and they tell you that it's all about you learning your purpose so that you too can say of yourself,

I was born for such a time as this, then you're going to note something. That is a narcissistic, wrong emphasis.

The emphasis has to be on the invisible God who's working behind the scenes already, the one that they are crying out to.

And the importance is what God does, even though God is not named. That's the important bit.

And it's true that God put Esther in place and that this was part of the good works that God had prepared in advance for her to do.

But I will come back to the fact that Ephesians 2, verses 8, 9, and 10 make it very clear that Christians are not created in Christ Jesus to fulfill a specific purpose.

We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared in advance that we should walk in them.

Works are plural, a purpose is singular. Even Esther had more good works to do than the one that she's about to do, risking her own life for the sake of her people.

But note here, she will not act presumptuously. Note that Esther doesn't go,

I'm just gonna march myself right in there and I'm gonna decree and declare that Haman be killed and this evil plot be foiled because I'm the queen.

I wear a tiara, right? Nothing of the sort.

In fact, the way she behaves is in stark contrast to the way that some preachers would have you behave in the presence of God, as if somehow your royalty, you can command, you can decree, you can declare.

I would note, Esther legitimately is the queen. Legitimately.

And no decreeing, no declaring on her part. None. Something different.

So, Esther spoke to Thok, commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law, to be put to death.

And I haven't been called, and I haven't seen the king in 30 days. So they told Mordecai what

Esther had said, and Mordecai told them to reply to Esther. Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other

Jews, for if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the

Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. So note, Mordecai has faith that God is going to deliver the

Jews. He doesn't know by which means, but you'll note that there's a famous saying that one of the reasons why evil is able to flourish is because good men,

I would even say good women, refuse to speak up or say anything.

So this is kind of Mordecai's version of it. If you keep silent, God will deliver us, but you will perish.

And he's not wrong, because the edict is very clear, and Haman's duplicity at this point, if Haman finds out that Esther legitimately is a

Jewess, he's going to scream bloody murder and say that the king has to keep his command.

He can't go back on his word. So who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

And here's the famous sentence. Notice it's a question. All right?

The false teachers regarding the book of Esther say, you were made for such a time as this. You're so amazing.

You know, but Mordecai is asking a question. Who knows?

Maybe you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Maybe. He doesn't presume. It's just one of the possibilities.

He believes that God's going to deliver them. He's not sure what the means are, but God always works through means.

Maybe, just maybe, this is the means by which God will deliver us. So Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, go gather all the

Jews to be found in Susa, hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.

I and my young women will also fast as you do. Pay attention to that three -day stuff. All right?

So note, she's not acting presumptuously. Get everybody praying.

Everybody fasting. We will join in. So from the greatest to the least, every single

Jew, three days without food. Man, that's tough, right?

Three full days without food. Praying on her behalf. Praying on their own behalf. Crying out to God.

Have mercy on us. Do not eat or drink.

I and my young women, we will also fast as you do. And then I will go to the king, though it is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish. There's no guarantee we're going to get out of this alive.

But my life is worth nothing. But I've got to try. And you're going to note here,

I'm going to point this out. This is the exact same mentality that men have had who've been sent to war.

They know that they've got to fight the evil that is before them. You think of the soldiers who fought the Nazis.

Right? They trained up. They learned how to do their military stuff, to shoot their weapons, to launch their grenades and all the things that they did.

If they perish, they perish. War was eventually won though, right? Same mentality.

My life is nothing. If I perish, I perish. So Mordecai then went and did everything as Esther had ordered him. Pray. Everybody, pray.

So on the third day, how many times have I been working through and teaching text and preaching text saying pay attention to that third day stuff?

Third day is the day that Christ rose from the grave. Third day. So on the third day,

Esther put on her royal robes, stood in the inner court of the king's palace. She's not supposed to be there.

So note, she dresses up for the occasion. She could be wearing her funeral garb at this point.

She doesn't know. She goes into the inner court of the king's palace. She is not permitted to be there.

In front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne, inside the throne room, opposite the entrance to the palace.

And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand.

Answer to prayer. Note how gracious God is. And when the king saw

Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor, held out the scepter that was in his hand.

Esther approached, touched the tip of the scepter, and then the king said to her, what is it,

Queen Esther? What is your request? Now, Esther is going to show a lot of restraint.

She does not give a straight answer to the question at this point.

Her motives are her own, and the way she has gone about this is actually quite brilliant, but you're going to note something here.

We're going to hear some words that are famous because we've heard them in other so -called kings. So what is it,

Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you even up to half of my kingdom. Now, unlike Herod, at the time when

Herodias' daughter did that dance and he said, I'll give you up to half of my kingdom, Herod didn't have the authority to give any of his kingdom away because he was a puppet king under the emperor of Rome.

Ahasuerus, if Esther said, I want half the kingdom today, he would have said, sure. I promise you it.

You can have it. He would have divided it up. He had that authority. He had that power. So Esther said, if it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king.

Then the king said, bring Haman quickly so that we may do as Esther has asked. So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared.

And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, what is your wish?

It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom and it shall be fulfilled.

Then Esther answered, my wish and my request is, and you can just see them, you know, kind of leaning in to hear it.

And then she demurs for one more day. If I have found favor in the sight of the king and if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, then let king, the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare tomorrow for them.

And I will do as the king has said. So one more feast, a little more food, a little more drink, one more time.

So what's really funny now here in buying time, remember

I told you the devil's like Wile E. Coyote, man. What comes next is one of my favorite bits of all the scripture.

So Haman went out that day joyful, glad of heart. But when Haman saw

Mordecai in the king's gate that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.

Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home and sent and brought his friends and his wife

Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king.

Excuse me, I need a barf bag. Okay, guy's full of himself, man.

Let me tell you how amazing, how many books I've written, how many accolades I've received from heads of state.

You know, just give me a break. Okay, I'm surprised anybody within like a 10 mile radius was able to breathe because the oxygen necessary to feed his ego must have been immense.

So how does scripture say? Pride comes before fall.

And you're gonna note here this self -honoring that Haman is engaged in, this is exactly how the devil operates.

I will ascend to the highest heights. I always like, you know, this is such a good reference point.

It's in Isaiah chapter 14. A description of the devil while God is mocking one of the kings of the earth at that time.

And here's how it goes. Oh, how you are fallen from heaven. Oh, Daystar, son of the dawn, talking about Lucifer.

How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid low the nations. You said in your heart,

I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high.

I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will make myself like the most high. Yeah, uh -huh.

Wily coyote, right? But you are brought down to shale to the far reaches of the pit.

And those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you. Is this not the man who made the earth tremble and shook kingdoms?

Who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities? Who did not let his prisoners go home? Right? It never works out right for the high and the mighty, at least in their own mind.

So that being the case here, so who's Haman acting like? The devil.

What's he angry about? Mordecai won't worship me and recognize my greatness. Yeah, yeah.

If it was a woman, we'd call her Lucifer. Anyway. Sorry, I had to reuse that joke from a different source.

Pastor jokes, they're just, they're terrible. All right. So Haman recounted them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, the promotions which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials.

And then Haman said, even Queen Esther let no one but me come to the king to the feast she prepared.

Tomorrow I am invited by her together with the king. Okay. He doesn't even see the trap that's set for him, right?

Yet all of this is worth nothing to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

See, he can't even enjoy the honors that he has, right? So then his wife Zareth and all of his friends said, well, let a gallows 50 cubits high be made and in the morning tell the king to have

Mordecai hanged upon it. How does one make a 50 cubit high gallow overnight?

Okay. Was this a kit that you could buy at, you know, the Home Depot back in the day?

What on earth? You know. For five easy payments of only $99 .95,

you too can have the instant gallow 50 cubits high, you know. Was it inflatable gallows?

All right. Yeah, right. But I mean,

I guess he's that powerful. He can like summon carpenters to work through the hours of the night and build a gallow.

Of course, all the neighbors were probably super annoyed. What are you doing? Building a gallow.

Why? It's midnight. Trying to sleep over here. Need it for Mordecai.

That guy that won't bow down to Haman. Yeah, that guy. As you were, keep at it.

All right. Let's see how this is going. All right.

So 50 cubits high be made in the morning, tell the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Remember, the devil is

Wile E. Coyote. Nobody is going to make God's word return to him void.

God has already promised these Jews they are returning to Jerusalem after 70 years. God has promised the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

He has promised the Messiah. Haman ain't nobody. And God now at this point is just going to start flexing his muscle.

And God always finds these really fun, ironic ways of punishing people like him.

So the idea pleased Haman. He had the gallows made. So on that night, so there's

King Ahasuerus. Off in the distance, he can hear the hammering of the gallows being put up. He gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds and the chronicles, and they were read before the king.

And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bithana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

And the king said, what honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? And the king's young men who attended him said, nothing has been done for him.

And the king said, who is in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having

Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. You can just see

Mordecai, right? So clearly something's gone on here. The gallows are finished. He's going, oh goody, goody, goody, goody.

We're gonna kill Mordecai. Yeah. So there he goes. He marches on over to the king's palace and the king's all, who's in my court?

It's Haman. And what's he thinking about? Honoring Mordecai. God has a sense of humor.

The devil is wily coyote. It just ain't gonna work. So the king's young men told him,

Haman is here, standing in the court. And the king said, well, let him come in. So Haman came in and the king said to him, question, what should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?

Who do you think Haman is thinking about? Me, myself, and I. The king wants to honor me.

Yay. Okay. Oh, man.

So Haman said to himself, whom would the king delight to honor more than me?

And so Haman said to the king, for the man whom the king delights to honor, and you can just see him trying to be humble here.

It ain't working. Let royal robes be brought which the king has worn, and the horse that the king has ridden on and whose head a royal crown is set, and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials, and let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

He got to come up with this one. Haman did. Guess who's going to have this happen to him?

Mordecai. All right. And guess who's going to be holding the horse's strap? You know.

All right. So the king said to Haman, Hurry, take the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the

Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.

So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai. This has got to be painful.

And led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him. You have to think.

I'm going to add to Scripture here. This is a Roseboro interpretation. Take it or leave it. I just see

Haman going, the first time he had to say this, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

And you can see Mordecai going, I can't hear you. Louder. Thus shall it be done to...

Louder. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

Oh, that's better. Everyone can hear you now. All right. This is so good.

All right. So. Now, a little bit of a note here.

You're going to note that God is patient and long -suffering, and it's not His will that any should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance.

It's at this point that Haman should be considering his life's choices and thinking, maybe, just maybe,

I am opposing something greater than myself. God, for instance.

So Mordecai returned to the king's gate. Haman hurried to his house, mourning, and with his head covered.

He can't even show his face in public at the... I can't believe I had to do... Yeah. Haman like an infant, right?

So Haman told his wife and Zeresh and all of his friends everything that had happened to him.

Wise words. Then his wise men and his wife and Zeresh said to him, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the

Jewish people, you will not overcome him, but you will surely fall before him. Run away.

It's a trap, dude. Repent. Okay. This is his one and only brush with sanity.

And God really truly wished that Haman had repented. Because I don't think

God could have acted more strongly, more overtly, more in your face, with more intent that was impossible to misinterpret.

What he should have done at this point is repent, say he's sorry, and work to undo the murderous edict that he had put out.

But you're going to note those steeped in sin, brushes with sanity don't usually end with them repenting.

So while they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared.

So the king and Haman went into the feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, What is your wish,

Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled.

And I love this answer. Totally humble. Queen Esther answered, Well, if I have found favor in your sight,

O king, and then if it please the king, let my life be granted to me for my wish and my people for my request.

Please don't let me die. And the king at this point has not even known that he has ordered the death of Queen Esther.

He does not know that. Because Haman has not revealed the full intent of his plans, but even more so,

Esther hasn't revealed who her people are. And so she doesn't call for the death of her enemy.

She asks only for her life. Because the king would have to grant that to her because he's ordered her to be killed, even though he doesn't know that.

We have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated.

If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent. For our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.

So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, Who is he and where is he who has dared to do this?

And Esther said, He had a foe and an enemy. This wicked Haman. And Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

Now justice comes swiftly in a moment. And it's too late.

It's too late to repent. It's too late to be forgiven. He had the opportunity and he squandered it.

So the king arose in his wrath from the wine drinking and went into the palace garden.

Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king.

And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was.

And the king said, Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?

Whoops. Yeah, talk about your foot being slippery on a rock.

So as the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbanah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king said,

Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high.

And the king said, Hang him on it. So they hanged

Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

Listen, when God acts in justice, he don't mess around. Only God could have worked this out the way it worked out.

And again, the wily coyote devil falls into his own schemes. He's unable to hurt

Jesus. He's unable to destroy the word of God. But now we've got a problem.

We've got a problem. And that is that the king's edict cannot be rescinded.

It can't be. And what follows next, I want you to consider this in light of a question.

Because here in the United States, and I know that some of you are joining us from outside of the United States. Here in the United States, we have an amendment to our constitution that permits us not only to have arms, but to bear them.

And there are a lot of people who are Christians here in the United States who carry firearms for the purpose of self -defense.

All right? And I would note that liberals of both the political and the religious stripe all hate this.

They absolutely despise it as if somehow this is contrary to behavior of people who call themselves followers of Christ.

But Jesus himself said, buy a sword. Right? And so this is going to cover the topic of, as Christians, do we have the right to defend ourselves if bodily harm has been determined against us?

Yeah. The answer is yes. And here's the other bit of it.

When we consider the commandment, you shall not murder, the positive of that is it requires us to protect our neighbor and to act in his best interest as it relates to his bodily being.

And so you'll note that we, for the most part, we have police forces and military who've been tasked with that brutal job, protecting us from those who would do us bodily harm, either foreign or domestic.

But the police is an extension of what God has established. But at its core then, you have a right, physical right, if somebody determines death for you, to say, over my dead body.

And you can see this kind of teased out in what follows next. So on that day, King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the

Jews. Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king took off his signet ring, with which he had taken from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai.

And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. Then Esther spoke again to the king.

She fell at his feet, and she wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman, the

Agagite, and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king, and she said,

If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be then written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the

Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.

For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can

I bear to see the destruction of my kindred? Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the

Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he intended to lay hands on the

Jews. But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.

So the king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty -third day, and an edict was written according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the

Jews. To the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia.

That's quite a kingdom, by the way. 127 provinces, to each province its own script, to each people in its own language, and also to the

Jews in their script, in their language. And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's signet ring.

Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king's service, read from the royal studs, saying that the king allowed the

Jews who were in every city to gather to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods on the day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the month, which is the month of Adar.

So you'll note here, he can't overturn the previous edict, but by saying that the

Jews have the right to defend themselves, to kill and to annihilate, and also to plunder.

Now you're going to note here, does self -defense give us the right to plunder? No. What commandment is broken when we plunder?

Thou shalt not steal. Right? So you're going to note that what goes on here then is that the

Jews are going to act in their own self -defense. They have been given the right to do so, and anybody foolish enough to take them on at this point, well, the best way

I can put it is they got what's coming to them. But how does God save his people here?

By having them defend themselves. God works through means, and so if you're thinking, well,

I'm just going to wait here until the Lord sends the cavalry, you're the cavalry.

This is really ridiculous. It's like the person who, they get the diagnosis that they have cancer, and it's treatable.

I refuse to take treatment. I've been praying that God would heal me.

Have you ever stopped to think that God chooses to heal you by you being treated for your cancer? By a medical physician?

Right. He sent the medicine, and you didn't accept any of it. Right, right. He sent help. Yeah. Apparently there's a joke about a guy like that.

He arrives at the pearly gates. I'll kind of remake it so that people can hear it online.

He arrives at the pearly gates, and Peter says, what are you doing here? Well, I died of cancer. I prayed that the

Lord would heal me, and Peter's all, God wanted to heal you through your doctors.

So you get the idea. We somehow think that when

God answers our prayer, that somehow He's going to deliver it with a golden scooter that an angel is flying in on, and He hands us two of this in this beautiful script written on a parchment scroll.

No, that's generally not how that works. God works through ordinary means.

We prayed that God would send us a deliverer, and He gave us a baby. Come on.

You get the idea here. So don't despise God's answers, even if the answer is

God says, all right, I'm going to save you, and guess what? You're going to be in a gunfight, and you may not get out of it alive.

But that's how, if I'm going to save you, you're going to get out of this, by defending yourself. All right.

So a copy of what was written then was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples, and the

Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies. So the couriers mounted on their swift horses and were used in the king's service.

They rode out hurriedly, urged by the king's command, and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel.

Then Mordecai went out. From the presence of the king, in royal robes of blue and white, with a great crown, golden crown, and a robe of fine linen and purple, in the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province, in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the

Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many of the peoples of the country declared themselves

Jews for fear of the Jews had fallen on them. So you'll note here, a lot of people, with the king's royal command that goes out, signed with a signet ring, people are like,

I'm a Jew too. It became popular to be Jewish at that moment.

So now in the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, on the 13th day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the

Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred. The Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.

The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm.

And no one could stand against them, for fear of them had fallen on all peoples. I've seen this before.

That's a fear that comes from God. And so you'll note here, we are to interpret

Esther based upon the previous books of the Bible where God has acted in these exact same ways.

God is the one who sends fear upon the adversaries of his people. All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, the royal agents, also helped the

Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces.

For the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful. The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.

In Susa, the citadel itself, the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, and also killed these

Persian names are not easy, Parshanadatha, and Dolphon, and Atsapatha, and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aradatha, and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aradai, and Vazatha, and the king, the ten sons of Haman, and the sons of Hamadatha, the enemy of the

Jews, but they laid no hand on the plunder. So you'll note then that the ten sons of Haman, they took up arms against the

Jews to follow through on the command that their father had concocted, and they all lost their lives because of it.

They all lost their lives, but note this, the Jews only defended themselves, they laid no hand on any plunder.

They stayed within the commands of God. They defended themselves, defending yourself, even with deadly forces, not murder, and they refused to break

God's command, thou shalt not steal. So that very day, the number of those killed in Susa, the citadel, was reported to the king, and the king said to Queen Esther, in Susa, the citadel, the

Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men, and also the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces?

Now what is your wish? It shall be granted to you, and what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled. And Esther said, if it please the king, let the

Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.

So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. The Jews who were in Susa gathered also the 14th day of the month of Adar, and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and they got relief from their enemies, and they killed 75 ,000 of those who hated them.

That is a lot. That is a lot. Huge number.

Yeah. And this was on the 13th day of the month of Adar. So I come back.

Can God's word be broken? No. Not at all. God is the one who gave them this victory, but you'll note they at no point acted presumptuously.

There was no decreeing. There was no declaring. There was only humbling, calling out for God in sackcloth and ashes, and God kept his promise.

All of them. So the Jews then who were in Susa gathered on the 13th day and the 14th day and rested on the 15th day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.

This is where we get the Feast of Purim, by the way. Therefore the Jews of the villages who live in the rural towns hold the 14th day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews. And this is the reason why we think

Mordecai is probably the author of Esther. It just has that kind of, mm, to it.

So Mordecai recorded these things, sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the 14th day of the month of Adar and also the 15th day of the same year by year as the days on which the

Jews got relief from their enemies and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness, from mourning into a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

Now, a little bit of a note here. Isn't this a little bit of a foretaste of what comes for Christians?

As we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, the persecution, the suffering, the martyrdom of Christians throughout the ages, it's going to intensify as we get closer and closer where Scripture says that Christians will be hated by all nations.

All of them. But does not God turn our mourning and our suffering into joy and gladness at His return?

Christ comes in order to rescue and to save us, and He's the one who executes justice and brings to nothing the realm and the reign of Satan and those under His dominion.

And is it not true that when Christ returns, I hear there's a party at the end of the world, the beginning of the new one, the end of the current one, the wedding feast of the

Lamb, feasting and food, and I'm just saying, you know, even in the types of shadows, this kind of has that effect.

So the Jews accepted what they had started to do and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the

Agagite, the son of Hamadathah, the enemy of the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, had cast

Pur, that is cast lots, to crush and destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the

Jews should return on his own head and that he and his son should be hanged on the gallows. Now, we only have a little bit left, but I'm gonna stop here and we'll kind of,

I'll pull in some other theme, you know, some other text to kind of deal with these themes next week and we'll wrap this up and then probably get back to Jeremiah next week, but there we go.

All right, I do not see any questions here and I'm glad that the

Kinney family enjoyed my golden scooter and the angel, right? You know, you get the idea.