(Gospel in the Book of Esther) 1. the Doom of the People — Roy Hession

Esther as a Picture of Christ

A little book in the Old Testament, which I have given all too little attention to before, and I imagine you have given little attention to. And yet, as it is with all the Word of God, if you look long enough, you'll see wonderful pictures of the one who is the object of all God's delight, the Lord Jesus.

And the book of the Old Testament, which we are going to study in these mornings, these five mornings, is the little book of Esther. Now, how are you on Esther? Well, it'll all be very fresh to us then, and we are kind of expecting the Lord to teach us something about a part of the Bible which, which is a wonderful part and a very easy part to understand, but we haven't given it, I think, a lot of attention.

At least, I haven't. Now, we call this the Bible reading, and it will be a bit of Bible reading to begin with. I'm conscious of the fact that we, that I cannot assume familiarity on the part of everybody with the main outline of the story of this bit of Jewish history, and therefore we'll have to inform ourselves about that before we can see its deeper meaning for us.

Now, the book of Esther. Now, where does that come? Well, you've been, we've been in the book of Chronicles from the trip to Union, where you, from there you go to Ezra, Nehemiah, and then Esther. All right?

Got it? Chapter three. And we're going to read together the narrative contained in chapter three and chapter four. We'll see what it all means, and it begins, After these things. Well, I'll put you in the picture about that in a moment.

Haman's Decree Against the Jews

But this is the heart of the passage we want to think about this morning. After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, and advanced him and 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 Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai, thou not, nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandments?

Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, 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.

And the bowing was trembling. I understand that even in Uganda today, the subjects of the king, they groveled in his presence, right down, hands and feet. And that was what was ordained with regard to Haman, and what he expected.

But there was one man who wouldn't grovel, and wouldn't do him reverence in that abject way, and that was the Jew, Mordecai. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.

And he thought scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai. Wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

And in the first month, that is the month Lisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast pull, that is the lock before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is the month Adar.

He wanted some occult direction as to the right moment in which to strike. And when Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, There is a people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them.

If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver. That was something like three million pounds by today's value. This man had a vast private fortune, and he prepared to contribute this vast sum into the king's treasuries, if he could have his way with regard to the people that he had come to hate.

If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasuries.

And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadar, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given thee, the people also, to do with them as seemeth good to thee.

Then where the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and was written according to all that Haman had commanded, unto 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, and to every people after their language.

There's a little touch which shows the authenticity of the writing. They were to send this message to every province and every people according to their writing. The standard revised version puts it, according to their script and according to their language.

They didn't only have different languages for different provinces, but they had different scripts. And I saw that in India. There are 157 main languages. And many of those languages have an entirely different script.

And here you have the same situation. Just little touches like that that show you you're dealing with an authentic historical document. According to the writing thereof, according to the script thereof, and to every people after their language.

In the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

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 a man sat down to drink.

But the city Shushan was the place. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and a bitter cry, and came even before the king's gate, for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her.

Then was the queen exceedingly grieved, and she sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him, but he received it not. Then called Esther. Esther, of course, was the niece, was it?

Mother Comte, yes, I think more or less the niece of Mordecai. She herself was a Jewish, but she was queen within the palace, though nobody knew that she was a Jewish. How fortunate. What a wonderful provision it was that in the hour of Israel's need, they had a friend at court.

He, unknown to others, was one of them. Then called Esther for Hattach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai to know what it was and why it was.

So Hattach went forth and made it Mordecai under the street of the city, which was before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews to destroy them.

Also he gave him the copy of the writing of a decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him, and to make requests before him for her people.

And Hattach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Again Esther spake unto Hattach and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know, she said, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called, there is one lord of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live.

But I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews?

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. What confidence this man had in the overruling of his God. It was going to come.

But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade to return Mordecai this answer. Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me.

And neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise and so will I go in unto the king which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

God's Hidden Providence in Esther

Not only is this book of the Bible a rather neglected one and we're not as familiar with it as other books but it is one of the few books in the Bible am I right to say the only one in which the name of God does not once appear.

Ahasuerus is mentioned many times and all the principal characters but God and his title does not appear once in this book. And yet perhaps there's no book in the Bible in which you see the hand of God working on behalf of his people more manifestly and more wonderfully than in this book of Esther.

Now those of you who are reading the Scripture Union will know that we've just come to the end of the second book of Kings. What a story it is. I trust it's given us food for thought. For long deep thoughts as we've come to the end of the second book of Kings we've seen what happens to unbrokenness.

The trouble with Israel was not that they sinned but having sinned and God having sent to them the prophets they wouldn't repent. Therefore the wrath arose of God arose against them as it says without remedy.

And we see an astonishing judgment fall upon Israel perhaps the most astonishing judgment that has ever fallen upon a nation in the whole history of the world. That whole nation ends up by being taken captive and the land completely emptied of its inhabitants taken to another land the city and everything destroyed and burnt and nothing but the poorest of the people left behind to take care of the few remaining villains.

We've seen deportations in the last war of great populations but nothing surely as complete as this. And all this was an exact fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and many others to a people who if they had repented would have found mercy but they wouldn't, they hardened their neck.

In particular with the closing days of Israel in the land you need to read Jeremiah and the clue to Jeremiah's prophecy is simply the pronouncement on what happens to a man who hardens his neck to a nation that does.

God pleaded with them so to speak with tears there are many tears in the book of Jeremiah but they wouldn't heed, they wouldn't repent they wouldn't acknowledge their wrong in turning aside to the gods of the nation.

Although he sent unto them his prophets rising up early as it says and sending and at last they blowed heaven just as God said it would and that people, his chosen people the object of his special care and of his many blessings became under his discipline scattered in a faraway land and they were told not to expect an early return there were false prophets all along we'll be back, we'll be back and Jeremiah who was left with the poorest of the land in Canaan had to send messages to them don't believe those false prophets you're there for a long time indeed you're going to be there for 70 years which means a whole lot of the present generation are going to die.

Settle down, expect to be there and the only place of blessing is to submit to the hand of your God and he gave them to believe there would be peace and something coming to them if instead of hoping for a rapid deliverance from their predicament they were prepared to submit to it but there wasn't going to be an end to it.

And Jeremiah spoke of the end of that captivity how in a way that none could guess at the time that captive people at the end of 70 years would be allowed to come back to their land and rebuild its waste places.

Now I can only tell you that in the last year I've been most attracted and my interest has been excited in this particular part of history. I've seen so much wonderful lessons along their various lives.

Israel Under God's Discipline

Now here's this nation in Babylon. What happened to them there? A people under the discipline of God. What happened to them in those 70 long years of captivity? The book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah tells us how the astonishing promise was fulfilled and how when Cyrus came to the throne he made that proclamation that they should go back and rebuild the ruined temple and that they should pray for the king's life.

But that's at the end of the 70 years. What happened? How did it fail? And there are only two books of the bible that give you any picture of what happened to God's people under discipline in Babylon.

The one is Daniel which of course however is more concerned with the man Daniel himself than with the whole people. But you can see how it was going on with them. And then there is this other book the book of Ezra.

And so it's of great interest for that reason now this book in brief tells us how the Jewish people in captivity were nearly completely annihilated. It would have been pretty well the complete extinction of the Jewish nation.

Had it happened there wouldn't have been Jews around the world today as there are and there wouldn't be the nation of Israel. And it tells us how that annihilation was narrowly averted by the God who still cared for the people under his discipline who still loved them while they were suffering what was right and proper for them to suffer and who wasn't going to let his purposes for them fall to the ground.

Nonetheless of course the persecution and annihilation of the Jews is not a new thing in their experience. This has been, has it not, their experience all down the years. Has any nation been more persecuted.

Have there been more attempts to annihilate a nation more than the Jewish nation we've seen it happen, have we not in our own lifetime. So this is really characteristic of this people who've been for so long, so many centuries under the discipline of the God against whom they have sinned.

Now if this plan to exterminate the Jewish nation in captivity had succeeded it would have meant that all God's promises of grace toward them that restoration which the prophets spoke about so glowingly would fall to the ground but there would have been a greater disaster.

This is the nation from whom God's Messiah is one day going to come the Holy See upon which the redemption of the whole world depends. And therefore God has got a great one may say a vested interest in the survival and the protection of a people who temporarily are under his discipline and their deliverance is almost as important as was their exodus out of this slavery of Egypt normally that is regarded as the beginning of their life as a nation and no feast so important in the Jewish feast as the Passover feast.

But there's another feast still in the Jewish calendar which is regarded almost as important as the Passover and that is the feast of Purim which was instituted at the book of Esther and I believe is still kept to this day to celebrate that wonderful deliverance that God gave to his people when they were so nearly finished and gone.

Grace Beneath Divine Discipline

Now I want to pause there to make a very obvious application but an important one. Here's a people under God's discipline you might say a people under God's frown though there's never a frown on the face of God behind a frowning providence all the time there's a shining smiling face be assured of that but they're under his discipline nonetheless they're suffering under the mighty hand of God and yet they're loved and yet they're cared for they're still the object of the special care of God even while they're suffering under his discipline.

And it's an interesting thing to note that although the name of God does not appear in the book of Esther in actual fact, in ordinary words five times it's hidden in the text the old Hebrew commentators used to point it out.

And in some of the old manuscript certain letters are put in bigger letters and there are five hidden across this in the Hebrew of the book of Esther of the name Jehovah in the shadows unknown and unseen may be Jehovah was there he had not cast off his people although they were temporarily under his discipline.

I'm not going to attempt to explain those across fix. It's quite a technical matter but if you ever get your hands on Bullinger's companion Bible in one of his appendices you will have the whole thing explained most intriguingly.

And there, because it doesn't come out of course in English but in the Hebrew apparently it does. Now the thing for us the application for us is this there are times, friend, when you are under the discipline of God because of playing with sin and because of refusal to repent and he has to lay his hand heavy upon us.

Because of that fact some of us may have missed the best in their lives a lovely purpose that God had for us has gone begging. And some of us may feel they were having to take what is really only second best things have gone wrong and you've been deprived of blessed prospects.

And there may be some of us in one degree or another who hasn't known it suffering under the mighty hand of God under discipline. But your love nonetheless you're cared for nonetheless and even in that experience of discipline you and I may walk with Jesus through his precious blood as an old hymn says somewhere in the shadows you'll find Jesus.

If a man will only submit to the discipline that God puts upon him not try and get out of it not rebel against it but submit to it. As a penitent man he will find God with him in the very discipline that God may still decree he's got to pass through.

I remember being struck by that fact when Israel was told to turn and go back into the wilderness after their disobedience at Kadesh Barnea what a purpose was waiting for them victory in the promised land.

But they looked at the giants and saw themselves as grasshoppers. Instead of looking to God and seeing the giants as grasshoppers and they rebelled and turned back. God said turn, you go back into the wilderness.

All this nation, this generation going to die out in the wilderness is only going to be the children who are going to go in. There's a nation under his discipline and yet straight away. There follows chapter after chapter about the offering about the sacrifices, about the blood all of which had still to be offered and presented even while they were under discipline which seemed to me to show that they could yet be in fellowship with God.

They could yet walk with God if they were willing to repent. Maybe that situation couldn't be immediately recovered. But if they were willing to submit to it God would be with them in it. I would know how to deliver them through those 40 years which indeed he did.

I would know how to protect them from any further attacks of the enemy. And so it is with us. What wonderful grace. And the disciplines which we sometimes find ourselves under prove to be means of grace.

We come out with a testimony what God does for service. And although we spoiled things yet we could walk with Jesus the precious blood could yet be sprinkled on our past. And in a new thing that came.

I know a man who had to leave England a well-known Christian worker couldn't stay any longer. He'd mess things up but he's a penitent man and he's walked with God in Canada. He's got a testimony doesn't necessarily hide it but God used him under discipline.

Repentance and Submission to God's Chastening

The first purpose. Maybe he had to go but because he was a penitent man he walked with God in the new situation and found Jesus. So friend when you find yourself under discipline in one degree or another don't frantically try to get out of it then you're next to it.

This is what is right and pity for me from the hand of a God who chastens me but who loves me nonetheless for whom the Lord loveth he chastens and he scourges every son whom he receives. And so we see these people still the object of the guardian care of their covenant.

God hidden into this book is this acrostic of Jehovah the God who never changed in his grace. Though oft times he has to discipline to teach us deeper lessons which are still his God does not cast off his people whom he foreknew.

I am foreknown foreknown before the foundation of the world. Then my name was graven on his hands. Then my name was graven on his heart. I know that while in heaven he stands no tongue can bid me thence depart.

I may have to come under discipline. Well this is all preliminary. I now come to what I feel is the main message and teaching of this lovely book for us in these days the deliverance that God wrought for that people from this imminent disaster.

Esther as a Foreshadowing of Gospel Redemption

I find him to be an amazing full and accurate picture of that great deliverance that God has wrought for a sinning world by our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to stretch and force this passage this scripture but I am convinced the Holy Ghost meant this.

You see the Holy Ghost is occupied with Jesus. He's so thrilled with this great redemption that God was bringing to the world that he couldn't wait for him to come. He had to let out the secret in all sorts of ways.

And thus it is, our Old Testament is full of Christ. It's full of redemption. It's full of this great thing that God is going to do.

In foreshadowing please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction.

Full of this great thing that God is going to do in foreshadowing. Never think that redemption is simply a part of the divine story. It is the divine story. You wouldn't have any of the Bible at all. You wouldn't have the story of creation.

You wouldn't have any of this history you wouldn't have the story of the fall but the fact that God was only using that as a backdrop for this wonderful old story of Jesus and his love. This is the divine story.

It's the one thing the whole deity is occupied with redemption. What a God is ours there's history here and much else that's incidental merely the backdrop to this great story. And so it is. We have all these wonderful intimations of the grace that is to come to us now.

We've all seen pictures and read stories of the ruins of ancient civilizations in the Middle East. There's something frightfully fascinating about the finds of archaeology. What a civilization it was.

How vast are the palaces. And haven't you often thought I'd like to sort of what was it all like. It's astonishing. Well here my friends in the book of Esther you're introduced into that very world. Here you see those ancient civilizations at their height their vast palaces this emperor ruler a complete ruler of 127 provinces with his harem and his eunuchs looking after every wish the whole set up.

And I think the more I read it the more fascinated I become with it. Even from that angle. Well we're going to just give you the brief story up to this point and then come to the main lesson. I think for us up to this point Ahasuerus was the king over 127 provinces the greatest world empire then.

Haman as a Figure of Satan

No the empire of the Medes and Persians. Vashti was his queen and she failed to obey her lord over a certain matter and come and display herself before the feast. Maybe it was modesty that led her to refuse but it was regarded as an important thing because men were very jealous of their rights and they felt that if the queen was permitted to get away with this what would happen to every other household.

And men wanted to establish their authority. And so they all advised the king that this queen should be deposed which indeed she was. But then you had a bachelor king and that was something almost unknown in the east and there was a search for another queen.

It's real eastern you know all these women come from all over the empire put into one harem. They visit the queen the king and then put into another one and the one he likes best and loves best is to be his queen.

Right the way through this province this great empire is scattered. This alien people the Jews they don't appear to be very badly treated. They find their place throughout the province and they found their work to do.

But they're an alien people away from their land and away from the temple of their god. And the queen the girl who ultimately gains favour with king Ahasuerus is if you please a Jewess. Esther Mordecai is her uncle and she in due course is received into the palace.

And there right within the palace of this greatest monarch of all is Esther the Jewess loved and honoured by the king. As in all good stories there's a villain of the piece and that's Haman. Haman was a nobleman who became the favourite of the king and upon whom the king lavished every conceivable honour he could.

And this Haman became the enemy of the Jews possessed with an insensate hatred of them who couldn't be satisfied but nevertheless every one of them was exterminated and he plots their extermination. Now Haman I think as I read the scripture is obviously meant by the Holy Spirit to portray that great enemy the devil.

Did you know the word Satan is a Hebrew word for adversary and he hates the children of God and he hates the race of men whom God created and the devil. This archenemy has plotted and planned the overthrow of God's race to plunge a whole world into ruin and destruction and misery.

Not only in the next world but in this world too. While we're alive now it's very interesting to note how it was that Haman became the enemy of the Jews. Why did he have this hatred. Well we read in chapter 3 how it all happened.

This man was exalted above every other nobleman given every conceivable honour the king could and he became filled with a consuming, a self-consuming pride. Nothing would please him than being absolutely number one next to the king and maybe if he got there in actual fact he might have even plotted the king's overthrow too.

Well he had pretty well it all his own way except in the case of one man here was this man Mordecai the Jew. He had some official business. His place was in the king's gate and Haman had to go to and fro.

And whenever Haman came everybody got off what they were on chairs, horses, and they grovel in the dust before this man and that's what he liked. He wanted to be exalted above the whole race except for Mordecai and Mordecai would not bow to this man.

I don't know why he was called Haman the Agakite. The Agakite, how do you pronounce it descendants of Agag the Amalekite. You remember Saul should have slain Agag but failed to and therefore Samuel did it.

The Amalekites were the ancient enemies of Israel and this man somehow or other was a descendant of Agag and maybe for that reason Mordecai was not going to bow and grovel in the dust before this man and he stood his feet and therefore he incurred the wrath of Haman.

Now an ordinary man doesn't mind too much if other people don't take off their hats to him. Some men even in high position aren't all that bothered if you don't call them sir. But a proud man with the slightest failure in respect is a mortal blow to him.

And that was how it was with Haman and therefore he vowed to take it out of Mordecai. But verse 6 of chapter 3 says. He thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone. He plotted something bigger. He sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus even the people of Mordecai.

And so his hatred of the Jews was a result of his hatred of one man. And that hatred of that man was due to his terrible overweening pride. And my friends that is precisely the history of the devil's animosity toward the human race.

It isn't because he hates us for our own sake. No it's because the great sin in the heart of Satan is pride. And that was the reason why he was cast out. There's a strange prophetic passage in Isaiah 14 which tells us a little bit about the ancient history of this great spiritual being or unspiritual being.

If you like in Isaiah 14 perhaps you would like to look at it verse 12. And this is generally thought to be a prophetic of Satan. Isaiah 14. Verse 12. O art thou fallen from heaven. O Lucifer son of the morning.

How art thou cut down to the ground which does weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation of the sides of the Lord.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yet hast thou been brought down to hell to the sides of the people. Satan apparently was one of the cherubim but pride came in how we don't know.

And he conceived the idea of exalting himself even to be like the Most High. And for that reason this great angelic being was cast out of heaven for pride and he thereafter stalked the earth as the adversary of the one who cast him out when he was seeking to be like the Most High in glory there was always one yet above him not only God but the one who is called the Word of God.

Don't get the idea that the Lord Jesus began his existence in the manger. He began way back. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God there. In the beginning was the second person of the Trinity the object of the worship of all the other cherubim.

And maybe this cherubim got a long way up and maybe all the other cherubims were according him some honor. But there was one that wouldn't the eternal Son of God. And it was because of him that he was cast out of heaven.

And he became the enemy of that beloved one in whom all God's glory shined who was to reveal God as he really is and he hated him. And because Satan hated God and his Son that he plotted the overthrow of God's creation.

You who are fathers I know the way in which you could be most hurt not by somebody hitting you. You could take that you might even retaliate might not always be right to do so. But you might but for someone to hit and kick your little child whose defenseless and an enemy if he wanted to hurt you would somehow make things difficult for your child.

He might turn people against that child at school. It isn't that he hates the child so much. He hates you and my, wouldn't that be a hurt. And that was the reason why Satan plotted the overthrow of the human race.

And so we can say of Satan what is here said of Haman. Satan thinks caught to lay hands on Jesus alone if he can. He plots and plans the overthrow of that creation that came into being as an act of love from the action of both father and son.

And in due course that plot was hatched and carried through. That was the reason why Satan appeared in the Garden of Eden. And you remember he maligned God to that couple. God's given you a lot of things but he doesn't want you to know too much.

He doesn't, he mustn't touch that tree. He's keeping you in ignorance, he's not fair. God does know he said the day you eat of that tree you'll be like him. He doesn't want you to be. He's keeping you down.

And you know it's likely that went on for months. In C .S. Lewis' book A Voyage to Venus he tells how the fall was narrowly averted on Venus. You ought to get it. It's on the bookstore. I think it's a great story.

And you know the agent of the devil on Venus went at it with one woman day and night. He only stopped when she was too tired and had to go, had to sleep as soon as she was awake. He was at it insinuating and it might have been like that for a long, long time.

And at last it penetrated. They began to believe the devil's lie about God that he wasn't as loving as he said he was. They'd have to do something for themselves. And at last he got man to commit that first sin and take the forbidden fruit.

And his eyes were opened. It did prove indeed to be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He'd known good all along because he was doing it. He'd only known evil as a vague possibility. But now he knew it as a dreadful fact.

He'd done it. His eyes were opened. The devil was right but to see his nakedness. And as a result man had to be driven out of the garden. Not because God wanted him out but because God was holy and couldn't permit sinners to remain as sinners uncleansed, unforgiven in his presence.

And he couldn't forgive them unless they repented. And there was no sign of repentance in the garden of Eden. And so God had to drive out the saddest thing he ever had to do his dear man and woman from the garden.

That's just what the devil wanted. He knew what God wanted. He knew what was the law of the universe. And if he was going to get this first man and woman to break that divine law he knew man would have to be driven out.

And he knew in a sense that any action he took to enforce that driving out would have the backing of the law of God itself. Do you think this is too crude an illustration of the devil being the jailer?