Esther 9:1-19 Deliverance in the Mess

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to recast Church. I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here and I just want to say thanks for coming to worship God this morning. If you can check out the stuff that we handed you when you walked in the door.

Um, there's a connection card there. And if you'd be willing to fill that out and turn that in in the white basket, that would be awesome. On the back side of that is an opportunity for you to put prayer requests.

Any kind of interaction. There's even some check boxes there if any of that applies to you. You can check that off. But if it's your first time with us this morning and you fill out one of those cards.

Please turn it in again in the white basket back there and then there's a free coffee mug for you. Just our way of saying thanks for coming and joining with us and we recognize that it can be kind of can be kind of Tricky or make you nervous to kind of visit a place for the first time.

And so we're just grateful that you're here with us. Thank you. And then also. One other thing you received when you walked in is an offering envelope. There's a black box back here on the corner of the desk.

I'm here at recast. We don't pass an offering plate primarily because we really want your giving to be between you and God. We don't want anybody to give because oh, no, there's this plate in front of me.

And I feel like I've got to throw something in it. We want it to be out of gratitude for what God has done for you. Recognizing how he's blessed you and so we want that giving to be Voluntary and as the as the note on the front says cheerful out of joy.

So that's kind of the introduction for this morning. I'm a reminder that there is a meeting immediately following this. For those who are interested in working with our youth ministries that are kind of taking another Different turn this this summer or if you are a parent who have kids that are in middle school or in senior high.

So and that's going into so that's if you've got a child who is just wrapping up fifth grade right now. That's going to be pertaining to you as well. So You can stay after the service this morning and be involved in that.

The Power of God's Word and the Hope of Esther

But jumping back into the book of Esther here I like to introduce the topic for the morning and kind of where the text is going. So that we can kind of get our hearts and our minds focused on God's Word because I really am of the conviction.

That God's Word is what changes and transforms our lives. Just as Kyle and I were together praying this morning. That was just a conviction that I think both of us at one point Was just thinking through the fact that sometimes we can call ourselves people of the word.

Without trusting that that is the place where the power comes to our lives. And so I just am convicted that really when it comes down to it. It is only as God opens our minds to the word and what the word has to tell us that we are changed, right?

And so that's why we come to God's text every every Sunday when we get together. But everything in the book of Esther has been driving towards the text that we're in this morning in Esther chapter 9. We've been in the book for nine weeks now and we're really drawing near the end just a couple more messages in this book.

But it's important for us to remember when we come to this text that the Jews had been threatened with annihilation that they had been threatened with extinction and That the promises of God that very the very most important promise that there would be one who would come from the line of the Jews.

Who would save people from their sins that all nations would be blessed through the Jews that promise is Right on the knife's edge when we come to our text this morning because the Jews are set for extinction there's literally an edict of genocide against them in the book of Esther and God's promises are not going to come to pass without some dramatic change or shift and we've been watching those shifts take place throughout this book.

The anticipation has been building through this book and as we come to our text this morning We might be tempted to think something along the lines of finally the people of God are going to be delivered.

They are finally going to be set free. But when redemption comes in our text. It's kind of messy. It's like you're kind of longing for it and you're excited about it and you're like, oh, it's it's coming.

We're gonna be saved. We're gonna be saved and then it's like ooh 75 ,000 people are gonna be killed in our text this morning and it's like what? There's gonna be slaughter and it's going to be ugly and that is the reality of life in a fallen world.

I mean, I think some of us have experienced that that brokenness. Have you experienced brokenness in your life some some things that haven't quite gone the way that you thought that they should or were going to go.

Since Adam and Eve rebelled against God the human race Has been broken but God. This awesome God who created all and everything hatched a plan to bring about Restoration from inside this broken system from down here where we live.

How many of you know that God being all? powerful and the creator overall could have just taken the whole thing up and wadded it up into and then he didn't have to throw it away because he Could have just made it disappear, right?

He could have just wadded that whole thing up the whole cosmos and said you guys sinned you broke it Done start over again. Could he have done that? But instead he chose to come into this broken system and to save us from within the fall from within a sin-cursed world and In order to do so things have had to be quite messy.

We think we will delight when the solution arrives and then we come to the cross. The messy bloody abused and beaten son of God lifted high in shame. Lifted high and what appeared to be defeat. Have any of you seen the movie the passion of the Christ?

Have any of you why while watching that felt like turning your face away from those images? Because redemption is a mess. That's what it took to redeem us to purchase us back from sin. We long for redemption.

But then we sit through the passion of the Christ and we catch glimpses of that price that was paid and we recoil at the site of redemption. So I want you to open your Bibles, please to Esther 9. We're gonna look at the first 19 verses here page 357 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you.

So if you just grab that Bible from the seat in front of you, you can turn to page 357. It's easy to find and I want to say this if you don't own a Bible Please take that one with you. We desire for everybody had to have a copy of God's Word, but follow along as I read Esther 9 1 through 19.

And let's dive in. Now in the twelfth month Which is the month of Adar on the thirteenth day of the same when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out. On that 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 a of sewers to lay hands on those who sought their harm and No one could stand against them for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples.

All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents Also helped the Jews for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. But 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 Sousa the citadel itself the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men and Also killed now here.

We go ready for this list. Parshanditha and Delphin and Aspatha and Poratha and Adalia and Eriditha and Parmashta and Erisai and Eredi and Visatha The ten sons of Haman and the son of Hameditha The enemy of the Jews, but they laid no hand on the plunder.

That very day the number of those killed in Sousa the citadel was reported to the king and the king said to Queen Esther In Sousa 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 you and what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled. And Esther said if it pleased the king let the Jews who are in Sousa 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 Sousa and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. The Jews who were in Sousa gathered also on the 14th day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Sousa.

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 got relief from their enemies and killed 75 ,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

This was on the 13th day of the month of Adar and on the 14th day They rested and made that day a feasting a day of feasting and gladness. But the jews who were in Sousa gathered on the 13th day and on the 14th day and rested on the 15th day.

Making that a day of feasting and gladness. 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.

Deliverance Through Reversal and Defense

Let's pray brothers, we uh, we come to an ancient text that um Just at face value has some some gruesome carnage in it. It has some difficult things for us to wrap our our western minds around. Some cultural differences between us and them but primarily an issue of covenant primarily an issue of understanding how You are working in the world today as opposed to the way that you worked through the nation of israel in your old covenant under the old testament rules and regulations.

Father I pray that you would open our eyes to The glory of your redemption and even though it's messy. That we could rejoice at the foot of the cross this morning recognizing that immense and awesome payment that has been made for us.

And that as we come to worship you in song right now that our hearts and our minds would be focused on you. That we would give you the attention that we would give you the glory and you the honor. And that we would push aside all those distractions that might might war against our genuine focus on you.

Would you remove ourselves from the equation and let our voices and our hearts and our minds genuinely sing. To you and you alone. I ask this in jesus name. Amen as we come to. Um, let's remember that that this god that we worship is close.

That when we think about redemption and we think about the cross he has come down as one of us. He can relate to pain. He can relate to hardship to scorn to loneliness to emotional anguish. But he also is a god of strength and a god of power.

Who knew the suffering that was ahead of him and for the joy set before him endured our shame. So let's worship him this morning. Amen, thanks a lot to the band for leading us. Um I think there's still some more donuts and some coffee and juice.

I know we just took a break, but you can feel free to get it up at any time during the message and um. And take advantage of that. There's bathrooms back here if you need them. Um, but let's dive in and get into this uncomfortable work of god on behalf of the jews here um from our text last week, um where we were at with um.

With the the new edict that was going forward. We are now fast forwarding nine months. Um from where are where we were so between chapter eight and chapter nine nine months have transpired. And we know that there have been two conflicting edicts that were set forth in the empire of persia.

Two that were in conflict with one another. Um hayman, uh had passed an edict saying that the jews are to be killed. He was the prime minister over all of persia who hated the jews and basically said um, I Am going to pass an edict that all the jews are to be killed destroyed or annihilated.

He really covered his base as well on that and he said on the 13th day of the 12th month. Um, everybody can have a free-for-all and kill jews as many as they want and they need to be annihilated by the end of that day, but hayman was executed we've seen this all this this amazing turn of events that's gone on time and time again in the Book of esther and hayman was executed and mordecai.

The jew is now in the office of prime minister over all of persia. He is like the second only to the king and that's barely and it's we're going to see even in our text. He's increasing in power. Um, uh daily.

It's just like he's growing and growing in power. Um. And so he had this other edict passed. Um that now is allowing freedom of assembly to the jews, which they didn't have in general in persia. So they now are free to gather together and they're also free to equip themselves with arms.

So two things that we take for granted here in america. That's something that was granted to the jews in the texas going to have a significant outcome. On the 13th day of the 12th month. I mean if you know that those are two things that would be helpful if you were trying to defend your people.

The ability to gather together in a large crowd would that would that help? Yeah, I think so. And then how about the ability to arm yourself? Okay, those two I think kind of tie together in the sense of actually helping out the situation and so, um.

They are officially granted permission in essence by the edict of mordecai to Formally defend themselves to basically form a militia if you will have to be careful using the word militia from a pulpit in michigan right, but um a couple of you got that um.

And now that day has arrived when we get to our text. So that day the 13th day of the 12th month. It is um the day that every jew in persia has dreaded. Of course, it's been softened a little bit. But it is a day that was that's been marked for about 12 months from the time that hayman Put the signet ring to paper and made it a law.

It's been about 11 months that they have known that this day out in the future is our day of annihilation. How many of you would be maybe a little nervous approaching that day? If you were a jew just a little bit like I don't know how this is going to go down.

Maybe even if you're not a jew, you're still a little bit nervous about that day going down, right? I mean persia is going to be an upheaval. It's almost going to be like civil war type conditions in their nation in their empire for a while here um and the jews are.

Uh that day is approaching rapidly for them. But we're going to see in the text. This is going to be a day of reversals. The enemies of the jews are hoping for their obliteration on that day. But things are going to the the things are going to be turned on their head.

And those who hope to destroy the jews are themselves Going to be the ones who are destroyed and according to verse 2 the jews gathered to defend themselves and Nobody could stand against them because the fear of them had fallen on all of the peoples.

We saw in at the end of our text last week that some were even beginning to call themselves jews from the average Persian was wanting to become a jew because of the power and the clout and the amazing things that god had done there.

In persia, they were literally people flocking to the synagogues to figure out how they could become jews. And so things have radically turned for them. Now it's obvious, um from what uh comes next that some will indeed attack them.

Okay, so don't think that this is just a blanket popularity and everybody loves them and nothing bad is going to happen. There is not the wholesale but but on the flip side of that there's not the wholesale adoption.

Uh of of slaughter to the jews that hayman anticipated when he wrote the edict, right? So it's not it's not going to be just everybody rising up against them, but there are some who still will um. Not only is there little community support for the enemies of the jews.

However, but even look at the text even the officials The satraps the governors and the royal agents think when you see royal agents the guards Helped the jews. Anybody think that's just amazing? Like is that is that just wild and crazy from if you've been here from the beginning some of you have been Part of this the study from esther from the very beginning when we first Started and some of you obviously have studied the text or have read it before so you you've been at least familiar with it.

So think for a moment how far we've come in this text. The jews were ready to be extinguished. They were ready to be snuffed out their doom was sure everything seemed hopeless for them, right? It was like there was an edict of genocide against them.

I'm getting some blank stares. Are you guys you guys are getting that right? Um. It seemed hopeless and now we find ourselves in the text that literally the government of persia Is supporting the jews.

Is that like a radical turn of events? Is that not one of the most surprising statements in the entire book? Like the government the guards the officials the government leaders the people who are heads of provinces are saying How can we help these jews to survive?

That's that's a huge turn. And you may find yourself in what seems to be a hopeless situation right now. I know some of you feel very hopeless as you walk through these doors and as you walk out I hope that it's a little bit different for you but when you walked in these doors.

It was just like these circumstances in the situations that I but but you don't understand what is going against me right now, right? You could say don I you but you don't really know and I know some of your situations.

And I know some of you feel hopeless right now. But I want to emphasize that nothing is beyond the scope of god. Nothing is outside of the bounds of his power and his authority and his ability to transform lives and to change your circumstances.

Or even better yet to change you in the midst of your circumstances. How many of you know that not every time that we cry out to god is the solution to remove our problems? But often in my life I found it's not a removal of the problems that I need most.

But it's being shored up and strengthened to grow. And not waste those difficult times in my life. How many of you know you can you can waste difficulty in trial? By by moaning and just just groaning and complaining and all of that kind of stuff or you can actually grow and flourish.

In hard times because of the grace of god in your lives. So i'm not i'm not giving offering like a patent solution to your problems here. But a change in your heart and yes. Sometimes god does reach in and transform and change our circumstances and that's just awesome.

And we ought to be careful to make sure that we give god the glory when that transformation happens, right? You've been through some dark times and had god work mightily on your behalf. Oh on our face before god and gratitude and thankfulness to him recognizing and telling others about it in a sense of saying Glory to god.

You're never going to believe what he did in my life. He delivered me from this or this or this. Nothing is beyond the scope of god. Those who were once were opposed to the jews are raised up to be a source of help for them.

When god is at work, you may find help from the most unlikely sources in your lives as well. But here verse 4 tells us that mordecai continued to grow in power. The people were fearful of him because he's been raised up to prime minister, right?

They had seen him weeping and wailing outside of the gates in the of the city of susa. Where he would he had dressed himself in sackcloth and put ashes all over his head in his face. In deep mourning showing what was going on inside of his heart when he'd heard the word that the jews were to be annihilated.

So they had seen this and he's been transferred from that place to standing at the right hand of the king. In royal robes with a crown on his head. They're afraid of him because they're like someone is on his side.

You know what i'm saying? It's like somebody some power is behind this guy. They might not necessarily know God, but they know something is radically going on and so he is growing in power and um. We already saw he was given royal robes implying a royal standing.

He started out at the beginning of our text a very powerful individual. He had the signet ring the the basic signature of the king on his finger and he was able to stamp and imprint law. For all of persia, is that pretty powerful?

At this time. This is the most powerful. Well, it depends on exactly when when in history you date this but Basically, we're going back and forth between greece and persia over which is the most powerful nation in the world.

But there are two superpowers Greece and persia you're talking about one of the most powerful nations in the world and he has. The ability to just sign things into law there at his whim. Very powerful and yet it says in the text.

He's continuing to grow in power pretty significant statement for our friend mordecai. And now we get down to it in verse 5 the jews. It says struck their enemies with the sword the the phrase they did as they pleased.

How many of you think that that's a little bit awkward like they just did whatever they pleased to their enemies? It doesn't sound like maybe they tortured them or they did. That's not what that phrase is.

Therefore. It's actually saying they were unhindered by any governmental authorities. They were able to just Get done what they were setting out to do which was ultimately their defense which um. Could be a little bit confusing, but we'll get there here in a second about was this defense or not.

But um just in the capital city alone. We see the number they defeated 500 men and even the 10 sons of haman were killed. Which means that they stood against them as well. We see the 10 sons Of haman who are listed by name in verses 7 through 9.

I encourage you just to kind of go through and try to pronounce those yourself. If anybody wants to correct my pronunciation have at it. I went into the study wondering though if this was merely self-defense.

Like what we've read so far up to this point in the text. Does it sound like self-defense? It kind of doesn't. It kind of doesn't up to this point. Okay, and so i'm I actually tried to enter this study.

Really trying to figure it out and trying to really get down to the bottom of it. Was it that they were going out to seek to kill their enemies because i'm gonna be like that can get dicey like um I think they looked at me bad the other day in the marketplace.

I think they're my enemy. Do you know what i'm saying? I mean, I don't even know that like calling somebody your enemy could just be a just preference issue. They might not really be your enemy. But um, so I think that it does matter whether this was self-defense or not.

But I think we're going to see that pretty clearly early on in the chapter. It's unclear but things come to clarity in chat in verse 16. So I want to read just bounce your eyes down to verse 16 for a second here.

It's going to be talking. There's two movements here. There's a the the focus in on what happened in susa and then we broaden out to what happened throughout the entire empire of persia. And it says this in verse 16 now the rest of the jews who were in the king's provinces after we talked about susa.

They were in the rest of the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives. And got relief from their enemies and killed 75 000 Of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder. Do you do you hear that in there?

What did they gather together to do? To defend their lives. Okay, that's what's going on here. This is a defensive action. This is not them going door to door and and and rooting people out as a matter of fact.

I think a more accurate view of this is actual military action. Okay, this is not this is not like Um the jews or the persians either way just going door to door and trying to slaughter their neighbors.

This is actual confrontation clash in the city of susa and there's military lines drawn up and there's a battle that actually Goes on here and that's some of the terminology in hebrew leads to that. The names of the sons of haman serve very little to us in modern times other than to stretch our pronunciation and things like that.

Um, but one of the things that I think that they exist there. So you've got three verses basically taken up with this and it's kind of like okay. Um, that's a lot of text and a lot of writing and a lot of ink for those ancient people.

So it mattered to them obviously to to name them out. But I think in reality they exist there as an echo for us of the reality of judgment. And i've talked about that a little bit throughout this book.

Um, they are ultimately a sign of judgment for aligning themselves against god. It's interesting to note that the names of the sons of haman are easily identified by historical linguists. And yes, there are historical linguists.

Who study ancient? Dead languages that aren't spoken by anybody. I know I know right. Um, but um. They actually can identify that these are genuine persian names. Just by the the way that they sound and the word usage and things like that.

And they've actually found some of these names in in scrolls and documents and engravings and things like that. Um, but even more interesting is that they reflect a very narrow range of dates. So that and the only reason i'm even going to get into this is because of how reliable is this?

Like have you ever I mean, do you ever question that like I mean, I think that. You should you should have at some point in your life. I mean if you're dependent your life on this you ought to got to know it and study it and know for yourself.

But how reliable is it? Well, um, you can actually go to the reign of king xerxes and some of these. The persian words the persian names of these guys when they were brought over to hebrew for a short period of time.

They used an ai in their name. So if you look at verse 9, do you see the ai's in these names erisai eradi visatha? Just about 20 years after the reign of xerxes under arta xerxes who followed him. All of those became e's in the hebrew script.

So whenever you saw an ai in persian, they would they would translate it with an e in hebrew. Are you getting what i'm saying? So we can actually date this to the reign of king xerxes in historical documentation.

It's just that it's just that clear. So, I don't know if that does anything for you. It actually was pretty cool to me. Um, but you guys are just kind of like going. Okay, that was enough. Um, i'll just move on.

Um, Some people really get geeked out on this stuff. I don't know who would but um. But at the end of verse 10, uh is really the first three mentions that the jews did not take plunder. Um, there are many potential reasons why the jews would not take plunder, but it's obvious that the the author Wanted us to think about it wanted to make it clear to us that they did not take plunder.

I mean, you know that if you repeat something like if you get a letter from your wife. Or you get a letter from your husband and it says the same thing in three different places in the letter. Like should you pay a little bit of attention to that?

Okay, right I'm telling you you should okay, so you should and and that's what's going on here. So it's obvious that to the author. It's it's intentional and it's there's a purpose. But the problem is we don't really know why so the author doesn't come right out and say why they didn't take plunder.

So there's a lot of potential reasons why the jews would not take it. Why wouldn't they take the stuff from their enemies? Which the I want to point out the edict gave them permission to the actual persian official law said they can Slaughter their enemies those who attack them they can defend themselves and then they can in turn take their stuff.

Right. It said that in law. So they are free to but I think the the reason that seems most consistent with the history of the jews and with the context um, there's a couple different reasons i'll say but the one that I think is most central is it dates back to an interaction between Abraham the father of the jewish people and the king of sodom and they had gone to battle together In genesis 14 and the king of sodom offered to give plunder to abraham.

But he declined in essence saying I don't want anybody to say I have been made wealthy. Because of a gift from the king of sodom. I don't want to point to somebody else and say i'm wealthy because of them.

I want god to get the honor. I want god to be glorified. And so that was that was a a part of the jewish history that I think comes to bear here. The jews in susa do not want people to think that this attack was primarily about financial gain.

And I think also there's a little bit of the fact that they do not want their success to be credited to plunder. And also I think that they know that taking plunder is going to make them a stench to their Society in their community.

They're going to make more enemies by doing this. I'm going to know that if they take that if somebody attacks them and they kill them and then they take their plunder now. Their sons become their enemies because guess what you just stole somebody's inheritance.

So now you've created a whole ball of wax of of basically an enemy machine if you will. And so they I think that there's some wisdom in that too um. Obviously, there's some speculation in what i'm saying.

But they do not take plunder and that's clear and important to the author who mentions it again. Like I said three times in the text. But I think the main point that you can take from that is that they did not slaughter for financial gain.

They were not Trying to get ahead. Verse 11 through 14 Are a break from the action the first day is over and we found that they killed 500 in the city of susa. And so now we basically get a report to the king of what happened on that first day.

How many of you know that he probably had a little bit of interest in what had gone on in his kingdom that day? How many they how many have been slaughtered? How many have been killed? I mean, like I said, it's basically civil war that's going on in his nation.

Um, and he he shows that he's impressed with the power of the jews. He basically says wow, if they did this well in susa killing 500 I can only imagine what they did in the rest of my kingdom. Like I mean, do you see any humor in that like just kind of like the king saying wow.

You guys did a great job. You killed 500 of my subjects. I wonder what I wonder what you did in the rest of the kingdom um. But the king. He's losing people. He's losing servants. He's losing revenue.

Okay on this day and yet he still offers to help queen esther at the end of verse 12. He still says is there anything more I can do for you? He's still he's still with her. And she takes him up on the offer showing that he was genuinely offering.

Um, and she asked for two things in verse 13 two things. Um, let the jews gather again tomorrow to defend themselves. I just. Again, this is a historical event real people real lives. I can't help but think that esther had some kind of understanding or some kind of knowledge.

That there were still enemies ready to kill jews on the streets that this wasn't over yet in susa. And so she's got some kind of insider information that says I we need another day for this. This needs to needs to go down again.

And not only that but but king could you please give a massive deterrent? To Those who would attack us tomorrow by hanging the 10 sons of haman. Gruesome, we talked about this just a little bit. There's no gallows involved in this.

This is a spike. Okay, and um display these guys. As a deterrent show what happens to those who oppose the jews and make this make this clear. So the king issued the decree. One more day for the jews to defend themselves in susa and the 10 sons of of haman were actually put on display.

Yuck, um and on the next day the jews killed the jews killed 300 men in susa. But all throughout the rest of them the empire now we get the report the jews celebrated on the 14th day of adar. They didn't get the extra day and this is going to come to play at the end of the book or I mean at the end of the chapter, but um.

They didn't they celebrated on the 14th. They didn't get the second day of attacking and um throughout the entire empire the jews killed 75 ,000 of their enemies. Is that a good is that a good number?

Is that a lot? You think? Kind of hard to put that number in perspective. Um. The entire population of persia during this era is estimated to be about 50 million people. So there's about 50 million in the entire The entire area of persia which stretched all the way from india down into ethiopia into africa and um.

For every 10 000 people there were 15 killed in persia. So it's it's a small percentage but still a lot of a lot of funerals, right? A lot of uh, a lot of death and the author spends the last three verses explaining the practice of Purim or purim different people pronounce it in different ways.