SPEAKER_00 0:00

So I'm going to see how well you've been listening up until this point in the series, and I want you to finish my thought as I say you'll you'll get the idea and you can shout out the answer. Alright. So it's going to look like this Noah and the Ark. Okay, good. So you guys know that story. You probably could have passed this quiz even before hearing about Noah. You knew the Ark was connected to him. Moses and the There's a lot here. You can shout them out. The Red Sea is a big one. Somebody said the Ten Commandments. Did I hear somebody say the Exodus? The burning bush. Those are the four I was looking for. There are probably others. Abraham and Isaac. Okay, we talked about Abraham. Joshua and the battle of Jericho. David and Goliath. Alright. Good job, front row. And maybe even, you know, not as on a high of a note, but David and Bathsheba, right? Those are the two names most commonly associated with him. Daniel and the lion's den. Alright, and then the last one. Esther and what's that phrase you hear? Pin drop, right? Most of us don't know the story of Esther. And I have to confess myself that before I was told I was going to preach on Esther, I didn't know a whole lot about her. Can I just confess that to you? That even your church leadership and you know, we don't know everything. And so I knew I'd better do my homework. And uh but Esther's not talked about as much as those other guys, and she's not in a lot of the kids' Bibles and things like that. We don't see her her story very often, but it's a beautiful story, and I hope today that you'll walk away really being inspired by that. And so um since I kind of felt like, well, myself, I didn't really know much about Esther. I did this same activity with our elders this past Monday night, and they're smiling in the room going, Yeah, we didn't know about Esther either. They knew she was a woman in the Old Testament, and there was another one named Ruth, but they're not even connected to each other, you know, a whole lot. But bottom line is say we got to figure out what the story is about before we can really know what's the significance of what she's done. So um I'm a self-proclaimed math nerd, and that means I'm not necessarily a big English fan when it comes to English class, but I went back to my English notes and found that every good story typically has five elements. Okay. This is gonna be your last activity. All right, so I want you guys to see if you can help me. I know the answers. I'm gonna see if you can figure out the answers. Figure out what those five elements of a good story are, okay? You'll see in your worship guide there are five blanks, they each have a letter as a clue. Uh and I'm gonna go ahead and give you the fourth one of those, which is starts with letter C, and that's conflict. Every good story has some kind of conflict, right? Typically. And so does anybody think they know the first C? Character. Okay, good. We got some people who remember English well, that's good. The second one, the S. What is S?

unknown 3:14

Setting.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Setting. Okay. I think all of you, this is the where the teacher says, okay, now you guys can't answer anymore. I think all of you know this one. It's a little four-letter word that starts with a P. What is it? Plot. Right? Every good story has a plot. Then I told you about conflict. And in the world of happily ever after, we typically have a what? Resolution. Okay, so those are your five story elements, and we're gonna use those elements to guide us through the book of Esther. Before we turn to Esther, um, it's gonna be on the screen behind me. Uh, I want us to look at Hebrews chapter 11 because that's where we've based this series out of, and look at verses 32 through 34 to give us an idea of why we might have chosen Esther. It says this, and what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength after being weak, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. You see, up until this point, every hero has had some sort of direct reference. You know, uh Noah was mentioned, Moses was mentioned, Joshua and Gideon, and even last week Harley taught on Daniel, and it's pretty clear when it says shut the mouths of lions that we're talking about Daniel. Esther's not directly mentioned, but I think we find in the last part of verse 34 those four phrases, you're gonna see those themes in the story today, and that's this escaped the edge of the sword, that happens in the book of Esther, gained strength after being weak, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. So, even though it's not a direct reference, I think there's definitely biblical support here to continue our series and say, hey, let's talk about Esther. Plus, it's just an awesome story. So, with all of that said, let's actually jump into the book of Esther. Esther is between the books of Nehemiah and Job. And if you're saying, well, I don't know where those books are, go to the Psalms right in the middle of your Bible and turn back two books. You'll pass through Job and then you'll see Esther. It's a short book, but it's right there uh before you get to the book of Job if you're reading it in order there. Esther's a really unique book in the Bible. It's one of two books that uh highlights women as the main character, and so um it just wasn't common back in that day that women had a prominent place and were noted leaders of the day. But in this case, we get a story about a woman who was. What's probably the most commonly talked about uh finding in Esther is that God's name is never written directly in the book. It's the only book in the Bible that doesn't have God's name in some direct form within its pages. So, you know, in the Exodus and it says that the Lord talked to Moses. We don't have any phrases like the Lord did this or God did this or Jehovah did this. But it's really clear after we read this story today that God's at work. You'll notice at the bottom of your worship guide that there are some takeaways there, and so throughout the sermon today we'll be talking about those. And so we're gonna talk about takeaway number one right now. You can go ahead and fill this in. It says, When God seems absent, he isn't. He is always present. Now I debated on whether I would share about this finding or lack thereof of God's name in the book of Esther, but I think it's actually pretty crucial to our story today because the the Jewish people at this time are in exile, much like we learned about last week in the time of Daniel, and they're definitely in a period of their history where it feels like God is not there. It feels like God's very far away, he's not speaking directly to them, and yet when we see what happens in this story, it's very plain and obvious that God must be at work. So we can have confidence that Esther being in the Bible is a legit, a legitimate thing because God is clearly present, even though he may seem absent. And just as a personal note for you today, I don't know what you may be struggling with, or maybe you're things are going well and life is good, or maybe life's not so good, or you've had some difficulties or struggles like we all have. No matter how much you go through life, and no matter how much you may think that God is not there, he is there. And I hope you find encouragement in that this morning because he may not write his name right out in front of you for you to see it, but hopefully you look back on the events of your life and say, I can see where your hand was at work. So let's start unpacking these five elements of the story. The first one, character, is pretty obvious. The character, main character of the story, is Esther herself. And so if you look at chapter two, we're gonna read a lot of scripture today, by the way, little chunks of verses here and there in the book of Esther to give us all a better idea of what's going on. So for the most part, we'll go straight through, not the whole book. We're not gonna, I'm not gonna sit here and read the whole thing, but for the most part, we'll go in order, except for this first one. Chapter 2, verses 5 through 7. Alright, so if you'll look at those with me, it says this In the fortress of Susa, there was a Jewish man named Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite. He had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the other captives when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took King Jechaniah of Judah into exile. Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin Hadassah, that is Esther, because she didn't have a father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was extremely good looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. So the main character of the story is a Jewish orphan named Esther, who happens to be very beautiful. Small side note here. The Bible doesn't give you details without a purpose. Okay? So you can read every statement in the Bible and know that it's there for a reason. So even the fact that Esther is mentioned here as being very beautiful is really significant. And the fact that she's mentioned as being a Jewish orphan without a father or mother is significant. All of those details matter, and you'll see throughout the sermon today why they matter. There's a few other characters in the story. We've got a king, he's got a strange name, off of Suerus, which we're going to call him Xerxes, because that's what the uh the historical records tell us that's who it is. He's got a queen named Vashti. We've talked about Mordecai a little bit, who is Esther's cousin, and is also her caretaker. We've got Esther herself, and then we've got an evil villain, Haman. Every story needs a good evil villain. So let's take a look at setting real quick. And the opening of the book, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, tell us kind of the we've talked about the who, now we're gonna go through the what and the where and and the when, even. Okay. So it says this these events took place during the days of Ahuswerus. Can I just call him Xerxes from here on out? Would y'all be okay with that? Okay, it'll help me and it'll help you. Uh during the days of Xerxes, who ruled 127 provinces from India to Cush. In those days, King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the fortress at Susa. He held a feast in the third year of his reign for all his officials and staff, the army of Persia and Media, the nobles and the officials from the provinces. He displayed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the magnificent splendor of his greatness for a total of 180 days. Alright. So the who is Esther. The where is ancient Persia in this fortress city of Susa. The when is the third year of his reign, and what I think is neat about this is that we know when Xerxes was actually a king. We've got historical records from other non-biblical scholars who tell us that Xerxes reigned from 486 B.C. to 465 BC. So if we believe the Bible to be true, and I believe that it is, and I believe it's not just a historical document, that it's God's inspired word, we can still look at it and say, well, the third year of his reign would be 483 B.C. I think it's kind of neat that we can match those things up. A lot of people want to say that the Bible doesn't match up with history and it doesn't, you know, it contradicts itself. And I'm here to tell you that you can look at historical records of the time that talk about ancient Persia, and you can read the story of Esther, and it's very clear that the person who wrote the book of Esther was engrossed in the customs of ancient Persia because everything they talk about detail by detail by detail is the same kind of stuff that every other scholar at the time is writing about regarding history. So you can have confidence that the book of Esther is accurate. Alright, so we've done the who, we've done the what and the when and the where. And in the midst of this, like we already said, there's a group of Jews that are in exile. Uh we don't know how many, but like I said earlier, they feel that they're much like strangers in a foreign land. This isn't their permanent home. They had been promised the promised land, but they weren't there right now. And so they're in somebody else's home, and they're still trying to live and even follow their own customs in the midst of being in a different place. So uh to give you a comparison, last week we talked about Daniel. Esther is about 120 years after Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar, and then a few other kings. We get to Xerxes, and now we have Esther. Okay? So you tracking with me so far? Alright. Now let's get to the good stuff, the plot. This is where all the action starts to unfold. Um I want to take a look at the first section, if you're taking notes there on your worship guide, you could title it Queen Issues. Okay? Because the story opens up with some things going on with the Queen. We just read about Xerxes and he he uh throws this massive banquet for 180 days. Can you imagine going to a party that lasted six months? I mean, you know, I wasn't the the I was not a perfect person in college, and you know, just going to a party for a weekend was enough for me, let alone like six months' worth of just constant. Uh I'm not gonna read you the details, but it says that the wine just flowed freely, and they could drink as much or as little as they want for six months. Okay, so this guy is clearly uh very wealthy, he's the king, and he's not afraid to show it. Well, you can imagine towards the end of those six months, I would think it's probably even sooner than that, that people aren't in a real good state of mind. And the king gets this idea that uh that he wants to bring his queen before him and before everybody else. So take a look at chapter 1, verses 11 and 12. It starts with the word two, but it says this to bring Queen Vashti before him with her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the people and the officials because she was very beautiful. It's no coincidence that she's mentioned as being very beautiful, the same way Esther was talked about as being beautiful. Verse 12, but Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command that was delivered by his eunuchs. The king became furious, and his anger burned within him. He's the king, he can get mad at whatever he wants, right? We don't know the, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us uh with certainty what the command was, other than that she was to come before him, but there's an implication here that it was probably an inappropriate request, and that she denied him because she wanted to maintain her dignity and not be paraded through this group of drunken men and people that were just basically there to entertain themselves. So for whatever reason, though, she says no, and the king says he gets angry, he kind of throws a pity party, and he, you know, like like any guy uh who uh in this period would have done, he calls all his buddies around and says, Well, what do we gotta do? And they're like, Well, we can't let this happen. You know, we gotta send a statement. We can't, you know, every woman in the whole kingdom's gonna do this now. A little bit of an exaggeration, I would think, right? Every woman's gonna tell their husband, no, they're gonna deny their husband everything now because Vashti has set the example and we gotta nip this thing. Oh, yes, good idea, great idea. And keep in mind, I mean, this is six months of partying that they've just completed, and so, you know, they're again their minds aren't thinking straight, and the the advisors decide that they say, well, we should we should kick her out. She shouldn't be on the throne anymore, and we should make sure everybody knows about that so that women won't disgrace their husbands throughout the land. We don't know exactly the details of why or how she was kicked out. It's possible she was killed, it doesn't say that, but regardless, she's out as queen. So before we jump into the next section, are you seeing kind of where this story's going?

unknown 16:45

Right?

SPEAKER_00 16:45

The kind of the proverbial writing on the wall, if you will. We got Esther, Jewish girl who's beautiful. We got Queen Vashti, who was beautiful, she's kicked out, and who do you think is going to take her place? Esther, yeah, yeah, okay. So let's read about kind of how that came about. Uh, chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. Sometime later, when King Xerxes' rage had cooled down, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what was decided against her. Now, if you keep reading in chapter 2, you'll find out that these events took place in the seventh year of his reign, which would be four years later, right? And if we go back and look at those historical records, one of the really neat things about what happened is Xerxes kicks out Queen Vashti, and then he goes off on a military escapade and he gets his tail handed to him. And he suffers a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Greeks. And then chapter 2 starts, and it tells us sometime later that he returns. And what does he return to? An empty palace with no queen. And it says that he remembered Vashti and what she had done, but also what had been decided against her. And as a side note here, and you'll hear me say this again anything the king decided was permanent. So it's not like he could just call Vashti back in and make things better. She probably wouldn't have wanted that, but he couldn't just bring her back in and say, hey, can we bury the hatchet and move on? It's a done deal, it's over, he has no queen. But then verse 2 says this. The king's personal attendants suggested, Let a search be made for beautiful young women for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom so that they may assemble all the beautiful young women to the harem at the fortress of Susa. Put them under the care of Heggai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women, and give them the required beauty treatments. Then the young woman who pleases the king will become queen instead of Vashti. This suggestion pleased the king, and he did accordingly. Okay. A harem was a place full of beautiful women that the king had at his disposal. And if you want kind of a modern-day equivalent, and this may, I don't know, it may offend some of you if I say this. You know, we've got these things, this reality TV, and there's this TV show called The Bachelor. Okay. And I know you may be thinking, ah, that's just kind of a goofy show, which by the way, I don't think any of those marriages have actually sustained themselves post-that's a whole nother point. But um but think about it. I think there's like 25 women that go on the show, and they're all beautiful, and they've got gorgeous dresses on, and they've got all their makeup on, and they have one goal, and that's to become the queen. Right? And he has at his disposal all of these things that no guy anywhere has, like helicopter rides and you know, taking them to private islands. Like, you know, no, no guy gets to do that unless, you know, their royalty, in this case, the king could have done it. And in the midst of that, you have Esther. Okay, and Esther is this Jewish orphan. We don't know how old she is, but Mordecai, her cousin, had told her this very important detail. He said, Esther, don't tell anybody that you're Jewish. And again, you may think, what's the big deal about that? You'll find out here later on. But I can't imagine that Esther found herself being very comfortable in that setting. You know, if you've ever watched any part of the show, you know those conversations between those ladies are not exactly encouraging and uplifting, right? They're not hoping the best for each other out there. They're doing everything they can to put each other down, to make themselves look better. And then you've got Esther, this faithful Jewish orphan in the midst of that, who's trying to remember all that Mordecai has taught her and still be true to what her Jewish customs would have required her to do. Pretty difficult setting. Your second takeaway is this Esther demonstrates faith through her obedience. Again, every detail in God's word is important. And you'll find out later why her choosing to conceal her Jewish identity is significant. I'm sure though, there must have been questions, oh yeah, where are you from? You know, how does she answer that? How'd you get here? The Bible tells us all those women were assembled, but it says that Esther was taken. So there's even an implication that she probably didn't want to be there. And yet, what's really cool is it says that she found favor amongst everyone, the eunuchs and all the people in the harem. And yeah, who who becomes queen? You said it earlier. Esther does. Well, you would be thinking, that's a great story, and all we can just go home. Right? Because there's a new queen, and that she's Jewish, even though the king doesn't know that, and there's Jews in the country, so things are going to go well for them. No. There's always going to be conflict. So let's look at the fourth element. And we find out about this guy named Haman, and he has an evil plan. So look at chapter 3 with me, verses 5 and 6. When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying him homage, he was filled with rage. Kind of like his king. And when he learned of Mordecai's ethnic identity, Haman decided not to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout Xerxes' kingdom. You see, Haman was like the number two guy, and the king had actually given him this thing called a signet ring. And a signet ring was like the royal stamp. And any law that was made, it was stamped with that ring and it was official. And so Haman has that power. And he has just sent out a law that says that everyone has to bow down to him. And Mordecai says, I'm not going to bow down to you because I'm a Jew. And if we think back to the Ten Commandments, and you should have no other gods before me, is what God said. Mordecai is not bowing down to anybody. Haman doesn't like that. So he decides, I'm not just going to kill Mordecai, I'm going to kill all of them. I'm going to get rid of all the Jews. He even goes to the king and says, King, there's a group of people in our land that don't follow our laws and don't worship our gods. And it would be a really good thing for you if we just got rid of them. And the king says, You've got the signet ring, go and, you know, do what you want. So he issues this decree. Does that sound familiar? Have we ever seen that happen before? Or not before this, but I mean this is this is like what happened in World War II. Haman is the Hitler of his day. He's convinced that the Jews are the cause of all the problems because one man, Mordecai, who he sees every day at the king's gate, refuses to bow down to him. I think he's a little fool of himself personally, but regardless, he's the one in power, and that's that's what he declares. So how are we going to resolve this? We're going to spend a lot of time here on this portion going through the resolution of the story. The first part of this, though, deals with what I'm going to call Esther's bold choice. So if you're taking notes there on the resolution piece and you want to put Esther's bold choice, Mordecai finds out about this death sentence that was decreed. And the way Haman does this is he says, okay, we're going to kill all the Jews, but when are we going to do it? So they cast lots. They roll the dice. And it's the first part of the year, and it just so happens that the dice land on the twelfth month of the year. Now you may say, oh, that's really good, right? The Jews have a whole year to kind of like figure this thing out. Or you might say that's really bad. They've got a whole year to sit and think about the fact that they're going to die at the end of the year. And so that's how they decided it. And it tells us that the whole Jewish people in the midst of ancient Persia were in, they were just confused. They were in a state of confusion. Everybody in the city of Susa that was Jewish, they were just confused. And if you've ever seen really any good World War II movie, I think about like Schindler's List and some of those movies that really depict what the Jews were going through during that time, there's a lot of confusion. Right? Why are they taking us out of our homes? Why do they want to kill us? What have we done wrong? Why are they moving us to these camps? Like, what's the deal here? What did we do? And there was not much they could do about it because the law was the law and it had been declared over them. And so that's what's going on here. Mordecai sees this, he's like, something's got to be done. And he sends word to Queen Esther in the palace and says, Listen, you got to do something about this. And she responds back in chapter 4, verses 10 through 14. Let's turn there and look at that. Esther spoke to Hathaq, who was one of the eunuchs, and commanded him to tell Mordecai, all the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard and who has not been summoned, the death penalty. Only if the king extends the gold scepter will that person live. I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the last thirty days. Esther's response was reported to Mordecai. She basically says, Look, there's nothing I can do about this unless he asked me to come before him. If I go before him, he's going to kill me. Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther. This is like one of the greatest inspirational speeches of all time. And probably the most famous verse in the book of Esther comes out of this section here, and you've heard it. It says, This don't think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king's palace. If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father's house will be destroyed. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this. Have you ever heard that phrase? For such a time as this? It's kind of become a cultural phrase, but it comes out of the book of Esther. And so Mordecai says, Listen, you're our only hope. If you don't do something, you'll die. And remember, you don't have a father and mother, so you're the only remaining representative of your father's house. Your father's house will be destroyed. And by the way, if you don't deliver us, I have faith in our God that somebody else will. So maybe you were put there. Maybe you became the queen for this very reason to deliver us from this death sentence that has been pronounced over us. So she stops and thinks about this, and then the Bible is so cool. It says she decides and sends back to him and says, If I'll do this, if I perish, I perish. So your third takeaway here is that Esther demonstrates faith through her boldness. Faith's not always easy. I'd argue most of the time it's not easy. She had a choice to make. She could have just sat there in the comforts of the king's palace and allowed the year to move on. And on this day in the twelfth month, just she could have watched her people die. And maybe she would have been spared, maybe not. Or she could be bold and say, you know what, I'm going to do what I'm not supposed to do, go before the king, and hope that he extends the scepter towards me and says, What do you need? and doesn't kill me. Now, before we can get to the final piece of the story of how this all gets resolved, I've got to fill you in on some of the incredible details that get us to this point and get us forward to the resolution. God shows us how he's at work through what I'm about to share with you. And you're going to hear me say the phrase, it just so happens. I'll probably say it about 40 times. You'll probably get annoyed by it. As I say the phrase, it just so happens, I want you to think this is God's hand at work. Okay? Can y'all do that for me and not get annoyed with me? Okay. It just so happens that when Esther chooses to go before the king, that he grants her favor and he asks her, What is troubling you, my queen? And it just so happens that Esther chooses not to answer his question, and instead says, I want to have you and Haman over for a feast. And it just so happens that Haman attends this feast. And it just so happens that the king asks Esther for a second time, What is troubling you, my queen? And it just so happens that Esther chooses not to answer him for a second time, instead inviting the king and Haman to a second feast. And it just so happens that Haman leaves this first banquet feeling good about himself. And it just so happens that when he walks out of the palace, who does he see?

unknown 30:17

Mordecai.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Mordecai. And it just so happens that his anger burns within him. And it just so happens that he goes and tells his family how he has everything, the king and the queen's favor. He's got power, prestige. He even says, I'm the only guest at the banquet. But I'm unsatisfied because Mordecai won't bow down to me. Just as a side note, you can have everything and still have nothing if you don't have Christ, right? And so Haman thinks he's got everything, and yet he still can admit I'm not happy because Mordecai won't bow down to me. And that's not what's going to make him happy. But it just so happens that he devises a plan to build a gallows to hang Mordecai on to rid himself of this problem. And it just so happens that he goes to bed that night, and so does the king. And it just so happens that he falls asleep as the workers are building the gallows, and it just so happens that on that night of all nights the king can't sleep. And I love that the chapter starts with the words, on that night, sleep escaped the king. Talking about those details again. Why is that important? Well, it just so happens that the king orders the eunuchs to read the historical records to him. This was a common practice. They kept a record of everything that happened during the days and weeks and years of the king's legacy. And so here's King Xerxes, he can't sleep. He says, Bring the records. Maybe that'll put me to sleep. And it just so happens that he is reminded about an assassination attempt on his life from earlier in his kingship. And how a man rescued him from this death plot by alerting his officials. And it just so happens that this man has not been honored. And it just so happens that this man's name is Mordecai. And if you think that isn't cool, well, keep listening. The king wakes up the next morning, and it just so happens that the first person to walk into the palace is Haman. And it just so happens that the king asks him, Haman, what should be done for the man who the king wants to honor? And it just so happens that Haman responds, Who else does the king want to honor but me? And it just so happens that he then spells out all that should be done to honor the one who the king wants to honor. He says, Put him on your finest horse and give him your robes, and let him be paraded through the city, and let someone shout out, This is what is to be done for the one who the king wants to honor. And the king looks at Haman and says, All of these things you have commanded, go and do for Mordecai. And if that's not enough, Haman, who is no doubt humiliated at this point, he obeys the king, by the way, and I could I'd love to have seen that. This is the one who the king wants to honor. Alright? But that's that's what he's doing. Mordecai's on the horse wearing the royal robe. And it just so happens that he returns and he attends Queen Esther's second feast. And it just so happens that the king asks her for a third time, what is troubling you? And it just so happens that she finally answers him, saying, There is a man who has sold out my people. Whose people? What kind of people? Esther's people, the Jewish people. You see, Mordecai had told her, Don't tell anybody you're Jewish. And now she reveals, Oh, by the way, I'm Jewish. And there's a man who has sold out my people to destruction, death, and extermination. And the king replies, Who is this man? And it just so happens that Esther reveals the truth and says, This man is Haman. King gets enraged, and he walks out, and Haman's begging for his life with Esther, and the king comes back in and is like, get away from my queen. And it just so happens that one of the eunuchs standing there tells the king, hey king, there's a gallows outside that Haman built in order to kill Mordecai. And it just so happens that the king commands Haman to be killed on his very own gallows. Now, I've heard of this thing called a coincidence, but I can find no other way to reconcile the events of this story but by the hand of an Almighty God. I cannot see any other way that this story can unfold. Like we we say, as people who love the Bible, like, Hollywood can't write a script like that. Because stop and think about if you were to take out just one of those details, how the story would completely change. What if Mordecai had already been honored? I chose to leave out that part of the story from earlier. I think it happens in chapter 2, where Mordecai announces the assassination and gets word to the king and his life is saved. They don't do anything for him, but what if they had? You think that night of all nights when the king went, couldn't go to sleep and he heard Mordecai's name, he would have said, Ah, we've already honored him. Keep going. We don't need to do anything. But no, his heart is stirred to say, what was done for that man? And they say, Well, nothing was done. And then you start to see everything unfold after that. So why share all of this? Well, you may be living your life today thinking that your life is just a series of random events that have just so happened. But I would invite you today that if that's the way you feel about life, you should replace that phrase with, this is God's hand at work. Because God has a perfect plan not only for mankind, but for each of us as individuals. And there are details and things that are gonna happen that you may think are insignificant, that you come to find out later on in life, wow, when God did that, now he did this. And you have two ways to look at it. You can say, yeah, these things are just happening. You know, this just happened and now I gotta deal with it, or, you know, whatever life circumstances may bring you, or you can choose to believe that somehow in the midst of it, God is at work. So you think the story's over and that everything's resolved, but you remember that thing about how laws couldn't be reversed? Well, there's still a law out there that says the Jews are going to die in the twelfth month. Something's got to be done about that. So let's pick up the story in chapter 8, verses 1 and 2. That same day, talking about when all of this happened and Haman was killed on the gallows, King Xerxes awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai entered the king's presence because Esther had revealed her relationship to Mordecai. The king removed his signet ring he had recovered from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put him in charge of Haman's estate. So, what happens in the next ten verses or so, the king basically says, you know, I can't reverse that law, but I can do something to help you with it. Let's pick it up in verse 13. A copy of the text, or the law that was just written, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the people so the Jews could be ready to avenge themselves against their enemies on that day. So the king says, Hey, you know what? We can write a law that says instead of just forcing the Jews to be killed, they can stand up and defend themselves. And then chapter 9, verse 1 tells us the king's command and law went into effect on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Dar. On the day when the Jews' enemies had hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened. The Jews overpowered those who hated them. Your final takeaway is this. Esther demonstrates her faith through her sacrificial willingness. She knew that that penalty for going before the king was death, and she came to a point where she said, I can lay down my life for the sake of my people. Nick talked about our identity statement earlier and how we call ourselves a family of Jesus followers who point people to life in him. And as much as I love these Old Testament characters and their stories, I'm thankful that we're not a family of Esther followers or a family of Moses followers, but that we have the reality of Jesus as shown to us through Scripture and through our personal experiences with him, we now know the fullness of deliverance. Whereas in this story, the Jewish people experienced a type of deliverance that would represent ultimately what we would be rescued from in our own sin. And so we would be remiss to stop the story here and just say, hey, it's a great Old Testament story. I hope you were inspired and encouraged, and go have a good day. More than anything, I want to ask and answer the question: how do we see Christ in this story? So there's three of them in your worship guide, and then a fourth that didn't make the final print, so to speak. But I'll give that to you here in a minute. But the first one is this Esther and Jesus both had unlikely backgrounds. Think about it. Esther was a she, which, like I said earlier, there weren't a lot of women deliverers in that day, at least ones that were written about a lot. Esther had no father or mother. Okay? Think about Jesus. He had no earthly father, even though Joseph was like his stepdad. He came from a very unassuming background, born in a manger in a city of Bethlehem. Okay, so they both had unlikely backgrounds, and yet God chose them to do his work. You see, you don't have to be a rock star, you don't have to have a ton of gifts, you don't have to have a ton of personality to be used by God. He chooses unlikely people quite often. The second one is this Esther petitioned the king on behalf of the Jewish people. And if you're a Christian in the room today, Jesus petitions the Father on our behalf. It's kind of a cool parallel, I thought. And the third one that you have there was Esther was willing to die for the deliverance of the Jewish people. Jesus did die for the deliverance of all people. Now, I think it's pretty clear we've established the idea that Esther is a type or a representative of a character like Christ in the New Testament. But there's some other characters in this story that I think might reveal a little bit more about who we are as people. And so I want to end with this. I want to take a minute to talk about Haman and Mordecai. Okay? Haman represents sin in this story, if you hadn't figured that part out. It's pretty clear, right? He's evil. He's full of anger and hate toward the Jews. He's selfish and proud and arrogant and boastful. And I know all of you in the room are thinking, I'm glad I'm not like Haman. But before you start thinking that, let's think about it from a different perspective. We are all like Haman. We all tend to think more highly of ourselves than we should. We all want God to honor us, don't we? At some level, we tend to be selfish. We all feel entitled to the king's power. And yet we aren't treated like Haman, who ultimately died his own death on the gallows that he made. We're spared from that. How are we spared? We're spared by the one and only mediator, Christ Himself, who goes to the king on our behalf to rescue us from the death sentence that awaits us. And the king, who sees the one, Jesus, who speaks on our behalf, declares freedom for us. So you see, we all act like Haman, but because of the work of the mediator, we're treated like Mordecai. Stop and think about that for a minute. What happened to Mordecai in the end of the story? He was given a place of honor. He was given the king's signet ring. He got to wear the king's robes. He was given great power in the kingdom. Mordecai was set free from the sentence of death that had been pronounced over him. So who are you today? Are you Haman? Are you living a life that's only about you, that seeks to elevate you, that's selfish? And maybe you know you wouldn't say, Well, I don't want to kill anybody, but are you living a life that's only about you? Or are you like Mordecai, who had faith in a mediator to speak on his behalf before the king, and because of that was granted favor and blessing. See, Mordecai couldn't go to the king on his own. He needed somebody to go for him. And I would argue the same way that the Bible tells us we cannot go to God on our own. Jesus said, There is only one way to the Father. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We have to have a mediator. We have to have someone who speaks on our behalf and says, They are free from death, and they are mine. This is the gospel. That a man, Jesus, would not only be willing to die, but would actually die. And he would die our death in our place. I want to close with this verse in 1 Timothy chapter 2. I think it says exactly what we need to hear this morning to discuss this idea of a mediator. 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 5 and 6 say this. For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, Himself human, who gave Himself a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. And I would even argue that those words at the proper time, you could say that for such a time as this. We live in a world not much different than the world that the Persians lived in when we think about people and relationships and the stuff that we deal with. And we're all in need of a mediator. And I'm here to tell you today that that mediator is Jesus. And if you're in the room today and you say, you know, I'm not really into all this stuff, my prayer, my hope is that God's Spirit would have spoken to you in such a way that you would say, You know what? I want to put my faith and trust in the mediator, in that man, Jesus, who did something for me that I could never do on my own. Let's pray.