Esther 3-4

0:22 So, Wednesday night, for those who might be new to this event, or even if you've come before, Wednesday night is very simple. It's just a home Bible study with a little bit bigger living room and a few more of us than would be in a home. But this is how the church started, in a home Bible study on a Thursday night. and it's different from a weekend in that the weekend has worship and a sermon. Wednesday night isn't really a sermon. It's not a talk. It's not a speech. It is a Bible study. It is simply we go verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the books of scripture because we believe that, well, as the prophet said, my people perish for lack of knowledge.

1:16 Jesus said to the leaders, you err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. So we want to learn what the scriptures have to say, apply that to our lives. We are in Esther and we appreciate your cooperation cooperation in staying throughout the entire Bible study, not moving around, being a distraction. We like to just plant ourselves, and I won't be more than two, three hours in my presentation. So, oh, you'd drop like flies if I did that. But we all probably would. But no, I'll be merciful. But we're in Esther chapter 3 tonight, and notice the picture behind me. That actually is a picture of what we're studying. These are the remains in Iran of the citadel in Susa where these events took place. Of course, there are different stages of its occupation throughout history, and you'd have to go there and have the archaeologists explain those various layers.

2:21 but you're seeing the setting of, and the citadel, the palace, that these events that we're reading about took place in. So it's fitting to have that picture up on the screen. So let's have a word of prayer, and we'll begin. Father, thank you for getting us through this week so far, bringing us tonight to pause, to be refreshed. We pray that your Holy Spirit would ultimately become the teacher to us, revealing to hearts things that need to be heard, change areas that need to be altered, change our thinking about who you are, who we are, what your plan is for us. I pray that more than information there would be inspiration and motivation and that your word would have power in our lives as we let it navigate our choices, our steps. In Jesus' name. Amen.

3:31 the prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Israelite captives when they were in Babylon. And the letter basically said, look, you guys have been booted out of your land. You're going to be there for 70 years. This is the Lord's doing. Thus says the Lord, he writes them, make the best of it. You're not going anywhere for 70 years. So make the most of it. marry wives, have children, build homes, plant vineyards, enjoy the harvest of the land.

4:12 Seek the peace of the city in which you dwell, the city of Babylon. Pray for its peace and pray for its leadership. But know this, after 70 years, thus says the Lord, I will visit you and I will return you back to your homeland. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. That's the context of that promise. So he writes that letter to them. After 70 years, sure enough, Babylon has now been taken over by the Persians and Cyrus, the king of Persia, allows the Jewish captives to go back home and to rebuild. But a handful go back. Most stay behind in Persia. some go back it's hard to rebuild but they're up for the task they were discouraged a little bit that's the background of Ezra and Nehemiah but it seems that the captives the Jewish captives took to heart that little letter from Jeremiah and did make the most of it and did build homes and did plant vineyards and did have families and they just got so comfortable in a foreign land they didn't want to go back. So by this time, it is estimated that 20% of the population of the Persian Empire were Jewish. 20% of the population of the Persian Empire dispersed in 127 different provinces were of Jewish descent. That just sets the background for what we're about to read.

6:11 You remember last week when we began the book that King Ahasuerus, also known as King Xerxes in history, had suffered defeat on three different occasions against the Greeks, Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great, who will take over the world. He suffered three defeats. He comes back home. He has a big party because he wants to sell his war plan to his generals and muckety-mucks in Persia. So he has a six-month feast, followed by a seven-day feast. And during the long feast, he commands his wife, Queen Vashti, to come and appear with her royal crown to this group of drunken men at this party, and she refuses. And so he consults his staff and says, what should I do? She won't come. She is, after all, the queen, but I'm the king and I gave her a command. What do I do? And one of his counselors said, look, you got to, your fist has to come down hard on this one. Because if she gets her way, and our wives hear about this, we're in hot water, man.

7:31 They're all going to rebel against us. So he, the king, deposes Vashti, and she is no longer the queen. He goes to war again against the Greeks. He suffers defeat again. he comes back home and he's sort of mopey and he misses his wife and so his counselors come in and they say look this is what you ought to do have a beauty contest and let all the women in the empire go through their beauty treatment 12 months with the best perfumes the best oils and then they can come before you and you you're the king you take your pick for the next queen so it happens with a group of gals and the one that he selects happens to be Hadassah that's her Hebrew name Esther that's her Persian name star and she becomes the queen well at the end of chapter two Mordecai her older cousin, is working in the palace, on the palace grounds, by the king's gate, and he overhears a plot. A plot by two fellas to assassinate King Ahasuerus. He makes it known to Esther, Esther makes it known to the king in Mordecai's name, even though Mordecai gets no credit for it.

9:05 they get killed for their assassination plot, but it gets recorded. And this is important to remember. It gets recorded in the annals of Persia. So what we see happening is God is playing chess and he is moving the pieces in the right places. Even though it's been five years, as we get into chapter three, five years between the end of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three. So Esther has now been queen of Persia for five years. And maybe during those five years, she put her head on the pillow at night and thought, why am I here? What is a good Jewish girl like me doing in a place like this? I know we were sent here because of our sins, the sins of our fathers.

10:03 We were taken into captivity. But some of us didn't go back. And I'm here. And now I'm queen. Why? Well, that is about to be answered in the next two chapters. Now, we did make mention last week of Mordecai. Now, Mordecai, her cousin, her older cousin, was a Benjamite, that is, of the tribe of Benjamin, of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, a Benjamite. And his ancestry goes all the way back to Kish, the family of Kish from which King Saul was a part of, Israel's first king, also a Benjamite from the family of Kish. Now you have, fast forward hundreds of years later, a Benjamite named Mordecai in Persia from the family of Kish. That's going to become important to the story. Verse one, after these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman.

11:23 Now I'm going to explain to the rest why you just heard what you just heard. the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. Okay, every year, because of the events in this book, the Jews celebrate a festival called Purim. It takes place in the March, in March, in this time of the year. It just got celebrated last month. during the celebrations of Purim, based on the book of Esther, Jewish congregations read the entire book of Esther as part of their festivities. And 51 times in the book, Haman is mentioned. And when it is read in the synagogues, and they mention Haman 51 times, 51 times the congregation boos and will at some point say, Yimach Shamo, which is, may his name be blotted out. It's one of the strongest Hebrew curses you could utter. May his name be blotted out. So that's why you'll hear some people around you getting a little carried away, perhaps, and waiting, just waiting to hear that name.

12:55 although when I say the name that should necessarily not be acute for you because it's only when they read in the text that name that the booze go out. Okay so have it your way. But notice something about Haman the son of Hamadathah the Agagite why is that put in there the holy spirit wants you to know something just as mordecai is a descendant of benjamin and kish that tribe this guy is a descendant of king agag from the amalekites who lived 500 years before this.

13:50 And in 1 Samuel chapter 15, don't turn there, but there's a story about King Saul from the tribe of Benjamin of the family of Kish going out and fighting a war against the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a perennial enemy of the Jews since they were leaving Egypt, going into the promised land. They attacked them in the wilderness. They attacked the rear ranks of the children of Israel. And so God said to Moses, when you enter the land, I want you to deal with Amalek, the Amalekites, once and for all. I want you to wipe them out. Well, the opportunity came. And instead of taking the opportunity, King Saul took his troops out to battle and spared scared King Agag and sheep and the best animals and the best goods and brought them home. When Samuel said, I thought I told you to go out and completely destroy the Amalekites, everything, even their animals. Well, I did destroy them. And he said, why is it that I hear the bleeding of sheep in my ears? He goes, well, I wanted to spare the best.

15:07 to sacrifice to the Lord. It was a bluff. He also spared King Agag. So King Agag is brought before Samuel. Samuel, the Bible says, hacked him to pieces and killed him. But that disobedience... had some repercussions. Agag had children who had children who had children, and this is a descendant of King Agag who arises to destroy the entire Jewish population in Persia, in Iran at that time. So it's important that you understand who Agag was and Saul's failure, because that goes way back 500 years, as I mentioned before this. So Haman, the son of Hamadath of the Agagite, he was advanced by the king Ahasuerus, and his seat was put above all the princes who were with him. We are not told why he got a promotion, what he did, but something caused the king to do this. So he's in this high ranking position, second in the kingdom.

16:28 And all the king's servants who were within the gate bowed and paid homage to Haman. For so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. He didn't want to make the same mistake that his predecessor Saul had made by bowing to the one that is the progeny of King Agag 500 years before. Then the king's servants who were within the king's gate said to Mordecai, why do you transgress the king's command? Now what happened when they spoke to him daily and he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman to see whether Mordecai's words would stand for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. Why don't you bow down? I can't bow down. I'm Jewish.

17:31 I'm not to bow down and worship any person. Now the bowing down to a king was pretty common. It was respects that were paid in kind to somebody for their rank. But for some reason, even though he stayed back in Persia, he knew he was Jewish and he just felt the conviction that he shouldn't bow down to this human being. And it's because he was a Jew. He told them that he was a Jew. Verse 5. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. but he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai, the Jewish people. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai. In the first month, which is in the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur. This is where Purim comes from.

18:42 That is the lot before Haman to determine the day, the month, until it fell on the 12th month, which is the month of Adar. You've got this guy named Haman who is so filled with anger, finds out that Mordecai, who is not giving him the respect he thinks he should have, doesn't bow down to him. He's so angry with him. He thought, I'm not only going to get him, I'm going to get all of his people, the Jewish people, and eradicate them, destroy them all.

19:21 This has been played out on the stage of history many times in the history of the Jewish people. I can't think of another people group who have ever lived that have been more attacked, more maligned, more persecuted, more hated, with more attempts to exterminate than the Jewish people. You could take the name Haman out and you could place other names there. You could place the name of Pharaoh there who wanted to wipe them out. You could place the name of Nasser of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, who hated the Jews, kicked the Jews out of his country, took all their property, made them go with just a purse or a handbag, kept all of their land for himself. You could put the name Adolf Hitler in place of Haman, and it would fit.

20:26 To exterminate, to eradicate six million Jews from Europe, Germany, Poland, with the concentration camps around those areas. To eradicate them, to kill them. and again it's interesting that while we're studying the book of Esther there is trouble going on over in the same area the area of the Persian Gulf the Straits of Hormuz Iran ancient modern name of Persia Persian Empire Iran has been for years, almost 50 years, the world's greatest, largest exporter of terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism of any nation on earth. That's decreed by the United Nations. That's been decreed by our State Department. Sorry, I have a little Kleenex, just a little background on this. I never have been allergic to anything in my life. But yesterday I went to the East Mountains and there was something going off up there and I was attacked. So I've been fighting it ever since. Just in case you're wondering, why does he keep doing that?

21:47 So Iran is the world's greatest sponsor of terrorism. They're the ones that are responsible for fueling and funding and arming Hamas in Gaza for years and funding Hezbollah in the north because they have stated as their goal to eradicate the Jewish nation from off the face of the earth that Israel should not exist as a nation and they believe they have been sent by God to destroy it. and we're at war with them because they also said we want to destroy the United States. Now, some people might say, yeah, they've been saying that for years, but somebody needs to pause and go, now, wait a minute. If they get the power to do so, will they do so? And if so, we better stop that so that we're not destroyed. So back to our story.

22:53 He sought to destroy, verse 6, all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the Jewish people, the people of Mordecai. I want to go back to verse 7. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, that's the Jewish reckoning of months. Nisan here isn't the automobile. It is the month, the first month of the Jewish calendar. March, April. in the 12th year of artaxerxes they cast poor that is the lot we would say they rolled the dice before haman to exterminate that to determine excuse me the day the month until it fell on the 12th month which is the month of adar okay this is what this is what's going on at the first of every year in persia the leaders would get together and decide what events have to take place during the calendar year.

23:55 The way they would determine which events get done at which time is they would roll the dice. They would cast the lot. They would cast the poor. It was all superstition. They were consulting their gods and goddesses, and they would roll the dots or dice or cast the lots to determine which issue in which month. so the issue of Jewish extermination fell to the 12th month the month of Adar is the 12th month if April is the first first month March is the 12th month so why is that important it gives the Jews one year for this edict of extermination to be dealt with to be prepared for to be overturned hopefully, which it does. So they have a year mercy, a year grace period. Even though the lots are cast, I love this proverb, Proverbs 16, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. So they cast their lots, but God is working behind the scenes. That's that providence we talked about last week. So it fell to the 12th month, which is the month of Adar.

25:08 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from all other people's, and they do not keep the king's laws. Not true. Therefore, it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. Now he's referring to the Jews, but he doesn't address them or call them the Jews. He's very generic about it, very ambiguous. There is this group of people, and they've been troublesome for a long time, and he just starts talking about them and around them, circumnavigating the real issue that they are Jews. Why does he do that? Because Persia, at this time, had a long history of being favorable to the Jewish nation. King Cyrus let them go back to rebuild.

26:05 King Darius, the father of Ahasuerus, was also very kind and gracious in providing for the Jewish nation. So he wants to play his cards right so he doesn't talk about them directly, referring to them as the Jews, but just there is a certain group, a certain people scattered throughout. Therefore, it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work to bring it into the king's treasuries.

26:53 Now, where is he going to get that kind of money? 10,000 talents of silver was two-thirds the annual budget of the Kingdom of Persia. he's going to get it from the jews that he kills he's going to take their property he's going to take their wealth this is exactly how adolf hitler financed his war machine he confiscated the paintings the jewelry the houses he even took the jews put them in concentration camps dug out the gold in their teeth the fillings in their teeth melted it down used it took the hair from off their head, made coats for it, with it, and funded his war machine with the spoils of war of the Jews that he killed. He's going to, Haman's going to do the same thing. That's why we say boo, because he was, he was Creepus Maximus numero uno.

27:52 There is a proverb, I mentioned Proverbs 6 a minute ago. In Proverbs 6, it says this, These six things the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to him. And as I went through the list today, I discovered Haman fits all of them. Every single one of the seven. This is what God hates. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. That's a perfect description of Haman the Agagite. So he promises to pay for this scheme. now back to this idea of jewish extermination just want to remind you of a premise that we brought out before here's the premise if god's plan to redeem the world follow me here if god's plan to redeem the world required the existence of a nation and the continuance of that nation.

29:20 Theoretically, if you destroy the nation, you destroy God's plan. that's the spiritual warfare thinking the satanic thinking behind so many of the plots for jewish extermination throughout history all the prophets all the promises go back to the jewish nation god's plan of redemption came from a jewish man named yeshua to the Jewish nation, to the Jew first, Paul said, also to the Gentile. So if God's plan for redemption requires the existence and continuance of a nation, if you can exterminate the nation, you will have thwarted God's plan. That's why Pharaoh did what he did. That's why Herod wanted to kill all the babies in Bethlehem. That's why the royal seed of David was exterminated down to one male that survived, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's why this is going on.

30:21 It's a satanic attack. So verse 10, the king took his signet ring. That's like his Montblanc pen that he would sign documents with. His signet ring from off his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadatha. You can boo when I read it. Yeah, I know. I know you love doing that. It makes you feel good. Get it out. He took a sign of the ring from off his hand, gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, the money and the people are given to you to do with them as seems good to you. In other words, look, you're in charge of this whole thing, all this financial stuff that you promised and the extermination. I'm putting that in your care. Then the king's scribes were called on the 13th day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded.

31:18 To the king's satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials of all the people, to every province according to its script, to every people in their language. Remember, 127 different provinces are under the authority of Ahasuerus. In the name of King Ahasuerus, it was written and sealed with the king's signet ring. You know, the ring on the hand was put into a wax seal, and that seal was proof that the king had indeed signed the document. The letters were sent, verse 13, by couriers into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews. Now if you wonder about the language It is a little bit odd Because once you destroy somebody You also kill them If you kill them You've also annihilated them But no, all three words are put here That was a legal formula In the law of the Medes and the Persians To be so exact So here's their premise With this kind of wording They didn't want to write something down to be understood.

32:34 They wanted to make sure it was impossible to be misunderstood. So hence this kind of detail. So on that day, they were to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day. a single day extermination 20 of their population on the 13th day of the 12th month which is the month of Adar and to plunder their possessions that equates to March 7th 473 BC the Jews were all to be killed all to be exterminated all to be annihilated all three of those things A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day. The couriers went out.

33:37 So now you have legalized anti-Semitism. It is now legal to hate the Jew. It is now legal to kill the Jew. in ancient Persia. The couriers went out, hastened by the king's command, and the decree was proclaimed in Shushan the citadel. So the king and Haman, there you go, the king and Haman sat down to drink.

34:07 But notice this, the city of Shushan was perplexed, confused. they're confused because they're thinking wow if an edict can be signed to annihilate an entire people group who's next because they've taken over lots of different countries if the Jews are going to be annihilated maybe the people of ancient Babylon will be annihilated next or maybe the Syrians will be next or Samaritans or whatever they might be all the different peoples taken over are now suspect. So everybody's perplexed. Everybody's confused. It threw the whole city into a tizzy. Verse one, chapter four, when Mordecai learned all that had happened. See, he wasn't there when the edict was signed. He wasn't there when Haman pled before the king to get this thing through. And Esther hadn't heard about it. She's sequestered with the women in the palace. When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth.

35:15 Sackcloth is, think of a potato sack, a gunny sack. Very loose fitting, very coarse, very itchy. Was used in mourning. And then the next part added to the look. Sackcloth and ashes. That was typical. and went out into the midst of the city. And he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. Now you're going to discover that he is reactive emotionally, but he's proactive strategically. So he reacts like people in the Middle East react. If you've ever seen on television Middle Eastern funerals when they bring the casket into the street and the people throw dust in the air and jump up and down and wail and move back and forth and claw at the casket. We in the West, we don't do funerals quite like that.

36:11 We're a little more reserved over here. And when somebody holds back their tears, we go, oh, they're so strong. They don't think that way in the Middle East. Your strength is seen in your weeping and your wailing. In fact, in antiquity, the more mourners you had at a funeral, the better a person you were. or thought to be because the mourning was so great. So they would hire professional mourners. They got paid a wage to come in. They didn't even know the person, but they're wailing. And so the community would know that person must've been awesome. He had a lot of wailers at the funeral. So that was the symbol of mourning sackcloth and ashes when somebody died, but also when grave news was given like this. So he puts on this mourning garb, M-O-U-R-I-N-G, N-I-N-G, mourning garb, and parades through the city, makes a spectacle of it. It's very, very public pronouncement. And so he's crying out with a loud and bitter cry. I'm sure it's because he felt responsible, right? He didn't bow before Haman. He announced that he was a Jew and that was forbidden for him to do. So he has revealed who he is, revealed that he is a Jewish person. He has told people in the court. Esther has not yet revealed that. He has. So he is probably feeling the weight of responsibilities. They're going to be killed because what I said of who I am.

37:43 now all of them because of me will die verse two he went as far as the square in front of the king's gate for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with clothed with sackcloth and in every province where the king's command and decree arrived there was a great morning among the jews with fasting weeping wailing and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her. She hadn't heard about it either. And the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. people who lived in the Persian court were buffered from all the harsh realities of life they were even buffered from bad news it was it was never good to tell a king bad news or a queen bad news. It was never good to look sad in a Persian monarch's presence. You remember the book of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah goes into the palace of King Artaxerxes, the son of Ahasuerus. And the king notices that he's sad, and immediately Nehemiah becomes petrified. He saw that I have a sad face for I, he said, I had never been sad in the king's presence before. It was considered a bad omen to be sad and you could even be killed for it. So they lived, Esther and Ahasuerus and the like, these Persian monarchs, lived in a pampered artificial paradise behind these walls that you see on the screen.

39:51 Esther's maids don't know what's happening. They just, hey, you know, your cousin's running around out there wailing, mourning, yelling, and he's wearing the, he's got like the worst fashion going on. And she goes, well, can't have that. Let's send him some, you know, Yves Saint Laurent and get him buffed up a little bit. He wouldn't take the, he wouldn't take the clothes. Then Esther called Hattach, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her. And she gave him a command concerning Mordecai to learn what and why this was. So Hattach is a liaison. He's going to take the message of the queen, tell it to Mordecai. Mordecai will give word back. And so they will be using this intermediator or intermediary to communicate. So Hattach went to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king's gate.

40:50 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the sum of money, two-thirds of the annual budget worth, 10,000 talents of silver, that Haman had promised to pay into the king's, yeah, sorry I didn't give you adequate time to do that. Mordecai told him all that happened to him and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction. It's like the flyer that went out to all the 127 provinces. He brought a flyer in so that she could read what was written in this death decree. The written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go into the king and make supplication to him and plead before him for the people. So, Hattach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. This is what's going on. This is the edict that has been signed. Every Jew in the empire, 20% of our population, is going to be destroyed on one day at the end of this year.

42:16 then Esther spoke to Hattach and gave him a command for Mordecai. This is what she says. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, summoned, he has but one law to put all to death except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may not live or that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go to the king these 30 days. there's a historian that I've quoted in this book and others before called Herodotus. He was a Greek historian. He wrote a lot about this period. He wrote a lot about Persia. He visited Persia after King Ahasuerus. He wrote of the Pony Express and the letter writing and how they could spread the news so quickly in all those provinces. But he also documents this, that no one entered the courtyard of a king, a monarch, unless they had been summoned, invited in.

43:36 If you just appear without being invited in, signify by the raising up of the rod, the golden scepter, you're dead. And Esther says, look, you know the rules here. You know the protocol. You can't just barge into the king, even his wife can't barge into the queen, man or woman. I can't just go in there and go, hey hubby, got an issue going on. she also remembered what happened to the previous queen who was deposed from her throne because she didn't come when the king invited him or invited her told her to come so all that's going through her mind she goes look i haven't been to see he hadn't even called on me in a month i don't know if he thinks i'm ugly or i have bad breath but you know, I, I, he hasn't even asked for me in a month. I can't just barge in. You know, the rules, you know, the protocol. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 days. So they told Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai told them to answer Esther.

44:50 Now, the speech that we read from Mordecai is short, but it's one of those pivotal moments in history. It's a watershed moment in history. The speech of Mordecai to Esther, the following words are akin to the 1775 speech by Patrick Henry, give me liberty or give me death. It's one of those moments. Or the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, or President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. It's one of those kind of moments. Historical, pivotal moment. And all of these places, As God is playing chess, he put all the places, all the people in their places. And five years went by and said, why am I here?

45:49 Why would I be here? All of that's going to come into focus now with a stroke of providence. Mordecai told them to answer Esther, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace more than all the other Jews. Hey, sweetheart, you're a Jew too. I told people I was Jewish. You did not. But they're going to find out. It's in the records. Your genealogical records are in the palace, in the archives. Sooner or later, since this involves every Jewish person in the entire Persian Empire, they're going to come to you. You can't escape. You can't hide in the palace.

46:40 Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. But you and your father's house will perish.

47:06 Pause on that sentence just a moment. you're not going to escape even if you're in the palace god's going to deliver the jewish people with or without you that's that's what he's saying if you remain completely silent relief and deliverance will arise for the jews from another place. Mordecai knew the Abrahamic covenant and he believed in the Abrahamic covenant to the extent that he says, look, this isn't going to happen. Deliverance is going to, is going to come because God's redemptive plan requires the existence and continuance of a nation. now God had promised Abraham in Isaac, your seed will be called, right? He said that in Isaac, your seed will be called. You're going to have, you're going to be the father of a multitude through Isaac. God made the promise. Isaac was born. And then God said, Abraham, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go into that mountain and kill him.

48:21 okay now wait a minute god just said in isaac my seed will be called and god's going to bless the world through my offspring through isaac that means isaac has to have kids he doesn't have any children he's not even married and now god wants me to take him to this mountain and put a knife in him that doesn't make any sense but god told me to do it so i'm going to do it so he walks up to the mountain and and his son says dad here's the lamb and here's the wood or here's the wood and a fire, but where's the lamb? his father says, God will provide himself the lamb.

49:04 And then he was about to plunge the knife. You know the story. He was stopped. He didn't get a lamb. He got a ram. It was a prophetic utterance. God will provide himself in the mountain of the Lord. It shall be seen. We've gone through that in detail before. It's a prophecy about Jesus Christ dying on that very mountain. But the writer of Hebrews gives us insight into Abraham's thinking. When he brought the knife up, he said, knowing and believing that God would raise his son from the dead. So this is counterintuitive. In Isaac, the seed shall be called. I'm going to have a bunch of kids through Isaac. Isaac doesn't have any kids. He's not even married. God wants me to kill him. There's only one explanation. I'm going to kill him. God's going to raise him back from the dead. So he went through with it. His hand was raised to plunge, and then God stopped him after that test. Likewise, Mordecai knows that the Jews will be delivered. No matter what kind of legalized anti-Semitism you have going on, relief and deliverance will come for the Jews from another place.

50:25 The reason he's saying this to Esther is, Esther, you have an opportunity. God's going to deliver the Jews with you or without you. You can be silent. You can say nothing. and if you are silent and you say nothing you will have missed your opportunity to be part of this great deliverance god's going to deliver with or without you why not with you why not be a part of it why not surrender your life and step in and see if god won't use you to be the instrument through which he delivers you see god is going to do his work in the earth you can be a part of it or not. You'll miss the opportunity. You'll miss the joy. You'll miss the blessing. So many Christians are missing it. They don't step into what God has for them. But God's going to get his work done. He doesn't need you. He wants to use you. He loves to use people. He's chosen the foolish things of the world.

51:25 step forward and go another foolish thing lord use me so if you can remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise for uh from another place but you and your father's house will perish yet who knows here's the classic verse yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Esther, have you ever thought about the reason you are queen of a pagan country as a Jewish girl? If you've ever scratched your head at night when you put your head on the pillow, why am I here? It's been five years. What purpose is there in my life? Well, first of all, you got it pretty good. So don't complain about that. but it's for a far greater purpose than that.

52:20 For such a time as this, who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. In other words, sweetheart, your prominence is God's providence. Your queenship, your prominence, your power, your position is part of God's providential moving the chessboard. You're in this place. I'm in this place for such a time as this. Now's our time. Now's the moment to act.

52:59 I've often noted that there are two significant days in every life, the day you were born and the day you discover what you were born for. This is the day Esther discovers what she was born for. Such a time as this. Step into it, Esther. Seize the moment.

53:20 Then Esther told them to return this answer to Mordecai. Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me. I'm inferring that since prayer and fasting go together, that's her Persian palatial manner of saying, pray for me. And fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so, I will go to the king, which is against the law.

54:08 You know, sometimes you have to go against the law. If the laws are against God's law. the law says adultery is okay. The law says abortion is okay. The law says a lot of things that are against God's law. We must obey God rather than men. I'll go to the king, which is against the law. And notice how she ends it. And if I perish, I perish. think of her thinking. Think of her logic. If I don't say anything, I'm going to die.

55:02 If I say something, I might die. Either way, one day I am going to die. so if I know I'm going to die if I stay silent but I might die and I might live if I say something I'm going to say something because I would rather die for a conviction than live for a compromise or live with a compromise if I die I die if I perish I perish Then Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded. Now go back to this whole premise we started with last week, the providence of God. Remember I talked about the four different ways God moves throughout history. Appearance, maintenance, interference, providence. Sometimes he works dramatically, miraculously. Usually, providentially, he weaves things together, natural events for a supernatural outcome.

56:07 That's providence. But he moves the players on the chessboard. the prophet said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem how do you get the couple living up in Nazareth to get 90 miles south to Bethlehem well let's let's put a bug under Caesar's britches in Rome to call for another one of those censuses that he loved it have throughout the Roman Empire. And that'll force people down to their homeland city of origin, the city of David, in this case, Bethlehem. here's the thing about providence and here's the thing about esther years past years past nothing was revealed sometimes you judge your life by the events that are happening to your life in your life right now and that's always a mistake man i've been waiting for two weeks and god hasn't done anything God doesn't always work in two weeks. He's thinking years down the line.

57:29 years down the line. when Joseph, who was loved by his father, went to visit his brothers out in the desert, they looked at him and they saw that beautiful robe that he had on and they hated him and they doubly hated him when they saw him coming.

57:53 And then to make it worse, he had two dreams and he made the mistake of telling his brothers what the dreams were. Because it was the dreams that I saw 12 sheaves and your sheaves all bowed down to me and my sheep and, and what are you going to be ruler over us? And they just thought, well, we got to kill this kid. So they were going to kill him. But one of the brothers said, don't kill him. Let's, you know, put him in a pit and get his robe that dad gave him and put blood on it from an animal and take it back to dad and say, he'll say an animal killed him. Well, then they looked in the horizon. They saw some Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. They said, we can make a fast buck if we sell them, a fast shekel if we sell them. So they sold them to these Midianite traders who went down to Egypt. Joseph was begging them the whole time, please don't do that. I've done nothing wrong. Please pleaded for his life to no avail. And think of the lonely nights going down to Egypt and thinking, God, why? Why would you allow this to happen? Why have you forsaken me?

59:02 I prayed and prayed and prayed. He gets down to Egypt. He works for a guy named Potiphar. Potiphar's wife takes a shine to him and wants to have sex with him. Lie with me. And he goes, no way. I'm not going to dishonor Potiphar. I'm not going to dishonor God. And so she makes advances. He spurns them. Finally, he grabs Joseph. She grabs Joseph one day, grabs him and says, come to bed with me. And he tore out of the house, streaked out of the house with, she had his clothes in his hand. He just ran away. When her husband Potiphar came home, she said, this Hebrew slave that you brought tried to rape me. Not true. He was thrown into jail.

59:52 While he was in jail for doing nothing, for serving God, for loving God, for being a good kid, trusting. While he's in jail, there's a chief butler and chief baker who were working for Pharaoh. They ticked him off and they got thrown in jail. Each of them had a dream one night. Joseph said, tell me your dream. And so the chief butler said, I had a dream and I saw a vine with three branches and I pressed the grapes into the cup and I gave it to Pharaoh. He said, that's a good dream. You're going to be in three days lifted back to your position as the butler and you're going to be serving the king face to face. In three days, he was brought back into favor with Pharaoh. The baker also had a dream though that night. And Joseph said, what did you see in your dream? He said, well, I saw three baskets of white baskets of bread and the birds of the air were picking from it. And Joseph said, no, that's not a good dream.

1:00:55 In three days, he's going to chop your head off. You're dead meat. But he turns to the chief butler and goes, when you're back in the palace, remember me. I'm here for no crime that I have done. Get me out of this place. So he goes, yeah, okay, man. Yeah, I got you. He goes back, completely forgets about it. Joseph lingers in prison longer, again, on no fault of his own, until one night Pharaoh has a dream. And he says to his chief butler, I've had this troubling dream. And oh, oh, my faults. Come to me this day. I'm assaulted by them even as you speak. There was this kid in prison who told me my dream and the chief baker his dream and both came true. Pharaoh said, fetch him. They cleaned him up, brought Joseph before him. I hear that you're a man who can interpret dreams. He goes, well, there's a God in heaven who knows everything that you've dreamed, so let me know what it is. He said, I had this weird dream and I saw these seven fat, gorgeous cows come out of the Nile River, and then seven gaunt, horrible, ugly-looking cows came and ate them, but they didn't get any fatter or better looking. They were just as ugly as when they started. That was a weird dream, huh? And then I saw another dream. I saw these seven beautiful grains of stalks of grain, and then seven blighted stalks of grain, and the blighted ones ate the full ones, but they still stay blighted. Weird, huh? And Joseph said, the dreams are one. There's going to be seven great, good, prosperous years in Egypt, followed by seven lean, horrible years in Egypt. I suggest you get a wise person to store up that grain during the seven years of prosperity so that you have enough to suffer through the next seven because nobody's going to remember how good it was in those dark years.

1:02:52 Their memory is going to fade fast. Pharaoh said, who can find a wiser man than the one I'm looking at right now? You got the job. Suddenly now, Joseph is second in command for the world. Why? Because God wants to use him to spare the Jewish nation in a famine in Canaan to bring them into Egypt. You know the story how the brothers came and got grain from Egypt and bring Jacob back to him, to Joseph, and let them populate in the Nile Delta for years until they be brought back and brought to their land through the exodus. Now, while all this was happening and Jacob, the father of all these kids, including Joseph, Jacob thought he lost Joseph to a wild animal.

1:03:51 One of his sons was in prison in Egypt, and they said, we can't go back to Egypt unless we bring Benjamin, the youngest son. Jacob turned his head to heaven and goes, all things are against me. All things are against me. He measured his life by that period. all things were for him. He was about to go get reunited with the son that he lost, who will take care of him and pamper him and provide for him and kids and grandkids and give them a land of their own in the lush part of Goshen in Egypt. Dude, all things are for you. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. And then the icing on the cake is the end of the story when the brothers are brought to Joseph and he says, as for you, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good. Listen to the last part to save many people alive as it is this day. That's the whole story. That's the providence of God. So you've had a bad week and you think God's against you and you prayed all week and it hasn't happened. God's thinking years in advance. And he is setting you up because he wants to give you a future and a hope. A future and a hope. He hasn't forgotten you.

1:05:19 God is moving providentially. So roll the window down, let the breeze come in, and enjoy the ride. He said, I can't enjoy the ride. It's hot weather out there. Look around. Look at the landmarks. God's doing something. He's got you. Do you believe that all things work together for good to those who love God? Amen. Oh, forgive me, I went over. Thank you, Father, for the time spent in these two grand chapters of the book of Esther. And thank you, Lord, that you are thinking so far in advance, whether it's with the children of Israel in Babylon or King Ahasuerus and Esther and Mordecai in Persia or it's setting things up in Rome for the Bethlehem incident or it's something going on in our lives that we don't understand.

1:06:31 We trust you. that the thoughts you have toward us are good and you want to give us a future and a hope as well. Even in the Babylon that we find ourselves immersed in. And so we trust you, we commit to you, our lives and these things in Jesus' name.