There once was a wicked man named Haman, and he hated the Jews. He was their enemy.
This Haman was a leader in the kingdom of Persia in the fifth century before Christ, and he was very very proud. Narcissistic even. To him, everything was about him.
And there was a particular Jew named Mordecai who refused to honor Haman the way he felt that he was due.
And Haman could not let it go. He decided that Mordecai must die! And not just Mordecai, but his whole family. And not just his whole family, but his whole ethnic people group–the Jews, Old Testament people of God.
And not the just the Jews in the citadel of Susa where Haman and Mordecai lived, but all of the Jews throughout the kingdom, throughout the whole wide world.
And if anybody could do it, it was this Haman.
Haman concocted a plan that started by manipulating the king, Xerxes by name (also known as Ahasuerus) to authorize the complete and total extermination of the Jews in one day.
What day? They picked the day by lot. They rolled some dice. In Persian words, “They cast the pur” a little ceramic piece you rolled like dice to pick something at random or by luck or by fate–whatever you might believe in. And they cast the pur on some kind of a calendar, and it landed on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. Some eleven months in the future.
On that day, all of the Jews were scheduled to die.
By the king’s own decree which could not be revoked.
But...is that what happened?
We shall see.
Today is the day that we read what actually happened on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. How it all turned out.
Because there was a chance that Haman’s wicked plot would be foiled.
A pretty small chance. An unlikely chance.
But a real one. Who knows?
It turns out–that Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah who had–it turns out–somehow become the Queen of Persia. Yes, a Jewish queen of Persia! Unlikely, I know.
It was a secret that she was a Jew. It was a secret that she was related to Mordecai. It was a secret even from her husband the king.
He did not know that he had decreed her death!
But that’s how it turned out. And Mordecai persuaded Hadassah (also known as Esther) to beg the king to save their people.
And she did! It took all of the courage she could muster, but Esther overcame every fear and approached the king even though she could have died. And she used every one of her powers of persuasion to plead with the king to spare her life and the lives her people.
Queen Esther did this through inviting her husband (and Haman!) to two banquets, in Hebrew, “mishteh” where she laid out two wonderful feasts and then revealed both her true identity and the wicked plot of Haman.
And it turns out that she was successful with the king.
It turns out that Haman’s over-preening pride was his downfall. He had counted his chickens before they hatched. He had built a giant killing pole at his home on which he planned to get the king to impale Mordecai.
But–it turns out–that night the king couldn’t sleep, and he was reminded in his insomnia by his bed-time story that he owed Mordecai one for having once saved his life, so the king (hilariously!) ordered Haman to honor Mordecai, and it was all downhill from there.
And then they came up with plan to try to counter Haman’s plot. Because even though “this vile Haman” was dead, his decree lived on.
We read last week in chapter 8 that the king allowed Mordecai to write up another decree to counter the first one and send it out under his name.
They couldn’t stop the first decree from going into effect. There were still orders from the king to “destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews–young and old, women and little children–on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, and to plunder their goods” (3:13).
But now there was a second decree that was following the first one with fast hoofbeats.
It was issued two months and ten days later. And it “granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies. The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar” (8:11).
It turns out, there was a fighting chance that the Jews might survive.
And maybe more than just a chance! Because it seems like suddenly everything has turned in their favor.
And now we’ll find out what actually happened. Chapter 9, verse 1.
Are you ready? How did it turn out? Eight months and twenty days later...
“On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those seeking their destruction. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king's administrators helped the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had seized them. Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.” Stop there for just a second.
Here’s how it turned out: Everything was totally turned around.
I love that phrase in verse 1, “But now the tables were turned.”
The CSB says, “...just the opposite happened.”
The ESV says, “...the reverse occurred.”
The King James has, “...it was turned to the contrary.”
In other words, the whole thing was flipped over! V.2 again.
“On this day [Note that! The very day that Haman wanted them all to die, the exact opposite occurred. On this day...] the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them.”
In other words, everything was flipped right-side up.
Let me ask you a question: Who did that?
It doesn’t say. It’s a passive verb here. It just says that it happened. It doesn’t say who turned the tables. It doesn’t give a name.
It doesn’t seem like we could say it was the king’s doing. This whole thing started to unravel one night when the king couldn’t sleep. He had no control over that. This is not his long, wise plan.
And as much Mordecai was bright and Esther was brave, it doesn’t say that they did this either!
And yes, the Jews all over the world assembled and fought. But it doesn’t even say that they fought well. It says (v.2), “No one could stand against them because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.”
Who did that? Where did that fear come from?...
It doesn’t say. It does say that the leaders helped the Jews! On the day when they were supposed to kill them, they are defending them and sending them supplies and more troops!
Because they were afraid of Mordecai? Where did that come from? It came from this amazing turn of events.
Was Somebody turning the events?
However it came about, it was good news!
They didn’t die. They lived. And they won. Verse 5.
“The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.
They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.”
I didn’t tell you to drown out his name. Let’s do this. Let’s wait until the last two times that Haman is mentioned in this book to boo and hiss. It’ll be verses 24 and 25. And we’ll do it up big and loud then.
The Jews were attacked that day. There were plenty of people who hated them and followed Haman. And they knew it was their royal right to attack the Jews. And they did!
Including all ten of Haman’s sons. Remember how proud he was of them back in chapter 5? How he boasted about how many sons he had?
He had convinced them all that the Jews were worthy of extermination. But, it turns out, they were the ones who were killed on that day. Along with 500 other men in the city of Susa.
Notice that only men are mentioned. Not women and children. The second decree said that the Jews could kill women and children, but it doesn’t say that they ever did.
It does say that they did not seize the plunder. They were allowed to do that, too, but they didn’t. How come?
It doesn’t say, but my best guess is that they are treating the plunder like how the Jews were supposed to treat the plunder under the rules of engagement in the conquest of Canaan (see, for example, Joshua 6-7).
And they were, in a way, un-doing what King Saul had done wrong with king Agag. Remember we said (back in chapter 3) that Haman was somehow related Agag and Mordecai was somehow related to Saul? And in 1 Samuel 15, King Saul was supposed to kill Agag because he was an Amalekite bent on destroying Israel (see Exodus 17) and to not grab the plunder from Agag. But King Saul did the opposite. He grabbed the plunder and left King Agag alive–allowing Agag’s wicked line to continue 500 years on–all the way to Haman.
Well, on this day, they undid all of that. They put their attackers to death, and they did not seize the plunder. In their self-defense, they exhibited much self-control which is highly commendable. (An insight for living and symmetrical wording from Chuck Swindoll.) Verse 11.
“The number of those slain in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day. [Real time intel.] The king said to Queen Esther, ‘The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in the citadel of Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? It will also be granted.’” (vv.11-12).
That’s something, isn’t it? Esther no longer has to beg. The king comes and just asks her what she wants. He’s amazed himself, I think, at how successful the Jews were on that day, the 13th day of Adar, and he reports the battlefield intel to his wife.
And he says, “What do you want now? Are you ready for that mink coat? A Lexus? A Birkin bag? What is your request, Queen Esther?”
But her answer is always the same, “Save my people!”
Esther probably understands that there are still followers of Haman out there who are going to be bent on revenge tomorrow. “Five hundred may be dead, but there may be up to that many more in this city? I know that they aren’t supposed to attack tomorrow, but what if they do?” Verse 13.
“‘If it pleases the king,’ Esther answered, ‘give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day's edict tomorrow also, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on gallows.’ So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder” (vv.13-15).
What do you think about Esther’s request? Is she not just brave and beautiful but also bloodthirsty? It’s possible. She’s just human, too. She’s not perfect. She may want revenge. But I just think she’s a realist. She understands that they probably need a second day to ward off the attacks and they need to put these ten corpses up on the wooden poles like their daddy’s to be a billboard that this is what happens when you plot to attack the Jews unprovoked. It’s justice.
Notice, again, in verse 15 that they did not lay hands on the plunder.
It’s just about self-defense. It’s not about getting rich. They are not becoming Haman themselves even as they win.
Ahasuerus was wondering how things were going outside of Susa, and the answer was “very well for the Jews.” Look at verse 16.
“Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder. This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy” (vv.16-17).
It’s over!!!!
The worse day ever is over, and it’s turned into one of the best days! And so they next day, they turn that into a holiday. Verse 17 says they “rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.”
Wow! I wonder how that felt?!
The word for “feasting” there is....can you guess? “Mishteh.”
It’s that word for banquet. They made it a day for a big partay. They celebrated. They rejoiced. They ate. They drank. They re-told the story. They took the day off.
Remember last week how they celebrated just in anticipation of this day, of their fighting chance? Remember that it was a time of “light and gladness and joy and honor” (Esther 8:16 ESV)? And parties and banquets!
If they were rejoicing like that just in anticipation of the chance of surviving how much more would they be celebrating after they actually won?!!
You know, it doesn’t say how many Jews actually died. Probably some did. It’s not what the storyteller wants to emphasize. If none had died, then I’ll bet they would have told us that.
But it’s an overwhelming victory! And it’s totally worthy of an unending string of parties! It’s worthy of a day of feasting and joy.
In the next section, the storyteller explains how the Jews came to make it an ongoing annual celebration. And he or she also clears up the question of why some celebrated it on one day and others on another. The Jews around the kingdom celebrated on the fourteenth day, that is the day after their one-day-war was over. Verse 18.
“The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. [Make sense? V.19] That is why rural Jews–those living in villages–observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.”
Feasting and joy. Joy and feasting. And giving presents to each other! Sounds a lot like Christmas, doesn’t it?!
This explains why the Jews in Susa celebrated on the 15th. It’s because they had a two-day war. And the 15th was the day after that.
In verse 20, Mordecai decides to tell all of the Jews to make this an annual holiday. A new holiday for the Jews. Verse 20.
“Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar [depending on where you live] as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.” (Vv.22-23).
What a wonderful thing to do! They took this day to celebrate the amazing thing that had happened to them–and to not just rejoice but to love others! They had been shown much grace, so they gifted one another and they gave to those who could not even give back–the poor.
I got our message title from verse 23, “Days of Feasting and Joy.”
What were they celebrating on those days?
I was thinking about how to apply this part of the story to our lives today, and I was thinking about this “pop-up holiday” that they were creating and what exactly was so great about it that it was worth celebrating every single year. And I came up with four things. And they are four things that you and I can celebrate on the regular, as well. Even more so, because we live on this side of Jesus’s first advent.
And conveniently, they all start with, “R.”
#1. REVERSAL.
These days of feasting and joy were days to celebrate this great reversal. When (v.22) “their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration.”
The tables were turned! The opposite occurred. It was turned to the contrary. Everything was turned (not upside-down) but right-side up.
Who did that?
I think we have a pretty good idea. We know that our God is in the business of reversing things. Our God takes the worse things ever and works them to our good. Our God takes something like the death of Jesus on the Cross (that’s the worse thing that ever happened, the greatest injustice), and He gives us salvation through it! He reversed even Jesus’ death! Not just the effects of it. But He brought Jesus back to life. Talk about reversals!!!
Remember verse 3 of “Joy to the World.” “He comes to make His blessings flow / Far as the curse is found.”
He’s going to reverse the curse! Do you believe that? Have you seen His reversing power at work in you life already? Our God is in the 180 business. And whenever He turns everything right-side up, it’s worthy of celebrating.
What has He turned right-side-up for you?
His reversals are worth feasting (mishteh) and joy.
#2. RELIEF.
Did you hear that word in verse 16 and verse 22.
“...the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies...”
And we said that’s the closest he gets to naming the Lord in this book.
We know where this relief came from! It’s obvious by now. The Jews were saved from their enemies–by God.
And how much more have you and I been saved from ours? Our enemies are not flesh and blood. They are not the children of Haman or Agag. Our enemies are sin and Satan. And we’ve been rescued from them. Even though we still feel their ongoing effects. The war has been won by our Lord Jesus Christ, amen?!
Even the last enemy of death has been defeated!
We have every reason to feast and rejoice!
#3. REST.
Their relief was not just victory but rest on the other side of it.
I think it’s really interesting that the holiday they set up was NOT the “thirteenth day of the twelfth month,” Adar 13.
You might expect that. I did. In fact, I thought it was until this week when I was studying it. But it’s the 14th. They did not set up the day of the battle as the holiday. They chose the day after the battle was over. The day they had rest. The day they could relax again. The day they had peace.
And, of course, we celebrate the fact that Jesus is our rest and is our peace, as well (see Matthew 11:28 and Ephesians 2:14).
How much more do we have reason for days of feasting and joy?!
For “giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.”
I love how generous our church gets around Christmastime. You are always generous year round, but I think there is something about reflecting on the greatest gift that has ever been given: the greatest reversal, the greatest relief, the greatest rest–that makes someone want to give to others that they love and give to those who need loved the most, the poor.
We have our Christmas cookies that we share. And fudge and Buckeyes (which I don’t share!). We have our Free Fridge and the Foodbank and the gifts out there under the table. We don’t do that because we’re so great or to impress anybody like Xerxes probably did. We do it because we’ve been given the greatest gift of all.
Reversal, relief, rest.
In verse 23, the Jews received the universal letter from Mordecai and agreed to establish this holiday. This next section lays out what the holiday is all about.
And here are the last two times that the bad guy’s name is written in the Bible. Let’s get really loud with boos and hisses and foot stomping when I read his name. Verse 23.
“So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. But when the plot came to the king's attention [at Esther’s second banquet!], he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows” (vv.23-24).
There’s that reversal again! Haman is now gone, never to be mentioned again without shame.
And they came up with a name for the new holiday. Verse 26.
“(Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, the Jews took it upon themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never cease to be celebrated by the Jews, nor should the memory of them die out among their descendants” (vv.26-28).
And they haven’t!
The Jews still observe Purim all over the world. It will be March 2nd and 3rd in 2026. The Jews around the world will celebrate it on Adar 14 and the Jews in what were walled cities such as Jerusalem and Hebron will celebrate on Adar 15.
And they will raise the roof! They will party. They will feast! They have so much raucous fun on Purim. They’ll put on a play. They boo and hiss and stomp and have these things called “graggers” which are noisemakers to drown out the name of the enemy of the Jews.
And they cheer for the name of Mordecai! And the girls dress up like brave Esther. And there is food and drinks and music.
Days of feasting and joy. Because they know that their story was a comedy. In the literary since. That is, it had a happy ending. There was a great reversal, a great relief, and a great rest.
How much more should we raise the roof because we know the rest of the story?
Because we know that Jesus came and is coming again to turn our story into a comedy forever?!
My last R-word is “Reign.”
#4. REIGN.
That was the closest R-word I could get to mean “providence.”
The Jews named their holiday, “Purim.” Which is the plural for “pur,” that Persian word that meant something like “the die” or “the lot.”
[I would have gone with something like “Big Lots,” but that was apparently taken. Lotsa lots? Odd Lots? Probably not.]
I think it’s fascinating that they named their holiday after a game of chance. It’s like naming the holiday, “Dice.” “What are you guys doing for “Dice” this year?” “Have a Merry Dice!”
Or maybe it might better to say, “Chance.” They named the holiday, “Chances.” As in, what are the chances?
What are the chances that things would turn out this way?
What are the chances that a cute Jewish girl would take her place?
What are the chances that her cousin would overhear a plot to assassinate the king?
What are the chances that the king would not be able to sleep the very night the enemy was building his gallows?
What are the chances that the king would have that part of his history books read to him that night?
What are the chances that on March 7th, 473BC that the Jews would win?
What if there is no such thing as chance? (See Proverbs 16:33!)
What if there is only such a thing as providence? What if there is a sovereign ruler over all things who has an inscrutable but un-improvable plan for all things? And what if we are living under His reign?
This book, famously, never says His name. But that just makes you feel it all the more, doesn’t it?
It’s kind of like if I say, “Now, don’t think about a pink elephant.” Some of you are able to do that. Most of you immediately had a pink elephant in your mind.
“Don’t think about God when reading Esther. He’s not in there!”
No, He’s everywhere in there.
He may be hidden, but He is reigning.
Somebody was turning the events, and we know His name. And we know that He is reigning over our lives today. We don’t live in a random world. We aren’t at the mercy of chance. We don’t live in a meaningless world without a God Who is turning the events one by one in a incomprehensible way for our good and His glory. We see chaos. We see senseless violence. We see injustice. We can’t always see the His throne. But it’s always there.
He is always there on it. And one day His kingdom will come. It will be visible and uncontested and everlasting. “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14).
Our God reigns.
“He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.”
- Isaac Watts
In verse 29, Queen Esther writes her own decree. This is wild. I never noticed this before. I don’t know how many times I’ve read this book. I never noticed that Esther sends out her own decree along with Mordecai. Look at verse 29.
It’s also about celebrating Purim.
“So Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim. And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes–words of goodwill and assurance–to establish these days of Purim at their designated times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed for them, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and lamentation. Esther's decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records” (vv.29-32).
And that’s the last time Esther is mentioned in her book or in the Bible. The last thing we hear from her is that she, as Queen, wants her kinsmen to remember what happened to them forever. Days of feasting and joy year after year after year.
It says in verse 31 that they had days of fasting, too. And the Jews do that as well. They fast for three days like Esther did, before Purim. And they read the Scriptures about the Amalekites and Agag and all of that leading up to the Tale of Queen Esther. And then they read and re-enact her story again. And here we are listening to it once more.
What a woman she was! What a great lady. What courage! What bravery! What wisdom! What love for her people.
Take a bow, Queen Esther. Well done, you!
And Queen Esther’s last thing that she leaves them with is not just their rescue but the command to remember their rescue. To not forget it. To not take it lightly. To mark it. To record it. To remember it. To revel in it. To rejoice. They were saved!
It’s easy to forget. It’s easy to lose sight of our salvation and to increasingly feel sorry for ourselves. And begin to ask again, “Where is God?” And that’s why we need reminders. Sundays, like this. Mile markers and landmarks. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Holidays. Special days. Days like Christmas where we take a break and remember what God has done. When the kids dress up as Mary and Joseph and the Angels and the Shepherds. When we sing songs and eat great food and drink eggnog and give gifts to each and to the poor.
Days of feasting and joy.
Last chapter. Chapter 10. It’s only 3 verses.
Let’s do something new as we read it. Like the Jews do. Let’s cheer every time I read the name “Mordecai.” Okay? Give it YAY or a Whoop Whoop. Something like that, okay? There’s two of them. Chapter 10, verse 1.
“King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king had raised him, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.”
Now, I know that these three verses are supposed to be encouraging, and they are as they talk about the “happy ending” for Mordecai. He’s come so far! He’s even mentioned in the history books that survive to this day.
And Mordecai was a good man that did good by his people.
Take a bow, Mordecai. Well done, you.
But this time through, I was really struck by how Xerxes is still the king, and he really hasn’t changed. He’s not still not a good man. The best thing that can be said for him here is that he raised up Mordecai. Good for him. Well done, you.
But verse 1 says that he imposed a tribute. That’s another tax. Probably to raise money to go fight the Greeks again. Maybe to pay for all of the damage that Haman did. That he let Haman do!
But Xerxes is pretty much just back to normal. He’s just doing Xerxes kinds of things. There’s no record that he really changed even though the Lord used him to rescue His people. The secular history books don’t mention Esther. And a few years later, Xerxes let his guard down again, and he was assassinated in his bed. He didn’t covert. As far as we know, he didn’t come to worship the God of his queen.
We end the book with a sense that as great as so many thing turned out there is still something important missing.
And that is the perfect king.
But you and I know that the perfect king was on the way.
And because of the wisdom of Mordecai and the courage of Esther, and over it all, the providential reign of God, that king would come.
The bloodline of the Messiah was saved on Adar 13, 473.
So that Jesus Christ could one day be born.
And bring the greatest reversal, the greatest relief, and the greatest rest ever imagined.
So that we can have days of feasting and joy forevermore.
The Tale of Queen Esther did not end with the death of the wicked Haman at the tail end of chapter 7.
“This vile Haman,” the enemy of the Jews, is dead, but his decree lives on.
The Jews are in still in danger of genocide.
We just read to us from chapter 3 of this book reminding us of the danger that looms over the Jews throughout the kingdom of Persia in the middle of the fifth century before Christ was born.
A Jewish man named Mordecai had refused to fall in honor before a prominent national leader named Haman. And Haman had overreacted to this dishonor to the point of convincing the king, King Xerxes I (also known as Ahasuerus) to give Haman the unthinkable authority to decree the extermination of all of the Jews–not just Mordecai, not just some of Jews but all of them–in a single day in about a year’s time.
And this decree was signed and sealed with the king’s own ring.
The Jews throughout the world went into mourning, dressing in sackcloth and ashes and wailing and wailing while they waited for death to come to their entire people.
But then a lot happened in chapters 4 through 7! In just a few short days, a series of unlikely events occurred which resulted in the honoring of Mordecai and the execution of Haman!
And those unlikely events swirled around the courageous choices of the brave and beautiful Queen Esther (also known as Hadassah).
Queen Esther was Mordecai’s cousin whom he had raised since she was orphaned and therefore she also was a Jew–though a secret one. And Esther had (through another series of unlikely events!) been elevated above all of the other young women in the Persian kingdom to become the queen.
And after the decree of Haman went out, Mordecai persuaded Queen Esther to take her life in her hands and to plead with her husband the king to save the lives of the Jews. And she decided to do just that, no matter what. If was she going to die, well then she was going to die.
We read in chapter 5 how Esther fasted for three days, and then robed in royal majesty, she took her life in her hands, going against custom and law, to approach the king even when she had not been invited. And the king spared her life. He extended his golden scepter to welcome her into his presence and asked her what was her request. He said he would give her even up to half of his kingdom!
And Esther wisely and winsomely invited the king (and Haman!) to a short series of banquets (one of the king’s favorite things in all the world), and then and only then did she reveal her true nationality, her deepest identity, and beg him to spare her life and the life of all of the Jews.
Queen Esther had apparently been elevated to her royal position for such a time as this very moment.
The king had listened to her impassioned plea and became incensed and enraged. He demanded to know who was behind this plot to kill Esther and her people!
Of course, we know (having read chapter 3) that the king was fully implicated in this plot. He had carelessly and callously agreed to it. But Esther wisely sidestepped that part of it and pointed the finger at the true enemy of the Jews.
She said, “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.”
And then the king stormed out and Haman fell at Esther’s feet and the king came back in and charged Haman with attempted rape and had him impaled upon a ridiculously tall wooden pole that Haman had intended to impale Mordecai upon. The enemy of the Jews was dead.
But the story is not over. Haman has died, but his decree lives on.
That’s why we have chapter 8. Let’s look at it together, starting in verse 1.
By the way, let’s do what we’ve been doing since chapter 3. When I reed the name of Haman in chapter 8, let’s drown it out with loud sounds like boos and hisses. The Jews have been doing that for thousands of years when they retell this story. I think his name appears 6 times in this chapter. Let’s do it every time. I’ll remind you, but see if you can spot it before it comes.
Hint: His name is in verse 1 and verse 2. Ready?
“That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman's estate.”
The storyteller begins chapter 8 with the words, “That same day...”
What a day that was!
This is the same day that has been two days long for Xerxes. He hasn’t slept since before Esther’s first banquet yesterday!
That night the king could not sleep, so instead of counting sheep, he had his servants read to him the chronicles of his kingdom as a bedtime story. And he just so happened to be reminded of a debt of honor he owed to Mordecai for once saving his life. So first thing in the morning, through a very funny misunderstanding (to us, not to Haman) the king had Haman parade Mordecai all through the city of Susa dressed in a royal robe and riding on a royal horse. That’s this same day.
It’s the same day that Haman’s family told him that he was going down.
It’s the same day of Queen Esther’s Second Banquet when Haman did go down for good. (Timing is everything!)
The storyteller says that same day, the King gave Queen Esther all of Haman’s stuff! Literally, his “house.” And that same day Queen Esther put Mordecai in charge of all of Haman’s stuff.
The historian Herodotus says that in Persian law the property of a traitor reverted to the crown. So when Haman’s face had been covered and his body impaled, his stuff then belonged to King Ahasuerus to give to whomever he pleased.
And that’s not all that Mordecai got from Haman. Verse 1 says that “Mordecai came into the presence of the king” because Esther revealed their relationship.
“Honey, I want to introduce you to my cousin Mordecai. He’s the one who saved your life a few years back, and he’s been my adviser and protector all of these years. You can trust him.”
And see how the king trusts him? He gives Mordecai the signet ring which he had taken off of the dead man! It’s like he’s making Mordecai the new Grand Vizier.
Now, I’m not sure he was being wise to just give away his ring again so quickly. But at least it’s in better hands!
Mordecai is no longer just a simple civil servant who works at the front desk. He has now been elevated to a top spot in the kingdom.
But what good is that if the Jews are all going to die anyway?
Esther begs once more. Verse 3.
“Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. [Here it comes...] She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.”
Don’t miss this dramatic moment. Esther knows that the clock is still ticking. The decree still stands. So she lets go of all of her dignity and falls at the king’s feet and weeps.
She’s sobbing! Who cares if Haman is dead and she now owns his stuff? Who cares if Mordecai is prime minister? Even if they are both safe because they are so close to the king, who cares if the rest of their people are going to die?!
“Please, please, please, nullify the decree of Haman against the Jews!”
And it sure seems from verse 4 like she’s come again without being invited. Look at verse 4.
“Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him.”
She is safe once again. Safe to beg for her people’s survival. She stands there, her mascara running down her cheeks, and she does her best to persuade the king to do something more. Verse 5.
“‘If it pleases the king,’ she said, ‘and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that...Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces.
For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?’” (vv.5-6).
Esther knows her man. She knows that he’s “narcissistic, impulsive, passion-driven, tyrannical...” (Marion Ann Taylor, The Story of God Commentary, pg. 198). Xerxes is dangerous and not trustworthy, but he does like to be generous. And he does respond to passionate counsel.
So Esther pulls out all the stops and persuades like she’s never persuaded before. She says it like four ways that if he really cares for her and really thinks it’s the right thing to do, that he would write out a new order to overrule the decree of Haman. Because if he doesn’t, she can’t imagine going on. She can’t endure it.
I don’t think that’s just an act, but I do think it’s very persuasive to a husband who might not have been inclined to do anything further. See what he says in verse 7?
“King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, [Here it comes, last one...] ‘Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows.”
I feel like he's going to say, “What more do you want me to do? I've killed your enemy and made you incredibly wealthy. What else do you want, woman?" But he doesn't. He is persuaded. [Proverbs 21:1!] V.8
“Now write another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring–for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.’”
See what I mean about the “decree lives on?”
The Medes and the Persians apparently had this ridiculous rule that a law from their king could not be revoked. As if the king could never make a mistake!
We saw that back in the Book of Daniel, chapter 6, right? King Darius? He also was tricked into making a law–that for one month you couldn’t pray to anyone but him. And Daniel refused to obey that law, and the king couldn’t forgive him for it. He had to throw him into the lion’s den!
Is that going to be the fate of all of the Jews? They are all going to be thrown to the lions? “Nothing I can do about it. My hands are tied. Apparently, I signed the paper saying, ‘genocide,’ so it’s genocide.”
So much for “up to half of my kingdom!”
How do you change an unchangeable law? Xerxes says, “Write another decree.”
“Here’s the trick. Write a counter decree.”
Now, I find it flabbergasting that the king still just carelessly gives his ring over to Mordecai to write something in his name. Has he not learned anything?!
But he does allow them to write something that could stop the massacre. And that’s not nothing. Because in many ways, it is admitting that his first decree was a bad idea. Probably hard for a guy like Xerxes to do.
Verse 8 again. “[W]rite another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring–for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”
Now, I’ve said that Chapter 8 rhymes with Chapter 3. Here’s what I mean. Something very similar happens in chapter 8 as nearly everything that is said or done in chapter 3. But just the opposite!
In fact, one statistic I read this week says that there are 78% of the exact same Hebrews words in verses 9 through 14 as were in chapter 3, verses 12 through 15. Chapter 8 rhymes with Chapter 3. Look at verse 9.
“At once the royal secretaries were summoned–on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language. Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king's signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king” (vv.9-10). Stop there for a second.
Sound familiar?
They call the secretaries. (Just like chapter 3.) They give the date. It’s actually been 2 months and 10 days since the first decree went out. They address all of the leaders throughout the kingdom from India to (it says Cush) which is towards the southern part of Egypt. (Just like chapter 3.)
And what key kingdom is between India and Cush? Not just Persia. But Israel.
And Mordecai made sure that the Israelites got this message loud and clear. That’s not something that was in chapter 3, but the Jews need to hear this in their own language so they can get ready.
And just like in chapter 3, they get the pony express to push this message out to the furthest corner of the kingdom before it’s too late. It will still take months to get there. There is no international texting.
And here’s what the new decree says. Verse 11.
“The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.”
Does that sound familiar? Same words as chapter 3, “destroy, kill and annihilate,” but now it says that Jews could do that back to anyone who tried to do it to them.
Now they have a fighting chance. This second decree makes the first decree very hard to carry out. It basically authorizes a civil war if the followers of Haman ask for it.
Notice that Mordecai does not go overboard with the king’s ring. He doesn’t say, “All of the Jews are now in charge in every province. The king says!” He doesn’t say, “All of the Jews can now attack whomever they hate!” No, he just says that they can defend themselves against attackers.
It does seem to say that they can “destroy, kill, and annihilate” their attackers and their attackers’ women and children, but we’re going to see next week that there’s no evidence that they went so far as to use that authorization. Perhaps it’s just there to rhyme. Perhaps that kind of authorization was only if the women and the children took part in the attacking, too. Or maybe Mordecai went too far. He is just a man, after all.
But the point here is that this second decree symmetrically counters the first decree and may spell the survival of the Jewish people.
When will this happen? Verse 12. (It’s probably going to rhyme with chapter 3.)
“The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. [March 7, 473BC. The exact same day as was picked by the pur cast by Haman. On they day, the Jews can fight back. V.13] A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers, riding the royal horses, raced out, spurred on by the king's command. And the edict was also issued in the citadel of Susa” (vv.12-14).
Sound familiar? Chapter 8 rhymes with Chapter 3. But it’s a much better song!
Now, how do we apply this part of the story to our lives today?
I don’t think the Bible is teaching us how to write decrees, amiright? And I don’t think it’s promising us that all of these same things that happened to Esther or Mordecai are always going to happen to us. At least, I hope not!
But what does chapter 8 teach us? What is the storyteller telling us today?
I think a good way into that is to return once again to the question in the title of our series, “Where Is God?”
Where is God in Esther chapter 8?
I’m sure that the Jews have been feeling that question all along. Where is God when you have an enemy at the very top of the kingdom you live in? Where is God when your enemy has been able to be authorize the death of your entire people group? Where is God when you’ve been traumatized like that? We could go on.
But now, things seems to be changing. Your enemy has been stopped and even killed! Now His decree is being countered. And the word is spreading fast.
Where is God now?
Well, it doesn’t say. God is never named in the book of Esther. The storyteller never comes out and says it directly. But at this point in the story it’s kind of hard to miss. God may be hidden, but it’s pretty obvious He’s right there doing stuff. Driving the story forward. Moving everything along according to His inscrutable but unimprovable plan.
I thought of three things to point out that chapter 8 suggests and the rest of the Bible confirms. Here’s number one.
Where is God in Esther chapter 8? He’s right there:
#1. RIGHTING EVERY WRONG.
I think that’s why chapter 8 rhymes with chapter 3, so that we feel how Someone in chapter 8 is undoing all of the evil of chapter 3.
It’s poetic justice like we saw last week with Haman being hung on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
But it’s poetic justice writ large! Poetic justice on the grandest scale. Every single thing that is wrong in chapter 3 is being countered in chapter 8. And I think that points to the truth that everything that is wrong in the whole wild world is being righted and will be righted when the Lord Jesus returns.
Everything that is broken will be fixed.
Everything that is twisted will be straightened out.
Everything that is damaged will be mended.
Everything that has gone wrong will be set right.
Justice will be done and will be seen to be done. And things will be like they should have been and...even better! Because chapter 8 is not just the reverse of chapter 3, it is that and it’s also improved. Chapter 8 rhymes with Chapter 3. But it’s a much better song!
Speaking of songs, it’s Christmas carol season, and one of my all time favorites is “Joy to the World.”
Verse 3 says:
“No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found!”
- Isaac Watts
As far as the curse is found, the blessings will flow when Jesus Christ returns. He’s going to reverse the curse. And everything will be better than new!
Do you need to hear that today? I’ll bet you do. Because so often we feel the question, “Where is God? Is He paying attention? Is He going to do something? Does He know what they are doing to me?”
And this second decree sounding so much like the first one and yet so different and so much better reminds us that God is righting every wrong.
And the Jews felt this in their bones!
Remember, they have been in mourning now for two months and ten days. Scratchy sackcloth, ashes smeared all over them, crying every day for 70 days. And the chief mourner was Mordecai. But look at him now in verse 15.
“Mordecai left the king's presence wearing royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous celebration. For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating” (vv.15-17a).
That word “feasting” is “mishteh” the word for banquet. The Jews were partying now!
You see how this chapter rhymes with chapter 3 and the first part of chapter 4? At the end of chapter 3, they were “bewildered” and Haman was drinking it up. Well, look who's feasting now!
I love that picture of Mordecai all dressed up in royal finery. (I guess he was a Penn State fan with his blue and white? Turns out Mordecai was the next coach of the Nittany Lions!)
Actually these are the same royal colors as were on display at the banquets in the first chapter. Chapter 8 rhymes with Chapter 1, as well!
And it rhymes with chapter 6 when Mordecai was paraded around town by his enemy. That was probably just this same morning! And it seemed like a dream. But now it’s Mordecai’s every day reality.
Church, that’s what the new creation is going to be like. The new heavens and the new earth? It’s going to feel like a dream every single day forever.
Remember: Every bad thing must come to an end.
Or, let me put it this way. Point number two.
Where is God? He’s right here:
#2. WORKING ALL THINGS TO GOOD ENDS.
The book of Esther is shaping up to be a comedy. In the classic literary sense. It isn’t just funny, it has a happy ending. A deliriously happy ending!
I mean, just listen to verse 16 again. “For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor.”
And that word for “happiness” can be translated “light!” The ESV says, “The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.”
That’s what we’re headed towards, brothers and sisters! “Light and gladness and joy and honor” forever and ever and ever.
“His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14).
“Light and gladness and joy and honor” forever and ever and ever. Our Lord is working everything towards that end. The Bible says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
That doesn’t mean that everything is good. It means that one day everything will be good. And then it will be good forever. And that means that we can rejoice right now.
I think Mordecai and the Jews were singing Psalm 30 those days:
“You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.”
- King David in Psalm 30:11-12
And we can sing that song today.
Now, think about this:
Have they been saved yet?
No, their salvation has just been announced. They are still many months away from the thirteenth day of Adar. But just hearing of this decree is enough to send them into jubilant celebration!
How much more should we celebrate on this side of the Cross and the Empty Tomb?! It’s true that the fullness of the kingdom has not yet come. But our King has come and is coming again.
And just knowing that should make every day full of “happiness and joy, gladness and honor” for you and me.
The Lord is working all things to a good end. Including our salvation. Because, think about this, if this decree works, the bloodline of the Messiah will be safe. If Haman had succeeded in wiping out all of the Jews, then the Christ would not have come the first time. There would be no Christmas. And there would be no Good Friday. And no Resurrection Sunday. And no glorious kingdom to come. But if this second decree does what it’s designed to do, then everything still on track.
And not just for the Jews! But also for any Gentiles who come to faith. Apparently, that happened even then. Look at the last sentence of verse 17 before we go to the table.
“And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.”
Now, I’m sure that many of these people were just jumping on the bandwagon. They were fair-weather fans who saw how the wind had shifted towards the Jews, so they said, “Oh yeah, I’m one of them.” Maybe even to get authorization to kill their neighbors next year!
But some of them were like Rahab or like Ruth. Or like the Roman Centurion or Lydia or Simon the Tanner. They saw that God was working for the good of His people, and they wanted to be a part of that. So they came in.
Where is God in Esther chapter 8? He’s right here:
#3. TURNING HIS ENEMIES INTO HIS FAMILY.
And He’s still doing that today for Gentiles like you and me. And does it through the Cross.
The Bible says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
And that great loves turns us from enemy into family. The Bible says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).
It’s actually Queen Esther’s Second Banquet, isn’t it? Because she put one on in chapter 5, as well. But this is the one that everything in this story has been driving towards. This is the banquet where Queen Esther is planning to reveal her big secret and to plead for her life and for the survival of her people.
Queen Esther has a secret and that is that she is a Jew. Very few people know this. You and I know this, but Xerxes I the King of Persia also known as Ahasuerus (to whom Esther is married!) does not know this about her.
We know that Esther has another name, Hadassah, but most people in the kingdom only know her Persian name, Esther, the Star Queen. Because her cousin Mordecai who raised her ever since her parents died had told her to keep her Jewish identity a secret...until now. But now things are desperate. Now it seems that it’s time to speak up and speak out and speak for her people, the Jews.
Because the Jews are in danger. Mordecai has angered the Grand Vizier Haman by refusing to fall before him in honor. And Haman was so angry that he conspired to kill, not just Mordecai but all of Mordecai’s people throughout the Persian kingdom–from India to Ethiopia which included all of Israel.
Haman slyly manipulated Xerxes into authorizing the extermination of the Jews on a single day nearly a year from now, the 13th day of Adar, which was chosen “at random” by casting the pur, which was like rolling the dice. Haman offered Xerxes ten thousand talents of silver for the royal treasury to get this done. Probably from taking the Jew’s stuff after killing them. Something like two thirds of the kingdom’s incoming budget for the genocide of the Jews.
Things had become desperate now for the Jewish people. They were all in danger. And so Mordecai, grieving in sackcloth and ashes, had urged Esther to use whatever influence she had with her husband the king to try to stop this murder of all of her kinsmen throughout the world.
Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, Esther had been elevated to this royal position for such a time as this. For such a time as Queen Esther’s Banquet.
This banquet was Esther’s idea of how to persuade King Xerxes to spare her people. Esther knows how much her man loves a banquet. He gave two of them in chapter 1. It’s how she ended up being the queen! One of the king’s banquets lasted half of a year! Ahasuerus loves to party hardy!
But how to get him there? That was the first problem. Because Esther wasn’t allowed to just walk up to him and talk to him. She had to be invited, and she hadn’t been invited for thirty days. Esther had not been the flavor of the month. But she decided to go anyway, and if she died, well, then she died. But she was going to do what was needed, what was right, no matter what.
And the king had...welcomed her into his presence (whew!), and asked her what she wanted. What was her request?
Esther requested...his presence at a banquet. Every banquet (every mishteh) in this book (and there are like ten of them!) is consequential.
Esther invited the king and the enemy Haman to a banquet in chapter 5 where they ate and drank, and where the king asked her a second time what Esther really wanted. And she said, “I’ll tell you (and Haman) tomorrow at banquet number two.”
And that’s where we are in chapter 7, “Queen Esther’s (Second) Banquet.”
But before we got there, there was this whole chapter 6 thing!
What a week these people are having!!!
Because just yesterday on the way home from the first banquet Haman had seen Mordecai who was still refusing to fall down in honor before him and didn’t even seem scared by him. Mordecai just stared at Haman as he went by. And that had so steamed up Haman that he decided that night to have a gallows built (probably a giant wooden pole for impaling someone) that was 50 cubits high which translates to 75 feet tall! The tallest thing in the city of Susa, taller than the palace itself. Ridiculously high, a skyscraper of death to make an example of Mordecai.
And Haman was going to ask the king for permission to kill Mordecai on these gallows that day. Not waiting for next year’s Jewish genocide. But today, right before Queen Esther’s Banquet.
Do you remember this? For some of you this might be the first time you’ve heard this story.
I wonder why?! So many things happening at once, all moving towards this crucial day.
The king could not sleep, so he made his servants read to him from the chronicles of his reign, and they just so happened (wink, wink) to read about a time a few years back when Mordecai had thwarted a plot to assassinate this king. Almost everybody had forgotten about it until that sleepless night.
And they realized that Mordecai had never been honored for saving the king’s life, and so he decided to do something about it right then and there. Remember this?
He decided to ask Haman, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Thinking Mordecai. But Haman, thinking Haman, suggested a royal robe, a royal horse, and a royal parade. And the king said, “Yeah, do that for Mordecai the Jew.”
One of, if not the, funniest chapter(s) in the whole Bible! Keagan just read it to us. Haman has to lead Mordecai around town on a royal horse in a royal robe and say to everyone, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”
And, all of a sudden, Haman’s plans seem to go sideways. Haman goes home in grief from that moment, and his family and friends all tell him that he’s doomed. “You will fall.” And the king’s servants come and grab him to get to Queen Esther’s Banquet on time.
Do you feel how desperate this banquet is? How precarious this situation has become? Everybody is on edge!
The king has not slept in over 24 hours. How does that make you feel? Rough, right? Hard to make good decisions when you haven’t slept. Emotions are raw. It’s easy to get angry when you’re tired. And Xerxes isn’t known for controlling his emotions in the first place.
And Haman has just had to honor his enemy all over town and been told by his closest friends that he himself is going down. He was filled with grief, and he’s probably nervous and anxious, like a trapped animal.
And Esther? How does she feel at this banquet? It doesn’t say, but I would assume that she is scared to death. Maybe she’s heard the wild story about what happened to cousin Mordecai this morning on the horse. That would be encouraging. Maybe she hasn’t heard. We don’t know. Regardless, she didn’t know what was going to happen next.
This is a very precarious situation. Esther is laying a table for two very dangerous men. One is her sworn enemy (even if he doesn’t know it!), and he may have some terrible trick up his sleeve. He may be cornered, but he’s still dangerous.
And the other man is unpredictable and unreliable. We have seen over and over again that Xerxes is not a good man. And she has been basically lying to him for their whole marriage. Keeping her deepest identity secret.
But Esther has gotten these two dangerous men to her banquet, and she’s going to try her dead-level best to make a difference for her people.
Esther chapter 7, verse 1.
By the way, let’s do this with the name of Haman this time. As the Jews have done for millennia, we have been drowning out the name of Haman with noises like boos and hisses at times as we read this tale.
Let’s do it in verse 1 and verse 6 and verse 10 today. The beginning, the middle, and the end of chapter 7. I’ll remind you.
And here’s your first reminder. Let’s read verse 1.
“So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, and as they were drinking wine on that second day, the king again asked, ‘Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted’” (vv.1-2).
That’s the third time that he’s asked. He might not ask again.
He knows that something is up. He knows the Esther has more on her mind than food and wine. He doesn’t know what it is, but he knows there is something. She’s gotten all dressed up in all of her royal robes. She has laid out quite a spread yesterday and today. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish. (Oh, no, wait that was us on Thursday.) We don’t know what food was on her table, but it was the best of the best. She had pulled out all of stops for two days.
And the best wine. And they’re all laughing (maybe nervously?) and enjoying themselves. Maybe Haman is beginning to relax a little. Maybe his day is going to turn around again. Maybe he can still get Mordecai dead by bedtime if he plays his cards right. He’s obviously still in the king’s good graces and Esther’s, because here he is the only other guest at Queen Esther’s Banquet!
And the king wants to know, “What is your request? I will grant it. I want to be seen as incredibly generous. Just say the word.”
Everything in her story has been leading up to this moment. This is the “such a time.” And Esther does not chicken out. She does not suggest a third banquet. She clears her throat and courageously pleads. Verse 3.
“Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life–this is my petition. And spare my people–this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king’” (vv.3-4).
I have three things I want to point out in Esther chapter 7–three things we can clearly see and learn from at Queen Esther’s Banquet–and here’s the first one:
#1. TRUE COURAGE.
I don’t know if I could have done what she did. I would hope I could, but I could also see myself chicken out.
“Let me get back to you on that, King. I’ll send you an email. I didn’t think about what it would be like to say it to your face. Or to say it in front of him.”
No. She just goes right to it. “Grant me my life...And spare my people. I’m a Jew, and the Jews are in trouble, and you’re the only one that can save us.”
Now, it’s amazing how careful and wise she is in how she does it. Esther is teaching a master-class here in diplomacy and persuasion. She starts with two “ifs.” “IF I have found favor with you, O king, and IF it pleases your majesty...” She isn’t demanding here. She’s building off of their relationship. She has always found favor with him up to till now. And she is careful to couch things in a way that appeals to his best interest. She says that she wouldn’t bring it up if it wasn’t so desperate for them and so consequential for him.
There’s a little bit of ambiguity in verse 4. It could be understood to mean that she is pointing out that if they weren’t killed, they could be put to better economic use than just eliminating them. As it is, he’s going to lose a giant ongoing workforce if this plan goes through. And, of course, they will all die–including his wife Queen Esther.
Notice that she doesn’t accuse him. She could, right? She could say, “You’ve been duped and really messed up my life, Ahasuerus!”
No. She doesn’t say, “You have sold my people. She says, “I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation...” Those are the very words of the order that was sent out in chapter 3, verse 13. But she doesn’t name him here directly.
She does directly ask for him to spare her and her people. Esther comes out and clearly identifies with her people.
True courage.
She doesn’t know how this will go. I can imagine a situation where the king says, “You are a Jew?! Get lost. Take your things and move to the back of the harem. This is the last time I will ever see your face. You and Vashti can hang out from now on. You lied to me.”
I can imagine a situation where Haman says, “Oh, you’re a Jew? King Xerxes, she’s part of the problem around here. She’s part of that group I was telling you about last week. She’s right that they are on the schedule to die. That’s a solution, not a problem.” And the men agree together, and that’s it.
She doesn’t know what’s going to happen when she speaks up. She may die. But if she dies, she dies. She speaks up anyway. That’s true courage.
She could have tried to hide. Maybe just ask for an exception! “You know, O kingy-poo, you had that order about destruction, slaughter, and annihilation? That doesn’t apply to little old me, does it? There’s an exception for queens, right?” No, she stands with her people and intercedes for them. It’s one for all and all for one.
Notice that true courage is not something that we are only called to do once, and then we’re done. Esther had to take her life in her hands in her hands yesterday. And she has to take her life in her hands today. She had be courageous yesterday, and she had to be courageous today.
And our Lord is calling you and me to be courageous, too.
He is calling us to bear witness to Him. To tell others that we are Christians that we belong to His people, too.
He is calling us to share the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ sacrificial death and victorious resurrection and how that saves us from our sins.
He is calling us to use what influence we have, however small or however large, to intercede for others and their good.
To speak up, even in a dangerous world.
In Matthew chapter 10, our Lord Jesus told His followers, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
That sounds like Esther to me. She is so shrewd with how she used beauty, hospitality, and persuasion to make her case as good as she possibly could. But she doesn’t manipulate or lie to get there. Innocent as a dove. But she does go out among the wolves! She knows that she’s vulnerable. She’s a sheep among the wolves, but there she goes. And so should we!
Where are you being called to be courageous?
Where are you being called to stick out your neck?
Where are you being called to speak up and speak out and speak for others that need you?
Esther shows us how.
She had one shot, and she took her shot...and it hit the target! Verse 5.
“King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?’”
Woah! That sleepless man is angry! And he’s not angry at her. He’s acutely felt the injustice correctly. This thing is bad, really bad. He roars, “Who is he? Give us a name. Who has dared to do such a thing to my wife and her people?”
And we’re thinking, “Can you be this clueless? You don’t see your part in all this?”
But that’s not where Esther goes. She points the finger, perhaps with her whole arm shaking, at someone else in the room. Look at verse 6 and get ready to drown out his name. Verse 6.
“Esther said, ‘The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.”
That took so much courage! To face her enemy? To say that he is her adversary and the enemy of the Jews? To name him. “This vile Haman.” That took so much courage.
And Haman has no courage. He’s filled with an intense fear and has no courage to deal with it.
Can you feel how much emotion is in this room?
Haman is terrified. Xerxes is infuriated! Verse 7.
“The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden.”
He can’t stand this. He has to think. He has to think about what he’s going to do.
Maybe it’s dawning on Xerxes that maybe he shares some of the fault here. He’s allowed Haman to put him in this situation. And he’s going to lose face either way. Xerxes never thinks that he’s the problem. He’s so mad at Haman for getting him into this. What’s he going to do? He’s pacing out in the garden, grunting, groaning, maybe throwing things.
And where’s Haman? Haman should not have stayed in that room. He’s not supposed to be alone with a member of the king’s harem. He should have left at that point, but if he leaves, he can’t do anything directly about his situation. The king didn’t want him to follow him, and you can’t enter the king’s presence without being summoned. Look at verse 7.
“But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.”
How is that for irony?! Maybe this is the funniest chapter in the Bible?! The darkest humor. The enemy of the Jews who wants to kill all of the Jews is going to get on knees before a Jewish woman who is his queen and beg for his life. V.8
“Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. [Please, please, please. Help me, please. Mercy!] The king exclaimed, ‘Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?’ As soon as the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.”
I don’t know if Ahasuerus actually believed that Haman was trying to assault Esther at that moment, maybe he did. Maybe he saw this is a convenient way out, of solving his problem of saving face. Accuse Haman of sexual assault, and we don’t have to into all of that stuff about the royal ring and all that. Or maybe he was just filled with rage and seeing red.
He sees Haman falling. The very thing that Mordecai would not do, “fall” before Haman? The very thing that Zeresh said that Haman would do “fall?” That’s exactly what Haman is doing. Falling before Esther and falling in the eyes of the king. And then his face is covered by the servants. Like he’s not even there anymore. He’s condemned. It’s over for Haman.
And that’s when we hear from Harbona. Harbona was one of the servants who was sent to bring Vashti to the king’s banquet in chapter 1. He’s been hanging around in the background wondering which way the wind was going to blow. It’s obvious now, and so Harbona pipes up with a helpful piece of information. Verse 9.
“Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, ‘A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman's house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.’ The king said, ‘Hang him on it!’”
Verse 10. Last time to drown out his name today.
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided” (vv.9-10).
The second thing we clearly see at Queen Esther’s (second) Banquet is:
#2. POETIC JUSTICE.
Which is true justice. The punishment here perfectly fits the crime.
Yes, Haman is executed for a crime he did not commit. He wasn’t attempting rape. But he was attempting genocide. And he dies for it. And he dies upon the very instrument of torture that he had wanted to kill an innocent man upon.
Harbona said, “He had it made for Mordecai who spoke up to help the king.” And the king said, “Hang him on it!”
He was impaled in his own front yard. At the top of the highest point in the city.
Solomon says in Proverbs 26:27, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them” (Proverbs 26:27, NIV).
We’ve all seen this happen from time to time. But we’ve all also wondered if it would happen from time to time. Because we all see a lot of injustice in the world. People digging a pit and pushing other people into it. That’s how Haman had gotten where he was. That’s how Xerxes had gotten where he was!
But now Haman has received poetic justice, and we are told that there is even more poetic justice on the way.
“Be sure your sins will find you out.”
Remember what we learned this summer about justice from 2 Thessalonians?
Paul wrote that persecuted church, “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
Perfect justice is on the way. It will perfectly fit the crime.
And we can rejoice in that. Because that means that everything that is wrong will be made right. Like said last week, we are living in a comedy. We are living in a story with a happy ending for all of God’s true people.
All bad things must come to an end.
King Jesus is going to bring perfect poetic justice in His forever kingdom. We just have to wait.
But that should also scare you if you are not yet one of God’s true people. If you are living like Haman, living for yourself, your pleasures, your agenda, your happiness, your kingdom, then you can expect poetic justice to roll back on you. Repent now while you still can.
Haman’s story is a cautionary tale. It’s just a matter of time.
And one last thing that we can see and learn from at Queen Esther’s Banquet?
#3. HIDDEN PROVIDENCE.
Where is God? That’s been the title of this series all along. Where is God at Queen Esther’s Banquet?
Well, He’s never mentioned. He’s never named. But I don’t think, at this point in the story, we can miss seeing signs of His presence. I don’t think we can miss seeing his handiwork in how the story is playing out.
How in the world did Hadassah get to be Queen Esther? How in the world did Queen Esther get the King and Haman to this precarious banquet? For such a time as this. How in the world did this unlikely story come about? How in the world was Esther still standing and not Haman at the end of chapter 7?
What are the chances? What is there is no such thing a chance?
How in the world did Haman and Mordecai end up switching places? He may be hidden, but the Lord is clearly sovereignly ruling all things–what we call “providence.”
Now, we’re going to stop here and pick it up again in chapter 8, Lord-willing.
Haman is dead. The king’s anger has subsided. But not everything is resolved. The fate of the Jews is not yet fully decided.
Because when the Persian king makes a law, it cannot be revoked or repealed. And that’s a problem. Because there is a law on the books that says that the Jews must be eradicated in eleven months. Even though Haman won’t be there to see it! The clock is still ticking down, down, down.
It feels like the tide has turned, but maybe not? Or maybe, just maybe, the hidden hand of providence will show up again in ways we cannot predict and maybe cannot even see until it’s all over.
But think about this.
Mordecai was saved because his enemy Haman took his place on the wooden pole. You and I are saved because our enemy Jesus took our place on the wooden pole.
The Bible says, “...God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [still enemies!], Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
He took our place, willingly.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13, NIV).
Haman was cursed, but he deserved it.
We were cursed, and we deserved it.
But King Jesus took our curse, and He didn’t deserve it.
And all who put their trust in Him will be redeemed.
