WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.900 If you would open your Bible to the book of Esther chapter 8. 2 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:09.680 We’re going to continue in this book. 3 00:00:09.680 --> 00:00:17.320 But I think I’m going to begin by reading a verse that we began with in Sunday school this morning. 4 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:26.100 Because this is what this book, the book of Esther, the book that never mentions the name of God, is all about the glory of God. 5 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:30.440 It’s all about His wisdom and His understanding. 6 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:41.820 And so this morning Matthew began his Bible study looking at Romans 11, verse 33. 7 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:44.360 He read several verses. 8 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:46.080 I’m going to read just verse 33. 9 00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:50.320 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. 10 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:54.740 How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. 11 00:00:54.740 --> 00:01:08.440 God is amazingly wonderful in His wisdom and in His sovereign workings and in the providence and His care for people. 12 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:15.240 And so as we’ve been studying the book of Esther, the book is all about the providence of God. 13 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:29.940 It’s all about God’s abundant grace to His people, the Jewish people, and His provision for them in the most difficult of circumstances. 14 00:01:29.940 --> 00:01:52.140 And it is the book is filled with so many amazing things that God has done that people, a lot in academia, there are a lot of people who doubt the veracity of the book because there are so many amazing things that happen in this book that it stretches the credibility in their minds. 15 00:01:52.140 --> 00:02:01.780 I’m going to have something more to say about that toward the end of this, but God is amazingly wonderful in what He has done. 16 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:18.280 Chapter 8, so far we’ve looked at the plot of Haman to put Haman, who was a descendant of one of the enemies of the Jews. 17 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:21.980 He happened to be put in charge of all of Persia. 18 00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:23.520 Xerxes was the king. 19 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.680 He was basically the prime minister of Persia. 20 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:30.340 He was in charge of the government. 21 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:40.020 He was upset because a man by the name of Mordecai, who identified himself as a Jew, wouldn’t bow down to him. 22 00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:44.890 He was offended because if Jews don’t bow down to him, then he wants all Jews dead. 23 00:02:44.890 --> 00:02:47.480 That was an ancient enemy anyway. 24 00:02:47.480 --> 00:02:51.920 And he has in the position to be able to do it. 25 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:55.700 And so he plots the death of all the Jews. 26 00:02:55.700 --> 00:02:57.320 This is what the story is about. 27 00:02:57.320 --> 00:03:05.120 And then of course, he plots Haman’s Haman plots Mordecai’s death as well. 28 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:11.320 As chapter 8 opens, God has already done the most remarkable things. 29 00:03:11.320 --> 00:03:22.780 And Haman is the chapter opens as these events open, Haman is literally hanging from the gallows that he had had built for Mordecai. 30 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:25.800 God has already worked that reversal . 31 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:32.260 So I’m going to read chapter 8 and then we’ll discuss it briefly. 32 00:03:32.260 --> 00:03:46.800 But we’re the focus again is on the abundant grace and wisdom and power of God as He works providentially for the good of His people. 33 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:53.080 So, chapter 8, this is God’s holy inerrant word. 34 00:03:53.080 --> 00:04:01.320 On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther. 35 00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:06.960 And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had disclosed what he was to her. 36 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:13.280 The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. 37 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.830 And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. 38 00:04:16.830 --> 00:04:30.980 Then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept, and implored him to avert the evil scheme that Haman the Agagite and his plot, which he had devised against the Jews. 39 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:36.660 The king extended the golden scepter to Esther, so Esther arose and stood before the king. 40 00:04:36.660 --> 00:05:04.460 Then she said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am pleasing in his sight, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 41 00:05:04.460 --> 00:05:10.800 For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people? 42 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:15.100 And how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” 43 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:31.260 So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because he stretched out his hand against the Jews. 44 00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:38.520 Now, you write to the Jews as you see fit in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring. 45 00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:46.520 For a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.” 46 00:05:46.520 --> 00:06:17.580 So the king’s scribes were called at the at that time in the third month, that is the month of Sivan, on the 23rd day, and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, the princes of the provinces, which extended from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to each province according to its script and to every people according to their language, as well as to the Jews according to their script and their language. 47 00:06:17.580 --> 00:06:29.400 He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by the couriers on horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud. 48 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:49.760 And them, the king granted the Jews, who were in each and every city, the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil. 49 00:06:49.760 --> 00:06:58.940 On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the 13th day of the 12th month, that is the month of Adar. 50 00:06:58.940 --> 00:07:12.440 A copy of the edict to be issued as law in each and every province was published to all the peoples so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 51 00:07:12.440 --> 00:07:23.700 The couriers hastened and impelled by the king’s command went out, riding on the royal steeds, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. 52 00:07:23.700 --> 00:07:37.420 Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a large crown of gold, and a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. 53 00:07:37.420 --> 00:07:41.760 For the Jews, there was light and gladness, and joy and honor. 54 00:07:41.760 --> 00:08:00.530 In each and every province, and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday, and many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them. 55 00:08:00.530 --> 00:08:03.900 May I ask God to bless His word this morning. 56 00:08:03.900 --> 00:08:07.600 Father, we thank You for the richness of Your grace. 57 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:12.940 We thank You, Father, for preserving this account for us in Your word. 58 00:08:12.940 --> 00:08:16.100 And we thank You, Father, for all that we can learn from it this morning. 59 00:08:16.100 --> 00:08:21.940 Open our hearts to be able to see Your glory through this page from Your word. 60 00:08:21.940 --> 00:08:24.420 We ask this in Christ’s name. 61 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:28.140 Amen. 62 00:08:28.140 --> 00:08:33.860 This chapter begins with the reversals that are taking place. 63 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:51.920 And in the first two verses, what you see is the place that Queen Esther and Mordecai have risen in authority over in the Persian Empire. 64 00:08:51.920 --> 00:09:00.640 That’s what is called to our attention as this chapter opens. 65 00:09:00.640 --> 00:09:11.820 King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, all the property, all the estate of Haman is given over to Esther, Queen Esther. 66 00:09:11.820 --> 00:09:19.900 And so all that he owns, which is pretty significant, is given over and entrusted to Esther. 67 00:09:19.900 --> 00:09:28.620 It’s interesting because it says that apparently Xerxes doesn’t know what’s going on much yet. 68 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:31.720 His eyes have been opened in the last 24 hours. 69 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:35.040 And he’s learned that his wife is a Jew. 70 00:09:35.040 --> 00:09:53.400 And she tells him that Mordecai, this man that he has recently honored, who had some years before had literally saved his life by informing him about a couple of assassins, is actually her older cousin. 71 00:09:53.400 --> 00:10:00.920 And so he, realizing that, brings him into his presence. 72 00:10:00.920 --> 00:10:06.040 He used to be an official for the king, never entered the palace. 73 00:10:06.040 --> 00:10:12.300 He was out there something like an accountant, sitting at the king’s gate, sitting at the gate of the city. 74 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:16.100 But here he is actually brought into the palace. 75 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:24.020 The king takes off the signet ring that he had taken from Haman, his own seal, and he entrusts that to Mordecai. 76 00:10:24.020 --> 00:10:33.580 So Mordecai is now basically the prime minister of all of Persia, the greatest empire in the world by far. 77 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:42.560 Some say the greatest empire to ever have existed in terms of political power, military might compared to the rest of the world. 78 00:10:42.560 --> 00:10:45.720 So it’s an interesting, interesting development. 79 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:58.140 So you have all of this great blessing, turnaround that has just taken place. 80 00:10:58.140 --> 00:11:07.140 So it’s a time for Haman, for Esther, I mean for Mordecai and for Esther, seeing the justice that’s just taken place with Haman. 81 00:11:07.140 --> 00:11:09.540 It must be a time of joy for them. 82 00:11:09.540 --> 00:11:12.100 And yet, it’s not over. 83 00:11:12.100 --> 00:11:13.540 It’s not complete. 84 00:11:13.540 --> 00:11:28.960 And the reason that it’s not complete is because the order that the king had signed that Haman had written is the law of the land, and it is a law that not even the king can revoke. 85 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:32.200 And so that is still before them. 86 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:45.200 What is still before them is that when the month comes, when the day comes, as it stands right now, it is still the law of the land to kill all the Jews. 87 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:55.040 And Mordecai may be safe in the capital, and Esther may be safe in the capital, but all their people are not safe at all. 88 00:11:55.040 --> 00:12:07.660 And so what happens next is that Esther falls before Xerxes, pleading before for her people. 89 00:12:07.660 --> 00:12:26.200 It reminds you of Romans chapter 9 and 10 when the Apostle Paul cries out for his people. 90 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:31.120 When he identifies with his own people, crying out for them. 91 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:39.600 It’s one thing to be saved as Paul was, and to be able to look at all of your people and realize that they are lost. 92 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:44.060 He looked at the Jewish people and he realized that they were lost. 93 00:12:44.060 --> 00:12:49.180 The same thing has happened here in a very physical sense. 94 00:12:49.180 --> 00:12:59.260 Esther may be safe, Mordecai may be secure inside that palace, but all their people are lost, and their heart goes out to them. 95 00:12:59.260 --> 00:13:00.780 Look at the words. 96 00:13:00.780 --> 00:13:08.340 Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept, implored to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite. 97 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:16.280 And she does this by going into his presence unbidden, which means that she once again put her life on the line to do this. 98 00:13:16.280 --> 00:13:26.120 She falls before she falls before Xerxes. 99 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:32.740 Now, I’m going to just mention this because I found it quite interesting, so I’m going to take just a minute to talk about this. 100 00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:47.360 But one of the interesting themes in this book that I haven’t talked about is there are several little motifs that the writer, probably Mordecai, included as he wrote this book. 101 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.260 And one of them was this thing about falling . 102 00:13:50.260 --> 00:13:55.140 You remember how the story began? 103 00:13:55.140 --> 00:14:00.800 Haman was upset because he expected Mordecai to bow in his presence. 104 00:14:00.800 --> 00:14:03.520 He wouldn’t bow in his presence. 105 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:11.220 And so the very next thing that happens in chapter 3 is that is the casting of the pur . 106 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:28.020 And the very language that God uses as He inspires this book is very interesting there because Haman wouldn’t bow before Haman, but they made this little pur , this dice, this little lot. 107 00:14:28.020 --> 00:14:30.920 They made that fall before Haman. 108 00:14:30.920 --> 00:14:33.180 The word is used very deliberately. 109 00:14:33.180 --> 00:14:36.220 The Hebrew word is naphal . 110 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:38.640 And it means to fall. 111 00:14:38.640 --> 00:14:41.480 They made that little die fall before him. 112 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:42.980 They cast the lot. 113 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:43.900 It fell before them. 114 00:14:43.900 --> 00:14:48.740 They did that multiple times, once for each day of the month, once for each month of the year. 115 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:56.800 So they picked the day when all the Jews would be killed, annihilated, and destroyed, as the language goes there. 116 00:14:56.800 --> 00:15:01.680 And so that was deliberate. 117 00:15:01.680 --> 00:15:04.180 The language used there is not a coincidence. 118 00:15:04.180 --> 00:15:10.040 The writer intended that, to call attention to this word fall . 119 00:15:10.040 --> 00:15:16.900 And that’s picked up again and again through the book. 120 00:15:16.900 --> 00:15:19.860 Haman doesn’t get his way as he expects. 121 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:27.320 He expects to have to go to Xerxes and have Xerxes tell him that he can put Mordecai to death. 122 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:35.600 But instead, he finds out he has to exalt Mordecai, parade him through the city, dressed in royal robes. 123 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:37.800 And it’s humiliating to him. 124 00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:41.080 He goes back to get some encouragement from his dear wife. 125 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:49.080 And his dear wife says, “Before Mordecai, this person whom you are falling , about to fall .” 126 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:52.900 Same word, the same word naphal is used there. 127 00:15:52.900 --> 00:15:55.200 “You’re about to fall before this man.” 128 00:15:55.200 --> 00:16:05.460 The next chapter, Haman literally falls at the feet of Esther. 129 00:16:05.460 --> 00:16:08.100 So you see the shift? 130 00:16:08.100 --> 00:16:11.080 He wants Mordecai to bow down to him. 131 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:15.180 He’s falling at Esther’s feet. 132 00:16:15.180 --> 00:16:17.240 And why is he falling at Esther’s feet? 133 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:19.840 Because he’s pleading for his own life. 134 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:23.780 He’s desperately pleading for his own life. 135 00:16:23.780 --> 00:16:26.200 Xerxes doesn’t spare his life. 136 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:33.120 But then in chapter 8, Esther falls at the feet of the king. 137 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:36.700 And she doesn’t do so to plead for her life. 138 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:41.080 She does so to plead for the life of all her people. 139 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:43.820 She’s concerned about her people. 140 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:47.780 You know, we need to be concerned about our people. 141 00:16:47.780 --> 00:16:56.560 We need to be concerned about the loved ones, our brothers and sisters, and our cousins, and our friends who don’t know the Lord Jesus. 142 00:16:56.560 --> 00:17:03.720 We need to be concerned the way the Apostle Paul was concerned about his people. 143 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:17.900 The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 9, verse 1, I’m telling the truth in Christ, I’m not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 144 00:17:17.900 --> 00:17:35.760 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service and the promises. 145 00:17:35.760 --> 00:17:37.720 Do you hear what he is saying here? 146 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:41.540 This is what is the right of the Jewish people. 147 00:17:41.540 --> 00:17:43.120 This is their heritage. 148 00:17:43.120 --> 00:17:51.060 The heritage of the Jewish people, his kinsmen, is Israelites who belong the adoption of sons. 149 00:17:51.060 --> 00:17:54.300 I mean, that should be the natural thing. 150 00:17:54.300 --> 00:17:56.780 And the glory and the covenants. 151 00:17:56.780 --> 00:18:02.840 They received the covenants of God, the promises of God, the law and the temple service, and the promises. 152 00:18:02.840 --> 00:18:05.380 Whose are the fathers? 153 00:18:05.380 --> 00:18:10.360 Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. 154 00:18:10.360 --> 00:18:17.220 And yet, they’ve rejected the Messiah, and they are lost. 155 00:18:17.220 --> 00:18:24.340 He goes on to say, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” 156 00:18:24.340 --> 00:18:26.840 And he wants to see them come to faith. 157 00:18:26.840 --> 00:18:28.680 He wants to see them saved. 158 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:31.060 That’s the right response for anyone. 159 00:18:31.060 --> 00:18:34.820 If you’ve received the Lord Jesus, what a wonderful blessing it is. 160 00:18:34.820 --> 00:18:40.780 You can be safe in the palace, but what about everyone else? 161 00:18:40.780 --> 00:18:53.880 And so it’s right for us to be praying for and witnessing to and sharing the gospel and giving out Bibles worldwide to see people come to faith. 162 00:18:53.880 --> 00:19:01.840 So the king responds in the next few verses, and he says basically, “Well, I’ve done everything already.” 163 00:19:01.840 --> 00:19:08.080 He says, “I’ve given you, I’ve put Haman to death because of his of what he has done. 164 00:19:08.080 --> 00:19:16.460 I have entrusted his estate to to you, Esther, and Mordecai is given given the ring. 165 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:18.480 Write the law any way you want it. 166 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:20.180 I can’t revoke the law. 167 00:19:20.180 --> 00:19:24.720 Write a law any way that you wish and send it out.” 168 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:28.040 And so he has given Mordecai the ring. 169 00:19:28.040 --> 00:19:31.840 So Mordecai has the authority to do it. 170 00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:36.800 And so that’s basically what unfolds next. 171 00:19:36.800 --> 00:19:39.080 Haman has written a decree. 172 00:19:39.080 --> 00:19:43.000 The decree is in chapter 3, verses 12 through 14. 173 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:46.100 You can go and read that later. 174 00:19:46.100 --> 00:19:55.940 But the interesting thing there is that when Mordecai writes this decree, his counter decree, he uses exactly the same language. 175 00:19:55.940 --> 00:20:05.920 He picks up the decree that Haman has already written, and he writes he writes essentially the same thing, using the same kind of wording throughout there. 176 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:13.220 The same, you know, the same destroy, kill, and annihilate. 177 00:20:13.220 --> 00:20:14.540 All that language exactly. 178 00:20:14.540 --> 00:20:15.500 Where did that come from? 179 00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:17.180 It came from Haman’s decree. 180 00:20:17.180 --> 00:20:19.100 You can read it in chapter 3. 181 00:20:19.100 --> 00:20:22.080 In fact, it’s the same structure. 182 00:20:22.080 --> 00:20:24.000 It’s the same wording. 183 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:26.740 It’s sealed with the same signet ring. 184 00:20:26.740 --> 00:20:37.300 It’s translated into the same languages, and it’s carried by the king’s the same king’s couriers throughout all the parts of the kingdom. 185 00:20:37.300 --> 00:20:40.580 But the purpose is exactly the opposite. 186 00:20:40.580 --> 00:20:49.040 It gives the Jewish people the right to defend themselves, and it gives the support of Persia to the Jewish people. 187 00:20:49.040 --> 00:20:51.200 And it makes all the difference. 188 00:20:51.200 --> 00:21:01.240 And so as as this decree goes out, you have huge transformation that takes place. 189 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:02.920 It’s just incredible. 190 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:15.440 When Haman wrote his decree, they get the word in Susa, in the citadel of Susa, the the palace, the kingdom, the the capital city of Persia there. 191 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:19.060 And all of Susa is in confusion. 192 00:21:19.060 --> 00:21:28.140 This time when Mordecai’s decree is sent out, all of Susa is rejoicing. 193 00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:30.570 There’s rejoicing throughout the city. 194 00:21:30.570 --> 00:21:38.060 It’s throughout all the provinces, throughout all the all the places where this is carried out. 195 00:21:38.060 --> 00:21:45.300 There is great rejoicing throughout the the kingdom of Persia. 196 00:21:45.300 --> 00:21:56.760 And so Mordecai is now not wearing his sackcloth and ashes that you saw him in earlier in chapter 3 and 4. 197 00:21:56.760 --> 00:22:00.640 Instead, he’s dressed in these royal robes. 198 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.120 There’s not mourning and fasting. 199 00:22:03.120 --> 00:22:06.280 They were mourning and grieving. 200 00:22:06.280 --> 00:22:12.380 But now there is feasting and rejoicing in verses 16 and 17. 201 00:22:12.380 --> 00:22:17.500 The despair that they had is now turned to joy. 202 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:22.840 The mourning, the grief to light and gladness and honor. 203 00:22:22.840 --> 00:22:23.940 That’s what that’s how this is. 204 00:22:23.940 --> 00:22:27.620 And you know, you know how this can happen? 205 00:22:27.620 --> 00:22:30.000 Such a radical turnaround ? 206 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:36.400 The only way for this to happen is for God to do it. 207 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:40.740 This story is all about the transformation that God makes. 208 00:22:40.740 --> 00:22:45.300 He is the one who takes ashes and turns them into the joy. 209 00:22:45.300 --> 00:22:49.280 He’s the one who transforms misery. 210 00:22:49.280 --> 00:22:59.680 He’s the one that takes us out of the kingdom of darkness and translates us into the kingdom of light to give us joy and hope and eternal life. 211 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:07.380 He’s the one that makes these radical changes. 212 00:23:07.380 --> 00:23:10.820 So at the beginning of the book, the Jews are oppressed. 213 00:23:10.820 --> 00:23:16.100 They’re marginalized. 214 00:23:16.100 --> 00:23:22.660 It’s dangerous for if you’re a Jew to let people know that you’re Jewish. 215 00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:26.840 And so Mordecai tells Esther, “Don’t tell anybody you’re Jewish.” 216 00:23:26.840 --> 00:23:29.280 That’s the world they lived in. 217 00:23:29.280 --> 00:23:30.480 It was an oppressed world. 218 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:44.320 It’s like some missionaries where you don’t see their picture when you read about them because it’s too dangerous for them to be revealed to their government would do something about it if they if they knew who they were. 219 00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:48.020 And so that’s the way it was. 220 00:23:48.020 --> 00:23:50.240 How does this chapter end? 221 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.460 Well, look at it. 222 00:23:51.460 --> 00:24:00.200 Look at verse 10 of chapter 8, verse 17, I’m sorry. 223 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:16.800 In each and every province, and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday, and many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them. 224 00:24:16.800 --> 00:24:19.220 Before you didn’t want to identify as a Jew. 225 00:24:19.220 --> 00:24:22.200 Now everybody wants to be a Jew. 226 00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:26.000 For the dread of the Jews had fallen on them. 227 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:30.160 You notice that little word naphal ? 228 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:31.880 What fell? 229 00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:35.300 Fear of the Jews on all the people. 230 00:24:35.300 --> 00:24:40.520 Really, the fear of the Lord . 231 00:24:40.520 --> 00:24:55.180 You know, I began by saying that in a lot of academia, you read and people are skeptical of this book because so many reversals, so many amazing things happen. 232 00:24:55.180 --> 00:24:58.260 It just seems incredible to them. 233 00:24:58.260 --> 00:24:59.680 I was thinking about that this week. 234 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:11.280 And one of the things I realized is that I don’t care where you look in Jewish history, you see exactly the same thing. 235 00:25:11.280 --> 00:25:14.120 It’s not just it happened here. 236 00:25:14.120 --> 00:25:18.500 It happens again and again and again. 237 00:25:18.500 --> 00:25:22.760 It happens to this day to the Jewish people. 238 00:25:22.760 --> 00:25:24.020 That’s the truth. 239 00:25:24.020 --> 00:25:33.600 And I’m going to try to take the five minutes I might have left here and convince you of that. 240 00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:44.400 I mean, it’s God’s glory and His character and His wisdom is revealed in His care for His people. 241 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:51.460 And that’s true of the people of Israel. 242 00:25:51.460 --> 00:25:57.880 So look at Israel’s history, and let’s take a look at the same things that happen. 243 00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:05.640 God called, I mean, God called Abraham, and from that time to the present day, God blesses the Jewish people, and He continually delivers. 244 00:26:05.640 --> 00:26:09.780 He continually delivers them from disasters. 245 00:26:09.780 --> 00:26:10.960 That’s one thing. 246 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:12.880 That’s just one side of this. 247 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:14.460 They survive. 248 00:26:14.460 --> 00:26:21.480 You don’t find many ancient peoples existent today, but you find Jewish the Jewish people existent. 249 00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:28.520 That ancient people of Israel still here, still here in the world. 250 00:26:28.520 --> 00:26:40.880 When you look at history, many of the greatest nations in history, many of the greatest empires attacked the Jews with the intent of destroying them. 251 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:43.700 Many of them. 252 00:26:43.700 --> 00:26:45.920 Beginning with the Egyptians. 253 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:50.180 Thinking about the Egyptians, the Egyptians, they were slaves in Egypt. 254 00:26:50.180 --> 00:26:56.480 They come out under the hand of Moses, under the power of God with all those miracles. 255 00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:01.200 The last miracle is the the death of the firstborn in Egypt. 256 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:04.900 They chased them out to the Red Sea where they’re trapped. 257 00:27:04.900 --> 00:27:08.880 Do you think that the Pharaoh would have spared any of them? 258 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:11.000 Of course not. 259 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:16.080 They were doomed there, except for God opening up the way. 260 00:27:16.080 --> 00:27:17.880 And exactly the opposite happens. 261 00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:26.040 The waters open up for the children of Israel, that closes over the Egyptian army. 262 00:27:26.040 --> 00:27:28.200 Egypt. 263 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:33.900 The Assyrians attacked them, would have destroyed them. 264 00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:36.190 God stopped them from entering into Jerusalem. 265 00:27:36.190 --> 00:27:39.750 He but they took the northern kingdom. 266 00:27:39.750 --> 00:27:42.540 The Babylonians, same thing. 267 00:27:42.540 --> 00:27:44.480 They destroyed Jerusalem. 268 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:47.880 They destroyed the temple, carried them away. 269 00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:51.880 The Persians with Haman in this in this account. 270 00:27:51.880 --> 00:27:53.880 We have all of that. 271 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:56.570 The Greeks did the same thing. 272 00:27:56.570 --> 00:28:02.360 Do you remember the story of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, trying to destroy the Jewish people? 273 00:28:02.360 --> 00:28:05.720 How God turned that around miraculously. 274 00:28:05.720 --> 00:28:07.380 It’s not in the Bible. 275 00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:13.340 It’s in that little 400-year period between the Testaments. 276 00:28:13.340 --> 00:28:18.140 The Romans coming in in 70 AD. 277 00:28:18.140 --> 00:28:21.420 European powers doing the same thing. 278 00:28:21.420 --> 00:28:25.170 The Spanish Inquisition trying to wipe them out. 279 00:28:25.170 --> 00:28:35.600 The Nazi Germany, 6 million of them put to death, and who knows how many were lost in all of that. 280 00:28:35.600 --> 00:28:39.680 They returned to the land of Israel in 1948. 281 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:40.910 I mean, incredible. 282 00:28:40.910 --> 00:28:48.360 They’re the I mean, back in their homeland after after being carried away in the Babylonian captivity. 283 00:28:48.360 --> 00:28:52.980 They they are actually a nation, not until 1948. 284 00:28:52.980 --> 00:28:59.560 That’s when they’re under they’re an autonomous nation again. 285 00:28:59.560 --> 00:29:01.820 And then today. 286 00:29:01.820 --> 00:29:11.740 Back you might remember back in October 7th, this past October 7th, 1,200 of them were murdered. 287 00:29:11.740 --> 00:29:14.200 They took 250 people hostage. 288 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:17.460 You remember the Hamas attack on them. 289 00:29:17.460 --> 00:29:34.140 Do you remember what happened on that the day after that in the United States and in in New York City and in cities all over the world as liberal people who I’m not going to say anything else. 290 00:29:34.140 --> 00:29:44.380 They they celebrated saying from the river to the sea, asking saying death to the to Israel. 291 00:29:44.380 --> 00:29:46.200 You remember all of that? 292 00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:48.480 Do you know what happened since then? 293 00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:52.800 19,000 missile attacks on Israel. 294 00:29:52.800 --> 00:29:54.920 19,000. 295 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:57.380 And they’re here today. 296 00:29:57.380 --> 00:30:00.700 God is still protecting them and preserving them. 297 00:30:00.700 --> 00:30:04.600 Do you know how many Jews there are in the world? 298 00:30:04.600 --> 00:30:06.540 Not many. 299 00:30:06.540 --> 00:30:09.620 Not many. 300 00:30:09.620 --> 00:30:17.530 2/10 of 1% of the world’s population is Jewish. 301 00:30:17.530 --> 00:30:20.420 2/10 of 1%. 302 00:30:20.420 --> 00:30:22.260 Not a big number, is it? 303 00:30:22.260 --> 00:30:36.040 About 15 million people who are practicing Jews out of a world of 8 billion. 304 00:30:36.040 --> 00:30:41.900 And yet God continues to keep His promises to the Jews. 305 00:30:41.900 --> 00:30:50.100 One of the things that came up in Sunday school this morning is can God bless His people even through unregenerate people? 306 00:30:50.100 --> 00:30:51.620 He can bless He chooses. 307 00:30:51.620 --> 00:30:55.820 He actually does that through common grace ordinarily. 308 00:30:55.820 --> 00:31:00.220 And He blesses the world today through the Jewish people. 309 00:31:00.220 --> 00:31:04.640 He blesses the world through the Jewish people. 310 00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:10.420 They’re 2/10 of 1% of the world’s population. 311 00:31:10.420 --> 00:31:18.190 When I was when my kids were young, we they became interested in classical music, and they all studied classical music. 312 00:31:18.190 --> 00:31:24.600 And my two sons studied both of their one cello and one violin. 313 00:31:24.600 --> 00:31:28.160 They both studied their teachers were Jewish. 314 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:36.000 And I thought it was interesting, but as I began to learn more about classical music myself, I realized that’s really kind of interesting. 315 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:39.780 The classical world’s filled with Jewish people. 316 00:31:39.780 --> 00:31:56.400 And you know, composers, at least at least 10% of famous classical composers are Jewish, like Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler and Schoenberg and Gershwin and Copland and Bernstein. 317 00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:01.910 And great violinists like Isaac Perlman and Isaac Stern. 318 00:32:01.910 --> 00:32:03.950 It’s Perlman and Isaac Stern. 319 00:32:03.950 --> 00:32:06.880 They’re and and on and on. 320 00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:08.880 I mean, the list is is long. 321 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:11.310 That’s just classical music. 322 00:32:11.310 --> 00:32:17.900 2/10 of 1% of the world population, at least 10% of classical composers. 323 00:32:17.900 --> 00:32:20.680 Does that make sense? 324 00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:27.060 And if you look at most any part of the music world, jazz musicians, it’s the same thing. 325 00:32:27.060 --> 00:32:32.000 Benny Goodman, King of Swing, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, and Stan Getz. 326 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:38.240 It’s kind of interesting, isn’t it, that people that rise to the top of these things, so many of them are Jewish. 327 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:40.120 My kids play chess. 328 00:32:40.120 --> 00:32:44.400 We competed in scholastic chess. 329 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:46.240 All of my kids play chess. 330 00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:48.490 It was kind of it was it was a fun time. 331 00:32:48.490 --> 00:32:52.300 But you know what’s the chess world is like? 332 00:32:52.300 --> 00:32:55.830 Half of the chess masters in the world are Jewish. 333 00:32:55.830 --> 00:33:00.740 2/10 of 1% of the population of the world. 334 00:33:00.740 --> 00:33:09.030 When when it when the when you’re looking at grand masters, about 20% of them are Jewish, of the grand masters in the world. 335 00:33:09.030 --> 00:33:13.580 And and you have either Jewish or of Jewish descent. 336 00:33:13.580 --> 00:33:21.360 So you have Garry Kasparov, and Bobby Fischer’s father was Jewish. 337 00:33:21.360 --> 00:33:29.160 You have Botvinnik, and Lasker, and Polgar, and long list of names there. 338 00:33:29.160 --> 00:33:30.840 Why is that? 339 00:33:30.840 --> 00:33:39.000 Why is it that these people who come to the top of these things, so many of them are Jewish when you’re talking about 2/10 of 1%? 340 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:41.120 Does it make sense? 341 00:33:41.120 --> 00:33:42.560 Scientists. 342 00:33:42.560 --> 00:33:47.180 When you look at scientists, Nobel Prize winners. 343 00:33:47.180 --> 00:33:59.260 If you look at the list of Nobel Prize winners for the hard sciences, for medicine and physiology, 26% Jewish. 344 00:33:59.260 --> 00:34:02.120 Does that make sense to you? 345 00:34:02.120 --> 00:34:06.580 Not statistically, it doesn’t make sense. 346 00:34:06.580 --> 00:34:18.900 But from the promise of God , who promised and said, “Abraham, through your people, all the nations of the world will be blessed.” 347 00:34:18.900 --> 00:34:21.020 It makes sense. 348 00:34:21.020 --> 00:34:24.560 God does not has not revoked His promises. 349 00:34:24.560 --> 00:34:27.720 He doesn’t revoke His promise to the Jewish people. 350 00:34:27.720 --> 00:34:31.780 He’s still holding that out. 351 00:34:31.780 --> 00:34:35.380 Why do the world hate them? 352 00:34:35.380 --> 00:34:41.300 They hated them in and was trying to destroy them in the Old Testament because Satan wanted them destroyed. 353 00:34:41.300 --> 00:34:45.220 He wanted to prevent the Messiah from coming. 354 00:34:45.220 --> 00:34:47.980 Why do they hate them now? 355 00:34:47.980 --> 00:34:55.500 In the book of Romans , the Apostle Paul says the most amazing thing. 356 00:34:55.500 --> 00:35:12.220 He says, “If the Jewish people in their falling away, in their rejection of Christ, opens up blessing to the Gentile, how much more it will be when God brings them back?” 357 00:35:12.220 --> 00:35:13.240 That’s my paraphrase. 358 00:35:13.240 --> 00:35:20.260 How much more, how much more blessing it will be when God restores Israel? 359 00:35:20.260 --> 00:35:27.360 And the way he talks in chapter 10 and 11, it doesn’t look like there’s much much of an alternative to that. 360 00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:29.060 He will restore. 361 00:35:29.060 --> 00:35:31.280 In other words, think of it this way. 362 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:38.760 The first time they’re preventing the coming of Christ, the second time they’re hindering the second coming of Christ. 363 00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:42.240 And they’re trying to do it both times through the Jewish people. 364 00:35:42.240 --> 00:35:45.460 Satan is opposed to them. 365 00:35:45.460 --> 00:35:49.240 You can look at all this stuff, all these blessings. 366 00:35:49.240 --> 00:35:53.000 You have to see it as God’s blessing His people. 367 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:55.140 God’s blessing the nations. 368 00:35:55.140 --> 00:35:57.460 You know how it’s perceived? 369 00:35:57.460 --> 00:36:00.260 Why are these people so privileged? 370 00:36:00.260 --> 00:36:02.380 It’s not that they’re privileged. 371 00:36:02.380 --> 00:36:13.080 It’s that when they invent a new cure for cancer or something that is helpful, or a treatment for heart disease, it’s a blessing to the world. 372 00:36:13.080 --> 00:36:14.880 That’s a blessing to the world. 373 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:21.340 It’s not their the only thing there is that God is using them to complete His promises. 374 00:36:21.340 --> 00:36:24.820 The glory is God’s. 375 00:36:24.820 --> 00:36:28.560 God is the one that’s doing the work. 376 00:36:28.560 --> 00:36:34.420 And God will bring deliverance and salvation to to to His people ultimately. 377 00:36:34.420 --> 00:36:38.460 He he will bring national Israel back to Himself. 378 00:36:38.460 --> 00:36:41.940 I believe He will. 379 00:36:41.940 --> 00:36:44.420 Just look at it. 380 00:36:44.420 --> 00:36:45.880 Think about it. 381 00:36:45.880 --> 00:36:54.000 How in the world can you say that God has given up on the Jewish people when you just look at any part of it or any part of their history? 382 00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:57.700 No, the book of Esther continues. 383 00:36:57.700 --> 00:37:00.080 God’s providential care continues. 384 00:37:00.080 --> 00:37:02.060 It continues for His people. 385 00:37:02.060 --> 00:37:07.160 It continues especially for the people of God who love Him. 386 00:37:07.160 --> 00:37:22.660 And He works all things to their good, bringing about their sanctification, their the their the work bringing them to better reflect the person of Christ. 387 00:37:22.660 --> 00:37:31.900 So let’s I’m way over, so let me pray for us. 388 00:37:31.900 --> 00:37:42.540 Father, I thank You for for being such a gracious and wonderful and wise God. 389 00:37:42.540 --> 00:37:47.200 I thank You that no matter what, You keep Your promises. 390 00:37:47.200 --> 00:38:05.660 As Paul writes in Romans 11, You they may be our enemy according to the gospel, but You love them because of the fathers, because of the promises that You made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 391 00:38:05.660 --> 00:38:22.820 Father, I thank You that You have shown Your great love to us as well through through through all that took place in the coming of Christ and His crucifixion and and His resurrection and the blessing that we receive. 392 00:38:22.820 --> 00:38:29.040 Father, I thank You that You care about our cares for those around us. 393 00:38:29.040 --> 00:38:38.400 Please bless us, Lord, and enable us to faithfully take Your word, Your gospel, to those around us who need it. 394 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.280 Give us the opportunities. 395 00:38:40.280 --> 00:38:43.340 Father, give us the heart. 396 00:38:43.340 --> 00:38:46.800 And may we weep as Esther wept at the feet of Xerxes. 397 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:55.040 May we we weep before You, Father, for those loved ones that we have who need Your grace and mercy. 398 00:38:55.040 --> 00:38:57.260 Please bless us, Father. 399 00:38:57.260 --> 00:39:00.020 Help us to see many come to faith in Christ. 400 00:39:00.020 --> 00:39:04.200 Please do a great work through Your people. 401 00:39:04.200 --> 00:39:16.000 We ask that, Father, for for for Mayflower Hills, for the Mayflower Hills community, and for the city of Roanoke, and our nation, and Father, for the nations of the world. 402 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:19.960 Please bless Your word as it goes forth. 403 00:39:19.960 --> 00:39:24.020 We thank You, Father, for Your kind graces. 404 00:39:24.020 --> 00:39:27.060 Praise You in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. 405 00:39:27.060 --> 00:39:29.060 Amen.