This sermon explores Esther chapter 9, highlighting God’s unmistakable hand in history through his providence, mercy, and justice. It emphasizes that God orchestrates events, even apparent coincidences, to fulfill his purposes and care for his people, ultimately demonstrated through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Transcript
If you open your Bible to the book of Esther chapter 9, we are going to look at part of this chapter today. In chapter 9, God’s hand is unmistakably present in the great reversal that takes place and is described in the chapter. It works its way out by preserving his people, by executing justice, and calling his people and us to remember his faithful providence. We are going to be looking at the first two of those three things today. We are going to save reflecting on his saving graces for next week. Next week we will close out this study of the book of Esther.
Let me begin by reading chapter 9, or part of it at least, and we are reflecting on this aspect of mercy and justice that we see in this book, in this chapter. This is God’s holy, inerrant word.
Now in the twelfth month, that is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain mastery over them, it was turned to the contrary, so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them. The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand before them, for the dread of them had fallen on all the peoples. Even all the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who were doing the king’s business, assisted the Jews because the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them. Indeed, Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai became greater and greater. Thus the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. At the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, and Parsandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy. But they did not lay hands on the plunder. On that day, the number of those who were killed at the citadel in Susa was reported to the king. The king said to Queen Esther, ‘The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and the ten sons of Haman at the citadel of Susa. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall even be granted to you, and what is your further request? It shall also be done.’ Then said Esther, ‘If it please the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do according to the edict of today. And let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.’ So the king commanded that it should be so. And an edict was issued in Susa, and Haman’s ten sons were hanged. The Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, killed 300 men in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. Now the rest of the Jews, who were in the king’s provinces, assembled to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies, and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they did not lay hands on the plunder. This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day, they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
I will end reading here. We will pick it up next week with the rest of the book. Let me ask God to bless the reading of his word.
Father, we are so grateful for your kind grace and preserving this beautiful account of your providential care for your people, for us. We pray, Father, that as we reflect on this today, that you would guide our thoughts, that you would teach us, Father, your will and your way, and the way that you deal with your people, and Father, with those, the enemies of your people. Guide us, Father, and guide our hearts this morning, and help us to understand your word, and Father, in doing so, help us to know you better. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Esther chapter 9 explores the mercy and the justice of God, this portion of this chapter that I read this morning. What we have just read is that incredible reversal as this day finally arrives. The day that Haman had picked out by rolling dice more than 11 months earlier finally comes, and things go exactly the opposite of the plan of the enemies of the Jews, as verse 1 explains.
We all, if you have lived long enough, you have seen reversals in your life. Things that started out that seemed pretty bad or negative, and then turned out to be maybe one of the better things that you have experienced. God does that quite often in lives. He has done it in my life a number of times. In fact, I would probably have a long list, and I would not bore you with it. Let me just mention a couple things briefly. Early in our marriage, Vicky and I had been married, Jared was two years old. I got a job a month before we got married. I lost the job about two years after we got married. It was not through any fault of my own. I was doing a good job, but I lost the job. So we had a difficult year. But as a result of all of that, we started a business. It was pretty trying, and yet a year later, we were doing far better than we had ever done before. In fact, God blessed us through that. Who knows how long I would have stayed with that company if it had been my choice. So that was providential care.
Last February, a year ago, I had a stroke. You guys remember that, most of you. That is a pretty trying thing to go through. As a result of that, one of the things that incident, through God’s providence, helped me change was I began to take a little better care of myself. I do not know where that will lead. God holds our breath in his hand. But I do know that since I have been taking a little better care of myself, watching what I eat, getting a little more exercise, I feel better and can do more than I could do before. So there is a blessing in that. There are all sorts of experiences like that, but I have to also say, I have had lots of experiences in my life: disappointments, the death of loved ones, betrayal of people that I counted on and trusted and loved. I do not exactly know why. I do not see the end of it. I do not know God’s purpose in it for me. I cannot see that far. Really, it is for those moments, it is for these experiences that we continually go through, that God has preserved the book of Esther for us, to remind us that he is in control of all the things, the events in life, to remind us that even in those things where we cannot see the end, we can trust him.
There are lots of scriptures that tell us that God’s thoughts are way above ours. There are a number of passages in the Bible that make it very clear that we cannot comprehend the thoughts of God, and God never calls us to understand him. God never asks us to come to a complete understanding of him. It is impossible. God does ask us to trust him. God preserves his people, and he preserves the account of that preservation for us, so that we know, if we belong to him, we can count ultimately on his great providential care for us.
God’s Providential Reversal
God’s providence is his work over history. His covenant mercy and his care over history is displayed for the people of God. His faithfulness is shown to his people in this account as the plans of his enemies are overturned. As I began in verse 1, the day finally comes. God turned the day of planned defeat into the day of victory for the Jewish people in Esther 9:1. The very day that had been set aside, chosen so carefully by Haman, that very day set for the destruction of the Jews became the day they triumphed over their enemies. What was meant for evil was completely overturned by God’s providence. This chapter explains how it happened. In the last chapter, you remember where the reversal begins, last week we looked at how when after the death of Haman, after Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai, Mordecai rose, came into the presence of the king and rose to the very place that Haman had occupied. As a result of all of that, Mordecai was able to send out a decree in the name of the king, which reflected pretty much perfectly the first decree that had gone out. This time though, allowing the Jewish people to have the resources and the ability to defend themselves against their attackers. So it was a pretty even thing. It was pretty evenly matched thing as far as the decrees are determined. As far as that goes out, Xerxes was involved at that at all, he is saying, ‘Let the best people win.’ That is what had come out of that. He is, it is a pretty evenly matched as far as the decrees are concerned. But chapter 9 explains why it goes so strongly in favor of the Jews and its overwhelming advantage that the Jews ended up with in this reversal. So that is what we see in the first in these first verses as we explore them in verses 2 to 4.
Verses 2 to 4 explains that the fear of God, or more in particular, the fear of God’s people falls on their enemies. God caused the enemies to fear them. He moved the hearts of the rulers, that long list of rulers of the provinces and the satraps and so forth, the governors. He changed their heart. God worked on their heart so that they, they would have been hostile at one point. Now they respect and honor the Jewish people. It is a change of heart, and it is worked by the providence and the care of God. God can, the Proverbs says that he can direct the heart of the prince in his hand like a stream of water. Like when you turn the water faucet on, you pull your hand, you could direct it over to one side or the other. God can direct the heart of a king that way. So we are seeing this take place. The princes, the rulers, they began to respect, have much more respect for the Jewish people, in part because they are intimidated and fearful of Mordecai. Mordecai has risen in authority and power, and God has placed him at that level, and the people have this strange fear of him. They began to fear him. They began to be somewhat intimidated by him, and they certainly began to respect him and the Jewish people. That is not a new thing in the Bible. We have seen this kind of thing before. Remember in the book of Exodus as the people have been delivered through the Red Sea, and they are entering into Canaan, and you have all these tribes of people who want to attack them. In Exodus 15 it says, ‘The peoples have heard. They tremble. The dread and fear fall upon them. By the greatness of your arm, they are motionless as a stone.’
The enemies of the Jews were terrified of the Jewish people. Deuteronomy 2:25, God promised the Jewish people there, ‘This day, I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens.’ Something to think about, is it not? If you are involved in a war and all your soldiers are terrified of the enemy, that is not a good thing. It is not, they are not going to be thrilled to be engaging in the battle to begin with, and they are going to be intimidated. It is not a good, you are starting out very badly. When Joshua, when Joshua is going to is actually they are moving into the land, you remember the words of Rahab to the two spies who were there. She says, ‘All, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea.’ They are terrified before the Jewish people. They are all frightened. They are all afraid. You remember Gideon and his 300 men? 300 men, he leads out against 100,000 Midianites. They go up around the mountains, and they have no real weapons. They do not have anything. They take, they take a torch out of the which is hidden in a little pitcher, and they pull it out so they can see the torch. They smash all the pitchers, and they hear that sound that wakes all of them up in the camp, and they are terrified, and they start running in great fright. There are lots of wars, Jewish wars that come about this way. So God has worked to bring about the fear of his people to alter the outcome of this day when it finally takes place.
The Doctrine of Providence
God is God cares for this world that he has created. The doctrine of providence is that God has not left this world to run on its own, but he lovingly cares for this world, and the history of this world is God’s own story. It is his story. So that is what it means. Providence means that God has not abandoned the world he created. He directs all things to the final goal that he himself has appointed. That goal is his own glory. As we learned in the Bible study this morning, because God’s glory, Christ’s glory, because we are in Christ, Christ’s glory is always for the good of his people. Christ’s glory, our good. You can look at all sorts of places in history and see that hand of providence. So that is part of that lesson, part of what we are looking at is God providentially cares over his over his history, over his people.
I do not know if many of you remember the account about the story of Dunkirk in World War II. Remember that? The Allied forces, more than 300,000 soldiers were trapped by Hitler’s forces. They were on the beaches of Dunkirk, a little French town there, the beaches of Dunkirk. They were against the sea. They were visible. The Luftwaffe, which was the German Air Force, was flying over and strafing them, killing thousands of them. They had no hope. It was desperate. The whole Allied force, this is pretty much the main part of the Allied force, was trapped. They could not get out. Hitler, all he had to do was come in and push his own forces to close them off and wipe them out, and that would have been it. From their perspective, it seemed pretty hopeless. A British officer sent a message, three words, and it said, ‘But if not.’ Back in 1940, when this took place in Britain, the British were pretty biblically literate. They knew what those three words meant. It was not a code. They knew that it was a reference in the Bible. They immediately thought of the account in Daniel chapter 3, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are asked to, are ordered to bow down in front of that golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar had built, and they had refused to do so. Nebuchadnezzar says, ‘I will throw you. I will certainly throw you into this fiery furnace.’ You remember the response? They said, ‘If it be so, if you throw us in that fiery furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image which you have set up.’ That is what they said. That is what that officer meant with that three-word message, and that is what the people understood. We are in a hopeless situation. It is like being thrown, it is doom. There is no way out of this as far as we can see. But our trust is in God.
Winston Churchill, when faced that problem, he sent a message to everyone, everyone eventually got this, that anyone who owned a boat, any kind of a boat, if you owned a boat, ‘We are commissioning your boat. You, you get in your boat, sail across the English Channel to Dunkirk and see if you can pick up a soldier or two and bring them back.’ His hope was out of the 350,000 people, maybe 20,000, maybe as many as 20,000 might be brought back. The King of England, George VI, called for a day of prayer. If you do not know this story, I encourage you to look it up. He called for a day of prayer on May the 26th, 1940. He instructed the people to turn back to God in repentance, plead for God’s help. Millions of people across the British Isles flocked into their churches. They filled up their churches. There are photographs from, there are photographs of outside the churches, not only they filled up the churches, but there are long lines going for blocks for people waiting to get into the church so they can pray in the churches.
Two things happened. First of all, a violent storm rose over Dunkirk. That storm shut down the German Air Force. The Luftwaffe had to stay grounded. That meant that the soldiers were getting strafed and slaughtered by the by the planes. The second thing that happened is that an incredible calm settled over the English Channel, the like of which had not been seen for more than 30 years, which allowed hundreds of tiny boats to sail across and rescue 335,000 soldiers. Almost all of them were brought back. They called that the Dunkirk miracle. You think about that. World War II is decided by the way the wind blew on a particular day. Think about that. It would have been a different ending on that war. Providence. The doctrine of providence means that these things that may appear as mere coincidences are in reality the unfolding of God’s continuing care for his people. God cares, and he oversees the history of this world.
God’s Mercy and Justice
He shows incredible mercy. The mercy that God shows the Jewish people here is not because they are especially perfect or good people. It is not because of their merit that he shows them this. That is not the reason that we see this unfolding of his grace here. Because the reason they are in Persia is because their forefathers had been idolatrous. So they are here, and God has used this to bring them to a place of repentance. He shows them mercy because of his promise to the people of Israel. He had told Abraham that he would bless Abraham and his descendants, that he would bless those who bless them, and he would curse those who curse them. God remembers his covenant with Abraham. He remembers the covenant promise that he has with his people. God does that. He remembers his promises, and he remembers his covenant.
The next thing that takes place is that God executes justice over the enemies of his people. The enemies of God’s people are God’s enemies. Put it the other way, the enemies of God are also the enemies of his people. Verses 5 to 7 in particular, probably sounds a little harsh, does it not? 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. That sounds a little extreme, maybe something like vengeance perhaps. It is not vengeance. What we see here is justice. God’s justice operates through means. We can see that this is justice and not vengeance. If you even going back to verse 2, when it is explaining what happens in this overall summary, it says that the Jews laid hands on those who sought to harm them. The enemies of the Jews were the ones who initiated this, and they are the ones who were to bring about the harm. So one of the things, one of the ways that you see that this is not extreme, this is justice. God is using the Jewish people to bring justice to these people who have attacked them and who are their enemies. The enemies of the Jews deserve justice, and God brings justice through this conflict that they had themselves appointed. It is perfect because it is just like the gallows that Haman hangs on. Because this is these wicked people planned the destruction of the Jewish people, and when that day came around, it proved to be their destruction instead. God working a perfect justice where the one who digs the pit falls into it, as the Proverbs says, or he who rolls the stone, it comes back on him. That is exactly what happens to these people. If you want to see the measure of that, why this is not extreme or why it is not a vengeful thing on the Jews’ part, it is measured. All the way through here, for example, they are there is they take action, they carry it out, but there is a restraint that takes place. One of the places that you see that is that three times, in verse 10, in verse 15, and in verse 16, it says that they do not take the plunder. According to the decree, you can destroy the people, you take all their stuff. But the Jews do not take the stuff. They do not take the plunder. They do not take it in Susa. They do not take it through any of the provinces. So it shows a measure of restraint. So the enemies of the Jews deserve justice because of their wicked deeds. That is true for us all. We deserve justice. If we get the justice of God, we would get all that the Bible says: the wages of sin is death, the second death is the lake of fire. All those things is what justice would mean to us.
Application/Conclusion
But we are shown mercy, the mercy of God. Do you know where you see that perfectly in the Bible? The mercy of God and the justice of God? You see that at the cross of Jesus Christ. That is when it all comes together. That is where it all comes together. You might remember or have heard before that explanation or have seen it that is sometimes used to teach children about grace and the cross. They picture three crosses. The center cross is the cross of the Lord Jesus, and the two other crosses reflect the cross of the two thieves. They draw three crosses on a piece of paper, and over the middle cross, they write the words ‘on not in.’ On the first thief’s cross, they write the words ‘in not on.’ On the other thief’s cross, they write the words ‘on and in.’ What does all that mean? It is talking about their sin. Jesus Christ was absolutely sinless. There was no sin at all in him. Yet the sins of mankind was placed upon him. One of the thieves, the first thief, is sinful. Sin is in him. Yet he puts his trust in Christ for salvation. He says to him, ‘Lord, remember me when you enter your paradise.’ Jesus promises him that today he would be with him in paradise. He had sin in him, but the guilt of sin was placed on Jesus. The other thief had sin in him, and that guilt of that sin remained on him, and he bore the ultimate price of all that sin. Jesus Christ on the cross brings perfect justice, so that all sin, the debt of all sin is satisfied completely through the cross and through the judgment that falls on all those who enter into hell. Jesus bore that hell for those who put their trust in him, those people whom become the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Everyone else, like Haman, like Haman’s ten sons, who plotted the death of Mordecai, the sin and the weight of sin abides on them, so they suffer this consequence and the eternal consequence as well. God deals with us with amazing love. As we studied this morning in the study, God loves us with a mighty love that is incomprehensible, that while we were guilty before him and deserved the judgment that we are talking about, he set his love on us, and he saves us by taking that debt upon himself and paying that debt that we owe. That is the gospel. That is what we enjoy in Jesus Christ. We become his people, part of his covenant. Just as God promised Abraham and keeps his word, God promises us in Christ, and we are secure in him forever. Let me close with that and pray.
Father, we thank you for the richness of your mercies in Christ Jesus. We thank you for your love for us. We ask, Lord, that you help us as we consider these things to reflect on the wonder of your grace. How we deserve justice, and yet by your mercy, we have received kindness and love for all of eternity. We ask, Father, that you grow our hearts in appreciation. You help us to love you, Father, with a mighty love. Father, I pray that you help us to be obedient servants, that we might, we might bring glory to the name of Christ as you work in us to perfect us into the image of our Savior. We ask this in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, for his sake, for his glory. Amen.