Esther 9:1-20 | Reversing Legacies

Sunday Morning | June 23, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In the sermon "Reversing Legacies," Pastor John draws from Esther 9:1-20 to illustrate four transformative ways legacies can be reversed. First, he emphasizes waiting with purpose, reflecting on Esther's patient resolve amidst uncertainty. Secondly, the narrative unveils how hardened hearts are revealed, echoing the necessity for introspection and openness to change. Thirdly, it underscores the pivotal moment when eyes are opened to reality, urging listeners to confront truth bravely. Lastly, inspired by II Corinthians 5:14 and I Samuel 15, the sermon addresses the heart as the crux of transformation, advocating for sincere repentance and renewal to reverse detrimental legacies. Through these insights, the sermon challenges its audience to engage actively in altering generational narratives for God's glory and kingdom purposes.

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Transcript

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Well. Good morning, Valley View. Great to be with you today while we continue our study in the book of Esther. You know, I want to begin by pointing out the reality that change can be hard. We've all experienced that in life. You try to make a change and it doesn't come easy, especially if you've been practicing something your whole life and you're trying to now go the opposite direction. We experienced this when we lived in the South Pacific doing missions. Many of these countries drive on the opposite side of the road. They drive on the left hand side of the road. Former British colonies. And so I was pretty nervous about having to learn to drive on the left side of the road, as you can imagine. And it's so interesting driving the left side of the road wasn't that hard. People gave me a few tips that made it simple, but what was crazy was almost every time. For the longest time, when I went to get in the car, I opened the door and there's no steering wheel. Because I've gone around to the passenger side, which is the driver's side here, you can't break that habit. Or how many times I went to use the turn signal and I turned on the windshield wipers, because those are switched in in the car. And my kids when the whenever the windshield wipers were going bad. It's not raining, I know. Be quiet. You know, they knew what was happening. It is hard to reverse a habit you've built in your whole life. It's hard to change directions. In fact, there's actually been countries who have done this. They've swapped the whole country from left side of the road, driving the right side of the road all, all at once. There's a picture in Sweden. They did this overnight. And here's how it look. The next day, September 3rd, 1967. Tomorrow we're going to switch it over. And of course they did everything they could, but still change is hard. It's hard to reverse a pattern you spent your whole life building. And I think today we're going to see what's even harder at times is to reverse a broken legacy. Esther is dealing with the fallout of a broken legacy. We're going to see that in today's passage. We've been working through the book of Esther and we're in chapter nine today. And in fact, I think today we're going to see four ways to reverse a broken legacy. She has been handed a broken legacy. It has affected everything they've done. How do we go about reversing a broken legacy? If you have a Bible, turn to Esther chapter nine, and if you have one of our church Bibles, we're still waiting for more of those to come in. If you don't have one, normally I would offer one to you, but if you happen to have one, that will be on page 387. In the church Bible. Let's just start by reading the first few verses in chapter nine to get our bearings on where Esther is in the story. Esther chapter nine, verse verse one. Now in the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, on the 13th day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred. The Jews gained mastery over those who hated them. The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King hazardous to lay hands on those who sought their harm, and no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples, all the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. For the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful. We're going to see four ways to reverse a broken legacy. And here in this first section. One of the starting points, one of the ways to begin to reverse a broken legacy is to wait on purpose. Now, leading up to this part in the story, we've seen Esther's journey. And if you haven't been here with this, the story of Esther is about a Jewish peasant girl who becomes Queen of Persia. But yet God put her in that place because her people were threatened, and he used her to bring about the rescue of her people. And last week the king gave her permission to protect her people. And now, this week. And it was a little nuanced. We'll talk about that in a minute this week. Now the moment has come where they are able to stand for themselves. But here's the thing that doesn't stand out right away. I said one of the ways to reverse a broken legacy is to wait on purpose. That's the theme of the section, and it may not stand out right away. But it says in the first verse in the 12th month. Now, if you look back at chapter eight, when the King gave them permission to write a law to defend themselves, that happened in the third month. So they've been waiting 910 months to see how their fate would play out. That is a long time to wait and see what will happen. We know people have been given permission to attack us. Now we've been given permission to defend ourselves. How's this going to play out now? Who would like to wait that long to figure that out? I don't even like waiting in line at the grocery store. If the next line over's moving just a tiny bit faster, you start to get nervous. What's going on? Why? Why does God hate me in this moment and like them waiting that long to find out what's going to happen? What is our fate? That's hard to do. How can we use that time of waiting to wait on purpose? Wait with intention. Use it wisely. It's interesting. Here we see them do that. Look at some of the phrases that are used of what happened during that time while they're waiting. It's a little cryptic, but it's hidden here in the words. If you look near the middle of verse two for phrases in particular in this section, when that day came, it's that one of the phrases says no one could stand against them while they've been waiting. They've been preparing. They didn't just lay down and say, well, I guess we'll see what happens. Oh, they've been preparing. They maybe have been preparing their defenses. Maybe they've been gathering whatever arms they might need to protect themselves, maybe preparing their homes so that they could be ready. No one could stand against them that day. They were ready. But second, look here. After that it says, why? Because the fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. I'm guessing during this time there was a whole bunch of conversations happening. Look, you need to know that you thought what Heyman said, that you could attack us. But now things have changed. Let me tell you what this new edict says. You don't want to do that. Come be reasonable. We don't want to have to have a fight with you in these coming months. I'm imagining there was a lot of persuading. Don't you see the situation has changed and now understanding has changed. Fear had fallen on them, realizing, oh, we can't go down this route. For some people at least. Also, it says the officials, provinces, satraps, governors, royal agents all help the Jews. So the tone among leaders had changed again, I'm guessing conversations were happening. Hey, you've seen the edict, right? You need to know that if you go against this, you're going against the king. Persuasion was at play for months. They're having these conversations is my guess. And then lastly, it says in verse four, for Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. Mordecai was elevated. And Mordecai, I'm sure, made use of that position. I mean, he's now been put in a powerful position. Surely he's having working behind the scenes, working the political angle, doing all he can to protect his people. There was an active waiting. It wasn't a passive waiting. They weren't just, well, I guess we're hand it over to fate. And you've been in this seasons when you've had to wait. You've been there. Maybe you were waiting for a new job to come up. Maybe there was a relationship transition and you weren't sure what was going to happen. Maybe it was a sickness or an illness. And we've all had those seasons. Some of them, some of them we've used well and some we've wasted. But every season is preparation for the next season. Luke 1610 talks about this, talks about that. If you are faithful with a very little thing, you'll also be faithful with much. All you can deal with is the season you're in now. That's all you have. And it may not be what I would choose. But it's where we are and so we want to wait on purpose in that season, when we moved into our last house in little Rock before moving here, we moved in there probably, I think it was 2011. One of my neighbors was this mountain of a man. It's just this gigantic guy. He's probably six foot eight, probably 250 pounds of solid muscle. He looked like some kind of Russian lumberjack, huge red beard. And you'd come up to shake his hand and you just was so intimidating. I mean, you just keep looking up at this gigantic guy, and. Yeah, the nicest guy you could ever meet. I mean, super nice. But yet his physical presence was a little overwhelming. And I remember him when we first moved in. I didn't see him much. They had little kids, so we saw his wife and our kids were out playing in the street. Didn't see him much. Come to find out later, his mom had recently passed. She meant the world to him and he turned to alcohol to try to numb that pain. And it took him down a dark hole and he pulled away from everyone. And it was a rough season, and he shared with me later that that I didn't handle that well. In fact, he shared with me that with me later when a few years later, his marriage faced challenges and his wife filed for divorce and and left him. But I remember what he said to me in the midst of that. He said, I'm not going to go down that road again. I'm not going to turn to alcohol. I see what I did in that phase. I'm going to go a different direction. I don't know what God's doing here. I don't like it either. But I'm going to use this season differently. And he had his ups and downs, but he definitely use that season better, focus in on more positive outlets, get getting involved and exercise trying to get connected into a church again. There were ups and downs. Even he would say it didn't go as well as it could have, but it was a different direction. And I would say, I think looking back, he waited on purpose in that season. He was much more intentional to use that time and try to make the most of it. So when it comes to reversing a legacy, start by waiting on purpose. I don't know what you've been handed. Maybe you've been handed a very broken legacy. Wait on purpose, wherever you are. Use that time wisely. Powerful part of this section as we get in this section, in the first and second verse, we get wording that really brings to the fullness this entire book of Esther. Now you've seen it on the screen. It started out that way today over and over again. What's the theme of the whole book of Esther? What's the word we saw on the screen today? It was on the screen, wasn't it? Did we put that on the screen today? The great reversal. Reversal. We've seen it over and over again. The theme of Esther reversal. And this is where it all is emphasized at its fullest. Look back here at verse one near the end of the verse, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred the very day they thought, everything we want to happen, we're going to wipe out the Jews. The reverse occurred. The opposite happened. Here's the interesting part of this verse. This verse points out something that the whole book of Esther is about reversal. And I've not shown this yet, but really, this is embedded in the whole structure of the Book of Esther. The whole book is basically a mirror of itself. The things that happen at the beginning get reversed and mirrored at the end, and it all culminates in the middle. I'm going to try to show you this on screen. It's going to be hard to see. So I've got a little pointer here. Can you all see that sort of okay, let me see if this works. I was afraid it wouldn't. Did you all see it? I don't see it. Oh, wait. Oh that's tiny. Okay. Forget this. Look at the screen. Here's what I want you to see. The whole. We're going to go through this quickly. The whole book mirrors itself and just look quickly, quickly. The book opens describing the extent of a hazardous kingdom. And it ends by describing the extent of his kingdom. It opens with two banquets held by the king, two feasts for the Jews. Esther taken to the king and conceals her identity. The king comes to Esther. You see this back and forth and how this is a mirror of each side. Heyman is promoted, but later the Jews and Mordecai are promoted, casting lots for the war. War. On the 13th of Adar, a ring is given to Haman. Mordecai rips his clothes. Jews and Esther have a fast, but then the ring is given. Mordecai Mordecai has royal garments. The Jews have a feast. The contrast there, the completion, the mirroring, Esther's first feast. Heyman's boasting Haman shame or Esther second feast. And at the center of it all the turning point in the whole book. I mentioned this in chapter six, but now it really stands out. Is the King's sleepless night. Here's the point I want to make about all that that structure, that highlighting how the whole book really mirrors itself with a pivot in the middle where everything changes. It all changed on that sleepless night. Which means sleepless nights are no fun. We've had those. You don't choose to do that. Yeah. I mean, if you do, even then, it's not fun. I had some all nighters in college. I wasn't fun, I chose to do that. Bad planning. Not the way to go. But there's plenty of those sleepless nights where you go, God, what are you doing here? I really need sleep. I don't understand, and you never know where. That's the turning point in your life. You never know when the sleepless night. And we use it metaphorically. When the challenge that came along is the turning point. And what he's doing in your life, and seeing that in the book of Esther can give you hope. There's hope now, when you're up all night with that newborn baby. That's why Isaac's not on the stage yet with us. They just had a baby. But there's hope. There's hope when you're up late waiting for that child to come home. When you're wondering where they are. They're not here. They're not. They said they'd be here. There's hope. When maybe you've gotten a little older and it's harder to sleep for a variety of reasons. Maybe it's menopause or maybe frequent trips to the restroom down the hall and you go, what are you doing here, Lord, I don't understand. Or there's hope for our camp counselors this week who won't sleep much because our students are off at Camp Cole. We took our students. They left this morning. I heading out to their week of camp. And Saint Louis, you never know when the thing that seems to be the tragedy and the challenges, the turning point in the whole story. That's why we wait on purpose and trust that he's moving in the midst of that. So that's the first step here in the book of Esther, chapter nine on Reversing a Broken Legacy. Now let's look at how the story continues, because it says it reversed. What is actually the outcome, what actually happened on that day. Look here at verse five, the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. And so the citadel itself, the Jews, killed and destroyed 500 men, and they also killed a bunch of names. Verse ten, the ten sons of Haymon, the son of Hamadan, for the enemy of the Jews. But they laid no hand on the plunder. So at first the way to navigate to trust that God will reverse a broken legacy is to wait on purpose. But here what we see, and part of seeing God reverse a broken legacy here, is to see hardened hearts revealed. This is what we see in these verses. This is number two. Hardened hearts are revealed. And here's what I mean by that. When you look at this and you see 500 men killed, also the ten sons of Hayman, this happened after all these months of waiting nine, ten months, all this time. And I have to think that the Jews didn't want to go around killing people. I have to think that during this time they were pleading, listen, change your ways. Don't go down this path. Don't put us in a place where we're going to be at war with one another. And yet their hearts stayed hard. The ten sons of hangman. This should have been the moment where they said, listen, we're not going to be like our father. We're not going to be evil like him. We're going a different direction. When they come to the king and they come to Mordecai, and they come to Esther, and they plead and say, we're going to build a different legacy. We're not like him. But they didn't. They kept going down this path. And now it becomes clear. Their hearts are hardened toward the Jews. In fact, it says they did as they pleased to those who hated them, despised them. The good part of this season of waiting is it became very clear who is for them and who is against them. But the other good part of this, too, is it was a time for them to examine their own hearts, their own motives, especially now that they were in the position of power. You know how this happens. Maybe you've been the underdog and suddenly you're in a position of power and you're like, oh, now we're going to see things set right. Oh, you treated me that way. Well, you get ready for yours. Listen, that's in our hearts too. You know, they've got to be wrestling with that. Our God is in place now. Mordecai is there. Watch out! Here we come. We all need to take the moment to pause and go. What are my motives here? Am I out for vengeance or am I honoring Christ? Am I making it about me or about him? You know, this is part of the reason that Valley view that we are governed by elders as a group of six men, plus myself, who oversee the church. These are folks that you have voted on as people you want leading the church. It's not just one person off being able to do whatever they want, anytime they want. Now there's accountability and we sit down and we wrestle with hard things, and we take the time it takes and we pray and we encourage one another. And my goal is for us to be unanimous on any decision, even if it takes a long time, so that not any one person who has an off day is just running off. And we all have our off days. No matter who you are, and not just running off doing whatever they want, following whatever whim. And there's accountability, there's encouragement, and of course, there's no perfect structure. There's no way to protect against all sin, man. The hope is that this puts us in a place where we're doing a better job of leaning on Christ and ultimately leading the church, and so here, hardened hearts have been exposed while they waited. Now look at what happens. How do we know what is going on with the King in the midst of this? Where is his heart in the midst of this? Because last week we saw where he said, sure, go ahead, write a new law. But beware, don't write it in a way that makes it look like you're undermining what I said before, because laws that have been written, those can't be revoked. They're they're treading. They got to tread carefully here. And so I'd have to think that if I were in the shoes of the Jews at this point, you got to wonder, okay, this is what we've done. How's the king going to react to this look in the next set of verses here, verse 11, that very day, the number of those killed in Susa, the city that was reported to the king, and the king said to Queen Esther in Susa, the citadel, the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men, and also the ten sons of Heyman. What then have they done in the rest of the King's provinces? Now? What is your wish? It shall be granted you. What further is your request? It shall be fulfilled. And Esther said, if it pleases the king, but the Jews who are in suits will be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict, and let the ten sons of Heyman be hanged on the gallows. So the King commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa. The ten sons of Heyman were hanged. The Jews who are in Susa gathered also on the 14th day, the month of Adar, and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder. The third way we see a legacy reversed is when eyes are opened to reality. When eyes are opened to truth with the king. Whatever hesitancy he had. First off, we note that he's the one to come to Esther and say, here's what's happened today 500 have been killed, plus the ten sons of Heyman. He has been watching. And then he says something to Esther that shows, I think, an important principle in Bible study. If if you've done much Bible study, you've seen this, that you looked for patterns, but then you look for breaks in the patterns that often points to some significant meaning in the passage. So if you've read the book that was out 20 years ago or so, The Prayer of Jabez that was picking up on a break in a pattern. If you've read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, you see man, man, man, man, woman, man man man man, another woman. There's four women that show up and there they're all gentile women is pointing out some things whenever you see a pattern and then you see a break in pattern, you go with, What's God trying to communicate through this? And with the King, we've seen the pattern of him coming to Esther and saying, whatever it is you want, you tell me. And he does that again here. Except there's a break in the pattern. What is he said all the other times up to this? What is he said to her before? What's the limitation? He gave her up to half my kingdom. But what does he say here? He doesn't say that. He doesn't say up to half my kingdom here. Look back, he says. Now what is your wish? This is in verse 12. It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled before I set up to half my kingdom. Now what do you need? Whatever it is, I think in this moment his eyes are finally open to the reality of the situation. I mean, before it seemed that he thought, look, Heyman's dead. What's the big deal? What threat is there really on your life? But now he sees. Oh, there was a lot at stake here. You had a lot on you that I didn't see. What do you need? My eyes are open to the truth of the situation. I've been blinded to it. I've been a little slow to come around. Some of us can be slower to come around than others at times. I don't want to hear any amens. Wives. But we've experienced this. I remember when we moved to Phoenix, we were living in little Rock, went to Phoenix to do seminary, and before we come, the realtors who we got connected with through friends, they said, look, this isn't little Rock, Arkansas, this is Phoenix. And right now the real estate market is bananas. And you need to come prepared to make an offer on any house you see in you like that day. And you need to be prepared to make it for more than they're asking. If you want a chance of getting the house. And I was like, that sounds silly. I didn't make any sense to me. I've never heard of that. That can't be true. Well, I show up and of course they're like, look, let's go look at houses. Okay, here's the houses that came on the market this morning. Let's go look at those. We look at 5 or 6. Which do you want to put an offer on today. Yes, today. If not it'll be gone tomorrow. We put offers on the house the same day and they're gone. They've already been sold before we can put an offer in. And it was like that day after day after day. It was nuts. And I finally had to say, oh, you were right. It really is like this. I couldn't believe it beforehand because I couldn't imagine it. Since I didn't think of it, it couldn't be true. A little slow to come around. The King's eyes have been open to reality. The truth, part of reversing a broken legacy is becoming aware of truth and reality and what is really going on. And we see that here. It's been exposed to the King. Now, however, let me address something in this passage that can be a little troubling. Why does she ask to have the ten sons of hangman hanged up? I mean, that seems a little over the top, doesn't it? Seems like. Come on. Really? You got to go there. Maybe it's like, haven't you all started to cross the line here of what's fair but noticed? Part of this is in the realm of we're just doing what we have to to protect ourselves and not going beyond that by hanging up these ten sons of hangman. You're setting an example. Stop. Don't end up like them. Don't continue down this road. Also note that when she asked for more and he said, look, whatever you need, tell me, look how limiting she was with her wording. Look back at verse 13. Esther said, if it pleases the King, let the Jews who are in Susa, only here in Susa, not the whole world like before. Just here. And by the way, be allowed tomorrow. Just tomorrow, just one more day. Just here. Just one more day. We're not out to dominate the world. We want to make sure to see this thing through. And we're not just going crazy. In fact, we see that phrase once again. They laid no hands on the plunder. Now, that phrase is what's going to drive us to really the importance underlying this whole passage. Because the reason why I think this passage is about reversing a broken legacy is because they are dealing with this issue with Haman and with his edict, because of a broken legacy that has been handed down to them. If you remember, back in chapter three, Kobi talked about this. Haman was called and he's often called in other places in other chapters as well. He's called an aggregate means he's descended from King Agag. And if you go back to first Samuel with King Saul, Saul was commanded there to destroy Agag and the Amalekites, all his followers, and to wipe out all their stuff. And what it's all do. He saved the king, and he saved a whole bunch of their stuff. In fact, he saved a bunch of their stuff so that he could offer it as a sacrifice to God. He felt like that would be a good thing to do. But there's a powerful verse in that section. There's a powerful verse that says, Samuel confronts Saul and he said, listen, so what you did is wrong because and here's the phrase he says, to obey is better than sacrifice. It is more important to obey God's command than to come up with whatever sacrifice you think will please him. It's way more important to obey. He gave you a clear command. Follow that. Instead, you made up some other thing you thought would please him. Really? Because you didn't want to obey him. And now, in Esther, hundreds of years later, they're dealing with the fallout of that. You know, this is why we have God's word to follow, by the way. Because I can't think of it. I can't imagine that it would happen. That's what I follow, God's word. There's no way I could possibly think of all the permutations, all the things that could go right or wrong in this world and in this life. So I follow God's Word. Try to follow God's word. None of us do it perfectly. I look to his eternal wisdom. I look to what he has to say about it because I know if I'm following that he's going, he's going to sort it all out. I don't have to know everything. And I try not to be in a place like Saul where I say, I think this plan is better. That's God's command. I think I'll go this route. Here's what this last point is about how we reverse a broken legacy. Here is what they are facing here. The heart is the issue. Samuel, when he confronted Saul, is confronting his heart. You just didn't want to obey God. You wanted to do things your way. And that was the beginning of Saul's downfall. To obey is better than sacrifice. The heart is the issue and we want to get to the heart of the issue there. We're dealing with this issue with him, and because of the broken legacy that had been handed down to them from Saul from generations ago. Here's what I want to do for just a moment. I want to acknowledge the reality that I know some of us in here have been handed broken legacies. You've been handed things that you didn't want and that has shaped you, that has made life challenging. And I'm sorry for that. I don't know why God allowed that to happen. I don't know I don't know why people made some of the decisions they did. But let me say this real clearly. That doesn't have to define you. It might help describe some of your life and what you do, but it doesn't have to define you. It doesn't have to be your destiny. Today can be the day of a whole new legacy for you and your family for generations to come. We don't have to continue down that path. It's not predetermined that you'll become whatever was given to you. What I want to do right now, and I know this will require some courage on some of our parts. If today you want to start a whole new legacy, put a stake in the ground and say our family is going to have a whole new legacy, I just want to pray for you, and I'm just going to ask you to stand where you are, if that's what you want. No one has to. But if you want to be prayed for, if you want others to gather around you and pray for you for a whole new legacy, would you stand where you are right now? Now some of you, if someone's standing around you, just gather around them, put your hands on them. Just go ahead right now. Move towards them and just begin to pray over them. And you can pray some of what I pray as well, and repeat some of what I repeat as I pray. But listen, I promise God wants you to have a whole new legacy and direction in life. And if someone could go, there's a couple in the back here with no one standing around them and praying for them and putting hands on them over here, up here as well. If someone would come over here, if a couple of you would come. I don't want anyone left standing alone. Come over here. Up in the balcony to the left. Over here with a few of you. Come over, put your hands on. Down front here. I just want to see people here. There's another person standing back here alone. Down here. If you could. If you men come and put hands on this gentleman here as well. Now, I'm going to begin to pray. And you can pray as well where you are. Pray out loud for those people. You can repeat some of my prayers, but I'm just going to start by praying. First of all, for thanks. Let's start with gratitude. God, we thank you for loving us. Thank you for being in our lives. We acknowledge that you are holy. You were great as we sang this morning. You are good and just where you are. Call out some of his character. Call out his goodness, his glory, his holiness, his sovereignty. He is in control. God, we thank you for who you are and God. We confess that we've not been perfect. As we come to you asking for a new legacy. We confess we've not been perfect either. We're not here blaming people for what they've done in the past, not excusing it either, but we confess we've not been perfect. We've made mistakes too. We've chosen to go against you. And we confess that we ask for your forgiveness. And now, Jesus, I pray for strength. I pray for strength for every person in here who is seeking a new legacy, seeking to move past a broken legacy. And would you pray for strength over each person that you have your hands on now? Pray for strength. Pray for dependance on the Holy Spirit. Pray for courage and pray for joy. This is a heavy moment. It can be overwhelming. May there be tremendous, overwhelming joy and peace in the midst of this. Thank you God for the way you love us. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you for gathering and praying. In fact, what we're going to do now as