Esther 9:21-10:3 | The Back Story

Sunday Morning | June 30, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In Esther 9:21-10:3, the sermon "The Back Story" unfolds in four significant layers. First, it delves into the establishment of the Feast of Purim, highlighting the commemoration of deliverance and the reversal of misfortune. Second, it explores the irony behind the name "Purim," derived from the casting of lots, illustrating God's unseen hand in shaping events, as reflected in Proverbs 16:33. Third, it addresses the resolution of a pivotal argument, demonstrating how unity and solidarity prevailed over division and discord. Finally, it celebrates the restoration of order and the affirmation of leadership, culminating in the honor bestowed upon Mordecai, symbolizing divine favor and the fulfillment of God's purposes

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Transcript

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Good morning, Valley View. Great to be with you today as we complete our study in the book of Esther today. We've been working through the Book of Esther. We're going to wrap it up today. First, I want to welcome back our students, our campers who were gone last Sunday. If you went to camp last week, student or adult, would you stand? Go ahead. If you are a counselor as well. Thank you guys for coming. Thanks for going to camp. Thank you to the adults who went too, by the way. Pray for them to be able to get some sleep. You can sit back down now. Thank you guys. It's great to have you back. I loved, loved, loved camp. Lived for camp. Planned my whole year around camp. It can be such a powerful moment for our students. Always be praying for them. They are the future of this church. So we've been working through the Book of Esther and coming into this week. Have you ever had one of these moments where you realize there's more going on behind the scenes than is obvious on the surface? I was watching an interview and it was centered around C.S. Lewis. It was a history program talking about his life. I'm a big fan of his writings. He's had a big influence on my spiritual growth. He was an author. If you've read The Chronicles of Narnia, he was a British author in the 40s and 50s, died in the 60s. And I was watching this interview and I was looking at the interviewer and I was thinking, something is not right about that lady. Something's off. And the more I stared at her, studied her, I realized, oh, I know what it is. She has had a ton of plastic surgery, a ton. And you've seen these folks, right? Where you're like, whoa, you went too far with that. Okay. And and my immediate reaction to that as I watched her was, I thought, why? Why would you do that to yourself? You've gone overboard in your lust for affection and your appearance. You've put too much emphasis on that. And I thought that just seems weird, that this person in particular would do that. In a news reporter. You can see other settings. And so I thought, let me learn a little more about the whole story here. Well, come to find out. Yes, she had had a ton of plastic surgery because an angry ex-boyfriend threw acid in her face. Yeah, and I felt like the biggest, most judgmental, loser jerk on earth to have been judging her for that. She didn't know it, obviously, but I realized in that moment, a whole lot more going on behind the scenes than seems obvious at first. I took it one way and you realize, oh no, no, there's something else much more significant going on. As we've studied the Book of Esther, the obvious storyline has been God raised up a Jewish orphan, likely a peasant woman, made her queen of Persia, put her in a place where now she could play a key role in rescuing the Jews from termination from persecution. And that seems to be the main obvious storyline of the Book of Esther, and what we're going to see today as we wrap up the book, is that there's something else going on behind the scenes. Maybe I would call it a backstory. There's a backstory. There's a sublayer that really is the driving emphasis of the whole book that we've not drawn out yet, but it's what's at play in the book of Esther. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to the book of Esther. We're going to wrap up chapter nine and then also cover chapter ten. And if you have one of our church Bibles, normally we have extra copies to hand out. If you don't have a Bible because we read directly from the Bible mostly, rather than from on screen, we're out of those right now. We're waiting for a shipment to come in. But if you have a church Bible that'll be on page 387, that page number should be on the screen. And what we're going to see here, I think we'll observe four layers to the back story of the book of Esther, four layers to the back story of the book of Esther. So let's start by looking at verse 20 and reading the first couple of verses here as we look at this first layer of the backstory, Esther chapter nine, verse 20. And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king, Ahaseurus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the 14th day of the month, Adar, and also the 15th day of the same year by year as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness, and from mourning into a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another, and gifts to the poor. I remember going to see here first in this section. The first layer of the backstory is a feast established. There is a feast established, commemorating all that God had done to rescue the Jews from persecution up to this point. And if you're just coming in to this message and you've not captured the whole book of Esther, I'd encourage you to go back and read it. It's a short book to get the backstory leading up to this point, but what happens is they commemorate. We need to establish a festival to remember what happened moving forward. Now we know that festivals are an important part of Jewish culture. We know that as we saw in the book of John, there was the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. There was the Day of Atonement, there is Passover. There are key festivals in the Jewish calendar that remind them of key things God did along the way to rescue them, to care for them, to protect them, to be there with them. But here we’re establishing a new festival. This doesn't show up prior to this, and the Old Testament and the way they are to celebrate it moving forward. It says here, if you look back in verse 22, we will make them days of feasting and gladness and days for sending gifts. Now it seems appropriate to have this feast, to celebrate this feast, to celebrate this festival, to incorporate a feast. Because the whole book of Esther has been about feasts. The book begins with a feast. It ends with the feast. All the key moments of the plot hinge around feasts that occur, sometimes between the queen and the king, sometimes broader cultural feast. In fact, the word feast shows up as many times in the Book of Esther as in all the rest of the Old Testament. A major, major theme of the Book of Esther. And we've experienced this as well, by the way. When we celebrate Thanksgiving, we celebrate it with a feast, much like they did on Thanksgiving Day. It's a reminder that when we were in lean times, God provided. In fact, that's probably the key idea to take away from this festival. It's not about the feasting. It's about remembering the fasting. It's so critical to make that connection. When we have Thanksgiving Day, we should also remember there was a time when we did not have. We feast now because of abundance, but there was a season. The reason the whole festival came about is because God provided, in the midst of their fasting, in the midst of their hunger. And for Esther, the feast is because of the fast. I mean, they spent all this time pleading, begging, God, would you move? Would you show up? We're coming before you. We're putting aside food and water. We're wearing our worst clothes. We're covering ourselves in ashes. We need you to show up. Part of the problem is the temptation is in the midst of the feasting is to forget the fasting. In the midst of the really good times, we forget the hard times. It's it's natural. We all do it. It's easy to do. We get so used to how good things are that we forget how hard things were. We forget how God showed up. I've shared this before, but my grandma always included in my Christmas stocking an orange, and it was always down in the very bottom of the stocking. Like the worst place. It was so hard to get out. It was kind of frustrating. Why are you giving me an orange? You give us a whole box of oranges too. What's the point? I one day I just asked her. What? What's with the orange here? Yeah, I asked her politely, I hope. Thank you for the orange. What is the significance, grandmother? Something like that. I'm sure. And she said. Because when I was a kid, that's all I got for Christmas. Depression era people had nothing. And that serves as just a reminder of how good we have it. Why do we? It's so easy to forget. It's so natural to just forget. There was a season where this church wondered, Will we have to close the doors? I mean, we had no staff at all and not many people coming and a huge debt. And we've had high seasons, we've had low seasons. And the goal, the hope is to remember God's provision in the midst of it all, in the midst of the feasting, we remember the fasting, and that's part of the purpose of them establishing the feast. Don't forget how God showed up. Don't forget how he provided even in the midst of the good times. So we see this feast established. And it's one thing that's interesting about this feast is it's still celebrated today. In fact, I'm going to show a picture on the screen. This is Mike and Shannon Hampshire. Mike's the chairman of our deacons, and this is them in Israel. He has an aunt who's a missionary there, and they're celebrating this particular festival all together. I'm not sure what all the hats and suits are about, he says. The way they celebrate it there, it kind of ends up seeming a lot like their version of Halloween, where they, as it says here, sending gifts of food to one another, gifts to the poor. They share gifts and portions of food with one another to celebrate this festival. Now, there's one particular thing they did that they've done in the history of Jewish history, have often done to celebrate this, and it's a way to involve the kids in the festival. And I know we didn't have Kidzone today. Elementary age kids don't. So there's probably more kids in here than normal. So I'm going to involve you in this today. We're going to do it as well. One of the things they do is that whenever Haman's name is read, not just mentioned, but read from Scripture, all the kids try to drown out the sound of it. So they have little rattles. They shake and boo and hiss when Haman's evil, Haman's name is mentioned. So we're going to try that today. Not yet. Whenever I say his name. I didn't say it yet. Let's say whenever I read his name, because I may say it a fair amount. Let's test it. I'm going to say the name in just a second, and I want you kids to boo and hiss when I say his name and stomp, clap, whatever to try to drown it out. Are you ready? Okay, here we go. The wicked Haman. Very good. Okay, good. So when I read it, you're free to do that. Just this Sunday, by the way. Just Sunday. yeah. All right. So feast established, but every feast needs a good name. We don't just call it New Feast for our generation. Every feast needs a good name. And we're going to see here the name that is given. Look at this next set of verses, verse 23. So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman, the Agagite, the son of Hammadatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, cast lots to crush and destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he. And of course, we know that he there is Haman, and his and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore, they called these days Purim after the term Pur. Every good festival, every good holiday needs a good name. And what they've done here is that they have named the festival. They have named the holiday after the Persian word for lot or we might say dice. This was the very instrument Haman used earlier in the book. I said when I read it. When the wicked guy earlier in the book, I may have created a monster here. I'm sorry. We'll get through it together. He used the dice to determine what day they would destroy the Jews. So it's kind of interesting that you would name the whole holiday after an instrument of chance, after almost an instrument of gambling. It's almost like we set up a holiday and called it the slot machine holiday. What are you talking about? Why would you call it that? What's the purpose? I think there's two reasons why that occurred. Two reasons why that was done. It's pointing to the sovereignty of God and the faith of Esther. And by the way, here in the naming, this is, I think, the second way we see God at work behind the scenes. This is the second way we see the backstory to the Book of Esther is the naming of the holiday, the choosing of the name. But why would they call it Pur? So think about this. And in particular, this is a constant reminder of God's sovereignty throughout the book. So we know what. We've pointed this out multiple times, that God's name does not show up in the book of Esther at all. And the temptation is when you see that to think, well, then he doesn't exist. He's not there. But of course, we've seen every step of the way. That seeming chance after seeming chance after possibility on top of another, it's clear there's been a divine hand at work behind the scenes the entire time. We can't say it was just the roll of the dice that somehow happened to pick this certain day. In fact, I think there's a powerful verse that will be on screen.

Proverbs 16: 15:08

33 is a reminder of the whole point of the name of this festival. It says the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. God is at work behind the scenes, even in the way the dice roll. And so every time you even say the name of the holiday, Purim, you're reminded, even when it doesn't seem like he's working, he's there. He's sovereign, he is in control. He's not distant. In fact, this became so significant if you go back to World War II and one of the most intense persecution of Jews in our era, the Nazis would not even allow the book to be read out loud or the holiday to be celebrated. They understood the significance of this, in particular the holiday, in giving hope to the Jews that God is still at work behind the scenes. In fact, Hitler himself, he said that if we do not succeed, meaning the Nazis, the Jews will call this their second Purim. He saw the significance. He saw the connection between this book in particular and giving hope to the Jews. And I don't know if it's irony. I don't know if it's coincidence, but it was significant that at Nuremberg, the trials after World War two, there were ten Nazis hanged, ten sons of Haman. And even one of the guys being hanged saw the connection as he was being led onto the gallows, he said, Purim 1946. He saw the connection. He saw that God was still at work behind the scenes. They thought they were in charge. They thought they were in control. Even the name of the holiday reminds us God is still there. He is still sovereign. So that's one way, one significance of that name. Another, though, reminds us of the faith of Esther. So that word Pur, that word for lot or die. That word is a loan word from Persian. So much like we have loan words from other languages, we use the word taco, we use the word kindergarten. That's a German word. Karaoke is a Japanese word. Those are loan words that we use in English. To sum up an idea that we don't have a word for, and that word works from another language. Pur is a word from Persian. It's a loan word into Hebrew. But here's one thing that's different. It's also a Hebrew word and the Hebrew word. The Hebrew meaning is to crush or destroy or to break. It's often used in describing the crushing of grapes in a wine press. Now you see the connection, that word with the double meaning every lot is cast, but its end result, the crushing of our enemies, is from the Lord. And Esther had a choice. She could have tried to play it safe. Mordecai said to her, look, don't think that you'll escape, though, if you try to play it safe. She could have done that. I'm going to take care of me. Maybe my family it. And maybe this won't really turn bad. No, but Esther took a step of faith to say. God is calling me to take a step of faith. God is calling me to stand up for my people. And so whenever the holiday comes, we're reminded of God's sovereignty. And they are reminded that we too are called to live a life of sacrifice. Yes, he's in control, but yes, he calls us to move, to sacrifice, to take steps of faith. It's both and. So it's a powerful name. It's a powerful way to name a holiday, to name a festival. Now there's another layer to this back story, part of this naming here, what we see when it comes to the back story of the whole book of Esther. Everything has been leading up to this point. In fact, it seems this chapter in particular is trying to say the whole point of the book of Esther. Yeah, that's a great story, but it's all meant to teach us. Here's why we have this holiday. And why would you need to do that? Because future generations will forget. They'll forget why anything was established. It'll get lost. But if you want to know why we celebrate Purim and future generations. If you're a Jewish kid growing up, here's why -- read the Book of Esther. The whole point has been to establish God is sovereign. God is faithful. He's in control. That's part of the backstory of the book, is just to tell us, here's why we have this feast, here's why we have this festival. And when you give it a backstory, it has more meaning. Like the orange in the stocking, had no idea. Now there's another layer to this backstory, though. There's another layer of significance driving at the root issue. The undergirding issue behind why this would need to be brought up in the first place, and the way that's done is in this next layer where an an argument is settled. And this is what we're going to see here. An argument is settled. Look at these next few verses. Look at verse 27. The Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written, and at the time appointed every year, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority confirming this second letter about Purim. Letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the Kingdom of Ahaseurus In words of peace and truth. Here we're going to see part of the underlying issue all along is that the book of Esther is meant to settle an argument, and the argument is about what day should we celebrate? Celebrate Purim on? If you look back at the beginning of what we read today, it says in verse 21, they were obliged to keep it on the 14th day of the month, and also the 15th day last week. The whole section we studied went through great pains to explain why some people celebrate Purim on one day and some people celebrate it on another. Why would you need to spend so much time explaining that? More than likely, and most times in Scripture, when you see great attention given to something like this, it's because there was a lot of arguing going on behind the scenes about it, and that may seem silly that a whole book of the Bible is dedicated to trying to solve an argument about what day to celebrate something, let me tell you, people have been driven apart by things that are a lot smaller than that. Churches have been driven apart by things that are a lot less significant than that. I remember a friend of mine said his particular denomination, and I've shared this before as well. His particular denomination was a spin off from another denomination that made the point as part of their doctrine, that if you were to wear buttons on your clothing, that would be too showy, right? That would be too fancy. If you were to use buttons and you're showing off, you're full of pride. And so we're going to ban buttons. And they said, no, we think buttons are okay. So we're going to break off here and we can laugh about that. But you've seen it probably in other churches maybe here. Who knows. You've seen people divide over things as silly as that. What's the back story of Esther? What's she driving at or the author's driving at in writing this? Don't let these little things divide us. Drive around Louisville, look at the crumbling churches in whatever part of town. There's plenty of them. What was the main threat to that church? Was it the government? Did the police come in and raid it and shut them down? Was was it a new law that was passed saying you can't meet any longer? Is that what churches are facing in Louisville? Where is the main threat in our church today? It's not out there. It's in here. The main threat. In fact, the core issue she's driving at is unity. Unity. And let my encouragement be to you. And this is for me as well. If there's anyone if there's anyone here that you have anger, bitterness, unresolved conflict towards, and it could be someone you barely know, it could be your spouse. If there's anyone here like that, don't let that linger. Don't let that stay unresolved, that very issue. It's not just a personal issue between you and that person. It's a gospel issue. It's a church issue. You see, if we let that fester, those are the very things that drive churches apart. The enemy will use that to wedge in and corrupt from the inside. You know, the threats not out there. It's not PETA, okay? It's not AI, it's not LGBTQ. It's not whatever political party you hate. That's not our threat. It's not. The threat’s in here, and I'm not. Look, I feel like there's a lot of unity here right now. I feel like there's a lot of work that people strive. I don't have anybody in particular in mind. But this is the message of Esther that has to be proclaimed-- unity. Don't let the silly debate about what day to celebrate a high and a holiday on drive us apart. Strive for unity. This was the challenge they faced. In fact, we're going to get a little deep in the weeds here because I want you to see how significant this is. This isn't just an isolated thing in the book of Esther. This goes across biblical history. If you go back to the beginning of the Book of Esther in chapter two, Mordecai is called a Benjaminite. He's from the tribe of Benjamin. Now, I pointed out all the parallels between the Book of Esther and the story of Joseph. You saw those one Sunday I got up listed out these verses parallel after parallel. A lot of the same wording between the Book of Esther and the story of Joseph, and what was the underlying tension of the book of Joseph, the story of Joseph? What was the main issue that drove all the problems to begin with? Does anybody remember? Joseph's brothers hated Joseph. That's where the problem started. Of course, that started with his dad showing favor to Joseph. We’ll blame the dad in this situation. He showed favor to Joseph. Now his brothers hate Joseph and they sell him off and they wanted to murder him. They sell him into slavery. Now follow the story. Stay along. We're getting a little bit in the weeds here. There comes a point in the story now where Joseph has become ruler in Egypt. For all intents and purposes. And all his brothers show up and they need food, they need rescue. And Joseph says, only if you give me Benjamin. Benjamin was his true brother. Brother from the same mother. The others were step brothers. Give me Benjamin. You'll be okay. You'll be rescued. And in that moment, the person that steps up is Judah. Judah steps up and says, I'll stay. Let Benjamin go. Judah is the one who rescues Benjamin. Now this is important for the Book of Esther, bringing it all back to the Book of Esther. Because Judah, every time I've said the word Jews, if you look at the Hebrew, it says Judah. And so here in the book of Esther, you've got the tribe of Benjamin rescuing Judah, and the story of Joseph. You had Judah rescuing Benjamin, the division that started back in the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis. It's now been paid back at the end of the Bible, Esther and the Hebrew Bibles at the end of the Old Testament. The division goes so much deeper than just we're arguing about what day of the year to celebrate a holiday. The division goes back to their very founding as a people, that this is why this is critical for us. We're not just talking about. And look, there may be some relevant arguments that are at play here right now between individuals, but the deeper issue is the heart issue of I want things my way no matter what. But when Christ shows up, I'm willing to give and take. I'm willing to sacrifice. I'm willing to say it's not about me when he shows up, but this is what's at play. This is the back story of Esther. It's all about unity. Now. This all leads to the fourth layer of the backstory, because when unity is emphasized, here's what happens. Order is restored. We're going to see this in these last three verses. How this shows up. Order is restored. Three things are mentioned here real briefly. Look at chapter ten, King Ahaseurus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea, and all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the King advanced him. Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to Ahaseurus. He was great among the Jews, popular with a multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people, and he spoke peace to all his people. Three things to quickly point out here. First, this is the part where the adults boo and hiss-- he imposed taxes on the land. Yeah. All right. That was a little stronger than I thought it would be. I think most of us, when you hear the word taxes, you think that's bad right ? Who wants taxes? It doesn't matter what laws proposed about a tax. I vote no that doesn't matter. We don't need more taxes. You may disagree. That's fine. But most of us don't like taxes. However, imagine if there were no taxes. None. Okay, it sounds good in theory. What about our roads, our sewer system, our police, our firemen? No taxes at all. It's a bad situation too. And if you go back to the beginning of the book in chapter two, and the King was so excited about finding a new queen, he said, let's just do away with taxes. And that was a sign. As exciting as that sounds. Stop cheering now okay that's enough Cheering. As exciting as that sounds, that was a sign that he had given up his rule. He had given up his reign. Order had been displaced. Chaos had taken over. And now it's restored. He is back in his role ruling his people, giving direction, giving order. And part of that was putting Mordecai in place, giving Mordecai rule rather than the other guy. Mordecai now is ruling with benevolence and kindness and wisdom, and the whole book ends wrapping it all up, bringing in this back story theme with one word. And if you look back at verse three, he spoke to his people with peace. This is the message of Esther peace, unity, striving together. The enemy is not out there. Yes, in the book it seemed the enemy was out there. But at the end of the day, God calls us to work towards unity, love, service, sacrifice that only comes through Christ working in you. And look, if you don't know him, I want to. I just want to speak to you specifically. If you don't know Christ. I know there's this misconception and many people feel like one day I'll follow him. Let me get everything cleaned up, let me get my life figured out, and then maybe he'll accept me. He can't accept me the way I am right now. I'm too messy. That's exactly how he wants you. He doesn't want you to try to get yourself cleaned up. You don't get cleaned up before you take a shower. You come to him as you are. Jesus. Meet me where I am. You clean me up. You go to work in my life. You give me that ability. In fact, we say it all the time. Come as you are, come as you are. So you don't have to stay as you are. He will work in your life. And if you don't know him, I’d love to talk with you about what it means to follow him. And I'm going to wrap us up in prayer in just a minute. But after the service is over, I'll be down front. I would love to talk with you. I would love to in a week from now, in a month from now to be up there baptizing you. Jesus wants you to follow him. You don't have to clean it all up yourself. Come to him as you are. Let's pray.