Esther 8

I'd like to take you to the book of Esther and chapter 8. We're still in that post-exilic period, that period when they came back out of Babylon and out of exile, but not everybody went back. And in Esther we have a wonderful story. I'm going to have to fill in a few gaps because in one sense we jump into the story in chapter 8, but if you can keep in the back of your mind, this whole process started with Cyrus the Great, who was a king of the Medes and the Persians, giving an instruction to rebuild the city of the temple, should I say, to rebuild the temple.

Now that's a really important trigger when you come to study the Bible. There are a number of times when an instruction was given to rebuild the temple, but there's only one occasion in which the instruction is given to rebuild the city, and when you read Daniel chapter 9, that is a really important fact to bear in your mind. So you've got Cyrus the Great, then you've got the son of Cyrus who was called Cambyses, then you've got another man called Pseudo-Symerdes, and then we've got some other names we're familiar with, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes.

Now we're in the reign of Ahasuerus, and in Esther chapter 8, we're going to work our way through this chapter, and we're going to learn lessons about a woman that had a major impact in the preservation of the Jewish people. Let's read, verse 1. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jew's enemy, unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was unto her.

The king took off his ring which he had taken from Haman and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. That's my first section.

I'm going to call that the realignment. We're going to think about Esther being seen as she really is, so it's a lot about Esther's character, and we'll deal with it a bit of time on that. Then verses 3 to 6. You might call that the request, because Esther is crying.

Look at verse 3. Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears, to put away the mischief of Haman, the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. Then the king held out the golden scepter unto Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, and said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the things seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamidatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces.

For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? Then verses 7 to 14 is the response of the king, of the king's command. Verse 7. Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring.

For the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. Then the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is the twentieth, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the rulers of the provinces from India unto Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.

And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus's name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by post and horseback, and riders and mules, camels, and young dromedaries. Now in verse 11, you'll see down from verse 11 down to verse 14, the details of the decree. It's written in legal language.

It's written from a state point of view. So it's going from the White House, if you want to say. It's going from the senior place of power in the country.

It's sealed by the king. It's executed by Mordecai. And the king grants, verse 11, the Jews to gather themselves together, to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, to cause, to perish all the power of the people and the province that would assault them.

And they're given permission to take the spoil of them for a prey. We'll think about that. So verse 13, the copy of the writing is published, and the posts, verse 14, you don't have email, you didn't have any methods of DHL or anything like that, so it goes out on mules and horses, camels, and dromedaries.

The decree is given out in verse 14 at Shushan, the palace. That's the center of power. Verse 15, and Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, with a garment of fine linen, and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.

The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day, and many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. I trust God will bless his word.

The final section was actually verses 13 and 14, and within that we're going to see a lovely picture in Mordecai of the Lord Jesus Christ in all his splendor and all his glory. Let me just recap. It's a wonderful story, the book of Esther.

The name of God is not directly referenced within it, and yet God's hand is seen. God is working out his plans. God is working out his purposes.

And you may remember the story well of Vashti and her perceived offense to the king of her being deposed, then the king seeking a new queen, and Esther eventually comes in. Now Esther is Jewish, but she never reveals her hand until these chapters that we're reading from later in the book. She is an orphan.

She's been brought up by her her uncle Mordecai, or her cousin, I forget which one it was, but he's brought her up. He's obviously older from what we pick up in the story. He guides her.

He directs her. But then there arises a man, his name is Haman. We read about him in our chapter.

Haman is the archetypal enemy of God's people. In fact, if you check his ancestry, and I think I'm right in saying Americans like to check their ancestry and see where they come from. Well, if you went back through Haman's line, you would find he didn't come from Ireland, and he didn't come from England, but he came from the Amalekites, and they were a race that had hated the people of God, and God had told King Saul that he should destroy them.

He failed to do it, and they would forever nip at the tail. They would forever be looking for opportunities to destroy the nation of Israel. He's a real picture of Antichrist, that man of sin that will rise in this world and maybe not too far into the future, whose objective will be to fight God and destroy Israel.

And here we are today. I never planned it, but offense against Israel and defense by Israel, we know what is happening this week, and we'll have to discuss some of those issues because they come up within this chapter. But Haman, he discovers there's a man in the city of Sushan who will not bow down and acknowledge him and worship him, for Haman is a rather proud official of the Persian government.

He thinks everyone should bow before him, and Mordecai, he seems to have a job in the civil service. He seems to work within the government offices, but he refuses to acknowledge Haman, and Haman plots to destroy him. And when he finds that Haman is a Jew, he plots to destroy the Jews.

But in the palace is a Jewish queen. God has this girl where he wants her, where he wants her to be. God is not surprised or caught out by the evil actions of men.

I said to you in the earlier section, God has his people where he wants them, when he wants them, and it is evidently true in every one of these passages. By the time we've read our chapter, Esther has been told by Mordecai that she must tell the king who she is. She says, I risk my life being taken.

I'm condemned by the decree signed from the highest authority of the land to destroy the Jews and to plunder their wealth. Mordecai says, if you don't die by the king, you'll die with the Jews, so you might as well do. Maybe God has got you there for such a time as this.

That's a great expression, isn't it? Forgive me for laboring it, but maybe God has got you where you are for such a time as this. Maybe the office you work in, you're the only Christian. God has got you there because he needs you there.

Maybe in the school and you're the only teacher that will stand up for the things of God. God has you there for a purpose. God has every one of us where we are for a reason, and Mordecai says to Esther, maybe you're in the palace in the role of queen for such a time as this.

So you probably know the story. She invites Ahasuerus for a meal and she invites Haman along, and after the second of these great feasts, she exposes Haman as the enemy of her people, and of course the plot is foiled. As you come to chapter 8, Haman is dead.

He had built a machine to hang Mordecai on, and he's ended up being hung on it himself. The enemy is gone, but the problem still exists because you might know this, that when a law was signed by the Medes and the Persians, you couldn't reverse it. The king himself couldn't reverse it.

You can't do what modern presidents do or prime ministers and say, I'm the boss, I will just rescind that, I'll reverse it, I'll change it. It couldn't. It did not happen under the structure of power within the Persian empire.

So the only thing that could change it would be another mandate that counteracts that reverses, not so much removes the instruction, but does something to nullify it, to negate it. So that's where we are in this chapter. Let's think about Esther's character in verses one and two.

It says, on that day the king Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jew's enemy, unto Esther the queen. Verse one. So all that Haman had his power, his wealth, all his status went to Esther and to Mordecai.

And it says in verse one that Esther had told what Mordecai was unto her. Now if you go back to chapter two, just flip back to chapter two for a moment, we're introduced to Mordecai and to Esther. It says in verse five, now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai.

It gives us his pedigree. He's a Benjamite. He's part of the captivity.

Verse six. And look at verse seven. He brought up Hadesa, that's her Persian name.

Hadesa, that is Esther, the uncle's daughter. So here's this close relative that he brings up. It's his cousin, isn't it? And it says she had neither father nor mother.

She was fair and beautiful. And Mordecai, verse seven, the end of the verse, took her for his own daughter. Here was a man that had devoted his life.

I take it he was probably not married, would have given no indication he has a wife. Probably awkward. Stephen was talking just this morning about men's deficiencies.

Let's not dwell on them too much. But he was talking about her inadequacies and well imagine a man bringing up a girl and well here he was doing that on his own as far as we can see. He taught her that she was a Jewish girl.

Look at verse number 10. Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred. She's taken into the palace in this process of selecting a queen.

But she didn't say she was Jewish. Why? Verse 10. Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it.

He's very concerned about her well-being. Probably had no choice but for her to go to the palace. But he says to an effect, it's better that you don't say who you are.

He's concerned. Look at verse 11. He's kind of the worrying father in verse 11 isn't he? Mordecai walked every day before the court of the woman's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her.

You dads should know how that feels. You know sometimes daughters say dad you're fussing. Stop worrying.

I'm fine. Well there was Mordecai every day. He goes to the court of the woman's house because there was a separate place where they lived and he wanted to know how she was doing.

So they always had a very close relationship. She took advice from him. She's beautiful as far as her figure, as far as her personality.

She's beautiful. She's just a lovely example of a God-fearing girl. And I discover here when I come down to verse 15 of chapter 2 that she's a contented person.

Now maybe some of you girls wouldn't like this. Maybe some of you would love it. I don't know.

They had one year of beauty treatment. Don't think I would have liked it too much but they couldn't have done much of a job on me. But maybe you would have liked it.

Six months on one aspect, another six months on another. They were days of, you'll see that in verse number 12, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet odours for the purifying of the woman. But when she comes to be presented to the king, look at verse 15, they asked her, they were obviously told when you went to see the king you could ask for something.

You were given an option and a request but it says in verse 15 she required nothing but what Hegii, the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the woman, appointed her. She was a contented person. I want to appeal to you today sisters.

It's good to be content. I think it's important that in our world you're not completely brainwashed, that everybody doesn't have to look the same and much as God has made some of you very attractive and some people, you know, have brains and some people have beauty and some people have both and all those types of things. Nothing wrong with that but be content.

Don't always hanker after being like that other person or being better looking or having, you know, a better physique. Don't let that be the driver of your life. Be content with the way God has made you.

That doesn't mean you don't try and keep yourself in good shape. It doesn't mean that you don't look after yourself but be content. And here was a girl that was content.

She goes in and it says at the end of verse 15, Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her. And so she becomes the queen. Abbott, Mordecai, he's back at work so to speak.

Verse 19, he sits in the king's gate which is usually the expression that describes the kind of administrative offices of any empire. He sat in the king's gate. Verse 20, Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people as Mordecai had charged her for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai like as when she was brought up with him.

Now there's children here today. The Bible says children obey your parents. Now that's tough sometimes.

I never found it easy to do what I was told all of the time. There's something in us doesn't like it isn't there? But here's a girl and even in adulthood she respected Mordecai and she did what he asked her to do because she trusted his his considered opinion. Parents you need to have wisdom so that your children can trust you and children you need to trust your parents because God has given them wisdom and their advice is generally good.

So we have a little bit of background and she still got that commitment and that loyalty. She was honourable and respectful to Mordecai. I come to chapter three.

Chapter three, look at verse seven. In the first month that is in the month Nisan in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus. Now you need to cross reference it to chapter 2 verse 16.

I'm not going to do that but this is five years later. She's been queen for five years and she discovers that this man Haman is plotting against her people. Well I don't know how much she knew about it but Mordecai knew very clearly what was happening.

But I want you to come into chapter four because we're discovering a girl who is truthful and brave. Chapter four and look at verse four of the chapter. Mordecai sends a message to her, warns her of the plot that Haman has made and it says in verse four Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her.

The queen was exceedingly grieved. What were they telling her? They were telling her Mordecai is outside in the public sphere. In verse one if you were looking at it he's ripped his clothes, he's wearing sackcloth with ashes.

This was a typical way of expressing mourning and grief. Mordecai knew that his people were facing annihilation. How often have the Jewish people faced annihilation? It will happen again.

Please don't think that just because Israel are a competent military force and because nations like America stand with them and rightly so don't think they'll always be able to prevent the wicked things that are going to be thrown upon them. The bible predicts they will be reduced to one-third of the size of their nation and some of them will go into exile again in the future. They will face another great holocaust.

Awful days. So she's anticipating or should I say Mordecai is at this stage grieving and trying to draw Esther's attention. In verse number eight she's given a copy and told what's going to happen.

She reads the decree and Mordecai ascends back with this man who's called Hatah. In verse eight he gives him a copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Sushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, to declare it unto Esther and to charge her that she should go into the king and make requests for her people. He's saying you need to now tell the king you're a Jew.

You need to appeal to the king for the preservation of our people and this message goes backwards and forwards. And verse 14 is what I was referring to earlier. Mordecai says if you hold your peace at this time then shall there be relief.

If you, if thou altogether holdest thy peace. He's saying God will find another means to deliver his people. Mordecai was a great man of faith.

He said Esther if God doesn't use you to save his people from annihilation he'll find another way. He'll find deliverance from another place and of course that beautiful statement that I've referred to already. Who knoweth, the end of verse 14, whether thou come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

So what does Esther do? Esther sends a message back to Mordecai in verse 15. She bade them return Mordecai this answer. Go gather yourselves the Jews that are present in Sushan.

Fast for me neither eat nor drink three days, three nights. I also my maidens will fast and I will go into the king yet if I perish I perish. Now you probably know this but if you went in to a Persian king uninvited you could die.

If he didn't lift his scepter and welcome you in you'd signed your own death warrant. So she was risking her life. She was ready to stand up but before she does it she asks them to fast for three days and three nights.

I take it, it doesn't say it directly there, but I take it they were most likely praying as well as fasting because fasting and praying generally goes hand in hand. Fasting is something well I don't know about America but we're not desperately good at it in the United Kingdom. We're not known for fasting.

Fasting was a generally part of Old Testament system of worship. I don't think we should totally discount it in the New Testament. There's not a direct instruction in the New Testament that you must fast on this occasion but there are there are references to it.

For instance a couple are described as giving themselves to fasting and praying in first Peter. There might be times when God wants you to sacrifice food or maybe sacrifice something else. Fasting is not always about food but to abstain from something so that you can spend time with God.

And sometimes when there's a crisis, when there's a tragedy, when there's an illness, you just don't feel like eating but you feel like praying and you come to God and I take it that before Esther will stand up and go into the king, they are appealing to God for his preservation. So she's not only honorable and respectful to Mordecai, she's truthful, she's brave and she's trusting in God. I'm sure many of the sisters here live lives like that.

Unrecognized, unappreciated but they're great characteristics of believers. To stand honorably, respectfully for God and in domestic life and to be truthful and brave and trusting in God in the crisis of life. You see she had learned, or she had to learn should I put it that way, that God will work out his purposes in the circumstances of her life.

Now let's come back to chapter 8 and look at verses 3 to 6. We've come past the bit where Esther gets Haman's assets and real estate and Mordecai is given the king's ring and he's given a place of power and authority. But here's the request. Notice here's the queen and she's doing something very risky.

She's going into the king's presence and actually it's just something very honest. You just can't imagine this but she's going into the presence of the most powerful person in the world of her day. And verse 3 says she falls down at his feet.

She pleads with him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman and the device that he devised against the Jews. Now thankfully the king holds up his scepter. Verse 4, she doesn't die.

She arises, she stands before the king and she pleads. She says if I found favor in your sight and if this thing is pleasing in your sight I want you to reverse the letters devised by him. So remember this.

Haman had written a document, a contract, a decree. It had been signed by Ahasuerus. It was irreversible.

She's asking for the king to do something to change the circumstance. Of course he agrees. I want you just to notice before we get to that bit.

Verse 6, she says how can I endure to see the evil that shall come upon my people or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? Here is a person and we're thinking about this with Hannah. Here's a person who's looking beyond her own circumstances. I don't know whether it was in those three days of fasting and praying but something had changed in her mindset.

It wasn't now oh I can't go in because if I go in I could lose my life. She's now saying I don't know if I can cope. I don't know if I could handle or endure seeing the destruction of my people.

She had a great love for the people of God and she wanted to see their preservation. We'll come back to that in a moment but let me ask you a question. Do you have a great love for the people of God? I hope the fact that you're at this conference is indicative of the fact that you do but I hope that you have the care of God's people upon your heart.

Paul when writing about his trials and his traumas and his suffering he talks about a whole lot of physical things and then he says and daily there is upon my heart the care of the churches. Thank God for men and women who have a deep seated care for the people of God. Stephen was talking to us about sisters who bear God's people up in the presence of God.

I read 1st Timothy chapter 5 which is talking about widows and widows who have to be supported by the local assembly and their lives have been devoted to the people of God. Brothers and sisters, at the judgment seat of Christ don't think that as men rise before God to stand to see the assessment of life and service and motive and all those aspects of God's assessment, don't think that the awards are going to be given solely to men who stood to preach. There will be godly women.

There'll be men who never got the ability to preach but served God faithfully, loved the people of God, gave their heart and soul. I think of a couple in the New Testament, Aquila and Priscilla and Paul says they have laid down their lives for the gospel. Praise God for men and women who give their all because they have the care of God's people upon their hearts.

The forces of evil were marshaled against Israel. Oh, Haman was dead. There were still, in fact when you get to chapter 9 and chapter 10, there are 75,000 people at least who were ready to slaughter the Jews over 128 provinces that stretched from India to Ethiopia.

It was a massive empire. They had a mandate. They had authority to kill Jews, to take their property and if I understand anything about being an Israeli it's that you're pretty good at doing business and you're pretty prosperous when it comes to accumulating wealth.

But they saw an opportunity to destroy the people of God and get richer from it but God has other plans. You know the Bible tells me this in the little, in the, I was going to say the little book but it certainly isn't little, but in the book of Jeremiah God reminds us, he gives us actually a very strong symbolism as to the continued existence of the nation of Israel. Listen to what it says in Jeremiah 31, 35.

Thus saith the Lord which giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night which divides the sea when the waves do thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances, God says if the sun, the moon and the stars are going to depart from before me then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me.

God says if you can measure the stars and the foundations of the earth can be searched then I will cast off the seed of Israel. Yes, I believe the Bible teaches there are future days of great trouble coming for it for Israel but they will never destroy that nation because just as in the days of Esther God would see a way to preserve them and just as in future days whether they've started now. You know my wife was just saying we could go to heaven from America.

You might say well could you go to heaven from a better place? Well I don't know but we could go to, you know the Lord could come tonight couldn't he? Things seem to be lining up. We don't know how long this world has got. We do know this God's not finished with that nation.

They're not going to be destroyed because the 17 nations of the Arab world have mandated for generations to wipe them off the face of planet earth. No they will never be wiped off the face of planet earth. Jeremiah says for as long as there's a sun, moon and stars in the sky these people will not be destroyed and read through Romans 11 to see God's plan and purpose for them.

Do you know the bible tells me this in Luke chapter 1 21 that there's going to come a point when the world will completely turn against Israel. Now I don't know how America features in future prophecy maybe you do. I haven't found that out yet but I don't know how that gets worked.

Maybe there's so many Christians in America that when the rapture takes place it will just fall apart. I don't know but I know this before the Lord Jesus comes the world will have congregated against Israel. They will have planned to destroy.

You read Zechariah 13, Zechariah 14, Luke 21, Matthew 24 and you'll find by the time Messiah comes they're at the they're just at the end. They think it's all over. Luke 21 says this look up for your redemption draweth nigh and on that day the Lord Jesus will come and he will deliver them.

Our third section 7 to 14 is the king's command and the king's response. I'm not going into that in great detail a because of time and b because it's pretty much narrative and we've read it together but the instruction is given that they should give permission to defend themselves. You asked the question today should Israel defend themselves? Well I think we have a principle here in Esther chapter 8 that God says yes they have the right to defend themselves.

I'm not saying I always agree with how they act or what they do. I don't think that necessarily we have the right to make that judgment. I don't think that they are in the center of God's purpose today so they may well act in ways that are not always right.

But listen to what the scripture says no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. Nations will be judged in the future as to how they dealt with Israel. God said long ago to Abraham I will bless those who bless thee and curse those who curse you.

In Zechariah chapter 12 and 14 well worth the read we don't have time to go into it today but they remind us the little expression comes up time and time again in that day. Pick that one out as you read it in that day. And actually quite interestingly in that day when Esther was about they were given permission to take the plunder.

That is the men that were going to kill them they could defend themselves and take what they had to be their own. But be careful as you read it they never did. Read chapter 9 read chapter 10 they only defended themselves killed those who were about to kill them which was a total of 75,000.

They never took any of their possession. But actually there is a day coming. Zechariah chapter 14 I really just should read it to you just because I think it's really important to see the accuracy of scripture and to see the detail of scripture and it says this in Zechariah chapter 14 say aye as I'm struggling to get to it.

I know what it is by the way. I'm just trying to get in my back. Chapter 14 it starts in verse 2 I will gather all nations against Jerusalem.

Verse 3 then shall the Lord go and fight against those nations. Verse number 9 the Lord shall be king over all the earth. That's when the Lord Jesus arrives.

It's coming back to the Mount of Olives by the way. It's going to divide in two. There's going to be at least to the Dead Sea possibly even down to the Persian Gulf because it becomes a trading route.

Jerusalem becomes a seaport. But as you read down those verses it says this in verse 14. Judah shall fight at Jerusalem and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together gold silver and apparel in great abundance.

There is a day coming when the wealth of the world of the nations that rejected Israel will be placed in Israel's possession in that future day. But as I finish I must talk to you about verses 8 verses sorry 13 15 should I say to 17. I love this little section and and to kind of get the best from it you need to read this and Esther chapter 10 which is actually only three verses.

But you look at what it says in verse 15. After the permission has been given that the governmental instruction has been seen signed and delivered Mordecai goes out verse 15. He's wearing royal apparel he's dressed in blue and white has a great crown of gold and he's got a garment of fine linen and purple and there's rejoicing in the city.

Why? Because they're they've got light and gladness and joy and honor. Mordecai is a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus. I was going to say do not think so because there's not too many people nodding or smiling.

I hope you're still awake. This is a kind of difficult slot isn't it over after lunch. Maybe it gets a bit better for Stephen and then Marcus he well I think Marcus are you next Marcus? Okay so Stephen will get the one where you're wide awake hopefully.

But notice this about Mordecai. He's rejected but now he's crowned. That's the Lord Jesus isn't it? Rejected but one day he's going to be crowned.

Mordecai it was the focus of destruction by the evil one at the cross of Calvary. You read Psalm 22 the bulls of Bashan. I take it that's the religious leadership.

I think probably the lion is probably talking about satanic power but within that chapter there is the reference to Gentiles and Jews all baying for the blood of Christ. He's rejected. He's the focus of destruction.

I think at Calvary I think Satan thought he'd won the day but he destroyed him that had the power of death. He's going to conquer. He's the seed of the woman that crushes the serpent's head.

One day he's going to be crowned like Mordecai was dressed in fabulous clothing. He's the one who serves the interests of the king. Oh the Lord Jesus he is the king we know that but there's a sense in which he also serves the interests of the king.

First Corinthians 15. He brings everything under his control. Then he delivers the kingdom to God.

The Lord Jesus has by his death on the cross set the scene for his final act of redemption when he will deal with the Jews and judge the nations and bring everything under his authority and after a thousand years deliver to God everything that was lost through the fall of Satan and through the fall of Adam and he's the one who risked his all to save others. Oh Mordecai potentially you were meant to be on those gallows but oh no he risked his life to save others. Is that not what the Lord Jesus did? He didn't just risk it he gave his life.

How about Esther chapter 10 just look at that as I close and conclude. Esther chapter 10 it says this in verse number two. And all the acts of his power and of his might and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai.

This is speaking about King Ahasuerus. Whereunto the king advanced him. Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For, note this verse, for Mordecai the Jew.

Notice that he's still Mordecai the Jew. He's not lost his identity. He was great amongst the Jews.

Oh he was elevated. He's their deliverer. He was accepted of the multitude of his brethren.

He seeks the wealth of his people. And he speaks peace to all his seed. Is that not our Lord Jesus Christ? Great amongst the Jews he will be one day.

Accepted of the multitude of his brethren. He's the one who is exalted above those who are his fellows. He seeks the wealth of his people.

Today we're his people. We're that people of God. First Peter two talks about.

But he also seeks the wealth of his earthly people Israel. And he speaks peace to all his seed. You live in the good of that today.

One day they will politically and nationally live in the good of it as well. Well that's Esther and Mordecai. That sits right in the middle of our little time frame as I talked to you about last night.

You see this recovery starts with Cyrus instructing the rebuilding of the temple. You read it in Ezra chapter one. But this story of Esther sits after the temple is complete.

But before Ezra arrives in Jerusalem. Before Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem. Before the walls are built.

Right in the middle was the potential of the destruction of a nation. Esther didn't know that her preservation actions back in the city of Shushan ensured that Jerusalem was rebuilt. Ensured that Jerusalem was repopulated.

Ensured that a people could repopulate the land of Palestine. Isn't God wonderful? And isn't his word quite amazing? We trust that God will bless you through his word today.