Esther: A Jet Tour

Note: Adapted from the sermon “Esther for such as time as this” by John MacArthur

One of two books in the bible in which the name of God is not mentioned

— The other one is Song of Solomon

Ruler Ruler is mentioned 175 times

God God is the main character in the book

History 480 BC A massive Persian army faced rebel Athen and Greek forces

— The Persians had 1 million soldiers

— 250K stretched from Libya to Pakistan

Empire The Persian empire was the second greatest empire after Babylon

— About 50m people in the empire

539 BC The Persians conquered the Babylonian Chaldean empire

— Persian empire lasted 200 years until they were conquered by the Greeks in 480 BC and later the Romans

Darius The Persian king who had conquered regions of Greece in 550 BC

— His armies were defeated in the famous battle of Marathon in 490 BC

— Made famous by the runner Philippides who ran 26 miles from the battle field to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated

— Darius was enraged and wanted to return to Greece and finish the job

Died But Darius died and his son Xerxes took over (519-465 BC)

— When he took the throne he had to deal with Egypt and Babylon

— No time to deal with Greece

— But in 481 he is ready to turn his attention to Greece

— He is making his battle plans and this is where the story of Esther opens (483)

(1:3) in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants

—the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces being before him

Waiting Xerxes has 250,000 men waiting in Turkey for his command to attack Greece

— The meeting at the fortified city of Shushan was to plan this attack

Order Given The order is given to attack Greece; this is now the second attack on Greece

— The Persians reach Athens but are driven back by the Greeks

— Battle of Thermopylae is famous where 300 Greek Spartans (King Leonidas I) versus the entire Persian army

— 7000 Greeks but a local resident Ephialtes betrayed his homeland by revealing a shepherd path which allowed the Persians

to outflank them. 300 Spartans stayed behind and fought to the death

Fights Xerxes fights repeatedly with the Greeks but more loses than victories

Alexander Finally, Alexander the great conquers the Middle East

— He establishes the great Greek Empire and the Persian empire is defeated for good

Xerxes Xerxes is the Greek name

— His Persian name is Kasharasha

— Hebrew name is Akash Ravash

— English name is Ahasherus

Xerxes is the Grandson of Cyrus the great (Isaiah 45:1) who allowed the Jews to return to the Holy Land

— He dies by assassination (465 BC)

Summary Story Summary: One Jewish women, an orphan, conquers the King and saves the Jewish people from genocide

Author Don’t know the author

— Possible authors are Mordecai the cousin of Esther; Ezra or Nehemiah

— The real author is God

Overview Describes the kingdom which stretches from Modern Libya (Africa) to Pakistan

Cyrus Cyrus, grandfather of Xerxes, allowed the Jews to return home and rebuild the city

— Fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah (44:28) that he would come and allow them to rebuild

But many Jews stayed and did not go back with Company A, B, C

3 Waves The Jews returned in three (3) waves

— Company “A” Zerubbabel

— Company “B” Ezra; rebuilt the temple

— Company “C” Nehemiah; rebuilt the walls (Swindoll)

Summit Xerxes holds a six-month planning summit at the fortified city of Shushan

— Same city that Nehemiah would serve as the cup bearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes (464 - 423 BC)

— Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi come after Esther chronologically

— But Ezra & Nehemiah appears before Esther in our bible

Xerxes is holding a six month war summit and ends the summit with a seven (7) day banquet

Vashti Queen Vashti refuses to appear at the banquet

— Xerxes is furious and demotes her (483 BC)

— Xerxes had a violent temper. A year earlier his army marched from Turkey to Greece and he ordered that bridges be built

at Hellenspont, a narrow water way between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean

— A storm came and washed the bridges out before the army could cross into Greece

— Xerxes assembled all the engineers and chopped of their heads

Herodotus The Greek Historian Herodotus says that Xerxes was so furious that he ordered his soldiers to

— Whip the water 300 times

— Place hot irons in the water to subdue it

— His rage was irrational and this may explain why he treated Vashti the way that he did

Four years Four (4) years pass and there is no queen

(2:16) So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Q: Why four years?

Greece For two (2) years he is fighting Greece and loosing

— Vashti is demoted in 483 or 482 BC

— Esther is coronated in 479 or 478 BC

Chapter 2:1-4 “After these things...”

— After the battle with the Greeks

— He remembers Vashti and that he no longer has a queen

— Starts a beauty contest; 50M and 25M are women

2 Jews Here we are introduced to two (2) Jews by the name of Mordecai and Esther

— They are descendants of the original Jews captured when the Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king captured Jerusalem

— Their parents were brought to Babylonian about a century earlier around 597 BC and following

— Mordecai is the eldest and is about 15 years older than his cousin Esther

(2:7) she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful.

When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

— Esther is not her real name, her Hebrew name is Hadassah which means myrtle - the plan

— She was given a Persia name like Daniel and his three friends (Azariah, Mishael, Hananiah) were called:

— Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego (Persian Names)

— She was a virgin and very beautiful

(2:7) The young woman was lovely and beautiful

— She is selected and goes to live in a harem with the concubines and participate in the beauty contest that will select the next queen

A Year Josephus, the historian, says that there were 400 women

— From a population of 25M 400 women are selected to join the harem and concubines

— They are given a year to work on themselves to become more beautiful, hair, fragrances, skin complexion, learn etiquette

— Then they were given one opportunity to impress the King and after he had gone through all 400 women he would make his selection

2:16 Chapter 2:16 Esther’s time comes to go to the King’s chamber

(2:16) So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

2:17 And then this: (2:17) The king loved Esther more than all the other women

— And he makes her the Queen

— Like a Cinderella story

— A power working here greater than Xerxes

— Providential power that orchestrates His own purposes the the affections of King Xerxes

— And as we dive deeper into the book of Esther we will study Providence

The Plot Mordecai overhears a plot to kill the king (2:21)

(2:21) In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs,

Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

— These are royal officials who guarded the king

— It would be as if you overheard a plot to kill the President by members of the Secret Service

— So Mordecai reports this to Esther and the plot is foiled and the King’s life is saved

— (2:23) and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the King

— Persians recorded everything; that’s why we know so much

— And the King recorded it because loyalty had to be rewarded, disloyalty punished

Haman Now we meet the other main character, Haman the Agagite

— Haman the Agagite is repeated over and over, that’s not a small detail

— The Agagite hated the Jews

Exodus Go back 1,000 years to 1445 BC

Jews are coming out of Egypt (Ex 17) and they are attacked by the descendants of Esau who sold his birthright

— These are the Amalekites and God curses them and says you’ll be extinct

Saul 400 years later Saul attacks the Amalekites and captures their king Agag

— Instead of killing him he allows him to live and God is displeased;

You remember what happens?

— Saul steps in (1 Sam ) and hacks Agag to pieces

Feud The feud erupts (3:2) And all the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate bowed and paid homage to Haman,

for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage.

— Mordecai the Benjamite will not bow down to Haman the Agagite

— Bad blood on both sides

— Haman the Agagite is so filled with wrath that he decides he will kill not only Mordecai but all of his people

So what does Haman do?

He goes to the magicians and the astrologers (3:7) and they determine the optimum day by looking at their mystical sources

— So they pick a day to annihilate all the Jews

— Then Haman the Agagite goes to the king (3:8) that we ought to kill all the Jews because they are threat to your kingdom and we should

we should go all the way back to Israel and wipe them out; and by the way, we’ll plunder them and you’ll be rich

— The king says, Great idea (3:10) and gives Haman his signet ring so he can stamp all of the documents authorizing the genocide of the Jews

Pony Express Haman hits the fast track and dispatches the pony express all over the kingdom announcing the annihilation of the Jews

(3:13) And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old,

little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

Mourning As you would expect there was great mourning and weeping among the Jews when they heard this

— (4:1) When Mordecai herd this he tore his clothes

— Was this simple payback? No! Much larger. Satan was behind this and is always behind every attempt to annihilate the Jews

Esther — Mordecai tells Esther and gives her a copy of the decree

— He tells her she has to go to the King but it is not that simple, even the Queen can not approach the king unless summoned

(4:11) All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king,

who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live

Afraid Esther is naturally afraid but Mordecai tells her to be brave

— These famous verses 4:13-14: You’re dead if you do and you’re dead if you don’t

(4:13-14) Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.

For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house

will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Fast She goes and tells Mordecai to to have every one fast for 3 days

(4:16) Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise.

— She doesn’t mention prayer but there is never fasting without prayer

— After three days she will go to the king. The verse continues

(4:16) And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

After three (3) days Esther puts on her royal robes and approaches the throne and wait to see if the king extends his hand

(5:2) So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther

the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter.

And the king says to her in typical royal hyperbole:

(5:3) What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom!”

— You can have anything you want

— So she makes a simple request, she would like to have a banquet for the King and Haman later that day (

— What she really wants is to save the lives of her people

Petition At the banquet the king knows that Esther has some other reason for seeing him so he asks

(5:6) At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you.

What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”

And then Esther answered again and said I want another banquet tomorrow with you and Haman

— What is going on here?

— The idea is that at banquet number one she is going to tell the king what Haman is plotting

— But instead she doesn’t feel that the timing is right so she wants do this all over again tomorrow

Ego All of this is feeding Hams’s ego

— He has been exalted by the King and now he has been invited to not one but two private banquets with the King and Queen

— No higher honor could be given than to dine with the king

— Haman goes home and on the way he sees Mordecai the Benjamite and just goes crazy with rage

— He goes home and tells the family that he has to get rid of this man and that he will erect gallows and execute Mordecai first thing

in the morning

Toss and Turn That night the king tosses and turns and can’t sleep

So he calls for someone to bring the royal records

— The royal records go back many years before his father and grandfather

— He thought reading the royal records would somehow put him to sleep

Mordecai Someone brings him the royal records and he starts to read

— He reads about the plot to kill him by two of the king’s doorkeepers

(6:2,3) And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought

to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”

And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

Nothing And the kings servants tell Xerxes that nothing has been done

— Five years have passed and nothing has been done to reward Mordecai

— Haman arrives at the royal court first thing in the morning and he is going to ask the king for permission to execute Mordecai

— But before he can ask a question the king says

(6:6) What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?

— Haman thinks that the king want to honor him!

— So Haman says, give him a royal robe. Let him ride the King’s horse. Let him have a prince lead him through the city proclaiming,

“Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor”

Twist In a shocking twist, the king tells Haman that he is to honor Mordecai and that Mordecai will lead him through the city

(6:10) Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within

the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.”

Ashamed Haman is ashamed and after it is all over he goes home and tells his wife and friends everything that happened

— His wife tells him that his plot to kill Mordecai is going to backfire

— (6:13) When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him,

“If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”

Party! While they are still talking the kings eunuchs arrive and tell Haman it is time to go to the banquet

Again the king asks Esther what is her petition

— Here at the 2nd banquet Esther does not hesitate

(7:3,4) Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition,

and my people at my request. 4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.

Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”

Treason King Xerxes could not believe what he was hearing

— To threaten the Queen’s life was the height of treason

— Remember Xerxes has a terrible temper, so he is furious and he asks in verse 5

(7:5) Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?

Noose Now Haman feels the noose tightening around his neck

— He thinks surely the Queen is not a Jew like Mordecai

— Then with her hand pointed at the red-faced dinner guest she says, “The adversary and the enemy is this wicked Haman!”

Furious The king gets up and storms out into the palace garden

— He remembers the decree that Haman had him sign a few months earlier

— He remembers how Haman misrepresented the Jews as a threat to the kingdom

— And he had literally signed a decree authorizing the murder of his own queen

Sexual Assault Haman is still at the dinner table and he falls at her feet in front of the couch where she sat

— He probably has his arms outstretched and his head in her lap because when the King comes in it looks to him like sexual assault

(7:8) When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was.

Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?” As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

Killed And how did they kill Haman?

— They hung him on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai

One Day What a difference one day makes

— One day earlier he was on top, exalted

— So the king gave all of Haman’s property to the queen; And the queen gave it to her cousin Mordecai

— And the king exalted Mordecai, (8:2) and (9:4) the king exalted Mordecai and he became to the king of Persia like Daniel had been the

king of Babylon

Decree What about the decree to kill the Jews?

— It can’t be rescinded even by the king

— He had to issue another decree to override the previous one; this one allowed the Jews to protected themselves

— Allowed them to kill anyone who tried to harm them or steal their property (8:11)

(9:3-4) And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king’s work, helped the Jews,

because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces;

for this man Mordecai became increasingly prominent.

Fear Fear fell upon all the people that wanted to harm the Jews because Mordecai had been elevated to such a high place of power

— The people knew the king’s attitude towards the Jews

— And word would certainly have spread about the Queen being a Jew

— He couldn’t undo his previous decree but he could tell the people you don’t have to attack the Jews and the Jews can defend themselves

3/7 The day finally came, March 7, 473 BC

— The Jews defended themselves and there were attacks and deaths

— Over 75,000 enemies of the Jews were killed

— That day is now immortalized but not for the reasons that Haman the Agagite had intended

— March 7th was established as a Jewish holiday to celebrate

— Calle the feast of purim P-U-R-I-M. Purim is the Hebrew word for “lots” which Haman used to pick the day of genocide

— it is two day feast of triumph, celebration, the care of God

(9:23-28) So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, 24 because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; 25 but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26 So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, 28 that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.

Flourish Long after Haman was hanged, Esther the queen and Mordecai continued to flourish

— Mordecai was exalted again - to second in command of the Persian empire

(10:3) For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren,

seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen

Conclusion Where is God in the book of Esther?

Hero He is the real hero of the story

— His hand of providence is everywhere in the story

— Esther and Mordecai stay behind and don’t return to Jerusalem after the Exile is over

— Queen Vashti refuses to go to the banquet and is demoted

— Esther is selected as queen from 25M to 1 and is a Jew

— Mordecai is in the right place at the right time to hear the plot to kill the king

— The king can’t sleep and they just happen to bring him the scroll that records that Mordecai was never rewarded

Miracles There are no miracles in the Book of Esther

— The whole book is a miracle of divine providence

— Not Haman or Satan could destroy God’s people or put an end to the Abrahamic or Davidic promises

— The promise to make Israel a great nation

— The coming of the Messiah

— The ultimate salvation of Israel

Application

And the message for you is this - while you’re going through life and trying to make sure you fix all the little pieces of your life, understand this – that there is over and in, above and below your life the divine Architect ordering every detail. And if you belong to Him and are in the covenant of His love, He is accomplishing His perfect will, and you can rest in that. You can rest in that.

The Lord is still on the throne. These are challenging times, challenging days to live in. You can become pretty distressed about the way things are going. The way things are going in the world is chaotic, disconcerting, troubling, disturbing, distressing, in some ways frightening. Not so in the kingdom. The divine Architect is ordering our lives – those of us who belong to Him and are in covenant love with Him. He is ordering our lives to His eternal glory. Ever part. How wonderful to live in that confidence. Amen?

Additional Resources

Swindoll, Chuck R. Hand Me Another Brick. Thomas Nelson, 1978.

John MacArthur: Ester: For Such a Time as This, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-392/esther-for-such-a-time-as-this

Esther: A Jet Tour

Review

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10