Esther 8

 

 

1 On that day king Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. 2 And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. 3 And Esther spoke to the king again, fell down at his feet, wept, and begged him to put away the evil of Haman the Agagite, and his plot that he had devised against the Jews.

 

  • Genesis 14:20 Blessed be the most high God, which has delivered your enemies into your hand.
  • Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able also to save to the uttermost those that come to God by him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.

 

4 Then the king held out the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king, 5 and said, If it is good to the king, if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing is right before the king, and I am good in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters, the sly plan by Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, that he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces: 6 How can I bear to see the evil that will come on my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

 

  • God is not willing that any perish.
  • Think for a moment how much evil God has had to endure for us.
  • 2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.

 

7 So king Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he laid his hand on the Jews. 8 Now write to the Jews, as you desire, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for no man can reverse the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring.

 

  • The king gave Mordecai this ring in verse 2.
  • This ring was the king’s signature.
  • God gave us His power of attorney.
  • John 14:14 If you ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

 

9 Then the king's scribes were called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the 23rd day; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, to the lieutenants, to the deputies and rulers of the provinces that were from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, according to their language. 10 He wrote in king Ahasuerus' name, sealed it with the king's ring, sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries: 11 In which the king granted the Jews in every city to gather themselves together, to stand for their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take their plunder for a prize.

 

  • The third year of Ahasuerus’ reign was the year of the banquet in which the queen refused the king and was dethroned.
  • During the seventh year of his reign Esther was crowned his queen.
  • During the twelfth year of his reign Haman’s edict was sent out to destroy the Jews. God allows us to defend ourselves.
  • Exodus 22:2 If a thief is found breaking in, and be struck so that he dies, no blood is to be shed for him.

 

11 On one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, that is, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. 13 The copy of the writing was published to all people for a commandment to be given in every province, for the Jews to be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 14 So the couriers riding stallions and mules went out, being hurried and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the royal city.

 

  • To people under the sentence of death, the good news came.
  • God has sent us out with a decree of life also.
  • John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him not perish, but have everlasting life.



15 Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 16 The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor. 17 And in every province, and in every city, wherever 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 on them.

 

  • Joshua 2:9 And she said to the men, I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that your terror is fallen on us, all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
  • Psalm 45:15 They will be brought with gladness and rejoicing: they will enter into the king's palace.

 

 

                                              Esther 9

 

 

1 Now in the twelfth month, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be done, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned around so that the Jews ruled over them that hated them;) 2 The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to defend themselves against any that sought to harm them: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell on all people.

 

  • Deuteronomy 28:13 And the LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; and you will be above only, and not beneath; if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do them:
  • Deuteronomy 11:25 No man will be able to stand against you: for the LORD your God will put the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you walk on, as he has said to you.

 

3 And all the rulers of the provinces, the lieutenants, the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell on them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai grew greater and greater. 5 So the Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, they did what they would to those that hated them. 6 And in Shushan, the royal city, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.7 And Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha, 10 they killed the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews,; but they did not lay their hand on the plunder.

 

  • Haman had planned to take the property of the Jews and give part of it to the kings treasury (Esther 3:9).
  • Notice the integrity of these Jews. They didn’t plunder and pillage, they protected themselves but didn’t steal the property of their enemies though it would have been their right to do so.
  • Abraham did the same thing in Genesis 14:16-24.

 

 

God grants our petitions

 

11 That day, the number that were killed in Shushan, the royal city, was brought before the king. 12 And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan, the royal city, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what is your petition? And it will be granted to you: what more do you request? It shall be done.

 

  • John 14:13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

 

13 Then Esther said, If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews that are in Shushan, to do tomorrow what they did today, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows. 14 And the king commanded it to be done: the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. 15 For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men at Shushan; but they did not lay their hand on the plunder. 16 But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and killed 75,000 of their enemies but they did not lay their hand on the plunder,

 

  • The families of those dead from the day before would have been seeking revenge.
  • This put an end to it before it started.
  • Imagine in Hitler’s’ Germany if a decree had been made that the Jews could defend themselves against those who were trying to wipe their race from the earth.

 

 

God turns our mourning into dancing

 

17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 18 But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day; and on the fourteenth (to fight); then on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

 

  • Imagine their rejoicing, and the rejoicing of the world if the Holocaust had been averted.
  • In Esther, the only ones who died were those who tried to take the life of someone who had done them no harm.

19 Therefore, the Jews of the villages, that lived in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 To establish this among them, to yearly keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, 22 As days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was turned from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: to make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.

 

  • Psalm 30:11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: you have put off my sackcloth, and wrapped me with gladness;

 

23 And the Jews undertook to do as 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 devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to crush them, and to destroy them; 25 But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plot he devised against the Jews, be turned on his own head, and that he and his sons be hanged on the gallows.

 

  • Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

 

26 So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur/lot. 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 ordained, and took on them and on their seed, and on all that joined to them, not to fail to keep these two days according to their writing, according to their appointed time every year; 28 And that these days be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim not fail from among the Jews, or their memorial of them perish from their seed. 29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. 30 And he sent the letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31 To establish these days of Purim in their times appointed, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established for them, and as they had decreed for their souls and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry. 32 And the decree of Esther established these customs of Purim; and it was written in the book.

 

  • Jeremiah 33:6 Behold, I will bring health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
  • Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.

 

 

                                           Esther 10

 

 

1 And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the isles of the sea.

 

  • God has given us life and breath and all things (Acts 17:25).
  • God’s taxes are light. He saves them in eternal accounts.
  • He repays hundredfold (Mark 10:30).
  • Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, How have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings. (a tithe is a tenth).
  • Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
  • Matthew 19:29 And every one that has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit everlasting life.

 

 

2 And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, in which the king made him great, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

 

  • 2 Samuel 22:36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation: and your gentleness has made me great.

 

 

God seeks the best for His people

 

3 For Mordecai the Jew was next to king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brothers, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.

 

  • Peace on earth begins with peace with God in our hearts.
  • God has always ruled His universe this way. He wants only the best for us. Jesus will rule forever this way.
  • Ezekiel 34:11-16 For thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them on the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the high mountains of Israel: there will they lie in a good fold, and feed in a fat pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek what was lost, and return those driven away, and will bind up what was broken, and will strengthen what was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
  • Isaiah 57:21 There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.

 

 

 

 

SUMMARY: Esther 8-10

 

  • God made His people glad at His great deliverance
  • He put fear of the Jews on the people of the kingdom
  • He grants our petitions
  • He turns our mourning into dancing
  • He seeks the best for His people