[0:00] Chapter 8, it was last Sunday evening, we were able to see in chapter 7 there, really the grand change of events.
[0:11] So in Esther's second banquet, she exposes this evil man and enemy to Haman, and we see that Haman is hanged by the end of the 7th chapter.
[0:26] So hung on the own gallows which he built in which to hang Mordecai, who the king had just honored by having Haman parade him through town.
[0:38] So we now come to the 8th chapter and we won't get very far into it because we're only going to look at the first two verses this evening. Esther chapter 8, verses 1 and 2, and then we'll look at those two and then we'll take some time to do Q&A.
[0:54] But let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your faithfulness to us. We thank you for this day you've given us and we thank you for the opportunity we have of gathering together.
[1:07] It is with great joy that we open up the pages of your word and we come and ask that you would speak to our hearts and minds. And Lord, we anticipate you opening it up for our understanding and drawing us closer to you.
[1:22] We anticipate hearing a word from you that would edify us, at times challenge us and encourage us to walk closer to you each and every day.
[1:34] So we pray you'd be glorified through our time together, through our time of looking at the word, through our time of encouraging one another as we discuss the things of the word, and through our time of fellowship.
[1:46] And we ask that in all things that Christ would be exalted in our time together. And we ask it in your name. Amen. There's so much imagery and foreshadowing in the book of Esther that we dare not overlook it.
[2:01] To be a book which never mentions the name of Yahweh or the Lord God at all, there is so much detail that is given that we know certainly God is working.
[2:15] And not only do we see the reality of his movements, there are so many things that point to the fulfillment that is ultimately found in Christ and Christ alone. It is matters that do not escape our notice or dare not escape our notice.
[2:30] For if it was not that, then all we would be reading is just a book about a Jewish man named Mordecai and his cousin Esther, who happens to be the queen, through a series of random events that took place in the Persian Empire.
[2:44] And we would say, Well, that's a pretty cool story. And it started a festival known as the Festival of Purim later on, which is rather unknown to us because it is not one of the celebratory feasts that the Lord God ordains for his people Israel.
[2:58] Though they are celebrating it during the time of Christ, Christ redeems that time. It is during that time that he declares that he is the light of the world. He is the redeemer and deliverer.
[3:11] But if it wasn't for the foreshadowing or the pointing to a greater fulfillment, really this book could be confined to the great books of history.
[3:24] It would not necessarily fit within the pages of our scripture. We would wonder why it is there. But yet we do see the sovereign leading hand of God, and we see so much foreshadowing of the fulfillment found in Christ and Christ alone.
[3:42] One of those being that there is an enemy to God's people. In this book, we know that it is Haman who is considered the enemy to the Jews. One who hates them because of who they are.
[3:52] He has a hatred for them because they are Jews, not because they have done anything to him or against him. There is the reality that Mordecai never stands to honor him, and Mordecai never bows before him.
[4:06] But it is the reality of his identification as a Jewish individual that leads to the hatred. And it is a hatred more than just one individual, but for the entirety of the people group. We see that God needs to preserve these people for the fulfillment of his word and his promises.
[4:21] But we also know that in the midst of this battle between the enemy of the Jews and the people of God, there is an intercessor who is positioned and placed at the right place at the right time.
[4:33] We know that that intercessor in this book is the queen, and it is Queen Esther who is found because of the poor choices of King Ahasuerus, where he kicked Queen Vashti out of the kingdom, and a lot of decisions that were made.
[4:49] And it is not very holy conduct at all, but through a series of events, Esther is promoted and made queen, and therefore she is positioned to be the right intercessor at the right time.
[5:00] We know the verse that says, Who knows that for such a time as this? And so the foreshadowing that we see is that there is an enemy of God's people who hates them because they are the people of God.
[5:13] And that God is not always actively fighting that enemy, at least we don't see him, or we don't understand it. Sometimes we feel like we wrestle against those forces on our own.
[5:24] But ultimately, the great comfort we have is that there is an intercessor who stands in the presence of the king who is absolutely in control of the influence and the effect that the enemy has over us.
[5:36] And it is that reality that we want to see in these first two verses of Esther chapter 8. We dare not be those who paint too grand of a picture in the narrative of Scripture, and that is a good way of me saying we don't want to read more into the text than what we see.
[5:56] We don't want to take a text and say, Oh, well, we can build our whole theology upon that. That is done in times in some Christian circles, and we take it out of context.
[6:07] But rather, we could also look at the context and see the greater fulfillment for the grander narrative of God. There are character traits that are true of God throughout history.
[6:21] Things that we can cling to and say, Yes, indeed, we see that reality, and we find great comfort in it. So what I want you to see just in these two verses as we read them is the wonder of that day.
[6:34] That day when King Ahasuerus declared that Haman should be hung on the gallows. And on that day when the enemy of the people of God was removed.
[6:48] Notice the wonder of that day. And I want us to stop here in the first two verses because if we were to read from verse 3 and on the remainder of the 8th chapter and even into the 9th chapter, admittedly there are going to be things that make us scratch our heads and say, Wow, people just become people again.
[7:06] The Jewish people are just like everyone else, and they're defending themselves, and they're plundering, and all these other things. The difference is they're not enriched by the plunder. They don't take the possession. So there's some things that we'll see there.
[7:19] But just pause for just a moment and look at what happened on that day, for I believe it will also point to what will happen on the day we stand before him when our enemy is defeated finally on that last day.
[7:34] Esther chapter 8 verses 1 and 2 says, On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther.
[7:45] And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had disclosed what he was to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai.
[7:56] And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. He said, Well, pastor, how are you going to build a whole sermon off of this? Well, I won't, but hopefully we'll see the truth of what God is showing us.
[8:10] Three marvelous things happen on that day. On that day, when the enemy of God's people is removed in an instant, three wonderful things happen.
[8:25] The first thing that we notice is that there is a possession that is given. There is a possession. It says, On that day, the day when Haman was hung on the gallows outside his own home, the day when the enemy of the Jews, not just the enemy of Mordecai, but the enemy of the Jews was discovered for who he was.
[8:48] On that day, when the king interceded because of the intercession of the queen, on that day, the very first thing that took place was there was a transfer of ownership.
[9:02] There was a possession that was given to someone. It says, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, that which Haman was the owner of, that which Haman had received probably as a due reward and repayment for his service to the king.
[9:21] We know that Haman seemingly comes out of nowhere in our text throughout the book of Esther, and all of a sudden we find him in the most influential of places, but we also find him with the possession of land and prominence within the region of the capital city.
[9:37] One of the realities that we understood is the gallows that was constructed were 75 feet tall. And some people say, well, how in the world could you build a gallow 75 foot tall? But the wording there implies that it could also be a tree.
[9:51] So here it is. Haman has a possession, a household that is not just his house. It's also his land and everything that is in his house. It is everything that he possesses. And he has such significant property that he has these grand majestic trees in which he can construct these instruments of what he intended to be destruction for the first Jewish individual, which would have been Mordecai.
[10:14] But on that day there is a possession that is given to the queen. Queen Esther receives that which had previously belonged to her enemy. Haman, the enemy of the Jews, therefore also the enemy of Esther, is out of the picture.
[10:29] He has been judged and he has been discovered and now he has been removed. And he is completely out of the picture. And what once belonged to him is given to the queen. You say, well, yes, that makes a lot of sense.
[10:41] But it is the intercessor who receives the possession of the enemy. Now that ought to garner our attention just a little bit. Because we have an intercessor who stands at the right hand of the father.
[10:54] And we have an intercessor that in a time of his wilderness temptation, after his baptism by John the Baptist, he was led by the spirit into the wilderness. For 40 days he was tempted.
[11:05] There are three culminating temptations that we have recorded for us in scripture. The wording is there that a successive period of 40 days, Christ undergoes temptation after temptation after temptation.
[11:17] The three culminating temptations are the ones that we have recorded for us in scripture. One of those is very telling. For in one of those, Satan shows him, you remember, all the kingdoms of this earth.
[11:31] And he shows them all of the kingdoms of man on the face of this earth. And he tells Jesus that if you bow down to me, I will give you these. And then there is this phrase that you dare not miss when you read it.
[11:45] For these have been given to me. Now we would love to think there that Satan does not own the kingdoms of this earth. But one thing that is telling in that scripture is that Jesus never refutes the reality that Satan has been given the kingdoms of this earth right now.
[12:04] He doesn't say, well, Satan, those don't belong to you. He doesn't say, well, Satan, it's not yours to give. Rather, he says that he will not bow down for he should not worship anyone but the Lord God alone.
[12:15] And he refuses to bow down and worship. But the offer of the enemy of God's people is that I will give you my possession. And my possession is the kingdoms of this earth.
[12:26] So we ask ourselves, when did he get that? Well, that's pretty easy. The answer, in the fall of man, man handed over the keys to this world to his enemy. For we were entrusted with that reality.
[12:37] For God says, subdue and rule over it. And at the fall, one of the things that we did was we handed over the kingdom which we were called to rule. And I say we, for we identify through our relation to the first Adam.
[12:51] That we were called to rule over. We handed it over to Satan. And that's why the book of Romans says, all of creation groans until the day of redemption. But notice what is going on in the wilderness temptation.
[13:05] Satan says, I have a possession and I will give it to you if you'll bow down before me. The intercessor, who is Jesus Christ, refuses to bow down.
[13:16] But friend, listen to me. There will be a day where every nation, every tribe, and every kingdom will be given to him. And that will be the glory of that day when the enemy is defeated.
[13:28] There will be a day when that which is possessed by the enemy of God's people now will become the possession of the one who intercedes for us presently.
[13:39] There will be a day, it says in scripture, where this world will become his footstool. And everything will be put under his rule and everything will be put under his realm. For on that day there will be a transfer of ownership.
[13:53] Jesus knew that. That's why he would not bow down. The offer of Satan was to bypass the suffering of the cross. But it is through the suffering of the cross that Jesus redeems humanity.
[14:08] And it is that final defeat that will come on that day when Satan is finally and formally declared dead. And he is cast into the lake of fire eternally. On that day that which belongs to him will be handed over.
[14:21] There will be a transfer of possession. And we see a foreshadowing of that when King Ahasuerus gives the possessions of Haman to Queen Esther.
[14:35] For it is the intercessor who receives it. Secondly, we notice here there is also a presentation. Simultaneous with the possession being transferred there is a presentation that is being made.
[14:49] For the household of Haman is given to Queen Esther. And notice, and Mordecai came before the king. Mordecai came before the king.
[15:01] Previously Mordecai has been in the court of the king. He is even set at the gate of the king. But now he is coming before the king. His name has been read in the room of the king.
[15:15] And the king has read about Mordecai. And he has sent Haman to clothe Mordecai. And he has sent Haman to parade Mordecai. But this is the first time that Mordecai has ever brought before the king.
[15:27] And on that day, when the transfer of ownership of Haman's property is given to Esther, there is also the presentation of Mordecai. Why?
[15:37] Notice what it says. For Esther had disclosed what he was to her. For Esther had disclosed what he was to her. So the move from the gate of the king into the presence of the king is directly connected to the relationship with the intercessor.
[15:59] Because Mordecai was somebody with the queen, he had an opportunity to be present before the king. And I don't want you to miss that. The highest that he could go in the political realm was to sit at the gate of the king.
[16:13] Gates are defensive weapons, right? That's why when we know that Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, the implication there is that the church will be on the offensive.
[16:24] For gates are defensive. They are to keep things obeyed. They are to keep things out. Gates never move on their own. Gates are stationary. They stand still and they say, Stay out. Don't get near us.
[16:35] They are defensive. But the church is to be on the offensive. And gates stand as a guard and a barrier. And they say, Don't come any further. And Mordecai could go to the gate. He could sit at the gate.
[16:47] And he was welcomed there. But he could go no further until Queen Esther disclosed what he was to her. So not only do you have an intercessor who can intercede for the people in general, you have an intercessor who can bring a person in particular to be before the king.
[17:07] And notice, my friend, when we read throughout Scripture, the tabernacle, God declares that the tabernacle should be made with a successive series of courts.
[17:20] There are the outer courts and then there are the inner courts and there are all these veils and all these curtains and all these doors and all these coverings and all these things that are to guard the holy of holies and people get a little further, a little further.
[17:32] When the temple is constructed, there are all these courts and there are all these doors and all these gates. And every gate is signifying that you don't come any further. But when Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom and the veil is open.
[17:46] And what we understand is now because of who we are in him, we move beyond the gates and into the presence. Because of who we are to him, we have a welcomed opportunity to be in the presence of the king.
[18:05] No longer constrained to stay at the gate and to say we can go no further. But in Christ, the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, we go boldly before the throne through the blood of the lamb.
[18:16] Why? Because of our relationship with the intercessor. Jesus is welcome and now we are too. There is a presentation for on that day, when that which belongs to the enemy is handed over to the Savior, then the Savior presents the followers of Christ before the Father and says, Father, these are mine.
[18:38] And we are presented personally, individually, privately, I would say even, into his presence. What a glorious day that will be.
[18:49] We are no longer constrained to stay out here now because of who we are in Christ and who we are with Christ and who Christ is to us. We are brought and presented before the king.
[19:06] Not confined to the gates any longer, but there is a presentation because now Mordecai is presented before the king for Esther had disclosed.
[19:16] It is not that Mordecai, don't lose sight of this, Mordecai was not standing outside going, I'm the queen's cousin, I'm the queen's cousin, Mordecai, because it would not have mattered.
[19:28] He would have been considered a crazy man. But rather it was the queen saying, that's my cousin. Much like Jesus said, there will be many on that day who say, Lord, Lord, did we not?
[19:40] Lord, Lord, did we not? And they will be calling out in his name and in his name declaring it and begging for an opportunity. But Jesus says, depart for I never knew you.
[19:53] is not those who call out and beg and try to please, but rather the ones whom Jesus says, these are mine.
[20:04] And what does he say in that high priestly prayer in John 17? For those which you have given me, I have lost none. These are the ones you have given me, Father. And he presents them before the Father and now we're welcome to come into his presence.
[20:19] What the wonder of that day. But it doesn't stop there because not only is there a possession and a presentation, there's also a promotion. It would be one thing if Mordecai had been given the opportunity to go before the king and to go live the rest of his life, having encountered the king and constantly looking back, oh, I remember the day I went and saw the king and I remember the day I met the king and oh, there was a time back then where I went to see the king and oh, there was a day and it's a continuous looking back to the day but it wasn't like that for what does it say?
[20:52] In verse 2, the king took off his signet ring which he had taken away from Haman. You know, there was a time when the enemy of the Jews was in favor with God or was in favor with the king and the enemy of the Jews was in favor with the king and he had a place of prominence before the king and he was there and he had a place of authority before the king and he had a promotion from the king and in his pride and in his anger and in his jealousy and in his hatred he fell from that position.
[21:17] Friend, don't lose the imagery of this for there was a time when Lucifer was the angel of light the most beautiful all of God's creation yet he was still in God's creation and he went before them going in and out as the sons of God and the angels of men would say even in the book of Job and there was a time when Lucifer as the angel of light was welcomed into the presence of holy God but in his pride for the seat of God and in his hatred for the creative work of God he was cast out and Jesus says and I saw him fall like the stars out of heaven and a third of the host of heaven with him and that position which was once held by Haman is now given to Mordecai the ring the signet ring that once resided on the hand of Haman taken by the king and now given to the man Mordecai and put upon his hand it's a promotion he does not meet the king once and go out no that encounter with the king as he's introduced to him now all of a sudden in an instant his life is changed for he's been in the presence of the king and when he came into the presence of the king the king promoted him and for all of the rest of creative work he would be now the one with the signet ring it is he who will write the letter he'll stamp it with the insignia of the king it is he who has the authority to do the matters which will take place throughout the rest of the chapter it is he who initiates even the festival that will be celebrated and he has a great place of prominence among the Jewish people throughout history but it's simply because he received this promotion from being in the presence of the king as an angel of light lucifer whom we know as satan the enemy of god's people was created that he may give praise and glory and honor to god almighty for all of eternity we see the angels that reside and maintain their proper abode we see them throughout scripture calling out holy holy holy is the lord god almighty but the most beautiful thing that we find is the chorus of the church because of their relationship with the savior being presented before the throne of god and joining the chorus song of the angels and the song crying out from the church worthy is the lamb that was slain and offering up their praises for all of eternity and casting their crowns we take the place of praise for we know we've received a promotion for all of eternity that which was intended to be the angels realm has become man's realm and now we get to stand around the throne of the king not leaving his presence and going oh what a day that was but rather staying in that eternal day and praising him forever and forever and forever and doing it until eternity for we received this promotion and now we are in that moment of that glorious day we have been put in that place it is not a promotion that is temporary but it is one rather that is eternal what we have before us in our text is a man
[24:21] Mordecai getting a promotion during a temporal earthly realm but what we find being foreshadowed is there is coming a day when the intercessor receives the possession of the enemy presents his people for their relationship with him and in that moment they receive a promotion that will endure throughout eternity in which they will stand before the king of kings and lord of lords and declare his praise as once the angels only could but we declare them even in a greater way for the angels which stand in heaven right now are the angels who have never fallen the angels who have always known the bliss of being in God's presence but we as fallen humanity who have been redeemed by the savior's blood get to come with the joys of redemption and the joys of mercy and forgiveness the angels gathered around his throne right now know nothing of mercy they know nothing of forgiveness they know nothing of grace but we as the church do this is what Paul said the angels long to look into the redemption of the people we have a promotion that is greater than the enemy ever left behind and we will stand before him and what a day that will be notice the wonder of that day the day when the enemy of God's people is taken out of the way the day when the enemy is removed fully and we are promoted to glory for all of eternity and what a day that will be and we see that in Esther 8 1 and 2 and I did leave enough time for Q&A ending