Pray for me as I attempt to exalt
the Savior. Turn with me, please, to the
book of Esther. The book of Esther, just before
the book of Job. I'm going to be reading several
Scriptures tonight. You can turn with me if you'd
like, or just listen as I read them. But either way, I pray
the Lord will speak to us. The book of Esther. I don't know
if any of you are real familiar with this book. To me it's a
fascinating book. There's four main characters,
Esther, the King Ahasuerus, Mordecai, and Nahum. I'm sorry, not Nahum. Haman. Haman. And there's so
many types in this book. If you're familiar with the story,
Even if you're, whether you're familiar with it or not, I would
recommend that you read this book. You can read it in one
setting. It's a fascinating book. Like I say, there's many types
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father. And I want to expound
on those a little bit tonight, if the Lord will give me liberty.
Verse one of this book tells us that Ahasuerus had a vast
empire ruled from India all the way to Ethiopia they took in
what we call better part of the Middle East much of Africa and
the nation of India. We're told in the first verse
of this book that there were 127 provinces that this king
ruled over and his empire was as large or larger than the Roman
Empire at its peak. But as we read this book it starts
out by telling us that the king was having a big party. And he
wanted the queen, Vasi, to come so that everybody could look
at her. Apparently she was something to behold. And she refused to
come. So the king's advisors got their
heads together and said, we can't have this because if word gets
around throughout your kingdom that the queen won't obey the
king, then that's going to spread like wildfire and the women of
the kingdom will think they can disobey their husband. So they
suggested that a new queen be found. And that new queen ended
up being Esther. And her uncle had raised her.
Mordecai was his name. He is, we'll see, is a type of
Christ. And there was this other man
named Haman, and he is a type in this book of Satan because
he despised Mordecai, who is a type of Christ, And he despised
all the Jews. He actually sought to have every
Jew in the kingdom slaughtered. And that's such a parallel with
Satan. He would attempt to have every
one of God's elect to be doomed and damned. But we'll see from
reading of this book that God had other plans. And I want to
just read This 10th chapter, there's only three verses in
this last chapter and take our text from this and draw some
parallels if the Lord will enable me to. And hopefully we'll see our blessed
savior high and lifted up. Chapter 10 of the Book of Esther
and King and the King of Hacharias laid a tribute upon the land
and upon the isles of the sea. And all the acts of his power
and of his might and the Declaration of the Greatness of Mordecai,
whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book
of the Chronicles of the Media and Persia? For Mordecai the
Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and
accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth
of his people, and speaking peace to his seed." I've taken my title
for this message from this third verse, seeking the wealth of
his people. Now, we read in this first verse
that the king laid a tribute upon the land and upon the isles
of the sea, meaning that this required tribute was very widespread. It was over his entire kingdom,
wherever King Hashirius ruled. Tribute in this context means
forced labor or forced servitude. And this is a picture of what
happened in the garden when our father Adam disobeyed God and
as a result was cast out and made to pay a tribute by serving
under the heavy burden of sin and its consequences, which we
read about in Genesis chapter three. Turn over there with me
to the book of Genesis chapter three. We'll read just a few
verses in Genesis chapter three. We'll begin reading in verse
14, read through verse 19. And the Lord said unto the serpent,
because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and
above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and
her seed, and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise
his heel. Unto the woman, he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou
shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband
and he shall rule over thee. But unto Adam, he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten
of the tree of the which I commanded thee saying thou shall not eat
of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out
of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou
shalt return. And after this we read how God
put Adam and Eve out of the garden, and the tribute, or the forced
servitude that was laid on Adam was in past to the entire human
race. But our God promised that one
day He would deliver His people from this servitude. He speaks
of this in Isaiah 14. It says, And it shall come to
pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy
sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein
thou wast made to serve. It wasn't a choice. We were made
to serve under that bondage. And Romans 8 21 makes this promise
because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And one more text in Hebrews
Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. Speaking of the servitude and
the bondage starting in verse 9 Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9 which
was a figure for the time then present in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscience which stood
only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of Reformation. But Christ, being
coming high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of
this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but
by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls
and of goats and the ashes of an hefner sprinkling the unclean,
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. And for this cause, he is a mediator
of the New Testament, that by means of death for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, They,
which are called, might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a
testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise, it is of
no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither
the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses
had spoken every precept unto all the people according to the
law, He took the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and
hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying,
this is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto
you. Now next, in verse 2 of our text,
going back to Esther, verse 2 of chapter 10, we read this. And
all the acts of his power, speaking of the king and of his might, And the Declaration of the Greatness
of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written
in the book of Media and Persia? Now these books have long since
been relegated to the ash heap of history. But unlike this book
that you hold in your hands that will endure forever, our God
will see to it that the works of man and the books that document
those great things that they have done will be lost to history,
but not this book. Now, it's just not a picture
of our God when it talks of the acts of the power of this king.
We read in Psalm 136 of God's might and his mercy. And every
verse in this Psalm 136 ends with these words, for his mercy
endureth forever. Now, for the sake of time, I'm
only going to read the first half of each verse and not include
that last line, but I want you to read this with me. Psalm 136,
speaking of the power of our God, as this second verse speaks
of the power of King Ahasuerus. Starting in verse 3 of Psalm
136, O give thanks to the Lord of lords, to him who doeth great
wonders, to him that by wisdom made the heavens, to him that
stretched out the earth above the waters, to him that made
great light, the sun to rule by day, the moon and the stars
to rule by night, to him that smote Egypt in their firstborn
and brought Israel out from among them with a strong hand and with
a stretched out arm, to him which divided the Red Sea into parts
and made Israel to pass through the midst of it, but overthrew
Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, to him which led his people
through the wilderness, to him which smote great kings and slew
famous kings, and gave their land for an heritage, even an
heritage to Israel his servant, who remembered us in our lowest
state, and hath redeemed us from our enemies, who giveth food
to all flesh, O give thanks unto the God of heaven. And David
declares our God's power when he says this, who is the king
of glory, the Lord God strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in
battle. Now, this is one that you do
not want to go toe to toe with. Our God has never encountered
an enemy that he's not able to completely annihilate with his
mighty power. David described this when he
said, Thou hast a mighty arm strong as thy right hand and
high as thy right hand. For thou hast been a shelter
for me, and a strong tower for mine enemy. David likens our
God to a tower in the walled cities of old that was safe from
any weapon of the enemy. And David then asked in Psalm
89, O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? And the answer is this, there
is none like our God. And in verse two in our text
here in Ezra, Esther, verse 2 says, In the declaration
of the greatness of Mordecai, who is here a type of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who excels in strength. If you look back at verse 4 in
chapter 9, it describes Mordecai, and this is such a good description
of our blessed Savior. It says, For Mordecai was great
in the king's house, And his fame went out throughout all
the provinces, for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. Now in Luke chapter one, we find
the story of the angel coming to Mary before our Lord Jesus
Christ was born. We're speaking of the greatness
of our Savior here. In Luke chapter one. Starting
in verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth. To a virgin, a spouse to a man
whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the Virgin's
name was Mary. And the angel came in under her
and said, Hail, thou that are highly favored. The Lord is with
thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him,
she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner
of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her,
fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold,
thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall
call his name Jesus. And this first thirty two, and
he shall Be great. And he shall be called the son
of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father, David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There shall be
no end. It's verse 32, he shall be great. Speaking of Christ, this is a
parallel. of the greatness of Mordecai that we find here in
the book of Esther. Now, David in the psalm made
this declaration, For the Lord is a great God and a great King
above all gods. In Exodus, the book of Exodus,
chapter 15, speaking to the greatness of our God, Exodus chapter 15,
Moses and the children of Israel sang this psalm. Speaking of
the greatness of God, Exodus 15, starting in verse 6, Thy right hand, O Lord, has become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, has dashed
in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of Thy excellency,
Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee. Thou sendest
forth Thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the
blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together. The flood
stood upright as in heap, and the depths were congealed in
the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue.
I will overtake. I will divide to spoil. My lust
shall be satisfied upon them, and I will draw my sword, and
my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind,
and the sea covered them. They sank as lead. in the mighty
waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchest
out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them up. Thou and thy mercy has led forth
the people which thou has redeemed. Thou has guided them in thy strength
unto by unholy habitation. Now next, back in our text in
Esther, speaking of Mordecai and the
declaration of his greatness, we also read it says, whereunto
the king advanced him. Now Philippians chapter two tells
us how our God advanced his son, our blessed Savior. And we read
in Philippians 2 beginning in verse 5, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore, because of all this,
wherefore God hath highly exalted him as the king advanced Mordecai,
our God hath highly exalted his son and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, God the
Father also advanced his son by determining that he would
have superiority in everything. Colossians 1, 6 tells us this,
for by him were all things created, speaking of Christ. We're told
this in John chapter 1, for by him all things were created that
are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by him and for him, and he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Preeminence is another word for
dominant importance or superiority, that in all things Christ should
enjoy distinction, excellency, perfection, and supremacy, that
he would be extremely distinguished, outstanding, and superior to
any and all, above all others, high in station, rank, and reputation. Hebrews 1 gives us further insight
as to how our God exalted his son. Hebrews 1. As I said, I'm going to be looking
at a lot of scriptures tonight. But in Hebrews chapter one. God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. Whom he hath appointed heir of
all things and by whom he also made the world. Who being the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
In verse 8 and 9, But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God,
is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
a scepter of thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And verse 3 and verse 13 also
tell us that God the Father had given the Son a place that no
other has to be seated at his right hand in glory. So all the
things that we read show how his Our God advanced his son
as King Ahasuerus advanced Mordecai. And in the last part of chapter
two here in Esther, chapter 10, we read of the greatness of the
king and the advancement of Mordecai. And it says, are they not written
in the book of the media and Persia? Now, as a reminder, this
is referring to the acts and the power of the king, this king
and the kings that came before him. Meticulous historic records
were kept of all that this king did and the kings that came before
him, of their mighty, wondrous acts and feats that they did.
Now we know this from what we read in Esther chapter 6, verse
1. It says, on that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded
to bring the book of the records of the chronicles, and they did
read before the king. The king had a sleepless night,
So he had some history read to him. I don't know if it was his
history or the kings before him. But every deed of the kings was
recorded for the further generations of the Medes and Persians. And
this reminded me so much of this book that we are looking at tonight. These scriptures everywhere speak
of the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ and his deeds. They
are they which testify of me, our Lord said. of the Scriptures. But even at that, we're not told
everything which took place when our Lord walked this earth. We
know this because the last verse in the Gospel of John says this.
And there are also many things which Jesus did, the which, if
they should be written every one, I suppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books that should be written. But God has given us his word.
And he gave us his word for one reason. And we're told that reason
in John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31. It says, and many other
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which
are not written in this book. But these are written. And this
is why. That you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ. The son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. God gave us his written
word so that we could learn about his goodness, his greatness,
his love, his mercy, his majesty, his power, and the sovereignty
of our great deliverer. And by the reading of and the
preaching of these things, we should come to believe on him.
Now in verse three of our text here in Esther chapter 10, It
says, For Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus, and
great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren,
seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his
seed. To all his seed. When we read
that Mordecai was next unto the king, it means as Joseph was
next to Pharaoh in Egypt in power, So was Mordecai next to the king
in power and authority that the king had given him, wielding
nearly as much power as the king himself. But our blessed Mordecai,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself, doesn't wield as much power as
the father because he told his disciples in Matthew 28, all
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And as our text reads that Mordecai
was next unto the king, so our Lord is next unto his father
that we just read a few minutes ago, seated at the very right
hand of God. As Psalm 110 tells us, the Lord
said unto my Lord, set thou on my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. Then this third verse tells us
that Mordecai was great among the Jews, among his people. Not
among all people, but among his people. This speaks again of
a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is indeed the king of
this entire earth, but he's not regarded by many people as being
great. Many people don't even know his
name, have never heard his name and never will. But this next verse says that
Mordecai or the next line in this verse, I should say, says
that Mordecai was accepted of the multitude of his brethren,
which means simply that his people, the Jews, held him in the highest
esteem. And the reason they did so was
because of what is chronicled in chapters three through seven
of Esther. Haman had determined that every
Jew in the kingdom was to be slain on a certain day in the
future. And letters were sent to all 127 of these provinces,
giving orders that on this certain day, all Jews in those provinces
were to be slain. But because of God's good providence, the purpose of Haman was frustrated. Like I said, you really need
to read this book. It is a tremendous book as far as God's providence
goes. And Mordecai was highly thought
of as the king because early in this book we're told that
two men had planned an assassination of this king and Mordecai learned
of it and told Esther. And Esther told the king and
these men were executed. Therefore Mordecai was highly
thought of by this king. And verses 5 and 6 of chapter
3 says, And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, Haman had
a big ego. He was like Satan, I will rise
my throne above the throne of God. And Haman, it says, when
he saw that Mordecai bowed not unto him, nor did him reverence,
then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorned to lay
hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people
of Mordecai. Wherefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews
that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ha-Sharias, even the
people of Mordecai, which is a picture and a type of how Satan
and the forces of darkness sought to destroy Christ himself when
he was on this earth. And later, the elect chosen people
of God, the true church, the Israel of God. But as Mordecai
foiled Haman's plans, so our God has foiled the plans of Satan. And what's really rich in this
book is Haman had some gallows built. They
were about seven stories high. He wanted everybody within several
miles to be able to see this execution because he thought
that he would see to it that Mordecai was hanged on these
gallows. But in God's good providence, there was a serious reversal
of fortune. And the last verse of chapter
7 says this, So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared
for Mordecai. So it was with our blessed Lord
he ended up foiling the plans of Satan, redeeming all those
of his brethren whom Satan sought to destroy by laying down his
life for them. And one day, As Haman was hanged
on the gallows, he prepared for Mordecai, so shall this Satan
be cast into the very pit where he sought to drag God's people.
In the next line in verse three, speaking of Mordecai says this,
that he was seeking the wealth of his people. What a perfect
description of what Christ is always doing for his elect people,
constantly bestowing upon us his riches. from His storehouse
of grace, the riches of His grace, the riches of His wisdom, the
riches of His mercy, the riches of His forbearance, the riches
of His long-suffering, the riches of His goodness, and the riches
of His glory, all the unsearchable riches of Christ which He bestows
on His people. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that, though He was rich, Yet for your sakes
he became poor that ye, through his poverty, might be rich, unimaginably
rich. He is always and in all things
seeking the wealth of his people, bringing them from the place
of being wretched beggars, wearing the rags of their self-righteousness,
to being brought into the king's house and clothed with the pure
robes of the righteousness of Christ. And the last thing that
we read of Mordecai, in the last words
of this book, it says that he was seeking the wealth of his
people and speaking peace to all his seed. What a great way
to end our study of these three verses, to look at the way and
the reasons which enable Christ to speak peace to his chosen
ones. Let's start by looking at the
book of Psalms, chapter 85. Psalm 85. Our God speaking peace
to His people. Psalm 85. We'll read the first
10 verses. Speaking of our Lord giving peace
to His people. Lord, Thou has been favorable
unto the land, Thou has brought back the captivity of Jacob.
Thou has forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou has covered
all their sins. Thou has taken away all thy wrath. Thou has turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God, of our salvation
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry
with us forever? Will Thou draw out Thine anger
to all generations? Will Thou not revive us again
that Thy people may rejoice in Thee? Show us Thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us Thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and to
His saints, and let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh to them that fear him, that glory may dwell
in our land. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed one another. Verse eight
tells us that our Lord will speak peace unto his people. And that peace comes from knowing
that the warfare has ended, the peace treaty which is that new
covenant that we read of in Hebrews, that peace treaty had been signed. Now, almost all the letters of
the New Testament begin with these words, peace be unto you. And because of the finished work
of Christ, we enjoy eternal peace with our God. Romans 5, 1 says
this, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. How? through our Lord Jesus Christ,
because of what He is and what He has done. Ephesians 2.14,
speaking of Christ, For He is our peace, who hath made both
one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between
us. And Colossians 1.20 tells us how we came to have this peace
with God. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross, That is how we have peace with God.
By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, the very blood of
the God-man was the purchase price of our eternal peace. It's like those words that we
sing at Christmas time, but we should sing it year round. Peace
on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Luke 2, 14 speaks of the birth
of Christ, and it says this glory to God in the highest and on
earth peace, goodwill toward men. In the accounts of our Lord
appearing to his disciples after his resurrection in every account,
he greets him by saying peace be unto you. Peace purchased,
as we just read, by his blood. In Psalm 4, David speaks of the
perfect contentment which comes from resting in Christ when he
says this, I will lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou,
Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. In Psalm 29, the Lord
give us strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. Further, the psalm said, but
the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves
in the abundance of peace. Not just peace, but in the abundance
of peace. I think those of us who have
never known war, never been in combat, never seen the horrors
of war, cannot really truly appreciate what
this word peace means. But those of us whom our God
brought to the place of knowing that we were going
to be condemned forever, that we had no hope, that this warfare
between us and God, there was nothing we could do to bring
about peace, we know a little bit about what David is speaking
about when he talks of this piece of God. So in these three verses, the
simple three verses in this last chapter of Esther, we have a
type of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done
and will do for his people eternally. Now, may we ever be enabled to
praise him Even though our efforts of praising him in this life
are feeble, we rest in this hope. It will
not always be so. That one day we will enjoy the
most perfect of peace. In this life, we're told we have
tribulation. And we do. We have heartache.
But there's one thing that we do have. and it comes from our
Savior. It is the peace of knowing that
the warfare is ended, that Christ has done all that was necessary
to bring about peace between wretched sinners and a holy God.
I hope our Lord will bless that to your hearts. Let's look to