Esther chapter one and verse
one. Now it came to pass in the days
of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus which reigned from India even
unto Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces, that in those days
when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which
was in Shushan the palace, In the third year of his reign,
he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the
power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces
being before him when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom
and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred
and fourscore days. That's six months. And when these
days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that
were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven
days in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were
white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen
and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The beds were
of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and
black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels
of gold, the vessels being diverse, one from another, and royal wine
in abundance according to the state of the king. And the drinking
was according to the law. None did compel, for so the king
had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should
do according to every man's pleasure. Also Vashti, the queen, made
a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to
King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the
heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Bista,
Harbona, Biktha, and Abaktha, Zethar, and Karkas, the seven
chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
to bring Vashti, the queen before the king, with the crown royal,
to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair
to look on. but the Queen Vashti refused
to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore
was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise
men, which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward
all that new law and judgment, and the next unto him was Karshena,
Sheethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Merez, Marcena, and Memucan,
the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face
and which sat the first in the kingdom. What shall we do unto
the queen Vashti according to law? Because she hath not performed
the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the Chamberlains. And Memunkan
answered before the king and the princes, Vashti, the queen,
hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes
and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king
Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall
come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their
husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported. The king Ahasuerus
commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but
she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of
Persia and Media say this day unto all the king's princes which
have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there arise
too much contempt and wrath. if it please the king. Let there
go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the
laws of the Persians and the Medes that it be not altered,
that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, and let the king
give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And
when the king's decree, which he shall make, shall be published
throughout all his empire, for it is great, all the wives shall
give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. And
the saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king did
according to the word of Mimucan. For he sent letters into all
the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing
thereof, and to every people after their language, that every
man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be
published according to the language of every people. After these
things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered
Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against
her. Then said the king's servants
that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought
for the king. And let the king appoint officers
in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together
all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house
of the women, unto the custody of Hege, the king's chamberlain. Keeper of the women, and let
their things for purification be given them. And let the maiden
which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing
pleased the king, and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace,
there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordechai, the son of
Djer, the son of Shemi, the son of Kish, a Benjamite. who had
been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity, which had
been carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon, had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah,
that is Esther, his uncle's daughter. For she had neither father nor
mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai,
when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass when the king's
commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens
were gathered together unto Shushan the palace to the custody of
Hegeai, that Esther was brought also unto the king's house to
the custody of Hegeai, keeper of the women. And the maiden
pleased him. And she obtained kindness of
him, and he speedily gave her her things for purification,
with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens which
were meet to be given her out of the king's house. And he preferred
her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not showed her people
nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should
not show it. Mordecai walked every day before
the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what
should become of her. Now when every maid's turn was
come to go into King Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve
months according to the manner of the women, for so were the
days of the purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of
myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things
for the purifying of the women. When thus came every maiden unto
the king, whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her
out of the house of the women unto the king's house. In the
evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the
second house of the women, to the custody of Shashgaz, the
king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines. She came in unto
the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that
she were called by name. Now in the turn of Esther, the
daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her
for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king. She required
nothing but what Haggai, the king's chamberlain, the keeper
of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in
the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken
unto King Ahasuerus, into his house, royal, in the tenth month,
which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained
grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins, so
that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead
of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast
unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast,
and he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according
to the state of the king. And when the virgins were gathered
together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. 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. In those days, while Mordecai
sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, big,
thin, and terraced, of those which kept the door, were wroth
and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing
was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen, and
Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when
inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. Therefore they
were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of
the Chronicles before the king. After these things did King Ahasuerus
promote Haman, the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, and advanced him
and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And
all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed
and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning
him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the
king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai,
Why transgresseth thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass,
when they speak daily unto him, and he hearken not unto them,
that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand,
for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw
that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman
full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands
on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai,
whereof Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout
the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
In the first month, that is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth
year of King Ahasuerus, they cast purr, that is the lot, before
Haman from day to day and from month to month to the twelfth
month, that is the month Adar. And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus,
There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the
people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are
diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws. Therefore
it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them. If it please
the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I
will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those
that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.'
And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman
the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. And the king
said unto Haman, the silver is given to thee, the people also,
to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's
scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there
was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto
the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over
every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province
according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their
language. In the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and
sealed with the king's ring. And the letters were sent by
posts into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause
to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and
women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them
for a prey. The copy of the writing for a
commandment to be given in every province was published unto all
people that they should be ready against that day. The posts went
out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was
given in Xushan the palace. And the king and Heman sat down
to drink. But the city, Xushan, was perplexed. Amen, may God bless to us this
reading of his word. The Lord Jesus Christ, during
his ministry, denounced the Jews of his day as killers and murderers. In John chapter 8 and verse 40,
the verses following, he says to them, but now ye seek to kill
me, a man that hath told you the truth. Ye do the deeds of
your father. Ye are of your father the devil. The lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning. They were of their father, the
devil, and the devil was a murderer from the beginning. In the book
of Revelation, there is a name given to the devil, which is
Apollyon or Abaddon. And that name means the destroyer. And this name is given to that
creature that is the angel of the bottomless pit. And Satan
has sought to destroy, to destroy, to murder and to kill the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, from the very beginning of the
world. The death and destruction of
the God-man was always Satan's purpose. He slew Adam and Eve in the garden,
not physically, but in the day that they did eat thereof, they
would surely die. And he knew what he was doing
in the form of the serpent when he tempted Eve to sin against
God. Cain slew Abel because Satan
discerned that in Abel, the line of the promised child would be
found. And Satan endeavoured to destroy
that line. by causing Cain to kill Abel. And Satan has roamed the earth
like a roaring lion, we are told in 1 Peter 5, seeking whom he
may devour, the destroyer, Apollyon. murdering and killing wherever
he felt there was an opportunity to hurt the work of Christ or
to bring it to an abrupt end. And whether we're talking about
Egypt's Pharaoh or whether we're talking about Sennacherib of
the Assyrians or Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar, or Agag of the Amalekites, or
the Hittites, or the Midianites, or the Amorites, or the Philistines. Everyone in the whole of history
that went against Israel did so for the purpose of the destruction
of the line of Christ. That was the motive. That was
why Satan inspired them to do so. And in the Old Testament book
of Esther, we discover a fearsome picture of Satan's scheming the
annihilation of the Jews in order to destroy the line of Christ. That is what is happening here
in this book. If the Lord will allow and enable,
we'll spend a little bit more time in succeeding weeks just
developing the story. I wanted to get as much of the
narrative in this morning to set, as it were, a framework
for us that we might move quickly into these passages. But we see
here a man called Ahasuerus, King of Persia. ruler of the
Medes and the Persians, whose kingdom extended from India to Ethiopia. It was huge. From India to Africa. and it speaks of the provinces
that he had under his charge, but it covered that whole Middle
Eastern location. The geography of that included
all the land of Israel, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea,
all to the edge and the East coast of Africa and even to Africa
and up into the borders of Europe, where Greece and Macedonia would
have been found. It's centered in the country
that we now call Iran. and it was the Persian Empire. They had themselves taken over
Media and the Medes and the Persians have gone into history as one
of the strongest and most glorious dynasties of that age. And so the kingdom of Ahazuerus
included the land of Israel and all of the displaced people of
the Jews that had been taken from Israel, from Judah, from
Samaria, from the combined tribes and taken with their ethnic movement
of people, as the kings of that age often did, to different places,
different cities and towns throughout the empire. It was a mechanism
that was established in order to reduce the likelihood of any
armed rebellion. If you could separate and spread
the people out over a vast area, then their languages would be
different and they would not be able to come together in order
to make a problem for the king or for his armies. And if the
king and his armies were off fighting somewhere else on their
borders, then they knew that there would be less likelihood
of an uprising in their own empire. So the Jews were spread throughout
Ahasuerus' empire of the Medes and the Persians. And we're given
a picture here in the early chapters, the early verses, of the absolute
power of this man Ahasuerus, the king. And he is given to
us as tyrannical, despotic in his attitudes. He could do as
he wished, no one gainsayed him, no one spoke out, no one questioned
his views. And he gathered around himself
wise men, he gathered around himself governors, and he led
the people as an all-powerful king. He could do as he wished,
he raised men up and he cast men down. He held a feast that
extended for 187 days. At the end of that feast he called
for his queen Vashti, and he called for her to be prayed that
all these drunken men could leer at her and look at her beauty. Vashti offended him in his drunken
celebration by refusing to come We could speculate about these
things, but it's not important, so we'll pass by why she may
have done that. But the consequence was that
she was divorced. And we find that in that act,
the king followed the direction of his advisors. Now here we
discover something else. Shushan the palace is spoken
of. Shushan the palace was where
Esther and Mordecai had their home. But that group of Jews
that lived in Shushan were just a small group representative
of the whole of the nation of the Jews that were spread throughout
the whole of the empire. Shushan was In modern day Iran,
as I've mentioned, a thousand miles from Jerusalem. But for all the spread of the
Jews throughout the kingdom, the Lord was with his people
where they were. Wherever they were, the Lord
knew where they had been placed. And no matter where, when, or
how the need might arise, the Lord guards his own people and
he protects them from danger. We're introduced to someone else,
a man called Haman the Agagite, and he proves to be a wicked
man, a schemer worthy of Satan's devices. And he sees that Mordecai
is refusing to bow to him. And for the hatred that he has
to this Jew, Mordecai, we are told that Haman resolves to slay
every Jew in the kingdom. Look at chapter three and verse
six. I'm speaking about Haman here. He was full of wrath towards
Mordecai. Verse six, chapter three says,
and he thought scorn. to lay hands on Mordecai alone. He thought, I'm not going to
simply kill this man. He scorned the idea of killing
him alone. That was too good for Mordecai. Such was the egoism, such was
the high-minded, self-righteous view that this man Haman had
of himself and his his own glory, his own position. So high was
he in his own esteem that even though Mordecai wouldn't bow
to him, he wouldn't just take revenge on the individual. No,
that was too good. He would destroy the whole of
his nation. That would teach him. But you
see, Satan was involved in this. This was another attempt, as
it had been tried by the Assyrians, as it had been tried by the Egyptians,
to destroy the whole of the nation of Israel. That he might destroy
the lineage of Christ and bring to an end the purposes of God
for the salvation of the church. Every Jew in the kingdom was
to be murdered. What a beastly man Haman was. He has gone down in the history
of the Jews as the most wicked man that ever lived. And he endeavored
to wipe out a whole race. Now, let me just point something
out here. If the name that this man carries, Haman of the Agagites,
Hagan the Agagite is significant, and it may be, then it is a reference
to a king of the Amalekites called Agag. And Agag had been the name
of all the kings of the Amalekites in the same way as Pharaoh was
the name of all the kings of the Egyptians. When we talk about
Pharaoh, we're not simply talking about one individual. Pharaoh
was a generic name for the Egyptian kings, and so was Agag for the
Amalekites. But it would suggest that this
man had come from that race of the Amalekites. And this is what
it says in Exodus chapter 17 concerning this race, the Amalekites. You may remember that it was
the Amalekites that Joshua fought against when the arms of Moses
had to be lifted up. And as he held up his stick,
then Israel prevailed. And when his arms became heavy
and drooped, then Amalek, or the Amalekites, prevailed. Exodus
17 verse 16 says, When I was a little boy, And it's amazing how these things,
that's why teaching the children is so important. It's amazing
how these things stick in your mind. And I must have heard a
thousand things, 10,000 things that I have forgotten. But I
remember this. I remember a man standing up
in church one day and speaking about the Amalekites. And he
said this. He said, the Amalekites are a
picture of our flesh. Why did I remember that? But
he did. I could only have been... But
he said, the Amalekites are a picture of our flesh. And I guess he
was working with this verse. Because what this tells us is
that from generation to generation, the Lord will have war with Amalek. Where are the Amalekites today?
But from generation to generation, the Lord will have war with them.
And so the spirit wars against the flesh. And that is the picture
that we have here. And here is Haman the Agagite. Haman, the descendant of the
kings of the Amalekites. And he suddenly has it within
his power because of Ahasuerus' promotion of him, not only to
kill Mordecai, but to destroy the whole of the nation of the
Jews. We also discover something else
here, and I'm kind of just quickly painting some pictures in, but
we discover something called the Laws of the Medes and the
Persians. And I guess some of you will
be familiar with that phrase. You may even use it as an idiom
in your conversation. It means, when we use it today,
something that is unalterable, something that isn't going to
be changed, something that... Another phrase that means the
same is, it's chiseled in stone. Or, it's the law of the Medes
and the Persians. No, this has come down from the
top management as a diktat. It's not going to be altered,
it's not going to be changed, so get used to it. And the reason
was because the laws of the Medes and the Persians, so, indeed,
I thought it was quite amusing, actually, when we read at the
beginning of chapter one that even the drinking sessions of
these guys was according to law. Did you remember that? It says
that they had, and the drinking was according to the law. None
did compel. So they even got drunk legally. Legally high. And the law was
important to these people, the laws of the Medes and the Persians.
Once it was decreed, once it had been issued, once the stamp
of the king's ring had been placed upon that scroll, it couldn't
be rescinded. It couldn't be altered. It had
gone into law and it could not be withdrawn. So here we're told about the
laws of the Medes and the Persians. We read about that same law in
Daniel chapter 6. I think in verse 8 and verse
12 there's references to the unalterable law of the Medes
and the Persians. And Haman Let's call him the
prime minister. Haman, this man who was second
in charge here under the king, he made use of the law to manipulate
Ahasuerus and to condemn every Jew from the borders of India to
Ethiopia. The unalterable law And what he was going to do was
he was going to, on one day, slay every single one of them. And all their neighbours were
to get ready. They were to prepare. There were
some months ahead. They were to prepare. And on the appointed
day, the whole of the empire was to rise up against this small
national group that were in their community and they were to wipe
them out, men, women and children, and they were to take their property
as a prey. Well, the law of the Medes and
the Persians perhaps draws our attention to God's law. And it's interesting the way
that men very often have a structure that they devise, which in some
small way parallels that which speaks of God. But we know that
there is an unalterable law of God. and it's much more strict
and stringent and emphatic than even the law of the Medes and
the Persians. And that holy law of God stands
condemning every sin that ever has been committed and every
person that ever has committed it. That law of God attests that
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Men always seek to lessen sin,
always endeavour to make it less serious than it is, always want
to dilute the law. We use a little phrase for that,
or some people do, they call it Neo-Nomianism, because we
re-speak the law, we re-state the law, we say, yes, thou shalt
not kill, that's the law, but it doesn't mean in this situation,
or in this situation, or in this situation, and then we make a
new law for ourselves. one that we can attain to, one
that we can fulfil, one that we feel we're able to match and
satisfy. But the law of God, the holy
law of God, is in its decrees more powerful and authoritarian
and strict than the law of the Medes and the Persians. And in
James chapter two, verse 10, we read, for whosoever shall
keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of
all. And so even one little breach
of this holy law of God, though you keep 99%, is sufficient to condemn you
before the perfect holiness of God. Another thing that we can
see here in this passage is that the people of promise are in
the midst of their enemies. The Jews were the Old Testament
people of promise, or rather, they were the people through
whom the promised Messiah would come. Remember how we've spoken
about Isaac was called the child of promise. And Satan knew that,
Satan knew what was going to happen. Right from the very start,
he knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to come as a man into
the world, that that was the plan of salvation, that that
was the purpose of God. And we discover throughout the
history of the Old Testament that Satan, the destroyer, tries
repeatedly to destroy the children of Israel. in order to end the
line, to make a break in that line of promise, so to stop what
God had purposed from taking place. In Romans chapter 15,
verse eight, we read, Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister
of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises
made unto the fathers. These promises that Christ would
come, these promises that the Messiah would come, it had been
made to the fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. They knew that there was something
to look forward to, a way of deliverance, a way of salvation.
And all the time, the people of God were being assailed by
their enemies in order to bring to an end that purpose, promise
of God. In 2 Corinthians 1.20 we read,
all the promises of God in him, that's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
are yea and in him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. And so what Satan was after was
the destruction of Christ because he thought thereby he could bring
an end to the purpose of God to redeem a people out of this
world. 2 Peter 1 verse 4, whereby we read,
by the Lord Jesus Christ are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. You see, the corruption that
is in the world is Satan's kingdom, Satan's domain, that's where
he's in charge. That's where he roams around. That's where he enters into the
hearts of men and does as he wills and as he pleases. All,
of course, under the overarching purpose of God. But the loveliness
of this story of Esther is that we can see, as it were, almost
in these few chapters that we have in this little book, the
whole history of God's dealings with his people being worked
out. So here in Shushan, the palace,
were the people of promise. And now Haman the Agagite sought
to destroy them and all of the Jews. And then we discover a little
orphan girl, a little orphan. You know, the story is just so
beautifully constructed and put together. The orphan who became
a queen, Hadassah, that is Esther. She was raised by Mordecai, Mordecai. She was fair and she was beautiful.
She proved to be wise and brave. And she represented her people. before the king by entering his
presence on their behalf. We've still to come to this part
of the story, but her name means star, Esther, it means star. And she's a lovely picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our star. He is the morning star. In Numbers 24 verse 7 we read,
there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise
out of Israel. There would be a rule, there
would be a king, there would be a scepter, there would be
power, would arise out of Israel. This was talking in a sense historically
about David, but this is greater than David. This was messianic.
And so we see in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, prefigured
in Esther, one who would represent her people before the authority
and power of the king. In Revelation 22, verse 16, we're
told, I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning
star. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that
is here in view. For his glory, for his brightness,
for his splendor, for the light that comes by him, he is our
star and our sun. He is the son of righteousness
that is risen with healing in his wings and he can influence
by his grace towards us in our sin darkened state for grace
and for mercy to bring us into the light and the liberty of
the chosen people. In Isaiah 60 verse 1 we read,
Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord
is risen upon thee. And then there's more decay.
And there is a dilemma that we are set with here, which is not
answered for us explicitly. Why didn't he bow down? Why didn't
he do it? Now, it's pretty clear that this
was not that he simply refused to bow to anyone because he bows
to Ahasuerus later and Esther prostrates herself before Ahasuerus. So why didn't he bow to Haman? I do love it when you give me
that expectant look, but I don't know. I don't know why. Maybe We could speculate. Maybe it was because he was a
Jew. Maybe it was because he discerned something in the history,
the heritage of this man in which he realized that here was Amalek. He saw this in some sort of historical
context, but for whatever reason. he would not bow to Haman, even
when he was pressed by the servants in the palace and Haman's own
advisors to do it. It's not that he wasn't given
opportunity. They spoke to him about it long
before the message got to Haman that he was refusing to do it.
And we need to be careful about this because there is a Christian
principle that we do honour the king. We are to be obedient. in the nation and under the government
that we are placed in by God. God is in control. It's not our
prerogative to decide this isn't a good government, I think I'll
overthrow it. That's not your call. That's God's call. And so we are to pray for our
leaders. We are to honour the king. And
if you're a republic, fit in your own words. But we are to
give honour to those that are in authority. Render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that
are God's. And we're called to live peaceably
with all men. And yet we cannot deny the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there will be personal trials
and there will be public persecution that comes upon us as the Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ because we are a people that live amongst
a people and we do not hold to their laws or their principles
or their practices or their traditions because we are looking for another
city and we are anticipating another kingdom and we are following
a different king. These troubles have always attended
the Church. In 1 Peter 4, verse 12, we read
it a few weeks ago. There is a fiery trial coming
upon you. We can take these things as prophetic.
Peter was obviously writing to the strangers and pilgrims of
his own day, anticipating something that was going to happen to them,
but it has happened to every generation. The Lord has been
fighting against Amalek generation after generation after generation.
The spirit and the flesh are always contending. The devil
is always seeking to do harm to the church of Jesus Christ
and the work of Jesus Christ. In Philippians chapter three,
verse eight, yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things. What, your money? All things. Your family? all things, your
health, your life. I've suffered the loss of all
things for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, and do count them but done that I may win Christ. Let me wrap this up, if I may.
The great message of Esther is the faithfulness of God towards
his people. The providential care that we
have under his control and authority. And yes, there was a mighty king
whose empire stretched from border to border. And yes, there was
a Prime Minister Hayman who had such an antipathy against this
man and against all that he stood for and all that he represented
and every single person, woman and child in his people that
he would wipe them off the face of the earth. And yes, there
was a law of the Medes and the Persians that was unalterable.
And yes, he took the ring off the king's finger and he stamped
it on that decree and he sent it out by post on camels and
fast-moving dromedaries. That's what it says. And it went
to every one of the provinces and the men of the provinces
sharpened their swords. An unalterable decree. And all
we have to do now is wait on the calendar turning over until
the day of destruction falls upon us. What terror must have
pervaded the homes of the Jews when they knew that their enemies
and their neighbours were preparing to break down their doors and
slay them and their children. But God is in control. And I
kind of am having to leave it here today because we can't go
any further. But here's the message. There
is a providential care at work. And even in the small incidents,
the little things that seem to be of absolutely no consequence,
God was moving his purpose to the accomplishment of the salvation
of his people. Our God's controlling hand is
always at work in the affairs of men, even when they don't
think it, or know it, or imagine it, or think that they have all
of the mechanism of government at their disposal to do what
they will, when they will, to whom they will. God is in control
and we have a comfort and a calmness and a peace in the knowledge
that Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour has our best interests
and our protection at heart and no one can touch us except he
allows it to be so. God is in charge. The Lord Jesus
Christ came He was born, he lived, he went to the cross and he died.
So that is kind of telling us that Haman doesn't succeed. But
you're going to have to wait till next week to find the next
part of the story. Amen.