In the book of Esther we read
of a great king, King Ahasuerus who rules over a mighty kingdom
and this king has a great feast and his wife Vashti the queen
is invited into the feast with the king but she rebels against
the king's request and commandment and she will not go before him
And she embarrasses and shames him before those who are gathered
at the feast. And the king is furious, he's
rough against Vashti. And effectively he casts her
out and seeks another queen in her place. He has as it were
a beauty contest of other maidens who are gathered. And out of
those suitors he chooses one called Esther, a Jew. who has a relative called Maudikei,
a poor man, who sits outside the king's court. And when Maudikei
discovers that Esther has been chosen to be queen, he wants
to know all that happens. He longs to know how it goes
with her. But soon afterwards there is one of the king's servants
called Haman, a proud man, who expects all to bow before him
but Mordecai this relative of Esther does not bow to Haman
and will not reverence him and this makes Haman furious both
at Mordecai and the Jews and he passes a decree and purposes
to have the Jews destroyed. So Mordecai in chapter four of
Esther hears of this and puts on sackcloth and ashes and cries
with a bitter cry and weeps and the news of this comes unto Esther
because you are not allowed to stand at the king's gate in sackcloth
and she seeks to find out what it's about and Mordecai responds
when messages are sent and tells her what Haman purposes against
the Jews and Mordecai seeks Esther's help as one who can intercede
on their behalf before the king and in chapter 4 and verse 10
we read again Esther spake under Hattack and gave him commandment
under Mordecai All the king's servants and the people of the
king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman,
shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called,
there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to
whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may
live. But I have not been called to
come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai
Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer
Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the
king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether
holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement
and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But
thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knoweth
whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return
more to Cai this answer. Go, gather together all the Jews
that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither
eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens
will fast likewise. And so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish,
I perish. So Mordecai went his way and
did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Mordecai says,
who knoweth whether thou, Esther, art come to the kingdom for such
a time as this? For such a time as this. Christ
says of the scriptures that they are they which testify of me. all the scriptures from genesis
to revelation they speak of christ in luke chapter 24 he said to
the disciples following his resurrection he says ought not christ to have
suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning
at moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Well here in the book of Esther
we have a book where there's no mention of Christ by name
and indeed as is often commented there's not even any mention
of God by name. There is reference to the Jews,
to their plight here under the ruling captivity of King Ahasuerus
There is mention of Esther and Mordecai and Haman and the king
but nothing of God. And yet here is a book which
is full to the brim of Christ and his gospel. How full this
account is of Christ. You don't need the letter to
see him. You need the Spirit of God to
reveal Him. These things are hid from the
wise and prudent but revealed unto babes. The name of God may
not be mentioned, yet Christ and His Gospel are behind every
word. This is a wonderful account of
the Gospel. The book opens and presents us
with various characters. The King, King Ahasuerus, This
mighty king presented to us as reigning over a mighty kingdom,
powerful and rich in glory. He had a glorious kingdom and
he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honors of his
excellent majesty many days at this feast that he arranged.
A mighty king. But as we've seen in Nehemiah,
the names of these kings are not personal names. This is not
a personal name, Ahasuerus. It is a descriptive name. And
the name means the venerable father. The father. And it's presented here to us
as a picture of the everlasting father, almighty God. No, the
name God is not there, but this man in figure. almighty God,
the one who rules over all, who has a great and a glorious kingdom,
all-powerful, all-sovereign, the one if you come into his
presence uncalled, not according to the law, had the power to
strike you down dead. Yet one who should he put his
golden scepter upon thy head and show his grace and kindness
unto you could lift you up to great heights of glory. A great
and a powerful king with a great and a powerful kingdom. He has this feast and he has
a wife Vashti who rebels against him. rebels and has this great sin
done, the result of which is that she's cast out. We later
read about Esther and of Mordecai, Esther this new bride chosen
for the king in the place of Vashti, a new delight for the
king, one in whom he rejoices One who is not a rebel, like
her predecessor Vashti. One who eclipses the previous
queen in every way. And she has a relative, Mordecai,
a poor man, a nothing, one who sits outside, one who's despised
and counted as nothing, but one who loves Esther. and one who
wants to know how Esther will go and what will be done with
her and for her and one who in the end has a great request of
Esther that she in her position in the court of the king as the
queen might intercede for him and his people the Jews who were
set for destruction. There are many characters here which present to us in type and
figure the gospel very powerfully. Who is Esther a picture of? Could she be a picture of Christ?
Or perhaps as the queen, is she a picture of Christ's bride?
Or of God's people? In chapter four, we see her venturing
before the king. If I perish, I perish. She throws
herself upon the king's mercy. Many liken this to the sinner
throwing himself on the mercy of God. It's often commented
that we, like Esther, can come before a great and an almighty
king, the Lord God, and call out for his mercy. And what else
as sinners can we do? If we perish, we perish. We deserve
nothing else, we are sinners. We deserve the wrath of God,
we have rebelled against him. But if he should have mercy upon
us, then great will be our reward. Then what else can we do but
venture to call upon the name of God, to have mercy. But is that all the account of
Esther tells us? Is that all we can learn that
there is a great God under whom we can go and fall down at his
knees and cry out for mercy? No. There's much more to Esther
than that. Really in very many ways in this
book she is presented to us as a picture of Christ himself.
Now that might seem strange and hard to comprehend given that
she's a woman. We might be led to think in terms
of her being the bride of Christ. But in so many ways, if you forget
that she's a woman, she fills the role of Christ as the intercessor
of his people, as the delight of the king, as the one who brings
about the salvation of the Jews and Mordecai. It would be easy
to question this understanding based on the fact that Esther
is female but there are simply too many parallels between her
and her account and Christ and his gospel to ignore the fact
that here she is presented to us as a picture of Christ himself.
Consider, she to the king here is as it were the fairest among
10,000. She's chosen above all others,
she is the King's delight. The King here, being the venerable
Father, she is the Father's delight. As Christ is the Father's delight. As Christ loves his Son more
than any other. Chosen, favoured above all. Esther
2 verse 17 we read that she which he obtained grace and favor in
his sight in the father's sight more than all she was loved of the father as
Christ is loved of God she was also obedient to Maudikei her
earthly father as it were she was obedient, she was faithful
she sought not her own ends unlike Vashti she didn't go according
to what she wanted but she was willing to lay aside her will
and her desires for the will and the desire of others for
the good of others She sought to do as Mordecai desired she
should do. She sought to live right. She
was obedient as Christ was obedient to his Father in all things.
Ultimately she was willing to go before the Father here, the
King here, into a circumstance where she knew that she could
perish. She was willing to lay down her
life for the sake of the Jews who sought her intercession. And Christ was willing to lay
down His life for His people. He was willing to take the sins
of His people and go before and stand before His Father covered
in those sins and stand accused of them and perish for them. That that people should know
the favour and love of God in his gospel. Esther of course replaces Vashti. She was not the first queen but
the second. There was a man before the second
man Christ entered into this world a man called Adam and Adam
walked with God in the garden and God took delight in the man
Adam that he had made and placed in the garden and communed with
Adam but there was a day when Adam
turned against his maker and rebelled and would not do as
he was commanded he transgressed the commandment of God and in
so doing sin entered his heart and death by sin and he fell
and brought down his whole posterity with him great was the fall when
Adam sinned Vashti would not come before the king at his request
she refused, she rebelled she fell and like Adam who was cast
out of the Lord's presence cast out of the garden never to return
so Ahasuerus in his anger cast out Vashti and sought another
in her place in whom he would always delight. The first man
Adam was followed by the second Christ. The first Adam followed
by the last Adam. Esther replaced Vashti as the
one in whom the king delighted. The inheritance was passed on
to one Better than, as it says in Esther 1.9, Vashti, and the
inheritance of the kingdom of God, which Adam in the garden
once had in measure as he walked with God in the garden, was passed
on to the last Adam, Christ, to be given to his people. So
Esther followed Vashti. Consider, she also intercedes
for her people. She comes before the king on
their behalf. They can do nothing. They have
no claim upon the king's mercy. No right to expect the king to
favor them. They are nothing. But there was
one in the king's household. who could plea for their salvation. We have no claim on God's mercy. Like Adam we all have gone astray,
we all have shaken our fist at God, we all have fallen into
sin. Death has passed upon every man. We are all under the wrath of
God by nature and His judgment will ring out upon us. If we
remain in such a state we have no claim upon His love his grace
his kindness we have no cause in us that he should reward us
or be kind to us we deserve God the father's judgment and we
can only cry out to him and only call out unto God and only know
that we might be heard because there is one who stands in his
presence in whom he delights, who can intercede on our behalf. If we ever come to know anything
of the grace or the mercy or the love of God it's because
there is a man, the man Christ Jesus who stands in heaven this
day and pleads our case before Almighty God. Yes, Esther intercedes for her
people. She was willing to lay down her
life for them. If I perish, I perish. She knew
the law. She knew that the law could slay
her. But she knew that there was an
exception to the law, a means by which The father would show
her, the king would show her mercy if he laid upon her the
golden scepter. When Christ was under law for
his people, the law slew him. Under it he perished as he bore
their sins upon the cross as their substitute. The law slew
him. If I perish, I perish. But having taken away the sin,
Christ's power was such that on the third day he could go
before his King, his Lord, his God, the Father, with blood which
he sprinkled upon a mercy seat and received a golden scepter.
which brought about the salvation of all that people. Yes, Esther
was willing to lay down her life for this people. She went before
the king on the third day, we read later on. On the third day,
there are these banquets held in which there is wine. And on
the third day, she goes before the king. At the banquet of wine, Haman, The adversary of the Jews is
invited and ultimately defeated. Ultimately destroyed. And through Esther the Jews are
saved. Mordecai is honoured and exalted. Who is she then? But a figure
of Christ in this tale. Consider her kinsman Mordecai,
a poor broken sinner who sits at the king's gate. It's better
to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than one who dwells
in the gates of wickedness. Where are you sat? where are
you sat are you with the wicked rejoicing and singing in the
world rich and powerful and mighty eating and drinking today for
tomorrow you die or has God taught you something
of the sin within and the state of your heart before him has
he broken you and shown you that the riches of this world pass
through your fingers and cannot be kept hold of and cannot be
taken beyond the grave and that in reality because of your heart
because of your state because of what you are before God you
are poor, penniless, nothing If salvation is to be bought,
you cannot buy it. If salvation is to be earned,
you cannot earn it. If it is the strong who will
be saved, you will be lost because you are weak and broken. Is that you? That was Mordecai
in figure. Nothing. Sat at the king's gate. sat at the king's gate but Mordecai
has a picture of the sinner with whom God has dealings a poor
broken sinner who cries out to God for salvation Mordecai knows
his adversary he knows the effects of the adversary He knows that
his adversary can only bring him trouble and trial and death
and he will no longer bow the knee to these adversaries and
this adversary with whom once perhaps he might have had communion
but now he utterly rejects. So when Haman the servant of
the king comes and expects Mordecai to reverence him as others do
Mordecai stood not up nor moved for him and Haman was full of
indignation against Mordecai Haman was furious furious so
it says in chapter 5 that Zeresh his wife and his friends said
unto Haman let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high and tomorrow
speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon
then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet and
the thing pleased Haman and he caused the gallows to be made.
Mordecai had an adversary a terrible adversary, one who had power
and who had influence with the king and one who knew the law
such that he could bring the law to bear with its might and
power upon this poor helpless people, one who could use the
law to accuse them and to slay them, to destroy them and he
was determined malevolent bent upon destroying that people nothing
would stand in his way but Mordecai would not bow the knee to this
adversary. This adversary Haman sought to
wipe the Jews out sought to wipe God's people out utterly remove
their influence, their presence from this world that they should
not be seen or heard. Is not there one an adversary
who rages and roars against God's people today? whose malevolence
is so strong just like Haman's that he would seek to wipe that
people out that he would seek to silence them that he would
seek to put them to death that he would seek to take their strength
away do you not feel and sense his malevolence and his opposition
and his rage and his going to and fro about in this world seeking
whom he may devour Do you feel the opposition increasing? He
hates Christ, his gospel and his people. You may say, well
I don't feel like we are persecuted unto death. If this adversary
succeeds in silencing the people of God's proclamation of Christ
and his gospel, he has put them effectively to death. He may
spare the life of the outward carcass in which we dwell but
if the witness of God's people, if the witness of the church
is silenced, if the witness of Christians is silenced in the
land, If the gospel is silence, if the gospel is corrupted and
twisted and changed so that what is put forth as gospel is no
longer the gospel, then this adversary has won. There's no
gospel, there's no life, there's no strength, there's no witness,
there's no people. That was Haman's desire. It is
the desire of our adversary, the devil, Satan today. He is an accuser. As Haman was
an accuser. Chapter 3 verse 8. He went to
the king. There is a certain people scattered
abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of
thy kingdom. They're scattered around these
people. 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. Does that sound like a voice
you hear today? There's a people in the land
who won't follow our laws and don't follow our thinking and
our ideologies. We have our values but they have
other values. We will be tolerant unto all
They say that this and that is wrong and they cannot go there.
They're diverse from us, they're not the same. Get rid of them. Or accusation. But our adversary
Satan is an accuser and he knows the law and he knows how to bring
the King's law, the law of God upon the people of God and bring
their sins before them and find them out and bring them in guilty
before God and say, Aha! Where do they stand? Does not
your justice, O King, demand their death? And yes it does. and his accusation is right and
there we stand before almighty God accused of our sin by our
accuser and we cannot answer him, we have no defense and the
law demands that this people all be put to death. Do you know
its demand upon you? This accuser, the Jew's enemy,
chapter 3 verse 10. The Jew's enemy. The king took
his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadaphah,
the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. We have an enemy. And he will
not rest until he has brought an accusation against every one
of us, every one of God's people. and brought them in guilty before
God according to God's holy law and demanded their death. We
have a price upon our heads. A price. And we need to be ransomed. This opposition met its focus
upon Mordecai. So as we've read, a gallows was
set up that Mordecai should be hung. A gallows. A place of death. A place of
execution. Is that where we will end up? Picture of course of the cross.
There was one who went to a place of execution. There was one who
was hung. But he was hung in the place
of his people. That that people should not be
slain, but should be delivered from death and set free, redeemed. ransomed, their sins blotted
out, the law answered and they declared before it to be righteous
and just. These gallows awaited Mordecai
and Haman was set to slay the Jews in their entirety. So Mordecai and sent this plea
unto Esther and Esther heard his plea and Esther said alright
I cannot go before the king without the risk of being slain for there
is a law and I have not been called and I can only go and
throw myself upon his mercy and trust that he will put his sceptre
upon my head I will go in unto the king which is not according
to the law and if I perish I perish if I perish I perish Mordecai
I was broken in sackcloth and ashes That's where we'll be if
we know our sin and the wrath of God against us. And from such
a state all we can do is plead that one go before God on our
behalf and plead for us. one must go before him with our
adversary raging and roaring at us about to strike what hope
have we his accusation is just we are guilty we are deserving
of death we have rebelled against our god we were born sinners
born going astray all we like sheep have gone astray there
is none righteous no not one there is none that doeth good
we're all guilty deserving of death we've all broken God's
law we are the accusation of our adversary is just what strength
what hope have we got how can we stand before him how can we
only only if one intervenes on our behalf, only if one intercedes. Oh what a state we're in by nature,
what a state we're in as sinners, what rebels we are, how utterly
undeserving of God's grace and love we are. what a state we're
in what a time what a situation what a time and situation Mordechai
and the Jews found themselves in can you sense this in this
account the peril the danger how it was coming to a climax
Haman, this great man, had decreed, had purposed to put them to death. He had the influence of the king
and his laws to be able to bring this to pass. How can they stand
and how can we stand in the face of the accusation of an accuser
who justly takes God's laws and says that people are guilty? What a time, what a time. But at that time, at that time
when Mordecai and the Jews most needed help, there was one in
the king's presence in whom he delighted who could plea for
them. One who had come to the kingdom,
as Mordecai noted, for such a time as this for such a time as this
she was sent for this time Esther was put there for this very time
when the Jews needed her and Christ came into this world to
save his people at the appointed time in the fullness of time
at such a time when we were desperately lost in darkness and sin and
rebellion when we had no hope When the law sounded out against
all mankind, when God's people had no hope, when they were lost
under sin, children of wrath, Christ came at such a time. Oh what a time, the perfect time. He was there when we needed Him
most and He is there when we need Him most. He's ever before
the King, ever before the Lord, the Father, when we need Him. When we need Him. Who knoweth, Esther, whether
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? So Esther
says, Go, gather together all the Jews together, and fast ye
for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also, my maidens, will fast
likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according
to the law. And if I perish, I perish. They gathered and they waited
for three days, fasting night and day, waiting to see what
would happen at the end of the three days when Esther went in
before the king. Three days. Now what is this? but the cross, the death, the
grave, the resurrection, and Christ coming before his father
on the third day, having done all to save his people. The third
day. The third day. Chapter five,
verse one. Now it came to pass on the third
day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner
court of the king's house over against the king's house and
the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house over against
the gate of the house and it was so when the king saw Esther
the queen standing in the court that she obtained favour in his
sight and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that
was in his hand so Esther drew near and touched the top of the
sceptre Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, Queen Esther,
and what is thy request? It shall be even given thee to
the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem
good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto
the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said,
Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said.
So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
Haman is gathered. the adversary the adversary is
met at this banquet of wine there is a banquet of wine on the third
day Esther goes before the king with wine and there's a banquet
and at this banquet there's Haman Christ on the third day took
his blood and he took it into the inner court where the king
the lord of glory the father sat and ruled and he brought
that blood and he sprinkled it and his adversary knew that it
was all over Satan knew that he had been destroyed because
of what Christ did on the cross and because of that blood which
he brought in. Every accusation that the adversary
brought had been washed away by that blood. He'd been undone. Christ had gone to the cross,
he died in the place of his people, he'd drunk the cup of God's wrath
against their sin, he'd drunk it to the dregs, he'd taken away
the judgment and the wrath, he'd answered the law, he'd fulfilled
it, he'd answered every demand and penalty, there was no more
to be said against that people. And with blood he sprinkled it
upon the mercy seat before them. There was as it were a banquet
of wine in heaven. and the adversary of God's people,
their Haman, Satan, was slain. Slain. Destroyed. We see this acted out in chapters
5, 6, 7 and at the end of chapter 7 we
see the end of Haman. Then the king said hang him thereon
on the gallows that he made for Mordecai. So they hanged Haman on the gallows
that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. That gallows, that cross, that
place of execution that Satan sought to destroy Mordecai God's
people upon you and I. If we believe on Christ, God's
people, he sought to destroy them, yet he was hung upon it
himself. Because there was a banquet of
wine in which the king heard the plea of Esther on the behalf
of her people. Because his delight was in her.
The adversary was slain. Salvation was wrought. It is
finished! Christ cried out victoriously. Finished! And Mordecai and the
Jews were set free. In the latter chapters, We see
the salvation of Mordecai and the Jews. Mordecai is honoured
by the king, lifted up to great glory, clothed with royal apparel,
crowned. The king says, thus it shall
be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour because
of Esther's plea on his behalf, because of her love for her people. The king honored Mordecai greater
than anyone, lifted up to such a height, such a glory, because
Esther was prepared to go before him and perish, if she had to,
on his behalf. Esther said in chapter 7 and
verse 3, then Esther the Queen answered and said, If I have
found favour in thy sight, O King, and if it please the King, let
my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people,
to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had
been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although
the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. And the king
Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he and
where is he that does presume in his heart to do so? Esther
said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman
was afraid before the king and the queen. And the king destroys
Haman. delivers her Esther, Mordecai,
and the Jews, and sets them free. And the king's wrath was pacified. When Christ died, when he drank
that cup to the dregs, when he cried out, it is finished, the
king's wrath against the sins of his people was pacified. It never rings out again. It
never rings out evermore. God is no longer angry with his
people. Never again. You may sin, you
may grieve over your sin believer, you may fall, you may stumble,
but it has been answered. And blood has been shed, and
there was a banquet of wine in heaven, and God's wrath is pacified. and your adversary is slain. And the king at his command has
said of all those who look under his sun for salvation, take them
and clothe them with royal apparel and put a crown upon their heads. Put a crown upon their heads,
O Mordecai! O sinner! Are you a Mordecai
this day? Are you in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you know your sin? Do you know the wrath of God
against your sin? O sinner, look unto Christ. your
intercessor, the king's delight, the one that went into his presence,
the one that found his favor for you, the one that shed blood
for you, the one that washed you clean. And believe on him,
for he has saved his people to the uttermost. He's blotted the
sins of his own out from east unto west. They're never to be
found. he's made his people the righteousness
of God perfect in him and the king the father has said of them
because of what you have done my son for them Thus shall it
be done unto the man whom the king delights to honour. Sinners
saved by grace freely, thus shall it be done. Clothe them with
royal apparel, put a crown upon their heads and let the people
rejoice. Mordecai the Jew was next under
King Ahasuerus chapter 10 verse 3. 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. That's where
the believer is in Christ because of what Christ is the God. He
is great among the Jews, accepted of all his brethren, lifted up
to a great honour. He's righteous, saved, pure,
perfect and clean, in royal apparel, with a crown upon his head. Do you know it? Is that what
God has done for you? Can you see the glories of the
gospel in Esther's intercession? Can you say of Christ and his
coming to save sinners? Who knoweth whether thou art
come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Do you know? Can you say in your heart? Can
you say in your heart by faith of Jesus Christ the Son of God,
I know, I know that thou art come to the kingdom for such
a time as this. Amen.