Nathan Lewis - Class 3: The Decree

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is Winfield Bible School 2009. The theme for the Bible School is the fall of the flesh to the triumph of the Spirit. This is Brother Nathan's second class. His overall theme is Esther, Queen of Destiny. Today's class is titled The Decree.

2. 0:30

   Well, good morning, brothers and sisters, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Good morning. Well, we come now to Esther chapter 3 and the wicked decree of Haman. And you remember that we left the story of Esther in chapter 2 with the realm of Ahasuerus, celebrating the coronation of a new queen. The king had made a great feast to mark the occasion. Esther's feast, he called it.

3. 1:00

   And all the empire was rejoicing at the rest that had been given to the provinces. It was a time of great joy and rejoicing. And so now we come to chapter 3 and we're introduced now at long last to the villain of the story. And almost every good story has a villain. And so now this morning we raise the curtain on that sinister man lurking in the shadows.

4. 1:28

   That scoundrel, sinister and deceitful, plotting against Mordecai and all the Jews. Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy. And what an unsavory and despicable character he was. We read in verse 1 that after these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman. And just like yesterday when we came to verse 1 of chapter 2, we have to ask ourselves, how long after these things was it?

5. 2:04

   Well, if we look in chapter 2 and verse 16, we find that the events of Esther's coronation happened in the king's seventh year. And when we cast our eyes across to chapter 3 and verse 7, the events that we're about to consider this morning are in the king's twelfth year. So a period of five years has gone by.

6. 2:24

   And the king and Esther are now firmly in love. Like I said to you, you say we've been married for almost five years. And you find out a lot about the other person in five years. It's quite a long time, is it not? And no doubt in that time, the initial attraction of the king had deepened toward Esther, his beautiful bride.

7. 2:50

   And so we read that the king promoted Haman, the son of Hamadath of the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. You know, Haman means illustrious or well disposed. There's a real contrast, isn't he, to Mordecai, the little man. Here is a big man.

8. 3:16

   And you couldn't really get a bigger contrast, could you, to Mordecai than Haman. He was blessed with an enormous ego. He really came, didn't he, brothers and sisters, well and truly overdosed on self-esteem. You know, Hamadatha means given to the moon god. He was clearly a superstitious and a religious character. And he was an Agagite.

9. 3:41

   Now we really just need to pause, don't we, here, and look at a little bit of the history of the nation to grasp the irony of this situation that's emerging here in chapter 3. And what we want to do is just have a very quick outline of the Agagites, because that's where Haman came from.

10. 4:00

    You know, the Agagites were Amalekites. And here's a brief history of them. If you don't have these references written down as a little box or potted history of the Amalekites, maybe this is a good time to do this. They descended from Esau. Genesis 36 and verse 12 tells us that. So they were Edomites originally.

11. 4:19

    The first nation to war against Israel was their title in Numbers 24 and verse 20. They were infamous because they were the first nation to attack the nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 25 and verse 18 tells us that they were known for their lack of fearing God.

12. 4:42

    Deuteronomy 25 and verse 18 also tells us that they were cowards. They would come in from behind and pick off the stragglers, those who were behind, who were lurking at the back of the nation of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness. And so it's a lesson for us, isn't it? We should all be sitting up the front of the hall, not straggling down the back.

13. 5:04

    Because down the back of the hall is where Agag and the Amalekites would pick off the stragglers. God calls the Amalekites sinners in 1 Samuel 15 and verse 18 to describe the whole nation. They were sinners. And in Psalm 83 verse 7 they are catalogued with all the Jew haters of time. The Amalekites hated the Jews with a vengeance.

14. 5:30

    You know, in Exodus 17 and verse 16, God was, after the first battle against Amalek, was going to make Amalek typical of all the Jews' enemies. And he was going to declare war against Amalek from generation to generation. In fact, in Deuteronomy 25 and verse 19, God promised, I will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

15. 5:54

    How would you like to be an Amalekite, brothers and sisters? God has declared war against you forever. And Haman, the son of Hamadathah, is not just an Amalekite. He is an Agagite, a direct descendant of the Agag who came delicately before Samuel the prophet and was undelicately hewn in pieces. We know the story, don't we?

16. 6:23

    Saul, the man from the tribe of Benjamin, the son of Kish, a man who was a huge man, close probably to Goliath's height. He was head and shoulders above the rest of the nation. And he was told to utterly destroy the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15. And he failed to do that. He kept back some of those animals and so forth.

17. 6:49

    And he lost the kingdom for his disobedience. I'm going to take the kingdom and give it to someone better than you, just like Vashti's disobedience, as we saw. And now, 500 years later, brothers and sisters, we have Mordecai, also from the tribe of Benjamin, also from the lineage of Kish. Except this time he's not like Saul, the first king of Israel.

18. 7:14

    Well, he's just a little man. But he's going to do what Saul failed to do 500 years before, and that is destroy the Agagite. The wheels of God turn slowly, don't they, brothers and sisters? But they grind ever so small. And so we read that Ahasuerus promoted Haman and advanced him. You know, later we read in chapter 5, verse 11, that Haman couldn't stop bragging about the way in which the king had advanced him and promoted him and advanced him and promoted him.

19. 7:46

    It became like an obsession for Haman to climb up the social ladder. And over the years, he had weaseled himself into a position of prominence by sheer sliminess. You can just imagine him, can't you, brothers and sisters, the archetypal public servant who is going to rise through the ranks of everybody by standing on everybody's toes but smiling at them at the same time.

20. 8:12

    You know, in this story, Haman is going to represent for us not just sin, I don't think, but king sin. King sin. You know, later on in chapter 6, when he's asked, what shall the king do to the man whom he delights to honor in? Well, Haman said, well, that's obviously me. Well, I'd like the king's horse, and I'd like the king's clothes, and the king's crown, and the king's herald.

21. 8:38

    He saw himself as a king. And Haman is going to type king sin in this story. And God is going to advance and promote sin in the world, is he not? For a time, for a purpose, to test the godly. And ultimately, in the history of the world, everyone is going to bow down to the power and the influence of king sin.

22. 9:07

    No one is going to be exempt from bowing down to sin. Except for one man. And we read of that man in verse 2. You know, the word bowed means to prostrate before an idol. You see, Haman no longer was just aspiring for political advancement. He wanted to be worshipped as a god.

23. 9:49

    And there was one man who was never going to bow to that. And that was our Lord Jesus Christ. He never bowed to sin once, did he, brothers and sisters? And so Mordecai, as we're going to see, beautifully is going to prefigure our Lord Jesus Christ, who wasn't going to bow to sin for two reasons.

24. 10:10

    Well, Mordecai was not going to bow to sin for these reasons. Firstly, divine reverence to a man was directly contravened in the law. You could only worship God. Psalm 95 verse 6 says, Come before him, bow the knee before God. You weren't allowed by law to worship anybody else. And of course that was endorsed even when we come to the New Testament, with the example of Herod and Paul and Barnabas and Peter and John in Acts 5.

25. 10:44

    He could not bow to a man. And secondly, the second reason why Mordecai was not going to bow down to Haman was that he was an Amalekite. And the Amalekites, as we've seen, were cursed under the law. And Mordecai was going to hate Haman because Haman hated God.

26. 11:03

    And because Haman was diametrically opposed to everything that God and Mordecai stood for. It was simply not possible for Mordecai to bow down to Haman for religious reasons. And we know that's true because in verse 4, it tells us at the end of the verse that he had told them that he was a Jew.

27. 11:29

    You know, Mordecai doesn't bring out any lame excuses, does he, brothers and sisters? He's not going to fob off the real reason why he's not bowing down to Haman. He's not going to stutter and stumble over his words. He's not going to deny that he's religious. He's not going to be embarrassed. He's not going to make any excuses.

28. 11:49

    He's not going to hide his light under a bushel. He's going to say, I am a Christadelphian. You know, brothers and sisters, sometimes that is almost one of the hardest things to do. You know, when we stand up at school or at work, wherever we might be, and we say, I am a Christadelphian and I'm not going to do such and such a thing, we put ourselves right out in the open, don't we?

29. 12:14

    We make ourselves completely vulnerable to attack from every side. Everybody knows that's where we stand. Just like that. It's a very difficult thing to do. But once we do it, we save ourselves so much trouble and problems. And Mordecai never shied away from the truth. I am a Jew. And so while every other obsequious sycophant fell down before Haman, in the dust, like we saw yesterday, licking up the serpent's food, Mordecai remained ramrod upright.

30. 12:51

    And the servants in the gate asked him, verse 3, Why are you doing this? And look at the emphasis in verse 3. Listen to these words. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? You know, the servants are really saying this. Don't worry, Haman, about your obvious dislike for...

31. 13:21

    Sorry, don't worry, Mordecai, about your obvious dislike for Haman. We know that you don't like him, but don't you realize that you are transgressing the king's commandment? It was going to become an issue of life and death, was it not? Don't you realize you're in defiance of the king and we all know what that king was like?

32. 13:44

    He was an awful, terrible man and people stood in dread of him. And so the issue was clear. It was going to be a clear test of Mordecai's faith. And everybody's eyes are on him. Every day there is constant pressure from the rest of the king's servants, verse 4, And it came to pass when they spake daily unto him, he hearkened not unto them.

33. 14:07

    Every day, brothers and sisters, there's constant pressure, nagging pressure on us is there not, to conform to the ways of sin. And every day, the servants were watching Mordecai to see whether he would wilt under the pressure. Is he going to fold? As verse 4 says, whether his matters would stand. Literally, it means whether his words would hold good.

34. 14:32

    And it's true, isn't it, brothers and sisters, it's one thing to say, I'm a Christadelphian and I don't do such and such a thing. It's another thing to see whether in our lives we actually do what we say. It's another thing to see whether our words hold good. And that was going to be the test.

35. 14:52

    Is the Jew going to wilt? Now it seems, doesn't it, that Haman hadn't noticed that Mordecai wasn't bowing down to him. He'd walk past every day with his nose so high in the air that he just simply hadn't noticed that Mordecai wasn't bowing down. And so, the servants have to tell him in verse 5, it was brought to his attention.

36. 15:14

    And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, because they'd told him in verse 4, and when Haman saw this in verse 5, that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. They said, Mr. Haman, do you realize that Mordecai over there is not, he's not actually bowing down to you?

37. 15:41

    And do you realize that he is a Jew? A Jew? What? And Haman was full of wrath. You know, when Nebuchadnezzar found out that Daniel's three friends were not bowing down to his golden image, it says in Daniel 3 in verse 19, then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed.

38. 16:12

    He was incensed with white-hot rage, and Haman was just the same. His Amalekite blood boils to the surface. He was born to hate the Jews. And now he found out that Mordecai was not only a Jew, but not bowing down and reverencing him. He's now consumed with not just an intense hatred for Mordecai, but for Mordecai's people.

39. 16:38

    And he thought scorn, it says in verse 5, to lay hands, in verse 6, to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai. He hates Mordecai's people. You know, it's almost impossible, isn't it, brothers and sisters, to believe that people could actually hate like this. You know, for ourselves, we have in our own generation the graphic witness of Adolf Hitler and the atrocities of the Third Reich.

40. 17:12

    We know that even today, the spirit of Haman the Agagite lives on. Those people who hate the Jews with a vengeance. God was going to do better with the Amalekites from generation to generation, and it's not over yet, brothers and sisters. And so we find in verse 6 that Haman fought scorn to lay hands on just Mordecai alone because he wanted to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

41. 17:46

    You know, King Sin knows the stakes, doesn't he? The battle lines are clearly drawn. You'd think, wouldn't you, that Haman would be, he'd maybe be content with running across to the king's gate, getting Mordecai, strangling him to death, walking back and continuing on with life. But it's not true, brothers and sisters. King Sin wants Mordecai's relatives.

42. 18:13

    He wants his brothers and sisters. He wants his uncles, his aunts, his nieces. I want his nephews. I want his grandchildren. I want everybody. everybody. And so King Sin was going to raise up himself against Christ and the people of Christ. And the battle lines are clearly drawn in the sand. He sought to destroy all the Jews.

43. 18:42

    You know, brothers and sisters, that is an impossibility. I'd like you to come really quickly to Malachi in chapter 3. because destroying all the Jews is an impossibility. Malachi chapter 3, and we know these words pretty well. But in the times of Malachi, the nation of Israel was wicked. They weren't doing what God said.

44. 19:09

    And it says in Malachi 3 in verse 2, Who may abide the day of his coming? I'm going to send the messenger. Who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto Yahweh an offering in righteousness.

45. 19:41

    And look what the prophet's saying, brothers and sisters. You nation of Israel are wicked. You're disobedient. And I'm going to send somebody who is going to purify you. I'm going to send someone who is going to refine you, wash you, punish you. I'm going to make an example of you.

46. 20:02

    But nowhere, brothers and sisters, does it ever say, I'm going to destroy you. See verse 6, I am Yahweh, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Oh yes, Israel would be punished. They would be refined and purged and washed, but never destroyed. And Haman was attempting to do just that.

47. 20:27

    And so back in Esther and chapter 3, Haman goes home to plot. He's very angry with Mordecai and he wants to choose, because he's superstitious, a lucky day. And so we read in verse 7, in the first month, that is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast pur, that is the lot, before Haman, from day to day and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is the month Adar.

48. 20:54

    They cast pur, that is the lot. Now we don't know exactly how that was done. Maybe he drew straws or he rolled dice, whatever it was. We know that Assyrian calendars, as far back as the 8th century BC, had lucky days on them and unlucky days. They were superstitious people. And so Haman was going to roll the dice maybe to determine his lucky day and his lucky month when the Jews were to be destroyed.

49. 21:22

    Look at these references, these two references to this particular fact. Pur, that is the lot. You know, Haman is trying to roll the dice to destroy Israel. Look at what it says in Numbers 23 in verse 23. Surely, there is no enchantment against Jacob. Neither is there any divination against Israel. You can't have a lucky day.

50. 21:51

    You can't have a lucky time to destroy the nation of Israel. God said through the mouth of Balaam, you cannot destroy my people. And look what it says about the lot in Proverbs 16 verse 33. The lot is cast into the lap and Haman did perhaps just that, but the whole disposing is of Yahweh.

51. 22:12

    And God was controlling the dice, was he not, brothers and sisters? And so, as Haman rolls the dice, first month, no. Second month, no. Third, fourth, fifth, no. Eleventh, no. Twelfth month, at last, at last, he rolls the dice, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. It's almost a full year away and God was controlling the dice, brothers and sisters, to make that day a long way off.

52. 22:42

    You know, the empire was big. It would take about six weeks for horsemen and messengers to go to the fullest extent of the empire and if they wanted clarification for anything, it was six weeks back and six weeks back. So God knew that the Jews needed time. And so God was loading the dice in Israel's favor.

53. 23:00

    And so in verse 8, Haman goes before the king with his request. And look how Haman puts it in verse 8. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus. You can just imagine him probably inserting into the record, O king, live forever. There is a certain, certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom.

54. 23:29

    And their laws are diverse from all people. Neither keep they the king's laws. Therefore, it is not profitable to the king to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasuries.

55. 23:56

    Haman is. What a cunning and sly man Haman is. There is a certain people. And so Haman is going to accuse the Jews without specifically naming them. You know, that's what we do, isn't it? This is when we want to defame somebody else. We say, you know, there's a certain person or there's a certain group of people who really think this.

56. 24:22

    And Haman is clearly defaming the nation. And he was very careful, wasn't he, brothers and sisters? He wanted to slip this decree under the king's radar. He knew that in the city of Shushan there were a lot of Jewish supporters. Because when we come to verse 15, when the decree comes out, the city was perplexed and upset.

57. 24:43

    If we turn over just a couple of pages, a few pages, to chapter 8, in verse 15, at the end of verse 15 of chapter 8, when the decree is reversed, the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The city, at least, is quite pro-Jewish. There were a lot of Jewish supporters in the city.

58. 25:02

    And if Haman was going to pull off a masterpiece and bring about the destruction of the Jewish nation under the very eyes of the king, he had to be extremely careful. And this certain unnamed people, he said, are unruly. They don't keep the king's laws. They are a disorderly, rabi bunch. They're disruptive, O king.

59. 25:22

    They're rebellious. In fact, they may even be seditious. You need to keep a very close eye on these people. They may just destabilize the kingdom and at the very worst, king, but let it never happen. They may even cause a revolt or a coup.

60. 25:43

    It's not safe, O Ahazuerus, to keep these people. It's really not profitable to have them around. It's not for the king's prophet to suffer them. And right there, brothers and sisters, the seed of the serpent tells an outright lie. Because Esther, in chapter 7 and verse 4, later on, when we come to it, is going to tell the king that that is an absolute lie.

61. 26:06

    It is profitable to keep the Jews. And what Haman was saying was an outright lie. And you know, brothers and sisters, he knew it was a lie, because in verse 9, he's going to offer 10,000 talents of silver for these people. They weren't worth nothing. These people were extremely valuable, and he knew it.

62. 26:26

    You know, Herodotus tells us that the Persian king's regular annual income was about 15,000 talents of silver. So this is two-thirds of what the king gets in a year. Haman was prepared to offer that to the king. That's what the Jews were worth. It was a massive amount of money. You know, nothing's changed, has it, brothers and sisters?

63. 26:52

    The Jews were worth two-thirds of the Persian economy. And this was really Haman's bribe to the king. A carrot, if you like, a sweetener that he might push through the deal. Listen, O king, I'm more than willing to fix this terrible, nasty problem for you of the Jews. I mean, the certain people.

64. 27:14

    And so that you, O king, are not going to appear out of pocket, because these certain people contribute a lot to the coffers of the king, it's only fair that I make a generous offer to the king to reimburse you, shall we say, 8,000? Let's make it 10,000 talents, O king. No, no, no.

65. 27:37

    It's my absolute pleasure. It's my privilege indeed. Please, please, don't mention it. It's the very least I can do for you, O king. A sniveling, conniving scoundrel. You can just imagine that suave public servant trotting out those words. But don't be thinking, brothers and sisters, don't be thinking that Haman is going to donate that kind of money to the king out of his own pocket.

66. 28:07

    Because verse 13 says, when he destroyed the Jews, he was going to take a spoil and a prey. He was planning on confiscating the immense wealth of the Jews. And after they've been brutally massacred, he's going to donate a certain amount to the king, and then he was greatly looking forward to pocketing the rest.

67. 28:31

    You see, Haman was a shrewd man, and here was the perfect win-win situation. We can murder the Jews and steal their money. It doesn't get any better than that if you're an Amalekite. It is really an Amalekite masterpiece. You know, it's incredible because 10,000 talents is only mentioned three times, at least as far as I could find, in the whole of the scriptures, and here they are 10,000 talents.

68. 28:59

    Haman was going to give 10,000 talents to destroy the Jews and take away their system of worship once and for all. David was prepared to give 10,000 talents of silver, donate it to the temple to set up Jewish worship. What a contrast that was. 1 Chronicles 29 and verse 7. And secondly, the last place that 10,000 talents of silver recurs, well, it was the amount that the unjust creditor owed his Lord in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 24 in the Lord's parable.

69. 29:38

    And I'm sure that our Lord Jesus Christ had Haman firmly in his mind. Haman is the portrait of the unforgiving creditor consumed by hate and revenge who ultimately was given to the torturers. It's amazing, isn't it, that Haman says, I'm going to give you 10,000 talents of silver to destroy Israel. And silver, brothers and sisters, while silver could never buy the destruction of Israel, it was the very symbol of their redemption.

70. 30:12

    They were to be redeemed with the half shekel of silver of the sanctuary. And although 10,000 talents was more than enough to redeem the whole nation, they were not for sale. And more than that, brothers and sisters, there was no way that God in the type was ever going to get paid off by sin.

71. 30:35

    And so verse 11 tells us that the king said unto Haman, the silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. And so God curtly dismisses Haman's generous offer as completely unnecessary. He says, you can keep the money Haman. I will give you free of charge control over the Jews and you can do as you see fit.

72. 31:02

    But know this, kingson, know this, that whatever power I've given you over the Jews is delegated authority. It is not something that you have rightfully purchased. And so in verse 10, the king takes off his signet ring and transfers authority to Haman. So for a set time, sin is going to reign supreme in the realm.

73. 31:32

    And the person who held that ring, the ring that, as we're going to find in chapter 8 and verse 8, was used to make irreversible laws, the wages of sin is death, was now in the pocket of Haman, the Jews' enemy. The Jews' enemy. You know, Haman is called the Jews' enemy four times in this record.

74. 31:56

    Now the margin says he was the Jews' oppressor. And you know how the Septuagint translates that word enemy? The Septuagint says he took off his ring and gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadath of the Agagite, the Jews' diabolos. the Jews' diabolos, the ultimate false accuser, brothers and sisters, is Haman, the Agagite.

75. 32:26

    And if you want to show interested friends that the word diabolos means false accuser, you don't get a better example of falsely accusing the Jews than the example of Haman here. And so the situation looks pretty bleak, doesn't it, brothers and sisters? With the king, as it were, blinded by Haman's cleverness, and Haman with the king's signet ring clinking around in his back pocket, we now come to an absolutely classic verse in Esther.

76. 32:59

    Verse 12. Then were the king's scribes called on the 13th 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, to the rulers of every people, of every province, according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language.

77. 33:22

    In the name of King Ahasuerus was it written and sealed with the king's ring. The 13th day of the first month. See, Haman, he thought, didn't he, that the 13th day, well, that was his lucky number. His lucky number was 13, as we'll see a little later. And he lost no time, did he, in setting his plan of destroying the Jews into action.

78. 33:50

    But how completely and absolutely dumb is Haman the Agite, brothers and sisters? Of all the days, in the whole year, to send out his decree of death and destruction to the Jews, he chose to send it out on the 13th day of the first month, the day of the preparation of the Passover.

79. 34:18

    Absolutely astounding. He was completely ignorant of God's work with the Jews. And of all the days in the calendar that he could have chosen, he chose the very day that symbolizes the most, their deliverance and redemption, the Passover. And if you can't hear, brothers and sisters, a deafening echo in verse 12, then you will never hear an echo in the Bible.

80. 34:51

    The scribes, verse 12, got together with the diabolos, verse 10, on the 13th day of Abib, verse 12, to plot the downfall of the Jews. Did you hear that echo, brothers and sisters?

81. 35:12

    It's deafening because 500 years later, the chief priests and scribes got together on exactly the same day with Judas, Iscariot, after the diabolos had entered into him, and they plotted the downfall of our Lord Jesus Christ, all for the exchange of pieces of silver, and with the accusation of Haman in verse 8, that Jesus Christ did not obey the laws of the king.

82. 35:49

    king. It's absolutely incredible, isn't it, brothers and sisters? Now tell me that there isn't a type in the book of Esther. It's right there, isn't it? The plotting of the scribes and Pharisees on exactly the same day against our Lord Jesus Christ, with the diabolos, exchanging silver, with the same accusation. He is plotting, he's not obeying the laws of the king.

83. 36:17

    Everything is going to be mapped out in this book, brothers and sisters, amazingly foreshadowed in this remarkable type. And so the decree went out, verse 13, to all the provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, I should say, in one day.

84. 36:41

    You know, it wasn't enough for Haman just to destroy the Jews. He had to destroy and kill and cause to perish. Can you feel the hate, brothers and sisters? He wanted to kill them and strangle them and burn them and drown them and pull them apart by wild horses. Here was a man who was born to hate because, brothers and sisters, Haman was an Agagite, an Amalekite, and this was payback time.

85. 37:18

    King Sin is always into paybacks. Look at these words, to destroy, kill, and cause to perish. This is the words of God that God gave to King Saul to destroy the Amalekites. 1 Samuel 15 and verse 3, now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare not. Slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass, everything.

86. 37:55

    Don't let anything survive, destroy it, even the women and children. And now Esther 3 and verse 13, Haman the Agagite's plan was payback time. the letters were sent to destroy, kill, and cause to perish. All Jews, young and old, little children and women in one day. And the language of Esther 3 verse 13 is taken exactly from God's decree and God's instructions in 1 Samuel 15 and verse 3.

87. 38:28

    Can you hear the hatred just bubbling off the page, brothers and sisters? Every province, every people, all the Jews wanted no exceptions. And so before the king could change his mind, verse 15, Haman hastened off the posts on horseback, carrying the black message of death to the corners of the realm. And Haman and the king sat down to drink.

88. 38:51

    And in verse 15, we have the picture of two men and one city. Haman was satisfied that sin had an irreversible grip on the destiny of Mordecai and the Jews. And the king was satisfied that his will and his best interests were being carried out by his most loyal servant. And the city of Shushan was perplexed.

89. 39:16

    And rightly so, brothers and sisters. It seems like a real turnabout from this king. Before, he had seemed quite pro-Jewish. He had given decrees in favor of the Jews. And now this seemed to be a very abrupt change of heart. It was very difficult to understand what was going on. You know, that word perplexed is an interesting word.

90. 39:39

    It's the Hebrew word used when Israel came out in the Exodus. And you remember that they were trapped by the Red Sea and Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was roaring up behind them. And it says in Exodus 14, verse 3, that they were entangled in the land. They were entangled. They were perplexed.

91. 40:00

    And so in verse 15, as the city of Shushan went to sleep that night perplexed, they were reflecting the very feelings of Israel as they emerged out of Egypt. On the 13th day of Abib, the night before the Passover, the city was entangled in a web of conflicting thoughts. Could it be like the Exodus again?

92. 40:23

    Could it be that what seems like inevitable death might again be turned to deliverance and redemption? Well, they didn't know, did they, brothers and sisters? And so now we come to chapter 4, and in the few minutes that we have left, I want to go through most of the rest of chapter 4.

93. 40:42

    We're going to leave the last few verses until tomorrow's session. But we want to touch on a few things in chapter 4, because chapter 4 has the response of Mordecai. And we read in chapter 4 in verse 1 that when Mordecai perceived all that was done, he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry and came even before the king's gate, for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

94. 41:16

    He was terribly distraught, brothers and sisters, greatly distressed. You know, we know from Jeremiah 6 and verse 26 and many other places that sackcloth and ashes and rending the clothes was a sign of extreme agitation and mourning. He knew that the Jews were being sold and that their very national existence was hanging by a thread.

95. 41:39

    It was in the balance. And worse than that, brothers and sisters, he knew that he was the root cause of the problem. It was because he had refused to bow down to Haman, that now the whole nation was in peril. It was his stand for the truth that had brought this decree about.

96. 42:01

    And now even the women, the grandmothers and mothers, even the children, were now on the chopping block because of what he had done. And he felt, brothers and sisters, like the whole world was on his shoulders. And he's beside himself. He goes into the central marketplace. The word means the square or the open place.

97. 42:24

    And he lifts up his voice with a loud and bitter cry. He makes a public spectacle of himself, brothers and sisters. There was nothing private or secretive about what Mordecai is doing. It's for all the world to see. And he came to the king's gate and he cried and cried and cried. And 500 years later, brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus Christ came, the weight of every man, woman, and child was firmly on the shoulders of our Lord Jesus Christ.

98. 43:08

    In Hebrews 5 verse 7 says, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. And our Lord, brothers and sisters, in the garden of Gethsemane, cried and cried and cried.

99. 43:32

    And Mordecai, it says in verse 2, he came outside the king's gate. And Hebrews 13 verse 12 tells us that our Lord, that he might sanctify the people with his blood, suffered without the gate, without the gate. No man could come and enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And Mordecai, suffered without the gate.

100. 44:04

     Hebrews 13 verse 12. He identified with all of those in the city that he came to save. And our God, brothers and sisters, put him up on a cross so that everybody could see him.

101. 44:17

     Our Lord Jesus Christ was made a public spectacle of. You know, in Galatians 3 in verse 1 it says that he was evidently set forth, he was placarded to the whole world, a public spectacle for all the world to see. And so Esther chapter 4 in verse 1 and 2 is the perfect type of the distress of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

102. 44:45

     The weight of the world on his shoulders. And you know, brothers and sisters, how we know that that's true, that this is the type of the cross, this is remarkable. In verse 4, Esther gets to hear about Mordecai's distress. She was exceedingly grieved, it says. Rotherin says that she writhed in anguish and she sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai.

103. 45:10

     And look what it says in verse 4, brothers and sisters. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved and she sent Raymond to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him. but he received it not. And you know, brothers and sisters, there is one other place in the whole of the Bible where that exact phrase occurs, but he received it not.

104. 45:42

     And it's our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It says he received it not. Mark 15 and verse 23, the only other place in the Bible where that phrase occurs. Can you miss it, brothers and sisters? This is the distress of our Lord Jesus Christ. But there was to be no alleviation of his suffering, no easing of his pain, no lightening of his burden.

105. 46:11

     This man had come to save the world by never bowing down to king's sin. And so Hatak, one of the king's trusted chamberlains becomes the secret messenger between Mordecai and the queen, as Esther tries to determine what is causing her foster father so much anguish and distress. It seems from verse 7, when we come over the page, that Mordecai knew more than even Esther herself.

106. 46:39

     She was somewhat, if not completely, oblivious to the disaster that had unfolded in the decree. And Mordecai in the king's gate knew more than the queen of all the world. He even knew the exact amount of money, the sum that Haman had promised. Haman knew quite a lot, sorry, Mordecai knew quite a lot about Haman's decree.

107. 47:04

     And so he gives a copy of the decree to Hatak to take back to Esther. And in verse 8, he charges Esther these words, take it back, declare it unto her, charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make requests before him for her people.

108. 47:27

     You know, Mordecai knew that the situation was desperate. They were in serious trouble. It was urgent. Haman, the king's diabolos, had the king's signet ring in his control. And the decree that cannot be reversed is out. All Jews to perish in one day. And Mordecai knew that now was the time. Now was the time that the queen had to reveal her identity and nationality.

109. 47:54

     She was going to have to declare her allegiance. She could not be ashamed, could she, brothers and sisters, of Mordecai or of Mordecai's people and expect deliverance from Mordecai's God. And it's exactly the same for us, brothers and sisters, is it not? We can't expect deliverance and salvation if in public we are ashamed of the very God who one day will bring that deliverance.

110. 48:24

     Mark 8 in verse 38, if you're ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you in the day that I come with all my holy angels with me. And Mordecai knew that Esther was going to have to probably put her life on the line. I think Mordecai knew that going before the king might mean death for Esther.

111. 48:47

     But you see, brothers and sisters, Mordecai is not asking Esther to do anything that Mordecai has not already done. And not bowing down to Haman in the king's gate, he was risking his life. And Mordecai is saying, I know that you might die, Esther, but I'm not going to ask you to do anything that I haven't already done.

112. 49:10

     Our Lord, brothers and sisters, never bowed down to the power of sin, and he only asks us to follow him. None of us, brothers and sisters, are asked to give our lives to the truth by our Lord Jesus Christ, who hasn't already made that supreme sacrifice. Esther, you have to go before the king and make requests for all of us.

113. 49:32

     And so in verse 11, Esther returns this answer to Mordecai. All the king's servants, she says, 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 sector that he may live.

114. 49:57

     But I have not been called to come unto the king these thirty days. And Esther was saying, everybody knows, Mordecai, that to appear unbited before the king was to risk your life. Literally, those words mean one law for him to be put to death. There was going to be no favoritism, no respect of persons.

115. 50:20

     This king controls absolutely the power of life and death. And Esther really, I think, is wanting reassurance. I don't think that she's afraid, brothers and sisters. I don't think that she's disobedient. I think that really she's just wanting reassurance. She wants Mordecai to know the gravity of the situation. There's no indication, Mordecai, that I have the king's favor.

116. 50:46

     I haven't seen the king for a whole month. Mordecai, if I do this, you might never see me again. And secondly, brothers and sisters, she didn't want to appear unseemly or demanding or inappropriately before the king, because the last queen who had done that had lost her position. And so they told to Mordecai Esther's words.

117. 51:16

     And in verse 13, we have Mordecai's marvelous answer. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. Don't think, Esther, that you will have immunity because of your position in the king's house. We are all in this together, Esther.

118. 51:42

     All of us, rich or poor, young or old, we're all in the same dire predicament. We're all sentenced to death by king's sin. And Mordecai was really saying to Esther, there are no islands in the truth, Esther. You're not going to be able to just ride this one out unscathed. The power of sin is coming after you as well.

119. 52:08

     Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we're tempted to think, aren't we, that, well, our brothers and sisters' problems, they're really not our problems. I mean, they're just over there, they're in a different part of the ecclesial world, or they belong to a different ecclesia, or they're just not people in the meeting that I generally have much to do with.

120. 52:31

     But, brothers and sisters, we are all in this together. Don't ever think like that. All of us are in this together. And so now we have Mordecai's faith and conviction, his belief in providence. These are some of the most well-known words in the whole Bible, aren't they? Verse 14, a fabulous faith. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, Esther, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place.

121. 53:03

     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? If you don't do it, Esther, God will do it. Even if you don't use your royal position, enlargement will come from another quarter. You know, the word enlargement is the Hebrew word revak.

122. 53:27

     It's very closely related to the word ruak, which means spirit or breath. And the word really means a breathing space, a respite, a little space to breathe. See what the margin says? Respiration. salvation.

123. 53:44

     It's actually the very word used by Jacob in Genesis 32 and verse 16 when Esau, the progenitor of the Amalekites, was coming to meet Jacob, the progenitor of Israel, and he divided his flocks and he said, put a space between drove and drove, a breathing space. You know, I think it's indicative of Mordecai's emotions at this time.

124. 54:09

     Clearly he's feeling crushed. The decree of Haman had brought the world crashing down on his shoulders, around his ears, and he just feels like he needs a little space to breathe, a space between him and his enemies. You know, it can feel like that sometimes, can't it, brothers and sisters? We feel under so much pressure that all we want is just a little breathing space.

125. 54:35

     But, you know, even despite feeling that, Mordecai is still convinced that God will save them. He believes that God's promises to the fathers will not fall. See the phrase, father's house? You know, the very first time that that phrase occurs in the Bible, father's house, it's Genesis 12 and verse 1, the very start of the promises to Abraham.

126. 55:04

     And Mordecai is convinced that even if Esther and her house, her father's house perish, the seed of Abraham to whom God made those promises will survive. And I think Mordecai realized that God would be prepared to sacrifice Esther's life in order to save the nation. Who knows, he says at the end of verse 14, you may have come to the throne for just this purpose.

127. 55:30

     Maybe the astonishing events that catapulted you into international prominence was just for this pivotal moment, he says to Esther, Esther, you need to realize that God may be using you to fulfill his purpose. It's your duty to respond. What a marvelous man Mordecai was, brothers and sisters, and what a marvelous faith he had.

128. 55:55

     We're going to close our session there because I want to look at the final answer of Esther in verses 15 to 17 to introduce our next session. But look at the importance of consistency today. The lesson of Mordecai, the importance of consistency. This is what it says about our Lord Jesus Christ. Was he consistent?

129. 56:18

     Hebrews 13 verse 8 says he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Mordecai steadfastly refused to bow down to the king, down to king's sin, rather, despite all the nagging pressure. Never once did he give in. He was fully prepared to stand up for the truth every single time. I am a Jew.

130. 56:42

     He was so fully involved with the suffering of his people that nothing would alleviate his distress. He was immovable in his faith. Esther, if you don't do it, God will do it. Look at these words, just lastly, in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58, because this is really the lesson of the consistency of Mordecai.

131. 57:03

     This is what we need to be like, brothers and sisters, as we go from our session this day. Just like him, never once bowing down to sin. Therefore, my beloved brethren, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.