Series: Unseen Sovereignty Sermon Title: God will give His people rest Passage: Esther 8:1-10:3 Preacher: Dan Weyerhaeuser Date: 3.19.17 Something in us longs for a happy ending. Almost every movie I can think of has one. Notting Hill, Hacksaw Ridge, Finding Nemo, Rudy, It’s a Wonderful Life, Two Weeks Notice, Sound of Music, Passengers, The Incredibles, Hidden Figures, every Rocky film and Mission Impossible film and Jason Bourne film… and almost every film I can think of, has a happy ending.
Hollywood produces these films because we like them. Something about watching the broken repaired, and the undeserving redeemed and the under dog overcome and love found and evil defeated and good triumphing, touches a nerve deep inside of us, a longing we have. (Films don’t create longings, they tap into them). I think we long for happy endings because God created us for a better future we don’t yet have. If your heart longs for good, you will be helped by the last 3 chapters of the book of Esther where we learn… Main point: God involves us in giving His people rest God gives His people rest, and uses His people to bring it. The critical line in the Esther is 9:21 where our author summarizes the book of Esther as… Esther 9:22 …the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies…
That word relief is translated rest in other texts. This book is the story of how God gave rest to His people in this generation through Esther and Mordecai. Rest is an important word in the Bible. 1) At the end of 6 days of creation, God rested (Gen 2:2-3). God’s people were commanded, one day a week, to honor the Sabbath (to rest and restore, to reflect on creation, the Creator, and their place in the world). God gave the Sabbath to restore what was lost in the fall in the garden. ALSO, 2) Rest was something God promised to give His people from their enemies. Deut. 12:10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety,
POINT: God brings rest to His people. This is good news for us because we need restoring. (I think films are a vicarious experience of a hoped for future WE want!) He promises to give us rest from OUR enemies. HE wants to restore what was lost from the Garden of Eden in OUR lives. We NEED rest. 1) There are people who snub you or harm you or want to use you. 2) We live in a world with evil people that would absolutely take you out if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 3) There certainly are spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (satan, demons, evil itself), and 4) for sure, we have the enemies of physical and emotional and spiritual brokenness and harm. But God gives rest to His people, and He involves us to do it! We see this in C. 8-10 of Esther. I’ll summarize the chapters and then draw lessons. The story C. 7 ends and Haman, the enemy of the Jews, was executed on the very tree he hoped to execute Mordecai. In 36 hours time, Haman’s world, which seemed SO secure, completely fell apart! 8:1-8 Haman is gone, but his plan is not. The edict of the king ordering that on a day some months later, the Persian people should rise up and kill every Jewish man, woman, and child and plunder their property, was still in force. NOTE: God’s Messiah would come through Israel, so this evil was an attack on GOD’s plan! So Esther goes to the King a second time (which was life-threatening), and asks that the order be revoked. The King said, in essence, “I cannot revoke the law (v. 8). However you may write another law if you would like in my name. 8:9-17 In the name of the King, Mordecai writes a new edict (8:11) 8:11 ..saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives
If people rose up to attack the Jews, the Jews could organize and defend themselves with force. Perhaps Esther and Mordecai hoped that the news of this would dissuade the Persian’s from attacking the Jews. 9:1-19 Regrettably, the opposite happened. Some Persians hated the Jews so much that they attacked anyways. On the appointed day, weapons in hand, they crossed the yards and thresholds of Jewish homes
2 with the intent of butchering their neighbors and taking their possessions. But God gave the Israelites success. 9:5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them…
At the end of that day, many of those who had attacked the Jews had fled. Esther was gravely concerned that these attackers were still imbedded in their cities, and asked Xerxes for a second day to find them and bring them to justice, which the king allowed. By the end of the second day, 76,000 Persians had been killed and the threat to God’s people was gone. The vulnerable people of God were not only saved, but they had become the most honored people of Persia! 9:20-32 Mordecai and Esther called God’s people to never forget this deliverance. It became known as Purim (casting lots). Over two days of celebrating, the Jews were to always remember God’s faithfulness! 10:1-3 The book ends honoring Mordecai 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.
What lessons do we draw from these chapters? I would suggest these verses point to the future and 1) God’s response to evil, 2) God’s invitation to the nations, and 3) God’s giving rest to His people. 1. God will confront evil The events described in this book, including these chapters, are disturbing. (If you did read it through in one setting, you get to C. 8-9 and were probably a little shocked). Not only had Haman moved to exterminate an entire nation in one day. But in OUR chapters a lot of Persians were killed preventing it. And Esther asked for an extension to finish the job and 75,000 die! And then the book ends. TRUTH: In the Bible, we see God address the world as it IS. Ours is a world where 800,000 people are hacked to death in 100 days in Rwanda, and Stalin's’ kill 20 million in WW 2 and ISIS burns to death infidels and uploads the video onto you-tube.
While we WISH the world was basically good (and there is much good in it), every newspaper and news report demonstrates otherwise. There is not only evil on a massive scale but evil on a massive individual scale. People in our church family have survived abuse of every kind which was just as horrific for them individually. And certainly there is more evil in the world! TRUTH: God will confront it! This is good! In the novel, Original Sin by P.D. James, a character named Kate says to a friend, “I don’t go in for all this emphasis on sin, suffering, and judgment. If I had a God, I’d like Him to be intelligent, cheerful, and amusing.” Her friend replied, "I doubt whether you'd find him much of a comfort when they herded you into the gas chambers. You might prefer a God of (justice).
If there is no justice, then this world is random, cold, brutal, and meaningless. But there IS a God Who is good, and there IS justice for all evil! This is assuring for us! It is GOOD to know that evil will be confronted.
This last Thursday, a number of pastors met with a number of Gurnee Police officers to talk about next steps in working together in Gurnee. I was glad Chief Woodside said, “I hope people feel safe when they see a Gurnee Police Officer. They are there to protect you” and I did.
At the same time, in another way, it is a little threatening! He said, “I was saddened to hear that some people in Gurnee feel threatened when they see a police officer” referring to racial tension and policing. I will confess that when I met the police officers, I wondered if any of them had ever pulled ME over. They have authority, including over me. And I don’t always drive legally. I even said when I introduced myself, “I am glad to report I don’t think I have met any of you before ☺.” I was wrestling with something.
God’s confrontation of evil is assuring but also threatening because evil is not just “out there”… it is “inside of us too.” In Esther, we have seen Xerxes’ and Haman’s evil, but we’ve also seen traces of their darkness in US (willingness to use others for ourselves, obsession with externals vs. internals, promoting self-importance and presumptuous some days, having cruel thoughts and words and actions, committing adultery in our hearts and murder in our hearts). We’re not Haman, but we’re also not perfect! This is why the cross matters. All evil will be confronted by God, either in hell or on the cross. In His grace, God offers forgiveness for YOUR sin through Christ. God made Him Who had no sin to BE sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17) when we receive His grace and repent and trust Him! But God WILL confront all evil.
3 KEY: There are moments in history when God shows His coming justice. (Eg: Egyptians in Exodus or Canaanites with Joshua’s conquest, or Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Spirit during a revival). God gives glimpses of His justice. This is one of them. At the end of these chapters, 76,000 Persians had died. TRUTH. They were not victims! Those who died were killed by Jews “defending” themselves. 8:11 …the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them…
The people they were killed were attackers. We learn in 9:1-2 that the Jews gained mastery over those who sought their harm. BUT, their victory had Divine assistance. And no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples. 3 All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
MORE: While this justice was serious, it was measured. The Persians were instructed to kill men, women, and children AND plunder their possessions (The Jewish nation would have vanished in a day!) But if what happened in Susa is indicative of the whole nations, the Jews only killed the soldiers themselves and left the property for the women and children. 9:15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.
LESSON: God hates evil and will end it. While He offers forgiveness to all, if people refuse His grace, resist His Kingship, and would rather have evil, if they spend their whole lives trying to get away from Him, when they die He gives them what they asked for! TRUTH: No one spoke more of hell than Jesus. When you love, you MUST hate that which threatens what you love! HE HATES evil that rebels against God’s holiness. He HATES evil that harms His people. He died to provide redemption, but it must be accepted. At the same time… 2. God invites peoples At the very moment God is confronting evil and showing His justice through the Jews, He is inviting Persians to turn from evil and join Him! Genesis 12, God said that through Abraham, all nations would be blessed. That is happening here! At the risk of stating the obvious, this story takes place in Persia, which is filled with… Persians. Persians are people… made by God and loved by God. The Persians aren’t “extras” in the story of God’s work in the world. Lisa has been an “extra” in a number of TV shows and movies shot in Chicago. If you saw the Indian movie, Dhoom 3, you would know that part of it was shot at Great America. 8 times in this 5 minute sequence, she is walking past in the background. Or on a Chicago Fire episode, she walked past the hospital room door window. (“Here it comes, here it comes…. There she is! Yea!!!”) Clearly the BEST part of the show is when Lisa is in the background. POINT: In films, extras are backdrop, but aren’t important to the story.
There are no “extras” in the Bible… or in the world! God is the God of ALL people and nations and reaches out to ALL people! While we are all different in many ways from other ethnicities and languages and customs, we are all more like each other than not! We are all made in God’s image, needing God redeeming love! And He reaches out to all… Zechariah 2:11 And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
HERE: The people of Persia are being drawn by God’s Spirit to His people, and to Him! He knows everyone and loves every one. Back in C. 8 when the new edict was written that the Jews could defend themselves… Esth. 8:15b …the CITY of Susa shouted and rejoiced.
The CITY rejoiced that the Jews would be safe! The Persians cared about the Jews welfare! When the fateful day came, we read in 9:3 9:3 All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
MOST of all, across the nation when the new edict was written… 8:17 ...there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday.
But then a FASCINATING line is found in the end of 8:17.
4 And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.
SO impressed, so respectful, so significantly had the Jews become in the eyes of the Persians that many of the peoples of the country, wanted to be one of God’s people, and converted to Judaism. God was drawing people to Himself through His people! God wants the world to see how good He is through OUR lives. What He has done in us, EVERYONE needs! This is how HE reaches people. His people don’t have a mission. God’s mission has people! He invites peoples through US!
He is still doing this today and He is doing it right here in our midst! Every week, I hear stories of God reaching people through us, including across ethnic lines. The Imam of the Gurnee Mosque (who was here in December with 40 Muslims) posted a note to His people on Youtube this week. It was in response to the break-in that happened at Bethel Lutheran Church. Listen to what he said… “Whenever I have lunch with friends of the Christian faith, they are always asking, ‘Imam, how is your IFM community doing? How can I help you and your Muslim community? What can we do to help out the Muslim refugees?’ The Christians are always being neighborly. “O Muslims, O Muslims, you have a golden opportunity to help out your brothers and sisters in humanity, when they desperately need it. Our neighbor, Bethel Lutheran Church, right here in Gurnee, was burglarized Monday morning, and lost $5-7,000 of equipment. Ben Squires is the pastor of the church who is my friend. I highly encourage you to click the link and donate to this church to help them with this loss. “O Muslims, become people of action. None of you have believed until you have loved your brother in humanity as you love yourself.”
The Imam of the Gurnee Mosque has directed his people to follow the example of Christians in Gurnee! Something is happening! God invites peoples to Himself through us! NOTICE: God used the Israelites on a BAD day to draw people to Himself! The fear of the Jews fell on Persians when they saw how God’s people responded when threatened with annihilation! It is on bad days that our trust in Christ is likely most visible. Beware on challenging days that you don’t make it about yourself! We are all faced with innumerable opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.
Every day, especially on hard days, make it your aim to bless the people near you! God places us where we can best serve Him! These chapters also show us an important promise for us. 3. God gives His people rest This is the outcome of the book of Esther. Although the Jews were in an IMPOSSIBLE situation in the end of C. 6, out of nowhere God brought them to a place of rest, (from endangered to safe, from marginalized to honored). Nothing is impossible for Him! A hopeless situation is NEVER hopeless for Him! This insomnia of a King one evening turned everything around! TRUTH: He is at work even when we don’t see Him (which in our lives is more often than not!) We live like His people when we believe He is working all things for good! 1 KEY : Esther got rest for the nation from their enemies. But it was not a rest that would last. It would be there for a generation, and then go away. We have seen this many times in the Old Testament. Moses got rest for Israel for a while, Joshua gave them rest for a while. David brought them rest for a while, Solomon gave them rest for a while… Esther did too. But that rest never lasted. That’s why later prophets began to prophesy that one would eventually come, a Messiah, Who would give us ultimate rest… final rest, from our enemies. (Daniel 7 describes the Son of Man who “wages war against all evil and injustice and brings final rest from our enemies.”) However the warfare Jesus would bring was of a completely different kind than anyone expected! He came, not to overcome the evil of the world! (In Revelation, which is the story of the coming of God’s rule into this world, Armageddon gets ½ a verse!) Jesus comes to overcome evil in our hearts. To do this, He will wage a different kind of warfare, unlike what anyone expected. His disciples thought any minute, Jesus would lead an attack on the Romans because they thought you destroy evil by force. Luke 9 when Jesus faces critics, the disciples said, “Do you want us to call down fire on them?” They thought Jesus was coming to wage the final war against God’s enemies. Jesus, let’s start with THEM! We don’t like them! 1
This point was taken almost entirely from Tim Keller’s message, “Rest from our enemies” at www.redeemer.com.
5 Jesus rebukes them… HE says, “Love your enemies. Forgive them. If they strike you, offer the other cheek. Forgive 70x7!” They didn’t get how HE was the Messiah by saying these things. In the end when the soldiers come for Jesus in the garden, the disciples think, “THIS is the moment!” Peter draws his sword… “Finally we are going to get rest from our enemies!” and Jesus says, “Put your sword down!” He goes with them and dies… forgiving His enemies! “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they do!”
At this point in his message on this text, Tim Keller says…
Jesus, on the cross, loving, forgiving His enemies, dying for His enemies is the ultimate warfare against evil!
And THIS brings the ultimate rest from our enemies! Critical re-frame! Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
You cannot overcome evil with force, and certainly not with more evil. You overcome PEOPLE with force. But when you do, evil remains alive and well. Evil is only destroyed when it is combatted with good! TRUTH: God is not so concerned to destroy enemies, but enmity. He is not siding with nations but destroying the evil and injustice that is eating away the world He loves! On the cross, He killed the enmity that divides humans! He destroyed sin and death itself! We need to hear this! If someone has harmed you and your reputation, you feel you have the perfect right to harm that person and their reputation. If they’ve robbed you of happiness, you feel you can withdraw and hurt that person’s happiness and love. The natural default of the human heart is to respond to evil force with hurtful force. And if you whack them enough, you get rest… you think. TRUTH: You didn’t whack the enmity, you whacked the enemy. And you’ve only made matters worse! When you fight evil with evil, you don’t beat evil… evil wins. (1) You become harder and colder. You become self-righteous. MORE: 2) You make that person more of your enemy.)
If we are to overcome evil, we respond with the “violence of grace.”
Les Miserables… Jean ValJean has been mistreated. He was sent to 20 years hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread where he became a cruel, hard man. When he was paroled, he spent a night with a Priest who took him in and was kind to him. Still being a criminal, he struck the priest, stole some silver, and ran off. But the French police caught him and brought him back. ValJean told them the silver was a gift, which was a lie. They came to ask the priest if it was true. His crime would have put him back in jail for life. But when the priest saw him, he said, “Why did you not also take the silver candlesticks?” and handed them too to ValJean. The police said, “You gave these to him?” A: “Yes. You may go.” In order for ValJean to be released, he had to sacrifice his treasure. The priest had been beaten and robbed by ValJean, but responded with grace and “covered” for him. He then said, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. I have bought your soul from you. I take it back from evil thoughts and deeds and the Spirit of Hell, and I give you to God.” He gave him grace.
As you read on in the book, there is a fascinating description of what happens next. JalJean left the priest, not relieved, but in tumult. He had never experienced grace before and it was profoundly unsettling. Hugo writes, “When Jean ValJean left the Bishop’s house, he felt that the pardon of this priest was the hardest assault, and the most formidable attack which he had ever sustained on his heart.
Grace does violence to evil. It is traumatic, it is powerful, it destroys evil and enmity!
He knew suddenly that his hardness of heart would be complete if he resisted this kindness. He knew he must conquer or be conquered. There was no longer a middle course for him now. If he would become good, he knew he would become and angel, and if he resisted, he would become a monster….
What Victor Hugo knew was that there is nothing more formidable and violent to destroying evil than grace. When you give someone grace, you give them the prospect of becoming a friend, and in this you have destroyed your enemy! This is what Jesus did on the cross. TRUTH: If the Bishop, at the cost of the candlesticks, changed Valjean’s life by the violence of grace, what does Jesus do at the cost of HIS LIFE to us? He is changing us from enemies into friends. The minute you take hold of this, it changes you. 1) If you believe Jesus Christ HAD to die for you (you are that bad that nothing less than the Son of God dying for you could save you!), then this inoculates you from the evil in the world. When an enemy assaults you, the first thing you normally do is to get high on your horse and become self righteous… and that’s how evil keeps going. But the gospel says, “You are no better… you are a sinner saved by sheer grace!” Therefore evil has no place to get a foothold in you! The first way your enemies can no longer destroy you is that they can’t make you hate them! If you hate your enemies, you
6 don’t know you are a sinner saved by grace and therefore you are vulnerable. You have no rest from your enemies. They can control you. The gospel humbles you to resist what the enemy does. 2) The gospel also values you… affirms you… it says, The Son of God thinks you were worth infinite suffering and dying for, and now because He has done this, there is no condemnation of you! You are promised a new heaven and a new earth. Therefore who are you now? What is your identity? What makes you valuable? Your self-worth is NOT wrapped up in your net-worth, or in what people think of you. Your self worth and reputation and physical comfort are things enemies can touch and take. If they are your treasure, you had better watch your back… they have huge power over you and you have no rest. But to the degree you know your real treasure is in heaven, and your real worth and value is in His love for you, your enemy can’t touch you! Your enemy can’t touch your real treasure! What if you know you have the applause of God. What if the only 2 eyes in the universe that really count thinks that you are beautiful! KEY: No enemy can touch your real treasure, reputation, my real life… then you have rest for your enemies. And then you can go into the world and give them what you got from Jesus! Response Do you face an impossible situation? Do you face enemies that seem overwhelming? 1) Remember the unseen sovereign Lord Who does know, does care, and IS working! 2) Rest assured that He is able and willing to give you His rest right now with a peace that surpasses all understanding! 3) Serve His purpose where you are. A) Obey, b) Seek the welfare of others around you and speak peace to people (one person this week) 4) The only One you need… is Him. Tell Him so!
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Small Group Leader Notes March 19, 2017 From Pastor Dan… Hello Small Group Leaders and anyone else using these notes, We are covering a large passage today that includes some startling material. You will be helped to remember that Esther is a book in the Bible that has a story line, running from a Garden to a City. There are things in these verses that parallel God’s overall plan for history. Be blessed! Warmly, Dan
Our Scripture Study… Series: Message #: Sermon Title: Passage: Preacher: Date:
Unseen Sovereignty 6 God will give His people rest Esther 8:1-10:3 Dan Weyerhaeuser 2017-3-19
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS Getting to know each other: What do you have to do to truly rest? The point of this question is to get us thinking about what causes us rest. Personal Study: As you study (read, reread, consider, ponder, reread) the passage, list observations you make from the text. What is the main point of this passage? How is the theme developed? What “Aha’s” come to you as you read? What questions come to mind? How do you respond to the God seen in these verses? Bring your observations and questions to your Small Group this week! —————————
Esther 8:1-10:3 1. Would you agree that evil exists in our world? What are places you most see it? Would it be a good thing if evil was confronted? Why? Group discussion question. 2. Can anyone remember what threat faced the Jewish people at the end of C. 7? (Recall, while Haman is now dead, the decree he issued could not be revoked.) Read Esther 8:1-8. What did Esther do and why? How did the king respond? While Haman is dead, the decree he initiated in the king’s name could not be revoked. Therefore at a date in the future, the Persian people were authorized to rise up and kill every man, woman, and child Jew in all of Persia (India to Africa) and plunder their property. Literally in a day, the nation would disappear.
8 Esther asked if the King would revoke the edict, which he said he would not do. But quickly the king authorized Mordecai to write another edict in the king’s name.
3. Read Esther 8:9-17 What was Mordecai’s plan for combatting the kill-order issued to the Persians? (NOTE: Why is important that in 8:11 The Jews were allowed to “defend” themselves?) Mordecai issued another decree in the name of the king allowing the Jews to defend themselves. Therefore the only people who would be harmed would be those initiating hostilities. There was a very different tenor to this order than the one from Haman. 4. 9:1-19 The Jews did indeed defend themselves. Read 9:15 and note that it was only “men” that were described as killed, and no plunder was taken. How is this different from what Haman wanted to do to the Jews? While the Jews were given authority to kill men, women, and children attackers and plunder their goods, in fact it seems they only killed men (if what happened in Susa was representative of all of the land). And they did not plunder their property. Therefore the people killed were people rising up to harm Israel, and only them. 5. Summary: The men intent on killing the Jews were themselves killed. How do you feel about that? You can’t read this section without having some kind of emotional response. What is yours? This would be good to talk about. 6. Look back to 8:16-17. What was happening among the Persians during this time? Were the Jewish people a part of this? Was God? How is this part of the overall story of the Bible? These are critical verses in this book. Not only were all of the people in Susa rejoicing that Israel was able to defend themselves (apparently a good number of Persian had come to love the Jews), and not only did the leaders of all 127 districts across Persia help the Jews for fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them), but many Persians became Jews because the fear of the Jews fell upon them. This is an image of God’s final intent to bring people from every tribe, nation, and language, into heaven. 7. Read 9:20-32 Why would it be important for God’s people in the future to celebrate this deliverance? We must get better at celebrating God’s victories in our past because this same, unchanging God, is waiting for us in our uncertain future. The more we celebrate His past faithfulness, the more we will trust Him with our future. 8. Read 9:21 In the end of this story, what had God done for Israel? God gave them rest (relief). This is an important word in the story of the Bible. It is applicable to what God will give His people in eternity! 9. Read 10:1-3 What message does the book leave us with last? That Mordecai was a great person because he sought to benefit the people of God. 10. What is one lesson to take from Esther? What is one action you want to live out in light of Esther?
