The sermon titled 'The Greatness of Mordecai and Lessons from Esther' by Jason Dohm explores the concluding chapters of the book of Esther, focusing on the greatness of Mordecai and the lessons learned from the Jewish feast of Purim. The speaker highlights the importance of remembering and celebrating God's deliverances, as demonstrated by the establishment of Purim. Mordecai is portrayed as a faithful and great leader who, despite his high position in the Persian Empire, remains devoted to his people and identity as a Jew. The sermon emphasizes God's sovereignty, His ability to intervene in surprising ways, and the importance of believers maintaining their core Christian identity in all aspects of life. Through the examples of Mordecai, Esther, and historical context, the sermon encourages believers to trust in God's faithfulness, act with wisdom and integrity, and recognize God's hand in both grand and mundane aspects of life.

So I'll be reading Esther chapter 9 verses 20 through 25 and then I'll skip down and we'll read chapter 10. And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews near and far who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another, and gifts to the poor. So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, because Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them and destroy them. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot, which Haman had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Chapter 10. And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on all the land and on the islands of the sea. Now all the acts of his power and his might, in the account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media in Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews, and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people, and seeking peace to all his countrymen. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you will be with Jason this morning, that you will speak through him, and that you will send your Holy Spirit among us and enlighten us and speak to us through Him.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well that was fast. Didn't feel like 12 weeks. Today we cover chapter 10. We split 9 into 2.

And we had an introductory sermon. So this is sermon number 12 on Esther and it's gone by fast and it's been a it's been a great joy for me and I trust it'll be lasting title of the sermon this morning is The Greatness of Mordecai and Lessons from Esther. We're going to be talking about chapter 10 verses 1 through 3 which speaks of the greatness of Mordecai. Then I'm going to go back and just sort of pull out lessons that I've been learning from our study of Esther. Last week we covered the second half of chapter 9 and it's the establishment of the Jewish feast of Purim.

If we come away from that text with anything, we should come away with the fact that God wants His people to remember and to celebrate. He wants His great deliverances and His mighty acts on our behalf to be remembered, but not just remembered. He wants them to be feasted. And so we see the people of God adopting this custom of feasting once a year in order to make sure that they don't forget what God had done for them in Persia. This week we have just three verses and it acts as sort of a postscript.

It just kind of wraps everything up with a summary statement on the king and Mordecai. So as we go to the text, let's ask for the Lord's help. God, I thank You for these 12 weeks in a book of the Bible that You have given to Your people as a gift. And I pray, God, in certain ways we would never be the same, that we would have more joy in considering your faithfulness to your people. Over the course of thousands of years you have delivered your people time and time and time and time again through surprising ways that could have never been predicted.

What can be predicted is that you always keep your promises. Thank you God for showing yourself to be faithful. Pray that as we exit this time in the book of Esther, we would be full of joy and full of trust. Our most holy faith would be built up and our confidence in you that you will always act on our behalf at just the right moment would be set in stone in our hearts. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

I'm going to begin by just looking at chapter 10 verses 1 through 3, which give us a concluding statement on the king and Mordecai. So if you have your outline, you're filling in blanks, it's concluding, a concluding statement on the king and Mordecai. Verse 1 and the first part of verse 2 speaks of the greatness of King Ahasuerus, who is also known as, probably more popularly known in historical literature as King Xerxes. And the historical record confirms what the Bible teaches, that he was a great king. He really is one of the greatest kings in human history.

Persia was just a tremendously great and mighty empire. Historians tell us that the Persian Empire was at its peak under Darius and Xerxes. Darius was Ahasuerus' father, or Xerxes' father. The Persian Empire grew and grew and grew and grew and grew to 127 provinces from Ethiopia to India during the time of Darius, and was sustained under the time of his son Ahasuerus. After that, the empire goes into a period of decline.

So Xerxes Ahasuerus was the king of this empire at its peak. He did fail to conquer Greece, but he did defend against revolts during his time. He maintained the empire that was given to him. He was a great king. Verse 1 says that he imposed tribute.

What's that all about? Some commentators say it's because this was a spender. And Ahasuerus Xerxes was a spender. After he failed to conquer Greece, he actually undertook many very expensive building projects. And so it could be that, but I don't think it's that.

I think the point is being driven home that he actually governed, he actually controlled, he actually ruled the totality of his empire. And Taxation is the test of that, isn't it? Taxation is the test of whether you really govern or don't govern. If you really control it, you can tax it. As the history of our nation proves, we were part of the British Empire until they could not no longer tax us.

Empires start to fall apart. Where the fringes, where the outer areas of the empire can no longer be taxed, that's when the empire is beginning to fall apart. I think that is the point of what is in verse 1. It says that he imposed tribute on the lands and the islands of the sea. Instead of islands of the sea, the NASB and ESV render it coastlands, like from the lands to the coastlands.

And either translation is fine, but I think the sense of the phrase, no matter how you render it, is from sea to shining sea. To pull from our national music. He was able to impose his will in the form of even tribute and taxation to the outer edges of his kingdom from sea to shining sea. In the second half of verse 2 and in verse 3 we learn of the greatness and faithfulness of Mordecai. It's sort of a summary statement on his greatness and on his faithfulness.

His greatness within the kingdom he rose to where he was over everyone in the entire kingdom, 3000 miles from east to west except one man, King Ahasuerus. King Ahasuerus raised him up to be great in his kingdom, greater than everyone else, except for himself. And he was a faithful man. He did not forget God and he did not forget God's people. His heart was still with his people, as we are going to see in verse 3.

He was always Mordecai the Jew. Even when he was second in command in the Persian Empire, he remained Mordecai the Jew. That never ceased to be the central part of his identity. The text says that Mordecai was great having been raised by the king to second in the empire. As God raised up Joseph, through surprise circumstances in Genesis chapter 41 to be second in all of Egypt to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh even gave him his signet ring. I had forgotten that. But in Genesis 41 it says that Joseph is raised to second in command and given the signet ring of the king. It's just like what we've seen of Mordecai in the book of Esther. As God raised up Daniel to be second in the Babylonian empire to King Darius in Daniel chapter 6, so God raised up Mordecai.

So unlikely that Joseph, the slave sold into slavery by his brothers, would be second in command only to Pharaoh in the Egyptian Empire. So unlikely that Daniel, the captive out of the house of the eunuchs would be raised up to second in command to Darius in the Babylonian Empire. So unlikely that Mordecai, the Jew, hated by the second most powerful man, would actually be raised up and sit in that seat. But God raises up and God puts down. This is what we learn.

The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like a water course. He directs it wherever he wants to direct that king's heart. And he can turn it towards Joseph, or to Daniel, or to Mordecai, and cause them to be raised up and given great authority in a kingdom for the blessing of his people, in every case. In the beginning of verse 3, we see Mordecai as we've seen him repeatedly throughout the book of Esther. He's Mordecai the Jew.

No matter Where Mordecai was, no matter how high Mordecai was raised, he never ceased to be Mordecai the Jew. I think we should ask ourselves, am I most fundamentally Christian? Am I at the most basic fundamental level, Jason the Christian? In the way that the Jew could never really be separated from Mordecai, at his most basic fundamental level, he was Mordecai the Jew, am I Jason the Christian in the same way? The answer must be a resounding yes for us.

We must be Gary the Christian, and Janet the Christian, and Cami the Christian, and on and on and on. At our most fundamental, we have to be Christians. Am I a father? Yes, I'm a father, but I am a Christian father. My husband?

Yes, I am a husband, but I am a Christian husband. Am I a worker? Yes, but I'm a Christian worker. Am I a neighbor? Yes, but I'm a Christian neighbor.

This should fashion and shape and control everything about us, our identity as being the Lord's. We are bought by Him. He owns us, lock, stock and barrel. So it was with Mordecai. So it should be with us.

And the interests of the Lord's people were always close to Mordecai's heart. He never stopped serving the interests of the Lord's people. The text says that he was seeking their good. As long as he was second in command to the Emperor, to the King of this Empire, he was always seeking the Lord's people's good. He was always speaking peace to them.

We saw that at the end of chapter 9, look at chapter 9 verse 30, with words of peace and truth. So he and Esther authored this letter to confirm and authoritatively establish Purim as a feast of remembrance and celebration of what God had done. But does He do this in a heavy-handed, high-handed way, kind of lording it over the Lord's heritage, His people? Nope. He sends this letter with words of peace and truth.

And I think what we learn in chapter 10 is this was his pattern that was continued. As long as God put him in this period of authority, he wasn't a high-handed man. He wasn't lording it over the Lord's people, but he was speaking words of peace to them. And for their part, the Jews held Mordecai as great also. That's what our text says.

To the Jews, Mordecai was great. The text actually says he was well received by the multitude. You know what? If you're a ruler, if you have authority, it's not all that easy to be well received by the multitude. And certainly, in the New Testament, if you think how tax collectors were held, you would find that those who were servants of a pagan governor weren't always well thought of.

Now, of course, nobody likes to pay their taxes. But in the New Testament, there's a definite sense of something else beyond not wanting to pay your taxes there. They were hated because they were seen as conspiring with pagan captors. That's what tax collectors were in the New Testament. Well, Mordecai wasn't viewed that way at all.

He was well received by the entire multitude. He had their interests at heart and they knew it and they honored him for it. Finally, a word on this phrase, the book of the chronicles of the kings of Medea and Persia. Here's what Matthew Henry says about this book that's referenced in chapter 10. In chapter 10 it's saying, if you want to know more about King Ahasuerus, this great king and his second in command, Mordecai, All those things are written in this book that is referenced.

Here is what Matthew Henry says of that book. These are long since lost and buried in oblivion, while the sacred writings live, live in honor, and will live till time shall be no more." Think about that. I never would have thought of that point. So I'm glad that we have commentators like Matthew Henry to help us recognize these things. This would have been a very, very, very important book in a very, very, very, very important empire in human history.

Where is it? It's nowhere. You can't even find it. How do we know of these things? The Word of God endures forever.

Empires rise and fall, but the Word of God goes on and on and on. Whenever Jesus comes, if it is 10, 000 years from now, I don't think it will be 10, 000 years from now. I want to have my eyes on the skies, hoping it is within our lifetime, knowing that many people have died hoping that. But if it is 10, 000 years from now, this will be intact and preserved for the people of God. More empires will have been raised up and put down by God, but His Word will still be there as a gift for His people.

Jesus said, Not one jot or tittle will pass away till all these things, the earth and everything we know, pass away. As long as there is an earth, there will be the Word of God. God has given His Word to His people, and God has preserved His Word for His people in very, very remarkable ways. And He will, until the end of human history, whenever that is. Praise the Lord for his word.

It's untouchable. Now let's review a few things about our time in Esther. I'd like to begin by giving you a timeline. There's not nearly enough room on the notes page for the dots in time that I want to give to you. I just want to again set the book of Esther in the historical context.

The first date is 539 BC. The Babylonian Empire seemed to be impregnable, but here came Cyrus the Persian. He conquered the Babylonians and The Persian Empire swallowed up the Babylonian Empire. In the first year of his reign, probably that same year, 539 BC, he put the Jews at liberty to return to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel, the grandson of the last king who had reigned in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel, and 50, 000 more Jews did go back to Jerusalem.

The next date is 522 through 486 BC. I've skipped a couple of kings there, but don't worry about that. This is a macro view, a big view, not a micro view. 522-486 BC. The numbers are getting smaller, not larger, because we are counting down to the central point in all of human history, which is the birth of Jesus.

That's why the numbers are getting smaller. Now they are getting bigger, but then they were getting smaller, counting down to Jesus' birth. This was Darius' rule. He was the son-in-law of King Cyrus. Darius ruled during that period.

He made the empire great. In 486 through 465 BC, Ahasuerus was king, also known as Xerxes. He was the son of Darius. He's ruling the empire. Now we get to dates within Esther.

Before now we've really been talking about the lead up to the events that we've been studying. Now is 483 BC. And 483 BC, around that time, it's the third year of King Ahasuerus' reign, and Vashti has been sent away for her rebellion against the king. She would not come when she was summoned, and so she is put away. In 479 BC, it's the seventh year of Ahasuerus' reign, and Esther becomes queen.

And in 474 BC, the twelfth year of Ahasuerus' reign, we have both of the decrees. The first month is Haman's decree and the third month is Mordecai's decree. In the 12th month, These decrees become effective for one day and many people attack the Jews, but they have an overwhelming victory against their enemies. In 465, now we're sort of getting outside of the scope of the book of Esther again, but in 465 BC, Ahasuerus will be assassinated by his chief of security. Be careful who you pick to handle security.

This is a man, I don't even remember his name from my readings, This is a man who had hoped to seize the throne for himself, but Artic Xerxes, the son of Xerxes, the son of Ahasuerus, survives this plot and puts this head of security, this assassin, to death and takes the throne. And Artic Xerxes will be the king during the events of Ezra and Nehemiah. He has a monstrous reign. Artaxerxes will reign for 42 years. In 456 BC, the seventh year of his reign, Ezra will return.

And in 445 BC, the twentieth year of his reign, Nehemiah will return. So Esther is right in between The Jews being put at liberty to return from their captivity under King Cyrus. And the final two waves of return that happen under Ezra and Nehemiah. Esther for round numbers is right in the middle. Sort of 60 years into 100 years.

That's the timeline. Now I'd like to give you a selection of 18 lessons from the book of Esther. So you can see how fast I'm going to have to move. All of them will be underdeveloped, but we don't need to develop them. We've been developing them now for twelve weeks.

So we're going to move fast. The list is, they're in fill in the blank form on the handout if your note taking can't keep up with the speed at which I'll undertake these. That part of it should be easy for you. Number one, here's a lesson from the book of Esther. Remembering the goodness and faithfulness of God through proactive celebration is important.

God wants us to remember, but He also wants us to celebrate. This is not just an intellectual exercise where we find devices that keep us from forgetting. God wants these things to be feasted and celebrated. I've made this number one because we're coming right out of that in the second half of chapter nine. God wants us to remember and celebrate how faithful He is, how miraculously He has intervened in human history in order to preserve and help and sustain his people.

We should not only remember, we should have parties to remember. Number two. Oh, by the way, not number two yet. This starts with the Lord's Day. I think we would say it's legitimate to create other things in our family culture, ways in order to celebrate and feast and remember.

But it would be foolish to create something new in our family cultures and neglect what has been given to us by God which is one day in seven to remember and feast. The Sabbath is a feast day. The Lord's Day is a feast day. These should be days of joy and Celebration and good food for us. They should be.

Number two, God laughs at His enemies and invites us to join Him. Assuming you are part of His people, God has invited you to join along in laughing with Him at His enemies. In the introductory sermon I read a good chunk of Psalm chapter 2. Psalm chapter 2 is this great Psalm about the Messiah where God talks about the nations banding together in rebellion against him, and the kings of the earth conspiring to break the chains of God. It says what God does in response to the conspiracy of the nations and the kings.

Is he biting his fingernails? No, he's laughing. He's snickering at the foolishness, the insanity of nations who would rise up. The Bible says that the nations are as a drop in the bucket. I forget the reference on that.

This is an extemporaneous thought. This is what the Bible says about nations, about a conglomeration of millions and millions of people together. They are just a drop in the bucket. And the bucket is in an ocean. They are nothing to God.

He just laughs. And we're being invited to laugh along with Him. Think of Haman Parading Mordecai on horseback through the city square, declaring before him, Thus shall it be done for the man that the king delights to honor." Laugh your head off. God did that in order to laugh at his enemies. And we couldn't help snickering when this was read.

Before the introductory sermon, we read these ten chapters. There was audible snickering during this part. You can't help it. We shouldn't help it. God doesn't want us to help it.

God wants us to laugh away. He is going to triumph over every enemy. Number three. We live in Esther, not Exodus. What does that mean?

What does that mean? Well Exodus is all thunder and lightning and a pillar of fire at night and cloud by day and the parting of the sea and plagues descending upon Egypt. Esther is nothing like that. The name of God isn't even invoked one time. There's not a proper miracle in the whole book of Esther, even though the people of God get rescued.

There's nothing that you would say, now that's miraculous. Like the parting of a sea, or a pillar of fire leading the people by night. I love Exodus, but I have a hard time relating to Exodus. I haven't seen any of those things. I live in Esther, where God might not be invoked, but He is behind everything.

He is governing, He is ruling everything in Esther just as much as in Exodus, even though there is no thunder and lightning and earthquakes and seas parting. God is not named in Esther, but He is everywhere in Esther. This book is teaching us to see God everywhere. God doesn't have to hang a banner over something saying, I did this. We don't need sky riding.

We are the people of God and we see His hand and we know that He reigns. These things are from Him. Number four. Here is an interesting one. A children.

You should pay attention for this one. Those who exploit the weakness of an authority to get what they want can expect things to end very, very badly. Those who exploit the weakness of an authority to get what they want. All authorities have weak spots. And if you, as someone under their authority, exploit what you've seen as a weak spot in order to get what you want, you can expect that to end very, very badly.

Exhibit A, Haman hanging from a pole, impaled on a pole above his house. This is exactly what he did. He saw the king was careless about the rule of his kingdom, So he comes to him wanting to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. He leaves out a lot of important information. Part of the information he didn't know which was the Queen as a part of this people.

And his manipulation of the king ends up putting the king in the worst of positions. When the king finds out and it dawns on the king what has happened to him, that he's been played for a sucker, he's furious. No wonder he ends up hanging on a gallows over his house. Children, you can learn something. Your mom and dad have weak points.

If you exploit their weak points in order to get what you want, the joys of that are going to be short lived and it's going to end very, very badly. Learn that from Haman. Number five. We need to understand and utilize the righteous appeal. We see this repeatedly used by Esther in the book of Esther.

Though Esther was in the right, meaning her analysis of things was right and she was acting in God's cause. She did not become demanding, but she respectfully appealed to the King, acknowledging His authority. Gently, respectfully, and acknowledging his authority. And we see her throughout the book winning favor. It wasn't her choice to be considered for queen, She just happened to be very beautiful.

And that was the criterion. So she is swept up into this consideration of who would be queen. She's put in the house of the eunuchs, the house of the women under the control of Hegai, the eunuch. Instantly she's winning his favor. Wherever she goes, she is winning the favor of the authority that God has put there.

It is because of how she conducted herself with her authorities. There is much value in what we can learn from Esther and the righteous appeal. Number six, the Lord's people must be wise as serpents but innocent as doves. This is exactly what we see from Esther. She is as wise as a serpent.

And how she deals with the king and how she deals with the king, and how she deals with the banquet, and softening up the ground, and isolating Haman from the other counselors. She is masterful. She is masterful. She would be a great secretary of state. She knows just how to arrange things.

She keeps her integrity. She is not lying and manipulating through the process. So I think we should acknowledge that she maintains her integrity through the process of hanging Haman out to dry. She is as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. This is what Jesus tells his disciples to be when he sends them out for the first time in Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew chapter 10 is the sending out chapter. He's been discipling his disciples, teaching them. They've been going with him and now He sends them out before him to make places ready for him to come and to preach. He tells them, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So you better be wise as a serpent, but as harmless as doves, as innocent as doves.

We are supposed to be that. Esther is that. She is an excellent example for us. Number seven. Expect your life to have a few big moments where you will either shrink or stand.

Expect that. Expect your life to have a few big, disproportionately big and significant moments where you will either shrink back when you should stand or you will stand and hold your ground. Not every moment in your life has the same impact. Some moments, A few moments in your life will have a very disproportionate impact on the trajectory and the impact of your own life. You know that's true.

Not every day is filled with gigantic moments. Thank goodness. I don't know what a life like that would be like. But for all of us, we can expect, and I think we will receive a few big moments. They will be watershed moments for us that will affect the whole trajectory of our lives.

God wants us to be ready to stand. This came upon Esther and Mordecai. They had been living incognito. Mordecai had told Esther to conceal that she was a Jew. But the time came where that would be impossible if she were to stand in the way of duty.

So Mordecai made that clear to her. And they both had to decide when the first decree went out. They both had to decide what they were going to do. Mordecai immediately rinses his clothes. He goes out in sackcloth and ashes all the way to the gate of the palace and cries out.

That could have cost him his life. There's no First Amendment right to free speech in Persia. He made his stand. He did not shrink back. He stood his ground.

He cried out for justice. And Esther laid her life on the line. She hadn't been summoned for 30 days. If you come without being summoned, if He doesn't extend the scepter, you forfeit your life, she went anyway. She put it all on the line.

She did not shrink back. She stood her ground for God. I think God wants us to get ready now. We don't necessarily see that in the book of Esther. We have no visibility into what they did to be ready to pass that test.

All I know is if the test is coming, I want to study. Don't you? I want to be ready for the day of testing and not presume that if it comes we could have been careless all along and will stand and not shrink. That's foolish. Number eight.

Never lose sight of the fact that there is always a war on. Never lose sight of the fact that there is always a war on. Planet Earth is a war zone for the Lord's people. Amen. It isn't different than that in time past or today or in time future.

The Bible tells us this. The Bible promises of this. Even in times of external peace and prosperity there is a world and a flesh and a devil which never rests conspiring for your downfall. Do you believe that? If you don't, shake yourself awake.

Shake yourself awake right now. If God has brought you into an extended time of peace and prosperity, Don't be lulled to sleep. The world and the flesh and the devil are not asleep. They are conspiring for your downfall. You are in a war zone.

You are always in a war zone. No matter what your external circumstances are saying to you, The Bible is saying to you that you are at war. Number nine. Be careful about drawing final conclusions based on what you see today. We think we can do this.

We think we can analyze the data points, the facts in view, and project what's going to happen in the future, the outcome of that. No, you can't. No, you can't. Because God is King, and God likes to surprise people. God is very difficult to predict sometimes, and I think we see from the Bible that He likes it that way.

He wants us trusting in Him, depending on Him, relying on Him. If we were living men and we drew our conclusions at the end of chapter 5, we would say all is lost. The Lord's people are going to suffer a crushing defeat in the 12th month on the 13th day. But it ended up being their day of greatest victory, an overwhelming victory against their enemies. 75, 800 of their most vicious enemies were wiped off the face of the earth on the day that looked like it was going to be their crushing defeat and maybe their total annihilation.

And they stood there at the end of chapter 5 and drawing conclusions from the facts that were visible at the time they would have despaired. God is King. God is reigning. God is controlling. In our moments when we despair, the next thing we should do is repent.

Number ten. We can bet our lives that God always saves His people. You can bet your life on that. God always saves His people. Either in the immediate sense, God enters into our circumstances and He flips them on their head as we see in Esther.

It looked like Mordecai was slated for death. No Haman was slated for death. It looked like the people of God were slated for death. No, their enemies were slated for death. He can enter into time and flip everything on its head in an instant of time.

Sometimes he does that in the immediate sense. Sometimes he does that in the ultimate sense. You've heard of martyrs. God didn't do it in the immediate sense for martyrs. He would glorify himself more through their ultimate salvation than their immediate salvation.

And so he let them be killed. He let them burn at the stake. He let them be beheaded. He let them be drowned. Our disposition has to be the disposition of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they stood before the king.

Oh king, our God can deliver us, But even if He doesn't, we will not bow down to your idol. He either will come and deliver us immediately, or He will deliver us ultimately, but our God will deliver us. Our way is just the way of duty. You say, that's a cop-out. That means that we can put a smiley face on things either way.

If God saves us, that's great. If He doesn't save us, somehow that's still great. All I know is that's what the Bible teaches. You have to decide whether you believe it or you don't believe it. You can say it's a cop-out.

Might look like a cop-out from the outside, but I can just say from the inside, it doesn't look like a cop-out to me. I think we should believe and trust and bet our lives on the Word of God. Number 11. God often has the rescue in motion before His people are even in peril. God often has the rescue in motion before the people of God are even threatened.

This is what we see in the book of Esther. Esther became queen in the seventh year of the king's reign. Mordecai ticked off Haman in the eleventh year of his reign. God had the escape plan in motion, the salvation plan in motion four years before The enemies were moving against his people four years earlier. How would you like to play chess with God?

Esther, the book of Esther, should have us living with such confidence before God that if God brings travail into our lives, God is not surprised and God has probably been laying the groundwork for our good years in advance. We never knew it was coming. Thank goodness we didn't know it was coming. We'd have just worried, but God doesn't worry. God just blesses us.

He lays the groundwork and makes ready for our deliverance many times before the threat is even on the scene. That's one of the beautiful things in view in the book of Esther. Number 12. God mightily uses men and women who are still very far from Christ-likeness. Praise the Lord for that.

Are Esther and Mordecai Christ-like? Yes and no. Esther and Mordecai have both warts and beauty marks. Meaning Figuratively, obviously, meaning things that we look at and we say, well, I want to emulate that about Mordecai or about Esther. But things that we say, I don't think we want to emulate that.

I don't think we want to follow in that. I think we see areas of compromise in both Esther and Mordecai. I marvel at the commentators who want to either push them to be flawless heroes or push them to be compromising villains. I encountered both in our journey through Esther. Most take a better view, a more moderate view, but some did want to make them flawless heroes, sort of try to hide the warts.

And others made them into compromising villains and want to hide the things that are praiseworthy about them. No. They are equal parts of these things. Remember in chapter 2, I played the Esther or another name game. It was like, who would you take if you had what you know about the other, and what we know about Esther and her righteousness or unrighteousness, and what we know about this other person, their righteousness or their unrighteousness, who would you take if you had to pick the more righteous?

Esther or Adam, who stood there while his wife plunged the whole race into death and sin and darkness. Esther or Adam? Esther or Aaron? Mr. The Golden Calf just popped out of the fire.

Esther or Aaron? Esther or Abraham? Please tell them you're my sister. And then decades later, Please tell them you're my sister. And then decades later, please tell them you're my sister.

Hey Esther or Abraham. Esther or David. The murderer, the adulterer. Esther or Solomon who had 300 wives and 700 concubines. Look, if you don't like the compromise in Esther and the way she became queen and all that was wrapped up in that process, then you've got to throw Solomon off the boat a long time before Esther.

Esther or Peter, who denied Jesus three times. Esther or the disciples who argued repeatedly over who was the greatest. As for me, give me Esther over Adam or Abraham or David or Solomon or Peter or the disciples. Esther has her beauty marks. This is not to wink at sin and to say, it's no big deal that they had compromise in her life or in Mordecai's life.

It's to acknowledge that men at their best are at best only men. That's a rile phrase. I'm sure it didn't originate with him, but he says it a lot. Men at their best are only men at their best. And God is faithful anyway.

God doesn't wait until we are fully sanctified to work in us and through us. We want God to work through people who have made more progress. How do people make progress? They make progress where God enters into their lives and helps them see things more than they've seen, do things better than they've done in the past, and deals with compromise in their lives. God is using these things to make us make more progress.

Number thirteen. One of the reasons God does wonders for His people is to win more people. People of God are slated to be wiped off the face of the earth. God delivers them and at the end of chapter 8 it says that Mordecai's decree goes out and many declare themselves to be Jews. It's a big empire.

It's 3, 000 miles from east to west. Some of those were probably false conversions. Some of those were probably real conversions. The real people of God were added to because of what he did in the events that we've been studying. God did these wonders and one of the reasons he did these wonders was to graft more people into his kingdom.

This is so true of us. God wants to give us great deliverances so our neighbors can see, I want that to be my God. Number fourteen, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church that Christ is building. Obviously, I'm pulling from Matthew chapter 16 verse 18, where Jesus says to Peter that He is building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against this church. In the book of Esther, the kingdom of hell is attacking the line of the seed.

This is never said in the book of Esther, but that's really what's going on beneath the surface in the book of Esther is that the line of the Messiah is being demonically attacked to keep Jesus from planet earth. And It involves Haman, it involves people, sure, but it was and is essentially a demonic attack. It was then, and it is now. There may be people involved, but it is actually the devil at war with the Lord's people. No matter.

Not only will our gates withstand the assaults of hell, Hell's gates will not withstand our assaults. So we can cheerfully go about destroying the works of the devil in this world. That's what Jesus came to do. I think that's in Hebrews. 15.

God's sovereignty does not render human action unnecessary. This is a book about the sovereignty of God, but God's sovereignty in the book of Esther never renders human action unnecessary. It's clear from our memory text that Mordecai believed that if Esther didn't act, that God would bring deliverance from another place. But his conclusion was not, therefore, Esther doesn't need to act. We might think that's the logical conclusion.

God is sovereign, He reigns, He's not dependent on every human being. To all that we would say, Amen. But the conclusion to draw from that isn't that Esther is off the hook, She doesn't need to act. In the end, both Mordecai and Esther saw clearly what their duty before God was, what it meant to be obedient, and they walked by faith, not by sight. And in that sermon I gave two illustrations.

One was stepping out into thin air. You know you are in the path of duty. We are not talking about doing things that have no relationship to obedience. We are talking about when obedience is required and it is clear what obedience is according to the Word of God. If there is only air in front of you, you step anyway trusting that the road will form under your feet by the time your foot hits.

Then you can take another step and another step and the road will appear over thin air. The other illustration I used was, you know where you are supposed to go and you are accelerating in your obedience but the door is closed. The world says, you walk when the road is there. You don't step out into thin air. You wait until everything is in place and then you step.

The Bible, Faithfulness to God sometimes requires you to step when all you see is air, trusting that the road will form under your feet. The Bible requires sometimes when you have it really clear in your mind what obedience is, but the door is shut. The world says, no, no, no, you only walk through open doors. The Bible says sometimes you accelerate towards a closed door, trusting that God in heaven will open it in time. This is the essence of walking by faith and not by sight.

In a world where the people of God always have the world, the flesh, and the devil warring against them, we cannot only walk by faith all the time. That's impossible. Did I say faith? I meant sight. We cannot only walk by sight all the time.

We have to walk by faith, by what God has said. Number sixteen. It is no profit to gain the world if you lose your soul. It is no profit. Jesus said this.

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul? This was Haman. This was the man with Bill Gates money. This was the man with a multitude of sons. This is the man wearing the King's signet ring.

He had been exalted above everyone else. He had everything. Today he is in hell. He has no opportunity to repent. His future is set in stone.

It can never be changed. He had gained essentially the whole world. Haman might be the preeminent real-life example of what Jesus was saying. He gained the whole world, but he forfeited his soul. What a fool.

Who will pay for his folly throughout all eternity. Whose agony will never end across millions of ages and then it will just be beginning. Number 17, unbelievers get what they deserve, Believers get what Jesus deserves. Unbelievers get what they deserve. And it is a fearful thing.

The last thing we want in this world is fair, getting what we deserve. Believers, unbelievably, miraculously, wondrously, Get what Jesus deserves. Friends, be careful what goes through your mind when you see in your mind's eye Haman impaled 75 feet over his house. Don't you gloat for a second. Haman is getting what a criminal deserves.

You be careful what you think when you see a criminal get what he deserves. We're being taught through Sodom and Gomorrah, through the flood, through Haman, through the destruction of Jerusalem and the annihilation of the people who were there in 70 AD. We're being taught what we deserve. What you deserve for your sins. You deserve that.

You deserve to be impaled 75 feet above your own house for your crimes. Christ has said, I'll take that fate. I'll take your pay. The wages of sin is death. I'll take your wages.

I'll hang above your house for you. This should make us the most humble, the most gracious, the most compassionate people. My pride sickens me. My pride sickens me. Nothing more inappropriate than that a Christian would look at someone getting what they deserve and gloat.

Number eighteen. God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. At its heart Esther is a book about the sovereignty of God. He reigns, yes, in the big things, in national elections and raising up kings where they don't have elections, in hurricanes and in earthquakes and in miraculous healings and in walking on the water. He reigns in all of those things, but equally so in the most minor details in our lives that seem so mundane.

You have to get this. Esther is trying to press this great truth on us. Yes, he is the God of hurricanes. Fine. He's the God of the little details in the life that you just think is so mundane.

It's not mundane to God. It's not too mundane to Him to govern it. In its smallest details. Remember chapter 6. In chapter 6 I said, take time to notice these seven somewhat improbable circumstances happening at just the right time and in just the right sequence.

In other words, if you touch the timing it all falls apart. If you touch the sequence it all falls apart. If any one of these improbable events doesn't happen it all falls apart. Number one, the king can't sleep, even after a feast, even after the banquet of wine, all of which should make you sleepy. Number two, of all his options, the king chooses the records of the Chronicles.

The king is not a man without options when he is sleepless. The world is his oyster. He can have anything at any time of the day. Bring the book of the Chronicles. Number three, they read from just the right spot.

Now this is the 12th year of his reign. It's 12 years of history across an enormous empire. I don't know how big the book was, but you can believe it's a big book. What are we reading from tonight? Mordecai and the assassination attempt.

Number four, Mordecai's faithful service went unrewarded for five years. Kings were so careful to make sure that if you did him a favor, a good deed, that he rewarded you over the top so that he would never be in your debt and so that people would see it's good to faithfully serve the king. And yet it was missed. An assassination attempt. He didn't take out the trash.

He foiled an assassination plot and he was never awarded for it for five years. Number five, the king and Haman have totally opposite plans for Amorticae. Both oblivious to each other's plans. So that when the king says, what should I do for the man I want to honor, that Haman thinks, oh it has to be me, and he says that the king should do the thing he would least want done for his enemy. Number six, this great misunderstanding that Haman presumes the king wants to honor him.

Number seven, the thing Haman wants most for himself is the thing he would want least for Mordecai and then after establishing these seven things I Said this madam mathematically when you start stacking low probability things together and multiplying low percentage times low percentage, what you get is something that is infinitesimally unlikely, meaning all but impossible. And what's our author doing there? Our author is backing us into a corner, forcing us to decide, is this a fairy tale or does God govern even the smallest things? Esther makes you do that. Either say, it's intellectually honest to say this is a fairy tale and walk away And go build your life on something else.

That's at least intellectually honest. The author is going to force you, trying to force you to either do that or to say, God rules the smallest things in this world. God governs it all. He is trying to force us out of this pathetic middle ground where we never risk or bet anything on God being king. May our time in the book of Esther rescue us from that.

This pathetic middle ground where we don't really believe that God is king even though we are playing religious things and we never bet anything. In that sermon I quoted, I'm going to end with this, Ephesians 1 verse 11, Speaking of Christ's salvation of the people, Ephesians 1 verse 11. In Him, in Christ also, we have obtained an inheritance. Being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. Do you believe that?

That God works all things according to the counsel of His will. All things. People who believe that are bold. People who believe that risk it all. People who believe that accelerate towards closed doors when they know it's obedience to do that.

People who believe that step out on thin air, trusting that the road will form under their feet as they go. I want to send us out of Esther with this. More joy. Be happier in God because of Esther and the things we've learned here. I want to send us out of Esther with this.

More trust. Have more confidence in God as a result of the things that we've been studying. Our God, thank you for the 12 weeks that you've given us here. May these lessons not be lost on us. May we be happier and more trusting, more dependent upon you than we've ever been in our lives.

May it last, God, please save us from these things passing quickly. Make them abide. Make them characteristic of us. Our joy, our confidence would be so well grounded. Ask it In Jesus' name, Amen.