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Now it's time to want to preach about the book of Esther because the book of Esther is a book that many have actually attacked. And this is one of the books that probably comes under the most attack because a lot of people say that this book should not be in the Bible. Who's ever heard anybody say that before? Yes, several hands are going up. Because a lot of people will say, well first of all the book of Esther never mentions God. And so therefore it shouldn't be part of the Bible. Well, the book of Psalm and Solomon also does not mention God. It's still definitely part of the Bible. And I want to preach to you tonight about obviously why I believe the book of Esther should be in the Bible and that it's God's word. But also just to explain it to you and help you to understand it. Because a lot of people misunderstand the meaning of the book of Esther. And that's part of why they don't think it should be in the Bible. They say that the Dead Sea Scrolls, some kind of an archeological finding proves that the book of Esther is not part of the Bible. Because there were all these scrolls and Esther wasn't there. Well, that doesn't really prove anything. That you dug up a bunch of old scrolls of the Bible and one of the books is missing. Well, that doesn't mean that it's not part of the Bible. You say, how do you know Pastor Anderson that the book of Esther is really part of the Bible? Well, a couple of reasons. Number one, first of all, because of the fact that anything that man writes and anything that man does is going to be different than what God writes and what God does. How do I know that the whole Bible is God's word? Because it's of such a quality. It has such power. It's so much different than what man writes. And there have been many, many imposters through the years who have sought to try to write additional books and get them into the Bible. And they've written bogus scriptures like, for example, the Book of Mormon. Or, for example, books of the so-called Apocrypha. Like, you know, the books of, you know, wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach or the Maccabees or Belle and the Dragon or Tobit and Judith. You know, if you read those stories, they're really lame. I mean, that's all I can say. I mean, you can just read it and tell, this is not on the same level as the Bible. It's clearly not even close. It's someone trying to impersonate or write something that seems sort of like something that you read in the Bible. But you can tell it's fake and you say, well, how do you know it's fake? Well, the same way I look at that palm tree on 48th Street that's actually a cell phone tower, but it's made to look like a palm tree. I don't have, you say, are you an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls? I don't have to be a tree expert to know that God didn't make that tree. God did not make, man made that tree because it doesn't look like what God made. Well, the book of Esther is such a great book, such a powerful book, such a deep book, it has the fingerprint of God upon it, number one. And number two, nothing in the book of Esther contradicts anything that we read elsewhere in Scripture. It fits right in perfectly with Scripture as we're going to see tonight. Whereas if you look at all these other bogus book of Enoch and the Gospel According to Thomas and the Gospel According to Bartholomew, it always contradicts the rest of the Bible and it's always clearly bogus. So the book of Esther is definitely God's word and those are some of the reasons why it is God's word. But let me just explain to you the book and then help you to understand the story tonight. And hopefully it'll encourage you to go back and read this book on your own and go a little deeper with it. So we read the whole chapter in chapter one and we start out with this lavish king, Ahasuerus. And this guy, he rules over a kingdom of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Like today our nation has, what, fifty states. I think Obama said it was fifty-eight, but I'm pretty sure it's fifty. He said, you know, I visited, what did he say, I visited fifty-one states, I guess seven to go or whatever. But anyway, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. And not only that, it says that his kingdom stretched from Ethiopia to India. Now if you know where, well hey, I've got the map for you. You know, because you've got Egypt and then you've got Sudan and then you've got Ethiopia. So we're talking over here in Africa, Ethiopia, which was a very powerful country at that time. Egypt and Ethiopia were major powers. And then you have all the way to India. So we're talking about all of this area, the whole Middle East, the whole area surrounding it. I don't know exactly where those hundred and twenty-seven provinces were. But pretty much, we're talking about virtually a worldwide kingdom here. Of all of the most important governments and so forth, we're under his rule. This is the most powerful man in the world. And he's rich and he rules over most of the civilized world. And he is throwing this lavish party here. And he's got all kinds of gold and silver and all kinds of textiles there that are described. Just showing us his glory, his riches and his might. Well, this man is also practicing polygamy. Now, just because someone did something in the Bible doesn't make it right. This man is in Persia. Now, the modern-day country would be Iran. Iran is what the Bible is talking about when it says Persia. The people even today in Iran, many people refer to the language that they speak as Persian. That's what some people call it. And many people call that nationality Persian. A lot of people think that Iranians are Arabs. They're not Arabs. They're Persians. Totally different nationality. Now, today they're Muslim. At this time, they were a completely different religion. And it was false religion. It was not Christianity. It was Zoroastrianism. But the bottom line is that this man has multiple wives. But he has the queen, which is the number one of his wives. The one who has the honorable position of being the queen of the kingdom. Well, he calls for his wife, the queen, Vashti, to come in unto his guests at his party. And if you will, look down at your Bible in verse number 11. To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princess her beauty. For she was fair to look on. So he wants to basically show off the queen. He wants her to come in and enter the room with her crown on her head. And in the royal apparel, all of her fancy, nice clothing. And basically he just wants her to be there so that he can show off his beautiful wife to the guests that are there. And it says in verse 12, but the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very wroth and his anger burned in him. So here's the most powerful man in the world, but he can't get his wife to obey. So he tells her, hey, come on over here. I've got all these guests over here. I want you to come. And she says, no, I won't come. Now I've heard preachers say, oh, she was right not to come. Because he wanted her to come and do something indecent, like what would be at a gentleman's club. Does the Bible say that anywhere? No. So you can't just add stuff to the Bible. You can't just make up stuff and say, yeah, he wanted her to come and take off her clothes. That's not what it says. He wanted her to come in her royal apparel with a crown on her head. He just wanted to show off. Whether he was right or wrong, that's not the point. He told her to do it. It wasn't a sin for her to just come and be there. He told her to do it. She won't do it. He's infuriated. He's enraged. He's angry. He told her to do it. She won't do it. He doesn't know what to do. What do I do? So he goes to his seven counselors. And one of them says, look, this is not just affecting you here. Because you're kind of a powerful guy here. And if your wife is just going to blow you off and disobey you and get away with it, well then, all these people right here, they're going to hear about it. And then they're all going to despise their husbands. They're going to disobey their husband because you're going to be setting a really bad example. So he basically throws her out of that position of being the queen. And says that she can't be the queen anymore. Now, was he right to do that? Well, honestly, if you're a husband and your wife doesn't obey you, you can't just say, well, you're not my wife anymore. I'll divorce you. So that's not right. But that's what he did. He's not a saved man. He doesn't believe on the Lord. He's part of a false religion. What do you expect? He's making his own rules as he goes. And if you can't tell someone to do it, he says, okay, I'll do it. That's what he pays him for. So he kicks her out from being the queen. Obviously, as a man, as a Christian man, we need to lead and make sure that our wife obeys. But we can't just, oh, you're not obeying. Bye, see you later. And that's why you got to think about who you get married to because you're stuck with her. And ladies, you're stuck with him if you marry the wrong guy. So it's important to think about that. So basically, he casts her out from being the queen. And then they send out letters to everyone in the province saying, hey, every man needs to bear rule in his own home. And it's not acceptable for wives to disobey their husband. Oh, that such an edict would come out in our day. But it doesn't. The world will tell you that that's old-fashioned or whatever. But it is biblical. So that's what happens in chapter 1. So chapter 2 rolls around. And again, these are ungodly people. These are unsaved, Iranian people who are just going with what they think is right. So chapter 2, he decides that he's got to find a new queen. So he wants for his servants and his advisors to go searching throughout all the land and find all the most beautiful young women in the whole land and bring them unto King Ahasuerus. And he's basically going to just try as many as he wants and decide which one he likes the best, and that's going to be the queen. Whichever one's the most beautiful, whichever one finds the most favor in his eyes. Is this right? No, of course not. But of course there's polygamy throughout the Bible. This guy is an ungodly guy. So they seek for all these different women to be brought unto him. And one of them, it says in verse number 7, and he brought up Hadassah. This is Mordecai. Well, let's jump back to verse 5. It says in chapter 2, verse 5, Now in Shushad the palace there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jer, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of Enjemite. So of course this is going back to the lineage of Saul's family, the tribe of Benjamin. And it says he had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity. So the Jews have been taken captive out of their land. A lot of the Jews are in Iran, or Persia at this time, and this guy Mordecai is there, and he has his cousin, look at verse 7, he brought up Hadassah, that is Esther. So in the Jewish language it's Hadassah, but in this language it's Esther. And it says it was his uncle's daughter. For she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, who Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So she has an older cousin named Mordecai. And so Mordecai, ever since her parents died, has been taking care of Esther and raising her as if she were his daughter. And he was her guardian, as it were. Well, as they're going through the land, finding all the fair young maidens to bring to this king of Persia, they also choose Esther, because she was very beautiful. And so she caught their eye right away, and they bring her in, and look at verse 10, it says Esther had not shown her people nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. So she's brought into the king's household to be one of the runners-up, one of the choices that he can choose to be the next queen. And she doesn't tell them that she's a Jew. She doesn't tell them about her nationality. Mordecai says, hey, don't bring that up. And so she doesn't bring it up. So she goes in, and he ends up choosing her, because she's the most beautiful. He likes her the best. She finds favor in his eyes. So he chooses her. He puts the crown upon her head in verse number 17. It says in the latter part, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Bashtai. So she wins the prize of being the queen, basically. Look at verse 21. It says, in those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bithan and Tirash, of those which kept the door were robbed and sought to lay hand on the king of Hazaras. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen. And Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. Therefore, they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles before the king. So around this time, Mordecai finds out about a plot to kill the king. He blows the whistle on it, he tells Esther, Esther tells the king, and they end up putting these guys to death for attempting to kill the king. Well, in chapter 3, the Bible says in verse number 1, After these things did king of Hazaras promote Haman the son of Hamadath of the aggregate, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate vowed and reverenced Haman. For the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai vowed not, nor did him reverence. And then if you jump down to verse 4, it says in verse 3, Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Why aren't you bowing down to Haman like the king has commanded? Now it came to pass when they spake daily on him, and he hearkened not unto them, he will not obey, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he told them that he was a Jew, and when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. Now here's what he's going to do, let me just tell you the story here. Haman is just infuriated that this guy will not bow down to him. And he decides, you know what, it's not enough for me just to have this guy killed. He says, I want to kill all the Jews in the kingdom, because they all have this rule about not bowing down to man, to bow only to God, to only bow to the Lord in heaven, and not to bow down to a man. Now, this is also symbolic, or a foreshadowing of something that is yet to come in the future, because the Bible teaches very clearly that there's going to be a man called the Antichrist, who's going to come someday. And he's going to pretend to be, he comes before the Lord Jesus Christ's second coming, and he pretends to be the second coming of Christ, he pretends to be the Messiah of the Jews, he pretends to be the fifth imam, or whatever, of the Muslims, he pretty much just pretends to be the Messiah of the world, and bring all nations together, and he's called the Antichrist, and he is going to have a commandment through the false prophet, that everyone upon earth must worship him. And whoever will not worship him will be killed, or they will seek to kill him. And of course many will head for the hills, and head for the mountains, and eventually Jesus Christ will come in the clouds and put a stop to that. But there's going to come a time in the future, where the Bible says that people will have to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their forehead, in order to be able to buy or sell. And we can see how this could be happening today. We see all the nations of the world coming together into a one-world government. It used to be that Europe was made of all these separate nations, and they all hated each other. Now they're all united into the European Union. And we see the whole world uniting into a global-type government, with the United Nations, and NATO, and all these other different organizations, banding them together. And we also see how easy it would be to tell you, hey, you can't buy or sell without this in your hand. And all these modern, phony Bible verses will change it to on your hand. No, the Bible says it will be in your hand. In your forehead or in your hand. And you can honestly just think about it. If you went to the store and just had to go... I mean, you could picture that, right? Where you have to buy or sell, and you've got to scan something. Because this is what they'll say. Oh, you know, identity theft. You know, your license. Take your license, your credit card. People can deal drugs and use cash, and then the government can't get their taxes, and they can't have a paper trail. So we've got to do this. Then nobody can hide. Nobody can hide. You've got to use that. But there's only going to be one catch. You don't just go down and just get this mark. You've got to worship the antichrist to receive it. That's the catch. So believers, those that are saved, are not going to do it. And therefore, they're going to be... Many thrown in prison, many will be killed. Many will be beheaded. Others will escape just by the skin of their teeth. And that may happen in our lifetime. That may happen in the future beyond our lifetime. We don't know. We certainly see the signs of these things kind of coming together. We can see how this could play out. But this is kind of a foreshadowing of that. This is symbolic of that, where you have a man wanting everybody to bow down to him. Those who will not bow down to him, he wants them all to be killed. Now, here's where a lot of people misunderstand the Book of Esther. One of the things is that he says he wants to kill all the Jews. Look at verse 13. It says, "...into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey." Now, here's what Haman says unto the king when he wants to kill all the Jews. He says in verse 8, "...and Haman said unto the king, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom." So notice, he says there's people, and they're in every province. They're all mixed in with everybody else. And he says, "...their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's law, therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them." So he's explaining, these people are bad people, they're in every province, they're called Jews, and they have different laws than anybody else's laws, they don't fit in, they will not follow your laws, they want to do their own laws, and, uh, namely, they won't bow down to anybody. They refuse to bend their knee to anybody except God in heaven. And so they decide they're going to kill them. Now, I'll be honest with you, when you read this, even we today, when we read this, get the wrong idea of what is made here by Jews. Now, at that time, the Jews were God's people. They were worshipping the Lord. They were following their Old Testament scriptures. Now, were all of them saved? Every single person who called himself a Jew or part of that nation was saved? No. But, a great number of them were saved. They were all claiming the name of the Lord, Jehovah, as their God. They all claimed these scriptures as their word of God. And that's who we're dealing with here. We're dealing with what the Bible would call saints, just like we in the New Testament are saints if we believe on Jesus Christ. These are Old Testament saints. Now, as a nation, as a group, they claimed to believe on the Lord and they were, you know, standing up for the word of God here by not bowing down. Now, go to Romans chapter 2, because a lot of people today, when we say the word Jew today, usually we're talking about unbelievers. And usually we're talking about people who follow a religion that is completely different than the religion of the Bible. So, a lot of people will compare the book of Esther and they'll compare this story about Haman wanting to destroy all the Jews. They'll compare that to Nazi Germany. And they'll say, That's just like where Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews. Now, look. Was it right for Hitler to want to kill Jews? Of course not. Was Hitler an evil person? Of course. He was wicked. He was evil. He wanted to massacre any nationality. There's something wrong with that, obviously. Killing innocent people, there's no excuse for it. But at the same time, that is not an accurate comparison with the book of Esther at all, because of the fact that in the book of Esther, we have God's people that are the ones being persecuted and killed, or they're going to be all wiped out by this evil man Haman. Whereas in Nazi Germany, yes, they killed the Jews, but were the Jews believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? Were they worshipping the God of the Bible? Did they believe the Bible? No. They believe in a false religion of Judaism. And the Bible says, who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He's anti-Christ that denied the Father and the Son. And he said, if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father. You can't say, well, I believe in the God of the Bible, but I don't believe in Jesus. He says, no. You've got to believe in Jesus Christ in order to have the Father. Jesus said, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so, the Jews today, or even the Jews in the time of Hitler, you know, they're not worshipping the God of the Bible. They're part of a false religion, Judaism. Now, should they have been killed? Of course not. And there were lots of other people that were killed during that time. I mean, during the time of World War II, and then after that, you know, the Nazis killed a lot of innocent people, even just, not even just Jews. I mean, they killed other innocent people. And then also the communists in Russia, they killed millions of innocent people. And then the Chinese communists and the Cambodians, I mean, they killed millions of people. And it's never right to massacre a bunch of innocent people and men, women, and children. And so, of course, Hitler was a horrible person. But see, it's not the same thing. It's completely different. Because the difference is that in the Book of Esther, they want to kill believers. They want to kill the saints. They want to kill God's people. The Jews today are not God's people if they don't accept Jesus Christ. Now, I don't want to be stereotyping here because there are some Jews that do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that are saved. But that doesn't change the fact that the majority of Jews are not saved today. So when we think of this story in the Book of Esther, hey, he's going to kill all the Jews. It's not just that he wants to kill a nationality. He wants to kill those who believe the Bible. Do you understand the story now? He wanted to kill them. He said, hey, they have laws that are different than all these other people's laws. He's talking about these laws. He's saying these people's laws are different than our laws. Now, look, are the Bible's laws different than the laws today in 2011? Oh, yeah. We're believers. We stand out as different to people. We live by different rules than other people live when we live by the Bible. And so they looked at that and said, we're going to kill believers. So I wouldn't compare this to the Nazi journal. I would compare this to the Antichrist because he's a man who's saying, bow down to me or die. He's a man who's going to be saying, let's kill all believers. Let's kill all saints. So I think if you get that picture in your mind, it'll help you get a better grasp of what's happening in the book of Esther. Look at Romans 2.29. Let me just prove to you that what I'm telling you is true. Romans 2.28, actually. The Bible says, for he is not a Jew which is won outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is won inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men, but of God. You don't have to turn there, but in Philippians 3.3, Paul, speaking unto Gentiles in Philippi, said, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The Bible is clear that in the New Testament, God's people are believers of all nations. And just as the Jew of the Old Testament was a Bible-believing saint at the time of the book of Esther who held to the laws of God in the Bible and were scattered throughout all countries in the world, today there are Bible-believing Christians that are scattered throughout all nations of the world who hold to these words, and they hold to the word of God, and they won't bow down and worship the Antichrist because they will only bow down and worship the Lord Jesus Christ and God. They will worship no one else. Now a lot of people, they don't get this. They fail to rightly divide the word of truth, and they're stuck on the Old Testament. Okay, go if you would, and I don't want to spend the whole night on this, but go to Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8. They can't understand the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They can't divide that. And the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13, in that he saith a new covenant, and the new covenant is synonymous with the New Testament. Those are used interchangeably. In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Jump up to verse 9. Not according to the covenant. Talk about the Old Testament. Then I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in my covenant and I regard them not to save the Lord. So in the Old Testament or the Old Covenant, you have one system going on where you've got the nation of Israel and the circumcision and all that. Hey, we're not living in the Old Testament today. We're living under the New Covenant. We're living in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, believers of all nations are grafted into the olive tree. They're grafted in. The Bible says so clearly, and I don't want to turn there because I just preached on it. Go back to the book of Esther. But in Ephesians 3, I'm sorry, Ephesians 2, you have to be blind, okay, if you can't understand what God is saying in Ephesians 2. And that's your homework assignment if you don't know what I'm talking about right now. Read Ephesians 2. He clearly says, hey, if you're a believer in Christ, you're a citizen of Israel. You've been grafted in. It doesn't matter. Throw your genealogy in the trash. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. If you're in Christ, you're Abraham's seed, you're one of God's people, you are it. And so here's the thing. A lot of people, they fail to rightly divide. They think the Antichrist is going to come and persecute Jews. That's what they think. And when they say Jew, they don't mean Jews like the people who blew the bottle. And let me prove it to you further. Go to Esther 8, verse 17. And I hope you're following this. I hope I'm not going too deep here. Try to follow what I'm saying. Esther 8, 17 says this. And in every province and in every city whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And watch this. And many of the people in the land became Jews. Now did they go back and become born into a different family? So are we talking about a race here? I mean, I know Michael Jackson went from black to white, but I mean, you can't really change races. You know what I mean? I mean, you're born, you're either white, you're Hispanic, you're black, you're Native American. You can't just become a Navajo. You can't just become white, Michael Jackson. You've got to be born that way. You can't just become black or whatever. You're born that way. But you can become a Jew? Isn't that what the Bible says? It says they became Jews for the fear the Jew fell upon. Because the Bible says it's not an outward thing, it's in your heart. And so the word Hebrew refers to the nationality. And sometimes the word Jew is used as a nationality, but a lot of times it's referred to the religion or the belief that they have. And so in the Old Testament, these Jews that were scattered throughout the kingdom, they were believers. They were saints. Now, this is before Jesus, but they still called upon the name of the Lord, they still believed in him, they still trusted his word, they were still saints of God. That's who's being persecuted and killed. And when the Antichrist comes, he's not persecuting a bunch of Christ-rejecting bankers. You know what I mean? I'm not saying that they're all bankers, okay, my friend? But I'm telling you, that's what people think of. That's what people have a stereotype in their mind. They're picturing this. And I'm not saying that they're all like that. I'm just saying that that's what people picture. They picture like, oh, he's first getting the Jews. They picture like a guy dressed like a rabbi in a black dress. Have you ever seen a rabbi? And they have these pigtails coming off their beard, and they have a little hat that they have a little pin holding it to the back of their head. So sometimes it's just like a little doily, and they put a pin through it. And look, do they all dress like that? No. Do they all like that? No. But that's what people think of. I'm not saying that they're all like, they think of like, these European bankers, or they think of whatever they think of. The bottom line is, that's not who the Antichrist is going after. He's not going after the Jews as we think of them. Now look, did Hitler go after those people? Yes. Hitler's a wicked person. Okay? People will say like, you defended Hitler. No, Hitler is evil. Hitler is satanic. Hitler was a monster. Okay? But that's who he was going, he was going after a race of people. His thing was all about race. It wasn't about their religion per se. Because here's what he said, they're not human. He was talking about the race. And look, that's wicked. You know where he got that idea by the way? Evolution. He believed in evolution. And he believed that the white man was more evolved. And by the way, that's what Charles Darwin believed. If you read Charles Darwin's books, The Origin of Species, he says that white people are more evolved, and he said that black people, that's where life began in Africa, that's the lower evolution. No. All people are created of the same blood, the Bible says. We all go back to Noah. None of us is more evolved than the other. We're all of one blood. White people are not better than black people. You know, black people are not better than Jews. We're all equal in God's eyes as different nationalities and families. He created us all. Red and yellow, black and white, they're precious in his sight. Throughout history though, there are evil leaders who try to wipe out a certain nationality. It's called ethnic cleansing. That's what Hitler was doing. That's not what's going on in the book of Esther. It's because of their beliefs that he wants to wipe them out. It's because they're saints, and this is a foreshadowing of the antichrist someday wanting to wipe out all Christians and wipe out all believers who won't bow down and worship the beast. So, everybody understand so far? We're in chapter 3. Who's he wiping out? The Jews. But who are the Jews? Is it Jerry Seinfeld? Is it Steven Spielberg? Is it David Lee Roth? You know, is it Adam Sandler that he's trying to wipe out? No. It has nothing to do with it. He's trying to wipe out the saints. So, are the people he's wiping out the good guys? Oh yeah, these are great. These are the believers. These are my believers. And other people who weren't even of that lineage. They became Jews just by getting circumcised and obeying God's laws. Not talking about salvation. We're just talking about becoming a Jew. So, go to chapter 4. So, we see that in chapter 3. Haman wants people to worship him. Bow down to him. Mordecai won't do it, so they say, let's wipe out all Jews. So, when this thing comes out, it's on the first month, on the 13th day of the month. They put out this thing that says, hey, on December... You know, I'm calling it December, okay? The 12th month, just to make it simple for you. January 13th, they put out a thing that says, hey, on December 13th, we're wiping out the Jews. We're sick of them. We don't like their laws. They're diverse from us. And so, on December 13th, that'll give everybody time for the word to get around. We are getting rid of the Jews. We're cleaning house on the Jews. So, basically, I don't know if that's necessarily going out completely publicly, but it's definitely going to all his officers and words getting out about this, and they're going to do this. And a lot of people hated these people, just like people hate Christians today. And you say, well, people hate Jews. Well, look. That's not because they worship Jesus. I mean, people hate a lot of people. There are people who hate white people. There's people who hate black people. Does that make the black people God's chosen people, or does that make the white people God's chosen people? I mean, if Japanese people hate Chinese people, I'm not saying they do, but would that make them God's people? Everybody who's hated doesn't make them automatically a saint of God. So, basically, these people are hated for the right reasons. They're hated for doing right, for not bowing down, for following the Bible. That's why they're hated. Just like people today hate Christians for following the Bible, okay? So they're going to wipe them out, and there's a lot of people throughout the whole kingdom that like this idea. Yeah, we're finally going to wipe out the Jews, and they love that idea. And so they're going to participate in this killing of the Jews on December 13th of that year. But when the Jews hear about it throughout the kingdom, they're weeping, they're mourning, they're calling out to God, they're praying to God to help them. Now, Mordecai hears about this. Mordecai strips off his clothing and puts on sackcloth. He puts ashes on his head. He's weeping. He's fasting. Well, Esther hears about how Mordecai is sad. He's upset. She doesn't know why. So she sends Mordecai some new clothes and says, Hey, put on this new clothes. Cheer you up. He sends it back and says, No. Don't you know what's going on? So Mordecai explains to Esther how Haman has conspired with the king to kill all the Jews. And he says, You, Esther, need to talk to the king and tell him not to do this. We've got to stop this from happening. You're his favorite person in the world. You're his queen. He'll listen to you. And she says, Look, I can't go talk to him because you're only allowed to talk to the king if he invites you. And he hasn't invited me to come talk to him for the last month. I don't know why, but I just haven't seen anything. And she says, If I go in there and just burst in on the king and interrupt him without being invited, then basically that's the death penalty. Okay? Now obviously this is a weird society that has that kind of rule. This is the Persian kingdom at that time. And she said, The only thing is if I walk in and he holds out the golden specter to me, then I'm okay. That means that he's okay with me being here. So Mordecai tells her. In verse 13. Because she doesn't want to do it. She's afraid to talk to the king. And she doesn't want to tell him she's a Jew because she's afraid that maybe she'll be killed too. Look at verse 13. It says, Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther. Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou all together holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. 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? So he answers Esther and says, Look. You're a Jew too. You might be killed. And he says, God will save us. God will deliver us. Because we know. We love God and we're serving him. We're doing the right thing. God's going to save us. And God will just bring deliverance from another place. But wait a minute. Maybe God has you there just for such a time as this. He tells her, Maybe the whole reason why you became queen was so that God could put you in that position where you could save us all and stop us from being killed. So when Esther hears that, she says, You know what? That sounds right. Maybe that is why I'm here. And she decides to risk her life and to tell the king what's going on. So she tells them in verse 16, you don't have to read it, but basically she tells them, Hey, I want you to fast for three days. Don't eat. And she said, Don't even drink any water. Which is a really extreme fast. Three days with no food and water. And she said, I'm going to do the same thing. And she said, And then I'm going to go into the king and talk to him. And if I perish, I perish. She's saying, Hey, I'm risking my life here, but I'm going to do it anyway because it's the right thing to do. And so she decides to do it. So in chapter five, she goes in and she faces the king. She comes in her royal apparel. He holds out the golden sector. And in fact, he's so touched and so moved by the fact that she had risked her life to come in and see him because he hasn't called her in a month. He probably just thinks that she just wanted to see him. And she misses him. You know, I mean, if I didn't, if I just went out of town and didn't see my wife for a month, she might be thinking, coming by sometimes, you know? So basically, she gets all dolled up and decked out in the royal apparel. She walks in. And he's so moved by that that he holds out the golden sector and he tells her, he says, Ask me anything and I'll do it for you. Anything. Because he's just so moved by her being there. And he's just so impressed by that. And she says, Okay, well, here's what I want. Here's my request. I want you to come to this banquet of wine that I prepared for you and I want you to come tomorrow. And I want you to bring Haman. And he says, Okay, great. So, you know, she brings him to the banquet of wine and, you know, he loves it and he's happy and he thinks, Hey, she just wants to hang out with me. This is great. And he says, What do you want? Why have you brought me to this banquet? You know, what do you want? And she says, You know what? I'll tell you tomorrow. If you'll come to the banquet that I prepared tomorrow, I'll tell you what my request is. And he says, Hey, it's granted. Whatever it is. And you've got to be careful saying that to your wife. Whatever you want. Up to this price. I think he even did that. Didn't he say, You know, Up to the half of my kingdom. You know, You can't just tell a woman whatever. I'll pay for it. So he had to put a limit on it in verse 4. And so he said, You know, Or in verse 3 he said, It shall be even given to the half of my kingdom. Okay. So, Haman, Haman's excited. Haman doesn't know anything about what's going on. Haman doesn't know that she's a Jew. Haman doesn't know she's related to Mordecai, his arch enemy. And so Haman goes home and he's so excited that Esther made this special banquet and only invited the king and Haman. So he feels really important. I mean, it'd be like if my wife and I were just having this really fancy special dinner and we're just inviting like one other person in the whole church or something. You know, it's like, Wow, you know, you know, like kind of like the third wheel or whatever, but hey, he was just glad to be there. He thought it was cool that he got to go to this fancy dinner. You know, let's say I'm taking my wife to some $100 a plate dinner and I say, Hey, I don't know why you want me there. So Haman comes home and man, he's bragging about it. He invites all his friends over to his house and he says, you know what? Esther made this huge banquet and she invited only the king and me, just us. That's who she wanted to hang out with. And tomorrow, she's doing the same thing. Part two, another banquet. Just the king and I are going to be there and he's telling him, I mean, look at me. Look how great I am, he said. Look, I have 10 children. I have riches. I have power. He said, I have everything and I mean, he's just bragging to his friends. Yeah, you probably know people like this. He's just praising himself. Look how much I have. Look how wonderful I am. But he said, you know what? He said, still, and this part is in a way, and this gives you an insight into the mind of evil people. Because is Haman an evil guy? Oh yeah. I mean, Haman's a guy. He pictures the anti-Christ. Haman's a guy who basically wants everybody to bow down and worship him and if they won't, he wants them dead and in fact, he wants everybody who's like him dead. He wants all the Jews dead. Let me give you some insight into the evil, wicked mind of Haman. Look at verse 13. He just finished praising himself and telling everybody how wonderful he is. He said, verse 13, yet all this availeth me nothing. Is he satisfied? No way. He's not satisfied at all. He said, yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Because he won't stand up. He won't bow down. He won't give him the salute. He just sits there. And he said, man, when I see that guy, all my money, all my power, it's just, it's worthless to me. I want him dead. Now look, that shows you what evil people are like. You say, what's the motive for persecuted Christians or, you know, the anti-Christ beheading people? Why is it not good enough that 90-some percent of people worship him? Because they're never satisfied. They're evil. They want power. They want the control. They want everyone to bow down to them. That's how Satan is. And that's how Haman is. And so Haman tells his friends, and look what his wife says in verse 14. Then it says, Zerus' wife and all his friends unto him. Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon. Then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. So basically, he's already going to be killed on December 13th when the big slaughter of the Jews happens. He says, hey, why wait? Why is Mordecai bugging you that much? Why don't you just have Mordecai specifically hanged? If you're so powerful, if you are the second ruler in the kingdom, why don't you just ask for it to be done? It's going to be done. And make a gallows fifty cubits high. By the way, that's seventy-five feet high. That's a pretty tall gallows. And he wants to hang him up that high. I mean, talk about hang him high. He wants to hang him up and say, I'm going to go talk to the king right now and have him hung. And then I can go to the banquet and not have that buggy be. So he goes down to talk to the king. Well, this is on the day. Remember, the next day is going to be the banquet? Well, that night, the king goes to bed at night. And you know, even though the book of Esther doesn't mention God, you can see God's hand at work in all this. Even though it doesn't say the word God. The king goes to bed that night and he can't sleep. You ever go to bed and you're just tossing and turning and you can't sleep? So he's tossing and turning so he's bored. So you know how it is. You go to bed and you toss and turn for a few hours but finally you just tell yourself, you know what, if I can't sleep anyway, I'm going to do something. This is boring. Just laying here. You know, people will think about God back then. So he basically says, you know what, I want them to read for me the Chronicles of the Kingdom. So this is an entertainment for him. They read for him the history of the Kingdom. And it's also helpful to him because he's the king. It helps him to stay up on events. So they bring in the Chronicles and he's just in the middle of the night. He can't sleep. And they're reading the Chronicles and as they're reading the Chronicles, remember back to the song, they read him the part about Mordecai saving his life from these guys that were trying to assassinate him. And so the king asked the guy who's reading him, he said, what did we ever do for that guy? I mean, did we give him a reward or anything? And they said, you know what, actually we didn't do anything for him. And he says, well we need to reward this guy. So Haman, Haman walks in the next morning and remember, what's he coming for? And remember, what's he coming to do? He's coming to say, hey, I want Mordecai to be hung for breaking the law here. He needs to hang on these gallows. Well, before Mordecai has to, I'm sorry, before Haman has a chance to bring up how he wants to kill Mordecai, and remember the king just decided he knew he was going to do something good for Mordecai? And the two have no idea what's going on in the other one's head. Haman walks in and the king says, you know what, I'm going to ask Haman what I should do to honor him. But he doesn't mention the name Mordecai. He just says, hey, there's a guy that I want to honor. What shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor? And Haman's thinking in his mind, I bet he's talking about me. I bet he wants to honor me. And so he says, I'm going to make it something really good because it's going to be for me. And so Haman says, what shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor? He said, let the royal apparel be brought. Put the royal apparel on that man. Put him on your best horse and parade him all over town announcing before him, thus shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor. And he says, man, that sounds great. Do it for Mordecai. And I want you to be the one to do it. And so Haman goes out and gets the royal apparel dresses up Mordecai and the royal apparel puts the crown on Mordecai's head and leads him around the city saying, well, I shall be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor. I don't think his heart was really in it. But he's making this proclamation. He's really scared now because this is too weird of a coincidence. A little bit weird, right? You're going to be the king of Mordecai. You're going to be the king of Mordecai. It's weird, right? You walk in to have this guy killed, and it's like, hey, lead him around and praise him and honor him. So he goes home, and he's really upset. He's really nervous. He doesn't know what's going on here. He gets home to his wife Zires and all of his friends. And he brings over his friends and he tells them, hey, if this guy is a Jew and you're out trying to kill the Jews and this is how this got turned around, you're in trouble. Something bad is going to happen to you, buddy. And right when they tell him something bad is going to happen, the knock at the door is saying, hey, you know, why have you brought me here to the second banquet? Just tell me what you want. You don't have to keep buttering me up like this. Just, what is it, new dress? You know, what do you want? The credit card, you know, whatever. And she says, you know what I want you to give me? I want you to give me my life. That's all I want. And the king says, who in the world would dare to do such a thing as to try to take your life and your family and all these people that are your relatives and your people, you know, your fellow believers. As soon as she's referring to her people, you know, he's there as a guest of honor. He's there to be exposed. Well, the king is blown away by this. You know, this came as a big shock to him, because he didn't even know that she was a Jew. Now he puts it together in his mind, wait a minute, he's destroying the Jews. My beloved Esther is one of them. He goes, and he just goes out on the balcony to get a little air. The king does. Well, while he's gone, Haman starts begging Esther, Esther, I'm sorry, please. You know, he's just, and basically they're sitting upon these couches, Eastern style, like the, you know, those of the East. And he's sitting at her feet, and he finds it inappropriate that she's basically, that he's on the couch, basically, you know, to his wife. And he says, what is he trying to do? You know, he's trying to, you know, come on to my wife now? What's he doing? And basically, right as he said that, they put a bag over Haman's head. I mean, and he was gone. I mean, basically the king's soldiers just threw a bag over his head and then it came. Did you know, do you understand that Haman had built a gallows to kill Mordecai, the guy who you honored and whose life was, you know, he saved your life? And he said, you know what, hang Haman on that gallows. If that's what he built, then that's where he's going to be hung. And of course, Haman is hung on the gallows. Now, I think one of the biggest, and we're almost done with the book here, but one of the biggest lessons of the Book of Esther is that you reap what you sow. And that's the thing you see in this book over and over. Because, look, what did Haman want? He wanted Mordecai dead on that gallows. What happened? He ended up being hung on that gallows. He wanted to lift himself up and be praised and honored. His enemy ended up being praised and honored. He wanted to destroy the Jews from out of the kingdom. Well, guess what's going to happen? The Jews are end up destroying them. Because Haman is hung for 75 feet high. Well, then, now, Esther comes to the king and says, you know, okay, you dealt with him, but wait a minute, what about my people? What about December 13th when they're all going to be killed throughout all the provinces? Now, just because he's the king, he doesn't have absolute power. You know, kings throughout history have not always had absolute power. There were certain laws that they had that governed even the behavior of the king. It's sort of like a constitutional monarchy where there are laws that even govern the king. He's not totally above the law. Well, the Bible's clear in a lot of places in the book of Daniel that emphasizes this that whenever the king made a proclamation, no one could change that proclamation. And not even he himself could change it. And, by the way, that's also a picture of the fact that God never changes his word. Even though his law never changes. His law never changes. And so that's what we see pictured by that in the Bible. But they had a thing that said we can't change the law. We've already made this proclamation that says, hey, they're going to kill the Jews. They're going to rise up and destroy the Jews on December 13. He's basically saying, I mean, it's already in stone. And he says, you know what, he takes the ring off his finger, which is his signet ring, which any order that's given, when it's stamped with that ring, it holds the weight of coming from the king. And so he takes off his ring and he gives it unto Mordecai. And, by the way, he gave Mordecai Haman's old job. He made Mordecai the second king. But he gives the ring to Mordecai and Esther and says, you know what, you can make a proclamation to try to turn this thing around, but it's already gone out. There's nothing I can do about it. So he gives him the ring and says, do what you need to do to save your people. 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