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Man, well tonight I'm continuing from this morning talking about the book of Esther. And this morning we focused on just one character in the book of Esther, which was King Ahasuerus. And we saw all the attributes about him, how he was kind of just an arrogant, prideful guy. He's very hedonistic. All he wants to do is drink and party. He's a bad leader. He's a bad husband. And we looked through all those different things in the book of Esther. And it's really hard to sum up a 10 chapter book, even just in two sermons, in two hours. But tonight we're going to continue talking about the book of Esther, kind of building on what we talked about this morning. But we're going to talk about a different character in the story, which is Mordecai, the Jew. Now, I'm going to just start out by saying, as I said this morning, that we need to understand when we're reading the book of Esther, that this is one of the historical books in the Bible. Right. You know, the first five books of Moses are called the Torah or the Pentateuch, the law. Then you get into Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First Second Samuel, First Second Kings, First Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. That section is called the historical books. And those books are just telling the story of the Israelites under the period of the judges, under the different kings that they had when they go into captivity into Babylon, when they come back from captivity. And so those historical books are not necessarily telling you to be like the people that you read about in the stories. This is a mistake people make when they read the Bible. They see someone do something in the Bible and oh, if the good guy did it, it must be right. It's not that we have all kinds of good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things because that's just the way the real world works. And so when it comes to what you believe, what is your doctrine? Always base it upon clear statements in the Bible, not stories, okay? No story should be the basis of a biblical doctrine. Rather, we should take the clear, thus saith the Lord statements, the New Testaments, clear teachings and the epistles, Jesus' teachings and the four gospels, the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all the minor prophets. When they say thus saith the Lord, that's God's pronouncement on the matter. Take that to the bank, okay? Even throughout the historical books, sometimes there will be clear statements from God or from the narrator telling you God was displeased with what David did here or whatever. But when you just have a story like in the book of Esther and there's no commentary by the author of whether what people did was right or wrong, you have to use other scripture to interpret the story. So use the statement to interpret the story. But a lot of people, they get all kinds of false doctrine just from looking at a story and oh, this guy had two wives. It must be okay to have two wives. No, that guy was wrong to have two wives. And on and on we could go with examples of that. And then the other thing that I brought up this morning that I want to quickly repeat is the fact that the word God is never found in the book of Esther one time, which is very strange for a book of the Bible to not mention God. But it's not just that the word God isn't used or Lord, really just God himself is not mentioned at all. Not even the concept of God is mentioned in the book of Esther, which is obviously very strange and very striking and we have to ask ourselves, why is that? Because this is not an accident. Obviously this is totally significant and it's not just, oops, forgot to mention God, you know, writing this book. Obviously there's a clear point that the author is trying to make by not mentioning God. And of course we know that the book of Esther is the word of God. It's divinely inspired. It's in the Bible. It's holy scripture. It's given to us by inspiration of God. It's it's God breathed. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost to give us this book. So why is the name of God left out or why is even the mention of God left out? And what I was explaining this morning is that when we start out in Genesis one, one in the beginning, God, and as we go through the historical books, it seems like God gets more and more distant at the earlier stages. He's interacting very closely with mankind. By the time we get to Ezra and Nehemiah, we're talking about God, but you're not seeing any miracles in those books and, and God, it seems a little more distant. And then by the time you get to Esther, God's not even mentioned at all whatsoever. And I believe that this represents the fact that the children of Israel are drifting away from God. Okay. Because they are far from God spiritually, this is why God is not showing up in the text. Now before I get into the sermon tonight, let me just say this. We don't want to make a mistake when we're reading the book of Esther of going to either one of two extremes. There's one extreme that just wants to read God into everything even though he's not mentioned that wants to just make every character be a godly, righteous person and apologize for every action that they take and try to put a spiritual spin on every action that they take. Because frankly, it just isn't true. I mean, some people in the book of Esther do some wrong things, including the good guys. But the other extreme we don't want to go to is we don't want to turn the story of Esther on its head and try to make Mordecai or Esther out to be bad guys or villains. Obviously that's not the case. Obviously Mordecai and Esther are quote unquote the good guys in the story, right? They are the protagonists. Obviously Haman is the bad guy. Okay. So I don't want anybody to misunderstand what I'm preaching tonight because I'm going to say some negative things about Mordecai and maybe some negative things about Esther. I'm not taking the side of Haman or some Haman is a super wicked person. I think we can all agree with that and take that to the bank, but what I am saying is that Mordecai is not this godly, righteous, spiritual man that he's been painted to be. And let's just look at the text tonight and see the evidence for ourselves and let's go by what's actually written in the Bible in front of us without having that tendency to want to read into it. Now what do I mean by reading into it? Have you ever noticed that some politician will come along who's not a godly man, he doesn't love Christ, he doesn't care about the things of God, but he'll just kind of say something like, God bless America. And then Christians are all like, Oh, that's so wonderful. And they get so excited because he like mentioned God or something. And then it's like, he loves Jesus Christ. That's the conclusion that they'll jump to from just like, Hey, God bless you guys. Oh, born again, Christian. Why? Why would people jump to that conclusion? It's because that's what they want to believe. They want them to be praising God and confessing Christ. So they'll see it even when it isn't there. Okay. Well, that's what we want to make sure that we're not doing with the book of Esther. Just reading things say, well, they're not talking about God. They're not mentioning God, but of course they love God. Of course they have great faith in God. Of course they're doing all kinds of praying and you know, but if it isn't there, it isn't there. Okay. So let's go through the story a little bit and talk about Mordecai. And again, one last thing, I don't want you to get me wrong. Obviously God is at work in the book of Esther. There are all of these like coincidences that happen in the book of Esther. It's obviously God's hand orchestrating those things. It's not just a coincidence cause it'd be too much of a coincidence. Okay. So let's talk about what is Mordecai's driving force. You know, who is Mordecai? If we were to paint a picture of him like we did this morning with Ahasuerus, we kind of painted a picture of the man. What is he like? What motivates him? What does he do? Well from start to finish, I'll tell you who Mordecai is and what motivates Mordecai and what's important to Mordecai is being a Jew. Okay. This is his driving force. He's really into being a Jew and he just really wants the Jews to succeed. That's what's important to him. So I don't see anything in the book of Esther where he's promoting the word of God or where he wants to worship the Lord or get people to believe on the Lord as their savior or anything like that. No, he's just, he's really into being Jewish is what it comes down to. Look at the last chapter of the book of Esther and let me illustrate this for you because if you go to the very last chapter, Esther chapter 10, and it's just this little tiny short chapter that rounds out the book of Esther. It says in verse one of chapter 10, the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea. And we talked about that this morning and all the acts of his power and of his might and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai where unto the king advanced him. Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia? Now look at this last verse for Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus and great among the Jews and accepted of the multitude of his brothering, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed. I mean, what does that sound like to you? It sounds to me kind of like just a secular Jew, right? Because what is it that he's really seeking the wealth of his people? Just putting money into the pockets of Jews is what this literally says. And you know, it'd be easy to want to put a different spin on this or think about something else. But that's really what it says. This is not a spiritual goal, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all sea. Again, I'm not saying that he's a bad person. I'm not saying that he's a villain or anything like that. I'm just saying this guy has a worldly motivation about the wealth of his people and there's nothing spiritual mentioned about this guy in the entire book. Okay. So with that in mind, let's go back and see the story here. He's first introduced in Esther chapter number two. Now in Esther chapter number two, of course the king in chapter one had gotten rid of the queen. He had in essence divorced her. He got rid of her and he's looking for a new queen. And so the suggestion is made that all of the beautiful young virgins throughout the land are going to be brought to the palace and they're going to do some kind of a selection and figure out which ones are the most suitable, which ones are the most beautiful, which ones are up to the king's standards. And then basically he is going to have each of them as his concubine until he picks the one that he likes the most. Now this is not a godly or righteous practice whatsoever. It's a pagan heathen ungodly king who instead of having one wife as the Bible teaches, he is having a multiplicity of women in his harem, multiple wives, concubines, whatever they are, but he's not being with one woman only as the Bible teaches that we should be as married men. And so Esther is one of the young, beautiful women that is brought to the palace to be auditioned as a possible next queen, as another wife for King Ahasuerus to go into the harem, be at minimum one of his concubines or possibly even become the next queen. And so look what the Bible says in Esther chapter two verse 10. It says Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it. So one of the first things that we see about Mordecai is that he's taking care of Esther as if she is his daughter. She's actually his cousin. But she has no parents, she's an orphan, and so he has taken her in, he's older, he treats her as his daughter, and so he's giving her commands like a dad would give to his daughter. And the Bible says that Mordecai charged her that she should not say that she's a Jew. And then it says in verse 11, Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what she became. So every single day he, you know, on his way to work or on the way to where he's going, he walks by and just kind of checks in on her, makes sure that she's okay and he wants to see, you know, is she going to win this contest or whatever you want to call this kind of abomination for lack of a better word. But here's the bottom line about this is that he clearly wants her to get picked because here's my question for you. If he didn't want her to get picked, then why is he telling her don't tell them that you're Jewish? He's saying don't tell them that you're Jewish because obviously he wants him to get picked. Now you say, well, maybe it's just dangerous to be a Jew. That is not true. Now later in the story, Haman is going to set out this agenda for killing the Jews and so forth, but at this point that's not a thing yet. And here's the proof. We just read before the service, Esther chapter three and Mordecai had told all the people around him in the king's courtyard that he was a Jew. So if Mordecai is going around and telling everybody that he's a Jew, this is the most important thing about who he is as a character, his Jewishness, okay? Then why is it that he specifically tells Esther don't tell them that you're a Jew? Obviously the only logical reason would be because he feels like if they know that she's a Jew, she's not going to get picked, that basically that's going to be a deal breaker and she's going to be disqualified. And so the first thing I want to point out is that this does not seem like a righteous aspiration to want to be in this king's harem. Hey, don't tell them that you're a Christian would be a similar injunction today in 2023. Oh, don't talk too much about the Bible. Don't say you're a Christian. Don't tell them he's telling her back then that you're a Jew so that you can hopefully be unequally yoked with this pagan king and be in his harem. Again, this does not seem like a godly aspiration for a young lady. Now this could maybe be tempting to a heathen young lady to say, oh, well, if I'm one of the king's concubines or if I'm even the queen, well, that means I'm going to get a lot of fancy clothes. I'm going to get a lot of good food and whining and dining. But hold on a second. You know, we as God's people, we're not into those carnal things of just how much luxury and how much fame and prestige can we have? We should want to have a godly, righteous marriage, one man, one woman raise our kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This is not a righteous pursuit, this pursuit of being the queen in this polygamous relationship with the king. So that's the first thing I want to point out a little bit negative about Mordecai. Now at the end of chapter two, and I'm having to just kind of give you the cliff's notes version. Hopefully you'll go home and read the book of Esther on your own. But at the end of chapter two, Mordecai, he's hanging around the palace a lot and he overhears a couple of guys who have a plan to assassinate the king. And so he hears these guys planning to kill King Asherus. And so he tells Esther, hey, these two guys are going to kill the king and then Esther tells the king and then they end up arresting these guys and executing them. So in that sense, he saves the king's life. And when you read it in chapter two, it kind of feels like it doesn't really have anything to do with anything. It's kind of just like a little side plot, but it's going to come into play later in the story why that's important. So then in chapter three, we're introduced to the villain of the story Haman. It says in verse one of chapter three, after these things that King Asherus promote Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite 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 bowed and reverenced Haman for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Now again, the temptation here is to spiritualize this and to want to say, oh, well he can't bow down to Haman because he's only allowed to bow down to God, can only worship God. But is that really what the Bible teaches anywhere from Genesis to revelation? Let me ask you this. Can you find one verse from Genesis to revelation that says that I can't bow down to another human being? Now there are lots of verses that say not to kneel before idols, not to bow down to a false God, right? And obviously we should not worship humans as if they were gods, but all throughout the Bible, you know what you're going to find? You're going to find men like Abraham, Abraham bowing down to other people when they meet kings and stuff. We know when he's before this guy and that dignity in this case, they're constantly bowing down to kings. People are bowing down to King David. People are bowing down to Solomon. People are bowing down all throughout the Bible just as a way of just showing respect, making obeisance. We have women bowing down, men back now constantly, and it's not anything idolatrous or wicked about it. Sorry, but it just isn't. Look up the words, obeisance, reverence, and bowing, and you're going to find a lot of examples where it's totally fine. Now some people have wondered about this because for example, in martial arts, you know, you go to a karate class or something and they say, all right, you have to bow to your opponent, right? You know, always look eye, but you know, you bow down to your opponent, but here's the thing. Other times, you know, they'll say like you bow to the instructor, you bow to the referee, but I've had people say like, I don't know if I should do that because I'm a Christian. You know, I'm not allowed to bow to anybody. Look, you're going to be fine in China, Korea, Japan. You can bow to people. It's not a big deal. Why? Because it's not, this is a typical Jewish taking of the law of God over the top because what's the actual commandment. Don't make idols and bow down yourself to them. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, him only shalt thou serve, but is there a commandment in the Bible? I mean, I searched for it and I wasn't trying to debunk it many years ago. I wanted to find a commandment against bowing down to humans, you know, and I looked for it and I looked for it and I was like, you know, it's in there somewhere and I looked and looked. It isn't there. Yeah. It just isn't there because there's nothing idolatrous. Let's say we got King Daniel here in the front row and I said, you know, yes my Lord, I'm at your service, you know, and then he puts a sword on my shoulder and, and says, I dubbed the, you know, sir Anderson or something. Is that an issue? Would I be in sin if I knelt down in front of the King and he puts a sword and says, all right, you know, it's not, it's not in the Bible that it's a sin. Okay. So I'm just throwing that out there. So again, these things in the historical books are open to interpretation and a lot of these things make you think, and they're not necessarily as clear cut as they might appear on the surface. This isn't Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you know, being asked to worship false gods or bow down to a golden image and worship an idol. This is just, okay, the King says that when this guy comes by, you're supposed to give him reverence. You're supposed to bow to him. You're supposed to make obeisance to him. You're supposed to show him respect and whatever Mordecai refuses to do this. Okay. Then the King's servants, which were in the King's gate, said unto Mordecai, why transgresses thou the King's commandment? In verse three, like why are you refusing to obey this? What are you doing? Now, here's a perfect opportunity for the scripture to say, well, I can't because I only worship God. And God says in his law that I'm never allowed to bow to kings or other humans for any reason. But there's nothing like that. It says in verse four, now it came to pass when they spake daily unto him and he hearkened not unto them that they told Haman. So you know, he's refusing to do it, refusing to do it, refusing to do it. So then they go and tell Haman and it says to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand for he had 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. So the only hint at a reason, because the Bible doesn't give us the reason why he won't bow down, but the only hint of the reason is he won't do it because he's a Jew. Now again, maybe as a Jew, maybe there's some manmade rule that says that he can't bow to this guy, but it's certainly not found in God's law itself. There's no law like that in the Bible. This might be his rule that he falls as a Jew. Okay. But of course Haman's full of wrath. Now again, let me stop and say this. Haman is a horrible person. Haman is a person who wants to mass murder Jews. He's very wicked. He's willing to kill men, women, and children. I'm not defending Haman. Also, obviously Haman is super prideful and arrogant that he just demands that everyone bow down to him and he freaks out if someone won't give him that kind of reverence and respect. So I'm not defending Haman. But what I see is just a chain of prideful characters. Ahasuerus is super prideful in chapter one, and then Vashti, his wife, is too prideful to obey him and show up, right? And then we have Haman who's super prideful and demands everyone to give him all this respect. And then we have Mordecai being prideful and not wanting to give Haman respect. So it's really just a chain of prideful people is the way that I see it in these first couple chapters. So because of this, Haman decides that he not only wants to kill Mordecai, but he wants to kill all the Jews. So Haman hates Jews and he wants to execute Jews. And I mean, he wants to kill men, women, and children. So he does some kind of an occultic practice, some kind of an occultic divination where he casts lots or looks for omens to figure out what day he's going to have the Jews killed on. And he comes up with the 13th day of the 12th month. I don't know if he has a magic eight ball or a Ouija board or rolls the dice or whatever, but he comes up with this date, the 13th day of the 12th month. And so we're going to make a decree that all throughout the kingdom, you know, we're going to kill Jews on the 13th day of the 12th month. And obviously this is bizarre. It's wicked. It's evil. It's wrong. And that's why when he makes this proclamation to kill the Jews, it says in verse number 15 at the very end that the city of Shushan was perplexed, right? Everyone's confused. They don't understand why this bizarre decree would go forth to kill the Jews. Now, uh, well, let's keep going. We'll talk about in a minute. But so chapter five, cause I'm just kind of actually chapter four cause we're just kind of hurrying through the main plot elements here in chapter four, Mordecai basically tells Esther that she needs to intercede with the king. You know, this decree has gone forth that the Jews are going to be killed, uh, later that year in the 12th month on the 13th day, which many months away. But Mordecai, he contacts Esther, he sends a messenger and says that she needs to intercede with the king. Now look down at your Bible in verse number seven and Mordecai told him, he's telling the messenger from Esther of all that happened on him and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther and to declare it unto her and to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him and to make requests before him for her people. Jump down to verse 12. So the part that we're skipping is the part we read this morning where Esther says, no one's allowed to talk to the king unless he invites them. And he hasn't invited me in 30 days. He's lost interest in me, even though I'm his favorite. He's got so many other irons in the fire. He's not interested. So then here's Mordecai's response when Esther says no, he basically tells Esther, go intercede for us. And she basically says, no, here's what Mordecai says in verse 13. Even Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Now again, it's easy to read into this, a spiritual motive on Mordecai's, uh, part, but it isn't actually there in the text. Now we'll say this, obviously we know that God is going to prevent the Jews from being extinguished for a couple of reasons. Number one, because of his love for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he chose the nation of Israel as his chosen people. And so he's going to protect them even though they've been scattered into all nations. He's going to preserve them as his people in the Old Testament. And number two, because obviously the nation of Israel has to be there so that Jesus Christ can be born and raised in that nation of Israel to fulfill prophecy and to be born and raised as a Jew. That's important. Okay. But that's not what Mordecai says. Mordecai just says, well, you shouldn't just think that because you're the queen, you're going to escape. What if people find out you're a Jew? They might kill you too. So he's telling her, you need to do this for your own interest because if you don't say anything, you could end up getting killed too. And if you don't, look what he, look at the threat in verse 14, he says, if you don't, if you altogether hold your peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. So you know, we're going to find some other way for the Jews to be spared, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. So he's basically saying, you're going to get killed and we're not. And then his final appeal is, well, who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such time as this, you know, maybe you're here just for this moment. Now again, it's easy to want to put this word in Mordecai's mouth, Hey, God's got you here for a reason. God's going to save us. And maybe God has put your, but hold on a second. Don't people constantly all the time say things like, Hey, everything happens for a reason. Even if they're not even a Christian. I mean all kinds of secular people would say, Hey, everything happens for a reason. Sending some positive thoughts your way, buddy, sending you some positive energy. The universe is going to make sure everything works out all right. And you know, the universe is going to reward you. I mean, all the time, all that's how people talk. So again, it's easy to just make Mordecai this spiritual giant that's getting up and saying, you know what, I have faith in the word of God and God has promised that we're going to be okay. And as long as we follow his commandments and as long as we're worshiping the Lord, you know, we're going to be, but he doesn't say anything like that. He just says, Hey, you know what? You might get killed cause you're Jewish too. And by the way, if you don't speak up, then there's going to be some other way that the Jews are going to be saved and then you're going to die for not helping us. And maybe, you know, the universe that puts you here for such a time as this, cause I don't see God here. I don't see the Lord. I don't see thus sayeth the Lord. I don't see the word of God being invoked at all by this guy whatsoever. And so, you know, she basically comes back at him in verse 16, go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days night or day. I also, my maidens will fast likewise and so will I go in under the King, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. It's almost, I mean, this book is making a point to not bring up anything about God because wouldn't this be a perfect point to like pray for me? I, Hey, I'm going in to talk to King, would you pray for me? Is that what you would expect? But yet instead we have this fast for me. You guys are going to fast. I'm going to fast. And somebody would say, well, that's, that's automatic. That's prayer. That's automatically prayer. That's, that's showing that they faith and God that they were, but yet I could show you scriptures in the old Testament with negative references to fasting where God is questioning the integrity of people who are fasting and say, you're not really worshiping me when you fast. Like for example, in Isaiah 58 three, wherefore have we fasted say they, and now see us not wherefore have we afflicted our soul and now take us no knowledge behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labors behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. So again, fasting isn't automatically equal spiritual. You know, fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. I'm not talking about the Bible now. I'm talking about Gandhi. Gandhi's in hell right now. Okay. He did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as a savior. You know who did a lot of fasting? Cesar Chavez. Okay. Roman Catholic. Okay. Is that biblical Christianity? No. Zechariah chapter seven again says, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those 70 years, did you get all fast unto me even to me, he's saying, Hey, when you were in the captivity, when you're in the Babylonian captivity for 70 years, and you fasted on these different months, were you fasting to me at all? Was that even for me at all? So is God questioning in Zechariah seven, whether all fasting is necessarily directed toward him and whether it actually means that people are worshiping him or trusting in him? You know, that is what the Bible says. And so it's easy to read in more spirituality into these characters than they actually possess is what I'm saying. For sake of time, I got to speed up the pace here a little bit. But in chapter five, Haman decides that he doesn't want to wait. He doesn't want to wait until the 13th day of the 12th month to kill Mordecai. He just wants to kill Mordecai right now. So he gets impatient and decides he just wants to kill Mordecai right away. So his wife gives him the idea to build this really high gallows and then to go to the king and ask, Hey, can I just kill this one guy, Mordecai, can we just hang this one guy? So he starts construction on this big gallows. And then what happens is, right around the same time that Haman is planning to kill Mordecai, Esther is about to intercede because remember, she told Mordecai, Hey, you fast, all fast. And then I'm going to go in there and talk to the king. So she goes into the king and she walks in, she breaks the law by bursting in on the king without being invited. And then he holds out there the golden scepter and basically gives her a presidential pardon. And then she is given this promise, you know, what is your request? I'll give you whatever you want. And she says, I want you to come to the banquet of wine that I've prepared for you and Haman. So the king and Haman, they come to the banquet of wine, the three of them drink wine. And he says, okay, now tell me what you want. You know, you gave me wine, you've wined and dined me, what is it that you want? And she says, well, I just want you to come to the banquet of wine that I'm going to do tomorrow and then I'll tell you what I want tomorrow. Just inexplicably, she just kind of delays this for a day. Okay, well, a lot happens in that day. So then what happens is that night, King Ahasuerus goes to bed and he can't sleep. He's tossing and turning. So he asked for somebody to read him an audio book because, you know, audio books help you go to sleep, right? So I, sometimes I use audio books to go to sleep. So basically he brings in his human audio book and they start reading from the chronicles of his kingdom because this guy is an egomaniac. So he likes to hear his own kingdom recited to him, you know, like, oh, I can't sleep. Come recite to me, you know, my athletic achievements of my youth or whatever, you know. So he wants like his own history recited to him. So they come and they bring the book of the chronicles and they're reading the chronicles and they get to the part about how, oh, Mordecai the Jew warned us about these two guys that were going to assassinate you and then we arrested these guys and executed them. So then the king says, wait a minute, did we ever reward Mordecai for doing that? You know, because Mordecai really did me a solid there. So what did we do for him? And they said, well, no, it doesn't look like we ever did anything for this guy. So okay, so then the next morning, this is between the two banquets, the next morning Haman's coming in just to ask, can I kill Mordecai now? Can we hang Mordecai on this gallows? And as he's walking in, the king says, we got to find something really nice to do for Mordecai and Haman's coming in to ask to kill Mordecai and the king is planning to do something nice for Mordecai. So it's this bizarre coincidence. So again, obviously this is an act of God. There's no question about that. So the king says, man, I can't think of anything to do for this guy. Who can we ask? You know, do we have a counselor or an advisor? Because remember, this king is so inept, he always needs an advisor. We saw that this morning. So they said, well, you know, Haman just walked in. So then Haman walks in and this is just hilarious. It's pure comedy gold, but Haman walks in and the king says, look, there's this guy that I really want to honor. What should I do for him? And so then the Bible tells us that Haman thinks to himself, well, he must be talking about me, you know, he must want to really honor me. And so Haman says, okay, here's what we're going to do. The guy that you want to honor, let's get out the royal apparel that you wear. Let's dress him up in the royal apparel, you know, let's set him up in your, you know, entourage and the whole, the horses and the chariot and the whole deal. And let's parade him around town like wearing the regalia as if he's the king. And then let's have someone making a proclamation before him saying, thus shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor. Now this is a very strange request, but it shows what's in Haman's heart. Haman's not satisfied being number two. He wants to be what? He wants to be number one. His deepest desire is to actually replace King Asuuris because why would, I mean, think about it. If the president of the United States said to you, you know, hey Jack, you know, what do you want to have as a reward? You wouldn't be like, well, I want to dress up like you and, and you know, go around in air force one and you know, whatever. And you know, I want to be like you, president Biden, you know, you know, you'd want something for yourself, something different. I mean, at least I would. So then after he gives this speech thinking that it's going to be him, the king says, that's a great idea. Do that to Mordecai the Jew because that's who I want to honor. And so Haman's like, whoa, he was just about to ask for this guy to be executed. And he says, in fact, I want you to be the one who leads him around and makes the proclamation because Haman said whoever makes the proclamation should be one of the most honored officials. So he said, you're perfect. So Haman literally ends up walking around the city, leading Mordecai around dressed up like the king, praising Mordecai all morning. Now obviously Haman is shocked and horrified by this turn of events because it's such a bizarre coincidence. Like how can this happen? So he goes home and he's, he's upset, he's disheveled, he's, he's losing it. He's freaking out and he goes home to his wife and his friends and he's like, what is going on? And he explains to them what happened and, and just earlier, these are the same people, the wife and friends who were telling him, oh yeah, you should just get Mordecai executed and you, you know, they were egging him on. Now all of a sudden they're like, you know, if Mordecai is a Jew and you're trying to destroy all the Jews and this is what happened this morning, you're toast. Like you're done. Like wow. And he's like, uh, guys, I need some support here. But they're basically just telling him like, you're done. Like wow, you are so doomed. It's not even funny. And so just as he's processing that, like what? Then the king's messengers come and say, oh, it's time for the banquet. And they, before he can even process it, they take him to this banquet. He gets to the banquet of wine with Esther. And then of course that's when Esther says, here's my request that you not kill the Jews because I'm Jewish and, and you know, you're going to kill me too. And, and he said, well, who's trying to kill you this, you know, it's this wicked Haman. So then the king gets all upset. He steps out onto the veranda just to kind of get some air cause he's so upset. He runs out of the room. So then Haman is just on his knees, you know, kind of a reversal. He likes everybody bowing down to him. Now he's bowing down and begging Esther, please don't kill me or don't get me killed. And she's laying on, you know, in the ancient times, a lot of times these banquets and stuff, they're kind of like laying on their side, they would like lay on their left side and like eat and drink like that on like cushions and stuff in Eastern fashion. Well basically he's just climbing up to Esther, basically begging for his life. Then the king comes in and, and, and basically misinterprets things that, that he's basically assaulting Esther that he's trying to get physical with his wife, which doesn't make any sense, but basically he's just so mad that he's just interpreting everything in the worst possible light. So he's like, oh, now you're going to force the queen right here in my own house. And then they just put a bag over Mordecai's head or excuse me, they put a bag over Haman's head, take him out of there and kill him and hang him and he's just, he's done. So here's the problem, okay? The problem is, as we talked about this morning, the law of the Medes and the Persians cannot be changed. It cannot be altered. So it's not like in America where you pass prohibition and it doesn't work out very well. So you know, 10, 20 years later, however long it was, it gets repealed. Well, the Medes and the Persians, once a law is made, nothing can be taken back. It's just in stone forever. And there's already been this decree that basically people can kill Jews on the 13th of the day of the 12th month. So this is already set in motion. It can't be stopped. So the king doesn't really know how to solve this problem. So he takes the ring that he had previously given to Haman that gives him all the authority and he takes the ring and gives it to Mordecai and basically tells Mordecai, you know, you do what you want. Write to the Jews and tell them what you want and you know, fix this. So what Mordecai ends up doing is he basically sends out a message that says, okay, here's the decree that on the 13th day of the 12th month, all the Jews and their allies can band together and defend themselves and fight back and kill those who wanted to kill them. So they're basically going to defend themselves. So it's basically setting the stage for like a battle instead of just a massacre of the Jews. Now it's like a battle because the Jews are fighting. Now the Jews have permission to kill their enemies and then, you know, the enemies have permission to kill the Jews. So it's kind of a two way street. Does everybody understand? Because you can't undo the first order. So they just add this other order of, well, the Jews can fight back and kill these people. So if you would look down at your Bible there in, uh, Esther chapter eight, it says in verse 11, wherein the King granted the Jews, which were in every city, this is eight 11 to gather themselves together and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause the parish all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a price. So basically originally the decree was to kill the Jews, man, woman, boy, girl. Now the decree is the opposite, but it still kind of has that man, woman, boy, girl thing going on of saying young and old women, children. So now he's saying you can kill the Jews enemies, including the women and the children, which is obviously a pretty radical, right? So then let's keep going. It says in verse number 12 upon one day in the provinces of King Azeroth, namely upon the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar, the copy of the writing for commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. And then let's, for sake of time, jump down to verse 17, and in every province and in every city, whithersoever the King's commandment is decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness and a feast and a good day. Now this is an interesting statement, and many of the people of the land became Jews for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Now it's easy to read that at first and think that that's a good thing. Hey, that's great. Everybody's becoming Jews. They're all worshiping the God of the Bible, because this is back before the Jews rejected Jesus. This is back when they actually were God's chosen people and actually worshiping the true God. But is this really the right reason to convert unto the worship of the Lord because you're scared of the Jews, so you're just becoming, I'm just going to become a Jew. It's almost like you're in World War II, it's Germany, World War II, and everybody's a Nazi. You know what I mean? Believe it or not, people are probably just putting on the pin like, hey, yeah. You know, you just kind of see the hand, why, because you're scared. You don't want to get in trouble for not being a communist in Russia or not being a Nazi. It's like people are just basically saying that they are because they don't want to get into, it's like being in a Muslim country or something and everybody's Muslim. In their heart, they're not all Muslim, but they have to be, and they're scared. So that's what they do. So that's what we see here, that many people became Jews. And by the way, this shows that being a Jew is not an ethnicity. It's a religious, cultural designation. It's not an ethnicity because you can't change, you can't become, I can't become black or Chinese or something, right? You know, these people are becoming Jews because the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Then it says in verse one of chapter nine, now in the 12th month, that is the month Adar on the 13th day of the same, when the King's commandment is decreed, drew near to be put in execution in the day that the enemies of the Jews hope to have power over them. Don't was turned to the contrary that the Jews had rule over them that hated them. The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King of Hasuiras to lay hand on such people as sought their hurt and no man could withstand them for the fear of them fell upon all the people. So it seems like the stage is being set for a battle. You know, some people are trying to kill the Jews, the Jews are going to fight back, but it doesn't end up being a battle. It ends up just being a slaughter of the Jews' enemies because of the fact that nobody wants to side against the Jews because they've heard what happened. This proclamation has gone forth and everybody's afraid of the Jews. They're afraid of Mordecai and all of the government officials are going to be on the side of the Jews because look what the Bible says in, uh, let's see, chapter nine verse, uh, three and all the rulers of the provinces and the lieutenants and the deputies and officers of the King help the Jews. So it'd be like if there's a battle going on and all the police are on one side, the police, the sheriff, you know, that is, yeah, that's the side you want, that's the side you want to be on. You don't want to be going against that kind of manpower and firepower in today's world. So the bottom line is that it ends up being very one sided. It's just a one sided slaughter. The Jews end up just defeating their enemies and just killing a whole bunch of people and they don't get killed at all. Okay. Nobody's siding with them. It's not a battle. It's just, it's just a slaughter of the enemies. Okay. Verse five. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and slaughter and destruction and did what they would under those that hated that they did what they wanted under those that hated them. And in Shushan the palace, the Jews slew and destroyed 500 men. So in Shushan the palace, they kill 500 people, but throughout the rest of the kingdom they kill 75,000 people. So they kill a total of 75,000 people and then 500 at home. So then after this is over, problem solved, saved, right? The Jews are not in danger anymore. They turned it around on their enemies. They ended up killing 75,000 enemies and they didn't get killed whatsoever. So it's over. It should be over. So then the king basically says to Esther, are you satisfied? What else do you want? Is this over? Is this resolved? Verse 13 then said, Esther, if it pleased the king, let it be granted to the Jews, which are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according unto this day's decree and let Haman's 10 sons be hanged upon the gallows. Now this right here, I think you're going to have a pretty hard time justifying this move biblically and trying to justify and say that this was a righteous thing for Esther to ask to say, number one, even though it's not defending ourselves anymore, no one's attacking us. We're not in danger. The 13th day is over. That's not even a thing anymore. We just want to kill more people tomorrow at Shushan, the palace. We're just going to kill 300 more people that we believe are our enemies. That is not right. That's an overkill. That's just being vindictive. That's just gratuitous slaughter beyond what's necessary. Maybe there was even some gratuitous slaughter on that first day too since nobody's even fighting them and it ends up being very one-sided. They probably didn't necessarily have to kill 75,000 people. But even that's not enough. They say, well, let's kill, let's kill more tomorrow and they ended up killing 300 people at Shushan. Whereas yesterday they had killed 500 and now they killed 300 more. But not only that, why kill the 10 sons of Haman? Is this biblical? Well, the Bible says that no son should be put to death for the crimes of his father and that no father should be put to death for the crimes of his son. And so the Bible explicitly states that this is not right. But here's the thing. When Esther says, let the 10 sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows, the 10 sons are already dead. Okay. The 10 sons died earlier in the story. So not only are these 10 men killed who the Bible doesn't say did anything wrong, they're just Haman's sons. They seem to be just 10 innocent people. But not only that, their bodies also have to be desecrated. What's the point of that, right? What's the point of just displaying their corpses and just extra violence, extra corpses? It really doesn't make any sense. And it's obviously a getting carried away and an overboard, just vindictiveness and vengeance versus self-defense, what it started out as, okay. And so that pretty much brings us to the end of the story. The only other thing is that at the end of chapter nine, Mordecai decides to institute a holiday to commemorate this every year. Now, of course, God had holidays that he had given to the Israelites in the Old Testament. This is not a holiday that God dreamed up. This is a holiday that Mordecai dreamed up where we're going to celebrate this every single year. It's going to be like Christmas for us. We're going to celebrate this holiday called Purim because Purim is the word in their language for lots, casting lots, because remember he cast lots about which day this was going to take place on, the 13th day of the 12th month. So we're going to celebrate Purim every year when God turned that around and we ended up slaughtering our enemies. Of course, I just said when God turned that around, but of course that would be saying something that Mordecai never said or that Esther never said, but I just can't help. I just can't stop talking about God. You know what I mean? Like I just can't stop talking about bringing up the Lord because I'm a Christian because I love God and out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So I'm constantly just going to be giving God the glory, bringing up God, mentioning God, you know, and I'll get to that in a moment. You know, something's amiss when people aren't bringing up God. There's something wrong there. There's something off in that, okay? So they institute this holiday of Purim and then in chapter 10, I already read it to you, it just gives that little epilogue about how Mordecai is great among the Jews and he's advancing in power and seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed. And by the way, the Jews today still celebrate Purim and just on a side note, the biggest thing that they do on Purim is that they're commanded by their religion and I'm not making this up and you know what? Go ahead and fact check me on this. I encourage you to fact check me on this because when I first heard it, I hardly believed it myself and I heard it from a devout Jew. A devout Jew said, oh, this is what we do on Purim. I was like, what? I had to look it up and I fact checked it six ways to Sunday. I spoke to other people, rabbis, experts, and everyone backed this up. You can fact check me all day long on this. This is true. On Purim, the Talmud says that you are required to get drunk on Purim and that you are required to get so drunk that you can't tell the difference between Mordecai and Haman. That's what the Talmud says. That's the level of drunkenness where you would be so messed up that you can't even tell the difference. If you were looking at Haman and Mordecai, you wouldn't even know the difference. You know what that sounds like? You can't tell the difference between good and evil because they, in fact, they even say you can't tell the difference between Haman the accursed and Mordecai the blessed. That's how it's actually worded in the Talmud, so you can't tell the difference between a blessing and a cursing, right and wrong, good and evil, villain versus hero for them. That's how drunk you're required to get on Purim. And I've seen social media posts and things saying, oh, I love my religion, and it just shows them just drunk out of their minds posting pictures of hard liquor and things that they're using to get drunk on Purim. It's for the Lord. Does that sound righteous to you? Does that sound biblical? But let's get, we should, you know, if we're not sure how to interpret Old Testament scriptures about wine or alcohol, maybe we should ask the Jews to interpret them for us. Maybe we should go to a rabbi. Folks, their religion requires drunkenness, okay? And I defy anyone to fact check that because guess what? You're not going to have a hard time finding it. And then they eat these little cookies that are called like Haman pockets, hamantaschen, I think it is in Yiddish. And I've eaten them before. They're actually, I mean, they taste good, you know. I wasn't celebrating Purim, but I had a Jewish person offer them to me before, and I ate, I was just hungry. And so, you know, I'm sorry, I ate the Haman cookie. It was just like a little apricot filled cookie. It looked good. It was good. I have no regrets. But anyway, so I can speak from experience on the cookie business. And so let me just give you some final applications. So, you know, we got through the story. And you know, I said some controversial things about Mordecai because I think the tendency is to just want to read this with a very simplistic view. And here's the thing. If you're a child, or maybe a young Christian or something, I wouldn't blame you for just reading the Book of Esther and just having a very superficial understanding of it and just saying, hey, you know what, Haman's the bad guy. God's protecting the Jews. Esther and Mordecai are the good guys. They live happily ever after. I mean, you're not wrong. And if a preacher gets up and preaches these stories from that perspective, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, that is a valid interpretation because that is part of what's going on in the story. Part of what's going on in the story is that the Jews are God's people. They're facing extermination. God intervenes because even if the author doesn't tell us in the text, we know that God intervened because these coincidences are impossible without divine intervention. Amen. We can look, we look at it and we know God intervened to protect the Jews so that they could survive and so that Christ could come and all those things would happen. Like I get all that and I'm not disputing that. And there's nothing wrong with that understanding or that kind of preaching, but what we need to understand is that the Bible is such a deep book that the Bible isn't just that surface meaning but that there are layers of meaning in the Bible and that there are other layers to the text and other ways of interpreting it that are also valid. So you know, the first time you read it, you get that basic gist of the story, but then you go back and you start questioning certain things like, wait a minute, you know, why is Esther a hero for joining the harem as a concubine? That's not really that cool, you know, and then you're kind of, and then you're kind of going through this and you're noticing, wait, where's, you know, nobody's actually mentioning God, nobody's actually mentioning prayer. And so I think what we can take away from this ultimately is that this is a picture of the Jews having drifted very far from God. Their mind is not on the things of God. They're not focused on God. They're not focused on worshiping the Lord and meditating on God's word. But you know what? They're really focused on being Jews and surviving as Jews and, and maintaining their identity as Jews and succeeding and thriving in the captivity as Jews. And of course at this point they can go home if they wanted to, because at this point, this is the Persian empire, so, you know, the temple is already being rebuilt and, you know, we don't know exactly when this happened, but this is definitely in the era when Jews are starting to go home to the promised land once again, Ezra, Nehemiah, et cetera, because, you know, we're past the Babylonians, we're on to the Persians, okay? But the idea is that the, the Jews in this story are not as focused on God as they are on being Jews. And if you want to say, well, I think they're really focused on God. Well, you're going to have a really hard time showing me that from the book of Esther since God is never mentioned. Okay. And so these are more like secular Jews that are just kind of interested in their own self-interest, saving their own skin. Like, you know, we were talking in the car after the morning service and my daughter was saying something along the lines of, well, you know, it's a lot more noble if somebody else were going to bat for the Jews, but they're, they're kind of just going to bat for themselves, you know, so they don't get wiped out. So it's not like super noble. It's more like just a self-preservation thing going on with Mordecai and Esther. And so they're not giving God the glory in the story. We give God the glory because we're Christians and we read the story and we believe that God's at work and things like that, but that's not really in the story. And so I think the idea here is to show that God is preserving Israel and God's preserving the Jews back then for his purpose, even though they're not very faithful to him. They're not necessarily worshiping him. They're not talking about him. And so when John the Baptist comes on the scene, right, cause you know, this is the last historical book and then boom, you know, we get into the New Testament and you know, John the Baptist has to really preach some hard sermons because the people have drifted so far from God and, and Jesus Christ is coming. And he's trying to bring the people back to God and Jesus Christ, of course, God with us. And so it's like God starts out very present in Genesis. He gets more and more distant. He's gone in the book of Esther and then he's back in the New Testament for a new covenant because the old covenant didn't work out because the Jews did not keep God's covenant. The Israelites did not keep God's covenant. Okay. But let me just leave you with one last thought, okay? We as Christians should not go through life not mentioning the Lord. And this is the, this is the problem that I have with these characters. This is the problem that I have with Esther and Mordecai is I don't like the fact that they don't talk about God and you can say whatever you want about, you know, why the book isn't mentioning God. But at the end of the day, I'm reading a story where God is clearly at work and it's like nobody's acknowledging it. Nobody's acknowledging the elephant in the room that God is at work in every page of the book of Esther. Nobody wants to talk about it. You know, we need to go through life talking about God and you know, the Bible says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And this idea of no one around you knowing that you're a Christian, oh, don't tell them that you're a Christian, Esther. This isn't right. You know, we need to make it known that we belong to Christ. We need to open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. And so, especially in our homes, let's talk about the things of God. Let's explicitly say that God has blessed us in a certain area or we're going to pray to God that he'll do this for us or we're relying on God to take care of this need that we have. We're going to trust the Lord and we're going to praise the Lord and we're thankful for what God has already done for us. Hey, that's how we should especially be talking on our own turf in our own homes. Now obviously I'm not saying to go out in public and necessarily be obnoxious about it, but you know what? There's an appropriate way at your school and at your work and in your neighborhood and around your circle of friends, you know, to let it be known that you're Christian and not be ashamed of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. So I want to let it be, I want people to know that I'm a Christian. It's not like, Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. You know, Hey, I want people to know when I was a teenager, when I went to public high school, I wanted people to know that I was a Christian. I carried my Bible with me to school every day. I'd pull out my Bible in class and just start reading the Bible. And you know what would happen when I would pull out my Bible and start reading it? Guess what would happen? People would come up to me and talk to me about it and say, you know, why are you reading the Bible? What are you doing? One time I had a Roman Catholic tell me, you're not supposed to read the Bible like that. Like, you know, he's like, you're doing it wrong. Cause he's like, he's like, what are you doing? I said, I'm reading about it. He's like, how do you read it? I said, well, I said, you know, I, I start on the left side of the page, I just work my way to the right. And then when I finish a page, I said, when I finished the page, I turn and read the next page and that I'm not kidding. This is literally what I, cause he asked kind of a weird question. So that's the answer I gave him. I said, I said, you know, I just, I start at the top. This is what I read. And I'm about to turn the page and I'm going to read this. That's what I'm, I'm just reading it. And he's like, no, that's not that he's like, you know, that's not how you read the Bible. You don't know what you're doing. He's like, you gotta study the Bible. You gotta, somebody's gotta explain it to you. You know, you can't just read it, but you know, part of the reason why I brought my Bible to school was just because I just, I just wanted people to know that I was a Christian. I didn't want to hide that. And when, and later when I went to work, guess what? I had my lunchbox, the New Testament and I'd be in the work truck. Somebody would be driving me in the work truck, just pull out my New Testament and start reading. I wasn't being obnoxious or anything. I'm just reading my Bible. And then it gave me a chance to witness to them because then they would ask me, so why are you reading the Bible? So you're Christian. Oh, you know, what do you, and then it would just, and then I could give the gospel to people. So, you know, don't be, don't be an Esther type Christian where you're like undercover, secretly behind enemy lines trying to get in, trying to be the world's concubine, trying to be the world's hoe because guess what? You don't have to be the world's hoe in order for God's work to go forward. What if I told you that enlargement and deliverance could come from another place? You know, I want to make it known that I'm a Christian. I want to open my mouth and speak the word of God. So again, I hope that my sermon tonight didn't freak you out because I'm not trying to just turn the book of Esther on its head because I believe in the mainstream interpretation of the book of Esther as, you know, I get it. I mean, Esther and Mordecai are the, the protagonists and Haman's the antagonist. I get it. But at the same time, I'm not going to ignore the fact that Mordecai is sort of a money grubbing secular Jew a little bit, okay? And that he's not talking about God at all, not talking about the Bible at all, not giving God the glory at all. You know, I'm just looking at what's right here in front of me and that's, that's what I believe is going on in the story. And I think that we can still learn a great lesson about what goes around, comes around. You reap what you sow, the people who tried to destroy the Jews get destroyed. The people who try to lift themselves up, get humiliated, the humble get exalted. That's what Christ taught. You know that those are all wonderful teachings, but at the end of the day though, I'm not going to make Mordecai and Esther my spiritual heroes because they seem to be very distant from God and I want to be close to God and I want to be a person who's openly a Christian that talks about God and gives God the glory for anything that I'm ever given. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for this very entertaining book of the Bible, Lord. I pray that everyone will go home and read the book of Esther and enjoy the story because it really is a fun story, Lord, but there's so much great spiritual truth embedded in it and so many layers of meaning. But Lord God help us to take the good things from the story, but also Lord help us to maybe learn from some negative things and to go through life openly, confessing Christ as our savior and letting the people around us know that we love Christ and it's in his name we pray. Amen.