We are back in the book of Esther this evening, and if you're visiting and are wondering what this is all about, let me give you a real quick update, okay? This will be the 32nd highlight reel of what we've been studying so far in the book of Esther. Esther is all about God's sovereignty. his hidden hand, it's a book in which he's not named one time by name, but it's clear he is guiding the whole process throughout. And it's a book which involves the preservation of God's original chosen people, the Jews, and how He preserved them through the most dire of circumstances and, of course, the Messiah, Jesus, would come through that line and then He became and is the Savior of the world. So it's a very timely and relevant book, as is all of Scripture. But we are continuing on in our study of Esther this evening and specifically we'll be in Esther chapter 8. And the book of Esther, as we've seen again over the past many months, is a story, a God-inspired story of many unexpected turns and reversals in this narrative section of Scripture involving the invisible but obviously very present hand of God. And I don't know of a more dramatic set of turns and reversals than the ones we'll see tonight in Esther chapter 8, and I've titled the message accordingly, The Table's Turn. Now to refresh ourselves on where we've been so far, or at least last Sunday night, in Esther chapter 7 last week, we saw how wicked Haman, this high-ranking official in the court of Xerxes in the country of Persia, this seething enemy of a man named Mordecai, and more broadly speaking, Haman was this enemy of the Jewish people as a whole who were then living as subjects in the Persian kingdom. Well this Haman fellow had been invited to attend not one but two banquets at the behest and invitation of King Xerxes and Queen Esther. And this second banquet was what we were focusing on in our study last time. And at the second banquet we saw that the floor completely fell out from under Haman As Queen Esther finally pulled the figurative mask away from his face, exposing him for who he really was and exposing him to the most powerful man on the planet at the time, her husband, King Xerxes. In fact, take a look at Esther 7 verse 6. Esther 7 verse 6 where Esther says, speaking of Haman, an adversary and an enemy is this evil Haman. Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen. Well, Haman had reason to be terrified because his whole ruse had been uncovered and now his fate rested not only in the powerful hands of King Xerxes, but in the ruthless and unpredictable hands of King Xerxes. And we saw that King Xerxes stormed out of this second banquet in a rage but then after apparently gathering himself outside in his garden, he comes back in only to find Haman from Xerxes vantage point now assaulting his wife, Queen Esther. In reality, we saw what Haman had been doing was pitifully groveling before Queen Esther, begging her to spare him when it was he who, not only a few days before, had begged King Xerxes to put her and all her people, the Jews, to death. So, from Xerxes vantage point, as he walks in on Haman falling before his wife, he doesn't see Haman as humbling himself before Esther, rather he thought he was assaulting Esther, his wife. And finally he's had enough. the king has. So the men of the king's court, the royal eunuchs, they cover Haman's face, probably in a black bag. They lead him to the gallows, the same gallows that Haman and his crew had gleefully built to hang Mordecai on the night before, and there he was hanged. Esther 7 verse 10, so they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had set up for Mordecai and the king's wrath subsided. So that's where we left off last time, with Haman's lifeless body hanging from the gallows. And one might assume that that's how the story ends, right? That the villain is found out, he pays the price for his crime, justice prevails, everyone lives happily ever after, roll credits. But the story here is not over. And that's because, though Haman did pay the price for his treachery with his life, he still left all sorts of problems and issues in his wake. Though he was now dead, his murderous memory lived on, and in a very specific way, namely his edict to exterminate the Jews in the Persian kingdom. That edict still lingered. It still was in effect. It still had not been reversed. And unless there was some sort of intervention On both a human and a divine scale, the Jews in Persia would eventually be slaughtered and wiped off the face of the earth. So though Haman was dead, there were still consequences associated with his evil actions during his life and those consequences needed to be dealt with. which is our focus in Esther chapter 8. Now, Esther chapter 8 is a lengthy chapter. We've got a lot to cover. We have 17 verses to be exact. So let's get right into it, starting in verses 1 and 2. If you're a note taker, here's our first heading for tonight. This would be the king's reward. The king's reward, verses 1 and 2, says, On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king removed his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. So this next scene here in chapter 8 begins on the same day that all of the events that we looked at last time in Esther 7 took place. That's what's meant by those first few words there in verse 1, on that day. On that very day, on that same day, with Haman having just been dragged out from the king's presence with a bag over his head, hauled away to face justice, look what happens. On that day, King Ahasuerus, that's Xerxes, gave the house of Haman the adversary of the Jews to Queen Esther. In other words, Xerxes here didn't waste any time, he gave the house of Haman, a term that is broader than just the physical dwelling of Haman, it includes everything that Haman owned, his real estate, his currency, his jewelry, all of his personal property, all of it he gave the king gave to Queen Esther. And by the way, that was normal. That was customary. In fact, secular historians like Herodotus and Josephus have written and confirmed that it was a common practice in the Persian kingdom in these days to confiscate the property of a condemned criminal like Haman and give it to someone else. Not only that, in a case of treason, it was the custom in the Persian kingdom to give any property that was owned by the traitor back to the king. And that's what happens here, Haman's property is confiscated, his wife, Zeresh, is not given any of it, nor are his sons, they're dealt with later, it was all given back to the royal family. Xerxes takes Haman's property and he gives it to his queen. King Ahasuerus, it says, gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther. And then Esther we're going to see in chapter 2, excuse me, verse 2. She then puts her relative, Mordecai, over Haman's wealth, which must have been substantial. He must have been a wealthy guy. Remember, he was the second in command in the entire empire at the time of his death. And recall that back in Esther chapter 5, when he goes back to his home to boast to his relatives and his wife about being invited to two banquets, one of the things he does is boast in his riches. Well, it all belonged to Esther and eventually Mordecai now. Now, a couple of interesting details here in verse 1, both of which are related to the role of the Jews here in the book of Esther. First, we see that Haman is again referred to as an adversary of the Jews. That's a statement we see multiple times here in the book of Esther, and of course he was. I mean, his whole biography really testifies to that fact. We see here what appears to be the first official record of Esther revealing to her husband, Xerxes, that she was a Jew. It's captured at the end of verse 1. So the narrator says that Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her." Now, first of all, that statement, Mordecai came before the king, that alone is very significant because it suggests that Mordecai came before Xerxes freely, without permission, without having the king having to lower his golden scepter to allow Mordecai into his presence. Mordecai apparently already had some super top secret level of clearance and permission and had truly replaced Haman in every respect. And the note how Mordecai had obtained this level of clearance before the king. It was by virtue of his relationship to Esther. End of verse one. It says, for Esther had told what he was to her. In other words, Esther had finally told her husband, the king, that she was related to Mordecai, who is referred to in various other places as Mordecai the Jew, which means that she too, by virtue of her relationship to him, was a Jew. Now she has hidden this detail from her husband for a long time, like throughout this book. She didn't make her ethnic origins known back in the harem. Remember the harem of Esther chapter 2? Esther 2.10, it says, Esther did not tell anyone about her people or her kinsmen, for Mordecai had commanded her that she should not tell anyone about them. Nor did she tell anybody about her Jewish nationality or origins when she entered the royal court in Esther 2.20. It says, Esther had not yet told anyone about her kinsmen or her people just as Mordecai had commanded her. Well, no longer, not anymore as we get to Esther chapter 8. I mean, Esther had already dropped some major hints about her Jewish origins in a text we studied last week in Esther 7. But here in chapter 8, she reveals her identity even more clearly as she publicly identifies herself as being blood related to Mordecai the Jew. Now, it's really interesting to note especially as we work our way through the remainder of this book, the last couple of chapters here, that Esther didn't really face any negative consequences for eventually revealing her Jewish identity through Mordecai to Xerxes, right? I mean, far from being disturbed in learning that his wife Esther was Jewish, Xerxes responded positively to this news. In fact, as we're soon going to see, in response to learning of his wife's Jewish identity, he promotes Mordecai into Haman's former position as second in command. So you just have to ask the question. I mean, I raised this many months ago, and some of you, I got some emails, and maybe you're still stewing on those, but not only was it morally questionable, for Esther to reveal her Jewish identity the way that she did earlier in this account, it wasn't all that wise for her to do so. In fact, think about this for a second. Had Esther revealed her Jewish identity and her connection to Mordecai earlier in the narrative, back in chapter two, it's quite possible that this whole threat that was facing her Jewish community right now could have been avoided. Had she revealed her Jewish identity at that earlier point, earlier in this story, earlier in the account, it's very plausible that Xerxes could have promoted Mordecai to the position that Haman was in when he died. Because remember, it was Mordecai who initially uncovered this plot against the king, this attempt on his life. So if Esther had identified herself with him, the hero, Mordecai, way back when, and revealed that she too was Jewish, It's very possible that Haman would not have gotten as far as he got by the end of the story, or the end of his story at least. So, she reveals her Jewish identity later, here in chapter eight. And by doing so, we see this actually helped Mordecai's position before the king, as we see in verse two. It says, and the king removed his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai. And that was a significant act, to give him his signet ring because by doing so he was transferring the authority that had been in Haman's hands to act on behalf of the king to Mordecai. That was the ring he had given to Haman earlier. In fact, go back to Esther 3.10, we're going to see how he gave the ring to Haman much earlier. It says, then the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman. the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the adversary of the Jews. And he did so in that episode in Esther chapter 3 to authorize this edict that was issued against the Jews which we see at the end of verse 12 was sealed with the king's signet ring. So the one who sealed that edict, we're going to be dealing with this a lot this evening, the one who sealed that edict with the king's ring and seemingly sealed the fate of the Jews was Haman. But obviously he's now done for, he's not wearing that ring anymore, that ring is now on Mordecai's finger and again the tables are turning. And then this, at the end of verse 2, it says, and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. So Xerxes gave all of Haman's property and possessions to Esther, and then she gave it into the hands of Mordecai, which meant that Mordecai was now not only the king's new right-hand man, and now ruling from Haman's old home, but now suddenly he is the second wealthiest person in the kingdom. Again, just this major turn of events. I mean, think about this. The queen of Persia now and the prime minister of Persia now aren't even Persian people. their Jews, the very people who in recent months had been condemned to die by the most powerful person in the Persian Empire, the king. That is quite the reversal, quite the turn of events. And again, it is all orchestrated by the hand of God, the hand of the God who is never even named in this book. Now, if the book of Esther were merely a story about this conflict between these three, you know, Haman and Esther and Mordecai, this right here, again, would be a fitting end to the whole story. You know, Haman's riches are taken away and he's hanging on the gallows and Mordecai receives those riches, the good guy wins, the end. But again, there's still this very serious issue at hand because even though Haman is officially out of the way and doesn't have a pulse, This destructive plot that he hatched is still in motion, and there's still great cause for concern, which comes out in this next section of the narrative. If you're taking notes, here's our second heading, The Queen's Request. So we have the king's reward in verses 1 and 2. Now we have the queen's request in verses 3 through 6. It reads, then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept, and implored him to repeal the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews. And the king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. Then she said, if it seems good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am good in his eyes, let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king's provinces to perish. For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen?" So once again, Esther appears before the king, this time without an invitation, to beg the king on behalf of her people to put an end to Haman's evil plan. And verse 3 gives us the gist of her plea, we just read that at the beginning there, this is the gist of her plea where it says, then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept and implored him to repeal the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews." Now this is the second time in two weeks now where we've seen Esther flooded by emotion. We saw her emotions on display last week in chapter 7. Where after telling the king about this decree by which her people had been consigned to death, the king asks her who is responsible for this decree, an ironic statement since he was technically the one who was responsible for this decree, to which Esther replies, seemingly in this emotional outburst, she says, an adversary, this is verse six of chapter seven, an adversary, an enemy is this evil Haman. Well now in Esther eight, verse three, her emotions are overtaking her once more. The events of the past couple of days had proved fatal to Haman. They were puzzling to King Xerxes, and for Esther, she was not only seeking to entrap Haman to make sure that he got what he deserved, she was looking to protect her husband Xerxes from all that he had foolishly overlooked and allowed, and now she's also experiencing overwhelming sorrow and urgent concern on behalf of her people, which she lets out now as she lays at the king's feet weeping. And she, verse 3 we see, not only wept before the king, she made this request, she had something to ask him. Look at verse 3, she implored him, it says, to repeal the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews. Now sometimes when we think of emotion and we think of someone being emotional, we think of them being out of control, off the rails, not thinking clearly as their emotions flood and overwhelm their thoughts. That's not the case with Esther here. Even in her emotional state, she is still quite the tactician. She was bright and she was shrewd and she knew what she was doing. Note the language here. While her appeal is being made to King Xerxes, note where she's clearly laying the blame, the decree, the scheme, she calls it. She calls it as this evil scheme of Haman, the Agagite. Then she doubles down and refers to it as his scheme, still talking about Haman. Then she goes for the trifecta by again referring to Haman, when she says, which he has devised against the Jews. So what she's doing with her language here, notwithstanding her state of emotion, is she's skillfully exonerating King Xerxes from all of his responsibility for this evil edict, and she refuses to lay responsibility at her husband's feet, but instead at Haman's. Now, in verse 4, we see the first part of Xerxes' response, and it's a nonverbal response. It says, and the king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. Now you'll recall that the law of the kingdom, generally speaking, was that anyone who entered the king's presence unsummoned without being given permission was liable to death. In fact, over in Esther chapter 4, you're free to turn there with me, we see that Esther herself quotes that law about entering the king's presence unsummoned in Esther 4 verse 11. These are Esther's words, she says, all the king's servants And the people of the king's provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And then when we looked at Esther 5, we saw that she, Esther, was the beneficiary of that law. Esther 5 2 says, now it happened that when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she advanced in favor in his eyes, and the king extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand. So Esther came near and reached out and touched the top of the scepter. Now some have stated almost reactively, reflexively, that Esther, back in our passage, was once again risking her life in approaching the king and speaking to the king. I actually don't think that's the strongest interpretation of what we see happening here in context, and that's because in verse 3 and 4, that's really just a continuation of the scene in verses 1 and 2. Meaning by the time we get to verses 3 and 4 here in Esther 8, she's already in the king's presence. And how do we know that? How do we know that verses 1 and 2, on the one hand, and verses 3 and 4, on the other hand, are part of the same scene? Well, we know that because there's this time reference at the beginning of verse 1. On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther. And we also know that in verses 3 and 4, there's no new time reference to indicate that there's a different scene here. Rather, one encounter flows right into the other. It's all part of the same scene. So I actually think a better interpretation of what's happening here in verse 4, where it says that the king extended the golden scepter to Esther, is not that he's pardoning her or commuting a death sentence, because she's already there. Rather, he's signaling to her that it's now okay for her to rise and to speak. And she does. Look at the end of verse 4, it says, So Esther arose and stood before the king. And then? Having witnessed her husband, the king, extend that golden scepter in her direction, having now received royal permission to speak, that's what she did. She spoke. And note, as we get into this, how careful she is with her words here. Though she now had this opportunity to speak before the king, she still knew and was very aware. Again, she was one smart cookie. She knew that she had to do so with caution and decorum and propriety. Look at verses 5 and 6, these are the recorded words of Esther now as she seeks to lead the king cautiously in the direction of what she hopes he would do. Verses 5 and 6, then she said, if it seems good to the king and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am good in his eyes, let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamadrethah, the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king's provinces to perish. For how, verse 6, can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people? And how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen? Now, this isn't, by the way, the first time that Esther spoke in this manner to her husband, the king, in this type of careful, respectful language. This wasn't her first rodeo. In fact, look back at Esther 7, where we were last week. Esther 7, verse 3. Esther 7, verse 3. Remember, the king asks her at this second banquet, that's the scene here, what her request is even to half the kingdom and she answers this way in verse 3, then Esther answered and said, if I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it seems good to the king, let my life be given to me as my petition and my people as my request. So you see it there, she says, if I have found favor in your eyes, O king, if it seems good to the king. But now over in our passage, verse 5 of chapter 8, she's doing something similar but she's ramping it up even further. In Esther 7, she gave kind of this twofold condition before she made her request. Now in 8, chapter 8, verse 5, it's a fourfold condition. If it seems good to the king, if I have found favor before him, if the matter seems proper to the king, if I'm good in his eyes. I mean, with a setup like that, how could he possibly say no to whatever it was she was going to ask him? It was so deferential and so complimentary and clever. And it's clever because Esther here is not only framing this request she's about to make in terms of how wise and how brilliant the request itself is going to be, she's framing it in terms of the king's own feelings for her. I used this expression last Sunday night that in Esther 7, she was verbally batting her eyes at the king. The same is happening here, though she's like fluttering those eyelids verbally at him. You know, I can't think of any specific titles right now, but I was thinking about this a little bit earlier today, that there's, I know I've seen a movie scene or a TV scene. Can you believe it? I watch TV and movies sometimes. There's this TV or movie scene where there's like a bad girl who wants to get something from her boyfriend. And she says something like, like, how much do you love me? And he says a lot. And she says, well, how much do you really love me? And he's like, well, like, really a lot. And then she says something like, well, if you really love me, you'd do anything for me, right? And he's like, yeah, of course. And then having him against the ropes right where she wants him, she lands the punch and then says, like, prove it by robbing that guy or punching that guy on the airplane or robbing that jewelry store. and then as a sign of his love for her or his stupidity, he goes on to do what she asks and gets himself into trouble. I'm not saying here, by the way, that Esther was trying to get Xerxes to commit a crime here, not at all. In fact, if anything, she was trying to get him to undo Haman's criminal deeds. But I am saying is that she was trying to butter him up with her words, to prime the pump by laying out all these conditional statements here in verse 5, if it seems good to the king, if I have found favor before him, if the matter seems proper to the king. if I'm good in his eyes. As one commentator noted, she is her own trump card and she plays it all gallantly. That's right. And then out comes her request finally. Verse five. She said, let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king's provinces to perish. Now something is subtly happening here. She's actually ramping up and escalating her request. In verse 3, she asked more generically that her people be spared. She said, if I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it seems good to the King, let my life be given to me as my petition and my people as my request. But now in verse 5, she takes it up a notch. She takes it a step further by expressing to the king that if her life and the life of the Jews was to be spared, something would have to be done to avert Haman's wicked plan. Which is why she says, let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman. seen this throughout this book of Esther, but she was bright. She knew what she was doing and she knew under Persian law that laws of kings could not just be revoked or repealed. And in fact, she seems to know that because she doesn't use the word law there in verse 5. Instead, she uses a different word, letter. She says, turn back to letters devised by Haman, which might be a subtle way of indicating that she's suggesting to the king that Haman's evil decree doesn't have the force of law. Whether that's right or wrong, we can't say. It looks like a decree to us, but she's changing the language here to letters. What we do know and what we can say is that Esther here is asking the king to do something. And what we're going to get into is she's going to ask him to issue a second decree, a passage of a new law which would then turn back or override the initial decree. And again, what's also very clear, and we see this at the end of verse 5, is that just like we saw in verse 3, she goes out of her way to avoid placing blame on the king for the issuance of that first decree. Instead, she goes out of her way to put all the blame again on Haman, the letters she mentions in verse 5, were devised by Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king's provinces to perish. She is putting on a master class of communicative brilliance here, and she again is grounding her request in the king's feelings for her, and she's also making it clear that the decision he would make wouldn't be to undo some wrong decision he had made earlier, But again, it was all Haman's fault, the same Haman whose lifeless body at this very moment was swinging from the gallows. And then this, as if she hadn't been compelling and persuasive enough up to this point, verse six, she says, for how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people? And how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen? Now this isn't manipulation by Esther, this is a tender plea. And in fact, this is so fascinating. When she says what she says here with that question in verse 6, she's actually completing a thought she started back in chapter 7 in Esther 7 verse 2. Go back to Esther 7 verse 2. This again is that scene involving that second banquet between Haman and Mordecai and...or Haman and Xerxes and Esther. And again, the king asks the question, what is your petition, Queen Esther? This is Esther 7.2, it'll be given to you, what is your request? Even to half the kingdom it shall be done. In verse 3, we get her answer. She says, if I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it seems good to the King, let my life be given to me as my petition and my people as my request. For we have been sold, she goes on to say, I and my people to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be caused to perish. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the adversity would not be worth the annoyance to the King. Now, we didn't get into this in a ton of detail last week, but it's almost like you could put an ellipses right there, like three dots, like paws, because King Xerxes' response in verse 5, when he gets angry and says, who is this one and where is this one who fills his heart to do this? That's actually him interrupting Esther's thought in verse 4. She wasn't able to complete the thought related to the well-being of her people in verse 4. She had more to say, but he's so mad he cuts her off. Now here in our chapter, eight verse six, she's finally able to complete that thought about the pain and the agony and the grief she was experiencing over this decree that was hanging over the head of her people. And it comes through in this question, for how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen? In other words, it would cause her a crushing pain to know that they were going to experience that sort of disaster. It would cause her pain to see that kind of calamity falling upon her countrymen. That's what she's saying through this question. She's also saying that through this question, Xerxes, oh hubby, if you love me and care for me so like you say you do, you're not going to allow me and us to go through this, right? You're going to do something about this, right? This is really the climax point of their interaction. And at this point, the fate of her people, the Jews, hangs in the king's response to what she asks him there in chapter 8 verse 6. When we get his response to her question and her request in verses 7 and 8, this is, if you're a note taker, the king's reply. And it says, so King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther. And him they have hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews. Now you write to the Jews according to what is good in your eyes in the king's name and seal it with the king's signet ring for a written decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's signet ring may not be turned back. Now a few things to note here. First of all, Mordecai is suddenly back on the scene. He's suddenly mentioned again. Now, there's no sense here that he's left the room for any part of this. He's been there the whole time, but he hasn't been doing any of the speaking just yet. It's been all Esther, the queen, has been the one addressing the king. But now in verse 7, King Xerxes addresses both of them. He addresses his queen, Esther, and he addresses his second in command, his chief of staff, Mordecai, and he says, In other words, as he's addressing both now, he's reminding them, Xerxes is, of all that he's done for them. And he's basically saying, my work here is done, my hands are clean. He's saying Haman is done for, Haman's been hanged. Not only that, I've already transferred all of his wealth to the two of you, what more do you want me to do? There's a sharpness and an exasperation to his words here. Now technically, I like technical things. It should be noted that Xerxes here isn't being exactly accurate when he says that Haman was hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews. Technically, the eunuchs put that black bag over Haman's head immediately after Xerxes walked in on Haman assaulting his wife, or so he thought. But by phrasing his answer this way in verse seven, that Haman had been hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews, Xerxes is basically making himself sound good here. Like, I've already taken action against that guy for the very thing you wanted me to take action against him for. Even then, though. Xerxes continues to play this part of the beneficent emperor, the reasonable king, the good guy in verse 8. So after reminding them in verse 7 that he's already caused Haman to be hanged, he still gives them permission to do something more in verse 8. He says, now you write to the Jews according to what is good in your eyes in the king's name and seal it with the king's signet ring. This is one of those classic tactics of leadership. Oh, you have a good idea? Oh, great. It's yours. The project, this brilliant idea? Run with it. It's all yours. Knock yourself out. He's doing some version of that here. He's saying to Esther and Mordecai that they're welcome to do whatever they'd like concerning the Jews. They can even sign his name to it. They can even use his signet ring to seal whatever they're gonna do. He's just that reasonable. But look at the second half of verse 8. We're given this reason for why he was suggesting that they go down this path. He says, for a written decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's signet ring may not be turned back. Here's the deal. As the narrator of this account in Esther is laying this out, what he's actually doing here is he's pointing out playfully the lunacy of the whole Persian legal system. He's really jabbing at it very subtly with his words. See, we have the king's first decree ordering the destruction of the Jews, and it can't be repealed and it can't be revoked. It can't be, as it says in verse eight, turned back. Why? Well, because Persian kings had prided themselves on being infallible. They didn't make mistakes. They didn't commit errors. They didn't ever pass laws which would ever need to be repealed or revoked. Why would an infallible, perfect king have to repeal one of his edicts? Whatever he did, whatever he said, whatever he decreed was always right. The voice of the king was the law of the land and the king could do no wrong. And if a king were to repeal or revoke a law later, that would be an admission that he was wrong and mistaken. And Persian kings never admitted that they were wrong or mistaken. And Xerxes here was not about to change any of that. He wasn't about to set a precedent here of admitting that the first decree was wrong. So he found a way to preserve his own claim of royal infallibility, while at the same time telling his wife, the queen, and his right-hand man, Mordecai, that there was a solution to be had here. And the solution was they could write up a new decree, a new edict, which would then countermand and counteract and supersede the first decree. And then in the second decree, they could use his name. We see in verse eight, they could use his signet ring. It's exactly what we see happen over in Esther three, when Haman does the same thing and goes through the same process to actually eradicate the Jews. And in the second decree, Esther and Mordecai could even have comfort and assurance in knowing that, like the first decree, their decree could not be revoked. In the end though, I'm not sure how much comfort or assurance that would have given Esther and Mordecai because they surely would have figured out that a third decree could override their second decree and a fourth decree could override that third decree and it would go on and on and on. So again, What we see here in verse 8 is Xerxes authorizing the writing of this second decree, this counter decree, which would essentially override the first decree, Haman's decree, while not formally revoking that decree. And in that counter decree, Esther and Mordecai could put whatever they wanted in it. He gave them carte blanche, so long as it didn't, they understood, that the first decree still stood. Now, as we turn to verse 9, Having been given that authorization by King Xerxes, we see that Mordecai got to work. And here's our next heading, if you're a note taker, this will take us all the way to verse 14, this is the law's reach, the law's reach. We'll start in verse 9. By the way, verse 9, fun fact, by number of words is the longest verse in the Bible. So the next time your kid says, Mom, Dad, I want to try to memorize a Bible verse, and they try to give you John 11, 35, Jesus wept, say, No, you memorize Esther 8, 9. which reads this way, so the king's scribes recalled at that time in the third month, that is the month Sivan, on the 23rd day, and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces, which extended from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province according to its script, and to every people according to their tongue, as well as to the Jews according to their script, and their tongue. I want to see that one memorized in Adventure Club on Wednesday nights. If Matt Edelman is here, I want you to implement that, please. Since Mordecai was now the second in command, this new prime minister, having replaced Haman, it was now Mordecai's job to draft this new decree. And he did, as we see here. He called all the king's scribes together for the task. He did so on a specific day. It says the third month, that is the month Sivan. On the 23rd day, that's a really specific detail, that month corresponds to our months of May and June. And because the first decree, according to Esther 3.12, went out on the thirteenth day of the first month, somewhere around mid-April on our calendars, to be on the twenty-third day of the third month means that two months and ten days, seventy days, had passed since the issuance of Haman's wicked decree. Two months and ten days. Seventy days would have been a long time for the Jews of the Persian kingdom to be just waiting around, twiddling their thumbs, expecting and anticipating with anguish their impending doom. On the other hand, here's the silver lining, there were still eight months left. As the clock was ticking, there were still eight months until the Persians would have the authorization, permission to begin exterminating the Jews. So there still was time to make sure that this second decree was not just sloppily thrown together, but rather was carefully constructed. And then the rest of verse 9 lays out the scope of this edict, it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the Satraps, the governors and the princes of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces to every province according to its script and every people according to their tongue as well as to the Jews according to their script and their tongue. And the most noteworthy thing to point out here is how what we see here in verse 9 nearly perfectly parallels the process by which Haman constructed his decree, the evil edict, back in Esther 3. I won't take you there now, but if you have some free time later, look at Esther 3.12 where the language of that first decree parallels so closely what we just read. These connections between Mordecai's second decree and Haman's first decree keep going on into verse 10 where we're told, speaking of Mordecai, I'm in verse 10 now, he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's signet ring and sent letters by the hand of couriers and horses riding on steeds sired by the royal stud. Now that first part of verse 10 again parallels Esther 3.12 where Haman as he issues his decree, it says, he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring, just like we have here. And then the second half tells us that, in verse 10, that these letters were sent by the hand of couriers on horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud. In the original Hebrew of this passage, there's a whole lot of uncertainty about some of the meanings of the words in that part of verse 10, and it's such a source of confusion for many scholars that the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint, they don't even bother to translate some of those words from Hebrew into Greek. They just leave it there in the Hebrew. It's a source of contention. But the point is, and the sense here appears to be that these horses by which the second decree goes out were the best royal bred horses from pure stock, very strong, very swift. The main idea is that this new decree would get to the far expanses of the whole Persian Empire from India to Ethiopia in good time, within that eight-month window. So in verse 9, we've seen the process by which this second decree was written through the king's scribes. We've seen the scope of the second decree, how it went out to all 127 provinces of the kingdom. What we've yet to see, though, are the contents of this decree. What did the decree say? Well that information is given to us in verses 11 and 12. It says, in them, in the letters, the king gave the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to make a stand for their lives, to destroy, to kill and to cause to perish the entire military force of any people or province which would act as their adversaries, including little ones and women. and to plunder their spoil on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is the month Adar." Now we need to spend a little time here because as you can imagine, this verse is a common source of objection for those who want to question the authority of the Bible and those who want to question the existence of the God who stands behind the Scriptures. And you can see why, right? This second decree where Xerxes authorizes Mordecai to craft this decree, this one where he has Mordecai commission the king's scribes to craft this decree, seems to be authorizing the Jews of this day not only to destroy and kill adult male fighting forces, but also women and children. And I know this is a hot topic, especially as we consider all the fighting that's happening on the other side of the world even today between Israel and Hamas. But if I may, I'd like to point out a few things here which I hope and trust will help us understand what's happening in our text. For starters, the language of Mordecai's decree was plainly defensive. The language here isn't saying that the Jews could go on the offensive and suddenly just willy-nilly start slaughtering and massacring non-Jews. No, they were given, verse 11 says, the right to assemble and to make a stand for their lives. That's defensive language. And they were also given, verse 11, permission to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish the entire military force of any people or province which would act as their adversaries. That word adversaries means aggressors. So the Jews in Persia then weren't being told that they could go on the offensive preemptively as mercenaries. Rather, they were told that they could assemble, make a stand for their lives, and defend themselves. And of course, That doesn't answer the question that is rattling around everybody's mind. Well, what about this mention of little ones and women and the authorization it gives to plunder and spoil? Well, in response to those being grounds for a possible moral objection to Mordecai's second decree, let's not forget, again, the context here of this second decree. It is plainly designed as a countermeasure against evil Haman's first decree. These weren't, in other words, some out-of-the-blue bloodthirsty words to wipe out men and women and children without regard for life, or just to spoil and plunder non-Jews randomly in the land. This was a direct countermeasure against Haman's decree. In fact, go back to Esther 3.13, where we see Haman's decree, which said this, It says, and letters were sent by the hand of couriers to all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause all the Jews to perish, both young and old. little ones and women, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their spoil." That's important to keep in mind, that Mordecai's second decree, the second edict, is totally and wholly intended to isolate, to counterbalance that first edict. He was counterbalancing everything Haman had established in the first decree, so that everything the Persians were told that they could do, the Jews could now do. One more note on this, and I think it's worth mentioning since I kind of blew through this earlier, let's not forget, and we covered this many months ago earlier in the study, let's not forget that Haman was an Agagite. Esther refers to him that way in Esther 8.3 and Esther 8.5. And we saw in an earlier message in this series that Agag was an Amalekite. meaning Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites. And recall that when King Saul, back in 1 Samuel 15, went to war against the Amalekites, one of the major gaffes he committed was by not heeding God's command to do what? To wipe out the Amalekites completely. First Samuel 15, 3 says, go and strike Amalek, this is God to Saul, go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that he has and do not spare him but put to death both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Saul, we know, failed to follow through with that command. That then led to the prophet Samuel finishing the job for Saul as he goes on and hacks Agag to pieces. That then leads God to declare in 1 Samuel 15, 35 that he regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Well now, in Esther's day, getting back to Mordecai's decree here in the book of Esther, there was a sense in which the comprehensiveness, through the comprehensiveness of this decree, God was authorizing His people there in Persia to wipe out the remaining line of Amalek and Agag through Haman, but also all like Haman who stood in opposition to His people. It was kind of a finishing the job kind of decree. By the way, doing so would have been fully in line with various covenants God had made with Israel earlier, like in Genesis 12, 3, I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. Or what God said to Moses in Exodus 23, 22, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. There's a whole lot more that could be said about the moral components to this decree, but for time's sake, we'll have to leave it there. So his, Mordecai's decree is signed and sealed. It's declared in verse 12 that it will be operative the very same day as Haman's decree, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, meaning both decrees would take effect simultaneously. And then in verses 13 and 14, we see these words concerning the distribution of the decree. It says, a copy of that which was written down to be given as law in each and every province was revealed to all the people so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers, hurried and hastened by the king's word, went out riding on the royal steeds and the law was given out at the citadel in Susa. A couple of things here. Those words, avenge themselves on their enemies, in verse 13, in context, again, are not referring to some generic right to attack whomever they pleased. Instead, it's granting them a specific right to defend themselves against anyone who would seek to attack them, which we will see come to fruition in chapter 9. And then in verse 14, there's this sense of urgency here as these mounted couriers are carrying the word of this new decree to all corners of the kingdom on these swift and strong horses, stees. Now, just two months ago, or two months before this, we saw in Esther chapter 3, that the Jews of the Persian Kingdom had received their death warrants in a very similar manner. But now an entirely different message is being relayed to them. Now it's not a message of death but of deliverance, total change of circumstance, total turn of the tables. Now look at their response of the Jews and here's our final point, point 5, this would be the Jews rejoicing. Look at verses 15 through 17. It says, then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and fine white with a large crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple in the city of Susa, cried aloud and was glad. For the Jews, there was light and gladness and joy and honor. And in each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king's word and his law reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them. So, first, you see Mordecai's response there in verse 15. Just to point out a contrast here, in Esther chapter 4, as word of Haman's decree began circulating around Persia, Mordecai was donning sackcloth and ashes. But now he's wearing these robes of splendor that testify to his royal position. Blue and white were colors of royalty in the Persian kingdom. And then these other elements, the gold crown, the garment of fine linen and purple, those also testify to his exalted status and position. Not only is there exaltation and elevation of Mordecai, though, throughout the Persian kingdom, there's elation. We see that in verses 16 and 17. It says, in the city, of Susa cried aloud and was glad. For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor in each and every province and in each and every city wherever the king's word and his law reached there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday." This again speaks to the total reversal of circumstances and fortunes. Back in Esther chapter 4 verse 3 when the decree to exterminate the Jews went out, We see their reaction described this way, the Jews' reaction. Now in each and every province where the word and the law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews with feasting, weeping and wailing and many made their bed in sackcloth and ashes. But now note this response in verses 16 and 17. Now there's light and gladness and joy and honor, and not only that, there's a feast and a holiday. So fasting is replaced with feasting, and then mourning is replaced with rejoicing, and grief is replaced with gladness. Again, this complete turning of the tables. And then our text for tonight ends this way in verse 17. Last part of verse 17, it says, "...and many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them." Now, some have argued that this can mean only that there was a change of political allegiance, or people became Jews militarily, they began forming political alliances with the Jews, but there wasn't an actual conversion of sorts. I'm not so sure of that. I'm not so ready to concede that there weren't non-Jews during this time who committed to Yahweh, the God of Israel. We have to remember that. Going back to the peninsula, the Sinaitic peninsula, Israel was told that they were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. In Isaiah 42 verse 6 they're called, Israel is, to be a light to the nations, to attract the nations. And we know from their other history that they were in certain cases. In many cases they weren't with their reprehensible behavior, but in many cases they were. We think of Rahab. who as she's speaking to the spies in Joshua chapter 2, she says, she acknowledges Yahweh your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. And then her name appears in Hebrews 11.31 in the Hall of Faith. So I don't think it's at all out of the realm of possibility to take this text, Esther 8.17, at face value that many in the Persian Kingdom, how many we're not told, began around this time to start following the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And they did so, it says, because the dread of the Jews had fallen on them, meaning they regarded the Jews with awe and respect as they saw the hidden hand of God governing and blessing the Jews in various ways. Well, eight chapters in to this book, a lot has been resolved. in terms of the elimination of Haman and the elevation of Mordecai and the passage of this decree, which ultimately would spare the Jewish population there in Persia. But this resolution is not complete because, and we went through this very quickly, that fateful day, that 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar, still loomed on the horizon, where these competing decrees from these competing groups of people were still primed to clash. So much of this dramatic tension in the story has been resolved, but the ultimate outcome has not yet been reached. That will come in the next couple of weeks as we study chapters nine and 10. Now, we don't have to be anxious, we know, about how this will all end. The momentum in this story is clearly on the side of the Jewish people. God's timeless promises to Israel will surely be fulfilled, and it's a sure bet that the Jews in this context will prevail. As I was finishing up my preparation for this message, I recalled a quote from J. Vernon McGee. I had to look it up to see that I got the words right, but I thought it's a fitting way to really put a cap on this turning of the tables here. J. Vernon McGee once said this, I can't do it with his accent, sorry. He said, the Jew has attended the funeral of every one of the nations that tried to exterminate him. That's absolutely right. And like I said at the beginning, we study a book like this, of course, because it is inspired, it's breathed out by God, it is in the scriptures, it is good and profitable for us, but we also study it knowing that God's hidden hand is working through it, and we also study it knowing that this is God's preservation of the Jews, the Israelites, was going to be the way by which he would introduce his Messiah, the Savior, into the world. That's the Savior, Jesus Christ, in whom we have hope. And, again, I don't know who's here that may not know the Lord, but I just want to make sure that if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, that you make sure that you understand that it's only by putting your faith in what He did on the cross and by rising from the grave three days later that any human being can be made right with the Holy God. It isn't based on what you do, or how many church services you attend, or how many concerts you perform in, or how much Bible you've read. It has everything to do with what Jesus Christ did on the cross and through His resurrection. So if you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, I'd be remiss to not mention that the only way a person can be saved is by believing upon Him, believing in His death and in His resurrection. I, other pastors, elders here would be happy to chat with you tonight if you'd like to give your life to Christ, but I'm out of time. We need to pray. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time together tonight in your Word. Thank you again that we can go back centuries, millennia before us. and read a book like Esther and mine out so much important truth about you and your character, about you and your promises, about you and your provision of salvation, ultimately, through a Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. God, I pray that we would take these truths to heart, we would be encouraged by your faithfulness and your character, and that reflection, that reflecting on who you are would motivate us and spur us on to holy lives in Christ Jesus. We thank You for this day of worship. We ask that You would be honored in the rest of this week for Your glory, in Christ's name. Amen.