Sermon: The Greatest Reversal

I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles right now and turn to the Book of Esther, chapter nine. We are finishing up this Old Testament book that we've been preaching through for months. It's been a great challenge, and I believe a great blessing as well. Tonight, I am calling my sermon, which is the last of the series, "The Greatest Reversal." And you've heard that word, reversal, probably a lot. Two weeks ago, Pastor

Nick, his title was "Epic Reversals," and I don't usually want to take the same word from someone else's title, but I can't escape it. It's all throughout the book, and it's actually mentioned in chapter nine tonight. So, "The Greatest Reversal." We love the idea of reversals, and as I think about these reversals, this massive change of fortune, I think about a book that I know Dave and I both love, "The Lord of the Rings,"

and the end of the book, this little hobbit, Frodo, who has been charged along with eight other people to destroy this ring and save the world, his last memory is of clinging to his friend and dodging lava on the side of Mount Doom, and he passes out, and he probably thinks he's dying and all is lost. And then he wakes up in this beautiful elven sanctuary, and all of a sudden, in walks Gandalf the Wizard, who's a main character, and Frodo

thought Gandalf was dead two books ago. And he says this. He says, "Gandalf, I thought you were dead. But then I thought I was dead. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?" He's thunderstruck at the great reversal that has happened. He thought all was lost. And I love that question, is everything sad going to come untrue? So there's a great reversal in history. I want you to look at chapter nine.

We're going to pray real quick, and then we're going to look at verse one, in which we see this great reversal in one verse. So let's pray. Father, we thank you that every word in your Bible, even in books that don't mention you, is totally inspired. Lord, you are present in this book of Esther on every page, even though you're never mentioned. But tonight we need your Spirit. We need it to write your truths on our mind and burn them on our hearts, Lord,

so that we not only know them but remember them and live them. We ask, Lord, that you would reveal Jesus and apply the gospel to our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So Esther 9:1. It says, "Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, on that very day, when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain

mastery over them," here's the word, "the reverse occurred. The Jews gained mastery over those who hated them." So what we have here in the Book of Esther, and especially toward the end of the book, is the great reversal. We might call it the Haman-Esther reversal or the Jewish-Persian reversal, and it's set out for us there in one verse. Now, what we're going to do tonight is we're going to read the rest of chapter nine, and it's quite

long, and we're going to look at some wonders that God wants us to see that have been true throughout the whole Book of Esther, five wonders. Then we're going to segue to what I call the greatest reversal, because the whole Book of Esther has been pointing beyond itself. There must be a greater king. There must be a greater reversal. So, let's read starting in chapter 9:2, and we'll read through the end of chapter nine.

I'm supposed to preach on chapter 10 too, which has three verses, but there's just not enough time tonight. So if you want to know what I was going to preach on chapter 10, you can email me this week.

Chapter 9:2, "The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm, and no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread

throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful. The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. In Susa, the citadel itself, the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men and also killed Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vajezatha, the 10

sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they laid no hand on the plunder." "That very day, the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was reported to the king, and the king said to Queen Esther, 'In Susa the citadel, the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the 10 sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what is your wish? It shall be granted to you.

And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.' And Esther said, 'If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict, and let the 10 sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.' So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the 10 sons of Haman were hanged. The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the 14th day of the month of Adar, and they killed

300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder. Now, the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder. This was on the 13th day of the month of Adar, and on the 14th day, they rested and made that day a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the 13th day

and on the 14th and rested on the 15th, making that day a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore, the Jews of the villages who live in the rural towns hold the 14th day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another. And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both

near and far, obliging them to keep the 14th day of the month of Adar and also the 15th of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday, and that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. So the Jews accepted what they had started to do and what

Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, lots, to crush and to destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore, they called these days

Purim, after the term Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter and of what they had faced in this matter and of what had happened to them, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year. That these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan,

province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority confirming this second letter about Purim. Letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus in words of peace and truth, that these days of Purim should be

observed at their appointed seasons as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther obligated them, and as they had obligated themselves and their offspring with regard to their fasts and their lamenting. The command of Queen Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing. King Ahasuerus' supposed tax upon the land and upon the coastlands of the sea, and all the acts of his power and might and the full

account of the high honor of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers. For he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people." And I think that's all the time we have tonight. So I'll just

do the benediction. It's a long chapter. It's a summary of the whole book, and there's overlap between what I'm preaching tonight and what Pastor Nick preached two weeks ago. So we're going to look at five divine wonders, things that God wants us to see about himself and what he did in the great reversal, the reversal that happened between the Jews and the Persians. So the first wonder is in verses 2 through 10, and what we see here is the hidden hand of God

in providence. And that's been a theme all the way through the book. You remember that the name of God is never mentioned, but God is present on every page. So we see the hidden hand of God in providence. It's a major theme. The Westminster Confession of Faith defines providence this way, "God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all his creatures and all their actions." And we see this

providence both in the intrigues of the Persian government and in the response of Mordecai and Esther to save the Jews.

And we're reminded that there were two edicts issued by King Ahasuerus, not just one. The first was an edict that all the Jews on a certain day could, quote, "Destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews and take all their plunder." Now, in Persia, you couldn't just say, "Well, we're not going to do that anymore." So what they had to do is issue a second edict, and that was through Mordecai and Esther. And the language of the second edict is almost identical.

They were allowed to destroy, kill, and annihilate the Jews in one day. The second authorized the Jews to do that against any armed force of any people that might attack them. So in these two edicts, what we have is sort of the Super Bowl of Persia, except they're not playing for a trophy. They're playing for keeps. Who's going to win? And it becomes clear throughout the Book of Esther that the Lord is on the side of his people.

In verse 2, one of the things that happened to turn the tables was, it says, "None could stand against them," that's the Jews, "for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples." So here we see the hidden hand of God's providence. It's nothing visible, but there's this fear that descends on all the Persians of the Jews, even though they're the minority, and they don't have all the resources. And it reminds us of the reign of King Jehoshaphat in 2

Chronicles, where it says this: "And the fear of God came upon all the kingdoms when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel." So we have the same dynamic in both places. Behind the scenes, God causes his enemies to fear his people so that they can have the victory. In verse 3, another thing that God does, it says, "All the officials of the provinces, and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the

Jews." Here's another reversal. Those formerly against the Jews are now for the Jews and against their own people. This is the hidden hand of providence. God is preserving his people, as the Westminster Confession says, from annihilation and governing his enemies' actions by causing fear and official support to the Jews. There's no obvious miracles. It's God's gracious, hidden providence. John Calvin has a good quote that describes what's happening here.

He says, "We declare that by God's providence, not only heaven and earth and inanimate creatures, but also the counsels and the wills of men are governed so as to move precisely to that end destined by him." So here's a point of contact with us. God is, right now, every day, every moment, affectionately and meticulously sovereign over every detail of our lives, even down to the number of hairs on our heads. Affectionately and meticulously sovereign for his glory

and for our good, all the time. Tonight, you may be here feeling very distressed about things. You may be feeling very weighed down, and it may seem like God is absent, but God is sovereign. Sometimes that sovereignty is very outward, like in the Book of Exodus or the Book of Daniel. Many times it's unseen. In the Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer one, which we all love, it says, "He," Jesus, "also watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall

from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation." So here's an important thing that God wants us to remember. He's always at work, often in ways that we're not seeing. Therefore, we can trust him. The second wonder in this chapter is we see God faithfully and patiently fulfilling an ancient promise for his people over centuries. So not only is God working when we can't see him, God

sometimes is taking a long time to fulfill what he's promised. The Book of Esther only really makes sense against a background of a promise that God made to Moses a thousand years before the Book of Esther. It was after Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt, and they're moving toward the promised land, and the Amalekites, a historic enemy of the Jews, attack them. And they don't just attack them, they attack the rear

guard. This is especially cowardly. This is where old people like me might have trouble keeping up. It's where women and children would be, and they attack them. And God says this to Moses, "Write this in a memorial, in a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua," that's who was going to take over for Moses, "that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." So here's a promise. God is declaring holy war on the Amalekites.

And in the initial battle, back in Moses' day, they won the battle, the Jews won the battle, but Amalek was not completely defeated, not completely wiped out. So, in the history, 400 years later, King Saul, the first king of Israel, is commanded once again to strike the Amalekites Devote all the plunder to God and kill their king, King Agag. Now, King Agag becomes, in the Bible, sort of the representative Amalekite. Saul was commanded to kill him, wipe them out, and devote all the plunder to

God, but he disobeyed. In 1 Samuel 15, it says, "But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the oxen and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them." So here's God, 400 years earlier, he had declared holy war on the Amalekites. Well, 400 years later, Saul has a chance to continue to fulfill that, and he fails. But the point here is that God does not mind taking his time. God had declared holy war.

By the time of Esther, it had not yet completely been fulfilled. That's 1,000 years after Moses. Haman, the antagonist of this book, was a descendant of Agag. It mentions that a few times in the Book of Esther. So we might call Haman the last Amalekite, and he was devoted to destroying God's people. Therefore, he's unwittingly part of this holy war. Esther and Mordecai and the Jews were carrying out God's holy war against the Amalekites, not offensively.

They weren't commanded to attack them. They were commanded that they could defend themselves, but they were commanded by Ahasuerus that they could take the plunder. So do the Jews know they're part of a holy war against the Amalekites? It doesn't say, but you probably noticed that three times in chapter nine, it says this, "But they laid no hands on the plunder." That's the command in holy war. You kill the people or the soldiers and so on, you kill everyone, and

then you devote the plunder to the Lord. So they seem to be conscious at some level that this was bigger than just what was going on in Persia, that this was holy war. And again, there's a point of contact for us. Sometimes God seems absent. Sometimes it seems like he's just taking his time, and why aren't things moving faster? Especially when you're in pain, that's what you cry out. But the point of this story, the point of chapter

nine, is that God never forgets what he has said. He never forgets his promises of salvation, and he never forgets his threats of judgment. They will all come true. And so for us, the command is we need to do our best to remember the words of God. How many times in the Old Testament does it tell the Israelites, "Don't forget to remember"? We do forget. We forget very easily. So we need to, again, here's a plug for being in the word of God

every day, reminding, refreshing ourselves with the greatness of God, with his great works of salvation and his judgment. Do your best to remember what God says, especially his promises. And again, you can trust him when he seems absent or silent for a long time. Here's a quote by David Powlison that's been helpful to me. He says, "God works with churches over centuries. He works with us as individuals over years and decades. He's not in a hurry." Pain

makes us impatient. We need to learn patience. Here's even a better quote for your hope. "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus." The third wonder in chapter nine is in 11 through 16, and we'll just look at this real quickly. We see when God decides to fight that he is a mighty warrior. We see his awesome power displayed in a great victory over the Persians. In the citadel of Susa, 500 Persians are killed,

and Haman's 10 sons are hanged. A few verses later, another 300. That brings it up to 800. That's just in one part of the capital city. In the 127 provinces, 75,000 Persians are killed, and this is all out of proportion. The Jews did not have the resources or the numbers. This is God's mighty power. He's a mighty warrior. One of the banners over the Old Testament is, "The battle belongs to the Lord." And again, that is good news for

you and for me tonight. Because he has made you his in Christ, your battles belong to the Lord. The Lord is more concerned about your struggles with sin and suffering than you are. And Paul even raises this question in Romans 8 when he talks about tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword, all the worst things that can happen. And he doesn't say we're going to escape all those things, so he

says, "What shall we say about all those things?" And you know what he says. He says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Fourth wonder we see in chapter nine is we see the spontaneous celebration of God's saving grace in this great reversal. Verses 17 through 22 God's victory is a day for gladness and feasting as a holiday and as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another. The Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from

sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. This is a spontaneous celebration. It's not a feast commanded by God. It just happened. It's like what happens when your team, the Spartans, win at the buzzer with a buzzer beater. We're down by one three-pointer, we win by two. The crowd erupts. No one tells them to do that.

They rush out on the court. They start lifting players up. It's a spontaneous celebration. We see that historically after World War II. Here's a quote. "After World War II, Christians worldwide, from London street parties," that just happened spontaneously, "to small-town revivals, found ways to publicly express gratitude and faith, turning the end of the war into a moment of shared spiritual celebration." So there's two kinds of feasts

in God's economy. There's the ones he's commanded. He commanded things like Passover, and the Feast of Weeks, and Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. Every year, you celebrate it, and here's how you do it. So it's all planned. This original feast of Purim, it just happened, and it reminds us that spontaneous celebrations and following God-ordained, written-down celebrations are both good. They're both God-honoring, and our

lives should contain both. And we'll talk more about that at the end. Fifth, the final thing we see in chapter nine. This is in verses 20 and 21, and then in verse 32. So this spontaneous celebration of the mighty reversal becomes recorded and commemorated in the feast of Purim. So even though God didn't ordain it or He ordained it, but He didn't command it, this spontaneous celebration because of the great reversal now becomes written down and does become

one of their yearly festivals. Some say, many Jews say that the Book of Esther was written simply to explain why Jews celebrate Purim when it's not commanded anywhere. It says, "And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and also the fifteenth day of the same, by year.

The command of Esther," it says later, "confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing." So this spontaneous celebration is so huge that Mordecai and Esther say, "We're going to write this down, and this is going to become a yearly celebration, and you do it on these days, and you don't not do it." So Purim was a holiday to celebrate rest and relief from their enemies, the turning of their sorrow into gladness, a day to

send gifts to one another and to the poor. So it's a day of both receiving and rejoicing in God's grace and sharing that with others. Both Mordecai and Esther had these events recorded and letters sent to all the Jews obliging them to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar. Writing it down made it official and obligatory, and the Jews have been celebrating it ever since. It is still a yearly celebration, and from what I understand,

it's like for some of them, it's their very favorite. It's a very happy day, okay? And they celebrate it, first of all, by reading the Book of Esther. Secondly, they're commanded to give monetary gifts to at least two poor people and two kinds of food to at least one person. So they're just carrying on what happened in the original feast. Now, the thing that kind of struck me the most was they're also commanded to drink a

lot of wine. Here's a quote from the Talmud, which is a later Jewish commentary. "A person is obligated to drink until he doesn't know the difference between 'Blessed is Mordecai' and 'Cursed is Haman.'" So they really like this feast. They're commanded to drink. All right. Five ways that kind of sum up the whole book in chapter nine, five ways that God worked, that He wants us to see who He is and how He works for our encouragement.

But all the way through this book, there has been a sense of incompleteness. It's there in the sense that nobody ever prays. It's there in the sense that God's name is never mentioned. It's there in the sense that Ahasuerus is not a very good king. The whole book is pointing us that there's got to be something better than this, better than Purim. We need a better king, a better leader, and we need a better reversal. So I want to very briefly

share four ways that what we have in Christ is the greatest reversal, because we have the greatest king. Remember, Esther points to Jesus. Everything in the Bible points to Jesus, the greatest reversal and the greatest king. And so, as Jason said this morning, we want to just briefly connect this with the gospel so that, as he said this morning, we can truly and deeply worship. So first, contrast.

Every person in the Book of Esther was compromised in some ways. Even Esther and Mordecai were compromised. Ahasuerus was certainly a very bad king. But Jesus, according to the Book of Hebrews, is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Brothers and sisters, you need, and you have, a perfectly righteous king. Perfectly righteous. In the Book of Esther, the Jews overcame the violence directed at them

by violence. But Jesus, again in the Book of Hebrews, through death, destroyed the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Jesus defeated violence by suffering. John Owen wrote a book called "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ." Brothers and sisters, you need, and you have tonight, a suffering and dying and rising king.

Third, the Book of Esther records a temporary reversal in a worldly kingdom. That's one of the things I was going to mention in chapter 10, is in one sense, nothing changed. Ahasuerus is still king after the Book of Esther. He's still imposing taxes. So in one sense, nothing changed. It's a temporary reversal and it's wonderful, but the Persian Empire, the empire strikes back. The empire just keeps going. We need something better. In

Jesus, it says he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and he will reign forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Brothers and sisters, you have, and you need, an awe-inspiring and eternal king and kingdom. Finally, the gladness and joy, and those were the hallmarks of Purim, a day of feasting and gladness and celebration and perhaps a lot of wine drinking. The gladness and joy of the reversal was only

temporary. But Jesus assures that everlasting joy shall be upon our heads, that we shall obtain gladness and joy, and all sorrow and sighing will flee away in his presence. Jesus is anointed with the oil of gladness above all his companions. Here's a bit of really good news. You serve a really happy king. Aren't you glad to serve a happy king? He is full of joy. He is the man of sorrows, and he's also the most joyful man who ever lived.

Commentator Ian Duguid summarizes the Book of Esther this way. This is a fitting conclusion here. "Jesus came not as a mighty warrior, but as the Prince of Peace. Peace was established for us by God declaring war, holy war, on his own Son." This is what was happening on the cross. God the Father laid upon his son Jesus the guilt of all the sins of those who would become his people. On the cross, Jesus fully bore God's curse

upon our sin. Why? So that we might receive peace through his righteousness and have rest from all our guilt and sin, and access into the life-giving presence of God. We have a greater king and a greater reversal. It's called the gospel, and it kindles in our hearts deep and true worship. It is the greatest reversal that can never be reversed itself. We have peace. We have righteousness because Jesus became sin. We have the blessing of Abraham and the gift of the

Spirit because Jesus became a curse for us. So in closing, how do we respond? Well, I'm stealing this from a commentator I read, but the way we respond to this is we become Purim people. Mordecai obligated the Jews to celebrate Purim as a time of relief from enemies, feasting and gladness, sharing with one another, and giving to the poor. And we can say that for us, because of the greatest reversal on the cross, every day is Purim

The greatest reversal has been accomplished on the cross. We get righteousness for sin, joy for despair, glory for shame, eternal life for eternal death, and we anticipate the ultimate feast of gladness, the marriage of the Lamb when Jesus returns. Every day is an opportunity for spontaneous celebration and sharing. You need to make sure that you leave room in your life, in your schedule, and in your heart for spontaneous

celebration. It may hit you when you're having devotions. That's the way it does for me sometimes. Reading, doing some writing, meditating, and all of a sudden, the truth becomes clear, and once again, I see the glory of the Father sending the Son for a wretch like me, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and how I never would have believed apart from that grace. And there's a spontaneous celebration in my heart. So be open to that, be looking for that.

It might happen in your Bible studies or your growth groups. It can happen in conversations. Sometimes maybe it's an evening service and I'm walking out and I see somebody, a friend, I think of Tim Herwald, and we just start talking, and we're just talking about the Lord, and all of a sudden, there's just like, "This is so good. God is so good." So sometimes it happens in our conversation. It often happens in our acts of service.

So every day, tomorrow is Purim, a day of spontaneous celebration, but we also have a holy obligation celebration every week on the Sabbath. This is especially true every Lord's Day. It's a day we're commanded to meet and celebrate and share. We celebrate on Sunday rest from having to work for our salvation, and relief from the guilt and power of sin. So when you come on Sunday, and our church, I think, is just great at this, come prepared to sing your heart out.

Sing for joy. What greater thing can we celebrate than the gospel? On Sundays, we have weekly opportunities to share the riches of Christ with each other face to face, like I was just talking about. So come prepared to have good gospel conversations, and maybe practice hospitality. Ask someone home after church. And every month, and it's providential that it's true today, every month, we celebrate the Lord's Supper. We remember the greatest reversal.

Christ becomes a man, lives a sinless life, vicariously suffers, takes our wrath and curse, rises from the dead, ascends into heaven, is sovereignly ruling, is compassionately interceding, and he's going to come again to bring us home. And we look forward. We look back to that, and we look forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and in the midst of that, we have communion with him through the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Lord, I'm struck that what we just looked at and what I just preached is so much better than what I just preached. Just to get a glimpse of the greatest reversal is eternal joy.

Father, you are holy and good. You are sovereign over all. You are high and lifted up. Jesus, you are the same, and yet you gave all that up to become a servant for us, obedient unto death, taking our griefs and sorrows, taking our sicknesses and pains, taking our weaknesses and our very sins, and then rising to new life. And Holy Spirit, you are the Lord and giver of life. Without you, we would have no interest. Our hearts would be hard as rock, and yet

you soften them, and you cause us to believe. Lord, we thank you that we look forward to a day when indeed everything sad will come untrue. And we pray this with joy and thankfulness, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.