Introduction:
A. The story is told about a time when God the Father, Jesus, and Moses were out playing golf.
1. Moses stepped up to the tee and hit the ball. It went sailing down the fairway and landed in the water hazard.
a. Not a problem for Moses. Moses raised his club, the water parted and Moses chipped the ball onto the green.
2. Next, Jesus strolled up to the tee and hit a nice long one directly toward the same water hazard. a. It landed right in the center of the pond on a lily pad.
b. Not a problem for Jesus. Jesus casually walked out on the water and chipped the ball onto the green.
3. Finally, it was God the Father’s turn.
a. God took a big swing and His ball went sailing down the fairway and headed for the same water hazard.
b. But, just before it fell into the water, a fish jumped up and grabbed the ball in its mouth.
c. As the fish was falling back down into the water, an eagle swooped down and grabbed the fish in its claws.
d. The eagle flew over the green, when a lightning bolt shot from the sky and barely misses it.
e. Startled, the eagle dropped the fish and when the fish hit the ground, the ball popped out of its mouth and rolled into the hole for a hole-in-one.
4. Moses turned to Jesus and said, “I hate playing golf with your Dad!”
B. I don’t care what the game is: golf, horseshoes, or the game of life – I guarantee you this – God is going to win.
1. And If we are on God’s side, then we get to be victors right along with God.
C. This is exactly what we have witnessed in the story of Esther.
1. We have journeyed through some pretty dark and dismal times with Esther.
2. There were a few moments when we found ourselves expecting the worst and wondering if Haman’s decree to exterminate all the Jews in every province of Persia might actually happen.
3. As you know, Esther was stirred to action by her faithful and godly guardian, Mordecai.
4. And so Esther, ignoring long-standing protocol, and refusing to be intimidated by the possibility of losing her life, courageously stepped into the King’s court to express her concern for her people.
5. All these things occurred in a relatively brief period of time, but they resulted in a remarkable turning point.
6. The result was that God stepped in and changed everything allowing His people to be protected and victorious.
7. The king listened compassionately to Esther’s plea and had Haman hung on the gallows he had built for Mordecai.
8. Then the king promoted Mordecai to the position of prime minister that Haman had occupied.
9. A new edict was written to neutralize the first edict and the Jews were allowed to successfully defend themselves against their enemies.
D. So with most of the dramatic part of the story behind us, today I want us to finish up the story of Esther with a little bit of Paul Harvey’s “the rest of the story.”
1. I want us to hone in on two important applications of the rest of the story.
I. First, from Esther’s Story we learn that “After the Ache, Celebrate!”
A. In Esther 9:18-22, the Bibles says: The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. That is why rural Jews - those living in villages - observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other. Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
1. The Bible continues: Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word “pur”. Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, the Jews took it upon themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never cease to be celebrated by the Jews, nor should the memory of them die out among their descendants (Esther 9:26-28).
2. So you recall, that when Haman was trying to decide when to carry out his plot to exterminate the Jews, he relied on the ancient custom of casting lots.
a. The “lot” also had another name. It was called a “pur” in the singular and “purim” in the plural.
3. And so in an effort to honor and memorialize the remarkable change of events, the Jews declared a time of celebration and called it Purim.
a. “Purim” took on a new meaning for the Jews – it took on the meaning of “In your face, Haman, Here’s to Our God!”
4. What was going to be the day of their death, turned into a day of hope and thanksgiving, and therefore a cause for celebration.
5. Today, the feast of Purim is still celebrated by Jews sometime in late winter according to the Jewish calendar.
B. Let me share with you an interesting story about a little town in Alabama, called Enterprise, where the major livelihood for many years was raising cotton.
1. Back around 1915 the boll weevil invaded Alabama and devastated the cotton crop, and destroyed the economy of the little Alabama town.
2. The farmers of the area were not content to sit back and lose everything, so one man proposed that they all plant peanuts instead of cotton, because boll weevils don’t like peanuts.
3. Other farmers decided to plant other kinds of crops.
4. Before long, bumper crops of peanuts and other produce began to repair the economy of this town.
5. So in 1919, just four years after the boll weevil crisis, the citizens of Enterprise erected a monument called the Boll Weevil Monument to show their profound appreciation to the boll weevil for its profound influence on the area’s agriculture and economy.
a. The monument consists of a statute of a woman holding a pedestal with a boll weevil perched on top.
6. Initially, the boll weevil invasion was a disaster, but in the end they hailed that little beetle as the “herald of prosperity.”
C. If we haven’t yet had a boll weevil experience in our lives, then we will eventually have one.
1. Boll weevil invasion experiences interrupt the peace and pleasures of our lives.
a. They have the audacity to invade without invitation.
b. And when they come they cut us down to size, they steal our joy, and they can even devastate our faith if we let them.
2. These boll weevil experiences can take many forms.
a. They may take the form of difficult and abusive people in our lives who have wronged us.
b. They may take the form of difficult circumstances that came upon us like natural disasters, job losses, racial injustices, divorce conflicts, or illness and death.
c. Boll weevil experiences may also take the form of bad decisions of the past – who hasn’t made wrong decisions, hurried and costly decisions, or just plain foolish decisions?
3. The enemy of our souls loves to taunt us with these past failures, these wrongs and disappointments, these disasters and calamities.
a. If we allow Satan to continue to do this, then our life will become a long dark tunnel, with very little light at the end.
D. Thankfully, God has given us a magnificent solution that can make a big difference.
1. Consider the words of Paul from Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
2. “Forgetting what is behind” doesn’t mean we just ignore past, rather it means we learn from it and we realize how God’s grace brought us through.
3. In that way, we can turn the past pain and regret into an opportunity to rejoice in the Lord.
4. With God’s help, we can turn those dates of destruction into dates for celebration and monument building.
5. Then each year we can commemorate the date with celebration and pass along the lessons learned that led to changes and maturity that are essential to our lives.
E. In our nation, we have many celebration days and monuments that help us appreciate and remember our history.
1. There is Thanksgiving, which began as a spontaneous celebration of the pilgrims and native Americans after the pilgrims’ survival of their first bitter winter in the New World.
2. We have other celebration days: like Memorial Day and Independence Day (4th of July).
3. We have many monuments: like the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or the 911 Memorial.
4. These holidays and memorials provide us a time and place to reflect and pass on to the next generation the roots of our nation’s heritage.
F. God knows how important memorials are, and that’s why God instituted the Passover, and Purim for the Jews, and for Christians, God has given us the Lord’s Supper that we observed a few minutes ago.
1. The bread and the cup of Communion are a weekly reminder of how God turned a tragedy into a triumph.
2. Jesus died on the cross and was then raised from the dead that we might have life eternal.
3. That is indeed a memorial worth celebrating!
G. Thinking back to the Feast of Purim and the Monument to the Boll Weevil, in what way have you learned to memorialize and celebrate your crop failure or disaster that has turned into blessing?
1. After the ache, we need to find a way to celebrate – and God can help us do that.
2. God doesn’t want us to spend the rest of our lives licking our wounds over yesteryears’ hurts and failures, rather in God’s love, grace and peace, we can find healing, growth, and joy.
3. And with God’s help, we can find a way to raise up our own memorials, even if they are just mental monuments that turn tragedies into triumphs.
II. Second, from Esther’s Story we learn that “In the End, God Wins.”
A. One of the great themes of the Bible and of Christianity is triumphant hope.
1. Not just hope as in a distant, vague dream, but a triumphant hope - the kind of hope where all things end right.
a. In the midst of the struggles, suffering, and storms of life, we can advance our thoughts beyond today and see relief…triumph…and victory.
b. Because in the end, God does indeed win, and so do we along with Him.
2. Think it through: think of how someday all earthly woes…all financial pressures…all emotional trauma…all physical disabilities…all domestic conflicts…all international wars…and all satanic influence will come to an end.
3. In the end, God wins and we will all be with Him.
a. We will be changed…we will have new natures…we will have new bodies…and we will have the joy of living forever and ever in praise and adoration of our God in a perfect place.
B. In the end, God comes out on top - God’s plans prevail.
1. And that’s why I love the story of Esther.
2. Not only does it have a great plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but when the story ends, things turn out right.
3. The story of Esther has a happy ending.
4. The good guy wins, because God wins.
C. The story of Esther ends with these words: King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king had raised him, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews (Esther 10:1-3).
1. Not a bad epitaph for Mordecai, right?
2. He was second in command of the empire – not too shabby!
3. But more importantly, Mordecai was preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem.
4. Why was he held in high esteem? Because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.
5. It wasn’t all about him and a few favored friends as we often see in politics!
D. Verse 2 says that the king raised Mordecai to his position, but ultimately, we know better.
1. God is sovereign.
2. Ultimately, God put Xerxes on the thrown.
3. Ultimately, God chose Esther to be Xerxes’ new queen.
4. And Ultimately, God put Mordecai in the position of second in command!
5. Let’s finish up this sermon and this series by considering the truth about what happens in this world when God is in control and brings victory.
6. I’m borrowing the following three points from Charles Swindol’s final chapter from his book on Esther that I have been using as a resource.
E. First of all, we learn that when God wins, the people He uses are often unexpected.
1. That was true when God chose a shepherd boy named David to be the second king of Israel.
2. That was true when God chose Moses, an 80 year old Bedouin shepherd with a murder on his record, to lead His people out of Egyptian slavery.
3. What about when God chose Rahab the harlot to hide the spies?
4. Or when God chose Peter, the man who denied Jesus three times, to be the major spokesman for the early church.
5. Or when God chose the Christian hating Pharisee named Saul to become the apostle Paul and write most of the New Testament?
6. That’s the way God has always worked His winning plans.
7. God delights in lifting up nobodies and using them as somebodies.
8. So God chose an orphan girl named Esther to become queen and save her people from destruction.
9. You or I might be the next unexpected one God chooses for His special plan.
F. Second, we learn that when God wins, the qualities He upholds are usually unpretentious.
1. Ultimately, God employs humble people.
2. An often repeated truth of the Bible is: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
3. Look at what Paul wrote about Jesus when He came from heaven to earth: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5-8).
4. There is no quality more godlike than humility and nothing more admirable than being willing to live out true humility without calling attention to it.
a. We don’t want to be like the guy who got an award for being the most humble and then carried the award around to show everyone.
5. Humility is the proper attitude of the mind and heart that causes us to know our proper place and have a proper self-assessment.
a. Humility causes us to never talk down or look down on others.
b. Humility is knowing our role and fulfilling it for the glory of God alone.
6. In one of Jesus’ greatest lessons on greatness, He taught us that the way up is down – the greatest among us are those who will humbly serve others and who will put the other person first.
7. The unexpected ones that God often uses are the most unpretentious, the humble.
8. Esther is a great example of being unpretentious – did you notice that she was not even mentioned in the last chapter of the book that bore her name – and I’m guessing she liked it that way.
G. Finally, we learn that when God wins, the message He honors is a universal message.
1. The last phrase of the Book of Esther included: “Mordecai spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews” (Esther 10:3).
a. Literally, in the Hebrew, the sentence reads, “He spoke shalom” which is the ancient word for peace. Mordecai spoke peace.
b. Shalom is an ancient word whose meaning conveyed the peace that includes health, security and material prosperity - It is a word of greatest delight among the Jews.
2. The message of Christianity is God’s message of peace for the whole world.
a. God’s plan for peace through Christ Jesus is for everyone; every nation, every race, every person regardless of education or economic status.
3. When God sent Jesus into the world as a newborn baby, the angel proclaimed: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Lk. 2:14).
4. Isaiah the prophet said this about the Messiah that was to come: “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:5).
5. The apostle Paul wrote: “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
6. The remorseful woman in Luke 7, who wept at Jesus’ feet, washing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, received the peace of Christ.
a. Jesus told her, “Your sins are forgiven…Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
7. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can have peace.
8. That peace is available, because, God wins.
a. Whether you believe it or not, God wins. Whether you accept it or not, God wins.
b. Whether we repent and bow to Him or not, God still wins.
c. In the end, God wins – as do all who serve Him – we receive the peace that passes understanding, and we will experience an eternal existence of shalom.
9. Peace - Isn’t that what you need and long for? That’s what God offers right now and forever.
H. So the two things we need to remember from the conclusion of Esther are:
1. After the ache, celebrate.
2. In the end, God wins.
a. Whether it’s the game of golf or the game of life – God wins.
b. So let’s be sure we are on God’s team so that we can live right along with Him.
Resources:
Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity, by Charles Swindoll, Word Publishing, 1997.
Esther, by Joyce Baldwin, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, IVP, 1984
