The World Turned Upside Down Series

For Such a Time as This: The World Turns Upside Down

Esther 9-10

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

9-13-2020

Review

[Star Wars clip].

Luke’s cries of joy make sense when you understand that there was nothing that they could do to save themselves. It’s what happens when you are rescued. Hmmmm….we’ll come back to that in a minute.

Last week, we saw things go very badly for Haman. What a difference a day can make!

At the second banquet, Xerxes again asked Esther what she wants and she replies that her request is her life and her petition is the lives of her people.

Xerxes is perplexed. He literally has no idea what she is talking about. Who would dare threaten his queen?

Esther takes a deep breath and says, “An enemy and an adversary. This wicked, evil, vile Haman.”

All the blood rushed out of Haman’s face and he knew he was doomed.

Xerxes storms into the palace gardens and Haman falls at Esther’s feet and begs for his life.

Isn’t that rich? Mordecai wouldn’t bow before Haman and now Haman is falling down before the Queen - Jewish woman!

The king returns to find Haman “falling on the queen’s couch” and accused him of trying to rape the Queen! Xerxes needed a way out of this mess and he found it.

Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, tells the king that Haman has set up a pole in his front yard and had planned to impale Mordecai on it.

Xerxes burns with anger and orders that Haman is impaled on it instead.

Xerxes gives all of Haman’s estate to Esther and Esther appoints Mordecai to manage it.

Esther fell down at the king’s feet and begged with tears for the lives of her people.

Xerxes knows that that Haman’s law cannot be undone but he give Mordecai permission to write another edict.

Mordecai writes an edict giving the Jewish people all over the Persian empire the ability to defend themselves on the 13th of Adar.

The Jewish population explodes in celebration and their mourning is turned into dancing and joy.

The only thing left is the waiting.

That brings us to the last verses in Esther. If you have missed one, you can always watch them on our Facebook page.

Turn with me to Esther 9.

Prayer

The Tables are Turned

“On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king’s administrators helped the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had seized them. Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.” (Esther 9:1-5)

The narrator has been a master of building suspense and ending sections with cliffhangers. But not here. The author covers the day of the battle in one verse and with little emotion. Why?

I believe it was because the outcome was never in doubt.

We know that there has been an unseen hand behind the action in Esther and, as Mordecai said, “relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place,” (Esther 4:14) one way or another.

God keeps His promises. He promised to make Abraham great and that his descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.” (Gen 22:17)

In Genesis 3, God promised that there would be an offspring of Adam and Eve that would be the undoing of the snake (satan). Satan would “strike His heel but this Messiah/Deliverer would crush his head.” (Gen 3:15)

Pharaoh ordering all the male Jewish babies killed (Exodus 1) and Herod ordered all the Jewish male babies under two destroyed. (Matt 2)

In between these two events, satan uses Haman to try once again to destroy the Jewish race to keep the Messiah from coming on the scene.

For eight months, the enemies of the Jews prepared. I’m sure many of them had the 13 day of Adar circled on their calendars.

They sharpened their swords and waited for the day of the kill.

But it didn’t go anything like they thought it would. The author says that the “tables were turned.” This is an emphatic phrase in the Hebrew that means “reversal.”

While it was assumed that these enemies would slaughter the Jewish people with ease, several things happened in those eight months that changed the game.