Everyone Has a Story
Everyone has a story. You have a story that is unique to you. It’s a sacred story because it’s written by God. All of its twists and turns and joys and pains and victories and losses are part of a grand narrative that God has written for you. This is why engaging your story is a really healthy and spiritual thing to do. When we open up the book of our lives and examine some of its chapters, especially the ones that we’ve thought should never be opened, we start to discern God’s gracious presence and his wise providence in our lives. Everyone has a story. Slowing down enough to read yours may be one of the most worthwhile things you ever do.
God Has a Story
God also has a story. The difference between his story and ours is that his story encompasses everyone else’s story. God’s story spans all of time and includes everyone who’s ever lived. God’s story is what gives meaning to our stories. If there were no God, or if there were a God who just created us and then removed himself from our lives, then our stories would merely be a random collection of events and people and places.
But if there’s a God who relates personally to his creation, then we’d expect to find that our lives are infused with meaning and purpose. And this is indeed what we find. Most people admit that life is not meaningless, that there’s a reason we’re here that’s bigger than ourselves. This fits perfectly with how the Bible describes reality.
The Bible says that God created everything by his powerful word. He spoke the universe into existence out of nothing. He made man and woman in his image, to reflect his glory and to represent him on the earth and to take care of what he’d made. He placed them in a Garden to cultivate its beauty and to live in perfect peace with him and with each other.
He gave them freedom to live and love and work and play in his presence. He only put one boundary before them: “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” Disobeying this command would interrupt the perfect harmony of the Garden: “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Rebelling against God’s word would allow the enemy of death to come in.
Things were going well until one day Satan, in the form, of a serpent shows up and convinces Adam and Eve that God really isn’t good because he’s holding out on them. He convinces them that God’s judgment isn’t real. They listen to him and follow the lusts of their eyes and disobey the one command that God gave them.
This changed everything. The perfect love and beauty and harmony of the Garden was broken because they doubted God’s goodness and broke his command. God was true to his word and judgment came. In his mercy, however, death didn’t come immediately. Before he removed them from the Garden, he provided them with clothes and protected them from eating of the tree of life so that they wouldn’t live forever in their fallen state.
Then he promised them that one day the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent (Gen. 3:15). This was a mysterious promise, but one that surely gave them hope. They left the Garden, no doubt full of shame and guilt and fear and anxiety – all the things we still live with in this fallen world apart from God, but they also left with a promise from God. God promised them that one day he would do something to judge his enemies and save his people. One day Satan would die and God’s people would be rescued.
This promise unfolded when God told Abraham that he’d bless the whole world through him and his descendants. He said that through the people of Israel, specifically through the tribe of Judah and the line of David, One would come to judge God’s enemies and save his people. This Savior would bring his people back to the Garden of God where God’s children would live in God’s presence and again take care of God’s creation.
This is the story that God is writing in the world. It can be summarized in four words: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Through Jesus, God is rescuing people from the serpent and their sin and bringing them back into his Garden.
What Does This Have to Do with Esther?
Now you may be thinking, “What does this have to do with Esther’s story?” The story of Esther moves the larger story of God’s redemption forward. Without Esther, the Jews all die and the Messiah never comes and the enemies of God win. God’s plan to save his people and redeem the world, in many ways, hinges on Esther.
But the other thing that Esther’s story does, like all stories in the Old Testament, is that it foreshadows the larger story of Jesus Christ. Esther paves the way for the gospel and prefigures the gospel. In other words, in Esther we see hints and shadows of what God will do later through Jesus. For example, in chapter 6 we saw how Mordecai, the unexpected man who did what was right, was exalted. This points us to Jesus.
These kinds of connections can be found throughout Esther and the Old Testament. I’m spending extra time on this today because we need to read our Bibles as one main story and not a series of disconnected stories. The Bible will really come alive for you as you read it and start to see how the dots all connect to Jesus.
Gospel Connections in Esther 8-10
This brings us to Esther chapter 8. In these last chapters of Esther, we’re going to see how a large group of people who were under a sentence of death end up safe and well, while a large group of hostile enemies, determined to kill God’s people, receive just punishment. In chapters 8-10, we see gospel foreshadowings in that, through a mediator and a righteous one who’s been exalted, God’s people are saved and God’s enemies are destroyed.
Esther Intercedes for the Jews
In chapter 8, we see Esther interceding for the Jews (vv. 1-8) and Mordecai bringing justice to the Jews (vv. 9-17). Chapter 8 begins by telling us that Mordecai replaces Haman (vv. 1-2). This is the first of many reversals in this chapter. There’s been a complete turning of the tables. The enemy of God’s people was removed and a representative of God’s people was promoted.
At this point, we may think that the story has a happy ending and we can all go home now. But has anything really changed? Yes, the man who came up with the plan to kill the Jews received justice. But did anything change for the Jews in the empire? No, because they were still under the irrevocable decree that called for their extermination. The individual who created the problem had been dealt with, but there were still wide-ranging consequences of his actions that remained in effect and that could only be dealt with at the political level. Justice had happened personally but now needed to happen politically.
Even today, we must pray and work for wrongs to be righted at the personal and political level. Addressing individuals without addressing systems is like trying to fix an oil leak in your car by just adding more oil. Yes, your car needs oil, but it may also need a new oil pan. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. Unjust people and unjust systems need to be exposed and changed. Isaiah 1:16-17 is a great example of this balance.
Esther’s Intercession
Haman needed to be exposed and the edict he authored needed to be changed. After Haman was dealt with, Esther turned her attention to the edict he wrote, pleading for the king to overturn it (vv. 3-6). Remember that Esther had already asked for her people’s deliverance in her initial request (7:3). But the king only seemed to be concerned about his queen. He took no action for her people.
Notice that she’s weeping as she approaches the king this time (v. 3). Why is she so upset? Because all of her people were trapped on death row. Verse 6 shows us the depth of her empathy for her people. She didn’t casually brush aside the suffering of others. She didn’t keep scrolling through the news of her people’s plight. She stopped long enough to consider their plight and to feel something about it. She had everything money could buy, yet she’s broken over the calamity facing people she doesn’t even know. She wants life and justice for her people so much that she doesn’t know how she can live until they get it (“How can I endure?”).
When we start to realize what’s really going on with people, we start to feel the pain they feel. If we’re too busy to do this, we’re probably too busy. The Bible says that we’re supposed to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). Who are you weeping with? Who are you weeping for?
Esther reminds us of another Jew whose life was radically grabbed ahold of by God so that he wept over the plight of his people (Rom. 9:1-5). Paul loved his people so much that he wept over the fact that they didn’t know Christ. Paul didn’t say, “As long as I’m good with God, I don’t have to worry about anyone else.” No, when a person comes into a right relationship with God, they then start to feel something about those who haven’t yet come into a right relationship with God. If it’s appointed once for us to die and then comes the judgment, and if the only way to escape that judgment is through the cross of Jesus Christ, then only those who come to the cross of Jesus Christ in faith and repentance will escape the judgment. So do we just come to church to sing songs and feel good about ourselves? What about the calamity that’s coming? Where’s our plea before the King who holds the lives of all in his hands?
Who are you weeping with? Who are you weeping for? Have you considered the plight of the thousands of unreached people groups? The young girls trafficked in the sex industry? The orphans living on the streets? Those with no food or clean water? The million unborn babies aborted each year? Those discriminated against simply because of the color of their skin?
Think about Esther’s selflessness here. Her life had been spared and her enemy killed. She could’ve stopped there and not pressed the king to take any further action. But she didn’t see her personal deliverance as enough. She wanted all of God’s people to be saved. We’re told in verse 4 that the king held out the golden scepter again to Esther, meaning that she again approached him at great risk to herself. Why? Because she considered the needs of the community as more important than her life. There are many lines of application that could be drawn here, but I’ll let you draw them out.
Esther chooses her words carefully in verse 5. She knows that a law of the Medes and Persians cannot be revoked, so she avoids the word “law” and says “the letters of Haman…which he wrote to destroy the Jews.” She’s also careful to not implicate the king, although the letters had gone out in his name. She’s really asking the impossible, but out of love for her people, and at risk to herself, she asks anyways.
The king’s response is in verses 7-8. The king can’t take back an edict that’s already gone out in his name, but he can have them write another one in his name that’ll counteract the previous one.
Mordecai Brings Justice to the Jews
In verses 1-8, Esther intercedes for her people, again, at great cost to herself and gained the kings permission to write a new law that will protect the Jews. In verses 9-17, the focus shifts from Esther to Mordecai, as he’s the one who writes the legislation that will rescue the Jews.
Verses 9-14 are almost identical to 3:12-15. The author draws a direct line between Haman’s decree and Mordecai’s decree to show that, at every point, there’s been a great reversal. Mordecai’s edict is written by the same scribes, sent to the same 127 provinces, in the same languages, sealed with the same signet ring from the king, and sent by the same couriers.
But the content of this new decree reverses Haman’s decree. This is the great reversal. This new decree authorizes the Jews to use self-defense (v. 11). It doesn’t allow them to kill their enemies indiscriminately, but only those who attack them. The Jews were given permission to organize themselves in order to fend off any attack against them.
Verse 13 says they could “take vengeance,” but this doesn’t mean revenge in the way we often think of vengeance. He didn’t say they could go and do whatever they wanted to their enemies. He said that they could defend themselves from any attacks on one specific day. This was the fair and right thing to do. Mordecai authorized justice, not revenge.
The edict was sent out across the empire using the king’s best horses because this decree of justice and rescue needed to get out to the people of the empire, in their own language, as quickly as possible. Again, the applications are many. What lengths will we go to get our King’s decree out?
Everywhere the decree went, joy followed (vv. 15-17). When Haman’s decree went out, the city was thrown into confusion (3:15). When Mordecai’s decree goes out, the city rejoices. The contrast is striking. Haman’s decree led to “mourning, fasting, weeping, and lamenting” (4:3). Mordecai’s decree led to “light and gladness and joy and honor” (8:16). Mordecai put on sack cloth and ashes upon hearing Haman’s decree (4:1). But now he wears royal robes and a golden crown (8:15). He previously couldn’t go into the king’s presence, but now he comes out of the king’s presence dressed like a king. Previously the Jews cried, but now they rejoice.
Who can bring about changes like this? Only God! Only God can change a situation like this. Only he can change a heart and home and marriage and child and church and city and nation. Yes, we should care about injustice in the world and try to right things that are wrong. But we know that reversals only happen as a result of the power and grace of God.
When reversals do happen, joy is always the result (vv. 15-17). We might say it this way: joy follows justice. When things are made right, we rejoice. Can you imagine what kind of happiness we’ll experience in heaven, a place where there are no more wrongs and there’s perfect righteousness?
A Garden of Joy is Coming
Esther intercedes for the Jews, then Mordecai brings justice and rescue to them. You can hopefully see how each one foreshadows Christ. Esther is the mediator who intercedes. Mordecai is the righteous and exalted one who brings justice and rescue. They each point to the One who’ll come five hundred years later to do the same thing for all the people of God.
And when Jesus comes a second time, all wrongs will be righted, justice will be served, God’s enemies will be punished, and his people will be escorted back into the Garden prepared for them. They’ll never have to live under the threat of death again, never cry again, never be ashamed, never be sick, never be wronged, never be ignored, and never be hurt. There they’ll find what their souls have longed for: righteousness, peace, love, beauty, and glory. They’ll be given everlasting “light and gladness and joy and honor.” Those who believe the gospel receive these things even now while they wait for them to be given in full later.
Calamity is coming. But so is salvation. The only way to escape the one and receive the other is through the cross of Christ. Is Jesus Christ your only hope in life and death? If so, then a great reversal awaits you upon his return. Your story will end when you exchange this weary world for God’s Garden of joy.