PURIM - WALKING IN THE SPIRIT (Esther 9:20-10:3)
INTRODUCTION:
The Jews had been given a great victory over their enemies. Haman, in his evil pride hated the fact that Mordecai would not bow to him, and because of this hate he devised a plan to not just get rid of Mordecai, but to wipe his people off of the earth, to annihilate the entire population of the Jews. This he did by deceiving the king who gave his consent for Haman to write an edict in the name of the king and to seal it with the king’s ring, which under the law of the Medes and the Persians made it irrevocable. Once this new law had been published throughout the 127 provinces of king Ahasuerus’ kingdom, it was made known to him by Queen Esther that it was her life and the lives of her people that Haman had decreed to annihilate completely. Once this was made known to the king Ahasuerus, he removed Haman from his position of prime minister and had him hanged on the gallows that Haman had built to hang Mordecai on. King Ahasuerus elevated Mordecai to the position of prime minister and gave him his signet ring. The king knew that he was helpless to revoke the law that Haman had written, so he told Mordecai to write a new edict to the Jews, whatever he saw fit to write, and he was to write it in the king’s name and seal it with the king’s ring and it was to be sent out throughout the 127 provinces of the Media-Persia empire and published in every province according to their script and according to their language. This new edict allowed the Jews to defend themselves and last Sunday we looked at the great victory that God had given them over their enemies. We ended with the celebrations that were taking place throughout the provinces. This morning, we want to look at what happened in the empire after this took place, and how this relates to us. Let’s pray and then turn to Esther one last time.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to the book of Esther chapter 9, verse 20. We will be looking at Esther 9:20-10:3, the end of the book this morning. If you were ever wondering if chapter 10 is shortest chapter in the Bible, it is not, Psalm 117 is one verse shorter than Esther 10. Esther does have longest verse in the Bible which is Esther 8:9, in the New American Standard Bible it is 82 words long. That is just some free trivia this morning. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along while I read.
Esther 9:20-10:3,
“Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same month, annually, because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor. Thus the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and destroy them. But when it came to the king’s attention, he commanded by letter that his wicked scheme which 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 name of Pur. And because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them, the Jews established and made a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually. So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and these days of Purim were not to fail from among the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants. Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. He sent letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, namely, words of peace and truth, to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their descendants with instructions for their times of fasting and their lamentations. The command of Esther established these customs for Purim, and it was written in the book. Now King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. And all the accomplishments of his authority and strength, and the full account of the greatness 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 only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.” (Esther 9:20–10:3, NASB95)[1]
THE HOW OF VICTORY (Esther 9:20-25)
The beginning of this passage tells us that Mordecai recorded all these events, in other words He wrote down how God had worked to bring about this great victory for the Jews and how they had celebrated. Remember the Jews in Susa met on the 13th and the 14th days of the 12th month, the month of Adar to defend themselves against their enemies, while the Jews in the provinces only gathered on the 13th day of Adar. So, the Jews in the provinces were celebrating their victory on the 14th of Adar, but the Jews in Susa did not celebrate until the 15th, after the second day of fighting. After recording all these events, Mordecai sent letters to be published in all the provinces of the kingdom of king Ahasuerus, these letters were to all the Jews living anywhere in the Media-Persia empire calling on them to celebrate the 14th and the 15th days of Adar yearly. They were to do this to remember how God had given them victory over their enemies, that it was a month for the Jews that was turned for them from sorrow into gladness, and from mourning into a holiday. Mordecai instructed them that these should be days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another, and gifts to the poor.
Then we read a summary of what took place and in verses 23-25 and we have outlined for us the how of victory. Esther 9:23-25 states, “Thus the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and destroy them. But when it came to the king’s attention, he commanded by letter that his wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.” (Esther 9:23–25, NASB95)[2] Each of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and knows the indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus falls into the occasional victory. Let me try to explain, at times the Holy Spirit allows circumstances into our lives that overwhelm us and in the moment of desperation we cry out to God asking for His help. When this happens, God answers and we experience deliverance, we have victory. This is what we might call emergency help, we only ask God for this help when nothing else has worked and we feel like we are backed into a corner. This should be the normal condition that we live in always, always experiencing in the body the death of self, so that the power of the Lord Jesus Christ might rest upon us. When we learn to walk in the consistent knowledge that we have been crucified with Christ and that this is our true condition, then we become consistent in our experience of victory.
As I said, these verses that I just read outline for us the steps that lead to this consistent life of victory. The first step as these verses tell us was the exposure of Haman. Here his full name is given to us, Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite. Remember when we first met Haman that we learned that an Agagite was related to Agag, who was king of the Amalekites, these are the people against whom God had pronounced eternal enmity. Agag was opposed to all that God wanted to do. So here we have Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, and his dishonesty, treachery, and subtlety are now fully exposed. This is true for us as well, the first step in deliverance from the Haman within us is to learn to recognize him. But to learn this is more difficult than it sounds. We are so good at justifying things that are destroying us, and we make excuses for them. We label them with nice sounding names, as if we were labeling bottles of poison the opposite of what they truly are. That just makes them all the more deadly. This makes the voice of our Haman and the voice of the devil difficult to recognize. But this is the first step we must learn to be victorious; we must recognize our enemy.
The second step is the knowledge that a new decree has been issued. When who Haman truly was came to the king’s attention, remember Esther was the one who exposed Haman to the king. Then we read that the king gave orders in writing that the wicked plot of Haman should return on his own head. The new decree written by Mordecai meant that the Jews were set free from the old decree. For us, this pictures the law of a new life in Jesus Christ, His Spirit dwelling in us, which sets us free from the law of sin and death in our experience. Christ is in us by His Spirit and He becomes our resource. It is no longer up to us to try and do our best, it is up to us now to trust Him to do His best through us. What a difference that is. It is no longer us trying to show to the world what we can do for Christ but letting Him show the world what He can do through us. The struggle to be good is not present, when we depend on the One who is good, the One who dwells within us, we step forward in dependence upon Him and do what needs to be done, and His life is displayed to the world in terms of our activity, and He is glorified. The knowledge that we have been crucified with Christ and that we have new life in Him is the second step to victory.
The third step is seen in the hanging of Haman and his ten sons on the gallows. The amazing truth that we must know is that until we are willing to put the old life with all of its expressions of self in the place of death where God put it in Jesus Christ, we can never fully experience the truth of the indwelling life. When we try to make both Haman and Christ live at the same time, keeping a portion of our self to turn to and entertain ourselves with, then we are excluding God from that area of our life, and we do not fully experience His life in us. Victory comes when we are content to have our old life and all its baggage overlooked and humiliated if need be, that the life of Jesus may be displayed and expressed through every part of our being. When we are content to have it that way, not only in words, but also in experience, then we will know the immediate experience of His risen life flowing through us, and that is true victory.
PURIM INSTITUTED (Esther 9:26-32)
This chapter ends with the establishment of the feast of Purim. For the sake of time, I am not going to read verses 26-32 again, we read them at the beginning. In these verses we learn that the name of this holiday is taken from the Pur, or the lot, that Haman threw to determine the day and the month that he would make his edict for the destruction of the Jews. Purim is just the plural form of Pur; thus, it is the feast of lots.
This feast is still celebrated today, Purim this years is March 23 and 24. The history of Esther is still celebrated on this holiday. On the first evening they read the book of Esther and the old Orthodox Jews and the Jewish children make all sorts of noise whenever the name of Haman is mentioned. The orthodox Jews hiss and stomp their feet at the mention of his name. The children bring horns and drums and blow them and pound on them with booing and hissing throughout the reading of the book whenever Haman’s name is read. The second day of the holiday is set aside for feasting and rejoicing, and for the exchanging of gifts. All of this is in remembrance of the deliverance accomplished by God through Esther and Mordecai in the days of the Media-Persia Empire, some five hundred years before the birth of Christ. It is still celebrated today because God wants the Jewish people to never forget this deliverance. It is to be forever a very important holiday in their history.
WALKING IN THE SPIRIT (Esther 10:1-3)
The Jews have a tradition that the feast of Purim is the only feast that will be observed after the Messiah comes. The feast of Tabernacles and Passover and all others will cease they say, when the Messiah comes. But the feast of Purim will go on even in the days of the kingdom of God on earth. This teaches us the truth that to walk in the Spirit is normal for both time and eternity. It is important that we teach this to our descendants, that our children may see and learn what it means to walk in victory over resentment, jealousy, impatience, envy, lust, self-love, self-seeking, pride, self-pity, and all the other displays of the self-life. We as parents and grandparents must walk in the Spirit and teach them how to walk in the Spirit. It is described as a walk because it is a continual process of taking the same steps over and over, every time conflict comes, until there is a clear display of continual victory.
In Genesis five we are introduced to a man whose name is Enoch. We are told that he lived 65 years before he learned to walk with God. Hopefully, it does not take us that long. After he learned to walk, he walked 300 years with God until one day, as someone has said, “God just said to him, ‘Come on, Enoch, come on home with me. It’s too far to go back.” The Bible simply says, “…and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24, NASB95)[3] He just walked with God right into glory. That is the picture of what God would have for the believer in Christ.
The book of Esther closes with the three verses of chapter ten in which we find the last truth which God has to teach us from this book. Chapter 10 says, “Now King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. And all the accomplishments of his authority and strength, and the full account of the greatness 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 only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.” (Esther 10:1–3, NASB95)[4] Here we have the same king and the same kingdom with which the book began. The big and only difference we see is that Haman is out, and Mordecai is in. But what a difference! Mordecai “sought the good of his people…and spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.” (Esther 10:3b, NASB95)[5] Christians, just like the king and kingdom which did not change, remain the same person when the Spirit is given the place of control. Our personality does not change, but it is cleansed and enriched by the presence of the Spirit within us. This is why Paul can say, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live…” (Galatians 2:20a, KJV 1900)[6] The person remains the same; the principle upon which he lives and acts is entirely different. Paul goes on to say, “…yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20b, KJV 1900)[7] This is the secret. This is the Spirit-filled life. As Mordecai, through the will of the king, brings power and peace to the kingdom; so, the Spirit through our will and never beyond it, brings peace and blessings into out lives. Just as king Ahasuerus advanced Mordecai and made him great in the kingdom and his greatness was known throughout the kingdom because this was the will of the king. In the same way, we must surrender our will to the Lord Jesus Christ who indwells us by His Spirit, when we do that He will be great and His infinite greatness will be known throughout our sphere of influence, our kingdom. Paul goes on in Galatians in chapter 5, verse 16 from our Scripture reading this morning and says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, NASB95)[8] He goes on in verse 18, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” (Galatians 5:18, NASB95)[9] Then he sums it up for us in verses 22-25, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22–25, NASB95)[10]
CONCLUSION:
As we come to the close of this book, God wants each of us to walk by the Spirit. When we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and allow His Spirit to take the reins of our life and lead us, we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we will walk in victory. This is not to say that we will not ever fail, we will at times take the reins back and fall into sin because until the day when we receive our glorified bodies, we will have that old nature with us vying for control. But the more often that we allow the Spirit to be in control and we gain victory over our enemy, the easier it will be the next time. Spirit-led Christians go through some of the bitterest of circumstances and come out the other side victorious and rejoicing. The weaker the Spirit-led Christian is, the more impact the power of Christ in him will have on others. The Christian walking in the Spirit exudes Christ in all that he does and says. You cannot be around that person without seeing the beauty of Christ in his life. Paul put it this way in 2nd Corinthians 2:14, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14, NASB95)[11]
Have you found this great secret? Have you learned to count on the indwelling Holy Spirit to meet every demand made upon you with His infinite resources? Would you like to walk in the Spirit today and every day? You can by surrendering your will wholly to Him. Pray that Paul’s experience might also be yours, as we end this series in the book of Esther.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version.). (2009). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[7]The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version.). (2009). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.