Okay, good evening. Welcome back to our series of studies through the book of Esther. Tonight we're going to be beginning chapter 3. But before we dig into chapter 3, I want to do a brief review of what we studied last time. In the closing verses of chapter 2, we learned that Mordecai held an official position in the Persian government, in the empire's judicial system. We're not given a lot of details as to what position exactly that he might have held, but it's very clear that his position, him holding the position that he did within the Persian government, ultimately was by God's design for God's purpose to serve God's purpose. We also saw some additional details of Esther's character. Esther was obedient and she was submissive to those whom the Lord had placed as agents of His authority in her life. And as a result of that, Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. This also was by God's design, serving His purpose in this unfolding story, leading to deliverance of His people from annihilation. And in the main body of the passage, we saw Mordecai uncover a devious plot to kill the king. He then informed Queen Esther, who in turn informed the king. And then the chapter, chapter 2, ends with the king being saved because of what Mordecai had done. and the incident being recorded in the Persian Book of Chronicles, or their official royal record of events. So tonight, like I said, we're going to be starting chapter three. We'll only be studying the very first verse, only verse one tonight. But I'm going to take the time right now to read chapter three in its entirety to set the study for tonight in its proper context. So why don't you join me in Esther chapter 3 and let's read this chapter together. Esther chapter 3. After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king's servants, who were at the king's gate, said to Mordecai, why do you transgress the king's command? And when they spoke to him day after day, and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury, but he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast purr, that is, they cast lots before Haman day after day. And they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries." So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, the money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you. Then the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king's satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa, the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. Amen. Okay, like I said, we're gonna really focus in on verse one tonight. So let me just reread that one verse. It says, after these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hamadathah, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him." Okay, so this verse opens with the phrase, after these things. Now, this phrase, grammatically, this is referred to as an indefinite phrase. This simply means that it could have one of several different meanings within this context. This phrase, it commonly indicates that an unspecified but a significant period of time has passed. It could also indicate, however, that only a few days has passed, or anywhere in between. I don't know if you remember or not, but this same exact phrase was used to open chapter two. And in that study, in our study of chapter two, verse one, I pointed out that for that occurrence of this phrase. I pointed out that although the text didn't specify exactly how much time had passed, we were able to safely deduce that it had been about three years. And we were able to do that because of certain time clues elsewhere in chapter two. Now, in this case, here in chapter 3, verse 1, we don't have those same type of time clues, so we don't know how much time has passed since the events of chapter 2. Most commentators agree that in chapter 3 verse 1, the use of this phrase signals not a specific amount of time, but simply the beginning of the next part of the story. To me, this seems very logical, the most logical conclusion. Again, I don't know if you remember or not, but in my series introduction, in the very first study of this series, I identified three main sections to the book of Esther. Section one, I called the prologue, which is chapters one and two, which we just finished. Then the second section I called the main plot, which is chapters 3 through 9. And then the final section, the epilogue, is actually the tail end of chapter 9 into chapter 10. So here we are beginning chapter 3, which is exactly what I identified as I identified as the main plot, which is the next part of the story. So this seems like a logical conclusion for me as far as what that phrase means here compared to what it meant in chapter two. Okay, that being said, now the remainder of verse one introduces us to a new character in the study, Haman. Haman is, as we will see very clearly by the end of this chapter, Haman is the villain of the story. And he plays a very important, a very specific role in God's unfolding plan and purpose in the book of Esther. And interestingly, in this introduction to Haman, we're really not told very much about him. Like, we're not told who he was before his promotion. What position did he hold in the kingdom before this promotion? Or we're not told why he was promoted this way by the king. Or why he was promoted to such a prominent place as he was. We're not told any of that. We're told very, very little. But what we are told is both important and significant. I'll say very important, very significant to the overall story in the book of Esther. We're told that he was an agagite. He was a descendant of the Amalekite King Agog. Now, why the text mentions this fact specifically and how it is significant and important to the story of Esther requires a little bit of detailed explanation. And that's what I want to try to do tonight. It takes us all the way back to the book of Deuteronomy. If you join me in Deuteronomy chapter 25, I want to read verses 17 through 19. Deuteronomy 25, beginning in verse 17. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt. How he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail. Those who were lagging behind you. And he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget." So Israel battled with the Amalekites in the desert wilderness outside of Egypt during their journey from Egypt to the promised land. The Amalekites were a particularly hostile and ruthless people, a hostile and ruthless enemy to the Israelites. They attacked with no regard whatsoever to any What we know is as rules of engagement of the day. Rules of engagement. There's actually rules or laws to war, to battles. And they had no regard whatsoever for that. In the particular battle referenced in this passage, what the Amalekites did was they cut off and they attacked the most tired and the most weary who were kind of straggling behind in the rear of the party of Israelites coming out of Egypt. This was both inhumane and barbarous. It just simply wasn't done. Other desert nomads like the Amalekites, even in battle, usually displayed some level of the fear of God in these types of circumstances. And they wouldn't even consider attacking in this type of manner. But the Amalekites, they had no such regard. This complete lack of mercy to the weak, this complete lack of regard For God, it merited God's attention, and it merited his divine judgment. God judges nations like this, nations who display this level of disregard for him, and these types of crimes against what even pagan nations recognize as natural law. You know, you just don't do this. But they do, or they did. So God chose Israel to be his instrument of divine chastisement and judgment against the Amalekites. In this passage that we read, he reminds Israel of the heinous crimes committed by the Amalekites. And when he's given them rest in the promised land, he gives them this command to attack the Amalekites. But his command is very detailed and very specific. It's not just simply to attack them, but he says to blot out the very memory of them from under heaven. What this means is that the Israelites were to destroy the Amalekites to the extent that there would be no remnant of them remaining. Not even one Amalekite to even keep their memory alive. God intended, when he gave this command to the Israelites, he intended for the Amalekites to completely and entirely cease to exist. This is what he commanded Israel to do. But Israel failed. They failed to obey God's command. And instead, they allowed the Amalekites to survive and to continue as a people. And this led to ongoing and continuous conflict between Israel and the Amalekites from that day forward. Now, in the days of Esther, Israel will come face to face with the downline consequences of their own failure to obey the Lord. This remnant of Israel's failure to obey, to fully and completely obey God's command, this downline consequence known as Haman, is about to unleash a heinous, inhumane, and barbarous plan characteristic of his ancestors. Now Mordecai, Mordecai, because of generations of ongoing conflict with the Amalekites, combined with his total devotion to the Lord, total devotion to the God of Israel, he has an inbred, a natural and very understandable disdain, really hatred for Haman the Agagite. Now, a critical and very significant element of this easily missed detail in tonight's passage is this. Just think about this. Had Israel obeyed God's command fully and completely, if they had blotted out the very memory of Amalek from under heaven, if they had done what the Lord commanded them to do, Haman wouldn't even exist. He wouldn't exist, and the Jews in Persia wouldn't be facing the difficulties and the danger that they're about to experience in our unfolding story. It's amazing, isn't it? Well, there's a life principle at work here that we just can't ignore, gloss over, or overlook. We just can't move on in our study without first taking a good look at what I'm convinced the Lord wants us to learn, to understand, and to embrace in our own daily lives. That's the principle of what I mentioned before, downline consequences. Downline consequences for our own failures to obey, to fully obey the Lord's commands in our lives. I want to take a look at that for a moment. First, I want to consider what I'm going to call partial obedience. Like I pointed out before, God was very specific with the Israelites, wasn't he? His command was not to merely attack and subdue the Amalekites for the time being. His command was to wipe them from existence. Every single one of them. But Israel didn't do that. So by attacking and subduing the Amalekites, but allowing some, even one, to survive, what was Israel doing? Were they being partially obedient? No. They weren't partially obedient, they were disobedient. There is no partial obedience. If you're partially obedient, you are disobedient. This is a classic error made by parents. giving an instruction to a child and then being pleased when the child follows the instruction after it's been given two, three, four, five times. You know how it is. Billy, put that down. Billy, put that down. Billy, I told you, put that down. Billy, put that down. Right. Oh, good boy. Oh, good. Right. What is that? Okay, that's disobedience. That is disobedience. We need to understand that partial obedience is not obedience at all. It's disobedience. We need to apply that in our own lives. We need to be fully obedient in all of our responses to the Lord. Also, we need to understand and to remember that when God gives us a command, an instruction, a direction, He knows much more than we do, right? God knows much more than we do. He knows the downline results of our actions. We don't always know. We don't always know what effect a disobedient response to the Lord will have in our future or in the future of a loved one or someone else to whom we are connected. We don't always consider or remember that a disobedient act today can bring us serious consequences, serious difficulties tomorrow. Even when we think we have made the better choice. Have you ever been in that type of circumstance where you just think you know better than God? So you go your own direction because you think that's the better choice. So many of our difficulties and struggles that we experience now, today, so many of them can be traced back to a past failure to follow the Lord's direction. Unfortunately, we don't always see that connection. We don't always look for that connection. If we did, I'm convinced it would have a positive effect on how we respond to the Lord today, if we paid closer attention to that. It would aid in our growth and in our sanctification. I exhort you, I exhort all of us, consider that in your current difficulties and struggles. God's directions in our lives are always for our own good. Always. What might seem pointless or insignificant to us seems that way because we don't possess the fullness of understanding that God does. He knows it all. We don't. We don't know all that God knows. We don't see all that God sees. And we certainly don't understand all that God understands. Even when following God's direction seems to us to be the opposite of what would be best for us. When it seems to us to be unproductive or even counterproductive, it's not. If it's God's direction, it's always the best way for us. It's always the best direction, the best thing for us. You know, Israel must have thought that allowing the Amalekites to survive was in some way to their benefit. And, you know, there might have actually been some or some level, some short term benefit for them, or at least from their perspective, a benefit. But, you know, they just didn't know what God knew about the downline consequences of allowing the Amalekites to survive. God had a reason and a purpose in the command that he gave to them, in the details of the command that he gave to them. They clearly didn't understand that. They clearly didn't consider the fact that he knew better than they did. And now, in the days of Esther, they're paying the price. And then one last point I want to make or draw out on this principle. And that is, is that the downline consequences of our disobedience, it sometimes exceeds or goes outside of our own lives. And even at times, our own lifetimes. Remember, Haman didn't come onto the scene until generations after the Israelites failed to obey God and destroy the Amalekites. In the same way, our disobedience can have negative impacts on our own future and our own future generations. Think about that. Let's say a man who commits a crime and ends up going to jail. Well, he leaves his son without a father. He leaves his son to grow up without a father. Without the benefit of that guidance and training from his father, maybe he turns to a life of crime. The disobedience and the unrighteousness, it perpetuates from generation to generation. He sets a trajectory. Or, How about a wife who refuses to fully obey the Lord in the area of submitting to her husband's authority and showing him proper respect? Well, it definitely adversely affects her life. She might not realize it, but it does. She robs herself of the many blessings that God connects to faithful submission to authority. God provides freedom, order, direction for those who obey his commands. So it affects her life, but she's also teaching her own daughters. that this is acceptable behavior from a Christian woman, from a Christian wife. So they grow up and they show their husbands that same lack of submission and respect, and in turn, teach their daughters to do the same. You see how disobedience in the present can and does result in hardship, difficulty, and lack of blessing in the future. or a husband, right? A husband who fails to obey God's command in the area of loving his wife as Christ loves the church. Again, is it going to affect his life? It absolutely will. It will adversely affect his life. But in the same way, as I just described, he's teaching his sons that it's, you know, it's just not necessary for a Christian man to fully obey the Lord, at least in this particular area. Right, so they grow up and they fail in the same way. They fail to obey the Lord and love their wives as Christ loves the church. And in turn, their sons do the same thing. Again, a perpetuation, a generational perpetuation. And these are just, you know, just a few examples that I came up with of how our disobedience today can and does have downline consequences. But you know, the Bible is filled with various object lessons regarding downline consequences for disobeying the Lord. The most famous of these is, of course, Adam's sin and how we are still affected by it today. Think about that for a moment. The first man disobeys God. And that action, that disobedience affected you and affected me today. and it will continue affecting us. Our disobedience sets in motion consequences that will adversely affect our lives and very potentially the lives of those around us. So, you know, the Lord might not be commanding us or instructing us to wipe out the existence of an evil nation of people. And our disobedience might not have the same downline consequences as that of an evil man like Haman. But the Lord does direct us every single day of our lives. He does so in big ways and in small ways, but always in significant ways. We don't always realize what we set in motion for our own future when we disobey God in the present. I exhort us all tonight to begin paying much closer attention, much closer attention than we do to obeying God, to fully obeying God in all areas of our lives. Now, I wanna share one last quick thought before we move on to the rest of this verse. And that thought is this. It's important for us to pay close attention to the details God has recorded in his word. Take a look again at verse 1, Esther 3 verse 1. The text just simply mentions Haman the Agagite. Right? Haman the Agagite. That's what the text says. It states that without giving us any explanation or anything, any information of the importance or the significance of that particular detail. You see, the Lord has left it up to us to notice that detail, to look for those details, to notice that detail, and to ask the question, why? Is that there? Why did God choose to include this detail? There's no explanation. There's no specific or particular reason given, but it is there. Don't just gloss over it. Don't just read over it. There are vast riches in the details and subtleties of God's Word. I pray that we, individually and as a body, that we are always diligent to look for those details, to see those details, and to dig deeply for the riches that they contain. Okay, so finally here, let's look at how, for the rest of the verse, let's look at how King Ahasuerus promoted Haman. Okay? The king placed him in a very prominent position, right? Well, consider this. The last recorded event, the end of chapter 2, That last event was that Mordecai saved the king's life. The very next thing that we're told is that the king advances Haman in the kingdom. This placement of Haman, it's described in a threefold manner, which I think is significant. First, it says that he promotes Haman. This literally means that he exalted Haman or he made him great in the kingdom. Second, we're told that he advances Haman. This literally means that he lifted him up or he elevated him above others. And then finally, we're told that he places Haman above all the officials with whom Haman served. This final description tells us that he was exalted and advanced above and beyond all of the other officials in the King's service. This is, it's a clear indication that Haman was given the most important seat or the highest rank or the position closest to the King, second in authority only to the King himself. This is very similar to the position in which Joseph was placed in Egypt after interpreting Pharaoh's dream. So, in other words, this was not your typical promotion along a normal career path. This was a catapult to or a fast forward to the highest position within the Persian government. The question that I believe that we're meant to ask is, why? Why was Mordecai, who had just done something great in the service of the king, he literally, he just saved the king's life. Why was he given no promotion, no advancement, no recognition at all, while Haman, who had done nothing, at least nothing that's recorded in the text, so nothing that we know of, why does Haman receive this great honor, this great promotion? Well, the answer, it's not explicit, it's not laid out for us there in the text, but I do think that the answer is clear. God advanced Haman, and he withheld any form of recognition for Mordecai for a purpose, for a reason. It was all to serve his purpose in bringing about the specific details of his plan and to save his people and have this particular story of salvation recorded in his word. As we progress through this series, we'll see. Haman will get what he justly deserves. And Mordecai will receive all the blessings that God has for him. But not in their timing, not in either of their timing. They will each receive exactly what they deserve in the Lord's perfect timing. What we're meant to learn from this, I believe, is that every detail of our lives is directed by the Lord. When the unrighteous and the unworthy receive blessings, receive advancements, receive rewards all around us, And we are forgotten, unrewarded, seemingly overlooked for our righteous behavior and faithfulness to the Lord. Have you ever in your life felt that way? Have you? Yeah. Well, what we need to do, what we must do is remember that God sees all. God knows all and God remembers all. You need to remember that there's no deserved reward that you will not receive. Nothing falls by the wayside and that there is no judgment. that the unrighteous and unworthy will escape. They might seem to escape it now from your perspective, but they don't, never, not one. We need to remember, keep in our minds, that it all takes place not in your timing, not in my timing, but in the Lord's perfect timing. So Haman, the Agagite, the descendant of Amalek, he was promoted to the highest position in the land. And Mordecai, who just saved the king's life, is completely bypassed by the king. Not a word mentioned about it. All of this, all of this, for the greater good those involved, and to serve a kingdom purpose, all as a result of God's sovereignty at work behind the scenes. Praise God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this passage. Thank you for the easy to miss principle of the critical importance of always being fully obedient to your authority. I pray that you will please keep what we've learned here tonight at the forefront of our hearts and our minds. Help us all to begin tonight paying much closer attention than we already do to obeying you, to fully obeying you in all the areas of our lives. Thank you, Father. Amen.