Alright, good evening everyone. Good to see you folks here this evening. Look forward to our time together in the book of Esther once again. Let's ask the Lord's blessing on our service tonight. Our Father, we again are very thankful for the opportunity that we have to gather together on this Wednesday evening. Thankful that we can fellowship with our brothers and our sisters in Christ, Lord. It is truly one of the great blessings of being part of a church family that we have times like this where we can come together, where we can pray with one another, where we can fellowship in the Word. Lord, where we can just simply seek to be there, to encourage and build up and minister one to another. So bless our evening, be with the teens, be with the clubs. Lord, all that transpires on this property tonight, may it resound to your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. All right, you can tell by my voice that I'm not going to win any shouting contests, for sure. And we'll see how far we get. My wife told me, you need to take tea. And I said, you're absolutely right. And then I got here and said, yep, she was absolutely right. I should have taken tea. I just didn't think about it until I got here. So I'm glad that she's there to remind me of these things. We are in Esther chapter three this evening, and partly we're gonna be looking at some of what we looked at two weeks ago when we were at the end of chapter two, and then just beginning chapter three. I wanna begin reading. I'm just gonna read the first five verses here in chapter three, and then we will look at what we can find in the scripture here this evening. We find in chapter 3 verse 1, after these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadathah the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. And the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. " Sorry, trying to cover this so I can cough and not have it go straight into the microphone. When we started thinking about this portion, particularly the end of chapter two, but now into chapter three, we did so with this observation. Sometimes in the course of life, we do things with no ulterior motive. We make a choice in life that, at the time, we're just choosing to do A and not B. But later in life, at some point down the road, we look back and we realize that what we thought was maybe an innocuous decision at the time actually had far-reaching consequences. You know, when I think about this, just as a quick illustration, 24 years ago, at this juncture, Jan and I had been in, there'd been a couple of letters from this church to Jan and I in Virginia, and we really, at this point, 24 years ago, we weren't really coming to New York. Just be honest, that was our mindset. Now here we are, almost 24 years later, right? But I think about that, and I think, you know, if we hadn't come to New York, Andrew would likely never have met Elizabeth and there would be no Abby and Allie. I mean, that is a consequence of a decision that Jan and I made that at the time we were just, you know, Andrew's a 12-year-old boy and we're just, okay, where are we going to go? I guess the Lord wants us to go to New York of all places. And that's true also for Deborah meeting Jake and for Rebecca, you know, she's married to a New Yorker and lives in Syracuse. But the point is, a decision that we knew was important, we weren't really looking down the road at the ramifications. But that's the way life is, isn't it? We can all look back and see that decisions we made at some point in the past have indeed led to consequences that we never had in mind. at the time we made the decision or the choice. Well, that's the case here with Mordecai. And it's interesting because we can make this statement about Mordecai. You'll recall the latter part of chapter 2, Mordecai hearing about a plot to kill Xerxes, the king. And he reported it to Esther, and Esther reports it to the king, and the king, his life is saved because these two individuals were not able to fulfill their plot to take the life of the king. That would have far-reaching consequences that at the moment, that moment in time, he could not have known. But it did. The second part is a decision that we see him making here in the verses that I read tonight. He makes a decision that because he's a Jew, that's what the passage says, he claims because he's a Jew he would not bow to Haman. But his not bowing to Haman had consequences. And those consequences we will find as we continue studying through this, those consequences become Haman convincing the king, let's just kill all the Jews. We'll kill every one of them in the entire empire so that there would be no Jews anywhere. They would be stamped out. And of course we know that would be something the devil would want to do because Messiah was prophesied to come through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and be a son of David, et cetera. You kill all the Jews, almost 450 years before, this was about 470 years before the birth of Christ, well then so much for that prophecy, right? So we can see behind the scenes there probably are other things going on here. But the point I'm making is he made a decision and there were consequences because of that decision. So, seeing that, let's note here in chapter one, Mordecai's pride and Haman's prejudice, because I think that's what we see here. We could have expected, and I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, we could have expected that because Mordecai was the one who uncovered the plot to take the king's life, that the king would have rewarded him. In fact, Herodotus tells us that Xerxes was very concerned that loyalty to the throne be honored, that whenever he would see in a particular battle any of his captains perform in some worthy exploit, for his benefit, for the king's benefit, he would ask, what is that man's name, what is the name of his father, and where is he from? Because there would be a reward for not only that particular soldier, but for his dad, and for the village. Recognizing that, we do wonder, why was there no reward for Mordecai? It was written, it was recorded in the Chronicles of the King, but there's no record of anything that would have said Mordecai is now given this special honor because of him, my life has been saved. Instead of what we would expect to see, we see suddenly out of nowhere, verse one, that the king promotes Haman. to be the second most powerful man in the kingdom. We don't know where he came from in terms of what was his background, what exploits had he accomplished. I mean, what was it that put him in a place where the king would elevate him? to be the second most powerful man in the empire. We don't know. It's also interesting, up until this point, the king, when he was making a decision, would go to the princes and he would ask for counsel from the princes. For the rest of the book, you never hear him talking to the princes. Now he only talks to Haman. So Haman has the ear of the king. Haman is a powerful man because he has influence over the decisions of the king. Now, I touched on this and we'll touch on a little bit more tonight, but there's a reason why I'm doing this and I hope I can get to it and make it make sense. You'll note that Mordecai is a Benjamin. He was a descendant of King Saul. We find that Saul, well, Saul in 1 Samuel 15, if you remember, there was an Amalekite king named Agag, and God had told Saul to fight against Agag, and when he defeated Agag, to take the life of Agag. And you'll recall that Saul didn't do that. And Samuel came along, and Samuel rebuked him, and actually it's from that point that we begin to see the fall of Saul. Samuel then kills Agag. Now, what makes that interesting is, that's 1 Samuel 15. In Numbers 24, now remember, Numbers, who is in charge in Numbers? Moses. So in Numbers 24, this is Balaam. In the prophecy of Balaam, the promised Messiah was said to be higher than Agag. To go from Moses and Balaam, then you have to go through the whole period of Joshua and the judges to get to the last judge, Samuel. and here's Agag. So obviously we're talking, this isn't the same Agag, right? But these are the Amalekites, these would be the Canaanites, and Agag is probably like Caesar or like Pharaoh, it was probably a title as much as anything, like we would say the king, this is Agag, this is Caesar, this is Pharaoh. That's kind of the consensus thought that probably that's what's happening here, that it may not necessarily be a name of a person. Now that's, the reason I'm pointing that out is where is Haman from? What is he identified as in verse one? He is an Agagite. Now, we're talking about approximately 600 years from the time of Samuel until you get to the time of Esther. I mean, it would be some, it's not 600 perfectly, but that's rounding off, all right? So, were there still Amalekites? Would there still have been somebody who could have been identified as an Agagite? We don't know. We can only simply say it's interesting that you have someone who is of the tribe of Benjamin, Saul, who had an issue around a Malachi king called Agag. Now here we are some roughly 600 years later, and the person who is placing the Jews in danger is an Agagite. We can't really be dogmatic about this, but let me just kinda give a little more color from history, and then hopefully be able to make a case, all right? Whitcomb says this, the fact that Haman is introduced here as an agagite has caused many modern scholars to question the historicity of the account, for it would seem highly improbable that a descendant of a Malachite king executed by Samuel in the Promised Land nearly half a millennium earlier could turn up here as a Persian official. Kyle and Delitch fame, those of you who may know those commentaries. Caution that the name Agag is not sufficient for the purpose of identification as many individuals might have at different times born that name. It simply means fiery, is what Agag means. Opert suggests, this is another author, suggests that there's an inscription from the time of Sargon of Assyria This would have been 725, so this is about 250 years roughly before. That mentions Agag as a place in Medea, Medes and Persians. Media was a part of what later became known as just Persia. And so if that's true, maybe that's simply saying he's from this place, this place in media called Agag. It was a town, and he was from that town. That's possible. To try to think about what is this here for, let me make a suggestion. And again, this is where I can't be dogmatic, but I can say that it's, though I can't be dogmatic, it's difficult for me to think that it's just a coincidence. that we have a man raised up to power who is so bent out of shape at Mordecai that he wants to kill all the Jews. And that Agag is associated with his name because of the echo all the way back to the time of Balaam and then to the time of Saul and Samuel. So, could it have been that in the providence of God that he raised up Haman from Agag, and that though this is not a reference to being an actual Amalekite, again, this is me just simply thinking out loud here, all right, could it be that in the providence of God he raised up Haman, identified as someone who was an Agagite, because it would have brought to the front of the minds of the Jews the conflict that existed before, because what was the issue? What did the Amalekites want to do? They were the enemies of Israel, and they wanted to kill the Israelites. And God delivered them. He delivered the Israelites from the Amalekites. Here we have a man who's identified as an Agagite. However that identification came about, it would be a reminder, it would be an echo that if God could deliver them hundreds of years before from the Amalekites, can God deliver them from Haman and the Persians? I mean, that's really the question here, isn't it? Now, let me take this a step further. What's the issue at hand? The king says everyone is to bow down to Haman. Mordecai refuses to do that. The issue is not initially with Mordecai and Haman. It is with the king's, you know, those at the gate, the king's servants at the gate who see that Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman. Haman probably, you know, who's Mordecai? He's not paying attention and he walks by or however they come into proximity to each other. But the king's servants see it and say, hey, why didn't you bow down? You're supposed to bow down. And his reference is, I'm a Jew. That seems to be his excuse, I'm a Jew. This, I think, is one of the ways that in the book of Esther we see the subtle identification that we wish would be more in our face, because it doesn't mention God, it doesn't mention prayer, but why would the reference that he is a Jew, why would that resonate with those of us that are reading it, you know, hundreds of years later? Yes, and do we have examples of people that Mordecai would have known of in Babylon that did not bow down? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So there was this prior example of people that would not bow down. So there is an assumption. Again, it's not explicitly stated, but there's an assumption that it wasn't just Mordecai, that the Jews, generally speaking, would not bow down, and that there was some agreement, whether it was formalized or not, that would not require the Jews to bow down. And the reason that may be possible here is because we know that when you get to the Roman Empire, The Roman Empire did give certain license to the Jews that they would not give to other people groups in the Roman Empire. They were not required to burn the incense to Caesar, which was a form of worship that everybody else in the Roman Empire had to do every year. It was an agreement that, well, we know the Jews, and they serve one God, all right, fine, we'll give you guys a pass. But everybody else, you gotta do this. Doesn't mean they couldn't pay, that they were exempt from taxes, but this one act, all right? So, could it be that there was something like that in the Persian Empire? Very possibly, or maybe it's just that the Jews would not do it. We do know that Mordecai would not bow, and we can understand why he would not bow, because that would be worship, and he wasn't going to worship the king. So we can understand that. But I want to suggest something else, and we didn't read it here, but when we go further, Let me read verse 7 for you. In the first month, that is in the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast pure, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar. Let me suggest one more thing for you tonight. As we're talking about the providence of God, so there would be an echo on the front side about, here you have Haman, who was an Agagite. So there would have at least been an echo about how God delivered them from the Amalekites. How did Haman determine when the death sentence would actually happen? I mean, he's seeking that all the Jews be killed, but is it a general, we're going to kill them, go kill them. What does he do? He casts a lot. That is dice. I mean, they're throwing dice. And they do this on the first month of the year. And from a historical standpoint, the Persians, many of these pagan peoples, believe that the first month of the year was the month when all the gods got together and they discussed the fate of men. So you've got this big conclave of gods and they're deciding what's gonna happen this year to men. What are we gonna do to men this year? Setting it down in stone, if you will. When is the date chosen for them to be killed? It's in December. Well, it's the 12th month. We would say December. The 12th month of the year. Now, when you look at the Jewish calendar and you look at the Persian calendar, there are two observations here. The 12th month is leading up to Passover. So let's think about it this way. Instead of in the first month of the year, we're gonna kill the Jews, just go do it, we have to wait and figure out what is the day the gods would have us do this? It's the 12th month. That's a lot of time for the Jews to get ready, isn't it? That's a lot of time for the Jews to maybe come up with a way to change the mind of the king. I mean, why was it from the first month to the 12th month? I think that's the providence of God. Again, we're just making the observation in the book, this is what happened. But was that an accident? No, this was the hand of God, I think. In a subtle way in the book, we're seeing the fingerprints of God who gives this opportunity for the Jews to have ample time to get this thing fixed. And we're going to see how that happens as we continue through the book. But let me ask you another question. What was Passover all about? If the 12th month is lining up with Passover, what was the Passover all about? And I'm going to suggest this tonight, and we'll keep building on this next week. So I just wanted to throw this out there for you. Passover was when God was judging the Egyptians. It was the final test, right? And we know the death of the eldest son and the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, and the death angel would pass over that house. Passover was all about God delivering His people from the Egyptians, which would have been an impossibility. They did not have the power physically to overthrow the Egyptians. And surely many of them would have died if they had tried, but here we find God in a miraculous way delivering His people from the Egyptians. Could there be, in the timing of all this, again that echo? Just as with Agag, God delivered the Israelites from the Amalekites, and just as with Egypt, God delivered them from the Egyptians, God is able to deliver them from the Persians. Now again, I'm just, this is not, when you're working through a book like Esther, as I've shared before, it's one of the reasons I've shied away, because it's like, I'm not really sure how to do this one. It is an observation that clearly we could see how this could be there. It doesn't explicitly say that, but again, we're simply looking for what we could discern as being the possibility of the fingerprints of God in a book that is giving us history, but it isn't really giving us any what we would consider biblical truth in the sense of this is what God did, this is what God said. They prayed and God answered. We just say, see, here's this guy and his adopted daughter and here's a hateful guy who wants to kill all the Jews and God delivers them. Well, they're delivered. We say God delivered them. But the book doesn't say God delivered them, it just says they were delivered. So we have to, I think, exercise some discernment here. And it's also interesting that they cast die. It's from the standpoint of seeing that the author, because, you know, who wrote the book of Esther? Mordecai? But you can see that the author Pir is the Persian word in verse seven, and you see he gives the interpretation, the lot. Because that's what Pir, it's actually probably Pirru, who knows how you actually say it, that was the Persian word, but it means the cattle lots. And there was an excavation some time ago, that they found in Sousa. These die with the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. I think those are the numbers that were on it. could very well have been the very, maybe not the very ones they used, but the copies of the very same kind of die that they would have cast. And so they, you know, divining the will of the gods, somehow whatever numbers came up, they could discern what that was. So, I guess what I'm saying here is, We look at this and we wonder, you know, who is Haman? How did this come to pass? Why did he have such a chip on his shoulder against Mordecai and the Jews? I think clearly this is the spiritual warfare that's behind it. The devil, you know, seeking to kill all the Jews. He's been after them anyway because he knows what that prophecy said. But, from the human perspective, God delivered them, just like He delivered them from the Amalekites, even as an Agagite, just like He delivered them from the Egyptians, the date is going to be near Passover. So at least those would be the echoes. So we have a lot more to say, and I did kind of skip over some things there, but I wanted to make sure we could cover that much tonight. Let's close our time in prayer. Father, I thank You for the opportunity we have to study the book of Esther. And Lord, I know that it's not quite like other books that we study where we can so explicitly see references to You and to the men and women of God who responded to circumstances by in prayer and application of scriptural principle. Lord, this is a book that doesn't show all of that to us. And yet it is a book in Scripture that is demonstrating that the promise You had made to deliver the Jews In spite of their unfaithfulness, you followed through, and you did exactly what you said you would do. And Father, we can take great comfort in that in our day. And Lord, help us simply to exercise biblical discernment as we look at these texts, as we try to carefully think through them, and to be able to acknowledge your fingerprints in those areas, though not spoken of explicitly, but would seem to, at least in our minds, clearly point out how you were orchestrating all these events to to not only deliver the Jews, but most importantly, to demonstrate even for us today who you are and that you are the loving and gracious and faithful God. So we thank you for how you have given us passages like this to think through. Help us now to honor you with our prayer time tonight. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.