We celebrate in our lives what we want to remember. We teach our kids to celebrate what we want them to remember. We do holidays, Thanksgiving, to remember how the Lord was kind to our nation and provided for those pilgrims at the end of their first year. We celebrate Christmas to remind our kids that so much of the world revolves around the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and certainly so much of the year does indeed revolve around Christmas, doesn't it? I mean, it's February when you start getting Christmas gift requests. Dad, I know Christmas is not yet, but just so you know, I have this list. It's alphabetized. Subject to change. I did every other line so I can add things later. It's February. I just a little bit, but if you think of your own house, you probably have a whole section of your own house devoted to Christmas supplies. Some of you might have a whole wing of your house devoted to Christmas supplies. You alphabetize your Christmas trees by season. You have all of your decorations by age. You know, you've got Let's say three or four kids, and each one only gets one new decoration every year. And you're like, well, they're 15, 17, and 19 now. That's 4,322 decorations. I mean, it's a massive undertaking. And it's worth it, isn't it? Because Christmas brings you... Does anyone have their Christmas tree up already? Anyone brave enough to, before Thanksgiving? There's probably a federal law against that, but I was just curious. I mean, there's so much of the celebration that goes into us looking forward to that period of time. And ditto with Easter, of course, the celebration of the resurrection. We have Veterans Day, which is coming up. We'll celebrate that at Emmanuel next Sunday because we want to remember those that have served our country and to be thankful for those in this life that have served our country. We have Memorial Day for the same purpose, to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. And we want our kids to remember them. We live in Washington, D.C. I mean, it was for years I still got blown away. Coming up 395 around Glebe Road and you turn there towards the Pentagon and there is the Washington Monument just staring back at you. And I remember asking Christian Pinkston once when he was driving me up 395, I said, how long do you live here before you stop getting just, you know, floor that's right there looking at you? And he's like, What's looking at you? Like the monument. Which one? The Washington? Oh, well apparently less than he'd lived here. I mean, it's just, we have, our city is built around those basic celebrations of there are people that we want to remember. There are events we want to remember from the World War II Memorial and all, which commemorates all the different states and territories that sent soldiers to the war. It's structured in that way. So you recognize this was certainly a national endeavor. to the Washington Monument constructed in such a way to show that he has a unique influence over our nation and his shadow is cast over all, to Abraham Lincoln who's staring, keeping his eye on Congress all the way over there, those villains down in Congress. I mean, each of these monuments is structured in such a way so you remember those basic points. Thomas Jefferson with his back to D.C. I mean, he doesn't care what's going on there, he's looking out elsewhere. We commemorate what we want our children to remember. This is certainly the point of the book of Esther. Esther doesn't fit in with the rest of the Bible. The Feast of Purim, which is celebrated, doesn't fit in with the rest of the Bible. This is a feast here that is not prescribed in the Torah. It's not something that is commanded to do by God's law. There's the Feast of Tabernacles, of course. There's Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. There's Passover. Those are the feasts that the Torah prescribes, and the Jewish calendar works around those. And then this one is added 500 years later. We're just gonna tack this one on here for you. The Feast of Purim. And it will be celebrated because it, in many ways, captures the way God works in the world. The Feast of Purim is celebrated every year by the Jews, February or March. the month of Adar, the 14th and 15th. It's a two-day feast. We looked at that last week to understand why that was, but the bottom line is in the capital, they got a second day to celebrate because the news couldn't travel to the rest of the empire that quickly, but it could get to the capital. They got to expand, and so it is a two-day feast to this day. The Jews celebrate this as a holiday. It's, I think, like March 8th or 9th this year, somewhere in early March this year, or in 2021. It's a two-day holiday. Jews always celebrate with the first day as a day of fasting, and the second day as a day of feasting. Because if you remember the story, it was a day of eager expectation the first day. They didn't know who was going to attack. They were armed, and they were ready for armies to come against them, but they didn't know how many would come against them. And so it was a day of worry and a day of concern and a day of eager expectation of what would happen. And the second day became a day of feasting and celebration when they recognized that they were going to be victorious. They recognized they did have the upper hand over their enemies. God delivered their enemies into their hands. Now, of course, we looked at this last week. They did not take the plunder of their enemies. They left that, they didn't profit off of it. But instead they did, and verse 19 says of Esther 9, have a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and they send gifts of food to one another, and that still happens to this day. You fast on the first day of Purim, the second day you feast and you send gifts of food. packages, care packages, you bring them. It's, in a sense, almost like Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, where you get together with families, and different families bring different kinds of food for that, and you fill out the feast. It's an all-day affair, so to speak. That's how they celebrated Purim. The feast begins with the reading of the book of Esther at the night of the evening on the first day, a reading of the entire book of Esther. And we can start in verse 20 here, because it's summer. I won't read the whole book of Esther so that you celebrate tonight, because you got the idea, right? But you get the Cliff Notes version here, or I guess to modernize that, the Wikipedia notes here in verse 20. Mordecai recorded these things, all that happened in the book. He sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far. There's that phrase he looked at this morning in the book of Ephesians chapter two. It's all over the Bible, near and far. Near are those that are in fellowship with God. Far are those who are outside of the covenant, outside of Israel's promised land. There are Jews in the dispersion. They get invited to this feast. Those at the end of chapter eight, who were converted, chapter eight, verse 17, who were converted out of fear of the Jews, they get invited to this. Obliging, verse 21 of chapter nine, says them to keep the 14th day of the month of Adar and the 15th day of the same year by year as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies. And as the month that had been returned on them from sorrow into gladness, from mourning into a holiday, that they should make them the days of feasting and of gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. That's this holiday. Remember, Esther is all about the great reversal. Everything in the book of Esther is the reversal. The queen at the beginning is not there at the end. Esther, who is no one at the beginning, is the queen at the end. Mordecai, who's really no one of that importance at the beginning of the book, is exalted at the end. Haman, who's this... High as they go is dead and impaled on his own pole at the end. Everything in this book is reversed. The Jews were persecuted, they end up exalted. They were about to lose everything, they end up gaining everything. Everything in this book is reversed. And that's what you see described in verse 22. Sorrow, just in the broad sense, forget the characters being reversed. The main point is that sorrow is turned into joy. Mourning became a holiday. And this is the prophet Isaiah describes it as beauty for ashes. That God takes repentance and gives joy. That's certainly what the Feast of Purim celebrates. That God takes the brokenness and the humility and the fasting and turns it into joy and gladness and feasting. I mention this is a unique holiday because it's not described in the Torah, but it is prescribed here in the book of Esther for everybody to follow for all time, it says repeatedly, and we'll see that phrase again down at the end of verse 28. They should keep the Feast of Purim, and they should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days ever cease among their descendants. In other words, this will be forever and ever is the idea. So it becomes the fourth feast. I talked to a Jewish person last week who told me, you know, all the Jewish holidays can be summed up this way. They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat. And that's certainly the way the Feast of Purim works. They get together for the reading after the The reading of the book of Esther, and I'm sure many of you know this, it's a exuberant reading. People are dressed like the characters. They dress up in historic costumes. They dress like Esther or they dress like Mordecai or even Xerxes. They dress up differently. Nobody would dare dress up like Haman though. And you know when everybody, when Haman's name is read through the book, everybody boos and hisses. And they have these noisemakers right here. And they use them whenever Haman's name is meant. It sounds like this. Can you hear what I'm saying? So that you can't hear the word Haman when it's said. So whenever Haman's name is said, the noisemaker, well sorry, whenever it's said, the noisemaker happens. And so the idea is that you have no, his name's not even worth saying. It just gets ground out and you can imagine a room full of kids that have fasted all day being handed the noise maker. So you can eat as long as you make that sound whenever somebody says the word Haman. It's really a joyous and riotous celebration. It ends with eating the cookies that we will end our evening service with. Now, I was calling them cookies. I had never really laid eyes on them until tonight. As I mentioned, they're much bigger, but they are, depending on what tradition you follow, they either represent Haman's hat, they have three corners, and supposedly Haman wore a three-cornered hat, and so you eat his hat. However, the Jews that I have talked to said, that's what's in a lot of dictionaries, or encyclopedias, the hat. The Jews that I talked to hadn't heard that thing. They say when they grew up, it was all about the ear. It was eating the ear and the jelly would come out or the poppy seed would come out. And you can imagine kids taking joy in eating Haman's ear. That'll teach him. Throughout the reading, people will chant, cursed by Haman or blessed by Mordecai. And of course, all the kids, you say, cursed by Haman, make the sound and blessed by Mordecai. And it was an edict on the second day that you were supposed to feast and drink until your speech was slurred so much that cursed by Haman and blessed by Mordecai sounded the same. That's what Josephus said. Josephus said in the Feast of Purim, the Jews were known for such a raucous celebration that the phrase cursed by Haman and blessed by Mordecai did become indistinguishable. And that's when the feast was over. I mentioned last week that there are many rabbis who decree that Purim is the one day of the year where it's acceptable to be drunk. Now, we don't prescribe to that in the New Testament, of course. You should not be drunk with wine, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. And yet many Jews to this day still maintain that celebration for that reason. Now, the point of the celebration of the Feast of Purim is not to eat delicious cookies and to slur your speech so that you can't tell the difference between cursing and blessing. But the point is somewhat to demonstrate or reverse it. I'll give you two lessons from the book of Purim tonight. They're not on the screen so you're just gonna have to go old school and write them down as you hear them. The Feast of Purim teaches us two lessons. The first is that God's hand is hidden. God's hand is hidden. This feast, which in many ways has become the Jewish Mardi Gras, does have an actual theological lesson to it. That behind all activity in the world is the hidden hand of God. The word Esther, we looked at this last week, even comes from the Hebrew word which means to conceal or it means to hide. Deuteronomy 31 verse 18 says, I will surely, this is Yahweh talking, I shall surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done because they have turned to other gods. Deuteronomy 31 prophesies that God will hide himself from his people. They will not be able to find him. They will look and they will not see him. His face is hidden. It's interesting that Deuteronomy 31 says his face will be hidden. So much of Purim hinges on the hand being hidden. Since you don't know exactly what God is doing but you know that he is doing something. You know that he is at work. You can pick this up in verse 23, the Jews accepted what they had started to do, what Mordecai had written for them. For Haman, the Agagite, the son of Hamadathah, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, he cast lots to crush and destroy them. Do you remember that Haman was so superstitious? When the emperor granted him the ability to annihilate the Jews, he didn't know when to do it. And so he took the lots and cast the lots to land on what month? And it happened providentially to be the month furthest away from him. Just happens to be that way. Imagine casting lots January 1st for when you can finally destroy your enemy. And they get a one in 12 chance here and the dice turn up December. You're like, oh, I have to wait all day. Can it be yesterday I did this? No, it's going to be the furthest point away from you possible. And that's what happened early on in the book when Haman cast the lots. And so remember, this book is all about the reversal. So the Jews named the feast Purim, in celebration of the fact that God caused the lot to fall in a certain way. God was looking out for his people. That's the feast of Purim, which Pur, which means the lot, to crush and destroy them. Verse 25, but when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that this evil plan that he devised against the Jews should return on his own head. There's the reversal plan again. and that his son and daughter be hanged on the gallows. Remember, the servant came to the emperor and said, hey, Haman built these giant gallows, put them on him, the king said. Therefore, they call these days Purim, after the term Pur for lot. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, what they had faced in this matter and what had happened to them, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them that without fail, they would keep these two days according to what was written at the appointed time every year. These days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation. It's all about the hidden hand of God. Queen Esther, verse 29, says the daughter of Abatheliel and Mordecai, the Jew, gave full written authority, confirming in the second letter about Purim. Letters were sent to all the Jews to 127 provinces of King Ahasuerus in the words of peace and truth that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons. And Mordecai, the Jew, and the Queen Esther obligated them. You notice that the author who is likely Mordecai here is just underlining, underlining, underlining this. You must do this. As they had obligated themselves and their offspring with regard to the fast and lamenting, the command of Queen Esther confirmed these practices of Purim. It was recorded in writing, a letter that went out to all 127 provinces. It's telling you, by the authority of the king, by the authority of the queen, by the authority of Mordecai, you have to remember the hidden hand of God. And there's an irony in this, that this is not from the Torah, because otherwise it would be God's hand telling you to obey this. But the fact that God's face in His hand is hidden, it falls to Mordecai's authority. Now the Spirit is inspired in Mordecai, it's in the Word of God. Here, nevertheless, that's why he's stressing this over and over again, is because God's hand is hidden now. It's hidden from the Jews. They're in exile. They're not back in Israel. They're not back in Jerusalem. They don't have a king. I mean, do you catch this? They don't have a king. The temple is being built. They don't have walls yet. There's no wall around Jerusalem. The people are very much being threatened. They don't know what God is doing. Nevertheless, God has demonstrated, not visibly, but in the background, that he is doing something. The point of the book of Esther, the lesson it teaches, is that the people may be outside of God's covenant. They may be outside of God's nation, but they are not outside of God's providence. They may be ashamed to pray, but God still directs their steps. God still directs their steps. I've mentioned this many times, but it's worth repeating. You remember the book of Esther is the only book in the Bible that doesn't say anything about God. The word God is not in here. The word Lord is not in here. The word Yahweh is not in here. There is no praying in here. There is nothing. There's no worship in here. There's no reading of God's word in here. There's nothing religious in this book at all. Which is obviously the point of the book. That his hand is hidden. His hand is hidden. Which remember is what the word Esther even means back from Deuteronomy 31 verse 18 from that word. It teaches you God's hand is hidden. The people don't see God, but it obviously doesn't teach you that God is absent when he's not seen. This is such a basic lesson for us to understand. Just because you don't see God working doesn't mean he's not working. God works all things according to the counsel of his will. And all things means? All things. God is always at work. Just because you don't see him working doesn't mean he's not working. He's always working. He's always maintaining all things by the power of his will. And the point of Esther, which is a helpful lesson for us today, is he is working especially when you don't see him. When you look at something, you're like, I wonder what in the world God is doing with that. There's no way God is involved with that. I mean, that is a monstrosity. This event right here, all the people fighting, all the strife, all the, whatever event you want to choose in there, you're like, there's no way God is at work in that. Nope, none at all. That's exactly the kind of thing God's at work in. That's the point of the book of Esther. Of course, how is God at work with a pagan queen getting fired from her job from not coming and bowing before the king when he's called at the end of a six month feast? You think God cares about that? Oh, absolutely, Esther says. Absolutely. This is a theme that is all over the Old Testament, of course. That's why it's so fitting for the Jews to have a feast that celebrates this. Esther and Mordecai are both descendants from Rachel, the mother of That line that leads to Esther and Mordecai, you remember we meet Rachel. She herself is hidden. She was supposed to be married to Jacob. Her sister went in her place. Leah shows up, not Rachel. You would think Rachel would cry out, wouldn't you? You think Rachel would say, hey, that's my husband. Back off, sister. But she doesn't. She remains hidden. She remains off the screen, backstage, because if she were to speak out, that would bring shame on her sister. That would bring shame on her father. She just rolls with it, waits seven more years to be married. Seven more years after that. She knows how to hide. And even she hides her own disappointment. Joseph, from that same line, hidden, wasn't he? His brothers conspired to kill him. Very foundational point. His brothers conspired to kill. In fact, you can flip over and look at this. It's Genesis 37. It's worth the walk over here. Genesis 37, where the brothers conspired to kill Joseph. Verse 12, his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. Israel said to Joseph, aren't your brothers pasturing the flock of Shechem, Israel? being Jacob, of course, come, I'll send you to them. And so he goes and says, here I am. Well, the brothers get together and they conspire. They decide, you know, we've had it with Joseph. Verse 18, they saw him from afar. Before they came near him, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes the dreamer. Speaking of Joseph, come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Apparently there's these pits out there. There's many of those still today around the Dead Sea. Perhaps it was that kind of area where the ground opens up. When we were there, when I had a group from Emmanuel in Israel just last year, I guess now, we almost got stuck at the Dead Sea because one of those pits opened up in the middle of the highway and the road was closed, so we had to go fix it. You fall into that thing, you're not getting out. I mean, it's over for you. So the brothers are conspiring. Let's kill Joseph and throw him into the pit. That becomes their plan. Well, the brothers get together and Reuben has an affinity for Joseph. So he says, you know what? How about I want to rescue him? So let's not take his life, he says in verse 21. Secretly, he thinks he's going to go back and rescue him out of the pit. Shed no blood, he says, verse 22. Throw him in the pit in the wilderness. Don't lay a hand on him. Thinking that Reuben will sneak back later and rescue him out of the pit. Well, it doesn't work out well because Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe that they hated, the robe of many colors, they stripped it off of him. They took him, they threw him in a pit in order that he would die of starvation there. That was the goal. There was no water in it. While they sat down to eat, Reuben apparently sneaks away to go fish him out of the pit, and they see some slave traders coming. Judah, verse 26, says to his brothers, what profit is it if we tell our brothers to conceal his blood? Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites. That way our hand won't be upon him. If he starves, that's going to be hard to sleep tonight, knowing your brother is starving to death in a pit. So let's just sell him as a slave. That's a much nicer way to go, which is pretty twisted logic, isn't it? I mean, it's greed all over. It's not to help his brother. You know, to help you. Brother, to help you. We're going to sell you as a slave to Ishmaelites. They just want to sleep more soundly at night and get some money. And so they do that. They lift him, verse 28, out of the pit. They sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. Joseph goes off to Egypt, Reuben gets back, tears his clothes. The boy's gone, he says, where shall I go? I mean, this whole plan has gone haywire. Everybody's plan is messed up here. They wanted to murder him, now he's a slave. Reuben wanted to rescue him, now he's gone. So they dip his robe in blood and tell his dad that he was attacked by wild animals. What a mess. He goes off to prison, he interprets prisoners' dreams. Remember, he goes off to prison because in secret he has integrity with Potiphar's wife, that's Genesis 39. What is God doing? Why does God take this boy who has the promise of the Savior coming into his family through Judah, of course, not through Joseph, but the promises coming through them, and do this to him? It's all to put him in Egypt, of course. He becomes friends with Pharaoh and he prophesies the famine. But this is a horrible, a horrible event. Put in prison for years. Separated from his family. Sold as a slave. They tried to murder him. But I want you to flip now to Genesis chapter 50. The end of the book of Genesis. Verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, This is long, long decades later. Joseph knows the brothers are alive. Joseph knows what the brothers did to him. Joseph's in power. He's the prime minister, so to speak, of Egypt. He can avenge what they did to him. They said, he's gonna pay us back for all the evil we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father told us that his deathbed wish was that you not kill us. Dad had a message for him. He's on his deathbed, so you have to honor it. Please don't kill us. Well, Joseph... I mean, it's kind of a sad thing that they think so little of Joseph they would do that. But look at verse 19. I mean, that's the line right there. That's it. Joseph looks back on his life and he looks back on his 11 brothers, probably 10 at the time, brothers grabbing him and going to kill him, going to throw him in the pit. They're going to murder him. And they fish him out and sell him as a slave. Then he has integrity and is put into prison. And at what point in that would you say, I give up, God? God is clearly not answering prayers. He's innocent. He did nothing wrong. And his family tried to murder him and he ends up in prison. I mean, you just file every story in your life that why do bad things happen to good people, file it into this category. What is God doing? Somebody says, I can't believe that God exists because look at all the human suffering that's going on in this world. Just staple the Joseph story to it. And look how Joseph responds. Joseph doesn't say, God must have checked out. God must not have seen this. I can believe in God even though he doesn't care what's happening to me. That's not what Joseph said. Joseph said, I believe in God because I know he was working through it. You meant it for such wickedness, but God meant it for good. This is the story of Esther. You can flip back to Esther, chapter nine. This is the story of Esther. That God is at work even when you think it is only evil operating. It is God who is at work. Think of something awful and wicked that has happened in your life, and can you legitimately say, this is the Lord working? Because Joseph could. The Feast of Purim is about that, that God delivers his people. And he does so through a lot, which is just the cherry on top of this. Like it's almost two on the nose, that through all of this providential intervention, God delivers the Israelites through the rolling of dice, the casting of the lot. That's going to be the lesson. It's Proverbs 16, 33. The lot is cast in a lap, but every decision is from Yahweh. Of course God is operating behind the curtain, off stage. He's going to deliver his people, not with a public miracle, but with private providence. There's a good lesson for this from us before we go to our second point. Don't be obsessed with trying to find out God's will for your life. Being trying, you know, you're, I think a college student is trying to choose between this school or that school, People in the military, should I take that opportunity or that opportunity? You can get so hung up on that and which one is right and which one is God's will for my life. Understand that God is at work through your choices. God is at work no matter what is happening. If you seek to honor Him and you seek to pursue Him, He'll be at work for your good. And if you seek to avoid Him and you seek to run after Him, He'll be at work for your humiliation. But God is at work. You're not going to discover the secret will of God. His hand is hidden. His hand is hidden. You serve him with a clean conscience and you make the best choices you know how and know that God is at work in the background. It's how Mordecai operated. He stood up for the king and not knowing how he'd be rewarded. And that little one act of courage early in the book is forgotten and then it ultimately ends in his enemy being killed. That's the way God works. The dice do come from the hand of the Lord. As believers, we don't roll dice to make decisions. We trust the Lord and we make choices because we have wisdom that obviously Haman didn't have. God's not going to tell you what job to take. You're not going to get a voice from God telling you who to marry or what house to move into or what city to go. God will open the right opportunity at the right time. And if you use wisdom and you embrace coincidence, you embrace providence, then your life will be led by the will of the Lord. You have to look beyond the mundane things in life to recognize that God is at work backstage. So the first lesson of Purim, that God's hand is hidden. Just because you can't see the handwriting on the wall doesn't mean there's not a handwriting on the wall, right? The second lesson of Purim, God's hand is hidden. The second lesson, God's hand is also revealed. And that's the point in chapter 10 here. I've got to read into it a little bit, but that's what we're here for. King Ahasuerus imposed a tax on the land. And this is the credits. This is like, you know, the end of the movie where you get like the real person picture next to the actor. You know, here's the actor. Here's the real person. And here's what they're doing today. He's a realtor. He wrote a best-selling book. Here's where he is today. That's chapter 10 here. King Ahasuerus, the story's over, but here's what happened. King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlines of the sea. Well, thanks for letting us know. He taxed everybody. He gets rich. The rich get richer. It's true with him. And all the acts of his power and might and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, they're written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia. Remember I mentioned this morning, where is that book? You can't find that book, nobody cares, that book is gone. But Mordecai, the Jew, was second in rank to the king. The king was powerful enough, he could tax everybody, but Mordecai was second in command. He was great among the Jews, popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people. Notice he's missing from the credits, by the way. Esther, where'd she go? She wasn't at the beginning of the book, she's not at the end of the book, Just like the theme of the book, she has been hidden now. She was out front and worked for the Jews' deliverance and now she is backstage again and she is hidden. Mordecai, though, will be remembered. Mordecai worked for the welfare of his people and spoke peace to his people. This is the other side, the other hand, so to speak, of the lesson from the book of Esther is that God's hand is not only hidden, God's hand is also revealed. Esther has to be paired, just like Thanksgiving is paired with Christmas in our mindset, that one comes to the other. The Feast of Purim has to be paired with the Feast of Passover. Even Jews recognize that they are mirror images of each other, that they connect to each other, they expose what is happening. They're one month apart on the same date, but one month later. Passover, the celebration of how God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, how he sent the plagues upon the Egyptians, how he killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians, how he parted the Red Sea, and how Moses led them across the Red Sea. He drowned the Egyptians' army. And do you remember that Exodus? Chapter 3, that God says, I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all of the wonders that I will do in it. And then you will go. And on your way out, do you remember what God tells Moses? Every one of you take your neighbor's stuff. Ask them. Ask them for gold. Ask them for silver. I will give you favor and they'll give it to you. Ask them for their jewelry. Verse 22 of Exodus 3. Ask them for their clothing. You'll put them on your sons and daughters and you'll plunder the Egyptians. Well, as the story unfolds, do you remember how that actually happened? The firstborn died in every household. The people are mad at the Pharaoh for not letting the Jews leave. And so now every house has a dead kid in it. And now the Jews knock on the door and say, hey, can I have your gold and your silver and your jewelry and that nice coat you had and I'll leave? And of course they give it to him. They want them out of the country. So the Jews plundered all of the Egyptians. And they go off across the Red Sea with all the Egyptian wealth. This is the celebration of Passover, that God passed over punishing the Jews and instead poured out his wrath on the Egyptians and the Jews plundered them. Do you see how these two events are so similar? Not only they celebrated one month apart, both of their leaders rescuing people, both Moses and Mordecai second in command, so to speak, both were humiliated outcasts. Moses when he left Egypt after murdering someone, Mordecai when he was viewed as a traitor towards Haman, Both then strove to convince the most powerful emperor in the world, the pharaoh of Egypt or the king of the emperor of Persia, to let the Jews have deliverance. That was the plea of both Esther and Mordecai and the plea of Moses, deliver the Jews. Both did have deliverance, Passover. Deliverance was very obvious. The river is turning to blood. The sea is parting. The firstborn dying. This is dramatic and miraculous and personal intervention in history. Opposite of the way you see in Purim. Purim, there is no parting of the sea. There's no firstborn dying. There's no dramatic and miraculous intervention. It is all the culmination of providential threads coming together. God's hand is hidden in one and exposed in the other. I looked at a book this week by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman who wrote a book called The Shul Without a Clock, which is a Jewish pun. And it's about how these two holidays go together. Even to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Yom Kippur, he could even render that Yom Kippur, the day of the lot, and he shows their connection, that all of the Jewish holidays are a celebration of the different way God delivers. God delivers with a hidden hand, God delivers with a revealed hand, God delivers through blood. And God delivers here through Mordecai working for his people's peace. And of course, the book of Esther ends, they don't have peace. They don't have peace yet, do they? Mordecai's working for their peace. They don't have peace or not back in the land. You know what happens to King Ahasuerus after this book is done? Oh, it's dramatic irony is the category. King Ahasuerus gets assassinated by somebody. A plot that Mordecai didn't know about. And the emperor gets assassinated by one of his own people. I mean, if there was ever an emperor that had that coming, it was probably this guy, right? So Mordecai quits after that. Jewish tradition says that because the emperor was assassinated, he stepped down and resigned. Maybe shame that he didn't know, it's not recorded. So there's a new emperor on the scene. And the new emperor also wants a Jewish right-hand man because of how bold Mordecai was. And so he hires none other than Nehemiah. And that's the next book we will look at. But before we close and go to Nehemiah, in a few weeks or whenever we get to Nehemiah. I just want to focus a little bit more on the last verse of Esther. That Mordecai sought the welfare of the people. and he spoke peace to all of his people. That phrase, he spoke peace, that's from Isaiah 57. Again, we looked at it this morning, just in God's providence how much, I know it's my own mind because I'm preparing for both, but how Esther 10 and Ephesians 2 line up so well. Some of the phrases are just in both places, the near and far and the peace and the peace. Isaiah 57 referenced in both places. Isaiah 57 verse 19. Peace, peace to those who are far. Peace, peace to those who are near, says Yahweh. The one who seeks for peace, I will heal, but the wicked are like the tossing sea. They will have no peace, God says, for the wicked. Mordecai worked for peace, but he didn't have peace. His emperor was assassinated. Nehemiah comes on the stage. Nehemiah has to work for the peace of his people. He has to go take up arms to defend Jerusalem again. They still don't have a wall. They still don't have peace. They're not going to have peace throughout the rest of the Old Testament. They don't get peace. They get occupied. The Feast of Hanukkah is going to come up and be the celebration of another attack on Israel after these things, after these events. And then Jesus will come. And when Jesus comes, he does bring peace. Just think, after his resurrection, this is what he says to everybody when he sees him after his resurrection. To the disciples in the Emmaus Road, Luke 24, he says, peace to you, when he encounters them. John 20, verse 19, he speaks to the disciples, peace to you, he tells them. Peter in the Gospels, when Peter is preaching at the Feast of Pentecost, He says, peace to those who are near, peace to those who are far away. Quoting Isaiah 57, peace to those who are in Israel, peace to those who are in the dispersion, peace to Jews, peace to Gentiles. Acts chapter 10, Peter is summoned by Cornelius. The gospel is coming to Jaffa. The gospel is coming to the coast of Israel where all the Gentiles live. Cornelius goes and fetches Peter. What are we going to do? Gentiles are getting saved. And Peter comes to the Gentiles and remember what he tells them? Peace to those who are near. This is Acts 10 verse 36. Peace to those who are near and peace to those who are far away. Quoting Isaiah 57. The gospel brings peace. Peace that Purim didn't bring. Peace that Mordecai couldn't bring. Peace that only God can bring. Peace that Passover couldn't bring. Peace that only Jesus Christ could bring. It's interesting that Mordecai is remembered through all time as somebody who worked for the welfare of his people and spoke peace to his people. Paul begins most of his letters by saying, You know, we don't celebrate Purim. I mean, I suppose we could because Esther's fun to read. Noisemakers. They're fun. I suppose we could celebrate, there's no harm in it. The drinking part, there's harm in that. But other than that, there's no harm in it. The lesson we see fully on display in the gospel, Jesus is born and the hidden hand of God is revealed. As Jesus is incarnate, God in human flesh, the gospel made visible, the light of the world from the Feast of Tabernacles on the world. The Passover is completed with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Yom Kippur, celebrated in the blood of Christ, will bring peace to those who put their faith in Him. Lord, we're thankful that You are the Savior who brings peace to the world. You bring peace to Jews when they place their faith in you. You bring peace to Gentiles when they place their faith in you. We know that apart from you there is no peace, Isaiah says. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ, there is no peace for the wicked. It is true that it pleased the Father to crush the Son. It is true that God himself took on human flesh and bore our sins and bore our iniquity. The Lord was pleased with him as the voice from heaven declared. As the Spirit descended upon him at his baptism, the Lord was pleased with him at the cross. Because as Isaiah says, the Lord was pleased to crush him. We know through his death we have peace. We are no longer at strife. and enmity with God and man. Jesus brings peace on earth. That's the message of His birth. The culmination of the Jewish feasts are really revealed in Christmas. The light has made its dwelling among us and proclaims peace to those who put their faith in Him. I pray for those listening to this online and those that are here today. They would have peace with you. Peace that doesn't come through work. Peace that doesn't come through drinking. Peace that doesn't come from revelry, as we heard in the baptism testimonies. Peace that doesn't come from work and effort, as we heard in the testimonies this morning from the waters of baptism. A peace that comes only through resting in your finished work on the cross. Lord, we know your work in this world. We know your hidden hand is working all things. And so we give you thanks. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen. And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson. Thanks for joining us today. If you're in the Washington, D.C. area, I would love to meet you personally at Emanuel Bible Church. Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church. If you want information about the Master's Seminary and their Washington, D.C. location, go to tms.edu. I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness. May the Lord bless you.