The year had barely begun when a dark shadow fell over the Jews living throughout the Persian Empire in 474 BC. A decree bearing the king's seal had been circulated in every ethnic group, in every language of this vast empire. It authorized the mass extinction of the Jewish people on the 13th day of the last month of the year. Months of planning, months of preparation would ensure a thorough fulfillment of the decree. But now, the author of the decree is impaled upon a stake. or hanging dead upon a gallows. And the Jewish people have a champion in the Queen. She is one of them. And she appeals on their behalf before the King. He is supreme in the Empire. So if anyone can do anything to help, it is he. I want you to see firstly the demands upon the King's power. Esther herself, the Queen, a Jew, is relatively safe. She is in the palace. and she has won a victory of sorts as she has unmasked the enemy of the Jews and the king has had him executed. All that he had possessed, his vast wealth, is forfeit. His family get none of it, the king gets it all. And the king gave it to the queen. So her enemy is dead. His possessions are her possessions. And she is in the relative safety of the palace. But her people are still exposed. It might have been enough for Esther. She was safe. But what about her people? Could she risk another appeal to the king? And it was a risk. The opening verse of the second paragraph, verse 3, Esther spoke again to the king, makes it seem as though this was just the next step as they talked together over dinner perhaps. But it becomes apparent in verse 4 that she wasn't in the presence of the king. She once again had to come before the king and she once again had to risk his disfavor. Oh, this nagging woman. but he extends the scepter. Once again she wins the favour of the king. So we must understand that verse 3 is a kind of a summary of what then follows in verses 4 and following through to verse 8. of what took place in this appeal as she fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. So once again she's taken her life into her hands as she's gone into the king's presence without invitation hoping that she will find favour but not sure of it, perhaps more sure this time than she had been on the first occasion when she hadn't seen the king for a month. Here now she has found favour in her feasting with him and in her revelation of Haman's wicked heart. the king has taken her side and has demonstrated his love for her and so again she appeals to him and if we might paraphrase it as one commentator does and if it pleased the king if I am pleasing to the king she's saying look if you really love me if you really love me save my people hear my plea, do this thing that I request of you. And so Esther appeals for her people. How can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? She says, I may be safe, I may have been enriched through Haman's wealth, but I cannot see my people perish. And so she's asking the king to save her people from certain death. The decree that had gone out decreed that they could be killed, that they could be destroyed, that they could be annihilated. They were to be exterminated from every province of the Persian Empire. And so this is her request, save my people, save my people scattered all through your vast domain. The king had great power. He ruled the superpower of the world of that day. His army was vast and it had conquered many other nations. Kings and queens were subject to him. He had such great power and such great authority over a vast swathe of the known world. And she is asking that in every realm, in every part, in every province, her people should be saved by him. The original decree that had gone out was not for an army to go against a city. The original decree that Haman had devised was for ordinary people to rise up against the Jews, for neighbour to rise against neighbour. That was the kind of power that the king had. He had the power to command individuals to rise up against one another anywhere in his whole empire. And that is the power that the king must wield once again if he is to save the Jews from annihilation. The requested deliverance, you see, demanded a change of view, a change of direction in everyone in the empire. If neighbor was to rise up against neighbor, then those people must have a change of heart and must be given a change of direction. The king's power must be able to accomplish this. And of course the change of view of the people, the change of direction in their actions involved an acknowledgement by the king that the first decree that had gone out in his name and under his authority was not all that it should have been. And so we see here in this chapter not only the demands that Esther places upon the king's power, but it reveals also the limits of the king's power. For the king in response says to Esther and to Mordecai, I've given Esther the house of Haman, and I've hanged Haman on the gallows because he intended to lay hands on the Jews." One commentator suggests that perhaps Ahasuerus is saying, isn't that enough? You've had his wealth, you've had his life, isn't that enough? But he goes on to say, you may write as you please with regard to the Jews in the name of the king and seal it with the king's ring for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked. Now that last statement, an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked. That applies to what he's encouraging Esther and Mordecai to write, but it also applies of course to the decree that Haman had written, that an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked. In a sense, what Ahasuerus is saying to Esther and Mordecai is, my hands are tied. I may be the most powerful person in the empire of Persia, but my hands are tied. I may be able to command the people of the provinces, but you see, my hands are tied. A decree has gone out and that cannot be erased. It cannot be reversed. I cannot simply, it would appear, write a new decree saying I annul the last decree. That couldn't be done. That wasn't allowed. You'll remember that as we opened this series in the book of Esther and we observed the king at his great feast in which he was showing his wealth and his power to the nations and particularly to the commanders of his army as he prepared to go to war. On that occasion, the nation was so bound by laws and regulations, they even had laws about the way that the people were allowed to drink at the feast. Everything was governed by laws, and so there were laws that governed laws. There were rules that governed the decrees. There were traditions that were inviolable, that the king could make a decree, but once the decree was sealed with his ring, that was it. It couldn't be changed. It couldn't be undone. It couldn't be simply torn up and thrown in the bin. It stood forever. And so the king's power is limited by those former indelible decrease. And of course there is another limitation and that is the King's wisdom or perhaps it would be better to say the King's folly. That earlier decree had been conceived in hate by a man whom the king had trusted implicitly. He took Haman's word as truth. He didn't investigate whether the claims of Haman were real. When he accused an unnamed group of people scattered throughout the provinces of Persia to be at war with the king and a people not to be trusted, indeed to be annihilated. The king simply accepted it and he allowed Haman to have his ring and write a decree and seal it indelibly. and it decreed the death of an entire nation throughout his provinces. That was folly. And so the king, while he's the most powerful person in Persia, is limited in his power by the laws of the land and the traditions that have developed over the centuries. but he's also limited by his own lack of wisdom and care and insight into the heart of man. And so with these limitations of the king's power, a new decree would need to be written that would somehow counter the previous decree while it remained intact. not erasing it, not unknowing it, but doing something that would strip it of its obvious power to cause grief and death to the Jewish nation. And so, because this is obviously the way that Ahasuerus works, he hands over his ring and the king's scribes are summoned and Mordecai and Esther are encouraged to write as they see best with regard to the juice, to write in the name of the king and seal it with the king's ring. Is the king continuing in his foolish ways? Well, it may be. Maybe this is simply the way that King Ahasuerus operates. Perhaps it served him reasonably well up to this point in his life and he simply sees Haman as, you know, one little thorn, one little spike, one little problem that's been eliminated. Now we'll just carry on as we've done before. Or it could be that the king truly trusts Mordecai because Mordecai had saved his life when there was really no reason for him to speak, no motive for him to act, no reward gained from his service to the king and yet he had remained loyal to the king. He had seen Esther, he had seen her bravery, He had observed her wisdom in the way that she had handled Haman and his plot and brought it to light in the king's presence. And so it may be that the king trusts Esther and Mordecai with his ring and with his authority because he sees that they've proved themselves as wise people. Well they do prove themselves to be wise as they draft a new decree. A new decree that is in many ways similar to the old decree and draws, builds upon that old decree that gives the Jews power that previously they didn't have. while not annulling the previous decree. It gives the Jews strength, where previously they had no strength, against a strong opponent. They are essentially given the right to self-defence. There must have been something in the language of the first decree that implied they were not allowed to defend themselves. But now they are explicitly told that they may defend themselves. Actually, it goes a little bit further than that. This isn't just about self-defense, though it is certainly mostly about self-defense, that they are able to defend their lives. That's what the decree says. But then it goes on to use the language of the original decree against those who would rise up against them. To destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them. And then something surprising. Children and women included. and to plunder their goods. Now you may have a translation that suggests that the phrase children and women included is attached to the people who are being attacked But the more natural reading of the Hebrew is that it is the Jews who are able to kill, destroy and annihilate the entire family of anyone who would come against them. In other words what is happening here is that original decree sought the annihilation of the Jews. Anyone now who sought the annihilation of the Jews was in danger of annihilation themselves. So it wasn't simply a matter of the Jews defending themselves and repulsing an attack, they were given the authority in effect to judge and punish their attackers. To do to them what they would have done to the Jews. This in the scope of the book of Esther and in the scope of the Old Testament scriptures is the judgment of God falling upon the enemies of the Jews. to bring about their own destruction and annihilation, that their names should be remembered no more in the world. And so with great wisdom and care, Esther and Mordecai used the king's power within the limits of the king's power to give hope to the Jewish people. there's a limitation further on this that these defences were to be limited to one day, the very day on which Haman had decreed that the Jews should be killed, destroyed and annihilated, the Jews could defend themselves. not on any other day. They couldn't preempt the attack the day before, discovering who it was that was amassing arms that they might attack them on the 13th day of the last month of the year. No, they couldn't do that. It had to be a defending of their lives on the day and a judgment of their attackers on the day, limited to the day. And it couldn't extend beyond that day. This was the decree of the king. Now, of course, there's another limitation to the king's power in this regard. Even as this decree goes out through all the provinces, as the king's servants on their swift horses take the king's decree and post it in the public places all throughout the Persian Empire, there is still a limitation. All of this depends on the activity of the people. All of this depends upon the cooperation of the people. All of this depends upon the strength of the people to defend themselves and to punish their attackers. The king couldn't guarantee the salvation of the Jews. It wasn't a certainty that the Jews would be saved. It opened up a possibility of salvation that had never been there under the first decree. Now there was hope. And so we see in the third place the effects of the king's power. As Mordecai went out, well he's a different man. The last time we heard of Mordecai having been Near the King he was in sackcloth and ashes at the King's gate, mourning over the first decree. Now he's arrayed in royal robes of blue and white with a golden crown upon his head and a robe of fine linen and purple. He is now the Prime Minister. He now has the King's trust. that Haman had formerly had, and the king's position that Haman had formerly had, and Esther has given him charge of the possessions that Haman had formerly had. Mordecai's life has been turned around and as the people of the city of Susa particularly the Jews in the city of Susa witness this transformed Mordecai coming out from the presence of the king dressed so regally as though he were the king's son, they were shouting and rejoicing in Susa no longer weeping No longer sackcloth and ashes and mourning, but the city streets are filled with the shouts of gladness. There was light and joy in the hearts of the Jews. and wherever the command reached as it spread you can imagine the ripple effect as it were of when you throw a stone into a still pond and you see the ripples going out, well it would have been like that from Susa as the couriers went out into all the provinces And the Jews read this new decree and their hearts were light and filled with joy and they were so glad that now there was the possibility of salvation. That annihilation wasn't a certainty anymore. And there was feasting. There was a holiday throughout the empire. as this decree was read in the various towns and cities and villages of those 127 provinces. There's gladness and there's joy but there's another reaction, there's another effect of this decree and that is fear. There is fear among other people fear of the Jews had fallen on them, such that there were some who declared themselves Jews, that they began to act as the Jews acted, to do what the Jews did, to claim the God of the Jews as their God. Now there may have been those who simply did it as a self-perception exercise. And there will have been some who genuinely began to see that the God of the Jews was still active and he was still powerful and he was worthy of their worship and of their allegiance. So there is fear, a fear that draws some to a sense of foreboding but a fear in others that draws them to worship the God who is sovereign over all and is working for the Jewish people. So the King Ahasuerus has brought about a transformation in the Persian Empire. It's transformed the outlook for the Jews. Their outlook had seemed so dark previously. That shadow that had fallen over them as Haman's decree had gone out through the land is now shifting. And light is beginning to disperse the darkness. Months remain. before the 13th day of the 12th month arrives. And this gives them time, time in which now the Jews can prepare. They can prepare to defend their lives and their families and their homes against their enemies. But the king's power is still limited. It offers hope to them, but it doesn't offer them certainty. The shadow is beginning to live, but it's not eliminated entirely. But the King of Kings, with whom we have compared the King of Persia in this series through the Book of Esther, the King of Kings, on the other hand, offers a hope based on certainty. It's not wishful thinking. It's not simply a possibility. It is an absolute certainty. We saw the demands that were placed upon the king's power in Persia, how great his power was, what a king, what an emperor he was, how he was feared by the nations round about, and how his authority controlled the lives of the people in his vast empire. But the power of the King of Kings is absolute. The power of the King of Kings knows no limits. It is infinite. And the demands that are placed upon his power in order to save his people are great. because he must save the people who don't want salvation. He must save the people who are not worshipping him. He must save the people who are not seeking his glory or his praise. He must save the people who are at war with him. And this is what he has promised to do. Since man first rebelled against him in the Garden of Eden, he has held out as it were an olive branch to mankind and he gave a promise of a deliverer who would come and who would free them from the chains of their captivity to sin and rebellion against him. To be able to save a people who don't want to be saved. To be able to change the hearts of a people who are devoted to rebelling against him and following their own ways takes immense power. And while the king of Persia was limited in his power, the king of kings is not limited at all. He is infinite and He is self-sufficient. The salvation that He has decreed to bring to the people of this world is not dependent upon anyone else or anything else. The king of Persia depended upon the wisdom of Esther and Mordecai in drawing up a decree that would work against the former decree to bring salvation to the Jews. And he depended upon the willingness of the Jews and the preparedness of the Jews to take up arms against their neighbors who may attack them. And he depended to a certain degree on the fact that many people would no longer wish to attack them knowing that now their own lives and their own families and their own property might be forfeit as a result. He was so dependent upon the cooperation and the participation of others. But the King of Kings is dependent upon no one but himself. In his infinite sovereignty and self-sufficiency he has decreed that he will save. And the salvation that he would bring would entail him coming into this world and living as one of those who had rebelled against him. in order to stand in their place as their representative and to bear their sins and the punishment that it deserved. The King of Kings himself bore the judgment and received the curse in order to free his rebellious people from the sentence of death that they deserved. And while the effects of the king's power brought joy and gladness to the people, there was an uncertainty to it. It wasn't a done deal. Some may be saved, some may not be saved, who knew? But when the king of kings wields his power, And when he works to save those whom he has chosen to save, salvation is sure. It's not wishful thinking, it is a certain thing. And the people who trust in the King of Kings can rejoice, not simply in the hope of salvation, but in the certainty of salvation. It is theirs now. To those who cast themselves before the Lord Jesus Christ and appeal to God for mercy on the basis of Christ's sacrifice, they are pronounced just in the sight of God. clothed in the righteousness of Christ, washed in His blood which was shed as a sacrifice of atonement for their sins, they are reconciled to God now. They are adopted into God's family as His children now. They are given the gift of the Holy Spirit as a seal of their belonging to Him now. And it is all the certainty of eternal life. There isn't something in the future. It is something that has begun now and that can never end. It's eternal. And the salvation of God then is not something future, though it will climax in the future. It is something that is possessed now. as the Jews throughout the Empire of Persia returned to their homes rejoicing and feasting and taking a holiday on that day. The next day they would begin to pound their plows into spears and their pruning hooks into swords. so that they might defend themselves. And over the next few months, they would build their defences and they would prepare for the attacks from their enemies. And they would not know who will die on the 13th day of the 12th month, Adar, and who will live. But those who put their trust in the King of Kings The Lord Jesus Christ can know today that they are safe forevermore. So I appeal to you as those who are aliens, as those who are strangers and foreigners, as those who do not belong to the people of God, for fear of God bow to him. and claim allegiance to him, that you might become not only a citizen in his kingdom, but a child in his family, and he will extend mercy to you, and he will save. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that you're a God who is so full of mercy and compassion for this world, You sent your son so that he might be a deliverer for them and even to seek and to save the lost who didn't know that they were lost, the rebels who didn't want to be saved. And you continue to do that this day. And I pray that that might be true here in this room, even this evening, that you would save and save with that divine power against which no enemy can come and no other power can succeed and grant life eternal. In Jesus' name. Amen.