Esther - Week 6: A Dramatic Reversal

Erin Davis: My boys would love to celebrate Purim! Even though the story of Esther happened a long time ago, Jews still celebrate what God did in Esther’s life through the celebration of Purim, and they go into the synagogue and read the book of Esther aloud. 

Every time they read the name of Haman, they boo and hiss and make noise. That’s what my boys would love! After all that booing and hissing, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month on the Jewish calendar, Jews go back to the synagogue. 

They read the story of Esther again, but this time without the noise, without the boos, without the hisses because this time they’re not focusing on Haman; this time they’re focusing on the true center of the story: God! They go out from that place and celebrate; they give each other gifts, because it is a celebration that God intervened in the life of Esther to save His people!

As we wrap up this study, as we come to this final episode of the podcast, I don’t want us to focus on Haman, on Mordecai, or even on Esther. I hope that your focus has been targeted on the true center of the story: God! And as we’ve watched Him work in her life, He’s also at work in your life, even when you’re in circumstances you couldn’t control, even when you don’t yet know the end of the story, even when there are some people you would like to boo and hiss at . . . God is working! His providence will carry you through. 

Some friends have joined me once again as we finish this study. Our hope is that you have a renewed trust that God is working everything in your life for His good.

He has not forgotten you! He is writing the script for your life. He knows your story, because—ultimately—your story is part of God’s story!

Welcome back to the Women of the Bible podcast. I’m your host, Erin Davis, and I’m sad. It’s like the last night of Bible study when you know you’re not going to be together again for a little while. I have loved walking through the book of Esther with each of you. We’ve been walking through the study Esther: Trusting God’s Plan.

Ladies, our audience is familiar with yo. They’ve been listening to you, but tell them once again your names. I just want to go for the jugular. I’m interested in hearing what the Lord has done in your own heart through this study. So Carrie, we’ll start with you.

Carrie Gaul: I’m Carrie Gaul, and I’ve loved this study! It’s a book I’ve often read and loved but, Erin, it’s bringing a new awareness of humility and pride. Honestly, one of the things it’s done is show me how I’m like Haman in some really hard ways. 

I was talking with Dennis [her husband] the other night and I said, “I don’t want to be Haman! I want to be Esther! I want to be Mordecai!” But I’m seeing that [conviction] as a gift [from God]. Jesus is saying, “These are the areas, Carrie, I’m inviting you to walk with Me in places where you haven’t before.” So, yes, it’s been a great study!

Betsy Gómez: I’m Betsy, and I relate. I’ve studied Esther so many times, but on this occasion I’ve gained a bigger perspective of God’s sovereignty, of His invisible hand, how He’s moving, how He’s at work—even in the dark places.

And something that has really changed me is realizing that my heavenly citizenship determines how I act in this world. It was a very beautiful picture of how these people didn’t conform themselves to this culture, but they were ready to stand for what they believed and for their God, for where they really belong. 

Erin: I love that. Like you, Carrie, I’ve been convicted through this study. You know, I was involved in the process of creating this study, and I would have thought during that or before we did that, “Yeah, I trust God’s plan.” But while walking through the study in that phase and then again in this podcast, what is clear to me is, I do trust God’s hand in my life for big things. I absolutely trust Him to orchestrate the big “rocks,” the big pieces of my life. But in the daily, there can be this kind of low-level agitation. I think what the study has exposed is, that’s a faith issue! I need to trust the providence of God in my life in the daily. I don’t always do that.

You know, Esther is the heroine of this story; Mordecai is the hero. (They’re the human heroes of this story; God is the true Hero of every story!) Like you, I want to be an Esther; I want to be a Mordecai who just has this resolve, this peace, this humility because I trust God, because I trust the invisible hand of God in every piece of my life.

I’m grateful to have walked through this study with you, Carrie and Betsy. You’ve been fun to walk through it with. I’m grateful for the ladies who have been listening. I hope there are little pockets of women in coffeehouses and in living rooms and in church Sunday school classrooms that, this week, are having their last session of Esther.

Don’t you wish we could be flies on the wall in all those rooms and hear what the Lord’s done in all those hearts, but we have to trust the providence God, that He’s done it. We don’t have to know about it. 

We’re going to walk through the conclusion of Esther together in this session. What I hope we all walk away with is the fact that this is so much more than a book about the courage of a queen. It is about that, but there are all these other themes we’ve talked about: Haman’s explosive anger and all of the trouble that causes; that’s obvious here. We’ve talked about pride vs. humility, that’s an important theme here. Haman’s selfishness, of turning to the wrong counselors. Ultimately, we focused on the sovereignty and providence of God. 

But as we finish our study, I love to think about the woman who is on the other side of the microphone. Like me, she’s driving in her minivan and listening to this podcast, or she’s listening to this while she’s mopping the floor, or a group of friends who are listening together.

Here’s what I hope for her: I hope that she walks away with a renewed sense of hope that God is working, that He has not forgotten her, that He’s writing the script for her life. What we’re going to see here in this session, we’re going to see this dramatic reversal. 

All of us have circumstances in our own lives today where we would like a dramatic reversal, we would like things to change. And so, I hope women walk away from this just on the edge of their seats to see what God would do! 

Betsy: Amen!

Erin: Let’s walk through it. We’re going to pick it up in Esther chapter 8. What had happened—we’ll rapid-fire go through it. An edict had been issued that all of the Jews would be exterminated. There would be a genocide, really, was what was planned: men, women, children would be exterminated on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month on the Jewish calendar. 

Esther is given a position of power for “such a time as this.” She uses that position of power to intervene on behalf of the Jews, but here in Esther 8 that edict still stands. Some things have changed. You can tell that the tone of the situation is shifting a little bit, but that edict is still circled on the calendar in red. It’s coming! Let’s see what happens.

Betsy, would you read us Esther 8:8? We’ll just walk through this chapter.

Betsy: Sure. 

But 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.

Erin: That sounds like good news, but what had been issued was an edict for the extermination of the Jews. So we get this important piece of the puzzle here which is, even the king whose ear is turned to Esther now says, “Well, it’s been issued in the name of the king, and I can’t revoke it!” 

So again, we come to this crossroads where we think, Oh, no! This is so bad! I’ve stopped saying, “This can’t get any worse!” That’s a really dangerous thing to say, because it can . . . and it will. And there are several junctures here where we think, Oh no, this can’t get any worse! But could any human law stop the hand of God? No human law can stop the hand of God!

Betsy: Amen!

Erin: It’s true that Scripture encourages us to submit to our governmental authorities (see 1 Peter 2:13), it’s important that we submit to those things. But, man, I think culturally sometimes. You know, there are various laws that have been put in place in our culture in recent years that make me want to wring my hands a little bit! 

I can think of legislation related to abortion or marriage or school choice, some of those things that just make me fret! I come back to this story—and other places in Scripture—that remind me that God is not contained or cannot be stopped by the laws of man.

Betsy: Amen!

Erin: So it seems like this can’t be reversed, but Carrie will you read us verses 10–12? The king can’t reverse the edict, or he won’t, rather; what happens instead?

Carrie:

 He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud. In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them including children and women, and to plunder their spoil, on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar) (NASB). 

Erin: So, it’s a reversal of the edict. The edict had said almost those exact same words regarding the Jewish people: that they were to be killed—men, women, children—and that they were to be plundered. Here the king doesn’t retract that, but he gives the Jews the authority to enact that edict to their own benefit.

Betsy: Defend themselves!

Erin: They can attack others, they can defend themselves, they can plunder their attackers. I think that would stop a few attackers in their tracks; they know now what’s coming for them. We didn’t read it, but the undoing of Haman also happens in this chapter. Let us circle back to verse 7, thinking Ahaza . . . I can’t say it! I’m just going to call him Xerxes—both names are true!

Then King [Xerxes] said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews.” 

So Haman, who we talked about in the last session, constructed this massive gallows. Do you girls remember how tall they were? Eight stories tall. He is hanged on the gallows! And that’s not even the end of the story. We’ll read about it here in a little bit. So, you know, the good guys are winning, the bad guys are losing. 

My little guys, I’ll say to them all the time when they want to be bad guys, when they play . . . Betsy, do your guys want to be good guys or bad guys?

Betsy [sighs:] Ah, well, one wants to be good and the other one wants to be bad! 

Erin: Yes, that’s just the epic struggle! I say that all of boyhood is one continuous war game. I mean, it’s just like, “What are you prepping for?! I don’t know!” But I will say to my guys when they want to be the bad guys: “What happens? What are bad guys?”

“Bad guys are losers.” 

“That’s right! Bad guys are losers, because the bad guy always loses!” 

And that’s what happens here. Haman, the villain of the story, is hanged. And the edict? They’re allowed to defend themselves. I’m going to read us Esther 8:15–16.

“Then Mordecai [who’s Esther’s adoptive father; we see him humble, we see him prioritize the things of God] went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.” 

Don’t you love that? 

Betsy: Praise God!

Erin: They had “light and gladness and joy and honor!” And we could draw all kinds of parallels from just that verse to other places in Scripture because the Jews, of course they had light, they had the light of the world. And they had gladness and joy and honor.

And in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them (8:17).

People are getting converted! I mean, they go from targeted enemies of the state, outcast, marginalized to celebrated, crowned—“gladness, joy, light.” People want to become Jews because they want to be a part of this. What a dramatic reversal! I want to stand up in my seat and cheer! (but I won’t.) What jumps out at you about what’s happened at this point?

Betsy: Well, I keep saying this: it’s a beautiful picture, and it reminds me of what happened with Jesus on the cross.

Carrie: Amen! It’s the gospel.

Betsy: Yes, that great reversal! Like, when everything’s dark you think, Everything’s lost! No hope! We can’t escape; there’s nowhere we can turn!” Then the Good News comes! How incredible! 

Erin: “Bursting forth in glorious day!” He comes out crowned, wearing a robe and a sash. I mean, the gospel parallels are so many, many, many, many!

Carrie: Yes, I think of Ephesians, where we’re called “enemies of Christ,” (see Eph. 2:12), and we’re separated from the covenant, separated from Him. Then we’re brought into Christ, and now we have His robe of righteousness! Isaiah tells us we’re adopted as sons and daughters of the King, brought into the family!

And in the presence of God, there’s rejoicing. There’s joy in the presence of the Lord (see Luke 15:10). What a picture of the gospel! 

Betsy: I have this quote from Charles Swindoll; it says: 

Esther is a story of triumph that arose from tragedy, the ecstasy that sprang from the agony, a celebration that arose from devastation! [And I love how he closes!] This may be your story!

Erin: It is our story, for the people of God!

Carrie: It is! 

Erin: It’s good for us to remember often: we were condemned! We had no way out from the condemnation. There was a day coming when we would be destroyed . . . and yet . . . there’s this dramatic reversal! 

Betsy: Yes, because the enemy thought that he was appointed to kill, destroy . . . but Christ! Praise God!

Erin: Ahh, I love that! “But Christ!” Yes, wonderful. If the story ended here, that would be so sweet, but it just kind of gets better and better and better. In chapter 9, they institute this Feast of Purim to celebrate. Betsy, I want you to read us chapter 9, verses 1–2, because as we were talking about this chapter you said, “I love these verses.” I do, too.

Betsy: Yes. 

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.

Erin: If you’re reading along with us, grab a pen and circle that: “the reverse occurred.” The reverse occurred. It’s the split-second timing of God! I mean, I am confident that Esther and Mordecai would have like the triumph to have come sooner than this.

They’d been praying; they’d been fasting. They’d known this was coming, but it happens on the exact day that the edict was to be carried out. That’s the split-second timing of God. I think sometimes we pray, and we think, God, I’ll know it’s You if you provide x number of dollars beyond what we need, or if You provide this many months before I need . . . 

And yet, He is such an on-time God. To me, that speaks to His sovereignty. I mean, His timing is so perfect! And so here it is . . . the reverse occurred! 

If we were watching this on a movie, this would be like after the credits roll. You start to get up from your seat, you grab your tub of popcorn and then, “Oh! There’s a little more movie!” We find out in verse 14 that the ten sons of Haman were also hanged. Haman had been hung, and now his ten sons are also hanged on the gallows.

We don’t hear what happens to Zeresh, but can you imagine?! Husband hanged, tens sons hanged. There’s another little thread there that we can pull on, the generational impact of sin and of pride.

I’ve said this many times: The thing I hate most about my sin (I can’t talk about it without choking up!) is that it puts shrapnel into the hearts of my children. I hate that about my sin! I hate that my four little boys are walking around with sin-shrapnel in their hearts because of me! And the Lord will just have to redeem it.

There’s truth here that the impact of Haman’s pride ultimately puts a noose around his own sons’ necks! I just thought for a minute, if we could speak to . . . You’re a Grammy, Carrie. Maybe you could speak hope into my situation? Because it just feels like as much as I love them, I’m just contributing to brokenness—just the impact that we have on the generations for good or for bad.

Carrie: Yes, you know, Erin, this is what I was thinking. Zeresh actually in an earlier chapter said, “If this is of the Jews—if Mordecai’s a Jew—then it’s not going to happen. You’re done for.” I wonder if she had heard the stories of the covenant-God of Israel; if she’d heard of His faithfulness; if she’d heard the ways He fights for His people, and if that is evidence, perhaps, of God’s grace to them. They could have repented.They could have turned. They would have known.

Erin: Sure, we don’t know.

Carrie: I think the hope that I bring is that God is always lavishly and fervently chasing after the hearts of everyone of us, everyone of our children, everyone of our grandchildren. I understand that grief; it’s part of living in a broken world, right? I don’t like that part of it—that my sin and the brokenness in my own life doesn’t just influence me, it bleeds out into the lives of those I love most dearly, in my family. But I have to then lean in and trust that the God of the universe, the God of covenant, is after them! 

Betsy: Amen!

Carrie: He’s able to redeem. Sometimes redeeming those places become the greatest places of ministry for them, the greatest places of change in their own lives.

Betsy: Yes, and for me, I find hope here because the fact that he’s mentioning the names of the sons of Haman is actually fulfilling a promise. God said before that He will finish them; the Amalekites were going to be done!

As a mom, I relate with your struggle 100 percent. I can remind myself, this enemy will be defeated. Ultimately it will be defeated, and my sin will end, and God is my Redeemer.

Erin: I love, Carrie, that you pointed us to the possible redemption of who we would want to villainize in this story. It reminds me of the thief on the cross, who did turn at the last moment. We don’t know the hearts of these individuals, but we do know that the Lord pursues the hearts of these individuals.

And there is generational impact. Scripture does talk about the sins of the father being passed, but He also talks about the blessings being passed—to more generations than the sins are! And so, while Haman’s legacy in this story is dark, God supersedes that. God has this way of working in the generations. Every generation needs Jesus. 

Carrie: Amen. 

Erin: Every generation finds Him, which is just so hopeful to me! 

They institute the Feast of Purim; it goes throughout the land. And Purim is fu.! I kind of want to celebrate Purim at my house. Jews will read the story of Esther in their synagogues. Anytime the name of Haman is read, they boo and they hiss (wouldn’t your boys love that!?) and then they make noise! 

And then they read it again, and they don’t do that, because the focus of this story is not Haman. The focus of this story isn’t even Esther or Mordecai. I mean, the writer in me kind of wants to re-title this book “Mordecai,” because he has such a profound influence. (Don’t worry, I won’t be retitling any books in the Bible!)

But, really, neither of those deserve the place of title in this story. This is God’s story! This is the gospel-thread stitched through this Old Testament book. But we don’t want to end with a cliff-hanger. So I’m going to read us the last chapter of Esther. It’s little. It’s just three little verses!

King Ahas . . . [okay, somebody else say it!] mposed [a] tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.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, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people. 

It’s just such a good ending, isn’t it?

And the whole thing reminds us of the dramatic reversal that is coming for us. You’ve heard the saying, “All good things must come to an end.” I say it the other way. I say, “All bad things must come to an end.” So no matter what you’re facing now—whether it’s in the case of a sweet friend, the loss of her child, or in the case of a parent, a serious illness, or in the case of other friends who are dealing with relational conflict, chronic fatigue, or loneliness, whatever it is: all bad things must come to end! 

I’m reminded of Sam’s words in The Lord of the Rings where he asks: “Is everything sad going to come untrue?” And that’s absolutely what’s going to happen!

So, ladies, I’d love for us to end at Revelation 21. I’ve said before that if I only got to teach one Scripture passage for the rest of my life, it would be Revelation 21. Carrie, would you read us Revelation 21:1–4?

Carrie: 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” [NASB]

Erin: I love that!

Betsy: Whew! What a hope!

Erin: What a hope! We talked about the promises of God, and here they are. The promise of God is that He will make all things new, that this earth—which is broken—will pass away. There will be a new heaven, a new earth, that the Lord will be with us. That is a little bit too hard for my little brain to understand sometimes, but this verse 4 I understand: 

He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes . . . death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

It will be a dramatic reversal! Death will turn to life, crying will turn into laughter, pain will turn into living pain-free, disease will be gone!

The dramatic reversal that we see in Esther is just a shadow—it’s a long shadow—of this that we see here in Revelation.

Betsy: Yes, we have a better Intercessor.

Erin: We do. We have a “better Mordecai”—a better Deliverer.

Betsy: And the best thing is that, when He offered Himself to be our Intercessor, He was actually killed (Esther wasn’t). So He said, “I will perish . . . but that’s not the end. I will rise again!” And He did! Praise God! Praise God.

Erin: Amen!

All Scripture is taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.