God’s Great Reversal: The Story Of Esther
We are celebrating Purim today. The story of the book of Esther. It is not just an ancient book but has many parallels with the gospel and a lesson for our lives. We find a few main characters in the story:
Esther (Ahhh!!!)
Mordecai (Yaaay!!!)
King Ahasuerus, and of course
Haman (Booo!!!)
As we watch events play out on the world stage, we are living in a time that is both exciting and dangerous. Many are asking, “Is this the end of the age? What do all these events mean?” As we consider the book of Esther and that time period, it was also a dangerous time - for the Jews. If we compare the times of Esther and Mordecai with those of today, we can see that not much has changed.
The threats against the Jewish people (and the world) are still present. But the God who delivered Esther and Mordecai and the Jewish people of that time has not changed either.
We can see historically how Scripture chronicles the way foreign powers have tried to wipe out the Jewish people. We see it in Exodus, as well as in Esther, and even into our modern era with the Holocaust. God has been faithful to His promises as Malachi (3:6) reminds us: “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
What is interesting in the book of Esther is the fact that God is not mentioned, yet we can see His providential hand throughout the events that take place in Esther. Joseph is another example of God’s providence working in Joseph’s life to reverse the circumstances befalling him in order to bring forth God’s sovereign purposes at His appointed time. And likewise, with Esther and Mordecai, we find the sovereignty of God reversing the events taking place to bring about His purposes, again at the appointed time.
As we read the book of Esther, in which God's name is never mentioned once, we should focus on how He reverses events for His own purposes. Seeing how God continually reverses events in the Bible as occurs so frequently is a gut-punch to a world that denies the existence of God. And the unexpected takes place once again. An illustration once again that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
This is the story of Esther.
Throughout this story in the Bible, it becomes apparent that one cannot explain Jewish history apart from God. And yet, here is the story of Esther without the mention of God at all.
In Esther 2:21-23 we find two of King Ahasuerus’s officials want to rise against the king and their plot became known to Mordecai who told Queen Esther, who then informed the king in Mordecai’s name. The plot was foiled and the two were hanged on a gallows, or in the Hebrew, “Ha etz,” meaning the tree. This is important for later.
You would think Mordecai would be a hero, right? Esther 3:1:
“After these events King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who were with him.”
That’s not supposed to happen! That is supposed to go to Mordecai. As a result, everyone bowed and paid homage to Haman. Everyone except Mordecai, that is, who refused. Well, “Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the whole kingdom…” Haman spoke to the king and told him that there was a people who were not following the king’s laws and Haman proposed to destroy them all.
And then in Esther 3:10:
“Then the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.”
The same thing happened when Pharaoh gave his signet ring to Joseph (Genesis 41:42). Practically the same exact language. But in this case, the ring is going to the wrong guy. Haman should not get the ring. It goes against everything you would expect in the Bible. It’s totally backward. What you need to know is that there is a theme of reversals throughout the story.
Esther 4:1,3:
When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.
This is a low point for Mordecai and the Jews, but we are really coming to the absolute lowest point for Mordecai, Esther, and the Jewish people in the book of Esther. What happens next is that Haman is filled with pride as we read…
Esther 5:9-12:
Then Haman went out that day glad and pleased of heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and that he did not stand up or tremble before him, Haman was filled with anger against Mordecai. Haman controlled himself, however, went to his house and sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, and the number of his sons, and every instance where the king had magnified him and how he had promoted him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman also said, “Even Esther the queen let no one but me come with the king to the banquet which she had prepared; and tomorrow also I am invited by her with the king.
And then the low point in Esther 5:13-14 (particularly v.14):
Yet all of this does not satisfy me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” Then Zeresh, his wife and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows fifty cubits high made and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it; then go joyfully with the king to the banquet.” And the advice pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.
Remember I said we would revisit the “gallows” that the two officials were hung on earlier? This word translated in English as “gallows” is significant because in Hebrew it is “Ha etz” which means tree. That is what Jesus was crucified on. Luke uses the term several times in the book of Acts.
We get the term from Deuteronomy 21:23:
“...His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.” (ESV)
Paul quotes this verse in Galatians 3:13:
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”
When Mordecai is to be hanged on the gallows (tree) it is the lowest point of the story (v.15), and yet in the sovereignty of God the same gallows meant for Mordecai end up with Haman being hanged on them (6:10).
It is the greatest divine reversal. The greatest moment of defeat becomes the greatest moment of victory for Mordecai, Esther, and the Jewish people. The “Ha etz” that was meant for Mordecai became the gallows for Haman. And of course, we have a picture of another reversal as we look at Yeshua and the cross (Ha etz, the tree).
When the enemy Satan thought that he had won the victory, his victory was turned into defeat at the resurrection of the Messiah.
From Esther 1:1 - 5:14, we have tragedy after tragedy.
From Esther 6:14 - 10:3, everything is undone and reversed.
We can be assured that with the troubling and dangerous times we find ourselves in today, God will fulfill His promises to Israel. And if He will do that, we can rest assured that He will fulfill His promises to us who follow Him as Savior and Lord.
He delivered His people out of Egypt. He delivered His people from Haman. He brought His people back to the land after almost 2,000 years of dispersion in 1948, as He promised. We can be sure that at the end of the story, Israel “will look unto him whom they pierced,” (Zechariah 12:10) and that God will install His Jewish King on the throne and deliver all who are His from death to eternal life.
