Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

Sermon text is found in Esther 9:20-22. Esther 9:20-22. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far to establish this among them that they should keep the 14th day of the month Adar and the 15th day of the same yearly. As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this joyous feast of Purim recorded in the book of Esther. We thank you for its significance. We pray now that you would open our ears to understand these things that your Holy Spirit would do his work of bringing us things of Christ through the word that he would illumine the text for understanding that our joy may be fuller at this time of consideration of his incarnation.

We thank you Lord God for the joyousness of this season for the joyousness of Purim and we pray that you would help us to see how these are related in Christ’s name we ask it. Amen. And please be seated. And the younger children who need nursery attending might be dismissed there with the attendant.

This song we just sang is frequently our experience at this particular time of year when we read of the great stories, gospel accounts of the incarnation and birth of our Savior and the effect that it’s had upon the world definitively. We read the Magnificat of Mary about the great reversal in terms of prophets, priests and the kingly nature of men that there has been affected by the very incarnation itself.

Mary speaks in the past tense this great reversal that the world has changed definitively and yet with our eyes we don’t always see things that way and frequently in the context of our world today in a nation that turns its back increasingly upon Christian virtues where the term Christendom so easily penned a hundred or so years ago now means virtually nothing to people it’s easy for us to think that somehow things are gone very bad somehow and yet the scriptures tell us that in the midst of the darkest hour of Israel’s history as recorded in the book of Esther when genocide was plotted and began to be carried out against them this was the very time in the history of the people in Israel that God turned into their greatest joy by seeing the death of their enemies.

This great reversal that occurs in Esther was a result that resulted rather in a great joy for the people. Now, I decided several weeks ago to preach on this particular text. We’ve been going through the book of Esther in our world history classes on Tuesdays and Fridays with the young men and women to attend that class. We were dealing with the Persian Empire and the book of Esther has as its setting that particular time, so I thought it’d be good to look at a correlation between this joyous feast of Purim with the sending of portions to each other, gifts to the poor, rejoicing, and the victory of God.

I thought there’s an excellent correlation to be made between that and our celebration of Christmas. I did not realize at the time I chose this that the Westminster Confession of Faith draws this correlation for us in its proof texts. Mark Horn wrote an article on the legitimacy of observing Christmas. It’s on the internet. And by reading that article this last week, I realized that as I said, the Westminster Confession of Faith uses as a scriptural footnote in chapter 21 of religious worship and the Sabbath day the book of Esther and the feast of Purim.

Now, this is important. I want to bring it up because the first thing we want to think about as Reformed Christians is it legitimate to celebrate Christmas? Could the church for instance call a holiday next Saturday and hold a religious worship service? Could we have a Christmas Eve service? Is that legitimate for the church to do? Is it legitimate for the church to focus for the month of December on the incarnation and the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and its implications?

Well, the Westminster Confession of Faith is not our ultimate standard, but it is a great reflection in terms of the historical church how these things were seen by this great document, the Westminster Confession of Faith, as a result of the second Reformation that was ongoing in the 1600s in chapter 21 in the section entitled of religious worship in the Sabbath day we read that in addition to quote ordinary religious worship of God on the Lord’s day there are also and I’m quoting now solemn fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions which are in their several times and seasons to be used in an holy and religious manner and then one of the proof texts for this particular portion of the Westminster Confession of Faith is Esther 9:22 which we just read the declaration of the feast of Purim on the part of Mordecai to rejoice in the providence of God and turning the sorrow of the nation to joy.

Now the Westminster Directory for Public Worship actually excludes all celebration of days on the part of the church apart from the Sabbath day. But it’s important to recognize that no major Reformed denomination in America has ever adopted the Westminster Directory for Public Worship as part of its secondary standards. Rather the Westminster Confession and the Larger Catechism and Shorter Catechism are what are part of the secondary standards of the major Reformed churches in the context of this country.

Additionally, it’s important to understand the Westminster standards were a compromise document. Now I stressed the word seasons as I read what the Westminster Confession says about these celebrations for this reason. There are different aspects of the Reformed certain Reformed peoples don’t believe that celebration of Christmas is legitimate. They do believe that it’s appropriate to call a particular day of prayer or fasting or feasting to celebrate something but not a yearly observance.

But the Westminster Confession and using the word seasons seems to legitimize the annual celebration of whatever the church, the local church deems as important to celebrate in the context of its history. So I think we have good warrant from the Westminster Confession of Faith to celebrate or to focus upon Christmas at this time of year. Let me quote also from Francis Turretin. Turretin’s dates were 1623 to 1687 and he is acknowledged as the master of Reformed theology at his particular time.

He was considered the guardian of the Reformed faith in Europe if not in all the world and Turretin in his Institutes of Elenctic Theology says this in and he’s commenting now on the fourth commandment. The question is not whether anniversary dates may be selected on which either the nativity or circumcision or passion or ascension of Christ and similar mysteries of redemption may be commemorated or even on which the memory of some remarkable blessing may be celebrated.

For this the Orthodox think should be left to the liberty of the church. Hence some devote certain days to such festivity not from necessity of faith but from the counsel of prudence to excite more to piety and devotion. However, others using their liberty retain the Lord’s day alone and in it at stated times celebrate the memory of the mysteries of Christ. And then he goes on to say in a later portion of this same section, hence we cannot approve of the rigid judgment of those who charge such churches with idolatry in which those days are still kept the names of the saints being retained who even kept saints days.

Says we cannot agree with the strictness and rigidness of judgment of those who charge such churches with idolatry since they agree with us in doctrine concerning the worship of God alone and detest the idolatry of the papacy. Another Reformed document produced in 1566 was the Second Helvetic Confession. This was composed by Heinrich Bullinger who was one of the great Reformers of course and this confession was the most widely received amongst the Reformed churches in the 16th and 17th century and they say this in their section on the festivals of Christ and the saints.

Moreover, in Christian liberty, the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord’s nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and his ascension into heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples and we approve of it highly. This is the Second Helvetic Confession. Indeed, the Synod of Dort, which we are most familiar with for producing what became known as the Five Points of Calvinism, the Synod of Dort also drew up a church order in that great ecumenical assembly of Reformed churches. And in this church order, they also said that it was appropriate for churches who decide to do this to celebrate certain days or seasons of feasting and festivities.

The Order of Dort is quoted or not quoted but it’s developed and talked about in the documents of the Canadian Reformed Church in article 53 and this comes ultimately from the Canons of the Order of Church produced at Dort but this is a contemporary manifestation of that at the Canadian Reformed Church and their article 53 in days of commemoration they say this each year the churches shall in the manner decided upon by the consistory commemorate the birth death resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as his outpouring of the Holy Spirit and that can be found in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter which most of us are familiar with the current version being published by this particular church in Canada which follows the Dort church order which says that it’s okay for churches to celebrate Christmas and indeed to set up special services for the incarnation of the Savior, his ascension, his death, Good Friday services, etc.

So hopefully this puts to rest what would otherwise put a little block in your mind as we consider the relationship of the joy of Purim to the joy of Christmas and thinking why are we celebrating Christmas? It is and has been since the Reformation the liberty of Christian churches to engage not just in preaching on the incarnation at this time of year, but to actually set up festival days of worship to celebrate these things as well.

All right. So, having kind of hopefully cleared out some of the cobwebs and some of the detriments to consideration of the joy of Christmas. Let’s now look at the relationship of Purim to Christmas. Now, in order to do this correctly, I really have to tell you the story of the book of Esther, which will take a little bit of time, hopefully not too much, but to understand Purim, which is the climax of the book of Esther, you really have to know what’s going on in the context of the book.

Now, don’t try to follow along on the outline right now. I’m just giving you an introduction to the book of Esther. And we’ll talk about these kairotic structures I have in there in a couple of minutes. But first, let me try briefly to tell the story of the book of Esther. Esther is set in the period of time in which the people of God who were in Israel are now in captivity. Remember, they were taken into captivity in the early years of the southern kingdom to Babylon.

Earlier the Assyrians had taken some into captivity, the Samarians, etc. And then Babylon took the southern tribes into captivity. And then Babylon is recorded in the book of Daniel is destroyed and conquered by the Persian Empire. And so we are now in the context of the Persian Empire which replaced the Babylonian Empire. The Persian Empire is the context for the people of God in captivity. So we’re now talking about the 6th century BC in the 500s BC. And what’s going to happen is this Persian Empire is going to show great favor to the Jews. And indeed, this same king that we think is in the context of the book of Esther, Ahasuerus. We think it’s King Darius historically. And Darius not only was the central character in Esther, we think he’s also the king that sent Ezra and Nehemiah back to rebuild the temple and rebuild the walls of the city.

So, the restoration of God’s people in the context of Israel its setting is this Persian Empire and in fact in the book of Nehemiah where it talks about the king and Nehemiah being the cupbearer to the king and Nehemiah mentions that the queen was at the king’s right hand as he spoke with the king. We think that this queen was indeed Esther herself. I can’t get into all of that but I think that’s who it was.

The proofs can be delineated. So understand that Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah is the context has as her context rather the Persian Empire and the people of God in captivity but about to be restored to the land with the assistance of King Darius particularly. So we’re in the Persian Empire. The king as I said the emperor whose name is given as Ahasuerus in the book of Esther we think it’s actually Darius. Ahasuerus is a title like Pharaoh or king or monarch and Darius was the proper name of the particular emperor we think is this particular person in the book.

And as the story starts out, Darius is having a great festival because of his triumphs. He’s having a good feast. He’s had to reestablish the Persian Empire. And we’re told at the beginning of the book that he has sent messages out and collected these representatives of the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire. This was a humongous world empire, the greatest the world had seen at this particular point in time.

So, it’s a height of victory of Darius now and reconsolidating his empire. And he has this great feast and we have to do a little bit of reconstruction work here on Darius. I mentioned this in the outline. Darius has a feast and in the context of this feast they drink wine and it says that his heart becomes merry because of the wine. Now it does not say it does not say that Darius is drunk. There is absolutely no reason in the text of Esther to assume that Darius is at some kind of drunken feast with a bunch of guys and they want to call the queen and just to drool over her.

That is not what’s going on. As Esther opens, the scriptures tell us that God has given us wine to make our hearts merry. And the king’s heart is merry because he’s drinking wine. He then calls the queen who is banqueting with women in a different place to come and to put on her royal crown and to come into the banqueting hall where he is celebrating his attainment of the Persian Empire. And it is a consideration.

He has her come in to demonstrate or display her beauty in the context of these assembled representatives of the various portions of his empire. Now, some Jewish commentators, a few thought that what’s really going on here? He just wanted her to wear her crown and nothing else. Again, there is no indication in the text that’s what’s going on. He wants to make sure she comes in as the queen with her queenly turban or crown upon her head in addition of course to her other royal attire.

So many Christian I read a commentary this last week by Charles Swindoll in the book of Esther and he takes up this Jewish line and quotes another commentator Alexander Whyte or somebody I’m not sure who talks about how Vashti was this noble courageous woman who resisted the drunken attempts of her husband and these wicked men. Nothing like that in the text.

Vashti is a rebel pure and simple. It is appropriate for the king to want his queen to come in a royal attire and to demonstrate her beauty to the surrounding representatives of the surrounding nations. You know that’s exactly what God does with us. He beckons us as his queen and he expects us robed in royal attire to live in the context of this world in a way that is winsome and that draws men to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what Darius is doing here. He’s a picture as were of the great king who wants his bride to be on display in the world to show the beauty of his kingdom. That’s what Darius is doing. That’s the context of this first portion of the book of Esther. Vashti refuses. She is a rebel. She doesn’t make a request to be clothed because he hadn’t told her to be unclothed. She doesn’t say, “You’re drunk because they’re not drunk.” She flat refuses.

When she refuses, Darius gets angry. Ahasuerus is said to be angry here again. And commentators say, “See, this drunken guy got angry and acted in anger.” He did not act in anger. He acted in counsel. He gets angry, but he doesn’t, you know, go lop off her head or do anything quickly in his anger. It’s a righteous anger, so to speak. It’s an anger against a queen who will not demonstrate her submission to her king.

And as a result, what shows him to be not in control of his own wife. But he doesn’t react in his anger. He calls in his counselors and he gets wisdom and advice from his counselors in the first chapter of Esther. That’s a godly action. Not wrong to be angry, folks. It’s wrong to react in anger. It’s wrong to be out of control in your anger. But Darius is neither of those. Darius responds correctly by seeking advice and counsel from his wise men.

And his wise men say, “Well, you know, if this is allowed to stand, every wife in the empire is going to see her as an example and they’re going to rebel against their husbands. You see, Darius and his counselors understood far better than our present administration in Washington DC the effects of the personal lives of kings, emperors, and their queens upon their public actions. Darius is a person whose wife is not in submission to her. The elders, the wise men rather of Darius say, and it’s going to institute rebellion all across your empire.

If you leave this unchecked. Now remember, he had just consolidated the Persian Empire. 127 satrapies or provinces from all over the known world. And I mean beyond this, of course, is the idea that if you let your wife rebel, what are you going to do? It seems like it’s going to engender rebellion all across your empire. The empire is in danger because of the sinful actions of Queen Vashti. Darius then acts.

He doesn’t kill her. He divorces her for her insubordination and her rebellion. He deposes her as queen, sends her packing off away from the city, probably to the rich country home she had. And so we shouldn’t feel sorry for Vashti. She’s not a courageous, bold woman. She’s an ethical rebel who refuses to obey the lawful dictates of her husband and king. Then Darius goes about doing some more conquering work and stuff.

And then he remembers that he needs a queen. He deposed Vashti. He remembers he needs the queen. This is going to be important later in the story remembering. But in any event, so then he has kind of a process of selection where he gathers together a whole bunch of gals to pick his queen out of all these gals. Each one of these gals goes to him and displays her beauty and talks to him and makes requests of him and then he chooses one of them.

Here again, some commentators go wild with their imagination. There is nothing untoward that’s mentioned in the context of this truth as recorded in Esther. You see drawings of this and all these women are naked and stuff. They’re going in for a night with him and that is not what happens in the text. Specifically, we’re told that Esther only makes requests of the king that the man that she was kind of under the tutelage of from the court had her make requests in the context of.

So her submission to the king is demonstrated. It’s not, you know, a physical thing. He’s talking to them. He wants to know who they are before he chooses his queen. And after Esther is selected, the rest of the girls who are not selected are still called or referred to as virgins. They’re still virgins. Okay? Nothing untoward going here. He’s simply selecting a queen. Esther’s identity is concealed at this point in time.

Mordecai, who has adopted her, or is her uncle, hard to understand exactly the relationship, but we can think of him as an uncle figure to Esther. And Mordecai tells her to conceal her identity. Now, that’s wrong. We’re not to conceal her identity. So, Mordecai sins here, but she conceals her identity and she’s chosen as the queen. And then another banquet happens. Ahasuerus or Darius then has this big banquet to declare it.

It’s called the banquet of Esther. It’s Esther’s feast because now he’s got a queen and he wants the world, you know, this whole empire to rejoice in the fact that he has a queen. So, this kind of concludes the first portion of the book where Esther places Vashti in the context of the book of Esther. However, that sets us up for a much bigger tale which takes the rest of the book, most the majority of the book is dealt with in the context of what happens next.

Esther is chosen and in chapter 2, as we said, there’s a banquet. And by the way, at this banquet, gifts are given to people. The way at the end of the book at Purim, gifts are given to people. There’s banqueting and festivities. So, Esther is at this banquet and the next thing that happens is Mordecai who is some sort of court official. He’s at the king’s gate at the early part of this book. He discovers a plot against Darius.

He hears a couple of his eunuchs or chamberlains making a plot against him. He tells Esther. Esther tells Darius that Mordecai has found out about this plot. Darius then correctly and properly executes these rebels who are trying to kill him. And so the scriptures tell us this. Now, right after this Right after Mordecai discovers this plot and then Mordecai’s name is associated with deliverance of the king and he writes that in the royal or it’s written in the royal records.

Right after that we have the introduction of a man named Haman. Now we’re not going to do it here but in Purim festivals where this story is told the children are trained and the adults too. They’re supposed to have little noise makers and every time the word Haman is mentioned you’re supposed to boo and hiss and make noise cuz he’s the wicked guy in this story. We’re not going to do that here. But you might think in your mind every time you hear me talk of Haman, this is the guy who eventually here plots and begins to carry out genocide against God’s people throughout the entire empire.

This is who is a very wicked creature, a very wicked representation of the false seed. You know, the seed that’s in opposition to the true seed of God’s people. Haman is we’re told five times in the book that Haman is an Agagite, a descendant of Agag. And so there’s this ancient king Agag who was an Amalekite king that remember he was the guy that Saul was supposed to kill. He didn’t kill him. Kings like to hang out with other kings even though they’re opposed to God’s people.

Samuel comes along and hacks Agag to pieces. So right away when we’re told that Haman is an Agagite, we sort of expect that he’s going to be a bad guy and he’s not going to have a good end. And indeed that’s what happens as the story develops. Haman is promoted. He becomes kind of like the chief counselor to the king. And then the king tells people, everybody, they have to bow down to Haman because he’s the representative of the king.

Now, here again, commentators get this wrong. I believe Mordecai says, “I’m not bowing down to the guy.” And as a result, things start to happen. Haman gets mad. He conducts a plot against the Jews. Why did Mordecai do this? He says it’s because he’s a Jew. But there is nothing in the word of God that says that you can’t bow down a social submission to a ruler. And in fact, the scriptures say we’re supposed to give honor to whom honor is due and tribute to whom tribute is due.

Naaman the Syrian after being converted and becoming a gentile God-fearer goes back and actually prostrates himself helping his king worship in a false worship a false god. And the prophet tells him go in peace. It’s okay. Perfectionism is not what this is about. You’re not worshiping the false idol. You know, it’s the king’s job. You’re serve the king. And it’s a very important biblical truth that we’re to be submissive and honoring to all those in authority.

That’s why Israel is in captivity. That’s why they’re in Persia. They didn’t honor God as king in the context of the land. And then when God said, “I’m going to bring in foreign rulers to rule over you until you learn my lesson.” They rebelled against the foreign rulers. And that’s why they’re carried off into captivity. And that’s why a lot of them end up dead because they don’t honor the King of Kings and they don’t honor the Gentile kings that God is going to use to exercise his authority over them.

And Mordecai has the same sinful streak. I’m not bowing on Haman. He probably knows. Mordecai, by the way, is a descendant of the tribe that Saul was from. So Mordecai is like a new Saul and he remembers Saul and Agag and he probably overreacts and says to heck with that guy. I’m not going to make the mistake of compromising and liking him. I’m not going to bow down. But what the story tells us essentially here is that Mordecai is in rebellion to Darius.

Darius was a pupil of Zoroaster. And while later Zoroastrianism became dualistic, evidence seems to indicate that Zoroaster learned his religion from the Jews. And Zoroaster may well have been a gentile God-fearer who saw who has various things in his writings that correlate to the Old Testament. Now, as I said, Zoroastrianism became dualistic and is a false religion. But there’s lots of reasons based on this story and what he does in other places of scripture.

to think of Darius as a good guy, a gentile God-fearer who knows about Jerusalem, wants it rebuilt after he takes over the Persian Empire. Or actually, he’s following up the work of Cyrus earlier. Cyrus and Cambyses and Darius, the first three emperors of Persia. And Isaiah prophesied that Cyrus has come along and begin this process of shepherding God’s people.

And Darius continues that in a big way. So Darius is a good guy. He legitimately Just as he gave a legitimate order to Vashti, he gives a legitimate order for to people to honor the one that he’s made his right-hand man to the context of the empire. But Haman won’t or Mordecai won’t do it. He you in fact he uses his very calling as a Jew to justify a sinful rebellion against a guy that he didn’t like because of his ancestry or because of whatever it was that Mordecai didn’t like about Haman.

So, Haman gets real mad about this. and he doesn’t want to just kill Mordecai. He as a result of this is being used by the devil to attack the seed all of Israel. And Haman then begins to plot genocide. Now Haman wants to approach the king at the right time to carry out this plot of killing every Jew in the Persian Empire. And what Haman does is he cast lots, pur. He casts lots pur to decide when he should go up and talk to the king.

And the lots keep coming up bad. He does this week after week, month after month, and it takes them a full year to begin to actually carry out the genocide in the context of the empire. This is important because in the providence of God, God gives the Jews who begin to hear about this plot a whole year to prepare themselves to defend themselves if they can against this plot of genocide. And in fact, when Mordecai gets around to declaring this feast at the end of the book, it’s called Purim because it’s about the casting of lots.

That’s what pur means is it’s the lots. So when Mordecai wants to name the feast, he names it after God’s providence in controlling the lot to give God’s people time to pray, time to repent of their wickedness, which he does and the rest of the people do, and time to make preparations to defend themselves in the context of this genocide. Well, eventually at the end of the year, the lots come up favorable.

He then goes to Darius. Darius gives him the order to go ahead and extinguish or eliminate all the Jews across the empire. Mordecai, as we said, hears about the plot. He goes to Esther and tells her that she has got to now reveal her identity to the king. He was wrong in telling her not to reveal her identity. Now he’s going to have her reveal her identity to the king. She declares a fast for three days. Three days, death and resurrection, right?

And at the end of the three days, she goes in to seek the king’s presence. Now, she’s worried because if you go into the court of the king without being summoned, even if you’re the queen. And he doesn’t reach out the royal scepter to you, you’re toast. The death penalty is yours for having the presumption to approach the king when he didn’t really want you to approach him. Well, in the providence of God, he does reach out the scepter to her.

And in fact, he says, not only does he not kill her, he says, “Give me your request. Up to half the kingdom, it’s yours.” Now, imagine yourself as Esther. In your sinful nature, you’ve got a choice. Half the kingdom or the life of your people. That’s the choice that Esther is presented with. And of course, she turns down half the kingdom and she makes a very respectful request. Esther throughout this book is the picture of godly submission and in the face of very difficult times.

The only request she makes of the king is to attend a banquet and to attend the banquet with Haman. And he says, “Okay, sounds good to me.” So, he goes to the banquet that she’s prepared for him and Haman. And then she says, the only thing she does at this banquet is she still doesn’t say, “My people are in danger. I’m a Jew, as it turns out. Please save us.” Doesn’t say that. What she says is, “I want you come to another banquet of mine.

That’s my request here.” Again, he says, “I’ll give you half the kingdom.” Again, she says, “Another banquet, please, the next day.” So, he says, “Okay.” So, Haman and him are going to come back the next day. Now, Haman goes home and he tells his wife, Zeresh, and her friends, that’s her name, Zeresh. He tells his wife, and her friends and his friends. What a great position he’s in now. He’s at the right hand of the king.

He’s at this royal banquet. Just him and the king and the queen. Everything’s going great. He’s going to kill Mordecai and all those lousy Jews. He is rolling. He is having a great old time. But what happens at the king with the king Darius that night is he can’t sleep. Providence of God. He can’t sleep. In his desire to do something in the middle of the night, he calls out for the book the history books of the records of the chronicles of what’s going on in his kingdom to be brought to him and he starts reading through these books.

Well, he gets to the place where it tells about Mordecai. Remember Mordecai heard of this plot and saved his life. He reads about this and he says, “Hm, I remember what Mordecai did now and I remember we didn’t give him anything to honor him.” So then he next morning he calls in Haman. Haman what can I do? He says to honor a guy who is really a great guy and has done so much for me. Well, Haman, he’s all puffed up in the providence of God with pride because of the wisdom and submissiveness of Esther and approaching your king slowly over time and praying about it and seeking the right time to ask her great request.

Haman’s all puffed up and he thinks to himself, “Oo, he wants to honor me. Well, let’s see. What can I do to honor me?”, well, I know you should have him sit on a horse and have someone else lead him around amongst all the people, and you can honor him that way. King says, “Okay, that’s a good idea. And the guy I want to honor, by the way, I hadn’t told you this,” he says, “but it’s Mordecai, your arch-enemy.

And by the way, Haman, you I think it’d be a great guy to lead him around on a horse.” Oh, well, now things have changed. Now things have changed badly for Haman. And Haman’s got to lead Mordecai around on a horse, honoring him, being submissive to him as it were, lower and he is higher at the end of that day, Haman has recorded his going home. But now things are totally different. Now he tells his wife and friends what happened that day and how bad things are going.

And his wife tells him, “You know, this guy’s a Jew. You’re not getting out of this alive.” She knows her history, too. Apparently, things have radically changed. Now, Haman is mourning with his family instead of rejoicing with his family. So, then we go to the second banquet that Esther has the king and Haman come to. And this banquet., now she finally makes a request. She says, “My people are endangered.

I’m a Jew. My life is being threatened. All these people’s lives are being threatened.” And King says, “Well, who did all this?” And she said, “Wicked, evil Haman sitting right there.” Now, imagine yourself in Haman’s spot., Haman has greatly puffed up in pride, then brought way low, and is even his wife tells him that he is on the outs now. He is headed for death. He is one worried guy. God has built into his psychological makeup at this point in time complete despair.

King gets angry, but the king doesn’t kill him right then. This is a godly guy. He goes out of the room to compose himself to get himself under control before he decides what to do with Haman. Haman in a state of pure terror, shock, doesn’t know what to do, falls upon the queen requesting from her grace. You know, give let me live. Of he’s making an entreaty of her. And at that particular point in time, the providence of God is when King Darius, the great Persian Empire comes back and he sees Haman apparently accosting his queen.

What he says, you’re going to actually accost my queen in my palace now. So the king now is totally given over to Esther’s request. The king orders Haman killed. And actually Haman is killed on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. He had built a fifty-foot tall gallows for Mordecai and Haman now is executed by Darius and he then grants the request of Esther. Now it might seem a little odd to you in the story that he just doesn’t cancel the previous edict.

What he ends up doing is saying okay the Jews can defend themselves is what he says. Well this is if you’re in my history class you the kids all know the answer to this. The answer is the Persian Empire unlike so many of its predecessors was known for the fact that the law is over the king. You know, there’s that great book Lex Rex that says the king is subject to the law. And in the Persian Empire, that was true.

Once the king had made a law or a royal edict, he couldn’t change it. You see, it’s a positive aspect of Persian culture based probably upon these gentile God-fearing emperors of Cyrus and then Darius and learning from probably a God-fearing gentile in Zoroaster, even though his disciples into dualism. But it’s the positive effect of the biblical view that the king is subject to the law that means that Darius can’t just say, “Oh, forget that law I just made.” So Darius then issues a decree throughout the entire region that the Jews can defend themselves.

Now what’s the significance of that? The significance is that it’s not just the Jews lives are spared, is it? Now the ones who were plotting against the Jews, all of the followers of Haman the Agagite who was actually an Amalekite as well. Agag was an Amalekite king. All the ancient enemies of God’s people are made war upon now by the Jews. It goes on for a day and a bunch of them are killed. And Esther then makes another request to the king.

We’d like another day to carry on this warfare against our enemies. And he says, “Granted, you got it.” And throughout all the region, tens of thousands of enemies of God’s people who are plotting against God’s people are now killed by the Jews. So, not only are God’s people delivered, but their enemies, their opponents, the ancient Esau of the world, the Amalekites of the world, the Agagites of the world, the Canaanites of the world, they’re killed off by God’s people defending themselves against this attack, this war of genocide against them.

That’s why at the end of this time, Mordecai declares a great feast. And that’s why it’s two days long because they had two days to kill off all their enemies in the context of the book of Esther. That’s what the book of Esther is about. And by the way, on that second day, all the sons of Haman are also killed on the at the gallows. They’re hung as well. And so we have Haman being wiped out. But not just Haman, all the seed that comes from this bad seed.

All the descendants as it were of Cain, of Esau, of Amalekite, or of Agag are killed off. Those who are in opposition to God’s people. Well, what all does this mean to us? You can imagine the joy of the feast of Purim. They declare a great day of rest, they said, and of joy and of mirth, of sending portions one to the other, giving gifts to the poor. Recognize our last three sermons all about the poor. Remember the poor here?

They remember the poor in their rejoicing. And they rejoice. And Mordecai is now made the right-hand man. And actually, Haman’s house is given to Mordecai and Esther as well. God’s people dwell in the houses of the wicked. Whatever he has accumulated, Haman is all for the purpose of God giving to the righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a tremendous story of great joy. And I want to just touch very quickly now on several aspects of this joy and correlate it to the joy we have at Christmas time of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So first of all, this Purim joy is a submissive joy. As I’ve said and I’ve given you an outline there that shows that Vashti is replaced by Esther. The unsubmissive bride is replaced by the submissive bride of God ultimately of the picture of that the emperor is really picturing to us and that’s the work of God himself. As I said the people of God were in exile because of their rebellion and the story of Esther in preparing us for the full restoration of God’s people under Ezra and Nehemiah going back into the land is a picture that God’s work has had its effect.

The unsubmissiveness of his people has been brought to submission. Christmas joy is a joy of submission. The Lord Jesus Christ is submissive to the will of the Father. Now, wives are not inferior in terms of their essence to men. Any man who lords it over his wife, who demands his wife be submissive because she’s less than he is somehow in her essence, is a heretic. Doug Wilson in his book Federal Headship says that such a man preaches Arianism.

Arianism taught that the Lord Jesus Christ was not eternally begotten but created and as a result he is submissive in essence to the Father. He’s not of the same essence of the Father. And the husband who treats his wife with disdain or does not treat her as a full equal partner in Christ is a practicing heretic teaching the subordination of the Son to the Father in his essence. It is a horrible thing to do.

Just as horrible though is another ancient heresy known as Sabellianism which said that really there’s no functional subordination of the three persons of the Trinity, it’s all one God with just different names. There’s no functional subordination. And you see any husband who doesn’t understand his need to lead his family and a wife to submit to her husband in the context of the loving relationship of Christ and his bride, the Father and the Son, mirrored through the husband and the wife, any husband that allows that to go on in his household and doesn’t exercise covenantal headship is a practicing heretic preaching that there is no distinction in terms of person between the Father and the Son.

He denies the submission in terms of the function of the Son to the Father. So Christmas joy is about the Son the eternally begotten of God becoming incarnate in submission to the Father that he might go to the cross and provide reconciliation for us who are ethical rebels. and turn our hearts of the children back to the Father. The hearts of the Father to the children to make atonement and reconciliation.

Christmas is a joy of submission of the Lord Jesus Christ and submission that we have as well in the Father. And I mentioned that Mordecai also had to come to submission. And the purpose of the outline I give you here is to show the various points at which death you know when Mordecai hears of the plot he dies. He goes through fasting. Esther declares a fast. They instead of rejoicing at this time of year, which what they were supposed to be doing as Jews, they have to fast.

Instead of having honor, Mordecai dies. It’s all been brought about by Mordecai’s sinful rebellion to bow to Haman. So, it’s the lack of submission on the part of the whole of Israel. Now, that’s pictured in the context of Mordecai and then justifying that rebellious attitude toward God’s authorities by saying that he was a Jew. When we as Christians act unsubmissively to the civil government, to the church government to the government in the context of the family or workplace.

We commit the sin of Mordecai. We cannot on the one hand deny our witness to the Lord Jesus Christ the way Mordecai had Esther do and say we’re not Christians or hide it somehow in the world. But neither are we to flaunt our Christianity which is which to be used as a covering for our sin of rebelliousness and not honoring the men that God has placed in the context of our lives to honor. Purim is all about a submissive joy in the part of God’s people.

A being moved from death and genocide and the righteous judgments of God against us to being brought into a position of blessing and peace. Christmas is a submissive joy and Purim was a submissive joy. I mentioned on the outline here that the third commandment and witness the third commandment says we’re not to have a we’re not to take God’s name vainly upon ourselves. We’re not to be like Esther failing to manifest our Christianity.

And we’re not to take the name of Christ upon us in excusing our rebellion against authorities. Rather, we are to be submissive to the King of Kings and the authorities that he’s placed in the context of the land. Jesus Christ means Savior, King. He comes as Savior, but he comes to reign over a submissive people. And the people that are submissive to Christ have that joy of submission in the context of their Christmas celebrations., he provides atonement.

He brings us into a holiness in his place and he gives us peace with him. Now, Esther prepared as a picture of her submission to Darius. She spent 12 months soaking in the tub. She spent six months soaking up oil of myrrh and then she spent six months with various perfumes or sweet odors. You know, if you sit in the tub for thirty minutes or an hour, your pores get big. That’s what happens. They open up. I used to take some medicine for my skin.

I’d take I’d sit in the tub first and open the pores. I’d put the medicine on. It would sink deep into my skin. Well, Esther, preparing to become the king, submitted to a one-year regimen that she might have at the depth of her pores of her skin sweet smelling fragrances for her king. Now oil in the scriptures, the oil of myrrh represents oil represents the Holy Spirit. And incense or fragrances represents the prayers of God’s people over and over again in the scriptures.

So if we’re to be a submissive people, we need to soak up the Spirit who brings us the word. We need to be in the context of God’s word that we might be a sweet smelling offering to God in all that we do and say. We want to be like Esther. The purpose of homeschooling or Christian schooling is that our kids might soak up the word of God into the very depth of their being and what they know about anything and as a result of that had this sweet smelling fragrance before God.

The spirit of prayer that we enter into at Christmas time is a picture of this submission that we have to God and of the great joy we have in that submission. But secondly, Purim joy was a covenantal joy. It was the joy that brought people together. We read in the text that they sent portions to one another. They eat together. They have fastings together, not fastings. They give gifts to the poor. It’s a community celebration.

Psalm 87:2 says that God loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. God says that when we enter into communion and union with each other in the context particularly of our corporate worship, that’s when our joy is intensified. The word joy is more frequently used of covenantal assemblies of worship in the Old Testament than any other kind of joy. There’s lots of joys, wedding joy, deliverance joy, et cetera.

But joy is to be the distinguishing mark of the worshiping community of Christ as they come together in community to rejoice in the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and the implications for all the created order. Purim is a picture of that. Purim was a time of covenantal joy that brought people together to give thanks to God for his deliverance and to rejoice in the victory that God gave them over their people.

God loves the scriptures say the gates of Zion more than the dwellings of Jacob. I praise God that he’s using this fellowship, this church to reinstitute and empower the families again. And it’s important that we understand that. But it’s important that we understand this text says that God loves us more somehow when we come together in community, when we get together with other Christians, and when we have a joy that is covenantal as opposed to being in isolation.

Sin brings isolation. Adam and Eve were joyous together. Man was created in righteousness, holiness, knowledge, and dominion and community in unity with each other. Sin broke them apart. Sin breaks us apart. And God says he’s bringing us back together. And he loves Zion. Zion, the dwelling place of his people. Psalm 132 says, “The Lord has chosen Zion.” It doesn’t mean he’s chosen a piece of real estate necessarily.

There was a picture of that in Canaan, but he means