Transcript

Good morning, Church. It's great seeing all of you here this morning. We're continuing and actually concluding our series through the Book of Esther. Today we've entitled this series the Hidden Hand of God. And Esther is a unique book.

It's one of only two books in the Bible named after a woman, the other being Ruth. And it's even more unique in that it is the only book of the Bible that never names the name of God. But yet, even though God is not mentioned, he is not missing. You can see him on every page here through his actions and through his the way he's working behind the scenes. In these past few chapters, we've seen a young Jewish girl, a young Jewish orphan girl in exile, elevated in what I've been calling the first ever Miss Universe contest.

She was lifted up to be Queen of Persia. As a result of this, her adopted father, who was her cousin, but because she was an orphan, took her in and raised her. Mordecai uncovered a forgotten assassination plot against the king. The second in command, Haman, devised a wicked plot to kill all the Jews to commit genocide because Mordecai would not bow down to him. We watched Esther risk her life to speak up to the king.

We saw God interrupt the King of Persia's sleep. He had a sleepless night and reversed the course of history. And Haman fell on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. And through every twist and turn, the hidden hand of God was at work behind the scenes. Now, in these final verses, the crisis has passed.

The enemy has fallen, and the people have been delivered. The story ends with Mordecai and Esther writing letters to establish a commemorative feast that they called Purim, a permanent reminder that what looked like certain destruction had turned their sorrow into joy. And they established this annual Jewish holiday so that the people of God would not forget how he rescued them. And the truth is, that's important because we're forgetful people. We're forgetful people.

We tend to remember the pains of the past. We tend to remember the sins of the past. We remember our past failures. We remember our past embarrassments, even maybe something that we did as teenagers. We bring back to mind from time to time.

But we have a hard time remembering the blessings of God. We have a hard time, it seems, remembering what God has done and how he has worked in our lives and how he sustains and delivers us. We have a kind of spiritual amnesia, it seems, when it comes to remembering what God has done. And if we're not careful, we'll misinterpret what God has done by his mercy and his deliverance. And we'll call it coincidence.

We'll say, well, we had good luck, and we'll dismiss it, when in fact it was the hidden hand of God always at work in our lives. And so many of you, you know that you came to faith in Jesus at some point in your life and you weren't noticing the hand of God in your life, but you look back on it now and you go, you know, I see now that God was already at work in my life. He was already moving and pursuing me. Now, some have observed that the command to remember may be among the most repeated themes in the Bible, that this idea of remembrance is commanded over and over again because his people are prone to forgetfulness. And so the book of Esther reminds us that God not only works to deliver his people, but he calls us to remember what he has done.

He calls us to remembrance. And so in this final section, really that's what we're dealing with here. The deliverance has happened, the happiness has come. But now there's this new feast that's being called for by the people of God. In this final section, Esther and Mordecai establish an antichrist festival called Purim to commemorate how God had turned their sorrow into joy.

And we can see how this last section points to the Gospel of Jesus and how it parallels some gospel principles of Jesus Christ. And as we look at the text today, I think we'll see how the Gospel turns our sorrow into joy. So let's look at the text today. We'll be looking for three gospel parallels. We'll unpack it together.

And I don't have to read as much as Brother Mike did last week. Now, if you were here last week, I'm thankful for Mike Laramie, who covered the pulpit last week so that I could attend and encourage the church, Livingstone Church and Apex that our church is supporting. In fact, be praying for them. Their launch is right now. It's happening today.

Last week they were doing their final training and Robin and I showed up and them. And they were so happy to see us and we were encouraged as well. And I'm also thankful to you that you allow me as your pastor to build a teaching team so I can get away from time to time. Because just like you, I need to be reminded. I need to hear preaching and teaching and I need to worship just like you do.

And so it's good for me to get a break and go encourage and be encouraged. So we had a good time. But Mike, Mike told me he thought I gave him the hardest section, he said. In fact, I watched his online. He read for 10 minutes last week, didn't he?

It's like I thought he read long as he preached, and it was a long section. But he and I both agreed it turned out to be a great section of the Scripture. And so I think Mike did a great job last week. And so we're going to pick up now at verse 20 of chapter 9 and Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews to who were in all the provinces of King Isuerus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the 14th day of the month of Adar, and also the 15th day of the same year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness, and from mourning into a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another, and gifts to the poor. So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast pur, that is, cast lots, to crush and to destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written at the time appointed every year, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority, confirming the second letter about Purim.

Letters were sent to all the Jews to the 127 Provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther obligated them. And as they had obligated themselves and their offspring with regard to their fasts and their lamenting, the command of Queen Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing. Chapter 10. King Ahasuerus imposed 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 the people. This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three gospel parallels that turn our sorrow into joy. Here's the first parallel, the parallel of the great reversal.

The parallel of the great reversal. We see in these verses, the word turned. In verse 22, he turned their sorrow into gladness. Then we see in verse 25, return on his own head. This is the idea of something being flipped or reversed.

They turned their sorrow into joy, into gladness. They're fasting into feasting, they're mourning into a holiday. So there was a reversal of circumstance, a reversal of attitude, a complete turnaround. And on the flip side, that there was a reversal on Haman, who had been rejoicing, who had been happy and had been elevated to second position, the second chair next to the king. But now he ends up hanged on the gallows that he had built to hang Mordecai on because Mordecai wouldn't bow down to him.

And so we see a reversal for both parts. In fact, if you go back to chapter nine, verse one, it actually uses the word reversal, that this is the great reversal, this great turnaround. Notice that as we read about this, that in verse 20, the first letter, there's two letters in this chapter nine that's being referenced. The second letter is found in verse 29, but the first letter in verse 20 was written by Mordecai alone, because not only were their situations reversed, but Mordecai actually ends up being second in command. So now he's in the second chair.

He's actually taken Haman's position. He gets the signet ring of the king, he has the authority of the king. So he sends out a letter and gives them a record. It says he recorded these things. What things?

What had happened how Haman was going to commit genocide against all the Jews, but how God turned it around. And he gives him a record of the story, and then he also calls them to a feast that they were to celebrate on two days on the 14th and 15th of Adar, which is according to the Hebrew calendar. Adar is a Hebrew month. Now, the Hebrews, to be clear, they followed the lunar calendar, so their calendar was determined by the turning of the moon, whereas the Gregorian calendar, which is the one we follow today's May 31st. It's based on the solar calendar.

And that's why every spring we have a hard time knowing, well, when's Easter going to be this year? Somebody has to tell us, because Easter happens at Jewish Passover. And so Jewish Passover keeps moving around because it's based on the lunar calendar. Well, so in the same situation, this idea of Purim, it moves around a little bit. It tends to be in the early couple of weeks of March this year, 2026, Purim was celebrated on March 2nd and 3rd, for instance.

And next year it'll be at a different time based because. Based on the lunar calendar. Y' all still with me? And so he gives us instruction for this to take place on the. In the month of Adar on these two days.

And. And he. He. He gives the record to the Jews. So they know the story.

He gives them the story. This is why, as I'm reading it, although the book of Esther has no autograph, we know that it's God's word, but we don't know what the. The name of the human author is. But verse 20 causes me to suspect the possibility. This is just an opinion, that Mordecai may have been the human author because he writes this record.

Perhaps Esther's the record, but that's me just suggesting the possibility. If we get to heaven and find out I was wrong, I'm okay with that. I'm in heaven. I'm with Jesus. I'm okay.

That's not the only thing that I'm getting wrong. I'm sure I get a lot of things wrong, but he gets it all right, and we'll be glad about that someday. Well, it could have been Mordecai. And so he sends out this record. And so this is important.

And so as we think about this, returning on his own head, this whole idea of the turnaround, of the great reversal, how does this point to the gospel? How is this a parallel of the gospel? Well, let's just kind of think through it for a second. So Haman is going to kill all of God's people. For three days, he's happy as a lark.

Once the word goes out, he's cast purr, which is, the poor are like throwing dice. They're lots that they throw based on luck. And he's picked the day it's going to happen. He calls it for the. For the 12th day, the day of Adar, the 14th day.

And so it was a matter of lady luck, according to his view, that he allowed the gods to choose based on luck, what day I'm going to kill all the Jews. And so all this has turned on his head. And so for three days he's fired up. And for three days, all the Jews are fasting because Esther called for a fast and they're mourning. And Malachi, or Malachi, Mordecai, you got to admit they sound similar.

Okay, I told you, I make a lot of mistakes. I just wanted to illustrate that to you just now. And so Mordecai, he's sitting at the city gates in sackcloth and ashes, weeping aloud. And so for three days, this is going on, right? Does three days trigger anything in your head?

So for three days, the minions of hell, Satan, and all of the evil plotting against him. So that one thing that the Jews and the Gentiles could agree on, the one thing that the Romans and the Jews could agree on, is that we're going to crucify Jesus. And for three days, it looked like hell won, right? For three days, hell is celebrating and the people of God are weeping. But three days later, Esther goes into the king and present and starts moving.

She boldly goes in. And after three days of fasting and weeping, she goes in. She gets up and goes in. And three days later, after Jesus is crucified, he gets up. He gets up and Satan has the whole thing turned on his head, the whole thing returned back on his head.

And so that the verse that we read in Genesis chapter three, which many refer to as the first Gospel, the proto Evangelio, the very first gospel, is that the seed of the woman, you will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. It's proven true that you thought you were going to do something here, but he's turned it back on your own head. And so the victory, the complete reversal has taken place. Paul writes a little about this in Colossians chapter two. He says, you were dead because of your sins, because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

That's your condition from birth spiritually dead to God. We're Born spiritually dead to God. That's what Paul is saying. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all your sins.

He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this same way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. He disarmed the spiritual. He flipped it on its head.

He performed the great reversal. And so we see that God is in the business of reversing our situation. He reverses it. The psalmist in Psalm 30 says this. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.

You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. Is there someone here today that you're grieving?

You're covered with sadness. There's a broken relationship in your life. Or you have something happen in your life recently that's caused your life to turn towards darkness. God's in the business of the great reversal. The work he did on the cross can be yours today.

He can do a fresh work in you today. And he can reverse your mourning into dancing, your sackcloth into being clothed with gladness. This reversal points to the cross, doesn't it? It really does. It points to the cross.

And at the cross, what appeared to be Satan's greatest victory ends up being his ultimate defeat. God overturned our sentence of condemnation and transformed the instrument of death into the means of salvation. How strange that they would call for a festival to be named after the dice, the lot that was cast to determine their day of demise. How strange that is to name it after the poor. Let's call it Purim, because Haman cast poor in order to choose the day of our death.

That's a strange name for a festival. It would be strange for the people of God to do a thing like that. You know, to, like, take the symbol of Christ's suffering, the cross, and start wearing it as a piece of jewelry and to put it on our buildings, to somehow take the cross, which was only known by the people of Rome as the most utterly despicable form of death, and to reverse it so that it becomes the symbol of deliverance and life. Do you see how this points to the Gospel? In fact, the great reversal reminds me of the great.

The great turnaround that we have in Christ. The great. The great return in terms of exchange. The great exchange. Now, like a lot of men, I assume I'm like a lot of Men.

I don't like to return things. I don't like to go through the trouble, like, okay, I bought the wrong thing or whatever. I don't want to go stand in the return line and have to deal with whatever, all that, you know. But my wife, well, she'll return things in a minute. She has no problem with it.

She. She'll talk to them. She'll tell them there was something wrong with it, it was the wrong size. She doesn'. She comes out of the store with several bags.

Sometimes she goes back in the store with more bags than she came out with. I don't know how that works, but she. And maybe she's like a lot of women. They don't mind. They don't mind getting a good deal.

I just don't like the trouble of it, you know. Are you going to take that back? I don't know. I might need it someday like that.

But I'm glad that there's one man, his name's Jesus, who did them, who went to the cross and offers the great exchange. I'm glad he's not like me. Because at the cross he took my sin and he exchanged it for his righteousness. At the cross, he took my death. He died my death that I might receive his eternal life.

At the cross he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He took my separation from God that I might be adopted into God's family as a child of God. Oh, that's the great exchange. That's the great reversal. He's turned Satan's desire for me inside out.

He's reversed it and he's offered this great exchange. Perhaps today you're living in a season, wondering where God is. God, where are you? You're in pain, you're struggling.

If you'll turn it over to God, he can turn your sorrow into gladness. And there'll be a day where you look back and you'll go, oh, that time when I thought he wasn't there. He was there the whole time. And could it be because you couldn't hear his voice, because you were deaf to his voice? Could it be that you couldn't see his hand because you were blind to his activity?

But there comes a day in Christ where our eyes are open and our ears are open and we realize God was at work behind the scenes all along, bringing me into his fold. Do you know him today? The one who reverses our fortune and turns our destruction into delight and our mourning into dancing? This is the first parallel that I see here's the second, the second parallel of keeping remembrance. Keeping remembrance.

That's what really, this last section, these last few verses are about. It's about the establishment of the remembrance of what God did to deliver the people. And they named this remembrance Purim. Notice, in verse 27, the Jews firmly dedicated. They firmly obligated themselves and their offspring to what Mordecai wrote and what later there's a second letter written, as we look down in verse 29 that they both signed their autograph to.

At the end, they both signatured it Queen Esther and Mordecai. And the Jews, soon as they got the letter, it says over and over again, they obligated themselves. It also repeats this, this statement, these days must be remembered and kept. You see that in verse 28. In fact, the word keep or kept is in there three times.

You see it in verse 21, verse 21, obligating them to keep the 14th day of the month of Adar. Verse 27, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days. And then verse 28, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout. This idea of keeping to keep is active remembering, not passive. That they will prioritize these two days on their calendar every year to remember what God did to rescue them.

That they're like we're going to. And not just us, we're going to obligate ourselves and our offspring as well. We're going to obligate ourselves to keep this remembrance. In his book the Queen youn Thought yout Knew, Rabbi David Forman suggests there might be a word play on this word pur, which means a lot. And Purim, by the way, if you have interest in the Hebrew language, if it has a mem sound at the.

At the end, that means it's a plural. We put an S at the end of our nouns to show that it's a plural noun, but the Hebrews put the M sound at the end. So Purim, lots. Or maybe it's referring to the two days, because it's the 14th and the 15th of Adar. And so Purim, it's plural.

But Rabbi Foreman suggests that it might also be a wordplay because he says that the Persian word pur sounds like the Hebrew word par, which means to annul or cancel. The reason he suggests this is he thinks it's strange that they named it Purim. They named it after the very thing that was the lot that chose the day of their destruction, or that the Decision was made. He suggests it would be like saying, let's call our remembrance of the Holocaust victims. Let's call it the Holocaust festival or something like, it's strange.

And that's his suggestion. And some rabbis agree with him. But when I look at the scripture, maybe my Hebrew is not good enough. Maybe I just didn't pick that up until I read his book. But when I look at it, it just says this verse 26.

Therefore they called these days Purim after the term poor. It just seems that's as simple as it gets. In fact, I was reading another book. I was reading this book. It's entitled inconspicuous providence by Dr. Brian Gregory.

He says naming the festival Purim, attention is focused on something deeper, and it is this. The lot or destiny of God's people is not left up to chance. And it is not determined by someone like Haman casting lots before his Gods. No, only God determines the lot of his people. In other words, I don't believe in coincidence.

I believe in God incidents. I don't believe in luck. I believe that God is sovereign. And so we have to understand, here's what Haman was doing. He was like, you know, he was asking the gods to control the casting of the lots.

And he was saying, okay, what month should they die on? Okay, the month of Adar. So, and then what day? The first day, no, it said no. The second day?

No. And then it gets up to the 14th day. That's the day they're supposed to die. That's how you made that decision. And you're sitting there.

What a dumb way to make a decision, to base it on luck, Lady Luck, you know, what a dumb way to make a decision. Well, there are many dumb ways to make decisions, right? All you got to do is look back on your own life, right? You've made some dumb decisions. So have I.

We've all made dumb decisions, right? I still remember being a young person, young teenager, and trying to get up the nerve to make that phone call, to ask a little girl out. And young people today, you have no idea how hard it used to be, okay? You had to walk to the one phone that was in your house, and it was hanging in the hallway. It was a black phone.

And it just took you a long time just to dial up the numbers like that. Took you a long time to do that. And then the possibility that the father would answer, hello, hang up. That's the first thing you do. And so what I would do to try to get up the nerve is, should I Call her.

Is now the right time to call her? I would go out to my basketball goal. If I make this one, then God wants me to call her. Now, don't judge. I'm 14 years old, okay?

I want to call her and ask her if she can be my girlfriend. And I missed. Okay? All right, Lord. Best two out of three.

Best two out of three. And so you've made dumb decisions. So have I. And it's based on luck here. That's what Haman did.

But the truth is, God is in charge. Look what the Book of Proverbs says. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. There's no luck. There's no coincidence.

God is the architect of history. He is sovereign over all things. To this day, the Jews still celebrate Purim. I mentioned this year. It was on March 2nd and 3rd.

They read the whole book of Esther. They read it on the evening of the 14th in synagogue, and then they read it again on the day of the 15th in synagogue. You might find it interesting that the children show up in costumes. And some of the adults, too, because they just love it. And they show up and all the little girls want to dress as, guess who?

Esther. They want to all come in with a little crown on their heads, dressed like Esther. And the little boys, they want to be Mordecai, the hero, right? And some of them want to be King Xerxes or King Ahasuerus. Very few want to be Haman, but there's some little boys who do.

Now, some of you moms and dads know, because you have a little boy like that that would love to be the. You know, I want to be Haman. And they dress up at these parts. And the other thing is, they read through the whole thing, and every time they come to the name Haman. So when they say Haman, the people go boo.

And they stomp their feet and they have these little noise makers that they spin Boo every time you say Haman. Now, I've known this the whole time we were studying this book together. I didn't tell you about it. I know how you people roll. Cause it had been very disruptive while I was reading.

All of you just shown up. You just shown up with stuff. I know you. And it's hard to get some of you to say Amen. But you would boo and stomp your feet every time I say, hey, man, I guarantee you would have done it.

And I've waited. I waited till the last sermon to tell you about it. They give gifts to one another, they give charity to the poor, and then they conclude with a festival meal. They still practice Purim to this day. They firmly obligated themselves.

The second letter is down in verse 29. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority confirming the second letter. And so the first letter seems to be the record of what happened and asking them to do the festival. The second letter formalizes it under the civil authority of Mordecai, who has the signet ring of the king, and under the ceremonial authority of Queen Esther, who adds her name to it to confirm the practices of it and how it would happen. And so it's firmly established in the calendar.

And so this is. They're called to this remembrance. Now, why am I making such a big deal about the details of the remembrance, why it was so important? It's because remember is one of the most important commands in the Bible. Indeed, as we think about our Lord Jesus and what he said in Luke 22, it says, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Why? Because we're forgetful people. We forget what he's done. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Whenever you drink it, you proclaim my death until I return. Why? Because we forget. We're forgetful people. Maybe I should say this.

We're people who remember the wrong things and forget the important things. We were forgetful people spiritually. We forget what God has done. And so we're called to remember. The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, says, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my Gospel.

Remember him. Why do we need these commands to remember? Why? It's because we're forgetful people. Eugene Peterson says this.

He says Scripture is fundamentally a remembering book for forgetful people. The Bible is a remembering book for forgetful people. Why do we remember birthdays? Why do we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries? Heaven help the man that forgets his wedding anniversary.

Right? Why do we remember this summer, the US 250th anniversary, right? Celebrating this summer. Why? Why do we remember?

Because it's important. We should make it a priority. It's so that we won't forget what people did to lay down their lives so that we might have this nation to live in. Why do we do this, it's because we're forgetful people.

Walter Brueggemann argues that biblical faith is built on acts of remembering that resist amnesia. He says worship is essentially re remembering.

Why do we gather on Sundays? Why are you here? Why are you here? Why do we come together? It's so that we begin the first day of the week, the day that Jesus rose from the grave.

This is why the church meets on Sunday. That's why we don't meet on Saturday. We meet on Sunday because he was still in the tomb. He'd not risen yet. Since the first century, we've met on the Sunday, the first day of the week.

So we tithe the first day of the week to the Lord so that the whole week is set apart for him. Why do we do it? Because before Saturday comes, we get forgetful. Every week we go back out into the world, we get forgetful. We need to gather again fresh every first day of the week and remember.

And how do we do this? Re remembering. How do we keep remembering? By singing the praise songs that engage our hearts. We remember.

We sing of what God has done through Christ Jesus, through the preaching of God's word, so that we remember what God has done through the giving of tithes and offerings. We bring gifts, remembering that we've given our whole lives to him. Why do we do it together? It's because he's called us to be a people, One people. Together we called.

And so we gather for power and we scatter for proclamation. We gather for encouragement. We scatter for evangelism, but we gather. And Gary, you've made such a big deal about this. Well, they made a big deal about it.

They wrote two letters about it to make sure everybody got it. And the people seriously obligated themselves. In other words, they counted it as their duty to not forget because they knew how easy it was to forget. And they obligated their offspring. It says now, why you mentioning that?

Well, I'll tell you why. It's because we just celebrated these fifth graders that are going to be sixth graders in the fall, and this evening they get to go to youth for the first time. And let me tell you, one of them is. One of the. One of them belongs to me.

All of them actually belong to me, the way I think about it. But one of them is my grandson, Ace. He has been talking about this for months, that he finally gets to join his big brother Sammy at youth. And you might not think that's a big deal. It's a big deal to him.

It's a big deal to him. But here's the unfortunate thing for Ace and these others that were standing on the stage. They don't drive yet.

They don't drive yet. Their parents will have to get out of their recliners on a Sunday afternoon. They'll have to pull away from whatever sport they're watching on the television and take their young person to youth. They'll have to obligate themselves to raise up their children. They didn't miss their kindergarten graduation.

Oh, man, everybody showed up for that. But there's something that happens to parenting. They become teenagers. We get forgetful. They can't drive themselves.

And that's why we see this statistic today in the church, that young people go to church, they graduate from high school, go to college, and something like 80% of them never come back. Why? Because their parents taught them one thing with their mouth, but gave them a different priority with their decisions and their behaviors. They made gathering together with God's people something that was lower on their priority list. And so they taught them, by their behavior rather than their words, what really mattered.

And so they raised a generation of forgetful people.

That's why I'm making such a big deal about it. It's because we're called to remember. That's why we worship. That's why we have communion. That's why we testify and give testimony.

That's why we read Scripture. That's why we preach. That's why we gather, because it matters.

This leads us to the third parallel. And that's the parallel of the exalted representative. The parallel of the exalted representative. We're in those final three verses of chapter 10. And then we're surprised that the book named after Esther writes its first, its last chapter about Mordecai.

Why is this? He's second in rank. He's considered great among his people. He's described as one who sought the welfare of his people. So he's seeking the welfare of his people towards the king.

And he speaks peace to the people. He's a representative. He's a mediator. He's a go between. Who could this point to in the Gospel?

Who could that be? You see, this is what the Old Testament is doing over and over again. It's given us types, it's given us certain behaviors and scenes that all point so that we will recognize Jesus the Messiah when he comes. And so even Mordecai here, who had been in chapter four, sitting at the city gates in sackcloth and ashes and mourning and crying and then in chapter eight, he's wearing a crown and purple robes. What a reversal.

He was suffering. He was weeping. Now he's the second seat at the right hand of the king. And he can tell the king. And the king says, here's my signet ring.

I give you all authority. Who does that sound like? Well, let me give you a clue. His name's Jesus. And so Paul writes in Philippians chapter two, who, being in nature God did not equality with God, grasped, but emptied himself to nothing, taking on the nature of.

Of a man, and humbled himself even to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. He went as low, low, low down the ladder of love, and then God lifted him up. And Mordecai is a Christological type. We see in Mordecai that he's a go between.

He speaks to the king on behalf of his people, and he speaks peace to his people on behalf of the king. And so he offers peace to the people. He offers shalom and peace to them. First Timothy Paul writes this. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

In Romans, Paul writes, who is he who condemns it is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. We see in this closing three verses that Mordecai is a Christological type, pointing to Jesus where he's at now for us. It does have one strange verse though, doesn't it? The first part of chapter 10. King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land.

And on. Like. That's a. Like what? Why you dropped that in there like this?

This is strange. Oh, by the way, got to pay more tax now under King Ahasuerus. Probably because he went up against those Spartans where the 300 at Thermopylae stopped him briefly and cost him so much. And he spent so much money trying to take on the Greek city states and failed that now he started this huge tax, which may have led to, in about 12 years, he's assassinated his inner court. Doesn't end well for King Xerxes, King Ahasuerus.

But there it is, dropped right there. Why? Why is it there? Well, they've been delivered, but they're still in Persia, and they still have to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. They're still there, and we've been delivered but we're still in this world.

And so there's this tension between joy and sorrow, between grief and mourning and celebration, between fasting and feasting. Why? Because we're still taxed by this world. There's still the reality of it. There's the already not yet, that we already have all this in Jesus, but not yet.

But it's coming. It's coming soon. We see in this Book of Esther that God is the author of the ultimate happy ending. I hate it when I go to spend money at a theater and I go to a movie and it has a bad ending. Like, why did I waste money on this?

I wanted to feel happy. I'm glad God writes not only the Book of Esther with a happy ending, but the whole thing has the happiest of endings. It ends well because Jesus ends well. He turns our deepest sorrow into everlasting joy. His call to remembrance and his provision of a perfect mediator in Jesus is what we see here.

The story of Esther reminds us that even when God seems silent, he's not still. He's working behind the scenes. And the Gospel assures us that Christ has defeated our greatest enemy. Our deepest sorrow has been overcome and our future joy is secure. Let's pray.

Lord, I pray first of all for that person that's here today that came in with sorrow, came in with grief, came in with brokenness. Why not turn your life over to Jesus today? He's been at work in your life all along. He's brought you to this point. Why not surrender your life to him?

You can do it in prayer. Prayer is just talking to God. Pray like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need a savior. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and that you were raised from the grave.

Come and live in me.

Forgive me of my sin. Adopt me into your family. I surrender my life to you. I want to be a child of God. I want you to be my Lord and Savior.

I promise to follow you all the days of my life. Are you ready to pray that prayer today? If you prayed with me just now, believing in your heart, God will save you. Others are here today, and you're a believer. You're a follower of Jesus.

But you've got your priorities out of order. You've become forgetful. Spiritually. I mean, spiritually forgetful. You've not made remembering a priority.

Would you ask for forgiveness right now? Would you repent? Dear Lord Jesus, please forgive me. Forgive me for putting other things ahead of you. Forgive me for forgetting my first love.

In Jesus name, amen.