Why does the way of the wicked seem to prosper? (Esther 2:19-3:15) 1 23 rd October 2016 Please have your Bibles open at Esther chapter 2 starting at verse 19 and we re going through to chapter 3 verse 15. There s an outline in the bulletin if you like to take notes. Let s ask God for understanding of His Holy Word. Let s Pray. Intro/Recap Let s just recap where we got up to with the story of Esther last week [Powerpoint 1 Recap] King Xerxes the King of the Persian Empire holds a 6 month war council and wines and dines the officials and noblemen of 127 provinces and they plan how to handle the threat of another growing Empire the Greek Empire After this 6 month pow wow - King Xerxes shows off to his mates after a 7 day drinking binge session and demands his Queen, Queen Vashti, to parade in front of him and his mates possibly naked or wearing very little! Queen Vashti understandably refuses and so she is dumped as Queen So a search is made for a new Queen by having a Miss Persia Beauty contest Page 1 of 12
And as luck would have it (or as God would have it) Esther a Jewish orphan 2 girl being raised by her older cousin, Mordecai becomes Queen! If we think King Xerxes behaviour was questionable and that it seems like the bad guys always win it s about to get a whole lot worse this week! (pause) And as we look around our world and even in our own country It does seem to be that the wicked continue to prosper [Powerpoint 2 Jer 12:1] That was what the OT prophet, Jeremiah struggled with. I began the service this morning by reading from Jeremiah 12:1 Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? Let s hold that question in the memory banks for a short while? And let s pick up the story, just after Esther has become Queen And we re looking at Esther 2:19 to 3:15 Page 2 of 12
Wicked plot discovered and stopped (2:19-23) 3 So we pick up the story at chapter 2 and verse 19 as Mordecai (Esther s cousin/uncle) is sitting at the King s gate [Powerpoint 3 A plot discovered] Sitting at the King s gate means Mordecai had some sort of official position and was therefore associated with the decision makers and men of influence in the Kingdom. Whether he had this position before Esther became Queen or whether he got this position because Esther was now Queen, we re not told. And we see from v20 that Mordecai still has some influence over Esther even though she s Queen and they have both decided to keep their Jewish nationality and background a secret that s going to become important later And as luck would have it (as God would have it) Mordecai in v21 and 22 is in the right place at the right time and overhears a plot by 2 of the king s officers Big-thana and Teresh. Their plot is to assassinate King Xerxes But - Mordecai tells Queen Esther about the plot - and Esther tells King Xerxes. Esther gives Mordecai the credit for uncovering this plot - and the 2 officers are impaled. Page 3 of 12
All that seems fair enough. 4 The 2 officers have committed treason and that warrants the death penalty. In this particular case the wicked didn t prosper and justice did prevail! But as we hit chapter 3 things take a turn and unfairness and bitterness and evil come to the fore! Wicked Plot planned and not stopped? (3:1-15) Now you would think that because Mordecai discovered the assassination plot on King Xerxes that Mordecai would be rewarded wouldn t you? That s how the world should work shouldn t it? [Powerpoint 4 wicked plot not stopped?] But as we hit v1 of chapter 3 we re introduced to a new character and he s going to be the villain of the story His name is Haman he s a descendant of King Agag the leader of the tribe of the Amalekites a bitter enemy of the Jews from way back Page 4 of 12
In fact as far back as when the God s people the people of Israel left Egypt 5 and headed to the Promised Land and they were attacked by a tribe called the Amalekites (that story is in Exodus 17). Haman being a descendant of this bitter enemy of the Jews - is going to become important later When I was a kid I went to lots of pantomimes [it s a musical for children usually based on a fairy tale or nursery rhyme and there s usually a villain] and when the villain came on the stage Everyone in the audience - booed and hissed at the villain In the book of Esther Haman is the villain You can imagine the Jews, throughout the centuries, reading the book of Esther and booing and hissing every time Haman s name is mentioned in the story! I m happy for you to do that this morning if you like! And as we are introduced to Haman we discover it s not Mordecai who gets rewarded for saving the King s life Page 5 of 12
But the bad guy Haman is made PM of Persia in v1 and we re not told why 6 Haman is made PM And what makes matters worse is we have 2 characters Mordecai and Haman whose ancestors hate each other Mordecai is a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin the same tribe of Israel s first King King Saul And Haman is an Amalekite a descendant of King Agag who King Saul failed to get rid of when God told him to in 1 Samuel chapter 15 So there is a grudge from centuries ago between the Amalekites and the Jews Which is about to come into play in the relationship between Mordecai and Haman A bit like grudges throughout history grudges like there used to be between Protestants and Catholics or between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims So in v2 Mordecai refuses to kneel down and pay honour to Haman, as the other royal officials did - and as was the custom And there are a number of reasons for why Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman Page 6 of 12
a) Firstly because of this grudge between Jews and Amalekites 7 b) Secondly - Mordecai being unhappy that he was not rewarded for stopping the assassination plot against the King and yet Haman was elevated to Prime Minister of the Persian Empire and c) Thirdly as a Jew, Mordecai (like Daniel s friends in book of Daniel) refused to bow down to anyone but God. Yet we can t say Mordecai is squeaky clean here. If it was the King or Queen walking by rather than Haman - would Mordecai have refused to bow down to them? Because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman the other royal officials pester Mordecai to find out why he refused In v3-4 these other royal officials find out about Mordecai s Jewish background and they tell Haman. This escalates things considerably Haman was already angry that Mordecai wouldn t bow down to him (v5) but when Haman finds out about Mordecai being a Jew it s no longer a personal vendetta but a racial one! So Haman looks for a way to kill ALL the Jews in the kingdom (v6) Remember back in chapter 1 how a problem between King Xerxes and Queen Vashti became a public problem affecting the whole empire The same thing is happening here with Haman and Mordecai Page 7 of 12
A private matter between Haman and Mordecai becomes public and is about to 8 affect the whole empire! It s so easy for a problem between two people to escalate into a huge problem if not handled properly! So Haman escalates the problem to the King explaining that there is a certain people dispersed (these Jews) among the peoples in all provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate (v8). Haman even casts lots (like rolling a dice) called pur in v7 which will become important later as feast of Purim is introduced Haman casts lots to work out when he should put his plan into place. Haman explains to the King that the Jews have their own customs and don t obey the King s laws and it s not in the King s best interest to tolerate them v8 Haman is a piece of work! He s manipulative, vindictive, scheming and evil He s even prepared to give the King $375 million dollars worth of silver for the privilege of killing the Jews! He goes to great lengths to make sure that an edict is sent to every province in the Empire in their own language to in v13 to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews! As luck would have it (or as God would have it) this edict is issued on the exact date of the eve of (day before) the Jewish Passover the day when the Jews were delivered from slavery in Egypt Page 8 of 12
But here it seems the Jews are not going to be delivered - they are going to be 9 annihilated! Or are they? We re left hanging in v15. The capital city Susa is bewildered by such an edict! Meanwhile the King and Haman sit and have a drink together It s a great story full of suspense full of drama and we re left to wonder what will happen to the Jews? And where is God in all of this? And we re left to ask that question that we began with from the prophet Jeremiah Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? Application So what do WE do? When it seems like life is unfair? Or when we face pending doom? Or when we don t get the credit we deserve (like Mordecai) What do we do when no matter how much we try to do, and say and think the right thing it s the people who thumb their nose at God, consistently breaking God s rules and treating people with evil and hatred, the ones who do evil rather than good - seem to be the ones who prosper and get away with it don t they? And it sucks doesn t it? Page 9 of 12
It s so unfair and unjust isn t it? 10 And sometimes it hurts too! What s the answer to all of this? Well - here s three answers which might help us as we head home this morning: [Powerpoint 5a App 1] a) God can turn evil intentions into His good intentions. The OT story of Joseph is a classic example. Joseph is hated by his 11 brothers, sold as a slave sent to Egypt wrongly accused thrown in jail and almost forgotten about. But then through a series of amazing turnarounds Joseph becomes PM of Egypt and is instrumental in saving his whole family from famine and starvation. At the end of the story Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 You intended harm to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. That s how God works in the story of Joseph and He can do it again and again and He did it in the life and death of Jesus. When Jesus was killed his murderers intended evil and harm God used this to achieve His plan and purpose to save people from their sins thru Jesus death God s purposes can t be derailed! [Powerpoint 5b App 2] b) God has already planned what will happen before hand. Has anyone seen the movie Hotel Marigold? There s a great line repeated over and over in the movie. The quote is: Everything will be all right in the end. If it s not all Page 10 of 12
right - it is not the end! The last book in the Bible, Revelation basically 11 says God wins and God has planned everything from beginning to end! After Jesus death and resurrection, Peter and John, in Acts 4:27-28 praised God in prayer saying: 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. [Powerpoint 5c App 3 c) In the meantime we must live by faith not by sight. In our NT passage this morning from 2 Cor 5, Paul is basically saying our life on earth living in these bodies of ours is a temporary dwelling like a tent. We re just camping here on Earth for a while. We have a permanent dwelling place in Heaven to look forward to and it s the hope of Heaven that we should hang on to as we live out our lives. Yes life gets tough and we may well struggle and groan as we try to handle what comes at us in our life. But Paul wants us to not live by what we see in this life getting bogged down in the trials, the hurts, the unfairness getting affected by the evil and wickedness and lawlessness of this world. Instead Paul says don t live by what we can SEE but live in FAITH in what lies ahead for us. Our life on earth is temporary we have our permanent citizenship in Heaven. So we must live by faith in our reserved place in Heaven which Jesus paid for us with his death on the cross and we must live by faith in knowing we have life with God in Heaven to look forward to - which Jesus guaranteed for us by rising from the dead Page 11 of 12
12 Conclusion We began this morning with Jeremiah s question: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? [Powerpoint 6 Conclusion] The Apostle Paul s answer is basically that it only seems that the way of the wicked prosper because in v10 of 2 Cor 5 He says this: 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. The bottom line is that we must ALL face our Lord Jesus the Supreme Judge when He returns. And when we do we will receive what is due to us for what we have done whilst living in these temporary bodies And that includes the people who seem to get away with everything that is evil. They all have to face Jesus, the judge, and give an account of themselves. In the end the wicked will not prosper and the faithless will not live at ease. The wicked will not prosper when they end up in Hell and the faithless will not live a life of ease when they end up in Hell. In the meantime let us live by faith in our Lord Jesus and not by what we can see. Let s pray Page 12 of 12