Esther 2026

Grab a Bible and turn with us to the book of Esther.

We're actually gonna start in chapter six and verse 11, which might not be up on the screen because I haven't prepped Carl, sorry. So we're in Esther chapter six and we're carrying on with this just incredible story. I hope you've been loving it. There's not many more exciting than this. So let us read this together.

Chapter six and verse 11 and we're gonna go all the way through seven. Let's read the word of God together. So Haman got the robe and the horse. He roved Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city streets proclaiming before him, this is what is done for the man the king delights to honor. Afterwards, Mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Haman rushed home with his head covered in grief and told Zerish, his wife, and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

His advisers and his wife Zerish said to him, since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him. You will surely come to ruin. While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet Esther had prepared. So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet. And as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, Queen Esther, what is your petition?

It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted. Then queen Esther answered, if I have found favor with you, your majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life. This is my petition.

And spare my people. This is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet because no such distress would justify disturbing the king. King Xerxes asked queen Esther, who is he?

Where is he? The man who has dared to do such a thing? Esther said, an adversary, an enemy, this vile Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. The king got up in a rage, left his wine, and went out into the palace garden.

But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banqueting hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house? As soon as the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king said, a pole reaching to a height of 50 cubits stands by Haman's house.

He had it set up for Mordecai who spoke up to help the king. The king said, impale him on it. So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided. Thomas.

Well, good evening to all of you. Well, warm welcome to our evening service and a warm welcome to those online as well. If we haven't met, my name is Thomas, and it's my pleasure this evening to bring the next installment in the book of Esther to us. But before we dive in, let me pray for us. Father God, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you so much for this brilliant story that we have to look at today. I want to pray that, we would be listening this evening with open hearts, ready to receive your word, ready to understand it and apply it to ourselves. I pray for your help this evening, father to understand your word and to treasure it. Amen. Amen.

Well, before I dive into chapter seven, this amazing chapter, I just wanna start with a little recap of the kind of themes that we've been looking at in Esther and some of the main characters that we've been seeing. There's two of the main villains that we've encountered so far are Xerxes and Haman. And we've been seeing that both of these men are pictures of pride. If you will just flick back with me to chapter one and verse four, where it says, for a full one hundred and eighty days, he, that is king Xerxes, displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty. I mean, imagine being forced for one hundred and eighty whole days to behold the majesty of this king, to have all his possessions and all his greatness paraded before you for one hundred and eighty days straight.

And then Haman, he's not much better. Chapter five and verse 11, if you'll turn with me again, we read, calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him, and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. I mean, poor wife. Every evening, she's got to listen to her husband going on and on about how amazing he is, how how lucky she is to be married to him, all his sons and all his possessions. These two men are just these perfect pictures of pride.

They love to exalt themselves. And now Esther is taking center stage in the story amid a plot to have her people exterminated. You remember that when a man named Mordecai would not bow to Haman. Haman was so enraged that he basically resolved to have not just Mordecai killed, but to exterminate all of his people as well. And this is the main tension that's running through the book of Esther.

And it's a really big deal, this plot, because elsewhere in the Bible, God has made promises to Israel. He's promised to make them into a prosperous nation, a numerous nation, a nation that will be blessed. And God cannot be true to those promises if this edict to have his people exterminated is allowed to go ahead. And remember, this edict has already been signed, sealed, and delivered. It's gone out.

It's gone. It's ready to happen. The date on which the people of Israel are to be exterminated has been set. And so there is this looming deadline weighing on Mordecai and Esther and all of their people. And so in light of that, why is Esther delaying to make her request to have her people saved?

You remember back in chapter four, she very bravely goes into the king's presence. That's not something you just do. You don't just walk into the king's presence. That can mean death if you're not invited. But she goes in anyway.

She finds favor with him, and she has the opportunity to make her request. But then she says, no. No. Come to a banquet. I'll make my request then.

We have the banquet, chapter five. But then she says, no. No. Come to another feast, and then I'll tell you. So why is she delaying?

It seems a little foolish as this deadline, this day on which the people are to be exterminated draws nearer and nearer and nearer. Why is she delaying? Well, I want us to see that this is a very clever and very deliberate plan. Esther's status changes dramatically all the way back in chapter two in verse 17. You can turn there with me if you like.

It says this. It says, now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. So Esther gained great status. She delighted the king more than any other woman in the entire Persian empire.

But then in chapter four verse 11, there was a little bit of uncertainty, because right at the end of that verse, it says, but thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king. This is just before Esther goes into the king's presence. She says, it's been thirty days since I was called into the king's presence. So I'm not really sure if I still have that status I was given back in chapter two. But as we saw when we looked at chapter five, she has she has that status restored, because the king extends that royal scepter to her.

And so amid that slight uncertainty around her status, queen Esther has come up with this plan to cement her position as the king's favorite queen, because that is an integral part of her plan to save her people. And she has now treated Haman and Xerxes to two lavish feasts. We've seen throughout the book so far just how much, Xerxes in particular loves a bit of feasting, and he's a true man. The key to his heart is food and drink, and he loves a cup of wine. So she he's treated him to two of the kinds of occasions that he really loves most.

So she's flattering him as she does it. But also she's flattering him because these aren't just feasts for anyone. These are exclusive feasts reserved only for the best of the best in the entire kingdom of Persia. Well, for Xerxes, there he is. It's just him and his wife Esther at this lavish feast and Haman.

For Haman, it's him him and Xerxes, the two greatest and most powerful men in all the kingdom of Persia. There they are, the only ones invited to this amazing feast, and Esther's there too. And so as Esther's flattering these men, she is cementing this position. She is making absolutely certain she is the favorite queen, and she has that status she was given back in chapter two. But also, did you notice that at this point, the king has promised to give Esther whatever she wants three times publicly?

Chapter five verse three, when she first goes in, chapter five verse six at the first feast, and now chapter seven. So the king and Haman went to queen Esther's banquet, and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king asked again, queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.

So three times now, he has promised Esther publicly that she he will give her whatever she wants. I know I said these are exclusive feasts, but they would have been officials. They would have been servants there. They wouldn't have been partaking in the feast, but they would have been around. And so it's gonna be very difficult for Xerxes to go back on that promise now that he's made it three times publicly.

But how is she going to change Xerxes' mind? Well, I can imagine if this kingdom of Persia was still around today, and this was happening in our modern times, there would be enormous outcry. I mean, just we already see the kinds of demonstrations, the kind of news that comes out, how the news is just plastered with stories of, you know, the war in Ukraine or conflicts like Israel and Palestine, people crying out, outraged by the injustices going on in the world. And wouldn't we have the same sort of thing, this king planning to just exterminate an entire race of people within his borders. Imagine the outcry that would be happening today.

And so why can't she just shake him and wake him up and say, king Xerxes, what you are doing is evil. It's wicked. You must stop. This is absolutely abhorrent, what you are planning to do, and you cannot do it. But why can't she do that?

Well, it's because King Xerxes doesn't believe that genocide is wrong. In fact, King Xerxes thinks genocide is a good thing. He thinks it's morally right to kill all of these people. Remember, we've seen, he is a man of self interest. He wants he he acts to serve himself and to see himself glorified and exalted.

And that is why Haman, when he brings this request to have these people exterminated, when he brings that request to King Xerxes, he says to him, oh, King Xerxes, you know, these these these Israelites, they don't respect you. They don't obey your laws. They've got their own god, their own customs, their own traditions. They don't respect you, King Xerxes. And so therefore, they don't fit into his worldview.

They don't serve his interest of exalting himself. And so in his mind, therefore, it is morally right to get rid of them, because his world is all about him. And if something doesn't isn't in line with that, he can just get rid of it. And so how do you move a man who only acts to serve himself? Well, you make him believe that he is serving himself by acting in a certain way.

Esther has to appeal to his self interest. Look how she does it. Then queen Esther answered, if I have found favor with you, your majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life. This is my petition. And spare my people.

This is my request. For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. Well, if we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have been quiet because no such distress would justify disturbing the king. I mean, see how she's she continues to butter him up even though even as she's making this request. That was only slavery.

I wouldn't wouldn't bother you about that. But I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, as in I am an Israelite. He didn't know that up until this point. King Xerxes had no idea Esther was Jewish until now, and that means that this edict is going to rid him of one of his prized possessions, the most beautiful woman in all of Persia reserved only for king Xerxes. He could lose that now if this edict is allowed to pass, and so he must act.

He must act to save Esther's people. She has cornered him. It is checkmate for king Xerxes and Haman. It's an ingenious plan. Well, my wife, Ellie's dad, is quite a keen chess player.

He's a bit of a pro, really. He was really, really good in his prime. And these days, I will often I'll sometimes play him at chess, and we'll have a, you know, an exciting game. I'll get up the the board. I'll take quite a few of his pieces.

I'll feel pretty confident. I feel like I'm in a pretty good position. And then suddenly, bam, he comes out with this move that just completely undoes everything I thought I'd achieved during the game that thus far. Because he's thinking, you know, one two three four five moves ahead of me. He's way ahead of me.

So he can completely undo everything I've done with one fell swoop. And that's just like what Esther has done here. She is way ahead of king Xerxes and Haman. And so her plan is absolutely genius. Well, if we read on from verse five, king Xerxes asked queen Esther, who is he?

Where is he? The man who was dared to do such a thing? Esther said, an adversary and an enemy, this vile Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. The king got up in a rage, left his wine, and went out into the palace garden.

When Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg queen Esther for his life. King Xerxes' reaction is just rage. He gets up, and he leaves his wine. I mean, King Xerxes doesn't leave his wine for a lot of things. He is pretty angry.

And I want to touch for a moment on this theme of anger throughout the book of Esther, because it's something that we've seen come up multiple times. For example, back in chapter one, queen Vashti, the queen before Esther, will not dance before Xerxes. And the writer tells us that Xerxes was absolutely enraged by this. He was angry, enraged. And so his reaction was to just ban her from his presence forever, completely cancel queen Vashti.

Then Haman, on two occasions when Mordecai will not bow before him and give him the honor that he thinks he deserves, Mordecai is absolutely livid, shaking with rage, and he resolves not just to kill the man, but to exterminate his people as well. And so why does the writer keep bringing in this detail that these characters are so angry? Why does he keep telling us this? Well, I think it's because Esther, as we are seeing, is a book about pride, and anger is the fruit of pride. Anger is the reaction of proud men and women who do not get what they want, throwing their toys out the pram and having a tantrum when something does not serve them or fit into their own view of themselves.

And the book of Esther analyzes this theme of pride and kind of shows how foolish it is by using irony. There's this amazing video going around on the Internet at the moment. You might have seen it. Nigel Farage is campaigning in Clackton. And in the video, you see Nigel Farage on one side campaigning with all his people, and then there's a road here.

And a car comes driving down the road, winds down the window, shouts this obscenity at Nigel Farage. And in doing so, the lady driving the car neglects to notice the line of cars forming in front of her at the red traffic light. And so she goes, wham, straight into the car in front of her. Often, these sorts of videos are called an instant karma moment, and they're just they're beautifully ironic. And the book of Esther is filled with many such ironic reversals and ironic events.

For example, just last week when we were looking at chapter six, you've got Haman going into the king's presence, you know, hoping to tell him about his plan to have Mordecai impaled on this pole. And then the king says to him, oh, what should be done for the man that the king delights to honor? Of course, Haman says, well, that's gonna be me, isn't it? Nobody else should be honored by the king but me. Well, of course, put him on a horse and parade him around town, saying this is what has done for the man that the king delights to honor.

And then only for Xerxes to turn around and say, great. Go and do that for your worst enemy, Mordecai. Brilliant irony. And here, here in chapter seven, we have this. Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house? And as soon as the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbonne, this beautiful moment, this guy Harbonne just comes in with the perfect line. One of the eunuchs attending the king said, oh, a pole reaching to a height of 50 cubits stands by Haman's house. He had it set up for Mordecai who spoke up to help the king.

The king said, impale him on it. So they impale Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and then the king's fury subsided. What a fool. How foolish irony is. Haman can do nothing at this point.

He knows that his fate is sealed as soon as the king walks out in his anger. And the writer brilliantly shows us the folly of pride in this man, Haman. But did you notice the king is not much better? He doesn't the king doesn't cut get off easy in this chapter either. He too is made to look the fool because of his pride.

I mean, for example, the king it says the king got up in a rage and left his wine and went out into the palace garden before coming back to sentence Haman to death. Well, why doesn't he just sentence Haman to death right there and then? I think it would look a little silly for the king to condemn a man to death for an edict that he signed with his own seal. He can't really do that. That would be quite politically damaging for him.

And so he huffs off into the garden in a rage. He's got no idea what to do. Esther's completely cornered him. And so he comes back in, and he just so it just so happens that he sees Haman at the feet of Esther just begging for his life. He says, he's molesting her.

A charge on which to have Haman killed. So he has to invent a charge on which to have Haman killed just to save face, all because his own pride has got him into this complete mess of the situation. And so against the odds, Mordecai and Esther come out on top. They had absolutely no right to be the winners here. Remember, the people of Israel in people of Israel are in exile.

They've been defeated and carried off to a foreign land. They have no right to be coming out on top here. They are the underdogs. Well, last week when we were looking at chapter six, Tom showed us that, you know, if you're paying attention, you're looking through the book of Esther, it's so clear how God is at work through his providence, lining up the different events so that his his purposes and his plan will be successful. And here in chapter seven, we see, yes, not only does God work through his providence and the ordering of the events, but he also acts through human agents.

He raises up people and he works through them and he uses them also to accomplish his purposes, including them within his providential plans. Well, God's mission in the Old Testament was to keep his promises to Israel, make them into a great nation, set them apart so that it'd be a light to the Gentile nations. And how does he do it? Well, here in Esther, it's through his agents, Esther and Mordecai, using their situation, using their skills, their cunning to accomplish those purposes. But what's God's mission now in the New Testament era?

What is God trying to do? Well, he is in the business of building the church. He's gathering people in from every tribe, tongue, nation, and he is training and building up those people in righteousness, making them more like his son Jesus, growing them in their faith. That is his mission now. And how is he doing it?

Well, yes, providence. Providential acts all over the globe that we'll be aware of, but also through his people, working through his people that he raises up to go out and build his church and disciple his people. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew, behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. And isn't that exactly the way that Mordecai and Esther have been?

What a in kind of enacting this cunning plan. Wise as serpents, innocent as doves. Well, Christians these days are very often the underdogs. I mean, in our own country, even though it's sort of founded on these Christian roots, still Christianity is kind of is maligned and mocked and ridiculed, and people don't seem people want to cancel Christian views and Christian beliefs. But, of course, all over the world, I mean, we've just been seeing in the slots this evening just how much the Christian people are the underdogs in places like North Korea.

But against those odds, god raises up people like Cho that we heard about who will provides Bibles to these people somehow, food and drink, encourages them with the word of truth. God uses his people against the odds, and the church continues to grow even in these places where Christians are so heavily persecuted. And I think that teaching should be a huge encouragement to us. That should give us enormous confidence because it shows us that the power does not come from us. God is on our side as we join in the mission to grow, build the church.

I mean, how demoralizing would it be if it actually all depended on us? I've been rereading Pilgrim's Progress recently, and there's this and it's a book by John Bunyan. It's the main character is a guy called Christian. It's an allegory for the Christian life. And Christian's on a journey from the city of destruction to the celestial city.

And as he's just starting out on that journey, he takes a wrong turn. He's deceived, he goes, gets into a bit of jeopardy, and then he's put back onto the right path. And it's got these amazing words in the text where it says, Christian called himself a fool a thousand times over because he turned from the way. And if you're anything like me, you can resonate with that experience of just, oh, Thomas, you idiot. You absolute idiot.

Because in so many ways, I'm failing. I'm constantly messing up, falling into the same sins over and over again, not taking the opportunities that I know I should be taking and just mucking up. But as we know from God's word, his power is made perfect in weakness. God graciously includes us, though we are weak, in his plans. He gives us skills.

He puts us in certain situations where he will use us to accomplish his purposes so we can be greatly encouraged. And it doesn't have to be, you know, the the kind of cunning or this incredibly high position that Esther found herself in. You might remember several months ago now, Tom was preaching from Hebrews and he gave this he told us this story of a lady named Margaret. Margaret was an elderly lady who was in the hospital nearing the end of her life. And as she's lying there in a hospital bed, God is sending her non Christian people, porters, nurses, just sending them to her.

God puts her in that position, sends these non Christian people to her, and she takes advantage of it because she's there there she is telling telling the gospel, telling them stories from the bible. And so the way that we use our situation to our advantage and use the skills that God has given us is gonna look different for different people. And so I would encourage us, and as we go out this week, be encouraged, have confidence that God uses his people to accomplish his purposes. Well, I wanna make one more point before we close, and that is I want us to see, amid all the ironies that we see in the book of Esther, there is one ultimate irony hidden in the pages. As we've seen, the book of Esther is a warning against pride, shows us the folly of pride.

And we rightly see Haman and we condemn him for his pride, and we sort of rejoice in him getting what he deserves. And the Bible is full of warnings against pride. For example, in the gospel of Matthew, the Lord Jesus says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. And then in the book of Proverbs, read pride goes before destruction, haughty spirit before a fall. So the Bible is full of warnings against pride.

But as we look at Esther seven and we see the pride of Haman, the Bible is also holding up a mirror and showing us that we should see ourselves in these pages as well. Now I wanna be clear here. Our pride isn't gonna be, I hope, as overt as it is in somebody like Heyman. Heyman is a very extreme example of a proud man and the kind of the way that pride can warp our morality and cause us to do terrible things. But I think the pattern sort of nestled inside of that is still is still true for a lot of us, that, you know, we are proud people, and very often that pride leads us to do silly things that we often regret.

For example, when I was at school, that two of my schoolmates, a guy called Alex and a guy called Eddie, were having an argument. I think the argument was over which band is better, the Beatles or Oasis. The correct answer is the Beatles. Anyway, they were having this argument, and Eddie was losing. Eddie was losing the argument.

And, you know, as we all can kind of resonate with, and as often happens when we're sort of in a a debate that we are losing, we tend our pride is wounded. We're getting more and more angry by the second. And and in this situation, Eddie just stands up, charges across the room straight at Alex, spear tackles him rugby fashion, straight into the radiator at the other end of the room. I mean, how humiliating. Pride so often makes us do such silly things, makes us overreact in, like, in response to just trivial little things.

And that is one of the ways that pride will work its way out in our lives. But there is a kind of deeper pattern of what pride is about that we need to see, and that is that pride really, in many ways, is the root of sin. It is substituting in our hearts God from the place where he should be, the one deserving of all worship, the one we should be following for ourselves. Putting ourselves in that position in our hearts that only God can occupy, and choosing for ourselves the way that we will go rather than listening to God and his ways. And you can trace it all the way back to the fall, us doing what is right in our own eyes rather than going God's way.

And so the application in Esther seven is not just don't be proud. There's a verse in another book of the Bible called Deuteronomy where God says, anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse. And so Haman is under God's curse. Haman is hung on a pole, and he is under God's curse because he was proud, because he worshiped himself and not God. And that will be our faith if we too are ultimately proud people.

If we are ultimately people that put ourselves first, go our own way, decide up for ourselves what is right and wrong, If we are proud, ultimately, is what will happen. We will ultimately fall under God's curse just as Haman did. But likewise, the Lord Jesus was hung on a pole when he was hung on the cross. And Jesus, when he was on the cross, received God's curse. He was taking God's curse in that moment.

And the ultimate and is the ultimate irony that we need to see in the book of Esther because Jesus was the only one who ever lived who actually had a legitimate reason to be proud. The only person that could be proud was also the one who humbled himself. The one who created the whole universe, condescending, and hung on a pole and cursed as a sinner in our place. That is the ultimate irony, the ultimate reversal. Jesus taking our place and us being free from our pride, free from the consequences that our pride deserves.

And so as we read Esther seven, we see Haman, the picture of pride, but we also see Jesus, the picture of humility. And so how do we repent of our pride? How do we turn from it? Well, you see Jesus, You behold him. You look at him.

You look at the one who humbled himself. The only one that could have been proud, humbling himself. The innocent man condemned as a sinner. And when you see him there taking your place, loving you so much that he was willing to do that so that you would not have to take that curse, your pride would just melt away. There's no room for pride when you see Jesus.

When you learn who he is and what he was like, and you see him taking that curse for you, you will be disgusted by your own pride. And so will you humble yourself? Will you turn to Jesus?