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- [00:05]
A
Hey, this is a year in the Bible with daily grace. We're going to wrap up the book of Esther today. We hope that you're enjoying this book, that you're learning something wherever you're listening or watching. Maybe leave us a comment, let us know what you've enjoyed about this book. We would love to hear from you. So Scott, we're going to Talk through chapters 7 through 10 today. We're going to finish up this entire book. What's going on in these chapters?
- [00:27]
B
I'm sad to leave Esther. This is a great book. Short, but so, so great. All right, so a couple things to remember from the chapters we looked at yesterday. The first thing was that Esther had invited Haman and the king to a second banquet where she said she would make her request to the king. Second thing to remember is Haman had constructed these gallows to impale Mordecai on which we were talking before we recorded just about how ludicrously tall these gallows were, just very imposing. And we get that second bakewood early on in chapter seven. It's here that Esther calls out Haman in his plan to exterminate the Jews. Now back in chapter three, Haman had not mentioned that he wanted to kill the Jews. He kind of just made this vague comment about a certain ethnic group that he wanted to get rid of. And the king just kind of signed off on it without doing any further investigation. But Esther reveals at last the plan was to kill the Jews and that she, his beloved queen, is a Jew as well. And so the king is enraged. This is a plan he signed off on though, so he can't just like his hands seem to be tied. And so he leaves the scene. I don't know if to cool off or what the deal was, but Han stays behind with Esther alone, which would have been illegal. And that's just kind of all the justification the king needs to punish Haman. And so he impales Haman on the very gallows that Haman had set up for Morai I Irony, dramatic reversals. It's good storytelling.
- [01:52]
A
Yeah, absolutely.
- [01:54]
B
That just still doesn't solve the problem though of this decree to exterminate the Jews. But the king can't just cancel this order. He's. He's sign off on this. So instead he does a follow up decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves, which they do very valiantly. I love this comment at the start of chapter nine that on the day when the Jews enemies had hoped to overpower them, just the opposite happened. The Jews overpowered Those who hated them. That's so cool. And not only that, but now Mordecai, a Jew, is second in command of the empire. And I think it's also interesting, at the very end of chapter eight, there's a comment that makes it seem like many people throughout the empire became Jews as a result of all of this. And so, yeah, dramatic reversals.
- [02:37]
A
Yeah, it's a super dramatic reversal. And I think if we would have been looking at the beginning of the book, at who seemed to have the power in the trajectory of where the book was heading, we wouldn't have seen this coming. But again, we've seen God sovereignly act in many ways on behalf of his people. And so now we have this ironic reversal that's taken place.
- [02:56]
B
Yeah, And I think, I love that Haman, he had intended to eradicate the Jews, but in the end, the Jews influence expanded throughout the empire. You know, it's just so, so ironic. And, you know, ultimately that can only be explained by God's hands guiding each and every moment of this story.
- [03:18]
A
Yeah. Okay, so as we wrap up this book, Scott, any final thoughts or takeaways for us?
- [03:23]
B
Okay. Yeah. There was a particular verse from Isaiah that kept coming to mind as I was spending time in this book. And I think it's a great encouragement for us today as God's people, for whom this is also true. And that's Isaiah 54:17, which says that no weapon formed against you will succeed and you will refute any accusation raised against you in court. This is the heritage of the Lord's servants, and their vindication is from me. And then one other verse real briefly is Romans 8:31, that if God is for us, who can be against us?
- [03:55]
A
Yeah. Beautiful. And I think we've just seen that illustrated throughout the story in the Book of Esther. I think my big takeaway from this book and every time I spend time in it, I'm so encouraged by this, is just that God is present, that God is sovereign, that God is powerful, and that he's faithful even when he seems silent. And so in the Book of Esther, we don't see thus saith the Lord. We don't see God mentioned by name, but we see him at work. And in my own life, there are times when I wonder, is God at work? Esther reminds me that he is. So thanks for walking us through this book, Scott. It's been a lot of fun. We're gonna also, you and I, walk through the book of Job starting tomorrow. So. Yeah, another great book. We're gonna see a lot of the same themes but in a different way. So yeah, we'll be back with Jobe tomorrow.
- [04:47]
C
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