3. SIRANI, Giovanni Andrea, Esther before Ahasuerus, 1630s, Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest

4. Haman’s Plot of Genocide

5. For Such a Time as This: Defining Moments

6. Esther Chapter 5 Courage Under Fire

7. What’s your high… and low? Esther 5:9-12 12 “And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. 13 But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”

8. A plot to make things better for Mordecai Esther 5:10-14 14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built.

9. Esther 6 Sleepless is Susa: God’s work in spite of rotten circumstances

10. You’ve got to be kidding me Esther 6:10-11 10 “Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.” 11 So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed 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!”

11. “Man falls according as God’s providence ordains, but he falls by his own fault.” ~ John Calvin, Quoted in R. C. Sproul and Jerry Bridges, The Providence of God Study Guide (Orlando, Fla.: Ligonier, 1990), page 69.

12. “Man falls according as God’s providence ordains, but he falls by his own fault.” ~ John Calvin, Quoted in R. C. Sproul and Jerry Bridges, The Providence of God Study Guide (Orlando, Fla.: Ligonier, 1990), page 69.

13. This week’s message: Painful Irony – Esther 7

14. A nice (second) banquet Esther 7:1-2 1 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, 2 and as they were drinking wine on that 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.”

15. Esther drops the bomb Esther 7:3-4 3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people— this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. 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.”

16. An Unhappy King Esther 7:5-6 5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?” 6 Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.” Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

17. Two men in difficult situations Esther 7:7 7 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.

18. “Can he punish Haman for a plot he himself approved? If he does so, won’t he have to admit his own role in the fiasco [and lose face]? Moreover, he has issued an irrevocable law; how then can he rescind it?” ~ Michael V. Fox, Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther, 86.

19. What did I agree to? Esther 3:8-9 8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business.”

20. [Haman’s] choice was either to follow the king, who had bolted in anger from his presence, or to flee the room, suggesting guilt and inviting pursuit. Haman is trapped. Even in the presence of others, a man was not to approach a woman of the king’s harem within seven steps. ~ Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible, 262.

21. This just keeps getting worse for Haman Esther 7:8 8 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?” As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

22. Hey, I’ve got an idea! Esther 7:9-10 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman’s house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.” The king said, “Hang him on it!” 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

23. The first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, comments: “And from hence I cannot forbear to admire God, and to learn hence his wisdom and justice, not only in punishing the wickedness of Haman, but in so disposing it, that he should undergo the very same punishment which he had contrived for another; as also, because thereby he teaches others this lesson, that what mischiefs any one prepares against another, he without knowing of it, first contrives it against himself.” ~ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, in The Works of Josephus, trans. W. Whiston (Lynn, Mass.: Hendrickson, repr. 1980), page 241.

24. Developing Twists:

25. Irony

26. Developing Twists: Irony Human Evil and Divine Justice

27. IRONY

33. Fatherless and old couple become founders of Israel Extreme dysfuntional family Israel become foundation Joseph sold into slavery The redemption of Judah A bunch of slaves get freed from the strongest nation Red sea crossing Pharoah’s Chariots Water from Rock David and Goliath Gideon and 300 soldiers

34. Matthew 7:1-5 1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

35. Mark 10:29-31 29 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields— and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

36. Luke 12:13-21 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

37. Luke 12:13-21 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’

38. Luke 12:13-21 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

39. Acts 9:1-2, 15 1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem…

40. Acts 9:1-2, 15 1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem… 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

41. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

42. Developing Twists: Human Evil and Divine Justice

43. “Driven by uncontrollable pride and arrogance, Haman had plotted to slaughter the Jewish people because his lust for power over others could not be satisfied as long as Mordecai the Jew refused to bow to him. Given full reign, pride, like greed and lust, is insatiable. Haman does not appear to be anti-Semitic in the modern sense of the word, for he would probably have been willing to commit genocide against any population if it satisfied his megalomaniac pursuit of honor and power. His plan to take revenge on one man by annihilating his entire race was an evil of demonic proportions, regardless of who those people were. The enormous stature of Haman’s evil is pictured in the seventy- five-foot height of the gallows he unknowingly constructed for himself. His sudden and unpreventable destruction was the just reward of such an evil mind.”

44. “But the story moves to a new plane of theological significance precisely because the people he picked on happened to be the Jews, the people Yahweh had chosen as his own. Speaking better than she knew, Haman’s own wife, Zeresh, predicted that because Mordecai was Jewish, Haman could not stand before him, but would come to ruin (6:13). While inviting us to reflect on the question of who gets life and who does not, the author of Esther reveals the nature and destiny of human evil and the mysterious workings of divine justice.” ~ Karen Jobes, (1999). Esther. The NIV Application Commentary (pages 171–172).

45. Exodus 17:8-9, 14 8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands….” 14 Then the L ORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

46. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

47. Romans 5:6-10 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

48. 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

49. Gospel Application

50. As we approach communion today, who are you in this story?