- [Narrator] The greatest coincidence in the Bible.
Why do I call this the greatest coincidence in the Bible?
It's because throughout all my reading,
I have never witnessed such a large amount of favorable
events take place in such a little time.
Take note that what we refer to as coincidence
is to be seen as providence.
The story takes place in Esther,
and it is the vindication of Mordecai.
He is described as being the son of Jair,
of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was promoted to Vizier after Haman was killed.
The book of Esther is the Old Testament book with the most
historical evidence.
Records other than the Bible,
such as the Histories of Herodotus,
a contemporary Greek historian born in 480 BC,
confirmed that Esther is a late book.
There is a slew of other sources that back up
what is read in Esther.
Archeologists excavating Persepolis,
the Persian Empire's capital, discovered a stone tablet
containing the name Marduka in 1930.
Historical background.
Babylon was conquered by a Mede's Persian alliance.
Darius the Mede, who was succeeded by Xerxes, a Persian,
was the first emperor of the new empire.
Otherwise known as Ahasuerus,
Hadassah rose to the position of queen
and was given the name Esther, a pagan name,
short for Ishtar, of Babylonian goddess.
As a result, Esther was promoted to positions
in which she could help her communities.
God did not forcibly return the Jews to the Promised Land.
A romantic story.
It's a love story.
Esther was a beautiful and young queen who ruled over
a wide kingdom.
Only one man knew her secret,
and it was a life-threatening secret.
This is a common occurrence in romance novels.
Xerxes ruled around that stretched eastward
from India to Egypt, but with danger looming,
he called the 180 day meeting to explore
how he would deal with the Greek threat.
At the completion of the session,
they celebrated with a seven day feast in the royal grounds.
The king asked his wife Vashti to dance for them
after they had consumed too much wine,
as she was young and gorgeous and he wanted entertainment
for his generals.
The story starts when Queen Vashti refuses to appear.
As a result of her refusal,
the king found himself in an uncomfortable predicament.
If he didn't deal with his wife,
you can imagine what the woman of the generals would do.
Something had to be done since they were in danger
if he couldn't control his household.
He told her she'd never be able to return to his presence.
He did, however, find his bed to be a touch cold
and he grew increasingly lonely.
Someone proposed he have a beauty pageant
with the winter becoming his wife.
It was a significant issue.
Esther had a year's worth of beauty treatments
prior to entering the competition.
She was proclaimed Xerxes's new queen
as a result of her victory.
Esther 2: 17-18.
Now the king was attracted to Esther
more than 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.
And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet,
for all his nobles and officials.
He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces
and distributed gifts with royal liberality.
She belonged to the Benjamin tribe,
which is surprising giving the clans tumultuous history.
Mordecai was her cousin, but he adopted her as his own
daughter when she had been abandoned as an orphan.
Because the Empire's Jewish communities were in danger
due to antisemitic sentiments, she kept their relationship
a secret at Mordecai's request.
Despite her inexperience in the harem,
she rapidly established herself as the king's favorite.
We also noticed the position of another man who was exalted
in the court at the time as we set the scene.
He was known as Haman, and he was Mordecai's antagonist.
He was a descendant of Agag.
The prophet Samuel had instructed Saul, Israel's first king
to go defeat Agag.
Samuel took over after Saul refused to kill Agag
and hacked him to bits in front of the Lord's altar.
As a result of this occurrence in history,
there was hatred between the Agagites and the Jews
and Haman harbored animosity for the Jews.
We have an intriguing situation.
The Persian empire's queen is a Jewess,
and Haman is a high ranking courtier who despises all Jews.
It became a crisis when Haman urge
that everyone worshiped the emperor.
Haman informed the king when Mordecai refused.
He emphasized that the emperor's Jews
should be destroyed all together.
They were distinct, with their own laws, traditions,
and religion.
They were misfits who needed to be let go.
He also offered the treasury a hefty reward
if the Monarch agreed to exterminate the Jews.
To determine when all the Jews would be executed in secret,
they literally drew lots.
On the 13th day of the month, a lot was cast
to determine the fate of the Jewish people.
When the Jews found out what was going to happen,
they fasted, wore sackcloth and wore ashes.
Mordecai sent Esther a message begging the king for mercy.
He claimed that God had brought her to the kingdom
for a specific reason.
She was thus in a position to assist her people,
so Esther faced a real battle.
Should she reveal that she was Jewish?
If she did, her life would be at stake too,
but she decided that if she perished, she perished.
So how was she to make the request known?
The queen could only see the king if she was summoned,
but she knew she had to see him.
So she boldly entered his presence and proposed the banquet
with Haman as the honored guest.
The king granted the request,
and the meal was properly set up.
Meanwhile, Haman was so furious at Mordecai
that he built a 23 meter high gallows to hang him on.
He didn't say who it was for though.
Esther 5:9.
Haman went out that day happy and then high spirits,
but when he saw Mordecai at the King's gate
and observed that neither rose nor showed fear
in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai.
Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home,
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.
"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,
but all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see
that Jew Mordecai sitting at the King's gate."
His wife's Zeresh and all his friends said to him,
"Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of 50 cubits
and to ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai
impaled on it.
Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself."
This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.
The night before the supper, the king had insomnia
and got up to read.
He dug through his old diaries and discovered that Mordecai
had saved his life years before from an assassination plot
involving two of his colleagues.
He was recalled that he had never bestowed a prize to him.
Esther 6.
On that night, the king could not sleep,
so he ordered that the Book of Records and Memorable Deeds,
the Chronicles, be brought and they were read before
the king.
It was found written there how Mordecai had reported that
Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs
who were door keepers had planned to attack King Xerxes.
The king said, "What honor or distinction
has been given Mordecai for this?"
Then the king servants who attended him said,
"Nothing has been done for him."
So the king said, "Who is in the court?"
Now, Haman had just entered
the outer court of the king's palace to ask the king
about hanging Mordecai on the gallows,
which he had prepared for him.
The king's servant said to him,
"Look, Haman is standing in the court,"
and the king said, "Let him come in."
So Haman came in and the king said to him,
"What is to be done for the man
whom the king desires to honor?"
Now, Haman thought to himself,
"Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?"
So Haman said to the king,
"For the man whom the king desires to honor,
let a royal robe be brought, which the king has worn
and the horse on which the king has ridden,
and on whose head a royal crown has been placed,
and let the robe and the horse be handed over
to one of the king's most noble officials.
Let him dress the man whom the king delights to honor
in the royal robe and lead him on horseback through
the open square of the city and proclaim
before him, 'This is what shall be done for the man
whom the king desires to honor.'"
Then the king said to Haman, "Quickly, quickly take
the royal robe and the horse, as you have said,
and do this for Mordecai the Jew,
who is sitting at the king's gate.
Leave out nothing of all that you have said."
So Haman took the royal robe and the horse
and dressed Mordecai and let him on horseback
through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him,
"This is what shall be done for the man
whom the king desires to honor."
Then Mordecai returned to the King's gate,
but Haman hurried to his own house,
mourning and with his head covered in sorrow.
Then Haman told Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends
everything that had happened to him.
Then his wise counselors and his wife Zeresh said to him,
"If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall in status,
is of Jewish heritage, you will not overcome him,
but will certainly fall before him."
While they were still speaking with him,
the king's eunuchs, attendants arrived
and hurriedly brought Haman to the banquet
which Esther had prepared.
On that night, the king went through the book
that detailed Mordecai's actions to save the king.
Then Haman, the antagonist, mistakenly told the king
to bless Mordecai, thinking that he was rewarding himself.
It almost looks like Haman
was devoted to the greatness of Mordecai.
As Haman honored him in front of the city,
it was an incredible event,
certainly the result of God's hand.
The amazing thing is that this is still not the end.
At the feast, Esther found the courage
to speak to the king about her people.
When the king learnt of Haman's heinous plot,
he had them hanged on the gallows
that had been erected especially for Mordecai.
Esther 7:1-8.
So the king and Haman came to drink wine
with Esther, the queen, and the king said to Esther
on the second day, also as they drink their wine,
"What is your petition, Queen Esther?
It shall be granted to you.
And what is your request?
Even to half of the kingdom, it shall be done."
Then Queen Esther replied, "If I have found favor
in your sight, oh King, and if it pleases the king,
let my life be spared as my petition and my people
be spared as my request, for we have been sold,
I and my people to be destroyed, killed,
and wiped out of existence.
Now, if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women,
I would have remained silent, for our hardship would
not be sufficient to burden the king by mentioning it."
Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther,
"Who is he, and where is he who dares to do such thing?"
Esther said, "An adversary and an enemy is Haman,
this evil man."
Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.
Then in his fury, the king stood up from drinking wine
and went into the palace garden to decide what he should do,
but Haman stayed to plead for his life from Queen Esther,
for he saw that harm had been determined against
him by the king.
When the king returned from the palace garden
to the place where they were drinking wine,
Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was.
Then the king said, "Will he even attempt to assault
the queen with me in the palace?"
As the king spoke those words, the servants covered
Haman's face in preparation for execution.
A fresh decree was published, overriding Haman's orders
and guaranteeing the Jews the right to self-defense
as well as the authority to assemble and annihilate
any armed force that could attack them.
Because assassins were waiting to slay all the Jews
across the empire, it was a stunning intervention.
As a result, when Haman's edict to exterminate
the Jews came to fruition, the Jews were ready
and proceeded to defeat their opponents
and slay Haman's family.
Esther 9:1-14.
On the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar,
the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out.
On this day, the enemies of the Jews
had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned
and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them.
The Jews assembled in their cities
in all their provinces of the King Xerxes
to attack those determined to destroy them.
No one could stand against them
because the people of all the other nationalities
were afraid of them, and all the nobles of the provinces,
the satraps, the governors, and the king's administrators
help the Jews because fear of Mordecai had seized them.
Mordecai was prominent in the palace,
his reputation spread throughout the provinces
and he became more and more powerful.
The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword,
killing and destroying them,
and they did what they pleased to those who hated them.
In the Citadel of Susa, the Jews killed
and destroyed 500 men.
They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha,
Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta,
Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
the 10 sons of Haman, son of Hammedatha,
the enemy of the Jews.
But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.
The number of those killed in the Citadel of Susa
was reported to the king that same day.
The king said to Queen Esther,
"The Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men
and the 10 sons of Haman in the Citadel of Susa.
What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces?
Now what is your petition?
It will be given you, what is your request?
It will also be granted."
"If it pleases the king," Esther answered,
"Give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day
edict tomorrow also, and let Haman's 10 sons
be impaled on poles."
So the king commanded that this be done.
An edict was issued in Susa,
and they impaled the 10 sons of Haman.
If this had not happened, there would have been no Jews left
because the Persian empire spanned from India to Egypt.
If the original edict had been followed,
Jesus would not have been born.
As a result, Esther stepped in to save the day.
It's no wonder that the Jews celebrate Purim every year
to honor these events.
Mordecai's trust in God shown throughout the tale of Esther
serving as a light of hope for those around him
and the source of strength for Esther.
His words and deeds reveal the man who was not interested
in gaining prestige or following the crowd,
but rather in standing up, at times alone
for what he considered to be God's will.
As a result, God showered blessings on Mordecai
as he sought to remind others of God's provision for them.
Mordecai didn't think much of the plot to kill the king
until he learned that the king wanted to reward Mordecai
with a royal robe and a parade.
The blessings from the king also continued
after Esther exposed Haman for his plot,
with Haman's hanging, Mordecai's commanding of the Jews
to protect themselves against their attackers
and Mordecai's appointing a second in command to the king.
These unexpected blessings from God were not meant
to elevate Mordecai, but it was meant for him to continue
God's missions for peace in the kingdom
and continued reliance on God.
Mordecai's greatness was published
in the entirety of Esther 10,
King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire
to its distant shores,
and all his acts of power and might together
with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai
whom the king had promoted.
Are they not written in the book of the annals
of the king of Media and Persia?
Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes,
preeminent among the Jews and held in high esteem
by his many fellow Jews because he worked
for the good of his people and spoke up
for the welfare of all the Jews.