Preached Sunday, July 27, 2014 from Esther 10:1-3
Theme: God’s temporal works in our lives have meaning in the light of His greater plan for the ages.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We come this morning to the last chapter of the remarkable Book of Esther. It’s a passage that brings the story to a close in only three verses. And I’ll have to be honest; for such an explosive book–one that tells us the amazing story of the providential hand of an unseen God working behind the scenes for the good of His chosen people, sovereignly controlling the outcome through the combination of a series of astonishing events—it sure seems to end with . . . well . . . a rather unexciting fizzle!
We might have expected a far more thrilling conclusion to such a story. We might have thought that we’d be told that the Persian empire of that time—the then ruling empire of the known world—had been utterly transformed by the experience. We might have thought that the heart of the king would have been changed into a state of godly reverence for the rest of his life. We might have thought that the Jewish people would have experienced a renewed and permanent sense of devotion toward God. We might have thought that the name of God Himself would have become renowned far and wide throughout the known world. That’d make a great ending to a movie, anyway. But this story just doesn’t seem to come to a thrilling, well-tied-up, satisfying, Hollywood conclusion.
Look at what we’re told in those last three verses of how the otherwise-gripping story of Esther ends:
And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea. Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen (Esther 10:1-3).
It’s not entirely bad, of course. But it’s not very exciting either. It just seems as if things go on as usual. The story ends with the report of a new tax being imposed by the king, his works being recorded in a book that no one can find anymore, and an advocate for the Jewish people who had a good influence on his people for a while and then eventually died. The ending of the story is so seemingly-unsatisfying, in fact, that some folks in the past have set their hand to it in order to add to it—in an effort, I believe, to make God’s presence more conspicuous in the story, and to put a more interesting ending to it all. The Latin Vulgate—which was the common Bible of the church for many centuries—doesn’t end with verse three, but goes on to add a supposed dream of Mordecai after these verses. The Apocrypha—which was a set of books that the ancient Jewish people read, but never accepted as authoritative—goes on to add an additional six chapters of material to the story.
But it is my strong conviction that the Holy Spirit providentially guided the formation of our Bibles just as He wished; and that He meant for this story to end in just the way it ends—leaving us with an ‘unfinished’ sense of things.
And I believe that this seemingly-unsatisfied ending is intended to teach an important lesson about the providential care of God over our lives.
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I’m indebted to a dear brother in our church family for sharing an illustration he came up with that had helped him appreciate the lesson that is to be learned from the way the story ends.
He imagined a jigsaw puzzle. When we work on one, we expect the finished puzzle to have clear perimeters. There’s a picture on the box that shows what the completed picture is supposed to look like. The edges of the inside pieces of the puzzle are intricately shaped on all sides—showing that each inside piece is designed to connect to something else all the way around. But the edges of the outside ‘perimeter’ pieces are flat, and sharp-edged, and are obviously meant to bring the puzzle to an end. (And if you’re like me, you always look for those outside ‘perimeter’ pieces first.)
“Now,” my friend said, “just imagine that there was a jigsaw puzzle that you were working on, but one that—the whole time long—you didn’t know had no clearly defined end to it. Imagine that you put the puzzle completely together, made sure that it matched the picture on the box, and used up all the pieces that you had; but that—to your surprise—didn’t have those outside perimeter pieces. Imagine that, when you got the pieces all put together, and you thought you were done, you found that your completed picture was only the part of something bigger puzzle—and that the edges were left in such a way as to show that there was much more parts of the puzzle to come. It would leave you frustrated. But it would also leave you wanting to know what comes next.”
And I think my friend’s illustration is a very apt one. This story leaves us with an unfinished feeling to the story of God providence in Esther; as if there had to be something more to come. And that’s because, in fact, there was more to come! It leaves us feeling as if it was just the part of something bigger—because, in fact, it was a part of something bigger! And there’s a great spiritual lesson being taught to us about God’s providential work in our lives. The remarkable things that He does in our individual lives—working through His unseen hand in ways that lay behind the scenes—truly do bring about the completion of His immediate, temporal purposes for us. But they are not, in and of themselves, the end of the story. The temporal works He does for us have ‘undefined perimeters’, as if they’re meant to be the part of something bigger yet to occur—as if they constitute only a portion of ‘more to come’.
Now; God has revealed to us in His word what that larger picture looks like—what that ‘more to come’ is. And you and I, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, will only rightly understand His temporal works of providence in our lives if we see them in the light of the larger dimensions of His sovereign plan. The small pieces will only make sense if we see them in the light of the bigger picture that He is putting together.
I believe that that’s the great spiritual lesson to be drawn from the ‘unfinished’ way the story of Esther seems to end.
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Let’s go back and consider these last three verses—and the unfinished feel they seem to leave. We see that unfinished feeling in . . .
1. THE WAY THAT KINGS AND KINGDOMS FAIL.
Verse 1 tells us, “And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea.” It certainly doesn’t leave us feeling as if the king was dramatically changed by the experience, does it? After all, we’re told at the beginning of this book of the astonishing wealth and wasteful luxury that characterized this king. He threw a lavish 180 day feast in order to show “the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days” (1:4). This king was characterized by luxury, and banquets, and fabulous feasts from the very beginning. And now, after this marvelous encounter with the providence of the God of Israel, he’s topping it off by expanding his imposition of taxes—taxes, by the way, that historians tell us were often quite a burden to the people.
The exciting promise of the younger years of King Ahasuerus—otherwise known to us in history as Xerxes I—had not been fulfilled. His personal life was a soap-opera of marital unfaithfulness and intrigue and murder; and as the years went on, his character only became more degenerate. His evil viceroy Haman was able—very easily—to get him to agree to the brutal murder of a vast number of people; and to top the agreement off by getting drunk. And whatever positive influence Esther’s pious Jewish cousin Mordecai might have had on him didn’t seem to sink in very deeply. His story did not end well. He came under the influence of a couple of officials who were far less worthy than Mordecai; and they—only eight years after the end of the story of Esther—conspired together and had him killed in his bedchamber. One of the conspirators who aided them was his own son-in-law.1
And none of this king’s successors proved to be much better than he was. God used the vast Persian empire for a time—in spite of its fallible kings—to protect and preserve His chosen people. But if we were to then look for a clearly defined, satisfying end to the story of Esther from within empire of the Persians, we’d be disappointed.
But dear brothers and sisters; here’s where we need to remember that the story of God’s temporal works through the kingdoms of men do not constitute the end of the story at all. They are only a part of, and only serve to advance, a far greater plan that God had for the empires of the world. It’s a plan that brings in an even greater kingdom yet to come.
Turn with me to Daniel 2. In that chapter, we’re told the story of a dream that God gave to the king of the previous world empire—the kingdom of the Babylonians. King Nebuchadnezzar was given a vision that greatly disturbed him. He saw a large image—an awesome statue of a great splendor. This statue was composed of different parts. The head was fine gold. Its chest and arms where silver. Its belly and sides were bronze. Its two legs were iron. And its two feet were partly iron and partly clay. And as the king marveled at this image, he saw that a stone ‘cut without hands’ appeared and struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then, the whole image—the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold—became crushed altogether. The wind blew the dust of it all away; and all that remained was the stone. And then, the stone that struck the image grew and became a great mountain that filled the earth.
This vision was from God; and King Nebuchadnezzar was greatly disturbed by it. But God also gave the king a man named Daniel to explain it to him. I wish we had the time to go into all the details of the story. It’s one of the most fascinating and important passages of prophecy in the Bible. But what Daniel did was show the king how that image was the revealing of God’s plan for the ages through the reigns four successive world empires that would rise to the surface in world history. Daniel told the Babylonian king, “You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold” (vv. 36-38). Babylon, then, was that first great world empire in God’s plan.
But the great world empire of Babylon came to an end—in just one night, in fact; and it was replaced by the next one. Daniel said, “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours . . .” (v. 39a). This was pictured by the two arms of silver—inferior to gold. These two arms represented the joint empire of the Medes and the Persians; over which King Ahasuerus, of the story of Esther, reigned.
The world empire of the Medes and Persians, however, would be conquered by the king of the next empire—Greece. This is pictured to us by the belly and sides of bronze when Daniel declares, “then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth” (v. 39b). Its mighty conquering king would be known in history as Alexander the Great; and he and his successors would expand the dimensions of the Greek empire far and wide.
Daniel goes on to speak of the two legs of iron when he says, “And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others” (v. 40). This was the Roman empire—the ruling world empire into which our Lord Jesus Christ was born. The two legs represented the two divisions of the Roman Empire that were eventually formed—both east and west. And Daniel then goes on to say how it would eventually be further divided. He said,
“Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay” (vv. 41-43).
Eventually—in a time that is future to our own—this fourth empire will appear on the scene gain But it will not come with the strength and coherence it once had. It will manifest itself in a ten-nation confederacy—represented by the ten toes of the feet of the image.
Now; where are all these four successive world empires heading? What is the conclusion to it all? It is leading to that stone—’cut without hands’, meaning that it is a kingdom of God and not of man—that causes all the other empires to crumble and fall; and that itself grows into a mighty mountain that covers the earth. Daniel speaks of the ten toes of the two feet and tells us,
“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure” (vv. 44-45).
This last kingdom—the one that will consume all the others and that will endure as a mighty mountain—is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; from which He will bodily reign on this earth for a thousand years.
And do you see the point, dear brothers and sisters? The story of the temporal reign of King Ahasuerus—his encounter with the providence of the God of Israel for a time, his capriciousness as a ruler, and his eventual fall and disappearance from the scene—is a complete story in and of itself. It is an unsatisfying story; but it is, itself, not the full story. If we only looked at it and no further, then we’d be greatly disappointed. But it was only a small part of the much bigger story of God’s unfolding plan for the ages. It’s a plan that is leading to, and that will be fulfilled by, the reign of The Lord Jesus Christ on earth!
When you and I get frustrated by the temporal nature of the seeming gains we make in this world—when it seems as if one generation makes progress, and the generation that follows squanders the gains; when it seems as if one positively impacted ruler is replaced by another scoundrel in a succession of failed and flawed rulers; and when nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom—don’t get too upset by it all. Just remember that this is all under God’s sovereign control; and it is all going somewhere. And where it is going is to the ultimate reign of the Lord Jesus on earth.
Even mighty world empires are nothing more than small pieces in God’s big picture.
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Now, back to the last chapter of Esther; and to . . .
2. THE WAY THAT THE RECORDS ARE LOST.
Consider verse two. We’re told this about King Ahasuerus: “Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?” Well; ‘are they not’? Who can say?–because no one can find that book. Xerxes record of his accomplishments was something that he was able to stay up one sleepless night and read (6:1-3). It resulted, as you’ll remember, in the saving of Mordecai’s life; and was a significant part of what God used to bring about a great turning of events. But once it served its purpose in God’s sovereign hand, it disappeared into obscurity and is now a long-lost, forgotten book.
If we were to look for a clearly defined ending of things in King Ahasuerus’ book of accomplishments—or of the kings with whom he reigned, we’ll be disappointed. All that we now know of this book—as so often is the case with the kings and rulers of men that exalt themselves—is the minor mention it receives, and the temporal purpose it served, in God’s record of things.
But this reminds me of two great promises that the Bible gives us concerning a far greater King—a King to whom every other king will bow. We’re told about the promise of the coming of King Jesus in Revelation 19:11-16; where it says,
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.
Every fallible earthly ruler—even those who write their books to boast of their works—makes us long all the more for the day of this King’s coming! The tribulations of the days of those “two feet of iron” that Daniel spoke of will be the most terrible times in all of human history. Just the thought of them makes us yearn for His righteous reign on the earth! And do you remember what Jesus Himself said about it? In Matthew 24:29-34, He said
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (Matthew 24:29-34).
And what a great promise it is that the Lord gives us in verse 35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” The books of the works of the kings of Persia have passed away and are forgotten. The books that are being written of our own history today will be forgotten too—if the Lord tarries His return long enough. But the words of this King will never pass away. They will outlast heaven and earth. They will—every one—be proven true.
Let’s remember that, dear brothers and sisters in Christ! The boastful records of the kings and empires of this earth will all fade away and be forgotten. The story they tell is—in the end—very unsatisfying. But they do not constitute the whole story! They only serve the purpose of the coming of a King whose empire will never end! They are under God’s sovereign control as only little parts of His bigger picture.
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And that leads us back, again, to the last verse of the book of Esther; and to . . .
3. THE WAY THAT REFORMS DON’T SEEM TO LAST.
We were told in verse 2 of how King Ahasuerus—under the sovereign hand of God—advanced Mordecai to a position of greatness. And now consider verse three; where we’re told, “For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen.” God used Mordecai to protect and preserve the Jewish people from complete destruction. And because of what God did through him, the Jewish people were preserved.
But Mordecai, too, eventually died. He faded from the scene. He was not forgotten, of course; because God has preserved a record for us of his story in the Book of Esther. But he fulfilled God’s purpose for His people for only a time; and God’s time for him was done, he was gone. The reforms he may have brought about were, in time, forgotten; and the Jewish people went on to stumble and fall in their devotion and obedience to God; and ungodly nations went on to threaten them and try to wipe them off the face of the earth. If we only see the story of Mordecai as the complete picture, we will be frustrated by it.
But even that was not the end of the story. The Jewish people were preserved so that from them—at the right time in history—our Savior Jesus would be born into the human family. God fulfilled the promise of giving us a Redeemer through His chosen people. And the Jewish people may—for the most part—be hardened to the Lord Jesus right now; but not even that constitutes the whole of God’s story for them. The apostle Paul tells us, in Romans 11:25-32;
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all” (Romans 11:25-32).
The outworking of God’s providence is so much greater than the little part we see! And in reflecting on it, the apostle Paul went on to say—as we too should say;
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (vv. 33-36).
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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; there is a great lesson for us in the way that the story of Esther ends. It teaches us that our temporal experiences of the providential care of God may—at times—leave us feeling that the story is not yet complete. But let’s remember that those temporal works are only small pieces of a far greater picture.
So; let’s not fuss and complain when things in this world don’t seem to go the way we’d like them to go; or when the good that is done doesn’t seem to last. Instead, may God gives us the grace to see His temporal works of providence—in our brief life-time on earth—in the light of His great plan for the ages! They only have meaning as we see them in the light of God’s greater purpose; and at the center of that purpose is our Lord Jesus.
A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire; cited in John C. Whitcomb, Esther and The Destiny of Israel, rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1979), p. 125.