Fingerprints of God: In Divine Deliverance

Esther 8 - ¹ On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. ² And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

³ Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. ⁴ When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king. ⁵ And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. ⁶ For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” ⁷ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows^] because he intended to lay hands on the Jews. ⁸ But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.”

⁹ The king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. ¹⁰ And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king's service, bred from the royal stud, ¹¹ saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods, ¹² on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. ¹³ A copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies. ¹⁴ So the couriers, mounted on their swift horses that were used in the king's service, rode out hurriedly, urged by the king's command. And the decree was issued in Susa the citadel.

¹⁵ Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶ The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. ¹⁷ And in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

Do you ever feel frustrated when someone does you a favor, but it doesn’t actually solve your problem? Let me give you a silly example. The other day, I asked one of my children for a favor. It was simple: go to the basement and get a can of peas, but the kid searched for it and came back empty-handed. I got frustrated because when I went down, the can was sitting exactly where I said it would be. You may have experienced such frustration in a more serious matter.

The problem is that many people get frustrated with God the way they get frustrated with humans when divine favor doesn’t actually solve their problems. They need to know that every divine favor, no matter how small it might be, is evidence of divine deliverance, which is often a perpetual process working toward their complete redemption.

This perpetual process of divine deliverance for Jews facing annihilation has been the force behind every scene in the last seven chapters of Esther. Even though, in Esther 7, God gave them favor through the king by ending the reign of Haman, the mastermind behind the genocidal plot against the Jews, that actually didn’t solve the problem of genocidal decree against the Jews.

Esther 8 opened with the problem of the decree of death but closed with the favor of divine deliverance. If we look closely, Esther 8 points us to the ultimate divine deliverance in Christ that overturned the decree of death. I will point out those gospel connections throughout the text.

The big idea is: don’t get frustrated when the favor of God seems partial; rather in it see His presence as evidence of divine deliverance, which is often a perpetual process working toward our redemption. The question is, why is this process needed and why can’t God just snap His fingers and fix our problems?

Esther 8, reveals that the process is needed so that God can expose and uproot the cause of the problem for lasting relief. We see that in three divine actions in God shifts power to remove the wicked, God shapes policy to reward the righteous, and God stirs people to rejoice in the redemption.

God Shifts Power to Remove the Wicked (Esther 8:1-2)

Esther 7:1a reads, “On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.” “On that day” refers to the same day when Esther revealed her identity as a Jew and Haman’s as the enemy of the Jews. On that day, Haman was exposed and executed, and his possessions—lands, goods, servants, cattle, and treasures were given to Esther.

This was because, when criminals were executed, their estate became crown property and the king could do whatever he wanted with it. The next verses tells us what else the king did, “^1b And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. 2 And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.” The signet ring symbolized the transfer of Haman’s power and position to Mordecai. The ring, once in the hands of the enemy and now in the hands of the deliverer, illustrates a theological point of substitutionary providence.

It is when God takes power from the wicked and gives it to the weak, the righteous one. Christ on the cross took the power from death and sin and gave us victory. In the story of Esther, God transfers power from the corrupt to the chosen, but there is no celebration.

Application

Be thankful and celebrate the small victories that God gives you. Those small victories, whether over sin, in suffering or something else, keep us grounded in faith. They give us the strength to fight fears and face tomorrow.

God Shapes the Policy to Reward the Righteous (Esther 8:3-14)

Next, I want us to see why God had to shift power by removing Haman and replacing Him with Mordecai. Because in this ungodly world, if one bad guy is removed, the other bad guy is ready to replace him. For divine deliverance, God had to shift the power from the unrighteous to the righteous to shape the policy to reward the righteous.

In Esther 7:3-6 we read, “³ Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews.  ⁴ When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king. ⁵ And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. ⁶ For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” 

Notice Esther’s relentless intercession for God’s people. It carries the illusion of Christ’s intercession for us. It could have cost Esther her life, and in our case, it did cost Christ His life on the cross. Hebrews 7:25-26 says that because He is ever more alive, He continues to intercede on our behalf in heaven to ensure that we are eternally saved.

Hebrews 7:27 says, “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Though Christ saved us on the cross, His care for the redeemed will continue through eternity. Christ is the only worthy and sufficient mediator between God and man.

In our story, Esther is performing that role before God and the king on behalf of her people. So, Esther 7:7 continues, “Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews.”” Probably the king thought he had given Esther a big favor, but now he realized that his favor didn’t resolve the problem.

So, verse 8 he says, “But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.” Here we see another gospel illusion. In the Bible, the old decree of sin is also irrevocable, which says, the wages of sin is death, but the new decree of grace of Christ overrides the old by giving us victory over sin and death because at the cross, God didn’t cancel justice but satisfied it.

In our story of Esther, there are no visible miracles like the parting of the Red Sea or raising of the dead; rather, God is consistently guiding and directing the hands and steps of humans to bring the redemption of God’s people.

In Esther 7:9-14, the new decree was written and sent to all 127 provinces that allowed the Jews to defend themselves and destroy “any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods.” With Mordecai’s new position, the full power of the throne was with the Jews. They had the upper hand and all their enemies knew they couldn’t be defeated.

We see another gospel illusion here. Philippians 2:8b-11 tells us when Christ “^8b …humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Just as with Mordecai’s new position, the full power of the throne of the king was with the Jew; those who put their faith in Jesus, with Jesus’ new position as God’s man, the full power of the throne of God is with Christians.

This is an illustration of what God does spiritually for all believers. According to Colossians 1:13, when God transfers us from the power of darkness to the light of His beloved Son Jesus, according to Ephesians 6:10-18, God also arms us with divine armor and gives us the Spirit so that the gates of hell cannot prevail.

Application

Sometimes, we do not receive instant or complete divine deliverance because God is dealing with the root cause for lasting relief that we are often unaware of.

God Stirs the People to Rejoice in Redemption (Esther 8:15-17)

Esther 7 concludes with, “¹⁵ Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white [by the way those are the colors of the Israeli flag], with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶ The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. ¹⁷ And in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.” Notice, God turned mourning into mission, fear into a feast, and sorrow into celebration as He stirred the people to rejoice in redemption. Their salvation produced joy and a witness to the nations.

A great illustration of that is how resurrection turned the disciples’ sorrow into joy. The disciples who locked themselves in hiding at the crucifixion of Christ but came out publicly to proclaim Christ at the resurrection, and as a result, others joined them, and the world changed forever. Redemption always produces joy and witness. Is your salvation and redemption producing the joy and witness of Christ?

Application

God is able to turn our mourning into a mission, fear into a feast, and suffering into a celebration. Let us be so courageous and contagious that others want to join us in celebration of Christ’s resurrected power that is resurrecting us.

Closing Thought

In Esther 8, imagine the joy of the celebration of divine deliverance as a result of the new decree. However, that deliverance was not instant, but a process.

1. God had to shift power to remove the wicked.

2. God had to shape policy to reward the righteous.

3. Only then, God stirred people to rejoice in the redemption.

So, don’t get frustrated when the favor of God seems partial, rather see His presence as evidence of divine deliverance, which is often a perpetual process working toward our redemption.

Action Step

If you are a believer, you have already been given full favor in Christ. You have the Holy Spirit in you to guide and assist you, so in faith, actively work on the resolution of your problems, whether related to sin, suffering, or something else.

Appeal

Don’t live like helpless victims but victorious in Christ. One way you can do that is by celebrating small victories God grants you every day. Celebrate that you are alive and free. Celebrate what you have, even if it doesn’t seem like much, because it is more than what many have. Above all, do it to be Christ’s witnesses to others. I tell you, if you are a believer in Jesus, then Esther 8 is your story. The enemy of your soul wrote a decree against you, but God wrote a greater decree in the blood of His Son to override the decree of condemnation and death. I tell you when Christ returns, every tear will turn into rejoicing, every sorrow into dancing, and every decree of death into eternal life.

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