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THE GOSPEL OF ESTHER Esther 8-9 I. IS THE CONCLUSION
OF ESTHER CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION? A. Esther
concludes with gladness, joy, feasting, holiday and gift giving: 1. gladness, joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday (8:17) 2. a day of feasting and rejoicing (9:17,18) 3. The Jews in rural areas made it a holiday for rejoicing and feasting and sending portions of food to one another (9:19) 4. Mordecai obligated the Jews to celebrate the day annually because it was a time when their sorrow was turned into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; they were to be days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor (9:21) 5. The Jews made it a custom to celebrate Purim annually (9:27) 6. These days were to be remembered and celebrated annually.. (9:28) B. The joy and celebration is in the context of Haman being hanged on his own gallows, his ten sons hanged on gallows and the death of 75,000 enemies of the Jews. C. Many people have questioned whether or not these are events that are really to be celebrated. D. There are at least three things that may make us balk at the concluding joy of Esther: 1. A deficient view of the God of the Old
Testament and the God of the New Testament. 2 .A deficient view of the Old Testament
Law and the teaching of Jesus. 3. A deficient view of the Gospel. II. A DEFICIENT VIEW OF THE GOD OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT AND THE GOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT A. The God of the Old Testament is not different from the God of the New Testament. B. While people may not be full blown Marcionite heretics, some may have subtly bought into Marcion’s lies that: 1. The God of the Old Testament is somehow different and less loving than in the New Testament. 2. God is a God of love and not judgment.
a. The Jewish slaughter of 75,000 of their enemies was in self-defense (Esther 8:11; 9:2,16). b. In Matthew 5:39 Jesus is referring to an insult and not an assault. B. The Jews were not only engaged in self-defense but justice. (Justice is an identity between sin and its punishment (“you reap what you sow” or “eye for an eye”). C. The Jews were not taking the law into their own hands (Esther 8:8-14; 9:13-14,25). “A blow by the right fist in that right-handed world would land on the left cheek of the opponent. An open-handed slap would also strike the left cheek. To hit the right cheek with a fist would require using the left hand, but in that society the left hand was used only for unclean tasks. Even to gesture with the left hand at Qumran carried the penalty of ten days’ penance. The only way one could naturally strike the right cheek with the right hand would be with the back of the hand. We are dealing here with insult, not a fistfight. The intention is clearly not to injure but to humiliate, to put someone in his or her place…A backhand slap was the usual way of admonishing inferiors” (Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers pp.175f.). IV. A DEFICIENT VIEW OF THE GOSPEL A. The Gospel promise is found in the very emphasis upon the slaying of the enemies (Esther 7:6; 8:13; 9:1,5,16,22). 1. The destruction of those who were at enmity with the Jews is rooted in the first proclamation of the Gospel in Genesis 315, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). 2. The
destruction of those who were at enmity with the Jews was promised to
Abraham, “I will bless those who
bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3); “your
seed shall possess the gate of their enemies” (Genesis 22:17). 3. One of the main ways the Gospel is presented in Esther is the deliverance of the Jews and the judgment of their enemies. … it is not right to cancel sin without compensation or punishment; if it be not punished, then it is passed by undischarged. If sin be passed by unpunished … [then] with God there [would] be no difference between the guilty and the not guilty; and this is unbecoming to God (Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1109 A.D.), Cur Deus Homo, I.xii). B. At the very heart of the Gospel is enmity (Romans 5:8-10). At the very heart of the cross is God’s wrath and love; His judgment and mercy (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Galatians 3:13,14; Colossians 1:21,22; 1 Peter 3:18). QUESTIONS FOR SABBATH DISCUSSION
& MEDITATION The
death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of His people is the place of both
God’s wrath and love; His judgment and mercy. Have you ever confessed your
sins and asked Jesus Christ to forgive you?
Have you ever committed your life to Him in prayer? If not, make peace with the God of mercy
and wrath today. What is the
longest verse in the Bible? From memory, how
many banquets can you recall from Esther? What was the name of the Jewish feast
celebrating God’s deliverance of his people from Haman’s plot? How does a deficient view of the God of the
Old Testament mar people’s view of Esther? Who was Marcion? Is self-defense sub-Christian? What is the meaning of, “but whoever slaps
you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:39)? |
