First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

O Key of David that opens and none can shut, come and unlock our weary hearts once more! O Root of Jesse uniting and undergirding all of us, send your nourishing life through us again. O Shoot of Jesse, who restored the promise, come again and make all things new, beginning with us!

God sent his Word into the world. His wisdom, his Son, grew to be a man who walked among the fiery suffering and blazing anger of a rebellious world. He came to save us. Yet, we rejected him. The rebel heart of man declared the wisdom of God to be foolishness. But you know the story. One more move from the King, the wisdom of God to take the worst that we could do, killing the Son of God, and turn it into the best news the world would ever hear: your sins have been atoned for. Death has been conquered. The devil has lost. The king had one more move and the match has turned forever in his favor.

Once you know that Christ has set you free from slavery to sin, you’ll come to realize that true beauty, true worth, is only found when we take hold of his instructions, take hold of the call of sanctification and pursue it with courage and by his power. Only then does the law which once condemned become a guide to life. You’re not saved by your works, thank God, but he has saved you to work by his grace and his power. God’s will is for you to be holy, but take heart: He is faithful. He will surely do it.

Ten meaningful steps you should use to cooperate and participate in what God wants to do in your life. But in the end, this is more God’s work than our work. May he keep on with the process of making you like Christ. That’s sanctification, the holy-making of his people. May God work the gospel through you thoroughly. You have lots to do to work with him in this. But ultimately, this is God’s deal. He has undertaken to save you. He has undertaken to bring you to himself. He has undertaken to use you in his mission to the world. He has undertaken to make you like Christ, a son or daughter formed in his beloved Son. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it!

• Our battles belong to the Lord, and he never loses! He never has and he never will!
• Three times we are told the Jews "didn’t take the plunder.” They did only what was necessary to defend themselves, which is in line with God’s original command against the Amalakites, found in 1 Samuel 15.
• Take note of the unity at the end of this passage. The Jews (and others!) were gathered together, full of joy and gladness, to rest and rejoice and feast! This battle united them!
• Though invisible, God is always with us, fighting for us. Sometimes he fights alone, and sometimes he invites us to fight WITH him, like we see in Esther 9.
• In what ways do we fight the battles we face today? What are our weapons, or armor? See Ephesians 6!
• What is your focus when facing any battle? Your own inadequacy or God’s faithfulness, sovereignty, and power? How would it change the view of our battles if we had an eternal, God-centered perspective?

If you have entrusted yourself to Christ the light, you are children of the light and of the day. He has awakened you. Perhaps he is calling you awake this very moment. Calling you back from darkness. Calling you out of the night. The dungeon doors are open. Light is shining. Won’t you get up and go to him? Trust that it is worth it to leave the smothering dark and fly into his arms. Take up anew the call to live awake and engaged as children of the light. Get up and come to Christ the light of the world.

• We see a bunch of great reversals take place in this chapter. Take note of them from Esther 3:10-4:4, and also Esther 7:3-4.
• Esther didn't need the house of Haman because there was something even more important to her: the deliverance of the Jews. Take note of the passion and burden she feels for the Jews, who she calls "my people... my kindred."
• This upcoming "holy war" may not sit well with us, but these wars were necessary at this time in redemptive history, to preserve and protect God's people at a time when our salvation was not yet secure. From the beginning of time, God’s war has been against sin and evil… we seem to want God to destroy sin and evil but leave humanity alone, but those things don’t exist apart from humanity.” Lydia Brownback
• We can rest knowing, that there will be no more holy wars in this era… not until the final holy war that comes at the end times, when God’s final judgment will fall on the wicked. And on that day of final judgment, we can rest assured knowing that a better Esther, a better mediator, someone who has pleaded our case before the King… Jesus Christ, who left the glories of heaven… fought his own personal holy war on our behalf, conquering death once for all, so that we who are rebellious sinners may have everlasting life with him. This is the Greatest Reversal to which all the reversals in Esther’s story point. [Iain Duguid]
• If the people of Persia could rejoice and celebrate with "light and joy and gladness and honor," over the hope of potential victory... how much more should WE rejoice that the victory has already been won!?
• Our hope is certain. We still may fight these earthly battles, but we don’t fight from a defeated position, but from a delivered one. We, too, can be full of “light and gladness and joy and honor." “You turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness” (Psalm 30:11). “Let the people praise you, God; let all the people praise you. Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy” (Psalm 67:3-4).
• So who holds the power at the end of this chapter? Who’s the hero? Not Haman. Not the king. And not even Esther or Mordecai. The LORD always has and always will hold the power. And because of that, because the LORD holds the power (and not US), we can rest assured that all is going according to plan, and we can celebrate our secure salvation in him, our guaranteed victory. Because the Lord holds the power, we can celebrate this great reversal of our eternal fate. We have "light and joy and gladness and honor" in the irrevocable and irreversible power of the Lord our God.