Haman chose an auspicious day to annihilate the Jews, but it turned out to be a disastrous day for him and his sons. Have you seen similar events? Chinese people like to choose auspicious dates, but often, the dates they choose are not auspicious. Only in God's hands can we have hope and reliance. God truly keeps His promises. Through the events that occurred in the city of Susa, God protected the Jews from their enemies. As long as we have faith, God will surely turn around all the crises in our lives. This chapter speaks of commemorating the day God saved us from our enemies.
Reflection Questions:
Why were the local people so afraid of Mordecai and the Jews? Why did their leaders support the Jews? (See Esther 9:1-4)
How did the Jews define and celebrate the days of Purim? (See Esther 9:20-28)
In your study of these two chapters of Esther, what teachings or principles have impacted your life?
The Turning Around of All Crises Depends on Faith in God
Building faith on God's promises—whether you believe in God's promises reflects whether your crisis will be turned around. Faith will cause your crisis to be turned around. Not only must you have faith in God, but also in those who serve.
If you receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, you will receive a prophet's reward. (See Matthew 10:41). Do not separate yourself from God. We are God's vessels, serving in His name. Our belief system is justification by faith. Because of our faith in God, we receive all of God's promises and resources.
When Jesus served people on earth, He did not rebuke them for having great faith. Instead, He said, You of little faith, you perverse generation. Therefore, we must remove our little faith. We must be people of faith. Only with faith can we turn around all the crises we encounter in life and draw upon God's power. We cannot be justified by our own actions. Although we are imperfect and may be false, our God is faithful. He can, through the power at work within us, do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. (See Ephesians 3:20)
People become strong when they have faith. Those who have faith do not feel unable to cope when they encounter crises. They do not weep in despair. On the contrary, our tears of faith will be remembered by God.
When we turn our difficulties, tears, and all kinds of hardships into prayers, there is nothing that cannot be turned around. Why is prayer so important? Prayer is a battle in the spiritual realm. If we cannot turn things around and triumph in the spiritual realm, we cannot turn things around in the world. Therefore, today we must pray until things are fully accomplished. We must not let our laziness stop us from praying, causing God's good plans for our lives to miscarry.
Victory Brings Prosperity
We must live prosperously in the world, and prosperity comes through victory.
Mordecai was prominent in the royal court; his fame spread throughout the provinces, and he became increasingly powerful. (Esther 9:4)
The word prosperity was initially given by God to Adam, then to Noah, and later to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God wants to make our name great. God's intention is for us to live out His glory. If we do not live out God's glory, we are indebted to God. Therefore, we must change our mindset. During our rare opportunity to manifest God's glory in this world for seventy or eighty years, we will not need to cast out demons, release the captives, or heal the sick in heaven, because there are none of these things in heaven.
On earth, we can constantly practice faith, and signs and wonders will follow us. We do not live to pursue miracles, but we obtain miracles by practicing faith. Victory brings prosperity, which appears repeatedly in the Bible. Every time Abraham had a victory of faith, God gave him promises. We can see material promises, which then bring prosperity. For example, Abraham went down to Egypt, and his wife was taken by Pharaoh. Abraham did not fight back but prayed at home. Then God heard his prayer, brought Abraham's wife back, and also gave him many cattle and sheep.
When Abraham returned from Egypt to Canaan, he was extremely prosperous. Jacob and Isaac were the same. We can see that prosperity is God's blessing. Do not think that rich people will definitely be bound by money. On the contrary, particularly poor people are easily bound by money because they are afraid of poverty. Being rich is not necessarily a bad thing, but you must not be bound by money. Not being prosperous is not a good thing. Those who are spiritually prosperous will definitely have material blessings. God wants to make our name great. He wants us to possess the gates of our enemies. When we trample our enemies under our feet, we will become increasingly prosperous.
Only Through Victory in Battle Can We Enjoy Peace
The other Jews in the king's provinces also gathered together to protect themselves and got relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them, but did not lay hands on the plunder. This gave them relief from their enemies, and they lived in peace. (Esther 9:16)
The Christian faith is not a faith of muddling through and living from hand to mouth. If busyness is your enemy, you can surely break free from it through spiritual warfare. Only through victory in battle can we enjoy peace. When we read the Book of Judges, we can read that Gideon led the Israelites to fight and enjoyed forty years of peace. Another judge led the Israelites to fight and enjoyed twenty years of peace.
What do these tell us? Do not muddle through. Do not think that you can live well as a slave. God wants to make our lives prosperous. God wants us to enjoy peace, which must come through battle—through overcoming the devil and our enemies. If your life is very leisurely, with a lot of time to watch television and relax, but you do not pray often, trouble will find you after a while, because you are not spiritually prosperous enough. We must practice spiritual victory in times of peace. It will be difficult for the enemy to overcome you. Only strength is the way to enjoy peace.
Commemorate the Days God Saves Us
We must always commemorate the days God saves us. People quickly forget the days God saves us. People's memories are really bad, but they are good at remembering bad things. For example, I can remember forever who has wronged me, but if it is about remembering grace, I will quickly forget. Why did Esther and Mordecai order the Israelites to fast and pray for two days every year during the days of Purim to commemorate this day? It is because people quickly forget grace. The first generation of Israelites observed this festival. Perhaps the second generation would think, Purim? What is Purim? People's memories are really strange, so we must become people who commemorate God's grace!
I want to tell everyone a spiritual principle: If your eyes often see bad things and shameful things, you will gain bad things and shameful things. If today your eyes often see good things, you will gain good things. If you have nothing to see, go outside, look up at the sky, see the starry sky, see that your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and then you will gain it. Do not fix your gaze every day on the fact that my enemies are as numerous as the stars in the sky!
If we dislike this and dislike that every day, we will gain these things. A pastor said: If you fix your gaze every day on the people and things you dislike, you will become more and more like the person you dislike. If there is someone you dislike in your family, the more you dislike him, the more you will become like him. If our minds are filled with things to be grateful for, all good things, and forget the bad things, you will gain more and more good things. That is why we must commemorate Purim!
Those who have experienced crises will still forget, and those who have not experienced crises will forget in the blink of an eye. It is the same with God. God has just forgiven us our debts, and then we go to demand debts from others who owe us. Is this right? So Jesus gave an example: There was a man who owed his master ten thousand talents, which was almost impossible to repay. The master called this man and said to him, I forgive your debt. So he let him go. As soon as he went out, this man met someone who owed him a hundred denarii, and he sent him to prison. (See Matthew 18:23-35) How terrible such people are, but there are many such people!
So, brothers and sisters, our minds are really strange. We must transform our brains, transform them into grateful people, and constantly transform them. We must throw away the things that corrupt life, and then bring in the things that bless us. Even if there are many bad things, throw away the bad things, and then live in gratitude every day. You think how good and joyful this life is.
Do not let bitterness fill you, do not always remember the bad things, but always commemorate the days when God saved us. The Israelites celebrated the Passover because God's mighty arm delivered them from their fate as slaves. What is a slave? A slave is someone else's property, without their own freedom and life. Living and dying, generation after generation, as slaves, but God's mighty arm brought the Israelites out of Egypt. That is why the Israelites were to observe the Passover, to commemorate God's grace.
Today, if we are not believers in the Lord, we are slaves of this world, toiling and struggling in this world, which is truly exhausting. We have all experienced hardship, haven't we? Is it really that difficult to forgive our brothers and sisters out of gratitude to God? Is it really that difficult to forgive your pastor? Even if your pastor says something unpleasant, it is not intended to harm you. We often commemorate God's actions in the lives of the Israelites, and also commemorate God's actions in our own lives. We should all often write testimonies, and not wait until we are reminded to remember God's grace.
We Must Seek the Good of Our Own People
Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many brothers and sisters. He worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews. (Esther 10:3)
I know that if it were not for God's grace, I would no longer be in this world, because I had no interest in living in this world. Thank God! Today I have only one interest: to serve God, and serving God is truly grace. Therefore, I want to encourage everyone: if you want to be promoted to a high position, you must seek the good of your own people, for your family, your brothers and sisters, and seek the good of all the peoples on earth before God. That is why I ask brothers and sisters to bring the gospel to your own people and to your families no matter what. If we do not have the heart of Mordecai, but only live for ourselves, there is not much meaning in this world.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, I encourage you: if you can see through that man's life in this world is vanity, you will transform this empty life into a fulfilling one, that is, to seek the good for your own people and your own family before God, and God will surely exalt you to the highest position. Even if you are not promoted to Prime Minister in this world, and will not be promoted to Chancellor, God will surely lift you up among all people, and you will surely be an influential person in your family. I think Mordecai set a very good example for us in this world. Do not think that Mordecai likes the position of Chancellor very much. In fact, the Chancellor is very hardworking. But he sits in this position, and Esther sits in the position of Queen, they are for the sake of seeking the good of their own people, and God will be gracious to them. So today we should do the same, Amen!
**Do not let bitterness fill you,
Do not always remember the bad things,
But always commemorate the days when God saved us.**
Scripture
Est 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
Est 9:2 The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people.
Est 9:3 And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.
Est 9:4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.
Est 9:5 Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.
Est 9:6 And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.
Est 9:7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
Est 9:8 And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
Est 9:9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,
Est 9:10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.
Est 9:11 On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.
Est 9:12 And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done.
Est 9:13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
Est 9:14 And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.
Est 9:15 For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.
Est 9:16 But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey,
Est 9:17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
Est 9:18 But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
Est 9:19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.
Est 9:20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
Est 9:21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
Est 9:22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
Est 9:23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;
Est 9:24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
Est 9:25 But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Est 9:26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
Est 9:27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;
Est 9:28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.
Est 9:29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.
Est 9:30 And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
Est 9:31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.
Est 9:32 And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
Est 10:1 And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea.
Est 10:2 And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
Est 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.