Sermon Notes

The law of Moses describes how God’s mighty act of deliverance is the meaning behind holidays such as Passover and Tabernacles. The book of Esther is another story of deliverance, this time during the Persian period 1000 years later. God is never mentioned by name, but His clear hand of protection can be detected in the timing and combination of events. Esther shows how God intervenes once again to save the Jews, leading to the commemoration of this great rescue in a new festival called Purim. It’s the story of a Jewish exile named Esther, who becomes a queen willing to die for her people. It highlights her cousin and guardian Mordecai, an uncompromising officer at the king’s gate. They work together to rescue their people from a plot to destroy them, a diabolical plan hatched by Haman, the evil progeny of king Agag, whose family line survived when king Saul of Israel discarded God’s command to utterly destroy the Amalakites some 520 years earlier. The events take place during the reign of the Persian king Xerxes I, 486-465 BC, better thought of as the understanding king. The story has been told to every generation since, during what became the feast of Purim; it places you right in the middle of the action. You should not only join in celebrating God’s deliverance, but you should ask yourself, as Mordecai asked Esther, for what great purpose has God brought you to this moment in your life?