Plunderers of the Enemy's Kingdom

This morning, we are looking at Esther chapter 9. We are quickly coming to the end of our series on the book of Esther on the invisible providence of God. And it's been a fascinating journey for me. I hope it has been for you as we've looked at how God silently, but very tangibly at times, works His divine will into the purpose and the outliving of His people here on earth. And we've seen that beautifully portrayed in the life of the Jews in the empire of Persia.

Our second last sermon on this series is focused on, I guess, the resolution, the final part of the story where the Jews are finally protected from this impending disaster that was looming, this genocide that had been originally planned for them. And now we see them fight back, defend themselves against their enemies and win. Let's have a read of the story from Esther chapter 9, and we're gonna read the first half only of Esther 9. Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred. The Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.

The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of king Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples. All the officials of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the royal agents also helped the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. For Mordecai was great in the king's house and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. For the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.

The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. In Susa, the citadel itself, the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, and also killed Parshata, Parmashta, Delphon, and Aspatha, and Paratha, and Adalia, and Eridatha, and Arisai and Aradi and Vizatha, the 10 sons of Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they laid no hand on the plunder. That very day, the number of those killed in Susa, the citadel, was reported to the king. And the king said to queen Esther, in Susa, the citadel, the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and also the 10 sons of Haman.

What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now, what is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.

And Esther said, if it pleased the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict. And let the 10 sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows. So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa and the 10 sons of Haman were hanged. The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed 300 men in Susa, but they laid no hands on the plunder.

Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them. But they laid no hands on the plunder. This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar and on the fourteenth day, they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore, the Jews of the villages who live in the rural towns hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting as a holiday, and as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

This is the word of the Lord. We're gonna sort of break down today's talk into three subheadings. Firstly, we're gonna look at the big picture of how this story finally is resolved. Then we're gonna deal with the tricky ethical issue of God allowing the Jews to kill so many people. And then we're gonna look at a small detail in this resolution that gives us as Christians incredible hope.

Let's have a first look at the big picture. We see the Jews win mightily. Last week, we finished with Mordecai walking out of the king's presence, or at least out of the king's castle, robed in glory with a crown on his head. The city, the citadel of Susa was ringing with joyful cheers. The Jews across the whole empire were celebrating and feasting.

Meanwhile, we're also told that the fear of the Jews fell on many, who then also, some of them, declared themselves to be Jews. It's not difficult to see, therefore, that the story assumes what will happen in chapter 9. So remember, this happens months before the final event here in chapter 9. Months before, people are cheering and celebrating as though the victory had been won. Fred Bush, in his commentary, remarks that in the opening verses of chapter 9, the author of Esther, in succinct and summary statement, he writes, hardly relieved by any detail at all, relates the result of the confrontation of Haman's and Mordecai's irreconcilable edicts.

In other words, the author leaves to our imaginations what that one day would have looked like. He spares us of the gory detail. As verse 5 tells us simply, the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them. Now, thankfully, that is left to our imagination. We're not told what that looked like.

What we are told are some very important details, however. Firstly, that the Jews attacked only those who were set on attacking them. Verse 2 tells us, the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of king Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought to do them harm. In other words, this was a defensive strategy rather than a carte blanche genocide of some sort. Secondly, we are told that the Persian people didn't stand in their way.

Verse 2, for the fear of them, the fear of the Jews had fallen on all peoples. In fact, we're told, in chapter 8 in the capital of Susa, the people rejoice that the Jews were able to defend themselves against their enemies. But then, not only did the people not stand in their way, but thirdly, we're told that the satraps, the governors, and the officials actively helped the Jews somehow in defending themselves. Have a look at verse 3. For the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

Over those intervening months, Mordecai had become supremely influential and powerful. He was now the second in charge. And the leaders of the provinces respected and feared Mordecai. And so in order to keep their superior happy, the local leaders support the effort of the Jewish resistance. And then finally, across several different verses, we are told the extent of the Jewish victory.

On the thirteenth of Adar, 500 men are killed in the capital of Susa. The king then gives the Jews living in Susa a second day to round up the stragglers or a few more and 300 are killed on the next day. Then further down in verse 16, across the whole empire, we're told that 75,000 were put to death. So that is the big picture. That is the resolution to the story of Esther.

Now, as good Christians, having been taught the principles and the ethics of Christ, we might wonder how God allows the killing of 75,000 people. And so we're faced perhaps with an ethical problem which I hope, at the end of this, we understand, is not so much of a problem. In his book Skeletons in God's Closet, Joshua Ryan Butler wrestles with, among other things, this issue that God, at certain times in the history of Israel, in the Old Testament, sent His people out to go and destroy and annihilate certain tribes and people groups. How could a loving God, the God represented fully in the person of Jesus Christ, allow this? Do we serve two different Gods?

The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. Well, he goes in his book helpfully to point out the very important aspects that sometimes we miss when we read these stories and these events. Firstly, Butler makes the point that God uses Israel to crush much more powerful opponents. Israel never destroys weaklings. Time and time again, it is tiny little Israel who are called to take on the big bad bullies of the ancient world.

It's the same here in Esther. The Jews are a minority. So small that king Ahasuerus doesn't even recognize them. And so in the history of the Old Testament, if it wasn't the Canaanites or the Philistines or the Ammonites, it is the Babylonians or the Persians. Butler writes that often God's people are like a lone kindergartner taking on the whole high school senior class with a wiffle bat, one of those spongy baseball bats.

Israel's only hope, he writes, is that God is fighting for her. That's the first point. Secondly, God often gives Israel the most ridiculous strategies to conquer these nations. One of the first conquests in the promised land was the heavily fortified city of Jericho. Who remembers the strategy?

Was it to build a catapult and to break down those walls? Was it to send a crack team of seals across the walls and to take them out during the night? Nope. The strategy is to walk around that city seven times and then blow on some trumpets. That's not a battle strategy, writes Butler.

That's a recipe for disaster. Here in the story of Esther, we see a ridiculous rule being made to try and prevent the outcome of another ridiculous rule. Think about it. An edict is written that limits violence to only one day in the year. Eventually, it is lengthened in Susa to a second day by the king for good measure.

But who fights a war like that? Can you imagine what life would have been like the next day? Talk about awkward. You go out and you shoot up your neighbour's house, probably barricaded themselves in there. And if you can't get them before sunrise the next day, well, you go back to living as if nothing ever happened.

Your war is limited to one day. Who does that? But time and time again, the Bible shows us that God gives His people these crazy strategies. Gideon takes on an army literally with pots and pans. Samson takes on enemies attacking him with swords and spears and how does he attack them?

With the jaw bone of a donkey. Why? It's to prove that it's never Israel taking on enemies for God, but God taking on Israel's enemies Himself. And God uses Israel as the vehicle of these miraculous deliverances, but He positions them in such a way that you can never go, wow, how powerful is Israel? And finally, while God, for very specific reasons, does command Israel to sometimes annihilate certain enemies completely, most of the time, when Israel is used by God to drive out certain enemies, that term drive out is a word of eviction rather than murder.

So if you have a look at all the instances where God asked them to do these things, most often, when the enemies are conquered, it is the capital fortified city that is conquered and the surrounding villages and towns are simply chased out. Historically, it was the garrisoned cities that housed the armies. And so once you get rid of the army, you've gotten rid of the resistance. So I think those are some helpful things for us to keep in mind when we hear about 75,000 people. It's kind of crazy.

It's kind of miraculous that this took place on one day across the whole empire of Persia. And if you think about it, the story, like the story of Gideon and Samson, kinda feels larger than life. Why? Because God was protecting His people. Thirdly, and now we come I think to the bulk of this amazing chapter.

And that is a little detail or a few little details in this chapter. On the one hand, we have been spared the gory details of what that day looked like. But on the other hand, we're given some interesting tidbits of information of how exactly the Jews were able to organise themselves, how the context lent itself for them to be successful against their enemies. But there's another interesting detail that you may have noticed as we read this and it was mentioned three times in our passage and that is the phrase that the Jews did not plunder their enemies. Did you notice that?

Why? Why is that detail there? Verse 9, verse 15 and verse 16, the Jews did not plunder their enemies. Now, this is particularly perplexing when in chapter 8, the great enemy, the representative enemy of God's people, Haman, his household, we are told, is given to Esther, and then Esther gives it to Mordecai. So why in this instance do these enemies not have their goods, their houses plundered?

Well, it ties back to the cosmic metanarrative that has been alluded to the whole time we've been working through Esther. All along, there is this epic struggle, a battle of typology and symbolism going on behind the scenes of the resistance to God's kingdom and God's victory in the midst of that opposition. Remember the friction of Mordecai and Haman. Remember what that represented. Mordecai is introduced to us as a Benjaminite.

Haman is introduced to us as an Agagite. Mordecai's refusal to honour Haman stems from his ancestry. It stems from his great grandfather, king Saul. Saul, a Benjaminite himself, was tasked with destroying Agag, the Amalekite, the forefather of Haman. While Saul beat Agag in battle, the problem was that against God's orders, he let him live.

But not only did he let him live, Saul failed in a second way, which was to plunder Agag's goods and livestock. God told Saul that you are to destroy everything. And Saul took some of the best sheep and the best cattle. The reason we are told three times that the Jews didn't touch any of the plunder is that history here is being wound back. There is a redemption happening for the Benjaminites specifically, but for the people of Israel more generally.

This is why the entire line of Haman is then also fully destroyed. Verses 7 to 10, we have the list of all 10 sons of Haman that I struggled reading for you guys. And they are also killed. They are hung upon the same gallows. Why?

Because Mordecai is rectifying the standing order that his forefather disobeyed. The line of Agag is destroyed. So on the one hand, we see that Esther is the redemption story of the tribe of Benjamin, that God gives His people a second chance. He is the God of grace. But notice that there is one instance of plundering that does happen and that is the house of Haman.

Haman's household is given to Esther and Esther gives it to Mordecai. Ask yourself, why is Haman the representative descendant of Agag, whose sons' households were never plundered, but his house was plundered, whose minions across the empire determined to attack the Jews by order of his edict. Why was Haman, as the direct descendant of Agag, plundered, but his minions not? Well, I really like what Brian Sove, a reformed Baptist pastor in Utah, had to say on this. We've already pointed out earlier in the series, as I said, that the story of God's people in Esther is actually a story of God's church and the story of Jesus Christ.

Remember who I suggested typifies or is typified by Haman? The enemy of God's people? Satan. Satan. Haman's hatred is the hate fuelled urgency of Satan to destroy God's kingdom.

Time and again, we've talked about that great reversal that happens for God's people and for Mordecai. We've seen how that is exemplified beautifully in the cross. When Satan thinks he's won, God turns it on him in a flash. Now, if you study the structure of the book of Esther, you will see the moment when Haman is humiliated before Mordecai. Chapter 6, where he is led through the town by Mordecai. Wait, I mean, led through the town of Mordecai by Haman.

That is the centre point of the book of Esther. That is the centre point. Not Haman's death, not this victory here. Haman's humiliation is the centre point of the story. All that remains is now Haman to die, people of God to begin celebrating, the edict to be counted in chapter 8, and the redemption fully to be realised at the end of the book.

What this means is that we are given in miniature the story of God's salvation history being played out. The centre point of the salvation story took place, we believe, two thousand years ago. And we will say that it was at the cross where the victory was won for us. But I think perhaps you can go back thirty years before the cross to when Jesus came. And that was the beginning of the humiliation of Satan already.

It is true that Satan was conquered at the cross but it was the arrival of Christ which was the beginning of his humiliation. Why? Because in Mark chapter 3, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, He talks about the strong man being bound and the house being plundered. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 16 that the gates of Hades, the defensive fortifications of Hell, cannot prevail against His church. I always thought that that statement was sort of like they can't overwhelm us.

But God is saying through Jesus, their fortifications can't withstand our assault, the church's assault on them. Hell will be plundered by the church. This is why the apostle Paul ultimately in Romans 16 can promise us that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Friends, the gospel of the kingdom of God is therefore nothing less than the subduing, the defeating and the plundering of the kingdom of darkness. It is the plundering of Haman's house.

The typology in the book of Esther points us to the coming of the kingdom of God's Son and it points us to the nature of that victory. That His victory advances slowly, but powerfully and irresistibly. And that over the smoking ruins of an enemy already conquered, God's people celebrate and smile in that victory while they conquer. And the result is that one day, when God draws to an end the story, He will hold a victory feast with all His people. And we're gonna look more at what that victory represents next week, especially with the Lord's Supper.

I think that will be powerful. But what we see here is the church as we are now and we are being told that we are plunderers. We are pillagers. We are looters of Satan's kingdom. We scamper, we scurry and scale over the walls of Hell to steal back Satan's most treasured possessions, human souls.

This is exactly how the apostle Paul sees his ministry where he writes in 2 Corinthians 10. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Friends, maybe you've never realised it.

But you, today, are part of this plundering. It happens every week as we gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim His excellencies, who have taken us from the kingdom of darkness and has brought us into His marvellous light. That is plundering. It happens every time someone turns their eyes and their heart to the throne of Jesus. According to Paul here, it happens every time an old way of thinking is taken captive to Christ.

Satan's kingdom is plundered when we lay down our sin with confession, when we come to the table of communion with God in Christ, when we eat and drink in proclamation of His death until He comes. Have you ever thought about Sunday worship in those terms? Plundering the kingdom of Satan. Right now, as we gather and we listen to the proclamation of God's word, which has been authorised with the signet ring of the King, the Holy Spirit. As we gather, we are subduing inch by mental inch the kingdom of darkness.

We are experiencing in practice what has already been achieved in principle for us on the cross. Christ is winning. Christ has won. We are experiencing even now Satan's crumbling power. Your life and your worship is no mundane thing.

It has cosmic significance in the great spiritual battle which is being waged over your soul. And so here is our challenge. Knowing again, hearing again this truth, this is our challenge. Will you commit yourself to the plundering of Satan's kingdom? As active agents of the church, every effort you give in the life of Christ's church, every generous gift of energy, every bit of prayer, every Bible study, every outreach, every decision on a Sunday morning to listen to a sermon, every Sunday morning where you, through determination and gritted teeth, pack those kids into the car and just get them to church.

That is a plundering of Haman's house. Because it's in that moment when a thought has finally been taken captive by Christ, when a false argument or a lofty opinion is nullified, chopped off at the root. In those moments, Satan's stronghold has become just a little bit emptier and God's kingdom receives just a little bit more glory. So contrary to perhaps some of the traditions we've come from, you don't need to carry around holy water with you or chase around New Age witches to take part in spiritual warfare. Just be a Christian and you will plunder Satan's kingdom.

Just be a Christian, obedient in the simple things as Peter told us this morning again. Being holy as the holy God is holy. And so we pray that our God may choose to use us outrageously in heroic ways to plunder the house of His defeated enemy for His glory and the wealth of His kingdom. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for the incredible realisation of what we see in part and in miniature happening in the salvation of the Jews in Persia.

We praise You and we glorify in the magnificent unfolding of Your salvation plan. We marvel at the intricacy of the types and the typology of Jesus Christ in the lives of Mordecai and Esther, of the wickedness of Satan and Haman, of the futility of their resistance against the sovereign and mighty God. And Lord, these stories give us hope in our daily lives. That the God who boasts in using tiny Israel to conquer mighty enemies through the most unlikeliest ways, that He may use even small and fragile Christians in winning mighty spiritual battles when the odds seem so stacked against us.

So Lord, give us courage. Help us to be heroic. Help us to take captive every thought for Christ. And help us to know that we don't fight these battles in earthly terms. We fight in spiritual warfare.

We fight with God on our side. And give us, Lord, that great hope that at the revelation of Jesus Christ, we will see Your kingdom as it truly is. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.