Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
In 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published what he claimed to be one of his favorite stories about his fictional character, Sherlock Holmes
-This particular story, published in Strand Magazine, was called “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”
-The story revolved around a famous racehorse being stolen the night before a big race and and its trainer killed
-The most famous line from “The Adventure of Silver Blaze” comes when Scotland Yard Detective Gregory asks Sherlock:
Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time.
Holmes: That was the curious incident.
-And if there’s one thing that Sherlock Holmes, or Colombo, or Adrian Monk, or any other of our favorite detectives from books or shows or movies has taught us, it’s to ask the right questions
-And today, as we look at our text from the book of Esther, we’re going to see the importance of asking right questions of the text
-And hopefully it will help us not only come to right understanding and application for today, but also as we study the Bible on our own as well
Background
-As we saw last week, this account takes place in Shushan during the Medo-Persian Empire
-Judah had been taken captive to Babylon for 70 years as God had foretold
-And then after 70 years in Babylon, Cyrus conquers the Babylonian Empire and allows the Jews to return to their homeland, just as God had foretold
-And the events of this account take place about 50 years after the decree of Cyrus allowing for the Jews to return home to Jerusalem
-And for whatever reason, some Jews stayed in Shushan where they were already living
-And so this account deals with those Jews
-Last week we looked at how God’s name is never used one time in this account, and that is for a purpose
-It reflects how in our real life experience, it often can seem to our 5 senses that God is absent
-But we saw last week how God used an arrogant and pompous King and his wife getting into a squabble at a feast to begin to put His deliverers into place
-The King’s wife, Vashti, refuses to come and be the object of attention in front of her drunk husband and his drunk buddies
-And so the King has her removed as queen
-Then, when he eventually realizes that he has no queen, it is suggested to gather a bunch of beautiful virgins across the kingdom, so King A agrees to it
Vs.
5-8
-Here, for the first time, we meet the two protagonists of the story
-The first protagonist is a man named Mordecai
-The author wants us to know a few things about this guy
-First of all, this guy lives in Shushan in the citadel
-so he’s someone who has a position at the palace in some way
-secondly, he is a Jew
-One of God’s covenant people
-Third, his name is Mordecai
-he seems to be named after the pagan Babylonian god “marduk”
-Next, he is a Benjamite descended from Kish
-Now this is an important detail, but we’re going to circle back to it next week where we see the real importance of this detail
-This guy, Mordecai, according to verse 6, was in a family that had been carried away captive from Jerusalem during the Babylonian takeover
-Now, when we piece all of this information together, we have here a less than impressive protagonist
-Here’s a guy who’s become very ingratiated in Persian life and culture
-He’s become so comfortable and adept in the culture, that he’s actually some kind of palace official
-He’s named after a pagan god,
-he and his family didn’t go back with the Jews to Jerusalem
-And as we’re going to find out in a minute, he seems at least somewhat comfortable with his cousin blending in instead of standing up for what is right
-Then comes our second protagonist, Esther
-There are 3 things noted about her
She is Mordecai’s younger cousin.
She has been brought up by Mordecai because . . .
She’s an orphan.
Something had happened to her parents to where they were no longer in the picture.
She’s very beautiful
-the author uses two words to describe her here, and apparently others in this chapter agree with the description
Vs. 8-14
-Now what we come to see here is that king’s decree goes out for women to be gathered to take part in the king’s hunt for a new wife
-And what we come to find out is that the process for the king choosing a wife is to gather all the beautiful girls in the realm, and have them spend the night with the king one by one to see which he likes the best
-In the Veggie Tales version or in children’s church, the story is never portrayed in such a risque light
-The question begins to arise: why on earth did Esther give in to this?
-Why on earth did Mordecai standby and let this happen?
-We’ll come back that question later on
-So, Esther gets gathered up and taken to the harem
-She gets put in the custody of Hegai, who’s the chief eunich
Vs. 9
-And she finds favor with him
-he pleases her and helps get even more beauty treatments, and gets her the best place in the entire house of women, and they get provisions from the king’s palace
-what an awesome stroke of luck, huh?
Vs. 10
-Now, the author wants us to note that Esther does not reveal her identity as a Jew, because Mordecai tells her not to
-We’re not told why he does this, what his motivation is, but this detail is going to be very important later on in the account
Vs. 11
-Mordecai comes to check on her every day, since, remember, he is a court official of some sort
-He cares about her, and wants to be there for her
Vs.
12-14
-The pomp and arrogance of the king is once again highlighted here
-Each woman spends at least 1 year getting ready for her one night with the king
-ONE YEAR
-that is a really long time to prepare
-But they would apparently go through extensive treatments with oil and perfume and preparation
-Then, when she was called, she would go to the queen and get her one night of trying to impress him and give him pleasure.
-In the morning, she’d go to a different house, having lost her virginity the night before, she is now a concubine for the rest of her life
-And she may never be called back to the King ever again
-For many of them, they would just live a life of confinement until she died of old age
-And as you’re reading this, you have to wonder: what are the odds that this could be the fate of Esther?
-Just ending up being another concubine?
-Living out the rest of her days in solitude as an uncalled for concubine of the king
But notice what happens instead:
Vs. 15-18
Vs. 15
-We have this continued theme throughout the book of Esther winning favor or obtaining favor
-And she once again obtains favor with who?
ALL who saw her
-I wonder how she keeps obtaining favor with all those around her . . .
Vs. 16
-And so Esther goes in for her one night stand with the king . . .
-And the king chooses her above all the other women
Vs. 17
-Notice the wording!
“she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins”
Vs. 18
-So he puts the royal crown on her head, calls a great feast in her honor, and gave gifts away
Questions
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