Esther 1-2
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Opening Poll 1: In Chapter 1 we see King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) attempting to show off his power and wealth and influence, when we see people in our society do that same how do you think the world views this type of person? A. the world wishes they had a position of great power and wealth, B. the world feels sad for this person realizing they are missing the point of life, C. the world mocks this type of person as a fool, D. the world idolizes this type of person, E. it depends, if the person is a billionaire then jealous, if the person is a little above middle class then a fool
Subquestion 2: What do you think Christians is the best way to help a friend who is pursing wealth, power, and influence for the purpose of showing off? A. prayer, B. sharing the Gospel, C. Explaining this life is temporary, D. trying to understand where this desire is coming from an addressing it
Subquestion 3: Would you want to interrupt our Esther study the Wednesday before Easter to go through evidence and arguments for the Resurrection, with some line by line study also? A. Yes, B. No,
Sources/References: Pastor Steven Lawson Bible study of Romans, biblehub.com, John MacArthur Study Bible, David Guzik Romans outline, ESV Study Bible, Tony Evans Study Bible, Apologetics Study Bible, Charles Spurgeon Study Bible, NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, NIV Study Bible, The Evidence Study Bible- Commentary by Ray Comfort, Pastor Skip Heitzig Romans Study, Warren Wiersbe ‘The Bible Exposition Commentary’, Archaeological Study Bible,
That last music video- is pretty impactful… when I think about the cross and Gethsemane and what our Lord Jesus Christ went through to save us- as Revelation says when Jesus is instructing the Church at Laodicea in Revelation 3… that description He gives… that’s me if im apart from Christ… apart from Christ I am wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked… verse 18… and then He goes on and in Revelation Jesus tells us verse 18… 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
I mean this is incredible… I don’t deserve this… you don’t deserve this… God’s love to us is just mercy upon mercy upon mercy… and love upon love upon love… and there is nothing good within us- it is all Jesus…
And if you are like me, sometimes you look at the cross and what happened and it’s just like man- it took all of that for Jesus to cleanse my soul… and it just speaks to the seriousness of sin…
Beaten, bloodied, mocked, spit on, nailed to a cross to hang and die… taking the cup of the wrath of God at the garden… only an act like that could save you and me… that is how serious our sin is against a Holy God that only the brutal death of God’s Son could ever make a way…
As we approach Easter I just encourage you to take some time each day to sit at the foot of the cross and just think about what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us…
It is amazing grace… amazing love- Jesus paid it all- He paid our debt… and it is paid in full by the precious blood that Jesus spilled- and now the curse has no hold on me… who the son sets free is free indeed…
He has stood the gap- Jesus took the blow- right when we are about to take the full wrath of Almighty God Jesus stepped in, and He took it all… Jesus stood the gap and He took all of the punishment that we deserve…
Praise God! I just Praise God that God has mercy on people like us who have nothing good within us, but because He loves us He has called us… Praise God…
Prayer-
If you have a Bible we are going to be in Esther, we will try to get through the first 2 chapters tonight… Esther is in the middle of the Bible… it’s after Ezra and Nehemiah and before Job, Psalms and Proverbs…
Trinity Question-
As we go through Esther I will try to do a quick 2 or 3 minute refresh each night and then go into that chapter for the night…
the book of Esther is the only book of the Bible that does not mention God… nobody prays in the book of Esther… nobody sings songs of praise in the book of Esther… nobody talks about God in the book of Esther…
At the same time we see God at work in this book… every paragraph of this book is showing evidence of the powerful work of God… He is all over the book of Esther… and yet He's not mentioned
Tonight in Chapters 1 and 2 we will meet a bunch of people… and none of these people are thinking about God in any of this… it's pretty clear… and yet God is powerfully at work…
At the end of chapter two, two men are put to death… and the way they are executed is the first time we see the origins of death by crucifixion… crucifixion was not invented during this time…
But this means of death in Esther would later evolve into what became crucifixion… this is what the Romans took over and modified from the Persians…
this morphed into the cross… you hang somebody on a stick as a warning to everybody else… that becomes crucifixion…
so here in the middle of this book that does not explicitly mention God… we find a reference to crucifixion…
which leads into this 3 minute video… then we’ll do a quick introduction to Esther and then the line by line…
Play Tim Dilena 14:25-17:58
Background for Esther…
Israel is in Persia and Israel is still in captivity… in a way they are in an open rebellion against God…
God's people were summoned back to Israel and they have not gone there yet… and so they're living their life away from God's blessing… away from God's pleasure…
But… just because they are not talking about God does not mean that God is not working in their lives
If we try to hide from God, this kind of relates to what we talk about last week, being surrounded by God at all times- and that is such a great thing…
If we try to hide from God it is like when Abby and Sam were younger and we would play hide and seek and they would hide… and I would get close to them and they would put their hands over their eyes… like well I can’t see you so you cant see me…
We can be like that… we can think that if we don't believe in God… and we don't acknowledge God… and we don't pray to God… and we don't worship God… that God won’t exists because “I stopped believing”
Even if no one on earth believed in God that would do nothing to impact His existence, God would still exists… and the Bible is clear there will always be a remnant of true believers- so that was hypothetical…
Esther stands as a testimony to the fact that God is at work even in the lives of people who are not looking for Him
On a timeline… Esther takes place between Ezra chapter 6 in Nehemiah chapter 1…
When Esther takes place there was a long gap where the building of the temple was stopped in Jerusalem because people had complained to the governor… it was paused… the Israelites had gotten comfortable in Jerusalem…
So that's the time period where Esther takes place
this is a book about God working with His people who are not looking to God… and so God is working behind the scenes… while also being everywhere
while God is hidden… He is not hiding… He is active and He is still in charge
Chuck Swindoll writes about the book of Esther “God's presence is not nearly as intriguing as His absence in this book. You want a book about God's presence you have 65 other books in the Bible about that. You want a book about His absence you have to turn to the book of Esther, and that's what makes it intriguing”
There is a practical application to us today from the book of Esther… we live in a world where God is not active in the kind of miracles that you see in different stages of the Bible…
God still does perform miracles… but what I mean is we live in an age where God is not parting the Red Sea… manna is not falling from the sky… and so often today God is working offstage
the way we see God at work in the book of Esther is often the way He's at work in our lives today…
For anyone who struggles with the invisibility of God, Esther is a great book to read because no one sees God in it and at the same time no one can finish this book and say “? where was God? I missed Him”
God is everywhere in the book of Esther, the Providence of God is the main point… we will see a cinderella story and we will meet characters that appear to be heroes- but as we read we must remember that the hero in this story is God… and the hero in every story in the Bible is God… The Bible is a book about our Lord Jesus Christ
I hope Esther helps you see that right here in the middle of your Bible… and I hope you see that God is at work even when you don't see Him…
Read Esther 1:1-9
We will play just a section of this video and likely come back to it later
Play Bible Project 0:04-2:25
The first thing to notice is there are no believers in chapter 1
there's no Jews in chapter 1… this is a story with a Persian king… and Persian counsels… in a Persian Empire… and Israel is just a tiny province as one of a 127 provinces…
Israel is not even its own province… it's part of a different province called “the beyond the river province”… Israel is just a tiny speck on that map
Yahweh is the covenant name for God- and these people don't know Yahweh or His covenant name… they don't know about God…
Nobody in chapter 1 knows about God… and we see God at work in people that don't even know who He is
1 Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,
some older translations have Ahasuerus as Xerxes… I will most often refer to him as Xerxes because that is easier for me to pronounce… you guys already know I am not the best speaker, I had some speech issues as a young child and I still struggle with some words, so since we have two names… I’m going to kind of pick the easier one, Xerxes
So this King’s name is a pun in Hebrew… and Hebrew readers would get that… the Persian readers would not understand the pun…
it's a pun on the word headache… so this King's name sounds like the Hebrew word for headache…
India to Ethiopia… this province called India back then… this is modern-day Pakistan… so this stretches all the way into Asia… down through modern-day Ethiopia, even south of Egypt
this is a massive Empire… at the time this is the world's largest empire there were over 127 provinces…
so you're supposed to be impressed by this guy, who kinda has this joke name “king headache”… it’s like “king headache” rules the world… and in reality he did rule the world at this time, he is the most powerful person in the world…
2 in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel,
there are four different capitals of the Persian Empire… this is one of them… the Citadel….
3 in the third year of his reign he gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him,
King Xerxes will reign for 27 years… so this is at the beginning of his reign… and he gives this feast for all of his officials all of his servants it's the army of Persia and Media
Persia and Media are two opposing empires that have just recently been combined… and the nobles and the governors of the provinces were before King Xerxes… and Xerxes is throwing this feast… and really this is a display of his greatness- this is a very prideful King
4 while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days.
180 days is 6 months… this is a really long feast we're talking about…
this is like the largest… longest banquet that we could imagine… a six-month long banquet
world history- sources outside of the Bible tell us that this banquet was designed by King Xerxes to display his power and wealth to all of his governors and army and military leaders that he had put together under the Empire's banner… that was to show he was in charge…
that he was wealthy enough and powerful enough to go to war against Greece… and he wanted to go to war against Greece and modern-day Egypt… that's where the battle was going to be… he was trying to get an immense allied army to go with him off to war…
that was the plan… and so to do that Xerxes wanted to convince everybody that he was in charge and he had the power to pull this off… and so he throws a six-month long banquet
And this is meant to really “wow” people because people would think of all of the power you must have to be able have to sustain that kind of food and drink and debauchery for 6 months straight… and it goes even beyond that…
5 And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace.
so this is like a bonus week after the 6 month feast… like in the 4thof July fireworks- this would be the grand finale when you really just launch all these fireworks… and you think about it and maybe half the cost of the fireworks show is in the grand finale… just thinking about how many fireworks are launched bc they are just all going up at once… so I think this last week might be similar-
This is the grand finale, the final week- and so we’re just going to ramp it up…
And when it says both small and great… this means this feast has now opened to the general public- so you can just see everyone is now joined in…
And you can kind of imagine all these people who have never dreamed about being inside the king’s palace are now there, ordinary people… they can come in and they can check it out themselves
everybody can come in and experience the king's palace for themselves for a week during this feast… this had to just be an incredible scene and experience
6 There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars, and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones.
? why do we have these details?
To show us this is going over the top… the description of all the intricate tiles on the ground… and the marble pillars… and they have these purple and gold like scarlet curtains stringing between the marble pillars… so this would be an incredible scene…
If you’re a peasant or just an ordinary farmer… you would have never seen anything like this before… and the point is that the governors of these 127 provinces… they also would have never seen anything like this before… everyone would have just been completely “wowed” at this last week- this grand finale
7 Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king.
This shows how rich king Xerxes is, not only does he have golden vessels of all different kinds… but he was able to have enough for the entire population of Susa… so this is really a display of wealth and prestige…
And the common people would have never even seen a golden cup, muchless drink from one and have it in their hands… this would be incredible to them… and each one would have a different design- it says of different kinds…
So you can get the picture of people holding these cups and talking to other people and comparing the designs they have, and talking about how much wine there is for everyone- this is a huge “wow factor”
8 And drinking was according to this edict: “There is no compulsion.” For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired.
In other words… you don't have to drink if you don't want to… which seems like a strange thing to say here… but the Persians had an idiom that if you stopped drinking you had to go home… and an idiom is a basically just a saying… an example would be “under the weather” or “rain or shine” or “the ball is in your court”…
So the Persian idiom, if you are done drinking then you have to leave the party…
so it would be considered rude to drink at a party… and then you stop drinking… you stop drinking then you're not staying…
And it seems kinda weird just hearing this idea… a lot of times in our society drinking like this happens at college aged and its just a good time, not a big deal… but there were actually good reasons why the Persians had this kinda unwritten rule that everyone would follow
because there was this whole idea you could take advantage of each other… and you could get your friends drunk and then convince them to go into some business deal… or some military conquest…
so everybody had to be drinking at all times at a Persian party… but for a week-long party that's not gonna… everybody has limits… and so they made a rule we want you to party all week long… and so you can stop drinking if you want…
so if you need to go home and take a shower or something… go ahead and take a break and then come on back to the kings party
and last comment on this verse, we see the “for” here again, remember in Romans we talked about this often… that For is going to explain what was previous…
it says there is no compulsion, and so the reason is given- for the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired…
Just something to kinda keep in your mind during your personal reading- here we see that because the King gave an order for everyone to do as they wish, there was no compulsion
9 Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus.
so the Queen is giving a feast for the women… these might be the wives of the governors… it might be that all the 127 governors and the military leaders are on one floor and these women are on a different floor…
so there is this contrast here that the king is giving his massive feast with all the peasants and everybody is invited to the kings feast… and then on maybe a second floor the Queen and all the ladies are there at their own feast… it’s their own party…
there's probably a different code of conduct in both places… it is a stereotype but I can imagine the men’s party with keg stands going on and all kinds of loudness and the womens party being a lot different from the men’s… and I think as we approach the second half here we get that feeling…
Read Esther 1:10-2
Poll 2 Do you think the atmosphere was different between the kings party and the queens party? A. yes, B. maybe, C. no
Subquestion 2: For those who are at the party for 6 months and this extra week, how do you think they look at King Xerxes at this point? A. they likely idolize him, B. they are likely jealous of him, C. they likely look at him as someone who can be a valuable friend for worldy gain (political type stuff), D. they likely think he is kinda foolish and self-centered
Play Video Tony Evans 0:00-3:24
10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus,
On the seventh day so that means we are at the end of this feast… it's been 187 days of feasting and drinking here…
when the heart of the king was merry with wine… that's a way of politely saying that after 187 days of drinking King Xerxes is drunk
so the king is going to give an order to these seven eunuchs… these are people who served in the presence of King Xerxes… and the eunuchs job would be to care for the Queen…
and these would be the only men that are allowed on the Queen's floor here…
so if you have this kind of a drinking feast with this kind of military and political contingents… the men are not allowed near the Queen… because if the Queen would have a child by some other political ruler… that could be very problematic for the world's largest empire….
so the only men allowed in the Queen's presence here would be these eunuchs… and so the King summons the eunuchs… and in verse 11 this is the order King Xerxes gives…
11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.
So I think the way this is presented… everything leading up to this point in verse 11… from King Xerxes you have all this pride and showing off and trying to show everyone how wonderful you are, how powerful you are, how rich you are… so that’s the first thing that is leading up to this order…
Then you have in verse 10 that the King is drunk, he is merry with wine… Every detail here is important and I think that Queen Vashti gets this requests and immediately recognizes that this would only come when Xerxes is drunk… that if he were sober he would never make this request…
And this is really just one more thing that the King wants to show off to all these people… the beauty of the queen- like she is a trophy or something…
So Queen Vashti is incredibly beautiful… and King Xerxes wants to parade Queen Vashti all around…
in front of all of these other men that he's been partying with for a 187 days… and we talked about the idea that there's probably a different type of party… a different mood… a different atmosphere up at the Queen's party…
and the text says Vashti with her crown and some scholars believe this meant literally tell Vashti to come here completely naked wearing only her crown… I looked at the Hebrew and didn’t see anything that related to nakedness- the verse is well translated… if you read it that way I don’t think you can say that’s wrong because the passage does leave itself open to that interpretation… I personally think its more likely come clothed, but come with your crown as well…
Either way, whether it was a come wearing only your crown… or come wearing your crown… either way it was basically come so all these men can stare at your beautiful body and so I can show you off…
and if you can imagine for a minute how that request was received up at the woman’s party as the eunuchs walked up there and say “oh… by the way … after six months and one week of you guys up here in your own room… the King would like to present you before everybody with your crown…”
the eunuchs probably let her know the King is pretty intoxicated… and he's asking for you… with 127 of his closest friends… and a whole bunch of other random people down there to come so they all can look at you…
and so Queen Vashti says “nope- you can let the King know I am not coming down there to parade around in front of all these men…”
The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary “The refusal of Vashti to obey an order which required her to make an indecent exposure of herself before a company of drunken revellers, was becoming both the modesty of her sex and her rank as queen; for, according to Persian customs, the queen, even more than the wives of other men, was secluded from the public gaze.”
12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.
Proverbs 25 verse 28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
that's what you're experiencing right here… the king becomes angry at his wife because she didn't show up when he summons her…
now this is a problem on a marriage level…
but the bigger issue… the main issue… what is really the take-away from this… and in a way this point is kind of funny… especially for Hebrew readers who already have the pun of his name which is “King headache” so they are already kinda thinking this guys is a fool…
so the point of this feast was to convince everybody that King Xerxes has the power to rule the world…
he's the most powerful person ever… but he can't control his wife…
so you can see the problem… Xerxes is trying to convince these people that he can command their armies in the battle… but he can't get his wife to obey his commands…
13 Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment, 14 the men next to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom):
every single time he has a choice to make he asks the Wiseman… or he asks Haman… or he asked Mordecai…
he's always asking for help…
and yes there is wisdom in asking for help, that is definitely true but I don't think that's the point being driven home… I don’t think this is about showing the Kings wisdom…
I think what is being driven home here is the King is presenting himself as the most powerful person who ever existed and he cannot control his wife… and he cannot even make a single decision without help…
and as we go through the book of Esther you will see the king involved in a lot of different activities… and every thing he does he is always asking for help
15 “According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti, because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs?”
This question is kind of funny or ironic, according to the law- the king is the person who makes decrees and makes the law… once a law is written it cannot be repealed- Daniel 6…
the question is phrased in a way that it’s like the king has so much power no one can ever disobey it… so what am I supposed to do to the woman who disobeys it…
16 Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
So Memucan is saying “hey- this is actually a really big deal” like this is more than just a problem between the king and the queen…
this is going to cause problems in all 127 provinces… and when he says all the peoples… this is like saying “hey- what just happened here is going to affect every single marriage in this empire…”
? why would he say this?
? how could this really affect everyone in the empire?
Well first… who's the queen been with for 6 months and a week- all the wives of these men…
That’s first… these guys are probably all thinking “now I have to deal with this- all these women are going to just refuse to listen to me anymore”
They are thinking and likely saying to King Xerxes… “all of our wives are upstairs and they all watched the Queen say no to you… and so this feast is over in the morning and we have to take our wives home and how are we supposed to manage our wives when you can't manage the Queen…”
You can kind of get the picture- the atmosphere of this… Maybe Memucan is stepping forward because he is already having problems with his wife and feels like she is controlling everything and he is saying “man- now I’m really going to have problems after this”
17 For the queen's behavior will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt, since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.’ 18 This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior will say the same to all the king's officials, and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty.
Tony Evans writes “In other words, Memucan said “she’s gotten us all in hot water with our wives, King!”
19 If it please the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.
So Vashti refused to go to the king… and so she is being punished by not be allowed to go to the king again in the future… ESV study Bible notes “Paradoxically, Vashti is to be punished by being forbidden to do what she has already refused to do: come to the king. But never again implies divorce and the end of her queenship.”
20 So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.”
So think about this scene that would play out… a wife is in the town center and she sees the new edict from the king… and it would read something like “because Vashti would not come when the King summoned her… all
women everywhere need to give honor to their husbands”
so what’s the response going to be from this women who reads this “oh… well I was not going to honor my husband… but now that I read this I'm all in… whenever he calls me I will respond immediately and obediantely”
this makes you wonder how this message is actually received compared to what these men had in their minds… I personally don’t think this decree does much… those with great marriages would continue to have great marriages and those with problems are going to continue to have problems…
21 This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king did as Memucan proposed. 22 He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, that every man be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people.
this seems like an overreaction… the Queen would not come to the king when he was drunk and wanting to show her off… so therefore all the wives in the country might possibly also revolt… to me there seems to be a disconnect between these men who are advising the king and reality…
So this chapter 1 is a unique story in the Bible, ? what is it doing here and why are there stories like this in the Bible ?
stories make learning fun and help us to remember information… this story is in the Bible to paint a picture for us so that we can learn a lesson about God even though there are no believers in this chapter… and even though there's no window into God and his actions… in this this chapter you see all of the people being set in place for God's will to be done…
the book of Esther shows Providence… chapter one… this shows us God's providence is at work in the lives of non-believers who do not know Him… who do not look at Him… who do not think about Him… this is teaching us that they're still under the sovereign… providential control of God
a way to understand Providence is that God has two different acts in this world… one act is creation… and the second act is preservation
creation is where God makes something
preservation is where God maintains it
so God creates the universe and he creates us… Providence is how he preserves us… how he keeps us…
God made us and he keeps us…
If you think about all the natural things in the universe, it’s a pretty dangerous place… stars, black holes, meteors, and then even here on earth you have spreadable diseases like COVID and really wicked spiders and snakes that can bite you… if you think about it, if you were dropped in the middle of the Amazon with nothing at all and no way out, how long do you think you could survive?
You would be facing dangerous bacteria, fungus, snakes, spiders, animals, wetness…
And back out to the universe- it really is amazing that life is possible on earth…
Those times in the spring and the fall here in Virginia when you can go outside and just think “this is pretty amazing that God made the world with the perfect temperature for me to enjoy a day like today”
Apart from God, there's no reason it should be that way… it’s all just God's kindness that He made the world so enjoyable and that He keeps us safe…
Another thing to point out from chapter 1 is the contrast between Xerxes and God… Xerxes is a person who says I'm the most powerful ruler ever… in fact i'll decree it in 127 languages… but he has no control over the one person he is closest to
? how different is the God of the universe…
Xerxes is the most powerful person you could really imagine… Xerxes has more power than President Biden or a Supreme Court justice or Bill Gates or Elon Musk… Xerxes has more power than anybody in the world today…
and yet the point of Esther chapter one is he has no real power at all in contrast to God… who does not even need his name on the page to get everybody exactly where He wants them
Read Esther 2:1-18
Poll 3 In chapter 2 we read about Esther hiding her Jewish identity, where do you think is the most common place that most people don’t speak about their faith today? A. at work, B. with neighbors, C. with non-church going friends, D. with people they just met (like a child’s friend parents or a new-hire at work or a neighbor who just moved in)
Play Video Alistair Begg 20:12-26:15
Chapter 2 1 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.
So King Xerxes basically fires the Queen… the crown is removed from her… and there is a time gap between chapter 1 and chapter 2…
King Xerxes goes off to war… he marches his army off to war… he attacks the Greece Empire and loses
Chapter 2 is three or four years after this 6 month feast, and the events that happened in chapter 1…
so years go by… Xerxes marches off to war… and he actually goes through Israel on the way… this is Xerxes only visit to Israel and it’s on his way to war where he loses the war… he attacks Greece by water and losses 300 ships…
the story is that when the Xerxes comes back to the shore in Egypt… he takes off his belt and he begins whipping the ocean in anger until he passes out from exhaustion… and his troops have to rescue him from drowning in the ocean…
he was fighting the ocean… this the guy has lost it… he’s kind of crazy… to punch the water until you pass out, that’s not normal… but that's what happens…
and he comes back to his capital city… humiliated in defeat… and it's at this point he remembers Queen Vashti… and how she wouldn't listen to him…
you get the feeling he is thinking this is all her fault… it feels like he needs someone to blame and she is going to be that person
2 Then the king's young men who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. 3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the citadel, under custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given them. 4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.
So this is a national beauty contests all over the empire… we will get the most beautiful women… and we will gather them together… and we will prepare them for a period of time so they will be remarkable… and they'll be paraded in front of you… and King Xerxes you can choose whichever one you like…
the King thought this was a good idea…
this is the second time we see King Xerxes did not know what to do with Vashti… and so he asks his advisers… and his advisers tell him what to do…
and his advisers are not necessarily advocating for what is best throughout the empire… they are likely advocating for what is best for their own marriage…
they're concerned what their wives will do… this is a 2 to 3 year later gap… but they had sent out that decree across the empire…
and it was foolish in a way, the logic of “what will happen if people find out about this refusal of queen Vashti” and to fix that they let everyone know… by decree… so these are not people with wisdom…
there are a lot of commentaries that say people were drunk throughout all of this… and I don’t see it in the text… I don’t see an indication that these guys were drunk… so I’m not sure if commentators got that because of a particular event or if that was outside of the Bible source…
maybe they were drunk and maybe that’s why they come up with this beauty contest idea”
Drunknesses is a possibility here, I don’t know we can say for 100 percent
We can say that they are foolish- that is clear- that is 100 percent
So Xerxes receives this advice… this King is being manipulated… Xerxes thinks he is strong and in control and the most powerful person in the world… but his decrees basically have the authority of whoever is closest to him…
he is influenced by whoever has his ear at that moment… which is not a position of strength… Xerxes is being manipulated…
It seems like at the end of chapter one - he's being manipulated by the men around him who are using Xerxes to advance their own agendas… specifically in relationship to women…
the guys in Chapter one wanted him to do an edict because they didn't know how to manage their own wives…
in chapter 2 it's not the same crew as chapter one… and chapter two tells us he's surrounded by young men… most commentators say this would be 17 and 18 year old men…
these young men who are around the King say “I know what you should do… you should have a beauty pageant and get the most beautiful women in the world to come here”
? why would that be a good idea for the young men ?
A lot of scholars say the custom is that these Persians and Medianite kings would often have a very large group of women… some of them would be wives… and they were polygamous…
it's interesting that Xerxes only wants one wife at a time… this would be unusual…. Many Persian Kings had multiple wives… but they also had many concubines… and unlike some of the other nations around them where the concubines would be in complete isolation except for the King…
the Persian practice was that the concubines would be in relative isolation… but they would have relationships with the King's advisors… the King's Council… and these young men around him
maybe this was to keep the women relatively social… and not depressed and despondent by being locked away… which was the normal custom of other empires…
At that time, another custom of other empires was once a woman had been with the king once, they were isolated and cut off for the rest of their lives… but they did not do this here…
so that's another reason these young men around the King were pushing this idea to have the most beautiful women in the empire to come to the king…
and the end of verse 4 says it pleased the king
You can picture these guys going something like “I cannot believe we got away with this” it's definitely a mockery
in verse 4 4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.
this is a mockery of what it means to have the unbreakable laws of the Medes and the Persians… the king's edict is supposed to be strong… and Xerxes is being manipulated moment by moment…
and he is manipulated often… this is supposed to be a contrast between God and His Word… it's supposed to be glaring at you… these Kings… they say their edict is final… they say their rule is secure and absolute… but they even forget about it… did you notice that
he comes back and he's angry at Vashti… and he has to be reminded by his advisors…. Hey.. ? do you remember a few years ago you made a decree that cannot be moved or shaken or broken and remains forever… it's eternal… you decreed it… do you remember it…??? it is really absurd…
these kings think they have unmitigated power and that their word is unbreakable and they can't even remember what they said…
and it will be a theme through the book of Esther… that's going to come up in this book… that theme is how do you circumvent the Kings decrees…
he says something that cannot be broken… how do you get her around it
That’s very different from God's Word which is unbreakable… Matthew 5 verse 18 Jesus says truly I tell you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota… that means not the smallest Greek symbol and the smallest Hebrew jot or tittle… not an iota will pass away from the law until it is all accomplished…
Jesus says all of the law will be brought to fulfillment
Mark 13:31 heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away…
every word that God breathes is eternal and sure and sufficient
Luke 16 verse 17 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
in other words it's easier for the whole planet to disappear in an instant than it is for one letter to be missing from the law…
the power of God's word very different than the so-called power of these kings and emperors… that are trying to elevate their pride…
so that’s one of the things to take away is 1. God's Word is permanent and that’s in contrast to these kings
second principle that we are about to see is:
2. God's people are to be different from the world
5 Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite,
So the Benjamites were rare in Israel before the Exile… they were almost completely eliminated at the end of the book of Judges… but there are a few of them left…
they were so small they were kind of absorbed into the tribe of Judah… they were taken to captivity… most of them would have gone to Babylon… and apparently there's a small group that is in Susa…
6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. 7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
so here is this Jewish family in exile… they have been carried off… initially to Babylon… and they've ended up in Susa and they are here in the Persian Empire
they're Jewish… so they are connected with God's people through Benjamin… and yet nobody knows that… and that's going to be a key theme through the book of Esther… nobody knows that Mordecai is Jewish… and there's a huge contrast between this in Esther and in Daniel… when Daniel wanted to be known for being separate from the people….
Daniel would not eat their food… he would pray facing Jerusalem… he went out of his way to be kosher and keep the law…
so Mordecai is not a Daniel type of guy…. Mordecai has been fully assimilated into the Persian culture… you wouldn't know he was Jewish by looking at him… he's not eating different food… he's not praying facing Jerusalem… he's not dressed differently…
Esther has two names… at the beginning of verse 7 Hadassah, that is Esther… she's the only person in this book with two names… and I think that's intentional here by the narrator to let you see that her feet are in both worlds…
even though she didn’t realize it at this point… she doesn't know her future…
and this is a Cinderalla type of story we see here… she is an orphan girl among of a bunch of exiles… in modern day terms this would be what we call refugees… she is an orphan within that refugee group… so she is the lowest of the low in society… and that's the point here…
this is story is not about the divorce of Vashti and Xerxes… this is about the Cinderella story of Esther…
Esther is born into a minority culture… a minority religion… but assimilated probably just to survive… she has her feet in both worlds… I think that’s the reason for pointing out her two names…
To Esther, she would never think in her wildest dreams that God would be using her to eventually bring relief and deliverance to Israel… that would never cross her mind growing up and even at this point in the story… Esther is in a spot where she would just be happy if she gets to live out the next year of her life…
8 So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa the citadel in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women.
there's a passive verb in here… Esther also was taken
I think used here to demonstrate that this is not Esther's idea… there's no indication she was fighting against this… or that she rebelled against it… but she is the one being acted upon…
Mordecai is doing this to her… and she is listening to Mordecai… she respects Mordecai… again she has no other options here…
Susa may be her address and Babylon may have even been her home province… but none of that is where she really belongs… she really belongs in
Jerusalem…
Esther is just along for the ride in this story… along with all the other characters…
That’s the beautiful thing with the book of Esther… nobody here is really acting on their own… everybody in this book is being orchestrated by God in His Providence…
Esther has two names… she's supposed to be stressed living in two worlds… and she finds herself now under the charge of a man who has this harem of women getting ready for a beauty contest…
9 And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem.
Esther stands out among all the rest… so she gets special treatment… and this is the very opposite of Daniel… Daniel did not have people waiting on him and Daniel would or not eat the chosen food…. whereas Esther is just doing all of it… she is elevated to the best place in the harem…
10 Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known.
in other words… people didn't know Mordecai was Jewish… people did not know Esther was Jewish…
11 And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.
You kind of get the picture of a worried father here… Mordecai- Esther is his daughter, he raised her… and he put his adopted daughter into a harem for some pagan King… King “headache” who has a short temper… who fired his previous wife… who we have seen acts foolishly.. and Mordecai puts his daughter into that harum… and now we see Mordecai pacing outside the court waiting for news about how she is doing…
he's anxious to know how she's doing… this is a world where things are not decided by work ethic, intelligence, or by laws or by justice…
and people are subject to personal whims… especially women are subject to personal whims…
and whoever can manipulate King Xerxes…
Esther is in both worlds and you see her compromise her Jewish identity… she has hidden the fact that she is a Jew and nobody would see it…
This is a lesson to us… we are not meant to live this way… we are meant to be more like the Daniels in the story… we are meant to stand out in our society…
12 Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women—
So this is 12 months of preparation to go before the king for one night…
13 when the young woman went in to the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king's palace.
so Esther gets to choose how she's gonna dress… what gift she wants to take…
14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
Shaashgaz is the lower-ranking guy… he gets all the women who have went with the king and then they go to him… so they're out of the year long beautification program… and they're back into the holding tank for the king's court…
this is where the king's women will stay the rest of their lives… the Kings eunuch who was in charge of the concubines… that's where they go… she would not go into the King again… so none of these women would get to go back to the king… unless they were summoned by name
one of the points here is Esther may have had a heart to serve God… it doesn't seem that way…. but she may have had one… but Esther’s life is so buried in the world that it will not stand out… nobody would see that she had a heart for God or notice it when Esther's turn came
15 When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised.
so because she has a favor with the Kings eunuch… before she goes in with the King the eunuch has advice for her… and gives it… and that's as discreet as the scripture is…
there's some advice… and it's given to her… and she takes the advice…
still in verse 15… Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her.
now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her
16 And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown1 on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
so Esther won the contest… she didn't have to go back into the tank to be called out later… it was that next morning the King declares this is the winner… the beauty contest is over…
18 Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.
So a celebration here, a remission of taxes, everyone is going to know there is a new queen.
A thing to think about… ? Is she in the world or is she of the world ?
I think at this point she's of the world… she's now married to the pagan king and there's nothing Godly about this scene…
the Bible tells believers we also have a little bit in common with Esther… we are in two worlds… were citizens of two kingdoms… subject of two sets of codes of conduct… but our loyalty has to be to one over the other…
1 Corinthians 5 makes this point…
Paul says I tell you to do not have any partnership with the sexually immoral that are in this world… and he says I'm not telling you about the sexually immoral that are in the world… I'm telling you about those who are so-called believers that live lives with sexual immorality… Paul says if I were to tell you to not have anything to do the sexually immoral of the world you'd have to come out of the whole world… that's 1 Corinthians 5
you're supposed to navigate this… you are not supposed to lead a sexually immoral life… and you're not supposed to associate with believers who do…
you're supposed to have a different kind of life…
John 8 verse 12 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
if you are following the light of the world you will lead a life that is filled with light… there is no light in Esther 2… no light at all…
this is a perverse chapter… there's no light in here… but Jesus says if you love the light of the world you will walk a light of life… you will walk your life in a dark world… but you will walk it differently…
2 Corinthians 1 verse 12 12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity3 and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
Paul says I boast in the fact that though I lived in the world I did not act with an earthly wisdom towards you… I lived differently…
he says you want to lead a life that's in the world… but not of the world
third take away from Chapter 2 is 3. God arranges all the details
God arranges the details of every encounter for His glory… there is no plan B when you're dealing with Providence… and if you remember this truth it helps you not to panic when things don't go your way
You won't feel like you need to compromise because you recognize God
is in control of every situation…
Read Esther 2:19-23
Poll 4 Do you think Mordecai had any idea God was working through him and would use this plot discovery later to preserve His people? A. Mordecai probably thought God was involved but couldn’t see the future, B. Yes, C. No
Mordecai Discovers a Plot
19 Now when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. 20 Esther had not made known her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him
so Mordecai has told Esther “don't let anyone know you're Jewish” and she obeyed Mordecai
21 In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
Mordecai sitting at the Kings gate is not loitering… that's a position of being a judge… the King would put people at the gates who would hear cases…
So another point, Esther is queen, and it would seem like she may have had something to do with getting Mordecai this position at the king’s gate…
And while Mordecai was sitting there… these eunuchs who are probably comfortable with Mordecai because he's been walking outside the palace all along when he was waiting for news on Esther during her 12 month preparation…
The eunuchs are talking about harming the king and Mordecai finds out…
22 And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai.
so Esther goes to the king Xerxes and says “hey Mordecai… who I know and trust… who's at the gate… I put him there… he has heard your two eunuchs are planning to harm you”
so King Xerxes launches an investigation…
23 When the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows. And it was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.
Notice the providence… Mordecai was just placed there… and he happens to overhear these two eunuchs arguing and they are going to harm King Xerxes… and this is just God's providence that Mordecai hears this…
they could've been arguing in front of anybody… but it happens to be Esther's uncle… and so it is told to the king and this will be a key detail later in Esther… this end of Chapter 2…
this going to be used by the God to deliver the Jews… all of this comes together here… right now no one in this story has any clue about that…
Mordecai does not understand how God is using him… Esther does not understand how God is using her
They likely don’t even realize that God is using them at all…
none of these people are thinking about God in any of this… it's pretty clear… and yet God is powerfully at work…
these two men are hanged on the gallows… we have an English concept of gallows where you hang people with a rope…
This is not that… they build a stake and they drop these guys on top of a 20-foot stake… that's what this means… it's not hung like a rope around his neck… these men were impaled on a stick which is propped…
This is to be a warning to everybody else…
this is the means of death would later evolve into what became crucifixion… this is what the Romans took over and modified from the Persians…
this morphed into the cross… you hang somebody on a stick as a warning to everybody else… that becomes crucifixion…
so here in the middle of this providential encounter… we find a reference to crucifixion…
I’ll end by reading a paraphrase by Abdu Murray I have written on the back page of my Bible…
The greatest possible being is God. The greatest ethic is love, The greates form of love is self sacrificial love. The greatest self sacrifice is to give your very life. The greatest way to give your life is to give it to save those who oppose, hate and mock you. We see this at the Cross in Jesus.
Any stories about sharing the Gospel this week
Prayer
Play Alistair Begg Video 29:15-34:43
