Turn in your Bibles first to, if you would please, to John 17. Before we turn to Esther, we're going to read a few verses from John 17, namely verses 14 through 18. And then we will turn to Esther chapter two, verses one through 18. But first, gospel according to John chapter 17, beginning at verse 14. This is Lord Jesus Christ praying for his church. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And now turning in the Old Testament to Esther, chapter two, beginning at verse one. Esther chapter two, be reading from verse one through verse 18. Esther chapter 2. 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. Then the king's young men who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king, 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, and let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This pleased the king. And he did so. Now there was a Jew in Susa, the citadel, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shemai, son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives, carried away with Jokaniah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away. 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 mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 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 Haggai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Haggai, who had charge of the women. 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 had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. And every day, Mordecai walked in front of the court at the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her. Now, when the turn came for each woman to go into King Hashirach, after being 12 months under the regulations for the women, since this was a regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women, when the young woman went into the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. In the evening, she would go in. And in the morning, she would return to the second harem in custody of Shehashgaz, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her, and she was summoned by name. When the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abihel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter to go into the king, She asked for nothing except what Haggai, the king's eunuch who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Terabith, in the seventh year of his reign, 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 crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 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. Please be seated. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our Father, we come to this ancient story that was written for the benefit and for the encouragement of the people of God. And there is something here for us. There's clearly a message in these words, but perhaps there are particular things that each and every one of us needs to hear, to see, to feel, to receive, and so Father, we ask that you would give us humble hearts. We do pray as well that as this day comes to its close and we sit here in this comfortable place, that you'd help us to be alert, and that you would help us to fight against those thoughts that would distract us, and that you would help us too, Father, to be open to what your word has to tell us. Many of us come with preconceived notions about what this passage is all about, and yet, oh Father, we are in need of learning what you have for us. And so again, we ask that you give us humble hearts, instruct us by your spirit. We pray especially, Father, that you would show us again the greatness of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and this great blessing of being united to him in all that he has accomplished and all that he has won for us. As we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let me just to remind us of chapter one. It's been some time since we've been in this particular book. And what we saw in chapter one was this very straightforward description of an ostentatious display of wealth. very much meant to impress us, to impress the reader, that a king that possessed this level of glory and of possession and of wealth and riches also surely had this level of power at his hands. By the end of the chapter, we see that that's not necessarily true. that this great king, despite all this magnificent display of his power, does not really have that much authority or power, not even in his own household. And so we're going to come away with a mixed message at the end of chapter one of this court. which is a very dangerous place, and we're left wondering who is this poor woman who's going to be replacing Vashti, and what kind of people would be able to overcome this king if he were to muster all of his strength, all of his military power upon a helpless people, which obviously is very much what this book is about. But we come to chapter two, and we still haven't met one of the main characters of the book. And it's as if to show us that we're still kind of in this introductory mode. We're still kind of getting introduced to the main characters of this particular story, this history. And that's very much the case this evening, that we will be introduced to people, and we still haven't met all the people, but in this passage, who are so significant for this book. But there's enough here this evening for us to think upon in these 18 verses. because we continue to see something that we saw that came to the surface subtly, in a very nuanced way, and that is behind all the scenes is that sovereign, quiet hand of God. That God is very much in control of what's happening, and we have subtle indicators of that, again, this evening in these verses. So we begin in this portion, verses one through four, that I call remembering. It's remembering because the king is remembering. We're told here that the king's anger has subsided. It's the same word that's used for when the waters of the flood subsided and receded from the face of the earth, almost symbolic of the fact that God's anger was abating and subsiding. It was now an expression of his mercy towards creation and his people. And perhaps what we have is a similar picture here. He's remembering Vashti and what she had done She had defied the king's request to degrade herself and to parade herself before a bunch of drunken men. How dare her do such a thing? And it raises the question, did he miss her? That's possible. Did he love her? That's also possible, as somebody has said, in his egotistical, self-absorbed, narcissistic way. And perhaps he regretted what he had done. But if he truly regretted, if he felt real sorrow, then we would expect to read something like that he regretted what he had done. But that's not the way the text reads. In fact, it reads this way. He regretted what had been decreed against her. He remembered what had been decreed against her. It's almost like he's putting it in the third person as if he had nothing to do whatsoever with what had happened. And it kind of brings out something we saw last time of just how passive this king is, how much other people are very much involved in manipulating him. in this particular episode. Well, what is done is done. It cannot be undone. That is the law of the Medes and the Persians. It's a ridiculous law. We don't know who thought it up. It was a very bad idea. But that's exactly the way things are in this particular kingdom. And so here come the king's young men. Well, they need a solution. to the problem that they helped to create. Now this man is not surrounded by wisdom, that was very obvious in chapter one, but they come up with this brilliant plan, let beautiful young virgins from every province of the kingdom be brought for the king. In other words, let them be gathered into the royal harem, given beauty treatments over a period of time, cosmetics and so forth, and that particular woman that pleases the king, she will be the queen. Well, this very much pleases the king. He likes this plan very much. But again, reminded of this court, of this particular setting, this is not a safe place, especially for women. This is a place that is noted by fragile egos, a high emotion, a soaring arrogance. Those are not the ingredients for wisdom. And there's no reason for us to think that this is a good, wise plan as well. And it's also extremely important to remind ourselves, especially those of us who have this romantic streak in us, this is not a beauty contest. This is not a contest for Miss Persia. Now what's happening here is not unusual for a king at that time to be rounding up young girls to become concubines for him. That's not unusual. And there are some that want to say, well, there's a good side to this. Well, perhaps there are a few things would be beneficial to a few of these young girls that come in that perhaps this is a better life than a slave. They would be living in absolute luxury. That is true. But if the king never calls you again by name, if he never calls you again by name, this is a lonely life. You end your days as a virtual widow. You never see your family again. Any child that you give birth to is not a legitimate heir. This is a terrible thing. It's a terrible idea. We'll come back to it. And we should also note, this is not sexism per se. 500 boys a year would be taken to be eunuchs to serve for this king. This is not just directed towards the young women. It's also towards young men. What we have here is a terrible abuse of power. And this is idolatrous self-indulgence, terrible self-indulgence. It's interesting, what we have here is similar language to how Joseph spoke to Pharaoh. He said this, appoint officers in every province to gather grain. And we have a parallel statement here. Appoint officers in every province to gather virgins. Gathering grain was for the purpose to save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives. All of this is for one man and his insatiable lust. Everything about this speaks of this terrible, wicked self-indulgence. And of course, immediately, who does it make us think of? It makes us think of Solomon. 700 wives, 300 concubines. How many wives does a man need? And this is exactly what Samuel said would happen in 1 Samuel 8, that people said, we want a king just like the nations. And Samuel is warning them, you do not want this. Because he is going to take your sons. He's going to take your daughters. He's going to take your fields. He's going to take your animals. He will take, take, take. And that's exactly what we read here. And so there's nothing romantic or beautiful about what's happening here. This is basically the destruction of many lives of these young women. But we don't want to be distracted. This is not about the concubines. This is about the queen. This is all for the queen. And so to learn about that, we need some introductions. Introductions are in order. First, we meet Mordecai. Now what's interesting is in verse five, we're given his family background. He's a Benjamite. and ultimately a son of Kish. The Kish was the father of King Saul. Jair, Shammai, Kish. These are all in the line of Saul. And that's gonna be important later on in this story. But all you need to know for now is this is meant to point to his Jewish identity. This is a Jew. This is who he is. This is who he is most fundamentally. And furthermore, he's a descendant of the captives that Nebuchadnezzar carried away from Jerusalem, that carried away, that comes up three times in this passage. It's really important that we catch that. This is who this man is. but we're told of secondly, his Babylonian name of Mordecai, which points to the pagan world in which he lives. So there's his Jewish identity, but then there's this world in which he lives. His name comes from the Babylonian God, Marduk. And this is common that names would be changed. Let me throw out three names to you, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah. You know these names, right? Some of you look confused. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their names were changed, right? For these Persian gods or Babylonian gods. And what this is pointing us to is this. He lives in two worlds. First, he's a Jew, but he lives in a Persian society. Lee's also raising either his cousin or his niece in this same world, but she's in much, much greater danger than he is. And she is sitting on a real crisis. And so we're introduced to Esther, and it's significant that this point of the story, we're introduced to her secondly. There'll always be the order till a certain point, till we come to the fulcrum of the story, she's always second. That's going to change eventually. We're given her given name, Hadassah, which means myrtle. And here again, reminds us of her Jewish identity. Who is this young lady? Well, she is a Jewish young lady, but she's been taken into the king's palace. And just like Israel was taken captive into Babylon. Did you catch that? It's meant to remind us of that, that she is taken. just as Israel was taken. And like so many of those other captives, those Jewish captives, she has been swept up into what she cannot control. And this is the first hint of a very intentional association that is made between Esther and these Jewish exiles. Esther who is taken, and these Jewish exiles who were taken. It's meant to bring together these two inseparable things with a story of Esther and the people of God, namely Israel, and how she represents them in very real ways. So first there is her Jewish identity. but they were given her Babylonian name, Esther, which again, that points to the pagan world in which she lives. Esther comes from Ishtar, which is the Babylonian goddess, the goddess of love and war. It seems very appropriate for what's coming later on in the book if you've read this book. And here again, she lives in two worlds. But first and foremost, she is this Jewish myrtle flower before she is this goddess of war and love in Persian society. But then we're told this, and if we're really absorbing the story, what's being told to us is we read the most dangerous thing in this chapter of all, and that's in verse seven. We read that she is a beautiful figure and a lovely face. Now see, this is the real test to see if you're reading the story in the right way. If we're reading the story in one way, we're saying, oh, this is so wonderful. What a great compliment that could be said, beautiful figure, lovely face. but she'll remind you of other women who've been in a similar place in scripture and the extreme danger that they faced and the fears of their husbands because of their loveliness and their beauty. Who does it make you think of? It should make you think of Abraham who feared for his wife Sarah. It should make you think of Isaac who was afraid because his wife Rebecca was so beautiful and they lied because they were concerned they'd be killed because somebody would want to take their wives. And so the thing that we fear the most is happening in verse eight, she's taken. But she's not without help. And she's not forgotten because just when we feel like she's in the worst possible place she could be, surrounded by all this danger, this incredible personal crisis that she finds herself in, in verses nine through 18, we read here of favor. Esther immediately says, one, the favor of Haggai. That is the best friend you could have if you find yourself in this harem. You want Haggai as your friend. Nobody knows the politics of the palace better than Haggai. Nobody knows the king better than Haggai. Nobody knows what the king likes better than Haggai. And what we read here is he shows her preference almost immediately. Cosmetics, the best spot in the harem. Seven chosen attendees. Food, right? He gives her a preference in terms of food. That reminds us of another story, right? When Joseph gives Benjamin five times as much food to the brothers. This is not an issue of metabolism, right? It's an issue of preference. It's a sign of a blessing. And the fact that she wins his favor shows us this is more than a pretty face. It shows us this woman has charm. She's socially aware, she's respectful, she's modest. And what's interesting here is that many of the verbs leading up to this point are in the passive, things have been happening to her. She is taken, she is carried away. But this is active now. It's about what Esther is doing, how she is engaged in the situation, how she won the favor of Haggai. And in all of this, she keeps her Jewish identity secret, according to the advice of Mordecai, because the situation is so dangerous, and it clearly is, as we find out in chapter three. Well, coming time, the time will come for each of these girls to come before the king. They receive 12 months of beauty treatment, oil baths, rubbings, aromatic perfumes that are meant to infuse the skin and make these women smell as beautiful as they look. You know, we have modern makeovers today. We know what some of this is, perhaps. And she is given whatever she wanted when she goes into the king. That is very revealing. It's revealing about that young woman's discretion. It's revealing about her priorities. Perhaps she sees this as a situation where she can embellish her appearance or where she can enrich herself by saying, I'll take that piece of gold. It's interesting the choice that this person makes. Perhaps they're gonna choose something that would entice the king, but how would they know? These are young virgins, incredibly naive and innocent. How would they know? And we don't want to delude ourselves into thinking that something is not taking place that is clearly taking place. There are two harems. There's the before harem and then there's the after harem. These young girls are not going to the king to bake them chocolate chip cookies or to show them some new magic trick that they learned. They're going to sleep with the king. But after a night with the king, If that young girl is never summoned again, she becomes a prisoner, as I said earlier. She will never be allowed to marry. She belongs to the king. She can never see her family again. She can never have a family. Think of that. These young girls who had dreams, perhaps had a young man that they were in love with. All those things are dashed. Those things are all gone. They can never fulfill any of these things. They can never leave this situation. This is a terrible situation. And it heightens our sense of expectancy of what's going to happen to Esther. It's her turn, we read here now, and she's given the chance to ask for anything that she wants. It's a question we put to her again and again in chapter 5, chapter 7, chapter 9. Ask for anything you want. That's the question Esther hears in this book more than any other question. She took only what Haggai advised. And this shows her discretion. She's not impulsive. She's not impendent, independent. She's concerned to listen to wisdom. And then we're reminded again of something we're supposed to be picking up on, that there's this momentum here. She has been winning, verse 15, she has been winning favor in the eyes of everyone. Not just Haggai. Everybody loves her. There's something different about this young lady. And so when she's taken to the king, it says here that she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the others. The king fell in love with her. He's made up his mind. I don't need to see another woman. It's pretty clear from the text. He knows who his queen is. He puts a crown on her head, throws a banquet. This is Esther's banquet. Gives tax relief and gifts. And we have this amazing thing taking place. You have this vulnerable orphan girl that nobody knows. We didn't know who she was until this chapter, and now she is the queen. Not just the queen. The queen of one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen, literally. The queen of the most powerful empire in the world at that time. She won the favor of Haggai. She won favor in the eyes of everyone. She found favor and love from the king. And see that repetition of that language is meant to remind us of others whom God had used, whose hand was upon, like Joseph, that God gave him favor in the eyes of Potiphar. God gave Joseph favor from the keeper of the prison as God was with him. It reminds us of Daniel who received favor from the chief eunuch and Daniel would receive favor from King Nebuchadnezzar. And once again, we see the same pattern repeating itself that God is very much at work, that the sovereign hand, this anonymous hand of God is at work for his people. not just for Esther. She is his chosen instrument. He has raised her up for this specific time so he could express his steadfast love. That's the word for favor here, that he has shown others so that he could deposit this upon his people, that he could show this to his people. This is the very thing that he promised to do for Israel. that he would always provide for them and give to them his steadfast love. And we have these hints that that's exactly what he's going to do for his people, but he's going to do it through Esther. This young lady is raised up in the most improbable way in this situation. As we reflect upon the significance of this, I think it's important to point something out. We are not to read this story as if we are to be assessing the character of either Esther or Vashti. And there are various approaches in reading the book of Esther that try to derive ethics from the characters involved. Let me just pick out two schools of thought this evening very quickly. There's the feminist read. And the feminists commend Vashti. Vashti is their hero because she is the one who defied misogyny. But they condemn Esther who gave in. even though Esther's the one who overcomes all the men in this story, including Haman, and persuades the king to do her well, or do her will. But then on the other side is the traditional viewpoint of those that judge Vashti because she did not submit to the king the way that a wife should. And they praise Esther who complied, even though Esther slept with a pagan man, which is not really the traditional view. But see, I think both of these approaches are wrong. It's not how to read Esther. The point here is not about ethics. That's not what this book is about. It's about God's exiled people. They are vulnerable. They have no king. They have no protection. They're in this place of great danger. And so Esther is brought forward, not as a moral example to us. This book is not about female empowerment. It's not about marital virtue. Nobody comes out of this book looking good. Nobody is presented to us in this book as virtuous and as exemplary. They have their moments, and Esther certainly does, as we'll see. But that's not the way we're supposed to read this. And this particular chapter, the way we're supposed to read it is to sympathize with Esther, who's in this terrible bind. And again, remember the way that she's presented to us. She lives in these two worlds. And her identity lies in the one, but she lives in the other. Her identity is this young Jewish girl who's part of the people of God, and yet she lives in this world of pagans, and she's gonna live in the same household as this brutal king. And a point of fact, she's been taken into this other world, like a helpless victim, just as Israel was taken into exile. And you see, this is a subtle way of showing us what's gonna become more pronounced is that she truly represents her people. Very soon, she'll represent them even more than she could possibly imagine. She will be their savior. And so we're supposed to read into her, into her person, how she represents what God is gonna do for his people at large. But think of the terrible place this young woman is found in. and you and I of all people should sympathize with her in this terrible place in which she is found. And you see that comes out so clearly in what our Lord prayed in John 17. He said, you're in the world, but not of the world. Your identity is in the city of God, but you live in the city of man. Everything about yourself, your very purpose in life, the meaning of your life, the agenda that God has for you. Everything about your life is wrapped up in your identity as a child of God, that you are a Christian, that you are united to Jesus Christ, that's who you are. And yet you and I live in a world where we're surrounded by wickedness and a very foreign agenda. And we face all sorts of crises. as those who are really trying to live faithfully according to the laws of Christ in a world that seems to be ruled by no law whatsoever. We're surrounded by all sorts of brutality and wickedness. And you see there's a point here that's being made of how God works with the lives of sinners. that many times are cast into very messy circumstances, that God uses weak and failing sinners that miss the mark, that oftentimes pervert what is good and choose what is wrong. That's exactly what we have here, that we have Esther, she becomes queen, but it's through very dubious circumstances that we're just gonna look at those circumstances. We think of Judah and Tamar producing this child Perez, in very wrong, immoral situation, but Perez is in the line of the King David. David was a man after God's heart, but not always. He was an adulterer. Moses was a mediator of Israel, but not always a deliverer. He was a murderer as well. And God's people are cast into this world that is not some sort of sterile environment or this antiseptic laboratory that's uncontaminated. It's not true at all. He's placed us in this world of sin. And more than that, he said he's going to work through us to build his church. He's going to use instruments like you and me. And can we really sit in judgment upon the characters of this book? As we know our own hearts, as we know our wrongdoing and the terrible mistakes that we have made, and yet God says he's going to use you, he's going to use me to build his church, to encourage his church against these great and terrible and powerful forces that surround all of us and that oppose the church of Jesus Christ. And yet he does. What's most amazing of all is that even the Son of God was not spared the evil of this world as he entered this world. And immediately, immediately, he must face the world and all of its brutality, even in his birth. No place for him in the inn, place in the manger. Think of the circumstances that surround him, the death of all these children from wicked Herod. Think of his life where he says, I have no place to lay down my head. Foxes have holes in the ground. Sparrows have nests, not the Son of God. We look at his genealogy. He descended from a line of sinners. Matthew 1 says, Judah, the father of Perez by Tamar, Obed by Ruth, Amoah by David, the father of Solomon, by the wife of Uriah. Scripture never leaves unspoken or never understates the wickedness of what happens in the history of God's people. The Lord Jesus Christ comes from a line of sinners. And throughout of his ministry, he's surrounded by sinners. He's teaching sinful disciples who fail him again and again and again. And he's loving sinners to the very end and to death. And more than this, Romans 8.3 puts it this way, that God has done what the law could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, so that he could condemn sin in the flesh. He comes even in the appearance of sinful flesh, he was not a sinner, that's not what scripture says. But he comes immersed in a world that is messy and ministers in this sinful world, three years surrounded by nothing but heartache to him who was sinless, all this in preparation for that great day. And when his moment of truth came, when it was his turn, as it were, And he could have asked for anything that he wanted. He told his disciples, if he wanted to, he could ask for 12 legions of angels. He could pray, this cup be taken from me. He could ask for anything he wanted, and yet he was content to comply with his father's will. And in this, he shows the extent of his humility, that he was not independent, but he also shows us the extent of his love. When we consider who he is, and then where he is willing to go for us. Are you worthy of such love? Am I worthy of such love as Christ shows us? We who are in such a lowly state by nature and he who is exalted by nature, Indeed he comes and he raises us to such heights by his grace all because he humbled himself for our sake by his grace. All so that you and I would not be condemned but forgiven and loved. We have done nothing to merit such love as we have in Christ. And we have done everything to demerit such love. The most amazing thing of the gospel is that Christ would have anything to do with us at all. Messy, ugly, polluted sinners like you and me. And yet that phrase that was meant as an insult, friend of sinners, we love that phrase. We love him for being a friend of sinners who take such poor orphans as we are. and then exalts us and crowns us with glory and love. Is this not why we love him? It is, let us pray. Gracious God and our Father, as we deal with new thoughts perhaps about this text and what it is about and questions that remained and as we look forward to what is to come in the remainder of this story, We pray that you would teach us, and that we would be patient learners. Father, we are reminded again this evening of what a wicked world we live in, but we are also mindful that it is a world that is not out of control, it is not without a sovereign king, and it is one which is being driven forward for the purposes of Christ and his kingdom, and for the benefit of his people, and we take great comfort in this. And we pray, oh Father, that in whatever providence we find ourselves in, whatever circumstance, whatever situation, that we would not lose heart and to know that you are working in every circumstance, that you are working in us and through us in every season, that you have your purposes for us and for the glory of Jesus Christ. Help us, Father, to find comfort in these things again this evening, even as we find comfort in the great love that Christ has for us. How sweet it is to be loved by Him. So we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.