Esther chapter 1. Esther chapter 1. The chapter I'm labeling, A Tale of Two Kings. A Tale of Two Kings. One king who is foolish, loud, powerful, wicked, and unpredictable. And another king who lurks in the shadows, deep in the shadows, but whose kingdom rules over all. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces. But in those days, when the king Ahasuerus, who I will call Xerxes, just for simplicity's sake, sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, In the third year of his reign, he made a feast until all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him. When he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even in 104 score days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both into great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble. And they gave them drink and vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king. And the drinking was according to the law, none did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also, Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was married with wine, he commanded Mihumen, Bista, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus, the king, to bring Vashti, the queen, before the king with a crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused, to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment. And the next unto him was Carcina, Shethar, Admitha, Tarshish, Meres, Marcina, and Mimican, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face and which sat first in the kingdom. What shall we do? And to the queen Vashti, according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains. And Mimikun answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported. The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day to all the king's princes which have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him. And let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, and that the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, for it is great, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. And the saying, please the king and the princes, And the king did according to the word of Mimikun. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people. Well, we walk by faith, not by sight. Specifically, we walk in this faith. We believe that the history of the world is the story of God's redemptive purposes towards His people. The history of the world is a story of God glorifying Himself through redemption, through sanctification, through providentially preserving and eventually glorifying a people that are His by grace alone. So that a people of grace are preserved and kept by grace, the grace of God. Specifically, we said in our introduction a few times ago that Esther, this particular story, is Heed centered on that truth. On the truth that God fulfills, always fulfills, His covenant promises through providence. Not through, or not normally through, great, huge, miraculous, otherworldly, supernatural events, but just through the ordinary daily provisions in ordering that God does that is imperceptible to us. We believe that, don't we? That's what we sang today. We sang, we see, we sing the greatness of our God. We sang the Lord Jehovah reigns and all His state what? Maintains. But then we come to Esther chapter 1. And Esther chapter 1 is everything that you came to church today to get away from. Esther chapter 1 is the alert that pops up on your news feed on your phone. Esther chapter 1 is the website that you look at on a weekly basis or a daily basis to figure out what in the world is going on in the world. Esther chapter 1 is the account, it's really the people magazine. It's sort of a salacious tell, isn't it? It's a people magazine that you are looking at in the grocery aisle. You see the headline and this juicy scandal going on and you're like, this is disgusting and yet part of you wants to grab it and free it. What exactly happened there? It is the powerful. It is the key. It's the person who holds your fate in His hand. And I would imagine that a big part of you today, even as Logan prayed that prayer, my heart went right along the side of it. Father, we need to see You that we may trust You. I think Roy called out, oh, we would see Jesus. We come to the house of God saying, we need to see Jesus. We need to see Him prominently displayed. Our hearts are crying out to not just see God somewhere in the shadow, but to see God in front and center, knowing to galvanize our souls to truly believe that He reigns. Because our fate seems to be in the hands of those who are wholly opposed to Him. Even in our own immediate context. Wednesday is Inauguration Day. And all around you see troubling things, all kinds of security measures being put into place because of the possibility of violence, which is sort of an unheard of thing in our history, or at least our immediate history, my history, my lifetime. A president, not a king, but a president will be inaugurated. And it seems like that the purposes of those who will be in power, are completely foreign and wholly opposed to the glory and the worship and the acknowledgement of the God of creation. And it seems like the fate of God's people is in jeopardy. So let me just, before we begin, just give you a chapter one recap. It would be nice to skip this chapter, but it would be foolish to skip this chapter. Because Esther chapter 1 is where we live most of the time. Someone beyond our control, controlling our fate, who seems to be, and not just seems to be, but is wholly opposed to the ways of God. But here's the recap. God is on the throne. before the crisis even occurs. God acts in anticipation of the crisis for the purpose of redeeming, sanctifying, preserving, and praise God, one day glorifying His people to the glory of His name. God's purpose does not change in Esther chapter 1. Well, let's dig into this chapter and try to understand what's happening here. It will lay out for us the rest of this book. Who was Ahasuerus? That's probably the last time I'm going to say that name. Well, I'll say it one more time. Ahasuerus, I said it once right out of about 50 times this morning. He was the king of Persia. We gave you the Old Testament timeline Wednesday night. You get that timeline out. He reigned from about 486 BC to 465 BC. His Persian name was Xerxes. The other name is the Hebrew name. He was the son of King Darius. That probably rings a bell, doesn't it? Darius was the great king who foretold by the prophet who would aid, who would be in favor and aid and financially help God's people, the Jews, return back to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple. He funded that. Isn't that amazing? And a pagan king, a Persian king who had no previous affinity for God's people, he not only allowed them to go, but he also funded the rebuilding of the temple. This is his son. His son, as we read in the first few verses, was very powerful. He was a beautiful man, according to Herodotus, the historian, very stately in his bearing. And he was a son who had great ambition, and he consolidated the power of Persia. You read here over 127 provinces, from India to Ethiopia. Just think of a really, really vast region under his control. This, as this book begins, and let me just tell you this, this book will cover about 10 years of his reign. So this is a 10 year period of his reign, and he was about 32 years old when he began to reign, just to give you an idea of who he was. Now, what's more interesting, or more helpful, is to understand a little bit of the character of this king. This matters, doesn't it? If the fate of God's people is in his hands, what kind of a man is he? Well, historians are helpful in telling stories about this man. Let me give you three stories, just to sort of flavor your understanding of who this man was, who held the fate of God's people in his hands. I want to repeat that again and again and again. Here's one story on one of his conquest, he ordered that a bridge be built over the Hellespont, this causeway that brought Europe and Asia together. This bridge would be built, a massive bridge, a glorious bridge. It was built or almost completed, it was nearly completed, and then a great storm came and blew the bridge down. And so this king commanded that the Hellespont The water received 300 lashes of a whip to punish him for not being submissive to his great glory. That's some powerful ego, isn't it? Not only that, but he had the builders of the bridge beheaded. Pretty smart guys. talented and built this glorious bridge, the storm outside the control took it down, they were beheaded. Here's another story. On this conquest of Greece that we'll talk about here in a little bit, there was a rich benefactor who brought to him, it's estimated, five and a half million sterling, that's a big number, to finance this great battle, this conquest. Xerxes was so moved by the benevolence and the generosity of this benefactor that he said, no, you know what? I'm going to give this money back to you and then add a gift on top of it. So this guy had offered him this huge amount of money. He gave it back to him and then upped it with another gift. What great friends. Then this man says, I only have one request. Will you please leave my eldest son out of the expedition? And so his buddy Xerxes took his eldest son and cut him in two, and the army passed in between his eldest son. Nobody is exempt from this conquest. What a man. What a man. Here's one more story. This desired invasion of Greece, it ended in disaster. This is four years after Esther chapter 1. It ended in disaster. And so this man who had this great ambition, who had conquered the whole world, who had brought a great amount of the world under his control, he fully turned to self-pleasure. And he chased after every sensual indulgence possible, thus the story of Esther. But it didn't satisfy him. And so he began to offer rewards, big rewards, for anyone who could invent some new sensual pleasure that he had not yet discovered. This is the man. who holds the fate of God's people in his hands. Unpredictable, foolish, wicked. Now, Esther chapter 1. What is this story all about? I mentioned that Xerxes was the son of Darius. Darius had been defeated by the Greeks at Athens. and he had died. Herodotus records this statement by Xerxes. He said, I will never rest until I take and burn Athens to avenge my father's death. I will never rest. So his great goal was to get revenge of his father's death by taking Greece and burning Athens. But Greece was a powerful foe. And so Xerxes called for a great war council in the third year of his reign in Shushan the palace. Now, imagine, when we think of empires, we think of them being very consolidated, but of course they were not very consolidated. There were all kinds of provinces under his reign, under these 127 provinces, people of different languages, people of different nationalities, people of different interests. It was not as consolidated as you might imagine. And so Xerxes needs to get everybody under his power, under his control, everybody moving in the same direction if he hopes to be successful in defeating Greece. And so he calls for this great war council. He calls for this great feast. And people from all the royal governors from all the provinces come to Shushan the palace for this six month party. Now, the goal of the party, the goal of this display, was that Xerxes might show, verse 4, show the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty. That's his goal. And you can imagine that, right? The goal is that if I can impress these guys enough with my wealth and my glory, then they'll fall right in line behind me, and we will go, and as a unified unit, we will have success over Greece. That's his great goal. He wants to avenge his father's death. He wants to destroy Greece. And he needs the help of all his provinces to do that. And so he throws this great feast. What's his goal? Why is he throwing this feast? His own glory. He wants to display his own glory. He's wholly self-interested. He's not interested in the glory of anybody else but Xerxes. Now friends, this is not the first time this has occurred in the Bible. Let me just remind you of a couple of other stories. Who else? Do you remember Daniel chapter 4? You remember Nebuchadnezzar who was desirous to show his own glory? To show his own sovereignty? To show his own might? I, Nebuchadnezzar, I have this greatness. I, remember the word I is prominently used in Daniel chapter 4. I have attained this. I have done this. And what happened? What does God do when one is desirous to show his own glory? Remember Isaiah 42 says, I will not give my glory to another. I will not give my glory to graven images. I am God alone. And so God takes Daniel and he melts him. He reduces him to nothing. He's around crawling around like a beast and eating grass and growing claws for the purpose of returning to his right mind. And in his right mind, it is the God who really reigns who receives the glory. We rejoice in that, don't we? The very next chapter, Belshazzar. He does the same thing. He has a desire to show His own glory. He throws this great feast for His own glory. Remember what happened? Remember that writing up on the wall? Your kingdom is numbered. You have been weighed in the balances and you have been found wanting. Your kingdom has been taken and will be given to the Medes and the Persians. Friends, God throughout history has reduced those who desire to declare their own glory to the really pitiable state that we actually are in as humans outside of the mercy and the goodness of God. But here, God does not do that. God doesn't do that. God allows Xerxes to throw a six-month declaration of His own glory. Does that frustrate you? Is that not the world that you live in? Where man has no interest in God's glory whatsoever? when those who have the bully pulpits, when those who have the loudspeakers are proclaiming the glory of man and the right of man to declare what he will be and what he will do and what is right and what is wrong and what is tolerable, what is acceptable. And God is pushed further and further and further into the sidelines until the point that he's not even on the field whatsoever. You wonder, what is wrong with God? Well, let me just tell you, friends, don't stop at Esther chapter 1. God will declare His glory. His glory cannot be denied. Friends, in some wonderful way, we're going to see God's glory displayed, not in the crushing defeat of Belshazzar, not in the crushing down of Nebuchadnezzar, but slowly, quietly, but unmistakably, God will receive glory. In fact, God is about to receive glory even right now in this story. Well, it is deluded, egotistical, fully self-centered mind. He has this planned out perfectly. For 180 days, he will wow them with wine. He will wow them with food. He will wow them with wealth, but he has a crowning plan. He, who is a sensual and perverted man already, he will finally wow, as the crowning moment, he will wow them by displaying the beauty of his trophy wife. Seven days, this last seven days, he invites everybody to come. not just the royals, but also the common people. And they're able to drink out of these incredible glasses that are, each of them are diverse. I mean, it's incredible, incredible, incredible wealth. And the crowning moment will be when he displays his wife's beauty for all to see. Now, let me just say something very quickly. This whole thing falls apart. The conquest of Greece is unsuccessful. It's not recorded in this book. But four years later, if you were to fast forward, four years, he sulks back into town. His wealth has been greatly reduced. His power is greatly reduced. And he is unsuccessful in avenging his father's death. Let me just say this. Psalm 2 tells us that by faith we are to understand that the might of the nations is nothing to be gloried in. Did you hear that? The might of the nations, the power of the nations is nothing to be gloried in. Your phones, I don't know how it does it, but sometimes my phone or my iPad will send me a note of how much screen time that I've had the last week and how it compares to the week before and then where the screen time was spent. And I always look at that. Because I think that that in a very real way is equivalent to what occupies my mind. What is most impressive to me? The might of the nations is nothing to be gloried in. Well, Xerxes has this desire to display the beauty of his wife as a crowning moment of this great endeavor to begin this Grecian invasion. And you know what happens, right? He sends these seven men to go gather her, they're going to bring her in probably, lift, you know, carry her into the palace, let people lure at her and gawk at her. I can't help but thinking as I'm reading this story, that scene, the sound of music, you know, when the Von Trapp family sings that last song there where the Nazi's watching. They're plotting their escape and the other people there are sympathetic to them and are in it with them and they crown them the champions of the singing contest. And the spotlight turns and the voice comes and says, the von Trapp family. Everybody claps and nobody comes out. Spans back and they do it again, the von Trapp family. Finally, they understand that the Velentine family is long gone. Sort of like that scene here. Xerxes is waiting for Vashti to come, and Vashti doesn't appear. She won't come. She's offended. Now, just for a moment, let's just think about this. What a stupid, horrible thing for a man to do. It's clear here where His loyalties lie. We just read 1 Corinthians 13. Love is kind. Love does not vaunt itself up. Love does not puff it, but love seeks no evil. Oh, the love of the world is a wicked thing, isn't it? The love of the world is not alluring. Don't be deceived. Love not the world. For the love of the world is just the lust of the flesh. Friends, lust is not giving. Lust is taking. Vashti, his queen, who enjoys his royalty, she's only a pawn to him. Let it never be said, That the people in your life, the spouses, the loved ones, the family, your church members, let it never be said that they are only pawns to you for your own self-glory. But oh, how embarrassing this must have been for Xerxes. How in the world, six-month build-up, and as these people are watching, somebody must have wondered, how in the world can he command a great army? If he can't even command his wife to come inside. Right? Now, I think it's appropriate that you laugh. Psalm 2 says that God laughs. That God laughs at the foolishness, the wickedness of the heathen. He laughs at the foolishness, the noose that they hang around their own neck. He's built this up and it ends in an utter, terrible embarrassment. Now you step back from this and think for a minute. If this pagan king is driven by ambition, and he can decide on a whim to use his wife to further his ambition, then you have to think, God's people don't stand a chance. Or you can think, Look at the Lord work. Friends, this is not a great miraculous moment. This is a sordid affair. This is the ugliness of the People magazine. This is why you don't grab the the magazine off the rack and read it. It does no benefit to you whatsoever to know of the salacious details of the shenanigans of the wicked, does it? This is no miraculous moment. But I'll tell you what it is. It is the ordinary providence of God in wicked people's lives. Because this domestic dispute between two wicked people in power is not caused by God. Oh, they're responsible for their own sins. But can I tell you to look and behold the glory of a God who can use even this to set the stage to deliver His people. It's not just Xerxes, though. It goes further. At this point, all we have is a dispute. All we have is an angry husband and an insulted wife. But it grows. The rest of the story in this chapter is a story of Xerxes consulting the wisest men he has. The men he trusts the very most. His inner circle. These are men who understand the times. That understanding the times is just a way of saying they consult the astrology. So understanding the times is not just we're wise. It means that they are consulting the gods of their imagination to discern the wisest way to deal with this crisis. He turns to them, what should I do? She's insulted me. What should I do? Now, understand this. Proverbs is very, very full of this truth. He who walks with wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed, right? Be careful who you're taking your counsel from. In a multitude of counselors, godly counselors, there's safety, but those who walk with the fools end up in foolish predicaments. Here's the deal. His closest advisors have the same heart that he has. That's always true of the wicked. their heart is also self-interested. And so their first thought is, reading between the lines, their first thought is, is, you know, my wife isn't as readily accessible as I'd like her to be. So they take this embarrassing moment. Think about this. that fully embarrassed the king of this massive empire. And they say, King, the wisest thing we can do is broadcast this news as widely as possible. How stupid! Let's take this embarrassing moment and make sure everybody knows about it! And he says, yeah, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. Feel free to laugh, Psalm 2 says. Laugh! I don't mean laugh in arrogance, but I mean laugh at the futility of the plan of the wicked. Friends, we need to develop a growing backbone. A backbone of confidence in the wisdom of God. And a backbone in the foolishness and the ultimate failure of all those who raise their hands against God. 1 Corinthians 2 says that we've been given the mind of Christ to be able to discern spiritual from spiritual. That if those who consorted against Christ had had the mind of Christ, they never, ever, ever, ever would have done it. They would have known it wouldn't work. But instead, they, in their foolishness, played right into the hands of God. Laugh at the foolishness of the fools. and crave the wisdom and the strength that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they say, here's what we're going to do. We're going to send this out to everybody because surely in every home there are wives who won't come out of the room and their husbands want to show them off to all the men of the city. How stupid. How stupid. They turn this into a war between the sexes. This is our chance to regain control. And so he sends out this decree that Vashti will be deposed and somebody else better than her will come in her place, unwittingly, unwittingly playing to the hand of God. God turning the counsel of the wicked to shame. Turning the counsel of those who are wholly opposed to God. The wrath of man shall praise thee. and the remainder of their wrath shalt thou restrain." Here's one just quick note to all of us men. Demanding respect from our wives is a surefire way to lose it. It's a surefire way to lose it. 1 Corinthians 13 describes a better way, a much better way. Now, let's turn the page Just in our minds for a moment, I said at the outset this is a tale of two kings. You have to look very closely to see this, don't you? Because all you see here is just a sorted, sorted tale. But maybe with the benefit of having read the rest of the book, we can say this. Again, why is this chapter in this book? Because it sets the stage. for God's deliverance before the crisis even happens. Which tells you what? That there is another king in this story. Let me say it again, there is another king in this story. Now just for a few minutes, let's compare these two kings. The greatest realization we get about Xerxes from this story is the opposite of what he intended. He spent an untold amount of money. He said, you can have the best wine, but if you don't want to drink it, you don't have to drink it. It's free for all. Whatever makes you feel good today for the six months. Whatever you want. Imagine somebody giving it to you. Whatever you want for six months is yours. We get red and blue and white and black and marble beds. I'm sorry, gold and silver beds. upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble. This is wealth. Remember, he didn't even need the five and a half million sterling. Whatever you want. Let me ask you, if you walked into that, wouldn't you be sort of impressed with this person? Wouldn't you? We were in Texas a few weeks ago and Luke got to go see this house of this really rich person. He came back and he had this video and this, in the house in Dallas, just one house among many there, there was this tubular elevator, glass elevator in the house that went from the first floor to the third floor. They just wrote it up and down. Over and over again. That's what I would have done too, wouldn't you? That's not the story. The story is, look how limited that Xerxes is. Look how limited he is. He can't even control His own house. All He wants from this is for people to respect Him, and He can't even gain that. Friends, let me tell you about King Jesus. Let me tell you that He always gets what He wants. That's the sovereignty of God, right? He does His pleasure. But what does that look like? What does it look like in the history of life? What does it look like for God to get all His pleasure? Here's what it looks like. It looks like a whole world being turned against Him, and yet Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord, and Noah building the ark when nobody else was believing. Because God gets who and what He wants. It looks like Abraham, leaving his homeland to go to a place that he had no clue of, he had no plan for, and he never even received all the fullness of what he thought he would get when he left. And he dies in faith, trusting in the goodness of this great God. What does it look like? It looks like thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. It looks like people who are rebels against God, people who want nothing to do with God, people who themselves are wholly self-interested, being broken and turned. John Newton, the slave trader. You, who have been humbled by God to love Him, to serve Him. What does it look like? It looks like Nebuchadnezzar crawling around eating grass. What does it look like? It looks like Satan being crushed at the cross. What does it look like? It looks like Xerxes throwing a feast for his own glory and failing. What will it look like? It will look like every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ, His darling Son, is the Lord. Look how limited Xerxes is, but look how unlimited that the king of kings is. Secondly, how does Xerxes rule? He rules through manipulation. He rules through every wicked device you can think of. He rules the flesh. He's unpredictable. I'll praise you one moment, I'll cut your son in half the next. If you can find me one more grotesque thing to do that will please me, I'll give you a reward. You're my wife? Not anymore. What a horrible place to be. Friends, we are in a world. We're in a world. or that doesn't sound too crazy. We're in a world that will sacrifice life. We're in a world that will chase after every pleasure and crave for more that aren't invented yet. We're in a world that is fully self-motivated. That's a scary place to be. How do you like driving an interstate when somebody's convinced that this whole road is mine? The whole thing. The whole road is mine. Not yours, mine! Just as a funny aside, that's what Daddy believes. I remember we would be coming back from Texas from Harmony Hill in that 15 passenger van and oh, we'd be so tired and sick and we'd get off on North Parkway and North Parkway, the left lane slants like this. Daddy would be in that road, and I'll never forget, he'll say this for years and years, and he believes it. I'll say, Daddy, please, please, please get in the middle of the lane. And Daddy would say, I probably would have said that respectfully. And Daddy would say, I paid my taxes. I can ride in any lane I want to ride in. But imagine really believing that. It's all about me. It's all for me. Now let me contrast that. Psalm 97 verse 2 says that righteousness and judgment, that's justice. Righteousness and justice are the habitation of the throne of God. Isn't that wonderful? God's about righteousness. God's about justice. And God reigns over all. Well, thirdly, Xerxes' desires, or I don't know how you want to describe them, but God's desires are good. God's desires are good. God's desires for us to love Him and to serve Him and to follow Him and be loyal to Him are good. Because God is good. He's the best. So God's desires are good for us. And then let me say one more about this. When God displays His glory, it's unlike Xerxes, isn't it? You think God couldn't take red, blue, white, and black marble and say, I'll raise you one? You betcha He could. He owns the cattle of a thousand hills. But friends, when God desired to display His glory, you know what He did? He displayed His glory through sacrifice, not through lust. God displayed His glory by giving up His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might have your eyes opened to behold true glory and to exalt the true glory of heaven and earth. Praise Jehovah that there is another king in this story. Now just two quick takeaways and we'll close. The first takeaway, just take this home with you. The first takeaway. Don't just throw this away though, think about it. Has to be just the idea of selfish ambition. Who are you more like? Who are you closer to? Are you closer to Xerxes? I don't mean in the the magnified way, the embarrassing, obvious way that he displayed the selfish ambition. But just in general, let me ask this. What would those closest to you say about this? What motivates you? Are you motivated by self-glory? Whatever it is that you want? Is that most prominent in your thinking? Is that most prominent before you? Are you closer to Xerxes or are you closer to Christ? My friends, we all would have to say at different times in our life, no, I'm closer to Xerxes. I don't say this to insult us. I say this to drive us. Look how ugly. Look how ugly. It really can't get any uglier than this. God made marriage to be bone of bones. flesh of flesh, not to be separated, but to be enjoyed as companionship, as goodness, as the gift of God. Xerxes takes that gift of God and he just crushes it into the ground. And that's ugly, isn't it? So may we all say, God, God, I don't want to be driven by selfish ambition. I want to be driven by the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ to me. When Christ would say to His disciples who demanded to be first in the kingdom, He would say, He who is first, right, must be a servant. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. But here's the last takeaway. You might turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 51. And I want you to really think about this. And the question that I want to ask you is who? Who? Who is it for you? Here's what I mean by that. At this moment, right now, with all the turbulence, all the turmoil of 2020, as Inauguration Day is upon us on Wednesday, Who are you personally, on a moment-by-moment basis, who are you most preoccupied with? Who captures your attention? There's a way to measure this. You can measure this by, you might ask this question, what do you fear the most? Or maybe put it this way, what do you normally do with your fears? Do they just build and build and build until they're inconsolable? Do they erupt into a rant on Facebook? What do you do with your fears? Fears are legitimate. Fears are going to occur. We live in troubling times. But what do you do with them? What takes the reality around you and either magnifies it or puts it into balanced perspective? And the answer to that is going to be the who. who that you and I are most preoccupied with. Listen to this. And don't answer this just in a rhetorical way. These are real questions. Who flung the stars out into space and holds them in their proper place? The Xerxes? No. Who, like a curtain, stretched the sky to make a place for birds to fly? Who sends the wind and the sun and the rain to nourish fields of golden grain? and has been doing it for season after season after season for all of history. Who forms the seed that makes the wheat and gives us daily bread to eat? Who in the winter sends the snow? Oh, tell me who, if you should know. Who has designed each lovely flake? Each flake, what wondrous power did it take? Who made the never-ending sea? Who formed the grass, the vine, the tree? Who made the cattle on the hills and creeping things in rocks and reels? Listen to this. Who holds all things within His hands? Who owns all houses, fields and lands? Who keeps our souls? Fear not them which can kill your body, but rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And who holds our souls in His hands? kept, Jesus says in John 10, kept by the Father and I. Who keeps our souls each passing hour? You must include this, no man, no man has this almighty power. It is the Lord and He alone. Man has no glory of his own. We have no goodness we can claim. Here's the word, so let us publish His great name. His great name. He takes a sinner of vain and wild and makes him as a little child, subdues his will and guides his feet and draws him to the mercy seat. Let all creation... Well, all creation is not going to do it right now. But the new creation should. Friends, if you are in Christ, you are a new creature in Christ. And Christ has called you as a new creature in Christ to lift your voice. and to rejoice in the Lord. Let all His works praise and confess the glory of His righteousness. This is the way it's said in the sacred writ in Scripture, Isaiah 51 verse 11 through 15. This is sort of a summation of what's going to occur. Verse 11, the end of the righteous, therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. That's great, but listen to the rest of this. This is God's Word to you this morning. I, even I, am He that comforteth you. Now listen to this. This is what God says. Here's the who. Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die? And of the Son of Man which shall be made as grass He won't even be able to get His wife to come into the room. And forgettest the Lord thy Maker that has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and has feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if He were ready to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile. Listen, he's speaking to people who are going to be in exile. And he's saying to them, even though you are going to be in exile, keep your eyes on the Lord. He's not just whitewashing and saying trouble won't come. Trouble will come. Trouble does come. But your eyes better be on the Lord. The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die on the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God that divided the sea, whose waves roared, the Lord of hosts is his name." Friends, look at God set the stage before the crisis even occurred. We can say, and say it without being trite, God really is good all. All the time. All the time. This is not going to be a good time for a while. It's about to get really, really dark in this book. And yet the king in the shadows is the king who we should be looking at. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Esther chapter 1. At first glance, it's a chapter we'd rather just ignore. But God, oh how, oh how it accents the glory of the great King who rules to turn our eyes to you, who is God over all. Lord, please, we need the grace to have the faith to do that very thing in our day. Please increase our faith. In Jesus' name, amen.