Though the series gets chopped up a little bit with traveling and being gone a week or two, we've been studying the Old Testament book of Esther. And this is the second message in a series on the book of Esther. I'm noticing that as we take it into hand again, we're going to need to get a good deal more of the storyline in our hands. So I'm going to start the reading here pretty quickly. I'll just give some introduction to that reading and then we'll read from chapter 1 verse 10 on through chapter 2 verse 18. But let me give you just a little bit of background. The first nine verses of the book of Esther had set the scene in this way. Xerxes, king and emperor of the vast Persian empire, had called a landmark assembly of military commanders and princes and nobles. He called them all together, gave a fantastic sort of lavish banquet and display. And not a lot of reasons are mentioned, political reasons for that, except one. The one reason mentioned, there probably are many other reasons for having this gathering and the lavish display. But one, the stated reason in the book of Esther is exhibition. a lavish exhibition of affluence and royal supremacy. And verse four recounts that for a full 180 days, this is a six month thing, a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty. So for whatever political purposes he had or whatever, one of the intents seemed to be exhibition. But really, as our author brings us this account, the author of the book of Esther brings us this account. It really seems to serve to set up those events or to call to attention that particular event which brought Esther into the story. The description of this lavish banquet is that which prepares to show you how the people of God Esther being one of those representatives, intersect with the life of this Persian empire. And so at the end of those six months, there was another, an additional lavish banquet, this time focused on the citadel city itself. And Xerxes was entertaining the men of the city and his wife, one of his many wives, Queen Vashti, entertained the women associated with the palace itself. So two kind of simultaneous banquets happening here. And that's where we pick up the story in verse 10. On the seventh day, you know, that's sort of after the 180 days and an additional week long banquet. And on the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him, Mechuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Karkas, to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal gown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger. Since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and justice, he spoke with the wise men who understood the times and were closest to the king. Karshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Merez, Mersena, and Memucan, the seven nobles of Persia and Media who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom. According to law, what must be done to Queen Vashti, he asked. She has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes that the eunuchs had taken to her. Then Memucan replied in the presence of the king and the nobles, Queen Vashti has done wrong not only against the king, but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes. For the queen's conduct will become known to all the women And so they will despise their husbands and say, King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. This very day, the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will respond to all the king's nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord. Therefore, if it please the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed. that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also, let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she. Then, when the king's edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, all the women will respect their husbands from the least to the greatest. The king and his nobles were pleased with this advice, so the king did, as Memucan proposed, he sent dispatches to all the parts of the kingdom, to each province in its own script, and to each people in its own language, proclaiming in each people's tongue that every man should be ruler over his own household." Later, when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. When the king's personal attendants proposed, let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful girls into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women, and let beauty treatments be given to them. Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen, instead of Vashti." This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it. Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin named Mordecai, son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, who had been carried away, had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin, king of Judah. Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Haggai. Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Haggai. who had charge of the harem. The girl pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king's palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Before a girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics, and this is how she would go to the king. Anything she wanted was given to her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. In the evening she would go there, and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Sha'ashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name. When the turn came for Esther, the girl Mordecai had adopted, a daughter of his uncle Abihail, to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested, And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other versions. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality. What are we supposed to do with a story like that in the scripture? What are we supposed to learn? What principles are we meant to take home in a story like that? I want to make at least one more introductory comment as we get ready to look at this particular portion. And that is that to understand this story rightly, I think it's best for us to get away from it thinking of it as though it were a heartwarming romance. Is it true that this story gets cast that way sometimes? I don't know. Is that your experience with it through the years? Bump into the story of Esther. Well, sort of a heartwarming romance. Now, you may not be there right now. You know, you may not be thinking of it that way. But I even tend to think that that reaction is almost sort of automatic with us a little bit. And we need to get away from it. I can understand why Esther is a young girl. There's much for our hearts to go out to her. Her youth is mentioned. Her beauty is mentioned. her hardships as an orphan. And we're thrilled for her to win, to win the pageant, so to speak. We want her to win. And we know, you know, if we've got the whole story under our belt, we know that the Lord is going to do good things for his people through this. But in all of our excitement of winning the pageant, I don't think it's most useful for us to make this a romantic story in that light, particularly not between her and Xerxes. And I suppose we're not helped a whole lot by, you know, coloring books and their approach, you know, to it. You know, whether animated films have done it or whatever. But really, to make a children's animated film out of the story of Esther from beginning to end, you'd have to leave out most of it. I mean, you know, people are being impaled later on poles and things like that. It's of the degree of brave heart. You know, I mean, the degree of violence involved in this story is that degree. I don't mean it's a similar story in that. And we have verse two of chapter two, what it has said. Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king, but the king appoint commissioners in every province of Israel to bring all these beautiful girls to to what to the harem. This is a harem. situation and the harem is not a happy thing. So anyway, I just I want to begin in some respect with that. What was Xerxes doing here? He was acquiring dozens upon dozens upon dozens of throwaway sorts of wives. I don't know exactly how many, but we have been told the number of these provinces. And the suggestion is get a commissioner who is the girl search commissioner for all 127 provinces. And I don't think that's probably one girl, one winner of the pageant per province. This is a terrible thing. If you want to ask about the law of God about such things, He gave such a law. to Moses before Israel ever had a king, knowing the extent of depravity of someone in such a position of power and authority as a monarch, he gave by the law of Moses this command. If anyone would be king of Israel, I'm reading now from Deuteronomy 17, 17, he must not take many wives. That's the law of God about such things. Nevertheless, Many of Israel's own kings took many wives. Some of the famous ones. Some of our heroes in Israel took many wives. And the worst offender numerically is Solomon. The worst offender numerically is Solomon. 1 Kings 11, verse 3 records that Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. I think that finds its way into the inspired biblical record principally for two reasons. Number one, 700 out of the thousand mentioned, 70 percent, shall we say, of these wives were for a godless means of acquiring political influence. These were wives of noble birth. And so he was taking wives from the royalty of Egypt and Edom to the south, and Moab and Ammon to the east, and Tyre and Sidon to the north along the coast, and et cetera, and et cetera, and et cetera, and et cetera, up to the tune of 700. And number two, the second reason it finds its way in Inspired Record is because by breaking both of God's commands, number one, well, you can name a number of God's commands if you wanted to, but, you know, A, that the kings of Israel not multiply wives. That's one. But the other, and a very important one, would be this. Not to intermingle, one of God's commands, do not intermingle in marriage with those who worship idols. He broke both of those commands and this record of The numbers involved is there again, principally, I think, because it was part of Solomon's greatest shame and demise. In the latter portion of Solomon's life, he began to worship those idols himself. Now, there may be a couple of biblical evidences that he repented of that, perhaps, and I'd love to, you know, well, I'll go into that sometime, but not now. But it was the greatest shame and demise of his life to multiply 700 wives and 300 concubines because it was part of the picture of worshipping idols. I only mention, mostly mention the tangible reality of one example we know of from scripture, Solomon, to depict to you the magnitude of the lust that someone like a Xerxes in his emperor position could have been involved in on an occasion like this. And I want to convey it to you for the very grim and the very base reality of what this pageant was. The words of verse 14 in chapter 2 speak for themselves concerning countless real girls. These are real girls. These are girls from families, girls taken from their father and their mother, girls taken from their family and from their friends. girls who would very quickly become faceless strangers to Xerxes after their turn to see him. Esther chapter 2 verse 14, in the evening she would go there, you know when each turn came up for these hundreds of girls, in the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shehashkez, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and would call her by name. This is an awful thing being described. Here's something important, though, about understanding the book of Esther. It won't be this book that spends its time on the depth of the wickedness of those sins. It's not the book's purpose. There's a lot you could go into the depth of the sin of Xerxes, you know, there's a lot you could go into, not only in that category, either. It's just that it's not this book's purpose to deal with it. I might even go into some of the lists of Xerxes' sins. One of them would be megalomania. He wants to rule the world. He has come to believe, and without God, he has come to believe that he should rule the world. If the ancient Greek historian Herodotus is correct in his description, Xerxes had come to believe that it was his divine right or not, not claiming to be divine necessarily, but that it was the fate of all things and the right by the gods that he should rule the entire world. I'll give you one interesting connection. Historically, this big banquet thing may be and I can't say for sure, but it may because of the timing. If some of the timing is known and everything, it may be that that great gathering of military officials where he sought their advice as to whether he should attack Greece. You know, it may be that occasion. I'm not absolutely sure. But Herodotus records some of his reasoning, the reasoning process as he makes his presentation to the officials on whatever occasion it actually happened on. And I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but I just want to give you the mindset and the reasoning. It would be something like this. Look. If my father Darius and all the others that have expanded the Persian Empire have gone out to take nations that never did us wrong, made them our subjects and slaves, and he thought that was a great thing, the expansion, they've never done us wrong, we're making them our subjects and slaves. If we've done that, how much more reason do we have to attack Greece who has done us wrong on certain important occasions? We get two advantages. We get conquest and revenge. Come with me. Let us take Greece. And if we can get Greece, if we can just take Greece, what will stop us from taking the rest of the entire world? I can picture this time when there are no borders to Persia. This megalomania of the sense of who He is. And my question about that for sins is what does God think of His point of view? Very rightly, I think, would come to him such words as Isaiah had written years and years and years earlier. Because it was given to Isaiah to speak to kings without God and to tell them what their end was. I'm reading from Isaiah 14, 9. It speaks as though to the king itself, the grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming. It rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you. All those who were leaders of the world, it makes them rise from their thrones, all who were kings over the nations. And this is like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean, you know, but in the picture, it's obviously a pictorial sort of language. But you picture all these thrones with all these pagan kings of history. You know, they're all a stir to rise and meet Xerxes or at that point was another king, but to meet one of these kings that is coming. And this is what it says, verse 10. They will all respond. They will all say to you, you have become weak as we are. You have become like us. All your pomp has been brought down to the grave along with the noise of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. That's the word of God to a king without God, you know, and they would have been appropriate to Xerxes. The scripture has its words for the judging of godless kings. And in fact, when you read about Xerxes, I do hope your stomach turns rightly. Biblically, it should turn at the sins of Xerxes, his drunken pride, his desire to show Vashti off to his guests, the dishonorable, overbearing lordship of his authority over her in that respect, the petty rage The consultation of the wise men, the calling in of law, the sending out of edicts in all languages, you know, so that I don't know, it's just ridiculous. But then, of course, the awful, awful, awful proposal that the harem be increased in such boundless lust, line them up, sleep with the young girls, and maybe somewhere along the line, you'll find one who pleases you. But again, understand something here. It's the rest of Scripture. It is the rest of Scripture that informs us that that's wicked. Esther doesn't even comment on it. Esther is a narrative about certain things. It has a purpose and it doesn't comment on the wickedness, except to report them. It doesn't sort of describe and define them and condemn them. And I think sometimes as you're reading across Scripture, have you ever been bewildered by that? You see some character doing some awful thing and you say, why didn't just then? Why wasn't there that big description of why that's wrong and how much of a problem it is? And the one that gets us the most is when it's our heroes. You know, what if someone we really respect and someone who is actually a believer does this awful thing and the scripture doesn't seem to comment on it? I think it's important in understanding biblical interpretation. that it's not always the purpose of certain narratives to go there. This narrative of Esther has another very distinct purpose. I mean, of course Xerxes was wicked. Of course, he did not worship the one true God. But it's not this narrative's purpose to spend all its time there. This book's intent is very straightforward. It's fairly simple. This book is all about recounting God's mercy and faithfulness to his promise to keep the descendants of Abraham alive. Because in this book, in this narrative, in this history, the life of all the people, genocide was threatened. And he saves them from genocide. He saves them through placing Esther where he placed him. But it's not the book's intent to go into all the sins of Xerxes and give you a moral lesson on Xerxes. It's about you and I coming to know God's faithfulness to his promises with regard to Israel. There's a very hard question in this book. Unsettling, perhaps, in this vein, did Esther do the right thing? Have you ever grappled with that in your heart? Esther participates in the pageant. Was that the right thing? I've heard some argue, and the premise, at least part of the premise, is probably true, that Esther wouldn't have had much of a choice. Had she resisted, she would have been coerced, and that might have meant prison, it might have meant death. But does that mean she has no choice? No, it doesn't. There is a choice. As a matter of fact, and hear me on this, I mean, I'm being pretty bold on this, but listen to me on this score. I could imagine a scenario entirely in accord with biblical principle and honor and faith in which Esther would choose by faith to go to prison or death rather than be a part of this pageant. Think about it, chew on it, let's talk about it. But I really could I could envision something entirely in accord with biblical principle and honor and faith for her to resist this to the death. If that had been the course of this story, in one sense, maybe one of the great lessons would have been God's grace building up that strength of faith to resist this wicked thing and resist it to the death. Moses is like that, by the way. Moses becomes an example of that grace and that faith in Hebrews 11. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God, Hebrews 11, 25. Esther did not choose to be mistreated. We have to keep in mind in one sense that Esther didn't know there was any genocide threat when she participated in the pageant. All I'm trying to get at here, and I don't know if I'm throwing you off on what you always thought, Esther. But I am saying to you that I cannot bring you Esther's story and say, our principal lessons from this book come from her righteousness and her choices of faith. I can't do that. There will be places of courage. There is faith. And that's to be commended, we're to rejoice in that, we're to be encouraged by that, that the principal lesson does not come from her making the right choice if we want to narrow it down to the pageant or something like that. I do thank the Lord for courage that she will, by grace, exhibit later. But it has more to do with something else. It has more to do with God's faithfulness to His people. All of this story leads up to her being put in a position to have influence and be in the right place at the right time so that Israel doesn't get killed in the genocide. And that's what this story is about. God's faithfulness to that. I suppose there is still a burning question that may remain. I'm going to ask the hardest ones I know, not that I could have the very easiest answer to the hardest questions, but I'm going to go ahead to ask one of the hardest questions I know. Can it be then That God arranged and ordained for her circumstances that she come to the throne when the obedient thing would have been to flee and fight and die rather than participate in this pageant. Anybody got a harder question? How can it be that God arranged and ordained her circumstances to bring her to the throne when the obedient thing would have been to flee or fight or die? The biblical answer, I believe, goes something like this. God's sovereignty is of such a kind that even the wrongdoings of both the unbelieving and of the believing, the Xerxes and the Esthers, even the wrongdoings of those who are absolutely culpable and responsible for those wrongdoings, Even those things are so governed by God's merciful providence that even through them He will wrench out salvation for His people. I mentioned Joseph last week. I'm going to give you two examples. Joseph and the Lord Jesus. I mentioned Joseph last week from the inspired account of the purposes being accomplished through the events of Joseph's life. The end of Genesis is a narrative just like that, but it has a little explanation element in it. And it states some of the purposes of what was happening in Joseph's life. But the implications are crystal clear. You can read it in Genesis chapter 45. Joseph tells his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt, Genesis 45, 8, it was not you who sent me here, but God. It's the same kind of thing. They sinned in sending him there. They sinned in selling him to Egypt. It was wrongdoing of the greatest magnitude. But what is his comment about it? Inspired comment about it? It was not you who sent me here, but God. Well, of course, in one respect, it was them who sent him there. Of course, in one respect, they were involved. by agency in sending him there. But that respect is not the most important or ultimate respect to consider these things. God's sovereignty was of such a kind that he could accomplish his merciful purposes, which is stated as the saving of lives by a great deliverance to preserve a remnant for you on earth. God could accomplish those things in spite of And fascinatingly, even through the physical agency of their wicked actions, he could accomplish those things in spite of and even bring together those wicked actions by the cause and effect elements of them to bring about his salvation for his people. The very thing is also true. The same thing is also true of nothing less than Christ's crucifixion. Ask yourself what forces were at work that brought Jesus to arrest and trial and execution. Just catalog them in your head. What forces brought Jesus to arrest and trial and execution? Well, you can name them pretty easily, right? The Sanhedrin had a vote. Some weeks, actually, before Christ was arrested, the Sanhedrin had an official vote that this guy ought to be done away with. Think of Judas' involvement. Was he materially involved in this? Of course. The betrayal that brewed in his heart and the cause of it being Satan's temptations, Satan himself involved somehow, etc., etc., etc. What forces were material in Jesus being handed over that night? And yet the inspired word of God still describes these events. when the Apostle Peter preaches to the Jews at Pentecost in these kind of terms, this man, this Jesus, was handed over by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. That's how Peter talks about it. So both things stand. Can I describe to you exactly how that all works to my own satisfaction? No. But I have to face what the Scripture says. Both things stand. human culpability and God's ultimate sovereignty. Peter's sermon, by the way, was about conviction. He didn't say these things happen by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, therefore you're off the hook. These things happen by God's set purpose and foreknowledge and you, by the hands of wicked men, put them on the cross. That's his sermon. You put him on the cross, and when the people heard this, Acts 2, verse 37, when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles' brothers, what shall we do? And he said, repent. Be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. That's how he talked about it. So all of that, to bring us back, I suppose, to Esther. Did Esther do the right thing? Frankly, I don't think so. But that's not the point of this passage. Perhaps the point is beautiful in that, that the point is that God be praised for the mercy of saving His people. To orchestrate all of that and in spite of the sins of Xerxes and even perhaps the sins of Esther or Mordecai, our heroes, in spite of all of that, He is still saving his people from genocide, and from them will come the Christ, our salvation still." It's a humbling thing to think of it that way, that in spite of us, God saves us in that regard. Well, maybe we've got a lot to chew on today, and you can ask me about it if it's confusing in any respect, and I'm just willing to listen to the Word, but that's what seemed to stand out to me from these passages.