Well, we begin a new study tonight in the book of Esther. The book of Esther. If you haven't already opened your Bibles to that, please do so now. Esther chapter 1 and verse 1. If you're not accustomed for seeking after Esther in the Bible, then you should note it comes after Nehemiah. Does that help you any? In the next few weeks, we begin to study a book here that I believe is a challenging book, but I believe it's a truly beneficial book of the Bible. Certainly, we recognize that God's Word teaches us that all of it has been given to us for our benefit, and all of it is certainly worthy of our attention and our study. But Esther becomes a very challenging book to us. in the style in which it is written, certainly in the narrative. It is also distinct in the fact, not unusually, some of the books of the Bible have that same issue or mystery surrounding them that we are not certain of its author. We also note that it does not mention or the name of God anywhere in it. However, the most wonderful thing about Esther is that it provides a great teaching tool for us because even though God's name is not attributed in it, God's hand is certainly all over it. And that becomes the challenge for us as we study this book and begin to understand the truths that unfold in it to us. And so it's a wonderful challenge to us, certainly a challenge to me as your pastor to lead us in this study. And I hope it'll be a blessing to you too. So to get started tonight, let's go ahead and read chapter one of the book of Esther. The Bible says now it came to pass in the days of a high serious. This is high serious which rang from India even into Ethiopia over one hundred and seven and twenty provinces. That in those days when the king I had Sharia sat on the throne of his kingdom which was in Shushan the palace in the third year of his reign. He made a feast unto 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 in the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even a hundred and four score days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast and to 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 in 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 Mehumen, Bizda, Harbona, Bigda, and Abagda, Zither, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on. But the queen vastly 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 Karshina, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Merez, Marcina, and Mimucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face and which sat the first in the kingdom. What should we do under the Queen Vashti according to law because she have not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the Chamberlains and Mimikin answered before the king and the princes Vashti the Queen have not done wrong to the king only but also to all the princes and to all the people that are in all the providences of the king Ahasuerus and 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 of Hasheri has commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto 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 let 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 pleased the king and the princes and the king did according to the word of Mimikin. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces and to 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. We deal here with a Jewish community that remains in the Persian Empire. It is a time when long has passed for the remnant to have been given the opportunity to return to Jerusalem, and in fact, many had. But these were the ones who had remained behind under this Persian Empire and under Ahasuerus. It is believed that the last edict that would have allowed the Jews or welcomed the Jews to go home to Jerusalem, that event had taken place more than 50 years ago. And so these were people who were dwelling in a land, a land that was foreign to them. They were of God's covenant people, and they were dwelling in the midst of these people and now had come to coexist there, come to find a means of making a living, finding a means of making a life. After all, during their captivity enforced by God, he himself told them to marry and marry their children, to build homes and establish families. And this they had done. But now comes the issue here as we examine the book of Esther and how we are to understand what's taking place. How can we relate to it? I believe we can. I believe it provides a perfect example to us with regard to what's taking place in this kingdom, comparable to what you and I are living in, even as Christians today. There are many similarities here, and there are many understandings of their heart or their mindset as to how they view of what's taking place every day. Now, the principle here at work is to recognize That what we see in Esther here is a story of how people are operating, God's covenant people, if you will, in this hostile land. And the temptation that they have here as to what they will do and how they will live. The temptation, of course, is twofold. It is the temptation to assimilate and the temptation to despair. Now if we think of it, we can certainly relate a picture here of what the daily lives were of the Jewish people. Here they were dwelling in a land that was run by a Hasidic and this incredible kingdom made up the Persians and the Medes. Every day they would be reminded of its power and its authority physically over their lives. They need only look at the military as it marched through the streets and the incredible power and weaponry they held because at the time Ahasuerus was in fact the most dominant leader of the world. You saw the description here in the first verse that it was that he had 127 provinces from Ethiopia to India. This man had, for its time and for its place in the world, great power. It was also demonstrated before them on a daily basis the excessive wealth and the absolute control and regulation that this man had of their lives. We see that very incredibly so even in the first nine verses where it gives us this incredible description of their wealth on this great feasting and yet noted in verse 8 that there's even a law issued by the king on how you should operate drinking. That's how much incredible minute control was attempted by the government that the Jews dwelled under, under Ahasuerus. Religion certainly was there. You could always smell the incense that were coming from the government-sponsored temples where people were coming into worship and doing so, once again, in accordance with the king's wishes, the king's laws, the king's rules. In fact, you'll see here something that is a common thread that comes through the king's decrees. The Persians were well known for this. The idea was a sense of making even the king accountable such that when he was to give a royal decree or edict or law, by law it could not be revoked, not even by him. You'll find that come up along the way. And so this is the atmosphere in which they lived, that they had come to coexist in, that they had come to live in. Now I say assimilation, why? Because the world in which they lived in, the government, the kingdom for which they were subjected to, that was their strategy. That was the idea. The key to their rule was assimilating the people into their frame of mind, into their kingdom, into their empire, with hopes that they would make one vast entity. In other words, it would be an absolutely pluralistic society. Religion would certainly be a part of it, but religion itself would be regulated. Commerce, economy, all those things were there, but they had such rules and regulations, there was an attempt in finest detail of controlling every aspect of their lives. Now keep your mind on God's Word, because there's some of you political animals right there saying, I recognize what this is. For we are facing it every day, aren't we? Every day we grow more and more frustrated with what we think are things that are regulated to absolutely control every facet of our lives. Certainly the Jews could understand that based on what they were living in, even in the Persian Empire. So if we recognize that this is the condition of the people's lives, here they are. Jewish people, descendants of those who were taken from Jerusalem in the great Babylonian captivity that now remain in the country they were once taken to, dwelling long beyond the time in which the captives had been allowed to go back to Jerusalem, the last group having left some 50 years plus ago, they now find themselves in this world attempting to find a way to live, finding a way to go forward in the temptations of their life. They very much are a parallel to the Christian's experience in the world we have today. In fact, in the United States of America. The fact of the matter is that we, like those Jewish people in the Persian Empire, dwell in a place that, albeit on a daily basis, very rarely are any of us truly and honestly persecuted. And yet more and more, I think if we're honest, we see we live in a day and time where we can perceive and see very easily government authority turning and becoming hostile against us as Christians, as believers. Not honestly, not openly, but seeking to control and to regulate every facet of our life, even our measure of worship. We live in a day and time for those who desire to live in accordance with the truth of God's word, to concentrate on its truth and honesty and integrity. Typically, they're ones who are getting hammered. Who are getting stood against. based on an agenda that keeps coming our way. So we can see here beginning to shape up the similarities that we can find identifying with the Jewish people as they exist here in this society and in this culture. So, the question that arises here as we examine Esther is the idea of not only a simulation but also despair. For in that environment, in that situation, there is a grave temptation for them to imagine that there is no hope for things being any other way. Now that is on the basis of the fact, oftentimes, by how we view God, how we view His action in our lives, and His responding to our cries and to our prayers and to our needs. Now look, we have in our lives today, most of us, again, if we're honest, would have to say, even in our Christian experience, that there have been times in our lives, there have been difficulties, there have been trials where we have prayed to God, cried out to God, and it seems that God is either not there or God is certainly not responding to what we're asking of Him. We're not talking about the idea of a miracle. We're not talking about overthrowing a country. We may simply be talking about someone who desires to be happily married with a family. Those who may have a dream or a burden for the desire to serve God faithfully somewhere in ministry. There are all sorts of ideas that come about. Even it may be a prayerful request, earnestly praying to God that a friend of ours that we've known for years would come to a saving relationship with our Heavenly Father. And yet it did not take place. These are all concerns that come to us that tempt us to despair because we feel that we cannot not simply physically, but we cannot experientially see God at work. Certainly, these Jews were in a position where anything, any direction they look north, south, east or west, whether they look to the government, whether they look to the military, whether they look to the culture around them, they would have been hard pressed to have seen God at work anywhere. Is that because God wasn't working? Absolutely not. God was working. And so we can see in the writing of Esther here an attempt to help us understand a couple of things, and I think the strategy here is twofold. Number one, we're going to find in the book of Esther that one of the approaches, literarily, of this writing is that it seeks to provide a mockery, if you will, of Ahasuerus and his empire. In fact, some have even suggested to say that the actual motivation here is for us to somewhat laugh at this great kingdom. To recognize with all its pomp and circumstance, with all its military prowess, with its grand 127 provinces and great excesses, the truth of the matter is they had no power whatsoever. Their power was hollow and empty. It was not run by a mighty king. But in fact, a man who had a great weakness in character and an inability to think for himself. And so you and I must be reminded tonight that whenever we look at the government that stands before us, that rules over us in accordance to God's will, whenever we look at the world around us and we see the despots and the dictators and the tyrants and the empires and the military might, and we see the dangers around us and we are tempted to despair, you and I must be reminded, as Esther reminds us here of the Persian Empire, That in truth, these entities, these powers, these men have absolutely no power except that which God has allowed them to exercise. Even the psalmist says that God himself laughs and derision at those kingdoms and empires that dare to stand in opposition to him. The second thing that we see here that I think Esther attempts to show us is that God is indeed at work, and often at work in ways that we cannot see. So these are the two approaches, I think, that come through in Esther. And we begin here tonight in chapter one. In the first nine verses, one of the things that the writer here shows to us, obviously purposely, is it gives us this elaborate description of the Persian Empire resulting in the feast that it was taking on. Now, to say the least, they must have had great wealth, no doubt. And no doubt it was one that they loved to put on display and lord over the people. So Ahasuerus, intending to show his power, the Bible says, carried out this incredible feast. Did you notice the time? How long he carried out this feast? 180 days. Correct me if my math is correct, and we do an average of 30 days, that's the equivalent of six months, if that gives you any kind of perspective. So six months of time he carries out these different feasts here intended to show off the power of his kingdom to his princes, to his leaders. Everybody that is anybody has shown up for this affair. all the power brokers of his kingdom that he hopes to show off to. And at the end of that, he decides, in fact, that he will invite even the people of his kingdom there in the capital. The King James calls it Shushan. Most maps will show it as Susa. And those dwelling in Susa were invited to come together in the court of the palace there and enjoy this grand banquet. And it must have been something else because the description here are the linen of the draperies that are hanging, some of them by silver rings, if you will, on the rods. We're told of incredibly beautifully colored marble and precious stones, if you will, in the walkways that they came down in order to enjoy this great meal. We are told of couches. The King James says bed, but let's be more specific. They were couches or benches that were made of gold and silver that they sat upon. Everyone was given a glass in order to drink wine. And the Bible says here as a means of bragging, not because they couldn't put together a matching set of glasses. Their determination was that no glass would be the same. They would all be unique. So all this is handed out to the people, and the king, even so much, goes to the finest detail of trying to organize and give a decree based on how the drinking would go. That every man should do as he desires, I command you to do so. Amazing. What is the point? The point here is, of course, that the writer wants us to be impressed, but also to be repulsed. After all, once again, comparing to our own situation, what is the most aggravating case to us than when we pick up a paper and we read some government waste, some millions of dollars spent on some ridiculous study that makes absolutely no sense and benefits no one? And what do we often say to ourselves? There's our tax dollars at work. Well, here you see the tax dollars of Persia at work in this incredible, excessive, and repulsive gathering of people. And yet they did so. However, as surely as they present this grand picture, this incredible picture of power, then we're exposed to the weakness of this king. Verse 10, it says on the seventh day when the heart of the king was married with wine, he commanded, what? He commanded these seven eunuchs who serve him to go and fetch his queen. He sends them, talk about overkill, to send seven eunuchs to go after the queen and he's to instruct her to put on her royal attire and come and face the people because the Bible says that she was attractive, she was beautiful and fair to look upon. Now, there have been those who have stretched this a bit, some of them even Jewish rabbis through the years traditionally suggesting that this was some type of perverted idea, that somehow he wanted her to come out with a royal crown and nothing else, but the scripture doesn't give us that much leeway. What we can take and understand is, even in a royal attire, robe and crown, it was certainly the king's intent to parade her around as a trophy wife, to show her off before the people. In doing so, then he relegated her, he degraded her to nothing more than a doll, if you will, that he wanted to put on display before the people around him. Now, what happens, though, is in verse 12. After making his command, the queen vastly refused to come at the king's commandment. Now, here we find an incredible moment. For we find out that the law of the Medes and Persians, while it cannot be revoked, it could be refused, apparently. And so she had. The law could compel a man to drink, but could not force his queen to come before him and be put on display. There is a moment of great defiance here that no one could have anticipated, that no one can imagine. And here's where we find the mockery. Here's where we find the satire. But to understand that the thing that shakes the kingdom is the fact that his queen refused to show up and show off when he wanted her to. And everything is being brought to its knees. Why? It is a very incredible indication of the emptiness, if you will, in the self-indulgent idea of this leader, Ahasuerus. In fact, in truth, he becomes an incredibly self-absorbed joke of a leader. So he's wroth, he's mad because he's been refused. The next step that takes place is there's a meeting that it must be held. Rather than the king be able to handle his own marital relationship with his queen, he now has come in and asked in his advisors, his wise men, his princess, if you will, to come in and consult with him and literally ask the question, what shall we do? What shall we do under the Queen Vashti according to law? Because she hath not performed the commandment of King Ahasuerus by the Chamberlains. And thus these wise men came up with this incredible response. In fact, it appears that they too are about as empty-headed as Ahasuerus is in what is important, because they now see this great rebellion of the Queen Vashti to set off an epidemic, if you will, of wives across the kingdom turning on their husbands. And so in great political. Puffery. I know you won't recognize that. They come out and say, OK, what a dangerous situation we have here for this woman is not simply rebelled against you and defied you, but in fact, what her deed now has become shall come abroad to all the women of the kingdom. Once they find out, then they shall, he says in verse 17, despise their husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported Word will get out. People will find out King that you called for and she didn't show up. And what's to say that likewise, the ladies of Persian media, why they may catch on to this. If it please the king, we should make a royal commandment. Let it be written into law. Amazing. Let it be written into law the person that means that it not be altered that Vashti Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus and let the king give a royal state unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make should be published throughout all his empire for his great all the wives shall give to their husbands honor both to great and small. Wow. So Vashti is punished. In point of fact, what has Vashti accomplished? Some would look at her and say, well, gosh, this was a bad move on her part because really nothing is accomplished. She hasn't saved anybody. She hasn't even saved herself. She's been now removed as queen. She's been taken away from the palace. She's no longer has that privilege and understanding. She's now forfeited right to ever come before the king. But the one thing that did take place here and remember the two words we began with. Assimilation and despair. is that though Vashti seems to have lost, and we'll see how Esther is a little more crafty and a little more cunning than she, Vashti has proved that you can stand up. That this idea of assimilation is not inevitable, that you do not have to simply cower down and become a part. That the wall itself, the law itself, is helpless to truly command behavior. Let that one sink in for a moment. The law is unable truly to command behavior. Have you ever heard the expression that it's impossible to legislate morality? I believe it is true. But the kingdom here is blind to the failure. And in fact, what they are doing, in effect, is truly accomplishing what they're trying to avoid. The law that was meant to reassure the authority of a man in his own household. Now, let's stop right there. Talk about a law that cannot be enforced. What are they expecting the husbands to do? Is this some crisis in which now they suggest that the men all test their wives as a hasher is tested his queen, that if they are to come when they are summoned and present themselves? This is an incredible mockery of justice and an incredible, tedious display here of a man serving himself rather than any idea of serving or leading the people. In fact, it will have the reverse effect. The law that they put forward will not restore a man in his household. In fact, you'll simply expose a hash areas for the fact he couldn't run his. For now, the wife that he once had has been dismissed and he goes off looking for another. We mentioned once before, and it's worth mentioning again as we prepare ourselves to look at the rest of these chapters, is that we are introduced to Ahasuerus. And by introduced to him, we see a man who is absolutely weak in his character. We see the fact that he cannot make a move even with regard to his own personal life and livelihood while looking to his advisors. This is the measure of authority. This is the measure of truth that guides him in this life. Now, once again, I told you Esther was a challenging book, and it certainly is. When we look at the narrative here of what are we to learn from this, what are we to see even from this first chapter of what's going on as a believer and as a child of God? If we're to understand this for our own walk, the first thing we need to recognize is that we find ourselves, too, in a world that governs itself in much the same way as Ahasuerus governed the Persian Empire. We live in a society and a culture that is fairly obsessed with materialistic behavior. I can set these up and knock them down far too easy, and you all probably have anecdotal information of your own. You look in any grocery store on the magazine rack of the cash register are magazines that are solely devoted to following the personal lies of stars. Most of it is absolute lies. And yet, they're there on that rack for a reason. Somebody's buying them. And if they're not buying the magazines, they're certainly following it on the Internet. We have shows after show after show on television. It is mind-boggling that people obsess over wanting to watch the daily lives of celebrities. And they are not real. They are lies. We are obsessed. We are more impressed with where a person went to school than being concerned about what they learned while they were there. This is the obsession of our lives and how we define ourselves, how we measure ourselves, and the empire in which we are existing loves every minute of it. And they encourage us always to measure our lives by the measuring stick that they've given us to judge success and failure. This is the world in which we live in. This is the world that even as the Jews looked to the palace and saw this great wealth, this great power, this great majesty, so is the problem with everyone, believers included, to look around the world tonight and see what they believe is the measure of success and power and not quickly recognize the fact that it is hollow and it is empty. So we must put the power of the people around us, the governments around us, the countries around us in perspective, dare I say it. As discouraging as it is, sometimes you and I need to step back and laugh. At laugh at how people take themselves so seriously, believing that they are something, believing that they can do something when in fact we know. In our hearts and minds. That they too are subject to the sovereignty of the one true and living God. Secondly. You and I always need to be reminded that we need to wait in order to see what God is doing. Now, we mentioned before. That the the principle here of Persian law, a law that cannot be revoked, that cannot be turned now, look at the incredible chain of events that have happened already. That, in fact, we can look back now in hindsight and recognize that God was at work. From Vashti's decision to renege on the king's request, to the advisor's idea to replace her with a search for a new queen. Do you think those things happened by coincidence? In point of fact, no. Hindsight is always 20-20, and it's the only ability that we have in order to see sometimes God at work where we cannot begin to see Him while we're in the midst of an issue or a crisis. But as we look back, we can begin to see these things unfolded and how God is truly at work in the lives of these people in order to preserve His people, even in this kingdom for this time. There's another need. We need to see the differences between God's kingdom and the empire of Ahasuerus, because there's some similarities here, but great distinctions. Number one, God, too, makes decrees that cannot be challenged. God's law and God's truth is absolute. However, the difference between God and Ahasuerus is that his laws and how they're created and how they're put forward are beneficial to men and women, not to their detriment. God does not desire to use people for his pleasure in order to get some kind of perverted sense of satisfaction or achievement. God's kingdom grows and it does so in work that is not so easily seen. It is not done through the powerful. It's not done through the celebrity. Take for a moment the example that God gives us in His Word with regard to the kingdom of God. It's fairly well summed up in the A passage that is found in Matthew chapter 13 in verse 31, where the Bible says, another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Verse 33, another parable spake he unto them, The kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. When we read those illustrations, it is a reminder to us of the kingdom of God is such that is grown by God. By his power, by his spirit, in such a manner that no one could ever suggest or claim honestly that they had done anything themselves. And so he gives us the picture of a mustard seed. Have you ever seen a mustard seed? I've got a jar of them in my office somewhere. I used to use them for children's sermon illustrations. They are tiny. They are absolutely insignificant of themselves, but when placed in the ground, God grows them into a bush large enough. When we think about leaven putting into three measures of meal, we recognize what's going on there. Anyone who knows what it means to make bread, and I'm certainly no expert, there are people in here who know far more than I do, but I know and recognize that that form of leaven, that form of yeast, as it's put in a measure of meal, has the ability, left alone in the right conditions, will rise and leaven the entire thing. The idea, once again, is that there's a work done from a small thing that transpires inside, which God does. And God does that work and makes it happen and grows his kingdom, not by exterior power, not by exterior celebrity, but in fact by a divine work done within each and every one of us. Interestingly enough, the Lord, too, has prepared a banquet. The Bible teaches us the Lord, too, has prepared a banquet on the last day. However, when he summons his bride to the table, it will not be to expose her shame. But in fact, it will be to lavish her with his love, mercy and grace. And so we find, again, these distinctives from that which we find in Esther, from that which we find in this incredibly worldly kingdom and how we are to react and how we are to live among it. We can draw one other contrast, by the way. It's the great subject of the great controversy in the Persian kingdom. For goodness sakes, what Vashti has done will set men back in the rule over their households. Women all over the countryside will rebel. Well, indeed, God himself has also decreed that man be the head of the household. But with great distinction here from what this king decides to bring to pass, In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22, the Apostle Paul writes, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, you would think that when you read those three verses, that if without the spirit of God, there would be many men who would be yes, yes, yes. But notice what Christ says here through Paul in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. And thus we are brought back in to the understanding of what separates God from the kingdom of Ahasuerus and any man's kingdom. Yes, the man is to be the head of the home, but in doing so, not as a tyrant, not as a dictator, not as a king, ushering in his spouse as an object, but instead he is to love her as Christ loves the church. That means a life of sacrifice, self-sacrifice, even to the point of giving of life. It is the desire to lead by example and covet the respect and honor of the wife to follow him, not because they trust him, but because they trust God. For God is the one who has commanded the wife to be submissive to him, not because he is worthy of it, not because he has earned it, but because God is saying to her, trust me. And thus we find ourselves where we were this morning. The idea of obedience and submission to any given authority that God has placed over you, but understanding the true authority in your life. That you're not submitting to a despot. You're not submitting to a tyrant. You're submitting to God by submitting to the government that He has placed in your life. We look at its excess, we look at its power, and there are many people who are impressed who think that that is all there is. You and I as believers are reminded in God's Word, even as we look at Esther, that all the pomp and circumstance, all the ceremony, all the perceived power, all the debauchery, all the excess, all the military might that can be amassed before our eyes, in reality, at the end of the day, is empty. That true value. true power is found in God and God alone. Does anyone have any question or comment on these verses tonight?