Please have your Bibles open at Esther chapter 1 starting at verse 1 and we re

Transcription

1 What is God doing? (Esther 1:1-2:18) 16 th October G Day Church Family! Please have your Bibles open at Esther chapter 1 starting at verse 1 and we re going through to chapter 2 verse 18. There s an outline in the bulletin if you like to take notes. Let s ask God for understanding of His Holy Word. Let s Pray. Intro Have you ever wondered what God is doing in your life? You might have asked yourself questions like these Q. God why did you allow that relationship I had fail? Q. God why didn t I get that promotion? Q. God why did the sale of my house fall through? Q. God why wasn t I able to buy that house I had my heart set on it? Q. God - How come I lost my job? Q. God - How come I got sick? Q. God How come my loved one got sick? Q. God How come my loved one died? Q. God How come all this bad stuff always happens to me? Page 1 of 15

2 Have I missed anyone? 2 We end up asking What is God doing? (pause) Background History And the people of Israel were probably asking the same question what is God doing? Let s do a quick potted history of Israel from the OT The people of Israel are God s people 12 tribes from the 12 sons of Jacob [Powerpoint 1 Israel 12 tribes] But the people of Israel rebel against God and they don t keep God s rules And they even argue and fight amongst themselves So in 930BC Israel spilt into two kingdoms [Powerpoint 2 Divided Kingdom] The Northern Kingdom made up of 10 tribes under King Jeroboam The Southern Kingdom made up of 2 tribes Judah and Benjamin - under King Rheoboam Page 2 of 15

3 The Northern Kingdom was called Israel 3 And the Southern Kingdom was called Judah after the major tribe of Judah (rather than Benjamin the minor tribe) Despite the spilt both North and South were still rebellious they still didn t follow God s rules and they worshipped other gods and idols [Powerpoint 3 Exile 10 tribes] So Between BC and BC - God allowed the Assyrian empire to capture the 10 tribes of the north and take them off to Assyria and those 10 tribes were lost forever! [Powerpoint 4 Exile 2 tribes] Then between BC - God allowed the Babylonians to capture the 2 tribes of the south and take them off to Babylon (modern day Iraq) What is God doing? These are God s people and He s allowed them to be carted off into exile! (pause) Meanwhile the Babylonian Empire is taken over by another even mightier empire Page 3 of 15

4 The Persian Empire 4 [Powerpoint 5 - Persian Empire] It s a massive empire the Persian Empire from India in the East - to North Sudan, in Africa, in the West So the people of Judah the Southern Kingdom who started off as being captives of Babylon are now captives of the Persian Empire! [Powerpoint 6 The Book of Esther] And this is where we pick up the story in the Book of Esther which is set in the capital city the Persian Empire, a place called Susa (modern day Iran) And in verse 1 of chapter 1 we come across King Xerxes who is the king of this huge Persian Empire which covers 127 provinces! The book of Esther is the story of the people of Judah who still remain in exile originally by Babylon but now ruled by the Persians Some of the people of Judah have been allowed to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of being captives but many still remained in Persia The book of Esther is unique because God is not mentioned in the whole book Does that mean God is not working or acting? Page 4 of 15

5 Did God just create everything and then leave humans to their own devices? 5 What is God doing? (pause) The Story One King and 2 Queens! (1:1-2:18) So we pick up the story in chapter 1 where King Xerxes, who is now under threat by yet another even mightier empire the Greek Empire [Powerpoint 7 King Xerxes] King Xerxes has a war council where the military leaders of Persia and Media are present see v3 And for 180 days six months Xerxes displays his vast wealth and the splendour and glory of his majesty see v4 The idea of the war council is to plan how they will deal with the threat of the Greeks After the six month pow wow the King holds a banquet for 7 days see v5 At this banquet no expense is spared wine is served in gold goblets (v8) and everyone can drink with no restrictions (v8) Meanwhile Queen Vashti is having her own banquet with the women of the royal palace (v9) Page 5 of 15

6 After 7 days of drinking wine - King Xerxes commanded his servants to bring 6 Queen Vashti in front of him and his mates, wearing her crown According to Jewish tradition the order came from King Xerxes because there was an argument between all the men as to which province had the most beautiful woman so King Xerxes wanted to settle the argument once and for all. And the end of v11 in the original Hebrew language, the OT was written in, the phrase for she was lovely to look at suggests she was expected to appear either naked - or wearing very little Basically King Xerxes wanted to show off how hot his wife was like she was his ornament and possession! [Powerpoint 8 Queen] But Queen Vashti is not having a bar of it and refuses to appear before the King (v12) This makes Xerxes very angry (v12) He s embarrassed in front of the visiting military leaders And one of the King s advisor s, Memukan, explains that the Queen s refusal doesn t just affect the King - see v16 to 19 Page 6 of 15

7 It affects all the nobles of all the provinces, because when all the women find 7 out about Queen Vashti s refusal the women will do the same to their husband and refuse to submit and obey their husbands too! And there will be no end of disrespect throughout the Empire So Memukan advises the King to issue a decree - that cannot be repealed - to prevent Queen Vashti from ever being in the presence of the King again and to also given the Queen s royal position to someone else! (vv19-20) that way all women in the empire will respect their husbands! And so the King agrees with this advice and issues the decree Queen Vashti is dumped! (pause) Now so far we ve heard about a Persian King and a Persian Queen No mention of God no mention of God s people What is God doing? Well Queen Vashti s refusal starts a chain of events As we hit chapter 2 and verse 2 the King starts a search throughout every province of the Empire for beautiful young virgins for the king Page 7 of 15

8 Basically it s a Miss Persia Beauty Contest 8 To find most beautiful woman that pleases the King most and she will be the new Queen (v4) And then we are introduced to 2 new characters in the story [Powerpoint 9 Queen Esther] A Jewish man called Mordecai, from the tribe of Benjamin and an ancestor to the original people taken captive from Judah by the Babylonians Mordecai has a cousin Hadassah (Hebrew name meaning myrtle ) aka Esther (Persian meaning star ) Esther was an orphan and so Mordecai brought her up as his own daughter (more like an Uncle than a cousin). Esther has a lovely figure and is beautiful God is beginning to act now His people the Jews the people of Judah are involved in the story As luck would have it (or as God would have it) Esther is brought to the King s palace (v8) and enters the Miss Persia Beauty Contest Page 8 of 15

9 9 Mordecai insists that Esther does not reveal her Jewish identity (v10) probably because he fears anti-jewish prejudice or racism As luck would have it (as God would have it) Esther wins the Miss Persia Beauty Contest! See v Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favour and approval more than any of the other virgins. 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 (Esther 2:17-18) Applications An interesting story so far and we are left wondering what will happen to the Jewish people now that Esther, the Jewish woman, is Queen. But what can we learn from the story so far? Especially when as we ve said God is not even mentioned in the story? And the people involved have questionable behaviour and morals? Well let me give you 3 points to take home today: [Powerpoint 10a - Application 1 - can t demand respect] 1. When we look at the behaviour of King Xerxes and his request to his wife to come before him. We must understand that we cannot demand respect, Page 9 of 15

10 submission or obedience from anyone whether as a wife, or as a husband 10 or as a parent or as a child or as a boss or CEO or as a leader- we must be worthy of that respect to receive it. So if people aren t respecting us perhaps it s got a lot to do with our behaviour and how we treat other people. Jesus actually taught a golden rule 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12) [Powerpoint 10b Application 2- ] 2. Secondly, when we look at King Xerxes behaviour, we see he misused his royal power. We must resist the temptation to misuse whatever power we have as a wife, as a husband, as a parent, as a grandparent, as a boss, as a leader Again, our example comes from Jesus. How did Jesus use his power? Well the Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2. He says: a. Don t do anything out of selfish ambition (Phil 2:3) b. In humility, value others before yourself (Phil 2:3) c. Don t look to your own interests but to the interests of the others (Phil 2:4) Page 10 of 15

11 d. Have the same mindset as Jesus (Phil 2:5) 11 i. Even though He was exactly like God (Phil 2:6) ii. He didn t use that to His advantage (Phil 2:6) iii. He made himself nothing and took on the nature of a servant (Phil 2:7) iv. And humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross He died for people to have forgiveness of their sins Jesus did not misuse His power He was a humble servant king who laid down his life for His people He was the complete opposite to King Xerxes So who will we model ourselves on King Xerxes or on King Jesus? [Powerpoint 10c Application 3- ] 3. The third point which we can take home today is that God uses unusual events and people s decisions, whether, right or wrong or indifferent, to accomplish His plans Page 11 of 15

12 God uses Xerxes a power hungry, sex addicted, alcoholic, disrespectful 12 King and husband to start a chain of events God uses Queen Vashti who chooses that particular moment to refuse to comply with her husband s sexist and chauvinistic request to parade in front of all the nobles of the Empire God uses the war council and subsequent 7 day party to bring about the downfall of Queen Vashti Which in turn leads to a beautiful Jewish orphan girl, Esther, entering the Miss Persia Beauty Contest a Beauty Pageant And don t forget God s already being working in Esther s life because when she was an orphan she was raised by her kind and caring cousin Mordecai And we must realize, that Mordecai s insistence that Esther doesn t reveal her Jewish background enabled her not to be excluded from the Beauty Contest and God uses that too! And then Esther only goes and wins the beauty contest! Is this all coincidence? Or is it a God-Incidence? Page 12 of 15

13 (pause) 13 If King Xerxes hadn t have been sexist Then Queen Vashti wouldn t have been dumped And Esther wouldn t have become Queen! If Esther hadn t of been an orphan Then her cousin Mordecai wouldn t have brought her up If Mordecai hadn t insisted on keeping their Jewishness a secret then Esther wouldn t have entered the Beauty Contest God uses unusual events and people s decisions, whether, right or wrong or indifferent, to accomplish his plans It s the same for each one of our lives if we reflect on a series of events that have happened in our lives that brought us to a particular decision or to a particular place we ll see that one event leads to the next and to the next and God is working in and through each event Look at the way God used the events in Jesus ministry leading up to His death on the cross no one expected Jesus, the hero and saviour of the story to die. Page 13 of 15

14 Jesus story cries out for God to intervene but it was all part of God s plan 14 He has the whole story worked out from the get go! The bad that happened to Jesus was for our good His death meant forgiveness and life for us if we care to believe in Jesus And it s the same in our lives Our lives aren t always neat and tidy. Esther shouldn t have entered the beauty pageant, slept with the king, nor entered his harem But what do God s people do when living in an ungodly country The Bible teaches we should be - of the world not in it? (John 17:14-16; Romans 12:1-2) However, the author doesn t make any judgment call on Esther or Mordecai keeping their nationality secret or Esther entering the harem Regardless of Esther and Mordecai s silence, their character, their motives, their faithfulness to God s Law, the decisions they make move events in some mysterious way to fulfill the promise of God that He will not forsake His people! Page 14 of 15

15 So - even if we make the wrong decision, whether through innocent 15 blunder, or being naive or by deliberate disobedience, our God is gracious and omnipotent (all powerful) and is able to use the weak links in the chain of events in our lives - to bring about his planned purposes in us and through and sometimes despite us! Esther is going to be used in a mighty way to achieve God s purposes as we ll see in coming weeks We ve seen the same with other biblical characters: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David etc. who have all been flawed in character And it s the same for each one of us. For us as believers in Jesus - Romans 8:28 applies 28 And we know that in all things (wrong, right, indifferent things) God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Let s pray Page 15 of 15