Esther: A New Queen Is Crowned (Episode 2)

the glass slipper the fairy godmother the happily ever after we all love a good Cinderella story personally I've always been a big fan of her pumpkin turned chariot it's not chariot it's a what is it her pumpkin turned coach hi I'm Aaron Davis and you're listening to the women of the Bible podcast this is season 2 Esther we're walking through a study called Esther trusting God's plan we hope you'll pick up your copy and walk through the study with us you can find it a Reviver hearts comm slash Esther maybe you've read the book of Esther before it's a favorite for many of us and maybe when you did you pictured Esther's life to be something of a Cinderella story but look again this is no Cinderella story Esther was a part of a pagan culture under the authority of a ruler who abused his power and degraded women Esther was in a circumstance I am confident she would not have chosen for herself and yet though his name is never mentioned we see God at work through the life of Esther to save rescue and redeem his people I've invited some friends of mine to join me and walking through this study and this week we're looking at Session two we'll see the benefits of faithfulness even when we can't see God's hand at work and we'll be reminded that even in a culture that doesn't value righteousness even in a system where power is abused even in circumstances we would not have chosen for ourselves God is at work in the lives of his people we're so glad you can join us [Music] what I'd love to know because of what we're talking about in this session is how you're interacting with women I know that we have a shared heart for women we have a shared heart for women to know and love the Word of God and you're impacting women's lives in areas that I'm not so just tell us your name and how you're interacting with women Vanessa we'll start with you well I'm dr. Vanessa Ellen and I have a couple of touch points where I get to really minister to women and it's really exciting one I serve as a chair of a women's ministry degree program at the College of biblical studies in Houston so I get to mentor the ladies and take them through and watch them graduate with their degree for some of them their very first degree so that's really exciting and then on the other side my husband is a pastor and so at our church community of faith Bible Church in Houston I'm the women's ministry director and church administrator so I get to really really dig into the deep lives of women also my husband and I spend a lot of time doing a lot of premarital counseling and a lot of marital counseling so we're heavily into the biblical counseling movement and just really love it and enjoy it wow that's great so I'm Betsy Gomez and so we moved recently to Irving Texas and my husband is one of the pastors there we started first Irving in espanol mm-hmm so right now we are in the very beginning of this Spanish congregation within an english-speaking Church and I'm they're serving women I love that yeah and I'm Erin Davis I my interactions with women happen mostly on my back porch these days I have four little boys and so I'm just in a season of life where home is my ministry headquarters I have a sweet group of college girls who come every Friday right now we're walking through the book of Hebrews and they are my absolute delight they're never allowed to graduate or leave I love them so much and love to teach in my own local church have great women friends that I hope would say that I point him to Jesus and so I I live an all-boy household one husband and four sons but I would just be adrift without women and I'm so grateful for all the ways that I get to come alongside women and they come along me and we're gonna talk in this session about some tough stuff our focus is going to be on the fact that God is at work in our difficult circumstances and it's with those men women in mind I thought we might like to start because there are women listening I think every woman listening faces something hard you know there's some pocket of brokenness in her life but there are some walking a really hard rocky road and she needs to hear actually I'm gonna say it here and I hope she hears us saying over and over that God is at work in your difficult circumstance he's at work in your difficult circumstance he's at work in your difficult circumstances so I thought we just as women who love women and women who interact with women let's just fire off some of the difficult circumstances we see in the lives of the women in our world yet well it could be the father of a young daughter walks away you know and she grows up without her father a biological father or she gets a stepfather that is not as kind kind of sort of like our King here sure and she experiences that from a young child yeah yeah I see a lot of brokenness in women with all that sexual abuse that's been hidden and all the pain that they have been experiencing and also a lot of brokenness in their families I see as you said I when I walk with young women I see a lot of lack of identity because of fathers out of the home or yeah it's really hard to be a young woman these days to be woman you know the hope is so there for us in Christ a quick testimony our oldest daughter was adopted and and she was molested by her stepfather from age 7 to 17 and she allows me to tell her story but today you would never know it I mean God she's saved and she's serving the Lord she's a director of our Women's Minh our children's ministry at the church and and God has done a wonderful work I think that's the story we're diving into how many things can happen to you from young good but God absolutely man things that are totally beyond your control yes and totally situations that you can't extract yourself from I think of a friend I know who deals with really debilitating anxiety she knows the Lord she loves his word she wants to be free of it and I know that she will because whom the Sun sets free is free indeed and I know he wants her to be free but right now she's not there she's walking through it day by day minute by minute and she knows that the hope is there but she needs a reminder that God is at work even though we haven't reached the happy ending of her story whether that's a difficult marriage or a child who's not walking with the Lord or a sickness or a chronic illness or a terminal illness or a financial struggle no matter what it is that you're in the middle of God is at work in the midst of that and that's what we're gonna see in Esther chapter 2 we read through it together over lunch we won't read the whole chapter here again but what has happened is King Xerxes dethrones his Queen because she won't bow to his whims he decides to hold an elaborate beauty contest this guy goes for elaborate every time and he is going to have women gathered together and he will choose his new king from there and we see here in verse 2 to who is in the beauty pot contest then the king's young men who attended to him said let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king let me take us to verse 5 where we meet esther now there was a jew in Susa the citadel whose name was mordecai the son of Jer the son of shem i the cut' son of Kish a Benjamin Knight who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with chiquinha king of Judah who Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away he was bringing up Hadassah that his Esther the daughter of his uncle for she had neither father nor mother the young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at and when her father and her mother died Mordecai took her as his own daughter what do we already know about Esther from just these few verses why it already been hard right absolutely from a young child her parents were deceased right and she was technically orphaned and she's growing up probably you know it doesn't tell us but we could speculate she might not have known Mordecai that well yeah we don't know they don't know I mean you know what I mean I can't imagine living with my their cousins ya know and so that he takes her in and what do we know about Mordecai just from these few verses his life hasn't been any easier right what can we see in the passage we see him taking her in he adopts her as his daughter and this is beautiful because we see adoption right here and it's only after though he's been taken from his homeland you see in Scripture this captivity of the people of God he's been removed from Jerusalem taken to Susa which is about 700 miles as the crow flies it's probably a lot more like a thousand miles travel wise travel miles there's no planes there's no cars there's no trains he's a long way from home Esther and Mordecai had both endured a great deal of heartache and I think we tend to romanticize what happens next in the story have you seen movies of this or Sunday school portrayals it sounds like Esther is the Cinderella yeah she's rags to riches and there's this elaborate beauty contest what we saw that the can there is an elaborate beauty contest we saw in verse two that the contestants are these virgins Josephus estimates that there were about 400 virgins rounded up for this contest so let's not race past that let's sit in that a minute what is happening 400 women taken taken and forced into the Kings harem imagine the culture think with me what is happening in those young women's lives yeah we think that these women are like Cinderella sister like craving for be picked you know like oh yeah the the king of the princess wanna be chosen but this meant to be taken away from your family from your life from your dreams everything's shattered and it's not like you're going to a nice place you're going to a harem massage that's right yeah and that's not a beautiful picture because there you're an object right and it's it's horrible yes and they in they've already been taken I mean they were in this position because of disobedience so they've already experienced being exiled and now some of them have gone back and some of them haven't so they've been going through turmoil for quite some time and now we look at this and they were gathered so they weren't like that in volunteering hope they get picked they were gathered verse 3 tells us that and what I found interesting is what they were gathered into a harem and then after their night with the king now they're tossed into concubines so you don't even get to go back home if you're not picked no they're tossed aside that's what happens systematically and I I would have to imagine that some of them are never called upon I mean there's 400 of them in the harem systematically they're called to a night with the king and we know what that is they're not sitting on a couch watching a chick flick they're summoned to the king at his whim and forced to do what he requires of them and the one who pleases him will be crowned queen but the odds are almost none of being chosen and if they are ever summoned to him and not chosen you're right they're sent back as concubines totally discarded never to be called on again this is a degrading system that treats women as property it's not romantic it's not lovely it's not sweet we see a picture of Xerxes in the text this is a man who abuses his power to get what he wants and he is using these women to get what he wants and I think it's important as we look at this story to think how difficult these circumstances were because you or I are not going to face circumstances this dark we will face hard things but I can't fathom a situation where we're rounded up and held as property at the whim of a powerful man this is a difficult difficult circumstance and yet the Lord is at work yeah because you would ask yourself why God allowed this to happen like why where was God here but I I really love the fact that God is not hiding the constant the consequences of our brokenness yeah and that brings me hope because when I see a situation right where I you know I'm tempted to that word where is God at work in in in that place I can I can look here and I can see the invisible hand of God working in spite of the situation and this is very akin to what we still see in our day to day the sex trafficking we did some missions work down in in Mexico querétaro and lady was they were telling me of a lady's testimony there how she had been taken and mistreated and violently molested and so on and so forth and in the end God comes around saves her and she has to go to prison and minister to the guy that did all this to her it's always the hand of God we don't always know the end story as Esther didn't know the end story but God is there he's working there so I think we still see this happening today young girls are taking off their porch taken from a poolside gathered up we still see it yeah I know and I something that is a contrast that I think we can highlight is all this evil crazy things happening and the word favor appears so many times so even though she was going through these difficult situations God was granting her favor because he had a better plan in mind so it's it's employed it's important for us to understand that even in the dark places God is shining his light because he's at work yeah it's important not to become hopeless because he is our hope and some it main B this situation that you're facing it may not be this but your circumstances may not even change right technically Esther didn't know our circumstances were going to change look at Joseph his situation didn't change for years but God is with you if you belong to him he's with you and he's working things yeah you cannot see yeah that you couldn't ask him for I mean there have been so many situations in my life where I'm somewhere in some circumstance and I think man if I had written today if I had written this year if I had my life I never would have inserted this into the script yes and yet the Lord in His infinite timing was working those things yeah my good I imagine Esther asking herself like why am I here because but by that time yeah I mean she might not seem like the purpose yet sure of everything because the you know the scenario was not put in place yet so I Iran it reminds me to Joseph to like why am I here like why am I being mistreated why what got what God is doing in I imagine there are many women in situations where they are they're asking the same question like why is I'm stuck in this marriage or why I have this situation with this or with my child or why do I have to face this in my work like God is at work yeah I think we ask why and I think the other question we ask is where where are you God why won't you show up in this situation and I think that question is so corrosive to our yes the Lord can handle it you know we can ask those hard questions of him but I think when we start to say where are you in this and imply that he's absent it weakens our faith and scripture gives us an answer I think when our hearts speak untruth my friend Tippie says feelings aren't facts they're just feeling so you can feel that God has abandoned you you can feel that God has dropped the ball you can feel that whatever you're going through is purposeless purposeless that doesn't make it a fact what is true is Scripture and I wanted to take us to Psalm 139 7 through 12 because it answers the where are you question where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven you are there and we would not our heads and go yes of course gods in heaven but here he says if I make my bed and she'll you are there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me your right hand shall hold me if I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about maybe night that feels like something these women might cry out this darkness is gonna cover me it's gonna swallow me I say that the valley of the shadow of death is that place where you say if I have to stay here one more minute I'm gonna die that's how it feels that the darkness is gonna swallow me but here's the answer that's the feeling but the truth is even the darkness it's not dark to you the night is as bright as the day for darkness is as light with you so even in the darkness of a wicked Kings harem and that's dark right I don't know how it gets much darker I mean sex trafficking has happened the objectification of women has happened these women's lives have been shattered that's dark but even the darkness is not dark to him he is there so I've instruct lightly just by the omnipresence of God and that's a church word that non-christians go what I'm the present um but it just means he's everywhere yes everywhere always and he's with Esther and a pagan Kings harem he's with your your sweet daughter you mentioned who's walking the path of redemption after abuse he's with the women in your churches who don't see a way out of their situation he's with you in every single hard place you know what I can go through hard things but I can't go through hard things alone that's right it's when I feel like I'm by myself that I can't endure and I think we pray for people wrong I think it's good to pray for people of course we should pray for people but here's what I hear the people of God saying all the time be with them be with them in their hardship be with him in their hospital room you with them as they mourn the loss of their loved loved one and scripture says oh yeah he's right there he's in every hard place so I wonder if we could just give ourselves and other women listening what's a new language what's some new ways we could encourage women to pray for others who are going through hard things I always say comfort them Lord coz he's the great comforter because no matter what the hurt is we can't know the hurt of the loss of a child unless you've had that we don't know the depths of that or of a an adulterous husband or something like that I always say comfort them Lord he's the great comforter I always say Lord grant them wisdom to go through their situation description says be like wisdom ask it of me sometimes you're going through and you're in your darkness and you don't know what to do next ask the Lord for wisdom so maybe we can pray the things they don't remember Lord remind them of your truth yeah remind them of your love remind them that you love them regardless to the situation remove the people who have incorrect information about you because you know people are quick to come along - it's okay just trust God yes but what does that really mean if my child just died in a pool sure what does that mean if my son is on drugs what does trust God mean yeah I think also we need to pray Lord open their eyes yes so they can see you mmm think that sometimes we complicate things it's really simple sometimes it's just open their eyes so they can see your greatness your mercy your grace you're doing open their eyes so they can see their own sin so they can repent open their eyes if they can think they can see that throne that it's open for them so they can see the wonders of Christ so yeah that's very thoughtful because it's true we sometimes we pray for things that are already answered and yeah we need to start praying for the Lord to do something with the fact that he's there yeah yeah I struggle with prayer sometimes especially in difficult situation I know I don't have the words I don't necessarily want to hear my own voice in those situations and so it's always a good idea to pray Scripture everybody you know it is the Word of God it will have an impact it will accomplish what the Lord has for it and so that song that we just read where it's saying even the darkness is not dark to you the night is as bright as the day I can think of a million situations we're having somebody speak that over my life would be such a comfort and so you know we can rest that God's presence is everywhere it was with Esther in this dark oppressive system it's with it's with every woman in every situation his presence is available and his presence is such a comfort because we're never ever ever ever alone we're never ever ever without the great comforter the Great Physician the defender the mighty Savior the rock the counselor I mean he is with us all the time the only other person who's with us that much is ourselves and I would like to escape myself most of the time and to be with him and it's such a comfort so before we move on I want us to meet Mordecai quickly we're gonna be back in Esther chapter 2 you girls already in Esther you have better than me I can't keep losing Esther we meet this hero we're all gonna learn to love Mordechai over the course of this book but we already read about him he is an exile he's been taken from his home he is the adoptive father of Esther and what we see in both Mordecai and Esther is that they're refugees that's not their home they're displaced persons all of this is interesting language for our times when there's lots of talk about refugees and asylum and sanctuary cities and those are the words that are given for Mordecai and Esther but they're true for us as well let's turn ourselves to first Peter 2:11 Betsy do you have it can you read it to us first Peter 2:11 beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh we wage against your soul so who's that Peter's writing this who's the blood was the beloved who is he writing to melis yeah to believe it's to the church and he calls us sojourners in exile is I'm not a political refugee I live in the same little hometown I've lived in since I was born I live on a piece of property where my husband's grandfather built the house in the 60s I mean I am deeply rooted where I live so I am NOT a sojourner in exile like we would typically think of so why is Peter calling me as a follower of Christ a sojourner in an exile I think because we don't belong here right this is not her this is not this is not our home and let me tell you I've this is my fourth year living in another country and the fact that I am away from home has been a constant reminder of where do I really belong yes because even though we know who we are like I know like my hair just my my culture but living here it's I need to conform myself in some ways to the to this living and the reality is that it's really hard it's really hard when you don't you don't feel that you belong it's like we you don't even it's hard when I need to communicate because I English is not my first language but the reality is that my identity is not in that feeling of being inadequate of being from another country is not in trying to Americanize myself my identity is where I really belong it's in Christ is heaven I am a citizen of heaven and that is what has to give inform that is what has to inform every decision everything I do is the pattern of living that I need to conform myself yeah and we're not to be conformed to this world you know but be transformed by you know the Word of God sometimes we get the idea that the things of this world is who we are and what we're about and we can form ourselves to the ways of this world system forgetting that we don't belong here no we're just passing through this is not our home God's gonna call us unto Him so then we don't need to take on we I think we take on some of the tapestry the language the lingo the dress you know the conversation the the mentality of the world that is so anti God we forget where we really live and we will always be exhales which means there's always going to be pockets of brokenness yes in our lives until Christ returns for us or until we're individually called to be with him there will be difficult circumstances it's been so helpful to me in my 30s to stop getting over the shock of that to stop being surprised by hard thing oh yeah to just know I am broken my people are broken my land is broken my culture is broken we're gonna remain broken until the Lord sets all things right and so I can know this is not it for me this is my home I'm an exile here and I think as we think back to the list of the challenges women we know are facing you know they don't they're always going to deal with brokenness we're always going to deal with broken is we represent different ages and stages of life this table and none of us have arrived none of us about run the brokenness we never will we never will but that is not our hope you know Esther's hope was not ultimately in being elevated out of this broken system because I think of the 399 women who didn't become as directly and yet Jesus still loved them they were still made in the image of God if whatever hard situation you're facing today and you know I can count mine on two hands probably you could do my hope is not in the resolution of those circumstances my hope is that God is under present yes he's everywhere he's every time I have to lay on my bathroom floor and cry over something hard he's there every time I'm in my minivan and I think I might jump out of the driver's seat if they don't stop whacking each other you know with their McDonald's toys but not to true realize hard things I mean that a moment that feels really hardness or every hospital room he is with me and all of that that's hope and the other hope is this that he is eternal and he makes all things beautiful in his time no in my time I would have everything beautiful now yeah but in his time he makes all things beautiful and that is the hope that any woman in a difficult circumstance listening and walking through the story of Esther has I think it's important for us also to say the scripture says you can grieve your disappointment sure because sometimes we want women to have the joy the happy happy joy joy face when you know their world is crumbling around them it says grieve your disappointments that the thing is don't act like gods on in the middle of your disappointment you know do not give way to your disappointment to where it has more power than the power of Christ in your life but doesn't mean that we can't cry sometimes does that mean that the situation didn't really just hurt really really bad we see a lot of mourning here yes and I think it's a good thing to lament right it's a it's a healthy thing yes we we see it throughout the Psalms the thing is that where he's gonna point me yes where is my grieving going to point me because in this story is pointing to God is saying I am grieved I am lamenting but I have a hope that's bigger and I'm going to hold fast and I think that's the key because if you're not careful you're grieving your disappointments turns into a big old pity party before you know it it's not about guard God anymore now it's about me and what I didn't get or what I should have received and that's hopeless grief you know yes and there's there's anger there's grief there's sorrow there's lamentation and then there's those things with hope they just look different Betsy would you by way of closing this episode we mentioned women in different circumstances and I know there was a woman listening to it that's me I'm in a difficult circumstance and I just need to know that God is at work would you just reach through the microphone and the Lord will do it supernaturally and just pray for her Lord you know my sister she's in desperate need for you and I pray that you will open her eyes to your greatness that today she will gain a big huge understanding of your sovereign I'm doing in her life that you will open her eyes to your love demonstrated in Christ that you will open her eyes to your grace and that you will open her eyes to the hope that is awaiting for her in her real home in heaven I pray that you will deliver her and that she will see you as her intercessor her king her God thank you God because in the midst of our pain we have hope and this is our hope Jesus is our hope thank you God in Jesus name I pray [Music]

Channel: Revive Our Hearts

Views: 7,588

Rating: 4.9805827 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Bible, Esther, Gospel, Revive Our Hearts, Erin Davis, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Id: IxVBF0T9fpM

Length: 32min 23sec (1943 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 22 2019