Women of the Bible I Part 1 - Esther

we're starting a series today and now that series is going to be specifically looking on women in the scriptures and now why would we do that matt has written actually an excellent blog on this if you have not read it I really want to beg you to go back and do that it's on your own journey blogspot and why would we study he gives three reasons in there they're all outstanding all I want to do is very briefly draw your attention to just one of them and one of the reasons why we want to study women in the scriptures is simply because we get the full picture of who God is when we look at women meaning that if you only look at man in the scriptures which there's many many men that are highlighted in the scriptures if you only look at that you're only getting a portion of God's character and worth who he is remember back in the Garden he created male and female he created them in His image and although God refers to himself all throughout scripture in the masculine form he is neither a dude nor is he a chick right he is God infinite eternal he men and women put on display portions of him but but he's actually not a guy he's not limited to being a guy so we get the fuller picture of who God is when we study some things about women in the scriptures and so it highly suggest that you do that just again with there are many things we share in common that we all get but we all have the capacity to love we had the capacity to reason etc but but women put on display the beauty of God men just don't the psalmist says I went to the temple of Lord to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord same psalmist says is the Lord the Lord strong and mighty powerful in the male body we see power and strength in the female body we see beauty and elegance and it's not limited to just the shell the way that women conduct themselves there's a beauty there's an elegance there's a grace there that if it's just a whole bunch of dudes on the earth man we get cheated so that's one of the reasons why we want to stay if we want to get a fuller picture as to who God is in there now we're gonna be looking today specifically at a woman in the scripture perhaps one of the most famous women in all the scriptures a woman by the name of Esther that would be the name we would know her not more as now here's gonna be the danger the danger for us is going to be to look and peer in and try to say what can I learn from Esther how can I be more like Esther and that is not what the scriptures are trying to do they're not trying to put on display for us here's how we can be more like Esther and therefore more like Esther we'll be pleasing unto God instead what actually is going to happen in this book is we're gonna see some things about her that are worth imitating they are worth emulating but what we're gonna see primarily is that how is it that Esther points us to the person of God if we stop at her we miss the reason why this story is included in the scriptures we miss getting pointed to the King of Kings the Lord of lords the creator and sustainer of the universe is gonna put on display some of who he is and in fact she's gonna do something on a small scale what he's gonna do on a grand scale so please when we leave here don't walk away saying and I hope I can be more like Esther that is far too shallow of a goal now you may walk out of here with some questions today you likely will walk out with more questions than you'll have answered fortunately at the end of the time we'll be here to answer some of those questions you can type it in you can text then to that right there you can do whatever and it somehow does it gets here and then we talk about it on stage here so I'm think about those and it you don't get your question answered please email Matt later on and you can get everything answered from him out there you'll probably have some more questions but you got to walk away with saying God who are you let me set the history up and then today I want us to read as much of the stories we can because today I want you to go back in time to when you were a kid and you remember how wonderful it was to listen to a story be read adventures in Odyssey a big hit in my household I'm paying that monthly fee so I can get access to all of them there we go there's one particular part of the show where they have this thing called the imagination station where they're able to go into it through time and to be able to imagine what would have taken place today that's what we want to do do not listen to this story from a cold calculated intellectual place imagine that you are there the story is powerful so we want to read as much as we can of it and then we'll draw some conclusions and draw just a few details out that you might not know but let me set it up for you very quick you remember the nation the nation of Israel in their history so they're formed there's a promise it's given to Abraham I'm gonna make into a great nation and the patriarchs that come after that he would have a son he would have a son and so forth you come down the people are forgotten they're actually enslaved by a land that was I'm holding them captive God raises up this guy named Moses and says I want to use you to bring my people into freedom it's not like Moses was the model leader all right the dude had issues and God still worked through this deeply flawed man in order to take these people out of the land of slavery into land flowing with milk and honey Moses would never get there his successor Joshua would take him into that place they would be faithful during the lifetime of Josh with the people of Israel would after that you had a series of judges in which they did faithful unfaithful faithful unfaithful faithful unfaith all the way through the entire book of Judges till you get to the end into the book of Judges closest like this everyone did what was right in his own eyes and then they come out and they're starting to ask for a king because everybody around them has a king and Samuel the Prophet on the on the scene at the time says you do not want a king and they said give us Kings alright so they got a king and he was a horrific King King Saul the first one after that came what most people refer to as the greatest King until the King Jesus would come later on but they David the King was a wonderful King they also deeply flawed man but a good king after him would come his son Solomon and Solomon would expand the territory abroad he would even have this temple that he would build for the Lord and then after Solomon everything went crazy there was the division of the northern kingdom in a southern kingdom and there was a fight the southern kingdom maintained the line of David all the way throughout it was always just the son of the son of that would stay in charge and several of them were actually good godly kings some of them were not the Northern Kingdom never experienced God the King day actually went through five dynasties people killing pilla it just was awful what they went through in 722 their evil had reached such heights in 722 BC God uh sure Zin a foreign nation Assyria and they kicked tail and the northern kingdom is no longer Israel is no longer it's only Judah that is remaining now Judah would eventually go the way also of Israel they would eventually turn away from the Lord forget him not follow his ways and so in 586 BC the Babylonians would march in Nebuchadnezzar he would take over in Jerusalem he would even do horrific things to the temple itself now the Babylonians didn't stay in power because in 539 Cyrus walks in asurs in a new kingdom that was established it was the Persians that would take over it's during this time right here and when the Persians had taken over that the story of Esther is going to take place the the King Cyrus in there he had given an edict in which the people of whatever faith of whatever they were could go back to their homes and they could live the lives that they wanted to live it was an ingenious plan on his part instead of having to do so much babysitting and then and then trying to to just squash this revolt and this rebellion over he doesn't just go back where you are and their kingdom is massive and then right now when the story of Esther takes place is a guy named Xerxes it's in power house you're where would be the name that he would be known by in the Hebrew same person and he is so insanely wealthy some historians even believe he might have been outside of Solomon the richest King to ever live on the face of the earth his kingdom and its expanse is absurd and here's what you need to hear this is a man who lived with no restraints it was excess without anyone ever saying no to him so we pick up the story in Esther chapter 1 verse 1 I've actually asked that the words not even go on the screen so that you can just listen here if you have your Bible you want to follow along go for it but make sure you listen this is what happened during the time of Xerxes V Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to cush at that time King Xerxes resigned I'm sorry reigned from his royal throne in the Citadel of Susa and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his Nobles and officials the military leaders of Persia and media the princes and the nobles of the provinces were present for a full a hundred and eighty days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty when these days were over the king gave a banquet lasting seven days in the enclosed garden of the king's palace for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the Citadel of Susa the garden had hangings of white and blue linen fastened with cords of white linen and purple material two silver rings on the marble pillars there are couches of gold and silver on the mosaic pavement of a whole bunch of nice stone wine was served in goblets of gold each one different from the other and the royal wine was abundant in keeping with the Kings liberality by the king's command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man whatever he wished Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the Royal Palace of King Xerxes now here's what this author does of this story now we don't know exactly who the author is but this is a brilliant brilliant writer the way the story is going to unfold is is magnificent God will never be mentioned in this book no prayer will be recorded in the pages of Esther in many ways it will seem as if God is absent on the scene and yet what the writer is setting us up from the first word of the book is he's letting us know God may not be seen but he is not absent he may not be heard but he will carry out his will he might not even be felt but he is moving right on the very beginning lets us know that this is the king xerxes d one who has no restraint excess everywhere and he goes to great lengths to tell us about all of these excesses letting us know he had gold couches for crying out loud and the goblets none of them were crafted in the same way - all were unique crazy-crazy wealth everybody could get tanked as often as they wanted this seven-day banquet was just under you drink whatever you want to drink there is no area of life where anyone here had to show restraint because they had unlimited in their mind resources can I ask you a question throughout all of human history have you ever seen it to be a good combination men with power and unlimited resource that ever worked out well so he throws a banquet last for seven days and everybody is enjoying it on the seventh day when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine really he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him to bring before him Queen Vashti wearing her royal crown 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 and then the King became furious and burned with anger the Scriptures are a little more polite when the way that we translate this it says that when he was in high spirits which means when he could barely walk he is so inebriated he decides that what he wants to do is to put on display his bride he has shown no restraint in any area of life and he's not going to show restraint here either the Hebrew scholars Jewish rabbis as well as even modern-day commentators most all of them agree that the requests that he has given here is not just simply that she shows up in some type of a beauty pageant format he is asking that she will come and show up wearing nothing but her crown and he wants to put her on display she's not a bride to him she's a toy you do realize man this is exactly what we do when we choose to look only at the externals of the woman which use not to view the person the woman who is created in the image of God putting on display who God is equal in value substance and glory we are only choosing to use her for our own pleasure it is unrestrained excess on our parts Pope John Paul said it the best problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of a woman but that it shows too little of a woman Queen Vashti says no someone said no to me nobody had to guts everybody feared the man and nobody had the guts to say no and she said no good for her she should have said no now there's no greater place for wisdom than a bunch of drunk men so here's what occurs after that since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and just as he spoke with the wise men who understood the times and were closest to the king according to the law what must be done to Queen Vashti he asked she has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes that the eunuchs have taken to her and then one of them replied in the presence of the King and the nobles Queen Vashti has done wrong not only against the king but against all the nobles and all the peoples in 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 will 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 Kings Nobles in the same way there will be no end to the disrespect and discord is it just me or is this a little bit of an overreaction can you believe she said no to coming here wearing only her crown and I'll tell you what since that happened its words gonna get out and and the whole of society is gonna crumble under itself therefore if it pleases 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 and the Kings and his nobles were pleased with this advice of course you are a bunch of morons so the King did as was proposed he sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom to each province in its own script and to each people it's own language proclaiming and each people's tongue that every man should be ruler over his own household I can tell you one thing these guys had no concept just no concept whatsoever of why God made male and female from their perspective women were to be used and abused now why am i believing this point because this is the culture that God Himself is about to sovereignly uh sure in one of his daughters see we hear all about the hero's story about Esther but if you stop for a moment to think what it is that she was walking into they send word out to everyone and everybody in their own language got this and the command was given later when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her after the buzz wore off and after his anger came down he got back to a place we could come to his senses once again I think he recognized what every husband recognizes at some point in their life he had cast her away and while she was away he was filled with thoughts about her because it's not good for man to be alone and he's got all of this excess he doesn't have to say no to anything he's looking out and can have anything that his heart desires but when the buzz were off and the anger came down he remembered his wife and the people around him are recognizing what's going on he knew his heart was not a good place is that not true is that not true that what a wife brings to the table is far more far more than what money can bring do we not get to see something of God in that you may have all the wealth that you want right now you may have the capacity to to say no to very few things you may can say yes to pretty much anything your heart desires but is it not true that at the end of the day what your soul is longing for is not more things well your soul is longing for is Oh God don't let me be alone and a woman Clues us into that but even she can never get to the depths of what our souls need the King's personal attendants proposed something let's let's have a search let's search be made for beautiful young virgins for the King and 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 and let them be placed under the care of Haggai the Kings 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 and this advice appealed to the king and he followed it now there was an a citadel of Susa a jew of the tribe of benjamin named Mordecai son of Jair Mordecai I had a cousin whose name was Hadassah whom he had brought up because she had neither a father nor mother in 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 we've been set up into the story thus far that pulls us into the storyline of excess and there's been this thing that has happened that we all are uh and now we're gonna be introduced into the person who's gonna point us to the ultimate hero but this would be the hero of the story and interesting interestingly enough God in His divine wisdom and knowledge and sovereignty and power knowing all that he knows orchestrating everything he orchestrates knew that there would come a time in which a culture would rise up and a king would have unrestrained excess and he would only value the external of women and then the people were gonna be put into a threatening position in order for these people to be spared and saved the Lord was going to form in fashion inside of the mother's womb of a woman who would die at some point in the life of this girl he would form in fashion and not just put in the typical normal beauty that all women Zess he would pour out unusual beauty unusual elegance inside of her and it wasn't just a way that she was formed yes her form was lovely but it's actually the way that she carried herself as well most likely all of her life people pointed in jealousy is her skin so beautiful why is her hair why does she talk like that why does she a favor everywhere she goes it's possible this is the say at David that she might not have had a whole lot of close friends her parents would be taken away from her and then her cousin brings her in her cousin knows and fears God and he raises her in such a manner to know and to fear God and this girl whom everyone on the outside would look in and see very clearly this she has like Christie Brinkley freakish type of beauty where you go you shouldn't look like that at that age this shouldn't happen he raises her please hear this he raises her to know that all of this is one day going away what's in here is the most important when the Kings order in edik 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 and trusted to hey guy who had charge of the harem and the girl pleased him and won his favor and immediately he provided her with 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 palace 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 now we get to know a little bit more about Esther's character just one thing that I see a note in here is that Esther understood Authority she understood God's authority that God had placed her in a position and she's now in a place where she can do pretty much whatever she wants there's no need to go back and to find out anything from Mordecai but she's loyal she's compassionate she's humble she is not one in my opinion and the Scriptures would look at and say it's like a gold ring and a pig's now this is a woman who shows discretion this is a woman who is seeking wisdom is it not true that not just one of the things we see in women don't we typically just see more wisdom I read a study recently from the University of Michigan that put it out and it talked about how boys make decisions and a boy and a single girl at an age I think the age was like 10 in there the girl makes a better decision virtually every time better decision makers now that shocks no one okay right if you add a girl to the equation over here with with a girl reading if you add a boy the equation guess what happens they both become better decision makers I like that you add a third girl into the equation they become even better decision-makers as they discuss more possibilities if you add a third boy into the equation and anything past that they become exponentially worse decision makers it is no longer about finding out what you know what's wise what should we not do it's hey that could probably work they become dangerous right what we know this kind of in general that she she is not abusing her power this is what's great no restraint over here on the first part of the story look how much restraint usually I'm gonna do whatever she wants to do whenever she wants to do it she wants to seek wisdom from those who she knows I've got a great track record of walking with God now this is gonna mean exactly what you think it means before a girl's turn came to go into King Xerxes she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women six months with oil of myrrh 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 returned to another part of the harem to the care of some named the Kings 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 that's exactly what you think happened now again one last time I will contrast this and I'll get off my soap soap box here think of how utterly self-centered and short-sighted this man is I'm gonna get all of the most beautiful women in the land I'm gonna get them all I'm gonna bring them here I'm gonna give them all kinds of treatments and I'm gonna have one night with them and that one night is going to for all practical purposes completely ruin their chances of ever marrying again they will live a life that is more similar to a widow at that point think of all the men who would be deprived of wonderful wives that they could connect with become partners with live life it is so selfish and this is the environment god it's assuring his daughter into when the turn came for Esther the girl Mordecai had adopted the daughter of his uncle to go to the Kings she asked for nothing other than what hey God the Kings eunuch who was in charge there him suggested an Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her she was taken to King Xerxes and the royal residence in the 10th month the month of the Tibet 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 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 and he proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality Esther chooses to make herself available to the king for a night she does not follow the commands of God and yet God is all over it can I just share a quick thing with you not even sin can fort the plans of God he is captivated by her more than anybody else he places the crown on her head she takes the place of Vashti years have gone by now since Vashti was cast out and now God's woman is now assured in to the royal throne and then the story right after this tells us that Mordecai is hanging out and he hears these two guards and they get angry and they're gonna have a plan in which they're gonna attack the King and assassinate him he gives this word back to Esther Esther then reports it to the Kings officials they go about they find it out to be treu and then go and hang them and then it says it was recorded in the annals here's another thing that I see from Esther that I think she learned from Mordecai but credit to her for putting it into practice Mordecai was seeking the good of the government that was foolish he's seeking the good of the king who shows no restraint etc he is faithful in the land that God has placed in it and so is she now were introduced then to the enemy there's a man named Haman and Haman is the guy that is actually ushered into being in charge alongside of the king and he's placed beside him and there's nobody else that has the same kind of power that Haman has and this Haman has an ego I think he's got short man's complex he just gets frustrated that other people are doing exactly what he wants when he wants it and so when he walks out into the streets he's demanding that people bow down before him because he's the man and Mordecai this is I don't fear man I fear God I don't fear man so he refuses to bow and it just eats after Haman and so instead of just thinking about killing Mordecai alone he actually finds out the group of people that he belongs to he finds out there's these Hebrew people and they're still scared of Broadus he comes up with this plan and the plan is that we're gonna attack all of the Hebrew people so we're gonna get an edict I'm gonna tell the King and so he tells the king by the way there's some people that are really dangerous and they're gonna hurt you in the long run and so if you'll just take your ring stamp it on here I've got a plan that's actually gonna free you up it's for your good etc and so the King does that plan and so that the plan is that everybody can attack the Jews at will you just go after him and then you can take everything that they have and Mordecai hears about the plan he goes out and he sits by the gate and he's very sad so the messengers come from Esther to find out what's wrong with him and then he takes this word back to her or this plan and he says you need to go see the king now listen to this in chapter 4 listen to her response when she is it's in here somewhere and basically what she says is I can't go before the King if I go before the king then I die no no I do know where this is it says when Esther's words reported to Mordecai sent back this answer do not think that because you are in the Kings house you alone of all the Jews will escape for if you remain silent this time relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place but you and your father's family will perish and who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this Mordecai sends word back to I know you are afraid it's okay to be afraid but don't think for a second that if this plan goes through that you're gonna escape this you your father's household will die but the Lord will be faithful he made a promise to Abraham all the way back here he will complete that promise he will fulfill it if deliverance isn't gonna come from you it will come from somebody else God will not fail we may fail God will not but Esther who knows maybe the whole reason you are gorgeous was because God wanted to leverage your beauty to save a whole race of people she since backwards says tell them to fast and I'll fast and we'll spend some time and at the end of that time I will go before the king and if I die then I die I Esther because she sought and learned it from Mordecai Esther does not fear man in the same way that she fears God and she says my life is not as important as all of their lives if I have to lay my life down then so be it so that others can be saved sound familiar I wish I could read it to you but let me just summarize she gives a great plan where she establishes this banquet and she wants to have this particular party now the first party that she has there's gonna be a whole lot of people that are gathered there and so it would not be wise and prudent at that point to share with the King all that needed to be shared it could have fouled the plans instead she says come back for no private party and so they came back for another private party a banquet she threw and then she unveils and she says hey by the way there's a evil plot that's taking place and as of right now me and all of my people it has been planned that we will be annihilated the king says what the king has already told her you have my favor up to half of my kingdom whatever you want I'll give it to you and she tells them about this plan and he says who is it and she's invited Haman to the party and Haman's talking to his buddy he's like this is gracious like King loves me the Queen loves me I've been invited to a private party for her and who is this plan so she says it's him he's the one who has planned all of this and he darts out of the room and then he comes back later on and he's trying to to beg Esther for mercy and the King walks in right when he is falling on her bed and the King thinks that he has in tents they put a bag over his head right there March him out to the very gallows that he had built to hang Mordecai on the very gallows he is now hanging in there and then in Scriptures tell us that Mordecai is raised to the power to the exact place that Haman was and now God has his man inside of a pagan government to take care of his people to fulfill his promise so that the people would continue on and it wouldn't be just a Greek Empire that would come over and take over the Persians but actually around 30 ad or BC the Romans were then marching and established his whole government and then a guy would be born just a few years after what we would call really the turn of the century a guy would be born in and he would live to be approximately 30 and he would go to a cross and on that cross he would give up his life in his blood and it would not just be the physical life that he would be redeeming and saving it would be the spiritual life and V Redeemer had finally come the better Esther would show up and give up his life so that we could all live and it all started with a pagan government and a guy who had a thing for really good-looking women now you tell me what the book of Esther is about I'm over my time and I apologize can I very briefly give you just four things that I see that we can learn here from Esther but four things from from this story number one fear of man is tempting but fear of God is convincing I know today you may be tempted to fear man do not dare God trust God's track record Esther did that number two empires will rise and fall but Christ will reign forever empires will always be coming and always be going here on the earth but King Jesus will reign forever and ever and ever and ever so which Kingdom do you want to make the most investment into number three I cannot ruin the plans of God think you blown it as a parent you can't ruin the plans of God think you blown it as a spouse you can't ruin the plans of God think you've blown it when you tried to share your faith with this other person it just was a complete and utter disaster you cannot ruin the plans of God you're not nearly that impressive not even your sin can fort the plans of God last thing God is not always obvious but he is never absent from the beginning of the book to the end of the book he is not mentioned and yet perhaps more than any other book in all of the Bible he is dripping on every page moving stirring working out his good and perfect will worn where's beset it this way though God is not named in this book he is present and active he was not hiding he was only hidden my friend to you today he may not be obvious to you but I promise you he is not hiding from you he may just only be hidden from your plain sight right now so what does Esther ultimately tell us because God is who he is I want to live as if he's in control because he is any prey honey father thank you for pouring out Beauty on the externals of Esther I'm so that the King might be attracted to her but God thank you for doing a far deeper work in her soul that you might accomplish your purposes so or thank you there's not there's no talent we have no gift we have that is too small or too large you can use anything so God convinced us and that our job really is just to join you and what it is that you're doing we beg you to use this you want to be a part of your kingdom thank you that you are further down the road way further down than we are and planning how it is that you will use this we love you we trust you we pray all of this in Jesus's name Amen

Channel: Journey Church

Views: 31,265

Rating: 4.7126436 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: q5uJTZC1UJE

Length: 42min 38sec (2558 seconds)

Published: Sun May 01 2016