Turn with me to the book of Esther. I've titled this The Search for a New Queen. I was just thinking while I was sitting here, we just have a new president, a new leader. Well, we find a situation where they needed a new leader in the search for a new queen. I want to look at the first two chapters of Esther, and we really begin the story this morning. I tried to kind of prime the pump last Sunday. I spent the time focusing on encouraging you in the Old Testament. Even as the Apostle Paul in many places tells us that the Old Testament is profitable and helps to equip us for every good work, that there we find instruction for us. Yes, even the Old Testament stories, they're not simply for somebody else. They're not someone else's mail. They are our mail as well. And here we know, hopefully you read the book of Esther. That was your homework. You know, if you do counseling, sometimes counselors give you homework during the week. It doesn't sound real godly when you use the word homework, but I hope you read Esther. If not, read Esther this week. It should only take you about half an hour to sit down and read that. Read it slowly and carefully, by the way, and see those details within the story there. It's a story of a beautiful young lady. It's a kind of Cinderella story, actually, maybe Disney stole it from this, in which an unknown orphan girl is placed high within the kingdom and becomes the new queen of Persia. It's a story with many twists and turns and a lot of irony. In fact, I keep finding more irony to the story as I dig in myself. Somebody told me recently it would make a good movie. It definitely would, but we need to understand this is a real factual story. This is something that took place in history. It's not a fictional story. It's not a parable. Neither is it a parable-like story that simply is put together to communicate another truth. This is really something that happened. Esther was a real woman in this kingdom that God placed at a particular point in a particular time for a great purpose. And though it is a historical situation in the Old Testament that relates to Israel and the Jews, we're gonna find that it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ as well, that there's a theme of redemption here, a kind of shadow of what the Messiah would come and do in giving his life. But here we find the story begins here in chapter one, and there's much to learn from the story. The New Testament tells us that the Old Testament is for our instruction, not only for God's people in the past, not only for the nation of Israel then, but for us, for the church. Romans 15 verse 4, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. And one of my main points was Esther is written to give you hope. Because Esther draws you to the Lord, it should draw you to God himself. Esther is for you. And Esther gives us hope exactly, precisely because it draws us to God. Knowing God better produces deeper, stronger hope in the life of the believer. And we need hope today, don't we? You know, we can't put our hope in a new president. We can't put our hope in a certain kind of governmental system. We can't put hope in ourselves and what we can accomplish in our life. Our hope must be placed in God himself, and I believe Esther does that. It pushes us towards God and to depend upon him. Now, as we turn to our first chapter, it's a good reminder there are no chapter divisions in the Bible. Right? The guy that did this many years ago on horseback. Put the chapter divisions in the verses. And yes, they can be helpful. I can tell you, turn to Esther chapter 2 and those things. But those breaks are not there. You have one continual story. Having said that, I will break it up over a few Sundays so that we look at it in detail. But that can help even in understanding the story is to kind of eliminate those divisions and to read it as one continual story. And again, the name of God is never mentioned in the book of Esther, not even once. And so it seems, as we read this, that God is absent. You know, you read the Old Testament in many places. And God seems very active, very involved. Certainly in Genesis, he's there talking with people, visiting people with angels, and you have the great book of Exodus. Obviously, God is greatly and miraculously at work. That's visible, it's public, it's evident. But you come to Esther, and God doesn't seem to be anywhere in the story. That's one of those things that drew me to Esther in the first place. I'm sure that's how the Jews felt. The Jews have been exiled. They are now scattered within the Persian Empire. They're probably thinking the same things that we might as we read Esther, and that's, where is God? What about his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What about the covenants God made? How can we be here now? Where is God? Right, like the psalmist, where are you, Lord? Do you not see my mourning? Do you not see that I drown my couch in tears, as David says? And the Jews are in a different empire, no longer in their land, no longer enjoying the fruits of their own land. And God may seem absent in your life at times. Maybe even right now you might feel that to be the case, that he's quiet, that you can't see what he's doing. Maybe he seems indifferent to your situation, but he's there. And he's present. And it's a theme I will continue to go through throughout the study of Esther. He is always active. He is always working his good, perfect, wise plan in your life. Yes, even when you face the greatest of challenges. In fact, that's often when God really shows himself in his glory, isn't it? If life was always smooth and easy, well, there wouldn't be a whole lot to go ooh and ah about when it comes to God. It's the challenges that he throws at us. That shows again that he's good, that he will not leave you, that he's working his plan. And notice how the author begins, verse one, now, in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces. Now we're introduced to a historical setting here, a king who had a vast empire from India to Ethiopia. And this is how the author begins identifying the king, Ahasuerus, the king of the kingdom of Median Persia. This is one of the most powerful kingdoms in history. This is what who is called Xerxes I. Some translations had Xerxes rather than this name. In history, you might find Xerxes as well. He ruled this kingdom from 486 to 465 BC. And he would have a son who then would be the king during the time of Nehemiah, Artaxerxes. And that's when Nehemiah would come before him and request that he go back and rebuild the walls in Jerusalem. So we're kind of in the time of Nehemiah and Ezra towards more the end of the exile of Israel. And so Esther occurs after the first return to Jerusalem. This is after the 70 years of Babylonian captivity, recorded in Daniel. And Nehemiah's journey would be a little bit later. So we are in the midst of God beginning to move Israel back into their land. Interestingly, only Ezra 7 through 10, Nehemiah, and Malachi are later history than the Book of Esther. So again, Esther's towards the end, but you have a little bit of the Old Testament left before you get to the end of the Old Testament. Ahasuerus, the king here, would reign for a number of years and had several rebellions during his reign. Famous ones were some in Babylon. There were two rebellions in Babylon and one in Egypt. Remember, this is a vast empire that goes into Africa and goes far east. It was shortly before his reign that his father, Darius, had begun to fight Greece. If you're into your history and you enjoy studying ancient civilizations, you have the great battle of Persia and Greece taking place during this time, taking place with his father Darius there, who began to fight Greece. Darius then tried to overcome Greece, was eventually defeated by the Athenians at the famous Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. That's where we get marathon today. We run a marathon for those who find pleasure in running long distances and being out of breath, but then that wasn't really a fun race. That was part of a battle and delivering news, but that's where we get this word marathon. But Darius there suffered defeat against Greece and retreated back to Persia, to his kingdom. He intended then to amass a massive army and return to fight Greece, but he shortly died after that and never could go back and fight back against Greece. So later his son, and this is the king here in Esther, would do that very thing. And following his father's footsteps, he would amass an army of a quarter of a million soldiers. And from today's Turkey would cross from the area of Turkey into Greece with this massive army of 250,000 soldiers. And once reached Athens, he would be defeated. And again, in history, we begin to see Greece becomes a greater and greater power, and the kingdom of Media Persia becomes weaker, and Greece would begin to win against them. There were many battles during this time. The famous Battle of the Spartans was during this time. But in the end, Persia would be unsuccessful to overcome Greece, and they would get a leader, and his name, Greece would get a leader, and his name would be Alexander the Great. Well, you know how that goes, and he had great leadership in military, and Greece would only become more powerful, and eventually become the reigning empire during that time. So, but backing up, we have this kingdom now of Persia, still the great kingdom of the world. It was so extensive, it went from modern day Libya to the area of Pakistan. And you can look later and see the map of just how big this kingdom was. So this king was powerful and had an extensive kingdom. The kingdom of Persia would last around 200 years. So in our story, here with King Ahasuerus, who reigns, starting in verse one there, is the most powerful person in the world. He has the most authority, the most power, the most wealth of anyone. And in a time when a king should be concerned about his kingdom, when you have someone like Greece, who's gaining power and momentum, what does this king find himself doing? Well, if you read chapter one, he is putting on feasts and banquets and partying. He's enjoying himself as the king, enjoying his riches and wealth and power and the luxury of his life. He is indulging himself and he is wasting time. We're gonna find that he's not the brightest leader there is, with a lot of humor and irony in the story. But Esther begins with a focus on the king, And there are so many details here in verse three, the third year of his reign. He gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him. And verse four says, he showed the riches of his royal glory and splendor and pomp and his greatness. He wanted to show off how much he had. We're going to see that he likes to show off what he has. Here he shows off his riches and his wealth, and he wants to impress those that are there in his kingdom and those officials around him. and the princes that reign in his kingdom. So if you read here, you find it seems like a quite impressive king. that puts on this feast. But we find soon that he is quite unimpressive, actually, and narcissistic, and self-centered, and indulgent, a man given to debauchery and sexual vice, a man solely focused on himself, but a man who's convinced he's the greatest of all, that he's the greatest king. Kind of reminds us maybe of King Nebuchadnezzar, who thought himself to be so great, and God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar. At least Nebuchadnezzar had a humbling of heart and a change of mind, and honored God, honored Yahweh, but this king doesn't seem to do that. King Ahasuerus is not only full of wine, but he's full of himself. And the beginning of the story focuses on his greatness. In fact, the description here in chapter one, all of these details of the white cotton curtains and the violet hangings fastened with cords and all that goes into the marble pillars and the furniture and the golden vessels, this is one of the largest, most detailed sections of the Old Testament that describes anything. It describes the palace and his wealth. And so you really get the impression this man had everything. He was a powerful king. He had everything he wanted because of all the descriptions. So it's a focus on the heaviness of the king. You might use the word glory, the glory of this king, which really begins the irony of the story. It seems at first that this king is really the one in charge, that's really the one who has all power, that whatever he says goes, but as we're gonna see in the book of Esther, he really doesn't have that power, that there's someone who is far greater in power, who is orchestrating all things according to his will and not according to the king's will. Well, there are two things clearly known about him, about this king. beyond just riches and power, and the two things are his love of women and his love of wine. Now, turn with me just briefly to Proverbs chapter 31. If you read the book of Proverbs, I know you're thinking, Proverbs 31 is the excellent wife, but there is a section right before that, and it's a section for kings, those in leadership. Proverbs 31 verse 1, the words of King Lameel, an oracle that his mother taught him. It's kind of neat. So this king had a mother who told him, make sure you do these things and don't do these things. But verse 3, she had said, the instruction she gave him that he's handing down in wisdom is, do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. And verse four, it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. And so there's a warning, isn't there? If you are a king, the warning here, and this would be a warning for Israel, to not give yourself to women, this was a warning also to David and Solomon, and not to give yourself to wine. Because then you can't be a righteous judge, you can't make wise choices for your kingdom. That was the warning there, the instruction for Israel. But in Esther, going back to Esther 1, you find those are the very two things the king gives himself to. He's all about his carnal desires and his flesh. He gives himself continually to these things. Even his drinks were served in golden vessels. He took pride in his drinking. And again, he gives this banquet in which they can just enjoy all that they have. And it wasn't enough for just him and his friends and his counselors and his princes to party, but he gives an edict, it says there in chapter one, for everyone in the kingdom to do the same. Right? And this might startle us if our president said, you know, party on, dude, or something like that. And that's the order he gives, the presidential order. Although we may not be surprised as well, but here, probably not surprised either. This is what he says. Party, enjoy yourself. And it's a six-month-long feast. Indulge yourself. So this man is really not about reigning, he's not about making wise choices for his kingdom. The edict says this, the text says, there is no compulsion. Meaning, don't exercise self-control. Indulge yourself. Enjoy yourself. Now, it could be that he's putting on this feast and this party because of his recent victories in Egypt and Babylon. Remember, there were these little rebellions, not little, they were sizable, I guess, rebellions within his kingdom, and he had victory in Egypt and Babylon. Maybe he's celebrating because of those military victories. But also, notice earlier there, it said in verse three, it says, in the third year of his reign, he gave a feast. It might be he's just enjoying another year as the king. And so let's party because I am the king again this year. That would make a lot of sense. Some, though, think maybe he's putting on a party because he has a new wife, the queen, Queen Vashti, who then begins to come into the picture and takes center stage in the beginning of the story. So the celebration lasts six months, and it says later there, verse nine, Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to him. There's kind of a sting there, I think, in the text, right, that his wife is giving a party for the women that belonged to her husband. And so this is the kind of life that Queen Vashti is in, the kind of culture in this world. And so there's a lot of feasting. And now she throws a party, probably against her own will, maybe to satisfy the king. And many of these women were his concubines. They were women that he enjoyed at his pleasure, who had no choice, by the way, in the matter. You have to understand, under a king like this, that you do what the king says, or you lose your life. and we're gonna see that reality here soon. So there's a bit of irony, though. A great king, it seems on the one hand, who has military success and power, and yet he's not great at all, is he? He's selfish, he's focused on himself, given himself to debauchery, using his position not for the well-being of the kingdom, but for himself. Well, matters only get worse. Notice verse 10. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was married with wine, he commanded Mehumen, Bistha, Harbana, Biktha, and Abaktha, Zethar, and Karkis, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of the king Asuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown. By the way, those names there are names that some of you young parents could choose for your kids. If you're running out of ideas, they are here in Esther. But here he says, the text says, bring Queen Vashti before the king now in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty for she was lovely to look at. And so things get out of hand. the king, I think, drunk as a skunk. The king then does something shameful. He orders the queen, again, his wife, to come before him and his friends, a kind of beauty pageant. And the text says, she was lovely to look at. Friends, I don't think I need to give you details. I think it's wise if scripture doesn't give you more details than this, right? He wanted to show off his wife in a shameful way, I think essentially because of his pride. He wanted to brag about her beauty and maybe make his friends envious of the kind of wife that he had. And he uses her as a sexual object. But here's again the thing, when the king has an order, you obey, right? You must obey the king. Otherwise, you put your own life at risk. And this is the kind of culture around the king, serving the king, you do what he says, no matter your position in the kingdom. But now he puts his wife in this position and ordering her to come into the king's chamber, putting her life at risk. Now, Interestingly, kings really didn't do this. Even some of the corrupt nations that you study, a king wouldn't call his own wife in for this kind of show. It would be other girls that he would present shamefully before others. So what he's doing here is, It's very shameful to bring his wife in this way. It's severely insulting to her. Many in the kingdom would be shocked and shameful at what happens. It's despicable. And it certainly would be newsworthy of the kingdom if this word got out that day. and it puts her in danger. And I'll just pause and say, obviously he doesn't love her, right? Because he's using her as an object. On top of that, he's actually endangering her by bringing her into a group of men who are drunk. So again, whatever impression we had of the king initially, being powerful and wealthy and wise, he's not so impressive after all. If this is a Cinderella story, he is no Prince Charming. He's nowhere close. He should have protected her, right? But he puts her in danger. He orders her to something shameful for their own gratification, something scandalous that should never be done. But what is her response? Verse 12. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this, the king became enraged and his anger burned within him. She refuses. Wow, it's a powerful moment. It's amazing. It's startling. I'm sure everyone there would be startled, the princes in particular. Someone is refusing to obey the king. And of all people, who is it? It's his own wife. By the way, back then, a woman submitted to her husband entirely. He was the king of the castle. And so you have some irony here. The king of the kingdom orders his wife, and she does not submit to him. I think we see an unimpressive man, but we see an impressive woman. amongst them. She refuses to come to the party, to be the party's spectacle, and to fulfill their carnal desires. She even risked her own life in refusing to do so. The king then becomes enraged. Someone has defied him. Someone has disobeyed him. And done so in front of the officials, the rulers of the kingdom. Really, it would bring great shame upon the king. in front of all of his friends and buddies. Interestingly that he, in his order to bring Queen Vashti into the chamber, it would have brought great shame upon her, but the irony is in her refusal to go before him, the shame was then transferred to him. Now he experienced shame because his own wife refused to do what he said. And rightly so, right? He becomes furious. We would expect this of this king. Somebody disobeys me. I am the king. I have the power. And in his anger, the story continues that he gathers his wise men, verse 13. He gathers the wise men who knew the times. I mean, it's a little bit humorous, right? Who knew the times to do what? To talk about what to deal with his wife? So he gathers his greatest counselors in his kingdom. So he had his own cabinet, so to speak, right? Maybe there was a little bit of wisdom in that, that the king did have a cabinet of officials and counselors by which he could get counsel from. And he does so in what to do with Queen Vashti. Now obviously we already know he can't control himself in any way, and neither now can he control his anger. So gathering his counselors, including, it mentions there in verse 14, the seven princes of Persian media, he seeks a plan how to deal with, or he makes a domestic problem a kingdom problem. I mean, you have to smile a little bit, right? I mean, now this requires all the princes of the empire to deal with this situation, to deal with his own wife. And then the question is posed by him, what is to be done about her because she refused my command? Now, if you're sitting there and the king asks, what's to be done? What sayeth thou? you probably want to be careful how you answer the king, right? No matter what you may be thinking, yeah, you've gone too far. If you mention that, you might lose your life. Be careful how you answer him. One man speaks up, Mamucan, and I'm guessing he's trying to win the king's favor, as another man will do later named Haman. But he says this, not only is this against you, king, but the entire kingdom. This is a really big problem. This isn't just an offense against you, it's an offense against everyone in your kingdom. Not only that, as they have this interesting humorous meeting, which lacks wisdom, it says, not only that, but the women throughout the empire will hear what happened and each of them will rebel in their own homes. There's the problem. So they're thinking ahead to the ramifications of what Queen Vashti has done, and that is now you're going to have women throughout the empire not submitting to their husbands. They're all going to rebel. Now it's become a massive problem, hasn't it, throughout the kingdom. What started as a party now is a kingdom problem. Queen Vashti has served, they say, as a bad example in the home, and so thought this counselor. Now it will have ramifications throughout the kingdom. Maybe some added irony here is that Vashti isn't the threat, or women in the kingdom isn't the threat. The real threat is Greece. Right? I mean, this is kind of the historical irony is you have another country that's amassing a greater military and power. The king should be concerned about that, but he's all the while concerned that his wife isn't going to listen to him. And now that's their kingdom problem. So here's the proposal plan. We would expect great wisdom, wouldn't we, by what's proposed by his counselors. Probably not. And that is that a decree be sent out that Vashti can no longer be the queen for what she has done, but to let everyone know this within the kingdom, obviously everyone will eventually know she's no longer the queen, but make a decree that women need to submit to their husbands throughout the kingdom, and it says here, let every man be the master of his own household. And so this is really, friends, this is the irony of the story. In making all of this public, not only may it give women the idea to rebel, they may not have been thinking about that anyways, now they will, since the queen did, but now everyone throughout the entire kingdom of Persia will know that the king's wife disobeyed him. Isn't that great? I mean, these are not great counselors. Now everyone's gonna know what happened. And he's not gonna look so great as a king, right? He's the one that's the greatest in power in the universe. And yet his own wife won't listen to him. And everyone in the kingdom is going to know. He brings even more shame on himself. Friends, let me pause for a moment. This is what anger can do in your life. Make it practical. biblical counselor for a moment. We struggle with anger, don't we? Unrighteous anger. What is righteous anger? Righteous anger is being angry over the things that concern God and not self. And righteous anger is displayed with self-control, not a lack of control. Well, obviously the king's not concerned about God's glory in any way. He's concerned about who? himself. And he lacks the self-control that he should have as a king, for sure, being that example. And in doing so, he has unrighteous anger. And what's the result? Now you have the bad results of his anger. Things are getting more out of hand. They're not getting better. They're getting worse. and he begins to lose control. He begins to make foolish decisions which often come back on him. We're going to see one later. who does the same, who hates the Jews, who devises a plan in his anger, and it will only fall back on him. So this ironic twist of many twists in the story of Esther shows us that he really is a king dole of understanding. He lacks wisdom. He makes a private issue a public issue, and it only puts him in the worst light, so much for his princes and counselors helping him. The edict is given throughout the kingdom. And then we have chapter two begins, notice after verse one, after these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. I think this gives us a picture of his anger. Definitely a picture of his drunkenness. Either way, he hadn't come to his senses, right? He was drunk, he was angry, he was making foolish decisions, then he removes her as the queen. Chapter 2, verse 1 says, in a sense, he finally did come to his senses, at least to a good degree. He realized what he had done. And I think even maybe the author is getting at here, there's some regret. by the king. Maybe, yeah, he did not make a good decision of removing her as the queen. He remembered Vashti when he cooled down. And that meant one thing, though. Now that he came to his senses, he needed a new queen, right? He needed to find someone to replace Queen Vashti. Let's have a show of hands what women would want to sign up for this one. Who wants to be the new queen of Persia? Doesn't seem so attractive now. Verse three, he gathers all the young virgins, it says, to the harem in Susa. Susa's the capital there. Again, I believe this is against their will. This is not something people were signing up for. I think it was one of those things that they took a search party throughout the kingdom to find who would be the new queen. I mean, friends, this is scary, isn't it? If you are a young woman in the kingdom, you probably want to hide. You don't want to be chosen to be brought before this king. It's quite the event, the search for a new queen. Verse three, let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa, the capital. And so now, He sends this out throughout the kingdom. Gather women for the position of the new queen. It says there later, let the cosmetics be given them. And then verse 4, let the young women who pleases the king be queen instead of who? Instead of Vashti. And it displeased the king and he did so. So the search begins. So the search for Cinderella throughout the kingdom. So begins the preparation as well. As I just read there, let their cosmetics be given them. Right? Get the makeup out. And the hand lotion or whatever might be required. It's a serious event. And it would be a year long event, the story says, a year to find the new queen and for all the women who are gathered to prepare themselves. And it gives detail here of this kind of preparation that the king wants. All the cosmetics, the physical beauty and preparation that there is, the perfumes, all the things that must take place, all the women prepare themselves in this way. I can't imagine the amount of cosmetics, the amount of perfume. When I was doing my Christmas shopping, I went into the mall where the perfume was, and it's overwhelming. There's makeup everywhere, and I was lost. I didn't know where I was. Probably why all the women come to me. Do you need help, sir? But here we have lots of cosmetics in the kingdom. This is a serious event. Again, why would the king be doing something like this, being the king? And it's exactly when we meet who? Esther. It's when Esther comes into the story. But we actually meet her first by Mordecai, verse five. There was a Jew in Susa, the citadel, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair. Here, We are introduced to Esther first through the man who has taken care of Esther, likely her cousin, someone who's a little bit older than Esther. Esther was an orphan, she lost her parents, and Mordecai is the one who brought Esther up. He was her father-like figure. She was an orphan girl, but she was loved by Mordecai. And friends, we have our first glimpse here of a man who loves somebody. That Mordecai loved young Esther and took care of her. As we're going to see, he follows her, he keeps an eye on her, he wants to protect her, particularly from the king. Well, the young women are gathered, and along with them, Esther was taken, again, against their will. because, like Vashti, she was beautiful to look at, Esther becomes prominent among the women. Obviously, the king has no interest in character. He's not looking for a queen who has wisdom, who could help him. He's simply looking for physical beauty. Chapter 2, verse 9, tells us that Esther won his favor. And again, there's not a lot of detail here, but it's an unfortunate part of the story, friends, is the way for Esther to win his favor is to be beautiful and to please him, as was the case for all of the women. Again, against their will. I mean, I can't imagine what Esther was going through. To be pulled out of her life, pulled away from Mordecai, and now to be serving in a self-centered king to his own pleasures. She's in a very dangerous place. Mordecai, it says, had told her to not disclose her identity, that she's a Jew, in order to preserve her life. And so Mordecai stays close, the story says, keeping an eye on her because he loves her. I mean, imagine what Mordecai is thinking to himself. I've taken care of Esther all these years. Now she's out of my hands. Now she's in the hands of this king. and he's trusting in God that God is doing something here. But she's on very dangerous grounds serving a reckless, self-indulgent king who just gossiped throughout the entire kingdom about his own wife. The women being selected for the king had 12 months to prepare, 12 months to beautify themselves. Again, the focus on external beauty. Friends, I think, again, we see, right, you have a king focused on the external, right? On external beauty. But we're going to see where is true beauty found? It's found in the heart, isn't it? But let's read verses 15 through 18, when the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abahel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go into the king, she asked for nothing except what Haggai, the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Asuerus into his royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Tibet in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen. What does the text say? instead of Vashti. Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants. It was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity." There's a lot of feasting, a lot of partying in the story of Esther, isn't there? Esther wins him over. In fact, she seems to win everyone over. It kind of reminds us of Joseph, that Joseph began to win them over, even the one in charge of the jail. I'm trying to think to myself, why was this the case for Esther? I think if Esther is a faithful, God-fearing Jew, what's the main principle of the Mosaic law? It's to love your neighbor as yourself, right? I think she's a woman who loved others. Probably her love was evident. She was a kind-hearted person. She began to win the favor of all. There's something more than external beauty here. But Esther's made the new queen. I mean, did she imagine a year prior to that, maybe as she's working in her little garden, that a year from now she'll be the queen of the greatest kingdom in the world? She didn't know that at all. But now she finds herself in a prominent public position, next to the king himself, in which she has access to the king. We're gonna see next time that there's a plot for the king's life, that two men plot to take the life of the king, and Mordecai discovers the plot. But this is how the story of Esther begins. Let me give you, in closing, two important truths that are threaded throughout the book of Esther that begin here at the beginning of the story. And the first is that real beauty is character. Real beauty is character. You might say godly character. Someone back then had written this, now in Persia to be called more cowardly than a woman is the worst insult there is. So in that culture, women were seen as cowards. Men saw women as cowards, the culture saw women as cowards, and yet after discovering in our story an unimpressive king, we discover a brave woman, don't we? A woman who's willing to stand up against the most powerful person in the world. A woman who had strength and courage, who was brave. Yes, a woman. This would have been shocking to the culture then. On top of that, a heathen woman. There's nothing in the text that tells us that she feared Yahweh. Now, it's helpful as a student of scripture, I've been asking myself this, why did the author include the details of Queen Vashti? I mean, after all, couldn't the author have just said, well, Queen Vashti was replaced by Esther? But there's been a lot of details here to Vashti's rebellion against the king. I think these details were included for a reason. Geoffrey Cohen wrote this, Queen Vashti must have been a rare woman to have retained her sense of dignity and morality to the extent that she was prepared to endanger her life by refusing her lord and master's bidding. Right, there's a great dignity, a character we see in the woman here at the beginning. And it really, I think, surprises the reader to find someone like this in the midst of the king's palace. She, unlike her husband, retained her sense of dignity, even though she may lose her life in the process. It's a great example of character, isn't it? But in doing so, she was not only shamed, but she was replaced quickly. It's a kind of role reversal from the queen back to Cinderella and how she began. And just like that, Vashti vanishes. and to the unknown. Maybe she was executed, we don't know. There's different rumors and stories in history about Vashti. But Vashti doesn't vanish from scripture. She stands as an example of character, someone who is brave, an example of someone who stands against a wicked leader, a woman of dignity. And maybe, maybe I'm speculating, but maybe Vashti's example will serve as an example for Esther, who soon will find herself in the same position in which she must come before the king for a very good purpose, but risking her own life in doing so. So the real beauty at the beginning of the story is not the riches of the king, is it? It's not the luxury that he had and the wealth and the power and the prestige of the king. It's a woman who stands against the king, a woman of character. Let me give you a second thing, and we'll close on this, and it's simply God reigns. God reigns. King Ahasuerus is mentioned 175 times in the book of Esther. Some may think, man, maybe he's the main character. The first chapter gives us detailed descriptions of him and his power and reign and wealth, and no mention of God anywhere. It seems the story is about the king. In fact, archeologists discovered in Susa, when they were excavating in Susa, the capital there, they found inscriptions of how the king referred to himself, and the king referred to himself this way. The great king, the king of kings, the king of the lands occupied by many races, the king of this great earth. That's what he called himself. He thought he was the great king of the earth, the king of kings. He certainly had no problem with self-esteem, but is he the great king? I think the author is already taking you on this journey to show you he is not the great king. that God himself is the great king who has all power. But we ask ourselves, but where is God? God seems absent from his people. Why would God allow a man like this to be a leader of a kingdom? Because after all, Paul says in Romans 13, there is no authority except from who? God, right? And yet this man reigns. It's difficult to see corrupt leadership, to see governmental powers that are corrupt, that are harming their own people. It's easy to lose sight that there is a God who's reigning, and that God is the king. We may question God's wisdom. We may wonder where God is if we face such leadership. No doubt the Jews were dealing with this, wondering where God is. But friends, he's never absent. Maybe now in the story, God will intervene powerfully, maybe through a miracle like the great Exodus. After all, Proverbs 21.1 says, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. God can do anything, right? He can change the heart of the king in a moment. But how often in history does God really perform miracles? It's very rare. Even in Old Testament history, it wasn't often that God performed the miraculous. We're going to find, friends, there's nothing miraculous that happens in the story here. but we're gonna find that God is still working, that he's working behind the scenes. He's even using a corrupt king. He's even using his out-of-control anger to bring about his will. He even uses a brave queen who doesn't worship him to accomplish his will. The king and the queen are completely unaware of who really is the king and who really is working sovereignly and powerfully. 19th century Scottish minister Alexander White said, let us take heed to note, that the sacred writer's whole point is this, that the divine hand was all the time overruling Asherah's brutality and Vashti's brave womanliness and Esther's beauty and her elevation into Vashti's vacant seat. All this and more than all this to work together for the deliverance and the well-being of the remnant of Israel that still lay dispersed in the vast empire of Persia." God is using everything, isn't he? He is the chess master, moving the pieces where he wants because he has his outcome. So friends, what is the irony? Well, I think the irony is the king doesn't work in the story, but God, the real king, is at work. The king in the story doesn't protect his people, but God, the real king, is protecting his people. The king cannot accomplish his own will, but God, the king, is accomplishing his will. The king in the story believes he reigns, but the reality is that God reigns. And though God may seem absent, he is at work, isn't he? Let's pray. God, what a refreshing reminder that you are sovereign, that you're orchestrating your will amongst so many details, many things that we're unaware of. Or we see the story here where you seem invisible. We see someone who seems to have all power, and yet we begin to see the pieces move, that you're beginning to fulfill your plan to keep your promises and to protect your people. And even using someone like a young woman named Esther, a nobody, an orphan. God, what a reminder. You don't need the great and the wise to accomplish your will. You pick that which is foolish to the world that you might be glorified. Father, would you help us to trust you? Would you help us to see a bigger picture of who you are as the sovereign king of all things. We pray in your name. Amen.