Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. I have entitled this series And really, what I think is one of the great themes of Esther is. God's invisible Hand.
So my prayer is that we will be encouraged. that we will have hope. as we read this ancient story, a strange story. Um Esther. Welcome to the Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe.
Sometimes it may seem that God is in hiding, distant, and even unloving. Have you ever felt that? But today we'll discover that even when God seems absent, He is still in control, working out His perfect plan for your life.
Now, to begin a new study in the book of Esther, here's Pastor John Monroe with his message titled God's Invisible Hand. One of our struggles in the Christian life is that it is often not obvious what God is doing. As the Eternal God, He knows the end of the story from the beginning. But we don't have that perspective. This is why Trust in God is essential.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. Today, we begin a new series, a very different one, about situations where it's not clear what God is doing. In fact, In this Old Testament book, the name of God is not even mentioned. I'm referring to the book of Esther, which is one of the historical books of the Bible. And also a fascinating drama with all kinds of exciting events.
So let's begin this new study by looking at Esther 1. Mm-hmm. All of you have your Bibles. Open it to Esther chapter one. Because this evening we begin our study, and I think one of the most unusual books of the Bible.
Yet one of the most fascinating books, the book of Esther. It's only one of two books in the Bible called after a woman, the other being Ruth. And Esther is a real-life drama. with real people in real situations. And if I were to ask you what is the book of Esther Best known for, I think many of you would say that the name of God, there's no mention of God.
In Esther. There's 10 chapters, and that seems strange, doesn't it? A book in the Bible, and there's no mention of God. The only other book, arguably, in the Bible where there's also no mention of God is the Song of Solomon. Depending on a particular translation of Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 6.
In our version, and we're using the English Standard Version, the word Lord is used. In the Old King James, the NIV, there's no mention of God either.
So, arguably, there are two books in the Bible that may surprise you. Where there is no mention of God. Here in Esther, there's no mention of prayer, there's no mention of the law of God, there's not even a mention of sacrifices or the Abrahamic covenant. The king is going to be mentioned. 190 times, in 167 verses in this book, the king is mentioned 190 times, but God is not mentioned once.
And as we think of that, we must ask ourselves the question: Has God abandoned his people? These people Israelites, Jews who are in Persia, and we're going to think of how they got there. Could it be that God had forgotten them? That his attention is solely on the people who have returned to Israel. What's going on?
Well, I have entitled this series And really, what I think is one of the great themes of Esther is God's invisible Hand. A sovereign God. is providentially caring for his chosen people, the Jews. And although in the book of Esther and in life generally, The hand of God is often invisible to us. God is always working out His purposes.
His hand may be hidden. But his people are never forgotten. And in fact, the main character of the book of Esther is God Himself, even though His name is never mentioned. Isn't it true? We often fail.
To discern the hand of God in our lives, it is an invisible hand.
Sometimes it seems to us that God is hiding, that He's distant. That he is unloving, that he is uncaring. And sometimes when we are disobedient, when we're away from the Lord, we want God to leave us alone, as it were. to do her own thing. Yet In all of the circumstances of life.
For the people of God, our Heavenly Father, is watching over us. And so, although God's hand may seem to you today to be invisible, He's working out His perfect plan. for you. A great verse from Romans 8, 28. That God is always At work.
And that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. God not only is always at work, God is always on our side, He's at our side. He's always in control. Paul says in Ephesians 1: he's the sovereign God who works all things after the counsel of his. Will.
God is sovereign. God is in control.
So my prayer is that we will be encouraged. that we will have hope. as we read this ancient story, a strange story. Esther.
Now let's look first of all at Esther chapter 1. We're going to think in the first nine verses of a king's pride. We'll read verses one and two, first of all, for the historical setting. The book of Esther. Chapter 1 verse 1.
Now in the days of Ahasuerus The Ahasuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces. In those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the capital. Let's just stop there. A little bit of history to get us up to date with the historical setting of the Book of Esther. In five hundred and eighty-six BC, The Babylonian king, King Nebuchadnezzar, swept into Judah, sacked the city of Jerusalem, and burned the temple.
And many Jews were taken captive at that time. such as Daniel. You remember Daniel and his friends being taken to Babylon? And then on the 12th of October 539 BC, the Babylonian Empire came to a sudden and abrupt end during the reign not of King Nebuchadnezzar, but King Belshazzar. And that's recorded.
In Daniel chapter five, you remember the writing on the wall, Meany, Meeni, Tigal Yufarsen, Belshazzar, your Wade. In the balances, and found wanting. And that very night, the Bible says. That great Babylonian empire. Then the greatest empire in the world came to an abrupt end because during the feast of Daniel chapter 5, while Balshazzar and his Uh officials and all the important people were having a great feast.
Outside Babylon. Was there an enemy? Cyrus the Great. who is in fact the grandfather of the king we read about here, King Ahasuerus. He led his army, the Medes and the Persians.
He led his army up the Euphrates River, Euphrates, much in the news in modern-day Iraq. He led his army. Army up the Euphrates, they dammed the river, they redirected the river, went right in. to Babylon and conquered the Babylonians and in one night the great Babylonian Empire came. to an end.
And it was replaced by The superpower, the the Persian Empire, such as we read in the opening verses uh of Esther. And The Babylonians were gone. And now Persia. was the great power. in this ancient world.
Cyrus the Great, the ruler of Persia, was in fact a remarkable man. And he allowed The Jews who were living in Babylon. To return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and to rebuild the temple. That's recorded in books of Ezra and Nehemiah in our Bible.
However, Strange as it may seem, Many of the Jews and their descendants, including Esther and her cousin, her older cousin Mordecai, that we're going to meet in the coming weeks, they did not return to the homeland of Israel, but they remained in Persia.
So when we come into our story We're not in Israel. We're in Persia, in fact modern day Iraq.
Some of the Jews are back in Israel. Others of them have been for a long time still living in Persia, such as Esther, such as Mordecai.
So the question we could ask is, has God abandoned the Jews? who had not returned to the promised land. After all, he had led their forefathers from Egypt into the promised land. He had given them the opportunity to return under the benevolence of Cyrus the Great, and they had stayed in Persia.
So this book of Esther takes place. Between the first return to Jerusalem led by Zarzubabul, you remember him, he rebuilt uh the temple. And according to Ezra II, 49,897 Jews returned and began to rebuild the temple. And then there was the second return from Persia. to Israel under Ezra.
This book, Esther, takes place chronologically in our Bibles between Ezra chapter 6 and chapter 7. And this book Addresses the very intriguing question of what happened to these Jewish people who remained in exile, who did not return to Israel. Had God forgotten them? Had they forgotten God? Why did Esther and Mordecai not return to Israel when they had the opportunity?
Why is there no mention of prayer or worship or the word of God in Esther? Is that indicative of the low spiritual state of these exiled Jews?
So here is the setting. Persia, the year is around 483, 482 BC. And our story began, as we read in the first two verses, in Susa. Modern-day Iran. Did I say Iraq?
It's in modern Susa. Babylon is in modern-day Iraq. Susa, where we begin our story, is in modern-day Iran. And it was the winter capital of the Persian Empire.
Now, this empire. As an empire of great beauty and of great luxury. Has your heiress? is the Persian emperor. In Greek, his name is Xerxes, so he's sometimes called Xerxes, sometimes called Ahasuerus.
And at this time, centered in modern Iran. is the superpower of the day, Persia. Cyrus the Great Ahasuerus' grandfather had made the Persian Empire larger than any empire that the world had ever seen up to that point.
So, it is the superpower. But with every superpower, there's always a want to be. Just as the Babylonians were knocked off their perch by the Persians, the Persians are Are going to be knocked off their perch by the Greeks. And at the time of this story, the Greeks, as it were, are wanting to get the better. of the Persians.
We read in verse one that he reigns over a vast empire of 127 provinces. From India. To Ethiopia, it says. Probably it's more modern. Uh uh Sudan, a huge empire.
All of the Middle East. Right from northern Africa. right to India. itself. And he is the king.
He's the son of Darius I, the grandson of Cyrus the Great. He's the absolute monarch of this huge and powerful. Empire. And he's in power. And he's in his glory.
Verse three. In the third year of his reign, he gave a feast for all of his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media. And the nobles and the governors of the provinces were before him, while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days. 188 days.
And when the days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa, the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace. There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother of pearl and precious stones. Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king. And drinking was according to this edict. There's no compulsion.
You don't want to drink? If your teeth are open, that's okay. That's the edict. Verse 8, For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired. Bashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus.
For six months, this is some feast, isn't it? A hundred and eighty days. Ahasuerus has been thrown this enormous elaborate party. displaying all of his pomp, all of his circumstance, all of the riches of his empire. This was an opportunity for him to consolidate his power, to assert his leadership, to discuss.
With the princes and the military advisors as war council, their strategy for conquering Greece because they knew the Greeks. We're trying to take over. His father Darius I had been humiliatingly defeated in the great battle of Marathon in 490 BC. And so, They are Devising strategies in order to avenge his defeat. Little does Ahasuerus know in the next two or three years he's going to be defeated by the Greeks in two battles in 480 and 479 BC.
Now this is a sumptuous Banquet. It's the climax. to the 80 days. Think of the extravagant furnishings and the gardens that I read. We're told.
That the Persians loved flowers. The word tulip. Is a Persian word, tulip and turban, which looks a bit like a tulip, coming from the same word. And everyone is in awe at the display of the power and the might and the sheer luxury of this king serving drinks in golden cups. He's at the height of his power.
And his glory. Stories told of Frank Lloyd Wright, the great artist. that he was in a court case and he took the stand. and was sworn in. He was instructed, state your name.
He said, Frank Lloyd Wright. Occupation, he said, I'm the world's greatest architect. Afterwards a friend said to him, How could you say that in court? Uh he replied, Well, I had to, I was on oath. Yeah.
Well, King Ahasuerus has a bit like that. He's puffed up with his own ego. He believes he's the greatest. Living ruler. And in a sense, from a perspective of the world.
He was. No party is complete without booth. and it's there in abundance. Probably an open bar, as it were. Meantime, verse nine.
His queen. Vashti is giving her own banquet. for the woman in another palace. We have his pride. Secondly, A king's intemperance.
Verses 10 through 12. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, do you get the picture? It doesn't say he was drunk, just says he was merry with wine. He commanded Memo man? Bista, Harbona, Mikta.
Abbott Saab. Zethar and Carcas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashtai before the king with her royal crown. In order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at. But Vashtai refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this time the king became enraged and his anger burned within them.
At the height of the party, the king probably having a bit too much to drink. With his ego larger than ever. commands his seven eunuchs to bring in his queen, queen. Vashtai. At the feast, only men are present.
The women are having their own feast over seven days. They've been partying. And she's being brought in, verse 10, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.
Now, this was a highly unusual request. The queen's beauty was normally only displayed to the king. He's got a huge harem, as we're going to see when we think of the story of Esther. He's got concubines, he's got many wives, but this is his queen. And normally Her beauty would only be seen by him.
And so it's surprising he asks The eunuchs to bring her in. And to everyone's surprise, beautiful Queen Vashtai refuses to obey the king's command.
Now remember. He's the most powerful man on the earth. He's the emperor over the huge Persian Empire. It's not clear. Or whether the king wanted her to be partially undressed, she certainly would have been veiled and would have had to remove her veil before the men to show her beauty.
The Jewish Midrash holds that the Queen was expected to be, quote, unclothed.
So her true beauty could be appreciated. But the text doesn't say that, but that certainly is a possibility. And the queen, seem to have thought that this was a humiliating experience. For her, to be paraded in front of drunken men, particularly if she was going to be partially or fully naked. She doesn't regard herself as some kind of trophy wife.
Some have suggested there's no evidence in text. That she may have refused because she was pregnant. We don't know. The text doesn't give the reason for her refusal. But the queen's open defiance at the command of the king results.
in the king's extreme Anger. He is intemperate, he's proud, he's arrogant, he's extremely Rich, he he flaunts his power and his wealth. and his glory. And now he's extremely angry. And when we're extremely angry, we can make an extreme fool of ourselves, and he's going to do that.
The most powerful man in the empire, King Ahasuerus, is being publicly defied and humiliated by one person. And a woman at that. And his own Quinn. There's pride His intemperance. and know his vengeance.
Verses thirteen through Yeah. Then the king said to the wise men, Who knew the times, for this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment. The man next to him being Karshana Shethar Admatha, Tatius, Meres. Marsena and Memuchan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face and sat first in the kingdom. These are the men closest to him, these are his closest advisors.
According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashtai because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs? Then Memukin said in the presence of the king and the officials, Not only against the king has Queen Vashtai done wrong, but also against all of the officials and all the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, for the queen's behaviour will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt. Since they will say King Ahasuaris commanded Queen Vashtai to be brought before him, and she didn't come. This very day, the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the Queen's behavior will say the same to all the king's officials, and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty. If it pleased the king, Let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it may never be repealed.
The law, you've heard the expression, the law of the Medes and the Persian, something that can't be repealed once it's passed. That Vashtai is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.
So, when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all of his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike. This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king did as Memukan proposed. He sent letters to all of the royal provinces, to every province in his own script, and to every people in his own language, that every man be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people. This is the verdict featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us.
From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at the verdict.
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Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you agree? That although God's hand is often invisible, He is working out his plans. Take a few minutes to reflect on some of the difficult events in your life as well as some of the most joyful. Isn't it clear that God has been with you?
I want you to trust God even when His hand is invisible. And although we have not seen the Lord Jesus through the eye of faith, we love him. and we seek to trust them. Let's pick up the continuing story next time. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict.
I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
