Esther 1–2

Last time we picked up in Nehemiah chapter 10 and finished the book of Nehemiah. We started out there in chapter 10 with a list of men who had sealed a document where they had vowed to observe and to do all that the Lord had commanded them. The wording was very interesting in that because it said that they entered into a curse. And so it seems that they even understood that it wasn't a covenant that could produce righteousness, but that it could only produce a curse. And we talked at length about that and how the law is a curse and it can never bring about righteousness.

It only exposes sin and brings a curse. They committed to not join together with the people of the land in marriage. We talked about the importance of being equally yolked together with believers and not partnering together with unbelievers in business, in friendship, in marriage or in any other thing of importance. We are to be ambassadors in this world and we are to minister to people in this world, but we are not to be yoking ourselves together with them because evil company corrupts good morals. Right? In fact, the way that that's worded there is do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good morals. And so when we partner together with those in the world, when we engage in friendships and fellowship with people in the world, they will corrupt us.

They committed to give to the Lord the tithes and offerings. They that provided for the priests and the Levites to serve the Lord. They let the land They committed to let the land rest, which is something that they had failed to do before the captivity. They committed to celebrate the feasts, the new moons, the Sabbaths. In chapter 11, we had a list of 10% of them who were willing to live in the city. It seems like living in Jerusalem at that time was not very desirable. And so they had to choose 10% of them who were willing to make that sacrifice to live in the city and the other 90% were able to go out and to live in their homes outside the city and to work their fields and their vineyards and such.

In chapter 12, there was a dedication ceremony for the wall and it was a great ceremony. They gathered all the people in. They divided them up into two groups. They had two thanksgiving choirs and they started at the south end of the city and the choirs mounted up on the wall and then all the people followed behind and they they went in two opposite directions in order to circumn the entire city and sing praise out. And then they walked all the way around the wall through over the top of every gate and then they came to the temple and then there they they came and they worshiped the Lord there at the temple and there was great I don't know it was just an awesome thing.

They dedicated the temple and the wall and there was rooms in the temple that they dedicated and there talked about how those rooms in the so these were in the outer courts wall. There were different storage rooms and so they dedicated some of those storage rooms to hold provisions for the Levites so that they could serve the Lord there in the city and not have to worry about their food. And so it was essentially a reserve, a savings room for their salaries and their provisions. At some point, Nehemiah returned to Persia. It didn't really tell us that except for in chapter 13, it tells us that he was gone when some things happened and then he returned to take care of some of those things.

As we picked up in chapter 13 there, it mentioned that they read from the book of Moses aloud. And as they were reading, they came to a section where it talked about not having the Ammonites or the Moabites come into the temple. And so, we talked a bit about that and the importance of having an allegiance to the Lord and how we can't be dual citizens. We can't be a citizen of heaven and a citizen of this world at the same time., so long as those kingdoms are not at war with one another, then we can live at peace in this kingdom, but ultimately we are citizens of heaven and ambassadors of that kingdom here.

And so they're the Ammonites and the Moabites if they wanted to remain Ammonites and Moabites. They had no part in God. Now they could relinquish their citizenship to those those sovereignties or you know convert to Judaism and then there was a path for them to worship., but if they wanted to hold on to that, they could not be there. And that brought up an important point that there was an Ammonite living in the temple store room. And that's where we're told Nehemiah says, "I wasn't there for this and I came back and I discovered this." And so Tobiah, an Ammonite, had been allowed by the priest, Eli, to live in those store rooms.

And so the store rooms which were supposed to hold the provisions for the priests and the Levites had been emptied out to make a room or rooms for this man to live in. And so then the priests and the Levites weren't getting their salaries or their provisions. So they left and they left the city and they went out into the field just to grow food so they could eat. And so then Nehemiah comes back and there's a skeleton crew there in the temple. All the Levites have left and there's this Ammonite living in the storerooms and so he got mad and as we've seen before and Nehemiah was a bold man his anger there was justified very similar to Jesus turning over the tables and it says that he went into Tobiah's house his store room there and he threw all of his furniture out and cleared out that room and then restored it as a place to have provision for the

Priests and he got the priest to come back., and that's kind of where we left off. And so he restores that. He also restored a bunch of other things that they had neglected and that was sort of the rest of the chapter was an account of several other disobedience that the people had been doing in the short absence of Nehemiah. And so he was rebuking and restoring order. And that brought us to the end of the book of Nehemiah. As I mentioned last week, it would have been awesome if Nehemiah ended at chapter 12, right? But it goes on into chapter 13 and tells us of these disobedience.

I think Ezra ended very similarly, right? It's like I wish that Ezra didn't have that last chapter as well., but it records the inevitable sin that is human nature, right? And how they are going to tend towards corruption, how we too are going to tend towards corruption. And praise the Lord that the Holy Spirit within us gives us victory and brings about fruit rather than corruption. Amen. All right, let's pray and then we will jump into the book of Esther tonight. Father, we thank you. I praise you for the book of Esther, the story of your miraculous provision of a way of salvation for your people.

Lord, I pray that we would see you clearly in this book and that it would minister to us. I pray that your Holy Spirit would give us ears to hear what you have to say tonight in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Last week when I said we were getting into the book of Esther, I heard a number of you excited about that and Esther is an incredible book. Unfortunately it's a book that a lot of people attack and some people even say that it shouldn't be a part of Scripture and so they cite things like that there the word God or the name of the Lord never appears in the book.

There's no mention of them ever praying. There is very little like spiritual content in this book, but it is an accurate historical record of God's mighty hand of provision. And so while the there isn't much spiritual language in the book, there is incredible pictures of God's salvation in the book. Amen. So, as we jump in here we should put on a costume and grab some Haman's hats or Haman's ears and push forward., those are references to PUM. And so, this book, is one that the Jews read every year and they remember through a celebration called Purim. And they dress up in costumes and they make these really good little cookies that they're sort of like pie crust with a jam on the inside like an apricot jam on the inside of this little triangular cookie.

And they're they're very good. They call them Haman's hats or some people call them Haman's ears. And we'll see that Haman is the the bad guy here in the story. So Esther chapter 1 verse one says, "Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia." And so we open up with some an introduction to the king and some time markers as well. So this king Ahasuerus he's also named Xerxes and so he's known kind of by historians as Xerxes. He reigned from about 486 to 465 BC.

So that would place this book Esther between the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And so we kind of talked about when we got into Nehemiah, I mentioned that Nehemiah was a cupbearer for Artic Xerxes. Well, Artic Xerxes was the son of Ahasuerus. And so this is Nehemiah's boss's dad, right? He's also the grandson of Cyrus. And so Cyrus is the one that gave that decree that Zerubbabel could lead that first wave back to rebuild the temple. And so he sits kind of right between so grandson of Cyrus and that's the beginning of Ezra and also the father of artic Xerxes which was we saw there at the beginning of Nehemiah.

So he takes place kind of right between Ezra and Nehemiah or sorry Esther this book takes place right there. While the decree of Cyrus allowed many Jews to return to the land, it was really only a small fraction of who was there. It's estimated that there were millions of Jews living in the Persian Empire at that point. Over 2 million probably and yet only about 50,000 returned with Zerubbabel. So there's still millions of Jews living in the Persian Empire at this point. And so when we read through this story and it's talking about the Jews, that's who we're talking about. We're talking about those millions of Jews who have become accustomed to living in Persia.

They didn't want to go back to the promised land because it was comfortable there. They had businesses, they had homes, they had families, and so they had sort of assimilated into the Persian culture, but they were still maintaining their Jewish identity. And that's what's going to come into collision here a little bit. In this book in those days King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom which was in Shushan the citadel. So Shushan is the same place that we saw that Nehemiah was a cupbearer. So we're in the same location here. This king Ahasuerus or Xerxes as I mentioned his other name or his historical name is was a very powerful king but he did not have the same power of like Nebuchadnezzar and there in Daniel's vision he sees that Nebuchadnezzar is like that head of gold right that he is the most powerful most prominent king ever right and then under him is the the Meo

Persian Empire. And so now we're in the Meo Persian Empire now. And so that would be sort of the right it's the torso, right? And the something that the Meo Persian kings had is they had great power in that they could do anything that they wanted so long as it did not overturn a previous law. And so the Meo Persian kings were subject to the law, which was interesting, right? Nebuchadnezzar could do whatever he wanted. He could change a law, he could break a law, it didn't matter. But these kings, once a law was written into the law of the Mes and the Persians, the king could not change it.

He could add other laws, but he couldn't change previous laws. And we're going to see that come to play here as well. But still an extremely powerful character. He his father had tried to conquer the Greeks and failed. And so then he also in his pride felt that that he was called to finish that endeavor of his father. And so one of the things that Xerxes is known for is again trying to conquer the Greeks and failing miserably and really losing the entire Persian army in the effort. Which is later leads to the Grecian Empire taking over and under Alexander the Great later but I have a quote in here by Wesby that I liked.

It says as you study the book of Ezra Ezra Esther as you study the book of Esther you will discover that this mighty monarch could control everything but himself. His advisors easily influenced him. He made impetuous decisions that he later regretted and he didn't get and when he didn't get his way, he became angry, susceptible to flattery. He was master of a mighty empire but not master of himself. And I liked that a lot. And one of the most important things that we can accomplish is to be master of our own minds and hearts. And that is where the most important battlefield is. And that through the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can master those things.

And we do not need to be susceptible to the whims of our flesh. You know, we may fall into the temptation of our flesh at times. But as believers, we are no longer slaves to those things. And I think Xerxes is a good example of one who is a slave to those things. And like it said there, he's susceptible to flattery and manipulation. We're going to see as we go through the book several different people get him to do all kinds of things that that he wouldn't do otherwise. And so it's interesting. Praise the Lord. But we saw that kind of some of the other kings as well, right?

Darius or was the one that the advisers convinced him to write the law that that Daniel would be thrown into the lion's den and likewise there he couldn't change that law right he was he it had been written and even though he regretted it later he couldn't change it and so then he I love the way he words that he's like you Daniel I can't change this law I'm really sorry but I trust that your God will take care of you and he Praise the Lord. Right? And then after that law was enacted, then he was able to write a new law and he cast all those other people into the lion's den.

Praise the Lord. But so Ahasuerus is here kind of similarly. He's he's subject to the laws of the Mes and the Persians. All right. Verse three. In that or that in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all of the officials and the servants, the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the provinces being before them. And when he had showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days, 180 days in all. I'm going to break there for a second. We mentioned or we read earlier that he is governor or king emperor over 127 provinces.

So that's a lot. This is a big empire. And here he's throwing this feast to sort of show off the splendor of the kingdom to all of the governors of those 127 provinces. And so it takes a very long time, you know. So during this feast, he's he's showing he's he's giving I don't know, he's highlighting each of these governors. And so it takes 180 days to go through this big feast. You that's half a year. Imagine having a party for a half a year, right? It's a big to-do. Amen. Imagine the event coordinators who were involved in this.

You know what we're here to say? Did each governor get their own day to party then? I mean, more than, right? Yeah. I don't know. There's 127. So maybe it's like he has a day and he celebrates the governor and then he celebrates himself and then he celebrates the governor. Then he celebrates himself. You know, a party for you, a party for me, a party for you, a party for me. Amen. And then at the end, as if a six-monthlong party wasn't enough, verse 5, it says, "And when these days were completed, the king made a feast lasting seven days for all of the people who were present in Shushan, the citadel, from great to small in the court of the garden of the king's palace."

And so, it seems that the 180day feast was more for just the governors., and then at the end of that there's a grand finale where they open the gates and they just let everybody come in and there's this big feast for seven days. Right. There you go. You got to have an afterparty after a six-month party. Like this is kind of like coming home from a vacation to have a vacation, right? I mean, praise the Lord. I often run myself ragged on vacation. So, I have to have a vacation when I come home from a vacation. Amen. Praise the Lord. I've been accused of being a FOMO, so I drag myself around seeing all the sites.

No. I do now, but it was Scott Schwarz called me that. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Would Hannah attest to that as we drag you all over Paris to see all the sites? Yes. Amen. Didn't say a thing about that when she got back. Amen. Amen. Verse six. There were white and blue linen curtains fastened with cords of fine linen and purple on silver rods and marble pillars. And the couches were of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of alabaster, turquoise, and white and black marble. So just speaking of the opulence, right? Some of these things are would still be incredible in our day, but with all of the technology and supply lines and stuff that we have today, not as much.

But imagine back then where these these special pavements of alabaster and turquoise and black and white marble, they're coming from the far reaches of the world, right? And so they didn't have giant Chinese tanker barges that can bring these things across the ocean. There's there are having to be hauled over land you know through treacherous passes over mountains and you know all of this stuff being collected to this empire is amazing opulence right it's it's beautiful right and that's what this Scripture is trying to convey is the power and the riches and the wealth of this kingdom they were served drinks in golden vessels each vessel being different from the other.

The royal wine in abundance according to the generosity of the king. I've always liked that there. It for some reason in my mind I always like things to match and so and it's to the to my own detriment at times where say I'm having an event and I'm having 12 people or so and I only have 10 of these cups. I don't want to use them just because two aren't going to match, right? But here it's the exact opposite strategy, right? It's that they're showing off their craftsmanship and their wealth by making sure that every cup is unique and different.

You know, that there's not a single one that is a pair. That's one of those. It is right. And and I've seen people do that before, like a tea party where every set is different or and that's really cool and the planning of that to bring that together is incredible as well. And this is hundreds of golden goblets, right? And they make sure that every one of them doesn't look like any other. They're all unique, you know? And so imagine you got one here that's kind of bulky and it has rubies hanging all off of it and then next to it you've got you've got one that's got a lot of intricate filigree and some delicate opals in it they're just completely different.

And so it's kind of cool., Amen. I was watching a TV show called, it's called Chef's Table. Does that sound right?, and in it, one of the chefs that it was highlighting, it goes around the world and kind of highlights chefs that are just usually they're they're kind of odd a little eclectic and they've gained worldwide, you know renown because of just their their detail, right? And that each of the show each show highlights a different chef. And there was this one chef in LA, I think, and she was a chef of a sushi restaurant.

And she for the years that she's had a restaurant, she has catalogs of every diner that has ever been there. And she has a rule that she will never serve a diner the same dish twice. It's a restaurant where you don't get to pick off of a menu. She caters a menu for you. And so she chooses the menu and caters it for you. And she wants to make sure that if you repeat her restaurant that you will have a new experience every time. And so when and this used to be all in books like scrapbooks. She had like these a wall of books.

I think since she's had some more techy people who have gotten it all in spreadsheets now for her. But but it was showing all these catalogs and how she'd get them down and she okay well they were here on this date that was for their anniversary. They ate this now they've booked a new reservation. They're coming. This is a birthday, you know. And then she would research the people and she would find out their likes and their dislikes and if they said anything during the meal about something they didn't like, then she would make sure that she would paid attention to that this time.

And it's just incredible the detail and I don't know the slavery that this to this and so this it kind of reminds me of this I mean, was there some talented event planner there that researched all of these governors and made sure that their goblet was perfect for them did it have stones that came from their region or something like that, you know., I don't know. It's really cool to think about and I don't know. Praise the Lord. I'm I'm spending way too much time on goblets. Amen., praise the Lord. Verse eight. In accordance with the law, the drinking was not compulsory, for the king had ordered all the officers of his household that they should do according to each man's pleasure.

So there it kind of mentions a law. So some point, whether it was him or some other king, had written into the law of the Mes and Persians that you can never force somebody to drink. And so he's like, "Okay, I'll obey the law, but I'm going to put a lot of alcohol out here and people can do what they want, right?" And so the idea is that they all get pretty drunk at this point. So most everybody in this feast is sloshed. What was the alternative? I don't know. Water. Good job. No. Amen. I don't know. Maybe the gold. You know, I You pick a silver goblet.

It has some antimicro. Hey, how come you're drinking out of silver? You'll see. Amen. Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women in the royal palace which belonged to King Ahasuerus. And on the seventh day when the heart of the king was merry with wine, right? That's a kind way to say that he's very drunk, right? He is merry with wine. And so in Yeah. Being married with wine, his decision-making process is highly affected. And it says he commanded Mehmen, Bis, Bistha, Habara, Bigth, Abigoth, Zthra, and Carass, seven unics who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials.

For she was beautiful to behold. And so he's it says he's very merry with wine. And so he calls the eunuchs and he says, "Go get my wife. Go get the queen. Bring her out here. I want to show her off to all of these governors." something about this doesn't sit well with the queen. She finds this to be inappropriate in some way. And so some commentators have speculated that when it says wearing her royal crown, it may mean wearing only her royal crown. And so he's asking her to do something indecent. Whether it be that or not, she does she does see this as indecent.

So whether it's naked or whether it's just provocative or something, she doesn't want to be this beautiful object that he's showing off to her to his governors. And so she refuses. Verse 12, but Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command brought by his eunuchs. Therefore, the king was furious and his anger burned within him. Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times for this was the king's manner toward all who knew law and justice. So he's really upset. He consults his counselors. Those closest to him verse 14 being Carina, Sheithar, Admatha, Tarsish, Mirez, Marina and Memucan.

The seven princes of Persia and Media who had access to the king's presence and who ranked highest in the kingdom. What shall we do the queen or what shall we do to Queen Vashti according to the law because she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus brought to her by the eunuchs. So this question comes, she disobeyed the king's command, right?, and again, it seems like it was probably a moral decision and it was probably right for her to disobey the king's command, but, it's still the king's command. And so they're looking now, well, what legal responsibility do we have to punish her?

You know, does she does she have to be executed now? Does she have to be you what do we do? And so he asks his adviserss, the princes of me and Persia. Verse 15, what shall we do to Queen? No, I read that already. Verse 16. And Memucan answered before the king and the princes. Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the princes and all the people who are in all of the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen's behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes when they report King Ahasuerus's commanded commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come.

I find this funny here. You know, it's she's refusing to dance at a party, but Miman here takes it to be a symbol of feminist rebellion in the entire empire. It's like, we can't let her get away with this. There will be a woman's rebellion to all of us. And so I'm I'm guessing that Memucan had a tenuous relationship with his wife would be my assumption here. Amen. Now there are some some great questions to talk about there. I mean in Ephesians chapter 5, it does say that that wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body.

Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word. And so there in Christ we are to have this relationship where the husband is the head and the wife is to submit to him in those things but also the husband is to sacrifice himself and submit to her and to others. The verse before that in 521 it says submitting to one another. And so there is a responsibility for husbands to submit as well.

But I think the big way that we would apply that here is that he's asking her to do something that she ought not do. Right? And so even within the church and within Christian marriages today, a husband cannot demand a wife to do something that is immoral or inappropriate or that is a sinful and so it was right for her to do this. And this is not him showing her love, right? Even asking her to do this is not a loving command. Anyway, he's going to regret it later. Verse 18. Any thoughts or questions at this point? Good job.

H good job. Amen. And I think it pro probably does make sense for it to be a thought for like people in power especially like the king was this whole entire area that kind of like I guess I'm thinking of the saying as the king so the people in a way you know and it could emboden otherwise to be like more against their husbands. Not I mean obviously she seems like Vashti was standing up for more of a moral stance it appears but I guess yeah and I am wicked like we don't want any any sign of like any any kind of a sign given that this is tolerable at all.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. And he makes a good point. I mean, like I said, that he's fearing some sort of feminist revolution within within the empire. I mean, look at our culture and the detriment that has been caused by feminism and that there are consequences that are prolific around us because of that. And so you're yeah, it is an important issue. I don't know that this is the example that he should have been standing upon, right? But yeah, I think Oh, I think when you're drunk with your friends, it's not a good idea to take marital advice.

Very good. Yes. Beyond that like that behind all of that there's this the beginning of the story right that God is going to use this situation to save people but even though because he ultimately directs the hearts of the king right so he makes yeah I mean God has an incredible ability to take our foolish decisions and use them for his glory. And so, like you said, knowing the end of this book, we know that God is going to use this to bring about the salvation of many people just like Joseph, right? Where they're Joseph being attempted murder and then sold into slavery and then being a slave and in prison.

All of that worked together for God's will that he might save many people. And so yeah, it's kind of cool. Verse 18, this very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all of the king's officials that they have heard the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive contempt and wrath. If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him and let it be recorded in the law of the Persians and the Mes so that it will not be altered that vast shall come no more before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

And so again mentioned like I said we're going to see this the laws of the Persians and the Mes is mentioned a lot of times in this book and it seems here that they have some sort of fascination with coming up with new laws., I used to know somebody that, as a parent, she was obsessed with coming up with new rules for her kids. And we were at their house one point and I think her her kids said something during dinner that she didn't like. And she just kind of chuckled and she was like, "Oh, new rule." And so here I just kind of I project that onto them.

You know, they're they're like, "Let's write a new rule, a new law. Oo, a new law. Let's write it down. Sure. We can never change it. It is immortalized forever. We're drunk. But sure, let's light a new law. Was she? Huh? She No, she was. Amen., yes. Praise the Lord. One of these kings should write a law that they can't write laws while intoxicated. Right. That would have been a better law to write that night. But praise the Lord, they Yeah, he's angry and drunk and now he's writing laws. So, praise the Lord. These things don't go together. He's literally drunk. Yeah. And wine.

When the king's decree, which he will make which he will make it proclaimed throughout all of his empire, for it is great. Kind of buttering him up there. You're so great. All wives will honor their husbands, both great and small., again, I think Memucan is trying to get his wife to honor him. And the reply pleased the king and the princes. And the king did according to the word of Memucan. Then he sent letters to all of the king's provinces to each province in its own script and to every people in their own language that each man should be master of his own house and speak the language of his own people.

And so then it gets written into law. They have 127 different provinces. They all speak different languages. And so whenever a law is written, it then has to be interpreted and transcribed into different languages and then sent out to all the provinces. And so that happens. Chapter two. After these things, when the wrath of the king subsided, he remembered Vashti what she had done and what he and what had been decreed against her. And the king's servants who attended him said, "Oh, I'm going to stop there for a second., it seems when his wrath subsided, probably when he was sober, he probably gets up and he's like, "Hey, where's my wife?"

You know, has anybody seen Vashti? You know, his servants are like, "Oh, well, you made a law. She can't be near you anymore. You know, it's illegal for her to be in your presence." Really? And he's like, "I miss her." And so then his servant who attended him says, "I have an idea." You know, because part of the law was that she needed to be replaced. And so this servant says, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. And let the king appoint officers in the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather all of the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel in the women's quarters under the custody of Hi or Hi the king's unic, custodian of the women.

And let beautiful preparations be given them. And let the young women who please the king or let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This thing pleased the king and he did so. Right? So here he's he's his wrath has subsided. He's missing his wife and this servant says I have a great idea. Let's have a beauty pageant right from the entire kingdom, all 127 provinces. Let's have the all of the governors send their most beautiful women here and they will be they'll go through all of these beauty preparations and then they'll be paraded before the king and the king can pick his favorite and that will be the king the queen instead of Vashti.

And the king's like, "Oo, this sounds like a good idea. So the thing pleased the king and he did so. In Shushan, the citadel, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai. So, we're going to take step aside from that story for a moment and we're going to talk about some other characters. So, we're introduced to a new guy. His name is Mordecai, the son of Jer, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite. Now a side story here which I mentioned when we were back in Kings is this guy Shimei. Now there's not direct connection but it is possible that this Shimei is the same Shimei that cursed David during the coup when Abselum was taking over Jerusalem and he was coming out of Jerusalem and he's sort of in shame retreating from the city.

He's not willing to fight his son and so he just retreats. And as he's going, there's this guy Shimei who's there along the road shouting curses at him. And one of his mighty men, I think his one of his nephews says, "Hey, David, let me go kill that guy." Right? And David is like, "No, no, just let him let him curse." And so he doesn't kill him that day. And I love to think that it possible that that's the same Shimei that is here, the greatgrandfather of Mordecai. And again, I'm I'm sort of stretching Scripture a little bit here because this isn't a clear connection, but I wouldn't doubt that God in his incredible attention to detail would do something like this.

That David's mercy for Shimei that day may have caused him to be able to go home and impregnate his wife and have this line come from it that David's mercy that day led to the salvation of the entire nation here through Mordecai. I don't know again not necessarily biblical but God does do things like that. Amen. Kish being carried away captive from Jerusalem with the captives who had been captured with Jeconiah king of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. So this guy Mordecai verse 7 and Mordecai had brought up Hadassah that is Esther his uncle's daughter for she had neither father nor mother.

The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So we're introduced now to his that would be his niece right Hadassah. But he's raised her. So, he's essentially her father., and so, Hadassah here we're told her Babylonian or her Persian name as well is Esther. And so, we have Hadassah and Esther here, the same person. We're introduced to her. It says that she is a young woman who is lovely and beautiful., Hadassah is the Hebrew word for, what is it the Hebrew word for? Or my tree. There you go.

The Myrtle tree hospital. I'm asking Hadassah. It's a hospital that's been hospital. Awesome. Very good. So, it's the name for the myrtle tree. Which is a beautiful fragrant tree, right? I think. Yes. And and then it also had is saying that it also means compassion. What does Esther mean? Star. Amen., Amen. So, we will see that this beautiful young woman becomes a star. So, it was when the king's command. Yeah. When the king's command and decree were heard and when many young women were gathered at Shushan the citadel under the custody of Hegai that Esther was taken to the king's palace in the care of Hegai the custodian the custodian of the women so again a wide net they've cast for this beauty pageant you know over all of the kingdom but it happens that Esther here is a resident of Shushan And so she's there in the same city and she gets taken up in

This collection of beautiful women as well. And so she was identified by her beauty and taken in. Now the young woman pleased him very much. That is the unic that's in charge of these things hedgi. And so he immediately likes her and and she obtains his favor. And so he readily gave beauty preparations to her besides her allowances. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king's palace and he moved her and her maid servants to the best palace in the house of the women. So immediately here the unic who's in charge of watching all of the women and the care and preparation of all of these women finds favor for Hadassah and gives her these special treatments gives her more beauty preparations than her allowance.

And so these are things we're going to get some more details about these later, but, these are like perfumes and lotions and oils and, all she gets more than the other women., and then, she also gets seven of her own servants and so she gets these seven maids that are then, serving her and she gets the best of the rooms to live in. And all of that is the favor of God, right? That I mean, what are the odds that of all of these I don't know how many probably thousands of women I would imagine are gathered in you know and here she happens to be the one that the unic has favor for and is giving her these extra preparations and stuff.

Esther had not revealed her people or her family for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it. So she didn't let anybody know that she's a Jewish yet. And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women's quarter to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. Each young woman's turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after he had completed or after she had completed 12 months preparation according to the regulation for women. And thus were the days of the preparation a portioned six months with oil of myrr, six months with perfume and preparations for beautifying women.

So this is a long process, right? This is minimum 12 months, right? So it seems like there's this 12-month waiting period where they've collected all these women and they're helping these women beautify themselves. So, it's it's it's essentially like a year-long spa treatment where they're they're getting these you know, probably myrrh oil massages and then after six months of myrrh, then they transfer over to perfumes and all these beautifying preparations and all of these women are going through these things., another practical thing that this would do by this 12 month waiting period is it would ensure that none of them were pregnant, right?

And so, they're definitely getting out past they're supposed to all be virgins., but that 12-month waiting period would ensure that absolutely none of them were pregnant or had ever been pregnant. Thus prepared, each young woman went to the king and she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the women's quarters to the king's palace. So kind of I don't know God is in no way condoning this. I think this is a very immoral thing that's going on. It's kind of sick in some of it. But here he's having these women paraded before him.

Every every day a different woman is coming to be with him. And she gets to bring with her one thing. So whatever that be one token of her talent or her beauty or whatever it is she gets to bring a thing along with her. I think of beauty pageantss today where they get to do one thing is to show off their talent or something. So I can see one of these women bringing in a baton, doing a baton twirling or one woman bringing in juggling or something. I don't know. Praise the Lord. Maybe I'm way off, but they each get to bring something, right?

But if Yes, there you go. To show off their baking ability. I don't know. Amen., is that what you did to win your husband's heart? You baked him some hala. That. Yeah. Amen. In the evening she went and in the morning she returned to the second house of women to the custody of Shashkas, the king's unic who kept the concubines. And she would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name. So again, this is not something that God is condoning at all. It is an accurate record of history. And so here they go in, they spend the night with him.

He then moves them from the house of the virgins kept by Hegai to the house of the concubines kept by this other guy Shashkas. And so their the assumption would be that he's slept with each of these women and that then having claimed them as a wife they're moved to the house of the concubines. But he never gets them again. Right? So he he moves them as a concubine. Unless he delighted in them then he might call them back. But here he's building a harem. We saw a similar sin engaged in by Solomon, right? Where Solomon had a huge harem of concubines.

And so here King Ahasuerus is using this beauty pageant to do the same thing. So he's essentially claimed all of the beautiful women in the country and none of them are going back to their families. And so he's going through each one looking for his wife spending the night with them and then sending them off to be his concubine then for the rest of their lives. Now when the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abahel, the uncle, yeah, the daughter of Abhel, the uncle of Mordecai. Oh, I remember. Yeah, sorry, I didn't have a note on this. The Hebrew words for like parent and grandparent are not very clear.

And so a lot of times translators have to figure out from context whether it's a father or a grandfather or great-grandfather because the Hebrew uses the same word for father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and mother, grandmother. And so they have to kind of figure out from context. And so here we see that really Esther is not Mordecai's niece. She's more his cousin once removed. Right. So, she's the daughter of Mordecai's uncle who's dead. And so, then Mordecai adopts her, but he's not the uncle in the sense that we would think of an uncle. In our terminology, she would be a cousin once removed, right?

First cousin once removed. I think that whole thing is confusing. Anyway, they're related. Amen. All right. So Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter to go into the king. So essentially all of that confusing mess right there was to say that it's her turn. And so when she goes in, she requests nothing, right? No baton, no scepter, no I don't know, nothing. She just wants to go in with nothing adorning her. So she requested nothing. But what Hedgi, the king's unic, the custodian of the women, advised, and Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her., and so it says that she requests nothing.

Whether he sent her with something or not isn't clear., but it seems like she was just trusting his judgment, right? He had been given favor for her and and he wants her to succeed anyway., and so he's trusting her. And so Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Tebath in the seventh year of his reign. Then the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained favor or grace and favor in his sight more than all of the virgins. So that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

And so essentially here she wins the pageant, right? She goes in and he loves her the he has great favor for her. It says that she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all of the other virgins. Now again, the name of God isn't mentioned here, but I think God is absolutely involved, right? God is the one that put all of these things together so that she was there at the right time in the right place and that she was the one that gained the favor of the king. It certainly was improbable, right? Then the king made a great feast, the feast of Esther.

So he declares a feast just for her for all his officials and servants. And he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of the king when virgins were gathered together a second time. Mordecai sat within the king's gate. Now Esther had not revealed her family or her people just as Mordecai had charged her. For Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him. And so here she's still listening to him. I like that there she's an adult now, married and is the queen of the land. But she still heeds the advice of her adopted father.

In those days while Mordecai sat within the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh doorkeepers became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai. So again, what are the odds right here? Mordecai is concerned with Esther and wants to get some news, but he's not allowed to enter into the palace. So, he waits by the gate and he's waiting to get some news from her, waiting to see what's going on. And while he's there, he happens to overhear this conversation between these two unics, right? It says that the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name.

And so, it's an assassination plot. And so, he overhears his assassination plot. He lets Queen Esther know of the plot. She tells the king and it says, "Inquiry was made verse 23 into the matter and it was confirmed and both were hanged on gallows and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.", notice here this matter passes without much being said about it, without much being done. It just mentions that it gets recorded. This is an interesting practice that they had at that time. They had in the king's presence there was always a scribe sort of like a stenographer right was there all the time writing down everything.

And so every conversation that the king ever had in public was recorded in the chronicles of the presence of the king, right? And and then put in a library, right? And that's going to become important later in the story., praise the Lord. You know, sometimes having everything recorded is a good thing., sometimes it can work to our own detriment, right?, but you prefer not. Yes. Amen. I think Nixon prefer not as well. But praise the Lord. But here, this is going to work out for good having this everything recorded. Amen. We will end there. We'll pick up in chapter three next week as we continue in this story history.

I should say history. Amen. Any thoughts or questions before we end? Yes. When talking about Esther and having her original name, it looked to me like when Paul wrote in Ephesians that he, it says, "He himself is our peace, having broken down the middle wall of separation. Then he made the two one." So he made the Jew and the Gentile one. And then he reconciled them to himself. So, it's like a picture of that the church being brought to the king. Awesome. Amen. And there's other things that go through. Amen. Neat. Father, we praise you. We thank you. We thank you for the history recorded here of this improbable miracle that you did, Lord.

And I pray that this week that we would remember that you are the God who is able to I don't know is able to bring about your will throughout history that you are the one in our own lives who brings about the seeming coincidences that are never coincidences that are your divine hand leading and guiding us. Lord, I pray that we would have eyes to see those things this week and that we might bring you glory in Jesus name. Amen.