SPEAKER_01: Dieter and I were at a uh a couples event last night and one of the they played a game where you had to draw an MM and you had to answer a question that corresponded to the color of the MM and one of the MMs that we drew the question was what is your your favorite snow day activity?
SPEAKER_01: And we did not get called on for that question, but I have the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Our favorite snow day activity, at least for our our family, is our kids dress up and they go out into the backyard, and one of the first things they do is they investigate the snow and they go on a hunt.
SPEAKER_01: They even have a walking stick that has the different animal tracks on it, and so they go on a hunt in the backyard, and we look to see what animals have beat us to the snowy backyard.
SPEAKER_01: Um the fox always wins, and sometimes we find there's a possum that goes through our backyard or multiple, I don't know, squirrels.
SPEAKER_01: They have a bobcat print on their their description, but we have yet to find the bobcat in our backyard.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm holding out hope.
SPEAKER_01: One day the Lord will bless us with a bobcat.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: We don't see those animals though when we get out there.
SPEAKER_01: The animals are are long gone.
SPEAKER_01: It's those kind of snowy mornings I'm talking about where it is still and it is quiet and the sun is coming through the trees, and there's just no sounds.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the birds have relocated to Brazil, the smart ones anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you would be a fool to say that there have been no animals there because their tracks are everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: You would be ridiculous to say, because I don't see the fox, I don't believe the fox has been in our backyard.
SPEAKER_01: No, the fox left tracks.
SPEAKER_01: You can watch all fox tracks and then they go to a big hole where he dove in looking for a rat.
SPEAKER_01: You can reenact what they did.
SPEAKER_01: You can track down what they did.
SPEAKER_01: You can deduce not only what animals were there, but if you're paying careful attention, you can deduce where they were going, what they were up to, even.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is with the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: When you turn to the book of Esther, you understand that in this book, it's the only book of the Bible that does not mention God.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody prays in the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody sings songs of praise in the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody talks about God in the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's no visible evidence of his existence in this book.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you would be intentionally naive.
SPEAKER_01: You'd be obstinate if you were to say that you don't see God at work in this book.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, God has left his fingerprints, his footprints in the snow, so to speak, all over this book.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost as if every paragraph of this book is just radiating evidence of the powerful work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He's all over this book.
SPEAKER_01: Yet he's not mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason he's not mentioned, we'll talk more about next week in Ezra chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: But the short version of is that the people of Israel are that at least the ones that are in Persia, that are still in captivity, they are in a really kind of open rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_01: God's people were summoned back to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: These ones have not gone there yet, and so they're living their life in a sense absent from God's blessing, absent from God's pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, just because they're absent talking about God doesn't mean God is absent working in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can be like the little children who hide by going like this.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I can still see you.
SPEAKER_01: And your hands.
SPEAKER_01: There you are.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes we think that if we don't believe in God and we don't acknowledge God and we don't pray to God and we don't go to church and we don't worship God, that God ceases to be at work around us.
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, God must have stopped existing because I stopped looking at him or I stopped worshiping him.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Esther is the antidote to that kind of thinking.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Esther stands as a testimony to the fact that God is at work even in the lives of people that aren't looking at him.
SPEAKER_01: This is the age here.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Esther takes place between Ezra chapter 6 and chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the book of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book.
SPEAKER_01: They belong together, but we've gone through Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: We're pausing before we go to Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: Because Esther took place in a gap between chapter 6 and chapter 7 in the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_01: I mean in the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: That's when Esther takes place.
SPEAKER_01: There was a long gap where the building was stopped of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: The building was stopped of Jerusalem because people had complained to the governor.
SPEAKER_01: It was paused.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites had gotten comfortable in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They were no longer laboring.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the time period.
SPEAKER_01: That's the window where Esther takes place.
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll stop our study in Ezra and jump over to Esther.
SPEAKER_01: But know that the main point of the book of Esther is that God is at work even in the lives of those that don't see him.
SPEAKER_01: This is the age of Socrates in the Greek world.
SPEAKER_01: Pythagoras lived during the life of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: The Olympic Games began during the life of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what's going on in the global scene.
SPEAKER_01: That's all over happening over in the growing Greek Empire.
SPEAKER_01: But Persia was an empire in its own right at this time.
SPEAKER_01: It had conquered the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_01: The Persian and Med Empire had been combined.
SPEAKER_01: Alexander the Great had yet to arise.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is really the height of the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_01: It at this point was the largest empire in the world.
SPEAKER_01: It was larger than the Greek Empire.
SPEAKER_01: And Esther takes place in that window.
SPEAKER_01: This is a book about God working with God's people who aren't looking to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so God is working behind the scenes, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: But if you think being confined to offstage cramps God's style, you're mistaken.
SPEAKER_01: Even while God is hidden, he is not hiding, he is active, and he is still in charge.
SPEAKER_01: Charles Swindahl writes about the book of Esther, quote, God's presence is not nearly as intriguing as his absence in this book.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you want a book about God's presence, you have 65 other books in the Bible about that.
SPEAKER_01: You want a book about his absence, you have to turn to the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what makes it intriguing.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew Henry, the Puritan commentator, writes, quote, Though his name is not in Esther, the finger of God is directing every minutiae to bring about the revelation of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just not true in the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_01: That's true in our own lives as well.
SPEAKER_01: And that's our jump from the book of Esther to our own life.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a world where God is not active in the kind of miracles that you see in different stages of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He's not parting the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: There's not quail raining from the skies for you to eat, not manna from the grounds.
SPEAKER_01: And so often God is working offstage, just through, as the Puritans would often say, his normal providences.
SPEAKER_01: The typical way God works.
SPEAKER_01: And so the way you see God at work in the book of Esther is often the way he's at work in our own life today.
SPEAKER_01: This is a book about a hidden king who delivers.
SPEAKER_01: It's a book for those who struggle with the invisibility of God.
SPEAKER_01: For those who say, Because I don't see God, I doubt his existence.
SPEAKER_01: Esther is a book for you.
SPEAKER_01: Because no one sees God in it.
SPEAKER_01: And you, like I said earlier, we have to be intentionally naive to finish this book and say, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Where is he?
SPEAKER_01: No, he's everywhere, and that's the point of this.
SPEAKER_01: If you struggle with the invisibility of God, I hope Esther helps you see right here in the middle of your Bible that God is at work even when you don't see him.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, we're going to begin with chapter one, and you're going to notice that nobody in chapter, there's no believers in chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: There's no Jews in Chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: This is a story with a Persian king and Persian councils in a Persian empire with, you know, Israel is a tiny province.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of 127 provinces.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even its own province.
SPEAKER_01: It's part of a different province called the Beyond the River province.
SPEAKER_01: I think it had a catchier name in Persian.
SPEAKER_01: Israel is just a tiny speck on that map.
SPEAKER_01: These people don't know Yahweh or his covenant name.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know about him.
SPEAKER_01: And you're not going to see any people who know the Lord in this first chapter of the book.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's just so insightful to see God at work in people that don't even know who He is.
SPEAKER_01: We'll begin in chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: In the days of Ahazarius, and some older translations will call him Xerces or Artaxerces, and that's because it's a name that's in Persian that is often translated over into Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a and Xerxes is even his Greek name.
SPEAKER_01: So you got a lot of different names going on.
SPEAKER_01: The Septuagint calls them Xerces.
SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes if you combine the two words, it becomes Arta Xerces.
SPEAKER_01: But we're going to go with Ahazeris because that's the name that's in the ESV.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's supposed to be a pun in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: This would be a joke that Hebrew readers would get, that the Persian readers of this would not.
SPEAKER_01: Ahazarius can come across as the, it's a it's a pun on the word headache.
SPEAKER_01: So this king's name sounds like the Hebrew word for headache.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it's a little bit of a funny joke, just to start off the book.
SPEAKER_01: You want to see God's providence, we're gonna encounter Emperor headache here.
SPEAKER_01: The Ahazarius who reigned from India to Ethiopia.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, this is the province called India, then is modern day Pakistan.
SPEAKER_01: So this stretches all the way into Asia, all the way down through modern-day Ethiopia, even south of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: This is a massive empire, as I mentioned, the world's largest empire at the time.
SPEAKER_01: There was 127 provinces, and so you're supposed to be impressed by this guy.
SPEAKER_01: He rules the world.
SPEAKER_01: In those days, when King Ahazarius sat on his royal throne in Susa, there are four different capitals of the Persian Empire, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And this is one of them, the Citadel, in the third year of his reign.
SPEAKER_01: He gave a feast for all his officials and servants.
SPEAKER_01: This is the third year of his reign.
SPEAKER_01: This man will reign for 27 years.
SPEAKER_01: So this is at the beginning of his reign.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives a feast for all of his officials, all of his servants.
SPEAKER_01: It's the army of Persia and Media.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, these are two opposing empires that have just recently been combined, and the nobles and the governors of the provinces were before him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, for a hundred and eighty days.
SPEAKER_01: That would be six months.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a long feast we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: That's an incredibly long time.
SPEAKER_01: This is the longest banquet that I could imagine, a six-month-long banquet.
SPEAKER_01: And it is designed, this is widely attested to in world history, it was designed by him to display to all of his governors and these different ragtag bunch of army and military contingents he had put together under the Empire's banner, that he was in charge, that he was wealthy enough and powerful enough to go to war against Greece.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted to go to war against Greece in modern-day Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the battle was going to be.
SPEAKER_01: He was trying to convince all his armies to go with him off to war.
SPEAKER_01: That was the plan.
SPEAKER_01: And so to do that, to convince everybody that he was in charge and he had the power to pull this off, he throws a six-month-long banquet.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Think of all of the power you have to have to sustain that kind of food and drink and debauchery for 180 days.
SPEAKER_01: And when those days were completed, he's not even done, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: The king gave for all the people present in Susa the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace.
SPEAKER_01: So now, the final week after the 180-day feast is open, he throws open the castle door, so to speak, and lets all of the commoner, all the hoi ploy, all the peasants can come in.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody who had never been inside the king's palace, they can come in and they can check it out themselves.
SPEAKER_01: I'm picturing the scene from Frozen right now, if you're wondering.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody can come in and experience the King's Palace for themselves for a week of a feast.
SPEAKER_01: I love these little descriptions.
SPEAKER_01: There are white cotton curtains and violet, uh, violet violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry and marvel and mother of pearl and precious stones.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's this going over-the-top description of all the intricate tiles on the ground and the marble pillars that are up and they have these purple and gold, like scarlet curtains stringing between the marble pillars.
SPEAKER_01: This would be an incredible scene.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing like this.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you're a a peasant in this world, you would have never seen anything like this before.
SPEAKER_01: And the point is that the governors of these 127 provinces, they'd never seen anything like this before.
SPEAKER_01: They were wowed.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds.
SPEAKER_01: And the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king.
SPEAKER_01: And drinking was according to this edict.
SPEAKER_01: There is no compulsion.
SPEAKER_01: And in other words, you don't have to drink if you don't want to, which seems like a strange thing to say here, but the the Persians had an idiom at their party.
SPEAKER_01: If you if you stopped drinking, you had to go home, was the idiom.
SPEAKER_01: And in again, in Persian, it rhymed.
SPEAKER_01: No more drinks, and you're done.
SPEAKER_01: You had to leave the party.
SPEAKER_01: It would be considered rude to drink at a party and then not, you know, stop drinking and not stay, because there was this whole idea that you could take advantage of each other and you could get your friend drunk and then convince him to go into some business deal or some military conquest when you stop drinking.
SPEAKER_01: And so everybody had to be drinking at all times at a Persian party.
SPEAKER_01: But for a weeklong party, that's not going to work, right?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has limits.
SPEAKER_01: And so they made a rule we want you to party all week long.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can stop drinking if you want to.
SPEAKER_01: You need to catch your breath.
SPEAKER_01: You need to go home and take a shower or something.
SPEAKER_01: Go for it.
SPEAKER_01: And then come on back.
SPEAKER_01: The king had given orders to all of his staff of his palace to do as each man desired.
SPEAKER_01: Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women of the palace that belonged to King Azarius.
SPEAKER_01: So this becomes a little, you know, foreshadowing here that the queen is giving a feast for the women, perhaps the wives of the governors that are all there, the 127 governors and the military leaders, on a different floor.
SPEAKER_01: So notice just the dichotomy there.
SPEAKER_01: The king is giving his massive feast that all the peasants and everybody are invited to.
SPEAKER_01: And then on maybe a second floor, the queen is up in her chambers and all the ladies are there at their own feast, their own party.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ambiance in the two parties was probably different.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably a different code of conduct in both places.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to give any, you know, stereotypes to this, but I would just guess there's going to be a difference between those two parties.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, we'll see one of them in a second.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, on the seventh day, in other words, we're at the end of this feast.
SPEAKER_01: It's been 187 days of feasting and wine drinking here.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of the king was merry with wine.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say that's a euphemism right there.
SPEAKER_01: After 187 days of this, the king is sufficiently intoxicated.
SPEAKER_01: He commanded Mahuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abigatha, and Zethar, and Carcus.
SPEAKER_01: If you're looking for children's names, there's some suggestions.
SPEAKER_01: They were the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahazarius.
SPEAKER_01: The eunuchs, their job would be to care for the queen.
SPEAKER_01: These would be the only men that are allowed on the queen's floor of this, and that's if you have this kind of drinking with this kind of military and political contingents, you're the men are not allowed near the queen, because if the queen were to have a child by some other political ruler, that could be very problematic for the world's largest empire.
SPEAKER_01: So the only men allowed into the queen's presence here would be these eunuchs.
SPEAKER_01: So the king summons the eunuchs and tells them in verse 11 to bring Queen Vashti 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.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to say this is the only time in the Bible that this phrase is used, but it's it might be used in the Song of Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01: But as far as I know, this is the only time in the Bible that a woman is described by her physical appearance as being attractive, as being physically beautiful to look at.
SPEAKER_01: There may be another verse I'm not thinking of, but this comes to mind is the only one I can think of.
SPEAKER_01: The author points out to you right here that this woman is incredibly beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: And the king wants her to get all beautied up and parade herself with her crown and everything in front of all of these other men that he's been partying with now for 187 days.
SPEAKER_01: So I mentioned there's probably a different ambiance up in the queen's party.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder, we won't wonder for long, but I just wonder how that request was received.
SPEAKER_01: As the eunuchs walked up there and said, Oh, by the way, after six months and one week of you up in your own room, the king would like to present you before everybody.
SPEAKER_01: The eunuchs probably let her know the queen is the king is pretty intoxicated, or to use the language of Esther, his heart is merry with wine, and he's asking for you.
SPEAKER_01: With 127 of his closest friends.
SPEAKER_01: Queen Vashti, verse 12, refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuch.
SPEAKER_01: She wouldn't go.
SPEAKER_01: The king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 25, verse 28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're experiencing right here.
SPEAKER_01: The king, the the emperor, becomes angry at his wife because she didn't show up when he summons her.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a problem on a you know a marriage level.
SPEAKER_01: But these are not believers, so don't try to apply, like, you know, I I've read so many commentaries that get into the weeds of like, it was this lawful disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if the wife is supposed to be submissive to her husband, does she have the right to refuse to come when he calls, kind of, okay.
SPEAKER_01: At this point of some kind of drunken festivity with all the kind of sexual immorality that would be going on at the end of this festivity, the submission of the wife at this stage is not the right question to ask.
SPEAKER_01: Morality was checked a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: This is a problem at a more practical level.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the point of this feast was to convince everybody that King Ahazarius has the power to rule the world?
SPEAKER_01: He's the most powerful person ever.
SPEAKER_01: But he can't control his wife.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the problem?
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to convince these people that he can command their armies in the battle, but he can't get his wife to obey his commands.
SPEAKER_01: So the king said to the wise men who knew the times, for this was the king's procedure, towards all who were versed in law and judgment, the men next to him being Karshenna, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memukan, we'll see him again later, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face and sat first in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: These were the ones that were allowed in with the king.
SPEAKER_01: According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti?
SPEAKER_01: Because she has not performed the command of King Ahazarius delivered by the eunuchs.
SPEAKER_01: There is so much irony in this question, it should make you chuckle.
SPEAKER_01: The Medes and the Persians, they love their laws.
SPEAKER_01: They say it's as fixed as the law of the Medes and the Persians.
SPEAKER_01: You can't undo a law of the Medes and the Persians.
SPEAKER_01: So sure was the king's word, so sure was the Emperor's command that once the emperor passed the law and it was signed, you cannot undo it.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much power the king has.
SPEAKER_01: So notice the funny nature of this question.
SPEAKER_01: The king has so much power, no one can ever disobey it.
SPEAKER_01: So what am I supposed to do to the woman who disobeys it?
SPEAKER_01: It's a nonsense kind of question.
SPEAKER_01: It's also noteworthy as you read through the book of Esther, you see the king involved in lots of different activities.
SPEAKER_01: Never, not a single time in this whole book, does the emperor ever do anything at his own volition.
SPEAKER_01: He is always asking for help.
SPEAKER_01: Every single time he has a choice to make, he asks the wise men, or he asks Haman, or he asks Mordecai.
SPEAKER_01: He's always asking for help.
SPEAKER_01: And you might say, oh, in the abundance of counselors, there's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's that's not what the author of Esther has in mind here.
SPEAKER_01: He's not displaying the king's wisdom and asking for help.
SPEAKER_01: This king is presenting himself as the most powerful person ever.
SPEAKER_01: He cannot control his wife, and he cannot even make a decision without help.
SPEAKER_01: According to the law, what should be done to the queen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Memekin said in the presence of the king and the officials, not only against the king as Queen Vashidun wrong, but against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahazarius.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this is huge.
SPEAKER_01: This is a bigger deal than just bothering you, king.
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna ruin every province everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Because who's the queen with?
SPEAKER_01: All their wives.
SPEAKER_01: They got practical problems.
SPEAKER_01: All our wives are upstairs, and they all watched the queen say no to you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what how how are we gonna manage our own wives if we take them home and you can't manage the queen?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say that Memekan was bossed around at home, I think.
SPEAKER_01: The queen's behavior, verse 17, will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt, since they will say, King Ahazarius commanded.
SPEAKER_01: Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.
SPEAKER_01: This very day, the noble woman of Persian media who've 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.
SPEAKER_01: How will we ever be able to hold our six-month-long parties ever again if Vashti's crime goes unpunished?
SPEAKER_01: This is a real problem on their hands.
SPEAKER_01: They need marriage counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19 if it please the king, let a royal order go out from him.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't even read it without laughing.
SPEAKER_01: 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 not be repealed.
SPEAKER_01: Because remember, their laws are big deals, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That Vashi is never again to come before the king, before King Ahazarius, and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine the scene.
SPEAKER_01: The wife is in the town plaza and she sees the new edict from the king.
SPEAKER_01: Because Vashti wouldn't come when the king summons, all women everywhere need to give honor to their husbands.
SPEAKER_01: And what you like, oh, I wasn't gonna honor him five minutes ago, but now that I see this, I'm all in.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Lord, you called?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the whole thing is is really, really funny.
SPEAKER_01: It's absurd.
SPEAKER_01: This advice pleased the king and his princes, of course.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, they're pretty drunk.
SPEAKER_01: Um it pleased them.
SPEAKER_01: And so the king did, as Memakan proposed, he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script, to every people in its own language.
SPEAKER_01: So this is even he even translates this.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody can read this decree in their own language, so none of the nuances about submission are lost.
SPEAKER_01: That every man must be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that settles it, right?
SPEAKER_01: No women will ever be angry and disobey their husbands ever again, because that's how serious the laws of the Mese and the Persians are.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, this is an overreaction.
SPEAKER_01: The queen wouldn't come to the king when he was drunk and wanting to show her off, and so therefore, all the wives in the country might possibly also revolt.
SPEAKER_01: Before Twitter and Facebook, that was unlikely, but hey, you can never be too careful.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do with this chapter?
SPEAKER_01: Well, a guy wrote a book, James G.
SPEAKER_01: Williams was his name, wrote a book on Old Testament narrative where he writes this quote Biblical narrative represents a dynamic mode of thinking whose aesthetic properties support and enhance the process of arriving at knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: That's an actual sentence.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, stories make learning fun.
SPEAKER_01: The story is in the Bible to paint a picture for us from which we can learn a lesson about God.
SPEAKER_01: Even though there's no believers in this chapter, even though there's no window into God and his actions in this chapter, you see all of the people being set in place for God's will to be done.
SPEAKER_01: And Old Testaments are great for establishing principles or establishing theology.
SPEAKER_01: You learn about theodicy and the problem of suffering and evil from the book of Job.
SPEAKER_01: You learn about worship from Psalms, you learn about the resurrection from Jonah, and you learn about providence from the book of Esther, specifically Esther chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: That God's providence is at work in the lives of non-believers who do not know him, who do not look at him, who do not think about him.
SPEAKER_01: They're still under the sovereign providential control of God.
SPEAKER_01: To understand providence, you need to understand two different acts of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the best way to understand providence.
SPEAKER_01: That God has two different acts in this world.
SPEAKER_01: One act is creation, and the second act is preservation.
SPEAKER_01: Creation is where God makes something, preservation is where he maintains it.
SPEAKER_01: So God creates the universe and he creates us.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is how he preserves us, how he keeps us.
SPEAKER_01: God made us and he keeps us.
SPEAKER_01: You have to grant that the universe is a dangerous place.
SPEAKER_01: Apart from people who are hostile towards Christianity, and apart to emperors who go on drunken rages, you also have natural obstacles in this world: suns, stars, comets, earthquakes, black holes, and black widows.
SPEAKER_01: You have all of them.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing that life is possible in this world.
SPEAKER_01: It is just amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there are times in the year, all year long in California, a couple months of the year out here, where you can go outside with a short-sleeve shirt and just be like, hey, this is God made the world with the perfect temperature for me to love it.
SPEAKER_01: There's no reason it should be that way.
SPEAKER_01: No reason at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's just God's kindness that he made the world so enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Not just enjoyable, but he keeps us safe.
SPEAKER_01: He keeps this world running.
SPEAKER_01: He made it and he preserves it.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is how he does that.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than using miraculous means like just stopping a star from hitting you in the head when it's falling at you, God uses providential means to keep the stars in order.
SPEAKER_01: To keep the sun from consuming the earth.
SPEAKER_01: To keep the rivers from drying up.
SPEAKER_01: To keep countries from constantly invading each other and this world being in a perpetual state of war.
SPEAKER_01: God uses providence.
SPEAKER_01: Common grace He gives to the world to restrain evil.
SPEAKER_01: Providence he uses to regulate the affairs of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And providence is not confined simply to keeping a star from hitting you on the head.
SPEAKER_01: Providence covers every single act of every single person in every single time period.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is comprehensive.
SPEAKER_01: Theologians often refer to it as meticulous providence, that God cares for every event.
SPEAKER_01: It was Spursion who said that God is providentially in control of how many aphids dance on the head of a rose petal.
SPEAKER_01: God rules all of nature in every way.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't see him doing it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point of this.
SPEAKER_01: We often sing a song, immortal, invisible, God only wise.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a stanza, the third stanza in the song.
SPEAKER_01: God is at work in light, inaccessible, and hid from our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And silent as light, he's not wanting, he's not wasting, but he rules in might.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he doesn't need anything, he doesn't waste anything.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't hurry and he doesn't sleep.
SPEAKER_01: He's never late.
SPEAKER_01: He's in light and you can't see him.
SPEAKER_01: And he rules the universe by his might.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is the way that God ensures that what he promised to the world would actually happen.
SPEAKER_01: It's the way God directs all things in the universe to fulfill his perfect plan.
SPEAKER_01: Probably the best theological definition of providence is from the Westminster Confession that says God upholds and directs all things according to his foreknowledge, according to his wisdom, and for his good.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say it, read that one more time.
SPEAKER_01: God upholds and directs all things according to his foreknowledge.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he's planned it out ahead of time, according to his wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's not just divine duck duck goose here, but he's actually got things planned out through wisdom how he's going to act and for his own good.
SPEAKER_01: That's providence.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the Westminster Confession goes on to say that God is the first cause through creation of all things, but then he orders all things he created through secondary causes, which means that God doesn't have to actually touch you to move you.
SPEAKER_01: God can use all the things around you to move you.
SPEAKER_01: God can direct you perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: He can direct you perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: God, if he wanted me to have pizza tonight, would have made it a Redskins game tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Because the pizza place my wife and I go to to do a cheap deal on pizza on Redskins games.
SPEAKER_01: So God doesn't need to do a miracle to feed me pizza.
SPEAKER_01: He just needs to have the Redskins play a game.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not in charge of when the Redskins play.
SPEAKER_01: Is it even football season right now?
SPEAKER_01: No, this analogy breaks down fast.
SPEAKER_01: It's some sport season right now.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's some deal on pizza.
SPEAKER_01: If we find out there's a deal on pizza, then it's God providentially leading me to pizza tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And if God wants me to eat more healthy tonight, the Redskins won't be playing.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see how God doesn't need to feed me manna?
SPEAKER_01: He providentially opens and closes doors that I don't know anything about.
SPEAKER_01: That's providence.
SPEAKER_01: God directs you where he wants you to be, when he wants you to be there, and you will say the things he wants you to say, because he has orchestrated your life in such a way that you'll do it without you feeling like people say, oh, if providence is true, then I'm a puppet.
SPEAKER_01: God's just pulling strings.
SPEAKER_01: You're not a puppet.
SPEAKER_01: You're just not sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: God directs you perfectly so that you respond the way he wants you to respond.
SPEAKER_01: In a way that you're totally responsible for, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you respond sinfully, God is providentially reigning over your sin, and you're morally responsible for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: The sin and debauchery in Esther chapter 1, these people will be judged for their sin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God is providentially in control of it.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the line of the Westminster Confession that God orders all things according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he makes them happen, he lets them happen freely, or he causes other things to compel them to happen.
SPEAKER_01: That's ordinary providence.
SPEAKER_01: It's the way that God uses means to rule the world.
SPEAKER_01: If you find yourself thinking that I don't believe in the sovereignty of God because that would make me a puppet and I'm just responsible, I'm a robot, a robot, and God just pulling strings and programmed me out of the box to do this or that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what providence is.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is not that you're a robot.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is not that you're a puppet with strings being pulled.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is that you are a person who makes choices.
SPEAKER_01: Those choices are impacted by all of the things you experience that you are not in control of.
SPEAKER_01: That's providence.
SPEAKER_01: And that you will respond exactly in the way God wants you to respond at every single moment of time, always.
SPEAKER_01: That's providence.
SPEAKER_01: There are no rebel molecules in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Sovereignty is God's attribute, and providence is how he works out that attribute in time.
SPEAKER_01: Sovereignty is the attribute of God whereby he rules the universe, and providence is how he works out his sovereignty in real time.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 1, verse 3, Christ holds all things together by his own power.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1, verse 16, Christ sustains all things, and in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: And when you think about this, providence is more remarkable than miracles.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, any deity could part the Red Sea, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a whole nother level to have God orchestrating when Pharaoh and his chariots run after him and when the wall comes down and how long the Israelites wander in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: That is all providentially under his control.
SPEAKER_01: Given who God is, the times he doesn't speak are more astounding than the times that he does.
SPEAKER_01: There, by the way, is probably no place where worldviews clash with the Bible more than with the doctrine of providence, because other worldviews reject providence because providence implies a sovereign God reigning over the affairs of mankind.
SPEAKER_01: That goes against most other worldviews that want some level of ultimate autonomy where we are ultimately responsible for the things within our own purview.
SPEAKER_01: Most people think of God as a watchmaker.
SPEAKER_01: God is gone.
SPEAKER_01: He might intervene here and there, but he just lets the world run by laws and by free will.
SPEAKER_01: Nature and human choices.
SPEAKER_01: And if that were true, life would be a series of random events with some hints of chance, some flukes, some accidents, and some fate.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the way life is described in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Life in the Bible is described as complex choices people make under the absolute sovereignty of God, with people being morally responsible for their conduct.
SPEAKER_01: Some people say I'm the master of my own destiny, but there are some things that are out of my control.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you say that, if you say, you know, I'm in charge of my life, but I grant that there are some things out of my control.
SPEAKER_01: Those things that are out of your control, who controls them?
SPEAKER_01: If you give anything to God, you're going to find it impossible to draw any lines keeping everything out of God's hands.
SPEAKER_01: If you say God is only in charge of the extreme calamities, but not the middle calamities, there's no logical way to draw that line.
SPEAKER_01: If God is in charge of anything, he is in charge of everything.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelievers live life on a horizontal level, and so they fail to see God's ultimate plan from eternity past into eternity future.
SPEAKER_01: They fail to see that it is God that rules the things they experience on a horizontal level.
SPEAKER_01: A pagan's life in a pagan world is a sad thing, but it is still ruled by God's hand.
SPEAKER_01: And you have a window of that in Esther chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Just because you can't see God doesn't mean he isn't in control.
SPEAKER_01: Believe me, God is not self-conscious about being tagged in a photo.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need his name everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: He rules the world from offstage.
SPEAKER_01: It's obvious that he's in charge, so believe that, and you're well on your way to understanding and glorifying him.
SPEAKER_01: There was a ministry that I used to oversee in Los Angeles that did a lunch together every Sunday afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: They called it a pot providence lunch.
SPEAKER_01: And they did it for so long that the joke wore off, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Like the first few times they correct you.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, what do I bring to the pot?
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, a pot providence, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Like after a few years, it's no longer funny.
SPEAKER_01: But look, I remember it at this very moment.
SPEAKER_01: The implication behind that kind of language is you understand that even in the things that you eat this day, God is the one reigning.
SPEAKER_01: The doctrine of providence is offensive to people that want to be their own sovereigns.
SPEAKER_01: But I say, don't worry about that.
SPEAKER_01: Know that God will judge you for your deeds.
SPEAKER_01: God will reward you for the deeds done in the flesh, both good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: That's 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, give honor to him for all things and see the incredibly ironic contrast between Ahazarius and Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Ahazarius, a person who says, I'm the most powerful ruler ever.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I'll decree it in 127 languages.
SPEAKER_01: But he cannot control one person, the person he's closest to.
SPEAKER_01: He has no control over her.
SPEAKER_01: How different is the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: The king in Esther chapter 1 is the most powerful human person you can imagine.
SPEAKER_01: In your mind, you cannot conceive of a person more powerful and more sovereign than this king.
SPEAKER_01: He has more power than a president.
SPEAKER_01: He has more power than a Supreme Court justice.
SPEAKER_01: He has more power than anybody in the world today.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the point of Esther chapter 1 is he has no real power at all.
SPEAKER_01: In contrast to God, who doesn't need his name on the page to get everybody exactly where he wants them to be.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're thankful that you rule the world and you do so with your own wisdom, your own love, and your own kindness towards us.
SPEAKER_01: You shower us with common grace, which we don't deserve.
SPEAKER_01: You send us your spirit, which is more than we could have ever asked or imagined.
SPEAKER_01: You cause us to grow in godliness.
SPEAKER_01: You who are outside of our creation have revealed yourself to us.
SPEAKER_01: And through providence, you've brought us here tonight.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for the hearts that are here.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that we would not be filled with worry or anxiety about the things in the world, knowing that you rule the world.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that the lesson of Esther 1 would be very practical for us, that we would respond to discouraging events and discouraging twists and turns with an unwavering trust in you and your goodness, that we would keep complaining far away from us.
SPEAKER_01: Let us not have a complaining word on our lips, because it is indeed you who rule the world.
SPEAKER_01: We give you thanks for the kindness of your sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being with us today.
SPEAKER_00: And now a parting word from Pastor Jesse.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, emmanuelbible.church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_01: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_01: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.