Defying the King

Prayer for Illumination

It's always wonderful when you can mess up the presenter. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we are your people, the sheep of your land. You are the one who is our master and our maker, the one who created all things seen and unseen. Lord, you are the one who deserves all praise and honor, for you are glorious and majestic. Father, we pray that you would receive this worship now as pleasing and acceptable in your sight. Lord, we pray that your spirit would be with us, for we gather together in the wonderful name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.

Sermon

Well, I know that the bulletin says that we would read from Romans 8, but instead we're going to read from Revelation chapter 21. Revelation, the very last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21. We'll be reading verse 9 into chapter 22 through verse 5. Revelation chapter 21, beginning at verse 9. Hear now God's word from the newer covenant.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the city, the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.

Her light was like a most precious stone, like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also, she had a great and high wall with 12 gates and 12 angels at the gates, and names were written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. Three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now, the walls of the city had 12 foundations. And on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And he who talked with me had a gold reed and measured the city, its gates and its walls. The city is laid out as a square, its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. Then he measured its walls, 140 cubits, according to the measures of a man, that is, of an angel.

The construction of its walls was of jasper. and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, sorry, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardis, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth barrel, the ninth topaz, the tenth Christophars, the 11th, Jacinth, and the 12th, Amazith. The 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each gate was of one pearl. And the street was the city, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. But I saw no temple in it.

For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, the Lamb. is its light. And the nation of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. Its king shall not be shut in at all by day, there shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.

But there shall by no means enter anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, preceding from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life. which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, and there shall be no more curse.

But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there, They shall need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. That ends this portion of the reading of God's wonderful word.

Will you please pray with me? Oh Lord, you indeed are the one who dwells in unapproachable light. You are the one to whom the seraphim cry out, holy, holy, holy, for before you there is no abomination. In your presence there is nothing that defiles, for you are glorious in your purity and marvelous in your righteousness. You are the one who is pure in being and in action.

Lord, we come before you and we bow. Lord, we bow because we see the beauty of this world you created with the fields that are covered with snow and the mountains that rise up into the air. You are the one who created the deep sea creatures. You are the one who also taught the animals how to hibernate and to store away for the winter. You are the one who knit us together in our mother's womb. Father, we know that you have fearfully and wonderfully made us.

So Lord, we bow down to you as our master. Lord, we thank you so much for getting us here safely today. We thank you for our brothers and sisters who are able to join us online. We thank you for the technological age we live in. Yes, Lord, it is fraught with ways in which the perverse human heart has twisted and made it easy to sin. But Lord, we also thank you for the redemptive qualities that you have put in the creation. We thank you that even those who cannot be with us physically can be with us in spirit. We thank you for getting us here safely on the roads, though we thank you for modern inventions that weren't here a hundred years ago.

We thank you for the snow plows. We thank you for how you made salt and different types of materials and minerals that make snow melt away. We thank you for the deacons and for those who worked hard to clear the path this morning so we could get inside. We thank you for these walls that were erected by our forefathers and for the heat that we enjoy now. We thank you for every good and perfect gift that you have given us this morning.

Father, we pray that you would forgive us. Lord, forgive us for our sins this week. Lord, if we were to count iniquity, who could stand before you? But Father, we thank you that in Jesus Christ, our sin is no more. Lord, we do confess to you the sins of our mouth. Lord, we pray that you would forgive us for speaking destructive words to one another.

We pray that you would cleanse us and convict us of things that we ought to have confessed to one another, and yet we did not. Forgive us, Lord, for how often we have withheld those good words we should have said to someone, the compliments we should have paid, the encouragement we should have given. Lord, we pray that you would forgive us for not doing the good that you have given us to do this week. Lord, we pray that you would forgive us for how often we didn't just withhold the good things, but we even used our actions and our deeds to tear others down. Lord, we pray that you would forgive us.

Lord, forgive us for how destructive we can be in our marriages. Forgive us how destructive we can be in our relationship with our children and grandchildren, with our siblings and spouses, how quickly we are to grumble and complain. Forgive us, Lord, for how quickly we can be to nitpick one another. Forgive us for being so critical of others. and not evaluating our own lives for where the logs are in our eyes.

Lord, we pray that you would wash us in the blood of Jesus Christ. You would forgive us for our sins, both known and unknown to us. We pray that you would conform us more and more to the image of Jesus and that you would comfort our hearts that our high priest lives and that we are clean if we are in him.

Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters down in Shawnee, Kansas. We pray that you would raise up a pastor for them, that you would bring them a man who would shepherd them from your word. We pray, Lord, that you would care for their ruling elders and their deacons as more load is now upon their shoulders as they think about how to minister to the saints there without a full-time teaching elder. Lord, we do pray because it's your field and we know that you are the Lord of the harvest of Father. We pray that you would raise up laborers for your field.

We pray for our Midwest Presbyterians, many congregations struggle. Lord, we pray that you would reinvigorate them with a zeal for your kingdom and a heart full of love for their neighbors around them, that they would be purposeful in spreading the gospel. Lord, please don't let that just be other congregations in our presbytery, but Lord, we pray that you would fill us with a zeal and a fervor for your kingdom, an honesty about who we are without Christ, and bearing the good news of who we can be in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would bless the saints there at Shawnee.

Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters in India. We thank you so much for the good work you are doing in the Anangraha congregation. Father, we pray that you would care for them as they have difficult things laying upon their shoulders as the elders wrestle through how to spend time with different people in the congregation and how to shepherd them well. We pray that you would not just let these converts from Hinduism and idolatry come into the church and not have any anchor or mooring for their souls or patterns for godliness. Lord, we pray that there would be a robust system of discipleship there. We pray for the youth in the congregation, that they would grow strong in the Lord.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Japan. We pray for the students of the Kobe Theological Hall as they diligently labor for their studies. We pray for our brother Yusuke Hirata as he studies in Ireland. We pray that you would continue to care for your Japanese church.

Please, Father, let them rest in Jesus Christ, abide in him. And Lord, we pray that they would see much good fruit. We pray that they would spread the gospel seed liberally across that land. And we pray that it might find fertile soil, that your Holy Spirit would let healthy Christians sprout up.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in the Gambia. We pray for Sylvester as he does his work there. We thank you for this missionary opportunity that you've given him. We pray that you would care for the pastors who fellowship there. We pray that your gospel would continue to go out throughout that country.

Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters in China. We pray for those who are under the heavy hand of communist authoritarianism. Lord, I pray that you would care for those Christians that say are evicted from their houses and fired from their jobs, their children taken from them, and often worshiping in secret and in hiding. Father, we pray that you would encourage them. Do not let them lose heart. We pray that you would convict and convert even those police who are doing this intimidation, as well as into the highest echelons of the Communist Party.

We pray that that nation might come to know Jesus Christ, that your gospel would spread out, and that you might cause a great harvest to sprout there in China. We thank you that your church is advancing, that your gospel is going out, and that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

Lord, we do pray for our own land. Lord, we pray that as We live in a tumultuous time and an age of many questions where many things and parties and people are trying to tug our hearts away from you and tug us into directions of iniquity and unrighteousness. Lord, we pray that you would let us be firmly fixed in Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for our elected leaders, that you would let them be above bribery and corruption. We pray that they would turn their faces to Jesus Christ, that they would bow before him, that they would kiss the sun, lest your wrath should come upon us. But we do not pray this out of a haughty heart, but crying out to you that your kingdom might advance, Father, so we can live quiet and peaceable lives.

Please, Lord, use us as instruments, as tools, with our feet shod with the gospel of peace, ready to go out and to bring that hope and peace of Jesus Christ. Please, Lord, give us people in our local communities in Morning Sun and Mediapolis and Wapolo and Burlington and Mount Pleasant, New London, Dubuque, Bettendorf, all throughout Iowa. Lord, we pray that you would give us opportunities to talk to those in the communities in which we live about our King and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please equip us for this work. Please, by your providence, bring contacts for us to talk with and give us courage in Jesus to share the good news of Christ. We pray all of these things in Jesus's name, amen.

Will you please stand together with me now as we sing Psalm 51, selection A. Please stand if you are able and we'll sing together Psalm 51, selection A. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. ♪ God be merciful to me ♪ ♪ On your love I rest my feet ♪ ♪ By your vast abounding grace ♪ ♪ My temptations all erased ♪ ♪ From the stain of every sin ♪ Wash and make me clean within.

For my sins before me rise, always present to my eyes. I have sinned against you, O Lord, In your sight, I become none. So your words are proven true. Righteous are your judgments, too. Truly, I was born in sin. Simple when perceived within, surely you desire to find Faithfulness in heart and mind. You will be with me in my heart. It's an honor to be a part. Oh, with this I'll strangle thee, and from sin I thee will be. Wash me from this pain and soul, I'll be whiter than the snow. You may be seated.

Will you please turn over in your Bibles with me, meet me at the book of Esther, the book of Esther. If you're not familiar with the order of the Bible, the first five books are the books of Moses, the Pentateuch. Right after that, we come into the historical books, starts with Joshua and then goes to Judges. Keep going on past that, you'll get to Samuel and the Kings. Keep going past that, you'll get to the Chronicles. Keep going past that, you're almost there, past Ezra and Nehemiah.

Prayer for Illumination

You get to Job, but you've gone too far. Book of Esther, chapter one. If you're in the Pew Bibles, it's page 442. Esther chapter one. Let's pray. Oh Father, now we pray as we come to your word that we might meet you and that you might speak to us. We pray that these words would not just be an old story on a page. but that you would instruct our souls and lift our eyes to Jesus. In his name we pray, amen. Esther chapter one, let's begin by reading verses one through four, and we'll take this chunk by chunk. Ephesians chapter one, beginning at verse one. Hear now God's holy and perfect word.

Now it came to pass in the days of Ashurarius, this was the Ashurarius who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. In those days when King Ashurarius sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan, the citadel, that the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his officials and servants, the powers of Persia and Media. the nobles and the princes of the provinces being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days, one hundred and 80 days in all."

We come to this passage and we come to this book of Esther and this is a strange time and a different place. We come at a time when Ezra has already rebuilt the temple. We come at a time when the Jewish people have already been exiled and they've settled in the land of Babylon, but Babylon has been conquered by the Persians, or by the Medes, and then by the Persians after that. And we come to this passage and we find ourselves long removed from the time of exile. We're about a century later. And the Jews find themselves in Susa, in one of the four capitals of the media Persian empire.

This is where Nehemiah was before Esther, a cupbearer for the king. And so as we come to the book of Esther, we need to feel this book, we need to smell this, we need to see what the royal citadel would have looked like. And as we take a step, we're going into a land and into a situation that's far different than what we live in today. We come into a land where this man, Ashurarius, most scholars think that this is probably Xerxes.

And this is the man who is hell-bent on destroying ancient Athens. So we're talking about the time of the great Greek empire, where East is fighting against West, where his father Darius tried to conquer Greece and failed. And now every single day when Xerxes wakes up and before he goes to bed, he has someone who whispers in his ear, remember Athens. And his entire life is consumed with revenge. His entire life is consumed with conquering Athens. His entire life as a ruler of this vast empire from the border of India all the way into Kush through where we would think of Sudan now.

That entire area of the ancient Near East is under one king, one emperor, the joint kingdom of the Medes and Persians, this half-born Mede and Persian himself, Xerxes. And it's here that Xerxes the Greek historian Herodotus says, had all of his people come together, all the princes come together, and he throws a feast. And as he has this feast for all these people there, he's trying to convince all the provinces, all the districts, all of the princes to bring their armies and to come together and to fight with him, that they might go over Turkey and cross the Hellespont and go into Greece and finally conquer their foe.

And so as he does this, what's the best way? Well, what's the best way to make any friends? You throw a party. You show them how powerful you are. You puff up your chest a little bit and you get them on your side. And it's in this section that we find, this is where Asherius is. He's collected all of his officials from the 127 provinces of his kingdom. And there he's gathered them together to impress them, to get them to rally behind him.

This is only his third year of reigning. Now, we're used to short-term presidencies, right? Four years, that's it, maybe eight, but then they're gone. But in many countries around the world, and I was just hearing a report this past week of an African country that is having, it just had a new election. And when the guy who got second place in the election was three years old is when this man became king. The man is now 38 years old.

This guy has been in power for 35 years. This is the type of reign that we see of queens. You just think of Queen Elizabeth in England. And I can't remember if it's like 50 or 60 years that she's been the reigning monarch of that country. Monarchs reign for a long time. Emperors reign for a long time. And this is Xerxes, he's only third year of what he hopes is a long reign. So he's trying to get the support of the people. And so he doesn't just throw a one day feast. What does it say here for us?

In those days, when King Asuarius sat on the throne of his kingdom, which is in Susan, the capital, that in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his officials and servants, the power of Persia and Meda, the nobles and the prince of the provinces before him.

And he showed them the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his majesty for many days. One hundred eighty days in all. This is a six month party, y'all. This is a six month long party. Where he's just showing them all that he has. Look at all the wealth he has. And as we get into verses five through eight, we find out that he really is wealthy. Look with me at verses five through eight and hear the grandeur of the citadel in Susa. And when these days were completed, the king made a feast lasting seven days for all the people who are present in Susanne, the capital. So these are people who actually lived in the city. Now it's a more narrow party. The people have endured the six month long party. Now they have a party themselves. They don't have to work anymore. From great to small in the court of the garden of the king's palace. Now listen to what it describes his citadel as.

There were white and blue linen curtains fastened with cords of fine linen and purple on silver rods and marble pillars. Now, let me ask you real quick. All right, don't let this like fly away from you. Some of you all might have curtains in your house. You know, maybe you went to Walmart and you spent a buck and you got one of those cheap aluminum things, you know, and you have a couple of tack nails and you put it there.

These are silver curtain rods. I can't even afford silver silverware. And this guy has silver curtain rods with drapery that's coming down. Now this type of drapery isn't just like, you know, you went to Walmart and you bought it. This is silk drapery. This is stuff imported from Tyre. This is not just silk from China or something.

This was, you would go to the sea and there were certain types of mussels and it was called abyssus silk. And it was these little tiny strands that would come out from the side of a muscle. And you would take these tiny little strands and you would intricately weave them together. And there's a special trade in Egypt that would do this. And it was hand done, hard labor, tedious, and would fall apart easily. And this guy's having this imported all the way from Egypt to the desert in Shushan.

Silver curtain rods. And it keeps going on. and he had marble pillars and the couches, the couches were of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of alabaster, turquoise, and white and black marble. Couches made of gold. I mean, that's like the sign of opulence, isn't it? I mean, everybody makes fun of Donald Trump because he had a gold toilet. That's what this is like. This is just, you literally have a couch made out of gold.

You have pavement that's not just, it's not just good enough to have a nice stone pavement, but this is, when it says alabaster, it's most likely that this is actually similar to Mother of Pearl. So when you would look at it, it would shimmer in the light. It's got marble. And again, this is a time before modern electricity or machinery. This is hand cutting marble. So people could just walk on it. This is incredibly rich.

Verse seven, and they serve drinks in golden vessels, each vessel being different from one another, with royal wine in abundance according to the generosity of the king. Now, some of you might have mismatching sets of cups. If you're anything like me, you probably don't have more than two of the same type of cup. But this is not saying that, you know, he was too cheap to afford it. No, this means every single gold cup was handcrafted. Every single cup wasn't just mass-produced, but they all had intricately designed, intricately made designs on them, and each one would have looked different and significant. Now, I don't know about you, but if you check the price of gold lately, right, you all could pay me a couple weeks salary with like one gram of gold.

And this guy's got goblets made out of them. But it's more than just that. I mean, he's got wine flowing. It's just flowing, and flowing, and flowing, and flowing, and flowing. As much wine as a king wanted to give that day, he would just give it away. Just giving it away.

According to who? With royal wine in abundance, according to the generosity of the king. In accordance with the law, the drinking was not compulsory, for so the king had ordered that all the officers of his household that they should do according to each man's pleasure.

Drink as much as you want. It's all on me. I got the tab. Have as much as you want. You don't have to drink, but drink as much as you want. The king is purposely buttering people up. The king is purposely displaying his generosity. Ashurarius is giving away all of this to display his own grandeur, to display his own self-worth.

Again, this is, we need to step out of this idea, like this isn't like our house. I like having you guys over to our house and we eat off paper plates when you come to our place on Sabbath. Right, we're not trying to impress you, we're just trying to get to know you. This is about politics, this is about power, this is about getting people on your side.

And so in the third year of his reign, Ashurarius hosts a huge feast because he needs to get people on his side. But it's not just the men he needs on his side, he also needs the women on his side too. Look with me at verse nine. His first lady, Queen Vashti, also made a feast for the women in the royal palace, which belonged to the king, Ashurarius. And so we find that it's not just the men, but it's also the women. This is something, again, we don't really think about, but in a military community, people do.

Every single military knows if you do not take care of the family back at home, you will lose the war. If you lose morale on the home front, that word will get to the soldiers on the battlefield, and what will happen? Will they want to continue to fight for you? No. No, actually, if you want to talk sometime to our sister Jasmine and she'll tell you all about her thesis about those people and those women in the Civil War in the South who were suffering because they didn't have bread to eat and how that partly took away from the energy that the Confederates had because they couldn't even feed the families back at home and they were speculators and what it did to the morale for the troops in the South. Did you ever think that the Civil War was lost in part because the women at home didn't have bread? And yet that's the type of thing that if you do not take care of both the family at home and the army who's at the front line, you'll lose on both fronts.

And so Queen Vashti is there. Come on, support the king, support the king, support the king. But what do we find happens? What do we find happens? Look with me at verse 10 through 12. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehumen, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ashuarius 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. 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. What is King Ashuwarius trying to do?

Look at me, look at my power, look at my wealth, look at my control. Oh yeah, I got a cute wife. Let me bring her in here. And she says, uh-uh, I'm no one's show pony. Can you command your army at the front line if you can't command your wife next to you? I mean, he's furious at this, and his mind is, how dare she? And remember what it says here. This is a bad thing, right? Verse 10.

On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine. That's a nice way to say, when the dude was drunk, he thought about his wife, and he tried to show her off. And she is a beautiful woman. Actually, Vashti comes from this Persian word that has the idea of the beautiful one. And she had this reputation of being beautiful, but she wasn't going to be any drunken guy's show pony. But remember, right, we can think about this, and we can give it a feminist hermeneutic, and we can think about it as like, oh yeah, she's standing up to the patriarchy and stuff like that, but no, this is a political move that she's doing.

This is the queen of the most powerful empire in the world telling the king of the most powerful empire in the world No. No. I don't know how many times Asher Warius has been told no to in his life. But here he's told no. And he's furious, like a kid on a temper tantrum. And so the king reacts.

Look with me at verses 13 through 15. Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times, for this was the king's manner towards all who knew law and justice, those closest to him being Karshena, Sheftar, Admatha, Tarshish, Maris, Marcina, and Mamukon, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who had access to the king's presence and who ranked highest in the kingdom. And then Asherwarius asks this, what should we do to Queen Vashti according to the law? Because she did not obey the command of King Asherwarius brought to her by the eunuchs. And you can imagine his voice going up like that. He's not like, hey, what should we do with Vashti? I don't really know, you know. She said no, and I don't like that. No, I mean, this guy's upset.

He doesn't think to himself first, but in his drunken stupor, and by the way, this is the common way in which the Persians would do things. In the Persian court, we think that people should make sober judgments, and when they're drunk, that's probably not the best time to make a judgment. But in the Persian culture, you would actually get drunk. You would drink as much wine as you could. You would make decisions because they thought when they were intoxicated, that somehow they were being more spiritual and wise. The scripture says that that's foolishness. But then somebody there who was sober would write down what you decided.

In the morning, when you were struggling with what, you know what happens after you have drank too much, then you would decide whether that was still a good decision or not. Well, in this drunken stupor, he asks his seven officials who have access to him, what are we supposed to do? She defied the king. She said no to me, the king. What needs to happen to her? and Mamooka and Answers.

And Mamucan answered before the king and the princes, Queen Vashti has not wronged, only wronged the king, but also all the princes and all the people who are in the provinces of King Asuarius. For the queen's behavior will become known to all the women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes when they report, King Asuarius commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she didn't come. This very day the noble ladies of Persia and media will say to all the king's officials that they have heard of 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 laws of the Persians and Medes so that it will not be altered that Vashti." Notice it doesn't say Queen Vashti anymore. That Vashti. shall come no more before King Ashwarius, and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

When the king's decree, when the king's decree which he will make is proclaimed throughout all his empire, for it is great, all wives will honor their husbands, both great and small." Man, Mamucan takes this from just being about the king and her to spread it across the entire kingdom, doesn't he? Right, it's not just an affront to the king, but it's an affront to all the nobles here, it's an affront to all the people here, because what is she going to do? She's going to become a pattern for all the other women to have excessive contempt against their husbands.

We need to ask ourselves though, is this good or bad? I want to pause here for a second and I want to talk about narrative. And I've had this conversation with a couple people lately in the congregation. Is this good or bad? When we come to books like Esther, are we coming to books in which we read the narrative and we go, oh yeah, I want to be like that person. When we come to the book of Esther, or we come to Ruth, or we come to Genesis, or we go to David's life, do we go and we go, oh yeah, that's the hero I wanna be like? What do you think? I propose to you that the answer of that is no. Jesus is the hero of scripture. And we find time and time and time and time and time again, as we go through the book of Esther, and we go through all the different books of the Bible.

If you're looking for a hero in any mortal person in the Bible, you are going to fall flat on your face. Because they're going to disappoint you. I guarantee you, if you look to Vashti, she would disappoint you if you studied her life. If you look to Asher Warius as the model husband, I hope that you don't get drunk and start telling your wife what to do and act like you're going to gain her respect. That's not why this passage is given to us.

Actually, the entire book of Esther is going to present us with time and time again, whole bunches of real life situations where you have to ask yourself, what is wisdom here? What is the Lord doing here? And if I found myself in this situation, what would I do? And you find yourself there in your life, don't you? At times, do you not find yourself in ambiguous situations where you're in a business practice or you're at work and you're stuck in a situation and you don't know? What's the right way to go?

If I go this way, it seems like I'm violating this principle and if I go this way, it looks like there's all these snares over here. What am I supposed to do? I think the book of Esther is meant to give us that there is a principled way in which we live and we trust in God's providence. In all the ambiguities of life, we take all the principles of God's word and we apply them the best we can to our lives. But we need to live our lives not looking, there are nice things about Esther, and there are not so nice things about Esther, and we're gonna get there.

There are nice things about Mordecai, and there are some not so nice things about Mordecai. You might look up to Asher Warius as a strong king, or you might realize that Asher Warius is a jerk and a despot. The guy who literally killed people because they would not build the bridge across the Hellspot fast enough. We don't come to the book of Esther here to find, oh, look, we wanna moralize Vashti, or oh, we wanna moralize Xerxes or Asherus.

No, that's not what we're doing. No, we come here and we see that this is real life. How many times have you known a couple that struggles in their marriage because of power hungriness? Husband against wife, wife against husband. A drunken husband against a wife who has a lot of pride. This is real life. This is what's really going on here.

And so we have to look at this and we have to say, no, this isn't the picture to try to give us of moral right and wrong. This is trying to show us that God is provident even in these ugly situations. Because what Xerxes or what Asherius does here sets a chain reaction that he doesn't know it, but leads a Jew to become a queen and save her people from a genocide which preserves a line for Jesus Christ to come. See, God is often working in the background that we don't see, above the story that we don't understand in our lives, in all the ambiguity, in all the places that we don't know.

Are we doing the right thing or the wrong thing? Am I going to die? Am I going to live? Am I taking the right stand? Am I making the wrong decision? And the Lord uses each one of those in your life. in our president's lives, in our senator's lives, in our congressman's lives, in our judge's lives, in our parents' lives, in our children's lives, not so that they can achieve their end, but that he might bring the end goal of his glory and his kingdom. Yes, there are real things happening in our life right now. There are real things happening in our life right now. If you look at this, there are many people who are drawing contrasting parallels with the book of Esther. and with different sides of the despot aisle today. But the question is, do you actually believe that all world history leads to Jesus Christ being bowed down to? That's what the point of Esther is going to drive us to from the first chapter to the last chapter.

Mimucan demands respect. But that's not how Christ gets our respect, is it? Mamucan demands respect. He tells Asherwarius to demand respect. And yet the counter of that is what Jesus Christ does. The one who made us, who is the king of the universe, who rules all things. The one who holds all power in his right hand, it was Jesus who served. and who loved, and who earned our respect, who is our righteous king, who has suffered in every way like we have. He's not like Asuarius, and we're not to be like Vashti.

At the end of the chapter here, verses 21 through 22. And the reply pleased the king and the princes. And the king did according to the word of Mamucan. Then he sent letters to all 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 in his own house and speak in the language of his own people. There's a decree.

Wives should submit and men should be masters of their own house. Does that sound like Ephesians chapter five and six to you? Husbands, love your wives. Do you see the difference here? Here it's, husbands be masters of your own home. That's the way of the ancient Near East, and yet here, what is the way of Christ that we've just read through in the book of Ephesians? Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way.

Wash her in the water of the word, presenting her holy and blameless unto God. Jesus loved his bride so much that he would even lay down his life for her. Husbands, are you willing to pick up your cross daily and love your wife? Are you ready to earn the respect of your wives through godliness and service?

And yes, it does say it in the scriptures, wives, be submissive to your husbands, but it's not because of them, is it? What does the verse continue to say? Wives, be submissive to your husbands as unto the Lord. Let me just say this for a second. I'm going to speak to wives here. I've been speaking to husbands a whole lot. Wives, if you're waiting for your husband to be the perfect model of someone that you should respect before you can submit to, don't hold your breath.

You'll turn blue. Submissive as unto the Lord. But husbands, we yearn to be like Christ. Do you see how the gospel turns the world on its head here? Husbands, if we want our wives to respect us, we treat them like they should respect us. Wives, if you want to submit to your husband and you want them to be a man worthy of submitting to, start submitting now. Not because they deserve it, but because you know that your service is unto God.

The gospel flips this on its head because you see it's not Asuarius who has his mighty king and his mighty kingdom and his great citadel that endures forever. Brothers and sisters, the citadel of Susa was found only a little while ago under heaps and heaps and heaps of dirt and rubble. The kingdom of Asuarius is gone. Dead, buried, archeological treasure, some of it blown up by Isis.

We have a kingdom in heaven. and a king who sits on his throne and dwells and rules with equity. His name is Jesus Christ and the foundations of his kingdom are laid with those 12 foundation stones, with the sons of Israel. It is Jesus Christ who sits upon his throne with that river of water that goes out and that tree that spans both sides of the river and its leaves heal the nations.

The book of Esther is not to make us go, oh, look how wonderful it was to live in Persia and Media. No, the book of Esther is meant to point us to, man, this is an ugly and awful situation. I'm so glad that we dwell in the kingdom of Jesus Christ and I can't wait until we see it perfectly forever. Brothers and sisters, I pray that you might not be satisfied with despots of this world who are power hungry and want your attention.

Closing Prayer

But I pray that you lift up your eyes to Jesus Christ and you long for that day that you might see Him face to face. His Spirit's in you. And one day His name will be written upon you. And we'll dwell in His temple, in His kingdom forever. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we pray. that you would let the foolish thing that was said fly away. Father, we pray that you, by your Holy Spirit, might transform our hearts and move our feet. That we would believe and that we might live in accordance with that belief. Please let us not be satisfied with anything less in glorifying you and enjoying you forever.