A New Queen - God is still in control

Scripture Reading

You may be seated. Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to the book of Esther. Book of Esther, chapter 2. This is the very last book of the historical books, so if you get to Job or Psalms, you've gone too far. Ezra and Nehemiah, not far enough, smack dab there. A little short book, hard to find sometimes. Esther chapter 2, if you're using your pew bibles, you can find that on page 442. Esther chapter 2. As we continue to work through the Book of Esther, like we do most narratives, what we'll be doing is working through it chunk by chunk. And so before we get into it, I want to remind you of a story I told you last week or a few weeks ago about a woman named Kim Da-bin. And you remember Kim Da-bin?

Some of you children remember this story where this lady in North Korea would go out every single night by the moonlight and would dig a hole. And out of that hole, she would bring up her Bible. And at the end of every night, she would read that book and then close it up, put it back in the bag, put it back in the hole, dig back the dirt over it, would cover it over with moss and grass and make it look like nobody was there and walk back home. And what we had talked about with that was what a beautiful picture this was of someone who cherished and loved God's Word. But let me ask you a different question. This is a woman living in communist China where she could die for having that Bible. Was it wrong for her to hide her faith? Was it wrong for her to not wear her faith on her sleeve? With that question in your mind, let's turn to God's word. Esther chapter two. The first four verses we learn of Queen Esther, well, who will soon be Queen Esther. Esther chapter two.

After these things, when the wrath of King Asherah subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done and what had been decreed against her. Then the king's servant who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be brought before the king or be sought for the king. and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather all the beautiful young versions to Shushan, the citadel, into the women's quarters under the custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, custodian of the women, and let beauty preparations be given them. Then let the young women who please the king be queen instead of Vashti. This thing pleased the king, And he did so.

Remember last week when we came to chapter one, this was the tyrant Xerxes I, the emperor of the mighty kingdom of Persia that stretched all the way from Ethiopia to India. This amazing emperor who had gone to war with Athens. And here we find just a little note here, and after these things, There's a time period here. We don't know if this is one day a week, or some commentators think that after Xerxes had dethroned Queen Vashti, that that's when he actually went to war with his men against Athens.

And after he had lost that war, comes home. And now that he's come home, now as we learn from Greek historians, Xerxes ended up becoming a man who was consumed with pleasure. And so he remembers. He remembers what happened to Vashti. And just to make sure we have a right understanding here, this is a man who is given to much pleasure. This is a man who is given to a dictatorial style of rule. This is not an age in which we might think we want to live. Yes, there's gold abounding. Yes, his nobles are able to drink much wine, but what happens in this story?

It should be disturbing to us. Sometimes we will watch movies about the Queen, about, you know, the Book of Esther, and it will be, you know, one night with Queen, and it's like, oh, wow, this is so romantic, and things are great. No, this is an ugly story. This is a story in which mothers, fathers, your girls could be taken out of your home if they were beautiful, and you have no say about it. to go sleep with a man, possibly one time, be secluded into women's quarters, never allowed to marry, never allowed to come back home, and to live more like a widow than like a princess.

This is what is proposed to King Ashurarius here. This is what his advisor comes to him. This is what he says, right? Then the king's servants who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. Do you see they're consumed with how do we get the king on our side? How do we do this?

And what's most likely happening here is power plays. A Persian custom would be that the king would go after and he would try to get a wife from one of the seven closest advisors. But he would also have a whole bunch of other women who were kind of illegitimate wives, concubines. Their children would never be allowed to actually take the throne, but they might be given administrative jobs.

And the king gets the best of the best, but here they go out and it's more than just that. It's all the women, all the young women. And this pleases, this pleases the king, as it says in verse four. People want to say that this is like a beauty contest.

It's more sinister than a beauty contest. By the way, We should not be okay. This is me speaking here of the dignity of men and women. Men and women aren't show ponies. I don't think it's okay to parade our girls and boys in front of a whole bunch of people and mark them for the form of their bodies. It's degrading to how God made us. This is worse than a show. This is let's get a whole bunch of women. Let's round up a whole bunch of women and let's make the king happy. And this is what happens. We're introduced to our two main characters in verses five through seven. Look with me at verses five through seven as we learn about Mordecai and Esther.

In Susan, the citadel, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jeir, the son of Shammai, the son of Kish of Benjamite. Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been captured with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away. 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. There's an orphan and an exile. Vulnerable people. People stripped out of their homeland. Do you remember what had happened just a few centuries before? The Babylonians had come in and they had conquered Jerusalem. They had seized Jerusalem. They had ripped out the people from their homes.

If you want to get at the heart of how bad this was, go pick up the Psalms where they have entire psalms of lament. Where they sat along the banks of the Euphrates and they hung their harps because they couldn't no longer sing with joy. Where they said that they ate upon their tears. They cried so much that their read for the morning were their tears, missing home, longing home, mourning over the death of their families.

And this is Mordecai coming out of that situation. And there's an orphan, a young girl, Esther. Esther is the word for what's most likely a myrtle tree. It's this beautiful, beautiful girl. no mother, no father, being raised by an uncle. This is a precarious situation.

And even in our own day and age, it is precarious, it is dangerous for someone to be left inside the Child Protective Services churn. All right, we think that we might be more humane because we don't let orphans live in Dickinsonian-type orphan houses and things like that, but the reality is still even today, children are in desperate need of being adopted because the large majority of children who are runaways and get stuck into human trafficking are orphans, children whose parents have died or have abandoned them for one reason or another. And so here, This young Jewish girl who's vulnerable to the society and the cultures and the power that be that are outside of her control is under her uncle Mordecai. So it's in this again, this precarious situation, this dangerous place that's meant to show us that Queen Vashti has already been kicked out because she just told the king no. And now we're introduced to this orphan girl whom Mordecai has brought up and who's cared for her. The king's command goes out. And this girl once again finds herself in a precarious situation. Look with me at the next portion, verses eight through nine.

So it was 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 also was taken to the king's palace, into the care of Hegai, the custodian of the women. Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor. So he readily gave beauty preparations to her beside her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king's palace. And he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of women.

There's somewhat of a reversal here that happens. Against her will, this isn't a passive tense. We don't know what's going on in Esther's mind. The story is actually amazingly void of moral judgments. As we read through this, it's amazing how silent God is in talking about the motivations behind Esther or Mordecai. But here Esther goes and she's taken, not that she would have had any say in this, but she's taken into the king's citadel. And as she's there, she's taken into the house of the women and she's given beauty treatments.

Now, if American society is anything of an indication of what it's like, how much people care about beauty, then just go look at how much money spas and salons make, how many people would drop massive amounts of money on cream to make sure that it doesn't look like they've ever smiled in their lives.

And people spend inordinate amount of money. If you don't believe that this is so prevalent in our culture, I'm gonna say one word and you'll know what it is. Botox. The fact that that's even a commonplace word in our language should show you how much people are consumed with beauty. Well, it was the same back then, right? If you're going to bring these women to the king, what do you need to do? You need to make them look pretty. You need to make them smell pretty. You need to give them these beauty treatments.

And again, we don't know what Esther's thought is here. We don't know if she's, does she enjoy this treatment? Does she enjoy being pampered every day, or is she going through the motions, listening to Haggai the eunuch, this king's right-hand man who he could trust with the women, dreading the day that it's gonna be her turn to go see Asher Warius? We don't know. We don't know how she's feeling here in this situation. But verse 10 and 11 says something Very telling and perplexing. Look with me at verses 10 and 11.

Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it. And every day Mordecai paced in front of the women's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. Esther didn't tell anybody about her family line. Esther didn't go into the women's quarters and do what Daniel and his friends did.

When we read the book of Daniel, it's really easy to be like, yeah, this guy's a hero for his faith. They're not gonna eat any of the king's food. They're only gonna eat vegetables. Why? Because they're not gonna defile themselves. But here we come to Esther and we find out that she doesn't do any of that. She doesn't do any of that. And I think in a real way, we have to ponder why doesn't, why does Mordecai tell her to hide this?

Is it for preservation? I mean, later we're going to find out that being a Jew and doing what Esther was going to be called to do later could cost her her life. So is this hiding by preservation? Is this like Kim Bidjung who hid her Bible in that hole every night? Is it out of preservation?

It's possible. It's possible. Is it out of pragmatism? Is it out of pragmatism? We just get to the best end possible and it's okay. I'm not so sure I like that train of thought. It doesn't seem to line up with Mordecai or Esther's character as we find out later in the book. But there is a reality that we face today. There's a reality that Jews still face today as well.

Have you studied many Jewish cultures at all? Or maybe you've seen Jews who are at the wailing wall and in Jerusalem and they have long tassels on the, or long curly Qs on the side of their head and their hats and they'll wear tassels on the corners of their garments and they'll only wear possibly wool or cotton and will never be intermixed. And because they want to know that even though they might live in a foreign country, they are still keeping their Jewish identity. They wear it on their sleeves. If you go to Chicago in certain areas, you're able to see practicing Jews like that. If you go to Brooklyn, it will become even more apparent if you get around Hasidic communities.

But that's not so different from the Christian experiences. I mean, God tells us to be in the world, but not of the world. And many Christians struggle with that today. How broadly do you broadcast your faith in Jesus Christ? I mean, think about the Amish who will make it very clear what their beliefs are and how separate from the world they are. And in their hearts, that is, in their hearts saying, we don't want to fall into the trap of the world. We have friends in our own community who will change their dress because they want it to be known to their children and to those around them that, yes, I am part of this church, or yes, this is what I believe.

And then there's other of you in here today who are wearing jeans and a polo shirt and your shirt doesn't say Jesus is my king. Do you see the conundrum? If you're not wearing Christian clothing, we'll put those in scare quotes, if you're not wearing Christian clothing, does that somehow make you less Christian? Our brothers and sisters in communist countries and in Muslim countries face this every single day. How much do they wear their Christianity on their sleeve?

It might cost them their life. It might cost them their job. It might cost them their church, their home, everything that they have. Is it right for them to let it be known that they're Christian and then in response to that, their entire family's kicked out of their apartment and now they lose their house and now they're living on the streets and they can't provide for their family?

What about our Muslim brothers and sisters, or our brothers and sisters who are in Muslim countries? And they become Christians. They profess with their mouths, and when they get around Christians, you know that they're Christians, and yet they struggle with the cultures in which they live. What's the safest way to evangelize?

Because if I wear my Christianity on my sleeve, I might be killed. and leave my own children as orphans and their grandparents might take them and force them to go to the mosque. Brothers and sisters, these are real questions, real issues that we shouldn't just gloss over in this story. So often we'll read the book of Esther and we'll just fly through this and oh, the ends justify the means. She just hid it for a little while and then it came about, but this is a year. She is living in the king's quarters for the women for a year being prepared. Not following the dietary laws, not keeping the Sabbaths. What is she thinking? I mean, that's a question that gets us into speculation, right?

When Esther thinks back about this, would she regret those decisions that she made? Would she regret listening to Mordecai's advice? I mean, this is so bad that brothers and sisters, there are rabbis who have written, especially in the Middle Ages, who used to say things like Esther should have killed herself rather than being roped into this.

Do you see the conundrum of this? She's going to go get married and sleep with a Gentile. This was specifically forbidden in Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse three. Do you see the moral conundrums? Not everything in your life is going to be stark easy. If you want to ask a moral conundrum, let me ask you it today.

Should you wear a mask to preserve other people's lives? Oh, if you want to see churches split, take a hard stance on that. Should you take the vaccine when it comes out? Oh, you're not a Christian if you don't take the vaccine, because you must not want to preserve life. Whoa, hold on, right? And then there's other people on the exact opposite side. Oh, you must not be a Christian because the vaccine is the mark of the beast.

We won't go there, but. Brothers and sisters, this is the reality of the moral conundrums, the ambiguities, the situations we find ourselves in. How would you respond if you're Mordecai or Esther? If you say no to the king's guards when they come and wrap you up, what are they gonna do to you? You think it's gonna end well? No, death or possibly the repercussions for the rest of your life.

So this is, I know that we want to come and we, I know the book of Esther is such a beautiful book and such a great story, but I want you to feel the tension here. This is the reality of these are real people dealing with real situations and impossible decisions. So what happens? Well, we know that she goes in, we know that she does these, We know that she does these beauty treatments. And then what happens in verses 12 through 14? Well, now it's her time. Now it's what she's going to have to do.

Each young woman's turn came to go into King Asuarius after she had completed 12 months of preparation according to the regulations of The women, for thus were the days of their preparation appointed, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women. 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. In the evening, she went. In the morning, she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shazakaz, the king's eunuch who kept the concubines. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name.

One whole year of beauty preparations. One whole year of spices. One whole year or six whole months of perfumes. And there was this disgusting nightly routine where the king would sleep with one new woman each night. And you have to think, every night that passed, did Esther know what order she was gonna be in, when her time was gonna come? When was she going to have to do this?

Verse 15. Now when the turn came to Esther, the daughter of Abihil, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter to go into the king. She requested nothing but what Haggai, the king's eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised." So it's her turn. It's her turn. And she's made this decision now. She's going to walk through with this decision. She's going to go into the bedroom of this Gentile ruler. Instead of doing what one of the rabbis said, she should have just killed herself that night. Instead, she's made a decision. She's going to go through with this.

And she listens to the chief eunuch, Haggai. Whatever he says, she listens. It doesn't tell us exactly what that is, whether it means, you know, here's this love potion to bring in, or here's the jewelry you should wear, or here's the instrument you should bring to play music that Ashweryx is gonna like. It doesn't say exactly what this is, but she trusts Haggai.

He's the one who she's found favor in his eyes. He's shown her extra care. He's provided her seven of the different maidens to take care of her. And Esther obtained a favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ashurias into his royal palace in the 10th month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the other women. And she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the other virgins.

We have to ask ourselves at this point, again, is Esther the hero here? Brothers and sisters, there's a real moral problem. The book of Esther is specifically written in such a way that's made to leave us with these lingering questions. How is this gonna turn out? Is this okay? Can God really work through this? Brothers and sisters, this is traditionally how God works. I don't wanna say that in a normative way, go and tell you to go and break God's rules and everything is gonna be okay. That's actually the exact opposite of what God's word tells us.

But have you ever read the rest of the Old Testament? Have you ever read about what a scoundrel Jacob is, stealing his brother's blessing? Have you ever read about David? and his sinful decisions, and yet God still brought the Messiah through him? Have you ever read about how Abigail goes against her husband?

She doesn't honor her husband. Instead, she goes to David and she says, my husband really is a fool. His name's Nabal and he is a fool. She essentially turns code on her own husband, and yet that's how God is working. You think about the line of Jesus and it mentions Tamar. Go read the book of Genesis and you'll see a whole bunch of flawed people. Go read the histories. This is the last book of the histories. And it is clear that if we are looking for a hero in this text, we're going to have a problem. One commentator wrote this. Other than Jesus, even the godliest people of the Bible were flawed, often confused, and sometimes downright disobedient.

We are, this is important, we are no different from them. Yet our gracious God omnipotently works his perfect plan through them, through us, and most surprisingly, even through powerful political structures that sometimes operate in evil ways. Brothers and sisters, God is greater than any of us and will accomplish his purposes in your life and for his kingdom, no matter what. I don't know about you, but for me, that gives me a great deal of relief. Because that means I don't have to be perfect. God's providential plan of bringing about his kingdom and his glory is not dependent on you being the hero of the story. God bringing about his plan, we do not need a righteous Ashurarius, no. No, God will work despite Ashurarius.

He will still save his people. He will still bring his Messiah. Even though we might have moral qualms with Esther and we might wonder why is she making this decision and why is she doing this, brothers and sisters, is it not a reassurance to our hearts that even when we might make decisions that we look back on and go, I can't believe I did that. But the Lord still works. But the Lord still works through powerful, even sinful political structures.

Now you might be all pro-America and that's fine, please don't shut your ears here. But surprise, surprise, America does some really evil things. And yet, God has found it to his pleasure to send scores of Christians from America with deplorable cultural values that we have to go to places throughout the world to share the gospel. Sometimes the money that we make has roots that we might not know of in oppression and in slavery, and yet God still uses that in weird ways to send out his gospel.

That doesn't always sit easy, though, does it? This is hard. I want you to walk away from here today not thinking the book of Esther is just this, oh, great, cute fairy tale story. No, really wrestle. Really wrestle with these things in your own heart.

But the book of Esther does give us a confidence in God's providence that He is going to bring about His ends, even though He's doing it through sinful, fallen people who make bad decisions. Esther goes in to the king, and she obtained grace and favor in His sight, and more than all the other virgins.

So he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants. And he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of the king. All throughout the area in the capital of Susan, as well as all throughout the area, what does King Ashuarius do? He makes it a holiday to celebrate the Feast of Esther.

Now what he doesn't know is he has just made a despised group of people have an official holiday. The Jewish people now have a queen who sits on the throne and nobody knows it. People don't know that there is a Jewish queen sitting on the throne. They don't realize it. They're not calling her Hadassah. They're not calling her Hadassah Bat Abahel, her Hebrew name. They're calling her, her Persian name, Esther.

And as we get towards the end of the story, we find out, is that Esther who they grew to love? Remember, think about it. Do you not love a good day off of work when there's a holiday? When you get a paid vacation from your boss that the government demands? Even then, God was turning some people's hearts towards the Jews. That hold on, that's the most beautiful woman. She earned the heart of the king, and we even got a holiday because of her. Her name was spread throughout. This was the one who was better than Vashti. Man, God works in some weird ways, doesn't he? God works in weird ways in our lives.

Maybe you've had a conversation with your friend that you thought, I don't know if it sunk in. I don't know if maybe I've made the right witness to my friend. Maybe I haven't lived out my faith as broadly as I should have. Brothers and sisters, there is a blessing in believing in a sovereign God. You can make decisions, even if you look back and you think they were bad decisions, and have confidence that even in that, God is working for his own glory.

This is why we had to read Romans chapter eight. It's not dependent on us. We're not the righteous ones. But it is God who will never remove his love from his people and will even use his sinful people to bring about his kingdom and his glory. Who is the hero of our text? Notice that God's name isn't mentioned anywhere here. Actually, the name for God, Yahweh, is nowhere in the book of Esther. Nowhere. And yet, who's the one who's really in control of this story? Who's the one who's really in control of the story of your life?

Closing Prayer

When there's pain, when there's heartache, when you feel like you're a failure and you look back with regret, or you're put in ambiguous and difficult situations, lean upon the Lord. Trust in His goodness and keep on living. Take confidence that it is God who is provident and is bringing all things to pass for His glory and for the good of His people. Let's pray. Oh Father, this is a hard chapter of a hard book with a glorious end. Holy Spirit, we pray that You would take away these silly or wrong things that I have said at the mouth of a sinful man. Lord, we pray that You would build us up and give us confidence in Your