Esther

And if you'd like to turn your bibles back to where we finished off, and it's page 502. Later, when King Zurich's fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. Then the king's personal attendance proposed that to search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king, that the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Higa. The king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women, and let beauty treatments be given to them, then yet, then let the young women who pleased the king be be queen instead of Vashti.

This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it. Now there was now there was in the city of Susa, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin named Mordekai, son of Jay, the son of Shimi, and the king, the son of Kish, whom been carried into exile from Jerusalem by nebuchinnessa, the king of Babylon, among those who've taken captive, with Joachim, the king of Judah. Mordicae had a cousin named Hadasha, whom he had brought up whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman who was also known as Esther had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordickeye had taken her at his own daughter when her father and mother died.

When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought into the city of Susa and put under the care of Higa. Ester also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Higa, who had charged over the harem. She was plea she pleased him and 1 1 his favor. Immediately, he provided her with beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her 7 female attendants, selected from the king's palace, and moved her attendants into the best place in the harem.

Ester had not revealed her nationality and family background because more the guy had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked to and fro near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Before a young woman's turn, before a young woman's turn came to go into King's x rays, she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, 6 months with oil of myrrh, and 6 with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king Anything she wanted was given to her, to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. In the evening, she would go there and in the morning, she would return to another part of the harem to take care of Chagaz, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concupines.

She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name. When the turn came for Esther, the young woman Mordica had adopted and the daughter of her uncle, Abihal. To go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hager, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the harem suggested, and Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Zerxes in the rural residence in the tenth month the month of Tabith in the seventh year of his reign. Now the king was attracted to Esther more than any of the other women and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins.

So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. And the king gave a great banquet, Ester's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He became a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberty. When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordicae was sitting at the king's gate. But Esther had kept secret her family background, the nationality, just as Morica had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions.

As she had done when she when he was bringing her up. During the time Mordukai was sitting at the king's gate, Big fanner and Terish, 2 of the king's of of officers who guarded the doorway became angry and conspired to assassinate king xerxes. But Mordicae found out about the plot and told Queen Esther who in turn reported it to the king giving credit to Mordicae And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the 2 officials were impaled on polls. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king. Thanks, Steve.

Fantastic brilliant story, isn't it? And, over the next, the next few weeks, we're going to be, having a think about this book of Esther in the morning service. So next week is the mix, so we won't be doing it then, but then after throughout the month of June, we're going to be trying to tackle this this this, this whole book together. So do keep it open in front of you and, let's pray, and then we'll try to make head or tail of these first chapters. Father, we just, thank you for these, amazing stories for this amazing story.

Of your people in exile and the way in which you began to work in order to rescue them. And, we ask that as we look at these first 2 chapters now and set the scene a bit for the rest of the story, that you would help us not merely to understand, how it flows together, but that we would understand the applications for us today as well, and we ask that in Jesus name, our men. Okay. This is quite loud. Is it is it feel loud, echo ey?

Yep. We'll turn that down a bit. Is that alright? Thank you very much. Okay.

I wanna start with, a slide, and I'm gonna try and control it with this thing if I can. And I wanna show you, let's title, a few a few film posters. Okay? So here's a few film posters. I hope you can see them.

We've got Grand Terino reservoir dogs, braveheart, and Zulander. Okay? And, I wanna ask, what why do you think these films are are unusual? Or what would make these films unusual? Just have a think about it for a minute.

Don't have to shout anything out. But why might these films be unusual compared to other films? And the answer is because the director played a major role in the film itself. So not only was he behind the scenes directing the affairs and making sure the scenes happened as he wanted, but the director himself thought that he should feature in quite a major way in the film. And so they all have their positions, Mel Gibson, their and, Clint Eastwood and Granterino and so on.

So that that's kind of unusual, isn't it? Because normally, we expect the direct to be to be behind the scenes directing the affairs of the film, but not actually to feature in it in a in a major way. That that's kind of a bit unusual compared to what we normally would think. And the reason I say that is because Esther is is actually quite an unusual book in the Bible in the sense that god doesn't feature in it at all. So god's name, the name Yahweh or even lord is not mentioned in the book.

And for some people, that's caused them big problems because they've been thinking, well, should this even be in the Bible? I mean, it doesn't even have god's name in it. Why why should we put it in? And so in that sense, it is a bit unusual compared to other books, but what you see as you work your way through the story is that god the director is absolutely behind the scenes. So just because god the director doesn't feature by name, it doesn't mean he's walked off set.

He is behind the he's behind the curtain, and he is working things out according to his perfect plan. And we're gonna see how he puts that plan together. So Esther's a bit unusual, but not to be thrown out of the Bible for that reason. And what we see in the book is that there are 2 big themes. Okay?

There are 2 big themes. God is behind the scenes working to this script. And 1 of the things he's doing, as we'll see, is he is at work to rescue his people from total wipeout. Now if you don't know this story at all, from the first 2 chapters, you might think well, there's nothing really about that, and that's true. But actually, as we work through the story, you'll see there's this a massive ominous threat threatening to wipe out god's people, and yet he is at work to rescue them.

That's the first major thing The second major theme is celebration. This is a book all about celebrating. If you like going to parties and you like banquets, this book is full of banquets. There are so many banquets in this book, and all of the major plot turns happen around banquets. Okay?

So this is a book of feasting. But the main reason this book is actually written is to establish a feast called Purim, which is celebrated by the Jews every year to help them remember the story of Esther. Okay? So this book was written to establish a feast. But it's not just for Jewish people.

Ultimately, it's not even really a Jewish book. It's a Christian book, which helps us celebrate the rescue we have in Jesus, because we know the whole bible is about Jesus, and the whole bible is about the rescue we have in Jesus. And so this is for us to read and to celebrate and to feast over. Okay? So those are the big 2 themes.

Now, as for the history of this book, where exactly are we in the bible story? And the first thing to say is that, like many of these old testament books, we're not actually sure who wrote the book. So we don't have really any indication who authored it Some people think because Esther's name is on the front, that means she wrote it, but that's not that's not actually right. We don't think she wrote it. It could have been mordecai, some people think he was the 1 who wrote it because he seems to be, a bit more of an official person who might have had access to records and that kind of thing, but again, we're not really sure.

So anonymous book as for the timeline, here's here's a timeline. So you can see roughly kind of where we are in the bible story. So this book of Esther is set after the Babylonian exile, and we read that in chapter 2. That was a it's a big deal in bible history. When king nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian empire came and they just over 3 successive sort of waves of attack, really.

They deported all of god's people and took them out into Babylon, into the empire. And then after that, the Persian empire really became the superpower in the world. So the Persian came They annihilated the Babylonian empire, and they are they're the big boys of the of the world. They're the big players at the moment, the Persians. And, Esther is set under their rule.

It's also we find as you can see in the reading is set in a place called Susa, which is just 1 of the capitals, 1 of the many capitals that they would have had in this massive empire, and Xerxes, King Xerxes is on the throne. Now, as for the Jewish people, at this time, what we see is that they are they are exiles in the land. So they are still not in their home country, although some of them actually had returned home. So King Cyrus said that if they wanted to, the Jews could return and start to rebuild and start to reestablish their community and their temple and their walls and their teachings. And so a lot of them had gone home in various waves, but some had chosen to stay.

And had become a bit more assimilated in the empire away from home. And, and that's that's that's what but that's the kind of story we're following with Esther and Mortacai here. These These guys would have been born in exile. They've lived their whole lives in exile, and they're still there. They haven't they haven't gone home.

So that's that's the kind of that's the kind of That's kind of broad brief overview of where we are. And, to help us break down what's going on in these first 2 chapters, I want to tell the story by looking at the 3 key characters, which are xerxes, Esther, and Mordecai. I wanna I wanna have them as my 3 points, really. Zurich sees Esther and Mordecai. And to try to just tell you the story through the eyes of those who were there, and to to have a think about what we can, what we can learn for us today.

So the first point is just Zerxes. Okay? Zerxes is the name of the point. And, we're gonna follow his story. And as you can see here on this map, Xerxes was was a great king who who had a vast and powerful empire.

We see that in the very first verse, don't we? That This was the Zurich seas who ruled over a hundred and 20 provinces stretching from India to cush. That's the upper, upper nile region there. So He he he he was dom he was a dominant king. He ruled the world.

He he look at the size of his empire as massive. Okay? He truly is the biggest name in world domination at this time. His empire is massive, his power is massive, his glory is massive. He's the gladiator of the ancient world.

He's a superpower. Okay? And what we find in this first chapter is that in order to show off just how glorious he is, he decides to throw these 2 banquets. Okay? The first banquet was was was a huge 1.

It was gonna go on for a hundred and 80 days. That is a significant length of partying, isn't it? If someone said to you, can you just block out the next hundred and 80 days in your diary for feasting? It would be quite difficult for you to commit to that level of feasting, wouldn't it? But there's not much choice here.

Hundred and 80 days of banqueting. And this would be, you know, the this is all the great, the great greats of the empire. So you would be celebrity spotting at place. You know, the officials are there, the rulers of the provinces. Anyone who's anyone is big is sort of chin wagging at this party.

Okay? This is where the big wigs are. And, it's a very, very lavish occasion. The second 1 after that as if a hundred and 80 days was not enough to satisfy your, feasting urges. He decides to throw another banquet for the staff, really, the staff who work in the citadel.

And the citadel just is a kind of a fortress or a stronghold and, the, you know, he he decides to be maybe a little bit more generous with this 1 because you don't have to be a bigwig to come. He throws it for the greatest and the least. Okay? So all the staff in the citadel are welcome to come. And so both of the banquets, there's there's different guests, but they are the point of this chapter is to say both of them are just unbelievably over the top and lavish.

You know, it's like going to an all you can eat restaurant with your mate, knowing that he's gonna pick up the tab. Okay. Whatever you have, he's gonna buy, you can have whatever you want. There is no such thing as going over the top in these parties. You can't have too much.

It's not possible to have too much. It's not like the parties that we go to. You know when the snacks are almost finished and but there's 1 of each left and everyone's slightly embarrassed about taking the last 1. There'd be no such embarrassment here because there is no such thing as the last 1. They just they just keep coming, they keep coming, they keep coming.

So they they they are really over the top. And to get an idea of how how grand this might have been this whole this whole occasion, I've got some pictures here from the, from the Berlin, this is from the Berlin museum, actually, but there are pictures, there are kind of, designs and artwork like this in the British Museum as well, and we've done a number fours around it and I've seen some of those. And, this is actually these are actually the guards, apparently, that would have been on duty in the palace at Susa. And, even though they're however many thousands of years old, they still have kept their color and their texture pretty amazingly, aren't they? And you look at them and you can only imagine what an empire decorated like that would have been like.

Would have been amazing. And there's a good chance that Esther and Mordecai would have seen these exact, these exact pictures for themselves. Which is amazing. So that gives you an idea of the kind of the kind of things that you'd be looking at, the precious stones and the the paint work and the skill of the artists and all that kind of thing. So very, very, very lavish.

We're told in this first chapter that, that these parties, contained couches of gold and pavements of pearls, which is just an amazing thing to imagine a floor made of mother of pearl, isn't it? I mean, most people put their very few pearls if indeed they have them in a special cabinet and only get them out to dust them once a year. Pirls are so prevalent in this empire. You can make your floor out of pearls. And that's quite amazing, isn't it?

In the second party, we're told that they're that every person gets their own cup. All the cups are different styles, which is just I I don't you just can't buy sets of cups like that, can you? If you go into MNS or whatever you wanna buy wine glasses, you have to buy them all the same usually. Not in this empire. You can have each cup handcrafted for yourself in order to drink out of.

So It's just it's just amazing. And obviously today, there are not many people who can throw these kind of parties who have that sort of wealth. The only 1 who came to my mind was a chap called Floyd Mayweather, who's a boxer. I don't know if you ever heard of him. His nickname is the money, as his nickname, the month, Floyd the Money Mayweather, and he's just so he's got something.

Apparently, he's got his own m many different private jets, and, he always flies with his own barber. Apparently, never goes on a flight without his barbell and just in case he wants a haircut when he's going to to where he needs to go. He normally takes 60000 pounds in cash with him at all times. And, on a big night, he'll take a million in a hold all, just just to just to spend heat. That that is a real jacket made of dollars.

He he's got there. And, apparently, he's got so many cars that he can color code them according to city. So his black cars are for Miami, his white cars are California. His red cars are forever else. You know, he's he's he's got an opulent kind of guy.

And it's sort of amazing to hear it, but also make you cringe at the same time, and, that's what we have in Esther. It's super indulgent, but cringy in in that kind of way. Now, unfortunately, what we see again in this first chapter is that these are not very righteous parties. These are not the sort of parties you would want to invite your mum along with you. And the amount the amount of references to wine here give us the impression that the king and the people were in an almost permanent state of drunken And morally, you can see that it really starts to go downhill in, in verse 10 and 11.

Let's have a look at that. Of chapter 1. On the seventh day when King xerxes was in high spirits from wine, that means he's off his head, really. He commanded the 7 eunuchs who served him, that's those names, to bring before him, Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown in order to play her beauty to the people and the nobles for she was lovely to look at. So imagine that she's probably in the middle of her own party at this time, and 7 blokes turn up to invade her private party and to invite her to come and parade around at some kind of drunken cattle market.

Okay? Doesn't sound very appealing. Does it? Obviously, it's a no. And when she refuses, xerxes becomes furious.

Have a look at verse 12 there. But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious, and he burned with anger. So he's just out of control, he's so angry. And perhaps the reason he's so angry is because he's just advertised that this is about to happen.

So he might have said, right, can I just have your attention to everybody? I'm gonna get my queen. She's gonna come. She's beautiful. She's gonna parade around you.

You can ogle her. That's what she likes. You know, you can just, you can just look at her and then we'll send her away and we can get back on with the party. So he may well have just advertised this and so it's pretty awkward when these 7 blokes turn up empty handed, and they don't have the queen coming with them. What is he what is he gonna do?

He's furious. That she has disobeyed him, and she's furious that she's embarrassed him in that way. So what does he do? Will he consults his experts who warn him that this little act of disobedience is not gonna stay secret. Okay?

They think that women all over the empire gonna be rising up against their husbands if they hear this story. And particularly, this is of interest to them because they don't wanna go home tonight and find that their own wives have found out what she's done, and then they'll have a bit of discord in their own home this evening. That would not be suitable for the nobles and the princes and to have that kind of thing. So they basically think that Vashti has pushed this big red button and she has released a disobedience bomb all over the empire and that wives are gonna be up in arms against their husbands, and there's gonna be no end to the problems. So they reckon that the empire should strike back.

They reckon that Vashti be barred and replaced. They reckon someone better should be found, and by better, they mean more willing to be ogled at as a piece of meat. That's what they mean by better. They reckon he should show the empire that he doesn't tolerate disobedience. They reckon that a command should go out that men should rule their households and that that should That should be the case everywhere.

So it sounds a little bit like we wanna be as generous as we can to xerxes. It sounds like he cares for the people, and he just wants peace and order in the empire, but really we know it's more about him saving face. And the truth is he doesn't want people gossiping over their garden fences. About the time their super king was unable to rule his wife. And the irony about this whole thing is he shot himself in the foot completely here because If he wanted this to remain a secret, the best thing to do would be just to kind of forget it, keep quiet, and ignore it.

But to issue a decree across the land, telling husbands to obey, telling wives to obey their husbands is not gonna get rid of the gossip. It's gonna promote the gossip. Okay? Everyone's gonna be wondering why has that come out? Why is he saying that?

And so he's only gonna encourage the very gossip that he's trying to destroy. So he's not much of a thinker. I think that's the point, and he's a bit of a puppet. In fact, in this whole book, whenever Zerxes makes a decision, he never does it by himself. Every time he has to tell peep he has people to tell him what to do.

It's quite interesting. He is, he is a bit of a puppet. He doesn't know what he should be doing. He doesn't even speak to Vashti about why this happened and why she refused him. She just wakes up.

Her p 45 has come in the post, She's she's fired, she's out of here, and that's it. And so I think when we get to this chapter, in 1 sense, we're meant to smile this dictator who commanded every husband to do what he himself was unable to do. To be the master of his own household, to be the master of his own life. So Zurich sees he's powerful. He's rich.

He can throw a party, but ultimately he's pretty pathetic. And so the question is, what can we what can we learn from this, from this first character here? And I think firstly, Zurich's teaches us about the destructive nature of sin. It teaches us about sin. Now this book, 1 of the dangers with it is because characters play such a big role is it's very easy to just say, okay, so I don't be like him.

I don't be like him. I've got a b like him and b like him and just turn it into sort of a moral picture gallery, really, which is which would be missing it and wouldn't be very helpful. But nonetheless, there are lessons here about the destructive power of sin. And here we have a man called Xerxes, who is the ruler of a hundred and 27 provinces. He rules the world in effect.

And yet he cannot rule himself. He had so many slaves that they were probably impossible to count. But he himself is a slave to drink and lust. He's the most powerful man in all the world, but he's so preciously fragile when it comes to his own reputation. And why is that?

It's pride, isn't it? This this is exactly what pride does. It makes us want to guard our reputation by fear and threats, doesn't it? Now, you and I don't have the power to issue these kind of global orders and to just show off our aggression without any without any consequences, but we can use kind of that subtle aggression against people who knock our pride. We might wanna just ignore them or be a bit cold with them for the next few weeks or we try to get them back in some way or we might try to cut them off in our hearts and just pretend they don't really exist anymore.

That that's what we do when our pride is wounded. We sort of lash out in all kinds of different ways, don't we? That's that's what Zurich says. We learn here that pride must put on a display of power to maintain its reputation. That's what pride does.

Pride licks its wounds by trying to re prove itself before other people. You're gonna slight me? Okay. Well, I'm gonna do something to make sure nobody does that again. He wants to defend its reputation like that.

We learn here that pride cares more about letting people know you're powerful than doing the right thing. Isn't that right? He doesn't wanna do the right thing. He doesn't wanna repent of when he got drunk and repent of when he lost control and say sorry to his wife. For even suggesting that.

He wants to do something powerful in order to save his reputation. That's what pride does. So there are lessons about the nature of sin here that we need to look out for. But secondly, though, I think this is a lesson about how we view glory. I mean, Zurich's Zerxes commanded the world and had a banquet hall made of pearls, but he couldn't have any real power.

All that stuff couldn't help him. And yet we live in a world where we really do think stuff like that is powerful, don't we? We live in a world where what car you have is seen as a kind of extension of your character, an extension of your wealth. We live in a world where what school you went to is more important than did you actually learn anything? We live in a world where what job you have matters more than what kind of person you are.

How much money you earn is more important than who you are. We are so impressed by the banquet Hall of pearls. We love the big, the glorious, the splendid, but actually what we're reminded of here is that there's no real transforming power in any of that sort of stuff. But thirdly, what we learn here is that when we compare this kingdom, to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I think it just makes us adore our god all all the more.

Have a listen to this quote that I lifted from a a a really good common 3. He says this on, in this sort of application of this section. We remember that god himself chose to accomplish the greatest triumph of human history through the lowliest of means, a pregnant virgin a rejected and crucified man, bread and wine, and the foolishness of a message that abases mankind and exalts a crucified savior. You see the difference that we we have? That our king, Jesus Christ, the true ruler of the nations.

He doesn't sit on couches of gold. He doesn't run his kingdom like that. In fact, he gave up all of his splendor and all of the riches of heaven to come and serve us. By dying on a cross. He doesn't kind of have to show his glory through angry commands.

He shows his glory through service. I mean, just think about the night the night before Jesus died. He's got all his disciples who was the lowliest of the low in the room. And what does he do? He gets up, he ties a towel around his waist, he gets down on his knees, gets a basin of water, and he washes their feet.

The hands who formed the universe began to wash the dirt out of the disciples toenails. The hands who held all of the riches of heaven had come in order to scrub the dead skin off the feet of fishermen. I mean, that is an amazing thing, and it is a picture of what our king does. He comes and he serves and his whole life is about showing his glory in service. And that's why when his final banquet day comes, it's gonna make xerxes look like an embarrassment, really.

And the beautiful thing about it is that when we come to the banquet of Jesus Christ, He doesn't invite us in order to boast. He invites us so that he can pour out his grace and his wealth upon us to serve us, There's that amazing bit in the bible, isn't there where we're told that when we sit at the banquet of the new creation, Jesus has his service robes on, even in heaven, and he's serving us. He's serving us in in even there. It's amazing, isn't it? And so the question is who's gonna refuse that invitation?

To the banquet. I mean, you can't refuse Zurich's invitation because he orders you like some kind of horrible dictator. Jesus doesn't do that. He woos us with his grace. Come to the banquet.

Let me serve you. Come to the banquet. He's such a better king than xerxes. So that's him. He was the ruler of the world.

He couldn't rule himself. And, that makes our our true king look even better. Let's move on to Ester now. Okay? And have a think about her.

Now, I'll explain that in a minute. That came up prematurely. Don't try to work out where I'm going. Let's instead turn to Ester Ester 2 and verse 1 and 2. Okay?

Later, when King Zerxes' fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. Then the king's personal attendance proposed, let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king, let the king appoint every commissioner in every pro of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the Harim at the citadel of Susa. Okay. So that's where the search is starting. And, at the if you watch the BAFTA, so then if you do, at the BAFTA's recently this won an award, Britain's got talent.

It's a pretty simple show. Basically whoever you are in the country, if you've got a talent of any kind, you need to apply and come to the big stage, and Britain will vote on whether in fact you are talented or not. Okay? So it's a talent search. It's a talent scout throughout the nation.

Okay? And that is exactly the kind of thing we have going on in Persia. This is Persia's got talent. What we find in chapter 2, the officials reckon that a search should be made for the most gorgeous girl in the empire. Let's search all the provinces and find the most beautiful girl.

And as you can guess, Zurich sees approved of that idea. He thought that was a good idea. That was a really good suggestion. To find the most beautiful girl and to bring him to the palace. Okay?

And the reason is is because that's what he's like. He basically envisions his palace with this living cabinet of dolls who are all made up and done up to the eyebrows in makeup and are just waiting there in suspension to be pulled out of the glass cabinet and played with and then put back. And if he can have the most beautiful girl in the empire in that cabinet, then that's a very good thing. And Esther is actually introduced to us as 1 of these beauties. Okay?

Have a look at verse 8. When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citizen of Susa and put under the care of Hagi. Now, I think a lot of men would apply for that job. So head guy is the man who rules over all of the beautiful women in the empire. That's his job.

Don't think there'd be a shortage of CVs if, you know, that that that, position became open. Hedkeye, who are charge of the Harim, She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately, he provided her with beauty treatments and, and special food. And I think we have to ask is that actually a blessing or a curse, for Esther to be considered 1 of the most beautiful in the empire? I mean, if you put it if you put it this way, would becoming Henry v 8 next wife be good.

Do you think? In 1 sense, it is because you get to escape poverty, escape your status as an exile, you can come and be married to King Henry the eighth and enjoy all his foods. But in another sense, given what's happened to the others, it's not that it's not that good, is it? It's a bit like the phrase, she had the best place in the king's Harim. It's a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?

It's like saying you're the most successful failure. Or you're the most you're the highest scoring loser. The best place in the king's Harim, it's hard to work out whether that's actually a good thing that anybody would want. Although, as I say, having said that, you would get regular meals and that kind of thing, so so maybe it'd be alright. And, what we see here in the passage is that this in this competition, natural beauty only gets you through the door.

Once you're in the group, the beauty treatments begin, and the women needs preparing for a night with the king, which is exactly as it as it sounds. He's gonna rate them based on their evening performances. Now last weekend, as you know, it was the, it was the royal wedding, and, I don't know what impressed you most about the royal wedding, but a lot of people particularly fashion columnists are saying that the makeup was the most influential thing on show during the royal wedding. I was having a a look this week. And people are talking about, the long term influence of Meghan Markle's royal wedding makeup.

Her visible freckles were a big deal is the subtitle there. So, you know, I don't know how you feel about that whether you agree, but that's that's clearly a a thing her her I didn't. Yeah. Okay. The wedding makeup's gonna be, a big thing apparently.

What's really exciting the media was Amal Clooney, she wore a whopping 20 different makeup products apparently, totaling 750 dollars, which which people are saying is is really good. But, compared to Ester, it's nothing. It's nothing. She had 12 months to get ready. 12 months of beauty treatments, 6 months of oil and myrrh, 6 months of perfumes and cosmetics.

Okay. So any ladies that sort of worry about how long it takes them to get ready in the morning. You know, you can read this for assurance. It took us to 12 months in order to get ready for her thing. And after all of that, what she had to do was to spend the night with the king, and, and she wins.

So you have a look at chapter 2 verse 17. It says now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. So she ends up being chosen and the king throws this banquet, to celebrate. But again, is that good news?

Think about the last time, there was a banquet with a queen present. Didn't go very well for her. And so Esther, even though she's won the competition, she's gonna have much they have to be much more subtle. If she's gonna survive. Okay?

Now, in the story, as well as well as those bits we've seen, there are 2 key things that I've left out here. Firstly, and this is really important, we're told several times that Esther obtains favor. She obtains favor. Okay. Have a look at verse 9.

And, you can see that verse, verse 9, she pleased him and won his favor. Verse 15 towards the bottom, and Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. Verse 17, now the king was a track to Esther more than to any other woman and she won his favor and approval. In other words, this is not just luck. Okay?

3 times we're told she is winning favor. She is obtaining favor. And so whatever you think of her position at the moment, God is granting her success at every stage. He is the director making sure that his girl gets to where he wants her to be. He's at work.

He's at work. Behind the scenes obtaining favor. Secondly, a key point in this book is all about origins. Okay? It's all about origins or where somebody comes from.

And just like at our royal wedding last weekend, the origins of the bride, were discussed very heavily, and the origins of the bride were considered to be very important, so they do here as well. The other girls in this passage are described as beauties, virgins, and the Harim, but Esther is a Jew. Mordecai is a Jew. They are part of the exile family, and they have these deep connections to the people of god. That's really, really important.

But for now, as we can see in verse 10 of chapter 2, she's incognito. She's under the radar. Okay? So she's a Jew. We're supposed to know that, but actually Mordecai has commanded her to keep that quiet, and we'll see why in just a moment.

So I think we can imagine Esther a little bit like the lizard from proverbs. A lizard can be caught with the hand. Yet it is found in King's palaces. I just love that. She's like the lizard.

She's fragile, but she's there. She's so small in 1 sense, but she's made it into the king's palace. She's there hiding crawling up the wall if you like, because she's undercover. Okay? Esters in.

Now, what can we learn from this little a bit of the story? Well, firstly, I think it takes time for us sometimes to see what god is doing. It does take time for us to see what god is doing. Now at the end of the story and for generations to come, all of god's people would be in no doubt at all what he was achieving in this part of the story. But you think of your average due at this point, okay, in the empire.

These events would not seem like a big deal. The king's had another banquet. Big deal. The king got crossed with the queen. There's another queen coming in.

Big deal. You know, all these things happening. From their angle, new laws, all this sort of stuff. It's just business as usual. But give it time and you see that when you thought nothing was happening, God was preparing something awesome.

Isn't that right? Just think of the thousands of little acts of god's sovereignty that Esther has already experienced. She's born in exile. She lost her parents. She was adopted by Mordacay.

She was given natural beauty. She happened to be found in the empire. She wins the competition. The lord gives her a favor. There are thousands and thousands of little acts of sovereignty preparing her for something awesome, even though it wouldn't have seemed like it, to most ordinary people.

And I think that's an encouragement for us. Here's here's a here's a brilliant quote from a book called The Mystery of Providence, which just means the amazing way god god works for his people. And it says this. Providence has its eye upon everything that relates to the Christian throughout his life from first to last. Not only the great and more important, but the most minute and ordinary affairs of our lives are transacted and managed by it.

It touches all things that touch us. It's amazing, isn't it? That everything that touches us, providence touches. In other words, nothing that can happen to us, whether big or small providence still has its eye upon it. And so I think that is encouraging because that means that even when you and I cannot see god working in dramatic ways.

There is this steady, quiet, faithfulness in the ordinary business of life in all that we are doing. God is at work in each of our lives in a thousand different little ways, which are almost indiscernible to us. And yet, actually, he's at work to achieve wonderful things, preparing us for opportunities perhaps and ultimately making us more like Jesus and preparing us for him. In everything that happens to us, providence has its eye upon it. And so when in our lives, god feels a bit hidden and remote and nothing dramatic seems to be happening, Let's remember this.

The director hasn't walked off stage. The director is still there behind the screen, and he's making sure everything goes to plan. It will all come to plan. But as well as that, I think the other thing we learn from Esther is that just like xerxes, she points us to Jesus. And she's designed to put our attention on Jesus.

You see, remember what we learned about the origins being really important? Well, that's true of Jesus as well. Here's how the new testament starts. Okay? This is the very first verse of the new testament.

This is the genealogy of Jesus. The Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. In other words, the story of Jesus begins with origins. It's really important that we know who he is and where he came from. He's the son of David.

He's the son of a king. He's the son of Abraham. He's the son of promise. Jesus is the Messiah. He is god's king.

Know his origins. Know his origins. And the funny thing is just like Esther, he is born under the rule of an out of control king. She is born into the empire ruled by this drunken despot called Xerxes, Jesus was born into an empire ruled by an out of control murderer called herod. They were both born under hostile gentile kings, and yet they would rise up thanks to the Ministry of God to achieve something great for god's people.

So even now, if we know our Bibles, we're thinking, born as an exile, origin's important under a horrible king, That reminds us of Jesus. Jesus is echoes of Jesus all the way throughout Ester's life. So that's her. We've done Xerxes. We've done Ester, and, briefly, we'll have a look at more Kai, and we'll see more of more of him in, in our times to come.

So Mortacai, again, and the first thing we learned about him is his family history. This this is just such a big deal in this book. I wanna keep banging this home. Have a look at verse 5 to 7 in chapter 2. Now, there was in the citadel of Susa, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin named Mordukai, son of Jaya, son of Shimi, son of Kish, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jahoya King, king of Judah.

Mordakai, Mordicae had a cousin named Hadassa whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, was also known as Esther and had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mord of Kai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother had died. So as you can see, origins are important, mordecai is connected to the people of god. That's that's the key thing to learn here.

And as you can see, like Esther, he's lived his whole life in exile. Both Esther and Mordicae have never known a time when they weren't living in exile, but that doesn't get rid of who they are. They've got dual passports. They've got a feat in 2 kingdoms. That's the point, I think.

They have a passport for Persia, but they have a passport for god's people. 1 foot there, 1 foot there. That's a really, really key thing, I think. So those origins are important. But also he's probably quite different to a lot of the exiles, and we actually get the impression that Mordecai had some kind of official role So he lived in the citadel, not in the city, which is interesting.

Why was he living in the citadel? He's at the King's gate, which is the place where only the officials would have been. So how he got that slightly larger role? I'm not quite I'm not really quite sure, but that's the impression we get. He's slightly more sort of in favor, if you like, than some of the other exiles.

But basically, I think there are 3 really key things we learn about Mordukai in this chapter. He adopted. He commanded and he exposed. He adopted. He commanded and he exposed.

Have a look again at verse 7. He adopted. Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassa whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother So I think, s, I think, Mordukai, sorry, is being held up as a contrast to Zurich's here. Yeah? He doesn't use women just to ogle at them with his mates and and get drunk and use them as sort of objects.

He doesn't treat women like that. Just for beauty and lust. He is a man of honor. He cared for Esther when she had nobody left. He adopted her.

He looked after her. He walked every day to the court of women to find out who she how she was. He loved her and had a really keen interested in her. Cause he want he wanted her to grow and develop and as his own daughter, really. So you see, he's a real contrast to xerxes.

He treats women, in that in that wonderful way. He adopts did her. But secondly, he commanded verse 10, and this is kinda interesting because it comes up twice. Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. So it's interesting, isn't it?

When Esther is recruited, He brings this subject up with her and tells her twice, keep it undercover. Don't tell them who you really are. Don't let them know that you are a Jew. Now, why? Why would he do that?

Why does that matter so much? Everybody knows that there are Jews living in the empire. What's the problem? Well, remember, they were part of the exile community. And so maybe Mordekai feared that she would have no chance or even be in danger if this was found out.

And so it's possible that as a minority group in this empire, they might have been viewed with suspicion. People might have thought they had political motives. People might have thought they were into uprising and challenging the worship of Persian gods. Who knows why? But perhaps he thinks, look, is gonna be better for us if you just keep it quiet and you're more likely to stay where you are.

That's 1 option or perhaps he knows that this could be an opportunity. You see, next week, we're gonna see that Mordecai is the 1 who knows that at some stage the Jews are gonna be delivered. He knows that. He knows 1 day the Jews are gonna be rescued. God is gonna make sure that happens.

And so perhaps he thinks This could be the start of something. This could be the start of something great. This could be the beginning of the rescue. And so it's almost like he's saying, look, just Just put the pegs town, play the long game, blend in like a chameleon, survive and thrive, and you never know what god is gonna do. So he commands her because he sees this opportunity.

But lastly, he uncovered. Have a look at verse 21 to 23. Just to write the end of chapter 2. During the time Mordicae was sitting at the king's gate, big fannna and Territ are like big fannna. It could be a nickname, couldn't it?

It's like big fatter. I'm big fatter. And Terresh, 2 of the king's officers who guarded the doorway became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther who in turn reported it to the king giving credit to Mordecai And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the 2 officials were impaled on polls. All this was recorded in the book of the Annals.

In the presence of the king. So this this is probably 1 of the most key plot twists in the entire chapter. And as we work through, we're gonna see that this little stone dropped in the lake is gonna have big, big ripples. Okay? But the question is, why does Mordickeye report it?

It's weird, isn't it? Why does he bother reporting it? Everybody knows this king is a bit of a drunk loser. Why not just let it happen? Just let the assassination happen.

I mean, why not why not let them go through with it and kill this out of control maniac? Wouldn't that be the better thing to do? But now he reports it. Why does he do that? Well, because he's a righteous man, and it's a righteous thing to do.

Yeah, that's true. But also, I think to work this opportunity as best as he can and to try to put Esther in his favor a bit more. Cause you notice he gets Ester to tell the king what's going on. So he's trying to just make her position a little bit more secure a little bit more sis stable. He wants Xerxes to think, do you know, I can't do without Esther.

She's she's really important. She's gonna tell me about assassination plots. She's the sort of person I need around, and so he's just trying to make her a little bit more established, I think, hoping for something for the future. So maybe he knows that this is the chance for the exiles. Maybe he knows that something awesome might be about to happen.

With Young Esther. And in that sense again, I think there's a little hint of the gospels in that. Do you remember, When the, New Testament, when Jesus has been born and he gets taken into the temple, and you've got these 2 prophets, Anna and simeon, these old wise, righteous, godly prophets. And when they set their eyes upon the baby Jesus, they know there's a sense in which they know if he's he's destined. He's destined for something awesome.

And look what look what she says, Anna, the prophet. It's just amazing. There was also a prophet Anna, the daughter of Penuel of the tribe of ASHA. She was very old. She had lived with her husband 7 years after her marriage.

And then was a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple but worship night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to god and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Do you see? I think maybe Mordekai shares something of that vision for Esther at this time.

Maybe he knows then actually something great could happen here. She might be destined for the redemption of god's people just as Jesus was So that's chapter 1 and 2. God, the director is starting his work. Zerxes has been embarrassed to show us the folly of pride. Esther has come into the palace, like the lizard in the king's house, destined for greatness.

And mordecai's work trying to secure whatever lies ahead for them. And let's, let's pray and, thank god for this is that we've seen this morning. Father, we just thank you for this amazing story. And, It is it is strange that anyone would think the Bible was boring, and irrelevant. It is it is so exciting.

The stories that are here. And we thank you for showing us again. Just as it was true in Esther's life that you are the sovereign director. Who is behind the scenes, making sure that everything happens according to the good of your people and the glory of your name. And we thank you for what encouragement gives us that even when we feel we don't see great dramatic interventions and life largely just carries on in routine as normal.

We know that that doesn't mean you've walked off the set. You have a purpose for the thousands of little ordinary things that happen to us every day. To make us more like Jesus, to prepare us for opportunities to minister, to evangelize in the little ways that we can And lord, we thank you for that wonderful vision of your sovereignty that this gives us. Help us to hate the kind of pride that ruins xerxes. Help us please cultivate hearts of humility, within us.

And, we just pray that as we, leave this place, you would help these words to be ringing in our ears and changing our hearts in Jesus' name, amen.