Esther 1:10-22
Let’s give our attention to God’s
word. Esther chapter one, beginning at verse 10. On the seventh day,
when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded
Mehuman and Biztha and Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and
Carcas, the seven eunuchs, who served in the presence of King
Ahasuerus to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal
crown in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for
she was lovely to look at. But Queen Vashti refused. She refused to come at the king’s
command, which was delivered by the eunuchs. At this, the
king became enraged and his anger burned within him. Then the king
said to the wise men who knew the times, for this was the king’s
procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment, the
men next to him being Karshina, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres,
Marsena, and Mimucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media,
who saw the king’s face, and they sat first in the kingdom.
According to the law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti
because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus
delivered by the eunuchs. Then Mamucan said in the presence
of the king and the officials, not only against the king has
Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials
and all the peoples who are in the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen’s behavior will
be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands
with contempt. since they will say King Ahasuerus
commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him and she did
not come. This very day, the noble women of Persia and media
who have heard the queen’s behavior will say the same to all the
king’s officials and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty. If it please the king, let a
royal order go out from him and let it be written among the laws
of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed.
that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus, and
let the king give her royal position to another who is better than
she. So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout
all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women shall give honor to
their husbands, high and low alike. This advice pleased the
king and the princes, and the king did as Memucan proposed. He sent letters to all royal
provinces, to every province in its own script and to every
people in its own language, that every man be master in his own
household and speak according to the language of the people.
Amen, the word of the living God. Well, 20 some years ago,
we moved to Charlotte so I could go to seminary. The call to ministry
came and so it’s time to pack up and go. Seminary usually takes
three years, three falls and springs, a couple winters and
a summer. It really takes four years, but Mandy gave me three.
Get it done, she said. She taught school and she coached
girls basketball. The girls’ basketball team was
really good. They worked hard. Many played for other leagues. Their parents were good with
them, and they ended up with a lot of success, JV and varsity
champs. It was great fun, a fun time
in our life. Now, the boys’ team at the school,
they stunk. They didn’t win. They lost, no tournaments, but
they got locker rooms. They got warm-ups. They got uniforms. They got matching shoes. They
had a budget. And remember, they stunk. They
lost. The girls got the leftovers.
They got the leftover water bottles. In fact, I think they had leftover
boys’ uniforms. They were winning. They were
putting trophies in the case, but they got nothing. And that’s
a bit like the scene in our passage tonight. Last week’s description
of Ahasuerus’ party, everything necessary, no budget, no expenses
spared, but there’s one little verse, did you notice verse nine,
we didn’t read it tonight, it was last week, but all the pomp
and circumstance we read last week of Ahasuerus’ party, and
then verse nine, Queen Bastia also gave a feast for the women
in the palace, and then he steals half the verse, the palace that
belonged to King Ahasuerus. That’s the way it is in the world.
We’re living in a time that’s desperately trying to correct
some of those things, whatever you think of justice and equity
and the battle of the sexes and all the rest. It’s out there
for us, but it was, well, no different in the Bible times,
in the time of Esther, in the time of Ahasuerus. Queen Vashti
is giving a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to
King Ahasuerus. And just so you don’t forget,
It’s the Ahasuerus with 127 provinces, right? It’s the King Ahasuerus
whose vast dominion is from Africa to India. It’s from Sudan to
Pakistan. It’s a vast kingdom. It’s the same Ahasuerus who partied
for 180 days. It’s the one who showed off the
riches of his royal splendor. It’s the Ahasuerus, whose summer
palace, or actually this was his winter palace, with the curtains
of cotton and violet hung upon silver rods and rings hanging
from marble pillars. There’s two worlds here. There’s
the lavish, spare-no-expense, male-dominated culture here. Just one sentence, though, one
verse of Holy Writ, really half a verse, about Queen Vashti.
She’s throwing a little party for the women next door. Says
it all, doesn’t it? He’s a megalomaniac. He’s a despot. He’s a, well,
he’s a tyrant, and she’s having her little party, and she is
of no consequence until the end of day seven, and what does he
want? He wants her to come and parade herself before his party
goers. Well, there’s a royal problem,
a crisis in the kingdom. Day seven, you can imagine the
drink has been flowing. Remember the edict? There was
an edict about drinking. What was the edict? Drink what
you want. There’s no compulsion. But Ahasuerus has been chatting
it up. He’s been boasting, probably red-faced and barrel-chested
and drunk as a skunk, but he’s been telling everybody, my queen
is beautiful. Wait till you see her. And especially
wait till you see her in the royal crown and the royal clothes. And so under the influence of
alcohol, he commands his eunuchs and might as well list them,
right? The seven of them and their names
are so wonderful. You better list them and show off your pomp
your circumstance, bring Vashti here. He wants to show off her
beauty, her crown, her majesty. He wants to show her off, the
trophy wife, the doll wife, probably younger. You know how it goes
in our culture. This man’s inherited a kingdom and his kingdom has
increased through wars and through expeditions and it’s vast. And he’s celebrating all that,
but right now he’s the boys team. and he’s a loser. He’s got the
uniforms, he’s got the water bottles, he’s got the clipboards,
he’s got all the matching shoes, but guess what? He loses because
Vashti says, no thanks. I’m fine next door at the women’s
party. And so there’s a crisis in the
kingdom, not a crisis in God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is on
the move. And you can hear the hinges of history creaking, can’t
you? Because you know the rest of the story. Vashti will be
deposed. Vashti will be banished. Vashti
will be stripped of her title and divorced. And what will the
eunuchs do? Well, they’ll bring up wife number
two or could be wife number seven. Who knows? But next wife up. And we know it’s going to be
Esther because he’s going to pick a beautiful woman. Esther
is more beautiful than them all. And we know the story is going
to get better and better. Our knowledge of the scripture
helps us there. But our knowledge of the scripture also helps us
because we start scratching our heads here and we start thinking
to ourselves, there are other idiots in the Bible. There are
other idiot men in the Bible. Ahasuerus is not the only one.
There’s Pharaoh who thinks he can beat Yahweh. but in the showdown
of the 10 plagues with Moses and Aaron and their staff, well,
Pharaoh learns that Yahweh is mighty. And then there’s the
Proverbs, the fool, the fool, the fool, the fool. We studied
those, I think, a year or two ago. The Proverbs, there’s the
foolish man, there’s the wisdom man, and I think we’re pretty
sure about Ahasuerus, not much wisdom in him and really none
in his wise men, his astrologers. There’s A lot of foolishness. And then there’s Nabal. Remember
David? His men are making their way
through the wilderness. There’s Nabal and he’s out harvesting. He’s a wealthy man and he runs
David’s men off. I’m not going to feed you. Who
are you? You’re just one of those who’ve risen up and got a little
following. buzz off. Well, Abigail realizes
this wasn’t real smart of her husband. David becomes angry
and David, if he could have, and he would have, were not for
this wise woman would have executed probably every man in Nabal’s
household. But Abigail fattens the calf
and cooks the meal and feeds David and his men. The husband
making Mary is eating and drinking probably a lot like Ahasuerus.
His heart or something gives way and he’s dead and gone. And
so that’s how David comes across his wife, Abigail. So there’s
Nabals and there’s fools and there’s Pharaohs and there’s
assurances but what what woman wants to be paraded before a
bunch of drunk men what woman wants to be put on display probably
if well we can guess how she’s thinking I wish he’d go invade
another country we should go off for another set of months
and maybe even be gone a year and maybe maybe an arrow or a
spear would fly through his fat body and I’d be put out of my
misery well I She’s stuck with him at least for the time being.
He’s partying next door and he demands her presence. And what
happens when this spoiled despot is turned down, when this mega
low maniac is dishonored, the record stops at his party. Hey
everybody, she’s coming. Hey everybody, she’s beautiful.
Hey everybody, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. She said
no. The record stops playing, and he’s sputtering, and he’s
spitting, and he’s smoldering in anger, but thank the Lord
for the magnificent seven, his astrologers, named again, just
like the eunuchs, the wise men, the sages, his trusted officials,
the ones who are seated in his presence, the ones who see his
face, the passage tells us. And mind you, they’re probably
drunk. O King, we’ve read about women’s lib, We’ve read it in
our history books. We’ve taken a course on it. We’ve
heard about the other countries. We’ve heard about the Americans
in the 1960s and the women going to Betty Crocker and microwave
meals. And we’ve heard about them burning
their undergarments in public. And we’ve heard about all that
goes with women’s lib, right? That’s the humor of this passage.
Vashti sin is gonna spread and pretty soon they’re gonna hang
up their aprons. They’re going to disobey their
husbands and it’s going to be, well, an equal world. And they’re
in a panic. And what do despots in a panic
do? They make decrees. Most laws made under duress,
we say hard cases make bad laws. Most bad laws are on the books
because somebody was afraid they were going to lose control. And
so, in the 127 languages of the vast province. In this honor
culture, it is written, Queen Vashti is banished. She’s deposed. She’s no longer queen. She’ll
no longer come into the presence of Ahasuerus. We’re divorced. This is rather
Shakespearean, isn’t it? I’m really surprised Shakespeare
never wrote something about this sort of scene, though maybe it
was his inspiration. It’s a tragic scene. It’s a terrible
scene. Funnier it gets, we’re going
to make a decree, they do. All women must obey their husbands.
How are they going to enforce that? Now you’ve seen on the
TV about North Korea, you’ve seen on the news channels, maybe
a little expose on Iran or Iraq under Saddam or maybe life under
communist China or back to the days of Stalin or back to the
days of Hitler. Well, we’re actually living under
ourselves a little bit, aren’t we? We better toe the line. We
better do what’s told. We better watch out for the police. We’ve got leaders who don’t wanna
lose control. I think it was in the last year,
maybe with the COVID police. See something, say something.
Sent chills through us all. We’re gonna begin to live in
a police state. Well, this decree is, Well, it’s
something for late night television, isn’t it? Can you imagine the
late night TV host, the jokesters, the Saturday Night Live’s poking
fun? This guy has lost his mind. This
guy is making a decree saying every woman must behave in the
vast provinces of his royal kingdom. His approval rating is, well,
it’s gotta be in the 38% range. Well, How do we learn, how do we mine
some truth from a passage like this for our Christian living
today? Remember, Esther’s a strange
passage. It doesn’t really mention God. It doesn’t point us to Christ
Jesus, yet it’s in the scripture. It’s of value to us. All scripture
is breathed out by God and is useful for teaching and rebuking
and correcting and training in righteousness so that the man
of God is thoroughly equipped for every good work. So first
thing, Do you see yourself in this passage? Remember, when
you read the Bible and there’s bad characters, you are the bad
character, okay? You read the Bible and there’s
good characters, you’re never the good character. Don’t make
yourself the hero, because you’re not. Bad characters are mirrors. So, wicked King Ahasuerus. See yourself in any of his tendencies. How about this question a little
easier? Do you see God at work? God is beginning to open the
doors for Esther, the beautiful one. You know, when he goes to
pick a queen, she better be pretty. She better be worthy of the looks
which can be paraded before all his drunken officers and officials. And so Queen Esther, beautiful
gal, in service to the king for such a time as this. God is at
work. Third thing, we are not helplessly
under maniacal leaders. That’s particularly important
for our day and age, not just for our own country, but, oh,
there’s been a lot of saber rattling, supersonic missiles flying and
testing of this and that. And, oh, isn’t it funny about
two, three years ago, we’re going to have a space program. Well,
isn’t that the stupidest thing? But all of a sudden it may be
the smartest thing after what China has done, but we are not
helplessly under maniacal leaders. God’s hand is always at the helm,
right? He never is without control or
power in our world. All right, a fourth thing, and
this is going to be completely random, you’ll think, but I think
it’s right here in our passage. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church. Don’t be, Ahasuerus. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church. And that connects right here
with our fifth thing. We need to wait for a better
king. And isn’t that the picture of marriage anyway? The picture
of marriage is the picture of Christ and his love for the church.
And so if we love our wives as Christ loved the church, it’ll
point us to a better king. Not an Ahasuerus, not a king
that will give us booze and wealth and parties and all the rest.
But wait for a better king. And last thing, a sixth thing. This comes to us from our remembering
Psalm 2 this morning. The nations rage, they plot in
vain against the Lord and his anointed. This plot is gonna
thicken with Haman and Mordecai and the command of the edict
to exterminate all Jewish people within the kingdom. And we need
to remember this, while God, we do not sit helplessly under
maniacal leaders, we remember this last point, God sits in
the heavens and he laughs. And you know what, in reality,
so should we. because God is in complete control.
And though the earth give way, the mountains fall into the sea,
we can be still and know that there is a God who rules over
all things. Let’s look to him in prayer. Our God, we thank you and praise
you for your steadfast love and faithfulness for your sovereignty.
And a look at the news, a look at the headlines, a look at the
world around us, a look at people and culture and morals and ethics
and All the things around us show that the world is rotting
away. We thank you that your word is
true, your gospel is pure, that your way of salvation is from
of old, and that you will come and make all things new. And
while we live on this earth longing for the new Jerusalem, but living
in Babylon, we thank you that you’ve not left us without resources
or without hope, but you You sit in the heavens and laugh.
You rule on your throne. We are not helpless. You are
at work. You often put us in these trying
times to see ourselves and to see our sin. And we pray, Lord,
that you would wake us up to the times, but also wake us up
to the fact that you rule and reign and we have hope in this
dark world. And we ask for your help in the
name of Christ. Amen.