Bad News Bearers (Esther 1:13–22) — Esther: The Invisible Hand of Providence

Now, it's been several months since we first began our journey through the book of Esther.

And so before we continue in it today, as we pick up where we left off, I think we do well to remember where we've been.

We open the series by noting something peculiar, that God's name is never mentioned, never appears in the book of Esther, not once.

I know burning bushes, no parted seas, no voice from heaven. And yet this is precisely the point of the book.

God is not absent from Esther, but he's offstage, he's pulling on threads that we didn't know were part of the tapestry, arranging details with invisible precision.

This is a book about hiddenness, hidden plots, hidden identities, and most importantly, the hidden king whose providence orchestrates everything.

We placed ourselves in the sandals of the exiled Jews living under the meadow of Persian empire.

Daniel's prophesied chest and arms of silver, that inferior kingdom from that prophecy that was destined to crumble before the everlasting kingdom of God.

And the Jews of Esther's time believed this, they knew this, they knew the prophecy, and they believed that God's promises would come true.

They had these prophetic promises to cling to, which meant that they could work and labor by faith, even in a foreign land, trusting that deliverance would come at the appointed time.

The question for us at that time was direct, if they could live with such confident faith with lesser promises, what excuses do we have?

We live on this side of the cross with greater revelation, greater promises, and a greater covenant, and yet how often do we settle for good enough, building cautiously in our lives instead of courageously for generations to come?

And then we entered into the narrative itself and it was quite the scene, if you remember as King Ahasuerus, through a feast that lasted 180 days.

We had read in chapter one, verses one through eight. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this is

Ahasuerus which reigned from India, even onto Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces, that in those days when the

King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Medea, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom in the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even 104 score days.

And when these days were expired, the King made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small seven days in the court of the garden of the

King's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble.

The beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black and marble.

And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the

King. And the drinking was according to the law, none did compel, for so the King had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure.

Six months, 180 days, six months of pageantry, golden cups, marble pillars, and wine flowing like water.

And it looks glorious, right, it looks powerful. But like the leaning tower of Pisa, outward beauty can only disguise inward stability for a time, but not for long.

Just like that tower of Pisa, you can't cheat gravity, and you can't build heavy things on weak soil before they eventually start to lean.

As we continue in verse nine, also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house, which belonged to King Ahasuerus.

On the seventh day, when the heart of the King was merry with wine, he commanded Mehemon, Bista, Harbana, Bicta, and Abacta, Zithar, and Karkas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring

Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on.

But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains, therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.

The king's foundation was rotten, right, he lacked self -control, the first test of leadership.

In his drunkenness, he summoned queen Vashti to parade before his guests like a trophy, and she refused, and in that refusal, the cracks became visible.

The empire wasn't as stable as it appeared. Here was a man who ruled over 127 provinces, but could not rule himself or command his own wife.

His authority, though legal, had been perverted by vanity and excess. And we wrestled with Vashti's defiance, right, was she right?

And the answer, I think, is nuanced, right? Submission as unto the Lord means wives are not called to obey sinful, degrading commands, but neither are they free to dismiss authority when it's merely inconvenient.

What we witnessed was not a model for marriage here, but a warning about leadership. When those in authority abandon self -control and righteousness, the structures that they oversee begin to collapse.

And yet woven through it all was grace, right? For this very instability, this empire of dirt became the stage upon which

God would work salvation for his people. The contrast is

Christ, right? Unlike Ahasuerus, our true king never misuses his bride. He does not parade her for vain glory.

He adorns her, in fact, with beauty, and he presents her to himself in splendor.

And so as we continue today, let us do so noticing the particulars of the story, the details that are happening with this people in this empire, but we must also do so remembering the larger narrative at work in Persia, just as it is for us today, that God's invisible hand is always moving, whether we see it or not.

Now, as we pick things up in the narrative today, again at verse 13, there are a few important principles that we're going to note as we go along.

First, we'll note that the problems, we'll note the problems, the additional problems that arise from failure, right?

None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, have failures of ability or morality, but it's how we respond to those failures, sinful or otherwise, that speaks to what we're made of.

And second, we're gonna contrast the substance of Ahasuerus' solutions with that of a better king, our king, the

Lord Jesus Christ. But before we do that, let us read our text for this

Lord's Day, again, closing out chapter one of the book of Esther, starting at verse 13. Hear the word of the

Lord. Then the king said to the wise men which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment.

And the next unto him was Carshina, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Maris, Marcina, and Memechan, the seven princes of Persia and Medea, which saw the king's face, in which sat the first in the kingdom.

What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king

Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? And Memechan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king

Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported.

The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Medea say this day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen.

Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him and let it be written among the laws of the

Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before king

Ahasuerus and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, for it is great, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small.

And the saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Memchan. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house and that it should be published according to the language of every people.

Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. May he write it on our hearts by faith. Let's pray.

Father, again, we do thank you for your word. We ask now that as we would consider this passage here from Esther chapter one, that you would grant to us again, faith that receives it well, or that we would hear what it is you would have for us, and that by your spirit, you would grant us understanding this day.

We ask in Jesus' name and amen. Amen. So here we are, right? The king has, in a way, made a fool of himself.

He's drunk, demanding, and weak. Vashti has refused him, and now in verse 13, we see him turn to his wise men.

It says, then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times. So we notice what's happened, right?

First, Ahasuerus was steered by his flesh, right? His appetite for wine, his vanity, his desire to show off.

And now, having made a mess of things, he's steered by his counselors. One form of abdication leads to another, right?

When you won't govern yourself, someone else will govern you. And this is the breeding ground of failure in many ways, right?

Sin doesn't just happen and then stop. It compounds, it metastasizes. One failure of leadership begets the next, and before you know it, you're not leading at all, you're being led.

The man who should be ahead has become a weather vane, turning with every gust of passion or pressure.

In Proverbs 25 and verse 28, it says that he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.

Ahasuerus is exhibit A of this. The walls are down, the city is exposed, and now the vultures are circling in the form of seven princes who saw the king's face and sat the first in the kingdom.

These are men who have access, right? Who have influence and who, in many respects, as we'll see, have agendas, right?

This is where it gets dangerous and where we should be paying attention because this pattern isn't limited to drunken

Persian kings, right? It shows up everywhere in every sphere of life. There's many examples, but I'll give just a few.

Now, as we do this, I want us to ask ourselves, where are we vulnerable to this, either as leaders or as subjects?

Where are we vulnerable to be in violation here? In the civil sphere, this is where we're at here within Persia, the civil sphere, but we also can apply it to our own and we see this constantly.

It would seem that our leaders are very similar, even to Ahasuerus. Many of them have compromised themselves morally, right?

They have skeletons in their closets, they have appetites that they won't mortify, and they've become afraid. They've become controllable.

They can't stand up to bureaucracies and special interest groups or foreign countries or the mob because they know that if they do, their own dirt will be exposed and so they capitulate, right?

They let themselves be steered by people that they should be governing. We think of someone like Demas in 2

Timothy 4, verse 10, who abandoned Paul, obviously this was in the church, but the same principle at work here, having loved this present world, right?

Paul says that's why Demas abandoned the church and the faith and abandoned Paul himself. When a man loves the world more than he loves

Christ, he becomes the world's servant. He may hold an office, but the office doesn't hold him, his appetites do.

And whoever can manipulate those appetites controls the man. This is how bureaucracies grow like kudzu, right?

Weak leaders who won't say no, who won't fire anyone, who won't trim the fat because they're afraid, right?

They're afraid of bad press, afraid of conflict, afraid ultimately that their own failures will come to light.

Not only in the civil sphere, but within families, right? The same pattern shows up. A man who's advocated spiritual and moral leadership in his home, who's been lazy, passive, or self -indulgent.

He finds himself being ruled by his wife, his children, or his in -laws. It'll be clear, right?

A wise man listens to his wife. Proverbs 31 doesn't describe a silent woman.

It describes a competent and active partner. But there's a difference between listening to wisdom and being hen -pecked.

There's a difference between honoring your parents and letting your in -laws run your household. And the issue isn't that these people speak into your life.

There's wisdom in many counselors. Even as a hashuaris listens, goes to counselors, there's wisdom in this relatively.

The issue is when they are steering because you have abandoned the wheel. When a husband is steered by his wife's emotions rather than by scripture and wisdom, the family suffers.

When a father or mother is steered by their children's whims, giving in to avoid conflict, refusing to discipline because it's hard, they're not being kind, they're being cruel.

Proverbs 29, 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

A child left to himself becomes a tyrant. And a parent who lets that happen is no parent in all.

They are a subject in their own home and their children rule as tyrants. And what's more in the ecclesial sphere within the church, right?

We see pastors and elders who compromise in some area. And because of that, they become afraid to lead, right?

They're afraid of what the congregation will think or what the elders wives or their wife will think or whether they'll lose members or money.

And so instead of feeding the flock, they pull the flock. Instead of proclaiming the whole council of God, they trim it down to what people can stomach.

Instead of exercising discipline, they turn a blind eye. And instead of putting the work in where it's needed, they put their head down into less important work.

And James 3, 1 warns, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

Leadership in the church is a serious calling. And Paul tells Timothy also in 2 Timothy 4, 2, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine.

It's not a job description for a man who's going to be steered by the congregation's preferences or sensibilities or itching ears.

That's a job description for a man who fears God more than he fears men. But here's the kicker, right?

That when a man is morally compromised, when he's got sin that he's not mortifying, when he's lazy in his own walk with God, he loses his nerve.

He can't rebuke because he knows that he's guilty. He can't exhort because he's not living it himself.

And so he becomes a hireling and the sheep scatter. John 10, verses 12 and 13,

Jesus speaks of this hireling. He says, but he that is a hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth him and scattereth the sheep.

The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling and careth not for the sheep. Do you see the pattern here, right?

Moral failure leads to cowardice. Cowardice leads to abdication. And abdication leads to being ruled by those that you should be ruling.

And the whole structure begins to collapse. This is what's happening here with the Ahasuerus.

He has no one to blame but himself as things start to unravel within his empire.

Now, as we continue in the narrative, Memchand, one of the seven princes, he speaks up in verse 16.

He says, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes and to all the people that are in all the provinces.

Now, this is really remarkable when we think about this. That Vashti's refusal here, it was relatively private.

It was a public event, but it was a relatively private matter. It was between the Chamberlains, the king,

Vashti, and maybe these princes who were there who sat at the face of the king. They were there with him.

So a relatively private matter. A queen refusing a foolish and drunken command, but Memchand is spinning it into a national crisis.

He says, for this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes.

In other words, he says, if we don't crush this rebellion publicly, that every wife in the empire is gonna get ideas.

The ladies of Persia and Medea are gonna hear about this and they're gonna conclude that they too can say no to their husbands.

He says, thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. And so Memchand proposes a solution in verse 19.

He says, if it pleased the king, let there go a royal commandment from him and let it be written among the laws of the

Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.

In other words, divorce her, right? Publicly, irrevocably, make it a law that she can never come back.

And then broadcast this decree across the entire empire, all 127 provinces, so that every wife knows that if she disrespects her husband, there will be consequences.

In verse 20, Memchand continues. He says, and when the king's decree, which he shall make, shall be published throughout all the empire, all his empire, for it is great.

He slides that in there, that little puffing him up there. All the wives shall give to their husband's honor, both the great and small.

And so fundamentally, right, what's being announced here, when you get down to it, it's bad news, right?

This is what's going out to the entire empire. It's a decree of divorce going out to all 127 provinces.

It's bad news. The king has divorced his wife and there is no reconciliation possible.

It's written into the law of the Medes and the Persians, which can't be altered, right? And this is, that's the tragedy of it.

It's this irreversible thing. It's this irreversible decision. Just a few verses later, even in chapter two, we'll see next week at verse one, the king, we know, starts to regret the decision.

We read, he says, after these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered

Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her. But it was too late, right?

The law couldn't be changed. The pride of the system that they had created, their laws were unalterable.

And now it became a prison for the king himself. And this is what happens when we make decisions in the heat of anger, driven by pride and fear, without seeking the counsel of God.

We lock ourselves into consequences that we can't escape. Proverbs 29, 11, a fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

Ahasuerus uttered all his mind and now he's stuck with it. And so let's apply this, right?

Because I guarantee that some of you have had fights with your spouse and the way that you handled them didn't help, but that it made things worse.

Right, here's a principle, right? That I think we should learn from Ahasuerus and Vashti here. We don't fight with your wife in public, right?

When you air your grievances in front of others, whether it's in front of your children, your friends, your extended family, or on social media, you add pressure for outcomes that you don't necessarily want, right?

You force yourself into corners. You say things that you can't take back. You create an audience that now expects resolution on terms that you've publicly committed to and those terms might be foolish.

Ahasuerus' problem started with a private refusal, but because it happened in front of the princes, in front of the nobles, in front of the court, he just couldn't let it go, right?

He couldn't have a private conversation with Vashti to work it out and move on. No, now it was a matter for him of public honor and the counselors were involved.

The whole empire had to hear about it and the result was permanent divorce. But for us, right, is this the same thing that we would want for us as Christians?

Of course not, right? Christians instead must be a people of reconciliation, right,

Romans 12, verse 18. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

So we notice the qualifiers, right? If it be possible in as much as lieth in you. You know, sometimes peace isn't possible because the other person won't have it.

But as much as it depends on you, pursue peace. Don't use strife as a cause to end relationships.

Don't let conflict be the excuse to cut people off, to burn bridges, to issue your own unalterable decrees.

As much as it depends on you, don't do those things. Applied to marriage, again, marriage is a covenant and it's meant to endure.

And part of endurance is learning how to fight well, how to disagree well, privately, prayerfully, with the goal of reconciliation, not victory.

Ephesians 4, 26 and 27 says, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.

Don't let your anger fester. Don't let it harden into decrees that you can't take back. You deal with it quickly, humbly, in the fear of the

Lord. And then when you look at the content of this degree, this is also revealing something important.

At verse 22, it says that the king sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province, according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house.

Now, on the surface, right, this isn't a bad law. I don't even disagree necessarily with what's stated there.

But, because it does, in some ways, it aligns with a biblical form of patriarchy. But the

Bible, the patriarchy the Bible teaches, is fundamentally different, right, than the substance of what

Ahasuerus and his counselors are pushing. The Bible does teach that men are to be the heads of their households.

Ephesians chapter five and verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.

In first Corinthians 11 at verse three, that I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is

God. God's design for the family includes male headship. Not because men are inherently better, but because that's the order that God established for our flourishing.

That's the way that God made us, is to fulfill certain roles within the family.

This is an important theological point here, I think, that we do well to remember. Because some of us might be thinking, well, you know, if the

Persians did patriarchy so sinfully, and this is a bad, bad decree that's going out from Ahasuerus, maybe we should reject it altogether.

Maybe what he's sending out there must be wrong. Right, but when we look at the book of Esther, is this somehow an entirely like a rebuke of patriarchy?

Right, is this the feminist book of the Bible? Of course not, right? Grace rather perfects nature, it doesn't destroy it.

That's the principle that we should be having in mind here when we consider this particular decree. Grace perfects nature, it doesn't destroy it.

Again, this is a classic reformed principle. Aquinas articulated it and the reformers carried it forward.

And the idea is this, that when sin corrupts something good that God made, the solution is not to throw out the good thing.

The solution is to redeem it, to restore it and to perfect it through grace. Patriarchy, again, is part of God's created order.

Genesis 2, before the fall, Adam's created first, he's given the command, he names the animals and Eve is made as his helper.

That's God's design, right? The fall corrupts it and men become harsh or passive, women become rebellious or manipulative, but the design itself is good.

And so we don't reject patriarchy because the Persians did it simply. We lean rather on the wisdom of God to better enact it and live it.

We look to Christ, the perfect head, and we model our households, our churches, and yes, even our civil structures after him.

This is why Paul in Ephesians 5, he doesn't say, you know, well, patriarchy is pagan, so let's just, everyone's equal, egalitarian marriages to go around.

No, he says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, right? He redeems the structure.

He even says, this is the mystery of the gospel. He fills it with gospel content.

He shows us what it looks like when grace perfects nature. And this applies to everything, right?

We don't reject authority just because somebody somewhere abused it. We don't reject the law because somebody somewhere broke it or enacted it or, you know, oversaw it in a sinful way.

We don't reject family or church or civil government because sinful people have corrupted these things. We reform them according to Scripture.

Here's the problem though that we're encountering in Esther chapter one, that this decree from Hoshuares is cheap in its man -centeredness, right?

The substance of it, as much as on the face, it seems to be in line with what we would believe and what we would want.

It's cheap in how man -centered it is. It lacks the substance that is Jesus Christ.

It's not rooted in God's design for the good of the family and the glory of God. It's rooted ultimately in self -preservation, right?

The king and his princes aren't concerned about healthy marriages or godly order. They're concerned about maintaining control.

They're concerned about saving face. And so it's important that we define, excuse me, what we mean by biblical patriarchy because that word can scare people, but it shouldn't, right?

Biblical patriarchy is this ultimately, that it's a God -ordained structure in which men gladly assume sacrificial responsibility for the welfare of their households.

And they model their leadership after Christ who gave himself up for his bride. It's not about domination.

It's not about convenience, but it's about sacrifice. Again, Ephesians chapter five.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

That's the standard, right? When it comes to a biblical patriarchy. Christ didn't lord his authority over the church.

He laid down his life for her. He sanctified her. He washed her. He presented her in glory.

That's what biblical patriarchy looks like. It's the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility.

But Ahasuerus' decree, again, is self -preservation, not self -sacrifice. It's about making sure that wives stay in line so husbands can err without consequence.

And that's not biblical patriarchy. That's pagan tyranny with a patriarchal veneer. And we need to be able to tell the difference.

Again, not only as we assess the leadership of others, but even within our own homes, for men and for women, husbands and wives, be able to tell the difference between lording our authority over others and serving and leading as Christ has called us to.

Now, that said, again, Memchant is right in some respects about what his concerns are, right?

The perception of a disrespectful wife, especially this close to leadership in a government, a church, a family, it's actually a very dangerous thing, right?

This is something that probably has some level of concern to it, right? And the impulse to prevent that perception from spreading is important.

And why is that? Why would that be important? Well, Scripture qualifies leaders based on their ability to lead their homes, including the people within them.

1 Timothy 3 says a man that aspiring to overseer in the church must be one that ruleth well in his house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.

For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? If a wife is publicly disrespectful, right?

If she's contentious, if she's loud and unsubmissive, and not only to her husband, but even to other men, if she acts that way publicly, then you can bet that there are issues with that man's leadership, her husband's leadership.

The fruit reveals the root. So to be careful here in a way,

I'm not saying that every difficult marriage is the man's fault, right? That there are some situations where a wife, you know, she has her own sin to deal with, her own rebellion.

And even a godly man can have a hard time with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21 .9 says that it's better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

That's a real scenario. But generally speaking, right? We're speaking in generalities for the moment.

The way a wife behaves reflects the way that she's being led. If a man is passive, then she'll step into that vacuum.

Right, if a man is harsh, then she'll either cower or rebel. If a man is godly, patient, loving, and firm, then she'll flourish.

Right, not perfectly, none of us are perfect, but directionally. A godly man cultivates godliness in his home.

And so the question is, again, what is proper male rule? And the answer is this.

And again, I kind of want to emphasize as I say this, as I define this, that each word here is really important.

How we define each of these words. That proper patriarchy emphasizes a proper masculinity, which is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility.

I've said that phrase a few times because it's so important. Each word there is packed full of meaning.

We don't want to lose it. Ahasuerus and his counselors are offering a solution rooted in self -preservation.

How do we protect our authority? How do we make sure no one challenges us? But the biblical model is the opposite.

It's rooted in self -sacrifice. How do I serve my household? How do I lay down my life for their good?

How do I lead them toward Christ? Because we remember that Christ didn't preserve himself.

Right, Philippians chapter two, six through eight. Speaking of Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in a likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus had all the authority in heaven and on earth and yet what did he do with it? And he washed feet.

He taught patiently. He rebuked lovingly. He died willingly. That's the model, right?

If you want to be a biblical patriarch, you don't start by demanding respect just because it's owed. You start by preserving it and growing it because it's been given.

Laying down your life, you serve, you sacrifice, you lead by example. And in doing that, you create an environment where respect and submission flow naturally, not out of fear, but out of love and gratitude.

Now, it's important for us to remember that obviously our earthly leaders, you know, wives or husbands will never be perfect.

Our government will never be perfect. Our pastors will never be perfect. We can't expect them to be, but we should hold them up to the standard, right?

We should hold them up to the standard that is Jesus Christ to ensure that they are leading like Christian men ought.

Do they abdicate, right? Do they avoid hard decisions? Pass the buck or let others steer when they should be leading?

Or do they step up? Do they take responsibility? Do they bear the weight of leadership with grace and strength?

Are they prone to emotionalism? Do they ride the highs and lows of their circumstances, letting their moods dictate their energy and direction?

Or do they stand up in difficult moments, trusting God to uphold them steady in the midst of difficult seasons?

Again, Psalm 112 verses seven and eight describes the righteous man. He shall not be afraid of evil things.

His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid until he sees his, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

A godly leader is steady, right? He's not tossed about by circumstances. He's anchored in the

Lord. But I think that one of the tragedies, sadly, of the feminization of our culture as a whole, this type of masculinity we're so adverse to, we hate it.

And it really has resulted in so much evil and so much bad for our people, our society.

But one of those tragedies can be seen in the leaders that we've chosen for ourselves, right?

Instead of simply feeling sorry for and coming alongside and helping those who are struggling around us, those men who are maybe weak in their leadership, we've allowed our pity for them, for those not suited to lead, to drive us, not just to help them, but actually to install them as our leaders, right?

We are ruled on the whole across our society and across many spheres, ruled by weaker brothers, as the

Bible terms them, right? The feminine instinct to nurture and comfort, which is a good instinct when it's exercised in its proper place, has so overtaken us culturally that we've moved on from trying to nurture these weak men to maturity, and instead have decided to coddle them and encourage them in their immaturity.

Even this instinct, it can be, even this instinct of nurturing and care for the weaker among us can be abused and become sinful.

And in that, again, we've chosen those who are not gifted in nor suited for leadership to rule us.

And we do this because I think that we love weak men, societally, culturally, we love weak men because they're easier for us to rule.

And let me say that again, because it's important, right? We've chosen weak men as our leaders because weak men are easy to control.

A strong man can't be manipulated, right? A steady, godly, self -controlled man won't bow to pressure.

He won't capitulate to the mob. He won't be steered by opinion polls or focus groups or whoever yells the loudest.

And that makes people uncomfortable, right? Weak men, though, you can push them around, right? You can cry and they'll fold.

You can throw a fit and they'll give in. You can threaten to withhold approval, affection, or support, and they'll buckle.

And so we've elevated weak men in our families, in our churches, and in the civil sphere. And then we wonder why everything around us is falling apart, right?

Why are families, why are there so much divorce in the world today? Why are churches falling apart? Why are so many of them flying the flags?

Why is our country falling apart? It's really not hard to figure out. We've elevated weak men of both sexes to lead our society.

And it's no wonder we are where we are. Our embrace of this deformed feminism has made it not only so that we live in this kind of bizarro world, right, but that we also even despise the things that could help to solve the issues.

We despise a good and a proper and a biblical male rule. Genesis 3, 16, after the fall,

God says to the woman, thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. Now that word desire sounds good in the

English, right? That's not so bad. That word desire, though, is the same word used in Genesis 4, verse 7, where God tells

Cain that sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over it.

It's the desire not to love and long for her husband, but to dominate, to overthrow, and to rule.

And so post -fall, there's a built -in tension. Women are tempted to usurp male authority, and men are tempted to either abdicate or dominate harshly.

And our feminized culture has amplified that former, right, those who abdicate, while punishing the latter, except what's particularly bad is that it's also punishing even those right in the middle who would seek to have a godly male rule, a godly male leadership, and we've lumped those in with harsh domination because we can't tell the difference societally.

We hate steady men who don't give their strength to women, who don't share in their emotionalism.

We call them insensitive or inhumane even. How could you send these people back to their countries? You must be inhumane, right?

I mean, it's not that hard to picture. We do it societally. It's not hard to imagine.

Are we really like this? No, we are. We're just like that. We scoff at men willing to take on the work to build things, to do things.

You know, we call them dreamers or unrealistic. Or we mock men within whose homes there are children with structure, rules, and discipline, children who don't get to run in the streets and play video games all day and drink soda and coffee.

We call them overbearing. And we even despise men who, in many ways, even would seek to just provide well for their families and they don't need the charity of others because somehow their competence is a rebuke to our incompetence.

We hate strong men culturally. We hate it. Look at our society.

It's very uncomfortable when you stand up a good and godly man who does these things well as a steady man.

You will find people who will try to find ways, who will seek every way they can to destroy him and his reputation.

And we do that because we hate strong men, because our effeminate culture hates strong men.

And that's because we can't control them. So again, this happens in every sphere. It happens with Christians too.

If you're online enough and you see Christian pastors who are constantly under fire from other

Christians, right? Because they don't, they just, they know they're not controllable.

And so they want to destroy them. They want to destroy them just for the things that we would say are good and godly things.

And so we make things up. We aim to destroy those things which we hate. And so the question for all of us to consider is which way, right?

Which way, Christian man? Which way, Christian woman? Christian man, are you going to be a weak man who can be pushed around or a strong man who leads in the fear of God?

Are you going to abdicate, letting others steer you? Or are you going to step up and bear the weight of sacrificial leadership?

Are you going to preserve yourself? Or are you going to lay down your life for your household, for your church, for your community, modeling your

Lord? And Christian women, are you going to despise godly male leadership because it doesn't cater to your emotions?

Or are you going to honor and submit to it, recognizing it as a gift from God? Are you going to manipulate weak men to get your way?

Or are you going to build up your husband, right? Build up your sons to be strong, godly leaders. Proverbs 14 one says that every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

Which are we doing, right? We stand at a crossroads in many ways, culturally especially.

And the choices that we make are going to shape not just our lives, but the lives of our children, our church, our community.

So we must choose wisely here, right? Sin is crouching at the door. It's ready to devour us.

Will we choose repentance or will we choose like Ahasuerus did to add folly to our folly?

So as we prepare to close here, this Lord's Day, let's kind of recap where this leaves us in the narrative, right?

To say it simply, sin breeds more sin to cover up failure, right?

Ahasuerus sinned by getting drunk and treating his wife like a trophy. Vashti refused, justly or not.

And now Ahasuerus, rather than repenting, mending the fence, if you will, with his wife, he doubles down, right?

He consults his counselors who tell him that, tell him what he wants to hear ultimately in his anger. And he issues a decree that makes his private failure a public policy.

James 1, verses 14 and 15. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

That's the trajectory, right? Lust conceives, sin is born, and death follows.

And left unchecked, it will spread, right? One sin covers another, one lie requires another. One failure of leadership begets the next.

And this is the world under sin. And it's the world that we live in. But, and here's the hope, it's not the world that will have the final word.

Because here's what we need to see here ultimately, as we come to the end of chapter one of Esther. That whether it was the passion or the policy of the king that was served by this edict,

God's providence served its own purpose by it. Ahasuerus thought that he was preserving his authority.

Memechan thought that he was protecting the social order, but God was doing something else entirely.

God was making way for Esther to the crown, right? Vashti had to be removed so that Esther could be raised up.

Esther had to be raised up so that she could save the Jewish people. The Jewish people had to be saved so that the line of the

Messiah could be preserved. And the Messiah had to come so that the world could be redeemed through him. Do we see that?

Right, that God is working all things, even the sinful, foolish decisions of a drunken king for the good of his people in the fulfillment of his promises.

Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, Joseph to his brothers, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.

They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And that is providence, right?

That's the invisible hand of God pulling on the threads that we can't see, arranging details with precision that we can't fathom.

Ahasuerus thinks he's in control, but he's not the true sovereign. Memchan thinks he's steering the kingdom, but he is not the divine counsel.

The real king, the king of heaven is directing the play and he will have his way.

Romans 8 and 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose, right?

All things, not just the good things, not just the things that make sense, but all things, including the sinful decrees of prideful kings.

And so as we close out chapter one, that's where we are, right? That's where things stand in the

Meadow Persian empire. Sin is breeding more sin. The empire is in a bit of chaos. Bad news is going out to the nations.

But God is not worried, right? His plan is not thwarted. His promises are not in jeopardy.

And his people, though they don't see it yet, are being positioned for deliverance. So what do we do with all these things?

Again, with a few takeaways from our time today. First, we guard against the compounding of sin.

Again, when you fail and you will, deal with it quickly, humbly, and biblically. Don't double down. Don't cover it up with more sin.

Don't let pride or fear drive you to make it worse. We confess it, we repent of it, we seek reconciliation where needed, and we move forward in grace.

Proverbs 28 and 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

So again, guard against the compounding of sin. Second, be a people of reconciliation.

Don't fight in public, right? With your spouse, with your children, with one another. Don't issue decrees that you can't take back.

Don't let conflict be the end of relationships. As much as it depends on you, pursue peace. Be quick to forgive, slow to anger, and committed to covenant faithfulness in your marriage, your family, and in your church.

And third, pursue godly leadership, right? So men, step up. Lead your households with sacrificial love, modeling

Christ. Women, honor godly leadership and build up your men. Church, hold your leaders accountable to scripture, but also support them, pray for them, encourage them.

We need strong, steady, godly leaders in every sphere, right, civil, familial, and ecclesial.

And that starts with each of us choosing to be faithful in our own callings, making us all the more determined to heed the leaders that'll take us forward, not keep us comfortable in failure, right?

So pursuing godly leadership means being the type of man and the type of woman that God would have us to be, and in so doing, trust that he will bring for us the leaders that we need to bring us forward, not to stay where we are.

And fourth and finally, trust in God's providence, right? When the world looks like it's falling apart, when leaders fail, when sin abounds, when bad news goes out to the nations, remember that God is still sovereign, he's still working, his plan is still unfolding, and he will have the final word.

So don't despair, don't lose heart, trust him and keep laboring faithfully where he's placed you.

And finally, excuse me, this is the fifth and final now, fix your eyes on Christ, he is the perfect king, he is the faithful husband, he is the sacrificial leader, and he is coming back for his bride.

Ahasuerus' empire crumbled, Christ's kingdom will endure forever, and so let's live in light of that kingdom, right?

Let's pursue his righteousness, let's build for his glory, and let's proclaim his good news to the nations, knowing that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.