WWUTT 774 Esther Becomes Queen?

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For Esther to have been chosen queen alongside the king of Persia was highly unusual.

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This only happened because it was brought about by the providential hand of God when we understand the text.

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Thank you Becky. We come back again to our study of the book of Esther. If you want to open up your

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Bible to Esther chapter 1. Last week we didn't get very far in our reading and I will summarize some of those things here at the start of the chapter.

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We mostly did back story. So it was an introduction to Esther. We talked about where this book falls in the timeline of the

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Jewish exile and their restoration back to the promised land. We considered some of the controversies surrounding this book and also its main themes.

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And the main theme of Esther is divine providence. Even though the name of the Lord is never mentioned in Esther and it's the only book in the whole

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Bible where the name of the Lord is not mentioned. Nonetheless, the providential hand of God is clearly at work bringing all these things about for the preservation of his people and the fulfillment of his promises.

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There are gospel aspects in the book of Esther and we'll consider those things as we go.

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But in addition to divine providence being a main theme, we also see the absurdity of the pride of man.

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Every time someone in this story tries to exalt themselves, it is often met with a very comedic outcome.

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We're meant to laugh at that. We're meant to laugh at how ridiculous Haman is and how he'll try to do something to exalt himself and it ends up actually humbling him a great deal or at least he's supposed to learn that lesson of humility, but instead he just goes to even greater lengths to try to elevate himself or destroy the

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Jews. And we know the result of that is ultimately his own end. So let's come back to the start of the story here and we see absurdity and pride right at the very beginning of Esther.

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We start with the mention of King Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes I. He was the ruler of Persia at the time and it even tells us how expansive the

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Persian Empire was. He reigned from India to Ethiopia. Now you know

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Ethiopia is on the eastern side of the continent of Africa, but the Persian Empire extended even further west than that, past Greece and on into Western Europe.

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Also the northern end of the continent of Africa. I mean it was a huge empire that belonged to Ahasuerus and for 180 days he called together all the governors and nobles from all of the provinces to kind of showcase his greatness.

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And then at the end of that 180 days he had a huge celebration, a great party to honor himself.

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And we have a description of how beautifully ornamented his palace was as well as a description of all the governors that came from all these regions to honor

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Ahasuerus and how he lifted the sanction on wine. It used to be that a person couldn't drink wine unless the king drank first, but he said no, there's no compulsion.

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So you can drink as you see fit. And after seven days of this great feast, he was merry with wine and he calls his wife out to him, his wife

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Vashti, the queen, because he wants to showcase her next. He wants to show all these governors of all these provinces, look how gorgeous my wife is.

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And so once again, earning all this praise and acclaim from all of these men that he rules over.

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So he called Queen Vashti, but she refused to come. This was chapter one, verse 12,

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Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. And at this, the king became enraged and anger burned within him.

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And this is hilarious that he has such an expansive empire and people just fawn all over the guy, but he can't get his own wife to respond to a request to come and appear before all of these nobles that he is impressing.

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So he can't even control this woman. She's certainly not impressed with the guy.

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So in verse 13, the king said to the wise men who knew the times that they were assigned to help the king make the best decision at the proper time.

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That's what's being inferred by that reference. For this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment.

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The men next to him being Karshina, Shethar, Admetha, Tarshish, Merez, Marcina and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Medea who saw the king's face and sat first in the kingdom.

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And by the way, there's archaeological evidence that affirms some of those princes.

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So we know that they were real people and they actually reigned at that particular time under the king of Persia.

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So verse 15, according to the law, this is what Ahasuerus is asking his wise men.

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According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti? Because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs.

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Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, not only against the king has

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Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.

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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

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King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him and she did not come. This very day, the noble women of Persia and Medea who have heard of the queen's behavior will say the same to all the king's officials and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty.

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If it please the king, let a royal order go out from him and let it be written among the laws of the

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Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus.

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And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

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So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all of his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.

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This advice pleased the king and the princes, of course, and the king did as Memucan proposed.

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He sent letters to all the 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 his people.

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Now this really was an unprecedented move on the part of the king because generally the queen, in this case

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Vashti, was someone of royal blood from another kingdom. The king married someone of nobility from another kingdom to unite two kingdoms together.

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But now this woman has been cast out and the king is choosing another wife from among peasants.

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And all of this was to emphasize just how serious it was for Vashti to have refused the king in this way so that no other wife in all of the

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Persian empire would refuse her husband the way that Vashti did. Otherwise, her husband may throw her out and choose another wife.

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So to the feminists of this age, appreciate what you have. Be grateful.

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It really ain't that bad. At least it's not Persia in the fifth century

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BC. All right, let's continue on here to chapter two. And here is where we're going to read about the idea that is given to the king to choose another wife from among non -royalty.

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After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.

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Then the king's young men who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the citadel under custody of Hegei, the king's eunuch who is in charge of the women.

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Let their cosmetics be given to them and let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.

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This pleased the king and he did so. So Ahasuerus became sad when he realized

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Vashti was gone. He loved Vashti. Vashti was gorgeous. She was beautiful. There wasn't a woman that he loved on earth more than her, which was exactly why he asked for Vashti to come and appear before all of his other nobles.

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He wanted to brag on his wife. I've got the most beautiful woman in the world as my wife.

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But now he's cast her out and an edict has been passed that cannot be reversed, that she can't come back into his presence.

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And so he's heartbroken over this. So the young men speak up, it says in verse two, the king's young men who attended him said and then they gave him their idea.

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Now it's significant that the scripture refers to them as the young men, because if he had been listening to his wise men, they would have told him to choose another queen from noble blood from another kingdom.

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But instead he listened to the young men. So let it let it be left up to young guys to break from tradition.

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And hey, we're going to pick a peasant woman this time instead of somebody of nobility from some other kingdom.

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But this was all the providential hand of God that was working to preserve his people from annihilation.

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The Jews would have been wiped out by Haman's wicked plot had it not been for Esther, who became the wife of Xerxes the first.

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Incredible that a woman who was of Jewish descent. Now the king wouldn't have known that, but a woman of Jewish descent would have ended up becoming his wife only by the providential hand of God.

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Did that take place so that the Jews would be spared this wicked and evil plot of Haman?

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So these beautiful women are going to be brought in before the king and he's going to choose from among them the most beautiful.

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And he liked the idea. Of course, we get to have a beauty pageant and the winner of the beauty pageant gets to be the wife of the king.

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Now it mentions here that the eunuch, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the women was Hagiai.

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That guy is actually mentioned by Herodotus, who was a historian, a

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Greek historian during the reign of the Persian Empire. And he mentions the second in command to the king of Persia, who we know as Hagiai.

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So now verse five. Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a

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Benjamite who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom

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Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away. He was bringing up Hadassah, that is

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Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at.

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And when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So her

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Hebrew name was Hadassah, but her Persian name was Esther, which meant star.

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And Mordecai is going to end up telling Esther not to reveal her Jewish roots.

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That's coming up here in just a moment. Verse eight. So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa the citadel in custody of Hagiai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Hagiai, who had charge of the women.

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And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem.

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Esther had not made known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known.

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And every day, Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.

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Likely, Hagiai never would have even considered her for a potential bride for the king, had he known that she was

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Jewish in her heritage. Going on to verse 12. Now, when the turn came for each young woman to go into King Ahasuerus, after being 12 months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women, when the young woman went into the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king's palace.

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Twelve months. So this was 12 months of preparation before she was ever even brought into the king.

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Esther was already a beautiful woman, and she was beautified for 12 months before appearing in front of the king of Persia.

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Verse 14. In the evening, she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shah Ashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines.

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She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.

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So she would spend the night with the king. And if he liked her, then he would bring her in again.

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But if he did not like her, then she ended up in the the other harem where the concubines were the king's mistresses.

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All of these women were virgins before they went in to meet with the king.

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They went into the second harem as concubines and mistresses. So you understand kind of what's happening here.

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They're spending the night with the king. They're sleeping with him. And if he doesn't like them, he sends them on to a place of being concubines.

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Only one gets to be chosen above them all as his king. So these are all virgins that have been chosen to audition before the king.

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Verse 15. Now, when the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter to go into the king, she asked for nothing except what

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Haggai, the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

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And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved

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Esther more than all the women. And she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

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Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants. It was

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Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.

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This was a common customary practice that the king would relieve some of the tax burden on part of the kingdom in celebration of having chosen a new king.

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It's a pretty nice tradition. Verse 19. Now, when the virgins were gathered together the second time,

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Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her for Esther obeyed

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Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him. So even though the name of God is not mentioned in the story of Esther, we don't have any mention of Moses or the law, the 10 commandments.

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We don't have any mention of the temple. Even though those things don't come up in Esther, nonetheless, there are certainly hints of obedience to God.

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And this is one of those places, I believe, where Esther was being obedient to the law of the

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Lord. It says here that she listened to Mordecai just as she did when she was being raised by him.

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Well, that is because she's honoring the commandment to honor your father and your mother and you will live long in the land that I am giving to you.

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And so she honors Mordecai as though he were her own father.

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Whatever he tells her to do, she listens to what he says. Now, he is wise in his years.

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And so Esther is going to submit to that wisdom that he has to give to her, recognize the contrast between her and the king who is listening to young men instead of older men dispensing their wisdom to the king's decisions.

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So Esther is even wiser than the king in that she is listening to men who are more seasoned and experienced than she is, whereas the king is listening to the impulses of younger men and the king listening to such bad advice is going to end up passing a law that will eventually that would ultimately result in the annihilation of an entire race of people had that law been carried out.

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Whereas Esther, on the other hand, is listening to Mordecai, who is ultimately going to advise her to bring about the deliverance of that very people that the king had ordered to have killed.

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So we go on here in verse 21. In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate,

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Bigfin and Toresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

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And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai. And he told it to Queen Esther. And Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai when the affair was investigated and found to be so.

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The men were both hanged on the gallows, and it was recorded in the book of the

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Chronicles in the presence of the king. This is foreshadowing because this is going to come up again.

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And by the way, verse 23, where it says that they were hanged on the gallows. What do you think of when you read that phrase?

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What is hanged on the gallows mean? You probably think of a gallows like a hangman's gallows, right?

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Like the Old West, a person being hanged. You got the bar with the rope hanging from it.

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That's a gallows and a person's hanged by the neck from the gallows. In this case, it probably wasn't being hung by a rope.

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It was actually a giant stake and a person was staked on it. So suspended up in the air, impaled.

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That's what's being referred to here as a gallows. The Persians were known for this, by the way, for making spectacle out of killing people so that it would strike fear in their hearts and the people would not plot so wickedly against the king as these men did.

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So what we get to next in chapter three, we're going to read about this wicked plot against the

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Jews to have them destroyed. And again, it's by the providential hand of God that Esther is in the position that she is in so that she can appeal to the king to have her people delivered.

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God working to bring about his promises so that through his people, through the people that he has chosen, the

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Jews descended from Abraham, the Messiah would come who would save his people from their sins.

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Let's pray. Our wonderful God, we thank you for your hand of providence that is working all things together for good, for those who love you and have been called according to your purpose.

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May we be obedient to your will and listen to what your spirit has to say to us through the scriptures.

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We ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Thank you for listening to when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe is the author of the book, 40 of the most popular Bible verses and what they really mean. Available in paperback or for your

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Kindle found at our website at www .utt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.