Esther 2 The Bachelor: Persian Style

Well, good morning, welcome to recast Church I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here and we're gonna go ahead and get started.

So if you can find your seats That would be great Awesome to hear everybody talking and chatting If you have some space in the middle of your aisle

I know that man I've sat out there where you guys are before and it's never comfortable when somebody makes this announcement But if you could screwed in just a little bit and leave room for people who are still coming in That would be helpful.

I see some space over here and I know everybody loves an aisle seat You know, I know how that is.

But um when you walked in you received a connection card. I encourage you to fill that out There's a front and a back to it.

Remember those of you who have been here for a while There's a place for you to put prayer requests on the back of that or any interaction that you want with us

Anything that you want to speak to the leadership or suggestions recommendations things like that We always look at those and then on the front side if you're here with us for the first time and you fill this card

Out there's a white basket back here where those are to be turned in and there's some coffee mugs there

We'd like you to just take one of those our way of saying Thank you for coming and we're glad that you came to join us in worship this morning

And then also when you walked in you received an offering envelope We don't pass an offering plate here And we we strongly and I mean this from the bottom of my heart our desire is that Your giving is between you and God and it is not by any coercion or any sense that we're asking you for money

We want it to be an offering between you and your Lord And so um, there's a black box back here if you choose to there's instructions on the front of the envelope

There's also a place to recycle these there's a white basket back there for that as well That says recycling. So if you're not going to use this this week

I'm go ahead and just still turn that in over there and that way we can reuse it next week We're gonna be jumping back into the book of Esther again this week

We saw just the introduction last week and that we're in a 12 -week series on this on this book of the

Bible in the Old Testament and there's something that I want to highlight as a way of introduction about the book of Esther in regards to Application like what do we take away from this?

I didn't talk significantly about this last week But here at recast we desire that everybody in this that calls us their church is growing in faith

Growing in community and growing in service as a matter of fact That's kind of how we define the idea or the concept of maturity in your walk with Christ in your relationship towards God is that you are growing and expanding and that we believe that immaturity is defined by stagnation by Believing that there's a line that I've crossed and now

I am mature. Does that make sense? and so can't you know how sometimes people get that in their mind that now

I've crossed a line now I'm mature and That's when we start to die That's when we that was it when we cease to grow and so growing in faith growing in community growing in service

That's the pathway forward we believe for followers of Christ and I want to highlight just thinking through this this concept of growing in faith

What does that look like? I'm convinced that we grow in faith

Like we can tend to think that's a mysterious thing, right? Like how many of you would like to have more faith at this time next year than you have right now?

Okay, quite a few of us would like to grow in faith But how many of you would admit that sometimes it seems like it's a mysterious process that's like how do

I go about that? What do I need to do to grow in faith? Would you admit that maybe that can be a little bit confusing? I'm convinced that it's actually a

Relatively simple process now you can oversimplify anything and there's complexities in our life and I recognize that but there's there's a main thing that God Desires of us and that is that we take in God's Word That we that we come here to know what he has revealed of himself because if you genuinely believe like I do that God wrote this

Then this is a primary way that we know God. Would you agree with me on that? Okay, so you ought to be in this right?

I mean reading it and this isn't one more two by four upside the head saying you need to read your Bible pray every day You know and then you'll grow and all this stuff

It's because we love God and we want to know him that we get in the word and then we believe the word we believe

It's true. And if we if we take it in and we believe it, that's right We take it in we believe it and then we go out and let it change our lives

That's the process by which we grow in faith taking in God's Word Believing it's true and going out and acting upon it and living it out.

Does that make sense? So that's that can be a little bit tricky in the book of Esther. So as we as we walk through this

Really our growth flows out of believing correct things about God and then living according to those things is what

I'm saying So sometimes you may walk out of here knowing God better From the text of Scripture but at the same time kind of scratching your head saying

I'm not sure Exactly what I'm supposed to do with that and and then throughout the week God might bring that back

Have you ever had this happen where God kind of brings it back in a circumstance and you're like, oh I get it Now like it makes sense in real life

Like it doesn't make sense sitting here talking about pie in the sky or theory But all of a sudden when the rubber meets the road and you're out there in real life in the real world

All of a sudden it's like aha I get it because now it makes sense and I can live it out and act it and God is asking me to do something

Different because I've encountered his word. Is that making sense? So that's how application works. And so sometimes as we go through the book of Esther It's going to look a lot like kind of knowing

God and understanding him better but not a lot of thou shalt and thou shalt nots because we're gonna find and Particularly in this text.

We're gonna see a lot of moral ambiguity a Lot of like dicey strange things that are gonna go on it's like I don't think

I'm comfortable with that but the main character does that and It's kind of like what's going on and God never judges it and it's just kind of unclear and you're kind of like well

I got to take other passages and make them up, you know, bring them to bear on this text and things like that So so are you understand what

I'm saying? You're getting kind of why I'm saying that because sometimes we want to elevate the people in the Bible and we want to just say

Okay, we need you need to just act like David be more like David Well, not always Don't do everything that David did you get what

I'm saying? Are you tracking? Okay So last week we saw for example, God used a drunken

King who kicked out his wife ultimately in the end so that Behind the scenes

God is working to put the right woman on the throne at the right time This week we will get into an even deeper mess to see the way that God replaces that Queen with a new

Queen and God is the God in the circumstances of real life, right? He's there and he's working behind the scenes getting things done.

And some of you have had a difficult week, right? I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand But some of you had a difficult week and some of you have had a good week and in either way

That your week has gone God has been there with you and sometimes when you've had a rough week the number one thing that you need to be remember be reminded of is that God is there with you in that difficulty and sometimes when you've had a good week the thing that you need to hear the most is

God is there with you in that good week and give credit to him give credit where credit is due and part of that is

Part of that all ties into this the reason that we do things the way that we do here at recast our goal

And I don't know how good we're doing at it But one of our number one goals is that when you walk through these doors on Sunday morning?

It's not like a huge jolt like okay now we're going sacred now

We are in church and we're gonna do church and church is going to be something so radically different from what I live out there that it's gonna be like whoa and Now everything is pious and meditative and and so you might notice as you some of you have been to recast some of you've been

Here longer than others. You might notice that things aren't always necessarily polished and and just well defined

It isn't that kind of like real life? Isn't that reality so that if the band gets up and makes a mistake that that's okay, isn't it?

Are we are we are we okay with that? No, the band isn't good because they really are trying to do the best, so I mean

I I mean not Trying to cut him some slack here. That's a Dave told me to say that so No he didn't he did

But you know what I'm saying. I mean are you getting what I'm saying? I said, it's even in so we do what we do here intentionally last week.

I was wearing shorts It was a little bit cooler this morning, but I I I do that intentionally I'm actually being intentional with what

I do because I want there to be a Very thin line between the real life that we live out there in the life that we live in here

We want to be authentic and that's one of our core values here. That's the a in recast which is an acronym for Our core values here, so I want you to open your

Bibles, please to Esther chapter 2 um that's going to be page 354 354 in the

Bible that's in the seat back in front of you And I recognize that there may be some here who don't own a Bible And we want you to please take that Bible with you our desires that everybody owns a copy of the

Word of God but 354 we're gonna read Esther 2 1 through verse 18 together follow along as I read

After these things when the anger of King a source had abated he remembered Vashti And what she had done and what had been decreed against her?

Then the king's young men who attended him said let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king and that the king appoint

Officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the capital under custody of Haggai The king's eunuch who is in charge of the women let their cosmetics be given them and let the young woman who pleases the king be

Queen instead of Vashti well this pleased the king and he did so Now there was a

Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai the son of Jer son of Shammai son of Kish a

Benjaminite Who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah whom

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

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 and when her father and her mother died

Mordecai took her as His own daughter 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 Haggai Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Haggai who had charge of the women and The young woman pleased him and And won his favor and he quickly provided her with 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 place to the best place in the harem Esther had not made known her people are kindred for Mordecai commanded her not to make it known and every day

Mordecai walked in front Of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what had happened what was happening to her

Now when the turn came for each young woman to go into the king Go into King Asurus after being 12 months under the regulations for the women since this was the regular period of their beautifying

Six months with oil and 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 in the evening She would go in and in the morning.

She would return To the second harem in custody of Shashka's the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines

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

When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abel hell The uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter to go into the king

She asked for nothing except what hey guy the king's eunuch who was in charge of the women advised Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her and when

Esther was taken to King Asurus in his royal palace in the tenth month Which is the month of Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign

The king loved Esther more than all the women and she won grace and favor in his sight

More than all more than all the virgins So that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants.

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

Let's pray father as we come to this text this morning can be kind of confusing a lot of history going on here a lot of Baggage that we carry over from our culture a lot of misunderstandings about their culture a lot of things that need to be cleared up And yet this is your word

This is what you desire for us to understand and the way that you work in history and in the messes of real life even at the hands of an abusive king

Who is self -serving you are still working behind the scenes to raise up your person for?

ultimately for salvation and and ultimately that the line of Christ would would continue and That eventually the

Messiah would come through the Jews who you are saving in this book and in this process and father

I thank you for salvation that has been provided for us that you saved your people through Esther and through Mordecai and through your great and awesome plan that the

Messiah was born and his name is Jesus Christ And we worship him this morning Recognizing your awesome plan down through the ages started in Genesis and with our fall all the way to the final restoration and redemption that we look forward to and we praise you for that I say you would help us to lift up our voices and our hearts before you in gratitude as we sing these songs let your word penetrate into our hearts and Transform us as we consider.

How sovereign you really are I ask this in Jesus name Amen At any time during the message you can feel free to get up and get with some more juice or coffee or doughnuts

And again, I say this often, but just whatever it takes to kind of keep your focus on God's Word this morning

Last week we as I mentioned we we jumped into the book of Esther and we met a man named

King Xerxes or King Aesurus it depends on if you're speaking Hebrew or you're speaking Greek and so I mean

Greek King Xerxes in Hebrew King Aesurus He was the ruler of the entire Persian Empire a huge vast

Empire that stretched all the way from modern -day Pakistan all the way down into Africa just a

Ginormous kingdom that he was over technical term for you there And he threw a party we saw last week now.

He's basically the ruler of the known world okay, by and large and He threw a party he got drunk lost a lot of his dignity

He asked his queen to come and parade her beauty like she was some thing and in that process

She refused and ultimately became banished from his presence and was deposed as Queen no longer with that status

No longer with that place of authority Now all of those things are summarized by the very opening three words of chapter two

So if you look down at the text here in X chat, I mean Esther chapter 2 acts

I've been preaching through X a long time Esther chapter 2 the very first three words after these things so a summary of everything that's happened now, we've had some time that has passed since Esther chapter 1 and actually four years

Approximately somewhere throughout the next chapter four years are gonna transpire over the course of this and it's kind of hard to tell what the

Timing is of all of these things, but some time has passed since that since those things happened

I'm the King's anger by this point is subsided and it says in the text that he remembered Queen Vashti.

He remembered her now And I just remembered her remembered what she had done remembered what was decreed

Look at how passive and we've got all kinds of signs throughout the entire book of Esther that this King is not a real

Self -confident King now, he's the ruler of everything But when it really comes down to it, he does these things like at the very end of verse 1

For example, what had been decreed against her? passive He was thinking and he was like, oh,

I remember what was what was what was decreed about Vashti who decreed it? He did he did he doesn't say it doesn't say in the text.

So he remembered what he had decreed. He's kind of passive He's pushing that off pushing the blame back on somebody else and I want you to realize

I mean Sometimes when we see the word remembered It's not like you've forgotten and you have amnesia and you didn't remember

Vashti and then all this at all. I remembered her Sometimes remembering is like an emotional word. Do you know what

I'm talking about? Like how many like you remember the old days you remember the you remember the good old times anybody? I have you here ever struggle with nostalgia like you just look back at those times and it's like all things were so much better When I lived

Here or when I was there some of you some of you like me on that Okay, a few of us are that way we look back and kind of like the rose -colored glasses on the past That's kind of what he's remembering

That's that kind of memory that is going on here and it's meant to imply some level of regret because you're gonna see

The response of his young advisors is the way that they respond indicates that there's some kind of sense of regret on his part

He's kind of down and he's depressed. He remembers what it was like when he had a queen That was a good those were that was a good time.

That was good. And now he doesn't and he regrets that How often have we made rash decisions that we've only come to regret shortly after have you been there?

Have you had those kinds of regrets? I know I've been guilty of speaking harsh words in a moment of anger.

Maybe once And have you ever been in the position where you are now in now?

It is your job to try to convince the person that what you said when you were angry wasn't true Like I didn't really mean it but wait what comes out of the heart is you know what

I'm talking about? You know how hard it is to convince somebody that what you said in a flash in a moment of anger wasn't what you really? Think in your heart.

That's that's a hard place to be What really happened here to Xerxes is he got drunk and now he wishes he could undo the things that he did when he was drunk

Right, and some of us have probably been there as well So the young advisors to the king recommend a new season of The Bachelor.

Okay, you know the TV show And this one is going to be Persian style. I Think it's ironic how this episode has a tendency to offend our modern sensibilities, right?

Like it when you read it at face value is anybody somewhat? Moderately at least a little bit kind of offended by what happens in this text like you're reading.

It's just kind of like Something just doesn't feel right here Okay, this is kind of a weird contest

And yet I think is as much as it offends our modern sensibilities yet Shows like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette or The Millionaire or some of those types of shows that spun off from those is the bachelor

Salon, I should have looked that up this week. Is it still going? No, what's that? It just ended see

I don't yeah, I'm not I'm not that into the show. I'm gonna be honest So the bachelor the bachelor at bachelorette by the way for those of you

Who maybe haven't seen that show the gist of the show is this bachelor is brought on and then all of these? Eligible young ladies try to win his heart and eventually he ends up choosing one of them and they get married maybe and And that's the way that it goes

And and isn't it kind of ironic that where this this text could potentially offend our sensibilities We then have a huge fan base for a show like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette and people get into that So there's some irony in the similarities

Between some of the things that we would have in our culture and some of the things that we see there yet there are some significant differences that we're gonna spell out as we walk through this text between just an episode of The Bachelor and what's going on in Esther chapter 2

But the basic gist is that in the Persian Empire They're gonna gather all the eligible young women who are attractive and they are going to have a limited amount of time

To try to win the heart of the king and that's the same kind of premise as The Bachelor and according to verse 4 however the winner gets to be

Queen over all of Persia That's a pretty pretty big prize I'm not sure that Xerxes was a great prize

But becoming the one of the most powerful women on the face of planet Earth at that time

Was what was at stake in this competition? Are you getting that? Like I mean, I think sometimes we can read this and not understand the scope of what is being offered here

What is actually at stake and what is going on? Well, the king likes the idea

He's again nostalgic looking back and saying it was good to have a queen I want a queen and so he puts the plan in motion and then we have a little side note because we're gonna introduce two new main characters in verses 5 through 7 and So we kind of pull back and where verse 5 kind of could jar you out of the text like now there was a

Jew Well, why is he talking about a Jew because we're just talking about this contest that's gonna happen and all that stuff

But it's a very important side note because it's gonna introduce the two main characters of the entire book of Esther Esther and Mordecai her cousin

So there was this Jewish man Mordecai who lived in the capital city of Susa He was from the tribe of Benjamin We see from the text and we get just enough of his family history to come to the place of understanding

He was from the tribe. Like I said the tribe of Benjamin and that his great -grandfather whose name was

Kish Came over was actually extracted from his homeland Which was conquered

Judah under the under the king of Judah who is Jeconiah? they were defeated the walls were broken down the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and they were taken in exile into Babylon under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar and then eventually the

Persians and the Medes are gonna conquer Babylon and that's why you have Jews in Persia is because Babylon fell so is that making sense?

There's this chain of events you have Grandfather came a great -grandfather came over and so how many of you could maybe any of you here into doing your own genealogy like Checking out online and doing that kind of stuff

How many of you could actually say when your ancestors came to America? Some of you could say that some of some people came in good circumstances some and not so good circumstances

My grandparents came over from Poland in During the war so you know I mean it was like kind of running from something, but you have here.

They're actually forced. They're actually made to Come over And go go to Babylon not not necessarily a good situation

So that's what's going down there Mordecai was the primary primary guardian for his cousin and Basically meaning that Esther is an orphan

Okay, and we see that later in the text that she actually both of her parents It's not like she was abandoned not like she was just left

Both of her parents have passed away, and it says that in the text and so she's got an older cousin named

Mordecai who? Who is going to be her guardian and her name is given here only?

It's only a couple times in Scripture Hadassah is her her Hebrew name. She was also known as Esther both

Mordecai and Esther have been given Persian names, which was very common when a people were conquered and Exiled into the conquering land they were given names sometimes

Insulting names often names that pertain to the gods or goddesses of that area, and that's exactly what we have here

So everybody here in the room probably thinks of Mordecai is a good Jewish name, right? Is that is that what you have in your mind like like Mordecai you mean a

Mordecai you're gonna assume that they're they're Jewish Mordecai is actually a really good Persian name

He's named after the primary chief god of the

Persian pantheon Marduk So that's where his name comes from it's actually a pagan name that that he's been given

We don't even know and are never given in the text Mordecai's Hebrew name he likely had one, but we never find out what that is

Esther on the other hand have any of you ever Heard of the goddess Ishtar? That's where her name comes from Esther Ishtar.

It's a it's a cognate and that's what's going on there So there's kind of an insult and I'm gonna you remember that in the book of Daniel Have you read the book of Daniel before Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Daniel all given names?

That's actually Shadrach Meshach and Abednego are pagan names They actually had Hebrew names that are given

Daniel was known as Betel Shazar in his his pagan name So you get these different names, by the way,

Hadassah just it's kind of an interesting side note It's actually the Jewish word for the ground cover that we have in Michigan called myrtle

You know the you know, we sometimes plant in our gardens and stuff like that myrtle That's exactly what that word means. So you could actually call her myrtle from time to time and get away with it.

I Probably will once in a while We know only a few things about her though from her introduction

She's a Jew. Okay, we got that and that's that's gonna that's gonna prove to be pretty important down the road here Okay, so it's important that we get that in our mind.

She's a Jew. She's beautiful That's gonna come into play in this text here She has lost both of her parents and she has been raised by her older cousin not uncle some people

I've seen some movies and some some things about Esther that always want to call him her uncle that she's

It was her older cousin and and she's formally adopted in some sense by him, by the way

Verse 8 snaps us back to the action where we find that the king has Ordered the gathering of all the young eligible single ladies like he probably played that song over the loudspeakers and all the single ladies

Came out from the woodwork some of you know the song I'm talking about some of you don't but I'm sure that was going on And they all came out and hit the dance floor and it was happening okay, and Esther is selected as one of the single ladies and She's placed under the care of hey guy who is the eunuch in charge of the harem for obvious reasons

The men in charge of the harem were eunuchs That's uncomfortable a

Couple of observations about this I think are important though Because this entire scenario

I think that this is the part where the gathering of these young ladies has the greatest potential to run against our culture are

Against our modern sensibilities like what in the world is going on If this I'm going to be honest at the start of this week before I began really digging deep into this text now

I understand the I already studied the big picture of the book of Esther. Where does it fit in the Bible?

How does this thing flow and all of that and I do that before I even start a series in a book? But then I dig in deeper and I'm gonna know that you sometimes come to a text with a preconceived notion like you think you've already

Got it. Like you read David and Goliath. You're like I got that one. I've read it before I understand And so I kind of came into this thinking that this angle was this is a hard thing, you know

I mean women being young women being torn from their father's grasp and he's weeping and holding on and Dads have to be slain because their daughters are being

Arrested from them and brought into custody of the king and any of you ever had that in your mind that picture of that's what's going on here and Over the course of a week of really studying this because I think sometimes we let our culture

Drive the text when we need to put ourselves in their culture and understand how this would have struck them

And I want to point out clearly we don't see any protest in the text whatsoever

Nobody thinks this is strange Nobody thinks this is weird. This is the place that these people were used to living and not only that but I think there's some

Other things that are hard for us in our modern 21st century minds to to really grasp

You know, we think of all these women rent from their families So, of course, they were gonna all fall all of these ladies all of these young women were going to fall in love eventually with somebody from high school or somebody from college and then they were gonna get married and Have kids and everything was gonna go fine for them, right?

Isn't that what happened in 21st? I mean in that 5th century BC Persia No No, it wasn't gonna go that way for them

They were already going to have an arranged marriage Somebody in their family was gonna tell them who they were gonna marry

There was not going to be a falling in love like we have here in America By the way, love isn't a really good thing to fall into it's a great thing to decide to do

But it's not something that's you you want to just fall in That's like a that's like a bear trap with the spikes on the bottom.

Don't fall in love Choose to love. But anyways, that's another that's another thing. But um, so And actually, you know, we have arranged marriages around the world right now, right?

I don't know if you guys are ready for this statistic, but there is a lesser percentage of divorce in Countries where arranged marriages are common and normative.

Anybody believe me on that? You can look up the stats and find it yourself It's um, it's it's it's just solid

Where we tend to assume that there's got to be this intense compatibility and all of this stuff we we over overthink our

Needs in the matter, right? Isn't that tend to be what we do here in America? So that wasn't gonna be the way it was gonna go down for any of these ladies anyway

So automatically you got to adjust your thinking for that, right? Like they're being wrenched from their future wrench from their desires wrench from the boyfriend that they love

Have any of you seen the movie Hadassah? There's a there's an actual movie a night with the king it came out in like 2005 2006 something like that a couple of you have seen that, you know, she actually has to has this boyfriend

I mean talk about Americanizing this story Hadassah has a boyfriend and she's got she basically gets wrenched from her family and wrenched from her boyfriend and all this stuff and it's

Just no, that's not right. Um, I Want everyone to notice that again that like I said the complete lack of protest in the text

And I want you to imagine the economic situation of what was going on during this time in this era of human history

I Can imagine can you imagine an economic situation in which it would be desirable for a woman to enter this contest?

Can you imagine that or this would be a good thing where you need to understand an economy of living from hand to mouth?

Where fathers might have put their their daughters forward and hoped that they would be chosen

Can you imagine that where their life would be better? I can't provide for you But if you go and you join the harem you will be provided for and you'll be healthy and everything is going to be fine

And you're gonna be fed and you're gonna survive We have to have that in our mind But rather than you know

Our current culture our modern culture letting that define the way that we think about these things so I can imagine some families

Hoping that their daughters were selected in a society without middle class this was a chance for a common family to rise up in wealth and Standing and not only was it gonna go well for the daughter that was chosen

It was gonna go well for the entire family whose daughter was chosen. Are you getting what I'm saying? So I think we've got to understand this could be a big break for some is that making sense to you

I mean where would you admit that maybe you've read into this a little bit thinking that this was just a horrible thing and just But but it's not necessarily

I came across another interesting historical observation many commentaries And you know a lot of websites you can go to and stuff reference this as an extremely sexist portion of Scripture that here

You have King Xerxes basically using the young women of the kingdom for his own pleasure and Yet, I want to point out that I believe

Xerxes was an equal opportunity abuser King Xerxes gathered about 500 young boys per year for the purpose of making them eunuchs

For literally to castrate them in his service Okay, does that sound like abuse to you?

It does to me and that's according to very close people who are very close a

Ancient historian this isn't somebody who's reading back into the text of trying to you know search through old scrolls This is somebody who lived contemporary to Xerxes a guy named

Herodotus who wrote extensive histories of the Persian Empire Specifically focused on this King Xerxes.

He's got two chapters in a book just alone dedicated to King Xerxes And he mentions in there oh by the way about 500 boys in the kingdom every year so It wasn't just the women that were a tool for him

It was also anyone and I want to point out where I might sound confusing for me to have just said he's an abuser

And yet this could be a good thing for the women Can you understand how those things can be balanced where they could still rise up out of but all he's doing is trying to serve

His own His self right and he that's that's his endgame is Serving himself and make sure he's got enough servants and make sure he's got somebody to pour the wine and make sure he's got

Somebody for his own pleasure and and on and on and on the list goes so he is an abuser He's he's just taking it all for himself

But still to rise up into the position of harem was was good for some of these ladies

But back to Esther she immediately became the favorite of Haggai who is in charge of the first harem

We're going to see two separate harem Shashgaz is in charge of the second harem there's a distinction between these two harems that let that make it an uncomfortable distinction and understanding what happens the night of Their time with the king

Okay, they're concubines after that And there's a specific word that lets you know that a lot of the stories and the children's stories and things are not accurate

So and we'll get there here in a second uncomfortably, but we'll get there So she becomes the favorite of Haggai.

He accelerates the the text indicates in Hebrew that he accelerates her beautification program getting her nutritious food

Some of the best portions the best cuts hand selecting seven Handmaidens for her that's what those women are that you see mentioned there that rise up with her

She quickly rose to what is called the best place in the text in the harem I cannot imagine that being the case for Esther Were she rebellious against this notion of being in this contest?

Are you understanding what I'm saying? How many of you know that it's hard to grow in favor with somebody when you're sour you're angry and you're focused on the negative

In a situation, so heart is that difficult to to rise up in favor? It is and I believe that Esther saw this as an opportunity

Which again is just going to be kind of morally ambiguous in this entire text as we get in into this but on verse 10

Go ahead and look look down at verse 10 Esther had not made known her own people Or her people or kindred for Mordecai commanded her not to make it known

We have for some undisclosed reason Mordecai has the sense to say don't tell anybody what your ethnicity is

It's quite possible that he had already seen some persecution of the Jews by Persians in the past He had experienced that and so he was like,

I don't don't tell them. We don't know exactly why he does that And Esther proves herself both obedient to his authority the authority of her adopted father and she proves herself able to use discretion because I mean

You know It might be kind of difficult to not tell anybody who you are where you're from in a situation where you're meeting new people

Right, and so she shows herself to to use discretion wisely And we also see however that Mordecai was not just a mean adoptive father

He actually cares for her and his love and concern for Esther is shown in his daily trips to the courtyard of the harem for Trying to get news from her

And you should wash away from your mind any notion any movie any book that you've read that ever

Indicates that Esther and Mordecai have a sit -down face -to -face conversation during this time. That's that's completely

Irrational and naive to think that they would have had a face -to -face conversation The harem of the king was so carefully guarded at the very

Concept the very idea of a unit came about for the purpose of protecting the harem

Okay, harem is from the the word. It's an Arabic word haram or in in Hebrew It's the same it means forbidden

It's it's a word that just means strictly Forbidden and that is the nature of the harem is that it is forbidden for all except for the king

And so that's I mean the very word itself means you just don't go near the harem And think about that I mean obviously if those working with the harem had to be castrated for their duties the notion that Mordecai was just gonna waltz in and talk with her is fairly naive in Esther for we see ultimately a long dialogue that's gonna happen between Esther and her cousin

Mordecai and it's all gonna be through the avenue of a eunuch who's gonna be a go -between the eunuch is gonna Come and talk to Mordecai and then come back and talk to Esther and then he's gonna come back and talk to Mordecai And that's what's gonna happen

There's no face -to -face going on But he's still going there on a regular basis to try to talk to a eunuch to find out.

How is she doing? Look at the extent of the beauty treatments. Did you catch that when

I was reading it? That seems kind of extreme was this King a little full of himself here.

Okay, I think so 12 months of lotion spices ointments to try to cover up their blemishes obviously broken up into six months one thing six months of another

And you thought your teenage daughter spent a long time getting ready in the morning. Okay, this is this is this is 12 months verses 13 through 14

Finally explains in more explicit Hebrew how the contest is going to go down. This is where things get a little bit uncomfortable

Translators are never eager I've noticed this in in my personal study and in trying to dig through the text and figure out they are never eager to translate euphemisms or double entendres for obvious reasons

And so they they like to leave that up to you to try to figure that out But this text from here on out is full of double meanings that are uncomfortable

So they really leave out the sexual implications in much of this text, but the Hebrew phrases are clear

Let me just say for whatever reason and if you want to come up and argue with me about this afterwards, that's that's fine

We'll talk but the Hebrew is very very clear that these women are going into the king in the same way that the ultimate end result of A wedding ceremony in this time.

The wedding wasn't done until the two went into the tent at the end Consummation was part of the ceremony now people didn't hang around for that But um that that was that was part of the actual ceremony itself and the wedding wasn't done until the the marriage was consummated and they went into the tent together and that phrase into is

Is what it is? Okay, so that's what's going on here each woman from the harem would go in in the evening and Come out it says in the text.

Look at it. It says come out when in The morning and I'm sure they spent the entire night talking

Right, is that what you? And so like the movie that we watched that was the that was what was implied is that they just got together and hung out and she played some music and talked and That's not the nature of what when you talk about the first harem and the second harem

There's a distinction between those two because one one are virgins and the other are not they are

Concubines now and the word concubine is a technical term for somebody who is now Married to the king and I do want to point this out because one thing that can be a little bit

A little bit of a misunderstanding again culturally is that this is a wedding. Okay, these women are marrying the king

Okay, so from the standpoint of Esther, she's not Necessarily sinning against God and this is not a fornication that is happening here

She is committing herself to the king and she will be the kings and the king will be hers. Does that make sense?

Obviously, I do believe on the other hand that is it possible for her to not be sinning but the king to be sinning

Yes So you got to look at it from two different angles. He's an abuser she is looking for love and an opportunity and all of those things and and By all intents and purposes.

Actually, I think he's gonna end up finding love in this not necessarily looking for it. But um See where it was here.

I Do find this I do find this to be Offensive to my modern mind any of you find it a bit offensive just a little bit and and yet I I see very little difference between this and in a couple of episodes of the bachelor that I did see a few years ago and again, it's

So so the batch was a little different, but maybe um, but again, it's just not far from a modern culture that encourages sexualized dating

You know what I'm talking about that's the way that our culture is With many sexual experiences before settling on the one who pleases me most

Isn't that our culture? Isn't that what is predominantly the thought out there? Am I alone on that or are you guys you guys agree that that's what's going on?

Some out in our culture will outright say and I've heard this recently How do you know if you're sexually compatible if you haven't given it a go before marriage?

Have you ever heard that before? Have you ever heard that thought? I like I just recently heard a sermon by Mark Driscoll Have any of you heard

Mark Driscoll? He's out in Seattle. I really enjoy listening to him and um He's going through a series called true marriage highly recommended if you get a chance

I don't know if you get a chance to podcast or listen to messages during the week But it's it's it's really good

Lynn and I are listening to it talking about it And I know some other people in the church that are actually going through it, too But he just recently responded to that question

So somebody asked him that question at the close of one of his sermons He does these Q &A's and somebody asked him.

Well, how do you know if you're compatible if it will his response? I liked he said how would you know if you're not compatible if you haven't had multiple partners?

How would you even know if you're not compatible and I was ready for him to drive this point home? And he didn't quite get there.

So I wanted to add this to it. I would just add that if you love God and You love your spouse

And you have the right equipment Everything's gonna be fine But I think the breakdown is so you might look at me you go.

Well, wait a minute. Something's not right here something You know because it's not my experience. I don't feel sexually compatible with my spouse

We're struggling right now And I would I'd be very willing to sit down and talk with you to give you some resources to work through if that's the

Case, but I would guarantee that there's some kind of a breakdown between your love for God your love for him or her

Or there could be a biological issue that's going on and you might need to see a doctor or something like it Obviously those three things right equipment right love for God, right?

Love for your spouse. Are you getting are you getting me? Are you tracking with that? And so this entire idea or concept of compatibility

I think it's just a broken thought in our minds because it's ultimately driven by me and wanting my own pleasure and my own

Desires and wanting myself fulfilled, right? Isn't that what it really comes down to? So are you compatible for completing my desires?

And that's that's not the way we should think about it After their one night with the king

The ladies went to what is called the second harem I've mentioned that under a different eunuch named shash gaz

These were women were left to an opulent lifestyle of celibacy

Unless the king called for them again That sound kind of harsh That I think so They were kept healthy.

They lived the high life They were completely provided for and It's likely that their families benefited greatly from this

We actually see Indications from historical documents that women were able to who were in the harem were able to provide nice clothing for their families outside of the gates

They were able to provide and send gifts to them and provide them with money and provide them with all kinds of things

And so there was some benefit to that But here's one of the biggest difference between the bachelor and Esther These women were no longer free to marry or have a family

They were married to the king who may or may not ever see them again

And I imagine that despite that opulence of being in the harem That this resulted in the death of some dreams

You imagine that? These were real ladies You know, my daughter's only six years old

Okay, Leah's only six and she wants to play wedding any of you have daughters who like to play wedding

Okay, and we'll start at one end and Luke always plays the pastor and he stands down at one end and he knows what to Say and our house has one long hallway and I'll walk her down and you know, she wants to get married, right?

She dreams of being married someday to a man who will be her hero That's what she wants

And not only that but Leah loves to play with dolls now Anybody have a daughter here that likes to play with dolls and she doesn't like to play with dolls just because she likes plastic skin

It's because there's something innate in her that desires a child of her own I actually just asked her yesterday because I'm thinking through my sermon

I use my my kids and my family's as you know, test subjects and guinea pigs all the time But I asked her

I said do you want to have a kid someday? She said yes, of course Of course

I Don't think we have the categories to understand the cultural implications and phenomena of this of this idea of harem

I don't think we understand So so I think that the answer to these two questions I'm trying to shoot as much as I can straight in understanding the history and the culture

Do I think that women wanted to be chosen for the contest? Yes, I do.

Do I think that it cost them something to be entered into this contest? Absolutely Absolutely, it cost them something it cost the death of some dreams for these ladies

Esther's night arrived says in the tenth month of the seventh year of Xerxes reign Xerxes has already been to Greece now.

He's already attacked Greece by this time We've got all kind of like I said Detailed historical documents the festival that we saw in Esther one was a lead -up camp to the campaign where he was going to go and attack

Greece and Now we see that the years have passed We don't know how long this entire Hello, the beauty treatments for a year and all of that stuff and what's all transpired in between there

He must have been gone for a while. He actually led the troops in the in the battle against Greece they actually

Conquered Athens and then were repelled again lost Athens and were kicked out and one of the final battles in Greece was the

Battle of Thermopylae anybody ever hear of that one anybody ever see the movie 300. That's the battle that goes on there it was not just 300 troops though, that's a little bit of a

Silly movie in a sense because there were 300 Spartans So spot the the city -state of Sparta put forward 300 troops

But there were 7 ,000 total troops that held a narrow pass against a hundred thousand Persians Amazing military victory they held out for three days holding a narrow pass against 100 ,000 troops only 7 ,000 of them pretty amazing, but so that's all come to pass

Xerxes comes back to Persia with his tail between his legs. He's been he's been defeated significantly embarrassed in the scope of world politics in the world scene

And that's kind of like you kind of see how human nature is and can you kind of understand why he needed a little?

Diversion like this whole find -a -queen thing his advisors are saying. Oh, this is what you need He probably was pretty depressed and down during this time and we find in verse 17 in Very succinct language that Esther won the contest

Xerxes fell for her and it actually says in the text he loved her

She won grace and favor in his sight more than any of the other eligible ladies

He set the crown under her head declaring her queen and he held a great festival in her honor even naming it

Esther's feast He gave generous gifts to the poor and even gave tax relief to some it's always interesting to see how

Kings in ancient times like to buy Celebration because not everybody felt like celebrating because people how many of you know if you're living from hand to mouth you got to work

Like you don't have the short term in mind And so he would actually cut taxes just so everybody would celebrate with him and be happy You actually have cases where the flip side of that is true

King Herod for example Literally had people throughout the kingdom killed so that there'd be mourning on the day of his death

So that was in his will when the day that I die I want you to go out and slaughter my military I want him to slaughter select people so that people will actually mourn the day that I die

I mean, that's the way that Kings thought or they self -serving is power corrupting Yeah, pretty crazy stuff.

So he that's why this whole tax relief things happen How did she win?

I am very glad as a pastor that the scripture remains vague and nondescript on how she won

And I really say that tongue -in -cheek But Esther has just won a really kind of fairly crass competition if you think about it

And all of the things all of this seems morally questionable and vague and maybe even really a little uncomfortable, right?

What's going on here and the text never draws any judgment on these events We don't even know how

Esther felt in any of this no emotional Connection with the text at all no

Declaration of how she felt how she processed this modern Jewish commentaries work all kinds of mental gymnastics

Trying to avoid Esther having a steamy night with a pagan king But I cannot honestly explain it away, but I do think there is a main point in all of this

You see, I don't know if Esther looked back on her life later And she looked back at this time and thought and I should have stood my ground on moral principle

I shouldn't have entered this I shouldn't have done this I should have revolted he to the point I shouldn't shouldn't eaten the food or starved myself or whatever

I just shouldn't have done this I don't know on the other hand She may have looked back with a completely clear conscience saying

I did the best with what I was given and in my Circumstances I did the best that I could to try to honor God many of you ever been in a catch -22 before Feeling trapped and kind of like I've got to pick the worst of two evils kind of like a kind of like a presidential election

Okay But you know what I'm saying, I mean like where you were you're kind of like, I mean, it's not a there's no

There's no win -win here. There's I mean, I'm gonna have to sacrifice something something's going to go either way and That's what we see in the text here

But the point still stands and I and I'll probably say this every message for the next 11 or 12 weeks

Esther is not here in the Bible as a role model of moral behavior So what this book is about is act like Esther do what

Esther did She stands in the text as a shining example of the way that God can use

Even the weakest links in the chain of human events to get his goodwill accomplished

That's why she's here At the same time I will always encourage people to avoid sin and do what you know in Scripture That is revealed to be good and right

You get that you see why I'm saying that Like just because God can use a drunken buffoon that we saw last week like Xerxes.

He's drunk. He's just he's plaster He's making dumb decisions and just because God can use that shit. Does that mean you should be a drunken buffoon?

No, no, thank you for that. I appreciate that really clear. Yeah, that was that was my wife. She's a bright one awesome

Just because God can use the sex contest of a pagan king to get the person that he wants on the throne

Does that mean we should use the book of Esther as a training tool for our daughters in the way that they should use their?

bodies to achieve power and status No, thank you. Okay. Good.

Good. I got more nose on that. I Hope you can see While we can take hope in a

God who can use messed up lives It doesn't mean that we throw our hands up and just say okay.

Well then whatever goes because he can use it Are you getting what I'm saying? Oh, I my prayer for us as a church is that as we grow in faith grow in community grow in service that we grow

In what is called sanctification that is that tomorrow we look more like Christ than we do today and the next day

We look more like Christ than we do that day and on and on and that next year We have taken new ground and we have

Yielded more of our lives over to the Spirit and we are in love with him in deeper ways And by the way, when

I talk about this, I'm not talking about adding more rules Tacking on more regulations or more things to your checklist

I am talking about loving God more tomorrow than today because that's the only thing that's going to change our lives

Is that as we love God and we're in relationship with him and we trust his spirit in us and we trust his word and we

Take it in and we learn from it not so that we can add to our list of commands to follow

But so that we know him in deeper ways and can then in turn go out and live for him and love others with his

Love is that making sense? You see I mean there's there's a complete branch of Christianity that will just tell you I mean at the end of every message at The end of every sermon there needs to be a list of things for me to do this week

And I can just check those off and be done with it. And that is not the Christian life If I fear that occasionally you can get that for me and I that's the last thing

I want to communicate It is not about to -do lists It is about a relationship with our great and sovereign

God who is orchestrating and working in ways that we can't see Trusting him with our lives

Loving him with our lives and letting him in turn love us and forgive us and set our feet on better paths

I Walk away from this text scandalized by the method that God used to place

Esther on the throne really Anybody else with me on that a little bit scandalous a little bit crazy

But all of this book is driving towards God putting the right people in the right place at the right time to save his people from genocide

That the promised Messiah might come through the line of the Jews as he promised

But this all reminds me of another perfectly orchestrated event that was extremely scandalous you see 500 years after the events of Esther God is going to put a betrayer on his team.

He's gonna pick 12 people and one of them he knows He's a betrayer And not only that but he's gonna place a wishy -washy governor over Judea named

Pontius Pilate and into that hostile mix He's going to send his own son

His son Jesus who was placed on trial and although innocent was found guilty and was murdered on a

Roman cross The cross is scandalous When you take the cross into the context of passages like Isaiah 53 6 that says this

God laid on his own son our iniquity our sins

You mean God was working out the cross? God was putting our sins on Jesus.

They're scandalous God chose to work salvation and redemption from within this broken system.

I praise God that he didn't just take The the cosmos that we broke and just wad it up and put it in his big cosmic wastebasket and start over again

But instead what he did is when Adam and Eve broke the world Okay, we broke it like I mean, what do you do?

You know you break, you know when you're a kid you broke the vase you tried to hide it we can't really hide the broken world too well, um and and we broke it and He came into the broken world suffered with us and Saved us from within it.

Does that make sense? So that's what I mean when I say he came into the broken system He didn't doesn't remain aloof from us and looking down going man

I'm gonna zap you guys in the end because you've just messed up No, he entered into this life in this world with us

That's why the incarnation of Jesus Christ is so important. He didn't give up on us

And he did this to prove his goodness and grace towards all of his creation And that communion we we come to together to remember the beautiful scandal of the cross

That God laid our sins on his son. He took the punishment so that anyone who believes in him can go free

If you're here and you've asked Jesus Christ to save you And recognized him as Lord as King Then please feel free to join us in communion as we pass the cracker as we plant past the juice

Remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for you and for all of us but if you're here and And you're like one of these components doesn't make sense

Like you like number one either either you don't recognize him as Lord or you're kind of confused about who Jesus Christ is or what?

He's done for you and you're just kind of like I don't really get it and I don't really know and I'm not talking about perfect Understand I'm just like you just I need to know more

I'd encourage you to just pass the cracker and pass the juice by or you haven't asked him to save you

But then if that's the only thing and you're sitting here and you're listening and you're saying wait You're telling me Jesus died for me.

If the only thing that that stands between you and salvation is just asking Why not ask today?

Why not make today the day that you actually say, you know what? I want to be all in and I'd encourage you to come and talk with me after the service if if you're at that if you're at that crossroads where you're like It's starting to fall together, but I need some pieces.

I got some questions I need some things put back together and some understanding here. I would love to talk I'd love nothing more than to talk with you if that's you today, but let's let's pray

As Dave comes to lead us in a song for communion Father I praise you for your sovereign hand

This has just been a crazy text to study this week and to kind of think through and process the way that you worked in Esther's life and father

I Thank you for her faithfulness as we're gonna see down the road what that's gonna end up looking like in in the end of The way that that you worked in her history and in her path

But father I just think about the the way that this all ends That's all all the story of Esther is moving towards a

Messiah towards Jesus Christ towards the one who is going to be born of a descendant through the

Jews who are saved in the book of Esther and Jesus Christ is going to be born of a Jewish couple and Raised up in perfection without sin and he makes the sacrifice that we all look back on and rejoice

And so father as we come to communion, I ask that you would be honored and glorified in our remembrance that we would actually contemplate and consider the great sacrifice and That you would walk with us throughout this next week

Bringing honor and glory to you because we love you not because we have to not because I'm standing up here and saying we should