Gods Providence includes wicked kings

Thank you, Mr. Ernst. Appreciate you reading that. This evening's message will primarily be an introduction to the Book of Esther. I would suggest that you're in for a grand experience if you can stay with us through the Book of Esther. You're going to be delighted in this book.

Above measure. It is wonderful to see the hand of God so vividly portrayed in this book. Of course, you've got to be looking for it, but it is wonderful. There are actually two books in the Bible named after Ruth and Esther. Ruth is grouped with Ezra and Nehemiah because of the role of Cyrus and the king of Persia, who was king before the king Ahrus, that's mentioned here.

Esther was written in the time also of the Persian empire. The background of Esther is a plan to exterminate the Jewish people, which of course is a reoccurring theme throughout history because Satan is behind it, wanting to get rid of that seed that was promised to the woman.

The Book of Esther is one of two in which God's name is not even mentioned once. The other one is the book of Solomon called the Songs of Solomon. In contrast to the absence of God's name, we have the Persian King's name mentioned 190 times in 167 verses. Isn't that interesting?

Different reasons are suggested by writers as to why the kings. I mean, why God's name is not mentioned. I'm going to give you three of those because I think they're all three interesting. First one is it is God's name is omitted in order to teach the fundamental lesson that though God may seem absent in human affairs, he is truly present and active. And of course, it's like the life of Joseph, all these awful things that happened.

It seemed as though God had forgotten his servant Joseph. But we know that in the end all that was done in Joseph's life was to preserve Israel. And of course the seed. The same picture is given here. The second reason, it was God hiding his face from Israel, as he said he would, as prophesied in Deuteronomy that God would hide his face when the sins of Israel got to a certain point.

I'll read you that prophecy, Deuteronomy 31:18, and I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil which they have done in that they have turned to other gods. And then the third reason that is given that I wanted to share with you. It does not have to have God's name or it does not have God's name because the author of the book feared Persian censorship. Many people have said the same thing was true about the book of the Revelation. Why is there so many symbols?

It's because so much is talked about Rome in there that Rome would have censored the book if they could have interpreted it.

Though God's name is not mentioned, we are going to call your attention repeatedly through this book to the presence of God, his overruling providence that's found throughout the book. Things that if the world read it that knew not God would say as coincidences. And so I suggest to you there are mammoth amounts of coincidences in this book or the intervention of Almighty God. Let me give you three of those just to jar your mind. If you've read the book of Esther, I trust you.

I'll have number one. Think of the timing of the king's calling for the reading of the chronicles of his reign. Awesome. Just he couldn't sleep all night, the very night that Haman is building, you know, the gallows to hang Mordecai in. And so he reads that, and he finds in there that Mordecai was never rewarded.

And Mordecai was the one that was supposed to hang in the gallows at the evil hand of Haman. Think of the time as another coincidence of when Haman then entered the court the next morning, the first person of the court, just at the very time when the king wanted to honor Mordecai, Haman was coming in to ask to hang Mordecai. A coincidence or the sovereign providence of God? Amazing, folks, this book is literally full of that. Or I'll give you a third one.

The very moment when the king returns to find Haman in the act of falling on Esther's couch. He went out in the garden, you know, and Haman's begging for his life to spare to Esther, that his life be spared. And he falls before her on his knees on her couch. And it looks like something else when the king comes in and he's in tremendous anger and he hangs in the very gallows that was intended for Mordecai, that he, I mean, Haman, had built for Mordecai. Think of this as you read the book over, I hope you will, in the weeks to come, preparing.

At least read the chapter. If we take a chapter a night, read the chapter each time and you. And look as you read it for the hand of God in each and every event that happens. And it'll thrill your heart to see God so marvelously involved. And then you'll be able to see how God's hand has been in your life, in the life of this church.

Remember what a joy it was just last August when Andy and I believe it was Sergio got up and shared a little bit about how God's sovereign hand in their families and in the life of this church. What a joy it is to see that. That's so thrilling. Now we don't have the name of God mentioned, but we do have fasting, which is something that was clearly given in the Bible. We know that the book of Esther took place in the Persian empire in the 5th century BC 50th century BC Persia ruled Palestine for 650 years.

She conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. though the author of the book is never mentioned, most people, including Josephus, think it's Mordecai that wrote this book. It doesn't matter, does it? It's just interesting.

Often when events seem to be happening, when evil seems to have no limits, we come to the ends of despair. But it's really the time when we can see God's providence the clearest. But something about depression or discouragement or the woe is me causes us to not look beyond that and we fail to see the hand of God. God in his providence is behind and active in the scenes of Esther and in the scenes of our life. The world was ruled by an evil king in the day of Esther.

And Israel was, it seemed, lost, forgotten as the people of God away in bondage. Though some had drifted back during Ezra and Nehemiah back to the Holy Land, most of them didn't even want to. They'd kind of intermingled themselves with the Persian empire in the world of that day. Where is Israel? And they're gone.

So today we'll enter into the courts of a powerful king, the most powerful king that ever ruled Persia. And we'll see what goes on in his world and we'll see what God is doing.

Father, bless us again as we look into your word. Thank you for it. In Jesus name, Amen. I'm not going to reread the chapter because of the time involved. We have a lot of things to share with you, but that's why I had Ken.

Ken can read scripture well and I thought you would gain from it. Think with us as we think back on the things that Ken read to you about the wealth of this man, Asuras, the king. He's also called Xerxes. He has two names. happens to be the name like Pharaoh or king.

But his real name was Xerxes. His background, he was son of Darius, the one found in the book of Daniel. He married the daughter of Cyrus Atois Atossas Atassa was her name. This is the same Cyrus. It decreed that Israel could go back to the land by the moving of the Holy Spirit.

If you remember, he ascended to the throne in November of 6486 B.C. and he's now in about his 30s. He's handsome, tall and he's already in his early 30s. Had a great life as a general. He put down rebellion in Egypt which was quite a feat even in that day.

And his father was Alexerxes. If you know your history, his father was Alex Churches. His dominion was immense. You've seen it described in here. History estimates his Navy alone had 2,641,000 people.

Just in his neighbor navy. He had an immense military force. He ruled 127providence from India to Ethiopia, which was then the known world. At his palace in Persepolis. Persepolis archaeologists discovered a stone that said I am Xerxes the great king, the only king, the king of all the countries.

The king of this entire and far reaching earth. They discovered that in archaeological digs. It was said his empire was thought to be so vast in that day that it went from where the sun set to where the sun came up again. This palace is Susa and the citadel in Elam. 150 miles east of Babylon in modern Iran near the borders of Iraq.

It was in the mountains. Susa was known for its fruit and flowers. The city covered 5,000 acres with the palace having beautiful covered glazed bricks. Archaeology has brought that all forth.

Much to this first chapter is talked about the banquets. Great wealth, great banquets. The purpose of these banquets are not mentioned but history has something to say about it. There seemed to be an uprising in Greece and Xerxes being about ready to take an expedition into Greece to put down the uprising there of the of the Spartans and the Athenians. He was gathering together his nobles people to seek their support and advice and gather momentum for what his plans were to be done.

He in turn during this six months of great festivities displays his great armies and marches forth. These millions of men with all of their, we would call them tanks and warfare today. With all of their ability to defeat anybody that would withstand them in the world. But the Persians loved banquets. They didn't have to be six months long.

They loved to banquet. In fact the term occurs 20 times alone in this book. Remember, Esther's always having banquets too. As you read through it, two feasts were given by Xerxes and one by his wife Vasti. The feasts were lavish.

All the nobles, officials, military leaders of Persian media were there beautiful garland gardens. The word lilac and the word tulip are both Persian names for flowers. Lilac and tulip. Everything had to be bigger and better and more extravagant than the time before. And now it's clear to the point of lasting six months.

They could drink and drink and drink, or they didn't have to drink. It was something that was given over to the choice of the people. There was no obligation then to drink whenever the king drank. In some empires, whenever the king lifted the cup, everybody in the room had to lift the cup as well. Wasn't true.

There. There was a freedom. His wealth was immense. This man was extremely wealthy. There's a description of white curtains, blue hangings, silver rings, cords made of fine purple and linen, marble pillars, couches of gold and silver, mosaic pavements, mother of pearl and precious stones.

Amazing, the wealth that he had. In fact, it says that the wine goblets were served with gold and no two were alike. They were made of gold and no two of them were alike. The wealth of this. Now we're in the.

We're in man's world. This is the. The. The what? What the world has to offer.

All these great things, But there's something missing, but they don't know it. It's the hand of God. Because behind the scenes, God has got in his hand a wicked king that he's molding and moving around to what a purpose that he has in mind.

We go from the wealth of Assyria to the. To the wrath of. To the wrath of Asterisk. As we look in verse 10, you remember on the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded all these men that ken did a good job mentioning their names to bring Queen Vasti before the king wearing her royal crown in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold. But Queen Vasti refused to come to the king's command brought by the eunuchs.

Therefore, the king was furious and his anger burned within him. We usually think of those as temper tantrums, except I think we're having the picture of a continual burning, a fire that wouldn't go out until proper punishment was rendered. What caused his wrath?

I know you're going to say Vasty didn't do what he wanted, and I'll get to that, but wasn't there something else behind it? Yeah, wine. If you're thinking it was wine. It says he was merry with wine. Wine had gone to his head.

That means he was intoxicated. He was controlled by wine. He'd spent days drinking. 2 months, yea months drinking too much. And wine had not allowed him to think straight.

The Bible warns us, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. If you want to be controlled by something, be controlled by the Holy Spirit, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, he says. Ephesians 2:18. So he acted on impulse instead of pre planning. He reacted instead of acted.

In other words, he acted out of pride and not considered the feelings of his wife. He had shown all the great riches of everything he had. He had displayed everything for days and months. He was a very proud man. By this time he had been puffed up to who knows what.

And of course, wine robbed him of his brains.

Wanted to put her beauty on public display just like he had put his wealth on public display.

This was not pre planned. This came after much wine. This came as a result of excessive booing of pride.

Yes, the scripture also says that he was angry because of his wife's insubordination, or can I say seeming insubordination. There is no doubt that he had commanded her to come and there is no doubt that she refused. But there are some doubts in here that makes us think, what was it that made her refuse? Is there no other answer here? One answer is given right.

In manners and customs books about the ways of the Persians. And they were, it says, clearly strangers were not allowed to look upon the beauty of Persian wives.

What do you see in Persia, in some parts of the world where the women is all covered when she goes out in public, huh? He was breaking every tradition of per of the Persian world, uncovering his wife so everybody could see because he was a proud man filled with wine.

Furthermore, there could have been a display or an exposure of more than what should have been exposed. But it doesn't say that we don't know what he was exposing, except we know it was his f. Her face. And there could have been more. We don't know. Could have been an immoral exposure.

Certainly in that day even that was immoral.

I can remember that in my background, if you showed your ankles or elbows, everybody would whisper about it.

You see, things have changed. Great. So we can kind of from that understand the customs and things in Persia, can't we? You didn't show your face. A woman was to be veiled and her refusal therefore enraged the king.

The same wine that makes the heart merry will make an Angry spirit. If that weren't true, how come there's so many drunken men that beat up on their wives?

To embarrass the king is bound to produce an extreme response.

But to go ahead with what he asked was also going to have long lasting results too in the emperor empire of Persia.

He was angry, he was furious because he was proud and because he was full of wine.

And he wasted no time whatsoever seeking revenge for the insult that he had received. I just asked you if Xerxes would have been sober. You think he would have went against every tradition of the Persian woman?

I don't think there's anybody here that could says he would have done that. I don't think even pride would have caused that. It has to be pride coupled with wine that would have had him break every tradition of a property Persian woman and embarrass her in front of all the women of Persia and those drunken men that would have watched her, looked upon her.

Well, as a result, he sought advisers to uncover what the law says. And it's interesting. I'll read that verse, verse 13. And the king said to the wise men who understood the times. For this was the King's manner toward all those who knew law and justice.

And I suggest to you, did the wise men turn to their law books? Did the wise men act according to justice?

I don't think they did, folks. I think they acted like angry men. Just like King Ahasuerus. I think they thought, whoa, this has got to be stopped or my wife won't listen to me anymore. We're going to have a woman's lib here.

This whole thing is going to be a revolt of women's rights. In fact, that's exactly what they said.

They said to the King for the Queen's behavior will become known to all women so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes when they report. King Assurus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not. Come this very day, the noble ladies of Persia and Meda will say to all the king's officials that they have heard of this behavior of the Queen. Thus there will be excess contempt and wrath. Pretty obvious, isn't it?

They acted not out of justice, not out of law books. But their reaction was based on the fact of wow, we're going to get where all of us men in the Persian Empire are going to have trouble with our wives. That was the reaction. The Queen had wronged all the men under the rule, under the rule of King Assurance, which was the world. She influenced other wives to rebel against the husband and they felt fair.

I'm sorry. They feared feminism, the rise of feminism. Good thing to fear, by the way. I don't mean to be putting that down. Okay?

And of course the king agreed and Vasti was queen no more. The king agreed and Vasty was king no more. And the decree was sent to all the world that they could know. They would know that anything Vasty said was not coming from the king's empire and should be totally ignored because she's not king anymore. Queen anymore.

Thank you. I'm glad I got helper. I did not make it.

Well, what's really going on?

Do you know what's really going on?

That's all great, isn't it? We looked into the throne room of King Assurus and we seen what was going on. But have we seen what was really going on? You see, VASDI has to be dethroned and Esther has to come to the throne because wicked Haman is going to try to eradicate the Jewish people and therefore the seed that was promised in which Christ would be born.

And God has made a promise and he would keep that promise. And so God is moving, knowing the end from the beginning, to set up the antidote for the wickedness of a man named Haman. Have you seen that in the hands of God are wicked kings? And God moves them whosoever he will. Let's read it.

It says in Proverbs 21:1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it wherever he wishes and God is turning it all, even we, using wicked kings and wicked things to bring apart about something so altogether important. If you do feel sorry, men, for the king here and the terrible thing his wife did for him, shame on you. You know, you. You deserve feminism.

But if you see the wickedness of him in what he did in his drunken stupor, you see, and the way he treated his wife is just another one of his possessions that he wished to put on deep display. And yet when it comes down to his embarrassment and when it was all over that something so important as his wife. Wife. Was going to be dethroned, he didn't stop a minute and say, you know what, fellas, I was wrong here. It's really not her fault, it's mine.

Do you hear any repentance from King Asterisk? Not a word of repentance. Not an admission that I must have drank too much or here my angers got the best of me. Again, no confession of wrong.

Now Vasty is no longer Queen, she's been dethroned. But the influence of Vasy lives on long after Asteris dies.

What do I mean by that? Her actions of courage, her actions of modesty, her actions of doing right no matter what, will long be remembered by men and women in the ages to come.

So though she seems to be embarrassedly dethroned, I don't think she's dethroned in the eyes of God at all. And I don't think she should be in our eyes. I think she should be exalted as a woman of courageous. A woman that takes a stand for what's right. Isn't that great to think about that?

I like that. It's important to me. She will give a positive example to the generations of women to Follow. Where gives a very negative one. Very negative one.

Though God's name is not mentioned in this book, can you see the overruling providence of God already in this book? He is taking Queen Vasti down so he can set up Queen Esther to deliver his people. God's behind all this. Though his name is not mentioned. God loves his beloved son Jesus, and he's called his darling in the Bible.

And he will not let any Hamans of this world harm him till he's born, yea, dies and raises again. God is committed to the salvation of his people.

Behind every dark cloud is a sovereign God working out his providential will. You got any dark clouds in your life?

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. And causing that brightness behind the cloud is our providential God that gives it a silver lining. Somehow, however difficult your life is or will be, or has been, God has not forgotten us. God hadn't forgotten Israel, though it seemed like it. God had still loved his people and still was protecting them as he's promised.

And he still loves you and his hand is very much in your life. Thank you Father for the preciousness of this first chapter. May it be meaningful to us as we see your providential hand in Jesus name. Amen.

Use our hymn books for the closing song. By the way, who thought I needed this?

When we stand, I want.