I go back to Esther, Esther chapter 1. This
is a mysterious story. There's some controversy. There's
lots of religious people that refute this. Most think of it
as merely a historical story. Some don't even want it in the
canon or what God has compiled as his words. Some don't want
it there. But it belongs here. The Lord
gives us, if he opens a meaning of it. It's wonderful. This is
a true story. About 500 BC is the actual story
that happened. It's alluded to over in Ezra. Hasura's name is mentioned that
there were some accusations against the Jews. But this is no fable,
this is no allegory either. But there is a story hidden. It's hidden. And a wonderful
gospel message, like the truth itself, is hidden from the wise
and the prudent. This is to be a very old and
foundational message. What we're going to look at is
our God and King, His creation, the creation of man, and the
fall of man, and then the search for one better. That's the gospel. We're going
to redeem, regenerate. And Christ is all. Like we saw,
you know, remember when our Lord said, an evil generation seeks
after a sign. He said, no sign will be given
but the sign of the prophet Jonah. Well, how many people know what
Jonah represents? How many people have heard what
you heard about Jonas? We saw clearly. Have you ever
seen so clearly who Jonas represented? That's what our Lord said. How
blessed we are. Solomon. Is there any doubt to
you why Solomon existed? To speak of Christ and that story
of Sheba. Christ is all and in all. The types, pictures, symbols,
shadows, all the scripture. He has to, he must have the preeminent. That's why the world was created,
to glorify his son. That's why this Bible was written.
He is the alpha and omega. He's the beginning and the ending
and everything in between. He's all in all. To Him give
all the prophets witness. It pleased the Father that all
fullness dwell in Him. All the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. And on and on we could go. So this is not a history
lesson of the Jews. This is history. And I think
you already saw while we were reading that. Let her royal estate
be given to one better than she, in the stead of substitution."
Substitution, but satisfaction. One time they asked the Lord,
they said, why do you speak in parables? Remember? And this
is a true story, but it's a parable. It represents, it's an earthly
story representing a heavenly thing. And our Lord said to His
disciples, because to you it is given, but not to them. He's hid these things. Isaiah
29 says, the book is given to one that has learned it and said,
tell us what it means. He said, I can't. It's hidden.
It's sealed. I don't know. He's opened the
seals to us. Opened to see them. And 2 Corinthians
3. I'm going to get to Esther. It's
kind of a preface. 2 Corinthians 3 says, to this
day, in the reading of the Old Testament, their minds are blinded. But He said, that veil is lifted
when you see Christ. It's lifted. And when He does lift that veil,
you see Him everywhere, don't you? Everywhere. Esther is a woman. How can a
woman represent the Lord? Well, every major person does. Speaking to someone, or texting
someone recently about the tabernacle, talking about the various, all
the many instructions that God gave in the tabernacle, all the
pieces of furniture. Every single aspect of that tabernacle,
down to the colors and the hangings, The number of sockets in the
ground and the silver that the sockets were resting on represents
Jesus Christ and His work. We know that. We've been through
the tabernacle two or three times. Hester, a woman, she's the fairest
of them all, we're going to say. She's the fairest of them all
and she pleased the king and all of the Jews were accepted
because of her. Because the king held out the
royal scepter of righteousness to her, and by virtue of her
pleasing the king, the Jews were saved. Now, right there is the
gospel. This is Christ. Abigail represents Christ. The
story of Abigail. They interceded. The king was
going to kill all the young men. Abigail interceded, said, don't
kill them. She brought bread and wine to David. So this is most certainly the
Lord Jesus Christ. Five points in these first two
chapters. We're going to see the great
king and his kingdom. We're going to see the queen and her beauty.
The fall of the queen, the king's decree, and a search for someone
better. All right? The great king and
his kingdom. Look at verses 1 and 2. And his
name, as close as I can get, is Ahasuerus. He reigned from
India, even under Ethiopia, over 107 and 20 provinces. In those
days, the king sat on the throne of his kingdom in his palace. Now, this was the greatest king
on earth at that time. He was a real king. Of the Medes
and the Persians, a powerful kingdom. Great king. Sovereign
king. Turn to Daniel 4 with me. Daniel
chapter 4. This man was sovereign overall.
That is, whatever he said, Whatever he willed, it happened.
And there was no alternate. Whatever he wrote was the law
of the Medes and the Persians. It cannot be reversed. It will
not be changed. From nobody, for no reason. Now,
he represents our sovereign God. Our sovereign Christ. He's King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. Sovereignty is an unknown thing
today. There is no one on this earth
who seems to have any semblance of sovereignty. That is, doing
what they will, because they will, and nobody can do anything
about it. That's what sovereignty is. Look
at Daniel chapter 4. And this is the description of
the God in whose hands our breath is. Verse 17. Remember these
verses now. If you want to witness somebody,
this is a God of the Bible who has not changed. Daniel 4, 17. Now this matter is by the decree
of the watchers. That is, it's told by the prophets,
the apostles, the demand and the demand by the Word of the
Holy One. Who's that? The Triune God. To
the intent. that the living may know, everyone,
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will." This is the God who worketh all things
at the counsel of His will, and none can stay His hand or say,
you can't do that. He sure can and He does. He said,
I will work and who shall let it? I am God. And all through
this Bible, He says that, doesn't he? I am God. I will do all my
pleasure. And look at this, verse 17. And
he giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the
basis of men. Usually it's punishment for the
sin, rebellion of the society. He puts bad kings, causes them
to reign. It's his will. King's heart.
is in the hands of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, He
turns it with His every whim. Let's go. Look at verses 34 and
35. Oh, I love these verses. Don't
you love these verses? Nebuchadnezzar found out, didn't
he? He said, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
mine understanding returned unto me. You see, he thought he was
somebody. He thought he reigned. He thought he had some power.
He actually thought that he had accomplished some of these things.
It was God that did everything. He said, I blessed the Most High
and praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, his kingdom from generation to generation. Ahasuerus reigned over 127 provinces.
Our Lord reigns over How many countries are nations?
Planets! Universe! Verse 35, All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can say unto Him, What doest thou? And if you want to
read, just keep reading the book of Daniel. Our young people have
been going through that. What a blessing. You remember
your memory verses, Deuteronomy 32, 39? See now, and we do see
them, see now that I, even I am He, there is no God with me.
I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal, neither is there any
can deliver out of my hand. That's the God of this Bible.
They asked David, where's your God? What's He like? He said,
He's in the heavens and He'd have done whatsoever He had pleased.
That's the God of the Bible. This Ahasuerus was powerful.
He was a high sovereign king. But he did what the king of kings
told him to do. We looked at Solomon last week. Solomon was a wise man, Solomon
was a just man, a loving man, merciful, gracious, had a largeness
of heart, but he was sovereign. Right before Sheba, the story
of Sheba and the story of the temple being built, he had two
men killed. Joab, David's right-hand man,
hanging on the... He was an evil man and Solomon
saw through him. And he was hanging on the horns
of the altar, hanging on to his religion, hanging on to his profession
of faith. And Solomon said, kill him. Shimei, that cussed David. Shimei. Seemed like a reform. He seemed like he'd changed.
But Solomon, wisdom, represents Christ, the judge of all. Solomon
said, kill him. Remember that? Largeness of heart,
kind, just, merciful man, Solomon, but sovereign. Now what does
that produce? Fear. You see why the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear of the Lord. It's the beginning of wisdom.
If you don't fear God, you don't know God. If your God is not
to be feared, He's not God. He's not God. This king, Hasseras,
later on in his story, decreed the death of all Jews. He said,
kill them all. Didn't he? God says, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. Kill them all. What's our hope? Not a what? It's a person. Somebody's waiting. Before this,
somebody was waiting to save us. Oh, my. His kingdom, His glory. Oh, it
goes on to talk about His kingdom. Look at verses 4 through 6. And
we'll not cover every verse. But the riches, verse 4, spoke
of the riches of His glorious kingdom, the honor of His excellent
majesty. Listen to this, Psalm 140, 145. David said, I'm going to declare
God's greatness. He said, I'll speak of the glorious
honor of thy majesty and thy wondrous works. The Lord is gracious
and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy.
The Lord is good to all and is tender to mercies over all his
works. And we're going to see here in a moment that the King
Hacerus made a feast. Oh, everybody fed them all. Look at that. Look at verse in
our text. Verse 5, he made a feast unto
all people. First, he made a feast to the
princes in verse 3, the power of Medes and Persians, and a
private feast. And then later on, he fed everybody. Now, this is I just discovered
this and I remember reading it. I looked it up, but when Elihu
preached, well, the Lord spoke to Job out of the whirlwind.
And he said, where was thou when I laid the foundation of the
earth? Declare if you have any understanding. He said, who hath
laid the measures thereof, if you know? Who stretched the line
out whereupon the foundation were fashioned? And he went on
to say, who did this when the morning stars sang together and
all the sons of God shouted for glory? Before man was created. Before
Vashti, she wasn't in on this. But the king had this great and
glorious feast for all of his ones in his court. And when God made the heavens
and the earth, he spoke of these sons of God, the morning stars
sang together and had as it were a feast as they beheld his glorious
majesty and honor in his kingdom. And then they watched him create man, his crowning achievement. All right, look at our text.
Go back there. And I could go on and on about
God's creation. It talks about white, verse 6,
talks about everything in His kingdom, all the glorious beauty
of His kingdom, white, green, blue, hangings, and silver, and
pillars of marble, and beds of gold and silver, and red, blue,
white, and black marble. What of God's creation? If you
go back and look at Genesis 1, just start reading it. The glory,
everything that God made was of every color in the spectrum.
Trees, green, white, stars, blue, royalty, on and on it goes. The
fruit, everything that God made, He said, it's good, it's good. And the morning stars sang together
and the sons of God said, it's good, it's good, it's good. Praise
the Creator. What about everything in the
earth? All the ores, the marble, and the things that are steel,
and everything. God hath made everything for
us. And that's what the king, he
provided all this. Alright, look at verse 7. He
gave drink in vessels of gold. Vessels being diverse, one from
another. The royal wine was flowing in
abundance. What's the royal wine? Well, it runs through this whole
book. Do you know the name of God? The name Lord? Blood? Redemption? None of this
is in this book. The name of God is not in this
book. The name of the Lord is not in this book. There's no
mention of salvation. There's no mention of blood.
None of that. It's all there. The royal wine, you know what
that is? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The royal blood, the blood royal, Christ. It's the blood of God
which he purchased his church with. And it's been flowing. See, Christ is the lamb slain
when? Before the foundation of the
world. Before he came, God decreed this long before. And Abel, the
very first one, From Abel to Zerubbabel, A to Z. Abel brought blood, wine, because
God told him, that's a royal wine. Drink it, Christ said,
except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in
it. Abel knew, he didn't know that Christ's name was Jesus,
but he knew that Christ was coming, his substitute, his Lamb slain. He knew that. It was God that
was going to do this for him. Now verse 9, Vashti the queen
made a feast, and there's so much I'm going to leave out because
every type is not perfect. Vashti the queen made a feast
of the women in the royal house which belonged to the king Ahasuerus.
She was not in on this feast, this first one. He was not there.
when the king was showing his royal majesty and all that. She
was not there. She didn't take part and she
was not sovereign. She had no sovereignty. She's
no sovereign person. It's one sovereign. You can't
have two sovereign. One sovereign. Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one God, right? What do you say to three
persons? What these three are? Let's explain
it. You don't have to. But she's
not sovereign and she's not in on that. Alright? She has no authority. She exists
for the king. Her purpose is for the glory
of the king. He chose this queen. She wasn't
that by birth. He chose her. He made her queen. He called her. He chose her.
Okay. He married her, and everything
she had belonged to him, right? He gave it to her. She's in his
house. You notice that? He didn't say
it was her house. It's his house. Now, there's an allusion there
to Revelation 17 that talks about false religion who sits as a
queen. False religion. It's this queen.
That's certainly Roman Catholicism. But all the false religion is
thinks that man has some kind of sovereign will or whatever.
That's usurping God's authority. That's sharing His glory. He
will not share it. We weren't there when He made
all the councils and decree. Man wasn't there. He wasn't created
yet. That's what God said to Job. He said, where were you when
I did all this? You weren't around. You're just a subject and you're
living in my house. You're living in my house, you're
eating my food. That's right, isn't it? All right, on the seventh
day, verse 10, the king's heart was merry. What's that? Well, what did God do on the
seventh day? He rested. It's all good. Very good. What's the Sabbath? God didn't
rest in a day. He rested in His Son who rested
from His works. That's whom God rejoiced in.
That's when God said, very good, knowing what Christ would do,
become our Sabbath. Oh, that's right. That's hidden.
You know how many people that's hidden from? You know how many
people still observe a day Christ is our Sabbath, and He
rests, and He's very, very cheerful and happy because of what Christ
did. Well, He had seven chamberlains.
Seven is the perfection, the eyes of God, the omniscience
of God, that served in the presence of the King. Bring the Queen
in here. It's what the King said. He has this right. Bring the
queen in here. Put the crown on her head. Bring
her in here that we may behold her beauty. I want everyone to
see her beauty and her glory. Bring her in here. He has that
right, doesn't he? She belongs to him. That's why
he called her. That's why he married her. For
his glory, for his honor. Put the crown on her head. Bring
her in here. Now, I read some commentary and
I was so disappointed. All they want to talk about is
how that Ahasuerus belittled his wife by doing that. Now,
this is a picture of man that's created for the glory of God. The queen here is not mentioned
until much later. Do you notice that? Until verse
9. And like man was created on the sixth day, right? That's
the number of man, six. But as I said, she's no sovereign. She has no part in all of this.
She's just for His glory, all right? Here's this queen, beautiful
and fair, and she's commanded by the king to show her beauty
for His glory. Who is Vashti? Who does she represent? Mankind. Eve, our mother. The mother of us all, that's
what the scripture says. Eve's the mother of us all, who
fell, who rebelled. Adam and Eve, when God says He
created man, male and female created He then. They were created by God, Adam
and Eve, mankind, for His glory, created by Jesus Christ. King
of kings, for His glory, for His enjoyment. But verse 12, the queen Vashti
refused to come at the king's commandment. She refused to come. She rebelled
against the king. I'm not going to do it. She was too what? Proud. Proud. Now, meekness, subjection,
obedience is beautiful. in the eyes of the Lord. Beautiful. Our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why He's all together. Lovely. He said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart. You'll find rest for your soul.
Obedient. Submissive to the Father's will.
Obedient. Oh. No matter how beautiful someone
may seem, if they're a rebel against God, God says they're
ugly. And from this point on, look
at verse 12, the king was very wroth, and his anger burned in
him. He's on fire with wrath. Our God is a consuming fire. Sin, and men make light of sin,
don't they? They show this, these two innocent
people, you know, in the garden and taking an apple and their
ignorance or innocence and, oh, and a snake, you know. That's
not the way it went. Eve was deceived. Yes, she was
deceived, but she did rebel, didn't she? No matter how much
she was deceived, she said, I like this. Yes. And she took it. That's rebellion.
The sin of rebellion. Adam, he knew exactly what he
was doing. And he chose the woman over God. And God is angry. I want you
to see some scriptures, okay? You need to know these in order
to tell people about the God of the Bible. Psalm 5. You need
to know these. You need to commit these to memory.
We quote them all the time. You need to know where they are
so you can turn and show them to people. Psalm 5. All right? This is the God of the Bible.
You have it. Psalm 5, verse 4. Thou art not
a God that hath pleasure in wickedness. Neither shall evil dwell with
thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all
workers of iniquity. False religion says God hates
the sin and loves the sinner. That doesn't say that in Psalm
5.5, does it? Does it say that? Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Doesn't say that. Psalm 7. Psalm 7, verse 11. Psalm 7, 11, God judges the righteous,
and God is angry with the wicked. Every day. Every day. Psalm 11,
verse 5. Psalm 5, Psalm 7, 11, Psalm 11,
verse 5. That's easy. Just keep... Psalm
11, verse 5, The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked,
and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. That's people.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares and fire and brimstone."
Fire and brimstone, that's an old-fashioned thing God said.
That horrible tempest. This shall be their portion of
their cup. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance
doth behold the upright. So, go back to the text. So,
the king was very wroth and his anger burned in him. And don't
think for a minute that our God has changed. The wrath of God,
Romans 1 says, is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
and ungodliness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Right now, we're seeing some of the wrath and the judgment
of God upon our society. All right, that's the fall. Man,
terrible fall on the garden. Here's the king's decree. Look
at verse 15. What shall we do unto the queen
according to the law? God has a law, doesn't he? And
this law must be satisfied. God said to the first man and
woman, he said, thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. Die, thou shalt die. Thou shalt
not eat thereof. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. And that's what
God's law has said. goes in. Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart. Thou shalt not take the Lord's
name in vain. He'll not hold him guiltless
who takes his name in vain. Do you not hear the law? To offend
at one point to be guilty of another. The law is a curse. And this is the decree of God.
What are we going to do to this woman for rebelling against me?
Look at verse 17. This deed of the queen will come
abroad unto all women. And they'll all despise their
husband. That's exactly what happened, isn't it? Isn't that
exactly what happened to mankind? In Adam, all die. And every woman is born a rebel
against God. Every man. Unless God changes
their heart, our heart. They'll stay a rebel. Oh, surely
this has application to, as it went on to say, And he wrote
these letters demanding that wives be in submission to their
husband. And that application certainly
needs to be applied, doesn't it? Listen to this. Boy, if this generation doesn't
hate things like this, the godly women don't. Meek and humble
and with shame-faced women like that, they don't hate this. Listen
to this. Boy, the world doesn't want to
hear this. The husband is the head of the
wife. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your husband as unto the Lord. The husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and is the Savior
of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be their husbands in everything. What do you say to that? Amen? Listen to this. It goes on and
on, on and on. Colossians says this, it says, Wives, submit yourselves unto
your husbands as it's fit in the Lord. Peter, all of them
said that. And that letter, that's a word
from God, isn't it? Okay, but we're rebels at heart, aren't
we? We sure are. All right, now listen. Here's the king's decree. Look at verse 20 back in our
text. Verse 20. The king's decree shall be published
throughout all the empire. I'm sorry, verse 19. Verse 19. The royal commandment came down
from the king, written in the law of the Persians and the Medes,
that it be not altered that Vashti should come no more before the
king Ahasuerus. She cannot come in his presence
anymore. She's rebelled against him. Now
what happened in the garden? What happened in the garden?
Three questions that need to be asked and need to be answered
and nobody's asking. Like Sheba. Solomon told her
her question. I bet he said this. What happened
in the garden? Do you know what happened in
the garden, Sheba? What happened in the garden? Did man get sick
or did he die? Was it a terrible fall? Did he
become, was his will just partly altered or totally? God said, die, die. So you can't
give yourself life if you're dead, can you? Salvation is of
the Lord. The man died. The soul that he
sent shall surely die. And God said to the woman in
the garden, and the man in the garden, he said, I'm casting
you out of my presence. And he put an angel with flaming
sword to bar the way into the garden. so that they could not
come back and eat of the tree of life. And now here's the decree. So
man cannot come into God's presence but God. But the decree reads
this way. Verse 19. Let the king give her
royal estate unto another that is better than she. Let's find
someone better. The whole book of Hebrews starts
out this way. Christ is better. Better than
Moses, better than Aaron, better than the temple, better than...
He's the one. In Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made. Look at chapter 2, here's the
search. So after these things, the wrath of king, it was appeased,
he remembered Vashti, what he had done. Wrath and remembrance. Wrath and remembrance. Does that
ring a bell? Habakkuk, O Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. God is angry, yes. God is consuming
fire, yes. God remembers what man has done
to Him. But, He said, we're going to find a Savior. And he didn't
have to look. This search was not, as it were,
he's looking for somebody. He was there all along, Rabbi
Shadman. And read on, this is wonderful. He said, let the king
appoint, verse 3, let him appoint officers in the provinces of
his kingdom. They gather together all the fair young virgins of
the Shushan in the custody of the king of the king's chamber.
We're going to see who he represents, the keeper of the women. Let
things for purification be given. Let the maiden, the maiden, that's
an unmarried virgin. Let some young virgin that pleases
the king, be queen instead of Vashti, a substitute for the
rebel queen, the one that pleases the king, and the thing pleases
the king, and that's what he did. Okay. We're going to find
someone. And the scripture says, way back
years ago, more than long before 500 BC, Five trillion before the world,
BW. It pleased God to make Christ
our substitute. He's well pleased for his righteousness. We're accepted in the beloved. And he's always been with them,
he's always there. And like Esther, she was there all along. He was
there all along. Okay, stand with me.