In the book of Esther, chapter
one, we have looked at part of this in the past and we have
got up to the point where the queen is going to be disposed. Queen Vashti. In chapter one
of the book of Esther, and it tells us there, let's just begin
reading with verse 10. And on the seventh day, when
the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mahuma,
Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abicatha, Zethar, and Carcas,
the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus
the king. This is what you're to do. Now
it's interesting that that word Chamberlain means eunuch. To bring Vashti the queen before
the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes
her beauty, for she was fair to look on. But Queen Vashti
refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very wroth,
and his anger burned in him." Now, we mentioned the last time
that we looked at this that Queen Vashti in her comment there,
she refused, she utterly refused. It is a very strong statement.
And there are two or three other verses of scripture that use
that same word I'd like to go to just to get a little grasp
of what that meant. So if you turn with me to the
book of Genesis chapter 37. In Genesis chapter 37, this is
used in a different sense, but there was a time of great mourning,
great sorrow by a dad. And it tells us here in Genesis
chapter 37, once he had got word that his son had been killed,
slain by an animal, and they brought his coat covered with
blood, his coat of many colors covered with blood. Now they'd
already sold him. They all knew, all 11 of them knew None of this
was hidden from any of them. They were all conspiring to do
this. And they came back and lied about
it and lied greatly about it. So here in the 37th chapter of
the book of Genesis and verse 35, we have the same word used,
and all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort
him. The daughters probably had some
interest in really comforting him, but the guys were just making
a mockery out of it. They already knew what had happened
to their brother, to his son. And here he uses that word, but
he refused to be comforted. There was nothing they could
do to comfort him. He utterly refused to be comforted. You know, we have people pass,
friends pass, family pass, and sometimes we're around the relatives.
We try to do a comfort, but I don't know of anybody that would try
to make a mockery out of it. You know, we haven't sold their
brother into slavery. So that's, it was a really harsh
thing that they did, and yet, this father, and you just have
such sympathy with him, this father utterly refused to be
comforted and said, for I will go down into the grave until
my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
And you could just, in your mind's eye, picture this happening to
this father. He loved that son so dearly. Now, some people have blamed
Some of it on him for loving him too much and he made the
main very special. That's not the issue at this
point But and let's look at another one In the book of 1st Samuel
chapter 8 in 1st Samuel chapter 8 we have this used in a different
sense they utterly refused and 1st Samuel chapter 8 we have
Israel asking for a king and Israel wanted to be like the
rest of the people they want to be like the rest of the countries
and The person that they are making this request to has already
said you They've not rejected God said they have rejected you
from ruling over them as a judge I rejected me from ruling over
them, but notice here in 1st Samuel chapter 8 and verse 19.
I Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and
said, nay, but we will have a king over us. Now, once again, this
is not just, well, we don't think it's a great idea. It was a utter
refusal. It was a sharp tone of voice
refusal. It was no way in this world. So this is being played out in
the scripture as Vashti refused. We find that that same word is
used in other places. And then if you would look with
me in the book of Exodus, in the book of Exodus, Pharaoh is
quite a character. And I appreciate so much the
book of Romans when it comes to Pharaoh. It answers a lot
of questions about Pharaoh. And in the book of Romans, the
apostle Paul, as a secretary of the Holy Spirit wrote For
this very reason have I raised thee up, that I might show my
power to you. Well, let's look here in the
book of Exodus chapter four, and we notice that this word
is used again. And the Lord, verse 14 of Exodus
chapter seven, verse 14, and the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's
heart is hardened. Now he is going to use the same
word. It is going to be utterly refused. There is no way. And Pharaoh
says, who's God that I should obey him? Here it says, and the
Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses
to let the people go. He wasn't going to give an inch
on this. Well, we know the rest of the
story. And even in fact, after he had permitted them to go,
His heart was so hardened, he still refused to let them go.
And he's going to go back after them. This word means absolutely
not. I will absolutely not. And we
can sympathize with a dad saying that. And we can hear the people
say, we're not going to have this king rule over us. this man, this appointed man
of God, we're not going to have him rule over us. We want to
be like everybody else. And we can hear God speak about
Pharaoh and say, absolutely. But you know, the interesting
thing about this is God hardened his heart to say that very thing,
to refuse to let the people go. So we're going to be looking
here in this book of Esther At this point in the book of Esther,
we will be shown the reason for the book. This whole incident
is going to take place, and it's the reason for the book is going
to come to a head. We must have God insisted. He has purposed. He has predestinated
another queen in this Lady Vashti's position. It was an unhappy falling
out. And you know, given different
circumstances, if the king hadn't have been drunk, he probably
would not have made the request. If they hadn't been partying
for all that time, he probably would not have insisted that
she come out and show her beauty. It was not proper for him to
request that. And someone else had said that
those six or seven people were just commoners. If he really
intended for this to be done, he would have sent someone with
much more authority to go talk to her about it. But they're
just commoners coming to say the king wants you. Well, she
refused to do that, and it is, from a human standpoint, it is
wrong for a husband to make demands of his wife when he was in such
a drunken state. I don't know how many wives have
had issues with their husbands in a drunken state. It doesn't
add to the quality of life for anybody. And particularly as
we find here, but it wasn't God's purpose that this take place.
A demand that he probably would have never made if he had been
sober. He would have remembered the
guidelines of their society. A wife is never to be put into
a public position, never been put in public display. It was
wrong for him to request her to be brought into with a bunch
of men and on and on. The societal things would go.
So it is truly, from our standpoint, looking at this, it is the husband's
responsibility to protect his wife, to protect her life, to
protect her modesty, to protect her from being unwarranted public
appearance. So we can learn that from that.
Now, Ahasuerus diminished himself, I believe. He diminished himself
by making that request. But we also find that when Vashti
refused, this is going to be the reason for the book. We're
going to have another queen set up. Now, there is no question
in our mind, she was there by divine appointment. She wasn't
there by error. She was there by divine appointment.
Ahasuerus was there by divine appointment. And the rest of
those people were there by divine appointment. God raises them
up and God takes them down. And we'll look at some of that.
But I want us to notice, if you would, over in the Song of Solomon.
The Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon chapter two,
verse nine. It brings up a word, lattice. And this word comes from two
background words. One of them means a net that
has the cross of thread or whatever. And the other one is a place,
cross sticks for roasting over a fire, a lattice work. Well,
here it says, my beloved is like a row or a young heart. Behold,
he standeth behind our wall. He looketh forth at the windows,
showing himself to the lattice. And I think as we go through
the book of Esther, we're kind of in that position when we see
God through a lattice work, working his will and purpose here with
Vashti, with Ahasuerus, with Esther, with even Haman. And
with Mordecai, all of these characters, we've mentioned a number of times,
and it just seems to sum it up in very good, simple terms. God
is the director. The church are the actors. And everything else is props. Ahasuerus is a prop. Esther is an actress. Mordecai is an actress. Now it's
a picture of God protecting His church. I'm convinced that a
whole lot of those Jews that remained in Babylon and then
future, this Persian and Median Persian empire that was there,
they didn't have the first clue about who God was. They didn't
know Him any more than most of the people that were in the wilderness
as we follow them through the book of Numbers. but they are
a picture and a type and a shadow of the church and God's going
to show his very careful protection of his church wherever they are
and in whatever circumstance they are. He is going to make
sure that they hear the gospel and that they will be saved out
of that place. Now they may be required to live
there the rest of their life. but they will not be the same
people, and they'll be not worshiping the same God. They will be worshiping
the true and the living God, and the truth of the gospel will
be known to them. That will be revealed to them.
So we have this people. several thousands of people that
are throughout this great Medo-Persian empire in all of those different
provinces they've moved into, and they're gonna be protected
in a way that we just cannot, we could not figure out how to
take care of them. But God has that already in his
way of doing things. This is also, if you turn with
me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the apostle Paul,
as he once again is led by the Holy Spirit to write here in
1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 12. This helps me a lot
as I have gone through the book of Esther and through much of
the other parts of the Bible. You know, we really, as it says
here, for now we see through a glass darkly. For us, at the
days of Esther, of Mordecai, of the rest of the Jews that
were there, of Haman, Ahasuerus, Vashti, Very few of them could
see what was going on. And it's the same in our lives.
We don't understand what's going on. We don't see. We're seeing
the Lord's activity through a lattice many times. And it is like through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I heard a song.
I have a CD that I play. Some people say I play it too
much. But it's just background music when I'm studying, and
one of the songs in there, we'll understand it better by and by,
and my mother used to tell me that. We'll understand it. I'm
convinced we won't need to understand anything better by and by. It
won't even be an issue. We won't be asking anybody anything
about anything. We'll be worshiping the King.
We'll be worshiping the Lord. We'll be around Him. We'll understand
that all has worked out for His eternal purpose. So I don't have
to worry about that here. God's going to take care of it.
He's going to see the protection of His people. It's going to
be manifested for us. He's going to be on the sidelines.
He's going to be behind the lattice. That's one reason we'll never
find His name here, but He is here. That's one thing we'll
not see Him in a glass clearly. We'll see Him a glass darkly,
and we'll see Him working His eternal purpose here in the book
of Esther as throughout all the scriptures, but it's so plain
here how He oversees and gets his people where he wants them
at the right time to do what he purposes them to do. It's
not what they're planning on doing, it's what he purposed
for them to do. And we also know as we go through
here, this wonderful verse is becoming one of my favorite verses,
Ephesians chapter one and verse 11. He worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will, and He doesn't take us into consideration. Now, He blesses us with His will.
You know, when we pray, the Holy Spirit intercepts that prayer,
and it's presented that we want His will to be done. Now we may
not say it, but when a saved person, a believer actually prays,
that prayer is interceded for by the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter
eight, we know not how to pray as we ought, but our prayers
are taken care of for us and they're cleaned up by the blood
of the lamb and they're presented holy and perfect in the presence
of the Lord. And he will never answer a prayer
contrary to his will and purpose. He and the believer will not
ask that it will be done otherwise. Now we may pray for things that
are not his will, but it's not going to break us when it doesn't
come to pass that way. We will say it wasn't God's will
that it happened that way. It's happened this way and that's
God's will. through a glass darkly, through
the lattice, He is always moving and presenting His eternal purpose,
and we're bystanders to it. But thankful, every one of God's
people are actors on the scene, and He has them there, and they're
not just props filling in. In this, I wanna read a verse
in the book of Acts too. I didn't get to this position
or this place in Sunday because it wasn't required, we go down
that far, but in the book of Acts chapter five, there are
some words that Gamaliel brings up that I think are appropriate
here. Even, who was it, was it Pilate? He wrote things, what I've written,
I've written. It was the purpose of God that it be written. He
didn't agree with it. He didn't agree that this is
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. He had no concept about
that, but what I've written, I've written. So God uses other
people that are in the scriptures that speak sometimes, and this
is the purpose of God. But here in Acts chapter five
and verse 39, it just shares with me, and I don't want to
be in conflict with God. You know, sometimes His purpose
is chafing. It chafes me. But here, Gamaliel
says, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily
ye be found even to fight against God. Now he's talking to a bunch
of lost people, that's true. But I think those words are appropriate
for us. You know, if we get into a, spitting
contest with God over something, we might be found as fighting
against God. So, all right. Let's go over here to Esther
chapter 1 again. In the book of Esther chapter
1, the manner in which God moved the king and his counselors to
vacate the position of the queen of the kingdom. Now in this passage
of scripture, it shares with us that every possession that
she has, Vashti has, is going to be taken from her. She has
royal kingdom. It's going to be removed from
her. She's going to pay a terrible price from a human standpoint.
But God in his purpose has her removed so that Esther can be
put into that position. And she would have all of that
kingdom. She would have all of that honor.
She'd have that royal crown that she was supposed, Vashti was
supposed to come into the presence of all these men. So here in
the book of Esther, chapter one, and we're gonna start here with
verse 12. But the Queen Vashti refused
to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore
was the king very wroth and his anger burned in him. You know
who this reminds me of? Saul of Tarsus. Over there in
the New Testament when he said he was just so angry. Then the king said to his wise
men. Now it's interesting that he's gonna have to ask his wise
men what to do. I think that that is just in the providence
of God. He could have said, well, I'm going to give her a week
of solitary confinement, or I'm going to put her out for a month,
or I'm going to have nothing to do with her for a year, and
then we'll bring her back into fellowship. But he turns to his
Chamberlains, and he says, the king said to his wise men, which
knew the times, For so was the king's manner toward all the
new law and judgment. And the next unto him was Carchina,
Jethar, Adamatha, Tarshish, Meraz, Merazina, and Micmacon. And next time I will just go
around the table and have you pronounce those names. The seven
princes of Persian Meda. So we have all of those under people, we have these seven over
all of those, and then we have the king, and he turns to them,
which saw the king's face, and which set the first in the kingdom. What shall we do with Queen Vashti
according to the law? Because she hath not performed
the commandment of King Ahasuerus by the Chamberlain. And Mumenkin
answered before the king and the princes, Vashai, the queen,
hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes
and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king
of Asuerus. For this deed of the queen shall
come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their
husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported that King
Ahasuerus commanded Vashti, the queen, to be brought in before
him, but she came not. Now, I personally think in this
position that if a woman and a husband had a good marriage,
it wouldn't make any difference. what happened at the throne.
But these Chamberlains, these men in authority felt like it
would be. You might have a different opinion. Likewise, shall the
ladies of Persian media say this day unto all the king's princes
which have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there
arise too much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there
go a royal commandment from him and let it be written among the
law of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that
Vashti come no more before the king Ahasuerus, and let the king,
now notice this, give her royal estate unto another that is better
than she. Her royal estate, her kingdom. And when the king's decree, which
he shall make, shall be published throughout all his empire, for
it is great, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor,
both to the great and small. And the same pleased the king
and the princes, and the king did according to the word of
Mekmuken. So he sent letters in all the
king's provinces into every province according to the writing thereof
and to every people after their language. Isn't that an interesting
statement that this was going to be printed or sent out in
multiple languages because of the size of this kingdom and
that every man should bear rule in his own house and that it
should be published according to the language of everybody. What we know in the scriptures,
and it's just comforting, in fact, to go to the scriptures
and find out what God has to say about himself and a position
like this that people hold, elected or, as we find through the kings
of England and other places, inherited. In the book of Proverbs,
would you turn there with me? Proverbs, we've read this a number
of times, but it's just such a refreshing verse. Proverbs chapter 21 and verse
one. The Lord's statement about a
king's heart. Who really makes the judgments? Who really makes the calls? Who really decides? Now we can
say that they made the decision. Well, we find that the Lord said
that the lot falls into the lap. but the judgment is of the Lord. Here it says the King's heart.
Now it either is or it isn't. The King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord or it isn't. Now if it isn't in the hand of
the Lord, then we might as well stop. If it is in the hand of
the Lord, let's continue. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it, whethersoever he will. Every way of man is right in
his own eyes, but the Lord ponders the hearts. So we find that the
Lord is in absolute control. of all these things. He's in
absolute control of Ahasuerus. He's in absolute control of Ahasuerus's
subs and subsubs. He's in absolute control of all
of that. And if you would turn with me
to the book of Daniel, chapter two, Daniel chapter two, this
is also brought up that it's just a comfort. God reminds us
so often through the scriptures that this is not just falling
out at happenstance. This is not just, Theistic evolution,
that God got it started, and now he's just letting it go,
and it's gonna turn out the way it might turn out. Well, we find
right here, God, he changes the times and seasons. He removeth
kings. It could have just as easily
been said, he removeth queens. He removeth kings, and setteth
up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise,
and knowledge unto them that know, understand." Where did
you get any knowledge about God? Where did you get any knowledge
about salvation? Where did you get any knowledge
about the God of salvation? We have to go right back to the
source. Everything is given to us from God. It's not discovered,
it's revealed. Flesh and blood did not reveal
this unto you, but my Father, which is in heaven, it's not
discovered. You know, it is our blessing
to read the word. It is our blessing to be in the
word. It's our blessing. You want to
read it through once a year. But I'm convinced that you're
not going to write it and say, well, raise your arm in church
and say, I read the Bible through again this year. You're going
to keep it to yourself because that's the blessing to read the
word. But we're not going to understand one word of it from
a spiritual context unless the Lord reveals it to us. We won't
understand it. But when the Lord reveals it
to us, we have an understanding that cannot be taken away from
us. And you know another thing about
God's people? They are teachable. And if we
find out that we had a misunderstanding about God's word and someone
comes along and shows to us that this is the truth about God's
word, we'll say, oh my goodness, that's the truth of God's word.
All right, so we have, The king's heart, we have the king is raised
up and also, turn back with me if you would to the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 29. Deuteronomy chapter 29 and there
in verse 29. This again is just one of those
verses that keeps us on track. Direction. It's just like green
light, green light, green light, green light, green light. Here
it is about God and about God's purpose. Deuteronomy chapter
29 and verse 29. You know, there are some things
that are hard to be understood. And the Lord says, the secret
things belonging to the Lord are God. There are just some
things we're not going to understand. They're not going to be revealed
to us. And then he says, but those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the
words of this law. We might understand God's word.
So the secret things, Lord, thank you. And I brought up tonight
in the Zoom meeting, that's one thing about true Christianity,
is we don't understand our God. In religion, everybody understands
their God. They got Him all figured out.
He's just like they are. What about the Roman gods, the
Greek gods? They were just one step higher
than they were, than people were, but they all were crooks and
criminals, and they couldn't do anything right, and all the
nonsense. The God that God allows us to
worship is right in all things, and his word is food to our soul. So, what's happening here is
the result of God's great grace and purpose, was this fair? You know, I've had people tell me
when I've talked to them about, that's not fair. Talk to them
about the gospel. That's not fair. That's not fair. What do you mean I don't have
a free will? That's not fair. Well, God has already said he
doesn't depend on fairness. He depends on grace. If fairness
was going to happen, we'd all end up in hell. Grace intercedes
on our behalf. It isn't fair that he saves anybody.
It's grace that he'd save anybody. So if God is gracious to you,
gracious to your children, gracious to your parents, what glory that
is. It's not fair. This, some people
would complain that this is not fair. But God is always right. The secret things belong to God. And he is going to work out his
purpose here. And as we travel through this book, we will see
through the lattice, we'll see through the purpose of God, that
he is doing this to protect his church. And he does it today,
always, in the very same way. He's going to protect his church.
He will raise up people to protect his church. He will move them
to a place where they can be protected. He will be over them,
overshadowing them. And you know, we think death
is so bad. Death is a promotion. You know,
we look at Cain. He was a criminal. He was a murderer. But Abel looked back and said,
I'd never have it any other way. first in the presence of God,
out of all the church, one person worshiping God alone, just like
everybody else is gonna get to do when they get there, will
get to worship God alone, and as a host. Look with me, excuse
me. In the book of 2 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians chapter one, Verse
20. Now everything God does, he says
here, are yay and amen. Everything he does. He never
retracts anything. He never makes a blunder. He
never wishes he hadn't done something. He's always worked it out with
such clarity in them. Covenant of grace. To Him, it
is absolutely perfect covenant of grace. Everything is yea and
amen. As we read here, 2 Corinthians
1, verse 20, for all the promises of God are in Him are yea and
in Him, amen. He never has to back up. He never reacts. He's always
active. He never says, I made a mistake.
He never says, oh, I wish I didn't have to do that over. We find
that God, from the very beginning, has purposed all things that
are happening according to His will. He worked all things after
the counsel of His own will, and one queen is going to fall,
and another queen is going to be raised up, and this queen
is going to be for the deliverance of the people of God that are
yet in bondage. in the Medo-Persian empire. And he uses a drunk man. Is that
fair? All the promises of God are yea
and amen. He's not advocating that you
go get drunk. He's saying it worked out for
his glory, his honor, and his praise. There is a verse in the
book of Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. I asked Nancy to text this to
me on our way back today because it struck me in my mind, but
I can't get to my text at the moment. So just give me a moment
here. Acts chapter 7. Oh, here it is. Verse 22. And Moses was learned in all
wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds.
And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to
visit his brethren, the children of Israel." That's an interesting
verse. He knew his heritage. He came to visit his brethren.
I think he was dressed like an Egyptian. And he came to visit
his brethren, and seeing one of them suffered wrong, he defended
him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian.
For he supposed," read this verse, he supposed his brethren would
have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them,
but they understood not. He thought. they would understand what he
was doing, that he was the deliverer and they understood not. Now
it's going to be 40 more years. Now, King Ahasuerus is going
to order his queen, all of her possessions to be forfeited.
And he is going to use a gift God gives. Now that's one of
the things that we want to look at next week is the gifts of
God, because God uses a gift he gave to Esther to identify
her as the next person to be queen. What is that gift? It turns out she is the most
beautiful woman out of 129 provinces that are gathered together. The Lord gave her a gift of beauty
that she would be attracted to this jerk, King Ahasuerus, and
be promoted as queen. Now God gives every one of his
children gifts Now her beauty is very, we could
spiritualize that and say, the church is beautiful. All of the
graces of the church. She was a gracious woman. She
was gracious with the king. She was gracious with her uncle.
She was a, she didn't have father or mother. She was raised by
Lord Achaia. She was gracious to him. She
could have been bitter. She was gracious to the king.
She was gracious to that eunuch. And that eunuch, God touched
his heart and made her very special. And he's paid special attention
to her and she smelled the best. when she came before King Ahasuerus,
and the test was over. Well, we'll get to that next
week. It's just such an interesting book of God's marvelous providence
and providence, and we see it through. a lattice. God is not mentioned here, but
we see how he is moving all things according to his eternal purpose
so that he would protect his people, he'd have someone on
the throne that had an interest in his people, and at the very
thought of her said, for this purpose, for a time like this,
and she put her life on the line for all those people. She could
have been killed instead of just removed. That would have been
his right to do. Well, we'll stop there. We'll pick this up next time
and we'll look at some more of Esther in chapter two as a queen
is found.