Well, this evening we're going
to start an ambitious project, studying and looking through
the book of Esther. And it is an amazing, amazing
story. I'm entitling the message from
chapter 1, we'll look at this evening, we'll have an introduction
to the book and then look at some things in chapter 1. But
I'm entitling the message from Esther chapter 1, verse 19. And
the title of the message is, The Royal Command of the King.
You see that in verse 19, If it please the king, let there
go a royal command from the king. The Royal Command. Now, in this
book, we read this word, royal, several times. And every time
I read it, I always think about the royalty of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The majesty of the blessed Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want us to consider in
our study through the book of Esther, pictures of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're always on the lookout,
aren't we, when we read the Word. to see the Gospel. We know all
Scripture is given of God by divine inspiration, and it is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness
that we might be truly furnished, furnished of God. We also know
from reading the Word of God, Romans 15, whatsoever things
were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that
we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have
hope. And the hope we have is Christ,
who is our hope. We have a good hope through grace. Christ in you, He is the hope
of glory. Now this book of Esther is no
different than all of the Scriptures. even though in these ten chapters
the name of Jehovah the Lord our God is not written down one
time. Did you notice that as you read
through there? Not one time does it mention the name L-O-R-D or
Jehovah. Not one time. Not God. Not one
time. Yet we see his handiwork His
footprints, his fingerprints are all over this precious story. He's everywhere in this story.
In the events of all human history, we see the mighty workings of
our God, who is the absolute sovereign over all things, the
absolute sovereign. He rules and reigns over all
things, creatures, men, in heaven, earth, and hell, good angels,
bad angels, demons, devils, all men, kings, principalities, powers. He rules over all things. You can't take that too far.
Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. Our God is in the heavens and
He's done whatsoever He has pleased. Now this story is a story of
the sovereign providence of God in the book of Esther, protecting,
intervening, and influencing to protect His people and to
preserve them by His power. That's what it's all about. Our
lives have been influenced and protected and God has watched
over us even long before we knew Him. In saving mercy, He knew
us. His eye was upon us, and over
us, and one day He called us unto Himself. I think about my
story, where I came from, and where I grew up, and how the
Lord brought me to hear the Gospel. And it was no mere accident.
It was all by God's purpose. He had His eye on me from all
eternity, chose me in Christ, and made me His own. In a real
purpose and essence, the Lord is always protecting His people. And in this story, we're going
to see how the Lord is protecting the seed of humanity from which
the Lord Jesus Christ would come. Remember, He would come through
the seed of David, David's line, David's family. Over in chapter
3 of Esther, you remember Haman, the wicked man, had a decree
that he got from the king to destroy all the Jews. Well, that would have put an
end to the line of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
Haman's wicked plot would have been brought to pass, there would
be no son of David, son of God through the line of David. You
see how the Lord even then was protecting and watching over
His covenant people that the promised Messiah would come. Remember Romans chapter 1, Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophet
in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord,
which is made of the seed of David according to the flesh,
declared to be the Son of God with power, had Haman carried
out his wicked plot to destroy every Jew, what would have happened
to the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He could not have been
the Lion of the tribe of Judah because Judah would have been
wiped out. You see how the Lord had His eye on the Messiah, the
Lord Jesus and His people in Him all the time. The book of
Esther is intended to assure us and comfort us that our God
rules and reigns over all things and manipulates He manipulates
all men and events for the salvation of His people and to His own
glory. He manipulates all things to
His glorious purpose and to His glorious end. Let me just read
this to you. You know it well. The Lord says,
Isaiah 46, I am God, and there is none else. I am God, there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, from
ancient times of things that are not yet done, saying my counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far
country, yea, I have spoken, I bring it to pass, I have purposed
it, I will do it. Sounds like somebody's in charge.
Who can declare the end from the beginning? None but God. God who is the absolute, absolute
God. You remember the heathen came
to David and said, David, where is your God? Remember what he
said? Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Nothing sneaks up on God. He
decrees all things, controls all things, manipulates all people
and events to His own glory and to His own purpose. We have in
this book of Esther what happened to the Jews, the people who were
carried away after the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. And then when
the Lord raised up another king named Cyrus, who sent the captives
free by the will and command of God. God named Cyrus the king
and told what he would do 200 years or so before the man was
even born. You remember Cyrus was raised
up and set those people that were in Babylonian captivity
free and told them to go home. and build the temple. Here's
what the Lord says, Isaiah 45. He saith to Cyrus, he is my shepherd
and shall perform all my pleasure. Now remember, Cyrus is a Persian
king. And God said, he's my shepherd
and he's going to perform all my pleasure. You see the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turns it. whether so ever
he will. Even saying to Jerusalem, thou
shalt be built, and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid."
We know that Christ is the foundation. We know that Christ is the temple.
And we know the Lord said, I'll build my church in the gates
of hell, shall not prevail against it. Now many of the Jews did
return with the rubble when Cyrus made the decree with the rubble
and with Ezra and later with Nehemiah, but many of them stayed
in Babylon, including Esther, including Mordecai. Now, why did they stay there?
I don't know, other than to say it pleased the Lord to leave
them there so God could protect his people and show his glory.
Now, we have their story given unto us, those who stayed behind
in Babylon, and the event that took place in Shushan the palace,
those 60 years or so there about between the first remnant when
they returned and the second remnant, remember in that first
remnant with Zerubbabel, about 50,000 Jews did return and then
a smaller number with Ezra later on. So what happened to those
who stayed behind? The book of Esther tells us about
that. Now there's five main characters
in this story. Five main characters in this
story. Let me give them to you. Ahasuerus,
who is the mighty king, the Persian king. And anytime in scripture
we read about a king, that king is a type and picture of our
great God and king, the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that God
is the king of all the earth. And then the second character
we read of in the story here is Mordecai. Mordecai is a faithful
Jew, the faithful servant of the Lord. His name means little
man. Mordecai, the little man. But
we know that Mordecai will inherit the large estate of Haman. And then we're going to read
over in chapter 10 when Haman is finally killed and Mordecai
is exalted and made greater and greater that he actually sits
on the throne next to the king. You see this little man was exalted
highly. And that's a picture of what
God has done for us in Christ. Mordecai. He became greater and greater.
The Lord blessed him in so many ways. And then the third character
in this story we read of is Esther. Esther. Esther. Her name means star. Esther is her Persian name. If you look at chapter 2 verse
7, we see that her Hebrew name was Hadasha, Hadasha, and that
means myrtle, myrtle tree, like a myrtle tree, someone that was
soft and generous. But her Persian name means Esther,
her Persian name is Esther, and it means star. And she does shine
like a star in her faith and her commitment to the Lord. She
is a poor lowly Jew, exalted and blessed of God and chosen
by the king. When Vashti was kicked out and
there was a beauty contest held in Persia, you know who won?
Esther. Esther is made to sit on the
throne with the king. That's also a picture of our
redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made us kings and
priests and to our God. And then we have the story of
Haman. Haman is an enemy. He's an adversary. He's a wicked, wicked man. He's an adversary and the enemies
of the Jews. He especially hates Mordecai. You know why he hates Mordecai?
Everybody, when Haman was exalted in his office by the king, everybody
bowed before Haman but one man, Mordecai. Mordecai would not
bow before this wicked man and Haman hated him. He not only
hated him, But he hated every Jew and he got the king to write
out a decree that he would destroy every Jew and give the king a
great treasure for all those who killed every Jew. Mordecai is hated by Haman because he
will not bow. Haman, his name means magnificent. In our story here, we're going
to see the little man raised up and the big man, Haman, we're going to see that Haman
built some gallows to hang Mordecai and we know that Haman was hanged
upon his own gallows. Haman, the magnificent man, is
brought to nothing. Also, Haman had ten sons. Ten sons. And you know what happened
to them? The king hanged all ten of those
sons. The enemy, the Jews, his house
was completely wiped out. God has destroyed every enemy
against us, though they be many. Sin, the law, many enemies, we
have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the fifth
character in this story is Vashti the Queen. Vashti the Queen,
she's a rebel. She's probably one of those women
libbers. She's just a rebel against her
husband, and she's a rebel against the king. Now the king, he has
authority by who? The king, Hazurias, is king by
the decree of God. So Vashti, she not only rebels
against her husband, not only against the king, but she She
rebels against God. This is God's king. The powers
that be are ordained of God, whether they be good or evil.
The powers that be are ordained of God. We're going to see how
Esther and Mordecai are blessed, preserved and exalted, and how
the enemy of the Lord's people, wicked Haman, is totally destroyed. God blessed Esther and Mordecai
to the benefit of all the Jews. And God had blessed all His people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of His fullness have we all received
grace because of grace. Even so, in the gospel of Christ,
the Lord Jesus is so blessed and sent of God to the spiritual
benefit and the spiritual blessing of all the elect of God. All
the elect of God are blessed in Christ and for Christ's sake,
right? Now, what gospel lessons can we glean from this first
chapter in the book of Esther? You're probably wondering, preacher,
can you find the gospel here in Esther chapter 1? Well, I
think so, and I know so. If I can't, it doesn't mean it's
not here, it just means it hadn't been revealed to me. But the
Gospel is everywhere in every page of Scripture, every chapter
of Scripture, every book of Scripture. What can we glean in this first
chapter of the book of Esther? Well, in verses 1 and verse 2,
Ahasuerus was a great king who had much dominion and power. Some think that this man was
the same king we read about and studied in the book of Ezra and
Nehemiah. Remember, in those two books,
we read about the king Artaxerxes. Remember, Artaxerxes? Some people
think that Hajirius is the same king, the same man, as Artaxerxes. The man was given great power
and a vast reign. It says they're from India in
the east, Even to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, he reigned over all
this land and he reigned as the king. He sat upon his throne
ruling as the mighty king. But His dominion and His kingdom
is nothing in compared with the vast and complete kingdom of
God our Savior. Where is Artaxerxes and Hagiris
today? Where is their kingdom today?
It doesn't exist. They don't exist except as their
eternally tormented in eternal condemnation. But our great God
and Savior has dominion over all. Turn, if you will, to Psalm
47. And His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. Psalm 47. We can look at many
scriptures that would tell us this. Look at verse 6. Sing praises
to God. Psalm 47, 6. Sing praises, sing
praises unto our King. Sing praises. For God is the
King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
His holiness. He's exalted upon the throne
and His dominion. Find Psalm 72. Psalm 72, His
dominion and His rule and His reign is a lot more extensive
and universal than the puny reign of Ahasuerus. Look what it says
in Psalm 72 concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. In His days, verse
7, shall righteousness flourish and abundance of peace so long
as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from
sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. They
that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him, and His
enemies shall lick the dust. Every knee will bow, every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ has dominion,
all dominion, sovereign dominion, absolute dominion and power,
not only in heaven, but also in the earth. also in the earth. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he does according to his will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, Lord God Almighty,
what doest thou? The reign of Hagarus was for
a limited space of time, the king, the reign of our great
king is forever, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. There is no end to his government,
there is no end to his kingdom. It is an everlasting kingdom. Now, the second thing, in verse
3 down through verse 9, the king and the queen Vashti and Hajiris,
they make a great feast in their palace. The feast of Hajiris
that he gives for his princes lasts 180 days, and then he gives
another feast that lasted seven days for all the people, both
great and small, in the court of the garden of the king's palace.
And then also Vashti, verse 9, the queen made a feast for the
women in the royal house which belonged to the king. So they
were feasting, they were showing off all their goodness, their
beauty. Look at verse 4. chapter 1 verse
4, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
honor of his excellent majesty many days, even a hundred and
eighty days, showing off all their good things. And then Vashti Down in verse
11, Vashti the queen before the king and the crown royal to show
the people, the princes, her beauty. He wanted to show off
his beautiful wife, Vashti the queen. Oh, she's a beautiful
woman. So they held this big feast to
show off all these different things. The king and the queen
make a great feast in their palace, and they did so to show off their
riches, their beauty, their power, the excellency of their kingdom
before all the princes and the people, both small and great.
They did so to satisfy their own lust, pride, passion, corrupt
passion, and power. And that's what it was all about,
showing off all their beauty. But again, I want us to think
here about the gospel feast of the Lord Jesus Christ that we
are blessed with in Christ. A feast of fat things, of wine
on the leaves. Remember from Isaiah 25? And
in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto his all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the leaves, a fat
things full of marrow, of wine on the leaves, well refined."
We have a great gospel feast in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
prepares a table, spreads the feet, and then says, come and
eat, come and dine. Our Lord not only made the gospel
feast for his people, we are to taste and see that the Lord
is gracious, but he is the one that we feast upon. He is the
one that we feast upon. He is the bread of life. He told
us to desire the sincere milk of the word that we might grow
thereby. Now as you hear us, His feast lasted 180 days. The gospel feast of the Lord
Jesus Christ, of the Lord's mercy and grace and His love to us,
is an everlasting feast. We feast upon Him now, right? But we'll feast upon Him throughout
all eternity. We'll feast upon Him with that
everlasting salvation that He gives unto us. Ahasuerus made
a feast to show off his riches. The Lord Jesus Christ... Ahasuerus
wanted to show off to everybody how rich he was. The Lord Jesus
Christ not only shows off the riches of His grace, the riches
of His love, and the riches of His kingdom, But much more than
that, He makes us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
He makes us rich in Him. He gives us the riches of His
grace, the riches of His love, the riches of His salvation.
He made us heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We read in 2 Corinthians 8, For you know the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he
became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. That's the gospel feast that
I want to come to. That's the table of grace that
I want to come to. That's the banquet that I want
to come to and feast upon Christ. The third thing, Ahasuerus commands
Vashti the queen from verse 10 down to verse 22. Ahasuerus commands
Vashti the queen to come before him and she refuses to come,
so she is divorced by the king and her royal estate is given
unto another. She was commanded to come, remember,
look at verse 10, down to verse 12 rather. But the Queen Vashti, let's go
back to verse 10. On the seventh day
when the heart of the king was married with wine, he commanded
Mechuham to go and tell Vashti to come before him. But the Queen
Vashti, verse 12, refused to come at the king's commandment
by his chamberlain, therefore the king was wroth, and his anger
burned within him. And they said, what shall we
do? Verse 15, to Queen Vashti according to the law, because
she had not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the
chamberlain's. Verse 19, If it please the king,
let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written
among the laws of the Persians and Medes, that it be not altered,
that Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus, and let the king
give her royal estate to another, another that is better than she
is. Now, a couple of thoughts here
and I'll let you go. Where the word of the king is,
There's power, right? Scriptures teach that. The king
speaks with absolute authority and the king gives a command. He doesn't invite people. He commands and decrees all things. Ahasuerus did not beg Basti to
come. He didn't say, well, if you want
to, you can come. It's not really necessary. Command of the king to Basti
was to come. to come before Him. He commanded
her to come. He didn't simply invite her.
He commanded her to come to the throne. And that's what the absolute
King does. He commands. He doesn't invite.
Now, a couple of thoughts here. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not a mere, simple invitation. Now, that's what's
been said for years. The gospel is an invitation.
Show me where the king invites people. He commands people to
come, come, come, come, look, look, look, believe, believe.
It's his command. Listen to this, Acts 17. The times of this ignorance God
winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Because he appointed a day in
which he would judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he raised him from the dead. This same Jesus,
whom you crucified, Peter said, he's both Lord and Christ. The Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son." You see, we're commanded
to repent or perish. in our rebellion against God.
You remember from our study in Luke 13, the Lord said, or you'll
perish. God commands all men to repent. We're also commanded to believe
or perish in our sin. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. This is his commandment that
you believe the gospel. And if you do, if you truly believe
the gospel, it is only because God commanded you to do so. Not
because of your free will. Your free will will never lead
you to Christ. Your free will is not really
free at all. You have a will, but it's in
bondage to your rotten nature. And the will of man is always
self-ward and downward, never God-ward and never upward. Thank
God He doesn't leave us to ourselves. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, they believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
those who do believe on Him, do so because he commanded them
to believe on him. Secondly, another gospel thought
here we can glean, Vashti was cast out of the palace from the
presence of the king because she did not obey the command
of the king. Sound familiar? Almighty God cast out Adam and
Eve from the garden paradise because they didn't obey the
command of God. He cast them out just like Ahasuerus
cast out Basti. Cast her out. Genesis 2, remember
the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden,
thou mayest eat freely, but the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that you eat
thereof, you shall surely die. And Adam all died. Our sin has
separated us from God. God drove Adam, fallen, sinful,
out of the garden. When he drove Adam out, he drove
us out because we were in him, in his loins and in him. Well,
we know the sad consequence of Adam's sin, don't we? Genesis
chapter 3 says, When the woman saw the tree was good for food,
and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and
gave also to her husband, and he did eat. Their eyes were opened,
They knew they were naked before God, and they were full of shame. Now, they were always naked before
God, but now there was guilt because of sin, and the wrath
of God came down hard upon them. We know that Adam stood as a
representative man. We know the Scriptures teach
in Adam all sin. We lost the way, the truth, and
the life In Adam, all died. In Adam, all sinned. Now consider for a moment, and
I'll let you go, the blessedness of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything Adam lost, we have
gained back, and much more. Much more. The Lord Jesus is
the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by and through Him. We read in Romans 5, 20, moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death. Thank
God it doesn't end there. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let me read this one scripture. You remember from our Bible study
in Romans 8. For as many, verse 14, as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby you cry,
Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God, where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. And if children and heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together with Him and in Him. Well, I pray the Lord will encourage
you these next few days and these next few weeks to read over the
book of Esther and to rejoice in the good providence of God's
grace.