The Book of Esther Overview

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Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, esther, chapter 1, and today's title is just Just Her Birthday Suit Just Her Birthday Suit. We're going to get into all that in just a moment. This is a crazy book of the Bible. We're going to have fun with it together. But first, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review. Make sure you leave us a five-star review, make sure you are asking us any questions you have, and I would not blame you if you have lots of questions on this one. But it's going to be a lot of fun and, as always, we all gather together at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. The more we dig, the more we find. And Lord, help us as we get into Esther chapter one. Well, as always, before we get into it, we'll give a little bit of background to kind of give a little bit of context to what's going on, and so the context of this is this was written about the same time as Ezra and Nehemiah, so all of these people were alive roughly the same time, and the events that happen in the book of Esther occur between 483 and 473 BC, so all about the same time. All this is going on, so it's entirely possible. Not only were all these people alive at the same time, including people like Daniel and different ones, or, if they weren't alive, they knew of one another, most likely because they had lived pretty close to each other. It's also the time when some of these minor prophets we consider which means smaller books, like Zechariah, zephaniah, malachi, all these different ones that we see at the end of the Old Testament they're all alive about the same time, and the idea of this is is this is about the life of the person who this is named after Esther, but most likely Esther didn't write this. We actually don't know. It doesn't say in there who wrote it, but according to the Talmud, which is a Jewish commentary of the Old Testament, the Talmud says that it's possible that Mordecai wrote it. Now there's other things that say that Mordecai which we're going to find out who he is in a little while but it's also some say that Mordecai didn't write it. So we're not really sure, but it seems like the majority of consensus is Mordecai wrote it. And if you remember what we said before, especially about the New Testament. One of the reasons why we don't have this is because, for a lot of these people, the author was not the important thing. The important thing was the story or what was going on, and that's why we don't always have this.

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So three things about this that I think is very, very interesting, and then we'll get into chapter one. Number one is that this book, one of the reasons why it was written and inspired of the Holy Spirit is to explain the origins of the Jewish feast of Purim. There's a Jewish feast of Purim where they fast and they pray, and one of the reasons why is because of what happens in the book of Esther the nation of Israel is on the chopping block. They're trying to get rid of the entire nation of Israel, but God works an amazing miracle and in order to commemorate and to celebrate what God does to save the nation, they institute a festival, a feast day, to celebrate it, which, by the way, a lot of the feast days that are set up in the Old Testament, that's a lot of the reasons why, like Passover and the Feast of Shelters and the Feast of First Fruits, which is Pentecost, and all those kinds of things. They're to celebrate certain things in the life of the Israelites. Two other things is.

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Number one is this is one of the first, or one of the only books of the Bible that the name of God is never actually mentioned in the entire book. You watch and see as we read through this entire book. There is not a single time that the name of God is mentioned. But God is all throughout this book. We just don't see him working overtly, we see him working covertly, but he's still moving. And that's so special to me because so many times there are seasons in our life where we look and we go God, where are you at? Are you around here anywhere? And the answer is, of course he is. We just don't always see him, but we know he's always working. Number three is this is just my thing. This is one of my daughter's favorite books in the entire Bible, so it's very interesting and I hope she listens to this one, because this is one of those that we have enjoyed reading together.

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And, by the way, the overall theme of Esther is God uses a mess to make something beautiful. I'm going to go ahead and warn you this book is not one that's going to talk about how much the culture of this time loved women. As a matter of fact, I think it's very horrible the situation that Esther finds herself in, but God uses this horrible mess in order to do something beautiful. So let's jump into Esther, chapter one, and we're going to talk about why we titled this just our birthday suit, which, to me, starts off with helping us understand and grapple with why this was such a mess. So if you're ready Esther, chapter one, verse one, let's dive in. Here we go. Verse one says these events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over 127 provinces, stretching from India to Ethiopia. By the way, if you get out a map, that's a long way. That's a lot of a kingdom, very, very big. Verse two At that time, xerxes ruled his empire from his royal throne at the fortress of Susa.

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In the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. He invited all the military officers of Persia and Media, as well as the princes and nobles of the provinces. The celebration lasted 180 days and it was a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty. When all of it was over, the king gave a banquet for all the people, from the greatest to the least, who were in the fortress of Susa. It lasted for seven days and was held in the courtyard of the palace garden. The courtyard was beautifully decorated with white cotton curtains and blue hangings which were fastened with white linen cords and purple ribbons of silver rings embedded with marble pillars. A gold and silver couches stood in the mosaic pavement of proffery marble, mother of pearl and other costly stones. Drinks were served in golden goblets and many designs and there was an abundance of royal wine reflecting the king's generosity.

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Now here we go On the seventh day of the feast when King Xerxes. Now here we go On the seventh day of the feast when King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine he told his seven eunuchs who attended him. Now pause, high spirits because of wine means that dude was drunk. That dude was sloppy drunk, we used to say in Alabama. He was as drunk as a skunk. So Joker was well lit. And here's his seven eunuchs Mahuman, bisva, haborna, biktha, abagath, abakatha, zettha and Karkas.

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To bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted all the nobles and other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman. But when they conveyed the king orders to Queen Vashti, she refused to come, and it made the king furious and he burned with anger. Now pause, why do you suppose Queen Vashti was so angry? I mean, all he wanted was for her to come and stand before them with her crown on so they could look at how beautiful she was. Well, according to various commentaries that I have read, and Jewish commentaries, he wanted her to come, stand with her crown on, and just her crown, praise the Lord. He wanted her to just come, and that's why it says he wanted them to gaze upon her beauty, just her crown on. So you understand now why Queen Vashti was like Miss me, with that, sir, you might be the king of all this that we can see in all the 127 provinces, but no, and that made the king furious, oddly enough. So what a mess right.

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Look at verse 13. It says he immediately consulted with his wise advisors, who knew all the Persian laws and customs, for he always asked their advice. They all should have said use an idiot, sir. But instead, verse 14, it says the names of these men were Karshina, sethshar, edmatha, tarshish, merez, marshina, mahukam, and they were the seven nobles of Persia and Media. They met with the king regularly and held the highest positions in the empire.

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What must be done to Queen Vashti, the king demanded what penalty does the law provide for a queen who refuses to obey the king's orders properly? Sent through his eunuchs, mamuken answered the king and his nobles. Queen Vashti was wrong, not to only the king, but to every noble and citizen throughout your empire. Women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learn that Queen Vashti has refused to appear before the king Before the day is out. Wives of all the king's nobles throughout Persia and Media will hear that the queen what she did and will start treating their husbands the same way. There will be no end to their contempt and anger.

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Pause, does this mean there was a rash, just sort of infection, of nobles asking their queens to come out naked? Well, there was. They were afraid that they might not obey, which I would say they shouldn't obey, but they're saying hey, just in case one of your noblemen decides to try this out. We don't want her to get away with it. So, verse nine so, if it pleased the king, we suggest that you issue a written decree, a law of the Persians and the Medes, uh, medes, uh, medes. Excuse me, that cannot be revoked, I'm too busy going poor Vashti. It should order that queen Vashti be forever banished from their presence of King Xerxes and that the king should choose another queen more worthy than she. And when this decree is published throughout the king's vast empire, husbands everywhere, whatever their rank, will receive proper respect from their wives.

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The king and his nobles thought this made good sense. Apparently, they were all quite sauced and they follow Mamucan's counsel. He sent letters to all parts of the empire, to each province in its own script and language, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleases. What a mess. But here's the amazing thing that God can take the most ridiculous mess and make something beautiful.

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Now, throughout Esther, we're going to see this mess get more twisted and more weird and bad things happen, but we can see the silent hand of God working through all of it. So what begins as a mess doesn't always mean it will end as a mess, but God can use a mess to make something beautiful. What does that mean for us? Maybe you're in a place in your life right now where there's a part of your life, maybe it's your whole life. This feels like a mess. Maybe you were married and that didn't work out. Maybe something happened with your kids, maybe you lost an opportunity at work or something you did or something that was done to you and ended up in a mess. Well, let's use the book of Esther as a wonderful lesson, because unless you have been asked to stand before hundreds of noblemen completely naked, then maybe it wasn't that bad, or maybe it was, I don't know. But here's the thing God can take a mess and make something beautiful.

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Let's pray God. Thank you so much that, lord, we see messes, you see opportunities. God, as we read this together over the next several days, I pray you will remind us that you are with us in more ways than we can imagine and that it will give us confidence and boldness and courage. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. Well, god's word says in Esther 4.14,. I love this. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place. But who knows if perhaps you have been made queen for such a time as this, god's got a plan for your life and it is to be alive right now in this generation. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Esther, chapter 2.