The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Sermon: Purified For The King (Esther 2:11-19)

Purified For The KingSunday, January 12th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:11-19And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her. Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king. And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.
Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for the sevenfold purity of your word, through which our hearts are made clean, and we are fashioned by your hands into vessels of mercy, honorable and sanctified for every good work. Please form us and reform us as we hear your word now, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
This morning, we come to a very happy section in the book of Esther which is her marriage to King Ahasuerus and her elevation to the office of Queen instead of Vashti. And this royal marriage also marks the conclusion of one of the important sub-plots of this book which is that the King needs a new and better queen, and it also sets up the second sub-plot where the King needs a new and better advisor or prime minister.
So the basic flow of this book is that first Esther will replace Vashti, then Mordecai will replace Haman, and then through a series of great reversals, God shakes the nations, many Gentiles are converted, and God’s enemies are destroyed.
So while we are focusing in on just one part of that story, we don’t want to forget the broader narrative which all of Scripture testifies to and that is God’s love for the human soul, and Christ’s love for the church. The Bible begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve, and it ends with the marriage of God to Humanity, Christ to His Bride, and we will see that marriage foreshadowed here as Esther is purified, chosen, and wed to the King.
So in the sermon this morning I am going to first give you the literal or historical sense of these verses. And then we’ll double back and consider the spiritual sense that those realities point to.
The Literal Historical Sense
We can divide our text into two sections.
In verses 11-14, Esther is Purified.
In verses 15-19, Esther is Glorified.
Verse 11
11And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her.
Recall from two weeks ago that we are working on the assumption that Esther wants to marry Ahasuerus, not that she was taken as a captive or slave into the house of the women.
We also conjectured that the most likely reason for Mordecai and Esther desiring such a marriage would be for the prosperity of the Jewish people. If Esther becomes queen and has a son, that son could become future emperor of the Persian Empire. And that is a strong motive for marriage for anyone living in those 127 provinces.
We also see that for an entire year, Mordecai was able to walk “every day before the court of the women’s house,” and get intel on how Esther was doing.
This suggests that Mordecai is not only an anxious/caring father, but is some kind of politician or governing official, given that he has this kind of access to the palace.
We will see in verse 19 thatafter Esther’s wedding, Mordecai sits within the king’s gate (this was where elders and judges sat), and in chapter 3 he is explicitly numbered amongst the king’s servants.
So Mordecai and Esther are a Father-Daughter duo working together to secure the good of the Jews from within the Persian court.
Continuing in verses 12-14, we then have a description of life within the house of the women.
Verses 12-14
12Now when every maid’s turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) 13Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house. 14In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.
Now there are two basic options for what is being described here.
One view is that Ahasuerus sleeps with a different virgin every night. And then after sleeping with these women, they become concubines who only exist for his sexual pleasure and that is only if he can remember their name.
If that is the case, we could put Ahasuerus in the same category as men like David and Solomon. David and Solomon were both godly men who committed grave sins. Both fell short of the marital ideal in Genesis of one man and one woman married for life.
David had multiple wives and concubines (2 Sam. 5:13), and Solomon famously had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), and yet both men were used by God and even wrote large portions of Scripture.
So while the idea of having many wives and concubines rightly scandalizes our Christian sensibilities, polygamy of this sort was a common vice of ancient kings and Ahasuerus would be the exception (a man better than David) if he did not have concubines.
So that is one possible interpretation of what is going on here, and the majority opinion, but I think there are some problems with that reading both logically and textually.
One logical problem is that it makes entering the king’s house (from my perspective) into a very high stakes gamble for Mordecai and Esther. If the options in front of you are Queen of Persia, or one-night stand concubine for the king, would you really take that risk, or allow your daughter to take that risk? Perhaps if you are desperate (and perhaps they are), but otherwise, I don’t think so. Or we would have to radically re-evaluate Esther and Mordecai’s character.
Another problem is that it makes sexual performance into the metric by which the new queen is chosen, rather than finding a woman more virtuous than Vashti. Again, this does not fit with what we have seen so far from the king’s decrees regarding Vashti and his search for a new queen.
So those are two logical problems with the majority view. But there are also some textual problems as well which some of the better commentators have acknowledged and puzzled over.
One problem is that in verse 15, when Esther goes “in unto the king” it says she “obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her.” Who are all these people?
Either there are a bunch of people in the king’s bedroom, or the context is the King together with his advisers and officials interviewing each girl to see if she has the manners, beliefs, and qualities that would make her better than Vashti. Remember that was the whole purpose of this gathering of the women, to find a new queen to rule with Ahasuerus, not just to find a pretty face.
Another problem is that the location to which these women are said to go into is “the king’s house.” And “the king’s house” is the same place where Vashti gave her feast for the women (Esther 1:9), the royal throne is in “the king’s house (Esther 5:1), “the king’s house” has an inner and outer court, and at the end of the book we read, “Mordecai was great in the king’s house.”
So the king’s house is a large complex from which he rules the empire, it is a place of feasting and governing with his advisors, not merely his private bedchamber.
So to summarize my view: I think these woman received 12 months of purification, and while some of that was for cosmetics, the primary purpose was for their education in royal manners. It does not take a year to get the smell of your native land out of your skin, but it does take a year (at least) to learn royal manners and customs. So these women were in “Princess School” learning which spoon to eat with, when to speak and not to speak, etc. And while 12 months might seem like a long time to us, remember they are preparing these girls from nowhere to possibly become the most powerful woman in the whole world, the Queen of Persia. From that perspective, 12 months is a short timeline.
So to me it makes the most sense that once these girls have been purified, perfumed, and educated, they go before the king to be interviewed, not necessarily to sleep with him.
This would explain why when Esther goes before the king, she finds favor in the eyes of all, not just the king.
This would also explain why it says in verse 13, “whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house.”
This was part of the test and interview of each girl’s character. What do you bring with you and why? An instrument, a painting, jewelry, a garment you made. This item would give each maiden the opportunity to distinguish herself from the others and become memorable to the king.
Whether the king then slept with her, the text never actually says. But if he did, the author has chosen not to emphasize that, and so neither shall we.
Moreover, the mention of virgins in verses 17 and 19 seems to refer to the maidens who have already gone into the king.
So it is certainly possible that this house of concubines is not a harem for sex, but rather the place where these maidens lived until the king decided who his next queen would be. After that, they would most likely become maidens to the queen or servants in the king’s palace.
This would also make Mordecai and Esther’s decision to enter this contest in the first place a lot more reasonable. The worse that can happen is Esther is not chosen and becomes a servant in the palace.
So those are two possible interpretations, and I leave to your judgment which makes the most sense of all the data.
Now after Esther is purified for 12 months, her time finally comes to go before the king. And recall that it has been about 4 years since Vashti was deposed.
Verse 15
15Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her.
Note that we are told here who Esther’s biological father was, a man named Abihail, which literally means my father has hayil, or my father is mighty/valorous. So Esther is descended from men of hayil, and in the eyes of Ahasuerus, Hegai, and all who look upon her, she is herself a woman of hayil, a virtuous woman.
We might imagine Ahasuerus saying to Esther the words of Proverbs 31:29, “Many daughters have done virtuously, But thou excellest them all.” For that is certainly the universal opinion of Esther at this stage in the story, and because of her excellence, the king chooses her above all others to be his wife and queen.
Verses 16-18
16So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.
So here Esther’s wedding feast is described, and it is significant that we are given the exact year and month in which this marriage takes place, because there is an important contrast between these events in Shushan, and what is happening at the same time in Jerusalem.
We learn from the book of Ezra that while Esther was entering the king’s house for her 12 months of purification, meanwhile in Jerusalem the temple was finally completed (Ezra 6:15), and the Jewish people are undergoing various rituals of purification.
It says in Ezra 6:19-20, “And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat.”
So while Esther is in Shushan, the priests are offering the Passover on her behalf in Jerusalem.
And then after this purification for Passover, we read that Ezra himself sets off from Babylon with a bunch of silver and gold and a letter from Ahasuerus to beautify the temple, appoint judges and magistrates, and teach the people the law of God.
So while Esther is being beautified and educated in the king’s house, Ezra is on his way to beautify and educate the Jews in God’s house.
However, when Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, the princes come to him and confess that many of them have not separated themselves from the idolaters, and in fact many have intermarried with the Canaanites contrary to God’s law.
It says in Deuteronomy 7:1-4, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.”
And then we read in Ezra 9:2-3 how Ezra responds to such sin, “For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.”
So this is the scene in Jerusalem just 10 days or so before Esther goes before Ahasuerus. God’s bride in Jerusalem has defiled herself with idolaters and need to be purified through repentance. And we are told in Ezra 10:16 that it was on the first day of the 10th month, the same month in which Ahasuerus marries Esther, that they began the process of ending these idolatrous marriages according to the law of God.
So as we said before in earlier sermons, Esther represents the faithful remnant, the myrtle tree (Hadassah) of God’s everlasting promises. And God has given us these particular dates in Scripture so that we can see these parallels.
The whole purpose of the Jews repenting and purifying themselves was so they could approach God, find favor with him, and dwell in His house. The whole purpose of Esther’s purification was to prepare her to approach Ahasuerus, find favor with him, and dwell in his house.
And this of course brings us to the spiritual sense or application of these events for us as the bride of Christ. The question we all ought to ask ourselves is: Are we prepared to go in and stand before the king? Are we ready for our interview, our assessment in the eyes of Christ’s Heavenly Court?
This judgment takes place every Lord’s Day here in worship, it shall take place for each of us at death, and it shall take place in full at the end of history when all shall receive either resurrection unto glory or resurrection unto damnation.
For those who purify themselves in this life, glory shall follow.
But for those who defile themselves with sin, with demons, with falsehood, to them belongs the wages of sin, fearful punishment and death.
So how do you purify yourself in the twelve months of your preparation for the king?
We are told that Esther’s purification consisted of “six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours.”
And what does this signify but the same bitter myrrh and sweet odors of God’s holy anointing oil?
We read in Exodus 30:22-30, “Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane, five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the Testimony; the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense; the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base. You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests.”
So this oil that makes holy is none other than the Holy Spirit. In the words of Acts 15:8, the Holy Spirit “purifies our hearts by faith.”
And if your soul is a little flame, when the Holy Spirit is poured upon you, the fires of love burn hot. To have oil upon the head is to have God upon your mind, it is to think of him and love Him, and desire Him more than anything.
In the words of Song of Songs 8:7, “Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can the floods drown it.”
Love for God is the sign that the Holy Spirit is within you. And it this love of God that purifies us, covers our sins, and makes us to live a life without condemnation. For as it says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Conclusion
So are you walking in love? Are you keeping in step with the Spirit?
For Jesus says that only the pure in heart, shall see God. And that you must be holy, even as He is holy.
It is this perfect purity and holiness which Christ died to give you. And so receive His cleansing by faith, regard yourself as His Temple, and do not grieve that Holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The State of the Church 2025

The State of the Church 2025Sunday, January 5th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
John 21:15–25So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
Prayer
O Father, from the rising of the sun unto its going down, your name is to be praised. Make our prayers to ascend to you as incense, as a pure offering, so that your name shall be great among the heathen. Show forth the power of your Word, as we receive it now into ourselves, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
On August 24th, 2012, the idea of planting a reformed church in Lewis County was being contemplated by a certain Joe Stout, and that idea was also expressed (via email) to a certain Dave Hatcher, pastor of Trinity Church (CREC) in Kirkland.
However, seven years would go by before that idea would start to take shape, and that idea become a gathering of men, called Reformation Roundtable, which met for the first time in January of 2020.
Another year went by and then in January of 2021, those men and their families began to worship together, practicing the liturgy on Sunday evenings.
And then finally, five months later, on Pentecost Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, Christ Covenant Church was born. There were 59 people in attendance, many of whom are still here today, some who are not.
Fast forward to January of 2025 (today) and we are a 3.5-year-old toddler of a church. And yet we have a building we can now call our own. We have a young and growing classical Christian school (also known as our children’s church and youth ministry, for those wondering). And last week we had 199 people who came here to “rise and worship the Triune God.” Who are we but those who have received grace upon grace upon grace?
God’s mercy and provision has been so abundant towards us, that while Joe planted, and Dave watered, and many of you have given of yourselves, your time, your prayers, and your resources to build up this body, we all say with one voice, the words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3, “we are not anything, it is God who gives the growth.” It is God who planted us, and it is God who waters us. It is God who has loved us, and established us, and shall never abandon us. And we want God increase so that He may be all and in all.
It is a marvelous work in our eyes, that God sent Christ to deliver us from ourselves. From our sins of self-absorption, our selfishness, our thinking far too highly and far too frequently of ourselves. Christ died and rose and ascended to heaven, to draw you up and out of yourself into God.
And what’s more, God has gathered us out of ourselves so that we can be woven together, this particular body of saints, to be one body. A body diverse in so many ways, in age, in vocation, in background, in skill and learning, and yet united in our common confession of faith, in our shared hope of heaven, and in our fervent love for the Savior. We have the great privilege and challenge of sojourning together on our way to heaven.
So make no mistake, it is God’s grace that has built this church, and it is God’s grace that shall continue to build us and make us glorious if we will cooperate with His Spirit.
Now it has been our custom to have around the beginning of the New Year, a “State of the Church” sermon. And these sermons are a kind of memorial to what God has done for us in the past, so that we can be encouraged to trust Him and run even harder after Him in the year ahead.
This is keeping with Paul’s words in Romans 15:4, where he says, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
How are you hope levels? How is your “rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in everything” going? This sermon is given to replenish our tanks, and to remind us of what we signed up for when said to Jesus, “I will follow you, come what may.”
And so there are Five Lessons I want to draw from our text. Five Smooth Stones from how The Gospel of John ends (and the Apostolic Church begins). So let us walk through this text and gather those lessons along the way.
Lesson #1 is a question – Do you really love Jesus?
Verse 15
15So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee…
Recall that Peter had boasted earlier about how even if all the other disciples fall away, Peter would not. Peter’s name after all means Rock, and he thought he would be that rock immovable, who would lay down his life for Christ when nobody else would.
We read in Matthew 26:35, his boastful words, “’Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And so said all the disciples.”
And yet we know how the story goes. All the disciples, including Peter, are scattered and run for their lives. Peter lies, he denies knowing Christ, and he does this three times in bold contradiction of his profession of love for Jesus.
Peter talked a big game, but when the game was on, he faltered and was humiliated.
However, after Christ’s resurrection, that fear of death is conquered in Peter. And unlike Judas who betrayed Jesus and then committed suicide, Peter betrayed Jesus but then sought to be restored by Him.
And this is the difference between a true Christian and a false one. What do you do after you sin? What do you do after you fall? Do you humble yourself, run to Christ, own up and confess that sin to Him? Or do you just feel bad for yourself, and conclude, what’s the use of even trying?
It says in Proverbs 24:16, “For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.”
Likewise, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, there is a worldly sorrow that leads to death, but there is a godly sorrow that works repentance unto salvation.
So what do you do after you sin? Because you should feel sorrow. You should feel bad. But the question is, What do you do with that sorrow, with that sadness? Do you let it eat you into the grave, or do you cast those sorrows before the cross of Christ, and by His grace rise again?
That is the mark of a true Christian, not that we never stumble, but that when we stumble, we rise again. We do not make excuses, we do not blame our circumstances, or our spouse, no, the mark of a true Christian is that we own up to our failures honestly before the Lord and plead with Him to restore us.
Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?
And three times a now chastened Simon Peter replies, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”
So this is the first lesson and the most important question: Do you really love Jesus? And do you love him not only in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth?
Jesus says the greatest of all commandments is to love God, and then your neighbor. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:22, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.”
If you would like to live a blessed life not only in 2025, but for all time, you must really love the Lord Jesus, and you must seek forgiveness from Him whenever you sin. That is the first lesson and without it you cannot go further. As Paul says, without charity we are nothing.
Now if we have charity, if we have authentic love for the Lord, then we should want to manifest that love according to our unique calling, vocation, and season of life. Paul says in Galatians 5:6, that “faith works by love.”
And so Lesson #2 derives from Christ’s threefold command to Peter as an Apostle to, “feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.” If you really love me, then feed my sheep.
And so for those of us who are sheep, what is our job? To eat!
Lesson #2 – Feed on God’s Word.
How did Jesus fast for 40 days and overcome the devil in the wilderness? He had the law of God upon his lips. As a man he lived not by bread but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
How does the Apostle Paul say we can have peace in our hearts? By letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16).
Who is the man we read about in those Psalms, whose leaf does not whither, and whatsoever he does prospers? He is the man who meditates/chews upon the law of God day and night.
So the Shepherd has his job, he must feed the sheep. A preacher must give milk to newborn lambs, and meat to the strong. But the sheep also have a job if they would follow the Good Shepherd. They must receive His Word.
James 1:21-22 says, “Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
Paul says likewise in 1 Thessalonians, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).
So are you hearing God’s Word with a noble mind, like the Bereans, of whom it says in Acts 17:11, “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
What kind of soil is your mind? Is it noble, fertile, ready to receive? Or has it been hardened by ignorance and sin. Or worse, do you have no spiritual appetite anymore because the cares of this world have choked you out?
The Good Shepherd wants to feed you. He wants to make you lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside the still waters. The Lord wants to restore your soul and lead you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. But you must follow Him and you must eat with thankfulness what He puts in front of you.
That means committing to reading, hearing, and knowing the Scriptures, and paying close attention to the Word as it is preached from this pulpit.
So that is Lesson #2, “Feed on God’s Word.” And we find in Lesson #3 some added motivation.
Lesson #3 – All Sheep Must Eventually Die
Jesus says to Peter in verses 18-19 (NKJV), “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
Tradition holds that Peter was bound and then crucified upside down. And whether that specific form of execution is what actually took place we don’t know for sure, but what is certain is that Christ guarantees to Peter some 30 years before it will happen, a death that no man would naturally choose for himself. And then with that promise of a painful death, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.”
To follow Jesus is to follow him into the grave. For Peter as an apostle, it meant certain painful martyrdom by which he would glorify God. He would be dressed and carried where he did not want to go, and yet at the same time, God would be carrying Peter, to a place that He had prepared in advance for him, a place in the Father’s House, where there are many mansions.
This is the great challenge of following Jesus. Eternal life, abundant joy, is offered to us, but only through death. In this life we must die daily unto ourselves, we must put to death our own passions and sinful desires. And all of that dying in faith is meant to culminate in our eventual putting off of this mortal flesh, so that we can put on a body incorruptible.
All sheep must eventually die. And no man knows the day or the hour in which that judgment shall come upon him. But every man can be certain that such a day shall come, and you do not want to be caught unawares.
Moses prays in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
And Solomon likewise testifies in Ecclesiastes 7:2, “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”
Have you taken to heart that you must die? And are you ready to give an account for what you have done in the body?
You cannot truly live in freedom, until you have reckoned with that absolute inescapability of your death. And while probably none of us are worthy of the glorious crown of martyrdom, all of us should desire to be. We should all desire to glorify God in life and and in death.
Paul says in Romans 14:8, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”
If you are following Jesus, you are following the one said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Summary: Lesson #3 is that All Sheep Must Eventually Die, therefore make your plans accordingly. Number your days and become wise.
Now we see in our text that Peter’s response to Jesus is to then inquire about John’s future. What about the disciple whom Jesus loved, what about him?
Verses 20-23 (NKJV)
Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”
So even after Peter is restored to the Apostleship, and his love has been confirmed by Christ, and his glorious martyrdom foretold. He somehow still finds a way to get rebuked.
And this leads us to Lesson #4…
Lesson #4 – Mind Thy Own Business
Followers of Jesus are not immune to distraction. If an apostle can stumble here, so can we.
Peter thinks it is somehow relevant to his life and ministry to know John’s destiny. But Jesus says otherwise. “What is that to you? You follow me.”
These are words from Jesus that you must hammer into your soul. It is a question you must learn to hear from Christ whenever peace and joy is lacking. “1) Do you know your business? and 2) Are you doing it faithfully?”
Paul puts it this way in Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.”
You will be tempted this year to expend time, energy, and attention on things that God has not asked you to expend any time or energy on.
Some of you are like Paul, a high-functioning over-achiever. And your temptation is to eat the bread of anxious toil (or to not eat at all), to rise early and sit up late, and to forget that unless the Lord is building through you, your labor is in vain (Ps. 127). For those who love and delight in hard work, you must learn to stop and rest, to find true Sabbath.
Some of you on the other hand are a little too leisurely (that is my nice way of calling you lazy). Perhaps you lack ambition or focus, or perhaps you are just disorganized. Or perhaps you lack diligence and never finish anything because you procrastinate. There is only one path to faithfulness but many paths to ruin.
It says in Proverbs 24:30-31, “I went by the field of the slothful, And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, And nettles had covered the face thereof, And the stone wall thereof was broken down.”
Whereas it says in Proverbs 22:29, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.”
So wherever you fall on that spectrum of labor and laziness, all of us should want to aim at being able to say what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
The sign that you are minding your own business, working hard with God’s grace, is that you have peace. You have joy. You have the fruit of the Holy Spirit coming out of you, not fear and anxiety.
By the way, this comes from heeding Lesson #3 and numbering your days and counting yourself dead to the world already.
So when the next controversy arises on the internet. Hear the words of Jesus, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
Or, when you are tempted to compare yourself to that person or this one, to envy her, or covet his stuff. Hear the words of Jesus, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11, “aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” That is your calling: Mind Thy Own Business.
Finally, we will close where John’s gospel closes.
Verses 24-25
24This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. 25And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
The fifth and final lesson is…
Lesson #5 – Become A Good Book
John wrote only a tiny fraction of the things that Jesus did. And when you receive Jesus into your heart, you become a book written by Him.
So what kind of book do you want to be? What kind of testimony to Christ will your life have?
What will the chapter of your life for “2025 Year of our Lord,” read like in heaven?
The Author and Finisher of your faith is ready to write. That is to say, He is overflowing with grace and truth and wants you to receive His Spirit in greater measure. So will you receive Christ anew, will you walk in that Holy Spirit, will you keep in step with the Spirit of Christ into and out of the grave?
May you ever be, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: A New Queen (Esther 2:1-10)

Sermon: The Heavenly Blueprint (Christmas Eve Homily 2024)

The Heavenly BlueprintTuesday, December 24th, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Ezekiel 43:1–12Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever. Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
Prayer
O Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, and how you give faith through them to those who hear with a humble heart. Give us such meekness to receive the implanted Word, that we might bear fruit for You. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
When a wise man sets out to build a great house, what does he do before he digs the foundation? What does he do before he calls in excavators, the concrete trucks, before he hires the various tradesmen to put in electrical, plumbing, framing and so on?
Before a wise man builds a great house, he makes a plan. He gets blueprints. Perhaps he hires a surveyor, an architect, an engineer, certain specialists to help him draw up those blueprints, but he does this all so that when he starts to build, he knows exactly what he is building, he knows what materials he needs, he knows what the finished product should look like. Before a wise man builds anything, he first gets the pattern, the form, the vision, the blueprints, in his mind and on paper, so that he can measure and judge the finished product by that mental image.
The All Wise Builder
God is the wisest of all builders, and for those who have eyes to see, the infinite wisdom and goodness of God is evident in all creation.
It says in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
Likewise, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20, “For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.”
God created the world to show forth His infinite goodness and glory. But He specially created you, a rational intellectual spiritual creature, in His image and likeness, so that you might know Him and love Him, even as He knows and loves you.
God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
And Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
So there is a divine pattern and blueprint that God has for humanity. And the way He communicates those blueprints to us is through the Holy Scriptures, and within the Scriptures he gives certain laws, certain commandments, certain examples, and even the descriptions of various buildings, physical structures, furniture, materials, dimensions, all to teach us what our lives should look like.
We just heard in our reading from the Prophet Ezekiel, God says we are to measure ourselves by that divine pattern and see if we measure up. He says in Ezekiel 43:10-11, “Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house.”
Every individual person is a kind of house. Every family, every nation, every group of people who dwells together are in God’s eyes a kind of house. And so when God gives us heavenly blueprints, He intends for us to study those blueprints, those patterns, and then to judge ourselves and conform ourselves to that divinely given pattern.
So how do you measure up to what God has revealed? How does your family measure up? How does your church measure up? How does your city, your state, your nation measure up to what God has revealed in His Word?
God says through Ezekiel, “show them the form of the house, that they be ashamed of all they have done.”
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
We are not the first, nor the last people to fall very short of God’s good design for humanity.
What was the first structure that God commanded to be built? It was a big boat we call Noah’s Ark. And why did God command that such an enormous three decker ark be built?
We heard earlier from Genesis 6:5, it was because, “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
In Noah’s day, the world had so perverted God’s blueprint for humanity, they had fallen so short of the glory that God intended for them, that from justice God cleansed the old world with a flood, but not before commissioning Noah to build the Ark as a testimony of the judgment to come and then preserving him and his household within that floating three-floor cosmos.
It says in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”
Later on in human history, God showed to Moses upon the mountain top, and through him to the people of Israel, the architectural form of the tabernacle and its furnishings. And this portable tent was given by God to show Israel in the wilderness how they could approach Him who is Most Perfect and Holy, and not die.
So in order to enter the outer court and offer a sacrifice you had to be clean. And then only a priest could burn that sacrifice on the altar. And then only through sacrifice could a priest enter the holy place, and only the high priest once a year could enter that most holy place and come before the throne of God.
And so the moral lesson of all these rituals and washings and sacrifices was to make Israel measure themselves by that heavenly pattern. To show them what must take place if they want God’s presence within them, if they want God’s house to be their house.
What is needed? Cleanness from every impurity and holiness in every part of our being.
Four-hundred and eighty years after that tabernacle was built, God commissioned a more glorious form of His house to be constructed. And this new form of God’s House was to show Israel that God intends to take us from one degree of glory to another.
The tabernacle was portable and wandered about, covered in the skins of animals. But the Temple was stationary, built of gold, silver, and precious stones, a sign of God’s desire to dwell permanently with His people, and to give them a permanent and royal inheritance as their King.
And so David made the preparations, under Solomon that temple was completed. But almost as soon as that more glorious house was built, the people fell away from the Lord.
And because of that falling away from God’s pattern, that falling short of God’s glorious design, eventually God’s glory packed up and left that house desolate. And this is what the Prophet Ezekiel sees in the days of Babylon. Babylon destroys the temple like a flood. They are God’s instrument to punish his rebellious house. But God carries the righteous, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and others through that fiery judgment. And after that temple is burned to the ground, God shows to Ezekiel in a vision a new form, a new pattern, a new house that is so glorious and holy, that no human hands could ever build it.
Even when humanity falls so short of God’s glory, God promises and reveals to the righteous, a structure more glorious than before.
In the words of the Apostle Paul, “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” and the sins of men, however evil, shall not stop the infinite and all wise builder from constructing a glorious kingdom, even out of the evil intentions of men.
For as Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
This is God’s building plan, and that plan shall not be thwarted.
So what then is the blueprint? What is the ultimate form, design, and patter for humanity? What structure is the permanent resting place for God?
It is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom it says in Colossians, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). And “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell” (Col. 1:19).
And in John 1, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth…And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
The man Christ Jesus, the eternal Word from the Father, is the house not made with hands. He is the one who says of his body, “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He is the Ark into which we enter by faith. He is the altar upon which we die and rise again. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory, the express image of his person, and he upholds all things by the word of his power. John calls him the logos, the Word, the eternal form and pattern of the divine intellect who was born in human flesh.
This is Who we have come to worship tonight. This is Who we celebrate at Christmas and on every other day: The infinite and all wise builder has come down, and by faith in Him all can be made new.
So I close with exhortation from St. Paul in Hebrews 3:1-6, “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider [measure] the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence [the faith] and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
May you hold fast to this rejoicing in Christ, and Christ shall rejoice to dwell in you forever.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Hadassah (Esther 2:1-10)

HadassahSunday, December 22nd, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:1-10After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king’s house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.
Prayer
O God we thank you for Your Word, which is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. Open our eyes, that we might behold wondrous things from Your law, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we were introduced to the man Mordecai, and in order to better understand this wonderful story of Esther that God has given us, we have been trying get inside the minds of each character and see the world from their perspective. We did this first with King Ahasuerus, then with Vashti, then with Mordecai, and this morning we are going to begin to do something similar with our heroine, Esther. So this will be a kind of biographical sermon on Who Esther is, and then once we are all familiar with the main characters of this drama, we can then pick up the pace and get into the actual narrative and the many questions it provokes.
So our focus this morning will just be on verse 7, where Esther is introduced, so let me read that verse again for us.
Verse 7
7And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
So we are first introduced to this fair and beautiful maiden as a woman who has two names. And these two names, Hadassah and Esther, suggest a kind of double identity. And it is this question of, “Who is Esther?” that shall play a decisive role in whether the King has favor upon her and her people, or whether they are destroyed.
One of the hinges upon which this whole story turns is whether Esther has the courage to embrace and reveal her Jewish identity, or whether from shame or fear or some other motive, continues to hide that identity.
And so to understand the conflict within this young woman, we need to consider the meaning of her two names Haddassah and Esther.
#1 – Hadassah (הֲדַסָּה)
This name Hadassah is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for myrtle or myrtle tree.
And I have included on the back of your bulletin a picture of the myrtle tree and flower, along with the 4 other instances where the myrtle is mentioned in Scripture.
And if you look at those four instances, you will notice that they are all describing the Era of Restoration after Exile in which this Esther/Hadassah is living.
In Isaiah 41, the context is God encouraging His faithful remnant to not be discouraged or afraid when their enemies attack them.
Earlier in Isaiah 40:17-18 it says, “All nations before him are as nothing; And they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto him?”
So for the Jews in exile, who feel like a small disgraced minority scattered amongst the nations, dispersed amongst those 127 provinces of the great Persian Empire, God’s Word to them is, “those nations are as nothing, even less than nothing, compared to Me.”
For Esther and the Jews in the Era of Restoration, God’s Word to them is “consider My incomparable greatness, not the seeming and very fleeting greatness of the nations in power.” God is the one who shakes the world, so that His Kingdom which cannot be shaken shall remain. Empires can fall as quickly as a person falls, and it is God who determines those times and places.
And so with God’s greatness firmly established, he then makes many gracious promises to them.
He says in Isaiah 41:10-13, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: They shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, Saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
So that is God’s promise of help, but what will that help look like in their day? Well Isaiah goes on to describe this help using the image of trees planted in the wilderness.
He says in Isaiah 41:18-20, “I will open rivers in high places, And fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, That the hand of the Lord hath done this, And the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”
So God likens His people to different kinds of trees that He will plant, He will water, and He will nourish, even in the wilderness, and one such tree that is added for the very first time in Israel’s history is the myrtle. The הֲדַס.
Isaiah says further of this hadas, this myrtle tree in Isaiah 55:11-13, “My word shall not return unto me void, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, And be led forth with peace: The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
So God’s effectual Word is going to plant this myrtle tree, and when it blossoms (when it is brought up), it shall be to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign that shall never be cut off. The fir tree and the myrtle tree are evergreens, and they are intended to signify the everlasting promises of God’s salvation.
So when you look at your Christmas tree, or the many great evergreen forests we have here in the Northwest, you ought to remember this verse in Isaiah. God planted those trees and ordained that they might signify His evergreen promises which climax in Christ. If the trees are clapping their hands with joy, how much more should we His saints?
So who is Hadassah? She is this myrtle tree, whom Mordecai brought up in the wilderness of exile, who has become fair and beautiful. And although her father and mother have died, she is not abandoned, God has looked after her. God has made her lovely. He has watered her from rivers in the high places, just like He promised through the prophet Isaiah.
So in her name Hadassah, Esther embodies the faithful and sweet-smelling remnant, who by their very existence within the Persian Empire testify to God’s everlasting promise to save. And the question Esther will have to face in this book is: Will she trust those promises? Will she be true or false to her identity as Hadassah?
So that is her first name, her Hebrew name, Hadassah, the myrtle tree. What about this second name, Esther?
#2 – Esther (אֶסְתֵּר)
This name Esther, kind of like the name Mordecai, has both a Persian meaning and a Hebrew meaning.
Recall that Mordecai’s name means either “man/servant of Marduk,” or it can be read in Hebrew as “my rebellion,” or “bitter oppression.”
Likewise, Esther according to its Persian origin means “star.” You can even hear it still in our English words for both Esther and star.
So her Persian name and identity is Star. And in both biblical and pagan cosmology, stars are powers or rulers that govern the night.
It says in Psalm 136:9, [God made] “The moon and stars to rule by night: For his mercy endureth for ever.”
Likewise, God had said to Daniel just a generation before Esther, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
So stars signify rulers, and Esther will certainly live up to this Persian name in becoming the new Queen of Persia. Vashti rebelled; she is a fallen star. And now the King needs a new Queen to help him rule the night.
So while star is a good and fitting name for Esther, it means something else in Hebrew which also describes her actions in this story.
In Hebrew the verb סתר (satar) means “to hide” or “conceal,” or “to keep secret.”
The Hebrew noun סָֽתֶר (sater) means “hiding place,” or “covering,” or “protection.”
And so if you read Esther’s name according to its Hebrew etymology (אֶסְתֵּר), it means something like “I am hidden/concealed.”
So in Persian, Esther is the star in the sky, the Queen that everyone sees, but in Hebrew she is the hidden one, whose identity she has concealed and will continue to conceal even from her husband, until God forces her hand.
Now next week, we will take up the question, “Why did Mordecai command Esther to conceal her identity?” But for now let us just consider one further aspect of this idea of concealment/hiding as it relates to Esther.
The Hiding Place
When God made His marriage covenant with Israel in the wilderness, He told them that if they rebelled and committed idolatry, then He would punish them, exile them, and hide/conceal (satar) His face from them.
It says in Deuteronomy 31:16-18, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.”
So Mordecai was amongst those men who lived through this “hiding of God’s face.” He witnessed Daughter Jerusalem divorced and made desolate by Babylon, but he had also heard the promise of God through the prophet Ezekiel, that after a time of shame, God would turn His people (like we read in Psalm 80, “turn us again O God), and His face would shine upon them again.
It says in Ezekiel 39:24-29, “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”
So Esther is living in the time that Ezekiel prophesied about. And while some Jews had returned, and some progress had been made in rebuilding the temple, still the fullness of these promises were yet unfulfilled.
And so what marks the turning point for God’s people in this Era of Restoration? When does God’s face shine upon them again? The book of Esther is given to show us that turning point. For it is behind the dark clouds of Haman’s wicked plot, that God’s favor shines forth and delivers them.
Recall Esther is that one book where God’s name is never mentioned on the letters of the page. If ever there was a story where God seems to be absent, seems to hide his face, but in the end turns out to have been present all along shining through, this is that story.
Now from a human perspective, what is the turning point in this book that begins to reverse all the harm intended against the Jews?
Surprise surprise, it is repentance and faith.
It is Mordecai repenting in sackcloth and ashes. It is Mordecai telling Esther, you need reveal to your husband and king who you really are. It is Esther calling for all the Jews in Shushan to fast and pray for three days, so that she can go before the king, see his face, and live.
And so what happens when Esther makes God her hiding place instead of hiding who God made her to be? What happens when Esther faces down her own fears and through faith says, “If I perish, I perish?”
It turns out, her worst fears were unfounded, and the King is far more favorable to her than she could have ever imagined. Three times the King says to her, “What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”
When Esther tells the king who she is, her husband executes justice for her. He promotes Mordecai. He gives them his signet ring and says decree whatever you want in my name. He gives Esther the house of Haman. He gives her everything she asks for. And by the end of story in chapter 9, the King is saying to her, “what is thy request further, and it shall be done” (Esther 9:12).
Isn’t this what God says to us?
Jesus says in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Esther was a myrtle tree. And Jesus is the vine. And if you live inside of Him, if your soul marries God, and if you are not ashamed to call him Lord, then His favor will be abundant towards you.
Your Lord and Your King is far more good and kind and loving than you presently think He is. The goodness of God is infinite, His ways past finding out. And we can scarcely comprehend a fraction of that Divine Goodness.
Jesus says in Luke 11:9-12, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Conclusion
God is ready and willing to give you Himself. To give you eternal life. To make His face shine upon you. It says in Proverbs 11:13, “He who conceals his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
You tell God who you are, and then He will tell you who you are in Christ. He will make you brand new.
May God grant you to receive such a name as it was written in heaven before the foundation of the world. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Mordecai (Esther 2:1-7)

MordecaiSunday, December 15th, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 2:1-7After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king: And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them: And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Prayer
O Father, we thank You for the Lord Jesus, who is the eternally begotten Word, and from whose mouth proceeds a perfect word, a sharp two-edged sword that distinguishes between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, temporal and eternal. Make us to live by every word that proceeds from his mouth, for we ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
Introduction
I begin with a question this morning. Who would you say has been the most influential person (or persons) in your life?Who has most formed you and shaped you and taught you, (for good or ill) so that you are who you are today? I think all of us would have to include on our list of most influential people, our parents.
Who gave us our last name? Our father.
Whose likeness and image do we bear? Our parents and grandparents.
Where did we get our mannerisms, our ways of walking and talking, our bearing, our micro-expressions, our temperament, our looks? In some mysterious way, we got those in large part from the people who begot us, the people who raised us, and the people who taught us. From both nature and from nurture, we become who we are.
Jesus puts it this way in Luke 6:40, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.”
The Apostle Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1, Phil. 3:17).
God has so arranged the world that we become like our parents, like our teachers, like our friends, like our heroes, for good or ill.
It says in Proverbs 17:6, “Children’s children are the crown of old men, And the glory of children is their father.”
Solomon says there is a kind of shared glory, or shame, that is transmitted across the generations.
He says a few verses later in Proverbs 17:25, “A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to his mother.”
And earlier in Proverbs 10:1, “A wise son maketh a glad father: But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”
And so because wisdom is justified/vindicated by her children (as Jesus says in Luke 7:35), our wisdom, or lack thereof, our virtues, or our vices, either give glory to God and our fathers, or brings shame to the family name.
So what kind of reputation are you giving to your fathers, both heavenly and earthly? It says in Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.” And so are you winning a good name for those who bore you, begot you, taught you, and trained you? Or are you by your folly bringing shame to yourself and to them?
This morning, we are introduced to the man Mordecai. And the way that God introduces Mordecai is by giving us some names from his family history, specifically tribal names and the names of his fathers. And Mordecai, like most of us in this room, has a complicated family background.
The very etymology of Mordecai’s name (מָרְדֳּכַ֛י) is suggestive of this complicated identity.
In Persian, the name Mordecai means something like “man/servant of Marduk.” And Marduk is the name for the highest of the Babylonian gods, so this could refer to YHWH, or it could be refer to an idol, just like our English words “God/Lord” can refer to the true God or false gods.
However, in Hebrew, Mordecai’s name has at least two possible derivations.
1. If Mordecai comes from the two Hebrew words mar and dach, it would mean something like “bitter oppression.”
2. However, if it comes from the Hebrew word marad/mered, together with the possessive form, it would mean something like “my rebellion.”
So the very makeup of this name Mordecai is a puzzle in itself, and yet given Mordecai’s ancestry, and the actions of this book, this name if very fitting.
Mordecai has some good fathers and some bad fathers. Mordecai has some fathers who really shouldn’t be imitated and some who should. Mordecai, like all of us has imperfect and sinful earthly fathers. And the question that hangs over Mordecai in the story of Esther is, What kind of man and father is he going to be? Will he follow in the footsteps of his sinful fathers, or will he cover their shame and win glory for God?
That is the question before Mordecai and the question before all of us. Whose example are you going to follow? Christ or the devil? God, or the world? The righteous or the wicked?
And so as we consider Mordecai’s lineage, his complicated past, I want you to also consider your own. And ask the Lord, what parallels, what contrasts, might be made, and are you repeating the sins of the past? Or are you walking the paths of the righteous?
Division of the Text
Our text divides into two sections.
In verses 1-4, we have The King’s Search For A New Queen.
In verses 5-7, we have An Introduction to Mordecai and Esther.
Next week we’ll consider the King’s Search and Esther’s lineage, but this morning we will just focus on verses 5-6 which describe Mordecai’s background.
Verses 5-6
5Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; 6Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
Many names, places, and relations are listed here. So let us make us an orderly list and then consider the importance and meaning of each.
Geographic Locations
We’ll start with locations. Where is Mordecai from, where has he been, where is he now? For those of you have done much traveling, you know that living or just being in a foreign place has the power to change your perspective. And Mordecai is a man who has indeed traveled the ancient world.
1. First, we are told in verse 5 that Mordecai is presently living in Shushan the palace. And we saw in chapter 1 of Esther that Shushan is the capital of the Persian empire, a great city and center of political influence from which laws and decrees are made.
Shushan is kind of like if we combined New York City and Washington D.C. together, but without any modern technology. That is where Mordecai is now.
2. Second, we are told in verse 6 that when Mordecai was younger, perhaps a baby or a young man, he was “carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.”
This event is recorded in at least 4 other places in Scripture: 2 Kings 24, 2 Chr. 36:9-10, Jeremiah 24, and Jeremiah 52. And so let me read you just a sample of what God says about this event, because it has direct relevance and application for Mordecai’s life.
The year is 597 BC, about 10 years before Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And about 5 years after Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and was elevated to be prime minister of Babylon (Dan. 2:48-49).
So at this moment in history, if you are a faithful man of God, the place you want to be is Babylon, not Jerusalem. And God communicates this message to His people in Jeremiah 24.
Jeremiah 24:1-7 says, “The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”
So notice that when Jeconiah is taken into Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar also takes “the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths.” In 2 Kings 24:15-16 we are given more details when it says, “And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.”
And so Mordecai was amongst the Jewish nobility, and in the words of Jeremiah, he is either a good fig that is very good, or a bad fig that is very bad. And since Mordecai is someone who lives to return to Jerusalem (as Ezra-Nehemiah record), we can conclude that God has shown favor to him. God has given Mordecai a heart to know the Lord, even while living in exile in Babylon.
So for 60 years of Mordecai’s life (from 597-537 BC), he is amongst the exiles in Babylon.His job for that portion of his life is to obey Jeremiah 29, seek the peace of Babylon, get married, settle down, have children, build a house. And then when Cyrus of Persia comes to power, and decrees that the Jews may return to Jerusalem and rebuild God’s House, Mordecai is amongst those Jews who return.
It says in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 that Mordecai amongst “the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city. Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai.”
So to summarize Mordecai’s life and locations:
His life begins in Jerusalem as the son of the nobility, but he is taken to Babylon by God’s merciful providence.
For 60 years he lives in Babylon, and during those years he watches Jerusalem fall, then Babylon fall, and then Persia rise to power.
During those 60 years in Babylon, he has Ezekiel as his pastor (priest of the exiles), Jeremiah is the senior prophet writing letters to them from Jerusalem, Daniel is the prime minister in the province of Babylon. He knows of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the fire. And he is rubbing shoulders with Zerubbabel the future prince of the Jews, Ezra the scribe, and Nehemiah the future cupbearer to Ahasuerus.
Mordecai is amongst all the movers and shakers of this period in Israel’s history.
So he is at least 60 years old when he returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, but when the work stalls out due to opposition, he chooses for some reason (we are not told) to relocate to Shushan the capital of Persia, and that brings us to the year 519 BC, when the book of Esther begins.
Mordecai is at least 78 years old (perhaps older); we are never told whether he got married, or has a wife, or other children, all we are told that somewhere along the way (in all his travels), he adopted Esther and raised her as his own daughter.
So that’s the times and places of Mordecai. What about his people? His fathers? His lineage?
There are Five Fathers listed in relation to Mordecai.
They are Judah, Benjamin, Jair, Shimei, and Kish.
In verse 5 it says, “Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite.”
So Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin, that is his tribal identity. But because he was a citizen of the kingdom of Judah, after the exile, regardless of what tribal identity you had, all Israelites were called Judahites/Jews. That is the spiritual-political identify of God’s people as they await the Messiah, who would come from the line of Judah.
So Mordecai is a Benjamite by blood, but a Judahite by covenantal allegiance. And then within the Benjamite bloodline, Mordecai is explicitly called a son of three men, Jair, Shimei, and Kish. Who are these fathers of Mordecai?
While it is possible that these are just the previous three generations of Mordecai, so Kish is his father, Shimei his grandfather, and Jair his great grandfather, what is far more likely is that the author has selected these three names because he wants us to remember these three important figures from Israel’s history and then compare and contrast them with Mordecai.
For example, God says to Moses, “I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” even though those men were Moses distant ancestors. That is probably what is going on here. Jair, Kish, and Shimei are Mordecai’s distant ancestors who have some relevance to the story of Esther. In either case, God as the ultimate author of this book thought it was important to include them to introduce Mordecai.
So who were these men, and what shadow or glory do they cast over Mordecai?
#1 – Jair
The name Jair means “he enlightens” or “one giving light.” And so Mordecai is introduced more literally as “the son of one who gives light.” When we survey the Old Testament, we find at least 3 men named Jair.
In Number 32 and Deuteronomy 3 we read of a Jair the son of Manasseh who conquered land on this side of the Jordan before Israel crossed over.
In Judges 10, we read of Jair, a Gileadite, who judged Israel for 22 years.
But I think the Jair we are intended to call to mind is the Jair of 1 Chronicles 20:5, where the context is war with the Philistines under David the Judahite. It says, “Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.”
So here in 1 Chronicles 20, we have a son of Jair who kills Goliath’s brother. And so if you are called a “Son of Jair,” you are not only the son of one who enlightens, you are also a giant killer.
Will Mordecai live up to this name? Will he be a Jair to Esther? Will he enlighten her? Will he (or she) kill any giants in this book? We shall see.
#2 – Shimei
The name Shimei means, “one who harkens/listens.” And there are many Shimei’s in the Bible from various tribes, some good and some bad. But the most famous Shimei is the one who like Mordecai was from the tribe of Benjamin, and from the House of Saul, who came out and cursed David when David was exiled from Jerusalem during Absolom’s coup. However, when David is brough back to Jerusalem, Shimei goes out to David and pleads for mercy.
We read in 2 Samuel 19:15-23, “Then the king returned and came to the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to escort the king across the Jordan. And Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite, who was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over the Jordan before the king. Then a ferryboat went across to carry over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Now Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan. Then he said to the king, “Do not let my lord impute iniquity to me, or remember what wrong your servant did on the day that my lord the king left Jerusalem, that the king should take it to heart. For I, your servant, know that I have sinned. Therefore here I am, the first to come today of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.” But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said, “Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord’s anointed?” And David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel?” Therefore the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king swore to him.”
So this Shimei is one of Mordecai’s actual tribal relatives, and he sins and curses King David, but then he repents and his life is spared.
However, when King Solomon comes to power, Solomon calls for Shimei and says to him in 1 Kings 3:37-38, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere. For it shall be, on the day you go out and cross the Brook Kidron, know for certain you shall surely die; your blood shall be on your own head.” And Shimei said to the king, “The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.”
Now three years go by, and two of Shimei’s servants run away. And Shimei breaks the King’s law, he leaves Jerusalem, and as result, Solomon puts him to death when he returns.
So the life of Shimei has many parallels to the life of Mordecai.
Both are from the royal tribe of Benjamin and connected to King Saul.
Both live in Jerusalem for a time, but both eventually leave.
Both transgress the king’s commandment and suffer the consequences. Shimei is executed, Mordecai escapes execution.
Both men struggle to submit to civil authorities that they don’t like. For Shimei it is David. For Mordecai it is Haman.
So the question for Mordecai is, will his end by the same sad and rebellious end as Shimei. Or will he hearken and listen to God, will he succeed where Shimei faltered?
#3 – Kish
The name Kish has an uncertain etymology, and so some say his name means “gift,” while others derive it from the verb, “to ensnare.” So whichever
is correct, the most important thing about Kish is that he was the father of King Saul.
We read in 1 Samuel 9:1-2, “Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power (hayil). And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and handsome/goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.”
And so to call Mordecai a “son of Kish,” is to place him in the position of Saul. It is to cast the long shadow of King Saul’s life, his rebellion, and his failures over the life of Mordecai.
This will become even more explicit later in the book when we are told that Haman is a descendant of Agag. Agag, the king of the Amalekites was the occasion for King Saul’s rebellion and fall from grace. King Saul had obeyed God and executed Agag and destroyed all the Amalekites, there would not ever be a Haman in the first place.
So the book of Esther is calling us back to an ancient war between Israel and Amalek.
Amalek was the nation that attacked Israel right after God brought them out of Egypt. And because of this attack, God says in Deuteronomy 25:17-19, ““Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.”
Now because Israel failed to remember Amalek and blot him out, especially King Saul, it is left to Mordecai, son of Kish, to finish the job.
So will Mordecai win a good name for his fathers? What kind of Benjamite will he be? A giant slayer or a rebel? A faithless Saul or a loyal Jonathan?
Conclusion
This same question before all of us. Who are your fathers? Your natural fathers, your spiritual fathers, your civil fathers? For all of us it is probably a mixed bag. Some good figs, some very bad figs. Many we don’t know. So I want to leave you with an exhortation as you ponder who you are and where you are in the great story that God is telling. And that is:
Remember the 5th commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
None of us got to choose who are father and mother would be. God chose for us. And so whether you had or have a great father and mother, or a terrible father and mother, the promise of the gospel is that God will adopt you as His child, and will be a perfect and everlasting Father to you.
And what your Father in Heaven commands of you in this life, if you want to live and prosper, is to honor His choice in giving you the parents He gave you. Put another way, don’t tell God that you can do a better job than He can at running the world. Honor God, by honoring the father and mother he gave you. In the words of the Apostle Paul, “Who are you O man to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why has thou made me thus?” Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom. 9:20-21).
If God permitted you to be born into a house of shame, a house of slavery, a house of unbelief, well welcome to the human race where all of us are born children of Adam and Eve. All of us are born sinners deserving God’s wrath and the punishment of death.
And so if you find it hard to forgive your fathers, to honor the authorities God has placed over you, then consider the example of Jesus, the perfect son.
Jesus is the one person who chose to be born into this world. The Eternal Son of God could have chosen to just stay in heaven, never suffer, never die, never experience the pain and mortality we all feel. But for love, he chose to come down, and to make our fathers, his fathers, our sins, his sins, so that His Father, could become our Father, and His perfection, our perfection.
That is what God freely chose to do because He loves you.
It says of Christ in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Remember the two genealogies we are given for Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3? Who does Jesus choose to make himself a son of?
He has Mary as his natural mother, Joseph as his adopted father.
And through them he makes himself a son of many unruly, sinful, and wicked men. In the line of the Messiah men who committed idolatry, polygamy, incest, child sacrifice, adultery, and murder. Jesus makes himself a descendent of many shameful men and women whose lives are not worthy of imitation.
Ultimately, he makes himself together with all of us, a son of Adam. As Paul says in Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
So imitate the perfect Son, who honored His Father in heaven by covering your sins, your shame, and winning for you who do not deserve it, a good name, even a name written in heaven, that shall never be blotted out.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Vashti's Rebellion - Part 2 (Esther 1:9-22)

Vashti’s Rebellion – Part 2Sunday, December 8th, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 1:9-22Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. 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. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgment: And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;) What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti 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 Ahasuerus. 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, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and 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 laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. 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 honour, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.
Prayer
O Father heaven is your throne, and the earth your footstool, and yet we desire that your house would be built in us, your people, and so we cling to the promise of Isaiah 66:2, where you say, “to this man will I look, Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembleth at my word.” Make us to rejoice at Your Word, with all fear and trembling, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
When the first King of Israel, King Saul, disobeyed God’s commandment, God sent the Prophet Samuel to confront him. We read in 1 Samuel 15:22-23, “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.”
Last week we considered the rebellion of Queen Vashti against her husband and king’s command. And this morning we are going to consider the consequences of that rebellion which has many parallels and connections with the story of King Saul and the rise of David.
One such connection we shall look at next week is that Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin (like Saul), and Haman is a descendent of Agag, the Amalekite, who Saul refused to execute in accord with God’s commandment. Saul’s rebellion was sparing the king of the Amalekites and laying his hand on the spoils that belonged to God.
What were the consequences of King Saul’s rebellion? It says in 1 Samuel 15:28, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.” Who is that neighbor better than Saul, it is the young shepherd boy David who shall be anointed as king.
In a similar way, we will see that the consequences of Vashti’s rebellion are that she loses her royal office and status as Queen, and as it says in verse 19 of our text, “That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.”
This is the pattern when people rebel against God’s authority. Whether they are a King or Queen or a lowly citizen in the realm, the consequences of rebellion are usually the loss or curse of whatever authority and privileges we formerly had.
This is of course exactly what happened to all of us at the fall. Because of Adam’s sin, we were rejected by God, our soul was divorced from Him (we experienced spiritual death), and we were exiled from the Garden. We read in Genesis 3:24, “So [the LORD God] drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims [angelic gatekeepers], and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
So because of our rebellion against God in our first parents, the only way back into the Garden, back into God’s House and Royal Presence, is through death. It is only through the flaming sword of a worthy sacrifice that man can experience atonement and be reconciled/resurrected to the God he has offended.
This is what the entire sacrificial system at the Tabernacle and Temple signified, it was an ongoing ritual enactment, a living prophesy, of how Christ would come and offer himself as a once and for all atonement for sin.
In Adam, we are born rebels and exiles. But in Christ, we are reborn as sons and daughters and citizens of his heavenly kingdom. And this is what the book of Esther is ultimately about.
We will see this more in future sermons, but Jesus is the more perfect and righteous Ahasuerus (the true “Chief Among Kings”). Jesus is the royal scepter you must touch to approach the throne of God. Jesus is the more submissive and obedient Queen Vashti who says to the Father, “not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus is the more shrewd and loyal counsellor Mordecai, who has the sevenfold spirit of wisdom. And Jesus is the more courageous and faithful Esther who says, “If I perish, I perish.” And perish for us he does.
So if we do not find Jesus in this book, we are reading it wrong. And where we find shortcomings, sins, and flaws in our characters, we see the need for Christ’s perfection. And when we see the shining moments of virtue and glory in our heroes, we see still only a dim shadow of the fullness of grace and virtue that Christ possesses, and which He shall give to us at the resurrection.
So I want to remind us as we continue through this book that God intended for us to find Him here. Esther (whose name means “I am hidden/concealed”), unlike any other book of the Bible, never mentions God on the letters of the page. And yet God is not absent. God is not distant. Even when God seems to hide his face, his mercy and wisdom is still orchestrating all things for the good of those who love Him. As it says in the constant refrain of Psalm 136, “His mercy endures forever.”
So as we come to our text this morning, there are just two question I want us to consider as we work through this text, and those two questions are:
1. What is the king’s response to Vashti’s disobedience?
2. What does this response teach us about our relationship to God?
Verse 12
12But 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.
So recall that Vashti’s sin was a refusal to come wearing the royal crown when the King commanded. And to judge whether this was right or wrong we searched the Scriptures and concluded that according to God’s law at Creation (Natural Law), and according to the law of Moses, and according to the law of the New Testament under Christ, Vashti is guilty of rebellion on two counts:
1. She is guilty of disobeying her husband, who is her head of household.
2. She is guilty of disobeying her king, who is her head of state.
So how does King Ahasuerus, who is trying to bring peace and unity to all these 127 different provinces, respond to his wife and queen’s rebellion?
First, we are told that He responds with a great and burning anger. And the question for us is then, is that anger a proper and righteous response?
The answer is: it all depends on what Ahasuerus does with that anger. Anger in its most proper definition is the desire for vengeance, or the appetite for justice.
It says in James 1:20, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
But it also says in Ephesians 4:26 (quoting Psalm 4:4), “Be angry, and do not sin.”
So anger as an emotion, a bodily passion, is something we ought to feel when confronted with certain great evils and injustice. When the faults are small we can overlook them, we can cover them in love, and that is how we practice being “slow to anger.” However, there are times when anger is appropriate as Christ Himself shows us in the gospels.
Even the Lord Jesus, who never sinned in any way, is said to be angry multiple times in the gospels.
In John 2, it says Jesus was consumed with zeal as he drove out the money changers from the temple and overthrew the tables.
In Mark 3:5, when Jesus was being accused of sabbath breaking it says, “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”
So the example of Jesus proves that the passion/emotion of anger is not inherently sinful, and is in fact the proper response when God’s law and God’s honor is violated. We ought to desire justice and vengeance when we see evil and suffering in the world. But as Paul says in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.”
So what helps us to be slow to anger and to not take vengeance into our own hands, is that God Himself is going to punish and uphold justice in the world.
And how does God do that? He will do this perfectly on the last day at the Final Judgment, but in the meantime, he does this through governing authorities, the civil magistrate. That is what Romans 13 goes on to describe.
Paul says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake” (Rom. 13:1-5).
So Ahasuerus is the wrath of God against evil. He is God’s minister of justice. His job as king is to punish the wicked and protect the righteous. And when he does this, God’s wrath is being manifest.
It says in Psalm 21:9, “Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.”
Likewise in Psalm 7:11, “God judgeth the righteous, And God is angry with the wicked every day.”
So what does Ahasuerus do with all this wrath and anger?
We read in the next verses that he consults his wise men.
Verses 13-15
13Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgment: 14And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;) 15What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
Now if Ahasuerus was drunk when this happened, like many commentators claim He was, then Ahasuerus is a surprisingly restrained and wise drunk. Notice there is no outburst of words, or a rash decree, there is no “off with her head, bring it here on a platter.” No, this is a king whose anger and wrath is governed by reason. This is a king with a more sober mind than most of us would be in the same situation.
How restrained are you when someone disobeys your direct command? Do you take a breath, pray about it, call the wisest people you know, and hear their advice? Or are you tempted to just take vengeance right then and there.
It says in Proverbs 25:28, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit Is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”
And in Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”
Ahasuerus is acting wisely in that he is ruling his anger and seeking counsel before making any decree.
Notice also who the king calls for counsel. He calls the wise men who knew the times. Remember our very first sermon on Esther. We said that this book is given to teach us prudence. To teach us to become like the “Sons of Issachar who knew the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chr. 12:32).
The King has seven such sons of Issachar in his cabinet, and it says in the parentheses, “for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgment.” Meaning, it was customary for Ahasuerus in any case of difficulty to consult the opinion and advice of those who were experts in the law. Recall that Daniel was one such counsellor earlier in the Persian dynasty (Dan. 6:28).
So again, this is another piece of evidence that contradicts the common notion that Ahasuerus was some drunken angry tyrant. The text explicitly describes him as a man who consults and appreciates “all that knew law and judgment.”
So the King calls this counsel and asks them, “What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains.”
Notice the King desires to do what is right according to the law, not according to his whims or personal preference. And this is the great difference between the righteous use of God’s governing authority, and the abuse of that power.
A king who fears God executes justice according to the law. But a wicked king is a law to himself, he is governed by his carnal passions.
So what is the advice from the king’s counsel?
It comes in two sections:
In verses 16-18, Memucan summarizes the Queen’s crime and the potential consequences of letting it go unpunished.
And then in verses 19-22, he recommends a decree intended to counterbalance Vashti’s rebellion.
Verses 16-18
16And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti 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 Ahasuerus. 17For 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, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. 18Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and 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.
Now this might be hard for us to understand because we live in a culture that fancies individualism, and free choice, and personal autonomy. And so some commentators have said this is a comic exaggeration of what Vashti’s refusal might do to Persia. But a moment’s reflection on human nature should tell us this is exactly what would happen because it still happens today.
People imitate whoever they look up to. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good morals.”
We all become like the people we hang out with, and we all imitate whoever we esteem, admire, and look up.
If you look up to some popstar, or musician, or athlete, or YouTuber, you start to adopt their ways of speaking, or acting, or doing whatever they do. This is just how God made us. We are always following and imitating someone. We are all someone’s disciple, it might be Christ, or it might be the devil.
And so I do not think this an exaggeration for Memucan to say that Vashti’s disobedience of her husband and king, is going to encourage similar disobedience throughout the Empire.
Remember the context. Who is at this feast? Everyone of power, importance, and influence. The princes and rulers, the powers of Persia and Media are before the king, and where are the wives? They are with Vashti.
It says in verse 9, “Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.”
So you can imagine Vashti at her feast, with all the important women eating and drinking, and these seven chamberlains come to the Queen, and deliver this command that she is to come, wearing the royal crown, to display her beauty for all Persia to see. Your husband is calling you, what are you going to do?
In that moment, Vashti has enormous power. The eyes of the empire are upon her. And her actions can either honor the king and unite the Empire in submitting to his rule, or she can dishonor him and challenge his authority.
You can see that this is not merely a domestic conflict between husband and wife. Whether Vashti intends this or not (and I think she does), this is political powerplay. If the King’s own wife won’t obey him, why should these princes and provinces thousands of miles away. Perhaps the princes are starting to whisper, does Vashti know something about Ahasuerus that we don’t know?
So Vashti uses that decisive moment of influence, not to honor the king, but to stir up a war between the sexes. And whether she intended to or not (and I think she did), she has placed the king in an almost impossible position. This is Ahasuerus King Solomon moment. Two mothers, one child, who gets the baby? Bring me a sword.
If the King just lets this go, and does not punish her, what will happen? It will encourage more insubordination throughout the realm. He will be seen as a weak and impotent ruler and can expect more challenges to his power throughout the realm. So do nothing and say goodbye to your hopes for unity and peace.
However, if the King is too heavy handed, and just executes her then and there, he will be like that guy who gets in a wrestling match with a woman. Can he win? No. It is a lose-lose scenario. If she pins him, he’s a weakling. If he pins her, woopty woo you’re stronger than a girl. In either outcome, the King looks pretty weak.
So the King is walking a tightrope and now all the eyes are on him. What is he going to do?
In verses 19-22, Memucan offers a solution to this predicament.
Verses 19-22
19If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. 20And 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 honour, both to great and small. 21And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: 22For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.
This is an amazingly shrewd decree. What is Vashti’s punishment? Her punishment is that she gets what she wants.
1. She did not want to come before the king, and so she’s no longer allowed to come before the king.
2. She refused to come as Queen, wearing the royal crown, and so her royal crown and estate shall be given to someone else better.
This is quite the chess match between Ahasuerus and Vashti. And the outcome is that the King decrees what is both merciful and just. Nobody can say the King overreacted, and no one can say the if you disobey the king, noting will happen to you.
Moreover, the decree that, “every man should bear rule in his own house,” is just a restatement of the natural law. It’s like decreeing that the sun is hot, or that the husband is the head of the wife. No law of nature can be annulled, but it can be promoted and restated to remind people of God’s created order. And that is what Ahasuerus does, he simply upholds the law of God and encourages obedience to it.
Conclusion
Now last week we said that Vashti is a type and symbol of rebellious Israel, who was divorced and deposed by God for her rebellion. And we also said that Vashti signifies every rebellious soul that refuses to come to King Jesus. The proclamation of the gospel is an invitation to a feast. Listen to how Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven in Luke 14:16-24:
He says, “A certain man gave a great feast and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”
Notice that the punishment for those who make excuses, for those who refuse to come when the Master calls is that they, like Vashti, get what they want. They don’t get to taste the Master’s supper. They don’t get to experience the glory of the king’s presence, or ever see his face.
It says in Proverbs 16:15, “In the light of the king’s countenance (Heb. Is literally “face) is life; And his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.”
David puts it this way in Psalm 36:9, “For with thee is the fountain of life: In thy light shall we see light.”
What is the very absolute and highest good that you can attain to? It is to see God and live. It is to see the King’s face, to know the divine essence, and to be united forever to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul describes this beatific vision in 1 Corinthians 13:12, when he says, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Imagine knowing God, like God knows you. Imagine being on such intimate terms with your Creator, Lord and King, so that every sin is pardoned, every shameful act forgotten, every physical ailment healed, every sorrow turned to joy, every tear wiped away, and only perfect peace and an ever-increasing happiness remains.
That is what God has in store for those who love him, and who are willing to come to Him wearing the royal crown. That royal crown is the grace of Christ, it is the beauty of the Holy Spirit, it is the love of Your Heavenly Father. And so do not rebel against His Word, do not decline the Master’s invitation, for “rebellion is as the sin of sorcery, And stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry.”
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Sermon: Vashti's Rebellion - Part 1 (Esther 1:9-22)

Vashti’s Rebellion – Part 1Sunday, December 1st, 2024Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Esther 1:9-22
Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. 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. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgment: And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king’s face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;) What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains? And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti 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 Ahasuerus. 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, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and 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 laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. 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 honour, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.
Prayer
O Father, every word that you speak is pure, and therefore we shall not add, nor shall we remove from the Holy Scriptures, lest you reprove us and we be found liars. We like Isaiah are a people of unclean lips, who live amongst a people of perverse and lying tongues, and so we ask for the coal of your heavenly altar to be placed upon our mouths, so that only pure words and holy truth might proceed from it. We ask for all of this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we began our study of King Ahasuerus and the kind of king that he is. And we said that contrary to many modern commentators, who mis-identify this king, we said that this Ahasuerus is none other than Darius the Great, the same King Darius who decreed that the temple in Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, and all in accord with the original decree of Cyrus his predecessor.
To give you a sample of the kind of decree that Ahasuerus made early on in his reign, listen to his words in Ezra 6:7-12, Ahasuerus (“chief among kings”) says, “Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place. Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expences be given unto these men, that they be not hindered. And that which they have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail: That they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons. Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this. And the God that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people, that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius (“upholder of the good”) have made a decree; let it be done with speed.”
So if you study the chronology of Ezra-Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, you discover that this decree from Ahasuerus/Darius must have been in motion around the same time that the book of Esther begins (around 519 BC).
The book of Esther we are told begins in the third year of Ahasuerus, with a 180-day feast, and then a seven-day feast to top it off. And we said that these two feasts are Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Ahasuerus’ plan for uniting the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire.
Phase 1 is the six-month long feast for all the nobles, princes, and influential leaders of the land.
Phase 2 is a seven-day feast for the general population of Shushan (“great and small”), who are all invited to live like royalty for a week. They are invited to recline on the king’s furniture, to drink from the king’s gold vessels, to enjoy the king’s garden palace environment.
And we said that all this feasting is a type and shadow of the eternal feast that Christ, the True Ahasuerus, the True Chief Among Kings, invites the whole world to attend.
In the book of Esther, King Ahasuerus is a type and symbol of God. That is how the earliest and best of Christian commentators have interpreted this book.
It is noteworthy that just a few months before these two great feasts in Shushan, God sent Haggai the prophet to the Jews in Jerusalem. And guess what the name Haggai means? It means “my feast.”
And what is the message of God’s prophet whose name is “My Feast?” It is “get back to work so we can feast again in my house!” Rebuild the house of prayer for all nations, so that the sacrificial offerings and the festal gatherings can begin again. The 70 years of exile and fasting are over. Return and rebuild. And when you return, return with a whole heart. That is the message of Haggai “My Feast.”
The whole drama of the book of Esther (as we shall see) revolves around feasting and fasting. And the two prophets God sends to his people during this era, Haggai and Zechariah, give rebuke and instruction on the kinds of feasting and fasting that God desires.
Haggai’s message is essentially, if you are holy, God will want to dine with you. If you are holy food, a living sacrifice, then God will incorporate you into His Everlasting Body.
Zechariah’s message is that the righteous shall have their fasting and mourning turned into feasting and gladness. He says in Zechariah 8:16-19, “These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.”
And so God’s message for Israel in this Era of Restoration isreturn to me with all your whole heart. And the response God wants from His people is summed up by David in Psalm 51 when he says, “O Lord, open thou my lips; And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.”
So those were the marching orders for Mordecai and Esther, and all Israel in this era. And yet for whatever reason, we are not told, Mordecai and Esther are not in Jerusalem, they are instead, 1,000 miles away, in Shushan the capital of Persia. And it is there that this great drama of feasting and fasting will unfold.
The title of our sermon this morning is Vashti’s Rebellion – Part 1, and there are two big questions we will try to answer from this text.
1. What is the King’s Command and how does it fit with his plans to unite the Empire?
2. What should we think of Vashti’s refusal to obey the King’s command?
So let me give you the outline of our text.
Outline of the Text
In verses 9-11 we have The King’s Command.
In verse 12a we have The Queen’s Rebellion.
And then in verses 12b-22 we have The King’s Judgment.
This morning we will focus primarily on verses 9-12, and next week we’ll look at the rest.
Q1 – What is the King’s Command, and how do this fit with his plans to unite the Empire?
Verses 9-11
9Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.
10On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
11To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on.
Note first that the king is not said to be drunk, he is said to be “merry with wine.” In Hebrew it is more literally, “good in heart.” We would say, “he’s in good spirits.”
To be merry with wine, especially on the seventh day is to imitate God’s joy and rest from His work of Creation. And this joy is what God intended for those who know how to use his gifts without abusing them. It says in Psalm 104:14-15, that God “causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, And wine that makes glad the heart of man.”
What does God command the church to do in the New Covenant on the Christian Sabbath? Eat bread, and drink wine together in His presence. Our worship service is a royal feast that we gather for every seven days.
We see other examples of such righteous merriment in that great man of virtue and valor, Boaz. It says of him in Ruth 3:7, “And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and Ruth came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.”
Remember that Ruth is identified as a Proverbs 31 woman, a woman of hayil, and notice the contrast and parallels between Ruth and Vashti, Boaz and Ahasuerus. Boaz and Ahasuerus are both great men with authority who are merry in heart, and when they are merry in heart, Ruth approaches Boaz softly and without being asked, whereas Vashti refuses to come even when the King commands.
Now what exactly is the King’s Command and how is this Phase 3 of his plans for unity?
The King’s command is that his wife, Queen Vashti, come into his presence, wearing the royal crown, and show forth her beauty.
Contrary to some Rabbinic interpretations, there is nothing here to suggest she must come in naked, or wearing nothing but the crown, or that this is any way a degradation of the queen. Quite the contrary!
This is the climax and main event of all this long feasting. This is a kind of coronation and celebration of the Queen as the crown of Persia’s beauty. It is a covenant renewal between the King and his Bride.
The closest modern-day example would be something like Inauguration Day for the President at the capital. All eyes are on the President, and when he swears his oath of office, he raises his right hand, he places his left hand on the Bible. And who usually holds that Bible? The President’s Wife. Even Joe Biden kept that tradition.
So imagine the scandal, the headlines, if President Trump is about to take his oath of office, and Melania refuses to come and hold the Bible. That is the kind of scene we have here in Esther.
Now how is this calling of Vashti, Phase 3 of the king’s plan to unify the Empire?
Unity only exists where there is a shared love and loyalty for the common good. And without such a principle of unity, war and schism are inevitable. So how are you going to unite 127 different provinces in the ancient world? The King himself is part of that uniting principle, in that He establishes law, order, and justice. But the other half of that principle is the king’s wife. The queen. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, “the head of the woman is the man…[but] woman is the glory of the man.”
And so together, King and Queen are the uniting principle of the empire. Ahasuerus is Civil Father, and Vashti Civil Mother.
When God describes the relationship between the civil government and the church, it is described in these same terms. God says in Isaiah 49:23, “Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, And their queens thy nursing mothers.”
So Vashti, as Queen is not only the king’s wife, she is also Mother Persia. Vashti is the stars and stripes, she is the Statue of Liberty. She is by her very office, is the empire personified. And so it belongs to the “First Lady,” to be a model of virtue, obedience, and submission to the King, because he is her head in two senses. Ahasuerus is Head of State and her supreme civil ruler, and he is also Head of their marriage and household, and her supreme domestic ruler.
So Queen Vashti has a double debt of obedience to Ahasuerus as both her husband and king. And yet despite this duty, we read in verse 12a.
Verse 12a
12But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains:
Q2 – What should we think about Vashti’s refusal to obey the King’s command?
To answer this question correctly, we need the straight line of Scripture to help us judge. And we especially need this straight line in our day because our land, our culture, our churches are crooked and perverse. We are a nation that has tried to abolish the family, redefine marriage, invent new genders, and overthrow any kind of God-given hierarchy. So we might be a little biased.
This is evident in just how many Christian commentaries on this book, praise Vashti as a proto feminist. For them, Vashti is the modern woman with “enlightened values” caught up in the machinery of an oppressive patriarchal culture.
So while the Bible presents Vashti as a cautionary tale for rebellion, we have biblical scholars and Christian preachers, praising her as a martyr for the cause of women’s rights. That is what happens when you listen to the devil. Before he gives you a lie he whispers in your ear, “Did God really say?”
And so to bolster ourselves against such lies and deception, we must know what God really says in His Word. Only then can we judge Vashti’s actions aright.
On the opening pages of Scripture we learn that it is the nature of sin to subvert God’s created order.
We know from Genesis 1 and 2 that God created man first, and then woman from his side to be his helper, and together they were to rule creation. Adam was to obey God and teach his wife. Eve was to obey Adam and submit to his teaching. And the animals were to obey mankind. But when we get to Genesis 3 what do we see? That whole order of authority gets reversed. Eve submits to the serpent. Adam heeds his wife. And everyone is guilty of saying with the devil by their actions, “Hath God really said?”
So to reject male headship is to reenact the Fall all over again. It is the height of pride to think you know better than God how to do marriage, how to do government, how to do male and female roles. But God is not mocked, a land reaps what is sows.
Death, pain, and suffering all entered the world because of this sin of rebellion against authority. You cannot rebel against God’s hierarchy and live. As it says in Proverbs 8:36, “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate me love death.”
Now just in case we missed the moral lessons of Genesis 1-3, God gives us many other passages to warn us about fiddling with His created order.
God says in Isaiah 3:12 to Israel in her rebellion, “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.”
When God gives the laws for civil rulers and kings in Exodus 18, Deuteronomy 1, and Deuteronomy 17, the office is exclusively male.
In Numbers 30, God decrees how a father can annul the vow of a young daughter in his house, and how a husband can annul the vow of his wife when he first hears it. It says in Numbers 30:13, “Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.”
And lest we think that was just an Old Testament principle abolished by Christ, consider the words of the Apostles Paul and Peter.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:11-14, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
He says likewise in 1 Corinthians 14, in regards to public preaching, “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law [What law? The natural law.]. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church [that is in formal public worship service].”
Perhaps the most relevant text as it relates to Queen Vashti is 1 Peter 2 and 3, where he addresses submission first to our civil heads and then to our domestic heads. So as I read this, consider how Vashti measures up.
God says in 1 Peter 2:13-18, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward [harsh].”
So even if Ahasuerus was a bad man, and not gentle, and a hard and unreasonable ruler, God still requires that Vashti obey him. It was certainly no sin to come before the king wearing the royal crown, indeed it would have been a great honor.
The Apostle Peter then addresses the conduct of wives saying, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear…For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.”
So again, even if Ahasuerus was a bad husband, Vashti was to win him without a word, by her chaste conduct and reverence. She was to be as Sarah, whose name means The Princess, the mother of kings and rulers, and call her husband, “Lord.”
That was the duty Vashti had before God, and it was a great rebellion, it was treason, to not come when the king called.
This sin of Vashti is the same sin that Israel had committed against God, refusing to come when He called.
God says in Isaiah 66:4, “I also will choose their delusions, And will bring their fears upon them; Because when I called, none did answer; When I spake, they did not hear: But they did evil before mine eyes.
In Ezekiel 16, God likens Jerusalem to a woman that He redeemed and loved and married and made beautiful (she was His Queen!), but then her beauty went to her head, and she became obstinate, rebellious, a disobedient wife, more wicked than her sisters Samaria and Sodom.
In the spiritual allegory of this book, Vashti signifies the rebellious Jews. God, like Ahasuerus, intended for Jerusalem to be his glorious bride, the jewel in his crown and the desire of the nations. But because Israel was faithless, God divorces her.
The book of Lamentations begins with a cry for her saying, “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave!” And then a few verses later it says, “The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.”
Conclusion
Vashti is a symbol of rebellious Israel. And she is also the symbol of every rebellious soul. To rebel against King Jesus, is to divorce yourself from God. The insanity of Vashti’s rebellion is that she refuses to come and wear the royal crown. She chooses shame instead of the glory and honor the king wants to bestow.
The great deception of sin is to make God appear less good than He is. That was the serpent’s lie in the garden, and it is where all pride begins. If you think that you know better than God, your end will be the same as Vashti. You will not be permitted to see the King’s face. You will not attain to that beatific vision of the Divine Essence, which is the highest of all goods, and the good that Christ died to give you.
So keep before your eyes the love and goodness of God. Inscribe upon your soul the promises of His Word.
It says in Psalm 37:4, Delight thyself in the Lord; And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
It says in Psalm 84:11, “The Lord will give grace and glory: No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
God withholds nothing that is good for us, and He knows better than us, what goods we need. That takes supernatural faith to believe!
So say to your soul what God tells you to say in Psalm 27:4, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”
May God make give you that desire and make it increase forever. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.