Diaspora | Esther 1:13-2:7

We're about to take another extended journey

through the Old Testament this morning. We're

gonna be, yeah, thank you. We're gonna be everywhere

from Deuteronomy to Ezra in one sermon. I know

what you're thinking. I thought we were in the

book of Esther. We are. But believe it or not,

last Sunday's 55 -minute sermon was not enough

to fully set the context for the story of Esther.

So there's so much more we need to understand,

and I hope to finish that today. But first we've

got to finish where we left off last week. So

open your Bibles. We're going to jump right into

it. By the way, I promise we're not going to

do this every week of the series, where we just

do massive history and maps and timelines. We'll

build the foundation over a couple of weeks,

and then we will not wear you out each and every

week. But this is going to be a long one again

today, but I think an important one. All right,

Esther, chapter 1, verse 13, we're going to go

Esther 1:13

through. chapter 2, verse 8, and introduce our

main characters. By the way, if you missed last

Sunday's message, you've got to go back and listen

to it on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, on YouTube,

whatever you have, because that is so critical

to understanding this entire book. And I'm not

going to have time to recap all the details today.

Also, several of you asked for the slides from

last week. And I understand why, because I was

constantly pointing to visuals, and I'm sure

it's frustrating to listen to the message and

go, what is he talking about? So my hope is to

get those uploaded onto the resources tab on

Church Center under All Church sometime today

or tomorrow, and also to maybe upload the slides

from this morning's sermon as well. So watch

for those. Okay, we abruptly quit last week at

verse 12. So we're going to pick up there. Let

me first remind you what happened in these first

12 verses. We read about three banquets that

took place in the third year of the reign of

King Xerxes, who is the king of the Medes and

the Persians. That would be the year 483 BC.

Three banquets were held in the city of Susa

at his winter palace in that year. The first

lasted for how long? 180 days, six months of

partying and talking and planning. And we looked

at that and we said, probably what's going on

there is Xerxes was meeting with his nobles and

his army officers for war planning because he

is planning this audacious invasion of Greece.

And so he needed to spend a considerable amount

of time, up to six months, doing that planning

for that, launching that invasion. But then we

see a second banquet, and this one lasts only

seven days. How many of you guys have held a

seven -day party? Only seven days. And it is

for all the men present there in the palace,

including the nobles and princes of the kingdom.

And it appears simultaneously his wife, Queen

Vashti, is also holding her own banquet at the

palace, that one for the noble women of the kingdom.

So you've got these things happening at the same

time. Now, as I shared last week, The book of

Esther is a book of crisis. It moves from one

situation to another, one crisis to another.

And last week we saw the first crisis pop to

the surface. It happens in verses 10 through

12. On the seventh day of Xerxes' banquet, when

he is at least, at least mildly drunk, he turns

to his eunuchs, his servants, and he snaps his

fingers and he asks for what? Go get my wife,

the queen. Drag her out. No, I didn't even say

drag her. Bring her out before me and all of

these men so that we can see her what? Her beauty.

That she would display her beauty. Now, we're

not told specifically why the king requested

this, what prompted it, but it seems logical

to assume what we know about Xerxes and his ego.

He wanted to boast in how good his life was as

the king and what better way than to say, look

how beautiful my wife is. So Vashti is ordered

to appear in order to look her best in front

of all these men who, yes, have been feasting

and drinking for seven days. Now, that would

make any woman in any culture at any time period

extremely nervous and uncomfortable. But as I

said last week, Vashti's job in that moment was

to what? Obey. This is the ancient Near East.

She was to obey, to publicly display her royal

beauty in order to glorify her king and her husband.

That's what she needed to do. But in verse 12,

we're told that the queen refuses the king's

command. Let me say that again. She refused the

king's command, which was a bold and risky move,

right? She had to know that she was putting not

just her crown, but possibly her life at risk

because that choice was a public defiance of

royalty. Public. And for a young king like Xerxes,

we looked at that, he's at this point about 35

years old, he's trying to prove himself to all

the noble princes of the kingdom. This is a public

embarrassment. He looks weak in front of these

men. But there's a great irony in this, and maybe

you noticed it last week. Here's the most powerful

man on earth. He commands armies and conquers

nations, but there's one seemingly simple thing

he can't do. He can't control his wife. He cannot

command his wife to obey him. And so in verse

12, we read the obvious, the king is furious,

right? That's where we left off. Now, before

we go on, this is a good time to pause in the

story and point out something that's very important.

And this will be true the rest of this series.

In the world of biblical genres, the book of

Esther is what we call historical narrative.

And historical narrative can be... tricky to

interpret because they're notorious for leaving

out details that we as readers wish we had. They're

just not given to us, right? For example, we'd

like to know precisely what was it that motivated

Xerxes to call his wife out to display herself.

And we'd love to know precisely why Vashti refused,

but those details aren't given to us. Those details

would help us to define these two characters

in a moral sense, but the author, for whatever

reason, doesn't give them to us. Because here's

the thing, sometimes the author of a historical

narrative is more interested in the situation

than he is in the motivation of the characters,

and that seems to be the case here. The author

just doesn't take the time to tell us why these

decisions were made, but we're going to find

out in just a moment what those decisions led

to. And that is what the author wants us to note

here. So it can be fun to step back from a story

like this and speculate about motivations and

decisions of the characters. And we can look

at culture and context. That's all fine. But

we have to be careful not to get too dogmatic

and say, this is absolutely what's going on unless

the text itself explicitly tells us what's going

on. Does that make sense? Okay, so I'll try to

make that clear when we're speculating or this

is possible, but we're not gonna be dogmatic

about everything. So beginning in verse 13, the

story moves past why Vashti refused the king's

command to the question of how her insubordination

is now gonna be handled by the king. Verse 13,

then the king said to the wise men who understood

the times, for it was the custom of the king,

so to speak, before all who knew law and justice

and were close to him. And he gives the names,

Karshana, Shethar, Admetha, Tarshish, Meris,

Marsana, Memukan, the seven princes of Persia

and Media who had access to the king's presence

and sat in the first place in the kingdom. These

are important men, aren't they? Very important

men. Verse 15, according to law, the king asks,

what is to be done with Queen Vashti? Because

she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus.

delivered by the eunuchs. So this actually shows

a little bit of wisdom, doesn't it? A little

bit of patience on the part of Xerxes. He's angry,

and yet he doesn't pronounce some hasty judgment.

He turns to his nobles, these important men,

and he asks them for legal counsel. And one of

the men steps forward in verse 16. In the presence

of the king and the princes, Memucon said, Queen

Vashti has wronged not only the king, listen

to this now, She is wrong, not only the king,

but all the princes and all the people who are

in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. Now that's

three alls if you didn't catch that. That is

a wide and sweeping indictment. Now listen to

his reasoning and keep in mind that Vashti was

the most prominent and visible woman in the kingdom.

Verse 17, for the queen's conduct will become

known to all the women, causing them, You can

almost hear the fear in this guy's voice, right?

Like, he's nervous. What if all of our wives,

Start refusing us in our homes. It's chaos. And

what's gonna happen? We're all gonna be angry.

Everybody's gonna be grumpy in the whole kingdom.

It's actually kind of humorous, isn't it? Again,

this is the most powerful empire in the world

and they've got this silly problem, don't they?

Verse 19, he goes on. If it pleases the king,

let a royal edict be issued by him and let it

be written in the laws of Persia and Media, listen,

so that it cannot be repealed. That's important.

that Vashti may no longer come into the presence

of King Ahasuerus and let the king give her royal

position to another who is more worthy than she.

In other words, don't let us down, king. This

insubordination has to be dealt with firmly and

harshly. Make sure that every wife understands

she cannot disobey her husband and get away with

it. Now, this is what is going to open the door

to what the author is really concerned about.

How this insubordination opens up the position

of queen for Xerxes, right? And what the king

is going to look for is someone who is more worthy

than Vashti, meaning what? More submissive than

Vashti. And then Momucan. Wraps up his logic

in verse 20. When the king's edict, which he

will make, is heard throughout all of his kingdom,

great as it is, oh great king, right? Butter

up the king. Then all women will give honor to

their husbands, great and small. And this word

pleased the king and the princes. Of course it

did. Of course it did. And the king did as Memucan

proposed. He sent letters to all the king's provinces,

to each province according to its script and

to every people according to their language,

right? Because it's a vast kingdom of multiple

languages. That every man should be the master

in his own house and the one who speaks in the

language of his own people. So this is an obvious

sign. Husbands, take control of your households

and wives remain in submission. And as I read

this, I find this so interesting because, again,

we're talking about 2 ,500 years ago in the ancient

Near East. You would not think there would be

even a hint of proto -feminism at that time in

that place. You know, wives that were pushing

back against the patriarchy of that day. But

we should not forget what happened in the garden,

right? In Genesis 3 .16, part of the curse given

to the woman was your desire will be for your

husband's. role, but he will rule over you. And

that struggle was still happening in Persia in

the 5th century BC. Now, how many of you are

grateful for how the New Testament picks up on

this and gives us a very clear and balanced view

of this issue of leadership and submission in

marriage? Raise your hand. Are you grateful?

I am. While the wife in the New Testament is

called to be subject to her husband and to show

him respect, Simultaneously, the husband is called

to love and cherish his wife as Christ loves

his bride, the church. That is an incredibly

high calling. And to live with her in an understanding

way. And when both husband and wife live out

those commands, not demanding the other fulfill

their role, but focusing on what God has commanded

them to do, doing that at the same time, well,

then marriage is beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful.

But these are obviously things that Xerxes and

these nobles had no clue about. What they want

are wives that will simply cower and obey. Okay,

so now the stage is set with those ironic, funny,

kind of scary stories of three banquets. We now

get the introduction of our main characters.

Turn over to chapter two. Now, let's start with

a historical note. Drop your eyes in chapter

two down to verse 16. And in the very end of

the sentence, you will see that the events of

chapter two take place in the seventh year of

Xerxes' reign. Here's what that means. Between

chapter one and chapter two, we're jumping ahead

four years. Four years, that's important to know.

And during that time, during those four years,

what happened? Xerxes did launch this invasion

of Greece in the year 480 BC. We know this historically.

He launched this evasion, and as I explained

last Sunday, he had some initial success. He

actually sacked the city of Athens and burned

it and felt like, oh, I got some revenge for

my father having been defeated by the Athenians,

but ultimately, he lost the battle. His armies

were pushed out of Greece. So as we come to chapter

two now, Xerxes is back in Persia and he is licking

his wounds from this loss, which again must have

been humiliating before his fellow nobles. Now

he's seeking to cheer his heart through other

means. So look at chapter two. After these things,

that's sort of the author's way of saying time

advanced, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had

subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had

done and what had been decreed against her. Now,

interestingly, the Jewish historian Josephus,

in his work, The Antiquities of the Jews, he

writes that, at least in his day, the Jewish

community believed that Xerxes was still in love

with Vashti, and he grieved over the fact that

he had to separate from her, but he felt bound

to the law. He decreed it. Remember, it said

the law cannot be repealed. He had decreed it,

and so it must be so. What that means is we have

a deeply unhappy king. He's licking his wounds

from a loss on the battlefield and he's missing

his queen and there is nothing worse than an

unhappy, unstable king, especially for the servants.

And so they cook up a plan to help Xerxes get

out of this funk. Verse two, then the king's

attendants who served him said, let beautiful

young virgins be sought for the king. Let the

king appoint overseers in all the provinces of

his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful

young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem,

and into the custody of Haggai, the king's eunuch,

who is in charge of the women, and let their

cosmetics be given to them. Then let the young

lady who pleases the king be queen in place of

Vashti. And not surprisingly, this matter pleased

the king and he did accordingly. So, good news.

We're gonna hold a Miss Persian Empire pageant.

That's what's gonna happen. We're gonna parade

this endless number of beautiful women before

the king. By the way, Herodotus says it was more

than 400 women, ultimately, that came before

the king. And whichever young lady he fancies

the most, she'll be the queen. And the servants

think this is gonna keep the king busy and happy

for quite a while. And finally, here in verse

seven, we're now introduced to our main characters.

And then we'll stop here and do some historical

work. Verse five, now there was at the citadel

in Susa a Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son

of Yair, the son of Shammai, the son of Kish,

a Benjamite. Now remember that lineage there,

that's important. Who had been taken into exile

from Jerusalem with the captives who had been

exiled with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar,

the king of Babylon, had exiled. Love those two

verses, just chock full of history, which we'll

break down. Verse 7, he was bringing up Hadassah,

that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, and I actually

had to Google that. What does that mean? It's

basically an older cousin, right? Am I right?

Your uncle's daughter? Okay, it's an older cousin.

I mean, I had to look that up. That was so confusing.

I don't know why. My pea brain just couldn't

process it. Okay. So he's bringing up Esther,

his younger cousin, for she had no father or

mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form

and face. And when her father and mother died,

Mordecai took her as his own daughter. Okay,

so here's the controversial question of the day.

How did we get here? How does a man of Judah

from the tribe of Benjamin end up living in a

royal Persian city like Susa? And what does that

say about his identity and about his faith as

a Jew? Those are the questions we want to answer

today. And to do that, we're going to go back

to the Torah and we're going to talk about the

roots of the Babylonian exile. I want to take

you back to the fifth book of the Old Testament,

the book of Deuteronomy. And I want you to think

about what's the most famous chapter in Deuteronomy.

Every biblical student knows this. Answer that

question. If you want to look at the future of

Israel, the most famous chapter is Deuteronomy

28. In Deuteronomy 28, that is where, now this

is written 1 ,000 years before the story of Esther.

In that chapter, Yahweh establishes through Moses

a conditional covenant with his people Israel.

And he promises them what? Future blessings if

they obey and future curses. for idolatry and

disobedience. It's very simple. And among the

promised blessings in that chapter are prosperity

and security in the land, right? And they're

about to go into the land under the leadership

of Joshua. And God says to Moses, if I give you

the land and you continue to obey me, you will

be blessed in every way. But, and by the way,

that'll be a promised land flowing with milk

and honey. It'll be great. But it's conditional.

But, he says, It shall come about if you do not

obey the Lord your God to observe all of his

commandments and his statutes with which I charge

you today that all of these curses will come

upon you and overtake you. Now, if you were an

Israelite at this moment, would your ears perk

up and go, oh, I should watch, I should be careful

about these things because the word cursing from

Yahweh is a bad thing, right? And it goes on.

One of the sections of this chapter says this.

The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before

your enemies. You will go out one way against

them, but you will flee seven ways before them,

and you will be an example of terror or horror

to all the kingdoms of the earth. That's just

one among a whole list of curses. Look at that

again. You will be defeated by your enemies.

You'll go out one way to fight them, but you'll

flee seven ways away from them. Now, what does

that mean exactly? Well, there's an interesting

history behind this, a history of Bible translation.

Look at the last phrase. You will be an example

of terror or horror to the kingdoms of the earth.

The Hebrew word there for terror is za 'ava.

And it's meant to convey this meaning. This is

important. That when Israel disobeys the Lord,

And he punishes them by using invasion from foreigners

and then exile to foreign lands. The point is,

they will become an example of humiliation for

all the nations to see. And as the nations look

at the people of Yahweh and realize that Yahweh

himself has punished them for their disobedience,

the conclusion of the nations will be, ah, Yahweh

should be obeyed. That's the whole point. Israel

will get, remember this, Israel was given every

advantage in knowing the God of creation. Every

advantage. The patriarchs, the covenants, the

law, the prophets, and more. But with great advantage

comes great responsibility. And the promise in

Scripture is that judgment always starts in the

household of God, right? God looks first and

foremost at his people when they disobey. And

by the way, it'd be wise for us to remember that,

right? Because he disciplines those that he calls

his own when we sin against him. And with Israel's

repeated cycle of spiritual adultery, the ramifications

are very, very severe. Now, here's the interesting

twist in the story of this verse in Deuteronomy

28. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation

of the Hebrew Old Testament, that last sentence

reads a bit differently. Here's what it says

in the Septuagint. You will flee seven ways before

them and you will be a dispersion among the nations

of the earth. So the translators use the word

diaspora there for za 'ava. And the question

is often asked why? The Septuagint is translated

in the 3rd century BC, and that word at the time

reflected what the translator saw happening in

the world. Yes, the Jews had been disobedient,

and yes, God had been faithful to punish them

just as he had promised. He had taken them out

of the promised land and dispersed them, scattered

them across the world, and Mordecai and Esther

are part of that dispersion. So when you look

at biblical history and you look at intertestamental

history, you see that historically the Jews were

dispersed in a series of stages because of their

repeated cycles of sin. I'm going to give you

some timelines here. It starts in 722 BC, right?

The Assyrian destruction of the northern kingdom

of Israel. 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel are

deported out of the land. And they go through

a process of ethnic cleansing at the hands of

the Assyrians, essentially disappearing 10 of

the 12 tribes of Israel. You talk about a dispersion,

it's even worse than that. They essentially ethnically

disappear. Then the fall of the southern kingdom

in 586 at the hands of the Babylonians, right?

Three waves of deportation to Babylon. And it's

in Babylon that we really find the first true

diaspora community outside the promised land.

And it's in Babylon during 70 years, the Jews

as a diaspora now have to start building synagogues,

not to replace the temple because you can't replace

the temple. You can't do sacrifices anywhere

else. But the synagogue gave the community a

chance to gather together, to pray and to read

Torah and Tanakh. And that was important in Babylon.

And as we saw last Sunday, then in 538, Persian

King Cyrus. conquers Babylon and decrees that

the Jews can return to their homeland, but many

Jews choose not to. And we're going to dig into

that more today. The majority stay in Babylon,

or they move even further east into Persian lands,

and many of them actually relocate to Egypt as

well. And we find later during the Hellenistic

period, the biggest Jewish diaspora community

is in Alexandria, Egypt. Now, for the Jews who

return to the land and rebuild Jerusalem and

build the second temple, they have to remain

under Persian rule for more than 200 more years.

But after that, they fall under the power of

the Greeks, first under the Ptolemies of Egypt

and then under the even worse Seleucid Empire

of Damascus. And so they're under Greek rule

for a time. And then comes this glorious period

of Jewish history, what we call the Maccabean

Revolt. Great study, intertestamental period,

the Jewish War of Independence. And that gave

the Jews 100 years of independence from Gentile

domination. But sadly, and this is the great

tragedy of the Maccabean Revolt, after all that

fighting for independence, the Jewish kings and

queens who came to power during those 100 years,

more wicked than the Gentile rulers that had

ruled over them. More wicked and more corrupt.

They're called the Hasmonean kings and queens.

That awful period sparked an even greater punishment

from God, the arrival of the Romans. And that's

the critical turning point in the history of

the Jewish diaspora. Roman General Pompey rolls

into the promised land in the year 63 BC, and

within 100 years of being under the thumb of

Rome, the Jews rise up in revolution. Now, most

of us know that story that takes place, and now

we've turned over to AD, right? AD 70. This time,

They think they've got another Maccabean victory

coming, but it doesn't happen this time. There's

no glorious victory. In AD 70, the Roman army

sacks Jerusalem. They tear down and burn the

second temple, and they either kill or carry

away into slavery. Some accounts say a million

Jews, but at least hundreds of thousands of Jews

are killed in that revolt in the year AD 70.

And yet... God's not done with his people. They

slowly begin to filter back into the land. And

then there is one final catastrophe. And this

revolt is not known quite as well in year 132

to 135, known as the Bar Kokhba revolt. Another

half a million Jews are killed in that particular

war. And from that point forward, Rome is done

with the Jewish people. They expel every Jew

from Jerusalem, will not allow Jews into the

city. They actually rebuild the city of Jerusalem

as a Roman city and rename it, Alia Capitolina.

And then with the intent of poking the Jews in

the eye, the Romans said, let's rename the whole

region. And they said, well, who are the Jews'

most famous enemy? And somebody said, the Philistines.

And they said, fine, we will rename the region

Palestina. Does that sound familiar? That argument

is still happening today in so -called Palestine.

So it's estimated that soon after the Bar Kokhba

revolt, mid -second century, get this now, 80

% of the Jews across the world are now living

in a diaspora community outside the promised

land. And those communities begin to grow in

different parts of the empire, in parts of the

Middle East, in North Africa, even west into

European lands. And in every place the Jews go,

they develop a unique culture and unique practices,

and they adapt to the language issues that they're

forced to deal with. And in spite of constant

persecution, every place the Jews go, they are

a religious minority who is under constant persecution,

and yet somehow, by God's grace, they survive.

Today, there are generally three categories of

Jews scattered across the world, many of which

have now migrated into the modern state of Israel.

We have Mizrahi Jews who come from various Middle

Eastern communities. Yes, Jews from Iraq and

Iran and Yemen and Syria and Egypt. Sephardic

Jews who originally came out of the Iberian Peninsula,

which is modern -day Spain, but then spread through

North Africa and the Middle East, places like

Turkey and Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia and

Libya. And then in today's Israel, about 25 %

of the population, Ashkenazi Jews, mainly from

Eastern Europe, places like Poland and Russia

and Germany and Ukraine and Hungary and Romania.

And while there has always been a presence of

some Jews in the land from the time of Joshua

until today, since the Roman period, being part

of a diaspora became the norm rather than the

exception for the Jewish population. Until when?

Until the 20th century, right? Until the Zionist

movement of the early 20th century, until the

Holocaust of World War II under the Nazis and...

the establishment and the defense of the modern

state of Israel in 1948. So catch this now. That

was a very fast lesson on the diaspora. Catch

that, 1 ,800 years of diaspora living for an

ancient people whom God has sovereignly sustained

and now planted back in the land. Guys, that's

why 1948 was such a big deal. It had been 1 ,800

years. Now, I could go into all kinds of politics

on that. We'll do podcasts or something like

that. But that's important to understand that

history, that God has been sovereignly sustaining

his people Israel. So, wow. Back to the curse

of Deuteronomy 28. I know last week we talked

briefly about the 70 -year exile to Babylon,

but I want to dive a little bit deeper this morning

because I want to paint the picture of how Mordecai

and Esther ended up in the situation they're

in. How did they end up living in Persia? Well,

we know that in the 6th century BC, God's patience

with disobedient Judah ran out. And here's what

God said through his prophet Jeremiah. The word

that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people

of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the

son of Josiah, king of Judah, the word of the

Lord has come to me and I, Jeremiah, have spoken

it to you again and again, but you have not listened

nor inclined your ear to hear. Therefore, thus

says the Lord of hosts, because you've not obeyed

my words, I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king

of Babylon, my servant. Now we saw last week

how Cyrus was called my anointed servant, right?

Nebuchadnezzar similarly is called Yahweh's servant

because God has a task for him, a role for him

to play and it's an important role. He says,

Nebuchadnezzar, my servant, I will bring him

against this land and against its inhabitants

and I will utterly destroy them and make them

a horror and a hissing. Moreover, I will take

from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness

and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice

of the bride, the sound of the millstones and

the light of the lamp. This whole land will be

a desolation and a horror and this nation will

serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Deuteronomy

28, right? Consequences, the cursing. Did the

Jews, did they deserve it? Absolutely. Had God

been gracious? Absolutely. But the patience had

run out. Now, you could say this sounds really

harsh, but the ground rules had been laid out.

And it's not as if God hadn't sent prophet after

prophet to the Jewish people to warn them. But

in every case, they were ignored. And at this

point, the consequences of Deuteronomy 28 are

brought to bear upon both the people and the

land. Now, most of the people of Judah who weren't

killed in the invasion were carried off to Babylon

as captives. And that's a process we talked briefly

about last week. It happened in three waves.

We have a first wave in 605 BC during the reign

of Jehoiakim. This was a time when Judah was

a vassal state to Babylon. What that means is

we pay you money to leave us alone. We pay you

money every year so you don't smash us like a

bug. And Jehoiakim made the foolish mistake of

rebelling against his overlords. General Nebuchadnezzar

at the time said, fine, I'm coming with my army.

And he came to the promised land and he could

have wiped them out in 605, but something happened

while he was invading Israel. His father, the

king of Babylon, died. And so Nebuchadnezzar

had to go back to Babylon and secure his seat

on the throne. But before he left, he captured

Jehoiakim and he took back to Babylon some of

the treasure from Israel and he took the best

and brightest. of the young Jewish men at that

time, including who? Including Daniel and his

three friends. That happens in 605. Now you think,

why would God allow that? Why would God allow

his best and brightest to be taken away? Well,

it turns out it's a grace for his people. Because

of Daniel's presence in Babylon, the exile the

Jews are gonna suffer through is not nearly as

bad as it could have been. Because by the time

Judah is completely wiped out and all the people

are brought into captivity, Daniel has become

the second most important man in the entire empire.

And he's able to bless the people and actually

give them prosperity in the land. So Daniel in

Babylon becomes similar to Joseph in Egypt. A

gift of mercy from God to his people, even in

the midst of hardship. That's important to know.

Then we have a second attack in 597 for the same

reason. The next king, Jehoiakim, also rebels

against Babylon, refuses to pay the annual tribute

to them. And so Nebuchadnezzar says, fine, I'm

coming back and I will punish you again. And

this time he takes back with him 10 ,000 Jewish

captives, including the prophet Ezekiel. And

in one of his visions in Babylon, which you can

read about in Ezekiel chapters 10 and 11, Ezekiel

Ezekiel 10 · chapter mention

describes how the glory of the Lord departs from

the temple in Jerusalem. Why? Because of the

sin of the people. And because the temple's about

to be destroyed. In anticipation of its destruction,

the glory of the Lord leaves the temple. And

that happens in 586. The new king of Judah, who,

by the way, Nebuchadnezzar had personally put

on the throne, Zedekiah, as a puppet ruler, Nebuchadnezzar

didn't want to destroy Jerusalem, but he puts

this guy on the throne and says, now be a good

puppet. And within months, I mean, the foolishness,

it's only supernatural. The foolishness is so,

so bad. Within months, Zedekiah is doing the

same thing, rebelling against the Babylonians.

And so in 586, Nebuchadnezzar says, that's it.

He rolls into town. This time he... destroys

Jerusalem. He levels Solomon's temple. Think

about that. And he carries off the majority of

the population into exile. Who does he leave

behind? Only the poorest people, only the least

valuable people. Everybody else he takes away.

Interesting story about Zedekiah. He tries to

flee. He's the one who caused this whole thing.

He tries to flee the city at night to escape

punishment, but he's caught in the plains of

Jericho and he's brought to King Nebuchadnezzar.

And do you remember the story? Nebuchadnezzar

executes his two sons right before his eyes and

then puts Zedekiah's eyes out so that the last

thing he sees in life was the death of his sons

and takes him away in chains. By the way, today,

if you go to Israel, you can actually watch.

These are called Zedekiah's Cave. It's one of

the least known things in Jerusalem that you

can tour. They have actually marked out the path

that Zedekiah took under the city of Jerusalem.

You go right under the Temple Mount in order

to try to escape the city. It's an amazing place.

So if you ever go to Israel, go to Zedekiah's

Cave. So the curse of Deuteronomy 28 is laid

upon the people. You have to understand the tragedy

involved here in 586, you guys. Remember, the

northern kingdom is gone. Now the southern kingdom

is gone. There is no Israelite kingdom in God's

promised land. There is no temple. There is no

place for sacrifice. This is the greatest national

tragedy in the history of Israel. I think it's

today. Tisha B 'Av is being celebrated in Israel

today. This is a national mourning over the loss

of their temple. I didn't even plan that, but

it's actually happening on August 3rd this year.

Psalm 137 sort of sums up the feelings of the

people. In Psalm 137, it says, by the rivers

of Babylon there, we sat down and we wept when

we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst

of it, we hung our harps. For there are captors

demanded of us songs, saying, sing us one of

the songs of Zion. You hear the dripping sarcasm.

The Babylonians say, hey, Jew, sing me a song.

Sing me one of your songs. And it says, how can

we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? That's

the state of mind in 586. Now, had God left his

people? No, the promise remains, right? He had

not left his people. He's still at work. He's

still speaking through his prophets. Remember,

Jeremiah had given the people this faithful hope,

70 years in captivity, only 70 years. And then

God had Daniel working inside the Babylonian

government, prophesying, seeing to the people.

He had Ezekiel out in the fields with the common

people, giving him visions, prophesying, encouraging

the people. And all three of those men were subtle

reminders that in spite of what the Jews saw

with their eyes, Yahweh had not abandoned them.

Yahweh was still at work. The Babylonians aren't

actually in charge. Yahweh is. And he would soon

rescue his people. Now, I won't go into the details.

We talked about it last Sunday. This is the moment

where God raises up Cyrus the Great, king of

the Medes and the Persians. And he's going to

use this man to free his people. In 539 BC, Cyrus'

army takes the city of Babylon. This great kingdom

that Nebuchadnezzar had built after his death,

it falls hard. And Ezra now picks up the story.

I'm going to give you some of Ezra. Ezra chapter

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

1. This is how he describes the decree of Cyrus

that we looked at last week. Now, in the first

year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill

the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah.

You see the connection? Jeremiah said 70 years.

God raises up Cyrus and says, this is the fulfillment

of Jeremiah's prophecy. The Lord stirred up the

spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he sent

a proclamation throughout all this kingdom and

also put it in writing. So who's responsible

for this? Is it Cyrus or is it Yahweh? God providentially

stirs the heart of this pagan man to rescue his

people. Amazing. What does the decree say? Thus

says Cyrus, the king of Persia, the Lord, the

God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms

of the earth and he's appointed me to build him

a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever

there is among you of all his people, may his

God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem,

which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the

Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is

in Jerusalem. Now, it's tempting to read that

and go, oh. Cyrus was a believer. He was a follower

of Yahweh, but don't be fooled. This is typical

of ancient Near East kings. They're polytheists.

They want every single god of the ancient Near

East to bless them. So honestly, Cyrus thinks

by doing this, he's somehow going to win Yahweh's

favor as much as he wins the favor of Bel and

Marduk and all these other gods. So don't be

fooled by this. Cyrus is fishing for the blessing

of Yahweh. Even though he doesn't know Yahweh

at all. Remember Isaiah last week made that plain.

And yet God calls Cyrus, his anointed servant,

to accomplish all that Yahweh wants to accomplish.

This is the sovereignty of God in human history.

So what happens next after this Cyrus decree

is issued? Ezra continues, then the heads of

father's households of Judah and Benjamin, remember,

12 tribes. 10 are gone, two remain, Judah and

Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites arose,

even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to

go up and rebuild the house of the Lord, which

is in Jerusalem. Again, make sure you see the

language here. Who was stirred to go back to

the land? Those whom God worked in their heart,

who stirred them up, right? So God has sovereignly

stirred Cyrus. to issue the decree, and now he's

stirring the right people among the Jews to respond

and go back to the land. Now, we saw last week,

not all the Jews did. In fact, the majority of

Jews did not return. And there are many reasons

for that. Some would have just been too old to

make that journey. By the way, map time. That's

a 900 -mile journey. Talk about getting your

steps in. Okay? You can't go straight across

the desert there. You'll die. So you've got to

go along the Euphrates River. So blue is Jerusalem.

The red is Babylon. You've got to go along the

Euphrates River around what we call the Fertile

Crescent down through Syria into the land. That's

how you get there. 900 miles. So if you're old,

if you're infirmed, if you're disabled, that's

probably not a journey you're going to be able

to make. You will die along the way. So that's

part of it. Others would have looked at this

and said, not only is that a brutal journey filled

with dangers, but when I get there, the condition

of the land is going to be what? Desolate. How

many of you guys would up and leave where you're

living now and say, let's go to a super desolate

place that's just been destroyed and squatters

have moved in and we'll start building from scratch.

That sounds great. Only people who are stirred

up by the Lord were going to do that. Many said,

no, thank you. Let's be honest, many of the Jews

were just comfortable in exile, right? In Babylon,

in Persia, because they had built communities

during the 70 years. They'd built synagogues,

they had jobs, they had businesses, right? Some

of the Jews had been in exile all their lives.

They'd never even seen Jerusalem. They only heard

their parents and grandparents talk about it.

So why go back? They hadn't even seen it before.

And yes, We can say with confidence that a percentage

of the Jews in Babylon were just living in disobedience.

They weren't practicing Judaism. They weren't

participating in synagogue life. And they'd have

no interest in going back because Judaism wasn't

a reality in their day -to -day life. That's

true as well. Now, I find this interesting. God

is a God of order and balance. Remember, it took

three waves of Jews leaving into exile. God ordains

that the return of the land will also happen

in three waves. Three waves out, three waves

back. The first is described in Ezra chapters

one through six under, and Yael set me straight

on how to pronounce the name last week. Thank

you. Zerubbabel. Not Zerubbabel, not Zerubbabel,

Zerubbabel. Did I get it? I said to her last

week, it's one thing to take seminary Hebrew.

It's another to grow up speaking it, and so I'm

going to defer to her. Talk to Yael afterwards.

She'll get it right. Okay, so he returns with

50 ,000 Jews. That's the first return, okay?

And when they arrive after months of travel,

like you'd expect, things were not great. They

get back to the land, and the community pulls

together, and they build a foundation for a second

temple. Great news, right? Only the people who

had seen the first temple are super disappointed

in it. It's much smaller. It's not impressive.

And it says that those who had seen Solomon's

temple are weeping because this temple is so

unimpressive. And then they run into all kinds

of opposition from their enemies. There's threats

and there's legal challenges and there's discouragement.

And Israel's enemies succeed. And this is sometimes

confusing to us, right? Here we are. We put ourselves

out there. We follow God's will. And all we do

is bump into problems and opposition from God's

enemies. And we start asking questions. Well,

why would this happen? We're doing God's will.

But this is exactly what happens to the Jews.

The enemies of God sort of prevail. Work stops

on the temple for quite a few years. And then

during that time, another enemy sets in, distraction.

The people go, eh, you know what? We can't get

the temple done, so I'm going to go work on my

own house. And I'm going to farm my land. I'm

going to focus on myself. And suddenly the priority

of the temple is completely gone. Well, God responds

to that. In his mercy, he sends prophets, Haggai

and Zechariah, to shake the Jews out of their

spiritual laziness. Start building the house

of God, they say. And they do. They finish the

temple in 516. The second temple is actually

completed. Now, I'm gonna show you one more timeline.

This is where it gets interesting. Between Ezra

6 and Ezra 7, there's a long gap, 58 -year gap.

So I know this is a lot, but I'm gonna put this

up. There's a gap of 58 years. So 586 is the

final exile into Babylon. 538 is the first return.

Okay, 516, the second temple is finished. Ah,

here's the book of Esther. We've finally gotten

there. Esther begins before the second and third

returns under Ezra and Nehemiah. The gap of 58

years is the same in both of those sections of

time. So Esther is right in the center of all

of this material. During that gap of 58 years,

this is where... all of these things we're going

to read about over the next few months take place.

The same amount of time, 58 years had passed

since the first return of the Jews to the land,

and in spite of Esther and Mordecai having the

freedom to go back to the land, they say what?

No, thank you. I'm good here in Susa. They choose

to remain. Now, go back in your mind. We read,

if you want to look at it, Esther 2, verse 5.

Esther 2:5

Remember, it refers to Mordecai as the great

-grandson of a man named Kish. It was Kish who

was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in

586. That means two generations of Mordecai's

family after Kish had been raised in exile. His

grandfather Shammai and his father Yair. So by

then, look, exile was all Mordecai knew. And

he was living relatively comfortably in the diaspora

life. And we're going to find out that Mordecai

is a little bit of a social climber. He becomes

an official in the Persian royal court there

in Susa. And so like most exiles, he and Esther

were basically, they were living sort of a double

life, citizens of two communities. One more hidden,

their Jewish identity and community, and the

other Persian. And what's interesting here is

they'd taken on Persian names. And these are

the names that are given to them throughout the

book, and their names are interesting. Mordecai

is the Hebraic form of the name Marduka, which

comes from the pagan god Marduk, who's the chief

god, the patron god of the city of Babylon. And

yet he's known as Mordecai, a Jew. Hadassah's

Persian name Esther is likely based on an Akkadian

word for star, which was istar. which scholars

believe is connected to, again, the fertility

goddess Ishtar. So they've taken on these names

that are definitely connected to Persian gods,

to Babylonian gods, to pagan gods. So this is

a possible sign that their desire was to assimilate

with Persian culture rather than to stand out

as Jews. Now, you may look at that and go, I

get it. Maybe they're doing this out of fear,

or maybe they just prefer Persian culture. We're

not given the answer to that question, but we

should at least observe that this is true of

them, right? It could also be that they just

at this point in their lives, having been raised

in exile, they have very little connection to

Jewish practice, to Judaism as a whole. Maybe

no connection at all to synagogue life. We don't

know. But here's one of the things that makes

the book of Esther stand out. Among all the post

-exilic writings, this one thing stands out,

and it's an unavoidable fact. It's the only book

in the collection that has nothing to do with

going back to the land. All the others do, all

of them. Ezra and Nehemiah both have a single

-minded agenda, rebuilding and reestablishing

Jewish life in the land. Their hearts are there.

Haggai and Zechariah are focused on motivating

the Jews to rebuild the temple, to reestablish

worship in the land. Even Daniel, although he

is an official in the royal court, just like

Mordecai is, his concern is still for the Jewish

community in the land, but not Esther. This is

important, but not Esther. It stands alone in

its Jewish characters, Mordecai and Esther, not

voicing any concern about Jerusalem. Not any

concern for the temple or for the Jewish exiles

who 58 years before had gone back to the land.

Not even curious about it, according to the narrative.

So, as we wrap up, what can we say about Mordecai

and Esther? What can we say about their identity

and their faith? I said it earlier, we've got

to be careful we don't go too far because the

narrative doesn't give us all the details. But

because of the absence of anything related to

Jerusalem, Anything related to the temple, because

of the absence of any appeal to Yahweh by name,

the absence of prayer, the absence of a mention

of Torah, because there's no description of either

Mordecai or Esther participating in synagogue

life or even just basic Jewish rituals, it's

hard for the reader to come to the conclusion

that these are practicing Jews. Cultural Jews,

yeah. Practicing Jews, no. They're simply two

people who are part of the diaspora, part of

this religious minority community focused on

surviving. Focused on surviving in this foreign

political context. Now that's not to say that

later in the story we're not going to see traits

of humility and wisdom and faith and courage.

Things that we can emulate and admire. But my

assessment of this as I've been studying this

for I don't know how many hours. is that Esther

and Mordecai are very similar to so many people

in America today who say, oh, I'm a Christian,

but there's no evidence to actually prove that.

We call them cultural Christians. And I think

Esther and Mordecai are cultural Jews. Sure,

they recognize their ethnicity as Jews who came

from Jerusalem, but there's no evidence to show

that they're practicing their faith. Now as I

wrap up, I don't want that to discourage you

because this is a historical narrative and the

reality of historical narrative is, you ready

for this? I'm gonna drop the bomb. Neither Esther

or Mordecai are the main character in the story.

God is. We have to remember that. God is the

main character. And as we progress through this

book, what we're gonna see is God being sovereign,

his providential hand working through the lives

of Mordecai and Esther. Not because they deserve

it. Not because they're godly Jews. But because

of his mercy. Because of his grace. That's the

only reason. Amen? Okay. Last Sunday and today,

we now have our foundation, right? I won't do

this to you again, I promise. Let's bow our heads

and pray. Blessed are you, Father, creator of

heaven and earth. You are a good God, and you

have blessed your people in so many ways, and

we sit here today as your people in Santa Clarita,

California, and we stand in awe of your goodness

and your mercy. We are not that different from

the characters in this story who at times, Lord,

we just want to assimilate into our culture,

and we don't show evidence or fruit of of godly

faith in our lives. So we are so grateful that

you are merciful, that you are gracious to us.

And even as you will not leave us or forsake

us, you will not let us slip away. You continue

to shower us and lavish us with your mercy and

grace and hold on to us and continue to motivate

us and encourage us by your spirit to walk by

faith. Lord, thank you for the lessons that we

have learned already today and what we're going

to learn in the future. Continue to seal these

truths in our hearts as we seek to glorify you

in our study. We love you. We praise you in Jesus'

name. Amen.