Introduction to Esther

Today we start on a whole new journey together

into the Old Testament. And so over the next,

I don't even know how many months, because I

never know. That's up to the Lord. We're going

to be studying years. No, not years, I promise.

But we're going to be studying the book of Esther.

And I think it's going to be an engaging series

because Esther has so many interesting features

to it. First and foremost, it is a very historical

book. filled with ancient Near East personalities

and cultures. It is deeply rooted in archaeology,

which we'll see some of those images today. Esther

is also a very controversial book, whether you

knew that or not. In fact, multiple controversies

abound over this particular book. For example,

why is there no mention of God anywhere in the

text of Esther? Does it belong in the Old Testament

canon? Some have questioned that. Is it more

apocryphal than it is inspired? And then what

about its main characters? They're Jewish, but

are they practicing Jews or are they secular

Jews? That's an important question. Why are they

living in a foreign land when they could have

gone back to the promised land? So a lot of questions.

We're going to explore all of them throughout

the series. So much for us to learn primarily

about. how God is always at work behind the scenes.

That is really the big idea of Esther. God is

always at work behind the scenes, guiding all

of human history, including our lives, not just

the big people that we like to think of, but

the little people like us, guiding our lives

for his glory and for his purposes. And sometimes

God's hand is involved in just the ordinary moments

of life, and sometimes... right at the moment

of big life decisions. That's why you see the

subtitle we gave to this series is God's Providence

in Dark Times. Now, we chose that word providence

for a reason. We often talk about sovereignty

here at Oak Hill. And rightfully so, because

God is sovereign. But for this series, we felt

like providence was a better fit, and I'll tell

you why. When we think about sovereignty, sovereignty

is defined as God's absolute right and power

to do all that he purposes to do. Let me say

it again. God's absolute right and power to do

all that he purposes to do. He has supreme authority

and control over all of creation and over all

creatures. And he has the sole right to govern

our world and deal with humanity as he pleases.

And of course, nothing down here on earth happens

outside of his will. We're going to see that

clearly in the book of Esther. So why use the

term providence? Because providence is about

how God exercises that power. How he accomplishes

all that he purposes to do in a wise, purposeful,

and caring way. In other words, when we talk

about providence, we're talking about the Lord's

active guiding of all things in our lives towards

the end of all things that he has decreed. And

he does that. He is sovereign. He is providential

for two reasons that we talk about all the time

at Oak Hill. First of all, for his own glory.

And second of all, for the good of his people.

That's why he does this. And that means we can

be assured as believers that God's plans are

not just supreme and sovereign, but they're also

good and loving. Amen? That's an important foundational

truth that we need to trust. Yes, God is sovereign,

he's powerful, and he does all that he pleases,

but he's also good and loving and caring for

his people. Now, we're going to ease into the

study this morning. What I'm going to try to

do is introduce you to the main characters of

the story of Esther as they are introduced to

us in the text. Today is all about the main character,

the main human character, God is the main character,

the main human character who is the Persian king.

He is the one mentioned most often in the book

of Esther. And then in the following weeks, we're

going to get to know the other main characters,

Esther and Mordecai and Haman. And we boo when

Haman comes up, right? Boo, right. We'll get

to that as well. So Esther is historical. It's

controversial. And the last thing I'll say about

the book of Esther is it's a crisis book. It's

been called a crisis book. As the story unfolds,

it moves from crisis. to crisis, to crisis. So

throughout the series, I'm going to keep coming

back to a couple key themes. First of all, do

you see God's providential hand in each one of

these crises that comes up? Do you see how God

is at work? From a human perspective, it looks

dark. It looks difficult. But God is always at

work. Can you see how he's at work? Second of

all, I want you to put yourself into the story,

slip on those ancient sandals, if you will, and

ask the question in each of these crises, how

would I have responded to this? Would my faith

have held up in the midst of what these characters

are going through? Okay, so we're probably going

to start where you expected me to start, and

that is with timelines and maps. That is coming.

I want to say, anybody who's visiting or newer

to Oak Hill, this is an unusual message, doing

an introductory sermon like this. I'm going to

give you a fire hydrant of information. about

the backdrop of this book. But what I'm trying

to do is set the stage so that we can understand

it more and more as we go along. So I appreciate

your grace on that. Here's the thing we'll all

start with. I have found over the years that

very few Christians are truly aware of the importance

of the Persian kings in the life of the Jewish

people. We tend to know something about the Assyrians.

We've heard the word Assyria. We know a little

bit more about Babylon and the name Nebuchadnezzar

that comes up. But a lot of us are fuzzy about

the Persians. So we're going to start this morning

with a couple of important timelines that are

going to look a little bit like this as my clicker

starts to work. Here it comes. And there it is.

Okay, good. Fantastic. I want to start with an

overview of the succession of empires that ruled

the ancient Near East back in this time, including

the Jewish people, including the land of Israel.

From the late 10th century BC all the way to

the 7th century BC, it was the Assyrians who

dominated the region. And you see there on the

screen that this period aligns with biblical

history. Those are just some of the Old Testament

books that correspond with the period of Assyrian

rule. power. Probably the most to recognize there,

the prophecy of Isaiah, and of course, the book

of Jonah, directly related to the Assyrians.

But then in 609 BC, we have the Babylonians come

on the scene. Now, not Nebuchadnezzar yet. His

father, great name, Nabopolassar, is the one

who rolls in and brings down the mighty Assyrians.

And the Babylonians had a strong run under the

leadership of Nebuchadnezzar. Remember, he was

the king who invades Israel, destroys Solomon's

temple in 586, and takes the Jewish people captive

into exile. So the Babylonians have a short reign,

but a very... very important reign in the history

of the Jewish people. And you see three important

Old Testament books there that correspond with

the Babylonian exile, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and

Daniel. But unfortunately for Nebuchadnezzar,

Babylonian dominance doesn't last long, primarily

because his descendants, the guys who come after

him, are absolutely useless as kings. And so

in 539, we have another shift in the dominant

region. in the area, and that is the Persians.

In 539 BC, Babylon is conquered by Cyrus, who

is the king of the Medes and the Persians, and

he is the man. So Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews

into exile. It's Cyrus, king of the Medes and

Persians, who are going to send the Jews back

to the land. And because of that, you see a list

of what we call the post -exilic books that are

up there, the post -exilic writings, including

at the top, you see Esther. One of the post -exilic

books of the Old Testament. Now, the great Persian

empire started by Cyrus lasts over 200 years

until a guy by the name of Alexander the Great

swept through the ancient Near East and turned

everything in that part of the world Greek. But

his life was short, 33 years. And when he died,

his kingdom was divided up and weakened. And

eventually, who came next? New Testament, right?

The Romans. The Romans began to expand into the

east and around the year 150 BC, they conquered

the last vestige of Greek power. And eventually

the Romans then rolled into the Holy Land in

the year 63 BC when they conquered the city of

Jerusalem about 60 years before the incarnation

of Christ. So that's just a really quick, that

is the overview from 30 ,000 feet so that you

can see how God has put these empires in place,

ruling over the Jewish people, some for their

detriment, some for their good. And we'll get

to that as we go along. What I want to do next

is zoom in on the Persian Empire to see where

the book of Esther fits into the timeline and

where Esther fits into the history of the Persian

kings. And there's a purpose behind this, so

hang with me. First, before the Persians arrive

on the scene, go back in your mind to the time

of the Babylonians. Recall that Judah was invaded

by Nebuchadnezzar in a series of three waves

of attacks. But it's the year 605 when Daniel

and his friends and other Jews are first taken

into captivity and shipped out to Babylon. Eight

years after that, Ezekiel is taken captive, along

with 10 ,000 other Jews, and they also are exiled

and carried away. The third attack happens in

586. That's when Nebuchadnezzar destroys Solomon's

temple. Just a heartbreaking moment in Jewish

history. Solomon's glorious temple leveled by

the Babylonians. They're in Babylon now with

all these people carried away. The Jews were

forced to build new lives for themselves and

their families. And we know from history and

archaeology that the Jews in exile built homes

and they engaged in businesses and they began

to meet in synagogues. And recalling that Jeremiah

had prophesied very specifically that they would

be in exile for how long? 70 years, faithful

Jews. and waited for their deliverance to come.

And how was the Lord going to restore his people

to the land? It would have looked hopeless back

in that day, but that's where the Persian kings

come into play. And the first one we have to

talk about is Cyrus the Great. He's a very important

character. Look, I found pictures of him. Isn't

this great? No, you know, artists are getting

better and better. They look at physical descriptions

from historians. They look at... portraits that

are found in palaces and such, and they can begin

to sort of put together at least some type of

an image of what these guys would have been like.

If I showed you a palace relief from 600 BC,

that wouldn't help you bring these guys to life.

And I think these images actually bring them

to life so you can see what they would have looked

like, at least partially. Now, if you look at

this and you roll your eyes, you're tempted to

think, well, why do I need to know about Persian

history? What you have to know is all three of

these guys are, are you ready for it? Biblical

characters. All three of them are found in your

Bibles sitting in your lap. Not Jews, not worshipers

of Yahweh, pagan men that God used mightily to

accomplish his sovereign purposes in the life

of his people, which is amazing. Now, the king

at the center of the book of Esther is the third

guy you see up there. His name is Xerxes I. But

before we can talk about Xerxes, you have to

talk about his much more famous predecessors.

Both the guys on the left in the middle are known

as greats. Just as we have Alexander the Great,

we have Cyrus the Great, and we have Darius the

Great. Both of them sort of earn that reputation

based on what they do. They are at the top of

a dynasty of Persian kings we call the Achaemenids.

If you know anybody today who is Iranian, they

will talk about their pride in the Achaemenid

dynasty. This was really the height of Persian

power and Persian influence in the world. So

this is one family line that ruled over the Persian

Empire from the 7th to the 4th century, right

up until the time of Alexander the Great, who

is the man who will extinguish the final Persian

king. So Cyrus. His name in Old Persian was Kouros,

which was translated into Hebrew as Koresh, then

into Greek as Kouros, Latin in Kairos, and then

in English, Cyrus. So if you've ever wondered,

where do we get these funny names? They're all

transliterated through all of these languages,

and so we call him Cyrus. Nobody back then would

have called him Cyrus, but that's okay. We can

get past that. He rises to prominence in the

year 559 B .C. And through marriage and military

conquest, he is able to unite two ancient, powerful

kingdoms, the Medes and the Persians. And he

spends two decades building his kingdom and his

armies, but he's got an eye towards a particular

kingdom to his west, the Babylonians. And in

539, he marches his army across the Tigris River

to attack the Babylonians. And he takes them

down relatively easily. Why? Because, again,

the neglectful leadership of the kings of Babylon

at this time. And, in fact, this was God's plan.

Daniel, in his prophecy, tells us about the story

of Babylon's fall. How many of you guys remember

the story of the handwriting on the wall? This

is when this takes place. So while King Belshazzar

of Babylon is hosting this drunken party for

his nobles on the final night of his life, he

was being betrayed by people within his own city.

And at that party, God announces through Daniel

exactly how Belshazzar is about to die. This

is what it writes. This is just a survey of Daniel

5. It says, you have not humbled your heart.

King Belshazzar, you have exalted yourself against

the Lord of heaven and God has numbered your

kingdom and put an end to it. That is not the

news you want to hear at a party. You have been

weighed on the scales and found deficient and

your kingdom has been divided and given over

to the Medes and the Persians. So Daniel tells

them exactly what's about to happen. And that

very night, Persian soldiers come in, they slaughter

him and his guests at the palace. and they take

hold of the capital city of Babylon. The Babylonian

empire is no more. And the people welcome Cyrus

as a man who is a much better leader. They're

frustrated with their own king, so they throw

the gates open to the Persians and say, please

govern us. What's interesting is not only does

Scripture tell us this story, that it's true,

but the facts are recorded on court records.

of King Cyrus himself. In fact, this very famous

artifact is called the Cyrus Cylinder. It's in

the British Museum today. It was dug up in 1879.

And in the court records, they tell the same

story that Daniel tells in his prophecy in Daniel

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. And that's Akkadian. I'm sure everybody

can read it, right? But there are actually people

that can read ancient Akkadian. He tells the

same story about how he took the city. Fascinating.

Now, here's what makes Cyrus stand out as such

an important character in the biblical narrative.

For his day, Cyrus is a very different kind of

king. The empires that went before him, the Babylonians,

the Assyrians, they had a reputation. When they

took a city, they just... They scraped it. They

washed, they just conquered everything. They

destroyed things. They took the population, made

them slaves, shipped them out of the cities.

Awful, awful. You read the stories of the Assyrians,

the most brutal people you can imagine. But Cyrus

does not have that same mindset. He wants to

rule his empire in a different way. So over time,

he proves to be not just a very successful general

and warlord, he was, but also a man who knew

how to win the peace. and how to make his subjects

happy. And one of the previously conquered people

groups who benefited from Cyrus' benevolence

was the Jews. Now, when Babylon fell, they fell

under the jurisdiction of the new Persian king.

And this Persian king decided to send the Jews

back to the land. How long had they been in exile?

Not quite 70 years, but if you look at the math,

from the year that the temple fell to the year

that it's rebuilt, Exactly 70 years. 586 to 516.

70 years without a temple is basically how it

played out. So in the year 538, going back to

our timeline, 538, Cyrus issues a royal decree

that gave the Jews permission to go back to their

land, to go back and rebuild Jerusalem, which

had been destroyed, and to rebuild their temple.

And for that reason, Cyrus is prominently mentioned

in the pages of the Old Testament. His name appears

20 times in the scriptures. He's even called,

you ready for this, a Mashiach. Cyrus, an unbeliever,

is called God's anointed servant in the book

of Isaiah because of this role that God had marked

out for him. To basically save the Jewish people,

to send them back to the Holy Land. I'll give

you the passages. This is from Isaiah 44. Thus

says the Lord, your Redeemer, I the Lord and

the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens

by myself and spreading out the earth all alone.

It is I who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd

and he will perform all my desire. And he declares

of Jerusalem, she will be built and of the temple,

your foundation will be laid. God's sovereignty

working through Cyrus. And then here's the passage

I referenced from Isaiah 45. Thus says the Lord

to Cyrus, his anointed, whom I have taken by

the right hand. To do what? To subdue nations

before him and to loose the loins of kings. To

open doors before him so that gates will not

be shut. I will go before you and make the rough

places smooth. I will shatter the doors of bronze

and cut through their iron bars. That's what

God did for Cyrus in making a way for him to

come in and easily conquer the Babylonian empire

and free the Jewish people. He goes on, I will

give you the treasures of darkness and hidden

wealth of secret places so that you may know

that it is I, the Lord, the God of. Israel, not

Babylon, not Persia, the God of Israel, who calls

you by your name for the sake of Jacob, that's

Israel, my servant, and Israel, my chosen one,

I have also called you by your name. Now look

at this. I have given you a title of honor, though

you have not known me. He says this to Cyrus.

Do you hear in all of that the sovereignty of

God, even using an unbelieving king? To accomplish

his purposes. Sovereign over all historical events.

Using kings that don't worship him. Amazing.

And so Cyrus becomes this chosen tool in Yahweh's

hand to free his people from exile in Babylon

and to get back to the homeland. And we know

that right away in 538, a first wave of Jews

took advantage of Cyrus's decree and they went

back to the land under the leadership of a man

named Zerubbabel. Okay, now. This is key to understand

in terms of the book of Esther. The vast majority

of Jews chose not to go back to the Holy Land,

but to stay behind in the places where they had

built lives, in Babylon, in Persia. Now, why

would they make that choice? Again, this is one

of those moments where you've got to slip on

some ancient sandals. Why would they not go back?

You just got permission from the king to go back

to Israel. Why would you not go back? Well, first

of all, It's interesting, Jeremiah had told the

exiles to settle into life in exile. This is

what Jeremiah said. He said to them, to the exiles,

build houses and live in them. Plant gardens

and eat their produce. Take wives and become

the fathers of sons and daughters. Multiply there

in Babylon and do not decrease. Seek the welfare

of the city where I have sent you into exile.

and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its

welfare you will have welfare. So the Jews became

a diaspora, a dispersed people, and many found

success and contentment in their new lives. So

when the call came that, hey, you can go back

to Israel, a lot of them said, no thanks, including

Esther. Including Esther. More on that next week.

The other reason was quite practical. Going back

to the land was going to be really, really hard.

It had been wiped out and squatters had moved

in. And so you had to go back and rebuild homes

and rebuild the city and try to rebuild a temple.

It is a monumental feat. And so if you were going

to go back to the land with Zerubbabel in 538

BC, you were signing up for hardship, for suffering

and possible death. So in a practical sense,

you could sort of see why they would say, you

know what? I'm good here in Babylon. I'm good

here in Persia. No, thank you. I'm not excusing

it, by the way. I'm just giving you the practical

application of it. So after the death of Cyrus,

who had done all this great work on behalf of

the Jews, he had a son named Cambyses who had

a very short reign. He died in a riding accident,

and that brought our second king to the throne,

and his name is Darius. Darius comes to power

in 522. His old Persian name is Darius. And he

is known for being not so much the general that

Cyrus was, but being a master of planning and

vision and administration. Darius is the king

who expands the empire to its greatest limits,

its greatest size. He's the one who builds all

the great palaces at Susa and Persepolis. He

builds a canal in Egypt that connects the Nile

River to the Red Sea. He's known for... organizing

his kingdom into taxable provinces and increasing

the treasury of Persia. He standardizes coins

and weights and measures. Tons of study done

about what a good governor Darius was in his

day. Now, Darius is also prominent in the Old

Testament. He is mentioned 16 times in the scriptures,

10 of which are found in the book of Ezra, where

he is spoken of very favorably. Now, think about

the story. You guys know something about the

Jews coming back to the land. Those Jews had

come back with Zerubbabel or Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel?

Zerubbabel? It's Zerubbabel. And it's Darius.

But anyway, we don't know. Okay. These names,

the names. Oh, my goodness. Okay, I need, yeah,

I need Yael's help with some of the names. See

me afterwards. Okay. So the Jews who had gone

back to the land, they now faced opposition in

their attempts to rebuild the temple. Remember

all the surrounding people groups, the squatters

who moved in? All kinds of opposition. And when

the enemies of the Jews saw that they were building

their temple, they wanted them to stop. And the

Jews were like, we're not stopping. And so these

people groups appealed to King Darius and said,

make them stop. They don't belong here. Do you

guys remember what Darius did? He decided in

response to this appeal from the enemies of the

Jews to search the royal archives to see what

he should do. He was a great governor. He searched

the royal archives and guess what he found there?

By the way, this is all in the book of Ezra.

What did he find? He found the decree of Cyrus

that gave the Jews permission to go back to the

land to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple.

And he said, sorry, it's a matter of law. And

he came to the support of the Jewish people.

King Darius issued a decree of his own, commanded

all those enemies of Israel who were opposing

them to stop interfering and to let the temple

progress. Let them build it on the original site.

Not only that. Darius reached into his own imperial

treasury, gave money to the Jews to help them

build it, and told all those people that were

getting in the way that they needed to supply

whatever the Jews needed to finish the temple.

And by the way, if you don't, if you don't follow

my decree, I will either kill you or take away

your property. Now, again, this is a Persian

king coming to the rescue of the Jewish people

in order to get the city built and to get the

temple built. Are you getting the picture here?

Two Persian kings, not followers of Yahweh, yet

being used by Yahweh to bless his people in extraordinary

ways. You would not expect a king like Darius

to act as he did unless God were sovereign. Amen?

Now, as we come into the next chapter, we do

have to talk about the one giant black mark on

Darius' record. He ruled for 20 years, very successful

rule. And then something weird happened. A revolt

took place on the western edge of his empire

in the land of Asia Minor. So first map, here

we go. So first of all, all that sort of light

green area, that's the Persian Empire. That's

how big it is. And just for references, you've

got the blue dot is Jerusalem. The red dot is

Susa, which is... Darius' palace, which we'll

come back to. But on the far western edge of

his empire is Asia Minor, and the blue boundary

there are the Greek city -states. Athens, Sparta,

Macedonia, all those Greeks at Thebes, all those

city -states, right? On the far edge of the Persian

Empire. Now, Greece is the next nation to the

west. They're not part of the Persian Empire.

But on the other side of the Aegean, on the coast

of Asia Minor, Those are primarily Greeks living

under Persian rule. We call them Ionians. The

Ionian Greeks living under Persian rule. And

those Greeks living in the Persian Empire revolt

against Darius in the year 499. And in particular,

the purple dot, which is the Persian city of

Sardis, that's where the center of the revolt

is, and they burn that city. Now, that makes

Darius very, very angry. He's greatly angered

by this revolt. Any revolt against the king of

Persia is the revolt against basically the order

of the world. How dare you? And then Darius finds

out something interesting. Guess who supported

the revolt in Asia Minor? The Athenians from

across the sea. This Greek city -state had the

hubris to come and sponsor militarily and financially

a revolt against the great king. And Darius committed

to absolutely punishing the Athenians for daring

to be insolent towards the great king of Persia.

So, in the year 492, Darius says he puts together

a fleet with troops and he sails towards Greece.

with the plan of punishing the Athenians, but

a storm hits and he loses most of his ships.

It's an absolute failure. Now he's even more

angry. Two years later, he sends another fleet

with more troops to try it again. This time they

land, the army and the troops, they unload on

the coast of Greece and almost immediately they

are met by a Greek army and they are routed at

a very famous battle, the Battle of... The Battle

of Marathon. The Persians sail all the way to

the edge of their empire and are humiliated,

embarrassed by a ragtag army of Greek hoplites.

Well, Darius isn't going to live much longer.

He's not going to live much longer. He's not

able to exact his revenge. And he sort of dies

as a disillusioned, angry king. And he leaves

it to his son, Xerxes. to pick up that revenge

against the Greeks. So it's going to be left

to Xerxes. So 486, Darius dies. He was 64 at

the time, sort of a bitter old man. He had done

so well, helped the Jews in so many ways, but

died with this anger at the Greeks. So we come

to Xerxes now. Now, we need to stop for a second.

We need to talk about there's a name situation

here in the Old Testament scriptures. The name

Xerxes is not found anywhere in your English

Bibles, but the man himself is. So we need to

talk about this. The name of the king in the

book of Esther is the name you see there at the

top, okay? But that name has gone through a long

list of transliterations. So there's this old

Persian name. I don't even know how to pronounce

it. Don't ask me. But ancient Near East scholars

tell us that that word in Persian means ruler

over all men. Then we have a Babylonian name

that gets translated into Hebrew and then into

Latin. And somehow, and I can't even trace this

down, how in Greek it comes down to us as Xerxes.

Everybody get that? You don't have to. All I'm

telling you is, as I read the text, I'm going

to use the Hebrew pronunciation of the name because

I think it's the best way to do it. I may get

frustrated and just say Xerxes. Is that okay?

Okay, good. All right, let's go back to our timeline.

So Xerxes comes to power in the year 486. He's

a fairly young man at the time. He's 32 years

old. Younger than Adam. And Grant. And most of

our elders. Anyway, 32 years old. And you're

in charge of this massive empire, right? Now,

according to Herodotus, anybody read Herodotus

in college? Okay. the father of history, we call

him, this Greek historian who writes extensively

on the Persians. He says that Xerxes was so handsome

that there was no man his equal in that generation

of Persia. But, he says, in spite of what he

looks like on the outside, Xerxes was a deeply

flawed man. And we're going to see this in the

book of Esther. He was known for being ambitious

and impulsive. Very irrational at times, cruel

towards his enemies, a man with a short temper,

a man with a huge sexual appetite, and an absolute

love for drinking and banquets. Most of the book

of Esther is a bunch of banquets and feasts.

We're going to see that. History tells us he

didn't measure up to the brilliance of either

Cyrus or Darius. Yes, he was formidable in the

sense that he wielded so much power. But the

record shows that he loved parties and adventure

and harem intrigues more than he really cared

about governing the empire, which sounds like

a lot of our presidents. But anyway, I digress.

So when he first comes to power, he immediately

has to deal with two rebellions in his empire.

Remember, the world was watching when his father

Darius got whooped by the Greeks. And so now

there's a revolt in Egypt and there's a revolt

in Babylon. And Xerxes has to put those down

and he puts them down with absolute brutal force,

very different from his father. He wanted to

show his subjects that you cannot rebel against

the Persian empire. Herodotus tells us that Xerxes

punished the Babylonians by absolutely wreaking

havoc, destroying the city of Babylon, pulling

down its walls, pulling down its temples, its

statues, stealing the treasury for himself. And

without even realizing it, Xerxes was fulfilling

a prophecy in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 13,

it says, Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the

glory of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when

God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never

be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation,

nor will the Arab pitches tent there, nor will

shepherds make their flocks lie down there. Have

you seen Babylon these days? It still looks like

that. And so basically Babylon got its recompense

for what it had done to the Jewish people. They

got paid back for the way Jerusalem was destroyed,

the way the temple was leveled. And once again,

God used this awful pagan man Xerxes to carry

out his purposes as prophesied by Isaiah. Amazing.

Now, in general, what is Xerxes most known for?

How many of you guys saw the movie 300? Trash.

Just so bad. There's a kernel of truth to the

history, but trash. Just so frustrating for anybody

that knows the story. But in 480 BC, so Xerxes

has been in power for six years now. He finally

has time to turn his attention to getting revenge

against the Greeks. He is on a mission to honor

the legacy of his father and to get revenge against

the Greeks. And so to do so, he puts together

Even to this day, one of the most stunning military

operations ever seen in the world. He marches

somewhere around 300 ,000 soldiers all the way

across his empire to invade Greece. It's amazing.

I don't have time to walk through all the details,

but I'll give you a couple things you may have

heard about. First of all, he had to get all

those soldiers across what's known as the Hellespont.

which is, or the Dardanelles, which is this body

of water between Asia Minor and Greece. And he

was able to do that to get us supplies and hundreds

of thousands of troops across the Hellespont.

Never been done in the history of the ancient

world. And then, remember, you guys know the

story, he gets bogged down at the pass of Thermopylae

when he's confronted by King Leonidas of Sparta.

And Leonidas' troops drag out this fight of...

It's not 300. It's probably about 5 ,000 or 6

,000 soldiers against 300 ,000. But because the

pass at Thermopylae is so narrow, Leonidas holds

him off for three full days and kills 20 ,000

of Xerxes' soldiers in those three days. But

eventually, Xerxes gets past Thermopylae, and

he rolls south into the city of Athens. Now,

Athens knew he was coming. They knew they couldn't

stop him, so they completely evacuated the city.

And what did Xerxes do? He turned his troops

loose to loot Athens and then to burn it to the

ground, which he did. Now, you may think, well,

okay, the Persian king got his revenge. He punished

Athens for what they had done to his father.

But the problem is his victory didn't last long.

Within a month, the entire Persian navy was destroyed

in a surprise attack. By the Greek Navy, they

lost about 300 warships at what's called the

Battle of Salamis. Huge setback, so much so that

Xerxes realizes his security isn't what he thinks

it is, and he has to go back home. He has to

flee back to Persia because he's no longer physically

safe. So the king left the battlefield. He put

his cousin Mardonius in charge of the rest of

the battle. And then within a couple of months,

even Mardonius was routed by the Greeks on land

this time in the Battle of Plataea. So again,

massive loss for the Persians. Yeah, they burned

Athens. And by the way, a long time later, Alexander

the Great will burn Persepolis and say, I did

that in revenge for you burning Athens. So these

guys had massive egos and long memories. All

of them did. Interesting guys. So that's the

last gasp of the Persians trying to subdue the

Greeks. The Greeks turned out to be a very resilient

people. And like his father, Xerxes never fully

recovers from that humiliation at Plataea. He

tries to roll out a whole bunch of things for

his people to make them happy, but all he does

is add to the debt. that the Persian empire has.

He takes more wives and more concubines. He throws

more parties and he gets on the wrong side of

the noble families of Persia. And eventually

a plot was hatched to assassinate the king, led

by his own vizier, his own captain of the royal

bodyguard, plotted against him. And in 465, Xerxes

was murdered in his own palace from within and

his eldest son as well. He was 53 years old at

the time. So tragic ending for this man that

God had used. Now, you all right? Everybody okay?

Important question, when does the book of Esther

take place in the life of that man, Xerxes? Well,

you should know that the book of Esther covers

12 years of Xerxes' reign, 12 years. Chapter

one, which we are gonna read in just a second,

I promise you. Y 'all have your Bibles open,

good job. Chapter one takes place prior to Xerxes

invading Greece. The rest of the book takes place

after he comes back, having failed to subdue

the Greeks. We'll talk more about that later.

And by the way, I do need to do one more historical

PS because this is important. One of Xerxes'

sons did survive that palace coup. In fact, he

fights his way back to the throne. He puts to

death those who plotted the coup and he takes

power and his name is Artaxerxes. There's his

name up there on the end. Artaxerxes, he too

is an important biblical character that you should

know about. 14 times he's mentioned in the Old

Testament. He is the king who will oversee the

next two waves of Jews who return to the land.

Artaxerxes is the king who grants Ezra permission

to return in 458 BC, gives him the resources

he needs to build the temple. And then Nehemiah

was Artaxerxes' cupbearer in the palace at Susa.

And remember, Nehemiah comes to him. He's burdened

to get back to the land to rebuild the walls.

It's King Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, who

then sends Nehemiah back in 440 BC to rebuild

the walls of the city. So again, another king,

four kings, Persian kings, that God uses to overwhelmingly

bless his people. All right, you getting the

theme? Okay, grab your Bibles. Tanya was laughing.

She's like, so you're doing a 45 -minute intro?

Yes. Yes, I am. No, we're just going to read

12 verses. I'll give you some commentary, and

then we're going to leave it at that. I promise

you. How are we doing on time? No, not too bad.

Okay. We're going to go 12 verses. You ready?

We're just going to set the stage for what comes

next Sunday. Verse 1. Now it took place in the

days of Ahashverosh. There you go. Yael, was

that even close? Oh, she's not here. Oh, no.

Okay, I'll talk to her afterwards. The Ahashverosh,

who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces.

In those days, as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal

throne, which is at the citadel in Susa. Okay,

so again, how big is this kingdom? It is absolutely

massive. This is the largest empire the world

had known up until this point, stretching over

127 provinces, which is a callback to how Darius

had organized the empire. From India to Ethiopia.

Now you see India on the far right. Ethiopia

is not even on the screen. It's south of Egypt.

But basically saying this is the entire breadth

of the Persian Empire. Absolutely massive. Moving

right to left or east to west, you see that the

Persian Empire includes India and Parthia, all

of Mesopotamia, which included Babylon and the

old Assyrian lands. Today, by the way, that's

Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iran and Iraq, all

the way north up to Armenia. So it is a massive

land. Then you go south and west and you have

Syria and Israel and Egypt, all the way through

Asia Minor or Turkey today, even across the Aegean

Sea into what's called Thrace, which today is

Bulgaria. So all the way to Europe, this empire

stretch from India to Europe. Think about what

it took to... to just govern an empire this massive.

Now let's talk about the citadel at Susa at the

end of verse two. In old Persian, the city is

called Shushan. Today it's called Shush, Shush,

in modern day Iran. I'll put some references

on the map just so you can see. There's Jerusalem,

the blue dot. The green dot is where Babylon

is, the city of Babylon. I put the yellow dot,

that's Nineveh, the capital of the old Assyrian

empire, just for reference. The red dot is Susa.

That's what we're going to talk about. And I'm

going to reference to the east is Persepolis,

another royal palace in the orange dot there.

We'll talk about that as well. So Susa is about

200 miles north of the Persian Gulf, about 150

miles, about 200 miles east of Babylon. And again,

you can go visit it today. It's quite an archaeological

site if you can go to Iran safely. What else?

In Esther's day, Susa, how many of you guys,

when you think of Iran, you just think of a desert?

We've sort of been conditioned. It's not. They've

actually got amazing mountain ranges, and there's

beautiful lands in Iran, and you'd be surprised.

In Esther's day, Susa was considered a garden

paradise. Streams and mountains and abounding

in flowers and vegetation. In fact, the word

Susa in Persian means lilies. It was known for

this particular flower that grew in that region.

And Darius originally built it as his winter

palace. 12 acres, 12 -acre footprint, filled

with security. And this was the place where he

could go to in the cooler months of the year

and live comfortably. And what's neat about this

particular site is the archaeology behind it

is well -documented. Back in 1880, a whole team

of French archaeologists found the site. of the

palace of Susa and began to dig it out of the

earth. Now, the problem is they cut everything

up and they took a bunch of it back to France

and they really messed up the site. So today,

if you go there, I'll show you some pictures.

This is most of what's left, but look at the

size of the base of that column. You can see

how grand this palace would have been back in

the day. All the mosaics that were on the walls

and the floor were taken out of the site, and

a whole bunch of them are in the Louvre today

in Paris. You can go see them. The beautiful

colored mosaics that came, that were literally

found intact under the earth in this site in

Susa. Beautiful stuff. You can see here that

there's the footprint of the size of the palace.

And again, they found all the outer walls, and

they are slowly digging into the earth. But you

can see the size of it, 12 acres of the palace

complex. And based on the dig, scholars have

been able to recreate images of what it would

have looked like back in the day. And this is

a really good artist's rendering of what it would

have looked like in the days of Esther. And this

is the site of chapter 1. This is basically where

all of this is taking place. So they found the

royal banquet hall. Which is this structure here

in the front. The pillars, the columns were almost

seven stories tall. Absolutely massive. The very

spot of the king's throne was identified, this

stone base of this massive chair that was located

right in the center of the biggest columns in

the room. So they believe that's where the throne

of King Darius was when he first built it. We

also know the palace has this structure in the

very front that's known as the king's gate, and

that shows up in chapter two of the book of Esther.

So it's so cool. You've got ancient writings,

you've got the book of Esther, and you've got

archeology, and they all come together to say,

we have a very good idea. what this looked like.

And one other thing worth noting is found in

the ruins was an actual inscription written in

Acadian that describes how the palace was built.

And this is what the court administrators would

do. They would record for the glory of the king

how this was built in all the places, 29 locations

throughout the empire where they brought all

the building materials to build this amazing

palace. And it's interesting, one of the things

that we don't understand because we're Westerners

and we tend to study history from a Western perspective,

we just don't have an understanding of how wealthy

and how culturally advanced the Persian Empire

was during this time. They were head and shoulders

above the rest of the world. They built the most

beautiful things. And I wish we could go back

and see what they look like, but wow, amazing.

And just as an example of that, six years after

Darius built Susa, he built a palace at Persepolis.

further to the east, and it was even larger.

In fact, a lot of it remains today. Look at the

size of the archaeological dig at Persepolis

today. And look at the size of some of these

buildings. See the people? This isn't even the

main structure. This is just the outbuildings

in the palace complex, how big and majestic these

things were. An artist rendering of Persepolis,

this is probably what it looked like back in

the day. Isn't that wild? So the Persians did

it right. So as we're reading in the book of

Esther, I want you to understand who this king

is and exactly what he was dealing with back

in the day. Okay, that's enough of that. Let's

keep going. Verse three, we're gonna finish here.

In the third year of Xerxes' reign, he gave a

banquet for all of his princes and attendants,

the army officers of Persia and Media. the nobles

and the princes of his provinces being in his

presence, and he displayed the riches of his

royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty

for many days. Look how long this banquet was.

Six months. 180 days. Now, in chapter 1, we're

going to see three separate banquets. This is

just the first one, and it lasts six months.

It's critical for you to see who's there, who's

present. Princes and army officers. Now that's

interesting. Scholars have suggested, and this

makes sense, that this was more than just a party.

You can't party for six months, right? There's

got to be something else going on. But this is

Xerxes displaying his hospitality. Remember,

he's a newer king at this point. He's a young

man, and he's trying to instill confidence in

his leadership and rallying these important men

to get behind the goal of what? I'm going to

invade Greece. And I need you with me. I need

you to see how great I am, how powerful I am,

and get behind this invasion of Greece. In fact,

scholars believe that the six months, much of

that time was war planning. That's why the army

officers are there. They're planning this military

operation to Greece. But then comes the second

banquet, verse five. When these days were completed,

the six months, the king gave a banquet lasting,

oh, just seven days. seven days for all the people

who were present at the citadel in Susa from

the greatest to the least in the court of the

garden of the king's palace, which also has been

found. That open air structure right there is

known as the court of the garden. So we held

a second banquet in that particular area. Now

this banquet is shorter. Who's there? Well, it's

all the people that... that live and work in

the citadel, which is the palace complex. So

servants and staff, and again, noble men of the

kingdom, probably hundreds of people. And this

was sort of a special gift from this young king.

He's trying to impress people. So he holds this,

you know, the seven -day banquet. Verse six.

Look how opulent it is. So he didn't spare any

of the opulence of his kingdom. There were hangings

of fine white and violet linen held by cords

of fine purple linen on silver rings and marble

columns and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic

pavement of porphyry, marble, mother of pearl,

and precious stones. Drinks were served in golden

vessels of various kinds, and the royal wine

was plentiful according to the king's bounty.

Spares no expense. This is a party. Now, this

must have been very impressive to the people

that were there. And that was the point, to let

everybody know, I am the new king. I am richer

and greater than my father Darius. That's basically

what's happening here. Look at verse 8. The drinking

was done according to the law. There was no compulsion,

for so the king had given orders to each official

of his household that he should do according

to the desires of each person. Now, I know that

sounds weird, but according to ancient Persian

custom, if you came to a party, you had to have

a drink with the host or leave. But that was

compulsory. But here, Xerxes opened things up

and says, hey. Let every man drink as much or

as little as he wants. He's free to do as he

pleases. Again, Xerxes is trying to please the

folks. And a third banquet is taking place at

the same time. This is for ladies only, and it's

hosted by Xerxes' queen, whose name was Vashti.

Verse 9, Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for

the women in the palace which belonged to King

Ahasuerus. And we know that the women's quarters

were somewhere in the back, and that's where

that party is taking place. Okay. Deep breath.

I mentioned earlier, this is a crisis book. We're

about to bump into the first crisis. Here it

comes, verse 10. On the seventh day, when the

heart of the king was, what, merry with wine,

he commanded, oh boy, here come the names, Mehumon,

Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Avagtha, Zether, and

Karkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence

of King Ahasuerus. If you were going to attend

to the queen, you needed to be a eunuch. I'll

leave it at that. Verse 11, what were they commanded

to do? To bring Queen Vashti before the king

with her royal crown in order to display her

beauty to the people and the princes, for she

was beautiful. Uh -oh. This is a bad idea, isn't

it? Right? Every guy in this room should cringe.

That's a bad idea. Here's the young king, and

he's feeling merry. And the Hebrew word there

is just tov. It just means he's feeling good.

He's at least mildly drunk at this point. And

my guess is a conversation happened with his

nobles, and somebody, you know, he was boasting

about the beauty of his wife, and maybe somebody

spoke up and said, well, let's see it. And so

what does the king do? His authority is not to

be questioned and he snaps his fingers at his

eunuchs and he says, go interrupt the queen's

banquet and get her in here and tell her to look

her best. Tell her to put on her crown. Tell

her to come in here and show herself to these

men who'd been drinking for seven days. Big yikes,

right? So according to the custom of that day,

Vashti's job in that moment was to obey, to publicly

display her royal beauty in order to bring glory

to her husband and to the king. And she would

have known that. That was at least the idea.

Verse 12, but Queen Vashti refused. She refused

to come at the king's command delivered by the

eunuchs. She says, I'm not doing it. I'm not

coming. Now the text doesn't give us the reason,

but there's a couple, we can probably guess,

right? By the way, some scholars have said it's

possible she was pregnant at this time and just

didn't want to appear pregnant in front of the

others. We don't know that for sure. More likely,

it's just a matter of her dignity, right? She's

a woman of noble birth. She is the queen of the

empire. To put herself on display before these

drunk men would be humiliating. So she says no.

Even though she must have understood the consequences

of that. And she probably knew her life was now

at risk. It's that serious. And so predictably,

verse 12 continues, then the king became very

angry and his wrath burned within him. Why? Because

this is public defiance. What was the purpose

of the banquet? To impress people. Now we have

public defiance. We have a public embarrassment

of the king. So what are all the household staff,

what are all the nobles to conclude from this?

Well, this young king doesn't have his house

in order. And it's made him look weak in front

of everybody. That's the point I'm leaving you

at today. Because that's the crisis. There's

coming a crisis. And next week, we'll see Esther

come onto the scene. And there's some very important

reasons why. And we'll see the way Xerxes responds.

And we'll see the way God works in and through

this situation. You guys feel okay about that?

Got a background? Okay. I'm exhausted. Let's

pray together. Father, help us. Help us, help

us, help us. As we study history and we study

the way that you have worked. In the annals of

human history, Lord, as we look at your text

and we compare the things that we know from archaeology

and from historians and we look at the divine

truth of your inspired word that tells us the

absolute facts about what happened on the ground.

As we put all those things together, Lord, we

marvel. We marvel at your sovereignty. We marvel

at your care for your people, Israel. The way

you took such care of them during these difficult

years in exile and brought Persian kings into

their lives in order to bless them in extraordinary

ways, Lord. I pray that today, God, we would

just seal these truths in our hearts, get our

minds and hearts ready for what comes next. as

we continue in the story. Thank you for your

word. Thank you for how practical it is. Thank

you for how glorious it is, Lord. And now, Father,

as we come back and we sing and we worship, Lord,

work in our hearts by your spirit. May you be

glorified in our midst, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.