Painful Submission - Esther 2:1-11 - Sunday Sermon

If you're new here, my name is Mati

Scaring. I'm the preaching and teaching

pastor. And we are marching right

through the book of Esther. So, if you

want to turn your Bible and go ahead and

open to Esther chapter 2, that's where

Esther 2 · chapter mention

we'll be today. We're going through

chapter 2 1 through 11. Uh before we get

there, just a couple short

announcements. Um the welcome cards uh

are designed to get to know you a little

bit better and for you to be able to

connect with the church. if you're brand

new, never filled one of those out, go

ahead and fill out and give us whatever

information you're comfortable with and

then turn it into the connection table

and we've got a gift card or some kind

of gift for you for that. Um, just a

little hospitality gift. Uh, we also use

those cards as prayer requests. So, if

you have things that you want to be

prayed over, um, go ahead and write

those down and put them in the basket as

well. We pray for those every Wednesday.

Also, prayer may some be something that

God is challenging you to do more

regularly in your life. So, I'd like to

invite you to, especially if you're

feeling led by the Lord, to come and if

it works out schedule-wise, to actually

come on Wednesday mornings. We pray at

7:00 a.m. here in the prayer room. There

are very rare times where we're only on

Zoom, so you can check uh the prayer tab

um on our website and there will be some

kind of banner saying there. If there's

nothing there, we're meeting in person,

but we also meet on Zoom. So, you can

just go right on the website and uh

let's say, well, I could join for half

an hour, but then I got to go and you're

joining on Zoom. That'd be a great

thing. But we we are praying through the

book of Esther. We read a chapter, a

portion of a time, and then we pray by

the inspiration of scripture. And if

you've never done that, it is it is a

powerful thing. And you know, some

people's schedules might not allow, but

if it does, it's a great way to start

your Wednesday morning and embed God in

the middle of the week. So, love to see

more people there uh coming to prayer.

and uh we will be praying for you. Just

one more thing about the prayer requests

since that's open to anyone, write your

prayer request in a way you're

comfortable with just about anybody

hearing, at least anybody within the

church. So, um if you want it to be

private, just write in private there and

we will not we'll just pray for it as

elders or something like that. Okay. All

right. Uh, another announcement, the

women's ministry led by Rebecca Egg is

going to be meeting on March 21st at

10:30 at the church. Okay. Again, March

21st at 10:30 at the church. And she's

going to be teaching um actually from

Esther too as well, but with the women

as a demographic. And I think it's going

to be fantastic. So, you could be

praying for her preparation on on that.

um we're actually working together uh

for putting together a sermon and and

and preaching training al together. So,

you'll be praying for her on that. And

the men's ministry will be meeting just

the weekend before that. And we're going

to be meeting at 9:00 a.m. at my house

on the 14th. Okay. And um I don't know

exactly what Rebecca's plans are. I

think she's still putting some of those

together. I know there'll be some

teaching. Uh but you may have other

plans. Uh we have a resident sheriff

that is going to be um uh keeping us

safe safe while we uh uh fire some

firearms down at the lower part of my

property against a nice tall wood or not

wood uh uh clay berm. So we're going to

it's going to be safe. Um if that's not

something you're all that excited about

as a man, that's fine. Hang out the

house. We'll have food. We'll have

pastries and things like that. But, uh,

it will be an opportunity to be, um,

instructed on those things and actually

put some, uh, lead downrange. So, I

think that's fun. And it might be

something that if you've never done that

you just try out, but I think it's a a

fun men's activity. And you also being

hearing a sermon um, uh, from Esther

there, too. A much shorter one than

these ones on Sunday. So, anyway, those

are the only announcements. I'm going to

pray and we're going to get right into

Esther chapter 2 1-1. Heavenly Father,

Esther 2 · chapter mention

when I approach your word, when we

approach your word, we want to approach

with reverence. We want to rightly

divide what you're saying. We want to

hear what your holy spirit is saying

through your word to the church. And he

will never contradict your word. He will

always support what it actually says.

And he will teach us what it means in

such a way uh that it'll highlight how

we need to grow into Christlikkeness.

Whether we need to be convicted because

there's sin that we need to just give up

and surrender and confess and be

forgiven for. Whether there's an area

that we need to be challenged in,

encouraged in or consoled and comforted,

Lord, sometimes we need consolation and

comfort as well because difficult things

and painful things are happening in our

life. Your word has the power to do that

by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so

we want you to open your word to our

hearts and open our hearts to your word.

And we want to we're coming to this with

not a desire to master your word, but to

be mastered by your word. And we pray

these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Um

I don't know exactly where you're at in

your life regarding difficulty or trial

or challenge. Um sometimes you can have

sort of a challenge that's somewhere in

the background and then it gets worse

and it comes just right unavoidable. Um

sometimes the kinds of trials that you

experienced in your life uh take away

certain freedoms that you had at one

point like uh almost any trial can do

that. But let's say you were working at

a job and working your heart out for the

Lord and doing a great job in your

vocation and then you get let go or you

get fired and that was maybe not within

your control and uh you were totally

shocked by it and so all of a sudden

financial issues are happening and

you're uh it's difficult and when money

is tight uh freedoms are restricted

aren't they? you know, you might not be

able to go out to eat. You're worried

about having to pay the mortgage. And

that's a kind of trial that can happen

in your life that we're not always in

control over being let go or go or

sometimes uh people are fired for unjust

reasons. Um, and we're speaking of the

concept of authority here too in in

Esther. And so sometimes the trials that

come into your life are the result of

somebody that has uh authority in your

life. Um, it could be if you're a kid,

it could be a teacher. It could be a

principal. It could be your parents. Um,

it could be a relationship to anyone in

authority, your employer, your boss. Uh,

it could be your relationship as a

parent to administrators in a school

system or a club or something like that.

There's no way really of getting around

uh not being under authority. Uh you can

move just about as far away as you want

to in Alaska and there's still rules and

there's somebody to enforce them. It's

it's just about impossible uh to not be

under authority. On top of it, we

discovered last week that God has

designed these institutions and their

seats of authority and has placed people

there. And that includes

um men like Nero. remember went to to

first Peter uh chapter 2 and talk about

how we are to honor even that emperor at

that time. And so that establishes that

it's not just good leaders and good men

or women in authority that you have to

be willing to submit to. Uh but even men

like Nero Neero was an evil man. There's

no way around it. And we do that then in

reverence for God's command or in

reverence for Christ. Um we're going to

talk less about the limits of that

today. We established that last week.

Uh, one simple limit that I think is

helpful in understanding uh when when to

submit to authorities and when actually

not to do that is if what they're

leading you to do is actually sin. If

you're convicted, especially biblically,

and you say that's a sinful thing, um

then you're not actually submitting to

them in reverence for Christ if you

still submit because God himself told

you the highest and ultimate authority

behind whom there's he is his own

authority uh told you not to do that. So

again, the only reason you would ever

submit to anyone is because God said to

do that. So that includes for children

your parents, for wives, your husband.

There's also a mutual submission there.

But there is a headship that Paul

clearly teaches about in in Ephesians

and other author authors of the New

Testament teach about. uh there's a

submission to earthly authorities like

the institution of the police or the

institution of uh uh I want to say

firehouses but that's not the right word

but you know what I mean the institution

of schools when you are actually have

your kids in that school or governmental

institutions right and it's not as

though we don't have examples of ungodly

leaders in some of those positions so we

talked a lot about that and the reason

why I'm bringing it up again today is

that some of The trials you will face in

your life come because of the actions of

other people. And if those people are in

authority,

the temptation for Christians is not to

continue submitting at least

positionally, but it's just to rebel and

say, "No, I'm not going to obey because

you're not a godly person and I I

shouldn't have to." Uh, there really

isn't anybody that I know that feels

fond thoughts about the word submit.

You ever felt fond thoughts about that?

When I hear the word hunting, I think

fond thoughts. When I hear submit, I'm

like, "Oh, yeah. We have to do that,

don't we?" You know, however,

we're going to see Esther's character.

And because she's teachable and

submissive here, and I'll show you

directly from scripture where I'm

drawing that idea that we see that in

her character. Um, God can use her in a

way that he was not going to use Vashi

who wasn't willing to submit to King

Xerxes or Houseawaras. And remember,

King Xerxes was definitely

megalomaniacal, vain, glorious,

prideful, temper issues, and he's a

womanizer.

not a great husband, not a great king,

not even a good man.

Right? And I don't know if I convinced

you because it there's not enough

information to know exactly if whether

Vashi uh what she did uh was exactly

wrong in the eyes of the Lord. But at

the end of the day, as we start to see

the character of Esther and compare, uh,

Esther is like a rare diamond of a

woman,

a rare diamond of a person in her

humility. I want you guys to put

yourself in her shoes considering what

happened to her and think about what

it's like to actually respond with

teachable submissiveness

even in that context.

It may not actually be worse than yours,

but my guess is what she went through is

worse than most of what you're currently

facing.

Whether you're losing your freedom

because of some action of some other

person or whether it's because maybe

you've gotten sick and there's a disease

that's threatening your health or your

very life. Whatever it is, the trial

that you're that you're going through.

Before we get into the passage, the one

last thing I want to say introductory

is it better to go through that trial

with God or without God?

I don't think there's a person in here

that is saying without God. And yet,

let's say your trial is you lost both

your parents.

You were not or you were only raised by

one parent or uh your father abandoned

your family when you were really young.

These are real things people in our

congregation have experienced. You know,

Esther lost both of her parents. She did

not have biological parents. We don't

know exactly when that happened, but she

was ultimately raised by Morai. That

kind of loss

is not always responded to by people

drawing near to God. And why? It's not

that complicated. Kids, adults, you

know, why didn't God save your parents?

For me, why did God not heal my skin? I

had the job like skin condition,

scratched myself bloody

when I was young. So my whole story is

conditioned by the doubt that the enemy

used as a wedge to drive me away from

God that started when I was just a

little young kid. I don't know if I

remember it, but I know that my mom

tells me the story and I feel like I

remember looking up at her in tears,

bandages that you could see the blood

through all over my skin. I grew up

fighting this disease and I looked at

her and I said, "If God loves me so

much, why won't he heal me?" And and

sooner or later because I wasn't willing

to surrender to that story that God had

designed in my life, uh I started

doubting that I I I started doubting,

well, either he's not powerful enough to

heal me, but I don't really think that's

true, so he must not love me as much as

he says.

I asked my mom, "What did you say to me

then? I don't remember." and she goes,

"I didn't say anything. I could barely

keep it together."

So these trials, these things that come

into our life are either opportunities

to draw near to God or it's not neutral

ground.

Your your doubt can be used by the enemy

to drive him far from you. And then

where is the power and the grace and the

consolation and the support that you

need by drawing close to God?

Right? So if part of your story in

actually following the Lord and

remaining close to him means that and

because maybe in your life there's

somebody that's causing the trial,

right? And let's not pretend like we

don't feel that way sometimes as husband

and wife. This feels like a trial and

what you're feeling like is the behavior

of your wife or the behavior of your

husband is what's causing the trial.

That does happen. That happens to

Christians. that happens to people in

church and then you feel like you can't

get out of it and there's your sense of

not having the freedom you and you don't

really want to get out of it man just

keeps happening and are you going to

draw close to God in that and yet in

those situations oftenimes what it

requires to actually draw close to God

is actually submitting to an earthly

authority being teachable and submissive

to an earthly authority. Let me put my

main point up to show you what God can

do and what God did for Esther when she

was rem willing to remain humble in the

face of this trial. She did not choose

this trial. It happened to her. God will

give you favor when you are teachable

and submissive towards those he has

placed in authority over you.

God will give you favor

when you are teachable and submissive

towards those he has placed in authority

over you. I'm reading that point

directly out of this passage. But I will

show you how this is God's pattern over

and over again, including with his son

who is God, Jesus Christ. I'll say it

one more time. God will give you favor.

You can also replace the word with

grace, comfort, strength, power, but God

will give you favor when you are

teachable and submissive toward towards

those he has placed in authority over

you. So, let's get into the story. I

don't know what your trial is, but you

need to walk it with God, not without

him. And so, do not let the enemy divide

you from him, no matter how painful it

is. I God has even taken this regret

away from me. But if I was going to say,

"My greatest regret in life is that

moment whenever my little young heart

decided that either God wasn't my healer

or he didn't love me. I wish I had never

decided that.

I wish I could go back and do it over

again, but God has been so redemptive. I

It took me till I was 25 to return to

him. Spent I mean Garings usually die in

their early 80s from some kind of heart

related thing. Like all my my dad's

brothers that have passed like that's

and and my my grandpa that's what so

like more than 25% of my life doubting

God's power and love. And man, I'm never

going back to that. And I'm not I'm I

just beg God that the next trial that

happens to my life, if it's that hard,

that I wouldn't do it again.

Chapter 2, verse one. After these

things, when the anger of King Ahasser

had abated, he remembered Vashi and what

she had done and what had been decreed

against her. We don't know exactly how

long this was, but his anger is cooled

and his mind turns towards Bashi

and he's thinking about what she had

done and just refusing to come before

him. Remember, he seems to me pretty

clear that he was wanting to use her as

an extension of his vain glory by having

other men objectify her basically like

bring her in front of kind of parade her

in front of other men for her beauty

which would then show how great he is.

You can see why there's just about no

woman I know or respect that would want

to do that. And a lot of what we

discussed was whether or not Vashi could

have still uh submitted in that

situation even though King Xerxes or

Asawarees was wrong in his intent for

doing that. And I I'll just tell you

again if you missed it uh cuz some

people said, "Did you actually conclude

in the sermon?" I thought I did. But I

believe she she she could have. And I

believe Esther would have based on what

I'm learning about her character from a

deep study in this book. And that's

painful to me. It's painful me to think

that there are times where we're going

to have to submit to men or women in

authority over us that do not have our

best interest in mind, that only care

about themselves,

that are not even good in their

character or in their intent.

So he's remembering her as anger has

cooled

and he remembers what had been decreed

against her which was decreed not just

by him but also uh it was it was the

prince memican or the princes of Persia

that came up with this idea right there

ought to be a law against that as Greg

said I'll never forget that comment um

they tried to force the women of Persia

who were married to honor their husband

by law talked about how that's not how

it works. The law doesn't transform

hearts. Not even God's law transformed

hearts. Faith and grace are the way that

God transforms hearts.

So the king's young men make a

suggestion. The then the king's young

men who attended him said, "Let

beautiful young virgins be brought out

for the king. And let the king appoint

officers in all the provinces of his

kingdom to gather all the beautiful

young virgins to the herum in Susa the

citadel under custody of Haggi, the

king's unic who is in charge of the

women. Let their cosmetic cosmetics be

given to him.

And let the young women woman who

pleases the king be queen instead of

Vashi. this pleased the king and he did

so.

Of course, that idea pleased this king.

I think it's pretty clear to me that

these young men were in a way

participating in his v vain glory. They

know what he likes. They know what he's

about. They know his character. And

they're like, "Okay, well, he's thinking

about these things." And his mind is

turning back to that. seem it seems that

the men that were attending him picked

up on something and they make this

suggestion.

I mean, what man who has all the power

that Aasawa did,

has nobody really checking or balancing

his power,

has every authority support structure

underneath him, already has a bunch of

wives,

just currently deposed his queen and is

thinking about her, is not going to say

yes to, hey, let's have a nationwide

contest. And this is the superpower. So,

it's kind of like the known world is

under the power of the Persian Empire.

Let's have a contest. Let's find all the

most beautiful untouched women in young

women in the kingdom and they'll have a

contest. They'll all become your wives,

but one of them will become your queen.

I think one of the things we need to

admit that this is the fleshly desire of

men in our base model. all the wives,

all the beautiful ones.

This is what we're left to when God

doesn't intervene.

When we're not actually surrendered to

him, that's what the flesh desires. We

went through the list of the works of

the flesh and they include that very

kind of thing.

So, our world is not really any

different today. Why do beauty pageantss

have the swimsuit

edition version of it? Why do women take

almost all of their clothes off and walk

on some kind of catwalk basically parade

in front of people? And in that case,

it's by consent. So, it's it's not as

bad as what this is about to be in the

story. Uh but if there were no men

lusting after them, would that kind of

thing sell?

Lust is a multi-billion dollar industry

in America alone.

A lot of men are participating in it. So

the reason why I say that is because

it's kind of easy to look at as aware

and be like, man, what an evil dude.

It's going to be a capture a bunch of

young virgins and make them his herm,

take them into custody, right? There's

absolutely no evidence that that was by

consent. By the way, I think it's pretty

obvious that it wasn't when you see the

words in verse 8. We'll go there.

They're like, "Oh, that bad evil man."

And yeah, he was a bad evil man. Not in

the service of of of the Lord at all.

But I want to stop there and just think

about like, look, is that an issue in

your life, especially as a man? But

women deal with this issue more than

people really know as well.

um

has kind of the only thing you have come

to care about is the pleasure that can

be derived from the physical.

You know, when I see children in the

crowd like this, I usually try to stop

short and max out at PG-13 or something.

But you know what I'm talking about as

adults. You know, the images, the things

you can be looking at the internet and

that's that's God sees that. The spirit

sees that. Jesus sees that as the very

same originating sin that Aasaweras is

committing here.

And man, if you're married,

then maybe your wife is having to face

similar feelings to Esther in that. And

that ought not to be part of the actions

or thought life of God's men. And it

ought not to be part of the actions or

thought life of God's women either.

There's a purity

that he calls us to.

So it pleased the king and he did so.

Verse four. Verse 5. Now there was a Jew

in Susa the citadel whose name was Mori

the son of Jer a son of Shimi son of

Kish a Benjamite who had been carried

away from Jerusalem among the captives

carried away with Jeaniah king of Judah

whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had

carried away. We're establishing here

the author is establishing uh the

historical reality or to use a fancy

word the historicity of the person of

Mori. He was a real person with a real

genealogy and he came to Babylon at the

time that he said to have come to

Babylon. And verse 7 says, "He was

bringing up Hadisah, her Hebrew name,

that is Esther, the daughter of his

uncle, for she," so they're cousins, uh,

"theor

for she had neither father nor mother."

The young woman had a beautiful figure

and was lovely to look at. And when her

father and her mother died, Mordei took

her as his own daughter.

Got a couple things I want to talk

about. The very first thing is do you

see that the author uses the exact same

phrase he'd already used about Vashi

about Harasa or Esther? She was lovely

to look at. Uh it says that very same

phrase in chapter 1 11 at the end

for she was lovely to look at. It's

repeated and my attention is drawn to

things in God's word when there's a

repetition of the exact same phrase. And

what I was thinking about is like, yeah,

that is the only criteria this king and

his young men were using to find a

queen. Never mind her character. Never

mind whatever responsibilities and

authorities she had with she seems to

have some because Vashi did call this

feast for the other women, you know, and

they were worried about how much

influence she had with all the women in

all of the provinces.

So, it seems like she may have been

beloved and had a lot of influence. And

if you're going to have someone in that

place of nobility

should the absolutely only criteria you

use be physical beauty.

That's that's not what God says. And so,

I want to show you just two verses, one

from Proverbs and one from First Peter,

what God says about finding a godly

wife. And this is Proverbs 31:10-12.

Proverbs 31:10–12

An excellent wife who can find she is

far more precious than jewels. The heart

of her husband trusts in her and he will

have no lack of gain. I think we have

one more verse. She does him good and

not harm all the days of her life. And

if we put that together with what God

says in 1 Peter 3 3-6,

do not let this is uh God or Peter, but

God speaking to to women in relationship

to like how they should display

themselves. Should it be the physical

and outward or should it be actually the

inward? What beauty is God after? And

what the Apostle Peter says is, "Do not

let your adorning be external, the

braiding of hair and the putting on of

gold jewelry or the clothing you wear,

but let your adorning be the hidden

person of the heart with the

imperishable beauty of a gentle and

quiet spirit, which in God's sight is

very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped

in God used to adorn themselves by

submitting to their own husbands. As

Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord,

and you are her children if you do good

and do not fear anything that is

frightening.

So it's very clear what's beautiful to

God is a gentle and quiet and submissive

spirit. And by the way, when I read

this, I don't just personally think like

as a Bible student, okay, that's just

for wives. I think about my

relationships to authority and how God

wants me to have a gentle and quiet

spirit, not a rebellious, reactive, and

angry one.

So men can think about this very thing.

If that's so precious to God that it'll

be precious for for men to have that

inner character in relationship to

authority as well, even if they have a

leading role in marriage. But I want to

ask you why does the apostle Peter say

and what did the Holy Spirit inspire him

to say? If you do good and do not fear

anything that is frightening.

It seems very clear to me that in this

context the concept that is frightening

is yielding your well will to a man you

very well know is still a sinner.

If you don't know that, either you've

been terribly deceased by this man or

you just have a very unbiblical

anthropology. Anthropology is like the

study of the nature of humanity. Right?

But there is no such thing as a man

who's perfect. There's no such thing as

a man who's not a sinner. And so any

person, any man that you marry will fail

you in leadership eventually. They will

not be perfect. and they won't even be

close, especially early on. But I I I

feel like what I've learned as a man and

as a husband is just how inadequate I am

compared to Jesus Christ more and more.

I I don't actually feel like, yeah, I'm

uh pretty good now. You know, I feel

like what God just keeps revealing is

how far away I am from the standard of

Christ. And it just continues humbling

me. And then as a result of that

humility, um, and God's continued grace

to keep supporting me and supporting our

marriage and supporting our family and

supporting the church, uh, I just begin

to have this fire in my belly to want to

grow and change. And I know I've been

the given the power to do that. But it's

just by the grace of God. leave me to my

own devices because of sin in my heart

and you really actually remove grace

entirely which I don't believe can

happen to a Christian but if you did

that you would devolve into the worst

version of a husband you could possibly

be and the same is true for wives but it

is frightening to let go of control and

give any to another person that you know

is not perfect by the way it can also be

frightening to lead people that are

sinful

Right? I mean, sometimes the things

they'll say to you are are lacerating to

your heart.

So, both husbands and wives will

experience fear in taking on their godly

roles. And what about Esther? Think this

was a frightening situation. She's got

one man in her life that cares about her

that does not see that actually cares

about her. You could say he and maybe

Shashka's these other unics seem to care

about her, but they're in the service of

the king's vain glorious purposes. And

that's what they're living their life

out for. So the man that actually loves

her with God's love is her cousin Morai.

And so he was raising her as his own

daughter. Verse 8. So when the king's

order and his edict were proclaimed and

when many young women were gathered in

Susa in the citadel in custody of Hegi,

Esther was also taken into the king's

palace and put into custody of Hegi who

had charge of the women. Gathered,

taken, placed into custody, put under

charge.

Those don't sound like consent words to

me.

Can you even imagine a young woman? We

can guess that she was a teenager. We

don't know her exactly exact age. In

this case, the word young woman means a

young woman of maritable age. And it's

probably also just speculation to say

that she only had just become of

maritable age. But it said she had a

beautiful figure. And I think that we

all know that there's a certain time in

a woman's life that that figure

develops. So I think of her somewhere

between a young and maybe a little bit

older teenager kind of thing. But I'm

not saying that's absolute. But she's a

young woman. How many young women think

to themselves, you know what my dream

is?

I want to be taken against my will to

become one of the many wives of an

angry, womanizing, megalomaniac who

cares only about himself.

That's my dream life.

Now, switch that around.

is not one of the American dream

versions that women long for to marry

Prince Charming

or maybe King Charming.

But they're thinking of a man who has

noble character. He's charming. He's

kind. He's generous. He's sacrificial.

It's what all the stories the the

sacrifice of Prince Charming uh are

about. That that's what women will swoon

over and for understandable reasons,

right?

But did Esther really have a choice in

being taken, put into custody, and under

charge?

No, she didn't have a choice. They just

did it based on one criteria, her

beauty.

And then it says this verse, which is

the first hint that there's something

special about Esther that's not true

about the rest of the women. What's true

about all the rest of the women is that

they're the most beautiful young women

they could find. That includes Esther.

Verse 9 says, "And the young women

pleased him and won favor his favor." So

she's the young woman here that we're

talking about is Esther. She's won favor

for some reason with Haggi. And he

quickly provided her with her cosmetics

and her portion of food and with seven

chosen young women from the king's

palace and advanced her and her young

women to the best place in the herum.

Okay, you remember God is not explicitly

mentioned, but this is God's word and

it's obvious that God is providentially

and sovereignly behind the scenes

working things towards his will. He's

got a plan for Esther's life and since

you know then from the beginning his

plan is to install her as queen and to

use her to save his people from total

annihilation.

It's like the world population of the

Jews lived the vast majority of them

inside the Persian Empire. So it is an

epic plan that God has for her. Epic

plan. And so he's already giving her

this favor here. And there are times

where God gives people favor whether

they're acting in high character or not.

We learned that through the study of

Genesis where some of the favor that God

gave and showed to Abraham was

unconditional. Even when Abraham was

lying about his wife being his sister,

um when he allows her twice to be taken

into the custody of another king as his

wife, he just leaves richer afterwards,

right? The unmmerited favor of the Lord.

But there are also stories in the Bible

where it's the it's in part the

character that God has developed in the

person that uh is his plan to then use

that person. And without that character,

he will not use that person. And we

already know that that is true in

Esther. If Esther had not had the

character be willing to put her life on

the line in chapter 4 to go into the

king without having been summoned to

tell him about the plot. That's not

exactly how she does it, but that's how

the story goes. She puts her life on the

line. That's when she says, "If I

perish, I perish." So it's and and

Morortei said that God uh uh deliverance

will rise for another place if you don't

do this

right Morai gave the hypothetical if you

don't do this God will find someone else

to use. So that's the context of this

story. And so now she's won this special

favor because she gets these I'm

assuming women that are attending her

and and serving her and she's advanced

and her young women to the ble best

place in the herum.

Now listen to verse 10 because it's the

first sign of her character and it's a

subtle one but it gets more clear uh in

a verse I'll show you later. Esther had

not made known her people or kindred,

for Mordei had commanded her not to make

it known. Commanded

kiddos, your parents ever command you to

do something.

There are times maybe when I'm upset

when my boys are misbehaving and I've

told them multiple times that my voice

changes from a voice of requesting them

to do something to the voice of command

and they know the difference.

Every father should have a voice of

command because there are times where

you need to yell instructions to your

children just to keep them safe.

Get back from that ledge when you're at

Yellowstone,

right? That actually happened.

Heights and children

my nightmare.

I don't even like heights by myself. I

heard a comedian say, I don't know if

you've heard this guy. He's not

particularly famous, but he goes,

"What's up with climbers?

>> Get down from there."

I can't quite explain why it's funny,

but it's I tried to copy his a effect in

it, too. It's like we have ladders. That

war has already been won. Uh,

I'm going to lose my train of thought

real quick if I start thinking about

comedy, but um, Mor, it clearly says

Morai commanded her, right? Commanded

her to hide her identity.

When he put it like that, which is what

he said, to hide her major portion of

her identity. Now, think about young

women and young men who are willing to

be told by not even their parent

command to hide their identity.

I know kids these days well enough, you

know, I made a commitment to myself that

I was never going to forget what it's

like to feel totally misunderstood by

adults. And so I and I repeated myself

that year after year because I was like,

I'm sure adults just forget. But I

haven't forgotten. I think it was like

when I was five because I felt like

adults would like everything you ever

did that was wrong was like the worst

possible thing that happened and I'm

like I'm not going to remember that I

burned a hole in the carpet today. It's

not that big of a deal. Now I realize

well I maybe could have burned the house

down but I just was remembering do they

know how much they're scaring kids? I'm

not scared. I was very rebellious child

and I was like not buying it. uh but so

not a good son but um to raise at least

uh but I remember that and so I think

about kids and I try to put myself in

their shoes because of how I felt in

this little thing I repeated to myself I

don't really know why I did it every

year don't forget what it was like to be

a child and feel like adults don't

understand you right do you would you

think you might feel like adults don't

understand how hard the command is to

hide portion of your identity

we just hide that from people if you

hide a portion of your identity People

do not know who you truly are. If you're

not truly known, how do you know that

they truly care about you? Right?

I'm not saying the Unix or the other uh,

you know, queen candidates actually

cared about Esther. I think there's a

question mark about that. Uh, some of

them ended up really liking her. She had

a lot of favor. That's what we're

talking about today. But it's not

necessarily an easy command to obey. And

she does. She just obeys it. You might

think, "Oh, you're making too much of

that." Let me go to verse 20 of the same

chapter here.

This I want to give uh Rebecca Egg

credit for this. Uh her and Greg have

been studying with me and we're we're

learning together how to write questions

and we write them for our Bible studies

that are on Wednesday night. Um

and Rebecca really picked up on this

verse. Esther had not made known her

kindred or her people as Mordei had

commanded her. For Esther obeyed

Morortei just as when she was brought up

by him.

You see where I'm taking the idea from

that Esther is teachable and submissive.

She has been from a young age. That is

not true for every child. I've said it

before. What reminds me is these walls

because my dad called me akint

head through the wall child. I grew up

in Germany. That's why I spoke German

there. Right? For those of you who don't

know, I'm used to saying that where

everyone kind of knows my story, but I

had through the wall child. And I don't

know if you were like that, but like

go I remember my dad saying, "Matis, do

you always have to learn the hard way?

Head through the wall." And uh I thought

to myself,

I don't know some of these kind of

consequences, especially the natural

ones, like I I put some jump together

that was like this high on a tiny little

BMX bike and I went off of it and it

tipped and I went flying and just

pounded my face on a bumper and it broke

my tooth off. And I was I was really sad

and angry about the tooth being broke

off for cosmetic reasons. My dad was

like, "Why are you crying? It's been an

hour." And I'm like, "It's

he goes," you're not in pain. He's like,

"No, I lost my tooth. I was crying

because I was upset at my tooth being

gone." You know, but I was that kind of

kid. Just crazy things all the time.

I probably won't get into how God broke

my heart because it's like broke my

heart as in terms like broke my pride so

that I stopped having to learn the hard

way that you're not gonna get away with

being disobedient to him.

never going to get away with it. And it

is better to offer the painful sacrifice

of surrender to submit to God than it is

to live in what you think is your own

freedom, but is indeed actually just

slavery to sin.

Some of you know that story, but I I

want to keep the focus on this here.

Clearly Esther was submissive and

clearly she was teachable and she had

this one man that God provided for her

as a mentor and a guide in a situation

that I don't know if you've thought

about how horrible it would be. You're a

teenager. You've never slept with a man.

You're taken. You're gathered. You're

taken. You're put in custody. You're put

in charge. And now you are on to being

beautified. Whether you want to or not.

I don't know exactly how they did it,

but I imagine oil baths and different

incense and uh beauty regiments for skin

and hair and and clothes and probably

etiquette training and all these things.

You're just into it. I'm not entirely

sure that there weren't some of the

women that thought of this as a high

honor. I don't think Esther would have

been in that category based on her

biblical character.

And yet, she stays submissive.

I read a statistic

and one of these was from the Wall

Street Journal and the other one if you

really want the the backup I do have it

but I can't think of it now that um

the likelihood that I want to read it so

I don't mis misquote it here. Um it's

about the crime rate related to

fatherlessness. Why am I saying about

that? Because what happens um to the

relationship of a son's like in to the

authority of his father predicts how he

will be relating to authority in the

future in a dramatic way. Yeah. Research

indicates that fatherless homes are a

primary predictor of violent crime

juvenile and juvenile delinquies.

Studies show 70 to 85% of p prison

inmates and school shooters grew up

without fathers.

This is the the headline from the Wall

Street Journal. Um, a separate article,

the biggest root cause of crime is

fatherlessness.

>> I chose a source that is not always

conservativeleaning on purpose uh

because even

uh across the aisle politically from my

worldview, which is is conservative, uh

that is still being discovered

statistically.

And that's true for young women as well

when they don't grow up with a mother or

without a father. Here you have a

statistical anomaly.

That's not really the way I think about

it. I think it was God working in Esther

to develop her character. But

statistically, it's still an anomaly

that she would not have parents

and yet have this

god-honoring of a relationship to

authority.

I had

genuinely amazing parents.

In fact, when I came back to like when I

actually repented of all my wild and

rebellious ways that particularly got

bad in college and like could have gone

to prison for them bad, so I don't want

to diminish it. And when I one of the

things that was so convicting to me is

that I had no excuses.

I'm the son of a theologian who I'm the

son of a woman who might as well have

been like the most passionate Puritan

evangelist you could imagine who spent

their 25 years of their life in Germany.

My mom didn't even get to be there for

the funeral of her parents either of

them. And I saw her weeping over that.

I'm that son and I rebelled like that.

So when I look at Esther, I mean, she

was already a a heroine to me, already a

highlight Bible character, kind of like

Joseph or Daniel or someone like that.

There's lots of other ones I can

mention,

but it's I mean,

I don't I don't usually do this, but I

I'm going to read you something I wrote.

I'm not a good writer, so I'll use

whatever verbal skill I have to make it

sound better than it sounds if it's just

being read. Um,

but it just came flowing out of me and I

can't reproduce it by saying it. And I

did not have the time to memorize it and

practice it over and over again. Um, so

I just want to read this to you.

In reading to myself, I could not

contain my emotion. I So bear with me

here.

What are the authorities doing in this

case? They designed a sinful way to

flatter the king by suggesting a contest

for a new queen based on only one

criteria, physical beauty. The young men

knew exactly how to flatter the

womanizing king. They're literally

helping him advance his polygamy.

They know exactly what suggestion would

please his vain, glorious intentions.

Men will scheme, men will plot, but

always in vain. God's sovereign purposes

will advance those whom he wants to

advance for the reason he wants to

advance them.

There is no amount of sin that can

thwart God's ways of exalting the humble

and bringing low the prideful.

But the true humility required by God of

his servants is actually

staggering.

Esther was required to be gathered,

taken, placed into custody, and under

the charge of Unix, whose entire life

revolved around managing one king's

herm. A herm is a hideous and

unquestionable sinful corruption of

God's design for marriage.

Imagine being taken without consent into

such a herm only to compete for the

favor of a king who is clearly all about

himself.

Is it the true desire of any woman to be

one of the many wives of one man?

I'm skipping ahead here because I've

talked about Prince Charming already.

Who wants to be submissive to such a

man?

Who is humble enough for that? And I

mean that seriously. Who's actually

humble enough to submit to a man like

Xerxes? Who would not react to that

plan? Who would not want with every

fiber in their being to rebel against

such a thing? And yet that is what God

clearly called Esther to do. And I want

to just ask you one question. Is God

worthy of such humility? What if God

told you, "My plan for your life

requires you to be taken into her

without your consent? You'll be under

the custody of men who serve a king who

is not a good man, who will eventually

not even talk to you for as long as a

month at a time. He will be obsessed

with himself and focused only on

advancing his own greatness." What will

you say to that?

Maybe you'd ask, "Lord, why is that the

plan?" And what if God answered you and

said, "Because I will use you to save

the world population of my people from

certain annihilation."

If God required this plan of your life,

would you be willing to surrender?

Would you be willing to do it? Is he

worthy of that plan? Maybe in this

scenario, you might even be willing to

say yes and accept his will. But Esther

has not been told the plan. Esther was

not given the reason. Esther was not

told that this sacrifice would result in

the saving of all of God's people. She

was not told. Esther is like a diamond

of such rare quality.

It astonishes me.

Esther is willing to be teachable and

submissive even to a king and his men as

she seems to only have one man who

actually truly cares about her. Mori and

she is teachable towards him and follows

his command as well.

The so deep humility of Esther is so

piercingly convicting to my heart. It

actually almost physical physically

hurts just to consider humbling myself

to the degree clearly set by her

example. And I asked myself truly and

deeply is God worthy of submission like

that. Is he worthy of such a sacrifice?

A sacrifice of every dream, every hope,

every desire, every sense of what I find

just, right, and true and good. Is God

worthy of the greatest and most painful

sacrifices I could ever offer? And even

as I was writing this, even as I ask the

question, I find something somewhere in

the deepest places of my soul screaming,

"Yes, he is. Yes, he is."

And I can't even offer sacrifices

that show how worthy I think he is. I

can't bow long enough. And I could not

experience enough pain.

I wish I would have gone back to that

moment in my life

where where my flesh and Satan's work

introduced that doubt in my life and and

said, "I'm willing to glorify you with a

skin disease like this.

All of the evil things I did as the

prodigal, all the sinful ways I hurt

people, and the ways that I rebelled

against God would presumably have been

either lessened or not happened at all

if I had just said in my heart, "If the

way you want to glorify yourself in my

life is through a horrible skin disease

that makes every morning a battle, and

when I sleep, my skin cracks and bleeds

on the bed sheets, then so be it. And

I'll live my life for that.

And that's how I look at Esther.

Even if it means for you to have to be

taken a place you do not want to go,

kept in a custody where you are not

free, married to a person who does not

care about their best interest but only

their own. Even if I lose my life in the

pursuit of your glory, Lord, you're

worthy of more than I could ever offer

you. And I'm willing to learn obedience

through suffering. Obedience through

suffering. I that ought to remind you of

a verse in the Bible. Let's go. Let me

collect myself for a moment.

Let's go to Hebrews 5 verse 7-8.

Hebrews 5:7–8

I'm just going to read it off the

screen. I think I gave that one to you

guys, right? Hebrews 5 verse 7-8.

Hebrews 5:7–8

Yeah. In the days of his flesh, Jesus

offered up prayers and supplications

with loud cries and tears to him who was

able to save him from death. And he was

heard because of his reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned

obedience through what he suffered.

Esther was a sinner, too. She had an

amazingly submissive and humble

character, but she's still a sinner just

like every other man and every other

woman other than Jesus.

God had Jesus Christ sinless, peerless

in righteousness.

Learn obedience through what he

suffered.

>> Let's go to Hebrews 10 5-14.

Consequently, when Christ came into the

world, he said, "Sacrifices and

offerings you have not desired, but a

body have you prepared for me. In burnt

offerings and sin offerings you have not

taken pleasure."

Then I said, "Behold, I have come to do

your will, oh God, as it is written of

me in the scroll of the book."

When he said above, you have neither

desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices

and offerings and burnt offerings and in

sin offerings. These are offered

according to the law. Verse 9, then he

added, behold, I have come to do your

will. He does away with the first in

order to establish the second. Verse 10,

and by that will have been sanctified uh

sanctified through the offering of the

body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his

service offering repeatedly the same

sacrifices which can never take away

sins. But when Christ had offered for

all time a single sacrifice for sins, he

sat down at the right hand of God,

waiting from that time until his enemies

should be made a foottool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has

perfected for all time those who are

being sanctified.

There are few people

whose character

shines as bright in the Bible as

Esther's in my mind.

There's plenty others we could we could

mention, but they seem to be the

exception to the rule biblically, like

Joseph and Daniel.

But there's one person

whose character is perfect all the way

through,

if you let me. I guess this is kind of

taking some poetic license,

but I thought about

what it must have felt like for Jesus

in those

cries and tears.

You know, he was was all alone. All

alone. Esther still had Mori. You see

this last verse, verse 11, about how

much he cared about her. It says, "And

every day Morai walked in front of the

court of the haram to learn how Esther

was and what was happening

to her.

She's being groomed for the king. She's

the midst of a contest. She has contest.

She has no idea if she'll be the one

that's chosen. She's lost her freedom.

She's all of a sudden the wife of a

polygamist and all these terrible

things. But at least she had one person

to care for her. Jesus was left entirely

alone. all of his disciples, even the

most bold one, Peter, abandoned him.

And so I thought about like Jesus

talking to God the Father. And this is

not scripture, nor am I putting it on

the level of this, but it's another

little thing I wrote thinking about what

he would say in his character. And we

have lots of words. So everything in

here is biblical in its concepts. Don't

worry about that.

What if you would just close your eyes

and let me read it to you and imagine

Jesus saying something like this. And he

said things, these are paraphrases from

things he did say.

Think about him talking to the Lord

about knowing what he's going to have to

do on the cross.

And he humbly submits himself to that

will. And he says, "I will die for every

single sin you intend to redeem. I will

bear your wrath against the outrageous

sin of those you purpose to save. I will

bear the cost. I'll bear the guilt. I'll

bear the shame. And I will pay the

penalty. I am willing to be taken by

unrighteous men. I'm willing to be

beaten, mocked, and spit upon, scorged

by whips designed to lacerate my flesh,

stripped of my clothes, and nailed to

the cross, and breathe my last breath in

white hot excruciating agony. I am

willing to do this because it will save

your people from certain and eternal

destruction that they deserve. I will

bear their sin and they will become your

righteousness.

If you're as impressed with Esther as I

am, how much more with Jesus Christ?

And I want to ask you as I come bring

the sermon to a conclusion, one last

question. And I wrote it down because I

thought this

I need to just read this out loud. And

now I got to find it. I've never used

notes like this.

I might just have to paraphrase it. Oh,

there it is. Esther's being taken to

become the queen. We know that's God's

will of a bad king.

And she wins his favor, too. She's

winning favor with everyone, it says

later in the chapter. And we're going to

continue with these themes next week.

But we have a king as well. And did you

know we're his bride?

I don't know why, but I do not mind

thinking of myself even as a man, as

part of the church, as the bride of

Christ. I know what it means. I think

you know what it means as well.

Are we willing to be a church of such

humility that is fit for a king

like Jesus for its husband?

I highlight that idea because the only

reason anyone would ever submit to

anyone, especially

the ones that are low in character, is

out of reverence for our King Jesus

Christ because he said so. And look what

he did.

Look what he did to save you from

annihilation. I don't mean from

destruction, from condemnation in hell.

So

that has answered forever in my heart

that he's worthy of every sacrifice I

can offer. He's worthy of the kind of

humility that would be teachable in the

context of having been trafficked.

You know, I have a daughter. What if

that happened to her?

In a way, that's kind of what happened

to Esther.

And look how humble she is. And and

there

there's nothing special about Esther

that you can't have by the spirit.

You can surrender in the same way. And I

think what stops us from doing it

is we look and we know how painful it

will be

and we think

I don't know if I trust God enough with

that pain cuz he's not going to tell you

the end of the story for the beginning.

But I also think that deep in your

heart, just like deep in my heart, you

do actually trust God that much

to follow when someone's leading in the

wrong way and the wrong intent, right?

We've already established can't sin,

right?

But there are lots of things I don't

want to do that don't require me to sin

that I don't want to do just because

someone told me I have to.

It's my flesh.

To put the main point up again, because

if you can learn this early in your

life, kiddos, or even later in your

life, if you haven't learned it yet,

God

exalts the humble, but he brings down

low to brings to to nothingness or to

brings low the prideful. God will give

you favor when you are teachable and

submissive towards those he has placed

you in authority over. He placed Esther

there.

He established those authorities in the

first place.

You do not have to understand God's

mysterious ways to still do his will.

You just have to believe that the plan

he has for you is a good one and not for

evil and for a future and for a hope.

And you don't even know that God

wouldn't use you as in every much as an

epic way as Esther.

There's just so few of them. They're

willing to sacrifice everything like

that.

I see you nodding your head, though. I I

believe just about everyone in this room

believes that Jesus is actually worthy

of that. So, will you do it? Will you

humble yourself to that degree no matter

how much it costs you?

Let me pray.

Father,

thank you for that message.

Even just for myself, I want to be more

humble and submissive. I want to be

someone whose humility is just always at

the very basement. And so I want you to

kill my pride and I want to offer it to

you no matter how much it hurts to give

it up. And I want the very same thing

for your people in this room. I pray

that we would not stop short of gaining

the very same humility that your son

had. He blazed the trail for us to

follow by faith in those footsteps. And

so I pray that even as we worship

together now that we would be worshiping

like that with a life that's sacrificed

where we bought the whole field for one

pearl.

I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.