God’s Quiet Faithfulness

Welcome to our Women's Bible Study on the book of Esther, which we have titled, When God Works in the Shadows. I think you're gonna really, really love this book, particularly if you have ever gone through a season in your life where you weren't quite sure if God was there, if he was still in the mix of your life, you felt like maybe God was distant or away somehow, then I think you're going to understand the book of Esther. Or, if you have gone through a season in your life where you've gone through a super crummy situation, but as time went on, things worked out so much better than what you could ever have imagined, then you might understand the book of Esther. Or, if you have ever experienced something in your life that could only be described as providential, then I think that you can understand the book of Esther. There are so many layers to this book. There's historical narrative that's very useful to us, and there's a lot of personal application that we'll be able to bring out in our groups. There is more fast-paced drama, I think, in the book of Esther than just about any other portion of Scripture. At least it matches some of them. And there are more misunderstandings and reversals and turns of events than what we find in a Hallmark movie. I think there even could be an interrupted kiss, but it's not recorded for us. You know how every Hallmark movie has an interrupted kiss? But if you have your study guide and you'd like to take notes, you can turn it to page four. If you're watching this video and you haven't picked up a study guide, you can go to the website and download a PDF on that. But we have some some work to do before we start right in on this book. So let's start with the name of this book. The first thing that we notice is the name is named after a woman. It's named Esther. There are two books in the Bible named after women. We have Ruth and we have Esther. The book of Ruth tells about the events that happened in the time of Ruth about a few hundred years before the time of the kings of Israel. And the book of Esther tells us the events that happened during the time of Esther a few hundred years after the kings of Israel. Now Esther is not the heroine of this story, okay? Neither is Mordecai, neither is the king of Persia. The hero of the story is God, even though he is never mentioned. He is the hero because he is working in the shadows, in the background, to protect his people and to preserve his plan for the coming Messiah. So this brings us to the theme of this book. The theme of this book is God's faithfulness, God's sovereignty, God's watchfulness, all from the shadows. God's faithfulness is clearly a theme of the entire Bible, okay? But in the rest of the Bible, God's faithfulness can often be obvious and loud. For example, we see angels appearing to barren women telling them that they're gonna have a child. That's pretty loud. We see bodies of water parting so that God's children can cross. We see that with the Red Sea and we see that with the Jordan River. That's pretty loud. That's pretty obvious that God is working. We hear God's voice coming from a burning bush. We hear God's voice coming from Mount Sinai. Those are loud, obvious things. And we see sudden and miraculous victories like Jericho and so many others. But in this book, the work of God is subtle. It is even hidden. It is quiet. And to the casual observer, it might remain undetected. But us girls are not casual observers because we study the Bible together. And so we will see the hidden hand of God at work for the benefit of his kids through this book. So the next question we should ask is, who wrote this, okay? The text doesn't tell us who wrote it. The author is unknown. It may have been Mordecai, who we will be introduced to in chapter 2, because clearly he had access to both the Persian records and he also had access to the personal conversations. Or it may have been someone who he shared this information with, but the Bible just doesn't tell us. But when we get to the timeline and we ask the question, when did these events happen? This is where it gets really fun. We never just jump into a book of the Bible without being able to pin it on the timeline and say, this is when these things happened. So in our Women of the Word studies, we've been able to go from Genesis all the way through the Kings, 1st and 2nd Kings, and that's where we left off. We just finished 2nd Kings. And so I'm going to put a timeline up on the screen for us to refresh our memory of what's been going on in the narrative of the Bible, God's unfolding plan of redemption. Maybe this will jog your memory to where we have recently been. And so in 723 BC, we had the exile, the capture of Israel. And when I say Israel, we mean the northern tribes of Israel by Assyria. Assyria was the world power in that moment, and they came and invaded and took away the northern tribes, okay? And then in 586, we had the exile of Judah, Jerusalem, by Babylon, because now Babylon had become the world power. And so that's where we just recently left off, at the end of 2nd Kings. And then in 539, we find that Babylon, the Babylonian Empire, was overthrown by Persia. We can read about that in Daniel chapter 6. And right after that happened, the king of Persia, Cyrus, allowed any Israelites, Israelite exiles, to return to go back to Jerusalem and build the temple. Any of them who wanted to do that. And we read about that in Ezra, beginning in Ezra chapter 1. And that was the temple was completed by Ezra chapter 6, and now this is the time of Esther. It fits right after Ezra chapter 6. So you can see on that chart, we reference both Daniel, the books of Daniel, and the books of Ezra. Now there are, since we finished 1st and 2nd Kings, there are four narrative books that we have left to study. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell about the Israelites who returned back to the land. Who returned back to, specifically Jerusalem, but back to Judah, back to the Promised Land. That's Ezra and Nehemiah. And the books of Daniel and Esther tell the story about the Israelites who did not return, but who stayed in Persia. And that's why the setting of our story here with Esther is set in Persia. So hopefully we'll be able to get to all these other books too. But it does, it does make us wonder, well if King Cyrus said you can go back, why didn't they go back? Why didn't they all go back? Well the closest thing I can probably compare it to is, why didn't everyone do the Oregon Trail? It was hard. It was hard to go back. It was challenging. Not everyone was up for it in terms, mentally, physically, and so some did, some didn't. Plus the other thing about even though they were in a foreign land, look there were some comforts that Persia provided. And I think a lot of the Israelites got comfortable where they were. I'll let you decide what was the case with the people in our story. But then we should ask, what was the location? And the first few verses of the book of Esther will lay out the location so well for us that we're gonna start that in just a minute. We're gonna actually study chapter one together here this morning. We're gonna do all of chapter one. And I like doing that together. You know when I was homeschooling the kids and we would start a challenging novel or something, even up into high school, sometimes we would read the first few chapters together because there's something about reading things aloud and maybe talking about it right in the moment that really helps you understand this quick parade of characters that's coming into your into your understanding. So that's what we're gonna do. So if you have your Bible turn it to Esther chapter one and we're gonna start reading in verse one where it tells us,

in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel. Stop. We're gonna stop right there and we're gonna find out we're gonna handle this location a little bit and this guy. So the first thing we're introduced to is the guy, the king of Persia, who is in the ESB called Ahasuerus. Now if you have an NIV he's called Xerxes, which you can hear is a Greek name, right? a Greek name. Ahasuerus may have been a title, like Pharaoh, and Xerxes may have been a Greek name, whether that was the name he went by or not. But that's the guide that we're introduced to at first. And then we're introduced to his kingdom, which was enormous. On page four in your study guide, I have a map, and I'll put it on the screen here too. But look at this kingdom from 127 provinces, from India to all the way west of Egypt. This is unprecedented. This is an enormous, well, this is a huge country by today's standards. But consider in ancient times, the methods of travel and communication, this was a huge amount of territory for someone to rule over. But this is the size of Persia. So clearly they are the world power. And by the way, I always remembered the succession of world powers in an ABC format. First we have Assyria, then comes Babylon, and then the Chaldeans, which is Persia, the Medes and the Persians. So that might be helpful. But specifically, the setting in this moment is in Susa. Okay, that is the winter capital. Now there was four capitals for this empire. They were Babylon, Ecbatana, Persepolis, and Susa. Susa was hot in the summer, but it was a wonderful place to be in the winter. It would be like us having a winter home in Scottsdale. Okay. And so that is the kind of place that it was. Okay, now let's pick up in verse three.

And I'm going to call this feast number one, because we are going to have so many feasts in this book. We need to number them to keep them straight. So he had a feast for all of his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him. And while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days. Now that is a long feast. My guess is you have never gone to a dinner that lasted for 180 days. That is five months. And the purpose, it tells us right here, was to impress. Look, it says his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness. So he had gathered in all the officials from all these areas in order to impress them with how great he was. Why bother? Why would you bother to do that? You're already ruling over them. Do you really need to impress them? Well, we can learn something from other historical narratives that isn't given us right here. And that is that King Ahasuerus was pretty ambitious. And he wanted to go finish something that his father had failed at. He wanted to invade Greece. And in order to get, you know, work up a great military campaign and get all the support that he needed financially and otherwise, he held this big five-month-long banquet to prove how wonderful he was. Because in general, people like to be part of the winning team, okay? Right? That's how it works. And so if you can prove that you're going to be successful and be a winner, you're probably going to get people's support. So that's what this banquet was about.

So I'm going to call this feast number two. Obviously much shorter. This is only seven days. This only lasted a week. And this was for the locals. This was for the people who lived in Susa. All of them. Everybody. You didn't have to be anybody to go to this feast. It was kind of, I, the way I read it, it's kind of like a thank you. Like, hey guys, thanks so much for helping us host this five-month-long big festival. Now you get the leftovers, you know, kind of a thing. It was probably better than that because look at the description. Verse six, there were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of periphery marble, mother of pearl and precious stones. And by the way, a French archaeologist in the year 1884 uncovered all of this just the way it is written here. I always love it when archaeologists uncover things that are given to us in the Bible. But verse seven says, drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king. And drinking was according to this edict. There is no compulsion. For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired. So this was what we would call today an open bar. You go someplace, you go to, you know, something and it has an open bar. You don't have to go if you don't, you don't have to drink if you don't want to, or you can drink as much as you want if that's your jam, you know. And so that's what was going on. And in the meantime, verse nine says, Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus. All right, so that's what's going on. That's the opening of the book of Esther. And then there's a crisis that's going to happen right here. And you know, I kind of always think in terms of like subtitles. And so if we were to give a subtitle to the second half of chapter one, we might title it, That One Time When the Banquet Got Out of Control. Or we might call it, The Refusal Heard Around the World. Here's how it went.

Okay, so up until now, we haven't detected anything but just marital bliss. But now all of a sudden, she denied his request. And we wonder, why? Why didn't she come? Well, there are a lot of possibilities. I'm going to list a few in the order of the least offensive to the most. One possibility is that in general, queens and royal wives did circulate in the Persian Empire with men and women's situations until the drinking got to a certain degree. And then they were usually shuffled away back to their safe zone and replaced by concubines. That's just how the world worked in that day. And so she may not have had an appetite in the moment to be treated like a concubine. Wouldn't blame her. Another possibility is that she may have been pregnant with Artaxerxes in the moment. And I don't know if you have ever had to go to an event when you were either like four months pregnant or two weeks postpartum. You weren't all that much in the mood to dress up and go in front of people who were supposed to see your beauty, you know. It's a possibility. Also, some scholars say she may have been asked to come in her crown. Alone. That would be highly offensive, but some people think that's a possibility. Whatever the point is, we are to understand she refused. And the irony we are to think through on this is this guy rules over 127 provinces but can't control his wife. Right? Okay. So that's the big conflict we have. So verse 13, what is his response? The king said to the wise men who knew the times, for this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment, the men next to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Marys, Marcina, and Mimucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face and sat first in the kingdom. Now we've been given two lists of seven guys. The first seven guys were eunuchs. And in next week's, in the study guide, there'll be a little section that explains what a eunuch is. But just for our sake now, a eunuch is a man who is no longer a man in terms of being able to reproduce and that sort of thing. And so they were like the safe guys to handle royal wives, right? Those were the eunuchs. These are different. This is like his cabinet. This is more like his lawmakers and things like that. So the king asked them, verse 15, according to the law, what is to to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs. And then Mamucan said, in the presence of the king and the officials, well, not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. Now, when someone begins to use and overuse the words all and never in a conversation, you know you're in for a thrill. Let's keep reading.

Pretty dire prediction that he gives. You know what I think is going on here? It doesn't really matter what I think. But as I read this, I hear this Mamucan guy like right away come out to shoot. I think he's triggered by this. I think he has a big button that just got pushed. I think he may be what today we might call a henpecked husband. And he's watching this situation and he's like, this is my chance to fix this at home. But I'm going to fix it here with your problem. I don't know. Because here's the advice he gives. Verse 19, if it please the king, let a royal order go out from him and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. So the divorce was initiated right here. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike. And again, I'm suspicious that he's trying to vicariously fix a personal problem in this situation. Because have you ever known laws to change people's hearts? We're setting out this big law. This doesn't change social problems. And also, by the way, the laws of the Medes and Persians are irrevocable. We had this problem with Daniel on the lion's den, right? We learned it in the book of Daniel that you can't change the laws of the Medes and Persians. Which, if I would go back there, I would kind of suggest something different. Because I always think that life is unpredictable. You should make laws that can be adjusted as you go along. But they didn't think that. But this will play into the storyline, definitely, throughout this book. So verse 21, this advice pleased the king and the princes. And the king did as Mimucan proposed. So the divorce was finalized right here. And another thing right here that I think is interesting, you know, King Ahasuerus is in a very vulnerable, emotionally vulnerable situation right here. Because he was just disrespected highly. For whatever reason, she did not come. He felt the crunch, right? He felt the disrespect. When we're in that situation where we're already hurt, boy, we got to be careful who our advisors are. Because our friends can just barrel in with, well, I think you should. And we need to be careful who we listen to, what actions we take when we're in those emotionally vulnerable situations. However, God is working in the shadows in this. And he is working even through that very suggestion. So verse 22, he sent letters to all the royal provinces, every province in his own script, and to every people in its own language that every man should be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people. A bit of an overreaction, but now in the land of Persia, every man is saved from having any marital problems at home forevermore. That has solved all of our problems. And so we could just close up the book right there. But we won't. Those 22 verses actually just set the stage for us. We have this opulent kingdom. We have a royal ego, a Persian beauty. We have domestic problems, and government officials running in to save the day. Quite the drama. And in the following chapters, they're going to be equally compelling. We're going to have a courageous heroine, a romantic love thread. We'll have an evil villain, suspense, drama, sudden reversals of peril and power. And the best of all, a happy ending. But a good story isn't the main point of Esther. The main point of the book of Esther is God's faithfulness and his providence in the lives of his children to take care of them, even when his work is unseen, even when he is working from the shadows. So where do we go from here? Well, today, you have the pleasure of using the discussion questions on page seven in your groups to dialogue a bit about just what we went through in this first chapter. And I think you'll enjoy that. But then once you leave here, we can begin week two in our study guide. So in this session, we have four days of study. You can sit down and do it all at once if you want to, or you can break it into four days if you want to. And then each week's lesson is followed by a page with questions for thought and discussion. And those are really good for you to read ahead of time at home. Really think through, because your group leader will probably use those quite heavily for your discussion time. And then I also don't want you to miss the added page at the end of each one that is titled, Seeing God's Work from the Shadows. OK? My hope is that for each one of us, as we look through this and we see God's work in the shadows in the lives of his children in the time of Esther, it will help us to see God's work in the shadows in our own lives. Because God is working in our lives in the shadows. We especially see it when we're able to get a little distance and look back and see what God has been doing. Sometimes God's work is loud and it's obvious. But way, way, way, way more often in my life, God's work is quiet. God's work is more hidden. God's work is more nuanced. And it takes time for me to stop and reflect on how good the Lord has been and the things that he has done, the tragedies that he has taken and turned into good things, the struggles that he has taken and turned into good things. And so I'm just going to close us by praying that we will all begin to really see that in our lives, in the lives of our loved ones, that God is working. So Father in heaven, we thank you for this book. We thank you for beginning this study. And I pray that each one who starts this would carry it through all the way to the finish line, Lord, and that you would open our spiritual eyes, open our hearts to see the work that you do, the work that you do quietly, the work that you do more obviously, Lord. But my hope is that we would love you. We would trust you because we know that you are sovereign. We know that you are faithful. We know that you are working from the shadows of our lives. And so, Lord, we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.