We're about to take another extended journey
through the Old Testament this morning. We're
gonna be, yeah, thank you. We're gonna be everywhere
from Deuteronomy to Ezra in one sermon. I know
what you're thinking. I thought we were in the
book of Esther. We are. But believe it or not,
last Sunday's 55 -minute sermon was not enough
to fully set the context for the story of Esther.
So there's so much more we need to understand,
and I hope to finish that today. But first we've
got to finish where we left off last week. So
open your Bibles. We're going to jump right into
it. By the way, I promise we're not going to
do this every week of the series, where we just
do massive history and maps and timelines. We'll
build the foundation over a couple of weeks,
and then we will not wear you out each and every
week. But this is going to be a long one again
today, but I think an important one. All right,
Esther, chapter 1, verse 13, we're going to go
through. chapter 2, verse 8, and introduce our
main characters. By the way, if you missed last
Sunday's message, you've got to go back and listen
to it on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, on YouTube,
whatever you have, because that is so critical
to understanding this entire book. And I'm not
going to have time to recap all the details today.
Also, several of you asked for the slides from
last week. And I understand why, because I was
constantly pointing to visuals, and I'm sure
it's frustrating to listen to the message and
go, what is he talking about? So my hope is to
get those uploaded onto the resources tab on
Church Center under All Church sometime today
or tomorrow, and also to maybe upload the slides
from this morning's sermon as well. So watch
for those. Okay, we abruptly quit last week at
verse 12. So we're going to pick up there. Let
me first remind you what happened in these first
12 verses. We read about three banquets that
took place in the third year of the reign of
King Xerxes, who is the king of the Medes and
the Persians. That would be the year 483 BC.
Three banquets were held in the city of Susa
at his winter palace in that year. The first
lasted for how long? 180 days, six months of
partying and talking and planning. And we looked
at that and we said, probably what's going on
there is Xerxes was meeting with his nobles and
his army officers for war planning because he
is planning this audacious invasion of Greece.
And so he needed to spend a considerable amount
of time, up to six months, doing that planning
for that, launching that invasion. But then we
see a second banquet, and this one lasts only
seven days. How many of you guys have held a
seven -day party? Only seven days. And it is
for all the men present there in the palace,
including the nobles and princes of the kingdom.
And it appears simultaneously his wife, Queen
Vashti, is also holding her own banquet at the
palace, that one for the noble women of the kingdom.
So you've got these things happening at the same
time. Now, as I shared last week, The book of
Esther is a book of crisis. It moves from one
situation to another, one crisis to another.
And last week we saw the first crisis pop to
the surface. It happens in verses 10 through
12. On the seventh day of Xerxes' banquet, when
he is at least, at least mildly drunk, he turns
to his eunuchs, his servants, and he snaps his
fingers and he asks for what? Go get my wife,
the queen. Drag her out. No, I didn't even say
drag her. Bring her out before me and all of
these men so that we can see her what? Her beauty.
That she would display her beauty. Now, we're
not told specifically why the king requested
this, what prompted it, but it seems logical
to assume what we know about Xerxes and his ego.
He wanted to boast in how good his life was as
the king and what better way than to say, look
how beautiful my wife is. So Vashti is ordered
to appear in order to look her best in front
of all these men who, yes, have been feasting
and drinking for seven days. Now, that would
make any woman in any culture at any time period
extremely nervous and uncomfortable. But as I
said last week, Vashti's job in that moment was
to what? Obey. This is the ancient Near East.
She was to obey, to publicly display her royal
beauty in order to glorify her king and her husband.
That's what she needed to do. But in verse 12,
we're told that the queen refuses the king's
command. Let me say that again. She refused the
king's command, which was a bold and risky move,
right? She had to know that she was putting not
just her crown, but possibly her life at risk
because that choice was a public defiance of
royalty. Public. And for a young king like Xerxes,
we looked at that, he's at this point about 35
years old, he's trying to prove himself to all
the noble princes of the kingdom. This is a public
embarrassment. He looks weak in front of these
men. But there's a great irony in this, and maybe
you noticed it last week. Here's the most powerful
man on earth. He commands armies and conquers
nations, but there's one seemingly simple thing
he can't do. He can't control his wife. He cannot
command his wife to obey him. And so in verse
12, we read the obvious, the king is furious,
right? That's where we left off. Now, before
we go on, this is a good time to pause in the
story and point out something that's very important.
And this will be true the rest of this series.
In the world of biblical genres, the book of
Esther is what we call historical narrative.
And historical narrative can be... tricky to
interpret because they're notorious for leaving
out details that we as readers wish we had. They're
just not given to us, right? For example, we'd
like to know precisely what was it that motivated
Xerxes to call his wife out to display herself.
And we'd love to know precisely why Vashti refused,
but those details aren't given to us. Those details
would help us to define these two characters
in a moral sense, but the author, for whatever
reason, doesn't give them to us. Because here's
the thing, sometimes the author of a historical
narrative is more interested in the situation
than he is in the motivation of the characters,
and that seems to be the case here. The author
just doesn't take the time to tell us why these
decisions were made, but we're going to find
out in just a moment what those decisions led
to. And that is what the author wants us to note
here. So it can be fun to step back from a story
like this and speculate about motivations and
decisions of the characters. And we can look
at culture and context. That's all fine. But
we have to be careful not to get too dogmatic
and say, this is absolutely what's going on unless
the text itself explicitly tells us what's going
on. Does that make sense? Okay, so I'll try to
make that clear when we're speculating or this
is possible, but we're not gonna be dogmatic
about everything. So beginning in verse 13, the
story moves past why Vashti refused the king's
command to the question of how her insubordination
is now gonna be handled by the king. Verse 13,
then the king said to the wise men who understood
the times, for it was the custom of the king,
so to speak, before all who knew law and justice
and were close to him. And he gives the names,
Karshana, Shethar, Admetha, Tarshish, Meris,
Marsana, Memukan, the seven princes of Persia
and Media who had access to the king's presence
and sat in the first place in the kingdom. These
are important men, aren't they? Very important
men. Verse 15, according to law, the king asks,
what is to be done with Queen Vashti? Because
she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus.
delivered by the eunuchs. So this actually shows
a little bit of wisdom, doesn't it? A little
bit of patience on the part of Xerxes. He's angry,
and yet he doesn't pronounce some hasty judgment.
He turns to his nobles, these important men,
and he asks them for legal counsel. And one of
the men steps forward in verse 16. In the presence
of the king and the princes, Memucon said, Queen
Vashti has wronged not only the king, listen
to this now, She is wrong, not only the king,
but all the princes and all the people who are
in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. Now that's
three alls if you didn't catch that. That is
a wide and sweeping indictment. Now listen to
his reasoning and keep in mind that Vashti was
the most prominent and visible woman in the kingdom.
Verse 17, for the queen's conduct will become
known to all the women, causing them, You can
almost hear the fear in this guy's voice, right?
Like, he's nervous. What if all of our wives,
Start refusing us in our homes. It's chaos. And
what's gonna happen? We're all gonna be angry.
Everybody's gonna be grumpy in the whole kingdom.
It's actually kind of humorous, isn't it? Again,
this is the most powerful empire in the world
and they've got this silly problem, don't they?
Verse 19, he goes on. If it pleases the king,
let a royal edict be issued by him and let it
be written in the laws of Persia and Media, listen,
so that it cannot be repealed. That's important.
that Vashti may no longer come into the presence
of King Ahasuerus and let the king give her royal
position to another who is more worthy than she.
In other words, don't let us down, king. This
insubordination has to be dealt with firmly and
harshly. Make sure that every wife understands
she cannot disobey her husband and get away with
it. Now, this is what is going to open the door
to what the author is really concerned about.
How this insubordination opens up the position
of queen for Xerxes, right? And what the king
is going to look for is someone who is more worthy
than Vashti, meaning what? More submissive than
Vashti. And then Momucan. Wraps up his logic
in verse 20. When the king's edict, which he
will make, is heard throughout all of his kingdom,
great as it is, oh great king, right? Butter
up the king. Then all women will give honor to
their husbands, great and small. And this word
pleased the king and the princes. Of course it
did. Of course it did. And the king did as Memucan
proposed. He sent letters to all the king's provinces,
to each province according to its script and
to every people according to their language,
right? Because it's a vast kingdom of multiple
languages. That every man should be the master
in his own house and the one who speaks in the
language of his own people. So this is an obvious
sign. Husbands, take control of your households
and wives remain in submission. And as I read
this, I find this so interesting because, again,
we're talking about 2 ,500 years ago in the ancient
Near East. You would not think there would be
even a hint of proto -feminism at that time in
that place. You know, wives that were pushing
back against the patriarchy of that day. But
we should not forget what happened in the garden,
right? In Genesis 3 .16, part of the curse given
to the woman was your desire will be for your
husband's. role, but he will rule over you. And
that struggle was still happening in Persia in
the 5th century BC. Now, how many of you are
grateful for how the New Testament picks up on
this and gives us a very clear and balanced view
of this issue of leadership and submission in
marriage? Raise your hand. Are you grateful?
I am. While the wife in the New Testament is
called to be subject to her husband and to show
him respect, Simultaneously, the husband is called
to love and cherish his wife as Christ loves
his bride, the church. That is an incredibly
high calling. And to live with her in an understanding
way. And when both husband and wife live out
those commands, not demanding the other fulfill
their role, but focusing on what God has commanded
them to do, doing that at the same time, well,
then marriage is beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful.
But these are obviously things that Xerxes and
these nobles had no clue about. What they want
are wives that will simply cower and obey. Okay,
so now the stage is set with those ironic, funny,
kind of scary stories of three banquets. We now
get the introduction of our main characters.
Turn over to chapter two. Now, let's start with
a historical note. Drop your eyes in chapter
two down to verse 16. And in the very end of
the sentence, you will see that the events of
chapter two take place in the seventh year of
Xerxes' reign. Here's what that means. Between
chapter one and chapter two, we're jumping ahead
four years. Four years, that's important to know.
And during that time, during those four years,
what happened? Xerxes did launch this invasion
of Greece in the year 480 BC. We know this historically.
He launched this evasion, and as I explained
last Sunday, he had some initial success. He
actually sacked the city of Athens and burned
it and felt like, oh, I got some revenge for
my father having been defeated by the Athenians,
but ultimately, he lost the battle. His armies
were pushed out of Greece. So as we come to chapter
two now, Xerxes is back in Persia and he is licking
his wounds from this loss, which again must have
been humiliating before his fellow nobles. Now
he's seeking to cheer his heart through other
means. So look at chapter two. After these things,
that's sort of the author's way of saying time
advanced, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had
subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had
done and what had been decreed against her. Now,
interestingly, the Jewish historian Josephus,
in his work, The Antiquities of the Jews, he
writes that, at least in his day, the Jewish
community believed that Xerxes was still in love
with Vashti, and he grieved over the fact that
he had to separate from her, but he felt bound
to the law. He decreed it. Remember, it said
the law cannot be repealed. He had decreed it,
and so it must be so. What that means is we have
a deeply unhappy king. He's licking his wounds
from a loss on the battlefield and he's missing
his queen and there is nothing worse than an
unhappy, unstable king, especially for the servants.
And so they cook up a plan to help Xerxes get
out of this funk. Verse two, then the king's
attendants who served him said, let beautiful
young virgins be sought for the king. Let the
king appoint overseers in all the provinces of
his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful
young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem,
and into the custody of Haggai, the king's eunuch,
who is in charge of the women, and let their
cosmetics be given to them. Then let the young
lady who pleases the king be queen in place of
Vashti. And not surprisingly, this matter pleased
the king and he did accordingly. So, good news.
We're gonna hold a Miss Persian Empire pageant.
That's what's gonna happen. We're gonna parade
this endless number of beautiful women before
the king. By the way, Herodotus says it was more
than 400 women, ultimately, that came before
the king. And whichever young lady he fancies
the most, she'll be the queen. And the servants
think this is gonna keep the king busy and happy
for quite a while. And finally, here in verse
seven, we're now introduced to our main characters.
And then we'll stop here and do some historical
work. Verse five, now there was at the citadel
in Susa a Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son
of Yair, the son of Shammai, the son of Kish,
a Benjamite. Now remember that lineage there,
that's important. Who had been taken into exile
from Jerusalem with the captives who had been
exiled with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon, had exiled. Love those two
verses, just chock full of history, which we'll
break down. Verse 7, he was bringing up Hadassah,
that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, and I actually
had to Google that. What does that mean? It's
basically an older cousin, right? Am I right?
Your uncle's daughter? Okay, it's an older cousin.
I mean, I had to look that up. That was so confusing.
I don't know why. My pea brain just couldn't
process it. Okay. So he's bringing up Esther,
his younger cousin, for she had no father or
mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form
and face. And when her father and mother died,
Mordecai took her as his own daughter. Okay,
so here's the controversial question of the day.
How did we get here? How does a man of Judah
from the tribe of Benjamin end up living in a
royal Persian city like Susa? And what does that
say about his identity and about his faith as
a Jew? Those are the questions we want to answer
today. And to do that, we're going to go back
to the Torah and we're going to talk about the
roots of the Babylonian exile. I want to take
you back to the fifth book of the Old Testament,
the book of Deuteronomy. And I want you to think
about what's the most famous chapter in Deuteronomy.
Every biblical student knows this. Answer that
question. If you want to look at the future of
Israel, the most famous chapter is Deuteronomy
28. In Deuteronomy 28, that is where, now this
is written 1 ,000 years before the story of Esther.
In that chapter, Yahweh establishes through Moses
a conditional covenant with his people Israel.
And he promises them what? Future blessings if
they obey and future curses. for idolatry and
disobedience. It's very simple. And among the
promised blessings in that chapter are prosperity
and security in the land, right? And they're
about to go into the land under the leadership
of Joshua. And God says to Moses, if I give you
the land and you continue to obey me, you will
be blessed in every way. But, and by the way,
that'll be a promised land flowing with milk
and honey. It'll be great. But it's conditional.
But, he says, It shall come about if you do not
obey the Lord your God to observe all of his
commandments and his statutes with which I charge
you today that all of these curses will come
upon you and overtake you. Now, if you were an
Israelite at this moment, would your ears perk
up and go, oh, I should watch, I should be careful
about these things because the word cursing from
Yahweh is a bad thing, right? And it goes on.
One of the sections of this chapter says this.
The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before
your enemies. You will go out one way against
them, but you will flee seven ways before them,
and you will be an example of terror or horror
to all the kingdoms of the earth. That's just
one among a whole list of curses. Look at that
again. You will be defeated by your enemies.
You'll go out one way to fight them, but you'll
flee seven ways away from them. Now, what does
that mean exactly? Well, there's an interesting
history behind this, a history of Bible translation.
Look at the last phrase. You will be an example
of terror or horror to the kingdoms of the earth.
The Hebrew word there for terror is za 'ava.
And it's meant to convey this meaning. This is
important. That when Israel disobeys the Lord,
And he punishes them by using invasion from foreigners
and then exile to foreign lands. The point is,
they will become an example of humiliation for
all the nations to see. And as the nations look
at the people of Yahweh and realize that Yahweh
himself has punished them for their disobedience,
the conclusion of the nations will be, ah, Yahweh
should be obeyed. That's the whole point. Israel
will get, remember this, Israel was given every
advantage in knowing the God of creation. Every
advantage. The patriarchs, the covenants, the
law, the prophets, and more. But with great advantage
comes great responsibility. And the promise in
Scripture is that judgment always starts in the
household of God, right? God looks first and
foremost at his people when they disobey. And
by the way, it'd be wise for us to remember that,
right? Because he disciplines those that he calls
his own when we sin against him. And with Israel's
repeated cycle of spiritual adultery, the ramifications
are very, very severe. Now, here's the interesting
twist in the story of this verse in Deuteronomy
28. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation
of the Hebrew Old Testament, that last sentence
reads a bit differently. Here's what it says
in the Septuagint. You will flee seven ways before
them and you will be a dispersion among the nations
of the earth. So the translators use the word
diaspora there for za 'ava. And the question
is often asked why? The Septuagint is translated
in the 3rd century BC, and that word at the time
reflected what the translator saw happening in
the world. Yes, the Jews had been disobedient,
and yes, God had been faithful to punish them
just as he had promised. He had taken them out
of the promised land and dispersed them, scattered
them across the world, and Mordecai and Esther
are part of that dispersion. So when you look
at biblical history and you look at intertestamental
history, you see that historically the Jews were
dispersed in a series of stages because of their
repeated cycles of sin. I'm going to give you
some timelines here. It starts in 722 BC, right?
The Assyrian destruction of the northern kingdom
of Israel. 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel are
deported out of the land. And they go through
a process of ethnic cleansing at the hands of
the Assyrians, essentially disappearing 10 of
the 12 tribes of Israel. You talk about a dispersion,
it's even worse than that. They essentially ethnically
disappear. Then the fall of the southern kingdom
in 586 at the hands of the Babylonians, right?
Three waves of deportation to Babylon. And it's
in Babylon that we really find the first true
diaspora community outside the promised land.
And it's in Babylon during 70 years, the Jews
as a diaspora now have to start building synagogues,
not to replace the temple because you can't replace
the temple. You can't do sacrifices anywhere
else. But the synagogue gave the community a
chance to gather together, to pray and to read
Torah and Tanakh. And that was important in Babylon.
And as we saw last Sunday, then in 538, Persian
King Cyrus. conquers Babylon and decrees that
the Jews can return to their homeland, but many
Jews choose not to. And we're going to dig into
that more today. The majority stay in Babylon,
or they move even further east into Persian lands,
and many of them actually relocate to Egypt as
well. And we find later during the Hellenistic
period, the biggest Jewish diaspora community
is in Alexandria, Egypt. Now, for the Jews who
return to the land and rebuild Jerusalem and
build the second temple, they have to remain
under Persian rule for more than 200 more years.
But after that, they fall under the power of
the Greeks, first under the Ptolemies of Egypt
and then under the even worse Seleucid Empire
of Damascus. And so they're under Greek rule
for a time. And then comes this glorious period
of Jewish history, what we call the Maccabean
Revolt. Great study, intertestamental period,
the Jewish War of Independence. And that gave
the Jews 100 years of independence from Gentile
domination. But sadly, and this is the great
tragedy of the Maccabean Revolt, after all that
fighting for independence, the Jewish kings and
queens who came to power during those 100 years,
more wicked than the Gentile rulers that had
ruled over them. More wicked and more corrupt.
They're called the Hasmonean kings and queens.
That awful period sparked an even greater punishment
from God, the arrival of the Romans. And that's
the critical turning point in the history of
the Jewish diaspora. Roman General Pompey rolls
into the promised land in the year 63 BC, and
within 100 years of being under the thumb of
Rome, the Jews rise up in revolution. Now, most
of us know that story that takes place, and now
we've turned over to AD, right? AD 70. This time,
They think they've got another Maccabean victory
coming, but it doesn't happen this time. There's
no glorious victory. In AD 70, the Roman army
sacks Jerusalem. They tear down and burn the
second temple, and they either kill or carry
away into slavery. Some accounts say a million
Jews, but at least hundreds of thousands of Jews
are killed in that revolt in the year AD 70.
And yet... God's not done with his people. They
slowly begin to filter back into the land. And
then there is one final catastrophe. And this
revolt is not known quite as well in year 132
to 135, known as the Bar Kokhba revolt. Another
half a million Jews are killed in that particular
war. And from that point forward, Rome is done
with the Jewish people. They expel every Jew
from Jerusalem, will not allow Jews into the
city. They actually rebuild the city of Jerusalem
as a Roman city and rename it, Alia Capitolina.
And then with the intent of poking the Jews in
the eye, the Romans said, let's rename the whole
region. And they said, well, who are the Jews'
most famous enemy? And somebody said, the Philistines.
And they said, fine, we will rename the region
Palestina. Does that sound familiar? That argument
is still happening today in so -called Palestine.
So it's estimated that soon after the Bar Kokhba
revolt, mid -second century, get this now, 80
% of the Jews across the world are now living
in a diaspora community outside the promised
land. And those communities begin to grow in
different parts of the empire, in parts of the
Middle East, in North Africa, even west into
European lands. And in every place the Jews go,
they develop a unique culture and unique practices,
and they adapt to the language issues that they're
forced to deal with. And in spite of constant
persecution, every place the Jews go, they are
a religious minority who is under constant persecution,
and yet somehow, by God's grace, they survive.
Today, there are generally three categories of
Jews scattered across the world, many of which
have now migrated into the modern state of Israel.
We have Mizrahi Jews who come from various Middle
Eastern communities. Yes, Jews from Iraq and
Iran and Yemen and Syria and Egypt. Sephardic
Jews who originally came out of the Iberian Peninsula,
which is modern -day Spain, but then spread through
North Africa and the Middle East, places like
Turkey and Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia and
Libya. And then in today's Israel, about 25 %
of the population, Ashkenazi Jews, mainly from
Eastern Europe, places like Poland and Russia
and Germany and Ukraine and Hungary and Romania.
And while there has always been a presence of
some Jews in the land from the time of Joshua
until today, since the Roman period, being part
of a diaspora became the norm rather than the
exception for the Jewish population. Until when?
Until the 20th century, right? Until the Zionist
movement of the early 20th century, until the
Holocaust of World War II under the Nazis and...
the establishment and the defense of the modern
state of Israel in 1948. So catch this now. That
was a very fast lesson on the diaspora. Catch
that, 1 ,800 years of diaspora living for an
ancient people whom God has sovereignly sustained
and now planted back in the land. Guys, that's
why 1948 was such a big deal. It had been 1 ,800
years. Now, I could go into all kinds of politics
on that. We'll do podcasts or something like
that. But that's important to understand that
history, that God has been sovereignly sustaining
his people Israel. So, wow. Back to the curse
of Deuteronomy 28. I know last week we talked
briefly about the 70 -year exile to Babylon,
but I want to dive a little bit deeper this morning
because I want to paint the picture of how Mordecai
and Esther ended up in the situation they're
in. How did they end up living in Persia? Well,
we know that in the 6th century BC, God's patience
with disobedient Judah ran out. And here's what
God said through his prophet Jeremiah. The word
that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people
of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the
son of Josiah, king of Judah, the word of the
Lord has come to me and I, Jeremiah, have spoken
it to you again and again, but you have not listened
nor inclined your ear to hear. Therefore, thus
says the Lord of hosts, because you've not obeyed
my words, I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king
of Babylon, my servant. Now we saw last week
how Cyrus was called my anointed servant, right?
Nebuchadnezzar similarly is called Yahweh's servant
because God has a task for him, a role for him
to play and it's an important role. He says,
Nebuchadnezzar, my servant, I will bring him
against this land and against its inhabitants
and I will utterly destroy them and make them
a horror and a hissing. Moreover, I will take
from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness
and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice
of the bride, the sound of the millstones and
the light of the lamp. This whole land will be
a desolation and a horror and this nation will
serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Deuteronomy
28, right? Consequences, the cursing. Did the
Jews, did they deserve it? Absolutely. Had God
been gracious? Absolutely. But the patience had
run out. Now, you could say this sounds really
harsh, but the ground rules had been laid out.
And it's not as if God hadn't sent prophet after
prophet to the Jewish people to warn them. But
in every case, they were ignored. And at this
point, the consequences of Deuteronomy 28 are
brought to bear upon both the people and the
land. Now, most of the people of Judah who weren't
killed in the invasion were carried off to Babylon
as captives. And that's a process we talked briefly
about last week. It happened in three waves.
We have a first wave in 605 BC during the reign
of Jehoiakim. This was a time when Judah was
a vassal state to Babylon. What that means is
we pay you money to leave us alone. We pay you
money every year so you don't smash us like a
bug. And Jehoiakim made the foolish mistake of
rebelling against his overlords. General Nebuchadnezzar
at the time said, fine, I'm coming with my army.
And he came to the promised land and he could
have wiped them out in 605, but something happened
while he was invading Israel. His father, the
king of Babylon, died. And so Nebuchadnezzar
had to go back to Babylon and secure his seat
on the throne. But before he left, he captured
Jehoiakim and he took back to Babylon some of
the treasure from Israel and he took the best
and brightest. of the young Jewish men at that
time, including who? Including Daniel and his
three friends. That happens in 605. Now you think,
why would God allow that? Why would God allow
his best and brightest to be taken away? Well,
it turns out it's a grace for his people. Because
of Daniel's presence in Babylon, the exile the
Jews are gonna suffer through is not nearly as
bad as it could have been. Because by the time
Judah is completely wiped out and all the people
are brought into captivity, Daniel has become
the second most important man in the entire empire.
And he's able to bless the people and actually
give them prosperity in the land. So Daniel in
Babylon becomes similar to Joseph in Egypt. A
gift of mercy from God to his people, even in
the midst of hardship. That's important to know.
Then we have a second attack in 597 for the same
reason. The next king, Jehoiakim, also rebels
against Babylon, refuses to pay the annual tribute
to them. And so Nebuchadnezzar says, fine, I'm
coming back and I will punish you again. And
this time he takes back with him 10 ,000 Jewish
captives, including the prophet Ezekiel. And
in one of his visions in Babylon, which you can
read about in Ezekiel chapters 10 and 11, Ezekiel
describes how the glory of the Lord departs from
the temple in Jerusalem. Why? Because of the
sin of the people. And because the temple's about
to be destroyed. In anticipation of its destruction,
the glory of the Lord leaves the temple. And
that happens in 586. The new king of Judah, who,
by the way, Nebuchadnezzar had personally put
on the throne, Zedekiah, as a puppet ruler, Nebuchadnezzar
didn't want to destroy Jerusalem, but he puts
this guy on the throne and says, now be a good
puppet. And within months, I mean, the foolishness,
it's only supernatural. The foolishness is so,
so bad. Within months, Zedekiah is doing the
same thing, rebelling against the Babylonians.
And so in 586, Nebuchadnezzar says, that's it.
He rolls into town. This time he... destroys
Jerusalem. He levels Solomon's temple. Think
about that. And he carries off the majority of
the population into exile. Who does he leave
behind? Only the poorest people, only the least
valuable people. Everybody else he takes away.
Interesting story about Zedekiah. He tries to
flee. He's the one who caused this whole thing.
He tries to flee the city at night to escape
punishment, but he's caught in the plains of
Jericho and he's brought to King Nebuchadnezzar.
And do you remember the story? Nebuchadnezzar
executes his two sons right before his eyes and
then puts Zedekiah's eyes out so that the last
thing he sees in life was the death of his sons
and takes him away in chains. By the way, today,
if you go to Israel, you can actually watch.
These are called Zedekiah's Cave. It's one of
the least known things in Jerusalem that you
can tour. They have actually marked out the path
that Zedekiah took under the city of Jerusalem.
You go right under the Temple Mount in order
to try to escape the city. It's an amazing place.
So if you ever go to Israel, go to Zedekiah's
Cave. So the curse of Deuteronomy 28 is laid
upon the people. You have to understand the tragedy
involved here in 586, you guys. Remember, the
northern kingdom is gone. Now the southern kingdom
is gone. There is no Israelite kingdom in God's
promised land. There is no temple. There is no
place for sacrifice. This is the greatest national
tragedy in the history of Israel. I think it's
today. Tisha B 'Av is being celebrated in Israel
today. This is a national mourning over the loss
of their temple. I didn't even plan that, but
it's actually happening on August 3rd this year.
Psalm 137 sort of sums up the feelings of the
people. In Psalm 137, it says, by the rivers
of Babylon there, we sat down and we wept when
we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst
of it, we hung our harps. For there are captors
demanded of us songs, saying, sing us one of
the songs of Zion. You hear the dripping sarcasm.
The Babylonians say, hey, Jew, sing me a song.
Sing me one of your songs. And it says, how can
we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? That's
the state of mind in 586. Now, had God left his
people? No, the promise remains, right? He had
not left his people. He's still at work. He's
still speaking through his prophets. Remember,
Jeremiah had given the people this faithful hope,
70 years in captivity, only 70 years. And then
God had Daniel working inside the Babylonian
government, prophesying, seeing to the people.
He had Ezekiel out in the fields with the common
people, giving him visions, prophesying, encouraging
the people. And all three of those men were subtle
reminders that in spite of what the Jews saw
with their eyes, Yahweh had not abandoned them.
Yahweh was still at work. The Babylonians aren't
actually in charge. Yahweh is. And he would soon
rescue his people. Now, I won't go into the details.
We talked about it last Sunday. This is the moment
where God raises up Cyrus the Great, king of
the Medes and the Persians. And he's going to
use this man to free his people. In 539 BC, Cyrus'
army takes the city of Babylon. This great kingdom
that Nebuchadnezzar had built after his death,
it falls hard. And Ezra now picks up the story.
I'm going to give you some of Ezra. Ezra chapter
1. This is how he describes the decree of Cyrus
that we looked at last week. Now, in the first
year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill
the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah.
You see the connection? Jeremiah said 70 years.
God raises up Cyrus and says, this is the fulfillment
of Jeremiah's prophecy. The Lord stirred up the
spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he sent
a proclamation throughout all this kingdom and
also put it in writing. So who's responsible
for this? Is it Cyrus or is it Yahweh? God providentially
stirs the heart of this pagan man to rescue his
people. Amazing. What does the decree say? Thus
says Cyrus, the king of Persia, the Lord, the
God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms
of the earth and he's appointed me to build him
a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever
there is among you of all his people, may his
God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem,
which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the
Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is
in Jerusalem. Now, it's tempting to read that
and go, oh. Cyrus was a believer. He was a follower
of Yahweh, but don't be fooled. This is typical
of ancient Near East kings. They're polytheists.
They want every single god of the ancient Near
East to bless them. So honestly, Cyrus thinks
by doing this, he's somehow going to win Yahweh's
favor as much as he wins the favor of Bel and
Marduk and all these other gods. So don't be
fooled by this. Cyrus is fishing for the blessing
of Yahweh. Even though he doesn't know Yahweh
at all. Remember Isaiah last week made that plain.
And yet God calls Cyrus, his anointed servant,
to accomplish all that Yahweh wants to accomplish.
This is the sovereignty of God in human history.
So what happens next after this Cyrus decree
is issued? Ezra continues, then the heads of
father's households of Judah and Benjamin, remember,
12 tribes. 10 are gone, two remain, Judah and
Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites arose,
even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to
go up and rebuild the house of the Lord, which
is in Jerusalem. Again, make sure you see the
language here. Who was stirred to go back to
the land? Those whom God worked in their heart,
who stirred them up, right? So God has sovereignly
stirred Cyrus. to issue the decree, and now he's
stirring the right people among the Jews to respond
and go back to the land. Now, we saw last week,
not all the Jews did. In fact, the majority of
Jews did not return. And there are many reasons
for that. Some would have just been too old to
make that journey. By the way, map time. That's
a 900 -mile journey. Talk about getting your
steps in. Okay? You can't go straight across
the desert there. You'll die. So you've got to
go along the Euphrates River. So blue is Jerusalem.
The red is Babylon. You've got to go along the
Euphrates River around what we call the Fertile
Crescent down through Syria into the land. That's
how you get there. 900 miles. So if you're old,
if you're infirmed, if you're disabled, that's
probably not a journey you're going to be able
to make. You will die along the way. So that's
part of it. Others would have looked at this
and said, not only is that a brutal journey filled
with dangers, but when I get there, the condition
of the land is going to be what? Desolate. How
many of you guys would up and leave where you're
living now and say, let's go to a super desolate
place that's just been destroyed and squatters
have moved in and we'll start building from scratch.
That sounds great. Only people who are stirred
up by the Lord were going to do that. Many said,
no, thank you. Let's be honest, many of the Jews
were just comfortable in exile, right? In Babylon,
in Persia, because they had built communities
during the 70 years. They'd built synagogues,
they had jobs, they had businesses, right? Some
of the Jews had been in exile all their lives.
They'd never even seen Jerusalem. They only heard
their parents and grandparents talk about it.
So why go back? They hadn't even seen it before.
And yes, We can say with confidence that a percentage
of the Jews in Babylon were just living in disobedience.
They weren't practicing Judaism. They weren't
participating in synagogue life. And they'd have
no interest in going back because Judaism wasn't
a reality in their day -to -day life. That's
true as well. Now, I find this interesting. God
is a God of order and balance. Remember, it took
three waves of Jews leaving into exile. God ordains
that the return of the land will also happen
in three waves. Three waves out, three waves
back. The first is described in Ezra chapters
one through six under, and Yael set me straight
on how to pronounce the name last week. Thank
you. Zerubbabel. Not Zerubbabel, not Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel. Did I get it? I said to her last
week, it's one thing to take seminary Hebrew.
It's another to grow up speaking it, and so I'm
going to defer to her. Talk to Yael afterwards.
She'll get it right. Okay, so he returns with
50 ,000 Jews. That's the first return, okay?
And when they arrive after months of travel,
like you'd expect, things were not great. They
get back to the land, and the community pulls
together, and they build a foundation for a second
temple. Great news, right? Only the people who
had seen the first temple are super disappointed
in it. It's much smaller. It's not impressive.
And it says that those who had seen Solomon's
temple are weeping because this temple is so
unimpressive. And then they run into all kinds
of opposition from their enemies. There's threats
and there's legal challenges and there's discouragement.
And Israel's enemies succeed. And this is sometimes
confusing to us, right? Here we are. We put ourselves
out there. We follow God's will. And all we do
is bump into problems and opposition from God's
enemies. And we start asking questions. Well,
why would this happen? We're doing God's will.
But this is exactly what happens to the Jews.
The enemies of God sort of prevail. Work stops
on the temple for quite a few years. And then
during that time, another enemy sets in, distraction.
The people go, eh, you know what? We can't get
the temple done, so I'm going to go work on my
own house. And I'm going to farm my land. I'm
going to focus on myself. And suddenly the priority
of the temple is completely gone. Well, God responds
to that. In his mercy, he sends prophets, Haggai
and Zechariah, to shake the Jews out of their
spiritual laziness. Start building the house
of God, they say. And they do. They finish the
temple in 516. The second temple is actually
completed. Now, I'm gonna show you one more timeline.
This is where it gets interesting. Between Ezra
6 and Ezra 7, there's a long gap, 58 -year gap.
So I know this is a lot, but I'm gonna put this
up. There's a gap of 58 years. So 586 is the
final exile into Babylon. 538 is the first return.
Okay, 516, the second temple is finished. Ah,
here's the book of Esther. We've finally gotten
there. Esther begins before the second and third
returns under Ezra and Nehemiah. The gap of 58
years is the same in both of those sections of
time. So Esther is right in the center of all
of this material. During that gap of 58 years,
this is where... all of these things we're going
to read about over the next few months take place.
The same amount of time, 58 years had passed
since the first return of the Jews to the land,
and in spite of Esther and Mordecai having the
freedom to go back to the land, they say what?
No, thank you. I'm good here in Susa. They choose
to remain. Now, go back in your mind. We read,
if you want to look at it, Esther 2, verse 5.
Remember, it refers to Mordecai as the great
-grandson of a man named Kish. It was Kish who
was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in
586. That means two generations of Mordecai's
family after Kish had been raised in exile. His
grandfather Shammai and his father Yair. So by
then, look, exile was all Mordecai knew. And
he was living relatively comfortably in the diaspora
life. And we're going to find out that Mordecai
is a little bit of a social climber. He becomes
an official in the Persian royal court there
in Susa. And so like most exiles, he and Esther
were basically, they were living sort of a double
life, citizens of two communities. One more hidden,
their Jewish identity and community, and the
other Persian. And what's interesting here is
they'd taken on Persian names. And these are
the names that are given to them throughout the
book, and their names are interesting. Mordecai
is the Hebraic form of the name Marduka, which
comes from the pagan god Marduk, who's the chief
god, the patron god of the city of Babylon. And
yet he's known as Mordecai, a Jew. Hadassah's
Persian name Esther is likely based on an Akkadian
word for star, which was istar. which scholars
believe is connected to, again, the fertility
goddess Ishtar. So they've taken on these names
that are definitely connected to Persian gods,
to Babylonian gods, to pagan gods. So this is
a possible sign that their desire was to assimilate
with Persian culture rather than to stand out
as Jews. Now, you may look at that and go, I
get it. Maybe they're doing this out of fear,
or maybe they just prefer Persian culture. We're
not given the answer to that question, but we
should at least observe that this is true of
them, right? It could also be that they just
at this point in their lives, having been raised
in exile, they have very little connection to
Jewish practice, to Judaism as a whole. Maybe
no connection at all to synagogue life. We don't
know. But here's one of the things that makes
the book of Esther stand out. Among all the post
-exilic writings, this one thing stands out,
and it's an unavoidable fact. It's the only book
in the collection that has nothing to do with
going back to the land. All the others do, all
of them. Ezra and Nehemiah both have a single
-minded agenda, rebuilding and reestablishing
Jewish life in the land. Their hearts are there.
Haggai and Zechariah are focused on motivating
the Jews to rebuild the temple, to reestablish
worship in the land. Even Daniel, although he
is an official in the royal court, just like
Mordecai is, his concern is still for the Jewish
community in the land, but not Esther. This is
important, but not Esther. It stands alone in
its Jewish characters, Mordecai and Esther, not
voicing any concern about Jerusalem. Not any
concern for the temple or for the Jewish exiles
who 58 years before had gone back to the land.
Not even curious about it, according to the narrative.
So, as we wrap up, what can we say about Mordecai
and Esther? What can we say about their identity
and their faith? I said it earlier, we've got
to be careful we don't go too far because the
narrative doesn't give us all the details. But
because of the absence of anything related to
Jerusalem, Anything related to the temple, because
of the absence of any appeal to Yahweh by name,
the absence of prayer, the absence of a mention
of Torah, because there's no description of either
Mordecai or Esther participating in synagogue
life or even just basic Jewish rituals, it's
hard for the reader to come to the conclusion
that these are practicing Jews. Cultural Jews,
yeah. Practicing Jews, no. They're simply two
people who are part of the diaspora, part of
this religious minority community focused on
surviving. Focused on surviving in this foreign
political context. Now that's not to say that
later in the story we're not going to see traits
of humility and wisdom and faith and courage.
Things that we can emulate and admire. But my
assessment of this as I've been studying this
for I don't know how many hours. is that Esther
and Mordecai are very similar to so many people
in America today who say, oh, I'm a Christian,
but there's no evidence to actually prove that.
We call them cultural Christians. And I think
Esther and Mordecai are cultural Jews. Sure,
they recognize their ethnicity as Jews who came
from Jerusalem, but there's no evidence to show
that they're practicing their faith. Now as I
wrap up, I don't want that to discourage you
because this is a historical narrative and the
reality of historical narrative is, you ready
for this? I'm gonna drop the bomb. Neither Esther
or Mordecai are the main character in the story.
God is. We have to remember that. God is the
main character. And as we progress through this
book, what we're gonna see is God being sovereign,
his providential hand working through the lives
of Mordecai and Esther. Not because they deserve
it. Not because they're godly Jews. But because
of his mercy. Because of his grace. That's the
only reason. Amen? Okay. Last Sunday and today,
we now have our foundation, right? I won't do
this to you again, I promise. Let's bow our heads
and pray. Blessed are you, Father, creator of
heaven and earth. You are a good God, and you
have blessed your people in so many ways, and
we sit here today as your people in Santa Clarita,
California, and we stand in awe of your goodness
and your mercy. We are not that different from
the characters in this story who at times, Lord,
we just want to assimilate into our culture,
and we don't show evidence or fruit of of godly
faith in our lives. So we are so grateful that
you are merciful, that you are gracious to us.
And even as you will not leave us or forsake
us, you will not let us slip away. You continue
to shower us and lavish us with your mercy and
grace and hold on to us and continue to motivate
us and encourage us by your spirit to walk by
faith. Lord, thank you for the lessons that we
have learned already today and what we're going
to learn in the future. Continue to seal these
truths in our hearts as we seek to glorify you
in our study. We love you. We praise you in Jesus'
name. Amen.