Father, sometimes your word shocks us by saying shocking things.
And Father, we know that everything that you write, you cause to be written in your word.
You had it written there so that it would reveal our heart in your presence and would draw us to Jesus.
So Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would come with gentle but very, very deep power as we open your word.
Father, write the gospel on our heart and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
Tape's going. It is sounding a bit weird, right?
It sounds good to you folks? Okay, well, I'm just going to be there.
It's just, this is like a thorn in the flesh for me because I hear a bit of an echo as I speak.
So some of you know, maybe all of you know, I was raised in a Christian home.
And I don't know if what I'm going to say about the churches that I grew up in, if that's a very fair thing about how I was raised.
But when I was raised, the churches I was raised in and the Sunday schools and the youth groups that I went to,
when they did talk about what we call the Old Testament, the books in the Bible that were written before the coming of Jesus,
whenever we read those in the church, it always seemed as if there was a very obvious hero in the story that we should copy
or some very powerful moral in the story that we should learn.
And that's how I was raised.
And then I get ordained and I have to start preaching on the Old Testament, the Tanakh sometimes.
And it terrified me.
Time after time, it terrified me because I'd look at it and it didn't make any, like,
I just couldn't find those lessons that I grew up with.
Some of you, if you know the story of Samson, when I, it seemed to me, my memory is that when I was growing up,
that Samson was just like a Baptist deacon, only very strong.
And then I read the story and he's, sorry, he's screwing around with lots of women.
He's getting drunk.
Let me tell you, that's not what Baptist deacons are supposed to do.
And I wasn't sure how I was going to preach a story like that, but it used to worry me.
So we're looking at a story, we're beginning a brand new series today called The Hidden God in a Broken World.
And it's a story of the book of Esther.
And let me tell you, I mean, this is a story that has terrible things in it.
And some of you, in fact, as we read the story, as we read this first episode in the story,
you might even wonder why we would read something like this in church.
But it's part of, well, let's see what, let's see.
I'm going to open the story to you because I want to encourage you to read the Old Testament.
I want to encourage you to try to dive into it, even if it doesn't says things which are very,
very shocking.
It really is Jesus told us to read it.
And so if he told us to read it, we should learn how to do it.
So we're looking at the book of Esther, chapter one, verse one, and let's get into it.
And here's how it begins.
What we're going to do is the text is going to be here.
I'll pause occasionally just to bring out the significance or a cultural thing so you
can enter into the story more powerfully.
And then we'll sort of talk a bit more generally about what's sort of going on and we can take
away from the text.
Now, in the days of, and I have a hard time pronouncing this name, Ahusuerus, the Ahusuerus
who reigned from Ethiopia, India to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces.
In those days when King Ahusuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel, in the
third year of his reign, he gave a feast for all his officials and servants, the army of
Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces who were before him.
Now, just sort of pause here.
A couple of things.
First of all, there's a literary device that begins this story.
And the literary device is such that the writer is telling you that he's telling you a true
story.
That the story that follows is something that happened.
That's the claim made by the author.
Now, the second thing is this guy with the weird name.
So, in Hebrew, in ancient Hebrew, when this name was said out loud, it's a pun.
Now, it's one of the things which is very interesting about this book.
This book is going to talk about very, very, very, very dark matters.
In this book, there is genocide or an attempt at genocide.
There is sex trafficking.
There is violence.
There is impaling.
Lots of impaling.
And lots of other things.
It's a very, very serious story.
But the Jewish writer of it also puts bits of humor into it.
So, for the ancient Jews, when they would have heard this story read, the word Ahusserus
sounds like headache.
So, basically, all the way through the story, they call him King Headache to make a bit of
fun of him.
So, in fact, what I'm going to do, because I can't pronounce it, I'm going to call him
King Headache, because that actually helps you to understand, and now I've just completely
vanished.
Have I?
He's working on it.
Okay.
So, he's called King Headache.
Now, here's another thing which is really important about this story.
Very, very important.
And I didn't know until I looked it up.
How many of you have watched the movie 300 about the Spartans?
There you go.
So, the guy the Spartans fight, this is him.
This is him.
This is King Xerxes.
That's how he's more better known.
He's known as the King of Kings.
And so, one of the things that the writer sets right off the bat, when the writer says,
this is happening three years after King Headache gets made king, the ancient readers would
go, oh.
Oh.
That means this is happening in the year 483 BC.
Oh.
Now, why would they say, oh?
If we were to watch a movie about the Civil War in the United States, and the movie was
to focus on the Southerns, the Confederates, and we were to see just after war is declared,
in fact, there's lots of Confederate movies that are like this, and it shows the white
people with all their wealth and the young guys, and we're going to defeat the North,
and we're filled with honor, and you'd see all the opulence.
When we watch that movie, what do we know?
We know they're going to lose.
Even though they dress well, they're well-spoken, they're all excited, they're very confident
in their power, we know they're going to lose.
And that's what the author of this story does for most of the ancient people when he
begins it by saying it starts third year of being king, 483, because in the year 480,
he faces the Spartans, and 300 Spartans are able to hold back a Persian army of tens to tens
to tens of thousands, and then shortly after that, the Greeks kick their butt, and King
Headache is going to return to Persia, having lost big time.
So that's how this story begins.
A bit of a caution, because you're going to see his power and his glory, and in some
ways, one of the things that goes all the way through the book of Esther is a meditation
upon power.
The claims of power, our desires for power, and how power actually works.
So this is who the story is.
If you're fans of the movie 300, the Spartans are going to really cause him lots of trouble.
They're going to lose, they're going to lose.
And he's King Xerxes, and we're going to call him King Headache.
So back to what happens next.
So verse 4, so the King Headache has caused all of the people, it's the biggest empire
in the world at the time, and he's brought all of his nobles, his army officers, all of
his wise men, all of the rich people.
He brought them all together to his capital.
He's probably, well, let's see what happens.
Verse 4, he brought them all before him while he showed the riches, verse 4, of his royal
glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days.
And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa, the
capital, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of
the king's palace.
And so part of the thing that's going on here in the story is the king is solidifying his
support.
And he's building to his support.
He's saying, listen, I'm rich, I'm powerful, I'm strong.
Look at my armies.
Look at my power.
Look at my wealth.
Look at my glory.
I am a winner.
And you join with me.
You will be a winner too.
And we're going to go to Greece and we're going to kick Greek butt and we're going to
get lots of Greek pillage and you're going to even be richer because I'm a winner.
I'm powerful.
I'm mighty.
I'm the king of kings.
I'm rich.
Are you with me?
And at the end of a half a year of this propaganda and team building, I guess we'd call it nowadays,
and vision casting, it comes time to celebrate with seven days of partying.
And that's what sort of described next.
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, couches of gold and
silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother of pearl, and precious stones.
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, and
the queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to king
headache.
Now, just pause here for a second.
What does it mean by no compulsion?
Well, it doesn't mean that they could drink Perrier water.
There was actually a custom in Persia.
Let's say I was the emperor, and you folks, I invited you to a party.
Whatever I drank, you had to drink.
So if I drank four bottles of wine, you have to drink four bottles of wine.
I drank one bottle, you drink one bottle.
I switched to whiskey, you switched to whiskey.
So the edict was, you don't have to drink what I'm drinking.
You just ask the waiter, and if you feel like some port, they'll bring you port.
You want bourbon, you'll bring you bourbon.
You want whiskey, they'll bring you that.
You can drink whatever you want and drink to your heart's desire, and I'm sure they did.
Now, just sort of pause here for a second.
What they've done now is they've shown you his, like, I mean, they had furniture made
out of gold and furniture made out of silver.
And they had precious, the precious stones were so common, they put them right in the floor
so that people walked on them.
And you drank out of vessels that were made out of gold.
And so you see all this wealth, all this beauty, all this power, and the glory of the city,
because he was a builder.
And you think to yourself, who on earth could possibly stand against them?
Like, who on earth can possibly stand against them?
And now we meet his wife.
That's supposed to be a bit of a joke.
Who can stand against him?
Now we meet his wife.
Right off the bat, we're going to see there's a bit of a problem.
So what happens?
Verse 10 to 12.
On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehumen,
Bitstha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abaktha, Zathar, and Carcas, the seven eunuchs who served in
the presence of King Headache, to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in
order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.
But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs.
At this, the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.
Now, several things.
If you don't know what a eunuch is, a eunuch is a man who's had his testicles removed.
That's what a eunuch is.
So one of the things about this place, there's power, there's glory, and there's beauty, and
there's great cruelty.
Great, great cruelty and great suspicion.
Because if they wanted to trust a man to do anything to do with the women under the king's care,
the only way you could do that is if you agreed to have your testicles removed.
And what's a concubine?
A concubine isn't a lover.
A concubine is a woman that belongs to a man, not as a slave, but belongs to a man for sex.
But they have a lower status than a wife.
And no matter how many children might be produced by the concubine, they will not be considered part of the lineage.
So it's showing that on top of all of this beauty and all of this glory and all of this power,
there is a man who will castrate other men.
And he will not only have several wives, which is what's going on, but he also has many, many concubines,
different women he feels like having sex with on a regular basis that nobody else can have sex with.
But they're not going to have the status or the privileges of being a wife.
And he demands, after seven days of drinking, he demands that she come.
And it's not clear exactly what it is that he wants her to do,
but what we do know is that it was something sexual.
In fact, some commentators think that what he said is literally,
I want you to come wearing your crown and nothing else,
to stand naked in front of all of the men.
It might have been far more demeaning than that.
But it's something very demeaning.
And she refuses.
She says she's not going to come.
And the king gets very, very, very, very, very, very mad.
And one of the things as well that's very interesting throughout the rest of this story
is that we never find out why Queen Vashti said no.
We don't know if it's because she'd put on four or five pounds
and she wanted like a week's notice so she could get in good shape for the presentation.
We don't know if she's a proto-feminist who had been, you know,
pumping up the women in the other place and calling them girls,
G-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-L-S,
and they're saying no man's going to rule us.
We don't know what's going on.
But you see, this is part of the fact that the explanation
for why Queen Vashti never shows up
is actually a significant part of the story
because it tells us something about how power works.
You see, when you have power and you like having power
and you're dealing with an underling or your wife,
what excuses matter?
I show up to work at 8.30, you say to your personal assistant,
and every day at 10, I have my triple espresso
right here, hot, at 10.
If it's not here hot at 10,
I'm not interested in your explanation.
I'm not interested in your reasons.
They don't matter to me.
I want it at 10.
It's here at 10.
If it's not here at 10, you're in trouble.
Like, that's how power works.
When you have power, real power,
and you give yourself the power,
little people's explanations,
why would I even bother wasting my time listening to them?
I want what I want when I want it,
and it has to be here,
or you suffer the consequences.
Sucks to be you.
That's how power works.
That's one of the interesting things
about what the writer does here,
to not give Queen Vashti's reason.
So we don't know whether it's a good reason or a bad reason,
because from King Heddy's point of view,
it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
Now, the next part is very, very odd.
So he's really, really angry.
He's drunk.
He's with a whole pile of drunk men,
and he's angry.
So he does what a lot of drunk men do
when they're angry.
They ask other drunk men for advice,
which isn't very smart,
in case you don't know, right?
So one of the things you have to understand
when you read stories like this
is just because it happens in the Bible
doesn't mean you're supposed to do it.
You know, you say,
dear, I've learned in the Bible
that when I get drunk,
I should get advice from other drunk men.
No, that's not the point of the story.
Like, sometimes, in fact, often,
the point of the story is not to do certain things.
We're going to talk a little bit in a moment
about why it is that something like this
would even be in the Bible.
But he's really, really, really mad,
and so he says,
remember at the end of verse 12,
at this the king's anger became,
the king became enraged,
and his anger burned within him.
So verse 13,
then the king said to the wise men
who knew the times,
for this was the king's procedure
towards all who were versed in law and judgment,
the men next to him being
Karshena, Shithar, Admantha, Tarshish,
Merez, Marcina, and Memucan,
the seven princes of Persia and Media,
who saw the king's face
and sat first in the kingdom.
According to the law,
what is to be done to queen Vashti
because she has not performed
the command of king headache
delivered by the eunuchs?
Now, just sort of pause here for a second.
A couple of things are going on.
First of all, the wise men,
we meet them,
not obviously the same guys,
but they're the magi
that show up in Matthew chapter 2.
The magi were Persian astrologers,
and that's what these guys are.
They're experts in astrology,
and they're experts in divination.
That's what it means in the text
when it says,
verse 13,
then the king said to the wise men,
the magi,
who knew the times,
and that means they understood
how to use divination,
how to get in touch with the spirit world,
they believed,
so they'd know when the gods
were calling for something,
the most chance of success
would happen according to the gods,
according to the spiritual powers.
In the case of the king,
who was, by the way,
not a pagan,
but a Zoroastrian,
who believed then
that there was just one god,
but he believed in spiritual powers
and spiritual forces.
And so,
you might say to yourself,
so just for instance,
just so you know,
if one of you are drunk,
and you call me up at night,
and you say with your slurred voice,
George, I need your advice.
I'm thinking of doing this.
Well, let me tell you,
what I'd say to you is,
are you driving?
And,
you're drunk.
I'd say,
don't make any decisions
when you're drunk.
Just so you know,
you don't have to bother
calling me up at two in the morning.
That'll be in my advice.
Make no decisions
when you're drunk.
Why do they think
they can make decisions
when they're drunk?
Well,
I didn't know this
until I did the research.
The ancient Persians
often made decisions twice
before they'd be final on it.
They'd first,
if they were drunk,
and they were going to be
making decisions,
it was one person's job
to be sober
and write it down.
And after they sobered up,
they'd ask the sober guy,
what decisions did we make
while we were drunk?
And they'd say,
well,
these are the decisions you made.
And they'd look at it,
and if it made sense
when they were sober,
they'd do it.
And they also did the opposite.
They would be sober,
and they'd make a decision,
but they often
wouldn't act on it.
They'd say,
well,
now we have to get drunk
and consider the issue
while we're drunk.
And if it makes sense to us
while we're drunk,
then we know
it's the right decision.
Sometimes they would just,
like in this case,
just make a decision
when they're drunk.
Now,
here's one of the things
about this
which is very,
very,
very contemporary.
How many artists
in North America
and in the whole
first world
believe
they are more creative
when they are stoned
or drunk?
It's very,
very,
very common.
I was just reading
a thing about
a comedian,
and whenever she travels,
she makes sure she has,
she doesn't like smoking marijuana
because she can't control
the amount
that she's taking,
so she likes to consume it
because she knows
the exact amount,
and she always has it with her
because it helps her
to think better.
It helps her to be more clear
and helps her to be more creative.
It's a very,
very common thing.
You see,
the ancient Persians
believed they were closer
to the spiritual world
when they were drunk,
just like most of the artists
of our world,
and who knows how many politicians
and even judges
think that being stoned
for a while
or drunk
will actually help them
to be wiser,
get them in touch
with their creativity
or whatever.
So the ancient Persians
being drunk
was actually maybe a sign
that they were closer
to the spiritual world,
so their decision
is going to be
a better decision.
And so the king,
king headache,
he's drunk,
he's really,
really mad,
he asks his seven drunk friends
for advice
about what they should do.
And here's the great advice
that they gave him.
Here's the great advice.
Actually, let's read
verse 15 again.
According to the law,
king asks,
what is to be done
to queen Vashti
because she has not
performed the command
of king headache
delivered by the eunuchs.
And here's the advice.
Then Menukam said
in the presence
of the king
and the officials,
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 headache.
For the queen's behavior
will be made known
to all women,
causing them to look
at their husbands
with contempt
since they will say
king headache
commanded queen Vashti
to be brought before him
and she did not come.
This very day,
the noble woman
of Persia and Media
who have heard
of the queen's behavior
will say the same
to all the king's officials
and there will be contempt
and wrath in plenty.
Now just pause.
Some of you are saying,
did I just read that right?
Are they using this
as an excuse
to shut down
and oppress
all the women
in the kingdom?
You did hear it right.
You know,
one of the interesting things,
and by the way,
I could go on
a long aside about this.
This is very contemporary.
He asked them
what does the law say
and they give them
a sociological theory
that he doesn't actually,
they don't actually say
what's in the law.
He gives them
a sociological theory
about,
and it's really
what they want to do.
And what they want to do
is horrible.
And so some of you
are saying,
George,
I came to church
on Thanksgiving Sunday
and I get to hear
a text about
a whole pile of drunken men
making a rule
that all women
have to serve them
and respect them.
Like I am so disappointed
I came to church
some of you
maybe came with a friend
and you're thinking
you're shriveling
into the seat
because this is
in the Bible?
Well,
I'm going to say
a couple of things
about it,
but let's get
all the gory details
out first.
I think we were
at verse 19.
So here's the advice,
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.
In other words,
it will be eternal.
That Vashti
is never again
to enter,
to come before
the king headache
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.
This advice
pleased the king
and the princess
and the king
did as Menyakam
proposed.
He sent letters
to all the royal provinces,
to every province
in its own script
and every people
in its own language
that every man
be master
in his own household
and speak according
to the language
of his people.
So what's going on here?
Well, several things.
First of all,
some of you might say,
George,
do you believe this?
Is this what the Bible
is teaching?
Like,
is the Bible teaching that?
So just,
just pause for a second.
If you're here
as a skeptic
or a scoffer
or just as a curious friend
or you came in
because it's warm
or we're just,
we're really glad you're here,
just time out.
Just ask yourself,
do you think Christians
base their beliefs
on drunken
Zoroastrian rulers?
No.
They don't.
Just because
it's in a story
like this
doesn't mean
that we're to
say that it's
it's what we
should be doing.
In fact,
it's,
the story is showing
us quite radically
different things
than that.
I don't know why
my mic keeps
falling off my head.
Anyway,
so it's not,
so do I believe this?
I would not use
this text
as a basis
to talk about
anything to do
between husbands
and wives.
And in fact,
actually,
it's interesting.
It's all the way through.
He never refers
to the queen
as his wife.
He refers to the queen
as the queen.
It has to do
with power.
And,
but some of you
might say,
well,
George,
why on earth
would you even
have something
like this
in the Bible?
And,
well,
I'm going to talk
a little bit
in a moment
about why
Jesus would
have us
read texts
like this
because as I've
shared with Ruth,
and I'll say again,
if you go back
and you read
Luke chapter 24,
the reason
that we should
read Old Testament
or Tanakh stories
like this
is because
Jesus tells us to.
And he tells us
that everything
that was written
before him
in some ways
prepares us
to understand
better who he is
and what he does
for us on the cross
and what it means
to follow him.
And because Jesus
tells us to,
we should do it.
But it always means
that we understand
that everything
in these stories,
it's not telling us
about how an empire
should work
or how a king
should work.
It's not,
you know,
it's not telling us,
you know,
it's not telling us
that Christians
should practice astrology
or they should
practice divination.
It's not telling us
we should make decisions
when we're drunk
and it's not telling us
that we should pass laws
telling women
they have to obey
and honor their husbands
and be content
with being a second-class citizen.
It's not telling us
any of these things.
It's telling us
very important things
but it's not telling us
because those things
don't prepare us
to understand who Jesus is
and what he does
for us on the cross.
But here's the other thing
which is so important
about reading stories
like this.
This is real life.
Like,
this is real life.
There's lots of places
you can go to
in the world
where women are treated
worse than this.
And there's all sorts
of things
and we live in a world
where people get drunk,
where artists think
they're more creative,
they get stoned,
where the government
thinks it's a good thing
to make being able
to be stoned illegal
things so we can do it legally
and there can be more of it.
And we live in a real world
and this is describing
the real world
and that's a very important thing
because you see
at the end of the day
the gospel is real.
Jesus actually enters
into history
and he lives
at a particular point in time
just like real human beings do
and he dies a real death
just outside of Jerusalem
in the spring of the year 30
or the spring of the year 33
depending on how you deal
with some historical questions
but one of those two times
he dies on a cross
outside of Jerusalem
and he's buried in a grave
and on the third day
the grave is empty
and he really does
in history
appear to people
to prove that he's alive.
And the gospel,
what Jesus does
is to make us right with God
and help us to live
in the real world,
in your world,
in my world,
in a world
where there might be
unemployment,
there might be prosperity,
there might be tornadoes,
there might be marital problems,
there might be a problem
of not being able
to be married,
you have conflicting desires,
you live in a real world.
You see,
all of these stories
like this
that communicate
the real world
are helping us
to understand
that Jesus wants
to be our Savior
and our Lord
in your real world
and mine.
It's very important
that it's not just
fairy tales
and magical types of things.
I think I've told this story
when I was going
to do my master's degree
in counseling,
I went through,
there was this one,
it's called a practicum,
it was in group therapy
and by coincidence,
everybody in it
except me
was a nun
in my group
and they had to do
this thing once
about how
they're trying to picture
a parent coming in
to try to deal
with two or three
children fighting
and they got the nuns
to act it out
and I watched it
and I,
at the end of it
I said,
time out,
that's not how
real children
actually talk
to each other
because they were
all polite,
they very quickly said,
oh, I'm wrong,
I did it.
No, that's not
what happens.
Kids don't just
naturally say,
yes, you caught me,
I'm wrong,
please, no, no,
I didn't do it,
nothing happened,
it was his fault,
like that's how it works
and it's just
not real life, right?
But the gospel
is going to be
for our real life,
that's why
it's very important.
So,
if that's the case
then, George,
well, why on earth
would we even read
a story like this?
Well, here's the thing,
let's put up a first point,
if you could put up
the first point,
Daniel,
that would be great.
One of the things
which is so wonderful
as we enter
into the story
of Esther,
which is going
to be ten chapters,
we're going to do it
over nine weeks,
is the first thing
is that power
is an idol
you are always
tempted to worship.
power is an idol
that you are always
tempted to worship.
In fact,
if you put up
the next point,
Daniel,
that would be great.
Without realizing it,
you and me
can easily become
a fully devoted
worshiper of power.
In other words,
what I'm saying is
that the idol
of power
is something
that we are always
tempted to.
Every single one
of us here
are tempted
to the idol
of power
to worship it.
But some of us
aren't tempted
to worship
the idol of power
because we don't
resist it.
We're full-fledged,
fully devoted,
proud
worshippers
of power.
And this is
a human problem.
It's not just
a religious
or a Christian problem,
it's a human problem.
And some of you
might say,
George,
I'm a Christian
or I'm a spiritual person
or I'm a Canadian.
I don't worship idols.
If you could put up
the next point.
Here's the thing.
You worship an idol
by believing it,
trusting it,
serving it,
being guided by it,
thinking by it,
deriving meaning
from it,
and getting your
identification from it.
So what happens
in this story,
for instance?
All King Headache
wants is more power.
The whole point
of the six months
of gathering
is to show
how powerful he is
and why they should
give him more power.
He gets his identity
from power.
He thinks in terms
of power.
When Queen Vashti
doesn't do what he wants,
he thinks by the dynamics
of power
because in the dynamics
of power,
it's always a matter of,
it's always a zero-sum game.
It's like those old things.
For those of us
who are really old,
then we remember
when there were
teeter-totters.
Young people don't know
that anymore
because it can hurt you,
but there's these
teeter-totters.
There used to be
these things that,
you know,
there was a thing
in the middle
and a big wooden board
or a metal board.
If you sat on one end,
it would go down,
and so somebody
got on the other side,
and they could make
it go down,
and you'd have fun
going back and forth,
or else you'd eventually
have a mean kid
who was heavier
who would just sit here
trapping his younger brother
or sister up on the top
while they screamed
for their mommy,
and that's probably
why they stopped
making teeter-totters.
Upper one's going down,
and it's the same thing
for power.
In terms of when he,
you know,
he's serving power,
so if he doesn't get
what he wants,
if he gives in
to Queen Vashti,
that means her power
is going up
and his is going down,
and that is unconscionable.
How could he ever
allow that to happen?
He gets his meaning
from being the most
powerful person.
He gets his identity
from it,
and that's what happens
for us,
and it's not just
with power.
That's how we can
understand how anything
can be an idol for us.
It, you know,
it can be money,
it can be our husband,
it can be our wife,
it can be our kid,
it can be our job,
it can be our reputation,
it can be our nationality,
it can be our political party,
it can be our political leader.
That we think by it,
we get our identity by it,
we seek more of it,
we organize our time around it,
that it becomes
more and more powerful,
it becomes functionally
something that we worship.
And, you know,
I can give you those
as ideas.
This is the powerful thing
about stories,
is that stories presents it
in a way that forms us
in a deeper level
to see that this is a man
who's made an idol of power.
In fact,
there's a couple of different
really important questions
for us.
is,
I mean,
we can ask,
is power an idol in your,
is power an idol in your life?
You know,
one of the signs
of idolatry,
one of the things
which indicates
what we've made an idol
in our life
is when we get angry.
Anger often reveals
an idol
that we worship.
And if you don't
get more power
and you get really angry,
is it possible
that you've made
an idol out of power?
Is your anger
rooted in an idol?
And just in general,
maybe it's not that,
but maybe your anger
is rooted in something else.
And just one other thing
about idols,
that most of us
have more than one idol.
In fact,
it makes us
even more miserable.
In fact,
it's very possible
that in a marriage
we have at least
three or four idols
going on.
We have an idol
for power.
We have an idol
around our spouse.
And maybe we have
an idol around money.
And they keep
bumping into each other
and contradicting
each other.
Because on one hand,
our whole identity
is around a person
to love.
our whole identity
is around that.
But at the same time,
we worship power.
And if the person
that we love
starts to have
a bit too much power
over us,
we get very anxious.
Very, very anxious.
And then maybe
they also do something,
our loved one
does something
that involves
spending a little bit
too much money.
And because money
is an idol in our lives,
that makes us
very anxious.
And we're just
very confused
because we have
several idols
that we're trying
to worship.
And each of them
wants our fully
devoted attention.
And we can't
fully devote ourselves
to three different
or four or five
different idols.
And it causes us
a lot of anxiety.
If you could put up
the next thing,
and this is what,
this is like,
just follows from that.
Like all idols,
the idol of power
deceives you
and does not deliver
what it promises.
Like all idols,
the power,
the idol of power
deceives you
and does not deliver
what it promises.
So you think about
this for a second.
In this story
that we've just read,
the king passes a law
and when I pass a law,
it never changes.
We should all laugh
at that.
He's been dead
for 2,500 years.
He got assassinated
by his bodyguard
15 years after this.
And it would be
very interesting
that the women's
study department
at Ottawa U,
if they think
that his rule
about women
following men
and honoring them
is still eternal
to the day.
No.
This is very,
very,
very important
pause here
for those of us
who are Christians.
there are many,
many things
in our culture,
especially around
the culture of death,
that our culture says
have been finally decided
and will last forever.
And just like
King Headache
thinking his decision
lasted forever
and it doesn't,
so it is
when the culture of death
or any politician
or any culturally
powerful person
says something's decided
will never change,
they're wrong.
They're just wrong.
They're wrong.
This is a profound
encouragement
for us to pray,
to not lose heart
in praying
that things
which are evil
in our society,
that the time
may come
when they would change.
In fact,
one of the things
we're going to see
as the book of Esther
plays itself out
is that,
in fact,
Esther,
a Jewish woman,
ends up
being the one
responsible
for saving her people
from genocide.
that's actually
one of the big messages
of the whole book.
So it's a profound
encouragement
for you and me
to pray.
The culture of death
does not have
the final word
and we should pray
against it.
Final point,
if you could put it up.
See,
here's one of the things
about how idols
deceive us.
You see,
if the idol of power
is where we're getting,
we think by the idol
of power,
we understand life
by the idol of power,
we want to serve
the idol of power,
we want to become
more and more powerful
and then our wife
does something
or, you know,
if Louise is serving
the idol of power
and I do something
and you start to think
about, you know,
she starts to think
about me
and I think about her
and I get anxious
about this
and I get worried
about this
and, you know,
from the idol of power
it either just seems
like you're winning
or you're losing,
you know,
and it doesn't seem
like there's any sort
of other type
of framework
to think about it
but this is where
the gospel is so powerful
because, you see,
only Jesus,
the crucified Messiah
who loves you
and died in your place
to save you,
only he reveals
the true
and living God.
Only Jesus,
the crucified Messiah
who loves you
and died in your place
to save you,
only he reveals
the true
and living God
and when we receive
the gospel
and the gospel
starts to grip us,
it begins to give us
a whole different way
to start to understand
how the world works
and this is, you see,
part of the huge significance
of the gospel
because, you know,
you read John's gospel
at the beginning
and it says,
in the beginning
was the Word
and the Word
was with God
and the Word
was God.
He was with God
in the beginning.
All things were made
through him
and without him
nothing was made
that was made.
So when we worship Jesus,
we're worshiping
the creator
of all things.
He understands
how the real world works
and in the story
of Jesus,
we see this story
of God,
the Son of God,
looking at ordinary
human beings,
not just emperors,
not just kings,
not people who think
they're king of kings
and lord of lords,
but ordinary people
like you and me
in our real life
and he looked down
from heaven
and he saw
that we could not
save ourselves
from death
and that we could not
deliver ourselves
from idols
and out of love
for you and me.
He sets aside
his glory,
he sets aside
his divine prerogative,
he sets aside
his appearance
of majesty,
but remaining fully God,
he takes into himself
our human nature
and he actually
stoops and lowers
himself to the womb
of the Virgin Mary
and lives an ordinary
human life,
suffering the trials
and temptations
that you and I do
only without sin
and teaching
and ultimately
his stooping
to save you and me
goes to the point
of dying
as an innocent man,
a criminal's death,
burying in his very
body and person
the sins and rebellion
and the shame
that you and I
have accomplished,
but he willingly
bears the punishment
that that deserves
upon himself
and he stoops
even lower
to save us
by entering
into death
and tasting
everything there is
to taste of death
with nothing left out
and Jesus
who is God,
the Son of God,
he stoops
and descends
to save you and me
and when we put
our faith and trust
in him,
we receive
the power
of God
for salvation,
the power
to give you
a new life,
to be born again,
to be regenerate.
We receive that power
effectually from God,
not because of my power,
not because of anything
in me,
but because God
acts with power
in our lives
to make us right
with him.
And so we see
in the cross
and in the gospel,
we see
perfect love,
perfect power,
perfect mercy,
perfect justice,
perfect grace,
all at one,
not at war
with each other,
but at one.
And as we receive
the gospel,
not only do we
now enter
into a relationship
with Jesus
to start to try
to deal with idols,
but as the gospel
grips us
and shapes us
and as we stand by it
and start to see it
and understand it
to unmask idols
and to think
differently
about the world
and about the options.
George,
if you're drunk
and you're mad
at your wife,
maybe you should
sober up
and maybe you should
love her
and serve her more.
And maybe it's
not about power.
A whole new universe
of thought and life
and of business
and of family
and of culture
opens up.
Please stand.
It's not just a matter
that the Lord
makes you feel guilty
about our idol worship
because Christians,
like other human beings,
can start to worship idols.
But that this is a call
for us to be gripped
by the gospel
and to ask the Lord
to reveal
whether the roots
of our anchor
are coming not out
of the fact
that we have a concern
for holiness
but that there's in fact
hidden idols
which are making us angry
and hidden idols
which are making us anxious
and a call
to be gripped
by the gospel.
To be gripped
and shaped
by the gospel
to call out to God
that he would
write the gospel
on our heart
and make the gospel
real to us
by the power
of his Holy Spirit.
And if you are here
and you've never
given your life
to Jesus,
there is no better
time than right now.
Jesus is not
like the king
of Persia
full of anger
and on a whim
he would hate you.
He died to save you.
He died to save you
because he loves you
and he will fit you
for heaven
and there is no better
time than now
to say I cannot
free myself
from idols,
I cannot free myself
from death,
I cannot free myself
from my sin.
But Jesus,
I know that you
can do that
and I give myself
to you
and I ask
that you would
be my savior
and my lord
and I know
you will never
let me go
and there is no time
better than right now
to call out to Jesus
and say that.
No time better
than right now
and he will hear.
Let's bow our heads
in prayer.
Father,
you know the idols
that we serve
and we don't even realize
we serve them.
You know the idols
that we're really
tempted to,
they really call out
to us.
Our flesh wants
to worship them
and we ask,
Father,
that your Holy Spirit
would move deeply
in our lives
to help us
to see the idols
that tempt us
for what they are
as idols
and we ask,
Father,
that you make us
disciples of Jesus
who are gripped
by the gospel,
who stand on the gospel,
who are shaped
by the gospel,
who are drawn
by the gospel
and not by idols,
that you would help us
to die to all idols
that we might live free
to bring you glory
and for the good
of others
and for the good
of this people
of Ottawa
and the good
of the world.
Father,
may your Holy Spirit
do that mighty work
and if there are any here
who have called out
to you,
Father,
or to Jesus
for the first time
to be yours,
may your Holy Spirit
flood into them
in a very deep way
and that they may know
your presence
and your power
and your love
and all these things
we ask in the name
of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior
and all God's people said,
Amen.