Power, Pride, and a Party | Esther 1:1-22

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Bible guys. Wow. Yeah, Hey, we're kicking off a new book today, the Book of Esther. Esther Chapter one, you got one hundred and eighty days of wine, wealth and the biggest party ever thrown in the Kingdom. Wow, it's gonna be crazy. There's an intro. Huh. Yes, Esther is a great book, Okay, And so before we get into that, we have a brand new segment. Cool. Yeah, Desire is never it's kind of a riff on a on another one that we've done. Yeah. Yeah, but this is this is called light Detector. And it says that I'm supposed to share two bizarre stories with you, one true and one false. Huh. And well she chose it this way on purpose? Whatever, because I'm kind of a human light detector. Oh I thought you were. Because I'm the best liar liar, I knew you were going to react that way. Or I have I tell the best story, the most creative storyteller. I'm the creative storytelling. There you go. Yeah, So, which also makes me the best liar. Okay. So I'm looking for the lie, the lie. So you can tell me two bizarre stories. Yes, one of them is true, one of them is not. Yes, okay, Okay. So when I was young, I spent all of my time in what I called the woods because we grew up next to Milk Creek Park, and so Milk Creek Park was just this huge park that ran all the way through Youngstown, and so I would always like get up and just go straight with my friends into these woods and these trails and all these kinds of things. And I remember rock climbing sort of. It was our version of it when we were kids. So I was probably eight and nine years old, and there was this huge cliff that was probably looking back at it, I bet you it was two stories high, maybe maybe three, so it's pretty pre significant. And so I was climbing up this wall of and it was mossy, and so I got almost all the way to the top and they were down below and they were like Chris, Chris, Chris, and I literally fell off the rock and I fell straight backwards and landed on my back just bam onto rocks, and they were like, oh my goodness, and they thought I was dead and I got up and I never felt I never felt any pain. And I was like, huh, like are you okay? And I'm like yeah, wow, And that was it. So I felt like probably twenty feet. And by the way, I read later on, did you know that falls over twenty feet are fatal eighty percent of the time? Wow? Did you I did not know that fatal? I mean, let alone like injury. Wow. Right, And so that's the first pretty that's pretty hard to believe. It is hard to believe. That's first story. Second story is my brothers and I were playing with me be guns and my brother, older brother Jimmy, the one that's right above me, didn't mess around with a lot of that stuff. He was much more of a nerd than I was. Right. He was more like the no, no, no. He didn't experiment with a lot of outdoor things. He was upstairs reading these comic books all the time, which is where I got the comic book side of my life. And anyway, so he wasn't very outdoorsy. All of us had messed around with BB guns before, he'd not really done it, and so we were all out there messing with bbguns, loading him up, pumping them up, all these kinds of things. You know, you pump it up and it you know. Okay, So anyway, he grabs me, begun, points it right at me and shoots, and so he fires right at me, and I look around and I'm thinking I'm gonna I got shot. I looked around and come to find out like, I didn't get shot, but there was a hole in my shirt, and I was like, he shot in my shirt. And then I was looking around and I couldn't see an exit wound, and I was like, son of a gun, I lift up my shirt. I couldn't find the baby. And then I went throughout my day and then later on during lunch, I felt something in underwear and the baby had made its way into moundawear. Okay it is. So those are two unbelievable stories. Yes, how old were you at the BB gun one? Uh? Honestly? Uh? Same? H okay? Maybe ten? Nine? Ten? Yeah? Yeah? Uh oh man. So there's a lot of details, yeah, in both of them. Yeah, I'm supposed to interview you on this and try to figure out right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So I'm supposed to try to figure out interrogate you. That's what it says you on the night of right, where's the light? That's right? Who can cooperate these stories? So I just have a sense I'm just going to jump right at it because we don't. Have a ton of time. I have a sense that the rock wall one is true? Why and that the bb gun one is not true? Why do you say that? Uh? The description of where you lived the park you spoke with fondness, and the other one was super enthusiastic and generic generica. So which is it you are correct? See? Huh? Wow? Yeah, I'm not a good liar like I said, Oh, you're a good liar since I'm a human liar detector. Wow. Good. Yeah, your body language was also enthusiastic on the second one, and you're a little bit of a salesman, so I knew. He's selling me on this one. Yeah. But it was a great story. I just made it up. Yeah, that was great. I never even came close to happen. I just thought of this outlandish story with the beauty. Yeah. Yeah, Well what set me off was that you pivoted into telling. Me about how you and your brother. That's where you got your comic book thing from and yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, okay, well, wait a minute, I thought that was that. Wait a minute, that was good. Wouldn't that? Oh you mean that threw you off? That started to throw me off? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why I started. Set me on the wrong path for a minute, but we pulled back in. Okay, it was just it was your description, huh, the funness. Yeah, I'm going to really think hard about that because if I have to, if I ever have to fool you in the future, yeah you won't. I'm gonna be extra cautious. I know you. I can see into your soul. Chris. For your birth and I'm shocked to be for your birthday. I mean, for my daughter's engagement. We had to tell a hundred lies to keep it from her right in a good way. But you know, if I ever do that something I was I wasn't meaning like lie for bad reasons. But if I have to fool you for good reasons, yeah, then then holy cow, Detective. Well, I also knew all I was coming. In all fairness, that's true, I knew all I was coming. Yeah, so you had you had your radar on so a god. Also read three books on how to determine when somebody lies, written by like FBI interrogator types. Wow, very interesting. I guess so because because you said things that I never would have thought of. So that and your your eyes dilated, you started to stature. Stop it. I noticed that your body tips are raised by two percent, two degrees whatever. Yep, you kept looking down into the left. Okay, so uh wow, speaking of your temperature. Going up a party like this, you. Had everybody's temperatures rising. So so did you know that this is? Uh? Is this the only book in the Bible that doesn't mention the name of God? Is that true? I think so. I think I've heard that before, but I'm not sure I would have remembered that had you not said it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So and yet you see God's hand through the entire thing. Yes, That's what's so amazing about it. Yeah. So esther, what a great hero she becomes, but she doesn't know it's coming. So here's what it says. It says these events happened in the days of King Xerxes, who reigned over one hundred and twenty seven provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia at that time. Xerxes ruled his empire from his royal throne at the Fortress of Susa. In the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials, and he invited all the military officers of Persia and media, as well as the princes and nobles of the provinces. The celebration lasted one hundred and eighty days. Yeah, dude, talking about a party. Yeah, A tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty. When it was all over, the king gave a banquet for all the people, because you know, you need a party after your party, right right from the greatest to the least who were in the Fortress of Susa. It lasted for seven days and was held in the courtyard of the palace garden. The courtyard was beautifully decorated with white cotton curtains and blue hangings which were fastened with white linen cords and purple ribbons to silver rings embedded in marble pillars. It was really beautiful. Gold and silver couches stood on a mosaic pavement of porphyry marble mother of Pearl and other costly stones. Drinks were served in gold goblets of many designs, and there was an abundance of royal wine, reflecting the king's generosity. By edict of the king, no limits were placed on the drinking, for the king had instructed all his palace officials to serve each man as much as he wanted. At the same time, Queen Vashti gave up. Do you see Vashti? Vashti said, Vashti Schachti gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes on the seventh day of the feast. When King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine, he told the seven eunuchs who attended him, me human Biztha, harbona big Thah, a Bagtha, Zephyr, and carcass, what we're going to call him to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman. But when they conveyed the king's order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. This made the king furious, and he burned with anger. He immediately consulted with his wise advisers, who knew all the Persian laws and customs, for he always asked their advice. The names of these men were oh Gosh, Karshena, Shethar, Ed Matha, Tarshish, Mary's, Mrsna and Memican, seven nobles of Persia and Media, and they met with the King regularly and held the highest positions in the empire. What must be done to Queen Vashti, the king demanded, What penalty does the law provide for a queen who refuses to obey the King's orders properly sent through his eunuchs. Memican answered the King and his nobles, Queen Vashti has wrong not only the King, but also every noble and citizen throughout your empire. Women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learned that Queen Vashti has refused to appear before the king. Before this day is out, the wives of all the King's nobles throughout Persian and Media will hear what the queen did, and we'll start treating their husbands the same way. There will be no end to the contempt and annger. It's extreme. So if it pleased the king, we suggest that you issue a written decree a lot of the Persians and the Meds that cannot be revoked. It should order that Queen Vashti be forever. Banished from the presence of King Xerxes. The king should choose another queen more worthy than she. When this decree is published throughout the king's vast empire, husbands everywhere, whatever their rank, will receive proper respect from their wives. The king and his. Nobles thought this made good sense, so he followed Memican's council. He sent letters to all parts of the empire, to each province in its own script and language, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleases there. It is at the end of the first chefs chidow. Let me just say it's very dangerous to drink and make laws. Right. You're not your bad I'll tell you, yeah, I got an idea. If you don't do something, all of our wives are gonna start back talking to us. And that's not okay. I'm telling you what they're gonna do. That's what they've been drinking for one hundred eighty days. Then they have a really crazy party in the last seven and it's when they go and they decide. He literally writes this this law, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleads. Well, do you know that oftentimes crazy? Oftentimes? You know, the Bible tells the story over a long period of time sometimes and it makes it seems like it's like the same day. But in this case, in verse thirteen, I actually think you're right. I think it's the same day, because it says he immediately right, so she refused to come in, and then verse thirteen says he immediately consulted with his wives of advisors, and then he asked the question what must be done with Queen Vashti. So that means you're right. That means during the banquet, during and it actually starts it says, when King Xerxes was high in spirits because he had wine. Yeah, wow, he was tipsy. Yeah, I see he's feeling good. Hey, bring he out. She's beautiful. You guys are gonna love this, right, And she goes. No, and so he gets embarrassed in front of all his friends. Right, he gets embarrassed in front of all the other people that he has ruled over that are also rulers and and uh and so yeah, he's thinking, I can't believe she just did that to me. It made me look, you know bad. Right, Well, she's the whole party unravels at this point, right, and oh. So I'm wearing I'm wearing my shirt today that from the Mafia, right, like leave the gun to take the canola. That's from the movie The Godfather, that's right. And and that would be something that they would say. It's like never, hey, listen, never disagree with me in front of the family. Right, that's what they would say, right, not in front of the family. Right. And it's like that's what that's what happened. Right, precisely what happened. So he's feeling pretty good about himself. He's you know, leading the biggest all the way from India. So Susa is right on the edge between what is modern day Iraq and modern day Iran. This is right. So the means in the Persians Persia is modern day Iran. And so just. East of Babylon a number of miles and so right along the edge of the mountains, but he ruled all the way from India all the way to Ethiopia that it was at the time the largest empire in the world. He's feeling pretty good about himself here is he's only been doing it for three years, and he goes, I got an idea, Let's take the next six months and just party like wild animals, right, and no rules. And so then when they're done, and it's only the elites that are doing that, but they party for like six months, he's just taken like a big long vacation. So then when all that's done, he goes, you know what, let's throw a party for everybody who lives in this fortress, all the commoners too, and then we're going to treat him like kings. And then it's in that context that you know, it's a seven day party, but it begins describing how beautiful, so they decorated. The king went all out, and then he had he has an open bar for seven days. No rules about how much they can drink. And he's trying to demonstrate one how powerful he is to his his all of his magistrates and rulers. And then he how magnanimous and generousy is to all of his followers. And it's in that context he goes, let's bring Vashti out, and she goes, no, I'm not a plaything, and I have some dignity and I'm not going to come out and just twirl for you, right right. Right, And and maybe he's the king is also trying to display like, hey, this is how it's going to be when you follow me. There'll be there'll be blessings. They'll be not blessings, but there'll be provision, there'll be luxuries, they'll be wine under my rule. This is this is the kind of kingdom that there is. I was looking at the notes from the Life Application of Study Bible. There was a little summary at the beginning of Esther, and it says this. It says, not all the Jews returned to Jerusalem when Cyrus issued a decree allowing them to do so. Many Jews stayed in Persia throughout the world where they had settled during the exile. Esther is one of such women. The Book of Chris Esther, we haven't been introduced to her yet right in chapter one, but she's coming. The Book of Esther is an example of God's divine guidance and care for our lives. God's sovereignty and power are seen throughout this book. Although we may question certain circumstances in our lives, we must have faith that God is in control, working through both the pleasant and the difficult times, so we can see him effectively. So this background, this story sets up the context of Esther's faith. Would you agree with that? Like, in other words, like what Esther is about to do is display incredible courage. And so we look back and we see, like what happened to the last queen? What happened to the last queen that didn't do exactly what Xerxes you wanted, you know, or displeased the king, right, And so this whole chapter sets up an incredible story. But at the same time, it also shows Xerxi's character as a king too, which is you know, pretty pretty awful actually right that he would write a decree and banish the queen just because she refused in one instance to come into a group of drunken men and twirl you know. So you know, it sets it up to where you know, it's you better fear the king. Yeah, that's what it is. Right, So now you're going to enjoy this part. Yes, it just dawned to me while you were talking. Oh I didn't enjoy the other parts. No, you're gonna like this part a lot. Oh good. Yeah. Yeah, So this Xerxes. Yes, the reason why they would throw these giant parties. They were famous for it. The Persian kings, the Means and the Persian kings were famous for throwing big parties before they went to war. Oh so it was kind of, you know, like the Vikings would do after a battle, they'd come and drink and go crazy and say cheers to the fallen brothers who went to Valhalla or whatever. For the Means and the Persians the other way around, this might be our last party. Let's throw a crazy one. Well, he was getting ready his his kingdom had expanded all the way to Ethiopia. He was getting ready to attack Greece, and he had this great victory at thermal Play against the Spartans. Oh wow, it's that's the story. Wow, right spart Off right that thing that So, so this is the Xerxes. That's right where the three hundred died. They died his hand. Yeah yeah, wow, So this is the Xerxes. So it might have been because it was right around this time, by the way, that that happened. So, as a matter of fact, I looked it up. It's four eighty BC is when that happened. And this is happening the beginning of this is about just a few years before. Oh you know what's so funny. In my mind, I sure did not have Xerxes with a mental image as the Xerxes in that movie. Yeah. Yeah, the Xerxys in that movie was creepy. Yeah, I mean super creepy. Right, he's even a god can bleed, right that guy. Yeah yeah, wow, yeah, which wow, that's yeah, this is the same. And you know what, that's also pretty amazing once again that that history coincides with uh, with the writings of the scripture, right right, So there's there's a during that time. There are during that that when I say that time, I'm saying over those couple hundred years, there were multiple Xerxes. Okay, so this is the same. That's what I was looking at for. I was thinking, this is the right time for eighty yeah, for ninety, because it says here on the side for ninety the Greeks repelled Persia in the fifth back or in the Battle of Marathon. So ten years after this, yeah, is when the Greeks finally push him back and he's. And he's defeated. Yeah, but he has, he has he defeats the Spartans at Thermal Reply and then he goes on as Sacks Athens. Yeah right, and then they finally they begin to turn. Him back after that. So this party may have been just before well those big attacks. Isn't that kind of cool? Yeah? Well, I mean I'm not an expert on that, but this story seems to begin in for eighty three BC, and the battle was for eighty so it's three years before. But how long does it take you to move on an army that far? Yeah? Walking quite a while, right, quite a while? So you were absolutely correct. I love it even more now. So if you thought I loved it before, which I did, I love it even more yeah, because it's it's as great. Yeah. So here's another observation. Another observation is is that this man probably thinks he is going to be unchallenged, right, think about not only I don't I hate to say this, but like they I'm sure the historians who made the movie spart Of this is actually a really bad thing to go off of. But it's actually there's probably a lot of truth here. The people who made the movie for Sparta, the three hundred movie, they probably did a deep dive into the character of somebody like Xerxes, right, So they created him in this movie to be this untouchable person who absolutely wants everybody to bow down to him. Right, that's what they did in the movie. Now, you know this, Most of movies, even though they might not be accurate, completely have a thread of truth in them. Right. So, if you're in charge of one hundred and twenty seven provinces and you're in charge of the largest kingdom that ever has existed in the world, right, then that means you probably do have that sort of a god complex where everybody is going to do exactly what you said. Sure, there's nobody more powerful on the planet as far as he knows. Now, there's some powerful people over in China, yes, at the same time, but as far as he knows, they're on the other side of Himalayas. He doesn't know them. Right, As far as he knows, he's the most powerful person on the planet. Yeah, And so that's why when it has a little bit of context where it says this made the king furious and he burned with anger, right, right, because he commands the queen to do something she refuses. It's a one time it's a one off incident, right, but it embarrasses him. But because somebody didn't do what he said, he burns with anger. And it's no wonder why, because he is God with a small. G Well, he very likely brought in all these guys because we know that they threw parties before big events. He throws a six month party. Yeah, because he's going to try to get all these officials to agree to fund a war and send off their sons against the greatest fighters his military to ever have to go against, right, the Greeks, right, And the Greeks had held back everybody up to that point. And you know, hey, Beaten the Ethiopians, Okay, we can do that. Beaten a weakened Egyptian military, we can do that. Beaten a week can Babylonian Empire, we can do that. But dude, when we're going to go up against some of the greatest fighters in history who eventually it was after this that Greece, So Greece was ascending at this point, right right, and he's got to have to go up against them. He's trying to convince them, Hey, give me your money, give me your loyalty, because in just a few months, I'm going to start banding up this military. Within two or three years, we're going to invade and I need you guys to back me on this. Oh hey, let me show you how pretty my wife is. And it was against their custom. Women didn't come into men's parties like that. So his wife was like, she's proper, lady, I'm not going to do that. No, you're drunk. I hope you soper up and think about it. But for him, this is a challenge to his absolute authority in front of the guys he's trying. So if he can't get his own wife to obey him, why would the military follow him, why would all these advisors follow him? Right? So's he's putting a pickle here for sure, but he on every. Level reacts in the wrong way. And this sets up now over the next couple of days, it sets up a story that is really really phenomenal. In the meantime, just understand, God uses even the craziest, most wicked people for his own purposes. In his own glory, right, and in the meantime, we can verify these kinds of claims in history. And how could I command an army for my own wife won't even come in so weird, it's funny. Hey, you're the one that said it. I never even had that thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's true. Yeah it is true. Well, I mean it's it's in scripture that it connects the dots in the same timeline, same conversation, so it is right. So hey, that looks like our time. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow as we pick up chapter two on the Bible. Guys,