And in chapter 1 verse 1 the Bible reads,
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus,
this is Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces.
So here we find out the scope of his realm.
It's pretty much the whole civilized world.
I mean from India all the way to Ethiopia, everything in the Middle East, everything in Northern Africa.
I mean this guy is ruling over a hundred and twenty-seven different nationalities or provinces
or zones here.
And the Bible says in verse 2 that in those days when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne
of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign he made a feast
unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and
princes of the province being before him when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom
in the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even in a hundred and four score days.
Now that's a pretty serious feast, you know, when you're feasting for a hundred and eighty days,
that's like six months.
Okay, that's a pretty long time to be having a party, okay?
But the Bible goes into great detail here over the next several verses just explaining
the luxury that this man lived in.
And he explains all the different colors and the, you know, the hangings and the cords
and the silver and the purple and the colors and just how they had such riches that they
could just have this lavish feast for six months.
And this is, you know, the ruling class enjoying all this luxurious feasting.
So after a hundred and eighty days of this feasting, then they end up having a seven-day
feast where they basically invite all of the people.
It says in verse 5, when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the
people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small.
So basically everybody's invited, even the poor people, just every single person's invited,
great and small.
Seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace, and then it goes on to describe
the white, green, and blue hangings and all these different things.
And it says in verse 7, they gave them drink and vessels of gold.
By the way, the vessels were diverse one from another, you know, I mean he's just talking
about just how lavish and luxurious all these different things that they have are.
And royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king.
And when it says according to the state of the king, it's meaning, you know, according
to how well the king's doing and how well the kingdom is doing financially.
I mean they have a lot of wealth.
And it says, and the drinking was according to the law, none did compel, for so the king
had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's
pleasure, meaning that no one's forced to drink here.
Drinking was only on a voluntary basis.
So we have all that description in verses 1 through 8.
But then we get into kind of the meat of the story here of chapter 1, which is the story
about Vashti the queen disobeying King Ahasuerus.
Now this is a story that has often been interpreted in different ways, and there's a lot of disagreement
about the meaning of this story, and I've heard different sermons on this chapter that
were conflicting and contradictory.
And I think that this chapter provides a great example to show us some principles that we
should use whenever we study the Bible.
Now one of the most important principles to understand when you're studying the Bible
is that not everything that happens in the Bible is right.
Now everything that God says is right.
Now every word of the Bible is true in the sense that these things really happened exactly
the way they are written here.
And every word of the Bible is true in the sense of yes, that's what that guy really
said.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that what that guy said was true.
Now whenever the narrator of the Bible, we know that everything that the narrator is
saying is truth.
Characters in the Bible might tell lies.
People do things in the Bible that are wrong.
They commit murder, they steal, they lie, they cheat.
So when we look at a Bible story, we have to use the statements of the Bible, the statements
of the narrator of the Bible, the Holy Spirit statement, to interpret the story.
We take clear statements from the Bible and we use them to interpret stories.
Because often God doesn't tell us what he thinks about the story.
We have to use other statements from the Bible to interpret the story.
For example, when we read the story about David committing adultery with Bathsheba and
killing Uriah the Hittite, you know at the very end of the chapter the last verse says,
you know, but the thing that David did displeased the Lord.
Now we didn't really need God to tell us that, did we?
I mean I'm not saying God was wrong to say that, he had a reason for saying that, but
honestly we already knew it was wrong what David did because we know adultery is wrong,
we know murder is wrong.
But in that case he actually tells us, hey, what David did here is wrong.
Other places he doesn't do that.
He doesn't tell us that what they did was right or wrong.
We just have to use principles from other parts of the Bible to interpret it.
Now this story is the same way.
God is not mentioned in this story.
In fact, did you know this?
God is never mentioned in the entire book of Esther.
Esther is one of the, you know, Song of Solomon would be the other one, where God isn't mentioned.
I mean all 10 chapters of Esther, there's no mention of the Lord or God or nothing like
that.
But you can still learn many spiritual truths from the book of Esther by using other scriptures
from throughout the Bible to interpret and understand the story.
But people make a mistake when they think everything that people did in the Bible was
just automatically right.
For example, I was out soul winning like a week ago and was speaking to, or you were
with me, right Corbin?
And we talked to the Mormon bishop of that Mormon church or whatever, he was the pastor
of the church, and we went in and sat down and talked to him and his whole family and
the subject of polygamy came up, you know, when you're talking to the Mormons, right?
So we're talking to him about, we say something about polygamy and he says, well you know,
but these men in the Bible practice polygamy.
And that's their justification for polygamy.
Somebody in the Bible did it.
Okay, well people in the Bible committed murder and they stole and they lied and they cheated.
That doesn't make it right.
The Bible says clearly that the king of Israel, thou shalt not multiply wives, and yet the
kings had multiple wives, and then the Mormons will point to that king, because he brought,
here's the people he brought up, he said, well King David.
Well the Bible said the king's not supposed to multiply wives.
And David not only had multiple wives, he also had concubines that he was not even married
to.
Are you going to justify that next?
Now that shows right there that, you know, a misinterpretation, but not only that, here's
what they said, well Abraham practiced polygamy.
Now I said to this guy, and this guy is the pastor of the Mormon church, I said Abraham
practiced polygamy, where is that in the Bible?
Who was Abraham's second wife?
And then the guy's like, oh well, I guess he didn't really practice polygamy, he just
had that handmade.
But that's the same thing.
I'm like, well, so that was right?
So Abraham, having a relationship with Hagar, the handmade, because he doubted the promise
of God that he would have the seed through Sarah that Isaac would be born, and that's
supposedly an example for us to follow?
Abraham sinned with Hagar?
But it's just funny because I've had multiple Mormons tell me that Abraham practiced polygamy.
But Abraham did not have a second wife, period.
He had one wife, Sarah, and then he had this concubine, this maid, Hagar.
So when we look at this story, there's another principle that we should apply when we're
studying the Bible.
Number one, we should realize that stories need to be interpreted by clear statements.
But number two, the other thing we need to understand going into this is that we should
never add to the story.
Don't add to the story, don't add to the Bible.
The Bible says, add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar.
And I'll tell you why there's controversy about this story is because people are adding
to the story things that aren't there.
And you'll find a lot of false doctrine coming in when people add to the story and they add
things that aren't there.
Here's a classic example, Nimrod in the Bible.
Now who remembers reading about Nimrod in the Bible?
Now how much does the Bible say about Nimrod?
I mean what do we know about Nimrod from the Bible?
He was what?
What did you say, Brother Dave?
He was a great archer, okay?
He was a mighty hunter.
He began to be a mighty one in the earth, okay?
But yet people will go on and on and on and on and have whole websites and whole books
that they write about Nimrod.
Even though he's only mentioned two or three times and it just gives a few minor snippets
about the fact that he was a mighty man in the earth during that time.
So we've got to be careful of extra biblical doctrine.
Let's get our doctrine from the Bible.
Let's base what we believe on the Bible, not stuff that's being added to the story.
People say, oh, King Herod was pagan.
Not in the Bible.
Not biblical.
Oh, Nimrod this, Nimrod that.
Not in the Bible.
Okay, and here's what people will add to the story.
Because if we look at the story as it's written, it's pretty cut and dry what happens here.
King Ahasuerus, he puts on a great feast and at the end of that feast it says in verse
number 10, on the seventh day, this is the final day of the feast, when the heart of
the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mahuman, Bizthah, Harbonah, Bigthah, Abagthah,
Zethar, and Carcass, you know, if you're thinking about baby names, it's a good book to go to.
There's a lot of great names here, you know.
Carcass, for example.
The seven chamberlains that serve in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti,
the queen before the king, with the crown royal to show the people and the princess
her beauty, for she was fair to look on.
So he wants his wife to come present herself with the royal crown all decked out so that
they can behold her beauty, but the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment
by his chamberlains, therefore was the king very wroth and his anger burned in him.
So it's pretty clear what's happening here.
The king is commanding his wife to do something and she's refusing to do it.
Now, you can look at the story and say, well, you know, Ahasuerus is a bad guy.
And you might say, well, you know, his heart shouldn't have been merry with wine.
He shouldn't have been drinking.
Okay, fair enough.
Well, he's partying way too much.
He's partying for 187 days straight.
Okay, I agree, he's partying a lot.
Well, you know, King Ahasuerus is practicing polygamy.
Agreed.
Is that wrong?
Of course it's wrong.
The Bible says that a man should leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they
twain shall be one flesh.
No question about that.
So we're not saying that Ahasuerus is a great guy.
We're not saying that he's even a great leader or that he even has a great marriage or that
he's doing a lot of great things right, but it's real simple here.
He's telling his wife to do something and she's refusing to do it.
Now when that happens, he just doesn't know how to handle it.
He just doesn't know what to do.
I mean, he tells her what to do, she won't do it, and he just doesn't know what to do.
He's just at a loss.
So he's got to ask like seven people what to do.
So he asks all these princes, what do I do?
Here I am commanding her, because he's used to commanding people and they do what he says
or else they die.
But you know, this is his wife.
So basically he commands her and this hasn't really happened before, he just doesn't really
know how to handle it.
So he asks his counselors and they give their opinion.
Now here's where the controversy comes in, because some people will say, oh Vashti did
the right thing here.
Now I don't see how you could make that case when the Bible teaches that wives are supposed
to obey their husbands.
She's refusing to obey.
How is that right?
He's not asking her to do anything wrong here, he's just asking her to show up.
Just be there.
He just wants people to meet his wife and see how beautiful she is and her crown.
Now where I've heard people add to the story, and I've heard this many times, is they said
well actually the reason why she didn't want to come is because she's being told to come
nude.
Now is that in the story?
I've heard multiple preachers teach that, and yet it's not in the story.
Because they said Vashti was right, because she was doing the right thing here, because
that's not right for her to appear nude.
Now look, just because it brings up the fact that she's supposed to wear the crown on her
head, that's not saying that that's all she's wearing, you know what I mean?
Obviously she's coming in the whole royal apparel.
But honestly, this is what I mean about adding to the story.
So if you take out that addition, then it's very cut and dry here.
She refuses to obey, and look at the response here when she refuses to obey.
Because he asked this question in verse 15, what shall we do unto the queen Vashti according
to law, because she had not performed the commandment of the king of Hasuiras by the
chamberlains?
He's saying, get a lawyer, what does the law say that we handle this?
And Mimeucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen had not done
wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes and to all the people that are in
all the provinces of the king of Hasuiras.
How many are there?
127.
And he says, for this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall
despise their husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported that the king of Hasuiras
commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.
Now the word despise, I used to read this and I used to always struggle to understand
this, because I would say, well why would they despise their husbands?
Because when we hear the word despise, we think of the word hate.
You know, if I said, oh I despise such and so, that would mean that I hate that.
But in reality, oftentimes in the Bible that's not the way that despise is used.
It's related to that, but usually in the Bible, when the Bible used the word despise, it means
that you do not have the proper respect for it.
It means you look down on it.
You look at it with disdain, like it's less than what it really is.
And so what it's saying here is that basically when the women of the kingdom hear about how
Vashti just refused to obey the king, it's going to set a poor example to the whole kingdom,
and every wife in the whole kingdom from India to Ethiopia is going to basically despise
their husband or not give him proper respect when they hear the story.
And it says in verse 18, likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto
all the king's princes which have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there arise
too much contempt and wrath.
Now what was King Ahasuerus' reaction when he heard that Vashti would not obey?
Look at the end of verse 12, what's it say?
Therefore was the king very what?
And wrath is the same as wrath.
Wrath is an adjective, wrath is a noun.
It says the king was very wroth and his anger burned in him.
So obviously that's going to make a husband mad, you know, to command his wife, and she
refuses to obey, he gets angry.
Well what Memucan is saying is that look, when this gets around, all the wives are going
to follow this poor example, they're going to despise their husbands in their eyes, they're
going to follow this example, and there's going to arise too much contempt and wrath.
So who's going to get mad?
These husbands are all going to be mad, because their wife is now being disrespectful of them.
And who are they going to be mad at?
King Ahasuerus.
Because they're going to say, yeah, thanks a lot buddy.
Because you failed to lead your home, because you failed, you know, to have your wife under
control and you allowed her to disrespect you, despise your commandment, disobey you,
now my wife's doing the same thing, and they're going to be angry at him and it's going to
hurt him, and it's going to hurt his kingdom, and maybe his little party's going to end.
Now if you would, go to 1 Timothy chapter number 6, and go to Titus chapter 2, both.
Go to 1 Timothy 6 and Titus chapter 2.
And I think one of the things that we can learn from this story is the importance of
leadership, and especially leading by example.
Leadership is critical, because look if you would, we're going to look at a few different
scriptures.
Go to 1 Timothy 3 actually, before we get to those passages.
In 1 Timothy chapter 3, when he gives the qualifications for a pastor who is a leader,
it says in verse 4, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection
with all gravity, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care
of the church of God?
So the Bible says that the pastor must rule well his own house, but then if you jump down
to verse 12, it says let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children
and their own houses well.
So we see here that the pastor needs to lead by example, and be a leader in his home, rule
his children and his own house well, so that he can set that example for the rest of the
flock.
Now why is this important?
Go to Titus chapter 2.
It says in Titus chapter 2 verse 5 to be, this is talking about instructions unto the
young women, it says in verse 5 to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, and watch this,
obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
So that right there says that if wives are not taught to be obedient to their own husbands,
that's going to cause the word of God to be blasphemed if they are not obedient to
their husbands.
Isn't that what the Bible is saying?
Look at that and tell me if that's what it's saying.
Isn't that saying that if wives are not obedient to their husbands, the word of God will be
blasphemed as a result, but that if wives are obedient to their husbands, then the word
of God will not be blasphemed.
Flip over a couple pages to the left of 1 Timothy 6, and the Bible talks about servants,
and it says in 1 Timothy 6.1, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed.
So here we have the example that if servants are being disobedient under their masters,
that's going to cause the word of God to be blasphemed.
Because they're going to look at a servant, and this is like an employee, and see him
being disobedient and disrespectful to the boss at work, and say yeah he's a Christian.
Look how a Christian is on the job, he's disrespectful, he's disobedient, and they're
going to look at that and say that the Bible and Christianity is not worth anything.
Now we know that the Bible and Christianity has more value than just our works.
We know that the power of God is the power to save your soul through the blood of Jesus
Christ.
We know that God has the keys of hell and of debt.
We know that there's more beyond this life, that there's heaven and hell.
But see, to the world around us, they don't necessarily understand spiritual things.
They can't see our faith, and their attitude is show me your faith by your works.
That's their attitude.
And that's why the Bible says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Now wouldn't glorifying God be the opposite of blaspheming God?
He says look, if they look at you and they see good works, they're going to glorify God
and say you know what, I respect that guy's belief.
I respect his religion, I respect the Holy Bible, because look at the good works.
But when they see a servant who's disobedient to his master, they're going to blaspheme
God.
So basically what that shows us is that our works can either cause God to be glorified
if they're good works, or if our works are evil, we can actually bring disrepute on the
name of God.
We can bring blasphemy on the name of God when people look at our actions.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, I don't see why anyone, if they saw a wife that doesn't
obey her husband, would blaspheme God as a result.
Why would they do that?
Pastor Anderson, our whole society doesn't even believe in that.
But here's what you have to understand, that is a new development in the world that we
live in.
Because even the heathen in the days of Ahasuerus, and if you would go back to Esther, and even
throughout history, even non-Christians have believed that wives were supposed to obey
their husbands, even non-Christians.
That is just a part of common sense and just natural law or whatever you want to call it.
The Bible talks about how even the Gentiles had the laws of God written on their hearts.
And cultures throughout history have understood, for the most part, that the husband is the
head of the household.
Now if you look at Esther 1 here, after they explain how this bad example is going to spread
throughout the kingdom, it says in verse 19,
If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written
among the laws of the Persians and the Medes that it be not altered, that Vashti come no
more before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is
better than she.
And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his
empire, for it is great, meaning the empire is great, all the wives shall give to their
husbands honor both to great and small, when they see the example and when they get this
commandment.
And it says in verse 22, for he sent letters into all the king's provinces.
So that means he sent letters to 127 provinces.
He had this decree translated into every language of the realm.
He sent it out according to the writing thereof and to every people after their language that
every man should bear rule in his own house and that it should be published according
to the language of every people.
He says look, this is something that needs to go throughout the whole kingdom, all 127
provinces, everyone needs to hear this, that every man needs to bear rule in his own home.
Everybody needs to hear this.
Now, was Ahasuerus Christian?
Is he worshipping the Lord?
Is he following the Mosaic law?
Is he worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
No.
Is Mimucan?
No, these are just regular guys, these are not saved.
Now when we see this decree, can we just automatically take this decree and say this is truth because
Mimucan said it?
I mean Mimucan said it, I believe it, that settles it for me.
Or should we say well King Ahasuerus said it, that's it.
No.
Let me ask you this, does this decree jive with what the Bible teaches?
So therefore we use the clear statement of the Bible to interpret the story.
We're not just believing it because Mimucan said it, we're not just believing it because
Ahasuerus said it, we're looking at it and saying is it right?
And we know that in Genesis 3.16 it says that the husband shall rule over the wife.
And we know that in 1 Timothy 3 it says that the deacons should rule their children and
their own houses well.
And we see that wives are commanded to obey their husbands and the husband's the head
of the wife, on and on.
We're not going to turn to all the scriptures for the sake of time but we know that they're
there.
So when we look at Esther here and interpret this we can see that this decree is a righteous
decree and it's a righteous decree that's going out to every kingdom and that basically
the world at that time, the whole entire civilized world, had a custom that said wives obey
their husbands.
That's what we see here.
So can you see how if Christianity comes along and undermines that, let's say Christianity
comes along and says wives don't have to obey their husbands.
Can you see why people would start blaspheming Christianity?
You know why?
Because having a marriage where the wife doesn't obey the husband is stupid.
It doesn't work.
It's not a happy marriage.
That's why 75% of marriages are ending in divorce.
Because this worldly, humanistic, American philosophy of marriage that says there is
no boss, there is no leader, it is 50-50, is a failing and failed and unhappy and miserable
system.
Because that system is so foolish and failing and so fraught with problems, any society
that had it right is going to blaspheme God when you bring in the stupidity of saying
that wives don't have to obey their husbands.
So that's why he's saying look, that's going to cause the word of God to be blasphemed.
That's going to cause the doctrines of God and the name of God to be blasphemed if that's
what you're teaching.
And that's what we have today, churches that don't teach this stuff.
That's why they have to find some weird interpretation of this and add to the story because they
just don't like what the story is teaching because this is not the story in their home.
They're not ruling in the home.
Because you have to wonder why is this stuff not being preached?
Why is the biblical standard of marriage not being preached?
And the reason why is because that's not what's going on in the home of the pastor.
And this kind of decree doesn't go forth from a guy who's not wearing the pants in his own
family.
Now when you're wearing the pants in the family, you can put out this kind of decree.
And I'm going to put it out from the pulpit right now.
And hopefully this will go out on the internet to like 127 provinces.
But what I'm saying is that when you're not living the life, and you know I've said before,
I've often said if you want to know what sins I struggle with, it's whatever I preach on
the least.
You know what I mean?
Because the stuff I preach on the most is the stuff that I am doing the best at.
You know, because it's harder to preach stuff that's a struggle for you.
Because you know, you don't want to be a hypocrite, right?
You know, it's funny because I was joking around with Brother Jimenez like, yeah I need
you to come in and preach some stuff that I'm not very good at, you know, because you're
better at that.
I don't want to be a hypocrite.
You know, just joke around like that.
But the thing is, this kind of a commandment comes out of the mouth of somebody who's living
it, okay?
Now with that being said, we do need to address the wrong things about Ahasuerus and the things
that he's doing wrong here.
Now common sense and just a basic understanding of the Bible, and even what the heathen believed
until recently, would tell us that, you know what, the king is right to demand obedience
of his wife.
The wife is wrong to refuse to obey her husband.
The decree that was sent out was a great decree.
Would to God that Obama would put out a decree like that, you know, don't hold your breath,
you know?
But see, here's where Ahasuerus did wrong.
Obviously, Mimucan tells him, at the end of verse 19, that Vashti come no more before
king Ahasuerus and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
Now is that how we're supposed to handle marriage problems, men?
Oh, my wife won't obey me?
Well I'm just going to find somebody that's better than her.
That's not going to work.
But you see, that's what he did.
That isn't right.
We're not defending that.
That was wrong, okay?
Obviously polygamy is sinful, and obviously what he's doing is just saying, well I'm just
going to have other wives and she's just not going to come in unto me.
It's not that he divorced her or anything like that.
She just lives in a distant part of the palace and he never invites her over.
I mean, it's that simple.
That's the way it was.
And he gives her royal estate, the position of being queen, unto someone else who's better
than her.
And eventually that is Queen Esther, okay?
That's what the book is about.
And we'll get into the rest of that as we move forward through the book.
But let's look at the problems here with Ahasuerus.
Let's back up and figure out, okay, what was the problem here with Ahasuerus?
Well the first thing I notice about this story is that this guy is partying for just days
and weeks and months on end and his wife isn't there.
So what we see, the first failure of Ahasuerus is that he has no relationship with his wife.
I mean he's sending some messenger.
She hadn't seen her in months.
You know, and later with Esther, he doesn't see her for months.
He goes months on end without even talking to her.
Now that isn't right.
So we see that the failure here begins with the fact that he does not have a proper relationship
with his wife.
He's not spending any time with his wife.
His wife is in some distant place having her own little separate thing going on, her separate
little shindig, and then he's sending these messengers to go call her over.
She's saying no.
Now look, if they had any kind of relationship at all, and he says, honey, I just want you
to come in your royal apparel and your crown just so I can show them how beautiful and
how magnificent of a wife you are.
I mean, wives, wouldn't you hate it if your husband said that to you?
Honey, I want you to put on your best clothes and I want you to meet my friends because
I'm just so proud of you.
I just want them to see.
You know, I don't think that you'd be mad or offended by that.
But the reason that she was mad or offended is because he has no relationship with his
wife here.
You know what I mean?
And he's just asking her to do this.
Then the other thing is, he's not handling conflict properly.
There's a conflict here.
He's saying do this and she's refusing to do that.
Now, the question is, what do we do as husbands, what are we supposed to do as husbands if
we tell our wife to do X and she just refuses to do it?
She says, no, I'm not going to.
Do we go get a new one?
And you know what, there are even fundamental Baptists who believe that.
You get a new one.
I talked to a friend of mine, he was going to a church and the pastor and his wife got
divorced while he was going to the church and they got divorced and she's just living
a life of sin and she won't do right so he had to divorce her or whatever.
Wrong.
That is bad.
And if that did happen, he needs to step down as pastor.
Because the Bible says if a man knew not how to rule his own house, how should he take
care of the church of God?
So if you have a husband and wife, the pastor of the church and his wife getting divorced,
it's time for him to step down and say, you know what, I'm failing to lead my home, I'm
failing in the home, I can't lead the church anymore.
I'm no longer qualified.
My family is out of control.
I can't lead here.
But of course he just continued being the pastor.
I mean, everybody's hero, Peter S. Ruckman, this famous Baptist preacher, and he's on
his third wife and that is not biblical.
If you're on your third wife or third husband, I'm not mad at you.
That's in the past.
It's forgiven and forgotten.
But you know what?
You're not going to pastor a church like that because the Bible says the pastor must be
the husband of one wife.
And so if you're the husband of one wife, you don't just sit there and trade up for
a different wife whenever there's a problem.
And in 2013, this is going to happen a little more often probably than it happened back
in the days of Memucan.
I mean, these guys are like, whoa, what do we do?
Because back then, most wives submitted under their husbands, that was the culture.
Whereas in today's culture, it's the opposite.
In today's culture, a submissive wife is rare.
Because our culture teaches the opposite.
So this situation is going to come up much more often in the United States of America
in 2013 where we see a wife refusing to obey her husband, not obeying her husband.
Now you say, well how do you handle it?
There are different schools of thought.
One might say, get a new wife.
She won't obey, get one who wants to serve God, brother.
That's horrible.
The Bible says the Lord hates putting away.
The Bible says whosoever put away his wife and marry another committed adultery, okay?
And so no, that is not the way to end.
And then other people might just say, well, just basically allow your wife to disrespect
you.
Kind of like if Ahasuerus here would have just said, oh I guess she's not coming, guys.
Well what would have happened in that case?
Well then it's going to go around to the whole kingdom, right?
It's going to go around to the entire kingdom and then everybody's going to despise their
husband in their eyes.
There's going to be a bunch of contempt and wrath.
So look, as pastor of the church, let's say that's the course that I ended up in.
My wife is a wonderful wife and obedient and submissive and we have a wonderful relationship.
But let's say that that were not the case.
Let's say that there was a similar situation between me and my wife as is in this story,
right?
And let's say I took that route and just said, well, you know, let's say for example my wife
just refuses to come to church.
She's not coming to church.
And I just said, well, you know, she won't come to church.
Pray for me.
You know, I don't know, you know, whatever.
And or what if she just started drinking and my wife just started drinking and she just
likes to drink and she said, look, I don't think there's anything wrong with me going
out just once a week and just having a few drinks at a bar, just a few drinks, not a
big deal with my girlfriends and we hang out and just drink margaritas.
And I've known pastor's wives that did so, you know, of these community churches and
stuff.
But here's the thing.
If I took that route that just said, you know what, sorry, I don't know, I told her what
to do and she won't do it, well, you know, it's between her and God.
Well then, you know what's going to happen?
It's going to set a poor example unto all the wives, right?
If I just let my wife do whatever, let her disobey, let her not do what's right, let
her disobey me, disrespect me, and just disdain me, then basically I'm setting a bad example
unto all the men because then they're all going to be, oh, okay, I guess that's what
we're supposed to do.
And then all the wives are going to follow her example and say, well, we can do what
we want.
You know, we don't have to obey our husbands or whatever.
So that's not going to work, okay?
Or we could just say, oh, get another one.
That's not going to work.
So what do we do?
What do I do if my wife just refuses to obey me?
And I've often said this, you know, because people have said, like, I can't get my wife
to go to church, you know, and I'll be clear with you.
If my wife refused to come to church, let me tell you exactly how I would handle it.
I would pick her up and bring her to church.
And yes, I am strong enough to do that.
And if you're not strong enough to do that, it's time to hit the gym.
Who here would pick up their wife and take her to church if she refused to come to church?
Alright, amen.
Alright, so here's what I'm saying.
Because you can't just sit there, you can't just sit there as a husband and just basically
just allow your wife to just rebel and refuse to obey and just, you know.
Now here's the thing.
I'm not saying that it should ever come to that.
That's just a hypothetical.
I've still to this day never picked my wife up and carried her to church.
Now I've picked her up and carried her other places, but I've never picked up my wife and
carried her to church.
But I will pick up my wife and carry her to church if she refused.
And I've seen people whose wife wouldn't go to church, I've seen pastors whose wife
quit going to church, and they just don't know what to do, and they're calling Pastor
Mmucan and they're calling Marcina and they're calling Pastor Shethar and Pastor Tarshish
and carcass and Bigtha, and they, you know, oh I don't know what to do.
Well God gave you two arms for a reason.
You know, and you pick her up and take her to church.
You know, because you need to be the boss, you need to be in charge.
Now you say, oh that's abusive.
It's abusive to pick somebody up and carry them?
But listen to this, and what's even worse is when people say that their children won't
come to church.
Oh, my aching back.
I mean, that's just ridiculous if you can't even get your children to obey.
But here's the thing.
If we understand here that, you know, it's not like, well Pastor Anderson's wife only
comes to church because he forces her to come to church.
Because there are a lot of different ways to lead.
And this goes back to what a big failing was with Ahasuerus is, number one, he's not setting
a good example.
God did not command us to live this kind of life.
Partying for six months, laying around on a bed drinking out of a gold cup.
That's not what God told us to do with our lives.
So number one, he's setting a bad example.
Number two, he's not saved.
Number three, he has no relationship with his wife.
Number four, he doesn't even take an interest in his wife.
I mean, he's not even calling her in until the last day of this gigantic long feast.
And even then, it's just to show off her beauty.
It's not to spend time with her to have a relationship with her.
Then when he's married to Queen Esther a few chapters later, months are going by where
he doesn't even talk to her.
And Esther's saying, well this whole month I haven't even seen him.
So we see here that there's more to it that leads, you know, when you're up to this point
where this rebellion is there, there's other things that also got you to that point.
You know, and one of the most powerful ways that we can lead as a husband or in any area
of life, as a father, as a pastor, is by example.
Now for example, I preach on soul winning, right?
Now there are a lot of other pastors who preach on soul winning, and in some churches
they say, I just can't get people to go out soul winning.
I just can't get them to go out, I don't know what it is, my people won't go out.
Now in our church we don't have that problem.
In our church we have a multitude of people soul winning all the time.
But here's what you have to understand, it was not always that way.
See in the early days of our church it wasn't that way.
And even midway into starting the church it wasn't necessarily that way.
But what happens is, if the pastor keeps going soul winning, keeps going soul winning, keeps
going soul winning, and setting that example, eventually people get on board with that example.
You know, when you set the example of going soul winning as a pastor, and you're constantly
maybe telling soul winning stories from the pulpit, talking about soul winning, inviting
people about soul winning, you know, that's going to catch on to other people.
And then also, other people in the church will get excited when they see even not just
the pastor's soul winning, but they see other church members' soul winning.
And they see the zeal and the excitement and the success, and they want to get in on it.
So leadership is, to a great extent, by example.
You know, if you are an ungodly man, if you are a slob, if you are lazy, if you are lacking
in Christian character, and then your wife doesn't obey you, it should not come as a
surprise.
Now I'm not giving a wife an excuse, because wives are supposed to obey even the has you
heresies of this world.
Even if he is a little bit merry with wine.
You know, even if he is an ungodly person.
Wives are supposed to even obey the unbelieving husbands the Bible teaches us.
Even an unsaved husband they're supposed to obey.
But speaking to the men, you know, it shouldn't come as a shock to you when your wife will
not follow you, when your wife will not obey you, when you're not going anywhere worth
going.
You know, and if you as a man will work on being respectable, you'll get more respect.
The more respectable you live.
You know, and when you're a hard worker, your wife will be a hard worker.
Because wives follow their husband's example in many cases.
The husband will rub off on the wife.
And when you see a husband who's lazy, who's a slob who just wants to come home and sit
on the couch and watch TV and drink a beer, and then he wonders why the house isn't clean,
or he wonders why the work isn't getting done around the house or that the children aren't
being taught or cared for, it's because she's following your example.
You're a lazy slob.
She's a lazy slob.
You know, you've got to do, and as a husband, sometimes you even have to set the bar even
higher for yourself than what you set for your wife.
You know, you can't just expect everything out of your wife and then you're not living
up to that standard.
You know, the Bible talks about when wives don't understand something in the Bible, that
they should ask their husbands at home.
That tells me that husbands are expected to know more about the Bible.
Now that's not an excuse for wives not to read and study the Bible.
Because wives ought to read and study the Bible too, but the husband should strive to
read it even more.
However much your wife reads it, read it more.
Pass her up in Bible knowledge.
See it more.
Do more.
Be an example.
Be a strong leader.
Have a relationship with your wife.
The Bible tells us that we should love our wives, cheer up our wives, seek to please
our wives.
You know, and obviously if we're doing those things and we're setting a godly, righteous
example, and we're being the godly Christian that we should be, and we're following the
authority in our life, namely the Lord Jesus Christ, namely our boss at work, other legitimate
authorities in our life, when our wife sees that example that's going to rub off on her.
And when we live a godly Christian life, when we respect the Bible, she'll respect the Bible.
We read the Bible and pray, she'll read the Bible and pray.
You know, we have an influence over our wife with our actions, okay?
So that's part of just avoiding this kind of a situation in the first place where there's
just open rebellion, where the wife is just refusing, and even publicly refusing, I mean
she, Vashti here, this isn't just in the bedchamber.
I mean she is publicly saying, no I don't care what you say, I'm going to disobey you.
I mean that's pretty bold, that's pretty brazen.
You don't get to that point overnight.
There's other things that led to that point.
But if you do ever get to that point as a man, I strongly and firmly believe that as
a husband, you must stand your ground and things must go your way.
That's what it means to be the ruler, that's what it means to be the leader.
You know, and you must not give in unto your wife and let her take over and be in charge.
You know, and if your wife gives you an ultimatum, you never take that ultimatum.
And if you do, your wife will despise you in her eyes.
If you want your wife to hate you, are you listening?
And have no respect for you, and disdain you, and think you're a loser and a weakling, then
just obey her and do what she says.
Because you know what, that's not what wives are looking for, they're looking for men.
They didn't marry a woman, they married a man.
And they're looking for him to act like a man and to be the boss.
Now look, I'm not saying to be rude, I'm not saying to be a jerk, I'm not saying to be
mean.
You can be firm and stand your ground and be nice about it, but you can be firm and
you can stand your ground.
And if my wife were going to try to go out to a bar or something, she wouldn't get out
the door.
It's that simple.
You know, because, you know, it's just not going to happen.
Now it shouldn't get to that point.
We should obviously lead by example.
You catch more flies with honey, as they say, you know?
And you know, be kind and loving and gentle and lead, you know, using all the principles
of leadership that the Bible teaches us.
And if you think about it, think about the pastor of the church.
As the pastor of the church, you don't really see me necessarily ruling with an iron fist,
do you?
When have I ever come to you and got in your face and said, you're going to do what I say?
Now there are probably a few people in here that I might have done that to, but very rarely.
It's very rare.
And I've done that a few times, but it's very rare.
Now obviously it's not going to be as rare in the home, because you're living together
every day.
Okay, so it's not going to be as rare.
But you know, when it comes to the church, which obviously there's a lot less interaction
between us, there's a lot less conflict.
How do I lead in the church?
Because there is a parallel between how the church is led and how the home is led.
Isn't that what God said?
When he said, if you know how to rule the home, you'll be able to rule the church, okay?
Part of how I rule in the church is by teaching the Word of God.
So I don't have to get up and tell people, hey, you need to do this, you need to do this,
because they already have learned it from the preaching.
They've already learned it from the Bible, and they're doing it before I even say it.
Because we're all believing the same things, we're all on the same page.
And so a lot of it's just done through teaching and preaching.
A lot of it's done by leading through example.
And a lot of it is just that I don't sit there and micromanage every single thing that happens
in this church, right?
I mean, do I just micromanage every soul-winning time, every nursing home ministry, everything
that is done?
No.
I give people some freedom, because I don't believe that the pastor should be lording
over God's heritage, but rather being an example to the flock.
Now the husband is the Lord over his wife.
That is a difference in authority there, but there are still a lot of parallels.
You know, the pastor of the church doesn't necessarily always have to tell everybody
every little thing, because guess what, I don't really care about every little thing.
The things that I care about are the important things.
Now if somebody's using a version other than the King James Bible, that's a big deal, there's
going to be a problem.
Somebody's out soul-winning teaching another way of salvation, that's going to be a big
problem.
You know, somebody starts bringing in, you know, worldly Christian rock music and does
it as a special music, we're going to have a problem.
You know, big things, we're going to have a problem with.
But here's the thing.
Let's say, for example, someone is going soul-winning with a style that I don't agree with.
Now I've gone soul-winning with a lot of people in this church and I try to go with
as many people as I can as a silent partner, because I like to know what's going on and
I like to see how people do things.
I learn things too.
And I just like to see how people do soul-winning.
You know, it helps me to know whether the soul-winning is right in our church.
Now I see a lot of times soul-winning that isn't necessarily the way I would do it.
Maybe I don't necessarily think it's the best way to do it.
But here's the thing.
I'm not going to sit there and tell everybody, go soul-winning exactly like I go soul-winning.
Because honestly there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Everybody doesn't have to go soul-winning the identical way.
You know, you better watch that soul-winning demo and it better look like that and that
better be the scriptures you turn to.
No, no, there's a whole different, and if you go soul-winning with different people
in our church, everybody does it different.
And I think that's great because God can use different personalities to reach different
types of people.
But if I see somebody who's preaching false doctrine, that's where I'm going to confront
that person and say, hey, you know, you can't do it that way.
Now other times I've mentioned to people, hey, I think it would be better if you would
change this and that about your soul-winning.
And then sometimes they just didn't change it.
They just kept doing it the wrong way.
In my opinion the wrong way, you know, in a certain area, and I just let them do it
because I don't really care.
It's no skin off my back.
As long as they're preaching the true gospel, I'd rather somebody preaches the true gospel
like a spaz, you know, in an order that is hard for people to understand and mixing things
up.
As long as they're preaching the truth, go for it.
You're not doing any harm.
You're not hurting anybody.
So I'm not going to sit there and micromanage it.
But if somebody's out preaching lies like you can lose your salvation, you have to work
your way to heaven, then now that is something where we'll say, you must change.
Or we will take it before the whole church and throw you out because we must be in one
accord on our main doctrines.
So what we have to understand is that there are principles of leadership that we can glean
from the rest of the Bible about not necessarily micromanaging, not being a bad example, how
we're supposed to not just rule over our wife, but also cheer up our wife, love our wife,
seek to please our wife.
Those are all biblical teachings.
Then we could avoid ever getting to this point.
This point should never come, or it should come rarely, but it probably will come at
some point because you're living in the United States in 2013.
So when this point comes, don't handle it like it has you hear us and just, oh you know,
we're not compatible or whatever.
Get another queen.
Don't handle it like 99% of independent fundamental Baptist pastors by letting their wife walk
all over them and henpeck them either because now you're setting a bad example to the flock.
You must find a way, and it's not going to be easy, but you must find a way to strongly
and firmly lead and always stay in control of your home.
It's like the picture, I saw somebody have a picture one time, and it was like some nerdy
dweeby looking guy, and he had a book that was like this thick, and it said how to understand
women volume one or something, and he's looking at it, trying to figure it out.
This is volume one of how to understand women, it's like five million pages.
So I'm not saying it's going to be easy, and you know, being a husband's not easy.
Being a pastor's not easy.
I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but that's the challenge of marriage.
That's the challenge of being married, is being a leader.
It's easier to be a follower than a leader, and being a leader has challenges, but we
need to come to church, first of all, and learn as much as we can about leadership through
the preaching of God's word, and we need to read the Bible and study it and learn as much
as we can about leadership.
Proverbs is a great book on leadership, and we need to implement as much wisdom in the
area of leadership that we can to make sure that we can have a wife and children that
are in subjection, as the Bible clearly teaches in both Old and New Testament.
And so that's what we take from this chapter.
We need strong men to lead, not to sit on the bed and drink all day, like this guy's
doing, but to be a good Christian, set a good example, you know, all the things that
you expect your wife to do, you need to be doing first, and better, and more so.
You think, well my wife's not getting her work done, she's not getting her daily tasks
done.
Okay, well how hard of a worker are you?
Look in the mirror.
Oh, my wife, she fools around on the computer all day instead of doing what she's supposed
to be.
Okay, how much time are you spending fooling around on the computer?
Well my wife is just, you know, she never wants to hang out with me and do the stuff
I want to do.
Well it's like, how much have you taken an interest in her?
So we need to try to lead by example.
Now look, you might lead by example, you say, well I'm doing everything I'm supposed to
be doing.
You know what though?
There could come times though where there is conflict, and you have to be ready for
that.
And you need to handle it better than the way he handled it here, and you shouldn't
have to ask seven different people.
Go straight to Pastor Mamukan right here and I'll tell you how to handle it.
Just skip Shethar, you don't need, you know.
But anyway, this is a really interesting book and I'm looking forward to preaching the other
nine chapters because it's a fascinating book.
There's so much here and just real quick before I end, this is something I'm going to develop
a little bit more in future sermons, but there's a lot of symbolism here.
The symbolism, because what I just finished preaching about is all the primary application.
And that's always what we should focus on, the primary surface application.
But there's another symbolic application here where basically, Vashti symbolizes Israel,
and Hasrias symbolizes the Lord.
And basically, Israel, the Jews, they rejected the Lord.
They rejected his commandment.
This is like where Jesus gives the parable about the Lord who makes a great supper, and
he invites them to his supper and they refuse to come.
And he's what?
Angry.
And he sends and burns down their city and so forth.
And that parable was about the fact that Jesus Christ came unto his own, the Jews,
and his own received him not.
They were invited to the kingdom of God, they were invited to the feast, and they refused
to come.
So Vashti in that sense pictures Israel, and then Esther basically would picture where
in the New Testament he said the kingdom of God shall be taken from you to Israel and
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
And that nation in the New Testament is all believers of all nationalities, that have
all come together to be one holy nation of the born again believers of the New Testament.
So we as New Testament believers are pictured by Esther.
And Vashti pictures the Jews, who basically disobeyed, rejected the Lord, rejected his
invitation to come, and their royal estate was given unto another.
And the royal estate there would be the fact that in the Old Testament the Jews were God's
chosen people.
Now in the New Testament we are the elect.
We are the chosen people.
We represent Esther.
So the book of Esther represents us as New Testament believers.
I don't say Gentile believers because the New Testament believer could be Jew or Gentile,
and it is no difference.
So there's a lot of deeper things.
I don't want to talk about that this week, I'm going to talk about that more in subsequent
weeks with some of the other imagery, but that's just an underlying theme to think about
when you're looking at the book of Esther.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this book, and we thank you so much that you've taught
us right precepts of servants obeying their masters, of wives obeying their husbands.
You've given us these wise and godly precepts, not because we're anti-woman or we think that
men are better than women, but we just know that this is the natural order of things.
We know that this is how nature has been set up.
And so Lord, help us not to join in with our wicked heathen culture in America that is
against nature, that is a feminist movement and that is not a biblical view of men and
women.
Help us to get biblical principles of leadership, help us to be a better leader than Ahasuerus
was, and help us to understand the book of Esther as we go through the next few weeks.