(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here starting the book of Esther. We're going to talk about the truth about the Persian Empire tonight. And the reason for this title is because everything you've heard about the Persian Empire in history is pretty much wrong. And the Bible is going to disprove that. I'm going to show that to you from the Word of God. And what I want you to understand is that the information we know about the Persian Empire has basically come from the Grecian Empire, from the Greeks that have basically lied about the Persians. And we're going to see that in the Word of God. And so today's sermon is going to be a bit of an introduction on the book of Esther. And then we're going to go verse by verse through Esther chapter 1. And I want you to turn to Daniel chapter 2 to start out. Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2. Now right off the bat, I'm sure somebody's going to say I'm stupid because they're going to say it's the Medo-Persian Empire. I'm aware of that, but we know it as the Persian Empire. And anyways, the Medo-Persian Empire begins its name because it was a dual monarch. There was basically two that were co-rulers even though the Persians were more powerful. Now in Daniel chapter 2, when Nebuchadnezzar is the king, it is prophesied about another kingdom coming. And it prophesies about the Persian Empire, and then the Grecian Empire, and then the Roman Empire. And it says in Daniel chapter 2 verse 32, This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of grass. And so basically there's this image that Nebuchadnezzar sees, and Daniel's going to expound upon it. And it starts off with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian, or Chaldean Empire, because that was the most powerful empire. It was the one that was ruling, but if you remember in the life of Daniel, at the end of the life of Daniel, Babylon was not the ones in power anymore. Chaldean Empire was no longer in power. Go to verse number 38, verse 38. And the Bible reads in verse 38, And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath been given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all, thou art this head of gold. So basically the Chaldean Empire was the head of gold, the most powerful empire, but then it says after that, And after thee shall rise another kingdom inferior to thee. This is referring to the Medo-Persian Empire, because they are the ones that took over for the Chaldean Empire. And so we turn to Daniel chapter 11, Daniel 11. And so the Medo-Persian Empire is what's called a dual monarch, because you have both the Persians and you have the Medians. So both these are co-empires. And in Daniel chapter 11, Daniel chapter 11 in verse number 1, the Bible reads, Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. So in Daniel 11 verse 1 it says Darius the Mede. It does not say Darius the Persian. You say why is that important? Because there is an extremely famous Darius in history, and the Darius you might have heard of in your history books is a Persian, not a Mede. This is not the same person. And the reason why it's important is because you'll see a lot of Bible contradictions that are going to come up in the book of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, And yet the Bible is very clear this is Darius the Mede. It is not Darius the Persian. In fact, in the Apocrypha, if you remember that sermon, you know the Apocrypha gets it confused as well. They consider Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, King Cyrus the same person. Because at this time, King Cyrus is the king of Persia. You say why is it that Darius the Mede is the one who's reigning in Babylon? Why doesn't King Cyrus come there? Because Persia had a very nice city called Persepolis. And King Cyrus, who was the most powerful man in the world, doesn't want to leave Persepolis to reign in Babylon. He decides to stay in Persepolis and Darius the Mede takes over in Babylon. But at this time period, King Cyrus, he's the king of Persia, and then you have Darius the Mede taking over in Babylon. Turn to Daniel 7. And I'm quickly going through stuff because honestly this could be a really long sermon if I didn't. Maybe if I preach to the book of Daniel sometime I'll go through all this stuff and explain in great detail. But it's very important that you realize that Daniel 11 says Darius the Mede. Because in another part of the Bible it talks about a Darius who's not Darius the Mede. He's a Persian who comes after King Cyrus, but before Hasor, which we kind of know as Xerxes in history. But in Daniel 7 verse 5, I want you to see one other thing and then we'll jump to the book of Esther in a minute. It says in Daniel 7 verse 3, Daniel 7 verse 3. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld to the wings their humble pluck, and it was lifted up from the earth, and they'd stand upon the feet of a man, and a man's heart was given to them. And so this is the Chaldean empire centered at Babylon. And next it's going to talk about the Persian, or Medo-Persian empire. Verse 5, And behold, another beast, a second, lied to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it, and they said thus unto it, Arise devour much flesh. Notice how it says it raised up itself on one side. Why does it use that terminology? Because with the Medo-Persian empire, one of the kingdoms was more powerful than the other. The Persians were more powerful. That is why we know it as the Persian empire, even though it was technically the Medo-Persian empire. It raised itself up on one side because the Persians were more powerful. That's why King Cyrus the Great is really known in history. Nobody knows Darius the Meat. You know Darius the Persian, you know it has wearis or Xerxes. People don't know Darius the Meat except through the Bible. Now we can turn to Esther chapter 1. And before we really get into the book of Esther, let me go through a few things. There's been basically six major empires, not counting in today's world, that have existed. The first major empire that existed was the Egyptian empire. And as we talked about in a couple sermons, the Assyrian empire ends up becoming the most powerful in the world. And as I mentioned, the Assyrian empire is the most wicked of these major empires in its existence. We prove that from the Bible. So we have the Egyptian empire, we have the Assyrian empire, then you have the Chaldean empire that we know as Babylon because it's chief city of Babylon, then you have the Medo-Persian empire, then you have the Grecian empire or Macedonian empire, you know Alexander the Great, then you have the Roman empire. Now in today's world the United States is kind of that end times Babylon, that really wicked empire that exists. But you know what you'll see a lot of secular historians say is that the Persian empire was the most wicked of them. This is ridiculous. Now first off you can disprove that because when you just read the Bible, does King Cyrus seem like this really evil person? No he doesn't. I mean does Darius seem like that wicked of a person? No. Does a has a whereas seem that wicked? No. I mean next week's sermon is going to be about a has a whereas. We're going to have a whole sermon about that. But when you read what the Bible says, the Persian empire does not seem like that wicked. You say why is it that people think of them as being so wicked? There is a guy by the name of Herodotus. Herodotus is a man who is known as the father of history. He was a Greek. He's known as the father of history because he was really the first person that really wrote down events that took place. Before that he didn't get that many records of things that took place. So events would happen in history, they'd pass away, and we really don't know what took place. And so it's a matter of debate about what did take place. Herodotus was really the first man who wrote stuff down. And another nickname he was given was called the father of lies because a long time later you can disprove a lot of what he said. But he was known as the father of history. In reality though, he wrote a Greek perspective of events. And we're going to see some of his quotes here in a second. But you can't necessarily trust what someone says, can you? If somebody tells you this is my perspective, it doesn't mean that's exactly what took place. And we can actually disprove a lot of what he said from Esther chapter 1 here today. But basically he said about the Persians that they were stupid, that they were very evil, just this wicked and stupid empire. If they were so stupid, how did they rule the world? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Now look, the Assyrian empire was wicked, they weren't stupid though. I mean they obviously took over the world, you're not stupid if you're taking over the world. And you say, well why is it that secular history, because what's taking place now though is, secular history is starting to reject what was said by Herodotus. You say, why? Because they're starting to find archaeological things from the ground, and they can tell that what he was saying was just totally not true. Because when they look at the history of these archaeological findings, it looks like they were actually a very benevolent and kind empire. And that actually is a bit of a problem. And so what he said for a long time is being disproved by what they're finding. But you have to understand, we didn't always dig up everything from the ground. And so something would be written and people just believed it. Now after they're actually digging over there, over in Iran, they're finding out, wait a minute, they're not what was said about them. Everything that was said was a lie about them. Now here are some quotes from Herodotus. He says the customs which, and here are quotes, and he's criticizing the Persians. He's talking about how wicked they are, and from a Bible perspective, let's see which side is wicked, the Persians or the Greeks. He said, the customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following. They have no images of the gods. Boy, that sounds terrible. They have no idolatry in their country. They have no images of the gods. It's like, wow, Persia sounds pretty wicked. That's what he said. They have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of following. Well, you know what, I think I agree with the Persians. I look at this ideology that exists in our country. I think it's a joke. You go down the street and you see this 50 foot tall statue of St. Peter and St. Paul. I mean, what a joke. And yeah, you know what, I think I would line up with the Persians. In fact, the Persian empire was known to be the first monotheistic religion. Now, whether or not you consider it the monotheistic, I really don't. Because they have this really weird kind of two god system, the good god and the bad god. That's kind of a matter of debate. But they were not believing in just this multiplicity of gods like the Romans and the Greeks and these other societies. So one thing that they were criticized for was not having images of the gods. No idolatry. Well, here's another statement that said, they are a bunch of drunkards who make decisions while drunk. If they make a decision sober, then they get drunk to make sure they still have the same conclusion. Now, I will disprove this from Esther chapter 1. This statement is a complete fraud and you can disprove it from Esther chapter 1. But look, if they were a bunch of drunkards, they would not be able to prove it. That alone is ridiculous, but I will disprove it from Esther chapter 1. But he basically says that they're just a bunch of drunks. Here's another statement and he's criticizing the Persian Empire in this statement. He looked at the Persian Empire as being like animals and he says that pedophilia was introduced to the Persian culture by the Greeks. He is bragging about the fact that there was no sodomy, there was no pedophilia, and we introduced it to their society. They were animals until we introduced pedophilia. I'm sorry, the Persian Empire doesn't sound that bad. Moses is bragging about introducing pedophilia and sodomy, homosexuality, into the Persian Empire. Well, you know, the Persian Empire doesn't sound that bad to me. And unfortunately, maybe he's telling the truth because the Persian Empire was once pretty good and eventually, obviously, they fell out of favor with God because they were taking over. But, you know, at one time they sounded like they were pretty good. Yes, we know that the Greeks, the Romans, a lot of those empires, they were famous for pedophilia and sodomy and homosexuality. And look, we look at the Greeks as being the good side in this. Why do you say that? Because everything that the Philippines believes pretty much comes from America. America passes everything over, all of the filth. And who do we praise in American society? Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, a bunch of pedophiles, a bunch of boys as their slaves. I'm sorry, but, you know, we have this westernized philosophy in the U.S. coming from the Greeks. Look, I'm sorry, but we get this stuff from the Greeks. They're the ones that were the evil ones, not the Persians. And so his statements, I mean, he looks at the Persians as being wicked, but, you know, it makes sense because the world out there would look at us as being the wicked people. We're the ones who preach against sodomy and they would say that we're the ones that look at the animals. Well, I mean, even the Romans won. And we're going to see who are the animals according to the Bible. Now, I want you to understand also that Christians have bought into this because a lot of Christians will say things like the Persian empire was the bad side and they'll praise the Greek society. And there's a guy by the name of Tex Mars and he wrote about the book of Esther and he preached about it. Now, I've heard a lot of things about what he preached, but I don't like to take things for granted unless I hear them. Because you hear a lot of things either way. And so I listened to him preach for a couple hours about the book of Esther. It was the weirdest thing I've ever heard about to say in my life. It was so bizarre. He basically said that he thinks Esther and Mordecai had a physical fling together. That they were basically partners. And look, I listened to this with my own ears. I heard what he said. He said he believes Esther and Mordecai were physically involved. They were cousins. It's like, what kind of a perverted statement? First off, where does it say anything about Esther and Mordecai having any sort of relationship? And so you're just adding to the word of God by saying that? What a disgusting, filthy thing to say. But he considers Mordecai and Esther to be the villains of the book of Esther. Now look, if you read the book of Esther, how in the world could you walk away and say Mordecai and Esther are the villains? I mean, Haman is like the best example of the devil in the Bible. It's like, how in the world could you say Mordecai and Esther are the ones that are the villains? Look, Haman is the one that's full of pride. He's a reprobate. He's a really wicked person. Mordecai and Esther are the heroes of the story. Now, we're going to look at a few other things that he says in that book later on in this sermon. But he basically takes the word Mordecai and he goes back to other languages and he says this is the sun god, Martuk. And he says Mars or Meradoc. And he basically goes to another language and says Mordecai represents, like, the devil. That's what he's basically saying, or some false pagan god. And so his idea of the story is basically it's just this long story that shows how the Jews are always killing people because he hates the Jews. Look, the Old Testament, who had the right religion? The Jews? It's like this is not the New Testament times, okay? The book of Esther in my Bible was written before the book of Matthew. And so they had the right religion. So it's ridiculous to criticize them and say they're the bad ones. They had the right religion at the time. And so what I want you to understand is that Persia was the best empire out of these six. And when we go through the book of Esther, we're going to see them, okay? Now, Herodotus, as I mentioned, was known as the father of lies. And the Persian kings were known as the king of kings. Now, that is a blasphemous term, but they did not give that term to themselves. People refer to Persian kings as the king of kings, whoever was the one leading. You say, why? Because they were known when they took over society. This is proven through archaeological findings. That when they took over a society, they allowed that society to keep their culture. Keep their religion, they're allowed to keep their culture. Now, if you remember when we talked about the Assyrians, they just tortured and wiped people out. Look, this is not actually a common thing when you take over a society, but let them keep all their culture and religion and things such as that. But that's what the Persian empire did when they took over. So they were actually known as not being that bad. There's actually freedom of religion. Now, I would like to ask, though, if you look at the Persian empires being really wicked, what part of the Bible would you use to prove that? Because what we believe at Verity Baptist Manila is that we prove things from the Bible. And I would prove from the Bible that they were not that bad of an empire. And, you know, quite honestly, anyone who's going to say that they're really wicked, you're going to have to show me a Bible verse. Because when you look at the Greek empire, the Roman empires, filled with sodomy and homosexuality, that looks pretty bad to me. When you look at the Persian empire, I don't see a verse that shows King Cyrus is a wicked person. I don't see a verse that says that Darius was a wicked person. And you know what? The Hasoeras has a really bad reputation because in the movie 300, there's this sodomite Xerxes guy with these earrings and everything like that. But I'm sorry, but a Hasoeras is not that bad of a guy in the Bible either. And I'll prove that to you. Next concern is going to be the truth about King Hasoeras or Xerxes. Now, let's look at Esther chapter 1. Let's start in verse number 1. The Bible reads in Esther chapter 1, verse number 1, Now it came to pass in the days of a Hasoeras. This is a Hasoeras which reigned from India, even on to Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces. Now, I want you to pay attention to how it works. It says, in the days of a Hasoeras, and then there is a parenthesis, and it says, this is a Hasoeras which reigned. And it talks about it raining over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces. Now, that's worded kind of funny. And what the Bible's doing is making a distinction between this Hasoeras and other people named it Hasoeras. You say, why does it do that? Because if you ever look at the list of Persian kings or Chaldean, Babylonian kings, or any empire, you're going to see that you have Darius the third, Darius the fourth, Darius the fifth, Darius the sixth, Xerxes the first, Xerxes the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, King Henry the eighth. Because oftentimes if you were a king and you wanted your son to basically take over the throne, you would give them the same name because that way they didn't really lose any power. People still looked at them as, hey, King Henry is still on the throne. And so that was a common thing to do in history. So oftentimes they would take the same name. There would be like a few names in a country or empire that would be very commonly used. And so here it says, this is a Hasoeras which reigned. It's telling you specifically which a Hasoeras this is. Now I believe that when this was written, it was very obvious to people which a Hasoeras was. But in our modern day, you know, I don't know all the people named a Hasoeras. You can look on the list of Persian kings and there's many people with the same name, many people named part of Xerxes, many people named Xerxes, many people with the same names, many people named Darius. But obviously that meant something to them at the time. But the Bible is making it very clear who this is. Now it says in verse number two that in those days when the king of Hasoeras sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign he made a feast on all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him. Now notice how it says the power of Persia and Media. Right before it says that, there is a semicolon after servants. So what is the power of Persia and Media, the princes and the servants? That's what it's saying. You know what it's saying is, the power of this mighty empire was not in one man, but it was in the people. Now this is pretty interesting because when you look at the famous empires in history, you look at the Egyptian empire and they do not have a famous pharaoh like King Cyrus or Darius or Xerxes. Those three people are three of the most famous ancient kings ever existed. Those three. You look at the Assyrian empire, who's the most famous king of Assyria? Sennacher? Look, unless you've read the Bible, you don't know who Sennacher is. There's a few pharaohs of Egypt that people would know, but not as famous as Xerxes or Cyrus or Darius. You look at Rome and what do you have? Julius Caesar. Look at Greece, Alexander the Great. I mean, name another person besides that. You look at Babylon and you're going to name one guy, King Nebuchadnezzar. And yet, with this Medo-Persian empire, you can think of three very famous kings. You have King Cyrus, you have Darius, and you have Xerxes or Aseru. They have some of the most famous kings and you would look at their empire and think it's the leader, but in reality what the Bible says is their power came from the princes and the servants. What does that show you? It wasn't just one man up here. And it's a great application for church because when you look at any church, what is the power of Mary the Baptist Church Manila? Is it in me? No, it's in the people. It's not just in one person. One person is only going to accomplish so much in their life. If you want to be successful, it's going to be the people. It's not just going to be one person. When we look at our so many numbers in the bulletin, look, some of the souls that are saved are souls that I got saved, but most of them aren't. You say, why? Because the power of Mary the Baptist Church Manila is in the people. It's in all of us. That's why every single person in the church matters. It's not just one person preaching sermons. Now here's what you need to understand. When you preach the sermons, you get the credit. You also get the blame as well. You get both. If things are going great at Mary the Baptist Church Manila, you can look on YouTube and say, brother Stuckey's doing a great job. Things are going badly. Brother Stuckey's doing a terrible job. You get the credit. You also get the blame as well. When it comes to the power of a church, it comes through the people. What I want you to understand is the Medo-Persian empire, they were aware of that. When you read Esther chapter 1, you can tell Ahasuerus was a pretty smart guy because he understood the fact that I'm not just one man up here, but if I want to be successful, I need to be a good king, a kind king, and actually care about the people, care about the sermons. Look, I've used this example before, but think about if you had a boss who just, like Boaz in the Bible, in the book of Ruth, because Boaz greets the workers, think if you had a boss that actually spent the first hour of work just going from desk to desk saying hello and just greeting all the people and ask, how's your family doing? Look, that company would probably be so much more successful if they actually just spent an hour investing in the sermons. Instead of just worrying about what they need to do, actually invest in the sermons. And when you look at the Persian empire, they were actually invested in the people. Why? It says all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media. So the power of Persia Media was not in King Aswarus, it was not in King Darius or King Cyrus, it was in the princes and the servants. It's a great application for church. And notice what it said in verse 3. In the third year of his reign, he made a feast onto all his princes and his servants. See, because he understood that the power of Persia Media is in the people, it says he made a feast onto all his princes and his servants. He's actually being kind to them. He's actually giving them free food. Why? Because he realizes they're the ones who are going to accomplish more than I'm going to accomplish. It's not just going to be me, it's going to be in them. And if you want them to do a good job, you need to make them happy. You need to make them actually enjoy it. And look, I do my best here, my wife does my best to try to let all of you know that we care about you. And the truth is, this church is very successful and we get a lot of soul saved. And the reason why is not just us. It's because of all of you. Every single person. I mean, the Bible uses the example, and we're not going to go there for the sake of time, but it mentions the eye, it mentions the hand, it mentions the ear, it mentions everything. You say, what part of that is the most important? They're all important. I like having my hands. I like having my eyes. I like having my ears. I like having my nose. You say, am I important? Yes. I believe that if you've been led to Mary Baptist Church, Manila, and you call this your home church, it means you have a purpose, you have a place here, and it would not be the same without you. That's the truth. That's what the Bible teaches. And look, if you consider this your home church, you are here for a reason. Now let's look at Esther chapter 1, verse number 4, where the Bible reads, When he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even in hundred and four score days. And so a hundred and four score would be a hundred and eighty, because score is twenty, so four times twenty is eighty. A hundred and eighty days. And so this was a very rich empire. If they're able to basically provide this feast that lasts for like half a year, they have a lot of money. Verse number 5, And 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, seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace. Now notice in this verse, this is kind of a special feast, seven more days, but notice how it says both unto great and small. Basically, Ahasuerus was not a respecter of persons. He doesn't just say, I'm only going to have this feast for the people that are great. I'm only going to have this feast for the people that have a more high position, or are considered more royalty, or are considered better people. No, he says to everybody, unto great and small, the people that were there, everybody gets a partake in the feast. Now once again, this is an important analogy to understand as a church, because whether or not someone is great or small, whether or not they're the ones leading the music, preaching sometimes, or whether or not they're doing whatever, what great or small, everybody matters. He says both unto great and small, seven days. And the Bible says God is not a respecter of persons. See there's a lot of churches here, they're not going to go so many in the poor areas. You say, why are they not going so many in the poor areas? They don't really care about how many people they get saved, they care about how many people visit the church and have money. And if you go so many in the poor areas, well you'll get people saved, but you're not going to get a lot of money in the offering fund. Now that's ridiculous. I'm sorry, but every single area, look I'm sure the church down the street, if they do any so many it's in the rich areas. You say why? Because they care about money. That's the reality about a lot of churches. But the reality is we ought to care about people whether or not they have money or whether or not they don't have money. Because every soul matters, and every soul you've got to save, every soul that's in the bullets, every soul matters whether or not they have money or don't have money. Look, most people don't come to church anyway. Why are you worrying about, I only want to get people saved that have a lot of money that might come to church. Well most people are going to come to church to get saved. But we believe that God's going to provide money that we need for this church. And so we don't need to worry about going sowing in rich areas. I mean obviously we hit every door. We need to worry about basically reaching everybody with the gospel. Now look at verse number six. Verse number six. Where were white, green and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple with silver rings and pillars of marble, the beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red, blue and white and black marble. And they gave them drinking vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another and royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king. Now in these verses you're basically seeing how much money this empire has. Because it mentions gold, it mentions silver. But not only gold and silver. Purple in the bible is the color of royalty. Because in today's world it's not hard to get a shirt made of purple or something such as that. But the bible talks about Lydia being a seller of purple in the bible. Her job was basically to sell things with purple. You say why? Because it was a color that royalty had. That's why with the Roman Catholic church, purple and scarlet, they're colors of royalty. Colors that were considered very extravagant at one time. We live in a different culture today. You can buy a shirt of pretty much any color that you want. But there was a time period that wasn't really like that. So you see that we have purple, silver rings, gold, silver, all these fancy things. But notice also in verse number 7 where it says they gave them drinking vessels of gold. So this is basically what they're drinking out of. It's made of gold. But what's more interesting to me is it says the vessels being diverse one from another. What does diverse mean? It means difference. Now look, if you're selling a product, the way you're successful is you basically just replicate the exact same design over and over again. Now in today's world you're basically using machines or whatever to just mass produce. But throughout history the easiest thing is just produce the exact same design. It will happen much quicker. And yet here it says that vessels are diverse one from another. Which means when people were drinking, they were drinking basically different designed vessels. Now I don't know if this is different designs based on various groups or if every single one was meant to be different. But either way it shows extravagance. It shows that they have a lot of money. Because the easiest thing to do is basically just do the same design a million times. You go to the store and you're going to see this same thing like 50 pounds. They're not just going to have 50 different ones that are a little bit different. This one's like this much shorter. This one half of it's gold, half of it's silver. Part of it's purple. No, it's going to be the same design. They're going to have like 3 or 4 different models. There's going to be a lot of each of those. It doesn't really make sense to make the vessels diverse one from another unless you just have like tons of money and let's just make everyone really special. But that's what it says here. It says the vessels are diverse one from another. Verse number 8, the Bible reads, 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. Now I'm going to disprove what was said about the person who hired two different ways here in the book of Esther. One of them is right here about them being drunks. I can disprove that. Notice how it says the drinking was according to the law. Then it has a semicolon. None did compel. What does that say? That according to the law you were not supposed to compel people to drink alcohol. That is what it's saying. According to the law, none did compel. Now in this society, you could not compel people, at least when you're here with the Hasaweras, to drink alcohol. Because then it says at the end of the verse that they should do according to every man's pleasure. What that is saying is if you want to drink alcohol, you can. If you don't, you don't have to. That was what the law stated. None did compel. You did according to your pleasure. If you want to drink, you can. If you don't want to drink, you don't have to. Why is that significant? If you've ever been around alcohol, everyone will try to force you to drink alcohol. But that was not allowed in the Persian Empire. To me it sounds like the Persian Empire is pretty good. Because according to this, according to the law, none did compel. That sounds pretty good. Because if you're part of a company and your boss is drinking, there's a lot of pressure where you're basically forced to drink alcohol. And the Hasaweras, he does drink in Esther chapter 1. We see that. But in the law, he made it a point that you did not have to drink if you didn't want to. And that's very important because then nobody's going to pressure people to drink alcohol. It even says, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house. He appointed to them, you can do according to your pleasure and you can't compel people to drink alcohol if they don't want to drink alcohol. So in the Medo-Persian Empire, it was actually against the law to compel people to drink alcohol. I'm sorry, but what Herodotus said about them being drunks, it doesn't seem to fit. Look, if the law stated that you could not compel people to drink alcohol, there would be a lot of people that didn't drink alcohol. You say, why? Many people don't want to drink alcohol. You say, why do they drink alcohol? Because they're compelled to drink alcohol. Because their friends compel them. Their friends try to get them to drink alcohol. Because they go to college and all their friends are doing it. But what if the law stated you are not allowed to compel people, guess what? Half the people wouldn't drink alcohol. And that is what existed in the Medo-Persian Empire. You are not supposed to compel people to drink alcohol. Now, going back to what Tex Marr's interpretation is, because I listened to his whole sermon. And his interpretation of verse number 8, I'm only mentioning him because he's kind of a famous guy. But he said that they should do according to every man's pleasure. His interpretation is, you can basically do whatever you want. If you want to rape a woman, you can. If you want to kill a woman, you can. That's what he said. You can do according to your pleasure. So according to him, according to the law, you can rape someone if you want. According to the law, you can kill someone if you want. That is so stupid, because there's no way the Persian Empire would have been able to rule the world if you have such stupid laws. There's no way you'd be successful. Look, if you have laws that basically people are allowed to send to whatever they want, that society would be destroyed overnight. Because in the heart of man is sin. And you give the reprobates the green light? Are you kidding me? I mean, if they were allowed to do whatever they wanted, do you realize what they would do to us if they could? They would basically just kill people and pillage. I mean, look at Genesis 19. Look at Judges 19. If that is your interpretation that every man is allowed to do whatever he wants, he can rape someone if he wants, he can kill someone. Look, your civilization will be destroyed immediately, because evil people will do wicked things. That's the truth. The only thing stopping the reprobates and the Sodomites from destroying us is because it's illegal. That's the only thing. You say, how do you know that? Because of the fact they basically ruled in Genesis 19 with Sodom and Gomorrah. And what were they going to do? They were basically going to rape them in. Why? Because they weren't going to get in trouble for it. They didn't care. I remember back a couple years ago during the protest in Sacramento, California, I remember this thought just kind of clicked with me. And I knew this, but I just didn't really think about it so much, because we had like 500 protesters. And so I look out and I see all of these protesters, and I remember seeing that there's like 40 cops, and every single one of these cops was in the front. None of them were in the back. But here's the thing. There was hardly any people in the front. They were basically just hanging out, eating donuts, eating pizza, having a good old time. That's what they were doing. And so basically they were just kind of hanging out in the front. They weren't really doing anything. And then in the back is basically where everybody was coming in, coming in through the crowd as it was really busy. And I remember I asked a policeman, you know, I said, because this thought came to my mind, I said, you know, they can basically just kill us if they want. You're not even going to see it. And he said, well, you need to just tell your people to come in through the front. It's like we had people coming from different states. We didn't know where they were coming from. I don't know who these people are. And it's like, are you kidding me? But none of them really wanted to help. But see, what I'm trying to tell you is this. Those people, those 500 people, if they knew they could get away with it, they have no conscience. What would they do to us if they knew they could get away with it? If you're going to tell me that in Esther chapter one, verse eight, that the interpretation is people are allowed to commit whatever sin that they want. I'm sorry, but that's the dumbest interpretation you could possibly come up with this verse. It doesn't make any logical sense, because what would have ended up taking place is a few verses later, this woman got raped, this other woman got raped. I mean, there's reprobates out there. There's bad people out there. There's sinful people out there. That is not what it's saying. When you look at verse eight very closely, it says the drinking was and the drinking was according to the law. There's a semicolon. So what's coming after the semicolon is going to relate to what's coming before. None did compel. So according to the law, you are not allowed to compel people to drink alcohol. You say, how do you know that's what it's talking about? Because the context is drinking alcohol. So that's what it's talking about. You're not allowed to compel them to drink alcohol. And then it even says they should do according to every man's pleasure at the end of that verse. Basically, if a man wants to drink, he can. If he doesn't want to drink, he doesn't have to. It's up to you. And the king had appointed. When you are appointing something, you are making it a point to let everybody know this is the law. And so Ahasuerus made it very clear, hey, this is the law. If you want to drink, you can and you can not compel people to drink alcohol. I'm sorry, but the Persian Empire does not sound that bad to me. When you look closely at Esther chapter one, it actually sounds a lot better than the Egyptian empire. Certainly sounds better than the Assyrian empire. Certainly sounds better than the Greeks. Sounds better than the Romans. Sounds better than the United States. It doesn't really sound like it's that bad of an empire. Now, notice verse number nine. Verse number nine. It says, Also, Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house, which belonged to king Ahasuerus. So as Ahasuerus is making a feast, his wife, Vashti is also making a feast. They obviously were a society that had lots and lots of money. And in verse number ten, the Bible reads, On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mahuman, Bizthah, Harbonah, Bigthah and Abakthah, Zethar and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king. Now, in the story of Esther, there are basically five main characters. Esther and Mordecai are the good guys. They're the good people in the story. And then you're going to have Haman, who's the reprobate. Then you have Vashti and Ahasuerus. Now, they were not wicked. They were not the good guys either. They're kind of in between. And how much in between is kind of up to your interpretation. But what I want you to see here in verse number ten, although I don't think king Ahasuerus was a bad guy, it's very foolish to make decisions when you've drunk alcohol. You say, why? Because alcohol gives you boldness to make the wrong decisions. You're going to make decisions you would not make when you're sober. Now, look, I don't believe Ahasuerus was some wicked guy. You know, we're going to prove that next week because he's not as bad a guy as people say he is. I don't think he's a serial killer. I don't think he's a serial rapist or this reprobate. But at the same time, it's very foolish. It's foolish to drink alcohol. The Bible says not to drink any alcohol, much less to make decisions. Actually, turn to Proverbs 31. Let me turn there myself. Proverbs 31. Proverbs chapter 31. And I want you to see the advice of King Lemuel's mom. I believe this is the advice to Solomon from his mom Bathsheba. But I want you to see here in Proverbs 31, verse four, Proverbs 31, verse four, where the Bible reads, It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink. Now, she tells her son who's going to become the king, hey, it's not for you to drink alcohol. It's not something a king ought to do. Now, first off, if you're saved, you become kings and priests unto God. So you as a king, you as a priest, according to the Bible, you shouldn't drink alcohol either. Basically, what she's telling your son is, you are too good to drink alcohol. It's not for kings. It's not for princes. You are too good to drink alcohol. Basically, let other people drink alcohol if they want. We don't make their decisions for them. Hey, we're not going to compel them to drink or not to drink. It's up to them. I preach sermons. It's your choice what you do. We don't try to force people to follow what we say. We just preach what the Bible says and try to get people saved. But look, she's telling her son, hey, it's not for you to drink. You are too good to drink. Verse five, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any the afflicted. See, drinking alcohol will cause you to forget God's law and pervert the judgment. Then in verse number six, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. Now, I find it very perplexing, but in Proverbs 31 verses six and seven, these verses are often used to justify drinking alcohol. I do not understand that because I've never been very confused with these verses. When it says give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, what it's basically saying in wine unto those that be of heavy hearts, the reason why they have heavy or sad hearts is because of the alcohol. The reason why they're about to perish or die is because of the strong drink. And what she's basically doing is mocking alcohol and say, let them drink away their misery. Let them drink themselves to death. Let them drink and forget their misery and they're going to be miserable tomorrow as well. It's not justified drinking, it's condemning it. Let him drink and forget his poverty. Why is this person poor? Because he drinks alcohol. Look, you drink alcohol, you're going to be a terrible employee. It costs a lot of money. You will be poor. Let him drink, but not you, King Lemuel. You say why? Because when you drink alcohol and remember his misery no more. Isn't it true that drunk people are miserable people? They hate their lives and what happens? They drink alcohol and they feel good for a couple hours. Then they wake up and realize, wow, because I'm such a lazy person, my life is terrible, my health destroyed, I have no money, I'm miserable again. And so what does he have to do later on that day? Well, I'm going to have to drink away my sorrows again. Now look, I wish we could convince those people to never drink alcohol again, but the reality is we don't make their choices for them. They make those choices, but she's trying to give guidance to her son and say, you know what, son, it's not for you. Don't drink alcohol. It's going to destroy your life. And when we go to the Book of Esther, we're going to actually see that with King Ahasuerus. It's not for you as a king. You say why? Because when you're a leader, the decisions you make are going to affect a lot of people. It affects a lot of people. That's why if you see like a pastor fall and really come into big sin, it's going to destroy the entire church. It's going to cause so many problems. And as the most powerful man in the world, Ahasuerus is the most powerful man in the world, and he drinks and he ends up making a decision, he is going to screw up his life and the life of other people. It's going to affect people. Go back to Esther chapter one, Esther one. You say, brother Stuckey, how do you know that the Persians weren't a bunch of drunks like Herodotus said? Well, because we're going to see that Ahasuerus drinks alcohol and ends up making a stupid decision. If he did that all the time, their empire would have been destroyed. Look, if every decision was made, well, first let's get drunk, and then we're going to make the decision. You're going to destroy your empire overnight because he ends up doing a foolish thing here because of the fact he drank alcohol. If every decision he said, wait a minute, because for us, we pray about decisions, right? You got a big decision in life. Let me pray about it first. For him, I got a big decision. Okay, I got to drink some booze to make sure I'm clear-headed. I mean, that's so stupid. He would end up destroying their entire empire overnight because he makes a foolish decision here. He commits a sin because when you drink alcohol, your judgment is affected. As it mentioned in Proverbs 31, your judgment will be affected. You're going to forget the law. And he seems to forget the law of basically you get married and you stay married. And divorce is wicked according to the Bible. He seems to forget that. Why? Well, because when you drink alcohol, you make stupid decisions and you have to pay for those decisions. Verse number 11, Esther chapter 1, verse 11, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on. Now, in Esther chapter 1, verse 11, he brings his wife to basically come before the people and the princes and he wants to show people that his wife is beautiful. Now, his wife should have just done what he said. You say, why? Because husbands are the head of the homes. But it's a very foolish thing to say as well. Obviously, you're trying to showcase her as being beautiful. Now, look, I'm not going to agree with the interpretation of Tex Mars and other Baptist preachers I've heard that said he basically asked his wife to rip off all of her clothes and to basically walk around naked in front of people. It's like, how in the world do you come up with that interpretation? It's like, where does it say she's doing a striptease for these people? But that's what they preach. I wouldn't say that, but that's literally what I've heard preached. They say, why? Because Ahasuerus is a bad guy. Because the Persian Empire is the most wicked empire. Where do they get that from? Well, they just assume that the Greeks are right and the Persian is really wicked. And Ahasuerus, Xerxes, I mean, he was in 300 with all these piercings and stuff, right? All this makeup. He must have been like a really wicked guy, like the Greeks in the movie say. It's like, look, I'm sorry, but why don't you go to the word of God to find out what you believe? If he was asking her to basically take off her clothes and just parade herself around everybody, it would have said that. It doesn't say that. And first off, why would a husband ever do that to his wife? It's like, I'm sorry, but first off, when you read the book of Ahasuerus, Ahasuerus is not that bad of a guy. You don't see that. And look, he would have never had his wife do that. Now, I think it's wrong for him to basically have his wife walk in front of everyone and show that she's beautiful. I don't think he should have done that, but there's no indication that he's asking her to take off her clothes first. That is ridiculous. No husband would do that unless he's just a complete weirdo, okay? Now, it says in verse number 12, But the queen Vashti refused to come to the king's commandment by his chamberlooms. Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Now, the queen Vashti, she refuses to listen to her husband. Her husband did not ask her to commit a sin. He asked her to do something foolish, but he didn't ask her to commit a sin. There's no indication he asked her to commit a sin. Look, when you get married, you better marry someone who you respect enough to follow their decisions. As a woman, marry someone where you respect the direction they're headed and you're willing to follow their lead. Why? Because husbands are the head of the homes. That's what the Bible teaches. Now, look, I honestly do not believe that they had that bad of a marriage before, and the reason why is because Ahasuerus is pretty shocked that she doesn't listen. What that indicates to me is she usually actually listened to what he said, because he's very mad that she doesn't listen. To me, that probably means she probably normally listened. But basically, you have two people that have drunk alcohol. Ahasuerus has drunk alcohol. He says something kind of foolish. His wife's kind of drunk, so she's probably more apt not to listen to him. And you have this big fight. Look, if you end up drinking alcohol, you will destroy your marriage. Look, I wish we could get a statistic for relationships of couples that don't drink alcohol versus ones that do. But I promise you, if you look at couples and marriages where they drink alcohol, you're going to see divorce. You're going to see adultery. Probably adultery as well in this country, but adultery. You're going to see all manner of sin. You say, why? Because alcohol gives you boldness to do what's right. The Bible contrasts alcohol and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives you boldness to do what's good and what's right, that you might not normally have that boldness. Alcohol gives you boldness to commit sins that you would never commit. Look, people cheat on their wives when they're drunk, and they would never do it when they're sober. I've heard stories about adultery starting because at a workplace, they had a party, there was alcohol involved, and the husband cheats on his wife, and then all of a sudden, a few years later, they're divorced because of that. You say, why does that happen? It happens because of alcohol. Alcohol will destroy your life, and that is what Bathsheba said to her son. She understood that, especially for a king, especially someone making decisions. And look, as men in this room that are the heads of our homes, we have families, you will destroy your family. You will destroy your kid's life. You'll destroy your marriage if you drink alcohol. And that's what we kind of see here with the Hazwars. And so she refuses in verse number 12, and he's very angry. Verse number 13, Then the king said to the wise men which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward all that new law and judgment. And the next on to him was Karshena, Shathar, Admatha, Tarshish, Mirez, Marcina, and Mamukan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face and which sat the first in the kingdom. What shall we do unto the queen of Ashtai according to the law? Because she hath not performed the commandment of the king of Hazwars by the chamberlains. Now look, if you get very angry about something, the first thing you should do is just kind of take a break before making any more decisions. He's very wroth, and immediately he's like, how are we going to deal with this? He should honestly just wake up, let the alcohol wear off from his body, however much he drank, because it says he was married with wine. Basically, let the alcohol wear off, think about it, and wait till you come to a clear mind before making any decisions. But he doesn't do that, he just immediately wants to deal with it, and once again we're talking about someone who's being affected by drinking alcohol. It is a good thing that in their society you weren't supposed to compel people to drink alcohol, because you see he's destroying his own life and his marriage. And so he's wondering, what are we going to do? Because he's shocked she doesn't obey, and he's embarrassed. He's got all of his princes and his servants, he's the most powerful man in the world. Ahasuerus was the most powerful man in the world. This is the empire that ruled the world. And in front of all these people, his wife just disobeys him, and look, that was considered something very embarrassing in the past. Now in today's world, it's no big deal. But in the past, you're the king, and your wife just doesn't listen to what you say, and says no, and you're embarrassed in front of all the people underneath you. That is going to be very embarrassing for you, and he is very embarrassed about this. Verse number 16, And Mamuchan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath 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 Ahasuerus. And so according to Mamuchan, because Vashti does not listen to her husband, this is going to affect everybody. And what you need to understand is that when you're in a position of leadership, if you're in a position of leadership and there's some big problem, it's going to affect everybody. And that is why the Bible says that before you become a pastor, you must be married with multiple kids, children, plural. You say, why? Because you need to prove that you can run your house well before you're running a church. You say, why? Because if you run a church and that church grows, and you're not doing a good job, it's going to destroy a lot of people's lives. A lot of people are counting on somebody who has wisdom, somebody who knows the word of God, and if you cannot run your own home well, you're proving you're not going to run a church well. If you can't make the right decisions at home, then you're not going to make the right decisions at church. You're not going to do a good job of running that church. And so the Bible speaks about pastors running their homes, and the Bible speaks about having multiple kids. You say, why? Because life's going to get more difficult the more kids you have. And if you don't discipline and train your kids, when they get older, it's going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. And then you're going to resort to birth control. You say, why? Because, you know, we can't control our kids. See, the Bible says you must run your homes well, and the Bible teaches that you must have multiple children, okay? Verse number 17, 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. The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. And so basically, what they're saying is this is going to cause women everywhere to just basically disobey their husbands. What is that showing you? Well, in the Medo-Persian Empire, it was considered normal for the wives to look at the husbands as being the head of the homes, because this was considered unusual. He said you're going to cause all of the women to rebel against their husbands. Why? Because in their empire, the women looked at the husbands as the head of the homes. Now, look, it has not been like this in every culture. It has not been like this in every empire. Now, I didn't really study that for this sermon, looking into these other empires, but I promise you if you looked at the Grecian Empire and Roman Empire, it wasn't really like that. It was considered strange because the normal thing was that wives basically submitted to their husbands. Now, obviously, the husbands need to be good husbands and love their wives. Ahasuerus is not a bad guy, but he's also not a great husband, because he does have concubines that are mentioned. Now, there are many men of God that also had that, so that doesn't make him a reprobate, but it means he wasn't a great husband. David wasn't a good husband. He's a great man of God. Don't tell me he was a good husband or a good father, though. When you look at his family, he obviously wasn't, okay? So Ahasuerus, I'm not even saying he's saved, but look, he's not some sort of reprobate for having concubines, because that was pretty much a common thing with even men of God, which is obviously wicked, according to the Bible. But this was considered strange, and it was considered that this is going to cause wives to rebel against their husbands. Because the norm in the Medo-Persian Empire was that the husbands were the head of the homes, and the wives listened to their husbands. That's what we see here. Verse number 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. 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 a royal estate unto another that is better than she. Basically, the queen is going to be replaced, okay? But let me prove to you through these verses that Ahasuerus and the Medo-Persian Empire was not that wicked. See, this woman embarrasses him. His wife embarrasses him. He's upset about it. He's embarrassed. She didn't listen to him. But what have a lot of kings done through history when they got mad at their wives? They killed them. Does he kill his wife? Now, I don't think he should have divorced his wife. I don't think he should have made somebody else the queen. I believe that's wrong because, for one, you should have one wife, not concubines. But if you look at kings throughout history, what did they do if they got mad at their wives? They are really mad at the queens and they wanted to marry someone else. Look at King Henry VIII. They just killed them. Ahasuerus doesn't do that. You say, why? Well, apparently the Medo-Persian Empire was more righteous than the British Empire and pretty much any manner of empires throughout history. Look, you just could not walk away from Esther chapter 1 or this whole book of Esther and say the Medo-Persian Empire is wicked. That's the main point of the sermon because that's kind of the overriding theme I'm seeing, especially as I've heard that taught wrong throughout history. And you know what? Honestly, what made me first think about preaching through the book of Esther is I was watching a lot of ancient historical documentaries. And they're bringing out all the stuff about the Persians and I was like, man, they sound pretty good. They're saying there's these new things we found, you know, and they're very benevolent and kind to empires they took over. And I'm like, it just doesn't match. And the only thing we have to say the Persians were so wicked is one guy, Herodotus, who got the nickname the father of lies. Now, there's another father of lies. And quite honestly, with his justification of pedophilia, he probably has that father as well. Not God the father, the devil, obviously, right? I mean, he's obviously full of lies himself and he probably didn't feel bad about lying about it. You know, he wanted to promote his culture. But you're just not seeing because, look, Ahasuerus would have just killed his wife if he was some evil guy, okay? Verse number 20. Verse number 20. And when the king's degree, which he shall make, shall be published throughout all his empire, for it is great, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. Verse number 21. And the saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Mamukan, for he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province 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. Now, the last thing I want to point out here is found in verse number 22, where it says, every people after their language, that it should be published according to the language. The Bible uses the terminology here of province. And that makes a lot of sense when you're here in the Philippines because there's provinces, right? My wife's from Pampanga. And what this would be saying, if it was in a modern day for the Philippines, is that if this situation happened, it would be written in Kapampangan, Visayan, Tagalog, in every language. Everyone after their language. Why? Because the province you're from, that home language is your favorite language. Isn't that the way it works? My wife's favorite language is Kapampangan. Now, it's not the only language she speaks, but it is her favorite language. And so this saying would be written in all of these different languages. Now, let me ask you a question. In which language would it be better? In Kapampangan, Tagalog, Visayan, which one would be better? Or would it be saying the same thing? Where does it say there's a loss in translation? You don't see that. It's in every language. It's the same message in every language. Where are you going to find in the Bible that you lose something in translation? It's being written in every single language. So which language would it be the best or would it be the same? It would be the exact same. You say, why? Because all of these languages have words for the same things. And if they don't have the exact word, they can rephrase something to express the same thought or same meaning. Look, when people say something's lost in translation, it's like you don't know a whole lot about languages, do you? I mean, let's ask Brother Ehrman. Brother Ehrman speaks, what, six languages? Do you lose something in translation? No, you don't lose anything in translation. You can put it in any language, and it was written after their language. And you know, what did God, the word of God was published in every language? You say, why? Because even though we have a perfect King James Bible, you know, it would still be nice to have a perfect Tagalog Bible. Do we? No. No. Are we close to it? No. Because the people translating seem to think that bosom and paraiso are the same thing. It's like paradise. It's like, the first time I saw that, you know, I asked my wife, I mean, because I didn't know all these words, I'm sure there's better, but I said, shouldn't it just say dib dib or something like that? I mean, wouldn't that be closer than paraiso? I mean, it sounds a little bit better to me even with my limited Tagalog. And yet they don't seem to get it. Look, what we should do is just translate the Bible into every language. And the word of God can be translated perfectly into German, Portuguese, you know, you name the language, we could have a perfect word of God. Because here it's written after their language, published according to the language of every people. And even though these people probably spoke many languages, because honestly, unless you're coming from America, you speak multiple languages. Yes, I'm from America. You grow up speaking English. We're Americans. We speak English. That's what we do. But pretty much in every other place in the world, they speak multiple languages. But they still had this written in their specific favorite language of their province. That's what the Bible is teaching. And so to recap here in the introduction and Esther Chapter 1, look, the Persian Empire sounded pretty good to me. There basically was no pedophilia until the Greeks introduced it. According to them, they want to take credit for it. So I'm assuming that's probably true. There was basically no pedophilia. Look, they basically didn't compel people to drink alcohol. It sounds like the wives basically looked at the husbands as being the head of the homes, because when Vashti disobeyed Ahasuerus, it was a big shock. They actually look like they're pretty godly. Now, I personally, even though it doesn't mention Cyrus in the story, I think King Cyrus was saved when you read about the life of King Cyrus. Now, I do believe, because when you look at what King Cyrus wrote, it's very hard, because you're looking at writings from a long time ago. You cannot guarantee he actually wrote it. But he often speaks about believing in one god. Now, the way they interpret that is he's believing in the god Ahura Mazda, which is a Zoroastrianism religion. But what you see, and this is something Herodotus, he accused the Persians of basically worshiping Zeus. Now, look, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because that's not the religion of the Persians. The religion was Zoroastrianism. And Zeus is the name of the Greeks' head god. But the Persians' god was Ahura Mazda. And so he's basically just accusing them of worshiping to one god. And he calls it Zeus, but what it could actually be is many of the Persians were worshiping to the true god. I don't really know, but when you have a godly society with God's laws, what you're going to find is there's going to be more people saved. That's the reality. When you have God's laws being promoted, you're going to find more people saved. And when you read about the Medo-Persian Empire, they seem far better than Egypt. They seem far better than Assyria. They seem far better than the Romans or the Roman Catholic Church that's murdered like 50 million of us. They seem better than the Greeks, and they seem better than the Chaldean Empire. Even though Nebuchadnezzar did get saved, they do seem to be much better than Babylonian or Chaldean Empire as well. Let's close in order to prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to see your word. And I know we really went kind of outside the Bible for a while and looked at secular history, but the Bible is a very interesting book. There's so much to learn, God, and help us to always look at the Bible as our foundation of what we believe. And before we decide we believe things, let's make sure that the Bible actually lines up with that and make our final authority the Word of God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.