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What's up guys welcome back to the channel tonight, we're gonna start a new book series and we're gonna be going through the book of Esther We're gonna start this off with an overview. Just a real quick basic overview through the book of Esther Obviously, it's the Word of God a lot of information a lot of different things to learn in this book You know this book gets attacked by people out in the community by saying oh, you know God's name's not in the book It shouldn't be in the Bible, but Bell and the dragon should be you know, that's all nonsense I know you guys know that but we're gonna go through this book and do an overview and then go through chapter number one And I'm gonna call this Empire Strikes Back And you might be thinking well, how'd you come up with that? I don't really know but that's the title Basically if you're familiar with the book came Queen Vashti She disobeys a commandment from her husband King Ahasuerus and it's not that she disobeyed her husband Okay, obviously, yes, that's there But it has greater implications and if this goes unchecked it's gonna strike everybody It's gonna set a precedent because people look up to royalty And so if the people in Ahasuerus' empire if the women find out that this went unchecked They're gonna take that and they're gonna run with it and it's gonna be nothing but trouble It's gonna break down families and just basically cause a United States of America kind of situation So we're gonna deal with that. Okay Empire Strikes Back. So really what she did is she attacked the Empire and so the Empire actually strikes back at her with removing her from her position and also by The decree that's gonna go out through all of Ahasuerus' empire Which says that the man should rule in his own house and you know, that's some sound biblical advice, isn't it? I mean Ephesians chapter 5 we're gonna end there, you know You're gonna find that in there, you know We're husbands are supposed to submit themselves to Christ wives submit themselves to the husbands as unto the Lord, you know, and so I think that The men around Ahasuerus that they were right that they made the right decision hopefully this Blesses you guys. I'm looking forward to going through this book with you And if you have any questions always leave us a comment. We appreciate seeing you guys in the chat. God bless. Have a great day Alright, amen. Well, we're obviously done with Ecclesiastes. We took a break last week and we're on to another ebook Okay, not an electronic book but another ebook in the Old Testament and that is the book of Esther And so I'm gonna title this Empire Strikes Back Empire Strikes Back and the reason for that is gonna be found in verse 22 So we're gonna get into all that here obviously in a little while So we should be in this book for about Probably nine weeks if you if you've read the book before you understand chapter 10 very short So we're gonna lump in nine and ten together okay, but before we do this, I just want to kind of give you a quick overview of the book of Esther and kind of what the Sitting is like during this time. Okay, so we'll just kind of peel back to Twelve tribes of Israel. Let's just go all the way back to where we were this morning. Okay? Exodus numbers and that time period okay God's physical nation of Israel was made up of twelve distinct tribes Okay, you guys know this we've covered this several times in the past, but it bears repeating Okay, so twelve distinct tribes as time goes on. Okay? You get a lot of problems that come in to Israel And of course, we've you know mentioned this before that Solomon had married many wives and had many concubines all heathen They turned his heart away from following the Lord and that led to some additional problems. Okay that brought in some Serious issues into the nation got got upset and what happened was a division Hey, there was a division in Israel And basically what you have is you had ten tribes go up to the northern area not go up north, but basically God took away ten tribes from Solomon really from his son Rehoboam and that became what was known as the northern kingdom of Israel. Okay, and we've said this before All Jews are Hebrews, but not all Hebrews are Jews and you're gonna get a lot of that in this book in the book of Esther So you go back to that and split that civil war if you want to call it that okay? You've got now the northern kingdom of Israel their capital is Samaria They have their own sets of kings and they've literally got their own way of following God Well, you have also now two tribes left over basically you've got the tribe of Judah You have the tribe of Benjamin obviously Levites mixed in there that becomes known as the southern kingdom of Judah as time goes on The the you know, you get good kings in Judah bad kings But pretty much almost exclusively except for maybe Jehu up north Okay All of their kings led the people into idolatry God sent prophet after prophet to them and basically said okay I'm done with you guys. Okay, and they went in to captivity got basically pulled out of Israel the Assyrians came in and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and After that there they're done. I mean that's that's no more. Okay. They are they're completely done for however What God had left now is the southern kingdom of Judah and that's where we get the name Jew from It's a shortened form of Judah. So as again time goes on the Kings follow God They don't follow God they follow God they don't follow God God gets upset and says, okay, you know, I'm done I'm done playing this game with you And and so I'm going to take this blessing that you have as me over you with a king Which really wasn't the most desirable thing to begin with you wanted God the system of judges and then the people to have rights to their own land and stuff But of course they didn't want to follow that and so what happens Babylonians come in take Captive the southern kingdom of Judah in three different waves and now they are removed from their homeland Okay, 70 years after that period the Babylonians get conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire and King Cyrus says you know what and this is all prophesied before but King Cyrus says you know what I'm going to now allow the Jews to go back to their homeland and rebuild and be able to Go back kind of somewhat to the way things were only we will be still over them. They won't be independent They're still going to be under our control and Well when you study the books of Ezra Nehemiah you're gonna learn that a lot of people during that time during the captivity had become comfortable in Captivity yeah, they weren't really suffering. You know people were now born in these other countries Under the Medo-Persian Empire they're comfortable. They're kind of happy so when the decree goes out You know people are starting to hear all of all the problems that went into rebuilding the temple under Ezra's time and Nehemiah's time and so people just like you know what we're just gonna chill here We're not gonna go back. We're just gonna Live in this time period you go read Ezra Nehemiah on your own time And that's what you're gonna find a majority of the people had stayed Okay, Ezra and Nehemiah deal with a lot of the complexities and a lot of the problems that came from Getting permission to rebuild the temple and obviously the wall now where Esther fits into that is between Ezra chapter 6 and Ezra chapter 7 okay, so if you ever you know reading through and you want to you want to just insert some Chronology you know into your game you would maybe read through Ezra 1 through 6 Just take a pause read the book of Esther and then go back and continue Ezra 7 through the end of the book and then Nehemiah that'll give you some real good chronology here And so essentially with that being said Esther is a book basically describing life in Captivity okay, it covers the people that just really just didn't go back It doesn't necessarily give us a reason why they didn't go back I think it's safe to assume in some aspects that they just became comfortable in their lives there And of course as time goes on and you see the New Testament Form you find out that there's now synagogues and things like that spread throughout all the Roman Empire And so that's kind of that's kind of like the beginning of that okay the beginning of that time period now What's unique about the book of Esther and even the book of Song of Solomon? Is that the word God is not even mentioned in the book and our enemies like to bring this up and say well Okay, so this is a problem and the book of Esther shouldn't be in the Bible But Maccabees should and you know Bella and the dragon yeah, that should be in the Bible, but you know you know Esther That's debatable and just because the word God isn't mentioned in the book doesn't mean his fingerprints aren't mentioned Okay, just because Satan's not mentioned in the book doesn't mean that Satan's fingerprints aren't Mentioned in the book and you're gonna see all of that as we go through this now go to chapter number four real quick Obviously we're gonna go through chapter one But just I just want to kind of give you a key pivotal verse that is Very important to understand the entire book if I had to pick one verse to basically Sum up the the entire book it would be in chapter number four and in my personal opinion I think one of the reasons why God kind of left his name out of this This book here is because these people essentially kind of left him out of their lives in a certain way and instead of going back to help rebuild and to Basically kind of help fulfill the prophecies that God had said would happen You know after 70 years of captivity you'll go back and land You know, they just decided they're gonna stay put and so I think that kind of God not putting his official name in here, you know is kind of signifying to us that Well, that's because these folks had chosen to stay here But nonetheless God doesn't leave nor does he forsake us. And so therefore you still see Miracles and the fingerprint of God all throughout the entire book. Okay, but you're in chapter four real quick Let me give you this pivotal verse here. It's all right here verse number 14. Look what it says It's so it says for if thou all together Holdest thy peace at this time. So this is Mordecai talking to Esther We're gonna get into these guys next weekend But Mordecai is talking to Esther because she has an opportunity to save the Jews So he says to her for if thou all together holdest thy peace at this time Then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom For such a time as this so you can see there the trust that Mordecai has in God for his people because he says Esther if you don't do this if you don't take this opportunity to go to a Hazardous day in petition on behalf of your people. Okay. God's gonna do it another way But you're gonna pay a hefty price and you're gonna pay with your life Okay, so really this book is just pivoted on this moment on her deciding, you know what I'm actually gonna go forth and do that I'm gonna take the advice of Mordecai and then go back to chapter number one. We're about to get started here So if I had to give you a word, okay to just attach to the book of Esther I would give you the word preservation. So what you're gonna find here is you're gonna find preservation obviously of God's people Chapter one you're gonna find a preservation of the truth as well as other places and the number three You're gonna find preservation of the family order and that's kind of what we're gonna get into at the end of the book here And so let's get started here in Verse number one So the Bible says now it came to pass in the days of a hazardous this is a hazardous which rained from India even unto Ethiopia over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces Okay. Now this a hazardous here is apparently the Hebrew word for Xerxes and if you've ever heard or seen the movie 300 and not endorsing movies. I'm just bringing this up Because it's it's what it is. Okay Hollywood has their version of Xerxes Tall freak looking guy kind of looks like a sodomite and The Bible gives us the real Xerxes the real a hazardous Okay, and you're gonna see he's actually he's kind of a clown You see these guys throws a six-month party. We'll get into why here in a minute But at the end of the day, I'd rather personally live in this empire than the United States of America okay, because this guy does care about men leading and ruling in their own homes and he even You know offers a Petition of discretion when it comes to drinking and in different things like that. So let's get started here Okay, this is a hazardous. He we could see his empire. It's vast. Okay, it's from India all the way to Ethiopia and that's important. Okay, the narrator is giving us that information for a reason Okay Now look at verse number two We're gonna we'll get into that here in a second It says that in those days when the king a hazardous sat on the throne of his kingdom Which was in Shushan the palace and 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 before him. Okay You know I personally believe that there is a reason why he's going through the links that he's going through in order to host this Party this festival if you will Okay, it's obviously for political reasons even history does tell us that This Xerxes here was the one that went and made an attack and tried to conquer Mainland Greece he wanted to take Athens he couldn't and it's a fact even in the book of Daniel You can kind of see this here that eventually the Greeks Took him out and became the dominant world power So I believe that what's going on here is he's doing this for a reason He's doing this to showcase to people that are powerful that you know, they ought to support him and his conquest But that's my opinion. You might have a different one Look at verse 4 says when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days and it gives you the amount even 104 score days. So that's 180 days. That's six months of entertaining these people Okay, you say well, why did he take six months? Was he was he just an extreme drunk or something like that? I don't think that's the case. Okay, you go back in time that you you were gonna hop on a plane Okay and fly all your delegates to one spot and you know be able to have a feast it would take time to get all these people through rotated through to be able to enjoy this feast and Also that would leave protection for all the other nations that are in this empire at the same time So that's that's kind of my thinking there verse number five He says the Bible says and when these days were expired The King made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushian the palace both unto great and small seven days in the court of the Garden of the King's palace I remember a long time ago I don't know why I remember this stuff a long time ago sitting in a new evangelical church and this guy's like this palace in Hebrew or I'm sorry this garden in Hebrew Okay this really means like glorious outdoor palace and these are the places that Jesus was talking about when he talked about Paradise and this is kind of where people went when they died. They didn't necessarily go to hell They didn't necessarily go to heaven. They went to paradise then in this garden pictures that yeah, that's pretty dumb, isn't it? It's pretty stupid. It's like how in the world did you get all of that on one word here? And this is why I say like hey look man if you want to just change the Bible just change it You know, just just just be honest. I don't like the way this is written. Okay be like Joseph Smith Okay, be like Joseph Smith or Charles Taze Russell. Just say I don't like this. I'm changing it That's more honorable than being like well the original language is it really means this it's just ridiculous Okay, look at verse number six It says where we're white green and blue Hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings pillars of marble the beds were of gold and silver upon a Pavement of red and blue and white and black and marble and of course, we're getting these details. Okay, because a Hazardous purpose for showing this is to gain trust from the powerful people. He wants their trust He wants them to be okay with his leadership and his plans Obviously verse 7 and says and they gave them drink in the vessels of gold The vessels being diverse one from another and royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king is giving out all of this wine and things of that nature And in that mention there Okay These vessels being diverse one from another being different one from another is just another cue on the riches that he has And I think another point in all of this is after this is all said and done. None of this stuff saved him Okay, obviously after Xerxes was art of Xerxes and then it was another king and it was like Darius the second I don't have them all memorized, but then it was the end of their empire Okay, and so a quick lesson in that, you know trusting in your riches and materialistic goods aren't always gonna save you It's obviously the Lord that saves us in battle So verse number eight it says and the drinking was according to the law the Medo-Persian Empire loved their laws They loved their laws. They love their status. They got a law for everything and so it says that the drinking was According to the law none did compel you see that word there none did compel So what does that mean? It says that none did go up to people and say hey, you know Why aren't you drinking and start guilt-tripping people and like hey forcing this, you know, I told a military story this morning I might as well tell another one I'm brand new brand new right out of basic training in my infantry unit Three o'clock in the morning on a Friday here a big knock at the door Okay So what happened when I got to my unit is I was in second platoon and they didn't have any rooms in the barracks On the second floor, so they put me on the third floor. Okay, and in those types of units everything's a rivalry Okay, like our company hates the next company, but our our battalion hates the battalion across the pond our platoon hates the other It's just you know, our squad hates us. It's just always some kind of a fight some kind of a battle So essentially I'm in enemy territory Hey, I don't know about three o'clock in the morning on a Friday I get this bang at the door and it's two guys completely drunk out of their mind with beer and they're like you're drinking Like we heard you don't drink that stops right now. You're getting drunk and you're drinking I'm like still trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes What's going on? And they begin to start pouring beer and just I think it was just by the grace of God someone from my platoon had Come up the stairs. I don't know if they heard commotion. I don't know. I don't know how he got there I'm still kind of like delirious and it just turns into this big wrestling match Hi, you're gonna leave him alone, and I'm not gonna go into any more detail than that But let's just say that I did not wind up getting beer poured on me. They attempted it It didn't work things were wild back then and that's just kind of what it is But I but I like this here, you know, none did compel they weren't like oh, you know, come on, you know get drunk It's just like if you want to you can it is what it is So verse 8 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 So this event was meant to bring people pleasure not to promote some kind of a drunken stupor or anything like that Obviously, there's people drunk there. I mean, you know you get politicians and drugs or politicians are now Well, you're gonna have problems and you know, you can definitely kind of see that but look at verse 9 Now we get introduced to Vashti So verse 9 and also Vashti the Queen made a feast for the women in the royal house Which belonged to King Ahasuerus now just before we get any further everybody knows this Okay, you have a king you have a queen the queen is in submission to the king. That's basic logic Everybody understands everybody knows that a verse number 10 On the seventh day when the heart of the king was married with wine and I was just Letting us know that he was well drunken with this stuff. Okay, so That's what that means there. And it says on the seventh day when the heart of the king was married with wine He commanded me human. Okay, so this guy obviously has some looks issues a parent's name to me human to Distinguish him from other people. Okay, like me human not dog. Okay, so me human now I'm gonna make fun of these guys I don't think they're saying I'm gonna take a little liberty today and you guys know I can't pronounce these things Anyways, we need to get a bigger font Bible I forgot to listen to Scorby Josh. He did a great job reading these names Not me. I'm gonna butcher them. So I'm gonna do it with class So we got me human. We got biz the I could do that one hard bono. I'm gonna leave that one alone big the and Abba gatha Hey guys, I say thar then we got carcass gay a real pale individual. Apparently. Hey, we got carcass. I like him I can say that so what's the point here? Okay, these guys are the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of a hazardous the key Okay, so we're kind of getting a little bit of an inside look at how the Kings cabinet was So we were giving you the names of these folks here Which by the way has bothered scholars and archaeological? cool type guys who've actually dug up things and found these names and Artifacts and bugs them because what does that do that points to the Word of God that the Bible is true So it's kind of like God's saying you're not getting me out of the world. Okay, I'm here my fingerprints are all throughout history and You can cry your little lies out if that's what you want to do and so We've got these guys in the presence of the king. They're they're partying it up Okay, six month party, but remember this is on the seventh day now. Okay, so the six months is completed They're done with that. They've got this seven day feast after that and this is the seventh day So it's about to be over. They're about to get back to normal routine back to work here verse 11. It says To Bring Vashti verse 11 to bring Vashti before the king with the crown Royale to show the people and the princess her beauty for she was fair to look on me She was a very good-looking person obviously. Okay, so There this is where a lot of people again They like to play that omo card that original manuscript only card and say well in the Hebrew. This is written very Secretively this is written very poetically to suggest that he was going to parade her around without clothes on It's like you don't know that man. What does it say? Okay, remember we move from the known to the unknown when we don't know something we have to start with what we know What do we know here? Well, we know that the king requested the queen to be present. What is the Bible? What is the narrator saying to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown? Royale to show the people Okay, and the Prince is her beauty That was it people want to just read into this and oh he was gonna do something immoral here Maybe maybe not we don't know that therefore. We can't say that we shouldn't go through these great links and these backdoor Avenues and well, you know in the concordance here if you look at the third word from the Hebrew word It means seduce and oh, yeah, that's what he was gonna do. You don't know that. Okay, it was her beauty He wanted to show off. I heard I had another guy I forgot about this I had another guy this was a Calvary Church guy and he said according to Hebrew tradition There was an argument among all the delegates here Okay of whose nation had the best-looking women and a hazardous wanted to prove that he was right. You don't know that Where does it say there was an argument or a debate about that? It doesn't say that anywhere does it it says she was beautiful and he wanted to show her off. That's it Okay. Now I understand here what we're about to get into I understand why she's mad. Okay, I get that I totally get that and we should and so let's keep reading here, but look at that word there verse 12, but the Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains Therefore was the king very Roth and his anger burned in him He is not a happy camper here a hazardous is mad he is extremely upset here Okay, but let's not forget the picture. Let's not forget the situation here He has very powerful people in attendance and he just verbally gave an order gave a command Rather a request to his wife who's supposed to be in subjection to him Okay. Now this is where obviously he went wrong. He probably should have just been like hey Go tell her you know to come out here and kept it cool Obviously he didn't do that. And so he's upset. He's made to look like a fool because she's like I ain't doing it not happening Okay, was she right does she know something we don't you'd have to ask them I don't know. I just have to go with what is written here. Okay, so he's upset. He is mad She said no, this is where you're gonna see the Empire begin to strike back and why? Look at verse 13 It says 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, okay for all that new law and judgment and of course people can say here Well, they knew the sign of the time. So they were astrologers. Okay, I don't know that I think what they knew is they understood the political severity they understood The basically where they were at in their empire and what they wanted to do Okay And I think they obviously also Understood what her saying no meant in front of all of these people and how that was going to be perceived I think it's pretty obvious. Okay, if your wife the Queen's not gonna follow you then why should we okay? You just spent six months parading around all your glory all your riches all of these accomplishments all the wealth all of these Resources that you've amassed unto yourself, but yet your own wife isn't gonna listen to you Hmm, that doesn't look good. Does it? So now there has to be a Consequence for that we can debate the whole problem between a hazardous and Vashti another time here I just want to go through what is written. Okay, and it says the king said to the wise man Which knew the times for so was the manner? Toward all that new laws are so was the manner or the king's manner toward all that new law and judgment So apparently here he's not too drunk because he's still following the same pattern that he always had So when he had an issue, he would go and seek counsel from his Chamberlain say is this a wise thing to do? What do you guys know and they understood what was going on in this country that country that country and they kind of knew The sign of the times and stuff were they pagans and in astrology probably, you know I'm not gonna knock anything on that But I think what it is here is that they were his advisors and understood situations in the kingdom very well Okay, so in the eye and you go read through Ezra by the way, especially in chapter 7 you'll see that his art Xerxes so the king after him that his chamberlains knew the law of God and I'm not saying they're all saved but they had a good understanding of that and What it took to actually rebuild the wall and the temple and the things that they were going to need for the priesthood So we don't have time to get into that. We got to get moving here But look at verse 14 it says and next and the next unto him was a car shiner There we go, okay she either and matha that's the name for Adams a full name for Adam it's add matha We just call him Adam for short. We got Tarshish. We got Maris. We got Mars chicken tiki Marsala. We got Mimikin, okay metamucil. We'll call him that the seven princes of Persia and Medea, which saw the king's face and which sat first in the kingdom So not only do you have his chamberlains his advisors, but you also have these very powerful princes in attendance Okay, they saw the king's face. They were very close to him. Okay, they would talk with him They would come up with strategy and obviously delegation and had a authority in the kingdom verse 15 What shall we do unto the Queen Vashti? According to law because she has not performed the commandment of the king a hazardous by the chamberlain Now I as you know, I'm studying this out. I'm wondering okay. I wonder if there's somebody out there And there's got to be is there somebody out there That just makes a big deal. Okay about Vashti and starts to trash these guys Is you're gonna see the advice that they give here towards the end of the chapter. It is biblical advice Okay, it's Ephesians chapter 5 at 2nd Timothy chapter 2 it's sound good working advice that God gives us Okay, and I was like I wonder through this I just did a quick search I can't even remember what I typed into YouTube and sure enough I found a church where a guy was going through this and I just fast forward to to this for this part here And he's like, you know these guys here They're really chauvinistic. They're really off the rocker You know They're worried about their role in the house and then he pulls up this female commentator to the Bible and he's and I'm not knocking females, but you know I'm just thinking like what in the world is he talking about here? Actually Vashti, you know was more righteous than all of these guys and what they did to her was wrong the whole thing's wrong a Hazardous was wrong for neglecting his wife. Okay, I'll tell you that right now. That's a problem Okay, obviously him doing his kingship thing and trying to entertain all these people for six months put a strain on their relationship I think we can all agree on that And so he obviously should have had some more Compassion and had some better wisdom and not just treat her like a piece of me I just want to bring you out here. So everybody can see how cute you are. Okay, that's obviously not good It's not a good way to treat a woman at all by any means I get that. Okay, but again We're going through this story systematically and I'm listening to this guy and it's just like Vashti should have told him off And you know, God was on the side of Vashti was just again just more injecture Okay, again these guys they've got a big spiritual syringe and they just pull that thing out and they just push that right in the Bible and everything that comes out of their fleshly heart They could just inject into the Bible and just spew it out into their congregations and then people come up with the weirdest doctrines Imaginable. Okay, and that's what it was He's just completely knocking these guys and I want you to think about that as we finish this chapter up here Okay, are these guys actually off the rocker or do they actually provide some sound advice some sound wisdom? Let's find out here Okay Look at verse 16 says and Memekin answered before the king and the prince And the princes Vashti the queen have not done wrong to the king only but also to all the princes And to all the people that are all Aren't are in all the provinces of the king a hazardous and so right here This guy's like see this guy's super paranoid and that's what being a chauvinistic pickle do to you. You just become paranoid and You just start, you know tripping on these things the next thing, you know You're off your rocker. That's what just kept saying off your rocker and I'm just like Wow It's definitely out there. Okay. Now these guys are right. Okay, and this is actually something that the elites know, right? Why do you think our government? Why do you think the media? Why do you think the Jews of today? The synagogue of Satan are pushing Okay, feminine ideology. Why are they pushing that because they're a death cult and they understand what that does They don't want strong families. Show me somebody on the left that wants strong Families they wants a dad opera father Okay, a husband operating properly in his role in the wife operating properly in her role a mom operating properly in her role Okay, raising children being a blessing. Hey, they don't want any of that because that is a threat to their agenda Okay, these guys ain't you know, they understand that they know that and so they're not being paranoid here They're being honest they get it. Okay, if we just leave this unchecked. Okay, guess what's gonna happen? Well, it's gonna embolden a lot of other women be like well, I mean we look up to the Queen she's great She's been taking care of us. We honor and respect the Queen She told him no, we're gonna tell her husband's though. They ain't no king right who's gonna know this thing's gonna spread like wildfire Okay, but of course, you know in today's day and age with the condition of our society You know churches don't want to say that because it's not popular and so they want to take the side of culture And oh, you know, yeah. Yeah, these guys are wrong and they're just super paranoid No They're actually dead on here verse 17 for this deed of the Queen shall come abroad unto all Women so that they shall despise their husbands and their eyes when it shall be reported The King a hazardous commanded Vashti the Queen to be brought in before him, but she came not now That's not to say that all people are gonna go completely rogue and every single marriage is gonna fall apart But it is gonna cause a problem Okay, why because people in influence have influence Okay People in leadership have influence and they realize that they understand that completely and I'm gonna say this Okay an opposition to submission is an attempt to change your position and whether she realizes it here or not these guys do they realize that if this Goes unchecked that is going to change her position in the eyes of the people and it's gonna cause them a Problems, okay So even these elite people here they understand the value and the importance of the family unit. Okay, look at verse 18 now Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Medea 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 Okay, I think they know something here and they don't want this to happen. Okay 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 means that it be not altered that Vashti come no more before the king a hazardous and let the king Give her royalist. I'm sorry. Look. Yeah, let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than She And so that's what these guys come up with. They asked the king. Hey, if you are okay with this Let's make a law and get this changed for this reason verse 20 and when the king's decree 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 great and small and I've used this verse before in the past to say You know you it's hard to legislate morality I think one of the things you are gonna find on some sense with this when you make this a law now You have to do this now. People are gonna be like Well, I have to love them You know, I have to do this because the law says instead of letting it happen naturally saying hey This is what God desires. This is what God wants. God wants you to love your wife He wants wives to love their husbands because it's gonna make for a better relationship a better marriage and things You're just gonna be better off overall. Okay, but when you make a law for these things, it's just kind of like Now Now I gotta follow the law, okay, but I get the intent here I get what they're saying remember these people are not saved Okay, they're these these are heathen people. They're not going to the law of God and coming up with this stuff At least that's not what it's telling us verse 21. We're getting close to being done here Okay It says and of the saying please the king and the princes and the king did according to the word of Mamuken so you here you have it Okay, Vashti essentially this is basically the consensus that they came up with Vashti has attacked the Empire Hey, not just King not just king of hazards, but she attacked the Empire So therefore the Empire needs to strike back The Empire needs to do something to her to send a message to everyone that this behavior is not acceptable verse 22 For he sent letters into all the king's provinces into every province according to the writing thereof Into 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, you know, I kind of wonder we're we're done right here But if you wouldn't mind go to Ephesians chapter 5 real quick Ephesians chapter 5, you know I kind of wonder if some people you know, we're like well in the original Persian meadow language this word submit just really means suggest and you know, it's really more like suggestions I doubt that I bet they got the message loud and clear proving the fact that you can translate into other languages Let me just leave you real quickly with this thought here just so we can kind of see, you know Was that advice sound I mean or were they just being paranoid? What's the desire here? Okay Ephesians chapter number five Let's start off here Let's look at verse 17 Yeah, let's look at verse number 17. So after Paul tells the Ephesians. Hey, make sure you guys redeem the time Okay, understand that your time is a very precious commodity is limited So make the best of it make the most of it while you're here. Okay verse 17 says wherefore so for that reason Be ye not an unwise But understanding what the will of the Lord is verse 18 be not drunk Okay, be not drunk with wine. Whereas we're in his excess, but be filled with the spirit Okay, and how do you do that? How do you begin that process? Well, it's verse 19 speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts Lord Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord Okay, this is something that we talked about this morning in a roundabout way. Okay the answer to Obviously having clamor. Okay, or having meltdowns and being just just very aggressive without temperance And without knowledge the answer to that we talked about this this morning is to be kind and tender hearted, right? We talked about that this morning and that's basically his advice here giving Thanks always for all things verse 20 unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord Okay When you do this when we submit ourselves in the fear of the Lord that what that means is I have the mind of Christ and I want to put your needs above my own. Okay, so if you need something and I have it I'm gonna give it to you. That's the idea here. Okay, that's how we're supposed to operate We're not supposed to be like, well, I'm the pastor. I'm gonna bash you around. I'm gonna do this to you Okay, that's not the the way it ought to be we ought to take care of one another verse 22 This is wives submit yourselves, okay submit yourselves unto your own Husbands as unto the Lord. Okay. I like that word there and I've said this a million times But submit yourself to your own husband Okay, so we don't want to ever develop this culture in church where it's like, okay Every man has authority or some kind of I don't know just some kind of attitude towards all the women Like I'm above you like this Andrew Tate kind of philosophy, right? We won't we want to shun that Okay, wives can submit to their own husbands as unto the Lord. So what's the precept here? Okay, the precept is very simple It's law submit yourselves to your husband what's the principle the principle is because you're doing this to the Lord and by doing this you are sending a Message and saying basically hey, the Lord is sanctified in front of you. Okay, I'm doing this for God I'm doing this for the Lord verse 23 for the husband as the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body Verse 24 therefore as the church is subject unto Christ. So let the wives be to again their own Husbands and everything and of course a hazardous. Where did he mess up here? Okay, well having the booze fast didn't help him out in you know, very much did it but verse 25 husbands Love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it and here it is verse 26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by The word and so it always goes back to the Word of God. Why do we do these things? Okay, again, we don't want to just give people laws precepts do this do this Okay, we want to give them the principle the foundation Because when you understand the importance and the why we're doing this it's gonna help you to want to actually do it It's like oh, okay You know I had a love my wife as Christ loved the church because what this does is it separates us from the world and People do see that and it does have impact it does make a difference so Obviously hazardous. He's got his own agenda his own, you know Map to victory in his own mind But he's still got a little bit of old-school traditional family values left and apparently the people around him had the same thing and they didn't want that to Erode and to corrupt their society. Yeah, just think about this for a minute Okay, the Medo-Persian Empire the elite of the elite back then they understood what would happen if that eroded if that was called into question and Family started to break apart. It would be harder to be an empire. It would be harder to be a powerhouse They would lose control Okay, so you have to understand that the people in power today in this country they understand that very well Okay, now some of them realize this and some of them don't but they're under the control of Satan You say why bring that up because his goal is to erode the fabric of society. His goal is to destabilize distract and divide and what he's going to accomplish by doing that is Obviously the New World Order one world government all of that stuff So we're gonna go ahead and leave it there for tonight and we'll pick it up in chapter 2 next week and we'll obviously get into who Esther is in relation to Mordecai and get more into how this book is very very very relevant for times today, so Let's stop right there bow our heads and have a word of prayer Thank you so much Lord for the infinite wisdom and all of these books I just pray that this would be a blessing to us Lord and we'd be able to help one another in These things and we just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service and bring us back safely next week in Jesus name I pray amen. All right, so we're gonna go ahead and have one more song and then we'll be dismissed