Sermon: In the Days of Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1)

In the Days of Ahasuerus
Sunday, November 10th, 2024
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Esther 1:1
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

Prayer

Father, we thank you that there is no power except from You. You are the one who appoints rulers, and You cast them down. You are the one who opposes the proud, but gives grace to the lowly. And so we ask now for you to hear the prayers of the righteous, the cries of the humble, and make us to see how You work all things for the good of those who love you, and who are called according to your purpose. We ask for all this in the name of Jesus, and Amen.

Introduction

In 1 Chronicles 12, God gives us a description of the mighty men of valor/hayil who gathered around David to make him king over all Israel. It says in 1 Chronicles 12:22-23, “For at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God. And these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to the war, and came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the Lord.” And then the text goes on to describe how many men from each tribe came out and joined David’s army.

• 6,800 from Judah,
• 7,100 from Simeon,
• 4,600 from Levi,
• 3,000 from Benjamin,
• 20,800 from Ephraim,
• 18,000 from Manasseh,
• But then when it gets to the tribe of Issachar, it says in verse 32, “of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command.”
• Notice the Sons of Issachar had a special gift: “understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” What do we call this ability? This gift of understanding that leads to right actions. In the Christian tradition, we call this the virtue of prudence.
• Prudence in its most basic definition is right reason about human actions. To put it another way, Prudence is knowing both 1) the correct destination, and 2) the best road to get there. Prudence is the habit of acquiring an aerial eye view of the situation on the ground, considering all possible paths, and then judging which path is the best of all.
  • Prudence is the virtue that perfects our mind, our intellect, and without out, we make bad decisions.
  • It says in Proverbs 8:12, “I wisdom dwell with prudence, And find out knowledge of witty inventions.”
  • It says of Christ in Ephesians 1:8-7, that “he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.”
  • God gave to us in Christ, the knowledge of the highest good, which is God Himself. And so to receive prudence from Jesus is to know that God is the highest destination for humanity, and the best and only possible path to God is through Jesus Christ, who calls himself in John 14:6, “the way, the truth, and the life.”
  • So prudence first understands what the highest good is, namely God, and the surest path to Him, namely Christ. And then from that knowledge of the highest good, and as someone who is seeking first that good (the kingdom of God), our Heavenly Father intends for us to learn and practice prudence also in lesser things, in politics, in government, in family matters, in parenting, in business ventures, in personal decisions about our finances, or what career to pursue, or what person to marry, or what house to buy, or what city to live in. These are all prudential questions that God wants us to answer using the principles of His Word.
  • Now why all this talk about Prudence?
• Because Prudence is a major theme of the book of Esther. And to teach us prudence, is one of the primary purposes for God inspiring this book and giving it to the church.
  • It says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
  • And so as we study this book now and for many months to come, I want you to study it with an eye to growing in this virtue of prudence. My hope for us as a church, and for you as individuals, is that you become like the sons of Issachar:
    • You understand the times you are living in from God’s perspective.
    • You understand the story arc of biblical history and where you are in that story.
    • You understand the motives and actions for each character in this book, and are then able to identify the motives of your own heart and where they need to change.
    • My hope is that our immersion in the world of Esther will help us internalize God’s truth, so that we can become the characters God wants us to be in the story He is telling in our day. So that in the books of heaven we might be numbered as sons and daughters of Issachar, who understood the times of God’s kingdom, and what we ourselves ought to do.
• Now I only read one verse for us this morning (verse 1), and that is because if you want to understand Esther, you need to understand the times and the places wherein this story takes place. Because without that context, you can easily miss the whole point of the story, and you will likely mis-judge the actions of the different characters within the story, whether Ahasuerus, or Vashti, or Haman, or Mordecai, or Esther.
  • In order for us to rightly judge their actions, or to argue for what they should have done, we need to first understand the times they were living in and enter into that world with them.
  • So there are just two questions I am going to ask and answer in this sermon:
    • 1. Where did this story take place?
    • 2. When did it happen?

Question 1 – Where did the story of Esther take place?

• The answer to this first question about location is the much easier of the two. We are told explicitly in Esther 1:5, “the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace.” “Other translations might read, “in the citadel of Susa.”
• Shushan/Susa was the capital of the Persian empire at this time, and if you were to look for it on a map, it would be in modern day Shush, Iran.
  • Next week I will try to include a map of the Persian empire so you can get a better visual for where this is.
• As far as the Jews were concerned, Shushan was about 1,000 miles away from their home in Jerusalem. And to give you some perspective, it’s about 1,000 miles from here in Centralia to Las Vegas, Nevada. So if you were to walk in the ancient world, from Shushan to Jerusalem, it would take you about 44 days if you walked non-stop for 8 hours a day.
• We have in various museums some physical artifacts from Shushan during this time period, one of which is a clay tablet that describes the construction of this palace by King Darius. It reads, “This palace which I built at Susa, from afar its ornamentation was brought. Downward the earth was dug, until I reached rock in the earth. When the excavation had been made, then rubble was packed down, some 40 cubits in depth, another [part] 20 cubits in depth. On that rubble the palace was constructed.”
  • We read in Esther 1:6 that in this palace there were, “pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.”
  • So the Bible gives us a description of the precious stones and materials used in this palace, and this fits with what Darius himself describes in this artifact saying, “from afar its ornamentation was brought.”
• So what is today just ruins and a tourist attraction in Iran, used to be the center of imperial power that extended from India in the East, to Egypt and the Mediterranean in the West.
  • When it says in verse 1, “this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia,” the Hebrew word beneath Ethiopia is Cush, which was a land just south of Egypt in modern day Sudan.
  • So this was a vast empire, and Shushan was a convenient middle point between the Eastern and Western borders.
• We learn from the book of Daniel that Daniel himself had a vision that placed him in Shushan, and this was about 12 years before Babylon fell to the kingdom of Persia. So while Daniel is serving in the Babylonian capital, God takes him in a vision to where the new capital shall be.
  • It says in Daniel 8:1-2, “In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.” And then God shows to Daniel the future wherein a ram with two horns arises and conquers. And an angel tells Daniel, “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia” (verse 20). And then after this ram, comes a goat which refers to Alexander the Great, the king of Greece.
  • And so God shows to Daniel while in Babylon, and through him to all the faithful, what shall take place in the years ahead. And this brings us to the more important and more difficult question of when exactly the story of Esther takes place?

Question 2 – When do the events of Esther happen in the biblical timeline?

• The short answer is that Esther spans the years c. 519-509 BC, after the exile and return from Babylon, but before the walls of Jerusalem are rebuilt under Nehemiah. So while prophets like Malachi are still to come, Esther is the final story in the Old Testament that describes Israel outside of Jerusalem. And so both Jews and Christians have consistently looked to Esther as a kind of guide for living in an age of empires, especially empires that can be at times very hostile to Christians, and at other times very favorable.
  • Now because this time period in biblical history is one of the most confusing and unfamiliar for many Christians, I want to situate Esther within the broader biblical timeline. And because Esther stands as the culmination of many Old Testament plotlines, to study Esther is also to study many stories that came before. The book of Esther is consciously trying to resolve certain storylines and tensions that began way back in Genesis and Exodus.
  • So let us get the big picture of the Old Testament fresh in our heads.
• For mnemonic purposes, we can divide the history of Israel into 5 basic eras.
  • 1. The Era of Moses, which begins around 1,500 BC with the Exodus from Egypt and the birth of Israel as a nation. After Moses dies, Joshua takes the people into the promised land, and this leads to the second era…
  • 2. The Era of Judges. During this eraIsrael tries to settle down in the promised land under various tribal rulers (12 Judges from Othniel to Samson). This time period, according to the Apostle Paul in Acts 13:20, runs for about 450 years. However, as we know from the book of Judges, this was a time when every man did what was right in his own eyes, and the result of this moral environment was in many cases lawlessness and a lack of unity amongst the twelve tribes. This created a desire amongst the populace for a king “like the nations” to rule over them. We read about this populace demand in 1 Samuel 8, “And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” And thus, Saul is anointed and we began a third era…
  • 3. The Era of Kings. By now it is about 1,000 years before the birth Christ, and 500 years after the death of Moses. We witness the height of Israel’s monarchy under David and Solomon and the building of God’s temple around 943 BC, but that glory is short-lived when Solomon commits idolatry and polygamy and this sets the table for civil war under his son Rehoboam, and from that point on, Israel and Judah become two separate kingdoms. The capital of Israel becomes Samaria and is ruled primarily by the tribe of Ephraim, while the capital of Judah (and part of Benjamin) remains in Jerusalem. So you have Israel in the north and Judah in the south, with two separate kings reigning over them.
    • If we look at the northern kingdom of Israel, we see that is was exclusively ruled by wicked and idolatrous kings (with Jehu being short reprieve), and so they are eventually conquered by Assyria in 722 BC. And thus, the northern kingdom only lasts for about 200 years.
    • The southern kingdom of Judah on the other hand fairs a bit better. That kingdom will run for another 100 years or so after their Northern brethren fall. And this was because there are at least 6 good kings who reign after Solomon’s death, but despite their various attempts at reform, the people are so wicked and the leadership so compromised, that they are eventually conquered by Babylon, taken into exile, and the temple at Jerusalem is burned to the ground around 586 BC. This is key and crucial date to remember: Jerusalem’s destruction by Babylon around 586 BC.
    • And this begins the fourth era…
  • 4. The Era of Exile.
    • It is during this time period that Jeremiah functions as a senior prophet working in Jerusalem. Two of his young seminary students are Ezekiel and Daniel (who were both born around the same time). And it is these two men that God sends ahead of his people into Babylon, to prepare a place for them.
    • So even prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, Daniel has already been serving in the Babylonian court for 17 years. And Ezekiel has been seeing visions and teaching some of the captives in Babylon for 10 years.
    • And guess who else was amongst these early exiles to Babylon? We are told in Esther 2:6-7, that Mordecai was amongst this group, “Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.”
      • If we do the math and compare this with Jeremiah 52:29, we learn that this was around 597 BC. So Mordecai was likely a baby or a very young man at this stage.
    • So during this Era of Exile, you have Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, teaching the people how to live, survive, and even thrive under Babylonian rule.
      • Jeremiah is in the palace at Jerusalem. Daniel is in the palace at Babylon. And Ezekiel is amongst the captives at Babylon, and they are God’s threefold cord of prophets during this era.
    • Now if you were an Israelite living in this time period, what would faithfulness look like? What would prudence look like in an age of exile?
    • Well God tells them very explicitly what they are to do:
    • In Jeremiah 29 (written in 597 BC) it says, “Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon…[Daniel and Ezekiel are recipients of this letter]. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace…For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jer. 29:1, 4-7, 10-14)
      • So for the next 70 years, Jerusalem will lie in ruins taking its sabbath rest. And during that time, they are to build houses, get married, seek the peace of Babylon, and pray to God for Babylon. And then when those years are up, God is going to regather those who have been scattered. And this brings us to the days of Esther, and the fifth era of Israel’s history…
  • 5. The Era of Restoration.
    • The Restoration Era begins with Cyrus’ decree in 537 BC, for the Jews to arise and return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple there.
    • The book of 2 Chronicles ends the same way the book of Ezra begins, with this royal decree: “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:2-4).
    • So the marching orders for Israel changes in this era under Persian rule. God’s people are called by Cyrus to rebuild the temple, restore Jerusalem, and return to the Lord with a whole heart.
    • God gave Israel 70 years of “timeout discipline” to think about their sins, to think about their apostasy, and to learn from Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, how they are to live when God ushers in this new era of restoration.
    • And this brings us to 537 BC, when the first wave of exiles returns to Jerusalem. And again we see that a now grown Mordecai is amongst them. He is at least 60 years old now.
      • It says in Ezra 2:1-2, “Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city; Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai…”
    • And so by now, Mordecai is an elder, a ruler, and he is amongst those governing officials of the Jews who heed Cyrus decree to go and rebuild the temple.
    • How does that reconstruction project go?
    • We learn from the book of Ezra that this work begins, but opposition arises, and so they stop building. They get the sacrificial altar built, and the foundation laid, but that’s about it.
    • Meanwhile, Daniel is almost 90 years old, and he has his final vision of what will take place between then and the time that Christ is born. And as these prophets from the Era of Exile are now old or dead (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel), there is a need for new prophets to arise.
    • And so in 520 BC, 16 years after the work stalled out in Jerusalem, God raises up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to get the Jews back to work.
    • Now sometime during that 16-year construction stall, Mordecai goes back to Persia. He returns to Shushan. The Bible never tells us exactly when or why he went back, all we know for sure is that when Esther becomes queen, there is Mordecai “in Shushan the palace.”
  • So here’s your first test of prudence, Why do you think Mordecai went back? What would be a good reason for doing? And what would be a bad or sinful reason for doing so?
    • There is no one right answer to this question since the Bible does not tell us, but it’s a good question to begin to enter the story and exercise your intellectual powers on.

Conclusion

To summarize the answers to our two questions, Where and When does Esther take place?

• Esther takes place in Shushan the capital of Persia in the years 519-509 BC.
• And more importantly, it takes place during the Era of Restoration, when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah are active in Jerusalem, and when the visions of Daniel and Ezekiel are starting to be fulfilled.
• So as you seek to become a son or daughter of Issachar, remember that Jesus Christ is the font of all prudence, and as it says in Colossians 2:3 in Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
• So give yourself wholly to Christ, and He shall make blessed. As it says in Psalm 119:2, “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, And that seek him with the whole heart.”
• May God seal this word within you. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.