When God Seems Silent... The World Parties On (Esther 1:1-22)

This past Sunday, I kicked off our series in Esther. I introduced the book, as well as covering the first chapter. You can download the audio here and download the manuscript here. You can also read it below. I’m looking forward to this journey through this awesome Old Testament book.

The World Parties On (Esther 1:1-22) - 01.26.20

Has God ever seemed silent to you? Like He was completely absent? Distant from your heart? Disinterested in your life? Nothing seems to go right?

Relationship failures? Job struggles? The present seems miserable. There’s uncertainty in the future. The past is filled with regret. You pick up the Bible, and it seems lifeless. Your prayers just seem to bounce off the ceiling. A dark cloud hangs over you. Deep despair wells up inside of you. God seems quiet and so far away. And you have no explanation why. 

It’s in those moments that the world around seems so alluring. Right? You scroll through your Instragram feed. You feel like your phone just read your mind. So what if the card is almost maxed out? Click. Buy. That’ll make you feel better. For awhile. Perhaps harder is looking at all the vacation pics - the selfies in exciting places. And wishing you could trade places, get a bit of what they’re having. It’s tough. 

Of course, the hardest part about the internet is all the sex. A few clicks or taps, and you can have pleasure - or what feels like it for awhile - without investment, even without interaction. Fast. Easy. But with guilt and self-loathing to follow. But you can get that even without looking at porn. The weight-loss ads, the before/after pics, the perfect, electronically air-brushed selfies, the fashion photos. They all suck us into this “image is everything” world. And usually we’re left thinking we don’t measure up. 

So we often turn to those we think do. When God seems distant or silent, we start looking for candidates and also causes that we can latch ourselves to. We go looking for power that we can feel and see and touch. We’re drawn to it. We want to feel like there’s hope for us. So we search out tribes and leaders that inspire us. We identify ourselves with them. And we end up demonizing others in the process.

We look for those things and run to them. But we rarely feel better for long. It’s no wonder multiple studies have linked high social media use in teenagers with increased anxiety and depression. It’s all just so much. And it’s not just them. We’re attracted to it all. We’re distracted by it all.  It’s hard. And especially when things aren’t going well. We drift toward those things. And it just makes us feel worse. When our job isn’t going well. When friends abandon us. When family life gets tough. When we find out we have cancer. When God seems silent.

But, when God seems silent, the world parties on. And it’s so easy to see the sights and hear the sounds and turn there. You’re deeply discouraged. You begin to wonder, “Has God forgotten me? Maybe they’re right.” You’re near despair. You ask, “Are we really His? Or is this all a joke?” And faintly, in the distance, you hear a pulsating dance beat. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. 

The bass breaks through the silence. And you’re drawn. To that party. It calls out to us. Especially in our struggles. Loudly into the silence. You can’t hear God. You can hear that. You can’t see Him or touch Him. The world spreads its goods - its services - its comforts, joys - out in front of us. It calls out for us.

Well, today, we’re embarking on a study of the Old Testament book of Esther. We’ll look at this great story over the next several months. We’ll see how God uses this woman to rescue His people from danger in a foreign land. From genocide. But maybe that wasn’t their greatest danger - at least at first. Maybe it wasn’t getting killed by the people around them. Maybe it was getting assimilated into them. Into their culture, which was so far from the God of Israel, that was spreading out a feast before them. And partying right in front hem.

Today, I’ll introduce this book. I’ll show you four themes that we find here. We’ll see them as we walk through the first chapter, looking at verses 1 through 22.  We’ll talk about where we find ourselves, what surrounds us all, what we must remember, and how we won’t forget. People like to say the Bible isn’t relevant, but I think we’ll find, as we look at this Old Testament book, that our world and theirs are much closer together than we may realize.

Where God’s People Find Themselves

First, let’s think about where we find ourselves. We have to get our bearings, if we’re to have any idea of how we’re supposed to live, of where we’re supposed to go. Well, where do we find God’s people, the Jews, here in Esther? They’re in the city of Susa, in what’s modern-day Iran. It’s one of four capital cities of the great ancient Persian Empire. God’s people are far away from the Promised Land, from Israel, from Jerusalem.  

It’s late fifth century B.C. In the late sixth century B.C. - that’s about 100 years before - the Babylonians invade the holy land. They drag many of God’s people away. The Lord had promised them, when He gave them that land, that if they strayed from His ways, they’d be judged. And that’s what happens to them. But God doesn’t forget His people. He uses another foreign king named Cyrus who conquers Babylonia and founds the Persian Empire. He ends their captivity. He frees the Jews to come home. He even encourages them to rebuild their temple.   

But here it’s about fifty years past that point. And we find a substantial amount of God’s people who’ve chosen not to return home. Maybe they’re mesmerized by the glory around them in Persia. They’ve been assimilated. Perhaps they’re just overwhelmed with the thought of picking up and moving. They’re just comfortable. We don’t know.

But there they are, still, in a foreign land. Under pagan rule. Elect exiles. The fact that they still exist at this point is a miracle, in and of itself. And that’s maybe the biggest point the Lord makes in this book. The term “the Jews” is used 40 times in this book. The Lord has a people. And He will preserve them. We will see how the Lord brings it about here in this book. God’s commitment to His people. That’s the first theme I want you to grasp from this book. And it’s still so relevant today. In 1 Peter 1, God calls us “elect” - that’s chosen - “exiles.”  This is not our home, friends. As Paul puts it, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). No matter how hard things get. No matter how bad things look. We are His and He is committed to us. Our God has a people. That’s us, if we’re in Christ Jesus. And He won’t abandon us.

Now it’s easy for my mind to go quickly to how the Lord has provided for us, the people of Karis. I remember almost being homeless twice. And now the Lord has given us - not one, but two buildings.

But us moving around from hotel to homes, would be nothing compared to what is going on in Nigeria. You probably read of the recent execution by a terrorist group of a pastor there. Over 1000 Christians there are believed to have been executed in 2019 alone. Even in the darkest moments, God’s committed to His people. That truth can carry us through.   

What Surrounds God’s People

Second, let’s look at what surrounds us all. What’s all around us, the people of God, in this age? It looks more like Persia than we might realize. We have to understand our context to live faithfully. But what’s all-around God’s covenant people here? What do we see in chapter one? A massive party, right? A big feast. It’s thrown by the king, “Ahasuerus,” who’s better known by His Greek name, Xerxes. He’s the grandson of Cyrus. He’s the King of Persia. And verse 4 says he displays “the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days.” 

Well, what do we see? We see three things. First, money. Look at the extravagance here. 180 days of partying. For the higher-ups, first, says verse 4. And another seven days for the lower-downs. Those who worked in the citadel - the Kremlin, of sorts, of that capital city, says verse 5. Verse 6 labors to tell us of the glory of the material things in the palace’s court. Catch this: “couches of gold and silver.” Ponder that. Couches! Turns out the Greeks invaded Susa just a few years after, and they found exactly that. 

Verses 7 and 8 speak about all the drinking that was going on. “The royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king.” And the drinks were served in golden vessels, just to show off. There were just two rules. One rule for the guests: “There is no compulsion.” Take as much or as little as you want. One for the staff: “do as each man desired.” So, excess. Indulgence. Gluttony. Drunkenness. All there for God’s people to see. All calling out to them.  

Second, power. What’s going on here? What’s the occasion? Well, most scholars think this corresponds to the Great Council of 483 held by Xerxes. This was about celebration. But it was even more about assimilation. Xerxes is throwing this party at this conference, trying to build support for his next campaign against his main threat, the burgeoning nation of Greece. He’s trying to build power by showing off what he already has. He’s saying to his guests, “See my glory as King. Come be a part of things, and all this will be yours, as well.” Verse 1 tells us he rules “from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces.” On today’s map it runs roughly from Pakistan to Southern Sudan. It’s a big kingdom. But he wants more. We see power here. 

Third, sex. Right? Queen Vashti, says verse 9, is giving her own feast for the women. Verse 10 says the king is drunk, and he has an idea. And ends up sending a drunk text. He’s shown them the glory of his kingdom. But they haven’t seen one thing: his living trophy, his wife, Vashti. Verse 11 says he wants to show off her beauty, “for she was lovely to look at.” He tells his seven eunuch servants to go grab her and bring her “before the king with her royal crown.” Yeah, this is probably what it sounds like. It was more than likely in just her crown. But look at verse 12. She refuses. And that makes the king really angry.

Something striking in the book of Esther are the comedic elements throughout. And here’s the first one we encounter. This powerful guy, ruling most of the known world at the time, cannot get his wife to do what he wants! And then we see, in verses 13-22 something even more hilarious. He huddles up his boys. And this is the counsel he receives. They basically tell him: “You can’t let her do that. If the word gets out, then all women will do this.” They convince him to get rid of the queen and replace her with someone else. 

And then what do they do? They send out a decree - explaining what had happened - and what wouldn’t happen again - to the whole empire - the equivalent of a tweet with lots of capitalized words and exclamation points. They end up publicizing what was an embarrassing event. And they begin, as we’ll see in chapter two, looking for the next queen.

But with that, I want to introduce you to a second major theme we see here in Esther. The hidden providence of God. One thing you may not realize is that the term God or the name for God are not found at all in the book. It’s not like the writer - and we’re not totally sure who it is - just forgot. It wasn’t an oversight. No. It’s no doubt a Spirit-inspired literary device. The Lord wants us to see in Esther this: when God seems silent or absent, when we think He’s forgotten us, He’s still very much at work. 

When we talk about God’s providence, we’re talking about His control over every detail in His creation. Ephesians 1:11 - “He works all things according to the counsel of his will.” We’re talking about Him providing for His creation, and especially for His people. And sometimes it’s seen in spectacular, miraculous ways, like the ten plagues, like the parting of the Red Sea. But just as much it’s in the small details, the quiet places, the unseen things. Here Xerxes is showing off His crown. And He gets drunk and goes crazy. And our Lord is quietly using the deposition of a queen to make the way for Esther to step up and save God’s people. She just “happens” to be beautiful. There’s one true King in this story. He may not be named. But He’s the one really ruling.

You might have heard this before, but my wife’s mom was tragically killed by medical malpractice back when Amy was about my youngest son’s age. A doctor made a mistake taking out her tonsils, and seems to have covered it up, sending her home to bleed to death - even right in front of them. Now this no doubt was wrong. It was a tragedy. In so many ways. But it sent my wife down the road of becoming a nurse. It left her with a step-mom who was a Christ-follower. It brought her to Him, to me, to all of us here. Without this moment, so much would be different. And Amy ended up speaking to that doctor and forgiving him. No matter how it seemed, that man wasn’t in power. God was. Even in small things. In puzzling things. In really, really hard things.

But let’s go back to those three things we see here in this passage. Yeah, we certainly see these things coming from our leaders. Not just here, but around the world. But we also see them flying at us in our culture. Money, power, sex. Now hear me: it’s not that each of those things isn’t created by God and isn’t ok in the right context, in right proportion. But our great enemy throws them at us, trying to woo us with them, trying to destroy us by them.  

Just a month or so ago, right before Christmas, the family and I took a trip. We traveled to Kansas City. We stayed at a hotel connected to Crown Center there. And it took me back to when I was a kid. I was from a small town. My dad was a teacher. My mom a homemaker. Not a lot of cash or fame. I had an aunt and uncle who were pretty wealthy, pretty successful. Long before I even became a Christian, they decided to take my sister and I with them on an overnight in KC. They lived there. They went out of the way to show us the good life, what we could do with a little hard work and success. One of the things we did was have dinner at this really fancy restaurant at the top of that same hotel. It all flooded back into my memory on that recent trip. 

That’s what Xerxes is doing here in Esther 1. He’s saying, “Come follow my ways, embrace my reign, and all of this can be yours.” It hit me with the family then. There I was, doing some of the things they had tempted me with, and I didn’t have to turn from Jesus to experience it. I thanked God for His goodness to me. Everything I want - and you want - is found in Him. That leads to our next point.

What God’s People Had to Remember

Third, let’s see what we must remember. As elect exiles, surrounded by all of this, here’s what we must remind ourselves of. What God’s people had to remind themselves of. In the Lord, as His people, first, there is a better life. Look at what Xerxes is living for. What other people are running toward. A life based on the accumulation of wealth and might. A life based on the pursuit of sex. Don’t we see this so much today?

Men - and women - trying to prove their worth by what they have. Slaves to materialism. Showing their value by what they do. Trying to get to a place of power. Cutting corners, stepping on others. Doing anything it takes to get to the top.  

Men - generally speaking, but not exclusively - running after sexual pleasure, even being willing to hurt women to get it. Women resigning themselves to playing the game. Being controlled by what men think and want. Hear me friends: there’s a better life in the light of the Lord.

My friend Ray Ortlund has put it this way. Sex, for one, is like fire. It’s meant for the fireplace - a particular context. Take it out of there, and it burns everything down. God made these things. But when they move from being good to being God for us, we destroy them. And they in turn destroy us and others. Build your life on them, and they can’t bear the weight. And they won’t leave you happy. As God’s people we have to remember that there is a better life waiting for us in Him. Where we don’t have to prove ourselves. Or impress those around us. That life will crush us.    

Second, a better feast. You’ll notice that in this book there are a multitude of feasts. Lots of partying in Esther. This is an epic one, but it’s just the first - these people coming to Xerxes’s palace to party like it’s 583. But they no doubt left empty, and so will we. We, too, run to celebrate things that won’t ever satisfy. We do it to distract ourselves from things that truly will. And it’s tragic.

Now I believe Christians can use alcohol in moderation. I personally don’t drink, but many of my brothers and sisters drink and give thanks to God. I choose not to, because my wife used to do it to distract and escape. And I don’t want to make things hard on her. Maybe that’s you. Or maybe you run to sex or work or hobbies - lots of things. But the good life is found in Him, friends. You may remember Jesus saying these words in John 6: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Feast on the things of this world - at least as ends in themselves - and they won’t fill you up. They’ll leave you empty. 

Third, a better crown. Church, in America today, people are running to leaders and tribes that they think will give them hope and take away their suffering. Again, for God’s people, their Lord seems so distant. But Xerxes is close. They can see and hear him. They have to fight to remember. And so must we. In our Lord’s reign, we have true security. Total sovereignty. And he won’t manipulate or deceive. He won’t use and abuse. Perfect benevolence.

Don’t settle for pathetic replacements for the good, great reign of God. What’s hard to miss here in chapter one? Is this the doofus you’re hoping in? This Xerxes guy? Does that dork hold the destiny of God’s people in his hands? Of course not! That Emperor has no clothes! Not Vashi, his wife. The Lord’s reign is better, church. Far better.   

Here’s a third critical theme in Esther: the calling of God’s people. There, in exile, under God’s providential care, they were to live for Him. To stand. To be set-apart. To remain faithful. To take risks. To keep trusting. To remember that a better life, a better feast, a better crown are found in Him. And to fight to live in line with that. Friends, he calls us to the same. 

Again, King Xerxes and the Persians throw this party here. And the only real rule is that everyone is free to do what he wishes. I have recently listened some to this podcast with a guy named Mark Sayers. What a brilliant man! So insightful! He talked about how we’ve come to this polarization in our culture. Where we have groups of people on both sides - he argues both run by old, wealthy white guys - throwing grenades at each other. He says we’re in a culture where the highest value is freedom. Do what you want. Let everyone be themselves. And you take away the reality of God. You take away institutions like the church. Freedom is high. But as a result, meaning is dry. And community is also low. And that’s why people are running to these tribes. Looking for those things. When we have them in HIm. 

But brothers and sisters, we have a God who gives us His word, His ways. But He does it for our good. Only in living in His light are we truly free. And there, we find meaning. We find community. His ways are better. By far.  

How We Won’t Forget

Let’s fourth, see how we won’t forget. How would God’s people through the years, keep trusting what is true? And remember: “We are God’s people. He hasn’t abandoned us.” That his life, feast, and crown, are far better? 

First, they had to keep reminding themselves of truth. Of how God had worked in the past. Of what He had said in their law. Of what He had promised for them. That’s the main way. Last week, Aarik kicked off our time through the Psalms, and he made this simple argument. There is a difference between being honest and truthful. Hear him again:

“We struggle to know the difference between being honest and being truthful. Honesty looks like the person who goes to Facebook and posts about how they’re struggling, how disillusioned and lonely they feel. That person is expressing themselves honestly—that’s their reality; it’s how they actually feel.

For many Christians, being truthful means going beyond momentary reality to rehearse true things about God. Someone struggling in the same way chooses instead to talk about how good and sovereign God is. They mention how they trust God to work all things out for their good and his glory.

Typically in Christian circles, we pit honesty and truthfulness against each other. The Psalms calls them into fellowship; we can have both things at once. All of God meets all of us, right where we are.” (Aarik Danielsen)

Over the years, my wife has repeated these two lines to our kids, when things are hard, when they’re not as we’d like. Two truths. God is good. God is in control. Last summer, in a difficult season of church and family, we were talking to a counselor friend, and he encouraged Amy to add a third line. Something that he thought she was refusing to believe. God is with us. God is good. God is in control. God is with us. Such good things to remember. Even when God seems silent. It’s what the Jews needed in Persia. It’s what we need here and now. He hasn’t left us. He still loves us. And we belong to Him. We must, in community, remind ourselves of this.

There’s a fourth main theme that’s so important in Esther. We’ve seen God’s commitment to His people, the hidden providence of God, and God’s calling for His people. Fourth, and last: the hope of reversals. There’s this huge theme of reversal in Esther. I won’t get to all of them. But things look one way - really bleak - and then suddenly, they’re the opposite. Interestingly, just four years after this big party thrown by King Xerxes, he gets defeated by the Greeks. The original readers would have known this. They would have seen the irony. They would have seen the comedy. As they heard the story. There are sometimes surprises in our suffering when the Sovereign seems silent. We have to remind ourselves of this, as well. No matter hard things may be. It’s not the end of the story. There is hope at the end. 

Things are about to get really bad for God’s people. But one of their own will soon enter the King’s bedroom. No matter how bad things get for you, Christian. Or for us, the church, here in America. Maybe God will do something here and now. In miraculous ways. Or in quiet ways. Whatever He chooses, though, one day things will get put right-side-up again. That is for certain. We can bank on that.  

But again, how will we not forget? How did God’s people of old not forget? Second, they had to commit themselves to gospel rhythms. And so do we. We see at the end of the book a key purpose for why it was written - to explain the origin of a celebration. One called Purim in Jewish life - a feast, a party, a time to remember what God had done here in the days of Esther to preserve His people. You can see it mentioned, beginning in chapter 9, verse 20. 

Author James K.A. Smith points out that most of the time we think that what we need to do is cram more truth in our heads. We act like we’re primarily thinking beings, and so it makes sense to make learning, studying our primary strategy for discipleship. But he points out that we’re more fundamentally desiring beings. We’re worshippers. We love. And we have to point who we are, what we love, to the most ultimate things, really the most ultimate thing, the Lord. And he says that the main way we do this is by having gospel rhythms or liturgies in our lives. Those rhythms - like having meals with fellow believers, like partaking of the Lord’s Supper on Sundays, like praying with our spouses before we fall asleep, like serving people a thanksgiving meal - they form habits that shape our character and make us people who love and long for the Lord. We need rhythms like Purim that turn us into worshippers of the Lord.

Let me give you an example. I’ve educated my children about my favorite football team, the Chiefs. I’ve loved them since I was a kid - back when they were perennial losers. It’s one thing for me to teach my kids all the names of their great players. It’s another thing for me to talk about great wins from the past. But I’ll tell you why my kids have grown up loving the team - to my wife’s chagrin. It’s rushing home from church to catch the game on TV. It’s tossing the football out in front of the stadium with BBQ smells all around. It’s walking down the spiral ramps after a game, singing the tomahawk chant. That’s why they’re fans. The rhythms. The rituals. The sights. Sounds. Smells. Feels. 

So here’s where I’m going. You want to stay true to Jesus in a hostile world? Do you want your kids to follow Him against all odds? Yeah, we need to believe some truths. For sure. But more than anything we need to experience them - with our bodies, as full persons. Over and over again for years and years. With the brothers and sisters around us. That’s how we will - and they will - come to know and trust that Jesus is better, even when He seems far away. And the party over there seems better than what’s here. 

Do we want to live faithfully as God’s people in a hostile world? Well, we don’t do that by separating from the world - by writing off sex as dirty and money as evil. We don’t do it by letting ourselves get assimilated, either. No. We do it by reciting and rehearsing the gospel together. 

But here’s where I want to leave you as we part this morning. If you know much about this book, the reality is, God’s people didn’t do a very good job. Based on the heroes - Mordecai and Esther - that we see in this passage, the nation was pretty much a mess. It seemed as if the pull was too strong. Their faith was just too weak. But thankfully, God had His grip on them. They weren’t very faithful. But that gives hope to us.

You see, the gospel, the good news, includes a couple of things. Jesus is God. And He is better. He’s far better than the glories the world throws at us. But also, Jesus is Savior. He’s understanding. He’s merciful. He doesn’t just use the people who’ve got it together. He so often chooses to use people who don’t. Because that accents His glory even more. But I’m preaching next week’s sermon this morning. 

Maybe you’re single mom, and you don’t know how you’ll keep going. You’re a single guy wondering when your spouse is going to show up. You don’t know where the rent is gonna come from. You don’t know when you’ll get relief from all that pain in your body. Remember: when God seems silent, the world parties on. But God is good. He’s in control. He’s still with us. And He is better than anything the kings and kingdoms of this world has to offer. Let’s pray.