Esther 2: 12-18, Pastor Cody Harlow

God's word says this now when the turn came for each young woman to go into the go into King azurus after being 12 months under the regulations for the women since that was the regular period of their beautifying six months with oil of myrrh six months with spices and ointments for women when the young woman went in to the king in this way she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the Harem to the king's Palace in the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second Harem in custody of shashgavs the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines she would not go into the King again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name when the turn came for Esther the daughter of abahale the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter to go into the king she asked for nothing except what Haggai the king's eunuch who had charge of the women advised Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her and when Esther was taken to King hazarus into the into his Royal Palace in the tenth month which is the month of tebeth in the seventh year of his Reign the king loved Esther more than all the women and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins so that

He set the Royal crown on her head and made her Queen instead of ashti then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants it was Esther's Beast he also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity and so Lord we do thank you for your word today and as we seek to apply your word to our lives God help us to do so with great care never going to the left or to the right but always centered upon what your word says your truth and so I just pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to what it is that you have to say to us today and Lord as you've dealt with me this week I pray that you would deal with our people always looking to you always relying on you acknowledging you in all of our ways and all of our steps and all of our decisions and all the seasons of life that we might be going into or coming out of Lord just help us to submit those things to you God thank you that we can come before your throne of grace that it is a throne full of grace full of Mercy full of love and I just pray Lord that we would constantly come before you help us God to rely on you more and more in our walks in Jesus name amen well can you imagine how scared you would have been if you were in Esther's shoes I mean you know 14 15 year old Jewish girl Jewish woman and she is getting married in ancient Persia at this time but I mean you're still a child and you're taken into a citadel to be prepared for a night with a stranger right and you're taken into this Citadel yes he's the king but he's still a stranger nonetheless and you're an orphan and your uncle he's asked you to hide

Your heritage for you for a year you are kind of kept captive in a lot of ways and people are watching you imagine the uncertainty that you would be feeling the fear the trepidation the adjustment to a completely new and different environment the sensuality the difficulty and for a solid year Esther is being treated like Wendy Peppercorn from The Sandlot right lotioning oiling right any Sandlot fans in here so some of you guys y'all gotta be tracking with me come on and for six months Esther she is pampered for by well for a year but for six months she's she's pampered by Haggai and these seven selective female servants who they're coaching her they're giving her the best food most importantly they are preparing her body okay and the oil of choice was myrrh myrrh it is the King's oil it was it would go for over a thousand dollars an ounce an ounce and you got to think I mean how many women had the king just rounded up and how much oil that is obviously the king liked his women smelling pretty good but oil it also had a hygienic properties oil was used as a delouser so that way there wouldn't be lice coming around that's gross right but then for another six months women they would use spices they would use ointments they would use incense once again to prepare their bodies and women they were used medicinally to cure things like rashes like in today's world to treat wounds to treat infections and if you're taking notes you could write down this first point that's up here is preparation and this is what you do before you get married isn't it you take you diet you exercise you spend

Days leading up weeks months leading up preparing yourself and you do that because it's important and you want to be presentable and for these young women they know that they are going to be taken care of for the rest of their lives and they also know this is an opportunity a tremendous opportunity for them to win the King's affections and become the next queen of Persia now women they were allowed to take anything out of the harem and with them to the king's Palace now what's in mind here it's it's not like you know the treasures that are in the Harem but clothes jewelry things like that things that they would have used to be pleasing to the king but it was also the king's gift to her as well and she would enter his Palace in the evening complete her duties as concubine and then move on into the second harem this is a sad thing for the woman in Scripture we see things like polygamy crop up over and over again and yet we see we see it with Godly individuals like Abraham Jacob David Solomon those are facts they're not endorsements that those those are not things for us to follow or anything like that night after night the king conquered virgin after virgin and I have to think that what he was doing was he was doing whatever it took to ease the pain of losing vashti of losing the war against Greece and he was looking for joy and fulfillment and all the pleasures that he could find and that's one of the big three addictions is drugs alcohol and sex and yet he can't ever be satisfied King Xerxes he had at least 360 wives at one time and yet he was miserable he was just trying to gather up anything and everything that this world could offer wealth power Fame Glory pleasure a lasting Legacy and yet he was

Still looking for something and I think that's sad I think it's really sad that the same thing that he is looking for is what other people in our own Community are looking for as well they are looking for peace they are looking for Joy they are looking for fulfillment and security and yet it can only be found in the person and work of Jesus Christ doesn't matter how many rocks you want to overturn it doesn't matter how many things that you may try the truth is that lasting pleasure fulfillment peace and comfort is only found by faith alone in Jesus Christ and I think that's sad that all these people they're looking for it and obviously the king is looking for it too and yet he didn't have the Gospel and this man he gathered himself all of these beautiful virgins from around his Empire and you know what they are they're simply property at this point this ain't working buddy you're gonna have to follow along there Larry property and then that's exactly what polygamy does in our culture and it's coming guys it's coming it objectifies people it doesn't fulfill it doesn't bring intimacy it abuses people it treats people like objects as a church you know what we believe we believe that marriage is a covenant commitment between God and one man and one woman for one lifetime unified and a public commitment to God to be faithful to love to honor to cherish to respect to a support and this ungodly King he is not looking for a wonderful fulfilling Christ honoring marriage what are the things that we know about this King well we know that he's selfish we know he's abusive we know he's lustful we know he's a drunkard we know that he's prone

To anger we know that he lacks self-control and yet here is Esther in this situation preparing herself for the king that's a tough situation that's a bad situation and it's important to note that all of these women from 127 provinces are being paraded through the king's Palace night after night and after the king spent the night with them she would never see him again unless he called for her by name and that's pretty similar to being doomed to being a widow forever in the ancient world there's no closeness there's no friendship there's no intimacy there's a union of bodies and then awaiting the possibility of being called on again in the future how sad is that I mean that should break our hearts the potential of loneliness is extremely high for Esther and yet we see God guiding our steps every bit of the way why on Earth was Esther so loved and so favored by everyone that she met was it because she was beautiful was it because she was agreeable was it because she made the best of the situation was it because she was discreet or maybe articulate I think yes and this is the big part because the Lord was with her if God is for us who can be against us when Jesus came to Earth he was proclaimed to be Emmanuel which means what God With Us Jesus he promised to be with us even to the very end of the age and dear Christian you might be entering a scary season or an or an uncertain season you might be praying about what the right thing to do is in a tough situation it might be unfair it might be difficult you might not know

What the right thing to do is and I want to encourage you that the same Lord that orchestrates everything okay from where are the stars sit in the sky to you finding yourself at First Baptist Church of Camdenton this morning he knows about that situation and he cares about it even more deeply than you do and he loves you more than you could ever fathom he won't let his children fall the Bible says in all your ways acknowledge Him and He Shall direct your paths and so gather Christians around you pray together about that situation or those circumstances admit that you don't have the wisdom and the Scriptures say that if any one of you lacks wisdom he should ask of God who gives to all generously and without criticizing and it will be given to him and I'd like to believe that Esther she grew up in a Godly family I like to think that I like to think that she's a victim of her circumstances who's constantly submitting herself to the Lord because I can't imagine what she's thinking in the midst of all of this I'm sure that she didn't expect her to find herself in this situation but she is there for one purpose to be a deliverer for God's chosen people but she doesn't know that yet does she actually doesn't even know that she will be Queen the only thing that she knows for certain is that her name has been called and she is going into the king's Palace and so for the last year she has been preparing herself for this moment she's received all sorts of tips all sorts of advice on how best to be pleasing to the king we don't know how she feels about this but she took nothing with her except what she was advised to take what did Haggai advise Esther to take with her we don't know

Why did he do that it was partly his job to advise her he wanted to advise her on the outfit that she should wear the jewelry that she should take with her what kind of makeup she should probably wear and you know you can tell a lot about a woman by how she presents herself you can tell a lot about a man about how he presents himself as well you know what if Esther she chose revealing outfits and stuff well that would probably tell him that she's probably pretty seductive as opposed to being modest it could tell him well whether or not she was shy or outgoing whether she was gracious or not contrast this with vashti you know she didn't accomplish very much in her time of being the queen John Levinson he writes this description about vashti he says that vashti was impulsive full of Pride and self-destructively independent while Esther was wise and listened to counsel and listen if you're constantly embattled with people if you're constantly fighting against people especially those who maybe have your best interests at heart maybe you're constantly rejecting their tent their tips their suggestions then maybe you need to take a moment step back pray for God to help your heart not that you would be a pawn for others or anything like that but so that way your life wouldn't be characterized by contention okay anyways I digress Esther she was she was winning favor in the sight of all who saw her and yet she was taken to this King now that's in the past she was taken it's an imperfect participle which implies that she is not in control of her situation or her circumstances her Destiny is not in her hands it's just like what we learned about First Peter

Chapter 4 verse 19. Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good and Esther she's an excellent example of living out that verse who even though she is in the midst of Trials of suffering she never resists the will of God but accepts it as it comes and as all of this is taking place this is the month of tebeth this is like the end of December early January for us that word tabith is literally translated as mud it's the season of mud it's the cold season it's the rainy season there in Persia and we don't know all that happened that evening but we do know that she spent the evening with the King and then she was moved to where the concubines were kept and we know that from this from this passage that the king he loved her that word is it's not like a lustful word there's a different word for that in the Hebrew nor is it simply sexual love this is when a man meets a woman that he wants to be with forever that's the kind of love that is used in this the Hebrew word is which is used in Deuteronomy 33 3 to describe God's love towards Israel through the giving of the law okay this is where it's found yes he loved his people all his holy ones were in his hand so they followed in your steps receiving direction from you now this does not mean that this lost Gentile who worship demonic entities could execute Godly Christian love not what that means but love is a part of what we call God's common Grace it's part of his communicable attributes okay just like there's God's communicable attributes those are the attributes that we so there's lives and can under it's like love wisdom Mercy Justice compassion all those things are God's

Attributes but then there's the incommunicable attributes of God the things that we know are true but that we don't really understand Foy like God's omnipotence he's all-powerful omniscience his all-knowingness his Holiness yes we are called to be holy but he is Holy things like that First Corinthians chapter 13 which Spencer read before it tells us this that love is patient it is kind it does not envy or boast it's not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things and if you're writing down notes write this next word down it's pleasing the next point that we see from the passage as I've said we don't know what happened that evening but we do know that Esther captured the heart of the king anybody ever been on a blind date before blind day yeah those are terrible aren't they I got set up one time in college a friend of the friend of a friend and I was supposed to pick her up outside of her dorm room and so I'm standing there and I'm waiting and I'm just I'm excited I've never been on a blind date before I don't know what to expect and out comes like this whole like group of just girls that are dolled up they look fantastic and I don't know what this girl looks like you know I'm just waiting you know this is before like Facebook and stuff like there was a time before Facebook okay and so anyways none of them are her okay then another girl walks out and you know I was like oh man she looks really nice no she's

Someone else okay so then I'm waiting and then and then out walks this girl it looked like she hadn't showered in a few days and she's got sweatpants sweatshirt just not you know not my cup of tea you know not like ready for a date or anything and then she called my name yeah I like my jaw just dropped and like are you kidding yeah it wasn't Amber by the way okay all right but she had done nothing to prepare herself or be pleasing or anything like that I didn't give her a second look until she called my name and there wasn't a second date mind you okay I guess in a roundabout way I want to encourage men women be pleasing to your spouse always take care of yourself seek to you know like cause them Delight that's one thing I love about my wife is that she's always doing what she can to please me and be pleasing to me and me for her you know like I exist I exist to please God and I go to bed with my wife so whatever makes her happy goes amen now if you're dating okay dating men dating women if you are waiting for someone to notice you then modestly present yourself with Grace and with care we know that's one of the attributes that Esther had during this time but as a result of Esther's care as a result of her preparation whatever happened that night it won the King's affections and he set the Royal Crown and that word Crown it's it's actually the same word used about vashti's headdress that she would have worn back in chapter one that the one that she had refused to

Wear he places it on her head and he makes her the queen of Persia Esther is the better one that those advisors were looking for and instead of parading Esther around and exposing her like he had asked vashti to do it to her dishonor Esther is honored with a new Feast by her husband that's why the author is careful to describe this as it was Esther's feast because the right woman seeks to make you into a better man and the right man seeks you seek to make yourself a better woman King hazarus he takes time to make a proclamation as well he makes a proclamation and this is where he grants remission of taxes and Gifts is most likely food to the poor citizens of Susa and just like vashti's end came with a proclamation Esther's Ascension to the throne begins with a proclamation and this is where a lot of fairy tales would end but not God's word he's got a bigger purpose a Redemption story that he is working to and so this is simply the beginning of Esther so what bearing does this have on you in 21st century America well I believe that's a wonderful reminder that even in the midst of the murkiest greatest hardest times of moral conundrums God still works according to the law of Moses Esther she is in sin by marrying this Gentile King and yet we also see God orchestrating events for the purpose of delivering his people and so this teaches us that God he is Sovereign and he expertly has placed Esther into a place of power into a place of influence and responsibility to be a protector of God's people this also means that God has placed you right where you're at not through chance

Not through happenstance but according to his own good will and pleasure just a show of hands this should be interesting the show of hands how many of you are new to our church within the last but before the pandemic like you know before the pandemic you hadn't ever really been to First Baptist Church raise your hand just nice and high nice and hot come on guys I see y'all right that's that's like I don't know a fourth of our people that's like a fourth of our people praise the Lord amen and that means that God has I don't know you Old-Timers I guess I'll call you people who have been here for a while I put myself in there right and then our new members and Brothers and Sisters in Christ that he's brought along here we are not here through chance or happenstance we are here for a purpose and that is to make disciples of Jesus Christ right here at Lake of the Ozarks that's our purpose that's why this church exists it doesn't exist for our comfort it doesn't exist to make us happy it exists so that you can be equipped to go out Make Disciples of Jesus Christ that's why we're here amen but we also learned that you and I we can trust in God's perfect timing and his placement right here right now no matter what the circumstances are no matter what you might be walking through we can trust in God's timing in God's pleasure in God's purpose and what a wonderful wonderful truth that is that God has you where you're at for a reason thank the Lord that in spite of how awful our circumstances may be or how difficult they may seem God he never leaves us he never abandons us

But he always is with us head heart hand to head I want you to know that God works in spite of the difficulties and situations that you were faced with God still works they might be extremely difficult circumstances that's why it's important to be in a church family whether it's a sickness whether it's a Wandering child whether it's a situation at work you have brothers and sisters that you can call on and you can say man I just I can help I don't know what to do You are not alone and trying to figure this whole thing out thanks be to God that he's given good relationships for you to connect with it might be a season of waiting for you it might be a seasoning season of preparation for you Esther had to go through a whole year of it may be that you note there's a challenge facing you give it to the Lord and honor him with that next step heart I want you to believe that God is with his people in every season of life good question is are you a part of his people do you know the Lord I was going to put you up there but the promise is that God is for his people and if you're not a part of his people then you're just kind of subject to the whims of life I want to encourage you to trust in the Lord place your faith and trust in him repent of your sins and come to him be born again by his spirit I wish that I could tell you that you know if you pray this prayer then you'll be saved that's not what the Bible says the Bible says repent be born again trust in the Lord with all your heart

Believe in his death his burial his resurrection for you when you do that when you trust in him [Music] God has to stop up here but when we when we trust in the Lord you know what happens is something wonderful happens is that he takes his Holy Spirit and he makes you new he redeems you and we cry out by faith as a result of that new work and we repent in him and repent to him and tell him God I'm sorry that I sent against you he redeems us God he will never let his people be subject to the whims of evil men forever even in the current state of things right now in the world we must remember that we are citizens of a Heavenly Kingdom one day this will all be over and we'll look back on it and go hey you remember how weird 2020 through 2025 was or however long we'll be in this season yeah that was weird good thing it only lasted for a minute hand I want you to ask the Lord every morning this week to give you a right perspective about the situations that you might find yourself in yeah I don't I don't know what your days are going to look like I don't even know what my days are going to look like but and you might not see this application In this passage and but I still think that's good to greet the Lord in the morning approaches Throne of mercy and ask him to give you a right perspective a Gospel perspective an eternal perspective that you can deal with whatever situation may come that day okay for those of you who may not know where you'll spending an eternity talk to someone talk to me talk to someone around you about hey how can I

Be born again we're going to tell you receive the Lord Jesus Christ receive him be born again ask him to save you he will because he's a good and gracious God let's pray and so Lord we do thank you for your mercy and your kindness as we kind of wrap up the preaching part of this service God I just pray that you would help us to have a greater closer more intimate walk with you God our world can be so backwards sometimes and you know we just worry about things Lord you told us not to worry you told us that you'll take care of our clothing needs or food needs and you'll you'll give us this day our daily bread if we would just give it to you so we do ask that you would fulfill our hearts God fulfill your promises that you would take care of your people and if there's anyone here that maybe they don't know you A Savior and Lord I just pray that today would be that day that they're born again to a Living Hope that you would just reach their hearts God I feel like I'm talking like a baby sometimes but Lord I just I pray that your spirit would do whatever it takes to make that message clear for them to be born again God we love you we just ask that you work Among Us in Jesus name amen at this time I want to invite the Mexico mission team to come forward we're going to take some time and pray for you and so if you're on that team now is your time to come up and then we're going to have invite you as a congregation to come up lay hands on them to pray over them as well I know we did last week with Logan we're going to do it with this crew too so come on forward and let's pray over them as a church

[Music] let's pray father thank you for touching the hearts of these people months ago and moving them in this direction thank you for the churches in Mexico who are already been planning their visit and for the work that they've done ahead of time we thank you Father for the privilege that you've given us to share your salvation to declare your glories to the Nations your marvelous Works to all people father we pray that what there will sow in the word of God will not come back void as you promised it wouldn't and we pray that they would also not grow weary in well-doing and that in due time they would reap on your timing we thank you for what you're going to do in the lives of the people down in Mexico and then the lives of these people right here we look forward to Great testimonies when they come back in a short time and we will give you the praise for everything that they accomplish Lord give them strength give them wisdom from above and fill them with your spirit and your love in Jesus name amen thank you