Providence–Book of Esther #1 : Introduction ~ Esther 1:1-3

Providence – Introduction

Insights From the Book of Esther

Bruce A. Hess

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If you would, please take out the word of God and turn in it, in the Old Testament, to the book of Esther. The book of Esther in the Old Testament.

Some of you might be thinking, ‘Well, I know it’s there, but I’m not quite sure where to find it.’ Well, I just want to remind you that in the Old Testament, in the front section, you have 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, then you have Ezra, then you have Nehemiah, and then you have the book of Esther. So, you can find it. The book of Esther, which is going to be our series we are going to be studying over the next five Sundays, this Sunday including four more, which we have entitled, ‘Providence.”

Now, I know many of you are fans of movies. One of the themes, popular themes, of movies in recent times has been the theme of time travel. Think about a movie you like that had time travel in it. Some of you might think of the classic movie, Back To The Future. In Back To The Future there is time travel, where they go back thirty years, from 1985 to 1955. Some of you might think, ‘Well, the movie I liked even more than that was the movie, Men in Black 3, because in Men in Black 3, they go back in time, backward time travel, forty three years, back to the year 1969.

Now, I don’t know if you know it or not, but this whole idea of time travel became popular in 1895, yeah, that was before there were moving pictures, as they used to call them, you know, before there movies. In 1895, a guy by the name of H.G. Wells wrote a book called The Time Machine. In that book, written in 1895, they go back in time one thousand years.

Well, in this series with the book of Esther, we are going to go back in time. We are going to go back in time 2500 years, twenty five centuries. Some of you may be thinking, ‘If we are going to go back 2500 years, twenty five centuries, what are we really going to be able to learn from traveling back in time like that?’

There is a very delicious verse in the New Testament, it is one of my favorite verses, it is found in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10. When I have the opportunity to teach the Story of Scripture, part 1, which is the Survey of the Old Testament with Jeff Harwell (one of Wildwood’s Elders), at the Bible Institute [classes we offer to train people in the Bible and Theology], I always make sure we look at this verse, this delicious verse.

In 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 11, Paul is writing to the believers in the church at Corinth and he says, “These things happened to them.” What is he referring to? He is referring to some of the events of the Old Testament. He is saying, these things that have been recorded in the Old Testament, happened to them as an example. In verse 6, he says it is an example for us, for you and for me.

Then, he has this key phrase, “They were written for our instruction.” I want you to look at that last phrase for just a moment. “They were written for our instruction.” That is why there is high value in traveling back in time 2500 years ago to the book of Esther. It is because there are lessons that we need to learn, there is timeless truth embedded in the Old Testament. There are life lessons that God designed for you and for me in the Old Testament. They were written, it says, for our instruction and that is why they have high value. And, that is why we are going to spend five weeks looking at the book of Esther, which we have entitled, “Providence.”

Now, the book of Esther is a very fascinating book. It is extremely fascinating and Esther is fascinating for several different reasons. The first reason I want to cite is this, Esther is fascinating because it is the world’s first melodrama. You might be thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve heard the word, I’m not really sure what a melodrama is.’ Let me tell you what a melodrama is. A melodrama is a sensational story marked by virtuous heroes and conniving villains. That is a melodrama. In a melodrama there are surprising plot twists and turns. In a melodrama there are these high emotional ups and downs. Esther is the world’s first melodrama.

There was a cartoon melodrama back in the sixties that had some interesting character names, in that melodrama. The one that always stood out the most to me was the conniving villain, Snidely Whiplash. I just always loved that name, it so captured the essence of a conniving villain, Snidely Whiplash. You know, the word, ‘snide’ can mean, tricky and whiplash is what you get when someone is a conniving villain and there are all these turns of events that happen.

So, you had Snidely Whiplash in that cartoon melodrama in the sixties. Then, you also had sweet Nell. Sweet Nell was the one who was the target of a lot of the conniving of Snidely Whiplash.

Then, the third key repeating character they had in that melodrama in the sixties was Dudley Do-Right. Dudley Do-Right was really the hero, sometimes the reluctant hero, in that melodrama.

Well, what makes Esther so fascinating, it is the world’s first melodrama. The very first one. It arrived on the scene some 2500 years ago. It is a fascinating book. There is another reason why Esther is so fascinating, it is one of two Old Testament books that features a central female character and the book is named after that central female character. The other book would be the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth, the book of Esther, central female character and the book is named after that central female character. The book of Ruth is an illustration of God’s redemption. The book of Esther is an illustration of God’s providence, which is why we’ve entitled this series, ‘Providence.’ We are going to see that as we work our way through the book of Esther. We are going to see God’s providence seen over and over again.

As you look at the book of Ruth and the book of Esther, it underscores something. It tells us how much God honors women. That is why He has books with central female characters and He names the books after them. It is kind of interesting, if you look at them, Ruth is a poor peasant. She is sort of on the far end of spectrum of women. Esther is a beauty queen, who actually becomes Queen. I think it is not an accident that you have those two extremes. The message God is trying to communicate is, He really honors women, whether they are on this end of the spectrum or that end of the spectrum or anywhere in between. So, it becomes a very fascinating book due to that fact.

It is interesting, Ruth is a non-Jew, who God providentially incorporates into the very genealogy of the Messiah and the Savior. Esther is a Jew, who God providentially uses to save the nation and the lineage line so that a Savior could be born. Esther is a fascinating, fascinating book.

There is another reason why Esther is a fascinating book and that is, as you look at the book, there is no mention in the book of the name of God. There are no quotes in the book of Esther from the Old Testament Scriptures. Esther is never quoted in the New Testament. As you work through the book, you see no open devotion to God, you see no illustration of prayer, although you do see mourning and fasting in chapter 4, verses 1-3. Those things being absent from the book, as you look back over history, caused some to have some strong reservations about the book of Esther. ‘Does this book really belong in the canon of Scripture?’ That is a legitimate question to ask. Yet, while none of those things are present in the book and while God is not mentioned by name, we are going to see that the living God is actually a key player in this book. We are going to see His providence at work behind the scenes throughout the book as the melodrama unfolds.

It is really not much different than today. We live in a culture, in a world, where God is not openly acknowledged very much anymore. But, that doesn’t mean He is not here and He is not at work. He is always at work, always honoring and being faithful to His promises. He is always accomplishing His purposes, whether He is openly acknowledged or not.

As we come together in this just introduction to the book of Esther, we want to look at four different things today. We are going to examine four things.

  • First of all, I want to set a little historical background for the book, because there is some interesting history that parallels the events of this book.
  • I want to introduce you to the key characters of the book, because I am going to be encouraging you to read through the book of Esther.
  • I want to share with you an outline of the book of Esther so you can maybe understand the flow of the book as you read it.
  • Then, I want to take a few minutes to talk about the theme of providence which is the title we have given to the book, ‘Providence, Insights from the Book of Esther.’

So, does that sound like a decent plan to do that? Everyone up for that? Anyone opposed? No, not at all.

Let’s start off with historical background. Right? Let’s look at historical background. If you have your Bible open to the book of Esther, I want to read the first couple of verses. So, Esther, chapter 1, verse 1.

“Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, in those days as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne, which was at the citadel in Susa, in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his people. “

We will take a closer look at that next time. We are going to just stop right there. I want to give us a little historical background. Notice he says the events of the book of Esther occur in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned over 127 provinces. Now, that is all the information, historically, that we need. We know exactly who this guy was. In fact, he was the ruler of the Medo Persian Empire, Ahasuerus is his Hebrew name. He has a Greek name, which is the name Xerxes. He also has a Persian name, which is Khshayarsh. We know exactly when he ruled because we have enough history background to tell us that. He ruled, Ahasuerus, from 486 B.C. to 464 B.C. a time period of some twenty two years. Think about it, you mathematicians, tune in. He began to rule in 486, right? Verse 3 tells us that the events that open the story of Esther occurred in the third year of his reign, right? So, if it’s the third year of his reign, he started reigning in 486, that means the events beginning this are in what year? 483. You’re razor sharp today. It begins in the third year of his reign in 483. Now, all of this is going to have some ramifications as we look at things more next time.

What is interesting about Ahasuerus, and by the way, kings in that time had to be very careful about the people they put around them. Remember how Nehemiah becomes the cupbearer for Artaxerxes, which means he tests everything, because you wouldn’t want anybody to poison the king. Well, Ahasuerus ends up being assassinated by a guy by the name of Artabanus, who was the captain of his royal bodyguard. You know, the guy you would think would be in charge of the secret service who is going to protect you, he’s the one who actually kills Ahasuerus. So, nineteen years after the story opens, he is going to die. But, God is going to be at work before that happens.

In verse 2, it talks about Ahasuerus sitting on his royal throne, which is in the citadel in Susa. Susa was located in southwestern Iran. It has actually been renamed today. It is called Shush, it is the word hush, in English, with an ‘S’ in front of it. So, you can go to southwestern Iran and go to the city of Shush and it is really the city of Susa.

What is really interesting, historically, to me, you know the Old Testament is not put together totally chronologically, somethings are in here out of chronology. When we see this history of Esther, it is some of the latest history of the Old Testament, because after the Old Testament is finished there are 400 silent years, four centuries God doesn’t say one word. Then, you have the advent of the New Testament. So, the events, even though they’re not at the end of the Old Testament book, in terms of organization, the actual history is fairly late. That is why we know so much about this guy Ahasuerus. In fact, the only parts of the Old Testament that are later history would be the last part of the book of Ezra, chapters 7-10. The only other later history than what we have here is Nehemiah. Remember Nehemiah is the cupbearer, as I said, to Artaxerxes. You know who Artaxerxes is? He is the son of Xerxes. He is the son of Ahasuerus. So, this goes right in front of, historically, the book of Nehemiah. Then, the only other part that is later history is the book of Malachi. So, you see, historically, this book actually fits more toward the end of the Old Testament, rather than maybe in the front third.

What is also interesting, historically, is during the events of this book, this melodrama that God is doing, two prominent world leaders die. You will recognize their names. One who died was Confucius, who lived in China. During this time of the events of the book of Esther, Buddha, who lived in Nepal, India area, also died. When you have the news media and they are covering all the events around the world and significant world figures die, they are going to cover that. So, if you kind of picture, at this time, in this era, the big news would have been Confucius died, Buddha died. But, those weren’t the significant events of the day. No, the significant events of the day were happening in Susa. God was providentially at work in Susa.

So, that is just a little bit of historical background. The second thing we are going to do is we simply want to introduce to you, quickly, the key characters in the story, so as you read through it, you will already have a little awareness of who they are.

The first one, we’ve been already examining, and that is Ahasuerus. You know a little bit about him, how long he lived and how long he reigned and who killed him eventually, but I want to give you just a little insight into who he was as a person. Ahasuerus was an extremely prideful guy, not unlike many of the rulers of the empires, the secular empires of the world. They have done a number of excavations and they have found some inscriptions that he declared should be written about him. I’ll give you one of these descriptions written about him. King of kings. Sound familiar? That is what Ahasuerus said, you want to know who I am? I am the King of kings. Another inscription that he had written about himself is this one, the King of this great earth. It is a great earth, I’m King. A very prideful guy, but interestingly enough, like a lot of boastful people, he was easily influenceable. I think he knew on the inside he wasn’t as great as he wanted to be portrayed. We are going to see later on in a character we are going to meet in just a moment, he has a huge impact and influence on Ahasuerus.

One other attribute of Ahasuerus is, he was very impetuous. You know, someone who is impetuous just acts like this [Bruce snaps fingers several times rapidly], without really thinking. We are going to see events in chapter 1 and chapter 3 that underscore how impetuous Ahasuerus was. So, he is our first key character.

The second key character, which we will see in chapter 1, later, is Vashti. I like to call her queen number one. She was Ahasuerus’ queen, but then she gets demoted and replaced.

The third character I want us to note in the story, in the book of Esther, if you have your Bible open, turn to chapter 2 and verse 5, the third character we are going to see is the character, Mordecai. He surfaces there in verse 5. “Now there was at the citadel in Susa a Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,” he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Verse 6, “He had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the captives who had been exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled.”

You remember that the Babylonian empire came first, Nebuchadnezzar came and took a number of people in several waves back to the area of the Babylonian empire, but the Babylonian empire was overthrown by the Medo Persian Empire. So, this character, Mordecai, was one of those taken from Jerusalem, dumped in Babylonia, which was now the Medo Persian Empire. A Jew taken into exile. We are going to see God providentially at work in the events of his life. It is going to be exciting.

The next character we want to meet is the character of Esther, herself. We see her first appearing in verse 7 of chapter 2. Notice it is speaking of Mordecai and it says, “He was bringing up Hadassah,” he was raising Hadassah, “that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter.” Esther was her Persian name. The word, ‘Esther’ in Persian means ‘star.’ It’s kind of interesting, because she is, indeed the star of the whole book. Hadassah was her Hebrew name. Esther is the younger cousin to Mordecai and Mordecai adopts her after her parents had died. So, when you look at the person of Esther, she didn’t come from this wonderful background. Her life began in a very crushing way, when she was young and her mom and her dad died. And, her cousin, Mordecai, said, ‘I’ll take her and I’ll raise her.’ Even though she had that crushing life, yet God was still providentially at work in everything that was happening.

The last character I want to introduce you to is Haman. He first appears in chapter 3, verse 1. Haman is Snidely Whiplash. He is Snidely Whiplash to the max. Haman is a hater of the Jews. Haman is a plotter. Haman is a schemer and he is a conniver. He is somebody who is very wealthy and he is very influential. As the story of the book unfolds, he eventually becomes promoted by Ahasuerus to number 2 in the kingdom, right underneath the king, himself.

So, those are our key characters.

As I said, the third thing we wanted to do is, we wanted to share with you a little bit of an outline of the book so as you are reading through the book, you will have a sense of its flow. We’ve broken the book, if you look, into seven sections.

  • It begins with a prologue, in chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, which is somewhat what we’ve looked at today.
  • Then we see God’s providential preparation in chapter 1, verse 3 to chapter 2, verse 23.
  • Then, thirdly, we are going to see Haman’s heinous plot in chapter 3, verse 1 through chapter 4, verse 3.
  • Then, we are going to see Esther’s courageous intervention in chapter 4, verse 4 through chapter 7, verse 10.
  • And then you have the Jew’s marvelous deliverance in chapter 8, verse 1 through chapter 9, verse 17.
  • And then we have the establishment of remembrance in chapter 9, verse 18 through chapter 9, verse 32.
  • Then we have an epilogue in chapter 10, verses 1 through 3.

So, you can use that as you are reading through the book just to have a sense of the flow and where it is going. Now, when we mention there, the establishment of remembrance, it is talking about a memorial feast that gets established during the story of Esther. It is a memorial feast that has continued on 2500 years. It is still being observed to this very day. It is called the feast of Purim. We’ll learn a little bit more about that when we move to that section of the book. Alright?

So, that is the outline of the book.

The fourth thing we said that we were going to take a look at was the theme of providence in the book. We’ve entitled the message series, ‘Providence,’ because we see this principle all through the book. By the way, the idea of God’s providence is a principle that is taught throughout the Scriptures. We could probably spend twenty minutes listing the various verses from the Old and the New Testament that stress the idea of the providence of God. But, I just simply want to give a couple of them to you today. Alright? It is a principle clearly taught in Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The first verse is from Psalm 103, verse 19. It says this, ‘The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over most of the things that happen in everyday life.’ It doesn’t say that does it? It says, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty, His providence, rules over all things that happen.” God never gets edged off of the throne. He reigns forever.

Another passage out of the Old Testament, Isaiah, chapter 46, and verse 10. This is God speaking, Himself. He says, “Declaring the end from the beginning…My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” God’s providence is always at work.

Then, we could come to the New Testament, Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 11, just one illustration of this. It says there that God works, how many things? All things…after the counsel of His will. Does anything in life ever get out of His control? “He works all things after the counsel of His will.” His providence is always at work.

1 Thessalonians, chapter 5 and verse 18, another verse that stresses the providence of God. It says, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” God’s providence is always operating, always operating.

You might say, ‘Okay Bruce, I’ve seen a few verses, I know we could look at a lot more, but what do we really mean when we say, providence? How would we define providence? How would we describe God’s providence?’ One of the things that I did as I’ve been studying this over the last couple of months is, I went to all my theology books, all my systematics, and I looked up the providence of God and I was just observing how it was defined. I want to share a few of them with you this morning.

What is the providence of God? Well, Henry Thiessen wrote this, “The providence of God is the continuous activity of God whereby He makes all events work out His purposes.” All events would include some good events and some bad events, but God’s providence is the continuous activity of God whereby He makes all events work out His purposes.

Another one I want to share with you, another little definition and description, comes from John MacArthur and Dick Mayhue and their theology. They say that providence is “God’s operating at every event in the world, and directing the things in the universe to His appointed end for them.” Are there some events in the world that cause us consternation? Yeah. I mean sometimes individually, personally, in my life there are events that cause me consternation. Sometimes there are just national events that are going on in our country. Maybe you are feeling some of that. Maybe it is an international event that is happening that causes consternation. But, God’s providence can be very comforting to us in the midst of all that, because it is God’s operating at every event in the world and directing the things in the universe to His appointed end for them.

Another description and definition of providence I want to share with you comes from J. Vernon McGee. He is a very practical, down to earth [sensible, easy to understand] guy. He says this, “Providence means that the hand of God is in the glove of human events.” I want you to look at that one again. Providence means that the hand of God is in the glove of human events. Is that your daily perspective as things happen? That the hand of God is in the glove of human events. That is what the providence of God means.

I’ve given some of my own definition to providence. I say this, providence means God is behind the SEEN! Not s-c-e-n-e, but s-e-e-n. It means that His fingerprints are everywhere, even when people don’t seek Him or don’t acknowledge His presence, as we see some in the book of Esther, even among the Jews. His fingerprints are still there.

A definition I’ve really given of providence is this, providence is His superintendence of all that happens in life. All that happens remains within God’s control and divine purpose.

Now, as we think about providence, it can raise certain ramifications in our life that we need to apply. It certainly can raise some reactions, maybe even raises some questions. We are going to discuss those a little more as we move through our study of the book of Esther.  But, I want you to know, I am extremely excited that I get to spend time with you, not only this week, but Lord willing, the next four weeks.

I have some life response for you today. What can you do after this little introduction we’ve had? Well, the life response is: Go and read through the book of Esther and as you are reading through the book of Esther, I want you to look for God’s providential hand. His providence was at work 2500 years ago and guess what? 2500 years later, His providence is still at work.

Remember that last little phrase from 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11? “These things that happened to them were written for our instruction.” As we open up a book like the book of Esther, this was written for your instruction and for my instruction. Let’s listen to what God has to say.

Let’s pray together. Father, we thank You so much for the word of God. We thank You that it is alive and powerful, it is exciting, it is life-changing, it is life-transforming, it will change the way that we think about life. We thank You for Your truth of providence, that You are always, always, always at work. What a great joy that is to think about, to believe in and to rest in. We look forward to our time in the book of Esther and we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Questions for Reflection

Providence (Esther) – Introduction

Esther 1:1-3

1. Traveling back in time has been a popular technique in movies over the last 25 years or so. What movie featuring time travel to the past stands out as your favorite and why?

2. Why do so many people tend to view the Old Testament negatively and thus often avoid it?

Name a NT verse that encourages us to learn from the people and events of the Old Testament.

3. Esther is one of two OT books featuring and named after women.  What is the other?  Esther illustrates God’s ___________________  [fill in the blank]    The other book illustrates God’s ____________________ [fill in the blank]

4. Over time there have been those who have had reservations about whether Esther should be part of the canon or not.  What are some of the reasons for skepticism?

5. Give your own definition or summary of what God’s “providence” means.  What ramification does the principle of God’s providence mean for our everyday life?

6. Pray for an open heart and for the Holy Spirit to give us deeper insight into our great God’s character as we study the Book of Esther in the weeks ahead.

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