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For Such a Time as This Adairsvillesda.org February 9, 2019 The Bible and Historians like the Greek Historian Herodotus, and the Jewish Midrash give us details to one of the greatest stories ever told. A story about risk. A story about the power of a woman’s influence. A story about the power of one man’s courage. A story that warns of the dangers of restricting religious freedom and mingling church and state.... A story for such a time as this… Our story begins on the night of the overthrow of Babylon. King Belshazzar is having a party, everyone is drunk, and in fiery letters written on the wall everyone is terrified to hear from Daniel the prophet that the Kingdom of Babylon has been weighed in the balance…and will be overthrown. It has failed it’s calling, and it is the fault of the king who should have known better and not lowered himself to a drunken festival to the downfall of his empire. At the same time, the Medo Persian army has diverted the river Euphrates and is marching under the wall to overthrow the metropolis of the greatest empire the world had known. Belshazzar the king is slain. Terror seizes everyone and all are running for their lives. Darius, the future king of this empire, and soon to be a friend of Daniel the prophet, sees something that catches his eye and……………………………………that’s the beginning of our story. Fast forward where we pick up our story in Esther Chapter 1:1 Xerxes the Great Ahasueras, also known as Xerxes the Grandson of King Cyrus the Great the son of King Darius Ruled Media and Persia at its apex. He becomes King. Xerxes began to be known as a ruthless, cruel, arrogant man. The multiple assassination attempts show that those closest to him didn’t respect him. Verses 3 5 There was drinking of wine and reveling. It was similar to that last night in Babylon at Belshazzar’s feast with a thousand of his lords. Truly Medo Persia was the daughter of Babylon. Esther 1:10, 11 When the heart of the king was drunk with wine, he commanded ... to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look upon. Vashti Although the Talmudic rabbis never say explicitly that they read Esther 1:11 as Ahasuerus’ attempt to mock Vashti’s royalty, this may be inferred from the way the rabbinic reading of the command as meaning that Vashti should wear only the diadem (Midrash Abba Gurion 1): ?’ . R. Abba said: “That she should appear with nothing on her but the crown, that is, naked.” According to the Midrash The ancient Jewish commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures Vashti was the daughter of King Belshazzar. Great granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar. Taken captive by King Darius the night of the overthrow, he took pity on her and eventually had her marry his son Xerxes/Ahasueras. Vashti’s name means (The Beautiful The Best) She was known as a savvy politician. The idea is proposed that the ladies banquet held at the same time as Ahasueras/Xerxes festivities was a strategic political maneuver. With all of the noble wives of the empire present, she would have control of a key group of hostages in the event of a coup d’etat at the King’s feast. She had learned her lesson from her father Belshazzar’s feast. Harriet Beecher Stowe called Vashti's disobedience the "first stand for woman's rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that Vashti "added new glory to day and generation...by her disobedience; for 'Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.'" Ellen White states When this command came from the king, Vashti did not carry out his orders, because she knew that wine had been freely used, and that Ahasuerus was under the influence of the intoxicating liquor. For her husband's sake as well as her own, she decided not to leave her position at the head of the women of the court. She acted in harmony with a pure conscience. CC 243. 37 The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 3:1139. CC 243.2 Xerxes commanded her to appear before his half drunken company, wearing only her crown and she refused to be humiliated like that. The men around Xerxes argued this would set a terrible precedent. She hadn’t just wronged him but this would alter the state of society. It would be a power given to woman that would be to her injury (Manuscript 29, 1911) So Xerxes banished Queen Vashti (Esther 1:3). There is no queen in the empire…what now? Mordecai and Esther Chapter 2 Hadassah was an orphan of the royal line of Saul. Her parents had both died when she was a baby. She was raised by her cousin Mordecai as his own child. She was simple hearted and unassuming, requiring little and demanding nothing. SDP 171.2 Mordecai called her Esther to hide her lineage and at the age of 16 she went to the palace. Like Vashti, she is also known for her beauty. Xerxes marries Esther (Ishtar goddess of love) (Esther 2:16), when he is 40. She is believed to be around 16. Soon after Esther is crowned queen, Mordecai gets intel of a plot to assassinate the king. He tells Esther and she relays this to the king. 13 years later Xerxes would finally be assassinated while on the throne. All seemed well in the kingdom…but a few years go by and then everything changes in just a few days. Haman and the Jews Haman, a wealthy influential politician and businessman becomes second in command in the government. He begins to hate Mordecai because Mordecai won’t bow down to him when he passes by. He finds out Mordecai is a Jew. So he gets a law passed in the government to discriminate and persecute people based on religious beliefs. He wants to rid the land of all of these Sabbath keepers. Esther 3:9 If it please the king, issue a decree that they be destroyed, and I will give 10,000 large sacks of silver to the government administrators to be deposited in the royal treasury." Xerxes loved money and it’s that love of money that is the root of all evil… A death decree to destroy those who keep Sabbath and rid the land of them. Why? Because…haven’t you heard? They are troublers of the people! This is story about the danger of mingling of religion and state affairs. The remnant of Israel remained in a foreign land. But John on Patmos saw another moment of the remnant of Israel under attack and declared, in Revelation 12:17 “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” For about forty years mercy had been extended to Israel, and that people had turned a deaf ear to all pleas to return home. Forty years has often been called the allotted time for a generation to settle its destiny either for or against the truth. Moses was forty years in the wilderness, unlearning the things of Egypt, and being taught in the things of God; Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness, when only eleven days were necessary to make the journey from the Red Sea to the border of Canaan; forty days Christ endured severe temptation as a figure of the time before the destruction of Jerusalem; forty years sealed the fate of the Reformation in Germany; and it was forty years from the preaching of the sealing message until the time of the loud cry. SDP 172.2 So Israel was given forty years in Babylon while angels held the winds of strife. At the end of that time Xerxes yielded to the suggestion of Haman, and issued a decree against that “certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces.” If appeals would no longer attract the attention of the Jews, God would in his mercy let persecution come, that they might be compelled to flee to his side for protection. But when persecution and hardship are approaching, the love of God is so great that he prepares the deliverer ahead of time. SDP 173.1 Esther. The intercessor Esther 3:13 15 says Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.14 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day. 15 The couriers went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa…. The city of Shushan/Susa was the first to hear the decree, and anxiety filled the hearts of the Jews. There was distress in every home. “The city of Shushan was perplexed.” On a set day every Jew in the kingdom was to be put to death by the sword; old, young, men, women, and little children, none were excluded. Lucifer was celebrating the thought that at last Israel was in his hand, and the cause of God should fall. “The king and Haman,” two of Satan’s servants, “sat down to drink.” SDP 173.3 Scarcely one year from the date of the decree and death would be their lot. There was seemingly no way of escape. Years before they might have gone up to Jerusalem, but now it was forever too late. SDP 174.1 For many years, all were free to go home but instead stayed in Babylon and in the cities of the empire. They failed to heed the warning of the prophets to “Come out of her my people.” Esther, in the king’s palace, was ignorant of the decree. She hears that Mordecai is in sackcloth mourning at the King’s gate. Chapter 4 Verse 4 14 The crucial moment had come to her. Should she, could she, be true to her God? 21 years old! "If God abhors one sin above another, of which His people are guilty, it is doing nothing in case of an emergency. Indifference and neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded of God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God." Ellen White (3T 280) "There comes a time when silence is betrayal." "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Verse 15 17 Commenting on this moment Ellen White writes “The angel of God had guarded Hadassah, and directed in her education. He had brought her to the kingdom “for such a time as this.” When there was no man to represent his cause, Jehovah used a woman, and she, a young woman . Her very beauty was consecrated to the Lord, and he made use of that. God loves the young people, as the history of the Jews certifies.” SDP 173.2 Chapter 5 Esther goes in to the king. Finds Favor. Invites him to a feast with Haman. Haman goes home but sees Mordecai. Verse 11 I have everything but I’m miserable and filled with hate. That Night Chapter 6 King can’t sleep. Haman can’t sleep. Chapter 6:5 10 God had prepared from afar for deliverance. The very act of kindness done years before by Mordecai wrought in the deliverance of his people. Who says there is no record kept of man’s acts, or that man performs any deed of kindness unprompted by heavenly beings? God not only used Esther to save his people; but he also used Mordecai. SDP 175.1 Banquet Chapter 7 Verse 3 10 Chapter 8 Onward And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” Esther 8:14, 17. PK 602.1 Angels that excel in strength had been commissioned by God to protect His people while they “stood for their lives.” Esther 9:2, 16. PK 602.2 Mordecai is us. Haman is Lucifer. Was next to the throne and will be replaced by you and I. Ellen White comments saying “Mordecai was promoted to the position of chief counselor of Xerxes; and a decree issued that on the day appointed for the slaughter of the Jews, every Jew should bear arms and defend himself against the Persians. …. Again God had defeated the schemes, not of men only, but of the archenemy. Truth triumphed in spite of the waywardness of his people. This decree of Ahasuerus, or Xerxes, is the counterpart of the decree which will soon be issued by the beast of Revelation thirteen against the followers of God. It will find a people situated as were the Jews in Babylon; it will find others who have withdrawn from Babylon, and as the enemy rushes upon this latter class to slay them, the swords will fall like broken straws, for the angels of God will fight for his people. SDP 175.2 This record, given in the book of Esther, is preserved in Bible history that men may know the future. God’s dealings with the Jews reveal the principles of his government, and in this history is a graphic description of the sins and deliverance of spiritual Israel. SDP 175.3 From this story we may learn Time waits for neither man nor nation. APPENDIX Xerxes was a cruel, arrogant man, and his character is shown not only in his dealing with the Hebrew race, but with other peoples as well. Not content with the extent of territory under his control, he mustered an immense army over five million, historians like Herodotus state in attempts to subdue Greece. Defeat and disaster accompanied the effort, however, and he returned unto his own kingdom. SDP 176.1 The Spirit of God was not yet withdrawn from the Medo Persian court, and although Xerxes is the last king mentioned in the vision which Daniel saw, yet God was still holding out mercy to the Israelites; and it was during the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, the successor of Xerxes that the final decree for the return of the Jews was issued. In like manner the grand jubilee will immediately follow Satan’s last effort to destroy the people of God. SDP 176.2 Daniel 6:14. Eighty years had passed since the decree of Cyrus eighty years of forbearance; but even after the experience of the days of Esther and Xerxes there was little interest manifested in the rebuilding of Zion, and the company who went with Ezra was small compared with what it should have been. The condition in Jerusalem was discouraging, for there the Jews had intermarried with the Canaanites, bringing in iniquity and confusion. The Sabbath was desecrated, and the services of the Lord’s house were neglected. It was not until the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, after Ezra had labored for Israel thirteen years, that Nehemiah came from Babylon and stirred the people into activity. Then, and not till then, were the walls rebuilt. Even then it was fighting with one hand and building with the other, because of a multitude of enemies. It was only then that they began to pay tithe, and to cease from ordinary traffic on the Sabbath; it was then that they put away their heathen wives; but they did it only because threatened by God’s wrath. SDP 176.3 Truly Israel was stiffnecked and rebellious. A remnant was saved from Babylon, but it was only a remnant; and that remnant, after years of struggling and much halting, was as a brand snatched from the burning. SDP 177.1 Jerusalem, which might have been the glory of the earth, fell a prey to each succeeding kingdom. Daniel’s mind turned to the rising power of the kingdom of Grecia, and Gabriel next spoke of the mighty one who should rule with great dominion. Medo Persia sank into a state of weakness, and the angel withdrew his sheltering wings; probation was passed for another nation. Ezekiel 21:25 27. It, too, had been numbered and found wanting; and its name is dropped by the inspired penman. SDP 177.2 The history of the Persian empire, until it passed its zenith, is the history of the decrees; and when that nation ceased to help forward the people upon whom God was still bestowing light, it is lost sight of by the divine historian. SDP 178.1 Share