Bridges Community Church Los Altos Bridges' Staff

Up to this point in the book of Esther, not much has seemed to go right. King Xerxes is often drunk and impulsive; the villain, Haman, has run unopposed; Mordecai was overlooked and unappreciated; and the Israelites are facing extermination. The situation has looked rather bleak. However, in these chapters, we begin to see how God ties all those negatives into something positive—and how He will do the same for us.

All of us will face times of difficulty, stress, and disappointment. Some of those will be quite extreme (like Esther’s), while others will be more routine (like Haman’s). But not all of us will handle those situations with the same poise, grace, and rootedness. What makes the difference? How can we become people who remain steady, even when everything around us is crashing down? This week, we’ll look at the differences between Esther and Haman and find what helped Esther navigate her extreme circumstances so admirably.

Every one of us faces defining moments in our own lives. And some of these defining moments come unexpectedly and pass quickly, yet can have far-reaching consequences. Queen Esther found herself at just such a crossroads in Esther 4. And the fate of her own people, as well as her own life, was riding on how she would handle that defining moment. Join us for this week’s sermon as we discover not only how Esther processed this life-altering decision, but even more importantly, how God had prepared and led her to this very moment.

No doubt that we will all experience problems in our lives. Some of those will feel rather small and others will feel so large that we worry the world might end. However, no matter how small or large a problem may seem, God already anticipated it and has a solution in the works. This week, we’ll find that even the biggest problems are no problem for God. Victory is certain before the battle ever begins.

We might believe that God only works with perfect people living perfect lives–or at least pretty good people, living pretty good lives. But the God of the Bible shows us time and time again He is willing to begin a journey with us starting wherever we are. This week, we encounter the woman who becomes Queen and see that she, like us, doesn’t begin her journey with God fully formed.

Esther, chapter one. We can often make the mistake when we see corruption, when we see abuse of power, when we see greed, when we see systems and structures of sin, when we look at situations where there is so much wrong, so much broken, we think this will never be right. This sin seems to be part of the institution. It's too entrenched. Even if there is some kind of accountability structure.




There's nobles and wise men. But that has also failed. We see that just the whole thing makes us want to throw our hands up and walk away. And when we see circumstances like that, we can make the mistake that God has also thrown his hands up in frustration and walked away. We can think that even God has abandoned the, the scene.




Or if he hasn't abandoned the scene, we can make the mistake that if he's here, he must have lost control. He must not be able to do anything about all of this, just like we're unable to do anything about it. I mean, we might sing, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. We might sing that, we might sign off on that doctrine.




But then we look around and it sure seems like there are some situations very not in his hands. There are some places that are so dark that we might begin to believe even God can't be at work in the midst of that. We might have those thoughts sometimes, but that would be a mistake. Scripture gives us instances, stories, historical counts of terribly corrupt, twisted, dark corners of the world. And then scripture shows that even in those places, God has not abandoned the scene.




We're getting a new sermon series today which will take us all the way to summer studying the book of Esther in the Old Testament. I'll give you some background on the book before we jump into chapter one. The setting is the capital city of Susa in the powerful kingdom of Persia. At the time, fifth century BC, Persia was the world leader in might, strength and wealth. A couple of generations before the Book of Esther, Persia, under King Cyrus, conquered the previous world power, Babylon.




Cyrus raided Babylon's treasuries, absorbed its peoples and lands, but then, curiously, Cyrus frees various people who had been taken captive by Babylon, including Israelites. They were able to return to Israel if they desired, and many of them chose to do so, but not all of them. Some communities of Israelites stuck around Persia under Cyrus. People in Esther's family who will show up later in the story, they stayed in Persia instead of going back to Israel. And of course, like all decisions, there were pluses and minuses to staying.




Sticking around probably provided a more stable life. In some ways, Susa was the richest city in the world. But it was less stable in other ways because after Cyrus, the line of succession of persian kings gets muddy. There was infighting, coups, multiple attempts to take the throne, backroom deals. But eventually, a man named Darius rises to power.




And once Darius wins out over his internal rivals, he turns outward and expands the empire even further. Darius conquered even more territories than Cyrus had before him. He enriched Susa even more. He was the unquestioned supreme ruler over the largest territory in the world. No one had authority to tell Darius no.




And like typical kings of the day, Darius had many wives. He had many children with those many wives. In fact, he had a harem of women to fulfill whatever he desired. His women, possessive pronoun, intentionally used his women, couldn't say no to him either. With one of those women, he had a son named Xerxes.




And by the time of the book of Esther, Darius has passed away. Xerxes now rules the empire. His greek name is Xerxes. His persian name is Ahasuerus. Depending on which version of the Bible you're reading, you may refer to him as Ahasuerus or Xerxes.




Xerxes, of course, grew up as the son of the king of the richest empire in the world. He would have been denied noth