Esther 02: Unseen Thankfulness Pays Off

Have you ever wondered how integrity can steer us through chaotic and morally complex situations? Join Pastor Brandon on the Bible Breakdown Podcast as we unpack the remarkable story of Esther, Chapter 2. Discover how Esther, a young Jewish woman, navigates the king's harem to become a favored candidate for the queen's crown. Despite the impulsive decisions of King Xerxes and the troubling circumstances, we reflect on the unseen faithfulness of God guiding Esther’s path, preparing her for a crucial future role.

Facing an unsatisfying job or a strained relationship? We bring Esther's story to life, illustrating the importance of maintaining integrity and trust even in adversity. Through Esther's unwavering faith and righteous choices, we explore how staying true to our principles can lead to surprising and divine outcomes. Pastor Brandon wraps up the episode with a heartfelt prayer for guidance and faith, encouraging all listeners to remain steadfast in doing the right thing. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for our continued exploration with Esther, Chapter 3!

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Faithfulness Rewarded

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, esther, chapter 2. Today's title is Unseen Faithfulness Pays Off. Unseen Faithfulness Pays Off. Well, if you've got your Bibles, you want to open up with me to Esther, chapter 2. And while I'm doing that, don't forget, if you like what we're doing around here, to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review. It really does help. Make sure you're commenting, asking your questions. I'm sure there are so many questions after yesterday's chapter. And remember, we all gather together at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook and the more we dig, the more we find.

Speaker 1 0:34

Well, if you weren't with us yesterday, we were talking about how this is a mess, that this is actually happening about the same time as what we've previously read, and Ezra and Nehemiah and all that kind of stuff. This is all still happening back in the land of Persia, where they're from, and King Xerxes is the king and he's got it all going on and whatever he wants is what goes. And he got really, really, really drunk in chapter one and he wanted poor King Vashti to come out and to just show herself off and she said, uh no. Well, the noblemen were like, well, wait a minute, we don't need to let her get away with that, and so you're going to banish her forever. Well, that happened and it was just a mess. Like she shouldn't have been banished for that, she shouldn't have been asked to do that, but it was a mess. And now it's going to get even more crazy and we're going to see how, unseen faithfulness, unseen doing the best you can with what you've been given, god has a way of using it to point you in the right direction. When you do the best you can for the right reasons, god will point you in the right directions, even if it is a ridiculous and I say that with a long R ridiculous mess. You ready? Esther, chapter 2, verse 1. Let's just dive in together.

Speaker 1 1:44

But after Xerxes, anger had subsided, in other words he got sober, he began thinking about Vashti and what he had done and the decree he had made. So his personal attendant suggested let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of Susa Haggai. The king's eunuch in charge of the harem will see that they are given beauty treatments. After all, the young women who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Ashti. This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect. Can I just say this We'll get to verse five, joker, who is around you?

Speaker 1 2:28

Yesterday's chapter? You're like, hey guys, what should I do? You know what you ought to do. You ought to banish this young lady who refuses to come out naked. And then you're starting to feel bad. You sober up and you go. You know, maybe that wasn't right. So there is somebody around you that says you know what, king, you're right. That probably wasn't the wisest thing. So I'll tell you what let's do. Let's get up a bunch of you, have sex with one each night until you find the one you really like, and then you can marry them. Who is around you, sir? Nobody good. Of course, it pleased the king. Let's continue, verse 5.

Speaker 1 3:04

At that time there was a Jewish man in the fortress of Susa whose name was Mordecai, son of Jair. He was from the tribe of Benjamin and he was a descendant of Kish and Shimei. His family had been among those who, with King Jeconiah of Judah, had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. This man had a very beautiful and lovely cousin, hadassah, who was also called Esther, so that's Esther's real name, hadassah. When her father and mother died, mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter.

Speaker 1 3:36

As a result of the king's decree, esther, along with many other young women, were brought to the king's harem at the fortress of Susa and placed under Haggai's care. Haggai was very impressed with Esther and treated her kindly. He quickly ordered a special menu for her and provided her with beauty treatments. He also assigned her seven maids specially chosen from the king's palace, and he moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. Esther had not told anyone her nationality and family background because Mordecai had directed her not to do so. Every day, mordecai would take a walk with her near the courtyard of the harem to find out about Esther and what was happening to her.

Speaker 1 4:16

Before each young woman had taken to the king's bed. Lord help us. She was given a prescribed 12 months of beauty treatments, six months of oil of myrrh, followed by six months of special perfumes and ointments. When it was time for her to go to the king's palace, she was given her choice of clothing or jewelry. Whatever she wanted to be taken from the harem that evening she was taken to the king's private room and the next morning she was brought to a second harem where the king's wives lived. There she would be under the care of Sheshag, the king's eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would never go to the king again unless he especially enjoyed her and requested her by name. God help us. Jesus, praise the Lord. Verse 15,.

Speaker 1 5:04

Esther was the daughter of Abahel, who was Mordecai's uncle. Mordecai had adopted his younger cousin, esther. When it was Esther's turn to go to the king, she accepted the advice of Haggai, the eunuch in charge of the harem. She asked for nothing except what he suggested, and she was admired by everyone who saw her. Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in early winter in the seventh year of his reign, and the king loved Esther more than any of the other women. He was so delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Vashti. To celebrate the occasion, he gave a great banquet in Esther's honor for all his nobles and officials, declaring a public holiday for the provinces and giving generous gifts to everyone, even after all the young women who had been transferred to the second harem and Mordecai had become a palace official, esther continued to keep her family, background and nationality a secret. She was still following Mordecai's directions, just as she did when she lived in his home.

Speaker 1 6:09

One day, as Mordecai was on duty at the king's gate, two of the king's units, bithana and Teresh, who were guards at the door of the king's private quarters, became angry at King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. But Mordecai heard about the plot and gave the information to Queen Esther. She then told the king about it and gave Mordecai credit for the report. When the investigation was made that Mordecai's story was found to be true, the two men were impaled on a sharpened pole. This was all recorded in the book of the history of King Xerxes' reign. Wow, what a story.

Speaker 1 6:45

And what I see from this is, first of all, I'm disgusted. I'll just be honest with you. I am absolutely disgusted. But it's a mess. But what did Hadassah Esther have to do? She was just faithful to do what she didn't really have a choice to do. Anyway, she did the best she could and she did it to the best of her ability to try to stay alive and to try to do what was right. And then what I love is the last part. Mordecai was faithful to the king.

Speaker 1 7:12

Now, there was every reason for Mordecai to not be faithful to that king. The king has sat there and he has taken all of these young ladies and he's had his way with them, and one of them was his cousin, who he had adopted to be his daughter. If there was ever a reason to not be faithful, he's got one. But instead he said you know what, though? This is the job I've been given, I want to be faithful and as I am being faithful, I'm just going to do the right thing and it paid off, and we'll see that in the future. And what that means to me is remember this is all a mess. None of this should be happening. None of this is good, but remember the overall theme of Esther is God uses messes and he can make something beautiful. And what God is doing is he's using messes to make something beautiful, and I just want to put this kind of down where we are to get ready to end our time.

Integrity and Trust in Adversity

Speaker 1 8:02

There is a good chance throughout life that there will be moments when we'll have the opportunity, and we may think we are justified to be unfaithful, to kind of get something off our chest, to say how we truly feel about something, or to just not honor God. You know what I'm owed this time you are, but you also have an opportunity to trust the Lord. Mordecai could have said well, god's forsaken us. The reason why I'm even in Susa is because it seems like that God's just let us all be overtaken. So I'm just going to do me. I'm where I don't want to be. I'm where I wish wouldn't have happened. So I'm just going to do what I got to do to survive.

Speaker 1 8:39

But instead he said no, I'm not going to lose my integrity, though I'm in a foreign land, I'm going to do the right thing for the right reason and I'm going to trust today. There's going to be times in your life when you're going to have an opportunity to take the low road. You're going to have an opportunity to say you know what? When, in Rome, I'm just going to do like the Romans, I'm going to cheat, steal, do whatever I got to do, because this is where I'm at. I don't want to be here, I don't like this job, I don't like this marriage. I don't like these kids, foreign land.

Speaker 1 9:10

I'm going to honor the Lord, I'm going to do the right thing for the right reason and I'm going to trust that God's going to make something out of this mess. And can I tell you, that's hard, that's difficult, it feels unfair. But if you will trust the Lord, god will do amazing things. Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you that you're with us and you're for us in every way. I pray God as we continue to do life with you. You have your way in us. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen. God's word says in Esther 4, verse 14, if you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you have been made queen for such a time as this? God has a plan for your life and he's doing more than you can imagine. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Esther, chapter three.