00:00 Introduction and Monday Blues

00:05 Discussion on Manic Monday

01:00 Eric Wagstaff's Tweet

02:52 Faithful Pastors and Media Bias

04:15 Introduction to the Book of Esther

08:18 Esther's Background and Rise

12:52 Haman's Plot and Mordecai's Response

14:20 Esther's Dilemma and Plan

14:51 Reflections on God's Sovereignty

18:17 Closing Prayer and Final Thoughts

Hey, it's a Monday.

2

Welcome back to another

episode of the daily Bible.

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I guess it's the Mondays.

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And I just done a, their manic Monday.

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Is it, wait a minute, Mannix.

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The.

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The positive side of things, right.

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Cause somebody who's manic

depressive is like, They're happy

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sometimes isn't that the manic

side, I thought it was a bad thing.

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Maybe nobody wants to be manic

depressive, but I thought, I

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don't think being manic and like.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Relating to, or affected by mania.

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Which is all that.

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Not that.

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Okay.

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Frenetically busy.

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Frantic.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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I think that's probably the meaning,

the frenetic frantic necessarily.

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Yeah.

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Like the busy Monday.

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Automatic Monday.

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All right.

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Yeah, I guess I feel like that sometimes,

you know, Jumping into the week.

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Although not on my Monday,

my Monday is my Tuesday.

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Actually Tuesday is one of

my favorite days of the week.

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We talked about this before, I felt

like, oh, energize, ready for the week.

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I got through Monday.

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And then Tuesday comes

around and I feel good.

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Well, good for you.

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I'm glad.

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Thank you.

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Anyway.

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Yeah.

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We saw a tweet by Eric that we

both liked Eric Wagstaff, Zeller.

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His middle name is whack stuff.

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Yeah.

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Don't know if he's okay

with me, outing that on.

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On the podcast.

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What did our five.

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Listeners are going to, I've done.

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Yeah.

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Is that like a family name

and it's gotta be, yeah.

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I'm going to look that name up right now.

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Wag.

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Is it just pronounced?

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Yep.

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Just like you spell it.

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Yep.

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Why is that?

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Isn't there a WAC staff, Arizona.

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Flagstaff.

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About the same thing.

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Quite, uh, Hang a flag on origin.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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English and Scottish origin.

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May have been a nickname for a beetle.

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Okay.

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B E D L E.

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That is not a, B E T L E.

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Right.

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Uh, it could have been a literal reference

to someone who wagged a rod or a staff.

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Or it could have been gay Flagstaff.

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Or it could have been a ride or a ride.

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I bawled nickname.

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What is it?

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What is a ribald?

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Um,

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Hard hitting.

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Indecent.

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Biblical material that you

guys are getting right now.

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Okay.

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Fair.

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Well, Erik Erikson out a tweet that

was neither of those last few things.

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Yes.

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But we really appreciate what

you had to say because a lot of

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people haven't made this, I mean,

Uh, posse by its nature draws.

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A lot of it's like, it's

like a car accident.

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Yeah.

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You're going to stop.

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You're going to pay attention.

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It's going to get your attention.

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And even though you don't want to

stop, you still feel that pull to look

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because it's something interesting.

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But yeah.

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Yeah.

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Eric do we do this out?

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And, and he was responding to recent

news and end, he said this, he said,

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Um, he said what's more surprising than

those that follow ways he said is how

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many are not disqualifying themselves.

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Yeah.

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He said among faithful

Bible teaching churches.

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I've known a lot of disqualified pastors

and I've known 20 times more pastors who

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by God's grace carry on with faithfulness.

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Hmm.

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And that is.

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That's that's warranted.

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It's helpful.

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It's encouraging.

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And not in a self-serving kind of

a way, but listen, y'all, it's not

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like the Dallas morning news and WFAA

are not coming in, knocking on the

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door to interview faithful pastors.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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They're going to shine a

spotlight on those that fall in.

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Unfortunately there's

been a rash of those.

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If it bleeds, it leads.

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Right.

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But they're not going to come

in and say, look at these

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pastors that are being faithful.

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Look at these shepherds that are

continuing to love the flock.

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Um, and so Eric Sweet was,

was helpful in that regard.

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Yeah.

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And it's, it's important because

there are so many unnamed, I mean, I

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don't know about Humana on my YouTube.

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I'll get random, like,

oh, listen to this guy.

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Sermon.

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The churches from nowhere in the middle of

nowhere from no town from no name people.

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I don't know.

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And I'm like, oh, I watched one on Friday.

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Just out of curiosity, does the

subject matter interested me?

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And it was really good.

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I was like, man, thank you, Lord.

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For that message.

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It was so tiny.

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It was good for me.

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I felt benefited by it.

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I'm like, I don't know this guy from Adam.

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But I appreciated his preaching and

I, I was, I was just brought to the

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awareness that so often I'm looking

at these big star guys who have

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these platforms that are massive.

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Stuff that will probably never have.

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And when they fall, it really hurts.

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I'm not going to minimize that, but

there's so many others in the trenches

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who are doing the work day in, day out.

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God.

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Got a willing and God.

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Got permitting.

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They're doing it faithfully without

some scandal and their marriages or

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their parenting or whatever else.

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And we got to thank God for that.

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Oh, there's so many more that are doing

the work that never get the limelight.

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Yeah.

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A hundred percent.

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Yeah, I agree.

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Let's jump into our reading for today.

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And Esther one through five.

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Splash.

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Um, couple of things.

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Uh, the backdrop to the tension in

this story, which is between, uh,

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Mordecai and Haman as the two main.

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Uh, you know, competitors there,

it actually goes all the way

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back to the first single 15.

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Wow.

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And I guy named.

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Hey gag.

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Actually it goes back

to Genesis chapter two.

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Okay.

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Fine.

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Whatever.

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So I'm going to start there,

but you go ahead and start.

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The Jesus joke.

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Uh, yeah, no, it goes back to that.

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You'll remember the Amalekites and Saul

was charged with exterminating them.

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He was charged with wiping them out.

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They were part of the people that as

Israel came into the promised land,

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they were, they were to be removed.

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They would be destroyed.

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There were enemies of God.

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And, uh, Saul as king of Israel, he

spared some of the Amalekites, including

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the king king Agag and Samuel came along

and found that out and dispatched a gag.

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We'll put it that way in mildly.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And, uh, Drop drop drop, drop drop

to 500 years have gone by since that

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time and the book of Esther and yet

the animosity between Haman and the

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Jews really hasn't cooled all that

much like the jets and the sharks.

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Right.

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Sure.

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Yeah, because Haman you'll notice

is described as an aggregate.

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Uh, I get the guy.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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He's an aggregate.

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He's a descendant of Agag.

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And so, yeah, he's got the tension

there and that's kind of some

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of the background that leads to

everything that takes place here.

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Setting in the book, Persian empire.

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Uh, which being 5 30, 9 to 3 31 BC.

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Uh, not sure of the authorship, but some

have suggested either Mordecai or Ezra

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and Nehemiah as possible options there.

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Um, do you have an opinion one way

or the other on the authorship?

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I don't, it's, it's anonymous as far

as I'm concerned and I'm perfectly

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fine with letting it be that, although

I think an important note that we

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haven't mentioned yet, I want to be

sure we say it is that this is happening

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between as rhe six and as her seven.

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Is that where we last left off?

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Yes, this is why we're reading

it right now, because this is

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happening in the intervening years.

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I got a 60, 60 year gap between

two, two of those chapters.

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And that's why we're reading it now.

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Yup.

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Yeah.

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One of the things that led to the delay

in the acceptance of this book, because

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this was not initially accepted broadly

in the old Testament, Canon was the fact

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that God is not mentioned in this book.

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Oh, And you've probably heard the, the.

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Explanations for that.

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But it, even though he's not

mentioned in the book, God is,

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is all over all over the book.

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I mean, his sovereignty, his Providence,

um, even the things that that Mordecai

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says to Esther, when he says you've

been brought to this position for

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such a time as this, when he says,

Hey, The juice will be delivered,

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whether by you or by someone else.

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Yeah.

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God's fingerprints are all over the book.

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But his name ya'll way.

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Uh, or any reference to him, you're

not going to find it in the book.

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Yeah.

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I was also the characters in

the book too, are kind of like.

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They're not heroes.

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Right.

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Like they're here, they're in,

they're in Susa when they should be

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back at home, they should be back

in the promise that, but they're

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here and then you got this uncle.

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I mean, it seems like a

good guy, but he's given us.

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Nice to this guy and they're

preparing her for these things.

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Is it?

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I think they're cousins aren't they.

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I think he is her.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Relative.

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Okay.

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Maybe, maybe get, maybe get that wrong.

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That's possible.

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Cause I always thought uncle

too, but then I was reading one

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where I was like, wait a minute.

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Nice anyways.

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Well, let's get to that, but my only point

is that they're not heroes in the story.

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They're kind of anti-heroes I

agree, because they're not godly.

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They don't invoke.

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I mean, she invokes a fast.

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Uh, eventually thank God.

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But she.

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What she does to get her

role is not the most.

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Special thing in the world on.

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Talk about this, you know

what I'm struggling with here.

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Yeah, but they're not heroes

and God is God is the hero he's

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operating behind the scenes.

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He's definitely under the foreground,

but he is in the background.

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Orchestrating everything to his

good and sovereign purposes.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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Pastor rod.

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I used a log us AI.

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And I asked him, I

said, who was motorcade?

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Esther Mordecai played a crucial

role in Esther's life as her

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cousin and foster father.

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Oh, okay.

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Cousin and foster funding.

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Yeah, that sounds right.

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That's what I was saying.

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Did I say something different?

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I met cousin and foster.

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That's what you said.

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That's what I heard.

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That's what I fit.

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All right.

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Esther, chapter one.

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Yeah, we open up under the

reign of a housewares or

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Xerxes, which is an easier name.

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For him.

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Hebrews from 45 to 4 65 BC.

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Um, three years into his reign, he

throws this party and he throws this

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party to show off his opulence and

his majesty and everything else.

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And during this party, he requests that

his favorite wife, uh, because he had a

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harem, his favorite wife queen Vashti.

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It comes to appear before the

men gathered at this party.

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There's question as to what was

involved, even in that, if there was

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something, uh, You know, untoured about

what he wanted her to come in and do.

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And, and others think, no, he just

was looking to it to show her beauty.

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Um, for whatever reason she refuses.

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Uh, there's speculation on this.

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We don't know Vashti.

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Uh, w we, we don't know who she is.

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Um, some have suggested she

could have been a queen named Ms.

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Estrus who was the mother of art Xerxes.

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Who's going to Sue.

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Succeed Xerxes on the throne.

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Uh, we don't know who she was.

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Uh, she doesn't show up extra biblically

in any sort of resource there, but.

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She's here.

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She says, no, the king says I'm done.

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He is enraged his counselor,

say, Hey, put her away.

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And don't call for her.

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Uh, her company ever again.

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Um, Along those lines, then

he needs a replacement.

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And that's what leads to chapter two when

Esther shows up and the reason being is

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the king says, Hey, Uh, I want to have all

of the women in the land come in, appear

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before me who meet the requirements.

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And, uh, she's going to be, uh,

there, there's going to be a

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replacement found for queen Vashti.

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And so Mordecai is introduced

here along with Esther and.

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He suggests, or she is conscripted

rather into this beauty competition.

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And it's interesting.

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She wins favor from the, the captain

of the, the Heron, the unit that was

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in charge of all of the women here.

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It made me think of Daniel.

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And so, uh, pastor, rod.

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Daniel's given favor.

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There's obviously, uh, acts of

integrity that lead to his favor there.

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Do you think it's appropriate

to seek God's hand of favor

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upon Esther in this situation?

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I would offer a qualified.

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Yes.

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Because again, how she gets

there, I think is very in apropos.

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I don't like that.

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I don't think that she did the

right thing there, but I guess

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granted given the scenario.

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Since God orchestrates all things

to the council, according to his

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will, for his sovereign purposes,

even the crucifixion of Christ.

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I would have to confess.

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Yes, God is evidently at work

and putting her in just the right

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spot at just the right time.

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So yes, I would offer.

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But qualified, what would you say to that?

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Well, let me, let me rephrase.

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Um, I'm playing your role now.

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Cool.

335

Let's do this.

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Yeah, so.

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Can we say that?

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She's in the wrong here, right?

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Because we don't the.

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The text doesn't come out and say the

implication being, she was, um, perhaps

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not as covered as she should be in.

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In all of this process.

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Going in before the king.

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And there were things that

were taking place there.

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Right.

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It's not hard necessarily

for us to get there.

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But she doesn't, she doesn't say,

Hey, I want this, she doesn't

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volunteer for this position.

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Right.

350

Um, Because we could argue, well, she

should have known that, you know, a Jew

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is not supposed to marry a foreigner.

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She should have had that

understanding, right.

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Okay.

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But she was conscripted into this.

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So.

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It is.

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Do we see her as a, as a victim?

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Is this slimy or is this a, is this.

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A victim.

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Type situation.

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I would see that she's a victim

only to the extent that she

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really had a few choices.

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If she said no, She's going to die.

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Absolutely.

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I mean, yeah, you don't disobey the king.

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That's the whole reason

Vashti's not there.

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So she would've died.

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I don't doubt that.

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But good God had delivered

them another way.

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Yes.

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And I think God would

have honored her for that.

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And I don't think just

because she, she chooses.

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Is it the lesser of two evils?

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Uh, their effect.

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Speaking about a policy, there

are worse things than dying.

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There are worse things than death.

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I would rather be dead than be unfaithful.

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And so I would say I was still

holding her accountable for making the

379

decision that she made and she made

the best decision that she could have

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given her circumstances, I suppose.

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But I don't think it gets

her off of the hook victim.

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Yes.

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In a sense, because she is being

conscripted, but not victim entirely.

384

She's not abdicated from her role simply

because she's in a difficult spot.

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She should have made the right decision.

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And of course it's easy for me

to say that looking from this.

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At this 2000 years later, but I still

think that's the right decision.

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Right.

389

Okay.

390

So.

391

I want to come back to that.

392

Oh, because I've got more

questions, but, but real quick here.

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Chapter two.

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Um, She she's taken in Mordecai,

her cousin slash foster dad.

395

Uh, sets up camp outside of

the gates to talk to her each

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day to find out how it's going.

397

Um, chapter three, Haman.

398

The pump, pump out the bad guy he's

introduced here, and he's promoted

399

by a has awareness and people

are committed to bow before him.

400

And when he passes by Mordecai,

Mordecai's not going to do it more

401

cat being a Jew is not going to

honor this man being a Gentile.

402

And also perhaps the,

the, the tension between.

403

He maybe knew about the history

with a guy and everything else.

404

He's not going to do it.

405

Haman gets super angry at this

and upset and he writes an edict.

406

With the King's permission,

having convinced the king

407

that this should be done.

408

He writes an edict that says,

Hey, Um, all the Jews need to

409

be exterminated throughout the

entirety of the Persian empire.

410

And that was essentially the whole

known world at this time, so that

411

the, the gauntlet is thrown down

to kill all the Jews everywhere.

412

Wow.

413

In this situation, Uh, chapter

four, um, Mordecai, the rest of the

414

Jews they learned of the decree.

415

Uh, and they respond with with morning

and sorrow appropriately, obviously,

416

uh, Esther invited motorcar finding out

that, that he was upset to come into the.

417

The palace to put off as his

morning clothes, he says, no.

418

Uh, through this interchange

of sending messengers.

419

The plot is discovered by Esther now.

420

And Mordecai says, Hey,

God has put you here.

421

He doesn't say God.

422

He says, maybe it's for this

occasion that you've been put

423

in the position that you have.

424

You need to go in implied God.

425

Right.

426

And, and you need to.

427

Ask the king to, to undo what he's done.

428

You need to intercede

on behalf of the people.

429

Uh, and Esther.

430

Initially hesitant.

431

And then she says, okay.

432

And she understands by doing this,

she's going to put her life at risk

433

because to go in uninvited before

the king would have done that.

434

And so in chapter five, then.

435

She goes in and her

plane has put in motion.

436

Uh, she asks for a feast day

between the king and Haman and her.

437

And we find that there's going to

be a second one, which we're going

438

to get to in tomorrow's reading.

439

So that's kind of the high

level one through five.

440

It's a great overview.

441

My question though, is this.

442

Granted, they weren't

supposed to be there.

443

It's it's it's untoured, there's

some things going on here.

444

We, we, we have to have that qualified.

445

She's a victim with,

with qualification there.

446

But what do we do?

447

Like God, God used her to,

to deliver the people of.

448

To preserve the people of Israel, right?

449

Yeah.

450

So, how do we like wasn't this,

isn't this a good thing then that

451

she was put in that position?

452

Yeah, we'd have to say it was

God, God sovereignly overcame the

453

obstacles of sinful human nature.

454

And both Hadassah, Esther and Mordecai.

455

That's not the heat.

456

Um, what's his name?

457

Not Mordecai.

458

Um, Hey, man.

459

Hey man.

460

Hey man.

461

Yeah, sorry.

462

I just hit my mic.

463

So yeah, I absolutely.

464

God God orchestrated it.

465

In a way that put the best

construction on it to make it work.

466

But we'd also have to confess

that if she didn't do that,

467

God would have figured it out.

468

Is that like you would

have been surprised.

469

So it's one of those things where

man, I so grateful God use that.

470

Evil situation to bring about this

incredible good thing, but that's really

471

the way that the Odyssey works overall.

472

We're always going to say as Christians

that God allows and permits evil

473

events to occur in all of our lives.

474

Because he has a much greater good.

475

That he will accomplish as a result

of that evil thing that he allowed.

476

He can never allow something evil to

happen that will not have a corresponding

477

greater good as a result of that evil.

478

And so, yes, even though he permitted

these evil things to happen and he doesn't

479

endorse them, he uses them for his glory.

480

And ultimately, that's why we

think this book is all about him.

481

He's not on the foreground, but

he's certainly in the background

482

and his, his glory is on full

display in his Providence.

483

When I think the other thing to

know, and it's important that,

484

and you brought it up earlier is.

485

If they weren't there to begin

with, if they'd gone back to Israel.

486

None of this would have happened.

487

Reach.

488

There wouldn't have been the conflict.

489

And so there's something to take away.

490

I think sometimes we sit in an, in the

consequences of our sinful actions.

491

And we think to ourselves, oh

man, look how rough life is.

492

And, and because of the evil of this

nation or the evil of my boss or the

493

evil of this person over here, and it's

like, okay, but let's back up three

494

steps and realize your sinful decisions,

put you in that position to begin with.

495

Um, so yeah, I'm I'm with you.

496

I think it is a good thing that she was

in that position, but I also think she.

497

To your point that you made earlier?

498

Should've been there in the first place.

499

And if Mordecai and her were back home

in Israel, there wouldn't have been

500

any conflict between her and Haman.

501

And this wouldn't have

happened in the first place.

502

Nope, no purine.

503

Yeah, no perimeter would be necessary,

but I guess this is encouraging because.

504

And let's just be honest, man.

505

You and I, we send at least once.

506

A second and different ways.

507

I was like, okay, what's

the timeframe going to be?

508

Yeah, we sit a lot is my point.

509

And it's incredibly comforting that God

is not going to be stopped by my sin.

510

I don't want it.

511

I don't want to do it.

512

I tried not to.

513

But God's not going to be

forwarded by my sinful actions.

514

And I pray that my sinful actions

never rise to the level of

515

apostasy that we see in others.

516

Um, I'm afraid of being stupid.

517

And I was talking to

someone the other day.

518

As I was mentioning a minute ago,

there are things worse than that

519

than, than death and apostasy.

520

I think in my mind would be worse

being unfaithful to my church

521

and bringing dishonor to Christ.

522

I'd rather die.

523

I hope he does do that.

524

If that's ever a possibility in my life

that said, uh, I'm, I'm greatly comforted

525

that God is not stopping my stupidity.

526

God is going to be

glorified no matter what.

527

And I trust he's going

to do that in my life.

528

And he'll do that for his glory and his

honor and ultimately for my good, yeah.

529

Yeah, man.

530

If God was stopped by.

531

The stupid stupidity of human beings.

532

We never would have done

to where we're at today.

533

That's true.

534

Yeah.

535

Hey, let's pray.

536

God, we thank you for this text.

537

We thank you for the story.

538

We, we, uh, thank you for that

reality, that, that our sinfulness

539

does not Fort your sovereignty.

540

And yet we don't want our

sinfulness to hinder it.

541

We don't want it to be a hindrance to

our relationship with you, and we don't

542

want it to be anything that would lead

us down the path of apostasy or, or any

543

other threats to our standing with you.

544

And so God.

545

Um, help us as faithful men of God

and women of God listening to this

546

as well to be zealous, to put off sin

anywhere we find it in to be found

547

faithful to you on a daily basis.

548

We pray in Christ's name.

549

Amen.

550

Amen.

551

By the way that nugget.

552

I thought we're seeing

things worse than death.

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How long the Lord, da Carson.

554

Someone quoted that part of

his book and I'm like, oh

555

yeah, I forgot all about that.

556

Went back to read it.

557

Oh, so good.

558

So good.

559

Are y'all keeping your Bibles to new

tomorrow for us, somewhat of a comical.

560

End of the story.

561

I'm already laughing biopsy.