Esther 1:1-22: Banquets in the Grave

Esther chapter one, verse one.

Now in the days of Ahasuerus, 650 years have passed from the city gates of Ruth and Boaz to now the opening banquets of Ahasuerus.

To put this 650-year gap into perspective, the entire rise, golden age, division, and ultimate fall of the kingdom of Israel has occurred between the time of these two women.

Ruth lived before Israel had a king, while Esther lived long after Israel's kingdoms had come and gone.

And now they're scattered throughout foreign empires.

The Jews are exiled in Persia.

Actually, some have returned to Jerusalem by this time.

The devout ones, a little bit of history.

Cyrus in 538 was actually a foreign king used by God to direct Jews under Zerubbabel to return to Jerusalem and begin building the temple.

You find this in Ezra chapter one.

Cyrus had overthrown the Babylonian empire a year earlier.

And now the rise of what we call the Medo-Persian empire had begun.

50,000 of those Jews that had been deported and exiled into Babylon, now Medo-Persia, had returned and begun the building of the temple, but not all of them.

We pick up our story 50 years later.

Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes I, is now king over the largest empire in the world with unrivaled power.

And the Jews are stuck in a pagan culture.

And yet we're gonna find ourselves laughing, smirking at the folly of these supposed powerful rulers of the universe.

And we're to be reminded of verses like Psalm chapter two, verses two to four.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in heaven laughs.

Psalm 37, verses 12 and 13.

Again, the same sentiment.

The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth, but the Lord laughs at the wicked for he sees that their day is coming.

Lord, the Lord laughs at the powers that we often fear.

The Lord mocks those that we cower over.