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Amazing Facts

From Cover to Cover

Doug Batchelor

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 4 – Joseph, Pt. 2

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 1 – Abraham

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 2 – Isaac

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 3 – Joseph, Pt. 1

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 5 – Joseph, Pt. 3

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 6 – Joseph, Pt. 4

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 7 – Moses, Pt. 1

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 12 – The Book of Judges

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 8 – Moses, Pt. 2

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 10 – Ruth

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 11 – Joshua

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 13 – Samson

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 14 – David

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 15 – The Prophets

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 16 – Esther, Pt. 1

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 16 – Esther, Pt. 2

Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 9 – Job

Welcome to Amazing Facts with Doug Batchelor.

Join pastor and teacher Doug Batchelor as he brings biblical truth to life in a practical and personable way that everyone can understand.

And don't forget about our free gift to you.

Stay tuned for your free resource at the end of the program.

Today is our 16th installment and we're going to be going to the book of Esther.

And so if you've got your Bibles I'd invite you to turn to the book of Esther chapter 1 verse 1.

It says, it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia this is talking about Persian Persia in its zenith of power and this Ahasuerus it says he sat on the throne in his kingdom which is Shushan in the citadel.

Now, Another name, he's better known in history as Xerxes I.

His reign is between 485 and 465 BC, and he was also called a King of Kings because he had 127 provinces that had their own kings.

You've probably heard the story of 300 Spartans that fought against the Persian army and they were able to at least hold them off a long time.

Eventually the Persians did find a way around, but they were eventually beaten back by the Greeks.

Now then you go on and you read, it says that in the third year of his reign, I don't want you to miss this, a lot of people, and if you saw my Facebook post last night you noticed this, a lot of people do not realize that the book of Esther is a book of prophecy it says here in the third year of his reign, what year?

Third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, now remember in the prophecies of Daniel it said that the Medo-Persian kingdom would be, it's a 2 fold kingdom it said the powers of Persia and Media and the nobles and the princes of the provinces being before him, he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days, 180 days in all." So you got 3 years, a Jewish year is 360.

So the story that we're about to read transpires 42 months, 3 1⁄2 years, 1, 260 days into his reign.

Do you find that time period in the book of Daniel?

Do you find that time period in the book of Revelation?

So, 3 and a half years into the story is when this happens.

Now you're gonna see that number come up again before it's over.

And when these days were completed, the king made a feast lasting 7 days.

As we go on with the book of Esther, I don't want you to miss how much it has in common with the book of Revelation.

Not only do you have that 1260 day period, you've got the number 7, 6, 10, talks about a third, talks about gold, silver, marble, a lot of the phrases and the numbers 12, a year, a lot of the numbers and the phrases that you find in Revelation are in the book of Esther and you'll see why as we proceed.

The number 7 shows up a lot in the book of Esther.

The only other book in the Bible where it's got 7 so much is Revelation.

7 days for the people who were present in Shushan, the citadel or capital, from small to great, in the court of the garden of the king's palace there were white and blue linen curtains fastened with cords of fine linen and purple on silver rods and marble pillars and the couches if you read Revelation chapter 18 it uses a lot of the same finery in the fall of Babylon Turquoise and white and black marble and alabaster and they serve drinks in golden vessels, each vessel being different from another with royal wine in abundance.

In accordance with the law of drinking, it was not compulsory, for so the king had ordered all of the officers of his household that they should do according to each man's pleasure.

And Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women in the royal palace which belonged to King Ahasuerus.

On the seventh day, there's that number again, it says that he commanded Mahuman and Bitha, Harbona, Bitha, Abagatha, Zethr and Carcas, 7 eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold." All right, I've just got to pause here.

Now, you want me to preach the Bible to you, right?

I can't count how many times I've heard people go through this next passage of scripture and they've, I think, done violence to what is being said here.

They've made it sound like that Vashti is a feminist hero or what the king wanted her to do is to come and perform some striptease in the palace and he was asking her to do something terrible.

No, they were all celebrating peace in the kingdom.

She was having a party for all the ladies, she was chosen to be queen because she was beautiful, and the king said we'd like to bring out the beautiful queen, and she says no.

Now I've heard a lot of people say, good for you Vashti, you show him who's boss.

What does he think, you're supposed to come to his drunken party?

When a girl runs for a beauty pageant and she's elected and someone asks her to come to a function, should she be insulted?

And by the way, the word beauty comes up a lot in the book of Esther.

I don't know about you, but if I've got a choice to look at something beautiful or something ugly, I'll probably choose beautiful.

So the king, and by the way, He's the king.

And his most beautiful possession talks about all the beauty in the palace and all the beauty and finally his queen.

He's got this beautiful queen, he says, please come, here we've had this feast and you're not here on the throne next to me, come.

That's called disobeying the king's command.

Now, when you study the Bible, study it in the context of the Bible, do not study it in the political correctness of the day in which you and I live.

You've got to look at it through the eyes of the writers.

Now I'm going to read some verses you probably have not heard in a long time.

Some of you are gonna go, I had no idea that was in the Bible.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, this is the New Testament.

Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord." I didn't hear a single amen.

Some of you are thinking, Pastor Doug, you wrote that.

Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body therefore just as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

That he might sanctify and cleanse her with a washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church.

A beautiful church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." Now that doesn't mean if you look at your wife and she's got wrinkles that you need to go look for a new 1.

It's talking about wrinkles in the garments here.

Without spot or wrinkle, but she should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

You've heard it said before that if you treat your wife like a queen, she will treat you like a king.

So keep that in mind, I'm gonna read you another 1.

I'm not gonna read them all to you, there's more than this, you'd be surprised.

1 Peter 3, verse 1, wives, likewise be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without the word, might be 1, meaning 1 to the Lord by the conduct of the wives." So the king, he is extremely wroth by this, And he doesn't know what to do.

It's caused such a stir that she would disobey a direct order from the king.

And 1 reason we believe that the book of Esther is very literal is whoever wrote it had a great knowledge of Persia because the exact names of the eunuchs, the exact names of the counselors are given, it tells about the customs of the party, it talks about the furnishings of the palace, and so there's just extremely accurate in-house knowledge of what was going on here in the palace.

So we believe it's an accurate historical book.

So you can believe these events, friends.

And there, you know, everyone loves a Cinderella story.

There's no better Cinderella story than the book of Esther, how someone goes from rags to riches and then there's this terrible nemesis that appears, but we're getting ahead of ourself.

So he calls together his counselors, Karshina, Shethar, Admantha, Tarshis, by the way that was my mother's maiden name.

It was associated with a place over in Spain.

Ruth Tarshis, Miras, Marcena, Mamukun, the 7 princes, there's that number 7 again, of Persia and Media, who had access to the king's presence.

They're his prime counselors, who ranked highest in the kingdom.

And they said, what do we do about this disobedience?

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Jesus in All the Bible, Pt. 16 – Esther, Pt. 1

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