In the sermon 'Life with the King,' Jason Dohm explores the biblical narrative of Esther chapter 1, emphasizing the stark contrast between King Ahasuerus's opulent banquet and Queen Vashti's separate feast. The sermon highlights the cultural norms of the time, where the king's absolute authority was seldom challenged, and the implications of Vashti's refusal to obey the king's command. Dohm advises against interpreting the events through a Christian framework, noting the absence of Christian values in the story. He underscores the unpredictable nature of human behavior and the potential consequences of Vashti's actions as a state matter rather than a personal dispute. The sermon draws parallels between ancient Persia and modern times, suggesting that power and wisdom are often disconnected. Dohm emphasizes God's unseen presence and control over historical events, urging listeners to recognize God's hand in everything. The sermon concludes with a call to Christian husbands to follow the 'ruby rule,' treating their wives with the same self-sacrificial love that Christ shows the church.

The text says, For so the king had ordered all the officers of his household that they should do according to each man's pleasure. So you don't have to drink, but you're also not limited to how much you can drink. Anybody ever been in a situation like that? The results are quite predictable. Then in verse 9, we are given this afterthought.

Queen Vashti is also hosting a feast. Think about 1-8 in the description. 127 provinces. The powers are there. Anyone who is anyone is there.

And they're reclining on couches. And they've each got their unique goblet. And every man can do as he wants to do. And you're standing on black and white marble and there are hangings and tapestries and columns. And the Queen's giving a party too.

In verse 9. There is such a stark contrast. You don't get anything about the banquet that the Queen is hosting for the women. Well, this is meant by the author. The stark contrast is meant by the author.

This is on purpose. And then the message is, only the king rates. Only the king matters. The king and what he's doing, and his wealth, his enormous wealth that he's putting on display matters. And also the Queen's doing this other thing over here.

Now to verses 10-22. For the sake of time, I'm only going to read verses 10-15 and you know the rest of the story. So follow along. Chapter 1 verse 10. On the seventh day when the heart of the king was merry with wine he commanded his seven eunuchs.

These are servants who would have been physically altered to be safe around the kings, wives, and concubines. So you don't have to worry about these men around the women because they've been physically altered so that you don't have to worry about them. The root word for eunuch is to castrate. So physically altered to be safe around the women. There are seven of them who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, verse 11, 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.

But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command brought by his eunuchs. Therefore the king was furious and his anger burned within him. Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times, for this was the king's manner toward all who knew law and justice, those closest to him being, and then there are seven names of these wise men, these trusted advisors, the seven princes of Persia and Medea, who had access to the king's presence and who ranked highest in the kingdom. These seven men rank highest in the kingdom. What shall we do to Queen Vashti according to law because she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus brought to her by the eunuchs.

So this is the question that the king and his seven most trusted advisors are taking up. What do we do about this queen who won't come? In this section we have a crisis the king refused. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's crisis refused. A crisis the king refused by Queen Vashti.

This is on the seventh day. Now get this. 180 days of showing off to the powers that be across 127 provinces have gone well. The showing off has gone well. And mission accomplished.

And now there's been seven more days of feasting for the people in Shushan, The great and the small, the inconsequential and the most consequential. And we're on the final day. And this. So imagine, you're the king, no one ever tells you no. Because they know what happens when you tell the king no.

In fact, if he hadn't put you at liberty when he raised his glass, you would have raised your glass. When he drank, you would drink. Because that's how it works in an empire with an emperor. And you've put together this to show off the glory of your kingdom to display the majesty and the glory of your kingdom. And now the Queen won't come.

Now was King Ahasuerus drunk? Well the text doesn't say. The text says he was married with wine. He might have been drunk. He might not have been drunk.

When you look at those words within scripture sometimes it doesn't mean drunkenness at all. It just means that the consumption of wine in moderation lightens the mood. Sometimes it has a completely innocent connotation in scripture and sometimes it is used in conjunction with drunkenness. So you can't tell by the words that the author uses whether he was drunk or not. But whether he was or wasn't, clearly this was not pre-planned.

In other words, they are not working according to an agenda and the schedule. And the schedule says on the last day there is going to be a presentation of the Queen. And the Queen has been prepared for this and She knows she is going to be presented. That is not what is happening in the text. The king is in some sort of an altered state.

Meaning he was married with wine. He was in a wine induced state of happiness. The wine has induced his current state of happiness. He has decided at the spur of the moment that bringing the Queen in so that everyone can see how beautiful she is, is a good idea. Verse 10 says he is commanding.

He commanded. King Ahasuerus doesn't ask. King Ahasuerus tells. And when he tells, you do. He tells, you do.

That's how the kingdom works. Now there are two incidences from the book of Esther that I think should help us understand how earth-shaking what's happening in chapter 1 is. The first is in chapter 4, his wife Esther, by chapter 4 he'll have a new wife and she'll be Esther and she'll have to be summoned in order to see him. She hasn't seen him for 30 days. And why?

Because she doesn't want to see him? No, because she hasn't been summoned. And it's true even of a wife, that if she comes without being called, the only thing that keeps her from being put to death for that high crime of coming to see her husband, the only thing that would keep her from that is if he extends his scepter. Now Think about that. And now come back to chapter 1 where the Queen says, no, I won't come.

Not only are you not allowed to refuse the king, you can't even come unless you're summoned. It goes way beyond having to come when summoned. You can't come unless you are summoned. The second event from the book of Esther that I think helps us to understand chapter one in its fullness is chapter six where Haman, who we haven't been introduced yet, but we read the whole book last week so you know what happens, this is not a mystery. When Haman misunderstands, the king says, what should we do for the person I really want to honor?

And Haman assumes that it's him, and so he has a great plan for how the king can honor him, but the king really had his mortal enemy Mordecai in mind. And So the script is flipped, it's turned. So that Haman is compelled to lead his arch enemy, who he's pointed all his vindictiveness at for the whole book. He is compelled, because he misunderstood, to lead him through the city on a horse and say, Thus shall be done for the man the king desires to honor. And he does that without a peep.

Meaning he never even thinks to make an appeal to the king that he wouldn't have to do that. When the king says it, you do it. And Haman is second in the kingdom. It just goes to the heart of what is happening and how earth-shaking it is in chapter 1 that the Queen wouldn't come. For me, the big question isn't, was the king drunk?

The big question is, were many, many of the guests drunk? And the answer is, undoubtedly, yes. The whole city is there. The great are there. The small are there.

And each man can drink as much as he wants to drink. There are drunk men there. How many, what proportion, doesn't matter. There's a lot of drunk men there. And in all my reading this week, it would have been very unusual for any Persian man, let alone the king, to willingly expose his eyes to the eyes of other men, especially if they were drunk men.

Meaning, when I read what the commentators have to say about the Persian culture, an average husband would never bring out his wife an exposure to the eyes of other men. It was not customary to do that. So for the king to do this and to bring his wife an exposure to the eyes of a drunken crowd of the great and the small is beyond customary. But he's been showing off. For six months he's been showing off.

And he wants you to know that his wife's way prettier than your wife It's just it's it's all part of the show It's all part of the show. Here's what? Ian Douguid says in the Reformed Expository commentary, I don't know much about him other than I'm enjoying reading the commentary. Here's what he says, To command his wife to appear dressed up in her royal finery, for the enjoyment of a crowd of drunken men was to treat her as a doll, a mere object who existed for the king's pleasure, and to show off his power." A trophy wife in the contemporary jargon. Don't we have a word for this?

I think Ian Dewood in this commentary is saying exactly what this is. We have a phrase for this in our culture. A trophy wife. What is that? That is a man who has married the prettiest girl he could possibly marry and then loves to parade her around and show off his beautiful wife.

That's what it means to have a trophy wife. The king wants to introduce his kingdom to his trophy wife in Esther chapter 1. But there's one thing the king didn't count on. Queen Basti is having none of it. Now most women of the time, Many women probably of any time who were married to a king and were summoned would have acted more in her own long-term interests and just come even if she was simmering in her heart.

But not Queen Vashti. You didn't count on this. Queen Vashti is having none of it. At this point, I want to caution us against trying to force this narrative, Esther chapter 1, into a Christian framework. Don't do that.

Don't try to force this history of Ahasuerus and Vashti into a Christian framework. There are no Christian categories here. There's not a Christian husband. There's not a Christian wife. There's not Christian counselors.

There's not Christian laws. There's not Christian expectations on anyone's part. So don't spend much time and energy trying to sort out, was Vasti noble here in what she did or was she wrong in what she did? Because again, they're not Christians and they've no exposure to Christian categories. So it won't do to try to make her noble for not coming or to say that it was wrong for not coming.

First, we don't have enough information in the text to even make a judgment on that. But secondly, none of the characters are thinking in these terms anyway. If you do that, you'll be the only one thinking in those terms. Ahasuerus wasn't thinking in those terms. Basti wasn't thinking in those terms.

The laws of the Persians and the Medians weren't crafted around those terms. His counselors aren't thinking in those terms. What we have is an unbelieving king and an unbelieving queen with unbelieving friends and unbelieving counselors, living in an unbelieving culture with unbelieving laws, getting somewhat predictable results. It might have been unpredictable in that many, many, many would have just acted in long-term self-interest and come anyway, even bristling on the inside. But if you just step back and you look at it from a high level, you have the marriage of two unbelievers for all the wrong reasons.

He liked her because she was beautiful. And he's going to get his second wife for the same reason. So you have two unbelievers marrying for the wrong reasons, and then you have a husband doing something stupid, and a wife reacting by showing contempt for his authority and then he gets really mad because she shows the contempt for his authority. So think that's ever happened outside of Persia? Think that sequence?

Unbelievers getting married for the wrong reasons, and then the husband doing something stupid, and the wife showing contempt, and the husband getting really mad as a result of it has ever happened outside of Persia. I think it has. I know some people in this room have had years of marriage when none of you were unbelievers, you got married for the wrong reasons, and this sequence has played itself out in your life over and over again. Now if this was an average husband and an average wife, The stakes would be normal. The stakes from this sequence, husband does something stupid, wife shows contempt for his authority, husband gets really mad about it.

The stakes of that sequence would be normal. And they could go have it out in private with some hope of a way forward. This is not an average husband and not an average wife. The Queen's refusal of the King of Kings has been very public, and so This is now a matter of state. In your house it would have been a marital squabble.

In their house it's a matter of state. And there are enormous implications as a possible precedent. Meaning, it's been very public. He publicly called her before an assembly and she publicly refused to come. And this is a possible precedent where now wives across a 3000 mile geography say, Do I have to submit to my husband?

The queen doesn't submit to her husband. Where subjects say, do I have to submit to my local authority? The queen doesn't even have to come if she's called before the king. And so what would have been a marital squabble in your home, it is decided must be treated as a high crime against the kingdom. In the case of Queen Bashti.

The king has this small group of highly trained and educated counselors. The text says that they understand the times and that they're expert in law and judgment. They're his seven princes that actually have access to him. Again, this is in a kingdom where unless you're summoned, you die if you come. But these are men who have access to him, unlike anyone else.

So instead of a precedent of acceptable disobedience, in other words, the king calls the queen, but she doesn't have to come. So it's acceptable for me to not pay my taxes. Instead of a precedent of acceptable disobedience, they decide to set a precedence of the right of a husband to rule his home and with an iron fist if necessary. And this is done according to the law of the Persians and the Medes, you can never go back on it. Not even the king can go back on it.

Now what have we heard over the last half dozen years? Over and over and over and over and over again. Repeal and replace! Obamacare. We don't like that law.

We think that law was a mistake. So we want to repeal it, totally take it off the books, and put in something that we think is better. With the law of the Medes and the Persians, there is no repeal and replace. Not even the king can call it back once it's in place. In fact, this is exactly what we see in the book of Daniel.

What happens in the book of Daniel is before the time of Esther won by probably 50 years. But you still see in the book of Daniel a law of the Persians and the Medes which the king enacts that then when Daniel is caught up in it the king says, I don't want Daniel to be fed to the lions too late, not even the king can call it back. Into the lions then you go. This is the same structure of law that is irrevocable, you cannot repeal and replace. And this is actually going to play an important role as Esther unfolds.

There's going to be more laws of the Persians and Medes that are irrevocable. Notification is sent everywhere to all 127 provinces so that everyone gets it in their own language. So again, you've got a far-flung empire. Many people have been conquered. There's not one language across the empire.

And so it goes out to everyone in their own language so that everyone can understand with great clarity what the king is requiring of his subjects. Now a few observations about chapter 1. I'm going to give you four observations. If you're taking notes on the handout, we're moving to the next sections and it's observations. A few observations.

Four to be precise. Observation number one, humans are humans. You can give a man rule over 127 provinces. That doesn't mean he can rule his own household. It just doesn't.

Because humans are humans. Kings over empires, kings over other kings have the same nature as you and I have. They have the same problems, maybe manifesting themselves in different ways, but they have the same nature and the same problems. Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 16 verse 26. Jesus is addressing this in Matthew 16 verse 26.

He says, For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his own soul? We have before us in Esther chapter 1 a man who rules a geography 3, 000 miles in breadth, 127 provinces, and today He is eternally separated from God. None of his wealth could buy him a day out of that place. Out of his position of separation against God and getting what he deserves from the life that he spent.

So one of the observations we have to say, and I want to say it to the children, I'm really hoping the children are still paying enough attention that they heard children, and they'll look up now so I can make eye contact with them. Do not chase after these things. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world? Ahasuerus in Esther chapter 1 has gained practically the whole world and he loses his soul. His life is just a vapor, it's like the blink of an eye.

And now eternity is before him and he is eternally separated from God. Gaining the whole world cost him his soul. And he would trade it all to come back and be a commoner who bowed the knee to God in his lifetime. He would trade it all. In a nanosecond today if you could speak with him.

He would trade it all. Don't chase these things children. Chase Jesus. Chase Jesus. Observation number two.

This isn't as unlike our world as it may seem. In some ways it's very hard to come to the book of Esther, especially when the majesty of this kingdom is put before us and relate. It's a dictator. He has supreme power over the life and death of his subjects. We don't really know anything about that.

But here again, I'm quoting Ian Dugwood from the Reformed Expository Commentary. He says this and I find it very helpful. This is the world in which God's people found themselves then, and often still find themselves. A world in which the reigns of power are in the hands of the incompetent, and in which we are guided at best by the amoral, and at worst by the immoral. This world is a dangerous place where power and wisdom are frequently unconnected.

We have a lot to learn from the book of Esther. We might not have an absolute tyrant who can put you to death at a whim, but we do live in a place where power and wisdom are often unconnected and we do find ourselves at the mercy of our authorities. Given marching orders by the amoral at best and the immoral at worst. And if anyone can't discern that our current trajectory is towards a greater and greater and greater disconnect between power and wisdom, you've not been paying attention. Meaning, if we stay on the current track, our everyday experience is going to be more and more disconnected between wisdom and power.

The people in power are going to be less and less wise, less and less godly. Unless God has mercy on us. So we have a lot to learn from this book. Number three. God is here.

That's my observation about Esther chapter 1. His name never appears in Esther chapter 1. But consider what James, this is Jesus' half-brother James, says in Acts chapter 15. Jesus' half-brother James says this in Acts chapter 15 verse 18, Known to God from eternity are all His works. Known to God from eternity are all His works.

In other words, God worked this out from eternity. Before Adam and Eve ever had a place to live in, ever lived their lives, before there was ever one single human being, God worked all this out. Known to God from eternity are all his works. He raises up kings. He puts down kings and he does this all for his own glory.

He has a plan to put his goodness and his greatness on display and it's filled with things that we don't understand and we have to look back on to see God. It's just like Esther chapter 1. When we get to Esther chapter 10, you can look back on Esther chapter 1 and say, I see how God is putting Himself on display in all of His goodness and all of His greatness, but you can't see it in Esther chapter 1. This is the life we live. You can't see today in all the trials and hard circumstances that God is bringing to your life how He is putting His goodness and His greatness on display.

It's going to take a future time to look back on that and see that you can know God is here. All these things were worked out before one human ever lived. He's working all things together for the good of those who love him. God is here. Number four.

Now let's consider this marriage, Ahasuerus and Vashti, through the Christian lens, meaning through the lens of Scripture. Turn to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. I'm only going to read a portion of this text. We could spend a long time here, but we don't have a long time to spend.

Ephesians 5. Starting in verse 22. Ephesians 5.22. 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 also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

I'm skipping down to verse 33, the last verse in the chapter. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. We have before us in Esther chapter 1 the anti-gospel marriage. It's the exact mirror opposite of Ephesians 5 and the picture of Christ in the church. Here you have a man who says, I want to marry you, you're gorgeous.

And then he makes a lifetime of demands upon her based on his own selfish desires. This is the exact polar opposite of the gospel where Jesus to one who is unlovely by nature, unlovely by nature, says, I want you. And rather than making a lifetime of selfish demands based on his own desires, He works to make her beautiful. He doesn't marry beauty, he marries ugly. And then labors to make beautiful.

He's the savior of the body. But he doesn't just save and move on. He saves and then he's helping that wife with her spots and wrinkles. No blemishes. And wrinkles.

No blemishes. Far from marrying a trophy wife. Esther won. The trophy wife. The wife that you marry for beauty and then put on parade so that people would say, man you married a beauty.

Jesus does exactly the opposite of that. While we were dead in sins and transgressions, he dies for the ungodly. Not for a trophy wife. He makes her a beautiful wife. Applications.

I have two. Number one. See God in everything. See God in everything. Either God is working everything according to the counsels of his will, or he isn't.

He is or he isn't. Make up your mind. And if you make up your mind that he is working everything according to the counsels of his will, then demand that your brain act accordingly. Think like it. So when God brings hardship into your life, you're seeing it that way.

This is an act of a loving God to help me. Can you do that? Can your brain make itself do that? If not, I think we've really not made up our minds that he really isn't doing everything according to the counsels of his own will. And that he's both great and good.

See God in everything. Train your mind. Let your mind be transformed. Number two, the ruby rule. I'm coining a new term.

I'm not aware that it's in use. I'm bringing it in use this morning. The ruby rule. You know the golden rule, Matthew chapter 7 verse 12, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's wonderful, it's worthy of the title, the golden rule.

I'm naming this the ruby rule out of Proverbs 31 verse 10. Who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far more than rubies. This is for Christian husbands. The ruby rule is for Christian husbands. Christian husbands, due to your wife as Christ has done, is doing, will do to you.

This is our rule. Husbands, this is our rule. Heaven forbid that you should stand upon an edict from the emperor that used to be the master of your own house, even with an iron fist if necessary. Christian husbands have the ruby rule that we treat our wives as Christ has done in the past and is doing today and will do to our dying day. You know, we're brides too, husbands.

We're husbands. But more fundamentally than our earthly marriage, we're actually on the other side of the heavenly marriage. Christian husbands are on the other side. Christian husbands are going to have to give up their spot as husband and become a bride. You are being treated with such self-sacrifice and grace every day of your life.

This is our rule. Let's pray. God, thank you for Esther, this book that's here to teach us so much, and I pray that Your Word would be honored. We would be such happy subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven hearing Your Word and desiring to be changed, altered, conformed as we hear your words to your people. Thank you for them.

In Jesus' name, Amen.