Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Chuck Swindoll often reminds us that life can be defined as a series of fairly ordinary days. In fact, most days are quite predictable, without divine skywriting or obvious signs of some great movement of God.

However, there are occasions that break the cycle. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck describes one of those history-shattering moments in the life of Esther. In our continuing study of her life, we'll discover how God orchestrated all the elements as this woman walked hand in hand with destiny. Let's pick up with Esther chapters one and two.

Chuck Swindoll: On the seventh day when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he makes a command to his wise men that are at least listed here, the seven eunuchs who served in his presence, and this is what he commanded.

They were to bring Queen Vashti before the king, her royal crown, royal headpiece, in order to display her beauty to the people and the princes, for she was beautiful. You can count on this. When Scripture says she's beautiful, it really means it.

Queen Vashti, verse 12, refused to come at the king's command. Well, Queen Vashti's words enraged the king. He absolutely couldn't stand it. Remember he's drunk. Verse 12 tells us the king became very angry and his wrath burned within him.

What are we going to do? What's our game plan? In the presence of the king and the princes, Memucan said this, "Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king, but all the princes and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus." I would say that's a little overreaction, wouldn't you?

But he says it nevertheless. "The queen's conduct will become known to all the women, causing them to look with contempt on their husbands, saying, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought into his presence and she didn't come.'"

You see the fear, obviously, is that before long all women will be doing what Queen Vashti has done and the men will lose control of their wives. "And this day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's conduct will speak in the same way to all the king's princes, and there will be plenty of contempt and anger."

Can't you hear this all-men's gathering as they are all agreeing? "Yeah, that's right, man. My wife's like that. Man, she hears about Vashti, she's going to go nuts. She's already a rebel, but she's going to get absolutely out of hand," on and on and on.

Finally, he's got the king all ready for his suggestion. "If it pleases the king, let a royal edict be issued by him and let it be written in the laws of the Medes and the Persians." Remember that's the law that's never changed.

"So that it cannot be repealed, that Vashti should come no more into the presence of King Ahasuerus." Now, that was his right. He certainly had the right to say, "That's it. Curtains. You've seen the last of me, lady. You're gone."

So directly this edict had to do with his own home and his own marriage. But he goes further. "Let the king give her royal position to another who is more worthy than she." Enter Esther.

This is the wonder of God's sovereignty. He works in these remarkable ways, moving and pushing and changing minds until he brings even, let me say it, out of the most carnal and secular of settings, a decision that will set our course anew. We're going to see that all the way through this book and I love it.

Look at verse 20. They go a little further in the edict than I think would be practically possible to require. "When the king's edict which he shall make is heard throughout all his kingdom, great as it is, then all women will give honor to their husbands, great and small."

I'm not sure about that. And this word pleased the king and the princes, and the king did as Memucan proposed. He sent letters to all the king's provinces, to each province according to its script and to every people according to their language.

Notice what it says. "Every man shall be the master in his own house and the one who speaks in the language of his own people." He'll be in charge and he will speak for the family.

God's heart is on his people, a remnant in Persia, away from Zion. He must preserve them from extinction. That requires decisions from the top and that requires one of his people to be there, namely Esther, who will someday be sitting beside Ahasuerus, whom she doesn't even know today.

God does not go by the human clock. Compared to the works of mankind, God is extremely deliberate and painfully slow. God's wheels grind slowly and exceedingly fine.

Now, Esther chapter two. "After these things." Now when I read "after these things," I thought, well, fourth year of his reign? How about the end of the third year of his reign? And I began to read through the chapter and I didn't find any help until I came to verse 16 of chapter two.

Where Esther, who wins the Miss Persia contest, Esther is taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. You telling me four years have gone by in between chapters one and two?

So I thought, what happened during those four years? Learn a little history. Ahasuerus, also known as King Xerxes, reigned, and you count backwards because it's BC, from 486 to 465 BC. History books tell us that this particular king, whom the books call Xerxes, and I quote, "made an ambitious but disastrous attempt to conquer Greece."

He returned defeated and he opened the doors of the palace and there was no lovely wife to greet him with arms outstretched, no comforting words of understanding. For the first time he has been defeated on the battlefield. There's nothing good on the stove in the kitchen and he's lonely.

"After these things," the anger of the king had subsided. Of course, it's been three years. The reason I say that is these gals that ran for Miss Persia had to have a full year before they came in to see the king. And so I get to that a little later on in the passage, you'll read about it when we get there.

But took another year. So he's three years later and he's defeated and he's alone. He remembered Vashti. And if you're used to a wife, even though she may be a little strong-willed at times, you need her when you come home defeated. You need her arms around you. You need the understanding of your partner. He doesn't find it.

He remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. I think there is a surrounding sense of low-level, a kind of low-grade depression that comes in over him.

The king's attendants who served him said, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king." Isn't it interesting, by the way, that the king had the power to have any woman in the kingdom? Snap of his finger, she'd be in his presence, right there in his bedchamber.

But he doesn't want a woman for the night. He wants a wife. You see, he's not drunk anymore. He's thinking clearly now. Who wouldn't prefer a woman who will be there tomorrow and the next day, in contrast to a quickie sex experience for the night with some unnamed female?

And so they say, "Let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful young virgin to Susa the capital, to the harem." Look, he even had a harem. He didn't want one of them. "Into the custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the women and let their cosmetics be given them."

How interesting. "And then let the young lady who pleases the king be the queen in place of Vashti." We'll get another wife for you. This one will be beautiful. She will be the most beautiful woman in Persia. We'll go to all 127 provinces and we'll find the best of the group. We'll even have her made even more attractive with cosmetics.

Drop down, if you will, to verse 12. "When the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus at the end of her 12 months." Look at that. There's that extra year I told you about. She would have 12 months under specific regulations for the women.

How would they be spent? "The days of her beautification, of their beautification, were completed as follows: six months with oil of Olay, oil of myrrh, and six months with spices and cosmetics for women."

C.F. Keil, of the Keil and Delitzsch commentaries, makes comment that these words are to rub, to polish, to adorn with all kinds of precious ointments. It's physical beauty that they're going for. And before you sneer at that, ladies, trust me, the men aren't sneering.

Before you buy into the feminist movement of our day where you can look like an unmade bed and still you're to be adored and appreciated, learn a lesson from Scripture. Every once in a while Scripture does say a word about physical beauty. It doesn't place the emphasis on it that you would hear in lustful magazines or from lustful men, but it does place an emphasis on your beauty.

The cosmetics mentioned here. Look at verse five. Suddenly he mentions a Jew in Susa. Does that sound like an uneventful start? There's not a guy in the palace that knows Mordecai by name. But they're going to, because God's hand is moving the heart of the king like channels of water.

There was a Jew in Susa the capital whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish a Benjamite, who had been taken into exile. Now the "who" is a reference to Kish. Mordecai wasn't taken into exile back in his genealogy, Kish was, had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the captives who had been exiled. We've been over all that historical jazz.

So there's no reason to repeat it. The point is, he is unrelated to the Persian kingdom. He's a Jew living in exile. He hasn't gone back to Jerusalem. And on top of that, he's bringing up, verse seven, Hadassah. Myrtle is the original word, like a myrtle tree, a myrtle bush, fragrance.

Her Persian name is Esther, which means star, like a star in the sky. His uncle's daughter. She had neither father nor mother. It's the first reference to Esther, but I'll tell you, she emerges with incredible beauty and character that'll just make you take your hat off.

She is one phenomenal lady. Next time we're going to look at the queen-like qualities of a lovely lady, all drawn from the life of Esther in this early reference to her. It says in verse seven the young lady was beautiful of form and features, the original says.

She was beautiful. She had a beautiful body. She had a beautiful face. She had beautiful features. When her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. Period. That's where we've got to stop. Orphan, beautiful, and before long you're going to hear, there she goes, Miss Persia.

She doesn't know that right now. She has no idea of the stuff we've uncovered yet. Her day began rather uneventfully. Before her years would end she would be crowned in an incredible coronation as the Queen of Persia.

Now, this is not a sermon about Persian history. This is a sermon about life. And I find woven through the tapestry of this wonderful story that we've begun to uncover three timeless lessons that are going to be true till we draw our last breath and in the next generation when we're gone.

Number one has to do with God's plan. Second has to do with God's purposes. And third has to do with God's people. Listen.

God's plans are not hindered when the events are carnal or secular. God's plans are not hindered when the events that seem significant are carnal and secular. He is not limited to working in the Christian family. He is as much at work in the Oval Office as he is in your pastor's study. He is as much at work in the heart of the president as he is in the Christian leaders in America.

The day you doubt that is the day you limit his sovereignty and you will stop reading the news and you will become rather unhelpful in interpreting events of life. Christians, stay in touch with the news. God is at work. He's moving. He's touching lives. He's shaping kingdoms. Just because they happen to be secular or carnal doesn't mean he's not present. He may not be glorified, but he's present. He's at work. None of it makes him go, oh! He's never surprised.

Second, God's purposes. God's purposes are not frustrated by moral or marital failures. Isn't that encouraging? Especially if you have failed morally or maritally. I cannot imagine the debauchery of the banquet hall. I cannot imagine the vulgarity and obscenity of the jokes. I cannot imagine the lust in the mind of King Ahasuerus when he wanted to bring in his nude wife if that indeed was his plan.

But I'll tell you, in spite of the low morals and the breakdown in their marriage, God's purposes were not frustrated, and neither are they in your life. How do I know that? Because he is a God of grace. He is a God of great grace.

Third, God's people. This is my favorite one. God's people are not excluded from high places because of handicap or hardship. Don't you even think about discounting anybody from being in a place of significance. I'm laughing because I saw a sign the other day that said, "Don't you even think about parking here." Isn't that a good sign? Don't you even think that somebody is off the record.

God's people are not excluded from high places because of handicap or hardship. I don't know if Mordecai knew where the next meal was coming from. I do know that Esther was orphan. And I do know she was not nobility. But she's not the last commoner that nobility placed hands on. Nor is she the last one that God exalted from nothing.

Classic illustration, a young couple that made a 90-mile journey south, found no place to stay, and in the middle of the night caused the angels to declare God is here. Joseph and Mary, the vehicles for the birth of the Messiah who did not come with royal blood from this earth's perspective, but he became the true King of kings and Lord of lords.

May we bow together. I don't know where this message finds you, probably discounting the significance of these days, probably sighing rather than singing, no doubt thinking what in the world good can come from all that I'm having to live with. These kids I can't handle, the pressure of today I can't see the purpose.

You've heard enough today to know that God's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. You may be the one he's working on in this very place today. You may be the individual who needed to hear this the most. You may need to hear it on behalf of one of your kids or on behalf of your mate or close friend or maybe you yourself.

When you take that journey to the cross where Christ paid for your sins, do you find some place in your past where you bowed the knee to him and claimed all hail, King Jesus, all hail, Emmanuel? Have you given him your life, your heart, your future, your sinfulness for him to cleanse and make right? Hey, what are you waiting for? Now's the time. You need to come today. Don't delay.

Thank you, Father, for the stories of your Book. They pulsate with significance and we realize how directly they are tied into our day. Forgive us for living in such an ultra-Christian world with only Christian contacts that we have failed to see the movement of a sovereign God in the vast scenes of state and empires in our world.

Broaden our world with this story of Esther and may we remain pure and committed to the things of God while we remain sensitive to your hand moving in carnal, secular, even drunken places. Thank you, Father, for your work in our lives. Bring to yourself this day those desperately in need of hope and a reason to go on. I pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Bill Meyer: God is sovereignly at work even in the most ordinary uneventful days of your life. That's the heart of Chuck Swindoll's message today on Insight for Living. And though you may feel like an unknown orphan with no particular destiny in sight, God's plans aren't hindered by your circumstances and his purposes aren't frustrated by your past. He may be quietly preparing you right now for your own appointment with destiny.

To that end, we invite you to take advantage of two very creative resources for your family. First, our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for Esther is built for that kind of appointment. Chuck's teaching has laid the groundwork. Now this Bible study workbook invites you to dig in for yourself, at your own pace, in your own words.

It opens completely flat and there's generous space to record what the Lord is saying directly to you. To purchase your copy call 800-772-8888 or visit insight.org/offer. You know every child needs a hero to look up to and Esther is one of the most remarkable characters who ever lived. Esther demonstrated that real strength isn't about power or position, it's about character.

And Insight for Living has brought Esther's story to life in a way that will capture your child's imagination and plant God's truth deep in their heart. It's part of our beloved Paws & Tales audio series, creative engaging storytelling that your kids will want to hear again and again. Here's just a sample of what your child and grandchild will enjoy.

Guest (Female): Ardia, oh my little Ardia, how are you? Are you sad?

Guest (Female): I believe I'm angry.

Guest (Female): Oh come here, little one. What could there be to be sad about on a day like this?

Guest (Female): I've asked God for something and he won't answer me.

Guest (Female): Well, that is quite a thought. What did you ask for?

Guest (Female): I asked for the freckles to leave my nose. I asked for my hair to be red and I asked to be 15.

Guest (Female): And how did you come up with a list like that?

Guest (Female): I asked to be like you.

Guest (Female): Oh, I see.

Guest (Female): You have everything. You're beautiful. You're 15.

Guest (Female): Not until tomorrow.

Guest (Female): Everyone loves you. I asked God for just a little of what you have.

Guest (Female): Oh, sweet little Ardia. One day you will be 15 and you are already a beauty.

Guest (Female): Where is God? Why does he not answer me when I need him? Doesn't he care?

Guest (Female): Oh, he is there and he does care. When I was a little girl before my mother died she would sing a little song to me when I was upset or afraid.

Singer: Starlight in the night,

Sunlight in the day.

Love from heaven touches you,

It's never far away.

On a mountain high,

Or on the ocean blue.

God is always watching over you.

For God is over everything,

He sees you in his light.

And he will always care for you,

For you are his delight.

Precious little child,

With a heart so true.

God is always watching over you.

Bill Meyer: The Bible comes alive through story and song in this three-episode collection that'll have you cheering for Esther and discovering again God's great love for us. It's from Insight for Living's renowned Paws & Tales audio series, The Story of Esther.

You can purchase this two-CD collection for your child or grandchild or perhaps a niece or nephew. You can do that by calling us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/offer. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his study of Esther, a woman of strength and dignity, Tuesday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, There She Goes . . . Miss Persia, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 1997, 2005, 2018, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.