Scottsdale Bible Church - the painting to the left is, "Queen Esther before King Ahasuerus", by Francesco Caucig (Austro-Hungarian 1755-1828).
Jamie Rasmussen, Senior Pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church, has been leading us in a study through the book of Esther.
Last week we did a behind the scenes look at the book and now we start off into the text with Esther 1:1 - 2:20.
King Ahasuerus was the king of the largest kingdom (Persia) known to man at the time. He was very proud and arrogant and decided to host a banquet to display his riches to the world. For a full six months he displayed his vast wealth before the world.
It was suggested that he should also display his beautiful wife to the world as well. His wife, not wanting to be treated in this way, refused and was ultimately banished. Then King Ahasuerus is convinced that he should take a new wife and a beauty pageant ensues to find this next wife.
In the harem of girls to be paraded before the king, we are introduced to a humble and beautiful Hebrew woman by the name of Esther. Esther was an orphan girl being raised by her uncle Mordecai as his own daughter. Esther was "taken" to the kings palace and soon found herself Queen Esther but kept her heritage a secret from the king and his court as her uncle Mordecai had instructed her to do.
This is the backdrop to which Jamie begins to unpack our lesson...
Stepping back from this incredibly story we see two figures who are completely at different ends of the world's scale. We have King Ahasuerus, incredibly wealthy and full of pride, and the beautiful Hebrew girl Esther, of humble means with a humble heart to go with it.
Lesson #1 - Pride asserts the self and hears what it wants to say, but humility respects others and listens to wise counsel.
Pride and humility are both fuels which the soul can run on. However, these two fuels will take you to vastly differently places in life. These fuels can be life giving or life destroying.
Lessong #2 - Pride leads to anger while humility leads to patience and peace.
My wife and I have enjoyed a measure of success in the business world. Several times a year we would meet with our peers from around the country to learn from one another. When you get a room full of millionaires it is pretty incredible what you will see. Sometimes pride and arrogance was on full display. Please understand that pride was a constant struggle for my ego as well, but I worked very hard to keep it in check.
I am a first row witness to the fact that pride does indeed lead to anger. Especially when you add other people to the mix. Pride + People = Anger. In contrast, a humble spirit is not frustrated by people.
Lesson #3 - Pride ultimately alienates others, while humility ultimately builds bridges.
I am very sad to say that I have seen this truth in action as well. One of my very best friends in the world was a very successful business man. But, as this story illustrates, he was full of misplaced pride which, along with a very difficult childhood, fueled an intense seething anger.
One day I decided that our mutual path needed to change and a nuclear explosion ensued, on his part, and the relationship to this day, 2 years later, is still in ruins. Please understand that a relationship is a two way street and I certainly brought some of the fuel to the explosion. Nonetheless, the relationship is still broken because of his pride and anger.
The other lesson that Jamie drove deep into the heart of the audience that day was that these two fuels also deeply affect our relationship with God. God has told us many times, he is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.
This message was a powerful lesson and had clear application for me in my life. There have been times in my life where pride was on the throne of my life. Where I allowed money, success and the things of this world become a part of who I was. This became painfully clear to me when we sold our business and it began to feel like a loss to me instead of a wonderful accomplishment.
In the past 12 months I have been working very hard on putting my heart in the right direction and putting Jesus Christ and a spirit of humility back on the throne of my life. Trust me, I fail quite a bit, but I am very thankful that I can now see the folly of my ways.
Here is a link to this weeks lesson. I highly encourage you to take 30 minutes out of your life and give this a listen in a quiet place.
