Saturday, April 27, 2013

X is For Xerxes: King Xerxes - Clear Thinking


Xerxes  

Clear Thinking

by  Dr. Woodrow Kroll


By the time Apostle Paul counseled Timothy to “use a little while for your stomach's sake”
(1 Timothy 5:23).  

King Xerxes Had a long since destroyed himself with too much "medicine."





Name: “Prince” or “Chief”

Date:  5th Century BC

Identification:  King of Persia: husband of Esther; also called Ahasuerus

Story Line:  Ahasuerus ruled vast empire; drunkenness destroyed him
Read it in the Bible:  Esther 1:1-2: 17



Xerxes   succeeded his father, Darius his Hystaspis, in 485 BC.  In the Bible we no him Ahasuerus, the husband of Queen Esther.  From the Book of Esther we gain some insight into just how powerful and rich this king was.  His empire was vast, stretching from India to Ethiopia.  It took one hundred eighty days to show his officials the extent of his net work.  He built the capital cities of Susa and Persepolis.  Little wonder he was known as Xerxes the great. 


According to the Greek historian Herodotus, in the third year of his reign Xerxes held a convocation of his leaders to plan an invasion of Greece.   The book of Esther begins with a banquet scene that probably reflects that convocation.  There Xerxes, in a drunken stupor, called for his first wife, Vashti, to display her beauty before his drunken friends.  Vashti refused and Xerxes had her banished, replacing her with Esther. 



The Bible says that there is something better than wine for determining future plans.  “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the spirit,” Eph. 5:17-18.


Excess wine leads to unclear thinking (Proverbs 20:1).  Being filled with God’s spirit leads to joyful thinking (Acts. 13:52).  Xerxe’s rule ended in 465 BC when he was assassinated in his bedchamber by a courtier. 


Be filled with the Holy Spirit instead of wine, you will have a much brighter future.

                   
Source:
Confident Living Magazine
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