Well, good morning, everybody. We're going to be back in the book of Esther today, and I don't know really where you are today or what's going on in your life. You probably don't know much about what's going on in my life. Perhaps we fit in some of these categories. Maybe life right now for us, we're, I don't know why I got the picture in my mind, but we're on the front of the Titanic going on the king of the world. But yet there's an iceberg ahead. We just don't know it. Perhaps we've already hit the iceberg. Maybe we're like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress. If you remember, as he's going along the journey, he comes into the sloth of Despond. a place of darkness, a place of which he just feels beaten down, a place of which it feels hopeless, and he seems no way out until he corrects his thinking, until he corrects his vision, until he looks in the right place, and then he is able to escape the sloth of the spawn. Maybe that's where you are today. My hope and my deep prayer for today is that we are deeply encouraged today as we look at the story of Ruth and just put out of your minds today any ideas of understanding the book of Esther, of all the Sunday school things that we've heard about Esther and how it's just this incredible romantic love story. It is anything but that. We're going to see actually how dark and disturbing the story of Esther really is. I hope I've got your attention with that because it's a story of which God is on the move. God is on the move. Today, I hope we're gonna see regret, revision, and a revealing. I don't know if it's gonna come up on the slide. The three points are regret, revision, and a revealing. Would you stand with me as we would pray and that we would read God's holy word. Father, we come to you today, Lord, people who are desperately needy. That even if we have you, Lord God, and we are your child, Lord, we still need you. We need you every hour. We cannot live this life for one second apart from your grace, apart from your revealing, apart from your hand, which watches over us. Lord, I'm just stuck on the line that we sang, to this I cling. My shepherd will defend me. What an incredible thought. You are our shield and our defender, and you are our very great reward. And so, Lord, we come to you today, desperately need. We need direction. We need hope. We need, perhaps even just to come up above the water for a grasp of air, Lord God, a small respite. May we walk away today knowing that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that we can fear no evil, for your rod and your staff, they comfort me. May we see your glory. May we see that you are on the move this day. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Esther, chapter two, says this. After these things, when the anger of King Asherus had abated, he remembered Vashti. and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. Then the king's young men who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king, and let the king appoint officers in all the providences of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa, the citadel, under custody of Hegei, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given them, and let the young women who pleases the king be queen instead of vasty. This pleased the king, and he did so. Now there was a Jew in Susa, the citadel, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives, carried away by Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away. He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at. And when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa the Citadel in custody of Hegei, Esther also was taken to the king's palace and put in custody of Hegei, who had charge of the women. And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem. Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. And every day, Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her. Now when the turn came for each young woman to go into King Asherah, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil, of myrrh, and six months with spices and ointments for women. When the young woman went into the king, in this way she was given whatever she desired to take with her from her harem to the king's palace. In the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shazgag, the king's eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and she summoned him by name. Now Esther was winning the favor in the eyes of all who saw her. And when Esther was taken to King Asherah into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants. It was Esther's feast. He also granted remission of taxes to all the providence and gifts with royal generosity. Now when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordecai, just as she was brought up by him. In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bicthen and Teresh, two of the king's units who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Asheras. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told it to the king in the name of Mordecai. When the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows, and it was recorded in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. It's a long passage, but that's okay. Actually, it's not long, it's only 23 verses. We're gonna see first there comes regret. It says, After these things, when the anger of King Ashurus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and had been decreed against her. After these things is probably a period of about four years. If you remember, when they were gathering together, when he had all the other princes, he had all the governors of the province, he had the armies of Persia there, they were preparing to invade Greece. They were gonna take revenge on Asuerus' father's loss to the Greeks. And so they were preparing. And think about an army that vast and how far they had to go. This was a long time coming. The battle was for about two years. The first battle was in 492 to 490 BC in which Persia loses under Darius. And the second invasion was 480 to 479 BC, where again, Persia loses. He comes home. in disgrace, tail between his legs essentially, and so he's sitting in the palace and he's lonely. And he thought about the queen. He thought about what she did and what had been decreed about her. There seems to be real remorse here in the king for agreeing to the advice of Memucan, If you remember, he gave the advice that she should be put away. She should never come into the king's presence again. And we really don't know what that means. Was she locked up in a room as David did to Abigail when she was killed? Was it Abigail, I think, who offended him, said, you're gonna dance like that before the Lord? Make a fool of yourself? And she never was with the king again. Was it that? Was she put to death? We don't know. No point in speculating, because scripture doesn't tell us. All we know is that she was not queen anymore. He remembered that she was not gonna be queen, and he decreed, agreeing to the advice of the men, that she should not be queen, and the law of the Medes and the Persians could not be undone. So what he did could not be undone. And so he's sitting there, and he was lonely. He remembered Vashti, what had been decreed against her, and it was the combination of the wine that flowed freely, if you remember, which doesn't bring out any good in a person. And it was the anger that burned within him. Remember, the anger of the king burned within him, it consumed him. It was this combination of wine and anger that caused the decree. Foolish living and anger bring about regret. Trust me, I know. I'm sure you do too. That's why we read in Ecclesiastes 7, 9, be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. We're studying anger on Wednesday nights, and if anger is your issue, something you can't overcome, don't want to overcome, remember anger lodges in the hearts of the fools. What does the fool say in his heart? That there is no God. In his regret, he longs for Vashti. but he cannot have her back. The law is unalterable. And so a revision is proposed to the king, a revision. Why is it a revision? Well, the king would normally marry within the seven princes of Persia. These seven men who, if you read in chapter one, verse 14, who sat before the king and always saw his face. In other words, they had free entrance into the king. No one else did unless the golden scepter was held out to them. They had free reign in the presence of the king. And he would have married within that family normally, but they're gonna go outside of that. It's gonna be revised. The revision is gonna be done in finding a queen because the king is lonely. And here's what the revision is. Let's look at this. And it's actually horrifying. what is gonna be done here. It says, then the king's young men who attended him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. And let the king appoint officers in all the providences of his kingdom." How many provinces did he have? 127 providences. Remember, I should have put the map up again. From the border of India to the border of Ethiopia, he reigned over all of that. Out of all of those providences, young, beautiful virgins were gonna be sought. Just let that sink into your mind for a second. Don't dwell there too much, it's disgusting. And let the king appoint officers in all the providences of the kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa, the citadel, under the custody of Haggai, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given to them, and let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This pleased the king, and he did so. One of the rules in studying the Bible is to ask the question, what does the text say? Not, what does the text imply? What does the text say? So we ask people, you read a passage, and normally you get in the group the answer of what they think it implies. Not what it says. And I would say, no, no. What does it say? Read it. What are the words that are right there? And this is where I think we go wrong in thinking this is a romantic love story. because it's anything but a romantic love story. It says the king was going to send out officers to collect beautiful young virgins so that he can take their virginity and see if he likes them. That's what this is. This is not a pretty picture. This is horrific. This is nonetheless than sex trafficking for one man. hundreds of young virgin girls will be ripped out of their families and put into the king's harem. Think about what a organizational undertaking this is gonna be. Think about what he's doing. He is gonna send officers, governors, officers, the military to go in 127 providences and scope out all the women. Is anybody disturbed by this? I am. This just makes your skin crawl. And they're gonna find out, and then they're gonna make sure that they're virgins. I don't even wanna know. Let's not speculate. And they're gonna go to families and say, hey, your daughter's beautiful. Is she a virgin? Yes. She's coming to the king. And they had no choice in the matter. The king said, this is what's gonna happen. And it's what's gonna happen. And it's what actually did happen. Now, there may have been some who said, ooh, the king, hoo, life's gonna become real good for us. Here's our daughter. That possibly was. I would like to think that the majority of people were weeping, crying over the loss of their daughter to the king. This is not a beauty contest as many commentators would say, it's anything but. The king will see Esther and he's blown away by her beauty. This is nonetheless, and we should see it for what it is, for what the text actually says, this is an evil and a vile plan of the most powerful man at the time to satisfy his sexual appetite and to find a queen to be chief of his harem. She gets the crown, he still sleeps with other women. It is into this horrible situation that Esther and Mordecai find themselves. That's what the text tells us. Look at what it says. Verse 5, now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of Benjamite. So he comes from Saul's line is what this is telling us. What do we learn here? We learn that Esther had a rough childhood. She lost her father and her mother. And if it was not for the love of her uncle, she would have nothing in that society. Esther's scars most likely run very deep. And now, she's being taken away from the one person who loves her, who's watched over her, and is gonna be brought into a man who has never seen her, and she is gonna be forced into a sexual act for the first time in her life. That's how dark this story really is. It says in verse eight, so when the king's order and his edict were proclaimed and when many young women were gathered in Susa the citadel and in custody of Haggai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Haggai, who had charge of the women. You know, but we're given a clue here. We're given something about in the darkness of life, in the dark, dark story of life. Life is not pleasant. Whoever you watch these people on TV tell you you come to Christ and life's gonna be great. They're liars Humans are humans they do sinful wicked things and we live in the midst of that kind of society But in this God is on the move It says that he was bringing up at Hadassah whose name is Esther Esther is the Arabic name, and it means star. Hadassah is her Hebrew name, and it means myrtle, a myrtle tree. And we know, because we have the rest of scripture, that we can look and say, God is doing something here. I don't think Esther had any idea that God was gonna do something great through her. In the midst, she's just thinking, oh my gosh, how did my life end up here? Out of this horrible situation, God is gonna raise up a myrtle tree. Look at what it says in Isaiah 55, 13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle, and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Loved ones, in our darkness, in our pain, in our suffering, God will rise up for us a myrtle tree. The situation may not change, the diagnosis may not change, but God will bring good out of it. Somebody posted this week on Twitter, a guy I follow, Owen Satrin, and he said, God does His best work in the darkness. Boy, that is true. God does his best work. Not that God has lackluster work and the like. We know that everything God does is his best. You know what we mean by that. Everything God does is good. So she's taken in now. Against her will, we have to presume, so I don't know if she went willingly, but she was taken in to the king, and you are gonna be part of his life, and quite frankly, if things don't work out for you and the king, then you're gonna be in his harem, and you will never be able to marry. You will only have a child if he has a child with you. Your life is now this. And just look at a black hole. Here's your life. She's brought in. And the young woman pleased and won his favor. Who? Of Haggai. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food and with its seven chosen young women from the king's palace and advanced her and her young woman to the best place in the harem. So we see a glimmer of God working because she, Esther, won his favor. Who? That of Haggai. One is favored, literally translated, carried his favor. The word favor here is the Hebrew word chesed. But it's not the normal chesed that we would think of. It literally means the giving of benefits. Whether she won his favor because he just really liked her, because he was just drawn to her, It could be that he liked her, he was drawn to her because this guy knew what the king liked. He knew his appetites. He was in charge of his, this guy's existence was to satisfy the sexual appetite of the king. I mean, just imagine, what are you gonna put down on your resume? Right, I mean, it's just, oh my, how horrible, how dark and satanic is this kingdom? And he liked her and he said, oh, I know what the king likes and so therefore he liked her. Because it's to his benefit to like what the king liked. To make sure the king was happy. Is that why? Maybe it was just that he just liked her. Whatever the situation is, this thing we can be sure of. We know that God caused the favor to happen. We've seen this before in the life of Joseph. where he won the favor of people. Daniel won the favor of people. It was by God's design. And so in the midst of this horrible, horrible situation, God is on the move. He's granting favor to Esther. It says this, perhaps this is a part we've wondered about. Esther 2 verse 10 and 11 says, Esther had not made known to her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. And every day, Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her. Of course he would. If he was able to, I'd be there too. What's going on with my daughter? What's going on with my daughter? What's going on with my daughter? He knew. He was no dummy. But we struggle with the fact that she didn't make her kindred known. She didn't make it known that the fact that he was a Jew. The author let us know that there was a Jew named Mordecai. Mordecai did not let on that he was a Jew. It's quite possible that Mordecai and Esther were not practicing Judaism. And that they were actually very secular. We know that that happened to many who were brought into the exile. They just assimilated into the culture. They left behind their old life and took on the things of old. How easily we can drift away on ourselves, can't we? On our own, we can just drift away. See, we see no mention of Esther protesting the dietary food that was brought to her as Daniel did. Maybe that's a thing to say, hey, she's probably maybe not as spiritual as we think she is. We know that the Jewish people historically have been harassed and persecuted. No question about that. They are still to this day. But we also know that in the Medo-Persian Empire, that it was under Cyrus that the exiles were allowed to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And who paid for the rebuilding of the temple? The Medo-Persian Empire. We also know that a very proud Jewish man of who he was and of his people, Nehemiah, in later years, was cupbearer to the king of Artaxerxes, who was king of the Medo-Persian Empire, and he allowed him to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, and who paid for it? The Medo-Persian Empire. And in between those two, Ezra and Nehemiah, we have the story of Esther. So the observation that Mordecai and Esther are perhaps pretty secular may not be too far off. But what's that tell us? If that's true, God uses anybody He wants. That's what it is. God is sovereign over this. Warren Worsby, in his commentary, Be Committed, makes this observation. It says, when you consider the backslidden state of the Jewish nation at the time, the disobedience of the Jewish remnant in the Persian Empire, and the unspiritual lifestyle of Mordecai and Esther, is it any wonder that the name of God is absent from this book? Would you want to identify your holy people with such an unholy people? I think, to be honest, my personal view is I think there's some truth to that. Again, that goes against our Sunday school ideas, doesn't it? The point is, this is a dark time in her life. And it seems that she has no concern, there's no mention from her lips or from Mordecai's lips about that God is in charge, that God will work through, that God will take care of, that her shepherd will defend them. This is about God being on the move, not Esther being on the move. about God being on the move, not Mordecai being on the move. This is a story about God being on the move. And loved ones, I can tell you that in your life too, even though you may not see Him, even though it may not seem like it, God is on the move. Look what it says in verse 12. Think about that. However long it took to gather all the beautiful young virgins from 127 providences, however long that took, there was another year on top of it, and they divided it into six months. You get this cosmetic makeup, and then you get this one. I don't put on any of that stuff, I don't know. I'm just good looking enough, right? I'm kidding. But they were doing everything to make sure that these women looked and smelled good, bottom line. So much so that they invested an entire year into it. They spent a year at the spa, right? I've never gone to a spa. Maybe you have. I have no desire to go to a spa. But that's really where they were. But again, if we look at how much is being invested in the king's sexual appetite. I'm not sure, I don't know. Ladies, maybe you can, would you be sitting and go, oh, this is great, man, this is wonderful? No, because at the end of a year, you're going to have to, for lack of a better word, perform against your will. This is a dark time for ladies. So when their term came, When the young women went into the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem into the king's palace. Whatever she wanted to bring, whatever clothes she wanted to wear, whatever perfumed gifts or whatever it is she wanted to bring, she was going to bring them. It says in the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shagaz. That tells us all right there. Go in at night, come out in the morning. And Scripture doesn't need to explain to us what happened in between the evening and the morning. But it tells us that she went to the second harem, the ones who were no longer virgins. That's where they went. And she would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. What's this tell us? This is where the young ladies would go after the king took their virginity, and if they were not summoned again, they were destined to a life of singleness and emptiness. Well, they had everything provided for them, but they were single and they were empty. It says this in verse 15, and when a turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abahel, The uncle of Mordecai, can you just imagine? Like you're, like just, I just haven't, like there's a list of all the ladies' names and okay, a check was made, she, you know, and then you're next. I wonder how she slept the night before. I wonder what's going on in her mind, how nervous you are before the king who had the power of life and death. He could just say, you know what, instead of sinning, just kill her. He had that kind of power. History has recorded to us, we look at the Roman Herodotus, this guy was a loose cannon. He wasn't this kind, loving guy that we would think. It had to be An incredibly nervous thing, and then to show that nervousness in front of the king, well, that could be, you know, I mean, here's poor Nehemiah, who was afraid to be sad in front of the king, because it could cost him his life. There's a lot of pressure here. There's a lot on a young woman. And Esther's turn came. And so she asked for nothing except what Haggai, the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in all the eyes, in the eyes of all who saw her. How I read this is Esther accepted her fate. She had no choice anyways. And she was gonna go and make the best of it. And so she took the advice of Haggai. And she was winning the favor of all who saw her. The fact is Esther was so beautiful, above and beyond everybody else that everyone looked at her and was like, Look at her. Aren't we drawn to the outward things in this world? Doesn't the beauty of somebody just make it, you know? Let's just be honest. If you had a room full of ugly people, you put one beautiful person in the room, the beautiful person's the popular person. That's just how our society is. Remember what God said to Samuel? When he brought Jesse's kids before him, he says, oh, just look at him, he's handsome. He says, you're looking at the wrong thing. I look at the heart. The world looks at the outwards. We look at the rich and the famous and, you know, and we pride ourselves maybe because on, you know, we follow the Kardashians and look at them. Why would you want to ever follow them, by the way? There's nothing redeeming there. Sadly, pray for people like that. We follow, oh, we want to, no. But Esther, She had it. God made her extremely beautiful. God made her figure just perfect. That was the work of God. See, God was on the move in the womb of her mother, preparing her for this day, but she didn't know it yet. But God is on the move. It says, And when Esther was taken into King Ashurus into the royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tibet, in the seventh year of his reign, the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins. So he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. It says that the king loved a heb, to have an affection based on a close relationship is actually what the word means. So what we see here is something clicked. God has worked this out. Esther was not one of the girls who was just going to be used. He somehow really loved her and that is a work of God. Because she not only loved her, she won grace and favor. Grace and favor. And favor. Now here's chesed again, and this is loving kindness. This is the kind of love that God has for us. The chesed love of God is loving kindness. In one night, Esther has gone from obscurity to being the queen of the Persian Empire. Like that, her life changed. She hit the lotto, so to speak. It's nowhere, nothing like that. Her life was radically changed. She now had riches beyond her wildest imagination. She now had all that the Persian Empire had to offer, she had access to. The reality is, She is still just a pawn to be used by the king. Ashuerus, yes, he loved her, but he was still having sex with other women. Imagine that. What kind of marriage was this really? She was loved, but she was not loved exclusively. I believe that she had all that the world could offer, but she was still probably empty on the inside. The king loved her so much that he actually himself set the royal crown on her head. It was done, no more. Here she is, here's the queen. And then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and his servants. It was Esther's feast. Remember, we started out, and it's a book of contrasts. Ashuerus had a feast to show off his royal greatness, his wealth, and his empire. And now he has a feast for Esther to show off Esther. But this is in a good way. Not in the way he wanted to show off Vashti. This is the way he wanted to show off Esther. Hey, this is the queen. She found grace and favor in his eyes. And it may be nice to have the things of the world, to have the grace and the favor of the rich and the famous of this world. Beloved ones, you and I, if we're in Christ Jesus, we have grace and favor that is beyond anything anyone could ever imagine. The Scriptures tell us this, for by grace, you want to have grace? For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. She had access to all the riches of the Persian Empire. You and I are co-heirs with Christ, co-heirs with Christ. We have access to all that He has. Paul writing to the church in Galatians says this in Galatians 3.29, and if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offsprings, heirs according to the promise. What is God's is ours. What an incredible thought. Nothing compares to the grace of God. And so Esther's now queen. And her becoming queen sets up God to move in another way. In a way that reveals something. There is now a revealing. Look what it says and we'll finish it out here. Now when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. Many would speculate because he was at the king's gate that he obtained some position of authority through Esther. Maybe, maybe not. We don't know. Esther had not made known her kindred or her people as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as she was brought up by him. Just as when she was brought up by him. In other words, she realizes, you know what? He, in essence, is still my father and I need to honor him and obey him. I'm the queen. She could have said, who are you now? But she didn't do that. In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, this is important, this is God on the move. Two of the king's eunuchs, Bikhthan and Tesha, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ashur. So these were two guys who were to guard the gate into the palace. You didn't get there past them. We've all seen the movies where the bouncers guarding the door. And somebody wants to get in, they're not going to let him in, so they beat the bouncers up and the whole, you know, you get all the movie things, right? It wasn't going to happen with these dudes. You weren't going to end up getting past them. If you tried to get past them, you were dead. You just weren't going to make it through. So these were imposing guys. And they somehow, for whatever reason, were angry at the king. And they said, you know what? Probably it would seem, when he comes through again, we're gonna just give him the sword. We're gonna take him down. They made this plan and Mordecai, who just happened to be sitting at the king's gate, happens to get wind of this, just happens to find out, and now he goes and look what it says. And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther. And Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai. That is important. It's going to come back later. In the name of Mordecai, she says, hey, hey, Asherus, my uncle, uncover this plot against your life at the gate. His name is Mordecai. He's telling you, I'm just relaying the message. It says, and when the affair was investigated and found to be so, I mean, thank God they at least investigated it, right? They didn't just take a word and go out and just did these guys were done. So when the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows. Here's another important piece. And it was recorded in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. We will see this later. See God is on the move. These two guys made their own plans. They set things up. They were going to have their plan. They were going to kill the king. Maybe hoping to get the kingdom for themselves, I don't know. But I do know this. Proverbs 16.9 says this, the heart of man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps. You can devise your own plans. I'm gonna go this way, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna go to this city and this city, and I'm gonna buy and sell, and I'm gonna make wealth. Well, you know what? If the Lord's will, you can. But remember, God's gonna direct your steps. In the dark and sword story of Esther, we see that God is on the move. He is taking and shaping the free will choice of the king, and He's using them for the purpose of His glory. Esther, unbeknownst to her, is going to play a major role in God's plan of redemption. Loved ones, we must remind ourselves to understand that God really is sovereign and God really is providentially ruling over the world. He is using the dark moments of our lives to show His goodness and His glory to us. We have to believe that. Then we can understand what James says when we should consider it all joy. because God is teaching us and God is displaying His glory and His power. There is absolutely no such thing as chance in the world. He really has the whole world in His hands and He really is shaping the events of the world, shaping our lives for His glory and our good. In your darkest moments, Life seems, there's, where do I go from here? You can be sure of this, if you're God's child, God is on the move. God is gonna take the thorns and the thistles and all of those things and the briars and He's gonna plant a myrtle tree there. I like what Derek Prime says in his commentary on Esther. He says this, God's providence is His good, kind, and unceasing activity and control of all things so that everything happens as He decided long ago. And for the good of His people, He watches over the interests of each of His children, I love this, as if He had no other creature for whom to care. Nothing escapes his notice or happens without his permission. Even the worst things will work out for our good. We see only links in the chain, but God sees the end from the beginning as the source, guide, and goal of all that is. His providence is not limited to one age or period of time. For Psalm 91 declares, Psalm 90 verse one declares, Sovereignty and providence are attributes of our king. This chapter reveals that when things seem to be a matter of luck, or just luck for Esther to end up in the king's, no it's not luck. God is achieving his goals. Providence, not chance, rules. It's Derek Prime, Unspoken Lessons about the Unseen Gods, Esther, Simply Explained. And so I hope you're encouraged. Where are you in life today? How dark is your life? How overwhelming, and it may not be that bad. Maybe things are going well. Be encouraged that when things go bad, God is on the move. Use the story of Esther to encourage you, to encourage somebody who feels helpless and hopeless and overwhelmed, and it's not gonna work out, and nothing good is gonna come of this. Use the story of Esther to say, oh no, God is on the move. God is working and God is moving. To this I hold. My shepherd will defend me. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for the story of Esther. Lord, as dark a story as it really is, you will let nothing on this earth escape your providence. You really are a God who is working out all things for your glory and for our good, for all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to your purpose. Oh Father, may we have hope in that today. If we're overwhelmed, if we're depressed today, if we're just looking down the corridor of time and seeing nothing but perhaps loneliness, emptiness, darkness, financial instability, health issues, whatever it would be, oh Lord, may we, if we look down that tunnel, may we see Jesus. Knowing that God is on the move. and you will never leave us, you will never forsake us. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Let's stand and close in a song. Let us give praise to our God through singing the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. God bless you all.