Good morning, everyone. Like we mentioned last week, this is a very difficult topic because it... I mean, anything that... I mean, we... most of us, I guess, basically the basic structure in the world is that leaders are chosen by the people and so there's a sense in which we all feel that It's really my vote that determines the future of the nation. In a sense, yes, because God is sovereign and yet man is responsible for the decisions we make, but ultimately the one who controls the events in the world is God himself. And last week we spent a while in Romans 13 on the issue of submitting to government as a religious duty and as an act of worship. Before we continue, I'd like us to just pray. We might, if there are any questions I think that we have from last week's message, it would be a good time to ask. If not, then we can continue in this kind of same theme, but really seeing how God has displayed His glory in Old Testament times. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity we have to be found in your presence again. We always love these moments, Lord, when we can spend time with you, not only in prayer, but also in the Word. We ask, O God, that you might be with us as we spend time around the Scriptures. Lord, we ask for you to break the bread of life to each one of us, that we might be well fed. and that we'll each leave this place knowing that the Lord has been with us, has spoken to us. Even in those doctrines, Lord, that we read in the scriptures that are rather difficult for us to digest, and yet it is your word and we are called to trust you. We ask, O Lord, that you might help us and lead us and glorify your name in this day. For Jesus' sake we pray, Amen. Okay, so last week we looked at what the Lord says in Romans 15 about our duty to those who he puts over us, those who have authority over us. We might think that we play a role. We do, in a sense. But ultimately the one who is determining the events, even when they die, is cast. or when the ballot or the vote is cast, ultimately God determines the outcome. He is the one who, like we said last week, sometimes right there in the booth when somebody is about to cast his vote, changes his mind. And everything is orchestrated by God because He has His pleasing, His pleasant will, and some things are hard to understand. But the Lord tells us, let everyone be subject to governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. That is Romans 13 verse 1, and that's what we saw last week. There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. And we saw, you know, Paul is presenting a negative. There is no authority except that which God has established. And then he brings a positive. For the authorities that exist have been established by God. And we said, there is something Paul is really driving. It is practically impossible for any authority, for anyone to find himself in a position of authority unless the Lord has placed that person there. And so we are told, consequently whoever rebels against the authority, that's verse 2, is rebelling against what God has instituted. And those who do so will bring judgment, will incur judgment on themselves. For rulers do not hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid. For rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. And we saw that there are consequences in disobedience, even from the smaller things, you know, like You know, somebody going around, you know, creating noise pollution, playing music loud and disturbing the neighborhood. Someone will call 911 and you'll probably get... in trouble for that and to, you know, the bigger things like somebody seeking to overthrow a government, you know, through a military, you know, through the, you know, we've seen this happening even in recent times, you know, where rebels arise and try to overthrow a government. I think it only happened a few days ago in Ethiopia where some rebels, some military guys just, you know, rose to overthrow the government and so many lives have been lost. There's a sense in which judgment is incurred. We suffer God's wrath because of the refusal to accept that God has established this authority. At the same time, we know that God himself calls us let me put it this way Paul when writing this is talking to people who are being governed by one of the most evil leaders on earth at the time you know so you're talking of you know emperors like Nero you're talking of men who were evil, vile and yet he says respect them give honor he says where it is due pay your taxes You know, he says, this is why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants who give their full time. That's verse 6, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, then revenue. If respect, then respect. If honor, then honor. He calls us to do that. Why? Because he has established that authority. It is not us to question him and say why. In some cases, they come in through the right channel, through an election, and everybody is satisfied with the result. Well, they may not be satisfied, but accept the results. They could come through the death of a president. We've had in our country, we've had two presidents who died in office. and we had to have an election soon thereafter because the old constitution did not address that situation now of course it's a little more like here in the US where the vice president immediately would be sworn in so you have a vice president taking over not because he was necessarily expected to rule as president but circumstances have happened but there are also those situations where someone comes by force and One of the interesting examples we have and that is probably what we will look at today is the events in the book of Esther and I kind of wondered whether Esther would be the best Old Testament example or Joseph or perhaps events in the New Testament I think we did a bit of that during the Christmas season where we saw that God orchestrates everything whether it is the rise of Caesar and whether it is King Herod who comes into power or whether it is God is putting everything in place and He is in control I don't know at this stage if anyone has any questions. There might be plenty, I'm not sure. Anything yet? Okay, so, I just want to see this practical work, because in the book of Daniel, we see a series of events happening. There's this captivity, you know, Daniel tells us about, you know, that in I think it's about 605 BC, the Babylonians basically conquered the world so to speak and by 586 BC Babylon was destroyed and it fell to later we see Cyrus of Persia rising to power and then Darius comes to power as well and after Darius we have Ataxerxes or Ahasuerus and Ahasuerus, I don't know, these are difficult names. Now the plot here now in the book of Esther is when Xerxes is in power and it begins with a big feast that is going on okay so we are told in the scriptures that the king held a big feast and you know it involved thousands of people he was displaying his power I think some historians think that it was because he was just about to attack the Greek Empire And he was trying to, you know, many people were not too comfortable with going against Greece. And he sort of thought maybe this would help in, you know, kind of softening the hearts of my advisors and others who I may want to involve in this. But for about six months, 180 days we are told, it's almost half a year, there's this celebration going on and on. And, sorry, let me just distribute this. So there's this great celebration going on and there's all this excitement and then we are told that there's a point when the king is so intoxicated and he decides he wants to display Vashti, his wife, before his nobles. We don't know the extent. Some people think it would have been a very embarrassing kind of display of her beauty because she was a very beautiful woman. But she says, no, I won't do that. I won't sink to those levels. And the king is offended. He calls his wise men. and uh... we're told there were seven uh... men who stood there and began to advise the king and their advice was that look king if we allow this if we don't do anything about it then all the women will begin to disobey their husbands so that's a decree that says that men now are in charge of their homes you know a very you know kind of uh... weird decree so men now are in charge of their homes and women must obey and uh... that pleases the king but you see there is a question here Esther is a remarkable book why? because firstly this is one book that doesn't mention the name of God I think we are all aware of this God is not mentioned in any sense we don't even see any reference to Yahweh or Jehovah or whatever it is and Elohim, nothing God or anything that gives the impression that God is involved in whatever is happening but it's deliberate by the author so he says So we see this as a very interesting book God is not mentioned but the hand of God is seen throughout the book and some people believe that the author did that because he was trying to... the idea there was to perhaps force the reader to think through the events that he is expressing here or that are developing here he is trying to provoke thought he is trying to provoke his readers to think what exactly is going on here where is God in all this? now there are very interesting clues he gives us there are little things he shows here and there for instance just the name Esther Esther sorry the name, sorry the character Esther we are told her name was Hadassah or so there's a bit of a debate on what Esther means but for Hadassah it was a myrtle that's a it's a plant it's a shrub that is found all over Israel and used I think it's enough for chest infections and things like that but also it is It was used during the Feast of Tabernacles and this was also known as a season of rejoicing. Why? Because the Jews believed that the Messianic Kingdom would actually be fulfilled during this time. And we see the time when Jesus' brothers say, aren't you going to the feasts? People who want to be known and to be great among people, they take advantage of this feast. Jesus says I'm not coming just yet but then he glorifies himself there at that occasion so there's something about the author throwing in these little cues you know the king calls seven of his wise men after he had sent seven of his servants to go and call Vashti So he sends his seven men and says go and call these eunuchs. He says go and bring my wife so they can display her. Then later we're told when things didn't go well he called seven of his wise men and they gave him counsel. Later on when we see Esther brought into the kingdom, we'll come to that in a moment, when she's brought into the palace for the beauty treatment, the one year beauty treatment, she was given seven attendants. There's a sense in which maybe the author is trying to present these little cues, you know, in the text that everything here is perfect. You know, seven is the number of perfection. So maybe there's a sense he's trying to say, look, everything happening here is under God's control. Now why this book is very interesting is that it's a very dark environment. There is nothing you see in this story that gives you a sense of, wow, this is a beautiful environment. No. It's full of sin. There's wickedness going on. So there's this big feast, people getting drunk. Display of glory and power for 180 days. And the Bible says the king didn't bother about what people drank. It's OK. Take whatever you want. You don't need to drink, but you could if you want. And this goes on for half a year. The king wants to embarrass his wife. He punishes her for saying she won't do it. And then there's this beauty pageant kind of arrangement where they go and get some, some historians think there could have been about 400 girls, young ladies who were brought before the king. And what is very disturbing about this is that after they go for that six months of beauty treatment and the next six months of perfuming them and so on and just preparing them to meet the king, While they are going through that, we are also told that the king would call one lady at a time and she would spend a night with the king. Then the following day off she would go, he would bring in the next person until he finds the lady he wants. Now that is very disturbing. And yet, and the question would be, is God really in this? God is showing us that even in those circumstances when God's name is not mentioned among people, even when people depart from God, even when a sense of darkness falls in the land because of sin and wickedness, and God is not even mentioned, as He's not mentioned in this book, He is in full control. He will even use those circumstances that appear odd or peculiar or unacceptable. and yet he will be sovereign over all those things and bring his will to pass but then in chapter 4 firstly in chapter 3 we see this Haman introduced to us and before that in chapter 2 Mordecai now these two characters are interesting So Mordecai is the cousin of Esther, he's raised her since her parents, she didn't have parents, she probably was an orphan. And he raises her, he probably was maybe 15 or so years older than her, so he raises her like her own dad. And she is chosen to go among these women, to go before the king. And he tells her, okay Hadassah, don't tell anyone you're a Jew, because it's this anti-semitism in the environment so he says don't say anything about where you come from just say and don't use your name Hadassah use the name Esther so Esther could have been the Samsay think it was the goddess of love Ishtar but it could also mean the star in the Babylonian language so like Daniel and these others were given a new name Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were given you know, new names by the kings in those days so something like this could have been done to Esther so her name is Esther and she goes by the name Esther she doesn't tell anyone she is a Jew but then we see some hostility in chapter 3 when the Bible says to us that a certain gentleman called Heyman had been promoted and everybody was expected to bow before him to show homage to respect him because of his position and he doesn't want to do that. Mordecai doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to worship this man. Haman is not pleased, so we are told that in the scriptures that some of Mordecai's colleagues ask him, you know, why don't you bow before Haman? Why do you do this? Why are you being disobedient? This is the law of the land. And Mordecai refuses. He's not going to bow before this man. But then we see how Haman is told that Mordecai will not worship you. Mordecai will not bow before you. And there is this anger. You know, Haman hates Mordecai. And I think it's not so much just because Mordecai won't worship him. There is a historical problem to this. So, in 1 Samuel 15, there was an incident when King Saul having been instructed by the Lord through the Prophet Samuel was told to... maybe lets just turn there first Samuel 15 and verse 32 There has been a battle between Israel and their enemies the Amalekites and God has told them that they must destroy the Amalekites in verse 20 but so in verse 20 we are told and Saul said to Samuel but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on a mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back Agag king of Amalek I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites so yes I have destroyed the Amalekites but Agag not so much I don't think it's a good idea so the Lord is displeased with him and then in verse 32 we are told and Samuel said bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me so Agag came to him cautiously and Agag said surely the bitterness of death is past but Samuel said as your sword has made women childless so shall your mother be childless among women and Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal and Haman was an Agagite so he is a descendant of this wicked king but he knows that it was the Jews who killed Agag, my forefather and not only that Samuel so Samuel is a Jew but Mordecai we are told was a descendant of Kish who was a Benjamite Saul too was a Benjamite so he came from the tribe of Benjamin So as far as Haman is concerned, these are the guys who killed my father, who destroyed my people, and he won't even bow to me. We are in charge here. He was an Angagite, so he was not necessarily related to the king. But he came from this other line and he was quite bitter and not too happy about what Mordecai is doing. But then we see God throughout the book. It's too big a book or too long a book for us to deal with in the few minutes we have. But what is interesting is that while the author mentions King Artaxerxes or King Ahasuerus, sorry, 192 times. God is not mentioned once. The prayer is not mentioned at all. There's only a hint towards prayer in Esther 4 verse 16 when she calls for a fast. But let's look at how the events quickly unfold. Haman is so upset, he's so disturbed, he's angry, actually he's filled with wrath. He doesn't just want to destroy Mordecai, but he wants to destroy the whole of Israel. All the Jews must die. That's as far as his hatred goes. But then he convinces the king that let's commit genocide and get rid of these people. Mordecai then tells Esther, Esther we are about to be killed and you need to do something about it. But let's see what God does before that event. We're told that Mordecai, it's not very clear in the Bible whether it's Esther who secured a job for Mordecai in the temple or it's possible because Daniel did that for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But Esther, we're told Mordecai is working in the court and he's working in such and he's got this kind of freedom around the palace that he overhears two of uh... the nobles planning to assassinate the king and so he goes quickly he sends a message to Esther and says Esther warn the king there's some people trying to kill to kill him an investigation is carried out and later it is found that yes indeed these people were attempting to kill the king and uh... they are executed and and and so on but then the question then is uh... what This looks like just an incident that just so happened to have happened. But then, this is written in the chronicles of the kings. They always had these things written. He should have been given a reward for his good works, for his loyalty, but nothing is done about Mordecai. I can imagine Mordecai at that point thinking look I've done so much and according to the regulations I should have been acknowledged at least even just some acknowledgement for what I've done nothing and there are many times when we think where is God I mean look at all the good things we do in our service to the Lord but we don't even get a thank you but the Lord is planning everything according to his sovereign will even in the midst of this chaos Later, of course, Mordecai warns Esther about the genocide. Esther says, there's not much I can do. I think I'm a little, it's too risky, you know, for my career, for my comfort. Mordecai tells her, you know, the famous words, that if you do not do what you should do, deliverance from Israel will come from elsewhere. And he says to her, don't think that just because you are in the king's palace, you alone out of all the Jews will survive okay but know that if you do not basically if you don't go out and do what you should do God will raise somebody else and you and your household shall perish Esther says she couldn't go because no one enters the king's presence and if he does not hold out his scepter and you touch it and he allows you to touch it you'll be executed but at that point she realizes she has to play her role and if I perish I perish those famous words but then what is interesting in all this is that when Esther goes to see the king to tell him oh king Haman wants to kill me and my people for some reason she doesn't say it she just says the king says I'll give you even up to half the kingdom Esther come, I'll give you half to half the kingdom. Esther goes there and says, okay, can I say to you at banquet, I want to hold a dinner for you and Haman. And I'll tell you there. Now, I can imagine the scenery. Esther walks into the court. We're told that the king was seated, you know, I suppose on his throne or some seat. And Esther enters on the opposite end and he sees her. he hasn't been with her for six months so perhaps their marriage is not doing too well or he is too busy planning to invade to attack Greece to think about his wife or maybe he has other ways of satisfying his desires but the point is he is not called for Esther he has no interest in her at that point but then she comes in and the Bible says he sees her and he beckons her He holds out his scepter and she touches him and says Esther what can I do for you? Now he probably notices that she is in distress. He notices something she wants to tell me and he says okay I'll give you up to half the kingdom. She doesn't say okay give me a quarter of it. She says I have something to say to you but let's have dinner together. When dinner is cold Haman is so you know you know excited about this, you know, the fact that he is the special guest of, you know, the first lady and, you know, and the king. She again fails to say what she must say there. Now one would argue, Esther, that's your opportunity, that's perhaps maybe your, you know, your one chance, you know, once in a lifetime chance. Do something about it. But even then, God kind of holds her back. She can't say it. So she says, okay, King, can I say to you at the next dinner, what I need to say to you, I'll say, if it pleases the King, then let's hold another dinner tomorrow again with you and Haman. And the King says, fine. Tomorrow, Haman, you're invited for dinner. So Haman is so excited. He goes boasting to his friends, to his wife. He calls everybody and says, guess what? I was called. I was the only one in this. I'm the most favored among four men. But then I'm not, it's just something, this mortal guy, as I left the king's palace he didn't bow to me again. So he consults his friends, his wife, and they say, you know what you do? Let's build a, you know, let's impale him. So, you know, in those days they would lift a sharp pole or something and then drop you on that. It's a very crucial kind of death. So, The point we see here is how God is orchestrating everything because what happens at night is King Ahasuerus can't sleep. The Lord robs him of sleep and then he calls for he calls one of his men, give me something boring to read, just pull out one of those scrolls and you know the chronicles, that must be the most boring thing I can ever, just pull out one of those things, so this guy goes okay, perhaps you know, any many more and I'll get this one and even then God is orchestrating everything even in these mundane things that appear to be just you know just you know just by chance he pulls out the scroll And he begins to read and he comes upon this point, this part where it was recorded that there were two men who tried to kill the king and a gentleman called Mordecai saved the king's life. The king says, oh wait a moment, so what reward was given to this Mordecai? They say nothing king. Nothing? And so just about then, Heyman arrives that morning now to come and see the King because he's come up with a formidable plan to get rid of Mordecai. Mordecai is an indisciplined officer, he will not even respect me who he put in office. And so he comes, oh King, then the King before, as he walks into the courtyard, the King says, who's in the courtyard? Oh, Heyman. Come here. What should I do to the man that pleases the king most? So of course Haman remembers that Queen Esther had invited him and we're having dinner tonight again and he concludes obviously it's me so he says okay as we know he says okay call you know put him on one of the robes you've worn before and put him on your horse and go about proclaiming this is what is done to a man who pleases the Lord whoever pleases the king will be treated like this and he says do very quickly hurry do that to Mordecai now you can imagine the humiliation in chapter 6 Mordecai is humiliated. He's just been telling his friends, he's just convinced his friends, or he's just been discussing with his wife and family and friends that we get rid of Mordecai. Not only have they set a day when the Jews will be killed, and interestingly, even on that, they cast a die. Okay? The poor. Okay, so they cast this die to determine when they will be killed. when the Jews should be massacred and God ensures, as the Bible says, a die is cast but it's God who determines the outcome because it gives enough time for all these events to take place before that massacre occurs and the law of the Medes and the Persians and so on was such that the king cannot reverse his decrees that is why even when he remembered Vashti after he had cooled down, he had been very upset with her and he remembered her, oh Vashti but he couldn't reverse the decision, they had to choose a new queen and so it's the same thing here, there is no reversal and a decision has already been made to kill the Jews but everything is carefully put in place and very quickly in chapter 7 we see Esther's petition made at the second banquet she comes before the king Hayman has just been humiliated he goes back home really feeling terrible and he tells his family you know this is what has gone on and they say oh no you are in big trouble Hayman yeah if this is what is going on Mordecai you've been had to honor him oh my goodness things are not going well for you before he could put his thoughts together he's told Hayman banquet sign and then of course we see that at that point she reveals to the king that Haman is trying to kill me and my people but what is interesting is that the night before or early that morning I mean, hours before, the king was told about Mordecai, a Jew who saved his life. So he's already developed this soft spot towards these people who saved him. But then, of course, Esther reveals to the king and As we are told, the King was so upset, walks out of the room. Haman begins to plead to the Queen, please, please don't do this to me, I beg you, please don't do this to me. The King walks back and finds her holding on to the Queen and he says, what? You've been attacking the Queen? And then they're told, besides, King, Haman has built these gallows, he's put this pole to impale Mordecai. Mordecai, who saved my life? And so he commands that Haman himself be punished as he sought to punish Mordecai. And very quickly finally as we come towards the end of this book we see a scenario where Queen Esther and Mordecai, now Mordecai having been promoted to the position second in command in the whole land, Now he is told, he sits with Esther and they meet the king. They say, look you can't reverse that decree, but there's something you could do to save the Jews. That is to allow them to fight back. But not just to fight back, to also attack and destroy their homes, their families and everything. The properties that belong to those who dare attack them. The day comes and there is an attempt by some people to attack the Jews and they are completely destroyed. It leads to this great celebration just as Hanim Esther means joy or looking forward for this salvation, the Messiah coming and the feast of Purim is introduced from then on, still celebrated today. The conclusion in all of this is that the invisible hand of God is evident. The writer carefully writes the book to force the reader to seek God's presence throughout the book, God's hand, God's invisible hand throughout the book, even amidst chaos. We don't see anything, you know, it's not like the book of you know, like 1st Samuel and so on, certain events we see where God is, it's very evident that God is involved there. We don't, it's not like seeing prophets, you know, raising people from the dead, you know, or, you know, healing anybody or telling someone to go in the sea, in the river Jordan seven times and he's healed. We don't see that kind of picture. We just see this darkness, this so much of the world at work and yet God displaying his sovereignty and his sovereignty in administration and his awesome power and this then kind of brings us back to this whole question there's that map I think at the back of your papers you see how widespread this kingdom was how did this kingdom spread? it was not through democratic elections. This was as the Persians conquered land after land all the way from India, Pakistan, India all the way up to Greece in Europe and down to Egypt and Ethiopia down there. You can see it on the map but it was a vast empire and you can see if you look at it from the It is from the globe, you know, the little globe down there. You see how big this kingdom was. And these were kings conquering lands. And yet, what was God's concern in all this? If the Jews perished under Haman, what would happen to the promised seed? What would happen to the Messiah, the coming Messiah, because he was found in the tribe of Judah. Somebody somewhere living in that land was bearing the seed of the Messiah. And if Israel was destroyed, if Haman's plot succeeded, what would happen to the promises of God? It's the same question we have when Joseph is elevated to the position of authority. In all the chaos, all the negatives, God is showing that He is in control. Why? Because Judah, in Judah, would be born the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And like somebody said, the story about Joseph is not about Joseph. It is about the salvation of the people of Israel. And in particular, magnifying or the raising of the profile of Judah, wicked Judah who then at that point says to his father, I will die for Benjamin. There is a point when he was ready to kill Joseph. But then the Lord draws them to a point where Judah now says, I will die and he stands before Joseph and pleads for the life of Benjamin. He is ready to die to take the place of Benjamin. Then it looks like the Lord says, this is the man and through him the Messiah shall be born. And we see that in all these events, even as kings are doing their things, Potiphar is doing his, Potiphar's wife is accusing, the brothers are selling Joseph. and we see this in Esther's story all these things God is in full control and that should give us hope that ultimately God's purposes will stand His name will be glorified even in situations where we've had this Arab Spring where you know trouble broke out in the Arab world and people spread all over the world many of them who had never heard the gospel have had the opportunity to hear the gospel Because God Himself is orchestrating these things. But like we said last week, ultimately God judges wicked kings. He will deal with them. In some cases He will raise another nation against one to punish them. And then because of their brutality God also punishes them for their evil. But in everything God is sovereign. Man is responsible for his activities. And we are all called to trust in God and not to despair even when circumstances seem to be going the opposite way. I'll end here for now if there are any questions or thoughts. Anything you'd like to ask? Yeah, let me... And why don't we see some intervention intervening like this dictatorship in North Korea who slaughtered millions and millions of people to their death? Well, that's a very difficult question to answer. It's easier to respond when you look at scripture and we see the end from the beginning, so to speak. We can see the whole story, say, the whole story of Joseph. It's the same question we'd ask, why doesn't God intervene in all those years when Israel was in slavery? We're told there's a point when Israel's cries reached heaven and the Lord moves to save them from that scenario, that situation. It's a little difficult in our time to determine exactly what will come out of any situation. But God promises us one thing. Firstly, He establishes those kingdoms. He establishes those authorities. And we are called to respect that authority, even if it is an evil authority. Like we said, when Paul is writing these things, he is writing during a time when there is a reign of terror. Christians are being persecuted, they are being killed, they are being burned to the stake, and yet he says, respect the authority. We don't know the end from the beginning. God does. We don't know why God raises one king over the other and so on. But we also have seen even in our time where a ruthless dictator begins to have his heart softened. The Bible says God directs the heart of a king like a watercourse. He says of Pharaoh, I will harden his heart so that I may be glorified through him. But we also see him at times softening the hearts of hardened kings. It is our duty then to pray that those kings who are ruthless dictators, that the Lord will deal with them, that he will soften them, that they will come to a point of repentance. I think our desire for them should be that they get saved, they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Because only then shall we have righteous rulers. We know that ultimately the righteous ruler is Christ himself. He is the only one who is able to establish a kingdom that is seamless and perfect. But ours is to look out and to pray for those dictators, pray for the people suffering under their hands, but also knowing that sometimes it is through that suffering that the Lord exposes His glory, He shows His glory, He points people to Christ. In those desperate situations people can only look to who? to the Lord and it's only on the last day we'll be able to understand so these thousands, these hundreds of thousands of people around me God saved because of that but it's a difficult question to answer to you know maybe when we look in history and see people who have you know in our history books and we can say okay we can deduce that God allowed this for this purpose One quick thing I would say is that Daniel does tell us, at least up to the Roman Empire, he does tell us about how one kingdom overthrows the other, you know, and we see the power of kingdoms diminishing as they go down, but ultimately there's the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, his kingdom, which covers the whole earth. Only one last thing, I don't want to get into this, but So when we have our leader go to North Korea yesterday and embrace him and love him or have a romance or whatever he is doing to him is our leader violating God or violating Christianity by doing that? Is he in violation? Well that's another tough one. The thing is we don't know what is in the mind of a man but we know that for us as Christians we have biblical principles and we are taught to love our enemies to pray for those who curse us to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who hurt us rather than wish them ill and we don't know what God is doing in all this we know that based on what we've seen in the scriptures God orchestrates everything and if this is the means God would use to soften the heart of the the North Korean leader, to break him, you know, to bring him to a point where he says, I want to be part of the international community and I want to be accountable to the international community. Won't we glorify God for that? We don't know. Ultimately, we don't know what comes out of these things. There are so many things that happen at a world stage. You have all these leaders coming, each one with their own national concerns. us as a country, then there are regional issues, you know, as the European Union, the African Union, and so on. Then also we have the concerns about, you know, the wider community around the world. But we don't know what is in the minds of these leaders. But our prayer should be, Lord, let, if this is the means you use to bring peace in the world, to change the hardened dictator, to become A person ready to be part of the international community, use it Lord, to your glory.