Church, I'm gonna start down on the ground this morning. and I wasn't sure quite how I was gonna bring this together from the song we just sang particularly to the book of Esther, but as I was sitting here, God was speaking to me, and I wanted to share something that I believe is so significant that a lot of us don't understand, that really the Bible is one book. The Bible is, the word biblios means book. So it's one book, and God showed me a couple years ago that it's one book divided into two parts, Old and New Testament, or what the Jews would call Old and New Covenant. with literally what we call books, I would call chapters, that all fit together and it's all one story. And unless you understand that the Bible is really one story, then you won't understand how Esther fits into that storyline, into that narrative. But when you understand that God created humanity sinless, gave us everything we needed in the garden, And Adam and Eve in their rebellion, in their desire to be like God, chose to listen to the serpent instead of God. And by the way, that's been man's continuing condition since. Humanity has listened to the lies of the devil and believed in him. And so because of that, God knew that he would have to judge the world. But in the beginning, God had already chosen a plan before Satan ever was able to pull off his schemes to bring redemption to humanity and he was gonna do it through the story of his people Israel. the Redeemer, the one who is worthy. And I've been teaching through the book of Revelation on multiple platforms over the past couple years, and one of the most beautiful passages in Revelation is chapter five, where you see John weeping and going, who is worthy to open the scroll? The scroll is literally the title deed to the earth. that God is going to snatch back through his Messiah, through his Redeemer from the devil, he will be the kinsman Redeemer that Ruth talks about. And he will come and he will be the only one who is worthy, why? Because he's the only one who is both God and man, who has come to redeem mankind and to undo what Adam did in the garden church. So he came to do that and he is the one that's worthy And without him, the Bible says in John. If you do not pass from darkness to light, if you do not trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, you will not get to be part of God's eternity, and you will not get to be part of God's kingdom, that millennial kingdom that happens after the seven year reign in Revelation. Is he worthy? Yeah, he's worthy. Have you given your life to the one who is worthy? Have you trusted in Christ alone for salvation? Not in your own good works. There is zero that we can do, zero at all. It is all by faith that we can believe that we can receive the gift that God gave to us. And you say, well, what's that got to do with Esther, pastor? It has everything to do, pastor, because it fits into the narrative of what God is doing. God is going to have to deliver his people. This is the turning point in the book of Esther. The first two chapters were beautiful, but they're the setup for what comes, church. They're the setup for what happens. It's like we're finally gonna see the villain introduced. And the villain looks like he's getting away with something until God comes through in these progressive chapters and shows him that he is worthy, he is the one who can change circumstances. In the same way that just like the devil came in and wrecked God's plans, or thought he wrecked God's plan, he didn't know God. well enough to know that God can redeem even that which is wrecked. And we're gonna see this set up, this plot beginning to build in Esther chapter three. Church, I'm already working on the message for chapter four next week. I am so fired up to not only bring this one, but I am so fired up to bring and to show you progressively what is happening in the book of Esther. I titled the series, Where is God? Why? Because the Bible never mentions the name of God in the book of Esther. So scholars have been debating for years, does it belong? Well, if you see the context of it, and you see the context of God's people, and you see what's coming, you'll understand that even though his name is not mentioned, and we can't see him, we know God's hand is in the middle of everything. And I don't know what's going on in your life right now today, but I wanna encourage you today that no matter what is going on, God has allowed it, and God is working behind the scenes to work out whatever your circumstance is, to change it for your good and to change it for His glory. So let me turn this on and get going. So as we begin chapter three, I want us to think about doing something extremely important, something really, Noteworthy. And instead of being acknowledged or rewarded for it, somebody else gets the credit or somebody else gets recognized for it. Has anybody ever been in a circumstance like that? Think about a workplace promotion, or for students in school, where you worked so hard and you believe that you should have gotten that recognition, and somebody else got it, and not only did somebody else get it, church, but it's gonna end up bringing harm to you in the end. Well, you know where I'm going with this, right? This is what happens as we open up in Esther 3. What has just happened? Mordecai saves the king's life, but instead of being rewarded, Haman now gets promoted. Right? And now Mordecai is put in a position of both risk to himself and the Jews as Haman plots against them to the king. Man, it's like, can you feel the plot thicken? And you go, God, where are you? Why didn't you lift Mordecai up? Why didn't you reward him for what he did to the king? Hold on, church. Chapter six, we're gonna see how God is working in the middle of all this, and I want you to think about it in your own life. You're sitting in a position, and you're going, God, where are you? Well, hopefully, through the book of Esther, you can see that God's right in the middle of your circumstances right now, and he's working, whether you can see it or not. Okay, so what do we see in Haman's promotion and plot? First of all, we see in verses one through four what I'm titling the refusal and the reason, okay? It says after these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, right? We're gonna go back and I'll say this again probably, but I calculate it was about four years and five months between Esther two and three. So these don't come right on the heels, this is afterwards. And oftentimes the scripture doesn't tell us how long afterwards, but when you go down to verse seven, I believe it is, it gives you the timeframe. So this is roughly four and a half years later, after Esther become queen. Haman gets promoted, and who is Haman? The son of Hamadathah the Agagite, and I'll talk about that in a couple minutes, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who were with him. Ultimately, basically what happens is he gives that promotion to Haman instead of Mordecai, okay, for whatever reason. All the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, so the king had commanded concerning Haman. But Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage. Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, why are you transgressing the king's command? Now it was when they had spoken daily to him, and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's reason would stand. For that he had told them he was a Jew. Okay, so we see a refusal here, a refusal to bow. Okay, now this is interesting. As I was studying for this this week, I was reading things about, and you'll see this as we go through Haman's character. You'll see Haman's character, he's wicked, he's evil, he's absolutely arrogant and proud. Know any people like that around you? I used to be that way. Thank God he's changed me for his honor and glory, but right, he's proud. Given his character of being proud, Haman could have flattered his way into position with the purpose of achieving authority and recognition. Okay, so that would have been his plan, like, get into the king's good graces, let me do whatever I can to, you know, schmooze the king, or flatter him, or smooth talk him, right, to get into that position. He's actually second in command at this point in the kingdom of Persia. But here's the reality. Who was it, Jenny was saying to me this morning, the phrase, but God. I like this, but God, God permitted him to be appointed. You see the sovereign hand of God? Haman wasn't gonna get into this position even through his evil and wicked pride and flattery unless God allowed it. You know that, church, right? God allows things to happen. They don't just happen by accident. God uses that stuff for his purpose so that he could fulfill his purpose through Haman. And the decree in Ezra 4.6, so if you're taking notes, I don't have it on the PowerPoint today, but in Ezra 4.6, which connects to the book of Esther, is probably why Mordecai tells Esther not to make known that she's a Jew. Because there's problems going on back in Jerusalem during this time, historically, and Mordecai is playing safe. He doesn't want Esther to be found out that she's a Jew at this point. Okay, Mordecai then refuses to bow down to Haman. And one of the things I was looking at earlier this week was this. Well, bowing down to Haman, wouldn't that have gone against, you know, the Jewish law? In this sense, he's not bowing down to him in worship, he's bowing down to him in respect. That's all he's doing. And there are multiple instances in scripture where Abraham bowed down to somebody or another Old Testament figure bowed down. They didn't bow down in worship, they bowed down out of respect. That's all he was doing. They're not violating the second command. But here this guy is, he refuses to bow down to this guy after repeated urging from the other men at the gate. They repeatedly were saying, you know, why, they spoke to him, but he wouldn't listen to them, right? Hoping that they could urge him to do the right thing, because they probably knew he was gonna be in trouble, right, with the king, okay? But he refused to do that, and the text tells us, because he was a Jew, but if you go back earlier, so the question is, why doesn't he bow? Is there something wrong with Mordecai? Does he have an issue with, does he not personally not like Haman? Oh no, remember the narrative I was telling you about? It goes deeper than that. For years I read this text and went, okay, Haman is an agagite, big deal, move on from the story. And then one day God showed me that is not in there accidentally, he's an agagite. And I went and I did all kinds of research this week online. I looked at all kinds of commentaries, what the scholars were saying, because there's some that are saying, well, simply, he was mentioned as an Agagite because Agag was a region in the area of Persia. Most of the scholars I found, and this is what I'd already believed, but most of the scholars I found said it's more than that. He's called an Agagite. Big deal, right? Yeah, big deal. Let's look at some of the cross-references. In Genesis 36, 12, it says, Timnah was a concubine of Esau's son, Elipaz, and she bore Amalek to Elipaz. These are the sons of Esau's wife, Ada. Who is Esau? You know who Esau is, right? Esau is Jacob's brother. Esau will become Edom. They'll be an enemy of Israel all the way through the end. As a matter of fact, God's gonna take care of Edom. in the second coming of Christ for what they've done to their brother Jacob, okay? Amalek, okay? Amalek comes and he fights against Israel at Rephidim. And so he goes and Joshua rises up and he goes, he's commanded to go fight. And you know the story, right, where they hold the hands up, as long as the hands are up, they have victory. When they drop their hands, you know, they don't support Moses. And what happens? Ultimately, God defeats, through Joshua, with the help of Moses and Aaron and Hur, he defeats the Amalekites. And you say, well, big deal. Who are the Amalekites? I'm glad you asked. Deuteronomy 25, 17 through 19. God is reminding Israel through Moses as he's giving the second giving of the law before they go into the land with Joshua. He says, remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt and how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at the rear when you were faint and weary and he did not fear God. Therefore the Lord when he has given you rest from all your enemies in the land which the Lord God gives you as an inheritance possessed, he shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven you must not forget. So Amalek becomes a major enemy of Israel. Fast forward to 1 Samuel 15. Maybe you know the story. The Lord of hosts wants to punish Amalek for what he did to Israel. So he's gonna use Saul. So he tells Saul in verse three, go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has. Do not spare him, but put him to death, both man and woman, child and infant. So kill them all. And people say, well, God is a mean God. No, he's not. God is getting rid of all the influences of his enemies on Israel, and he tells Saul, go kill Amalek. Right? And what does Saul do? He captured him, but he doesn't utterly destroy, he destroys them. But somewhere along the way, what happens? He gets away, and you wanna hear something interesting? This is Numbers 24 seven. This is a prophecy from Balaam as he's trying to curse Israel and he's not able to. He says, from God's own mouth, water will flow from his buckets and his seed will be by many waters and his king shall be higher than Agag and his kingdom shall be exalted. So God is going to have victory over Agag and over the Amalekites. What's the problem? Here's the problem. Haman is the 16th generation from Amalek, who is the grandson of Esau. Because of Saul's disobedience, because he did not completely wipe out his enemies, now the Israelites are gonna have to face Haman, the Agagite. You know what happens in the Old Testament when you don't get rid of your enemies? The generations come up behind them and take revenge. And I think this is exactly what's happening in the book of Esther here, is that Haman knows who Mordecai is. Mordecai, they're mortal enemies, they know. And so Haman's, so Mordecai says, I'm not bowing to you, right? And what's ironic in this story is Saul is a Benjamite. But do you remember from Esther last week, when Mordecai was introduced, he's also a Benjamite. So what seems to be going on here in this story is Saul who failed as a Benjamite to get rid of the enemy, God will raise up another Benjamite to take care of the enemy in the same way that just like Adam failed to obey God in the beginning, God will raise up another one from the tribe of Judah to rescue his people into salvation. This story is so interesting. And what's interesting is I was looking at the application for this section here in verses one through four. What Mordecai does brings about conflict. And what God struck me with in a perfect application is anytime we stand for what's right or for what's righteous, this could be the result. We could face conflict, and persecution. And that's why I gave us the verse I gave us to read congregationally, but I'll give it to us again. Church, when we stand for what's right, in God's eyes, there will be persecution. You understand that, right, church? And so one of the questions I've asked people for years, and I would ask myself the same thing, is if you're not being persecuted for your faith, then tell me where your faith is. Because anytime we stand on the word of God and his truth, there will be persecution in our lives. That's the result of it. Now watch what happens next in the story. The rage and revenge. Do you think Haman's gonna roll over on this one? Not at all. Because you know who's working behind the scenes behind Haman? It's Satan himself. because his goal is to destroy God's people. His goal is to destroy. Now you gotta remember where Esther fits, before the Messiah. Satan has been trying to destroy God's plan about Messiah for centuries. And guess what? Church, did he fail? He failed. He failed because Messiah came and delivered his people. He came and gave us salvation, even as Gentiles. But Haman's not gonna take this lying down. What do we see in verses five and six? It says, when Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down nor paid homage to him, he was filled with what? Rage. Does anybody know what rage looks like? All you had to do is stir me up about 10 years ago and push my buttons and I could have showed you what rage looked like. But it's not godly. It is not godly. And by the way, who did you see earlier in this story who was filled with rage? The king, what did the king do? He got rid of, he deposed Vashti, regretted it later on. Haman is filled with, what does rage do? Rage destroys. Rage is blind. Rage doesn't care about what is right. All it cares about is itself. And for those of you who've known me a little bit longer, you may have heard me say this in conversation years ago, I asked God, what is the definition of anger? Because I was struggling with it. God, what is anger? And he said, basically, it's you trying to be in control instead of letting me be in control. What's going on here? Haman is so self-centered. He's not thinking about the things of God, obviously. He's thinking about himself. And when he doesn't get bowed to, he's filled with rage, absolute rage. But I love this. Look at what God is allowing. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, right? So he's not just gonna go after Mordecai. Here's his opportunity to come up with a plan to go after Mordecai's people. How do we know who Mordecai's people are? He told them, he told the advisors that he was Jewish, and you can just see, oh, here's why he's not bowing to you, because he's a Jew. And the moment Haman, the Agagite, who knows his story and knows his history, going, huh, I can get rid of both one guy, but I can get rid of the whole Jewish nation. Wow, isn't that amazing, right? This is amazing. And so Haman is filled with rage. He doesn't want to just get Mordecai. but he sought to destroy the Jews. And this would include, this is where you have to understand the map and the history of how Esther fits into the other books of history. There's Jews back in Jerusalem. He's not just looking to wipe out the ones in Persia. He's looking to wipe them all out. Now why? Think about Satan's plan. Because he could have simply reported this to the king and satisfied his own desires, right? I could get Haman demoted, or Mordecai demoted, I could get him killed, and that would be enough, but it wasn't. He had a lust for destruction in that rage, and so he's gonna go after all the Jews, and what we see here, this is really Satan's attempt to destroy God's people in order to nullify his covenant with Abraham and to stop God's plan for Messiah. Satan is working through Haman. He may not be aware of it, but that's what's happening, and what you see is, again, okay, first of all, this is about the anger, okay? For anybody who struggles with anger, James 1, 19 and 20, he says, this you know, my beloved, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. But watch this, I love this in Psalms 21. Though they intended evil against you, and this is the psalmist saying this about God and devised a plan, they will not succeed. Haman is trying to attempt to go after the Jews and nullify God's promise. But what? When you're coming against God, you're never gonna win. You're never gonna win. Psalm 64, six, I wanted to include this, because I want you to understand something about people who plot things, wicked schemes. It says, they devise injustices, saying, we are ready with a well-conceived plot, for the inward thought and the heart of a man are deep. When people plot, it's not just up here in their head, it's in their heart, right? And I don't know, I don't think I got these scriptures in here, but let me, Let me throw this in, if you're taking notes, whoops. Yeah, let me go backwards here. Matthew 2.16 and Revelation 12.4 tell us that Jesus, Remember King Herod tried to kill the baby, tried to kill the Messiah in Matthew two? And we see a picture of that in Revelation 12 four where the dragon is going after the woman as she's about to give birth. Those are pictures of Satan trying to destroy the Messiah and try to destroy God's people. You think they're gonna be able to, just stop here for a second church. Do you think anybody who goes against God can win? It's pretty stupid, isn't it? I think it's pretty stupid. A lot of it has to do with deception. And one of the questions I've been asking myself and asking students as we've been studying Revelation recently is, at the end, at the second coming of Christ, the Antichrist and his followers, allies, his kings are going against Messiah thinking you're gonna beat him. Do you really think they can they think they can win? It must be a deception because there's no way that you can beat God, right? And Satan's trying to outdo God, but he's he's really foolish because He should know better. You can't win against God, but he's going to try anyway. Right. So we got that going on. And one of the things that I took out of the application for this section here in five and six is this this kind of rage and revenge brings about contempt, this hatred for and deceptive plots to bring somebody else's demise come down. And you can never, never, ever win. Let me ask you a question, church. In your righteousness, in your stand for God, has anybody ever tried to devise any wicked, evil plots against you? Yeah, that often happens, okay? But watch the story as it progresses. What we see next is, out of this anger and this rage, we see what I call the ruse and the reason. The ruse, the plotting, the devising, right? What do we see here? It says in the first month, which is the month Nisan, I don't know if you know the Jewish calendar, the Jewish calendar is not like our calendar. The Jewish calendar, the first month of the year is roughly March and April, and it depends on the moon. It's a lunar calendar, so it depends on, that's when Passover falls, and that's why we never celebrate Resurrection Sunday the same Sunday, because it's all based on Passover in the lunar calendar, right? So it's roughly that time. It says, which is the month Nisan in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus. This is where I got my timing. This is roughly four and a half years later. Pur, which is the lot. Now Pur is a Jewish lot, a lot that was cast. Often it was like it was a dice that was thrown and it was used to determine the fate of somebody or the plan of something. was cast before Haman from day to day and from month to month until the 12th month, that is the month of Adar. So he keeps rolling this dice, right? Then Haman said to the king, so he rolls the dice, let me just say this, he rolls the dice first in these verses, in verse seven, and what does he do? He's casting lots privately. before he goes to the God. What's the purpose of casting the lots? Because they believe that the lots, that their gods were behind these events. So he's casting the lots to make sure that his God will grant him success, his Persian God, right? And the word pur, which means lot, can also mean fate. So he was rolling it to determine the fate of the Jews. And he believed in his thinking, his pagan thinking, that his gods would give him the right time and the right direction of when he should play out this plan against the Jews. What he didn't know is who was behind the lot. It was God, and I'll show you that in a minute, okay? So then Haman, goes to the king, Ahasuerus, and he says, there's a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those who are all the other people, and they do not observe the king's laws, so it's not in the king's interest to let them remain. Don't you love it? There's a certain people. What a coward. If he really wanted to, he should have gone to the king and said, the Jews are causing us problems. But he's such a coward, and he's so deceptive, he goes into the king and says, oh, by the way, there's a certain people, it would be in your best interest to get rid of them, right? This is really interesting, because as I was studying this, I realized, He was pressing an urgency, the fact that according to Haman, if the king is gonna listen to him, there's dangerous people scattered throughout the kingdom, and it would be best if he did something about them. Now, here's the reality. If this were really true, wouldn't the king have possibly heard about it by now? I mean, can you see the deception in this plan by Haman? And what's interesting is Haman exaggerates what Mordecai would have done. The fact that he didn't bow down, he's now taking it to the extreme and implying that all the Jews were guilty of disobedience. He's the one that's saying, oh, it's them, right? And it's amazing. And again, as I was studying this, were their laws different from the other people's? Absolutely, Levitical law. There were things that they were told they could and couldn't do, in terms of what they were eating and that kind of stuff. Their laws were different, but were they, there's no sense in history that the Jews were ever a threat to this kingdom, ever, ever, ever. Matter of fact, at one point, they're told, I think it was by Jeremiah, to go into the land and settle in for 70 years. Settle in, don't cause problems. Settle in, obey your laws, and be quiet. It's kind of like in 1 Timothy where he says, and pray for the king, right? Pray for the leaders over you so that you might live quiet lives, right? That's what Christians are to do. Christians aren't to be troublemakers. Christians are to live quiet lives of peace. And if we do that and we just live the way God wants us to, You know, we should be hopefully okay. And that's what was going on here. And then he says to them, he says, if it's pleasing to the king, that word pleasing again, we've seen it in Esther, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king's business to put them into the treasuries. we're gonna exterminate these people for a price. And Haman says, oh, by the way, 10,000 talents of silver, I looked that up, and it literally means thousands of tons of silver, okay? And you say, well, why not gold? Because in that period of time, gold was not as valuable as silver. Silver was it, right? And he's saying, look, I'll give you tons and tons and tons of silver I'll pay for it, basically, and I got to thinking about this, and I was studying this and reading this, he could have been wealthy. If Haman is this deceptive here, he's probably been deceptive elsewhere and probably got an ill-gotten gain. Plus, as you look further into the text, I think he's gonna take the plunder from the Jews and at least use it to pay for part of, imagine that, using their own plunder to pay for their death. And what we're talking about here, church, is this, genocide. And at the end of the message, I was gonna ask us, does this remind us of any other time in history with the Jews? The Holocaust. was Hitler's absolute plan to destroy God's people, to genocide, to annihilate God's people. Satan was behind that attack. But there's been other times, right, in God's history where people have felt threatened by the Jews and wanted to destroy them. And this is Satan's ploy through Haman to do that, and he's willing to pay for it. And what's really interesting is I was going through this and I was thinking about application, The thing that I thought about was what's going on with him brings about a false sense of what I title conciliation. Conciliation is the idea of satisfaction. He is gonna have this false sense of satisfaction that if he can get rid of Mordecai and the Jews, he's gonna feel satisfied. and what we're gonna find out is absolutely not. And so we look at the last set of verses here. The rain and the right. And it's like I was toying with these ideas, the rain. Rain, we usually think of rain, right, like ruling over something. The word here, rain, would be the idea of how much free rain that he had. and the right that he had by the king's authority to do what he's about to do. Basically what's happened is he's trusted Haman completely, and he's basically just handed their death over, the Jews' death, into the hands of this wicked man. Okay, let's look through this. It says, then the king took his signet ring, And it was a signet ring that would have been on his finger that would have had his emblem for him being the king. And he would seal it in wax and he would seal the document that he was about to send out, which means that the only way to know it was from the king is if it's been unopened, right? So he's given his signet ring to him, the son of Haberdasher and the Agonite. He tells us again, the enemy of the Jews. The king said to Haman, the silver is yours and the people also. Do with them as you please. He's given him carte blanche reign to do with whatever he wanted to do against this so-called enemy that Haman claims is dangerous to the Persian kingdom. What a lie. Then the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to the king's satraps, to the governors, over each providence, and the princes of each people, and the prince, the providence according to its script. So, and each people according to like, so this is gonna be written in everybody's distinct language. being written in the name of the king, so it's gonna be coming from the authority of the king, and sealed with the king's signet ring, which means what? The edict can't be changed. This is where the story gets interesting. The edict can't be changed. So you're thinking ahead, how's God gonna pull this one off? Watch as we continue in Esther. It's amazing, right? The city of Susa was in confusion. Wow. Wow. What happens here? This is amazing. Haman uses his influence with the king to devise a devious plot to annihilate the Jews. This guy is backhanded, cunning, undermining, deceptive, full of pride, Asher has trusted Haman completely. What does it say about the king's character? We saw that in chapter one, right? King's character is questionable. As before, the king was easily influenced and accepted Haman's advice and acquiesced to his plan. 10,000 talents of silver, I told you about already. Here's the reality, Haman was not happy unless the Jews are annihilated and the king has, watch this, this struck me, this hit me right here. And the king has no idea he's just issued an edict for his wife's death. Has no idea, he's trusted this man. Right, what's that say about trusting people? I don't know about you guys, but I've learned to vet people. Somebody tells me, oh, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I don't believe that anymore, right? I'm from the Missouri state, you know, the show me state. I'm from Vermont, but I'm from the Missouri state. Just because somebody says, well, I'm a good Christian. Yeah, prove it. Prove it. I want to see it by your actions. I want to see it by the fruit in your life. Right? We gotta be careful who we trust. And he trusted him completely. And he's just issued, doesn't know it yet, but he's issued a decree for the death of his wife, church. That's what happens. The consequences of listening to people, trusting people that you shouldn't trust. This is what happens. There's consequences. But here's the good news. Here's God's hand in it all. 11 months the Jews have to prepare. to get ready before their death. Haman was foolish, he was stupid. His law, whatever, his God, but it was really God who was rolling the dice for him, and he's like, look what, I'm gonna give my people 11 months to get ready for this. Do you think if Haman were smart, he would have done that? It was all part of God's plan. And then I love it, it's gonna take, I read it's gonna take about 90 days to get the edict out to all the kingdoms. So it's gonna take about three months, as quick as their couriers were, it took about three months. But, watch what happens in this story. There was confusion, right? They sit down at the table, Haman's able to sit down with the king, knowing he's gonna kill this whole group of people and sit down and party. What's that say about Haman's character? He's cold, he's callous, he doesn't have any compassion, he's all concerned about himself. And it brings about confusion, right? Because you gotta wonder if these other groups in the kingdom are going, what's gonna happen to us? Could that happen to us? and he doesn't realize the consequences and the application that God gave to me in this was this kind of thinking and this kind of behavior brings about confusion. Sinful and foolish actions can cause confusion for others with no regard for others that we're doing it to. Stop on that one just for a second, church. The next time we go and do something sinful and foolish and deceptive to try to get our way, Have we thought about the consequences it's gonna bring on somebody else? Wow. All right, let's wrap it up. Here's some application. Do you ever wonder why the Lord allows bad things to happen for doing what's right? Ever struggle with that? God, I just did the right thing, why are you allowing this to happen in my life? I had a pastor tell me years ago, I was whining to him, I figured a fellow pastor would come alongside and pat me on the back, and he didn't, he called me out. We had made the right decision to leave a church in New York because of things that had happened to us, and I was whining and trying to get his sympathy, and he said, Jim, don't you understand that there will be conflict for doing what's right? Put me in my place, it's what I needed. Right? Matthew 10 and 2 Timothy 3, 12, you can write it down. Do you ever wonder in the midst of those circumstances if he will deliver you, even when things hopeless? Because here's the reality, he promised he will. Psalm 18, 17, 22, 5, and 31, 1, you can write that down. This is God's promise of deliverance through the psalmist. Because this is what it's all about going forward, is God gonna be able to deliver his people against evil and wicked Haman, right? Got that? And then finally, does this event with Haman remind us of any other events in history, Genesis 3.15? What happened? When God is calling the devil to account and he says, I will put enmity between your seed and her seed. It's been this way since the beginning of time. There's enmity between the children of God and between the children of the devil. Get used to it. It's part of the plan. But guess what? God knows how to deliver. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you and praise you for your word. I pray that I've explained it well enough today for us to understand where you are in the middle of all of this. Right now, at the end of chapter three, it seems hopeless. and the Jews could feel helpless, but God, we're gonna see your hand begin to work in chapter four. Remind us, Lord, in our lives that there will be conflict for standing on what's right. And Lord, on the other side, we don't wanna bring about confusion in our sinful and selfish behaviors to cause others to have to pay consequences while we sit and revel in it. Lord, remind us of these truths from Esther today. Go with us, Lord. and be with us, Lord, as we go out into the community this week to live lives that are pleasing to you as we stand for what's right. And Lord, I pray one final prayer from this pulpit for Saturday night. Lord, there are gonna be guys coming to this event, this wild game dinner, thinking they're coming for one reason, and we believe your hand will be in the middle of it. You've got other reasons for having them here. Father, we pray that the guys who are coming thinking they're gonna win a prize or gonna get some, see a cool mount or gonna eat some good food, that's part of the blessing that you've provided through this church. But Lord, I pray that you would speak to the hearts of men and that you would bring them to the place of salvation as your sovereign hand moves in their lives even this week. Go with us, use us. Lord, for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.