Well, we've come up to the book of Esther, and because Purim, the festival of Purim, is one of the things that this book institutes, I'm going to read Esther 9, verses 26 through 28. So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter and what had happened to them, The Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants. Thank you, Father, for your word. And as we dig into this beautiful, beautiful book of Esther, I pray that you would stir our hearts and that you would help us to grow in our appreciation for your great providence, your purposes in history, and that you would enable me to faithfully, clearly, accurately portray your word before this, your people. And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, for the Jews throughout the empire, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times, depending upon which particular aspect of life that you were looking at. Politically, it had been a roller coaster ride for the previous 17 years that lead up to this chapter. And I'll just give you a little bit of the details. Babylon had fallen to Cyrus 17 years before, and people may have wondered as if the world had completely turned upside down, but Cyrus actually proved to be a much, much better emperor than the last emperor of Babylon. And there was economic growth, a far greater degree of stability that was there. In his history notes, R.J. Rushduni pointed out that This was the only empire where the king was subject to his own laws and could not undo his decrees. The king was under law, and it was one of the things that made Persia one of the most stable empires ever. When laws are respected, when contract law is honored, Well, the free market has the ability to really take off, to really grow. And this book indicates that the Jews throughout the empire were rather well-off, rather wealthy. Some of them were so wealthy, they were not motivated at all to leave Babylon and go back to Israel, which is what God had commanded. But they're weighing, you know, the cost-reward ratio, and they're just thinking it's not worth it to travel back to Israel. But there were political anxieties as well. Since Cyrus conquered Babylon 17 years before, there had been a quick succession of three additional emperors. Darius was the fourth one. He came to power just three years before chapter one. And as soon as he came to power, the empire fell apart. Virtually every province was in rebellion. And his first three years were especially bloody. He was putting down 19 different kings, re-establishing the empire. In verse 1, he wears the title of the Hasuerus. That's simply the old Persian title for the emperor. But that's the third year of his reign. By year 3, the empire had some degree of civility re-established, even though he's going to shortly be off to war again against the Greek states. Now, though Darius had the political reins of power quite tightly held, much like China holds the reins of power quite tightly, there was actually more economic freedom under the Persian rule than China introduced under President Deng Xiaoping in 1979. Though we will shortly see that Darius was a tyrant, there's no question about the fact that he was a tyrant, There was a far greater degree of self-government under Persia than there was under Babylon. They had good roads, they were well-protected, well-administered regions, much higher degree of justice that was being administered in the empire. Still was bad, but it was much better than under Babylon. Rushduni comments that although they were not free because it was a tyranny, they were able to live much more safely and to be much more prosperous than they had previously experienced. Now, the first migration of Jews back to Israel happened 17 years before, but as I've already mentioned, the Jews enjoyed such enormous wealth in Babylon and comforts of life that they stayed put. Most of them did. The year before this chapter begins, work on the temple had just been restarted. It had started under Cyrus, but it had just been restarted now under Darius. The people, though, were not too motivated to get involved in building this temple. In fact, Haggai had to rebuke them for their lack of kingdom focus. A month later, Haggai rebukes them again for disparaging the temple. Their attitude was, ah, this is never going to be as good as the temple under Solomon, and they're kind of pouring cold water on the project. A month later, Zechariah brings stinging rebukes to the Jews for their apathy, for their lack of zeal for the kingdom. The next month Haggai explains why God was making their bags of silver have holes in them. In other words, their investments are failing, their crops are failing. Why? Again, he says, it's because you are not stewards. You do not have a kingdom focus and God is not prospering them. Haggai also predicted that without repentance, God was about to stir up some massive trouble for the Jews by way of persecution. If there was no repentance, there was going to come persecution. In the 11th month of the previous year, Zechariah commanded the Jews to flee from Babylon A command, again, that the Jews ignored for the most part. They were not listening to these prophets. And so true to his word, God began to orchestrate trouble for the Jews as well as deliverance for the Jews. And I think this book outlines in an incredibly beautiful fashion both sides of that equation. God's going to be bringing persecution into their lives. Why is he going to bring persecution? It's to stir them up to repentance so that they come back to the land of Israel. They begin to have some kingdom perspective. And so both sides are going to be shown in this book, and what's going to happen is there are steps of this Reformation that God's putting in place, but it parallels some of the Reformation that happened in the last chapter of Nehemiah, the last verse of which is parallel to the last chapter of Esther. Okay, so that's some of the background that helps you to appreciate why this book is needed within the canon. Now as to the structure of the book, if you look in your outlines, you'll see two sample outlines that commentaries have given of the book. The first one on the left there, it's just a general chiasm. It's the big picture structure of it with chapter 6 as the center. Remember that the center of a chiasm is the central theme that's going to be developed. And then if you look at the other thematic structure. It's a 22-point thematic structure that forms an absolutely perfect chiasm with things getting worse as things progress toward chapter 5, a sudden reversal in chapter 6, which again is the heart of the book. And actually, I didn't have room on the chart. That is a simplified chart. If you just take two of the points of the part of the chiasm there that has has Haman's decree to kill the Jews contrasted with Mordecai's decree to save the Jews. There's other commentaries who say there's much more granularity. You can stick another additional 22 points in there. I mean, this is an incredibly structured book with absolutely perfect parallelisms in this chiasm. Now, why do I even bring this up? Well, again, it showcases that God would have to be in control of both the providence that governs the history as well as the writing of this inspired history for all of these things to happen, down to the casting of the dice. It's a beautiful book on the providence of God. Wonderful book. Now let's dive into the first half of the book that begins building the tension. Verse 1 says, Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. Now if you look at that parenthetical statement, it's very clear that he's trying to indicate There is more than one emperor who has the name Ahasuerus. Now, some of you might have studied Bibles that identifies this Ahasuerus as Xerxes. What they have done is they've taken one clue from the book, the name Ahasuerus, and they said, hey, Xerxes has the name Ahasuerus. This must be Xerxes. The problem is there's a whole bunch of other clues that are given in the book of Esther, 18 clues altogether, that just do not match that at all. It also ignores external evidence. Two ancient Jewish books, the Septuagint and the first book of Esdras, clearly identified the king of Esther as being Darius the Great. That's my view, and the internal evidence very, very clearly supports that view. For example, of the six early emperors that scholars claim might be Ahasuerus, and there's a lot of division amongst them, six different interpretations, Of those six, only four ruled over Ethiopia. Only three ruled over India. That'd be Darius, Xerxes, and Longomanus. But the only candidate who ruled over 127 provinces was Darius, Darius the Great. The most anybody ruled over before him was 120. Xerxes lost a bunch of provinces as soon as he came into power. He never ruled over 127. So if you use all 18 of the clues that the Bible gives of which Ahasuerus he's talking about, all alternative candidates have at least three or more strikes against them. Astyages and Cyrus each have eight strikes against them. Cambyses has seven strikes against him. Xerxes has five strikes against him. Longomenus has three strikes against him. And I'll post all 18 clues on the web. I won't get into it right now. But chapter one is setting the stage for the kind of dangers that surround a man like Darius. I think I'd be pretty nervous working around a man like that. And anybody who was married to him, boy, the tension would be there. This is not a great guy to be in close proximity to. Now, I can't take the time to outline the deliberate portrayal that this first chapter gives, that this man was an arbitrary, scary tyrant. But it's definitely setting the stage for some tension in the story. Verse nine implies that Queen Vashti imitates her husband in his grandiose drinking parties. And in verses 10 through 12, we see the king's pride and the queen's pride colliding together. Okay, so the king wants to show off his beautiful wife, more beautiful than anybody else's wife, at his drinking party. And she understandably does not want to be showcased as his prize mayor, and so she refuses to come to him. And in a fit of anger, the king asks his wise men what he should do to her. And they weirdly suggest that she should be deposed and a decree be made that she can never come to meet him again the rest of her life. And since she was such a bad example to all of the other women in the nation, that he sent a decree out to the whole nation that every woman needs to honor and submit to her husband. I mean, talk about. I mean, this is really weird. And what's even more ridiculous about this is that he would send this out because it makes him look really bad. And he's spreading out his failure to the whole empire. But in verse 19, they specify that this should be a royal decree and it should be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, which can never be altered. This is a theme that keeps coming up, not only in Daniel, but it comes up in Esther, can never be altered. Why would they do that? Well, providentially, we know why they have to do that, because God is going to use that irreversibility to make sure that Esther becomes the queen. But psychologically, Mamucan, who probably came up with this not-so-brilliant idea, who came up with this, is probably covering his tail end, because if the king longs for Vashti again, and she comes back into influence, He could be in deep trouble for having suggested this. So he probably wants to make sure she is never in his sight again. And so he says, let's make this an irreversible, he's very sly on this, make this an irreversible decree. And you can see the king's regrets in chapter two. Keep in mind that three years have gone by, and only after three years, does it say, after these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti what she had done and what had been decreed against her. So his servants encourage him to get a replacement, actually get a lot of replacements. Verses two through four is not a beauty pageant, as some people make it out to be, because the people did not apply for this job, okay? They're rounded up from around the empire, young girls are taken out of their homes, and they're all gonna be concubines of this king, with one of them becoming the new queen. Verse four says, then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. This thing pleased the king and he did so. Now the tension is little by little mounting as it goes through these verses because a king who can arbitrarily round up women for his own personal pleasure is not a king that is bound by a moral conscience. And the vast majority of these women get used one time. and the word used, I think, is an appropriate term. So yes, he's bound by the laws of the Persians and the Medes, what few laws that there were there, but ultimately his word is the law of the land. He is a lecherous tyrant, and I find it offensive that people use him as a type of Christ. There is no way that he is a type of Christ. Verses 5 through 7 are actually mistranslated. In fact, the New King James inserts words that aren't in the Hebrew at all. As you can see from the margin, if you look in your margins of your New King James Bibles, If you take out the period at the end of verse 5 and notice that the margin says the first word of verse 6 is literally who, not Kish, it's who, and the first word of verse 7 is he, referring to the same person that the who is referring to, you can see it's Mordecai who is being described throughout. Now this is how it literally reads. In Shushan the Citadel, there was a certain Jew 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 with the captives who had been captured with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away. And he had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter." In other words, it was Mordecai that is being emphasized as being carried into captivity, and it's this same person who adopts Hadassah. And by the way, Esther is not the name of a pagan god, as some people have hypothesized. Look up in most commentaries or any dictionary, and you'll see it's the old Persian word for myrtle, just as Hadassah is the Hebrew word for myrtle. Myrtle Tree, that is. But as to the translation, commentators admit that the marginal rendering that I just read is almost necessitated by the grammar. One commentator says of the New King James Version translation, only by a tortured, forced grammatical construction could this sentence ever be applied to his great-grandfather Kish. Another commentary agrees, saying, most commentaries argue that it is not Mordecai, but Kish who was taken into captivity. This is, however, impossible grammatically. So if it's impossible, why do so many people opt for adding in those words? Well, here's the problem. Their chronology absolutely forces them to do so. You wonder why I am so intent on knowing the chronology of books. Here's the problem with the establishment position. Even if Mordecai was a newborn infant when he was carried into exile, and if this king was Xerxes, as they claim, Mordecai would still be a minimum of 113 years old at the beginning of the story and 125 years old when he is promoted to the position of prime minister. And people say, so what's the big deal? There are other people who are that old. Well, here's the big deal. If you look at verse 7, It says that Esther was a cousin from his own generation. So even if she was 65 years younger than he was, which is not impossible, but it's extremely unlikely. But even if we were to grant that, that she was 65 years younger than he was, she would still be a minimum of 55 years old when she won the beauty pageant. Well, it's not a beauty pageant, right? But 55 years old. So it's the absurdity of her age that makes this tortured translation necessary on the establishment view. Now, on our view of chronology that we've been following on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, there's absolutely no problem in translating it literally. So you can see how your presuppositions can distort even a good translation. New King James is, generally speaking, a very, very good translation. The literal translation reconciles this book with Ezra, Nehemiah, who both claim that Mordecai was a leader who came with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus. And it still enables Esther to be a young gal, quite a young gal. Now this Mordecai was a prophet who not only wrote the book of Esther, but who wrote six Psalms in the Psalter, Psalms 113 to 118, which are the Hallel Psalms, the Hallelujah Psalms, okay? They're amazing set of Psalms. We're gonna sing one of those at the end of the service. So we know that Mordecai has been commissioned by God to be a prophet even before chapter two. So commentators who portray Mordecai as a self-seeking jerk who is just using this adopted orphan as a tool, you know, for his own advancement, I think are definitely wrong. And those who portray Esther as a self-seeking girl who sacrificed her sexual morals to advance her position, I think are absolutely wrong. She was kidnapped against her will, much like Abraham's wife was, and was kidnapped against Mordecai's will, and Mordecai was worried sick about her, as can be seen by verse 11. And every day, Mordecai paced in front of the women's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. D. James Clines, C-L-I-N-E-S, in his commentary says, the narrator effortlessly forecloses any criticism of Mordecai. The three passive verbs were heard, were gathered, and were taken, portray an irresistible series of events. In other words, he is saying that there is nothing that could have been done to resist Darius. And since verse 19 shows that there's another gathering of virgins for the king after she becomes queen, certainly they are not going on a beauty pageant to try to become queen. The king is a kidnapper akin to a modern ISIS leader. Now on the web I'll put up a number of proofs that Mordecai wrote the book of Esther sometime after the 36th year of Darius, and he imposed the Feast of Purim upon every Jew in every generation as an abiding and binding decree. He was treated as a prophet who had the authority to bind the consciences of all Jews, and the only thing in this book that foreshadows Jesus is the Feast of Purim. It was a prophetically authorized feast, and we'll look at that more in a little bit. His being a prophet may explain why he told her not to reveal her identity. She might have been tempted, in order to get better treatment, to say, hey, I am of royal blood. Because she did, after all, descend from King Saul. She was a descendant of a king. But if she had revealed that fact, it would have probably escalated, precipitated a crisis sooner. Because Haman was a descendant of the Agag that was killed under King Saul. Haman was an anti-Semite who hated the people who had killed his ancestors. Now in verses 15 through 20, it says that after trying out all of his concubines, he liked Esther the best and he made her queen. He is a pathetic excuse for a man. But we have a key turn in the plot in verses 21 through 23. This is a forgotten service to save the king's life. Pretty significant event, if you're saving the king's life from an assassination, and yet the king completely forgets about it. Now, it may not seem as important when you're reading the story now, but it becomes a critical part of the second half of the book. He's preventing an assassination. Okay, Esther 2, verse 21. In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigfan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Hesuerus. By the way, it's no surprise. If you study up on what King Darius or Hesuerus was like, no surprise that people would get ticked off with that. He was a brutal tyrant. Anyway, they became furious, sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus, so the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on the gallows, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. King forgot about Mordecai's deed of kindness, but God did not forget, and God's going to weave this forgotten event in a way that shows God made him forget. until an opportune time. So God is sovereign over even king's memories. I mean, this is the kind of amazing God that the book of Esther portrays. Chapter three heats up the conflict. After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And all the king's servants who were within the king's gate bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. Was Mordecai just being an obstinate jerk? And I say, no, no. Haman the Agagite was not a Persian. He was an Amalekite whom God had commanded Israel to declare perpetual war against in Exodus 17 and in Deuteronomy 25. To honor him would be to disobey a direct command of God himself within the law. The Amalekites were the antichrists of the Old Testament. And many commentators have shown that Haman is a kind of antichrist in this book. But Mordecai's conscience issue With bowing to Haman sets up a very tense situation in chapter three. When servants kept pressuring Mordecai to bow and they're asking, why are you not bowing to the king? He has to finally say, look, I'm a Jew. Jews are not allowed to bow before an Amalekite. Okay. It all comes out in verse four and in verse five, Haman is infuriated. But rather than just killing Mordecai, he is determined to kill every Jew throughout the entire empire in verse six. Why would he have such hatred? Now, you could say, well, it's just because he's demon possessed and that probably factored into it. But in his own mind, he is probably thinking these people deserve it. These are the ones who exterminated my ancestors, including my great, great, great granddaddy. Agag, the Amalekite. So in chapter 3, verse 7, Haman has his servants cast pur, which is the Persian word for dice. So they're rolling the dice to determine which month and which day of this year we're going to kill all of the Jews. The plural of pur in Hebrew is purim. That's the name of the festival that this book is going to be establishing for all of the Jews. So very interesting that they name it after the dice. While dice may symbolize chance for pagans, not so for Christians, because God controls even the dice. This is what he says in Proverbs 16, verse 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. In other words, there is no such thing as chance for a Christian. God is sovereign over all. Then Haman goes before the king and slanders a conveniently nameless people who pose a threat to the king. And he promises to pay a huge sum of money into the king's coffers from those people. And he gets the king to make a decree just by trusting his word. How many times do presidents make lousy decisions because they blindly trust their advisors? Verses 8 through 11 say, Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from all other people's, and they do not keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work. to bring it into the king's treasuries. So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadathah, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, the money and the people are given to you to do with them as seems good to you." So a decree is sent throughout the empire to treat the Jews as public enemy, number one, to kill them and then to plunder all of their possessions. It is horrific that genocide can be decided so easily. For the king, it was just a stroke of the pen. He just signs a document. He doesn't even know who they are. Incredible. And later it appears the king didn't even know which people these were. Maybe he thought they were a mafia or some kind of criminal organization, but apparently he doesn't even know who they are. Well, here's the thing. Persecution can come upon God's people today just as easily. Let me give you an example. If the Senate and the President do not overturn the 2019 Equality Act that was passed by Congress this past May, it is guaranteed we will face persecution. It's already starting with states who are doing similar types of things. Now, obviously, our persecution will not be to the same extent that theirs was, but it will be in the same serendipitous way, by a stroke of the pen. In chapter four, many Jews are in fasting, sackcloth and ashes, signs of deep humility before God. When Esther wants Mordecai to put off his ashes and sackcloth, he refuses. And the eunuch who attends to her asks him why. She's uncomfortable with you fasting. She doesn't want to see you sorrowful. And he tells her through the eunuch about this diabolical plan of Haman. He gives her a copy of the decree. And he wants Esther to reveal her identity and intercede before the king. She responds in verse 11, obviously again through the messenger Hathak. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king who has not been called, he has but one law, put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 years. Some marriage that was. 30 years, did I say years? 30 days. Yeah, slip up big time. These 30 days. So Mordecai lets her know, hey, your silence is not going to spare you. You're going to die eventually, because this is a decree to kill all Jews, right? So verses 13 through 14, Mordecai told them to answer Esther. Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews, for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this." And then come the famous words of Esther in verse 16. to go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise, and so I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish." This is interposition. This is disobeying ungodly civil laws for the kingdom of heaven's sake. And it's authorized many, many places in the scripture to engage in interposition. Now, these were huge risks, so she wants prayer. It's obvious to me that the fasting is for the purpose of petitioning God's mercies, but the author leaves out any mention of God, any mention of God's name, and he does so for a purpose. It is to show that God, even though He seems hidden, many times when we're in difficult circumstances, we wonder, where is God? He seems hidden, And yet through his providence his hand is everywhere in every place Now notice mordecai's submission to her command in verse 17 So mordecai went his way and did according to all that esther commanded him though esther submits to mordecai's prophecies He submits to her lawful commands. Okay, they each wear different hats Esther has the hat of being a member of the kingdom of Christ, which means she must submit to the word of God that comes forth from a prophet like Mordecai. She must be in submission to him, but she's also a queen, and he must be in submission to her. Okay, so there's different lines of authority. Now, Mordecai wore the hat of a father, of a prophet, of a person who's subject to the authority of God's word as a citizen in submission to Queen Esther. It is really important that we understand jurisdictional authorities and where the limits and the lines of those authorities line. Pastor Brian Evans told me one time that he has a member of his congregation, when he used to work for Samaritan Ministries, that was his boss. So at work, he was under the authority of his boss. At church, the boss is under his own authority, right? And so when they had conversations, initially it was really awkward because there's different lines of authority here. So what he ended up doing is he's saying in conversations, okay, now I'm wearing my Samaritan ministries hat. And then another time you'd say, now I'm wearing my elder's hat, right? So to the same person, he is both in authority over and he's under authority. Okay. So understanding these lines of jurisdiction, we all have to understand them for ourselves. It is very, very important. Anyway, in chapter 5, Queen Esther invites Haman and the king to a special banquet. But she doesn't say anything at the banquet. You're fully expecting her to reveal this great, dastardly plot. Now whether she just freaks out and thinks, ah, man, I can't do this. Whether she loses nerve or whether she planned to do this from the beginning, we're not told, but certainly in God's plan, the timing was absolutely perfect for her to postpone it another day. So look at verses nine through 14. So Haman went out that day, joyful. Okay, she's invited him to a second banquet, right? I'm gonna reveal something at the second banquet. You both are invited. So it says, Haman went out that day, joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he advanced above the officials and the servants of the king." This guy would be insufferable to live with. Wow, what a prideful guy. Moreover, Haman said, besides, Queen Hester invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared, and tomorrow I am again invited by her along with the king. Yet all this avails me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. Then his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends said to him, Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and And in the morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it, then go merrily with the king to the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made. And chapter 6, which is the heart of the book, shows that the pivot of the story rests on, weirdly, the sleeplessness of two men, the king and Haman. Because the king can't sleep, he has a servant read from the official records, and they just happened to pick the right ones, And likewise, Haman is so anxious to get Mordecai hung that he cannot sleep, so he travels to the palace. You see, God is in this insomnia to make a providential meeting at just the right time. If these two men had not been sleepless on that particular night, none of the reversal in this book could have happened. One commentator shows the brilliance of making two sleepless men to be the pivot point, saying this. By making the pivot point of the story an insignificant event rather than the point of highest dramatic tension, the author is taking the focus away from human action. Had the pivot point of the peripety been at the scene where Esther approaches the king, uninvited, or where Esther confronts Haman, the king and or Esther would have been spotlighted as the actual cause of the reversal. By separating the pivot point of the peripety in Esther from the point of highest dramatic tension, The characters of the story are not spotlighted as the cause of the reversal. This reinforces the message that no one in the story, not even the most powerful person in the empire, is in control of what is about to happen. An unseen power is controlling the reversal of destiny. The Greek translation makes this implicit truth explicit with the statement, the Lord took sleep from the king that night. And so the author is showing that even when God appears to be the most silent, he is right there in the center of the story. The author of this book sees God's hand in everything. His silent providence plays the crucial role, not kings nor kingdoms. Now I have to read, I absolutely have to read the whole of chapter 6 because this reversal that is in chapter 6 is such sweet justice on God's part. That night the king could not sleep, so one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king, and it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, the doorkeepers, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. Then the king said, What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? And the king's servants who attended him said, nothing has been done for him. So the king said, who is in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court. Talk about timing. Had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. The king's servants said to him, Haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, let him come in. So Haman came in, and the king asked him, What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, Whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king is ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, Thus shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then the king said to Haman, Hurry, Take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who sits within the king's gate. Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken. So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city square and proclaimed before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Afterward, Mordecai went back to the king's gate. He's going back to work. It was no big deal for him. Not a prideful man. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him. While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs came and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared." Sweet justice. Okay, what God is doing here is absolutely amazing. Now at the second banquet in chapter 7, Esther tells the king that her life is in jeopardy and the lives of all of her people are in jeopardy. And then she adds, had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss. Now just to show you how clueless this king was about the nature of Haman's decreed genocide, look at verse five. So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, who is he and where is he who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing? He is absolutely clueless. It was his own decree that was endangering the queen. But the connection probably hits him full force in verse six. And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. So Haman was terrified before the king and queen. Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. But Haman stood before Queen Esther pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house? As the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, Look, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king's behalf, is standing at the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him on it. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath Again, the ironies of God's providences are incredible. God is in sovereign control. Now in chapter 8, the king gives Esther the property of Haman, Mordecai gets elevated to Haman's spot, and the ring that had been given to Haman is now given to Mordecai. Esther falls on her knees before the king and asks him to revoke the decree to kill all of her people. And he says, well, I can't. The laws of the Persians and the Medes can never be revoked, but, he tells her and Mordecai, they can write a counter decree, which they do, and the counter decree gives the Jews permission to defend themselves and to kill and annihilate any forces that seek to annihilate them and gives them permission to plunder their possessions. Now, that decree was sent to the farthest corners of the empire by messengers on swift horses. danger to the Jews was empire wide. And when we get to the book of Ezekiel I will likely give my 25 proofs that this empire wide genocide of the Jews was Ezekiel's battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39. I'll just briefly summarize a few of the points. Both passages show a demonic attempt to exterminate God's people. Genesis and Numbers both point out that the Amalekites were descendants of Magog, the son of Japheth. Okay, so they're named after him. The name Haman is mentioned in Ezekiel as being an Agagite, Ezekiel says that the battle would occur before the walls of Jerusalem were finished and while the Jews are still vulnerable. Again, you can see, if you don't get your chronology right, everything falls apart. It is just the perfect timing. Ezekiel's list of nations involved are precisely the nations that Darius ruled over. The conflict is led by a prince, not by the king. That's very, very significant. Ezekiel says that Israel has just recently come back into the land when this happens. It occurs in a time when Israel is divided into tribes. You can't put this off into the future. There are no tribes of Israel left. Talk to any rabbi, they will say nobody knows what tribes. Everything's amalgamated. This is a time when there were still tribes of Israel. And they're fighting with horses, swords, arrows, bows, war clubs, and other wooden instruments. In Esther, the fighting is said to occur in every province, just as it is in Ezekiel, but with a special focus upon Israel. Devastation in Israel. Both passages speak of plunder, but both imply that the plunder was under the ban, just like in the time of conquest. Under the ban, the people could not take it to themselves, so they don't. They devote it to the Lord. OK, both passages indicate that. In both passages, Israel is humbled and drawn into a closer walk with God. In both passages, Israel gains an influence among the nations as a result. Anyway, I'm going to put onto the web 25 proofs that the two passages are referring to the same attempted genocide of the Jews, which actually ends up resulting in 100% massacre of the Amalekites. and any who supported them. The entire army of Gog and Magog was wiped out. And we saw in the book of Revelation that at the end of history, Gog and Magog will be resurrected for one last hurrah, one last fight. But it's no wonder when you look at all of this information that Jerusalem had such a setback in Nehemiah. Remember Nehemiah chapter 1, he's surprised what's going on, that this has still not been repaired. No wonder the partially built walls were torn down again and its gates burned. This was not a minor conflict. This was a planned massacre with a counter offensive. Both sides knew they had to fight to the death. One side or the other was going to win. Both sides had legal grounds for fighting. Why? Laws of the Persians and Medes cannot be reversed. And so it is perfectly legal to kill any Jew in the empire. Perfectly legal and to confiscate their stuff. Both sides are hugely motivated to win. So now that makes sense of some of the tensions that you see in the book of Nehemiah. Now chapter nine records the set date for the massacre planned by Haman. Now in the 12th month, that is the month of Adar on the 13th day, the time came for the king's command and his decree to be executed on the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them. The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm, and no one could withstand them because fear of them fell upon all people. And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king's work Jews because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. For Mordecai was great in the king's palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. For this man Mordecai became increasingly prominent. Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated them." This chapter goes on to say that Haman's sons, all ten of them, are hanged. And you might think, is that just? Well, this is again in fulfillment of Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 25 where God says all Amalekites must be killed. They were under the death penalty of God. God authorized it. This is not on their own. Those two passages portray them as the Antichrists who sought to seize God's throne and annihilate God's people in the book of Exodus. verses 18-19 there is feasting and celebration by the Jews. In verses 20-28 Mordecai prophetically writes a decree that all Jews are to celebrate Purim for two days according to the precise instructions and precepts given by Mordecai. In verse 32 it was written in the book. Which book is being referred to? Now while most commentaries assume it is a book, which is the literal translation of the book of the Chronicles earlier, that it is a book of the Chronicles of the kings of Persia and Media. Some have pointed out that this word is written in a different form than the Chronicles of Persia. As Ominson and Noss point out, since the vowel in the Hebrew text is the equivalent of a definite article, the translation should indicate a definite book, that is, the book. Now, if it is the book that these things are written into, then they're being written into the canon, just like previous books were written directly into the canon. Or if, as some translate it, it should be rendered this book, then it's the book of Esther. The Targum, which was an ancient Jewish commentary on this verse, gives the second interpretation when it says, and by the word of Esther, all of these things relative to Purim were confirmed. And the role was transcribed into this book. It's referring to the book of Esther. And therefore, because it was an inspired Thanksgiving day, Jews faithfully kept that feast from that time forward. Now there are some Christians who think this feast was not authorized by God and Jews should never have celebrated it. This was legalism, this was adding to the law of God. I do not agree with that. Even Jesus, a faithful follower of the Old Testament, kept the Feast of Purim in John chapter 5. Gordon France, who is, wow, he's just written page after page of detailed chronology on this, and Lambert, Dolphin, and E. W. Fulstich have shown that chronologically Purim is the only feast that could possibly have been referred to in John chapter 5. There are numerous proofs of this, but the most obvious one is that the text emphasizes the fact that this feast fell on the Sabbath. Just take Fall Stitch's calendar program, you can check it out for yourself. From 8025 through 8035, there's only one feast that ever fell on a Sabbath, and that was the Feast of Purim, and it fell in 8028 on Purim, which is exactly the year of John chapter five. And there's many, many other proofs of this. So it's very significant. Jesus keeps the Feast of Purim as a faithful Jew. So that brings us, in your outlines, to the Christ of Esther. Luke 24 says that all Old Testament writings, without exception, point to Jesus in some way. Likewise, Acts 3, 21 through 26, says that the Old Testament prophets spoke of the new covenant, quote, times of restoration of all things which God spoke by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Then later Peter says, yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. So this postmillennial vision of all families of the earth being blessed in Christ must be presented in some way in the book of Esther. The question is, Where is Christ found in the book of Esther? Strangely, some writers have ignored the Feast of Purim and have said that Ahasuerus was a type of Jesus Christ loving his wife, his bride, the church, who is Esther. That is just patently ridiculous. Others who have seen the absurd ways in which the evil of Ahasuerus arbitrarily becomes the good of Christ have said that Esther represents Christ interceding for the church. But this leads to so many contradictory and absurd conclusions from various authors. Some people have given up in despair and they say there is nothing that refers to Jesus in the book of Esther. The solution is really easy. Esther has only one type of Jesus and it is found in the Feast of Purim. Now obviously the whole book is vindicating the Feast of Purim, so the book as a whole gives us teaching relative to Christ's kingdom, but it does so through the lens of that feast. Colossians says of the Old Testament feast days that they are, quote, a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ, Colossians 2.17. Now since the writings of Mordecai are mentioned seven times in chapter 9, And since they were inspired, and he, quote, wrote with full authority, chapter 9, verse 29, the Feast of Purim had the full authority of God's revelation. And people say, but wait a minute, Feast of Purim was not in the book of Pentateuch, and you cannot add any laws to the law of God in the Pentateuch. That's actually not the case. Just as God has hidden himself, and yet is fully present in the book of Esther. The four essential commands of Purim are hidden and yet present in the Pentateuch. In fact, the Pentateuch explicitly prophesied exactly this destruction of Amalek in three passages, destruction of Amalek, and gave a command to never forget that destruction. The Feast of Purim was the means by which that command in the Pentateuch, in numbers, was fulfilled. And so this was not something new that was unanticipated in the Pentateuch. Just as the law of God prophetically foreshadowed, prophetically predicted the new covenant change of the Sabbath from seventh day to first day, It also prophetically foreshadowed or anticipated Purim. So let me outline the meaning of the biblical Feast of Purim. First of all, there are a number of ways in which its place in redemptive history foreshadows Christ's new covenant kingdom. It came during a time of exile and unbelief. As I've gone through Ezra and Nehemiah, I've tried to connect it with Esther and with the post-exilic prophets, all of whom spoke and rebuked against Israel's compromises, refusal to obey the clear command to flee Babylon. And just as Israel of today is mostly in exile and in unbelief, and just as most Jews who have returned to the land are ungodly, During the period leading up to this Feast of Purim, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi blasted both the exiled Jews and the Jews who had returned, and let me list the things they blasted them for, for unbelief, for robbing God, for not building the Temple, for oppressing fellow Jews, for giving polluted offerings, for drunkenness, corrupt priests, divorce, intermarriage with pagans, etc. It's almost like the modern state of Israel. under God's judgment, even though we know that there were true believers in Israel. So that's the first point of connection. And it really does parallel rather well. Second, Romans 11 points out that Israel's fall and being cast away as a nation brought riches to the Gentiles. And that certainly happened in the tithe. In the years leading up to this point, Israel's exile in Babylon brought many Gentiles into the true faith, including Nebuchadnezzar. and Darius the Mede, the very first Darius. And so it's a beautiful foreshadowing of the times of the Gentiles. Third, Romans 11 says that at some point God will turn away ungodliness from Israel itself. Now he did that in the type as well. He did it through the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah and the post-exilic prophets, and he did it in Babylon through this attempted genocide. Romans 11 predicts that God will do that by saving the nation of Israel in the future. He will turn away ungodliness from Israel. So there is some entity called Israel that is ungodly, not the church, that is ungodly, and God will put off their ungodliness. Fourth, Romans 11 says, if they're being cast away, brought riches to the world, how much more will their acceptance bring but riches to the Gentiles? The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, they're all speaking of revival in their own day. That happens in Esther 8 verse 17, which says, And in every province and city, wherever the king's command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews because fear of the Jews fell upon them." Notice that this is not purely ethnic. If Gentiles can become Jews, then he's using Jew in a spiritual sense, right? It's true faith, not merely ethnicity. So we're not talking about ethnicity having a special place in God's program, nor are we talking about God having two peoples. He has only one people, which is the church, But this foreshadows unbelieving nations, all nations, being added to the church. And note the spiritual joy of the Jews and the conversion of many Gentiles. I think this too foreshadows something in our future. But even the order and the arrangement of each of these feasts was prophetic. This was the last feast in the Hebrew calendar, occurring in the last month of their year. So it's an eschatological feast. In our Revelation studies, we saw that the order of the feasts showcases a historical order of God's plan for the New Covenant. Let me just go through them. Feast of Dedication points to the birth of Christ, you know, the incarnation. Feast of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits points to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Feast of Pentecost points to Pentecost, pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Feast of Trumpets points to the war against Jerusalem in 8066 in the beginning of the times of the Gentiles. Yom Kippur points to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Tabernacles points to the exile of the Jews around the world. That's why they're living in tents, right, and booths. And it speaks of the ingathering of multitudes from among the Gentiles. This is one of the reasons why the Festival of Tabernacles had 70 sacrifices of bulls. Seventy bulls sacrificed for what? The 70 nations of the world. Consistently in the Old Testament, The festival of tabernacles points to the times that we live in, the times of the Gentiles. So that makes Purim, the last feast, prophesy something that is still future to us. No longer will Israel be in tabernacles, in other words, in exile. Now, some people think it's the last event in history, but people like myself say no. I agree with John Murray that it points to a point in history when the nation of Israel will become saved and it's going to result in a spectacular change in world history almost like life from the dead. There will be reformation of Israel and the nations and it's during the time that Purim foreshadows that the Great Commission will be completely fulfilled, all nations will be discipled, nations will obey all things that Christ commanded, the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the ocean beds, and there will be rejoicing and peace. And so the book of Esther indicates by typology, by shadow, not only that many Gentiles become believers, but in chapter 9, verse 3, it says, and all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king's work, helped the Jews because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. Now, we don't know if the Lord's going to have some Jew in power who will do something similar for the Jews in the future. All we know is that somehow, sometime, the nation of Israel, whatever their genetic ethnicity might be, I'm not going to get into that, a nation called Israel will be saved, will prosper, and will bring even greater benefit to the Gentiles. Isaiah 19, I don't think you can argue with this passage, Isaiah 19 predicts a time when Israel, Egypt, and Assyria will all be saved nations. And that's the imagery of the last chapter of Esther, chapter 10. And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea. Now all of the acts of his power and his might and the count of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen." We're talking about the greatest revival in the Old Testament being just a tiny, faint, feeble foreshadowing of a much, much greater reformation in the future. 1 Corinthians 15 says that Christ must reign until every enemy is put under his feet, including thrones, dominions, nations, people, groups. This is what the church has been longing for for many, many centuries, praying for. How will it be brought about? Well, I think this book gives us hints as to how it will be brought about. Perhaps the Lord will stir up the church by means of persecution and danger. We shouldn't be surprised by that. It's one of the tools that God uses. Perhaps the Lord will stir up the church to prayer and fasting, just like He did in Esther 4. Historically, God has moved only after He has stirred up the church to prayer and fasting, and that's where this book begins. The Jews were unfaithful, it looked like they were going to be wiped out, but through prayer and fasting, God brought victory. Thirdly, perhaps reformation will happen when the world recognizes that the church is truly different. In chapter 3, verse 8, Haman complains, there is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from all other people's. Okay, this speaks of antithesis. Antithesis, where God's laws make us different from all other people's. Here's the sad thing. Modern church has cast off God's law. They're antinomian. And Peter says, no, we're to be a peculiar people. We're to stand out. We're not to blend in. The only way that can happen is if we're a people who adhere to God's laws. And unfortunately, until the church repents and changes that, I think there's no reformation that's going to be happening. We don't have much of a distinction from the world. So pray that antithesis would happen. Fourth, perhaps it will happen when church leaders stop building their own kingdoms defending their own turf, seeking their own comfort, and instead, like Mordecai and Esther, they are passionate about the kingdom as a whole. Chapters 4, 8, and 9 all model a passion for the kingdom on the part of Esther and Mordecai. They are willing to lay down their lives for God's kingdom. Fifth, perhaps it will happen when believers begin to uphold biblical family values. Do you instill the kind of obedience in your children that Mordecai did in Esther? Chapter 2, verse 20 says, Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him. When she was a child in his home, she valued his authority. And on Mordecai's part, he showed such concern for Esther, it says he paced in front of the women's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. He took the time to care. But there must be a return to biblical values for the family if we are to see full reformation happening in society. Another thing that we need is people who have faith to believe in the face of attack. Already in chapter 8, verse 16, the Jews rejoiced in victory even though the genocide bill had not been revoked. The irrevocable nature of the decree did not make them lose faith. One of the things that I think has hindered revival and reformation in our day is the virus of last day's madness where people give up. They think there's no hope for us. Everything's going to get worse and there can be no victory. And so they don't have the faith to expect great things from God or to attempt great things for him. But think about their condition back then. Things could not have looked darker for those Jews. If anyone had a reason for pessimism, it would have been them, and yet they were united in faith that God would give them the victory just as he had promised. Well, has he not promised us the same victory? Can you believe Jesus when he says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it? Can you believe that it's hell that's cowering behind gates and it's the church that's battering down those gates? We've got to have our minds filled with these kinds of scriptures if we're going to have an overcoming faith. And we've got to fill the minds of our friends and our relatives with those kinds of scriptures if we're going to replace their discouragement with hope. Seventh, perhaps it will happen when the church becomes a church of action and not just talk. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and we need less soft Christians and more Christians who are willing to fight and to sweat and to risk getting hurt and get out there in the action like the Jews did in chapter 9. Eighth, we need to be a church with integrity that stands fast even when it hurts. You know what? It took enormous courage and integrity for Mordecai to obey God's command to never honor an Amalekite. It could have cost him his job. It could have cost him his life, but he had integrity and steadfastness. It took integrity for Nehemiah during the following years to boldly resist leaders and others who had intermarried with pagans. It took integrity on his part to say, oh man, maybe the Sabbath is not that big of a deal, but no. He resisted their lawlessness. And we need men and women who will stand up against the false philosophies of today and will not give in. Ninth, perhaps reformation will happen when we have leaders like Mordecai who will challenge us to be willing to die for Christ. Hey, we're all going to die sometime. But wouldn't it be a shame if we die before we have achieved anything for eternity? I think that would be the shame. Not that we die. We're all going to die. but that we have died before we have achieved anything of significance for eternity. Mordecai challenged Esther to talk to the king, even if it meant her death. He challenged the Jews to defend themselves with boldness. And we've already seen, he modeled that kind of courage himself. Tenth, perhaps reformation will happen when believers obey Mordecai and pick up their cross to follow Christ, knowing it might mean their death, when they truly see themselves as expendable for God. Esther's words, if I perish, I perish, need to be our words when we think about our involvement in reformation. Not if I feel comfortable, not if it's convenient for my schedule. If we're to see reformation of society in our lifetime, we need more people who will take risks and be willing to lose all so that they can gain all for Christ. That's what I want from my life. And I hope it's what you want for your life. Let's be out and out for Jesus and pray that His kingdom would come in power and glory. And then finally, perhaps reformation will happen when we are not ashamed of Christ, but like Mordecai and Esther, we are bold for the cause of Christ. I'm going to have to skip over some of my notes and just summarize here. Who wrote the book? I already told you, Mordecai. providence, God's providence all through there. And by the way, I'll put up on the web showing where God hid His name in a remarkable way four places in this book. But it is hidden, and I think it displays His providence in a remarkable way. Key word, we've looked at that, Purim. verse emphasizes the flip side of the coin from sovereignty, it is human responsibility. Esther 4.14 is the key verse, for if you remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this. Notice that Mordecai is absolutely convinced of God's superintending providence. He He says, even if you're not responsible, God's providence is going to come through on our behalf. But who knows whether you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this, God has placed us here for a purpose. And it's imperative that we live out that purpose, know that purpose and have lives with meaning. The key phrase in the whole book is a chapter eight, verse 17. Then many of the people of the land became Jews. So God was building his church then just as he is today. Key chapter is chapter 8, the chapter that leads to the evangelization of the pagans. And all of these keys tie in with the fact that the book was written to institute Purim in obedience to a prophecy in God's law. And I want to end with three additional admonitions. You've got the story of Esther. Let me give you three final admonitions. First, when you read the book of Esther, thank God for his providential control, not just back then. But thank God for His providential control in every detail of your life, including when you can't sleep at night, like happens to me quite frequently. I thank God. Okay, Lord, is this my time for prayer? Thank God that He controls even things like rolling of the dice in the Monopoly game that you're playing that makes you lose. Thank God, you know, that there is a conflict that you are at your wit's end and you don't know how to resolve this. God is in there and He wants you to look to Him for meaning and perhaps His goal is to change you, not to change your circumstance. Or maybe once He's changed you, He will change your circumstance. Second, don't let your belief in providence make you avoid responsibility. Take your responsibility seriously. And third, Not everybody can be an Esther or a Mordecai. Be yourself. Everybody wears a different hat. And since you don't wear their hat, just take your responsibilities that God has given to you. And as you do so, may God prosper the work of your hands. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word and the challenges that are in it, the comforts that are in it. And we thank you that you raised up many, many examples from history past of people who were not perfect and yet, by faith, overcame the world. And I pray that you would give us a world-conquering faith so that in whatever sphere of life, whatever area of responsibility you have given to us, we would do it with hope, with joy, with faith, and with love as unto you. And I pray this in Jesus' name.