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An-Evil-Interlude-Part-1 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Most people understand that suffering is part of the human condition,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: but even so, we're often surprised and even shocked when
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  Speaker 1: the plot of our life takes an unexpected turn and
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  Speaker 1: we're forced to deal with an unsavory twist we never
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: saw coming. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall points
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to a young adopted woman who was rescued by the King.
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  Speaker 1: Her story was unfolding like a fairy tale until now.
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  Speaker 1: Chuck begins by reading the Bible passage for Us. In
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: his continuing study on the Life of Esther, he titled
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  Speaker 1: today's message an evil interlude.
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  Speaker 2: If you were to look up the word life in
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  Speaker 2: Heaven's thesaurus, one of the first synonyms you would find
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  Speaker 2: would be pain. That's right, pain. You see, life is
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  Speaker 2: filled with sharp corners and hard floors and many falls.
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  Speaker 2: Try as we might to cushion ourselves from the bumps
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  Speaker 2: and brace ourselves for the spills. Pain is inevitable and inescapable.
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  Speaker 2: He just comes with the territory, along with troubles and hardships,
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  Speaker 2: and I might add enemies who seek to do us harm.
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  Speaker 2: All of this brings us to Ester, an unspoiled flower
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  Speaker 2: in the King of Persia's garden. Lurking in the dark, however,
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  Speaker 2: are enemies of the King and of Ester. We pick
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  Speaker 2: up the story where two of the king's own men
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  Speaker 2: are plotting from the shadowy recesses of their evil hearts.
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  Speaker 2: I want you to listen closely today as I read
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  Speaker 2: their story, and I'll be reading from chapter two, verse
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  Speaker 2: twenty one through parts of chapter three in the Book
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  Speaker 2: of Esther. Esther two twenty one begins in those days,
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  Speaker 2: while Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Big Fan
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  Speaker 2: and Terrish, two of the King's officials from those who
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  Speaker 2: guarded the door, became angry and sought to lay hands
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  Speaker 2: on King Azuaris. But the plot became known to Mordecai
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  Speaker 2: and he told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the King
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  Speaker 2: in Mordecai's name. Now, when the plot was investigated and
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  Speaker 2: found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows,
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  Speaker 2: and it was written in the book of the Chronicles
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  Speaker 2: in the King's Presence. Three introduces an even more sinister enemy.
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  Speaker 2: After these events, King of Hajuwaras promoted Haman, the son
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  Speaker 2: of Hamadatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his
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  Speaker 2: authority over all the princes who were with him, all
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  Speaker 2: the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed
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  Speaker 2: down and paid homage to Haman, for so the king
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  Speaker 2: had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai neither bowed down nor
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  Speaker 2: paid homage. Now dropped down with me.
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  Speaker 3: To verse eight.
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  Speaker 2: Then Hayman said to King of hazuwaras there is a
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  Speaker 2: certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all
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  Speaker 2: the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from
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  Speaker 2: those of all other people, and they do not deserve
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  Speaker 2: the king's laws. So it is not in the King's
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  Speaker 2: interest to let them remain. If it is pleasing to
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  Speaker 2: the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed,
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  Speaker 2: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into
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  Speaker 2: the hands of those who carry on the King's business,
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  Speaker 2: to put into the king's treasuries. Then the king took
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  Speaker 2: his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman,
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  Speaker 2: the son of Hahmedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
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  Speaker 2: The king said to Haman, the silver is yours, and
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  Speaker 2: the people also, to do with as you please.
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  Speaker 1: You're listening to insight for living to dig deeper into
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the Book of Esther on your own. Be sure to
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: purchase our Searching the Scripture's Bible Study workbook by going
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to insight dot org slash offer Chuck title today's message
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  Speaker 1: an evil interlude.
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  Speaker 3: Life and pain are synonymous. You cannot have one without
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  Speaker 3: the other. If you expect to exist on this earth
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  Speaker 3: without pain, you are hoping for a fantasy. We cannot
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  Speaker 3: escape it. We cannot get away from a month without it.
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  Speaker 3: We must learn how to live through it. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: the goal in life is not to get away from
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  Speaker 3: the pain of it. It is to learn the lessons
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  Speaker 3: pain can teach us. As one man put it, pain
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  Speaker 3: is inevitable, misery is optional. You cannot get away from
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  Speaker 3: the pain, but you can find ways to live above
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  Speaker 3: the level of misery, and indeed we must. As far
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  Speaker 3: back as the seventeenth century, the New England Primer included
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  Speaker 3: these words, our days begin with trouble. Here our life
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  Speaker 3: is but a span, and cruel death is always near.
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  Speaker 3: How frail a thing is man. Even though those words
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  Speaker 3: were written over three centuries ago, they are not original
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  Speaker 3: to the Primmer. They find their source in an ancient book.
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  Speaker 3: One of the oldest books of the Bible, the Book
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  Speaker 3: of Job. You have a copy of the Scriptures with you,
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  Speaker 3: turned to the fourteenth chapter, and all you will need
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  Speaker 3: to see is the first verse. It says, in another
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  Speaker 3: kind of poetry, a poetry that doesn't rhyme, the same
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  Speaker 3: thing we just heard from the New England Primmer back
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  Speaker 3: in the seventeenth century. This man writes, and he knew
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  Speaker 3: of what he wrote. Man who is born of a
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  Speaker 3: woman is short lived and full of turmoil. The Living
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  Speaker 3: Bible paraphrases this, How frail is man, how few his days,
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  Speaker 3: how full of trouble, how frail, how few, how full?
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  Speaker 3: Job says elsewhere, man is born for trouble as the
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  Speaker 3: sparks fly upward, the same thought, let's stop trying to
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  Speaker 3: find an escape from pain and hardship and affliction and suffering. Rather,
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  Speaker 3: let's learn from these things, as old Ben Franklin used
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  Speaker 3: to teach those things that hurt instruct stop for a
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  Speaker 3: moment and feel with me the tapestry of life, And
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  Speaker 3: feel the underside where all the knots and those ugly
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  Speaker 3: threads are. Feel the suffering that is sort of woven
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  Speaker 3: through this fabric. Feel, for example, the natural world. We
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  Speaker 3: have lived through hurricanes in this great land of ours.
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  Speaker 3: I have a friend living in North Carolina, about twenty
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  Speaker 3: miles from where the center of the storm hit. He said,
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  Speaker 3: on his brother's acreage. No less than fifteen hundred trees
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  Speaker 3: were destroyed, great great oaks, cracked in two, split uprooted,
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  Speaker 3: thrown aside like pieces of cardboard. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, mudslides,
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  Speaker 3: freezing blizzards, awful killing droughts that strike our land for
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  Speaker 3: months and sometime years at a time. There are physical afflictions,
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  Speaker 3: birth defects. There are disabilities and handicaps. There are horrible
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  Speaker 3: accidents that lead to debilitating injuries, and we've all grown
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  Speaker 3: through them. There are burns, diseases that bring death. Not
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  Speaker 3: a one of us today would be left out. If
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  Speaker 3: I were to ask you to name a person you
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  Speaker 3: know dying of a terminal disease, we all could name one,
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  Speaker 3: and many of us could name a dozen. Emotional trauma.
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  Speaker 3: I think sometime we overlook this, the horrors of the
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  Speaker 3: black hole of depression and discouragement and disappointment, danger, the
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  Speaker 3: whole problem of neuroses and psychoses and self image struggles,
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  Speaker 3: and a host of related problems that keep eighty percent
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  Speaker 3: of our hospitals full. Think of that and the domestic
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  Speaker 3: world of disease. A report that came out from the
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  Speaker 3: Rhode Island University several years ago said, the only place
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  Speaker 3: a little less dangerous to live than riots in a
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  Speaker 3: war is the American home. Think of that, riots in
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  Speaker 3: war worst place. But just to cut above the American home.
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  Speaker 3: Did you watch the docu drama on television of the
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  Speaker 3: Battered Wife as she survived the horrors of her crazed
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  Speaker 3: husband who finally brought out all of his emotions in
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  Speaker 3: multiple stabbings, stomping her virtually to death. She lives today
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  Speaker 3: with partial use of her limbs. Happened in America, happened
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  Speaker 3: in Connecticut, in the Land of the Free, And the
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  Speaker 3: docu drama concluded every fifteen seconds, there are those kind
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  Speaker 3: of domestic conflicts. It's inescapable. People don't live happily ever after,
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  Speaker 3: not even Cinderella. I'm convinced in my heart she I
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  Speaker 3: think she probably got to be a fat, little, frumpy
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  Speaker 3: old woman. She didn't live happily ever after. She got
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  Speaker 3: married a frail is man. How few his days, how
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  Speaker 3: full of trouble. I could spend fifteen minutes and more
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  Speaker 3: delineating specific examples that life is synonymous with pain. You
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  Speaker 3: can't get away from it now. The only way we
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  Speaker 3: can learn from such experiences is to know the theological
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  Speaker 3: root of the problem. Listen to this. It is the
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  Speaker 3: presence of evil, plain and simple. Though that may sound simplistic,
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  Speaker 3: it is the presents of evil. Yes, I believe that
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  Speaker 3: Adam and Eve would have lived forever, and not only
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  Speaker 3: lived forever, but would have lived disease free had they
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  Speaker 3: not sinned. But with the coming of sin came the
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  Speaker 3: presence of suffering. God cursed the woman with pain at childbirth.
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  Speaker 3: He cursed the man with thorns and thistles in his work,
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  Speaker 3: with the sweat of his brow, with struggles with people,
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  Speaker 3: with relational problems, with personal problems. He would earn a living,
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  Speaker 3: and he would do it with gritted teeth. How pleasant
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  Speaker 3: the garden was before sin invaded, like the shores of
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  Speaker 3: Alaska gathering black oil. It ruined it. And with the
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  Speaker 3: presence of sin has come the presence of sorrow and
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  Speaker 3: pain and death in the shadows. You may today feel
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  Speaker 3: that life is pretty well handled. You finally got a
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  Speaker 3: way to put it together. You're fairly well cared for,
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  Speaker 3: pretty healthy. You're aging, but you're not sick. You have
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  Speaker 3: family relationships that are fairly well healed. And you are
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  Speaker 3: right now just about to sit back on your haunches
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  Speaker 3: and think, I think I can make it through the
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  Speaker 3: rest of my days. Don't count on it, aren't you?
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  Speaker 3: Glad you came today? You will not leave on cloud nine.
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  Speaker 3: You will leave riveted to planet Earth when I'm through.
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  Speaker 3: Ours is an evil society, and it's not because the
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  Speaker 3: other guy is wrong. It's because I, you and I
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  Speaker 3: are wrong, and as a result, we live in the
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  Speaker 3: backwash of it. It fractures relationships, it paralyzes great golds
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  Speaker 3: and dreams, and it anchors us like nothing else, This
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  Speaker 3: presence of evil, even in the lovely, almost idyllic story
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  Speaker 3: of Esther. Here it is again, How dare it interrupt
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  Speaker 3: this wonderful story. We finally got this hometown girl, queen
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  Speaker 3: of Persia. We finally applaud the placing of the crown
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  Speaker 3: on her head. We finally have a mate for King
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  Speaker 3: a Haasuaris. Finally things are going to turn out right.
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  Speaker 3: Mordechai's pleased, Esther's thrilled, the nation rejoices, Hasuaras is delighted.
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  Speaker 3: But there comes that evil interlude, and it comes time
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  Speaker 3: after time after time. It appears rather inauspiciously at the
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  Speaker 3: beginning of verse twenty one, In those days, esther two one,
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  Speaker 3: in what days, in days when they were having banquets,
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  Speaker 3: when they were rejoicing, when everybody seemed so satisfied and
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  Speaker 3: pleased and at peace with one another, in those days,
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  Speaker 3: In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate,
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  Speaker 3: big Fan and Teresh, two of the king's officials from
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  Speaker 3: those who guarded the door, became angry and sought to
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  Speaker 3: lay hands on King of Hazu Earth. Isn't that the
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  Speaker 3: way it is? I mean, why couldn't they have just
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  Speaker 3: forgiven the king? Why couldn't they have shrugged off the
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  Speaker 3: fact that he did something or said something that ticked
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  Speaker 3: them off. Why couldn't Big Fan it said to Terry Ish, Oh,
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  Speaker 3: don't let it bother you. The guy's got a lot
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  Speaker 3: on his mind. Whatever it was, it wasn't worth a conspiracy,
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  Speaker 3: it wasn't worth a planned assassination. But that's the way
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  Speaker 3: he is. When it isn't checked, it grows, and when
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  Speaker 3: it grows, it leads ultimately to rage and finally murder.
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  Speaker 3: It isn't their problem, it is our problem. I repeat.
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  Speaker 3: We don't cluck our tongues at two unknown names out
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  Speaker 3: of the book of Esther. We shake our heads at ourselves,
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  Speaker 3: because when those kind of things grow, they make us
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  Speaker 3: into people of conspiracy, myself certainly included. Their imaginations got
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  Speaker 3: the best of them, and before long their anger led
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  Speaker 3: to a plan, and the plan of all things was
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  Speaker 3: to kill the king. The plot became known to Mordecai,
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  Speaker 3: and he told the Queen, and Esther informed the King
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  Speaker 3: in Mordecai's name. Now, when the plot was investigated and
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  Speaker 3: found to be so, they were both hanged on a gallows,
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  Speaker 3: and it was written in the book of Chronicles in
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  Speaker 3: the King's presence in the chapter, but not end of
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  Speaker 3: that particular plot. Just keep it on the back burner.
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  Speaker 3: We'll come back to it later on in our study
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  Speaker 3: of Esther in days ahead. But remember now, it is
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  Speaker 3: because they yielded to evil imaginations. It is because man
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  Speaker 3: is born for trouble. As the sparks fly upward, that
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  Speaker 3: these two unknowns got themselves involved in a plot that
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  Speaker 3: finally resulted in their lives being taken. I don't want
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  Speaker 3: us to study this section of scripture and the chapter
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  Speaker 3: that follows thinking how wicked they were in the days
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  Speaker 3: of Persia. I want us to remember that latent within
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  Speaker 3: every heart are thoughts of murder and rape, and greed
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  Speaker 3: and abuse, the seeming ugly side of life. You and
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  Speaker 3: I have it to the maximum and worried not for
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  Speaker 3: the power of the living God, it would be true
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  Speaker 3: of every one of us, and we would finally kill
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  Speaker 3: ourselves off this planet. You feel like sort of slapping
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  Speaker 3: your hands together and saying, good, we took care of
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  Speaker 3: that little evil interlude. That's great. The sadness is over
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  Speaker 3: the heartbreak those two bodies hanging on the gallows. That
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  Speaker 3: was a reminder for people not to do such a thing.
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  Speaker 3: You won't get away with it. Well, you ain't seen
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  Speaker 3: nothing yet. The third chapter is the story of a
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  Speaker 3: planned extermination of a race, again because a man wouldn't forgive,
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  Speaker 3: and wouldn't forget a long standing grudge follow along after
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  Speaker 3: these events. Isn't that interesting how these sections and how
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  Speaker 3: these chapters tie together in rather innocuous ways. That's the
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  Speaker 3: way it is in life. Days don't begin with a
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  Speaker 3: great announcement from heaven. Today will bring trouble, bad trouble.
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  Speaker 3: The morning begins like every other morning. You have no
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  Speaker 3: idea it's coming, and out of the blue, it strikes,
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  Speaker 3: maybe from yourself or from someone else, and you find
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  Speaker 3: yourself in the midst of this ancient struggle with wrong.
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  Speaker 3: After these things, the king promoted Haman and advanced him
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  Speaker 3: and established his authority over all the princes who were
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  Speaker 3: with him. That's not fair. Now, I want to vote
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  Speaker 3: for Mordecai. I mean, Mordecai is the one who saved
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  Speaker 3: the King's life, right, Mordecai is the one who told Esther,
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  Speaker 3: who told the king, and justice finding its way to
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  Speaker 3: these two men who were leading a conspiracy Hamand didn't
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  Speaker 3: do that. We got to tell you life's not only sorrowful,
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  Speaker 3: it's not fair. And you are thinking right now that
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  Speaker 3: you will be promoted because you have worked the hardest,
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  Speaker 3: You have come up with the big ideas. You are
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  Speaker 3: the one that's done the most for your boss. Therefore,
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  Speaker 3: it's only right that you be given that special position
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  Speaker 3: that you've been looking for. Well, rot's a ruck. It
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  Speaker 3: probably won't happen because life isn't fair. Why because of evil.
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  Speaker 3: When there's righteousness, there's justice. But when evil lurks in
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  Speaker 3: her heart, there is injustice. You're going to see it
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  Speaker 3: in front of your own eyes. Hayman, of all people
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  Speaker 3: is advanced, is established, is promoted. And on top of that,
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  Speaker 3: the king's servants verse two, who were at the king's gates,
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  Speaker 3: bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for so the
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  Speaker 3: king had commanded concerning him. Mordecai neither bowed down nor
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  Speaker 3: paid homage. You say, aha, he had a bad attitude. Wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Mordecai was a Jew. It was against the deepest section
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  Speaker 3: of his faith to do such a thing. He wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: bow down and pay homage to anyone. Verse three. He's
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  Speaker 3: asked about why he wouldn't cooperate. He has this independent
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  Speaker 3: devotion to his God, and it's so surprising. The king's servants,
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  Speaker 3: who were at the king's gates, said to Mordecai, why
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  Speaker 3: are you transgressing the king's command. It was when they
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  Speaker 3: had spoken daily to him he would not listen to them.
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  Speaker 3: That they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's reason would stand,
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  Speaker 3: For he had told them that that he was a
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  Speaker 3: Jew Ah. Remember that. Believe me, Hayman will take notice
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  Speaker 3: of it. When Haman saw that Mordecai neither bowed down
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  Speaker 3: nor paid homage to him, Haymon was filled with rage,
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  Speaker 3: and he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for
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  Speaker 3: they had told him who the people of Mordecai were. Therefore,
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  Speaker 3: Haymon decided to forget it wrong. Haymon sought to destroy
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  Speaker 3: all the Jews. Wait a minute, now, that's called far enough.
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  Speaker 3: Why in the world would one guy's refusal to bow
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  Speaker 3: down to another guy cause this guy in authority to
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  Speaker 3: want to kill all the Jews. Well, it goes back
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  Speaker 3: to an old grudge. See I purposely left out mentioning
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  Speaker 3: his genealogy up in verse one. Go back to that verse,
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  Speaker 3: as you wears, was promoted Haman, the son of Hamidapha,
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  Speaker 3: the Agagite. Oh no, not the Aga. If you know
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  Speaker 3: your history, you know that way back. Tucked away in
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: the pots and pan section of First Samuel is an
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  Speaker 3: interesting story about a king named Saul who is told
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  Speaker 3: by a prophet named Samuel to go and to kill
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  Speaker 3: the Amalekites, the lifelong enemy of the Jews, and to
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  Speaker 3: make sure that he wipes them out. He leaves nothing standing.
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  Speaker 3: Saul goes politician that he is, and he saves the
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  Speaker 3: best of the sheep, and he saves the king. Agag
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  Speaker 3: A gag Aga guy, h That's exactly what I thought
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  Speaker 3: when I read that. And sure enough, this man is
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  Speaker 3: related to the king whom Saul didn't kill. You say, well,
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  Speaker 3: why would he be filled with hatred toward all the
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  Speaker 3: Jews if Saul didn't kill that a Malachi? Well, the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the story says Samuel came and confronted Saul
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  Speaker 3: for his disobedience, and after Saul fiddled around and rationalized,
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  Speaker 3: he finally confessed that he had done what is wrong.
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  Speaker 3: And Samuel rolled up his sleeves and cut a gag
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  Speaker 3: into little pieces. Now that has a way of lingering
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  Speaker 3: in the minds of the people of a Gag as
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  Speaker 3: time passes. They hated the Jews. How dare Samuel do
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: that to a gag especially if a gag is your
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  Speaker 3: great great great great grandfather. He has been nursing a
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  Speaker 3: grudge which has been taught him since childhood.
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  Speaker 1: If you hold a grudge long enough, it becomes a monster.
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  Speaker 1: That's what chucks Moundall has shown us today. Hayman's hatred
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: wasn't born in a moment. It was inherited, cultivated, and
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  Speaker 1: carried across generations until it exploded into a plot to
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  Speaker 1: annihilate an entire people. Stay with us because Chuck has
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: a lot more to say about this epic showdown. You're
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  Speaker 1: listening to Insight for Living. This is the fourth message
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  Speaker 1: in a twelve part series called Esther a Woman of
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  Speaker 1: Strength and Dignity. We hope this glimpse of Esther has
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  Speaker 1: stirred your desire to dive deeper into her remarkable story.
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  Speaker 1: If so, our Searching the Scripture's Bible Study workbook was
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: made exactly for that. It'll move you from simply hearing
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  Speaker 1: Chuck's teaching to uncovering truth on your own. This is
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  Speaker 1: your study, your encounter with Scripture. To purchase the Searching
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the Scripture's Bible Study Workbook for Ester, call eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: seven seven to two eighty eight eighty eight. Today we
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  Speaker 1: met the villain in Esther's story. Hayman wasn't just cruel.
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  Speaker 1: He was calculating, politically connected, and determined to wipe out
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  Speaker 1: an entire people. Esther knew it. She also knew that
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  Speaker 1: speaking up could cost her everything, including her life. What
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  Speaker 1: she did next has echoed across twenty five centuries. In
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  Speaker 1: his book on Esther, Chucks Wendall pulls back the curtain
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  Speaker 1: on one of Scripture's most rivening confrontations, where Pallas, intrigue,
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  Speaker 1: personal courage, and the quiet sovereignty of God collide in
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  Speaker 1: ways that will take your breath away. This is a
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  Speaker 1: story you won't want to rush through. To purchase Chuck's
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  Speaker 1: book on Esther, a Woman of Strength and Dignity, call
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  Speaker 1: empowers us to share Chucks Wendall's teaching every day on
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  Speaker 1: to Insight dot org slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting
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  Speaker 1: you to join us when Chucks Wendall continues his study
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  Speaker 1: of Queen Esther Monday on Insight for Living the preceding
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  Speaker 1: message An Evil Interlude, was copyrighted in nineteen eighty nine,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, nineteen ninety seven, two thousand and five, twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: and twenty twenty six, and the sound recording was copyrighted
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All
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  Speaker 1: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
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  Speaker 1: use is strictly prohibited m