Latest / Prophecy Watchers / God's Hidden Hand | The Incredible Story of Esther (Esther 2) | Matt Freeman

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God's Hidden Hand | The Incredible Story of Esther (Esther 2) | Matt Freeman · Prophecy Watchers

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Speaker 1: So before we go dive into God's word, let's pray.
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Speaker 1: Let's ask him to teach us this morning. Father, we
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Speaker 1: thank you for this time together. And Lord, we just
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Speaker 1: pray that you would be with us as we open
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Speaker 1: up Esther chapter two. And God, we thank you so
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Speaker 1: much for preserving this book, this chapter, the book of Esther,
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Speaker 1: the entirety of your word for thousands of years for
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Speaker 1: us as your people today. Lord, we thank you from
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Speaker 1: Romans 15, 4, that all of these things that were
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Speaker 1: written before time were written for our learning. And God,
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Speaker 1: we thank you that there is something for us to
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Speaker 1: glean today from every single page of the Bible. And
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Speaker 1: we pray that you'd continue to teach us and be
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Speaker 1: with us as we open up this incredible book, Father,
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Speaker 1: where you are on every single page, even though it
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Speaker 1: may be hidden from plain view. So show us this morning, Father,
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Speaker 1: Teach us and we just give you all of the
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Speaker 1: praise and the honor for it, Lord, in Jesus's name. Amen.
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Speaker 1: All right. So the book of Esther, we, we took the,
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Speaker 1: we started chapter one, I think three weeks ago, then
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Speaker 1: we had the baptism service. But so I just want
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Speaker 1: to go through a few things as a reminder for
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Speaker 1: everyone on where we were, but it is a, this book,
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Speaker 1: it chronicles this conspiracy to eradicate all of the Jewish people.
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Speaker 1: And it took over a decade. The book actually spans
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Speaker 1: over a decade of time. And Esther, this book testifies
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Speaker 1: to the watchful care of Jehovah over his people, which
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Speaker 1: is us included today. And even when you do not
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Speaker 1: see him necessarily. And it's pretty incredible because the name
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Speaker 1: of God or Yahweh, Jehovah, et cetera, does not appear
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Speaker 1: anywhere in the book. There's not a plain title or
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Speaker 1: name of God anywhere in the book of Esther. just
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Speaker 1: like the Song of Solomon. And that's kind of remarkable
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Speaker 1: because the book only has 167 verses and king occurs
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Speaker 1: 160 times in 91 of those verses. And the personal
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Speaker 1: name Ahasuerus appears 29 times in 28 verses, which is
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Speaker 1: the king of that day of Persia. But the real
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Speaker 1: question for us as students of the Bible is, but
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Speaker 1: is God's name present? And we'll see that in some
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Speaker 1: surprising ways, really. And many people in the early church
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Speaker 1: all the way up to the 16th century wanted to
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Speaker 1: remove Esther from the Bible simply because God's name wasn't there,
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Speaker 1: which is pretty amazing that we have this book in
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Speaker 1: our Bible today. It just shows you how God's hand
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Speaker 1: is truly on the collection of what you hold in
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Speaker 1: your lap in the Bible in 66 books. He has
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Speaker 1: given you exactly what he wants you to have right now.
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Speaker 1: So just trust him with it. So as we're going
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Speaker 1: through this, and like we say on every study, we've
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Speaker 1: got to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us
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Speaker 1: everything out of God's word. And if we will lean
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Speaker 1: on the Holy Spirit to teach us by that anointing
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Speaker 1: from 1 John 2, 27 and 28, we're going to
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Speaker 1: glean some things out of Esther that will be really
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Speaker 1: impactful in your lives and hopefully encourage you, even when
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Speaker 1: you're in times in the valley, so to speak, where
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Speaker 1: you feel like maybe God isn't there, but he's really
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Speaker 1: never left. He's never left his position. You just got
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Speaker 1: to get back to him. So the Holy Spirit will
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Speaker 1: illuminate those things to you. And then of course, Acts 17, 11,
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Speaker 1: just search the scriptures daily to prove that all of
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Speaker 1: these things are so. So you have to do that
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Speaker 1: every day in your life to build up your faith
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Speaker 1: and to gird up your life and strength. Okay, the
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Speaker 1: name Esther means concealed or something hidden. And You know,
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Speaker 1: when we did chapter one in the introduction, we went
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Speaker 1: through a lot of different things about some hidden things
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Speaker 1: in the Bible. But Proverbs 25 too is one of
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Speaker 1: my favorite verses that proves this, that it's the glory
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Speaker 1: of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of
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Speaker 1: kings is to search out a matter. So God hides
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Speaker 1: things in his word and it's his glory and it's
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Speaker 1: our honor to search them out. And I just think
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Speaker 1: that is incredible because his word is inexhaustible. And we
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Speaker 1: talked about the examples of the five books of the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy,
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Speaker 1: and Numbers, or Numbers, Deuteronomy, and how they spell out Torah,
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Speaker 1: you know, Genesis and Exodus going forward, Deuteronomy and Numbers
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Speaker 1: going backwards, and Leviticus has Yahweh right there in the
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Speaker 1: middle on seven-letter intervals, which is pretty cool. And we
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Speaker 1: talked about math, right? We hadn't had a math lesson
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Speaker 1: in a while, so we talked about that, the two
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Speaker 1: constants in the universe, around physics with pi and E,
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Speaker 1: the natural logarithm from Genesis 1-1 and John 1-1. If
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Speaker 1: you take the numerical value of those two verses, the
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Speaker 1: number of the letters times the product of the letters,
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Speaker 1: or how you multiply them out, divided by the number
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Speaker 1: of words times the product of the words, and you
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Speaker 1: do that formula in both Genesis 1-1 and John 1-1,
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Speaker 1: two of the most important creation verses in the entire Bible,
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Speaker 1: In Genesis 1.1, you get pi, and in John 1.1,
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Speaker 1: you get e, or the natural logarithm numerical value, which
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Speaker 1: is just, it's just remarkable. So there are over 90,000
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Speaker 1: possible five-digit numbers from one to 9.99999, and so that
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Speaker 1: happening by chance has a one out of eight billion possibility,
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Speaker 1: which is, in mathematics, you'd call that absurd. Improbable is
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Speaker 1: what you'd call that. We talked about Rabbi Yaakov Ramsel.
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Speaker 1: Remember in Isaiah 53 at the cross, the crucifixion on
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Speaker 1: equal letter distances by verse, you find all of these
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Speaker 1: incredible things about the crucifixion. The names of the disciples,
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Speaker 1: the three different Marys, bread and wine. Remember, you don't
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Speaker 1: find the name Judas, despite the high probability based on
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Speaker 1: how you spell his name, that it should be there,
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Speaker 1: but it's not. And so it's just incredible. After when
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Speaker 1: we talked about that last time, Bob grabbed me from
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Speaker 1: Prophecy Watchers after the message, and he was so excited
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Speaker 1: about the Rabbi Yaakov Randall. He laid claim to introducing
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Speaker 1: him to the world, you know, he said. But I
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Speaker 1: can say that because I think he had a grandbaby
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Speaker 1: this morning, so he's not here. So tell him congrats
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Speaker 1: if you see him. But he was so excited about that.
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Speaker 1: But God's divine hand is on every letter of the Bible.
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Speaker 1: And according to Deuteronomy, God warned his people that he
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Speaker 1: would hide himself from them for a season. And that's
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Speaker 1: in Deuteronomy 31, 16 through 18. And so surely God
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Speaker 1: did for a time, but not forever. And so that
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Speaker 1: we're seeing that play out through the book of Esther.
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Speaker 1: And though he was hidden from them in Esther, he
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Speaker 1: was forever warring and fighting for them behind the scenes,
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Speaker 1: so to speak. And the book shows God as overruling
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Speaker 1: all earthly and spiritual authorities. Satan was at work. He
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Speaker 1: wanted to wipe out the Jews back then, just as
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Speaker 1: he does today in our world today, using Haman to
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Speaker 1: try to blot out the nation, exactly as he did
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Speaker 1: with Pharaoh, exactly as he did with Hitler in the 40s,
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Speaker 1: exactly as he's trying to do now with the World
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Speaker 1: Economic Forum and the UN and Iran and all these
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Speaker 1: other entities he can try to take control of. But
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Speaker 1: in the end, though, God's counsel will stand and Israel
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Speaker 1: will not. God has so many promises in the Bible
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Speaker 1: about Israel that, you know, if the sun and the
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Speaker 1: moon should cease to exist, then God would take away
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Speaker 1: his promise to Israel. And we know that's not going
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Speaker 1: to happen. So his promise of the Messiah, the coming
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Speaker 1: seed of the woman from Genesis 3.15 would not fail.
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Speaker 1: And so he's preserving that messianic line all through the
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Speaker 1: Bible from Genesis 3.15 all the way to the end.
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Speaker 1: in the gospels when Jesus shows up on the scene
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Speaker 1: in the flesh. And his working was secret, so to speak,
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Speaker 1: but I just love that you and I, thousands of
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Speaker 1: years later, get the chance to read this and look
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Speaker 1: back and see his hand the whole time on what
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Speaker 1: was going on. Now, after the book of Daniel, if
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Speaker 1: you remember, Cyrus conquers Babylon, Daniel has the whole lion's
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Speaker 1: den event, then he is promoted to be prime minister
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Speaker 1: again in Persia. And Cyrus offers all of these lucrative
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Speaker 1: incentives to go and rebuild the temple back in Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: And Esther and her family do not take them up
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Speaker 1: on that, which is why they're still in Persia. So
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Speaker 1: despite God's imploring them to come out of Babylon after
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Speaker 1: the 70 years, many stayed behind. If you remember from
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Speaker 1: our study in Daniel, only a few people, a very
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Speaker 1: small number of people from Israel actually left Babylon to
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Speaker 1: go back and to fight for Israel and to rebuild.
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Speaker 1: And the reason why God wanted them out was to
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Speaker 1: bless them in the land of his promise from Deuteronomy
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Speaker 1: chapter 28. And yet God did not forsake those that
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Speaker 1: stayed in Persia. So his supernatural hand of protection was
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Speaker 1: upon those that remained in the foreign land. Now, Esther
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Speaker 1: is not a long book. It's only 10 chapters, but
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Speaker 1: chapter one was the story of Vashti and how the
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Speaker 1: king gets drunk. And we'll look at that in just
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Speaker 1: a second, a quick reminder. Chapter two here today, Esther's
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Speaker 1: made queen. Then there's the conspiracy of Haman, the courage
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Speaker 1: of Esther bringing deliverance, the vengeance that God, displays in
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Speaker 1: chapter 8. Then the Feast of Purim. Remember, Purim is
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Speaker 1: not a Levitical feast. It was one that they created
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Speaker 1: to celebrate God's deliverance of them. The Feast of Purim,
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Speaker 1: or in the Hebrew word, it's lots. So how the
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Speaker 1: lot was cast and God saved the Jewish people. And
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Speaker 1: then the finale in chapter 10 that we'll see. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I've used this timeline a lot as we've studied different
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Speaker 1: books in the Old Testament, but you can kind of
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Speaker 1: see towards the right, the Babylonian exile period there where
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Speaker 1: Daniel is. Esther was written maybe, just call it roughly
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Speaker 1: 80 to 100 years later, you know, something like that.
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Speaker 1: But Esther happens during the post-exile period when the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament closes, where God makes the final promises to Israel
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Speaker 1: in Malachi, et cetera, that he would send Elijah before
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Speaker 1: that great and dreadful day of the Lord and the
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Speaker 1: promise of the Messiah and all those different things. And
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament closes roughly about 400 or 350 years
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Speaker 1: before Jesus comes in the flesh. Okay, so Romans 15, four,
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Speaker 1: I mentioned that earlier. 1 Corinthians 10, 11 was a
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Speaker 1: verse I just want to remind you all about that. Now,
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Speaker 1: all these things happen unto them for ensembles, and they
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Speaker 1: are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of
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Speaker 1: the world are come. Now, it's amazing that 2000 years ago,
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Speaker 1: how the early church, the Holy Spirit through all of
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Speaker 1: these different people wrote, the end is near, the end
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Speaker 1: of the worlds are come, and we're here 2000 years later,
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Speaker 1: And we're still saying that and thinking that and seeing
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Speaker 1: that come into place. But this really is important for
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Speaker 1: us today because what a lot of people kind of
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Speaker 1: overlook is that not even a hundred years ago, the
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Speaker 1: beast system couldn't have existed at that time, even a
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Speaker 1: hundred years ago. But now today in 2026, where we are,
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Speaker 1: the foundation for it of everything that the book of
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Speaker 1: Revelation and Daniel, Ezekiel, All the Old Testament prophets, all
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Speaker 1: of them wrote of this time. You can see how
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Speaker 1: it actually can physically happen now in terms of being
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Speaker 1: able to track everyone on earth, forcing worship. We saw
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Speaker 1: that starting to set up in 2020. I need to
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Speaker 1: take something to buy, sell and trade, et cetera. The
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Speaker 1: whole system is there for someone to walk into and
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Speaker 1: it's growing almost exponentially now. And so the end of
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Speaker 1: the world has come upon the church and we are
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Speaker 1: in the last of the last days of the church.
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Speaker 1: So this is a really important, it's important for us
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Speaker 1: to study the Old Testament as a church. I think
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament is greatly missed in most of the
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Speaker 1: body of Christ around the world, but it's very important
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Speaker 1: for us to put all these together. Okay, if you
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Speaker 1: remember in chapter one, Ahasuerus or Xerxes held that banquet
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Speaker 1: for 180 days and he got very drunk. and he
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Speaker 1: wanted to show off his wife, Queen Vashti. And she refused,
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Speaker 1: and his advisors wanted a decree to be made against
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Speaker 1: her to make an example out of her. And if
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Speaker 1: you remember the whole debate where they came to the
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Speaker 1: king and said, okay, if you let her disobey your
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Speaker 1: order to come in here, then it'll encourage all of
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Speaker 1: these other women in the kingdom to disobey their husbands
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Speaker 1: and do whatever they want. And we're just going to have,
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Speaker 1: so they're telling him, we're going to have anarchy. because
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Speaker 1: these women are going to be out of control. That
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Speaker 1: was the pitch they were making to the king at
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Speaker 1: that time. And Vashti was much more ethical and had
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Speaker 1: a much higher standard of morality than her husband. And
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Speaker 1: it showed in chapter one. And so after all of
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Speaker 1: those things, here we are in chapter two and verse one,
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Speaker 1: And after these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus
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Speaker 1: was appeased, he remembered Vashti and what she had done
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Speaker 1: and what was decreed against her. So Ahasuerus is Xerxes.
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Speaker 1: So two different names, but the same guy. Ahasuerus, Xerxes,
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Speaker 1: Artaxerxes will be his offspring down the road. Now, four
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Speaker 1: years have passed between chapter one and two. And it's
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Speaker 1: always interesting to me as you're reading through your Bible,
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Speaker 1: it seems like these things just kind of happen one
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Speaker 1: event after another. And my gosh, God was talking to
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Speaker 1: Abraham like every day for 28 years or something. A
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Speaker 1: lot of times there's decades that pass between these moments
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Speaker 1: and it's hard, unless you really dig into it, you
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Speaker 1: don't get that perspective a lot of times. But four
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Speaker 1: years have passed now since chapter one and Xerxes has
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Speaker 1: done nothing with what he was decreeing to do at
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Speaker 1: the end of chapter one yet. But during this time,
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Speaker 1: Xerxes took on a campaign, a military campaign to defeat
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Speaker 1: the Greece empire. Okay, so the Greek empire was rising
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Speaker 1: up and there are these four main Greco-Persian battles. Okay,
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Speaker 1: 490 BC was the battle of Marathon. There were 90,000
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Speaker 1: Persians that lost to 10,000 Greek soldiers. In 480 BC,
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Speaker 1: they had the battle of Thermopylae and the word means
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Speaker 1: hot gates. This was the scene of the first major
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Speaker 1: battle fought during the invasion of Greece that Xerxes led.
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Speaker 1: And this was the main route by which an invading
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Speaker 1: army could penetrate from the north into the southern part
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Speaker 1: of Greece. It was this narrow way, about 15 feet long,
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Speaker 1: passing under a cliff. And the battle was the place
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Speaker 1: of that fabled Leonidas I. and his 300 Spartans from
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Speaker 1: Greece that later turned into the movie 300. That was
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Speaker 1: based on that battle in 480 BC. Later on in
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Speaker 1: 480 BC, this other battle was a naval battle, the
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Speaker 1: Greek naval victory near the island of Salamis, not far
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Speaker 1: from Athens, after the Persians captured Athens for just a moment.
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Speaker 1: And a naval general from Greece convinced the nation to
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Speaker 1: undertake an aggressive naval campaign The general tricked Xerxes that
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Speaker 1: his navy was ready to turn on the Greeks. When
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Speaker 1: the Persian navy came into the bay to join forces
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Speaker 1: with them, the Greeks came from behind and blocked them in.
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Speaker 1: They rammed all of their ships and boarded them for
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Speaker 1: hand-to-hand combat, and Persia lost that battle. Then the next
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Speaker 1: year in 479 BC, this final battle of the Persian Wars,
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Speaker 1: the remaining Persian forces in Greece were defeated and driven out.
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Speaker 1: So here you have all these wars were going on
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Speaker 1: from 490 to 479 BC. And all of these battles
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Speaker 1: are probably why Xerxes in verse one is angry and
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Speaker 1: he needed his wrath to be appeased. And the lesson
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Speaker 1: from the Lord for Xerxes was that at that time
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Speaker 1: was that all authority comes from God. Pharaoh learned this
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Speaker 1: in Egypt when God gave him over to his heart's
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Speaker 1: desires in Exodus 7 verses three through five. Now, a
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Speaker 1: lot of people get kind of mixed up around that.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about this for a minute. In Exodus with Pharaoh,
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Speaker 1: in your English Bible, you read the phrase a lot,
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Speaker 1: and God hardened his heart. And a lot of people
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Speaker 1: will use that. I've actually talked to people in the
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Speaker 1: past that have used that as a reason, that one
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Speaker 1: verse as a reason to reject Jesus, because they could
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Speaker 1: not come to terms in their mind with serving a
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Speaker 1: God that that had sentenced someone to punishment and did
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Speaker 1: not give him a chance to repent or accept him
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Speaker 1: because they were reading God hardened his heart. In other words,
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Speaker 1: God made it so that Pharaoh had no choice. And
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Speaker 1: if you actually dig into the Hebrew behind that phrase,
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Speaker 1: what it means is God gave him over to his
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Speaker 1: heart's desires. So the way our English unfortunately interpreted it
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Speaker 1: or wrote it down was that God had walked away
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Speaker 1: from him to give him over to his desires and
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Speaker 1: thus his heart was hardened. I hope that that's making sense. But,
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Speaker 1: and you see that later on in Samuel, there's a
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Speaker 1: verse that talks about how Pharaoh decided in his heart.
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Speaker 1: There's one verse there that clarifies it for you, but it's,
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Speaker 1: you have to look for it in, I can't remember
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Speaker 1: if it's in first and second or second Samuel, But
18:23
Speaker 1: don't let things like that kind of get you wrapped
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Speaker 1: around the axle and think differently of God's character than
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Speaker 1: you should, because I have met people that have used
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Speaker 1: that as a reason to reject the God of the universe.
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Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that lesson in Babylon. Remember the
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Speaker 1: golden statue in Daniel 2 through 4? Belshazzar in Daniel
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Speaker 1: 5 learned that lesson by blaspheming the living God, and
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Speaker 1: then the handwriting on the wall showed up in Daniel 5.
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Speaker 1: Sennacherib learned it at the gates of Jerusalem in Isaiah
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Speaker 1: 36 and 37. Herod Agrippa I learned it as he
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Speaker 1: died being eaten by worms in Acts 12, verses 20
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Speaker 1: through 23. Leaders today are going to learn that same
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Speaker 1: lesson from Romans 1, 18 through 32. And so it's
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Speaker 1: just important to understand that God deals in the affairs
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Speaker 1: of men. Right now, There seems to be, or for
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Speaker 1: some years now, maybe there has felt like there's been
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Speaker 1: some seasons where God has not been dealing with specific leaders,
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Speaker 1: maybe as quickly as some people would like, but he
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Speaker 1: is still working in that regard. So we see Xerxes
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Speaker 1: came home a bitter man from these wars and he
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Speaker 1: wanted to seek the comforts of coming home to a spouse.
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Speaker 1: But then he gets home and he remembers that Vashti
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Speaker 1: had been dethroned and he was without a queen. So
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Speaker 1: Xerxes invaded Greece of more than 2 million soldiers he had,
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Speaker 1: and he returned home with about 5,000 in his army.
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Speaker 1: So his empire was just decimated during this time. And
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Speaker 1: after his return, this is when Esther will finally be
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Speaker 1: chosen as queen in 478 B.C., Xerxes then will live
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Speaker 1: another 13 years. Esther will live into the reign of
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Speaker 1: her stepson, Artaxerxes. So he's the one that triggers Nehemiah
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Speaker 1: to go and rebuild Jerusalem in Nehemiah 2, verse 6,
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Speaker 1: which triggers the start of the 70 weeks of Daniel.
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Speaker 1: Artaxerxes is Esther's stepson. So just to kind of give
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Speaker 1: you some clarity there. Now in verse two, then said
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Speaker 1: the king's servants that ministered unto him, let there be
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Speaker 1: fair young virgins sought for the king. Okay, they do
20:44
Speaker 1: not want Vashti to be reinstated. They're fearful that if
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Speaker 1: she were to be queen again, she might seek vengeance
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Speaker 1: for their part in her dethroning. And Romans 12, 19,
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Speaker 1: this is always one of my favorite verses when people
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Speaker 1: talk about vengeance and when they've been hurt by someone
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Speaker 1: or something. But dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather
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Speaker 1: give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine,
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Speaker 1: I will repay, saith the Lord. So don't forget that
21:17
Speaker 1: in your life. You know, everyone goes through things and
21:21
Speaker 1: there are times where people hurt you, they betray you,
21:24
Speaker 1: they talk ill about you, whatever it may be. Just
21:28
Speaker 1: remember that just turn them over to the Lord. Let
21:31
Speaker 1: him deal with them. You don't need to say anything
21:33
Speaker 1: back or there are times to defend yourself, but there
21:36
Speaker 1: are also times just to let it roll off and
21:39
Speaker 1: be the bigger person and just move on. But the
21:42
Speaker 1: Lord will deal with it. So in verse three here,
21:44
Speaker 1: and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces
21:48
Speaker 1: of his kingdom that they may gather together all the
21:52
Speaker 1: fair young virgins under Shushan, the palace, to the house
21:56
Speaker 1: of the women under the custody of Hege, the king's chamberlain,
22:01
Speaker 1: keeper of the women, and let their things for purification
22:04
Speaker 1: be given to them. Okay, remember Shushan, Daniel was in Shushan,
22:08
Speaker 1: Ezekiel was at one point in some visions. That's that
22:13
Speaker 1: palace way east of Babylon. It's about 200 miles east
22:17
Speaker 1: of Babylon. Okay, in verse four there, and let the
22:20
Speaker 1: maiden which pleased the king be queen instead of Vashti.
22:24
Speaker 1: And the thing pleased the king and he did so.
22:28
Speaker 1: So their suggestion to not reinstate Vashti appeals to Xerxes
22:33
Speaker 1: for some reason. And we don't really know the background
22:36
Speaker 1: as to why other than he listens to them. So
22:41
Speaker 1: now in Shushan the palace in verse five here, there
22:43
Speaker 1: was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son
22:47
Speaker 1: of Jar, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish,
22:50
Speaker 1: a Benjamite. Now, there are a lot of important people
22:54
Speaker 1: in the Bible from the tribe of Benjamin. Meripal was
22:59
Speaker 1: a Benjamite. Saul, the first king of Israel that they
23:03
Speaker 1: appointed wrongfully so. They were looking for an earthly king
23:08
Speaker 1: when Jesus wanted to be their king all along. But
23:11
Speaker 1: Mordecai is the son of Kish, just like Saul. So
23:14
Speaker 1: Saul was also from that lineage. Josephus refers to Esther
23:19
Speaker 1: as of the royal family in the antiquities of the Jews.
23:23
Speaker 1: Shimei is an interesting character in the Bible. He's the
23:25
Speaker 1: son of Gerah, a Benjamite of Saul's house. Now, when
23:30
Speaker 1: David was fleeing from Absalom, he reached the edge of
23:35
Speaker 1: the valley between the road and Shimei's house. And Shimei
23:40
Speaker 1: ran along the ridge over against the road, cursing and
23:44
Speaker 1: throwing things at David and his mighty men. Now, this
23:46
Speaker 1: was when David was fleeing for his life at that time.
23:51
Speaker 1: And this is all in 2 Samuel 16, 5 through 14.
23:55
Speaker 1: And when King David came to Behurim, behold, thence came
23:58
Speaker 1: out a man of the family of the house of Saul,
24:01
Speaker 1: whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came
24:04
Speaker 1: forth and cursed still as he came. And he cast
24:07
Speaker 1: stones at David and at all the servants of King
24:10
Speaker 1: David and all the people and all the mighty men
24:13
Speaker 1: were on his right hand on his left. And thus
24:16
Speaker 1: said Shimei when he cursed, come out, come out thou
24:19
Speaker 1: bloody man and thou men of Belial. The Lord hath
24:22
Speaker 1: returned upon thee all the blood of the house of
24:26
Speaker 1: Saul and whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord
24:29
Speaker 1: hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son.
24:33
Speaker 1: And behold, thou art taken in thy mischief because thou
24:37
Speaker 1: art a bloody man. Then said Abishai, the son of Zariah,
24:41
Speaker 1: unto the king, why should this dead dog curse my lord,
24:45
Speaker 1: the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and
24:48
Speaker 1: take off his head. Now, those are the kind of
24:50
Speaker 1: friends you want to have. David was surrounded by some
24:55
Speaker 1: great guys that were willing to stand up for him
24:57
Speaker 1: and fight for him. And so this guy, Abishai, he
25:03
Speaker 1: was one of them. Shimei was in the wrong here,
25:05
Speaker 1: but the king said, what have I to do with you,
25:10
Speaker 1: ye sons of Zariah? So let him curse because the
25:14
Speaker 1: Lord hath said unto him, curse David. Who shall then say,
25:18
Speaker 1: wherefore hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai
25:22
Speaker 1: and to all his servants, behold my son, which came
25:26
Speaker 1: forth of my bowels, seeketh my life. How much more
25:30
Speaker 1: now may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone and
25:34
Speaker 1: let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him. It
25:38
Speaker 1: may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction
25:40
Speaker 1: and that the Lord will requite me good for his
25:43
Speaker 1: cursing that day. And as David and his men went
25:47
Speaker 1: by the way, Shimei went along on the hillside over
25:52
Speaker 1: against him and cursed as he went and threw stones
25:55
Speaker 1: at him and cast dust. And the king and all
25:58
Speaker 1: the people that were with him came weary and refreshed
26:01
Speaker 1: themselves there. Now, There is a lot you could learn
26:06
Speaker 1: from these verses. There is a lot to unpack. You
26:08
Speaker 1: could take a month just studying this set of verses
26:11
Speaker 1: right here. There are so many lessons. But isn't it
26:14
Speaker 1: interesting that the one wearing out God's anointed was one
26:17
Speaker 1: from his own people group. And a lot of times
26:21
Speaker 1: in the church, especially in modern times, to be in
26:26
Speaker 1: the hands and feet of Jesus, it's hard when the
26:29
Speaker 1: fist is punching the other part of the body constantly. Um,
26:33
Speaker 1: it's the way the church, you know, that there it's just,
26:38
Speaker 1: it's amazing to me how many Christians, uh, make it
26:42
Speaker 1: their goal to attack other Christians instead of coming alongside
26:47
Speaker 1: and praying for one another and just asking and checking
26:50
Speaker 1: in with each other and, Hey, how are you doing?
26:52
Speaker 1: How could I help you? What do you need something?
26:55
Speaker 1: And Abishai wanted to take matters into his own hands. Okay.
26:59
Speaker 1: This friend of David. And he wanted to kill Shimei.
27:03
Speaker 1: David felt that it was by God's hand that Shimei
27:07
Speaker 1: was acting so foolish. In verses 11 and 12, David says,
27:12
Speaker 1: let him alone and let him curse for the Lord
27:14
Speaker 1: hath bidden him. In other words, David's perspective was the
27:18
Speaker 1: Lord is either telling him to do this or allowing
27:21
Speaker 1: him to do this. Either way, I'm fine with it.
27:24
Speaker 1: Let him talk. It may be that the Lord will
27:26
Speaker 1: look on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite
27:29
Speaker 1: me good for his cursing this day. So later on,
27:33
Speaker 1: Shimei wisely was the first of the house of Joseph
27:37
Speaker 1: to meet David on his victorious return over the Jordan.
27:41
Speaker 1: That happens in 2 Samuel 19, 16 through 23. So
27:47
Speaker 1: along with Shimei, there were a thousand Benjamites in Ziba
27:51
Speaker 1: with his 15 sons and 20 servants. So Shimei then
27:55
Speaker 1: falls down before David, confessing his sin and begging him
27:59
Speaker 1: not to impute iniquity on him. So somewhere between those
28:04
Speaker 1: events in 1 Samuel and the events in 2 Samuel 19,
28:08
Speaker 1: Shimei realizes his wrong because David turned him over to
28:13
Speaker 1: the Lord. Shimei repents, confesses to David, and draws closer
28:19
Speaker 1: to the Lord through that. That's an amazing event. Now,
28:24
Speaker 1: Abishai would have slain Shimei. Okay, I'm hoping you guys
28:28
Speaker 1: are following this. This is important. But David took the
28:32
Speaker 1: high road and did not want to spoil the day
28:34
Speaker 1: of his restoration as king. And it's amazing because the
28:38
Speaker 1: two main antagonists in the book of Esther are Mordecai
28:42
Speaker 1: and Haman. The Lord raises up Mordecai because David spared Shimei.
28:48
Speaker 1: The enemy raised up Haman because Saul spared King Agag
28:53
Speaker 1: in 1 Samuel 15. And he was not supposed to exist.
28:58
Speaker 1: He was supposed to kill him as instructed by the Lord.
29:00
Speaker 1: If you've ever seen the television series, The House of David,
29:05
Speaker 1: or I think it's, yeah, The House of David, the
29:08
Speaker 1: first season, Saul in that series on Amazon Prime, which
29:13
Speaker 1: it's pretty bloody. Don't watch it with your kids if
29:15
Speaker 1: you've ever seen it, but I'm not recommending it for children.
29:17
Speaker 1: But it's just an interesting perspective. But you see the
29:21
Speaker 1: whole scene where Saul spares Agag and he wasn't supposed
29:25
Speaker 1: to do that. God told him to kill him. But
29:26
Speaker 1: because Saul disobeyed God, Haman is born down the road,
29:32
Speaker 1: down the lineage. But because David obeyed God, God raised
29:37
Speaker 1: up Mordecai as a counter to Haman. And that's just
29:41
Speaker 1: amazing how the Lord's hand was at work after those
29:44
Speaker 1: events of sparing Agag. And how many enemies are around
29:48
Speaker 1: today simply because we disobey the Lord? And not just foes,
29:54
Speaker 1: but spiritual enemies, addictions, lust, sin of some kind, etc.,
29:59
Speaker 1: It's amazing how many times God tells us to completely
30:02
Speaker 1: eradicate something and we don't. David was in a situation
30:07
Speaker 1: where his own offspring, his own bloodline wanted to murder him.
30:12
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine? You are the anointed king
30:17
Speaker 1: of Israel, king of the Jewish people, anointed and called
30:21
Speaker 1: by God, and you are constantly on the run for
30:24
Speaker 1: the first part of your career because your own children
30:28
Speaker 1: are are hunting you down to kill you. I mean,
30:32
Speaker 1: he went through a lot, but through it all, he
30:35
Speaker 1: stayed obedient to God. Okay, in verse six here, who
30:39
Speaker 1: had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity, which
30:41
Speaker 1: had been carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar,
30:45
Speaker 1: the king of Babylon, had carried away. Okay, there are
30:48
Speaker 1: at least three captivities now of Judah at this point.
30:53
Speaker 1: The first was when Daniel was carried away in the
30:55
Speaker 1: third year of Jehoiakim, which was 605 BC. That's in
30:59
Speaker 1: Daniel 1.1. The second is the one that Esther refers
31:03
Speaker 1: to here in verse six. It's when Jehoiachin or Jeconiah
31:09
Speaker 1: was made prisoner eight years later in 597 BC. The
31:13
Speaker 1: third siege was when Zedekiah is taken and Jerusalem burnt
31:17
Speaker 1: in 586 BC. Okay, Kish, who we're just talking about
31:23
Speaker 1: back in verse five, belonged to the second captivity, and
31:27
Speaker 1: that's in 2 Kings 24, 15, 2 Chronicles 36, 10,
31:31
Speaker 1: and Jeremiah 24, verse 1. Okay, in verse 7 here,
31:36
Speaker 1: and he brought up Hadash, that is Esther. Okay, so
31:40
Speaker 1: Esther's name, Hadasha, and Esther, we'll look at those in
31:46
Speaker 1: a minute of what those mean, but his uncle's daughter,
31:49
Speaker 1: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid
31:52
Speaker 1: was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai when her father and
31:56
Speaker 1: mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So remember,
32:00
Speaker 1: Esther means something hidden. So she was a Jewish young
32:05
Speaker 1: lady named Hadashah, which means the myrtle. Now, if you
32:09
Speaker 1: remember back to our study in Zechariah, myrtle trees are
32:13
Speaker 1: linked to the millennial kingdom. We won't go into a
32:16
Speaker 1: lot of detail about that, but myrtle, just remember in
32:19
Speaker 1: your mind, myrtle tree links to the millennium. But when
32:23
Speaker 1: she entered the royal harem, she received the name by
32:26
Speaker 1: which we know her, Esther. She was the daughter of Ahabalil,
32:30
Speaker 1: I think I'm saying that right, Benjamite. Her family did
32:33
Speaker 1: not avail themselves of the incentive Cyrus granted. So remember
32:38
Speaker 1: when Cyrus said, hey, we'll give you all this money
32:40
Speaker 1: and supplies and stuff to go rebuild the temple, Esther's
32:43
Speaker 1: family did not take them up on that. So she
32:47
Speaker 1: is Mordecai's cousin. Kish has Shimei. Shimei has Jer and Ahabalil.
32:54
Speaker 1: Mordecai is Jeher's child and Esther is Abahil's child. So
32:58
Speaker 1: they're cousins. Thus, they are cousins. And after her parents die,
33:04
Speaker 1: she then falls under the house of Mordecai. So in
33:08
Speaker 1: their culture back then, family took care of each other.
33:12
Speaker 1: So if you lost, if you became an orphan or,
33:14
Speaker 1: you know, we see that in the book of Ruth.
33:17
Speaker 1: but family took care of one another. You brought them
33:21
Speaker 1: into your home. So it came to pass when the
33:24
Speaker 1: king's commandment in verse eight here, and his decree was heard.
33:28
Speaker 1: And when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan the
33:32
Speaker 1: palace to the custody of Haggai, that Esther was brought
33:36
Speaker 1: also under the king's house to the custody of Haggai,
33:40
Speaker 1: keeper of the women. Now Haggai is an officer of Xerxes,
33:44
Speaker 1: according to Herodotus. In verse nine here, and the maiden
33:47
Speaker 1: pleased him and she obtained kindness of him and he
33:52
Speaker 1: speedily gave her things for purification with such things as
33:57
Speaker 1: belong to her and seven maidens which were meat to
34:02
Speaker 1: be given her out of the king's house and he
34:05
Speaker 1: preferred her and her maids unto the best place of
34:07
Speaker 1: the house of the women. So in Persia, this process
34:11
Speaker 1: comprised of at least three different homes, the queen's residence,
34:16
Speaker 1: like that which Solomon built for the daughter of Pharaoh
34:19
Speaker 1: in 1 Kings 7, a house for the secondary wives
34:22
Speaker 1: or concubines, and then finally a house for the virgins,
34:26
Speaker 1: the third house. And on returning from her first visit
34:29
Speaker 1: to the king's chamber, a woman ordinarily became an inmate
34:33
Speaker 1: of the second house. Okay, and they kind of worked
34:36
Speaker 1: through that process. That was in their culture in Persia.
34:40
Speaker 1: The second house was under the care of a eunuch,
34:44
Speaker 1: called Shashgaz, and that's in Esther 2 verse 14 here
34:47
Speaker 1: in a minute. Okay, Esther had not showed her people
34:51
Speaker 1: nor her kindred for Mordecai had charged her that she
34:54
Speaker 1: should not show it. In other words, Mordecai is saying, Esther,
34:58
Speaker 1: no matter what you do, do not let them know
35:02
Speaker 1: that you are Jewish. So you have to hide that
35:05
Speaker 1: you're an Israeli. Hide that. You're anointed, but you have
35:10
Speaker 1: to hide that right now. Okay, and Mordecai walked every
35:14
Speaker 1: day before the court of the woman's house to know
35:17
Speaker 1: how Esther did and what should become of her. Now,
35:20
Speaker 1: when every maid's turn was come to go into King Ahasuerus,
35:25
Speaker 1: after that she had been 12 months according to the
35:27
Speaker 1: manner of the women, for so were the days of
35:30
Speaker 1: their purifications accomplished to wit six months with oil of
35:34
Speaker 1: myrrh and six months with sweet odors and with other
35:37
Speaker 1: things of the purifying of the women. So the women
35:40
Speaker 1: spent 12 months preparing for a moment just to walk
35:43
Speaker 1: in and meet the king. That's how much effort they
35:48
Speaker 1: put into spending any time in front of the king.
35:52
Speaker 1: That is how high and lofty those kings thought of themselves, okay?
35:58
Speaker 1: They thought of themselves so high that she had to
36:00
Speaker 1: spend 12 months with essential oils just to come in
36:02
Speaker 1: and see me and have a meeting with me, okay?
36:06
Speaker 1: I know some of you are thinking, that sounds actually
36:08
Speaker 1: kind of nice to spend 12 months just with essential
36:11
Speaker 1: oils and just take care of yourself. But that's what
36:14
Speaker 1: they thought of themselves. They were very, very arrogant in
36:17
Speaker 1: that way. Under the penalty of death, mind you, okay,
36:21
Speaker 1: if you went in unprepared and without an appointment, they
36:25
Speaker 1: would kill you on the spot, basically. In verse 13,
36:28
Speaker 1: then thus came every maiden unto the king, whatsoever she
36:31
Speaker 1: desired was given her to go with her out of
36:33
Speaker 1: the house of the women unto the king's house. Okay,
36:37
Speaker 1: in verse 14, in the evening, she went and on
36:40
Speaker 1: the morrow, she returned into the second house of the
36:43
Speaker 1: women to the custody of Shashagaz, the king's chamberlain, which
36:50
Speaker 1: kept the concubines. She came in under the king no
36:53
Speaker 1: more except the king delighted in her and that she
36:57
Speaker 1: was called by name. So in other words, after you
37:01
Speaker 1: went in and had your discussion with the king, you
37:03
Speaker 1: would go back and you never were allowed to go
37:06
Speaker 1: see him again unless he requested your name by name
37:10
Speaker 1: to come in. Okay, in verse 15, now when the
37:13
Speaker 1: turn of Esther, the daughter of Abahel, the uncle of Mordecai,
37:20
Speaker 1: who had taken her for his daughter, was come to
37:22
Speaker 1: go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Haggai,
37:26
Speaker 1: the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women appointed and
37:29
Speaker 1: Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that
37:33
Speaker 1: looked upon her. So God is clearly at hand here
37:38
Speaker 1: because Esther is finding favor everywhere she goes. So Esther
37:42
Speaker 1: was taken unto King Ahasuerus, into his house royal in
37:46
Speaker 1: the 10th month, which is the month to Beth in
37:49
Speaker 1: the seventh year of his reign. Now this is verse
37:53
Speaker 1: 16 there in Esther chapter two is the only place
37:55
Speaker 1: in the Bible where that references the month to Beth,
37:59
Speaker 1: which is amazing. It corresponds on our calendar to about
38:03
Speaker 1: the end of December, early part of January, kind of
38:06
Speaker 1: in that timeframe. And in this month, she finds favor
38:10
Speaker 1: with the king. Okay, in verse 17 here, and the
38:14
Speaker 1: king loved Esther above all the women and she obtained
38:19
Speaker 1: grace and favor in his sight more than all the
38:23
Speaker 1: virgins so that he set the royal crown upon her
38:26
Speaker 1: head Okay, so the drama had unfolded. Esther concealed her genealogy,
38:37
Speaker 1: so to speak. And so now a young Jewish woman
38:40
Speaker 1: has now been made queen of the entire Persian empire.
38:45
Speaker 1: Then the king made a great feast unto all his
38:48
Speaker 1: princes and his servants, even Esther's feast. And he made
38:51
Speaker 1: a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to
38:55
Speaker 1: the state of the king. So at this moment, the
38:58
Speaker 1: orphan Jewish maiden who is relying on her cousin's charity
39:03
Speaker 1: because she was an orphan now, she went from relying
39:07
Speaker 1: on Mordecai's charity and being an orphan in her cousin's
39:10
Speaker 1: home to becoming the queen of all of Persia just overnight.
39:15
Speaker 1: That is remarkable. That is a crazy turn of events
39:19
Speaker 1: in someone's life. Okay, the Persian empire at that time
39:22
Speaker 1: comprised more than half of the known world. So a
39:27
Speaker 1: simple question for all of us today is where is
39:30
Speaker 1: God going to take you in your life? Because your
39:34
Speaker 1: circumstances and what's going on in your life can change
39:38
Speaker 1: absolutely just as fast today as it did for Esther then.
39:42
Speaker 1: Joseph went from slavery to be prime minister of the world.
39:45
Speaker 1: Remember in the prison cell? David went from fatherly rejection.
39:52
Speaker 1: His dad thought he was nothing to be valued. He
39:55
Speaker 1: was the little scrawny runt that was out tending to
39:59
Speaker 1: the sheep. His own dad thought he could never be king.
40:03
Speaker 1: And he went from fatherly rejection to national rejection to
40:08
Speaker 1: being rejected by his own children. But God made him
40:10
Speaker 1: king still. Daniel was taken to a foreign land as
40:14
Speaker 1: a captive slave. And God still set him as the
40:17
Speaker 1: second in command in two succeeding empires, Babylon and Persia.
40:24
Speaker 1: And so my question for you is, where will God
40:27
Speaker 1: take you in your life? You know, things happen in
40:30
Speaker 1: our lives that you don't ever expect. And when those
40:35
Speaker 1: things occur and you're in the lowest of low at
40:37
Speaker 1: that time, be encouraged that God can change that in
40:42
Speaker 1: an instant. And you just got, you have to remain
40:47
Speaker 1: steadfast with him, walking by his side and let him
40:50
Speaker 1: work that out for you. In verse 19, and when
40:53
Speaker 1: the virgins were gathered together, the second time, then Mordecai
40:58
Speaker 1: sat in the king's gate. Now, Esther must have been
41:02
Speaker 1: able to get him promoted because Only higher up counselors
41:07
Speaker 1: set in what was known as the king's gate. That
41:10
Speaker 1: was a privilege to sit at that gate. So Esther
41:13
Speaker 1: somehow must have been able to get Mordecai promoted to
41:16
Speaker 1: that position. Its lot was really high up in the
41:20
Speaker 1: government in Sodom and Gomorrah because he was sitting in
41:22
Speaker 1: the gate of the city. He was some type of
41:25
Speaker 1: city councilman or something at that time. So in verse 20,
41:29
Speaker 1: Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people,
41:32
Speaker 1: as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther did the commandment
41:35
Speaker 1: of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.
41:40
Speaker 1: In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate,
41:44
Speaker 1: two of the king's chamberlains, Bikhthen and Teresh, of those
41:48
Speaker 1: which kept the door were wroth and sought to lay
41:52
Speaker 1: hand on King Ahasuerus or Xerxes. Now, this was one
41:57
Speaker 1: of the positions in the kingdom of highest possible trust
42:01
Speaker 1: Thus it gave conspirators with ill intent an advantage. So
42:05
Speaker 1: you have these two guys, Mordecai is in the king's
42:08
Speaker 1: gate and two of the other people in the king's
42:12
Speaker 1: gate with him start to have a conspiracy to kill
42:16
Speaker 1: King Ahasuerus. So Mordecai is in the right time, the
42:21
Speaker 1: right place at exactly the right time. Xerxes ends up
42:25
Speaker 1: later losing his life due to a conspiracy formed by
42:31
Speaker 1: the captain of his guard, and a eunuch in a
42:33
Speaker 1: chamberlain later on. But for right now, God's going to
42:37
Speaker 1: intervene in this. And the thing was known to Mordecai.
42:40
Speaker 1: So Mordecai finds out that there's two of the guys
42:44
Speaker 1: in Xerxes' cabinet, or wherever you want to call it,
42:48
Speaker 1: are seeking to kill him. And he tells it under Esther,
42:53
Speaker 1: who told it under Esther the queen, and Esther certified
42:55
Speaker 1: the king thereof in Mordecai's name. Mordecai shares the plot
43:02
Speaker 1: to kill the king with Esther since she's in a
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Speaker 1: position to do something about the conspiracy. Okay, in verse
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Speaker 1: 23 here. And when an inquisition was made of the matter,
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Speaker 1: it was found out, therefore, they were both hanged on
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Speaker 1: a tree. And it was written in the book of
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Speaker 1: the Chronicles before the king. Now, this is gonna be
43:19
Speaker 1: important that it's recorded later on. These men were likely impaled,
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Speaker 1: not necessarily hung as you and I would think of it.
43:27
Speaker 1: From Ezra 6, verse 11, you can see that. But Darius,
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Speaker 1: Xerxes' father, was known to once have impaled more than 3,000 men.
43:36
Speaker 1: And a record of this assassination attempt is recorded in
43:40
Speaker 1: the official record of the king. So which becomes vital
43:44
Speaker 1: down the road in chapter 6, we'll see. So essentially,
43:49
Speaker 1: get the picture. God raises Esther up to be queen
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Speaker 1: of Persia. Because she's queen, she promotes her cousin Mordecai,
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Speaker 1: to be at the king's gate. Mordecai, because he's at
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Speaker 1: the king's gate, understands and learns of the conspiracy to
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Speaker 1: kill the king by these two other people in the cabinet.
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Speaker 1: He then tells Esther. Esther shares it with the king
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Speaker 1: and the court. They do something about it. They execute
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Speaker 1: these two guys that were going to kill the king.
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Speaker 1: They record it in the chronicles of the king that
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Speaker 1: Mordecai is the one that saved the king's life. put
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Speaker 1: a seal on it and close the book and put
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Speaker 1: it away in some filing cabinet somewhere to be discovered
44:34
Speaker 1: down the road. So it's really amazing how God, through
44:38
Speaker 1: these events in chapter two, organizes everything for a very
44:42
Speaker 1: specific purpose to save all of the Israelites later on
44:47
Speaker 1: in the book of Esther. Okay, this is one of my,
44:50
Speaker 1: we'll close with this. This is one of my favorite
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Speaker 1: verses in the whole Bible, maybe. But in Esther 4,
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Speaker 1: 13 and 14, the Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think
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Speaker 1: not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's
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Speaker 1: house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether
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Speaker 1: holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement
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Speaker 1: and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But
45:15
Speaker 1: thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who
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Speaker 1: knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such
45:22
Speaker 1: a time as this? And my encouragement to all of
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Speaker 1: you is that you have been called to the kingdom
45:30
Speaker 1: for such a time as this. God did not make
45:32
Speaker 1: a mistake in when you were born, where you were born,
45:36
Speaker 1: where you are today in terms of geographically being located.
45:42
Speaker 1: He has you right where he wants you right now.
45:45
Speaker 1: And the question is, will you yield your life to
45:47
Speaker 1: him and allow him to work in and through your
45:49
Speaker 1: life right now in whatever circumstances are going on? for
45:54
Speaker 1: his kingdom, because you have been called for such a
45:57
Speaker 1: time as this. But look at the warning too. If
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Speaker 1: you do not answer the call, thou and thy father's
46:05
Speaker 1: house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art
46:08
Speaker 1: come to the kingdom for such a time as this.
46:12
Speaker 1: The best way to figure out what God has for
46:14
Speaker 1: you right now is to get into the word and
46:17
Speaker 1: allow the Lord to speak to you, to speak into
46:20
Speaker 1: your life, to minister, to till that soil in your spirit,
46:25
Speaker 1: that he planted some seeds years and years ago, and
46:29
Speaker 1: he's wanting to water them, to grow them, to equip you,
46:33
Speaker 1: and to send you out to be about his business.
46:36
Speaker 1: And that is the greatest thing you could ever do
46:38
Speaker 1: with your life. So if you're here and you don't
46:42
Speaker 1: know the Lord, I want you to know from Psalms
46:46
Speaker 1: 139 that God had you in mind before the foundation
46:50
Speaker 1: of the world. And that's a long time. That's a
46:53
Speaker 1: long time. He had you in mind while he was
46:56
Speaker 1: hanging on the cross. Your name was written in the
46:59
Speaker 1: Lamb's book of life, slain before the foundation of the world,
47:03
Speaker 1: before time even existed, according to Psalms 139. Because your
47:09
Speaker 1: name is written in the Lamb's book of life, he
47:12
Speaker 1: has predestinated every single person to ever live for salvation.
47:19
Speaker 1: And the question is from Hebrews 2.9. God tasted, Jesus
47:23
Speaker 1: tasted death for every man. John 3, 16, for God
47:27
Speaker 1: so loved the world, the world, not just a select
47:30
Speaker 1: group of people, but the world, every person to ever live.
47:34
Speaker 1: For God so loved the world that he gave his
47:35
Speaker 1: only begotten son. In 1 and 2 Timothy, God talks
47:41
Speaker 1: about how he was a ransom for all, but especially
47:44
Speaker 1: of those that receive him. You could find these everywhere.
47:48
Speaker 1: 1 and 2 Peter, God is not slack in his
47:51
Speaker 1: promise to, God is not willing that any should perish,
47:54
Speaker 1: but all should come to everlasting life. God had you
47:58
Speaker 1: in mind. And the simplest thing you could ever do
48:01
Speaker 1: in your life, which is somehow also the most difficult,
48:05
Speaker 1: is to yield the strongest member of your body, your tongue,
48:09
Speaker 1: and to confess his name and to be born again
48:12
Speaker 1: in the spirit. Jesus confused Nicodemus with this, that you
48:17
Speaker 1: must be born again. Remember Nicodemus said, well, how can
48:20
Speaker 1: one be born again? Can I go in my mother's womb?
48:23
Speaker 1: And Jesus was talking about in the spirit. Because when
48:26
Speaker 1: you do this, Romans 10, 9, that if thou shalt
48:29
Speaker 1: confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe
48:33
Speaker 1: in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
48:36
Speaker 1: you shall be saved. That is how simple it is.
48:39
Speaker 1: You confess. James calls your tongue the strongest member of
48:43
Speaker 1: your body. And if you will yield that member and
48:48
Speaker 1: confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in
48:52
Speaker 1: your heart that God has raised him from the dead,
48:55
Speaker 1: you are instantaneously born again, never to be separated from
48:59
Speaker 1: the God of the universe ever again for all eternity.
49:03
Speaker 1: Because he had you in his mind. And when you
49:06
Speaker 1: do that, your name is traced over in the Lamb's
49:10
Speaker 1: book of life with the blood of the Lamb, never
49:13
Speaker 1: to be blotted out. That is why those that reject
49:17
Speaker 1: God in the Old Testament and in the New the
49:20
Speaker 1: Lord says, I have to blot them out of the
49:22
Speaker 1: book of the living. He doesn't want to do that,
49:25
Speaker 1: but he has to if you don't accept the free
49:27
Speaker 1: gift of salvation that Jesus has provided for you. And
49:32
Speaker 1: so if you're here, if you're watching somewhere, if you
49:35
Speaker 1: find this years down the road and there's a group
49:39
Speaker 1: of people missing now in Oklahoma City, just know that
49:43
Speaker 1: that stays the same. It's the same yesterday. It was
49:47
Speaker 1: the same as the days of Abraham and Adam, the
49:50
Speaker 1: same in all the Old Testament, the same in the
49:52
Speaker 1: early church age, the same today. It'll be the same
49:55
Speaker 1: in the tribulation. You get saved the exact same way.
49:59
Speaker 1: You are saved by faith and justified only by the
50:02
Speaker 1: blood of Jesus. There is no other way. And so
50:06
Speaker 1: if you need to do that, do that today and
50:08
Speaker 1: cry out to him, call out to him wherever you are,
50:13
Speaker 1: and you will be absolutely instantaneously born again in the spirit,
50:17
Speaker 1: never to be without the Lord. And Father, we come
50:19
Speaker 1: before you and we thank you that you had all
50:23
Speaker 1: of us on your mind at the cross. Jesus, we
50:29
Speaker 1: are coming before you and asking that, Lord, you would
50:32
Speaker 1: give us discernment for the days ahead. God, we pray
50:37
Speaker 1: that if there is anyone out there that is watching
50:40
Speaker 1: or listening or in this room today that does not
50:43
Speaker 1: know you as their personal Lord and Savior, and they
50:48
Speaker 1: have not been born again in the Spirit, I pray that, Jesus,
50:53
Speaker 1: you would drive them to their knees and that, Lord,
50:55
Speaker 1: they would cry out to you in complete obedience to
50:59
Speaker 1: Romans 10, 9 and yield the strongest member of their
51:04
Speaker 1: body to forever be born again in the spirit. And God,
51:10
Speaker 1: I thank you so much that you are calling out
51:14
Speaker 1: a people group for your name to be your bride
51:19
Speaker 1: in these days and in the days ahead. So Lord,
51:23
Speaker 1: be with us as a church, be with your church
51:28
Speaker 1: around the world. And God, we pray that you would
51:31
Speaker 1: lift up every single person around the world that has
51:38
Speaker 1: given their lives to you, Lord, let them find a new, deeper,
51:43
Speaker 1: more intimate relationship with you in these days, in closing
51:48
Speaker 1: out this year. Lord, there are people being hunted everywhere
51:54
Speaker 1: through the Middle East and Africa just by simply having
51:57
Speaker 1: the Bible app on their phone or carrying a paper copy.
52:03
Speaker 1: And God, we pray that you would set that vengeance
52:07
Speaker 1: And that violence, set that violence aside and let your
52:11
Speaker 1: vengeance take place right now, God. From Romans 12, 9.
52:15
Speaker 1: And that Lord, you would show your people exactly how
52:22
Speaker 1: to travel, where to hide, where to move, when to move. Lord,
52:28
Speaker 1: we pray that you would provide them food and sustenance
52:31
Speaker 1: for they and their children. God, we pray that you
52:35
Speaker 1: would get physical copies of your word into their hands,
52:40
Speaker 1: however you need to. And that God, you would let
52:44
Speaker 1: your church take hold and take deep root across the
52:48
Speaker 1: continent of Africa. Lord, we pray that you would tear
52:53
Speaker 1: down those strongholds and fortresses of witchcraft and voodoo. And Lord,
52:59
Speaker 1: let all of those witches and warlocks And that sorcery
53:04
Speaker 1: turned back on those that would seek to harm your people. Lord,
53:10
Speaker 1: let the pit they dug, they fall into. And God,
53:15
Speaker 1: let them give their lives to you and cry out
53:20
Speaker 1: in repentance. Save them, Father, from the uttermost before it
53:26
Speaker 1: is too late. And Lord, we pray today, for all
53:31
Speaker 1: of your people in Iran that are crying out for freedom. God,
53:38
Speaker 1: we are praying for them that you would overturn that
53:40
Speaker 1: leadership in that nation and that you would raise up
53:46
Speaker 1: godly people all across Persia, just as you did in
53:51
Speaker 1: the days of Esther. God, you have done it before
53:56
Speaker 1: and you can do it again. And Lord, let those
53:59
Speaker 1: people march through the streets of Iran in freedom, crying
54:05
Speaker 1: out the name of Jesus. Because there is no other name.
54:11
Speaker 1: And Lord, we pray that you would let revival take
54:15
Speaker 1: place all across Iran, openly and publicly. And that God,
54:21
Speaker 1: just as you declared in Jeremiah 49, you would set
54:23
Speaker 1: your throne in southern Iran in Elam. And Lord, that
54:30
Speaker 1: will be true in the millennial reign. But God, we
54:34
Speaker 1: pray that it would be true in these days and
54:37
Speaker 1: that it would be a testimony for the entire world
54:41
Speaker 1: to see before you call us home. So God, be
54:46
Speaker 1: with your people. Lord, whatever is going to happen this
54:50
Speaker 1: fall around the midterms, God, we are praying Babel in
54:55
Speaker 1: the camps of the enemy. that Lord, whatever their plot
54:59
Speaker 1: is in New York City and Chicago, across this great
55:04
Speaker 1: nation that was founded on the word of God, we
55:08
Speaker 1: are praying that you would let Babel into their camps.
55:14
Speaker 1: And God, whatever their plan is, we pray that it
55:17
Speaker 1: would be stopped in the name of Jesus. And we
55:21
Speaker 1: are pleading your blood, Lord, over the doorframe of this nation.
55:26
Speaker 1: and over every city, every church. God, we pray that
55:30
Speaker 1: you would tear down the strongholds that are trying to
55:33
Speaker 1: take root in this nation. And God, let elected leaders
55:38
Speaker 1: raise up that are carrying Bibles once again into the
55:40
Speaker 1: halls of Congress and in the local election offices. Lord,
55:47
Speaker 1: in city council chambers and the mayor's offices. Lord, let
55:51
Speaker 1: your word sit on the desks of leaders today. all
55:54
Speaker 1: across this land, because there are God-fearing men and women
55:58
Speaker 1: that are seeking after you, that you have placed in
56:01
Speaker 1: position of leadership, just like in the days of Esther
56:06
Speaker 1: and in the days of Daniel. And God, we pray
56:09
Speaker 1: that you would do that once again and that you
56:11
Speaker 1: would save this great land and preserve it until the
56:15
Speaker 1: day that you call us home. Lord, let this nation
56:19
Speaker 1: be a land that stays true to you, until the
56:24
Speaker 1: rapture of the church, whenever that may be. But we
56:28
Speaker 1: just pray that you would preserve this land to send
56:32
Speaker 1: your word out to the ends of the earth and
56:34
Speaker 1: back and to be a place that sends missionaries all
56:38
Speaker 1: over the world to make disciples until the day we
56:43
Speaker 1: meet you in the air. And Lord, what a glorious
56:47
Speaker 1: day it'll be. And we cannot wait for it. But
56:51
Speaker 1: until that time, Lord, give us discernment on exactly what
56:55
Speaker 1: you would have of us in the days ahead. And
56:59
Speaker 1: we love you, Lord, and be with us in this week.
57:02
Speaker 1: In Jesus's name, amen.