Latest / Prophecy Watchers / The Hidden God of Esther | Matt Freeman

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The Hidden God of Esther | Matt Freeman · Prophecy Watchers

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Speaker 1: We're gonna cover the introduction to Esther in chapter one.
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Speaker 1: Esther is an amazing book that is about this young
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Speaker 1: Jewish woman who rises up to become queen of the
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Speaker 1: Persian empire. And it's an incredible story of God's provision.
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Speaker 1: So let's pray. We'll go to the Lord and dive in. Father,
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Speaker 1: we thank you so much for this time together. God,
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Speaker 1: thank you that you have a heart for the Persian
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Speaker 1: people that was dated all the way back to the
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Speaker 1: days of Daniel and Esther. And God, we thank you
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Speaker 1: that you have a plan for them that we can
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Speaker 1: see working out in modern times, God, as one of
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Speaker 1: the greatest moves of your spirit is in Iran right now.
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Speaker 1: And Lord, those Persian people are desperate for the God
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Speaker 1: of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to save them. And Lord,
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Speaker 1: just as you did in the days of Esther, we
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Speaker 1: pray that you would do that again this day and
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Speaker 1: that God revival would spread across the streets of Tehran
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Speaker 1: and the entire nation of Iran would be overturned, Father. Lord,
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Speaker 1: you have a plan moving in the Middle East and
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Speaker 1: we thank you that you are a God that is
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Speaker 1: still active in the lives of man today. And so Lord,
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Speaker 1: we are coming before you this morning asking that as
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Speaker 1: we open up this book, you would teach us everything
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Speaker 1: out of your word. We are so thankful for this
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Speaker 1: time together, and we pray that you would give us
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Speaker 1: wisdom and discernment and understanding this day, God, in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen. Okay. Well,
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Speaker 1: like I said, Esther, it's really one of the most
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Speaker 1: conspicuous books of the entire Bible. There are you know,
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Speaker 1: a couple of books that are in the Bible, a
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Speaker 1: lot of books in the Bible, really, that when you
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Speaker 1: look at aren't studied much, Jude, Esther, Nahum, you know,
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Speaker 1: you can go down a list, but Esther is an
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Speaker 1: amazing book. It chronicles this conspiracy and drama to eradicate
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Speaker 1: God's people that spans over a decade. And so this,
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Speaker 1: what happens in this book took a little over 10 years.
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Speaker 1: And the book of Esther testifies to the watchful care
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Speaker 1: of Jehovah over his people, and that includes us today,
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Speaker 1: even when you do not see him necessarily. The name
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Speaker 1: of God, Yahweh, Jehovah, et cetera, it doesn't even appear
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Speaker 1: in the book, just like Song of Solomon. So the
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Speaker 1: name of God shows up nowhere in the entire book
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Speaker 1: of Esther, which is remarkable since this book only has
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Speaker 1: 167 verses. And king, the word king, occurs 160 times
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Speaker 1: in 91 verses. So over half the verses have the
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Speaker 1: word king in them. And the personal name Ahasuerus appears
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Speaker 1: 29 times in 28 verses. But the challenge for all
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Speaker 1: of us is, is God's name present? And the answer
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Speaker 1: is yes, in some really surprising ways. We'll see as
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Speaker 1: we kind of go through the book. And many people,
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Speaker 1: it's amazing how many people in the early church, all
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Speaker 1: the way up to the 16th century, wanted to remove
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Speaker 1: Esther from the Bible simply because God's name is not found.
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Speaker 1: The argument in the 1500s, as they were putting together
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Speaker 1: more of the canon and things, was we need to
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Speaker 1: remove Esther because the Lord's name isn't there. And that
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Speaker 1: was simply the only basis they had for wanting to
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Speaker 1: remove it. Now the name Esther means concealed or something hidden.
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Speaker 1: And My question for you is, does God give us
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Speaker 1: hidden messages in the Bible? And the answer, of course,
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Speaker 1: is yes. We looked at a lot of them in Daniels.
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Speaker 1: We're going through Daniel. Remember Daniel 5, the handwriting on
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Speaker 1: the wall? God delivers this message and many other messages
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Speaker 1: in code. And if you remember that scene in Daniel
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Speaker 1: 5 with Nebuchadnezzar's grandson holding the banquet and the finger
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Speaker 1: of a man's hand showed up in the hand, started
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Speaker 1: writing on the wall. And this is the writing that
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Speaker 1: was written. Many, many tecla eupharsin. It's Daniel 5 verse 25.
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Speaker 1: And then Daniel gives the interpretation of that. This is
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Speaker 1: the interpretation of the thing. Many, God hath numbered thy
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Speaker 1: kingdom and finished it. Tecla, thou art weighed in the
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Speaker 1: balances and art found wanting. Perez, or what we would
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Speaker 1: say in our vernacular, Persia, thy kingdom is divided and
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Speaker 1: given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar and
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Speaker 1: they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of
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Speaker 1: gold about his neck and made a proclamation concerning him
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Speaker 1: that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
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Speaker 1: And that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans slain.
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Speaker 1: That's Daniel 5, 25 through 30. The form of encryption
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Speaker 1: God used back in Daniel 5 is called Atbosh. And Atbosh,
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Speaker 1: it's It literally is a mono-alphabaic substitution cipher. So what
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Speaker 1: you do is you take the letters of the alphabet
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Speaker 1: and you take the first letter and replace it with
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Speaker 1: the last letter, the second letter with the second to
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Speaker 1: last letter, and you go down like that. The Otbosh
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Speaker 1: cipher then, you just have to reverse the letter of
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Speaker 1: where it is in the alphabet to get the real code.
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Speaker 1: And this is what it looked like in the events
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Speaker 1: of Daniel 5. This was Chuck Missler's slide from, I
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Speaker 1: don't know, 25, 30 years ago or something. But if
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Speaker 1: you look at the Otbosh cipher, you have many, many tekloufarsen.
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Speaker 1: And then how it's written in Daniel, the letters are reversed, again,
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Speaker 1: with the first being the last. And then you work
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Speaker 1: your way in like this all the way to the
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Speaker 1: midpoint of the alphabet. But that's what God's hand did
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Speaker 1: in Daniel 5. It wrote those letters in a cipher
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Speaker 1: and only Daniel had the wisdom to unlock it and
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Speaker 1: with the discernment from the Lord. So God does this often.
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Speaker 1: He writes in code a lot throughout the Bible. Proverbs
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Speaker 1: 25 too, it's the glory of God to conceal a thing,
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Speaker 1: but the honor of kings, that's you and I in
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Speaker 1: this room, if you're in the Lord and born again,
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Speaker 1: the honor of kings is to search out a matter. Now,
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Speaker 1: if you think about, there's things like this all over
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Speaker 1: the Bible. I'll give you one example, though. I just
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Speaker 1: made that second bullet to remind me of it. But
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Speaker 1: if you go to Genesis and Exodus and you go
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Speaker 1: to the first letter for Torah in Hebrew, T-O-R-H, and
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Speaker 1: you can find the first letter T. In Genesis 1-1,
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Speaker 1: it's Bereshit. That's where the first letter T shows up.
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Speaker 1: You go to that T and You count 49 letters
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Speaker 1: in the Hebrew alphabet and you find an O. You
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Speaker 1: count 49 letters and you find an R. You count
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Speaker 1: 49 letters and you find an H. It spells Torah.
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Speaker 1: The same thing happens in Exodus. Going forward, you find
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Speaker 1: the first T. Count 49 letters, so seven squared. Spells Torah.
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Speaker 1: You get to Leviticus, it doesn't happen. In Deuteronomy and Numbers,
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Speaker 1: it happens, but it happens backwards. So you get to
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Speaker 1: the first H. You go 49 letters, you find an R.
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Speaker 1: 49 letters, you find an O. 49 letters, you find
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Speaker 1: a T. When you get to Leviticus, in seven-letter intervals,
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Speaker 1: it spells YHWH, so Yahweh. So you have Genesis, Exodus,
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Speaker 1: and Numbers and Deuteronomy all say Torah pointing towards Leviticus.
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Speaker 1: And right there in the middle in Leviticus is Yahweh, God,
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Speaker 1: right there. So you have the whole Torah pointing to God.
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Speaker 1: And so you have these kinds of things throughout the
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Speaker 1: entire Bible. So what about math? So I haven't given
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Speaker 1: you guys a math lesson in a while. I really
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Speaker 1: feel like I've let you down going through Daniel, not
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Speaker 1: having some mathematics in the book. So there are two
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Speaker 1: main constants, Rob's so excited. There are two main constants
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Speaker 1: in our physical world and math, pi and Euler's number.
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Speaker 1: If anyone in here can tell me what Euler's number
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Speaker 1: is before I get to the next slide, I will
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Speaker 1: give you a Chick-fil-A gift card for you and your family, okay?
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Speaker 1: These two constants are embedded in two of the most
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Speaker 1: important verses on creation. So Pi, obviously everyone knows what
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Speaker 1: Pi is. Euler's number is the base for natural logarithms.
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Speaker 1: So a lot of math is logarithmic. And so Euler's
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Speaker 1: number is the base for all those natural logarithms. In
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Speaker 1: Genesis 1.1, you get, in Hebrew, you find the constant pi.
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Speaker 1: In John 1.1, remember John 1.1, in the beginning was
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Speaker 1: the word, the word was with God, the word was God.
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Speaker 1: You get the physics constant for Euler's number. And I
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Speaker 1: think this is so fascinating. So what you do, remember
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Speaker 1: Hebrew and Greek are the only alphabets in the world
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Speaker 1: that each letter has a numerical value. And God says,
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Speaker 1: chose those two languages on purpose to write the word
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Speaker 1: of God, because God is a mathematician. He's the greatest
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Speaker 1: mathematician ever. He's a scientist. He loves math and physics
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Speaker 1: and the world that he created. And in Genesis 1.1,
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Speaker 1: so what you do is you take in Genesis 1.1,
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Speaker 1: that verse, if you take the number of the letters
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Speaker 1: times the product, so multiplying all those letters, and you
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Speaker 1: divide it by the number of words times the product
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Speaker 1: of the words, there's the formula for For Genesis 1.1,
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Speaker 1: 28 times 2.3887872 times 10 to the 34th power divided
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Speaker 1: by 7 times 3.0415353 times 10 to the 17th. you
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Speaker 1: get pi exactly as it is. Now if you go
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Speaker 1: to John 1 1 and do the exact same thing,
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Speaker 1: you get the answer as 2.718 times 10 to the
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Speaker 1: 43rd power and that is Euler's number, the natural base
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Speaker 1: for all logarithms and And I think that is absolutely incredible.
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Speaker 1: So there are 90,000 possible five digit numbers from one
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Speaker 1: to 9.9999. And thus the probability of that happening by
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Speaker 1: accident when you do the math and the division is
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Speaker 1: one out of 8 billion. So God has his thumbprint
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Speaker 1: all over creation and the word of God in a
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Speaker 1: lot of hidden ways that don't just naturally come out.
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Speaker 1: You really have to dig into the Bible and look
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Speaker 1: for him in these ways. And Esther is one of
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Speaker 1: those books, because like I said, his name does not
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Speaker 1: show up anywhere, but it is there. It's just hidden.
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Speaker 1: Isaiah 53, here's another example. Isaiah 53, during communion this morning,
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Speaker 1: we talked about Isaiah 53 a lot, but it's such
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Speaker 1: a prophetic chapter. It's all about Jesus and the crucifixion.
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Speaker 1: And it's so important and prophetic as to the deity
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ that a lot of non-believing Jewish people
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Speaker 1: tried to remove it from the Bible. So they wanted
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Speaker 1: it taken out of the book of Isaiah. But when
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Speaker 1: the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, a complete copy of
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Speaker 1: the book of Isaiah was discovered. And right there in
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Speaker 1: the middle of that scroll was Isaiah 53, just as
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Speaker 1: we have it in our Bible today. Embedded in the
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Speaker 1: letters of that chapter are amazing details about the cross.
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Speaker 1: So Isaiah 53 is all about Jesus and the cross.
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Speaker 1: And in that one chapter, When you do what the Hebrew,
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Speaker 1: what the Jewish people like to do, it's called equal
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Speaker 1: letter codes. So finding letters on sequences spells codes. When
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Speaker 1: you do that in Isaiah 53, you can find the
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Speaker 1: names of the disciples, three different Marys, which are all
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Speaker 1: in the gospels. Herod shows up, bread, wine, Passover. What
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Speaker 1: the people in the gospels chant is recorded, crucify him,
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Speaker 1: crucify him. With all of these included, what's also amazing
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Speaker 1: is that whose name does not appear in the chapter. Statistically,
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Speaker 1: the name of Judas would have a very high probability
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Speaker 1: of showing up just because of the common combination of
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Speaker 1: Hebrew letters in his name. However, Judas is nowhere in
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Speaker 1: the chapter. And that is incredible. Now, Sulamit, if any
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Speaker 1: of you have heard of her, shows up in that
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Speaker 1: list and she's identified in Mark 15, verse 40. There
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Speaker 1: were also women looking on afar off among who was
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Speaker 1: Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, two of
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Speaker 1: the Marys, two of the three Marys in the gospels,
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Speaker 1: the less and of Joseph and Sulami. So she only
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Speaker 1: shows up one place in that one verse in Mark 15, 40,
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Speaker 1: and she's here in Isaiah 53 embedded. There's a rabbi
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Speaker 1: named Yaakov Ramsville. He found the true Messiah. He came
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Speaker 1: to know Jesus, the King of the Jews. And he's
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Speaker 1: a believer. He's now with the Lord as he's passed away.
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Speaker 1: But he spent years studying what many would refer to
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Speaker 1: as the Bible code, stuff like this, what I'm talking about.
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Speaker 1: And he was born on June 11th in 1930. He
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Speaker 1: passed away on July 10th of 2005 at the age
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Speaker 1: of 75. There's a couple of his books that he wrote,
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Speaker 1: pictures there on your slide, but His Name is Jesus
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Speaker 1: is one of his most famous books where he finds
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Speaker 1: the name Yeshua embedded in the Hebrew letters of every
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Speaker 1: Old Testament prophecy speaking of Jesus. And it's just, it's remarkable. Well,
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Speaker 1: out of his book, I just, I've turned this, rotated
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Speaker 1: this 90 degrees on your notes so you could have
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Speaker 1: the full page, but this is the page out of
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Speaker 1: his book about Isaiah 53. And you can find, for example,
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Speaker 1: the first line, Yeshua is my name. There it is
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Speaker 1: how it's spelled in Hebrew. It begins in Isaiah 53, 10,
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Speaker 1: the 11th word in the fourth letter and the interval
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Speaker 1: as you go backwards, 20 letters. And you kind of
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Speaker 1: go through that, but you can find all of these things.
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Speaker 1: You can find his signature Messiah, Nazarene, Galilee, Shiloh, Pharisees, Levites, Cepheus, Annas, Passover.
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Speaker 1: The man Herod is there. You can find the evil
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Speaker 1: Roman city, let him be crucified, what they chanted at
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Speaker 1: the cross. You go down that list, all of this
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Speaker 1: is embedded in Isaiah 53, chapter 53. And that's just incredible.
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Speaker 1: But the Jews look for things like this. And God
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Speaker 1: has this embedded all over the word of God to
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Speaker 1: show them his signature so that they are without excuse.
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Speaker 1: And same with you and I. God's divine hand is
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Speaker 1: on every letter of the Holy Bible. And God warned
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Speaker 1: his people that he would hide himself from them in
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Speaker 1: Deuteronomy chapter 31, verses 16 through 18. And the Lord
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Speaker 1: said unto Moses, behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers
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Speaker 1: and this people will rise up and go a whoring
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Speaker 1: after the gods of the strangers of the land, whether
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Speaker 1: they go to be among them and will forsake me
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Speaker 1: and break my covenant, which I have made with them.
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Speaker 1: Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that
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Speaker 1: day and I will forsake them and I will hide
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Speaker 1: my face from them. They shall be devoured and many
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Speaker 1: evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will
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Speaker 1: say in that day, are not these evils come upon
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Speaker 1: us because our God is not among us? And I
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Speaker 1: will surely, look what God says, hide my face in
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Speaker 1: that day. See, God promised to hide himself from them
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Speaker 1: for a season. And though he was hidden from them
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Speaker 1: in Esther, he was forever warring and fighting for them.
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Speaker 1: And this book shows God as overruling all earthly and
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Speaker 1: spiritual authority. Satan was at work using Haman to try
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Speaker 1: and blot out the nation, exactly as once before he
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Speaker 1: had used Pharaoh for the same purpose in Egypt. And
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Speaker 1: in the end, though, Jehovah's counsel must stand. His promise
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Speaker 1: of Messiah, the coming seed of the woman, would not fail.
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Speaker 1: And so he will always preserve his people. He must
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Speaker 1: overrule all for the preservation of his people and of
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Speaker 1: the line by which that seed, the seed of the woman,
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Speaker 1: was to come into the world. And his working was
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Speaker 1: secret and hidden, hence the name of Jehovah- is hidden
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Speaker 1: secretly at least four times in the book of Esther,
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Speaker 1: probably more. Now the name in Hebrew, I am that
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Speaker 1: I am, is embedded once in Esther. The Masorah has
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Speaker 1: a rubric calling attention to the former fact of the
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Speaker 1: four names. And at least three ancient manuscripts are known
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Speaker 1: in which the acrostic four letters in all five cases
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Speaker 1: are written larger than the others so that they stand
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Speaker 1: out boldly and prominently. In the original manuscript, some of
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Speaker 1: the letters were written larger to form that acrostic, which
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Speaker 1: is really cool. And this shows the four consonant letters
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Speaker 1: of the name, kind of like we have there, J-H-V-H
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Speaker 1: or Yehovah. In the Hebrew, Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, or as written in
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Speaker 1: Hebrew from right to left, He-Vav-Heh-Yod would be Jehovah. And
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Speaker 1: the five letters of the fifth acrostic, E-H-Y-H, that means
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Speaker 1: I am that I am. So we'll look at these
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Speaker 1: kind of at the end of the study and throughout Esther.
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Speaker 1: And since this book does not include the name of God,
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Speaker 1: like I mentioned, many church leaders did not want it
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Speaker 1: included in the canon, which begs the question, do you
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Speaker 1: and I today trust that God can hold his word together?
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Speaker 1: And of course the answer is yes. Can God make
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Speaker 1: sure that his word is available for us today? Are
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Speaker 1: there books missing from God's word? Many did not want
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Speaker 1: it included, not only because the name of God is absent,
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Speaker 1: but there's no mention of heaven or hell, no prediction
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Speaker 1: of the Messiah, no reference to worship or faith. And yet,
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Speaker 1: let's not forget that it's his word, not man's word.
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Speaker 1: And you can be assured that God has preserved exactly
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Speaker 1: what he wants you to have this day. Now, when
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Speaker 1: you think about that, There are a lot of cults
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Speaker 1: in the world that are entirely based off of a
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Speaker 1: new book that was found. A lot of them. Some
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Speaker 1: of them very, very large. Some of them based in Utah.
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Speaker 1: Some of them based, you know, other parts of the
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Speaker 1: world that had to do with tablets found in Missouri
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Speaker 1: and other things. You cannot be led astray from And
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Speaker 1: think that anything outside of the 66 books that God
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Speaker 1: has included for you right now is anything close to
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Speaker 1: the word of God. And there are a lot of
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Speaker 1: people that would want to lead you astray and whisper
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Speaker 1: in your ear that, well, but check out this other
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Speaker 1: thing over here and go read this. There's some new
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Speaker 1: insights in this. You could read things like that if
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Speaker 1: it's from a historical perspective or you want some view
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Speaker 1: of what were they thinking back then or how did
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Speaker 1: they write. do not hold it up as equal to
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Speaker 1: the word of God. There's a huge difference. And a
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Speaker 1: lot of people are led astray and they build their
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Speaker 1: entire lives off of these other books and they just
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Speaker 1: get taken out. And it's really sad. But God has
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Speaker 1: exactly what he wants you to have this day. Okay,
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Speaker 1: so trust him with it. There are books referenced in
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament that are not in our canon today.
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Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they're not valuable to look at, but
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Speaker 1: don't hold them up right now as equal to the
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Speaker 1: word of God. We don't know if they are or not.
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Speaker 1: That's the point is just because it has a reference
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Speaker 1: in the Bible doesn't mean necessarily that it's God's word.
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Speaker 1: So let's stick with exactly what God has given us
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Speaker 1: today and you won't be led astray. Now, after the
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Speaker 1: book of Daniel... Remember, a mere remnant returned to Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: Most of the nation preferred the easy, lucrative life offered
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Speaker 1: by the Persians. Remember, Cyrus comes in, conquers Babylon. He
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Speaker 1: gives all of God's people, the Jews, financial incentives to
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Speaker 1: go and rebuild the temple, which is what begins in Ezra.
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Speaker 1: And a lot of the people, though, a very small
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Speaker 1: portion actually took him up on it. Most of them
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Speaker 1: decide to stay either in Babylon or in Persia, at
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Speaker 1: Shushan where the palace was and just live a comfortable life.
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Speaker 1: And so despite God imploring them to come out of
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Speaker 1: Babylon after the 70 years were over, you can find
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Speaker 1: that Isaiah 48, 20 and Jeremiah 29, 10, many stayed behind.
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Speaker 1: And the reason God wanted them out was to bless
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Speaker 1: them in the land of his promise from Deuteronomy 28.
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Speaker 1: And yet God did not forsake those that stayed in Persia.
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Speaker 1: His supernatural hand of protection was upon those that remained
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Speaker 1: in the foreign land, Esther being one of them. So
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Speaker 1: the book of Esther is in seven parts. Seven is
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Speaker 1: always the number of what God does on behalf of man,
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Speaker 1: the number of completeness for what God does on behalf
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Speaker 1: of man. You have the story of Vashti in chapter one,
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Speaker 1: Esther made queen in chapter two, the conspiracy of Haman
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Speaker 1: in chapter three, the courage of Esther bringing deliverance in
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Speaker 1: chapter four through seven, the vengeance in chapter eight through nine.
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Speaker 1: Remember in Romans 12, 19, vengeance is mine declares the Lord.
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Speaker 1: Then the feast of Purim in chapter six, which was
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Speaker 1: not a Levitical feast. So that's an important thing to note.
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Speaker 1: Purim was created during these events. In chapter nine, Purim
22:28
Speaker 1: in Hebrew, it means lots, the feast of lots. or
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Speaker 1: an English feast of lots, a joyous Jewish festival commemorating
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Speaker 1: the survival of the Jews who in the fifth century
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Speaker 1: BC were marked for death by their Persian rulers. And
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Speaker 1: the lot was cast and Haman ends up getting hung
22:45
Speaker 1: in the end, not them. And then finally the closing
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Speaker 1: chapter 10 in the epilogue. If you remember back to
22:53
Speaker 1: our studies in Zechariah and Nahum and others in the
22:55
Speaker 1: Old Testament, Joshua, I think we had this. I had
22:58
Speaker 1: this timeline for all of you. You can kind of
23:01
Speaker 1: see on there the Babylonian exile with Daniel. And you
23:04
Speaker 1: look further down that timeline, you can find Esther right
23:07
Speaker 1: there in the post-exile period after the restoration of the land.
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Speaker 1: So you have Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezra were kind of
23:16
Speaker 1: all contemporaries in that same time. And then of course,
23:19
Speaker 1: you've got the final books, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi that
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Speaker 1: kind of close encouraging the Jews that closed the Old Testament. Okay,
23:28
Speaker 1: this book will chronicle this Jewish maiden being elevated to
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Speaker 1: the throne of Persia as queen. What an amazing life
23:38
Speaker 1: Esther led of real bravery. And it's used by God
23:42
Speaker 1: to preserve his people from a Hitler-like annihilation attempt. And remember,
23:47
Speaker 1: Satan has to wipe out the Jews because of Hosea
23:50
Speaker 1: 5 verse 15. They have to petition God first. and
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Speaker 1: repent in order for Jesus to return at the end
23:58
Speaker 1: of the tribulation. So the anti-Semitism you're seeing grow across
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Speaker 1: the world right now, the reason it's always been there,
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Speaker 1: but it's even getting deeper and deeper right now, the
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Speaker 1: reason is because Satan has to wipe them out. Now,
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Speaker 1: the deliverance of God saving his people is celebrated in
24:17
Speaker 1: the Feast of Purim or lots, like I mentioned. Now,
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Speaker 1: the book of Esther, all of the Old Testament is
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Speaker 1: so important for us today. Romans 15, four, for whatsoever
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Speaker 1: things were written aforetime were written for our learning that
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Speaker 1: we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
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Speaker 1: In 1 Corinthians 10, 11, now all these things happened
24:39
Speaker 1: unto them for ensembles and they are written for our admonition.
24:44
Speaker 1: Look at that, written for us today, upon whom the
24:48
Speaker 1: ends of the world are come. That's quite a statement
24:52
Speaker 1: from God. in 1 Corinthians 10, 11. Because that was
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Speaker 1: written almost 2000 years ago, not quite. Upon whom the
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Speaker 1: ends of the world are come. If the end of
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Speaker 1: the world was come upon them in the early church,
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Speaker 1: it's definitely come upon us almost 2000 years later. You've
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Speaker 1: been called to the day in which we live. This
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Speaker 1: is one of my favorite verses out of Esther. Esther 4,
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Speaker 1: 14 says, This was actually, this passage was the first message,
25:27
Speaker 1: the first scripture we ever looked at as a church
25:30
Speaker 1: on November 20th of 2020. November 29th, I should say,
25:35
Speaker 1: of 2020. Esther 4.14, for if thou altogether holdest thy
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Speaker 1: peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance
25:43
Speaker 1: arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and
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Speaker 1: thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether
25:51
Speaker 1: thou art come to the kingdom for such a time
25:53
Speaker 1: as this? You and I, God did not make a
25:56
Speaker 1: mistake where we are today. The Lord is looking for Esther's, Daniel's, Ezekiel's, David's,
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Speaker 1: et cetera, to stand up in this day and age
26:08
Speaker 1: where we live in 2026 and to fight for his church.
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Speaker 1: The events of Esther happened about 30 years before the
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Speaker 1: events of Nehemiah. And Nehemiah then raises up and goes
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Speaker 1: to build the wall while Esther delivers God's people in Persia,
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Speaker 1: where the very king in Persia, all those decades later,
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Speaker 1: would give the command to go rebuild that wall, which
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Speaker 1: would trigger the 70th week or the 70 weeks of Daniel.
26:37
Speaker 1: But God is looking for people like that today, the
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Speaker 1: Nehemiahs of the world, the people that would stand up
26:44
Speaker 1: and be bold and say, God, whatever you need of us,
26:47
Speaker 1: we're here. And there are a lot of people in
26:50
Speaker 1: the church right now that are hiding their gifts and
26:54
Speaker 1: their talents in a basket and burying their talents and
26:59
Speaker 1: just hoping that it's going to be okay and walking
27:02
Speaker 1: through life and just kind of cruising through and knowing
27:07
Speaker 1: they've got their fire insurance and they're good. Otherwise, let's
27:12
Speaker 1: move on. Jesus is going to take care of this
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Speaker 1: in the end. But that's not what God would have
27:16
Speaker 1: of us. He would have people that would stand up
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Speaker 1: and take a stance in the world, speak out for Israel,
27:25
Speaker 1: speak out for his church, speak out for Jesus, teach
27:29
Speaker 1: the word of God, be a light to the world
27:32
Speaker 1: and be active. It doesn't mean you have to lead
27:36
Speaker 1: a Bible study or a Sunday school class or anything
27:39
Speaker 1: like that, but you have to be obedient to God
27:43
Speaker 1: and what gift has he given you and entrusted you
27:46
Speaker 1: with And how should you use it? And he's always
27:50
Speaker 1: going to have something for you. So with all of
27:52
Speaker 1: that background, and just one final note, the events of Esther,
27:57
Speaker 1: they take place between Ezra 6 and Ezra chapter 7.
28:02
Speaker 1: So the whole book fits within those two chapters. So
28:05
Speaker 1: it goes from about 43 BC, which is Xerxes' third year,
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Speaker 1: to 473 BC, the end of Xerxes' 12th year. And
28:14
Speaker 1: you can find those time markers in Esther 1.3 and
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Speaker 1: Esther 3.7. So Esther chapter one, verse one, now it
28:22
Speaker 1: came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus,
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Speaker 1: which reigned from India, even unto Ethiopia, over 107 and
28:31
Speaker 1: 20 provinces. Now, so Ahasuerus, the Persian king, he reigned
28:37
Speaker 1: over this massive empire. If you look at a map
28:39
Speaker 1: and you put your finger on India, and then you
28:41
Speaker 1: go put your finger on Ethiopia and look at all
28:43
Speaker 1: the land that he covered, His empire was huge. His
28:47
Speaker 1: Persian name, which I will completely butcher, which in Hebrew
28:52
Speaker 1: becomes Ahasuerus. In the Greek, it's translated to Xerxes. Okay,
28:56
Speaker 1: you may know him from history as Xerxes. His father
29:00
Speaker 1: was Darius I from Daniel 9, when we studied Daniel.
29:03
Speaker 1: And his grandfather was Cyrus the Great, who conquered Babylon,
29:08
Speaker 1: as we saw in Daniel. Artaxerxes turns out to be
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Speaker 1: his son, and is who triggers the 70-week prophecy of
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Speaker 1: Daniel 9 in Nehemiah chapter 2. So just try to
29:20
Speaker 1: give you a feel of where these historical figures and
29:23
Speaker 1: kings fit within the Bible. Esther is there in the
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Speaker 1: days of Xerxes. India and Ethiopia were the borders of
29:32
Speaker 1: his empire, so this was a massive stretch of land
29:35
Speaker 1: that he conquered. Then in those days when the king
29:38
Speaker 1: Ahasuerus set on the throne of his kingdom, which was
29:42
Speaker 1: in Shushan the palace. Now Shushan was 200 miles east
29:46
Speaker 1: of Babylon. So when they conquered Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian empire,
29:51
Speaker 1: which Babylon on the Euphrates in modern day Iraq, Shushan
29:55
Speaker 1: was 200 miles east in what we would call modern
29:58
Speaker 1: day Iran. Shushan was the capital of Elam, which has
30:04
Speaker 1: a very famous prophecy in Jeremiah 49 with a judgment
30:07
Speaker 1: that seems like some type of nuclear event. But Elam
30:11
Speaker 1: is the southern portion of modern day Iran. So if
30:14
Speaker 1: you look at a map and you find the mountain
30:17
Speaker 1: range that goes east and west in Iran, from that
30:20
Speaker 1: mountain range to the Persian Gulf is what the Bible
30:24
Speaker 1: calls Elam. And it's also the location where Artaxerxes' author
30:29
Speaker 1: writes authorizes Nehemiah to go and rebuild Jerusalem. So from
30:33
Speaker 1: 1884 to 1886, this Frenchman evacuated the area and discovered
30:40
Speaker 1: the ruins of this palace at Shushan. And these were
30:43
Speaker 1: some of the discoveries they made. They made the king's
30:46
Speaker 1: gate in Esther 4.2, the inner court in Esther 5.1,
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Speaker 1: the outer court in Esther 6.4, and the palace garden
30:55
Speaker 1: in Esther 7, 7. They also found one of the
30:58
Speaker 1: die or pure, which they used for casting lots in
31:02
Speaker 1: Esther 3, 7, which was pretty remarkable. And that verse
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Speaker 1: says in the first month, that is the month of
31:08
Speaker 1: Nisan in the 12th year of the King Ahasuerus, they
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Speaker 1: cast pure, that is the lot before Haman from day
31:15
Speaker 1: to day and from month to month to the 12th month,
31:18
Speaker 1: that is the month Adder. So Esther 1.3, in the
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Speaker 1: third year of his reign, he made a feast unto
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Speaker 1: all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia
31:27
Speaker 1: and Media, the nobles and the princes of the providences
31:31
Speaker 1: being before him. So these halls that this feast is
31:35
Speaker 1: in could hold thousands of people, thousands and thousands of people.
31:41
Speaker 1: In verse four here, when he showed the riches of
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Speaker 1: his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty
31:46
Speaker 1: many days, even 104 score days, So for 180 days,
31:53
Speaker 1: this king displayed pridefully the riches of his glorious kingdom.
31:57
Speaker 1: And along with these banquets, there are at least six
32:00
Speaker 1: other feasts recorded in Esther. You have Esther's coronation banquet.
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Speaker 1: You have Haman's celebration feast with the king. Esther then
32:08
Speaker 1: has two banquets for Haman and the king. The Jews'
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Speaker 1: banquets and when they hear the new decree in Esther 8,
32:15
Speaker 1: and then the feast of Purim in Esther 9. So
32:18
Speaker 1: there's a lot of banquets and feasts in the book
32:22
Speaker 1: of Esther. Okay, verse five here. And when those days
32:26
Speaker 1: were expired, the king made a feast unto all the
32:29
Speaker 1: people that were present in Shushan, the palace, both unto
32:32
Speaker 1: great and small, seven days in the court of the
32:35
Speaker 1: garden of the king's palace. When they excavated that area,
32:41
Speaker 1: that room exceeded over 60,000 square feet. That's how big
32:45
Speaker 1: it was. And they would hold that feast in there
32:48
Speaker 1: for over 180 days. It's a long time. I don't
32:52
Speaker 1: know if they ever took a break to shower or
32:55
Speaker 1: refill the food supply. I have no idea. But that's
32:59
Speaker 1: a long time in a big room with a lot
33:01
Speaker 1: of people taking a celebration. I guess none of them
33:05
Speaker 1: had jobs. They all could just hang out and do
33:08
Speaker 1: that for 180 days. So in verse six, where were white, green,
33:12
Speaker 1: and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and
33:15
Speaker 1: and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The
33:19
Speaker 1: beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of
33:22
Speaker 1: red and blue and white and black marble. So you
33:24
Speaker 1: can kind of get an idea of the beauty of
33:27
Speaker 1: this room. The words red, blue, white, and black following pavement,
33:33
Speaker 1: they're actually different types of building materials in Hebrew. So
33:37
Speaker 1: in verse seven, and they gave them drink and vessels
33:39
Speaker 1: of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another. and
33:42
Speaker 1: royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king.
33:47
Speaker 1: And the drinking was according to the law. None did
33:50
Speaker 1: compel for so the king had appointed to all the
33:53
Speaker 1: officers of the house that they should do according to
33:56
Speaker 1: every man's pleasure. Also Vashti, the queen, so she's Xerxes' queen,
34:02
Speaker 1: Queen Vashti. If you've ever seen the VeggieTales reenaction of Esther,
34:09
Speaker 1: you know who Vashti is. Made a feast for the
34:13
Speaker 1: woman in the royal house, which belonged to King Ahasuerus.
34:16
Speaker 1: Now Vashti means, her name means beautiful woman. And some
34:20
Speaker 1: sources think she was the granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar. The Bible
34:25
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily say that, but there are some historical documents
34:28
Speaker 1: that say she was Nebuchadnezzar's granddaughter. Men and women did
34:33
Speaker 1: not take their meals together in Persia. And that's important
34:37
Speaker 1: to note, unless they were dining together privately, but not
34:41
Speaker 1: in a group setting, the men would eat separate from
34:44
Speaker 1: the women in that culture back then. In verse 10,
34:47
Speaker 1: on the seventh day, when the heart of the king
34:50
Speaker 1: was merry, that's old English for saying he was very
34:55
Speaker 1: drunk and wasted, okay? The heart of the king was
34:58
Speaker 1: merry with wine. He commanded Mahuman, Bitha, Haberna, and I'm
35:04
Speaker 1: going to butcher these names, Bigtha and Abitha, Zether and Carcas,
35:09
Speaker 1: the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus
35:13
Speaker 1: the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king
35:18
Speaker 1: with the crown royal. In other words, the king is wasted.
35:23
Speaker 1: He's had a ton to drink. He wants to go
35:26
Speaker 1: and parade his wife around this banquet and show her off.
35:31
Speaker 1: So that's what he's trying to do. He's asking the
35:33
Speaker 1: seven chamberlains of the king to go and fetch his wife,
35:37
Speaker 1: bring her in in the royal garb and apparel, and
35:40
Speaker 1: show her off to all the people. And the people
35:43
Speaker 1: and the princes, her beauty, for she was fair to
35:45
Speaker 1: look on. So not a wise move. But the queen
35:49
Speaker 1: Vashti in verse 12 refused to come at the king's
35:52
Speaker 1: commandments by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very wroth
35:57
Speaker 1: and his anger burned in him. So He's enraged at this.
36:01
Speaker 1: Obviously her character was far better than his. Then the
36:05
Speaker 1: king said to the wise men, which knew the times
36:08
Speaker 1: for so was the king's manner toward all that knew
36:12
Speaker 1: law and judgment. And in verse 14, and the next
36:16
Speaker 1: unto him was, there's those seven names again, the seven
36:21
Speaker 1: princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face
36:23
Speaker 1: and which set the first in the kingdom. Now, interesting
36:27
Speaker 1: in verse 14, If you take those guys in Persia,
36:31
Speaker 1: there are seven names. They mean lamb, petrified or searching,
36:38
Speaker 1: a cloud of death, a mortal vapor. They mean contemplation
36:43
Speaker 1: or examination, imposthume, if I'm saying that right, bitterness of
36:49
Speaker 1: a bramble, impoverished to prepare certain and true. When you
36:52
Speaker 1: put their names together as a sentence, they actually say
36:56
Speaker 1: out in Hebrew, The lamb that was searched, covered by
36:59
Speaker 1: a cloud of death, examined without blemish, and yet prepared
37:03
Speaker 1: certain and true, will be the first to sit in
37:05
Speaker 1: the kingdom. And so their names even have a message
37:09
Speaker 1: of the Messiah right there in verse 14, which is interesting.
37:13
Speaker 1: What shall we do unto the queen in verse 15?
37:16
Speaker 1: Unto the queen Vashti, according to the law, because she
37:19
Speaker 1: hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by
37:23
Speaker 1: the chamberlains. And Memucan answered before the king and the
37:28
Speaker 1: princes Vashti, the queen hath not done wrong to the
37:32
Speaker 1: king only, but also to all the princes and to
37:34
Speaker 1: all the people that are in the provinces of the
37:37
Speaker 1: king Ahasuerus. So they want Vashti to be reprimanded so
37:42
Speaker 1: other women don't have the idea of going against their husbands.
37:46
Speaker 1: That's what they're saying. They're saying, hey, this can't stand.
37:49
Speaker 1: You have to do something to the queen. Otherwise, she's
37:52
Speaker 1: going to empower all of these other women to become
37:55
Speaker 1: rebellious against their husbands when they're drunk and tell them
37:58
Speaker 1: to do something stupid. And in verse 17, for this
38:03
Speaker 1: deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women
38:07
Speaker 1: so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes.
38:11
Speaker 1: When it shall be reported, the king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti
38:14
Speaker 1: the queen to be brought in before him, but she
38:17
Speaker 1: came not. In other words, they'll find courage in that
38:21
Speaker 1: to do the same. In verse 18, likewise shall the
38:24
Speaker 1: ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all
38:28
Speaker 1: the king's princes, which have heard the deed of the queen,
38:32
Speaker 1: thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. If
38:36
Speaker 1: it pleased the king, let there go a royal commandment
38:40
Speaker 1: from him and let it be written among the laws
38:44
Speaker 1: of the Persians and the Medes that it be not altered,
38:48
Speaker 1: that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus and let
38:51
Speaker 1: the king be give her royal estate unto another that
38:55
Speaker 1: is better than she. So remember in Persia, and we
38:59
Speaker 1: saw this in the lion's den event of Daniel 6,
39:03
Speaker 1: when the Persian kings made a decree or a law,
39:07
Speaker 1: they could not alter it. So those decrees that were
39:10
Speaker 1: meant to be temporary in nature were sometimes attached to
39:13
Speaker 1: the code for the purpose of rendering them unalterable, like
39:17
Speaker 1: in Daniel. Remember he was tricked, the king was tricked
39:21
Speaker 1: into making the decree unalterable. that sent Daniel to the
39:24
Speaker 1: lion's den, but the king felt terrible about it. And
39:28
Speaker 1: remember he ran to the den first the next morning
39:32
Speaker 1: to see if Daniel was still alive. So what they're
39:35
Speaker 1: saying is, okay, write a decree now, the king, Ahasuerus,
39:41
Speaker 1: write a decree that Vashti is no more the queen,
39:44
Speaker 1: she's out. And you're gonna go find a new queen
39:48
Speaker 1: to give her royal estate to someone that's better than her.
39:52
Speaker 1: So this is where the door is going to open
39:55
Speaker 1: for Esther to become queen, is all because of this
39:59
Speaker 1: wicked plan that these councilmen had hatched with the king.
40:04
Speaker 1: And when the king's decree in verse 20, which he
40:06
Speaker 1: shall make, shall be published throughout all the empire, for
40:09
Speaker 1: it is great, all the wives... In other words, when
40:18
Speaker 1: this decree is published, that Vashti will no longer be
40:21
Speaker 1: queen and sit with you in the kingdom, and she's
40:24
Speaker 1: been kicked out, which probably meant she would become poor, homeless,
40:29
Speaker 1: and destitute. That's what it meant. Because they were going
40:33
Speaker 1: to take her estate, her royal apparel, basically her wealth,
40:36
Speaker 1: her jewels, and give to someone else to sit as
40:40
Speaker 1: queen that would be subservient and obedient to the king's command,
40:48
Speaker 1: no matter how wicked and sinful it was. That's what
40:51
Speaker 1: they're trying to do. So what he's saying is when
40:56
Speaker 1: the whole rest of the kingdom, all the wives see
40:58
Speaker 1: that Vashti is now homeless and living in squalor, they'll
41:04
Speaker 1: change their ways. It will not empower them to go
41:07
Speaker 1: against their husbands like she decided to. That's what they're
41:10
Speaker 1: trying to do. In verse 21, that every man should
41:30
Speaker 1: bear rule in his own house and that it should
41:32
Speaker 1: be published according to the language of every people. And
41:35
Speaker 1: that closes chapter one. So he then writes into all
41:41
Speaker 1: the providences of his kingdom in every language from Ethiopia,
41:46
Speaker 1: all the way to India and throughout the Middle East,
41:48
Speaker 1: that every man has to take rule over their wives
41:51
Speaker 1: and their household, no matter how sinful that a command is,
41:55
Speaker 1: from the husband, the wife has to be submissive, which
41:59
Speaker 1: is obviously not according to God's word. There is a
42:04
Speaker 1: family structure in the Bible that yes, the man is
42:07
Speaker 1: the head of the household and the spiritual leader of
42:09
Speaker 1: that household. But the second the husband or the man
42:12
Speaker 1: goes outside of God's will and starts directing his family
42:15
Speaker 1: to do things that are sinful in nature, the wife
42:19
Speaker 1: and the women and the children should not and will
42:22
Speaker 1: not hopefully follow. that should be very clear throughout God's word.
42:27
Speaker 1: The purpose of the structure is for blessing, not to
42:30
Speaker 1: drive families to destruction as the king was seeking to do.
42:36
Speaker 1: So my challenge for all of you as we're gonna
42:38
Speaker 1: go through Esther and you're living in this world right
42:41
Speaker 1: now that is very much against God's people. When you
42:46
Speaker 1: look on the horizon right now of what's happening in
42:49
Speaker 1: the world, God did not make a mistake in, that
42:54
Speaker 1: you are here in 2026 with the gifts that you
42:57
Speaker 1: have in the United States, in the Midwest, in the
43:00
Speaker 1: state of Oklahoma, or wherever you may be, if you're
43:03
Speaker 1: out there watching, he did not make a mistake of
43:07
Speaker 1: where you are in this day and age. He could
43:09
Speaker 1: have had you born in the days of Daniel, in
43:12
Speaker 1: the days of Esther, in the days of the Roman Empire,
43:15
Speaker 1: throughout the World War II or wherever else. He could
43:18
Speaker 1: have had you anywhere else in history, but he chose
43:21
Speaker 1: you for this day. And Esther 4, 13 and 14, Mordecai,
43:27
Speaker 1: who is a family member of Esther, Mordecai commanded to
43:31
Speaker 1: answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shall escape
43:35
Speaker 1: in the king's house more than all the Jews. For
43:39
Speaker 1: if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then
43:42
Speaker 1: shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from
43:45
Speaker 1: another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.
43:50
Speaker 1: And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom
43:53
Speaker 1: for such a time as this? What Mordecai is telling
43:56
Speaker 1: Esther is that you have been called for salvation for
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Speaker 1: the Jewish people in this day in the Persian empire
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Speaker 1: to rise up and to speak the truth and thus
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Speaker 1: deliver all of God's people out of the hand of
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Speaker 1: a wicked, wicked tyrant. And she, as we're going to
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Speaker 1: see as we go through these chapters, Esther is extremely
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Speaker 1: brave under the threat of death to go in before
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Speaker 1: the king unannounced and put her life in the hands
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Speaker 1: of a wicked king. Now out of that comes great
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Speaker 1: deliverance at the end of the book. And it's an
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Speaker 1: incredible testimony that God doesn't forsake his people. And he
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Speaker 1: is with you. no matter where you go in your life,
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Speaker 1: if you stay true to him, you know, whenever someone
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Speaker 1: tells me that they don't feel like the Lord is
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Speaker 1: with them anymore, I always ask them, well, where'd you go?
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Speaker 1: Because he hasn't moved. You did. And you've gone somewhere.
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Speaker 1: You've outrun his coverage in some regard. And that's true.
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Speaker 1: It's true for us today. It's been true for every
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Speaker 1: person in the Bible. God, never just abandon someone. They
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Speaker 1: always do something in sin or in their flesh or
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Speaker 1: in their own desires and run the other way. And
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Speaker 1: there comes a time where no matter how much he
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Speaker 1: pulls on you, he can't overcome one thing in all
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Speaker 1: of creation, which is your free will. He cannot overcome
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Speaker 1: your free will because you are created in the image
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Speaker 1: of God. And if you choose to do something and
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Speaker 1: go out against his command and against his word and
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Speaker 1: live a life that's not honoring to him in some regard,
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Speaker 1: you have to look at yourself when things are not
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Speaker 1: going well. And that's the truth. And it's not a
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Speaker 1: seeker-friendly word. It's not something that is going to fill
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Speaker 1: buildings across the world with encouragement, but it's the truth.
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Speaker 1: And the encouragement is you don't have to do that.
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Speaker 1: you can stay tethered to God. And if you will
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Speaker 1: ask him, when you feel like you're in those dark valleys,
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Speaker 1: though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, right?
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Speaker 1: Psalms 23, no one's ever been killed by a shadow,
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Speaker 1: but you can be in a dark place. And as
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Speaker 1: you're walking through that, it's important that you look at
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Speaker 1: yourself and you look at what's going on and what
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Speaker 1: decisions you've made and ask God, What did I do wrong?
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Speaker 1: Where did I go astray? How do I get back
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Speaker 1: to you? You know, a lot of times Christians tend
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Speaker 1: to take the excuse of, well, gosh, God's really putting
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Speaker 1: me through something hard right now. And that may be true,
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Speaker 1: but the reason you're going through something hard is because
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Speaker 1: of your decision, not because he wanted you there. And
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Speaker 1: so you've got to take that serious. And when you do,
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Speaker 1: ask God, why am I here right now? Because the
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Speaker 1: first place the enemy is going to attack you and
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Speaker 1: subvert you is in whatever gift God has placed inside
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Speaker 1: of you. So you may be very gifted at encouragement,
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Speaker 1: at teaching, at praying. You may be very equipped for
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Speaker 1: being an exhorter and encouraging people. Maybe someone that brings
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Speaker 1: people together or that just reaches out and takes meals
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Speaker 1: to people, whatever it is, you're gifted in some way.
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Speaker 1: And the enemy wants to absolutely destroy that and bury it.
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Speaker 1: And that is the first place you will be attacked
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Speaker 1: is in whatever gift God has placed inside of you
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Speaker 1: for the purpose of his kingdom. And as you see that,
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Speaker 1: take it serious, recognize what it is. And as you
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Speaker 1: get into the word of God, you will build up
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Speaker 1: your most holy faith and you can shed all of that.
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Speaker 1: So what is faith? Hebrews 11.1, faith is the substance
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Speaker 1: of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
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Speaker 1: And it's important because of Hebrews 11.6, for without faith,
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Speaker 1: it is impossible to please God. And so you need
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Speaker 1: to know how to get it, which is Romans 10.17,
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Speaker 1: faith comes by hearing and hearing by and only by.
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Speaker 1: the word of God. That is how you fight back
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Speaker 1: against the enemy is to get into the word. Understand
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Speaker 1: that you are in a, a absolute war where if
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Speaker 1: Satan could right now, he would not only lead you astray.
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Speaker 1: He would absolutely destroy you and murder you right now.
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Speaker 1: If he could, he does not care at all. If
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Speaker 1: you breathe or if your children live, he wants to
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Speaker 1: kill you. And so you are in a warfare of,
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Speaker 1: That we have got to take very serious and to
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Speaker 1: get into the word of God and ask the Lord,
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Speaker 1: what would you have of me in this day? Because
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Speaker 1: like Esther, you've been called to the kingdom for such
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Speaker 1: a time as this. and if you're here if you
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Speaker 1: don't know the Lord it's very simple Romans 10 9
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Speaker 1: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
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Speaker 1: raised him from the dead you shall be saved it
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Speaker 1: is that simple if you do that you'll be born
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Speaker 1: again and never be without him Lord, we come before
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Speaker 1: you right now and we thank you for the book
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Speaker 1: of Esther. We thank you for the word of God.
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Speaker 1: We thank you that you have great deliverance planned for
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Speaker 1: the people in Persia. You did then and you do today, God.
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Speaker 1: And we see it in Jeremiah 49 that you will
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Speaker 1: set your throne in Elam. And we thank you that God,
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Speaker 1: we may be watching that very thing In our modern
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Speaker 1: times today. So Lord, we are praying for the underground
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Speaker 1: church in Iran and throughout the Middle East that, Lord,
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Speaker 1: you would show them exactly where to gather, where to meet,
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Speaker 1: where to congregate. Lord, get your word in their hands,
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Speaker 1: however you need to. God, there are millions of people
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Speaker 1: being hunted just for having the Bible installed on their
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Speaker 1: cell phone. And Lord, we pray and plead the blood
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Speaker 1: of Jesus over their lives that you would protect those people. God,
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Speaker 1: stop the atrocities that are going on across the continent
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Speaker 1: of Africa. We pray for all of those Christians that
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Speaker 1: have been taking prisoner in Nigeria and in Somalia. God,
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Speaker 1: we pray that you would set them free. that Lord,
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Speaker 1: through that, you would let salvation come to their captors
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Speaker 1: and that you would turn their worlds upside down right now.
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Speaker 1: And Lord, for our nation, we are praying a mighty
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Speaker 1: hedge of protection around this land as we approach the
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Speaker 1: midterm elections here in the United States. God, the enemy
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Speaker 1: would seek to disrupt what you are doing in this
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Speaker 1: nation right now. And we are praying Babel in the
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Speaker 1: camp of the enemy. And Lord, we pray that you
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Speaker 1: would raise up men and women to be godly leaders
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Speaker 1: in this nation, to rightfully take their place. And Lord,
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Speaker 1: let them be men and women that are prayer warriors
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Speaker 1: that take this nation before you daily. And let the
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Speaker 1: word of God be found in the halls of Congress
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Speaker 1: and at the White House and in the Capitol building.
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Speaker 1: And Lord, let it be filled with Bibles. that people
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Speaker 1: are carrying with them into sessions and into meetings because God,
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Speaker 1: they want to hear from you for direction, not their
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Speaker 1: own understanding. And so Lord, we thank you so much
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Speaker 1: for this time together. And we pray that you would
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Speaker 1: meet us in the water at Lake Arcadia next Sunday
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Speaker 1: as we gather for the baptism and that Lord, you
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Speaker 1: would let it be a fresh start for this fall,
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Speaker 1: for your people. And we thank you so much for
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Speaker 1: this time together, Lord. In your matchless name, we pray, God. Amen. Amen.