Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible podcast. Happy Tuesday to y'all. Happy Tuesday. Hey, you know what? I need to shout out somebody that shout 'em out. Yeah. You know, shout it. Last week on out on Friday morning out, because I was not preparing the same way that normally do for a sermon. I, yeah. Went out and you went to go golfing? I played round of golf. Yeah. Yeah. A whole round. A whole 18 holes. All 18 holes. I did. And I played with one of our church. Goers. I wouldn't have just gone out by myself to go play golf. But I I played with one of our church goers. Yeah. And he soundly defeated me. Soundly. He soundly defeated me. How? By how many points, how many strokes he, he shot in 88. I shot in 94. Oh man. What a slouch. Yeah, I know, right? Yeah. That was one Tim Pay. I'm embarrassed. Tim, tell done don't tell anybody. You keep that between yourself and the Lord. You you defeated me soundly, but not my pastor. It was fun though, and the weather was great and it was it was a good time. Good course. So. Congratulations, Tim. Yes. But I don't know if he's ever gotten the notice. You're not supposed to beat your pastors at anything. It's, you gotta protect him and preserve. So he should have just thrown the game. Thrown the game. Yeah. That's what most people do. I think that's what I've been told anyway. On the last hole, he could have missed the hole like seven times while he was putting, and then I think I would've won. Okay. But that's hard to do. He didn't do it. That's really hard to do. Yeah. Have a conversation with him about that. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. Anyways, it's it's Tuesday and we get to be in a new book today. That's great. I love Esther. Yeah. Esther is a great book. Okay. But before we get into the book, so the book doesn't say the word God anywhere. Nope. In it. Not at all. And it's hard because there's no miracles in it either. No miracles. And so that's depending on how you, I guess not. Not at GT one, as we qualify it. Yeah. God uses ordinary means to, to facilitate the miracle. It's the basis and the background for the Feast of Purim. Yeah, A feast of lots, which is already in. Interesting because lots casting, lots rolling the dice essentially. Yeah. This is, yeah. The book is so interesting because there's so many areas where I'm like, oh, that's it. Is Esther, is Hadassah a? Is she a heroine? I guess she is. Herschel York says no. For such a slime as this, yeah. I think is how he puts his title. Yeah. Because her character is so complicated. Yeah. They're still there for the first part. They're, why are they even there? All their people went back to the land. So this is in the four hundreds and they're under this Persian king, and they're in the land. Why are they there? There's no mention of God. There's clearly no, there's prayer and fasting. At least you get that. Yeah. But this whole thing is, it's a confusing book, I have to admit. Even though it's easy to understand, it's confusing to me of the dynamics of what's happening. And I guess there are some really great takeaways and I'm sure you're gonna highlight right now. Oh, awesome. Thanks. I appreciate you setting that up that way. If you were with this last year, I think we mentioned this, but just to remind you, the background of so much of this is the failure of King Saul. Back in First Samuel chapter 15, Saul refused to kill the king of the Amalekites, who was. A gag and the. The what's the per antagonist. There we go. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks Pastor Rod. Chiming in on that one. The antagonist of the book is Haman, and Haman is described as an aggregate. And so he appears to be one of the descendants of this guy that that Saul failed to kill. And the Amalekites there and the Amalekites were always gonna be a thorn in the side of the people of visual. So even though Samuel dispatched Agag one of his descendants is gonna show up, and he's not a big fan of the Jews could explain some of his. Animosity towards the Jews. If this was handed down from generation to generation, then he would've hated these people already. And then coupled with that, what takes place in the book he wouldn't have liked it even more. Setting for the book in general, Persian Empire, we're dealing with 5 39. It's gonna stretch all the way down to 3 31 bc. We're not gonna cover all of that in the Book of Investor, but that's the time. And the key people there in the book, Mordecai, Esther, or Hadassah. And then you've also got Haman, who's the bad guy, and you've got the king has, or Xerxes who is the the king at hand in the book. As the book opens in chapter one, the king is throwing a pretty big party Xerxes, by the way, ruled from 4 85 to 4 65. So I mentioned that the full Persian empire dates that we're right in that window of 4, 4 85 and just a few years after this here, three years into his reign. In fact as what we read there in verses three through nine, three years into his rainy throws, this big party, and man, this was. This was quite the soiree. You look at this, the descriptions of it just in the book. It's an opulent garden. There's mosaic tiles on the ground. There's fine linen curtains that are hung. They're strapped in with these purple straps. And purple was a, a, a. Expensive fabric at the time that represented royalty. They're drinking out of golden vessels and they're drinking the King's wine in abundance. And so this is sounds like a regular staff meeting for us. I wasn't gonna flex on that on everybody like that but yeah, for most people that's unusual. Yeah. Yeah, it very. And and in, in the midst of all this, he decides he wants to show off his wife, and so he calls for his wife. Now there are some questions because she refuses. Yeah. And so there's some questions as to was this a call for her to come and do something immoral? Was this a call for her to come and appear in a way that would've been indecent? No one knows. No one knows, basically, at the end of the day, that's a short story. Yeah. And so she refuses, and the king is enraged by that. And he talks to his counselors. His counselors say, Hey, look, all of the other women in the empire are gonna follow her suit. So you need to make an example basically out of her. And the king does just that by having her removed from her position. And there's a suggestion, you need to find a new favorite wife, as it were. And so he. Agrees and they launch a search for a new favorite wife to be his. There. There's questions as to who Vashti is because there is no historical record of her. There are some in fact a lot think that this is the mother of Art ex Xerxes who was born right around the same time and that this is potentially hers. She was potentially even pregnant with Art Ex Xerxes at this time when she's. Being beckoned and summoned into the King's presence here. We don't know who Vashti is, but we mentioned God is not mentioned in this book, and yet the fingerprints of his sovereignty are all over its pages. And so everything that's taking place here, God is moving all of the pieces to get Esther in the position that she's ultimately gonna fulfill to be able to spare the people as as the action in the book unfolds. And that's quite complicated too. Because God is obviously using sinful means he's not sending himself, but he's utilizing sinful means to accomplish his perfect plans because Esther arguably should not have even been there. And then to become one of his favorite wives, she has to go through this whole assimilation process to become suitable for the king. And then she's gonna do things that we are also gonna say, that's not something you should do. That's not ladylike. That's not what God would approve of. And yet God orchestrates and he's behind every page of this book. Every detail that's falling into place is by God's doing. In fact the very fact that Esther finds favor in the side of these people is evidence that God is still working for his people's good. And I think that's one of the overarching themes of the book that you could take away. Oh yeah, a hundred percent. And yeah, so many things, just that, right? She qualifies. She's brought into the king service. She wins favor with the servant. The head of the Euch there says, Hey, I like you and helps her so that she'll be even more appreciated by the king. End of chapter two. Another example of this mordecai's hanging out at the gate, her cousin Mordecai, and he overhears a plot against the king's life. What are the chances of that? Pretty good because God is orchestrating and ordaining all of these things. Yeah, he. Is able to tell Esther this is what's gonna happen. The king hears from Esther on behalf of Mordecai, this is what's gonna happen. Things are written down in the King's records, so that's gonna come up later on. That's gonna be integral in all of this. And so this is this is God's ordaining and moving all over. And this is why when somebody says the name God doesn't show up anywhere in the book. You can't read it without seeing God there. But to your point, there's some slimy things here that we're like, okay. Yeah I'm honestly. I'm grateful that God orchestrates even things that are sinful and that he can't be deterred, his hand cannot be stayed. Yeah. On the other hand, I'm also bothered by it. Yeah, I just think, man, this is bad. Yeah. I would if Esther was my daughter, I would not want her doing any of these things For sure. So I can understand why there's a little bit of hesitation for anyone to say, yeah, hold up Esther, as a model of virtue and excellence. 'cause it's not a perfect model for sure. And there is no perfect model. And I guess that's the point, Esther is. I don't wanna even say that she's a pointer to Christ, but ultimately she is, she's a heroine, but she falls woefully short. Only Jesus is worthy of your undying perfect affection because he never sins, he's never doing anything slimy. He does only what's good in the father's sight, which is perfect and good. And he does it all without any qualification. He is perfectly righteous and I love that about Christ. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter three, um, the antagonist. Haman is promoted by the king, by Haus, and he then goes out and expects everybody to bow before him. While Mordecai being a Jew, knows that he won't bow before this human being because he's only supposed to bow and worship the Lord, and so worship God. And so Haman sees this and becomes enraged, finds out that he's a Jew. Perhaps he remembers the history with the agates. And he decides he's not gonna be satisfied with just the death of Mordecai. In fact, it says that in the text that he disdained only kill Mordecai alone. I saw that this time it jumped off the page like Haman's a wicked guy. He's not, it's not enough for him just to take out the one guy that's not bowing before him. He wants to wipe out the entire race of people connected with him, and that's what he convinces the king to sign off on that. That there's this worthless people group. They're not doing anything for you, king. Let me go handle them. Oh, and by the way, I'll drop some extra money into your coffers. In the process of this, the king signs it into law, which the big deal there, the law, the Meads and the Persians, we read about that, and Daniel, that can't be undone. That can't be changed. So the death warrant has been issued and there's no undoing, this and that. That just reminds us of the direness of this situation, which leads in chapter four and Mordecai and the other Jews finding out about this. They go into a state of mourning. Esther is eventually made aware of the fact that Mordecai is so distraught. She goes to Mordecai. Mordecai tells her what's going on and says to her, Hey, you've got to go and talk to the king. Now Esther is being asked by Mordecai to do something that would've cost her life potentially, because no one could go uninvited into the presence of the king. It doesn't matter if you're his favorite wife or not. It's like at the church office, right? No one goes to your office, apart from your invitation. But if I hold out my golden scepter, yes, then they're spared. And many occasions you've held it out. I appreciate that almost every time. We don't talk about the staff member we used to have. Yeah. Yeah. Par day. Anyways Esther does and as much as we wanna say, man, she does some things that it's, that's not good. I think she's commendable for her courage and her boldness. Yes. She's able to say, okay, then pray for me because I may die as a result of doing this, but I'm gonna go do it. Yep. And she does the king. Holds out his scepter and she has a plan. She doesn't immediately go in and say, Hey King, this is everything. She says, I wanna throw a party for you and for Haman. And that's really what happens in, in chapter five. The Haman comes to the first party and then there's gonna be this second one and the rest of chapter five. That's really setting up what we're gonna read about next, which is that where the dagger is twisted and thrust. I wanna bring something to your attention as you read through this, and I bring it up because it's important for you later. As we read the New Testament you're gonna read in verse 18, go gather all the Jews to be found in Sosa and hold a fast on my behalf. Nothing complicated there, but she says this. And do not eat or drink for, count this now for three days, night or day. So naturally your question is how long was this fast? And you would've to say, how long was this fast? Three days, three days, night and day. That's what you understand based on the clear meaning of her words. However, if you just look in chapter five, I want you to look at what chapter five says, verse one on the third day. So this is not the full third day and night. On the third day, she goes and she eats and she drinks, and she has a great pre-party with Haman and Hasis. So clearly, even though she said three days and three nights, that's what she said she really meant three days, right? Whatever part of the day, right? Day or night, all that I, it counts. That's gonna be important later. So I want you to put a pin in your mind for later when we talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How many days was he in the tomb? The text says three days and three nights. When we get there we'll refer back to Esther and hopefully we'll put the pieces together. But just notice the language is not as precise as sometimes it might suggest that it is, at least in terms like this, when it comes to accounting for time they're not modern people. They're not counting, they're not using iPhones. They're not using the second hand on the clock to count down to the very smallest moment of time to say, oh, it's 3 52 and 14 seconds right now. They just don't do it that way. And I think there's a reason why, and we'll get to that when we get to the gospels. That's a good pin. Put a pin in that one and hang onto that. It's a big pins a you have to hold it for a couple weeks actually. How long before we get into the gospels? I, we're in September, October. Oh yeah. Late October. Maybes. Let's see. Please hold, please. Hold do, hold music. Yeah, about November. Yeah. We'll get to that point. Okay. About November. Yeah. So put a pin in it until November. Until November. Come back to it. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your sovereignty and that's so clearly depicted in the life investor, and we thank you that you are sovereign even over the situations that we might look at and say how are you at work here? You are at work and we don't wanna run headlong into sin and say God is sovereign over to this. But we do want to acknowledge that sin does not defeat your sovereign plan. It doesn't stop what you're doing. It doesn't. It cause you to panic or to second guess what your plan for salvation history is. You're working it out at all times. And so we thank you for the Book of Esther reminding us of things like that. So help us to trust in that plan and to trust in you this week. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Keep bringing your Bibles tuned again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you tomorrow folks. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said