00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:05 Golf Story and Shoutout

01:19 Introduction to the Book of Esther

02:39 Background and Key Characters

05:50 Esther's Courage and God's Sovereignty

08:24 Haman's Plot and Mordecai's Response

10:18 Esther's Plan and the Three-Day Fast

12:40 Conclusion and Prayer

13:17 Podcast Outro and Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

2

Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible podcast.

3

Happy Tuesday to y'all.

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Happy Tuesday.

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Hey, you know what?

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I need to shout out

somebody that shout 'em out.

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Yeah.

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You know, shout it.

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Last week on out on Friday morning

out, because I was not preparing the

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same way that normally do for a sermon.

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I, yeah.

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Went out and you went to go golfing?

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I played round of golf.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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A whole round.

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A whole 18 holes.

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All 18 holes.

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I did.

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And I played with one of our church.

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Goers.

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I wouldn't have just gone out

by myself to go play golf.

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But I I played with one

of our church goers.

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Yeah.

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And he soundly defeated me.

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Soundly.

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He soundly defeated me.

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How?

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By how many points, how many

strokes he, he shot in 88.

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I shot in 94.

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Oh man.

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What a slouch.

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Yeah, I know, right?

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Yeah.

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That was one Tim Pay.

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I'm embarrassed.

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Tim, tell done don't tell anybody.

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You keep that between

yourself and the Lord.

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You you defeated me

soundly, but not my pastor.

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It was fun though, and the weather was

great and it was it was a good time.

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Good course.

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So.

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Congratulations, Tim.

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Yes.

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But I don't know if he's

ever gotten the notice.

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You're not supposed to beat

your pastors at anything.

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It's, you gotta protect him and preserve.

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So he should have just thrown the game.

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Thrown the game.

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Yeah.

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That's what most people do.

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I think that's what I've been told anyway.

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On the last hole, he could have missed

the hole like seven times while he was

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putting, and then I think I would've won.

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Okay.

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But that's hard to do.

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He didn't do it.

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That's really hard to do.

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Yeah.

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Have a conversation with him about that.

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Yeah.

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So there you go.

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Yeah.

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Anyways, it's it's Tuesday and

we get to be in a new book today.

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That's great.

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I love Esther.

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Yeah.

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Esther is a great book.

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Okay.

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But before we get into the book, so the

book doesn't say the word God anywhere.

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Nope.

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In it.

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Not at all.

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And it's hard because there's

no miracles in it either.

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No miracles.

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And so that's depending

on how you, I guess not.

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Not at GT one, as we qualify it.

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Yeah.

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God uses ordinary means to,

to facilitate the miracle.

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It's the basis and the background

for the Feast of Purim.

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Yeah, A feast of lots,

which is already in.

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Interesting because lots casting,

lots rolling the dice essentially.

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Yeah.

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This is, yeah.

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The book is so interesting

because there's so many areas

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where I'm like, oh, that's it.

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Is Esther, is Hadassah a?

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Is she a heroine?

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I guess she is.

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Herschel York says no.

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For such a slime as this, yeah.

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I think is how he puts his title.

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Yeah.

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Because her character is so complicated.

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Yeah.

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They're still there for the first part.

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They're, why are they even there?

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All their people went back to the land.

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So this is in the four hundreds

and they're under this Persian

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king, and they're in the land.

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Why are they there?

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There's no mention of God.

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There's clearly no,

there's prayer and fasting.

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At least you get that.

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Yeah.

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But this whole thing is, it's a

confusing book, I have to admit.

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Even though it's easy to understand,

it's confusing to me of the

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dynamics of what's happening.

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And I guess there are some really

great takeaways and I'm sure

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you're gonna highlight right now.

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Oh, awesome.

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Thanks.

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I appreciate you setting that up that way.

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If you were with this last year, I

think we mentioned this, but just to

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remind you, the background of so much

of this is the failure of King Saul.

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Back in First Samuel chapter

15, Saul refused to kill the

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king of the Amalekites, who was.

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A gag and the.

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The what's the per antagonist.

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There we go.

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Thank you.

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I appreciate that.

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Thanks Pastor Rod.

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Chiming in on that one.

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The antagonist of the book is Haman,

and Haman is described as an aggregate.

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And so he appears to be one

of the descendants of this guy

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that that Saul failed to kill.

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And the Amalekites there and the

Amalekites were always gonna be a thorn

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in the side of the people of visual.

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So even though Samuel dispatched

Agag one of his descendants is gonna

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show up, and he's not a big fan of

the Jews could explain some of his.

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Animosity towards the Jews.

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If this was handed down from

generation to generation, then he

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would've hated these people already.

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And then coupled with that,

what takes place in the book he

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wouldn't have liked it even more.

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Setting for the book in general,

Persian Empire, we're dealing with 5 39.

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It's gonna stretch all

the way down to 3 31 bc.

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We're not gonna cover all of that in the

Book of Investor, but that's the time.

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And the key people there in the

book, Mordecai, Esther, or Hadassah.

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And then you've also got Haman,

who's the bad guy, and you've got

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the king has, or Xerxes who is

the the king at hand in the book.

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As the book opens in chapter one, the king

is throwing a pretty big party Xerxes,

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by the way, ruled from 4 85 to 4 65.

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So I mentioned that the full

Persian empire dates that we're

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right in that window of 4, 4 85

and just a few years after this

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here, three years into his reign.

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In fact as what we read there in

verses three through nine, three

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years into his rainy throws, this

big party, and man, this was.

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This was quite the soiree.

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You look at this, the descriptions

of it just in the book.

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It's an opulent garden.

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There's mosaic tiles on the ground.

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There's fine linen curtains that are hung.

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They're strapped in with

these purple straps.

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And purple was a, a, a.

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Expensive fabric at the time

that represented royalty.

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They're drinking out of golden

vessels and they're drinking

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the King's wine in abundance.

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And so this is sounds like a

regular staff meeting for us.

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I wasn't gonna flex on that on

everybody like that but yeah,

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for most people that's unusual.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it very.

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And and in, in the midst of all this,

he decides he wants to show off his

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wife, and so he calls for his wife.

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Now there are some questions

because she refuses.

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Yeah.

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And so there's some questions

as to was this a call for her to

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come and do something immoral?

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Was this a call for her to come and appear

in a way that would've been indecent?

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No one knows.

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No one knows, basically, at the end

of the day, that's a short story.

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Yeah.

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And so she refuses, and the

king is enraged by that.

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And he talks to his counselors.

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His counselors say, Hey, look,

all of the other women in the

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empire are gonna follow her suit.

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So you need to make an

example basically out of her.

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And the king does just that by

having her removed from her position.

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And there's a suggestion, you need to

find a new favorite wife, as it were.

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And so he.

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Agrees and they launch a search

for a new favorite wife to be his.

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There.

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There's questions as to who

Vashti is because there is

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no historical record of her.

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There are some in fact a lot think that

this is the mother of Art ex Xerxes

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who was born right around the same

time and that this is potentially hers.

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She was potentially even pregnant with

Art Ex Xerxes at this time when she's.

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Being beckoned and summoned

into the King's presence here.

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We don't know who Vashti is, but we

mentioned God is not mentioned in this

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book, and yet the fingerprints of his

sovereignty are all over its pages.

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And so everything that's taking

place here, God is moving all of the

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pieces to get Esther in the position

that she's ultimately gonna fulfill

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to be able to spare the people as

as the action in the book unfolds.

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And that's quite complicated too.

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Because God is obviously using sinful

means he's not sending himself, but he's

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utilizing sinful means to accomplish his

perfect plans because Esther arguably

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should not have even been there.

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And then to become one of his

favorite wives, she has to go through

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this whole assimilation process

to become suitable for the king.

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And then she's gonna do things

that we are also gonna say, that's

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not something you should do.

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That's not ladylike.

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That's not what God would approve of.

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And yet God orchestrates and he's

behind every page of this book.

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Every detail that's falling

into place is by God's doing.

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In fact the very fact that Esther

finds favor in the side of these

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people is evidence that God is

still working for his people's good.

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And I think that's one of

the overarching themes of the

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book that you could take away.

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Oh yeah, a hundred percent.

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And yeah, so many

things, just that, right?

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She qualifies.

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She's brought into the king service.

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She wins favor with the servant.

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The head of the Euch there says, Hey,

I like you and helps her so that she'll

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be even more appreciated by the king.

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End of chapter two.

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Another example of this mordecai's

hanging out at the gate, her

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cousin Mordecai, and he overhears

a plot against the king's life.

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What are the chances of that?

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Pretty good because God is orchestrating

and ordaining all of these things.

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Yeah, he.

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Is able to tell Esther this

is what's gonna happen.

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The king hears from Esther on behalf of

Mordecai, this is what's gonna happen.

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Things are written down in the King's

records, so that's gonna come up later on.

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That's gonna be integral in all of this.

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And so this is this is God's

ordaining and moving all over.

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And this is why when somebody

says the name God doesn't

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show up anywhere in the book.

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You can't read it

without seeing God there.

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But to your point, there's some slimy

things here that we're like, okay.

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Yeah I'm honestly.

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I'm grateful that God orchestrates even

things that are sinful and that he can't

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be deterred, his hand cannot be stayed.

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Yeah.

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On the other hand, I'm

also bothered by it.

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Yeah, I just think, man, this is bad.

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Yeah.

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I would if Esther was my daughter,

I would not want her doing

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any of these things For sure.

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So I can understand why there's a

little bit of hesitation for anyone

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to say, yeah, hold up Esther, as

a model of virtue and excellence.

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'cause it's not a perfect model for sure.

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And there is no perfect model.

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And I guess that's the point, Esther is.

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I don't wanna even say that

she's a pointer to Christ, but

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ultimately she is, she's a heroine,

but she falls woefully short.

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Only Jesus is worthy of your undying

perfect affection because he never

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sins, he's never doing anything slimy.

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He does only what's good in the father's

sight, which is perfect and good.

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And he does it all

without any qualification.

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He is perfectly righteous

and I love that about Christ.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Chapter three, um, the antagonist.

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Haman is promoted by the king,

by Haus, and he then goes out and

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expects everybody to bow before him.

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While Mordecai being a Jew, knows that

he won't bow before this human being

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because he's only supposed to bow and

worship the Lord, and so worship God.

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And so Haman sees this and becomes

enraged, finds out that he's a Jew.

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Perhaps he remembers the

history with the agates.

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And he decides he's not gonna be

satisfied with just the death of Mordecai.

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In fact, it says that in the text that

he disdained only kill Mordecai alone.

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I saw that this time it jumped off

the page like Haman's a wicked guy.

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He's not, it's not enough for

him just to take out the one guy

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that's not bowing before him.

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He wants to wipe out the entire race of

people connected with him, and that's what

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he convinces the king to sign off on that.

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That there's this worthless people group.

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They're not doing anything for you, king.

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Let me go handle them.

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Oh, and by the way, I'll drop some

extra money into your coffers.

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In the process of this, the king

signs it into law, which the big

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deal there, the law, the Meads and

the Persians, we read about that,

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and Daniel, that can't be undone.

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That can't be changed.

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So the death warrant has been issued

and there's no undoing, this and that.

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That just reminds us of the direness

of this situation, which leads in

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chapter four and Mordecai and the

other Jews finding out about this.

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They go into a state of mourning.

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Esther is eventually made aware of the

fact that Mordecai is so distraught.

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She goes to Mordecai.

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Mordecai tells her what's going

on and says to her, Hey, you've

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got to go and talk to the king.

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Now Esther is being asked by Mordecai

to do something that would've cost her

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life potentially, because no one could go

uninvited into the presence of the king.

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It doesn't matter if you're

his favorite wife or not.

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It's like at the church office, right?

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No one goes to your office,

apart from your invitation.

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But if I hold out my golden

scepter, yes, then they're spared.

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And many occasions you've held it out.

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I appreciate that almost every time.

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We don't talk about the

staff member we used to have.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Par day.

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Anyways Esther does and as much as

we wanna say, man, she does some

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things that it's, that's not good.

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I think she's commendable for

her courage and her boldness.

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Yes.

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She's able to say, okay, then pray for

me because I may die as a result of

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doing this, but I'm gonna go do it.

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Yep.

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And she does the king.

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Holds out his scepter and she has a plan.

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She doesn't immediately go in and

say, Hey King, this is everything.

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She says, I wanna throw a

party for you and for Haman.

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And that's really what

happens in, in chapter five.

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The Haman comes to the first party

and then there's gonna be this second

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one and the rest of chapter five.

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That's really setting up what we're

gonna read about next, which is that

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where the dagger is twisted and thrust.

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I wanna bring something to your attention

as you read through this, and I bring it

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up because it's important for you later.

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As we read the New Testament you're

gonna read in verse 18, go gather

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all the Jews to be found in Sosa

and hold a fast on my behalf.

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Nothing complicated

there, but she says this.

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And do not eat or drink for, count

this now for three days, night or day.

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So naturally your question

is how long was this fast?

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And you would've to say,

how long was this fast?

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Three days, three days, night and day.

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That's what you understand based

on the clear meaning of her words.

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However, if you just look in chapter

five, I want you to look at what chapter

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five says, verse one on the third day.

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So this is not the full

third day and night.

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On the third day, she goes and she

eats and she drinks, and she has a

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great pre-party with Haman and Hasis.

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So clearly, even though she said three

days and three nights, that's what she

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said she really meant three days, right?

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Whatever part of the day, right?

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Day or night, all that I, it counts.

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That's gonna be important later.

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So I want you to put a pin in your

mind for later when we talk about

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the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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How many days was he in the tomb?

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The text says three days and three nights.

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When we get there we'll refer

back to Esther and hopefully

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we'll put the pieces together.

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But just notice the language is not as

precise as sometimes it might suggest

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that it is, at least in terms like

this, when it comes to accounting

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for time they're not modern people.

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They're not counting,

they're not using iPhones.

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They're not using the second hand on

the clock to count down to the very

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smallest moment of time to say, oh,

it's 3 52 and 14 seconds right now.

347

They just don't do it that way.

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And I think there's a reason

why, and we'll get to that

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when we get to the gospels.

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That's a good pin.

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Put a pin in that one and hang onto that.

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It's a big pins a you have to hold

it for a couple weeks actually.

353

How long before we get into the gospels?

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I, we're in September, October.

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Oh yeah.

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Late October.

357

Maybes.

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Let's see.

359

Please hold, please.

360

Hold do, hold music.

361

Yeah, about November.

362

Yeah.

363

We'll get to that point.

364

Okay.

365

About November.

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Yeah.

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So put a pin in it until November.

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Until November.

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Come back to it.

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Let's pray.

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God, we thank you for your sovereignty

and that's so clearly depicted in

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the life investor, and we thank you

that you are sovereign even over

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the situations that we might look

at and say how are you at work here?

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You are at work and we don't wanna

run headlong into sin and say

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God is sovereign over to this.

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But we do want to acknowledge that sin

does not defeat your sovereign plan.

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It doesn't stop what you're doing.

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It doesn't.

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It cause you to panic or to second guess

what your plan for salvation history is.

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You're working it out at all times.

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And so we thank you for the Book of

Esther reminding us of things like that.

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So help us to trust in that plan

and to trust in you this week.

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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Amen.

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Keep bringing your Bibles tuned

again tomorrow for another edition

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of the Daily Bible Podcast.

387

See you tomorrow folks.

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Bye.

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Bernard: Well, thank you for

listening to another episode of

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the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

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We're honored to have you join us.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

393

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

394

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

395

podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

396

you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

397

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

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PJ: Yeah.

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I would agree with

everything that you said