Esther 2026

We're gonna be reading, the whole of Esther chapter 2.

Later, When King Zurich's fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about them. Then the King's personal attendance proposed let the search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the Harin at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Peggy, the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women, and let beauty treatments be given to them, then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of bashing. This vice this advice appeals to the king, and he followed it.

Now there was in the citadel of Susa, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin named Mortikai, son of Jair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish. Who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jahoyukan King of Judah. Mortikai had a cousin named Hadassa. Whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman who was also known as Ester had a lovely figure and was beautiful.

Mordicai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. When the king's order and edict have been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hei. Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hei who had charge of the Harim. She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with beauty treatments and special food.

He assigned to her 7 female attendants selected from the king's palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the Irene. Ester had not revealed her nationality and family background because Mordickeye had forbidden her to do so. Every day, he walked to and fro near the courtyard of the Hurac Harin, find out how Estebas was and what was happening to her. Before a young woman's turn came to go into king xerxes, she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women. 6 months with oil of myrrh, and 6 with perfumes and cosmetics.

And this is how she would go to the king. Anything she wanted was given to her to take with her from the Irene to the king's palace. In the evening, she would go there and in the morning return to another parts of the Harin to the care of Shashkaz, the king's UNuk who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king. Unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.

When the turn came for Esther, the young woman Mordicai had adopted the daughter of his uncle Abihail to go to the king She asked for nothing other than what hegai, a king's eunuch who was in charge of the Harin suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the 10th month. The month of Tibet in the 7th year of his reign. Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins.

So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of bash tea. And the king gave great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality. When the virgins were assembled a 2nd time, Mordicai was sitting at the king's gate, but Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordicai had told her to do, where she continued to follow Mordicai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up. During the time Mordicai was sitting at the king's gate, Bikthana and Terresh, 2 of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate king Xerxes, but Mordicae found out about the plot and told Queen Esther who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mortify.

And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the 2 officials were impaled on polls. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of King. Thanks, Anne. Well good evening everybody. Welcome from me.

My name is Rory. I'm 1 of the members of staff here at Cornerstone. It's great to be able to, carry on in this book of Esther, of which is just an amazing amazing story. So let's pray together, and then we'll get stuck in. While we do, thank you and praise you, for this evening.

We thank you and praise you for your words. We thank you for This book of Esther. And, we pray father that you will, give us an alertness, help us not to be distracted by heat or by anything else. But help us to want to hear, from your voice, tonight. May we, understand this story, may we see, more of Christ as a result of it?

And so they prayed these things in Jesus' name. Well, we talked to her last week about stories and, 1 of the most sort of famous stories that people, are familiar with are fairy tales, aren't they? You're I'm sure you're all, familiar with with fairy tales. I don't know what your favorite, fairy tale is. If you have a fair anyone have a favorite fairy tale, don't worry, don't tell me.

Whether that's a sort of a Snow White or a or a Cinderella story, often these fairy tales follow similar themes as usually somebody who's a villain or or evil or sorts of mischievous or malicious in some way. But you also usually have some beautiful fair maiden who who wants to be a princess, you know, in in Cinderella's story. It's this, this, woman who's downtrodden by her evil, stepmother and stepsisters, and, And, but somehow she, has a fairy godmother and is able to go to this ball of which, the prince stalls in love with Cinderella. And, finally gets her with his slipper. I mean, that sounds weird.

Her slipper, not his slipper. You know, I don't know. It gets his slipper, but gets the slipper finds her it fits her and she becomes the queen, the queen of the land. And, Disney loves to take these fairy tales. Don't they?

And to really glamorize them and to make us all feel very happy about ourselves, and, and we all, you know, we all love the fact that everybody lives happily ever after. Yay. Yes? Now, that's Disney. However, some of these fairy tales have much more darker interpretations.

So, you may have heard of brother's grim, in which they often have much more gory details. In fact, the Cinderella story, the the evil stepsisters to try and force their feet into the the slipper, chop off the heels, and chop off their toes just so they can ram that foot into the old slipper. The end of the story, and Tricia close your eyes. No close your ears. They get their eyes pecked out by birds.

Tricia doesn't like eyes. Now when you read chapter 2, I don't know if you thought this as you read chapter 2. It feels a bit like 1 of those fairy tales, doesn't it? It feels like there's, that that the the the princess is gonna be made, well, the woman is gonna be made into a princess into a queen. But if you really delve into the details, it's more like a brother grim version of the fairy tale.

We're gonna focus on on 3 main characters this evening. We have Xerxes, We have Mordecai and we have Esther. And they're the the main characters to which we may understand this story. And I think not just to understand this story, but it will help us to understand something of the nature of god. And the nature of our savior, the lord Jesus Christ.

So 1st, look with me at xerxes. We were introduced to xerxes last week. If you were here, if you weren't, I'll give you a quick recap. Forgive me if you were, but I think it's helpful because we're gonna see contrast here. Last week we were introduced to Xerxes as the Persian King and essentially, Xerxes is the ruler of the known world.

You'll have seen in chapter 1, from India to Kush. But not only is he portrayed as the ruler of the world. He's almost godlike in the status. He's he's got a garden party. He he's there for 7 days.

All these sort of images in in chapter 1 showed us that he was a kind of god like character. And he and he thought that about himself if you've read read the things that he said about himself. I am Zurich, he's the great king. But as we as we inspected as we zoomed in on Xerxes. I think we we saw that this was a man although he may portray himself as the ruler of the world.

He was actually a man who was clearly not in control of much. The man could not control his drinking habits. The man could not control his wife when he asked her to come so that all him and all his mates could have a good ogle at her. He couldn't control his temp. He's like a classic leader.

You know when leaders get insulted, we've got you may have seen this and and they take to the the interweb to insult everyone back because they've been slightly bruised. I won't mention any names today. He can't control his temper, and he can't even control what decisions he makes. All his officials make his decisions for him. And we ended chapter 1, with this decree that said, all women have to obey their their husbands or in case they get out of hand.

No more naughty women said, Xerxes. We don't want that anymore. And so this decree went out that just really highlighted his failures as a as a as a king, and we saw Vashti dismissed from the king's presence never to return again. And so we pick up the story today chapter 2 verse 1. Later when xerxes Furi had subsided.

This is a 3 or 4 years later. He's back in Susa. And, the context of that is that he's actually been on a disastrous military campaign against the Greeks failed to beat them. Has come back. He's found himself in Susan on his own thinking about his life decisions.

And then he's realized here that actually he's lost his wife. See that later when King zerks is furing subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he decreed about her. There he is. Now he's here. He's licking his wounds because he's lost some battles.

He's licking his wounds. Because out of a drunk rage, he got rid of his wife. And so his officials spot him, obviously down the dumps, head hung low. Lip pouting out and they think, oh, we better do something about old Zurich's here. He's upset.

And so they come up with a plan. Look with me at verse 2 to 4. Then the king's personal attendance proposed let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the Harim of the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hedkeye, the king's eunuch who is in charge of the women, let beauty treatments be given to them, then let the young woman who pleases the king, be queen instead of Bastdi.

This advice appeal to the king. And he followed it. So here's the plan that the the the the the the wise council has come up with. Let's have a beauty pageants. Everybody loves a beauty passion.

We'll have our very own miss Persia. It's a bit like Britain's got talent or Persia's got talent maybe or the x factor or that that that anyone's ever seen that America's next top model or Perge's next top model or Peuge's next top queen. I don't know what you wanna what you wanna call it. But this is not a Disney or a TV show. This is much more seedy, dark and x rated here.

This is the brother's grim version of Miss Persia. See, this the the way it goes is that you'll round up all these women. You'll see that in verse 8. And then they're gonna have to get ready. Now, I don't know if you how long you take to get ready.

I don't know if you have a a spouse who takes a long time to get ready. But if you feel that plight, then just rejoice that you're not these women here because they have to get ready for 12 months. What? I've got lots of waste of time. Yeah?

Did you see it 12 months of beauty treatments? If you go to verse 12, you'll see that it's 6 6 months of oil of myrrh, lovely. And then 6 months of perfumes and cosmetics. I don't know what they'd smell like. And once they've gone through all of that plava, they have to go into the king.

With whatever they want, which is suggested that they're gonna have to have sex with this man. And once they've done that, they go into the 2nd hareem and await the rating of xerxes with his board, 7, 8. 9. No. And so it's no surprise is it to how xerxes reacts?

Look at it again verse 4. This advice appealed to the king. What a shock, and he followed it. Remember. So, actually, doesn't make his own decisions.

But of course it appeals to him. He gets his own little dollhouse of women. We know what he's like. We know how women have been treated by xerxes, and we know how women have been treated by leaders throughout the bible, throughout history. You know, just look at Basty.

Remember just come in here so that we can all have a little perv at you. Vashti and the sinful actions of human beings. And that's what we see and what we learn from xerxes, isn't it? Here is a man despite all his looks. He was not in control of anything.

Here is a man who shows us the destructive and the dark nature of sin. Here is a man, as we said, there's not a control, but is controlled by his his lusts and his passions of the flesh. And so despite maybe looking like god in chapter 1, as we said last week, he is not god. He is far from god, but god is god. He is in the heavens and he does what he pleases.

God is in control here. And god is in control even over the actions and the passions and the lusts of simple men. And god sovereignly is going to use Xerxes. I love this because Xerxes wants to portray that he's the man. And really, he's just an agent of god as is all the other people in this story for God to achieve his goals.

And so here we have this decree goes out, get all the beautiful women, and it goes to the world, and that's xerxes. But then secondly, and the reason why I wanted to go over him again is because you see the contrast. Look at mordecai. Look at mordecai. In the midst of all this sort of madness and this sort of dirty sort of pageant, Mordecai stands as a stark contrast as xerxes doesn't mean, but would be a verse 5 to 6.

Now there was in a citadel of Susa, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin named Mordachi, the son of Jay, the son of Shime, the son of Kish, who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Neviconesa, King of Babylon, among those taking captive with Jahoyukin, king of Judah. Mordakai had a cousin named Padassa whom he had brought up because he had neither father and she had neither father nor mother. This young woman who was also known as Ester had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter with her father and mother when her mother father mother died. 1st thing that we see about mordecai is that the writer of s that wants us to know that this is a man with origins.

This man is a man who is part of the promised people of God, but he's given us detail about his lineage and he's saying this is a man who whose family was belonging to the promised people of god who was carried into exile. And so here we have a Jewish man living in an alien land of Persia. And so we've got he's gotta try and navigate what it is to be a Jewish man living in an alien world. Now some people suggest that Mordecai had had some sort of position. That he may have been a low down official because he sort of sits at the king's gate.

But I don't think that's the big thing that we wanna understand about more. I think there's a few things we wanna understand about him. The 1st thing is he adopts Ester. Did you see that twice? It said it in verse 7.

His cousin, he brought her up and then it says he took her as his own daughter and again in verse 15, he says the young woman Mordekai had adopted. See, when Ester, what seems like a tragedy her her parents have passed away is Mordekai who's come to her and I will take you in. And when he takes Irene as as the man of that family, he's gonna have to look after the rest there. He's gonna have to treat her well. He's gonna have to provide for her needs.

But not only does he adopt Ester, but he also advises and commands her. Did you notice this in verse verse 10? It says that Ester had not revealed a nationality and family background because Morda Kai had forbidden her to do so. And again in in verse 20, at the end of that, she says she continued to follow Mordecai's instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up. He's always there.

Just giving her the advice that she needs. Instructing her, you know, in a in a sort of dark world and in this this dark process. S is gonna want somebody that she can lean on. And I love the detail in verse 11 that he's always there for her. He so cares for Esther that that he's always gonna be there for it.

Look, every day He walked to and fro near the courtyard of the Harim to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. He's just there going, Esther, are you okay? Do you need anything? How can I help you? To adopt her, he advises her.

And then we come to the end of the chapter, and you might have thought there's a bit of a weird jump. Wasn't it did it feel like a bit of a jarring jump? Suddenly we were we were talking about when the virgins were assembled. What what was going on here? It's like, you know, when you're watching a TV program or a film and suddenly it just cuts to another scene.

Like, why are we watching this? But you think this is gonna be important for later. And if it's not if it doesn't come back in later, you're very annoyed here. What the heck was the point in that? But it's gonna come back in this this story.

You see verse 19 to 23, we have Mordecai sitting at the king's gate, and then you've got these 2 figures. By the way, we talked about this last week. Part of the the joy of Esther and the hero of Esther is just the names, isn't it? We've got head guy. We've got shass gas.

How do you say that? But then you get these 2 guys in verse 21. Big fanner and Terresh. They sound like assassinators. Don't they?

Isassonators? Assasson? Sorry. I got there in the end. Yeah.

Big banner and Terish. Yeah. We want we want a bit of a terror up with King Xerxes. Yeah. We're gonna do him some damage.

And there they are, they've been plodding away and Mordecai has overheard them. And so Mordecai goes to Wester. Who goes to the king and then they're impaled by poles. And if you wanna know what I'm paling with poles, I can tell you later on. I'd really like to tell you that, but now let's go on.

See, it's funny though, because once he uncouped that plot, I guess he could've just gone, why could she just allow him to die? He's not the nicest of men, is he, xerxes, but he doesn't do that. He does what is right. And he makes sure to tell Esther. And I think he does that because he realizes that for Esther's good, he must raise her significance.

But if you notice Esther also returns to Failing goes, Mordecai told me. And these these things lock them in your mind. They're gonna be important later. But as we've looked at Mordecai, isn't it different to Erke's? So different.

The way that Xerxes has viewed women is just objects for his own fantasies, but here is a man who treats Esther. Who provides restor, who looks after restor, who is trying to help her for her own good, and actually for the good of his people, he's trying to do the right things. And I think actually in many ways, Mordekai points us to Jesus. Jesus is the 1 who dies so that we can be adopted into the family of god. Jesus is the 1 who gives us his very words so that we may be instructed.

That we may be advised and that we may be commanded. And Jesus is always with us. For us who were, revived this weekend, Andy Mason was talking from Macky 28. And the great promise at the end of Matthew 28 from Jesus is that I will be with you always and to the end of the age. And I wonder if Mordecai has an inkling that Esther is gonna be the 1 that god will use to save his people.

So very much I feel like in do you remember the scene in in Luke chapter 2 when Mary and Joseph, they've got little baby Jesus and they they take him to the temple and there they have him in the temple and then these just 2 old people just walk out Anna and Sydney. I would love to meet those those guys in heaven. Because, you know, Simyan comes in and he's he's going, finally, here's the 1. The 1 that that that that God has promised me that I will see the 1 that will bring salvation 1 that Anna says this is gonna be the consolation of Israel. Is this the 1?

And and and it feels like Mordicai might have that ink link. Esther, could she be the 1? Will she be the 1 to which god protects his promises and makes sure that it's promises of a field down the line. That's morticon. Any different?

Thirdly, them. Esther. I'm sure you'll agree with me as we read through this. And as you continue to read through the book of Esther, here is a story of beauty, of tragedy, of humility, and of danger. We were introduced to her in in verse 7, but with me down again there.

Mordicai had a cousin named Hadata whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman was also known as Ester, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mortigai had taken her own daughter when her father and mother died. So here is Ester. The story of steeped in tragedy, an orphan adopted, but also still has this origin story in which she is clearly linked to the promised people of god.

We're given 2 names. Did you notice that we've got given 2 names for her? Hadassah and Estherhadassah is the Jewish version of her name. It means myrtle tree apparently and is famous for its starlight leaves. Apparently, I don't know.

I don't know about botany. But her Persian name is Esther. And so in that, we kind of see that there's gonna be this kind of jewel identity that she's gotta try and navigate as her as her cousin Mordickeye has to navigate living in an alien world as a Jewish person. But we also see that she's a a young woman who has, you'll notice, a lovely figure and was beautiful. And as we know from our decree, she fits the bill, doesn't she?

And so the commissioners obviously find out that she she fits this bill. The talent scouts have have have scalped her out. They've seen some of her game tape They've they've seen some of her her recording and they think we've gotta we've gotta have this girl here and so they come out to Mordecai's door knocking the door. We're taking her Esther with us. And off she goes to the Harim and into the the misperger competition.

Now I don't think she's got much say in this by the way. Brothers and sisters, I don't think she's going. Okay. Where do I sign the contract for this? Looking forward to getting 50 percent of all, all the winnings.

But as you look through the story, it all seems to fall in place, doesn't it for Esther? I don't know if you know people like this where everything seems to go their way. People seem to accuse me of this all the time. I don't know why. I feel like I've you know, been had a very hard growing up actually.

You know, those people that didn't study at school and got good grades, you know, or or they somehow just land on their feet all the time. Yes. That's sort of what happens with Ester, isn't it? Straight away verse 9, she wins the favor of Hedkeye. In charge of the hareem.

Hag guy sees and thinks, god, this is my, this is the 1 that's gonna win the competition. This is the 1 I'm gonna pour my attention into. And then in verse 15, you'll notice that when the turn came for Esther to go to the king, she asked her nothing other than what head guy, the king's unit, who was in charge of her hearing suggested, and then look at the sentence, Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. So here, Esther is, But only does Hey guy think she's great, but everybody who sees Esther thinks, wow, she is fantastic. And so then it's her time to go into the king.

She asks, hey, guy. What shall I bring in? Because I wanna get this right, hey guy. And so in she goes, which I imagine was a pretty unpleasant experience in some senses. But for xerxes, this is the 1.

None more attractive to xerxes. Look at verse 17 to 19. Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other versions. She is the 1 for xerxes. And so he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Bastdi.

And then he goes classic xerxes here. What do I need to have a party? Do you see that? Verse 18? And the king gave a great banquet.

Let's get the drink out guys. Way. Ester's banquet, for all his nobles and officials, he proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality. Here's his Queen. This is the 1 for her, and so she's called Queen in verse 22 for the 1st time.

It's unheard of this really, especially in Persian circles. For a for a a woman of no real position or background to now be made queen. Queen of all is quite spectacular. And I think again, as we look at Esther, you'll have seen similarities to our lord Jesus. See Esther were told about her origins.

Jesus in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1, it says, this is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The writer of Matthew, which is Matthew, wants us to know that Jesus is part of the Kingly lineage of David. But not only do we get told about her origin, his origins, but there's humility, isn't there? She has humble beginnings. Is there many more humble beginnings than being born in a manger?

In a stable. She is in a world of danger and exile. And Jesus is born. There's another crazy king who wants to get rid of him. And so Jesus has to flee in exile to Egypt.

And Esther is beautiful, but there is no more beautiful 1 than the lord Jesus Christ. There is none more stunning than he. There is no more glorious and beautiful savior than Jesus, the 1 that when God, the father speaks to the world, says this is my son. This is my boy whom I am well pleased. Ester had to keep her identity hidden.

Jesus had to hide his identity until the cross revealed who he was properly. Ester had to learn obedience and faithless. I imagine that was hard for us to, don't you? You know, going through this whole process and you have to sort of trust what Mordecai is saying to you. You gotta hear, okay, as to just you you can't reveal who you are yet and you're it's gonna be really hard this, but you're gonna have to go into this situation.

But she learns obedience and faithfulness. She always does as Mordecai instructs in verse 20. And Jesus is the 1 who learned perfect obedience, even obedience to death on a cross. Similarities, right? And the biggest thing I think we see throughout this passage, and I think this is the biggest thing you're gonna see throughout the book of Esther.

And we touched on it last week. Is the fact that god's providence is clear throughout this story. If you don't know what the word providence means, it comes from the Latin. It's pro vider or pro video, and it means pro ahead. Video will be there to see.

And it means that god sees what's going on ahead. He's planned all that has happened. We said last week that he is the director at the side of the theater production, just making it all work out for his purposes and for his plan to come to fruition. See, there is no chance in this book of Esther. I know God's not mentioned but he is so active throughout this book.

It's not a chance that that that that these things are going on. God's thing is are everywhere. They're not just occurrences of things that are going on. See, it's not just an occurrence that that ESa became an orphan. God was in control of that.

God is in control that Mordecai will be the 1 that adopts her and that she lives in Susa and then this sudden this weird beauty pageant that Zerxes thinks it's such a great idea, happens. It's no it's no accident that she finds favor in everybody's eyes. 1st head guy, then everyone's then Xerxes. And it's no accident that they find out about this plot against the life of xerxes. It's god moving all the pieces behind the scenes.

And it's god moving the pieces so that esther will be put into a position and we'll see this as we're going throughout that that she will be used for his glory as he saves his people from the threat of death. That's the providence of god in this story. And we see the providence of god in Jesus's story as well. From the census that takes place in which puts Mary and Joseph in the place of Bethlehem. From the from the the the the the picking of 12 disciples of which 1 will be judas who will betray his beloved 1 into the hands of of firstly the Jewish leaders and then to the Romans and to use the Romans to put Jesus upon a cross to die for us but to then rise again in resurrection glory to promises all life and life eternal.

The providences of god are all over scriptures. They're all over Esther, and they're all over the story of Jesus. And if you're a Christian, today, brothers and sisters. This is a comforting thing because if we're a Christian, we find ourselves in the providences of god. We find ourselves in in in loving, controlling hands of a god who is all about our goods.

And so you can think about your life. And sometimes things are hard, aren't they? And sometimes things are good. But both in the good and the bad God is working it for your good and for his glory. There's no there's no chance do you know how great that is?

There's no chance in your life. There's nothing that was accidental in your life. There's no like, oh, that was annoying. How come you didn't see that god? God sees it all.

God sees it all. He uses it all. Romans what a great pasture is that god uses all things. That means all things, the bad, the goods, and all the things in between. For your good.

And so Christians, we might be exiles. Peter says that in 1 Peter where exile scattered around this world. And we may live in a life of danger. We know Christian brothers and sisters are across this world. But even if we are exiles, which we are, and even if we are in danger, which we will be in varying degrees, we can know that god is in control of all these things.

And because god is in control, we can be faithful and we can obey him even when it's hard. So let's listen to Jesus. So where are you in all of this? Maybe you're here and you wanna be in control. I think to some degree most of us love to be in control in some senses.

So I think that's why I hate rides. Yeah. I thought I'd tell you that now. Hate roller coasters because they're not in control. But we love to be in control.

We love to control everything, don't we? And maybe you're that sort of person. He just wants to be in control of every little detail. And you think I can control my life and I can decide and and decide where I'm going, but actually you're not. Try as you hard.

You are not in control. I mean, you think about the lies that our world tells children. You are in control of your own destiny. I can't even tie my shoelaces, sir. That's my kids.

They do GCSEs. You can you can save the planet. I can't. Can't even clean myself. How can I say the planet?

You know, when we think about ourselves, we can't control anything. You know, we can't even control our shots when it gets too hot. Suddenly everything packs in. I can't control. We can't even say no to our own desires and our passions and our lusts.

We're not in control, but there is 1 who is in control. And here's god almighty. Here's the lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings, and the lord of lords we said last week. And so if you find yourself outside of the providences of god, that's quite a scary place to be. Because it means that I have no anchor.

I have no reference to sustain me and to give me security, but it puts me in the hands of the god who is in control who I don't turn down who I don't turn, than turn 2. So maybe you have never brought yourselves under the control of Christ. But maybe you've also felt, actually, I know I'm not in control, and I feel wildly insecure. Maybe today you'll come to the foot of the cross and you'll say Jesus. Will you be my sovereign king?

Will you bring me into your providence? And he will be so good that he will do that for you. And Christian, Hope you still awake. Are you? I know it's hot.

Why don't you mean me? I'm dripping. Isn't this assuring? It's so easy to take our eyes of these truths and think that this world is just beyond control. And our own little world sometimes feel disastrous But today, we've been reminded that god is sovereign that he is in control that Christ because what he has done on a cross has brought us into the very family of god in which we are cared for and lot for and provided for, that we find ourselves in the providences of god.

And so I can rejoice that god has done this. 4 hour goods for our joy and for the salvation of many people and for his glory. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this story, and we thank you that it does reveal to us that you are a god who is so much more mighty than anything that we find in this world. That you are so much more mighty than the kings and the leaders and the politicians and the governments.

You're so much more powerful than us and that you are a god who has weaved everything together to achieve your redemptive plan of salvation. We thank you that these characters point us to our lovely savior, the lord Jesus Christ who is always with us, who gives us his words, who achieves adoption for us. We pray father that you will help us to remember because of what Christ has done on a cross and in his resurrection. We can find ourselves under your providence and under your caring hand. And so may we rejoice in that, and may we remember that, as we go from this place in Jesus' name, our man.