Esther 2026

This is a sermon from Cornerstone Church. In Kingston, we're delighted to make these resources available for you and hope that you enjoy the Ministry of God's Word today. There are lots of other resources on our website, which we are pleased to make available and you 2 Ester chapter 3. Ster 3, the reading's gonna appear on the screen as well, but, I think it would help you more if you could see it on paper in front of you. Esther 3.

After these events, King Zurichy's honored Haiman, son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, elevating him, and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the Royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Hammond for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him on her. Then the Royal officials at the King's Gay asked Morter Kai. Why do you disobey the King's command?

Day after day, they spoke to him, but he refused to comply. Therefore, they told Hayman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated. For he had told them he was a Jew. When Hammond saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged yet having learned who Mordekai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordekai. Instead, Hayman looked for a way to destroy all Mordekai's people, the Jews.

Throughout the whole kingdom of xerxes. In the 12th year of king xerxes, in the 1st month, the month of Nissan, the poor that is the lot, was cast in the presence of Hammond to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the 12th month, the month of ADar. Then Hammond said to King Zerxes, there is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king's laws.

It is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, Let a decree be issued to destroy them. And I will give 10000 talents of silver to the king's administrators for the royal treasury. So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Hammond, son of Hammedatha, the Aga Geites, the enemy of the Jews. Keep the money.

The king said to Hammond, and do with the people as you please. Then on the 13th day of the 1st month, the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province, and in the language of each people, all Hammond's orders to the king satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, women and children on a single day the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of ADar, and to plunder their goods.

A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that they would be ready for that day. The couriers went out spurred on by the king's command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Hammond sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered. Well, good evening. My name's, Pete Woodcock, 1 of the passes of the church here.

We've been going through this amazing book of Esther. Still got some type of way way to go. Am I working? Is that working properly? Yes.

Thank you. And, but let me just go back to the the men's hub pub night. There'll be non alcoholic drinks, so you don't have to drink alcohol. There will be there will be Ollie, are you are you into that sort of thing? No.

It doesn't look like it, brother. Doesn't look like it. Let's pray. Father help us now. Look at this look at this, amazing story.

Please, challenge us, speak to us, help us understand this world in Jesus' name, our man. Now there are definitely things that are have happened in this world and are happening in this world that are so bad. If you're not just in your own little selfish bubble, you know, so bad that you do wonder whether evil is winning. And actually, sometimes it's so bad you wonder whether evil is 1. There's horrific things.

If you take someone like Jeffrey Epstein, if you know that about that, and the Epstein Island. What an extraordinary evil, the wealthiest and the most powerful men in the world flying to a private island. And flying in vulnerable teenage girls who are the the object of their lusts and, using them and then discarding them. I mean, young girls think about it. Separated from their families, manipulated abused, and then silenced.

And then all of the rich and powerful protect 1 another, while the victims, they're they're made to feel shame and fear and You get stories like that, and they're just shocking, and they're just so awful. And if you really are thinking about it, surely you cry out, what is actually going on? Is evil winning or actually has it won? It's so awful. And then think of Christians.

We just saw Christians in China, and we had to, you know, shut down our a little church like this. We had to shut down our of, you know, web broadcasting because we're worried about saying 1 man's name. You know, we're living in where where Christians, when you think of places like North Korea, and North, Nigeria, and Iran, and Sudan, and China, and you can go on and on and on, where there are Christians that they have to meet whispering to each other. If if they are found with a Bible, they can be imprisoned and even executed. Where parents hide their faith from their children and children hide their faith from their parents because if someone finds out, if there's a lazy word and a a word that said, then then suddenly the whole family are in the labor camp or up for execution.

That's happening. Following Christ is very, very costly in this world to to many people, to most Christians. Or think about those young Christian girls in in North Nigeria kidnapped. You know, they're they're teenagers kidnapped by Hokabur her arm and then taken, you know, away. Away from their families and raped and impregnated.

It's extraordinary stuff that you read the headlines. You hear the corruption. You hear of billionaires escaping justice. You hear of wars and persecutions and exploitations and human trafficking and oppression and sooner or later. Surely, if you're gonna think seriously about that, you really have to ask the question, but where is god?

Where is god? Does he see this? You've gotta be able to answer these questions, I think. Does it does he actually care? Now these problems are not modern problems.

They've always been around. And we are going back to Esther, and it's the same questions you've got in the book of Esther. We come to Esther, and what I'm trying to tell you here, we were not entering a fairy tale here. We're entering the real world, and it's our world, and these things are still going on. So we've seen in this amazing drama, act 1, chapter 1, we saw this drunken dictator, you can go back and listen to the talks, king Exerxes, and in his stupidity, in the end, gets rid of his beautiful queen, Vashti.

In act chapter 2, act 2 and and chapter 2, we saw the then this horrific replacement, for a queen. And, Rory was sort of, painting it as a, a, a horrible beauty pageant. And it's awful. These were young girls. These were 14, 15, 16 year old girls, virgins from all around Persia, and the king brought them into his Harim and This is terrifying.

You've you've gotta get the picture of this. Soldiers turning up. Daughter's taken away from their parents. There's no appeal. There's no choice.

There's no return. Young women. Gathered from all over the empire, paraded before a drunken lusty lusting king, knowing that she will have to spend a night with him. How scary is that? A night with him.

And if he didn't really care for her, she was gonna be shoved in in some place as a possession of of the palace and never seen again, unless he fancied her and wanted to bring her in to have sex with her again. It's state sponsored exploitation that's going on here. It's abuse dressed up with royal invitation and privilege. And then finally in that act, we see that Esther becomes queen. This young Jewish girl, taken from her home.

There's no volunteering here. Don't get this. It's it's not her dream to be the queen. With Vasti as her husband. That's not it's not a dream.

Yeah? But she's taken and brought into an Asian pagan king, this young teenage girl, as another beautiful virgin for him to do what he wants to do with. Can you imagine how Mordicae felt when Esther was taken away? Mordicae wasn't her father, but he loved her as his own daughter and brought her up. The girl he loved, taken into the palace of horrors.

And perhaps he asked the question, is it worth praying? Where where's actually god in this? That's act chapter 1. That's act 1. Then act 2.

And now we come to chapter 3, which is act 3. And it's darker. It it actually gets worse. We're going to see let me give you a preview. This is sort of a warning of what is coming.

You know, like, they do that on films now. You know, this this this is, this is what do they call it? R rated now. And it contains well, this is what it contains. 1 proud insecure man promoted to the highest office in the empire.

And then that 1 man has his pride wounded. And he uses that as an excuse for genocide. Every Jew, man, woman, child, he wants put to death on 1 day. That's his plan. And then there's a law brought in to make that plan, to be able to process that plan.

And that law is sent around every town, every village, every homestead. There's a there's a poster up saying on this day, Jews will die. Just can you just imagine that? Can you imagine the fear there? Can you imagine reading a notice like that nailed up on the local Council notice board.

Imagine trying to talk to your children about it when they come home from school and it's been told at school. Imagine looking at the calendar and saying, we've got sort of nearly a year. Can you imagine the panic? The countdown? Because you know what's gonna happen.

Because even before the day of death, people will say, well, they're gonna die so I can nuke their property anyway. I could put them in little camps, pauldrons and things, and we could treat them. We could kick the hell out of the the little, the little dude down the road, and he's gonna do nothing about it because he's gonna be dead in under a year. Imagine what you were like as a parent. You would be thinking, where are the people, traffickers?

We're they'll spend a lot of money on if the we we hear that the bloke up the road has got a boat. And and I know he takes hundreds of people on on a little tiny boat, but it's worth us getting on that boat, isn't it? If we can get out get out of Persia somehow. That's what would be happening, isn't it? You make the the weight, the fear, the helplessness, the bewilderment, the scaringness.

How do we how do we keep our money? Well, don't worry about that. Let's keep our lives. And then the chilling end of this act this is the preview, by the way. The chilling end is the murderers of raising a glass.

Wickedness is winning. Cheers to their murderous acts. So that was a preview. That's like, you know, you're reading the little booklet when you're at the at the play. Now let's sit down.

Gonna be a ride. Kur rises up. And the title of act 3 is things get darker and more desperately evil. Remember, we're in Persia. It's easy to remember because it's hot and it's hot here.

So we're in Persia. 2500 years ago, there are thousands of Jews in exile in Persia. Persia was this massive, massive m empire, and King execs is is ruling over it. He's not a nice man if you read the books. So act 3, scene 1, evil enters center stage.

His name is Hayman, evil enters center age. Now I'm told that when Jews around the world read the story of Esther today, they boo and they hiss, and they have a rattle to make a noise whenever the name Hammond is read, we should probably try that 1 week. Maybe are you preaching next week? Well, whoever, we might might might try that perhaps. But there's whenever his name is mentioned, let's try it.

I'm gonna say Hayman, I'm gonna say his name is Hammond, and by the time it gets to Hammond, let's try. His name is Hayman. Yep. It was louder than that, and it rattles. And the idea is that you have to block this evil man's is so evil that he he must not be named.

He must not be named. So Hammond is the man who must not be named. And he's the personification of evil, and he who must not be named has entered center stage. And the funny thing is we've got no warning of this. He suddenly comes on to the stage.

The curtain goes up and Hammond's on the stage. Yeah? 1st 1, after these events, king Exerxes honored Hammond, son of Hamedatha, the Agragite. Now the thing is, If you're slightly in the know, you know he's an evil man because although we haven't had anything else about him, no warning of him coming onto center stage, he we he's introduced as, as an Agagite. And an Agagite, if you go back in the Bible, and if you know your Bible, you'd know this.

An Agag was the king of the Amalekites, and the Amalekites are an ancient enemy of god and an ancient enemy of god's people. And Hammond comes from the group that are an enemy of god and an enemy of god's people. So If you're watching this play and you know your Bible, you immediately know when Hammond is introduced that bad news is going to happen. So at the very least in your heart, there would be rattling. In your heart, there would be a sis there would be a boo.

You know something even's gonna happen. Now we'll see as we go through this that Hammond was this self seeking, proud arrogant, power mad man. He had a quick temper. He was a quick tempered narcissist. There is actually nothing good about Hammond that you can find in this whole story.

Actually, I'm not gonna give anything away, but you'll find that even his wife in the end says, well, you know, you might as well die sort of thing. There's nothing good about Hammond except 1 thing. He's a billionaire. And when it comes to billionaires, it doesn't matter what their character is like, is it? Because they're billionaires.

And so he who must not be named is promoted after these events, King execs' honored Hammond, son of Hamedatha, the Agogite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the nobles. He now becomes the king's right hand man, his prime minister, his confidant, he's the president, or whatever you wanna call him, he's there. Now what people do with authority and money and power is a test of character. It's always a test of character. Do they use their authority and power and money to promote themselves or do they use that to promote others and help others?

Do they glorify themselves, or do they glorify god? Do they wanna be the servant of people with their gifts that god has given them, or do they wanna be served? Look at verse 2, All the Royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Hammond. For the king had commanded this concerning him. Here's Hammond.

He's got this power And as they say, pride pride blinds people to what they really are, and and it makes them insist in deserving things that they don't really deserve. And that's what's actually going on here. I I read this fantastic sentence last week. And it really applies to Hammond. It it says, you have to think about this a little bit.

It says, little men cast long shadow sorry. When little men cast long shadows, it's a sign the sun is setting. I love that because, you know, when the sun's going down, the the the the the shadows are longer. And so even a little man casts a long shadow. And he's a little man, not necessarily in stature, but he's a he's a little self contained that I'm all about me, man, nothing bigger than me, me, me.

And so when he casts a long shadow, in other words, has power, then you know that that it's coming dark, the sun is setting. The sun is setting. What a great quote. When little men cast long shadows, it's a sign the sun is setting. And Hammond makes himself look and sound bigger than he really was.

I read another story. I don't think we've ever read them. They were always worth reading. They're aesop's fables. Anybody read aesop's fables?

Yeah. They're little they're little sort of moral stories, and they're normally about an animal. And this 1, in America, it's called the Jackass in Office, which I quite like. This is about a donkey. He's a jackass.

Yeah. And, the donkey is carrying a religious symbol. It's actually the cross, but forget that for the moment. He's carrying a religious symbol. And all the religious people come out, and they're bowing down to the religious symbol and the donkey's carrying it, but the donkey thinks they're bad, out of me.

And that's how stupid it is, and then it it finishes like this. Fools take to themselves the respect that is given to their office. He's just a donkey carrying the religious fools take to themselves the respect that is given to their office. That's Hammond. He's not the office is not what he's about.

He's about himself. And although you would respect an office of someone, he wants respect for himself and take that respect. And actually, I don't know whether you notice this. I I think there's a hint here that actually no 1 does like Hammond. I I do because the king has to order, has to command people to pay honor to him.

Do you see that? If you're an honorable person, someone will honor you, won't they? But if you're a dishonorable person in power, you have to have a law that says honor him. Yeah? This little man.

Is on the scene than the sun is setting. It's getting darker. So scene 1 of act 3, evil enters center stage. Scene 2 of act 3, evil is resisted. Mordecai would not take the knee.

He's not taking the knee. Look at verses 2 to 3. All the Royal officials at the King's gate knelt down and paid honor to Hammond, For the king had commanded this concerning him, but Mordicae would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Morticae, why do you disobey the king's command? Now the word there for taking the knee knelt down and paid on it really does suggest worship.

You see, he's putting himself up quite a lot here. It's really what you do to a god, and there's an undoubtedly Hammond is is really wanting to see himself as divine, up with the gods. Yeah. Really on the level of of execs, and who knows maybe would have wanted to take over. So Mordicai says, I'm not doing that.

I can respect a, a position, but I can't worship a man. And remember Hammond stands for the enemies of god. So in this true drama, if mordecai worshiped him, it'd be like worshiping Satan, be like worshiping him in the enemy of god. And Hammond is not god. And so Mordicai is not going to worship him.

And then Mordicai's colleagues, colleagues, come to him and they start saying, look, look, mate. Look, it's only outward. You don't have to bow to him in your heart. You could hate him if like, I mean, we don't like him. I would think they would be saying that.

But, you know, it's an order. You're you're, you know, it'd be civil disobedience not to do it. So, you know, bow down to him and don't make a fuss. Just don't make a fuss and and and keep yourself not seen, you know, hide in the crowd, and it'll be alright, Mordecai. But he wouldn't do that.

He refused. Day after day, they kept saying come on mate. Town. Take the knee. Take the knee.

In the end, they reported him to Hammond. And they're really asking, can we tolerate this due? And that's where the Jew word is used here. Can we tolerate this, Jude? In other words, is there a sort of opportunity for conscientious objection here?

The Jews have 1 god. They say in their laws, they're big 10 commandments, not to bow down to any other god, So do we have a sort of, is, can we have some religious freedom tolerance here that we don't have to make him do it? And they tried their sort of talk like that. And, and that's not gonna happen. The great German reformer Martin Luther.

He was told to obey and conform to the bishops and the popes. And he said my conscience is captive to the word of god. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. And Mordicai is saying, I can't do anything else.

It's here I stand. Now god isn't mentioned in this book, and I'll show you for reasons why in a minute. God isn't mentioned in this book, but where do you see god here? You see god in the life of Mordicai? You see he believes, don't you?

He believes. He knows nothing good's gonna come to him if he doesn't do this, and he believes he should not bow down to any other god. So you may not hear the word god, but you see the effects of god. So that's, scene 2. Scene 3, pridey stirred.

Right. Look at this. Look at Hammond's answer. When Hayman saw Mordicai, he hadn't even seen him. Now he's pointed him out.

They've pointed him out. When Hayman saw Mordicai would not, kneel down or pay honor, he's enraged. This is what happens to little men. They can't control us. They're absolutely angry.

All the others are falling down. This is 1 plank. He's enraged yet having learned who mordecai's people were. The enemy, family are coming out now, yet having learned to mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only mordecai. Instead, Hayman looked for a way to destroy all mordecai's people to Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Exerxes.

He's enraged. Yeah? This is the trouble with these men. They're so easily offended, aren't they? They're so easily offended.

You know, There's 1 bloke. For religious reasons, 1 single bloke, and he's a Jew and he won't bow down, but that's the only 1 he sees. You know, it's and so what am I gonna do this gatekeeper with a conscience She's the only 1 I see and sneak out towards her. He's festeringly festers over. And when when we read on, you'll see him.

He can't let this go. He can't even sleep over it. He's so angry about it. You'll see that as we as we go along in the story. And so he comes up with a plan.

I know what I'm gonna do. I'll get rid of that 1 moment. I'm gonna get that, you know, I'm gonna get that, that flipping mordy kind bloke. Well, he's a Jew. He's a Jew.

I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna know. I'm gonna get rid of. Brinty, kill all of them. Kill a lot of them.

Wipe them off the face of our of our empire. And that's his solution. Here all the Jews. That'll be the final solution to his problem. But like so many dictators, Hammond is incredibly superstitious.

He doesn't fear being a mass murderer. He doesn't fear the living god, but he wants to make sure the stars or the gods are in line and in favor of his wicked plan. Were 7. In the 12th year of the king of king Exerxes, the 1st month, the month of Nissan, the poor, that is the lot was cast in the presence of Hammond. To select a day and a month.

It's like an oracle, you know? He's like looking at the oracle to see whether something's gonna come out. It's like casting lots throwing a die. And the lot fell on the 12th month, the month of ADar. So they cast lots this poor.

They're casting lots to find out what would be the best months for the final solution. Now notice what he doesn't do, and this is typical paganism, he doesn't ask what is right, he doesn't ask what is moral, he doesn't ask whether he's doing the right thing or the wrong thing. There's no morality in this religion at all, He just believes that the universe, the stars, the dice, fortune, is always about his plans, and all he wants is the universe to tell him which day so the plans will go ahead really well. That's what's going on in his mind, I think. But what I want you to notice is the superstition.

He he wants to kill Mordecai. And again, later on, you'll see how desperate he is to kill Mordecai. But now suddenly the horoscopes, the die, whatever it is, are saying you have to wait nearly a year, and he goes in line with that. Evil men are often superstitious. Hitler and Gerbles in the bunker in in Berlin, they started looking at the horoscopes, and many of the Nazis were into a cult.

Putin Putinin. He's really scared of a novel. I always forget what the novel is. What's the novel land? The master and margarita.

He's scared of that book. I don't know why we just don't drop loads of books on Moscow. See what happened. He's so scared if there's a book, you know, a that book around him. He has to get it removed, and and he's scared of it.

King Jong Un. He won't celebrate his own birthday because he's scared that people will find out that he's got Japanese mother. This is extraordinary, and Japanese are really baddies. Go to China. Xinjiang ping ping, he he he doesn't like, pooh bear.

Pooh bear. This is a man who's ruling over 1400000000 people, and you wear a t shirt with pooh bear on, and it's it's it's amazing. It's amazing how you can get these people. And you can look up lotus things. So Hammond casts lots for the day.

Now if you're watching this play or this true story and you know your bible, You will know scripture that Hammond has no clue exists. And the scripture is Proverbs 16 33, and it says this. The lot is cast into the lap. That's what he was doing. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the lord, and that's the god of the Bible.

So Hammond is coming to talk to 1 god and the god answers. And the god says the 12th month. The massacre that you're planning is in nearly a year's time. And Hammond's not got a clue. That that is what is happening.

So now Hayman goes to the King to get permission to go ahead with his final solution. And, and he if you read what he says to the King, he it exaggerates the whole situation. We're only talking about 1 man who's supposed to be disobedient, and now it's all the people. And, he says truths in there, but he exaggerates the wickedness and the differences of the Jews and so forth. But to steal the deal, what does a billionaire do?

To steal the deal? What does a billionaire do verse 9? If it pleases the king, let the decree be issued to destroy them and I will give you 10000 talents of silver. I think it's something like uh-uh 350 tons of silver. Anyway, something like that.

And I will give you 10000 talents of silver to the king's administrators for the royal treasury. Now you're talking, Hammond? We got my attention now, haven't you? You know billionaires, you you know, they're so good. They've come up with the best ideas, don't they?

A Greek historian says that at the time, the whole Persian empire kingdom was 15000 talents of silver. So Hammond is offering Exerxes 2 thirds of Persian's annual kingdom. He's a billionaire. Now the king says you keep it, but I don't think he really means that. And I think what he does mean is that actually we'll get all the money from, looting the the Jews anyway.

So it's a good investment. It's hard to resist a billionaire, isn't it? They really have good ideas, don't they? Except the city of Suser didn't think so. The last verse in this in this, act is the the last words of the city of Suser were was bewildered.

I guess the stock market's crashed. I I mean, what what are you doing? You're you're killing our our people that are really resourceful people that have brought blessing into this nation. And so the city's bewildered that stock markets are crashing. But the billionaire has spoken, and we're getting the money back in the end.

And it's such a dangerous thing, isn't it? To make laws like this off the cuff. Isn't it? These men that just make a law like this. Let's kill all of all these foreign people.

It's such a danger not fought through. But it went ahead, we're told. Look at verse 13. Dispatches were sent by couriers all over the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill, annihilate all the Jews, young, old, women children on a single day, the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of ADar, and to plunder their goods. So we're nearly at the end of acts act 3.

I hope you're with me because I'm gonna apply it in a minute. We're nearly at the end, but as I've already shown you, just before the curtain comes down to end this act, You've got this extraordinary sentence in verse 15. The couriers went out spurred on by the king's command and the edict to issue, was issued. In the citadel of Susa, the king and Hammond sat down to drink. They had just issued the extermination of all these people, and they have a beer or a wine.

They sit down and have a drink. Do you see that? Just before the curtain comes down, evil celebrating evil. And then the curtain comes down. So it's come down now on act 3.

What are you gonna do? What you're gonna do in the interval? Go and get a drink. Go and get 1 of those beers or 1 of those wines. That's a Hammond special.

You're gonna get some popcorn. Yeah. Gonna go to the toilet. Gonna start looking at your phone because now the thing's gone down. What's what was all the things I've got?

You you've just seen evil, celebrating evil. We've just seen we're in this world. We've just heard about Epstein Island and Bokohuramin. Let's have some popcorn. Let's flick through some things.

Oh, look. There's another cat falling off a thing. Or are you gonna allow the horror to challenge you? Are you gonna ask the question what is going on and ask this question? Very good question.

Where is god? Where is god in all of this? God hasn't even been mentioned. So where is he? Now let's try and apply this.

How are we meant to live in a world like this? If you're living in acts in act 3, if you're living in chapter 3, you need to know if you're gonna live You need to know this. It's act 3. It's not the end of a story. You're meant to feel it, but it's not the end of a story.

You need to know that Hammond is not god. And whatever the consequences you're wise not to bow to him. Now how do we work on that? So in order to wake you up a bit, Turn to Psalm 2. Psalms are sort of in the middle of the Bible.

Turn to Psalm number 2. There's songs in the Bible. We were singing about singing, and these are songs in the Bible. And Psalm 2. You need to know Psalm 2.

If you know Psalm 2, you'll be able to live in act 3. Chapter 3. Psalm 2. Verse 1, I won't read it all, although all of it definitely applies, but we have no time for that. Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain?

There's the evil. There's the Hammond. The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their chains and throw off their shackles. The 1 enthroned in heaven look at this, please. Verse 4.

The 1 enthroned in heaven, where's he enthroned? He's in heaven. He's on a throne in heaven bigger than Exerxes and than any other king. The 1 enthroned in heaven laughs. He laughs.

He's laughing. The lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I've installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. That's the lord Jesus Christ. That's the 1 who died and rose again.

He's the king. He really is the king. But I wanna focus in on god is laughing. He laughs at the rebellion of people like Hammond. He he absolutely laughs.

These tiny little creatures that I made out of dust, imagine they can overthrow me, and my plans, and my people. It's a joke. Verse 4, look, did we read it? The 1 enthroned in heaven, that is Jesus. Laps.

The lord scoffs at them. I want to show you here, and this is why I think this is a very important thing now, that there is laughter at the heart of the universe that echoes through history and hits evil people. I don't know whether you've noticed. I think you have because when we've read it, you've actually laughed because when you read Esther well, you can't help laughing. But Esther is quite a remarkable book because as I've tried to show you, it contains some of the darkest stories in the bible.

I mean, just, you know, I've just reminded you, you know, young women taken by a pagan king, basically raped, you know, genocide dictator rises to power. There's a day when they're gonna kill everyone. It doesn't feel like you laugh at that stuff, does it? I mean, the Christian response to evil in this world has gotta be grief. It's gotta be grief.

It's gotta be sorrow, it's gotta be righteous anger, it's gotta be compassion, it's gotta be prayer, and yet, and yet the book of Esther is written like a comedy. Now that might sound shocking. But you've got to remember what comedies really are in antiquity, and in Shakespeare and all of those ones. A comedy is not simply to make people laugh. It does But a comedy is a story about pompous people.

Love that word. Pompous I was talking to Jake about it. He was telling me about someone who's pompous. It's pompous. What a word.

It's when you meet someone who's pompous, you don't know what your pompous person is, it's amazing. A pompous person. It's pompous people, evil people, people with the wrong story, and it's all muddled up. But in the end, those pompous people fall. An evil is defeated.

That's what comedy is. An Esther is exactly that kind of story. It's full of irony. It's full of reversals. It's full of moments where you, the reader, know something that the villain Haiman doesn't know, and you wanna shout out.

You almost already wanna shout out to Hammond if you know the story. You fool Hammond. Don't you know? You wanna kill all the Jews Don't you know, and of course he doesn't, that Esther the king's favorite is a Jew. Can't you see it?

It's gonna get you into trouble. You idiot. We know that. He doesn't. You fool, Hammond.

Don't you know that Mordecai has his name written in the king's annals of heroes. He's a hero in the book the king looks at. You don't know that Hammond, do you? You fool. Can't you see that god has been arranging things long time before use took center stage?

And the audiences are allowed to laugh at him not because evil is funny because evil is stupid and evil is blind. Hammond thinks he's writing the script, but he didn't realize that there's a director behind the stage that's unseen and unspoken of. That's why Esther's written like this that there's not the word god there. He's the unseen, but very seen, if you like, director unnamed director While Hayman was just about to walk center stage in act 3, the unseen director in acts 1 and 2 had already been rearranging things. Hopefully, we've seen it.

The wicked king got rid of his queen, so you needed another queen, and then he used wickedness to bring Ester in, and Ester becomes queen, and she's a Jew, and she listens to Mordecai, who is a Jew? You've got all that stuff. That the end of act 2, we're told that, Hammond, that Mordicai heard about an assassination of the king told Queen Esther, Esther told the king and they found out that was a true attempt at assassination, and then and then Mordekai's name was put in the book of Annals that the king reads as the hero, hero. All of that's happened before the spotlight falls on Hammond. And he has not a clue.

The director is god, and he's not in Hammond on Hammond's radar, but Hammond is on god's radar, Even when things look terrible for god's people in those countries I've mentioned, we can be sure god is working behind the scenes as the director. He's not taken unaware. We may be in terrible situations, and they are terrible. And everything might look bleak around us, but this is why we need to know the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is that god is in control, not Hammond.

Hammond isn't even out of control, because god is in control. And if we have a vision of the future, And if we have a vision of a god who laughs at this stuff, who says this is pathetic, then we can actually live in act 3, knowing that Act 10 is on its way, the end. Humor, laughing comes as an act of faith and hope. It's very important. It becomes a declaration to evil that evil doesn't have the final word when you can laugh.

People often survived unbearable suffering because they refuse to surrender their joy up, and they laughed. We we, anime went to Auschwitz, last month. And people literally survived out, Auschwitz, psychologically because they had humor. Humanma gives you power to say, I'm not what you tell me. I am an unhuman nothing.

Human makes you laugh. They laughed. Not because the camps were amusing, but because laughter reminded them that the Nazis had not conquered their humanity, evil will not win. The 1 great gift of humor, it is that reminders that tyrants aren't god.dictators, all dictators hate laughter and hate to be laughter. I'm I've started reading, on Saturday morning, started reading, Alexei Nelvani's autobiography.

He's the man who opposed Putin and was killed by Putin, and the 1st 3 chapters about his 1st encounter with, Novastok, Novachok, and how he came out of a coma. It's full of humor that book. He's it's just to make why? Because he knows Putin is not the final man. It's not the final act.

Detaters, they demand fear. They demand reverence. They demand that we take the need to them. They demand absolute seriousness, and a joke can put a small little pin in their billionaire, powerful bubble of pride and pomposity. Yeah?

And it just they can't stand it. Think of Schindler's list, the film. Schindler's list is all about Schindler who saved, Jews from, from, Auschwitz and other, other horrific camps. It's a very dark film. It's a film worth watching.

I hadn't seen it for years. We watched it again because we've just come from Auschwitz Fitch. Even in that dark film, there's humor. Someone had stolen something or something or done something wrong to the commandant. He gets about 40 men out in a row, and he says, who stole that?

Tell me you did it. I will kill him. And if you don't tell me and I don't kill him, I'll kill you all, bam, and he shoots someone dead in the head. This is a true story that broke falls down. Right?

I'm just gonna go through you all unless you own up to who did it. The kid, little kid walks out and says, sir. Sir, I know who did it. And the commandant, the Nazi said, did you do it? No, sir.

It was him. It's brilliant. It's just brilliant. And you laugh. In the middle of this, Brilliant.

If you've seen the film Jojo rabbit, if you haven't, you should see it. It's a satire against 1 of, history's greatest evils. It's hilarious Very funny, full of pathos, full of sadness. You'll have tears there, but you'll have tears of laughter. The whole point is to ridicule the dictator Hitler.

It's brilliant. If you read some of, the stories from the 2nd World War, and how did how did Britain beat Germany at war? A loads of it is humor. But the Germans didn't know how to laugh. They've taken everything so seriously, and we were having a laugh.

If you've seen the film, life is beautiful. If you haven't, please, please. Get it out and see it. It it's a an Italian film. It's phenomenal.

And it's all about a father and a son being taken to the concentration camp. Who's seen that film? It's marvelous. And the father wants to save the son in this horrific condition. So he he pretends it's all a game, and at the end of the game, you you'll win a tank.

Yeah? But what you gotta do in this game, son, is to hide from these men. They mustn't see you. Yeah. You must hide all day from them.

Then you win the tank. And there's an amazing bit of humor where 1 of the Nazis says, who can translate for me, and this bloke. Says, yeah, I can do it. And there's 10 points to what's gonna happen to you in this concentration camp. And so the German is going, I'm finding it.

And then the father is going, 1.1 in this game. You need to hide from if you want to win the tank, you need to hide. And the German doesn't got a clue that he said that. 0.2, 0.2 is that if you really wanna win the tank, you're gonna have to go hungry you know, for a little while. Yeah.

And it's it's hilarious, but phenomenal mocking. Hammond thinks that he is writing the final chapter. He's actually digging the foundations for his own 4. You'll see that. Satan thought that Jesus on the cross was his great victory.

If you were a disciple following Jesus you think you're in acts 3, act 3. It looks like you're in act 3, but the cross became the greatest defeat of Satan. Death thought it had swallowed up Christ. Instead, Christ had swallowed up death and rose again. That's the comedy of the redemption story.

Not comedy because suffering is light. Comedy because god always gets the last word. That's why the church has always been able to sing in prison. The very wickedness that threatens to wipe the church out, god is using that wickedness as a means to prevent them from being wiped out. You'll see that in this story.

Wicked is utterly self defeating. Satan, evil will not win. God gets the last laugh. Let me just apply it 2 more times. I'm a is that alright?

Where are we? Okay. I'm sorry about this. This story at this point helps us pray. Jesus says about prayer in Matthew 6, says, when you pray, but remember, your father knows what you need before you ask him.

Your father knows what you need before you ask him. Now do ask, but he knows what you need before you ask him. This story illustrates that. He's already before there's any fasting that happens later on in the story. He's already put in place Hammond's downfall.

And laughter at the end, party at the end. He's already done that. Even before we ask god has already worked out his victory. So ask, I think another application is let's be brave. Mordecai did the right thing, even though he didn't know what the consequences were gonna be in the end.

He's in act 3, remember. He knew finally in the end god laughs and god's winds, but right at that moment, don't you think there were a lot of Jews saying, mordecai? Why did you do you're blowing it for us? Would you have to be so holy? I'm sure they were.

Well, just to make a scene. Just go under the radar of evil. Don't speak out. Don't talk about god. Don't follow his ways.

We're in act 3. We need to be brave like Mordecai. We need to be brave, and it doesn't matter what other Christians say. We need to stand up for Christ. Jesus said, Don't fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

He said a similar thing in Luke. He said do not be afraid of those who kill the body And after that, have nothing more they can do. They can only kill your body. That's all I can do. Remember them.

As we're in act 3 of the horrors that are going around, ask where is god and then start to see he's already put in place the downfall of evil and the celebration day.