We read God's Word tonight from the book of Esther. Esther chapter 1, and our text is the chapter. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job. Esther chapter one. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, this is Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia over 107 and 20 provinces. that in those days when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom. and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even in 104 score days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace. Where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble? The beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king. and the drinking was according to the law. None did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mahuman, Biztha, Harbona, Biktha, and Abagtha, Zithar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on. But the Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains. Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him. Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment, And the next unto him was Carshina, Scithar, Admitha, Tarshish, Merez, Marcina, and Mamucan, the seven princes of Persian media, which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom. What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the Chamberlains? Amumuqin answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported. The King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti, the queen, to be brought in before him, but she came not. Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king's princes which have heard of the deed of the queen, thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, for it is great, all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Mamucan. For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people. Beloved of God, the book of Esther, chronologically speaking, belongs at the very end of the Old Testament. It's found in our Bibles, however, in the middle of the Old Testament, after Ezra and Nehemiah and before the book of Job. The reason for this is that the books of the Old Testament are arranged not necessarily chronologically, but according to genre Joshua through Esther are the history section of the Old Testament, and then with Job begins the wisdom section. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. But finding Esther at least at the end of the history section of the Old Testament, we know that it occurs at the end of the history of the Old Testament itself. After the return of the Israelites from the Babylonian captivity, and before the very next thing that's on the timeline of redemptive history, the coming of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 1 verse 3 that we read from the book of Esther, we learn that the events of the book take place in the third year of the reign of King Ahasuerus, whose name in Greek is Xerxes. Ahasuerus received the throne of the massive Persian Empire from his father Darius in the year 486 BC. The third year of the reign of King Ahasuerus, therefore, puts us at 483 BC. The king of Persia, Cyrus, that you likely know about. Cyrus, the great king of Persia, the one who let the Israelites go back from the captivity into their own homeland. That king of Persia was this king, Ahasuerus' great-great-grandfather. So here in the book of Esther, 483 BC, the 50,000 Jews have already returned to Jerusalem from the captivity. The temple has been rebuilt in Jerusalem already as recorded in the book of Ezra. However, Nehemiah has not come yet to Jerusalem and has yet to rebuild the walls of the city. The setting of the book of Esther is very different from the setting of Ezra and Nehemiah. The setting is the palace of the emperor himself of this great Persia in one of his four capital cities, Shushan. While Ezra and Nehemiah are the books from this time period, where the Holy Spirit focuses our attention on the 50,000 captives who returned back to the promised land, Esther is the book from this time period where the Holy Spirit focuses our attention on those who stayed back, did not return from captivity, but stayed behind, sadly, and sinfully, wickedly did so. But Esther is the book that reminds us that God's providence It's not only a providence that rules over His faithful remnant, but rules over the entire earth for the sake of that remnant and the sake of His glorious covenant of grace. So much so in this book that without what happens here far away in Shushan the palace, You and I would not be sitting here tonight. It's an interesting question how many of these unfaithful Jews who stayed behind were still God's children. There were undoubtedly some of them who were. It's an interesting question. Were these particular two Jews who come up in the book of Esther still God's children, Esther and Mordecai? I don't know the answer to that question. It's hard to say. And do we need to say? There's certainly plenty in the book to tell us that Esther and Mordecai were not children of God. There are a few things that could possibly indicate they were children of God. if they were children of God. They were very, very, very weak children of God. And just compare their testimony to the testimony of Daniel during the captivity, and you will see if they're children of God at all, which I don't know, very weak. I don't intend to make the judgment, though, as we continue on in this series of the book of Esther, and I don't think you need to make the judgment either, because it isn't the point of the book. And we ought not allow ourselves to become distracted from the central point of the book in a book where many things could distract us from its central point and from its central person. The central person in the book of Esther is not Esther. And the central person in the book of Esther is not Mordecai, and it's not Ahasuerus, and it's not Vashti, and it's not Haman either. A central person is a person whose three persons in one being, it's God, the God of all the earth. The God who in his providence works all things for the good of his covenant purposes in Jesus Christ. It's true that the central person of the book of Esther is the triune God, even though the name of God never once is used in the book of Esther, and it's the only book of the Bible in which the name of God is never used. In spite of that, God is all over this book. God is in every corner of this book, on every page of this book. Though His name is not there, His name must not be in this book. It would ruin this book if God's name was in this book. It would take away from the main point of this book if God's name was here. Because the main point of this book is not only the fact that the God of all the earth, the God of providence, rules over all things in service to the covenant of grace. But the point of the book is that this God, the God of all the earth who rules over all things unto the service of his covenant, does so also through a specific stripe of providence. A providence that is not always front and center. A providence that not always manifests itself in big things like plagues and like parting seas, but a providence that works to just as mightily in tiny things, unseen things, miniature things, in the shadows where nobody's looking. That's the point of the book of Esther and that's why God's name is not mentioned. It's purposeful by the inspiring spirit. Chapter one of the book of Esther sets the stage for all of this by taking us now into the palace of the most powerful man on the face of the earth and showing us that the vast power of the king of Persia, indeed of the whole mighty empire, is a precarious and fragile power. and even if you can't see it on the surface. Above all earthly powers, including this great earthly powers, God is reigning, God is ruling, and God is carrying out His purposes, and He alone is on the throne. So the theme of this first sermon for this series is Above All Earthly Powers. We notice first tonight, fragile power, second, the God of the details, and third, let's see in contrast to this King Ahasuerus, the great King coming, Jesus Christ. Above all earthly powers, fragile power, God of the details, and the great King. Have you ever known someone who held a high position of authority, influence, power, prestige, and who really loved to project that authority and power and prestige before others. Maybe by flaunting their wealth in front of other people or Loving to tell other people what to do in front of other people just to make clear that everybody knows that they can. And their projection of their own might and influence and power captivates the people who see it, holds them in awe. And then have you ever known someone like that, and something happens, Either because of something that they did that exposed their own weakness, or God and His providence caused something to happen. But either way, something that exposes how fragile their power really was. And you and others realized how how fleeting their power was, and how fleeting all human power and might really is, and how weakly the grip men have upon power and might is, and how all power belongs to God to give and to take as He will. Now even the most powerful human beings still put their pants on one leg at a time, and in a very short time dust returns to dust. and power to the God who gave it. That exposing, that showing the cracks in the armor, that the emperor has no clothes, that's what's happening in Esther chapter 1 with the king and the empire of Persia. The book begins with a show of the king's massive power and wealth. Verse 1 immediately introduces us to the extent of this massive empire. Verse 1, from India. From India in the east, and it's speaking of the Indus River, India region, Pakistan now, even into Ethiopia, which is Sudan at this time. And over 127 provinces, massive. The Persian Empire contained 50% of all the peoples on the face of the earth at the time. 127 provinces, massive, more massive than the kingdoms before it of Babylon and Assyria. And this one man, Ahasuerus, rules over the entire thing. When he says, jump, everyone else responds, how high? Verse 3 and following. The writer of the book shows the king himself showing off his massive power and wealth. We learn that in 483 BC the king held a feast for the very purpose of showing off his wealth and the might of the extent of his empire. And it lasts 180 days. In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even 104 score days. That's six months. That's a long time. Six months of feasting and taking around and showing off the might and the entertainment and the power for the princes and the nobles and the generals and the thousands of important men throughout the kingdom. And at the end of that six months, verse five tells us that there was a grand finale to this whole event where for seven days there's massive feasting, seven straight days of just feasting, gorging oneself. And the scriptures give the details of this royal bash. And the wealth that's displayed at this feast, held in the massive gardens in the center of the palace of Shushan, verses 6-8, tapestries of all kinds of colors, royal purple all over the place. The floors cost more money than anybody there could have accumulated, and all the people there could have accumulated in all their lifetimes put together. The beds on which they reclined were made of solid gold and silver with plush upon them. Each goblet that they drank out of was pure gold, but each one was crafted uniquely by an artist. What was the purpose of this 100 days of extravagance and then this seven-day grand finale at the end? All the Jews, all the church, all of God's people who read this book of Esther, by the time they had this book in their hand, they knew the answer to that question. But for us now, it's the guest list. That helps us understand. Verse 3, He made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, and the power of Persia and Media, that's the military leaders, the military leaders, the generals, the army leaders, the powers of the whole empire, Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the provinces before him. These are the leaders of all the individual provinces of the empire, especially the military leaders, the nobles, the princes, the powers of Persia and Media, King Ahasuerus, is garnering support from all corners of his vast empire for the invasion of Greece that is just about to take place. The history books also speak of Ahasuerus doing this same thing at this same time of Esther chapter 1. And they inform us that the result of this six-month fundraising and bandwagon campaign had this result that the army that Ahasuerus gathered was from 46 different nations of the empire. And if one of those historians is to be believed, an army of 2.5 million men, probably exaggerated, but a massive, massive army came out of this fundraising and help garnering campaign. Ahasuerus' father, Darius, had attempted to defeat Greece and been embarrassed at the Battle of Marathon. And Ahasuerus, now the son, knows that Greece is rising in power and that he needs to defeat the Greeks if the Persian Empire is going to continue in its might. And in order to build a massive army, Ahasuerus needs to get the leaders of the provinces behind him. The Persian Empire is made up of conquered peoples. And you remember that the Persian Empire gave a certain amount of self-rule to the various provinces, like they did for Israel. They let the Israelites go back to their own land, but they still had to honor the king of Persia. In exchange for that, they expected these provinces to send out their fathers and their uncles and their sons to go fight for the empire. And Ahasuerus, knowing that this war is going to be absolutely massive, and to give these people a sense of what they're fighting for, the might of Persia, and that they'll get a cut of it in the end, he brings them and for a hundred days shows them the mighty power of Persia. This helps us understand why, in the next few chapters, when wicked Haman makes his plot against the Jews, This king Ahasuerus so readily accepts the proposal to wipe out an entire people group within his empire. The king needs unity. He needs unity. He can't afford to have anybody doing their own thing in his midst right now as he's focusing his attention on Greece, as he hears from Haman that these Jews are against him. And so, in the next chapters, all of this power that's being set before you here in the first part of chapter one, is going to be turned not only upon Greece, but against the chosen people of God, including those who are in Palestine and who have returned from captivity. And everyone reading the first part of chapter 1 fears, fears, because of the power of the king and his empire. But then, As you keep going, farther in the chapter, everything is not as it seems. By the time the book is actually written down by inspiration and God's people then hold it in their hands, they know already that Ahasuerus is dead. Chapter 10 of Esther tells us the acts of this king Ahasuerus, now dead and gone, are they not written in the chronicles of the king of Persia? He's dead. And God's people know that the power in the West is rising, that Greece is rising up, and the power of Persia is waning. But the point of the rest of chapter 1 is to say that that's what's happening. And the powers of these kingdoms is mighty as though they seem as fragile. In the end, it's an illusion. God raises them up and he throws them down. As Babylon was risen up for his purpose and then torn down by him, as Assyria was risen up for his purpose and torn down, so this great kingdom will be too. They serve his ends and they cannot frustrate his purposes. He preserves her, though the rage of all the world be against the church, as the Belgic Confession puts it in Article 27. A confession that is not exaggerated. For God had said already in the very beginning, Genesis 3 verse 15, that history, all history would have this thread running through it, that there would be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. There at the beginning of Scripture and then there at the end of Scripture in Revelation 12, looking back on history, we learn the same thing. You remember Revelation 12? The vision opens before John, and there is a woman, and that woman is pregnant. She's pregnant with a man-child. Well, there's not just a woman pregnant with a man-child in the vision. There is a dragon, and that dragon has his mouth open, and he is seeking to devour the man-child. The woman is the church, the Old Testament church. And the man-child is the Christ that's born out of the Old Testament church. And the dragon is the serpent, that old devil who has been at enmity with the woman and her seed since the days of Genesis 3, verse 15. Always the devil is trying to devour the man-child out of the Old Testament church. Cut off the seed of the woman, cut off the line of Christ. So right away Cain kills Abel at the serpent's instigation. So wicked Queen Athaliah ascends to the throne in Judah and destroys all the royal seat of David until only one baby held in the back of a closet is keeping the line of Jesus Christ alive. And so it goes through the Old Testament and all the way to the last moment. after the man-child is actually born, and Herod sends out his decree that all the babies in Bethlehem under two years of age must be killed. Ever, he's trying to devour the man-child born out of the woman, the church, and here now, too, in the book of Esther. And though the Jews in Jerusalem The returned captives from whom this Christ will be born don't know it. This empire and this king will turn all of its massive earthly might against the church and the Christ that is in her bosom. But in the end, it is not Persia that is in control. It is not Persia that is calling the shots. It is not Hasheurus who is in charge, but Jehovah God, and he will preserve his church as ever he does. The throne of Persia is cracked. The throne of Persia will fall like the throne of Babylon, like the throne of Assyria, like the throne of Canaan, like the throne of Egypt, and only the throne of David will remain forever and ever. And so right during the very event of the showing off of Persia's might and strength, the scriptures show the cracks, show things falling apart. For this emperor rules over all the known world. who could gather an army 2.5 million strong. He can't handle things going on in his own house. And he bumbles around like a fool, a drunk fool, with drunk advisors around him, eventually making a fool of himself before the whole world. While Ahasuerus holds his seven-day feast, we learn that his wife refuses to join the feast. Instead, This is even before she refuses to come at his call. Instead, we learn that she decides to hold her own feast separate from his feast and another part of the palace. And hold that feast just for some high-ranking noble women, separate from the feast that King Ahasuerus is throwing. Verse 9. Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house. And here is a not so subtle jab in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus. You see, the king in that final seven-day bash extended the feast beyond his dignitaries who had been with him for the last 100 days. He extended the feast to everyone in Shushan, small and great. Verse five, and when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace. He wanted to show all of these princes, not only his vast might, but he wanted to show something of the fact that he's a man of the people too. I care about the little man too. but Vashti apparently refused to be present at such a gathering of common people, and so she formed her own side feast for the courtly women. As you would expect, given her beauty, the people, the common people who were at this feast, and the princes too, they wanted to see the queen. They wanted to see their queen. Verse 11, to show the people and the princes. And Ahasuerus himself, also influenced by wine, wanted to show off the queen's beauty to the people and to the princes. Verse 10, she was something of a trophy wife to him. And so in his drunken state, he calls for her. Verse 11, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look upon, but she does not come. And when she does not come, this sets in motion a pathetic course of events where the drunk king gets his drunk advisors together to decide what to do about this. It's gone too far now, this is the last straw. Now it's time to do something and the good old boys come around and say, let's banish Queen Vashti. Effectively a divorce. and then pass a law to be spread through the entire empire, king, that wives are to give honor to their husbands. For you don't know what this is going to do." And so in verse 22, they send letters, horses and riders, and the king spends a massive amount of money to translate this decree that he's just made on the spot here as he's drunk into every language throughout the empire and to send it out For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, into every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people. The king had lost face before his guests, the princes, and also the common people. But what he does here only makes things worse. As though nobody's going to ask, What is the origin of this strange decree that's going out to the ends of your empire that men should rule in their own house? Why all of a sudden this now goes out? And as though no one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of common people who were in the palace garden while this happened and of the princes and generals throughout the province are not going to let out what is the origin of this strange decree. So that even the writer of the book of Esther knows about it, knows what the origin is. It becomes common knowledge. All he does is further the fact that he's making a fool of himself. Spreads it before half the population of earth. And here's the point. This man is the church's greatest threat. This man we're supposed to tremble before. Ultimately, Persia and Ahasuerus and their attack upon the people of God in later chapters is a picture of the Antichrist, beloved in his empire. And the persecution, a picture of the final persecution of the Antichrist. And it's scary to be sure, it's scary. The Antichrist is scary, right children? You talk about it, it's scary. And the worldwide persecution at the end attempt to wipe out the people of God from the face of the earth is scary. And any persecuting ruler now, and they are there over the face of the earth is scary. But the purpose of the passage is to make God's people breathe a little bit and even laugh a little bit. They are men and they are wicked, godless fools, caught up in their own folly. And for all their money and power, it's not as though God can't handle this. It's not as though God can't take control of this situation. It's not as though there's some great match for the God of all the earth who says, I will keep and I will preserve my church all the way to the end. And who says, and I want you to see that I am doing just that. even when you don't see it, and even if you wonder if I have utterly forgotten. Remember this book, the book of Esther? God says, for I'm working, I'm always working in the shadows where nobody's looking and things you think that are insignificant. I'm working for the furthering of my kingdom and the coming of my son in the final age of perfection and glory. Have patience, wait. Who would have thought that a squabble in the palace was leading to one of the greatest, if not the greatest, works of preservation that the Scriptures make known? There are many interpreters of this part of chapter 1 who wrongly focus on the question of whose side you're supposed to take in the squabble between Ahasuerus and Vashti. And even when this text has been preached on throughout church history, many worthy, worthy proclaimers of the Word of God have had a hard time resisting that temptation. But you can see why that is, can't you? Couldn't you feel it yourself? As we were reading the text, and even as I was talking about it, commenting on it just a little bit ago, I almost wonder if we did a show of hands what the result would be. How many are team Vashti? She had every right to refuse to come. The king was just showing her off. He's a brute of a man, a brute of a man. And how many would say, I'm team Ahasuerus. Good for him for making the law he made. She deserved what was coming to her. Her own feast, as though she couldn't be with the common people, rebellious woman. Luther couldn't resist. If you're wondering, Luther took the side of the king, even going so far as to commend Ahasuerus for getting rid of her. On the other hand, Abraham Kuyper takes Vashti's side. Kuyper wrote two books on women of the Bible, one of women of the Old Testament, one of women of the New Testament. He says of Vashti that she is, quote, one of the nobler women of humanity, end quote. This, beloved, is not the point and not the purpose of the Spirit in inspiring this passage. And anyone who tries to enter into this and find which one's more justified in what they did and which one's not as justified, ends up reading into one side and imputing to one side or the other godly motives, as though these are godly people, which they are not. The intention of the Holy Spirit is to precisely not give us enough details to try to figure out which side is more justified than the other side, but at the same time, to give us enough to make us say, You know what this is? This is a pagan house and this is a pagan marriage. And the downfall of this kingdom is going to be for the same reason as the downfall of every kingdom. It's the same as the downfall of this pagan marriage. It's built upon the quest to serve self. It's built upon the kingdom of me where I stand at the center and seek to bend everything into the service of myself. Me, me, me. Was the king a brute? Absolutely, the king was a brute. Was the queen a rebel? Absolutely, the queen was a rebel. Yes and yes. This is a pagan man and a pagan woman and it's exactly what you would expect. They're both driven by the motive of self-service and the bending of power and control unto their own ends. And so here we're getting closer to the point that the Jews, under the banner of Jehovah God, are living amongst a culture that's like this, is driven by this. Seeking of self and the bending of wealth and power unto self and and they're being influenced by it Just look at what Mordecai and Esther are going to do in the next chapter What are they seeking but self and if there's any point to be made about the marriage of these two, this is it That this is the world and Everything from top to bottom is based and on and ruled by love of self self-seeking and And that, beloved, is a sub-point out of the text that's worth applying tonight. And we take a step back here as churches. Cases where husbands abuse their wives. really abuse them. Other cases where wives look for every reason to escape the headship of even a godly husband. But let's not forget the main point. The culture in which we live is Persian. Everything is a projection of self-love and self-empowerment. Me, me, and more me. And the more marriage issues come into the life of God's people and into the church, the more we ought to pause and step back and see this, the godlessness of the age, is affecting the church of Christ. Right here, where you would expect the devil to attack to, in marriage, let's not forget that this is the main issue. Are there marriages where the man is a brute of a godless man like Naboth? though his wife is an Abigail? Yes, there are. Are there marriages where the man is a godly man like David and the woman is a Michael, a rebellious Michael? Yes, there are. Are there marriages where the husband is a Hasheurus and the wife is Vashti and both are seeking me, me, me, and bending everything towards self? Yes, there are. and likely many more of the latter. But in all of it, in all three of the different kinds of cases, in all marriage problems that exist, this is the issue. The love of self. And the Persian culture, that is the United States of America, me, me, me, creeping into the life of the church. That says, you have a position of power, authority, God has given it to you. Use it for me, use it for me, bend everything to me, for me. and says you don't have that position, and God says you don't have it, well then overcome and get it, because me, me, me. To whatever extent it's alive in our relationships, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. For we are not living in Shushan, but in Jerusalem. For submission to Christ is supposed to rule. For husband uses his headship in service to his bride whom he loves and sacrifices himself for. For wife holds her position in self-sacrificial love for her husband. as the church does to Christ. And if God, by the Holy Spirit, focuses our attention upon these things for a moment, then this, let's not forget this, must be first. Each one must examine myself too, and yourself too, Each one must examine himself and herself. Is my marriage built upon the quest for me and the kingdom of me and pulling everything to me? And is my place in marriage, my God-given place in marriage, used by me in a quest for me and the service of me and the building up of my kingdom around me? Or does it reflect the self-sacrificial love of Christ? That's the issue. There's the problem. Come out from among them and be separate. Right here, saith the Lord your God. But even then, that's not the main point of the squabble between Ahasuerus and his wife. It is a sub-point of the main point. The private squabble in the palace of the king. This little thing, this thing that nobody would think any more of. will lead to the overthrow of the plans of Haman the Agagite and to the preservation of the church. The rest of the book will tell us how. Once again, the foolish things will be used by God to confound the wise, and the weak and beggarly things will confound the mighty. When we think about God preserving his church in history, our minds Beloved, you usually go to the big things, don't they? If I'd ask you to tell me about times when God preserved His church, you'd think about Israel coming out of Egypt and the angel of death and the frogs and the lights. You'd think about the sun standing still for Joshua, and eventually you'd think about the virgin who conceived. But you understand that all of these big things and big moments in the history of redemption are connected by tiny, tiny little things and millions upon millions of them that are in between each one. Little things that nobody cares to notice, nobody starts to think about, or that seem to matter really all that much anyway. But this is the point, they are important because in them and through them, God is working for the safety of his church. It's not just the big things that happen. And it's not even just the big things that happen amongst believers. It's the little things and the little things out there. How many things have happened today across the face of this planet? How many husbands and wives have squabbled to get today? How many tiny moments, billions of tiny things? How little we know. God is working and bringing about His purposes in history, and be assured, beloved, that the same God of these little things is the God of all the little things of your life too. Nothing is outside of His control. He's not merely the God who has something to say about the big moments of your life. He's not the God who just jumps in every five years at the big things, and there He is. But He's the God of every moment, every millisecond, of your life and of every millisecond of everything that happens. For the safety and security of His church in the hands of this God, we are safe. King Ahasuerus was responsible for the wicked drunkenness. and everything that followed. Queen Vashti was responsible for her rebellious going off on her own feast. We're responsible for all of our sins and everyone's responsible for theirs. Let that not be in question, but here the point of the text is to see the glorious mystery of God's providence. That from that perspective, this king had to be drunk that night. and this queen had to resist her husband that night, or the woman of Revelation 12 would have never given birth to the man-child, the Christ would never have come, and the church would never have been redeemed. A Christ that every husband, and every wife here, and every potential husband, and every potential wife here would do well to keep their eyes upon. A Christ, though God over all, who would never abuse his power then or now, but would press his headship into the service of the welfare of his church. showing what it is to hold headship in love. A Christ who, though God himself in human flesh, would at the same time in his humanity submit himself to the will of his Father, never rebellious, showing how loving and self-sacrificial submission works. A Christ who would manifest both gloriously on his cross, where both sacrificial headship and laying himself down unto death for his bride and loving submission to the will of his father would meet on a cross of selfless service. A Christ who would rise again the third day, who would ascend to glory, a glory where there are riches and splendors that expose all the vast wealth of Shushan as the gold of fools, showing where true wealth is to be found. A Christ who rules over a kingdom made up not merely of 127 provinces, but all nations under heaven. A Christ who calls his bride out of all those nations, and when he calls, she comes, made willing by the day of his power. For his bride stands in awe of her husband, who is no brood of a man, but a king of dignity and respect and honor and relentless love. A Christ who is ruling from the throne of David over every beastly king and every empire now and forever. overruling every wicked expression of their self-love, big or small, and all expressions of self-love, big or small, and to his own eventual return, when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that this King and no other is Lord, the Christ, who will then take his bride to himself, pure and holy. and you shall feast lavishly with her, not for a hundred eighty days merely, or seven days, but forever and ever, in the only kingdom that shall have no end. Amen. Father in heaven, bless Thy Word to our hearts. Keep and preserve, O God, in the truth of Thy Word. And come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.