A little man with a long shadow

[Music] 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 can find them on our website. [Music] To Esther chapter 3, Esther 3 the reading is going to 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. After these events King Zerxes honoured Hayman, son of Hamadatha, the Aegigite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honour higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the King's Gate knelt down and paid honour to Hayman for the King had commanded this concerning him but Mordeky would not kneel down or pay him honour. Then the royal officials at the King's Gate asked Mordeky 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 Mordeky's behaviour would be tolerated for he had told them he was a Jew. When Hayman saw that Mordeky would not kneel down or pay him honour he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordeky's people were he scorned the idea of killing only Mordeky. Instead Hayman looked for a way to destroy all Mordeky's people the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Zerxes. In the 12th year of King Zerxes in the first month, the month of Nissan, the poor, that is the lot, was cast in the presence of Hayman to select a day and month and the lot fell on the 12th month, the month of Adar. Then Hayman 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 10,000 talents of silver to the King's administrators for the royal treasury. So the King took his signate ring from his finger and gave it to Hayman's son of Hamadathir, the Aegah Guides, the enemy of the Jews. Keep the money, the King said to Hayman, "And do with the people as you please." Then on the 13th day of the first month, the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people, all Hayman'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 Zerxes 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 Aydar, 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 Hayman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered. Well, good evening, my name's Pete Woodcock. One of the passes of the church here. We've been going through this amazing book of Esther. Still got some type of way to go. Am I working? Is that working properly? Yes, thank you. Let me just go back to the men's hub pub night. There'll be non-alcoholic drinks here. You'll be into that sort of thing. No, we've done it. Let's pray. Father, help us now. Look at this amazing story. Please, challenge us, speak to us. Help us understand this world in Jesus' name. Now, there are definitely things that 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 are so bad that you do wonder whether evil is winning. And actually, sometimes it's so bad you wonder whether evil is one. 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 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 one another while the victims, 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? Well, 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 a little church like this. We had to shut down our web broadcasting because we're worried about saying one man's name. You know, we're living in where Christians think of places like North Korea and North Nigeria and Iran and Afghanistan and Sudan and China. And you can go on and on and on. Where there are Christians, they have to meet whispering to each other. 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 word that said, 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 many people, to most Christians. Or think about those young Christian girls in North Nigeria. Kidnapped. You know, they're teenagers. Kidnapped by Hocka Baran and then taken 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 going to think seriously about that, you really have to ask the question, "Where is God?" "Where is God?" "Does he see this?" "You've got to be able to answer these questions, I think." "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. And what I'm trying to tell you here, we were not entering a fairytale 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 One, Chapter One, we saw this drunken dictator. You can go back and listen to the talks, King Exorcism, and in his stupidity, in the end, gets rid of his beautiful queen, Vashty. In Act Two, and Chapter Two, we saw then this horrific replacement for a queen. And Rory was sort of painting it as 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 harem and this is terrifying you've got to get the picture of this soldiers turning up daughters 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 going to 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 Vasty as her husband that's not it's not a dream yeah but she's taken and brought into an agent pagan king this young teenage girl as another beautiful virgin for him to do what he wants to with can you imagine how Mordeky felt when Esther was taken away Mordeky 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 one that's act one then act two and now we come to chapter three which is act three and it's darker it actually gets worse we're going to see let me give you a preview this is of a warning of what is coming you know like they do that on films now you know this this is this is this is what they call R rated now and it contains well this is what it contains one proud insecure man promoted to the highest office in the empire and then that one 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 one day that's his plan and then there's a law brought in to make that plan uh 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 imagine the panic the countdown because you know what's going to happen because even before the day of death people will say well they're going to die so I can nick their property anyway I can put them in little camps ponderons and things and we can treat them and how we could kick the hell out of the little little dude down the road he's couldn't do nothing about it because he's going to be dead in under a year imagine what he will like as a parent you would be thinking where are the people traffickers we will spend a lot of money on if we we hear that the broke up the road has got a boat and I know he takes hundreds of people 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 weight the fear the helplessness but 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 murderer's a 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 it's going to be a ride curtain rises up and the title of act three 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 empire and King Exoxys is ruling over it he's not a nice man if you read the history books so act three scene one evil enters center stage his name is Heyman evil enters center stage 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 Heyman is read we should probably try that one week maybe are you preaching next week well whoever we might try that perhaps but there's whenever his name is mentioned let's try it I'm going to say Heyman I'm going to say his name is Heyman and by the time we get to Heyman that's right his name is Heyman yeah it was louder than that and it rattles and the idea is that you have to block this evil man's he's so evil that he must not be named he must not be named so Heyman 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 Heyman's on the stage yeah first one after these events King Exorcise honored Heyman son of Hammer Daffer the Aga guide 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 on to the center stage he's he's introduced as as an aga guide and an aga guide if you go back in the Bible and if you know your Bible you'd know this an aga aga was the king of the Amalakites and the Amalakites are an ancient enemy of God and an ancient enemy of God's people and Heyman 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 the Bible you immediately know when Heyman 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 siss there would be a boo you know something he's going to happen now we're see as we go through this that Heyman was this self-seeking proud arrogant power mad man yet a quick temper he was a quick tempered narcissist there is actually nothing good about Heyman that you can find in this whole story and actually I'm not going to 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 Heyman except one 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 is honored Heyman son of Hamadatha the aga guides 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 want to 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 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 want to be the servant of people with their gifts that God has given them, or do they want to be served? Look at verse 2. All the royal officials at the King's Gate knelt down and paid honour to Haiman. So the King had commanded this concerning him. Here's Haiman, he's got this power and as they say, pride blinds people to what they really are and it makes them insist in deserving things that they don't really deserve. And that's what's actually going on here. I read this fantastic sentence last week and it really applies to Haiman. He says, "You have to think about this a little bit." He says, "Little men cast long shadows." 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 shadow is a 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 little self-contained, "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 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 Haiman makes himself look and sound bigger than he really was. I read another story. I don't know if you've read them. They're always worth reading. They're ASOPs Fables. Anybody read ASOPs Fables? Yeah. They're little sort of moral stories and they're normally about an animal. And this one in America is 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 is carrying it. But the donkey thinks, they're bound to add a me. And that's how stupid it is. And then 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. 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 think there's a hint here that actually no one does like Hamon. 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. This little man is on the scene and the sun is setting, it's getting darker. So scene one of act three, evil enters center stage. scene two of act three, evil is resisted. Mordecai would not take the knee. He's not taking the knee. Look at verses two to three. All the royal officials at the king's gate, knelt down and paid honor to Hamon. For the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, why do you disobey the king's command? Now the word there for taking the knee, knelt down and paid honor, 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 doubtedly Hamon is really wanting to see himself as divine, up with the gods. Really on the level of exerxes and who knows maybe you would have wanted to take over. So Mordecai says, I'm not doing that. I can respect a position but I can't worship a man and remember Hamon stands for the enemies of God. So in this true drama, if Mordecai worshiped him, it'd be like worshiping Satan. It'd be like worshiping him in the enemy of God. And Hamon is not God and so Mordecai is not going to worship him. Then Mordecai's colleagues come to him and they start saying, look, look, it's only outward. You don't have to bow to him in your heart. You can ate him if you like. I mean, we don't like him. I would think they would be saying that. But it's an order. You'll be civil disobedience not to do it. So bow down to him and don't make a fuss. Just don't make a fuss and keep yourself not seen. You know, hide in the crowd and it will be alright. Mordecai. But he wouldn't do that. He refused. Day after day they kept saying, come on mate, take the knee. Take the knee. In the end they reported him to Hamon. And they're really asking, can we tolerate this Jew? And that's where the Jew word is used here. Can we tolerate this Jew? In other words, is there sort of opportunity for conscientious objection here? The Jews have one God. They say in their laws, their big Tenker marments, not to bow down to any other God. So do we have a sort of, can we have some religious freedom tolerance here? We don't have to make him do it. And they try to sort of talk like that. And that's not going to 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 Mordeky is saying, I can't do anything else. 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 Mordeky. You see he believes, don't you? He believes. He knows nothing good is going to come to him if he doesn't do this. 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 two. Scene three, pride is stirred. Right, look at this. Look at Hamon's answer. When Hamon saw Mordeky, he hadn't even seen him. Now he's pointed him out. They've pointed him out. When Hamon saw Mordeky would not kneel down or pay honor, he's enraged. This is what happens to little men. They call controls absolutely angry. All the others are falling down. This is one bloke. He's enraged yet having learned who Mordeky's people were. The enemy family are coming out now. Yet having learned who Mordeky's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordeky. Instead, Hamon looked for a way to destroy all Mordeky's people of the Jews throughout the whole kingdom of the Xerxes. He's enraged. This is the trouble with these men. They're so easily offended, aren't they? They're so easily offended. You know, there's one bloke for religious reasons, one single bloke. And he's a Jew. And he won't bow down. But that's the only one he sees. And so what I'm going to do, this gatekeeper with a conscience, is the only one I see. Out of order. He's festering. He festers over. And when we read on you, 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 go along in the story. And so he comes up with a plan. I know what I'm going to do. I'll get rid of that one man. I'm going to get that. You know, I'm going to get that. I'm flipping Mordeky's bloke. Well, he's a Jew. He's a Jew. I'm going to-- I'm going to get rid of-- Blinky, get all of them! Kill a lot of them. White past the face of our empire. And that's his solution. Kill all the Jews. That'll be the final solution to his problem. But like so many dictators, Haiman 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 favour of his wicked plan. Verse 7. In the 12th year of King Exorcism, the first month, the month of Nisan, the poor, that is the lot was cast in the presence of Hamon to select a day and a month. It's like an oracle. He's like looking at the oracle to see whether something's going to 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 month 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 wants to kill Mordeky and again, later on you'll see how desperate he is to kill Mordeky. 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 Gurbals in the bunker in Berlin, they started looking at the horoscopes and many of the Nazis were into a cult. Putin, Putin, he's really scared of a novel, I was forget what the novel is, what's the novel in Berlin? 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, that book around him, he has to get it removed and he's scared of it. King John 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. He doesn't like Pubeh. Pubeh. This is a man who's ruling over 1.4 billion people and you wear a t-shirt with Pubeh on and it's amazing. It's amazing how you can get these people. And you can look up loads of things. So, Hamon 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 Hamon 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 its every decision is from the Lord and that's the God of the Bible. So, Hamon is coming to talk to one God and the God answers and the God says the 12 month, the massacre that you're planning is in nearly a year's time. And Hamon's not got a clue that that is what is happening. So, now, Hamon goes to the King to get permission to go ahead with his final solution and if you read what he says to the King, he exaggerates the whole situation and we're only talking about one man who's supposed to be disobedient and now it's all the people and he says, "True's 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 10,000 talents of silver." I think it's something like 350 tons of silver. Anyway, something like that. And I will give you 10,000 talents of silver to the King's administrators for the royal treasury. Now you're talking, Hamon. We got my attention now, haven't you? You know, billionaires, do you know they're so good? They come out with the best ideas, don't they? A Greek historian says that at the time the whole Persian Empire kingdom was 15,000 talents of silver. So Hamon is offering exerxes, two thirds of Persians 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 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 Susa didn't think so. The last verse in this act is the last words. Now the city of Susa was bewildered. I guess the stock market's crashed. I mean what are you doing? You're killing our people that are really resourceful people that have brought blessing into this nation. And so the city's bewildered that the stock market's so crashing. Back, the billionaire has spoken. 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 these foreign people. It's such a dangerous, not fought through. But it went ahead, we're told, look at verse 13. Patches were sent by Coriors all over the King's provinces with the order to destroy, kill, annihilate all the Jews, young, old, women's children on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Ada, and to plunder their goods. So we're nearly at the end of act three. I hope you're with me because I'm going to apply it in a minute. 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 Coriors went out, spurred on by the King's command and the edict to issue was issued in the citadel of Susa, the King and Hamon 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, then the curtain comes down. So it's come down now on act three. What are you going to do? What are you going to do in the interval? Go and get a drink? Get one of those beers or one of those wines. Go to the toilet. You're going to start looking at your phone because now the thing's gone down. What was all those things I've got? You've just seen evil, celebrating evil. You've just seen we're in this world. We've just heard about Epstein Island, a Bokka Haramun. Let's have some popcorn. Let's flick through some things. Oh, look. There's another cat falling off of the thing. Or are you going to allow the horror to challenge you? Are you going to 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 act three, if you're living in chapter three, you need to know if you're going to live. You need to know this. It's act three. 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 Haman is not God and whatever the consequence is, 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 two. There's songs in the Bible. We were singing about singing and these are songs in the Bible. And Psalm two. You need to know Psalm two. If you know Psalm two, you'll be able to live in act three. Chapter three. Psalm two, verse one. I won't read it all, although all of it definitely applies, but we've no time for that. Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain? There's the evil. There's the Haman. 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 one in Throne in heaven, look at this, please. Verse four. The one in Throne in heaven, where's he in heaven? He's in heaven. He's on a throne in heaven bigger than exerxes and any other king. The one in Throne 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 one who died and rose again. He's the king. He really is the king. But I want to focus in on God is laughing. He laughs at the rebellion of people like Haman. 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 four, look, let me read it. The one in Throne in heaven, that is Jesus. He laughs. 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 have 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've just reminded you, young women taken by a pagan king basically raped. Genocide dictator rises to power. There's a day when they're going to 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 got to be grief. It's got to be grief. It's got to be sorrow. It's got to be righteous anger. It's got to be compassion. It's got to be prayer. And yet, and yet, the book of Esther is written like a comedy. Now that might sound shocking, but you got to remember what comedies really are in antiquity and 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 saw it in the joke about it. He was telling me about someone who was pompous. It's pompous. What a word. It's, you know, when he makes someone who's pompous, he's that one, you pompous person. It's amazing. A pompous person. It's pompous people, evil people, people with the wrong story. It's all muddled up. But in the end, those pompous people fall. And evil is defeated. That's what comedy is. And 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, Heyman, doesn't know. And you want to shout out. You almost already want to shout out to Heyman, if you know the story. You fool, Heyman. Don't you know you want to kill all the Jews? Don't you know, and of course he doesn't, that Esther, the King's favourite, is a Jew. Can't you see it's going to get you into trouble, you idiot? We know that. He doesn't. You fool, Heyman. But you know that Mordeky 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, Heyman, do you? You fool. Can't you see that God has been arranging things long time before use took centre stage. The audiences are allowed to laugh at him, not because evil is funny, because evil is stupid and evil is blind. Heyman thinks he's writing the script, but he didn't realise 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 Heyman was just about to walk centre stage in act three, the unseen director in acts one and two had already been arranging things. Apparently we've seen it. The wicked King got rid of his queens, so you need another queen and then he used wickedness to bring Esther in and Esther becomes queen and she's a Jew and she listens to Mordeky who is a Jew, you've got all that stuff. That the end of act two we're told that Heyman, that Mordeky heard about an assassination of the King, told Queen Esther, Esther told the King and they found out that was a true attempt to assassination and then Mordeky'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 Heyman and he has not a clue. The director is God and he's not in Heyman's radar but Heyman 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 Heyman. Heyman 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. Hema, 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 refused to surrender their joy up and they laughed. We, Anami went to Auschwitz last month and people literally survived Auschwitz psychologically because they had Hema. Hema gives you power to say I'm not what you tell me I am an unhuman nothing. Hema 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 one great gift of humor is that reminder of the tyrants on God. Dictators or dictators hate laughter and hate to be laughter. I've started reading on Saturday morning and started reading Alexi Nelvanis autobiography. He's the man who opposed Putin and was killed by Putin and the first three chapters about his first encounter with Noverstop. and how he came out of a coma, it's full of humour that book. It's just to make. Why? Because he knows Putin is not the final man, it's not the final act. Dictators, they demand fear, they demand reverence, they demand that we take the need of 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 Shindler's list, the film. Shindler's list is all about Shindler who saved Jews from Ausfitch and 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 Ausfitch. Even in that dark film there's humour. Someone had stolen something or done something wrong to the common dance. 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. Bang!" And he shoots someone dead in the head. This is a true story, the broke falls down. Right, I'm just going to 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 common dance he 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 one 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 Second World War and how did Britain beat Germany at war? A load of it is humour, but the Germans didn't know how to laugh. They were taking 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's 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 marvellous. And the father wants to save the son in this horrific condition. So he pretends it's all a game. And at the end of the game you'll win a tank. But what you've got to do in this game, son, is to hide from these men. They mustn't see you. You must hide all day from them. Then you win the tank. And there's an amazing bit of humour where one of the Nazis says, "Who can translate for me?" And this bloke says, "Yeah, I can do it." And there's ten points to what's going to happen to you in this concentration camp. And so the German is going, "I'm fighting and I'm dying and I'm dying and I'm dying and I'm dying and I'm dying." And then the father is going, "One point won in this game. You need to hide from, if you want to win the tank, you need to hide." And the German does it. "Got a clue that he said that." The point too is that if you really want to win the tank, you're going to have to go hungry for a little while. And it's hilarious but phenomenal. Mocking. Heyman thinks that he is writing the final chapter. He's actually digging the foundations for his own four. You'll see that. Satan thought that Jesus on the cross was his great victory. If you're a disciple following Jesus, you think you're in Acts 3, Acts 3. It looks like you're in Acts 3 but the cross became the greatest defeat of Satan. Death thought it had swallowed up Christ instead of 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. Wickedness is utterly self-defeating. Satan, evil, will not win. God gets the last laugh. Let me just apply it two more times. Is that all right? Where are we? I'm sorry about this. This story at this point helps us pray. Jesus says about prayer in Matthew 6. He says, "When you pray, 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, "Hamans 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 going to be in the end. He's in act three, remember. He knew finally in the end God laughs and God's wins. But right at that moment, don't you think there were a lot of Jews saying, "Mordecai, why did you do that? You're blowing it for us." Why do you have to be so holy? I'm sure they were. Why do you have 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 three, 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." Like you know, you can only kill your body. That's what we can do. Remember them. As we're in act three 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.