Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
For Such a Time as This
We explore the Book of Esther, examining how God works through human courage and strategic action even when He isn't explicitly mentioned in the text.
• Queen Vashti defies King Xerxes and loses her position, creating an opening for Esther to become queen
• Esther, a Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, keeps her heritage secret as she undergoes a year of beauty treatments to prepare for the king
• Haman, descended from the Amalekites (ancient enemies of the Jews), plots genocide when Mordecai refuses to bow to him
• Mordecai challenges Esther with the famous words "for such a time as this," urging her to use her position to save her people
• After fasting and prayer, Esther approaches the king uninvited, risking death to advocate for the Jews
• A dramatic reversal occurs when Haman is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai
• Divine providence is evident through seemingly "coincidental" events like the king's insomnia leading him to remember Mordecai's loyalty
• Esther's strategic approach to creating change offers valuable lessons about patience and timing when confronting power
Remember that God works through ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances – your current position might be your divine appointment "for such a time as this."
it's just, it's nice to have like where I work. You know we're all Christians and like the other day I was talking with the one girl about actually her husband is a pastor. He's not the senior pastor anymore but it's one in Philly and yeah, Philly, I think. But I mean she's like it's just crazy how much anxiety she's like I know I shouldn't carry this anxiety because I've been a follower my whole life and I'm like, listen, it is, it is not your fault. I said a lot of the times that is genetic. And I said you know I was telling her about people like, oh, god will save me. God will say I'm like maybe god's way of saving you or at least helping you out of that trench right now is that medication temporarily. You know what I mean and right, so at least I was kind of able to or that person to talk with the doctor, whoever.
Speaker 1:Yes, but it's just nice that you're able to. I mean, we were just free spirited talking about it at lunch. Like you can't do that everywhere you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:That's a benefit of working at the catholic hospital yeah, yeah, I can exactly these people yeah yeah it's not that I don't want to. I just get nervous about it. But sometimes God's just in there and I know that I'll be in bad shape if I don't If you don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wonder if Esther was that way.
Speaker 5:Well, we'll find out, won't we Dun, dun dun?
Speaker 1:Esther yeah, so if you guys don't know, we're going to talk about Esther tonight.
Speaker 5:Are we on?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah we're on. See, you didn't tell me. Now we're on Minute 30.
Speaker 5:Minute 30. Well, is everybody enjoying the warm weather?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been.
Speaker 2:Weird, though it's been humid the past few days.
Speaker 5:It has so humid you weather yeah it's been weird, it's been humid, it has so humid and, like you, don't want to complain because, coming out of six months of winter time, right so you want to do is complain that it's warm oh no, I'll just go to the pool yeah, yeah, but yeah, when I left the house today at 5 30, it was 72 degrees yeah that's a bit much yeah and sticky yeah yeah so so for our listeners if they don't know where we're located united states, state of ohio, northeast ohio and we're just in that little spot where, yeah, we get like six months of winter climate, seasonal winter weather, maybe a month of spring, maybe a month of fall, maybe, and a month of fall Maybe.
Speaker 5:And then what like two, maybe three brutal months of?
Speaker 3:humid hot weather, heat and humidity, mm-hmm. So yeah, we're the only place that you turn your furnace on in the morning and your air conditioner on in the evening.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, you just never know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got to get that chill out.
Speaker 5:Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, uh-huh.
Speaker 5:Anything? Yeah, got to get that chill out. Yep, yep, uh-huh. Anything else exciting going on?
Speaker 3:I get a new washer and dryer tomorrow, nice.
Speaker 5:I know the feeling.
Speaker 3:No, it's not excitement, but I'm thankful that we are blessed that we can afford it. Yeah, I have. Our pantry is only large enough for the stackable apartment size.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's what we have to have too, and the washer went out.
Speaker 3:We put I think $500 in it 32 days ago. So when they came back they told me well, we'll have to charge another service call because our service it's only for 30 days. Are you kidding me? We're 32 days out, but it wasn't the same problem, but it was another $900 worth of repairs. And it we were 32 days out, but it wasn't the same problem, but it was another $900 worth of repairs, and it's five years old. It's just not practical to spend that To spend that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, $1,400 in 32 days, yeah.
Speaker 3:So we were able to get one in the dent and scratch section. Nice, yep, yep.
Speaker 5:For $1,700, and I'm like it's going in.
Speaker 3:You didn't go to macbid and get one. No, no, I got it from weavers.
Speaker 5:Oh, oh okay can you get appliances at macbid? Yeah, you can probably you can actually know that fun fact.
Speaker 1:I don't know how to do it. Michael might know, but you can um, because he was talking about it briefly one day. But if you would want to bid on stuff like that, like, say you, but that's the thing, I don't know how to realize what it will be bidding on, like, say, say, this dryer comes to start bidding it's a three-day bid or something you know, but you can look at that before you start bidding. But how do you know it's going to be bid on? Do you know what I mean? So you can go to macbid, look at it, see all the denser scratches? I don't know, you know, but I'm like I guess you can do that, but I think that would be very beneficial if you were living up closer maybe. And I mean I don't know, I've seen washers, I've seen refrigerators, I think a dryer. I've seen when I went to pick one. I picked something up and I actually seen like a refrigerator. Yeah, went to pick one.
Speaker 3:I picked something up and I did. I actually seen like a refrigerator. Yeah, so I know that. Um, it just was to have that get it from them, because when you need somebody for repairs. They're basically the only ones that can come repair anymore. It's yeah, I mean, if that young kid is in school wants to know what to go into, yeah, small appliance repair, yeah, seriously, seriously, yeah, a need and um, so it just worked out and I'm just thankful and yeah, because chase, that's like one thing he doesn't really like he.
Speaker 1:He was able to fix our dryer one time but I think our uh, our gas stove we had recently bought it and I started doing something with it and I tried to ignite it but all of them were, like you know, cracked. I'm like, oh crap, you know, and actually I think it's CJ's Appliance, it's one of my high school like friend's dad. He works on them, but I think he's from Port washington maybe. But yeah, I was having a hard time. I'm like I, who do you call, you know? Because I could not find anyone and somehow I think someone ended up telling me about him and I mean I think it was like 110 bucks to come and do like 30 minutes.
Speaker 3:I don't know yeah, but yeah it. Actually it's not coming tomorrow, it's coming Friday and I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow, so that's a good thing. I'm going to go right into the hot and humid.
Speaker 1:Where are you going in Florida?
Speaker 3:I'm actually going to Tampa, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Nice. So I'll be going to Englewood in mid-July. It's like that's where Maggie's at.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, yeah, she's got uh till Saturday. She is so ready to come home.
Speaker 3:Oh is she, she is, she's over it.
Speaker 5:Well, it's been a little bit of a tough situation because she went down there with her friend and the friend's mom and dad. Well, the dad wasn't feeling well before they left, but they convinced him to go anyway because you know you paid for the flights, all this, you might as well go when you get down there. You can go to the hospital if you feel you need to. Well, that's exactly what happened. Found out he had a heart attack.
Speaker 2:Oh jeez.
Speaker 5:So they admitted him and now I think he's had two surgeries within the last week and a half Out of state and so instead of I mean which she's been going swimming, going to the beach, stuff like that. But she spent a lot of time in the hospital with her friend, you know, sitting with her dad, so hasn't been exactly the, you know, ideal vacation she thought it was going to be, so Maggie could be there for that little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you never know. Yeah, you never know, that's true.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 5:But yeah, she is. She is more than ready to get back home. She's never been away from her mom this long in her life.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:You know this, far away from her, but I think overall, yeah, in the end I think it'll be good for her. It was a good experience.
Speaker 3:I was supposed to go to Lido Keys in July with Clayton the end of July but their condo had a lot of damage from the hurricane and they thought they had everything ready for inspection. And they came in there and inspected them all and there is something with the line to the pool that runs. The electrical was not done correct, so they shut everything down for them opening.
Speaker 3:So the resort wasn't sure that they were going to be able to get somebody in there to do the repairs and then get the inspection done to be opened by july 26th, because he has a timeshare down there well, I'll be going to massachusetts next month.
Speaker 2:all right, gotta bring my home. She always gets to come home for a few weeks in July. Usually it's the entire month. But you flew last time. Right, I did. Are you flying again? No, I'm driving this time. How long is the drive? 12 hours, 12, 13 hours Depends on the traffic. That way, we can do something on the way.
Speaker 3:She's a car driver. She can drive 12 hours, sleep two hours and drive 12 hours back.
Speaker 2:That's rough, though that's getting hard to do.
Speaker 5:I was going to say can we hire you for our Maine trip?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's getting tough.
Speaker 5:Where are you going to Maine Up by Arcadia National Park?
Speaker 1:You'll have to let me know if you like it, because I want to go up that way.
Speaker 5:Oh, it's beautiful up that way. Yeah, this will be our first time up that way.
Speaker 4:That snores of Boos Bay, isn't it? I believe so. Yeah, I've been up to Boos Bay.
Speaker 5:I think it's around like was it Bangor, I forget what else, but yeah, so it should be fun. Starting to get, I want to drive along the coast, see a lot of the lighthouses. I want to do that. Trying to find some Civil War stuff in there Found a few things that might be worth seeing.
Speaker 1:Have you heard of Solomon's Island in Maryland?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 1:I think it's very historical. My doctor's going there around the 4th of July and I think he was a Navy. I don't know what he did in the Navy.
Speaker 4:Maybe he was a dentist in the Navy no-transcript.
Speaker 1:You say it was solomon's island solomon's island I need to look it up yet because I forgot, didn't have time, like I was telling beth earlier, no time for anything.
Speaker 5:Roger, you joined us. Hey, roger, How's it going out there, oh?
Speaker 4:hey, it's lovely A little warm, sticky muggy.
Speaker 1:Drink some of your water. That's the reason I got a water. Is it open A little bit? Drink some of it. I mean you don't have to now, I'm just making sure you're hydrated.
Speaker 2:Just roll back there, Pastor Roger.
Speaker 4:There's not very many left in her fridge, so I don't want to drink it real fast. It's not good for you anyway. Water no.
Speaker 3:I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2:If Beth drinks more than six ounces of water a day, she's a hey, there's water in my coffee.
Speaker 4:That don't count. I've been told that don't count.
Speaker 1:Do you need something in your water when you drink?
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like a flavor.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I still don't drink it because I don't like it. It gives me heartburn.
Speaker 1:I know that sounds crazy, but no, I kind of can relate to that, yeah maybe it's something in the water it goes down, yeah, it goes down their own tube, or something, listen, I've associated with it just dilutes my.
Speaker 3:It does something to all them acids in my stomach, making them up. That's my theory, so I don't drink it. It's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1:Hey Roger, do you remember who we're talking about? Yeah, who.
Speaker 4:Esther.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good job.
Speaker 5:I'm surprised you didn't text me one more time. Who? Because I almost texted you and be like just a reminder.
Speaker 3:I thought no, I won't be smart, I'm not going to lie, yeah, last time.
Speaker 5:She asked me like on four different occasions what are we doing again, jeez?
Speaker 4:I'm the only one supposed to be doing, acting like that, oh my brain, when you get old and senile and you can't remember anything.
Speaker 1:I feel like that.
Speaker 4:I wish I was your age again, Sid. There would be so many things that I would change in my life.
Speaker 1:And you know, I'll say the same thing at your age. That's the crazy part.
Speaker 4:But you know, I mean, you know, when I was your age I didn't know the Lord. So you know, I would definitely change all that?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you know. You know what the sad thing is is. I did know the Lord, but I had walked away when I was her age.
Speaker 4:You know, I mean we all struggle with things. You know, I mean, it doesn't make any difference what it is, we all struggle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's a part of your testimony, beth Mm-hmm. Yes, like that's kind of mine too.
Speaker 5:Mm-hmm mind too well, and that's exactly what we were talking about. You know what the bible is. When you really start studying it, you realize the jews and themselves, god's own people how many times they repeat the same mistakes and you know they get their kingdom back and they, and then they lose it again and then something else happens and they become slaves and they get it back. Something else happens, they're exiled again, and just amazing how many times you know they have to go through the same problems and situations before and I'm wondering if you know and you know, maybe you know was it documented so much?
Speaker 1:just so we could relate to that like, hey, they were messing up so much you know, just like you guys are certainly yeah, yeah and they're god's chosen people.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, you know, don't feel bad, just pick yourself up and start over again yeah, yeah, they're our example of don't wait till monday to start that new diet.
Speaker 4:Do it now, you gotta have, you, gotta skip the weekend.
Speaker 2:You gotta skip the weekend a day off anyway, one day anyway a cheat day.
Speaker 3:Cheat day, not to change subject. But your little guy in church just said they made my day. That little hand up praising he was rocking. He was, he had it going, then he'd get that little finger.
Speaker 1:Oh, he loves that finger. He hears one little tune and he's like oh, I mean not hands going up, no matter what.
Speaker 2:He just couldn't wait on music to start, could he? No, he's got natural rhythm yeah he does.
Speaker 1:My dad has a drum set at the house and my stepmom was playing with Cooper and she's like, yeah, you can take these home, buddy, and I'm like, oh, we're going to need a bigger house for that.
Speaker 4:What in the soundproof room? This is your room, Cooper, Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, all One of the soundproof room. This is your room, cooper. Yes, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 5:All right, we ready to get into it. Yep, let's go, nick, all right, waiting on you. Okay, so we're going to do the book of Esther tonight, so let's try to give a little background to this. So Esther, the book of Esther, one of the main things that people bring up about this is that god himself is not mentioned at all in this book. Yeah, so I believe. For a long time they didn't even want to include it is that?
Speaker 1:do you know if that's the only book in the bible? That's like that to my knowledge okay, but I wonder percent certainty?
Speaker 5:yeah, um, it is the only book other than Ruth that is named after a woman. So that's an interesting little tidbit. Esther becomes queen in 479 BC. So the book of Esther is in between if I don't pronounce this right, I'm sorry Nehemia and Job. So if you're wondering where it is in the Bible, it's in that period. So in 586, jerusalem had been destroyed. The exiles go to Babylon. The first exiles return to Jerusalem in 538. The temple is completed in 516. Xerxes becomes king of Persia in 486, which we'll be talking about him and then Esther becomes queen in 479. So this is definitely a book of a lot of drama, a lot of intrigue. A lot of this would make a good. This would probably make a good little movie, I think.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of stuff going on here.
Speaker 4:I thought there was a movie made of it.
Speaker 5:Well, maybe there is, I don't know.
Speaker 4:I thought there was Okay.
Speaker 5:Is it called Esther? Yeah, oh, I'll have to look it up Me too, because I haven't watched it. It could be called the Book of Esther, okay, well, yes, it could.
Speaker 3:I thought it was One Night with the King, oh there is One Night with the King.
Speaker 4:Was Esther always Esther no.
Speaker 5:No, what was it?
Speaker 3:Hadassah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Hadassah or Hadassah, that was her real name. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And she didn't become Esther until she was queen, correct?
Speaker 3:Well, I think they changed names Mordecai. So she wouldn't know, the king wouldn't know that she was Jewish.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but she was an orphan. Her mother and father had passed away. Mordecai will take her in.
Speaker 2:Mordecai is her will take her in. He's a cousin.
Speaker 5:And he takes her in, takes care of her. Yes, I believe you're right. I think it is Mordecai that gives her that name.
Speaker 1:And he worked on the grounds of the.
Speaker 5:He may have been a government official.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 5:Which is why he will remain so close to Esther when she becomes queen.
Speaker 2:He's able to go by every day keep a contact with her.
Speaker 5:Let's see. So I guess the most important question is well, how? How does she become queen in the first place? Going back to the Xerxes, they ruled over Persia, basically, but they also ruled over another 127 provinces, so they're really starting to take over a lot of territory From India to Africa.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I have in my notes, um, and basically, uh, the queen, the original queen, um, the king of Xerxes, um, he, he, it's crazy to think about this, but when they want to show off their power, or where they're getting ready to go to war, anything like that, they decide to throw these banquets. And you think, well, a banquet, what a few hours. Everybody brings a covered dish and you know, we all hang out for a little bit. No, these banquets can go on for over 100 days.
Speaker 1:This one says six months.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think the Bible says it's like a full 180 days. So they're having this huge banquet and it's getting to the point where everybody's drinking, everybody's having a good time and, for whatever reason, king Xerxes, he wants to show off the queen, which I believe her name is like Vashti, queen, vashti Vashti and he wants to show her off to all the other people. Well, there's some debate as to why she disagreed. She would not come to the banquet. Yeah, so she defies the king and this is a big deal.
Speaker 1:Well, didn't he want to show her off, like her whole body off?
Speaker 5:Well.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 5:I guess let's maybe jump a little bit ahead to explain things a little bit about how women were treated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at least in this situation.
Speaker 5:So, in order to become the queen, you had to go through this huge like a you know Miss USA on steroids or something you know like, almost like an American Idol type thing, or just something where they're put through all these beauty treatments. They're only allowed to eat certain foods. They have to be. Their whole body is just prepped for this experience. So their whole existence is based on pleasing the king. So their whole existence is based on pleasing the king. And, of course, these women.
Speaker 5:they're in control of the king's. I think they call them Enochs, and they're the ones that take care of the women. The interesting thing about that is the Enochs, for the most part, are all castrated. That's why they can be trusted. That's why they can be trusted because then there's no chance of anything going on that would defile the women or ruin it for the king. So these Go ahead.
Speaker 3:I read too that prepping them is a 12-month thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I read.
Speaker 1:It's a whole year process and Esther did you read that Esther was only 10 months? Yeah, but Did you read that Esther was only 10 months?
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the part of that reasoning is is in case they were impregnated by somebody?
Speaker 5:else yeah.
Speaker 3:So that wasn't labeled as the king.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Huh Interesting.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so you know. So they go through this crazy process. And so what happens once she defies the king? Well, his authority has been questioned, and if he lets it go, of course they're all afraid that. Well, okay, it's been questioned once it will continue to be questioned. Not to mention, they don't want this would give women status if he backed down to her Right.
Speaker 5:So in order to keep their status, they have to decide okay, we're going to have to crown a new queen. So the process, that 12-month process, begins of bringing all these virgins in from the surrounding country, from the surrounding area, and I don't know, I don't know if it says in there how many actually go through this process, but it's pretty extensive. And for whatever reason, esther is going to be chosen. I guess she's very beautiful and this kind of again tells you what men value in women. She is incredibly beautiful. And the other thing about her is I guess she wasn't very outspoken. She did exactly as she was told to do. She didn't make any special requests, she just went through the process pleasingly and, just, you know, made herself fit for the king. So he takes, he takes a special liking to her and, um, after, uh, I think a little bit more, uh, you know, scrutinization, uh, she finally is the one that gets selected to be the new queen.
Speaker 3:Um, so any, uh like more thoughts on um the thing is, the other women that even though they were never chosen queen. They continued there, oh, and were taken care of because they were no longer virgins so they wouldn't ever be able to marry another husband.
Speaker 5:Well, and another part of this is, even though Esther becomes queen, I believe the king still they call it his harem he still has relations with the other women. They're still and that's their only purpose. From what I've read is that they're there to fulfill the desires of the king.
Speaker 3:But there's some of them that he would never, ever cause again, and so it's. Yeah, he sees them one time and They'll never have children, they'll never have that family of their own.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I didn't know like, okay, were these women? Were they poor? Were they orphans as well? Were they? Or were they or were they selected from, say, maybe, upstanding families? Was it like a random, or did they kind of signal out the more weaker kind of they were selected beautiful women, Okay, so it didn't matter where they came from what their situation was, as long as they were beautiful.
Speaker 1:As far as did anyone get like an age for Esther?
Speaker 5:Because there's different viewpoints.
Speaker 2:No, I did not, nowhere that I've read.
Speaker 5:I know that at some point I heard that, like Queen Vashti, will get her status back.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 5:And maybe it has something to do with her son, or they're saying well, maybe Esther died, and so then she was able to come back and either be queen again or at least get some of that status back that she had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because something said like it could have spanned from 40 to 80 years old, but then somewhere else said, in a different culture, they were thinking like 12 to 18 years old.
Speaker 3:So I'm like I don't know, I mean, that's something. I think they did marry awful young at that point. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'm sure they did One thing that.
Speaker 2:I thought you know they this says she may have been 14.
Speaker 3:Six months of myrrh and six months of oil. But isn't it, frankincense and myrrh that the three wise men Yep, yep, yep. Yep, yep, it just sounds like.
Speaker 1:Oh, it may have nothing to do with it, but it made me catch that that's once again the Old Testament and the New Testament lining up Right when a lot of people don't realize that it does.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So many different ways.
Speaker 5:Yeah, mine says she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatments six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then they had a choice of their wardrobe and jewelry that they would want to put on before they went to the king and my understanding she was kind of reserved with what she chose From what I? I don't know that I read that or if I heard it on a podcast or something.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and another important thing to bring up is it is a total secret that she is a Jew.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that was my first note.
Speaker 5:Nobody knew, yeah, nobody knew so there is getting along in the story. There's no indication of where she comes from, who she is, so the king has no idea about her background, where she came from, or does he care?
Speaker 1:I just also have it was she lived in. Is it Susa?
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 1:The capital of the Persian Empire, right.
Speaker 5:Yep. So the next point of the story? Uh, once esther becomes queen, uh, she stays in contact with her cousin mordecai and, like we said, we we can believe that maybe mordecai was a government official, something like that where he could stay close, uh, to the king's circle, to the kingdom there.
Speaker 5:And so it happens, mordecai, he's sitting around the king's gate just hanging around doing his thing Maybe he's killing time on the clock, I don't know Waiting to go home and he hears this plot Discovers a plot, discovers a plot that King Xerxes is going to be assassinated. So what does he do? Mordecai tells Queen Esther about this plot, and so of course Esther goes to the king, tells him about it, and this event is written down in the record book of the annals of the presence of the king. So they take note of this. But at that point they write it down, but it just kind of gets forgotten about. So I don't know if Mordecai really gets credit at the time.
Speaker 2:I don't think he gets any credit at the time.
Speaker 5:Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. But maybe she did, and of course the king, with everything else going on, just forgot about it, didn't even consider it. So, moving on from there, along comes Haman, the son of Hamidatha, who came from the family of the Amalekites. And so if you know anything about the Amalekites, I think it's in Deuteronomy. These are the people that God had commanded to blot out their memory from under heaven, so they were enemies of the jews and god had commanded their complete annihilation. So this is kind of going to be like you know where your past comes back to haunt you, kind of thing you know.
Speaker 5:So, uh, this is something. So, even though God isn't mentioned in this book, you can tie in all these events to what is going to happen with this story. So you have Mordecai who and that's the thing, him being a government official, it seems, at the time before things heat up, that they don't realize that Mordecai is a Jew either.
Speaker 1:It's not even considered Right. That's what I was wondering. I'm like, if he's an official, like a government official, there's no way that they know he's also a Jew.
Speaker 5:So Haman becomes basically King Xerxes right hand man. So Xerxes is going to honor him and pay him all these tributes and, of course, so everybody is supposed to follow suit. So I don't know what position Haman would. I don't know what his title actually was, but I don't know if he was like second in command to the king. Maybe if something happens to the king is he elevated to the throne. I don't know, but was like second in command of the king. Maybe if something happens to the king is he elevated to the throne. I don't know, but he's right there beside Xerxes, in the power of the Persian Empire. Well, at some point Mordecai is confronted with Haman and Mordecai knows that Haman is a descendant of the Malachites, so Mordecai will not bow down to him.
Speaker 1:He will not show him any respect.
Speaker 5:Mordecai will only worship God. He will only kneel to God and even though he's doing his duty within the kingdom he's doing his job and he does the things that the Persian kingdom tells him to do the one thing that he will not do is worship anybody else but God, so he feels that kneeling down to Haman would be you know, yeah, yeah, so here starts the rub between Mordecai and Haman.
Speaker 5:Mm-hmm, between Mordecai and Haman. So Haman does discover that Mordecai is a Jew. So now they know they are sworn enemies Based on the past, based on everything that's happened within the Bible between the Amalekites and the Jews. Those two are sworn enemies. So day after day, haman expects Mordecai to bow down to him, and every time Mordecai responds the same way he just will not bow down to him. So this just enrages Haman the more and more it goes on, and so it's funny. He goes home and he talked to his wife about it, of all people, and he's like you know, what should I do with this guy? Like he just no matter what I do, he's just going to continue to defy me. So more or less, I think it's his wife's just like well, why don't you?
Speaker 2:hang. Why don't you?
Speaker 1:just kill him.
Speaker 5:You know, just get rid of him and, like most men do and do we listen to our wives, whether it makes good sense?
Speaker 1:or not. Why didn't I think of that?
Speaker 5:Yeah, why didn't I think of that? Yeah, he's got all this power, you know. So, yeah, he takes his wife's advice, but he's going to take it a step farther. Because he has that hatred in his heart for Jews, based on what happened to his people. Not only is he going to take out Mordecai, but he's going to send out an order to take out every Jew in every province.
Speaker 4:Who's that sound like?
Speaker 5:Uh-huh.
Speaker 4:Another guy starts with H.
Speaker 5:Yeah, exactly so. Yeah, he's going to call that order out and, of course, this is going to to in turn, enrage Mordecai. So, Mordecai, he is going to tear his clothes, change into sackcloth, cover himself with ashes and he's going to begin to protest this movement. And the cool thing about the thing that I like about mordecai is he just kind of becomes like this. He kind of becomes like a specter where, no matter where hayman goes, uh, mordecai is just standing there just staring at him just defying him you know just his presence alone.
Speaker 5:you know he, just day after day, he just just wants Haman to know. Like you know, I see you, I know what you're doing, I don't appreciate it. I don't appreciate it. You know, and I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of you Even though you have all this authority. You know my authority stands with God and I don't fear you. I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because I think that's pretty cool, yeah, because I think there's even something there where he says he doesn't really say anything. He won't say anything, he just, he just stares at him.
Speaker 5:And I kind of thought about Jesus when he goes in to be tried, you know, for a long time Jesus doesn't say anything either. He stays silent. So now it's like they're going head to head. So now it's like they're going head to head. And now that Mordecai knows that Haman is going to follow through on his promise to destroy all the Jews, well, now he's got to use Esther, he's got to bring Esther in to try to turn the tide, to try to get Esther to convince the king not to go along with Haman's plan to destroy the Jews.
Speaker 5:And she's a little reluctant to do this because, again, in custom, even though she's the queen, she cannot approach the king without the proper etiquette, without the proper permission. She has to go through the same channels as everybody else and if you approach the king when you have not been summoned, you could be put to death.
Speaker 1:Well, she says anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die, unless the king holds out his gold scepter.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm, what if he lost it?
Speaker 1:You're doomed, mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm, so what if he lost it? You're doomed, everybody's doomed.
Speaker 5:So now she has a. She has a big decision to make because she knows she's risking her life to do this. But I, what does? What does Mordecai say to her?
Speaker 4:You were made for such a time as this.
Speaker 5:Pretty much.
Speaker 2:I say that to my son and his wife, you know, because they say they don't want to bring any children into this world and I say that that baby would be brought in at such a time as this. And I thought where did I ever hear that? Why do I say that? Well, right here, from the book of Esther.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know and you hear Michael say it all the time I'm like where is that coming from, though, Like I know it's somewhere in the Bible, but where?
Speaker 5:Well, and there's that lesson that when you know what you're supposed to do, when you have a responsibility, when you know God's plan and you decide you're going to put it off, you're going to delay, you're going to delay, you're going to try to deny it um usually it's always going to come back to itching even harder, yeah reality is going to set in it's you, you can't, you know. You can try to go around the mountain or whatever you want to do, but it's gonna it's gonna.
Speaker 1:God's plan is going to come to fruition no matter what you do.
Speaker 5:Yes and he basically tells her, almost to put I don't know if he's trying to put fear into her heart, but he says do not think that because you are in the king's house, you alone of all the Jews will escape. So he's saying, just because of your status, of all the things you have acquired, because the king has chosen you, does not mean that you're going to escape that fate. Your fate will be the same as the lowest person on the totem pole. You know of our race of people.
Speaker 5:So you know, you really don't have a choice. It's either die honorably or die with regret, knowing that you didn't try. And so that inspires her, that she's like okay, go gather together all the Jews who are in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I, my maids, will fast as you do, and when this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish, and if I perish, I perish. So but Esther just doesn't just go into it, you know with no plan.
Speaker 5:Like la-di-da. La-di-da yeah, so she's got to think about it a little bit. It's like I got to be a little crafty about this.
Speaker 1:And not to mention like she pondered and fasted and prayed like should I do this? You know, yeah, yeah. And then she finallyered and fasted and prayed like should I?
Speaker 5:do this. Yeah, you know, yeah. And then she finally decided she takes her time, she plans well, she prays about it and I think she uses the very.
Speaker 2:She uses the very same qualities and circumstance that got her there in the first place. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:She knows like when the king sees her. That's why he chose her in the first place. So she pretty much just sets herself right up to where he will approach her.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 5:Instead of her, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, approaching him.
Speaker 5:Yes, she'll stand off in the distance In her royal robes, yep, and all the things that she knows that he can't resist her royal robes, yep, and all the things that she knows that, yes, he can't resist uh, and of course he, he, uh comes over and and he just, I mean he, he don't even uh, he goes overboard my opinion he's like you know what does esther ask? You know he's like I'll give you anything you want. I'll give you half the kingdom. It'll be granted. Just tell me what you want I'm thinking like how does he just how?
Speaker 2:did he go right to that?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah yeah I mean, she just might I don't know, want a bowl of milk or something might just want some water.
Speaker 1:That beth hates cheerios that's nasty.
Speaker 2:Right at my nightstand and of course she's like if the king, if you find me in great favor and if I please you so much, come tomorrow to this banquet and then I'll tell you all about it. So again, he's like and bring hayman, yeah, bring hayman, yep, yep, and bring hayman along with you.
Speaker 5:So again, it's almost like she's she's using his own words against him. Like you know, I'm beautiful. You know I'm everything you've ever wanted.
Speaker 1:So if you, if you've, you know, and I'll say most of the time I hate when girls are like that, but she's using it for a good, good purpose, I'll say that yeah, so she's got him on the hook, um, uh, so where are we at?
Speaker 5:okay, so, so, hay, he's, he's in high spirits because, um, he feels that, well, he's going to start to get the honor, you know, that's been bestowed upon him and that's the only thing. That's important to Haman is that everybody looks at him, everybody thinks he's, he's on top of the totem pole, you know. So he's, he feels he's right where he wants to be, um, and, of course, what does he do? He's thinking about mordecai. He's like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna do this right, we're gonna, we're gonna build this elaborate gallows, set of gallows, to hang mordecai on, so the whole province can see you.
Speaker 5:You know, uh, what's going to happen, not only to him but to the rest of the Jews. So he's going to be that example, uh, that's going to kind of set off a new set of uh celebrations and banquets and everything to honor him. So it's all going to be about Haman, um, but an interesting thing happens the night before is, the king is having trouble sleeping. So, like most people we would do today, well, you get a book out and you read so you can fall asleep.
Speaker 1:So, no nick, I think that's just you, you know, keep me up all night well and honestly, like I was saying at the beginning of the podcast, like the girl who has anxiety and everything she said, like for her she goes to a different location, like and I'm like yeah, I kind of do that too like, if you can't fall asleep in your bed, she goes couch type of thing, but yeah, I guess that's a good idea.
Speaker 5:I'll have to try that next time, or just find, like the and it's almost like it says, like they're going to find the most boring thing. So they get out the history of his kingdom so they can start reading it. And it just so happens I don't know if this is part of Esther's plan for them to read this particular volume or whatever.
Speaker 5:But in that what they read to him is how Mordecai uncovered this assassination plot. And the king gets intrigued and he's like, really? He's like, well, who is he? Did we ever do anything for this guy? Was he ever honored at all? Who is he? So it's at that point that it's revealed that it's Mordecai and he's like, well, we gotta honor this guy.
Speaker 5:So it just so happens, at that moment, here comes Haman strolling along and talk about timing. Talk about timing. The king says, well, who's in the court? And his attendant says, well, h's in the court. And his attendants say, well, haman's standing out there. So the king says, well, bring him in.
Speaker 5:And when Haman entered, the king asked Haman well, what should be done for this guy, mordecai, that the king delights so much that he feels he should honor him. But king didn't say he didn't say Mordecai. He didn't say he didn't say Mordecai, he didn't say who it was. And when the King said it, he thought, because he saw Haman, that he was talking about Haman. So Haman's like, hmm, well, this is a perfect opportunity.
Speaker 5:So he's like who is there that the King would rather honor than me, for the man the king delights to honor? Have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on his head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king's most noble princes, to one of the king's most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him this is what is done for the man the king delights to honor. So the king's like well, hey, right now, get going, get the robe, get the horse, go find Mordecai. And Haman has to be like excuse me Speechless.
Speaker 2:Go find who Excuse me.
Speaker 5:I mean his stomach, yeah his pit of his stomach just must have dropped out.
Speaker 4:That'd be a real kicker, wouldn't it?
Speaker 5:Right, yeah, so the very man that you are planning to, and then, deflate you, the very man you are planning to hang the next day to honor yourself. Now you gotta honor the guy yeah so plot twist plot twist, mic drop.
Speaker 5:So of course hayman goes home and he's just, you know he's beside himself and he's just, you know, he's beside himself. So but he's got to do it, he's got to follow through with it. Next day, of course, it's the banquet. King's there, esther's there, and once again, you know, the king's just swooning over Esther. And he asked her a second time, like well, what is it you want? You know I'll give you anything, I'll give you half the kingdom if you want it. And so this time she says if I have found favor with you, o king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life and spare my people. This is my request, for I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, but because no such distress would justify disturbing the king. And then because he loves Esther so much, and then because he loves esther so much and I'm going to assume it's at this, point that esther tells her that she's a jew, right?
Speaker 5:yeah, yes, that he's like. Well, who is, who is this guy? You know who would dare do such a thing? You know, to my yeah, yeah to my beautiful, my beautiful queen, queen and her people, yeah and, of course, esther reveals that it's Haman and Haman's standing there when she reveals it and he, basically, at this point the king's gonna be like not a second's hesitation Okay, yep, we're gonna hang him, we're gonna hang Haman, and Haman begs Esther for his life yep, we're gonna hang him, we're gonna hang hayman.
Speaker 5:And uh, hayman, hayman begs esther for his life. He falls on his knees, falls on her, begs for his life. Well, guess what? Now you just committed your second mistake, because when the king comes back in, guess what? Hayman's clinging to his queen, touching her, and that is another insult. So now it's, you know it's over. So Haman is going to go to the gallows and get hanged on the very same gallows that he had built at his house.
Speaker 2:For.
Speaker 1:Mordecai.
Speaker 5:For Mordecai.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 5:And so there you have, once again, god's people in the most unusual situation yeah, yeah that come out on top, come out on top yeah, like you would.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't have thought that that would have happened from the beginning, you know? No, you wouldn't have thought that that would have happened from the beginning. You know, no, you wouldn't have thought that that would have been the outcome.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, and it's another one of those things where how could, when the king gives that order, when Haman gives that order because I think they will mention this in the aftermath is like as soon as that, when a king made an order, so anything that he signed, he signed it with his ring, he would stamp it.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 5:And once he signed that order, even the king himself could not rescind that order.
Speaker 3:Huh, yeah.
Speaker 5:So it was a pretty serious thing. So it goes out into the province and you know so it's going to be almost impossible to prevent this.
Speaker 4:It's done, it's done, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:And not even the king will go back on his word. So for him to, through the request of Esther to rescind an order was almost unheard of.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:You know. So again, you look at the story of you go all the way back to the Amalekites. The story really begins there in Deuteronomy and it's going to follow all the way through to this next event, and without that event you don't have uh, this confrontation between uh haman and mordecai um and really you know it's the book of esther, but I think maybe it should have been called the book of mordecai, because yeah he really is kind of the.
Speaker 2:You know, he's kind of the hero of the story he's kind of the the one everything, had he not prompted her, had he not prodded her to yeah do what she did.
Speaker 5:The mascot of yeah of the book of esther like I said, he's just uh, it's, I mean it's surprising, I guess, when I think about I'm like what's surprising? He just didn't lose his job when he yeah, when he started to defy hayman.
Speaker 1:They could have just got rid of him I think it's baffling that they didn't know he was Jewish all along. I don't know.
Speaker 5:So I don't know if Haman had to start digging stuff up and be like, okay, where's this guy?
Speaker 1:Probably Where'd he come from. I don't like this guy.
Speaker 5:And to find out that he's basically your blood's sworn enemy just makes it even more interesting, but it your blood's sworn enemy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Just makes it even more interesting. But it propels the whole story to reverse the destruction of the Jewish people, because at that point they had been exiled, some had went back to Judea, some had went back to Jerusalem, but most of them had moved on to other provinces. So they were divided people which any anytime you're divided, you're weaker. Yeah, so the jewish people, in a sense, could have just became extinct. They become, become such a minority that they may, at some point they may not have existed in its purest form, but through all this they're saved, they're people like a turnaround, yeah yeah, but it took so many.
Speaker 5:Well, of course it took esther in doing something that you know, was like that was, that was a risk, that was quite the risk. You know, and, but I will give her credit. I think she did have a good, a good deal of like calculation. She knew how to go about it. Like I said, she took her time, she prayed about it, but I think she knew her king well.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Like she knew what she could. What she could pull off what she could pull off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And I think she gained a lot of confidence from that and I think it was just kind of like in the beginning how she got to be queen.
Speaker 1:She never overstepped she didn't push too hard, she didn't right, she knew her place.
Speaker 5:Yeah yeah, she just went through it step by step. She stayed calm and she just worked through the problem, as opposed to you.
Speaker 5:Know, she just go right to king and start begging yeah uh, when you know, before she became queen, she didn't try to be flashy, she didn't try to, you know, really get his attention doing this or doing that, which I'm sure maybe some of the girls really tried hard, but she just, she just was who she was, yeah, and she was just honest and I think that's, that's how she was able to have such an advantage. She was true to herself, true to her God and her people, and that's what made it work for her.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:One thing I found interesting with listening to different pastors talk about this story and do teachings on it. When Esther went in to the king and he put the scepter out to her, he was granting her mercy and grace. I read that Just as Christ with his outstretched hand gives granting her mercy and grace. I read that, as christ, with his outstretched hand, gives us our mercy and grace, huh which I mean when you think about it, that's, you can make that comparison.
Speaker 5:But the persians, they were not godly people no, no so again, it's like god is even using people not of his own, not godly, not of his own.
Speaker 1:Not godly, not of his own, but he's still using them To get the job done. Yeah, they don't realize, he'll still use you.
Speaker 5:Even if you're like I don't believe in God, I don't want any part of the church or whatever it's like, well, guess what? God still wants part of you, yeah. And if he's going to you know, grant her that and just as Christ is, so in love with us. Yep, yeah, yep. If our, if our hearts are in the right place, he will truly grant anything that we ask.
Speaker 1:And that is a good point. Like you said, nick. Like well, just because doesn't mean he's still not going to use you. That's where he came from.
Speaker 5:So whether you, want to deny it or not. It's like, well, you know you might. Yeah, you won't have all the grace and favor you know that you could be having on earth but guess what? You're still part of the plan Yep Whether you want to be or not. You might be demoted to the lowest you know denomination of what it's going to turn out to be, but eventually, though, yeah, you will serve your true purpose. That's just the way it's going to go, and uh that's. This is a perfect example of that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um how long do you think? How long do you think this whole from the first chapter to the to the eighth chapter? How long do you think in time that took?
Speaker 5:I say it was quite a few years, I think it was. I don't think it was like.
Speaker 4:It wasn't a couple weeks, I don't think it was like 90 days. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:I truly think it had to be over the course of time.
Speaker 4:I mean because I would think, even though I mean you know, for Esther to know the king that.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah, I was going to say, even though, to know how to approach him. Yeah, yeah, Even though she was really beautiful and she had all the qualities he desired, she really got to know her king Right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 5:And I think over time she probably gained a lot of respect because I don't unlike Vashti, you know she never defied him, you know, and I think she just had those qualities of you know she not that she knew her place, but I I think she showed a different kind of uh strength that he appreciated, like I think she and I don't know, I don't know if she had any like special services. She was as queen. I don't know if there were certain things that she did that maybe were like he really got to the point where I just like the way she operates, she handles her position.
Speaker 1:well yeah. You know to where he he in turn, even though he may have, as a king, being in that day and age, he would never have said to anybody else yeah hey, I I see her as my equal I appreciate he may have seen her as his equal yeah, and that could be why she got away with well, especially yeah like all the newer providences that they were taking over and stuff, like maybe at that point, you know, he was kind of like maybe she can kind of govern all that. I don't know.
Speaker 5:That's kind of where my brain was going.
Speaker 3:I don't know if he ever counseled her, because he didn't allow her to live and most of the time they were beheaded at that time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:And reading this again. I read this and I go yeah, yeah. And reading this again, I read this and I go, yep, this is another perfect example of how the world was before Jesus came along. Yes, this is a very cold, hard, cruel world, especially for women, you know, but men as well. I mean there is really, there is no love in anything. It is all about power, control, war and, let's face it, pleasure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, yeah you know.
Speaker 5:That's the reason a lot of these kings are taking over these territories.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 5:Because they want the power, they want the control, they want the pleasure, mm-hmm, they want as much as they can get.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:For as long as they can get it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And that's really the only thing they're after. Um, you know, it was kind of just the same way when we were reading about jonah and you know, you look at all these kingdoms and all these kings and you think, man, these guys, there's some terrible people and there's there's really no good qualities now in this king.
Speaker 5:You can you kind of maybe gleam there's, maybe maybe he's not such a bad guy, right, you know, given the benefit of the doubt, he might he might be maybe better than most, um, but yeah, it's a, it's a, you know, there's, there's not really, uh, before jesus comes along, you just you don't have very many other than god's love himself and him trying to, you know, get people to see his love and walk in his light. The reality of the world in the human form is really cold and dark. There's just not much redeeming quality in the human form, because they just won't, they're just not interested in it, which is well. That's why God has to keep doing what he's doing, example after example, after example, I say over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:Oh no, that's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 5:So we could go, you know, of course the Jews are delivered. They have their own set of banquets and celebrations and all those things. But yeah, they are delivered and the Jews triumph again, things um. But yeah, they are delivered and the jews triumph again. And I I did find the interesting thing I found about it is the jews will go out and they will strike down all their enemies really they become powerful again.
Speaker 5:They go, strike down all their enemies and they're killing people left and right. I mean they're really showing force, but the in the Bible they say their one redeeming quality is they never lay their hands on the plunder. So I don't know what that means exactly. I mean it's like so they kill people but they don't take their possessions. They don't. Yeah, I couldn't really discern. Like okay, why is that like a redeeming quality that you know, did you not? You know you didn't. You didn't do it. For that reason you do. You did it just to destroy your enemies, which was the honorable thing to do. So therefore, you don't do. You don't perform any of the other disgraces that people would normally perform in wartime.
Speaker 1:I just now. Correct me if I'm wrong. Would that be Hebrew or Jewish?
Speaker 5:Like, as far as the translation goes, like if I'm, it would be Hebrew, wouldn't it Hebrew, I think so that's my thought Okay, hebrew, I think so.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought Okay. So the Hebrew word could be either spoil, plunder I'm not even going to say the other one or a body part.
Speaker 5:Well, yeah, the spoils of war are always. Well, you take the enemy's possessions, you take their food, you take their equipment.
Speaker 5:You take anything that's useful or that you can take to honor yourself. So maybe that's what it means. Like they destroyed their enemies, but that was their only true purpose and they stuck to that. They didn't do they didn't burn. They didn't burn, you know, people's houses down or destroy. They didn't destroy anything other than the people themselves. You know where they're sworn enemies, but yeah, they, they, uh, they go hard. I guess you they, they, uh, they go hard. I guess you know they go hard. And and, uh, they go all through them, provinces and, and maybe that's like, maybe that was because the King couldn't rescind the order, maybe that was the only thing you could do is like, okay, well, now you have the King's permission to go out into the province and anybody that's an enemy of your people, feel free to wipe them out until there was no enemies left this says.
Speaker 1:This word is used in the book of esther to describe the wealth that the jews in persia were permitted to take after defending themselves.
Speaker 5:But yeah, and it says time again that, uh, they didn't do that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Hmm.
Speaker 3:Let me go. I'm never going to fight. Can't find it now Because I won't pay for NLT here. I got to go watch my free game.
Speaker 5:Well, and I think another main point of this is, it's just a reminder of god's faithfulness. It's just a reminder that, even in the darkest times, when you, when you think that you've totally lost control of the situation, when you, when you think that your time has passed, uh, god's still in control of the situation and it may and it may be years before you see something come to fruition. You're not going to have long to wait if you're waiting with the Lord.
Speaker 5:It may seem as though it could be a lifetime waiting for something to pass, but God's in control of it, no matter how dark things look.
Speaker 3:Going back to the scepter and God's outstretched hands, it took me to Hebrews 4.16. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it the most. So she did. She walked in there with confidence.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, she sure did. Yeah, I mean, at first she was a little shaky, you know, but I think Mordecai said the right thing and kind of just laid it out there and she's like yep, you're exactly right, this is. I have been born for a time such as this and the result could be the same no matter which way I go, so I might as well go with honor and with integrity and trying to do the right thing for my people and for God. Yeah Dawn, you look like you were going to say something.
Speaker 2:Well, my footnotes say we said how long for the book of Esther. It says about 10 years, From 483 BC and concluded in 473 BC. So just about 10 years.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:I just listened to this Elizabeth Elliot, an older pastor. I listened to her podcast and she was talking about marriage and she was just saying it takes five years for a woman to truly know her husband. So she was well into that marriage.
Speaker 5:Well, and it had to take a lot of. For me, it's hard to imagine you know if you're you're the queen, right, and then you still see the king with other women. You know what's going on and you would truly feel like what kind of position is this right? So for her to keep that kind of you know integrity and you know her, yeah and there's never any mention of children.
Speaker 1:No, no, so yeah and which makes you wonder how maybe she was actually really involved with the political and government part of it, because maybe she didn't have time to be a caretaker for the children.
Speaker 5:I don't know, yeah you know, you don't know, um, but she does die at some point, like I said, and uh, I think queen vashti does come back and get some of her. So I don't know if esther maybe died young, so there wasn't that opportunity to have children I read something that I think it said she died like at 28 or something. So her reign might have been very short, but just enough to fulfill her purpose.
Speaker 3:Now is there a biblical that said that Vashida comes back.
Speaker 5:I did read that somewhere, but I would have to go back and I don't know if I can find that again.
Speaker 2:Well, and then isn't there a Jewish holiday, that is, purim?
Speaker 5:Purim Purim yeah.
Speaker 2:That is celebrated every year.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yep, where was that? I know I read it somewhere. I swear I didn't make it up that's okay, I'm not calling you out. I mean, I just wondered if it was like mentioned down the road it's okay to say you don't know, so I got a few questions down the road. It's okay to say you don't know, so I got a few questions. But did anybody have any other thoughts or anything they wanted to bring up or anything I missed in that whole thing there?
Speaker 3:Listen, my whole thing on this story is just that scepter in God's outstretched hand.
Speaker 5:We can tell.
Speaker 3:That's really something that jumped out at me.
Speaker 1:And it's probably going to jump out to a lot more people who listen.
Speaker 5:Right, that's the great thing about it, because you can take one verse, just one part of it, and you can get a whole. See, that could be a whole program in itself.
Speaker 1:You could take that.
Speaker 5:That's the one thing that I wish more people would—when they try to discredit the Bible, when they try to discredit the whole thing, just try to not see these things.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Because if you read this long enough and you follow through long enough, you, you will. There's just so much to be gained, there's so much to get out of it.
Speaker 3:And then they then flip him right to Hebrews four, 16, you know. Go boldly before the Lord's throne.
Speaker 1:Beth, there's a picture. It's been like um, like they're starting to make it on canvases, like 17 by 20 canvases, but it's a scripture and it looks like a bunch of rainbows. But it's a scripture from the Old Testament and it links to a scripture in the New Testament. Oh wow, and I think you would be very interested to see that. Like there's so many like intermingled, it's really neat.
Speaker 5:Here it is. Ancient greek documents call xerxes wife a maestress who was probably a greek form of vashti. So, uh, vashti was deposed in 484, 48, but she is mentioned again in ancient records as the queen mother during the reign of her son. I can't pronounce this one either Artaxes, artaxes.
Speaker 2:Who succeeded?
Speaker 5:Xerxes. So the next king is going to be Vashti's son. So toward the end of Xerxes reign, either Esther died or Vashti was able, through her son, to regain the influence she had lost. So it must've been like I said.
Speaker 3:it must've been Cause it still would have what the reign still would have went to the next, the first, oldest son, Wouldn't it? I mean, didn't that's how it always went, whether the queen was alive or not, or?
Speaker 1:right or maybe she just got more in. Maybe she got more popular in the government eye like government point of view.
Speaker 5:I, because her son was king he's king, then xerxes has to be dead kings oh yeah dead so well, when you think about it, I mean for queen vashti, she's got some good qualities too. I mean, like she's like told the king, like I'm not doing this, I'm not going to be your well, and the thing is, I'm not showboating for all you men, because they even said she may have been pregnant at the time and they're like she didn't want to show herself off as being pregnant or putting herself in any of those situations into heavy drinking, yeah yeah, right, oh yeah so, and some of those things that were done in the king's court weren't always appropriate yeah, we can't even imagine what these parties were like
Speaker 5:she may have knew what yeah, she was just standing up saying absolutely not, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna do that. So yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:She had some good qualities too, um yeah, she was actually pretty courageous, just, you know, to stand up to him and not go the fact that he just let her go and said well, your punishment is.
Speaker 5:Well, I'll just pick another queen was probably pretty. So maybe the guy wasn't so bad. You know, maybe of all the kings out there, he was more likable the most. Guy wasn't so bad, you know, maybe of all the kings out there, he was more likable the most he wasn't a complete you know like, just you know, I'm gonna kill somebody and you know, just dispose of them.
Speaker 5:So yeah, maybe maybe he wasn't so bad. Um, um, let's see how. About this one? When we feel that our personal authority is being questioned, how can we use God's own love for us help deal with that situation? So somebody really comes at you.
Speaker 5:Like you tell them to do something, say like me, I'm in a management position maybe you know you're in charge of certain things and you tell somebody to do something they just come back with I ain't doing that, I ain't doing anything you tell me to do. How do you, how can you handle? You know that you know, push back of your personal authority, because it's very. In those situations, what most of us want to do is well, we yell. So many questions our authority.
Speaker 1:Our flesh comes out.
Speaker 5:We can do it with our children. You know our children say you know they're not going to clean up the room. You know, a lot of times the first thing you do is you want to yell. You know you want to show your authority with strength.
Speaker 4:Yeah, is you want to yell?
Speaker 5:you know you want to, you want to show your authority with strength, yeah, you know, with physical strength, with fear, all those things.
Speaker 1:So well, I'll tell you a parenting advice that might help, because I read somewhere someone's trying to yell less and they said, you know, distract something else, then redirect I've heard that before maybe even like distract them with like a, a story of listen. Hey, I know you don't want to do this, but da, da, da, da, da da. And then, I don't know, redirect their point of view. I don't know. I read that earlier today.
Speaker 5:I'm like, well, that kind of well, maybe you could kind of turn that into. Instead of using distract, well, you can say you could.
Speaker 1:You could pray about it, yes, yes, that's a good idea, you're reflecting it yeah and then, what was the second one?
Speaker 5:um redirect redirect so through that prayer you can come to a better decision about how to handle it. As opposed to corporal punishment, yes you know and you can use uh an example, or yeah, yeah uh, you can get somebody to see why it is important. Well, it was pastor michael saying about his daughter and having the guinea pig and yeah, and that's like she had to make her see why it was important to clean her room, not just because I told you not just because I said so but you need to see like through, through god's plan, through god's love for us.
Speaker 5:Why is it important that we, that we do the things that we do, that we have structure, that we follow through on things that we don't you know, just say we're going to do something and then we get what we want. We instantly just forget all about. You know what we're supposed to do. Yeah, um, so that's what I think, you just. And it's hard because I'll admit, like um, I don't really have a relationship with my son because he has decided like he is going to live his own life. He's got his own ideas about what he wants to do. It doesn't quite line up with with what I think, Um, but I never had a conversation with him where I wasn't trying to do that. And so sometimes I think, Um, but I never had a conversation with him where I wasn't trying to do that. And so sometimes I think, well, that failed, that approach failed, Like I. You know I should have.
Speaker 5:Maybe I should have yelled more you know, maybe I should have, and there were times where it did get the best of me and I did yell but I'd always come.
Speaker 2:I thought the louder I was, they heard me better.
Speaker 5:But I would always come back with trying to be like okay you know I'm not just doing this because I want to be a pain and make your life difficult. Yeah, I'm trying to do this so when you grow up you'll be a good person.
Speaker 2:I'm doing this because I love you, but is it in Proverbs, where it says a soft word or a soft answer? Yeah, turneth away wrath I'm trying to be Danny.
Speaker 5:Tanner over here it's like and now that we don't have that relationship, I think well, you know, maybe I didn't. I didn't do what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 4:It'll come around.
Speaker 5:But then right, the more I think about it is if, if, if he came back today, I still wouldn't let the same thing slide. Right, right I would still have that same approach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right I would still have that same approach yeah, yeah, because, yeah, because you have your firm foundation, you stand on your rock and yeah, and the point is you, you till your dang die.
Speaker 5:Sometimes you got to work on people to hopefully they they get it right, that they'll start going in the right direction. It's all you can do you know if you just continue to yell. And most time I tell most people I was like you know, when you yell at somebody, like like managing at work, I don't use the approach of never yelling at somebody because, guess what, usually you're the only one that's upset.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so it just makes it worse.
Speaker 5:So I just I've never, I have never profited from.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:From that example of just getting mad and trying to show my anger and personal authority.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So I'm always hoping that you know there's these young kids. It's like I've just told myself, like you are going to have to constantly work with these kids to teach them any sort of discipline and respect Integrity. Yeah, and all those things to hopefully one day it'll click to where they'll go, okay.
Speaker 2:I get it Right.
Speaker 5:And not only will it make them better in the workplace, it may make them a better parent, yep, it may make them a better friend, better coworker, all those things and that's the best you can hope for. And some you're going to get, some you're not going to get, yeah, but I think in the end you would walk away with more regret that you didn't try to do that as opposed to yeah, I really showed him. Yeah, he tried to up me.
Speaker 1:You know my authority and I put him in his place.
Speaker 5:That's great in the moment. That's a small. You feel like you've got a small victory there, but what kind of victory really is it?
Speaker 3:Right, I had to read in nursing school and you might have had to read it too, I don't know. It was called the Ten Minute Manager and it pretty much was.
Speaker 5:You know you give them a minute of reprimand or what the situation is, and then you take the next nine minutes and point out all their positive things, and I do that I at least be like hey, you screwed up on this, but here is what you're doing, right.
Speaker 2:Right, I got faith in you Always. End on that positive note.
Speaker 5:I got faith in you. I know you can do this job. You have the qualities. It's just you got to focus you few things you're not doing right and ask yourself well, how can I do them better? That's all you can do, let's see. Wow, then that goes into. Can an impulse, spur of the moment, decision based on emotion ever fulfill god's plan for us? So do you think, like somebody can say, well, that's just the way I'm built. No, that's just the way I am. When I get mad, I yell. When I get mad, I cry. When I you know, when I get mad, I go be by myself and ignore everybody. And do you think?
Speaker 1:I think that's an excuse for god can god work with that?
Speaker 5:can god ever work with that kind of? Not god can work with anything to better your life, but to better yours you know he's definitely got his hands full with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and when, when you're not wanting to budge or anything.
Speaker 3:If you have that kind of attitude, like it's going to be harder for him to work with it but esther showed right there, she didn't react out of emotion, right right not her feelings, yeah yeah, you know, she thought seek wisdom prayed about you know, fasted, fasted yeah boy, if we all couldn't just what a happier place we would be living in. Well, a lot of we would be living in.
Speaker 5:Well, a lot of people would say, well, life just doesn't give me time to do that.
Speaker 3:You can't take time.
Speaker 5:Right. But in our world a lot of times you got to make quick decisions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we react first, right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we're not given in our world, we're not given a lot of time to reflect.
Speaker 1:A lot of decisions do have to be made in the moment. Yeah, but I think a lot of decisions don't have to be made in the moment. But since we're so reactive and emotional, we do make them you know we don't seek that with. You know we could we do say hey let me, let me have some time to think about that, and I'll be back with you, but a lot of times people just jump the gun.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm react out of emotion and I oh, me too. Me too, I'm working on that but it always comes with regrets when I react same yeah, yeah let's see.
Speaker 5:Well, how important is it for us to remain still and wait for God's purpose to fully reveal itself before we go to work on a problem. So it kind of just bounces off what we just talked about.
Speaker 3:Pastor Holly, she's a contemplator.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:She has to sit on something for a few days, that's good though Before she can come to, she might have the idea yeah, he's gonna work it through and make sure that it's what god wants.
Speaker 2:I admire that quality in her yeah, well, yeah, because if we wait, we are talking to god. We are relying on god like you're not strength from him.
Speaker 1:You're not only contemplating your own self, like you're talking with him Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Figuring that out.
Speaker 5:But a lot of people will take waiting for weakness. If people see you wait, if people see you hesitate, then a lot of people can immediately say well, they're afraid. They don't want to do it. Yeah, other than well, maybe they're just really taking their time to come up with the right answer. Yeah, so that can be hard because you got that pressure. Yeah, definitely To act, to come to a decision, and if you don't, you know they'll be like wow, you just, you're not fit for the job. You can't make quick decisions.
Speaker 5:You can't In our day and age. Sometimes it's very hard to you know, so sometimes for me it's like at the beginning of the day I can say no matter what happens in the course of my day. I'm praying right now that you help me make the best decision. Even if it is a quick decision, yeah, that you instill in me the best discernment to do what I need to do.
Speaker 2:Yes, the best discernment to do what I need to do.
Speaker 5:To fulfill your word and to go about things in a way that would honor you, as opposed to acting like a fool. And regretting it later. So sometimes for me that's the best I can do. You think about it even before your day starts, what?
Speaker 5:happens today, you've got control of this. A lot of times when I leave the house, I I'm like this is the day you have made. It's already been signed, sealed, delivered. All I have to do is my job. Like I said, it's like I'll do my best and god will do the rest right, do my job and seek your face yep, just just very simple.
Speaker 5:Sometimes that's the best you can do, because you know it's, you know it's going to be busy, you know you're it's going to be busy, you know it's going to be stressful, you know you're going to have to make a lot of decisions, sometimes very quickly, and that's all you can do is just pray that, no matter what happens, you'll make the best decisions you can at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And if, for whatever reason, something doesn't work out well, it will. Everything will work out, for his good and for yours as well, if you have that mindset. So for me that's almost like a no fail type of attitude. Even if things don't go quite the way I had planned, the way I saw them starting out when I started by morning, they'll still go, they'll still come out right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And you know, things will end up where they're supposed to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:That's kind of an interesting one. Um, is it healthy to seek counsel from others regarding God's plan for your life? If you feel you have received God's word, what is the best way to confirm it?
Speaker 1:what is the best way to confirm it? To the second part, I think the best way to confirm it is, you know, a prime example of a few weeks ago in the sanctuary, when, okay God, if this is really what I should be doing, you know, make this sound equipment stop working and boom it. Did you know?
Speaker 2:like ask well ask yeah, and what? What is it? Pastor michael says he's not going to go to somebody that he doesn't trust, right, or to allow them to speak into his life. So I'm going to seek, with you, know from somebody wise and trusted. Yes I'm not just going to go. And, of course, mordecai was very trusted.
Speaker 5:Esther really trusted him yeah, you know so I don't think she would have went into that yeah the way she did, if she didn't trust what mordecai, right, right yeah yeah, don's my person well, we, yeah, we are each other's person.
Speaker 3:She talks me off a mountain many a times yeah sometimes she makes me see things that have you, I didn't want to see and I'm like I didn't like that when I hang up the phone. But she was right.
Speaker 1:Yep, but it's good to have that person.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's good to know who that person is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know that person's going to be truthful with you. They're not going to blow smoke.
Speaker 3:They're not going to make it what you want it to be just because it's going to be okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you created it.
Speaker 4:You better figure out how to fix it. You broke it. You bought it I didn't do that no she really doesn't.
Speaker 3:She'll just say well, you know, Remember when.
Speaker 1:Like why did I call you? I got to go, okay.
Speaker 4:Okay, all right.
Speaker 3:But she makes me think about things it makes me see things in another view, outside of my own view.
Speaker 4:A lot of times we have that tunnel vision we don't want to see the whole picture, sure Right. We just want to see what we want to see.
Speaker 2:We see, yes, yep.
Speaker 5:And I want you to see what I see, and I don't like it when you don't see it that way and no offense, ladies, but that's hard for us husbands to approach things that way, because a lot of times we're just supposed to listen right and we're just supposed to say it'll be okay yes, so sometimes we're walking in line when we have to be like. Well, look, you may be a little well and then you're the bad guy.
Speaker 4:Well, and I?
Speaker 1:think. I think it is like a proven fact that men's like brain, it is more of a logical, like Right, how it's wired, and we're more emotional. So when we're talking we're like they're instant. You know, problem solving, problem solving, I can fix that and I'm like just let me vent to you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, let me gossip.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:Sometimes I just I come home and I just want to unload. Yeah yeah, and he's like well, if you don't like your job, then find something else. No, I love my job. He said well, it don't sound like it.
Speaker 2:I just need to vent a little bit.
Speaker 4:Well, shouldn't Dawn be calling? Let me call.
Speaker 5:Dawn. Well, here's a maybe a little controversial for our time time we're living in right now. Uh, how important is it to first seek god's counsel before acting out in protest to an event of worldly importance. So we got a lot of things going on right now, a lot of protests happening all over the place. How do you know Like well, should I be joining in on this? Should I be you? Know, or should I be? Is this not what I'm supposed to do? Am I supposed to just sit back and or any of them?
Speaker 4:glorifying God Right.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a great question. Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 4:That's why I asked it. I would say no.
Speaker 1:Just go to him with that, just like you would any other thing.
Speaker 4:Am I supposed to do this or not?
Speaker 1:If it's really weighing on your heart. Maybe that's the Holy Spirit saying. Maybe you shouldn't be doing that.
Speaker 5:Yep Spirit saying yeah, maybe you shouldn't be doing that. That's all I get out of that one, yeah that's it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think God probably would have to carry me kicking and screaming.
Speaker 5:Get me out there in any of these protests. Yeah, I feel that way too. I'm always just like well, I don't understand it, because I'm not knocking on anybody's protest so I'm not even going to get into that. But for me personally, I'm always thinking how do these people do this? Like, if you have a family, kids, things you have to protect, you know, like, how do you got like the time or?
Speaker 1:how can you risk your own state?
Speaker 4:They're paid. They're paid and you may be right about that $2,500 a week to $3,500 a week.
Speaker 2:I'm in the wrong profession, yeah.
Speaker 5:I could just see me protesting one time and be like I'd be the guy they put in handcuffs and walk away.
Speaker 4:Get hit in the head with a brick. Die Over nothing. I mean I can go to work and die, you know so we'll mix it Even peaceful protests.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm not a confrontational person. I wouldn't want to be out there.
Speaker 4:Nope yeah.
Speaker 3:But don't you think that you can get just as much done by being on your knees praying?
Speaker 4:We can get more. You can get more done More done exactly yeah. Because it's not. You're not going to be doing the work. The Lord's going to be doing the work yeah. It's easy. It's hard for us, it's easy for him, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but most of those probably out there protesting, I don't know, I mean, but maybe they don't know that they need to be on their knees, right, yeah, I mean, I don't know that, you don't know that about anybody. No, right?
Speaker 1:No, you don't, you don't know anybody I mean unless they have it on their sign that they're just. You know, then you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but it could be somebody else's sign that says here hold this.
Speaker 1:And maybe they can't read what's your sign.
Speaker 4:Here's your sign.
Speaker 5:But I saw Mordecai's standing up against Haman as his form of protest. You know he went out there every day in sackcloth and covered himself in ashes and stood out there and defied him and defied him and defied him yeah. But it's like it was for the right purpose, because he was worshiping.
Speaker 5:He was not going to worship anybody else but God, so he was not going to, no matter how dangerous it could be for him, he was not going to back down from his relationship with God. He wasn't going to worship anybody else. Does God ever I'm sorry, does God's favor ever exalt us over others?
Speaker 4:No, I don't think so, because we're all equal. We're all equal in his eyes. So the favor he would give me, he would give you, you, you and you.
Speaker 1:Versus a non-follower.
Speaker 5:That's the way I'm looking at it right now, kind of where I'm going with this.
Speaker 3:I think once a non-follower would come to Christ he would bless them with that favor. Yeah, I agree, and that is hard for some Christians. Well, look what he's done.
Speaker 1:You know Right, because he's judgmental.
Speaker 3:Why are you giving him that, god? I've been here all these years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:I've been here all these years worshiping you.
Speaker 5:You haven't done that for me, but I'll do that for him, you know, I guess that's what I'm trying to say is like you feel like, okay, you put in 20 years with the Lord, so should it ever give you this footing over somebody else to have advantage over them?
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, no, no, over them. No, no, because god's no all the same.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you know because because that's sometimes the way I look at it is, I don't care if you've been with the lord 20 years. That person has never known the lord in their life and comes to him truly in that moment, even if it's for a day. Then you were on equal footing.
Speaker 3:That's right. Right, there's no. Yes, you know, and you know what. And to sit back and watch a new Christian on fire, yeah, yeah, and it might be like yeah. That makes you want to. I want to capture that again, yeah.
Speaker 5:I want to remind you where you were all those years ago. Right yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Where we've kind of let it. We've let it get stagnant.
Speaker 1:We've let it simmer, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not boiling, it's just simmering.
Speaker 3:And we should never let that fire go out. Uh-uh, we tend to Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 5:Oh, how can we be careful not to confuse serving our government with worshiping our politics? So you know, if somebody's you know going either way with this, you know if you're on the right or on the left, wherever you are. Some people can actually take that as a form of religion, Like they believe in it so firmly and they speak it so loudly that you would almost assume, like that's, that's the end of all being for them. That's what. That's where their beliefs lie.
Speaker 5:Like at the end of the day, they hang their hat on what's happening in dc right so how do you, how can you, how can you be a faithful citizen of your country but not confuse it with your relationship with God?
Speaker 4:He has to trust that God's going to have his hand in all of their decisions.
Speaker 1:And that he works all things out for good, you know.
Speaker 3:Isn't it here we go, chosen as a time as this? Yeah, I truly believe that the presidents and the leaders that are in our government today are there, because we may have all voted, but because God allowed them to be appointed Right, whether it is for good or whether it is for bad. How many?
Speaker 1:kings, whether they want to be used or not. Right.
Speaker 3:Look throughout the Bible and I'm not saying this regarding our president.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't misinterpret that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Look how many kings he's allowed to be in power that were just downright evil. Yep, yeah, yep.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 3:My grandmother pounded in my head as a child that you don't have to approve of your leadership.
Speaker 4:But you have to respect, but you have to respect.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, and you just have to pray that they're going to do the right thing. The right things and that they're going to pray about it before they do things a lot of times you think. I don't think they're praying about anything right.
Speaker 2:It's very hard praying that they have some moral principles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're not sitting it, sitting with it, thinking they're making impulse decisions right.
Speaker 5:You hope they're you hope they're getting on twitter and yeah yeah, you hope they're looking to m Mordecai and Esther with that same kind of discernment to be like, okay, before they make a decision to go into something, come up with a plan that they're yeah, that they're looking to God first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I don't know this doesn't really probably flow with your question, but like I think, if you look at some of your diehard Democrats and your diehard Republicans, that they are going to remain with that party regardless. They're not looking, and that's where you know they're not looking at what God? Well, that's exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no moral compass. Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, are they looking to do godly things for our country? Are they, you know, basing their leadership and things upon God's word?
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's exactly what I'm asking. Yeah, people get so you know you're a lifetime Democrat, and so it doesn't matter who's in office, what they say, what they do. You're still a Democrat, you're still doing it, even if part of the platform is like that is not within God's will. That is not. You know how it was 30 years ago. I've still got to stay on that, donkey.
Speaker 3:When I walk in to vote, I'm voting for who I believe is going to represent God and who I believe is going to follow my beliefs and benefit my family.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Even if you know the whole thing's not perfect. Right, absolutely you still have to follow. The one you think is listening to god is at least following someone yeah, oh yeah, absolutely oh yeah yeah, but we can only do our best, we can only right that's all we can do especially just how the system is anymore is.
Speaker 1:You know? You know, mostly everyone just goes down the line and no, it's either all red or all, not me, no, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna and I get it. You know I people say, well, if you're not voting, all like that, then there's, there's no point, or you're, you're giving a disadvantage.
Speaker 5:No, I mean, I'm doing what I think is right and what's best and checks and balance. I didn't quite word this one right when I wrote it down. Basically without the value and security of our relationship with God, can we truly? I didn't word that right at all.
Speaker 5:I got that one all messed up. Is there any value or security in our lives without the love of God? Is there anything else like you can do in your life Buy, sell, acquire another relationship, anything like that that can replace that relationship? I know the answer to the question no.
Speaker 4:But if you do, it's always going to be wrong, it's always going to go bad.
Speaker 5:And I ask that because Esther's thinking about it. She's like well, I'm the queen, I got all these privileges. Always going to be wrong, and I asked that, go bad. Yeah, and I asked that because you know esther's thinking about it. She's like well, I'm the queen, right, I got all these privileges and I'm doing pretty well for myself. I got these nice robes, I got all this stuff. Am I really going to endanger my situation by going to the king and revealing that I'm a jew, that I'm a woman of god?
Speaker 5:just for my people just for my, so everybody else can survive? Or should I just protect myself and stay quiet? No, she has that decision to me, so she makes the ultimate decision. That doesn't matter what else I have, doesn't matter how long I'm queen. Eventually, whether they get me or my life expires. Naturally I'm going to die, right, and I'm still going to have to look at God in the end and say whether I was faithful or not. And she makes the right decision. Yeah, definitely. So we should never get to a point in our lives where we think our valuables, everything that we've acquired, even up to our jobs which, let's face it, yes, that is our whole base of security in our world that we live in. Like everybody, we all have to do the same thing. We all have to go to work, we all have to make money.
Speaker 2:We all have to we have bills to pay.
Speaker 5:We have bills to pay, feed our families. We all have to do that. There's no way to get out of it. None of us can just get up in the morning and go. Well, you know what God's got it? I'm just going to sit here. I ain't going to work.
Speaker 4:I tried to. I didn't work. Yeah, you can't do that.
Speaker 5:I mean. So that's the reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:We have to look at that Now. Maybe if somehow, in some way we could blot out the entire world and we did just sit there and we said, well, this is God's will. I'm going to sit here and wait for something to happen. Maybe you'd be all right, maybe, and you probably would. Now you might lose your house, you might lose everything that you have, you might have to start over. You might be living in the woods, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right In a box Under a tent you made with. Yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but maybe you would be more one with God. I don't know, but you, in the end, yeah, you'd probably still be okay. Yeah, and in the end, if you perish, lacking all those things, if you're with God, you are still going to be okay. Right In the end, you're going to be more, you know.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because we're not taking those possessions with us, no, nope no, so don't ever just think that. You know, I guess sometimes I'm very careful not to ask god for uh financial yeah, possessions same, that nature same I'm very careful never to be like. I wish I just you know. If you find a way to get me that brand new green Challenger, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That'd be so cool. You sound like Chase. He's like there's my car again. There's my car.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so you know. It's just I'm very careful never to pray about those kinds of things yeah. You know, it's just. It's like if God wants me to have those things, I mean yeah, I'm human. There's things I'd love to acquire. Makes you feel good.
Speaker 1:Like that hot tub, like the hot tub.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, my wife ordered a two-seater. She brought it up. I just took it to the next level. That's what I do. So we got an eight-seater. She just wanted to get a new bed frame. We got the whole bedroom set in mahogany.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, that's what.
Speaker 5:I do. Don't tell me you want to do something, unless you want to go big, go on all out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go big or go home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she knows, just to plant that seed?
Speaker 5:Yeah, then she blames it all on me. You're the reason we got this big payment Wait a minute.
Speaker 3:So how many years have you been married now?
Speaker 5:You've been over five years. Well, I think it'll be seven. This october dang it.
Speaker 1:She got you.
Speaker 5:I should have read this book sooner. Yeah, so that was the point of that. It's just, you know, it's just. We all have to be careful about what we pray for, true yeah um, it should always be things that are truly, uh, gonna make us more closer to god, and not just things for our own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know better for the kingdom. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:So I agree Just you know, I tend to leave those if I want something and my wife says no, it's like okay, whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm said no. The boss already said no. I'll try. Try again.
Speaker 3:It's funny, all right. Well, I don't even remember whose turn it is to pray. I think it's yours nick.
Speaker 5:Didn't I all volunteer, okay, the volunteer's tribute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, let me get this.
Speaker 5:Lord, thank you for bringing us all together tonight, and I just want to just let you know how much we all appreciate the fact that your will always has the controlling power in our lives. That, your sovereignty, your grace, all the things that help us continue to live our lives day after day, even when times get tough, when we can't quite see the light at the end of the tunnel, when we think that things that we're hoping for, things that we're struggling with, are never going to come to a rightful, we're not going to have the answers that we desire, that you do have it all worked out and all we need to do is be patient, continue to trust you and just do our duty as you would see us, do it for your kingdom, and just let that be just a leading guide for everything that we do in this life. I just pray that we'll all get home safely tonight and hopefully we'll all be back here next week to do it again. All these precious things are in your name, amen, amen.
