In his sermon 'Sleepless in Susa,' Phillip Kayser explores Esther chapter 6, emphasizing the role of God's providence throughout the book. Despite God's name not appearing in the text, His presence and guidance are evident in every detail, from the timing of events to the actions of the characters. The chiastic structure of the book underscores the centrality of God's hidden hand, particularly through the insomnia suffered by both King Ahasuerus and Haman, which leads to a dramatic reversal of fortunes. Kayser highlights how God's sovereignty orchestrates even the smallest details, such as the king's sleeplessness, the reading of the chronicles, and the prideful assumptions of Haman. The sermon challenges listeners to see God's involvement in their own lives, even in mundane, painful, or seemingly insignificant events, encouraging them to trust in His ultimate purpose and goodness.

To Esther Book of Esther chapter 6 now. This is a book. That's very hard to to Dive into the middle of it because you want to read the whole story, but we're going to read just chapter 6 Hear the Word of God that night The king could not sleep So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bithana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, the doorkeepers, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. Then the king said, what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?

When the king's servants who attended him said, nothing has been done for him. So the king said, who's in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. The king's servant said to him, Haman is there standing in the court. And the king said, let him come in.

So Haman came in and the king asked him, what shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor? Haman thought in his heart, whom would the king delight to honor more than me? And Haman answered the king, for the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king is ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?' Then the king said to Haman, hurry take the robe and the horse as you have suggested and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king's gate leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.

So Haman took the robe and the horse arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square and proclaimed before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Afterward Mordecai went back to the king's gate but Haman hurried to his house morning and with his head covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall as of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him. While they were still talking with them, the king's eunuchs came and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared. So ends the reading of God's word.

Father God, we thank you for your word. Your word is truth and We love it and we want to be sanctified by it and I pray that you would enable us, as Christ commanded in Matthew four, verse four, to live by every word that proceeds out of your mouth. May this bring comfort and encouragement and exhortation and challenge and growth to your people this morning we pray in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated.

Well this morning I want to challenge you to see God's hand of providence in every detail of your lives. Yes, even in the most boring details, in the most painful details that you have been going through. One of the amazing things about this book is that the name of God does not appear even once, other than in a hidden acrostic, as what some people think, there may be an acrostic there. And yet God's hand can be seen everywhere. It can be seen in the death of Esther's parents.

It can be seen in Mordecai being in Israel just at the right time when her parents died to adopt her into his family. It can be seen in the drunken king's removal of his queen and then regretting that rash decision and yet not being able to do anything about it. It could be seen in the raising up of the enemy of God's people. And this enemy, Haman, would be used by God to actually bring his people to repentance and bring his people into revival. That's an astounding thing to me that the very one who hated God's people is going to be used by God to bring holiness to his people.

Even the wrath of man is used to praise God in this book. God's hand can be seen in the casting of the dice by Haman. In fact, I probably should have put a picture of the dice in there because Haman thought that dice represented you know luckiness chance that the gods maybe could talk about a lucky day but there is no such thing as luck with God no such thing as chance God is controlling things down to the minutest details to accomplish his purposes. And if you have never read the book of Esther, you have got to read it. It's just a beautiful, beautiful, cool story.

And again, I hate to jump into the middle of the story, but that's what we're going to do. What we're going to do is looking at God's providence in the sleeplessness of two men in the capital city of Susa, Haman and Ahasuerus and it's my hope that as we look at these two cases of insomnia that it will help each of us to really appreciate God's providence in our own lives. And so this is not a sermon so much that's going to be preaching at you. There will be a little bit of that challenging you to grow and to put off sin in your lives, but mostly this is going to be a sermon of comfort and encouragement and hope for you. And God's hidden hand of sovereignty could be seen in several ways in this chapter.

The first way is less obvious. It is in the structure of the book. There are quite a number of commentaries who point out that this structure of this book is like, they call it chiastic. It's the Greek word, key. But it goes where the central, most important part is not at the beginning, not at the end, it's right in the middle of the book.

And sometimes there's chiasms within paragraphs. And I think, did I put the chiasm in the back? The outline, okay. So you can see the shape of there. The Two A sections are parallel thematically, the beginning and the end, and then the second part and the second to the last parts, or the B parts, they are parallel, and then you get to the central theme that's right in the middle, which is chapter six.

That's the central theme. So that means that the heart of this book is the sleepless insomnia of two men. What on earth is going on with that? Now, some of you may not get excited about the structure of books like I do. I love structure.

But so you might be thinking, OK, so what? We've seen the structure here. What difference does it make? Let me read from Job's commentary that explains the so what. He says, by making the pivot point of the peripety, in other words, the unexpected reversal of events, an insignificant event, rather than the point of highest dramatic tension, the author is taking the focus away from human action.

Had the pivot point of the peripety been at the scene where Esther approaches the king uninvited, or where Esther confronts Haman, the king, or Esther, would have been spotlighted as the actual cause of the reversal. By separating the pivot point of the peripety in Esther from the point of highest dramatic tension, the characters of the story are not spotlighted as the cause of the reversal. This reinforces the message that no one in the story, Not even the most powerful person in the empire is in control of what is about to happen. An unseen power is controlling the reversal of destiny. So the author is showing that even though God appears to be silent in this book of Esther.

God is really at the center of the whole story. The author of this book sees God's hand in everything. His silent providence plays the crucial role, not men and not kingdoms. It is God's sovereignty that is the foundation of providential history. Now Marshall Foster once pointed out that this is the problem with the principal approach to education.

It starts with the individual rather than starting with the sovereignty of God. And so individualism is not it. If we were to write this story like Mission Impossible Stories are written, we would have expected Esther or Mordecai to be like Tom Cruise, you know, and dominating the plot. But the odd thing about the writer of this story is that he leaves out so many details that we wish we knew. There's a lot of things like, oh, I wish I knew more about that story.

But That's not the focus God wants us to have. The heart of the book is God. God is at the center of this story, even though he cannot be seen, he cannot be heard, his name appears nowhere. And my question to you this morning is going to be this. Do you recognize God as being at the center of your story?

Do you see him in the very difficult, painful events of your life? Do you praise him because you're realizing even those events are working together for your good. You really need to. And the best way of making God the center of your story is not necessarily by having God's name on your lips every second of the day or by praying for miracles. Obviously I believe in miracles.

We see it all through the scriptures, right? But the very best way is by recognizing that God is woven through everything that you do and to have everything that you do centered upon him. The same author I just quoted said this, any deity worth his salt can do a miracle now and then. Our God is so great and so powerful, but he can work without miracles through the ordinary events of billions of human lives through millennia of time to accomplish his eternal purposes and his ancient promises and I think that is such a cool thought. This chiasm shows that it is God's providence that is the central theme of this book.

But there's a second thing that shows God's providence. God touches various people to do things without their even realizing that God has touched their lives or that God was in it at all. And let me point out a few of God's touches. First of all there is the sleep loss. Verse 1 says that night the king could not sleep.

Now literally the Hebrew says the king's sleep fled away. He was probably asleep and was suddenly wide awake and unable to go back to sleep. One writer humorously thought that he was awakened by all the hammering and sawing that Heyman was doing, you know, building the gallows. I doubt that that was the case, but we're not told. But who knows.

Ultimately, who is the giver of sleep and who is the one who takes away our sleep? God is. We have a tendency to ignore God in such mundane things as insomnia and yet it is a part of God's providence. Now certainly there are human responsibilities that we have to try to take care of these kinds of things in our lives. I'm very subject to insomnia and so it's an okay thing to take calcium and you know maybe a hot shower or what is it melatonin.

There are different things that you can take and I think we do need to take responsibilities, but ultimately God is the one who wakes us. He is the one who causes us to go to sleep. And maybe when he wakes you up in the middle of the night, your first question should not be to groan and wonder, ah, not another sleepless night, but to ask, okay, Lord, is there something you have me, that you want me to pray for? Is there something you want me to be aware of that's going on in this household? He may want you to notice something.

Secondly, when you can see no good reason for yourself to be awake. You've already prayed for an hour. You know, it's okay again to be taking the melatonin and to be praying that God would use these to help you. Scripture uses these kinds of statements to indicate God is the one we need to be going to first and foremost, even trusting him to be using the melatonin or the other things we're taking. It says he gives his beloved sleep.

This is God. Psalm 127 verse 2. Now again, I've got chronic insomnia, but I pray to God, Lord if you want me to be awake I'm quite willing to be awake, but would you give me sleep would you help the calcium and the other things? Magnesium to put me to sleep. Here's another scripture.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him. That was Genesis 2 verse 21. That's Adam. That was before the fall, right? 1 Samuel 16 talks about David sneaking up on Saul's garrison and it says, they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.

On the night before the big battle with Absalom, David said, I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustained me. Okay, so his awakening, awakening even was from the Lord. If you have a hard time waking up in the morning, yes, you have responsibilities to try to wake up so you're not late to work, you know, get a louder alarm clock, set the alarm clock across the room so you have to stumble all the way across the room to turn it off, you know, get some coffee. We do have responsibilities, but you can again pray to the Lord, Lord would you help me to wake up and be alert for what I need to do this day.

Isaiah 50 verse 4 says, he awakens me morning by morning. Now why have I even gone on this little rabbit trail? It's to again encourage you to think about God in the smallest details of your life. Make use of your insomnia for prayer and meditation on the scripture. This is what David did when he could not sleep.

Apparently he had insomnia. You look through his songs. Oh, in the middle of the night, he's praying. He's singing songs. He's he's meditating upon the Lord.

Anyway, when King Ahasuerus becomes tired of tossing and turning and punching his pillow, he finally decides, I need some boring reading to put me to sleep. And I cannot think of anything more boring than reading minutes of meetings. And so, God knows just how to move the human heart to do his bidding, continuing in verse 1. So, one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. Now, think of the chances of this servant reading from the right account.

They didn't have books like you and I do, you know, where you could have years worth of records in one book. They had clay tablets that they wrote. So just think, you know, over the previous 12 years, the servant goes in and he just decides to pull down these records, and they just happen to be the right records that he's going to be reading. What are the chances of that? And what are the odds of this servant picking even from those the right subject that's going to be read.

Well, God is the one who makes odds, isn't he? There is no such thing as chance. God's touch can also be seen in the King's curious question about what reward had been given to Mordecai. As the reader droned along, He finally came to an interesting part of the reading because after all the King's life had been almost lost, he had been spared. So the King is trying to rack his brain and trying to figure out, you know, what happened.

Verse 3, then the King said, what honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this and here's a perfect another perfect touch that comes from God's hands the servants that he is dealing with have a good memory of that event you know providentially he made sure it was these servants, not other servants, who were on duty that night, and that these servants remembered what was going to be, what had happened at that time. He makes sure that they remember. And the king's servants who attended to him said, nothing has been done for him. Now let's stop about and think about that for a minute. Mordecai could have been very easily frustrated that immediately after he had rescued the king's life, he's forgotten and Haman is advanced.

Haman the scoundrel is advanced above him in his job. Has that ever happened to you? Where you work your tail off, you think you deserve the advancement and somebody else gets the advancement and you're ignored. It may appear as if God is not prospering the work of his hands, as if God is not noticing that he is a diligent faithful worker, but you can rest assured that your labors in the Lord are not in vain. Now that's assuming, of course, you're doing your labors as unto the Lord.

Because everything we do, we need to be doing as unto the Lord, our carpentry, our cooking, everything. Right? One of the themes of this book is the illusion that God is silent and absent from life when in reality he is orchestrating every detail of our lives It was ultimately in Mordecai's best interest that he be overlooked five years before So that he could be elevated at just the right time And you need to have a confidence that God is using just the right touch when it comes to your own frustrations, your own job losses, your own work of dominion, your own unanswered prayers. Lord, I've been praying for five years. Why is it you have not answered my prayers perhaps you're frustrated that you've been slowed down by some sickness or illness in your life some disability now before we move on to point three it is worth noting that Haman had insomnia too It's not just the king who was sleepless in Susa.

Haman is so consumed with his desire to take revenge upon Mordecai that he probably can't sleep either. Bitterness can do that to you. Okay, anyway. It's night time because the king is trying to sleep, it says, and so the question comes, what on earth is Haman doing standing out in the lobby at this time of night? He probably has been tossing and turning as well, and he finally decides he needs to get up and just get ready so that he can speak to the king as soon as the king gets up.

If you know the story you know that Haman has already built a gallows for Mordecai and he has just come to the king to ask if it is okay if he can hang Mordecai on those gallows And there are different pronunciations for Mordecai, Mordecai, there's different ways. Just forgive me if you pronounce it differently, but we're gonna stick with Mordecai. So in verse four, it isn't just the right timing that God controls, but he controls the sleep of both the king and Haman. Now let's think about that. Can God turn the hearts of pagans to suit his purposes?

Absolutely Yes, he can. Three times in Exodus it says that the Lord gave the Israelites favor in the sight of all of the Egyptians so that they willingly gave them gold and silver and all kinds of things and sent them out very, very wealthy. But at the same time, he hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that Pharaoh would be destroyed. Proverbs says the king's heart is like rivers of water the Lord turns it wherever, whichever way he wants. God's not frustrated with President Biden.

He's not. He's probably using President Biden to discipline the church and he's going to maybe use others to increase that discipline of the church. Okay, We need to have confidence that God can have the right touch even with your adversaries. We serve an awesome God. Amen The third thing I want you to see about God's providence is it covers timing as well the moment the king the moment the king has finished saying these words who does he hear coming into the foyer but Haman he he hears footsteps outside verse 4 so the king said who's in the court now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

I mean, talk about incredible timing. Haman just happens to be present at just the moment that this discussion is taking place, and sometimes we can see this marvelous timing of God in the ordinary circumstances of our lives, and we think, wow, that is such an awesome providence and other times we just don't recognize it, but it's there nonetheless. But I want to point out that this perfect timing was totally dependent on what had happened earlier on the so-called bad timing in chapter two. Okay, in chapter two, Mordecai did a good deed at a time when the king was so busy, so preoccupied, that he totally forgot to reward Mordecai. But ultimately, there is no such thing as bad timing in God's plan.

The king was noted, if you read the histories, for always handsomely rewarding people. This was just too bizarre that The very one who would save the king's life would be forgotten. That is just bizarre. Unheard of. That just never happens.

Some would say, what bad luck. But in hindsight, we realize that no, chapter two was awesome timing. And confidence in this ought to make you not get frustrated with the detours that God brings into your life. Instead you need to say, Lord, you've stopped me right here. I don't know why you have done so, but I'm excited to find out because I know you're working all things together for my good.

I remember when I first became a Calvinist, this began jumping out at me left and right. I'd get a flat tire on the way to work and I thought, oh, I'm going to be... Nope. God's working this together for my good. And I would say, Lord, I'm going to quickly fix this tire.

I'm going to be late for work, but I'm looking forward to seeing. This is like a present that God has wrapped up in gift paper for me and I'm looking forward to see what the good is now sometimes I had never did figure out what the good was but I knew God had it I knew he had it we've got to have that confidence verse 5 the king's servant said to him Haman is there standing in the court, and the king said, let him come in. Now even the invitation into his bedroom chamber is remarkable because this was not normal protocol. He could have made Haman wait until he had gotten up and brushed his teeth and showered, you know, and dressed, put his clothes on. God could have had Mordecai rewarded without even conferring with Haman, but no, Haman has to be a part of this for God to be glorified.

Verse 6. So Haman came in and the king asked him, what shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor? What a setup. The verse goes on, now Haman thought in his heart, who would the king delight to honor more than me? Why does the king leave the name of Mordecai out of this request?

I mean this almost guarantees that Haman is going to misinterpret his words. And we aren't told why. It could have been totally accidental or it could have been you know that the king wants to yank his chain a little bit just thinking this guy's so conceited. I don't know. We're not told but it doesn't matter really.

It fits God's plan perfectly. No wonder Romans 11, 36 stands in awe of how great God is and says, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen. And that includes timing. That includes the lousy timing of events that you and I cringe over. We've all had them, right?

That includes all of those events. Now, Point four, God also takes advantage of Haman's fatal flaw. And of course, Haman's fatal flaw is his pride. God doesn't have to make Haman sin in order for Haman to say the right words. He knows that Haman's pride will automatically make Haman have the wrong assumptions.

It'll make Haman assume that the king likes him more than anyone else and delights to honor him more than anyone else. By the way, pride, all pride, is self-worship. You know? It is a form of self-worship and those who worship self can't understand why everybody else would not be equally enamored with me, myself, and I. Right?

Pride is a form of self-worship and idolatry. And of course, God makes war on all forms of idolatry. Take a look at verses 7 through 11. These are the verses that are going to set Haman up for everything that he hates. And Haman answered the king, for the man whom the king delights to honor, Let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king is ridden, which has a royal crest placed on the head.

Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes. But he may array the man whom the king delights to honor, then parade him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor." Now, if you could ask Haman to make a list of everything that he would hate to do for someone else, it would be the last of things that he wanted other people to do to him. Pride makes us do the exact opposite of the golden rule and if you're trying to analyze the pride of your own heart, you can take a cue from this. By the way, pride is endemic to every human heart. Every human heart.

A lot of times it is camouflaged. With me it was camouflaged. I didn't think I was a proud person. I just thought I was insecure and had fears and intimidation and all of these kinds of things before and I began to realize as the Lord began to do a deep work and exposing the sin in my heart, I had pride everywhere. It was pride that motivated my fears and my insecurities.

All of us have pride. We need to be on a war path against our pride. So if you don't think, men, if you don't think you have pride, here's a little homework I'm gonna give to you. I can't even think of the guy's name who wrote it. Who wrote The Exemplary Husband?

Scott Stewart or Stuart Scott or something like that. Read the chapter on pride, men. And if you are not brought to tears and confessing your sins to your wives, I will be amazed. It is an amazing chapter. But They do say that pride is like bad breath.

Everybody else knows you have it. You just are the only one who doesn't know it, right? Anyway, there are many ways to conquer pride. But one way is to serve the interests of others before your own. Or another way of saying it is the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If you consistently praise others, even though they have hurt you, sincere praise. There'll be plenty that you can say that's good about other people. You consistently praise others, especially those that have hurt you. Seek others welfare, especially if they've not been seeking your welfare. You lift them up, you seek their interests, you are going to be destroying your own pride.

You won't need those things to be done to you. But anyway, that's why it is so easy for prideful people to fall. Their own pride sets them up for a fall. And yet here's the amazing thing. God's providence was working even through this sin of pride.

And you might think, how could that be? I mean, God never sins, and he never tempts anyone to sin, and I agree, James is quite clear on that. It's impossible for God to sin, or to even tempt people to sin. So how could God be sovereign over the sins of other people? Well, think of it this way.

There was no sin that was greater than the sin of crucifying Jesus, the Son of God. And yet there were over a hundred Details of that sin that had to be fulfilled in precise ways Because God had prophesied it ordained that it be that way God predestined over a hundred details that had to take place in perfect sequence in an interlocking pattern for Jesus to be crucified on Nisan 14. The Jewish leadership actually explicitly says they did not want him crucified on Nisam 14, because they feared the crowds. They wanted him crucified later, and yet God forced the details there. Here's some, just a sampling.

He had to be crucified on the right day, at the right hour, because it was prophesied to fulfill prophecy. He had to be beaten, a spear thrust through his side, his garments had to be gambled for, etc. Etc. So here's the question, how could God work through even the wicked actions of others without being implicated in those actions himself? And we need to understand this if we're going to get comfort from the persecution that other people bring to us.

For example, how could Psalm 105 17 say that God sent Joseph into Egypt when it's quite clear that other scriptures say that it was the wicked actions of Joseph who sent him down, sold him into Egypt. How could Joseph say to his brothers, but as for you, you meant evil against me, so he holds them responsible, But God meant it for good in order to bring about this day as it is to save many people alive. Genesis 50 verse 19. How can man be responsible for his sins and God still be sovereign over their sins? And I think A.W.

Pink's illustration is as good as any. Pink asks the question, how can this book be kept from falling to the ground? It's the restraining power of my hand that's keeping it. I don't have to slam this book to the ground for it to fall to the ground. All I have to do is withdraw my restraining power of my hand and it will automatically fall of its own accord by the power of gravity, right?

Well, Pink uses that as an illustration to say that men will naturally become far more evil than they would ordinarily become because of their sin nature. And God restrains as a gift, he restrains men's sins, otherwise we would become horribly evil, every man, woman and child would become horribly evil if he did not restrain them. Now that restraint is not deserved. That restraint is utterly, utterly undeserved by men and they're actually going to suffer far less in hell as a result of God's restraint. When God removes that restraint, or as Romans 1 words it up, He gives them up unto a depraved mind.

He's just giving them their desserts. He's not forcing them. God is not slamming them down and saying you're going to sin in such and such a way. He knows us so well that if he removes that restraint in one dimension, we're automatically going to do certain sinful actions. But he's the one, even though he is sovereign over it, it's our responsibility.

We're the ones to blame when we sin. And by the way, this is one of the reasons why we say, there but for the grace of God go I. That is not an empty phrase. If God were to restraw His grace or any restraint from us, we would fall into every imaginable sin. And so this is one of the reasons, even as a believer, I do not want to toy around and play around with sin.

If I grieve the Holy Spirit, I'm grieving the very one who keeps me from plummeting into sin. You've seen many pastors in recent years falling into sin. Just grieve us. But it can happen to any of us. Any of us.

Okay? So, God can control what areas men will be given up to simply by determining when and where he will remove the restraint that they don't deserve anyway, that they've been spurning anyway, so you could say he allows sin, but they are predetermined just as surely, even though he is not the author of sin. So God works even the wrath of Haman to praise him. God works even the pride of Haman together for Mordecai's good. He is not the author of sin, but the Reformed Church has always held that God's providence governs even the sinful actions of men without implicating God in the sin.

Now once you grasp that it gives you comfort. It may not be pleasant to experience the sins of others like Mordecai had to but it is comforting to know that God is working even that together for my good. Of course that doesn't make you passive. Don't be passive. As I've already mentioned, we must do everything in our power to be responsible before the Lord.

So we might rebuke sin, We might try to get around the sins of others. We have to be responsible. God still holds them accountable for their sins. But it gives us comfort. God is sovereign.

OK, enough on that. Verses 7 through 11 show an ironic twist. We aren't told that the king is deliberately twisting the knife. He just took Haman's advice, applied it to the wrong person. But I believe it is God who is giving this stab and this twist.

Then the king said to Haman, hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who sits within the king's gate, leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken." And he is thinking, oh, why did I have to open my big fat mouth? From this point on, everything unravels in very quick succession for this wicked man. It's hard enough for Heyman's pride to realize he isn't the man to be honored, but to see this exquisite honor, which he had tailor-made for himself, be conferred on his mortal enemy, to be forced to give the honor himself, to do it immediately, to do it in such a public way, would have been shameful and mortifying to his pride in the extreme. Now we realize he deserved this up come upence, but let me give you a quick warning. If You are tempted to the path of pride.

Keep this picture in mind as something that could happen to you. Let this picture burn into your mind when you have the slightest temptation to have pride. This is guaranteed to happen to you. Now maybe not in the details, but the shame, the humiliation, the casting down, because God promises he resists the proud, right? He resists the proud, and he casts down the proud, but he exalts and gives more grace to the humble.

We must see pride as our mortal enemy. God knows how to bring those ironic twists into life. And He will do it to you if you're not quick to crucify your pride, bury it, confess it, put it under the blood of Christ. OK, the sixth point in your outlines is that God's providence can be seen in even his friend's unwitting prediction. Call it a prophecy, but they didn't see it that way, but prediction of Haman's fall.

Haman's loyal friends, who had only days before enthusiastically encouraged him to build the gallows who would stroke his pride are the first to turn on him. Verse 13. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, if Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him. Thanks a lot for telling me the obvious guys. I really needed to hear that.

Thanks for rubbing salt in the wounds. But you know, Haman really doesn't have time to respond, even to try to hide the fact that he had tried to hang Mordecai. He doesn't even have time to take down the gallows to try to hide the evidence of what he was going to do. I'm sure he wished he could. But he's rushed by others to go to the banquet.

Verse 14, while they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs came and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had provided. What an incredible reversal. But it all came about because the King couldn't sleep and because Haman couldn't sleep. The destiny of the nation was determined by two men who were sleepless in Susa. I think it's a fun story all in its own right.

But I do want to end with three more applications. First, this chapter reflects the story of each of our lives. The blending of our own wills, God does give us freedom in our choices, but the blending of our own wills with God's will is often inscrutable. In other words, it can't be fully understood. And you might just think of times in your life like how did you get your job, your current job?

It may have seemed like a long chain of random events, but you will find that God was silently at the center of your story. How did you meet your spouse? It may have seemed like it was just a coincidental meeting. For others, it may have been well planned out. You strategize for a long, long time, you know, on how to get married.

No matter how silent, though, God may have appeared to be. God was in the middle of your story. Now, for Kathy and I, I grew up in Africa. Actually, we both spent time in Africa. I didn't realize that until after we started courting.

I came from Canada. She came from Nebraska. And we both met in a little college, a Christian college in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, I guess it was. Yeah, for me, I had to wait for a long, long time because we were dirt poor having come back from the mission field and so I would work for a couple years and go to school and then work and then go to school because I was committed I'm not going to get into debt and so so frustrating to be waiting so long to get through college but if I had not had those frustrations I would never have met her at college right so anyway even things like courtship and the bad timing that leads up to it is God's good timing. How were you converted?

For some of you it may have seemed like the end of a long series of random events. Perhaps you were flipping through radio channels like one friend I knew, and you just happened to stumble on the preaching of a preacher whose words cut right to your heart. In an instant, you were converted by the Lord. For other people, you just grew up in a Christian home, but God's finger was on the pulse of every event to make sure it worked together for your good. We have got to get more used to seeing an apparently silent God as being the substance and the plot of our lives.

Though silent, he's at the center of your story. And we need to be asking God for what good he is working together in our lives. Okay, another lesson is that often God's path to joy leads through the swamps of difficulty and sorrow. Though there is a lot of difficulty and sorrow in the first chapters of this book, I mean after all Esther was an orphan, right? There was good that God was bringing out of it.

I have been going through some very difficult health issues myself and yet I have made it a habit to be thanking God for those health issues. This is not just thanking God for the silver lining that's around the clouds, but thanking God for the dark clouds themselves. We have got to get used to doing that. Paul admonishes us to thank God in every circumstance, but there's another more convicting verse that says we are to thank God for all things. Why?

Because Romans 828 guarantees that he's working all things together for the good of those who love God. And so don't despise the trials, the frustrations, The detours that God brings into your life. Learn to change them if you're able to change them, that's fine. But to joyfully submit to them when you were not. Now one last application is that history itself has a chiasm just like this book does with the reversal being right in the middle.

God has not chosen to reverse history at the end of history like so many evangelicals believe, you know, that you know at the second coming. Now it's a crucial event at the second coming, but God reverses his story at the cross, at the center of history. From a human perspective, the cross was just a blip on the radar screen of history. Prior to Christ and after Christ, there were billions of other deaths. Many people may not have even realized that Jesus died.

The crucifixion was certainly utterly unknown in China. But the event that so many ignored, which did not come with parades and firecrackers is the event which highlighted Christ's weakness, his obscurity, and yet it's the event that God has chosen to change world history. And at the end of time when we look back we're gonna see a similar pattern in our own life to what God portrayed in this book. Perhaps your eschatology is still waiting and hoping for some reversal at the second coming. You know, everything's hopeless, it's dark, And the second coming will be spectacular.

I'm looking forward to that. It's gonna be grander than any fireworks show. But God wants you to look back at his victory at the cross and the resurrection and to realize we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It's the cross that transforms nations that makes a new heavens and a new earth. When we get back, when we get to heaven and we look back on history, we're gonna be seeing that there is this giant chiasm and I believe we're gonna worship God for all the ordinary providences he has brought into life.

So to the best of your ability try to see that right now. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the many stories like the the book of Vester that remind us of your providence in the smallest details of life That even the lot that is cast into the lap has its whole disposing coming from you Father help us to not fight you in the details but to praise you in the details of life. Yes, even for the difficult things that come our way. Help us to be thankful even for your trusting us with health issues that could be so frustrating.

Help us, Lord, to realize that these are presents that have your perfect stamp upon them and the kiss of your blessing upon them. May we realize that you do indeed make all things work together for our good. Bless this your people and as we come to your table and as we sing this next hymn and Psalm 33 later May the words of this hymn and of this psalm capture our hearts and make us realize that you are a good God, you're always good, even in the midst of our difficulties, you are good. In Jesus' name, amen.