0:01 Welcome once again to Words of Life. The words of life are found in the Bible. And as we study through it, we can discover those words. There's life in every book of the Bible. 0:23 And that's what we are trying to discover. The message that each book of the Bible has for our time and our day. Today we reach the book of Esther. Esther is one book in the Bible where the name of God is 0:41 never mentioned. It's the only book of the Bible where the name of God is never mentioned. Even though the name of God is never mentioned, the hand of God working is everywhere. Prayer to God is never mentioned in this 1:02 book. Fasting is mentioned. In Song of Solomon, where the Lord's presence is everywhere as the bridegroom. Here, 1:24 he's totally invisible. So, here we see God in the background working on behalf of his people. This refers to the Jews who stayed back in Babylon and did not go to Jerusalem. In the other studies, we saw about the 1:48 Jews who went back to Jerusalem. They left Babylon and came to Jerusalem. Even today, there are many of God's people who are still in Babylon. God doesn't forsake them. 2:06 He cares for them. That's what we see in the book of Esther. That God cares and provides and protects even his children who still decide to stay in Babylon. But God's command is to come out of Babylon. God's command is "Babylon, come out of here." 2:26 That's what it says. Revelation 18:4 says, "Come out of her, my people." That clearly proves that God's people are there in Babylon. God's people are there in Babylon and he says "Come out of there." That's what he says. Cuz he 2:38 says, "My people." He says, "My people, come out of Babylon." Some respond to that. And many of them don't. But God cares for them. See, God doesn't help only those who want his best. If you don't want God's best, 3:00 he'll help you to live with the second best or the tenth best. Of course, you'll have a lot of regret in eternity if you have not chosen God's best. But God still cares for his children. Just like a father cares for his 3:20 children, even if they don't choose the very best that the father wants for them. And maybe that is the reason why God has not mentioned his name in this book. He doesn't publicly identify with those 3:40 who don't choose to come to Jerusalem. Now, in this story, then we read about a king who one day was drunk. And he told his beautiful Queen Vashti 3:57 to come and show herself to the other people who were there. Queen Vashti was a very modest woman and she refused to come and show herself to all the other men. In those days, a king had a relationship 4:23 with the queen as a subject and not as a wife. He was very angry when this subject of his, his wife, would not listen to him. And all his wise men said, "Okay, we got 4:45 to get rid of this queen." We'll find another queen. Now, all these things that happened among the non-Jewish people, even there we see the sovereignty of God 5:05 in allowing Vashti to be removed. Esther could come into that place. And thus protect God's people. And so, after Vashti had been removed, 5:27 the king's attendants went around looking for beautiful girls to be the next queen. And that's how they came across Esther, who was being brought up by Mordecai. We read in chapter 2 verse 5:49 5 about this man named Mordecai. And he was bringing up his uncle's daughter. Because her parents had died. Esther was 6:09 his uncle's daughter. And when the people looked for beautiful girls, they found Esther. And she was taken before the queen and the queen before the king and the king liked her. And the king loved Esther, we read in 6:31 chapter 2 verse 17, more than all the other women. She became and the royal crown was set on her head. She became the queen. And in that time, we read about Mordecai 6:49 having saved the king's life. It says in chapter 2 verse 21. This is a small event, but that's what turns the whole story at a later stage. Now, these were days when 7:11 uh people did not wholeheartedly obey every command of God. It says in chapter 2 verse 10 that Esther did not make known that she was a Jew. Mordecai told her, "Don't say that." 7:34 See, there was a very clear command in God's law that a Jew should not marry a non-Jew. People who live in Babylon tend to compromise those laws. And so, since the prospective husband 7:56 was a king, Mordecai said, "Okay, let her get married to him." People like Daniel would stand against the king even for small things. So, even though God used Esther, she didn't honor God by saying, 8:17 "I'm not supposed to marry a non-Jew." That's something we got to bear in mind. These were people who were not wholehearted. God still cared for them. Because he loves his people. And that's 8:35 what he does. And in chapter 3, we read about this man who was like the prime minister of that country. His name was Haman. And Haman was a man who wanted everybody to 8:53 bow down to him. But Mordecai would not bow down to Haman. And that really upset him. When he discovered that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided to get rid of all the Jews in 9:13 the country. So, he went to the king. He said, "There's a group of people in this country, chapter 3 verse 8, who don't observe your laws." So, he said, "Let pass an order that they 9:32 should all be destroyed." And he even gave some money to get this job done. Chapter 3 verse 9. And then these letters were sent out all 9:50 over the country saying all Jews must be killed, young, old, women, children. And Mordecai heard about this new law. So, he sent a message to Esther. And 10:11 told her what was happening. That your people are all going to be killed. So, you better go and speak to the king. And Esther said, you know the king is such that nobody can go to him unless you're called. And Mordecai gives a beautiful reply to 10:35 Esther. Chapter 4, verse 13 and 14. Verse 14, he says who knows whether last part, whether you've not come to this kingdom for such a time as this. God allowed you to come here for this 10:56 purpose. So, Esther says, "Okay. Let's tell everybody to fast for him, and I'll also fast for 3 days. And that God will give me favor before the king." And imagine God. 11:17 It's understood that that's what she meant. Beautiful words in chapter 4, verse 16. I will perish I perish. She was willing to take a risk to save God's people. Right from chapter 1 to the end of this 11:40 book. I don't see the mention of God at all. But you see the sovereignty of God working in little little things. Esther arranged for a banquet and invited Haman also. Haman was very proud about the fact that 12:02 she he was invited to a banquet. But he says, "I'm so disturbed. Banquet or no banquet, I'm disturbed that Mordecai doesn't bow down to me." Haman had a wife who was just as bad as 12:22 he was. And his wife gave him a suggestion. Imagine if you have a wicked wife who's no help to you. Chapter 5, verse 14. Make a gallows 75 12:46 ft high and get the king's permission to hang Mordecai on that. Now, to hang a man, you need a gallows only about 10 ft high. Why do you need something 75 ft high, 13:04 which is like a seven-story building? It'll be a job to even get the man up there to hang him. And what a job it is to construct such a huge gallows, 75 ft high, which is so stable? Why did he want such a high gallows? 13:30 So that Mordecai would be seen by all the people in the city hanging there. That's how evil Haman and his wife were. That night itself, he made the gallows. He was so keen on getting Mordecai 13:49 hanged as soon as possible. And next morning, he was going to go and ask the king for permission to hang Mordecai. You see the timing of God in all this. 14:11 If God is 1 day late in something, story can be completely different. See what happens here. That night, the king could not sleep. Esther 6, verse 1. Who is the one who keeps the king awake 14:29 that night? God. Because God had protect Mordecai. Mordecai did not know what is happening. He was fast asleep. He didn't know that they were arranging 14:47 for him to be hanged the next day. He was fast asleep. It's like Peter in the prison, fast asleep even though he's going to be beheaded the next day. God can protect his children. You have to fear. 15:05 You can sleep peacefully. And that night, the king could not sleep. So, he says, "Okay, let's read the history books of the empire." Keep on reading, reading, reading, reading the whole night, and the king can't get sleep the whole night. 15:26 And then, around 6:00 in the morning they come in that history book to the place where it is written that Mordecai reported two people who wanted to kill the king and saved the king's life. That didn't come in the beginning of the 15:45 records. It came after many hours of reading. And the king said, "Stop." Somebody saved my life. What did we do to honor him? The people read there, nothing was done. The king felt so bad. Somebody saved my 16:05 life and I didn't honor him in any way. And as he was thinking about it that very moment, Haman, verse 4, enters the palace. And here, the timing of God controlling everything. 16:24 If it was half an hour later, the story would have been different. Or if it was 10 minutes later 10 minutes later, if he hadn't reached that point or if he hadn't reached that particular verse yet or if he hadn't read it 16:41 or if he had read it too slowly, and he and he hadn't reached that particular verse yet or if he hadn't read it Haman would have come and got permission to hang Mordecai. Mordecai would have been hanged before they came to read this part of the 16:55 story. And here then, the sovereignty of God controlling everything. The same God is working on your behalf and my behalf. As 17:18 as soon as Haman comes to the king uh before Haman could speak the king is thinking of Mordecai. He doesn't mention the name. He says, "Haman, how shall I honor somebody whom I want to honor greatly?" And Haman is such a conceited person. In 17:39 verse 6, he thinks, "Oh, of course the king wants to honor me." So, he says, "Bring a royal robe, put it on him. Put a royal vestment on him. Put him on the king's horse. Put a crown on his head. And let one of the king's most noble 17:58 princes lead him through the city." And the king said, "That's a good idea. Go and do that immediately to Mordecai." I would have liked to see Haman's face at that time. What a surprise he must have got. 18:22 Mordecai to be hanged. He came to get permission for that. Now, he has to go back and honor Mordecai. And Haman went back home and told Zeresh all that happened. He had to take Mordecai on horseback 18:40 like this. He felt so ashamed. And then, it came time for the second banquet that Esther had arranged. And this time, Esther tells the king there is a person here who wants to kill 19:03 all my people. King Ahasuerus said, "Who is he?" She said, "It's this Haman." And Haman, the king got very angry. And Haman fell down at Esther's 19:22 feet and said, "Please forgive me." Then somebody told the king, "This man has built a 75-ft gallows." The king said, "Hang him on it." And hang Mordecai. 19:42 They hanged They hanged Haman instead of Mordecai. And Mordecai escaped the high gallows that was prepared for Mordecai. Haman was hanged on it. See how God turned the tables? And the whole thing turned over little 20:06 events. On one little thing that the king could not sleep one night. And that the reading of the records came right up to the correct point when Haman came in. What do we learn from this? 20:25 God is so sovereign over the small small things like this. Even a king not able to sleep. That's how the whole table turned in the story. Haman wanted Mordecai to kneel down 20:45 before him. And what do we see here? Haman kneeling down before the Jewish Queen Esther. He wanted to hang Mordecai on a gallows and he hangs on it. The book of Proverbs says 21:08 that the pit you dig for another, you will fall into it yourself. So, we see how God can work mightily on our behalf. God controls all big kings and small 21:26 little things. There was one more problem. These rulers those days had a law called the law of the Medes and Persians which could never be changed. They couldn't cancel something even when 21:47 they realized it's wrong. Then we see a vast difference between man's laws and God's laws. God said Nineveh will be destroyed if you don't repent. When they repented, God changed their 22:06 his mind and didn't then destroy them. But human laws are so rigid. And we read here that the only way God the king could help the Jews was this. That the Jews should be ready to fight 22:27 with their enemies when they come to kill them. No doubt, as a result, king's people must have helped the Jews and finally the Jews were able to destroy all their enemies. And this became a feast that the Jews 22:51 celebrated. We read it's called the Feast of Purim. And the Lord, we read in chapter 9, vindicated and supported his servant Mordecai. And we read that um 23:10 towards the end of the chapter in verse chapter 10 verse 3, Mordecai was next to King Ahasuerus and in favor with the multitude and one who sought the good of his people and spoke for the welfare of his whole nation. The position that Haman lost 23:42 Mordecai got. It's an amazing reversal of the original plot that Haman planned. And that is a picture of how God can help us also in our time. God watches over his people. The thing 24:06 that encourages us here is that even though these people were not wholehearted, God still watched over them. The thing that encourages us here is that even though these people were not wholehearted, God still watched over 24:11 them. And Mordecai becomes a ruler just like Daniel. If God be for us, who can be against us? And if we can trust him, 24:34 we can believe that he will work secretly behind the scenes even when we are sleeping. Our enemies who plan so many things against us will not succeed. So, if you don't see God visibly, don't 24:53 worry, he's working on your behalf invisibly. That's trust. Amen. Amen. Welcome once again to the Words of Life program. Today in our Bible study, we have 25:12 reached the book of Job. We're seeking to go through the Bible to understand what each book of the Bible has for us today as a message. And the book of Job deals with the 25:31 problem of human suffering. That's a big problem for many people. And God deals with it in this book. There is something I want to say about the book of Job which you may not have 25:49 known. The book of Job is the only book among all the 66 books which has no connection with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. We know that Genesis deals with Abraham, 26:09 Isaac, and Jacob. And all the other books of the Old Testament deal with the history of Abraham's descendants. And the New Testament continues from there. 26:28 But the book of Job is the only book which has no connection with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. And it's most likely that he lived even before Abraham. The book of Genesis was written by 26:47 Moses. About 500 years after Abraham's time. And the book of Job is written before that. And if that is true, then the book of 27:06 Job is the first book of the Bible written. It doesn't come in the order in the beginning because the poetical books are all put together in the middle. But I believe it's the first book of the 27:24 Bible written. And just think of this. That when God wanted to write the Bible, God wanted to write the Bible and he writes the first book. And he writes the first book. It is about a man of God. 27:43 That's what God has always wanted. And Enoch. Enoch. Noah. Noah. And Abraham. And Paul. And then Job. A man. God's always looking for a man. A man 28:01 who fears him. A man who wants to honor him. A man who hates sin. A man who will obey him. Even today, God is looking for men. There are a number of things we can learn from the book of Job. book 28:22 that God wrote deals with a godly man who suffered. So, when we talk about the problem of suffering, a lot of people think that all suffering is due to sin. A lot of people think that all suffering is due to sin. Well, that's what Job's three friends 28:42 here told him. Preachers always think that suffering is due to sin. Not all preachers, but many preachers do. These preachers certainly did. The other thing we see in the first book 29:05 of the Bible that God wrote is that the the is about the conflict that is in the heavenlies between God and Satan over a man on earth. That God points out a man on earth 29:30 and Satan argues about that man. It's written to show us that in the things we go on on earth, there are effects in the heavenlies. We learn in this book 29:51 that the devil cannot touch any man of God or woman of God without God's permission. God God gives permission only then Satan can 30:10 do anything. He cannot do anything. He cannot take one rupee of yours. Satan cannot take without God's permission. So, that's a great encouragement to us. 30:28 As we study the book of Job, we can see tremendously encouraging things here. Here we read about in chapter 1 verse 1 about a man whose name was Job who feared God and turned away from evil. And he was not a single man. He was a 30:51 married man with 10 children. It's more difficult to be a godly man when you're married. It's great to have an example of a man who was married, who had children, and who feared God and hated evil. Some people think that it's you got to 31:15 be single and have no earthly cares in order to be godly. But the first man whom God speaks of in the first book he wrote is a married man. He didn't just have one or two children. He had 10 children. Can you be a godly man with 10 children? 31:39 Yes, in the first book of the Bible. And he was a very rich man. So many sheep and camels and oxen and donkeys and many servants, not just one or two. He was a multimillionaire. 32:00 Can you be a very rich man and a godly man? That's another mistaken idea that people have. That if you're a godly man, you must be poor. And then there's another extreme of 32:19 people who teach nowadays that if you're a godly man, you'll be rich. But neither of these are true. Godliness has got nothing to do with how much money you earn or have. It certainly has got to do with your 32:41 attitude to money. But it doesn't depend on your salary. And it doesn't depend on what you inherited perhaps from your parents. Jesus was poor. Paul was poor. Peter was poor. Abraham was rich. Job was rich. 33:02 Of course, we see more rich people in the Old Testament. But in the New Covenant also, there are godly people who are rich. Philemon was a very rich man. He could afford even slaves in his house. He had a church meeting in his house. 33:26 But he was a rich man. So, there are cases like that. Very rich women who supported Jesus, we read in Luke chapter 8. And we read here that Job was concerned 33:44 about his family. One mark of a godly man is he's concerned that his children should also follow the Lord. And his sons were all grown up. They all had houses of their own. And they would celebrate their birthdays 34:08 sometimes for a number of days. And then when the days of all that feasting were over, Job 1 verse 5, and daughters. 34:28 And say, "Come, I've got to pray for you." See how what respect these grown-up men had for their father. How well he must have brought them up that they respected him even when they are 25, 30 years old. And he says, "Listen, my sons, perhaps 34:51 you have sinned in your heart during the time of your feasting." Verse 5. And the Muslim not outwardly. But he says in their hearts they may have sinned. Job was concerned about sin in the 35:11 heart. He's almost like a New Covenant Christian. To be concerned about sin in the heart of your children. Perhaps they may have said something in their heart. They didn't open their mouth, but in their heart they cursed 35:30 God. And say, "Why has God done something like this?" They must have thought like that. And Job was concerned about that thought that was in their heart. And he says, "I must offer make an 35:47 offering to God for their sin." It's really amazing. There was a man even the Levitical law didn't ask for offering for thoughts in your heart. But Job's standard was higher. 36:08 That's how he brought up his children. And no doubt his children were God-fearing as a result. If you have that type of attitude towards God concerning your children, your children will all be saved. Job didn't do this once in a while. It 36:31 says in verse 5 last part, he did it continually. That means, you know, some people start well, but they don't continue. Job did this year after year after year for all his children. They had 10 birthdays in the year for 36:50 all 10 children, and he did it all 10 times. And every year he did it. God writes about such a man in the first book he writes. Then one day we read in verse 6 that the 37:10 sons of God, that's referring to the angels, come and stand before God. And Satan also comes. That's not the immediate presence of God because Satan has been cast out from there. He can only come up to the second heaven. He can't come to the third 37:30 heaven. But just like we can stand before God on the earth, Satan could stand before God even when he's in the second heaven. The Lord says to Satan, "Where are you coming from?" He says, "I'm roaming around on the 37:48 earth and walking around on it." I want to tell you something here that Satan is not in hell. Nowhere in the Bible does it say Satan is in hell. And he'll never be in hell. He was in the third heaven. 38:07 When he was an angel. He was cast out from there to the second heaven. He became the devil. He Isaiah 14. We read that in Revelation 12, one day he'll be cast down from there to the earth. And 38:31 from the earth one day he'll be cast into the bottomless pit, Revelation 20. And then from there he'll be pulled out and cast into the lake of fire. And hell also will be cast into the lake 38:53 of fire. Satan never goes to hell. He'll end up in the lake of fire. From the second heaven he comes to the earth and roams around. With his demons. 39:11 people, especially God's children. And we know the demons possess some people also. And so the Lord said to Satan, "Have you, among all the people you've seen on the earth, have you seen my servant Job?" He's an upright man. 39:32 He fears God and turns away from evil. I've often thought about that verse. It's a tremendous challenge. that God could point out a man on earth he was proud of. And because of his wealth 39:52 God doesn't say, "Have you seen such a rich man?" God doesn't care for that. He says, "Here's a man who is blameless and upright." First book of the Bible deals with a blameless and upright man. It deals with a man who fears God. 40:15 Who turns away from evil. And God points out such a man to Satan. Is this your desire to be pointed out to the devil by God like this? I tell you, if God can point you out 40:34 like that, that's the greatest honor you can have. If God can point me out to the devil, Have you seen that man? The one who fears God. Blameless and upright. 40:58 I tell you, even if all the 6,000 million people on earth turn against me, it makes no difference. Let them call me a devil, murderer, thief, adulterer, anything. It doesn't make a difference. False teacher, false prophet, heretic. 41:22 It doesn't make a difference. If God can point me out to Satan, that's enough. What is the opinion of men? Let people call you Beelzebub. You don't become Beelzebub because they call you that. You know that? 41:41 If 10,000 people call you a prophet, will you become a prophet? If 10,000 call people call you a devil, will you become a devil? The world is world is full of accusers who accuse God's people. Agents of Satan. 42:02 You don't follow them. Seek for God's approval over your life. That's what we see here. And of course, Satan is there to accuse even such a godly man. Even to God. He says, "Yeah, yeah, 42:20 I know why Job fears you." Bless his home in so Bless his work and you bless him with godly children. Bless his business. He's healthy. Everything is going well for him. No wonder he fears God. 42:43 Take away these things, then let me see whether he fears you. Let him suffer, and then let's see whether he follows you or not. And the devil tells God something which reveals to us something 43:00 which we did not know. This is not written anywhere else in scripture. I know the devil is a liar. But I also know he can't tell lies to God. He wouldn't dare to tell a lie to God. 43:21 What he tells you may be a lie. In fact, he tells us a lot of lies. When he talks to God, it's not a lie. There we discover a great truth. Satan says to God, "You have put a three-fold hedge around 43:41 Job. The first hedge is around his person. His innermost hedge. And then there's another hedge around his family. And there's a third hedge around all his possessions." That's a very interesting truth. 44:06 And if that was the case with Job, it's certainly the case with you and me. I believe it. I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. And so, I believe that God has put a hedge around me. You can't touch me because there's a 44:25 hedge around me. There's a hedge around my family. You can't touch my family because there's a hedge around it. There's a hedge around my property. My house, my bank account, everything. Nobody can touch it. 44:45 Nobody can touch it. That's what we learn from this truth that Satan accidentally said here. And that gives us great faith. And God had to permit this hedge to be 45:02 opened for Satan to come in. So, what happens is there are these three hedges around Job. And God says, "Okay, I'll open hedge number three. You can go in a little bit." What's in it? That is all of Job's 45:26 property. His wealth. Camel, money, donkeys, etc. Today, our money, business, everything. Wealth. Hedge number three. That is I open it. 45:44 You can go in and destroy it if you like. And I also open hedge number two for you, Satan. Who's in that? Wife and children. Okay, you can attack them also. But hedge number one is closed. You 46:02 can't touch Job. So, Satan can only go through hedge number three and three and two. And he does. He goes in. And he sends fire from heaven. And 46:22 he sends a storm. And he sends enemies to uh come and kill. See all that in verse 16 onwards. Fire fell from heaven. They called it was fire from God. It wasn't from God. 46:41 The devil can send fire from heaven. But only with God's permission. Otherwise, he would have sent fire when the prophets of Baal prayed and fooled the people. Here he sent it. 47:00 But only with God's permission. He cannot do anything without God's permission. He could send enemies, verse 17, to go and fight. And he could also send, verse 19, a great wind to strike a house and destroy it. What is the result? All of Job's 47:22 property, all his camels, donkeys, everybody everything died. Or they were taken away by the enemies. So, he lost everything. And his children, his sons and daughters also died. Because they were all sitting in their 47:41 older brother's house. And Job hears all this in one moment. As one person is saying, "Your property is all gone." And he says, another person comes and says, "Your children have also died." And Job falls down and worships. 48:07 See what worship means. It's to say, "Lord, everything is yours." And the way all of them are doing it. Verse 21 of Job 1. I came from my mother's womb naked. I had no property, no children then. 48:29 One day, I will return also naked from this earth. In between for this period, God has given me children, property, business, everything. It's he who gave it. He has got every right to take it away. Praise the Lord. 48:49 I will not blame God. How is that amazing? A man who's lost everything. Worshipping God. Now, in that second hedge, in the second hedge, there was also Job's wife. Why didn't Satan kill her? Because he wanted to use her to nag and 49:12 trouble Job. He thought that Job's wife is more useful to me alive than dead. The devil knows who is more useful to him alive than dead. Who is more useful alive than dead? 49:31 Satan knows. Somebody who can nag others, criticize others, find fault with others. others. The devil says, "Let us such a person live long." But you see the tremendous authority of God. sovereignty of God 49:52 that he Nothing can touch us without God's permission. The Lord told Peter, "Satan has take God permission from God to tempt you." Remember this, my dear friends. God Satan cannot do a thing to you 50:11 without God's permission. If he's got God's permission, then it will work for your good. God bless you.
