The Seemingly Unlimited Power Of Man | Esther 1:1-9 | 6-24-26 | Wednesday

**Pastor Andrew Montoro** (0:00)
Go ahead and find your places in the book of Esther. And so the book of Esther chapter 1 is where we're going to be tonight. And this is going to be the title of our series, The Providence Of The Unseen God. The Providence Of The Unseen God. So we're going to explain what some of that means as we get into the book of Esther. We're going to see some of that. Let's start in Esther chapter 1, verse number 1 The writer, the biblical writer here, we don't know who wrote it. It may have been Ezra, the scribe who came a little bit later who wrote the story. We don't know for sure. But the Bible says here, now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus. This is Ahasuerus, which reigned from India, even under Ethiopia, over 127 provinces. That in those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan, the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the Providence being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even in hundred and four score days. That's a hundred and eighty days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan, the palace, both on the great and small seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white and green and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red, blue and white and black marble. And they gave them to drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance according to the state of the king, and the drinking was according to the law. None did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure. Also, Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house, which belonged to King Ahasuerus. Now, we're going to stop our reading there tonight, and we're just going to kind of basically set the context. We're going to set basically the scenery, so to speak, and set the time period, and also let the author, the biblical author here, emphasize what he is emphasizing so we can see what God is saying through his scope. All right, so let's pray tonight, and then we'll begin this new series. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Lord, we thank you for your word. I thank you for who you are. Lord, I pray that as I attempt to begin to preach your word, I pray that you would give power and clarity of thought, clarity of word. I pray, Lord, that I would only say what you've said, and you'd help us to learn of you tonight. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
So we're beginning a new series through the book of Esther, and our series title is this, The Providence Of The Unseen God. Now, if we want a subtitle for the series, here it is, a little bit longer. A drama, because really that's what the book of Esther is, a short story. It's a dramatic story. There is the, I mean, it is classic literature, but it's also literature from God. God is communicating. So it's a drama of the unseen God overruling the power and the plans of the wicked. So it's a drama of the unseen God overruling the power and the plans of the wicked. Now, I'm going to take just a couple of minutes that I'm going to define just even the series title and what we're going through. I'm going to use the word providence this week.
You know, providence is the capital of Rhode Island, okay, we understand. But actually, it was named that because of what the word means. The word providence is, the simple meaning is the protective care of God for his own.
Some would say, well, providence would refer to just fate, or would refer to just the circumstances working out. But really, providence is a term that is directed towards God. And it's saying God's ruling, God's overruling, God's intervention in the affairs of men, okay? So providence is not just what is to be, will be, what isn't to be just might happen. It's more there is a God that is at work. So it involves the loving care of God. It involves the goodness of God. It involves the intervention of God in the plans of men. By the way, if you, as we are approaching July 4th and the 250th year celebration of our country, I want to point out that the founding fathers of this country believed in divine intervention and the providence of God in the birth of this country. This is from the Declaration Of Independence. At the end of the Declaration Of Independence, they wrote, and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. What they understood, not all of them were born again believers, but they understood this. If we are relying on God, and if God doesn't intervene, we're done. Right? They were understanding that God, they were trusting that God would protect, and that God would intervene because they were on the side of right, and they were on the side of justice, and they were seeking to do what they believed God had led them to do, and so they were trusting in the divine providence or intervention of God in the affairs of this nation. In George Washington, he would say, George Washington is quoted as saying this, Providence has at all times been my only dependence for all other resources seen to have failed us. And if anybody could say that, that would be George Washington as he saw even Valley Forge, we know this, and the different events in history where the Americans were without what they needed, and they did not have what they had, and even those who had pledged their lives to the cause of freedom. Many of the Congress, Continental Congress, were too busy arguing and bickering with each other to actually help the Continental Army. There were his own generals were trying to take take advantage and cut around him and usurp him and just the all everything that was going on. And yet we could I could spend the rest of the service just going through the events of divine providence that took place even in the revolution. And we could look over our country's history and we could say this. You could you could not honestly study American history without seeing the divine hand of God at work arranging and rearranging events for that our country is even here. We should not be here. But because of the providence, the intervention of God, we are and we should thank God. We should we do not demand God's blessings. We should not. But we have been blessed by God. And without the blessings of God, without the providential hand of God at work, our country is going to face a bleak future without without God's people seeking God's help. So we're looking at the providence, the intervention of God. I want to tell one story very quickly from the American Revolution that took place on Long Island in New York City. George Washington's army was trapped on the Brooklyn Heights. They were about to be completely in alienated by the British army. The British fleet controlled the waters. They are trapped on Long Island when all of a sudden one of those famous fog storms roll in. You could not see your hand in front of your face, and the boatsmen, the men from Massachusetts who were fishermen, literally rode Washington's entire army, supplies, cannon, not everything obviously, but all of their men, rode them across New York Harbor to the Manhattan and then to the New Jersey shore within 100 yards of the British frigates who never saw a thing.