Esther 4:1-17 “A Heart with God”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And Mordecai knew all which was done and Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sack cloth and ash and he went out in the middle of the city and he cried out a cry great and bitter. ²And he came in even to the faces of the gate of the king because not to enter to the gate of the king in clothing of sack cloth, ³and in the all of a province and a province from a place which the word of the king and his law arriving, mourning great to the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing. Sack cloth and ash was spread to the many. ⁴And the maids of Esther came in and her eunuchs, and they told to her, and the queen was deeply distressed, and sent clothes to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sack cloth from upon him and he did not take, ⁵and Esther called to Hathak from the eunuchs of the king who was caused to stand to her face and she commanded him upon Mordecai to know what this and upon what this? ⁶And Hathak went out to Mordecai to the plaza of the city which [was] to the faces of the gate of the king, ⁷and Mordecai told to him all which happened to him and the exact amount of the silver which Haman said to weigh upon the treasuries of the king in the Jews to destroy [them]. ⁸And the copy of the writing of the law which was given in Shushan to destroy them he gave to him to show Esther and to tell to her and to command her to go in to the king to seek favor to him and to seek from his face upon her people. ⁹And Hathak came in and he told to Esther the words of Mordecai, ¹⁰and Esther spoke to Hathak and she commanded him to Mordecai.  ¹¹“The all of the servants of the king and the people of the provinces of the king knowing that every man or woman wo goes to the king to the court of the inner, who was not called, the one of the law of him to kill, except from whom the king extends to him the scepter of the gold, he will live, and I have not been called to go to the king this thirty of day.” ¹²And they told to Mordecai the words of Esther, ¹³and Mordecai said to reply, “Esther, do not think in your soul to escape the house of the king from the all of the Jews, ¹⁴for, if to be silent you are silent in the time of this, relief and the deliverance will stand to the Jews from a place of another and you and the house of your father will perish and who knowing if to a time like this you have arrived to the kingdom?” ¹⁵And Esther said to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶“Go, gather the all of the Jews found in Shushan and fast upon me and do not eat and do not drink three of days, night and day. I also and my young women will fast thus and in thus I will go to the king, which not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish.” ¹⁷And Mordecai passed over and he did according to the all of which Esther commanded upon him.

Last time I tried to draw out the very real terror that bore upon Mordecai and Esther and also the indications of Mordecai’s faith even in the horror of it all. This time I want to think deeply about our girl Esther and what she teaches us from this passage.

When she hears that Mordecai is dressed in sackcloth and ashes and wailing, the NIV says she was “in great distress.” The old KJV translated it, she was “exceedingly grieved.” The Hebrew word actually describes a woman in labor! What a contrast: Haman and Xerxes plot the senseless, cruel murder of millions of people, and what do they do? They “sat down to drink.” When our Esther hears of someone else’s distress, it hits her like labor! What a contrast. They are oblivious to the pain of others. Esther is smitten with it.

Remember again she is a very beautiful girl and now she is a queen living in fathomless opulence with every possible luxury afforded her. She doesn’t need to care about anyone! The king doesn’t. Why should she? The king insulates himself from other peoples’ pain—Mordecai could not even enter the king’s gate because he was dressed in sackcloth and ashes. Our Esther obviously could have taken the same attitude but instead, when she hears of someone else’s distress it hits her like labor! She is a girl who lived the NT principle of “Rejoice with them that rejoice; Weep with those who weep.” She allowed herself to feel others’ pain…and so should we.

I love too that she is a girl who’s in the habit of doing right. When Mordecai instructs her to go in to the king and plead for her people, what is her first response? “But that’s against the law.” “That would be breaking the rules.”

Good for her. If any group in any country is its law-abiding citizens, it should be us believers. If any group in any company is its compliant employees, it should be us believers. Even under a government without God, the Bible tells us, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1). As we will see in Esther’s case, there is a time for what we call “civil disobedience,” however that is not the norm for us believers. It is a rare exception.

Especially in the workplace, I would maintain that part of the reason bosses will often “like” us is because they find us easy to lead, that we are to them unusually compliant and dependable. They often find other people “difficult” and perhaps not always dependable. Then there is the Joseph, the Daniel, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the Nehemiah, the Ezra—the believers who found their way into high places specifically because they were very good workers. Now we have our Esther whose humility and sweetness landed her in the position of queen. If we ever do face a situation where we will need to “disobey,” then like Esther, it should be totally out of character for us.

Some commentators make a big deal about Esther’s reluctance and suggest it is a matter of fear. I would say, certainly she would be fearful when the penalty is death, yet I think we do her a great disservice to paint her simply as someone paralyzed with fear. Again, she is a good girl who grew up humbly obedient to her father. The first thing we should expect from her would be reluctance when suddenly asked to commit a capital crime!

Then we get to see a glimpse of this father/daughter relationship and what a good father Mordecai was. Although we would expect her initial reluctance simply because she’s not in the habit of “breaking the rules,” yet Mordecai knows Esther is young and very well could give way to fear. If we look closely at what he tells her, I hope we can all realize what he’s doing is helping her “think it through.” Once again, I would suggest this is “nothing new.” I would suggest we see that Mordecai is not and never has been a father who simply says, “Do it because I say so.” He certainly was firm with Esther growing up (to raise such a sweet daughter), but he was a father who shepherded her heart, who helped her to not only do right but, more importantly, to think right—and that is exactly what he is doing here.

He doesn’t say, “Yeah, I know it’s dangerous. Just do it anyway.” Look what he does. Without mentioning God’s name (in this book of the Unseen God), he draws Esther to see her world through God’s eyes. Because he knows fear is a very really threat, a very real path down which her heart could run, he says, “Do not think that you of all people will escape this calamity.” That is the truth and what she needs is truth. It is the truth that she is a Jew and the king’s decree is the death of all Jews. Truth. Then he reminds her that this annihilation cannot succeed in the end because there is a God in heaven, this is His world, and in it, He has promised to preserve and bless the Jewish people. If you don’t do the right thing now, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jewish people from somewhere. Truth.

Further, because God is very real and very present, we can rest assured that acts of cowardice and self-preservation will one way or another suffer His chastening hand. It is a NT principle but was just as true then, “He who saves his life will lose it; He who loses his life for My sake, the same shall find it.” Truth.

Then this loving father tells his daughter one of the immortally greatest encouragements in human history: “And who knows but that you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” So much of what people tell each other is sarcastic, discouraging, demeaning, and anything but encouraging. But not this Dad. He tells his daughter exactly the words she needed to hear, words that encourage her to grasp what was without a doubt her greatest opportunity to serve the Lord and her people. “You can do it, my daughter.” I wonder how many times before he has encouraged her with words just like these? No wonder she could rise to be a queen. Her father always knew she could! And he told her so. May we all learn to be encouragers. As you and I speak to others, may we be people who strengthen their hands and help them to battle on, to become all they were born to be!

Then our text turns back to Esther. How will she respond? She says, “I will go into the king, even though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Obviously we could praise her for many things. We could praise her faith. We could praise her courage. But I think it’s worth going even deeper yet. What gives her such faith? What makes her so brave? She actually draws back the curtain of her heart in 8:6. Listen to what she says there: “For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”

What is going on? Love. Jesus told us “Greater love has no man than this: that he should lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Again, I call our attention to the contrast. Godless Haman and Xerxes can “sit down to drink,” in utter disregard for the miseries of others. Godless Xerxes can decree that no one enter his presence in mourning. The plain simple truth is that their hearts without God were also hearts without love. With God, Esther’s heart is so full of love, she goes into “labor” when she hears of someone else’s grief. She sends clothes to Mordecai, probably so he could enter the king’s gate and be closer to explaining to her what was wrong. And now her big heart of love says, “I will go into the king, even though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

The greatest horror of a world without God is that it will be a world without love. God is love and calls us as “dearly loved children” to “live a life of love.” In His world, He would have us know that the two greatest things you can ever do is simply to “love God and love people.” We can pause to acknowledge that there is love that goes on even in the lives of people who care nothing for God. However, this is precisely because even they were made in the image of God and, even though that image may be horrifically marred, yet still it will show like the face you see in the shards of a broken mirror. It is part of what we call “common grace,” the fact that the Lord sends His rain on the just and the unjust—that He does allow blessing into the lives of even those who hate Him.

But again, what a contrast: godless men who seem to have not a whit of love in their hearts compared to a girl whose heart bursts with it. They possessed everything this world values most. Esther had the one thing that mattered most. That is what knowing God will do for you and me—He’ll make us love more. And to love more means to enjoy relationships more. And then the day comes when we realize that was the only thing that really mattered anyway.

May Esther teach us all to let God give us hearts of love. May we care deeply for others around us, may we allow ourselves to sincerely feel their pain, and may God help us all day everyday be people who “lose their life for Jesus’ sake” only to find we gained it after all!

 

Esther 4:1-17 “Real People in Real Terror”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And Mordecai knew all which was done and Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sack cloth and ash and he went out in the middle of the city and he cried out a cry great and bitter. ²And he came in even to the faces of the gate of the king because not to enter to the gate of the king in clothing of sack cloth, ³and in the all of a province and a province from a place which the word of the king and his law arriving, mourning great to the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing. Sack cloth and ash was spread to the many. ⁴And the maids of Esther came in and her eunuchs, and they told to her, and the queen was deeply distressed, and sent clothes to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sack cloth from upon him and he did not take, ⁵and Esther called to Hathak from the eunuchs of the king who was caused to stand to her face and she commanded him upon Mordecai to know what this and upon what this? ⁶And Hathak went out to Mordecai to the plaza of the city which [was] to the faces of the gate of the king, ⁷and Mordecai told to him all which happened to him and the exact amount of the silver which Haman said to weigh upon the treasuries of the king in the Jews to destroy [them]. ⁸And the copy of the writing of the law which was given in Shushan to destroy them he gave to him to show Esther and to tell to her and to command her to go in to the king to seek favor to him and to seek from his face upon her people. ⁹And Hathak came in and he told to Esther the words of Mordecai, ¹⁰and Esther spoke to Hathak and she commanded him to Mordecai.  ¹¹“The all of the servants of the king and the people of the provinces of the king knowing that every man or woman wo goes to the king to the court of the inner, who was not called, the one of the law of him to kill, except from whom the king extends to him the scepter of the gold, he will live, and I have not been called to go to the king this thirty of day.” ¹²And they told to Mordecai the words of Esther, ¹³and Mordecai said to reply, “Esther, do not think in your soul to escape the house of the king from the all of the Jews, ¹⁴for, if to be silent you are silent in the time of this, relief and the deliverance will stand to the Jews from a place of another and you and the house of your father will perish and who knowing if to a time like this you have arrived to the kingdom?” ¹⁵And Esther said to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶“Go, gather the all of the Jews found in Shushan and fast upon me and do not eat and do not drink three of days, night and day. I also and my young women will fast thus and in thus I will go to the king, which not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish.” ¹⁷And Mordecai passed over and he did according to the all of which Esther commanded upon him.

I’ve been studying this chapter for about a month now. My heart tells me it ought to be written in letters of gold. Here we find two people in literally their finest hour. Here we find Mordecai and Esther suddenly faced with an unthinkable tragedy and yet that very tragedy becomes only a setting to display what model human beings they are. There is much from which the rest of us can learn.

What do we see? First of all we learn that we believers are far from exempt to hardship and tragedy. There is always (and probably in all of us) the temptation to think that, if you know the Lord and love Him and try to do what’s right, that will mean He’ll somehow make your life easy. We know that other people may face horrific troubles and we know we too must face hardships – just not like really bad ones, right? Well, since our Savior Himself got cruelly murdered, you’d think we’d realize that, no, we aren’t necessarily exempt from any kind of hardship, no matter how unthinkably horrific.

In God’s world, both are true. He does let most of us enjoy a life of love and joy and peace and, even in what we might call the “minor” trials of everyday life, we find Him very present and overwhelmingly kind to us. Isaiah said, “Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee” (26:3). David said, “How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who take refuge in You. In the shelter of Your Presence You hide them; in Your dwelling You keep them safe” (Ps. 31:19,20).

Yet Jesus warned us, “In this world you shall have tribulation” (John 16:33). We meet Mordecai in this chapter, “tearing his clothes, putting on sackcloth and ashes, and going out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.” Boy, do Mordecai and Esther have to face that “tribulation”! They remind us here in Esther 4 that we must all face troubles, but, at the same time, they teach us much about how we respond.

Can we first of all note it’s okay to grieve? After people get over the idea that God should exempt them from trouble, the next thing they think is that, if you really have faith, you’ll just smile at everything, trust God, and go on skipping through life. “All things work together for good,” right? So surely it must be wrong to suffer under trials. Yet it was the Savior Himself who sweat “as it were great drops of blood” and cried out “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Paul said at one point, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life” (II Cor. 1:8). It is an undeniable fact that, in the Bible itself, there is a book called, “Lamentations.”

Let us not for a minute think that Mordecai is somehow “lacking” in faith. We know the end of the story…but he does not. We know it by sight. At that time, he could only hope for it by faith. He and Esther live exactly where you and I do—in the present, and for them the present is very, very scary. Faith doesn’t mean you or I won’t feel fear. It doesn’t mean we’ll not grieve. It only means we’ll have a hope that under-girds all those fears and griefs.

We see Mordecai’s faith in his statement to Esther, “But, if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place…” How could Mordecai know that? How could he be so assured it was true? I would say, obviously, he knew his Scriptures and he knew all of God’s promises to Abraham and to the nation of Israel. I would further maintain we see his faith when he adds, “[But, if you remain silent]…you and your father’s family will perish.” What is this? It is Mordecai seeing the unseen God. While Mordecai clearly believes in the Lord’s sovereign protection over His people Israel, he also knows that same God loves His people too much to let them be lazy and cowardly. The true and the living God is immanently present with His people to do them good but also to always firmly guide them in the path of right.

We also see his faith in his immortal question to Esther, “Who knows but that you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Once again, though living in this world of the unseen God, Mordecai believes in the sovereign overruling providence of God, that though this world seems to tumble along on its own stubborn, godless path, yet the Lord is carefully overruling man’s evil to bring about finally His good and loving plan. “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9). Joseph had that same faith when he told his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Gen 50:20). God’s sovereign overruling providence is the truth which gives us Jer. 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.’”

Right off the bat, as you and I would read this passage of Scripture, let us not forget that Mordecai and Esther do not know the outcome. Let us not minimize the terror and grief they face in the present. If for any reason, we would not see them as real people facing real danger, we will lose the hope their example offers. You and I face what look to us like real dangers every single day. Though ours may not be the complete annihilation of our people, yet we still feel the fears. Even in those “little” fears, we need the faith of Mordecai and Esther – to live in the present, not knowing the future, yet, like Moses, persevering because we see “Him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:24).

Haman is a man without God. Haman and Xerxes form a government without God. Yet, we find Esther and Mordecai as two people with God. Haman and Xerxes’ godlessness made them wicked, cruel, and insensitive. Let us go on and see what knowing God produces in our two heroes.

 

Esther 3:7-15 “Government Without God”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷In the month of the first (it [was] the month of Nisan) in the year of the twelfth to the king Xerxes, he caused to fall Pur (it [was] the lot) to the face of Haman from day to day and from month to month. The twelfth (it [was] the month of Adar). ⁸And Haman said to the king Xerxes, “There [is] a particular people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in the all of the provinces of your kingdom and their laws differing from all of people and the laws of the king not doing and the king, [it is] not being smooth to allow them. ⁹If upon the king good, let it be written to destroy them and ten thousand talents of silver I will weigh upon hands of ones doing the work, to bring upon the treasuries of the king.” ¹⁰And the king took his ring from upon his hand and he gave it to Haman son of Hamadatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, ¹¹and the king said to Haman, “The silver [is] given to you and the people to do with it according to good in your eyes.” ¹²And the scribes of the king were called in the month of the first in the thirteenth day in it, and it was written according to all which Haman commanded (intensely) to the officials of the king and to the governors who [were] upon province and province and the princes of people and people, province and province according to its writing and people and people according to its language in the name of the king Xerxes, written and sealed in the ring of the king. ¹³And the writings [were] sent in the hand of the runners to the all of the provinces of the king to exterminate, to murder, and to destroy the all of the Jews from young and (even) to old, little children and women in one day in thirteenth to the month of the twelfth, it [being] the month of Adar and to plunder [their possessions]. ¹⁴The copy of the document was set a law in all of province and province, being published to the all of the peoples to be ready ones to the day of that. ¹⁵Runners went out hastened in the word of the king and the law was given in Shushan the citadel and the king and Haman sat to drink and the city of Shushan was perplexed.

So, what happens when men without God attain to positions of leadership? You get government without God. Haman is a man without God, and he is the prime minister. Xerxes is a man without God and he’s the king over it all. And what does that get you? Lies, murder, and stealing.

And why is that? Because they are of their father, the devil, and the lusts of their father they will do. He is a liar and the father of lies. He was a murderer from the beginning.  His people are thieves and robbers. And what do you get when they control the government? Lies, murder, and stealing.

I feel like this study of the book of Esther has profoundly opened my eyes to see this world for what it really is—a world without God. And chapter 3 really showcases what comes with a government without God. Up until about the early 1960’s the government of America was comprised of people who at least respected the Bible and acknowledged God. This country was founded to begin with by men who at least acknowledged God. Even our very first official national document, the Declaration of Independence, begins by declaring “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights…” “Endowed by their Creator.”

As late as the 1950’s, even the Supreme Court was still acknowledging that our Constitution and this nation’s laws were based on the Bible. When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s “everyone” went to church. I remember even at school, we all had an awareness of God. We may still have done a lot of “bad” things, but at least we knew they were bad. We’d tell each other things like, “Anyone who commits suicide goes straight to hell!” That may not have been true, but it reflected the very underlying assumption of our culture—that there is a heaven and a hell. What our forefathers founded was very deliberately a nation with God. And what did it get us? 200 years of unprecedented prosperity.

America has certainly had its own share of lies, murder, and stealing, but that only reinforces what the book of Esther is showing us. Even in a basically “good” government, you will still always have bad men, so that even the best of human governments can only be a strange mixture of respect for God and downright evil.

But what Esther is showing us is government totally without God, government without any restraint or sense of morality. Somewhere back there in the 60’s and 70’s, we determined to be a nation without God and it is no surprise at all to find ourselves now 50 years later with a government of shocking corruption. Is it any surprise that one of the first things our government without God did was to legalize abortion? And since then literally millions of helpless babies have been cruelly murdered. Is it any surprise that we became a nation of school shootings?

This passage of Scripture—Esther chapter 3—exposes human government for what it really is. The politicians in America and their lap dogs, the liberal media, feed us an endless stream of lies, claim they want to do us good, then huddle together and sell out to big corporations and lobbyists who make them multi-millionaires on salaries that can only comprise a fraction of their accumulated wealth.

At first glance, someone may assert that Haman and Xerxes are extreme examples of wicked men in government. But are they? Really? Or does it appear “extreme” only because the real truth is clearly exposed? It was interesting reading “the old guys” and their commentaries from the 1600’s through the late 1800’s. Although they acknowledged that human history has been marred by massacres in many places, yet they were horrified that anything so evil as this plot of Haman could ever have been concocted. Then there was the Holocaust. For those of us on this side of WW II, we have no trouble believing that a government could cruelly murder six million of its own people. Actually, the twentieth century was, if anything, the century of mass murders. In the Soviet Union, under Lenin and Stalin, once again the government murdered literally millions of their own citizens.

So are Haman and Xerxes really extreme examples or do we have before us a stark warning of the real truth of human government, government without God?

See what we have. Haman approaches Xerxes with three clear goals: lying, murder, and stealing. Notice his art: “There is a certain people.” He deliberately does not identify who he’s talking about, lest perhaps Xerxes might have any affection for the Jewish people. He says, “They do not obey the king’s laws.” In fact, in every nation in history, the most faithful citizens have been the believers. A Roman centurion was once ordered to execute any of his soldiers who called themselves Christians. His reply was, “But they’re my best soldiers!” It is reported that in a Russian town, the Christians decided to build themselves a church even though it was not allowed. When the local governor was told to stop them, his reply was, “They are our finest citizens. If building a church means I’ll have more like them, then let them be.”

It is true that Mordecai didn’t obey the king’s law to bow to Haman, but Mordecai is also the man who exposed Bigthana and Teresh and saved the king’s life. That fact itself contradicts Haman’s claim that “it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.” Haman never even intimates the real reason for all of this is his hatred for one man, Mordecai. He hides his true agenda behind the illusion that he’s sincerely concerned about the king’s best interest.

And what does he recommend? Murder and stealing. He proposes an order to “destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and little children…and to plunder their goods.”

And how does the king respond? Notice he doesn’t make even the slightest inquiry. He doesn’t ask, exactly which group of people is this? He doesn’t ask in what ways they “don’t obey the king’s laws.” He does not do even the bare minimum that any ruler would be expected to do when someone is proposing to massacre an entire people group of his own subjects. When he wanted to depose Vashti, he sought the advice of his seven counselors. Not here. He just hands Haman his ring and says, “Do whatever you wish.”

No doubt, Haman’s offer of ten thousand talents of silver appealed to the king’s greedy heart. Granted he tells Haman to keep his money, but Haman is talking his language. Ten thousand talents of silver is a fantastic sum of money. There’s probably no way today to determine absolutely how much that was worth, but it is somewhere in the 100’s of millions or even billions of dollars. Just like the American government today, that’s the numbers they all like to talk about. The real truth is the more billions of dollars are floating around, the easier it is to siphon off millions into their own pockets.

Haman’s wicked decree is issued, an entire people group is targeted for an undeserved massacre, and what do Haman and Xerxes do? They “sit down to drink.” There you have it. These two men’s only real goal in government is their own personal pleasure and gain. The real truth is they couldn’t care less about the people they govern. “The people” are only of value for the wealth and taxes Xerxes can embezzle from them. And while the citadel of Susa is “bewildered,” Haman and Xerxes laugh and party.

For those with the eyes to see, this is government without God.

What’s probably most horrifying to me is to see that this is my government. No wonder our Congress never does anything to actually help us. While they vote themselves the most extravagant salary/benefits package probably in the history of mankind, they do nothing to address the problems that actually face our people. And why not? Because they don’t care. They aren’t there to do us good. They’re there to do themselves good. They lie to us, raise our taxes, and you can bet it’s only a matter of time, and those of us who call their hand on it will pay the price. One way or another, they’ll order our execution, then “sit down to drink.”

The passage before us is very, very ugly and very, very scary, but I’m actually encouraged to see the truth. In a sense, it is a relief to stop trying to believe my government cares about me, that senators and congressmen really should be working for the people’s best interest. It is a strange sort of relief to simply face the fact that ours is today a government without God. They are of their father the devil and the lusts of their father they will do. It is more than ever true that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Believers more than ever ought to be putting on “the armor of God.” We should, more than ever, be praying for our nation, praying for revival, praying that godly people would find their way into government, but we should not be surprised to find out our government without God is corrupt and evil.

Would to God that somehow in His great power, His Spirit could sweep across our country so dramatically that we could actually once again be “one nation under God.” “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” For the sake of our children and grandchildren, God help us to be all we should be, to pray all we should, but if no such revival comes, let us remind ourselves this world is not our home. We are servants of the Most High God. Although Jesus is the rightful king over all the earth, for now Satan is “the prince of the power of the air.” Let us not be surprised at the evil that surrounds us, but rather, with eyes wide open, may we, like Jesus, love and do good and be found faithful to show our world the God they cannot see.