Being sick the last two Sundays has sort of messed up the preaching schedule, so Gary asked me to preach on Philippians next week and to do a one-off sermon today. And what I thought I would do (especially since I have been sick most of this week too) is to rework a sermon that I preached ten years ago. Let's read Esther chapter 6.

Introduction

This morning I want to encourage you to see God’s hand of providence in every detail of your lives – yes, even the most boring, apparently meaningless, or even painful details that you experience. One of the amazing things about the book of Esther is that God’s name does not occur, except in a very hidden acrostic, and yet God’s hand can be seen everywhere. It can be seen in the death of Esther’s parents, and her adoption by Mordecai on a visit to Israel. It can be seen in a drunken king’s removal of his queen, and later regretting his rash decision, and yet not being able to do anything about it because of the law. It can be seen in the rise to power of an enemy of God’s people. And this enemy, Haman, would be used by God to bring His people out of a backslidden condition, and into a right relationship with God. Think about that: the very one who hated God’s people and wanted to annihilate God's people was being used by God as a tool to make His people holy! 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, when he is trying to figure out which day he should choose to kill all of the Jews. And that action shows that there is no such thing as luck. God is controlling things down to the minute casting of the dice in order to accomplish all of his purposes.

If you have never read the book of Esther, I highly encourage you to do so. It is a suspense filled story. And I hate to jump into the middle of a cool story, but that’s what we are going to do today. We are going to look at the providence of God in two sleepless men – Ahasuerus and Haman. And it is my hope that as we look at these two cases of insomnia, it will help each of us to appreciate God’s gracious providence in the ordinary events of our own lives. And I hope it will be a sermon of comfort. There will be challenges, but it is primarily a sermon of comfort and hope.

Seen in the book’s structure

And God’s hidden hand of sovereignty can be seen in several ways in this chapter. The first way is less obvious. It is in the very structure of the book - which I have placed on the back side of your outlines. Various commentaries have shown how the book is a very clear example of a Hebrew chiasm, with chapter 6 being at the heart of it. A chiasm follows the literary pattern of ABCDCBA where the topic at the beginning of the book is parallel to the topic at the end of the book, and so both are labelled with an A. And then the B point (which would be the second point) is parallel to the second to last point, also labeled B. And so on until you get to the middle point of the chiasm. And the heart of the chiasm is chapter 6, which makes chapter 6 the central theme. That means that the heart of the book is the insomnia of two men.

Now I’m sure that some of you don’t get as excited about the structure of books as I do. And you might be thinking, “So what?” Jobes’ commentary explains the “so what.” It says,

By making the pivot point of the peripety [and let me pause and explain that a peripety is a sudden and unexpected reversal of events - so the commentary says, "By making the pivot point of the peripety"] 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 and/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.¹

So, the author is showing that even when God appears to be totally silent in this book, God is still at the center of the story. The author of this book sees God’s hands in everything. His silent providence plays the crucial role - not men and not kingdoms. It is God’s Sovereignty that is the foundation for providential history. And just as a side note - Marshall Foster points out that the weakness with some kinds of providential history - in that they start with individualism (the first point of the principle approach to education - bad, bad, bad) rather than starting with the sovereignty of God. If we were to write the Mission Impossible of this book, we might be tempted to turn Esther and Mordecai into Tom Cruzes who absolutely dominate the plot. But the odd thing about the writer of this story is that he leaves out so many details we are dying to know about those actors, and is instead giving a focus upon God’s control of mundane events. The heart of the book is God; God is at the center of this story even though He cannot be seen or heard and His name nowhere appears. And the question that I have is, “Do you recognize God as being at the center of your story?” You need to.

And the best way of recognizing God as being at the center of your story is not necessarily by having His name constantly upon your lips or by seeking miracles in your life (though I do believe in miracles and have seen a number of miracles). 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 on Him. The same author I just quoted said, “Any deity worth his salt can do a miracle now and then. Our God is so great, so powerful, that he can work without miracles through the ordinary events of billions of human lives through millennia of time to accomplish his eternal purposes and ancient promises.”² I think that is a cool thought. This chiasm shows that it is God’s providence that is the central theme of this book. And that is recognized by so many authors that this has almost become a truism.

Seen in the right touch (vv. 1-3)

But there is a second thing that shows God’s providence – God moves various people to do things without their even realizing that God’s hand was moving them. And let me point out a few of the ways God moved people. The first was sleep loss. Verse 1: “That night the king could not sleep.” Literally, it says “the king’s sleep fled away” - emphasis on "fled away." He was probably asleep, but was suddenly wide awake and unable to go back to sleep. One writer humorously supposed that it was all the sawing and hammering going on outside as Haman built the gallows to hang Mordecai. I doubt that, but we aren’t told. Who knows?

But ultimately, who is the giver of sleep and the taker away of sleep? God is. We have a tendency to ignore God’s role in such mundane things as sleep and insomnia. And yet that too is a part of God’s providence. Now, granted, we do have responsibilities to try to do what we can to sleep, but we should always be prayerful even when we engage in our human responsibilities. When you cannot sleep at night, you should first of all explore whether God wants you awake for a reason. Perhaps He wants you to pray. Or perhaps He wants you to notice something in the house.

Secondly, when you can see no good reason for being awake, ask God for sleep. It’s OK to take calcium, hot showers, essential oils, and other things that can help with sleep, but pray to God. Psalm 127:2 says, “He gives His beloved sleep.” That’s a promise that I claim when I have chronic insomnia. Now, I haven't had it recently! I've been sleeping 13-15 hours a day the last three sick-weeks, but normally I struggle to sleep. Here’s another Scripture that shows that God is involved in even the issues of sleep. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him” (Gen. 2:21). OK, well, that was Adam before the Fall. What about after the Fall? 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.” A deep sleep from the Lord.

On the night before the big battle with Absalom, David said, “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me” (Ps. 3:5). So even his waking was from God. If you have a hard time getting up, pray that God would wake you up. Certainly you have responsibilities such as making your alarm clock loud enough, putting it across the room and making it harder to climb back into bed, and maybe drinking a cup of coffee. But you can also ask God to help you wake up. Isaiah 50:4 says, “He awakens Me morning by morning.” The point of this rabbit trail is that we should see God in everything. Make use of your insomnia for prayer and meditation on the Scriptures and worship. There was many a time when David could not sleep, and he gave himself to prayer and worship.

Anyway, when king Ahasuerus becomes tired of tossing and turning and punching his pillow he finally decides to put himself to sleep with boring reading. I can’t think of anything more boring than to read through old minutes. But God knows just how to move the human heart to do His bidding.

Continuing on in verse 1: “So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.” Think of the chances of this servant reading from the right account. They didn’t have books like we do where you could pack years' worth of minutes into one book. The minutes were likely written on clay tablets like you see in the picture in your outlines. I’m sure there are only so many tablets that could be brought to the king's bedroom to be read. And God has just the right touch in which tablet the servant is going to pull off the shelf, and where on this tablet the servant should read. The king could have had this servant read minutes from any number of tablets over the past twelve years, but he just happens to pick up the tablets that relate to five years ago. What are the odds of that happening? Of course, our God isn’t subject to odds, is He? He makes the odds.

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 portion of the official records. After all, the king had almost been assassinated by two of his eunuchs. So it causes the king to wrack his brain on what had happened. Verse 3: “Then the king said, ‘What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?’” And here is another perfect touch that comes from God’s hands: the servants that he is dealing with here have a good memory of five years before. It could have been different servants who had been on duty, but God makes sure that the right servants are on duty, and He makes sure that they remember. “And the king’s servants who attended to him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him.’”

Let’s stop and think about that for a minute. Mordecai could easily have been frustrated that immediately after he rescues the king, Mordecai is forgotten and his mortal enemy Haman is advanced. Mordecai has done a wonderful thing, and nobody even recognizes it. Sometimes life does not appear to be fair, does it? Perhaps you have been ignored and someone much less worthy than you has been advanced to a higher position than you at work. It may appear as if God is not prospering the work of your hands and He’s not noticing all of your hard work. But you can rest assured that your labors in the Lord are not in vain. That's assuming of course that you were doing your labors as unto the Lord, as both Colossians and Ephesians admonish all workers to do.

One of the themes of this book is the illusion (and it is an illusion) that God is silent and is absent from life when in reality He is orchestrating the tiniest details. It was ultimately in Mordecai’s best interests that he was 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 work of dominion, and your unanswered prayers, and your flat tires, or loss of money.

Now, before we move on to the next point, it is worth noting that Haman had insomnia too. It’s not just the king who is sleepless in Susa. Haman is so consumed with getting back at Mordecai that he probably can’t sleep either. And bitterness can do that to you. It can eat away at you and keep you awake. Anyway, we know that it is still nighttime because the king is trying to sleep. And so the question comes, "What on earth is Haman doing standing out there in the lobby at night time?" He probably has been tossing and turning as well, and finally decides that he needs to go ahead and get ready to talk to the king as soon as he notices that the king gets up. If you know the story, you know that Haman has already built an incredibly tall gallows to hang Mordecai on, and he has just come to ask the king if it would be OK to hang Mordecai on those gallows that day. So in verse 4 it isn’t just the right timing that God controls, but He controls the sleep of both the king and Haman.

Can God turn the hearts of pagans in our own country to suit His kingdom purposes? Absolutely yes! Three times in Exodus it says that the Lord God gave the Israelites favor in the sight of the Egyptians. God turned the hearts of an entire nation to give gold, silver and other articles to the Jews as they left Egypt. On the other hand, Scripture says that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Proverbs says that the king’s heart is like rivers of water and the Lord turns it whatever way He wants. God's not frustrated with the Senate confirmation process. Many of these lefties are actually exposing their corruption as they desperately try to keep USAID alive or as they block the release of the Epstein list or try to hide other shannigans. And people are beginning to think - "Wait a minute - you're OK with $2 million going to fund sex change operations in Guatamela? And you are defending $20 million of federal money going to fund a Sesame Stree show in Iraq? And $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”? Wow! Wow! Wow! God knows how to unravel things for the modern Hamans too. We live in interesting times. And we need to have confidence that God can have the right touch in the lives of even with our adversaries. We serve an awesome God. Amen?

Seen in the perfect timing (vv. 4-6)

But the third thing I want you to see about God’s providence is that it covers timing as well. The moment the king has finished saying these words, who does he hear coming into the foyer but Haman. He hears footsteps outside. Verse 4:

“So the king said, ‘Who is 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.”

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 our own lives in such an obvious way. Those are the cool providences that get you excited about.

But I want to point out that this perfect timing was totally dependent on what had earlier appeared to be very bad timing in chapter 2. In chapter 2 Mordecai did a good deed at a time when the king was so preoccupied that he totally forgot to reward Mordecai. But ultimately, there is no such thing as bad timing in God’s plan. Commentaries point out that the king was noted for always rewarding people handsomely. So this was just too bizarre that the one who saved the king’s life would be forgotten?!? Crazy! That just never happened! Some would say, "What bad luck!" But in hindsight we realize that NO, chapter 2 was awesome timing. And confidence in this ought to make us not get frustrated at the slowdowns and the detours that we experience, but to say instead say, “Lord. I see that You have stopped me here. I don’t know why you have done so, but I’m excited to see what neat thing you will eventually bring out of this.” When you get a flat tire, instead of getting angry because you are late for work, look at the flat tire as a perfectly tailored gift wrapped up in special paper, and tell the Lord, “Thank you. I don’t know what is wrapped up in this present, but I thank you that it is working together for my good.” If you do that it is going to begin to change your attitude to all God's providences and give you an excitement about God's sovereign control. This is why Calvinism is such an exciting worldview.

Verse 5: “The king’s servants said to him, ‘Haman is there, standing in the court.’ And the king said, ‘Let him come in.’” Even the invitation to come into his bedroom chamber is remarkable, because that was not normal protocol. He could have made Haman wait until he had gotten up, taken a bath, and put his clothes on. God could have actually had Mordecai rewarded without the king conferring with Haman at all. But No, Haman has to be a part of it for God to be the most 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 set up! The verse goes on: “Now Haman thought in his heart, ‘Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?’” Why does the king leave the name of Mordecai out of his request? This almost guarantees that Haman will misinterpret his words. We aren’t told why. It may have been accidental. Or the king may have been having fun with Haman’s egotistical reactions. Maybe the king was yanking his chain. We aren’t told, but 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 – even the lousy timing of some of the events that you and I cringe over.

Seen in Haman’s fatal flaw (7-9)

In the next point we see that God also takes advantage of Haman’s fatal flaw. And of course, Haman’s fatal flaw is his pride. God doesn’t have to force Haman to 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 will make Haman assume that the king likes him more than anyone else, and delights to honor him more than anyone else. Pride is a form of self-worship, and those who worship self can’t understand why everyone else would not be equally enamored with me, myself, and I. Pride is a form of self-worship and idolatry. And of course, our God makes a holy war against all forms of idolatry - including pride.

Let’s take a look at verses 7-11. These are verses that will set up Haman 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 has 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, 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!”’

If you could ask Haman to make a list of everything he would hate to do for someone else, it would be the list of things that he wants other people to do for him. Pride makes us do the exact opposite of the Golden Rule. And if you are trying to analyze the pride of your own heart, you can take a cue from this. And by the way, pride is endemic to every human heart - so don't focus only on the horrible pride of Haman. Ed Welch has demonstrated how insecurity, fear, shyness, and other things that are not usually thought of as being prideful are an inverted form of pride. So all of us should be on the war path against our own pride. And if you men don't think you have pride, I would challenge you to read the chapter on pride, in the book, The Exemplary Husband. If you don't come away from reading that chapter confessing your sins to your wife, I will be amazed. But they do say that pride is like bad breath - everyone knows you have it except for you.

Anyway, There are many ways to conquer pride, but one way is to serve the interests of others before your own interests. Or another way of saying it is to practice the Golden Rule – to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you consistently praise the good that you see in others (even if it is just a little bit of good that do), and if you seek others’ welfare (especially if they have not been seeking your welfare), and you lift them up, and seek their interests, you will systematically begin destroying pride. I've been seeking to do that with those who have been attacking my views on immigration. And it's great to pray blessings on those who attack you and to receive the good points that they do make. But anyway, back to the story, that is why it is so easy for prideful people to fall. Their own pride sets them up for a fall.

And yet, here is the amazing thing. God’s providence was working even through this pride. And you might think: “But how could that be??! God never sins; nor does He tempt anyone to sin.” The book of James is quite clear on that. And I agree. So how could God's providence work even through Haman's sin of pride? Well, think of it this way: was there any sin that was ever greater than the crucifixion of Jesus? No. Yet God predestined over 100 details that had to take place in perfect sequence and in an interlocking pattern for Jesus to be crucified at the right hour on Nisan 14. The Jewish leadership did everything they could to postpone the crucifixion until after the crowds were gone, because they feared crowds. But Jesus had to be crucified on the right day and at exactly the right hour to be our Passover Lamb. He had to be beaten, a spear thrust through His side, his garments had be gambled for, etc., etc. How could God work through even the sinful actions of others without being implicated in those actions Himself? And we need to understand this if we are to take comfort when people do sinful things against us. How could Psalm 105:17 say that God sent Joseph into Egypt when the historical narrative shows that it was Joseph’s wicked brothers who sold him there? How could Joseph say to his brothers, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Gen. 50:19)? How can man be fully responsible for his own sins and yet God still be sovereign over them?

And I think A.W. Pink’s illustration is as good as any. In his marvelous book, The Sovereignty of God, Pink asks what keeps a book that’s in your hand from falling to the ground? And his answer is that it is the restraining power of my hand. And Pink points out that when the restraining power of my hand is removed from holding up the book, the book will automatically drop to the ground by its own nature because of gravity. It doesn’t need to be thrown to the ground in order to fall to the ground. And in the same way all men are attracted to sin by their sin nature just as gravity pulls on this book. And God in His mercy and restraining providence restrains men from plummeting into worse and worse sins. That is a wonderful gift. We call it common grace. It's an undeserved restraint of their sinful tendencies. Such men are not going to be punished in hell as severely. They don’t deserve such restraining providences. So when God pulls His hand away and gives them up to a depraved mind and to the sins that Romans 1 speaks about, He is not withholding anything that they deserve. He doesn't owe them that restraining grace - otherwise it wouldn't be grace. By giving them up, He is giving them over to what they deserve. He doesn’t force them to sin, but by the very act of giving them up to a depraved mind, He guarantees that they will fall. And according to Scripture, apart from God’s restraining work, any human would fall to the same extent of sin and rebellion. "There but for the grace of God go I" is not an empty phrase. That’s why the idea of playing around with sin should scare you to death and make you not want to trifle with His grace. I try to repent as soon as the Holy Spirit brings something to my attention and I seek to cling to His grace. We must not grieve the Holy Spirit.

So God can control what areas men will be given up to simply by determining when He will remove the restraint that they do not deserve anyway and that they have been spurning anyway. You could say that He allows these sins, 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 ever implicating God in the sin itself.

Now, when you grasp that, it gives you comfort. It may not be pleasant to experience the sin of others like Mordecai had to, but it is comforting to know that God is working even that together for my good. Now of course, that should never make you passive, and it does not keep us from holding people accountable for their sins. I'm glad that the Congress, the Senate, and Federal agencies are being held accountable. It's appropriate to resist their sins and to rebuke them, but it does give us comfort.

Seen in the king’s ironic twist (vv. 10-11)

Moving to the next point, we see an ironic twist in verses 7-11. We aren’t told that the king is deliberately twisting the knife. He just took Haman’s advice and 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, “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 Haman’s pride to realize that he isn’t the man that is going to be honored, but to see that this exquisite honor which he tailor made for himself is now going to be conferred on his hated enemy; and to be forced to give the honor himself, to do it immediately, and to do it so publicly must have been shameful and mortifying in the extreme. And I am praying that God would expose and humiliate the players in the deep state in the same way. He actually is doing it. More and more wicked men and women are being seen with egg on their face.

Now we realize that Haman deserved his comeuppance. But let me give us a quick warning. If you or I are tempted to the path of pride, keep this picture in mind as something that could happen to us. Let this picture burn into your mind when you have the slightest temptation to have pride. This is guaranteed to happen to you. Why? Because God hates pride. He hates it. Now, obviously it won't happen to you in exactly the same way as it happened to him. But the shame, the humiliation, the casting down is likely to happen if any of us if we don't cast pride away from our hearts. God promises that He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble - and loves to exalt the humble. We must see pride as being our mortal enemy. God knows just how to bring these ironic twists into life. And He will do it to us if we are not quick to confess our pride and put it under the blood of Jesus Christ.

Seen in his friends unwitting prophecy (vv. 12-14)

The last point is that God's providence can be seen in even the friends' unwitting prophecy of Haman's fall. Haman’s loyal friends who had only days before enthusiastically encouraged him to build the gallows and who had stroked his pride, are the first to turn on him. And I have seen this among pagans many many times. 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! Like I really needed to hear that! Thanks a lot for rubbing salt in the wound! But you know, Haman doesn’t really have time to respond or 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. I’m sure he was wishing he could. But he is rushed by others to go to the banquet that Esther puts on. 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 prepared.” What an incredible reversal. But it all came about because the king couldn’t sleep and Haman couldn’t sleep. The destiny of the nation was determined by two men who were sleepless in Susa. I think it is a fun story all in its own right, but I do want to end with three more applications.

Concluding applications

First, this chapter reflects the story of each of our lives. The blending of our own wills with God’s will is often inscrutable. In other words, it can’t be fully understood. How did you get your 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? For some of you it was a coincidental meeting, for others it was carefully planned out. But no matter how silent God may have appeared to be, He was in the middle of your story. Though Kathy and I grew up as missionary kids in the same country in Africa, we didn’t know that fact until after we started courting. Our paths crossed only for a short time in college in Tennessee, and I came from Canada while she came from Omaha. How in the world did we get in the right place at the right time? For me it was the frustration of how many years it took for me to save up for College. My parents were missionaries with a faith mission and we didn't have much money and we were opposed to debt. So I would work a couple years and then go to school. And then work and go to school. God delayed my college for six years so that I could be there when she was there. So what seemed like bad timing was actually 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 the radio channels and stumbled upon a preacher preaching right to the heart of what you were going through, and you “accidentally” got converted. Or it may have been that you 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 need to get used to seeing the apparently silent God as being the substance of the plot of our lives. Though silent (and that's why it takes faith to believe it - though silent), He is the center of our story. And we need to be asking God what the good is that He is working in our lives.

Another lesson is that often God’s path to joy leads through the swamps of difficulty and sorrow. There was a lot of difficulty and sorrow in the first chapters of this book. Members of this congregation have recently been going through some major difficulties. And yet I would encourage you to start thanking God for those difficulties by faith. And I am not talking about just looking for a silver lining to the dark clouds. Now, that is true too. But I'm talking about more than that. I'm talking about thanking God for the clouds themselves, and for the swamps themselves. Paul admonishes us to not only thank God in every circumstance (that's the silver lining around every dark cloud) but also to thank God for all things. Ephesians 5:20 says, "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." There is no getting around that word "all." Even if it doesn’t look like those swamps are working together for your good, Romans 8:28 guarantees that they are. It says, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." So by faith, you can start thanking Him. I have found the very act of thanking God for my sicknesses, insomnia, or other difficult issues has raised my vision heavenward and given me supernatural joy - the theme we have been talking about in the book of Philippians. And the reason for it is that such thanksgiving is a form of faith in God. You may not like the position God has presently placed you in. Yet this very trial may be the vehicle by which God will usher you into greater joy and fulfillment. Don’t despise the trials, frustrations, or detours that God brings into your life. Learn to change them when you are able (that's called human responsibility - that's important - don't be passive), but also learn to joyfully submit to them when you are not able to change them.

One last application is that history itself has a chiasm just like this book does with the reversal being in the middle of history, not at the end of history. God has not chosen to reverse history at the end of our age like so many Premillennialists believe. There are only two epochs in human history - pre-cross and post-cross. That's it. And Ken Gentry is right now writing a book on that subject of the two epochs of redemptive history. It’s the cross of Jesus Christ that is the crucial event around which all of history revolves. God reverses His Story at the center of history. That's so important to understand.

Now 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 others deaths. Many people may not have even realized that Jesus had died. The crucifixion was certainly unknown in China at the time. But the event that so many have ignored, which did not come with fanfare, parades, and fireworks; the event which highlighted Christ’s weakness and obscurity, is the event that God has chosen to change world history. And at the end of time when we look back on life we will see a similar pattern to what is portrayed in this book.

Perhaps your eschatology is making you look to His future Coming to earth as the only way out of our messes down here below. That Coming will indeed be spectacular - grander than a fireworks show. But God wants you to look back to His victory at the cross and to realize that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It is the cross that will eventually Christianize all nations and usher this world into unbelievable blessings in history. Christ's kingdom has been growing non-stop from the cross onward. Isaiah 9:7 says, "Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." Praise God! And eventually Christ's atonement will bring in a new heavens and new earth. And when we get to heaven and can look back on God’s history, I believe we will worship God as we see His spectacular in the ordinary. So - to the best of your ability, try to see that now. Amen.

Children of God, I charge you to see nothing as insignificant, but rather to be gripped by the truth of Romans 11:36 where Paul says, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be the glory forever. Amen."