Is the Lord Faithful?

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Doubting God’s Faithfulness in a Troubled World

As mentioned, we're in Esther 3 today, and as we begin, I want to ask you if you have ever, or how often, you doubt the faithfulness of God toward you. I think at some point in our Christian walk, we all come to that form of crossroads.

It may take different forms for some of us, but all of us have to go through it. We're not sure if the Lord is really with us. We're perhaps afraid of what could or may happen, and this applies in the minute things of our lives.

And then we go from our little bubble, perhaps, and we take a look at the world in general. We look at global affairs, and times seem to be very bad. There's war in the Middle East. There's war in parts of Europe.

There is persecution in Asia. There is persecution in the Middle East. Increasingly divided nations all over the place. Less and less stable government. One government leaves, another comes in and tries to revert as much as possible.

From their predecessors, political instability seems to grow. There's no more middle ground on things. You're either on the one end of the spectrum or all the way on the other. More and more, the wicked seem to prosper in wealth and power, exerting tremendous might over society.

There's even an increase in hostility toward Christianity, and we see this, perhaps surprisingly, somewhat surprisingly, in Europe, the very home of the Reformation, the home of many of the Puritans. There are reports coming from Europe of people losing their jobs for expressing faith-based opinions in the workplace.

There's an observatory body for intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe, and in 2023, they have counted 2 ,400 so-called hate crimes against Christianity. Now, we might think that most of those perhaps happen in some of the poorer countries on the east side of Europe, but that's actually not the case at all.

The most affected countries were France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Between the three of them, they total almost 2 ,000 of the 2 ,400 cases. It can make us wonder what is going on in the world. Honestly, is the Lord still faithful?

Is He still working? Is He keeping His promises? Is He still sovereign? Some similar issues face the Jews in Esther chapter three. We have come now to the to the end of the introduction to the book within the first two chapters, and we found a place, and time, and history during the reign of Xerxes over the Persian Empire.

Jews are spread far and wide throughout the land, making up one of the many people groups within this vast kingdom, and we're now at least, at this point, seven years into the reign of Ahasuerus. We have seen how superficial he is, how incompetent he is to govern by himself.

We have met two of our main characters, Mordecai and his cousin Esther, who have, who has replaced Vashti as queen. And now we enter into really the heart of the story in chapter three. The main action of the book now begins, and it continues all the way almost to the end of the entire book into chapter nine.

And we read about now, about this plot to entirely annihilate the Jews. And we find, or they find rather, that wicked men are in positions of power, and that there is a hatred toward God's people, and that these people use all the instruments available to them to destroy the Israelites.

And no doubt the people of Israel were wondering if God too was still with them, if he was still really faithful to his covenants, to his chosen people, even in exile under these pressures. And we'll see some of the reasons for potentially doubting God's faithfulness.

We'll see that the ungodly always seem to prosper, that God's promises were under great threat, and that there is a powerful enemies that the Jews were up against. And so I want to get immediately more or less into the text, and we'll see first of all the ungodly prosper.

And we'll begin actually at the end of chapter two, in verse 21, and we'll go to verse two and chapter three. In those days, as Mordecai was sitting at king's gate, Bichtin and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai. When the affair was investigated and found to be so, the men were both hanged on the gallows, and it was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.

After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, who the king had so commanded concerning him.

We pick up the story shortly after the events that have led to Esther becoming queen. We're told Mordecai's sitting at the king's gate, and what this implies to us, or this phraseology rather, indicates that Mordecai had some sort of position, formal official position in the king's court, because this gate was the entrance into the palace complex where many of the legal and the civil and commercial business was done.

And because of his position, Mordecai is able to find out about this plot of these two eunuchs, some of the king's very closest servants that plan to assassinate their ruler. And then Mordecai finds out, and as soon as he finds out, he reports this to Esther, who then brings this before the king and gives full credit to her cousin for finding out.

Once the king gets to the bottom of this, after investigation, the two eunuchs are killed, and the events are recorded in the book of the Chronicles of the King. Now the original audience would have noticed something missing in the text at this point, and that is a reward for Mordecai, because Persian kings were usually very eager to honor and reward those who had shown great acts of loyalty to them.

And Mordecai, and foiling this assassination attempt, essentially saves Xerxes life. Yet there is no mention of showing Mordecai any honor, not until actually chapter six, and then verses one to three, does Mordecai receive any mention from the king.

And so having shown this loyalty, promotion would have been a most fitting reward. But instead we read about the promotion of Haman, who was promoted above all the other officials of the king. And everyone is commanded to bow down and pay homage to him.

But what's interesting about Haman is the way he's introduced. And verse one of chapter three, it says, after these kings, king, after these things, king Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the Agagite, the son of Hamadasa.

Further down in verse 10, if you take a quick look there again, he's identified as the Agagite, the son of Hamadasa, and then the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai and Haman are right off the bat here, set opposite each other.

Not only in terms of one being honored while the other is seemingly forgotten, but in terms of who they are. You remember the way Mordecai was introduced to us earlier in chapter two. We're told there was a Jew in Susa, the citadel, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite.

Now there's another man in the Old Testament who was a son of Kish and a Benjaminite, and that is the first king of Israel named Saul. And he was at enmity, if you remember the story of Saul, with a certain king named Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

We read about that in first Samuel 15, and there Saul is told to kill both man and woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey. Now Saul does not obey the word of the Lord, keeps the best of the sheep and the oxen, and even goes so far as to keep Agag alive, which then Samuel will later hack to pieces with the sword.

But then this conflict that is alluded to here in Haman, the Agagite, and Mordecai the Jew, goes even back further than that. When the Israelites left Egypt, and after they had just crossed the Red Sea, the Amalekites, the descendants or rather forefathers of Agag, were the first ones to attack Israel.

They were attacking them from behind, killing the weak and the slow in that convoy leaving Egypt. And eventually then Moses instructs Joshua to fight against them and defeat them. This is the story where Aaron and Hur on the mountain hold up Moses' arms to gain the upper hand against the Amalekites.

And so what we see here is this identification of an enemy of the Jews in a long line of enemies that goes as far back as the Exodus. And that enemy, despite Mordecai having shown loyalty to the king, is promoted to a position above everyone else, only second to the king.

And now he is commanded to bow down and pay homage to that enemy. There's no surprise if this would seem unjust in the eyes of Mordecai or the Jewish readers. And it begs the question that several prophets, that David, that Job, have asked repeatedly.

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all that are treacherous thrive? That's what it often looks like from our point of view. The evildoers prosper. They put God to the test without consequence.

Some like Haman will attempt apparently to get with murder and seem to get away with it. Remember Job, he asks a similar question after he loses all his 10 children and all his livestock in one day. He says, why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

Their offspring are established in their presence and their descendants before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear and no rod of God is upon them. Or David in Psalm 73, read it sometime. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Doesn't it seem that so often though God is omnipotent, he just idly looks at the wrongdoers.

He remains silent, lets the evildoer do what he desires. And then there's us. We think it's unjust if we lose a job. We don't make as much money, even though we do our work so earnestly before the Lord for his glory, to give what he gives us away to gospel preaching ministries.

We're thankful for his providing for our needs and the ungodly cares and spends for and on himself only. Has no thankfulness in his heart to the Lord. When we have studied and worked for years on end, another is given a position instead of us.

Why should we as the Lord's people suffer terrible illness? Some lifelong. Why do some of our children abandon the faith? We remember the couple that we prayed for a couple months ago, where their newborn child, less than a week old, has to go through several heart surgeries within the first week.

Why do we experience these things if we are God's people? All of all those around us walk life at ease, unaffected by suffering, always prospering, even being over us in so many places. You see, I think our problem is that we look too much at man, what we don't have, what others do have, at our afflictions and the lack thereof for others.

Brothers and sisters, we have to look at our God more. We plan our lives to the T at times, and it's good to make these wise plans. But when we look at God, we ought to see that we're ultimately not in control and that the Father is.

And you know what? That ought to be a comfort to you, because of who He is, because He is just and He is righteous and He does not make mistake. Whatever happens to you is not outside His control and even the evil meant against you by men and even the devil.

He means for good, even when it is so hard for us to go. And even when you can't see it in the moment, there will be, there will be a time when you look back and you can see it so clearly, the Lord's faithfulness, His mercy and His love for you.

Some of you know this, you've experienced it. Mordecai will experience it later when he's honored at the right time, at the right place. Let me ask you this, have you not, truly Christian, have you not experienced the love and the grace and mercy of God in those times?

Much more than when you're actually at ease. Brothers and sisters, at times we should be able to say, I welcome it. If it brings me closer to my God, sweetens my fellowship with Christ, heightens the comfort of the spirits, my reliance on my God, my trust in Him, reaches new horizons, then I cannot only weather the storm, but rejoice in it.

There are thoughts who resist being enchanted by the temporary. The evil do suffer from effects of sin. They're not immune. But more importantly, temporary honor and riches are not worth the cost of eternal separation from God.

And it is far better, it is so much better, it is infinitely better to be, even for a lifetime, afflicted, treated unjustly, poor and whatever else you can think of with Christ than rich and honored among men without Him.

Because everything else, everything else pales in comparison to Him. Being near to God through Christ, having made Him your refuge and the strength of your heart is true riches, regardless of what man or the devil may throw at you.

God’s Promises Are Not Thwarted by Human Evil

Now secondly, not only does it seem that the wicked prosper and we suffer as righteous, but at times it seems that the promises of God are under threat, that they will be thwarted. Look at verse 2 all the way through 7 in chapter 3.

Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, why do you transgress the king's command? And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, who had told them that he was a Jew.

And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury, but he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So as they had meant known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of king Ahasuerus, they cast poor, that is they cast lots before Haman day after day and they cast it month after month till the 12th month, which is the month of Adar.

All the king's servants obey this command and they bow to Haman. That is all of them besides or except Mordecai. We're not given the exact precise reason as to why he refused to do so. Some have suggested that is merely or only religious, so as to not worship or bow down before anything besides the God of Israel.

The wording here used for bow down and pay homage is not necessarily exclusively one of religious worship, but it's also a form of showing respect and reverence simply by bowing. Mordecai would certainly do this and show respect to the king later in chapter eight when he goes before him and we read nothing of his refusing to do so there.

And then even Esther goes so far to fall before the king at his feet and pleading for the life of the Jews. And so it's not merely or only a religious act that's referred to here, but rather it's a proper protocol, if you will, in the king's court.

And again, if we remember how Mordecai and Haman were introduced, this is interesting and important in Hebrew narrative, that how a character is introduced is often an important aspect of the role they play in the story.

And so we have Mordecai being introduced as a Jew, the tribe of Benjamin, and Haman as an agagite. And so again, this highlighting of this enmity between the Jews and the agagites, the author wants us to expect this continued conflict.

And so Mordecai refuses simply to bow down for more or less personal reasons. He could not bow the knee to a man who was an enemy of the Jews. But his reaction, or his action rather, triggers the fury of Haman.

What he does is not only be angry with Mordecai, but sets his wrath against all the Jews in the entire Persian kingdom. And he goes before the king and accuses them. And what he wants to do is get this royal assent and the power that he needs to accomplish his desire.

We read this in verses 8 all the way through to 11. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, there's a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people and they do not keep the king's laws.

So that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed and I will pay 10 ,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business.

They may put it into the king's treasuries. So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the agagite, the son of the enemy of the Jews. The king said to Haman, the money is given to you, the people also to do with them as it seems good to you.

Notice how cleverly Haman here manipulates the king to get exactly what he wants. He doesn't come out and say that there's only one man who has refused to bow to him. Now he knows exactly how to present this to Xerxes in a way that he would approve of it.

And so he paints with a broad brush. He says there's a certain people all over the kingdom that they have different laws. They do not obey the king and they're of no use. Of course the king, we expected by now that being the man that he is, cannot tolerate somebody not obeying his laws and command.

If his queen cannot say no to him, certainly the strange group of people cannot say no to him. And Haman sweetens the offer, if you will, by offering these 10 ,000 talents of silver. This is estimated to be about 60 percent or so of the annual tax income of the kingdom at the time.

And it's sweet to Ahasuerus because Persia was at war with Greece and they had suffered defeat in that loss, in that war. And so finances were a bit tight at the time. And so there's no question from the king about who these people are, where this absorbent amount of money is coming from.

Instead he gives his signet ring to Haman, the sign of royal authority, and he's allowed to do whatever seems good to him. And what's interesting is that Haman's hatred, unknown to him, really it seeks, if you think about it, to thwart the plans of God.

Having set his heart on the destruction of the Jews, his plan really was one of the greatest threats to humanity. Forget so-called climate change, the possibility of nuclear wars, pandemics, the dangerous potential of AI or anything else.

What happens if Haman succeeds? There will be no Messiah. There will be no promised seed, no offspring of Abraham, no son of David, no lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. The Israelites were given the covenants.

They were given the law and from them according to the flesh, the Christ was to come from the tribe of Judah. If this plan succeeds, there is no hope for humanity. And so the question facing the Jews was one of God's faithfulness to his promises.

Will he protect his people? Is he actually going to be faithful to the promises of Abraham, that the whole world will be blessed through him? Or the covenant of David, which said that there will be a son of David on the throne forever, is what promises the Lord made to his people.

Is he going to see them through to the end? Would the Christ, the one that Moses and a prophet spoke about really come? Their faith is challenged. And I think we're all that different to be honest. We don't have the problem of having too much faith.

Quite the opposite. We have that the problem of too little faith. Often we're not sure if the Lord will see us through. When we're hit with crises that are far too much for us to handle. We simply have no control and have to sit idly by where we're at our wits end.

There is no strength left in you. You've been in the trenches for a while and there seems no way out. Seems prayers aren't answered, no matter how often you fall on your knees and cry out to the Lord.

It's easy to despair in times like that, isn't it? We simply cannot look into the future. We don't know what tomorrow holds. But even in our text there's a hint of encouragement. It's so easily overlooked, but it is so good.

It shows us how the Lord works behind the scenes through the smallest details. Look at verse seven again. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the 12th year of King Asher, they cast poor, that is they cast lots before Haman day after day, and they cast it month after month till the 12th month, which is the month of Adar.

Now these, this casting of lots, these were little cube-shaped pieces. They had some descriptions or dots on the side, much like a pair of dice. And they were used for divination and in asking the gods for an answer to or regarding the future.

And Haman has these cast for every day and every month of the year to determine the day on which the Jews were supposed to be killed. Now what's interesting is if we follow the timeline, they're cast in the first month in verse seven.

And if we look at verse 12, the scribes were summoned to write this edict to kill the Jews. And then in verse 13 we read that letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12 month, which is the month of Adar.

Now Proverbs 16 33, some of you know this, says the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Like do you see this? I can't, from the time Haman decides to go after the Jews in the first month to the day they're supposed to be killed is a period of 11 months.

If we take Proverbs into consideration, this is not a coincidence. The Lord is firmly in control of what happens to His people and when it happens to them. And then the rest of the book, they cover those 11 months in that period.

And this immense threat, it's so great. But the Lord by His providence arranges things in a way that will preserve His people. There's time for them to be saved. He will be in fact faithful to His promises and they don't even know it yet.

And neither do we in our afflictions. All we can see is what's happening in the moment, but we cannot see the end. A Christian, you can take comfort that the Lord knows the end of a matter before it even transpires.

That He has put and is putting pieces in place that will get you through it. And He will show that He is faithful to you, that He will preserve you. But not only does it seem at times that the wicked prosper and the Lord's plans might be under threat, but there's an enemy that is all powerful, it seems.

The Power of the Persian Empire and the Reality of Persecution

Look at verse 12 through 15. Then the king's scribes were summoned on the 13th day of the first month and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king's satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language.

It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with a king's signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king and the decree was issued in Susa, the citadel.

And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. The wheels of this machine now begin to turn. It's set in motions. The scribes are summoned and this edict, according to Haman, is written.

It's very familiar to the fashion we've seen it in in chapter one, when all this decree was sent out to all the provinces and every people in their own language regarding Vashti and her husbands are supposed to be the master of their own house.

And so Haman's desire now has turned into a law, a law that is officially sanctioned by the monarch. Instructions are sent out to kill, to destroy, and to annihilate all the Jews regardless of age and gender on the 13th day of the 12 months.

The timing of this is is again worthy to note when the scribes come and this is sent out. They're summoned on the 13th day of the first month. That is the day before the Jews celebrate the Passover. When they have a week-long celebration on the 14th day of that very month and commemorate the deliverance out of Egypt and their special relationship with God.

And now instead of joy, by the time this gets out the celebrations will be turned to sorrow. Instead of remembering their deliverance they face looming destruction. And again the faith of God's people is challenged.

Will he again redeem them? This destruction backed by the the power of the the kingdom. You notice how this the whole empire is and is involved in this. The scribes come, they write it. The edict is sent to the Saptraps and the governors all over the land.

It's written in the name of the king. It has the stamp of approval of the king. It's sealed with his signet ring. The instructions are given to destroy and to kill. And then all of that is issued as a decree in every province as well as the capital.

This is all the might of Persia coming against the people dispersed all throughout the land without a way to gather any sort of forces to resist. There's nothing the Jews could could possibly do. They have no king themselves that they can implore.

And so where is their help going to come from? This few people against this greatest empire on earth at the time. We know that the law of the Persians was unable to be revoked. And so what is done is done.

It cannot be undone. You're facing this state-sanctioned extermination. Their help must come from somewhere else. And the reader is supposed to ask, will the Lord do it? Can he do it against this all-powerful enemy?

And that'll be explored in the chapters all the way to the end of the book. Now we have not faced a state-sanctioned call for the destruction of all Christians in this nation. But from our point of view, it can look like the Lord has handed all power over to the evil one at times.

As if the restraint on evil has been completely removed and unrighteousness reigns unhindered in the land. And I think we can see or begin to see hints of that even in our own nation. We don't like to preach politics or anything like this.

We don't seek to sway you one way or another from the pulpit. We preach the Word of God. But we must look at times at what is happening in our country and think through it and what we're going to do. We have to realize that though we've been blessed greatly, that this kindness that we perceive really is just this thin veneer on top of a rotten core of depravity.

We must not be deceived. The condition of the human heart has not changed in the last 2 ,500 years. It has not gotten any better with scientific insight or technological advances. The depravity that reigned in Haman is the same depravity that reigns in the heart of the ungodly today.

It doesn't matter which part of the world we're in. Christian do not think for a second that what Haman desired, the thing that is being done to brothers and sisters in North Korea, in the Middle East and wherever else could never happen here because we're apparently more civilized or something.

That's nonsense. That is a lie. But because we've grown up in this environment, we're slow to see this. I think it's to a degree we're ignorant of the depravity of man in this area. It usually begins so small.

Let me illustrate this, how this is being played out in front of our eyes right here. We have a a distinctly reformed Christian political association in Canada and one of their stated goals is to bring a biblical perspective to our civil authorities.

Now a couple months ago in October, the BC government debated the views and policies of this association and they ended up voting on this. They voted 48 to 3 to condemn this group as intolerant and hateful because they affirmed, can you guess what they affirmed?

Biblical sexuality and they stood against abortion. And this does not depend on political parties by the way. The conservatives did not vote to not vote. So don't think it's dependent on a party. And just as recently as six weeks ago, some of you may have heard this, the chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice on Human Rights.

He said this during a meeting in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Romans. There's other passages. There is clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals. He goes on, I mean clearly there are situations in these texts where these statements are hateful.

They should not be used to invoke or be a defense. If you've watched the news at all, you know that this might be related to Bill C -9. It's been in the news and the goal of this bill, if you don't know, is to amend the criminal code in relation to hate speech.

Currently, at the moment, there's a section in the criminal code under which we could still publicly disagree with the current view that society holds on sexuality and gender, if it's to be found that this would be a sincerely held belief based on what the Bible has to say on this topic.

This current bill is trying to remove that very protection and because of these sweeping changes and definitions that are not as clear as we would like them to be, we have no idea if even publicly quoting scripture is going to fall under this criminal speech, especially if certain passages have already been quoted by government officials to be hateful.

You see that this has ramifications for you, right? For those who preach, parents, for the way you raise your children, what you teach them, everyone who's trying to preach the gospel, who's trying to hold to biblical truths.

Do you see that we are not, we are not immune to persecution. We should be grieved by these things, absolutely. But we should not be shocked or surprised. The world hates Christ. It hated Him. It still hates Him, including His people.

They do these things because they do not know God. It's a direct attack on Him. Think about this. Christ was betrayed by one of His own disciples, one that He had chosen to be among the 12. He was denied by Peter, who had made that great confession, saying to Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He had assured Him that certainly He would not fall away. If that was Christ's experience at the hand of His very closest companions, do you really think that the ungodly will always be loving toward us?

You're not above your master. We don't, we don't know where this nation is headed, but we ought to be ready. We, no fear of man, always honoring Christ in our hearts, being ready to suffer the consequences for doing good, if that should be God's will.

Trusting that the Lord uses evil for good, no matter what it may look like, in whatever shape or form it takes. He has shown that He does this over and over again, whether it be with Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Mordecai and Esther.

And we talked about this last week with our soon-to-be new members. The greatest way in which He has shown this, that He uses evil for good and remains in control, even over the most powerful enemy, is in the gospel.

Christ being nailed to that cross by men was an act of evil. But at the same time, it was so much more than that. It was part of God's marvelous work of atonement for you, through the ignorant evil actions, the hatred toward Him.

God fulfilled what He had foretold by the prophets, that the Christ would suffer for the many. Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, people of Israel, they were all gathered against Jesus. What were they to do?

To do whatever the Father's hand and plan had predestined to take place. You remember Pilate asking Jesus, do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? And what does Christ answer?

He says, you would have no authority over me at all, unless it had been given you from above. You see redemption was, or redemption for you was not achieved in spite of injustice and evil, but through those very acts.

No matter how mighty the ruling powers may seem and how helpless we might feel, the Lord God is seated on His throne. He is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. And His children, Christian, you're not victims.

Everything that happens to you has been touched by His sovereign hand. The authorities may think that we're not obeying their laws, that we have no benefit to them. Part of that is true, but not regarding them.

In reality it's true regarding the one King, the sovereign King whose law no one has obeyed. Not us, not any civil authorities anywhere. We really did not bow down to Him, give Him the honor He should have gotten.

To whom we really were of absolutely no advantage whatsoever, not even in the slightest. Before Him any accusation of the devil against us is true. We are rightly accused before Him. We're, and we stood helpless by ourselves.

And destruction and extermination would have been a just verdict. But yet in being faithful to His promises, to His covenants, He has not destroyed or given His only Son to be killed instead for you. And that the price of sin might be paid.

He has sovereignly made atonement for men by His own will and His own doing. Not for any amount of money in return. He's done so using sinful, evil men and women to accomplish it the way He had ordained.