Let them dress the man whom the king delights to honor and let them lead him on the horse through the square of the city proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then the king said to him, hurry, take the robes, and the horse, as you have said, and do so to mordecai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned. So Heyman took the robes and the horse and he dressed mordecai and led him through the square of the city proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then mordecai returned to the king's gate, but Heyman hurried to his house mourning and with his head covered. And him and told his wife zarish and all his friends, everything that had happened to him. Then his wise man and his wife zery said to him if mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is one of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him. But will surely fall before him. While they were yet talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring him into the feast. That Esther had prepared. So the king and haman went into the feast with Queen Esther. And we leave the story there for now. Let's pray together. Thank you, father, for the reminder this morning that part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to help us to understand the Bible. So we pray for that help now. In Jesus name, amen. Well, we say to one another, don't we, the early bird catches the worm. There's great advantages in getting up early in the morning. Those of us who were here early this morning are up early. I had the benefit of seeing that wonderful sunrise. Others will only be able to know about it because we're telling you now. And it would appear that I am and worked on a very similar principle. He was up early in the morning so that he might be promptly in the court of the king. After all, his wife and his friends had given him such a good suggestion in the previous evening. Why not build a gallows and kill mordecai the Jew, he's such a nuisance to you, and then once you've killed him, then you can go to the second banquet feast that Esther has prepared. And that really then was the strategy in the morning with which haman had awakened. Little did he know what was waiting for him. It's a reminder of what Solomon says in proverbs ten. The hope of the righteous brings joy by the expectation of the wicked will perish. The hope of the righteous will bring joy to them, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. It's not just Solomon that says that we find it all the way through the Bible. In fact, the book of psalms opens with a very similar theme, doesn't it? Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the council of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the sculptors. And then the summit says, this is what this man would be like, a tree planted by the rivers of water, and his life will prosper. And then he says, but the wicked or not so, because they're like the chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.