The Hubris and Humiliation of Xerxes

This is a story about Providence.

Providence is the doctrine that teaches that the world and our lives are not ruled by 'chance', nor by 'fate', but by God.

Since this sort of abstract statement can be hard to fully fathom, we are helped by hearing stories of providence, and seeing it worked out in the lives of people and upon the pages of history.

In the opening chapter of Esther, we encounter the great emperor of the Persian kingdom in all of his hubris. He is rich and power and he wants everyone to know it. Unfortunately for him, there is a limitation to his power and it emerges at a very humiliating time.

In this message, we consider how the New Testament instruction to husbands and wives is a world apart from the ideas of wifely submission recommended in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.