Hello, my name is Matt Whitman, this is the 10-minute Bible Hour podcast.

We are working our way through the book of Esther and right now, as often happens in

the course of this podcast.

We're in a little bit of a rabbit trail because we're in Esther chapter three and we're

just getting to the juicy part with things heat up because you got a situation where

King Xerxes, who's a little bit goofy, coming off of his defeat at the hands of the Greeks

in 480 BC.

Now here we are a few years later.

He's gone through some personal crises of his own making.

He's survived an assassination attempt thanks to the help of a Jewish guy named Mordecai,

who sits at the King's Gate and overheard some stuff.

And very recently, as we start Esther chapter three, Xerxes has appointed an aga-guide,

a guy who is possibly descended from an age old enemy of the Jews.

If not, he's at least ideologically aligned with the age old enemies of the Jews.

And this guy, Heyman, just out of nowhere, he comes to power and gets appointed to a

role that looks like it's above even the role of the seven families who helped Xerxes

dad, Darius, steal the throne from the descendants of Cyrus, a generation earlier.

This Heyman guy, he's an upstart.

He's a hot shot.

He's a big deal.

He's a real boy and he does not appreciate it if anybody shows him any kind of disrespect

or I would say withholds from him a certain kind of respect that he wants.

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