Hey, my friends. It's Matt. This is the 10 minute Bible hour podcast. And we have been talking

about ancient Persia in the 5th century BC as we work through one of the all time great

stories for the whole history of heaven, not just in the Bible, but of all of the world

ever, the book of Esther. And we're getting to this place in the book of Esther where the

whole story, which has gigantic stakes, is about to hinge on just a couple of lines of dialogue

that at least for one of the two people involved in this conversation is just sort of casual.

Now just getting his morning coffee, thinking about some stuff. And for the other guy,

it's gigantic. It's huge. Very important. But they don't understand. So the situation that we're

getting to here in Esther chapter 6, it's like one of those comedies where the whole joke is based

on the missed assumptions of the different characters and the communication isn't quite clear.

And maybe so and so thinks that this dude really likes her. But actually he was talking about

her best friend. And then everybody acts in ways in keeping with their assumptions and

hilarity in sues. It's the kind of comedy where it could be fixed with just one crystal clear

adult conversation where you ask probing questions and make sure everybody's on the same page.

But then hilarity would not ensue and we wouldn't have a comedy and it wouldn't be fun.

What we're getting to in Esther 6 is really a very comedic moment, maybe the funniest moment

for the original audience, maybe the funniest moment for us too, in the whole dang story.

And it comes right on the heels of massive dramatic tension. And so it's kind of crazy that this

then gets resolved in a way that is so chuckleworthy. Zerxes, the king, he's staying up late because

you can't sleep here on the eve of the day that Mordecai the Jew is to be run through and held

up high for everybody to see by his rival, Heyman, the right hand man of the king. And so Zerxes is

up and he's having one of the chroniclers read some chronicles to him. I can't imagine how many

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