Sermon: An Edict of Death

I'll invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Esther. We are continuing along in this book tonight. We are in Esther chapter three. You'll find it on page 411, and the Bible's there in front of you,

Esther chapter three, to catch you up briefly where we are in this story. We've been introduced so far to three main characters. And then tonight is the fourth, uh, that we will be introduced to the King of Persia. His name was Ahasuerus. That's what we'll see in our text tonight. He also is known, better known perhaps by his Greek name of Xerxes. King Aho reigned in this ancient city of Persia from about 4 86 BC to 4 65.

And we've, we've also seen Mordecai. Mordecai was a Jew who lived in one of the capital cities here in this Persian empire, the city of Sosa. And then Mordecai had a cousin, her name was Esther, and Mordecai famously put Esther forth. She serves in the king's realm and eventually, uh, ascends and becomes queen to King Ahasuerus. And so as we come to chapter three tonight, we see the main plot of this entire book begin to take shape

as we are introduced to the fourth main character in this story. This is Haman. He is the antagonist of this story. This were a musical. This is where you would hear the minor keys start to play. Haman is the villain, uh, in Jewish culture. When this book is read, this story is recounted. Every time the word Haman is mentioned, the kids not saying you can do this tonight, but think in your heads the kids boo boo for Haman.

So as I say his names several times tonight, you can think in your head, boo. For Haman, Haman is the villain. We're gonna see this plot, uh, really begin to take shape here in Esther chapter three. Before you read it, let me pray and ask for God's help.

Lord, we thank you that you are truly a God of providence, that you preserve and you govern all of your people. Thank you for your most holy, wise and powerful plan. We pray that you would give us eyes to see and hearts that would understand and believe and to trust. And so we pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. So follow along. We're gonna consider and hear all of Esther chapter three tonight. After these things, king Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Aite,

the son of Hamad atha 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 for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. 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 for, he 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 made 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 Nissan in the 12th year of King, king Ahasuerus, they cast per, 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. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, there is 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 prophet to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. And I will pay 10,000 talents of silver and to the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that 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 Aite, the son of mha, the enemy of the Jews.

And the king said to Haman, the money is given to you. The people also do with them as it seems good to you. Then the king 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 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 Aus and sealed with the king's sign 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 and 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 Suse was thrown into confusion.

We are going to follow this narrative tonight in four parts. So lemme give you the four parts. First we're gonna look at Haman's promotion, then Haman's Fury, third Haman's plot, and then fourth haman's edict. So first Haman's promotion. You look back in beginning of chapter three, verse one. It says, after these things, the things that this verses referencing is what we saw last week. At the end of, or two weeks ago at the end of chapter two,

you'll remember Mordecai had heard of an assassination plot against King Ahasuerus. And upon hearing it, he tells it to Esther, who's already queen. And Esther then tells the king. And because of this, Ahasuerus was able to thwart this assassination plot. And then you see recorded there in verse 23, that Mordecai's deed was recorded in the book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king. It's a important detail that we'll see come,

come full circle in a few chapters. So after all these things, after all these things that Mordecai had done to save the king, we see in our text verse one that a haus promoted dot, dot, dot, not Mordecai, but he actually promoted Haman the aggregate. And this promotion, it says, the king advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. Here we see one of the many plot twists in this narrative.

Shirley Mordecai was the one who deserved to be honored by the king. He was the one that should have received this promotion. But without any explanation from our author, we see this unknown figure. Haman, the aga receiving the honor of the king, the one who deserved recognition, the one who deserved honor, whose good deed was even recorded in the king's official book. Mordecai is overlooked while Haman, without any explanation,

is elevated to this highest position. Now, later on in this story, we see Haman reference this promotion. So if you'll skip over just briefly to chapter five, if you'll look there at in verse 11, Haman is talking to his wife and his friends. So imagine that here's what he says to his wife and his friends. Verse 11, Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons and all the promotions which, which

with which the king had honored him. And yet keep your eyes there as looked down in verse 13. And yet this promotion was not enough for Haman. Here's what he says in verse 13. All of this, all of these wonderful things that I have, all of these great promotions, all of this is worth nothing to me as long as I see Mordecai, the Jew sitting in the king's gate in our text in chapter three, Haman is given the highest promotion, and yet he remains unfulfilled.

In fact, our text tells us he's furious. So here's Haman's theory. Look back in our text beginning in verse two, down to verse six. What we see here is a man who is not deserving of honor. That's what we see in verse two. Verse two tells us all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, but not because they wanted to. Four, the text tells us the king had so commanded concerning him.

Now, it was not uncommon to bow and pay respect to kings and officials and the Persian empire. In fact, most most cultures today would have a a tradition like this. So the command here strikes us as unusual. Why would the king need to command such great honor to be paid to Haman who has just been promoted to the highest place in this Ro, in this Persian empire? Well, it's because Haman is not an honorable man. His character is lacking.

He needs the king to command others to do what he himself cannot earn. And so following this command, all pay down or all bow down, all pay him homage except for one person, except for Mordecai. Now, the author doesn't explicitly comment here on Mordecai's motivations. Some reading this see a similarity with Daniel. You remember Daniel about a hundred years before this story, Daniel and his three friends are in Babylon,

and there they refused to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar and his golden image that he had set up. So perhaps here Mordecai is refusing from moral principle not to bow before Haman that that could be the case. However, as we've sort of already hinted at the words here, have the idea of bowing down and paying respect for someone in high office. It's not quite the same as being commanded to worship a false image. In fact, when it comes to Mordecai, the nar,

the narrator here does not give us a picture of him as a purely religious person. We've already seen this. Mordecai was okay sending Esther into the king's harem, and he even commanded her to keep silent about her religious identity in chapter two. And Mordecai himself, as we've already seen, he spent his days in the city gate suggesting that he had no problem giving proper honor and respect to other officials who would've been there.

Certainly Mordecai is no edge, Lord, seeking to be provocative in trying to turn everything into some kind of polemical debate. That's not the picture that we're given here of Mordecai. We see in verse three of our text that the king's servants are discussing this with Mordecai. They ask him this question, why do you transgress the king's command? And they speak with him. It says, day today in verse four, day after day, they're asking Mordecai, why account for this?

Why won't you bow down to Haman? And we're told there that Mordecai would not listen to them. Now what's interesting is there's a span of about five years between Esther's feast where she was crown Queen. Back in chapter two, verse 16, you'll see there that that feast took place in the seventh year of the King's reign. And then if you skip down to chapter in our chapter, chapter three, verse seven, we see that it's now the 12th year of the King's reign.

So there's five years that have that have elapsed between the events of the end of chapter two, where Mordecai hears of the plot reports it, and then Haman is elevated, he's promoted, and now Mordecai refuses to pay him honor. So for five years, Mordecai is in the gate, the king's servants are talking with him, discussing with him, trying to figure out why won't you pay Haman Honor? And it seems the only reason they could get from him is

what we see in verse four for he Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. Now whether Mordecai knew it or not, we see here another plot twist in this narrative. Another plot twist from the unseen hand of God. Mordecai's refusal is providentially prompted by ancestry. Previously when we were introduced to Mordecai in chapter two, we're told there chapter two verse five, that Mordecai was the son of Jaire, the son of Sheme,

son of Ki a Benjaminite. And now we're introduced to Haman, the son of mha and aggregate, these two ancestries are presenting for us a rematch as it were between Saul. Do you remember Saul who was a Benjaminite? And ironically, or we might say providentially, he was also the son of Ki, although that's a, these are two different people, but they had the same, the same name in their lineage. So Saul, who's the Benjamin Knight,

and you remember Saul's enemy, a gag king, a gag who was an amalekite. The story, if you know your Old Testament scriptures is recorded in one Samuel 15. There you'll remember, I'll recount briefly that story. The prophet Samuel comes to Saul and he reminds Saul of the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a nation of people who were the first to oppose Israel when they came out of Egypt. And so Samuel comes to Saul and God gives this command through Samuel to King Saul.

He says, strike Amalek and to destruction all that they have. And so for Samuel 15, Saul summons his army. He goes to war against king, a gag. He defeats the Amalekites. But then we're told that Saul let a gag live, he spared a gag, and he actually took some of the plunder from a G. When God had said, destroy it all, Saul was disobedient. And that caused, if you remember the Lord to say this through Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul King

for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And so now as we are here in Esther chapter three, we are seeing a showdown between Mordecai and Haman. And this is yet another episode in this age old conflict between God's nation and the powers that sought to destroy it. Now again, we're not given mordecai's motivations why he refused to bow down, but what we are seeing is the providential hand of God

as this age old rivalry is reconstituted, Mordecai refused to pay Haman honor and that provoked Haman. We see that in our text. Haman was provoked to wrath and theory. So look back again at verse five, Hamond it says, was filled with fury. The Hebrew word there is is important. This word for fury, it's the word hema. This word means fury, wrath, rage, or even venom. It's exactly the expression we saw again previously with the episode of Daniel where their Nebuchadnezzar,

it says, was filled with fury, the same thing. He was filled with Hema when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship the golden image. But instead of going after Mordecai directly here in our text, notice what Haman does. Verse six, he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So as they had made known to him, the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.

And that actually includes those Jews who have already returned back to the promised land and the temple has already been rebuilt and they're waiting and they're about to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. All the Jews are now subjected to this fury from Haman. What we see here in our text, this showdown is not just between God's people in Persia, but it also shows us the human heart against pride. Haman here gives us a case study of the destructive

power of pride. Pride is the sin that is most often under all other sins. You hear of this word pride. Well, what is pride? Well, we see it exemplified here in Haman. Pride we might say is preoccupation with yourself. This is exactly what we see in verse five. Haman was filled with fury. He was filled with Hema. In other words, Haman was full of himself. Here's a man who was promoted to the highest position within the kingdom.

His throne was actually above all the other officials. He had wealth, he had power, he had status, he had prestige. He desired honor, and yet he was not satisfied with the honor he had received. He was preoccupied with himself and this left him empty and unsatisfied. Pride is corrosive to our souls. It consumes us. Haman had everything, yet he was restless. He was insecure. His pride was destroying him from within. It was driving him mad, you might say, it's exactly

what we heard this morning as well in our sermon. He had everything, yet he had nothing. It's what caused him to say, all of this is worth nothing to me. As long as Mordecai lives. Is it not the case that our anger, our bitterness, our lying, our gossip, our impatience, our lack of love, our insecurity and on and on this list could go flows from our own preoccupation with ourself. If others don't affirm me, if they don't congratulate me,

if they don't serve me, if they don't honor me, we think to ourself, how dare they? Alright, pride leads us to places we don't want to go. Perhaps we never imagined we could go, but pride leads us to those places. It destroys us and it destroys others as well. So notice haman's plot. This is what we see beginning in verse seven, down through 11 again in verse six, we see there that the text tells us that sought to destroy the Jews later on.

There's two more places in the book of Esther, chapter eight, verse three, and then again in chapter nine, verse 24, where we're told that at this point in the story, Haman began to devise a plan. He plotted, or in our text, he sought the words, there are the words to think. He thought about it. In other words, pride is not passive, but rather in his pride, Haman is thinking, he's pondering, he's seeking to devise a plan

that would not only get Mordecai, but it would get all of Mordecai's people across the entire empire. Haman Deser desired honor. But the honor he received was actually a forgery, and he knew it. He knew he was a fraud. And so instead of humbling himself, his heart was filled with anger and his mind began to scheme. He began to plot his unchecked pride led him to plot the destruction of an entire people group. This has been the pattern

and the fruit of pride since the fall. Pride will not only kill you, it will destroy others in your life as well. Your family, your business, your friends, your church pride will destroy everything in its midst. The narrator here tells us how Haman devised this plot. So first, what did he do? The text tells us he cast per, this is an ancient Acadian word narrator tells us the GR or the Hebrew word. In parentheses, it's the word garal.

In Hebrew, it means lots. It's what we, it might think of as like small dice. Casting lots was actually a pretty common practice among God's people. Essentially these little dice, we think of dice and think of gambling, right? You throw the dice and luck would have it, certain outcome. But that's not what the lot was for Israel. The lot for Israel was a way of calling upon the Lord to seek his direction. It was a way of relying upon his providence

to direct the outcome. And so you might remember when Israel comes into the promised land, Joshua cast lots to assign the land to the 12 tribes or actually given a theology of lots. In Proverbs 16, verse 33, there it says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Why? Because the Lord is a Lord of providence. And so these lots, as Israel would use them a way of relying upon the Lord's providence.

Now, in ancient Persia, these Purim, that's the plural of per Purim, these purim were a form of divination. It was a way for them to seek divine favor or future direction. And so you'll see in verse seven that these officials, or these magi, as they would've been called during the time, they're looking up to the heavens, they're looking to the stars, they're casting these lots. It tells us in the first month, the month of Nissan,

they're doing it day after day until the 12th month. Now, there's an important difference here between lots and these pur lots are guided by divine providence, and thus they're accompanied with assurance from a personal God. But the Purim are driven by wishful fate and are thus counterfeits. They're ultimately dependent upon the imagination and schemes of men. And so Haman doesn't just cast lots. He then goes to the king.

He seeks the compliance of the king. And notice how Haman does this, his skillful manipulation. Verse eight, he says to the king, there's a certain people, he says, he doesn't name them. He doesn't say say who. He just says A, A certain people. This people he says are scattered abroad and they're dispersed among all the peoples in your provinces. Now, if you remember in chapter one verse one, we're told that at this time there were 127 provinces

under King Ahasuerus. According to the Roman historian, tus Xerxes, who was uh, or rather Xerxes father who was named Darius. Under Darius, there were 67 tribes and nations. And since the time of Darius, the empire has only expanded. If you put it in modern terms, this empire covers the region. Think of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, all of the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Jordan,

Israel, Lebanon, and North Africa, Egypt, Sudan and Libya. That's this area. Just imagine how many peoples, how many languages would've been under the empire at this time. And so Haman wisely craftily, he remains vague. And he says there's a, there's a certain people. And then he continues by appealing to this core virtue of every earthly king to loyalty. He says that this people, that their laws are different. They don't keep the king's laws.

According to Haman, this people has committed the ultimate sin of refusing to assimilate into Persian culture. Or even worse, they're subverting the laws of the king. And so notice what Haman's counsel is. He says, it is not to the king's prophet to tolerate them. You see, Persia was renowned for its tolerance. That's in part why this empire was able to grow so large. And yet all worldly tolerance has its limits. And then Haman has his final argument.

He puts a bunch of money on the table. Verse nine. He says, I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, almost the equivalent of an entire year's worth of tax revenue in the Persian empire. Haman says, I'll put 10,000 talents of silver toward this. We, we assume here that Haman must have been a man of wealth. He's also probably thinking of the plunder that he's hoping

to take from his genocidal campaign for Ahasuerus the King. It seems to be enough. So he's persuaded, he's won over by these arguments. And so he gives Haman this signe ring. It's the ultimate blank check for Haman. Now, Haman has full power. He has full authority of the king to execute his plan to the fullest. So the king says in verse 11, do with them as it seems good to you. I like what one commentator said about this line.

He says words like good take on an alien, meaning in the mouth of a tyrant. Haman's good was actually the annihilation of an entire people group. And so this all results in Haman's edict. This is verses 12 through 15, Haman's edict. We get to verse 12, and we're back in the first month on a very specific day, the 13th day. So presumably this is the next year after the events of what we just saw in seven through 11. So one year of casting these lots.

Now we're in the next year, uh, and this is Haman's edict. These events of Esther actually take place over 10 years. You can track the the, the years as they're laid out in chapters one, two, and three. So this final year, on this day, this first month on the 13th, the king scribes were summoned. And what do they do? They write this edict. We're told. It was written to all the provinces, to all the officials of all the peoples.

And it's written in different languages. And here's the edict. We see it in verse 13. Three words destroy, kill, and annihilate All Jews, young and old women and children, all of 'em destroy 'em all. That's a edict. This action we're told is to be commenced in one day, this one day that's supposed to be set apart, which they probably discerned through casting of the Purim this day of death. And they marked the calendar.

So in 11 months from this moment, on the 13th day of the 12th month of Adar, we see that in verse 13, this plot will take effect. Not only will all the people have license to kill, destroy and annihilate anyone who is Jewish, but they have license to plunder their goods, to take all their wealth and their possessions. This this decree, as we see in verse verse 14, it also ordered the people to get ready for this day, to prepare for it to market on their calendars

and make preparations for this great day that is about to come this day of death. I can't help but see in this the opposite of the great commission, right? Here's this proclamation, this invitation that's sent to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. But here, this is not good news. It's actually the opposite. It's the worst of news. This is a day of bloodshed and slaughter. Here we see, not the great commission, but a great massacre.

It's an edict not of life, but rather an edict of death. And notice how chapter three ends, we see another feast. Feasting is very prominent throughout the book of Esther. So here's another feast that takes place, but this feast is just the king and Haman. They sit down, they drink, they feast, they're reveling in this fellowship of death. And then it tells us the city was thrown into confusion. So what do we make of all of this?

What do we make of it all? In conclusion, I want to think for a minute where this story leaves us here at the end of chapter three, this place of confusion. If you were a non-Jew, if you were a gentile living within this empire, you've just been given notice, got it In the mail from your local official, you've received this edict that in 11 months you're given the command to destroy and kill and annihilate anyone who is Jewish.

All right? Perhaps your neighbors, the acquaintance down the streets, maybe the community that's living a block over. And if you're a Jew living in this empire, you've just received a death sentence. You have 11 months to live. Your calendar is marked as well, the 13th day, the 12th month. And on that day, you know that these vigilante death squads are coming to your door. So what do God's people do when faced with imminent persecution

and affliction like we see here in chapter three? What do we do when we feel the culture pressing down upon us when the so-called tolerance becomes intolerance for the truth? And how do we turn away from what we saw in the example of Haman, this grip of pride that's seeking to destroy us from within? So I want to give two answers to that question from our text. And these are two threads you might say in this tapestry of the book of Esther.

The first is this. I wanna take us back to the thread of ancestry. We're reminded in this text as we saw previously, that there's an ancient war that's taking place, the war between Saul and a gag. But even before Saul, as I mentioned, this battle had a prior iteration, and we read about it in Exodus 17. There you'll remember, Israel is coming out from Egypt and they're immediately attacked by the Amalekites. And you'll remember in that story

how Moses went up on a hill and when he is up on the hill, he would raise his arms to heaven. And whenever he did so Israel would prevail. And you remember that Aaron and her go up with him and help keep his arms lifted in order to secure the victory. Exodus 17, verse 14 tells us this. Then the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory

of a maleek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, the Lord is my banner an saying, a hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with a maleic from generation to generation. Esther three is a reminder to us of the Lord's war with Amalek. It's just simply playing itself out in another generation, in Mordecai's generation. This is the same battle that will echo forth into history.

Even when we get to the book of Revelation, where we see there a dragon who gives his authority to a beast, another earthly power, and this earthly power who has great authority in great pride and arrogance, demands honor and worship of the people. And this beast makes war upon the saints and seeks to conquer them. This is the battle that rages in every generation. The wrath and theory of Haman is seeking to devour the people of God.

And just as God's people in Exodus face this mighty foe of a maleic, they looked to the hill and they saw Moses and Moses there on the hill. His arms are raised as this banner over them. And so for the believer today, there's a banner that flies over us. The Lord himself is our banner. He is the only banner under which when we bow and when we pay homage to him, we're actually strengthened and we're raised up to the highest honor.

You see one of the great ironies here in this story in Esther chapter three, had Mordecai simply bowed to Haman, this entire saga would never have happened. Isn't that amazing? Presumably Haman would not have had the impetus to plot and to scheme for the death of the Jews. He would not have issued this edict of death. And so whether Mordecai really realized it at the time or not, his obedience was costly. His obedience forced him

and all of God's people to look with the eyes of faith, with great trust and in great dependence to the Lord who is our banner, to trust this Lord of providence, that he would act justly and to do what is right. Our obedience as well is costly. What we see here in chapter three is one man's obedience, however small and however imperfect it may have been his obedience leading to condemnation for the entire Jewish people,

but it was also providing an opportunity to see something greater that no one at this moment in the confusion of chapter three, no one would have expected except perhaps by faith. Perhaps they did because at this very moment something else was happening and we don't see it. It doesn't jump out at us in the text, but it's there. So here's the second thread. This is the thread of timing. So notice the calendar. The calendar here is very important.

Back in verse 12, you remember that this edict was written on the 13th day of the first month. So at the very moment that this edict was being written all across the empire, the Jews were preparing for something else. Here's what numbers 28, verse 16 tells us on the 14th day of the first month, so the very next day on the 14th day of the first month is the Lord's Passover. So how ironic or better stated, how providential that this edict

of death was actually issued on the very eve of Passover. So the very next day, as the couriers are hurrying out to deliver this edict of death, God's people were making joyful preparations to celebrate the Passover. And you remember what the Passover was? This annual celebration that reminded them of another edict of death when on one day the angel of death would pass through the camp both Israel and Egypt, but for all who had the blood of the lamb upon the doorpost

of their house, the Lord's judgment would pass over one day of judgment, just like one day for Haman's plot. Esther chapter three is yet another reminder that we have a providential God who fights for us and who even dies for us Christ, our Passover lamb who became a sacrifice of atonement for us. One man's obedience leading to justification for many who stepped in to cancel this edict of death that is against us. And so whether it's an edict from a king

or perhaps even more dangerous, the pride that lurks so deep within our hope as we see here in Esther three, is to look not inward, not with eyes full of pride, but to look upward with eyes of faith. Look up to the hill to see the Lord who is our banner, the Lord who canceled the edict of death against us by nailing it to the cross. Humble yourself under this Lord, under this banner, and he will exalt you. He will promote you,

and he will satisfy you beyond anything that this world can offer. Join me as I pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us your word, and we thank you for showing us in real history how your providence plays out for your people. I pray that for each one of us in this room tonight, you would give us eyes of faith to see Christ, to see the Lord who is our banner, to see Christ, our Passover lamb who died to take away this edict

of death that is against us. Would you strengthen us? Would you raise us up? Would you give us the honor that we do not deserve, but that we get when we look to you with eyes of faith, we ask this and pray in Jesus name, amen.