As we learned in Berea Academy, the Bible speaks of and testifies of Jesus. Jesus is the One who fulfilled God’s will. Therefore, it can be said that the Bible is about God’s will. And that will of God took effect between three spiritual beings. What happened between God and angels, especially the devil, and man? What is happening between them? This can be found in the Bible. Hence, it can be said that the Bible is about three spiritual beings.

And what occurs between them takes place in three heavens – God’s will, which was planned and accomplished in heaven; which is accomplished in the universe, and that which is accomplished on earth. Therefore, it can be said that the Bible is also about what is accomplished in three heavens.

But they did not happen all of a sudden, but were prophesied in the Bible. Those prophecies were scattered as separate puzzle pieces, and it was hard to see the complete picture as separate pieces. However, later Jesus came and fulfilled those prophecies, and then sent the Holy Spirit so that we may understand what the Scriptures are about. Thus, the pieces come together as one picture.

When that happened, the Bible became engaging. Prior to that, the Bible was uninteresting. Because the pieces were separate and scattered, we could not understand, and therefore, the Bible was uninteresting. Yet it is so intriguing now that we know the truth and the Picture of God’s Will through the Holy Spirit. It is one narrative throughout the Bible. And we have the joy of putting those pieces together and understanding the whole picture.

The shock we get when we understand the Bible is what makes us become witnesses. We need to be shocked in our hearts to some degree in order to become witnesses. That is, we need to have that “eureka!” moment, because then we will testify passionately about it. Without it, we will feel no excitement. But witnesses are excited and joyful to share what they know.

Moreover, witnesses have great joy in sharing with those who are yet to understand. It is thrilling when we see other people coming to understand, and that leads us to testify more to them. For this reason, if we do not meet more people who are yet to know about The Picture of God’s will, we will not experience that joy. But the more we experience that joy and excitement, the greater our awareness will be that there are so many souls who want to know the truth and that more people do need to know about it. Then, we will fervently share this.

For myself, in Korea, I thought everyone already knew about it, especially because the people around me were Christians in Sungrak Church. However, when I went over to China, people were astounded when I shared only one-tenth of what I knew, and many signs of God were done. I was amazed and continued to share with them. God’s signs were manifested, and that is how I became a witness. So I realized that there are so many people who do not know this. Because I saw that most people did not know about this, I felt the need to share this quickly.

I feel that even more because I know how miserable I was when I did not know this truth. I experienced how dreadful and horrible it was when I did not know this truth. I think everyone needs to have that experience. It was literally like hell. So by the time I came before Jesus, I admitted it myself, “I am a sinner.” I admitted that. Of course, before that, I was already told that I am a sinner, but I did not own up to that. But when evangelists were no longer around me and I was lost all by myself, seeking and searching for the truth in this world and failed, I was in despair. I thought, ‘This is the sinner right here. What else am I? I am a cursed man. I am cursed. Not only I but every man is cursed.’ I admitted that. ‘There is no happiness. There is no happiness on earth. I can laugh, but I am not happy.’ I admitted that too. I said to myself, “Even if I make a fortune in the future and good things happen to me that make me smile, I am a woeful man without happiness. Never forget that.” In the midst of that, another evangelist came to me and said, “You are a sinner.” And this time I agreed, “Yes.” But then the evangelist said, “I met the truth.” And this sounded totally new to me. ‘How did this person come to know the truth? I wish I had an experience to be sure like him.’ So I followed him and then got to meet God and experience myself.

That state of misery when I did not know the truth, which probably everyone has experienced, is when I was a sinner. That is the sinner. I repented of that. If I admitted that I was a sinner and yet thought that life as a sinner was bearable and not too bad, then I have not repented properly. But that life I lived as a sinner was so unbearable, horrible, and depressing that I wanted to end my life and did not even want to think about it. So I wept and wailed, like an animal. Because my life was hopeless. I thought, ‘How can someone’s life be like this? I’m so helpless. My heart, my soul yearns for what is everlasting. There is some strange being inside me that longs for eternal love and eternal happiness, but love keeps changing.’ When a person is in love with someone but that someone leaves them, it is so hard to bear that feeling and situation that they even want to die, or kill someone, or just ruin everything. So I wondered, ‘Why do I have such a yearning for the everlasting? But why isn’t there anything that lasts forever in this world? It’s so paradoxical.’ That is why I wept and wailed. ‘Who is it that’s done this to me? Who made me come into existence? If God is out there, come and show Yourself to me!’ When you are in that sort of state, what would you not be capable of doing? I was so confused and lost. In that state, I was capable of doing anything.

Presently, people like that are all over the streets. People whose minds are disoriented and lost are out there. We do not know who they are. But for them, stabbing another person is no big deal; driving a car into a person and killing them is not even news to them; waiting outside a daycare centre with a knife and threatening people with it because they seem happier than themselves is no big deal. In China, these incidents occur so often. Recently, a car rushed into Tian’anmen Square, killing several people. Stabbing in front of daycare centres is common too. That is the way the world is going. It will get worse in our children’s generation.

People are losing patience. Apparently, there is an increase in dating violence. So ladies, when you are about to break up with your boyfriend, be ready to die. I saw the statistics of the number of people who died after breaking up with their partners, and it was quite high. And it is on the rise. Experts researched why and found that at least in the previous generations, like when we were growing up, people were taught about self-control at home and disciplined. However, in the modern generation, children are raised as egocentric people, especially since a lot of families only have one child. Such children are used to their loving mother doing everything they ask for. They receive the undivided love and attention of their mothers. Therefore, when a person they love turns away from them, they do not know how to handle it. They are in denial.

So I can see where they are coming from. Furthermore, to break up with someone they slept with and believed would love them forever would be a bombshell. That is why people react so radically, to even kill their loved ones and themselves. They can not handle the situation and explode with rage. And these good-natured young people turn into violent murderers all of a sudden. Some even turn against their parents in this way. It is just that we do not see much of it in the news, but it is happening more than we are aware of. According to the statistics, dozens of such cases occur every day, even between married couples.

What are all those people yearning for? Eternal love. They are seeking something that will satisfy their eternal longing. But they can not find it. Some might say that it is harder to evangelize, considering the way our society is heading. However, it may not be the case. It may turn out to be advantageous for us to evangelize. If there is an increase in the suffering of people who can not find the everlasting, that means it is that much easier for them to admit that they are sinners, which means they can accept the gospel.

It is unnecessary to say that the present times are making it harder to evangelize. Even if that were true, there is no reason for us to make a hasty generalisation. The world has already been corrupt since ancient times. This means souls are really yearning and hungry. We have no time to lose.

The passage we read in the Book of Esther does not really mention God. However, it is an interesting story to read about. It is like watching a drama, is not it? This story was actually a parable. It is fascinating. It is pretty much a scaled-down version of the 2nd righteousness of “The Picture of God’s Will.” And the Book of Esther encompasses all the details relating to the eradication of the devil. Of course, it does incorporate all the elements of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd aspects of The Picture of God’s Will; however, it covers the fundamentals of destroying the devil.

When one reads this without the Holy Spirit, he cannot understand what it is indicating. It simply appears to be a story relating to the Persian kingdom. However, it clearly depicts what will take place in the future. Some people think these stories are fiction because we say that they are parables. In other words, they think these events never occurred in real life but were made up to illustrate what is to come. But they are in error. These events did occur historically, but they are also illustrations of future events.

Generally, we would think a parable (illustration) would need to be planned out. How can an event already past be an illustration for what is yet to happen in the future? Well, that is why God is God. An event that took place in history can become an illustration of a future event. The men who wrote about it did not even know this, but God already knew. Thus, the more we read and know about the Bible, we cannot help but acknowledge the works of God.

This happened in the Persian Empire. Persia rose as one of the greatest empires in history, and it was God who raised up this empire and made Esther become queen so that He might use them as a parable to illustrate the coming of Jesus Christ. So all these events were used to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ. The rise of one empire and the fall of another were all in God’s plan.

Haman was the prime minister of the king of Persia, and he hated the Jewish people. The reason he hated them was on account of Mordecai. While everybody else bowed down to Haman, Mordecai refused to bow. Also, Haman was the descendant of an enemy nation of Israel. That nation disrupted the way of the Israelites when they tried to enter the land of Canaan long ago. Thus, the Israelites were taught to treat them as their enemies. Even if Haman was the prime minister of a kingdom, Mordecai dealt with him as an enemy and refused to bow down to him while everyone else did. Every day when Haman came outside, all the people bowed low to the ground except Mordecai; he stood tall with his head up. Haman did not show his anger in front of those many people, but he enquired about who Mordecai was, and when he found out he was a Jew, Haman hated him all the more.

Since Haman was becoming more powerful in his position, he decided to use his power to destroy Mordecai and the Jewish nation altogether. He knew how Israel regarded his nation as their enemy. So he devised a plot to annihilate the Jewish people. On account of Mordecai, all the Jewish people were on the brink of losing their lives.

This is an illustration of how, on account of Jesus Christ, the devil considers everyone who belongs to Jesus Christ as his enemy. Haman had prepared gallows in his house, which later became a pattern of the cross. He was planning to hang Mordecai on the gallows, but due to a sequence of events, Haman ended up hanging on the gallows. It was a shocking end.

What happened was, the queen prayed to God and then went before the king. The queen was not permitted to see the king without being called for. If the king dismisses her, she would be put to death. The king must look upon her with favour. Then he would stretch out his sceptre towards her. He asked her what her wish was. She requested that a banquet be held where only the king, the queen, and Haman would be present. And it was at the banquet that she told the king. “Please save me and my people.” The king asked, “What do you mean?” She answered, “Someone is trying to kill me and my people!” The king demanded who that person was. He was very angry.

The king arose and went outside in his wrath. He needed to calm himself down a bit. In that moment, Haman came before the queen, holding the hem of her skirt and pleading for his life. He had thrown himself on top of the knees of the queen. That is when the king came back inside. Perhaps he was thinking of letting Haman go this time. But he saw Haman with his head buried on top of the queen’s knees and holding on to her skirt. The king was enraged. “Is he now trying to assault the queen?” That is what the king said.

The moment that these words fell out of the king’s mouth, something interesting happened. The servants who were present immediately covered Haman’s face. As soon as the words of wrath left the king’s mouth, Haman’s face was covered so that he could not be seen anymore. The king did not even need to command the servants to tie him up. The servants came up and covered his face. And he was taken away. Then the servants said to the king, “Mordecai, who has saved the king’s life, is in danger of losing his life! Haman has made a gallows to hang him on it.” The king answered, “Is that so? Then hang Haman on his gallows.” And Haman was hanged.

This is a clear illustration of what happened to Jesus Christ. The devil prepared the cross to hang Jesus Christ on it. However, in the end, who do you see hung on the cross? It is not Jesus Christ. What do we see? We see the devil cursed on the cross and the sins of man crucified on it. He got caught in his own trap. So it seemed like everything came to a happy ending. But did it? No.

The problem has only just begun. The problem was that a decree was written in the name of the king, according to Haman’s command, to kill all the Jews on the thirteenth of the twelfth month. That decree was issued many years back, and the decree had been proclaimed in all 127 provinces. It was not via phone call or an email that it was proclaimed, but couriers on horses travelled for months to deliver the letters. All the people in the Persian kingdom were therefore waiting for that day to come. They envied and hated the Jewish people. Because they had a grudge against them, they were looking forward to the day they could destroy them.

Since the letters were sealed with the king’s signet ring, the king himself could not revoke the decree. That is how it is with God’s law. Thus, the word which is problaimed in God’s name cannot be revoked even by God Himself. For this reason, Jesus warned saying, “The words I have spoken to you will judge on that day.” Even Jesus cannot take back His words. Hence, whoever disobeys His words cannot escape judgment. He said there will be no forgiveness in this age and in the age to come. The words spoken through the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name cannot be revoked.

Going back to the Jews, if that day arrives, the Jews were going to be annihilated. So Esther pleaded with the king. “Please issue another decree to revoke the letters devised by Haman.” The king thought that would not be possible. Previously, he had given his signet ring to Haman and entrusted him with full power. But he took that off Haman and gave it to Mordecai and told him to take care of the situation as was pleasing to the Jews.

The Jews needed wisdom and to act shrewdly. So what did they do? It is described very briefly here, but they needed wisdom. They simply can not write a letter saying, “Cancel the previous decree.” They had only one option. There was no way of stopping the attack planned against the Jews. It is a decided fact. The only option was to fight back.

Previously, they had no authority to fight back. They were going to die helplessly. Because it was the king’s decree. But the king sent out another letter with the decree that permitted the Jews to fight back. They were permitted to gather together, prepare weapons, increase their forces, and be ready, so that when the enemies strike them on the day, they could fight back and kill the enemies. They were given permission to destroy and kill any people who were against them and to plunder their possessions.

Thus, the letter containing this decree was sent out. But they did not have much time. It was the twenty-third day of the third month when the decree was issued, but the assault was planned for the thirteenth of the twelfth month. It is a period of 9 months they had on hand. However, for the couriers riding on horses to go through all the provinces of Persia, the distances to travel were long, the conditions were harsh, and and roads were rugged, with deserts on the way.

Let us say that the couriers arrived on the twelfth of the twelfth month, with the news that the Jews can fight back. The next day is the day the enemies will strike them, and the Jews will not have any time to prepare weapons or be ready to battle. Thus, the news had to reach them fast in order that the people could increase their forces, prepare weapons, and have reserves of food. The key was to get the letters to them as quickly as possible, in order to save the lives of the Jews.

So Mordecai did not delay writing up a letter with the command for the Jews to come together and fight back on the day of the assault. In verse 14, it says, “Hastened and pressed on by the king’s command.” They were hastened and pressed on. “The couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s command. And the decree was issued in Shushan the citadel.”

Think about it. When the couriers are sent out with the decree, thousands of horses set off. Thousands of horses are galloping fast. They are not ordinary horses but chosen swift horses. And along the way, if a horse gets worn out, they would switch to another horse. They had stations in those days. They did not stop for the horses to rest and regain their energy before setting off again. The horses had to gallop as fast as they could, and if they could not go any further, they would be left at a station where the couriers would jump on another horse. By doing so, they were able to continue the journey without stopping. Because the aim was to get the letter to the people as quickly as possible. And they proclaimed the decree in every province – 127 in total – of Persia.

If the letter did not reach them quickly, the people would not be properly armed and ready for battle, even if they knew they could fight back. They would be destroyed. The key was speed. They had to ride swiftly. Look at the words used here. “Hastened and pressed on by the king’s command.” They were pressed on and hastened by the king’s command. The king’s command hastens them to go quickly. As if horsewhipping, the king’s command pressed them to act fast. They had to take the king’s command and advance quickly.

Who did we say were the people who received the king’s command? They are messengers with a calling. This is called ministry or calling. These couriers who went out on horses were messengers with a calling. Thus, anyone with a calling has to be like these couriers. The king’s command is urgent. And the messengers have to run in haste. They have to spread the news. What happens in every place where the news is spread? People will be full of joy. They know they are saved. So in chapters that follow, Mordecai rejoices, and people in Shushan the citadel rejoice. In verse 17, it says, “And in every province and city, wherever the king’s command decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews because fear of the Jews fell upon them.” The day had not yet arrived, but the people still rejoiced at the news. They were saved.

And if the king has their backs, which of the leaders in the provinces would support the enemies? They would stand by the Jews whom the king supports. They would want to become Jews themselves and bring any weapons they had to the Jews. So even before the battle began, it was game over. The Jews could boldly say, “Attack us if you can!” while the enemies trembled, knowing they were going to die. Nevertheless, they did not have a choice but to fight the Jews. They knew they were going to be destroyed, but they had to attack. Why? Whether they sit still and die or fight and die, they will die either way. The tables had turned. The enemies had no choice but to fight because either way, they were going to die.

In the same way, the demons and the devil have no choice but to attack. That is their last resort – to assault Christians. They have no other option. But if Christians fall and die under their assault, they are fools. The enemies were attacking the Jews, but they already knew exactly what was going to happen. ‘Even if we strike them, they will fight back and we will be destroyed.’ With that in mind, they were fighting for their lives.

However, if the Jews are not on guard, then the enemies would know that the Jews did not hear the news and strike them with the sword to victory. They would think, “What’s wrong with them? Maybe they didn’t hear the news.” They would destroy them. But the Jew who heard the news would not shrink away but fight back hard and destroy their enemies.

The enemies attack knowing they are going to die. When the demons attack, they already know that they are going to be destroyed, cursed, and driven out. But if we fear them, the demons will call us a fool and strike even harder. But if we strike them first in Jesus’ name, they will get out as expected. We can observe these spiritual principles here.

If as messengers, we do not spread this news to people, they will be under attack like fools. The messengers have to proclaim this news in haste. But how many churches in the world acknowledge that we can drive out demons in Jesus’ name, and how many of them acknowledge that God sent Jesus and already condemned the devil? Hardly any. Only churches that have come into contact with Berea know this. Thus, we have to let more people know. We can not take it easy. The king’s command is urgent. We need to rise up quickly and whip the horses to run faster. That is exactly what we are doing. We need to quickly supply this teaching to people, teach them Berea Academy, and guide them through the Lord’s Day sermons as to how they can utilize the word, apply the word, and obey.

For this work, God has given us this digital age with the internet so that we may run faster. God deemed that running is too slow and gave us the internet so that we can instantly send this to people. Yet if the messengers are not even doing this work when it does not even cost us any money, what would happen to the messengers? They will be rebuked. The people of this generation will be subject to harsher rebuke than those of past generations. More will be demanded from those who are given more. If God opened up ways and provided us with the conditions to do this work, we have to work in haste.

Up until 2005, we could not send mp3 files to China because the size was too big. But from some time ago, we were able to send mp3 files, up to about 5GB. I am so thankful. At first, we could only send Word documents. But since we were able to send 5GB, we split the files, which were usually 20GB, because we did not have programs to reduce the file size. Later on, we cropped the files and reduced the file size, but they would still be about 10GB. We had to split them and send them as separate files. But when the time came, Empas (Korean internet service provider) increased the file size so that we could send up to 10GB. Now we can send 10GB files in one go, because usually sermons are about 9GB when cropped. It is great for the people to listen to. We have all these tools provided for us to send the word. Yet if we are not doing our work properly, we will be in trouble.

Not everyone in the church has this mindset. Some believe this teaching needs to be protected and guarded. That is the basic attitude that people have. They are willing to give the word only to those who submit to them. However, because we have a different perspective, we made requests in the church so that we are now able to send sermons to other countries and within Korea as well. Things need to change. People’s perspective has to change in order for us to carry out this ministry effectively.

Let us pray that we, as messengers, can fulfil our duties and be hastened by the king’s command. Let us pray that we will be pressed on by the king’s command.