 The person who walks through the world and sees no God, is declared by inspired authority to be a fool.  But the wise man’s eyes, with an inner sight, discovers God at work everywhere.

 Psalm 115:3  Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.  Psalm 135:6  Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

 Though God may at times seem distant, but He is always actively at work.  Though absent by name from this book, God is present in every scene and in the movement of every event,  until He brings everything to a marvelous climax as He proves Himself Lord and Savior of His people.

 What you have in Esther is not a whole lot of miracles.  There is nothing like the Red Sea opening up, or the walls of Jericho falling down.  But you do have all kinds of interwoven circumstances as God works His will.

 The root meaning of providence is foresight  It also assumes activity arising from foresight  There is only One who has foresight, so only He is able to act on the basis of foreknowledge.  Divine foreknowledge and the Divine activity which arises from it.

 This is what we see demonstrated in the Book of Esther.  The crisis about which the book is written is providentially anticipated  and then providentially overruled at just the crucial moment.

 Esther is set on the stage of real history  Ahasuerus, the Persian monarch;  Vashti, the deposed queen;  Haman, the Jew-hater;  Mordecai, the Jewish leader;  Esther, the orphaned Jewish girl who became queen.

 By the king's command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. (NIV)

 Xerxes was under the control of wine  Xerxes was a proud man  Xerxes sought to selfishly promote her  Xerxes could not coerce his own queen  Xerxes could not control his own heart

"Gluttony just killed that fish."

 Xerxes was under the control of wine  Xerxes was a proud man  Xerxes sought to selfishly promote her  Xerxes could not coerce his own queen  ______could not control his own heart

 Do not be controlled with strong drink or anything else.  Instead submit to Christ for salvation and then let the Holy Spirit take control.  Be encouraged that God can even use our failures to grow our faith in Him.