We direct your attention tonight,
first of all, before we get to the book of Esther, we direct
your attention to the book of Philippians again. This is where
we started last time. And truly, the Lord has, ooh,
we'll have the song at the close. Truly, the Lord has blessed us
with some of the significance of this verse of scripture. And
it was brought to my attention today, again, about this verse
playing out in each of our lives. Where were your parents from?
And what did they have to know about the gospel? What about
your grandparents? What about your great-grandparents?
And they were all put into a place that would end up with us where
we are. They were the ones that brought
the lost sheep into this world. And whether they had a relationship
with God or not. My family, I can't find very
many that did, but there was a furtherance of the gospel in
every one of those instances, how they would bring to us, give
us birth, and then we'd be able to hear the gospel. Well, here
in the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, and when I read
this, I also think about our brother Job. He had been given
some tremendous agony by God. And three guys that he is acquainted
with comes to him and not one of those guys had any comfort
for him. All they did was say, if you
hadn't have done this or you hadn't sinned like this, this
wouldn't be your problem. And so we need to be very careful
in our own lives that we're not that way when we see someone
that's going through a serious problem that, well, I wonder
what they did. Well, just as the Lord said about
the man born blind. Neither he nor his parents sinned,
but that the glory of God might be made manifest. Well, here
in the book of Philippians, chapter 1, verse 12, the Apostle Paul
is in prison, and he has some of those friends, too, that keep
telling people if he hadn't have done something wrong, he wouldn't
be where he is. Well, he had preached the gospel, and that's
where he is. That's how he got there. He's
been arrested for preaching the gospel. He did this very same
thing in his early life. He had people arrested and put
into prison for preaching the gospel that he didn't agree with,
but the Lord saved him, and now he has a compassion for the gospel,
he has a compassion for God, and he's able to see through
all of this stuff that this fell out for the furtherance of the
gospel. All right, but I would, ye should
understand, brethren, Philippians 1, verse 12, I would you should
understand, brethren, that the things which have fallen out
rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." Now, that word furtherance
has some significance. It's for the progress or the
advancement of the gospel. And it's used a couple of other
times in the New Testament. Another time in the book of Philippians,
the same chapter that we're in, down in verse 25, the same word
is used in this verse. It tells us here, and it's translated
the same way, and having this confidence, I know that I shall
abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy
of faith. This has happened for your furtherance
of faith. And Lord only knows we need faith
every day. Now we're given faith in Christ,
but He gives us faith every day to trust Him. And then also we
find in the book of 1 Timothy, I think it is, 1 Timothy chapter
4. It's either 1 or 2, and we're
going to find out here momentarily. 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse,
no, it's going to be 2 Timothy chapter 4. Nope. Hmm. The word is profiting. That
they're profiting. And I've written it down and
I checked this three times. Anyway, we'll go on. The furtherance
of the gospel and if you'll look with me backing up to the book
of Ephesians chapter 1 Now when we get into the study of the
book of Esther We're going to find out these things happen
for the furtherance of the gospel and we're also going to find
out again What is said here in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
11 in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. Now whatever God is going to
give His people the knowledge that things fall out for the
furtherance of the gospel, and also they don't happen without
His purpose. All things worketh according
to the purpose of Him that worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. Now, as we study this wonderful
book of Esther, we're going to go through 10 chapters And we're
going to see that God did not perform one miracle in 10 chapters. We say, well, he's going to have
to do something to get those Jews to be delivered. He let
things fall out for the furtherance of the gospel, and he worked
all things after the counsel of his own will. And he is going
to use one of the meanest men the world has ever seen. These
men that ruled in this day and time were not very forgiving
men, and they did not care whose lives they took. And we're going
to read about Esther having a great fear about stepping into the
presence of her very own husband. Because if he does not drop that
scepter, she's going to be taken out and killed. That is the rule. If I don't want you in my presence,
I will let you know and you will be taken out and killed. Now
we find even in that, all things worked out for the furtherance
of the gospel. And all things worked out according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now, I gave you a piece of paper
that has the kingdom of the empire of the Medes and the Persians.
And in our opening reading in the book of Esther, let's go
over there, in the book of Esther, and we're going to start with
chapter 1, and we're going to read a few verses of Esther,
chapter 1 tonight. And I just, I looked and looked
online for this and I couldn't get it to print, and then I found
a Bible. It had this in the back of it, so I just used it. And
I enlarged it so we could read it. But the kingdom that was
under Ahasuerus was a huge kingdom for that time. It stretched,
as you notice here, clear over into what we know as part of
Greece, all the way over to what we know as part of India. Now,
it doesn't tell me here how many miles that is across there, but
it is a long ways. And then it reached up towards
the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and down into Northern Africa,
Egypt, and across it had what we know as Israel in part of
its domain. It was a huge. huge empire. And this is brought out here
in the book of Esther. Let us read here in chapter 1,
verse 1, 2, 3, and 4. Now, it came to pass in the days
of Ahasuerus. This is Ahasuerus which reigned
from India even unto Ethiopia. Huge block of land. And this
has been taken over in times past by other kings and more
has been added to it by Ahasuerus. Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful
king that was ruling over this part of the world. Most of the
kings that came to pass in this part of the world, in this particular
kingdom, and this Artaxerxes that we read here, or Ahasuerus,
who many people feel he was Artaxerxes, was murdered. by some of his
own friends so that someone else could rise to power. That was
usually the way it took place. That was the elections of the
day. Well, here we have, now it came to pass in the days of
Ahasuerus, this Ahasuerus which reigned from India even into
Ethiopia. Now, we're not going to find
the name of God found in this book. We're not going to find
any of this book quoted in the New Testament. we're going to
find out that there was a lot of wrangling going on. And I'm
not going to bring that up because I'm content. I have faith that
this book is in the book because that's where it's supposed to
be. And since it ended up here, God purposed it to be there.
It is his word. It is part of what we read in
the book of first Peter. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy ghost. And who authored this? There's
some question about it. I know who authored it. The Holy
Spirit. Now, I don't know who the secretary
was. Might have been Mordecai. I don't know. But it doesn't
matter. The author of every book of the Bible is the Holy Spirit.
So I don't have to wonder how in the world could Moses know
all that information. God, the Holy Spirit, gave it
to him. And he was faithful enough to write it down. Even though
he may not have understood it all, he wrote it down. Now, that's
what happened here with the book of Esther. It is God's Word to
us. And though God's name is not
mentioned in here, and though it's not quoted in the New Testament,
it is the Word of God, and I believe that we have no name of God in
here for a good reason. He wants us to show, to see,
that even though it doesn't appear that God is dealing with things,
His name is not brought out, He is dealing with everything.
He's the one that protected his people in Israel through a beautiful
woman. And you know what? God let a
lustful king choose a beautiful woman to be his wife. There was
nothing else to be said about that man. He was a, he was a
hard man. And he was, well, we just read
about what's going on here. It says he reigned from India,
even into Ethiopia over 120 seven provinces. So all of this territory
is divided up some way among people that he believed were
loyal to him, or he wouldn't have put them there, and they
have been invited to come to his shushan, the palace, to party
with him, leaving someone else in rule. that in those days when
the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which
was in Shushan the palace. Now, the Holy Spirit wants us
to understand that we're dealing with a great king with a mighty
power and with lots of property under his belt. He has many people
ruling with him and for him. He has a great deal of authority
and he's a great deal of power. Now we're going to spend some
time tonight, not so much on the power of this man, but who
is overruling this man. That's what the Bible has to
say about it. Who is taking care of all of this? The Lord God
almighty is over it. All right. It goes on to tell
us here in verse three, in the third year of his reign, he made
a feast. upon all his princes and his
servants the power of Persia and Media. Did you notice that?
The power. of Persia and media. When you
look at this, one man cannot take care of all of this without
having appointed somebody else to help him rule over it. So
we have people that are going to be speaking Indo-European,
Indian. We're going to have people that
are going to be speaking Greek. We're going to have people that
are speaking the land of the Libyans there in in Northern
Africa, the language of the Egyptians. He's going to appoint people.
And I would dare say there is probably 127 different languages
that are represented at his table. But they all can communicate
with him and he can communicate with them. And they're all invited
to this party. And it tells us as it goes on here, the nobles
and princes of the prophets being before him. When he showed the
riches of his glorious kingdom, This man has power, this man
has riches, this man has authority, and this man is in the hand of
God. He's ruling because God put him there. The prince's hand,
the prince's heart, Is in the hand of the Lord and he's the
one that turns it like rivers of water turns it wither so every
will So he's appointed this man to be here and he's appointed
this man to have a great deal of authority And it tells us
that he has called together They're going to have a party and this
party is going to be even and a hundred and four scored days
a hundred and eighty days a partying of revelry Now there's no way
that we can imagine, well maybe we can, what's going to go on
for 180 days? There's going to be drunkenness,
there's going to be all kinds of things going on here, but
He is showing His power and we're seeing through this that God
is in control of all of it. He is the one that is behind
it. He's the one that is doing it
all behind the scenes. He doesn't reveal to Ahasuerus
like he did to Nebuchadnezzar. And we're going to read that
in just a minute. He reveals something to Nebuchadnezzar that
he never, we have no record of him ever revealing to Ahasuerus.
Now he revealed it to his wife. He revealed it to Esther, he
revealed it to Mordecai, he revealed it to some others, but he didn't
seem to reveal it to Ahasuerus. Now Ahasuerus is going to act
on his own impulses, but we're going to find out that God oversees
even that. The wrong, he's the only one
that can make good out of wrong. Now I've had people say, and
Paul, had this brought to his attention, and he's just snipped
it off in the bud. Shall we sin that grace may abound? Absolutely
not. That's not the purpose of grace.
That's not why we're given grace. So as we look at this, we're
going to follow this thread through here that God is overseeing even
the minutia in this great book, how he is doing all his purpose
from behind the scenes. And much of it, he's letting
natural man do what he thinks he should do. yet it is God in
the background. The book of Esther gives us some
account of some of the Jews which did not return to Jerusalem under
Ezra and Nehemiah. Now why wouldn't they go? I don't
know. When we went through the book
of Ezra we commented maybe they had good jobs. Maybe they married. I don't know. But there's a bunch
of people that are there. Now they're there for 70 years.
And during that time, there's going to be quite a few children
born. Now I didn't realize until I was looking tonight that there
relatively was few people taken out of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar
over to Babylonian captivity. But he took all of the elite.
He took all of the powerful away. Now, turn with me, if you would,
because we're going to do a little background here. Turn with me,
if you would, to the book of 1 Chronicles 36. In 1 Chronicles
36, since we're going to have a bunch of Jews that are living
there in this kingdom of Persia and Media Persia, And they're
going to be threatened. Their lives are going to be threatened.
They're there because God brought them into captivity. And here
in the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 36. 1 Chronicles chapter 36.
2 Chronicles chapter 36. 2 Chronicles chapter 36 verse
5. We are at the very tail end of
kings reigning that were related to David. And this is Judah and
Benjamin. This is the two tribes. The rest
of them have already gone. And I was visiting with Brother
Ed the other day, and I said, you know, but even at that, there
was a lady of the tribe of Asher that came and worshipped the
Lord in the book of Luke. So he knew where his people were.
whatever tribe they were, and most of them were just dispersed.
But here, Jehoiachin, verse 5, was 20 and 5 years old when he
began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and he
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Against
him came up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bound him in
fetters, and carried him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried the
vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his
temple at Babylon. Now it's interesting to note
that these things were not melted down. Because when Ezra and Nehemiah
go back, they get to take them all back. what providence of
God that He would protect those vessels that were going to be
used when the temple is rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah. And
it says, verse 8, Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and
his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him,
Behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and
Judah, and Jehoiachin the son reigned in his stead. And Jehoiachin
was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three
months and ten days in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil
in the sight. of the Lord. And when the year
was expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon
with goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah
his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. And Zedekiah was 21
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself
before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the
Lord. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had
made him swear by God but he stiffened his neck and hardened
his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Moreover,
all the chief of the priests of the people transgressed very
much after the abominations of the heathen and polluted the
house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem." Things
are going downhill. Just, we just, well, and it was
the same during the time of the Lord. The prophets were rats
and so were the priests. They had no concept of the gospel. And the Lord God, verse 15, of
their father sent to them by his messengers, rising up the
times and sending because he had compassion on his people
and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers
of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until
the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no
remedy. Therefore he brought upon them
the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with a sword
in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young
men, or maiden, or old men, or him that stooped for age. He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house
of God, great and small, and treasures of the house of the
Lord, and treasures of the king, of his princes, all these he
brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God,
and break down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof
with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And
then them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to
Babylon, where they were servants of him, his sons, until the reign
of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord
by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths,
for as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three
score and 10 years. Now in the first year of Cyrus,
king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth
of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout
all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying." Now we've
read almost the same thing when we were studying the book of
Ezra. All right, now we have the reason that these people
were carried off. And would you turn with me to
the book of Jeremiah for just a moment? I'd like to read a
couple of verses over there. In Jeremiah 52, that's why we
have Jews in the Medo-Persian Empire. Some are going to come back under
Ezra and Nehemiah. And they were the glorious ones,
I'll tell you. The Lord blessed them so much.
His people, His remnant. But here in the book of Jeremiah,
Jeremiah chapter 52 and verse 28. This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar
carried away captive. Jeremiah 52 verse 28. This is
the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive. Now who
is overseeing all of this? Is this just random acts? This
is God. There is no such thing as random
acts. And we see here that in that
seventh year, 3,000 Jews and three and 20 were carried off.
3,000 and 23 were carried off. Now, they are the upper echelon.
They are the leaders. They are the important people.
And if you'll drop down with me to one more place in the same
chapter, verse 30, and in the 320th year of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, carried away captive
of the Jews 745 persons. All the persons were 4,600. That's the beginning of the people
that we're going to read about in the book of Esther. Now we
have, why did God do this? Why did God move that way? Well,
I know this, all things fell out for the furtherance of the
gospel. And we read the book of Daniel. He was one of those
that was carried off in Babylonian captivity, but he was a preacher
of righteousness. He knew the gospel. He knew Christ.
He saw visions of him. He gives us some of the most
outstanding statements about who is really running the show.
He's going to tell us about Artaxerxes or Ahasuerus. in that book of
Daniel. So we're going to go over there
to the book of Daniel. Daniel was in there during this
time. And it was brought up to my attention
recently in a Zoom meeting that probably, you know, it's easy
to surmise this, probably Daniel is the one that preached the
gospel there in Babylonian captivity. And the bearers or the ones that
understood this brought this down to magi that came to see
the Christ. They saw the star in the heavens
and they followed that to Bethlehem eventually and gave him gifts,
gold, frankincense, and myrrh and went back another way without
reporting to Herod. They knew something. God had
revealed something to them. And I'll tell you what, there's
not enough information given to us in knowing that God created
the heavens and the earth. There must be someone who knows
something, a preacher of righteousness, someone that knows the gospel.
We follow that with Ruth. The whole reason that that family
was taken over into Moab was there was one of God's elect
there, her name is Ruth. And they brought the gospel and
she was willing to give up every bit. I just found it interesting
in looking at that other daughter-in-law, she went to her family and to
her gods. And Ruth said, your God is my
God. Where you live, I'll live. Where
you die, I'll die. And we just find her right in
the line of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. What a glorious thing
took place there. Well, we're going to see the
same glorious acts here in the Babylonian captivity and during
the times of Esther. It's going to be a serious time
for the Jews that are there, for God's people. Everywhere
the gospel is preached is a serious place. Our forebearers were punished
by death for preaching the gospel. I like it where I live right
now. I don't have to worry about that. But who knows how it's
going to change in a year, a ten years, or a hundred years. All
right. The power of this man Ahasuerus,
he wielded it mightily. But let's go over, if you would,
to the book of Daniel and see again who is behind this. Daniel
chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4. You know, it comforts me. It
comforts me to know that all things fall out for the furtherance
of the gospel. And it comforts me to know that
all things are purposed to be predestinated according to the
purpose of Him to do all things after the counsel of His own
will. No one counsels God. We don't counsel him when we
pray. He already has knowledge of what
we have needed before we pray. He already knows what we're going
to pray. And if it's real prayer, we sing a song and it really
strikes me. If it's real prayer, it's been prompted by the Lord.
We don't even create it. What does it say in the book
of Romans? We don't know how to pray as we ought, but the
Holy Spirit gives us that help. that presentation of our prayer
before the throne of grace. So the simplest thing, if the
simplest thing for a believer in praying has to have God take
care of it, what about our spiritual birth? My goodness, it better
be taken care of by God today. I shared with a young man today
a whole bunch of what I shared here Sunday about the red heifer.
And I said, the flesh can not help the spirit. It's an impossibility,
can't help. Well, all right, over here in
the book of Daniel chapter four, some of my favorite verses of
scripture, right here. And there by Nebuchadnezzar,
we read about him. He took all those folks into
captivity. And he brought in, another sideline, he brought
in a bunch of Gentiles into Palestine, and they intermingled, and there
that lady that was at the well, We don't have anything to do
with them because they're not true Jews. They're Samaritans. Isn't it interesting that he
used a Samaritan to illustrate the gospel to a man that was
left half dead? All right. And the end of the
days. Now, God brought this on this
man. He could have done the same for Ahasuerus. He could have
done the same exact thing. He did this on another powerful
king. This guy's boasting about himself.
What is Ahasuerus doing at that party? You're here because of me. And you rule because of me and
you will bow or I'll have your head. That's
essentially what he said. All right. Now the same king
boasted of his great power, Nebuchadnezzar. And we have his words, what he
had to say. You know, as God deals with just
the minutia, He gave this man a boastful heart to brag on himself,
and then did this. And now we read after it was
all over. It took him seven years. I've read commentary that says,
well, that give or take, seven years, take it to the bank. And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, chapter 4 verse 34, I, Nebuchadnezzar lifted
up my eyes unto heaven and my understanding returned to me. Who gave that back? The guy,
God Almighty that rules behind the scenes. And I bless the Most
High, and I praise the Most High, a praise that honored Him that
liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
His kingdom is from generation to generation. Now this is, I
believe, what we want to see there when we look at Ahasuerus
and all that kingdom. My goodness. That kingdom. If you travel that area today,
it's huge. And you better have your passport.
Because you're not going to go from some country to the next
country. Huge, powerful, having his party, and over it all is
Almighty God. This man understood that. He
said, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing
And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand or say unto him, What doest thou? Now we're going to apply
this to Ahasuerus as we go through the book of Esther. Whatever
he does is done by the providence of Almighty God. And the decisions
he makes, though God may allow him to make them in a fleshly
way, he's going to have them according to his eternal purpose.
Now God is, you know, we look back, why did he put all these
people over here in Babylonian captivity to begin with? And
why did all that happen? And why are these Jews left there?
Why did these Jews go home? God's God. But I know this, that
there is a bunch of his people that are left in this captivity. They didn't go home, but there's
some elect ones there, and he is going to watch over them like
he watches over the church today. read the 11th chapter of the
book of Hebrews. There's some of that, what blessing
it was, as he had some raised from the dead, he had some just
blessed him in such a mighty way, and then others he took
them home. And who is the real winner? presence of the Lord,
or delivered to live it out another day on this earth? What is the
real? All right. So we find here that
the real story is told by God. He is, well, I love that illustration
that we use once in a while. God is the what? The director. God is the director. The church are the actors, and
everybody else is props. Now, we're going to see a lot
of props in this story, in this account, in this book. There's
lots of props. Some are heinous men, and the
Lord, by His providence, takes care of them. He rules in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand or say, what doest thou? Turn with me, if you would, to
the Psalm, Psalm 10. Psalm 10. Psalm 10, verse 16. The Lord
is king forever and ever. The heathen are perished out
of his land. The Lord is king for, when did
he start reigning? Before the foundation of the
world. When will he end reigning? Never. Never to never. He reigns. He reigned in the
book of Esther. He reigned in the book of Jonah.
He reigned in the book of Leviticus. He reigned in the book of Numbers. It is He that is overseeing all
these things. Another psalm that we want to
look at is Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Psalm 145 and verse 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. You know, a few verses is all
we have to read and find out that, you know, we don't have
to wait for him to start raining. He's ever rained. He's never
stopped reigning. He has a kingdom, and he's the
king. There in Psalm 145 in verse 13,
it says, thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endure
throughout all generations. And we're gonna see this played
out in the book of Esther. We're gonna see his dominion.
And in Psalm 146, Psalm 146, and there in verse 10, The Lord shall reign forever,
even thy God, O Zion unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.
We have a God that reigns. We call it sovereign. He's the
sovereign reign. He's the sovereign ruler. And
then two verses in the New Testament. First Timothy chapter one, verse
17. First Timothy chapter one. Verse 17, it says, now unto the
King eternal. 1 Timothy 1, verse 17, now unto
the King eternal, immortal, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever, amen. Now, when we come to the last
chapter of the book of Esther and the last verse, this is going
to apply. Be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. All right, and one more
verse in 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verses
15 and 16. Esther, as we go through it and
study it, we're going to see God dealing with His people. and He's showing us behind the
scenes. No man has seen God at any time and lived. God is the
Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. So we haven't seen God. If you came to me tomorrow and
said, well, I saw Jesus last night. He was out there in my
yard. I'm going to say, you know, I think we better talk about
something else. Now if you come and say, I saw Jesus in the book
by faith, then we can have fellowship. Alright, here it says, 1 Timothy
chapter 6 verse 15, which in his times he will show which in his times he shall show
who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto, whom no man has seen nor can see, to
whom the honor and power everlasting, amen. Now I like that passage
over in the book of the Revelation where it says, the Lord God Almighty. Repetition. All right. Lord willing,
we're going to continue through this book of Esther with this
in the background. He reigns. He rules. And we are blessed to be able
to see that in the book of Esther or anywhere else we go, and particularly
in the lives, our lives, that he reigns. even in the minutia.