Esther 8 (16:7-8). Part of the letter King Ahasuerus wrote to the leaders of the provinces under his control after Esther revealed to him the evil that was being done in his name. The whole passage is so on point: "What has been wickedly accomplished through the pestilent behavior of those who exercise authority unworthily, can be seen not so much from the more ancient records ... as from investigation of matters close at hand. For the future we will take care to render our kingdom quiet and peaceable for all men, by changing our methods and always judging what comes before our eyes with more equitable consideration."

Ahasuerus was a smart and powerful man, but he was not immune to being flattered and used by the forces of evil, none of us are. It took the brave and sacrificial intervention of his wife, Queen Esther, to open his eyes to what was really going on. Kudos to him for listening, seeing with clear eyes, and thinking for himself so that the slaughter of the Jews was averted. From what I can see of history, few powerful men are willing to admit that they are wrong, and that they have been seduced by flattering lies.

Which brings us to today. We are in the grips of a worldwide flattering lie. Flattering lies meant to destroy (and to cause us to accuse our fellow man) are the devil's only real play, but he uses it over and over with tremendous success. The pestilent (and how I love that he used that word!) behavior of those who exercise authority unworthily has released, whether purposely or accidentally, a pestilence that is engulfing the world. Our leaders flatter themselves that they and their "experts" can control this by controlling the people. They flatter the people into believing that we can control it by following their often inane rules and enforcing them against others. They have allowed the lies of their egos to convince them that they have control, power, and authority, and they have passed those lies on to the people who willingly follow them, convinced they are good and noble, all while blind to the evil that they are doing. We end up, as history always shows, turning on each other. A slaughter of innocent people is already occurring (for one example, by the innocent sick being denied potentially life-saving treatments in furtherance of profits for drug companies).

This will get worse as the "vaccinated" continue to be encouraged to persecute the "unvaccinated" and as we are trained and encouraged to look on our fellow man as a vector of disease and death rather than a human being deserving of love and compassion. Now we have situations like a 4-year-old cancer patient being kicked out of Ronald McDonald House because he is not vaccinated, we have lifesaving organ donations being denied because either the recipient or the donor is not vaccinated. We are acting with incredible evil, and we don't even seem to see it.

How can we stop, how can this change? Not by listening to history, or studies, or "science" because we see, like Ahasuerus, that even those things can be and are manipulated to tell the story that the manipulators want us to hear and believe. We must resolve, like Ahasuerus, to "judge what comes before our eyes with more equitable consideration." We know how people are to be treated, and we know that this is not it. We must open our eyes and see what is happening and apply to every situation the moral truths that are written on our hearts. We must treat every single person as a beloved child of God. Only then do we have a chance of escaping the chaos, suffering, and downward spiral that we've made for ourselves.