Hello everyone, hope you all have had a great week! This week I got to go spend some time with a friend in and we went to a concert at her church which was really fun. We got to listen the Young Escape, Hannah Kerr and Big Daddy Weave. If you have a chance, I definitely suggest listening to any of these artists. I was blessed to be able to go listen to their music and spend time with my friends.
This past Wednesday we we all got to enjoy a very special treat, Pat Keaton shared a lesson with us in the book of Ruth. It was a great message, and touched on some interesting things that we didn’t have time to cover when we went through Ruth with Pastor Chris. Additionally, the previous Sunday, we got to hear Harold Keaton preach a sermon from Luke 13 about striving to enter through the straight gate. We were also blessed to have the Lawson Family to play piano and sing some songs for us. Thank you again to the Keatons’ for filling in for pastor Chris, it was a sweet time!
This week I wanted to talk about one of my favorite books that I have studied, Esther. Esther is interesting because it is the only book in the Bible that could be considered “secular” because it never mentions a word about God. However this does not mean that God isn’t still a part of the story.
The book of Esther is a significant step in God fulfillment of his promise of nation to the Jews (a promise he gave to Abraham long ago in Genesis 17:6). The book starts out with Esther and her Uncle Mordecai living in Persia (which was far away from the holy land of Judah) under the control of King Xerxes. When a contest is held to find a Queen for the king, Esther finds his favor and becomes queen. This is quite the coincidence considering Esther is a Jew. Mordecai also finds himself in the right place at the right time to hear of a secret plot to destroy the Jews in Persia and assassinate the King. Because of Ester’s relationship with the King, Mordecai knows she might be able to persuade him to help save the Jews. Meanwhile, Haman, a respected noble of the King, is plotting ways to torture Mordecai. One night, the King can not sleep and simply requests the records of his court be read to him. This causes him to discover the the plot of his assassination between his nobles, which was discovered by Mordecai. Now that Mordecai has found favor by the King we start to see many ironic twists; like Haman being hanged in the gallows he built for Mordecai, the Jews destroying the Persians at the same time they plotted to destroy the Jews, and so many more. But, behind this whole book we can see the providential happenings by God. How could a Jewish woman be chosen by the King if not for God, or Mordecai overhearing the plot to assassinate the King, even the Jews triumph over the Persians. None of this would have happened if not not for God keeping his promise of nation to the Jews.
This story is important for us today because we see Mordecai and Esther, two Jews far away from the holy land (it was thought back then the closer you are to the holy land, the closer you are to God) who are still being pursued by God. We also see a God who keeps his promises, no matter what, and works things out for his people. Today, we can trust that God will keep his promises to us, that we will have forgiveness, peace, and eternal life when we choose to put our faith in Him! I highly recommend reading the book of Esther and looking for all the ironic twists and ways God uses the characters in the story to fulfill his promises, there are so many more than what I mentioned, but you’d be here all day if I wrote about them all!
This was a long one, but thanks for reading and I hope to see you all on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings!
Emma