This week we’re looking at the OT story of Esther. You really need to start from Monday’s post. Today (just to change the order of things), read the final three chapters of Esther first. Conclusion And so ends a most secular telling of sacred history. What are we to make of all this? As my… Continue reading Esther – part 5

This week we’re looking at the OT story of Esther. You really need to start from Monday’s post. Chapter 6 Later that night. The king can’t sleep. Too much wine, perhaps? So his attendants start reading to him from the chronicles of his reign. The official record of events. All the best stuff that’s happened… Continue reading Esther – part 4

This week we’re looking at the OT story of Esther. You really need to start from Monday’s post. Chapter 4 Mordecai, of course, finds out about the proclamation. The impending disaster about to come upon him and his people. So he asks Esther to help. Esther’s scared. She reminds Mordecai that anyone who just ‘drops by’… Continue reading Esther – part 3

This week we’re looking at the OT story of Esther. You really need to start from Monday’s post. Chapter 2 Xerxes is now missing his wife. After all, she was ‘pleasing to look at’. But the irrevocable law of the Persians meant that he couldn’t go back on what he’d decreed. ‘What will I do?’… Continue reading Esther – part 2

This week, we’re going to take a look at the OT book of Esther. A book that Christians often ignore. Some of you, I’m guessing, might never have heard a sermon on Esther. Yet among the Jewish people, it’s one of the most popular stories. They read it out loud each year at the feast of Purim,… Continue reading Esther – part 1