Mike Blogs

The glorious story of Esther comprises the book of Esther which, in the Christian arrangement of Bible books, comes at the end of the Historical books (Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah) and at the beginning of the Writings or more poetic books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs). Therefore, in our series on “Women with a Story to Tell,” it is appropriate to find our next woman with a story to tell in Proverbs. Proverb is the word w

God through Jeremiah has been criticizing the current government of Judah. King Josiah’s sons, and one nephew, one after the other have served themselves, remodeling the capital while misleading the people, enriching themselves through corruption and violence, and playing a losing game of shifting alliances with Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon (reread chapters 21 and 22; especially the central theme in 22:13-17). Now we are ready to read the conclusion of God’s judgment of polit

This is the way that empires work, including sprawling nation states like China, Russia, and the United States. First, they control on their citizenry through the use of census data, the classification of kinds of people which is useful for dividing and manipulating the population, the management of news and information including undermining the free press and overwhelming the media with their own propaganda, and the suppression of dissent including shutting down the venues f

In last week’s lesson, we learned what God expects from national leaders, and it should scare some people. Specifically, God sent a message to Josiah’s sons, beginning with Shallum, aka Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz was enthroned by the people of Judah, but after a couple of months when Pharaoh Neco stopped in Jerusalem on his retreat to Egypt, he captured Jehoahaz and took him along in exile, never to be seen in Judah again. In this week’s lesson, still in Chapter 22, Pharaoh Neco ha

Esther and Mordecai have pulled off the first step of a rescue operation by discovering and removing an obstacle to God’s plans for the remaining children of Israel. Mordecai had conceived a diabolical plan, a final solution to the “Jewish problem.” Of course, the language has similarities to Nazi Germany, and the problem was not a Jewish problem but rather a Gentile problem. Their problem was race hatred aka ethnocentrism. The key person in this ancient story was a governmen

God is in the middle of a long sermon that he is preaching through the prophet Jeremiah. And ‘No’ God doesn’t care if you are out of church by noon. God has a lot to say about the ungodly behavior of the nation of Judah. Moreover, God places the blame for the people’s failures directly on the shoulders of the leaders of the nation. God’s understanding of what leaders should be doing is not the same as the common understanding today. What is God’s sense of the primary duties

The cat is out of the bag. What was hidden has seen the light of day. The king flushes so hot with anger that he goes outside into the garden to cool down a bit. Now he has a real problem; his chief advisor may implicate him in a personal plot to endanger a certain group of people. Further, it turns out that Queen Esther is a member of that group. What can he do? ” The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Qu

Jeremiah’s message has been generic in the sense that he seems to address any and all kings who sit on the throne. He does follow up with some current kings and they will appear later in this sermon (next week). This sermon began back in 21:11, but like the wandering preacher that he is, Jeremiah repeats himself as we begin Chapter 22. Jeremiah 22:1-4. Thus says the LORD: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say: Hear the word of the LORD

Haman is stepping carefully, hoping that what he had planned for Mordecai is not revealed now that the king has honored him. He does not realize that the stakes are much higher than his personal vendetta. Esther continues to slow walk her request until the right moment arrives. ” So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to y