Mike Blogs

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

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

The king has shown kindness to Esther and invited her to come into the court. Now she is at the height of power, before the ruler of the largest empire of its time. Under Xerxes (c. 475; or some argue that it was later under Artaxerxes) the empire stretched from Libya to Pakistan and encompassed around 50 million people. Much of the empire was made up of conquered and displaced peoples (the Persian homeland is only Iran), but the empire was also known for its religious tole

Esther is standing in the outer courts waiting for Ahasuerus (Xerxes), King of Persia, to notice her. If he is not in a good mood, it could go badly for Esther. If he reaches out his scepter, then she is recognized and welcomed into his presence. Her heart races, emotions swirl inside her as she tries to look composed yet in urgent need. How did she get here? A racist government official has convinced the king to let him issue a decree (thus keeping the king’s name out of it

When I started this sub-series on Esther, I told you that her given name was Hadassah “myrtle.” This family of trees gives us several essential oils Notice that Isaiah 41: 19 implies that God will plant useful trees in the wilderness, “the cedar, the myrtle, and the olive” (See also Isaiah 55: 13). As she rises in the Persian hierarchy, her name is changed to ‘Esther’ which is a form of Ishtar, a Mesopotamian goddess recognized by several cultures. Since Persian is an Indo-E

King David’s downfall was his illicit affair with Bathsheba. David’s power met his lust and in his self-serving the woman became pregnant and the husband was killed to cover it up. “The thing that David had done displeased the LORD.” Bathsheba then gave birth to their son, but the child “became very ill.” David fasted and prayed; he even lay all night on the cold floor, to the dismay of his counselors. The child died anyway. David then rose up, washed, changed his clothes,

In the 1800s, Christian missionaries from England and Australia sailed to the South Seas to preach the Gospel and gain converts. Often new converts joined them in spreading the Good News to the next islands. The London Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, and the Wesleyan Methodists all sent missionaries who began in the east (Tahiti and the Cook Islands) and sailed across Polynesia to the west (Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji). Catechisms were developed and schools were

“So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?” So said King Theoden of Rohan. “Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them,” answered Aragorn, the returning king of Gondor (Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien). One could ignore the threat and hope that it goes away. With the Nazis, it just got worse. Or, one could find a place to hide and hope that, if trouble comes, one could keep on fleeing from danger. In our days of immediate communication and rapid transport

Last week we learned that Esther and Mordecai are in trouble; there is a substantial threat to their lives, and it comes, of all places, from the government. How did this happen? What will Esther and Mordecai do? My friend Bill Mefford (The Fig Tree Revolution: Unleashing Local Churches into the Mission of Justice, 2017) points out that their antagonist, Haman the Agagite, is skilled in using the strategies of racism fanning the flames of hatred of certain ethnic groups in

We have been introduced to Esther and her adopted father Mordecai. Mordecai was one of the captives of the war with Babylon which Judah lost, along with his cousins who were the parents of Esther. Esther herself likely was born in captivity in Persia, but there is no ‘birthright citizenship’ in this evil empire. Esther and Mordecai are Jews, but the Jews are among dozens of ethnic groups that have been captured and enslaved by the Persians. The Jews are keeping a low profil

What does God have in store for the woman Esther, a captive Jewish slave in one of the strongest and most extensive empires to ever exist? ”Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai … a Benjaminite who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah … (by) King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon…. He had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the young woman was

Hadassah, ‘myrtle’, that is her given name, but we know her as Esther, ‘the star’. The book, Esther, is one of only two books in the Bible that are named for a woman. The other book is Ruth, whose story we have already considered in this series of devotionals about women in the Bible. We will have several devotionals about Esther, the people around her, her social and political context, and why she is an outstanding woman. It is a complex and revealing story. I should note u

Time is running out on the kingdom of Judah; the only political stronghold left to the people of Israel since the northern kingdom was destroyed and dispersed in 721 BC. Today’s story occurs about 100 years later, specifically 640 to 609 BC, during the reign of King Josiah of Judah. Judah is on a downhill skid, more like a roller coaster ride; down, then up, down, down, then up, etc. Soon the downs will overcome the ups and Judah will also disappear from the map. After tha

Last Sunday at the end of the service, we sat in the pews for the Postlude, as we always do because we have a wonderful organist. The organ rang with a rather bombastic song, so I looked to see what he was playing. It was the March from Athalia by F. Mendelssohn. Now, any other time in my life I probably would have shrugged my shoulders, said “That’s nice,” then walked back to greet the pastor. Instead, when I got up and walked toward the front, Teresa said, “Where are you

Judah is in trouble. The lineage of King David is about to be extinguished. God had promised King David that there would always be one of his descendants on the throne (I Kings 8: 25, 9:5; II Chronicles 6: 16, 7:18). If the lone descendant, Joash, is discovered and killed, then this prophecy will be difficult to fulfill. Still, we know that the Kingdom of Judah eventually fell to the Babylonian Empire and the people were taken captive in exile. Those who returned never reco

This is a complex story about intrigue at the seat of power. We see stories like this in novels and movies, on TV in news and shows, and in real life right before our eyes. Judah’s kings have died, first the husband Athaliah, and then their son. Athaliah was close to power in the northern kingdom of Israel because her parents were King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They arranged a marriage to Jehoram, King Jehoshaphat’s son, in order to seal an alliance with the Kingdom of Judah.

Among the lists of ‘righteous women’ in the Bible you will find a woman named Jehosheba. Not a household name, even in its shortened form Josheba. Nevertheless, she is a key figure in the history and hopes of Jews and Christians alike. She was the daughter of King Jehoram of Judah, and sister to King Ahaziah, his successor in Judah. However, when we come across this woman in the Biblical story, she is operating as part of the opposition to the ruling party. I’ll tell you why

For not being named, this woman from Shunem stars in three different stories in Scripture. In the first story, she performed an act of generosity for a Man of God, the prophet Elisha. She was not asked to do this, at least not by Elisha who only stopped by occasionally for a meal. Instead, her spiritual instincts were well developed. She was faithful to God’s sense of hospitality, so she was moved to do more. She provided a furnished room as a place for Elisha to rest during

Is it a sign of weak faith if something bad happens to good people? Ask Job about that. No reason was ever given for the disasters that hit him. There was a conversation between God and Satan, but that is only a discussion of his faithfulness. His erstwhile friends pressed him to admit some sin that caused the death of his children (among other losses). However, Job defeats their easy theology claiming that it is more complex than that. And it is. What is the purpose of a t

In recent stories, the women have been in conversation with a prophet. Prophets are preachers who have been sent by God to Israel or Judah (or us) with a message and a mission. Often rejected in their own time, some become highly respected after death. Jesus noted the irony of people in First Century Galilee and Judea building tombs for prophets that their ancestors killed. The Bible includes stories and even books of a whole slew of prophets. It is interesting that women ar