Title: A Star Rises in the East (2)
Series: Esther
Author: Brad Whitt
Text: Esther 2
INTRODUCTION
Take your Bibles this morning and turn to the Old Testament book of Esther. (If you start at
Genesis and get to Psalms, you've gone too far.) Esther chapter 2 this morning as we
continue our series on "Seeing God in the Shadows of Life."
Illustration: On February 25, 1994, reports came out of Israel that 29 Palestinians had been
killed, and more than 150 had been wounded at the Mosque at Abraham's tomb in Hebron.
The assailant, an American physician who had immigrated to Israel in 1982, named Baruch
Goldstein was beaten to death by an angry mob after the attack. According to the local
newspapers, Goldstein had been seen by his friends just a few hours before the assault in
his synagogue celebrating Purim and listening to the annual reading of the book of Esther,
which gives the reasons for the Jewish Holiday of Purim.
The story of Esther tells how the Jewish people were saved from extinction but also killed
75,800 of their Persian enemies in just a couple of days.
According to Political Scientist and Middle East expert Ian Lustick, "By mowing down Arabs
he believed wanted to kill Jews, Goldstein was re-enacting part of the Purim story."
That tragic event is just one example of why some people have such a problem with the Book
of Esther being in the Bible.
Like I told you last week, nothing in it would make anybody think that it's a religious text, much
less a book that belongs in the Christian Bible as part of the inspired Word of God for the
Church today. Really, the only thing that connects the Book of Esther to the Old Testament is
that it's a story that involves some Jewish people.
If you were to go through the book of Esther and replace the word "Jews" every time you saw
it with some other ethnic group, you wouldn't even think that it had anything to do with the
Bible at all.
- The names of God - Yahweh or Elohim - are n ...
Series: Esther
Author: Brad Whitt
Text: Esther 2
INTRODUCTION
Take your Bibles this morning and turn to the Old Testament book of Esther. (If you start at
Genesis and get to Psalms, you've gone too far.) Esther chapter 2 this morning as we
continue our series on "Seeing God in the Shadows of Life."
Illustration: On February 25, 1994, reports came out of Israel that 29 Palestinians had been
killed, and more than 150 had been wounded at the Mosque at Abraham's tomb in Hebron.
The assailant, an American physician who had immigrated to Israel in 1982, named Baruch
Goldstein was beaten to death by an angry mob after the attack. According to the local
newspapers, Goldstein had been seen by his friends just a few hours before the assault in
his synagogue celebrating Purim and listening to the annual reading of the book of Esther,
which gives the reasons for the Jewish Holiday of Purim.
The story of Esther tells how the Jewish people were saved from extinction but also killed
75,800 of their Persian enemies in just a couple of days.
According to Political Scientist and Middle East expert Ian Lustick, "By mowing down Arabs
he believed wanted to kill Jews, Goldstein was re-enacting part of the Purim story."
That tragic event is just one example of why some people have such a problem with the Book
of Esther being in the Bible.
Like I told you last week, nothing in it would make anybody think that it's a religious text, much
less a book that belongs in the Christian Bible as part of the inspired Word of God for the
Church today. Really, the only thing that connects the Book of Esther to the Old Testament is
that it's a story that involves some Jewish people.
If you were to go through the book of Esther and replace the word "Jews" every time you saw
it with some other ethnic group, you wouldn't even think that it had anything to do with the
Bible at all.
- The names of God - Yahweh or Elohim - are n ...
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