ESTHER

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ESTHERfor such a time as this

• Intro Chapter 1
• April 3rd, 2005

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Esther

• Gives the history of the celebration of the
  Jewish holiday of Purim.
• We are also commanded to eat, drink and be merry.
  According to the Talmud, a person is required to
  drink until he cannot tell the difference between
  "cursed be Haman" and "blessed be Mordecai,"
  though opinions differ as to exactly how drunk
  that is. (www.jewfaq.org)

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Esther

• In addition, we are commanded to send out gifts
  of food or drink, and to make gifts to charity.
  (www.jewfaq.org)
• It is customary to hold carnival-like
  celebrations on Purim, to perform plays and
  parodies, and to hold beauty contests. Americans
  sometimes refer to Purim as the Jewish Mardi
  Gras. (www.jewfaq.org)

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Problems in Esther

• God is never mentioned. Very little religious
  things contained.
• In the first 7 centuries of the church, not one
  commentary was written. (NIV
  Application Commentary, p21)

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Problems in Esther

• Martin Luther I am so great an enemy to the
  second book of the Maccabees, and to Esther, that
  I wish they had not come to us at all, for they
  have too many heathen unnaturalities. (The
  Table Talk of Martin Luther, p. 13)
• John Calvin never preached from Esther nor
  included it in his commentaries. (NIV Application
  Commentary, p21)

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A brief history

• 586 B.C. Jerusalem is destroyed by
  Nebuchadnezzer. Jews are caried off into the
  Babylonian captivity.
• 539 B.C. Cyrus conquers Babylon, Cyrus Cylinder

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The Cyrus Cylinder
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The Cyrus Cylinder
Cyrus claims to have achieved this with the aid
of Marduk, the god of Babylon. He then describes
measures of relief he brought to the inhabitants
of the city, and tells how he returned a number
of images of gods, which Nabonidus had collected
in Babylon, to their proper temples throughout
Mesopotamia and western Iran. At the same time he
arranged for the restoration of these temples,
and organized the return to their homelands of a
number of people who had been held in Babylonia
by the Babylonian kings. Although the Jews are
not mentioned in this document, their return to
Palestine following their deportation by
Nebuchadnezzar II, was part of this policy. The
British Museum Online
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The Cyrus Cylinder
Free Iran gifts and activisits wear. Fighting
for a free, secular, and just Iran.
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A brief history

• 586 B.C. Jerusalem is destroyed by
  Nebuchadnezzer. Jews are caried off into the
  Babylonian captivity.
• 539 B.C. Cyrus conquers Babylon, Cyrus Cylinder
• 538 B.C. Cyrus issues decree that allows the
  Jews to return to Jerusalem

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Ezra 11-2

• In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in
  order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by
  Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king
  of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his
  realm and to put it in writing

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Ezra 11-2

• "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says "'The
  LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the
  kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to
  build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.

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Daniel 68

• Now, O king, issue the decree and put it in
  writing so that it cannot be altered-- in
  accordance with the laws of the Medes and
  Persians, which cannot be repealed."

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Daniel 612

• "Did you not publish a decree that during the
  next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or
  man except to you, O king, would be thrown into
  the lions' den?" The king answered, "The decree
  stands, which cannot be repealed."

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Daniel 615

• Then the men went as a group to the king and said
  to him, "Remember, O king, that according to the
  law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict
  that the king issues can be changed."