Tag: Bible

Job. Job. Job. It’s a tough one to decipher! In the opening chapter alone, we encounter several examples of how people come to ponder the meaning of life. Let’s look at Job first. He’s a wealthy guy with a herd of children, and he loves God - possibly more than anyone on earth. (Side note:… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Job 1

In the first chapter and the last, Esther is not mentioned in the book that is named after her. I just found that curious. The ending chapter of Esther mentions both the fame and fortune that King Xerxes and Mordecai received, but there’s not a single mention of the lady who was instrumental in making… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 10

And that, folks, is how folklore gets started. Did you know that Jewish people still celebrate the Festival of Purim today? I didn’t either until I read about it. The ending of this chapter is adamant that this tradition will live on forever, so I was curious to see if it had. And it has!… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 9

What a fairytale ending! And it’s not even the ending. And it’s not even a fairytale. And I’m not even going to talk much about it because it’s plain and simple and happy. Instead, I’m going to narrow in on the very last verse, which says in my NLT translation, “And many of the people… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 8

Oh, stories don’t get any better than this. It’s got love! It’s got devotion! It’s got justice! Can’t you just see it played out on stage? I was thinking more about King Xerxes and how his attitude was instrumental in saving the Jews, and how we don’t really consider him much when studying the Book… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 7

Drat! Haman is foiled again! And all because the king couldn’t sleep. If the king would have been able to sleep, he wouldn’t have read the history book that reminded him Mordecai had once in essence saved his life. Darn that insomnia! But as it happened, the king did discover that Mordecai was his own… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 6

When I think of a banquet, I picture a large gathering full of eating and merriment, so if your Bible uses the word “banquet” as well, you may be wondering, why so many parties? But banquet in this case is just a fancy word for a fancy dinner. Haman alludes to the fact that it… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 5

Now, how does a queen living inside a kingdom with a king not know about a decree that took nearly two years to put into effect? Well, queens had their own things back then, I guess, and there weren’t any TVs, so I’ll just have to accept the fact that Queen Esther was kept in… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 4

We know from this chapter that evil is on the horizon, but let’s break down how long it took to get us to the point where every Jew in the Persian empire is about to be executed. We learned from the first two chapters that King Xerxes was in the seventh year of his reign… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 3

I think it’s interesting that we consider Esther the main character of this book, but we don’t meet her until the second chapter. Her introduction gives us a lot to consider, too. We talked about what kind of man King Xerxes might be when we met him in the first chapter. If you remember, he… Continue reading Bible studies for writers | Esther 2