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 PrintableVersion Unspoken Lessons about the Unseen God: Esther simply explainedSilent witnessUNSPOKEN LESSONS ABOUT THE UNSEEN GOD: The doctrine of God's providence is a tremendous encouragement to Christians when they are facing difficult times. Esther is a wonderful Old Testament history book which illustrates the way in which, when God seems absent, he can, in fact, be most at work. In this latest Welwyn Commentary, Derek Prime does a magnificent job of bringing out well-grounded, faith-building lessons from the text. Set in the Persian empire around the 5th century BC, the book famously does not explicitly mention God at all. But the ordering of 'coincidences' and events speaks clearly of the silent yet sovereignly effective over-ruling of God as the Jews are rescued from the wicked plans of an implacable enemy. In nine easily digestible chapters, we are taken through the story and shown that our lives are not in the hands of fate or luck, but in the hands of God. Christ is found without contrivances in the different episodes of Esther's tale and this commentary brings with it two particularly rich veins of help. First, the author has pursued a lot of background research and brings a number of fascinating insights from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus and the Jewish historian Josephus. Second, and more importantly, there is an abundant network of cross-referencing to other parts of Scripture, especially the book of Proverbs. This often enables us to see other parts of the Bible with renewed clarity and feeds our souls. For any Christians enduring a tough time and wondering if their life no longer makes sense, this commentary will be a real tonic. JEBJohn Benton© Evangelicals Now - June 2001 |
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