God Behind the Scenes


Book Description

Although the book of Esther contains no direct references to God, his fingerprints can be found all over it. In God Behind the Scenes, Wayne K. Barkhuizen helps us trace the unseen hand of God throughout the Esther narrative, while pointing out how the book is still relevant today. As we walk through the book, we’ll see how God was indeed active in preserving the people through whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would one day come.







Esther and Her Elusive God


Book Description

What if the way the book of Esther has been taught to us in church and retold to us in films, cartoons, and romance novels has missed the original point of the story? Far from being models of piety and devotion, Esther and Mordecai seem indifferent to the faith of their ancestors. How then did this story become part of the Bible and gain the broad acceptance that it has? If the church should not neglect the story, how should it be read? Esther and Her Elusive God calls Christians to avoid the common attempts to make Esther more palatable and theological, and to reclaim this secular story as Scripture. Readers will be encouraged to see in Esther a profound message of God's grace and faithfulness to his wayward people.




Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther


Book Description

Widely praised as a seminal contribution to the study of the Old Testament when it first appeared, Michael V. Fox's Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther is now available in a second edition, complete with an up-to-date critical review of recent Esther scholarship. Fox's commentary, based on his own translation of the Hebrew text, captures the meaning and artistry of Esther's inspiring story. After laying out the background information essential for properly reading Esther, Fox offers commentary on the text that clearly unpacks its message and relevance. Fox also looks in depth at each character in the story of Esther, showing how they were carefully shaped by the book's author to teach readers a new view of how to live as Jews in foreign lands.




Esther


Book Description

From the award-winning author of Sinners and the Sea comes a breathtaking new look into the timeless tale of Queen Esther, “a riveting tale of courage” (New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee). A glittering Persian king has a vast empire that reaches farther than where the sun meets the horizon. He is bathed in riches and commands a frightening military force. He possesses power beyond any other mortal man and rules his kingdom as a god. Anything he desires, he has. Any woman he wants, he possesses. Thousands of them. Young virgins from all across his many lands. A Jewish girl is ripped from her hut by the king’s brutish warriors and forced to march across blistering, scorched earth to the capital city. Trapped for months in the splendid cage of the king’s palace, she must avoid the ire of the king’s concubines and eunuchs all while preparing for her one night with the king. Soon the fated night arrives, and she does everything in her power to captivate the king and become his queen. But wearing the crown brings with it a new set of dangers. When a ruthless man plies the king’s ear with whispers of genocide, it is up to the young queen to prevent the extermination of the Jews. She must find the strength within to violate the king’s law, risk her life, and save her people. This is a story of finding hidden depths of courage within one’s self. Of risking it all to stand up for what is right. This is the story of Queen Esther.




Esther Saves Her People


Book Description

The Famous People of the Bible is a series for children ages 2-5 that tells the story of some of the most well-known people from the Bible. With simple words and colourful illustrations, these books show the smallest kids why these biblical characters are indeed famous.




The Book of V.


Book Description

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK A BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK For fans of The Hours and Fates and Furies, a bold, kaleidoscopic novel intertwining the lives of three women across three centuries as their stories of sex, power, and desire finally converge in the present day. Lily is a mother and a daughter. And a second wife. And a writer, maybe? Or she was going to be, before she had children. Now, in her rented Brooklyn apartment she’s grappling with her sexual and intellectual desires, while also trying to manage her roles as a mother and a wife in 2016. Vivian Barr seems to be the perfect political wife, dedicated to helping her charismatic and ambitious husband find success in Watergate-era Washington D.C. But one night he demands a humiliating favor, and her refusal to obey changes the course of her life—along with the lives of others. Esther is a fiercely independent young woman in ancient Persia, where she and her uncle’s tribe live a tenuous existence outside the palace walls. When an innocent mistake results in devastating consequences for her people, she is offered up as a sacrifice to please the King, in the hopes that she will save them all. In Anna Solomon's The Book of V., these three characters' riveting stories overlap and ultimately collide, illuminating how women’s lives have and have not changed over thousands of years.




Esther


Book Description

Everyone loves a transformation story. Rags to riches. Plain to beautiful. Weak to strong. Esther's story is that, but it is much more. It is a thought-provoking study of God's invisible hand writing silently and unseen across the pages of human history. Perhaps most of all, Esther's story is the account of godly attributes like courage, dignity, wisdom, and strength?attributes that blocked an evil plot, overthrew an arrogant killer, and replaced terror with joy in thousands of Jewish homes. Author Chuck Swindoll interweaves the ancient, real-life story with insight not only into the virtues of Queen Esther, but also into how the qualities that formed and empowered her can be ours. Esther is the second volume of Charles Swindoll's best-selling series, which examines great lives from God's Word and reveals the strengths and weaknesses that make God's men and women both great . . . and human. Many of the most beloved biblical heroes were ordinary folks. Shepherds. Fishermen. Servants. Widows. Even harlots and petty thieves. One by one, they changed the course of history. Swindoll explains that these men and women did not become great in their own strength but were empowered by God when they surrendered their lives to Him. To live such a life that God considers great is within the reach of everyone who submits to Him.




The Message of Esther


Book Description

In this BST volume, David Firth explores the paradoxically important book of Esther and its implications for our own context, where the reality of God's presence is experienced against a backdrop of God's relative anonymity and seeming absence. It calls us to courageously engage society and be at the forefront of standing for justice while trusting in the God that is always at work.




Ruth, Esther


Book Description

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story. The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike. Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story: LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story. EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting. LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students. —Ruth, Esther— The book of Ruth presents a compelling account of how most of us experience God in our everyday lives. We see God working indirectly behind the scenes, giving us a theology of divine and human cooperation, as those who pray for God’s blessings participate in answering their own petitions as well as the prayers of others. In Esther’s story, we recognize our own world today, often experiencing it as a place where God seems hidden. Her book challenges us in unique ways. Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.