Gathering Growing Going
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CloseScripture References: Isaiah 6:1-13, Mark 4:1-12, 2 Peter 3:10-14
Related Topics: Isaiah | More Messages from Andrew McClenaghan | Download Audio
| O Come, O Come, Immanuel | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 27 November 2022 | Kids Talk | Watch | Listen |
| God's outrageous grace | Ben Connelly | Sunday, 22 August 2021 | Kids Talk | Watch | Listen |
| Can We Escape the Darkness? | Neil Hunt | Sunday, 22 December 2019 | Watch | Listen | |
| How God's People Respond to Him | Phil Firth | Sunday, 15 December 2019 | Watch | Listen | |
| Waiting Well | Andrew McClenaghan | Sunday, 8 December 2019 | Watch | Listen | |
| Waiting | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 1 December 2019 | Watch | Listen | |
| Great Expectations for a New Creation | Tim Baxter | Sunday, 21 November 2010 | Listen | ||
| Good news in a world gone mad | Tim Baxter | Sunday, 14 November 2010 | Listen | ||
| Renovate or Detonate - Is there a future for God's Kingdom? | Tim Baxter | Sunday, 7 November 2010 | Listen | ||
| God's unexpected love in an unexpected servant | Daniel Wood | Sunday, 31 October 2010 | Listen |
We love a turning point. Whether it is a story or a football game. Hope dawning at the darkest time. Where is the great turning point in Esther? It could be our memory verse, when Esther is persuaded by Mordecai to act to save her people. It could be when the king looks with favour upon Esther and holds out the golden scepter to her. It could be when Haman is forced to lead Mordecai through the city mounted on the king’s horse and proclaims that he is the man the king delights to honour. They are major events in the story of Esther. They are turning points of a sort. But the writer of Esther points us to another event. That looks so trivial.
Esther is such an exciting story! There are evil plots. There are interesting yet flawed characters. There is risk and sacrifice. There is heroism and villainy. Today, we are introduced to the villain of the plot, and what an evil scheming villain he is! He spins lies and concocts murderous plans to do away with the Jews, God’s covenant people. How will the people respond? Will he get away with his evil plan? Will God, who is not mentioned at all, intervene to protect His people, to live up to the promises He made to Abraham, the people at Mt Sinai, and to David?
There is so much that sounds familiar in these first two chapters of Esther: the world is dominated by loud and brash and imposing and degraded power, the people of God are small and struggling and faced with ambiguous decisions and actions and God seems so far away he is almost absent (at least to our minds and hearts). As we read this book, we will need God’s revelation to help us navigate its strangeness, its ambiguity, and its confrontational narrative. In this, we have the key to the book—the lack of God’s name in letters does not mean the lack of God’s presence.
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