"Once Upon a Time" - Esther 1:1-9 (Larry Malament)

Sermon Quotes:

Bryan Gregory: “On the surface, the story is one of conflict between Haman and the Jews. On a deeper level, however, it is a story that evaluates two competing theories of how the world works. On one side is the apparent callousness, injustice, and cruelty of fate, especially embodied in the casting of lots; on the other side is the wise but secret providence of God, embodied in the invisible divine hand (invisible in the events of the book and even in the narrator’s portrayal of those events), which is at work even when we cannot see it, do not understand it, and sometimes even doubt it is there. Thus, Esther, perhaps more than any other Old Testament book, shows us that God must be trusted even when he cannot be seen, and that we must learn to live by faith and not by sight.”