{"id":12861,"date":"2020-04-10T09:42:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T14:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=12861"},"modified":"2020-04-15T18:27:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T23:27:06","slug":"book-review-esther-a-woman-of-strength-and-dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=12861","title":{"rendered":"Book Review | Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.test\/content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ESTPB.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12863\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ESTPB.jpg 500w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ESTPB-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ESTPB-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ESTPB-465x465.jpg 465w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my favorite series of books was written by Pastor Chuck Swindoll and the series is called <em>Great Lives from God&#8217;s Word<\/em>.  I&#8217;ve read several of the books in this series and <em>Joseph<\/em> and <em>Elijah<\/em> are two of my favorites in addition to this one that I just read, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Esther-Woman-Strength-Dignity-Great\/dp\/0849913837\/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\">Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity<\/a><\/em>.  This book gives us a look at God&#8217;s divine sovereignty while reminding us that while we can&#8217;t always see God&#8217;s hand at work&#8230;He is always working.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Esther 4:14 has always been one of my favorite verse in the Bible&#8230;<em>&#8220;For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father&#8217;s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?\u201d<\/em> As we consider the current crisis in our world surrounding COVID-19 and the accompanying coronavirus, how am I living in such a way as to point people to Jesus?  Where am I placing my hope?  Has the Lord positioned me, my family, and our friends for &#8220;such a time as this?&#8221;  To this day, the Jewish people have Esther to thank for the way she took a stand on their behalf and rescued them from the wicked plans of Haman.  The Feast of Purim is still celebrated today as a way for the Jews to celebrate Esther.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Though God may at times seem distant, and though He is invisible to us, He is always invincible. &nbsp;This is the main lesson of the Book of Esther. p. 2 <\/li><li>\u201cThat God can be known by the soul in tender personal experience while remaining infinitely aloof from the curious eyes of reason constitutes a paradox\u2026\u201d A.W. Tozer, <em>The Knowledge of the Holy<\/em>, p. 18 &nbsp;p. 3 <\/li><li>God never knows frustration. p. 3 <\/li><li>In the Book of Esther, we find God\u2019s power and presence at work through the lives of five people to carry out His will. <ul><li>A King Named Ahasuerus-Esther 1:1-2 <\/li><li>A Queen Named Vashti-Esther 1:9 <\/li><li>A Wicked Officer Named Haman-Esther 3:1 <\/li><li>A Godly Jew Named Mordecai-Esther 2:5-6 <\/li><li>A Woman of Inner and Outer Beauty Named Esther p. 9 <\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>How God Still Works in Uneventful Times <ul><li>God\u2019s plans are not hindered when the events of this world are carnal or secular <\/li><li>God\u2019s purposes are not frustrated by moral or marital failures. <\/li><li>God\u2019s people are not excluded from high places because of handicap or hardship. p. 38 <\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Stop for a moment and examine the tapestry of life. &nbsp;Feel the underside where all the knots and ugly thread tailings are. &nbsp;Observe the suffering that is woven through the fabric of humanity. p. 58 <\/li><li>And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this? Esther 4:14 p. 84 <\/li><li>\u201cLet us brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, \u201cThis was their finest hour.\u201d Winston Churchill (June 18, 1940) p. 85 <\/li><li>Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31 p. 98 <\/li><li>Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5 p. 149 <\/li><li>\u2026forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on\u2026 Philippians 3:13-14 p. 175 <\/li><li>Esther is a story of triumph that grew out of tragedy, ecstasy out of agony, celebration out of devastation. p. 184 <\/li><li>As we learned in our study of Esther\u2019s story, His hand moves invisibly, yet with invincibility, bringing His sovereign plan to completion. &nbsp;It includes haunting delays that seem unfair, human decisions that lack compassion, harmful deeds that bring other anguish, and hurtful disappointments that make us question God\u2019s goodness. &nbsp;Nevertheless, He pursues with persistence and He refuses to be distracted. &nbsp;In the end, I repeat, God wins. What great comfort that brings! p. 198 <\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my favorite series of books was written by Pastor Chuck Swindoll and the series is called Great Lives from God&#8217;s Word. I&#8217;ve read several of the books in this series and Joseph and Elijah are two of my favorites in addition to this one that I just read, Esther: A Woman of Strength [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,16,23,28,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-family","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ESTPB.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}