We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Esther

What is the significance of Esther 4:14?

The wise Mordecai encourages Esther to bravely risk her life by pleading the case of the Jews before King Xerxes, saying, “…if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Mordecai is certain that relief will come to the Jews, sooner or later. But the fate of Esther and her family depends on the free decision she has to make. And it may be, he says, that God has raised Esther up in these circumstance to be the means by which he brings relief to the Jewish people. Yet, even God’s plans, to some degree, hang upon the “if” of personal decisions.

Category:
Tags: ,
Topics:
Verse:

Related Reading

What is the significance of 2 Samuel 24:12–16?

The Lord gives David three options of how Israel will be judged. “Three things I offer you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.” This verse reveals how the Lord gives people genuine alternatives and responds to their choices. If God foreknew what David would choose, however, the purpose of the…

Topics:

God Clearly Can, So Why Doesn’t He? (podcast)

Leah expects more from God. Should she? Greg confronts God’s inactivity and underperformance.  Episode 510 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0510.mp3

Q&A: If Salvation Depends on our Free Choice, How are we Saved by Grace?

As a companion to today’s testimony and the link to Greg’s thoughts on Romans 9, we thought it would be helpful to post this Q&A on salvation by grace within the Open View of the future. Enjoy! Question: I’m an Arminian-turned-Calvinist, and the thing that turned me was the realization that if salvation hinges on whether…

Divine Wisdom

Why doesn’t God end it all and stop the slaughter? Why does God allow suffering and evil to go on so long? Here, Greg offers two possible answers to these questions. Option A is that all evil somehow is designed by God and somehow brings glory to him. But Greg thinks Option B is a better explanation, and it involves…

What is the significance of 1 Chronicles 21:15?

“And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but when he was about to destroy it, the Lord took note and relented concerning the calamity; he said to the destroying angel, ‘Enough! Stay your hand.’” This powerful passage tells us why God sent the angel and why he changed his mind. If God…

Topics:

15 Reasons Open Theism is TRUE (a reply to Andrew Wilson)

Article by Dan Kent Recently, Andrew Wilson shared an impressive critique of open theism called: “Responding To Open Theism In Fourteen Words.” Andrew’s article didn’t persuade me, but it did challenge me (seriously!). Below I will respond to each of the words Andrew presents. But first I will add one word of my own (if…