“Old Testament Women of the Bible: Esther”/9/30/18/Esther 1:1-4, 7:1-20, 9:20a, 21, 22; James 5:13-16, 19-20/Rev. Laurie Williams
As most of you know, my past three sermons are a part of a series about Old Testament women. To this point, I have been rescuing them from the bad rap they have received by some biblical scholars and commentators down through the ages. We have heard of Eve, Sarah and Hagar, and Tamar. Today I will jump way ahead in scripture and talk about Esther as it is also in the Revised Common Lectionary for this Sunday. While there are no known documents of a historical nature concerning Esther, she is very important to the Jewish faith story and consequently our faith too. This story tells of the salvation of the Jewish people, residing as refugees in Persia, from certain death. The King in the story is Ahasuerus. His Persian name was thought to be Xerxes who reigned from 479 to 465 B.C. […]