Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

I want to give you a heads up that today's podcast might not be the best for younger

ears.

I'm going to talk openly about what's happening in the text here.

This story has an important theme and a beautiful ending but there are some horrific stops

along the way, so use your own discretion.

Esther is generally regarded as historical narrative, but one other thing to note is that

it's the only book in the Bible that doesn't mention God's name.

Maybe you didn't even notice that in our reading today because we see him in the shadows

of every scene, working things out and keeping with his plan and his promises.

We open in the capital of Persia, the empire that toppled Babylon while the Jewish exiles

were living there.

Ah Shuares is King.

We first met him in Ezra 4 just a few days ago.

He was one of the kings who got a letter from the angry locals during their letter writing

campaign to stop the rebuilding of the temple.

He's not a follower of Yahweh, he's just a regular pagan king and a pagan empire.

In history he's typically referred to as Xerxes I.

At this point he's three years into his reign, which makes it approximately 483 BC.

He throws a massive six month party presumably for himself and invites everyone to see how

rich and awesome he is.

If you don't like it when people celebrate their birth week or birth month, you probably

...