Hey, my friends. It's Matt. This is a 10 minute Bible hour podcast. And we are inching our

way toward getting into the actual text of the book of Esther. But first we've been

getting a sense of the lay of the land of this significant era of turmoil and transition

that runs from the late 600's BC up to the time of Cyrus, the great and his conquest

of Babylon in 539 BC. So much happens in there. So much changes in that roughly 70 year

window. And it raised massive theological questions for God's chosen people and about

the redemptive plan in general and about what God was doing and how this was all going

to work out. And this is a huge pivotal period, not just historically, but also theologically.

Now that we've looked pretty closely at this historical era, there's a bunch of stuff

in the Old Testament, particularly the prophets that we started looking at yesterday and

that we're going to look at more today that I think is going to pay off and help us feel

this whole historical theological moment that is building up to the book of Esther that

much better. So I'm going to ask my good friend, Jeffrey, to play some catchy music right

here. And then we'll pick up right where we left off yesterday.

So we get all this stuff about what Cyrus is going to do and how God is going to use him.

And then it pivots in chapter 46 for how Cyrus is going to be used to judge Babylon. That

goes like this. Bell bows down, Nebo stoop slow. Their idols are born by beasts of burden.

The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop down and

bow down together, unable to rescue the burden they themselves go off into captivity. And

this goes on for a couple of chapters. Here's a sample of some of the most graphic language

describing this judgment of Babylon. Go down 47 verse one, sit in the dust, virgin daughter

of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne daughter of the Babylonians. No more will

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