Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. If you're just jumping in, we are walking through the first five chapters of the Book of Esther today.

And let me tell you, these chapters are filled with drama, beauty pageants, royal decrees, drunken kings, and one high-stakes plot twist that could have changed everything for God's people.

But if you've read ahead or have your Bible open now, you might notice something strange throughout the book of Esther, something missing.

And it's that God's name isn't mentioned.

Not once. No Yahweh, no Lord. God is not mentioned. His name is nowhere in the book, which leaves us asking, where is God in the book of Esther? Better yet? Where is God in the

parts of our lives that feel silent, random, or even scary?

So let's start with what's happening on the surface. Esther opens in the Persian palace during

the reign of King Xerxes, also called Asherus, or however you pronounce it, and he's throwing a

massive six-month party, really to show off his wealth.

And by chapter 1, verse 10, he's drunk and decides to show off his queen named Vashdie.

But she says no. And in a culture where the king's word was law, her defiance sets off a firestorm. So enter the royal advisors.

They're worried that all the wives in Persia are going to start disrespecting their husbands.

So what's the solution? Ban the queen and search for a new one. This is not a Disney love story.

This is exploitation and brokenness dressed up in gold and glamour.

And here's the part where we meet Esther.

She's young, Jewish, orphaned, raised by her cousin Mordecai,

and she's drafted into this twisted beauty contest, not because of her own ambition, but because

she's beautiful and powerless. Esther wasn't trying to be queen. She was just surviving. But happily,

it seemed, with her cousin Mordecai. So again, where is God in the story? Let me share a quote from Beth Moore, who's written an excellent study on Esther,

and in it she wrote, in a book with no blatant mention of God, one of the biggest and most important

concepts of Providence in the Book of Esther is time. She concludes. Esther might feel like a

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