ESTHER 3-4:
Yesterday we heard how Esther became the queen,
and how she continued to keep her Jewish background a secret. We
also heard how Mordecai, her uncle, was promoted to a palace
official after uncovering a plot to assassinate king
Xerxes.
Today we are introduced to the
villain of the story— Haman. The Jews always read the book of
Esther in the celebration of Purim. Whenever Haman’s name is read
they boo and shake rattles or noisemakers to drown out his
name.
Translation
note:
7 NLT Mordecai told
him the whole story, including the exact amount of money Haman had
promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the
Jews.//GNT Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him
and just how much money Haman had promised to put into the royal
treasury if all the Jews were killed.
ISAIAH 41a:
The
shift to such beautiful poetry that occurs in chapter 40 of Isaiah
is one of the things that has made people think the last part of
this book was authored by someone else. But that is the silly. As I
have pointed out as we have gone along, Isaiah has written
beautiful and memorize-able verses from the beginning of this book.
And Isaiah’s amazing predictions about the Messiah are not just
found in chapter 53, as we heard again yesterday.
2 THESSALONIANS 1:
Did
you notice yesterday that the little book of Philemon is a picture
of the Gospel? Philemon is in the place of God. Paul is an advocate
like Jesus. Picture yourself in the position of a runaway slave. I
give a hint here for digging deeper in Philemon: There is a
wonderful play of words that happens twice based on the name
Onesimus.
I hope that you recall that we
read 1st Thessalonians several months ago. 2nd Thessalonians seems
to have been written soon after the first letter, around 51 AD.
Paul was evidently still at Corinth. And the letter seems to have
been written to clarify a very important point about Christ’s
second coming. This letter contains some of the clearest teaching
about the antichrist— although Paul does not use that
term.
Constable’s notes say, “Paul
wrote to encourage the Thessalonian believers to continue to
persevere in the face of continuing persecution (1:3-10). He also
wanted to clarify events preceding the day of the Lord to dispel
false teaching (2:1-12). Finally, he instructed the church how to
deal with lazy Christians in their midst (3:6-15).” Constable’s
notes can be found at Lumina.bible.org.
Translation
note:
11 That is why we
always pray for you. We ask our God to make you worthy of the life
he has called you to live. May he fulfill by his power all your
desire for goodness and complete [every good deed that you do
because of your belief in Christ//your work of faith].