ESTHER, For Such a Time as This | Book | Series Introduction

The key verse in the Book of Esther is 4:14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (ESV) Esther was written to explain the origin of Purim. God had providentially protected the Jewish people who were in exile throughout the Persian Empire. God’s covenant people, Israel, throughout the centuries, have encountered many powerful men and women who sought to extinguish them from existence. The genocidal hatred of Jews by Adolph Hitler, witnessed by the world, existed in men and women before and after him. From the Moabites to Jezebel, from Antiochus Epiphanies to Titus, from the Third Reich to Islam, the Jewish people have been delivered by God repeatedly. In the Book of Esther, the reality of Divine providential protection is celebrated through the institution of the Feast of Purim. Esther has a running theme of banquets, sudden reversals, persecution of the Jews, and God’s providence.