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Esther | Seeing God When He Is Silent
111 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 3, 2026
This deep dive into the book of Esther was interesting, but I think it would have benefitted from a review from an actual expert in Ancient Persia, theology, or both.
I was really enjoying the study for the first few days, but then we got to the part in Esther's story where the author mentions how the Jewish populations of Persia were treated by the other Persians. This is an important aspect to know, but the reflection questions for that day included a question asking how modern day Christians can relate to the mistreatment of the Jewish people. Given that these studies are written for English-speaking, primarily American Christians, they can't. They can't relate. Not at all. Because the lives of English-speaking American Christians have NEVER been impacted by prejudices the way that Jewish people of any time period have been impacted. And then the authors continued to ask similar questions for the next few days.
For me, those tone deaf questions impacted how I viewed the rest of the study. I think the story of Esther can be a beautiful story of overcoming obstacles and redemption, and this study did make me think about how God is working, even when we can't see that work (hence the 3 stars). And I don't necessarily think that only professional theologians should be commenting on scripture - the varied perspectives we get often help us to better understand the depth of scripture. But if we're going to talk specifics regarding life in a certain empire, Greek translations, or other historical/theological aspects, then I think we need to rely on expert interpretations rather than amateur ones.
I was really enjoying the study for the first few days, but then we got to the part in Esther's story where the author mentions how the Jewish populations of Persia were treated by the other Persians. This is an important aspect to know, but the reflection questions for that day included a question asking how modern day Christians can relate to the mistreatment of the Jewish people. Given that these studies are written for English-speaking, primarily American Christians, they can't. They can't relate. Not at all. Because the lives of English-speaking American Christians have NEVER been impacted by prejudices the way that Jewish people of any time period have been impacted. And then the authors continued to ask similar questions for the next few days.
For me, those tone deaf questions impacted how I viewed the rest of the study. I think the story of Esther can be a beautiful story of overcoming obstacles and redemption, and this study did make me think about how God is working, even when we can't see that work (hence the 3 stars). And I don't necessarily think that only professional theologians should be commenting on scripture - the varied perspectives we get often help us to better understand the depth of scripture. But if we're going to talk specifics regarding life in a certain empire, Greek translations, or other historical/theological aspects, then I think we need to rely on expert interpretations rather than amateur ones.
December 18, 2024
An amazing in-depth study of Esther. This is a top fave of the Daily Grace Co series. Definitely had great view points of the Esther story and wasn’t just repetitive as I have found some of the Daily Grace Co studies to be.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews