Actually did the video series as part of a Bible study in 2009, but this book just sat on the shelf until last month (6 years later), when I decided to read it & do the study by myself.
I know that Beth Moore puts a lot of work into these studies, & this one is no exception. As informative & uplifting as her video lessons are, sometimes I have a hard time getting past many of her personal quirks & nuances. For one thing, I feel like she's yelling at me in some segments or just preaching over my head in others, while maybe others (Priscilla Shirer, etc) might teach in my style of learning. Not to mention that a lot of it is directed at me using "pet-names" that my mom doesn't even use ("Girlfriend", "Beloved", "Darling", "Sweetie", "Honey", "Dear One", etc). It's easier for me to get past those overpowering nuances while reading her, rather than watching her. But that still doesn't shake the pet-names.
If I think of Beth Moore studies as a battlefield of her personal quirks vs the lasting story message, in this study of Esther the lasting story & message wins out. Beth opened my mind to many ways that Esther is a form of great literature. I also learned about "chiastic structure" from this study (Don't live to eat, just eat to live, etc), & turned tables, ironies, & destiny reversals. I feel I've gotten more out of this study than what work I actually put into it! Esther definitely shows that God is the Master Storyteller!
Beth Moore also noticed something that I've noticed in the past few years, but she says it better than I can, & that is that the survival of the Jewish Nation (as fragmented as it may be) is a huge testimony to the veracity of the scriptures. There is no other better explanation as to the survival (& thriving!) of the Nation of Israel than God ensuring it. In the post-Darwin world of "survival of the fittest", applying those principles to even nations & governments as though they were living things, there is virtually no way that Israel could survive on their own, yet they have even thrived despite the plans of Haman, the Crusades, the Holocaust, & more--while other bigger & seemingly stronger kingdoms & empires (Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Nazis, etc) have "eaten their dust".