Watch our overview video on the prophetic books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which breaks down the literary design of each book's flow of thought. In these books, many Israelites return to Jerusalem after the exile and face some success alongside many spiritual and moral failures.
Watch our overview video on the book of Esther, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. In Esther, God providentially uses two exiled Israelites to rescue His people from certain doom, without any explicit mention of God or His activity.
Message Series by Pastors Jonathan Valletta & Dan Williams:
Can Christianity survive a secular age? Can Christians live without compromise in an increasingly hostile society? And what if they’ve already given in to that society’s vision and values? In this message series, we’ll answers these questions by pointing out the parallels between our world and the story of Esther. A tale of sex, ego, and revenge, the book of Esther reveals a world where God seems absent from everyday life—a world not unlike our own. Far from the gentle cartoon we often hear in Sunday school, the story of Esther is a brutal saga of people assimilated into a pluralistic, pagan society, embracing its standards. Yet when threatened with annihilation, they find the courage to turn to God in humility. A call to spiritual awakening and to faith in an age of malaise and apathy, Faith Among the Faithless is an invitation to remember the faithfulness of God, knowing that in dark times—as in the days of Esther or our own—God may be hidden, but he is never absent.