i've been meditating this week on the Biblical story of Esther. If you grew up a Sunday School kid like me, you've probably heard the story so many times that it's been worn smooth, all of its rough edges tumbled away by repetition. Now, living in a culture that has recently been wrestling heavily with issues of consent and oppression, I'm starting to feel her story differently. An oppressed young woman, operating in a marriage power differential that almost certainly excluded consent, beating one of the most powerful men in the world at his own game - overcoming cruelty with courage. In the most literal sense - SLAY, QUEEN.
“She was a nobody, who God made somebody, to speak on behalf of everybody, because one day His body would be broken for us. If she was silent, deliverance would rise from somewhere else, but because she was not silent, God spared and saved the lives of many. Where do we need to be giving our surrendered yes? To speak on behalf of those who have been oppressed, we will not be silent.”
- From "Rise Up" by Faithful Project
- From "Rise Up" by Faithful Project
“When everything is lost and God can’t be found,
he is still working to turn the plans of the enemy upside down.
That is the story of a Jewish woman named Esther.
Like many of her people, she was abducted from her home and forced under the scepter of the Persian empire.
And King Xerxes was her chief oppressor.
Kidnapped and trafficked, Esther stood before her aggressor.
She was forced under his unlimited power enslaved as Queen to his worldwide empire.
Had God lost?
Had this king taken his crown?
Perhaps that’s why, in the book of Esther, God’s name cannot be found.
But when everything is lost and God can’t be found,
he is still working to turn the plans of the enemy upside down.”
he is still working to turn the plans of the enemy upside down.
That is the story of a Jewish woman named Esther.
Like many of her people, she was abducted from her home and forced under the scepter of the Persian empire.
And King Xerxes was her chief oppressor.
Kidnapped and trafficked, Esther stood before her aggressor.
She was forced under his unlimited power enslaved as Queen to his worldwide empire.
Had God lost?
Had this king taken his crown?
Perhaps that’s why, in the book of Esther, God’s name cannot be found.
But when everything is lost and God can’t be found,
he is still working to turn the plans of the enemy upside down.”
- The Bible Explained: Esther by Spoken Gospel
5 x 5 inches (13 x 13 cm)
Polychromos colored pencils
on Strathmore 400 Series toned gray paper
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