Mea quidem sententia
LoveLoud837
examples?
The gospel is all over the book of Esther, and God isn't even mentioned anywhere.
The
Hebrews didn't believe in the soul until later on. There is no mention of the Hebrew word satan until
Numbers 22:22, and the referent is the messenger of Yahweh. There was no salvation from sin, since everyone ended up in sheol, the Hebrew word for "grave". The reason I say this is because there was no punishment in the afterlife. The righteous and wicked ended up in sheol. You could take Esther and say that's a prophecy of the Holocaust, but that's because of confirmation bias.
John 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God.
It doesn't matter that they didn't know it was a baby named Jesus that would die on Calvary. The gospel is throughout scripture.
Lets go to Esther, and I'll explain it.
Here's my personal spark-note version of the story (I wrote this)
Okay, so you have the King throwing a party, and he tells his wife to come to the party, wearing only a crown so he can show her off. She refuses to be degraded, so the King leaves the Queen and seeks a successor. Esther, who was beautiful and being taken care of by Mordecai, her uncle, was taken and given a year-long beautification process. Esther was a jew, but did not make that known. The king decided to take Esther over all the other virgins as the queen. Haman, the court jester, if you will, was not bowed down to by Mordecai. This caused Haman to be filled with rage, and ask the king to be able to kill all the jews, via manipulation. The king approved. Esther, after learning about this asks the king to have a banquet with just the king and Haman. The king approves this. Haman sees Mordecai after learning he is getting a special banquet with the King and queen. Haman then sees Mordecai again, and becomes angered. Feeling like the better man though, Haman decides not to attack him, and instead tells them to make a 75 ft. Gallow. Mordecai learns of an assassination attempt on the king and reports it. Now, the banquet started with Haman. The king asks, what should be done for a man that deserves honor? And Haman goes, that man should get a robe and a crown and a horse and chauffeured to the city square by a prince to be honored. The king says great, take all that and give it to Mordecai! And then at the banquet, Esther pleaded with the king, Haman made you plan to kill my people, and Haman was hanged on the gallows meant for Mordecai, and Mordecai was promoted. The king gave them permission to fight back against the army sent to kill the jews, and the Jews destroyed the attackers.
What are some things to take out of systematic theology here?
You really see God's divine intervention with irony and humor. Haman thought he was going to be praised, Haman built gallows for Mordecai. Yet, Haman was made to praise his enemy, and was hanged on the gallow meant for his enemy.
You see God's protection of the Israelites. The Israelites at the time had no king, no rulers, no direction, yet were able to completely destroy the attacking enemies. They flourished, even with no human direction.
God has a plan for everyone, and God can use you in any situation.