Jesus Is a Better King (Part 1)
King Xerxes was the most powerful and wealthy man on the earth during his reign over the vast Persian Empire. He was worshiped as a god. He throws a 6-month, all-expenses-paid party to show his own...
View ArticleJesus Has a Better Kingdom (Part 2)
Xerxes was the greatest king in the history of the world to his day, but in his kingdom, addictions were fed, men were castrated, and women were mistreated. Every generation chases the same foolish...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Savior (Part 3)
King Xerxes chased glory but received misery, trying to replace God with a woman to use, not love. We meet Mordecai and his adopted daughter, Esther, who are part of the compromised, worldly,...
View ArticleJesus Died a Better Death (Part 4)
Our lives are marked by sins, mistakes, and tragedies. The story of King Xerxes, Haman, Mordecai, and Esther is no different. Mordecai and Esther fail to walk faithfully with God, Xerxes cares more for...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Mediator (Part 5)
Mordecai and Esther aren’t perfect, but they’re making progress and changing. Mordecai’s faith is activated in mourning and weeping. He trusts that God is always with his people, and that God is in...
View ArticleJesus Gives a Better Identity (Part 6)
Your identity—who you think you are—determines how you live. Esther now sees herself as one of God’s people. Haman’s identity, though, is in his idolatry: his glory, power, honor, recognition, and...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Servant (Part 7)
Through the story of God’s covenant people in Esther, we learn to not question God’s providence, but assume it. “Coincidence” is the non-Christian’s word for providence. We learn from the examples of...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Esther (Part 8)
Jesus is a better Esther who came into human history as one of God’s people. God’s people in the Persian Empire were spared death because Esther finally identified with them, but all of God’s people...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Missionary (Part 9)
If you’re a Christian, you’re a missionary, sent into school, work, business, or neighborhood. Esther and Mordecai weren’t in vocational ministry—they were politicians—but they were effective...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Reversal (Part 10)
In life and at the cross, God works through reversals. Repentance from us plus reversals from God equals rejoicing. God’s people in Persia were sentenced to death, but in a reversal, they put their...
View ArticleJesus Is a Better Mordecai (Part 11)
As God’s people in Persia experience salvation, they respond with celebration, the Jewish festival of Purim. All the stories, deliverances, promises, foreshadowings, and types of the Bible—including...
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