{"id":6629,"date":"2019-12-08T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T03:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=6629"},"modified":"2019-12-06T22:00:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T05:00:56","slug":"esther1_1-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/esther1_1-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus, a King Like No Other"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p>Esther 1:1-22\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Esther+1%3A1-22&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6630 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191209-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191209-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191209-1-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191209-1-450x225.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today we begin the book of Esther.\u00a0\u00a0Here is some background on Esther that you may find helpful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite being allowed by kings like Cyrus and Darius to return to Jerusalem (see Ezra 1 and 6), and despite being urged by prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity as exiles (Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 29:10 and 50:8), many Jews chose to stay in Persia.\u00a0\u00a0The book of Esther is about those Jews that stayed in Persia, the threat of genocide the Jews faced while in Persia, and the incredible way God used a Jewish orphan called Esther and her cousin Mordecai to save the Jews from that threat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Scholars believe that the events described in the book of Esther took place between 483 B.C. and 473 B.C., after the events of Ezra 6 (when the temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem) and before the events of Ezra 7 (when Ezra returns to restore the sacrificial worship system in Jerusalem).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In the book of Esther, the name of God is not mentioned even once.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet in this book we see the sovereign hand of God working to protect and save His people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Esther 1:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Esther\u00a01:19\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<em><sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0&#8220;Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verses 1-22:\u00a0\u00a0The year is 483 B.C. King Xerxes, ruler of Persia, is in the third year of his 21 year reign and is planning a major attack on Greece.\u00a0\u00a0To garner support for this attack on Greece, King Xerxes throws a massive 180 day festival followed by a 7 day party, all of which flaunt King Xerxes\u2019 wealth and power.\u00a0\u00a0When King Xerxes commands his queen Vashti to appear before his guests, the lovely Vashti refuses.\u00a0\u00a0The furious King Xerxes consults his advisors who counsel him to oust Vashti from his presence, depose her as queen, and replace her with someone else.\u00a0\u00a0One of the alleged reasons for taking these measures was to discourage other women in Persia from being disrespectful to their husbands.<\/p>\n<p>What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Queen Vashti disobeyed King Xerxes\u2019 command and as a result was ousted out of King Xerxes\u2019 presence permanently.\u00a0\u00a0Similarly,\u00a0<strong>the consequence of us disobeying our King\u2019s commands was that we be ousted out of His presence forever.\u00a0\u00a0However, unlike King Xerxes who simply moved on and found another bride, our King never gave up on us.\u00a0\u00a0Rather than leave us out in the cold, Jesus went out to where we are.\u00a0\u00a0There He found us and did whatever it took to rescue us and bring us back into His kingdom, even if it meant giving up His own life in the process.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus is a king and hero like no other.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Lord Jesus, thank You that when we disobeyed Your commands, You did not divorce us, abandon us or replace us.\u00a0\u00a0Rather, You went out to where we are and paid the highest price to win us back.\u00a0\u00a0What a humble, gentle, merciful, and beautiful Saviour You are.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today we begin the book of Esther.\u00a0\u00a0Here is some background on Esther that you may find helpful:<\/p>\n<p>Despite being allowed by kings like Cyrus and Darius to return to Jerusalem (see Ezra 1 and 6), and despite being urged by prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah to return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity as exiles (Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 29:10 and 50:8), many Jews chose to stay in Persia.\u00a0\u00a0The book of Esther is about those Jews that stayed in Persia, the threat of genocide the Jews faced while in Persia, and the incredible way God used a Jewish orphan called Esther and her cousin Mordecai to save the Jews from that threat.<br \/>\nScholars believe that the events described in the book of Esther took place between 483 B.C. and 473 B.C., after the events of Ezra 6 (when the temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem) and before the events of Ezra 7 (when Ezra returns to restore the sacrificial worship system in Jerusalem).<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Esther, the name of God is not mentioned even once.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet in this book we see the sovereign hand of God working to protect and save His people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6632,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6629\/revisions\/6632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}