5 | Esther 7:1-4 Line by Line Bible study with Geoff Thomas

66 of the Worlds best Expository Preachers teaching through every verse of the Bible line by line - YouTube - http://bit.ly/2PxVWrJ

About Esther

“Esther” serves as the title without variation through the ages. This book and the book of Ruth are the only OT books named after women. Like Song of Solomon, Obadiah, and Nahum, the NT does not quote or allude to Esther. “Hadassah” (2:7), meaning “myrtle,” was the Hebrew name of Esther, which came either from the Persian word “star” or possibly from the name of the Babylonian love goddess, Ishtar. As the orphaned daughter of her father Abihail, Esther grew up in Persia with her older cousin, Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his own daughter (2:7, 15).

Esther occurred during the Persian period of world history, ca. 539 B.C. (Dan. 5:30, 31) to ca. 331 B.C. (Dan. 8:1–27). Ahasuerus ruled from ca. 486 to 465 B.C.; Esther covers the 483–473 B.C. portion of his reign. The name Ahasuerus represents the Heb. transliteration of the Persian name “Khshayarsha,” while “Xerxes” represents his Greek name.

The events of Esther occurred during the wider time span between the first return of the Jews after the 70 year captivity in Babylon (Dan. 9:1–19) under Zerubbabel ca. 538 B.C. (Ezra 1–6) and the second return led by Ezra ca. 458 B.C. (Ezra 7–10). Nehemiah’s journey (the third return) from Susa to Jerusalem (Neh. 1–2) occurred later (ca. 445 B.C.).

Esther and Exodus both chronicle how vigorously foreign powers tried to eliminate the Jewish race and how God sovereignly preserved His people in accordance with His covenant promise to Abraham ca. 2100–2075 B.C. (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:1–8). As a result of God’s prevailing, Esther 9, 10 records the beginning of Purim—a new annual festival in the 12th month (Feb.- Mar.) to celebrate the nation’s survival. Purim became one of two festivals given outside of the Mosaic legislation to still be celebrated in Israel (Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, is the other, cf. John 10:22).

About your Teacher - Geoff Thomas

Rev. Geoffrey Thomas has been the minister of Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales, since 1965. Born in 1938 in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, he became a Christian as a teenager in his home church, the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Hengoed, in 1954. After grammar school, he read Biblical Studies, Greek and Philosophy at Cardiff University (BA, 1959). He found fellowship in the Inter-varsity Fellowship group, and was influenced by the ministry of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and reading books such as J. I. Packer’s Fundamentalism and the Word of God, Whitefield’s Journals, Lloyd-Jones’ Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, and J. C. Ryle’s Holiness. At this time he also began to take The Banner of Truth magazine, which he has since served as Associate Editor. He preached for the first time in 1959 and ‘thenceforward Sunday after Sunday’. In 1961 he travelled to the United States to study for three years at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, under men such as Edward J. Young, Ned Stonehouse, John Murray, Cornelius Van Til, Meredith Kline, Norman Shepherd, Jay Adams and Edmund Clowney. Returning to Wales after graduation (M.Div, 1964), he married Iola, ‘the girl back home’. Assured during the last months of his course at seminary of the call to preach, he began his first and only pastorate at Alfred Place the following year. Geoff has systematically preached the Bible to his congregation ever since, and has published the compete text of almost a thousand sermons on the church’s website. He has served as the chairman of the Grace Churches of England and Wales, and of the Association of Evangelical Churches of Wales, and is currently Editor of the Trust’s website articles. He is the author of scores of articles and several books, including The Holy Spirit, Daniel: Servant of God Under Four Kings, Philip and the Revival in Samaria and Ernest Reisinger: A Biography, as well as the booklet Reading the Bible, some of which have been published by the Trust. He is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout the world, and is a Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2011 Westminster Seminary awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree. Geoff’s wife Iola passed away in October 2016, passing, as Geoff wrote, ‘from the state of grace to the state of glory’. Geoff has two daughters who are married to deacons and a third who is a pastor’s wife. He has eight grandsons and one granddaughter.

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Audio used with permission from Geoff Thomas