North Bible Recap
Walk through the Bible, each week, with clear explanations and practical takeaways.
North Bible Recap
Episode 32: 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Joshua, Esther
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In this episode, Pastor Rodney and Pastor Sawyer walk through 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Joshua, Esther, and Psalms, highlighting how true spiritual leadership is marked by humility, character, and dependence on God’s strength—not our own.
They emphasize God’s faithfulness to His promises, the power of forgiveness and reconciliation, and the call to trust Him in every season, reminding us that we are placed where we are for a purpose and invited to respond with obedience, courage, and faith.
Well, good day, everybody. I'm so glad that you are joining us for another episode of North Papel Recap. And I am so glad to have with us today our student, Pastor Sawyer Wilson.
SPEAKER_00Glad to be here, Pastor Ronnie. Thank you so much. Excited to dive into God's word.
SPEAKER_01Okay, we we've got to clarify something real quick before we move on. That's right. I don't want to do this publicly because I'm having some different opinions on how you say your name.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Sawyer is how you like to say it. Saw or Sawyer. Yeah. And so that that's so I'm I'm interested in that because I'm hearing just mixed uh signals because I'm hearing people, young people, older people say say it differently than I say it. I say sawyer. And but then Siri, Siri told me that I'm saying it wrong.
SPEAKER_00Siri has it wrong, actually. You've got it right, Pastor. So my name's pronounced Sawyer, just the way it's spelled. No, no soy, no soy sauce, none of that. It's Sawyer. Um so when I was younger, I used to correct people, but now as I've as I've grown up, I honestly don't even notice it anymore when people pronounce it the other way. Um, but uh most of my my family, close friends, people like you, uh know that it's sawyer. That's correct.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, hey, we're that was very important information. There's a world out there that needed to know that.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00This is why you watch the Bible recap.
SPEAKER_01Hey, we're gonna dive into it. Um we are in episode uh number 15 of 2026. That's besides many others that we have from 2025. And uh we're looking at today, uh 2 Corinthians, chapter number 11, 12, and 13. Then Philemon. What chapter are we gonna do? How many chapters do we cover in Philemon? I think we're gonna do the whole book. The whole book. This is the whole book. Yeah, we'll figure out later on how many. Stay with us.
SPEAKER_00We'll we'll get through it, the whole book.
SPEAKER_01And then we'll look at uh Joshua chapters 15 through 24 and Esther chapters one through four, which is that whole book for sure. And then we're gonna go Psalms chapters 54 through 59, okay? Hey, let's jump into this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we got some really, really good stuff to talk about today. So we're gonna start with two of Paul's letters, first being 2nd Corinthians. So um we've been reading this for a little while, and there's been uh a couple North Bible recap episodes talking about 2nd Corinthians. So make sure you go back, listen to those episodes, watch those episodes as well. Uh I'm just gonna give you a brief reminder of the context for for those of us um watching, listening, and us here. So the author of this was Paul. Um Paul spent a year and a half in Corinth. It was actually the longest that he spent anywhere during his apostolic ministry, the longest period of time. And he wrote this letter, 2 Corinthians around 56 AD. And it kind of helps to have a little bit of the Corinthian timeline. So Paul plants the church in Corinth, then he he leaves, continues his missions, all of those things, and he writes his first letter. That actually isn't first Corinthians. That letter is lost. Then he writes his second letter, which is 1 Corinthians to us. After he wrote that letter, he then visits Corinth and he describes it himself as a painful, um, painful visit because there was a lot of correction and just uh pastoral care that was needed there. He then writes a third letter that is also lost, and then the fourth letter that he writes to the Corinthians is what we call 2 Corinthians. And this letter is deeply personal, it's pastoral. Paul is encouraging the church, he's pointing them to Jesus, of course, and actually he actually defends his ministry and and his apostolic nature, which is kind of crazy, and we'll get into that in a little bit, and then finally, after um the writing of 2 Corinthians, he visits Corinth one more time. And like I said, in this letter, he is uh boasting, um, but not to just elevate himself, but to to prove and argue for his apostolic nature to the church. We'll talk about why in a little bit. And instead of just writing to them and saying, Hey, I'm your pastor, I planted this church, uh, you need to do what I do because I say so, which he could have done, you know, uh, that he's writing to them in a relational sense as a father. For me, having having two young kids trip, he's three, and he's to the point where he'll he'll start to do some stuff that needs some correction. And there was a time a few months ago, I have to admit, where he I told him to do something, and he was like, Why? And I said, Well, because I said so, which is true. I'm his father, and he needs to do it because I say so. But later, my wife, Olivia, actually pulled me. She's like, Hey, that's probably not the best way to actually parent him, which I was so grateful for. Um, and so as leaders, as pastors, as spiritual fathers and mothers, as physical fathers and mothers, we can learn a lot from Paul in that way. In this section, three chapters, chapter 11, he warns the church to beware of the false apostles. And in chapter 12, he talks about how there's power in our weakness, and chapter 13, he warns um the church, and then he kind of encourages them to do some self-examination as well. So, who are these false apostles that Paul is talking about? He actually refers to them kind of funny as super apostles. I don't know, is that like a new Marvel movie that's coming out of the super apostles?
SPEAKER_01I think Paul was kind of just poking funny at me. Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think he had a little bit of a sense of humor. He's like, okay, these super apostles, they were they were just false teachers that had come in. They were opposing Paul, saying that he wasn't a true apostle, that he um didn't know Jesus, that he uh didn't know what he was talking about. Um, and they kind of tried to establish themselves by their own set of credentials. And we'll see that Paul writes back um and lists off his credentials. I'm a Pharisee. I, you know, I've memorized the entire Hebrew Bible, I've spent time with Jesus, I've had visions of Jesus, I've given my life to this mission. Uh uh I don't ask for money unlike you super apostles. Um but then he kind of turns it and says, but actually none of that really matters. Um, what matters is Jesus. I want to read a couple passages from chapter 11 and 12 right here, starting with 2 Corinthians 11, verse 30. After Paul lists all of his accomplishments and credentials, he says, But if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. And then if we skip down a little bit into chapter 12, it's sort of the same section. Uh starting in verse 7, he writes, In order to keep me from being conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, and persecutions, and difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong. So good. Um, and the the thing that I pull out of that text, and then Pastor, I want to hear your input as well, is that um what this means to us is that boasting in ourselves, boasting in knowledge, accomplishments, money, status, whatever, means nothing. And Paul's reminding the church, himself, us that we're nothing without Christ. And for me, the takeaway is just that there's power in our weakness. Because when when we realize how weak we actually are as people, and when we can help other people realize how weak we are as people, we know that everything that we do, the things that are accomplished, um, the things that we lead and start, the decisions we make, it's all it's all by Jesus and for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01That's so good. And you know, you find throughout the scripture, God called people. First of all, I'm talking about the super apostles. You know, he's reminding them that it's not about the charisma, it's about the character of people. So good. So good. That that's the most important thing. And I just encourage everybody that it's easy to jump on a bandwagon and follow um, you know, the hottest thing out there on TikTok, they're a preacher or teacher of the gospel. And you we don't know them. Again, God has given them talents and giftings uh that they need to be responsible for. But I I would encourage you to really uh seek and pray about the character of the people that you're following. So good. And uh do your best to follow people who are really have proven records and have uh shown themselves very faithful to kingdom purposes. Now, going back to this weakness thing versus strength, throughout the Bible, God called people, whether that be Moses, I can't speak, I can't, whatever. Yet He was to go up and represent the people of Israel and saying, Let my people go. And then also to kind of direct two million people plus uh on their journey, and but he's gonna have to be speaking, okay. And I I I know for me, um when God called me to uh preach and I remember and to be a b a pastor, um I never was a pastor of a local church or even on church staff in any form till I was thirty-four years of age when we started North Church in our living room. But I had done done a lot of speaking, but the gift of speaking and that talent was not natural for me. I had to work hard and I felt very inadequate to it. Matter of fact, I remember in high school doing a speech thing multiple times that whether it be in the local high school or we did an event one time, but I was asked to go because I had much leadership qualities on the football field, basketball court, uh, with workers on my our farm, with I I could lead adults. But with actually publicly speaking, that was not an actual yet God's calling me to take a platform and to preach to people. But I think it was also part of that idea that humbling and realizing that I'm not good at that, that caused me to lean not on my own ways and abilities, but to trust God. And now I feel like that I've gotten much better better and polished over the years, but at the same time, that experience keeps me grounded in that I did not get here because of my ability. It's only because of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00Amen. It it reminds me what you talked about there about character and development, something that I think it was it was either you or or Pastor Clint told me um early in in my ministry was that charisma can get you a seat at the table, but your character is what is gonna keep you there. And that's what Paul is is getting at here. Another passage from from this section is actually in chapter 12 as well, that I think shows Paul's heart um as a as a as a past as a pastor, as a spiritual father. And I think it also kind of encapsulates the heart of all of Second Corinthians is 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, verse 14. Paul's kind of starting to wrap up this letter. He writes to the the Corinthians, now I'm ready to visit you for the third time, which we know that he later did, and I will not be a burden to you. This part right here is so good, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. That part in the middle, what I want is not your possessions but you. There's this quote I tried to look up and find who said it. Um, some places it said John Piper, some places said C. S. Lewis. So we'll just say that I said it. Um and it says that God doesn't want anything from you, He just wants you. Um, which when you really think about it, that is meaning that God does want everything from you, but mostly He wants you. And I think Paul is it's emphasizing that here, and he's showing us what the heart of a spiritual leader is. It's not to be served, but to serve. What Jesus said in Mark chapter 10, verse 45, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So everyone watching this, you may not be a pastor like Paul or like Pastor Rodney or myself, but you are a leader somewhere in your home, in your workplace, in your school, on your teams, um, whatever it may be. And God wants to use you there. And the way he wants to use you is as a servant leader to serve others and not just to be served yourself.
SPEAKER_01Great. That's so great. So let's let's let's wrap up Second Corinthians. And so if you were to say, kind of summarize it in a sentence or two, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00I think Second Corinthians is just it's a pastoral letter from a spiritual father that cares for his spiritual children, and it's he's teaching them and encouraging them and us today how to lead with humility and heart. Um, and it kind of leads us into the the next letter, which is another one of Paul's pastoral letters. Yeah, five lemons. How many chapters we can cover in funny? We're gonna do the whole book, and it is one chapter. Oh, really? One chapter. It's actually Paul's shortest letter that we have in the Bible, and this is a really cool letter. It's all about forgiveness, reconciliation. Paul wrote this from prison.
SPEAKER_01It's considered this is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful letter.
SPEAKER_00Uh, I was I'm super excited to talk about it. He wrote it just a few years um before 2 Corinthians, we believe, around 61 AD, or sorry, a few years after, around 61 AD. Um, and he wrote this to a guy named Philemon. Um, and Philemon, it's important to know who he was. He was a well-off Roman citizen. Uh, he lived in a place we think called Colossae, and he had most likely met Paul on Paul's missionary journeys, um, had been once Christ through Paul's ministry, and he uh was probably a part of a house church in Colossae with Epaphras, who's one of Paul's co-workers um for the gospel. And Philemon, like most household uh leaders in the Roman world, he owned slaves. And one of those slaves was a guy named Onisimus. Onesimus is who we're gonna be talking about in this letter. And the story goes that Onisimus, in some way, we don't know, he he wronged Philemon. Maybe he stole something, maybe he took something that he wasn't supposed to, broke some rule, and he runs away, um, probably scared for his life. It's estimated back then that there that all over up to 80% of the entire Roman population of the entire empire was slaves. That's how many slaves there were. It was a it was a basic economic practice at that time, obviously terrible, but a little different than slavery in the Americas and things like that. Um, but still, Onismus was in grave danger because if you broke a rule, if you ran away as a slave, that slave owner had the right to kill you, to kill all the rest of the slaves as well as a due punishment for that. And Onismus goes to this guy that he thinks can help him named Paul, who's in prison.
SPEAKER_01Let me stop there for just a moment. We can continue on in regards to you know the idea of slavery and and and uh obviously there's different situations going, but I so I'm so thankful for Jesus because it's the cross, it's Jesus, it's the Christian message that's changed. And of obviously slavery didn't change overnight here and but there was there was the progressive movement of the gospel and the shaping of human dignity and the moving forward of the way it was meant to be from the beginning of time, yeah, that gives value to every person that Christianity and that Christ preached and that Paul would dive into. And so that that's great. And so continue on with this.
SPEAKER_00I agree 100%. And on that note, we can read some of Paul's other writings, like in Ephesians 6, where he says, slaves obey your masters, and people can twist that and say, Well, Paul and Christianity is pro-slavery. Well, then you read this letter, and that's obviously not the case. So Philemon or Onisimus finds Paul in prison, asks him for help. While he's with Paul, he he actually becomes a Christian as well, and he kind of becomes Paul's assistant, if you will. And then Paul writes this letter to Philemon asking him to forgive Onismus and not just welcome him back as a slave, but to embrace him as his brother in Christ. Okay, that's key.
SPEAKER_01That's key. So if when we talk about slavery, you know, all of us are enslaved to something, and that may be to a sin, but also just even financially. Uh, we we can't just you know, quit on our payments to our home, cars, various other things. There is a sense of debidness to that. And so that's what you have. If you have somebody probably who is indebted to that person, who is working off or has a lifelong commitment to this person, whatever, but then now he's saying, Oh no, now he he's your brother. That's a big statement. So good. And how you treat somebody and the responsibility to how we strew that relationship.
SPEAKER_00And so the letter is just 25 verses, one chapter, 25 verses. It opens with a prayer, then Paul makes that bold request that we'll dive into, and then he closes with a greeting. And I want to start with verse six. Uh, Paul writes this to Philemon I pray that your partnership, remember that word partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. So as I was studying this, I learned that the word that Paul used there for partnership is a Greek word koinania, koinania. And it doesn't just mean partnership as in, hey, we're we're partners, we have some sort of maybe business agreement or contract. No, it means that you are sharing a burden, that you are mutually participating in something. And the point that Paul is making here that he's going to develop throughout the letter, we'll come back to that koinania phrase, is that all of Jesus' followers, we are partners, and we we are sharing in the gift of salvation, we're sharing, sharing in the gift of God's love. And that partnership isn't just something that we receive, but it's something that we do and that we live out. When I think of that partnership, we I have a friend, his name's Chris. Um, he did an internship with us at North Church last summer, and he's currently a missionary in India, and he'll text me a couple times a month, and every text message I went back and looked, somewhere in there, he's updating me on his ministry, and he'll say, I'm so thankful for your partnership in the gospel. And that's what I think of because even though we are in different continents, doing different things, reaching different people, even though he and I are different people and maybe always don't see eye to eye on certain things, maybe have different views, different opinions, we are partners in the gospel. We're working together. And what I believe that Paul is hinting at here is that to fulfill the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations, to um lead people to Christ, we have to be committed to this Koinania partnership. And and like I said, that'll come back later in the letter. So good. So good, so good. Keep rolling. Let me just stop it there. Is it the shortest book in the Bible? I don't think it's the shortest book. Is it? I know it's Paul's shortest letter. Is it the what is? Let us know in the I don't know off the top of my head. Is it Jude?
SPEAKER_01No, no, it is the shortest um Paul's writing, but it's not the shortest. Okay. Uh and also it depends on how you met. Well, um, the shortest by verses is uh second John. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But the shortest by word count is third John.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so John. John takes the cake for shortest. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01So and that's in the Bible. No, no, I just thought it's right. That's great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this is Paul's shortest, but not the overall. Obviously.
SPEAKER_01The people listen, right? We don't we don't rehearse this. We kind of sit down and go at it. Okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna I'm gonna get you. I'm just gonna 15 and 16, if we if we were to keep reading, this is where that bold request comes in. Uh Paul writes, perhaps the reason that Onesimus, that he was separated from you for a little while, was that you might have him back forever. Here it is, verse 16. No longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me, but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. This is really, really bold, and it's it's it's radical, it's counter-cultural, because under Roman law, like we said earlier, Philemon had every right for Onesimus to be punished, to be imprisoned, just come back and continue his work as a slave. And Paul's saying, No, no, no, no, no. I want you to let all of that go, forgive, and take it a step further. Don't just forgive him, but accept him back as your brother, as your family member. This is unheard of. Um, and this is something that would have never happened before Christianity, would have never happened before Jesus and before the cross. And what Paul is is getting at here is that because of the gospel message, we have to live differently. And the gospel radicalizes and changes the way that we are to live. And we see that with this letter. And I love it.
SPEAKER_01I love how you use that term. The gospel radicalizes the way we live. Because we take that word so often and take it in a negative slant from what we hear. But literally, it right that word we we take us a slap on the cheek and turn the other cheek. We go the extra mile, we actually take back that which we owned and that stole from us that person in this situation. We forgive, we don't require him to restore back, and then we actually make him a brother.
SPEAKER_00So good. It it makes me think of in it's either Acts 16 or 17 when it talks about um the disciples and and how they're growing the church, and some of the the uh the Jewish leaders say, Hey, these men are turning the world upside down. Yeah, they're not doing it by wars, by riots, by any of those things, but by loving people and living differently. Our weapons of are not like the world's weapons. So good, so good. Uh, last couple verses of Philemon that we'll share today, 17 through 19. Paul says, So if you consider me a partner, there it is again, welcome him, Onismus, as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. Sounds kind of like the gospel right there. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I'll pay it back, not to mention that you owe me your very self. He's saying, Hey, remember who who helped win you to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what Paul's really saying there is said, If you if you want this to pay for, I'll pay for it. But he's actually putting it on him to say, Yeah, I'm just erasing this debt.
SPEAKER_00That's right, exactly. So Paul's bringing back the quininea partnership. And what's beautiful about this passage is that Paul is living out the gospel message. In this story, he is entering into the picture as a picture of Jesus, as a picture of the Messiah, saying, I will pay all of his debts. Put it on to me. He is helping to reconcile this relationship, uh, just like God reconciled the world to him through Jesus, through the Messiah. Messiah, not counting the people's sins against them. Onesimus' sins are being called to be forgiven. And this quininea partnership is just a reminder that we're all equal before God. We all need the same forgiveness. Uh all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we are all partners in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01Yay, Philemon. Yay, Onesimus. Yay, Paul.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Um, let's go to Old Testament. Yeah. Old Testament. So Joshua, uh, kind of like 2 Corinthians. There's been a few podcast episodes where we've talked about Joshua already. So I encourage you, go listen to those. Go check those out. Joshua is a really cool book, it is so awesome. It is. I didn't realize this until a few months ago. This is actually kind of an autobiography. Joshua wrote this book. Somebody asked me, they're like, but he dies at the end. So I researched that. Well, some later parts were probably recorded by some of the historians, but we believe that Joshua wrote most of the book. Um, and what's interesting about Joshua is that his name is the same as Jesus' name. It's just different languages and translations of the name that means Yahweh is salvation. Um, this was written sometime in the late 14th century BC, right after Moses has died. So Joshua is becoming the leader of Israel after Moses. Pretty big shoes to fill there. And he has the task to take Israel into the promised land. Um, and in this book, we see that God is faithful to his promises, and that his promises, uh, our end of the bargain is to obey and have faith in him, and he'll give us the grace to do those things. So the chapters we're going to be looking at today, there's two sections. Chapters 13 through 22, which is a big chunk today, is where Joshua starts to divide up the land. So when you read that, it may seem a little bit hard to get through, but there's some good stuff in there. You see Caleb getting his inheritance, and it's really important to the Israelites. Um, and we'll get to that in a second. And then the final two chapters are actually Joshua's final words to the nation of Israel. So at the text we're going to look at, Joshua's getting old. He is up there in age, and he is starting to divide the land. And when I read through all those lists, those boundary lines, everything, sometimes it's a little hard to get through. But for Israel, this was super important because to them it's a reminder that God is fulfilling his promises that he made to Abraham all of those generations ago. I want to look at a couple verses from chapter 21, verses 43 through 45. It says, So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled. This is the faithfulness of God. This is his promises coming true. And the takeaway for me from this section and from all of those lists of so-and-so got this land, this house got this land, this tribe got this land, is that God is faithful to his promises, and we're called to be faithful to him through our obedience.
SPEAKER_01I like this. You know, and one of the things that I enjoy as we go through this each and every week, obviously, as we are preparing, I'm actually going through the scripture just like everybody else is uh right now. And I'm writing, journaling what God's speaking to me. And so in Joshua chapter 18, one of the things as they settle down, it says in verse number one of chapter 18, now that the land was under Israelite control, the entire community of the Israelite Israel gathered at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle. What is the tabernacle? It's the place where heaven and earth are connecting, where God is you know showing up. And so I just made a note there that and I wrote this the place where God and man meet must never be neglected. And of course, they had they were you know winning, conquering the land, and then they set up the tabernacle. When we create, um when the created gather to worship the creator, the space becomes sacred ground. It is why we must not forsake coming together and worship. In these moments, we deepen our relationship with our Father through spiritual habits formed in the heart, practiced in the spirit and in truth within the community, expressing our love and gratitude for all Yahweh has done. So good. So but one of the things that I think was a challenge, you you find the slippage spiritually of people throughout, and maybe now they have the tabernacle one place, but they're spread out, of actually taking time to come to the tabernacle was not happening. Yeah. And I believe that you begin to see as we go into the book of Judges later on, and where it opens up, it says, after the death of Joshua, that there rose a generation that knew not the Lord. We must not neglect the place where the people of God gather and where heaven and earth connects.
SPEAKER_00So good, so good. And and Joshua reminds him of that in his final speeches. Uh, he kind of presents Israel these two options. He's like, Hey, I'm not gonna follow Yahweh for you. I'm not gonna be here forever. He knows that his time is coming to pass away from that life. And uh he presents them these two options are you gonna be faithful or are you gonna be unfaithful? And this verse, it's it's a super famous verse, but it's it's so powerful. Um, Joshua kind of says to them, hey, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, this is Joshua 24, 15. If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors serve beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, some of those foreign gods in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. This right here is Joshua reminding us of what it means to be a leader, what it means to be a spiritual father, be a spiritual mother, be somebody that's committed to the Lord, serving the Lord no matter what. That's what leaders do. He's saying, Hey, no matter what, me and my household, me and my family will serve the Lord. As I was as reading, uh, I read this statement. It says, if you can lead yourself and you can lead your family, then you can lead God's people. Um, and that's what Joshua is modeling here. Leaders serve the Lord no matter what.
SPEAKER_01That's a good statement. That's a good, I like that. I like that. If you can lead yourself and you can lead your family, lead your family, then you can lead people God's people. Okay, wow, that's great. That's great. Okay, now let's uh we got one more book of the um Man, dude, you've got a lot here. It was I was really excited when specifically like on this, uh Thaleman, and because you were actually dealing with the the foundation of that book. And so let's dive into the book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00Esther. Esther, yeah, and I think I think that we we made a slight mistake earlier. I think we said we were gonna do the whole book today. We're actually doing about the first half of Esther. That's right. Um so Esther, we're gonna look at chapters one through four. So, some context. We don't know for sure who the author of this book was. Um, some say that it might have been Mordecai, who's one of the characters that we'll read about. Pastor, do you have a guess? Uh, just for this is just for fun. Who do you think wrote this book?
SPEAKER_01Who do I think wrote this book? Yeah, well, first off, let me say this. I made the mistake earlier, saying we're gonna cover the whole book. I don't know why I said that. But um, but I did. Um, but I really um because you're catching me off guard, I I don't know. I mean I I do know because I've studied this before. I cannot remember who it was. Um was it Jeremiah?
SPEAKER_00So it's actually unknown. The most common kind of conservative guess is is Mordecai, actually. Um so I looked, there's a lot of places where it'll be people will be sure they know. For this, I couldn't find anybody that was sure they knew who wrote Esther. So if you know and you're out there, let us know. But that's just kind of fun to get into well.
SPEAKER_01It makes sense that Mordecai wrote it, but just kind of who exactly who compiled it later on, which is is very I mean, the story of the Israel Israelite people is amazing.
SPEAKER_00It's so good, and this is one of the coolest stories to me. Uh so it was written sometime in the fifth century BC, all over this place. He is all over it, but as a fun fact that we'll hit in a second, he's never explicitly mentioned in this book. No way. The name of God is is never mentioned, but like you said, his fingerprints are all over it. So setting up the story, this is about a hundred years after the Babylonian exile of the Israelites. Um, we know that some people, if you read Ezra and Nehemiah, have gone back to Jerusalem, but a lot actually did not go back. And this book is about a specific group of Jews in this place called Susa, which was the Persian capital city. And there are four kind of main characters in this book. The first is Mordecai. Mordecai is a Jewish man living in Susa. The second is his uh his some some translations say his cousin, some say his niece, but he had raised this young girl named Esther, essentially as his daughter, um, most likely his cousin or niece. Um, and then there is this guy named King Xerxes, who's the king of Persia. Pastor Samson has referred to him as King Xerxes. We'll see why in a second. And then the final character is actually kind of the the antagonist of the story, a guy named Haman.
SPEAKER_01Villain.
SPEAKER_00He is a villain, he's a Persian official. Um, but what's interesting that I learned is he's actually not Persian himself, he was referred to as an Agagite, which meant he was a descendant of the Canaanites. And like we said, God is never explicitly mentioned by name in this book, but we can see that in all these quote-unquote coincidences, God's hand is working behind the scenes. And the theme of this book is that that God's providence is always there. We can see the effects of him working. So I want to set up kind of the story here, and then we're gonna dive into some text from chapter four. So in chapters one through two, the king of Persia, uh Xerxes or Xerxes, is displaying his greatness through these elaborate banquets. He's showing off his money, he's getting just like stupid, drunk, all of these things. And on the last day of these banquets, he demands that his wife, the queen, queen Vashti, comes in um to show off her beauty for the people at his party. Actually, some theologians think that when he said, I want the queen to come in wearing her crown, that he meant wearing nothing but her crown, which was just embarrassing, uh, an awful thing to request of your wife. She refuses to come. Uh, he just is enraged, upset. And then he says she's no longer the queen. Uh, and he holds a beauty pageant, essentially. Pastor Sampson described it as like the Persian bachelor.
SPEAKER_01I just want to stop there. He he is seeking advice also from people that are giving him wrong. It's important to listen to the right people. Right. And obviously, this guy is getting some poor advice.
SPEAKER_00100%. They advise him to do this, and he holds this pageant to find a new queen. And this young Jewish girl, who nobody knows besides her and her cousin, that she's Jewish named Esther, she's beautiful and she wins this competition to be the new queen. Mordecai, meanwhile, overhears that there's a plot happening, um, and he actually saves the king's life from this assassination attempt. Then we get to chapter three. Uh, Haman enters the story. Haman becomes elevated to a high position in the kingdom, and there's this decree that everyone has to kneel to Haman when he comes by. And Mordecai, uh uh Esther's uh cousin, her father figure, refuses to kneel to Haman. And Haman gets so angry, he finds out that this guy is a Jew, and he gets the king, along with him, to issue this decree to kill all the Jews on a specific day. So Haman then, uh, I mean, as you do when you're planning to kill a group of people on a specific day, you're like, let's roll the dice and pick what day we're gonna do it. Uh, what's cool that you can remember for hopefully next episode about Esther is that the dice in Hebrew is called per P-U-R. And that'll come back later in the book. Um, and he does this to determine the date of the of when this mass genocide would take place of these people. And then in chapter four, Esther and Mordecai hear about this plan and they start working to reverse it. And in order to do that, Mordecai's uh wisdom is that Esther is gonna have to reveal to the king that she is Jewish, and she's gonna have to approach the king on behalf of her people, and this is gonna put her in great danger. This is gonna push, you know, just even approaching the king, as even as the queen, would be dangerous because the king had all the power, the the men had all the power back then. Mordecai tells Esther this plan, and she knows it's a risk for her life. Um, and she kind of tells him, Oh, I don't know, it's it's very dangerous. And in Esther chapter 4, verse 14, one of my favorite verses, honestly, in all of scripture, Mordecai says this if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place. He's saying, God's gonna protect his people, but you and your father's family will perish. And here's the key right here. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Who knows that Esther was made queen? This Jewish girl became the queen of Persia for such a time as this. And my takeaway from that text is that you are who you are, you are where you are, when you are, doing what you are for a purpose, for such a time as this. Pastor Christian, um, who's usually uh often in the in this seat on the podcast, and when when I got to serve under him when he was our student pastor, he would say every single Wednesday to our students that they were created on purpose, with a purpose, for a purpose. And and uh Mordecai is reminding Esther of her purpose here that God wants to use her in that time. Should we keep going?
SPEAKER_01Oh this is so good. I love this book. It really, really is good. So much courage. So much. Uh so much, you know. I think of what Jesus said when he said, I want you to be as harmless as doves, as wise as a serpent and as harmless as doves. And I think this is what this is about. Yeah, there's some individuals that are being very wise, but yet also very harmless. They're stepping, and it took incredible courage to do what they did. Okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and like you said, Esther responds with great courage. Um, so immediately after uh Mordecai says that and says, You were made queen for such a time as this, verses 15 and 16 of chapter 4. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai, go and gather all the Jews who are in Susa and fast for me. I just want to pause right there. This isn't the main thing I want to look at. Pretty amazing that her first response was to fast and pray and seek the Lord, um, not to defend themselves, not to get physical protection, but to seek God. She says, Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. Excuse me. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. Other translations say, if I die, I die. And Esther here is stepping into the call of God on her life. She's stepping into her purpose boldly, not worrying about um her life, but worrying about what God wants her to do to help protect her people. This reminded me of somebody that I've loved studying, Hudson Taylor. He was a 19th-century British missionary. He he helped pioneer, he wasn't the very first person, but did help pioneer mission work in China. And he was kind of known for a very radical and and new at the time approach to missions when he would immerse himself in the culture very deeply to better reach the people there. And his legacy reshaped modern missions. But he said this that reminded me of Esther's story: God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. Another way I've heard it said is that what God has ordained, He will sustain. And like Mordecai said to Esther, God made her queen. He didn't say God, we we we know that, but he's he's emphasizing that God made her to be queen for for that reason, and then she had to step into that and know that the Lord was gonna protect her, have his hand upon her. Okay. That's the first half of Esther.
SPEAKER_01We got a little cliffhanger, though. You gotta join us next week uh to hear what happens. That's right, and read it for yourself. Absolutely, absolutely be reading it for yourself, and it it's it's it's gonna get good. It's gonna get good. It's so good. It's about to get um really the the plot twist is about to happen here, and it's gonna be so great. Such a good book. And okay, let's get into some some psalms. Psalms, Psalms, um, chapter 54 through 59. And let me just kind of lay out here here what you have here is this is really kind of David a little bit on the run here. Um, he is being pursued by his enemies, uh, especially Saul. There's also uh the Philistines too in this, but but it's mainly Saul that you hear. And really, these are consistent with a lot of the Psalms. It's about learning to trust God in the middle of opposition. So good. When you're being attacked, when you're going through struggles, it's just learning to trust God. And kind of the key thought that I want you to take away here on this is when life is unstable, God remains trustworthy. So good. And just so let's let's look in uh chapter 54. Kind of God is my helper, as kind of the emphasis. And what's going on here is it's written uh when the Zephyrites betrayed David to Saul. Okay, basically, you know, they're they're squilling on him or uh uh what what's called uh rooting him out or whatever. Tattling, yeah, they're snitching him. There's like he's over there. This is where he's in hiding, he's on the run. He's on the run from King Saul, who has gone crazy, who is trying to kill him. David's done nothing but support his uh kingdom and to be able to help advance his kingdom, but jealousy and rage begins to overtake him, and um he he makes some very bad decisions in trying to choose to go after David. Um, and really this is a cry for help. It's a cry of confidence um in in God and uh commitment to be able to praise him no matter what, no matter what. And so one of the things there is uh you can move from panic to confidence to praise. It depends on how you choose to respond in your situation. All of us are gonna have moments where we can't help naturally be to feel panic or to feel frustrated or feel overwhelmed or to feel fear. But the moment that you feel that, how are you gonna respond? Are you gonna put your confidence, your faith, your hoping to God or not? And then if you do, out of that there'll be a switch and out of that will become praise and uh the moment. So a few questions to consider. Where do you need to shift uh from fear to what what do you need to shift from fear to trust? What is it in your life right now? And who or what are you relying on as your helper? Money can't be, your talents can't be, your job can't be. Uh Psalms 55 is really the emphasis is to cast your burden on the Lord, which is really interesting because um in verse number 22 it says, Give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you. You find over in the New Testament where you know Peter is talking about casting your errors upon the Lord, he errors for you. Okay, and really the emphasis here is that um he had had the betrayal of a very close friend. Of course, we don't know exactly, most likely it could, I mean, Saul was at a betrayal, right? Uh and he was a close friend that he really, you know, obviously he was his more of a peer, but it could have been somebody else. So what we do know is that sometimes those that are closest to us create the greatest wounds. And how do you trust again? Uh God invites us to release our burdens, not to carry them. And the Bible is so emotionally honest, and it it actually encourages that. And God is a safe place um to bring your pain when you have struggles. Amen. So uh chapter 56 is about learning to trust God when you're afraid. And David here is captured by the Philistines and Gath. And the story goes to 1 Samuel chapter number 21, verse 10 through uh verse number 15, where basically he gets kind of in a tight spot and people start identifying him as like, hey, I think that's David. I think that's the guy who's been you know killed Goliath. He did all the famous at this point. He is very famous, though it's not like you have picture media and stuff that they're so, but they kind of like, I think he's the guy. Yeah. So what does David do in response in that moment? Uh he gets very wise and smart. He does with what he could, and uh, and that is he acted insane. That's what I would do. He just began to act like some insane maniac. He's drooling at his mouth, he's slobbering everywhere, and and then the king, everybody starts saying, This is David. He's like, first off, I don't think that he really believes he's David. He just looks like, I don't need another crazy man. Let's get rid of him. And so I think that basically uh the king did not believe that he was David. He assumes that the guy's crazy, nutso, and just and so David's able to escape, which was a brilliant move on David, but also thanks to the grace of God in his passion. Okay. And then also uh chapter 57 is praise in the cave. Okay, this is where David is hiding in the cave, and of course, that's where Saul comes in. He actually clips off a little bit of his robe, and his men are trying to get into killing, which he's gonna be calling. Well, Saul was doing what? He he's doing he's doing his thing. He's he's taking it looks it looked like number two.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I just wanted to hear you say it, Pastor. Well, my my son Gavin, when he was young, he loved the story, and he wanted me to tell the story every night to bed. Yeah. There was a period there for about two or three months where I had to literally before he went to sleep tell the story to him. It's a good one. He it was during the potty train, or a little bit past that, a bit, but he was he thought that was the coolest story. And so David uh chooses to do God's way instead of listening to the people around him again. He's listening to the right voice, not the wrong voice. And um it costs him time because he has to wait longer. But it's better to wait in God's timing than to take things in your timing. So good. He could have got the throne then, but it would have cost him something. So good. He chooses it and in the middle of that, he learns to praise God. My heart is confident in you, oh God. And he there is praise becomes a weapon. And that he uses um to win his battles. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's one thing we've got to understand. I think that kind of ties into what we talked about with Joshua. The letter of Joshua is like God keeps his promises. Absolutely. David was anointed king. He was chosen to be king. And he does quote unquote deserved that throne. He had been chosen. Like you said, he could have taken it for himself, but he chose to know I'm not going to lay a hand on the Lord's anointed, trust God's timing and wait for God to bring that to fruition. So so good.
SPEAKER_01But that praise in the cave reminds me of a New Testament story in the book of Acts, chapter number 16, which is tall and solace. Yeah. They're in the cave. They're in the prison. Okay. And most of those prisons were probably like caves.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh what is it at the midnight hour after being beaten, after being chained to the wall, what are they doing? They're praising they're praising God, and God shows up for them. So good. I think they were listening to the North worship album. They probably were from listening to Crystal Sing there. That'll get you powered up. Um Psalms 58. Okay. Uh God, the righteous judge. Um, this is about confronting injustice and corrupt leadership. Okay. And this is very real. Um God sees corruption and evil. Justice may seem delayed, but it is certain. And so I take away from this is that uh it's okay to long for justice. There's nothing wrong with that. But leave vengeance to God and understand that He is the ultimate judge. And um so whatever it is that you're tempted to like try to get back and make right, you you better make sure that um you're operating uh in God's timing because otherwise just release it to God, let God work it out. And then finally, uh chapter 59, uh, God is my refuge. Saul sends some men to kill David. And this is basically first Samuel chapter 19, where this is going about. So it's interesting that you know a lot of his psalms came out of these songs came out of his deep struggles. And so he comes out of the cave, sings praises. He's being pursued by Saul, he is writing you know these songs down. Okay. And in verse number nine he says, You are my strength, I wait for you to rescue me. Again, you find that again and again. God is both protector and refuge. Waiting on God is an act of trust. Isaiah would say those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount upon we with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary. Wait on God. God doesn't remove danger all the time because He becomes the fortress strength to be able to maintain and to uh come out even stronger. And waiting is not passive though. Um it's faith and action.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Do you think uh some sometimes we hear that we have to wait on God and think it's just curl up in the ball and wait till he does something? I think of it as like a a a waiter at a restaurant. What are they? They're attentive, they're calling on you, asking if you need anything. What are you doing when you're waiting on God? Are you going to him, talking with him, spending time with him? Are you in close proximity to him? It's not passive, it's faith in action. I love that. So good. That's great.
SPEAKER_01So the final thing about Psalms is that Psalm T these Psalms specifically, and but many of the Psalms do, it it teaches us that we don't have to wait until life is calm to trust God. Trust is formed in the chaos.
SPEAKER_02So good.
SPEAKER_01In other words, your your trust muscle is going to you know, atropy or to grow stronger based on what you do in those moments of chaos. 100%. So good. Okay. We're there. We're there. We're there. We did it. Okay. Hey, just real real real quick, give give me kind of update just a little bit. You might not have some of the fresh, but just maybe uh students reading the Bible. Sure. Yeah. This is very important. You want to your roles to focus on um, you know, next gen. Yeah. And we're seeing wonderful results of students that are passionate for God's word.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we uh we praise God for all the students. If you haven't seen the Up and To the Right podcast, that Pastor Rodney and I sat down with one of our North Students leaders, Micah Gaston. We talked about God's word. But I mean, we have seen uh a minimum of about 45 uh to 50 students and leaders turning in completed North Church Bible reading plans every single month. We've got as young as sixth graders, Crystal's twin daughters, they have not missed a month since they came into North Students. So they'll be completing the entire Bible by the end of this year. Um, we've got about 25 of our leaders. We we realize, hey, leaders go first, leaders lead the way that do that. And it's it's really fun. And this is both Oklahoma City and Guthrie. We're reading God's Word together, we're teaching it together. Some of the testimonies that we've seen is there's now students that have have read more of God's word than their parents. Um, even some of these students. I'm not surprised with that. It's only four percent, four percent tops of people that proclaim to be Christians have read the entire Bible once. And we at the end of this year are probably gonna have about 10 to 20 teenagers that have read the entire Bible um along the North Church reading plane. So we're just we're just praising God for that. And we teach from it every week, just like we do um on the weekends as well. So we're we're loving diving into God's word. It is been so powerful. So good, so good.
SPEAKER_01Hey, thank you very much. And I encourage you, uh, like this, um send it out to somebody, um subscribe, keep following us, uh, make sure that you're getting the notifications if you're doing our app, and make sure that you are and then let us know. Give us some feedback. We'd love to hear from you, okay? And so I'm so glad that you join us each and every week. And until next week, we'll see you on the next North Bible YouTube.