The Book of Esther reads like a story from the ‘Arabian Nights’. A Jewish girl marries the great Persian King Xerxes, and is able to save her people when the evil chief minister Haman plots to kill them. Haman is hanged and Esther’s cousin Mordecai takes his place. Jews celebrate these events every year to this day in the Feast of Purim, but there are also important lessons for Christians, especially concerning the hidden providence of God, both in the great affairs of state and in the smallest incidents in our lives.
Robert Dale attends the Free Church of Scotland in Dumfries. After seventeen years in the City of London, he served as a pastor for twenty-eight years, first in Surrey, then in Lincoln, moving to Scotland two years after retirement. He is married to Jane and has two children, Jonathan and Hannah, and three grandchildren Emma, Alex and Elsie.
