…from Scripture and History

Esther, Queen
of Persia & Medes

BOOK OF ESTHER

  • A woman of courage, wisdom, patience, and royal influence

  • Risks her own life to avert mass genocide, including the lives of her family.

  • Used and engaged spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting to achieve Empire wide change,

  • Used political “direct action” and tactful diplomacy to save lives and to address corruption.

St. Agabus of Jurusalem

ACTS 11

  • “…Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea.” -verses 28-29

  • A Jewish convert that was tradition says was in the upper room with the disciples on Pentecost.

  • His sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and courage to speak meant the community was able to prepare and help each other.

  • Name probably is a nickname for “Grasshopper” in Aramaic.

Joseph, son of Jacob

GENESIS 30-50

  • A man of dreams, wisdom, administrative skills and vivid imagination

  • A man who feared God

  • God positioned and used Joseph to save two nations from famine (Egypt and Israel, his family) through prophetic ability, careful resource planning, land management and community organizing

  • Came up with both resource technology and public policy to properly prepare for disaster

Noah, son of Lamech

GENESIS 6-9

  • A righteous man

  • God gave this man a technology and plans to build something for an environmental disaster never seen before (a cataclysmic flood)

  • Saved his wife, three sons and their wives and pairs of certain kinds of animal

  • Had to start completely over, post-disaster