Wrap-Up

As we wrap up our Diaspora module, we hope you caught the faithfulness expressed in the centers of pagan power and in the compromised conditions back home in the province of Yehud. In both settings their lives were marked by the storyline of dishonor and vindication. 

The challenges we face aren’t very different. Many of us live in secular settings where the power is not in the hands of believers. And others of us work in ministry contexts where people are supposed to be honoring God above all else. If you find yourselves on the same storyline as these biblical heroes, be encouraged. God will give you a heart for His people so that, like Nehemiah, you will pray for their forgiveness as if it’s for your own sins, and you will serve like Esther at great risk, because God’s people are your people. 

In our next course, we’ll circle back to the prophets of the Persian period and see what else God was saying before four centuries of prophetic silence sets in.