Purim, Persia & the Present with Jennifer Rosner | Created In The Image of God 236

For many Christians, Purim is a minor feast attached to a familiar children’s story about Esther. For Jennifer Rosner—and for Jewish communities around the world this year—it became something far more immediate. As Jews read again about a plot to annihilate their people in ancient Persia, they did so while watching breaking news from modern‑day Iran: the Ayatollah, a declared enemy of Israel, killed just days before the holiday. The overlap was hard to ignore. Jen, a theologian who has spent years studying and teaching at the intersection of Judaism and Christianity, helps make sense of that convergence.In this episode, she walks through the story of Esther as Jews experience it: not only as history, but as a pattern of threat, vulnerability, and unexpected deliverance that has replayed across centuries. She explains how Purim invites Jews to “remember and relive” God’s hidden work on their behalf—and why, this year, many saw eerie parallels between Haman’s ancient plot in Persia and the rhetoric and ambitions of modern leaders in the same region. From there, Jen widens the lens, showing how these connections highlight the ongoing relationship between the Jewish people, the state of Israel, and the Christian church watching from a distance, often with incomplete understanding.Drawing on her time living in Jerusalem and her work in both seminaries and Messianic Jewish contexts, Jen invites Christians to recover the Jewish roots of their own faith and to read Scripture with fresh attentiveness to Israel’s story. Rather than reducing current events to simple fulfillments of prophecy or ideological talking points, she encourages listeners to see them through the lived experience of a people whose holidays, like Purim, sit at the intersection of memory, identity, and survival. For anyone trying to connect the Bible’s ancient narratives with today’s headlines—and to understand how Jews and Christians might move toward deeper dialogue and reconciliation—this conversation offers nuance, humility, and a grounded, Jewish‑aware perspective. Get full access to SOOPMedia on Substack at soopllc.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Created in the Image of God at wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe