Today we meet the main characters of our drama, Mordecai and Esther. Sadly, these exiled Jews are unremarkable and irreligious people caught up with and in the greater culture of Persia… Chapter 2 is a very difficult story to read with understanding – it should leave us stunned, sickened and saddened – but it is the stuff of life and books and Hollywood… embraced, accepted and romanticized by our world. The real lesson here for the people of God is are we disgusted or are we unmoved… accustomed… assimilated by the culture too?