Esther 9:4-5

Esther 9:4-5 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  If Esther had ended with Mordecai and Esther saving the people and Haman punished for what he did and everyone living happily ever after, it would have been the perfect ending that needed no further explanation.
  But life's not perfect, is it?  And the real world doesn't always leave everything perfectly.  My life certainly isn't perfect.  I'm willing to be yours isn't, either.  And so what I love about the Bible is that it's real -- these are real people who sometimes do things that make us ask big questions, that make us think.  Moses says no to God.  Jonah runs in the opposite direction.  Job demands an audience with God.  Peter denies Jesus.  Martha remands Jesus for not being present for Lazarus.  The Jews rise up and kill their enemies, doing as they please to those that hated them. 
  The Jews had been threatened and saw Mordecai's rise to power as a chance to strike back at their enemies.  Later in this chapter it says that the Jews killed 75,000 of their enemies.  I don't really know what to do with that.  The Old Testament world was a violent place, and in many times and places the Jews could attack or be attacked.  I understand that, even if I don't like it.  This leaves a very different impression than the command to love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.  When Jesus came, he raised the bar for what it means to follow God.
  So I don't have a neat answer to everything in the Bible, and being a Christian doesn't mean turning your brain off -- it means you should think, you should ask how God is at work here.  Personally, I think God is making it possible for God's chosen people to survive in turbulent times, to create a safe place where they can continue to worship.  You may not agree.  That's ok -- we can disagree and still be in the same church, and we can both faithfully follow Jesus, even if we disagree on things like how to interpret some of the parts of the Bible. 
  It's ok not to have all the answers.  I don't.  But I trust that even in my uncertainty, Jesus is still Lord of all.