Esther 4:14, “Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created.”
I have always found this comment my Mordecai enlightening. It is one of those hand slap to forehead kind of things.
GOD’S PLAN
The story of Ester is fascinating because it shows the length God will go to prepare people. Ester’s journey from the exile of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Mordecai’s adoption after her family’s death, to the disposition of Queen Vashti, to Ester’s selection and favor under Hagia, to her acceptance by King Xerxes was planned by God so that he could save His people and eventually rebuild Jerusalem.
Talk about God having a long view of things. Ester is precisely where God wanted her; at the exact moment the Jews needed someone in her position. But God also made an important pronouncement about this opportunity. “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.”
Two things we need to take from this; you are where God wants you, and if you don’t act, God will use someone else.
MODERN DAY ESTER
I love the story of Ester. I can relate to so many aspects of her journey. You see, I like nice clean, well-thought-out, concisely articulated plans. No, I’m good with the reality that plans change; but you can’t change a plan you never had. That’s my thinking anyway. Life, on the other hand, is the story of Ester.
A modern-day correlation to Ester would be; parents move out of state before your senior year of high school, you have to go to an in-state college in a state you don’t like, you end up in a job after college you don’t like, you get passed over for promotion time, and time again, you finally land your dream promotion after being mentored by one of the big guns at work, and you are given a career crushing assignment. Then God says, “You were created for just this moment.”
All you hear is the sound of a toilet flush as your future does a swirly down the drain.
I love Ester; she sucks it up, puts her life on the line, and charges ahead. Carpe Diem. I guess I am a sucker for heroes and heroines, not the too dumb to know I’m in over my head type, but the “boy that’s going to leave a mark” type. Ester understood what her decision meant to her and what it meant to God and chose God.
RECOGNIZING OUR MOMENT
Most of us spend a lifetime preparing for moments that never come. We gain knowledge and skills, we save and invest, and we acquire worldly things that we will ultimately leave to others. For the most part, I don’t think we do this as an act of self-reliance or greed; I don’t think we know any better. The future is this big unknown.
Do you think Ester was focused on God’s plan for her life when her parents died; did she believe that exile seemed like the expressway to God’s purpose? Do you think it might have been a little scary being chosen as part of the King’s court, knowing his reputation? I don’t know, but I would guess that Ester felt either abandoned or at least shuttled off on a spur somewhere.
Philip. 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
KNOWING GOD
God does not waste effort. God does not play games to see what we can bear. We all have times when we can only shake our heads and say, “what was that all about?”. God is true to His promise. He will not forsake you or abandon you. Pay attention to everything that happens in your life; there will be a test. He will use the people, places, and experience of your life to advance His Kingdom.
For most of us, it will not be rebuilding Jerusalem; it will be saving a life; performing some innocuous, simple, mundane act of overwhelming kindness. Saving one life for eternity outweighs the building of an entire city of gold. The city will fade, its splendor conquered by time, but an eternity in the presence of God never fades.
Part of knowing your purpose is to be ready to execute when the time comes. Do not spend a lifetime preparing for something that may never happened. Remember, Mordecai, warned, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.”
Luke 19:26, “to those who use well what they are given, even more, will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.”