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This week I have been reading through the book of Esther in the Bible. This book has everything needed for an intriguing plot: a king, a villain, a hero, a beautiful princess, and a sinister plan. It also feels close to our current time as the Jewish festival of Purim based on the events of this book just took place and Israel is once again on the forefront of the news.
Interestingly enough, this book does not include the name of God, but His fingerprints and His sovereignty are all over this story. Mordecai just happens to be there to raise his niece Esther, who lost her parents. Esther just happens to be beautiful enough to catch the king’s attention over and above every young woman in the kingdom. Mordecai just happens to hear a plot to kill the king and releases this information to his niece Queen Esther before anything bad actually happens to the king. Haman, the villain, just happens to have his plan thwarted to kill all the Jews in the Persian kingdom when Esther intercedes for her people, the Jews, to the king. The gallows that Haman meant for Mordecai, just happen to be used for him when his evil plan is found out and instead Mordecai is honoured.
After reading the Book of Esther, we have to realize that these “just happens” cannot just happen; we know from this book that nothing happens by chance. When Esther is feeling scared about revealing her identity to the king, and approaching him without permission, Mordecai says this to her: Do not think to yourself, that in the king’s palace, you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
How many of us get so caught up in the circumstances around us, and our fear of what is going to happen that we lose sight of God’s sovereignty and His hand in our lives? Has God put us where we are exactly for such a time as this? Is it possible that God has a plan for you and for me to be exactly where we are right now?
First of all, we need to recognize God’s sovereign hand in our lives and His love for us. Then we need to recognize our need of Jesus’ forgiveness, and why He died on the cross for us. When we submit to his forgiveness and His plan for us, we are part of God’s promise in Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
The working out of God’s plan is not always easy and not always exactly what we might choose, but if we are putting our trust in God and following Him, His plan is the right one and He will lead us through it.
Esther also showed us another important element in recognizing God’s sovereignty or His hand in her life by asking Mordecai to gather people together to fast for her for three days before she acted. It is easy to walk through life with our own agenda and plans. Life is busy and everything seems urgent to us whether it is important or not. Yet God wants us to recognize His hand in our lives. He wants us to come to Him in prayer asking for wisdom and asking for direction and waiting for an answer. Life is not just a jumble of random events and “just happens,” God actually has a plan for us in such a time as this.