TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
In this book of the Bible, King Ahasuerus of Persia searches far and wide across his empire for a queen, finally picking a young woman from the conquered kingdom of Judah. Her name was Esther. Because of her beauty, intelligence and character, he loved over all the other women of his empire.
But Haman, an evil high official in the court of the king, hated the Jews. As he begins a genocidal plan to kill them all, Esther’s uncle Mordecai becomes aware of the plot and reports it to Esther.
To speak to the king without permission was to sign your own death warrant. But Mordecai, in a speech recorded in chapter four of Esther, challenges her to be brave and to try. His speech crescendos to the climactic fourteenth verse, which is our focal passage for today. “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
In an amazing twist of events, the people of God are saved, and evil Haman ends up being hanged upon the gallows he had built to kill Mordecai and the other Jews. Even though God is not explicitly mentioned by name in the entire book of Esther, we see His hand at work in every verse.
Today, we sometime experience persecution and threats to our safety, even as Esther did. But like the situation so long ago, our sovereign God is always at work around us. The riveting story of Esther in the Bible drives this point home in a powerful way. So be expectant and optimistic as you wait upon the Lord, and always be ready to serve Him without hesitation as he leads. Who knows? You may be the person God uses, “for such at time as this!”
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
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