For Such a Time as This

My personal Bible study has been taking me through some wonderful Old Testament books lately. The stories of the Hebrew Kings recorded in The Books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles; yes those books can be read and still be interesting. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah chronicle the return of the Hebrew people from Babylonia and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. The next book in line is the last book of the Histories of the Israelites; it is the book of Esther.

The book of Esther is an unusual book to be part of the History of the Israelites in that it doesn't mention God at all. That fact has been a discussion among the Jewish sages about its inclusion in the cannon of the Bible for centuries, yet the history is important enough be left in. This is because it demonstrates something that God himself is always doing, providing a means to preserve the linage of the Kings of Israel, and the completion of His Prophecies.

A good demonstration of this happens just a couple of hundred years before the events of Esther. Elijah was a prophet of God during the period of the divided Kingdom, and spent most of his time in Israel. Ahab was the King, and Jezebel was his Queen, and they worshiped Baal. God had Elijah challenge Baal, and won decisively! Jezebel told Elijah she was going to kill him. Well Elijah takes off running for his life, and he complains to God that he was the only person left in Israel that still followed His commandments:

Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." (1 Kings 19: 13b – 14 NIV) (emphasis my own)

God gave Elijah some specific instructions that He needed Elijah to do, and then as almost an aside said:

Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him." (1 Kings 19:18 NIV)

Here, God is telling Elijah, yes you are important to me and my plans to bring Israel back to me after I have disciplined them, but you are not alone, nor are you the only one I can call on to do this job. I would prefer you to continue following my commands and do the job I have set before you, but if you do not, I have somebody else who will. Gods plan is always to keep that all important linage of David going, and keep a remnant of Israel to complete his covenant to Abraham that he would be a blessing to all the nations. God will not break his promises or covenants.

I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.  Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness— and I will not lie to David—  that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." Selah (Psalms 89:34-37 NIV)

And:

And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God;
but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Jehovah (Lev 26:44-45 NIV)

Now, let's get back to Esther. The story starts out with telling about a banquet King Xerxes gave for all of the nobles and officials from all over his land. Now this is the same Xerxes that later on goes and attacks Greece (the famous stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae), but that story has already been made into a movie, just wanted to give you a historical reference. This banquet goes on for 6 ½ months! That is if you use the lunar calendar. This banquet is then followed by an even more elaborate banquet that lasted for 7 days, during which Xerxes' queen Vashti gave a banquet for all the women in the Royal Palace.

During this banquet queen Vashti looses her position because she refuses the Kings order, and she had to be made an example of. Since the King cannot rule without a queen, a beauty pageant is held to select the next queen. Living in the capital city of Susa was a Jew by the name of Mordecai who had taken in his niece, Esther, because her parents had died. This young lady was very beautiful so we learn that she was taken in the beauty pageant. She was so beautiful that she quickly becomes the favorite of King Xerxes. So life is looking up for Esther, who Mordecai had told to keep her heritage secret. Her uncle Mordecai meanwhile is spending his time at the Kings gate, and overhears two of the Kings guard plotting to assassinate the King. Mordecai tells this information to Esther (who is now queen) and she reports this to the Kings officials, who find out that it is true and hang the guards and write everything down.

As all stories have to have a villain, along comes Haman who is an official for the King Xerxes whom he likes. Wherever Haman goes, people are supposed to bow down to him to pay him homage. But Mordecai won't bow to him, this makes Haman MAD. He finds out that Mordecai is a Jew, and decides to not only get rid of Mordecai, but also all of the Jews throughout all of King Xerxes land!

Then Haman said to King Xerxes, "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business."  So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. "Keep the money," the king said to Haman, "and do with the people as you please." (Esther 3:8-11 NIV)

As you can imagine, this didn't go over very well with Mordecai, or any of the other Jews! Mordecai dresses in sackcloth, covers his head with ashes and sits at the Kings gate and weeps and wails. When this is told to Queen Esther, she has her messengers ask why he was doing this, he sent her a copy of the decree that Haman had signed under the Kings seal and asked her to plead for her people. The Queen tells Mordecai that she didn't think she could because the King had not called for her, and if she tried to see him, if he wasn't in a good mood and didn't extend his gold scepter toward her, she would be killed. Mordecai sends her back a message:

When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 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 royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:12-14 NIV)

The story has a happy ending, and I will let you read it and find out all the neat parts about this story of intrigue, retribution, and deliverance. I want to focus on Mordecai's statement.

Mordecai was confident that God would provide a deliverer for His people, because of Gods covenant with Abraham, and His promise to the People of Israel. Remember, this decree went out throughout King Xerxes land, this also included Judea. Zerubbabel and Ezra were already in Jerusalem at this time, and the Samaritans would have loved to have complied with the decree and destroy the Israelites. Zerubbabel is important, as he is in the linage of David AND Jesus (Matthew 1:12). If Esther wanted to follow the leading of God, and use her position to save the Children of Israel, so much the better.

What does this mean to us? God has a plan for you, He has put you in a position where He wants you, because He needs you there. When the writer of Hebrews wrote that wonderful chapter 11 about the 'Heroes of Faith' he ended by:

 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40 NIV)

"But," you will say, "I am not a 'Hero of Faith' I am just a …(whatever you do)". Don't discount God on who he can use for the future of His Kingdom. Remember, Abraham didn't believe God when He told him that he would be the father of a nation, Moses said he couldn't speak well, yet they were included in the list of 'Heroes of Faith'. Does that co-worker that is having a real rough time with his marriage need an encouraging word, or to learn about how Jesus made a real difference in your marriage? How about that kid down the block, who is always getting into trouble? Does he need an invitation, and maybe a ride, to Youth Group? How about his parents, did you invite them to church with you this week? God has you included in His Eternal Plan for His Kingdom, you can choose to play your part, or He can go to plan B.

God has you right where he needs you, "for such a time as this".

 

Baruch HaShem