Thursday, June 6, 2013
The Book of Esther reads like one of those real-time serial dramas so popular on TV. Week after week you’re kept on the edge of
your seat, wondering if the world will end and who will die next.
In the drama of 6th Century (BC), the Jews were a
captive people, subject to the Persian king.
As the story unfolds, the king’s umpteenth wife-queen displeases him,
and she’s suddenly history. A search is
made for a suitably-beautiful new queen.
Esther is drop-dead gorgeous, and she is brought to the king. At this point nobody suspects that she is
also a Jew. We have a feminist Horatio
Alger-type story, rags to riches in a heartbeat.
Enter the antagonist
The plot always has a bad guy.
Haman, the king’s henchman, engineers a scheme to keep himself on the
good side of his boss; he manipulates the king into making an irrevocable
decree that all the Jews are to be put to death. (And you thought Hitler was the first?).
Mordecai, Esther’s Jewish uncle, pleads with Esther to intercede
with her husband the king. At first she
is hesitant, but Uncle Mort sends her a postcard from reality and she
understands her duty, puts it all on the line and somehow all the tables are
turned. The Jews are saved, and bad-guy
Haman winds up on the gallows.
Although the name of God never appears in this story, still, the
miraculous power of Jehovah to watch over his people is nonetheless
implied. John Wesley[i]
wrote that “…the finger of God directs events.”
Of course the punch line to the story comes from Uncle Mordecai’s lips
as he prods Esther to action – “Perhaps you were born for this moment”. Esther’s beauty and her chance ascension to the
throne of Persia was for a reason; God’s reason.
How about you?
The same holds true for us, as it did for Esther; all we have and are
is given to us. And God makes no mistakes
about putting a special talent, gift, possession, personality trait, “handicap”
or heartache in our hands. Often our biggest
blessing (or disaster) is at the very center of God’s calling on your life. There is a purpose for it!
Have you found yourself in a tough situation that won’t let go? Do you have an opportunity to do something, but
the risks seem overwhelming?
Who is YOUR “Uncle
Mordecai”? And what has God placed in your
hand?
Perhaps your whole life has been pointing at just such a moment.
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