For Such a Time as This

Esther 4:14 ~ "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?"

You were not "born out of time." I've heard this from several who look to their lives and think about times long ago, romanticized and seemingly more beneficial than the days wherein they live. Nor is there a future (outside of heaven) where you would fit in better, a time where some utopian society has grown out of the ashes of this one. You were born in this day and hour and God did not misplace you. Acts 17:26 states, "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place." God has already determined your allotted days. David said that all our days are already written in God's book (see Psalm 139:16). 

In the days of Esther, a great persecution rose up against the Jewish people living as captives in Persia. Haman, chief official of the king, despised the Jews and sought to rid himself of the entire race through a cunning plot that would have had the entire population authorized to annihilate them. (see Esther 3:13). Mordecai, who raised Esther, looked to her position as queen to be the means by which the LORD would bring deliverance to the Jews.

However, as we look to the text for today, we see that Mordecai knew that the LORD would deliver His people: "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place." There is a real confidence of faith that Mordecai shows concerning his understanding that God will preserve His people. And, that, dear friends, is where we need to stand as well. Do you have that same confidence that the LORD Jesus will keep safe those who belong to Him? It is not necessarily a safety from earthly circumstances or deliverance from negative moments, but a confidence that God will preserve His people and deliver them according to His promise. 

Are you facing persecution? And could it be that God has actually put you into that circumstance for "such a time as this?" That you, being faithful to the LORD, will have the courage to stand and do what God has commanded and in so doing will shine a light so bright for the LORD Jesus that others will see and believe on the LORD Jesus Christ. 

Truly, most of us will never have the moment before us where our lives can rescue an entire nation from peril. But all of us will have moments given by God where our faithfulness can be used of Him to bring about a deliverance for someone. Paul told the Ephesians, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). There are good works laid before you, and it requires a willingness to walk by faith that you should fulfill them. 

For Esther, it was an "all or nothing" moment of faithfulness. She needed to enter the king's presence without being summoned, and that alone could cost her life. Esther 4:16 says, "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish." Oh that we should have such a faith as this young woman! 

Let us all strive after that willing obedience to God, though it takes us into harm's way. You are, beloved, born for such a time as this. With the rise of wickedness and hatred of Christians today, the need for courageous faith is paramount. And the LORD created you in this time, and saved you in this time and you are still here--for such a time as this.

In His Grace,
​Pastor Michael

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