For Such a Time As This

 

Esther is a special book because the entire book is simply a story. This story is set during the time when the Persian empire was the dominant force in the Middle East. In that time, through a somewhat strange set of circumstances, a Jewish girl named Esther became the wife and queen of the Persian emperor Ahasuerus, though at the time she had kept hidden the fact that she was a Jew. Esther's cousin and guardian Mordecai had a position in Ahasuerus's government and he was able to keep some degree of contact with her. But Mordecai managed to run afoul of a powerful noble named Haman who out of anger at Mordecai decided to try to eliminate his entire race and so managed to convince Ahasuerus to pass a law that would doom all Jews within the Persian empire to death.

Obviously, this decree caused a lot of confusion and concern, even among non-Jews and especially so among the Jews. Mordecai was so devastated by the coming destruction of the Jews that he began mourning in sackcloth and ashes—a common custom at that time. And so Ether, who had heard nothing of the king's decree, sent a messenger to Mordecai to find out what he was so upset about. Mordecai explained the situation and then told Esther that she should use her position as queen to intercede on the behalf of the Jews.

This is the pivotal point of the story considered as a story. A dark cloud of danger hung over the heads of all the Jews in Persia and the only one who seemed to be in a position to dispel the cloud was Esther. But queen though she was, she could not act without great risk to herself. Even she had no right to go before the king without being summoned. And hence her dilemma and the decision she was forced to make—whether she would take that risk for the sake of her people or whether she would remain in safety, doing nothing.

But this is more than a simple story of danger and heroism. The Jews were God's chosen people. Though this is not explicitly mentioned, it seems likely that both Esther and Mordecai thought and acted in reference to this fact. No one would want to see their entire ethnic group wiped out. Yet the Jews were something even more special. They had a promise from God; a promise of protection and deliverance. It seems that Mordecai was convinced that it was God's will that the Jews be saved from this grave danger. For the Jews to be completely wiped out would have meant the breaking of God's promises, something which can never happen.

And sets up the interesting contrast I want to look at here. Because on one hand, we have God's plan: absolute, immovable, indestructible. And on the other hand, we have Esther; a human agent; fallible and trembling on the brink of a decision. We have God's plan and man—or woman, in Esther's case. But this is relevant for all of us because all of us have a place in God's plans. And there are three lessons I want to draw out of this story; three lessons about our relationship to God's plan.

The key verse we need to look at is Esther 4:14: “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Esther had a very special, very unique, and very, very unexpected opportunity. So far as we can tell, previous to the events of the book of Esther, Esther was just a normal Jewish girl. She was noted for her beauty but beyond that, she doesn't have seemed to have been anyone of importance. She was just an ordinary person going about her ordinary life, with little to no influence or power. And a domestic problem, hidden far away inside the imperial palace, set in motion a chain of events which took this ordinary, commonplace girl and made her a queen.

Nobody could have foreseen that ahead of time; certainly, Esther didn't and most likely she wouldn't have wanted it. Being the wife of a Persian despot was not necessarily an enviable position. But in any event, she ended up with it. And so, when this unexpected danger arose to the Jews, the Jews had a representative in the palace itself. 

Sometimes spies and secret agents try to plant a “mole”, an operative working from the inside of an enemy government. But even if the Jews had foreseen the danger and tried to plant a mole in the Persian government, they never could have succeeded as neatly as God did it, placing this ordinary Jewish girl on the throne as queen. Mordecai didn't claim to know exactly how and why God was working. But he realized the opportunity; he saw the possibility that God had arranged these events specifically to prepare for this moment; that God brought Esther into her position specifically so she could save the Jews from Haman.

Though we should be careful about saying why God does what He does, I think looking at this from hindsight, it is quite clear that Mordecai was right. At least part of the reason God allowed all this to happen was to give Esther this specific opportunity.

She had an opportunity; an opportunity to forward God's plan. It was always God's plan to save and protect the Jews. It had been his promise to Abraham centuries before and would work into the ultimate plan of salvation. But to bring about that plan, God used human instruments. And, specifically, God used Esther.

It wasn't that Esther, by the strength of her own efforts and ingenuity, arranged this opportunity. God put it into her hands without and probably against her will. Of course, she still had to make the choice—the difficult and even dangerous choice—to make use of the opportunity, but it was God who gave it to her.

And the truth is that Esther isn't an isolated example of this. Really, most of the Bible is the story of God giving people opportunities. But not opportunities for personal advancement or advantage, though sometimes that came along as a side benefit. God had a plan to preserve the human race from cataclysmic judgment, and so he gave Noah the opportunity to build an ark. God had a plan to bring about the salvation of the human race through the separation of a chosen race. And so he gave Abraham the opportunity to become a pilgrim and father a new people—and then he gave Joseph and then Moses the opportunity to preserve that people in a time of danger. God wanted to deliver his people from the Philistines, and so he gave David the opportunity to fight Goliath. That last one is especially significant because, actually, the opportunity to fight Goliath was open to anybody in Israel. David was simply the only one who had the courage and the faith to make use of the opportunity. 

God is the active agent in Scripture. The Bible is a record of what God has done; yet a good chunk of what God has done has been to give people an opportunity to do something themselves.

It's really an amazing thing when you think about it. God is the one who has literally all power; the one to whom everything is possible; the one who, by definition, never needs help. Dante said that with God “will and power are one.” Yet He chooses to work through human instruments. You've all heard the saying: If you want something done right, do it yourself. But as humans, we can't live that way. We can't do everything ourselves. We have to rely on others. But God, the only one who actually could do everything Himself, chooses instead to give opportunities to us.

And we shouldn't think that this is just something in Bible times or something relegated to certain “chosen” people like Esther. It is true that most of us may never have an opportunity like Esther had—but we still have opportunities. Every day of our life is an opportunity, an opportunity to follow God, to see God's plan fulfilled, to seek first God's kingdom so that God's will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven. When we have a temptation to resist, a kind word to say, a doubt to cast out, a lie to silence, a rebuke or exhortation to give—that is an opportunity, a chance to forward God's plan. Mordecai said Esther may have been put into her position “for such a time as this.” For each of us, God has put us into exactly the position we are in for some reason—every moment may be that 'such-a-time-as-this'--the moment when we are to fulfill God's plan.

But with this realization comes a danger. An opportunity implies a choice. God could do everything Himself, but because He gives us free will and an opportunity, it is possible for us to fail to fulfill God's plan. And that is the second point we see with Esther—that there are consequences if we fail to cooperate with God's plan.

Remember that Esther was facing a very real choice with a grave danger attached. Even as queen she had no authority to go to the king with a request without being called for. For her to barge into the king's presence without permission would quite likely mean death, queen though she was. And even if the king didn't have her executed on the spot, there was a chance once she made her request, he would be incensed at her interfering with his decisions. To reveal herself as a Jew might involve her in the destruction of the Jews which was already signed, sealed, and delivered.

Esther had an opportunity, but that opportunity came with genuine risk. She was set right in the middle of the caprice and cruelty of a Persian palace, which was both an advantage and a danger. Esther had to make a choice. She was given a tremendous opportunity; she was the chosen one. God put her in a position she never could have obtained on her own efforts. But that didn't change the fact that she still had to take the effort and take the risk to make use of that opportunity.

It was a real choice. In order to save her people, she had to risk her own life. The right course was obvious, but it wasn't easy. And Mordecai realized that; he realized that there would be a strong temptation to Esther to give in to fear and let the opportunity slip. And that was why with his encouragement he gave her a very stern warning: he said that if she failed at this opportunity then, even if the Jews were saved by some other means: “thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.” I don't know exactly what Mordecai was basing this prophecy on—perhaps it really was a prophecy given him by God—but the basic idea is clear enough. Esther had a choice but if she made the wrong choice, there would be consequences to herself and her family. She couldn't think that if she gave into fear and sat back in silence at this moment that there would be no repercussions.

This is the other side of the point we saw before. God gives us opportunities; God gives us choices, He gives us the chance to forward His kingdom. But the other side of that is that we will be held responsible for our choices. The fact that God allows us to have a part in forwarding His plans includes with it the possibility that we will fail to forward His plans—even that we will fight against His plans. And we see this throughout Scripture. God chose Saul to guide and protect Israel, but Saul's pride and stubbornness made him a threat to Israel and he spent most of his life fighting to keep God's plan for the nation from being fulfilled. God chose Jehu to bring judgment on the wicked regime of Ahab's dynasty, but Jehu gave his life to idolatry and his house was in turn judged by God.

We live in a world of crossroads, a world of choices. We cannot naively believe that it doesn't matter what we do and that everything turns out the same in the end. God has given us the power of choice and with that comes the weighty responsibility of living with our choices.

Do you remember Jesus' parable about the talents? A rich man was going on a journey and so he entrusted several of his servants with a sum of money to be used in his absence. And when he returned, he judged, rewarded, and punished his servants based on how they had used that money in his absence. There is a principle here. With every privilege comes a responsibility. With every possibility for good comes a possibility for evil. Luke 12:48 summarizes it this way: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

Every action has a reaction. Every cause has an effect. Everything we do creates a series of consequences. David was chosen by God and given great opportunities to forward God's plan. Like Esther, he was taken from an ordinary life and put into a palace. And he did many good things, but there were occasions when he made the wrong choice; there were times when he misused his power and privilege to serve his own pride and lust. And his actions brought pain and destruction upon himself, upon his family, and upon the entire nation. Even though he found forgiveness and reconciliation, there were still consequences for his action.

We should never interpret opportunity as being a virtue, or equate possibility with privilege. God has given great gifts and power to every human being. In a sense, every human being is a king, seated on the throne of his own soul. But these gifts are given us for a reason—to forward God's kingdom. If we chose instead to serve ourselves and our own interests, there will be consequences. Saying that God has a plan is not a naïve belief that somehow everything will turn out all right and it doesn't really matter what we do.

And yet, having said that, there is a third thing we see in this passage—and it is that God's plan will sill be triumphant.

Mordecai gave Esther a serious warning because he realized the danger that she might choose to shy away from her duty. And yet for all this, notice what he said. He told her that, if she failed, “Then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place.”

Looking at some commentators, they have different ideas about what this “another place” Mordecai meant was. I honestly think Mordecai didn't know. He didn't know how else the Jews could be saved aside from Esther's intervention. But he knew that God's plan was that the Jews be preserved and that no matter what Haman did, no matter what  Ahasuerus did, no matter what Esther herself did, God's plan would not be overturned. Esther had the power to make her choice. She had the power, in a sense, to determine her own destiny by choosing to follow God or reject her duty. But she did not have the power to stop God from keeping His promises to the Jews.

This point becomes plainer if we look at the other main character of Esther--the villain, Haman. Haman was a free moral agent. He could have chosen to humble himself before Mordecai; he could have chosen to seek God; he could have been a good man and a credit to the Persian government. But he chose instead to fight against God's people and let his own injured pride control his judgment. And that led to his own destruction. But the one thing it didn't do was lead to the destruction of the Jews. Every step Haman took was aimed at hurting the Jews and it only hurt himself. So far from destroying the Jews and specifically Mordecai, the upshot of Haman's plots was to glorify and exalt the Jews and, specifically Mordecai.

It is perfectly true that God gives us an opportunity, an opportunity to forward his plan. For each of us, there may be a such-a-time-as-this such as Esther had. But that doesn't mean that God needs us or that we are in a position to bargain with God.

As Arminians, we put an emphasis on the fact that we all have free will; we have the freedom to chose. We do not believe—as some people do—that God arbitrary forces some people to be saved and others to be lost. But none of that changes the fact that God is still in control of this world. We have the limited control we have only because God has given us and our powers extend no farther than God allows them to.

I'm not going to pretend to understand all this is involved in this relationship between God's sovereignty and our free will. But the Bible makes it clear that the bottom line is this: God is in control and nothing can stop His plan from being fulfilled.

This was Isaiah's vision of God: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.” (Isaiah 40:15-17) All the forces of men combined together are so small when compared to God that the idea that they might be able to stop God's plans would be as absurd as if a single ant would try to stop the rotation of the entire planet.

This is our comfort. We never have to worry that God's plan will fail because of the actions of others. Many roadblocks have been thrown up in front of God's plan but none have ever been able to derail it. Those who have attempted to stop it have only been crushed for their trouble. There is not a single move that man or devil can make which can cause God to lose the game. God is many things--God is grieved by man's sins; God is angered by the cruelty and injustice of humanity; God is saddened by the evil choices people make. But the one thing God never is—is Worried.

Each individual has the power to destroy their own life. But they do not have the power to destroy God's world. People can hurt themselves but in an ultimate sense, they cannot hurt anyone else. God is always the one in control and nothing happens which He does not allow. That is our comfort, the comfort that God's plan will be fulfilled no matter what anyone does. We must be diligent for our sakes, diligent to hear and respond to God's call. But, in the end, no matter what we or anyone else does, God's will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

One of my favorite Old Testament Bible stories is the story of Jonah. And what makes that story interesting is that it is a story about rebellion, only the rebellion never quite works. Jonah plants his feet in the ground and declares that he's not going to Nineveh; he is not going to be God's messenger; that he will not announce God's judgment or his mercy. And here we are thousands of years later, and not only did Jonah end up going to Nineveh, but Jonah is still God's messenger, not just to Nineveh, but to us. To this day, everywhere the Bible is read, Jonah stands there in the middle of the minor prophets, announcing God's judgment and his mercy. God's will was done, sometimes with Jonah's help, more often over top of Jonah's rebellion—but it was still done. One writer, speaking of Jonah, commented: “God's plan will not be thwarted by the plans rebellious people make to avoid it.”

We serve a planning God; one who never does things on the fly or off the cuff. God always has a plan and God's plan will always be triumphant. But we have a chance, an opportunity to cooperate with God's plan. It may be something large and obvious, like Esther's chance to work to save her people. It may be something as simple as saying a kind word to a friend. But it is always a great opportunity.

But the point to remember is that we have a choice. God's will will be done, but we can choose whether it is done because of us or in spite of us. Jonah chose to fight God's will and he ended up in the belly of a whale and to this day is remembered as a standing joke rather than a saint. Esther chose to take the risk to serve God and found honor and peace and to this day is exalted a heroine. 

Our comfort is that no matter what anyone does, God's will will be done. But the question we must face is this: what will we do when faced with the choice? We cannot destroy God's plan; but if we chose wrongly, we can destroy ourselves. The choice is up to us.