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For such a time as this... 6/5/2008 8:43:02 AM
“For if you remain completely silent at this time,
relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place,
but you and your father’s house will perish.
Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom
for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
What a week this has been! On Friday my almost 87-year-old mother (who lives with us) became extremely ill, and I had to call for an ambulance. The next few days were split between going back and forth to the hospital, and trying to put out fires here at home. In the midst of it all, my computer died. When I called my trusty computer guy, he was unable to work on it for a couple of days. (As you can see, it has since been fixed, with no loss of data—thank You, Lord!) And Mom is home from the hospital, a bit weaker from the experience, but doing well.
That’s part of life, isn’t it? Being an “order freak,” I really don’t like surprises—or interruptions to my planned-out days. But they happen, and will continue to do so as long as we walk on this earth. The important thing is how we handle those surprises and interruptions, and who gets to call the shots and order our steps throughout those days on earth.
Esther learned that lesson the hard way. Though undoubtedly not by choice, she was queen to a pagan king. As such, she lived in luxury and ease, though not without personal sacrifice. Having been raised by a faithful Jew, her uncle Mordecai, it must have been painful for her to share her life with one who didn’t share her faith—not to mention the fact that she had to keep her Jewish heritage and faith a secret if she wanted to preserve her life and position.
Then came the big interruption. Due to the scheming of the evil Haman, the king ordered that all Jews be killed. Mordecai encouraged Esther to use her position to influence the king to find a way to save the Jewish people, but Esther responded that she could be killed if she went to the king with such a request.
Mordecai wisely told her that if she ignored her duty to try to save her people simply because she didn’t want to lose her own life, she and her family would die anyway, since sooner or later her Jewish heritage would be discovered. Then he made one of the most profound observations ever recorded: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom
for such a time as this?”
We Christians like to think we know why we’re here—what our purpose and calling is. Are we writers? Our purpose must be to write. Are we singers? We must sing. Are we teachers? We shall teach. But what if our writing or singing or teaching is interrupted with a chance to do something bigger—something obviously ordered by God and yet which may cost us our very lives?
Missionary Jim Elliot, who was killed in 1956 while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca, once said that he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Esther would have been a fool to try to preserve her own life, rather than risk it in an attempt to save the lives of God’s chosen people. As it turned out, she was successful in saving the Jews, including herself. Why? Because she recognized and responded to the interruption in her life that summarized her reason for having been placed on this earth in the first place.
God created each of us with a purpose, and though we may think we know what that purpose is, in reality we may not have a clue until it sideswipes us, jolting us from our pre-planned, orderly existence with a call to lay down our lives in service to God and others. Will we respond? Or will we be so foolish as to try to hold on to that which cannot be preserved, rather than relinquishing it to gain that which cannot be lost?
Esther understood that great truth, as did Jim Elliot. May we willingly and joyfully walk in it as well….
