Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

 

“For such a time as this,” is one of the best known lines in the Bible.

 

Through these words, Queen Esther is awakened to her life purpose.  She realizes her beauty is to mean more than the sum of her beautiful features … more than simply her feeling the adoration of appreciative eyes.  Through these words, she realized that her intellect was to figure out a way for her people to avoid being murdered, exterminated.  Through these words, her strong will was called to a purpose higher than simply being stubborn, a trait whose only design was to help her get her own self serving way.

 

Now she realized that her beauty, brains, and brawn were gifts from God …

 

Consequently, only by her using them for God’s larger purposes could she know the real joy that each gift was capable of bringing.  Only by claiming her life purpose could she understand that special joy which comes by loving God enough, so she could love people enough, to make a godly difference in their lives.  Only by knowing that God’s best included her - but was not just about her - could she become courageous enough to overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of God’s best from being achieved for others.

 

In that moment she became a person of faith.  She was converted.  And through her profile of faith we see how we too can be successful in life.

 

Like Queen Esther, we can be awakened to our life purpose by accepting faith as our fate, our way to live daily in God’s ways.  And when those ways lead us one day to a critical crossroads, we realize that all those “regular days” were actually God’s way for us to be prepared for the unique challenge which awaited us.

 

By trusting God in regular days we develop the strength of will & ability to do what needs to be done during the critical days.  By accepting the words “for such a time as this,” when spoken to her by her Uncle Mordecai, Esther was able to step into the realm of God’s power.  From this position of faith she was given holy unction, which is the unique courage to do whatever needs to done, in the way that it should be done, in order to fulfill God’s purposes.

 

God also wants to give us the courage to do what only we can do, so that through us He can do what only He can do.  If her people were to be set free from death, she would need to risk her life.  She would need to confront the king with a dangerous truth.  The evil designs of self serving men would have to be exposed in such a way that the King would act justly in the midst of unjust circumstances. Wrong could only be defeated, as is always true, by the right way being shown and taken as the best way forward.

 

The King was persuaded by Esther’s courage and loving devotion.  Thus inspired, he took a godly stand and issued a decree that saved an innocent people.  From this, Esther realized that being Queen was not about people bowing down before her but about her bowing down before God in such a way that people would be inspired to entrust themselves to God’s best for their lives … that the needs of everyone could be met by each person being faithful in God’s ways.

 

Queen Esther never stood taller than the day she bowed before God.  Her humility enabled her to be courageous and accept that “for such a time as this she was born.”

 

Her profile of faith enacted God’s best in such a way that we too can hear those same words being spoken to us, “for such a time as this you were born.”

 

God’s ways are your way to travel through life so that your purpose in life will be joyously achieved.

 

Pastor Les Hollon

 

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.  But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it.  In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing.  Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.  Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate.  Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.  He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said.  Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death.  The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life.  But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

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?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me.  Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.  I and my maids will fast as you do.  When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.  And if I perish, I perish.” So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

-Esther 4:1-17 (NIV)

 

Photo: Queen Esther before King Ahasuerus in Hawkesyard in Staffordshire, Great Britain.

 

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

 

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