For Such a Time as This

Esther was born and called for such a time where the Jewish people were at risk of being annihilated, during the reign of king Xerxes. Due to her beauty and wisdom, she was chosen by the king to become his new Queen. We don’t know what happened to Esther’s parents, but after they had died, her older cousin Mordecai took her under his wing as a daughter and mentored her.

It is estimated that the king ruled over 2.1 million square miles of land comprising of over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. Esther was the only Jew at that time who could have stopped the fate of her people when an edict was issued in order to kill Jews in the Persian kingdom. She risked death by approaching the king to plead on her people’s behalf. He granted her what she asked, and the Jews throughout all the provinces were spared. The Jewish celebration of Purim celebrates the bravery of Esther and Mordecai, and the deliverance of the Jewish people from certain death.

Now I want to encourage you to consider what the Lord is saying to you ‘for such a time as this’.  He has a plan for your life, and even you being alive right here, right now, is part of His plan, just as it was for Esther. The family you were born into, albeit dysfunctional, the town or towns where you grew up, and the personality you have, are all part of His plan. You may struggle to believe that, but nonetheless, it is the truth.

Imagine the start Jesus had with His earthly family. He was born to a young girl who, in others’ eyes, had conceived out of wedlock. Then Joseph, His earthly ‘father’, was going to quietly divorce His mother, after finding out about her pregnancy (until the Lord showed him that it had been a supernatural event). They then had to flee to Egypt because of Herod wanting to kill Jesus. It appears Joseph died some time before Jesus was thirty years old, and so it continues.

It is interesting to note that you and I were placed on this earth at the exact time of the Lord’s choosing, with a plan for us to seek Him and find Him. ‘And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands and territories. This was so that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grasp for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us’ (Acts 17:26-27).  

Today, I encourage you to thank the Lord for your life, your family of origin, and His great plans with your life ‘for such a time as this’.