What is This?

Esther’s story teaches us about the faithfulness of God in unfamiliar places. When something is unfamiliar, it can feel uncomfortable. Different...Or just flat-out awkward. I try my hardest to avoid awkward situations. What about you? How do you respond to unfamiliar situations? Are you one to sit and embrace the uncomfortable, uncharted places? Quietly and patiently observing the scenery, waiting for what’s next? Do you see these moments as opportunities or obstacles?

We learned a lot about Esther’s backdrop, her history, and how she became the Queen of Persia in the previous posts. We talked about favor and how she experienced divine goodness. What a story, right? But guess what, Esther’s story didn’t end when she became queen. She had more work to do. So let’s look at Esther 4, what some may call one of Esther’s most significant assignments.

In Chapter 3 of Esther, we learn of a disruption in the kingdom after Mordecai (Esther’s uncle) refused to bow down to Haman (a kingdom official). After this happened, Haman devised a plan to destroy Mordecai and ALL of the Jews, including Esther. Back in these days, they didn’t have cell phones, so Mordecai had to find a way to get the news to Esther. They basically played telephone to get messages to one another. I know you remember the game telephone..a group of people line up or sit in a circle, and the first person whispers a sentence to the person beside them. Then, each person continues passing the message until it reaches the last person, only to find the last person may have received a totally different message. Thankfully, in this case, the message didn’t get distorted in transit!

After Esther learned of Haman’s plan and Mordecai’s command to go to the king and plead on behalf of her people, she had a decision to make. I’m sure this moment in time was another one to add to Esther’s list of uncharted, unfamiliar places. Another place she had never been before, another circumstance with an unknown outcome. Perhaps she was afraid to go to the king without invitation, fearful of revealing her ethnicity prematurely or letting her people down. Nevertheless, Esther had a big decision to make. Just like Esther, we may find ourselves in similar situations, we may feel the weight of making hard, complicated decisions, or we may try to ignore these moments and continue on as if nothing happened. I want to strongly encourage and motivate you wherever you may find yourself, just as Mordecai did to Esther:

"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?" -Esther 4:14

Let’s pause and look at this sentence: And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

What does this sentence mean to you? We all have gifts and talents given to us to benefit others. Everything we have is given to us for a purpose, to bring hope to the broken, freedom to those in bondage, and life to those gone astray. At the conclusion of Esther, you will find that Esther took Mordecai’s challenge and put it to action. She stood up for her people, and God favored her. As a result, the enemy's plans were reversed, and the Jews experienced victory in many ways!

So instead of asking, "what is this" to awkward, unfamiliar situations, I challenge you to ask God, "what is YOUR this"? Is it homeschooling after a pandemic? Working in a position that you didn’t apply for? Raising small children? Sending your children off to college? Laid off from one job, waiting to start a new one? Maybe you just can’t work right now and have so much time on your hands. What can you be doing in this season and time of your life? What is in your backdrop? I truly believe those situations and circumstances in the background are strategically placed to provide scenery for what God is doing DEEP in your heart. And guess what, someone is waiting on you to say yes to your THIS!

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