What Esther taught me about God

You take a deep breath, attempting to calm your nerves. It wouldn’t be good to sweat off your makeup. Though you were allowed to bring whatever you wanted to the palace with you, you brought very little. Your God will make things work out - you hope.

He will, you tell yourself. Realizing you’ve been nervously fidgeting and glancing around the room, you focus on straightening your spine and raising your chin.

You can’t believe everything that’s happened in the past year. That you’re favored more than the other virgin women is amazing, but it means nothing if you’re not chosen tonight.

You are led near the king’s room and left to enter. You stare at the door for a second - it’s beautiful, with intricate designs carved into the wood. You don’t feel completely ready, but you knock and enter anyway.

The king welcomes you. After spending a night with him, it is announced that you have been chosen to become the new queen. You can’t believe it - you don’t deserve this. But it’s happening anyway.

Some time passes, and you hear about a plot to kill your husband, the king. You warn him and the crisis is averted. Your uncle Mordecai was the one who warned you about the plot, and you thank him profusely.

Several years later, however, Mordecai comes to you with more daunting news. “The Jews are going to be annihilated,” he tells you. Explaining his reasoning, he insists that the only way to avert the crisis is to speak to the king about it. It would be the perfect plan… but you could die for approaching the king without being summoned.

Nevertheless, you find yourself staring at the king’s door and steeling yourself to enter once again.

God, help me, you pray.

What Esther taught me about God

The book of Esther tells an extraordinary story. The people in it were brave and faithful, and their loyalty paid off. But the God behind the story did greater things than the characters. The events in Esther were beautifully orchestrated like only God can do. Here is what the story taught me about God:

God is sovereign. If you’ve read the book of Esther, you know that too much goes right in the story for it to be all a coincidence. The king had a heart softened enough by God to respond graciously to Esther’s requests. Mordecai was put in the right position to find out about a plot to kill the king, which later caused the king to be partial toward him. Haman unknowingly provided the means for his own execution.

At one point, it seemed that disaster was inevitable for the Jews. This proved wrong at the end of the story and it was shown that God is sovereign. He writes our stories, and He made the events in Esther work out for good.

God is good. Throughout all of the Old Testament, did God ever abandon HIs people? He certainly didn’t in the book of Esther. He worked for the good of His people because He loved them. He put the right people in the right place at the right time for the Jews to be saved. God is good all the time, and that truth was shown when He rescued His people through Esther, Mordecai, and the king. God has a plan. The middle of the book of Esther was not going to plan. Yes, Esther had become queen, but there was devastating news that left her two choices: let her people die or risk death herself. It’s perfect how Esther, a Jew, was queen at just the right time to stop a plot to kill the Jews. It’s amazing how Esther put off telling the king her request, and asked him to two feasts before she told him what she wanted - which gave Haman just enough time to build the gallows he was later hanged on. The events in the book of Esther weren’t a result of luck - they were orchestrated by God. God has a plan. And it cannot be stopped.

God works His plan out through people. Esther wasn’t perfect. Neither was Mordecai. But they were both chosen to be a part of God’s plan. Every human (except Jesus) is flawed, so God chooses imperfect people to help accomplish His will. Esther disobeyed God’s law by marrying someone who wasn’t a Jew, but that didn’t stop God from working through her to save the Jews.

What about you and me?

We have all sinned and broken God’s law, but that doesn’t stop Him from working through you and me to advance His kingdom agenda. In fact, I believe it is good that God works through imperfect people because we can’t take credit for successes. Instead, God gets the glory for every good thing because we know we did not accomplish good works on our own.

We need to be like Esther. We need to do the work God has set before us, realizing that there may be consequences, but that the rewards outweigh the risks.

Work through my readers and I today, Lord! Accomplish Your plan through us!

Are you trusting God’s plan?