For Such A Time As This

A Jewish man finds himself in Persia as the story would go for multitudes of Jews at this post-exile time. His name is Mordecai. The king of this great empire is Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus gets extremely angry at his wife for her disobedience and decides, at the counsel Memucan a Persian prince, to make an example out of his wife Vishti. He took away her privilege to see the king and her royal estate in order to teach the wives throughout his empire to honor their husbands. Now was the time for King Ahasuerus to choose a new wife in the stead of Vishti, and this is where we find this Jew named Mordecai.

Esther 2:5-7
5 Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;
6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

Esther was selected as one of the virgins from whom the king would choose his new wife. After a grueling period of preparing and waiting, the king chose Esther as his new queen:
Esther 2:17
And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

This is a very unseemly story. Esther is a Jew whose biological parents are dead, who is a foreigner exiled from her land, and yet she still is able to rise to a position of much respect; she is the queen of a massive empire (see Esther 1:1 to see that vastness of Ahasuerus' kingdom). Friend, this is not coincidental. God is in control.

An evil man named Haman is promoted by the king to an office of great confidence. He is a powerful man. Each day as he walked through the gates, the men would all bow and reverence him, but not Mordecai:
Esther 3:2
And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.

Haman grew furious at Mordecai, so much that he hated Mordecai's people, the Jews:
Esther 3:5-6
5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.
6 And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had showed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

Haman petitioned King Ahasuerus for permission to destroy “a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom” (Esther 3:8). He was talking of the Jewish people, God’s people. Ahasuerus permitted the desctruction of this group of people which, as far as the Bible tells us, is unnamed to the king. Ahasuersus endorsed Haman to do this evil deed.

Esther 4:1
When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;

Mordecai first reacts to this decree with mourning but we soon see that his reaction becomes more aggressive:
Esther 4:8
Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.

Esther responds to her adopted father saying, “All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.” (Esther 4:11).

Esther’s wise father understands that if the God of Israel is big enough to orchestrate situations so that Esther is chosen as queen of this nation then He is also big enough to protect Esther if she enters the king's court. Even more important though, he reminds her of God’s Providence and how this may be the very reason she came into power.

Esther 4:14
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

The biblical account in Esther shows that God did have her there that the Jews might be delivered from their coming doom. That is how Esther's story finishes, but what about you?

God’s people through the ages have found that they are placed into situations and they don’t know why they’ve been placed into them. Trust in the Lord though. Christian, you never know the whole story of how God is working, and so trust that He is working. You cannot please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6).

This is what God says about the mystery of His way:
Isaiah 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Maybe your parents got divorced so that God could use that experience in your life for you to minister to someone. Maybe you lost a loved one so that you would hit rock bottom and finally turn to God. Maybe you are at a miserable job so that God can use you to tell one person how to be saved.

Two years ago, a man named Samuel Castillo was hundreds of miles away from his home in a city called Santiago. It was not a pleasant set of circumstances that brought him there. He had broken many bones in a motorcycle accident while ministering to people on a southern island in Chile and now he was in Santiago for rehabilitation. When he was in Santiago he met a teenager named Kyle Sheridan. Samuel told Kyle about his burden for the great need in the islands of the south of Chile. God then used Samuel’s words, translated into English by Kyle’s friend Dustin, to touch Kyle’s heart.

Today I am in Chile to see if God wants me to be a missionary to the south. This trip never would have happened if it weren’t for the single providential care of God orchestrating for me to meet Samuel two years ago. Though Brother Samuel was surely discouraged by the storm he was passing through when he came to Santiago for rehabilitation, who knew that God had brought him there “for such a time as this?”

Where are you today?
I ask you because I want you to consider a thought. Maybe you are there for such a time as this.

Where is your faith?

Luke 8:22-25 (see also Matthew 8:18-27 & Mark 4:35-41)
Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.
But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.
And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.
And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

There was a storm so raging that these men crossing the lake thought they were going to die. So great a storm that “they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.”

“Master, master, we perish.” They said.
What a scary thing to be afraid of your circumstances, and to be afraid of the outcome. The disciples in this situation weren’t sure what was going to become of them in this storm. I would be afraid too if my confidence was found in good weather. You know, weather changes constantly, just like the calm weather before the storm in Luke 8:22-25 changed so quickly into a storm.

Jesus asked, “Where is your faith?”
He asked where their faith was because He knew that their faith was not in Him. For if their faith was in Him then they would not have feared because (as evidenced by this miracle) the Lord Jesus Christ is more powerful than the changing weather.

Do you know what is as unstable as weather? Man’s attempts at righteousness. It has been said that there are two religions in this world:
* Do
** Done
1. Men try to do good works to please God and work their way to heaven. Here are some examples of those good works that men try to do thinking they may win God's favor: baptism, giving to the poor, the “sacraments”, church membership, giving money to the church, and many other works.
2. Done. Jesus said, “It is finished.” He was talking about the work of redemption. When Jesus Christ shed His innocent blood on the cross of Calvary, the only work that was necessary for the salvation of man was finished. The Bible makes it very clear that our works cannot save us:
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us...

This is what God thinks of our righteousness:
Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

If I was trusting in the first religion then I would be afraid. I would be very afraid. The reason why is because the Bible makes it clear that God’s standard is perfection. If a person sins once then they have fallen short of God’s perfect standard. God says we’ve all fallen short:
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Actions have consequences. God has established the consequence/the just punishment for our sins:
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death...
Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Revelation 20:14-15
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The only way for me to go to Heaven is by being completely righteous. I can only do that if the righteousness of Jesus is applied to my account. God made a provision. If the blood of Jesus is applied to your account then you are declared righteous in the eyes of God. The Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins as a substitute (he took on Himself the consequences for our sins) so that we might be made righteous:
2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

So here’s the point I hope you’ll understand. If you try to work to get to heaven then your faith is in the wrong place and you will perish. If your faith is in anything other than God, then that is scary. If you want to be saved then you have to put your trust (aka belief, faith) completely in the Lord Jesus Christ and His personal work of shedding His blood for your sins, dying on the cross, being buried, and then raising again the third day. Here is what Jesus said:
John 6:47
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.


So I ask you, where is your faith?

(For more Bible verses to understand salvation, see the second article of April '08 titled “The Gospel”)