If you don’t speak up now, we will somehow get help, but you and your family will be killed. It could be that you were made queen for a time like this!
Esther 4: 14 (CEV)
Scripture: Esther 4
We think that, for the big world-saving plans, God will use someone else to accomplish His plan. Sometimes, He does; sometimes, He uses us. This devotion looks at how God used Esther to save His people.
Cliff Notes
- Everything that happens in our lives happens because God has allowed it to and will be used to further His kingdom.
- We generally think that God will use more than just one person to save His people.
- God used Esther, an orphan who was assimilated into the world culture, by making her queen.
- While Esther was the only one who could approach the king, God gave her helpers: Mordecai and Hegai.
- God will use us to help save His people – even if it is one person at a time.
I really, really like this verse. I’ve told you how I have rewritten it. My mind reads it as “maybe God has brought me through everything He has to encourage someone else.”
To read How Should Regret Affect Our Christian Walk?, click the button below.
But let’s come at it from a different angle in this devotion. Let’s focus on Esther instead of me.
Let's Put It into Context
King Xerxes had a problem. He needed a new queen. Queen Vashti had not answered a royal summons.
Men who were experts in the law advised the King to not to put up with that. They said this would lead other women to disobey their husbands.
So, the advisors told him to never again allow Queen Vashti to come into his presence. Her position should be given to someone else.
Enter Esther. She was an orphan who had been adopted and raised by her cousin Mordecai. She was a Jew, but she didn’t tell anyone that. After a huge beauty contest, King Xerxes picked her for his new queen.
All was not quiet at court, however. Haman started a campaign against the Jews. Mordecai told Esther not to delude herself into thinking her position would save her. Then he said, “Maybe you were made queen just to help us with this situation.” Esther was in the right place at the right time.
Things Work Out
We can get real good at saying things will work out as they are supposed to happen. I mean, don’t we even have a Bible verse that basically says that? “Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses” (Ecc. 3: 1 GNT).
When we put that together with Romans 8: 28, we should be sitting pretty. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8: 28 HCBS).
To read What Does “All Things Work Together for Good” Really Mean?, click the button below.
Most of the time — for the big, world-saving things — we think God is going to use someone else rather than little ol’ us. We are just one person. One little bitty, inconsequential person. How is He going to use us to save the world?
God Can Use One Person to Change the World
Enter Esther — again. Esther has gone through a lot. Both of her parents were dead — probably by the time she was in her teens.
Esther has been raised by a male cousin. Obviously, Mordecai cared for Esther, but we don’t know exactly what their relationship was like. We don’t read about a Mrs. Mordecai. We don’t know if Esther had a confidant.
The selection process that Esther went through sounds like a huge cattle call. Talk about objectification. It sounded like a day at the spa on steroids.
If I am reading this right, the young girls were separated from their families, thrown into dorms with their competition, told every little thing that was wrong with them, and fixed.
Really a confidence-building process, wasn’t it?
Esther was chosen — just her. Only her. Young. Wrong background. Out of her element.
But God has a job for her. Little ol’ her was going to save her world.
In order to do that, Esther’s deep secret was about to come out. She was Jewish.
Make no mistake. Esther had been fully assimilated into the culture in which she lived. She was following the worldview, not the Godview.
So, God wouldn’t use Esther to save His world, i.e., the Jewish people, right? Wrong. Use this young, flawed woman was exactly what He did. The fate of the Jewish nation rested on her shoulders.
Still, God Gives Helpers
No, Esther wasn’t alone. Mordecai gave her some tough love. “This could be your whole purpose in life.”
Esther had another helper. She found a mentor in Hegai. the king’s eunuch. He was the custodian of the women (Es. 2: 3). “Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor; so he readily gave beauty preparations to her, besides her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king’s palace, and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women” (Es. 2: 9 NKJV).
Yes, Esther was the only one who could approach King Xerxes. But Esther wouldn’t have become Mrs. Xerxes if Mordecai and Hegai hadn’t been in on the picture. Take either one out of the picture, and Esther wouldn’t have been in the right place at the right time.
Making the Connections
Look what Mordecai said. “If you don’t do this, someone else will” (Es. 4: 14). God calls us to perform specific tasks for Him. We have our free will, so we choose whether or not we will do it.
If we choose not to, God’s Will will still be done. It just won’t be us getting the blessing.
If God calls us to save the world, we will have helpers. If we are called to save a couple of people’s world through witnessing, we always have a community of believers who are here to support us. God will use us to help save His people – even if it is one person at a time.
Sometimes, we need the spa treatments to prepare for God’s tasks. We need to learn something new. We may need to change some things. God will work everything out to what it needs to be.
How Do We Apply This?
Sometimes, we question why we are in a certain place at a certain time. We ask why we are going through something. We question why God has allowed some trial to go on and on. Or we say, “I want you to accept me because I’m different, but I won’t accept your differences because they aren’t what I believe.”
So, it is tough when we are different. A lot of times it feels like “me” against “everyone else.” That’s hard. That’s discouraging.
We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our minds play a big role in our walk with God.
We reason things out. We rationalize them. Since we can’t see God, it becomes a mind thing. “… Blessed are those who have not seen and yet come to believe” (Jn. 20: 29, NRS).
What it all boils down to is attitude. Attitude is just our state of mind. Do we formulate our state of mind to acknowledge that God is God and Jesus is Lord?
This is an everyday battle. Unfortunately, our attitudes and states of mind are not set in concrete. Once we get our attitude correct, it does not always stay that way. We let the world crowd in, and our attitudes shift.
Then again, it isn’t unfortunate because we can then shift our attitude back to God. We aren’t stuck in concrete out of God’s Will. So every day we have to work on our attitude to make sure we are in God’s Will.
Father God. Your Will is good, pleasing and perfect. We are not perfect. We struggle with trying to keep our attitudes focused on Your Will. It is hard, Lord, because the world’s viewpoint isn’t focused on You. It is a daily struggle. Give us strength, Lord. Help us to not grow weary. Transform us by renewing our minds. Amen.
What do you think? Think back to a time when you did obey God and a time when you did not obey God. What were the prevailing factors in each instance? Would the reason(s) you did not obey God keep you from obeying God today? If so, what do you need to work on?
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