Esther 4:14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
The Festival of Purim, which we celebrate on the 14th of Adar—the last month in the Biblical calendar—begins this Thursday evening and continues through Friday evening this year. Although Purim isn’t one of the moedim, or appointed feasts, named in the Torah, it arose in the 4th century BC and has been cherished ever since.
While the dramatic events leading to Purim are vividly detailed in the Book of Esther, the festival of Purim does not appear in the New Testament.
The Book of Esther is set in the ancient city of Susa (Shushan), now part of modern-day western Iran. The story unfolds sometime after the 70-year exile in Babylon, but likely before Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the governor returned to Israel.
In a remarkable series of divinely guided events, a young Jewish woman named Hadassah, better known as Esther, ascends to become queen of Persia. Despite her high status, Esther conceals her Jewish identity on the advice of Mordecai: “Esther had not made known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to make it known” (Esther 2:10, 20).
As the plot thickens, Haman, the king’s advisor, engineers a plan to annihilate all Jews. By casting lots (Esther 3:7; Esther 9:26), known in Hebrew as purim, the 13th of Adar is set for this horrific event (Esther 3:13). However, the narrative takes a turn when Esther, spurred by Mordecai, discloses her heritage to the king, leading to Haman’s death and the Jews’ miraculous deliverance.
While the Book of Esther does not explicitly mention God, His presence is intricately woven throughout the narrative, visible to all who immerse themselves in its pages.
One of the most profound lessons from Purim is that God’s rescue plan for the Jewish people would happen with or without Esther’s help. Mordecai even tells Esther that if she kept quiet, “relief and deliverance for the Jews would arise from another place.” This shows that God’s plans don’t rely on just one person, even though Esther was in the right place at the right time, “for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)
Likewise, we are alive now “for such a time as this.” God’s prophetic plan to redeem the world, as well as the Jewish people, will happen with or without us, however, God has placed us here for “such a time as this” to see God’s prophetic plan unfold fully, that we may see the “fulness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25) and then “all of Israel be saved” (Romans 11:26) for this Gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth, and then the end will come! (Matthew 24:14)
So, take hold of this moment, this special time in your life, and really get that God put you here “for such a time as this.” You’re meant to do incredible things and participate in His ultimate plan—bringing hope and redemption through His Son to the whole world. And guess what? You might just be the spark that ignites a revival right where you are!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Paul exhorts the church at Corinth about grumbling and complaining. He reminds the believers of the judgments that befell the 10 spies who brought a bad report of the land – and were struck down by a plague, and terrible fate of Korah and those aligned with him that came against Moses and Aaron and were swallowed up by the ground under them.
Here we have a stark word. Here we see the Lord testing Israel: “He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” [Deuteronomy 8:16]. Yet Paul says that they put Him to the test. A great irony occurs when God is testing us, and we despise His discipline, thereby testing Him.
The Apostle Paul continues his warning to the Corinthians against idolatry by referring to Israel’s celebration/worship of the golden calf. Aaron’s proclamation, “These are your gods (plural) O Israel” could be one of the earliest declarations mixing the worship of the true and living God, YHVH, with idols. This is called “syncretism”. Dictionary.com defines it: ” the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.”
The Apostle Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 10:6 against desiring evil as they did, would seem to point to the obvious sins – lying, stealing, adultery, fornication, etc. – and following their deliverance from slavery, many of the children of Israel were certainly guilty of some of these. But this passage in Numbers describes a type of sin we don’t normally consider: it was simply their desire for the foods they ate in Egypt.
When I was in school, it seemed they ran a “fire drill” at least once a year. A long, loud, kind of scary bell would sound and we knew it was either a real fire, or, more likely, just another drill. We were formed into lines, ushered down the halls, and out the doors we went. Of course, the point was practice….so we would be prepared for a real fire.
The children of Israel are facing yet another test, this one, even more severe than hunger– dehydration – which, unabated, quickly leads to a miserable death. Yet, now, every day they are also seeing the miracles of God, who is feeding them regularly with manna, and surrounding them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Once again, they fail the test, even in the midst of their daily witness of miracles. So even though the test is more severe, the evidence for trust is that much greater.
Is there something about miracles that makes them forgettable? Or is the problem with us? After journeying for a season the children of Israel were faced with hunger — another test. This time, naturally faced with starvation, they murmured against the Lord, AGAIN! You’d think they might begin to put it together that God truly wanted them to trust Him. Apparently not yet. The dire circumstances attacked their mass cerebral cortex (memory) and once again they went into attack mode, bitterly complaining in unbelief. The Ten Plagues, the pillar of fire, the Red Sea walk, the Egyptian chariot soup, none of these connected to the present hunger pangs. Nature trumped super-nature, and sadly, God Himself.