“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14b (NKJV)
Mordecai’s advice to Esther has been used as encouragement for thousands of years to those facing troublesome times; perhaps there has never been a more appropriate time for Christians to revisit the plight of the Jews at the hand of Haman than today in our own nation. We have those who would gladly stamp out Christianity hoping to gain control of our government, and even control the world through a one-world-government. What to do is not a thing easily discernible, and yet we must involve ourselves as Christians in seeking the solution if we are to see our values and beliefs allowed to continue publicly. Like Esther, our Christian family is in danger of the most severe persecution in every place where we are found. We see efforts underway right here in our nation to destroy churches and scatter their congregations by whatever means necessary. If those who would destroy Christianity here in the USA are successful, believers around the world will suffer increasing atrocities designed to destroy our faith.
We know that “the Gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” applies to the Church; we also know that Mordecai told Ester that if she kept silent God would provide relief from another place, indicating to me that God wanted Esther (and the Jews) involved in their own deliverance, in athletic terminology, to have some skin in the game.
So, what do we do? We didn’t ask to be put in such a dreadful position, neither did Esther and Mordecai, and yet they rose to the occasion through their faith and wisdom. They did not choose their circumstances but they were chosen to live in that time, so too are you and I chosen for “such a time as this”. In John 15:16 Jesus told the disciples, “you did not choose me, but I chose you”. You and I were chosen for this time; and if we were chosen by God then we are equipped by God and called by God to do just what Esther and Mordecai did, we are to fast and pray so that God will use our faith as a force against which Hades can not prevail. This is ours to do as Christians, we must not shrink back from our call.
