“Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

Esther was a beautiful young woman who was raised by her cousin and adoptive father Mordecai among the Jewish exiles living in the Fortress of Susa. She had been taken from Mordecai’s home and placed in the harem of King Xerxes. The king loved Esther more than the other women and made her his queen. When Mordecai heard about the plot to destroy the Jews by Haman, the most powerful noble in the land, He implored Esther to petition the king for help. His words are the words of our verse for today.

As Christians, we believe that God leads us and guides us. Indeed, we pray that God would lead us and guide us. We know that we should wait for the guidance of God, rather than following our own wisdom. We also know that God reveals His leading primarily through scripture and the inner witness of the Spirit, although He may use other means as well.

Although we believe God shows us the way, it doesn’t necessarily follow that we will have a perfect understanding of where He’s taking us and why. When David contemplated the hand of God guiding him, when he saw that God had hemmed him in “behind and before,” he declared that such “knowledge was too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain,” (Psalm 139:5-6). We don’t follow God because we’ve seen and pre-approved His direction for our lives, but because we trust Him. Esther couldn’t have known why a Jewish girl was made queen, but she trusted Mordecai and Mordecai trusted God.

And then the moment came when God’s purpose was revealed. Mordecai’s words of our verse are rhetorical. Clearly, obviously, God had brought her to this point in time so she could help her people. Although God did not previously reveal His purpose, He was speaking forcefully now through the circumstances, and Mordecai knew exactly what Esther had to do.

Esther’s God is your God too. Has He been preparing you for a “such a time as this” moment as well?

By John Huisman, friend of Bible League International