For Such a Time as This

The war is won, don’t give up on this final battle. Your past, your insecurities, your scars–all are nothing in light of having been chosen by the King to be His. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

It’s becoming more and more obvious with every passing day that we are living in perilous times. Things once considered wrong, twisted, unacceptable and just plain evil are becoming normalized and often even elevated to a special untouchable status. Todays sacred cows were yesterday’s shameful abnormalities while everything good decent God fearing and freedom loving people hold dear is being systematically stripped away, maligned and ridiculed.

Too be honest, it’s frightening. Especially as I see the world teetering towards an all out war as major players, many of whom now have, or are on the verge of acquiring, weapons that can knock us back into the stone age become more belligerent and unrestrained. Our own nation, America, is being led by seemingly hapless, immoral power hungry fools who only seem to care about money and acquiring more power without giving a whit about any of the rest of us. We are just tools to be used to achieve their personal and idealogical goals. And, perhaps most worrisome of all, we have now officially (at least as far as our representative government is concerned) turned our backs on Israel and are facilitating those who would destroy her—this never ends well for any nation in the long run.

We are being led by deceivers who are themselves being deceived. To those who are paying attention, the hand of our enemy, the devil, has blinded all those who fail to seek the God of the Bible to the truth and to whatever is good and proper. Right is wrong and wrong is right and all who dare point it out are haters, bigots, racists, intolerant and must be silenced at all costs.

Indeed we are in perilous times. But then, we all knew this was coming. At least those of us who love God’s word did. But all is not yet lost.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. 2 Tim 3:1-5

You and I are still here, and we still have a voice to cry out; “Jesus is Lord! Repent and turn from your wicked ways that we may yet be saved! Receive His love, receive His grace, receive His power!”

The church cannot continue on as though nothing is happening and all is well, so long as we don’t ruffle any feathers or draw too much attention to ourselves. Business as usual in the church works in a society that has a common ground based in scripture and a shared moral compass based on God’s values, but we are no longer there. Much of the church has become powerless to the point of irrelevance. A woke church is a broke church. And a church with a form of Godliness, all words with no Holy Spirit anointing or manifestations of power, is only a motivational club that can be quickly overcome by the enemy when tested and tried.

So what are we to do– you and I? Well, I can’t answer specifically for you but I do know that it is no accident of fate that you are right where you are today, that you are placed here for such a time as this. You are never too insignificant, never to beset upon, never damaged or weak to not be used by God to fulfill a greater purpose than you could ever imagine.

Esther

Many, many years ago, there was a young girl whose parents had both been killed leaving her to be raised by her uncle, Mordecai. Her family had been forcibly removed from their homeland years earlier and they were living in a land where their God was deplored and they were considered weird and even abhorrent by most of their neighbors.

Then one day she is taken from her home and made to live in the palace of the king, under guard with many other captive girls, where they are treated like objects to be groomed and prepared to satisfy the appetites of one man, the king, who may declare one of them more than just part of a harem, she may be called queen.

A powerless orphan girl being groomed to become, let’s just say it—a sex slave—in a place where she doesn’t even dare speak out about her heritage and beliefs as a Jew who worships the God of the universe. Where is He now? Has He forsaken her and her people? Even while she lives in luxury she feels a prisoner in body and soul.

She believes in her heart that God made her for something greater, that she has a purpose, yet she despairs at the hopelessness of her position. But there is a small glimmer of hope, there is a small chance she could become royalty… never happen. She is a nobody from nowhere.

She is worse than a nobody from nowhere. Her people, her family, is hated and maligned by all those with the voices that seem to get the most attention. They have no freedom to move about as they choose or even to speak their mind let alone openly worship their God. And their place of worship has been destroyed anyway—closed forever.

But God has given her a sharp mind and a beautiful soul and her outward appearance reflects that beauty within and with her cleverness in discovering what pleases the king, she finds favor with him and he makes her his queen. She has become royalty. Yet she still feels she has to keep her true self hidden even from the king as her people continue to be despised.

 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Esther 2:17

Then one day she discovers that her beloved uncle is outside the palace gate with many other Jews, wailing while wearing sackcloth and lying in ashes. She sends him clean clothes but he refuses them and gets a message to her that nearly caused her heart to stop. Her family is about to be slaughtered. Her uncle is desperate and frazzled as he explains to her via messangers that the situation has grown dire for their people. Hamen, one of the kings advisors, has convinced the king to sign a decree that everyone throughout his empire must turn against their Jewish neighbors, plunder their property, and on a set date kill every last one of them.

Esther is horrified but she still feels helpless and insignificant in the face of such widespread evil. She is, after all, just a trophy wife to an all powerful king who still doesn’t know that she was just a poor orphan girl from a people they deem unworthy of respect, and now unworthy even of life.

Mordecai beseeches her, ‘you must go in and talk to the king on our behalf! You must do something—you are the queen!’

Esther is fearful and doubtful because she has not been called before the throne for over a month and no one can come before the king unsummoned under pain of death.

Esther sends a message to her uncle through her trusted friends, the eunuchs who guard her, saying she cannot do this.

And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 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?” Esther 4:13-14

Esther is shaken to the core but she steals her resolve and goes before the King who extends the staff of his mercy to her that she may speak what’s on her heart. She invites him to dinner along with his conniving and arrogant advisor Hamen and long story short, she confesses that she is Jewish, that she fears for herself and her people because the one who shares their meal has deceived him into decreeing that they all be destroyed.

The king is outraged and has Hamen hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Esther’s uncle i another of his devious plots, and decrees that the Jews are free and encouraged to defend themselves against this scheduled purge. Their right to bear arms for self defense was restored as was their favor with their king and their neighbors. And the fear of the Lord fell on all the land and many Persians turned to the God of the Jews.

All because a little orphan girl realized who she was, she was royalty who had favor and the ear of the king. She had a brave heart and a resolve that enabled her to confront her enemies, speak truth to power and reveal her true identity. She was not just a queen in Persia, she was one of the children of Israel, a daughter of the Most High God.

God had put her exactly where he needed her to be. All she had to do was realize it.

How about you?

 Not only are you a son or daughter of the most High God by virtue of Jesus Christ, but you have unfettered access to the throne of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

If you are in Christ, you have the power and the authority to affect change, to make a difference—you have the ear of the King and the power through the Holy Spirit of the Lion of Judah!

You, we, have nothing to fear.

We must continually go before the throne, seek out his truth and speak truth even in the face of our enemies.

We can make a difference. We are light in the darkness. Truth in a sea of lies. Goodness in a world of evil and love in a time of hatred.

The war is won, don’t give up on this final battle. Your past, your insecurities, your scars–all are nothing in light of having been chosen by the King to be His. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And we all have an important part to play.

You are here for such a time as this.