IBS Application for Esther 4:14

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

I heard this verse referenced in a teaching that I heard recently, and it stuck out to me. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but I decided to read through the story of Esther again until I found it. Within the context, I was convicted in reading it.

Here, Mordecai is telling Esther that she must move to try to save the Jewish people from slaughter at the hands of their enemies. He says this because if she doesn’t, as he says, she and her family will all die instead. But he also knows that their people will still be saved by God through some other means, even if she refuses to act.

What I found convicting about this is hearing that, essentially, God would still get what He wanted to get done complete with or without the obedience of Esther. Ultimately, Esther would have missed out on the opportunity to take part in the blessing that was being used by God to save her people. It almost matters less that she and her family would die than it does that she was presented an opportunity to be a blessing to her people that she could have refused.

This is convicting for me because I’ve been given some opportunities to act as God’s hands and feet here in Guatemala that I can choose to refuse. I’ve often wanted to refuse them, in fact. They’re not easy tasks, but they are the means by which I know that God wants to use to grow me in Him. They are all ministry-related, but I am not a necessary part of any of that ministry. He does not need to me to do the work He intends to do, but He wants to use me. I would miss out for not taking part in this blessing. In some cases I have missed out, because I haven’t always answered Him when He’s called me.

But seeing Esther’s obedience to the Lord’s will, and perhaps not solely out of the fear of death, but out of a willingness to obey God is inspiring to me. God used Esther to great effect in the task He set before her. I don’t know if God intends to use me in such a grand way, but I know He has given me responsibilities to my team and to the locals that we minister to here. I needed to be reminded that I have been placed here for this time in this place for the purposes that He has revealed to me here.


My application will be to attempt to walk in this truth by praying during my future devotions that God would help me stay faithful in these tasks He’s presented to me to do for Him, and that I would not falter in my faithfulness to the fulfillment of these tasks, always relying on Him for the strength and will to do these things for Him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IBS Application for Jeremiah 23:23-24 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” There is something comforting and humbling about this truth. God is a God who is always close. He is immanent in our lives, meaning He is everywhere. There are some other places in Scripture where the idea is expressed that the heavens cannot contain Him. He is never not present; there is no place in the universe where He is not. As such, there is nothing we can do to escape from God. David, in Psalm 139, mentions this idea: “Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence?” God is everywhere. It logically follows that He is intimately aware of all that we are doing and what is happening to us. I know that in this case God was addressing the faithlessness of Israel’s prophets, who were prophesying falsely i
Read more
IBS Application for 2 Corinthians 13:11 “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” Paul, in this particular closing statement in this letter to the church in Corinth, identifies four actions they needed to start taking if they were to start living in the love and peace of God again. As we know according to Scripture, the actions in themselves wouldn’t justify them or sanctify them in any way, but they would serve to unify the members of the church under this love and peace. These were to “aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another,” and “live in peace.” The church in Corinth had been dealing with so many problems that Paul felt to need to make several addresses to them, both in person and through epistles. It’s suggested in one of the two letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he wrote more letters to them than just these two, i
Read more
IBS Application for Hebrews 5:8 “Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.” We have in Christ the most perfect example of obedience towards the will of the Father. Even though He was specifically set apart and begotten by God as the Son, whereas we are all adopted by the Father, He still suffered as we did. He still lived His life on earth as a human being that was tempted and tried. Though He did not fall to His temptations, He was still made to suffer condemnation as if He had sinned. The interesting thing of note for me about this verse is that Christ “learned obedience through what He suffered.” Why would Christ need to learn anything if He has divine omniscience? The word for “learned” here means “to understand by experience.” So if we modify the verse in this new light, we now understand that Christ understood obedience to the will of God by experiencing suffering. It never ceases to amaze me that Christ went to such great lengths to m
Read more