An Epiphany In Esther

Esther...an incredible book of Providence.

I love that God's Word is living so that I am always receiving a fresh breath of Truth, wisdom and inspiration.

Not once in the book of Esther, is the Lord mentioned, but He makes Himself clearly seen in every twist, turn and decision.

Queen Vashti behaves rebelliously and is excused...a new Queen is sought.

Mordecai counsels Esther to keep quiet about her Jewish ethnicity...Haman is ignorant to it and blindly let's down his guard in accepting her invitation to 2 feasts.

Queen Esther fasts...and is sensitive to the Lord's timing.

Queen Esther hesitates to speak, and King Xerxes can't sleep...which gives time and opportunity to rediscover Mordecai's civic loyalty to the King.

Haman is prideful...and unwittingly sets the agenda for Mordecai's honoring...which humiliates and infuriates Haman, in turns.

At home, Haman's family suggests a gallows on which to hang his nemesis...which ends up being the end of the architect himself.

There is so much Providence in evidence here, it's daunting to remember it all.

But the epiphany that I had this reading was that Esther saved a nation -- and she did it by strictly living within the blessed confines of her role as a wife. She was submissive, though not timid. She was a prayerful risk taker. She respected the law of the land and the traditions of the household.

Had she stepped outside the bounds of her ordained calling, she may have been rendered completely useless -- as was her predecessor, Vashti.

Esther's success was pivitol to the history of Israel. It was magnificent. Her trust and quiet spirit can be pointed to as the most instrumental human piece of the puzzle that was the demise of the first Hitl*r. The Jews' salvation hinged upon her action which was clearly kept inside the lines of her equally important, but different calling in the sight of the Lord.

She was not the one who put ink to paper and wrote the decree that allowed the Jews to gather and fight back against their enemies on that fateful day left behind by wicked Haman. She was not the one who held and applied the signet ring to the seal.

But she did, above all things, simply trust God. And the fruit of that trust preserved a people.