Many Jews around the world celebrated Purim a couple weeks ago. It began on Thursday March 13 and carried through March 14th. Purim celebrates the time, years ago, when Jews living in Persia were on the verge of being annihilated. Haman, one of the king’s men, had an intense hatred of the Jews and had a plan to eliminate them entirely from the area.
Mordecai, Esther’s uncle learned of Haman’s evil plot and implored Esther to help save her people. She was now queen, but the king was not aware of her Jewish heritage. Mordecai told her, (paraphrased) ‘Perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.’ (Esther 4:14) After much prayer and fasting she agreed. She’d kept her identity secret but risked everything, even her life, to save her fellow countrymen.
When I consider what Mordecai said to Esther, it makes me wonder if that statement can’t be for each of us, as well. Sometimes we are very unhappy about our circumstances. We feel trapped or insecure in our workplaces, or dream of doing something entirely different than what we do every day. Perhaps we live in the mountains and want nothing more than to live near the beach. We may be a bank manager and desire only to be a in the music industry or a hundred other possibilities which seem totally impossible .
Yet, in Esther’s case she was chosen, like many other young maidens at the time, from around the kingdom to become part of the king’s harem. Once she arrived, she, along with all the other candidates, went through a 12 month beauty preparation! Six months was dedicated to oils; and six months of perfumes and cosmetics. Ultimately, Esther become royalty. She was beautiful and had the king’s attention!
Today’s world, with all the modern technology, would have revealed the one flaw Esther had in her background check….She was Jewish! She had kept that part of her identity hidden! Yet, it was just this sliver of information that enabled her to save the Jewish community!
Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, there is something unique to you, that God can use where you work or where you live, or even in the realm of people you know, for the Kingdom? We are each given unique gifts and abilities with which to serve. But could there be a chance we could be used for more, if we had the courage to totally trust God with our very lives?
Esther’s beautifying regimen did not change who she was on the inside, although there may have been quite the ‘makeover’ on the outside. Haven’t many of us ladies dreamed of having a ‘makeover’ so we could ‘feel’ more beautiful? Would this feeling enable us to risk doing a daring thing for the Kingdom, or would we just revel in the experience of looking incredible?
It’s not about being ravishing on the outside; it’s about being ‘beautiful’ on the inside. It’s about having a ‘God heart’. It’s about prayers; searching about what God wants us to do and how we are to present ourselves first to Him, and secondly to our worldly peers here on earth—‘for such a time as this’.