It’s a rather cruel trick of nature that we as a species long so deeply to be in control of our lives, and yet we are so terrifyingly out of control, helplessly at the mercy of so many circumstances more powerful than us. What do we do when life puts us in situations we never wanted to see? Maybe we complain at God and ask why he would let these bad and difficult things happen. Maybe we shut down and simply sulk in the misery of our situation. Or maybe, if we remember God’s faithfulness, we patiently wait to find the good that God is working out through the bad.
Esther, oddly enough, is the one book in the Bible that never mentions God—explicitly, that is. But implicitly, his presence permeates the pages. As Mordecai reminds his adopted daughter Esther, God will surely work out salvation for his people whom he had promised salvation, but he had given Esther the privilege of being his emissary of that good work. She had been taken as the wife of Xerxes, the wildly decadent king of the Persian empire—a luxurious but hateful position for a Jewess to find herself in. Yet perhaps, Mordecai assured her, she was there for a purpose: God had put her there for such a time as that.
Through circumstances that go against our plans, we often find that God has plans for us that are greater still. God interrupts our efforts for a perfect, comfortable life and sets us on a path to accomplish something glorious for his glory. Such a life is often unstable, and so we trust in him alone for stability, and we do the good work to which he has called us. Esther’s unsavory position, for example, gave her the opportunity to save all the Jews in the empire from extermination. Still today, the Jews celebrate Purim to commemorate God’s faithfulness on that day.
At some point, we must admit that a life of perfect stability is simply not in the cards for us. God will bring us through turbulence and uncertainty and pain. But face them with courage like Esther’s, because God is faithful! Who knows—perhaps you have come into that position for such a time as this! What good is God working out through this bad situation? Pray that question today, and excitedly await his answer.
