For Such a Time as This

A Series on Women in the Bible

 (Use the link below to read the verses.)

Esther 4:1-17

[God worked in and through the lives of countless women in the Bible. These women played significant, if not critical roles in the Lord’s plan of Redemption. In this series, we will look at the faithfulness of some of these God fearing women.]

 

During spring break of my sophomore year of college, my high school girlfriend, and fiancé, broke up with me. When I returned to school, which by the way, there were ten guys for every girl; my prospects were slim to none. I felt hopeless and depressed to the point where I almost flunked out of school.

 

The following summer, my degree program required a summer term of field work. There was a guy in the program who invited me to church with him where, low and behold, there were pretty girls everywhere. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

 

One night, my friend shared with me about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For such a time as this, Ken Baker, had literally changed my life forever.

 

The book of Esther tells us the story about how her cousin Mordecai raised her as his only daughter because both of her parents had died. Mordecai and Esther were exiled to Persia.

 

During a festive banquet for many high officials, King Xerxes was humiliated by Queen Vashti. As a result, he deposed her, and sponsored a beauty contest to choose the next queen.

 

Scripture tells us that Esther “had a lovely figure and was beautiful”. Because of this, she was forced to participate in the contest. After a yearlong of beauty treatments, she was taken to the king’s bed. Following this, he made her his queen.

 

The situation became desperate when Haman, who was the most powerful man in the king’s service, manipulated King Xerxes to decree that all Jews be killed. 

According to my NIV study Bible, these events “threatened the continuity of God’s purposes in redemptive history. The future existence of God’s chosen people, and ultimately the appearance of the Messiah, were jeopardized by Haman’s edict to destroy the Jews.”

 

Mordecai sent this message to enlist Esther’s help.

 

¹³ “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. ¹⁴ If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”             NLT

 

Making a bad situation worse, Esther had never disclosed to King Xerxes that she was a Jew. Plus, by law, anyone who went into the king’s presence without an invitation, was subject to death.

 

For such a time as this, Mordecai told her. The Lord had placed her in just the right place, at just the right time. Esther risked her life, and faithfully submitted to the Lord, changing the lives of a whole nation. My friend, Ken Baker, faithfully followed the Lord, and changed my life.

 

Where has the Lord placed you, for such a time as this?

 

Copyright 2021 Joseph B Williams

 

 

 

At Just the Right Time

Romans 5:6-8

 

 

If you Google “at just the right time” these images, amongst others, will appear.

 

The same Google brings up these verses:

 

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”            Romans 5:6 NIV

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”      Galatians 4:4-5 NIV

“For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.”      

2 Corinthians 6:2 NLT

 

You may have observed something similar in your own life; that is, sometimes things seem to happen “at just the right time”; like there is a plan. The fact is, the Bible is the story of God’s plan of Redemption where things happen “at just the right time”. The corollary to this fact is, that YOU and I are a part of this plan.

 

God has worked in your life and in mine to bring us into faith in Christ. He brought people and experiences into our lives that changed us. In turn, He continues to work by bringing you and me into the lives of others to use us in their life.

 

It might be when you are talking around the water cooler at work, having a cookout

with your neighbors, at a church dinner, sitting at a Buckeyes game or playing in a golf outing through work. We don’t live in a vacuum. God is always at work, and His work is “at just the right time”.

 

In today’s passage, Paul wrote, ^“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

“While we were still sinners”… You have the best story ever to share with a dying

world. It’s your story of how God has been at work in your life. He did it “at just the right time”, and now He is ready for you to be there for somebody else.



How does it feel to be a part of God’s plan of redemption?