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Thoughts on God’s Leading in Our Lives From the Book of Esther, Chapters 4-7
When Esther had been informed of her people’s situation, (Esther 4:15), she agreed to fast with her maidens for three days to seek God’s help and wisdom in the matter, and then “go in unto the king” to see if there was any way to help save her people from destruction. The time frame was now set, and she no doubt felt that a deadline had been established that she needed to meet.
Sometimes we feel that we are faced with a deadline. What answer are we going to give to those who are presenting us with an opportunity for a new job? Should we buy that house before someone else comes along to take it? Maybe I have a time-sensitive scholarship offer for college—is it something I should accept? Maybe the question is regarding a lifelong companion—should I begin a friendship with this particular one? Perhaps there is someone else interested in the same person, and I need to know SOON if I should start down this path or not!
Many times we may feel pressured in circumstances with time constraints that, we feel, need a decision by such and such a time. What happens when the deadline is imminent and we don’t feel we know yet what to do, or we don’t have peace about the matter as we pray to the Lord? How long can we wait?
When the three days were ended, the time was now up. Esther had agreed with Mordecai to go in to the king and make the request for the king to spare her people. What if she didn’t feel yet that she had God’s wisdom in how to make the request in the right way? She knew what the problem was, and had probably discussed the situation at length with different ones around her whom she trusted.
But how was she to present it to the king in such a way that the opportunity to help God’s people out of difficult circumstances would not be squandered or the presentation be faulty enough that she would lose her life? I wonder if that was the burden on her heart. I wonder also if God didn’t withhold leading on this all-important point for just a little season for reasons He knew, but which Esther didn’t yet understand.
“Waiting on the Lord” is something sometimes easy to say, yet it may be hard to work out practically. Esther, may I suggest, was at one such point in her life. I feel we can profit as we consider the circumstances as they develop for her.
As she comes to this point, I like to look at her as one needing to have an answer from the Lord, but not exactly finding it. Again, she knew what she wanted, but how to say it? The hour now arrives, the preparations are complete, and she goes in to see the king, perhaps not knowing exactly what to say. What she had felt was a deadline has now come—but what would happen?
Things like this are, for the most part, very uncomfortable for us by nature. The king must now have an answer to his question, “What wilt thou, Queen Esther?” (5:3). The Lord enables her to give a short reply, and she finds that what she perhaps felt was a deadline in her search for God’s will was not an EXACT deadline after all. She now has a few more hours to consider the matter, as we might say, in the Lord’s presence.
I can imagine her and her maidens getting back down on their knees upon her arrival back to her rooms. As they more earnestly beseech God for words to present to the king that will bring about salvation for her brethren the Jews, preparations are underway for the banquet with the king and Haman that afternoon.
It seems to me that the direction Esther desires of the Lord is still being withheld from her at this point. No doubt there were many suggestions, and lots of considerations as to how to present the thing, but Esther is perhaps still not comfortable with what words to use to bring the petition to the king. If she was not careful, she could easily offend the king, and she could lose her life right there.
The banquet time arrives, as do the king and Haman, and the question comes again, “What is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed” (5:6). We can only imagine the stress on dear Esther at this time. All eyes are on her, and God again only lets her say these words, “Let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king hath said” (5:8).
Those words may have seemed very inadequate to her, and maybe she doesn't know how to say anything more at this time. But now circumstances are all in place for us to begin to see God’s sovereign workings behind the scenes! We must remember that poor Esther didn't get to see until later, or perhaps she never knew, what we can read as an unfolding story in the Bible!
So Haman goes home bragging and builds a scaffold on which to hang Mordecai (5:14), and "that night" the king is kept from sleep (in God's sovereignty) and has the records read to him (6:1).
In the morning then, quite unknown to Esther, the stage is all set. Haman is greatly humbled to find he must escort Mordecai on horseback through the city proclaiming things he would not have believed he would ever say (6:10). Then the time for the banquet arrives, and Haman has to be hurried from his home to meet the king and Esther.
At the banquet this time, things are different. God has now given Esther the words she has been waiting for (and is comfortable with) to speak to the king (7:3-4), and Haman has already begun to fall. The words given to her to say, in the ways of God, do their work on the king! He is presented with a very difficult situation which he probably never anticipated. His previous decree cannot be revoked, but here is a request he said he would not deny.
As the king considers his response in the garden, Haman senses the end of his plans is at hand and begs for his life before the queen, ending up in a very bad position as the king reenters the room (7:8). The decision is quickly made, and Haman ends up on his way to the gallows to be himself hung in the very spot where he had hoped to hang Mordecai! Then it is only a matter of working out the details as to another letter, and the matter is settled.
How marvelous are the ways of God!
Esther could now rightly rejoice, even though things had probably seemed overwhelming for quite a while! Now, perhaps, many of her questionings got their answers, and the reasons for it all became clearer as time went on and she began to piece together what had happened. Perhaps we could say that God had not allowed her the plain leading she had so desperately sought because He first had to put into place all the different facets of the design He was going to accomplish!
Many things in our lives will not be understood until we're at home with the Lord, but sometimes He lets us see some of the reasons for things while we're still down here.
As the hymn writer says,
And though Thy love be faintly seen,
What's seen demands our praise.
May these thoughts encourage us to more fully trust the wisdom of Him who has "saved us, and called us with an holy calling," (2 Timothy 1:9), and to not question His ways with us which are "for our good always," (Deuteronomy 6:24, Romans 8:28).
W. E. Porter
Say not, my soul, “From whence
Can God relieve my care?”
Remember that Omnipotence
Hath servants everywhere!
God’s help is always sure,
His methods seldom guessed;
Delay will make our pleasure pure,
Surprise will give it zest.
His wisdom is sublime,
His heart profoundly kind;
God never is before His time,
And never is behind.
Hast thou assumed a load
Which none will bear with thee;
And art thou bearing it for God,
And shall He fail to see?
Be comforted at heart;
Thou art not left alone.
Now, thou the Lord’s companion art;
Soon thou wilt share His throne.
Thomas Toke Lynch
(Lynch was a British author, preacher, and hymn-writer, 1818-1871)