Pastor's Weekly Word

“Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

The story of Esther is a comedic story set in the Persian kingdom many years ago. It is about a young Jewish girl who, through a series of seemingly random events, finds herself the new queen of the kingdom. The king had become enamored with her. What he doesn’t know, not does anyone else in the palace, is that Esther is a Jew. Eventually Haman, the king’s right hand man, discovers that Esther’s cousin Mordecai was not bowing down to him because he was a Jew and bowed to no one other than God. So Haman now has it out for all the Jewish people and convinces the king to execute them all. Mordecai writes Esther asking her get the king to change his mind. She is, of course, worried about doing that because it is illegal to simply go to the king with a request, even for the queen. What Mordecai says to her shifts the entire story. “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this,” he writes. It is a statement of providence, the belief that there is divine guidance behind what is going on.

Have you ever felt, even for a moment, like you were uniquely qualified for something you were doing right at that very moment; like you were the one who was supposed to do this particular thing and no one else; as if God handpicked you out of every other possibility? I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason. That is a platitude. But I do believe that some things were absolutely meant to be. What about you? What about your own life? Think about it. Perhaps you have come to be who you are and where you are for a particular reason. Perhaps you are uniquely suited, handpicked by God for such a time as this. You might call it providential thinking.