Focal Passages: Esther 4:13-17; 8:3-8
While I was in high school I worked for a gentleman that
certainly gave me the most unusual interview I have ever had since then.
After speaking with me and asking the usual questions one
would ask a teenager, he took me to another room and sat me at a bench where
there was a rather large drawer full of all types of parts and fasteners.
His instructions were very simple: separate all of the parts
into the various containers sitting on the bench.
After finishing, I went and told him I was done, just as he
had instructed. He came in, studied how I had divided the parts, made a few
comments, and then began to dump them back into the drawer they were originally
in. After returning everything to the drawer, he smiled at me and asked if I
could start the next day.
On the way out he told me I was the first person to have
completed the task that year — and it was around the last of May. Looking back
I am thankful I did not know the why or what he would do with all of my newly
organized groups!
In the book of Esther we see a similar occurrence. For
reasons beyond her knowledge and understanding, Esther had become the Queen of
Ahasuerus’ kingdom. Esther didn’t ask for her position and she certainly had
not asked for the responsibilities thrust on her. Yet, she was a favorite of
the king, a very powerful king who could take a life by merely refusing to
extend his scepter.
The moment Esther realized her influential position, she in
turn asked Mordecai to have the people fast before she asked Ahasuerus to
rescue and protect her people.
It’s interesting that God did not expect Esther to exercise
her influence and responsibility until she was confronted with it and
recognized it. When Mordecai tells Esther in 4:14, “Who knows, perhaps you have
come to the kingdom for such a time as this,” Esther immediately requests her
people to fast.
God does indeed have a purpose for every believer. It is not
to find self-fulfillment, reach our “full potential” or to “be all we can be.”
Our purpose is to bring glory to the Father by looking and acting like His Son.
By using the influence given to us by God’s divine plan, we fulfill our purpose
and expand the influence of His kingdom.
In the process, even we might be able to see some people get
“saved.”
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