Monday, September 25: Esther 2- The workings of God take time.

Lately I have been paying attention to the time and date cues included in the text. The king’s party from chapter 1 happens in his 3^rd year. Esther’s elevation to queen does not happen until his 7^th year. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign (16). Four year lapse within the white spaces of those chapters

Four years can be an eternity for us. In four years our ‘newborn’ will grow into a preschooler almost ready for kindergarten. In four years our high school freshman will leave for college and our college freshman will hopefully enter the workforce. Four years is a considerable amount of time.

The Lord spent four years preparing Esther to become queen.  This is only the beginning of the story that will save the people of God from an evil plot to exterminate them.

God sees the end and the beginning and everything in between. God stands above and outside of time and yet He works within time to bring His will to be.

We can become frustrated when it feels like God is too slow in acting but we have only a limited knowledge of things. In the case of the Jews they had no idea that there would be a problem, and yet God was already acting on His solution. Think about that. God is acting on a solution to a problem that hasn’t erupted yet! That is covenant love. That is providential care. That is the Lord at work.

We are reminded in the Hebrews 13:8 that the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. So I believe that the Lord is doing similar things today as He did back in the day of Esther. God is preparing solutions to problems the enemy will throw at the church before the enemy picks up the ball and begins his evil windup…

This, friends, is our God.

God knows my needs before I ask them… before I know to ask them and God already is preparing to send His answer to us. Halleluiah. Amen.

Oh, God, You are marvelous beyond understanding.  Grand and wonderful and caring and loving and merciful. Providential in Your care and wise in Your decrees. I worship and adore You, my God; Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. To You and in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.