DAY 172

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

Esther 3, 4 & 5 and Acts 5:22-42

I didn’t want to load too much background into yesterday, but today as we continue with Esther most scholars consider that the events of this book took place around 480 B.C. in Persia. This Book is actually thought to be written some decades later, but as you will read in the coming days, it captures the roots of the Festival known as Purim.

We ended yesterday with Mordecai being key to uncovering a plot to overthrow the king. Yet today, as a new “Prime Minister of sorts” is put in power, we read that he, Mordecai, would not bow down; and not just once, but day after day. The “new man,” Haman, is furious. [As a side note anger is never good. I once watched a Company President challenge a man in a meeting who got angry, he said, “Being angry is like being drunk, your brain becomes disconnected from its rational center…and I do not work with people who are irrational…you are dismissed.” I have never forgotten that moment…back to the lesson.]

It is not clear why Mordecai would not bow down. Would he bow to the king? We do not know. Haman’s response is rather irrational, rather than deal with Mordecai, he seeks to eliminate all Jews…and he successfully convinces the king to have the entire people group eliminated on one specific day of the year. Mordecai is beyond distressed. His “sack cloth and ashes” comes to Esther’s attention. He points out to Esther that she should not assume that she will be spared, and besides she may have been appointed “For such a time as this” 4:14. Our reading closes with Esther being up to something, and Haman further descending into his evil plan as his pride swells.

Similar to the Old Testament, our New Testament reading today is a continuation of the story the Apostles were in the middle of yesterday when they ended up in jail, and then were the subject of some angel’s “jail break.” They do not go and hide, but instead go back into the Temple. The leaders are incredulous and want to know why they are still using the Name of Jesus…the answer, because they are obeying God. They might have answered. “For such a time as this we have been appointed heralds of the Good News.”

In a rare moment of sanity, one Jewish man appeals to the officials basically saying, “leave them alone, if this is not of God then it will die of its own accord.” What good advice, I think we ought to use that approach more when we are in conflict over what to do, possibly with one exception…that being proclaiming the Good News. Why do I say “with one exception?” Over and over we see Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom of God, or preaching repentance. Over and over we read about the Apostles doing likewise. Jesus came across people who wanted to make all sorts of issues, and the disciples will as well, they ignored all but one, they kept focused on one thing…proclaiming the Good News because “for such a time as this they were appointed” and I have a sense that now it is our turn.