Looking For God

Day three hundred thirty-one

Ugh I am sick today!  This puts a crimp in my church going and my taking of the sacrament.  I know it sounds silly, but I look forward to taking the sacrament and starting my week by thinking of the Lord.  It makes the start of my week feel like a fresh beginning and keeps me focused on what is important.  I will survive, but it means a little more work on my part to get spiritually refilled. Okay I am done whining. 

I prayed this morning that the Lord would bless my body that it might overcome this illness and that I would be able to keep the Spirit with me this week.  I expressed gratitude that the Lord knows my heart and my intentions, so He understands where I am coming from today. And I let Him know how much I love Him.  Hopefully I will feel better soon. 

Esther Introduction

There are some people in the scriptures that touch your heart more than others; Esther is one of those people for me.  She is someone special.  Her story gives me strength and courage to do what is right in my own life and it reminds me that the Lord is at work in all our lives.

As important as her story is to me, her story is sacred to the Jewish people because of her courage and defense of her people.  The Jewish holiday of Purim celebrates the story of Esther and commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from extermination.  She is a heroine to her people and an example for those of us today that read her story.  Her story is one of providence, perseverance, patience, love, obedience, courage, virtue, intelligence, and hope. All things that a strong woman of today needs.

The actual Book of Esther has some interesting traits of its own.  The time frame of this book is between chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Ezra.  That puts these events between when  Zerubbabel lead the first return from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 1-6) and when Ezra leads the second return from captivity (Ezra 7-10).  It depicts the lives of those Jews who stayed on in Persia during this same period of time.

The book of Esther is not without controversy.  The name of God is not mentioned in this book, and thus, many people, including Martin Luther, felt it should not be part of the Old Testament scriptures. There are no prayers, no sacrifices, no offerings, no worship in this book. Because of this, many feel that it is just a great story, but does not belong in the scriptures. I disagree.  I think we see God at work in every verse; you just have to look for Him. God is working behind the scenes, orchestrating the people, the situations, for His ultimate purpose. As G. Campbell Morgan wrote, "While there is no name of God, and no mention of the Hebrew religion anywhere, no one reads this book without being conscious of God."

The story stands as a wonderful reminder of how God is often at work behind the scenes working in unseen ways in the events of our lives as well. God works in our lives this same way; sometimes the things that God is doing today are not really for today, they are for five years, or twelve years down the road.  And it may take that long before we really see what God had in mind.  Then when we look back and see God's hand was there guiding us, and God was overseeing the whole program. 

It's exciting when the cycle comes around and we can look back and see the hand of God in our lives.  It is hard when we are going through it, we find ourselves asking, "Where is He?"  But once our eyes are opened and we see He was there the whole time our testimonies are strengthened and we are more likely to let Him work through us.

Esther is one of those stories where God is laying out years in advance for His purposes to be fulfilled at a strategic moment of history. This story is not only entertaining, but edifying. It encourages faith and hope in God's people in the most difficult and dangerous of times.  

What you get out of this story is completely up to you. It is up to you as the reader to look for God in Esther's story.  That is the challenge, to see God behind the scenes and then to apply it to our own lives and see Him working in our own story.  It's all about looking for God.