Devotional for March 3

“But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment…” (Esther 1:11) 

The year is 468 BC and the Jews are in exile in Persia. The king of Persia calls a great banquet. Queen Vashti rebuffs the king by refusing to unveil her beauty. Esther is chosen out of many prospects to replace Vashti. The King does not know she is Jewish. The enemy Haman conspires to commit genocide against the Jews. He convinces the King that the Jews are enemies of the state. To save her people, Esther reveals her ethnicity to the King and pleads for mercy. The King is outraged at Haman and his neck is stretched on the very gallows that he has constructed for Esther’s cousin Mordecai. The Jews are saved and the feast of Purim is celebrated annually by Jews to this day in commemoration of their great deliverance.

When the godless king called a banquet and when his queen refused to honor his request, no Jew in that day could possibly have imagined that a series of events were about to be triggered that God would employ to save His people. 

None of us can quite conceive what God is conspiring to bring about in our lives either.  One thing we know, he is planning for our salvation and ultimate good, and this in spite of Satan’s hellish rage and devious plans.

It does seem strange that the book of Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not mention the name of God even once. But when reading it, one discovers that it is not necessary seeing that the Providence of God is stamped on every page.

 

We may think that God is as absent from our lives as his name is from the book of Esther, but know that He is working behind the scenes, usually through ordinary events, to orchestrate good for us. He used something as simple as Vashti’s refusal to appease her husband to get Esther where he wanted her to be and to bring about good for the Jews. We are not told whether God considered Vashti’s act one of righteousness or rebellion. In either case, God was at work. He can redeem the good, the bad and the ugly.

In the book of Esther we can see that God is the Lord of history. The king, the queen, the good and the evil all unwittingly do His will. With such a Lord in charge of our lives, who is endlessly conspiring for our good, let’s go face the day.