Another chilly morning in central Ohio. This is my first autumn living in the RV full time. The one similarity it does have to living in a “sticks & bricks” house, as some call it, is the quiet. I live with my three boys, and life is full of laughter, horsing around, and teenage snack fueled comedy hour. So when my morning living space slowly starts to jostle, I know it’s about to begin, and I remind myself how few years I have left to just keep them close to me. All that said, I sneak around quietly to make my coffee, grab my favorite book, and go on a date with my Lord in the dark of the early morning. It is my favorite part of the day, even though I have never been a fan of early rising. This new God-given discipline since encountering Jesus has become a treasured time in my morning routine, and I’m grateful.
This morning the Lord took me on an adventure back in time to 2,500 years ago, give or take a few. If you haven’t read the book of Esther, I encourage you to. It’s a favorite book in the Old Testament for many people, for a multitude of reasons. However, today the Holy Spirit led me to the end of Chapter 2 and then Chapter 3. He highlighted a man in this text named Mordecai, a Jewish man who had raised his beautiful orphan niece Esther, and eventually, in a fairytale fashion, she gets chosen by the king, contrary to her lowly social status, and becomes a beloved queen. The story really is too good not to read, and it’s a relatively short book, so just do it.
Mordecai, as I mentioned, discovers a plot by two disgruntled guards who plan to harm the king, and he brings the warning to Queen Esther to tell the king. The king confirms the accusation, and the two guards are executed. It was a good thing Mordecai did, he was protecting the king after all. Surely the king would notice, and maybe he would receive a reward of some kind. No. The story moves right past the event and goes on to talk about another character being elevated, saying nothing more about Mordecai’s good deed.
A wicked man named Haman ends up getting promoted by the king instead, seemingly out of nowhere. Esther and her uncle are Jews. They do not bow down and worship other people or gods, only God Himself. So when Haman started demanding that sort of honor, Mordecai refused to bow, and it stirred up nasty anger in Haman. Instead of taking it out on just Mordecai, he plotted an attack on all the Jews in the entire kingdom to eradicate them.
We went from Mordecai doing something noble and noteworthy, deserving elevation or recognition, to his people being attacked instead. Life can feel like this. We are waiting in line for the promotion in whatever area. We’re doing good, trying to follow the rules and live a good life, and along comes a Haman who gets promoted and elevated all while doing shady things. We can often find ourselves wondering and asking the Lord, “Why is everyone else progressing or getting promoted, Lord, even the ones doing evil things, and You haven’t moved me, Lord, and I feel stuck.”
The book of Esther is an amazing example of God’s perfect timing and planning. Mordecai wasn’t elevated when our human minds think he should have been. But if he had been, things wouldn’t have worked out the way they did. Haman gets the king to agree to destroy all the Jewish people in the kingdom, and Mordecai is scared for his family, so he tells Esther. This is where the plan of the Lord really starts to be revealed. Out of seemingly nowhere, the king can’t sleep one night and asks for the records to be read. He happens to hear the account of how Mordecai saved his life and realizes nothing was ever done to honor him for it.
This divine timing, a strategy the Lord used, ended up being one of the ways God rescued the Jewish people. Haman’s wicked plan failed, and Mordecai was rightfully raised up in authority in Haman’s place.
Sometimes things seem out of order or just do not make sense. We can find ourselves questioning what God’s doing and His timeline. The truth is, God is absolutely brilliant to say the least. His timing? Impeccable, and He knows exactly what He’s doing. It doesn’t need to make sense to us, we just need to trust that it makes sense to Him. So if you’re going through something that can feel like you’re being overlooked, or maybe you feel stuck or like you’re just not moving or progressing, I want to encourage you that God knows what He’s doing. If you belong to Jesus Christ, He will work all things to the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. So just keep your eyes on Him and not your position or where you think you ought to be. He’s got you exactly where He wants you, and you’ll see the seemingly upside-down order of things truly is just God’s perfect timing and planning.
Hopefully this encourages you, I love you so much, Jesus loves you more.
-Steph