Timely

Meditate: Acts 2:47

If you’ve got a certain kind of calendar, you might have noticed the word Purim listed among the holidays. To learn the origins of this holiday you have to go back to the Bible’s Book of Esther.

The Jewish people had been conquered and forcibly resettled. Esther is a Jewish orphan who’s being raised by her cousin and finds herself the winner in a “beauty contest” to choose the replacement for a disgraced queen. She’s just settling in at the palace when the king’s right hand man sets in motion a plan to have all the Jews killed and their property seized.

Thanks to her cousin, Esther learns of the plan. She fasts and asks all the local Jews to do the same.

With time running out, Esther risks her life to expose the plot, the crisis is averted, and the evil guy gets what’s coming to him. (Makes you want to read the book, doesn’t it?)

Purim is celebrated as a reminder of how God intervened to save His people.

Esther and Mordecai, her cousin, demonstrate that God always makes a way for His people. Mordecai says it best when he points out that Esther was brought to the throne “for such a time as this.” Just in time, God brought a lowly outsider, a Jewish orphan, to the throne of the most powerful nation on earth.

Praise God for His faithfulness!

• How has God shown His faithfulness in my life?
• Have I been put anywhere “for such a time as this?”

Pray:
Praise: Your love endures. You are faithful throughout all generations.
Confess: I focus on my own plans and overlook the grace of Your will.
Thank: You keep watch over me in all my ways.
Ask: Let Your faithfulness guide my actions and comfort my fears.
Digging Deeper: Psalm 117; Esther (at least start reading it.)

Posted by email from Ferndale Tonight (posterous)