For Such a Time as This
Psalm 71:1-6
Esther 4:1-17
For Mother’s Day this year, I’d like to share with you the account of a young woman who had a critical decision to make – to maintain her safety, wealth and comfortable life style or to risk it all and even her life in order to possibly save her people. It’s a decision that mothers make, to sacrifice their comfort and sometimes even their security for the sake of their children. Yet rarely do we imagine the great possibilities of how God may use our faithfulness.
Now, millennia later, the Jews still celebrate that God saved them all through this young woman. At the Festival of Purim, they remember what God did through Esther. “For Such a Time as This” Let us pray…
Thousands of years ago in the land of Persia, there lived a powerful king named: A-has-u-e’-rus. That was his Hebrew name. The Greeks knew him as Xerxes. King Xerxes reigned over an area of land from India to Ethiopia – 127 provinces. And during the 3rd year of his reign, he gave a large, extravagant 6 month banquet for his attendants, army officers, nobles, and the princes of his land.
On the last day of the king’s festivities, when the king was drunk with wine, he decided that he needed a grand finale. And so he called for his Queen to come in and show off her beauty in front of his guests. He asked her to wear her crown, for Queen Vashti was stunning.
But the queen refused to come before all those men and parade herself. Besides, she was hosting her own ladies at the time. And so she disobeyed Xerxes’ command.
Xerxes was furious. It wasn’t just because she said no, but she had sent word to him in front of all his guests. She had humiliated him. His immense ego was tweaked. And so he called for his wisest men to decide what he should do about it… (Click on the title above to see the rest of the message)