Who God Uses & How Is About His Purpose Not Our Perceptions

Esther Chapters 9 & 10

...9:23-29 So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

I'm really not much of one to read the "girlie" books of the Bible. But this morning it was that time in my reading chart to continue on in Esther. I had ignored it long enough. And, just as the verses exemplify God met me in an unexpected way with unexpected characters.

Has this ever happened to you? Has it ever happened and you just really didn't like it? Well, that's sorta what this was like for me. I got over it quickly however because the depths of the truth of it rang deeply and true.

At the end of Esther's story, we have the same king as you would have found at the books beginning, King Ahasuerus. We have the same kingdom, where he reigns from India to Ethiopia. It's no small place with more than 127 provinces. We have the same country, Persia, and the same capital city, Susa.

But some things have changed.

You see this is a story about the struggles of God's people. Their peril and pain and the panic and improbability of any help on the horizon.

So what else do we have here? Well, Vashti is no longer queen; Esther is queen. And she is a queen who has won her husband's overwhelming respect and loyalty. The great enemy of the Jews, Haman, who was once second in command, is dead and gone. Mordecai is alive and well. Wicked plans have been thwarted. Corruption has been rooted out. Evil has been fully dealt with. To make matters even better, Esther's righteous uncle Mordecai has been promoted by the king, and he is now in Haman's old position---"second only to King Ahasuerus."

In the natural this whole scene is way too freaky. These are not the characters or the kinds of lives that great heroic stories are born. But, then again, when God intervenes, the people He uses are often unexpected.

Or consider another unexpected choice. If you wanted to lead an exodus of two million people out of Egypt, who would you choose to confront Pharaoh---a Jew or a noble, high ranking and well positioned fellow Egyptian? Be honest, now. And if you chose a Jew, would you choose an individual who was not at all Egyptian (although it could be argued he had connections...) who had in fact killed one of Pharaoh's fellow countrymen? How about this qualification: would he be eighty years old? Or, how does this resumé stunner sound: would you select a gruff and rough leather-skinned shepherd who hadn't been in the metropolitan area for over forty years?

See, the further you look, the more surprising it gets! Moses' resumé was pretty, um, FRIGHTENING when considering the responsibility he's being given (save a nation, represent them to the head of a nation).

How about this one: Would you have chosen a seeming pagan harlot to hide the spies you, had sent out, to keep those men safe as they were to navigate the land God had indicated your people were to conquer?

Then of course there is Jonah and I ask you would you have chosen a defecting, rebellious prophet to lead what Chuck Swindoll called, "The Greater Nineveh Evangelistic Crusade"? Is that what we would do; send a whiny, "I don't wanna go!" Ninevite hating racist?

We get to the New Testament and this pattern continues. Would you have chosen a Christian-hating Fundamentalist Jewish Pharisee to model grace and to write most of the New Testament? (Apostle Paul)

Would you have chosen a man who denied Jesus (three times!) as the major spokesman for the early church? (Peter)

Does any of that seem reasonable ladies and gents?

But, you see, God does surprising things. That's why He lifts a no-name Jew from the gate of the king and makes him a prime minister (Mordecai). God delights in lifting up nobodies and using them as somebodies. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, "not many mighty, not many noble"---in other words, not many "A" listers are chosen.

He has chosen the despised and many of the losers of the world to follow the One who died on a cross and to bring ultimate victory for us all. And thus it is in the book of Esther, the God who seems not to be present is, in fact, ever-present, omnipotent, and in complete control.He has plan and purpose for you. Your job is to wrap your spirit around it, anticipate it, believe, it, embrace it and get into the flow of the Holy Spirits' leadership of you in that purpose daily.

Because you my lovelies are not prepared for greatness, not wise, not wealthy, not an "A" lister, not ready for this at all...in God's eyes therefore you are PERFECT!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~